Troikan Effluvia

My Troika! players are currently running through Slow Sleigh to Plankton Downs, and while they have successfully solved the problem of a Parchment Witch trying to steal the package they're delivering, they still have another problem: the Maxillary Uslurper from the original published adventure. It hasn't targeted them yet, but if it does, they're ready for it, having acquired several cilantro-laden burritos from the café. (They initially hit the Parchment Witch with a burrito, assuming it was somehow connected to the Maxillary Uslurper. It, uh, didn't work.)

While cilantro doesn't help, here's a fun tip for you if you're ever fighting a Parchment Witch: the Sorcerer of the College of Friends used the Animate spell on its stolen skin, causing the face to deform and rendering the Parchment Witch blind during most of the fight until it ate its own face.

Troika! rules, by the way.

As part of my prep for Slow Sleigh to Plankton Downs, I made two handouts: the Ice Tomorrow advert quoted in the book, and a political pamphlet for the ice miners on Out-of-Order and Myung's Misstep. If you're running it (or even if you're not), you might find them useful.

Design Notes:

• The reverse of the Ice Tomorrow advert features a portion of an article regarding the creation of CompoGel, a Troikan version of pykrete. Canonical references include the Ice Cream Sphere from Axes & Orcs' High Fructose Hyperspace and Winters-Thawing Collegium of Eldritch Academics, a randomly-generated wizard college from Academies of the Arcane. Shakespeare-Marjanovic Heavy Industries and The Prince of Seven Moons are from our campaign, as The Prince of Seven Moons is a recurring antagonist and it is occasionally useful to remind the player characters that he's doing stuff about which they probably ought to worry. The details of his devious plans are left to your own devising, although the seed kernel of The Prince of Seven Moons is The Moon King from The Moon King Wants to Party. (In our game, they are separate but likely related entities.)
• I was originally considering having the Myung Icers' Liberation Front be a greater presence while on Out-of-Order, thus the pamphlet, but I ultimately decided to stick with Slow Sleigh to Plankton Downs (and The Forest Primordia on the return trip). As such, fleshing out their ranks is best left to the individual gamesmaster, If you need stats, Knights of the Road from Troika! are probably a fine start, although several of the working class factions from Get It at Sutlers (such as Codwallopers, Oligopolists, Palyngers, Rippiers, and Victualers) might be better.

The Prophecy of the Accursed Eight

In my Arctic Ravenloft game, my players received a prophecy about their fate. Since we're playing over the internet now, I did a little sound editing and uploaded it to YouTube so that I could broadcast it over Rythm on Discord without stumbling over my words while reading the script. If that's your thing, enjoy!

The Map

One of my PCs in the Dungeon World game has gone looking for trouble, so I have trouble prepared.  Assuming all goes according to plan (which is a notable assumption in this group), the Terrible Old Man has a treasure map to some long-forgotten treasure.  The treasure will go unrevealed until the PCs speak with the Terrible Old Man, but for the time being, the treasure map may be useful.  I made it in Hexographer; it's based off a revised version of the Sorrowfell Plains map.  Interested parties might be able to use it in their own campaigns, if you need a random treasure map; I tea-dyed parchment-looking cardstock and burned the edges to give it a weathered look.

Click to enlarge.