A Tour of the Multiverse, Part 1

Finding inspiration and motivation to resume work can be a difficult process once someone hit their burnout. In my case, finding the inspiration to even write crummy RPG material came in the form of generating material not for myself but for a friend who is (unfortunately for him I'd argue) playing D&D 5e. Now personally I am quite done with that garbage but long rambling discussions and his game concept got me to dig up those pdf and books again. The short version is: he's doing a plane-hopping campaign. It's sort of like Magic: The Gathering but not quite (he never played it until recently and only after coming up with this concept). So all this got me putting together various disparate ideas, some recycled from material long abandoned to create a few worlds for him to drop into a game.

These are less worlds for his main campaign material and more side material for him to use should he need a random location to drop into his game. This experiment take many cues from the Ten Monster Setting but expand it a bit to races, factions or some locations. Its less of a proper worldbuilding exercise and more offering someone a pitch or springboard to expand in their own ideas. As for his players? Don't worry, nobody that young even knows what a damn blog is.

Art by Joel Boucquemont

Laseelai, The Ocean Between

Status: Transitive Plane

Laseelai is a transitive plane which exist between two or more planes and connects to them through their oceans. When the cosmic forces which ebb and flow align, the borders of Laseelai flow into the wider oceans of its connected planes and temporarily merges the two allowing boats to travel in and out of the plane and opening new opportunities for trading. As a transitive plane, Laseelai doesn't really have any borders nor does it form a globe. It just seemingly extend, shrink and blend into other bodies of water with the core of its world, or Axis Mundi, being the bottom of its now sunken continent. In a way, Laseelai is somewhat of a replacement for the Elemental Plane of Water albeit as a less hostile environment for players since it can be crossed with regular boats. Laseelai could be small enough to be the entire setting of a Hexcrawl if one felt like it.

Races of Laseelai

As with most planes in that multiverse, only a scant few sentient races inhabit Laseelai. While the game does embrace the 'weird freaky races all over' mentality so common to modern fantasy, this multiverse at least somewhat offers a reasonable explanation that most races are confined to (and the product of) their homeplane. Laseelai is home to the following races in addition to Humans:

• Merfolks (Plane Shift Zendikar or Planeshift Ixalan): The Merfolks of Laseelai are partially crustacean based and separated into a variety of tribes, sub races and subtypes each with their own confusing culture even to the natives of Laseelai. These Merfolks appear as humanoid with odd skin color, usually blue, green, red or some beige-tan color and bright markings. They have smooth, hairless skin which erupt into thin exoskeletal ridges usually along their knuckles, knees, elbows, heads or backs but the exact details vary from tribe to tribe. A pair of antenna adorn their forehead and their eyes are either milky white or jet black. Merfolks combine the traditional roles we associated with Wood Elves (the aloof, mysterious natural folks) and Orcs (belligerent enemies). Which role they are closer to depends on their tribe and current standing of said tribe with local Humans. Nomadic tribes also wage wars on other Merfolk tribes.
• Aquatic Humans (Men and Monsters by Mage Hand Press): A rare but not unknown sub-type of demi-human are the Aquatic humans. Outsiders to Laseelai might believe them to be Human-Merfolks hybrid in the way Half-Elves exist but this is not the case as the two races are completely incompatible. Aquatic Humans appear to simply be an offshoot of normal humans; either some long-lost precursor race or the next step of human adaption to the plane. Or something else. Who knows?
• See Scrags and Morphoi in the upcoming section.

Monsters of Laseelai

Despite its vast, blue and beautiful landscape Laseelai has no shortage of threats as does any plane in the multiverse. In addition to belligerent Merfolks and human pirates it is home to a near endless assortment of sea creatures ranging from Earth-like wildlife to their giant or dire equivalents as one would expect of a mostly oceanic world.

• The Scrags (Creature Codex by Kobold Press) of Laseelai looks like bald ogres or trolls with some features hinting at newts. These creatures are almost always chaotic in alignment but can be Good, Neutral or Evil and are extremely selfish creatures driven entire by their own greed, acting almost like ogres of classic fairy tales at their most cruel. They are simple creatures which want life's pleasures such as food or stealing treasures from boats they attack. The more intelligent and less belligerent members of their race are known to be recruited by pirates and used enforcers.
• The Morphoi (Tome of Beasts by Kobold Press) are dreaded bogeymen, shapeshifting creatures feared by all. Bizarre, plant-based schemers they are utterly alien and depraved and have a role similar to the likes of serpent-men of pulp, worshipping strange gods and perhaps having once enslaved humans. In fact, the Scrags are said to descend from either their slaves, their experiments or might be the cursed descendants of those who defeated the ancient Morphoi. Much folklore exist on their abilities, much of it created as disinformation and so many people assume they are much more dangerous than they are. Of course, perhaps they once were all powerful sorcerer-kings but now are mere shadows of their past selves.
• Those travelling along the coast of rivers or between islands must watch the sky especially if their boat is quite small, for they might be attacked by one of the dreaded Kongamato (Tome of Beasts), a giant pteranodon-like creature known to attack boats and eat grown men whole.
• Among the most dangerous creatures (and Laseelai's 'dragons'), the Coral Drake (Tome of Beasts) are monsters lurking among the beautiful coral reef ready to pounce and devour anything in their path. Killing one is worthy of being called a hero.

Five (Simple) Adventure Hooks:

1. The party's boat is travelling from one location to another but things are not as they seem. There are one or more Morphoi imposters and they have found a way to steer or manipulate the ship toward the edges of Laseelai, hoping to escape the plane and spread their schemes even more.
2. The party hunt a Coral Drake in order to acquire a favor from a powerful ruler of an island, as offering the skull of a Coral Drake is a surefire way to earn favors.
3. The party must escort someone or something out of Laseelai before the planar tides cut them off and leave them stranded on the plane for weeks or months.
4. The party has somehow (or has been incorrectly labelled to have) offended the ancient, unknowable rites or territories of the Merfolks. They either attack or challenge the party to a duel to the death filled with bizarre and obtuse rules.
5. The party seek out one of the many lost islands of Laseelai to claim some treasure. Reaching it alone can be an issue due to the sea monsters but even getting to the center of the island proves to be harder than expected as it is full of monsters. As they are on the island, its volcano erupt adding further complications.