RPG-a-Day #31: Edge

"The Age of Atlantis was both a fascinating and frustrating chapter in the history of the world--and their legacy reflects that to this day. On the one hand, they left us with the Witchkind. On the other hand, they left us with abnormalities like the House on the Edge of Never."

--Brigid the Red, a dragon living secretly among humans

THE HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF NEVER

The House on the Edge of Never is formally named Walling Manor. It was built by Witchkind architect Horace Walling in 1903 on the site of a dimensional distortion that had been growing more and more virulent since the Fall of Atlantis. His intent was to build a frame around the distortion and controlled it before it became a hazard to reality; he was partially successful.

The front door of the house is located exactly on the spot of the distortion. Entering the house through it safe enough, but exiting through it results in a one-in-ten chance of opening the door to a swirling mass of colors and if you step through you find yourself in another place or time or dimension... or possibly all three. You then have ten minutes to return through the door or any and all presence of you ever having existed will be erased from your native universe, as reality struggles to repair the rift. (If the characters are somewhere on present-day Earth, they are still in their own timeline.)

The Walling Family has been living in the house since Horace completed it, with the exception of Horace himself who got lost between realities by leaving through the front door one day. His family still remembers him, as the Witchkind are immune to the memory-wiping effects of reality attempting to fix itself and its timeline. Whenever someone shows up who has knowledge of the occult--or, even better, knowledge of the extra-dimensional secrets of Walling Manor--they will promise handsome rewards to those who can find Horace and bring him back to them.

  

DOORWAY DESTINATIONS

Roll 1d10 when a character exits Walling Manor through the front door. On a 1, roll 1d100 againts the table below to see where the door opens to. Sharp-eyed readers will notice that several destinations are one of Brigid the Red's homes that are scattered around the world. This is because she helped Horace Walling create the front door to the mansion and inadvertently left her imprint on it.)

1. The Obsidian Throne Room of the Lich-King Valdros - Midnight during a blood moon

2. A 1950s American diner in rural Nevada - 3:47 AM, just as the coffee pot starts to boil over

3. The base of a secret society a the bottom of the Mariana Trenc - High noon (surface time)

4. A floating garden above the clouds of Jupiter - Dawn of the 300-year storm cycle

5. The Library of Alexandria - Two hours before the fire begins

6. Brigid the Red's home/lair in Australia (1-7 she's at home, 8-10 she is not) - Present day

7. A cyberpunk Tokyo street market - Neon-soaked 2:00 AM during cherry blossom season

8. The surface of a comet hurtling through space - The moment it passes closest to a dying star

9. A medieval torture chamber - The hour of mercy (when guards change shifts)

10. The waiting room of the Department of Interdimensional Affairs - Eternally 4:30 PM on a Friday

11. A coral reef city of merfolk - The Festival of Tides at dusk

12. The trenches of World War I - Christmas morning, 1914

13. A giant's kitchen cupboard - Breakfast time

14. The peak of Mount Everest - During the brief window of clear weather in climbing season

15. A pocket dimension containing only a single oak tree - Autumn, always autumn

16. The engine room of a generation starship - 847 years into its journey

17. A Victorian London opium den - The witching hour

18. The nest of a thunderbird - Moments before a lightning strike

19. A child's closet in suburban Ohio - 3:00 AM, when the monsters come out

20. The Grand Bazaar of Brass in the City of Djinn - The hour of impossible bargains

21. A Roman bathhouse in Pompeii - August 23, 79 AD, morning

22. The inside of a living, beating heart - Systole

23. A space station orbiting a black hole - Where time moves at half-speed

24. A fairy ring in an ancient forest - Midsummer's Eve at twilight

25. The control room of Chernobyl - April 26, 1986, 1:23:40 AM

26. A pirate ship during the Golden Age of Piracy - Three minutes before the kraken surfaces

27. The workshop of a mad artificer - The moment of their greatest breakthrough/explosion

28. A subway platform in an abandoned timeline - When the ghost train arrives

29. The throne room of the Faerie Queen - The hour when all debts come due

30. A 1920s speakeasy during Prohibition - Just as the raid begins

31. The caldera of an active volcano - The calm before eruption

32. A monastery in the Himalayas - 4:00 AM prayer time, winter solstice

33. The deck of the Titanic - April 14, 1912, 11:30 PM

34. A crystalline cave that amplifies magic - During a planetary alignment

35. A food court in an interdimensional mall - Lunch rush, all times simultaneously

36. The war room during the Cuban Missile Crisis - October 27, 1962, decision hour

37. A greenhouse on Mars - First harvest dawn

38. The lair of a sleeping elder god - Five minutes before it wakes

39. A speeding bullet train in Japan - 3:15 PM, passing Mount Fuji

40. The moment between moments - When time hiccups

41. A gladiatorial arena in ancient Rome - High noon, when the emperor gives thumbs down

42. The bridge of a derelict spaceship - When life support has 10 minutes remaining

43. A witch's cottage in the woods - The hour of brewing, when the moon is dark

44. The floor of the New York Stock Exchange - Black Tuesday, 1929, market close

45. A bioluminescent underwater cave - Midnight, when the creatures sing

46. The laboratory where the first atomic bomb was built - The moment before the test

47. A treehouse in a world-tree - Sunrise, when the tree awakens

48. The back room of a pawn shop that deals in souls - Closing time

49. A battlefield where two armies are frozen in time - The instant before the charge

50. A 1960s NASA control room - T-minus 10 seconds to launch

51. The palace of the Sun King - The exact moment of dawn

52. A noir detective's office in 1940s Los Angeles - Raining, always raining, 11 PM

53. The spawning grounds of cosmic horrors - When the stars are right

54. A medieval plague village - The day the doctor arrives

55. Brigid the Red's home/lair in Wales (1-6 she's at home, 4-10 she's not) - During the Age of Camelot

56. A temple to forgotten gods - Who are ready to be remembered

57. A speakeasy in Hell - Happy hour (it's never happy)

58. The observation deck of a lighthouse - During the worst storm in a century

59. A quantum laboratory - The moment Schrödinger opens the box

60. The throne room of an underwater kingdom - When the tide turns

61. A saloon in the Wild West - High noon, naturally

62. The gallery of living paintings - When the subjects escape their frames

63. A bunker during nuclear winter - Year 47 after the bombs

64. The workshop of Father Time - When he's running late

65. A jazz club in 1950s Harlem - 2 AM, during the best set ever played

66. The chamber where a phoenix is reborn - The moment of immolation

67. A space elevator - Halfway between earth and sky

68. The Hall of Mirrors in Versailles - During a masquerade ball, midnight

69. A dimension where gravity works sideways - Breakfast time (subjective)

70. The tent of a fortune teller - When she actually sees the future

71. A server farm containing uploaded consciousnesses - When they dream

72. The eye of a hurricane - The deceptive calm

73. Brigid the Red' home/lair in Iran (1-2 she's home, 3-10 she is not) - Year 6 B.C.

74. The workshop of the Sandman - When nightmares are being crafted

75. A Prohibition-era bootlegger's cave - During a delivery

76. The moment a star goes supernova - From a safe distance (hopefully)

77. A Victorian séance parlor - When something actually answers

78. The cafeteria of a superhero academy - Lunch period chaos

79. A samurai's garden - Cherry blossom season, moment of perfect peace before battle

80. The server room of the simulation we're living in - During a system update

81. A strip club on the moon - Happy hour, low gravity

82. The chamber of a sleeping beauty - One minute before the hundred years end

83. A 1980s arcade - Saturday afternoon, high score attempt in progress

84. The realm between life and death - When the ferryman takes a break

85. A monastery where monks have taken a vow of silence - When one is about to break it

86. The cockpit of Amelia Earhart's plane - July 2, 1937, final transmission

87. A pocket dimension that's just an endless IKEA - Closing time (it never closes)

88. The war room of Atlantis - Minutes before the flood

89. A drive-in theater in 1950s America - Dusk, feature presentation starting

90. The moment before the Big Bang - If such a thing exists

91. A speakeasy run by vampires - When they're serving the special vintage

92. Brigid the Red's home/lair in Arizona (1-7 she's home, 8-10 she's not) - Present day.

93. A 1990s shopping mall - The liminal hours after closing

94. The bridge between parallel universes - When both versions of you cross simultaneously

95. A medieval alchemist's laboratory - The moment they discover gold (or explode trying)

96. The green room before reality TV was invented - When it was still real

97. A space station being consumed by a sentient gas cloud - When the crew realizes

98. The study of Sherlock Holmes - When he's solved it but hasn't revealed the answer yet

99. A dimension where music is visible - During a symphony's crescendo

100. The door maker's workshop - When they're crafting this very door