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Tvtyrant
2013-09-11, 01:29 AM
Skies over Atlantis

In making SoA I aimed for the goal of a setting where magic was plentiful, even superabundant, but not overpowering in game terms. E6 solves many of the problems of individuals (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0448.html)who can easily (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0919.html) take on armies of lower level individuals, or monsters that could crush a civilization. As part of this limitation it is assumed that no individual can cast above third level spells or powers, excepting the existence of racial Spell-like Abilities. These do not have the same limitations, since they are the instinctive uses of existing powers. Likewise an Artificer is limited to making items that have third level spells or lower as requirements, even if it could make higher due to its CL+2 clause.



A Brief Overview
Skies over Atlantis (shortened to SoA) is a low level campaign set in the world called Skala by the humans that live in it. Skala is a series of 4 floating continents set in a spiral above the Apeiros Ocean, separated from each other by hundreds of miles.

The bottom continent is the continent of Atlantis, the Pinike or Drowned Continent. This continent is set several hundred feet below the surface of the ocean, and is filled with marine life and sentient fish races such as the Sahuagin and Sea Elves. The city of Atlantis at the heart of the continent is the most famed city on the planet, a city made of living coral and glistening pearls. The entire continent teams with untold millions at the height of the Sahuagin Empire.

The second continent is Tolos, the Floating Continent. It is the home of the humans, hadozee, elves, and orcs. The location of Tolos dipped slightly into the water makes it the most similar to a real life landscape, excepting that much fauna and flora are mythical in nature. Many types of magical beasts make their homes in the forests and mountains of Tolos, driven yearly upwards as the civilizations expand. The most powerful of the nations on Tolosis the Kupios Hegemony, known more officially as the Auva League.

The Kupios Hegemony was originally a defensive alliance that has slowly evolved into a series of quasi-independent city-states occupied by a military order that is no longer associated with any of the individual cities. The Kupios Hegemony consists mostly of humans and hadozee and has developed the first reliable means to travel to other continents: the great Sky Whales.

The third continent is Xiov, the Frozen Continent. Xiov is under the shadow of the continent of Stagnos above it, and receives dim sunlight and a short warm season as a result. Xiov is the home of many of mankind’s Bogeymen, creatures separated from Tolos by such a distance that until recently interactions with it were brief and exceedingly rare, leading the majority of the population to disbelieve in the stories. Xiov is roughly 800 miles away from Tolos, about 300 hundred miles up and 500 miles over. The continent’s surface is the home of several types of goblins and giants, competing with massive ice age beasts over snowy verandas. Under the surface live the Dwarven and Gnomish kingdoms, feasting on rock worms and crafting exquisite items of great power. These kingdoms frequently band together to fight raiding groups of giants and goblins, but even more so to wipe out the Grell and Tsochari nests which lie beneath them. There are no large empires on Xiov, just endless petty kingdoms and tribes.

Stagnos or the Burned Continent, is the fourth continent and lies 200 miles about Xiov and only slightly displaced to the side. It is the hottest and driest of the continents of Skala. Creatures from Stagnos are even more rare and mythical than those from Xiov, but it is certain that they take frightening forms and are largely nocturnal.



Races and Classes of Skala

Skala is a very, very large place which is isolated into four very distinct continents. A Mindflayer is horrible on Xiov, but it is utterly unknown on Tolos. It is perfectly fine for players to play species from one continent on another, and in fact it might even ease some of the racial tensions to play a Drow on Tolos or Stagnos where their blood magic is unknown than on Xiov where it is reviled.

However different races and classes are going to be more common on one continent than another, with the exception of the Core classes which are ubiquitous throughout. This is not to say that a Dwarven Warblade should not exist, merely that Dwarves wouldn’t really know what one is and the art is not going to be common amongst them.


Tolos
Player Races of Tolos:
Level Adjustment 0:
• Humans
o Hegemony: Normal stats.
o Pazian: Illumian
o Traskian: Skulk
o Landan: Aventi
o Old Marru: Spellscales and Silverbrow Humans
• Elves
o Wide variety of forms, not regional.
• Jermlaine
• Orcs
o West Orcs: Arctic Orcs
o North Orcs: Water Orcs
o East Orcs: Regular Orcs.
• Kobolds
o Dragonborn (can be small or medium)
• Hadozee
• Mongrelfolk
• Halforc
• Halfelves
Level Adjustment 1:
• Lizardfolk
• Locathah
• Whitespawn Hordeling
• Poison Dusk Lizardfolk
• Goliath
There are a number of creatures with level adjustments above 1 that can be played, but they are less populace or prone to player classes.


Classes in Tolos:

Classes in Tolos are similar to races across the four continents; they can be found anywhere but tend to be most prominent in certain regions. A Human or Kobold Druid is not an entirely unknown quantity, but the vast majority are going to come out of the Elf Wilds.

Generic:
• Wizard
• Sorcerer
• Barbarian
• Fighter
• Rogue
• Ranger
• Cleric
• Marshal
• Knight
Hegemony:
Paz:
• Warmage
• Beguiler
• Dread Necromancer
• Spell Thief
Trask:
• Binder
• Psychic Rogue
• Duskblade
• Factotum
• Swashbuckler
Landan:
• Bard
• Crusader
• Paladin
Elf Wilds:
• Swordsage
• Druid
• Divine/Savage Bard
• Wu-Jen
Orcs:
• Warblade
• Spirit Shaman
• Warlock
• Scout
• Incarnate
• Totemist

Old Marru:

• Dragonfire Adept
• Dragon Shaman
• Shadowcaster


Chards
Chards are magical gem stones that split off from the great star fall (see the Arid Plateau.) They are mined from the region and can be used to make certain magical spells permanent as a permanency spell. The Chard is consumed in casting the spell, and takes no added time.

Least Persistence Stone: Can make permanent Resistance, Read Magic, Ghost Sound, Detext Magic and Dancing Lights. 300 GP

Lesser Persistence Stone: Can make permanent Comprehend Languages, Enlarge Person, Magic Fang, Alarm, and Reduce Person. 600 GP.

Persistence Stone: Can make permanent See Invisibility, Gust of Wind, Invisibility, Magic Mouth, Darkvision, and Web. 3,200 GP

Greater Persistence Stone: Can make permanent Shrink Item, Tongues, Arcane Sight, and Greater Magic Fang. 9,000 GP


Dragons in Skala

Dragons in Skala are not the same as traditional D&D dragons. There are only chromatic colored dragons on Skala, creatures with incredible power and no set alignments. They are effectively half-dragon Wyverns with a base intelligence of 10 and the ability to use their breath weapons ¼ rounds. A baby dragon is a Pseudo-Dragon with a 1d6 breath weapon every ¼ rounds. They advance to 7 HD half-dragon Wyverns as young adults, being roughly the size of a horse and being quite powerful already. They reach full adulthood upon reaching 12 HD, and stop gaining levels in dragon after that. At 12 HD a dragon is about 200 years old out of their 500 years life span, the next 300 years they advance only by player class. They then begin taking levels in one of a few classes which are innate to dragon-kind.

Wyrmlings (pseudo-dragons) hatch in a large clutch of 20-30 eggs buried underground, and they are raised by their mother for over a decade as they learn draconic and hunting techniques. At about the age of 10 they are physically almost identical to their birth age, but far more intelligent and self-aware. They then move out in groups of 5-10 to hunt as small packs of predators, eating small mammals and bugs while they slowly grow into their young adult phase some 90 years later. During this time most if not all of the clutch will die, and the survivors become hardened hunters and individualists. It is also during this time that humanoids on Tolos capture young dragons and begin training them to become mounts, and the younger they are caught the more pliable they are to training.

Once they reach the age of 100 they have reached the basic adult form, but lack the size and power of a true adult. The horse sized creatures are apex predators in the wild and wonderful mounts in civilization. It is during this time period that most of the traditional confrontations between dragons and humanoids occur, as the dragon has spent a century learning to take what it needs and has now reached the size where it becomes a threat to humans. A typical example would be Atatal, a young (8 HD) blue dragon who moved moved up from hunting stray sheep to taking entire flocks when the mood takes him. The local population decides that he has to go and ask the local city for help, and they put up a bounty as being cheaper than paying for soldiers.

The most frequent class for a dragon after reaching adulthood is Sorcerer, revealing the same innate magic as their breath weapon. Others go into DFA and use the breath abilities to good effect, being able to apply them to their dragon-breath. Still others take levels in Warblade or Swordsage, being focused on melee combat. A few dragons take levels in Wizard, and an extremely tiny minority in Archivist or Cleric. Other classes are rare to the point of individuality, but do exist.

Dragons are not as intelligent in Skala as other D&D worlds, but they are only slightly less intelligent as teenagers than the average humanoid, and they can become far more intelligent by the time they die. However they lack some of the eminence that they have in “normal” D&D, and are aware that their very long childhoods and lack of social protection for children. The Marru worshiped and enslaved dragons to create their dragonspawn, and in the modern magocracy of Paz there are several adult dragons who sit upon the High Council and provide skywhales and wyrmlings to be trained as mounts for the Hegemony.

The most powerful of these is Shanos, a famously wicked Black Dragon Sorcerer who focuses on alchemical and magical weaponry. He is particularly famous for his creation of the Mage Hand, Unseen Servant and Servant Horde spells. He uses the latter in combat to drop Powder of the Black Veil, Firestones, and bags filled with oil and alchemist fire flasks on his enemies as well as casting more directly combatitive spells.

Other regions are less integrative of dragons into their society than Paz. In the Elf Wilds they are effectively a “kill on sight” target due to their long age and destructive capabilities. The Orcs consider them to be extremely powerful animals; while there have been major conflicts between dragons and the genies of the Arid Plateau over territorial control there. Dragons are less common on the other continents but exist everywhere in the world due to their high constitution and ability to fly; white dragons are particularly common on Xiov while greens are rare everywhere but Stagnos.

Tvtyrant
2013-09-11, 02:41 AM
Continent of Tolos
The Hegemony


Paz
Paz, City of Wonders, is a city of extremes that makes even Megara and Trask seem tame. Paz is a “democracy” divided by levels of citizenship. The level of citizenship an individual has access to is dependent on their magical proficiency, with individuals capable of being third level spells having full citizenship and the amount for others reduced by the amount of magic they have available. Below the four levels of citizenship is the “placeless,” the vast majority of the population with no access to magic and thus no rights within Paz’s territory. These individuals, who include almost everyone living outside of the city itself, pay heart rending taxes and are oppressed by a vicious military system of trained soldiers taken out of the lowest citizen class (individuals capable of casting minor magics like Mending and Mage Hand.) While the majority of the population is extremely poor and downtrodden, the highest levels pay no taxes and receive almost all services for free. These high level mages defend the status quo with the violence of fanaticism and apartheid.

And yet the draw of living in Paz for arcanists is extremely high. Free housing, laboratory access, and even access to the only still existing Spell Pool make Paz almost unbelievably comfortable for the upper classes. The streets teem with homunculi and familiars sent by their masters to fulfill errands, and these creatures are granted the same protection as an individual mage is against the lower classes. Each mage is given a number of votes in the council elections equal to their spell level, with cantrips counting as 1 and 3rd level spells counting for four. This makes the two or three dozen casters in the city capable of casting the highest level spells disproportionately important in elections, while the huge number of individuals with some magical training but lacking levels in an actual caster class are forced to fight against the elite minority. Beyond the advantages of class dominance in Paz there are a few select features that set the city of Paz apart from any place else on the planet.

The great Spell Library is devoted to the two most “noble” casting types, wizards and archivists. Almost every spell on the continent is stored here, along with works on magical theory both wondrous and reviled. Admission is free to all citizens, but copying a spell still costs the same as copying it from a wizard or archivist. However the sheer number of spells is overwhelming, and since almost any spell can be found here mages flock to the place to find rare and exotic spells. The library also trades spells or even pays tremendous fees for new spells not known before, creating the incentive for none wizards and archivists to come to the library.

The Spell Pool is an even bigger attraction for being a citizen of Paz, as it offers an almost limitless amount of flexibility in return for a monthly fee and the user paying back an equivalent amount in spells as taken out. The fees are to ensure flexibility of spell choices, as many casters only use a few spells themselves and create the scrolls without taking into consideration the variety of spells needed to make the spellpool flexible. Instead a small group of casting scribes are paid monthly to regulate the spell pool and keep the rarer spells in stock. The exhaustion of constantly creating scrolls makes this a temporary but lucrative job, and most casters need a long break after a year at it.

Finally there is the chance to join the Mage Council and become one of the rulers of the world. The Mage Council holds an election each year for 1 of the 10 spots, and goes around in a circle. Each council member thus has a decade in office without worrying about being ousted from power, but they must constantly attempt to control each other’s elections to keep control of the council as a whole. The council is chaired by the most senior member, so each member gets to chair for one year each of their terms. At the moment the council is chaired by the black dragon Shanos, a fully grown black dragon with 6 levels in sorcerer. It is Shanos who originally opened the idea of creating the Sky Whales as a form of Hegemonic power, and he was quickly voted into office as his plan succeeded and Paz became ever more firmly entrenched at the heart of the Hegemony at the expense of its longtime ally Argos.

Becoming a citizen in Paz is extremely simple. The individual applying must prove that they are able to cast magic, and then promise under threat of treason to remain within Paz’s territory for at least 6 years (unless working for the military or for temporary trips on business.) Each resident in Paz must pay a proportion of their total wealth inverse to their citizenship; nearly 50% for none citizens and down to a mere 10% for the great casters (and none at all for the council.) A resident is defined as an individual who lives within the territory occupied by the city itself or in the lands within roughly 30 miles of the city proper. A resident could choose not to be considered a resident and thus not pay income taxes, but they would instead have to pay a truly horrendous entry fee each time they entered the city or any of the walled towns around it. For most individuals this payment is much too high, although with wealthy merchants shelling out 100 GP is cheaper than losing half of their fortune.

Paz is able to still stay an economic power despite the harshness of its taxes and civil laws for one reason; it is incredibly powerful. Paz is the dominant city of the Hegemony, providing many of the casters and troops of the allied army and all of its griffons, sky whales and dragons. It takes advantage of this power by voting itself monopolies on supplying the Hegemony forces using other cities’ money, and by drawing as many casters from other cities as possible to itself. The near monopoly on magical items and services combined with the absolute monopoly on feeding, clothing and supplying the largest army on Tolos (using everyone else’s wealth) keeps Paz in fine shape in spite of its frankly awful and insulting policies.

The story of Paz’s climb to power is a long one beginning back with the height of the Marru Empire. The collapse of the northern portion caused many to flee from Marru to find new homes. It was some of these early settlers who founded Paz, but their individual history has been mostly eradicated with the movement of Spellscales out of the heart of the Marru Empire when the Pharaohs battled the Kobold Dragon Wrought Sorcerers and their dragonspawn. The Spellscales fled the environmental disaster that accompanied that war and moved across the continent of Tolos in search of a safe home. They found the early human refugees of Paz, a human culture penned in by the Orcs and Elves and lacking entirely in magical abilities. The Spellscales crushed and enslaved the locals, claiming that it was magical and not racial differences that kept them apart. They rebuilt Paz in the image of old Marru, with large buildings devoted to magic and science dominating the landscape and shops being reduced to small carts and stalls run by the oppressed on the streets.

The first city of Paz with its Spellscale rulers was all but destroyed during a short but informing war with the elves of the Elf Wilds. The elves with their Ent and elemental allies smashed the enslaved armies of humans with their magical leaders and tore down the very walls of Paz, killing the defenders to a one. The city had been mostly evacuated before the siege, and the survivors changed as a result of the crushing defeat. Now efforts were devoted to bring out the magical abilities of the human population and invite magic users from across Tolos to live in Paz and keep it safe from another invasion. At the same time the oppression of mundane individuals was reduced for a time, and Paz moved towards a population with many mages but not inherently different from any other culture of the time.

This openness was altered again with the Orc Wars, a series of originally defensive wars against the West and East Orcs of Tolos. There were 5 of these wars over 200 years, and each one brought about destruction and a movement towards colonization of more lands to the north as they drove out the Orc tribes. The new colonies brought in tremendous agricultural gains to the city of Paz, which funneled through the city and out into the Great Sea trade along with Orc and Elf goods formerly incredibly rare in the human cities. The increase in the wealth of the city of Paz brought many of the mages out of the countryside and into the city itself again, and as the populations became more isolated from each other the city-casters began to reassert their dominance over the general population. It was this growing dominance in trade and at home that lead the mages of Paz to take their current position in world affairs.

Along with its trade partner Argos, Paz created a defensive pact following the 5th Orc War that included provisions for a mutual defense force that would consist of professionals from both militaries (meant to prevent either side from abandoning the alliance.) The yearly payments for this force were expensive, as neither group wanted to allow it within their own borders for fear of it taking control. It was thus maintained on top of traditional forces, and in trying to find a source of revenue for it they decided to spark a war with the city of Tstan. The war went surprisingly well, and Tstan was offered the choice between a yearly contribution of money to the defensive pact or paying a massive indemnity. It chose the former, paying to be part of a defensive pact that it supplied money but not soldiers to. Similar wars against Ban and Tasj lead to the creation of the modern Hegemony, with Paz sitting at the controls. Eventually the Hegemony included all of the human territory along the Great Sea and was re-envisioned as a “human” defensive alliance against other races, rather than a forced form of tribute for Paz and Argos.

Trask
The city of Trask is one of the 12 metropolises of the Hegemony and is the oldest purely human city on Skala. Trask was the first human kingdom to develop independently of Marru and was positioned on its extreme north-western corner, on the dry forests just before the Great Sea. Trask has a long history as one of the most influential and powerful of human city states, but is currently a wreck. The land around the city has collapsed and the creation of the Hegemony has stripped Trasks control over its neighbors away. In modern times Trask if famous as a slum-town, with numerous empty buildings and violent criminal organizations. These organizations have spread across the poorer part of the Hegemony, as Trask becomes ever poorer and more depopulated. However it still maintains some trade as the chief exporter of drugs, poisons, and medicines from the herbs that grow around the city.

The Traskian proto-kingdom was able to resist Marrun control by a combination of exceedingly heavy fortifications and the payment of annual tributes to the Marru Empire. Trask was the largest city in the kingdom, and it made its early fortune by setting up colonies across the Great Sea and used them as outlets to trade goods bought from the Marru. Massive, multilayered stone and earth walls and a building style that used little wood made the city a hard nut to crack, and the relative poverty of its territory made it seem a poor prospect for conquest.

Trasks day came at the end of the great Orc-Marru War. Decades of warfare had ground Orcish expansion to a halt, and the Traskian leadership offered to provide fresh soldiers and supplies to the war in return for a cut of the profits. The meeting with the Orcish chiefs went late into the night, and candles were burned down as they studied maps and argued over shares. The next day they returned to their prospective camps, and the Traskians broke camp and rapidly returned home. The movement unsettled the Orcs, who believed they had reached a good compromise. However within days all of the Orc leaders that had went to the council died suddenly of a horrific delayed poison that the leaders of Trask had exposed them to through their candles. They had taken the antidote previously, and retreated before they could be caught.

The outraged Orc host attempted to destroy Trask for its insolence, but it had lost the majority of its leadership. The abortive siege of Trask lasted some 6 weeks before the various Orc elements fell out with each other, and then the army of Trask began crushing them piecemeal. The military structure that had brought the Marru Empire to its knees was defeated in less than a year, and Trask claimed the territory of Wesnint for itself. The Empire of Trask in its full height was only a third the size of the Marru Empire, but it was the first independent human empire in history.

East Orc raids destroyed the Empire of Trask over the next 800 years, and the city was reduced to ruling a relatively small area around the Great Sea. However neither the Kobolds nor Orcs were able to re-replace the human population of the region, and Trask twice more reabsorbed it before declining once again. The final decline was in the face of the rising Hegemony of Paz-Argos, which stripped away Trask’s lands and dominion over Lotu for resisting the Incorporation.

Going to Trask today is extremely dangerous, as the city survives by smuggling goods and by making all of the things that are illegal throughout the rest of the Hegemony legal. Gambling, drugs, slavery, demon and sun worship, prostitution, and even more lurid crimes are legal there. Only Megara with its isolation from the Hegemony amongst human cities competes with Trask in sin, and Megara balances these issues with being industrious and fertile through most of the year. Individuals flock to Trask to sin, and the criminal organizations that run it welcome them with open arms and sharp daggers. This trade is in some danger of being undermined by the new trade with the Drow, whose licentiousness is cultural and who lack viable trade options currently. However this would require the Hegemony to embrace trading goods that it publically frowns upon, so it is an issue for the future.


Lotu
Lotu is a middle-aged human city, being some 2,000 years old. Located east and slightly south of Trask, Lotu is one of the wealthiest cities on Tolos due to its location at the midpoint between where the Hegemony wraps around the Great Sea as a land nation and the islands to the east of the continent. Lotu is known for its white-washed walls and industrious trade, making it a profitable if boring place to live. It has a population of around 90,000 adults, majority human with substantial minorities of Hadozee and Orcs and small minorities of elfs, mongrel-folk and locathah.

Lotu was a village located at the northeastern edge of the Empire of Trask during the second empire. It is located on what was traditionally East Orc territory, and was founded by settlers from the empire when it was at its secondary zenith. When the Second Empire of Task collapsed from the major Lizardfolk incursions in the south, Lotu was abandoned by the empires forces. Rather than retreat the settlers made their peace with the declining East Orcs and paid tribute to them in return for being left to their own devices. Lotu began sending caravans east to the city of Seth on the eastern coastline of Tolos, and from there they traded with merchants from the Heri archipelago. The trade made Lotu extremely wealthy, until they began to send their own ships west as well as conveys east, cutting out the trade fleets of the other cities on the Great Sea. The wealthy merchants of Lotu drew the gaze of the formerly complacent East Orcs and their Janni masters, and a devastating war set back Lotu’s fortunes for centuries.

Lotu had usurped many of the old trade colonies of Trask and Argos, the largest of which became in recent times the city of Tstan. When it fell back before the onslaught of the East Orcs Lotu found that many of these cities became ungovernable, and in an effort to survive Lotu traded most of them to the mage city of Paz for protection from the Orcs. Paz entering the war brought about stunning successes, until Lotu found that the entire area west of the Arid Plateau was now in human hands. Lotu thus made its transformation from a sea based trade city into a land based nation, which would not be reversed until the rise of the Third Empire of Trask 265 years ago.

In current times Lotu has returned to being the chief outlet of trade between the Heri archipelago and the central cities of the Hegemony. It also provides the war elephants which are the heart of the Hegemony military patrols. Its place in the Hegemony is far more secure than some of the lesser cities, especially Trask and Landa, but it does not have to overpowering importance of Paz and Argos.

The primary adventure of individuals coming to Lotu is acting as armed escorts for the constant caravans moving east and west between Lotu and Seth. The region between them is not totally walled off from the East Orcs by the northern forts or the Arid Plaeau, and the mountains are filled with both orc and human bandits. The profits are large enough for rare goods that hundreds of cheap guards might be hired, with a few well paid ones hidden throughout to provide the backbone of soldiery.



Megara

Megara is a town of wealth, splendor and the sort of cheap decadence associated in our world with Las Vegas or old Hollywood. The central, walled town has some 2,000 adults aged 20-50 with a dependent population of roughly 1,500. Around this is a wooden façade town of fake cathedrals and theatres, massive but shoddily built hotels, and hundreds of themed restaurants. This second town is only occupied for a 3-4 month period of the year, and is a ghost town the rest of the year. The reason for this influx of tens of thousands of individuals and the feverish activity it takes to feed them is the mysterious Fountain of Life. The Fountain of Life geysers up in a pool at the center of the walled portion of the town for 3 months a year, usually between June and September.

Bathing in the pool causes an individual to regenerate any lost limbs and heals any ailment that the individual may have (like a Heal spell and a Regenerate spell.) The water comes spraying out of a tube made of some alien substance that burrows deep into the rock on which Megara is built in a fountain 30 ft. high. It comes out a brilliant golden color and smells of rose petals and cherry blossoms. If the water is removed from the pool it immediately transforms into clear, pure but none magical water.

Megara has levered this natural resource into a tool to maintain wealth and independence. Several major empires, including Atlantis and Kupios, guarantee its independence and supply it with guards during the summer months. In return for their support members of each nation are allowed access to the pool, which is used to lengthen the lifespan of nobles, monarchs and powerful individuals. Fear of losing access to the water forces each nation to act as a check on other nation’s attempts to claim the town for their own, so Megara is possibly the best guarded town in the world.

Despite the international protections, Megara is in a somewhat precarious position. It’s location between the dark Tattonypia swamp and the rocky waters of Charbdyis prevents the spread of civilization around it, and it suffers constant but minor levels of harassment from the troglodytes, Kua-Toa, Hags, locathahs, yurians, and gricks that surround the town and its small bastion of farmland. To defend against tribal incursions and rioting foreigners, the town is walled forty feet high with an array of siege weapons pointing out at the shanty town and fields.

The major players in Megara are the Hegemony and Atlantis, which stay fairly separated to prevent conflicts. Conflicts for players center at lower levels around the Free Megara movement which seeks to gain equal recognition and stature for non-Megaran born workers (the majority of the population) and a large gang network that has uprooted from Trask and under a man known as The Boss is attempting to force payments from all of the Megaran tourist establishments. If they are not paid the gangs commit arson, which has convinced many inn keepers and bar owners to pay even though it drains their coffers.

Secretly the leader of both organizations is the same man, a Halfling Rogue from Trask named Bill. Bill disguises himself differently for each role; as the leader of his own criminal organization he has a beard and an eye patch while as a free megaran he is clean shaven and wears glasses over his two bad eyes. Bill makes money from both ends, and is attempting to subordinate both organizations to his eventual goal of running Megara as a wealthy and seemingly legitimate business man. At the same time he is finding himself being pushed by the two real powers taking control of the town; Jeeves and the Great Master. Bill is a level 3 Rogue.

Jeeves is the vampiric leader of the Cult of Orcus. He used the Sacrifice rules from the BoVD to transform himself into a Vampire Lord, and is now spreading his followers amongst the population of Megara. Jeeves’ goal is to create an independent realm ruled by himself, and disguises his own role as the mastermind by working as a butler/manager at several casinos and brothels (shifting blame to the owners.) Jeeves dresses in an elegant white suit and is extremely tall and slender, with a coldly urbane aspect. Jeeves is a level 6 Psion along with being a Vampire Lord, and he chooses to make only the strongest individuals into vampires. He uses his domination gaze to control a vast mob of followers, and focuses on gaining control of the underbelly of the city before moving up to the top. He views the Free Megara movement as the perfect cover for his own coup.

At the same time the Great Master has been encroaching on the city, his Locathahs supporting the local gangster elements in the city and smuggling in illicit goods for Bill. As payment Bill hands over homeless individuals, the lowest members of society. No one amongst the humans know where they go, but the Locathahs have begun showing up with larger and slimier creatures that are if anything more fanatically loyal to the Great Master. These creatures have been seen at night simply taking humans they find wandering the streets, and then disappearing into parts unknown.

The Tattonypia Swamp has also begun to feel the shadow of the Great Master upon it, as more and more tribes of Trogolodytes and Kua-Toa declare their allegiance to the ancient sea-god Dagon and its self-proclaimed avatar. The tribes still loyal to the Hags are beginning to find themselves under attack by their cousins, and myths of a horrible flying creature called the Leather Man are now beginning to be heard even amongst the humans of Megara miles away.

The strongest fortress of the Hags is Fort Blem, a wooden fortress built on stilts in the swamp. The Hags feed a large number of crocodiles in the waters below to make their castle immune to attack by water (as the Kua-Toa are more than adequate swimmers.) Several of these crocodiles are huge crocs, and the largest is a gargantuan crocodile. The Hags are more than willing to trade some rare magical items for the removal of the Leather Man and the driving off of the traitor tribes, although they fear that even now the thing calling itself Dagon will destroy them.

If a party does go to ally itself with the hags and stays the night at Fort Blem it finds itself in terrible danger as the Great Master decides to destroy them personally. It swims into the lake around the fort and begins to quietly dominate the crocodiles, eventually dominating the gargantuan croc and ordering it to tear down the wooden castle. It does not personally take part in the battle, retreating if the crocodiles are defeated.


Skal
The Last Aboleth of Tolos
Skal (pronounced like scald without the d) is an Aboleth living on the continent of Tolos around the city of Megara. Skal is now 34,682 years old, and during that time it has never seen a living Aboleth. Like all Aboleths Skal was born fully self-aware and with the memories of its species going back nearly 500 million years, which made its birth from a mother impaled upon the spear of a Goliath all the more traumatic. Aboleths are fully connected to their parent until the second of birth, so Skal effectively remembers dying with a spear in its gut.

The trauma of its parent’s death is not just mental but also physical; the spear tip pierced Skal’s own belly and has left it with a permanent injury. This injury does not inhibit Skal physically except in one way; it cannot bear children. For almost 35, 000 years Skal has been alone amongst its kind, and from its memories it seems likely that it is the last Aboleth in existence. For most of its life it ruled local tribes on varying parts of the continent and tried to draw no attention to itself, hoping that it would find a way to save its species if it lived long enough. Just recently it heard of the new human town of Megara with its precious life-waters, and Skal has come to bathe and save its species from extinction.

Skal is extremely cautious however, and feels the need to subjugate or destroy the town before exposing itself to the 2 mile journey on land to the heavily guarded pool. An ancient abandoned city of the extinct Kopru race lays some miles off of the Megaran coast, and Skal has taken up the location as its headquarters. The local Locathahs and Yurians now obey Skal, who first dominated their leaders and slowly converted the populations into worshipping it as the sea demon Dagon. Humanoids from the city are bought or kidnapped to be made into Skum, and for a while Skal was sure that it was close to being strong enough to send its forces against the city.

This move was shattered by the collision of the cult of Dagon with the vampire lord Jeeves, who is spreading his own cult of Orcus through the town and desires to create a necropolis there. Jeeves frightens Skal, as he can use his own dominate abilities at will and his thralls are stronger than the Skum and sea races that Skal has already subjugated. Faced with a direct confrontation with a possibly superior force, Skal instead turned its eyes to the nearby swamp to gain yet more converts and has begun fortifying the ruined Kopru city in preparation of a small but violent war.

Skal’s current lair is a large twisting tower that it has had its Skum clear of muck and return to a more pristine state. The tower is off limits to the Yurians and Locathahs that worship Skal, as the traps inside the tower are designed to go off when anything but Aberrations attempt to enter. Skal is an Aboleth Savant (wizard 5/Aboleth Savant 1) and has coated the interior of its tower with glyphs of warding, as well as making many doorways out of sickstone and bilestone. One of the most common glyphs is a glyph of Legion’s Curse of Impending Blades, which requires dispelling to be removed and thus is a quasi-permanent debuff to entrants.

Throughout the tower permanent and temporary Aboleth Glyphs have been placed, many of which are designed not to frighten or attack outsiders but to soothe Skal. Illusions of long forgotten oceanic vistas and sea monsters flicker into existence as individuals swim the halls, including visions of other aboleths, hotvents and tube worms, great extinct sea creatures like Mosasaurs, Morkoth and Dunkleosteus. Skal plans on using this tower to raise its children once it has healed itself in Megara, and has devoted tremendous energy into making it a comfortable and permanent base of operations.

There are two particularly dangerous rooms in the tower; the room before Skal’s laboratory/bedroom is a small circular room with two exits, one into the main hallway and the other into Skal’s room. The room is lined with sickstone and bilestone, with 5 Aboleth Glyphs, a Master Glyph and a Resonance Stone of Delirium all acting together to make the room a nightmare. The Master Glyph of Law and the Bilestone reduce the will saves of those entering the room by 3, and the resonance stone of delirium forces entrants to make a DC 14 Will save or be blinded and nauseated for a minute. When an intruder enters the room they are sealed off by two Wall of Chain spells cast from Aboleth Glyphs over the entrances, blinded, nauseated and assaulted by 3d3 medium sharks (who can attack even if effected by the Resonance Stone due to their blindsense) summoned by other Aboleth Glyphs.

The other room that is particularly dangerous in the tower is Skal’s own bedroom, just beyond the trapped room. It is guarded by an Elder Eidolon Beast that it discovered in an aboleth ruin at all times, and Skal as well when it is home. The room has been repurposed from a Kopru dining hall, and is filled with coral tables and stone coaches designed for the eel-like Kopru body. Skal has coated the walls with his spell tablets, stone tablets holding the spells and secrets of a truly ancient creature. One of the three tables is devoted to alchemical laboratory equipment, another to the making of magical items and the third to the creation of more Skum. In order to better facilitate the creation of Skum, Skal has placed a Master Glyph of the Slime Curse on the ceiling, lowering saves against its mucus by 4.

Skal itself is an advanced Aboleth with 12 monster HD, 5 wizard levels and a level of Aboleth Savant. Skal has few magical items itself, focusing most of its abilities on making seals to protect itself and its hopefully soon to be born children. If caught by surprise it casts Invisibility and retreats until it feels ready to fight, but if the party gets caught in the trap outside Skal is prepared for them. It casts Greater Mage armor and Mirror Image on itself and casts Servant Horde, having its many invisible servants drop alchemical weapons on the enemy when they enter the room. It casts Great Thunderclap the first round of combat, Sleet Storm on the second and enters melee combat on the third. If it loses more than half of its health Skal casts invisibility on itself and flees the room through a back entrance, returning only with an army of Locathahs, Yurians and Skum to assault the party.

Skals spells known are:
1sts known: Neverskitter, Comprehend Languages, Ray of Enfeeblement, Wall of Smoke, Endure Elements, Alarm, Disguise Self, many others.
2nds known: Ray of Stupidity, Alter Self, Scare, Glitterdust, Invisibility, Web, Mirror Image, Hideous Laughter.
3rds known: Servant Horde, Greater Mage Armor, Ray of Dizziness, Alter Fortune, Dispel Magic, Legion Curse of Impending Blades, Wall of Chains, Great Thunderclap, Sleet Storm.



A noble's son has fallen has fallen deathly ill, and the only known cure is an herb that is grown exclusively in Trask. She is willing to pay any price to bodyguards capable of guiding her and her sick son through the criminal underworld of the ancient city.

A hooded man hailing from Trask is offering large bounties for the heads of drow merchants. (The idea here is that he is trying to take care of the competition, possibly sparking a gang war scenario)

Two Lotu merchants have missed the last caravan, and they need to transport their load of exotic fruits and herbs before it all spoils. But the road to Seth is known to be riddled with bandit camps, and they seek seasoned mercenaries to make sure that they arrive in one piece.

The owner of a Megarran inn approaches the PCs in secret, constantly wringing his hands and looking over his shoulder. He and several other inn keepers are being bled dry by a protection racket, and going to the law is the same as jumping off the edge of the continent; certain death.

Tvtyrant
2013-09-15, 01:18 AM
Outside the Hegemony

The Elf Wilds


The Elf Wilds are a rather derivative sub-setting I made to invoke the Snow White/Narnia feeling of an Enchanted Forest. The Elf Wilds are built around D&D 3.5 using the E6 reduction (so the upper bound of things in the world is restricted to below CR 10 and mostly below CR 8.)

The fundamental aspect of the Elf Wilds is sentience. Every animal and tree, and all vermin of small size and larger, born within the boundary of the Elf Wilds is treated as having been effected by an Awaken spell. This makes them fantastically more intelligent and considerably tougher than mundane creatures, and also makes the Elf Wilds impossibly dangerous for outsiders. The Elf Wilds also house a number of species unique from the rest of the world. A cornucopia of fey, plants and elementals also live within the wilds, the fey representing the effect of the wilds on none elf humanoids who made their homes there, and the elementals representing the life infusing power of the forest on the elements themselves.

Without an escort or jewel of passage any humanoid entering the forest finds it utterly still and silent, with no animals in sight or sound. The trees stay still until the individual falls asleep, and then quickly surrounds and kills them. Entire armies have been engulfed this way, falling asleep in waking forests. Concerted efforts to destroy the forest itself are met by more organized counter-measures. The elfin army with its auxiliaries of sentient wolves, bears, eagles, and of course the trees themselves assault the enemy army with a force that washes away armies and drowns empires. This army only gathers when an enemy has proven dangerous enough to demand the whole of the wilds unite, and once the army has been called it cannot be put away again. Not stopping at the edge of the wilds, the elfin army sweeps into the invaders own lands and roots them out. Cities are quickly shattered by the arms of Treants and flights of the poisoned obsidian arrows that the elves favor.

For those who are accepted into the Elf Wilds, there is a kind of discordant harmony that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Many trees feed the individuals around them from their fruit and nuts with wistful smiles as they make binding contracts that the individuals in return will use no fire and chop no wood. Giant sentient bees grant the elfin and animal people free honey in return for the protection of their hives. Carnivores hunt herbivores with remorseful shrugs, bears murder salmon with crocodile tears on their eye lids. Almost everything in the wilds can talk, but the endless chattering, fighting and boasting can irritate those not born there. Internal wars are fought between squirrels and chipmunks, wolves and deer with a fierceness that shocks outsiders.

The Elf Wilds are divided into 3 major features. The largest of them is the forest, which makes a giant U that contains about 2/3 of the wilds. The two none-forest portions of the Elf Wilds are the fields which take up most of the remaining area, and in the dead center of the Elf Wilds is Elf Home, a small city of a few thousand surrounded by almost human style farms.
The primary denizens of the Forest are the endless trees and the small creatures that live on and in them. The trees of the Elf Wilds are unable to move in the day, standing still with their roots deep in the ground to absorb sun and nutrients. Even during the night they usually stay in the same place, talking to each other and singing the haunting lullabies of the forest. When the forest is attacked the trees cannot defend themselves during the day, but at night they uproot themselves and assault the invaders with a vigor that few life forms can deal with individually. Each tree is treated as a Treant but the majority lack the Animate Trees ability. Actual Treants do live within the Forest, but usually live along the edge of the Wild boundary. They use their powers to animate none-sentient trees and try to keep civilization as far from the border of the Wilds as possible.

The Forest is also the primary home of the Fey. Amidst chattering nations of squirrels, birds and rodents lurk sprites, petals, nymphs and dryads. Thorns battle Redcaps for control of the Forests morals, and both hunt intruders with a terrifying vengeance. By far the most populace species of Fey are the Jermlaine, who live in a world of interconnected burrows that spans tens of thousands and is almost like a diminutive underdark. The Jermlaine are constantly hunted by other forest beings, and old burrows are often occupied by vicious predators. Some predators (especially Dire Mustelids and Red Caps) drive the Jermlaine from their homes, and young or outcast Jermlaine enter the old burrows to become rich from treasures abandoned by the fleeing Jermlaine. Following the Jermlaine in population are the Shimmerlings and Petals, flower fey that live like nomadic bees.
A sizable portion of elfs live solitary lives in the Forest. They are sustained on gifts from the trees and their relationship with the local population. These elfs are mostly separated from the elfs that live in Elf Home and are most often Rangers or Druids unlike the arcane and clerical population that make up Elf Home. A Forest elf is almost utterly opposed to leaving the wilds for some lesser region of the world, making them amongst the least known of all elfs.

The Fields are the next largest portion of the Elf Wilds, a section of open grassland that cuts a swath through the Forest and ends at Elf Home in the very heart of the wilds. The Fields are the home of the great Deer, Horse, Wolf and Hyena tribes who chase each other across constantly shifting territory and are often driven temporarily from their homes by the wandering elementals (small to huge sizes.) Unlike the Forest the Fields are not a strong barrier to invaders from outside the wilds, lacking the hundreds of thousands of trees who can stop almost any army. Instead invaders into the Fields find themselves being harassed constantly by Elfs riding their sentient mounts and shooting poisoned touched arrows at them while vanishing like smoke. The Elf patrols maintain a general equality of force between the Field tribes to prevent any tribe from being strong enough to attack them and thus upset the balance in the wilds.

The beating heart of the Elf Wilds is their home, a city of a few thousand supported by orchards of food producing trees and ploughed fields of more mundane crops. Elf Home is built as a series of towers without doors, the only entrances being windows at the top. These towers are each owned by an elf clan, with each clan acting as a single vote in city decisions. These clans compete by the prestige of their works, so each clan tends to focus on a different goal in order to prove themselves unique and worthy of praise. This clan focus combines with their long lives and low birth rate so that every elf has its levels in a player class, as each individual receives tremendous nurturing and has decades to decide their goal in life and learn to excel at it.

The leaders of the clans, and thus Elf Home, are usually experts in mystical arts. Arcane and divine magic, psionic powers, even the mysteries of the Shadowcasters are welcomed amongst the elfs. There are many talented warriors in Elf Home as well, but mystical abilities are generally favored for their abilities in peace as well as war. A Swordsage may be as awesome as a Wizard in power but their choice of outputs is smaller and therefore less worthy of praise. Mystics are usually required to provide magical items and services to the community and especially their clan in order to gain the prestige craved by all home elfs, which offsets the physical and communal power they hold. They are also required to battle against intruders, along with growing their own portion of food and taking care of their households. A number of mighty mystics have fled elf home as a result of their quadruple duties (pursuing their art, protecting the community, leading it, and providing all of their own physical needs) and either become forest elfs or move to human lands where less will be required of them for more material gain.



The Arid Plateau
The Arid Plateau is a high desert, effectively a mess of rocks jutting up from the ground as the remnants of a shattered mesa. Formerly this was a much more contiguous piece of land, but it shattered under the impact of a massive falling star sometime just over 2,000 years ago. The remnants of the star became the great chards, valued by all societies as magical items that have the power to make certain spells permanent. Humans, elves and orcs all descend upon the region to mine for the chards, and even though their battles make it impossible for any one group to take control it still allows for massive individual profits. Many a wealthy merchant began their business lives amongst the haunted rocks of the plateau dodging Janni and monstrous insects. Centipedes of up to colossal sizes, spiders up to gargantuan and scorpions up to huge size hide in the cracked spaces between mesas, making avoiding walking on the surface impossible. At the same time Janni, unknown before the star fall, make their own crude mansions on the mesas and fight an endless war for their masters, the much rarer Djinni and Efreeti.

The star fall even that broke the old mesa into a jagged mess some 500 square miles in total also temporarily destroyed the East Orcs and weakened the Second Traskian Empire until it could no longer hold off its enemies. It also unleashed the Genies upon the world, a race of awesome power and strange physiology. The Genies are uninterested in the chards that litter the region, but are instead intensely focused on a civil war that apparently predated their arrival. The Djinni and Efreeti are the great lords of their species, and they war through their Janni in small but vicious strikes which appear to be wars of giants amongst the humanoids of Tolos. The two major factions have attempted to branch out into surrounding regions in search of soldiers before, leading to their controlling the East Orcs around 1,000 years ago and the city of Tstan more recently. Any adventurer who goes into the Arid Plateau will have to talk fast to prevent being pressed into the armies of the Janni or destroyed as a spy, and a surprising number join the war by choice to get their hands on the magical weaponry wielded by the Genies.

The two groups bordering the plateau, the humans and orcs, send armies of miners that battle each other amongst the godlike Janni, the devil like monstrous bugs, and the shattered rocks. The chance of finding a chard is 1% per week there, with a 10% chance of a greater stone, a 20% change of a normal stone, a 30% chance of a lesser stone, and a 40% chance of a least stone. As a result a miner who works there for a year has an almost 50% chance of finding a stone, but only a 6/125 chance of striking it rich and finding a greater stone (the probability of dying in this period is much higher.) Some companies of miners split their profits, but most miners prefer the gamble of life and health for fortune.

Elfs also go to the Arid Plateau, although in much smaller numbers than their neighbors. They are also motivated more by their national needs than personal wealth, and they often work together in groups to assault successful mining camps. Bandits of all types are common of course, but elfs are particularly ruthless and coordinated, leading to other groups refusing to interact with them or attacking them on sight. This is offset by the fact that the elfs coming to the plateau are less often the bottom of their society, and come equipped with the best in weaponry and training. A miner might be an already powerful adventurer, but they could just as easily be a farm kid or homeless shifter trying to make their fortune with as much speed and little effort as possible.

Several major attempts have been made to conquer the Arid Plateau directly, but warfare there is horrible and success meager. Feeding an army there is difficult, and likely to bring the army into conflict with giant bugs or Janni armies. The major attempt by the Pazians to conquer the Arid Plateau were amongst their few defeats, and even the might of the Hegemony has proven inadequate when attempts (albeit halfhearted ones) were made. To truly succeed the invader would have to butcher the Genies, vermin and their neighbors at once. This task is all but impossible, but the tremendous profits are so great that schemes are constantly being hatched and then abandoned.


Orcs

The continent of Tolos is home to three subgroups of Orcs, who surround the Elf Wilds on the eastern, western and northern sides. They are named by the humans of the Hegemony the North, West and East Orcs. The area of their territories used to be larger but they have retracted in the face of the expansion of humanity out of the south.


West Orcs

The West Orcs are the most similar to the humans of the Hegemony, living in walled mud brick towns and being ruled by complicated hierarchies. The West Orc lifestyle is based around poor farmers and the wealthy equestrian elite that rule them from fortified towns and trample their resistance. The West Orcs are famous for their ornate pottery and body art, as well as their abilities as cavalry. Most of the West Orc society is based around their horse riders, who wear elaborately carved wooden masks that fit onto tusks and ears and who believe that showing ones face to the sun is a terrible sin.

These horse riders focus on using lances in combat (spirited charge feat, two handed lances, and power attack are common) while using large armies of drafted infantry equipped with tower shields and javelins. The infantry throw javelins when afar, and hide behind their shields to avoid being targeted by enemy lancers. The armies are backed by the casters of the West Orcs, who are usually Druids or Clerics, the former flying over the battle in the guise of birds and casting into the enemies and the latter fighting near the back of the infantry.

The West Orcs require a good third of the Hegemony border forces to contain, as their towns are too numerous and well defended to subjugate or destroy but too independent to bargain with. At any time a town might declare war upon the Hegemony, slip its army past the border forts and strike south towards wealthier lands. Originally they owned the lands east of Standen on the Jero Peninsula, but over the land few hundred years they have been pushed out by concerted attacks and serious colonization attempts.

One of the oddities of the plains of the West Orcs is the large number of Manticores. These predators hunt small groups by hitting them with needles from a distance, piercing them with needles and retreating before doing it again. With divine healing this is a pointless endeavor, but the damage accrues quickly on humanoids that only have natural healing available. These animals are surprisingly dangerous to the many trade caravans that come to the West Orc towns to buy their pottery, masks and warhorses. It is the latter that derives the most benefit for the West Orcs, as their horses are descended from a single Legendary Stallion that roams the plains. Every West Orc horse of “noble” lineage is treated as having the Magebred and Warbeast templates and is a pure white or black with a gold or silver mane and tail.

The largest of the West Orc towns is the smallish city of Vrend, a town of some 3,000 adults. Vrend rules a decent sized territory and reached its current size because the former ruler of the city earned the right to ride the Legendary Stallion into war. The city currently makes its money from a truly massive pottery industry which uses Soften Earth and Stone spells to transform large rock bricks into clay for molding, and even Stone Shape spells to make pottery out of stone instead of clay. The wealth of the city is nothing compared to a true trade city, but it is enough that Vrend has considered allying with the Hegemony rather than face the continuous attacks by its neighbors.



Recently the Elf Wilds have been quiet, and a mixed camp of humans and orcs have set up lumber cutting operations for exotic woods. For weeks they persisted in their work, until every individual in the camp went missing at once. Now the woods are getting ever closer to the surrounding lands, and farms are being swallowed. The Hegemony cities are too distant to send help, and the locals are asking for someone to enter the forest and make amends for them.

Tvtyrant
2013-09-15, 01:52 AM
The Marru
Tolos
The Marru were a civilization of dragon worshipping kobolds who developed powerful magic and developed the science of Dragon-Spawning. Their civilization reached its height under the great Marrun Empire which stretched from the southern tip of the continent up to Lotu and from Landa to Megara.

They originally developed out of a group of Kobold tribes who tamed dragons for use as guards back before human civilization began. These tribes discovered that dragon body parts could be used to give the eater/drinker/wearer certain temporary powers. Slowly they learned the art of Dragon-Spawning, where different species could be bred with dragons to create infertile but powerful hybrids. Roughly 10,000 years before the present they reached a new peak when they discovered the secret of creating fertile dragon-descendants, individuals who frequently were not only stronger than their relatives but also had tremendous magical powers.

With this new development came the great age of sorcerers, where Dragonwrought Kobold sorcerers ruled expanding chiefdoms and rode draconic mounts into combat. Three of these chiefdoms became dominate, the western chiefdom (Hadra) conquering the Lizardfolk, the central chiefdom (Marrun) controlling the area of the Wine Sea, and the eastern chiefdom of Wesnint expanding over the coastal human tribesmen. The three chiefdoms fought intermittently but were unable to establish a clear winner until the development of the Marruspawn by the sorcerers of Marrun. The Marruspawn were the pinnacle of Dragonspawn techniques, being able to stand drinking power-invoking alchemical items without harm and having far superior strength and size to the average Kobold. They were also fertile unlike the even more powerful Dragonspawn, so their numbers were not small experimental groups but large sections of the population.

With the aid of their Marruspawn the dragonwrought lords of the Marru crushed the other two chiefdoms and created an empire rivaling the modern Hegemony in size. The two major subsidiary populations of humans and lizard folk were given third class status behind the Marruspawn and the Kobolds, and were often used in dragonspawn experiments (along with numerous animals.) Underneath the Marrun Empire’s primary culture of dragon worshipping kobolds developed human and lizard folk cultures that rebelled at the basic tenants of their overlords even as they cribbed magic and technology from them. The lizardfolk began the domestication of the giant insects that lived within their jungle home at this time, learning how to use alchemical items to lure giant wasps, bees and ants into serving their interests. Human descended dragonspawn developed tools for remaining fertile, becoming the Spellscales. The intermarriage of Spellscales and pure blooded humans brought arcane magic into the human blood stream. Perhaps more importantly humans began the development of divine magic in this period, leading to the development of the first Clerics. It was with these early clerics and sorcerers that the fate of humanity would rest.

But even as these radically different subcultures grew within it, the empire continued to thrive. The peak of dragonspawning arrived with the development of the Godslayers, a group of unbelievably powerful dragonspawn larger and stronger even than the dragons they descended from. At the same time the great dragonwroughts living on the Isle of Marrune at the center of the Wine Sea created with the help of their Marrutacts the first Spell Well (known to humans as a spell pool.) The spellwell allowed each caster access to any spell they might need at any time, so long as they made up for it later by providing scrolls to put into the well. The great rulers of the Marrun Empire paid a legion of Spellscales and lesser casters to keep the spellwell fed with a massive daily input of spells, tremendously increasing the flexibility and power of their casters. Dragon worship also developed interesting asides in this period, with the first Dragon Fire Adepts and Dragon Shamans rising up amongst the subject peoples of the empire.

The Isle of Marrune was the beating heart of the empire at this time, and only Kobolds and Marruspawn amongst the established races were allowed to set foot on the island. The mightiest Dragonwrought each had a Godslayer as a bodyguard, to go without one was considered a sign on insignificance. The city was given over to the needs of governance, the development of husbandry and the creation of newer and more powerful magical apparatus. The resulting city was a shocking contrast of wonderful universities, experimental zoos and expansive government buildings set besides thousands of wooden shacks and grinding poverty. The majority of the Kobold population on the island lived in conditions that would appall even the most impoverished Hegemony humans, and deaths from disease were only offset by thousands of fresh migrants each year hoping to rise to the top of their society.

The architectural style of the period was the externally painted mural, where buildings would be built of stucco and then painted with gorgeous murals that required constant upkeep to prevent disintegration. This style favored smooth, seamless walls without windows and could not be applied to rounded buildings. As a result much of the imperial architecture in the high imperial period was made of cubic buildings topped with shallow domes.
By around 8,000 BH (Before Hegemony) the Marru Empire had reached its utmost growth and began to run into other existing civilizations. The proto-empires around the Terran Sea such as Argos and Trask provided much harsher walls then the earlier enemies of the Marru, and the distance was prohibitive for large scale invasions. One of the most powerful Dragonwrought Sorcerers, a Kobold Lord named Trix, decided to boost his popularity and prestige by launching an attack on the primitive camel herding tribes around the Arid Plateau. The East Orcs retreated before the superior onslaught of the Kobolds, raiding them as they fell back. The Marru were drawn deeper and deeper into their territory until they were caught on the high plains in the Battle of Wrex (rex) in what is now the territory of Paz. The North and West Orcs united with their eastern brethren to defeat the invading Marru. Lead by their Spirit Shamans and Druids, the Threefold Orcs broke the power of the Koboldian army on the field of battle and slaughtered an entire generation of arcanists.

The earth shattering defeat at the Battle of Wrex was followed by the Long Raid, a 9 year war of attrition where the Marru were forced to field more and more humans and lizard folk in order to survive the Orcish counter-invasion. The northernmost city of Lotu was cut off from the rest of the empire during the war, and the area between Lotu and the current position of the south wall was entirely overrun. By drafting and equipping large portions of their human and lizardfolk populations the Marru Kobolds were able to wrestle the Orcs to a standstill, losing roughly half of their empire in the process.

The kobolds living in the western half after the war recalled the “glories” of the lost realm of Hadra and successfully revolted from the Marru Empire with the aid of the lizardfolk population. Lizardfolk were given roughly equal rights in the new kingdom, and they quickly established themselves as superior by taking up the role of armed forces and using their domesticated vermin as weapons. Horrifying new dragonspawn were created by this New Hadra, including the first experiments with Kobold-Dragonspawn (previously they had forgone the use of the dragonspawn alchemical treatments.) Whitespawn Hordelings and Greenspawn Sneaks were added to the ranks of dragonspawn, along with the truly frightening Blackspawn Stalkers.

The Marru, now reduced to their original territory and embattled on the northern side by the Orcs, relied ever more greatly on their human subjects for support. In order to maintain the large armies they had wielded in the past they would need to convince the leading humans to back them amongst their followers. These were by and large the Clerics and Archivists of the great human churches, and they traded their support for ever greater levels of autonomy. Within 3 lifetimes the Kobolds no longer directly ruled the humans, instead turning their lands into independent fiefs that the humans paid for with soldiers and tribute. The Church of Zarthus, a human sun god, ruled the largest of these fiefs and became the strongest of the human cults. Ruled by the self-proclaimed incarnation of the sun, the Pharaoh, the church began encroaching on other fiefs and even supplanted dragon worshipping.

The Church of Zarthus worshipped fertility and eternal life, becoming the first religion to give serious credence to the use of undead. The domains for the church were the Sun, Plant, Animal and Strength domains for the “low” practitioners who used their magic to help farmers and defend the weak. The “high” side of the church used the Death, Pact, Mysticism and Inquisition domains and believed that the true purpose of the church was to grant eternal life to its followers through the embracing of unlife. The Pharaoh had access to all 8 domains, and developed a radically anti-kobold viewpoint as his own power grew. As he neared death he used a hideous ritual to transform himself into a Mummy Lord, the first of its kind. His son increased the strength of Zarthus and placated his father by keeping him in a strange but decadent palace with eternal servants. The ritual that had transformed his father also transformed him upon his death, and his son similarly locked him away in a pyramid tomb to keep him from retaining the throne.

The dynasty of the pharaohs eventually grew to claim all of the territory of the humans in Marrun, a fact that made the still ostensibly world ruling Dragonwrought Sorcerers of the Isle of Marrune awaken from their complacency. The sorcerers demanded the disbandment of the church and the surrender of the pharaoh to their armies, from where he would be allowed to live on the Isle amongst them as a relative equal. The current pharaoh, Tukkman II, instead called upon all of the faithful to destroy the kobolds and protect their god. The civil war was surprisingly short, as the army was by this time primarily human, and after a year the nation had been cleared of kobolds in a terrible bloodbath. The Isle stood strong however, and Tukkman could not afford to ignore the still immensely powerful casters with their dragon mounts.

A great fleet was created on the shores of the Wine Sea, meant to ferry Tukkman’s unstoppable army across to the Isle of Marrun and allow for the complete extinction of the Marru. 1,000 ships were built for the operation, launching one of the largest armies in human history. Some 200,000 men assembled on the shores of the Wine Sea to crush their former oppressors and take their place in history. Thousands of zombies and skeletons accompanied the fleet by walking the bottom of the sea, dragging barges by rope across to the island. An attempted sortie by the remaining Marru forces failed to prevent the fleet from approaching, although many ships were burned by dragon and sorcerer’s fire.

As a last desperate attempt to protect their home, the Marru sent a large number of Bluespawn Burrowers to dig down to a known hollow cavern beneath the sea. It was hoped that the cavern would reduce the water level enough that the army would be forced to abandon their attack. Just as the fleet began to land upon the island the burrowing was completed and the sea was quickly marred by a giant whirlpool a mile in diameter. Hundreds of ships were pulled down into the cavern as the water was drained away, others were left stranded on sea rocks and a tiny minority were breached on the island itself. Amongst these was Tukkman’s own ship and the undead who had accompanied the fleet. Unwilling to abandon his victory even to so obvious a setback, Tukkman launched the invasion of the island with a few thousand soldiers and an equal number of bound undead.

The winner of that fight is still unknown, as eventually the entire sea was drained of water. This exodus left the island of the Marru atop a large and almost impenetrable mountain, the looting of which was forestalled by a secondary disaster. Over a hundred thousand men had died in hours, and the majority of the remainder fled back to their lands. That summer the normally mild weather was replaced by scorching heat, as the Wine Sea no longer acted as a deterrent to the heat. Worse the sea bed dried into dust, which was swept up by the autumn winds and spread across the formerly fertile lands of the Marru and their human servants. The human population fled north and recolonized the abandoned city of Lotu, and the Spellscales moved yet further north and took their arcane arts to what is now the city of Paz. They kept more of the Marru’s culture than anyone, and quickly subjugated the local Orc population and slowly replaced it with bought human slaves.

The sea bed of the Wine Sea became the Fen Waste, a warm bog in the winter and a hot and dusty desert in the summer. The climate change from the new desert changed the forests of the Lizardfolk as well, the summer Sirocco and winter wet spells transforming it into a putrid swamp and destroying the agriculture that had sustained New Hadra. The kobolds and lizardfolk fell back into tribal disputes and their population rapidly reduced, leaving jungle ruins and drowned roads.

Tvtyrant
2013-09-16, 12:19 AM
Adventuring amongst the Marru ruins
Tolos

The ruins of the Marru Empire can be found in three distinct regions. These regions are effectively the old Hadra, Marrun and Wesnt kingdoms and each geographically and architecturally distinct.


Hadra

The ruins of Hadra and the western third of the Marru Empire are now buried beneath lush jungles overrun by “fallen” tribes of lizardfolk and Kobolds. Giant vermin are the norm here, with large spiders and huge centipedes being alarmingly regular. Giant wasps and bees are the favored mounts of the tribal Lizardfolk, while giant termites and ants are used in the creation of their massive hive-towns. Many other jungle creatures are also in evidence here, and the danger of poison and disease is worse here than anywhere else on the continent.

The primary draw of visitors to the ruins of Hadra is finding the old cities and the magical loot that might have been abandoned there. The rapid decline of their civilization in the face of starvation and disease when the climate changed means that many old cities are still filled with gold and magical items. They are also filled with horrors left behind by the dragonspawning techniques of the Marru and guardian constructs built to defend vaults and crypts. The most frightening creatures here are the Blackspawn Stalkers, the Greenspawn Razorfiends and thriving populations of Black and Green dragons. These creatures all prefer living in the ruins of their ancient masters, often lying upon beds of treasure that they have pilfered from surrounding houses. None of the creatures are particularly bright, but the isolation and power of the creatures keeps them safe even without brighter minds to instruct them. Greenspawn Leapers are also found in abundance here, but they are more likely to inhabit the lands outside a city and are effectively draconic animals. All dragonspawn are infertile but effectively immortal, aging as slowly as dragons do. They also accept the company of creatures similar to themselves more easily than other lifeforms, so a Blackspawn Stalker might find both spiders and Greenspawn Sneaks acceptable companions but the Sneaks are going to be less happy about the spiders’ presence.

Most Kobold and Lizardfolk tribes avoid the ruins of the old kingdom, finding them too filled with flesh eating monsters for their tastes. Some of the Dragonspawn allow them to travel within their borders, but they are just as likely to be treated as free sources of food. Instead they live within their own villages out near cleared portions of the jungle, making their living as best they can from a much harsher land then their ancestors did.

Post-Hadran Kobolds tend to live in wooden villages built up in the tree branches. They protect their fields with sharpened stakes and barbed ropes, but live a few minutes’ walk away in the jungle itself for protection against rival tribes and large predators. Kobold villagers use poison and alchemical weapons to defeat their enemies, along with numerous traps. A typical village might have a dozen layers of static trap defenses before the opponent comes close enough to even be heard, with the most quiet ones being “bee stings.” These refer to sharp hooks left on the ends of strings dangling from branches in the woods, with each “stinger” being barbed and poisoned. Wandering into a stinger causes the enemy discomfort and can wear them out with poisons before they get near the village, and if they try to slap at the stinger it becomes all but impossible to remove. A kobold village usually has at least one sorcerer, and a large one might have a sorcerer who is winged and dragonwrought as in the olden days. The kobolds no longer keep dragons however, believing that it was the use of dragonspawning which caused the collapse of their great empire in the past (and personally having no wish to deal with the dangerous creatures.)

A lizardfolk hive-town looks more like an impossibly large termite nest than a normal humanoid town, often rising as a single structure some 60 ft. from the ground and being hundreds of feet across (A 60,000 sq ft. building is easily possible.) The mounds are penetrated with tunnels that slope upwards, both keeping out water and allowing the lizardfolk to defeat any invaders by rolling a weapon similar to a barbed and flammable tumbleweed down the tunnels. Each entrance has a Shrieker living just inside to warn the lizardfolk of any enemies that might dare attack, and the Shriekers are bred particularly to ignore the lizardfolk and their giant vermin. Any natural predator dangerous to the tribe would be too large to enter the tunnel as they are made small enough that the lizardfolk must squeeze to get in and out. The hive-town actually goes almost as deep underground as above ground, but the entrances that go directly underground are always placed in water and the entrance tunnels are flooded (the Lizardfolk use their hold breath ability to navigate these tunnels.) Finally larger tunnels open out near the top for the giant wasps or bees that the tribe has domesticated as war mounts. A decent sized Hive-Town has 300 lizard folk, 800 giants ants or termites, and 30 giant bees or 10 giant wasps.

The largest of the lizardfolk dwellings is the Hive-City of Granu, built within the ruins of an ancient city of Hadra and waging a slow war against the other creatures that inhabit it. Granu is a staggering 200 ft. tall and 1,000 ft. wide on the surface, with as much in the ground as well. Home to over 1,000 lizardfolk the city is perhaps the second most populated place within old Hadra. Granu sends regular detachments to the Anti-Hegemony coalition and considers the removal of the Hegemony to be almost as important as removing the Blackspawn Stalker Illtrax and the monstrous spiders he breeds from the city. Illtrax lives within an old and narrow district, and has slowly accumulated a hoard of gold, jewels and magical items. He purposefully brings food into the region and feeds it to his spiders to keep them in place as powerful defenses against any intruder. He also carefully breeds the largest spiders together, and has recently found a gargantuan spider to reside over his nest.


Chemya
Chemya is an ancient Kobold city, which originated amongst the first Hadra Kingdom and then was dramatically changed by the Marru and then the second Hadra Kingdom. The city is surrounded by stone walls 30 ft. high but lacking any form of crenellation, and the stonework is disguised by the placement of wooden planks and mud to make it appear crude. Unlike many of the ruins of old Hadra, Chemya is not abandoned or ruined. The surrounding territory is particularly rich in food and has a steep draining hill which allows the kobolds of Chemya to maintain their old agrarian lifestyle.

Inside the walls Chemya is a small but thriving city based upon the old culture of Marru and Hadra. Casters make up nearly 40% of the population, and they devote tremendous energies to illusion spells to protect the region from discovery and intrusion. Shriekers and Violet Fungus are planted and fed outside the walls to make the area dangerous to intruders without seeming like an occupied zone (unlike the obviously intelligent traps of their relatives.) Scouts covered by invisibility spells look for possible intruders and seek to lure them into carefully orchestrated monster traps.

Chemya has a larger secret than just its own existence. The three Dragonwroughts living there have survived for long centuries, and seek to create the perfect dragonspawn. By breeding hydras with dragons the mighty sorcerers believe they can create an avatar of their own goddess on the earth, one which will lead them into power again. They have a full range of dragons and a group of hydras to experiment on, and the feeling that they are close is growing amongst them. If they succeed they may well be able to restore the might of Hadra, or even the entire Marru Empire.


Marrun

The area left behind at the center of the Marru empire is now a dried out savannah surrounding the bowl left behind by the emptying of the Wine Sea. The savannah is a truly dangerous place to adventure, being filled with dragons, dragonspawn and numerous savannah animals. The old human towns and cities have been largely abandoned by humanity.

The largest ruins outside of the Isle of Marrune are the pyramid complexes created to store the remains of the High Priests/Pharaohs of Zarthus. These pyramids are filled with an almost incalculable amount of loot and danger, as the original human clerics created many traps, undead, and constructs to defend them. Glyphs of Warding curse (Bestow Curse) the individuals who enter the pyramids, and large numbers of zombies and skeletons attack the party at every turn. Even more frightening are the mummies that live within the hearts of the pyramids; usually a mummy priest and its servitors.

A typical pyramid might have a series of branching corridors, with all but one ending in a death trap. A death trap might be a pit fall trap that has a trio of huge zombie crocodiles at the bottom, an elephant or wyvern skeleton, or poisoned spikes. Another might have a Bestow Curse Glyph of Warding that lowers the targets constitution by 6, and then they are struck by a constitution damaging poison like wyvern poison.

At the heart of the pyramid is always a room devoted to the pleasure of the dead Pharaoh of Zarthus who has been placed there. It is usually a sort of living quarter with everything gilded and designed more for elegance than use. There is a desecrated Altar to Zarthus in the room which helps to protect and strengthen the Pharaoh and his minions. The mummified Pharaoh still retains his 6 levels of Cleric and is usually decked in magical weapons and armor, especially an item of fire resistance to alleviate his weakness to flames. He is accompanied by at least 2 normal mummies and a skeleton of either a wyvern or an elephant.

Tvtyrant
2013-09-16, 12:21 AM
Continent of Xiov
Drow of Xiov

The Drow of Xiov are amongst the three mighty underground nations there (Drow, Dwarves and Mindflayers.) They are closely related to the other Folketro of Xiov (Dwarves, Gnomes, Halflings, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Drow, and Bugbears) and like all Folketro are light sensitive and more comfortable underground or in dense woods than in the open.

Drow society is built around a tribal/clan system, similar to other Folketro races. Their government votes on all major affairs, but each clan only has one vote and the individuals within a clan are considered subservient to the clan head. All property also belongs to the clan, which combined with the injunction against marrying within the clan makes property laws very difficult. Effectively the male is transferred to the wife’s clan when they marry, and he is considered of the same rank within the clan that she is. New clans can only be created when acknowledged by 51% of the other clan heads, which means that a prospective clan leader must convince the other clans that their votes will benefit them more than the watering down of their votes will weaken them (perhaps by reducing the power of a large and vocal minority.)

What sets the Drow apart from the other Folketro is their dark magical arts. Like Gnomes and Dwarves the Drow have inherent magical abilities, and they focus these in the darkest directions possible. The bedrock of Drow magic is sacrificial bloodmagic which the Drow use to call forth demons, devils, and daemons to serve them (as well as create tainted magical items.) These magics are amongst the strongest on the planet, but require a near constant deluge of victims to be a viable form of power. To maintain this level of massacre, the Drow wage “flower wars” with the sole goal of capturing enemies and butchering them upon dark alters. As a result of the high need for sacrifices, the Drow keep no slaves.

Because all property belongs to the clans, it is as clans that the Drow make their sacrifices and reap their rewards. Most Drow clans make deals with a few powerful fiends and treat them as permanent clan members who are maintained by constant sacrifices. A clan might sacrifice a steady diet of goblins to maintain a unit of Bearded Devils for instance (who are immune to poison, won’t betray the clan head, and are physically tougher than Drow are.) The clan head of a very large clan might have a Barbed or Bone Devil bodyguard maintained by the sacrifice of several Bugbears or leveled Hobgoblins a day and who is effectively invincible in combat. As part of an attempt to destroy another clan entirely a truly wealthy clan might offer hundreds of sacrifices in a day to pull a Horned Devil or Marillith into the world for a few hours, although the chance of failure is far higher than the chance of success. No creature with more than 16 HD can be summoned by the Drow, although even lesser fiends are far more powerful than the world is meant to contain.

Besides their fiendish servitors the Drow gain other benefits from the rampant sacrifice of sentient life. By sacrificing three times their HD worth of sentient lifeforms, the Drow can transform an individual caster of at least 6th level and with access to 3rd level spells into a mighty Drider. Driders gain a number of powerful SLAs and the ability to produce poisons from their bodies. Another major ability of the Driders is their ability to power magical items from their sacrifices. These items are more permanent than the fiends are, and often more than the Driders. Fleshshifter Armor and Cursespewing weapons are beloved by the Drow, along with Strength Sapping arrows and especially the immensely powerful rods of Lordly Might and Rulership. These magic items are often used to gain further sacrifices, which are used to make more items and summon more fiends, in a cycle that the Drow hope will give their clans mastery over the others and their race domination over all.

In order to maintain this large number of sacrifices the Drow carefully “prune” the lands around them to cultivate goblin tribes. Drow raiding parties capture small numbers of goblins at a time from each tribe, filling caravans with prisoners to take home and sacrifice. Larger Drow armies assault other races that attempt to build colonies on what the Drow consider their culling grounds, because these races are individually stronger and breed slower than the goblins. The Drow are also careful to prevent the lycanthropic cults from establishing themselves amongst the Drow’s goblins, as these provide one of the strongest defenses against the strong but small Drow forces. Experiments with directly domesticating goblins have been abandoned as being too expensive to maintain in sufficient numbers to feed the Drow needs. It is much easier to simply destroy a few towns and forts each year and allow the goblins to raise themselves.

The fiercest conflict of the Drow is their endless war with the Dwarves and Gnomes, races almost as magically adept as they are. Unlike the night raids the Drow make upon the surface, the underground wars do not benefit the Drow or bring them a large number of sacrifices. Instead the war is a largely defensive one, as the Drow are forced to protect themselves and their Goblin prey from the crushing blows of the Dwarven armies and the foundation of near-surface gnomish strongholds in goblin territories. Eradicating the dwarves mountain homes is beyond the Drow, and would release terrors upon the Drow if they were to accomplish the task. Psurlons, Grell, Tsochari, Neogi and countless other horrors live in the dark places beneath the dwarves, and they are held back largely by the dour dwarves and their magical weaponry.

Drow society is strangely liberal and uplifted considering the horror it is based upon. There are no fixed classes in society and each clan has its own clan schools where all clan children are taught to read, write and given chances to develop their talents. It is true that magic users and talented warriors are given greater prestige than worm farmers and carpenters, but their children are given plenty of opportunities to make up for lost time. The lack of private property also prevents wealth from becoming a major decider of personal fortune or the development of a permanent underclass of poor. The socialism of the clans is balanced by constant bloody fighting between clans and the incredibly racist attitudes the Drow hold towards none Drow.

One of the more troubling aspects of Drow society is the devotion to drugs, alchemical objects, and poisons that permeate the culture. Drugs like Baccaran, Luhix, Mordayn vapor, Sannish, and Vodare grip much of the population in addictions. Drow society is much more forgiving of addiction than most, as their society has less of an individualist streak than human societies do. The dependence on a drug is almost a metaphor for the vaunted dependence on the clan, and in many clans some level of addiction is needed to advance (like drinking amongst 50s America.) Poisons are considered an awful crime when used against members of your own clan (intra-clan conflicts are dealt with by the clan head or a full meeting of the clan) but fair game when used against opposing clans. Any Drow found guilty of poisoning a clan member are force fed a number of highly addictive drugs for a week, and then allowed to live through the withdrawals while chained to a wall. If a Drow survives this treatment they are allowed to live but are banished from the clan (and thus from Drow society.)

The most prestigious classes amongst the Drow are Clerics due to their ability to bring so much power to the society through sacrifices, followed by arcanists and Warlocks. Any class capable of making magical items or alchemical ones is treated with tremendous prestige, while those who do not produce are considered to be lowly (a dishwasher or streetsweeper provides a needed task but produces nothing.) Merchants are considered to “create wealth” and so are given more prestige than server types, but are still considered inferior to actually magical members.

Like the Lizardfolk and Troglodytes the Drow are talented at training monstrous vermin, and can apply the Hand Skill to a vermin without taking a negative on the check. They particularly like monstrous spiders and scorpions, although this is often confused as some sort of arachnid worship. While it is true that one of the demonic deities of the Drow is a spider, they prefer arachnids more because of their hunting style than their religious value. Arachnids are patient hunters that usually favor ambush over aggressive assaults, which makes them perfect guards. A group of monstrous spiders do well as guards for vaults because they are more than happy to sit there getting daily feedings until an intruder appears.


Goblins of Xiov

The Goblins of Xiov are after the Jermlaines of Tolos the most populace sentient species on the planet. They are roughly divided into three sections. The largest group is the Low Goblins, the various tribes that live under the “protection” of the Drow in the temperate forests of western Xiov. The smallest in number but fiercest are the purely lycanthropic bands that live in the arctic eastern portion of the continent. Finally the chiefdoms of the central areas live in large villages with one or two “champions” who are lycanthropes from the eastern areas.

The Low Goblins are “tended” by the Drow that live beneath their feet, with the tending meant to prevent political power from growing up amongst them. Small undefended villages are the norm, with any attempts to unify the villages or develop advanced militaries brutally suppressed by the Drow. These Drow also keep external enemies from conquering or destroying the oppressed goblins, leaving their population quite large but horribly behind in every way. No art or magic is allowed to develop among them, they have few metal implements and no metal weapons. The great act of defiance by the Low Goblins is to embrace the Lycanthropic Cults, allowing them to be bitten in order to resist the Drow. The Drow have developed a harsh strategy to dealing with the Lycanthropes; they punish the Goblin villages and villagers indiscriminately in order to force them to turn on each other.

The High Goblins of the eastern Glacier are the most powerful by far of the Goblin groups. They divide into clans based on their totems; most of the tribes are wererats (who are willing to accept none-tribal members into their clan) followed by the werewolves. Least numerous but most powerful are the great weretigers, who are capable of killing Ogres and Yetis in melee combat. The various lycanthropes must compete with dire bears, mindflayers and giants to survive and they accomplish this task largely by avoiding battles that would lose them members. A band of a dozen weretigers is tremendously powerful, but battling with a Mindflayer patrol guarded by ogres and Urskans it suicidal. They prefer instead to retreat and if possible kill isolated individuals.

High Goblins use their racial ability to communicate with their totem animals to make alliances in the animal kingdom. A werewolf band has wolves and dire wolves as friends, and they share food and advice with each other. Wererat bands are extremely successful at hiding from the more dangerous creatures around them because of their ability to talk to rats, and the weretigers might keep a dire tiger as a totem beast. One of the oddities of the High Goblins is that all of the forms they take are mammalian in origin, and they claim to not have any interaction with the base form that lead to them. Some sages believe that Lycanthropy is not a totem based system at all, but instead it is the same disease and the individuals infected take the form of their hearts.

The goblin chiefdoms of central Xiov stride the line between their cousins to the east and west. They live in a highly tiered society headed by lycanthropes and large numbers of Shifters, half-lycanthropes with a number of different lineages that are considerably stronger than the average goblin. The Shifter-Warriors at the top of their society run what is effectively a kleptocracy, with small groups of high level warriors wielding weapons bought or stolen from other races battling for control of earth-walled towns. These towns are the largest surface political structures on Xiov, and are frequently built in areas with very hard baserock in the hopes of preventing underground invasions.

The strongest of these chiefdoms send soldiers and spies into the Low Goblin territories and attempt to create revolutionary conditions. Arguments for racial loyalty and that the chiefdoms will provide military support are meant to entice revolution amongst the downtrodden, and often short term revolutions do occur. However the chiefdoms rarely desire to become embroiled in total war with the Drow, and fail to invade when they say they are going to. A few major attempts to break the Drow have occurred, but these are always broken by the combined might of the Drow clans.

A possible hook for adventurers would be to deliver arms to the revolutionaries sprinkled across the Low Goblin villages. The party is approached by some Shifter soldiers who want to spread the revolution of Goblin kind. These soldiers provide the party with numerous cheap weapons the Low Goblins can use to at least begin a revolution, including lamp oil and alchemical fires for bombs.


The Seven Mountain Homes of the Dwarves
The Seven Mountain Homes of the Xiov Dwarves are together the strongest civilization on Skala. Each of the Homes incorporates a group of between 1 and 5 extinct volcanoes in the tunnels left behind by the lava flows. These mountains are at the center of the continent, separating the lowlands of the west from the glacial land in the east. The various Homes are independent of each other but have united inquisitions to deal with threats to all dwarf-kind. These inquisitions are divided by the type of enemy that they face and the type of threat they pose.



Each dwarf home is centered along the already existing lava tubes, which often include massive vaults and open calderas. Further side tunnels are created by one of two processes; the use of Delvers who are paid in metal (which is like an addictive drug to them) and using more traditional mining methods. A typical dwarf town is thus designed along a large smooth natural tunnel and has artificial off branches that continue to split as they go back into the rock. The early offshoots have shops cut into the sides, while further in the side branches are houses. Most features of a dwarf home are made either by dwarven craftsmen or a Delver’s stoneshape ability, but are almost universally made of stone. Stone chairs, tables, even beds are extremely prominent due to the excess of stone and paucity of other building materials. Metal is the second most common material, followed by the rubbery leather made from the hide of a rock worm.

Dwarves feed themselves by raising Rock Worms, 3ft. long vermin who dissolve rocks with a horrid slime and absorb the nutrients through their skins. Raising rock worms is a surprisingly easy process, as it amounts to making sure the numerous predators that survive on them in the Underdark do not eat them, and steering them towards promising veins of minerals. Eating rock worms is far riskier than raising them, as the worms devour much that is poisonous to other humanoids. The dwarves have over millennia become much more resistant to poison and disease than other organisms due to the constant intake of arsenic, lead and other toxins. This natural resistance alone would be insufficient without the almost equally poisonous brew known as Dwarf Spirits. These spirits are brewed by every dwarf household, and must be consumed along with rock worms to prevent the dwarf from becoming sickened.

The average life of a dwarf is roughly divided by where the dwarf lives in relationship to the surface. The dwarves that live along the surface live relatively easy lives and enjoy a much greater amount of luxury goods compared to their deeper cousins. Easy access to wood, cloth, and surface foods make the life of a Topper (just beneath the surface) dwarf far easier and more luxurious than the life of a dwarf who lives deeper underground. These Toppers frequently trade with Gnomes and Halflings who live between the mountain ranges, trading the gems and metal from the depths for the surface goods that they cannot raise on the mountain sides. They often find themselves at war with the goblin and ogre tribes that also live within the mountain ranges. The wars with the mid-goblin Chiefdoms in particular are constant and bloody, as the dwarves send soldiers to protect their allies and clear territory for their own uses. The Cold Iron Inquisition is one of the dwarven approaches to this issue; a group that specializes in killing lycanthropes with cold iron weapons and targeted items. CIIs are usually Crusaders and Paladins righteously defending dwarven society against its many powerful surface enemies in direct combat, and using their weaponry to piece the damage reduction of the “moon beasts.”

Deeper into the mountains the lifestyle of the dwarves becomes rougher, but also safer and more complacent. The food supply is more than adequate for the population, shops filled with iron and stone tools operate in the tunnel towns, and children are apprenticed to skilled masters to learn writing and craft skills. It is here that the greatest artisans of dwarf kind live, especially the great noble families. These individuals are Midgard Dwarfs (Frostburn) and inherit the ability to make tremendous magical items from instinct. Out from them flows a constant stream of magical equipment that is traded down for gems and up for surface goods. One of the salient features of this layer is the tremendous number of abandoned mines and tunnels, as rocks become completely emptied of minerals and mithral and adamantine veins run out under the constant mining. These empty tunnels are often collapsed to prevent them from becoming filled with dangerous creatures or bandits, but even the best will in the world cannot keep the thousands of tunnels clear. These tunnels can become filled with the animal-like creatures of the Underdark like illithidae, delvers, boggles, fihyrs, darkmantles, oozes, and other creatures that hunt the rock worms of the central Underdark. Outlaw dwarves also make use of these tunnels, but the most frightening prospect is that a group of Grell, Drow, Psurlons or even Mindflayers might start operating out of a forgotten tunnel amidst unguarded lands. The Pure Soul Inquisition is an organization that works on keeping the abandoned tunnels clean of dangerous creatures, and also seeks to find the infiltrators that these creatures (especially the Mindflayers) might place within dwarven society. These are usually Clerics who put Glyphs of Warding on tunnels after clearing them to prevent easy access, and battle aberrations with harsh light and divine magic.

The harshest environment is the frontier region beneath the mountains where the mines still flourish and the aberrations have not yet been crushed. It is here that the dourest of dwarves live, as they battle endlessly for their lives against the very darkness around them. Delvers and dwarves work together to extract precious gems, metals and minerals from the rocks and send it up in return for food and most of the tools they need to survive. Raising rock worms here is extremely difficult to the much higher rates of predators and the need to stay in groups to prevent ambushes. Expansion is done through the creation of settlements, mostly made of younger men and women who tire of life elsewhere in their mountain Homes and want more chances for personal success and more excitement in their lives. The amount of wealth unearthed here is almost unfathomable to many other societies, but the exchange rate of goods is so high that few dwarves ever truly become rich here. However the war here also draws the majority of what would be considered dwarven adventurers and entrepreneurs; individuals out to either defeat or trade with the creatures that glide through the dark.

Warfare in the tunnels is a hard thing, because it is difficult to tunnel with a speed that would allow you to avoid coming along a well established path. At the same time there are thousands of dead-end tunnels attached to each major artery, so defending against ambushes is a nightmare. Dwarves make copious use of Glyphs of Warding, Blast Disks and Explosive Runes to make their territories difficult to traverse for the unwary. Glyphs allow the dwarves to choose targets, so they are used on paths that individuals are expected to walk down. Blast Disks and Explosive Runes are meant to make traveling down an abandoned side tunnel suicide, so that creatures cannot infiltrate them to nab passing dwarves or their rock worms. Pitched battles are even worse, as each side has no choice but to push forward in a conga-line of death. The dwarves go into battle in Mountain Plate, metal Tower Shields and dwarven axes. Their nobles make suits of Mechanus Gear for themselves to battle in, and almost all of the wealthier members of society have access to mithral or adamantine equipment. Offensive warfare makes use of Delvers to quickly cut between tunnels and flank the enemy, while defensive warfare makes tremendous use of elevated ballista siege weapons as missing in the cramped quarters is impossible.

The largest threat to the dwarves is the Mindflayers coming off of the glacier. They slowly infiltrate dwarven society using their skin-spies, and their masterminds sit in isolated caves overseeing the operations. Mindflayers can use dwarves to make more flayers or for food, and their number are relatively vast compared to the civilizations on the surface (excluding goblins.) The infiltrators carefully lower the defenses of a town in preparation for a raid, and then on the day of the tunnels are silently filled with Mindflayers, Ogres and Urskans who gather up the population using nets and manacles and then begin feeding on the individuals too weak to survive the forced march back to the Glacier. Sometimes the town is alerted in time for a major battle to occur, but even then they rarely win without the magical defenses that secure their homes. The best chance to stop a raid is to kill the infiltrators before they can do their work, as the Mindflayers will not risk their lives against a well defended town when they can always back up and try again somewhere else. Counterattacks against the Mindflayers are all but impossible, as their glacier is even more brutal an environment than the Underdark and the distance is considerable. A few major crusades have been launched against the Mindflayers however, dedicated forces from each of the seven Homes gathering together and smashing down on the closest of the flayer communities. These crusades have peaked the interest of the Mindflayers, and there have now been political infiltrators found in places where no mere raid could ever hope to succeed.






House Spinnerwrack has been making an unusual number of raids in the last few months, and two escaped captives claim that they have been kept in holding pens for months with hundreds of others. Rumors persist that the high priestess spends hours locked in her tower consorting with devils.

A gnome settlement has sent a messenger to Gildenshire begging for troops to stave off relentless Drow raiding parties, but the Gildens are still recovering from a botched raid of their own. The Drow raiders are small in number, but without any help, every last settler will soon find him or herself upon a sacrificial altar.

Drow have been spotted in greater numbers in the tunnels around Tall Town, and the Townies know that to walk down a tunnel lined with sticky silk means death. Bu Natalie Gnavarro has disapeared, and her noble father will pay anything to see her returned safely.

Tvtyrant
2013-09-16, 12:22 AM
Mindflayers of Xiov
The Mindflayers on the continent of Xiov live almost entirely on the continent of Xiov. They rule the coldest portion of the underdark, directly underneath the glacier itself. Freezing water drips endlessly from the glacier down through the rock, leaving streaks of frost and frigid lakes. Their caverns extend up into the glacier itself, with endless miles of icy tunnels cutting circularly up to the surface. The Ithiliads prefer icy, moist environments to drier and warmer ones, and must wear dampsuits and veils when they come to the surface to avoid drying out and getting burned by the sun.

Each Mindflayer must eat at least 13 sentient brains a year to avoid starvation, and need at least 26 to feel comfortable. This drives their endless war with the rest of existence, as a community of 300 flayers would require between 4 and 8 thousand sentients to stay alive. A true city of 10,000 Illithids would require upwards of 250,000 sentient brains a year to stay satisfied, a truly monumental feat for a civilization of a few scattered thousands living in what is to other species an extremely harsh environment. The Mindflayers are only able to feed their admittedly sparse population by remaining in groups of a few hundred and only congregating at their internal city every decade to discuss their progress towards the final solution.

Each of the Mindflayer equivalents to a “village” retains between 150 and 300 mindflayers, along with numerous ogres and urskans which they use as thralls and warrior-slaves. These communities thrive by forcing surrounding tribes to pay them tribute or suffer horrid raids. These tribes are given yearly quotas, which the tribes desperately attempt to fulfill with their own raids of other tribes. An Ithiliad raid is a horrid thing to watch, as the flayers have technology and abilities far beyond those of their rivals.

Mindflayers who go out on raids generally fight in a group of 10 flayers and about 30 slave-warriors, whom they use as bodyguards to protect them from melee. Each flayer wears an exoskeleton suit when it goes out for the purpose of combat, along with Third Eyes of clairvoyant sense and usually a tentacle rod in case they are forced into melee combat. Their slave-warriors are equipped as normal members of their species, with the exception that many are given masterwork items of hide, move silently and disguise. The flayers themselves are horrifyingly sneaky, knowing that a raid is as dependent upon surprise as strength. Afterall the ithiliad body is extremely fragile compared to their mental powers, a fact that they never forget.

Mindflayer Exoskeletons are frightening to behold.
Mindflayer society is a strange one, as they each jostle for position in the hopes of catching the eye of the Elder Brain and being moved to a more comfortable position. The closer one is to the surface of the glacier and the more invested ones labors are in hunting to feed Illithid society the lower ones position in flayer society is. Those who dwell at the bottom of the glacier beside the great empty city of the Elder Brain are considered the most fortunate of all mindflayers. Achieving this position is done through the development of additional psionic powers (psionic Mindflayers are higher than normal types, and make up 10% of their society.) These Ithiliads become indoctrinated in the cult of Thoon by the Elder Brain and use their powers to help build towards their eventual conquest of the continent as a whole.

At the opposite end of their society live the mighty Alhoons (Lords of Madness), mindflayers whose devotion to arcane magics are considered blasphemous by their neighbors and who abandon their societies in pursuit of immortality. An Alhoon is unspeakable creature, an epic level lich mindflayer with 6 levels in sorcerer or wizard and usually has at least started on a paragon path. Alhoons must devour life at a gluttonous rate even compared to their living brothers, needing at least 1 brain a week to remain animated. However an Alhoon that devours another flayer’s mind fulfills its needs for 3 months and fills them with ecstasy, a fact that makes them even more dangerous in the minds of other flayers. Alhoons live in side caverns in the underdark, studying their magic and occasionally coming out to feed upon surrounding tribes. Of the dozen or so Alhoons in the world, only one is strong enough to directly and regularly hunt Mindflayer septs.

The mightiest Alhoon of all is Idehyon the Scourge, a lich of exceedingly epic level. Idehyon is a level 6 sorcerer who has used all of his 10 epic level slots on extra 3rd level spells known, giving him considerable versatility as a caster. He has also mastered the Doomspeaker path, granting him power unknown amongst almost any caster. Idehyon hunts entire communities of Mindflayers, grabbing individuals out of their homes and disappearing into the ice. Rumor states that ancient and secret weapons horded by the Elder Brain are being sent out to try to deal with the upstart Idehyon (2 Thoon soldiers, a Madcrafter and a Thoon Hulk (MMV).) These weapons represent centuries of effort by the Elder Brain and its finest psions, but the elimination of several entire septs has made it necessary.

Less powerful but more numerous than the terrifying Alhoons are regular rogue Mindflayers. These are always of the none-psionic variety and rarely have class levels, being the wretches of Ithiliad society. They abandon their septs to get out from under the oppressive hierarchy of the Elder Brain, but unlike the Alhoons they are not natively talented individuals. Instead they are the weakest of the flayers, none-entities who would rather “slum” with humanoid slaves in little hovels across the underdark than fight their way up through the harsh Illithid society. Almost all knowledge of Mindflayers in Xiov comes from this class of flayer society, the outcasts. Rogue Mindflayers spend their lives gathering small cults and working shady backroom deals, trying to manipulate those around them and maintain a healthy diet of brains.

The great secret of the Mindflayers of Xiov is that they are the source of the Glacier itself. Xiov was as warm as any other continent when the Mindflayers arrived there from parts unknown, but their presence drained the heat from the land and froze the sea that became the great Glacier. More precisely it is the existence of the Elder Brain that draws the heat from the water and plunges the whole of the continent into an ice age. The Elder Brain (stats from the MMV) draws heat into itself to stay animated at a tremendous rate, freezing solid the entire massive sea and altering the weather of an entire continent. This suits the needs of the flayers well, although it does deprive them of much needed sustenance. Rogue flayers must live their entire lives in damp suits to survive the heat of the world, while the Illithids that live in the Glacier are allowed to don more comfortable garb the majority of their lives. The eventual goal of the Mindflayers is likely to spread their ice age and with it the rule of their alien society. Any attempt to spread without the cover of frigid clouds would be folly, as their damp suits are fragile and their supply lines long.

Fighting with Mindflayers is unbelievably dangerous and holds few rewards except the knowledge that the adventurer is ridding the world of a sociopathic monster. Mindflayers do not hoard wealth in the manner of humanoids, dragons and folketro. Gold is often left by raiders where they take their captives, and the magic items favored by them are often of little use by a human or dwarf. Their preference for stat boosting and defensive items is understandable, but psionic Shards, Third Eyes and Torcs are of little valued when they give bonuses to brain cooking profession skills or psionic abilities. Dampsuits and exoskeletal armor can be considered useful but draw the attention of the many, many races that hate the Mindflayers (anyone that lives on Xiov.) Beyond just the danger of fighting with the flayers and their dominated allies, there are whispers of constructed weapons that can be unleashed upon bold enemies as well as experimental creatures like the Urophion.

Trading with the Illithids is rarely better than fighting with them directly. They sometimes gather materials to trade for brains if they find themselves running low, but beyond having to risk ones alignment for such an exchange the Illithids often find it easier to simply charm potential trade partners and receive any desired goods well below the market price, if they do not devour the merchant outright. The use of Thoon Infiltrators and Thoon Thralls (MMV) to infiltrate and manipulate civilizations outside of the immediate shadow of the flayers allows them to keep up the pretenses of trade and fairness which can draw more adventurers to their jaws (who is going to argue with an old friend telling tales of striking it rich?) Some merchants do make considerable fortunes from their trade with the Illithids, but only because they came too well defended to be easily destroyed. Neogi with their Umberhulks often pull off decent bargains trading their dwarven slaves for psionic items, and the Yeti are strong enough to trade captured goblins and even Ogres for Mindarmor (which the Mindflayers naturally despise selling, but sometimes the quota has to be met.)


The Writhing Darkness Beneath
Xiov

The mountains of Xiov are famously the home of the 9 great dwarven realms and their cousins the gnomes and Halflings. The former volcanoes provide large lava tubes that make up the heart of these realms, but the tunnels travel down below even the dwarves into lands so deep that their inhabitants never see the light of day. These lands are dominated by creatures adapted to a far darker and wetter environment than the modern land of Xiov, from back when the continents had not yet emerged from the sunless, endless ocean and life huddled around hot vents. The most common of these creatures are the Grell (MMII, Lords of Madness), Psurlon(MMII, Lords of Madness) and Banelar (Monsters of Faerun.)


Grell

The Grell of Xiov are old, a fact that worries them like it does few other creatures. Their species is one of the two sentients that have remained unchanged on Skala since before the continents rose (or seas dropped) and like the Aboleth they face extinction. They breed and grow extremely slowly, but have no innate magical powers to rival those of the other major aberrant life forms. The Grell have mostly refused to change their natural lives to match their circumstances; they still leave their children to wander the caverns as pacts of semi-feral predators, they still live in small communities and fight against building permanent homes. In one manner the Grell have kept pace with and surpassed the modern world despite their lack of inherent powers, the realm of magical items.

Grell knowledge of science and arcane magic is entirely rational and studied; not for the Grell is the instinctive magic or psionics of their rivals. Instead they have turned their longevity and 500 year life spans into a honed weapon. Perhaps no other species collects as much knowledge as the Grell do, although this knowledge is passed down from one Grell to the next and not in the organized studies that other species use. Grell communities always have a few Grell Philosophers, overwhelmingly either Artificers or Wizards who maintain the communities history and science. Grell Philosophers focus on the creation of permanent, reusable magical items that will serve their species for millennia to come. The Grell Lightning Lance is the perfect example of an idealized Grell item; one that uses powerful charges that are renewed daily. For this reason Grell Philosophers collect and create Eternal Wands, Rods, and magical rings. A wand of Fireball is for an adventurer or army a far better deal than an Eternal Wand of the same; it can be used more than twice in a day and as such will quickly pay itself off. However a community of Grell might own an eternal wand for 3,000+ years, making it far more efficient than any consumable. Grell items tend to focus on either combat or effects that are going to be used daily. An eternal wand of Greater Magic Armor is an excellent addition to community’s defenses, as is an Orb of Blinding. Meanwhile items of Everfull Rations can keep a Grell outpost going for years when otherwise they would starve.

Most Grell communities are semi-nomadic, setting up outposts near a source of edible life and then moving on when there is too much conflict or too little food for the location to remain worth it. A typical Grell Outpost is created in the side passage of a natural or Delver tunnel, and then sealed off by layers of Grell Crystal. An opening is left up near the ceiling of the cavern for the Grell to move through, and sometimes the crystal is coated in slime to prevent it from being accessed by climbers. Internal walls and structures are built within the tunnel for their use, and then when the outpost becomes useless the Grell simply leave the structures in place and leave. As a result there are far more abandoned Grell outposts than living Grell, a fact which obscures the decline of the species overall. In all of Xiov there may be a few thousand Grell, scattered amongst less than a dozen communities and including solitary feral Grell.

Despite the encroachment of extinction the Grell remain a horror to other life beneath the surface of Xiov; they consider all other species to be nothing more than talking meat, abominations that are at best feared by the Grell. A typical Grell response to finding an isolated dwarf village is to gather up the other Grell in their community and relocate nearby. First the community will begin stealing the cultivated rock worms, then they take any exposed children or elderly. The threat escalates until the Grell make a lightning raid on the dwarves’ water supply, into which they dump Grell Crystal dust. The dwarves must now make an exodus or die, and during the trip the Grell snag any stragglers. Finally they move on from the region in search of more food.


Psurlons
The Psurlons are a mighty race of natural psions, whose flesh shows many of the same slimy features that other elder races have. Like all life they began their evolution in darkness, but unlike the Aboleths and Grell who stopped changing long ago and the many species that evolved in the new light the Psurlons have adapted to their new environment. Psurlons use telepathy and blindsight to move about and communicate in the infinite darkness of the Underdark, and use their natural psionic abilities to make themselves invisible before ambushing prey.

Almost uniquely amongst the Aberrations of Xiov, the Psurlons do not make any items or keep any form of treasure. Their powers are more than adequate to deal with the daily threats of the Underdark, and they strangely have no talent for casting or psionics beyond those innate to their kind. Psurlon society is built around the fact that Psurlons grow into either Elders or Giant Psurlons by eating, and so the most successful Psurlon hunter is going to be the largest/most powerful. Psurlons have an extremely competitive society where the greatest hunters become the leaders, and inferior hunters are bullied and deprived of their dignity. Each Psurlon is abandoned as a child until they can eat enough alone to grow into an Average Psurlon, and even then they are heckled and beaten until they become good enough hunters to grow into bullies themselves.

While Psurlons hunt as individuals, they defend their homes as a group. They live in narrow warrens that fit their worm-like bodies, and treat any intrusion by none-Psurlons into these warrens as a declaration of war. The usual tactic to deal with invaders is to use their invisibility to surround the enemy and then destroy them in a large ambush, wielding their psionic powers with deft skill.

Dwarves and Psurlons are natural enemies, and they seek to wipe each other out wherever they interact. Psurlons not only assault dwarves and steal their livestock, they are utterly incomprehensible to the dwarven mind. The bullying loners lack any form of art or craft, raise no food themselves and produce nothing beyond their abandoned offspring. Dwarves find this racial attitude stranger than almost any other, while they can appreciate the craft of the Grell even as they despise their malice and avarice. For their part the Psurlons find the Dwarves to be physically repulsive and think of them as being individually simpering, bowing to their betters without any of the shame and hate the Psurlons feel themselves. Psurlons eat dwarves (and some dwarves eat psurlons) but their hatred transforms this from a simple battle over resources or animal hunting into an irrational need to exterminate each other.

Psurlon interactions with Grell are more mixed, as the Psurlon recognize in the Grell an old and violent race of hunters similar in some ways to themselves. Grell lack the powers of the Psurlons, but they make up for it with their poison and many tentacles. If an individual Grell or Psurlon spots the other they usually try to ambush and kill it, but as groups they usually attempt to avoid each other. An individual Grell is hardly inferior to a Psurlon, and their magical items often give them an advantage in combat. Besides which neither of them find each other particularly appetizing, which may be the best reason to avoid wars.


Banelar
Banelar are the third clustering groups that live under the mountains of the Dwarves. They are the youngest of the three, and also possibly the most powerful. Banelar have the ability to cast like a Cleric and a Wizard at the same time, along with a powerful body armed with poison and tentacles capable of fine dexterity and the use of magical items. They are also practically blind in the Underdark, a trait they attempt to offset by setting Alarm spells around their territories and casting light spells.

Banelar are very distantly related to the Aboleths, and like them they prefer aquatic conditions over air filled tunnels. A group of Banelar tend to live in underground lakes and seas where they tend to vent worms and hunt Chuul as their ancestors did an eternity ago. Despite this traditional lifestyle the Banelar are actually the least tied to their current situation physically; they are not adverse to sunlight and do not have easily dried out skin like the other Xiovian Aberrations. Instead they remain in the Underdark below Xiov for a different reason; they are steadily pillaging the ruins of the ancient Aboleth nations. The Aboleth themselves are largely gone now, but they ruled the world before the ancestors of other sentient life had branched off from velvet worms. The Banelar have an inborn hoarding tendency, and the Aboleth having ruled for the longest of any species also left behind the most in the way of loot. Most Banelar feel nothing wrong with simply moving into old ruins and living atop the skeletons of the dead, and often they have been “sunning” themselves on the ruined cities for so long they rightly consider themselves to have the best claim to them.

Banelar often live long enough to grow to gargantuan size, making them the largest creatures of the Underdark (although their magic never develops further than they are at adulthood.) These ancients have extremely deadly poison, and coat their environments in acid to take advantage of their own immunities. As they get older the Banelar sleep for greater and greater periods, but attempt to keep themselves awake to prevent their hoards from being stolen by other Banelar. Whether from sleep deprivation or waking to find key treasures missing, the ancient Banelar inevitably find themselves fighting with their relatives until they move away. The oldest Banelar often sleep for decades if not awoken by other creatures, and when they do awaken they are forced to desperate efforts to feed enough to survive the next dormancy period. Eventually they starve to death in their sleep, but their most dangerous period is as hungering monsters roaming the Underdark openly assaulting dwarves, Grell and Psurlons alike to feed the hunger within.

Banelar are the most likely of the Underdark broods to ally themselves with the Dwarves, and they also are willing to trade magic items with the Grell (when they do not steal from both of them.) Banelar rarely make their own items, preferring to loot or steal from others than to drain themselves. A typical trade might be a Banelar approaching a dwarven mage with a number of magic items that stole from an old abandoned outpost in return for a number of scrolls, and then later informing a nearby Psurlon of the location of the mage. Once the Psurlon has picked the body clean the Banelar can retrieve their items and double their profit. This is not to say that Banelar enjoy the company of Psurlons; they find them repulsive. It is simply that they have no desire for anything that a Psurlon has, and they feel little threat from an individual Psurlon (even a Giant Psurlon is little threat to a full grown Banelar.)

Hooks:
"The dwarves can handle the raids of thralls and slaves, but when the mindflayers enter the fray personally, many dwarven warriors are slain and captured. The dwarves of Xiov have put out a call begging for help warding off the illithid raids, and they also mention that the powerful magic items wielded by the mindflayers would make an excellent bonus for stalwart defenders."

A Mindflayer community has recently been completely destroyed by the predations of the Alhoon Idehyon. The aftershock of this has lead an isolated community to ask for help in hunting Idehyon down in return for esoteric knowledge about their origins.

A particularly powerful Banelar named Torth has been dabbling in psionics in order to augment his already tremendous powers. He is currently in search of a Major Cognizance Crystal, and will trade a number of +10 shards he has crafted for it.

Tvtyrant
2013-09-16, 01:29 AM
Bestiary


Gargantuan Animal
12d10+99 (165)
Initiative +1
Fly 80 (poor), swim 40
AC 20, touch 7, Flatfooted 19
Base Attack +9. grapple +37
Attack: + 21 Bite 4d6+16
Full Attack: +21 Bite 4d6+16, 2 +16 Claw 2d6+8, +16 Tail Sweep 2d6+8
Space/Reach: 20 ft./15 ft.
Special Attacks: Breath Weapon
Special Qualities: Blindsight 120 ft., hold breath, low light vision, Darkvision 60, Immunity to Sleep, Immunity to Paralysis, Immunity to Element (same as breath weapon.)
Saves: +16 Fortitude, Reflex 9, Will 6
Abilities: Str 43, dex 13, con 26, int 4, wis 14, cha 8
skills: Listen 15, Spot 16, Swim 24
Feats: Alertness Diehard Endurance Improved Natural Attack Toughness Dragon Breath
Environment: Tolos
Challenge Rating: 9
Advancement: 13-18 HD (Gargantuan); 19-36 HD (Colossal)


Skywhales are the beating heart of Hegemony power. Bred by Pazian Godmages using the ancient Dragonspawning arts of the Marru, it requires a trainer with the Dragon Trainer feat to convince one of these mighty creatures to bear riders.

Skywhales are immense creatures capable of carrying massive loads for long distances (they can fly for a number of days equal to 8xcon mod) and are incredible fighters in their own right. A Skywhale gains powerful weaponry from their draconic heritage, making them far superior to a mundane whale in combat.

Blindsight (Ex)

Skywhales can "see" by emitting high-frequency sounds, inaudible to most other creatures, that allow them to locate objects and creatures within 120 feet. A silence spell negates this and forces the whale to rely on its vision, which is approximately as good as a human’s.
Hold Breath (Ex)

A Skywhale can hold its breath for a number of rounds equal to 8 × its Constitution score before it risks drowning.
Skills

A Skywhale has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line. *A whale has a +4 racial bonus on Spot and Listen checks. These bonuses are lost if its blindsight is negated.

Immunities (Ex)

All Skywhales have immunity to sleep and paralysis effects. Each variety of Skywhale has immunity to one forms of attack based on its ancestry.

Color Immunity Breath weapon
Black Acid 60 ft. line
Blue Electricity 60 ft. line
Green Acid 30 ft. cone
Red Fire 30 ft. cone
White Cold 30 ft cone

Carrying Capacity:

All Skywhales are tremendously strong and are capable of carrying at least 22 tons while flying (light load.) The Skywhale shown here was trained for war (dragon breath feat.) Some are trained for even heavier loads (trade Dragon Breath feat for Reinforced Wings) and even more specialized Skywhales exist for hauling or fighting (Improved Natural Attack for Maximize Breath or Heavyweight Wings.)

A freight hauling Skywhale (reinforced wings) can carry around 45 tons, and a totally devoted carrier (heavyweight wings) up to 67 tons.

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/162/9/5/whale_dragon_by_unded.jpg
Dragonwhale used with permission from Unded (http://unded.deviantart.com/).




Gargantuan Construct
HD: 10d10, HP 115 (+60 size bonus)
AC 25, touch 10
DR 5/Adamantine
BaB 7, Grapple 38
Attacks: Bite +23, 4 claws +18
Damage: Bite 4d6+17, claws 2d7+8
Special Attacks: Insanity Aura
Special Qualities: Construct Traits, Damage Reduction 5/adamantine, Dark Vision 60 ft., Fast Repair 5, Immunity to Magic, Otherwordly Geometry
Saves: Reflex +6, Fort +3, Will +3
Abilities: Strength 44, Dexterity 11, Constitution -, Intelligence -, Wisdom 11, Charisma 1
Feats: Blindfight, Power Attack
Organization: 1 (guard) +1d6 Aboleths+1d100 Skum
Challenge Rating: 8
Advancement: -

Insanity Aura (Su): Any living creature within 10 feet
of an eidolon beast must make a DC 20 Will saving throw
each round or become confused for 1 round. The save DC is
Wisdom-based.
Fast Repair (Ex): An eidolon beast repairs damage to
itself at a rate of 5 hit points per round as long as it is above 0
hit points.
Immunity to Magic (Ex): An eidolon beast is immune
to any spell or spell-like ability that allows spell resistance
Otherworldly Geometry (Su): An eidolon beast’s form
incorporates what should be impossible geometrics. This
grants it a +4 deflection bonus to its Armor Class.

Elder Eidolon Beasts on Skala: Constructs created by the all but lost arts of the Aboleth Empire, an Elder Eidolon is a machine to be feared. Unlike most constructs they repair themselves, making them immune to long term wear and tear. Eidolon Beasts are massive devices built around the image of a species long extinct on Skala, and while some Aboleth Savants have the talent and knowledge to make such creatures they rarely have the materials available. Eidolon Beasts are stupendously expensive to create and most Aboleths in possession of one have found them amongst old ruins rather than building their own.

The Elder Eidolon shown here costs 75, 000 GP to make and would cost over 150,000 to buy.

Other forms of Elder Eidolons exist on Skala as well, including even older forms.

Tvtyrant
2013-09-16, 11:10 PM
Okay, if anyone wants to post they can do so now. I should be able to stick the rest of my stuff in the room I have.

Sabeki
2013-09-16, 11:30 PM
Mother of God. That is the biggest wall of text I have seen in ages posted in one sitting. I congratulate you, sir, on your quite epic campaign setting! How long have you worked on this?

Tvtyrant
2013-09-17, 12:37 AM
Mother of God. That is the biggest wall of text I have seen in ages posted in one sitting. I congratulate you, sir, on your quite epic campaign setting! How long have you worked on this?
Why thank you!

I have been working on this in one form or another for a couple of years now. The current rendition got like this because I was finally able to get a permanent group going, so I don't end up drifting away when I get bored with the concept.

Sabeki
2013-09-17, 01:43 PM
I like the concept of the sort of bio engineering with dragonspawn, I had a similar idea when I read about them in the Monster Manual.
Maybe Drow could do a close thing with spiders and demon blood?

Tvtyrant
2013-09-17, 06:07 PM
I like the concept of the sort of bio engineering with dragonspawn, I had a similar idea when I read about them in the Monster Manual.
Maybe Drow could do a close thing with spiders and demon blood?

Maybe, but several of my players are arachnophobic (including me) and I already used that plot line for the Kobolds.

If at all possible I would like to make the history of each region unique; Tolos was ruled by an empire of dragon worshippers who made draconic monsters for weapons, Xiov is still dominated by aberrations, Stagnos is a wretched hole in the ground, and Pinikie is ruled by a single empire but is prone to gigantic natural disasters.

ArcanistSupreme
2013-09-17, 07:31 PM
Wow, you've put a ton of work into this; the level of detail is stunning. A couple things I might suggest comes from another thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=299236) I stumbled across today:


"No, the goal is not an encyclopedic worldbuilding approach. The goal of good campaign setting design is to stack as many boxes of dynamite as possible, and then gingerly hand the whole ensemble to GMs so that they may cackle with glee at all the tools, hooks, conflicts, dangers, and purely delightful mayhem with which you have so thoughtfully provided them."
Wolfgang Baur - The Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding

part of which can be helped along by thinking about the phrase


"Worlds are verbs."

Now don't get me wrong, I love the encyclopedic approach to worldbuilding. Once you have the world in place, it becomes much easier to improvise and adapt when the PCs inevitably throw a wrench in your plans. But while the setting is intricate and deep, at a glance it seems static and lacking in that dynamite that the first quote mentions. Outside of a few adventure hooks I was able to pick out (admittedly I only skimmed some parts) such as the Vampire Lord/Butler Jeeves and the mindflayer raids of Xiov, there is nothing that screams "Here's an adventure!"

There is so much potential here for potential; you have the ingredients for dynamite and just need to put it all together. For example, what sounds more like an adventure hook:


"The trees stay still until the individual falls asleep, and then quickly surrounds and kills them. Entire armies have been engulfed this way, falling asleep in waking forests."

OR

"An entire army of Hegemony troops disappeared while taking a shortcut through the Elf Wilds, and Baron von Richguy wants to know find out what happened to them. Villagers in nearby towns mutter about the trees themselves attacking those who venture near, and they refuse to even approach the forest."

and another example:


"Mindflayers who go out on raids generally fight in a group of 10 flayers and about 30 slave-warriors, whom they use as bodyguards to protect them from melee. Each flayer wears an exoskeleton suit when it goes out for the purpose of combat, along with Third Eyes of clairvoyant sense and usually a tentacle rod in case they are forced into melee combat. Their slave-warriors are equipped as normal members of their species, with the exception that many are given masterwork items of hide, move silently and disguise. The flayers themselves are horrifyingly sneaky, knowing that a raid is as dependent upon surprise as strength. Afterall the ithiliad body is extremely fragile compared to their mental powers, a fact that they never forget."

OR

"The dwarves can handle the raids of thralls and slaves, but when the mindflayers enter the fray personally, many dwarven warriors are slain and captured. The dwarves of Xiov have put out a call begging for help warding off the illithid raids, and they also mention that the powerful magic items wielded by the mindflayers would make an excellent bonus for stalwart defenders."

A lot of the description is history, it's already over and now things are the way they are. How can PCs impact the setting? What factions can they disrupt or help to change the face of your world? What group is operating in the Elf Wilds that threatens to unleash the wrath of the forest on all of Talos? What about the lizardfolk upstart of Granu that plans to unite the disparate tribes of the Fen waste and restore the Marru Empire? What is Bill doing to enact his plan and how might PCs stumble across it?

Or are you looking for more of a "This would be cool" or "That doesn't quite make sense mechanically" kind of help? I know my setting is currently pretty similar due to me thinking about my group rather than how I can make a setting that appeals to others.

Tvtyrant
2013-09-17, 11:40 PM
Wow, you've put a ton of work into this; the level of detail is stunning. A couple things I might suggest comes from another thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=299236) I stumbled across today:



part of which can be helped along by thinking about the phrase



Now don't get me wrong, I love the encyclopedic approach to worldbuilding. Once you have the world in place, it becomes much easier to improvise and adapt when the PCs inevitably throw a wrench in your plans. But while the setting is intricate and deep, at a glance it seems static and lacking in that dynamite that the first quote mentions. Outside of a few adventure hooks I was able to pick out (admittedly I only skimmed some parts) such as the Vampire Lord/Butler Jeeves and the mindflayer raids of Xiov, there is nothing that screams "Here's an adventure!"

There is so much potential here for potential; you have the ingredients for dynamite and just need to put it all together. For example, what sounds more like an adventure hook:



OR


and another example:



OR


A lot of the description is history, it's already over and now things are the way they are. How can PCs impact the setting? What factions can they disrupt or help to change the face of your world? What group is operating in the Elf Wilds that threatens to unleash the wrath of the forest on all of Talos? What about the lizardfolk upstart of Granu that plans to unite the disparate tribes of the Fen waste and restore the Marru Empire? What is Bill doing to enact his plan and how might PCs stumble across it?

Or are you looking for more of a "This would be cool" or "That doesn't quite make sense mechanically" kind of help? I know my setting is currently pretty similar due to me thinking about my group rather than how I can make a setting that appeals to others.

I'm mostly just writing down the stuff we use in my current campaign, honestly. For instance there are some 90 characters in Megara that have now been stated out, but I feel like listing them off makes a strait-jacket out of the setting.

For instance my group got it because an inn keeper named Jackson asked the party to rid the city of its criminal element after a more upscale inn owned by a man named Lando was destroyed by arson. The party accidentally got Bill's right hand man possessed by a ghost named Annie while trying to bring him to justice, and when they tried to track down Annie with her new body they ran into Jeeves and discovered that there is a cult that seeks to turn drugged out please seekers into thralls. They beat a retreat and found out where Bill was hiding from Dobson, an arcanist they beat the tar out of after raiding one of the criminal bunkers. Etc, etc, etc.

I do see your point, I'll try to add more hooks in.

Edit: Actually I rather like yours. Mind helping me make some? I still have about 90% of the world still to write up (my party moves around a lot, so I need to have everything squared before they get there.)

ArcanistSupreme
2013-09-18, 07:26 AM
Edit: Actually I rather like yours. Mind helping me make some? I still have about 90% of the world still to write up (my party moves around a lot, so I need to have everything squared before they get there.)

Sure, no problem. Is there anywhere you'd like me to start?

Tvtyrant
2013-09-18, 01:08 PM
Sure, no problem. Is there anywhere you'd like me to start?

Gnomes trying to stave off a drow decimation squad would be a good start. :D

ArcanistSupreme
2013-09-18, 07:28 PM
Note that my suggestions don't need go where the original text is. Feel free to put them where they fit, make an "Adventure Hooks" sidebar, or ignore them completely.

On the subject of the drow:
Instead of:

"As part of an attempt to destroy another clan entirely a truly wealthy clan might offer hundreds of sacrifices in a day to pull a Horned Devil or Marillith into the world for a few hours, although the chance of failure is far higher than the chance of success. No creature with more than 16 HD can be summoned by the Drow, although even lesser fiends are far more powerful than the world is meant to contain."
try:

"House Bigspider has been making an unusual number of raids, and two escaped captives claim that they have been kept in holding pens for months with hundreds of others. Rumors persist that the high priestess spends hours locked in her tower consorting with devils.

Instead of (maybe in addition to?):

"Larger Drow armies assault other races that attempt to build colonies on what the Drow consider their culling grounds, because these races are individually stronger and breed slower than the goblins."
try:

"A gnome settlement has sent a messenger to Gnumblyton begging for troops to stave off relentless Drow raiding parties, but the Gnumblies are still recovering from a botched raid of their own. The Drow raiders are small in number, but without any help, every last settler will soon find him or herself upon a sacrificial altar."

Instead of:

"Arachnids are patient hunters that usually favor ambush over aggressive assaults, which makes them perfect guards. A group of monstrous spiders do well as guards for vaults because they are more than happy to sit there getting daily feedings until an intruder appears."
try:

"Drow have been spotted in greater numbers in the tunnels around Gnireland, and the Gnirish know that to walk down a tunnel lined with sticky silk means death. Bu Gnatalie Gnavarro has disapeared, and her gnoble father will pay anything to see her returned safely."

WARNING: I got a little carried away at the end there. But I believe 100% that the gnome upper class should be called gnobles.

Jimlad
2013-09-19, 07:46 AM
Wow. That's a lot of text. Wow.:smalleek:
Okay, I'm guessing you wouldn't mind if I use aspects of this world in a campaign I'm making, would you? Also, give me about 7 months to read all that! I'm planning on making a campaign setting in which they go though a whole bunch of worlds. I can't really give advice on it until I really read it, so it might be a few days.

Also, people mentioned that your world is more towards the encyclopedic approach to world making, but really if your going to be posting it to this forum, it's a good idea to flesh it out before posting it, so it can inspire a bit more, and need a bit less help to do so. I know if I post most of the world I'll make, I would come up with about that. Thanks for the inspiration. I hope that this world goes well, and that your PC's don't do anything like "We can take that god!" when they're supposed to run.

Just skimming over it, you never mention what races there are to play as, and the stats of the races. I'd say you want a few races to perhaps live on or around the sky whales. In fact, thinking about it, a city on a sky whale would be awesome! Or a point at which you have to fight on one. (I'm just guessing what they are based on the name, but you can probably see what I mean. Battle would be fun just because you don't need to kill. Just shove.)

Tvtyrant
2013-09-20, 12:34 AM
Wow. That's a lot of text. Wow.:smalleek:
Okay, I'm guessing you wouldn't mind if I use aspects of this world in a campaign I'm making, would you? Also, give me about 7 months to read all that! I'm planning on making a campaign setting in which they go though a whole bunch of worlds. I can't really give advice on it until I really read it, so it might be a few days.

Also, people mentioned that your world is more towards the encyclopedic approach to world making, but really if your going to be posting it to this forum, it's a good idea to flesh it out before posting it, so it can inspire a bit more, and need a bit less help to do so. I know if I post most of the world I'll make, I would come up with about that. Thanks for the inspiration. I hope that this world goes well, and that your PC's don't do anything like "We can take that god!" when they're supposed to run.

Just skimming over it, you never mention what races there are to play as, and the stats of the races. I'd say you want a few races to perhaps live on or around the sky whales. In fact, thinking about it, a city on a sky whale would be awesome! Or a point at which you have to fight on one. (I'm just guessing what they are based on the name, but you can probably see what I mean. Battle would be fun just because you don't need to kill. Just shove.)

I wouldn't mind you cribbing stuff off of me! That is how I got most of it :P

You are right, I should make a mention of playable races and what the basic "setting" should be.


Note that my suggestions don't need go where the original text is. Feel free to put them where they fit, make an "Adventure Hooks" sidebar, or ignore them completely.

On the subject of the drow:
Instead of:

try:


Instead of (maybe in addition to?):

try:


Instead of:

try:


WARNING: I got a little carried away at the end there. But I believe 100% that the gnome upper class should be called gnobles.

I think I will make a "hooks" sidebar and add them to it. The history and sociology is my favorite part (besides DMing) and I am not going to be very good about mixing them in with the story.

As an aside, should I use spoiler tags to make it less "block of text" feeling?

ArcanistSupreme
2013-09-20, 01:05 AM
I think I will make a "hooks" sidebar and add them to it. The history and sociology is my favorite part (besides DMing) and I am not going to be very good about mixing them in with the story.

As an aside, should I use spoiler tags to make it less "block of text" feeling?

I think a sidebar is the way to go. I was editing my campaign setting today (going over yours made me realize that mine had zero hooks as well) and I tried making an entry that had the hooks worked in, but I'm pretty sure that the hooks will be totally lost in all of the other stuff I want to include.

If you ever ask me if you should do spoilers for text, I will almost always say yes, for I am in love with spoilers. They make it easier for viewers to quickly navigate the page, properly labeled spoilers make it easier to locate desired information, labels make it easy to create a table of contents, readers can skim the entries quickly for things that catch their eye, and more! If I were to list all of the benefits of spoilers, I would need a spoiler!

For an organization reference, I like what Admiral Squish has done with Crossroads (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=269334), even though his setting isn't nearly as fleshed out as yours.

Tvtyrant
2013-09-20, 11:09 PM
I think a sidebar is the way to go. I was editing my campaign setting today (going over yours made me realize that mine had zero hooks as well) and I tried making an entry that had the hooks worked in, but I'm pretty sure that the hooks will be totally lost in all of the other stuff I want to include.

If you ever ask me if you should do spoilers for text, I will almost always say yes, for I am in love with spoilers. They make it easier for viewers to quickly navigate the page, properly labeled spoilers make it easier to locate desired information, labels make it easy to create a table of contents, readers can skim the entries quickly for things that catch their eye, and more! If I were to list all of the benefits of spoilers, I would need a spoiler!

For an organization reference, I like what Admiral Squish has done with Crossroads (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=269334), even though his setting isn't nearly as fleshed out as yours.
His is definitely better. I am not sure how I would go about doing that, so I think I will simply stick with my organization for now.

Hooks will be at the bottom of each section, and each continent will have two sections. I might run out of space, but for now it looks like it will work.

ArcanistSupreme
2013-09-21, 12:09 AM
His is definitely better. I am not sure how I would go about doing that, so I think I will simply stick with my organization for now.

Hooks will be at the bottom of each section, and each continent will have two sections. I might run out of space, but for now it looks like it will work.

His may be mechanically more developed, but you have a ton more fluff and flavor. Apples and oranges.

As for organization, it's pretty straightforward:
Continent Name
Text that you've already written goes here

Cultures/Organizations/Tribes/Whatever
A quick list goes here

Races
Another list here

Monsters
List here if you feel it's appropriate. I could take or leave this section.

Plot Hooks
Insert plot hooks here

And you're done. Nice, neat, and requiring very little extra effort on your part. My spoiler recommendation is really something you have to have in mind from the start. Reformatting would take a bit of work on your part. Although you could spoiler the big blocks of text and label them by culture. [/twocents]

Tvtyrant
2013-09-22, 12:29 AM
That looks like I would to reformat everything O.o'

I might do it when my weekend comes up, I don't have enough time right now. I did get an artist to let me use a cool skywhale picture.

ArcanistSupreme
2013-09-25, 11:37 PM
I like the updated format! I'll try to get a few more adventure hooks done when I have more time. I've been super busy this week. Any direction you want me to go?

Tvtyrant
2013-09-26, 12:13 AM
I like the updated format! I'll try to get a few more adventure hooks done when I have more time. I've been super busy this week. Any direction you want me to go?

Getting involved in a war between Drow houses is one that I wanted to write down, also getting some hooks for the various Hegemony cities.

Thank you for the help BTW! I really appreciate it :smallsmile:

Tvtyrant
2013-09-29, 06:48 PM
Added dragons, goblins and pyramids.

ArcanistSupreme
2013-10-01, 12:56 AM
Sorry for the long absence. I reread the Hegemony stuff and will try to get a couple hooks posted tomorrow sometime.

Tvtyrant
2013-10-01, 04:19 PM
Sorry for the long absence. I reread the Hegemony stuff and will try to get a couple hooks posted tomorrow sometime.

No need to apologize for not meeting a nonexistent deadline for a free project :P

I have been thinking of brewing up a minion template for the game due to issues I have had running it. Something like:
Uses a hit log instead of HP. It takes a number of hits equal to the log (1-4 depending on mooks to behemoths) to incapacitate it, and they have a high AC and attack but low damage.

ArcanistSupreme
2013-10-02, 01:24 AM
A noble's son has fallen has fallen deathly ill, and the only known cure is an herb that is grown exclusively in Trask. She is willing to pay any price to bodyguards capable of guiding her and her sick son through the criminal underworld of the ancient city.

A hooded man hailing from Trask is offering large bounties for the heads of drow merchants. (The idea here is that he is trying to take care of the competition, possibly sparking a gang war scenario)

Two Lotu merchants have missed the last caravan, and they need to transport their load of exotic fruits and herbs before it all spoils. But the road to Seth is known to be riddled with bandit camps, and they seek seasoned mercenaries to make sure that they arrive in one piece.

The owner of a Megarran inn approaches the PCs in secret, constantly wringing his hands and looking over his shoulder. He and several other inn keepers are being bled dry by a protection racket, and going to the law is the same as jumping off the edge of the continent; certain death.

I know that I am in no way obligated to help out, but I said I would, and I like to keep my word. And I am the kind of person who will never do something if there is no deadline. :smalltongue:

Tvtyrant
2013-10-02, 02:15 AM
A noble's son has fallen has fallen deathly ill, and the only known cure is an herb that is grown exclusively in Trask. She is willing to pay any price to bodyguards capable of guiding her and her sick son through the criminal underworld of the ancient city.

A hooded man hailing from Trask is offering large bounties for the heads of drow merchants. (The idea here is that he is trying to take care of the competition, possibly sparking a gang war scenario)

Two Lotu merchants have missed the last caravan, and they need to transport their load of exotic fruits and herbs before it all spoils. But the road to Seth is known to be riddled with bandit camps, and they seek seasoned mercenaries to make sure that they arrive in one piece.

The owner of a Megarran inn approaches the PCs in secret, constantly wringing his hands and looking over his shoulder. He and several other inn keepers are being bled dry by a protection racket, and going to the law is the same as jumping off the edge of the continent; certain death.

I know that I am in no way obligated to help out, but I said I would, and I like to keep my word. And I am the kind of person who will never do something if there is no deadline. :smalltongue:

Neat! Added to the Hegemony section, along with some improvements using the new spoilers and standardizing the old (I like the first paragraph outside the spoiler as a teaser/intro.) My big goals for the next week is to get the city of Paz and the 7 Dwarven mountain homes done. So we will get to the big names soon.

Tvtyrant
2013-10-13, 01:48 AM
Paz is up! The city of wonders needs some more fleshing out, but the basic tone of it and the outline of its history is there. I also added the dwarfs to Xiov.

To think I still haven't gotten all of the cities on Tolos done and I still have two more continents to even flesh out. *shudder*

JianHao
2013-11-03, 08:59 PM
I had a few questions about the Mage Council of Paz. You mention that getting on the council allows you to basically rule the world, but I don't think you were clear entirely as to the "How" exactly. Do the laws passed by the Council carry international weight? How do you run for office and what sorts of qualifications are necessary?

Tvtyrant
2013-11-04, 01:31 AM
I had a few questions about the Mage Council of Paz. You mention that getting on the council allows you to basically rule the world, but I don't think you were clear entirely as to the "How" exactly. Do the laws passed by the Council carry international weight? How do you run for office and what sorts of qualifications are necessary?

It is more a product of how the human portion of the world is run. The city of Paz effectively runs the Hegemony, as it was one of the founding members of that alliance and is by far the most powerful.

So whoever runs Paz has massive influence on the running of the Hegemony, even if it is not direct control. The Hegemony itself is run by "city votes" where the various cities vote as a council, so the power of each individual council member is reduced. However Paz and Argos have the ability to veto anything done by any other city, so each council member is about 1/20 of the power in the veto, or maybe 1/50th of the whole Hegemony. The leader of the council is closed to 1/25, making them quite powerful indeed.

Laws passed by the council only really effect Paz and its surroundings directly, but Paz does get to help set the international laws of the human lands. Moreover it uses its political and economic power to bully other nations into treating its own laws as sacred.

Running for office in Paz is simple; the more than a thousand casters of the city gather together and the current council members nominate 100 casters of top rank (which is most of them) and then they vote by yeas. It lacks a lot of the security and privacy of secret ballets.