Reading: After looking over this Reddit list of under-appreciated fantasy novels, I’m on to Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer. I’m only just getting into it but so far, it is making the commute pass right along.
Planning: I need to catch up on some sleep and do laundry this weekend. Sexy!
Writing: Yes, still writing a gaming thing and getting ideas after reading over the book upon which it has been hacked.
And you?
Chalk Hill is a barely fortified rail company town, founded originally by the M.L.& R. but claimed by the Olde Valyrian Rail Co. when the elves deserted the town for unknown reasons last year. Accidental fires started by dragon steeds have destroyed several buildings and badly damaged a left-over elven shrine to the First Star.
Stariphos Bay is the southern seat of the Federal Government, named for Lady Stariphos, the Paladin-General, who led the push westward with sword and fire, the icons of her deity. They are constructing a statue in her honor and hope to officially unveil it as the first railway connects the city to the east.
This is a tiny dot on the map, only recorded because it houses a wizard’s tower and the wizard sent a formal warning to any and all rail companies to keep their contraptions out of sight of his tower. It is said that several Black Sash thugs were sent from the Khatovar Detective Agency under the command a sergeant sorcerer but they were never seen again.
Briar Keep is a federal fortress, erected during the barely contained mage-feuds via federally contracted dwarven artisans. Through magic and dwarven labor, the keep was erected in less than a year, which was record setting at the time. It is now home to the 3rd Gryphon Air Cav, a Lieutenant-Colonel Sorcerer and a small family of dwarven masons and miners who make repairs and mine coal for the local rail companies.
Dolem’s Spire is the northern seat of the federal government out west. It is ruled by a powerful cabal of arch-mages who make a mockery of democracy through corruption and election fixing through arcane and financial means. The mage-feuds did not become the mage-wars because of diplomatic efforts that were finalized in Dolem’s Spire but it led to the mages weeding out the trouble-makers and becoming a powerful, united force that is now a potent faction. They are said to be putting together their own rail company, The 8 Circle Co.
I love it when big inter-planar powers tussle, be it the Raven Queen vs. Vecna, the Githyanki Empire vs. the Illithid Hiveminds or Orcus vs. Doresain.
I was reminded of this war when I ran across these wonderful pics on this wonderful Tumblr, Manual de Mostros:
Makes me want to run a game in a war-torn world and roll some random encounters.
Lovely work, Viktor Banaks!
Ghoul Encounter
1-2 Feral Ghoul Pack
3-6 Soldiers
7-8 Ghoul-infected Locals
9-11 Blood Knights
12 Elite Ghouls
Gnoll Encounter
1-2 Gnoll youths torturing prey
3-6 Gnoll Warpack
7-8 Gnoll scouts
9-11 Murderlords
12 High Priest with Murder Altar
What are they doing?
1-2 Hunting specific prey
3-6 Occupying a strong position (Bridge, Keep, Hill, Cemetery)
7-8 Securing a planar gate
9-11 Moving to ambush the enemy
12 Looking for you!
The Lich-Queen’s forces are coming to your world. Roll 6d6 and get the session started.
Inspired by the July RPG Blog Carnival
Why are they invading?
Githyanki Random Encounters
The above Githyanki are looking for a:
Something from Githyanki culture that is catching on
Something from your world that is catching on with the Githyanki
They’ve brought some kind of fungal infestation with them from another world that causes:
Reading: I’m reading Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo and at 3/4′s of the way through it is interesting. It is a second world, just-turned-modern Quasi-Russia with folks who do magic that is called the Small Science. The characters are intriguing and the world building is solid. I’ll finish it this weekend and write up a review.
It captures that dark Russian sense of humor in the face of terrible events pretty well.
Planning: Tonight I’ll be on This Imaginary Life. Our only question so far is about how to deal with a failed roll that threatens to grind the game to a halt. If you have other questions, post them to my on twitter, my e-mail, in the comments below or in the G+ thread I’ll start soon.
Creating: I’m writing up notes for some games-a-coming. I’ve been away from the gaming table for a few months now but I’m gearing up for an Urban Shadows game with visiting friends and a Burning Wheel game with some folks over Hang-outs.
It has me looking over the 7 Kings Mountains again, which is good fun.
And you?
The worlds are ending, shriveling up and dying like leaves in autumn, succumbing to some unknowable Doom. Perhaps this is just the natural way of things.
You have been chosen by a seed, a place/force/entity, that exists outside of time and space, floating like pollen through the planes. The seed will grow as you bring back pieces of doomed worlds. Right now it can provide about a small hunting cottage’s worth of space but it will grow with you. It will feed you along the way.
You can only take 3 from the list below with you to this safe haven between worlds. You and your party will traverse the worlds, saving whatever you can from the doom and slowly building something new.
Imrijka the Inquisitor
Feya the Witch
Reiko the Ninja
Ooloch the Warpriest
Balazar the Summoner
Enora the Arcanist
Crowe the Bloodrager
Lirianne the Gunslinger
Hayato the Samurai
Damiel the Alchemist
Alain the Cavalier
Alahara the Oracle
Seltyiel the Fighter/Wizard
Lini the Druid
Amiri the Barbarian
Sajan the Monk
Lem the Bard
Seelah the Paladin
Harsk the Ranger
Ezren the Wizard
Kyra the Cleric
Merisiel the Rogue
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“For the crime of poaching, your sentence is to bring back a map of sub-level 3, just below the giant griffon skull. If the map is of insufficient quality or is proven false by future delvers, you will be hanged until you are dead, dead, dead.
“For the crime of theft, your sentence is the retrieval of the lord-mayor’s sentient dagger, lost by his great-grandfather when level 7 was discovered by the Municipal Delving Teams. If the dagger is not returned within five years or if you are located under the sun by any of noble birth, your family will be forced to send one of your blood to work in the dread mines in your stead.
“For the crime of murder, your sentence is to bring back the heads or identified dust (the price of the Identify spell will be billed to the guilty) of the Tri-Lich. If the Tri-Lich should be slain, you are to turn yourself in to the city gaol for further sentencing or being back proof that you rid the world of an equivalent evil presence. If you are seen in daylight by anyone of noble birth, a municipal hunter clone will by fed your blood and sent to destroy you, taking your place in this world.
“You will all be sent into the Under together with food and water enough to last you all 3 weeks, a map of the first 4 levels, municipal delving suits, backpacks, staves, knives, lengths of ropes, lanterns, oil, one bow with 20 arrows, one spear, one spellbook with a full compliment of first level spells deemed useful by the city archmage, 10 sticks of chalk, 20 iron spikes, 2 hammers, 10 rolls of vellum, a writing kit and a domesticated delving owl.
“Take this word of advice from a magistrate who carved his name into the pillars of level 6 in his youth. Don’t split up the party. Move briskly but do take the time to look around you; details can save your lives. Know when to run; violence often not the answer. Mercy will get you killed down there. The sun’s light doesn’t reach; the sun’s love is lost to that world down there and only hell’s breath moves the air.
“Think on your crimes that got you sentenced below and use that time to become something greater than just a poacher, a thief and a murderer.”
But that is never how it ends. The Lord-Mayor came to me, letting me know that if I didn’t deliver a missive to the death knight in the caves, he would see that I was sent right back if I ever surfaced with my sentence completed. The gaoler hid a chest with our gear, demanding the murderer deliver it to the toad-god somewhere on level 4. And the thief was told to steal a key from a prisoner sent below ten years ago, the legendary Queen of the Under, who taunts the world above with her acts of derring-do, stealing from the rich and giving to the kobolds.
There are municipal markers for the first few levels, even helpful constructs on the first two with some healing and magic mouths with advice and wisdom but after that it is nothing but darkness and unmapped chaos.
Still, I reckon it is better than the mines any day.
Peter “Starlord” Quill and Gamora are at a gala event with a dance floor that looks like a beautiful nebula. A slow waltz is playing and they are waltzing.
QUILL: You picked up on this fast!
GAMORA: It is just like fighting.
QUILL: Is it?
GAMORA: It is just like fighting for those of us who know how to fight.
QUILL: What? You are talking to the legendary outlaw, Starlord, who won the dance-off against Ronan the Accuser when billions of lives were at stake. Here we go.
The music begins to pick up. It sounds like a Kenny Loggins tune from Footloose. The crowd circles up and begins to cheer them on.
Kevin Bacon and Lori Singer are dancing alongside them. Loris Singer is green.
GAMORA: Peter, I’m not sure about this kind of dancing. I’m not sure where to…
QUILL: Just feel it…feel the beat.
KEVIN BACON: I am Groot.
Quill and Gamora stop dancing. The music lurches to a stop. The hologram fades and they are back on the ship.
ROCKET: We’ll be within boarding distance in a few minutes.
QUILL: I worked really hard on that. Making Lori Singer green was super-hard.
GAMORA: Groot, are you ready to board?
GROOT: I am Groot!
QUILL: You are ready, dancing queen?
GAMORA: I am Groot.
QUILL: How about you, Drax?
DRAX: I am not Groot but I am ready to board this ship and destroy any and all who get in the way of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Drax, Groot and Gamora suit up for space. Quill takes the co-pilot seat next to Rocket.
QUILL: Seems like lots of trouble for a glove.
ROCKET: Gauntlet, Peter, it is a gauntlet. Chitauri are in range. 3…2…1…
You’ve got that fantasy city you made up on the map – here are some neighbors beyond the map’s edges:
Asmodeen: former capital of the Tiefling empire, back when there was an empire. Made to honor the God-Tyrant, Asmodeus but was never officially recognized as His unholy capital city. The city is guarded by the 13 Altar-Fortresses, each commanded by a warlock-commander.
Exports: goats, obsidian, indentured devil tutors
Bahamudad: holy city of the Dragonborn, where it is said that Bahamut and Tiamat’s high priests and priestesses made a peace accord and gathered to create the species after the first Dragon War.
Exports: lumber, ancient coins, accountants
The Walking Cathedral: an ancient, lumbering machine said to be built in a collaboration between saints, sorcerers, devils and gods before the world knew of war and blood. The path it lumbers along is completed once every season, said to be on guard against the Tarrasque.
Exports: buffalo, holy books, oracles and scribes
Pentacle: a new and growing metropolis made by a cabal of five mages who have built a merchant house from their money made from stolen dragon’s hoards and looted lich’s tombs, surrounded by five towers that are still under construction and stout walls.
Exports: vellum, ink, map-makers
High Fell: a city in the middle of the Bright Bay, built atop the skyships, airships and spelljammers that fell to the earth during the Storm Wars. The ships are connected via tunnels and gangplanks, purchasing a ship entangles one into complicated relationships with one’s neighbors.
There are Lower Fells all over the Bright Sea.
Exports: fish, otherworldly artifacts, artifact appraisers
Corvuston: the holy city of the Raven Queen with necropolis walls and many murders.
Exports: marble, embalmers, morticians and undead hunters
Ulula: the city that clings to the fortress built by the owl god is known for its giant owl steeds and the city’s knights who ride them – delivering messages and slaying monsters that haunt the night.
Exports: wool, flying steeds and astonishingly recent news from afar
Endë-Osto: the deepest city of the Drow is ruled by a matriach whose throne is said to float in the center of the earth. Her queensguard is made of the palest of the drow sword-maidens who have never seen sun, moon nor stars; they ride dinosaurs bred for traversing tunnels.
Exports: mushrooms, ore, gems and Underdark guides
J’arr: also know as the City of a 1000 ports it is said to have been created in a single night by a djinn of the first order. J’arr sits at the mouth of the mighty river All’taugh, the Sweet, known for its refreshing and soothing waters. High minarets and brightly colored palaces speckle the skyline and merchants and creatures of all sorts walk its streets. It has been thousands of years since the city’s founding but the mage with ruby eyes still rules as he always has. It is said that in the dunes that surround the city a giant insect god with glittering eyes watches from beneath the surface.
Exports: olives, diplomats, (there is a school for diplomatic and negotiating skills within the city), and pepper.
by Anthony Loinaz
Reading: I’ve got The Lone Range and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie on my phone’s Kindle app. I’m really loving the poetry and humor in Alexie’s writing. This might turn out to be one of my favorite books ever. In print, I’m reading Book of the New Sun, which I’m enjoying but can drag a bit here and there.
Online, Quinn’s posts on Drow and race are cool – here and also here.
Planning: I’ve got some gaming coming up on the horizon – not this weekend but towards the end of the month. This weekend I just want to catch up on the exhaustion debt I accrued last weekend.
Writing: This week I’ve really fallen down on my writing. There have been several days when I’d get home from work, skip dinner and go straight to bed. I need to carve out that time-space for my keyboard but I haven’t found it just yet.
And you?
Thinking about Quinn’s posts about Drow and thinking about West Marches, I’m daydreaming about a hexcrawl.
Your maps are a thousand years out of date as you make your way to the surface…
It is one thousand years since the Drow exodus to the Underdark, soon after which the Web Matriarchs went to war against the Star King in the West. The Drow cut themselves from the fate dictated by the stars’ song, bound themselves instead to the Matron’s Holy Web.
Every nation was drawn in to this elven civil war. Gnomes, dwarves, drow, quaggoth and githyanki allied against elves, humans, hobbits and githzarai. On both sides, there were those who went against the majority. Undead were split – Ghouls and zombies made alliances on the surface while vampires and liches made alliances with the under-kingdoms. Orc were found on both sides.
Terrible arcane powers were unleashed that have left scars above and below, unleashing fell powers into the world. The gods sent visions to make it clear, this war would end the world if it continued. The holy gathered under a cessation of violence and crafted the treaty, binding a devil, angel and demi-god to enforce it. The treaty demanded that everyone choose above or below and stand by that choice for a thousand years: tunnels, stone and secrets buried in the earth or sun, moon and the heroes depicted in the stars.
Your ancestors chose tunnel, stone and secrets. In that thousand years, drow matriarchs have established vast city-states ruled by a complicated alliance of noble houses and priestesses. The githyanki attempted to take over the tunnels some years ago but were shut down by the combined might of their former allies; they are still present, though diminished – all of their red dragons slumber. The dwarves were driven into debt by the war effort and blamed their allies, always threatening to break the treatise as their princes and holdfasts faded from their former glory. The gnomes have quietly migrated deeper and deeper. The quaggoth ride underdark-bred dinosaurs, riding their steeds along ancient tunnel highways, following their mushroom herds.
Your maps are a thousand years out of date as you make your way to the surface…
Question: 1000 years or 10,000 years?
Zaheer is the best villain the Legend of Korra has ever put together.
He looks cool.
He goes too far but he also has a point.
He leads a team of total bad-asses. You can feel their shared history when they are on the screen together.
And he is voiced by:
You’ve got 12 Nearby Cities and now you want to start forming a web of political intrigue, creating a sense of history and motion. Roll dice until you are satisfied. Don’t make it too complicated.
Roll another 2d12, those are two cities. Roll another d6:
1
War is pending. The cities are hiring mercenaries and preparing their armies for the coming season of war. Trade sanctions have been in place for some time.
2
Treaty by Marriage is pending. The rulers or ruling class of one city is about to marry into the ruling family or class of the other, making a strong alliance. Roll another 1d12 if you want to find out which city is nervous about this.
3
Civil War is pending. One of the cities is about to be ravaged by internal strife and the other city is aiding the revolutionaries.
4
Hordes are coming. An invasion is coming from beyond the lands currently mapped and one city is set to bear the brunt of the first wave and the other is in denial that the first attack will be as bad as it will certainly be.
5
Unity is coming. These two cities want all of the local cites to form a league in order to support each other through any invasions or future troubles.
6
Peace is coming. After a bloody and brutal conflict, two sides are ready to sue for peace. Roll another 1d12 if you want a third city to act as a diplomat and broker the process.
Riffing off of this post, a few local gamers got together and made their characters for some surface crawling.
The party (so far):
Zuul, the Quaggoth/Folk Hero/Ranger CG
Saav, the Drow/Acolyte/Monk CG
Gorgolog, the Orc/Gladiator/Fighter CE
Vistra, the Dwarf/Acolyte/Cleric LG or NG? (DM’s NOTE: I kinda like that we aren’t sure just yet)
Playing:
I gave them a hand-drawn hex map of the area, as it was known to a dwarven general during the war, over 1000 years ago. This rag-tag group was brought together because they pooled their money and purchased a charter that allowed them to have sole access to this portal to the surface.
I asked us all to gather around the map in character to decide which direction they would head into next week. So, they huddled around a bio-luminescent mushroom growing out of a table in a lean-to at the bottom of the pit that they’ve chartered the rights to. This will be their town, their home base, growing with them.
“Would you like to name your little charter corporation?”
“We can’t name it yet. Naming it gives it power over us.”
Nice, Dev.
Gorgolog made a roll to see where the orcs were in the area…but I had the area made up and there were no orcs. :( He rolled a 10 on his history check and found out that the elves, when they established their fort, exterminated any and all orcs that were in the mountains. Gorgolog’s hero, Bogg Skullsplitter, used to spin a dagger when he was unsure of where to go (unless it pointed to where he had been, then he would spin again). Using that bit of orcish game design, we spun a pencil.
The group will head off into the northeast.
GM’s Chores:
Re-read the races with an eye towards hacking. I have to do a full write-up for the Quaggoth, Githyanki and maybe some underground Backgrounds. Bret is already hard at work on his write-up for full-blooded orc as a PC.
Get some maps printed out for what awaits them to the northeast.
Read up on Inspiration, relevant Monsters, Combat.
by Russ Nicholson
Warriors from the Astral Plane
Githyanki are descended from a humanoid species enslaved by the Illithid thousands of years ago, used as both labor and as a source of food. Led by the legendary Gith, from whom they take their name, they revolted against their psionic overlords made their way to the Astral Plane. In this alien space between the planes, the Githyanki carved out floating citadels from pieces of long dead deities, eventually founding Tu’narath, their capital city built on the corpse of a god.
The githyanki society is a military-minded cultural engine that does its best to make its people warlike and vicious, looking down on all other races and species. They stop their conquests only for two things: to destroy illithid or destroy githzarai. Githzarai are born of the same stock, both having fought for their freedom against the illithid empire but some unknown conflict during the fall of the illithid has led to a hatred between these two descendants of Gith. Their extermination of one another only takes pause to stamp out illithid.
The Lich-Queen’s Subjects
The githyanki are without a pantheon, instead paying homage to the lich-queen, a hungry patron who reigns from her palace on Tu’narath, surrounded by her eunuch warlocks. When one of her subjects becomes too powerful, she calls them to her palace where she can publicly devour their life essence. To deny the lich-queen when summoned is to be branded a traitor by your people and to be hunted across the planes of existence.
by Russ Nicholson
Size. Githyanki are well over six feet tall and weigh between 170 and 190 pounds. Your size is medium.
Ability Score Increase: Your Constitution score increases by 2 and your Intelligence increases by 1.
Age. Githyanki reach physical maturity at the same age as humans and rarely live past 60 years.
Alignment. Githyanki are most often evil, having been raised in a harsh culture of military imperialism, instilled with a feeling of superiority and lack of empathy. Good Githyanki are rare but sometimes occur.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet. In the Astral Plane, Githyanki can move at 120 feet, being used to moving with one’s mind as the guiding muscle.
Language. You speak secret language of Gith. You also speak Draconic and Common. In this setting, you may choose one more language: Drow, Dwarvish, Quaggoth or Gnomish.
Draconic Pact. Your people have had a pact with red dragons since your first days on the Astral Plane. When using your persuasion skill with a red dragon, you have advantage.
Psionic Resistance. You have resistance to psychic damage and have advantage against any saves against mind-control spells or psionic attacks.
Psionic Powers. You know the mage hand cantrip.
At 5th level, you know clairvoyance and can cast it once per day.
At 3rd level, you know the misty step spell and can cast it once per day.
At 7th level you know dimension door and can cast it once per day.
At 5th level, you know the clairvoyance spell and can cast it once per day.
At 9th level you know telekinesis and can cast it once per day.
At 14th level you can cast plane shift once per day.
When you use these powers, Intelligence is your spellcasting ability; you do not need any material components.
Lich-Queen’s Hunger. At 9th level, you must make a wisdom save, DC 15. If you fail, the lich-queen calls you back to Tu’narath so that she can devour your life essence, allowing your power to serve your people. If you refuse her summons, her first subject will be of equal power to you, increasing in power if you should defeat them.
If you succeed, nothing happens. You will make this save at every subsequent level, adding +1 to the DC each time.
by Russ Nicholson
Thank you to everyone who helped with comments, critique and encouragement on G+.
And thanks to the folks at the WotC boards for the added help.
After a few months of no regular gaming, the lean times are over. I had a G+ hangouts Burning Wheel game Sunday night, another BW game Monday afternoon and got to play in Matt’s Advanced Wizards & Wizards on Monday night. Tonight is our first D&D session.
Using the Kingmaker Adventure Path as a rough inspiration, Lady Zora Kucera with her trusted steeds Blood Reckoning and Bastard with Sgt. Hajek and his trusty mutt, Boots made their way south into the Stolen Lands. Never underestimate the power of loyalty and a few scraps of stolen tablecloth when faced with a failed Orienteering roll and a giant spider.
Here’s the thread on the BW forum.
I love that damned kid.
From the thread:
In apologetic tones, apologizing over and over, explaining that this isn’t how he wanted it to go, the elf explained that all of the wizards were dead, hunted down to the last and killed.
Matt’s got a really interesting hack of D&D going. Here’s a thread about it over on SG. I get to play a Tiefling Fire Wizard named Baala, a NG acolyte of the Devil-God. Fun times.
We took this hex-crawl idea out for a spin with our shiny new D&D books and it was good fun. Gorgolog the Orc/Gladiator/Barbarian, Vistra the Dwarven/Acolyte/Cleric and Zuul the Quaggoth/Folk Hero/Ranger were smart and ran from their first possible fight. The disadvantage 2 of the 3 of them were eating because of the sunlight was a brutal factor and the Ghoul Knight was going to be too much; it was a smart, smart move and prevented a TPK.
I like this group. Next week, they leave the Silent Peninsula and head to Big Shire in an attempt to make some gold.
That was some satisfying emmer-effing gaming and a fine way to break a long gaming drought.
Reading: I’m re-reading the Wheel of Time series, thinking that I’ll actually finish them this time. These are the books that I’ve got on my phone for the commute. I’m on The Great Hunt. I’m not precisely enjoying it but I do feel a pretty strong irrational urge to finish the thing.
I’ve got Ten Little Indians by Sherman Alexie in my bag, ready to roll so I can do some screen-less reading. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven was one of the laughingest, cryingest books I have ever read. I actually laughed so hard on the train that people thought I was crazy.
I grabbed The Queen of Tearling by Erika Johansen, thinking that I might loan it out but the first few pages grabbed me and now I’m over a hundred pages in after a leisurely evening of reading. I am intrigued.
Planning: Secret!
Writing: Trying to get the spell-lists revamped for Knight Fights in Space and D&D hex-crawl writing.
And you?
These cities are listed from the closest to the surface to the deepest beneath the earth.
Cities 1-3 are in the Overdark, a cold and dank area where the surface dwellers often feel the most comfortable.
Cities 4-8 are in the Underdark Proper, with tunnel highways that are home to bison-sized mushroom-beasts and heated by lava.
City 9 is in a hollow earth jungle, heated by an Illithid-made sun.
City 10 is in the Underdeep, said to be so far underground that planar travel occurs when going that deep and underworlds are easier to contact.
Culicid: a castle town ruled by a vampire, a veteran of the war and self-styled duchess. She collects blood as taxes – the blood-tithe. Culicid has the largest population of free humans beneath the surface, policed by the duchess’ immortal children.
Exports: bio-luminescent mushrooms, messenger bats, goats
Xenosh T’allotha: In Drow this means, All-Mother’s First Rest, as it is the first place the Drow stopped to rest during the exodus from the skylands. It is a small town, really a village built around a series of wells and underground waterfalls that has grown out into the tunnels that lead to it.
Exports: Religious artifacts, Riding spiders, Monk bodyguards
Anvil: The decrepit holdfast that houses the dwarves who sided with the underground armies. It is ruled by a council of petty dwarven princes who have been trying to elect a High King since the war ended. Some whisper that outside political pressure has thwarted this process.
Exports: Mead, dwarf-made weapons and armor, dwarf-cut gems
Titan: The Githyanki fortress city built from the buried fossil of a forgotten lizard demi-god is watched closely by the Drow matriarchs. The Githyanki were allowed to keep control of this city after their attempted coup under the watchful eye of a powerful Drow priestess, along with sending hostages to Endë-Osto and their sleeping red dragons were hidden from them.
Exports: Dream-walkers, Swords-for-hire, Warlocks-for-hire, Domesticated Umber Hulks
Quaggothan: More of a meeting place or a camp site than a proper city, this is the ancient site where the Quaggoth elders live out the last days of their life when they can no longer follow the mushroom herds. It is ruled by a Drow-appointed governor who oversees the trading and make sure the Quaggoth feuding never gets out of hand. Merchant caravans always stop here to trade their foods and it has become a hub of trade and news.
Exports: Mushroom bison meat, odd artifacts the Quaggoth unearth in their travels
Kitji-Naal: Two cities divided by an underground river and ruled by twin matriarchs who rarely meet, but communicate via magical mirrors. The city is the largest and most populated city in the underdark; its politics are a convoluted mess of ancient feuds, assassin’s knives and inter-House warfare.
Exports: Poisons, Assassins-for-hire, spider-silk, books
Sclera: A dank, and dangerous city ruled by feuding gangs of Beholders – each with its own Eye-cult. This is the city with the highest human population in this layer of the underdark. It also boasts the underdark’s only public temple to Asmodeus, the Devil-God.
Exports: Scrying, mirrors, spies, indentured-devils
Eämbar: A newly founded city that is a port, connected to the ocean by a series of complicated crystal locks that link Eämbar to the ocean’s crushing depths. All manner of undersea sentient can been seen on the city streets, sometimes in specially made tanks of water pushed by servants.
The matriarch is the youngest to ever hold the title and the most renowned swords-Drow in the underdark.
Exports: Fish, undersea crafts, spider-silk crystal
Endë-Osto: The deepest city of the Drow and the Drow capital, is ruled by the eldest matriach whose throne is said to float weightless in the center of the earth. Her queensguard is made of the most cunning of the drow sword-maidens; they ride dinosaurs bred for traversing tunnels. The city is in a hollow-earth with a bruise-purple sun, said to have been created at the height of the Iillithid Empire.
Exports: vegetables, dinosaur steeds and ranger-guides
Svinifrilijihirim: Despite Endë-Osto being at the center of the world, this Gnomish city is still somehow deeper, due to a trick of planar geometry. The city, often called Deeptown for short, is home to a powerful ward, created to keep a Pit Fiend in the uninhabited darkest depths. The Pit Fiendwas unleashed by the skylanders into the underdark during the War, has destroyed a Drow city single-handedly.
Deeptown is home to a powerful council of wizards and it is a great city for finding tutoring or for apprenticing one’s self to any of the Schools of Magic. It does boast the underdark’s only Bard College that is home to one of the finest libraries in the underdark, rivaled only by Kitji-Naal and Endë-Osto.
Exports: Wizards-for-hire, Bards-for-hire, magic items, spell components
And once you’re done and you want to make the place a political mess – A Web of Cities.
Reading: I’m on the third book of the Wheel of Time, re-reading up to where I stopped a decade or so ago and hoping to push on and finish. The books bring out different emotions and reactions from me. Sometimes it is frustration and eye-rolling, sometimes it is nostalgia and enjoyment. It is making the commute go by quickly.
I’ve got Ten Little Indians at home but need to get it to my night-standing for before-bed reading.
Planning: Maybe some kayaking this weekend.
Writing: I’m about to fill my third notebook. I need to look that over and get some ink writing transferred to my laptop.
And you?
