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View Full Version : D20 Create a Setting - City of Plot Hooks



FreeloadingSausage
2011-09-07, 12:21 PM
I saw a four year old thread on RPGnet that involved developing a city from the ground up by the creation of a number of plot hooks. The idea is, anyone can post a plot hook, and it becomes canon for the city. Plot hooks can build on plot hooks until the city has a life and character all its own.

Now, I have a bare-bones idea for a city in a campaign that I am running, and I thought it might be fun to open up the city's development a bit. I haven't been on this forum in a while, so I don't know if anyone will bite, but it's worth a shot. So anyone and everyone, please feel free to add any plot hooks you can think of, but one per post, and taking any prior submissions into account. No refuting, but modifying, clarifying and adding twists to previous posts is encouraged.

Ultimately I'd like to have a descriptive and interesting city in a fun locale that anyone can fit into their own campaigns, with plenty of plot hooks and quirks to keep any party of adventurers interested for a good, long while.

For the purposes of this exercise, a plot hook is any kind of detail about the city, like a point of interest or worry, a custom, an important structure, social or cultural information etc. I'll give an example at the bottom to start us off.

tl;dr - Look at the picture, read the starting info, then add a detail or plot hook if you feel like it.

This is how the city looks:
http://static.desktopnexus.com/thumbnails/31154-bigthumbnail.jpg

My development so far:

Name: Bastur Azi
Cultural Aesthetic: Arabian

* The city was built in a massive underground cavern by dark elves tens of thousands of years ago.

* In the past, the city housed the dark elf nobles who oversaw a mithril-mining colony called Kisarai. In the present, the city is populated entirely by outsiders.

* The central spire was a dark elf palace, but now it houses a giant open portal to another plane which serves as a highway for the outsider inhabitants and merchants.

* The city is administered by a male Efreeti Malik, and a female Shaitan Pasha who are ostensibly mates, but are frequently at odds (think Oberon and Titania).

NOTE: the game I am running is Pathfinder, but the in-game pantheon is from the original D&D 3.5 book (Heironeous, Vecna etc.)

Starting Plot Hook: The city is a trade-hub for many planes because, though there are strict trade laws in place, all transactions are lightly taxed, and there is no such thing as contraband.

EDIT: If you're interested in the source for this idea, here is the link: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?400401-4e-Create-a-Setting-City-of-Plot-Hooks

THEChanger
2011-09-07, 09:48 PM
Alright, here's two just off of the top of my head:

The mithral mines are still active, being an excellent source of income for the city besides its trade. Malik owns a fair portion of the mines, but someone has been trying to muscle in on his holdings. Through a combination of violence and clever purchases, Malik is losing money on those mines, and wants something done about it. But to do it himself would cast doubt on his strength as a ruler. So, who's trying to bring him down?

A drow spy has been caught within the court of Malik and Pasha. She's been monitoring defenses and planar travel for who knows how long by now. And there are rumors of a great host of dark elves gathering in a city a few weeks' journey away, under the banner of a single House...

Eldest
2011-09-08, 11:00 AM
In the less well off areas of the city, a newly arrived rabble-rouser has started to raise a following. Nobody knows what he looks like, though, as each time he/she shows up the rabble-rouser is wearing a red cloak with a deep hood. The rabble-rouser is arguing for more power to the people, and nobody knows if he/she is genuine or not.

FreeloadingSausage
2011-09-08, 11:36 AM
The Malik and the Pasha compete for the honor of being the most well-liked ruler, and so they competitively throw parties and festivals in their own honor. These festivals disrupt business in Bastur Azi, and cost overwhelming sums of money. As a result, there is a new party or festival in either the Malik or the Pasha's honor nearly every week.

TravelLog
2011-09-08, 01:26 PM
Rumors have begun spreading about a wizard who has created a spell capable of banishing all the city's outsiders to their respective home planes in one fell swoop. According to the rumor, the wizard needs sacrifices to power the spell, and a string of disappearances have already begun across the city.

jiriku
2011-09-08, 02:00 PM
A merchant prince from another plane arrives in Bastur Azi to set up shop, and both Malik and Pasha alternately court and threaten him in an effort to assure that the power, influence, and revenue he generates will be put to their ends (or at least not the ends of the rival administrator). The merchant prince, meanwhile, is unsure how to judge the real value of an alliance with one or the other, and wants above all to avoid angering either. All three are involved in a delicate political dance of enticements, intimidation, and cloaked motives, and will need to rely heavily on go-betweens, spies, and perhaps a little hired muscle in order to secure their own goals.

FreeloadingSausage
2011-09-09, 03:53 AM
Rumors have begun spreading about a wizard who has created a spell capable of banishing all the city's outsiders to their respective home planes in one fell swoop. According to the rumor, the wizard needs sacrifices to power the spell, and a string of disappearances have already begun across the city.

There is little evidence to point at any single culprit (including the rumored wizard) in the disappearances. The Malik's Efreeti guardsmen have offered possible alternate identities for the captors: Perhaps it is the Dark Folk (Pathfinder Bestiary) who live in the wild caverns beyond the city limits, and have always taken umbrage at Bastur Azi's existence, or maybe the mysterious Denizens of Leng (Pathfinder Bestiary 2), known slave traders from an unknown dimension who often visit Bastur Azi's marketplaces are responsible.

Regardless of the true culprit, many of those who have gone missing were witnessed to behave strangely before their disappearance, wandering aimlessly as in a daze or under some sort of internal compulsion.

lemurbouy
2011-09-09, 03:52 PM
Strange tremors have been felt from time to time throughout the city don't match the regular seismic activity of the city and many whisper if maybe there is some problem with the portals and how they are interacting with each other. This theory is being popularized especially by the dark elves who would wish to see their city purged and returned to its native glory. The tremors seem to be at their most powerful near the old unused cemeteries which have been largely converted to public parks.

FreeloadingSausage
2011-09-13, 08:07 PM
A merchant prince from another plane arrives in Bastur Azi to set up shop.

One of this merchant prince's top spies is actually a double agent, working for an unknown entity of great power from outside the material plane.

Maho-Tsukai
2011-09-13, 08:39 PM
As a burgeoning hub of trade, the great city has drawn the eye of a covetous group of dragons who for centuries have dominated the interplanar economy and held a monopoly on fiscal/economic power. Seeing this city-state as a possible acquisition for their vast economic empire they have decided to hammer our a deal with Malik and the other rulers of the city to more or less annex it. The dragons and their minions would own the city and control it's business, but they claim political structure, culture ect.. will remain in tact. They also promises that the city will have some influence and ability to participate in their larger economic empire as well as the opportunity to gain massive wealth for the city due to being exposed to all manner of new markets....

Malik will have none of it. The dragons, being the arrogant and greedy beings they are will have the city whether Malik wants to give it to them or not. They have yet to actually engange in violence, holding out for a possible bargain, but threaten it despite. With this possibility of a massive conflict which the city would surely lose due to being totally outclassed by their enemies looming overhead the other elite political voices of the city, including the Pasha, have begged Malik to reconsider and take the dragon's deal.

Despite their cries he remains ever stubborn...and as a result much of the city's political elite are now looking for a way to get him out of power before the dragons take the city by force.....and some of them are considering rather unsavory means to do so..

RedWarrior0
2011-09-13, 09:50 PM
Four plot hooks from me:

Just north of the city are the original mithral veins (which are long empty); there is still a wall, as some goblinoids lived in the caves there until they were finally wiped out some number of years ago. Now, however, the north wall is crumbling from centuries of disuse, and someone claims he saw eyes in the darkness...

In the western market district is a massive fountain, added to the city after its repurposing. The fountain itself covers hundreds of square feet and is arrayed in nine tiers, and the statues of fifty heroes of various cultures adorn it. One of this was Haar-Sin-Kaar, a legendary human warrior who was said to have slain a mind flayer city barehanded before making a feast of the aberrations' brains for himself. Recently, the statue went missing overnight, but in a week had been returned with a single difference: the person depicted was an illithid.

In an alleyway in a poor area of town, three of the city's hordes of homeless disappeared. A bit of gold and the right questions at a bar they would frequent will let you know the barkeep that his brother told him he saw a trio of very well-dressed aristocrats (who looked uncannily familiar) ride by. They make no mention of the run-down tavern and seem to ignore all else. The next morning, the bartender found his brother with his throat slit and his tongue cut out... ((I'm thinking of a specific high-level Sorc/Wiz spell from BoVD here))

A certain bar has a nasty reputation: nobody who has entered has yet returned; the stables mysteriously empty over the night, and never is there a chamber pot or other bit of waste emptied from it.

Eldest
2011-09-13, 10:22 PM
Rumors were spread a few months back, saying that one of the two rulers was sick and near death. The rumors were false, and the gossips who spread them put to the sword, but an incredibly large influx of sellswords, opportunists, and other mercenary folk have spilled into the city, setting up in a district of tents just outside the walls.

THEChanger
2011-09-13, 10:55 PM
As a burgeoning hub of trade, the great city has drawn the eye of a covetous group of dragons who for centuries have dominated the interplanar economy and held a monopoly on fiscal/economic power. Seeing this city-state as a possible acquisition for their vast economic empire they have decided to hammer our a deal with Malik and the other rulers of the city to more or less annex it. The dragons and their minions would own the city and control it's business, but they claim political structure, culture ect.. will remain in tact. They also promises that the city will have some influence and ability to participate in their larger economic empire as well as the opportunity to gain massive wealth for the city due to being exposed to all manner of new markets....

Malik will have none of it. The dragons, being the arrogant and greedy beings they are will have the city whether Malik wants to give it to them or not. They have yet to actually engange in violence, holding out for a possible bargain, but threaten it despite. With this possibility of a massive conflict which the city would surely lose due to being totally outclassed by their enemies looming overhead the other elite political voices of the city, including the Pasha, have begged Malik to reconsider and take the dragon's deal.

Despite their cries he remains ever stubborn...and as a result much of the city's political elite are now looking for a way to get him out of power before the dragons take the city by force.....and some of them are considering rather unsavory means to do so..

In addition to the nobles who wish to form an alliance with the interplanar dragons, there has been a recent spat of cults rising in the slums, worshipping various dragonic deities. The largest(or at least, the loudest) of these cults worships a creature known as the Drake of the Shinning Pits. Apparently, it has some connection with the mithril mines. The Children of the Pits, as they call themselves, have yet to be truly connected with any crimes besides being rather outspoken about their dislike of Malik and Pasha. But there was a fire in the slums, about a month back, just before the Children of the Pits began to be truly active, that burned with black flames...

FreeloadingSausage
2011-09-14, 01:32 AM
A drow spy has been caught within the court of Malik and Pasha. She's been monitoring defenses and planar travel for who knows how long by now. And there are rumors of a great host of dark elves gathering in a city a few weeks' journey away, under the banner of a single House...

A) It has been determined via interrogation that this drow spy is a leading member of the 'Drake of the Shining Pits' Cult. Could the Drow remnant be responsible for this troubling development? Could the drow forces marshalling nearby be part of the dragons' threatened invasion force?

B) The Drow spy has revealed that his people initially arrived in the distant caverns looking for the remnants of the lost Dark Elf colony, the ruins over which Bastur Azi is built.

B!shop
2011-09-14, 05:39 AM
A reclusive group of winged people arrived from the surface and settled one of the minor pillars of the cavern. They built their homes inside the pillar, and the complex is accessible by air only.
Recently the group recruited a mining guild and started to dig upwards near the edge of the pillar.
Officially the resulting tunnel will be used for new homes and buildings, but rumors say they are working to dig a tunnel connecting the surface. What will this passage be used for is not known, but rumors say it will be the access point for an invading army from the surface.

FreeloadingSausage
2011-09-20, 11:04 PM
Rumors were spread a few months back, saying that one of the two rulers was sick and near death. The rumors were false, and the gossips who spread them put to the sword, but an incredibly large influx of sellswords, opportunists, and other mercenary folk have spilled into the city, setting up in a district of tents just outside the walls.

Passage through Bastur Azi's South Gate is now more difficult, as in order to keep the influx of new talent under control, the mercenary shanty town has begun to operate under a sort of private martial law. A "Recruitment Office" has sprung up among the tents, and anyone entering the shanty town is forced to pay a "settlement tax" to the proprietor, regardless of their intentions. Most Bastur Azi residents travel through the great planar portal, so their commerce is largely unaffected, but adventurers, particularly those from the Prime Material Plane, find themselves a popular target for these ruffians.

Eldest
2011-09-21, 07:13 AM
Uknown by much of the population, an assasin by the name of the Dane has recently shown up in town and bought one of the more modest mansions. The few that know she is here aren't sure if she is retiring or taking a job. Either way, security is now at a premium and many are jumping at the chance for ready employment.