The Blades of Gixa: A #dungeon23 Megadungeon by Quadra
Created by Paradiso
Delve deep into the weird underworld to find the fabled Blades of Gixa, legendary tools of the goddess of life and death!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
🌘 The common knowledge of the RPG setting, and moons!
8 months ago
– Tue, Aug 12, 2025 at 03:02:05 PM
Work on The Blades of Gixa is proceeding apace, if not entirely according to plan: in the last video update, I said the next step after my history spread would be to create the spread for the "overworld": a map of the surface above the dungeon, the town of Baintoch on the small island Montiri. And I did work on this for a while, drawing many of the buildings and working out some major characters, factions, and the like.
But I hit a wall when I realized I was unsure how to key this surface level: I didn't know what context players (or the referee) would have for the surface, and what information would be appropriate for the surface spread. With my history spread, I'd developed the history of the dungeon, and a bit of the overworld, but I hadn't defined what would be "common knowledge" for characters first arriving to this place. In fact, my intent was that nearly none of the information on the history spread would be common knowledge.
So I took a detour, and this update's video is all about that:
The new page is titled "The Greater World (As It Is Widely Known)," and, as the title suggests, it is all about everything outside the dungeon: what the surface is like, who its major factions are, what species and languages are common, how the calendar and moons work, how magic and the gods work, and a bit about the situation on the small isle Montiri, beneath which lies the megadungeon.
If you wanted, as a referee, you could make copies of this page and hand them out to your players, or you could just use it as a guide for describing the world to them and answering those "would my character know this?" questions.
This page will be accompanied by another one with information for referees only: what's happening behind the scenes, true motives, resources, relationships between factions, etc., as well as some simple tools for playing out what's happening in the greater world between sessions.
What's going on with those moons?
The world of The Blades of Gixa uses a lunar calendar: 13 months of 28 days each, for a total of 364 days. This just makes long-term timekeeping easier than our goofy real-world irregular-month 365-day system. Referees have enough to worry about, they don't need to also wonder how many days a particular month has. The month's names are also alphabetical, for ease of use!
This world's two moons exhibit some unusual behaviors, moving in tandem, spiraling through the sky, with some quite weird lunar phases. The referee and players absolutely do not need to know any of the mechanics behind this, so the page just has a chart with the days of the month and the corresponding moon phases. But the video features a segment in which I play around with a crude prop to demonstrate why the moons work the way they do, as a bit of bonus information!
What else?
I did make good progress on the overworld spread before this, so I'll be working on finishing it now that I have this context.
I'll also be working on the facing page for this one, with referee-only info about the world and how to run it, the weather table, etc.
I've started on the big spread of the various tables covering creatures, treasure, effects, books, etc. players will encounter.
I will be traveling for a fair chunk of this month. It may slow things down slightly, but shouldn't be a big deal. I'll still be working on this while on the road.
Hat, Patch, & Bag design & development is still ongoing, but the book is top priority, so that's where my focus is right now.
If you have an idea of what RPG system you would use to run The Blades of Gixa, do let me know if you haven't already! This will be useful when writing guidance on using and adapting the dungeon with different systems.
🌖 Progress on the surface, weather, moons, characters, factions, how to play
9 months ago
– Sat, Jul 12, 2025 at 10:43:20 AM
Hello dear backers!
I've been working away on the dungeon, but I don't have a big fun video about the project to show this month. All the stuff I've been working on are still works in progress so most of what I have to show for it are half-baked sketches, pages of notes, and some text documents on my computer. Not as exciting as last month's history spread, but hey not every month can be that flashy ;)
So this update will just be a run-down of what I've been working on:
The surface/overworld: A spread showing the village of Baintoch, which will serve as an early refuge for the players (unless they aggravate the Governor, the village guard, the church...) and the island of Montiri, upon which it sits. Beneath Baintoch is the first level of our Dungeon, the storied Ancient Baths of the Cult of Gixa!
Weather: The weather will be quite simple, inspired by Cairn's nicely straightforward weather system. There's not much need to get very detailed with it, as players should be spending most of their time underground, and besides, all of the weather types are pretty much just variations on "it's raining."
Lunar Calendar: This part of the world operates on a lunar calendar, tracking the two moons Jörmu (the blood moon) and Kunda (the gold moon), as they spiral through the sky. They are named for the great sky-serpent Jörmukunda, who in legend ate the sun, and now drags it through the sky in its belly. The moons, it's said, are its eyes, their phases formed by the twisting and blinking of the great serpent in the sky. The lunar phases have some implications for clerical magics.
Characters & factions: this bit has been rather complicated. I've been going through the dungeon and documenting all of the major characters and factions & working out their characteristics, problems, objectives, and relationships. I haven't figured out how best to present all this information yet, but that's in the works.
Introduction & how to play: I'm writing an introduction for folks who encounter the book for the first time, which will hopefully help them understand what this crazy thing they're holding actually is. I'm also writing recommendations on how to run the dungeon, including thoughts on mapping, time tracking, etc.
In addition to all that, I've put out another Paradiso Craft video about making terrain (with a little story about a cat), which you might enjoy :)
I've also released a big update to HUNDREDS, my platinum best-selling big book of tables for Mothership (and other SF games): d100 ranged weapons! Another big update is coming in the next few weeks, featuring the companion table, d100 melee weapons. Big updates like these bump the price up, but are free to everyone who already owns the book, so if you want a big flavorful book of sci-fi tables, grab yourself a copy today on DTRPG or Itch :)
OK I think that's enough update for now! See ya!
🖤 Quadra
PS: I'd still love to hear what system you would use to run this! Leave a comment or send a message. This will help me figure out what kind of advice to give for running/adapting the setting :)
⏳ Making History for the Megadungeon
10 months ago
– Mon, Jun 02, 2025 at 09:53:46 AM
Hi everyone! I've been working on crafting the history of the megadungeon & some intricate information design to convey it. Here's a video all about it, plus a text update:
📚 About the history
The history of the dungeon is contained in a 2-page flowchart spread, with time on one axis and place on the other. Time is split up into 5 eras: The Age of Caradel, The Life & Times of Gixa, The Age of Sorrows, The Long Drowning, and Now. The place axis is spread across the surface and all 12 levels of the dungeon. Each event in the history is contained in a box, and you can follow arrows connecting the boxes to see the sequences of events. Each major character is introduced with a symbol to help you track them through the history.
If you go from left to right you can follow all the major events that happened in a particular location. If you look below the banners along the top, you can see all the events that happened in a particular era. And if you follow a particular character's symbol, you can trace their path through the history.
Additionally, each era doubles as a table you can roll on, with each event as an entry. Players can find information in books, paintings, rumors, etc. across the dungeon that will be keyed simply as referencing a particular era. As the referee/DM, to work out specifically what it says, you roll on that era and draw from the event that comes up, using context to determine what you convey. So rolling the same event for an elvish history book, a goat-folk religious tapestry, or a giant frog bedtime story might yield rather different perspectives!
See the video for a deeper dive into the history!
✍️ Other Blades Of Gixa updates
The next big spread to tackle is the surface, which I have laid out but still have some inking and plenty of keying to do. Other spreads include character/faction information, tables, and guidelines for running & adapting the book to different systems (what system would you plan on running this with?).
Galen has been working on the soundtrack -- you can hear some of the music sketches in the video!
I've been working with Glass Embroidery on the bag & hat designs, and they're coming along nicely :)
💯 HUNDREDS goes platinum!
An extra bit of fun news: HUNDREDS, my 1-cent-per-entry big book of tables for Mothership, just became a Platinum best seller on DriveThruRPG! It has even more tables coming soon, so if you're interested in getting a copy, now's a great time before the price goes up!
🖤 Quadra
✍️ Progress on the surface, history, music, and bags, plus a new craft video
11 months ago
– Sat, May 10, 2025 at 03:15:47 PM
✍️ Blades of Gixa Status
Hi everyone! Here's the May 2025 status update:
Surface Spread
I've drawn most of a spread covering the surface immediately over the dungeon, featuring a small village, ruins, a lake, a cliff, and more. The spread also features an inlay of the island that the whole thing takes place on/underneath. I'm still working on inking it and figuring out what text, tables, etc. I can fit on it.
History
I've finished a rough version of the complete history of the dungeon and surface world, and am now working on compressing that history into a single rather intricate spread. This has proven to be a fascinating information design puzzle, and I think I've more or less cracked it. I have each of the 12 levels + the surface on one axis and time on the other, with events presented as a kind of flowchart. The history will give DMs an overview and understanding of how each location came to be in its current state, and of the major figures of history and legend that shaped them. The timeline leading up to the "present day" has 4 parts (still working on the names):
Age of Caradel: A golden era long past, existing now only in myth, when the great continent of Caradel was home to a multitude of peoples, the lamiæ, children of the great sky-serpent, still roamed the world, and the low elves were banished from the light of the sun for daring to seek the secrets of life and death.
The Life Of Gixa: A time of heroic deeds and terrible villainy, the stuff legends are made of. Gixa and Dorukh, twin high elf sisters, become adventurers, perform heroic deeds, all the while seeking out the long-lost low elves and their discoveries. They change the world forever, then disappear.
The Era Of Sorrows: An unending rain begins to fall on the world, slowly flooding the continent of Caradel, ushering in a long era of migration, tumult, and strife. Below the surface, power shifts and the first undead awaken. Legends of Gixa and her followers spread, and they come to be revered as gods and mythic heroes. Tales of the Blades of Gixa, implements of life and death, spread far and wide.
The Long Drowning: The current age. The rain continues, the waters rise, and Caradel is reduced to scattered archipelagos where there were once mountain ranges. The population has contracted and dispersed, and most have become seafaring folk. It is a time of relative peace: people mostly live small lives and watch the world slowly end—but some hear the legends of old and are inspired: to find the truth of the goddesses' fate, to find a way to save their world, to find ultimate power in the great lost artifacts.
(I should note here that while the history as written implies an entire setting, you can insert Caradel in your own world as a lost continent and keep everything described localized to that region. Or, you know, just make it a plane of its own.)
Layout
There are going to be 16 "core" spreads in the book, which will be reproduced on the posters: 12 for the floors, 1 for the surface, 1 for the history, 1 for details of people, species, and factions, and 1...we will see. Very possibly additional tables and procedures, depending how everything else shakes out.
There will be additional pages in the book (and PDFs), with guidance for adapting to different systems, notebook pages, line art, etc.
Music
I've provided Galen with a bunch of descriptions of each level, and he has been putting together sketches for tracks for each area. They are very cool, and I'm excited to share them with you when they're further along.
Bag
Glass Embroidery has put together two prototypes of the bag to test out sizing, construction, and materials, which I've reviewed and provided notes on. We'll keep iterating until we land on a design that hits the mark on aesthetics and functionality, then get to manufacturing!
🤖 New Paradiso Craft video
In other news, I have a new Paradiso Craft video out! It's about making a biomechanical monstrosity (and all its little friends) for Bill Making Stuff's Big Bot Bash, and it has a fun story to boot!
🖤 Quadra
✍️ Drawing Tino Video, Pre-Order Shop, Project Status
12 months ago
– Fri, Apr 04, 2025 at 04:29:18 PM
✍️ Drawing Tino Video
As promised in the stretch goals, some of these updates will come with videos about the project! This is the first, with a short video about drawing Tino, the campaign's little kobold mascot:
Kickstarter has finished charging everyone and is transferring the funds to Paradiso. If your payment didn't go through and you weren't able to update your info in time, don't worry, because...
I'm setting up BackerKit as the project's pledge manager and you'll be able to update payment info, add on more items, etc. on there in the future. It'll be a quite a while before backer surveys go out though, as there's still plenty to do on the project!
I'm working on the Overworld spread and fleshing out the early game hooks, rumors, overworld environment, etc. Once this is done, I'll be kicking off some playtesting internally as I continue to flesh out the rest of the module.
Tote bag prototyping is underway, with a couple experiments done already. We're adjusting the size of the bags to ensure they fit a few books comfortably, and working on a nice clean upper assembly so they'll hang nicely.
