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Jewel in the Sky: A Megadungeon with a Twist from Monte Cook

Created by Monte Cook Games

Legendary TTRPG designer Monte Cook, creator of Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, Ptolus, and more, returns to the megadungeon!

Latest Updates from Our Project:

A Spooky Dungeon Update!
13 days ago – Mon, Oct 26, 2026 at 12:29:25 PM

Hello backers,

We’re drawing ever closer to All Hallows’ Eve, a night of tricks and treats aplenty. And what better way to get you in the spooky mood than hearing how the dungeons of Vocurro will scare and delight your players?!

Spoilers ahead!

Monte says…

Since it's spooky season, you might be wondering if Jewel in the Sky has any horror elements.
 
Do you even know me at all?
 
Spoiler warning, but this adventure has a wickedly crafty vampire, creepy beings called antler spirits, and ghosts. Oh, the ghosts. Each one unique, the ghosts that haunt the crypts (and elsewhere) in the dungeon include the matron—along with all her accompanying child ghosts—the mourning spirit that forces you to recall lost loved ones, and the grasping ghost, composed entirely of dozens of ghostly hands. And that's just for starters!

—Monte 

We can’t wait to share more details about the dungeons as they come to life!



Love high-fantasy-with-a-twist? Check out Between Earth & Sky: the Roleplaying Game!



Celestial prophecies, political intrigue, and forbidden magic…bring your own story to life in the Meridian, the setting of Rebecca Roanhorse's bestselling Black Sun trilogy, with this TTRPG of fantastical magic, fickle gods, and dangerous choices!

The War of the Spear ravaged the people of the Meridian. The Treaty of Hokaia gave them three centuries of peace. Now the gods—and the forbidden magic—threaten to destroy all they built. The Celestial Tower has fallen; the Watchers dead or scattered; the Sun Priest no more… 
 
Based on the acclaimed bestselling novels of Rebecca Roanhorse—Black Sun, Fevered Star, and Mirrored Heavens—Between Earth & Sky: the Roleplaying Game immerses you in the Meridian, a rich and beautifully detailed high fantasy world inspired by the civilizations of the Pre-Columbian Americas.

Have questions about the game? Read on!



Join a LIVE AMA with designer Shanna Germain this Thursday!

Have questions about Between Earth & Sky: the Rolelpaying Game? Lead Designer Shanna Germain (she/her) will be hosting a live AMA on Thursday, October 29, 2026 at 7:30 PM CT to answer any questions you may have.

Please head on over to the Cypher Unlimited Discord, (the ⁠ama-between-earth-and-sky channel) to post your questions—the earlier you leave them, the better chance they'll be answered live on stream!

(Please DO NOT leave questions under this crowdfunding campaign update, as they are likely to be missed!)

Thanks for your support!
 —Team MCG

Designing the Dungeon Continues—with a Crustaceous Twist!
about 2 months ago – Mon, Sep 14, 2026 at 04:04:14 PM

Hello, backers! 

Vocurro is shaping up to be an incredible journey for your players, whether they’re a group of mages, knights, and rogues, or a crew of pilots, space rangers, and medics. We’d like to take an opportunity to share some design snippets from Monte Cook himself, and a testimonial from one of the players in his fantasy playtest.

Monte says… 

So recently, I learned about remipedes. These are eyeless crustaceans that look like colorless, segmented centipedes. Each segment has a pair of legs, like a centipede, but they're like little flippers because these things live underwater. In caves. Not only do they have sophisticated mandibles, but their head has six strong, arm-like appendages for holding prey while the mandibles bite, over and over. To top it all off, they can also inject a powerful neurotoxin. Of course, in the real world they are only a few centimeters long. But in a fantasy world, a giant remipede might be more like 5 feet long. 

Moral of the story? If you're exploring the natural limestone caves that are a part of the megadungeon, stay out of the water. Or maybe don't, because there's something really important in the submerged cave below them for all the adventurer/cave-divers out there. 

—Monte 

(Nothing to worry about, right? Right?!?)

Playtesting continues! 

Kate, one of the internal players in Monte’s playtest, had a few tidbits to share as well. 

“Our Jewel in the Sky playtest as a fantasy party really does playtest the megadungeon itself—from noting that we needed an idea of how much it costs to stay in the definitely-not-haunted-tavern, to whether we use Effort on each or just one roll to make the undead run away before we had to. (Even if we are incapable of rolling above a 10, and are essentially clown shoes when it comes to in-character decisions)!" 

—Kate, aka Sparks, an Intuitive Dragonfolk Cleric who Blazes with Fire 

We can’t wait to share more details about the dungeons as they come to life! 


Thanks for your support!
 —Team MCG 

The Event Tracker Makes the Dungeon Dynamic
5 months ago – Thu, Jun 18, 2026 at 01:18:38 PM

Greetings, explorers!

We hope your summer is full of adventures, whether you’re outdoors or hiding from the weather in your preferred gaming habitat.


A Dynamic Dungeon.

We checked in with Monte, who has been designing and running playtests for Jewel in the Sky and this is what they shared with us:

Playtesting and design continue at a rapid pace for Jewel in the Sky. In the games I'm running, I've found that the Event Tracker (the new name for the "clocks" discussed in the campaign) really makes the dungeon dynamic. Triggered when players roll 1s or 20s (or both) in the session, the tracker may result in interesting changes. The dungeon’s inhabitants move around, new inhabitants move in—often introducing some new potential story element—conflicts among inhabitants resolve or flare up, or some aspect of the dungeon changes. Even relatively minor events, such as an inhabitant moving through a dungeon area, can have big repercussions to the PC's adventures, because the inhabitant might leave a formerly locked door open, reveal a secret door, or something similar.

—Monte Cook, June 2026

I don’t know about you lovelies, but we definitely have a waaay higher percentage of folks who consistently roll 1s; hard stares go to Bruce and Kate for this! Who in your group is going to have the dials of the Event Tracker spinning, or have you found the ways to sacrifice to the dice gods for leniency?

Keep in touch for more updates. Thanks for your support.

– Team MCG

Monte talks mirrors...
6 months ago – Tue, May 26, 2026 at 03:46:18 PM

Greetings, explorers!
 
The post-campaign lull has allowed everyone to take a bit of time in the tavern or holodeck, depending on your preference! Behind the scenes (or deeper in the dungeon), a great deal is happening. Monte was able to surface from the Jewel long enough to tease this report: 
 
I'm working steadily on Jewel in the Sky, and running two playtests (one for fantasy characters and one for sci-fi characters). As I go along, I'm finding a lot of great opportunities for handouts to use at the table. I've created briefing summaries and data readouts for science fiction explorers as well as tavern menus and hand-drawn area maps fantasy characters can obtain in the nearby town, Murton. Of course, a fun thing about Jewel in the Sky is that the science fiction characters can go to Murton (probably disguised as locals) and encounter those handouts, and the fantasy characters can trigger (by accident or on purpose) scanners they find and get the data readouts. In either case, language can be a barrier, but that's what translator devices and magic spells are for!
 
In the dungeon itself, I'm currently working on the mysterious region that can be discovered by stepping through doorways seen only in the reflections of magic mirrors. There are multiple such mirrors throughout the dungeon and they all... well, that would be a major spoiler. Suffice to say, this Megadungeon rewards those characters really interested in exploration and satisfying their own curiosity!
– Monte Cook, May 2026
 
As one of the players in Monte’s Jewel in the Sky fantasy campaign, and having experienced these weird mirror rooms, I too would LOVE to know more. If only to prevent…well, ok, yes, that’s probably a spoiler too! 
 
Keep exploring, and watch out for mirrors…
 
 
Thanks for your support!
 —Team MCG

Jewel in the Sky Has Soared! KEY INFORMATION
6 months ago – Tue, May 05, 2026 at 10:39:35 AM



Hello, backers, and thank you so much for a great campaign!

After more than three days, Overtime Mode has come to an end, and with that the Jewel in the Sky crowdfunding campaign has concluded. All of us here at MCG are so happy that you’ve helped us craft a very cool book into an amazing boxed set and adventuring experience. Thank you!

During Overtime Mode you unlocked not only the expansion to the Creatures of Vocurro bestiary (which we'd almost hit at the scheduled end time), but went on to unlock two more goals, upgrading to the Twin Clocks Timer and adding foil stamping to your XP card collection. Nearly 250 new backers pledged to the campaign while we were in Overtime Mode—what an amazing result!

Please Read On!

We want to tell you a bit about where things go from here, but first let’s give out a little credit to the small team here at MCG that works so hard to bring you our games—and this crowdfunding campaign.

Monte has been working on Jewel in the Sky for some time—well before this campaign launched and all through it. Other members of our design team—Sean, Bruce, and Shanna—have been working on other upcoming products, including The Electric Sun (for Invisible Sun), Face Your Fears and Do Not Open (for The Magnus Archives Roleplaying Game), and the Predation setting for Cypher. They’ve also overseen tweaks to the new Cypher corebooks as those titles have moved through layout and proofing.

Bear and Javier wrangled art, imaged new products, and designed XP cards for this campaign, while working on layout for the Cyper corebooks and other projects. With Teri and Dominique, they’ve also moved titles like Face Your Fears and Come Hell or High Water through production.

Jen, Olivia, and Kate have answered your questions (and are always available to provide support to you, our wonderful community). Tammie has been steering the ship and keeping the logistics moving through the many challenges of our era. Daniel has been supervising our warehouse, working hard to fulfill rewards and orders. And Charles planned and ran this campaign (and is writing this update).



We are a small team, and we keep a lot of plates spinning at any given time!

Now, here’s what to expect as we move forward from here. Please give it a read!

The Immediate Future 

Running a crowdfunding campaign is hard work (and Mega Dungeon Month was close on the heels of our last campaign). So we’re looking forward to getting a bit of rest. You might not hear from us for a little while, but don’t worry. Monte’s been working on Jewel, while Bear has been wrangling art and maps, for some time—and they’re keeping at it! We’ll post updates any time there’s news share. 

The Next Few Weeks

BackerKit began collecting pledges the moment the campaign closed. But it takes them a full two weeks to release those funds, along with the data on our backers.

In the meantime, we will get the pledge manager fully set up. The pledge manager gives us the information we need to fulfill your pledge and lets you manage your add-ons and make any pledge upgrades you want. We’ll notify you when we open the pledge manager, which should be in about three weeks. You MUST look out for, and respond to, that notification!

The Next Few Months

Once you’ve completed the pledge manager survey, we won’t need anything else from you until it’s time to start fulfilling rewards. We’ll be busy making Jewel in the Sky for many months. We’ll post regular updates, but if you don’t hear anything for a few weeks, don’t fret.

At the same time, please pay attention when you do get communications from us. Our emails and updates include critical information about your rewards.

When Your Rewards Ship

Every time a reward is ready for you, we’ll contact you by email to begin the fulfillment process. Generally, we’ll direct you to the MCG Shop, where you’ll log in, “buy” the product (for free, because you’ve already paid for it through this campaign), and check out.

This is an important part of the process because it ensures we have accurate delivery information for every item we send out. (With thousands of backers getting rewards, it's amazing how many people will change their address over the fulfillment period.) You'll pay for shipping at that time.

Please pay attention to communications from us—don't let our updates or emails go to your spam folder, or otherwise ignore them, because if you do you could miss out on some of your rewards.

Thanks for your support!
—Team MCG

What, No Announcement?

If you’ve a longtime backer of MCG’s crowdfunding campaigns, you know we often tease the next big thing right here in this space. For the next few months, we’re going to be focused on the launch of Cypher—one of the biggest and most important new product launches in MCG’s fourteen years. Follow us on social media, join the Cypher Unlimited Discord, and check the MCG website in the months to come for loads of cool info as we approach the release of the Cypher corebooks.


We do have something very exciting lined up for later this year, and we can’t wait to tell you about it. But for now, Cypher deserves all of our attention!