Sketch in My Notebook: Marcus the Dispossessed

This week's Sketch in My Notebook is literally that.  I have no idea what to do next with this story.  At this point, it's just a character/concept sketch that I started by way of supporting an article for ENWorld's EN5ider Magazine.

Sketch in My Notebook

EN5ider is an online magazine that publishes freelance Dungeons & Dragons content under Wizards of the Coasts' Open Gaming License (OGL).  My article, which ought to be out any day now, is called "Priests of Misfortune".  It proposes a divine trinity of fate and the future--Fate, Fortuna, and Jinx, the goddess of misfortune.  It then goes into detail on the theology of Jinx and her priests while laying out what it takes to become favored of the goddess of calamity.

As you may imagine, I had some fun inventing my own religion.

I then invented this character, Marcus the Dispossessed, as a Jinxian priest, but...  Well, I just can't figure out what I want him to do.  Something nefarious, no doubt, but I've no idea what, exactly.

Got some thoughts?

Do me a favor, and leave them below.  Thanks!

The Bounty Hunter: A Cahokiantep Story (Part 3)

This is the third and last part of this story.
 -- Part 1 is here.
 -- Part 2 is here.
 -- Cahokiantep started here.

The Bounty Hunter: A Cahokiantep Story (Part 2)

Sketch in My Notebook

This is the second part of three for this story.  The first part is here.  You can find backstory on Cahokiantep here.

***

Most of the Pony’s patrons made way.  The voltans watched me come.  They didn’t move towards their pikes, though.  That was something.  The center voltan wore a blue sash with silver trim—the mark of a warrior-caste princeling.  I’d never fought a princeling before.  I figured the others for bodyguards.

The leader’s voice was deep and liquid, but his Basic was unaccented.  “What do you want, human fool?  Have you come to die on my blade?”

The Bounty Hunter: A Cahokiantep Story (Part 1)

“Cahokiantep is no more.  The city, the surrounding farms, the very bedrock itself… all of this is gone.  There are no ruins; the city wasn’t destroyed.  It has simply vanished.  

“What remains is indescribable.  It is a hole—a crater—more massive than mere words can convey.  Malthanisys calculated its depth at a distance of some five miles at least.  It reaches across the breadth of the city and beyond, into the sea.  We could scarce see the far side of the thing, even whilst standing at the edge on the clearest day.  

“We found an outland shepherd yesterday.  He spoke of a flash of blue lightning and a tremor to shake the worlds.  In his ravings, he whispered a name—Belarisarius, a being he calls ‘the Astral Dragon’.  None know this name, not even Malthanisys.  

“We will continue searching, but I fear that there are few answers to be found.”

 -- Sir Gustav Plantagaryean, from his report on the “Cahokiantep Incident” to the Royal Court of Wanderhaven, Kingdom of the Western Isles

"Star Wars" Story Idea

I have a new piece of a story idea.  It started with a conversation I had with a friend yesterday and, in a larger sense, with my frustration with the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

Star Wars wallpaper via Screenrant.

D&D: The Fall of Cahokiantep

As promised, here is “The Fall of Cahokiantep.”  For those keeping score, this is my fifth short role-playing adventure, though it’s the first one that’s not set in some kind of fantasy version of Bar Harbor, Maine.  Instead, Cahokiantep is modeled on Savannah, Georgia, where I was stationed as a young lieutenant in the 3rd Infantry Division.

The purpose of this adventure is twofold.  It introduces Cahokiantep as a potential location for future content—either Sketch in My Notebook-style stories or else future RPG content—and it provides a bridge from a traditional swords-and-horses style campaign to a plane-hopping campaign that incorporate elements inspired by science fiction.  I wrote this piece specifically because the stuff I’ve done on Spelljammer lately has been super-popular, but it doesn’t seem like Wizards is doing much with the setting these days.  I’m hoping that leaves a little room in the market for Cahokiantep, but we’ll see how that goes.  If this adventure is well received, I have a sequel in mind, tentatively titled “Cahokiantep: Journey to the End of the Universe”.

D&D: Astral Madness & Mutant-Zombie Ghouls

I'm going through an editing process right now for a new adventure I hope to publish here in the next couple of weeks called "The Fall of Cahokiantep".  To quote the introduction:

The purpose of this adventure is twofold.  It introduces the city of Cahokiantep as an adventure location, and it provides a bridge from a traditional swords-and-horses style roleplaying campaign to plane-hopping fantasy with elements inspired by science fiction.

"The Fall of Cahokiantep" is intended as the first part of a trilogy, but as of this writing all I have for the next part is a high concept.  I've no clue at all how the thing is going to end.