That’s right, I am making one of those marvelous “cool thing” Alphabet books the magnificent Michael Curtis invented! I wanted to create this for a long while. In fact, I have list and lists of entries of “Alphabet Book” of many types, at least one for each of my games. And since now I wan working on finalizing the edits and revisions on Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells 2e for publication, I wanted to make something to go with it to have some cool urban crawl adventures, and I wanted to have something going on in here, on this blog! Thus, we are here now, as I write the letters of this City of Adventure Alphabet book, I will post previews of those entries here. Not in their entirety, but with a good portion so you can see how it’s turning out.
So let’s start with…
A is for Alleys
Alleys are everywhere, and they lead to nowhere. Well, unless you really know where you are going. Or you found a secret passage to a hideout, stumbled upon a portal to another dimension, was dragged down to the Abyss by a demon, or any sort of other weird things that often happens at such dark, narrow, smelly, and secretive locations. More common in less savory areas of the city, alleys are often where those that want to remain unseen meet, and hide their affairs. From common bandits, cultists, corrupt guards, to sorcerer cabals, demonologists, alien cats, to things much weirder and more ominous.
How to Use Alleys
- Great place to put secretive NPCs, locations, lost objects, or other hard to find finds (like occasional portals to other dimensions).
- Excellent location for secretive meetings with less reputable members of society (or complete outsiders, like the ghost of someone who died in the alley).
- Characters can always stumble upon an alley as they flee from a creature, exit from the back door of an inn, or totter back home from a night of partying.
(I am only showing 10 of the 20 results in this preview… You can see there rest and the book releases).
(Oh, sorry for the terrible layout of this table in this WordPress blog. It was the best I could do. It will look way better in the book, believe me).
| d20 | Alley | Inhabitants | Finds | Detail | Event |
| 01 | Blood Alley: Blood-stained cobblestones, bloody handprints on the dirty moldy walls. The smell of sweet and death permeates the air, while a graveyard silence oppress the senses. | Behind smashed crates you see the legs of someone prone (possibly dead). Hidden inside the crates, an urchin shakes in fear. | A sinister looking ritual dagger with fresh blood on its blade. In the corner, a signet ring belonging to someone dangerous and important (roll 1d6: 1 – haughty local lord, 2 – vicious crime boss, 3 – ruthless merchant, 4 – mysterious sorcerer, 5 – corrupt priest, 6 – visiting dignitary). | There are doors drawn in blood in the cracked walls of the buildings. Strangely, you can see footprints going through and from these drawn doors. Some footprints never go out some of those doors however. | As blood drains through a demon-looking drain, the sound of a satisfying exhalation echoes through the alley. The smell of burnt skin and sulfur assaults the senses and a deep voice reverberates: “You quenched my thirst, and now I will answer 3 questions for you. Ask wisely.” From the shadows, a hoarse voice asks… |
| 02 | Cat’s Corner: Deep shadows cover everything but the highest crates and piles of trash accumulated in the corners. The smell of feline’s urine burns your eyes, and thick patches of cat’s fur floats in the air. From the dark, hundreds of shiny eyes stare. | Milenna, the Cat Lady, is a princess cat from the Dreamlands. She, however, likes to party with earthly street felines, despite her family’s and promised spouse protests. She is currently looking for ways to escape her responsibilities, and could pay a good amount to those who help her. | Behind dirt, soot, and the peeling layers of cheap paint, a big mosaic mural of a cat wearing a golden crown. At night when humans are not around, the mural comes to life and reigns over the cats, instructing them on their next moves to control the city. In the corner, a small metal cylinder (if you press one end, a bright red light ray shoots from the other side). | No matter where in the shadows you look at this alley, you will find a pair of small bright yellow eyes staring back at you. As one gets closer, the eyes close and simply disappear. They say the cats watch everything that happens in that corner of the city, and they punish anyone who is cruel to felines under their watch. | In the center of a claw scrawled pentagram on the dust coveted floor, a black cat, its fur darker than the black void, stands looking up. Suddenly the light in the cat’s eyes grows brighter, until the light suddenly blinds the vision. When sight is restored, a tall black haired woman with a confident smirk stands its place |
| 03 | Fish’s Gullet: The filthy wet walls of the crumbling buildings seem to bend towards the alley, forming almost an arch above. The odor of rotting fish and dead sea is prevalent here, as hundreds of fish scales and guts litter the floor. For a few seconds it seems some of the fish are still moving, but when you look at them, only death stares back. | Crouched on the groudn behind a big barrel full of fish, an onld wrinkled man wearing a stray hat slumbers while murmuring strange words: “I fished it…”, “But… How?”, “It wasn’t supposed to be there?”, “Did it awake?”, “It was just a dream… just a dream…”. If woken up, he gets up screaming. | Inside one of the fish laying on the ground is a fist sized stone egg. Always cold to the touch, even if left in a fire, the egg seems to have some ooze-like content on the inside when seen through light. Sometimes the shadow inside looks like a fish, others like an octopus, and others like a crab. Rarely, it appears all 3 mixed together. | During nights of full moon something magical and scary happens. The fish scales scattered around the floor come back to life and the fish swim again in the air as if they were at the bottom of the sea. It all ends when the sun wakes up, and the fishes’ dreams are swept by the waves. | In a foggy night, a decrepit fisherman enters the alley carrying a single fish attached to a silver thread. He stands in the back corner, spits in the fish’s mouth, which begins to emit this ominous pale light. and begins forcibly open it up. For some weird reason, the mouth gets bigger and larger until he enter through it. From inside the fish’s mouth, the light still shining. Where does it leads to? |
| 04 | The City’s Anus: Mud everywhere. Or is that feces? It’s hard to tell simply by the smell. Trash piles grow almost by themselves as people discard the most disgusting things in this alley. It’s not uncommon to see someone vomiting just because they walked by to close. | Lixzara is an eccentric old noblewoman who is constantly going through the foul smelling piles of trash and residues that accumulate on this alley in search of lost treasures. She often uses the discarded things to create new pieces that she either exposes as a work of art in her gallery, or builds something even weirder with them. | In a disgusting pool of something smelly, dark and sticky, the glimpse of something golden and bright can be seen. If recovered, this wand can be used to affect vibrations at different frequencies allowing the user to damage the structure of objects and possibly even structures or beings. | When the stars are right, the trash that appears on the alley comes from another world. Strange objects appear brokens, spent, used and in various stages of conservation. Trash collectors often appear here picking things from the muck, and offer good coin for weirder pieces. | A place can take only so much abandonment and abuse before something in it changes. And something changed here. The trash wants revenge. The shit wants revenge. They will treat those who discarded them as trash. The piles of feces, trash, mud, and whatever else is there starts to shake, and suddenly it stumbles outside. What does it seek? |
| 05 | Teeth Corner: At any time, dozens of bloody teeth line the cobblestones of this alley. The decrepit walls are covered with posters of past fights, and the wages of the gambles on each. Tonight’s fight is the one on top, almost an inch away from the original wall. | A giant of a woman and a small bald man who sits on a stool beside her, are always around. Her name is Postla, and she calls him big guy. He never speaks, but have his own ways of communicating meaning. They oversee fights and the gambles around them. Outside gambling is prohibited. The Big Guys really does not like that. | Among teeth scattered on the floor, a metallic band can be found. Some teeth are still inside it. It seemingless fit into the holder’s mouth, just over their teeth. For some reason, the person wearing this mouthpiece is infused with extraordinary endurance, being able to ignore the first 1 points of any physical Attack. | Behind a dirty rag, a blackboard shows a list of names and how much coins these people own. Their names, however, have been recently crossed, and below everything it is written “time to collect”. | On some special nights, the alley receives special fights, in which mortals fight against otherworldly beings for blessings, treasures, secrets and a lot more. The price, however, is their soul. But only if they lose. That’s not going to happen, right? Neither Postla, nor the Big Guy gets the souls, though they are collected by a third party. Who might it be? |
| 06 | Everdark Alley: No matter what time of the day it is, it’s always dark at Everdark Alley. Some day it’s the angle the sun passes through, or the smoke coming from the forges on the next street. Truth be told, no one knows why darkness seem to always cover this alley like a silk linen. | No one usually stays here for long, not if they can help. But something dwells there, something seducing, embracing, comforting. The shadows who live in the alley have their own unique consciousness, but they also feel alone. So they whisper to passersby “come here”, “hide in the shadows”, “it’s peaceful here”. | The cobblestones are littered with blown out torches, broken lanterns, snuffed out candles and other light sources. But something draws attention all the way back, in the darkest part. A small smooth shiny sphere, which lights up like a strong lantern, as long as living skin is touching it. | In this alley happens one of the rarest events in the entirety of the world. Darkness actually coagulates and becomes liquid, allowing it to be collected, and stored for later sorcerous use. | On nights of the new moon, the darkness in the alley gets so thick, it can actually take physical form. The shadow incarnated takes the form of humanoid and ventures forth to (roll 1d6: 1 – experience love, 2 – eat delicious food, 3 – dance as much as it can, 4 – snuff out all the lights it can; 5 – kill a insistant lantern bearer; 6 – engulf the entire world in darkness). |
| 07 | Lady’s Cavern: The red lights of the lanterns cast a sensual light in the foggy and sweat smelling alley. Shadows of people performing sensual dances amidst the smoke can be seen everywhere, but actual people are rare to spot. As you walk, the silk of the many veils that divide the alley rub against your skin, like a soft caress. | A tall, square jawed old lady, dressed in fine garments, welcomes you to the Lady’s Cavern. She is referred to as the Grand Mother, and she oversees all services in the alley, which includes almost anything a person can do to another to cause pleasure, or pain (if it is a pleasurable pain – the details are fuzzy). She won’t take kindly to anyone who mistreats her collaborators. | In the corner, under discarded underwear, a pair of cufflinks bearing the sign of a noble house. This probably pertains to someone of noble birth, and they could be looking for it. Maybe it is worth a reward, or maybe it can be sold. What is not clear at the time, is that whoever wears these cufflinks cannot conceive life through intercourse. | The alley’s walls are covered with doors to small little apartments. Each one contaminated with overbearing perfume, and sporting beds, silks, cushions and all sorts of toys used in the services provided by the workers inside the room. Each one of them specialized in a different kind of pleasure or pain. | Once a year, happens the Festival of the Last Pleasure, in which the alley is completely overrun by the inconsequent, the curious, the opportunistic, and the sinister. It’s a full night of hedonistic pleasures of all types, all for free. Except the price is someone’s life, chosen by the Goddess of Pleasure. Or is it? |
| 08 | Dagger’s Wound: Puddles of dark water accumulate on the irregular cobblestones. Shadowy figures dot the lateral vision, as gargoyles and hurried passersby stream along. Ond stone houses with strangely decorated side entries dot the sides and the end of the alley, and although you can’t see anyone there, you can’t help but feel watched. | A short, thin man, with a long nose seems to watch everyone movement from a second floor balcony in one of the buildings. He wears a dark leather vest, an eye-patch, and carries a sword on his belt. He does not speak to anyone, and if bothered he leaves for a while (continuing to watch from inside). People call him the Eye. | Tucked behind a statue of a king no one ever heard about is a ragged grey cloak, which bears the brooch of the Brotherhood of the Dagger, the local Thieves’ Guild. There doesn’t seem to be anyone keeping an eye on this, however. Membership is very much controlled, and rumors say members get access to some good benefits, and sometimes a visit to the vaults! | There are daggers everywhere in this alley. I mean, there are one or two of them, hurriedled discarded on the floor, as the culprit left the scene of the crime. But there are dozens others on mansory motifs, in the hand of statues, in barely understandable graffiti of someone being stabbed. | A lot of people get stabbed in this alley. Something about it just calls a blade to someone’s ribs. Thus, any time characters enter this alley, someone gets stabbed (roll a d6: 1 – one of the PCs get stabbed, 2 – a PC’s friend, family member, confidant, loved one is stabbed, 3 – a PC’s ally, informant, dealer, or other “business associate” is stabbed, 4 – another scoundrel the PCs know by reputation is tabbed, 5 – a influential member of the society is stabbed, 6 – a PC’s enemy is stabbed). What to do? |
| 09 | Dark Chanting Alley: The smell of the sweet censers, and the smoke they generate, both vibrate as the rhythmic chanting of what appears to be hundreds of voices echoes through the alley. Melted wax, discarded sheets of paper with prayers, and broken clay idols dot the floor, always painted in different colors. | A newborn godling hides in this alley. Believing to be the god protector of alleys, the infant does not have a very good grasp of what it entails. For now, they have assumed the appearance of a poor urchin, and currently want to explore the other alleys of the city, but they are kind of afraid, as weird robbed figures keep looking for them. | Casually placed over a small statue of a gigantic toad, a small prayer book can be found. With a dark green leather cover, the leathery pages are filled with horrendous sketches and small incomprehensible poems in an alien language. Whenever you try to pronounce one of them, chills run through your spine, and you hear the correct pronunciation of the phrase whispered back to you. Will you say it correctly? | There are impressive murals impromptu painted on the peeling alley’s walls, showing epic scenes of divine stories. Gods battling demons, and vice versa, mortals being blessed and cursed, and all sorts of things. Every time, however, the murals are different, and the paint is always wet to the touch. Some says the walls depict the last stories of the dead gods, others say they announce the divine lords’ return. | During a night in which the moon glows red, a group of robbed and masked figures enter this alley for one last ritual: Ascension. And they succeed, transcending their former selves, they all merge with the alien entity that guided their dreams, and their bodies did the same, becoming an amorphous mass of legs, arms, heads, and genitalia. It’s their duty now to help everyone become one with the universe. Will you join them? |
| 10 | Disappearing Corner: The barest alley you can find in all the city. No crates lie broken on the corners. Trash does not accumulate on huge piles that look like columns which hold the sky. And for some reason, even the common night fog appears to enter this alley to then suddenly dissipate. Whatever appears here does not last for long. | A short and stocky old man dressed in ragged old robes of a court magician is often in and around the alley. He is constantly offering directions to rare and obscure destinations passersby happen to be looking for. He refers to himself as Xaxyg, the Portal Master, and his instructions always involve open up a decrepit looking door in the alley with a very specific key. | A single sturdy red leather boot of very fine making lies abandoned in front of a vomit green door. Apparently, it fits into any human sized foot that tries it on. The wearer, however, is immediately aware of the whereabouts of the other boot of the pair. This works both ways, allowing the other wearer the same benefits. The boots are extremely durable, and unless targeted by magic, won’t suffer from wear and tear. | The last time, the green door was on the west wall, was a lot larger, and had a frog shaped handle on it. Now, it is all the way in the back, one could barely squeeze through it, and it now bears the faint remains of a painting depicting a spider-woman creature tying someone on a web. And the first time there wasn’t even a green door. All of this in just a week? | The doors of this alley, although they look aged, quite deteriorated, and above all, plain and ordinary, lead to extraordinary destinations. Well, not all the time. And not always to the same extraordinary destinations. That really depends on a very complex arcane art known as Fung Shei. By arranging the disposition of the furniture inside a prepared space, the doors of said location shift their destinations to a more appropriately energetic position in the multiverse. The problem is, someone is always moving things around. The good thing is someone else will eventually put it back where it belongs. |
See you next time with “B is for Bizarre Bazaar”!