| 12 people marked this as a favorite. |
I love trying to make the many settlements around the Shackles stand out in the players minds and I try to do this with little encounters (not necessarily combats) and descriptions. Here are a few I've used. Have you come up with any good ones? I'll post more as I think of them or remember them.
HELL HARBOR:
1. Describe the Tyrannous as the PCs approach the harbor. It's a huge ship of the line and should be bigger than any ship they've seen except for the Dominator, which is of the same class. Explain how it's in a private berth reserved for the Devil's Own, not accessible by other ships. There is a class apart here. The streets are paved and well-lit and maintained.
2. After the harbormaster welcomes them, have him tell them it's the law to look upon a gibbet at the end of the quay. The gibbet contains the remains of a Chelish bounty hunter. Below it is a letter of bounty for Endymion's capture lacquered to a sign post and beneath that a plaque that reads: "Thus to those who seek their fortune upon the head of Endymion."
3. In most taverns there are posters on the walls with a cartoon of a pirate throttling an imp with the caption: "Short on coin? No need to scrimp! Earn some gold! Bash an imp!." Describe pirates walking around with poles of imps, like fish.
4. Endymion's men have a Chelish bearing. They wear their tattoo of allegiance openly. Natives respect them to their faces but gossip about them endlessly and what they're "really" doing here.
5. Endymion's estate is a walled affair and looks very Chelish. It's on a hill overlooking the city. No one goes in without surrendering weapons and having a zone of truth cast upon them and intense questioning. Security is tight and the wall has cold iron spikes atop it.
OLLO:
1. The city is on a bluff overlooking the sea. Ships anchor off shore and row ship's boats to the beach. A fortified gate blocks the path leading up to the bluff. This is to make the city harder for sahuagin to raid.
2. An old juju oracle wades around the shoreline, maintaining statues made of sahuagin bones. He does this to ward the sea devils away and claims that the skeletons hold their trapped essences so they can never "go home". At sunset the eyes of these statues burn with eerie green light.
3. Avimar Sorrinash keeps a wild monster in a rickety cage at the center of the town square. He releases it into the jungle outside the palisade so he and his crew can hunt it. Maybe it'll escape when the PCs are nearby.
4. Sorrinash's men swagger. They wear his colors and can do anything to anyone they please if that person's not on the crew. People fear them. Everyone knows they're lycanthropes.
5. Sorrinash lives in a run down manor house at the center of town. His men patrol it with barely trained attack dogs.
DRENCHPORT:
1. Rain all the time. Sodden boardwalks make up the waterfront. Buidings are made of driftwood and straw because they're cheaper to replace when the storms knock them down. Only a select few buildings look like wood and stone, notably the manor of the Master of the Gales. Members of the Cult of the Eye loudly wander up and down the docks taking donations from captains so the Eye of Abendego will look favorably upon them and have mercy on their ships. Maybe donating will get the PCs a bonus to a profession: sailor roll to avoid a storm, or maybe it won't.
2. A tornado approaches the harbor, proceeded by storm elementals which attack ships at dock. After dealing with the monsters, all the bells in the city begin to ring. Locals take cover. A water spout is sighted in the distance. The Master of the Gales and his entourage quickly make their way to a mount overlooking the harbor where he begins to cast Control Weather. Still before the spell takes affect, the PCs need to deal with 6 rounds of tornado in the harbor.
3. The Master's men are stalwarts. Old salts who've weathered a hundred storms. People respect him and them because they know he can turn away the worst of the storms.
4. The Master's residence is an open air stone manor house with an attached bell tower and lighthouse. It's the oldest and sturdiest building in town and has yet to be damaged by storms.
Very nice! Thank-you for posting these!
Thanks. I have been having a lot of trouble making Quent pop, however. Most of the other major cities have some interesting lore to build around. Hell Harbor has the Chelish/Native integration issue. Ollo is under siege by sahuagin and run by a chaotic evil werewolf. Drenchport is wracked by storms constantly and has a cult dedicated to a hurricane creeping around. Port Peril has a whole chapter in Tempest Rising dedicated to its character.
As written, Quent is basically just the queen city. It seems to have no problems, no conflicts in the lore. Everyone likes Tessa Fairwind. It seems like the idea was to have a "nice" place in the Shackles, but I can't make it stick out with that alone. Has anyone come up with anything to make this city a memorable place?
You could expand on the House of Stolen Kisses and give Quent a brothel/pleasure district. That would help give it a little more identity.
Appreciate the ideas for Hell Harbor, Ollo, and Drenchport, great stuff!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
DRENCHPORT (Part 2):
1. Storms so frequently wreck ships against the shore in Drenchport that locals have taken to taking the hulks or ruined ships and making buildings out of them. As a result, the waterfront of the city is a collection of re-purposed shipwrecks connected by rickety boardwalks. This will be the location of the Drowned Dwarf, which was the first such ship used in this manner. The rest of the town exists as stated on shore above.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
OLLO (Part 2):
1. The Greenscale River tumbles over the promontory Ollo sits on and hits the ocean 200 feet below. The only law in Ollo is that those bearing Avimar Sorrinash's colors are the law. Anyone who runs afoul of this, if they survive their apprehension, are sentenced to one fate: Trial by combat against the Champion of Ollo. The Champion is the waterfall, Greenscale Plunge. Accused parties are placed in a barrel upriver and sent over the falls. If they survive, all charges are dropped and the person is free to go.
2. All silver is confiscated by the guards before anyone is allowed to enter Ollo. All silver coins, weapons, jewelry and holy symbols are put in a sack and become property of the guards. This is basically a gate tax with a purpose.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
These are excellent, especially Hell Harbor, Drenchport and Ollo! Thanks for sharing.
The House of Stolen Kisses is more than just a brothel. It is a... hotbed... of intelligence.
Quent, though classy, is boiling with barely kept secrets. Bluff for innuendo is rampant. A word is never just a word; a look never just a look; a sale never just a sale. Everyone is flying casual. But not too casual. Uncouth behavior is discretely resolved behind the scenes. Casino Royale. A Sense Motive expert new to town might have trouble sleeping.
PCs making an innocent purchase might unintentionally be passed a message meant for another. Mayhem may ensue.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
First of all thx for all the great ideas Shaun.
In my campaign I've done a few additions to Port Quent.
Primarly all the flavour is based around something i call "The Tavern Wars".
-due to the abundance of taverns, drinking halls, inns and what have you the competition is getting ugly and the owners of these places are doing theirs ruin their rivals. Thus The demand for brutes, brawlers and bodyguards have increased making the harbor of Quent an unruly place for visitors who aren't fund of a good fist fight.
Tessa Fairwind has been to busy with all the things going on in the pirate council so "The Tavern Wars" are yet to be dealt with.
Neat, I like it.