[Kickstarter] Mists of Akuma: Eastern Noir Steampunk for D&D 5E (free PDFs)

Mike Myler

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The Mists of Akuma Kickstarter is live!

Go to the project page and you can get four free promotional PDFs (Mists of Akuma: Primer, Imperial Dragons, Martial Arts Feats, and Tsukumogami) to see what the world of Soburin is all about!

Inside of the finished Mists of Akuma campaign setting there will be:
• Scores of beautiful, brand new illustrations from several talented artists to truly depict the unique world of Soburin in all of its dark, gritty glory
• Detailed workings of Sanbaoshi, the capital of Soburin and home to the Imperial Palace of the Masuto Dynasty
• Information on the Star of the North, Chikan, one of the unique scientific prefectures of Soburin
• A section on Nagabuki, Gem of the South and one of Soburin’s most traditional states
• The 23 great clans of Soburin, each with statistics for a unique Bengoshi (government agent) and henchman
• Five different imperial dragons and over a dozen oni, fi lling your game with exciting new monsters especially suited for eastern fantasy
• A treasure trove of new class options!
Bushibot Martial Archetype, Circle of Blight, Circle of Shifting, Clockwork Adept Arcane Tradition, College of the Gun Priest, Detective Rogue Archetype, Herbalist Rogue Archetype, Kami Divine Domain, Mage Arcane Tradition, Martial Artist Monastic Tradition, Ninja Rogue Archetype, Priest Monastic Tradition, Samurai Sacred Oath, Tattoed Monastic Tradition, Shinobibot Archetype, Tsukumogami Hunter Ranger Archetype, Wu-Jen Warlock Pacts (with four patrons for every season of Soburin)
• New races for players in Soburin!
Humans (Soburi, Ceramian, and Ropaeo), Bakemono, Enjin, Hengeyokai (of the Cat, Dog, Monkey, Rat, Crane, Fox, and Spider varieties), Kappa, Mutants, Necroji, Oni-Touched, Psonorous, Pyon, Shikome, Steametic, Tanuki, Tengu, Umibo
• Dozens of new feats for spellcasters, warriors, and deadly martial artists
• Eastern armor and weapons, and a retinue of steampunk equipment
• Two new attributes to instill flavor into your game: Dignity and Haitoku

Find out more on the Mists of Akuma FAQ and for Actual Play sessions and interviews stop by author Mike Myler's web page, then get your pledge in before limited backer levels are all gone!
 
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The project is 45% funded and less than 30 pledges away from the next backer goal!
Check out the latest project update to see the new adeddo-oni template!

A Priestess’ Mystery at Yomokita
Hibike Natsuko and the snake spirit Hiba (her ever-present kami guide) cautiously made their way into the village of Yomokita. Despite being the most productive mining village in the region, the streets were largely empty and quiet, with only a few lights in the windows.
“I don’t like this,” Natsu muttered.
Try this. You’ll like it even less. For an instant Hiba allowed her to briefly see as he could and she was suddenly aware that while the swamp was physically at the other end of the village, spiritually speaking it had almost engulfed the entire settlement. Before she could ask about the anomaly the familiar sound of chanting drifted to her ears—someone was trying to appease the kami. A young girl in apprentice’s robes sat near the edge of the swamp at a small, obviously hastily erected shrine. Not even the most devout could find fault with the fervency of the girl’s chanting, however. Her voice was hoarse, but she clutched the ceremonial gohei wand tightly with her trembling fingers.
Natsu approached slowly, stopping a few feet from the shrine. Clearing her throat startled the girl, causing the amateur devotee to nearly knock over the small shrine and its offering of fuki stalks. Hiba chose this inopportune moment to enter the corporeal world and the girl flailed still more before throwing herself on her face in a bow. “Are you the great snake of the swamp?” the young miko maiden asked quietly, peering through her fingers at the two. Natsu had to concentrate to not snort in laughter as Hiba arched his body vainly.
“No, child. My name is Natsuko. I’m a priestess, and this is my kami guide, Hiba-sama. We heard about the swamp and came to investigate.” The girl looked up at this, her eyes brimming with tears.
“You can’t!” She lunged forward and took ahold of Natsu’s ankle. “It’ll eat you just like it ate Kuzo-sensei!”
Natsu frowned. She hadn’t heard that the swamp was deadly to humans yet—it must be more advanced than they had initially thought. She knelt down and smoothed back the child’s hair. “Tell me what’s wrong, little one. Start from the beginning.”
The story spilled out of the girl in a torrent of sobbing explanations tinged with the guilt of personal failure. The swamp had come up from seemingly nowhere some weeks ago and had grown to impressive size within a few days as the village’s herd of goats disappeared. Then a few of the children went missing. Kuzo, the settlement’s priest, had attempted to first communicate with then console whatever kami had brought the swamp in its wake, but after it took the children the village pushed him to act directly. Three days ago after a night spent in prayer and preparation he had ventured into the swamp, leaving his apprentice—the young Uruzami—to tend the shrine in his absence. He had not returned. “It’s all right, Uru-chan,” Natsuko said, gently detaching the child from her leg. “Hiba and I will find the bottom of this.”
And by ‘this’,” Hiba hissed in her ear, “I hope you don’t mean that creature’s stomach.
 
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We are 19 pledges away from the next backer goal (unlocking 5 MORE pregenerated PCs *immediately*!), there's a new Actual Play episode of Mists of Akuma with the RPG Academy Podcast, and if you stop by the RPGNet Chatroom tomorrow night at 9PM-11PM EST, I'm doing a live Q&A session about the Kickstarter!

Read all about it in the latest Kickstarter update!
 
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The latest project update is loaded with awesome!
There's the transcript from the live Q&A on RPGNet Chatroom, a Creature Colleague article on Dave Gross' blog that explores the noir part of Mists of Akuma, and an episode of the Adventure Party Podcast where I'm a guest, discussing Pathfinder RPG, D&D Fifth Edition, the ENnies, and more!

Today we're also introducing the fifth legendary survivor of Soburin, a character written by Luis Loza: Tsunaro the Great Bolt!

Nobaru and the Masquerade

The clatter of wooden sandals echoed into the night as an otherwise empty alley in Daibendo played host to the two women. One was a collection of unkempt hair, a tattered kimono, soft skin, a young face, and lost, empty eyes. The other was far older with flowing, ash-colored hair, scholar’s robes twice her size, a landscape of wrinkles, and a look of utter annoyance. The two were a sight to behold, sprinting through the alley faster than its roaming dogs could flee from their approach.

This part of Daibendo was usually empty at this hour, shared only by the rare patrol after curfew—not that any guard would dare arrest Nobaru. She was well known in the city and drawing the old woman’s ire was nowhere on the list of a guard’s duties so they kept their distance. The alley led past the settlement to the beach beyond and the clatter of sandals drowned under the soft sands, kicking up black grains in every direction. Each woman slowed as they slogged through the sands, plodding through until reaching the edge of the water. Here the young woman stopped and Nobaru followed suit; the girl turned around, her eyes the color of rust with blood spilling forth from the edges.

“Enough, witch!” screamed the girl. Her voice shook the sands and her hair fell away in thick clumps, lost among the onyx sands underfoot. A fissure split on the left side of her scalp and rent its way down the rest of her face. From within emerged a long, slender, chitinous leg that darted out and almost grazed Nobaru. A second leg burst forth, followed by two more. The segments of her legs bent inward, planting in the sands and lifting the girl’s body as they stretched.

The old woman stared on as transformation continued. “I know what you are,” Nobaru threatened.

“You are a fool and know only lies,” hissed the creature, spitting a horrid acid the color of spoiled wine, boiling the sands beneath as it hit the ground.

“Tell me then,” continued Nobaru, “why do you hide in the mists?”

A rasping chuckle rose up in the creature, escaping through the girl’s mouth and the chasm in her head. “Old woman, we do not hide—to hide implies that we are afraid. No, we are not hiding, but lying in wait for our time to strike!” She spat the word with poison, the acid shooting straight at Nobaru’s chest. The woman vaulted away in time to avoid it, crashing into the sand.

Nobaru leapt to her feet to see the creature fleeing across the water at an inhuman speed; she could not catch her like this. The aged and weathered skin covering her own body molted away to reveal thick, sapphire scales beneath a long serpentine frame. Taking to the air in pursuit of the monster, Tsunaro the Great Bolt moved far more swiftly but her quarry had a significant lead—in just a few seconds, it escaped. The imperial dragon watched as the creature disappeared into the Mists of Akuma below, roaring in annoyance and turning away to fly off into the night sky.
 
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A FIFTH FREE PDF IS ON THE KICKSTARTER PAGE!!!

Check out today's update for the Legendary Survivors PDF (filled with awesome stuff, from new steampunk prosthetics to an undead soldier race, and paper kami monsters!) AND a look at the flags of Soburin's clans!

A Priestess’ Work is Never Done

“When your new sensei gets here you’ll have to teach them to tend it in the same way. All right, Uru-chan?” Natsuko said as she lit the last of the ceremonial candles. Together the two of them had erected a small but sturdy shrine to the bell and made the necessary offerings. With any luck the ritual would keep the corruption in the item at bay and the kami inside of it appeased. Of course it might turn into tsukumogami any time—even Hiba couldn’t be certain when the Mists of Akuma were involved. At any rate she was no hunter of the things, so it would have to be someone else’s problem.

“Of course, Natsuko-sama,” Uruzaki said solemnly. It wasn’t fair—leaving her like this—but there was no helping it. Hiba’s presence eventually made the kami of the area more active so they’d have to move on or risk disrupting the village further.

“I think you’ve got a bright future ahead of you. Hiba-sama says that your prayers kept the swamp from overtaking the village after Kuzo-san disappeared.” Hiba hissed fussily that he certainly did not, but Natsu ignored him. “Here, you should have this.” She pressed a set of clay prayer beads into the girl’s hand. “I found it after the swamp dried up.”

“They were Kuzo-sensei’s,” Uruzami said, sniffling. She clutched them to her chest and stared at the patch of bare earth beyond the village where the swamp had appeared. “But Natsuko-sama, there’s something that bothers me. We don’t have the mists very often up here, and I’ve never heard of a missing bell at the shrine.”

Natsuko bit her lip in thought. If the bell hadn’t come from here, how had it gotten to the mountain top? “It might have come with a merchant,” she proposed. “Or it laid dormant for a long time. Kami move slowly.”

That’s not it, and you know it. But the girl seemed satisfied, at least for the moment.

“There’s a shrine not far from here. I’ll have them send someone out to teach you and help guard this place. And I’ve talked to the village elder; she’ll make sure that the offerings start again and that you’re fed.”

Only after you threatened to bring the kami of the mountain down on her.

Natsuko stood and adjusted the slips at her belt, trying to blink back a few tears. “You’ll be fine until then. You’re a brave girl, Uru-chan.”

The girl turned then and gave her a tight hug before backing off embarrassed, giving a deep bow instead. “Thank you, Natsuko-sama. I will try to do you proud.”

Nodding, Natsuko turned and headed towards the trail before she could be tempted to stay.
 
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10% FROM FUNDING AND LESS THAN 60 HOURS BEFORE THE PROJECT ENDS!
It's a close race and we're only 23 pledges from the next backer goal -- be one of the folks to push us over of the top!

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...tern-fantasy-noir-steampunk-for/posts/1588831

A Challenge in Chikan

I didn’t have many plans when I headed for Konbo, only my suspicions. With spring upon us the weather warmed and I was reminded of my youth—it made me want to set out on new journeys, to discover the secrets of the Imperial Dragons that had brought me to Sorubin so long ago—but the changing season provided its own challenges as well. As the weather warmed the natural fogs, especially in the lowlands, became unspoken borders. While I had seen the real Mists of Akuma before (with their telltale deep violet smoke), not everyone had. Worse, everyone knew the mists changed men and as a result, few wanted to take unnecessary risks.

Luckily for the crew and I, our junker made it to Jinkosugu without issue. The crew cried out, “Yatta!” when we finally pulled into the small bay, and before noon I was walking toward Chikan. The settlement was, in many ways, the northern cousin of Konbo; it had its differences, but they were subtle. Rumored to be built atop the bones of a fallen Imperial Dragon, Chikan differed in its reverence for the past and more so for their (some say heretical) traditions. While others prefectures might still hold tight to three millennia of long-practiced traditions, many in Chikan had adopted more modern ways. It made sense that I might learn more of the fabled Fan-Hand of Saru-No-Ō here, as well as gain some of the lost lore about the dragons I so admired.

Most of my afternoon was spent gathering information from the locals I met, and were it not for my tender age I fear many would have ignored me and passed me by. However enough did not, and before dusk I was wandering the city’s narrow, dirty alleys looking for a shop called The Forgotten Forge, a place supposedly owned by a foreigner like me. After several hours navigating the byzantine streets and shortly before true night fell I found the store, a dim light glowing through its shuttered and locked windows.

It took me a few breaths to work up the courage to knock—there was an unnatural feeling about this place and while I wasn’t one to believe in “auras,” something about this shop struck me as foreboding. I raised my hand to knock but before I did, the door cracked open.

The amber light that leaked out from inside had a warming glow but it wasn’t nearly as comforting as I might have hoped. I found myself in a small room, no more than a large closet really, with two chairs and a single, small black table. Two cups of tea rest on it, both still steaming. Although there were two chains, both were empty. I quickly removed my sandals and took a seat.
Then, over an old, crackling speaker, a voice called out. “Mr Karrooc,” it said (in perfect Ropaeon, I might add), “you have traveled far for a secret. If you are willing to work on behalf of my bengoshi, you will have it.”
 
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