Dungeons and Dragons is all about community storytelling. As a DM I create the skeleton of a story that the players fill in with their characters’ actions. I have a lot of influence on the events of a session, but ultimately it’s my job to let the story go where the players want it to go. Sometimes I can’t help myself though and I end up writing a little vignette for the players to read, often in the form of a prophetic dream like the following short story.

Eathirilu has a dream. It starts off like the nightmares he’s had before. The dragovinians have won. The world is a smoking ruin, barely resembling what he recognizes. Dragovinians stalk the skies, looking for anything with the barest scrap of blood to devour. They fight amongst themselves when they encounter each other. The victor consumes the loser.

Eathirilu walks through the waste towards a high mountain. He climbs the mountain. The architect of this world waits at the top, Blendegad. When he reaches the top, Eathirilu transforms into a T-rex and throws himself at the red dragon god. Their struggle shakes the earth. They toss and roll as their conflict continues, destroying the mountain in the process. In the end Eathirilu stands over Blendegad in the rubble with the dragon’s has neck in his jowls.

Eathirilu transforms back into an elf, but he is a giant elf, bright and shining. He holds Blendegad’s neck in his left hand while his right is free. Blendegad struggles against the elf’s iron grip as Eathirilu reaches for the wooden spear on his back. He takes the spear, lines up his strike, and plunges it into Blendegad’s breast. The beast shrieks, spitting fire all around, but it does not die.

The Touch of Nature shines on Eathirilu’s forehead. The Touch splits into a thousand rays of light that shoot off in all directions, illuminating the entire world. Then the rays return, all of them pouring into Blendegad’s body through the wooden spear made wound. Blendegad deflates and then turns into millions of particles of light. The wind picks up and the light is blown throughout the lands. Eathirilu’s keen hearing picks out the sounds of dragovinians dying as the light touches them.

And the light is EVERYWHERE. And Pan has returned.

And Eathirilu wakes up. It is morning and the sun is in his eyes.

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I’m Isaac

Welcome to the GoCorral website! I’m Isaac Shaker and this is a place for me to write about D&D and occasionally other topics. I host a podcast called Setting the Stage that interviews different DMs about their campaigns. I’m currently focused on completing the Cimmeria campaign setting and turning it into a book.

Setting the Stage Podcast

86 – Wuxia Adventures in RPGS (Daniel and Metanoia/Ithasen) Setting the Stage, Campaigns for D&D and Other RPGs

I interviewed Daniel, my cohost of the Tabletop Community Spotlight! Daniel created his own setting called Ithasen with an in-progress wuxia TTRPG system called Metanoia to go along with it. Ithasen has a spiritual force known as Ren that pervades the world. Ren is a magical manifestation of the user's, or Rennim's, will upon the universe. Rennim that cultivate their will grow stronger and capable of more amazing feats as the concentrate their power and force of personality.Within Ithasen there are seven lineages of people that decide what type of Ren they can use. Anamor use conversion Ren. Elkyr use flux Ren. Janim use elasticity Ren. Nyl use influence Ren. Okoi use recurrence Ren. Haqol use harmony Ren. Finally, Daruner use use coalescent ren. The two races lineages that drive unique politics in Ithasen are the Daruner and the Haqol.Daruner children absorb the Ren talents of both their parents, becoming a perfect blend of Daruner and another lineage parent. Through this mixing, a Daruner family could potentially include all other lineages within itself. This power has placed Daruner as the nobility of Ithasen.Haqol's power of harmony allows them to amplify the Ren powers of others. This puts Haqol in a vulnerable position as unscrupulous people will do anything to incorporate Haqol lineage into their bloodline. Haqol have experienced something akin to a genocide as their lineage has been consistently absorbed by other lineages and diluted over the centuries.There's a whole lot more than that so strap in!Daniel has a fully setup GitHub Wiki for information on Metanoia and Ithasen that you can explore.There's a Metanoid Discord server you can join to discuss the rules and setting with other fans.The occasional musing on TTRPGs can be found on Daniel's blog, Tabletop Discourse.GoCorral YouTube Channel for watching the Tabletop Community Spotlight.Vote in the CRIT Awards! Voting is open until August 23rd.Check out the Setting the Stage website!Want to be on the show? Fill out this survey.Join our Discord!Support Setting the Stage on Patreon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
  1. 86 – Wuxia Adventures in RPGS (Daniel and Metanoia/Ithasen)
  2. 85 – Medical Doctor D&D (Justin and Oops! All Healers!)
  3. 84 – Horseback Riding D&D Camp (Michael and SaddleSnaps)
  4. 83 – Call of Cthulhu's Garden (Hem and The Sprouting)
  5. 82 – Tarot Ghosts (George and Fears & Fortunes)