In fact, the world almost seems to be a patchwork of other worlds. Villages, cities, even entire kingdoms have mysteriously appeared, all from different worlds and all completely oblivious as to what has happened. Forests, mountains and other geographical features have been transplanted wholesale as well.

The range of reactions is quite varied. Some continue living their lives as ever, some try to carve out power in this new dynamic, and some try to figure out what happened and how to undo it and be returned to their home world.

Thorin is long dead, but the dogs have continued breeding and residing in the tower. Generations later, the descendants of the original dogs still have the same gifts. The dogs have an extremely limited vocabulary, with words such as ‘Good,’ ‘Bad,’ ‘Dog,’ ‘Cat,’ ‘Me,’ ‘You,’ etc.

Encounters at the Dog Tower

Local farmers complain that wolves have been killing their livestock. The PCs discover the dogs while searching for the wolves, and likely will believe the dogs to be the cause of the problem. The dogs don’t understand the situation and are not responsible for the killings, but their limited intelligence and vocabulary makes this non-obvious. They will not attack the PCs unless provoked, and might even be convinced to help.

The PCs are searching for Thorin’s tower to recover some ritual or artifact, and must convince the dogs to allow them entrance.

Things quickly proceed down hill from there. The dragon accidentally toasts a cherished mount, demolishes buildings with its tail, and claims anything that’s valuable and not nailed down as its own (as well as quite a few things which are nailed down). Through it all the dragon is very kind to the PCs, for example throwing a feast in their honor (“borrowing” all of a village’s cattle and grains to do so, of course).

At twenty-six, Lexandr married a prostitute he’d fallen in love with named Misty. Misty would end up giving him four children, all girls. Natasha was the eldest, followed by Tania and then the twins Rada and Raisa. Eventually Lexandr got a boy named Dmitri as well, from an affair with a woman who died during childbirth.

Over the past few years, Lexandr’s health has begun waning, causing a great deal of infighting as the siblings jockey for position as the heir to the family business. For her part, Misty seems content to party, get drunk, and bunk with whatever handsome suitor her affluence can attract.

Natasha, who grew up as the presumptive heir, is extremely jealous and fearful of Dmitri. She knows that her father was always disappointed in his lack of a male heir, and worries that even though the boy’s barely a teenager Lexandr may pass control on to him.

Dmitri feels little empathy towards his half-sisters. His father’s told him that he’s the son of a duchess, and he takes great delight in rubbing in the fact that his sisters are daughters of a common harlot.

The twins don’t care very much what happens to the business, so long as they’re taken care of. Where Natasha is a driven and ruthless woman, the twins are spoiled brats who take after their mother and want nothing more than a life of luxury and decadence.

Tania ran away when she was a teenager. Lexandr searched for her half-heartedly for a while, but in the end decided he didn’t miss her all that much. She was sick of living in her sister’s shadow, and decided to run away and make a new name for herself.

Encounters with the Ibanovs

One of the PCs becomes the object of Misty’s affections, and is showered with gifts. If he scorns her, however, she takes a grudge against him and does everything in his power to make his life a living hell.

Lexandr hires the PCs to find Tania. He’s become disgusted with the sycophants that surround him and believes that only Tania, who spurned him and his wealth so long ago, is truly fit to run the business.

Natasha and Dmitri each hire the PCs to dig up dirt on the other.

While the PCs are attending a formal party, the twins crash it and make a huge scene, flouting all senses of decency and propriety.

An acolyte seeks out a PC priest, paladin or cleric. The acolyte desires for the PC to send him on a quest to gain their deity’s favor. An apprentice wizard asks the party arcanist for advice on spells to study or how to identify quality reagents. A plucky thief seeks advice on sneaking.

Regardless, the petitioner is not interested in becoming a sidekick. While he might be willing to follow the PC around for a short while, he’s really just looking for some help in kick-starting his own adventuring career.

Approaching the PCs, the man steps down from his horse and nearly falls over, but catches himself on the stirrup. He produces a thin package from his pocket. “Please,” he says, “you must get this to the city.”

If the PCs question him, he will say only that “they” will not be far behind and the PCs must hurry, for “it” cannot fall into “their” hands. When he’s convinced the PCs to do this task for him, the man takes a signet ring off his finger with a symbol of a hammer over a shield, telling them to bring that along with his package to Malleus Hall and find Gregor Teuber.

At some point, perhaps midsentence, the soldier falls to the ground. His burden transferred, he’s finally allowed himself the peace of death.

Algrecht befriends one of the PCs, the sneaky one who secretly fancies himself an assassin (there’s always one). He even gives that character a little trinket, a gem which destroys dead bodies without a trace. Handy for covering your tracks!

That’s not exactly what the gem does, though. In actuality, rather than destroy the body, it teleports it to a pocket dimension which only Algrecht can access. He’s given these gems to many people, and uses this steady stream of fresh corpses to create an undead horde. He’s just waiting for it to reach the necessary critical mass to begin his plans…

On the cusp between this world and the next there is a great, sprawling city known as Mourngate. It is here where all souls go to be judged and sent off to their final rest, and sometimes loved ones come here to be with their recently departed.

Most of the time, the cases are swift. A being called The Arbiter judges the soul as wicked, pure or conflicted. The wicked are sent off to the hells, the pure to paradise, and the conflicted to purgatory, where they will not have the fruits of paradise but nor will they suffer the tortures of damnation. Though this process is swift, the sheer bulk of souls waiting to be judged means that it can take a long time for your turn.

The Arbiter’s judgment is not final, though; any may appeal for a trial, with all the trappings. If the appealer can convince an angel of their plight, the angel will represent him in court. Otherwise, they’ll usually have to work out a deal with a demon to represent them. In return for getting them off of an eternity of punishment under someone else, the appealer might agree to only a few thousand years of punishment under the demon representing him before going to purgatory.

Encounters with Mourngate

A celestial messenger contacts the PCs, asking them to come testify against a villain who they killed.

The PCs must help a recently-deceased friend find counsel for his trial.

A PC cannot be raised because he’s been deemed wicked. He has been granted an appeal, and he and the rest of the PCs must work to clear his name.