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

not finished, give me another week

What I've got so far.  It's a good start.  Will refine during this week and try to have it done on Sunday or Monday.

Map ideas, and further details on areas.

So the map thing did not happen this week.  Or last week.  blargh.  I think that is the technical term.  However I think I have come up with a few other things.

First, pertaining to the whole map and how such a strange environment developed.  Basically a meteor. Hit ocean and collided with the edge of a continent, that's how the thing has at least shallow water over the whole surface and all these crazy environments.  The entire meteor is completely honey combed with caves and tunnel systems, which is why you can almost travel everywhere underground.  Water gets sucked up, spit out, stagnates, and everything else through these tunnels.


A situation has been developed for Green.  Farming and way of life is dependent upon relationship with unicorns.  The unicorns are literally burned by the touch of a non-virgin, so the culture has developed toward, late in life marriage, and fewer, later births.  This results in population decline, and weddings being an unhappy event instead of a joyous one.

There really isn't much a stigma against losing your virginity so much as a preference for your relationship with your unicorn.  The people tend to pair up with one or two unicorns and form a very close bond early in life.  And the relationship with the unicorns makes life so much more convenient.  They can walk on water, easing transportation, purify water which allows the farmers to farm many things that can't be grown anywhere else in the area. 

The unicorns are fully sentient and as upset about the population decline of their humans and the virginity problem as the humans.  They know that this problem has only been going on for the past four or five generations though and believe that there is something causing non-virgins to burn the unicorns.  Still working on how to get the rumor to the party, but I'm going to have the item be made of silver, and therefore really precious in this almost metal free enviroment....or maybe iron and allow them to have weapons made form it...I think I'll leave that open to what the party would like more.


I think the item will also be a cap on a pyramid (short dungeon)...placed there by the same necromancer baddie that is currently in Gray...might make a way to have the whole thing interconnected, but I don't think that matters at all till I see how the players are going to be.

I think I will also have them be greeted by a NPC and invited to a wedding upon entering the area.
Other than mapping and Npc's to be rolled I think I've got what I need for Green. Only 12 more city-states to go....