they reach Sula-Phrang and have several adventures. (This also has some setting info like equipment and religions of the Isles.
Here is the background and encounter list for Sula Phrang. They only met a small fragment of this;
(This has never been published so I suppose that makes this a 'new post' and turns this into 'content', and also exposes how skeletal and improvised my game prep is.).
SULA-PHRANG
On the Moonward side of Sula-Phrang people live in hilltop villages on its great plains.
Many villages still have a tree of skulls from when the young men went headhunting. In most cases they are gathering dust, the intercene tribal conflicts have ebbed away almost to nothing, or been replaced by sports and festivals.
Though, people will confide to you that about 50 years ago at a large wedding, there was an 'accident' and 300 people died.
They don't specify anything more than that.
The villages are semi-fortified by walls of cactus
Every year when a certain sea-worm emerges, the people of Sula-Phrang know that it is time for their great festival.
The festival has fighting and music and dancing and culminates in a gigantic mass-cavalry brawl in which the young men from the different villages hurl self-carved spears at each other.
(I stole a lot of this from actual Indonesian festivals.)
the spears are big and heavy, wide around and pretty blunt but they can still hurt and, in some cases, kill, there are a handful of deaths every year
the main city/town was built as a place of colonial administration
its also the main harbour
on the darkward side of Sula-Phrang are the dead
on the death of a notable family or clan member it is customary to build a megalithic tomb
these tombs are always built on the dark side of the island
there, there are cities of the ancient dead
the dead, of course, are sometimes awake
they whisper from their tombs
they have their own city, up in the hills, in the twilight zone of Sula-Phrang
if you need to speak to your ancestor you can go on a pilgrimage to talk to them
but they tend to be highly conservative & out of touch
and generally you are looking for reasons not to speak to your ancestors
but sometimes you have to
the big advantage of having the ancestors over there is that it protects the dark side of Sula-Phrang from pirates and invaders from the nightmare sea
also, it suggests to those from the inner isles that invading Sula-Phrang might be a bad idea
what also suggests that is the fact that Sula-Phrang is very poor
it has few natural resources
it did used to have huge forests of a valuable and fragrant wood
but Sula-Phrang was 'absorbed' - kind-of, into a mercentile house of Yaag-Sien
a long time ago they lead an army of Malmuk Crab-men and mercenaries to 'pacify' the intercene wars of Sula-Phrang
at the same time as this happened, five clans also entered a state of mutual war
the chaos was so great that the ancestors did actually emerge from their cities on the dark side
the result of this war was so confusing and upsetting that peace sponatniously broke out
the main clans agreed to be bough off by the trading house and they collectively harvested the rich woods of the interior
this caused massive problems of erosion and desertification, increasing the size of the plains and causing problems of water supply
this increased the utility of the historically ceremonial mantis-shrimp-cavalry but also increased the enormous cost of keeping them
and the main city still (kind-of) has representatives of this house, living in a state of faded colonial glory
this makes up the technical government of the state
really almost everything is handled by the clans and in some cases by the elders
ENCOUNTERS ON SULA-PHRANG
NAMES
Male
1.Sugiarto Ivan Gunawan
2.Iman Kusuma Sugiarto
3.Teja Shoi-ming
4.Mursalim Qiquiang
5.Nasser Pattimura
6.Asaph Batuara
7.Boaz Lase
8.Joshua Siallagan
9.Eko
10.Suripto
Female
11.Tri Dwi Hermawan
12.Widyawati Batari Indradjaja
13.Sutanto Mei
14.Lusanto Xia
15.Neva Selano
16.Esther Sidebang
17.Mercy Simaebang
18.Jochebed Peranginangin
19.Megawati
20.Ratu
PLACE NAMES
1.Melolo
2.Umalulu
3.Pata
4.Kahaungu
5.Lalananjang
6.Patawang
7.Tabundung
8.Mapambuhang
9.Mamboto
10. Wewewa Belatan
Main City/Harbour is GAPU - home of Kingfisher House,
currently ruled by Ey-Way-Woo-O
Main city of the ancestors is Wainu - currently suffering
from intra-clan and intra-caste and intra religious disputes.
THE SETTLED PLAINS
1.Intra-villiage dispute.
2.Inter-villiage dispute.
3.Low-caste uprising.
4.Drought.
5.Famine.
6.Ancestor 'visiting' leading to 'festival'.
7.Pre-festival boxing match.
8.Paranoid fear of Tiger-Bat-Bhoot
THE CORAL JUNGLE
1d6 Amphibious Spiders: These amphibious spiders are
mottled green and brown. They are great hunters, equally comfortable swimming
and hanging from a web. While they have no mercy or sympathy, they intelligent,
able to speak a clicking and stilted Ghinorian. Amphibious Spiders HD4 AC4 Bite
1d8 or Web, To see what's stuck in the webs of their nearby lair, roll here.
1. Husk of princeling dripping with semi-preserved,
jewel-studded finery
3. Dead dungeon philosopher clutching manuscript proving
conclusively that polytheist notion of the universe is elaborate charade
carried out by singular malevolent supreme intelligence
4. Groggy but unconquered giant half-covered in webs,
poisoned several times but going down swinging
5. Envoy from the Black Path bearing communiqué hinting
at treacherous alliance and plan for extermination of unpopular human
populations for political gain.
6. Ghost of dead adventurer that believes itself stuck in
web, happy to be convinced otherwise
THE FORESTS
1. d6 starving Wolf-bats who have grown used to feeding
on those of low status.
2. Tiger-Bat-Bhoot
STR 12, DEX 12, WIL 12, 12hp, 2d4 damage, Hypnosis.
3. Bhoot. Wears white, feet backwards, no shadow,
dislikes touching the earth.
Can age w touch & possess.
Tied to 1-4 A House, 5-a bridge, 6-a tree, 7-a field, 8-a
building.
Murdered by 1-4 Family member, 5-a master, 6-s servant,
7-a magician, 8-a holy man.
4. D6 Fungal outcasts.
THE MOUNTAINS
(Hck-a)rogor
coming from the pools.
STR 15, DEX 15, WIL 15 d12 Damage,
WIL save to avoid hypnosis by its shining skin.
Must take 10 damage in one round to take any damage at
all but after that loses d6 per round.
Boiling blood has a sopoforic effect.
THE FUNGAL FORESTS
Spore Tree: A massive twisted mangrove tree grows here.
It has been infected with a virulent fungus. From thin brown stalks 1d20
baseball sized puce globes hang from violet tendrils. If gently cut free they
may be gathered. Any jostling causes them to violently explode spreading their
spores over a 10’ radius. 50% chance that d10 additional globes are floating in
water. If caught in the radius of the blast, save vs. poison or begin hacking
up your lungs 1d4 rounds later. At that point, one is debilitated for 1d6
rounds of violent and uncontrollable coughing, and suffers -2 to constitution
permanently.
THE SHADOWED LANDS
1. A village of the sleeping dead who turn in their stone
tombs as you pass.
2. A war of the dead.
3. A marriage of the dead.
4. A philosopher of the dead sitting by the side of the
road.
5. A shadow-play festival of the dead which they perform
ultra-slowly without contact.
6. A trial of the dead w evidence, judges etc."
Having caused as much trouble as they can they end up running for it again in
Session Six.
And the whole thing ends with an opium vision in
Session Seven.
Here's all the other places I actually had prepped that they didn't get to;
Tennggara-Phrang
The largest and most well-developed of the Islands of the
Phrang Sea. It could easily dominate the other Isles if not for two factors.
One, its society has come to be dominated by the Pale Eye, an
ultra-conservative philosophy based on inertia, and two, it is just large
enough to show up on the political Radar of the larger islands to Moonwards,
including the chain-state of Yaag-Sien and machinations with these much larger
states takes up much of its remaining energy.
The Philosophy of the Pale Eye states that nothing
exists. All is simply a mist of undifferentiated pre-matter and shadow,
awaiting the true existence which will emerge when the Moon itself cracks open.
It’s proponents are skeptical, apathetic, humble and, from the outside,
monstrously capricious.
No item or atom
originating in Tenngara-Phrang is suffered to leave. Endless expeditionary
forces, carrying bolts mined only from foreign metal, endlessly seek long-lost
drums, scrolls, coins, pack animals, and the bones of previous expeditionary
forces.
The Philosophy of the Pale Eye requires each object in its first position, each
lost citizen replaced by another of precisely equal training, genetic makeup,
gender. When all is as it was the Moon will crack open and reveal the next and
actual world.
It’s Ruler
A Time Elemental, rumoured to be a fallen Angel of Choncodeus, called Zachriel, rules from Kelimutu, a
volcano containing three coloured lakes, located in the district of Ende close
to the town of Moni.
 |
| The Angelerium guy is pretty good. I forgot his name but its there in the image. |
These crater lakes are in the caldera of a volcano, and
fed by a volcanic gas source, resulting in highly acidic water. The coloured
lakes change colours on an irregular basis, depending on the oxidation state of
the lake from bright red through green and blue.
It is guarded by an Elite force of Albino Raksasa.
It’s Ambassador is the Trench-Herald ‘Mayerfas’
It’s schemes typically involve:
1. Time control
2. Alliances of convenience
3. Storied objects
4. Curses
5. Paralysis
6. Erasure
It Is Currently Known To Be Seeking:
1. The document of White Wedding And Beginning Again, signed by parties unknown
2. Arms and equipment of a Komodo-Man raiding party
3. The Woman called Rashel Vore
4. A first edition of Pride And Catastrophic Deterioration by Seena Jaunt
It’s Ships
Are ships of Ice, endlessly renewed by the frozen
tears of weeping women. Because of
this, sadness, especially the sadness of women, is fetishized in both negative
and positive ways in Tennggara-Phrang
Inhabitants of Tennggara-Phrang
Raksasa
Komodo-Dragon-Men are the ruling caste of
Tennggara-Phrang, they are almost always loyal to Zachriel.
·
They are largely solitary (from other Raksasa),
slightly deaf, with poor discrimination of stationary objects.
·
They eat about 20 times a year and prefer to
swallow their food whole, usually it’s a whole corpse. This takes about 15-20
minutes, copious amounts of red saliva and them slamming the corpse against a
tree to force it down.
o They
then lick their lips & rub their head in leaves to clean them, this takes
another 15 minutes.
o Eventually
the regurgitate a mass of horns, hair and teeth.
o They
drink wine by sucking it into their mouth from a cauldron, tipping their head
and letting it run down their throat.
·
Their bite has a which poison causes muscle
paralysis & induction of hypothermia.
·
They spend early years in trees & like to
cannibalise each other when young.
·
They can create males by parthenogenesis.
·
They are scholarly and usually scrupulously
polite.
·
Very much like antebellum Virginia landowners.
The Florens
Homo Florensis – these ride Dwarf Stegalodonts and they
usually work together as a team. The Florens make up most of the indentured
labour of the island, as well as the diet of the Raksasa. They have a stone age
level of technology and are blindly loyal to Zachriel, unless roused by a
prophet of Kamapua'a
Kamapua'a
A Pig-man ‘Saint’ of Zoophoria. “defiant of all
authority, bold and untamed, he recalls the pig nature that is dormant in most
people….Treacherous and tender, he thirsts after the good things in
life--adventure, love, and sensual pleasure….
His worship is banned on Tennggara-Phrang
The Slendermen
The bandits of Tennggara-Phrang who haunt the bat
infested fungal forests of the dark side are a race of intelligent
Chaos-Worshipping Stork-Men who also eat the Florens.
They can fly a little, are two metres high and are
loathed by all agents of authority.
Others
There are also various humans and some undead, usually
employed for their skills, as mercenaries, sailors, merchants or factotums.
Some are even Priests of Chonchodeus,
Trade
Tennggara-Phrang produces:
·
Seaweed,
·
Rice,
·
Sweet potato and
·
Cassava
·
Coffee,
·
Coconut
·
Cashew
·
Candle-nut or 'Lumbang', silvery underleaf,
often burned to provide light (15 mins per nut).
All of this must be ritually declared to be ‘vile, and
not of this earth or this sea’ by Mayerfas
the Trench Herald, (Speaking for Zachriel),
in which case it may leave the island.
Mayerfas can
be bribed by light-emitting magical items and by the spines of people with rare
diseases.
Tiam-Phrang (Darkward Side)
The Darkward side of Tiam-Phrang is ruled by those who
follow the Black Philosophy as Propogated by Pan Chun Mei. The Black Path seeks
the powers of devouring, of night, of isolation, of words and divisions, and of
long distances. They believe that fear of entropy is the only righteous worship
of entropy.
The Black Path rules only from ruins, known as
the Dimmu Borgir which are regarded as strongholds both physical and
spiritual. Creation of a Dimmu Borgir requires various acts of despoliation and
evolving terror designed to manifest and maintain far-reaching oppressive
despair in the civilized lands.
The most dominant of its Rulers on the dark side of
Tiam-Phrang is the Lich Pan Chun Mei, but where she lairs or where her
Phylactery is hidden, only the four Succubi know.
The known devotees and champions of Pan Chun Mei are:
1. Three
Caecus Pirates reave from Dili on the Black Coast
Anne
Dieu of ‘The Black Angel’,
Cthonia
Spoil, Warmistress of the ‘Rogue Trader’
Captain
No-Dicto of the ‘Broken Heart’ (DEAD).
2. Seven
Medusa guard the Dimmu Borgir
Seela,
Thrace, Oscula, Naxice, Dia Andine, Cylesia and Orgula.
3. Twelve
Outcast Olm: Forguts, Despised Icon, The Faceless, Malignancy, Nocturnus, Opeth, Pestilence,
Wretched, Winter, Brujeria, Asphyx and Quovad.
4. Four
Succubi carry the messages of Pan Chun Mei
Isis, Candlemass, Sleep, and Grief
Look
like Geisha – can Mind Control with a kiss.
All
of the servants of the Black Path suffer from Epilepsy.
Black Path War Party
1d10
Black Path Cultists STR 10, DEX10,
WILL 10, 5 HP, ½ have Guns.
1d8
Cannibal Florenses riding Stelglodonts
STR 10, DEX10, WILL 10, 5 HP,
1d6
Tasty Newt Boys Can sense thought,
one leader extra-yellow.
(On
a roll of 1, that person has one of the Cursed Harpoons.)
And
One (d4)
1.
Crab Man STR 15, DEX 8, WILL 10, 10
HP, Dual Claws (d8)
2.
Ghostly Pale Crayman Translucent unless multiple shadows, Armour 3 in light but
deduct one for each light source.
3.
1000 year-old Olm STR 14, DEX16, WILL 16, 25
HP, Armour 2 in water, Blind
4.
D6 Star Grools
The Five Cursed Harpoons of Pan Cun Mei:
None seeing a successful blow
struck with any of these weapons can stop until their foes or slain or they are.
1. Annihilator: Disintegrates armour on a successful hit.
2. Carnivore: Wounds inflicted on resisting foes add to wielder's hp.
3. Exciter: Wielder must attack nearest living thing once weapon is unsheathed.
4. Overkill: Slain foes are raised as undead who serve the wielder.
5. Hunter: Wielder will not die until whoever
reduces him/her to 0hp is slain, so long as the weapon is held.
Tiam-Phrang (Moonward Side)
The Moonwards side of Tiam-Phrang
is ruled by those who follow the Philosophy of Jade, or ‘The Jade Path’. Its
energies are green: the energies of jealousy, lushness, vigor, triumph, old
wisdom, glibness, and theft.
The cycles of predation and murder must thrive.
Inventions appal them and theft from the weak is their only industry. They
cultivate sophism, criticism, evasion, rhetoric, fallacy, received ideas,
shallow novelty and libel.
The Jade path has, surprisingly,
attracted a handful of the Aelf-Adal who serve in its forces, apparently
tolerating their utter physical contempt for our reality in return for the
opportunity to degrade and terrorise it.
It’s
Rulers are:
1. Seven Quetzalcoatlus-riding Snakeman Sorcerer-Knights who each rule on
citadel.
1. Khuthiva who rules Kefamenanui & casts Viscid
Globules.
2. Santahat who rules Nikiniki & grows Hallucinogenc
flora.
3. Disikhaga who rules Ocussi,
master of Poisons.
4. Dashminkha who rules Soe, master of Illusions.
5. Ikyashtha who rules Naikutu & can dominate minds.
6. Kshuvamamva who rules Gunnung & who casts green fire.
7. Zaskar who rules Kupang & who commands winds.
Its Ships are galleys of
unseasoned wood pulled by Mosasaurs (except for that of Kupang).
When the Aelf-Adal captain them, they can move through
dreams.
Jade Path War Party
3d6 Skinks with Muskets
2d6 Green Lizardmen with obsidian clubs.
And
1 A Naga
2-3. The Rakshasa
3-6 One of Eighteen Aelf-Adal
It’s rumored treasures
include:
1. Potions of Poison Breath
2. Antidotes To All Poisons, Including Those Not
Yet Synthesized
3. Wedding Contracts, Signed By Parties Unknown
4. Scrolls of Disaster
5. Scroll of Protection from Demons
6. A jade wedding ring, carved with serpents
7. A Staff of Breaking Bone
8. A Manual of the Tongue of Dinosaurs
