The Spiders are at odds with The Stair Covenant

I dreamt a piece of the world.
A setting for a certain second dream which is nested into this place like a hidden jewel, somewhere.

While it is still somewhat fresh in my mind I wish to make notes of this world here; sadly I don't yet have a time to paint any map.

The text is plain and kind of haphazard. I want to record everything as close to the dream as possible, even if it leaves places and things not well-connected as of now. I filled a couple of gaps, ordered and numbered "the locations", but the rest is mostly how I saw it. For something from a dream, it is rather playable, although definitely requires more work to be players-ready.

01. The barrenlands
These likely circle all the lands of this world, but if the map is a flat rectangle, it is the strongest in a lower right corner and arches out of it, like a crescent or wings. Not exactly a deep-dune desert, it is still a harsh place, with very little water and lots of eroded, clay or sandy earth. 

Somewhere deep in barrenlands lies the Heart of Dust, surrounded by labyrintian ruins that drink the moisture through the very shadow of everybody passing through and touching the ruined stones, even of such distant things like clouds or moonlight. The Witch of The Skein wants it and Echo Dragon wants it as well, even if for different purposes.

02. The tower
In the center of this setting (on a map it would be top left corner) stands impossibly tall tower, miles high. It reaches into the clouds, which always gather on top of it even on a sunny day, as if the clouds are the piece of grey wool on a top of a spindle. While immobile, the tower somehow turns the clouds into the rivers that cascade down by its sides (it might be just because the tower so tall the water condenses in natural, if massive, way).

The tower, the grey stone of it, also sheathes the core of the similarly giant tree (in the dream it was said to be sequoia), but the tree is long time dead and its trunk stops about half-way up. In the way of instant knowledge of dreams I know that the tower continued to grow even after the tree it was build to protect or support had itself died. 

The tower is a megastructure, similar to ones in Blame!, and, while finite, is enormous, and in places packed with people of various civilizations extremely densily, making numerous vertical cities, cascading forests and holed up countries, although to my understanding the pathways to the inner hollow core through the vast thickness of the tower are extremely rare.

In the wall / thickness of the tower, there lives a hidden sage, who communicates through the cracks. I don't think this sage is sane.

The tower is believed to reach the heavens beyond the veil of clouds, so there are two major philosophical factions pushing their way to properly ascend, both literally and metaphysically. 

The Stair Covenant builds grand spiral staircase, follows a single plan and progresses linearly up, slowly but methodically. The Spiders (who might be actual giant spiders or people with spider-like extra arms) believe in navigating the ascend like they seem fit, making multiple fragile paths and see which one is better. "Spiders are at odds with Stairs Covenant, as they have a different view on philosophy of the ascention" is a phrase from the dream.

03. Swamp(s)
At the foundation of the tower, where the cloud-born rivers cascade down, in all directions spreads the dream swamp. It is a swamp because there is too much water but I am not sure why or what the dreams are.

In strange ways the swamp is also somewhat vertical, but in bits and pieces, not continuously so like the tower. The stone around the foundation of the tower, where roots of the giant tree within the tower are, is bored through by river channels and those root-following ravines are filled with more mist, dreams and swamp. Thinking about this, there are bound to be forests down there, growing on those old giant roots, even if it is just (similarly giant) lichenwood.

I suspect the edges of the swamp where it fills in the root tunnels is where most of the 'usual' civilization is around the tower, a safe-ish places to be, as the fly-by of the dream went over some kind of a marketplace shrouded in a fog.

There is also an old inhuman sentinel roaming the swamp, poisoned in some way by The Witch of The Skein, but still alive and on its duty.

04. Meandering river(s)
Those stretch approximately diagonally from top left corner of the map (where the tower and the swamp are) toward bottom right (where the barrenlands are) although I think if we are to view the whole world the rivers would be radiating in all directions from the tower and the swamp(s) around it. Initially the river channels cut through the same grey stone that makes the tower and underlies the swamps, and follow the course of old massive roots below, so they initially flow through tunnel-like canyons; this is where both Spiders and Stair-builders once originated and the canyons are full of old abandoned cities of odd primordial architecture, mostly of spindle-legged bridge-cities.

Eventually the tunnel-ravines-channels become more of the soil and open up to the sky. As the land becomes flatter and softer the initially mighty river starts to split and meander, until it eventually dries when it touches the barrenlands. This is probably where "regular people" live (whoever they might be), as the land is far enough from both the tower/swamp and the barrenlands, and both the water and the good soil are plentiful there, so I think this is the area of plains and forests.

I think The Skein(s) is/are area of old meander scars, of dried riverbeds left after a river wandered away. This is where The Witch lives (toward the bottom left of the map) and Echo Dragon (toward upper right of the map) so not everything is fully peachy.

05. Hexen-nest
Some convoluted place of old magic somewhere away from the main rivers, toward the bottom left of the map. Dark and rotting, tightly bound within itself, growing inside with roiling sorcery like teratoma. The Witch of the Skein either built it, and lost it, and wants it back, or just wants it. She is the witch of traps and curses, and this is the ultimate trap and curse. I have an impression that she circles around it like a hungry cat around the saucer of milk, always tempted but either too cautious or too cowardly to step inside unless the absolute victory is assured.

06. Windmills
Toward the upper right corner of the map, in plains where the lands start to dry out and winds are robust and hot, old monolithic stones, half-drowned into the earth, carry the inscriptions nobody can read. Somebody repurposed some of those giant stones as the supports for windmills, given that the stones are nearly indestructable. The sails of windmills are made out of what seems to be clerical vestments. Just like the titanic slabs that serve as the main support of windmills these vestments seem to be indestructable. 

Echo Dragon lives somewhere there; could be that this land is under his shadow. The only two things I know about him is that he wants anything that the Witch wants (and vice-versa) and that he spreads echo fire. I don't know what echo fire is exactly, but if to guess from the very scant impressions of the dream it is a fire of the past, ressurecting or time-rewinding the echoes of the past to haunt, control and consume the present.

P.S. 'Skein' is an interesting word in a context of Spiders vs. Stairs; it is both a single thread, like Stairs' philosophy, but is also folded over to have many paths connected at once, like Spiders propose. Witch and Dragon seem to be a different axis of power in this land, ortogonal to Spiders-Stairs rivalry/animosity. 

P.P.S. writing all this looks weird. But I do like this dream.

The category that Bloggies are missing

This is uncharacteristic post because I don't usually speak about the culture (for the lack of the better word) surrounding TTRPGs blogs, but this situation personally peeved me enough that I wish to speak about it.

(also, as it is a personal peeve, I wish to specify that this is not a take-down in any shape, colour or form on Bloggies themselves, nor on a person(s) who runs them, nor on any articles submitted/spotlighted in Bloggies, nor on anything else related or unrelated.)

Bloggies are here and just like the year before the nominations are full of useful blog articles – be it something immediately useful in a game, or a review of something that might be interesting, or advice for an improvement, a procedure, a table, a theory, a critical thought. All of those are well-written, all of those are good.

But to me there is a lacuna there.

Where is the poetry?

Probably-not-the-best-word-to-describe-it. Would 'Inspirational' be any better? 'Barely useful but still important to be here'? 'Burning spike in your brains'? I call it 'poetry' because to me this word is about all those raw and rough bits, about all those broad strokes and small, tangible meanings, personal visions, about things that cannot be immediately fit into known grooves and put in known slots, something that cannot be fully grasped and statted without making it simpler, and safer, and less free. 

Those fragments that are full of darklight, fluid and broken, a text which makes you pause because your heart is aching a little as you read it, just one sentence that you take with you into your future, a couple of words that now sit within your mind like a worm-spell. Those words that stay with you as something bigger than ink on paper, even if they are about dungeons, and dragons, and swords.

To me this unfinished, often uncomfortable, not fully-useful-part-of-TTRPG is required to balance all those nicely written, very readable blogarticles, as to me TTRPGs is always in part a manual with spreadsheets and bulletpoints, and in part this kind of abyss. It doesn't have to be an equal half-and-half part, and, in fact, 'the poetry' can be a very small part of everything, but it has to be here, it must exist. 

And there are blogposts like this written through the year, but none of them are in Bloggies. And for me to see that 'Meta' category is introduced this year, which shifts the balance even further into structural, orderly and useful, it is as if something small but important is thus forgotten.

I am not very surprised (although still peeved enough to write about this) that nothing of this effect is nominated. With any kind of poetry being intensely subjective, and given how harsher is the selection process with each passing year it is not surprising whatsoever that where 30+ submissions had a luxury of spotlighting something experimental, 700+ submissions don't have any breathing space. Adding to this is the notion that humanity in general prefers easily readable text (instead of whatever mess a poetic text might be) purely because it is easier cognitive load, and it is easy to see why nothing like that passed into nominations (if it was even submitted at all).

The articles that came the closest in Bloggies this time, for me, are "Make better mind pictures", and "A mask that eats into your face" but even these two are simply the closest to what is missing, not the missing part.

* * *

Therefore I wish to celebrate what little I saw through the year, with honourable place for the Sorcerer  (which still makes me pause and choke a little when I read that one particular part.)

(If I am to run it as an actual category, I'd abandon 'There can be only one clear winner' tournament procedure for it, and just parade all 16 nominees before the readers – select 5 that resonate with you the most, and that is it. Seven most selected will be the constellation of the brightest stars; and if I would actually run it as an event with some kind of prize instead of a personal blogpost which is going nowhere, I'd paint a map and cut it in seven jagged pieces and sent each of these authors a piece, purely because I cannot think of anything more inspirational yet unusable than a piece of a map.))

((But I don't even have 16 nominees. ))

In no particular order whatsoever and limited to 2025 with one article per blog:

"Modern Magic: Shades of the Soul"

"shhhhhhhhhh she's sleeping"

"The Peerless Country of Yland (GLOG Setting)" 

"Dead-Eyed Dwarves - development for VotE; ReDux" 

"Serpent, Eye, Key: A Micro-Setting"

"Corpse //Work: Death-Rig, Chrysalis in Death" 

"Potter Wasp"  

"Vulture Blogging"

"Consumerism, Consume Me (Treasures from the Maul of America)" 

"cracked open in the waves, its emptiness loose"

(if anybody is reading this, feel free to submit in comments the 2025 blogposts that moved you, in one way or another.)

* * *

Now that 'Straits of Anian' got mysterious resurrected and posted a huge post about something strange, maybe some of that poetic strangeness is going to come back as well? Would be nice.

(concept) Magic is broken

(this post is written on December 31, 2025 but backposted into December 17, 2025) 

picture by Dylan Mirales

There is nothing more to magic than to be a scar in the world.

A mage is a gap not fully closed, a wound not fully healed, plastered over with thin film of human skin, but under it all are raw cracks and broken connections, physics re-grown wrong, nature gone septic, poetry cluttered in scabs.

All it is to the magic is to reach into this brokenness, and with a tear and snap of the fingers widen the  wound to create a wonder. 

All it is to being a mage is to not be able to shut out sensation of the world's peeling skin, constant in certain places, in certain people; of air suddenly filling lungs with tiny glass particles – sharp dust that doesn't exist to anybody but this kin of walking scars. All it is to being a mage is to live with the truth of the matter that the slight sensation of falling, of failing, of falling apart inside and out is to never fully go away.

Teleport just snaps the exit position to the nearest preexisting rents in the world, sensed only by mages themselves; there is never an error in such journey, just lack of distortion conveniently nearby. Name a spell, make a wish, – anything can be done through breaking the world through running fingers through one's own inner scar-tissue again and again. All that matters how much more and in which yet another way the mage breaks themselves again and again, how they cultivate their inner breaches as if a mutilated bonsai.

And with each cast out of mage's inside wrongness into outside world the invisible rents, the dry intangible dust filling the lungs, the roots twisting as they spread untoucheable in tainted waters (as inside as outside) grow just ever so slightly.

Quick paths

(this post was written on December 8, 2025, but backposted to November 8, 2025)

In certain world to travel the wilderness quickly the traveller sacrifices to the demons, to the dead or to the dreams. 

art by Rovina Kai

Either of these will do. Either of these will take the traveller and carry them through the pathways known only to the forsaken – safe and mostly sound until they arrive at their destination, mist-eyed and a little numb. Thankfully, all three like one thing in common: the memory of the travels, their realms and themselves seen through mortal eyes, so when one travels this way they don't retain the memories of their travel – just vague smudges of colours and smells where memories used to be. The friendships of lifetime can be made during the travel, and animosities may blossom, scars made and healed, divine vistas beheld – but by the end the traveller stands just as ignorant as they were when they took their guide's hand.

In addition to the mandatory memory sacrifice each asks for two more specific payments, one major and one minor. The major payment is valued more and goes a longer way, while minor payment is throwaway coppers, and a mortal needs to sacrifice a lot in this way to get at any significant distance if they don't have anything major to give.

– Demons (by far the most popular choice) have no history of their own, so the passage is paid in artifacts of significance to the real history, be it the actual objects of the significant past or of the art dedicated to it. Barring this, demons will take a history crafted for them specifically, false as it is – the tales of mighty demons fighting kingdoms of gods, or stories of tricksters binding mortals to deeds made foolish by their own greed. Lacking the weight of a real history, these fake histories have to be well-crafted, and supported with false artifacts and false manuscripts to be valued.

The traveller might need such fake history to go the long way (or for the real history bauble to be extra important) because demons also ask for each traveller's blood as a minor payment and the amount depends on mileage (almost as if demons are fueled by it). The drain is not enough to be a danger for occasional short haul, but with repeating or long travels with nothing else to offer is almost always lethal. As agreed, the demons will deliver the traveller to the desired point kept alive by demonic means but if the mortal body cannot support life once they let go of a traveller's hand (and thus fulfill the agreement) this isn't demons' problem anymore.

– The dead are ground into mulch by time, forgotten by the living, with no future in the world, so the passage is also paid in time of living, in the future they have. Not the time of one's life, as it is commonly and  mistakenly believed (travelling with the dead doesn't shorten the lifespan), not even in time lost to the traveller, but rather time of their prominence or relevance in the world. It is a little tricky to explain but one who travels with the dead forsakes any notion that they themselves might to leave a footprint in a history for a number of years taken as a payment – instead of them getting into any kind of spotlight, a long forgotten poet comes back into vogue, or a neglected general gets re-discovered by the public, or victims of past crimes acquitted, or a long-forgotten hatred raises its head and again gains power. The traveller is not invisible or mysteriously erased from the present – their actions still have all the normal consequences, and any short-term reputation gained is their, all how it should be. But if they had any chance of getting noted for the future for the deeds done in such years, this chance is irrevocably lost to the dead who will take their place in a spotlight of the history, and for the time thus lost the traveller leaves no legacy in the world. While this kind of payment is the least obtrusive to the traveller, they only have so many years of possible prominence in their life so they will run out rather quickly if they take dead passage too often.

Aside of this kind of time, the dead also take some negligent parts of traveller's body, pruning them carefully as not to do much permanent harm. Hair, eyelashes, nails, skin, some non-blood body liquids that aren't often required, milk teeth, non-essential organs. People who often travel with the dead have very smoothed out appearance with way too thin of a skin, and a difficulty with begetting children. Long travels that aren't paid in sufficient time are occasionally fatal, leaving a traveller skinned raw, peeled down to a bone, or as a pebble lacking limbs.

– The dreams don't care about the future or the past, but desire the freedom of the present. As they are insubstantial in a waking world, the dreams long to be seen. Thus the dreams will copy some aspect of traveller's identity, one thing a travel – be it the face, the body, the name, the mannerisms. All and everything can be copied over time until a they have a perfect duplicate of a traveller, their whole identity; most people run out of themselves after about three dozen travels in their lifetime. While people do change over time (new names, older bodies, 37-years old corporate unrecognizable against their own 16-years idealistic self) any part of a traveller, once acquired by the dreams, can keep up with the changes. Or mostly keep up, at least: the copied name might be slightly out of date, the looks slightly distorted, identity slightly out of step with the most current form. In an ownership of such form the dreams can and will go into the world, a protective suit of somebody's else identity driven by fleeting unshaped chaos.

With demons taking blood and the dead scrubbing everything else, the dreams can only to take away the traveller's quietude, the ability to feel solitude and stillness, to have a calm rest. It doesn't deny the mortals their sleep and recovery per se, but eliminates the peace that comes with it, leaving them on low-burning disquiet and anguish for a quite a long time. Ascetics often bet themselves against the dream travel in order to test their mental fortitude, and in many realms the criminals, the fair sex and slaves are forbidden to use path of dreams in fear they would become unruly. 

If fast travel is impossible or undesirable, the only way through the wilderness is a long way.

(But this is a story for another time.)

Resonance mechanic

This is an homerule which became in in-world phenomenon. The homerule was initially for Inspiration, a mechanic from DnD 5th (2014) edition, which I liked as an idea but found to be either finicky, mercenary (i.e. role-playing not for the fun, story or artistry of it but for a 'profit' of Inspiration point), or tedious as an actual part of the game.

Under Resonance rules any character can reroll any 1d20 roll (attack, saving throw, ability check, initiative, even a damage if they happen to roll 1d20 for damage – any 1d20) any amount of times and take the best result. 

In-world by doing so the character literally breaks the world around them, initially in a subtle ways; the striking sword gains momentum to break through the armour, the unfolding hostile spell withers and dies as it falls upon a person, the stubborn lock twists to accommodate the lockpick, and so on. It is always, always possible to be better, stronger, more masterful, or plain luckier, to come out on top of any situation.

The catch is that if the character breaks reality, the reality breaks them back. Every character starts with Resonance at 0, and every such Resonance reroll adds 1 to this score. Accumulation up to about 5 points is not overly dangerous but the higher Resonance climbs the more dangerous it becomes, and getting rid of Resonance is a long process, where barely a point of Resonance 'bleeds out' during about three months of time on its own, and a downtime action (about a month of dedicated and somewhat expensive effort) is required for a resonant person to ground themselves more in a common reality, and get rid of more of accumulated trouble. Downtime actions are only about three a season between adventures, and are useful for many other big activities (often including actual level up), so constantly 'bleeding out' Resistance through them might be a long-term detriment.

But Resonance is not just a scale – it is the cracks through which Something Else is coming through,  from the inside, and becomes a part of reality, and through wide enough cracks makes the character into Something Else. It is called Resonance because it resonates with something else, outside of the world, right around the corner and under the skin, but also a million miles away until offered an open door.

At certain thresholds of accumulation (5, 10, 15, 20 – or 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 20 points, if we are playing closer to Eldritch Frontier kind of place where the reality is already fragile) the character makes a test rolling 1d20, and if the roll falls under the current Resonance, the character is acquiring a permanent resonant trait – a stain, a scar, a sorrow, a shiver – which is much harder to get rid of initially and which becomes permanent soon enough if not taking care of. Just like every 1d20 roll this one can be also rerolled with Resonance but if the new score hits another threshold, it is rolled again immediately twice with the worst result in an effect. 

If the roll fails, the consequences are rolled on tables – which I mostly pilfer from Esoteric Enterprises tables such as "What Has Your Hubris Wrought?" – and which are usually tailored to a given world (as what might be a mundanity in one world could be entirely unusual in another). The general idea here that the more a character draws on Resonance and breaks reality the more they become a local equivalent of the Spook, a grotesque, spiritually and supernaturally if not physically. Not all consequences in those tables are purely negative, but none are purely positive, and the higher is the threshold involved (i.e. 17 comparatively to 7) the harsher, more troublesome and grotesque are consequences.

Even if the character is very lucky and passes every check without consequences, high Resonance accumulation is felt on instinctive level – by beings of the world as if a high irradiation that makes ones bones churn within themselves if they stand too close, and by the beings from outside of the world as if a ticking bomb just about to go haywire (because most times it is what it is).

I found that this "Make your own sword of Damocles" principle works rather well in a game; as (unless we play in a fragile reality areas of the world) it is lenient enough to give character some leeway during the adventure while not becoming immediately a problem, but is sort of self-regulating in a heavy use. As player-controlled mechanic it eliminates finicky DM decisions and mercenary role-play, and, as initially just a number that goes up, it doesn't break the flow of the game with a necessity to accumulate Inspiration point first. I also like the temptation of success that the Resonance dangles before players: as Resonance is mostly used in times of stress and desperation it is always possible to accept a bad roll, accept bad outcome, accept bad fate but it is so often also tempting to give in into Resonance just a point more and, for a moment, succeed.

The Manor that Leiriel built (part one, Running the House)

In the sun-deprived kingdom of Melrose, between the Coast of Chains and eastern Butterfly Forest there is a grand manor, sitting all alone at the top of the hill overlooking long-abandoned village of Owlswell. The area was abandoned for about two decades now but the manor doesn't look that terribly worse for wear. Even if all its windows are barren from inside with heavy shutters, the walls are solid, the door is sturdy and the roof is whole.

However the travellers came to visit this manor (be it for rumoured treasure still inside, be attracted by a lone light in a belltower, taking refuge from dangers of the coast and the forest, or finding an odd invitation letter addressed to them personally from Lady Leiriel, Esq., inviting them to visit), the result is the same: they quickly find themselves trapped in a house that seems to shift and change as they go, and none of the windows can be broken. 

They cannot even fully die in the Manor, as they find themselves back to Vestibule in case of untimely demise (but more about that later) but unless they decide to behave like douchebags the Manor is not hostile toward them and there is no direct danger.

Their only hope to successfully escape is either:
– find the Stray Room, open the door out and escape!
– reach the Bellower and lift the Leiriel's curse that distorts the manor;

Leiriel's Manor is a small depthcrawl-puzzle dungeon inspired by various modular Lego Houses, Tetris and the videogame 'Blue Prince' (for which there are early-game spoilers in the names of the Leiriel's rooms; the videogame itself operates on a different principle, so this post doesn't spoil the gameplay or the puzzles).

Leiriel's Manor is a puzzle dungeon, where the purpose of the player is to fill 5x6 grid with seven tetromino-shaped rooms in a such a way that they have either one or two separate 1x1-sized empty rooms.

Empty Manor grid

One of possible solutions is shown below; E1 and E2 there are empty rooms that must to be created for Stray Room and Belltower (or both) to be unlocked. Either of these exit rooms will only appear if the grid is otherwise fully filledwith an either one 1x1 or two 1x1 empty spaces (but not more) left, although they don't have to be in the same exact positions as on the picture. Stray Room will appear first (or if it is the only empty spot), Belltower will appear only if second empty spot is created.

image courtesy to Wikipedia

 

 

Rooms themselves are divided in eight categories (Additional Rooms, Hallways, Storages, Gardens, Social Rooms, Utility Rooms, Bedrooms and Hidden Rooms), with each category having six rooms in predefined tetromino shapes, sorted by depth. Hidden Rooms are not part of the usual process and can only be accessed from specific rooms within the Manor.

The building procedure:

– When traveller opens a door, DM rolls 1d7 twice for a type of the room from a table below (roll 1d8 discarding 8s). The current Depth defines what room from this category appears. This room has predefined shape, which is known to the traveller. Traveller than choses one of these two rooms to come into reality.

– If the shape of the room will result in room exceeding the borders of the manor, then the room is rotated by DM clockwise 90 degrees until it fits into the boundaries. If the shape still doesn't fit at all (for example, four-square I-piece located in a far end corner) it is rotated until the most of it fits and the rest is trimmed down. 

– Each room can be rolled many times but chosen to be on a floor plan only once; if both of the rolled rooms are already built, either reroll the rolls or shift the results one row deeper in the same column. 

If the selected room is highlighted (such as Archives), roll additional 1d6 for secret passage into the hidden room which all have special shapes; this passage will be behind somewhat secret door (likely barred and plastered over some time ago but now more noticeable due to time and neglect; this is the only time where breaking down a door will not cause any break of hospitality.)

Placing of the doors: initially I made another subprocedure for placing of doors in each piece but everything is complicated enough, so assume that there is one door as an entrance at the most narrow end of the piece and each piece has an exit door at the very opposite end from entrance; obviously this exit will chain into the entrance of the next piece. The exceptions are T-piece (which has two exit doors, making it a fork) and O-piece which has no other exits (making it a dead end.)

Here are the tables:
(because blogger doesn't allow me to comfortably insert pictures directly into a table, instead the room shapes are referenced by the number with key chart below, which likely makes it all even more confusing)

(I dislike very much how Blogger screws big tables)

(1d7) Type of room →	1 Additional Rooms	room shape	2 Hallways	room shape	3 Storages	room shape	4 Gardens	room shape
Depth ↓
1	Training Room	7	Hallway	1	Cellar	2	Enclosure	3
2	Chapel	1	W. Hallway	2	Kitchen	3	Patio	4
3	Gallery	2	E. Hallway	3	Storage	4	Terrace	5
4	Memorial	3	Crossroom	4	Attic	5	Inner courtyard	6
5	Museum	4	Secret passage	5	Armoury	6	Quiet room	7
6	Gaol	5	Grand Foyer	6	Archives	7	Garden	1

(1d7) Type of room →	5 Social Rooms	room shape	6 Utility Rooms	room shape	7 Bedrooms	room shape	8 Hidden rooms	room shape
Depth ↓
1	Games room	4	Guardroom	5	Servants’ quarter	6	Lavatory	8
2	Ballroom	5	Inner well	6	Closet	7	Furnace	9
3	Sitting room	6	Workshop	7	Guest bedroom	1	Shed	10
4	Dining room	7	Library	1	Childrens’ room	2	Office	11
5	Den	1	Laboratory	2	Boudoir	3	Study	12
6	Throne room	2	Library	3	Master Suit	4	Vault	13

 And here is a shape reference:

For example: when travellers opens the first door from the Vestibule, DM rolls 3 and 5 on 1d8 (ignoring 8), drawing Depth 1 rooms from Storages and Social Rooms categories, namely Cellar and Games Room, in related shapes 2 (S-piece) and 4 (I-piece). Player choses which of these two shapes they wish to place and the other one is discarded. 

Being a bad guest

The manor expects the guests to respect the rules of hospitality. Should the guest try to smash windows, trash furniture, leave waste, deface walls, break doors or do any other such impolite gesture, expect the following responce from the manor:

1st occasion: a ghostly butler Selwin will appear and politely explain what behaviour is expected from the guests. Should PCs threaten him, the ghost will vanish without a fight, but should they be cordial and remorseful he can divulge a little about the history of the manor, although, being a ghost in a cursed manour his memory is somewhat vague and doesn't retain anything that happened post-Sundown. He will name the owners of the manor (Leiriel, Esq. lady of refined manners and musical inclinations, her often-absend-on-important-business husband Rem, her son "young master" Bran and his passion for greenery, old maid Jolene, and irratable cook Fran.) From Selwin's point of view everybody just took a short vacation at the Coast, and should be back 'any moment now.'

2nd through 4th occasion: if PCs keep behave unappropriate for guests, 1 ghostly guards appears, conjured by the malice of the manor; this number increases twice up to 3 ghostly guards with each occasion. Hospitable welcome (see below) no longer in effect.

5th through 6th occasion: ghosly guards are replaced by wraiths, in a similar 1 through 3 pattern.

7th+ occasion: a cloud made of liquid malicious darkness stars chasing PCs through the rooms, starting in two rooms away and moving one room each 10 minutes. As a embodied curse is almost impossible to defeat; with each death PC loses a bit of themselves (initially 1d6 from each stat, then one class feature per death, than all their memories except the most vague, than their name). After the name is gone the PC is official dead – while it is also sort of a way to escape the manor, it isn't a very good one.

Being a good guest

If PCs are not breaking rules of hospitality, the manor will provide them with decent (although rather stale-tasting) food which can be found in the first of any of these four rooms built – Dining Room, Den, Kitchen and Inner Courtyard – once per day, in quantities enough for everybody. Entering any bedroom will provide refreshment as per short rest; any second bedroom built in the same day will provide a revitalization as if per long night of rest. 

Resetting the loop

It is quite possible that PCs will figure out really quickly what they need to do but it also might take them quite a few tries, as it is entirely possible to fill the floorplan too tightly too quickly or built into just dead ends. The whole manor resets if PCs return to Vestibule and close the inner door while all of them are inside the Vestibule.
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Part two will, hopefully, describe particularities of the rooms, some helpful finds and what this curse is all about and how to lift it.

Mundanity scale

(just an idle thought)

A fragment of recent Dan's post about books had stuck with me:

"Regardless of the circumstances, I think that eventually, inevitably, people will come to understand the basics of the Weird Shit. Sure, we don’t know why the statue shits blood and snaps your neck if you blink, but we know that it shits blood and snaps your neck if you blink. We can work with that." from Throne of Salt blogpost

I can imagine a certain strangeness that is principally unknowable, something that denies either perception or / and comprehension in humans at very basic level, a cognitive dissonance not even as an entry (for the entity is already something defined) but phenomenon; just like in certain hells the pain is always sharp and is impossible to get used to, this one is impossible to get used to either.

To me something truly horrorful never plays (or should never play) by fair rules – otherwise it eventually becomes just a creepy monster from a bestiary, a problem to be resolved and done. A curse or a slasher killer in horror won't go away even if the victim fully and properly follows all steps that are supposed to get rid of it. That tiny hole in reality of Disco Elysium going to seep the pale and grow until it envelops the world, and no amount of heroics (or music, or musical heroics) are going to save the day at the end.

But aside of these two notions I think Dan's words are true: humanity is remarkably adept with turning every strangeness in something mundane, knowable if not by looking at it directly than by looking at the space around it and how already-known part of the world affected by the Weird Shit. A mere hundred years ago Cthulhu was a terrifying force heralding the end of humanity in a cosmos that didn't give a damn about the whole thing, and today it is sitting so comfortably in our common perception that it is likely to be featured in any story as a plushie.

So I thought that in worlds where humanity had a tangible and somewhat prolonged contact with Weird Shit (be it Delta Green, SCP, Cain, something like Consensus in old Mage: The Ascension) there certainly going to be some in-universe assigned scale by which people understand and mundanize this strange stuff.

I think in-universe it would likely to appear around 1950s-1960s, written by some government committee made to either deal with this stuff or write reports as to why this stuff cannot be reliably weaponized to win Cold War. It would be initially 1-to-10 scale, with names for each stage taken from the Tree of Sephirot, and overcomplicated definitions in bullet points, as per pomp and custom of that time. From Keter (fully unknown), through Chokhmah, through Binah, and so on until Malkuth, with mundanity more or less kicking in around Netzach, the perpetual 7 out of 10. Later, in busy 90s, it will be streamlined into a system of three-to-five codes, likely to be also colour-coded black to green to make it easier for people who cannot say "tiferet."

Every strangeness will start with a position of a complete unknown and, through exposure and experience of humanity with it, move through the scale, until the strangeness is, basically, statted in-universe, and stops being such, despite not fully explained by current laws of physics. Depending on the world and how much of its horror is supposed to remain horrorful, all but very few phenomena might ever reach full mundanity stage, but even in this case recurring strangeness will likely linger around 3 out of 5.

In more fantasy settings (such as my perpetually unfinished Shadow Jam where human mundanity could be literally contagious to lesser demons, turning them from a myth into human with horns) stage 5 would be the end result. The knowledge itself of what the the anomaly does and how to deal with it can be less or more obscure in-world, accessible through something like training (Arcane checks) or a mage's library, but it will be there. People might not know what strange forces allow a dragon fly, but they will definitely know to bring a fire extinguisher to deal with the creature.

Tarot of Oneiros

Dream-realm of somebody older and vaster than humanity, unchanged even after the dreams of previous rulers of earth all but faded away.

Place of infinite red skies, of dry lightning, of fragmented ruins not sized for human proportions or use, of monoliths wormed with vast caverns. Self-sufficient, unending, perhaps eternal. The anti-thesis to the endless fragile acceptance of the abyss. Oneiros indifferently rejects everything that isn't Oneiros itself, as if only itself is real, and all pieces of waking world that come in touch with it are just an ephemera.

Cats swear that this place is not their doing, and seem to be truthful in this as much as any cat can be truthful. Spiders stay silent on the issue but do avoid this place at all cost, and given how bored serpents are of it, it is likely not their fault either.

Also known as The Oldest Dream, Red Dreamland, The Exile, Big Empty, The Quiet Nightmare, Light Below, and Ziggurat-upon-Wind. 

 

Oneiros by Norbert Toth

Who comes to Oneiros?

Exiles with no other place to go, those curious about the realm, those ambitious to grab more power than waking world allows, scavengers of secrets or of whatever had remained from other travellers, those forlorn in search of place to be. People trapped in what looks like Hell until they breathe in its air, and people tossing away a key from the only door back, and dream-tourists who slide in and out without purpose only to wake up with bloodshot eyes and a strange sense of longing. 

But what is for them to long for? In the unending expanse of the dreamland there are no bustling cities, no warring nations, almost no danger but the realm itself which slowly but surely takes away humanity out of visitors. There is only the red sky, there is only endless falling, the drift of ruins, the absence of bounds. 

Over time, Tarot of Oneiros was created through the persistent human desire to impose some sort of sense on the unknown. This tarot is used for focus and divination, where it can be used in any kind of layout, with a caveat that for any card in this set there is no upright or reverse position, and any meaning simultaneously includes its own opposition.

Here is The Tarot, in no particular order:
(I've omitted 'The' from the names of the cards to keep it thematically appropriate with Red Dreamland dislike for binaries, although in hindsight it looks a little strange in English)

(also: it is best viewed on desktop version of the site, even on mobile, so use this link: https://noisesanssignal.blogspot.com/2025/07/tarot-of-oneiros.html?m=0 )

	Lighthouse Light at the distance, guidance, purpose of journey, fragment of normality, sanctuary, promise, hard-won haven, hope, warning of danger, notion of high tide that will come and swallow one whole, necessary distance, vantage point, unstable safety, isolation. There is no darkness in Oneiros and no need of light, but towers of foreign radiance veiled in faraway skies dot The Red Dream. Anchors as much as the ports.
	Four-Winged Butterfly Spirit of paradox, omen of fracture, incongruity, rightful dissonance, discord, unforeseen, uncontrollable change in a situation, breaking of best-laid plans, disassociation of the name and the essence, blindness of unchallenged perception, sudden insight. Four-winged butterfly has five wings, is made out of rocks, and is likely a dragonfly
	Immortal Skin Apotheosis, completion of a search, goal within the grasp, end of struggle, success, safety, immutability, invulnerability, long-term plans coming to fruition, legacy of one's own making that will keep on existing even after all initial meaning of it is gone. Skin filled with divinity of Oneiros. Goal sought by so many seekers, avoided by so fewer of them. Perfect harmony with Red Dream which was never meant for humans to begin with. To never dream again, as there is nothing more to achieve.
	Dreamer Tethers, fetters, uneasy first steps beyond the boundaries of safery, risk-taking, seeking, desire to go forward, desire to return home, breakage of self, larva, exploration, wandering, courage, exposure to harm, nascent and fragile things. In Oneiros dreamers are those who break out of their sleeping self, when they realize that they have to see the real sky of the realm.
	Oracle Somebody's else answer to one's own questions, shortcuts, easy solutions, helping hand that is also a harming hand, obfuscation, meaning behind the meaning, doubtful ally with their own agenda, entanglement in others' plans, necessary but unwanted connections. Borders of Oneiros are strewn with flowers that grow in their steps. Red is a colour of truth of the Oldest Dream, yet step carefully.
	Sacrificial King Bounty, whalefall, abundance, luxury, unexpected surplus, demise of leviathan, fall of the great power, unwilling end, self-sacrifice, sacrifice of the mighty, revolt, revolution, satisfaction of needs and then some, victory for small and feeble, nurture of the next generation, Becoming too big in Oneiros is a sureway to fall; those who wish to live longer never aim for the top spot. Those of ultimate power eventually become the fattest and the slowest, and isn't it a duty of the plump king to provide for his subjects, when all else fails?
	Bubble Tree Settling for less and the least, stunted potential, entrapment, illusions, falsity, deceitful complexity, misconception of (self-)importance, beauty of glamour, ignorance, sleepwalking through life, comfort of unchallenged routine.  Common dreams of the common sleepers cluster the bubble trees in Oneiros, easily recognizable by their unnatural blue colour. One can become a god in a moment within these spheres and then wake up none the wiser.
	Empty Throne Opportunity, seize the moment, do the action, make rapid decision, claim the  power, achieve the resolution, risk to repeat all the previous failures, recurrence, unending cycle. There is a place of power in Oneiros, made by somebody long, long gone. Its promise is real, so there is no shortage of volunteers to try the fresh crown once more again. Certainly, this time it will be different.
	Cocoon Metamorphosis, growth, new beginning, potential, personal risk, transition, change of self, endings, moment of critical vulnerability, uncertain future, letting go of dreck, loss of what was important, bid for understanding. Those who stay in Oneiros forever have a chance to find their place in it and true home, but it will not be possible without letting go of some notions.
	Exile In-between state, forced break away from all that was once important, loss of position in the world, being made expendable, betrayal, elimination, sudden change, freefall, violent but sometimes still necessary detachment, breaking free from the prisons and entrapments even by the one's own high cost. However utterly indifferent Oneiros is to human existence, it is safer than being shot or burnt alive or starved to death. Here, at least, those pushed to the edge do have a chance to learn how to fly.
	Ritual City Step by step progression, binding, containment, restrains, submission to limits, adherence to a strict protocol even without full grasp of what it does, training wheels, insight of a proper actions, cause and effect, consequences, running in circles. Ritual cities is what counts as civilization in Big Empty. In the endless expanse of the realm each Ritual City is created in the very first moment a human makes a cometfall into the vortex. Each city imposes a ritual on anybody who steps inside. Now, if only the originator of such Ritual City could find their own place, the ritual would certainly make sense. But infinity is difficult to parse, and in meanwhile why let these walls go to waste?
	Heartsmith Effort, struggle, purpose, end of naivete, aim for perfection, stumbling around, dead ends, trial by fire, design, creation, art, pushing through everyday drudgery without assurance there ever be something else, continuing despite the failure, self-consumption, self-harm, facing one's own most sincere self. Few are ready to face their own heart, let alone shape it. Yet, if you ever get anywhere at all in the Oldest Dream, you must.
	Willpower Determination, loss of fetters, pushing through fear, taking control, bending the world around one's wishes, selfishness, self-understanding, freedom of movement, alienation. Learn to pivot the world around self or keep on crawling.
	Mound Past, history, things previously lost but found again, remembrance, memory and memories, compassion, nostalgia, landfill, baggage, hoard of irrelevant things, ugly reminder, collection, inability to let go, passage of time, totality of self. In Oneiros it is possible to die in a certain way to become a museum of one's total self, a self-contained nautilus boney pile with chambers full of one's personal history made tangible.
	Hunger Necessity, force beyond one's control, unending need, addiction, obsession, driving urge, essence of living, a problem that doesn't ever go away and can only be dealt with temporarily. Hunger is everpresent in Oneiros, unavoidable. It can be gnarling maw within one's own guts, a low-burning note on a back of a mind, a sharp desire showing its teeth only once in a while but it is always, always here. One can kowtow to it, subjugate it, deal with it, tame it, placate it, resist it but unless they are to become somebody entirely else, hunger remains.
	Catacombs Endless depths, enigma, elusiveness, secrets, absence of clear path or answers, labyrinths with no signage or pattern, inside place larger than outside place, inner world, deadened self, reclusion, crossing sleepless midnight, forever roads. Oneiros detests language in any form but many dead are close enough to the essence of the dream that their words linger in the catacombs, echoes of those who came before us. They will talk to you if you have nobody to talk to. It is peaceful there, among those dead close enough to dream. Stay for longer today?
	Vision High calling, aspiration, ambition, readiness to use anything and everything to achieve one's goals, inspiration, art, reaching into the unknown, alchemy as something that is bigger than the sum of its parts, speaking one's truest self, energy, grandeur, bridges into future, setting new path. Without a vision, what would have become of us in this endless expanse, driven by hunger and determined in power, but lost in mere existence?
	Gates Threshold, Rubicon, irreversible decision, point of no return, facing the unknown, facing one's own fears and hopes, and understanding that all this might still come short of what is needed to make that step, death. Step through the gates of your own face to come to Oneiros
	Hunter Persistence, rivalry, competition for the same end goal which only one of all can archive, struggle for survival, fitting the role for the sake of effectiveness, acute state of danger, threat of harm, pursuit, person of action, being driven, obsession, specific knowledge about the area of interest, accommodation for violence, opportunity to reverse the roles. Oneiros abhors binaries, therefore every prey is also a hunter.
	Life Waking world, reality as it is beyond the edge of dreams in all its multitude, vibrancy and complexity, fear of change, avoiding disaster, utmost safety from the Oldest Dream, end of all questions in a conformity of everyday life. Shh, let it all be just a nightmare that fades in a morning and never returns.
	Dancer Living in a moment, moving with freedom, disregard of norms, absence of self-reflection, harmony with self, self-sufficiency, self-autonomy, narcissism, self-love, rebis, union of opposites, melting of barriers between the self and the world, ecstasy, passion, alchemy as an ultimate transformation, new form of life. Dancer never stops even if the eye of the maelstrom is their own witness.
	Oneiros The Red Dream itself, maelstrom, state of unending motion, vortex, the light below one's feet, stroke of luck and stroke of ruin, spirals, cycles, eternity, timelessness, endlessness, indifference, absolute, state of rejection. The Light Below is really tiny when one to look down at it. But even with somebody thousands and thousands miles away, both will look right into a radiant eye of the storm as if they are touching elbows. Wherever you go, Oneiros is there.
	Sovereign Self-sufficiency, self-understanding, self-control, power over others, authority, ego, self, asceticism, measure, slippery slope of power, gravity, self-made person, lack of introspection, detachment, standaloness, paying of debts, hidden instability. Few ever reach this position on a throne, or settle into it with such arrogance. But true sovereign would never settle for somebody's else trinket.
	Hinterlands Flux, flow, state of change, borderlands, chaos, beauty, edge of the known world travel, wilderness, transition, discovery, adaptation, new horizons, choices (and too many of), lack of knowledge or preparation. It is the place where blue sky isn't false and red sky isn't true; where quiet green grass is braided with flaming wildflowers, and the brooks become the night wind.
	Oneironaut Fear, guard up, denial of one's own weakness, drowning, cowardice, powerlessness, burden, hiding in a shell, inability to reach, or touch, or move freely, lockup, safety or success by disproportional cost, self-delusion, narrow vision on a verge of blindness, being in a hostile environment. To know The Oldest Dream fully there should be no barrier between the skin and the grinding winds of the vortex.
	Idol Showmanship, manipulation, charisma, domination, exploitation, a leader using the flock for their own purpose, loss of self, oppression, self-indulgence, empty promises, false prophet or teacher, glitter in eyes, dazzle, being in a spotlight, glory, giving the crowd what they want. Many of those who claim they've learnt all secrets of Oneiros and can lead others to such enlightenment are standing on pedestals of their own making, fooling the desperate and greedy with parlor tricks. For all its subtle hostility to humankind the Oldest Dream never lies with a promise of ascension.
	Spindlespire Solitude, loneliness, introspection, alone with one's own thoughts, watching world go by as the time passes by, peace, pause, slow time and nowhere space, regret, apathy, disassociation, shutting down, passage of time, fruitless effort, fading away. Spindlespires are always here and always at the distance, strange awkward ruins lost within the clouds. One cannot enter Spindlespire without being welcomed, and one cannot leave without being wanted elsewhere.
	Husk Lack, hollowness, loss, saudade, empty dream within a dream, being unnoticeable, lack of voice, lack of motion, longing, unfulfillment, indecision, failure. Whoever appears from the cocoon cannot be more than went in.
	Strangerkin Contradiction, chimera, doppelganger, chance, anything that can go either way likely will, wildcard, balancing act over the void, enemy and friend, family, opposites co-existing together, uncertainty, turmoil. Said to be the personified Oneiros itself. Although for all its disdain for human form, surely the realm would never stoop that low.

(card images are (c) Kyana and are not to be used without permission)
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With big thanks to Patrick Stuart for encouraging me to start, Jackie and A.M. for cheering me along the way, Ms. Screwhead for helping me to understand the fear, and to Ramanan for a huge help with digitization.

This is the biggest project I've ever done. Took about a month and a half of just painting cards.

It is based on the realm of Oneiros from "Clive Barker's Undying", which fascinated me for a long time since I've played the game. About a year ago I've noticed that I don't use red and yellow colours enough, so I've painted a couple of sketches of Oneiros for practice. In these sketches I've changed a couple of things, as, for example, I didn't want to paint Keisinger or crow people, and wanted to practice more dynamic poses. Thanks to this I've got the initial idea of making a Tarot set which would try to translate in human symbols the inhuman realm.

After a long break and with encouragement I managed to start, initially thinking that it won't go past first five cards, but one after one, I then somehow finished the series. I still don't fully believe that I could pull off something as big as this.

There is a couple of things about Tarot of Oneiros:

• There is no written language in Oneiros so there are no words or symbols on these cards

• Colour is rather important (for example, "Idol" uses colours that are similar but different from colours used for Oneiros' sky to highlight its false and manipulative side.)

• It has some notions of Painting of Ariandel and Painted World of Ariamis from Dark Souls series as a place that not actively hostile by itself but adapting all visitors to its character and accumulating dangers as more and more various people come to inhabit it. Original Oneiros is a little more demonic, but I didn't want to turn tarot into a bestiary or reuse too much from the game.