The far realm, need a bit of info

[zypherillius]

maybe i asked this before, but i dont remember.

besides the dragon issue with the far realm stuff in it which i cant seem to find without back ordering, and the stuff in MoTP and ELH, is there anywhere else i can find info to better explain traveling through the far realm and maybe a bit more info on xaxox or other things contained within the realm not reachable but only by dream travel.

 

[Sejs]

Paging Frank the DM. Frank the DM, please pick up the white courtesy phone...

 

[zypherillius]

maybe hes out...

Paging Frank the DM. Frank the DM, please pick up the white courtesy phone...

frank is the guy to talk to about this? im guessing hes quite versed in far realm knowledge since youre giving him a courtesy page...

 

[Land Outcast]

"In Limbo you roll a die (d6) twenty-thousand times and by chance it turns up as a 1s every time ... because it's possible. In the Far Realm you roll the same dice and get the standard even spread between all numbers. Except for the one time, where the die turns up showing a seven."

Or so someone said; I don't remember who it was, though ...

 

[Shemeska]

Several good sources of stuff...

1) 'Gates of Firestorm Peak' - the original source of what has become known as the Far Realm. I don't have the module handy, but it had the PCs trying to seal up a reopened gate of sorts that was a relic left behind by a race of ancient elves who had accidentally opened it up into a cthulhu'esque nightmare realm.

2) 'Monstrous Compendium Annual #4' - this had a number of the monsters from Gates of Firestorm Peak in it with some really good flavor text and some seriously creepy artwork for the Brood Gibberling (amongst others).

3) 'Guide to the Ethereal' - another Cordell book, this one had numerous Far Realms references within the darkest depths of the Ethereal, suggesting that the Far Realm was an alternate multiverse, another branch of reality bubbling up from the raw probability of the trackless ethereal seas, as different from the Great Wheel as the Great Wheel was to it. This book had the first mention of the Dharculi (3.5 Planar Handbook), and the writeup of Licister's Gap is one of the coolest things that Bruce Cordell has ever written.

If I recall correctly it correctly, Xaxox seems to draw heavily upon Licister's Gap for inspiration.

4) 'Lords of Madness' has some stuff on the Far Realms, suggesting that a chance bleedover between the two opposing realities led to an entity known as Piscithes (sp?) the Blood Queen creating the first Aboleths in the primordial prime material plane of the Great Wheel cosmology. Mak Thum Ngatha of the Psurlons may be linked to that place as well.

5) Fiendish Codex I had a brief reference to an ancient and imprisoned Obyrith lord having struck a deal with a Far Realms entity known as Bolothamog (sp?), and a group of gibbering mouthers in Sigil all simultaneously screaming the same message over and over and over again perpetually, calling for the ancient fiend to fulfill his side of that unknown and ancient deal. Bolothomog is detailed in Lords of Madness as a far realms entity who seeks to prevent contact between his reality and the reality of the Great Wheel, seeing the Great Wheel as much of a threat to him and his kind as we might view him and his kind.

But, that said, I've been working pretty heavily with my own spin on some Far Realms things in my current campaign. Lots of Psurlons, lots of Mind Flayers, lots of insane former factols of the Bleak Cabal, etc etc.

 

[Land Outcast]

But, that said, I've been working pretty heavily with my own spin on some Far Realms things in my current campaign. Lots of Psurlons, lots of Mind Flayers, lots of insane former factols of the Bleak Cabal, etc etc.

-sorry for the derail-

Is that reflected in your Story Hour?
I've been reading the Baernaloth series -along with some of the other fiction of yours in Planewalker- and after I print out the last of them I'll have to start (resume acutally) reading your story hour/s...

Call me addicted

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

Well, the far realm is all the waaaaay over there...

That's why we call it the far realm.

 

[Shemeska]

-sorry for the derail-

Is that reflected in your Story Hour?
I've been reading the Baernaloth series -along with some of the other fiction of yours in Planewalker- and after I print out the last of them I'll have to start (resume acutally) reading your story hour/s...

Call me addicted

Not yet, and not likely for some time still. The players are just coming to that conclusion now in game, and SH2 is over a year behind the campaign. That portion of the metaplot won't come around till the 3rd plot arc of the campaign/SH. There might be some suggestion of it as well in SH1 at some point when the former Bleak Cabal factols make a cameo appearance (when the PCs finally speak with Xideous in the gatehouse), but it's not something that will be explored really within that 1st SH.

However I did write a story 'For there is a hole in the sky' over on Planewalker that touches upon the Far Realm, or at least some of my conception of it within my campaigns. That story is nominally within the continuity of my storyhours, but I will warn that it was written several years ago, and I like to think I've improved since then. So if you look at it, judge accordingly.

 

[Land Outcast]

Total Thread Hijack

Oh man... Oh man...

A hole in the sky
That had a lovecraftian feel behind it (I mean, altough it is not written lovecraftian-ly, it does have an atmosphere, specially at its core)... (And I've been re-reading Lovecraft [and Poe] like mad for an Extended Essay I chose to make on "Horror in Literature")

I loved it.

BTW: what is this "Squaring the Circle" quoted multiple times in "Daru: The Lie Weaver"?
note: I love the "Puppets without strings danced with the most grace", and I mean I don't only love the expression, but the actual "dance"

BTW2: By chance do you have short fiction anywhere else? it makes great reading (so does the story hour, but when RL attacks and I'm reading something lengthly the lengthly piece suffers from lack of attention, while short pieces don't)

 

[Shemeska]

Hijack! We're flying this thread to Cuba!

Oh man... Oh man...

A hole in the sky
That had a lovecraftian feel behind it (I mean, altough it is not written lovecraftian-ly, it does have an atmosphere, specially at its core)... (And I've been re-reading Lovecraft [and Poe] like mad for an Extended Essay I chose to make on "Horror in Literature")

I loved it.

I'm glad you enjoyed! I really should revise and rewrite the story at some point, because it was one of the first things that I wrote, and it needs some tinkering in some spots [and I did a half @ssed revision job at the time]. But I had far too much fun with the atmosphere [and the places and events tangentially connect with the next plot arc in SH1]

BTW: what is this "Squaring the Circle" quoted multiple times in "Daru: The Lie Weaver"?
note: I love the "Puppets without strings danced with the most grace", and I mean I don't only love the expression, but the actual "dance"

"Squaring the Circle" was a module from the 2e Hellbound: The Blood War box set. My story on the Lie Weaver is a fictional retelling/elaboration of some of the events of that module, providing backplot and stuff behind the scenes, and portraying Daru Ib Shamiq in a radically different light.

The module was also one of the first things I played in DnD. Back around 2000 or so my DM at the time ran us through it, and it along with another DM, got me hooked on the planar stuff.

BTW2: By chance do you have short fiction anywhere else? it makes great reading (so does the story hour, but when RL attacks and I'm reading something lengthly the lengthly piece suffers from lack of attention, while short pieces don't)

Much of the short fiction I've done is up on Planewalker.com, though there are some scattered things elsewhere, and a few stories -completed or not- sitting on my desktop. I also had a story in one of the issues of Knowledge Arcana (#5?) over on Wizards [that serves as a companion piece to another story I'd written about Larsdana Ap Neut].

Between two storyhours and some side projects, my short story output has suffered because sleep is unfortunately required.

*cough* And anyways, now that I've hijacked this all, I'll surrender to the Italian authorities.