IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING
Here are things that have happened as you travel back from the dungeon. Something you just did or looted is bad and you can't put it back in the bottle:
1. All the trees in the area burned to ash overnight, from the top down, like a candle or a torch. They were lighting the way for something.
2. Boulders in the Stony Hills lift themselves up and crack themselves in half over and over again until they're dust. None of the ogres can get any sleep.
3. Ghosts are everywhere and people are burning whatever they can to keep their houses well lit. Many sleep in groups and have abandoned their homes.
4. On the second day of travel, a well dressed woman waves you over to her carriage. She clasps a random PC's hand and you realize she has no eyes and her mouth stretches across her face. The carriage is full of children and all of them are biting one another. The woman digs her hands into your palm, draws blood and the carriage and everything in it disappears. There is something important you can't remember.
5. A hermit sits by the side of the road, skinning himself with a sharp rock. He shivers but makes no sound.
6. Later, two hermits are found, their heads swollen and enormous with oozing lumps. Biting flaws crawl from their nostrils.
7. The city gates are closed and preachers from all the major religions are announcing the end times. Ghost land is emptying into our world and we, all our works, all our gods, will soon be as a dream.
8. At a tavern back in town, you hear talk of a second moon approaching the town. That night, the moon draws close enough that you can see a face on the moon and the mouth splits wide to swallow the church spire. The next morning, no one but you remembers anything. The church spire is gone and all the clergy have weird mismatched eyes (one tiny, one enormous and rolling) and their heads are on at weird angles. Pointing that out is extremely impolite and if you keep asking about the church, someone is going to get so offended they come at you with a cleaver.
9. You open the door to a shop but inside is a strange landscape. People are walking on white worms that squirm over a deep black ocean. The worms have mouths and they are all gossiping about your exploits in the last adventure.
10. You see holes in the ground and sky, out of which crawl strange, misshapen creatures. They walk about slowly, curiously. When one touches an old woman she looks at it and shudders, stumbling away. No one can see them. By the following night, everyone in town is dead and you can't open the door to where you are. A hole opens in the floorboard and six sets of inky hands with long, spidery fingers grasp the edge of the hole.
1. All the trees in the area burned to ash overnight, from the top down, like a candle or a torch. They were lighting the way for something.
2. Boulders in the Stony Hills lift themselves up and crack themselves in half over and over again until they're dust. None of the ogres can get any sleep.
3. Ghosts are everywhere and people are burning whatever they can to keep their houses well lit. Many sleep in groups and have abandoned their homes.
4. On the second day of travel, a well dressed woman waves you over to her carriage. She clasps a random PC's hand and you realize she has no eyes and her mouth stretches across her face. The carriage is full of children and all of them are biting one another. The woman digs her hands into your palm, draws blood and the carriage and everything in it disappears. There is something important you can't remember.
5. A hermit sits by the side of the road, skinning himself with a sharp rock. He shivers but makes no sound.
6. Later, two hermits are found, their heads swollen and enormous with oozing lumps. Biting flaws crawl from their nostrils.
7. The city gates are closed and preachers from all the major religions are announcing the end times. Ghost land is emptying into our world and we, all our works, all our gods, will soon be as a dream.
8. At a tavern back in town, you hear talk of a second moon approaching the town. That night, the moon draws close enough that you can see a face on the moon and the mouth splits wide to swallow the church spire. The next morning, no one but you remembers anything. The church spire is gone and all the clergy have weird mismatched eyes (one tiny, one enormous and rolling) and their heads are on at weird angles. Pointing that out is extremely impolite and if you keep asking about the church, someone is going to get so offended they come at you with a cleaver.
9. You open the door to a shop but inside is a strange landscape. People are walking on white worms that squirm over a deep black ocean. The worms have mouths and they are all gossiping about your exploits in the last adventure.
10. You see holes in the ground and sky, out of which crawl strange, misshapen creatures. They walk about slowly, curiously. When one touches an old woman she looks at it and shudders, stumbling away. No one can see them. By the following night, everyone in town is dead and you can't open the door to where you are. A hole opens in the floorboard and six sets of inky hands with long, spidery fingers grasp the edge of the hole.
THESE THINGS ARE HAPPENING RIGHT NOW
1. There is a lens grinder in the city that has organized a society of scientists and explorers in the hopes of finding a way to stop the influx of ghosts. Some of their number have heard of you and can get you into the city. There is a crush of people wanting to get behind the city walls and most will claim to be adventurers. They lack the experience and equipment are are repeatedly turned away; frustration and desperation are sure to lead to riots.
2. Urz-Uk the Hollow God says he knows a way to save the living and is gathering worshipers and arming them. They gather every evening at the bell temple. Among there number are spies from a rival church but also from the Janissaries of the royal guard. At tonight's meeting, the spies will be outed, stripped, frog-marched to the Exchequer and impaled.
3. Certain doors now lead straight into ghost land. Explorers and tourists stream in, bribing whoever holds the door for access, most like. Those that return speak of strange creatures and often sport fiendish-looking weapons and armor. Tourists often need guards and explorers are looking for investing partners.
2. Urz-Uk the Hollow God says he knows a way to save the living and is gathering worshipers and arming them. They gather every evening at the bell temple. Among there number are spies from a rival church but also from the Janissaries of the royal guard. At tonight's meeting, the spies will be outed, stripped, frog-marched to the Exchequer and impaled.
3. Certain doors now lead straight into ghost land. Explorers and tourists stream in, bribing whoever holds the door for access, most like. Those that return speak of strange creatures and often sport fiendish-looking weapons and armor. Tourists often need guards and explorers are looking for investing partners.
4. The wealthy of the city and the royal family are funding a colonizing effort, looking for some place to live in relative comfort once the land of the living is totally consumed. Look for the brass and bone armor of the Janissaries of the royal guard.
5. A number of gods have disappeared. Some have killed themselves (the hot, bloody corpse of Thamon the Iron Whisk appeared in his cathedral and all his priests are insane).
6. Among the burning trees, giants shadows with arms longer than their bodies furtively search. They ignore you and may not even be able to see or hear you. People have been disappearing in the forest.
7. A band of teenage mercs led by Badgirl, a life-size doll with one cracked eye is trying to find one of their number, who was taken into ghost land a day ago. They hang out in the town's sewers. They want help.
8. The villagers all worship a new god named mama blue and they have dyed their lips a purple-blue so that they look as if they are asphyxiating Tonight, they will try to murder the trader that runs the depot for being a "bad little boy." It's not clear what he did, but it has something to do with you.
6. Among the burning trees, giants shadows with arms longer than their bodies furtively search. They ignore you and may not even be able to see or hear you. People have been disappearing in the forest.
7. A band of teenage mercs led by Badgirl, a life-size doll with one cracked eye is trying to find one of their number, who was taken into ghost land a day ago. They hang out in the town's sewers. They want help.
8. The villagers all worship a new god named mama blue and they have dyed their lips a purple-blue so that they look as if they are asphyxiating Tonight, they will try to murder the trader that runs the depot for being a "bad little boy." It's not clear what he did, but it has something to do with you.
It's unclear how long the living world has until it's consumed entirely.
SPECIAL STUFF
Ghost candles are wax (or whatever) candles with a bit of a dead person inside, at the end you don't intend to light (can be any part). Light cast by a ghost light kindles a similar flame in any ghost that sees it (the ghost glows and a large flicker flames appears within it). A candle will captivate all ghosts that see it. They will be drawn by its light and will stare at its flame until it goes out. Can be extinguished as a normal candle, though there is a only a 1 in 6 chance a ghost will try to extinguish it. Burns downs as fast as a normal candle. Alternatives: scented ghost candles, ghost incense (doesn't illuminate a ghost), ghost plugnfresh things, ghost potpourri (doesn't illuminate them, ghosts will often play with potpourri and do weird shit with it (jam it into eye sockets, shove it into wounds; They like dead stuff).
prayer books closing your eyes, chanting a prayer and holding a prayer book aloft while you march through an area in ghost land will prevent any ghost from attacking you, though they may follow you and wait for you to stop chanting. they find you pretty annoying, at best.
pictures: Nakayama Masaaki from Fuan no Tane
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