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Galandir, Tereman, and Blendegad split the work of investigating the githyanki. Galandir inspected the unusual silver swords the githyanki wielded. He discovered that they somehow attacked the body, mind, and spirit simultaneously cutting through every aspect of their victim. Tereman used divination magic to probe the other side of the dimensional portal the githyanki used. He saw the void of the Astral Plane where the githyanki made their home on the titanic corpse of a dead god. Blendegad examined the various alchemic items the invaders brought with them. He determined that they could be used to collect some form of energy from the githyanki’s captives. Galandir, Tereman, and Blendegad’s investigative and adventuring work together would earn them the name “The Gish Trio.”

Gish is a word in D&D that refers to a character who is good at using magic and fighting in melee combat. The term originally described the githyanki style of fighting! Over the years gish came to refer to all D&D characters that know how to swing a sword and cast a spell.

While the Gish Trio did their work, the githyanki spied on the Material Plane and their eyes fell on the dragon cults of Cimmeria. After the Dragon War groups of the draconic side’s followers began to worship the primordial beings as gods. These dragon cults ultimately sought the return of their gods by destroying the Draconic Orbs. Applying the old saying of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” the githyanki began building an alliance with the dragon cults. Trading arcane knowledge and information about their two locations made both sides stronger.

While the githyanki strengthened their position they also attacked Shalerton again with even greater force. They opened a large rift between the Astral and Material Planes allowing one of their flying astral ships to pass through. The ship ravaged the pastoral countryside of Shalerton, killing hundreds of people and the livestock the town depended on.

The Gish Trio responded with lightning speed using the githyanki’s own tools and knowledge against them. Blendegad used the githyanki’s alchemy to draw power from the dead people and animals of Shalerton. He used this power to track the astral ship. The trio used their magic to increase their speed and fly into the sky alongside the ship. During their assault they wielded versions of the githyanki’s silver swords that Galandir had enhanced.

The Gish Trio had the upper hand until more and more githyanki appeared out of nowhere. These new githyanki had long silver tails coming out their heads. Weathering this new challenge Tereman used his silver sword to cut the silver tails. This proved surprisingly effective. When the head-tails were severed the githyanki immediately disappeared. With this knowledge the Gish Trio defeated the githyanki reinforcements. Realizing that all hope was lost, the githyanki scuttled the astral ship, crashing it into the ground outside of Shalerton. The Gish Trio saved the town and gained the attention of the githyanki once again.

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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)