Murkvey Rock (Cairn OSR PbP)

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Murkvey's Rock

Roaring across the night, falling sky palaces crater the broken land in the shadow of the Maiden's Teeth mountains. Cracked and shattered on these painted badlands, fragments from beyond the fixed stars leach magical esters through the tormented earth, corrupting life and spreading crystalline contagion. Yet the ruined edifices of vibrant crystal hold wealth and power to lure foolish and desperate fortune seekers to test fate on the Painted Frontier.

Game Rules

The game will be played using Cairn.

Cairn is an OSR adjacent roleplaying game described thusly:

Cairn is an adventure game about exploring a dark & mysterious Wood filled with strange folk, hidden treasure, and unspeakable monstrosities. Character generation is quick and random, classless, and relies on fictional advancement rather than through XP or level mechanics. It is based on Knave by Ben Milton and Into The Odd by Chris McDowall. The game was written by Yochai Gal.

Implied Setting

During this adventure, the game won't leave the Painted Frontier, Scarlet Town, and Murkvey's Rock.

Overall, this regional locale exists nominally within the setting described in The Nightmares Underneath.

The lands of Alabaster & Frankincense are introduced thusly:

The Kingdoms of Dreams are many and varied, but all have one thing in common: the triumph of Law over Chaos. In every kingdom, the Law reigns supreme. Civilization has pushed out the uncertainties of lawlessness and the violence of disorder. Are these kingdoms really dreams? Are they mere fancies, fairy kingdoms of shadow and gossamer? Each one might seem strange to outsiders, but their people are content to live under the protection of the Law.
The Law grants two main advantages to the kingdoms who follow it that make them so blessed (although of course these two go hand-in-hand): the celebration of reason and the condemnation of idolatry. Just as it is every individual’s duty and honour to lend aid to that which is good and cast out that which is evil, so too must a society let flourish what makes it stronger, and root out the corruption that would debase it.
Rejoice, comrades! For the Age of Chaos is ended! We walk in the light of Creation, which now may fall across the entire face of this Earth. Truly, this is the greatest of times in which to live.

The Painted Frontier, The Vale of Serpents

To the east of Geth there lies a wide badlands valley in the midst of a barren desert. It is shunned by all reasonable people, as there are only two reasons to go there: to loot the ancient, demon-haunted crystal tombs of the Empyrean sorcerer-kings who ruled these lands in the Age of Chaos, or to die trying. This is the Vale of Serpents, the Painted Frontier, a land once known for its rich, black soil and its decadent, crystalline cities. But where the river used to run in days gone by, only sand and rock and crystal dust remains.
But there are riches, still. They pull at the greed inside the souls of men. They serve as anchors for the nightmare realm’s incursions. And then those nightmares grow unchecked in this graveyard of empires, feeding on the fates of tomb robbers too foolish not to fight amongst themselves and so let death divide the spoils. Never turn your back on this land, or the thieves you go there with, before you know you are safe.

Scarlet Town

Murkvey's Rock

Adipose Mab

Player Characters