Build A City!

[alexeduardo]

Anyone coming from the WoTC threads will probably recognize this project, but for the rest of you, here's a brief rundown.

The goal here is to communally make (and record) the history of a city. From its very begginings to its eventual decline and possible death.

On the original thread, we recorded everything from the number of buildings, to the names of streets to even the number of the people living there.
If you want to add something, think it through carefully, if you think someone is out of line, post STOP and try to convince us why we shouldn't take the previous post as canon.
For example:

"Post 5.
September 5, Second Year
An outsider comes into town, he sells rare monkey-like creatures at a high price. The local alchemists love the new buggers, but the traditionalist priests are suspicious of the man. the rest of the month goes by rather uneventful.

Post 6.
A THOUSAND ****ING VAMPIRES FLY INTO THE CITY AND KILL EVERYONE, THE CITY IS NOW A VAMPIRE CASTLE.

Post 7.
STOP"

I think I make myself clear. Every six months I (or whoever's in charge) will post a report on what has gone on. So, without further ado, let's begin the history of our city (btw, we totally need a name) (also, we're gonna use DnD 3.5 for the rules)

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January Fifth, First Year.
Current Population:
Alessor Mordis.
Race:Human. age:52. Class: warrior 4/ranger 1. Status: leader of city
One Dwarven Cleric
Two Elven sorcerors
Fifteen Imperial Kobold Hoplites
Five farmers and Five Wives.
Twenty-one children (four for each family and a stowaway)

We arrived a week ago on a high tide. Many, especially the children who had never seen land before, were very exited to finally behold a tropical forest. The men and I spent two days chopping down trees to make room for the huts, which were erected in two days. With the civilians finally sleeping on defendable ground, the soldiers and I finally stopped sucking on those ption flasks and got some sleep.
The last three days the farmers have been chopping more wood and preparing the land for crops. Finally, we will stop having to eat those dreadful Fishes the kobolds keep catching.
I personally don't know what the emperor sees in this island, it's fairly plain and boring in my humble opinion. We have yet to wander outside our seven huts (one for each family and two big ones for the armed men) but I seriously doubt we'll encounter intelligent life. Up to now all we've seen are lizards and some sort of water cow thing. I'm not sure about what it is, it constantly visits us. I think I'll have the cleric kill it, just out of precaution.

With nothing more for the moment, Sargeant Alessor Mordis

I hope this serves as a good start. If you want to turn a minor character into a major one, or just want to introduce an all new character altogether, just specify his stats and bold his name.

have fun!

[Vadin]

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January Seventh, First Year

The cleric, a suspicious fellow, had been dispatched to kill the large water animal that kept visiting the town via the river passing through the middle of our huts. It was a fairly deep river, true, and it was rather wide, and the 'cow' wasn't doing any harm, but it always stared at people crossing the bridge. And, so, it had to go. The cleric readied his crossbow and took aim when there burst forth a cry from the trees above,
"SSTOP! DON'T SHOOT IT, IT'SS JUSST A BABY!"
A...man? Some sort of scaled creature had jumped down on a vine and held back the cleric's arm. The scaly speaker was slightly taller than the tallest elf in the camp, and roughly as thin.
"Don't hurt it, it'ss just confussed! The little river dolphin losst itss mother around here, and it jusst wantss a home! Pleasse, don't kill it!"
So began the introduction of the skaals to the new inhabitants of their land. Most of the skaals lived much farther inland, but this small band of fifteen had been expelled from the skaal realms for refusing to sacrifice their firstborn children to the skaal god Reshara. The skaal quickly left the trees and latched onto the new city. They weren't as strong as many other races, but they did know the forests and were naturally adept at handling the jungles.

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Skaal stats:
Physically: Like an elf crossed with a dragonborn, only slightly thinner. More like snake-people than komodo dragon-people.
Age: As dwarves

• +2 Dexterity, -2 Strength
• +2 Survival, +2 Sense Motive
• Scent
• May use Dexterity in place of Strength for Climb checks
• Instead of sleeping, Skaal go into a trance for 6 hours, during which they recover as though they had rested for 8 hours and are fully aware of their surroundings
• Immunity to magical sleep and sleep effects as an elf
• Favored Class: Barbarian

Ask for spoilers and ye shall receive, sir.

[alexeduardo]

@Vadin: try to spoiler your entries, that way we can have stupid chit-chat in between.
Oh, and you can have entries expanding more than one day.

EDIT: thank you, kind sir

[AetherFox]

Hey, this looks fun! Is there any order, or do we just post whenever we want?

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January Eigth- January Fourteenth, First Year.

With the new help of the Skaal, our little town is better than ever! They've taught us which plants to eat and how to cook them, and we've even found a large population of pig things, which are quite frankly delicious, especially when you've had nothing to eat but boney fish for the past couple of weeks. The Skaals tell us to build our houses high in the trees, so as to avoid predators in this jungle. Personally, I think it's a good idea, but we have too much to do right now to move our houses. Other then that, it's been pretty uneventful arou We've located a deep cave nearby, and it looks like some intellegent being is living in there. I must remeber to have some of my men explore it...

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As for the pig things and what's in the cave, I'll let someone else decide what it is.

As for the strikethrough, it's just like the writer crossed something out. Just to add realism.

[alexeduardo]

Well, there's no particular order. But there is some sort of rule that says "We'll never get anywhere if we keep posting in a daily basis and with just one writer"

also, where were the pigs found? the beach, the forest or the caves? just curious

[alexeduardo]

I was thinking just some clearing in the jungle. I'm hoping the cave will be our island's first threat. O'course, it might not do anything for a while.

good.
Also, we should have a three-update rule. That way, we're not just the three of us constantly adding new characters

[Ultima]

I'll jump in and start building upon this tomorrow, I'm low on time for now.

Some potential ideas:

• The Skaal will pay a heavy price (in native money, of course) for the bony fish. The diary-writer is puzzled, but chalks it up to, "I guess eventually one gets tired of cooked plants and pigs"
• The threat in the cave is NOT another player-race, that has been shipwrecked here. I'm pretty sure that's so cliched it has its own trope.
• May I suggest that we keep the Skaal deity of sacrificial worship a secret to the landers for now? Sounds like fun to have the now-beloved Skaal tribe found out as evil, malicious killers.

[Carrion_Humanoid]

With the five new merchants, a new problem shadows over the village. Bandits begin stealing from the merchants and guarding sections of the Road. There are two separate groups, the Red Hoods and the Banishers of Wealth.

[Vadin]

SEMISTOP

Why would the Skaal pay them for fish? There's a big river running through the middle of town, big enough to apparently support river dolphins. It's not like fish are rare or anything. Very for the other two suggestions, though.

STOP

That needs
a) context
b) proper formatting

STOP

Just no.
[EDIT]Where did the post about the emo vampires go?

[Steven the Lich]

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January 18th, a scouting party is sent into the cave to discover what the inteligent being is. The group has returned with reports that a humanoid lizardman dwells there, though he is very different from the skaal. Within the cave is a library with plenty of books, with knowledge of magic in them. No doubt, the humanoid down there is a spellcaster, who may have gathered books and delved into the cavern. He seems to be known among the Skaal as "Jarin'Nelshar". Pressing some info from them, I have learned that Jarin has been resident for some time, though the Skaal seem to keep their distance.
January 23rd,
With our days spent with Jarin, we have come to learn he is indeed a great deal older than any of us, which leaves me to ponder how much he knows. Anyway, he comes up to the surface to display some magic tricks for the young ones, and to help us with some tasks through his powerful magic. His control over magic is something that our two sorcerers question thoroughly. He is of a good heart though, and seems he wouldn't hurt a fly unless provoked.

January 25th,
A turn of events have brought us another spellcaster. A young man named Inoridas, who only washed up this morning in our paradise. He demonstrated gratitude for our hospitality, and even shown a few tricks that were clearly of a wizards potential. They were no where near as awe inspiring as Jarins, though. However, it would be clear that Jarin is in fact older than our new friend. Speaking of Jarin, he is sure to come soon, and he has not yet met our new guest. The two being magic users, I can see a bond formed between them. All this aside, the help of the two wizards combined would be a huge boon to our settlement. I hope everything goes well enough in their meeting.

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Two new guys.
Jarin is a level 15 wizard, and is a lizard like race. There is also dragon blood in him.
Inoridos is a human wizard level 5. Not much is known about him though.

Is this okay?
Please tell me someone didn't post before me...
EDIT: Yes, I got this in first.

[TheLogman]

Well, maybe the water people don't have the resources/knowledge to prepare the fish in some fancy dishes that the people know how to?

Maybe the people have a technology that the water people don't have that allows them to catch them?

The fish have adapted to watching for the water people, making them impossible to catch for them, but easy for an outsider.

The fish secrete a poison that can hurt water-born creatures, but if a land-walker prepares them, the water-born can eat them.

[Vadin]

Except that Skaal live in the jungle, not the water, and it wouldn't be a very succesful carnivorous water-dweller who couldn't eat fish.

[aaron_the_cow]

@steven
I agree that 20 might be a little bit high, one thing that you could do is only give him upto 5th level spells and he dosn't have any others. Just a thought.

[alexeduardo]

I, too, think lvl 20 is tad too high. lvl 15 would be fine by me, though.

I'll post something later today, great work so far, guys

[Unscrewed]

Is this ok? If not, feel free to ignore.

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February 13
A great discovery! While out with a scouting party, our dwarven cleric discovered some copper ore. Upon further investigation, it was revealed that a great deal of copper lies buried in the large mountains to the northwest. As if that weren't good enough, we have found a chunk of mithral mixed in with the copper! Unfortunately, the mountains are hazardous and home to dangerous beasts. Jarin, Caern (the cleric), and a few others are getting ready for another expedition into the mountains, and the Skaal have agreed to act as guides. According to Skaal tribal lore, mysterious and powerful "wood people" live in the forested mountains and must be treated with respect.

[alexeduardo]

STOP.
no, I rather we developed the characters a lil' bit more before something so utterly convenenit happens

[Steven the Lich]

Jarins level is now level 15, though I was hoping he could be a powerful wizard.
@ Unscrewed, Jarin is not the kind of lizardfolk to go with the settlers on scouting. He prefers to remain in his cave with his library of books (Not like your local library, though, of course). He does surface to help the settlers (It should be no labor to be nice to your neighbors), and even puts on a few magic shows. He would not be one to venture too far from his cave unless the conditions deem it necessary. Now Inoridas would be fine in such trips.
EDIT:

STOP.
no, I rather we developed the characters a lil' bit more before something so utterly convenenit happens

I'll talk a bit more about my two guys on my next post.

[puppyavenger]

what happened to the elven sorcerers? and I love these, I might write one up tonight.

[HellFencer]

I'd like to get in on this while its early, but I'll need to read the entries first.

[boomwolf]

STOP!

Hammertime. (sorry, had to...)

Ok, events:

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February 15
A man shows up in the city, wearing full armor, and wielding a tower shield and a longsword. he says his name is Naral, he claims to be a mercenery looking for a job and he heared that the city has a problem with bandits, he is willing to fight them off, for a price that is a bit high. the townspeople pay however after he fights off three bandits who tried to rob him. Naral says in the town for now, renting a place to stay, making a living out of chasing away the bandits, and giving fighting lessons to the hoplites, they could really use some.

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Naral is a human fighter 4/Immortal 3 (immortal link in my sig), making him pretty hard to kill off. his age is about 30, he didn't say.

[Vadin]

STOP
Why? Because, for now, that's enough of people randomly appearing, I vote that the city develops at least a little before we get any mysterious new strange individuals, and as of yet the city doesn't have a problem with bandits at all. No one has put that in a post that has made it through.

[Carrion_Humanoid]

((I'm sorry, the one who made more merchants deleted his post and i did not know about it, sorry.))

[puppyavenger]

hows this?

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February 25th

Today, something wondrous happened! One of the older children, a boy of 15, seems to have a bit of magic in him! Anyway, he managed to light up an object from 20 feet away. The Imperial sorcerers that came with us are thrilled of course, and they've set their minds on training him. his parents don't particularly like it, but seem resigned to their sons talent.

Besides that, some o the loggers say they see or hear strange things when in the jungle. Their claims are probably unfounded, but rumors of possible Skald raids are all the rage now.

[AetherFox]

STOP
Why? Because, for now, that's enough of people randomly appearing, I vote that the city develops at least a little before we get any mysterious new strange individuals, and as of yet the city doesn't have a problem with bandits at all. No one has put that in a post that has made it through.

I agree. Puppys looks good, but for god's sakes people, it's the middle of an uninhabited jungle! For the time being, let's try and do more in-city things to get it going, rather than a bunch of crazy stuff happening. Also, I propose an IC thread and the be an OOC thread, so we don't have to chop our way through stops.

[Emperor Demonking]

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February 26Th

A little boy has developed a terriable sickness after wandering off into the woods. Nobody else appears to be sick and the official word is that the boy ate some bad fruit. Slight panic has been developing through the city. But its only slight.

[alexeduardo]

I agree. Puppys looks good, but for god's sakes people, it's the middle of an uninhabited jungle! For the time being, let's try and do more in-city things to get it going, rather than a bunch of crazy stuff happening. Also, I propose an IC thread and the be an OOC thread, so we don't have to chop our way through stops.

Yes, I'll make an OOC THREAD LATER TODAY.
for now, everyone please edit or delete anything that is non-canon.

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March Second, First Year.
Current Population:

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Major Characters

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Alessor Mordis.
Race:Human. age:52. Class: warrior 4/ranger 1. Status: leader of city
Jarin
Race:Lizard-like with dragon blood. age:unknown. Class: Wizard 15. Status: Friend (for now)
Inoridos
Race:Human. age:kinda young. Class: wizard 5. Status: been helping around with fruit gathering and a little hunting
Uriel Hond
Race:Human. age:10. Class: none but on the way to becoming Sorcerer 1. Status: Works with dad on the morning, trains with the Elves in the afternoon

One Dwarven Cleric
Two Elven sorcerors
Fifteen Imperial Kobold Hoplites
Five farmers and Five Wives.
Twenty-one children (four for each family and a stowaway)
Fifteen Skaal fruit and bugs collectors

Current Buildings

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• Small Shrine to Athenea
• Five small wooden houses
• Two Underground Barracks with entraces on the outside
• Begginings of a granary

March Second, First Year.
We now have enough clear land to begin planting corn. The farmers are very exited about this, for they will now eat quality food. The same can't be said for the Skraal, though, who feared they might become useless. The problem was solved when the Elves offered them a place in the military.

March Fourth, First Year.
Four pigs were finally caught and brought into town. One farmer has offered to be their caretaker, much to the desmise of his wife.
A Huge grasshopper tried to atttack the civilian huts later, but it was quickly killed by the magic users. Still, people are increasingly uneasy and are starting to demand a wall.

March Fifth, First Year.
There were sounds of fighting last night, me and four hoplites went out to see what was happening, at as it turns out it was Jarin throwing spells to a grasshopper that had made his way into his cage.
I'm stating to worry about those bugs.

March Sixth, First Year.
Another dolphin made his way into our town. We didn't attack him. It stayed there four hours and then eventually left.

March Eigth, First Year.
I've found out Ironidos and Ayenci, a farmer's daughter, have been seeing each other at night. I haven't told anyone, especially since those dang clerics just finished a little shrine the Athena. Not that there's anything wrong wih Athena, but I think they might be just a little too confident right now and might do something rash if they were to find out about this little romance.

Any objections?

[puppyavenger]

sounds good.

[alexeduardo]

sounds good.

Also, the OOC is up. Any non-canon posts here are condemnable now

[Kizara]

Dang, and here I was hoping this was actually about making a city, as opposed to writing a history of a city.

Personally, I was always a fan of enginering, history and the SBG, so I was all excited.

You suck for dissapointing me. :P

[alexeduardo]

^well, maybe you can start your own thread.

EDIT: hmm, I wonder if we'll get any new posts today...