Category: World of the Everflow

My homebrew world where tales of animal companionship, forgotten magic, and the question of who controls information are told.

  • An afternoon with Shelmigarii, mistress of cables

    An afternoon with Shelmigarii, mistress of cables

    It’s a crowded day. New groups from Fort Ooshar are coming, fleeing the Fox and Crow, they are rushed and harried. The journey is not long. The families are large, mixed with halflings, goliaths and humans.

    Work gets harder with these large groups. The gondolas are large enough for a few horses, maybe a cart. These families are multigenerational, at times there are dozens of animal companions. One may have only geese, another family with dogs. There was one with oxen — they took ages. The mulgobs don’t like when they need to come up.

    An 8-bit style image of a small dragon about the size of a large cat that is the color of bronze-ish ale with blue buggy eyes. They are flying over a small person, likely a gnome, with a blue head covering and dark nearly black robes. There is a magic spell coming out of one hand. They are on an stage that looks like autumn ground cover with a small golden leaved tree behind them. The names below or Oolia Estererlia and Brewst Grisselle
    Made with reroll

    But seeing so many descend into a home without judgement, with an opportunity to build, with an opportunity to meet elves and dwarves with their magicks, with an opportunity to meet women from Mehmd and men from Crinth, the opportunity to meet the ratchets and the alchems and others from the Queen, the opportunity to meet Brewst Grisselle the ale drake and learn that not all dragons are Proctors hoarding knowledge with threats of violence — Brewst hoards alcohols and is getting along quite well with the alchems guild.

    Every day there are new people. Every day another conversation.

    Shelmigarii and Lukhchizh do not charge for their service. They’ve earned unfurled flags and banners from the Free City. This means the other goblins (all the Kon) in the area support them. Shel’s recent ratchets development and springwerks mean the mulgobs don’t work as hard. Lukh is working on employing some beasts rather than mulgobs, which is only possible because of the Free City empowers all thinkers rather than the caste system the Queen’s Lyfe demands.

    At the top of the cliffs, summer heat bears down harsh on the Grand Entry. Those pilgrims working down the ramps and steps will be full of sweat, but not as much fear. These Kin don’t understand the sky-cables. Many shake in fear as they ride down the thousands of feet through the fog into the bog-city past and through the ruins over the brackish waters and abandoned orchards.

    Shel never laughs.

    She’s scored of all the beasts. The weather and the cables aren’t scary. These are knowable things. These are math.

    Beasts and peoples don’t act according to math and strangers aren’t knowable, even known friends aren’t knowable. She loves Lukh, but calling him knowable isn’t accurate.

    A long sip of cool coffee. The next gondola up from Chupmolea better bring more. That bean is a blessing, much better than the teas in the Queen’s Land (Tsavancoast). She once again ponders if there is a way that the bean can replace tar-tree pods as fuel — the switch of smells from oily smog to roast would be worth it. She doesn’t have the knowledge. But maybe the lesser power could be made up using gears and springs…

    Her mind wanders sometimes. Operating the sky-cables is boring and routine.

    Thoughts are for new things… maybe the fruits could become oils. Lukh’s been chatting with another hob freed from service to invention who won’t join the guilds, but is working on new ways to harvest steam.

    There’s an unlatched safety bar she doesn’t notice.

    Shel keeps thinking about this. Less power, more gearing, some springs, maybe using that fruit that’s waste now, then a steam box, could maybe the airxip props help the gondola and then we wouldn’t even need muls or beasts.

    She sends the gondola with a halfling family and their dogs.

    The windsock swings fast. An unexpected storm? She checks the broadsheet forecast section. Oh, no. This is on the schedule. It’s going to be a rocky ride for those hin.

    She looks as they descend. Notices the safety bar free. Notices the sway. Notices the storm. Notices the danger.

    Wandering thoughts are a blessing, except when they are a curse. She curses the queen. She curses herself. She curses the sky and for good measure she curses the gods of this land even though she doesn’t believe in them.

    “Urp! Stop loading. See if you can bring that gondola back. Use everything you have.” She rushes to the head wheel to help.

    There is a nasty screeching noise as the metal cables halt to change path. Then there is a scream of terror as the gondola rocks off the cables.

    Another noise, this time a squawk, rises above the terrors and shouting, the breaking metals.

    Panic. It’s all panic now.

    Beasts and peoples all learning that their fears are real. The sky-cable isn’t safe (they’re wrong).

    None feel empowered, none capable.

    That squawk is a massive beast. A raptor the size of an airxip swoops overhead and dives at the sky-car. There’s a tiny man on the bird, hard to judge size at this distance with the massive bird unravelling understanding of perspective.

    As the car jumps off the cables the bird rushes to it. The car starts to roll to a side dozens of feet under the cable.

    A sharp command, sudden and cutting through the winds and terror is heard. There’s some Kirtin-ish to the tone with a bit of the Crinth rounding.

    The immense bird grabs the cart, carries it up to Grand Entry.

    Shel doesn’t want more coffee. She wants to hang out with Brewst after she fills out an after disaster report to establish a new checklist, one that involves two peoples in case her mind wanders again. That’ll start when she’s done shaking.

    This narrative slice of life was an attempt at Tuesday Afternoon, a technique to test world building to see if the created world makes sense for normal people.

    The image features an abstract composition set against a dark background. A network of jagged island shapes outlined in gold creates a prominent visual centerpiece. These shapes vary in size and orientation, resembling a natural or geological formation. The area surrounding this central structure is filled with bold, textured colors, including vibrant blues at the top representing the ocean, contrasting shades of green to the left representing the hills, deeper black tones framing the right and bottom, and hints of rust-colored brown towards the lower section. Below the gold outline, a small, stylized blue waterfall appears on the lower edge of the graphic, providing scale and enhancing the sense of depth within the artwork.
    Bog-city of Sheljar in abstract paint

    The Free City of Sheljar was the result of my first campaign in the World of the Everflow.

    Once a city destroyed by dragons and later an empire destroyed from within by The Necromancer with their zombies and Tunneling Nightmares, Sheljar is now a Free City, open to all thinking peoples who respect other thinking peoples. Its leadership is the first group of PCs. A bog-city of a thousand islands each little piece of land offers a place for a family to return, a neighborhood to emerge.

    Shelmigarii is one of the Queen’s women, a member of the ratchet guild. She and her husband run the sky-cable gondolas at the Grand Entry with its faster path to the city center or to Chupmolea (the goblin neighborhood) than the thousand-year old steps and ramps down the cliff. Shel is a tiny goblin and her husband a large hobgoblin. They have no companions nor children. They hired mulgobs (bugbears) to operate the ratchets, declining to use alchem nor magicks. Her background would be a cabbie, if playing D&D.

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  • An afternoon with Prva Metzr caretaker of the Everflow

    An afternoon with Prva Metzr caretaker of the Everflow

    Prva rows in the heat of a summer swelter. The water isn’t choppy. He’s still struggling a bit. Deep, pulling cuts to get to the Font of Two Paths quickly.

    Most of the other font-kids stay in when it’s this hot. Prva knows he can make a few coin, and safely because Vrda his river otter companion will splash through the lake to make it more comfortable.

    Most thems with birds and dogs won’t get the splashies. Vrda is the reason Prva can work a day with this sun.

    A quick j-stroke stops the boat, right near the Font. He tosses a knotted rope to the otter who chomps a big knotted end. Then the work of getting the jars ready starts.

    The image portrays a hand-drawn map on graph paper placed on a wooden surface. The map features various locations marked with labels and lines connecting them. It appears to depict a fantasy or fictional setting. On the left, "General Market" is written near several labeled areas including "Fallen Cottage," "Watch Tower," "Training Grounds," and "Barracks." A "West Road" branches out below these areas. In the center, there is a drawn area marked with wavy lines labeled "Inner Harbor of Tolse," surrounded by "Lake," "Forest," and a "Quarry Rubble." To the right, "Upper Telse" is written beside some abstract shapes. Additional labels scattered across the map include "Old Bridge," "New Mine," "Farm," and "Slaughter."

    Already set in order. Lids off. Getting them ready for pure waters of the Everflow direct from the Font as it falls from cliffside. An attempt to stay stable underneath kind of works, mostly because the little otter is pushing the small boat back towards the fall.

    Prva bows his head. His lips moving.

    That big rush of noise under the fall with the rough waters would obscure his words if anyone was close. No one is close though — the heat.

    They wouldn’t hear him anyway. He’s performing, not praying. He learned long ago that Quar didn’t care about prayers or belief. The pure waters heal.

    But he still pretends to pray. It’s a job. The performance matters.

    All the jars are full. Flip caps are on.

    Then the row back to Quar’s dock, where the acolytes hand the harvested Everflow off to the Orthodox Church of Quar. It’s a trip he’ll make a few more times today. There’s a small bonus when he’s willing and other ain’t.

    Boat isn’t his. That’s tied off for the next one to do the work, the jar racks now empty.

    Vrda crawls up the quay side. Dripping the waters of the lack behind them. They’re off for some fish and a chilled tisane of pine and limon from Daoud.

    Legendary magic was big and powerful, life changing. Modern magic is a cold drink on a hot day after heavy labor. Modern magic is also the ability to make oneself just a little big wet during the worst heats.

    This narrative slice of life was an attempt at Tuesday Afternoon, a technique to test world building to see if the created world makes sense for normal people.

    The image features a hexagonal grid map depicting a diverse terrain. The landscape includes mountains, forests, rivers, and bodies of water. Mountain ranges stretch across the northern, eastern, and western areas of the map, characterized by sharp, brown peaks. Forests, in varying shades of green, are spread throughout, with dense patches in the central and northern sections. Rivers snake through the terrain, connecting to blue coastal waters that line much of the western and southern borders. There are patches of reddish-brown terrain, suggesting arid regions or desert-like areas. The map is bordered by white space, emphasizing the land's irregular shape.
    Telse and the Western Wildes j

    Telse was the center of my first 5e campaigns. It is the source of the Everflow, the healing waters that feed into the Font of Two Paths. The Church of Quar controls access to the lake, the Font and the Everflow. That mercantile-faith is the origin of the common tongue in the World of the Everflow.

    Once part of the empire of Sheljar, Telse is now a free city like most of the Western Wildes. Both the Orthodox and Reformed Churches of Quar are based in the town. Despite being a small city or large town, Telse has embassies from the other kingdoms and free cities due to its healing waters.

    Prva Metzr is an acolyte of Quar with a river otter bonded companion named Vrda. Metzr is a human in their mid-20s. He considers his faith a job more than a duty or calling.

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  • Turning 5e Background Features into 5.5e Feats

    Turning 5e Background Features into 5.5e Feats

    Much of the flavor of the 2014 version of 5e Dungeons & Dragons backgrounds was within their features. These mild mechanics usually made some element of either the social or exploration pillars of the game.

    They’re gone, replacing both story and the two minor pillars with a Feat in 2024 D&D. It’s a shame.

    Many of my own custom backgrounds sit dormant, because the story was a key part of why they existed. And adding power through a Feat that offers more combat utility is silly.

    There’s a solution. The example comes from the Realms books. The Feats there ooze flavor in ways the Player’s Handbook does not.

    How can I do that at scale for the 20+ backgrounds I’ve created?

    Borrow from themes

    Find the origin feats (or talents) that are most similar to the desire and calibrate from there. Skilled, Musician and Crafter are the ones in the 5.5 Player’s Handbook I’ll lean towards. Black Flag expands the calibration in similar ways to the Realms books. Psychanist, Ritualist, Athletic, Polyglot, Scrutinous, and Trade Skills will be referenced as well. Having a bank of ten feats and talents to calibrate against should help.

    Walkthrough

    Let’s start with the clothier/weaver, which by design leans into tropes around various fictional cults that use threads to see futures.

    The original feature with mild mechanics.

    Feature: As the Wheel Wills

    You have a certain comfort and understanding that you aren’t always in control. You have advantage on saves against fear, charm and other enchantments after the first round in these conditions.

    Additionally, you are able to find and protect secrets. When using Insight or Sleight of Hand to keep or discover secrets you do so with double proficiency.

    Making it modern

    From mild mechanics to direct mechanics is a first step. The second is to calibrate versus similar feats and talents. As the Wheel Wills feels like more of a social feat with hints at magic, but not spell craft. Ritualist, Musician and Athletic have some of the heft I’ll use.

    As the Wheel Wills for 5.5e

    Due to your understanding of the wheel you have advantage on saving throws against fear and charm after being under the condition for one round. (This is somewhat similar to Athletic)

    Also, your experiences understanding that weaving is a physical representation of the connections between peoples you have expertise with one of Insight or Sleight of Hand. (Removing the more situational impact from the previous version).

    Another example – Cabbie/Ferien

    The Cabbie is an attempt to capture some Shadow & Bone, Narnia, Bridgerton, Gilded Age vibes.

    Feature: Talk too much

    You are a skilled conversationalist that frequently goes on and on. These long talks are often consuming and distracting. Some cabbies and feriens may have allies who use that speech as a distraction to pick pockets or similar events.

    Additionally, you pick up the streets, rivers or flyways of a new city quickly almost never getting lost in natural urban areas.

    Let’s convert that

    Origin Feat: Talk Too Much

    When talking to creature with which you share a language (or culture) you are able to distract a non-hostile creature. An ally attempting use Sleight of Hand, Stealth, or Deception against that creature has advantage in the current minute.

    Additionally after spending an hour in a bar, market, restaurant or other third place in a new non-magical urban area you are unable to get lost.

    Moving forward

    For some reason, unlocking this process within my mind is fuel to move forward with the backgrounds that are necessary to move forward with Uprising & Rebellion into the 5.5 era.

    Converting 20 was overwhelming until these thoughts. Plus, with the idea that an Origin Feat can be a General Feat with the addition of an attribute bonus that helps advance the three pillars I’m most interested in — Social, Exploration, Scheming. Because a few of these backgrounds and their newly associated Feats will unlock crafting, business management or militia actions.

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  • How my campaign changes when a new product drops

    How my campaign changes when a new product drops

    The recent addition of Drops subscription content to DnD Beyond is going to challenge me.

    I’m running only a single intermittent 5e campaign right now. The Ferments uses 2024 as its base set, but permits things from Black Flag, 2014 and A5e in general, with a quick scan to make certain that the addition fits within the campaign themes and the setting’s common lore.

    In the past it’s been easy to judge what works and doesn’t. Book releases are heavily themed. Most grimdark will not fit in The World of the Everflow. Dragon stuff always fits. Giant stuff rarely fits. The new dinosaur book added to Beyond fits well in an undiscovered-to-this-point land.

    But now there are weekly drops. The player facing stuff needs a quick review. Maps and stickers won’t matter because we aren’t using the Maps VTT. The cosmetics are fine, because they help a player connect with their character.

    Teos explains the broader program.

    Evaluating the content to fit The Ferments and The World of the Everflow

    First off, the five feats added are all extra planar in a way that has not been explored in our games through the several hundred sessions of play plus writing and backstory. There’s only been a single Warlock.

    Those are going to be easy to ignore. If I could toggle them off at the campaign level I would.

    • All five feats = no
    • Pact Seeker background = with lore tweak and different feat
    • Astral Flood = yes, fully
    • Buzzing Bee = yes, fully
    • Insidious Rhythm = yes, fully
    • Leomund’s Lamentable Belaborment = yes, fully
    • Sticks to Snakes= yes, but DM content only

    The Pact seeker background doesn’t fit as written. The lore doesn’t work because of the demand that the pact is extraplanar, but if a player wanted to rework that and take a new origin feat it would be allowed. Maybe they are seeking a pact with a religious figure, an elder dragon, a scholar or something similar.

    There are also five spells in the first Drops.

    Astral flood fits unchanged. The Astral and Ethereal are somewhat merged in my world and opening that up to the physical realm would be devastating.

    Buzzing bee is excellent. My first encounter with Bee was the useless cantrip from Unearthed Arcana back in the 80s. This is better and needed. It fits the use of animals for the Kin too.

    Insidious Rhythm is a fun spell too. The magic of performance by Bards and others would be the path of introduction.

    Leomund’s Lamentable Belaborment may not fit combat well. It does fit in social and political settings. Players will definitely find a way to turn a crowded room into a debate-disaster.

    Sticks to Snakes is a classic spell, but this version is quite underpowered for 2024. It adds in-combat complexity for low damage. It reads more like a 2nd level spell and not a 4th. For narrative purposes it fits the world well. But it’s a waste for a player. This will be DM content only.

    Eleven player facing items this week needed to be reviewed. Next week there will be more. And then there will be more. And more.

    It’s going to be too much.

    And each drop and each book from every publisher stretches and pushes a world. But fantasy worlds are not only defined by being permissive. They are also defined by what’s forbidden.

    Every world a DM and their tables creates can choose to be a global fantasy (kitchen sink) or be as neatly defined as the group wants.

    With Drops the default in the Everflow will not be for permission, but to evaluate what a player wants to add as they want to add it in order for us to continue to explore the themes of the world — how strong can the love between person and animal be, who gets to control access to knowledge, how can our local connections make the world better for most.

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  • An afternoon with the cooper Sudes Rudes

    An afternoon with the cooper Sudes Rudes

    Walking past Idarak’s I grab a fresh peach off one of his trees. Nightbridge tends to have more of the old fruits and Idarak’s family keeps a small grove. Plus Edarra wants a white bucket soon, with some falls from the Dead Forest (obviously not the red oak or black maple — other trees seem to be seeding too).

    Visiting the Dead Forest now is this weird mix of Council Guard, elves, dwarves, Daoudians, Kirtin-ish — crowded and uncommon. We Rudes need to go there because our buckets and casks are expected to have staves and finishes from the Forest. That may not last. Craft has to change and if dragons come back I do not need that risk. Maybe something from the island or up toward Kirtin proper.

    A neighborhood map of a lakeside medieval fantasy city in dull tone

    Anyway, I’m off to see if it’s safe.

    This is a daily assessment in Kirtin-on-the-Lake. There’s so many competing interests. The old neighborhoods and walls don’t mean as much. If dragonken settle in a few blocks that’s a new neighborhood — with magic everywhere.

    Refugees from the destruction in Kirtin-in-the-Sky are trying to move in with cousins they ain’t seen in decades. Kirtin is a mess.

    The peach is good, though. Really good.

    Yaffy’s cackle-call echoes through the street from behind. Yaff hates visiting the forest, because those trees are not for him. He’ll always find a way to dilly-dally on the way. I think he ‘reads’ the neighborhood more than Kyrik, my little ratting dog that stays home, always.

    I’m not of the born generation. I don’t have magicks.

    The forest seems to refuse us and accept the youngsters with their elementalisms, enchantments and energies. This works in my favor. A few copper to the youth you have these abilities for each of the sticks I can turn into staves.

    That peach is already gone. It’s three bites for an old stoney like me. Apple’d be two, but the pit gets in the way. I toss the pit to Yaffy as I sit down on a bench.

    Casking for someone up in The Rise means gathering stick for art, proper wood carving ‘ll be needed too. I’ll see if maybe I can convince a dragonken to do it, mayb an elf. Edarra will pay.

    Blues and whites without paints thanks to the woods from those trees come from a few kids. Those dragontrees seem to be shedding. There will be new dragons soon.

    I shudder.

    In-the-sky went from mighty city to flooded caverns with most bridges fallen into the waters.

    Douad ain’t to protect us. Kirtin is a fighting force over on the Slope, but without leadership. Is it going to fall like Sheljar to the Necromancer? Broadsheets say the West is many cities without a kingdom now.

    I need another peach. Or tea. Or ice cream (magicks are great for a few new discoveries). Or a game.

    My mind wanders under this constant pressure of not knowing how this city will fall further into disrepair or if maybe it can rise like Sheljar under the Free City movement.

    I stick the staves and falls into my basket. Yaffy leading the way to church. Quar’s followers have the Everflow — that’s better than wine, it’ll heal, even a broken soul.

    Then it’s back to work.

    This narrative slice of life was an attempt at Tuesday Afternoon, a technique to test world building to see if the created world makes sense for normal people.

    Kirstin-on-the-Lake was the center of the Uprising & Rebellion campaign. It is the former winter capital of Kirtin, but was conquered by Daoud for most of the past several centuries. It is now controlled by neither nation with influences of both, with the new council system taking over governance while the Dragons come back to the Dead Forest, goblins land at their airxip tower, and the visitors from Sheljar.

    Sudes Rudes is a cooper. His animal companion is a green woodpecker named Yaffy. He also has a non-bonded ratting dog Kryrik. Sudes is a goliath with Kirtin-ish heritage (stone) whose beard is tinged with the blue-greys (wave) more common in Daoud.