Purple dusk has the most land of any city state. It is also the only one not to currently be represented on the Council. There is enough land that our heroes will actually benefit from leaving their boat overnight. Rocky, with extensive cave formations. These caves are huge. As in dragon huge. As in if you haven't guessed yet, home of Draca and her mate huge. If our insipid adventurers decide to explore these caves they will meet the legendary pair..
There isn't much else to say about this area...I'm thinking of making the rocks kinda swirly. Kinda like this. Once in the caves they will start to notice the purple glowing moss, large gold spiders, webs and such. The spiders' bodies will be about the size of a large man's fist. The webs they weave will have different purposes. Most will be variations of traps. Some traps will be for the mind, others for the body. These are the original Black Widows. The traps for the mind will be another post. I think for them I will randomize it, having some sort of rolling system and and question and answer thing for the player. Should come up with some sort of puzzle for them to figure out. I'm not good at that sort of thing. May have to find something online to borrow. Wish I had some reader to give me ideas. Ideas Internet! Any way back to the show...
The deeper into the caves they venture the more crystals they will find scattered on the ground, till they come to a cavern where the floor is completely covered several deep in crystals. If they bother to dig through them in this space they will discover that the room is actually in the middle of an underground river. The crystals are piled so high that you can easily walk through the room and never know you were over a river, except for the pleasant rushing sound of the water. (The water actually comes up in Tiger-eye, carrying crystals with it. That is why it seems as if the supply in never ending there.) Even though the current is constantly carrying away crystals the room is still covered. This is because the supply is constantly being replenished. Welcome to the dragon's lair.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Blue skies
On the surface Sapphire appears barren and abandoned. There is even less land here than other cities. Jagged rocks pierce the surface, and huge whirlpools come and go. The water is extremely clear but dark, making it difficult to see to the rocky bottom. Sometimes as one is gazing into the depths bight lights blind the watcher. Some of the larger rocks projecting form the water have caves leading down, deep beneath sea level.
No people appear to live in the territory, but without fail every year, proper taxes and records are brought to the council via representative. This representative comes from the Traders Guild, and is extremely closed mouthed, never giving any information on the city. The paper work is always very detailed, but somehow always makes the mystery worse. Population, marriages, sales, imports, exports, and all other relevant facts are listed, but no one lives there....
The actual population of Sapphire lives in underground caverns made of crystal. The bright light sometimes blinds sailors is the light bouncing around these crystals. Even though it looks dark down there, the crystals do a magnificent job of collecting what light does get down there and concentrating it into the caverns, creating a twilight effect. Coupled with many species of bio-luminescent creatures that have been culminated. What few trusted traders that are allowed down there would tell you its like swimming through the stars in the sky, if they were inclined to speak about it at all.
The population are mermaids, if you hadn't figured that out yet. I have an idea of what they will like like, a cross between the mermaids in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and traditional ones. If any one has read these books, it will be most like the fish people in Wren's Quest. Entrances to their caverns are the large sea caves mentioned before and the whirlpools mentioned above.
Only city-state to have a monarchical form of government. It is an matriarchal electoral monarchy. Will be the only area that they visit that have little or no problems with the Stone Man (which is what I have decided to call my baddie.)
The mermaids, along with the unicorns from Green will also receive Jewels when Draca Flys.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Rose Red
Anyone paying attention to the map may have noticed that the Red and Rose areas on my map have the same textureing. This is by design. As mentioned earlier, they have pretty much the same culture, although the governments and landscape are not.
Red has a good bit more volcanic activity than anywhere else in the Territory, except maybe Opal. But where Opals is due to being near highly active volcanoes, Red has much more subdued but constant activity similar to places like Yellowstone's mud-pots. These mud-pots are mixed with the water flowing through the area. The water is dark and dirty. Depth varies and is difficult to determine visually. Sort of like oases floating in a desert of muddy water there are abundant hot springs, with lots of low lying greenery. These oases are all inhabited with people, who mostly run spa like inns, with Japenese like-onsen. The buildings, instead of being made of ricepaper walls, have screens of woven reeds, in patterns similar to carved cedar screen from India. Small rice farms are also scattered throughout, where the pools are not large enough for baths.
Rose has the same culture, but more farmers and no onsen. The volcanic activity dies off and the warmed, mineral rich water flows into the area from Red. Plant-life flourishes. The scenery is similar to southern Florida's mangrove swamps. They provide most of the food for Red.
The two territories are very close, with most inhabitants having family in both areas, and marriages and moving between the two being regular and easy.
Inhabitants are friendly and welcoming, if a bit formal. Not sure what the plot is going to be in the area.
That's it for today. Ja ne!
a----
Red has a good bit more volcanic activity than anywhere else in the Territory, except maybe Opal. But where Opals is due to being near highly active volcanoes, Red has much more subdued but constant activity similar to places like Yellowstone's mud-pots. These mud-pots are mixed with the water flowing through the area. The water is dark and dirty. Depth varies and is difficult to determine visually. Sort of like oases floating in a desert of muddy water there are abundant hot springs, with lots of low lying greenery. These oases are all inhabited with people, who mostly run spa like inns, with Japenese like-onsen. The buildings, instead of being made of ricepaper walls, have screens of woven reeds, in patterns similar to carved cedar screen from India. Small rice farms are also scattered throughout, where the pools are not large enough for baths.
Rose has the same culture, but more farmers and no onsen. The volcanic activity dies off and the warmed, mineral rich water flows into the area from Red. Plant-life flourishes. The scenery is similar to southern Florida's mangrove swamps. They provide most of the food for Red.
The two territories are very close, with most inhabitants having family in both areas, and marriages and moving between the two being regular and easy.
Inhabitants are friendly and welcoming, if a bit formal. Not sure what the plot is going to be in the area.
That's it for today. Ja ne!
a----
Monday, October 17, 2011
Steampunk Opal
Opal is bordered by Tiger-eye, Summer-Sky, Ebon-Gray, and Purple-Dusk. Typing out out I just realized that it is bordered by all the city-states that have two word names. That was unintentional. Anyway, Opal is the second richest area in the Territory. Black is the only area with more revenue. This is because Opal has the only safe pass through the mountains bordering the territory. This means it has the only outside trade in the entire territory. They have a monopoly on the crystals that are exported and on certain types of meat that are imported. And meat is expensive in Adama. Might have something to do with the lack of solid ground on which to raise it.
They import pork, poultry, venison and other animal products. The scarcity of animal products has far reaching consequences. Drums are metal topped or wooden, not drawn skin. String instruments are also with metal, not gut. Woodwinds are the most prevalent types of instruments. Leather and fur clothing is a sign of extreme wealth. Most fabric is made from linen, but has a vast range of vibrant dyes due to the sea life.
Protein in the diet is mainly through fish everywhere in the Territory. Seaweed, rice, vegetables are the year round staples, and there is wild airborne game in the fall, but it is usually not enough to make a significant change in diet. More like a special holiday meal.
Opal's trade monopolies have made it very wealthy. It also is the only area to have contact with the rest of the world. Its culture is a blend of eastern and western, taking some western cues from it's trade partners. Clothing is in a Victorian-equse style. Homes are still in the eastern style for the most part due to cost of materials, reeds and paper making more sense in the environment and economically. There is one village that is practically in the mountains that has stone homes in a more western style. But is is only occupied during the trading season. During the rest of the year, there is no wind to bow the fumes from the volcanoes away, making it unsafe to live there.
Items in the area have a bit of a steampunk feel. I will elaborate on that later. I think this is enough for today. Next post will be about the landscape and the steampunk theme. Yea steam engines....
---a
They import pork, poultry, venison and other animal products. The scarcity of animal products has far reaching consequences. Drums are metal topped or wooden, not drawn skin. String instruments are also with metal, not gut. Woodwinds are the most prevalent types of instruments. Leather and fur clothing is a sign of extreme wealth. Most fabric is made from linen, but has a vast range of vibrant dyes due to the sea life.
Protein in the diet is mainly through fish everywhere in the Territory. Seaweed, rice, vegetables are the year round staples, and there is wild airborne game in the fall, but it is usually not enough to make a significant change in diet. More like a special holiday meal.
Opal's trade monopolies have made it very wealthy. It also is the only area to have contact with the rest of the world. Its culture is a blend of eastern and western, taking some western cues from it's trade partners. Clothing is in a Victorian-equse style. Homes are still in the eastern style for the most part due to cost of materials, reeds and paper making more sense in the environment and economically. There is one village that is practically in the mountains that has stone homes in a more western style. But is is only occupied during the trading season. During the rest of the year, there is no wind to bow the fumes from the volcanoes away, making it unsafe to live there.
Items in the area have a bit of a steampunk feel. I will elaborate on that later. I think this is enough for today. Next post will be about the landscape and the steampunk theme. Yea steam engines....
---a
Friday, October 14, 2011
Egyptian themed baddie, and inspiration material
So I mentioned having an Egyptian themed baddie in Green with a pyramid and I have decided to definitely have him be an ultimate baddie (of ultimate destiny). Gunna have at least rumors that led to a central plot involving him. He (or she) will know the secret of the the crystals, and be working on a mysterious plot involving them. All the sub-plots like the one in Green will be parts of his ultimate over all plot.
Now I had already decided that upon starting the campaign a counter would start as well. There will be a world event that occurs whether or not the players get to interact with any of the NPCs that are involved, after a certain amount of time had passed in game. This event will change the campaign from a magic-less one to a steady increase in the amount of magic. The baddie will know this is coming and be trying to control the event some. The event's actual details are to some extent dictated by the source material, but it is vague enough that I can allow the baddie to affect it to some degree. I'm already going against one of the theories proposed in the source material, so I'm not to scared of manipulating it.
Well, all my potenial players have agreed not to read this so I'm going to go full out with the info.
The source material is The Black Jewels Trilogy. You would not need to have read the books to play the game, not all my players have. I don't intend to tell the ones that have what is going on. Someone reading this who was familiar with the series might have already guessed. The city-states names are a dead giveaway. I will repeat, to play with story I am creating you don't need to have even have heard of the source material. I do intend to have things stay true the books in my game, just cause it makes it fun for me. Any one else borrowing can do as they wish with this stuff.
Now, back to the baddie and the timed event. The event will be the 'creation' of the Blood. In the novels, the Blood are the magic wielding higher classes. Draca's final flight will be the event. I'm ignoring Seatan's theory about the men not receiving Jewels and therefore the ability to preform magic.
All players will start out as non-magic classes. After the flight, all will have magic power. I think this will be a very fun part of the campaign. Draca's (one of the last dragons in the world) flight will occur at about 3am where ever they are. The crystals that are all over are shed dragon scales. The scales shed by this flight will be special. They are not being shed in a healthy lifecycle, they are being gifted to the world. The players jewels will fall to them, and the ones that touch them physically first after falling from Draca will be theirs. They will roll for how many that is. ("roll 2 D-20's." "what for?" "to see how many rocks hit you on the head, and a roll for retaining consciousness. ya know, from the rocks falling on your head.") The stones will take awhile to form a soul bond, and the players will have to figure out on their own that they have magic. I hope one of them try to sell one. Hehe, mini campaign by itself to try and recover the thing before the player dies. :D
That's enough for tonight, it's already 3am. Not even gunna mention the map, just gunna try to get it done before 2012. Ya know, that's gunna be may goal for the who planning stage. I want to start the campaighn on New Year's Day. Good way to start the year huh? New expericnces, new characters, sounds good to me. Good luck to me. Night world.
------a
Now I had already decided that upon starting the campaign a counter would start as well. There will be a world event that occurs whether or not the players get to interact with any of the NPCs that are involved, after a certain amount of time had passed in game. This event will change the campaign from a magic-less one to a steady increase in the amount of magic. The baddie will know this is coming and be trying to control the event some. The event's actual details are to some extent dictated by the source material, but it is vague enough that I can allow the baddie to affect it to some degree. I'm already going against one of the theories proposed in the source material, so I'm not to scared of manipulating it.
Well, all my potenial players have agreed not to read this so I'm going to go full out with the info.
The source material is The Black Jewels Trilogy. You would not need to have read the books to play the game, not all my players have. I don't intend to tell the ones that have what is going on. Someone reading this who was familiar with the series might have already guessed. The city-states names are a dead giveaway. I will repeat, to play with story I am creating you don't need to have even have heard of the source material. I do intend to have things stay true the books in my game, just cause it makes it fun for me. Any one else borrowing can do as they wish with this stuff.
Now, back to the baddie and the timed event. The event will be the 'creation' of the Blood. In the novels, the Blood are the magic wielding higher classes. Draca's final flight will be the event. I'm ignoring Seatan's theory about the men not receiving Jewels and therefore the ability to preform magic.
All players will start out as non-magic classes. After the flight, all will have magic power. I think this will be a very fun part of the campaign. Draca's (one of the last dragons in the world) flight will occur at about 3am where ever they are. The crystals that are all over are shed dragon scales. The scales shed by this flight will be special. They are not being shed in a healthy lifecycle, they are being gifted to the world. The players jewels will fall to them, and the ones that touch them physically first after falling from Draca will be theirs. They will roll for how many that is. ("roll 2 D-20's." "what for?" "to see how many rocks hit you on the head, and a roll for retaining consciousness. ya know, from the rocks falling on your head.") The stones will take awhile to form a soul bond, and the players will have to figure out on their own that they have magic. I hope one of them try to sell one. Hehe, mini campaign by itself to try and recover the thing before the player dies. :D
That's enough for tonight, it's already 3am. Not even gunna mention the map, just gunna try to get it done before 2012. Ya know, that's gunna be may goal for the who planning stage. I want to start the campaighn on New Year's Day. Good way to start the year huh? New expericnces, new characters, sounds good to me. Good luck to me. Night world.
------a
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Another area, but no work on map done
So I have the ideas for Tiger-eye all filled out to the same extent
as Green, now I need to roll out characters. I haven't done any
characters yet because of the system we want to use. It's one that my
business partner and I are coming up with and we need to finish it up
before I can roll NPCs.
So Tiger-eye, as previously stated is a similar landscape to Sapphire, with shallow waters and a hilly sandy landscape. Unlike Sapphire the waters are slow, almost lazy and quite warm. During the winter the area has a perpetual fog over it from the warm water steaming into the air. Volcanic activity deep underground warms the sand and water, but poses little threat to the surface other than creating a very comfortable place for a nap. The area is uninhabitable due to the complete absence of any naturally occurring life. No plants, no animals, nothing. The water is crystal clear and clean but no fish or algae grow in it. The sand supports no plant life. Without a food source there are no larger animals. Colonization has proven to be too expensive due to the need to import even dirt to grow food. There is no danger to a person getting out of their boat from currents or deep water and it is not poisonous. The deepest the water gets is about 10 feet. You can always see to the bottom.
There are a few temporary 'settlements,' but these are few and as impermanent as the shifting landscape. Some of these groups are 'miners' who gather the pretty, naturally occurring crystals from the ground. Others are archeologists ( from a university in Black) who study the strange ruins that sometimes are revealed by the shifting sands. Sometimes these groups disappear and are never heard from again, although that is not the norm.
The crystals are a mystery. They are not from the ground, can't be found anywhere else (in the world) and are a strange non-color. They are very common in jewelry and all but the poorest of the poor have at least some sort of bauble inside of the mountain range. The are the main export out of the Territory but that has to do with Opal. More are constantly surfacing from the sands. Rumor has it that the crystals are actually shed dragon scales, but who would believe that old wives' tale?
The ruins are made of stone and have strange characteristics. The streets have large channels dug though them, with bridges regularly crossing them. The strange part is the entrances below water level. Almost every building has a completely submerged entrance leading to these channels in the same fashion that a surface door has an entrance to the street. Complete with windows and remnants of furniture, almost every building has a level that was completely submerged at all times. In some of the larger buildings (what appear to be public buildings or wealthy private ones) there are even pump systems that appear to allow some special areas of the surface level to be filled with water, and some sub surface areas to be drained of it. Most of the pump systems are made up of elaborate Archimedes' Screws.
I'm going to roll up a set of characters for one miner's camp and one archeologists' camp. Then I will plot several of each on the map and where ever the players chose to go, if they cross one of points, any to of the miner camps will have the one set of NPCs and same for the archeologists. Easier than rolling out three or four of each and having all those people to keep straight in my head. That would be difficult.
That's that for this week. Hopefully I will actually get something by next week. Once a week is not to much to push for is it?
---a
So Tiger-eye, as previously stated is a similar landscape to Sapphire, with shallow waters and a hilly sandy landscape. Unlike Sapphire the waters are slow, almost lazy and quite warm. During the winter the area has a perpetual fog over it from the warm water steaming into the air. Volcanic activity deep underground warms the sand and water, but poses little threat to the surface other than creating a very comfortable place for a nap. The area is uninhabitable due to the complete absence of any naturally occurring life. No plants, no animals, nothing. The water is crystal clear and clean but no fish or algae grow in it. The sand supports no plant life. Without a food source there are no larger animals. Colonization has proven to be too expensive due to the need to import even dirt to grow food. There is no danger to a person getting out of their boat from currents or deep water and it is not poisonous. The deepest the water gets is about 10 feet. You can always see to the bottom.
There are a few temporary 'settlements,' but these are few and as impermanent as the shifting landscape. Some of these groups are 'miners' who gather the pretty, naturally occurring crystals from the ground. Others are archeologists ( from a university in Black) who study the strange ruins that sometimes are revealed by the shifting sands. Sometimes these groups disappear and are never heard from again, although that is not the norm.
The crystals are a mystery. They are not from the ground, can't be found anywhere else (in the world) and are a strange non-color. They are very common in jewelry and all but the poorest of the poor have at least some sort of bauble inside of the mountain range. The are the main export out of the Territory but that has to do with Opal. More are constantly surfacing from the sands. Rumor has it that the crystals are actually shed dragon scales, but who would believe that old wives' tale?
The ruins are made of stone and have strange characteristics. The streets have large channels dug though them, with bridges regularly crossing them. The strange part is the entrances below water level. Almost every building has a completely submerged entrance leading to these channels in the same fashion that a surface door has an entrance to the street. Complete with windows and remnants of furniture, almost every building has a level that was completely submerged at all times. In some of the larger buildings (what appear to be public buildings or wealthy private ones) there are even pump systems that appear to allow some special areas of the surface level to be filled with water, and some sub surface areas to be drained of it. Most of the pump systems are made up of elaborate Archimedes' Screws.
I'm going to roll up a set of characters for one miner's camp and one archeologists' camp. Then I will plot several of each on the map and where ever the players chose to go, if they cross one of points, any to of the miner camps will have the one set of NPCs and same for the archeologists. Easier than rolling out three or four of each and having all those people to keep straight in my head. That would be difficult.
That's that for this week. Hopefully I will actually get something by next week. Once a week is not to much to push for is it?
---a
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