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A friend of mine, Agaming, has been doing some writing lately and was wondering if there was somewhere he could post his stories online to start building a following.

I have of course recommended he share his stories here with us (I personally really enjoy his writing, he's great at eldritch horror style creations!), but I wondered if anyone might have any other suggestions for sharing one's writing with the world?

I'm not sure that I have anything hugely intelligent to say on this, since I'm still rather in shock, but I would like to hear other people's thoughts on the proposed changes to relationships, health and sex education in the UK.

As I understand it, the current proposed changes include banning sex education for any children under 9 years old (this despite the fact that sex education in primary schools is usually taught in Year 6, when children are 10 years old, anyway and parents have the right to have their children removed from any classes if they wish), and a requirement for teachers 'to be clear that "gender ideology" is contested, if asked about it'.

There is something extremely bizarre to me about the notion of banning children from learning about something in a place dedicated to learning. I can't see what is to be gained by prohibiting teachers from discussing important topics with young children, aside from pushing those children with questions about it to gain potentially inaccurate or even harmful information elsewhere...

I'm coming here in the hope that the wonderful community of Exilian can help me prepare an upcoming dungeon crawl in my DnD campaign (first part of which will be running this Sunday, to give an idea of the initial timeframe for me to get my thoughts on this organised). I find myself woefully short of time and, apparently, ideas for this particular session!

To give some brief context, my party are embarking on a noble quest to free a powerful spellcaster who is trapped and whose assistance they need. She is held captive by a powerful spell that requires two halves of a 'key' to unlock. The first half of the key is held in an underground complex designed to prevent the key being obtained. To add some complexity (and interesting monsters!), there is also a rift inside this area that has been allowing creatures etc to slip into the world from the Shadowfell. The area has long since been abandoned by the people who initially trapped the spellcaster, but it is still protected by whatever magical (or other) safeguards they left there.

In short, I need to prepare what I am hoping will be a relatively in-depth dungeon crawl for this underground complex, to challenge my players on their way to retrieve the first half of the key. I am considering pilfering the map of one (or more) levels from Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and populating it with suitable puzzles/monsters/traps to challenge my players, but if anyone has better sources for an interesting multi-level dungeon map (ideally that don't require me doing much artistically beyond dropping some assets on top of it), that would be gratefully received.

So, the request! Does anyone have any good ideas for puzzles, traps, encounters etc that make for an interesting dungeon crawl? Any and all suggestions welcome!

Chain Writing 2023: The Complete Story

By Seven Wonderful Chain Writers (edited by Spritelady)

Our chain writing tale is now complete, and I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who took part (who are more than welcome to lay claim to their writing below, or leave it a mystery!). I really appreciate everyone's time and effort, and especially that everyone managed to return their writing well before the deadlines!

I think we have a really interesting story, and I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts. So without further ado, our fantasy tale...



There was time to spare, for once, but that night's journey was still uneasy.

Following her companion, the stocky little woman crept through unlit passageways with a level of quiet, slow purpose more usually reserved for snails than people. Light was not an option. Talking was not an option. Breathing was just about acceptable, as long as she held the imagined death-stare of a librarian in her mind to ensure, with withering glances, that she kept the noise down.

She adjusted her pince-nez and re-pinned a stray grey braid as she walked: there was no need for haste, and keeping her hands quietly busy helped with the nerves. The route was cool, even airy, but a nervous sweat still moistened her hands.

It took another hour of twists, turns, circles – some passages only opened if one went round a loop twice, or shut certain routes once every 20 minutes – but with her guide ahead of her, these were merely rituals rather than problems. She just had to be quiet enough not to attract undue attention: and as she'd never been good at attracting attention when it was frankly more than due, this was just fine.

At last, she gingerly stretched her legs down a ladder – this place felt built for someone at least half a foot taller, if built was even the correct term. There was light, finally: the woman and her guide saw each other, curiosity and fear mingled between them, for the first time. They had arrived.

"We can speak now. The guardians will not detect us here." Her companion said.
The woman's eyes widened as it threw back its hood. They had not known each other long, but she still found the appearance strange. Her guide was a birdlike creature, covered in crimson feathers. It had a curved, blue beak and tiny black eyes. Eyes that were fixated on what lay before them.

Dim green light was emanating from an immense golden cube in the middle of the cavernous room they found themselves in. Its sides were alive with glittering ornate glyphs which held unknown meaning.  On each side of the cube were set four huge doors, each inlaid with a fist sized, glowing emerald.

Finally, she had found it. It was the device! She shuddered, thinking of the amazing and terrible things that could be done with it. 

"Was it you that sent me the message about this?" The woman asked apprehensively, finally tearing her gaze away from the device.
"Yes, Briyya'' It said. Its beaked mouth was clumsy with her name. "You are the one who can operate it."

It was a statement, not a question. She had spent many years in the unseen corners of bookshops and libraries reading endless texts in the hopes of finding any mention of this mythical item. Her persistence had not been in vain. Nobody knew it better than her.
She gave a reluctant nod.

She pressed her left hand firmly against one of the emeralds. It was cold to the touch, yet glowing with heat. A wave of relaxation and a surge of energy hit her at the same time.

She said the words that she had practised a thousand times, her hand on a pomelo pressed against the kitchen wall. Hesitant at first, then louder, then chanting.

With her other hand on the door, she pushed. It gave way, not hinging but straight inward, as if carving a tunnel through solid gold. With her first step into the cube the pain started. Not nearly as bad as the scriptures had led her to believe. Her second step made her falter a little, but she knew she had to press on.

By now the pain was intense. Looking back she saw how far she had gone, the entrance a speck of light. It was excruciating, like being ripped apart, skin burning, blood boiling, bones twisting. She pushed on, her hand still on the emerald. No, in it. Past it. She entered the emerald, became it, its infinite reflections were her own, until finally she was reborn, stepping out all four sides of the cube.

Looking over one shoulder, then the other, she saw herselves. She was her body, cold but strong. She was her spirit, burning and free. She was her blood, flowing beautifully. She was her bones, crackling with power.
"Time to get to work," she said in unison.

*

Arrakam watched the human disappear into darkness and allowed himself a sigh of relief. He had worked for centuries to reach this point: hiding in the shadows of the human cities above; learning their language; stealing the materials he needed for his forgeries. "Scriptures" they called them, gullible creatures! He needed them no more: the Host - his Host - would soon emerge. He hoped there would be time for a little conversation with someone he respected.

At that moment, he heard footsteps in the corridor above him; he recognised them even after a millennium of separation. His sister Arrasai flung herself down the ladder and landed crouching, feathers erect and talons outstretched. Her eyes found his.

"Arrakam," she breathed, "What have you done?"
"It's good to see you too, sister," he replied, "I have released us from our imprisonment."
"You have broken our oath!"
"Not so. Our purpose is to protect the Dako from misuse by our own kind."

Arrasai hesitated for a moment, then approached the door. The light from the Dako was growing brighter by the minute, but the doorway remained shrouded in darkness.

"You put a human inside," she said, turning to face him again. "You know its brain can't cope."
"They were once little more than animals," he replied, "But they have grown to embrace power, even as we fear it. This will suffice."
"What happened to you, Arrakam?" she asked with a quivering voice. "You're barely anything like the Xellian I remember. You think I haven't heard of everything you've been doing?"

A sneer crossed Arrakam's face.
"What does it even matter? You come to lecture me, and call me oathbreaker? You think I enjoy this? Do you think that lowly of me? I am simply willing to do what must be done, even if it means not playing by their stupid rules anymore."
"So, it's all about trickery to you?"
"No, no... I detest trickery. But if we ourselves are to suffer deception, our hands are no longer tied. I'm sick of these false moral shackles. "
"If you'd prefer shackles of the iron variety, that can be arranged," Arrasai hissed. "Imprisonment would be a merciful sentence for your crimes."

Arrakam ruffled his feathers in impatience.

"The threat of punishment hasn't deterred me during my centuries of planning. Why should it stay my talons now, on the brink of victory? If you want to report me to the guardians, go fetch them and leave me to my work."

Arrasai sprang forward, her beak clicking in an aggressive battle cry. Arrakam widened his stance and prepared to ward off his sister's attack. They both noticed the changing light from the Dako at the same moment and stopped to stare.
The Host was emerging.

*

Briyya's many hands were a blur as they tapped the glyphs in a complex, rapid pattern. The interior of the cube flashed with thousands of faces, hummed with thousands of voices speaking a cacophony of dead languages she did not know. Yet Briyya could understand the meaning of the words in a corner of her consciousness which no longer belonged, entirely, to her.

Briyya was an elder by human standards, but she sensed the presence of much older minds swirling inside the Dako. The wisdom, prowess, and charisma of untold generations were preserved here, waiting to be channelled into a living vessel.

"Who shall I try on first?" she mused. But this was merely a rhetorical question, for one voice called to her louder than all the others. She knew who she must become.

Briyya now knew what the Dako was: knowledge. An archive with infinite revolutionary minds. She recognized some of them: Secundus the Silent, Beyonce. And the one who called to her: Seraphina, the librarian who'd protected the library of Xenaxos with her fiery blade. Briyya was a fan.

She spread her arms in the thick nothingness that surrounded her and whispered, "Seraphina, come to me," until she felt a slow dislodging of her mind. They were ready.

*

The two Xellians were peering at the figure emerging from the blinding light. "You are going to be in so much trouble," Arrasai hissed, whacking her brother's arm with a feathery slap.

"Be silent," Arrakam said, "and observe- we shall be free." She narrowed her beady eyes at him.
"You're allowed to act out at this age, but this is too much. You swore to mum a millennium ago that you would stop this!" Arrakam now turned to her, irritably. Just because he was going through puberty, people thought they could boss him around.

"You do not know what I have to endure-"
"High school isn't fun for anyone, Arrakam! We're not imprisoned, you-"

Before they could continue the family argument that had started 2000 years ago, they were interrupted by someone clearing their throat.
"The Host," Arrakam breathed. He spun around to meet his saviour- and froze.

There was an old lady. With Briyya's pince-nez. And a flaming letter opener.
"Hello. I am Seraphina. Is there a bathroom around? I haven't had a bladder in some time," she said calmly. Arrakam blinked.

"You are the Host?"
"The host? This is certainly not my home. Who's that behind you?"
"Are you here to incinerate my enemies? And... get me out of school?" the birdling tried. Arrasai was suppressing laughter. Seraphina straightened her back.

"No, I thought I might continue my research with Briyya. Or perhaps... bake a cake." Arrakam buried his talons in his legs, pulling out feathers in the rage rising inside him.

"Are you alright, son? Perhaps some tea?" Seraphina asked.
"You have got to be f*cking kidding me!" Arrakam screeched.

[Current participants: 8]

EXILIAN CHAIN WRITING - 2023

As 2023 gallops onwards, and in honour of the 50th edition of our wonderful newsletter, I am happy to announce that I will be running a chain writing event!

Current participants: 8


What exactly is chain writing?
Chain writing is a collection of people writing a collaborative story! Each person in the chain writes a section of a story, before passing it to the next person who writes the next chunk. At the end, we have a complete tale, ideally with a beginning, middle and end (not necessarily in that order).

If this sounds like the sort of thing you'd like to be involved in (and I know it will for more than a few of you!), read on for the rules and how to get involved:

THE RULES

• Each chain will be made up of approximately eight people, creating a tale of around 2000 words in total.
• Each person in the chain will have five days to write up to 250 words of the story, no more. The final link in our great chains will be allowed up to 350, if absolutely needed, to tie up any loose ends.
• When it reaches your turn in the tale, you will be emailed the story as it currently stands, to write your continuation. Once you are done, you will email the story back with your additions.
• The time limits are strict, and if you miss your deadline, the story will be sent to the next person in the chain.
• Chains are anonymous, and you will not be told who else is a part of your chain.
• There is no lower word limit, write as much as you feel is needed to continue the tale.
• Editing or changing the previous text in any way is forbidden. Any clashes or holes in the story can be addressed later, but ask before making any alterations.

SIGNING UP

• Sign up by posting below or by emailing suzi.allkins@hotmail.co.uk
• Sign ups are open until 9th July. The chains will begin on 10th July, when the starters will be told who they are and given their genre. Update: sign ups are now open until 13th July!
• When signing up, please specify the following:
  
  
  
  • What name/username you would like to be credited by when the final stories are released.
  • Your preferred genre, if any (HORROR, HISTORY, SCI FI AND FANTASY, NO PREFERENCE). Although I won't necessarily run all these types, I will prioritise putting people together who have strong preferences for genre. If you don't want to be involved unless you are in a specific group, please let me know.
  • Any timing requirements. While I won't always be able to accommodate everyone, if anyone has any particular requirements (eg can't write towards end of July, would prefer earlier in a chain, etc), I'll do my best to incorporate those when sorting out chains.
  
  Feel free at any point to use this thread to discuss the project, ask questions, get advice etc, although please do not post excerpts of the chains or discuss specific plot details (this is meant to be anonymous after all!).
  
  I hope you're excited for another chain writing event, and I look forward to seeing all your stories!

I've been making bread for the first time in my life!
After my mother passed two years ago, my father wanted to empty out his kitchen cupboard of things he would never use, being much less of an avid cook than my mother. So I acquired rather a lot of cooking paraphernalia, which included a lot of dried yeast and bread flours.
Well I've finally got around to experimenting with them, and made some bread rolls and a half white/half wholegrain loaf, which turned out much better than I was expecting.
I did also make a 100% wholegrain loaf the other day, which turned out not very well at all and is thus not featured in the photos, out of shame 

[Illrigger information]

This year, I set myself a challenge to write something creative every month. I thought that posting my pieces of writing here might well help keep me accountable to doing one every month and also provide some entertaining reading for anyone interested in my bits and pieces of creativity.

My January piece was my submission to the Exilian Creative Competition which I hope some of you read and enjoyed and I won't repeat it here but if you haven't seen it, you can find it here: https://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6471.0. It was a piece of mythology based in the world of the DnD campaign that I'm currently running.

My February piece of writing was based in the same world as my January piece and was some lore I'm working on for one of the players as part of their character backstory. It gives some details on devils and the hells in our DnD world as well as some common knowledge/mythology surrounding imps in particular (not all of which is accurate, but my players don't know that yet!).

A lot of it is based on classic DnD lore (from Wizards of the Coast) and the homebrew illrigger class (created by Matt Colville), but I'm tweaking and editing as I go to fit it to my campaign world and in places coming up with new ideas, so I still count it as a piece of creative writing for the purposes of my challenge, especially when it came to creating the myths/stories/false information for my players. Let me know what you think the false/misleading information might be!

It's still a work in progress and I'll likely continue working on this information throughout the year, but I've put my current version below.

If anyone finds this interesting/has any ideas for me that spring from what I've written or questions or anything at all really, please let me know because I'd love to chat about the world I've created, its lore and my future writing plans!



Illrigger information
Baator
The armies of Baator's ranks are filled with devils, led by the Illriggers. An illrigger is expected to journey through Baator to swear their allegiance to their archdevil commander before they are granted the full might of Illrigger powers. Asmodeus, Lord of Acheron, grants powerful abilities to those who swear him fealty. Once this oath has been taken, infernal knights are considered part of the nobility of Baator.

While in service, whether they have completed their oath of fealty or not, illriggers are expected to further the acquisition of mortal souls, to replenish and expand Baator's armies. To do this, it is important to understand the hierarchy that defines Baator's society and have working knowledge of the various devils, how they are created and where they are found.

Obedience is a key tenet of life to those who dwell in the levels of Baator. Those at lower levels in the hierarchy obey their superiors without question, knowing that obedience is rewarded. Chaos would ensue should the citizens of Baator choose not to obey their superiors and Asmodeus does not tolerate chaos. To this end, Asmodeus has appointed archdevils to run the nine layers of Baator, some of whom choose to grant particular illriggers abilities beyond those they receive as knights of Baator. Likewise, Asmodeus enforces contracts made by the citizens of Baator, whether it be with other devils or those from other planes. Any mortal creature that breaks such a contract forfeits their soul, which comes to dwell in Baator.

Souls constitute the main currency of Baator, exchanged for power and boons between devils and mortals. Souls are often confined to Baator at the end of a mortal's lifespan, where they assume the form of a lemure.

Imps
Imps naturally appear as small humanoids with dark red skin, bat-like wings and stingers. They are primarily used to send messages, complete tasks and spy for their more senior masters in Baator.

In Amphictyonis, imps are often blamed for small items going missing, as they were thought to be mischievous thieves and they can become invisible at will. It is also thought that they are repelled by charms made of the fytus plant, a common herb across most of Amphictyonis. It is known that they do not come out in winter, being susceptible to the cold.

Common knowledge in Apophismet holds that imps are capable of shapeshifting into normal animals and are often found in the form of a rat or a raven. They trick and corrupt mortals, and attempt to make deals for their souls.

Storbreigard has several stories about imps, many of which tell that holy water and silver can harm imps. As infernal beings, they are immune to fire and poison and resistant to many magical effects.

Imps can be summoned as familiars by some spellcasters. When this occurs, the imp is completely subject to their master's will and unable to act on their own impulses.

[Generating landmasses]

I recently began a new Dungeons and Dragons campaign with a group of friends and was looking for a way to make maps of the world, the continents, the towns and everything else in the world. I'd always had trouble with mapping software because they always seemed to fall into one of two camps: either they made you generate every single thing yourself or they randomly generated the entire map with limited capacity for alteration/personalisation. As someone who usually has some pretty specific requirements or ideas for maps I'm making (e.g. I want there to be a church in a certain place or a particular shape of landmass etc) but also don't have the patience/time/imagination to create elements like a realistically shaped coastline that doesn't look overly artificial, this was significantly annoying for me.

Then I discovered Wonderdraft. It costs around £30 (the cost is set in dollars, so the cost in GBP varies), there are no subscriber fees, and it is a brilliant combination of both generated and personalised features for maps. It's best used to make world or area maps, rather than specific buildings or rooms but I have seen it used for all of the above.

There are various features that make this a pretty great mapping software.

Generating landmasses
You can randomly generate landmasses (with some control over the sea level, roughness of the coastline and a few other elements), which creates a map that immediately looks less artificial than those drawn by a person (in my experience). Once you've generated those landmasses, you can then alter them to your liking. You can raise land in particular areas, select how rough you want the coastline to look, erase sections if you don't like how they look and otherwise completely personalise the layout. I tend to use the randomly generated landmasses as a starting point for making my maps. Here are some examples of randomly generated landmass maps, with alterations in the starting parameters:



Generating geographical features
The built in tools allow you to generate lakes and rivers, with various modifiable parameters, as well as draw water freehand and erase it.



You can quickly generate mountain ranges and forests that look realistic but appear in places that you choose. This is because Wonderdraft has a number of different symbols in particular styles for particular objects (such as trees or mountains). When you click and drag to generate multiple copies of the same symbol (eg to create a range of mountains across an area), it randomly cycles through the symbols of the same style, to vary the shapes as you drag the mouse. This makes the finished item look much more interesting than having the same symbol repeated across an area, but also means you can precisely choose where it is you want the mountain range to appear. Here are a few different mountain ranges I generated in different styles:



You can also change how frequently the symbol is dropped as you click and drag (so you can create a sparse mountain range or one that's very dense).

Once you have generated the symbols for a feature, every symbol you've created is personalisable. You can move them, change their size etc. You can also then use the 'paint landmass' tool to colour the symbols. Most of the symbols that come as standard with Wonderdraft are colourable and its not too difficult (even for me, a computing amateur) to alter any symbols that you import from external sources so that they also pick up the colour of the land they're dropped onto (more on importing external symbols below!).



Importing symbols
Wonderdraft comes with a number of symbols for trees, mountains, buildings, city markers etc. But you can also add in symbol packs that you download from other sources. I particularly like using either 2 minute tabletop (https://2minutetabletop.com/gallery/) or Cartography Assets (https://cartographyassets.com/asset-category/symbols/), both of which have a variety of symbol packs (both free and paid). Once you've downloaded them, you can copy them into the files that Wonderdraft loads when it opens, granting you access to all the symbols you downloaded. You can also then open the symbols as text files and edit them, allowing you to make them pick up the colour of the land underneath among other changes.

Useful features
There are several really useful features of this tool that you can use when making maps.

You can select an area of a map and then turn that into a map in its own right, copying across all the symbols, paths and other features from the original. This is great when you want to make a more detailed map of a particular part of a larger map (like a map of a particular continent from an overworld view).

You can place coloured overlays to mark out territories, areas of influence, or anything else you can think of.



You can specify a scale for the map, including units, and not only does that let you include a reference marker for distance but there is also a tool that will then allow you to measure any distance across the map in those units. I've found this very handy as I don't like using hexes or similar on larger maps, as I think it ruins the aesthetic of them, but do often want to know how long it will take my DnD party to reach a town or cross a forest.

Maps I made
I've used Wonderdraft to make a world map for my campaign. Feel free to let me know what you think of them!



I've also used it to make maps of specific areas within those maps. This is the map of the continent containing two major civilisations: Amphictyonis and Bryniau.

I was wondering if anyone could help me with some research for a short fiction story that I'm writing. It focuses on a bladesmith as she's making a sword for a customer and I want to be able to include accurate/interesting detail about the process of forging the sword as I go.

The general setting at the moment is fairly classic medieval fantasy so I may add some embellishments/details to reflect the fantasy element but broadly speaking I wanted to gain an idea of the usual process for forging a sword from scratch in a medieval setting (I think I'm generally assuming a European setting here, but I'm very open to alternative ideas on that front).

Additionally, if anyone would like to read said story once it's approaching completion, do let me know