One-Shot: Maze of the Cobstalker

Hi folks! In lieu of our (semi)regularly-scheduled content, I bring exciting news!

A fully fleshed out, Sonnerand-flavored, and free one-shot is available for your immediate viewing on my World Anvil page!

Discover a twisted take on a childhood splendor as your party of intrepid heroes and investigators are shunted into a corrupted corn maze demiplane. It will be a race against time as players attempt to escape the maze before Dismal May, the green hag creator of the maze, arrives to steal pieces of the character’s souls! But that’s not all; evil creatures lurk within the maze, ready to pounce on those who are ill prepared.

In this one-shot you’ll find three detailed encounter maps, a unique curse, a new magic item, and a statblock for a legendary plantified version of an old classic: the manticore! This plant manticore is the dreadful Cobstalker, a chimera made by Dismal May to guard her maze. Players will need to be careful and methodical, dodging the Cobstalker while piecing together a way to escape the demiplane!

You can find it on the Sonnerand World Anvil page. This is a submission to the April One-Shot Adventure Challenge, if you have a World Anvil account I would deeply appreciate any likes or comments!

I’ll be back with new plants tomorrow!

Plant Dossier: Oman Apple Tree

“My companions and I quickly learned the downsides of Oman Apples after scoring a pretty sizeable stash back in the day… Man those were some bad nights of sleep.” — Voltar

Type: Fruiting Tree

Where to Find: Any temperate environment, thrives in subtropical forests. Comfortable range: -20° - 134° F

Distinguishing Features: Large vibrant fruit with a mottled orange appearance near the top.

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Fruit of the God Speakers

With just one bite from a delightfully sweet and crisp Oman Apple, the consumer is sent off into a fanciful world of hallucinatory visions and sensations. These effects cause the user to enter an hours-long debilitated state where they are unable to perceive reality. The consumer will be blind and deafened to almost all outside stimuli while in their mind they undergo a series of vivid and personalized dreams.

Oman Apples have been occasionally used in shamanistic or medicinal rituals and rites, but this practice has largely fallen out of style. Most Oman Apples grown today are grown for recreational use and the fruit’s past has been nearly forgotten.

In truth, the sporadic use of Oman Apples is linked to a potentially deadly side effect of the fruit. When someone consumes the apple, their soul and spirit become open to extraplanar influences. To creatures of the Outer Planes, someone who eats an Oman Apple shines like a brilliant beacon. This leaves them malleable to the machinations of Outer Planar denizens. For some, this has invited the guidance and service of angels. For others, it has drawn the attention of demons and extraplanar monstrosities.

Repeated use of Oman Apples leads to a continual degradation of someone’s ability to resist extraplanar influence. Chronic Oman Apple eaters may experience dreams filled with devils, days-long strings of bad luck, and strange sudden afflictions. For most adventurers, this incites further harassment as they try to battle an untouchable enemy, delving deeper and deeper into despair the more they are plagued by evil entities.

It has been discovered that an even more potent affect can be gained from Oman Apples by brewing them into a juice. This juice has the potential to launch any who drink it into a hallucinatory trip lasting multiple days. During that time, they may be killed by soul-hungry extraplanars or guided into strengthening their ability to resist extraplanar influence. The former or the latter is largely influenced based on who is with the recipient of the juice, as strangely enough groups are able to have shared dreams while under the juice’s influence.

In recent years, the chronic use of Oman Apples has led some clerics and angel-linked individuals to open clinics and retreats where they guide those who have overindulged into protecting themselves. This task is a monumental one, and many adventurers have spent weeks within an Oman Apple hallucination battling their demons to rid themselves of evil influences.

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Gameplay Effects

Oman Apples may be plucked from a tree and consumed without any check. Alternatively, 5 lbs of Oman Apples may be collected and turned into Oman Apple Juice after 2 days of work.

Oman Apple. Upon consuming this fruit, a creature must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save the creature is stunned for 2d6 hours and becomes partially known to any creature within the Outer Planes. On a successful save the creature may freely move, but is blinded for 2d6 hours. In both cases the creature experiences vivid and highly personal visions for the duration.

Oman Apple Juice. Upon drinking this concoction a creature is immediately stunned. That creature, along with any other creature that has drank the Oman Apple Juice within 30 ft. of it are transported to a random plane through an effect resembling an Astral Projection spell. Alternatively, a cleric or warlock with an extraplanar patron can roll a DC 14 Religion check. On a success they are instead transported to the home plane of whatever deity or patron that creature is associated with.

Monster: Flower Blights

The following comes directly from the offices of Pallimill Arcane & The United Dellwind Unit of Parks and Recreation

Urgent! New Mutations of Blights Discovered!

They may be in your Garden

Over the past several months numerous reports have been flooding in regarding a potentially deadly new threat to our fields and forests: blights. Blights are corrupted plant abominations that have gained a degree of sentience. We may now confidently report that these accounts are accurate.

Until recently, blights had been rumored to reside deep within dark dreary forests. But now, we have discovered that they may be closer than we realized, uncomfortably so. In the fields and grasslands vast swaths of flowers have begun to bloom. There is no explanation for the sudden influx, yet miles of sunflower fields and rose glades dot the landscape around Dellwind.

The fields are beautiful, and naturally drew the curiosity of scholars and civilians. That was until people began to not return from the fields, and the reports of movement increased. Through the work of brave individuals, we now have accounts of two new varieties of blights:

Sunflower Blight

These blights are unnervingly tall and slender. They range from 6 ft. to well over 15 ft. tall. Voids between the seeds on the sunflower blight’s head vague face-like patterns. Using their stalky bodies, they are capable of lashing forward and entangling people.

Be advised, this is not the most dangerous part of the sunflower blight. Instead one must do everything they can to avoid being struck by its leaves. The leaves are covered in needles that the sunflower blight uses to drink the very vitality of its prey. Anyone struck multiple times is at serious risk of long-term injury or death.

Thankfully, sunflower blights are slow moving and the average person should be able to outrun one. They are also extremely vulnerable to changes in temperature.

Rose Blight

The weaknesses of the sunflower blight cannot be found in the other mutation discovered, the rose blight. Rose blights are shockingly fast and deadly. Their tall athletic builds are composed of tightly-bound thorn branches adorned in sweet-smelling decayed roses.

Rose blights have full control over their bodies and they use this to their advantage, sneaking up on unsuspecting targets like assassins and using their own bodies as garrotes. Their thorns inject muscle relaxant toxins into their targets, slowly inducing numbing and paralysis. All the while, the rose blight's sweet aroma boggles and intoxicates the mind. 

Rose blights quickly subdue targets, but they rarely kill. Instead, they drag helpless poisoned prey to their fellow blights. There, they are feasted upon and added to the swelling blight swarm.

It is advised to avoid rose blights at all costs, or to carry some means of fire creation on your person at all times while in the countryside. 

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Reclaimed Arcana: Desquamation

Desquamation
2nd level transmutation

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 ft.
Components: V, S, M (a small pairing knife & rust shavings)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Crackling red energy surrounds a target you can see within range. A creature targeted by this spell must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save their AC is reduced by 5 as their armor becomes semi-corporeal and their skin turns papery and weak. On a successful save the energy remains but the target is unharmed.

At the start of your turn if you are concentrating on this spell you can force the target to make another Constitution saving throw. On a failed save the target’s AC is reduced by 1 additional point, or by 5 if the target saved on the initial saving throw. On a successful save the effects of this spell immediately end and the target’s AC returns to normal

Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3th level or higher, increase the AC initially reduced by this spell by 2 for each level above 2nd.

Spell Lists. Cleric, Warlock, Wizard

DM Thoughts: Encounter Tables

I’m a total random encounter table freak.

And I say that in such large lettering because I feel so strongly about it! Yesterday, I posted a plant dossier about the White Jaunt Pine. Unlike other plant dossiers, the White Jaunt Pine is less focused on the plant and more on the greater impacts to the world that the plant signifies. Because of this, the gameplay effect I gave the White Jaunt was an encounter table.

D&D is a game that’s completely enamored with its tables. There’s a table for gaining spells in a subclass, there’s a table for deciding your character’s personality, there’s a table for choosing which magic items to stock a shop with, you get the point. This is all to say that, while D&D’s core gameplay revolves around dice-roll-decided improv prompts, an equally important aspect to this gameplay involves knowing what the dice roll means. Most of the time, this just means knowing what the happens when someone passes or fails a DC. But I think a roll of the dice can mean so much more; one dice roll can change the entire course of a campaign.

Okay, maybe that’s putting too much grandiosity on a roll— and I’m sure there are plenty of valid and reasonable arguments as to why this shouldn’t be done. But ‘eh, I suppose that’s why I’m more of a CN person. Let me explain:

Making Meaningful Encounter Tables

Encounter tables, as they appear in most D&D publications, do not look like powerful storytelling tools at first glance. Indeed, if a GM takes most encounter tables at face value, they certainly are not. The poorest (and best) part of encounter tables is just how vague many of them are, appearing as little more than fodder to fling at a traveling party or some spontaneous environmental event. This vagueness can stand to reduce random encounters to little more than two parties meeting on a flat field and doing battle— great for padding an hour of game time if needed but not offering much in substance. I’ve been guilty of this more than once.

This undoubtedly plays into the reason many folks find travel absolutely abhorrent or unnecessary in their games, and I don’t blame those people. Sure, everyone likes absolutely dunking on a pitiful group of enemies using their entire toolkit for the one combat encounter of the day; but what does it add to the greater narrative or world?

Circling back to vagueness, this can quickly become a strength of random encounter tables with a bit of effort on the DM’s part. I believe it is vital to consider how encounters interact with the setting and characters. When I began running my Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign years ago, I did just that.

It was the eve of the party’s first long oceanic voyage. To prepare, I obsessively read over the Ocean Encounter Table presented within the book… and realized how boring it would be to have an entire game of random one-off encounters. To combat that, I began writing out the encounters in my notes asking myself these questions: What can a character gain in an encounter? What can a character demonstrate in an encounter? How can I reveal more of the setting in an encounter? And most important, how do I further the narrative by using a seemingly random encounter?

In asking myself these questions, I was able to take an encounter like “1 plesiosaurus” and turn it into “Nelson, the awakened plesiosaurus.” In doing so, the plesiosaurus gains some depth, the druid of the party can utilize their skill with animals, I introduced that there is someone awakening powerful sea creatures, and the party could ally or fight Nelson, potentially gaining a strong aquatic friend.

Rollable Brainstorms

I strongly encourage all DMs to rewrite encounter tables and personalize them. One of the largest benefits is that, in doing so, you’re generating a wealth of fresh ideas and honing your idea generation ability. Random encounters also show how certain characters will react to new situations and circumstances. If a dragon is spotted flying overhead, will someone hide, shoot an arrow, or taunt. This can reveal much about a character’s mannerisms.

For me, random encounter tables are a way for me to write down all the cool ideas I had without getting attached to a full plotline. For instance, in another one of my campaigns there are multiple areas of conflict that can be explored. There is a warring army approaching the borders of their nation, evil fey in the waterways, enterprising gangs, and extraplanar influence corrupting various flora and fauna.

The unifying elements of all these conflicts is that they are not caused or associated to the characters at first glance and they couldn’t be hurled at the party all at once (or at all). Yet, the magic and beauty of the random encounter table is just that, its randomness.

A roll on a random encounter table adds to the feeling of character’s “stumbling into something.” It adds spontaneity and agency because remember, we’re designing our random encounters to demonstrate the strengths of our players and to reveal more about the setting.

The evil fey in the waterways probably would go unnoticed by most. Yet, if the ranger connected to water and the balance of nature spots them swimming through a canal, and they in turn try to charm him into walking into the water so they can eat, suddenly a new plotline reveals itself. The party can kill the fey, try to get on their good side, learn the location of other evil fey, or ignore it completely. The great part is that whether they do or don’t doesn’t harm the beat of the wider narrative (or at least it shouldn’t)— it only stands to supplement it and enhance the character’s connection to the world, each other, and themselves.

This is hard to get right at first. When I began to employ these tactics in my encounter tables, I made the mistake of rolling too often. There is a delicate balance that must be struck. If you’re going to use your encounters to present new plot threads or clues towards greater conflicts, you cannot throw too many at them at once. There also needs to be boring days of little action, but this should be enhanced by vivid imagery-heavy depictions of the setting and in-party roleplay (if they’re into that thing).

One way to make story-impactful random encounters work is to loosely associate them with each other and the established plot. For example, perhaps a topaz dragon is eagerly hunting for the aforementioned evil fey in the waterways, the aforementioned gangs supply the evil fey with a fresh supply of food that just so happens to be corrupted from extraplanar influences, which are just so happened brought on by the army. You don’t have to reveal all these threads connecting, but it will help you as a storyteller to have a robust background to the conflicts of your world and how they impact each other.

The best case scenario of writing encounter tables like this is that the party grows intrigued by the “iceberg” you present. Once they learn things are linked, they will want to go out and explore more to uncover more clues. If done properly, this basically converts the encounters into the main narrative.

The worst case scenario of writing encounter tables like this is that the party will feel overwhelmed by the plot threads and feel confused as to which direction to move in. For this reason, if you are beginning to craft narrative encounter tables, be sure you don’t roll too many times on the table— even if each encounter is one of the best ideas you’ve ever had. Allow your ideas to go unused if necessary, be grateful for the chance to further hone your creative skills, and create a new encounter table later on.

In doing so, you will be able to create small moments that are just as rich as the “main questline” moments of your campaign and enhance your player’s connection to your world!

Plant Dossier: White Jaunt Pine

“Be weary of the glittering bark, do not be tempted by the beauty of its fronds. This tree may seem like a rare jewel, but it is much more. It marks this entire forest as a battleground between shadow and faerie…” — Errix Volgenshire

Type: Pine tree

Where to Find: Spontaneously created, no native region or biome. Comfortable range: N/A

Distinguishing Features: White, purple, and chartreuse needles. Slate-gray pinecones that sparkle inside like geodes.

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Collision Point

The Feywild and Shadowfell sit just above and just below the Material Plane, respectively. Both of these planes, entire other dimensions, are vague mirrors of the the Material Plane, the place where most commoners live. To the average commoner, these planes would hold little to no significance. Knowledge of the other planes is not particularly cared about, owing to the fact that an extremely small percentage of people ever travel out of their home plane. However, just because these different realities go unnoticed by the average person, it does not make the events happening within such planes any less contentious than what occurs in the Material Plane.

All these places are living and breathing worlds that invisibly co-exist. Yet, in this silent conglomeration, there are moments when planes overlap and cross. These are rare, but allow for travel between the planes; examples are phenomena like fairy circles and shadow crossings. But an even rarer event can occur: the overlapping of all three planes.

In areas where the Feywild, Material Plane, and Shadowfell cross, however brief or long that may be, countless strange effects begin to manifest. The fabric of magic itself if usually twisted and augmented in these areas. Denizens of all three planes may cross and meet one another. Unfortunately, meetings between citizens of the Feywild and Shadowfell are typically marred in violent bloodshed. Legends say the battles between faerie and shade sound like demented music in the night, and are indicative of the vengeful hatred between the two planes.

In areas where this overlap happens, White Jaunt Pines grow spontaneously from the spilled blood of fey. Growing 60 ft. tall in a single night, these trees are shockingly beautiful. Their multicolored opalescent needles glow with a dim UV light. Their dark pinecones aren’t seeds, but organic geodes that often contain impressive crystal formations.

These trees grow after battles between the two planar denizens. Knowing adventurers can use the tell-tale sign of a White Jaunt Pine to verify a planar overlap in the area.

Gameplay Effects

White Jaunt Pines only grow when the blood of fey in a planar crossing mixes in the ground. For this reason, they cannot be extracted or harvested. But a tree normally has 2d12 pinecones worth 20 GP which can be easily taken with no roll required.

Outside of their monetary value. These trees make a perfect place to stage a fey-focused encounter, introduce a portal into the Feywild or Shadowfell, or find pieces of discarded weapons and armor. Roll or pick an option on the White Jaunt Encounter Table if you would like to stage an encounter near one:

Monster: Mallion

Insanity on Hooves

“You know what they call the noise that thing makes right? It ain’t a whiney, nor a neigh. It ain’t even a bleat, nah… folks round here call it a scream." — Arjen Branchbender; outlander.

Charging in between the border of the Material and Ethereal Planes, leaving a warped wake of bent-space behind, mallions surge forth on an endless rabid hunt for prey. Whereas unicorns are embodiments of good and protectors of nature and nightmares are hellish mounts for devilish overlords, mallions are untethered, hungry, and insane.

A mallion looks like a large horned horse; it has extremely tight blood-red skin that's slow to heal, causing many to be covered in oozing scars. Their faces are gaunt and starved, their angry sunken eyes are disturbingly human-like, and their most distinct feature is set of bone-colored ram horns that twist in strange patterns and helixes.

Mallions are also fiercely intelligent and adept in psionics. They use their abilities to drive their prey insane, flashing horrifying images into their minds while they psychokinetically hurl them about and gore them.

Demented Hunters

Despite their impressive intelligence and cunning, mallions are driven by pure primal urges. They are capable of understanding language and even rudimentary psychic communication. However, most mallions would never use this ability for anything other than terrorizing the mind of their prey.

These beasts are not believed to be native to the Material Plane. Instead, they are said to be a bioweapon from the Far Realm that has escaped. Others say they are a Great Old One’s thoughts given form and allowed to walk the world. No one has ever seen a mallion at rest. No one has ever seen two together that weren’t killing each other.

At night it bellows a ear-piercing shriek that rivals that of a banshee. If you can hear a mallion, it likely already knows where you are. Thankfully, they tend to stay away from population centers and households, but are a constant threat in the wilderness. Beware hills that bleed.

Reclaimed Arcana: Arakrana’s Voltaic Plunge

Arakrana’s Voltaic Plunge
5th level evocation

Casting Time: 1 reaction, which you take when you fall
Range: Self
Components: V, S, M (a copper pipe worth 100g and two pieces of steel wool)
Duration: Instantaneous

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Your body is enveloped in electricity that grows more powerful as you fall. Each creature in a 10 ft. sphere around your point of impact must make a Dexterity saving throw. A target takes 1d6 lightning damage for every 10 ft. you fell on a failed save, to a maximum of 20d6 points of lightning damage. A target takes half as much damage on a success.

This spell grants you resistance to all types of damage while you are falling. This effect ends after you have hit the ground and taken fall damage.

Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 6th level or higher, increase the damage by 2d6 for every level above 5th.

Spell Lists. Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard

Plant Dossier: Masala Moss

From the menu of Brass Bender Bistro:
"Conflagration Gratin- A savory shallow dish of slow-baked squash and potato cooked in a house-made tomato sauce. Topped with quail egg and breadcrumbs; then spiced up with Masala Moss!”

From the lips of a Brass Bender Bistro customer after the first bite:
(Through tears) ”My brain feels like it’s on fire and I can’t feel my tongue! Ahh! But I just can’t stop eating!”

Type: Flowering bryophyte

Where to Find: Craggy tropical areas, typically around a source of fresh water. Comfortable range: 45° - 134° F

Distinguishing Features: Pinpoint-sized red flowers that coat the moss like fuzz.

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Feel the Burn

Masala moss is the recently-given moniker of a type of plant found in deep tropical grottos and deltas. Originally known as “Devil Fur,” this variety of moss is easily recognizable due to the miniature flowers that bloom across the plant. Unlike almost every other variety of plant, these flowers aren’t sprouted for pollination purposes. Instead, they are the moss’s defense mechanism. The flowers contain a staggering amount of capsaicin, so much that it is excreted in the flower’s pollen.

So powerful is the spice of a masala moss clump that it kills most animals within minutes of consumption. Humanoids only fair slightly better. The plant was believed to be poisonous for years due to the intensity of the spice. Often, the moss was consumed as a dare or an archaic rite of passage. And often, those who ate the flowers burned their taste buds off for months. Even being near the plant during a windy day is enough to cause a burning throat, itchy nose, and watery eyes.

The even more cruel aspect of this plant is the addictive nature of the flowers. Most humanoids who consume the flowers once crave them again, even to the detriment of their health and palette.

The change in name from "Devil Fur” to “Masala Moss” came with the advancement of cooking techniques. It was discovered that, when placed in an airtight container and boiled for a few hours, the spiciness of the flowers became far more tolerable. This allowed the delectable earthy tones of the spice to come out and quickly made the flower a luxury spice. Ever since, it has become a carefully-balanced staple in fancy restaurants or is used as an enticing flavor-enhancer for an exciting (or gimmicky) menu item.

And restaurants love it, for even though the heat of the flowers is quelled in the cooking process, it’s mildly addictive properties remain— making customers crave the dishes its used in.

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Gameplay Effects

Masala moss flowers may be carefully extracted by succeeding a DC 10 Nature check. If you fail this check, you must spend 1d4 rounds coughing and sneezing from an accidental inhalation of the spicy pollen.

Masala Moss (Ingested): A creature subjected to this poison must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw. On a failure the creature suffers 1d4 fire damage and must use their next action to continue eating the masala moss. On a success, the spice is harmless but still present.

Faction Focus: The Linkage

Yesterday I posted a background option for players that took characters into the role of an associate for The Linkage, a globe-spanning network of magic spies and lore seekers. While this faction is placed nice and snug in my own world of Sonnerand, it can be used by anyone! The Linkage has lots of fun little caveats (and issues) that can hopefully provide some inspiration for tons of plot hooks!

If you’re anything like me and go nuts over factions and their objectives, this is for you!

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The Linkage

Share the Lore

Magic remained a terrifying anomaly in the lives of many people over a century after the Dematalyst. By this point, arcane warlords, rudimentary wizards by today's standards, had already proven how effective a killing tool magic could be for their own power-hungry gains. Stories like that of the Arbiters of the Everpool were few and far between, with magic remaining out of the grasp of most people. In the maelstrom of war and famine that dominated those first harsh decades post-Dematalyst, in an unknown part of the world, through the work of one or perhaps many mages, the world's first true arcane-society was founded. The founding members took a staunch stance on magic and its use: magic is for those who can control themselves. They took up chain links, signifying their unbreakable teamwork and alliance in this matter. From them, The Linkage was born. The exact time, location, and persons involved in the founding of The Linkage are unknown. This is intentional, as the founding members wanted absolutely no trace of what they were doing left behind. Instead, the 50 students who they taught in different parts of the world carried on the legacy of "The Founders" but not even they could tell you who they were-- as their minds were wiped of all past memories of the original mages. Their secrets, however, remained in the hands of the 50 new initiate members.

The Grand Network

The greatest secret left to The Linkage was a powerful consistent spell known as Grand Network. Members theorize this spell was created by one of The Founders, yet details on its casting are unknown and all attempts to recreate the spell have failed. The Grand Network as much a location as it is a spell. Like other spells, Grand Network creates a demiplane, a place just outside time and space in a small pocket dimension. Where it differs is in its location and mode of arrival. Each and every Linkage member holds the power to visit the Grand Network's demiplane in their dreams. The Grand Network is an expansive campus of pastoral gardens, institutes of education, laboratories, libraries, and impressive meeting rooms. When a member of The Linkage falls asleep, they may be transported to the Grand Network if they will it so. Doing this leaves their physical body unresponsive for eight hours while their mental and spiritual consciousness elevate into the demiplane. Here, in the Grand Network, all dreaming members of The Linkage converge and meet with one another. Two members may be continents apart, but at the Grand Network, it is like they are face-to-face. This powerful method of communication is kept a closely guarded secret.

Joining The Linkage

Members of The Linkage are split into two groups of differing ranks plus one special rank outside the typical hierarchy. Potential new members are noted as soon as The Linkage deems someone worthy of membership. However, the process of becoming a member may take years. Generally, new initiates are noticed in the classrooms of schools, arcane or otherwise. Many senior Linkage members will spend their days in institutes of higher learning or secondary schools. Even the magic-denying nation of Geneca has Linkage members within the schools. Here, through magical demonstration, studiousness, or an active willingness to learn and better oneself a senior member will select one to three students to ascend into The Linkage. Due to the secrecy of the group, there is often little competition to be chosen and in fact, The Linkage rules out anyone who simply attempts to buy their way in or use any type of power to make themselves worthy. From here, a senior member will take in their select pupils for private tutelage. This tutelage consists of physical and mental training all in preparation for them to be "linked" into Grand Network. This process, while not fatal, is dangerous. Those who cannot establish a connection to the Grand Network risk losing their magical capabilities forever. Upon a prospective member's first visit to the Grand Network, they will be presented with a Bronze Chain (which strangely manifests in the physical world as well) and inducted as an official member of The Linkage.

Ascending the Chain Links

With a Bronze Chain, new members of The Linkage are given little direction as to what they should do. Most often, senior members will simply tell a new member to "find magic" or "seek artifacts." This does not exactly help the new and typically confused members. Yet, a superstition among Linkage members is that magic finds the member more often than not. This holds a bit of truth. Linkage members resonate at a high frequency, and appear like shining beacons in the Ethereal Plane from how highly attuned to magic they are. This tends to attract magical forces. Most Linkage members are Bronze Chains. These members due their duty to the organization by reporting the Grand Network and sharing insights with senior members. In this regard, they are like magic spies. However, through discovering magic items, witnessing and recording new arcane phenomena, documenting new spells, plants, or animals, or by discovering secrets and motives a Linkage member may rise through the ranks, earning increasingly impressive chains as they do. The jump from the highest rank of the initiate group (Silver Chain) and the lowest rank of the senior group (Moonstone Chain) is the biggest in the organization. To become a senior member, not only does an individual need to prove their loyalty to The Linkage without any shred of doubt, but they also need to uncover a world-altering thread of magic or lore. Doing this is perilous, and in the quest for senior rank hundreds of Linkage members have lost their lives. That being said, senior members can enjoy an apparently endless stream of wealth, personal labs to conduct experiments, and consideration for expeditions into other planes of existence.

Gold Chains

Outside the initiate and senior groups, Gold Chains operate largely independently of The Linkage. These are members who have found themselves in favorable positions within a government or nobility system based in whatever location they are stationed in. When a member of The Linkage finds herself in such a position, she is bestowed a Gold Chain. The Gold Chain is worn by all Linkage members serving as advisors or dignitaries within a system of law and government. They are highly respected among all members and are valuable for cultivating The Linkage's greatest asset: secrets. This is because Gold Chains are as much as advisors to governments as they are early warning systems and blackmail machines for The Linkage. Gold Chains are placed in governments to check power and dissuade corruption. Gold Chains also encourage the funding and building of arcane institutions, labs, and other magic-aiding policies and structures. In this way, they directly push the agenda of The Linkage through the rulers of a location.

Dogma

The Linkage sees itself as the official mouthpiece for the guidance and control of magic. Each members sees themselves as an extension of this belief, i.e. the true controllers. For this reason, it is not uncommon for Linkage members to harbor a certain distain for sorcerers, clerics, warlocks, and anyone who attains power through an extraordinary circumstance. They are also deeply untrusting of any powerful mage who is not associated with their ranks. Likewise, any nation not entertaining a Gold Chain member is also seen as untrustworthy. However, The Linkage rarely moves as a unit to combat that which they see as unsavory or suspicious. Instead, through their vast network of communication, the wants, motives, plans, and goals of The Linkage come to fruition not by a single person, but in pieces through the lips of every king, the votes of every democracy, and the briefings delivered to every tyrant. In this way, their narratives naturally rise across the worlds, and their goals are often achieved without anyone knowing who planted idea in the first place.

Structure

Senior Ranks

Ruby Chain -- Highest rank

Diamond Chain

Crystal Chain

Moonstone Chain

Initiate Ranks

Silver Chain

Brass Chain

Copper Chain

Bronze Chain -- Lowest rank

Special Rank

Gold Chain -- Only given to members actively participating in the politics of some government.

Culture

Life and magic are inseparable and beautifully connected together through all things. In magic, that which is void of life can become filled with life. Magic items are living beings just as much as plants and animals, they should be protected. Much like people, bad and evil magic exists across the world. Ending evil and keeping peace is of the utmost importance. Those who cannot communicate with magic risk becoming corrupted by its power. The governments of the world are unwise in the ways of magic, and it is The Linkage's job to steer them in the correct direction towards peace and arcane unity.

Public Agenda

• Foster the next generation of bright young minds in the arts of the arcane.

• Seek out magic items, spells, or lore wherever possible.

• Share information freely and readily among all members.

• Infiltrate magic cults or cabals and put and end to them after learning their secrets.

• Explore the other planes and dimensions that exist to begin understanding their magic.

• Be a cool head present within every court of every government.

Assets

Linkage members can be found on almost all corners of the globe. Many initiate members are poor and earn their income from doing jobs for others. For senior members, however, through the use of proposals and grants, The Linkage seems to supply a near endless amount of gold and equipment for their arcane research. Senior members also enjoy the privilege of chartered ships, trains, or rudimentary buggies to traverse long distances. Typically, a senior member will also have acquired many favors from various governments which may always be used.

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I hope you like these manipulative wizard dreamers! If you wanna see a bit more on The Linkage, or other Sonnerand-related things feel free to keep up with my World Anvil page!