Welcome back to the Purple Planet! Previously in this series we have examined the kith and their vile masters and the beasts that stalk the lands beneath the weirdling sun. Today we take a look at perhaps the most deadly foe of all.
Join us on Backerkit as we welcome the fabled Purple Planet back into print – with all new material, handouts, foes, adventures and much, much more!
Setting as Character: The Purple Planet
by Harley Stroh
As if the kith, their Ascended Masters, and the beasts of the Purple Planet were not enough to challenge player characters, there is one final foe that every explorer must contend with: the planet itself.
The Purple Planet is no mere cipher to be ignored. Rather it presents a very real and persistent threat to non-natives. The enervating rays of the dying sun, combined with the thin air of the high plateau, drain the strength of the living. One of the very first tasks of explorers is to find a means of battling the deadly rays, permitting characters to conserve their strength. (Desperate or enterprising characters may quickly discover the healing qualities of certain varieties of the planet’s abundant mushrooms.)
The plateau is composed of four principle environs, each with their own unique threats. Explorers trekking through the wastes will need to contend with the death orms, kith raiders, and dust storms; those exploring the broken hills will be forced to deal with strekleon prides and the risk of flash floods; characters braving the mushroom jungles will likely encounter flocks of vicious gribbs; and those daring (or foolish) enough to scale the Ancestor Peaks with the occupants of ancient tombs and cairns secreted among them. The tailored encounter tables take into account a party’s travel speed: groups that cautiously pick their way across the wastes are more likely to spot threats at a distance, while quickly-moving groups might easily blunder into an ambush.
The plateau is also home to two (known) settlements: the military fortress Castellum Cotcyst, home to the House of the same name, and the City of Smoke of House Reagen’Tor.
The Castellum is defended by a shallow ditch and a towering palisade, harvested from mushroom giants. The encampment is home to scores of tents housing kith warriors, a strong house that serves as an armory for greenstone shards and relics, a bloody whipping yard where prisoners and rebels are subjected to public humiliation and cruelty, and a great central tower – home to Cotcyst’s Ascended Masters.
The City of Smoke is a settlement of a different sort altogether: a massive stone ziggurat atop a platform born on the backs of hundreds of kith. The peak of the ziggurat belches thick clouds of oily black smoke that coalesce into high minarets, towers, and peaked rooftops – a city in the clouds. The city swirls and reforms to its masters’ will, ever-changing, ever-forming, forever altering itself as needed or desired.
While Smoke and Castellum Cotcyst are the most prominent of the plateau’s settlements, they are not alone. Each House has established hunting camps throughout the wilds; reclusive hermits and mad stylites maintain ancient religious sites; and a handful of rebel factions hide within ancient fastnesses hidden amid the rocky ridge and lower peaks. There are also tales of other cities – some hidden beneath the surface of the plateau, and those that blink in and out of existence, preserved since antiquity by time-skipping magic that preserved the kith and their culture at the height of their powers.
The truth to these tales, is – of course – known only to judges, and the headstrong explorers that dare to track the legends down.
What ancient mysteries are concealed by the Ascended Masters, and to what end do they wage their endless war? Discover these secrets and many more by backing Adventures on the Purple Planet — follow now to be ready when the campaign for the Purple Planet launches in February!
