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

76 – Flying Island Worlds (Alan and Fractus) Setting the Stage, Campaigns for D&D and Other RPGs

Alan tells us about his Daggerheart campaign setting, Fractus, that is launching on Kickstarter soon. Fractus was a normal planet until it exploded and stopped halfway through. Now bunches of asteroids rotate a swirling magical maelstorm at the center of the planet. The people of Fractus survive on the asteroids which are large enough to support life. The land is now separated by air rather than oceans, resulting in a different path for technology along the lines of flight rather than sea travel.Fractus is available on Kickstarter at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/icv1/fractus-the-broken-worldAlan also has a big catalog of TTRPG products he's produced in the past that you can check out on DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/17830/alan-tuckerIn addition to his TTRPG writing, Alan has written a few novels that you can find links to on his website: http://www.alantucker.net/ For the latest updates on what Alan's doing you can follow him on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tuckerauthor.bsky.socialOur website: https://gocorral.com/stsWant to be on the show? Fill out this survey: https://forms.gle/U11TbxtAReHFKbiVAJoin our Discord: https://discord.gg/Nngc2pQV6CSupport the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SettingtheStage Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
  1. 76 – Flying Island Worlds (Alan and Fractus)
  2. 75 – Masks, Capitalism, and Coming of Age (Joel and Critical Bits)
  3. 74 – Kylie and Fallout: Garden of Atom
  4. 73 – Duncan and Extraordinary Locations
  5. 72.5 – Calico and Psychomortis (Part 2)