Black Market Guide to Immortality

With under 5 days left, we're pleased to present to you a little video we've made compiling some questions and answers from our Discord in-character Q&A with Black Market Guide author, Shin Seul-ki! Many thanks to Rachel Reed, our video editor, and Apphia Yu, Seul-ki's voice actor.

We've also very close to hitting our 110K stretch goal, which unlocks Season 2 of the Undying Corruption Actual Play with Black Market Guide expansions! Catch you next time as we share more of what's to come.



If you'd like to join us over at our Discord server, just click the banner below:

Welcome to the Moon.



With the NPC Guide having unlocked special NPC entries for the moon, the world of Iseung can enter the realm of spacefaring! In light of Starfinder 2e coming out, plus other settings where high fantasy meets cosmic exploration being available for play, we're excited to delve a bit more into how these concepts can intertwine.

Empress Kaguya of Kyougen, based on the myth of Princess Kaguya, was raised on the terrestrial plane while being born on the moon, so she definitely sees an impetus of wanting both civilizations to someday make proper contact. In such a way where first contact wouldn't throw a very quasi-medieval world into chaos.

Among the deities that can be credited for having crafted mankind (meaning in this case, most humanoids), Nuwa is atypical for sharing a particularly close relationship to them. Many of the setting's creator gods moved on or grew bored after their first round of crafting, but Nuwa always remained fascinated with how much her little clay dolls could grow on their own. If she had her way, she would've gifted them with immortality from the start, though the other gods vetoed her on that.

She gifted them with the foundations of culture, even weaponry to protect them from monsters and the Primordial Beasts. It's said she accomplished this in a similar way to Hwanung by acting as a temporary sovereign before willingly stepping away. Nowadays, she's primarily worshiped by artisans and matchmakers who idolize her relationship with her husband, Fuxi (though he's more of a patron to scholars and mages, those more contemplative). 

Nuwa idealizes change and evolution, despising stagnancy and barriers to progress. If the gods should one day stand against mankind's ascension, then Mother Goddess Nuwa wouldn't hesitate to side with mankind.

We noticed that our friends over at Grim Moon Studio are working on a PF2e-expansion of Nightfell! Given that the Lunar Cultist is included in that expansion, we're very happy to announce that we'll include a Pathfinder 2e conversion of the Oath of the Eclipse subclass as a bonus for anyone who backs both us and Nightfell The Witches' Path. 

At the very least, given interest, we thought of making the Eclipse subclass some manner of a Champion cause, but happily, there's already synergy between our two projects.

 

Now that we've reached 1000 Backers, everyone will receive a total of 2 stickers with their order (should they choose)! We'll add the new bonus to everyone's order after the crowdfunding campaign ends.

That's it for now, but we're excited to share what we've got for future stretch goals as they get unlocked! Next up is the Undying Corruption Season 2 Actual Play w/ Black Market Guide expansion!

I think I forgot to send the last update to everyone, so if you haven't seen it yet, be sure to vote for which tier of play you'd like to see our potential one-shot adventure, Legacy of the Wailing Souls, to be set at! Both for 5e and PF2e play, of course.

If you have any questions or comments, comment here or email us at [email protected]. Please also join our Discord server by clicking the banner below!

We are entering the last week of the project! Though we're just around the corner from unlocking our 100K Stretch Goal, adding more moon lore to the book, we thought it's been enough time to update you on how we were doing.



First, to show you a bit of what your generosity is allowing us to create, here's a draft of our original soundtrack's cover! You can see Seul-ki conducting before an orchestra of spirits in Dangukese royal halls. We're excited that we get to make these artistic flourishes with what we do. 

Ranger: Vaultrunner/Animist: Voyager of Forgotten Storerooms and Cleric: Emptiness Domain/Oracle: Enlightenment Mystery have been added to the preview documents! When able, we'll continue to update the pdf with material that's been unlocked. You'll get to see them slowly but surely over the coming weeks. Please let us know what you think as we take community feedback to punch up the material a touch. 

For our 130K stretch goal, we've decided to put out a new one-shot: Legacy of the Wailing Souls. It will feature Seul-ki hiring you as part of a team of adventurers to help her scavenge a Society of Wailing Souls cult hideout that's been largely (not entirely) abandoned after the events of Undying Corruption. She's in the process of gathering materials to write the in-game Black Market Guide to Immortality and needs to get her hands on a last secret that her mother has been hiding. Namely, how she has lived for so long and the source of her connection to the Primordial Fox.

We will also use these new resources to touch up Dirge for My Bygone Days for both 5e and PF2e official release.

In preparation for the one-shot's potential release, we've put out a poll to get your preferred tier of play down! We can make this newcomer friendly or give a rare challenge for higher level adventurers. Your choice here will absolutely help shape the contents of this adventure!

We're also excited to announce that we'll gather again for another livestream to answer questions and wind down the campaign! For this, we'd like to get as many people as we can, so if it's at all possible, we might move around the time. You will of course be notified immediately.

For now, we're eager to spend several hours answering more questions if any, chatting, and watching as the final hours count down. Please be sure to join us!



To leave you with one last preview, the Skull Gwishin has largely finished being modeled! That is now 4 out of 5 of the team-chosen copies. We will begin voting on which other monsters or npc's you might like to see modeled after the project!

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reply here or email us at [email protected]. Or please join our Discord server by clicking the bottom banner!

That was quick! Not only have we unlocked the collaboration with our friends at Mithral Canvas, the book gains one more homebrew subclass to be voted on! Voting has already been underway in the polls. Both 5e and PF2e polls for favorite classes are up and the winner for either will be selected to receive a subclass. Of course, the winner for one system will be converted to the other as well, so in effect, you're getting two subclasses for the price of one. What a bargain!

As item experts, Mithral Canvas will again help shape a number of magic items in our book to also be shared with their community. Much of it will be original items based on our research, complementing our legendary items we've uncovered from our research.



To tease out our $110K stretch goal:


Season 2!! Of Stellaluna's Undying Corruption Actual Play, off to the southern province of Nampung. Provided we reach 120K, we'll have enough funding to pay performers to produce season 2 very shortly. In addition, there will be some adjustments such as encounters from Black Market Guide included! These will replace some more generic encounters derived from creatures in the monster manual.

In addition, you can expect us to tease out some NPCs from the NPC Guide as well. The production of season 2 will weave these two projects together as intended.

More to come! We're weaving a number of rewards just to keep up with ya guys. If you have any questions or comments, do reply here or email us at [email protected]. Or you can click here to join our Discord server!

Hello all, happy Friday! As we enter the final two weeks of the project, we have some exciting news to share: we’re partnering with Grim Moon Studio and their 5e campaign, Nightfell The Witches’ Path. Nightfell is an established horror-fantasy setting and winner of a 2022 Gold ENnie Award for Best Monster/Adversary.

We felt this was an exciting opportunity to partner with another group of creators working to create their original setting for 5e play. As we reach our 100K stretch goal, an expansion of lore featuring the Lunarian Conclave, we thought playing off of their Lunar Cultist homebrew class would give us an opportunity to do more storytelling with the interesting groups and factions on the moon!

How to Get Your Bonus

We're also hard at work updating the playtest documents. By the next update at 95K, we'll have both the 5e and PF2e playtest docs updated with previews of the Cleric: Emptiness Domain and Ranger: Vaultrunner subclasses for 5e and Animist: Voyager of Forgotten Storerooms apparition and Oracle: Awakening mystery for PF2e. We're inching towards 92K, so it won't be long now!

Previews


At the same time, our miniatures have started printing very nicely! The degree of detail's very impressive, especially how they translate well into physical form. Just wanted to share!

We've also teased a legendary encounter in our book! Dao Lao Gui, in the context of our setting, are venomous insectoid monsters that infest and feed off of the spiritual energies inside mountains. Their influence putrefies the waters, making nearby areas uninhabitable for other organisms. They were created by Xiangliu, minister of one of the Long Xin creator gods, as a scheme to turn the lands uninhabitable, returning life to the seas.

The Dao Hive-Mother, the colony's queen, breaks apart human matter and uses it in a process of internal alchemy to create soldiers to expand her territory. It's possible for people to someday recognize a dao lao gui, even the hive-mother, bearing distinct physical features of a friend or family member that disappeared.

They prefer hunting during storms and possess the ability to fire excessively venomous darts from their bodies. Everything about them symbolizes hatred for life on land.

More to come soon!