Campaign Sparks V

Campaign sparks are short, detail-filled nuggets of inspiration. These 100-150 words form the basis for a GM to create an entire campaign. They include a few NPCs, a few setting elements, a conflict, stakes, and a twist. The goal is to spark a GM's imagination and go from there.

The Color of the Magi

The Rose Empire is similar to historic Japan, but with magi instead of samurai.  The incarnation of black magic—the black magus—is born into every generation and always dies by age 20.  Fallen Leaf—the current black magus—plans to break this cycle by harnessing his future reincarnations to gain immortality.

Fallen Leaf seeks the Rote of Ages and the Sign of Ages to enact his spell.  White Sand—a monk learned in magic but not a magus herself—recruits other magi to find the Rote and Sign before Fallen Leaf.  The roads are made dangerous by bandits such as Petal of the Blooming Orchid, a crimson magus.

When the Rote and Sign are united, White Sand reveals the truth: she is the black magus, and she used magic to manipulate Fallen Leaf, the white magus.