Horizons 2

A new year, new adventures, and a new issue of Horizons!

The PDFs of Horizons 2 are attached to this post! (Treat these files as you would any physical game product—don’t upload them somewhere and post the link on Reddit, but do feel free to share them with your individual gaming group when you use the content.)

Here’s what’s inside these beautiful pages:

Cover Art by Kent Davis

Our cofounder and art director Clara had the concept for a beach scene with a magical portal, and we could think of no one better to illustrate this than the master of cloudy skies and mountains, Kent Davis. It turned out that Kent has always wanted to paint a tropical beach scene, and oh boy did he deliver! We’re honored and thrilled to have Kent’s art grace this cover, and it’s a balm to my soul during this long and dark Northern Hemisphere winter. 

The mountains also remind me of the Dueling Peaks in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, evoking fond memories of adventures across Hyrule … though I don’t remember any portals like this one. 

The Desk of Many Thoughts

Embolden your fantasy by drawing on reality

Author: Quintin Smith (Quinns)

Here at Wildmage Press, we’re big fans of using the real world to inspire fantasy, including things like floating lakes and dragon blood trees. But more ordinary aspects of the real world—like the challenges of historical everyday life—bring just as much drama and wonder to RPG games.

In this op-ed, Quintin Smith of Quinns Quest dives into how earthy details and practical considerations—huddling around the campfire, navigating through a dense forest, helping a goat give birth—can further immerse players in the fantasy of adventuring. 

Isolde’s Tome of Esoteric Spells

Three new disciplines of forbidden magic

Author: Amber Litke | Artist: Nino Vecia
System: 5e (Spells, Feats, Character Options)

The sanguine art of hemomancy allows you to manipulate the blood of other creatures as well as empower your spells with your own blood. Latrotheurgy is divine magic not earned through devotion, but stolen from the heavens by those who are willing to risk the wrath of a furious deity. And last but not least, the knowledge of nethermancy was never meant for mortals—wielding these forces beyond comprehension offers great power, but comes at a cost.

Crimson Strings and Stolen Prayers

A couple whose love could bring the world to its knees

Author: Sadie Lowry | Artist: Veronica O'Neill
System: 5e (Storyline, Encounters, Stat Blocks)

Emrys and Irene Hawthorne are a powerful, ambitious couple who can be your party’s next epic villains … or benefactors … or even (likely unreciprocated) crushes. Or all of the above. They wield latrotheurgy and hemomancy in pursuit of influence, dominion, and ever more forbidden knowledge. This article details the Hawthornes’ history, plot hooks, and stat blocks, with encounters as the party progresses from levels 2 to 11, and enough flexibility to be run as a short arc or one-shot.

Terrific Trappendix

Five new traps to challenge your players

Author: James Introcaso | Artist: Clara Daly
System: 5e, easily adaptable for other systems (Traps and Puzzles, Encounters)

These five tremendous, terrific, and optionally terrifying new traps will challenge your players, add excitement to your dungeons, and offer extra objectives for your next encounters. From the [redacted] that summons [redacted] to the haunted [redacted] that might make the party dance ’til they drop, each trap comes with suggestions and tips for optimal use, as well as scaling for all tiers of play.

Adversarial Archetypes

New specialties for unconventional investigators 

Author: Carlos Cisco | Artist: Brandi York
System: Candela Obscura (Character Options)

Candela Obscura is an investigative occult horror RPG in which characters pursue strange occurrences and encounter dangerous magicks, fighting back against a mysterious source of corruption and bleed in a turn-of-the-century-inspired setting.

These new character specialties—the Tycoon, Street Tough, and Unfettered—take oft-villaneous archetypes and reimagine them for heroic (or antiheroic) investigators. They also come with questions and prompts to help develop your character’s backstory and connections within the city of Newfaire.

***

Horizons includes bios for our designers, editors, consultants, artists, alpha testers, and staff, and a page of handy resources and links for getting started with the game systems featured in each issue. (Candela Obscura has an official soundtrack! How cool!)

We hope you enjoy this installment of Horizons and we can’t wait to hear about your adventures with esoteric spells, the Hawthornes, traps, and investigations in the streets of Newfaire. And please spread the word about Horizons so we can keep leveling up and making even more awesome things for your games!

—Hannah, Editor-in-Chief

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Content Warning for Horizons 2: The art on page 5 contains a depiction of self-harm in the context of spellcasting. See the article’s content warning on page 4 for more detail.