Black Market Guide to Immortality

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.

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!

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.

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!

Over the course of researching for the book, Seul-ki did quite a bit of traveling, playing at game parlors in Long Xin and treating herself to the hot springs in Kyougen! We're hoping to share more slices of life scenes of the Iseung region since not everything's embroiled in righteous conflict.

Welcome to Day 6! I'm pleased to report that everyone will receive an additional 5 tracks in the OST! To better gauge what our backers want, we've reopened the OST poll. Tense moments, boss themes of specific NPCs and huge moments in our book, songs of general resting and celebration at a tavern, let us know what you most want to hear so we can tailor the soundtrack's experience to you!

Once the 75K Stretch Goal has been cleared, we'll reveal more spanning into the 100Ks! Yes, we have so much more planned.

We deeply appreciate everyone's support up till this point. 

Now, an exciting update. In order to simplify the higher pledge levels a little bit, we've updated the Deity tier a little bit. You can commission us to illustrate your OC and create a VTT token for them! We will also include them in the book, credited under your name, as well. We feel this could largely be a bit more accessible to a wider audience even as we're not working directly with you on the worldbuilding aspects.

As of now, 3 have already been snagged, with 7 left. 

Granny's gonna grab ya! If you've watched Dandadan, you'd be familiar with the funny gremlin hag, Turbo Granny, or the 100 km/hr hag. Imagine a little old lady that can keep up with you while you're speeding along the highway. A modern monster from the 50's, probably 60's, Turbo Granny was born from rumors of a speeding granny chasing after folks and causing car wrecks.

Mechanics-wise, she's a hag that's very, very, very fast. In PF2e, she's naturally Quickened and in 5e, she can haste herself. That's on top of being able to gain additional attacks by sapping others' speed, so theoretically, she can upgrade her movement to, oh... 200 ft.? Yes, some playtesting could help us make sure we don't get TOO carried away!

Godkiller Giant


After the world's birth, when the Jade Emperor won the civil war of gods for the right to govern the remainder of creation, a cloud giant challenged him to a duel to avenge her master's death. The Jade Emperor decapitated the giant, but much to everyone's surprise, the giant didn't die. So fierce was the giant's righteous wrath against a clearly mightier foe that she entered an unbelievably rare state called Godkiller.

Godkiller Giants are effectively immortal giants whose rage, will to survive, and hatred against the heavens all culminate in immortality through instantaneous evolution. Decapitation? No problem, you'll just grow another head over your stomach. Arm missing? Just fine, we'll grow one more, and another while we're at it. Whenever a godkiller giant takes damage, they gain immunity against it until the start of their next turn. Battles become a puzzle of needing diverse arrays of strong attacks. Supposedly, there's another state they can enter that channels all of their adaptive powers into raw, obscene power, just to eke out victory.

Such giants can never return to their old homes, having become embodiments of unceasing rage, even if they succeed in slaying their enemy. Rather than being any individual, the Godkiller Giant is a template that any creature with the giant type can access.



Our Discord server's gotten a lot livelier! Come join the party!

We're closing in on our 65K stretch goal! Until then, we have more previews from the book to share with you. One of the things we're most excited about with this project is to commission more such art for the fascinating concepts and designs across eastern mythologies!



Amaterasu is the highest deity of the Japanese pantheon, also the Kyougen Federation's pantheon of our setting. As the sun goddess, she ascended to the height of her pantheon as a matter of necessity when her mother, Izanami, died, and her father, Izanagi, became inconsolable. The gods of the realm of Takamagahara had separated into two clans that supported either Izanagi or Izanami. The death of the latter caused turmoil which Amaterasu acted in a gambit set up with her brothers, Tsukuyomi and Susano-O, to restore order.

Though young, she dutifully accepted a weighty responsibility earlier than expected. She bears a love for mankind and holds dear to her a wish to see the people of Kyougen achieve unity for the first time in its long history. Precocious, loving, and formidable with a fiery passion, Amaterasu is one of many deities you can expect to see in our setting!


The primordial god of water, Gonggong, felt prideful after populating his seas with fish, aboleth, merfolk, sahuagin, and other such aquatic creatures. He despised the terrestrial creatures who he believed betrayed and forgot their debt to the mother sea. To punish them and return the lands to the seas, he appointed Xiangliu, his most trustworthy minister, with the task of eradicating all life on land.

Xiangliu is a conglomerate of 9 minds sharing a single body that never acts without a quorum. Declaring themselves the Ennearchy of Gonggong, they've descended onto the world in multiple different forms, whether as a bird or snake, always with nine heads, to fulfill their master's dream. Even after their master's disappearance due to lack of faith, Xiangliu fixates on washing all terrestrial life away in a great deluge. Their schemes have created a great number of monsters native to Long Xin.


The kotoribako is a marvelous little puzzle box. It appears like a small, wooden cube with small parts that can move around. If moved around in the right direction, something miraculous might happen!

... So in truth, it's a cursed item that's designed initially to target people by ending their bloodlines, hence why it's referred to as the "child-snatching box" in legend. If anybody solves the puzzle, they're transported to a plane of existence it's connected to, usually not a very friendly one. It can be weaponized by people who are familiar with the object's curse, but would you want to keep something like this so close to you?



The Registry of Mortality is a book that the judges of the underworld keep that records the names of everyone who has ever lived. Son Wukong stole one and erased his name from it, thereby gaining technical immortality (the best kind of immortality!). If weaponized, it can be used as something of a death note by altering someone's time of death. It has a number of authorities reserved only for the deities of the underworld, but if any falls into the hands of mortals, the material plane subsequently falls into pandemonium without fail.

Good morning, everyone! We're entering Day 4 of the campaign. Again, thank you all so much for helping us get to this point. 

The Seul-ki Q&A is underway in our Discord server! For those wanting to participate, please join us as we're already taking the time to answer questions in-character. Asking questions as your own characters is very encouraged!

Once we clear this goal, we'll upgrade the soundtrack to 15 tracks! In addition, we'll be choosing another lineage to create from the favorite ancestry poll. That brings us to 2 total!

Clearing this stretch goal, we'll dive deep into the lore behind the Four Benevolent Beasts and the Four Perils.

The Four Benevolent Beasts

Based on both the Four Symbols of mythology with a bit of the Four Heavenly Kings of Buddhist faith, the Four Benevolent Beasts are Primordial Beasts that transcended their mortal bounds through their friendship with Moksaka. Each protect a cardinal direction (so north, south, east, west) and hold dominion over an element. Though deities in our setting, they descend at times of true calamity. To prepare for such an event, we'll create a statblock for each deity!

The Four Perils

Standing opposite of the Four Benevolent Beasts are the Four Perils, also holding dominion over a cardinal direction and mastery over an opposing element. The Four Perils are a partnership across the fiend spectrum: demon, daemon, and devil. They represent the fall of mankind through their own vices: greed, overconsumption, war, unchecked ambition, and a return to the chaos before the world was created.

We'll include full lair mechanics and really upgrade them as true boss monsters, giving plot hooks at various different tiers of a campaign to pursue. Whether as guardians or destroyers, the Four Beasts and the Four Perils are some of an adventurer's greatest challenges in the Iseung region.

Even after this, we still haven't reached the end of our stretch goals! There will be more to show very soon such as lore expansion, additional tracks and printable minis, and another bestiary expansion around the corner.