Island plateaus above monster-infested foggy wilderness

[richardbob123]

I have a idea for a world i want to create , that is around 2 thousands years ago there was a war that resulted in most of the land being destroyed, leaving most the of the population that was left living in plateau city, and now leaving the lowland covered in a deadly fog.
and i wanted people to help with expanding on it , to be more flesh out

[brian 333]

Plants that will not grow on the plateau are needed for medicine in the city. Herbalists and apothecaries send their young trainees, (wizards and clerics,) in search of them. Smart trainees recruit adventurous folk to help.

Monsters that dig into the ground produce ores and metals, which are required for the city. Trade or theft of such materials are important economic components of the city economy.

Gold is a trade token, but while the city has plenty, the lowlands do not because super-powerful monsters hoard it. It's value among the tribal societies is twice to ten times it's value in the city, incentivising tribal folk to raid adventurers if they can. Good monsters will sell protected rest spots, evil ones may pretend to do so and rob the adventurers if they can.

Other than ideas like the above, do you have specific ideas that need to be fleshed out?

[PhoenixPhyre]

Interestingly, the first half of FFIX plays with this--the Mist (in the valleys and lowlands) produces monsters and most of the cities are in the high plateaus/mountains.

[Lemmy]

One thing to seriously consider is how having a very limited field of vision everywhere all the time will affect your game. Specially if the monsters living in the mist have a way around it (and it'd make sense than they do). And how does the limited sunlight affect the local flora.

[brian 333]

Mist Vision goggles: binocular vision reduces peripheral vision, (-spot,) but increases distance the wearer can see.

Darkvision goggles: (+spot) eliminates the mist sight restrictions.

The first becomes available around levels 2-4, the second around level 5+

[Czernobog]

Ooh, neat idea! Probably I'm stating the obvious, but it seems like someone in this world would be trying to design a magical gas mask or suit of some sort that would allow brave adventurers to traverse the fog. Maybe they've designed a few prototypes already, but the few select folks who have attempted have not returned. Or they did return, but their memories were wiped. Or perhaps the materials require to create such a suit are so ridiculously rare and expensive on the island city that they can only make a few.

I also kind of love the idea of a really crude suit that works like the first diving ssuits, with a really long hose that would make adventuring quite inconvenient initially, but then they discover something in the fog that allows them more freedom of movement, or (shocker!) the adventuring party has to reel in the hose for some reason and the discover that it's not actually attached to the other end!

Alternatively, you could have adventurers fly over the fog with some kind of zeppelin type of transport. Perhaps that's where the diving suits come into the picture.

[Mechalich]

I have a idea for a world i want to create , that is around 2 thousands years ago there was a war that resulted in most of the land being destroyed, leaving most the of the population that was left living in plateau city, and now leaving the lowland covered in a deadly fog.
and i wanted people to help with expanding on it , to be more flesh out

So this is basically an airship archipelago model. Your plateaus are islands and your deadly mist is the ocean, the difference being that you have to fly over it raft than float atop it. JRPGs like this setup a lot for some reason. In addition to the mentioned FFIX, there's also Skies of Arcadia, Grandblue Fantasy, and various others.

However, most of these versions gloss over some fairly tricky basic issues involving food and water. The limited availability of fresh water is a major issue in scenarios like this, especially since most elevated plateaus, like tepuis, are formed of extremely hard rock and don't have any way to produce groundwater resources. So even if it rains a lot - and on many tepuis it certainly does - water retention is minimal and soil formation is limited. This makes it hard to grow crops locally and unlike an actual island archipelago society, you can't supplement your island's land-based resources with oceanic ones.

Population density is likely to be fairly low as a result, and heavily resource constrained. If they do have airships, it may be almost impossible to replace them if destroyed. Expeditions into the fog, if they happen, may highly value mundane things like tools (especially if the fog prevents iron-based materials from rusting because reasons) rather than traditional luxuries like gemstones or gold.

[brian 333]

Is the fog itself intrinsically harmful? Or is the fact that it is full of monsters the issue?

If the fog itself is harmful, that opens up a world of other issues. How do the monsters survive it?

Assuming the fog is just fog:

Foxtail Fern,
A broad plant of hundreds of branches of fern which grow in clumps around one central stalk with a fluffy 'tail' at it's end. The slightest breeze disturbs the wisps of fine hair along the tail, showing wind direction even when there is not enough wind for characters to feel.
Medicinal use of the leaves for digestive tract parasites is common.
Alchemical use of the foxtail for Know Direction potions is known.
Food use of the whole plant is recommended for herbivores, but only as a healthy additive to silage because herbivores will relish it in small amounts, but quickly grow to dislike it in any quantity. Omnivores find it bitter, while carnivores cannot consume it without regurgitating afterward.
Cultivation has proven fruitless above the fog line.

Fog flowers,
Black and violet flowers grow on otherwise bare ground. They appear to steam slightly, and will continue to do so for up to a week after cutting if set in water.
Used as funeral arrangements, folklore says that people buried under them are protected from undeath and from being dug up by animals or monsters.
They have no other known use, but a player may think to try them as components in Obscuring Mist type magics.

Trap-grass,
A thick, manicured lawn which appears to be a perfect picnic spot conceals quicksand beneath. The roots of the grass are strong enough at the edge of the pit to hold the weight of a large creature, but once the surface of the grass is broken, a signal is sent and all of the grass withdraws their roots, turning the firm footing into a fight for life with the sucking mud beneath.
Disagreements about whether the grass covers quicksand or whether the grass creates quicksand beneath it are difficult to prove since the grass cannot grow outside of the fog.

Legendary Prophecy:
Ancient magic used in war converted the oceans to mist, but then the gods set limits on the power of mortal priests, wizards, and sorcerors. The great rituals of legend cannot work anymore.
But in time to come, a great priest and wizard, in an act of peace so profound that even the gods are ensared by it, will cause the mist to become water again and to refill the great basins which once flooded the lowlands.
Seven signs will be seen.
1) Ravens will flee the cities. Where they go will be a mystery.
2) Warning bells stationed around the cities will begin to ring at random and for no cause.
3) Fog will grow to cover the cities.
4) Flashing lights will begin in the fog, like lightening, but multicolored.
5) Great hordes of monsters will converge on the cities to make war.
6) Seven great lords will die in seven ways: war, murder, illness, drowning, falling, suicide, and rent by maddened crowds as the noble tries to abandon them and steal the city's treasure
7) Rain will fall for seven days on seven cities in the last week before the miracle.
When the populations of the cities have been reduced by 1/7 th seven times the miracle will happen. Some scholars argue that 7/7 of the population dies, or everyone, while others argue that each culling is 1/7th of the existing population at that time, leaving a good many city-dwellers alive afterward. Since there are no prophecies about the time after, there is nothing to refute either theory. Many other theories about the prophecy include the idea that a drunk old monk made the whole thing up.

[VoxRationis]

Wasn't this basically the premise of an earlier collaborative world-building thread on this forum?

[olskool]

I have a idea for a world i want to create , that is around 2 thousands years ago there was a war that resulted in most of the land being destroyed, leaving most the of the population that was left living in plateau city, and now leaving the lowland covered in a deadly fog.
and i wanted people to help with expanding on it , to be more flesh out

So basically you're "homebrewing" the Isle of Dread meets the Forbidden City from AD&D.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Is the fog itself intrinsically harmful? Or is the fact that it is full of monsters the issue?

Yes, this is the big question.

If it's full of deadly monsters and plants, the Deep Woods from The Edge Chronicles is full of unique and terrifying inspiration. Blood oaks with maws large enough to feast on just about anything, made truly dangerous by their symbiotes the Creeper Vines, which slink along the forest floor, looking for prey to lasso and drag back to their host so they can feast on the spilled blood (but demand for their wood is high, since it's both lightweight and strong, making it crucial for airship construction). Hoversnakes, who float above the ground using air jets; the biology that allows them to create such consistent jets of gas doubles as a deadly venom, and anyone bitten will swell up until they explode.

If it's deadly like the Black Mist in League of Legends, then presumably anything that 'lives' there is either undead or immune for some reason. The Black Mist kills, and brings anyone back as an undead. Mostly, they lose most of their memories and sense of self, but every now and then it reacts with a person or monster, creating some unique horror. A treacherous knight commander, fused to his horse and still leading the subordinates he can no longer remember. A warden, hunting down trespassers for the sheer joy of inflicting terror and despair, until he grows bored and traps their souls for eternity in his lantern. A god of spiders, once worshipped, now forgotten, but always hungry.

[LibraryOgre]

Interestingly, the first half of FFIX plays with this--the Mist (in the valleys and lowlands) produces monsters and most of the cities are in the high plateaus/mountains.

I was actually thinking of one of the fan theories of the relationship between the Jetsons and the Flintstones.

[thorr-kan]

So basically you're "homebrewing" the Isle of Dread meets the Forbidden City from AD&D.

It's not a unique idea, but that doesn't mean the idea isn't work exploring.

OP, you're in good company. Jeff Grubb, The Godfather of 2E AD&D, the man behind so many iconic D&D settings once thought like you do. Here's his original reminiscing on it:
http://grubbstreet.blogspot.com/2014...tormfront.html

Here's his original elevator pitch:
http://grubbstreet.blogspot.com/2015...storm-out.html

Even Jim Butcher has visited this idea in the first novel (hopefully of a series; I liked the novel):
https://www.amazon.com/Cinder-Spires...ps%2C65&sr=8-1

I think it would be a fascinating, if slightly claustrophobic, setting for PCs. Keep bringing the ideas.

[Quizatzhaderac]

So the fog is only moderately deadly, and mainly to humans. This means there cannot be any settlements, but desperate/exploited workers might go down there to gather resources.

Adventurers can go through, but they have to take care to find a spot above the mist to camp, and sometimes stay in isolated settlements for days to purge their bodies (and there's always something complicated happening in those isolated settlements).

Spoiler: Exploration rules

Show

On a piece of graph paper or a spreadsheet mark two (start and destination) squares with at least 13 squares between them.

Have another filled out for the GM. Each square has a number for depth. Depth 0 is mist free and can be used to rest. One and above is unsafe for rest.

The players get 12 hours in a day, but only 8 if they want to remain well rested. One hour can be used to explore a new square (which then gets it's elevation revealed to the players) or one hour can be used to cover two explored squares.

[brian 333]

Spoiler: Exploration rules

Show

On a piece of graph paper or a spreadsheet mark two (start and destination) squares with at least 13 squares between them.

Have another filled out for the GM. Each square has a number for depth. Depth 0 is mist free and can be used to rest. One and above is unsafe for rest.

The players get 12 hours in a day, but only 8 if they want to remain well rested. One hour can be used to explore a new square (which then gets it's elevation revealed to the players) or one hour can be used to cover two explored squares.

Spoiler: Exploration Rules 2

Show

Hexes work if you can download and print some. 1/4 inch for a DM map, 1/2 inch for players.

How rare are hilltops above the fog? D6 = 16 2/3% of the surrounding terrain is above the fog line. D8 = 12.5%, D10 = 10%, D12 = 8 1/3%, and so on. The reason this is important is that characters should be able to see 6-8 miles on a clear day. The DM should know, and be able to map for the players, which spaces are above the fog when they are looking.
Assume 1 mile per hex or square, and have the DM secretly roll a d12 for each space on the map. The 1s are all visible above the fog line. When the players look from above the fog, have them roll a d6 for visibility distance, and then mark the 'above' on the map within that day's visibility radius.

These anchor points force the DM to raise the elevation as one nears the promontory, but there can be steep slopes, (two height differences within a mile,) or cliffs, (three or more.) There can also be plateaus and mesas. Just being able to see a height doesn't mean it can be reached.