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Black Market Guide to Immortality

Created by Nine Heavens Press

What are you willing to become for eternal life? The Black Market Guide is a 5e/PF2e sourcebook expanding the worldbuilding of Undying Corruption into the obsession of immortality that gripped East Asia. New subclasses, ancestries, and bestiary galore!

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Project Update: 95K UNLOCKED!! Cleric/Oracle and Ranger/Animist playtest subclasses added
6 months ago – Sat, Sep 20, 2025 at 09:46:48 AM

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!

Project Update: Cross-Collab Announcement w/ Nightfell The Witches' Path 5e
6 months ago – Fri, Sep 19, 2025 at 08:21:55 AM

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

  • Back both projects at any pledge level.
  • For our campaign, the bonus applies to all pledge tiers.
  • You can take a look at their grimdark, witch-centric campaign in the link below


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!

Project Update: 85K Stretch Goal UNLOCKED! Mithral Canvas Collaboration
6 months ago – Sun, Sep 14, 2025 at 06:19:16 AM

Good morning! We've reached in about 11 days what we've accomplished in our previous project. We still have several weeks and many more stretch goals to share. Speaking of, let's break down what's been unlocked and what our next goal is over the horizon.

  • Total 20 Printable 3D Minis

We're at a grand total of 20! With 5 of our own choices, backers that received the Sage tier and above can vote on 15 (possibly over 3 rounds just so this doesn't become super overwhelming) monsters for us to make into 3D Printable Minis. Talking about it with WyrmWorks, we've decided that in addition to the three we've previewed, we've chosen the Skull Gwishin and the Bulgasari to model. Everything else will be your pick!


  • 3rd new Core Lineage/Heritage

Currently on the 5e side in the polling, Dragonborn, Tiefling, and Elf are winning.

On the PF2e side, Leshy, Elf, and Orc are the overwhelming favorites. Given we have two elves in the running, we're going to design the two as uniquely distinct concepts and convert them. In other words, both books will be receiving two different elves from one another! Just to keep this fair and to not deprive anybody of their just rewards due to the overlap.

Next Goals: 95K and 100K!

  • Collaboration with Mithral Canvas
Once again, we've reached out to our friends at The Mithral Canvas to partner up for The Black Market Guide! Some of you may remember the Treasures of Daehan Minguk series that they put out. We're going to work on a totally new set of magical items for both of our communities based on aesthetic themes and mythological stories from across East Asia. Something enticing for both of our communities!


And just as a bit of a preview from our side, we're excited to preview another item. The True Samadhi Furnace is a forge that can hold within it the inextinguishable samadhi fire, using it to bring to life legendary weapons, armor, and magical items of all sorts. Supposedly, the furnace is also hot enough to melt down immortals into elixirs of immortality.

It's an artifact in possession of the Jade Emperor who, in Journey to the West, once ordered Son Wukong sealed inside of it. Only for him to survive because, well, what else do you expect from the Monkey King? It brings to physical reality the flames of total spiritual purification.

  • New Subclass: Picked by Popular Demand

Now that we've finally reached this point, we can start tallying the votes for the most popular classes that you've chosen. Based on whichever wins at the end, we'll design a completely new subclass to be added into the book.

So far, the most popular choices are: Warlock for 5e and a tie between Swashbuckler and Wizard for PF2e! Like before, based on the picks, we'll do cross-conversions, so both 5e and PF2e will receive something like what the other's receiving. We'll be taking a good, close look at how this plays out.

  • 100K: NPC Guide expansion: Secrets of the Lunarian Conclave

Folks, NHP is going to the Moon. We will include more thorough worldbuilding pertaining to the Lunarian Conclave! The civilization of the conclave was first started by a number of moon gods, like Chang'e and Tsukuyomi, were exiled or imprisoned there, then organized as others of different pantheons began to take notice. Lunamorphs, descendants of the rabbits that accompanied the first gods, created the society as one part theocracy and another part based on science and exploration across the recesses of space.

This is in addition to the Thieves' Guild NPCs, which... well, what sort of criminal organizations could be on the Moon! Makes you wonder. We're eager to preview more the closer we get to 100K!

As we begin to settle into the halfway point, thank you all once again for being here with us and for helping bring this book into being. If you have any questions, do comment here or email us at [email protected].

You can also click on the following image to join our Discord server!

Project Update: 75K STRETCH GOAL UNLOCKED, free sticker, Writers' Room Livestream 9/11 5PM Pacific
6 months ago – Wed, Sep 10, 2025 at 08:41:31 AM

Goodness, we've just blazed through our entire first set of stretch goals in just the one week! Absolutely amazing and sincerely, till the ends of my days, I have nothing but gratitude for both the returning backers continuing to support us and new backers giving us this opportunity.

  • 75K Stretch Goal and Free Sticker: 

With that, we will get to work on expanding our lore featuring the Four Benevolent Beasts and the Four Perils. We'll include a full array of lair actions, hazards, regional effects, various campaign hooks, and include various unique minions they can call upon to help build a most memorable boss fight.

Some folks have been mentioning they'd like to see tieflings/nephilims based on them! Certainly a fine idea. Speaking of, new core lineage/heritage! That brings us up to 3 total, meaning we'll pick the top 3 ancestries/species in each poll, both 5e and PF2e, and get right to work on making a new heritage/lineage for them.

At 85K, our total number of new printable minis increases to 20! Rachel has been printing and sanding them and we're very eager to share them very shortly. 

We've also reached 750 backers which means everyone receives a free sticker (if you want it!). We'll ask you in your survey which you'd like most and send them to you accordingly with your order. Thank you so much!

  • Livestream: Tomorrow at 5PM Pacific

Me and some of our writers and consultants (Tan Shao Han, Adam Ma, and Horkewnochiw Ayoro) will stream on YouTube to discuss some of what we've been working on for the book! We'll get more into detail with our player progression system into immortality and the various immortal NPC creature adjustments we have in mind. This will also be an opportunity for us to speak a bit on our cultures and how we've explored them in our writing, both for this book and outside.

It'll be a chill, informal chat, hence we're inviting you into our Writers' Room! If you can, we'd love to see you there!

Previews



The kamuypo is an exciting concept for a heritage/lineage based on Ainu mythology. Kamuypo literally means "Child of Kamuy". Kamuy is an Ainu word that often describes the gods, but can also refer to anything generally inhuman (gods, spirits, animals, elements, objects). Being born of a union between a god and a human, your soul carries with it a raiment inherited by your divine parent. It can materialize as cloth, accessories, or armor that you wear.

A limited number of times a day, you can tap into its power to wear something akin to a flesh suit that shares the appearance of your Kamuy parent. We're thinking of treating this like the Sangun's divine transformation. This ability is based on Ainu beliefs that Kamuy descend into the world wearing the physical hides and forms of beasts. When they pass on, they leave behind their flesh to serve both as sustenance and as valuable materials for tools, being a gift for the people's continued livelihoods. By donning the raiment of your soul, you can wear a similar body, controlling it from within as an organic armor.

If you have any questions, feel free to comment here or reach out to us at [email protected]! You can also join our Discord server, which is really starting to pop off! Click the banner to join us.

Day 7: Deity tier update, Paragon+ tiers upgrade, some WIPs
6 months ago – Mon, Sep 08, 2025 at 05:18:00 AM

Hello all! Start of a new week, good luck today with all of your endeavors!

Just wanted to let people know we've tweaked up some reward tiers that weren't really appealing much. With the Nirvana tier, we've decided to offer the chance to have your player character (or NPC, if you're GMing a game) sculpted into a 3D printable mini (STL)! Fitting, for one transcending the dimensional boundaries of reincarnation.

EDIT: If you're interested in the Moksha tier but would still like a mini, let us know and we can switch out an item, npc, or monster design commission for it. 

Our resident 3D artist, WyrmWorks, does quite good work, so do get in on this if you're interested!

In addition, the small upgrade we made to the higher tiers is that you'll receive both editions (5e/PF2e) of Undying Corruption's PDFs. For the value you're getting, it just seems like a natural service we ought to offer.



We're also very happy to share from our NPC Guide, Hong-gi, our resident Jeoseung Saja! He's part of a buddy cop duo with his partner, on the hunt for runaway souls. His favorite hobby is bullying the undead and sometimes his mortal colleagues helping with the reaping. We've got campaign hooks associated with each organization, including the metaphysical ones! You might just run into him in a campaign coming soon to you.

He's part of the Jeoseung bureaucracy, ruled over by the Ten Narakwangs, the ten judges of the Danguk afterlife, represented by their head, King Yeomra. Also called Yama or Enma depending on the region, King Yeomra is a fiend appointed to the rank of deity by the gods to manage and mete out punishment for souls before undergoing reincarnation. Though absolutely fair and merciless in all his rulings, he still has a slight sadistic streak that he approaches his work with. He's the absolute boss of all Jeoseung Saja, though another goddess, Princess Bari, does advocate for a gentler rest to deceased souls. Kind of a prosecutor/attorney relationship.



If you have any questions for us, please comment or email us at [email protected]. Our Discord server's starting to pop off more, so we invite you to join us for early updates and the ongoing Seul-ki Q&A!