Almaseti
2018-12-04, 11:26 PM
I'm running an adventure that takes place in a city that has a weird magic effect where the roads don't always lead where they're supposed to go.
It used to be a mid-sized city-state well situated for trade, with a world-class college of arts and science. It was known for setting fashion trends and generally wealthy and powerful, and used to have an impressive military. The population is now severely depleted due to people leaving (which usually takes multiple attempts), violence or deaths due to food scarcity. It's lately been edging into outright famine after yet another bad harvest in the surrounding areas and the parts of the city proper that have been converted to farmland.
The magic is the result of a war that took place about ~30 years ago. Too much arcane magic being used in one place tends to leave a sort of pollution which causes all sorts of weird things to happen. Divine magic does not have the same problem.
The famine is actually partly unnatural, since there's a cult of a evil cannibal god using this to coerce people into joining the cult. The setting works on a Gods Need Worship setup, where the gods kinda compete against each other for worshippers (which means more power for them) Discworld-style.
There is a university where a lot of magic research happened during the war, it's now infested with fey, constructs and even some devils. The university itself has also achieved a sort of sentience.
Eristoran Zerzuket, elderly gnome NPC is a cleric of a god that may or may not be dead. (The clerics are still getting spells, but there haven't been any new clerics of that god in a while and any attempt to talk to the deity is just met with a sort of... static) He casts "Create Food and Drink" with all his high level spell slots every evening to feed as many people as he can. He also thinks spiders are lucky and won't let anyone hurt them in his vicinity.
The "roads not going where they should" thing is sometimes called "Thaenosa's Spite" after the leader of the elven nation that tried to take over the continent during the war.
Lots of abandoned buildings re purposed to grow food or keep livestock (usually rabbits or chickens). Jelaously guarded, often fought over. Neighborhoods tend to band together into gangs/clans and can be very suspicious of outsiders.
The druidic lifestyle has become very popular in the city and there's a a group of low level druids and druid-wannabes who are trying to return the city back to nature, one city block at a time, believing that if they can do that then the city will be freed from the "curse."
In other areas there's a lot of crime, and likely desperate people robbing others for money to buy the scarce food. Anyone who does have food to sell is going to need a lot of security to protect it, and even still sometimes hungry people just flat out mob them and take the food. This is dealt with harshly by the local authorities, because it discourages merchants and farmers from bringing food into the city.
There used to be a hereditary monarchy, but they were executed by an angry mob during something very much like the French Revolution. Now the area that used to be the palace and opulent palace gardens have been converted to farmland, and the produce is distributed to the needy during holidays. The government is more or less a dictatorship, changing hands as different factions gain enough power to overthrow whoever is currently in charge. Some areas of the city consider themselves separate and not beholden to the central authority, which obviously
Currently in charge is Knorri Tigerseye is an Oread woman who worships Etrimai, the LN overdeity of the setting, and is making serious attempts to crack down on the chaos in the city and restore order through any means necessary. (Stealing food in particular is harshly punished under her rule.) This attitude however is making her unpopular with certain elements of society who feel she is a tyrant. There have been a few assassination attempts and demagogues trying to claim power for themselves.
I'm basically trying to think up some low level encounters and flavor to add to the game before we get into the meat of the plot, which is combating the cult, possibly getting kidnapped and the cult trying to sacrifice them to their evil god to fuel the cult leader's transformation into a lich.
It used to be a mid-sized city-state well situated for trade, with a world-class college of arts and science. It was known for setting fashion trends and generally wealthy and powerful, and used to have an impressive military. The population is now severely depleted due to people leaving (which usually takes multiple attempts), violence or deaths due to food scarcity. It's lately been edging into outright famine after yet another bad harvest in the surrounding areas and the parts of the city proper that have been converted to farmland.
The magic is the result of a war that took place about ~30 years ago. Too much arcane magic being used in one place tends to leave a sort of pollution which causes all sorts of weird things to happen. Divine magic does not have the same problem.
The famine is actually partly unnatural, since there's a cult of a evil cannibal god using this to coerce people into joining the cult. The setting works on a Gods Need Worship setup, where the gods kinda compete against each other for worshippers (which means more power for them) Discworld-style.
There is a university where a lot of magic research happened during the war, it's now infested with fey, constructs and even some devils. The university itself has also achieved a sort of sentience.
Eristoran Zerzuket, elderly gnome NPC is a cleric of a god that may or may not be dead. (The clerics are still getting spells, but there haven't been any new clerics of that god in a while and any attempt to talk to the deity is just met with a sort of... static) He casts "Create Food and Drink" with all his high level spell slots every evening to feed as many people as he can. He also thinks spiders are lucky and won't let anyone hurt them in his vicinity.
The "roads not going where they should" thing is sometimes called "Thaenosa's Spite" after the leader of the elven nation that tried to take over the continent during the war.
Lots of abandoned buildings re purposed to grow food or keep livestock (usually rabbits or chickens). Jelaously guarded, often fought over. Neighborhoods tend to band together into gangs/clans and can be very suspicious of outsiders.
The druidic lifestyle has become very popular in the city and there's a a group of low level druids and druid-wannabes who are trying to return the city back to nature, one city block at a time, believing that if they can do that then the city will be freed from the "curse."
In other areas there's a lot of crime, and likely desperate people robbing others for money to buy the scarce food. Anyone who does have food to sell is going to need a lot of security to protect it, and even still sometimes hungry people just flat out mob them and take the food. This is dealt with harshly by the local authorities, because it discourages merchants and farmers from bringing food into the city.
There used to be a hereditary monarchy, but they were executed by an angry mob during something very much like the French Revolution. Now the area that used to be the palace and opulent palace gardens have been converted to farmland, and the produce is distributed to the needy during holidays. The government is more or less a dictatorship, changing hands as different factions gain enough power to overthrow whoever is currently in charge. Some areas of the city consider themselves separate and not beholden to the central authority, which obviously
Currently in charge is Knorri Tigerseye is an Oread woman who worships Etrimai, the LN overdeity of the setting, and is making serious attempts to crack down on the chaos in the city and restore order through any means necessary. (Stealing food in particular is harshly punished under her rule.) This attitude however is making her unpopular with certain elements of society who feel she is a tyrant. There have been a few assassination attempts and demagogues trying to claim power for themselves.
I'm basically trying to think up some low level encounters and flavor to add to the game before we get into the meat of the plot, which is combating the cult, possibly getting kidnapped and the cult trying to sacrifice them to their evil god to fuel the cult leader's transformation into a lich.