The Chronicles of Heavenly Artifice LXXIV – Alchemical Factions

With everyone else quietly leaving Martha and Ethan alone to talk for a bit, Charles got towed along down the hall to the executive break room – where they waited. People started getting antsy (and nervous) pretty quickly, but no one was going to crack the door open and go back into the conference room [...]

The Chronicles of Heavenly Artifice LXXIII – Primordial Jouten On A Bicycle!

Back at the Water Tower, there was a discussion going on… (Ethan, Elder Terrestrial Fire-Aspect and Family Head) “He casually created a Rank-5 manse for you, in minutes, starting with a demesne-3 that hadn’t even FORMED yet – and he’s coming to see us on a BICYCLE?!?!” (Raymond, Awakened Wood Aspect) “And he didn’t even [...]

The Chronicles of Heavenly Artifice LXXII – Manses and Morgans

Howard had been speculating – after all; the boy had a rank-five manse with gates modeled after the “Stargate” movie – meaning the gates, at least, were new and were likely his own work – and he was experimenting with other universes, and thought that Raksha Nobles were cute and fun. All by itself that [...]

The Chronicles of Heavenly Artifice, Aikiko’s Search, Prelude I

The Solar Guardians have been active for a number of years – and most have been a good deal more conspicuous than Charles has. That’s good – because that’s the only thing that gives Aikiko a chance to find them. On the other hand, they’re young – and are not inclined to build empires, overturn [...]

Magical Biotech and Monster Making Part II – Monster Making for the GM.

To pick up the biotech for d20 series again, we’ll take a look at “monster design” from the game master’s side with the Spirit of the Times. Some places achieve timelessness. Others have timelessness thrust upon them. A time and place may become a legend, an idealized archetype, a fixed reference point for later civilizations, [...]

Exalted – Geomantic Emulation

And here we have a few more geomantic charms for Exalted. Why? Why not? Admittedly, these are a bit specialized – but they have their uses on occasion. Geomantic Empowerment Cost: —; Mins: Occult 3, Ess 2, Type: Permanent. Keywords: None Duration: Permanent Prerequisite Charms: None The character becomes a living Network Node and Geomantic [...]

Exalted – Stargate Command

In Charles’s ongoing efforts to be nice to people, he wants to give them more room. In fact, he wants to give them the entire cosmos… The Mirror-Shattering Method can allow travel between realities, and thus must be opening (or at least locating and establishing entry and exit points for) a route through Elsewhere. It [...]

The Chronicles of Heavenly Artifice LXX – The Djinn of the Lamp

Back at the museum, Matthew quietly took advantage of the press of other investigators – no longer restrained by his wards – to head out to get in touch with his Father and the rest of the House. He… hadn’t been expecting to find that Elzeard’s contact was a youthful dimension. What did you say [...]

The Chronicles of Heavenly Artifice LXVIII – Getting Down To Terrestrial Firma

There were swarms of more-or-less official investigator types lurking around the museum as well, just waiting for Charles to come out of the private offices… And the only reason they were waiting was because they didn’t want to scare him off. Elzeard’s pointing of investigators to Charles had made him sort of… public. The first [...]

The Chronicles of Heavenly Artifice LXVII – Science and Sorcery

In an undisclosed location Orchid’s report was being received with… some incredulity. A… NEW Primordial? Wandering around Yu-Shan randomly fixing things? Complete with a crew of Devas, a World-Body, an (Internal?) Cult, and displaying thaumaturgic powers at a level equal to fairly high-level charms? Still, if it was indeed true – and there was at [...]

The Chronicles of Heavenly Artifice LXVI – Science and Sorcery

Now that Charles was done “confronting” (and cheering up) a greater deiphage, he headed back to the rest of the cured minor gods… They were mostly in a state of shock. While Charles had been speaking with Eighty-Seven Orchid, Ixcatli had been “explaining” things. – and the fact that he didn’t actually have any idea [...]

The Chronicles of Heavenly Artifice LXV – Tea with Darkness

Orchid was still probing – very VERY carefully – as they headed for the monitoring room and it’s geomantic privacy wards. The child… not only far more essence than he had ANY right to have, he had vast reserves of power buried inside him and there were… other creatures? POWERFUL creatures – in there as [...]

Magical Biotech and Monster Making, Part I – Ingredients

There was an earlier request for this, and – now that I finally have a little time for writing and putting things up again – it’s time to start this particular article-series… d20… covers a lot of settings. The realm of dream? Been there. Virtual reality setting? Done that. High Fantasy? Please! That’s where it [...]

Eclipse – Troublesome Relics

Here we have an a small package for personal relic creation designed for a character who’s own powers backlash against him, even when channeled through a focus, and thus cause him various disadvantages. This isn’t the most efficient possible way of building such relics – for starters, you could simply the abilities purchased for the [...]

Residents of the Ars Goetia, Part II

The “Demons” of medieval tomes were mostly the creation of fevered would -be demonologists and “scholars”. While they might be loosely based on a few genuine mythological fragments, those tattered threads are pretty thoroughly lost in a sea of wild conjecture. For our purposes this is good; it provides a lot of room for turning [...]

Eclipse – Building the Possessed

Today’s request is a character loosely styled after Jason Blood / Etrigan (DC Comics) or Naruto (Anime) – a youngster who’s had a mighty demonic force that some magician couldn’t handle or kill directly imprisoned in his or her body, so that it will die when he or she does. That provides the character with [...]

Eclipse d20 – White Necromancy

Today it’s a request for a mildly unusual Eclipse d20 writeup – a Wood Elf Spiritualist / Necromancer who DOESN’T dabble in negative energy, and thus is free to be a gray – or heroic – figure. This isn’t really likely to be the version the player finally uses – the backstory is severely abridged [...]

Residents of the Ars Goetia

When it comes to source material, it’s hard to get much more authentic than going medieval – and the list of “demons” in the Ars Goetia offers quite a lot of inspiration. Of course, when you read that list you don’t find a lot of game-style “demons”. You don’t find much in the way of [...]

Exalted Chronicles – Hearthstones and Motives

Radiant Heart Ruby (Fire or Adenic Hearthstone *****): Glowing with the cheerful radiance of an ember in the heart of the flames, a Radiant Heart Ruby sheds a warm and comforting glow, bringing heartening memories to mind to fortify the bearer with the strength of his convictions. If touched by a creature of death, the [...]

The Chronicles Of Heavenly Artifice LXIII – Traps and Recklessness

Charles sighed and headed back to Yu-Shan… For every step forward, a half a step back! Now he had a bunch of child-“pets” to do something with in all his free time… Many of them had been on the streets, desperately ill, or running away from horrible situations, which pretty much let out the “blur [...]