Go to Part 1

Last time we looked at some alternative starting situations for Blades in the Dark which were more or less inline with the default starting situation presented in the core rulebook. This time we’re going to look at slightly more complicated options that will push the boundaries of what we can try while still having a fundamental foundation in the mechanical and narrative structures of the game.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS

• The PCs have been incarcerated. Although none of them knew each other before prison, they were somehow thrust together inside: Maybe they were arrested at the same time. Maybe they were assigned to the same cellblock or the same work gang.
• Ask the players individually what they were arrested for. Ask them collectively how they met.
• Look at the prison claims on p. 149 of the core rulebook. These claims are usually gained through incarceration rolls, but for our introductory scenario we’re going to run a prison score. Have the players pick a claim they want to pursue.
• As with crew claims in the outside world, taking control of a prison claim will require the PCs to go through the faction who currently controls it. Pick that faction and figure out how they’re securing or operating the claim currently.
• After the first score is resolved, cut ahead to the point where all of the PCs have been released from prison: Now that they’re free, they’re ready to form a crew and make a name for themselves.
• For their second score, look at the prison claim they took and figure out what outside action and/or infrastructure is needed to sustain it. (For example, how can they take pressure off a guard that they’ve paid off? How can they keep their smuggling channel clear?)
• Pick a second faction that’s trying to muscle in on the crew’s action (or maybe simply looking to compete with them). The second score is fending off the threat.

A few tips:

• The faction standing between the scoundrels and their prison claim can be the Bluecoats. It is, after all, their job to keep things secure in Ironhook.
• After the first score is complete, it may be effective to cut directly to a scene featuring the last member of the crew getting released from prison and/or showing up at the crew’s new hideout.
• The trick to making this situation work is really embracing the claustrophobic nature of the prison job and creating a strong contrast with life on the outside.
• This starting situation is likely to be more challenging for the PCs because it almost certainly means having a negative status with two different factions (instead of a negative-positive split between a couple of factions). Be aware of that and perhaps give the PCs a chance to quickly ingratiate themselves with a third faction. (This third faction could be opposed to the factions they’ve already alienated in an “enemy of my enemy” kind of deal.)

EXAMPLE – SMUGGLING: Ironhook is riddled with ghost doors, a legacy of the long history of pain and violence within the prison’s walls. Keeping them sealed and warded is an important part of prison security. A fief-witch of the Dimmer Sisters has managed to drill through the wards around one of the doors, however, creating a spirit tunnel from a second ghost door in Dunslough. The ghost door in Ironhook opens in a laundry. The PCs will need to figure out how to get regular, long-term access to the door. They’ll also need to figure out how to deny access to the crew currently running it.

This could turn into a jailbreak scenario. But if they use the ghost door to break out of prison, it’s virtually certain the guards will discover and seal the door, eliminating the Smuggling claim. (That’ll probably piss the Dimmer Sisters off even more, honestly.)

If they keep the smuggling channel open, then when they get out of prison they’re approached by the Lampblacks. Their gang war with the Crows has spread to Ironhook, and the lampers want the PCs to smuggle weapons in so that they can “retaliate”. They’ll pay well, but a big influx of weapons will put a lot of heat on the PCs’ operation. If the PCs refuse, the lampers will try to seize the spirit tunnel for themselves. If the PCs go for it, the Crows will get wind of the deal and try to intervene.

EXAMPLE – ALLIED CLAIM (CULT SANCTUARY): Down in the Heart – the core of the Ironhook complex – there are the tangled, maze-like remnants of the original prison and the castle which preceded it. And somewhere within that maze is a forgotten, hidden temple dedicated to the Night Queen. It’s one part Shawshank Redemption, one part Tomb Raider as the PCs follow the enigmatic clues left in the notes of a true believer!

Once inside the temple, each of them can dip a black opal in the milky pool of the Night Queen’s tears, pledging themselves to her service.

When the PCs get out, a Night Queen cult comes looking for the opals. And a different cult, this one pledged to the Squamous Red, seeks to destroy them.

AT WAR!!!

• Pick a faction. The PCs are at war with that faction!
• The PCs effectively start as a Tier 0 faction with Strong hold, as per a standard campaign. But they’ll immediately increase in hold if the war ends, just as they would with any other war.
• Ask the questions:

GM asks: Who started the war?

Players ask: What damage have they done to us?

GM asks: How do you strike back?

• And that’s the first score.
• For the second score, have the other faction hit the PCs’ crew.
• At this point, have a second faction either sympathetic to the PCs or hostile to the PCs’ enemy approach the PCs. They’re willing to ally with the PCs… but they’re not doing it out of the goodness of their heart. (The cost will likely end up being the third or fourth score.)

Tips:

• This is a very difficult starting situation. It’s probably best used with advanced players who already have experience running a Blades in the Dark crew.
• The PCs effectively start at a higher Tier than normal (although temporarily reduced due to the war). Consider this fair compensation for the unusually difficult starting situation.
• When picking an enemy faction, you need to pick one with a Tier equivalent to the PCs or, at most, one higher. As a starting crew, the PCs have very limited resources and a gang war is hard to endure at the best of times. (This is also why the structure brings in an early alliance.)
• When using this structure, you might want to consider starting the PCs’ crew at a higher Tier than usual. (This will also open up more options for the faction they’re in conflict with.)
• This structure can also be a good way to launch a Season Two (Blades in the Dark, p. 206). Close out the previous season, let some time pass, and then cut to in media res as the opposing faction throws a firebomb through the window of the crew’s hideout. YOU’RE AT WAR! Now what?

Blades in the Dark includes a specific suggested starting situation: A war in the Crow’s Foot neighborhood between the Crows, the Lampblacks, and the Red Sashes. If you look around the web for examples of actual play, therefore, it’s unsurprising that you’re going to find a lot of gang wars in Crow’s Foot.

And that’s good. One of the (many) reasons the game has been seeing so much success is that John Harper very adroitly gave you literally everything you need to pick up the game and begin running a campaign immediately and with zero effort.

With that being said, I think you’ll get much better results if, instead of using the canned example of a campaign premise, you create a custom premise. Harper, smartly, includes a generic structure for doing that (the same generic structure that’s used to create the specific War in Crow’s Foot example), as described on p. 203:

• Set two factions directly at odds, with opposing goals. They’re already in conflict when the game begins. Both factions are eager to recruit help, and to hurt anyone who helps their foe.
• Set a third faction poised to profit from this conflict or to be ruined by its continuation. This faction is eager to recruit help.
• Establish an opening scene at one of the faction’s headquarters. The PCs are meeting with the faction leader or second-in-command, who summarizes the current situation as they see it and then make a demand of the crew or offer them a job. What could the PCs’ type of crew do for this faction to help them?

I further recommend that you don’t do this until the end of your Session 0. That will allow you to personalize your starting situation to the crew the players have created, picking factions and struggles accordingly.

(For those unfamiliar with the game, the setting includes 20-30 factions that come prepackaged with agendas which are mechanically coded into progress clocks. This makes it really easy to flip through a few pages, grab a couple factions, and identify their conflicting agendas, although these techniques could work equally well, albeit with a bit more elbow grease, if the GM was creating brand new factions, too.)

This default structure is quite excellent at setting up a dramatic starting situation. But it is obviously not the only structure capable of doing that, so we’re going to explore a few alternatives. With a significant number of Blades in the Dark GMs wrapping up their first campaigns and now looking to start their second, I think these will prove particularly useful in shaking things up a little bit.

AIM AT A CLOCK

• Pick a faction and one of that faction’s faction clocks.
• Have the faction hire (or compel) the PCs to achieve that goal for them.

This won’t necessarily work well for every faction clock in the book, but it will present the PCs with a specific, multi-step goal, while giving them flexibility in figuring out how to achieve it. This allows the PCs to define their own scores right out of the gate, rather than simply being hired to do specific jobs.

A few tips:

• Players may want to default to a single, straightforward strike to achieve whatever the goal is, but that won’t work. These are big, complicated goals. That’s why they have a progress clock. Make them set up their vectors.
• Look at the “Enemies” section of the faction the PCs are working for as sources for likely scores that can help achieve the faction’s progress clock.
• It should probably take two to four scores (possibly supported by various downtime actions) to fill the progress clock. These scores don’t need to be run to the exclusion of any other activity: Mix in unrelated (or tangential) scores. Or, more effectively, let the PCs choose to mix in such scores as they begin defining their own agenda.

EXAMPLE – THE CITY COUNCIL. Three of the councilors (Bowmore, Clelland, Rowan) have aligned against Strangford and are maneuvering to remove the house from the council. (6-clock)

So here the PCs are approached by Bowmore, Clelland, and/or Rowan and told to create a situation in which Strangford will be removed. Blackmail? Criminal prosecution? Assassinations? Whatever. Each score will fill 1-3 ticks on the clock. (Maybe a number of ticks equal to the Tier of the target? Or Tier +1?)

EXAMPLE – THE LOST. The Lost, a group of street-toughs and ex-soldiers dedicated to protecting the downtrodden and hopeless, are seeking to destroy the cruel workhouses in Coalridge. (4-clock, repeating)

This one seems pretty straightforward: Assassinate foremen. Blow up buildings. Steal payroll. Again, whatever works.

AIM AT A CLAIM

• Have the players pick one of the claims from their crew’s claim map. Ask them questions in order to define exactly what the claim is. (And why they want it.)
• The first score will be to secure that claim.
• Pick the faction that currently controls the claim. As with any other seizure of a claim, this will be the faction opposing the PCs’ attempt to take the claim.
• Pick another faction that also wants the claim. As soon as the PCs take the claim, this faction will either approach them in order to leverage the claim or will attempt to take it from the PCs. (Either way, this will probably end up being the second score.)

And a few tips for this one:

• This option really pushes the focus onto the crew-building component of the game.
• If you want powerful factions to be involved, the claim does not have to be directly controlled by one of them. (Which would most likely be too difficult for a Tier 0 crew to seize.) Instead, it may be some small sub-division or subservient organization.
• The squabble over this particular claim is just one small part of a conflict between the two factions you’ve chosen to have involved. In creating that conflict, you can use the nature of the claim they’re competing over as a creative guide.
• This also means that, in the act of securing the claim, the PCs have inserted themselves into the middle of this conflict. How the factions react to his will depend on how these first couple of scores play out; but they will react. Set up some progress clocks and let them start ticking.

EXAMPLE – ASSASSINS (FIXER). The fixer is a man by the name of Otto Fingaria. He currently works closely with the Deathlands Scavengers, who have discovered an ancient bunker in the mountains east of Duskvol. The find is a rich one, and they’ve been slowly funneling its contents through Fingaria for the past few months. The Dimmer Sisters have become interested in Fingaria’s trade; some of them have suggested an ancient prophecy has come due. The Dimmer Sisters want to know the location of the bunker, and they’ll go through Fingaria to do it.

EXAMPLE – BRAVOS (TURF). The gang decides that they want to take control of a training gym for boxers in Coalridge; they’ll use it as a front for their strongarm mercenary work and also as a recruiting ground for a cohort. (Tim is also potentially interested in fixing matches on the circuit.) The gym is located in the middle of a Skov ghetto, though, and Ulf Ironborn at Akorosians trying to muscle in on Skovlander businesses. If the PCs can nevertheless take control of the gym, they’ll be visited by the Billhooks: They’ve heard there’s new management and they want to make sure the PCs are onboard with supporting their fixing of the boxing matches.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Ultimately all of these methods take two or more factions, put them in conflict with each other, and then create a vector by which the PCs end up somehow stuck in the middle of that conflict. This should probably be unsurprising, because in large part that’s what Blades in the Dark is ultimately about: The conflict between powerful factions and the path by which the PCs become one of those powerful factions (or are destroyed in the attempt).

The distinction between these methods largely lies in (a) how the GM draws inspiration for the most pertinent faction conflict at the beginning of the campaign and (b) the method by which the PCs become involved. The latter is crucial in terms of shaping what actually happens at the gaming table: Battling over turf is different than choosing sides, which is different again than being hired to potentially instigate the conflict.

NEXT: Advanced Starting Situations

Go to Dreamsight (Part 1)

DREAMING TOUCH

DREAM SPYING: With a successful Dreaming Arts check, a dreamer can peer into the dreams of another. The DC of the check is determined by the type of information the dreamer wishes to glean. If the check is successful, the target can make a Will save with a DC equal to 10 + the dreamer’s ranks in the Dreaming Arts skill.

The target must be either sleeping or physically present in the Dreaming at some point during the dreaming night, otherwise the attempt automatically fails.

Altering the Dream: For every two ranks the dreamer has in the Dreaming Arts, they can make one attempt to introduce new elements into the dream or subtly alter it (which may allow them to glean additional information). However, each attempt allows the subject to attempt a new Will save. If they succeed, the dream spying immediately ends.

Target’s Awareness: When the dream spying begins, the target makes an immediate Dreaming Arts check opposed by the dreamer’s Dreaming Arts check. (They can make this check even if they are untrained in the skill.) If the check succeeds, the target is aware that someone is spying on their dreams. Even if the initial check fails, an additional check can be made with a cumulative +2 bonus each time the dreamer alters the dream.

Dream Trace: Targets who are trained in the Dreaming Arts who become aware that someone is observing their dreams can make an opposed Dreaming Arts check as a standard action to identify the person spying on their dreams.

Dream Peek: The dreamer literally observes whatever the target happens to be dreaming about. This may be useful or it may be complete nonsense, at the DM’s discretion.

Surface Thoughts: After making contact, the dreamer can use their connection to the Dreaming to read the target’s surface thoughts, as if with the use of a detect thoughts spell.

Associations: The dreamer can pick upon emotional and informational associations with the target’s surface thoughts. For example, if the target is dreaming about someone or something, the dreamer knows how they feel about it and what their relationship is to it.

Short-Term Memory: The dreamer manipulates the target’s dream in order to reveal a specific piece of information or short-term memory from the past week or so (such as a password or what they were doing at a specific time last Tuesday, for example). This information is revealed through the structure of the dream and may be slightly distorted or incomplete as a result of being part of a dream (at the DM’s discretion).

Long-Term Memory: The dreamer can access any of the subject’s conscious memories, although the information is only as accurate as the subject recalls.

Subconscious: The dreamer can access the subject’s subconscious, giving them access to memories and information that the subject may not consciously recall (due to trauma or simple forgetfulness). It can also grant the dreamer insight into the subject’s psyche, such as their deep subconscious desires, fears, traumas, and so forth (one piece of information for each alteration of the dream).

NIGHTMARE: With a successful Dreaming Arts check (DC 20), you twist a victim’s dreams into a hideous and supernatural nightmare. The check is modified and prompts a Will save as per a Dream Spying check. If the check is successful, the nightmare prevents restful sleep and also causes 1d10 points of damage to the victim. The nightmare leaves the victim fatigued and unable to regain arcane spells for the next 24 hours.

The target must be either sleeping or physically present in the Dreaming at some point during the dreaming night, otherwise the attempt automatically fails.

DREAMING VOYANCE

SIGHT OF THE DREAMING EYE: With a successful Dreaming Arts check, you can see and hear the events surrounding a particular character or at a particular location. The time period observed can be at any time during the dreaming night or at any point in the past, but the total time period observed cannot be longer than 1 minute per rank in the dreamer’s Dreaming Arts skill, and the difficulty of the Dreaming Arts check increases based on the distance in both time and space between the dreamer and the events being observed.

The dreamer is not truly observing the world, but rather the echoes that the world creates within the Dreaming.

VISION OF THE DREAMING SHADOWS: With a successful Dreaming Arts check (DC 25), the dreamer can attune themselves to the Dreaming resonances of the location in which they slumber, allowing them to effectively see and hear the events of the past during their dreaming night.

The dreamer can choose to focus on either a short or long span of time, with the types of details they observe depending on how large of a span they attempt to observe.

Days: The dreamer observes the events of the most recent days, covering a span equal to 1 day per rank in the Dreaming Arts. The dreamer gains detailed visions of the people who have been in the location as well as the actions, conversations, and other events that have happened there.

Weeks: The dreamer observes the events of the most recent weeks, covering a span equal to 1 week per 2 ranks in the Dreaming Arts. Precise details and exact wording cannot be discerned, but the dreamer will still know the people who have been here, the general topics of conversation, and the gist of events.

Years: The dreamer observes the events of the past few years, covering a span equal to 1 year per 3 ranks in the Dreaming Arts. Only the most noteworthy events are recaptured — battles, deaths, emotional revelations, and so forth.

Centuries: The dreamer observes events stretching back over centuries, covering a span equal to 1 century per 4 ranks in the Dreaming Arts. Only events of historic importance – deaths of important people, major battles, coronations, and the like – are learned.

VOICE OF THE DREAM: With a successful Dreaming Arts check (DC 15), a dreamer can briefly make contact with the dreams of another character, delivering a brief message of 25 words of less and receiving a response of equal length.

The recipient of the message must be sleeping at some point during the dreaming night or the attempt automatically fails. However, with a more difficult Dreaming Arts check (DC 25), the dreamer can leave a message “hanging” in the Dreaming. The next time the recipient of the message falls asleep, the message will be delivered (although no response is possible).

This material is covered by the Open Gaming License.

Go to the Dreaming Arts

Because all of reality is born from the Dreaming it is possible to explore the threads of your own future. Because the shape of the Dream That Will Be is complex and its paths dangerous to explore, however, even those skilled in the Dreaming Arts will not attempt to approach them directly. Instead, they will reach for the “shape” of the Dream That Will Be.

BASIC DREAMSIGHT

Dreamsight is performed while sleeping (or in a similar state, such as an elven trance). With a successful Dreaming Arts check (DC +1 per hour after waking, minimum DC 12), you can tell whether a particular action will bring good or bad results for you in the time period you’re attempting to foresee. If the check succeeds, you get one of four results:

• Weal (if the action will probably bring good results)
• Woe (for bad results)
• Weal and woe (for both)
• Nothing (for actions that don’t have especially good or bad results)

This basic use of the dreamsight does not take into account anything beyond the time period you attempt to foresee, so the long-term consequences of the contemplated action will not be revealed.

All attempts by the same person to foresee the same topic use the same dice result as the first dreamsight attempt.

You can use dreamsight a number of times per night equal to twice the number of dreamsight feats you possess (minimum once per night if you do not have any dreamsight feats).

DREAMSIGHT FEATS

DREAMING LORE

Prerequisite: Dreaming Arts 1 rank

Benefit: You can perform Dreaming Lore actions using your dreamsight each night, including Query of a Dreaming Lord and Seeking the Hidden Truths.

DREAMING PRESCIENCE

Prerequisite: Dreaming Arts 1 rank

Benefit: Your dreamsight includes powerful Dreaming Prescience, including Dream Echoes and Dreaming Visions.

DREAMING TOUCH

Prerequisite: Dreaming Arts 1 rank

Benefit: When using dreamsight, you can use the Dreaming Touch to perform Dream Spying and Nightmare.

DREAMING VOYANCE

Prerequisite: Dreaming Arts 1 rank

Benefit: You can use Dreaming Voyance actions using your dreamsight each night, including Sight of the Dreaming Eye, Vision of the Dreaming Shadows, and Voice of the Dream.

DREAMING LORE

QUERY OF A DREAMING LORD: During a dreaming night you can seek out a Lord of the Dreaming and ask them a single question by making a successful Dreaming Arts check (DC 25). For every 5 points by which your check result exceeds DC 25, you can ask one additional question. (For example, a Dreaming Arts check result of 35 would allow you to ask 3 questions.)

The questions are usually answered by a simple yes or no, although in cases where a one-word answer would be misleading or contrary to the Lord’s interests, a short phrase (five words or less) or even a brief vision may be given as answer instead. The answers are correct within the limits of the Lord’s knowledge. “Unclear” is a legitimate answer because the Lords are not omniscient.

At best, a Lord of the Dreaming provides information to aid a character’s decisions. The Lord will structure their answers to further their own purposes.

SEEKING THE HIDDEN TRUTHS: Hidden within the layers of the Dreaming are the countless legends of the world – some of them true, many of them not. By exploring the Dreaming, you can learn the legends surrounding an important person, place or thing.

Seeking the hidden truth, however, takes time. If the person or thing is at hand, or if you are in the place in question, it takes only a single night of dreaming. If you only have detailed information on the person, place, or thing, it requires 2d6 dreaming nights (consuming a Dreaming Arts check each night), and the resulting lore is less complete and specific. If you only know rumors about the person, place, or thing, it requires 2d6 weeks of dreaming nights, and the resulting lore is vague and incomplete (although it often directs you to more detailed information, allowing you to seek again with the possibility of better results).

When the required number of dreaming nights have elapsed, make a Dreaming Arts check. The DC is set by the DM. Typical DCs are:

DC 20             Person, object, or place is at hand.

DC 25             Only detailed information is available.

DC 30             Only rumors are known.

But the specific DC may be higher or lower, depending on the rarity of the information being sought. If the person, place, or thing is not of legendary importance, the DC of the check will usually be radically higher.

If the check is successful, you have discovered legends (if any exist) about the person, place, or thing. These may be legends that are still current, legends that have been forgotten, or even information that has never been generally known.

DREAMING PRESCIENCE

DREAM ECHOES: The creation of a dreaming echo is like a deliberately induced sense of déjà vu. With a successful Dreaming Arts check, you can create a dream echo that can be activated at a time of your choosing within 24 hours. Activating a dream echo is a free action that can be taken at any time.

Moment of Recognition (DC 15): You can immediately reroll any die roll that you just made. You must abide by the second roll.

Moment of Awareness (DC 25): For 10 rounds + 1 round for every 5 points by which your check result exceeded DC 25, you gain a moment of awareness which warns you of impending danger or harm. While under the effects of a moment of awareness, you are never surprised or flat-footed. In addition, you gain a +2 insight bonus to AC and Reflex saves (although this bonus is lost whenever you would lose your Dexterity bonus to AC).

Moment of Prescience (DC 30): You gain a bonus on your next die roll equal to your ranks in the Dreaming Arts skill.

Moment of Fate (DC 35): For 5 rounds + 1 round for every 5 points by which your check result exceeded DC 35, you can gain a moment of fate during which the consequences of your choices are laid out before you like a network of silvery light. While under the effects of a moment of fate, any time you make a die roll you may roll twice and then select which die roll you wish to use.

DREAMING VISIONS: Similar to basic dreamsight, with a successful Dreaming Arts check (DC 15 + 5 per day after waking), you gain a useful piece of insight concerning a specific goal, event, or activity that is to occur within the time period you’re attempting to foresee. The advice takes the form of a short and cryptic vision within the Dreaming. If you don’t act on the information, the conditions may change so that the information is no longer useful.

Go to Dreamsight (Part 2)

The Dreaming is a realm which lies “beneath” or “alongside” the world as the mortal races know it. It is a wild and dangerous place, an ever-shifting forest whose shadows and glades hold the greatest of wonders. Mortals sometimes reach it, unwittingly, in their hours of deepest dreaming, and it is said to be the place where all dreams are born. In the Dreaming, one may leave a city forged with towering spires of the finest crystal and lose sight of it within three paces, never to see it again. Or one may be tempted by strange, dancing lights, and never wake from their dreams.

This is what the Dreaming is in words. But what it is in truth is not so easily expressed. To understand the Dreaming, one must learn to feel the Dreaming. To trust the Dreamsong.

THE NATURE OF TIME IN THE DREAMING

The elven scholar Falnafeshnae described three orders within the Dreaming: The Dream That Was, the Dreaming Moment, and the Undreamt (or the Dream That Will Be).

THE DREAMING MOMENT: The Dreaming Moment is now. It is the moment of existence. It is the present tense. It is fleeting. It is ever-changing – it is always present, but it is always passing and it is always going.

In life we rarely live within the moment. Our thoughts dwell in the past or wish upon the future. But in the Dreaming, such wandering ways are dangerous. In the Dreaming it is the Moment that is the touchstone of your experience. It is the bedrock upon which you stand.

It requires absolute mental precision to maintain it. But without it you will be lost.

THE DREAM THAT WAS: Within the Dreaming all things that ever were exist… but also many things that never were or merely might have been. It is uncertain to us whether all of thought originates within the Dreaming and passes through our hands to become reality, or if thought comes from us and then passes through the Dreaming and thus into the waking world. But that is how it is.

THE DREAM THAT WILL BE: Just as all that was lies within the Dreaming, so too is there everything that might be. But such realms are dangerous and uncertain. We will return to them later.

But the secret of the Dreaming is that there is no true distinction between past, present, and future. All are as one in the Dreaming, even if we are not capable of understanding it in totality. That is why we must be careful. That is why we must stand upon our bedrock in the Dreaming Moment that is.

Meditate upon these things. Seek the truth of them within yourself.

THE LORDS AND LADIES

MINOR SPIRITS, LORDS, AND LADIES: House spirits are the most common of the “minor spirits” which you can see manifestly in the world, but they are far from the only ones. These minor spirits, also known as rivera, can be found almost anywhere. The world around you is filled with a spiritual life. Those who smile upon the spirits are blessed by good fortune, while those who do not will find their lives cursed by them.

Above the minor spirits of the world there are the Spirit Lords, who each possess dominion over a common family of minor spirits. For example, Pegana, the Lady of the River, rules over the spirits of stream and brook. They were first worshipped by the trading clans. Their ancient representations can also be found on the charm tokens of the northern barbarians.

LORDS OF THE DREAMING: What the common man does not understand is that the Spirit Lords are, in truth, powerful lords of the Dreaming. It is through the Dreaming that these Lords have power, for they are of the Dreaming.

It is overly simplistic, however, to consider them as individuals. They are not gods. They are more fundamental than that – they arise of the Dreaming, and the Dreaming arises from them. The Pegana one meets in the deltas of Duvei is not the same Lady of the Rivers one might meet in the spring thaws of the Great Glacier or the mountain streams of Hyrtan. She might not even be the same Pegana you’d meet in the next river valley to the west. She might not even be the same Pegana you met last night in the very same place. Or, on the other hand, she might be.

SHAPING THE SPIRITS: Few take these beliefs literally any more, but they remain a part of their philosophical outlook. For example, many believe that a person’s outlook on life “shapes the spirits” around them and has an effect on the fate that life brings them.

In this there is truth.

GUIDES: The Spirit Lords serve as guides and signs. We have learned to trust them, although not completely. Some are more trustworthy than others.

When a Spirit Lord seeks out a Dreamwalker, however, it is always a matter of great import – an event which will change the Dreaming and thus the world in ways unforeseen and unknowable.

And for a Spirit Lord to seek out one who is not yet trained in the Dreaming Arts, as the Lady Pegana did with you, is something rarely if ever seen.

DREAMING ARTS

Dreaming Arts is a new Wisdom-based, trained-only skill. Dreaming Arts checks are made in conjunction with the three different paths of the Dreaming Arts.

DREAMSIGHT: The Dreaming is the wellspring from which all of reality is born and the grave to which all of living memory returns. As such, those who can see the Dreaming with unclouded eyes can perceive deep truths of the world around them.

Game Mechanics: Without any training, you’ll be able to use Dreaming Arts checks to duplicate the effects of an augury spell. With a feat you’ll be able to unlock more powerful divination abilities (that you’ll use with your Dreaming Arts check).

DREAM PACTS: The Lords of the Dreaming are powerful and fey. Those skilled enough in the dreaming arts can turn their own souls into conduits through which the Spirit Lords can be made manifest in the world around us. But following such a path requires supreme self-control, for the Lords of the Dreaming will reshape your soul.

Game Mechanics: There is a class dedicated to forming dream pacts. In order to form dream pacts, you would need to multiclass. By channeling different Dreaming Lords, you will gain a variety of powers.

DREAMSPEAKING: Those practiced in the dreaming arts can reshape the Dreaming around them. Those who are masters of the Dreaming, however, can reshape the world around them by reshaping the dreams from which the world is born. These arts have been perfected into the dreaming tongue – a primal language which not only describes the most fundamental aspects of reality, but can be used to transform it.

Game Mechanics: These are a suite of feats you can take, giving you mastery over various parts of dreamspeak. Dreamspeaking essentially allows you to reshape reality or yourself – essentially minor spellcasting.

Dreamsight – Dream Pacts