In the Scilly Isles there’s a missing covenant called Stellasper. We know of it only that it was a Criamon clutch, that its name suggests astrology, and that its people vanished together. To supplement the Cornish gazetter, that I produced earlier in the year, I’d like to consider how to expand the saga seeds within it. I’ve struck an idea for the guardians of the ruins of Stellasper.
The Aratea are a series of poems, by an author called Aratus, in which he describes each of the constellations. They were written in Greek, but translated into Latin by Cicero. In the Ninth Century they were collected and published, each being illustrated by an extract of Hyingus’s Astronomica, where the words had been shaped into a representation of the constellation. Let’s look at some examples before we continue.
So, imagine monsters made of living, churning words: like Criamon tattoos come to life. Word-spirits which can eat language, and incorporate it. Creatures that can feed directly on spellcasting, by eating the spoken components. Creatures that are recharged by starlight.
When the Criamon clutch fled the world, perhaps to the Hall of Heroes, they left these things behind. It’s not clear if they are Adulterations or the results of experiments intended to draw down Aspects of astral daemons. Will the player characters notice that one constellation is missing? It’s the largest, but who, when fighting the Dragon and Orion, would miss something so mundane as The Ship?
Games From Folktales 