Nolfar
2006-02-15, 02:46 AM
There is no sign for this establishment, and the windows and shutters are broken, as if some great hurricane ran through this singular building. The other establishments within the slums appear to be far better than the unmarked tavern, leading you to check your map again. No, this is the location....
Upon entering, the sound of a band greets your ears and the room grows warm and friendly. Lights which were not visible before glow softly and a cacophony of voices greet your ears. “Welcome, strangers, to Nolfar’s End,” says an elderly but friendly barkeep as he cleans a cup. Meanwhile, the band strikes up a new tune, one familiar to you, despite the difference of your homelands and origins. Around you are hundreds of doors, many busy with people entering and leaving. A rugged looking woman stands by one door, watching it with intent....
DC 25 Gather Information to learn of the establishment, DC 15 in any town with an active portal.
DC 30 Knowledge Local or DC 35 Knowledge Planes check to learn more:
Nolfar’s End is actually more than just a bar at the end of a dusty road. While the actual residence is known to be in one place, there are more than twenty known entrances, scattered across the globe, if not the entirety of the planes. Nolfar’s End is known as a planar gateway, and as many people stop for drinks and tall tales, others stop by to get from one point to another. Still other travelers use the location as an interplanar form of communication and vast networks of spies have been known to exist with the End as their base.
The origin of Nolfar’s End is unknown, lost in the annals of time, but it is rumored that the name comes from an old and long forgotten mad god who took the realms and put them together at one particular point. To add credibility to this statement, more than a few entrances go into the Underdark, including a portal directly to the Mother Brain chaimber of an Ilithid city. There is also a small cult following the mad god that resides there, and some claim that he still lives, deep in slumber, at the deepest bowels of the massive tavern.
Ives – Rogue 5
Ives is the bartender of Nolfar’s End and knows more than a few stories and contacts. He’s friendly and has a good eye for people and trouble, and often hooks newcomers up with their first “proper” contact or two.
Ives stands at 6’1” and is obviously of human descent. His blonde hair is kept tied back and all but the pony tail is kept behind a bandana. He tends to wear simple commoner’s outfits, usually of orange and brown colors. His blue eyes catches every face, and he remembers them with their names quite well.
DM notes: Ives watches for fights and tries to stop them before hand with diplomacy and intimidation. He keeps several daggers with him at all times, including two +1 daggers.
Petty Sou and the Heartbreakers – Bard 20 (each)
Petty Sou and the Heartbreakers in Nolfar’s End’s personal band. The music they play is almost always exactally what the listener wants to hear, despite the differences in each individual. Anyone listening to the music can make a DC 20 Will save to listen to someone else’s music if they wish, however. This is done through the magical instruments of each of the band members used in tandem with the bardic Fascinate ability. The band often dresses in common bardic affair, though they have been known to perform in dyed leathers and other exotic fare as well.
Members: Petty Sou, red haired, brown eyed female, vocalist; Tom Bombabomb, male tiefling, percussion; George “the board”, autoharp and backup guitar (as needed); Sexy Lexy, female Succubis, backup vocalist and lead guitar; Blind Sam, male elf, silver hair and violet eyes, piano and sax.
DM notes: The members of Petty Sou never engage directly in combat, but will assist others with healing (with the exception of Sexy Lexy, who uses illusions and her racial abilities instead). They also make liberal use of their Fascinate and other bardic abilities to try and suppress battle in the first place. Despite this, off stage they are not entirely friendly towards each other either, and have formed two distinct groups, mostly revolving around who should be the lead singer. Petty Sou and George “the Board” have sided with Blind Sam in Petty Sou being lead, but Tom and Sexy Lexy disagree and suggest that Sexy Lexy should be the lead. There has been talk of the two factions splitting should they ever find enough replacements to hold the bands together as two groups.
Roxanne – Warmage 1, Rogue 6, Spymaster 5
Roxanne is one of the many contacts to be found in Nolfar’s End. She specializes in the human areas in the north western part of the world, the part whose door she almost constantly watches. For a nominal fee, she can provide juicy information, and she’s always on the lookout for more reliable sources of information, and pays well.
DM notes: Roxanne is a thrifty woman and never pays for more than she has to, nor does she easily take no for an answer. Her eyes and ears are nearly everywhere, directly and indirectly, and she uses them to no small extent. Should she find herself in combat, she wears a +3 mithril chain shirt, a +2 Keen Goblin Bane Rapier and a +3 Frost Keen Dagger.
Gorn Whisperwind – Cleric 5 (Madness/Trickery)/Alienist 9
Gorn is a wisp of the man he once was, his body now twisted and his mind shattered. He leads the Cult of the Sleeping God from within Nolfar’s End. He’s often found wandering the main floor, muttering about things to come and what once was. Rumor has it that he’s seen the very form of his sleeping god, and that it was this vision that drove him mad. If he was lucid enough to talk strait, he may well be able to tell you even.
DM notes: Gorn is absolutely insane. He’s seen things unfit for the mortal eye and knows things beyond the ken of man. He has in fact seen the sleeping god, and knows much of the god’s plans, but his babbled speech is nearly unintelligible and not even a tongues spell works. A DC 25 intelligence check is required to understand more than a few words, maybe a sentence, at a time.
Signature Item: The Victor’s Cup. A barbaric cup of “wine” that is offered to all newcomers. Distilled from the collected blood of the freshest available victims of the challenged (a fresh fight being provided if required), the drink tastes of copper and acid, with a hint of lime. It’s normally free for the first try, and should the PC stomach it (a DC 25 fortitude save), they receive a free meal for that day. Later successes do not provide extra meals, but some of the cruder races prefer the drink to normal beverages anyway.
Descriptions:
Exterior: The exterior to each of the portal houses is the same as the original building. They are all ramshackled single story buildings, often in areas where such a build is out of place. Furthermore, every window and shutter (and even the back door) has been destroyed, as if by some great hurricane or perhaps a awful tavern fight. The backdoor is open, but spills out into the actual, and empty, building. The only true entrance is the front door, and only then from the proper direction.
The interior is it’s own plane with the following abilities:
Gravity: Subjective Gravity, the walls as well as the floor and ceiling are capable of supporting weight
Time: 1 day equals a year, time in Nolfar’s End is very slow.
Size: Self Contained, ten cubic miles in a perfect cube
Highly Morphic, to add further weight to the theory that Nolfar was a mad god, the very plane has a tendency to change itself at will, and sometimes at the will of others, the only exception to this is the bar itself, which is magically warded. Rumors also persist that the plane is actually Sentient.
Alignment: Strongly Chaotic, those of lawful alignments find the area unsettling, and even those who are neutral find that their abilities are checked slightly.
Wild Magic, like everything else, chaos is the rule, not the exception. While spell casting is often frowned on in general within the establishment, it is not without reason.
The plane itself is build like a multi-dimensional bar, with seating on all six surfaces. Ives also keeps literally thousands, possibly millions, of rooms and a specially crafted planar gate teleports renters to and from their room.
Plot hook:
“Seek Ives, he’ll know where to go.” Those were the last words you heard from the dieing rogue as the poison took the last of his strength. It wasn’t hard tracking down Ives, your friend kept a piece of paper with the address on hand. Fifteenth and Walton, right down the street from the apocrathary you’ve used many times already. Mentally, you kick yourself for not remembering the location sooner.
Upon entering, the sound of a band greets your ears and the room grows warm and friendly. Lights which were not visible before glow softly and a cacophony of voices greet your ears. “Welcome, strangers, to Nolfar’s End,” says an elderly but friendly barkeep as he cleans a cup. Meanwhile, the band strikes up a new tune, one familiar to you, despite the difference of your homelands and origins. Around you are hundreds of doors, many busy with people entering and leaving. A rugged looking woman stands by one door, watching it with intent....
DC 25 Gather Information to learn of the establishment, DC 15 in any town with an active portal.
DC 30 Knowledge Local or DC 35 Knowledge Planes check to learn more:
Nolfar’s End is actually more than just a bar at the end of a dusty road. While the actual residence is known to be in one place, there are more than twenty known entrances, scattered across the globe, if not the entirety of the planes. Nolfar’s End is known as a planar gateway, and as many people stop for drinks and tall tales, others stop by to get from one point to another. Still other travelers use the location as an interplanar form of communication and vast networks of spies have been known to exist with the End as their base.
The origin of Nolfar’s End is unknown, lost in the annals of time, but it is rumored that the name comes from an old and long forgotten mad god who took the realms and put them together at one particular point. To add credibility to this statement, more than a few entrances go into the Underdark, including a portal directly to the Mother Brain chaimber of an Ilithid city. There is also a small cult following the mad god that resides there, and some claim that he still lives, deep in slumber, at the deepest bowels of the massive tavern.
Ives – Rogue 5
Ives is the bartender of Nolfar’s End and knows more than a few stories and contacts. He’s friendly and has a good eye for people and trouble, and often hooks newcomers up with their first “proper” contact or two.
Ives stands at 6’1” and is obviously of human descent. His blonde hair is kept tied back and all but the pony tail is kept behind a bandana. He tends to wear simple commoner’s outfits, usually of orange and brown colors. His blue eyes catches every face, and he remembers them with their names quite well.
DM notes: Ives watches for fights and tries to stop them before hand with diplomacy and intimidation. He keeps several daggers with him at all times, including two +1 daggers.
Petty Sou and the Heartbreakers – Bard 20 (each)
Petty Sou and the Heartbreakers in Nolfar’s End’s personal band. The music they play is almost always exactally what the listener wants to hear, despite the differences in each individual. Anyone listening to the music can make a DC 20 Will save to listen to someone else’s music if they wish, however. This is done through the magical instruments of each of the band members used in tandem with the bardic Fascinate ability. The band often dresses in common bardic affair, though they have been known to perform in dyed leathers and other exotic fare as well.
Members: Petty Sou, red haired, brown eyed female, vocalist; Tom Bombabomb, male tiefling, percussion; George “the board”, autoharp and backup guitar (as needed); Sexy Lexy, female Succubis, backup vocalist and lead guitar; Blind Sam, male elf, silver hair and violet eyes, piano and sax.
DM notes: The members of Petty Sou never engage directly in combat, but will assist others with healing (with the exception of Sexy Lexy, who uses illusions and her racial abilities instead). They also make liberal use of their Fascinate and other bardic abilities to try and suppress battle in the first place. Despite this, off stage they are not entirely friendly towards each other either, and have formed two distinct groups, mostly revolving around who should be the lead singer. Petty Sou and George “the Board” have sided with Blind Sam in Petty Sou being lead, but Tom and Sexy Lexy disagree and suggest that Sexy Lexy should be the lead. There has been talk of the two factions splitting should they ever find enough replacements to hold the bands together as two groups.
Roxanne – Warmage 1, Rogue 6, Spymaster 5
Roxanne is one of the many contacts to be found in Nolfar’s End. She specializes in the human areas in the north western part of the world, the part whose door she almost constantly watches. For a nominal fee, she can provide juicy information, and she’s always on the lookout for more reliable sources of information, and pays well.
DM notes: Roxanne is a thrifty woman and never pays for more than she has to, nor does she easily take no for an answer. Her eyes and ears are nearly everywhere, directly and indirectly, and she uses them to no small extent. Should she find herself in combat, she wears a +3 mithril chain shirt, a +2 Keen Goblin Bane Rapier and a +3 Frost Keen Dagger.
Gorn Whisperwind – Cleric 5 (Madness/Trickery)/Alienist 9
Gorn is a wisp of the man he once was, his body now twisted and his mind shattered. He leads the Cult of the Sleeping God from within Nolfar’s End. He’s often found wandering the main floor, muttering about things to come and what once was. Rumor has it that he’s seen the very form of his sleeping god, and that it was this vision that drove him mad. If he was lucid enough to talk strait, he may well be able to tell you even.
DM notes: Gorn is absolutely insane. He’s seen things unfit for the mortal eye and knows things beyond the ken of man. He has in fact seen the sleeping god, and knows much of the god’s plans, but his babbled speech is nearly unintelligible and not even a tongues spell works. A DC 25 intelligence check is required to understand more than a few words, maybe a sentence, at a time.
Signature Item: The Victor’s Cup. A barbaric cup of “wine” that is offered to all newcomers. Distilled from the collected blood of the freshest available victims of the challenged (a fresh fight being provided if required), the drink tastes of copper and acid, with a hint of lime. It’s normally free for the first try, and should the PC stomach it (a DC 25 fortitude save), they receive a free meal for that day. Later successes do not provide extra meals, but some of the cruder races prefer the drink to normal beverages anyway.
Descriptions:
Exterior: The exterior to each of the portal houses is the same as the original building. They are all ramshackled single story buildings, often in areas where such a build is out of place. Furthermore, every window and shutter (and even the back door) has been destroyed, as if by some great hurricane or perhaps a awful tavern fight. The backdoor is open, but spills out into the actual, and empty, building. The only true entrance is the front door, and only then from the proper direction.
The interior is it’s own plane with the following abilities:
Gravity: Subjective Gravity, the walls as well as the floor and ceiling are capable of supporting weight
Time: 1 day equals a year, time in Nolfar’s End is very slow.
Size: Self Contained, ten cubic miles in a perfect cube
Highly Morphic, to add further weight to the theory that Nolfar was a mad god, the very plane has a tendency to change itself at will, and sometimes at the will of others, the only exception to this is the bar itself, which is magically warded. Rumors also persist that the plane is actually Sentient.
Alignment: Strongly Chaotic, those of lawful alignments find the area unsettling, and even those who are neutral find that their abilities are checked slightly.
Wild Magic, like everything else, chaos is the rule, not the exception. While spell casting is often frowned on in general within the establishment, it is not without reason.
The plane itself is build like a multi-dimensional bar, with seating on all six surfaces. Ives also keeps literally thousands, possibly millions, of rooms and a specially crafted planar gate teleports renters to and from their room.
Plot hook:
“Seek Ives, he’ll know where to go.” Those were the last words you heard from the dieing rogue as the poison took the last of his strength. It wasn’t hard tracking down Ives, your friend kept a piece of paper with the address on hand. Fifteenth and Walton, right down the street from the apocrathary you’ve used many times already. Mentally, you kick yourself for not remembering the location sooner.