Making History: what events might happen to a city?

[Aotrs Commander]

Okay. I've suddenly got about six weeks less quest-writing time than I thought and my current quest is progressing at the typical snail's pace required from an exploration-type adventure, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to have a brain-storming session on the boards...

The short version is that the PCs are going to find what, for the sake of arguement is a load of memory-crystals, charting the progress of a city-state's history and I need a few ideas for events for a selected sample. In particular, there are seven events of note that warrented special attention in storage (the first of these is basically the memory of the guy who created the first one).

These stones are somewhere between a crystal ball, a memory-stone (a la Harry Potter's pensieve) and diary entry, part Senate-stone from Planescape Torment. The idea is that the PC will experience a fairly short vision of an event; some of it will have a narration of sort; though the PCs won't understand the language, even telepathcally, but they will be able to gain a sort of empathy from the creator of the memory as to the intent and importance.


So, what I'm looking for is basically a few ideas of events that might have come along over the course of one to three hundred years important enough to be enshrined in particular and/or some more generic things that might have been recorded in this manner for posterity.



Background of said city in more detail:

The city is located in high desert (think Colorado Plateau) in a canyon river valley. In the city's heyday, a system of locks took a tributary from the mountains to the east down to the main river in this canyon (which would have been used, for example, to transport wood).

The denizens of the city were humanoids, though not quite human and the planet may be (for brevity) be considered a Generic Fantasy RPG-world (i.e. the sort of world you play D&D on) where this race would have akin to one of the more fringe races from later bestiaries or something.

The ancient city-dweller culture was initially forced into the canyons (probably before the memory stones were created) by a combination of drought and enemies - a faction of their relgious order that, when the droughts came, demanded human(ish) sacrifice to sate the gods and resorted to force. The people abandoned their original city (located elsewhere in this desert and scattered to the canyons, building settlements against the walls (like the ancient Puebloans did, something I would have said you couldn't make up, but until they were pointed out to me, I nearly DID).

The group that came to this particular canyon remained, and this city became more and more powerful become a veritable Pueblo Bonito of its own, streching back up to the top of the cliff and getting powerful and rich enough to create the locks. (Perhaps originally, the task of getting the wood from the tributary to the canyon floor was done by back-breaking labour - or perhaps clerical magics.) This civilisation would have lasted for a few hundred years.

The planet's entire pletotha of races abruptly vanished in some unknown cataclysm about 900-1200 years ago. At the time coming up to that grand disappearance, this civilisation was starting to have new troubles and was already on the decline. A new drought was starting and causing more friction among the populace, an element (in a cultue where religion had a strong influence in power) were starting to hint the old searcifical priests had the right idea....

And then, they caught wind of the coming cataclysm. Not knowing what sort of thing it would be, they assumed it was something they could fight. Desparate to keep their control, the priests and mages concocted these demon-summoning chambers, using the deepest and most sacred - and secret - kivas as the basis, so that when the cataclysm came, the demons would be released to fight for them against it. But when it came, it was not something that they could fight, and they vanished before the chambers could be opened.

(Skip 900-1200 years, and the PCs detect the emanation coming off from one of these now-malfunctioning chambers when they use their off-world Gate and go to investigate, which is main thrust of the quest.)

The memory stones associated with the last part in particular will be elsewhere (basically, the really plot-important ones havig been foreshadowed by the archive of 'em the PCs find first.) These later stones will basically give the PCs more of a clue as to what actually happened.

Suggestions would be welcome!



Edit: Suggestions are now written up in post 12 for perusal.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Well, Off the top of my head:

Three stones depicting the following processions going along the canal:

A (Royal?) wedding
A Funeral
A Crowning - possibly of an early monarch


I'll have a think and see if I can come up with any more ideas.

[braveheart]

My first question is whether the people who make the stones agree with the sacrificial religion or not, because the narration would either be condemning the practice or encouraging it, and that would be empathicly communicated as excitement or sorrow whenever they are demonstrated. That said I imagin at least one stone would go through their history using pieces of art to show as well as narration

[Delwugor]

As I understand, desert flooding can be extremely devastating, and a canyon would be where the worst effects happen.

[DigoDragon]

If the locks were finished after the memory stone "library" was begun, you'd definitely have a few stones on the dedication and news with any early problems/incidents with working out the new system. Perhaps piggy-backing on Delwugor's post above, the locks might cause unintended back ups on the river after it rains, flooding some areas?

How much astronomy does this civ know? If they still have a geocentric view of the world, perhaps a stone gives an account of some upstart mathematician that developed this [telescope] object and challenged the norm with notions that everything revolves around the star. Or maybe Heliocentrism is the normal viewpoint here, but there's a neighboring civ that believes otherwise. Could there be a conflict over the differing beliefs? (maybe not an actual war, but a conflict of words and debates).

Are the PCs the first off-world visitors to this ancient civilization? What if they weren't and there is a stone with a story about an unusual visitor with no known origin? The visitor dressed strangely and wore unusual clothes. They died from injuries sustained from their trip and it remains an odd mystery (or conspiracy) like what you'd see in a tabloid. ;)

[b_jonas]

a load of memory-crystals, charting the progress of a city-state's history and I need a few ideas for events for a selected sample.

Normally when you ask something like this from me, I'd try to direct you to look through existing fantasy fiction books to get inspiration from. There's a lot of existing fiction literature, so you'd surely find something appropriate for your setting. This time, I'm instead going to say something you'll probably never see me say again.

Look for stories about cities in the real history of Europe. A lot of modern times' history is happening in cities, so there's lots of interesting stories associated with most cities of the world. You can hear a lot of them if you do organized travel with traditional tourist offices in Europe, and pay attention to the guide who tries to grab your attention with interesting stories. You can also find a lot of actual memory stones crystals (statues, plaques, etc) in the cities telling about those events.

I'm not very interested in history (but I love cities), so the number of interesting stories I know about cities is very small. So small that I'll probably be able to list all of them here in this post. There will be less than seven, certainly less after you filter it down to what you can use, but I hope something I say will still help you a bit.

I'll skip the story of Horatius Cocles defending Rome, because I said I'm going to talk about real history, not myths. I'll skip Pompei getting mummified by a volcano eruption too, because you're asking not how the city got destroyed, but what happened in it before that.

0. That leaves me with the single most interesting thing that's ever happened to a big city on Earth, as far as I know. Our story happens during the Cold War, when Europe is divided to two huge empires, and the relationship between these two empires is very tense. The two factions are very much isolated from each other, so each faction has to do all of science and arts and culture on their own, and they would only learn about the parallel developments and reinventions some forty years later when the isolation finally ends. The border between the two empires is a bit random, it got decided after a previous big war, when the two winners of the war (which would become these two empires) have divided the area of the continent between them. The dividing line is approximately where the troops of the winners have met when they invaded the areas controlled by the eventually losing power from east and west at once. Everything to the west of that dividing line is controlled by one of the winners of the war, and almost everything to the east is controlled by the other winners. Almost.

Your city, Berlin, is the one exception. This city lies completely to the east of the dividing line, yet somehow the city was deemed so important to everyone that the peace treaties have divided it between the two empires separately from everything else. So this city is completely in the territory of the eastern empire, yet half of it is controlled by the western empire. Life in that half of the city is strange, because they're very far from everything else under the rule of the faction they fall under. There are no farms, forests, or mines in the city of course, so and the political situation makes any commerce with the areas around it impossible, so all the wood and food is transported to the city by caravans from far away. Nevertheless, the caravans manage to run the city smoothly, and really the situation isn't any more strange than in some ordinary military base that's far from the homeland.

Then one day, the scribes of the eastern empire re-read the peace treaties they have hastily wrote up after the war, and they find something interesting. The treaties do indeed grant control of half of the city to the western empire, but they technically never say that the caravans to the city can pass through the eastern empire's land. The scribes realize that this loophole lets the empire turn the city to a huge bargaining chip. The emperor explains the situation to the other empire, giving him an ultimatum: transfer control of the entire city to him, or else he'll stop the caravans, put the half of the city under blockade, and everyone in there will starve or freeze to death during the winter. The caravans are indeed turned back, and as we're still only a few years after a war, the storage halls of the city are nearly empty. What is the western empire to do?

Normal men in this situation would yield, and hand over the city rather than let them die. But the empire isn't controlled by normal man: it's controlled by heroes who have just led the bloodiest war in the history of the continent and have won it. They know that if they give in now, the eastern empire will be asking larger and larger things of them and will never stop until the western empire is gone. Together with the population of the city and its major, the leaders of western empire decides that they must keep the city, no matter what it costs to them. And it is going to cost a lot. The western empire starts to transfer food and wood to the blockaded city in airplanes. (The peace treaties somehow do allow for this. It's all crazy stuff nobody read, because they didn't think it would come to this.) That, mind you, is completely impossible. Airplanes are made for transferring light things, such as businessmen or bombs or scientists, not heavy cargo like food and wood for an entire city. But since there has just been a war, the empire has both a lot of military airplanes they suddenly can't use for anything else, and a lot of airplane pilots who are bored in peacetime. There's only a small airport in that half of the city – no surprise their, you put airplanes close to cities, but not actually in them – so they raze some blocks that were in a bad state anyway due to the war, and build a new airport in like a month. The eastern empire isn't scared at first, because airplanes not only cost a lot of money to run, but are also hard to organize. They think there's just no way you can feed and heat a whole city by airplane only. But after the city survives two winters on air supplies, and not only survives, but seems to be thriving and more rich than the surrounding lands of the eastern empires, they have to back out. They bow to the might of the western empire, and let the caravans through to stop the show-off and boasting with the airplanes.

The rest of the events I'll mention don't make for such an epic story as the Berlin airlift. They're just simple to tell tidbits about what can happen to a city over the course of history.

1. There's a city here where a big flood of the river has destroyed all the buildings once. They population loved the place, even when it was in ruins, so they didn't leave. They got help, and re-built the city more beautiful than ever. You'd think this happens only in stories, but no, it happens in real life.

2. Another city is built on a different river. The two halves of the city that are on the two shores of the river were connected with five bridges. During a great war, many of the buildings in the city were destroyed, but the bridges survived, because all parties of the war wanted to use them. But when the war has finally ended and the citizens would think they can finally start to re-build what they've lost, the losing side of the war thought they had nothing to lose anymore, and have destroyed all five of the bridges in quick succession with explosives. Bridges on such a wide river are hard to build, and the land was poor after the war, so it was more than a decade later that the city could recover from that simple explosive attack. Until that time, the citizens had to use weak temporary bridges and pontoons, taking the traffic technology of the city back to the level of a hundred years before the war.

3. In this city, when the citizens started to rebel against the empire, the emperor has decided to scare the citizens to death by bringing armored military vehicles to the city. (I know you don't have those in a fantasy world, but perhaps you can adapt this story somehow.) The thought was that the vehicles would roam the streets, following the rebels and crushing them to death with their heavy weight and tracked wheels, while they can't do anything against the drivers who sit in the closed armored cabinets. The empire was in for a big surprise, because whenever the sluggish vehicles tried to follow the rebels, they would run into some narrow alley, or even better, one of the many city buildings that had two exists to different streets. The rebels have lived in the city for decades and knew it like the back of their hands, whereas the drivers where foreign soldiers with no local knowledge, so they couldn't keep track of the movements and couldn't set up an ambush. Many of those buildings with two exits today bear memorial plaques relating how it fooled the soldiers who thought they'd finally cornered the rebels.

4. I'll round up with a story from more modern times. You probably know how the key to a successful revolution is always communication. You have to get much of the population to act at the same moment against the emperor you're rebelling against. And you have to prepare the whole thing without the emperor finding out in advance, or else he will catch the ringleaders and put them to prison before they can finish alerting enough people. Today in the days of the internet, it's hard to imagine how difficult it must have been to organize an revolution back when people didn't have enough communication equipment. You can't advertize a revolution in a newspaper or radio, because the emperor will hear about that immediately, and kill the newspaper editors and radio announcers quicker than you can find new ones that aren't loyal to the empire. You can organize a strike in a single factory, but that only works if it's the factory mogul you're rebelling against, it doesn't impact the emperor much.

In this city, there was one occasion when a peaceful demonstration has halted the life of the entire city, impacting everyone, including the emperor, yet the emperor couldn't get wind of the news early enough to find out who the organizers were. The key to this was that the demonstration was organized by taxi drivers, who were at that time the only group of people (other than the military) with access to phototachyon transceivers, a distributed communications equipment that let the taxi drivers communicate directly without need for a central relay station that can be disabled. The taxi drivers also all had cars that they could use to block all the big streets, stopping the traffic of the city completely, but (unlike in the case of the destroyed bridges) still let through a few friendly units they wanted, and stop blocking the streets and resume the life of the city once their demands were met.

[Aotrs Commander]

First of all, thanks everyone for the suggestions - that's a good few to work with! Keep 'em coming by all means, though!


Well, Off the top of my head:

Three stones depicting the following processions going along the canal:

A (Royal?) wedding
A Funeral
A Crowning - possibly of an early monarch


I'll have a think and see if I can come up with any more ideas.

*notes down*


My first question is whether the people who make the stones agree with the sacrificial religion or not, because the narration would either be condemning the practice or encouraging it, and that would be empathicly communicated as excitement or sorrow whenever they are demonstrated. That said I imagin at least one stone would go through their history using pieces of art to show as well as narration

At the moment,the nominal cause is the they people fled from the religious faction performinh the sacrifices and built teh city, so it would not have been practised there. however two, three, four hundred years down the line, when the ext major drought hits, there begins a new crusade of zealots that are startig to mutter about reviving te practise. I see the final days of the city before the catastrophy as starting wane, with increasing fractiousness among the populace. The threat of the catastrophy might have sustained some unity, but if it had never arose, the city would probably have suffered some pretty serious rioting and internal chaos. (As it happened, even the plans they came up with together were for naught, since whatever happened was not something that could be fought - and happened quickly enough there is no sign of deliberate damage in the ruins.

*Art show of some stripe added to list*


As I understand, desert flooding can be extremely devastating, and a canyon would be where the worst effects happen.

*adds to list*


If the locks were finished after the memory stone "library" was begun, you'd definitely have a few stones on the dedication and news with any early problems/incidents with working out the new system. Perhaps piggy-backing on Delwugor's post above, the locks might cause unintended back ups on the river after it rains, flooding some areas?

How much astronomy does this civ know? If they still have a geocentric view of the world, perhaps a stone gives an account of some upstart mathematician that developed this [telescope] object and challenged the norm with notions that everything revolves around the star. Or maybe Heliocentrism is the normal viewpoint here, but there's a neighboring civ that believes otherwise. Could there be a conflict over the differing beliefs? (maybe not an actual war, but a conflict of words and debates).

*adds to list*


Are the PCs the first off-world visitors to this ancient civilization? What if they weren't and there is a stone with a story about an unusual visitor with no known origin? The visitor dressed strangely and wore unusual clothes. They died from injuries sustained from their trip and it remains an odd mystery (or conspiracy) like what you'd see in a tabloid. ;)

Actually, funny you should sya that, this world is more sort of the reverse. 100 miles south past the mountains and about a hundred or two years earlier, another civlisation had developed a way to magically travel between worlds (at interstellar distances) - and it was accounts of the sort you mention on OTHER worlds that eventually lead to the discovery of this one by the Aotrs (the party's organisation, for them as not in the know); the reason the PCs are visiting the city is because something is pinging on their sensors whenever they use that civilisation's not-quite-a-Stargate.



0. That leaves me with the single most interesting thing that's ever happened to a big city on Earth, as far as I know.

The rest of the events I'll mention don't make for such an epic story as the Berlin airlift. They're just simple to tell tidbits about what can happen to a city over the course of history.

Unfortunately, this city is not really big enough nor in a region populated enough for this to work directly. Berlin is from a much more fertile location in a time when cities would be much bigger. This is, basically, like the Colorado desert, there isn't that much there for there to fight over at that time period (assuming substuting flying creatures for aircraft).

That said... I will, however, give it some thought as see if some sort of blockade situation could be worked in; there are no farms in this immediate area, so the city would have had to import food (most likely from downstream rather than upstream), so some sort of social conflict over food and workers and pay or something could perhaps along those lines would work.

(Flood already mention and added.)


2. Another city is built on a different river. The two halves of the city that are on the two shores of the river were connected with five bridges. During a great war, many of the buildings in the city were destroyed, but the bridges survived, because all parties of the war wanted to use them. But when the war has finally ended and the citizens would think they can finally start to re-build what they've lost, the losing side of the war thought they had nothing to lose anymore, and have destroyed all five of the bridges in quick succession with explosives. Bridges on such a wide river are hard to build, and the land was poor after the war, so it was more than a decade later that the city could recover from that simple explosive attack. Until that time, the citizens had to use weak temporary bridges and pontoons, taking the traffic technology of the city back to the level of a hundred years before the war.

Hmm... The canyon floor area where the city is on is basically on the outside curve of an 'L' shaped bend from flowing west to north. The lock system from the tributary joins it at about the corner, and divides the canyon-floor part of the city into roughly the southern two-thirds and the east third, whcih is the religious district (the compelx where those aforementioned demon dohickies is located within the cliffs in this region.)

So, damage or destruction of the bridge over that lock/tributary and their replacement would likely be worthy of note (especially since the implications that the clerics/wizards were, if not quite running the show, were probably the most pwerful faction and certainly the ones using the stones).




3. In this city, when the citizens started to rebel against the empire, the emperor has decided to scare the citizens to death by bringing armored military vehicles to the city. (I know you don't have those in a fantasy world, but perhaps you can adapt this story somehow.) The thought was that the vehicles would roam the streets, following the rebels and crushing them to death with their heavy weight and tracked wheels, while they can't do anything against the drivers who sit in the closed armored cabinets. The empire was in for a big surprise, because whenever the sluggish vehicles tried to follow the rebels, they would run into some narrow alley, or even better, one of the many city buildings that had two exists to different streets. The rebels have lived in the city for decades and knew it like the back of their hands, whereas the drivers where foreign soldiers with no local knowledge, so they couldn't keep track of the movements and couldn't set up an ambush. Many of those buildings with two exits today bear memorial plaques relating how it fooled the soldiers who thought they'd finally cornered the rebels.

Aside from the technology issue, the city isn't really structured like that - it's basically a thin strip along the base of the canyon and along the clifftop with a narrow cleft lined with buildings (a la mesa verde1), so there aren't really any allies as such.


4. In this city, there was one occasion when a peaceful demonstration has halted the life of the entire city, impacting everyone, including the emperor, yet the emperor couldn't get wind of the news early enough to find out who the organizers were. The key to this was that the demonstration was organized by taxi drivers, who were at that time the only group of people (other than the military) with access to phototachyon transceivers, a distributed communications equipment that let the taxi drivers communicate directly without need for a central relay station that can be disabled. The taxi drivers also all had cars that they could use to block all the big streets, stopping the traffic of the city completely, but (unlike in the case of the destroyed bridges) still let through a few friendly units they wanted, and stop blocking the streets and resume the life of the city once their demands were met.

Hmm... Actually some sort of relatively peaceful (or not) demonstration is not something I'dd though about, but actually would fit in. Not as one of the specials, but as one or more of the last events. (As one suspects once the PCs twig the main rooms of these are in chronoligcal order, they will go straight to the end and see what they can learn about the cities fall.) It would help considerably to convey the civil unrest in the cities closing decades.

[McNum]

If you want to have a part of it feel like a golden age, make some of the memories look utterly irrelevant in the long run, but something that, for the time, was quite important for the citizens at large. I'm of course talking about sports. Fluff it up as stories of undefeatable champions, underdogs rising up and overcoming adversity and all that good stuff.

I suggest a sport along the lines of the ancient Mesoamerican Ballgame (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_ballgame). It kind of looks familiar enough, but also strange and the rules have been lost to time. Bonus points that the real-world sport actually DID have an element of human sacrifice involved. It actually could be amusing if one of the catalysts for the split ended up being a disagreement over sacrificing a popular team captain, and not actually about human sacrifice on any moral grounds, at least not initially. They just didn't want their beloved sports hero killed. So, riots happened and after a messy split the new city was founded. That would actually make the sport extremely serious business, and a big cultural element, enough to even have its own specialized wing with results and champion names store for all eternity.

Because, well, it's fun to have something that's so obviously junk data, like several shards just with sports results, until it clicks that this isn't junk. It's a major clue to who these people were and why they did everything like they did.

[RazorChain]

Just look at history at cities like Rome or Constantinople.

Burning: All big cities burn down every once and a while. Or at least big part of them.
Riots or Rebellion
Starvation
Plague
Regime change: Regime changes can be bloody and heads will roll.
Victory Celebration, Religious festivals
War: The city gets besieged or plundered

[Ikitavi]

You can have major sporting events, like the Olympics, great demonstrations of technology and art and magic in Worlds' Fairs. You can have great crimes and trials and rioting when one faction or another disagrees with the results of the trial.

The founding of a city, the foundation of its walls, or perhaps the tearing down of its walls to expand. If the nation achieved a period of great peace and prosperity, expanding the gates to the inner walls might be a significant event of note. One of the things the Romans did on conquering/making peace with an enemy was to invite the defeated gods in to Rome. So you could have a street or district devoted to the gods of defeated enemies. Imagine a great procession where the regalia and decorations of the defeated temples are brought in, given a new home.

City histories would also include the mundane, establishment of a new cemetery or the marriages of particularly prominent families. The latter might involve sufficiently significant celebrations as to arouse interest, with the presentations of exotic animals and monsters and magics.

There could be famous duels, the establishment of universities of arcane and theurgical studies.

In addition to the widening of city gates, the dredging of harbors and canals are significant events for a city. What kind of messenger or message service did the city have? Perhaps a tower populated by Lantern Archons? What landmarks make the city distinct, and would they appear on its coinage? Are there magical portals still up? What famous monsters served the city? Was there a famous hero who first tamed the Manticores that become the mounts for the Scorpion Knights?

[veti]

Check the SimCity 'Disasters' menu. Earthquake, tornado, meteor strike, plague, zombie attack, not-Godzilla...

Also civil unrest. Riots, revolutions.

For bonus points: a bunch of adventurers rolling into town. Make them look uncannily like your current party. Show them drinking in a tavern and discussing some big job, without ever actually saying what it is. Try to imply that this was (very) shortly before a major, also-unspecified catastrophe struck the city.

[Aotrs Commander]

Okay. So I actually got to writing the events today, so I thought I'd share, because I may was well!

Quick note of location for some context.

The city is loated in a high desert region (e.g. Colorado desert) in a "L" shaped bend in a cayon river (with the top of the "L" being north). Two thirds of the city lies on the south bank and the bottom of the "L" and the religious district occuies the last third on the east bank (the vertical bit of the "L"). A tributary river runs to basically the corner of the "L", down a series of locks down the cliffs and into the canyon's river. A brindge lnks the two portions of the city. At the top of the cliff on the south face, there are more buildings, mosrlty more modern wealthy residential and the top and bottom of the south face are linked by a cleft (down which there is more lower class housing).

They had a strong religious presence, noted in the larger number of kivas in the residential buildings (ala Ancient Puebloans, essentially a circular sunken pit, with, in this case a further square depression containing a smooth flattened hemisphere, most often with a firpit in the middle) and much larger grand kivas in the relgious district.

This civilisation,. along with all other sapient life on the planet, vanished mysteriously some 900-1200 years ago.

The majority of the spheres are found in the basement level of an observatory-***-library-***-civil service building located at the top; they are likely to have previously found books and ledgers in the upper levels which contains some of the written script.

The first seven spheres the PCs will find are of important events.

(I have removed the extranous mechanical text. Bolded text is read-aloud; due to the order the PCs may enouncter things, some of it isn't bolded since while I may read most if aloud, it may need to have bits dragged in from the relevant sections of the quest itself of it talks about things the PCs havent explored yet.)

Room 1
The flame in this sphere is tiny, barely more than a glowing ember. This was the memory of the acolyte who created the first memory stone; this was the first successful test, the last one of a series he had been conducting.

As the effect activates, your external senses fade away, to be replaced by something else. It is as if you are seeing through someone else’s eyes, hearing through their ears.

You see a small room, perhaps only a few feet square. The walls are painted with a dark orange paint and a deep red pattern; tapestries showing pictograms hang from the wall. You can see a table or desk of some sort in front of you, with various tools, implements and powders, as well as a stack of open books and an unrolled of parchment scroll, by which a pot of ink and a quill stand nearby. The scroll is half-filled with neat but unintelligable script. The viewpoint slowly and deliberately turns around, covering the room, revealing the door and s small firepit behind the creature, with w rolled up mat of some sort tucked away into one corner.

It is fairly quiet, with only a few ambient sounds – a distant sound of footsteps outside the room, perhaps a faint snatch of choral voices in the far distance and the sound of the viewpoint creature’s breathing and the crackling of the firepit.

The PCs will recognise the script as being the same at that in the legders of library. The room itself pre-dates the observatory and no longer exists.

In addition to the sights and sounds, there are words. They come feeling separate from the sounds, overlaying but not obscuring them, like thoughts. They are unintelligable, as if muffled or from a great distance – either due to language or your natural resistance to mental magics, and you can gain no more than an impression of tone. The voice “feels” masculine – though of course without a basis for comparison this may be misleading. Further, you can sense the feelings of the viewpoint creature, in broad terms.

You can sense a comfortable familiarity with the surroundings, a sense of “home” as if were. The predominant feeling is of suppressed excitement and hope, mingled with trepidation and an undercurrent of fear of failure. The tone of the words is deliberate and neutral – clinical, even.

You can also feel the faint tingle of active magic.

The images last for no more than half a minute, before you get a brief sense of completetion as the words stop and the vision abruptly fades.

The whole thing had a slightly detatched, dream-like quality, but the details were crystal-clear.

Room 2
The flame in this sphere is larger, more like a candleflame. The memory is to mark the completion of the observatory, which consists of a virtual tour by one of the priests.

The vision begins showing the outside of the building in which you stand. The building itself looks pristine, with no signs of age. The building to the right looks like the one which currently stands, though it noticably has less tiers, and the one to the left is completely different.

The view holds on the building, while the words begin. The feeling you get is one of pride, the tone explanatory, though “voice” is different to the previous stone. As the image holds for a minute or two, giving you a chance to observe some of the creatures as they walk past the viewpoint on their daily business.

Seen in life, their skin appears to be finely scaled, and varies from forest-green to bright turqoise-blue. They have hair on their heads, which appears somewhat thicker and more bristly than human. In all the instances you see, it is worn long, between chin and mid-back length. Starting from the neck, there is a band of much shorter hair which appears to extend back down the neck to the back, where it is obscured by clothing.

It is difficult to guess what colour the hair is naturally, since it is braided and decorated with beads, and bears streaks of colour (red, orange, yellow, white, purple and blue and black) which seem too regular to be natural – though from the sample you see, you would hazard that black would appear to be predominant (or at least a common dye to contrast with other colours).

The clothing itself tend to be loose, a mix of robes, tunics and other attire suitable for desert living. Notably absent is headgear – only one of the creatures you see wears anythign over their highly-decorated hair, and that is a loose cap with a long neck-piece.

They do not appear to have any tails (as is common in many reptilian humanoids) and you see at least one passing whose shape beneath the loose robes suggests that (what you presume are) the females have breasts like many typical mammalian humanoids. This would seem to indicate that these creatures are neither reptiles nor mammals, perhaps some sort of hybrid; though whether from natural occurance or magic you canonly guess without a physical sample.

Presently, the viewpoint moves, and heads inside the building.

From here, the viewpoint (with the words running steadily all the while) makes a brief tour of the building, showing off all the areas; sometimes he viewpoint pauses to hold a brief conversation with some of the creatures within it. The majority of the creatures in the building are wearing robes – red bordered by orange is the most common, but there are also those in dark blue in the upper laboratory floors. The decoration of the robes varies, and the PCs get from the background sense of recognition (the viewpoint is apparently familiar with all of the creatures encountered) of a hierarchy; the viewpoint appears to be somewhere in the middle. The red-robed figures are more heavily decorated, including having a bronze disk set in a copper square in a chain around their necks; this symbol is repeated on many of the decorations. Notably, none of the blue-robed figures bear such a device.

The vision also at one point looks to the ceiling to the light globes and hold for a minute or two with the incoherent narration rambles on.

One notable differences are that the scribes rooms still have hearths*.

The vision stops for a while in the memory-stone creation room, where one of the robed figures can be seen in the chamber at the north end of the room, kneeling in between the firepit and the dome, performing some sort of ritual magic.

The tour leads down to the lower level. The corridor is shorter, and there is no door at the far end. The nearest doorway has a locked door,which the viewpoint opens with minor spell. Instead of the storeroom now present, the room is smaller and lined with a wooden rack containing memory spheres; the viewpoint reverntly points to the sphere on the top of the rack to the left (identifiable as the first memory stone).

The vision concludes shortly afterwards, after lasting a good half-hour.

*The scrobe rooms the PCs have found have the hearth blocked a magic heating sphere placed in them instead.

Room 3
The light in this orb is as bright as large candle. It contains the memory of the conscreation of the grand kiva.

The vision opens with the viewpoint standing outside the grand kiva at the northern end of the canyon.

The voice is different, “feels” male and quietly reverent. After a short while of looking at the grand kiva, the viewpoint enters. The room is filled with red-robed figures. A single figure with a bronze diadem and a high collar stands before the dome-structure, which is capped with bronze. Incense burners are placed strategically around the room. The red-robed creature conducts a long ceremony, consisting of a great deal of harmonic chanting and scattering of various waters and powders, which particualr emphasis on the bronze dome, concluding with a ritual spell of some sort. The viewpoint stands quietly at to one side, observing the proceedings.

The priests then proceed down into the grand kiva’s inner chambers and conduct a similar, but different ceremony in each of the kivas.

The memory lasts about an hour.

Room 4
The light in the orb is akin to a candle. The memory in this stone was of the first great flood the city suffered. The memory lasts about seventeen minutes.

The viewpoint opens, looking down on the city from the top of the cliff. The narration begins with a heavy tone and a great deal of sadness. The “voice” sounds like that of the first stone, albiet older.

The canyon geology is somewhat different: the river is more closer to the city and there is a thin bank on the opposite side and there is less erosion.

(The city on the canyon floor is perhaps two-thirds the size of the current ruins.)

The canyon floor is also very muddy, and extensive damage to the building can be seen, as well as a great deal of standing water.

The vision fades and comes back in in a different spot, at the basde of the canyon and proceeds through the city, observing the damage and the citizens emptiing out water from the buildings or picking through the collapsed buildings. Everywhere is subdued. In the distance, a number of red-robed creatures can be seen leading a cerimony by the water’s edge on a number of barges, on which black-covered shapes which can only be bodies are lying. The narration mostly disappears, only a few sad, sounding sentences. The viewpoint stops to exhange a few words with some of the citizens it encounters, the reciepients seeming to take some comfort in the conversation.

The viewpoint arrives at the bridge to the religious district. The bridge is not in the same location as the ruins of the current one, but is much closer to the river proper and it has clearly collapsed – and the stone debris have apprarnelty travelled with enoguh force to destroy several buildings downstream. Many of the creatures can be seen starting to remove the debris. As the viewpoint watches, a great cry comes up and the workers rush to one of the collapsed buildings; the viewpoint narration ceases. There is a commotion, and then a small form is brought up from the ruins. The viewpoint swiftly moves to the crowd, with a sudden surge of urgency, mingled with hope and a sinking feeling of futility. The viewpoint stops, the body of small child cradled in the arms of a bedragaled and injured female. The feeling of hope dies; it is clear the child is beyond the viewpoint’s aid. The female wails with greif. Some of the workers try to comfort her, and the others sadly return to their tasks. In the background, the barges with the bodies can be seen floating down-river, guided by a red-robed figure and several helpers.

The viewpoint moves back to the broken bridge; a few more broken words of narration occur, but are overwhelmed with grief and pain. The vision fades.

Room 5
This sphere glows like a bright candle. It commemorates the construction of the new bridge to the religious quarter and a memorial for those killed in the flood.

The vision opens standing near the bridge over the canal in its present location. The stone work is new and it is much larger than the older one.

The voice is that of a younger-sounding soft-spoken male or perhaps female; it is difficult to gauge.

The narration is short. The viewpoint is standing in the front of a crowd in front of the new bridge, on which several creatures are standing. The one in front is red-robed, and he is flanked by a blue-robed female creature and another male, clad in tunic of fine quality. The red-robe has on his head a sort of golden tiara or diadem and a high collar. The feeling of respect and familiarity for the figure indicates someone of authority, as, with a lesser degree, the other two.

The narration quiets as the red-robed figure makes a speech. The voice is recognisable as the one from the flood and first orbs, but older again.

After a speech which is both thankful and hopeful, but also solomn, the red-robe leads a procession across the bridge He stops near the north end and makes another speech, this one full of determination and he gestures to the cliff wall.

The red-robe then leads the procession into the kiva and conducts a ceremony, which from the tone is a memorial, but one that ends on a hopeful note. The viewpoint feels particularly inspired byt the closing speech.

The memory lasts for an hour and a half.

Room 6
This memory is as bright as a match flame. It is of the death of the memory stone creator – who in time beame the high priest and was much-beloved.

The vision opens on the river. A voice which “feels” female opens with a short narration, barely chocked with grief. A barge is being set, upon which a single figure is lying in the centre. The figure is wearing a red robe and is identiyable as the individual from the room 5 memory. An empty sphere is clapsed in his hands.

What looks to be the majority of city lines the banks of the river. A female wearing red-robes and a bronze diadem stands neat the shore. The closest postions are lined with large number of red-robed creatures, though a few blue-robed figures and some others in tunics or other clothing also stand close by, all wearing expressions of grief. All of the robes creature have raised hoods – notable because their robes do not normally have such. Most of the non-robed creatures are wearing tabards of a dull brown colour and many fuirther have a brown veil covering their faces.

The red-robed figure conducts a ceremony, at the apex of which, the body is covered in a red blanket. The barge moves off, guided by several of the priests and one of the blue-robed figures. The viewpoint watches the barge until it disappears out of sight around the bend and the vision fades.

The vision lasts about an hour.

Room 7
This orb glows a bright and fierce. It depicts the celebration at the defeat of a major threat to the city – an evil necromancer and his army. This vision comes from one of the blue-robes – a wizard of some considerable power (but no combat ability) who sustained the memory spell for most of the day. If the PCs experience the full image, it lasts for nearly four hours.

The viewpoint opens with a jubilant sound and a fist pump, indicating from the blue-robed arm that this viewpoint is a female human or perhaps elf. The shout and following narration is noticably clearer – still indistinct, but you can almost catch snatches of the words.

You gain the clear impression that something had been killed. The viewpoint dances through the streets. An impromtu celebration appears to be in the offing. There is much joyous laughter and a palpable sense of relief – there is much embracing and amibale greetings between the citizens (often includin the viewpoint).

The event appears to be some time after the previous visions – the city has changed, the dress is slightly different – and there are now visibily a modets number of humans, elves and other HPE-L standard races amongst the city dwellers.

The viewpoint finally reaches the grand kiva. A small fleet of barges is rowing back up the river. A few have already made landfall, and a mix of tired but exuberant soldiers are disembarking. A fair proportion are wearing red tabards with the bronze-circle-in-copper-square emblem and there are quite a few blue-robed figures as well, which the viewpoint figure rushes to and embraces in joy and relief.

They are all battle-scarred; many are scorched and they bear the marks of a pitched combat. From the tattered armour and clothing of some of them, they have suffered wounds that must have already been healed – but there do no appear to be any currently injured.

The viewpoint remains with the disembarking soliders for some time. Presently, there is a somber moment when one of the barges comes, not bearing the living, but the dead. But it is tinged with incredulity that there are so few. The bodies are taken with due ceremony to the grand kiva, with their families following behind.

Finally, the last barge comes in, bearing with it the last of the soldiers, and with it a band of what could only be adventurers of some form. One of them is clearly a blue-robed creature and one more red-robe, but the others appear to be a mix of humans, elves and a dwarf. They bear the hallmarks of bitter conflict and look like they have suffered a great deal of now-healed wounds. The dwarf, who looks especially soot-blackened over his leather armour and singed beard (which appears to have been braided and beaded in the style of the city’s reptiomammal creatures) comes to the edge of the barge. With a triumphal shout, he raises up a severed human head, with greyish cast to its skin, which is drawn tight over the features and an expression of hatred and alarm fixed on the moment of death. There is rousing cheer and one of the humans in armour amibably berates him.

The viewpoint practically pounces on the red-robe creature when he disembarks and you get a strong feeling of familial affection (which, given as the two appear to be separate races is interesting).

The viewpoint then wends back through the city with the adventures. By now the city is in the throes of a full-on celebration. Citizens are distributing baked goods and hastily-prepared treats freely. Several of the blue-robes – those who do not bear the marks of being in battle – are making magical lights and fireworks.

The party, evidently very popular in the city. As they encounter the soliders, many of them rush to shakes their hands and express gratitude and admiration, which most of the party (including the dwarf) are a little embarrased by. At one point, the blue-robed advnture disolgeds what appears to be a skeletal hand from where it was caught in one of the armoured human’s backpack. The party wends towards a great bonfire being built. Many hastily made and crude figures in black robes are thrown on to it. The dwarf with another shout, leans back and hurls the head into the bonfire to another rousing cheer. The blue-robed adventurer tosses the skeletal hands in for good measure.

As the celebration carries onto the evening, the high priest returns. He raises his hands and the revellry quiets. He makes a short speech, finishing with a beaming smile an annoucement. He steps aside, and a group of soldiers (with their familes clinging to them) enter the square.

The cheer is defeaning, with the viewpoint jumping up and down and screaming with delight. The red-robe adventure is in tears, eyes fixed to the ground and whispering some sort of thankful prayer.

Once the initial outpouring has settled, the high cleric leads a thankful prayer, which is jubilently echoes by all present.

The memory runs on for some time, as the celebration proceeds, before finally fading as the viewpoint appers to drift off to sleep.

Beyond the first spheres, the PC will find basically to or three rooms with a wall full of these spheres.



The balls are spaced such that are sixteen rows and about a hundred and fifty crystal balls per row, so there are about 2400 crystal balls per room, with about half that in the forth room. (About 1% of the niches are empty, where they crystal balls were removed, lost or destroyed over the course of years)

Most of these spheres, as indicated by the stronger glow have multiple events within them.

The PCs could potentially spend weeks here, trying all of the crystal balls (but it is quite likely that they won’t try!) Many of the visions are mundane images of city-life through the ages or events of historical importance. The sheer size precludes listing anything but a few select items of interest. There are a few more listed in the later closing period, as this is likely where the PCs are most likely to look.

Early events:
• A half-hour long funeral for a male wearing a thin silver crown (more akin to a tiara; more than a circlet but less than a full crown), laid to rest in a barge. It is conducted by a high priest. The ceremony is conducted in the evneing, with many torches lit along the banks of the river.

Middle range or random events:
• An hour-long vision of some sort of artistic display held in the pyramidal struture in the centre of the city. Most of it appears top be sculpture of various sorts, but there are a few other paintings and tapestries as well. The quiet, elderly-sounding male voice runs a narration through the length, pasuing to speak to some of the artists.

• A half-hour long stretch of what appears to be a city-wide festival, showing the citizen celebrating. It also stops to appreciate the paper-lantern decorations placed all around the city in multiple colours.

• A ceremony conducted in the pyramidal structure. It is centered around a female being coronated with a silver tiara. While there are priests present, they only play a small part in the ceremony, though the female is annoitned by the head priest.

Late events (i.e. the ones within the last few years of the city):

• A five minute view of the river and the tributary, both of which appear to be at a very low level. The plants in the city look especially straggly. The viewpoint is from a boat passing down-river. As it leaves the city, decorative greenry can be seen outside the grand kiva. The vision fades in an out, showing a location further down stream; the city is not in veiw the canyon has become a wider valley near lake. The water level is low and fields can be seen some distance from the current waterline, looking dry and desolate, with dispirited farmers trying to water the bone-dry fields. As the vision comes to and end, a series of what appear to be burial mounds or barrows can be be seen just coming into view.

• A short fifteen minute vision of a creature standing in one of the open areas making some sort of impassioned speech. The viewpoint is male, whose tone and feelings indicate dislike and derision for the figure, especially when the creature points directly at it, shouting. The mood of the crowd is uncertain, but there are many among them who glare at the viewpoint with animosity or hatred.

• A half-hour minute vision of the city as it is gripped by a major riot. The viewpoint is female, and the few glimpses show that se is wearing blue robes. Her tone is shakey, but determined as she carefully moves about, keeping away from everyone. No-one seems to notice her, despite looking right at her, but she actively avoid getting near anyone. The riot appears to be being fought between the citizens and the red-robes priests and the city guards, clad in chainmail. In the last ten minutes, the riot turns brutal, as someone in the crowd draws a weapon and stabs one of the priests. Things rapidly escalate and the some of the priests and guards begin to use lethal force with wepaons or magic. Half of the crowd fight back furiously, and the others, for whom this is a step too far, begin to flee in panic; some of them are caught in the middle. The vision ends abruptly as the viewpoint retreats from the area at high speed, only, in the last seconds of the vision, to be caught by an errant stone.

• A hour-long somber meeting between what appears to be the city’s heads; members of the clergy, the guard and the civilans (lead by a creature with a thin silver crown), with some nervous junior red-robes and blue-robe. A memory stone is passed around (The PCs can make a Very Hard (-20) Perception check to locate it for themselves) and numerous scrolls and books of various ages are brought out and examined. The viewpoint, apparently an acolyte, is filled with a deep sense of forboding and dread about the future, which deepens as the meeting goes on. There is a fierce debate between the head priest and the what appears to be the city guards about what is to be done, but it appears no concensus is reached when the meeting and the vision ends.

• A short, ten-minute vision of the crowned individual from the above vision making a speech in the pyramidal structure. The head of the cluregy is present, but standing significantly behind the other creature and his attitude is of deferrance and concilation when he speaks. The viewpoint’s feelings suggest this is merely an act, but it appears to soothe many of the angery members of the watching crowd.

Fianlly, there is one last memory sphere hidden away in the depths of the grand kiva's inner chambers.

Upon activation, you see a member of the robed clergy; by the diadem and high collar, the highest ranking member. His diadem is gold and studded with jewels and his attire particualrly opulent – he has many rings on his fingers and aside from the bronze and copper device on the chain around his neck he has several other gold neckalces.

He and his acolytes are escorting another of the race, dressed in fine-quality clothing (consistent with the final period of the city), wearing a thin silver crown and a second individual in chainmail armour and a military garb into the complex.

PCs who have seen the meeting sphere will recognise these as the same individuals.

They walk down the corridor from the grand kiva, though little can be made out in the brief glimpse aside from the impression of a domed room about two stories high decorated with red.) They proceed through the complex and up into the containment chamber.

The viewpoint appears to be from one of his following acolytes. The tone of the words and the empathic sense is hushed, worried and an undercurrent of uncertainty and fear of discovery. The words continue as the party approaches.

They reach the antechamber’s bronze double doors, with guards in full armour clearly visible in either niche. The lead priest and the other two individuals are conversing all the while, with the priest doing the majority of the talking.

The priest now pauses and uses a spell, touching the device on the door, causing it to unlock. The priest throws opens the door with an dramatic gesture, then steps inside and turns to beckon the party inside the containment chamber. His demeanor is one of extreme confidence (to the point of arrogance) and pride. The empathic sense of concern jumps sharply as the door opens, and on viewing the chamber, is permeated with a mix of sadness and shame and the sense that this is a descreation. The viewpoint figure is especially affected by the matrix of stone,metal (mostly gold) surrounding each kiva. The viewpoint observes the reactions of the other two individuals, who also seem disturbed by this sight, the fine-clothed creature the most.

Inside, the chamber is as it stands at present, though only two of the opaque cylinders, at the far end of the room, are activate. Two more priests are standing next to the central device, with another is standing nearby, waiting patentiently. The lead priest strides down towards the device, with the entourage following. He stops not far from it, and turns and contines to talk, apparently explaining, complete with emphatic gestures.

The viewpoint wanders slightly, as the creator wanders to look into on of the circular chambers. There is a sense of revulsion as inside is a complex series of glyphs and concentric runic circles around the outer area of the floor.

A set of inner concentric rings is slightly offset towards the rear of kiva’s floor.

The viewpoint comes back to the lead priest. The viewpoint seems to catch the tail end of a heated discussion between the lead priest and the other two, finished by the lead priest making a dramatic statement.

The two priests by the device touch the controls, and then one turns to the waiting priests and nods.

The six priests go and stand around the edge of the sunken kiva and begin chanting and casting some sort of spell. The casting takes about two minutes, with the viewpoint’s empathic sense of concern rapidly raising, fear mingling with disgust and a tiny core of anger. The runic circles start glowing blood-red.

As the chanting rises and some strain can be seen on the faces of the casters, the viewpoint turns to observe the priests at the device manipulating the controls. Red light flows out in a surge down the matrix linking the device to the fringing matricies, causing a series of points at their extremity to glow crimson and to emit beams that play on the inner concentric circle. This in turn lights up with white, red and orange light.. An angry red rippling, vertical vortex forms above it, shot through with purple swirls and white crackles of discharged power. It expands to form a portal. Through it, a hellish red sky can be observed. The chanting reaches a climax and the floor of the chamber is obscured by a series of smokey bursts. As the effect clears, demons can be seen filling the chamber.

The viewpoint recoils and both of the non-clergy individuals, flinch away.

The lead priest makes and amused-sounding statement, then strides over and makes a command, and the demons all kneel (the larger ones clearly angrily and unwillingly).After a moment, he gestures and they rise again.

The lead priest turns to the two by the device and issues a further command. The viewpoint watches as they perform several operations on the device, and turn back as the outer matrix starts to glow, with white white pusle running down from the device to light the matrix with white, blue, green and gold lights, with the almost dischordant crimsons on the tips of the protruding runeworks which activated the portal.

When the entire matrix is lit, all the lights start to pale in colour until it is all glowing white. A hazy cylinder starts to form, from floor to ceiling. Within the circle, the vortex appears to start slowling down, as if in slow motion. The demons, especially the larger one, start to react with shock and anger in their faces and stances (though they appear to be unable to move), but they too, appear to be slowing down. Within the space of a dozen or so seconds, all movement in the clinder has frozen, and the field solidifies into the opaque white field.

The two individuals are clearly impressed. The military individual seems satisfied, making a short statement of approval. The other is clearly very shaken, but resigned.

The memory fades as the priest starts walking back.

So, then. Does this:

a) seem alright a cross-section of stuff (given that really on the later and final memory stones are actually plot important; yes, the rest of it is essentially window-dressing) to give a suitable impression of the city and it inhabitants; this is the PC's only real "window" to the city in it heyday, since they neither have time or resources on hand to be able to translate a new language. (Comprehend Languages is not a Rolemaster spell, nor do they have access to may-as-well-be-magic universal translators. Or Daniel Jackson...)

b) Do the final set of memories in particular give enough of an idea of what the final days of the city were like? In particular, I'm interested in what conclusions you can draw from the provided data, as this will tell me if trying to do things this way has worked. I'm trying to keep away from telling the PCs too much and trying to give them enough information to make the jumps themselves, which is why I'm trying this way rather than just a set of written jounrnals (in a conveiniantly recognisable language) or something.

[veti]

Okay. So I actually got to writing the events today, so I thought I'd share, because I may was well!


Holy prolonged cutscenes, Batman! Will your players actually sit still through all that?

[Aotrs Commander]

Holy prolonged cutscenes, Batman! Will your players actually sit still through all that?

Pssh, that's nothing! The quest introductory spiel is like, twice that!

(And yes.)

This party is, by explicit design, exploratory and investigative. That means, even more than my usual level of pedantry, the devil is in the details. Poking around history for history's sake is also sort of one of the character motivations. (The players were asked when designing their characters, what traits they would have that would get them hand-picked for exploratory work.)

The last adventure (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?462170-The-Myst-Project-Aotrs-Myst-Exploratory-Team-Mission-001) was a little bit under twice this one's nominal length, and the write-up for that was 45 thousand words; (the quest itself was about 27 pages.) I wasn't sure how well it would work. A lot of my previous quests have end up being quite explore-y, but never to the extent of being exploration as the primary goal. And the feedback was they all loved it.

(Interspersed with some (not all, granted) of the visions are various skill checks which wil provide the PCs with further information, which, as I say I omitted.)