Foul Devices of Sorcery

Your Rod, Staff or Wand has charges that power its magic but what are they?

Bit of Wayne Reynolds for the crowd

Souls. They’re souls.

If your wand of fireballs or whatever has thirty charges, then thirty folks went under the wavy bladed* knife to feed it. 

Thuul-Botha Cinth (a PC,) He of the Eldritch Eyes, liberated soul-burned Black Magician Kallisran of his staff and also his life. The staff held strange powers,  each fuelled by the soul of an innocent that had been imprisoned within the witch wood of the stave. Their faces appeared upon its length as though burned onto it from the inside.

*No self respecting cultist would be caught dead with a straight bladed sacrificial implement. 

Other Realms of the Grim North

This way to adventure, and by adventure we mean death

It is explicit on the Big F’ing Rumour Table that it is possible to access other dimensions from hidden doors and portals within the city. 

For example:

1. The Copper Door in the Spirals leads to other planes of existence. 

Which planes of existence is obviously the subject of further conjecture. Such things are studied and debated in the draughty halls of the Immaterial University. Academics are somewhat divided on the existence of the Farthest Black for instance. How would such a place manifest? Are incidents believed to be caused by breaches from said dimension evidence of anything other than the fact that outside the reality of the Grim North things are not very nice? Also there is debate whether it is the same thing as the Outer Dark or they are in fact two distinct realms so alien to our own that comprehend of their nature is impossible. It is hard to determine such things when travel seems to be one way and breachers from both dimensions seem to be as far beyond demons, as demons are to humans. 

Seemingly, the Gloom is everywhere (and nowhere) at once. A shadowy reflection of our reality. Travellers there do so supposedly by detaching their spirits from their physical body, because to transport your material form there risks it being lost in the Gloom. While it is not as well populated as the Material Realm there are things that lurk, and they are nearly all hostile to humanity. 

The Wyrd is a hotly debated subject in places where such things are actually debated. The actual existence of the Wyrd as a force or as a dimensional location are unresolved in scholastic circles. That things, people and places are Wyrd Touched is evident by the strange effects it has upon them. There are no written records known of travel to the Wyrd Realms and if anyone living has achieved such a feat and returned they are not making themselves known. 

Similarly it is believed there are doors and pathways that lead to all sorts of other strange places. The River Skarrion is reputed to have secret branches that allow boats to cover vast distances in short spaces of time. If the River Priests even know of these it seems they’re not telling. Likewise the Plane of Gennera, which rumours suggest to be populated by talking animals and weird puppet children, can be access from various locations within the city. Travellers can even make their way to the Moon of the Grim North if they can locate the correct door, although tales tell of strange arks and temples of incomprehensible geometry populated by faceless monks and twisted giants. 

It’s probably safer to stay at home. 

Grim Sorcery

Like sorcery but grim, and northern…

The rules for Grim Sorcery are constantly subject to review. This is because I’m trying out various things to get the feel I want for magic in the Grim North, that Conan-risqué Sword and Sorcery vibe that is essentially missing from most versions of Dungeons and Dragons if we’re going RAW. 

In the Grim North we want magic to feel like something ancient, powerful and if we’re honest; something us mortals should probably leave well enough alone. Player characters are not generally renowned for their sensible approach to such things however so, let’s face it, they’re going to steep themselves as deeply as humanly possible in the darkest, most foul sorcery they can find. 

Good. 

So grim sorcery has spell lists. Each relates to one of the much vaunted (admittedly, only by me) thousand dead civilisations that the Grim North is built atop the ruins of. Each long dead culture has its own ancient language in which its magic is written and if you speak that language then you can learn the spells of said ancient civilisation. Hence we don’t need artificial constructs such as Read Magic spells; if you can read Sepulchral, the grave tongue of accursed Xidia then you can acquire the secrets of those ancient death magicians. Although clearly there is some small risk attached. Folk can’t simply go stomping all over the Grim North turning up forbidden secrets and expect those secrets not to stomp back. 

So it might be that OSR D&D isn’t going to cut it or maybe it will. We’re playing online where simplicity of rules seems to be king. So keeping it sorcerous but simple is probably the way forward for now. One of the players has rolled up a wizard as his reserve character do we’ll see how it works out in the game should that come to pass. Theorising will only get us so far after all, the proof is in the play.