Hill Cantons News Roundup

And now the News from the Hill Cantons...

“Addled”Aldo, that most insane of caravel captains, is booking “leisure tours” of the so-called Misty Isles of the Eld in the Persimmon Sea. “Hoi'i, the many-tongued, copper-toned, devil-patron of self-promotion and real estate, called to me in a dream most vivid,” Aldo added as way of explanation. “Take ye this link. It explains all, yar.”

The sudden sharp shock of the so-called Red Rye Rebellion is rocking Ostrovo Canton. Armed bands of peasants, sporting red rye badges, have been gathering through the villages and “halushkying” (a time-honored traditional humiliation of dipping a public official in white gravy and then spreading curds and dumplings on them) tax collectors of the Overking. Special assessments levied to support the continued presence of the Black Army in the canton have not been worn well by tenant farmers already suffering from the privations of the recent kozak horde sacking of the area. “The peasants are revolting,” stated an anonymous source close to the cantonal council.

Fomo, the rooster-headed skald is again touring the frontier holdings of the Feral Shore. A rather cryptic ballad is proving to be a widely-requested song among rough laborers. Make of it what you will:

No one dares

tooo sip from the sweet naughty hairs

that give air

tooo swimming down theres.

A fabulous artifact prize

a rod piece that lies.

Below the waves of a city drowned

a city drowned.

Perhaps an allusion to the underwater ruins east of Kezmarok? Hard saying, not knowing.

[On how campaign news is used as an important driver of the Hill Cantons campaign and some of my house rules for running underwater adventures.]

The Misty Isles of the Eld Out Now

After much blood, sweat, and tears, Misty Isles of the Eld is now a real published thing. No really, go check it out (and if you are one of the OG backers of the Slumbering Ursine Dunes project go check your mailbox). Somehow over the last year, it shook itself out of my brain and refused to just be a 20-30 page wee stretch goal affair and instead became a 102-page monster (but a lovable Ozian one).

Here's a couple other related pieces of good news: the manuscripts for Antony Picaro's thoroughly re-skinned/re-imagined Coast of Grizzly Dreams and my What Ho, Frog Demons (the next two and final installments in the SUD series) are in and being worked on.

Also if you are going to North Texas RPG Con this year we will have a limited run of pre-Print-on-Demand hardcopies available--and I'm running this beast Friday morning. 

Click on me.

Anywho brass tacks:

Art, Art, and More Art. Seriously Luka Rejec drew like a fiend in this project, producing ultimately 56 illustrations inside the interior alongside designing that Bowie-rrific cover and gorgeous pointcrawl map. 

Four dungeons. The Vat Complex (with its menacing sealed off-west wing, body-horrific industrial process and pocket dimensions), the flying god-prison Monument Five, the meth-fruit Plantation House and Colonel Zogg's Pagoda Bunker.

Full “extra-planar” pointcrawl. The wilderness crawl spreads over one main isle and two smaller islets subdivided by massive, movable grubs.

An “Anti-Chaos Index.” Through their actions the players shape the very reality of the Isles. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst, but always for the weird. You know a reverse kind of thing from the Chaos Index mechanic I love so much.

A slew of new otherwordly monsters (the best of which jumping straight from the fever-driven mind of Robert Parker with some Jason Sholtis inspiration).

A large collection of bizarre technological Eldish artifacts and treasure. Includes a random generator for miscellaneous artifacts picked up.

A new psionicist player class, the Psychonaut, with a soft scifi twist. Including its own powers and mutations.