Tag: srlm
Skelosian Ink in the Steel Realms
Posted on August 10, 2026 in Steel-Realms
Skelosian Ink is a mystery in the Steel Realms. The legend of Skelos – The Eternal Scholar is mention anecdotally in a multitude of volumes, but there is no definitive work known. No one knows where the scrolls or tomes written in the ink come from, but they continue to be found, read, and saved for others to try and unravel their mystery and make them permanent. It is said that there are secret scholars of Delleth that inscribe information in this way. Sometimes, this ink is confused with Baighent’s Ink by the uninitiated.
The Scrolls of Skelos:
Legend: It is said that there are the blind scholars that work under the tutelage of Witch-Seers of Volgadas to create works using Skelosian Ink. They work upon the dreams of those in orbit of the seers, and extract knowledge and inscribe it on scrolls mostly – the Scrolls of Skelos.
Legend: The Scrolls of Skelos in the realms, written with Skelosian Ink, serve their purpose (whatever that may be), but also act as decoys for agents of the Olde Ones – ancient powers seeking to plunge Helca into chaos and madness.
By virtue of recorded findings, it seems like the amount of Skelosian Ink writings has been reduced since Proclamation Against Sorcery in the Steel Realms, possibly showing a link between the practice of one and the other.
Skelosian Ink-Makers: It is also said that schools of Necromancy in the Noble East have a means of creating and writing using Skelosian Ink, using dark rituals. This is true of House Narcosa in the Grand Duchy of Rhyl. Though only a select few of the masters can do this and know its secrets and it is not known for sure, outside the order itself.
Diabolic Works: The works of Rastillions Diabolique try dark and thematic elements bordering on madness and the grotesque; All provide occult or divine insights to those who are willing to push the limits of the unknown and their understanding of what is reality. Many of the works, at least the partial ones, are inscribed with Skelosian Ink or something akin to it.
Obsessive Records Keepers (Umbak)
Posted on August 9, 2026 in Steel-Realms
Obsessive Records Keepers is part of Umbakian Culture. The Umbakian genealogies are detailed down to minute detail, including 2nd and 3rd cousins, details of common dress and personalized heraldry. All of Urban Planning and Architecture in Umbak done by the Umbak are Obsessively Documented from searching, surveying, and all stages of construction and maintenance.
Record keeping and storing protocols generally follow The Winding Wind methods.
Withered God’s Withered Child
Posted on August 8, 2026
When the Book of the Withered God is consumed to be born again, it spawns a horrific malevolent creature in the ground that waits to feed on the next creature that disturbs it – the Withered God’s Withered Child. When the Withered God’s Withered Child dies, the Crawling Claw of the Withered God is the last vestige that will attempt to spread its Blight.
iCore™ENC > Matched Fountain Flavor @ Ablocris Monastery ruins
Posted on August 8, 2026
ENC > Matched Fountain Flavor @ Ablocris Monastery ruins – This contains details that might be known by locales and/or records kept locally & abroad. Further details are hazy, unrecorded, or perhaps known only by the verbal tradition of locales or World Watchers.
Adventure Sourced: Materials that are universal, just descriptive, and independent of a specific adventure session are moved from their adventure pages into the place, person, or item page after they are revealed to players.
Encountering a Flavor Keyed Room
These are adventure materials and are mostly intended for the Game Master in running the adventure. Players should NOT read these materials. These expanded details are provided here to get a flavor of what is happening currently in the area, additional adventure materials will expound on this.
FOUNTAIN FLAVOR Encounter Details
DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS POINT unless a character has the capability to gain such knowledge [through association, organization, or relation] if they do not possess it themselves or the reader intends to participate in scenarios using this material as a PLAYER! GM Narration will typically provide relevant information by check or story.
Matched Fountain Flavor
What Happens in a Location with a Matched Fountain Flavor?
As you move into the area, you taste an overwhelming experience on your palette reminiscent of the intense taste from drinking the monastery’s fountain water. The world flashes around you, the taste experience you had fills your nose and a paisley ribbon with a texture that somehow matches it fills your vision. A wind blows, whispering an audial representation of the taste experience. The ribbon falls away and you are in a white room alone. The room is surrounded by a 5m tall wall. A crowd of faerie folk silently stare at you from filled benches that go up 50m high. You feel every one of their stares, crushing and suffocating you. They all speak at once:
SAN check as you get near, feel drawn.
+1 Faeymark
The light must give way to darkness! This is the way of things and you broke it. The taint of the angel of light is upon you and in your blood. In this reflection, you must contend!
The character must fight a creature, mimicking the struggle wherein they represent the forces of Umbak and their opponent the f Faerie Smallfolk of the Steel Realms.
Throughout the combat, there will be key phrases the PCs hear from their opponent – which they somehow understand.
Voices in the Fights
You must leave, abandon the monastery lands, the monastery lands will be reclaimed, the Umbakians broke the truce, Umbakians are not welcome, the Umbakian purity is a lie, The sin of the priestess must be punished
See the Game Master’s reference of Creating and Running Encounters for more advice & information.
Ten Stone’s Account – War of Rundlemans Revenge
Posted on August 8, 2026
The Ten Stone’s Account – War of Rundlemans Revenge is part of the historical record of the War of Rundleman’s Revenge. Ten Stone Mercenaries participated in the War of Rundleman’s Revenge in CY 9041; The entire company were all killed or disbanded at the end.
Rare Account of Surviving Mercs
The Following information is Rare Knowledge / Very Hard Difficulty.
Author/Attribution: Taer Coldfare, medic of the Ten Stone Mercenary band of the Northern Guild
I relate these details as I remember them and other witnesses who saw it as well…
We found among the wreckage of the Monastery of Ablocris a tome that the priestess’s ruined body was pulled off of. It was soaked in her blood. The mercenaries watched in horror as the blood soaked into the book before their eyes. One had enough courage to take the book and open it. Others overheard them argue – one was sure it was a map to treasure, another claimed it showed a place where the vestial virgins were secured, and the third exclaimed that it was clearly a map to the shrine of some god nearby where offerings were taken. They fought among themselves in the mud and rain until all three had taken a deadly wound. The book was buried in the mud and never seen again. Jacob Razorfish, our priest of Mizras, told us that the ‘withered god’ took his sacrifice and that we should be happy we were not part of it and that it left us alone. Sadly, I could learn no more as he perished the following day in assaulting another of these ridiculously small towns with no value – though it was said it held a shrine with riches. This turned out to be false (or it was spirited away) and cost a few of our troop leading the band their lives – his being one of them.