Observations of the Fox

I usually manage to get something together for NaGaDeMon, whether I do anything with it after the month is up... well that's a different issue entirely. This year my aim is to pull together all of my notes for the revised FUBAR and put them together, finally putting out the definitive edition that's been played at conventions for the last couple of years. I'm also planning on getting the illustrations right for Bug Hunt, possibly going for something very pretty and art nouveau inspired. That way I'll have a pair of games ready for crowdfunding early in the new year. We'll see how the plans pan out.  

There weren't always cats in the Darkhive, but in the past two centuries of their recorded existence they seem to have become a natural fit to the realm. Unlike many things in the Darkhive, the origin of the cats can be easily pinpointed. An obscure feline race crashed into the outer shell of the hive with their damaged generational ship. Vast numbers of the ship's inhabitants died in the crash, with perhaps a few hundred managing to get into the relative security of the hive. These survivors brought with them an assortment of plants and animals native to their world, hoping to establish a colony or survivors. The colony survived the first few years in general isolation, and even started to make a few trade contacts with some neighbouring settlements. But the survivors didn't understand that the Hiveguard were simply advancing on their territory to clean up the devastation caused by their damaged ship crashing into the hive. They fought off advancing waves of Hiveguard,...

If the term "witch" is defined in the faerie tale sense as a woman with supernatural powers, then pretty much every woman in the Darkhive fits this description... they are all capable of healing woulds at an exponentially greater rate than people elsewhere, they all have to potential to tap into deeper powers if they choose to open themselves to the unknown. If the term "witch" is more narrowly defined as a person who deliberately studies the loopholes in reality to invoke effects that would not normally be under the control of mere mortals, then there would be far less individuals fitting that description, but still a sizable percentage (maybe 30% of the population, male and female, actively study ways to gain the power necessary to survive and possibly gain an edge over the people around them). If the term "witch" is defined in the Catholic Inqusition sense as an individual (typically female) who makes some kind of pact with the infernal to gain po...

Rats, rodents and other small scavengers from a dozen different worlds are common throughout the Darkhive. Such creatures were recorded aboard the first Riven and Khar-Tui ships to collide with the huge structure, and similar creatures found they way onto the hive through the dimensional portals that sporadically open to the hidden parts of lost planetary empires, and via numerous crashed ships that lie in waste across the hive's outer surface. Unlike apex predators, scavenging rats and rodents find plenty to eat among the insects, the waste of various settlements and the carrion of battle. Such creatures are treated here with much the same disgust and disdain that most civilised cultures treat them, as eaters of carrion they spread disease from one part of the hive to another, but they also serve the vital purpose of breaking down rotting meat into more easily accessibly nutrients for the plant life and fungal growths throughout the hive. They are a valuable part of the ecosy...

Mummies exist in the Darkhive as a peculiar side effect of certain regal Panaho funeral rites. Occasionally when one of the leaders of the Panaho becomes too intrinsically connected to the fungal symbioties in their systems, their whole body starts to slow down. They become one with the fungus and literally seize up as the fungal life threads its way through their veins and muscle tissue. Such regal elders either go insane as they find it harder to remain mobile, or they spend longer periods in meditation to develop otherwise unknown heights of psychic awareness. Those who go insane are often set slowly wandering the depths of the hive where they might confront mutants and monstrous creatures in one last civic duty for their people. Those who develop psychic powers are carefully bandaged to avoid injury as their mind wander the astral realm. Ghosts have often claimed to encounter the astral forms of these mummies, but they fear these powerful beings. The little news about the ...

Levi Kornelsen   originally shared : Light and Witchy Ars Magica 3 So, having looked at a lot of bits, I think I have the shape of the magic I want, now.  it goes like this. 1. You decide on what you want to do!   You'll describe it, and get a combination of a verb, a noun, and a form.  You'll have a rating from 1-4 in each (dots, probably). The Verbs Are:  Banishing, Conjuring, Divining, Dominating, Invoking, Warding. The Nouns Are:  Beast, Blood, Dream, Earth, Fire, Hex, Name, Plant, Shade, Water, Wind. The Forms Are:  Poppet, Brew, Rite, Taglock, Circle, Tool. 2. The Guide tells you about materials:  Poppets need to be sewn or sculpted, Brews need to be brewed, Rites need participants and a formula, Taglocks need a sample of the noun or target, Circles need a circle of a material that suits, Tools need a tool custom-made for the job.  You put that stuff together. 3. The Guide presents some dangers:  Dange...