Under Gallax Hall - Level 4 - Monastery

"I'm challenging myself to try and write at least 1-3 rooms per day to crank this thing out in like... 3 months, maybe?"

-Me, about 5 years ago.

Been sitting on this egg for approximately the average lifespan of a ferret. Guess who just finished incubating Level 4 of their (small) megadungeon! That's right, Under Gallax Hall is getting an update.

                                                                            Level 4 - Monastery

Under Gallax Hall is a dungeon beneath a university lecture hall in Wizard City. It starts in the Basement, where abnormal wizard school lectures take place and the Department of Torture conducts research, and spans beneath that through the creepy monster-infested Steam Tunnels, and the older building beneath it. Beneath that building is an even older building - the Ruined Monastery.

Level 1 - Basement 
Level 2 - Steam Tunnels
Level 3 - Old Gallax Hall

Level 4 - Monastery

Ivory Towers

Found in the Ivory Towers hex of  Wizard City Hexcrawl

"Can you sue a god? What a ridiculous question!

...Of course you can sue a god! This is Wizard City! Anything can sue anyone. A ham sandwich can sue an Archmage if it can string enough words together into a proper sentence.

Winning, though, is another matter entirely..."

At some point, some lawyer or philosopher or bum on the street somewhere must have wondered how we started worshiping the Incorporated as 'gods'. That, by the legal and commercial traditions of the wizarding empire, a not-insubstantial portion of the populace now pledge their souls and offer their prayers to an incorporated persona known as "Ecstatia Doppeldorf Engenheimer LLC." How they offer their thoughts, their money, and their very real time, to the propagation of a entity which is, according with all official intents and purposes, a real, 110% legal, dream-holding, personality-wielding, actual property-holding... "Person".

Not a person like you or me. A person that's beyond a person. Higher-dimensional, distributed, Incorporated. Dare we say: divine? A person made of persons and places and things and dreams of shareholder value. Your flesh is their flesh, and your coworker's flesh, and the stock-holders' flesh. (Well, only a part of the stock holder's flesh that is that particular fraction of their investment portfolio, but I digress.) Their dreams are different from your dreams - and they do certainly have dreams (as established in MagnaCock II v. Archmage's Secret Police c.559)

Tenure-holding historians might argue that is was really sort of inevitable: that this was the natural conclusion for the Train of Progress chug-chug-chugging along, occasionally accosted by some bomb-throwing apes but otherwise stalwart in its inertia. That eliminating the last bits of "inefficiencies" that were holding back the potential of BUSINESS (hallowed be thy name) was inevitable as the evolution of wings... or perhaps the anus.

But does it really matter how we got here? Offer your prayers! (Your loud, verbal, very public prayers, preferably those pre-approved by your Incorporated's partnered advertising collegium!) Offer your paychecks! Sacrifice the finest fatty cow's thighs and pour libations upon the Altar of Consistent, Reliable, Quality Goods at Affordable Prices (tm). Upon the Altar of Service Your Can Trust! (tm). Upon the Altar of XOX: Cool, Refreshing, XOX... To Take the Edge Off of Life! (tm)

(...Yes, you have to say the whole name. You can't just call it Xox. It's gotta be cool and refreshing and yadda yadda yadda... You won't get that promotion, or corporate sponsorship, or Xox-Day discounts if you don't say the whole thing.)

Image: Jared Rodriguez, Truthout

Chronulus doesn't have "temples". Temples are for far less economically-developed cultures, who reserve interpreting the blemishes on animals' internal organs for primitive notions like winning battles and passing laws instead of market trends. But it does have Ivory Towers: the base of these corporate offices having big public spaces with monuments and clerical staff and places for charitable contributions offerings and advertising prayers. The Ivory Towers are the shining, pointed teeth of the city, if the whole thing was grinning like some upside-down goblin.

Incorporated Entities (I.E. if you're short on time) occupy a space somewhere between landlord, crying baby, and amoeba. They tend to start with very little personality, hungry for just about everything: money, people, market share, assets, low interest rates. They grow bigger over time. They can't die, though, only subsume. Sometimes they merge with other entities, becoming some mix of each other, like if Zeus and Poseidon went back into the womb and merged together into some super hybrid brother made of ignored HR complaints and waterfowl.

~~~~~~~

Here are the big shots, and how to read 'em.

Stock Directory Symbol: you want to find this Incorporated Entity's listing on the stock market, this is what you'll look up.

Persona: How the entity manifests in our world. Or, if you will, its logo.

Domains: 'Assets', if you prefer. Monopolies. An Incorporated Entity typically doesn't achieve a 'Domain' unless it has at least some monopolistic or duopolistic power.

Blessings: What prayer can get you.

Prayers: What the Incorporated Entity wants you to do, to get its blessings. Frequently called 'Advertising'.

~~~~~~~

XOX

Merged from Hayden Magichemical and the Clean Oxygen Company. XOX makes "XOX: cleaner than air, fresher than fresh!" That's X-OX, in case you're wondering. Oxygen gas mixed with some other trade secret goodies that make it extra extra "clean". It's a nice product affordable to anyone who can sustain an addiction, if you spend all day sniffing magitox disposal or you live by a chemical factory.

Stock Directory Symbol: XOX

Persona: A dove. What's cleaner than the idea of a dove? (The idea of a dove, you philistine!) A cloud of shiny gas. The shine on a bald man's head. Wax on marble.

Domains: Clean Air, Cleanliness, Drugs, Bleach, Decontaminants, Chlorine

Blessings: Clean Air, Euphoria, Water Breathing, Enchantment Boons, Wind Spells

Prayers Include: "XOX: cleaner than air, fresher than fresh!" - say it with gusto and preferably in front of 3 or more people or it doesn't count; "Take the edge off life: with XOX!"

C-SEC

Chronulean Security Enterprise Corporation! Who could forget you? With your bloodthirsty wizard mercenaries and cutthroat mercantilism! Who can forget the organization which crafted the robotic killing machines with demons' souls trapped inside of them, that stalk the darkest corners of the city and feed on the souls of the innocent? Who can forget those little red signs people post on their lawns, with skulls and bones, warning "BEWARE OF LETHAL AND IRONIC TRAPS! INTRUDE AT YOUR OWN RISK!"

Stock Directory Symbol: CSC

Persona: A human skull biting a wand... (Why the fuck is it always skulls with these guys?)

Domains: Security Systems, Booby Traps, Unfeeling Killing Machines, Foreign Legions.

Blessings: "Security Contract Experts" showing up like ritually summoned assassins, protection from horrible demon murder machines, conspicuously-appearing contract muscle work, trap spells

Prayers Include: various blood sacrifices done in basements, thanking your local "Peace Expert",  signing up for the subscription mail list, "C-SEC: prosperity and security"

Killer Whale

Merger created from the holding company of the King of Whale's sovereign slush fund and the waste management conglomerate Landfill-Kille LLC. Controls 55% of the city's water resources through collection, treatment, and distribution. (Another 44% controlled by the University of Chronulus.) They've even got an olympic-sized swimming pool in the lobby, for the whales.

Stock Directory Symbol: KW

Persona: A handsome whale-man hybrid holding a trash can, inexplicably sexy and short-skirted smooth-skinned HR representatives, Waves, Cloud of Mist, an oil lamp flame.

Domains: Water, Waste, Beauty, Fuel, Transmutation

Blessings: purify food and water, extending fuel use, making minor bits of trash disappear, getting a quick glow-up, fire spells

Prayers Include: (You hum a little jingle) "Killer Whaaaaaaale!", fulfilling customer satisfaction surveys, 

Locke-Key International

The jury's still out on whether these guys are part of the criminal underworld or they're legit. Extradimensional spaces are a legal grey area at best. At the highest level it's a partnership between two wizard dynasties, but on the ground they're just everybody's landlords. Better pray rent on time, or else expect your front door to scream harsh words or open up into the bottom of an extradimensional latrine.

Stock Directory Symbol: LKI

Persona: Lock and Key, Magic Mouth, a dark and stormy tower

Domains: Real estate, extradimensional portals, 

Blessings: discounts or approved delays on the rent, Knock/Hold Portal spells, 

Prayers Include: paying the rent on time, talking about how great it is to live in a Locke-Key-managed rental property, "Locke and Key, for you and me!"

Scrivener

Wizards need spells. Spells need parchment. Parchment needs skin. Five million wizards need five million wizard's worth of skin. Do you have any idea how much skin that is? Let's just say you measure it in a unit bigger than 'hectares' and smaller than 'acres'. You've heard of a pig skin, right? Well Scrivener is a proud patent owner of the 'Skin Pig'.

Stock Directory Symbol: SC

Persona: Quill and Scroll, Inverted Nike Swoosh, Dawn on the Horizon, a Muse, a very fancy signature.

Domains: Scrolls, Spells, Private Libraries, Textbooks, Cattle

Blessings: spell scroll coupons, cheaper spellbook replication, skin spells (Stoneskin, Barkskin, etc.)

Prayers Include: Donating excess, unwanted, or 'medicinally unrequired' skin to your local skin in-box (a.k.a "skin-box") - wizard skin makes the best spell book material; reporting second-hand textbook donation to your local intellectual property manager; grow your own Skin Pig!

Angel Venture LLC

This Incorporated Entity fucks. Don't get me wrong: exactly 0% of anyone working for this thing has or will ever have sexual congress. They simply do not have the time nor the energy (and most of them are either undead already or self-castrated to keep themselves focused on work). What I mean is that Angel is venture finance par-excellence. They're the bacchanal of capital, the unwanted pregnancy of private equity. Acquisitions, conquests, mergers, seed fundings, initial public offerings, impact investing, open partnerships, asset lubrications and liquidations, equity after dark, a_al (it's a wizard finance term). Angel's got a lot going on... financially speaking.

Stock Directory Symbol: AV

Persona: a cute little cherub, a foxy siren, reflections at the bottom of the bottle, a rotting corpse

Domains: Arbitration facilitators, hollowed-out brands, fast food, ruins

Blessings: Spells of entropy and destruction; temporary elimination of hunger, sleepiness, or other bodily desires; grind mentality

Prayers Include: brand loyalty, using the word "disruption" a lot in casual conversation, 

Wizard City Character Creation Guide

With the conclusion of my previous campaign and the freeing up of space, I do believe I am now ready to playtest this puppy I've been working on called Wizard City.

Ladies, gentlemen, and brains-in-jars, we shall be using the GLOG!

WIZARD CITY CHARACTER CREATION

TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

Welcome to the second ever Wizard City campaign! (I can’t take credit for the first, Anne beat me to it!) This right here is a guide for making your first, second, and potentially last characters for the campaign.

WHICH GLOG???

We will be using Skerples’ Many Rats on Sticks of the GLOG.

LIMITATIONS

1. Available races (pg. A-10): Human. No others.

2. Only Wizard Templates may be selected, at least at first. No exceptions. All Wizards within the Rat on a Stick Edition ruleset are automatically allowed, and any other GLOG Wizards that use the MD mechanic are allowable with GM approval (just toss me a link over Discord and I’ll see if it’s kosher for this campaign).

CREATION SPECS

1. All characters begin the game with 2d6 Spellgold. 

(See: Spellgold, below.)

2. All characters have a STUDENT LOAN MORTGAGE worth 2d6x500sg (spellgold), which means your soul is presently reserved by the Fiduciary Lich in the Bank Inerrable, and if you should die before paying back the loan your soul goes right to the bank. This was the cost of tuition in Wizard City.

SETTING SPECIFICS

INTRODUCTION

You are a freshman at the University of Chronulus, Wizard City - a city full of wizards. Wizard City is a dangerous place, especially for a student such as yourself. You will be expected to brave many hazards during your undergraduate experience, and it’s more than likely several things will attempt to kill you during your studies.

Wizard City is a large and strange place, full of wizard criminal gangs, magi-oligarchs, mad scientists, half-robots, and poor students like yourself. Many students never survive to graduate, and even fewer decide to continue their studies beyond that. As a student, you are at the bottom of the barrel in terms of power: everyone sees you as a disposable asset. However… You are a wizard! Even weak wizards can be dangerous.

What follows is a list of questions for you to consider, with the help of the GM, when determining aspects of your character.

WHAT MAJOR AM I TAKING?

Your studies will be a reflection of what Wizard templates you choose to take. This is largely up to you to determine, and for you to coordinate with the GM. What your major/templates are will determine which University Department you primarily interact with.

Don’t fret too much about trying to match your class with a Department.

d20	Department	Spell Examples
1	Torture	Wracking Pain, Heat Metal
2	Medicine	Cure Wounds, Raise Dead
3	Familiars	Summon Familiar, Unseen Servant, Animal Messenger
4	Tongues	Speak with Animals, Bookspeak
5	Reality	Minor Illusion, Clone
6	Accounting	Locate Object, Detect Crime
7	Circles	Circle of Protection, Explosive Symbol
8	Venoms	Poison Spray, Hands to Spiders
9	Thought	Modify Memory
10	Space and Time	Teleportation, Hyperadjacency, Time Stop
11	Tailors	Bag of Holding, Magic Hat
12	Grammar	Misspell Magic, Counterspell
13	Spying	Scry, Detect Thoughts
14	Charms	Charm Person, Suggestion, Hold Person
15	Whales	Fireball, Light, Protection from Elements
16	Names	Instant Summons, Sending
17	Elements	Wall of Swords, Summon Ooze
18	Forms	Enhance Ability, Stoneskin
19	Elves	Sleep, Magic Missile
20	Crystals	Magic Jar, Prismatic Spray, Color Spray

For instance, a Drowned Wizard (pg. C-5H) might be taking classes in the Departments of Whales, Elements, and Accounting. A White Hand Wizard might be taking classes in the Departments of Torture, Medicine, and Circles.

HOW DO I GET SPELLGOLD?

Spellgold is the primary currency in Wizard City. Virtually all commercial things are paid in it, from food to rent to textbooks. You can get it several ways:

• Make it yourself - this is very inefficient. MD can be converted into Spellgold at a 1:1 ratio. To start you can only make one Spellgold per day, and this leaves you vulnerable.

• Fence some loot - Few undergraduate students find themselves above thievery of university property. If you’re above theft, however, there are some dungeons on campus one can delve to acquire loot. There might even be more outside of campus. Steal furniture and busts of old administrators, loot textbooks off forgotten shelves, delve deep and find abandoned magic objects. Kleptomania is likely to be rewarded!

• Do some (probably dangerous) work - There are plenty of organizations around the city who could use some cannon fodder bodies: wizard gangs, fraternities, magical capitalists. Do some work, get paid.

• Marketeering - Lots of goods are in demand in various parts of the city: necromancers need bodies, spies need secrets, krill converters need, well… everything. Pawn stuff you find to these people for quick cash.

• Get scholarships - Do really well in your studies, and maybe some benefactors might decide to help pay some of your expenses in return for future favors or employment.

WHAT’S THE GOAL OF THE CAMPAIGN?

Well, traditionally it’s to survive until graduation... But really it’s up to you and the consensus of the group as to what you want to do during your time in Wizard City.

Keep in mind, though, this campaign will be limited in scope. There is a world beyond Wizard City, but we won’t interact with it (for the most part). It may be alluded to, but venturing beyond the city limits will exist extra-narratively, if at all.

CAMPAIGN TIME COMMITMENT

I also do not have plans to continue it indefinitely. This campaign will run for a limited number of sessions. Ideally we’ll be looking at 1-2 sessions per Trimester Break, resulting in around 12-24ish sessions overall, each 3 Hours in length. (I have a habit of underestimating how long things’ll take, though, so maybe double that.) Understand that your time in-game is limited, and make the best use of it.

SETTING SPECIFIC MECHANICS/TERMS

SPELLGOLD (SG)

10 Spellgold can be consumed like a Magic Die in order to cast a spell that you know, or have a spell scroll for. All wizards can turn their MD into Spellgold at a rate of 1 MD = 1 Spellgold. This process takes 1 Hour.

SESSION STRUCTURE

Wizard City campaign sessions will compose of two parts:

• What happened during the Trimester?

• Adventuring during the Break.

Every academic year is composed of three trimesters, preceded by three breaks. Because being a student is hard, everyone will only have time to adventure during these breaks. The rest of the time is spent doing off-screen studying, taking classes, working for minimum wage, etc.

Each break is only 2 days long. Each day is 10 Hours long (Wizard City uses metric time. 1 Day = 10 Hours = 1000 Minutes.) When break comes to a conclusion classes will resume, and any adventuring comes to a halt (dungeon expeditions, quests, and all between get abandoned).

Every trimester start with an additional 2d6 Spellgold, representing MD you managed to spare.

TRIMESTER EXPENSES

As a student, you’ve got bills to pay on a trimester basis:

• Food: 1d6 Spellgold

• Rent: 4d6 Spellgold

• Student Loan Interest: 3d6 Spellgold

Failure to meet these bills means during the next trimester you’ll respectively be: starving, homeless, or hunted by the Bank Inerrable. Additionally, there may be additional bills:

• Club Membership / Fraternity / Sorority Dues

• Protection from Criminal Gangs

• Doctors’ Bills

• Payment Plans on Textbooks / Supplies

LEVELING UP

Characters will level up every academic year, provided they are not expelled from academic probation. To avoid academic probation, you must have two things: passing grades in three of your classes, and materials for your classes (textbooks, inks, reagents, etc.)

These materials have commercial costs as follows: 

Freshman: None

Sophomore: 50sg

Junior: 100sg

Senior: 200sg

At the end of every trimester all students will make one ability check per class to determine whether they’re passing it or not. This is traditionally representative of one’s grades on a midterm or endterm test/paper.

 

Roll-under the requested stat on a d20, and you’ve passed. This check can be modified with bonuses, penalties, and everything in-between according to how prepared you are (with materials obtained during breaks) and potential random occurrences.

Certain objects, relationships, or loot can grant you bonuses. Injuries, getting on peoples’ shit-lists, or being lost in time and space can grant you penalties.

(For instance, a pilfered Textbook on Spell Anatomy with handwritten notes might grant you advantage on the Spell Breeding class. Doing a solid favor for Professor Y might grant you advantage in your Demonology Class. Having a major concussion might give you Disadvantage on the Planar Mathematics class.)

The standard number of classes for a student is 6. Students can take additional classes, but doing so increases their workload and provides a -2 penalty per extra class taken on all of their classes.

WIZARD CITY CLASSES

While everyone will start as a wizard, certain GLOG templates will become available after certain achievements have been met. Classes can be found here. 

Unlock requirements (will become displayed once unlocked):

Anti-Magic Officer: ???

Mo-RON: ???

Spellshark: ???

T-Man: ???

Bureaucrat Bravo: ???

Grey Gnost: ???

Krill Man: ???

Speed Wizard: ???

These classes do not progress normally as Wizards. Instead, to gain templates one must acquire and spend an amount of spellgold equal to the XP requirements on page A-9.