My Grimmlands
The lands of the Grimm RPG remind me of
Ravenloft. Children are ensnared by this twisted world, entering it through
the boiler room beneath their school or via a heretofore hidden passage in
their closet or by making a wrong turn on the way home from school in much the
same way the Mists would rise and claim adventurers from disparate lands. I thought that new “domains” should appear as
time went on, with each representing a different storybook setting and that
these lands would appear at the borders of the core, expanding outward from the
center to fill the plane.
The Grimmlands, or at the version of them that exist in my campaign, were formed when Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm began collecting stories with the purpose of creating a scholarly treatise. They decided that the best way to do this is to travel from town to town, listening to local folklore and collecting fairy tales. They were approached by a woman named Melusine who provided them with a tome that was able to transcribe the stories spoken into it. The men leapt at the opportunity to gain a tool that would ease their task.
For the next two years, the brothers crisscrossed the Confederation of the Rhine, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Empire of Austria collecting tales. Neither Grimm brother realized that the book is actually a portal to another dimension. The fairy tale characters, all of whom are based on actual people and creatures, are drawn through the portal and into a newly created world as their tales are recorded.
The world they have created is dark, frightening, and violent. In addition to the human-like population made up from the fairy tale characters, there are talking animals and objects that appear to be ordinary but are in fact alive and animate. The pocket dimension’s pervasive melancholy nature drove many of its denizens mad.
The Brothers Grimm eventually discovered that they were trapping these people and creatures inside of their book and in an effort to thwart Melusine, they told their tale to it as well and all three of them were drawn into the pages. The Brothers became the Men in the Moon, charged with recording all of the events transpiring in the world below.
The book itself was left behind in the “real world” where it passed from the hands of one author to another. Neverland, Oz, and Wonderland all soon followed as the book continued to circulate as Melusine had originally intended. A student who was translating Aesop’s Fables from Greek to English caused the Aesopica Islands to form out in the sea, south and east of the “core”.
Some inhabitants of this demiplane soon proved to be Immortals who would heal even after being killed until they returned to life. This phenomenon tended to be centered around the “main characters” of the stories the Brothers Grimm had recorded and included the likes of Snow White, Goldilocks, Cinderella, and Jack (of the Beanstalk). Others, like the Big Bad Wolf, the Aesop animal archetypes (Crow, Fox, Hare, and Tortoise) were “offices” that would pass to the nearest available animal in the event of the office holder’s death.
Melusine, not wanting her power to be challenged, took steps to ensure that some of these immortals were taken out of commission. Snow White was imprisoned in an airtight glass coffin and would quickly suffocate to death every time she returned from the dead. Jack, who had become king after slaying the Giant atop the beanstalk, was brainwashed into believing he was a simple Captain of the Guard after he fell down and “broke his crown”. It is rumored that she also arranged for the fairy, Merryzot, to be given meat by a huntsman setting in motion a realm-wide war that nearly wiped out the fairy races. Only faeries who took refuge in Neverland or on the moon were spared from the madness that overtook their kin. The Fairy Godmothers, and the Blue Fairy in particular, were armies unto themselves and slaughtered thousands of lesser fey and eventually killed each other, leaving an opening for Melusine to exploit by impersonating them.
The adventurers arrived in a mountain cave overlooking the core and soon rescued Miss Muffett from a gargantuan spider. It wasn’t long before the group’s elves began feeling strange and experience unusual compulsions. The group learned a little about the Immortals from Miss Muffett (and discovered that she had been killed many, many times by the massive spider) before she recommended a journey to Hamelin where they might be able to learn more about their predicament. They spent the night at the Inn of Hansel and Gretel, not knowing that the siblings had become cannibals after baking the Gingerbread Witch in her own oven. The innkeepers attempted to drug the adventurers but enough of the party members remained conscious to rescue their sleeping companions before killing the brother and sister and burning the roadside hostel to the ground.
After their narrow escape, they took ship aboard a giant wooden shoe owned by Winken the Butcher, Blinken the Baker, and Nod the Candlestick Maker. The ferry set a course for Neverland, intent on stopping there for the night before continuing on in the morning. The “boat” was attacked by Monstro the Whale and severely damaged but still made it to shore. The group spread out to investigate and the party’s monk soon found a waterfall near the island’s Mermaid Grotto and settled in to meditate when Ariel and her sisters attempted to ensnare him with the music. The rest of the party intervened and the mermaids soon met a gruesome end.
After gaining passage aboard the Jolly Roger, the party arrived in Hamelin, discovered that the Mayor (who had delusions of becoming an emperor) had spent all of the money intended to pay the Pied Piper for running the rats out of town. The Piper responded by kidnapping all of the settlement’s children and was holding them for ransom on a rickety bridge not far away. While some of the group agreed with the Piper’s position, none of them approved of his methods and they quickly vanquished the abductor and rescued the kidnap victims. They soon met Jill, Jack’s wife, who had been searching for her husband ever since he had fallen from a hilltop and was swept away by the Rioting River. She assured them that Jack had traveled the length and breadth of the land and that if anyone knew a way out of this realm, it would be him. They joined Jill on her quest and were soon on their way to speak with the Men in Moon. After helping Mary (Who Had a Little Lamb) stop the predations of Boy Blue and Bo Peep (who were imprisoning children, dressing them as sheep, and selling them to hungry giants as food and/or slaves), they reached the pasture where the Cow That Jumped Over the Moon was supposed to live, only to discover that it had been taken by Puss ‘N Boots. A rescue mission was soon underway and the Cow was returned.
The party traveled to the Moon, learned that it was made of green cheese, met the Brothers Grimm and learned that Jack had been pulled from the river by Melusine, who was posing as Cinderella’s fairy godmother. The muse brainwashed Jack into thinking that Cinderella was the rightful queen and that he was the Captain of her guards. The adventurers and Jill made their way to the castle and fought the Muse and a kiss from Jill restored Jack’s memory. True to her word, Jack did know a way to escape and directed the party to cross the Loomslag Peaks, via the Fortress of the Three Pigs and seek out the Rabbit Hole in Wonderland. The group was successful in their endeavors and soon found themselves emerging from Mimir’s Well in Asgard.
The Grimmlands, or at the version of them that exist in my campaign, were formed when Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm began collecting stories with the purpose of creating a scholarly treatise. They decided that the best way to do this is to travel from town to town, listening to local folklore and collecting fairy tales. They were approached by a woman named Melusine who provided them with a tome that was able to transcribe the stories spoken into it. The men leapt at the opportunity to gain a tool that would ease their task.
For the next two years, the brothers crisscrossed the Confederation of the Rhine, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Empire of Austria collecting tales. Neither Grimm brother realized that the book is actually a portal to another dimension. The fairy tale characters, all of whom are based on actual people and creatures, are drawn through the portal and into a newly created world as their tales are recorded.
The world they have created is dark, frightening, and violent. In addition to the human-like population made up from the fairy tale characters, there are talking animals and objects that appear to be ordinary but are in fact alive and animate. The pocket dimension’s pervasive melancholy nature drove many of its denizens mad.
The Brothers Grimm eventually discovered that they were trapping these people and creatures inside of their book and in an effort to thwart Melusine, they told their tale to it as well and all three of them were drawn into the pages. The Brothers became the Men in the Moon, charged with recording all of the events transpiring in the world below.
The book itself was left behind in the “real world” where it passed from the hands of one author to another. Neverland, Oz, and Wonderland all soon followed as the book continued to circulate as Melusine had originally intended. A student who was translating Aesop’s Fables from Greek to English caused the Aesopica Islands to form out in the sea, south and east of the “core”.
Some inhabitants of this demiplane soon proved to be Immortals who would heal even after being killed until they returned to life. This phenomenon tended to be centered around the “main characters” of the stories the Brothers Grimm had recorded and included the likes of Snow White, Goldilocks, Cinderella, and Jack (of the Beanstalk). Others, like the Big Bad Wolf, the Aesop animal archetypes (Crow, Fox, Hare, and Tortoise) were “offices” that would pass to the nearest available animal in the event of the office holder’s death.
Melusine, not wanting her power to be challenged, took steps to ensure that some of these immortals were taken out of commission. Snow White was imprisoned in an airtight glass coffin and would quickly suffocate to death every time she returned from the dead. Jack, who had become king after slaying the Giant atop the beanstalk, was brainwashed into believing he was a simple Captain of the Guard after he fell down and “broke his crown”. It is rumored that she also arranged for the fairy, Merryzot, to be given meat by a huntsman setting in motion a realm-wide war that nearly wiped out the fairy races. Only faeries who took refuge in Neverland or on the moon were spared from the madness that overtook their kin. The Fairy Godmothers, and the Blue Fairy in particular, were armies unto themselves and slaughtered thousands of lesser fey and eventually killed each other, leaving an opening for Melusine to exploit by impersonating them.
The adventurers arrived in a mountain cave overlooking the core and soon rescued Miss Muffett from a gargantuan spider. It wasn’t long before the group’s elves began feeling strange and experience unusual compulsions. The group learned a little about the Immortals from Miss Muffett (and discovered that she had been killed many, many times by the massive spider) before she recommended a journey to Hamelin where they might be able to learn more about their predicament. They spent the night at the Inn of Hansel and Gretel, not knowing that the siblings had become cannibals after baking the Gingerbread Witch in her own oven. The innkeepers attempted to drug the adventurers but enough of the party members remained conscious to rescue their sleeping companions before killing the brother and sister and burning the roadside hostel to the ground.
After their narrow escape, they took ship aboard a giant wooden shoe owned by Winken the Butcher, Blinken the Baker, and Nod the Candlestick Maker. The ferry set a course for Neverland, intent on stopping there for the night before continuing on in the morning. The “boat” was attacked by Monstro the Whale and severely damaged but still made it to shore. The group spread out to investigate and the party’s monk soon found a waterfall near the island’s Mermaid Grotto and settled in to meditate when Ariel and her sisters attempted to ensnare him with the music. The rest of the party intervened and the mermaids soon met a gruesome end.
After gaining passage aboard the Jolly Roger, the party arrived in Hamelin, discovered that the Mayor (who had delusions of becoming an emperor) had spent all of the money intended to pay the Pied Piper for running the rats out of town. The Piper responded by kidnapping all of the settlement’s children and was holding them for ransom on a rickety bridge not far away. While some of the group agreed with the Piper’s position, none of them approved of his methods and they quickly vanquished the abductor and rescued the kidnap victims. They soon met Jill, Jack’s wife, who had been searching for her husband ever since he had fallen from a hilltop and was swept away by the Rioting River. She assured them that Jack had traveled the length and breadth of the land and that if anyone knew a way out of this realm, it would be him. They joined Jill on her quest and were soon on their way to speak with the Men in Moon. After helping Mary (Who Had a Little Lamb) stop the predations of Boy Blue and Bo Peep (who were imprisoning children, dressing them as sheep, and selling them to hungry giants as food and/or slaves), they reached the pasture where the Cow That Jumped Over the Moon was supposed to live, only to discover that it had been taken by Puss ‘N Boots. A rescue mission was soon underway and the Cow was returned.
The party traveled to the Moon, learned that it was made of green cheese, met the Brothers Grimm and learned that Jack had been pulled from the river by Melusine, who was posing as Cinderella’s fairy godmother. The muse brainwashed Jack into thinking that Cinderella was the rightful queen and that he was the Captain of her guards. The adventurers and Jill made their way to the castle and fought the Muse and a kiss from Jill restored Jack’s memory. True to her word, Jack did know a way to escape and directed the party to cross the Loomslag Peaks, via the Fortress of the Three Pigs and seek out the Rabbit Hole in Wonderland. The group was successful in their endeavors and soon found themselves emerging from Mimir’s Well in Asgard.
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