Some things in STAP don't make sense:
1) Exotic animal smuggling. I can see why the Dawn Council wouldn't want dangerous animals running around the town - but it doesn't make sense that business arrangements including them would be illegal. The capture, sale and shipping of said pets would be a great boon to the town economy. I suppose this explains why they are smuggled - but it doesn't explain why a town that is so liberterian would condemn the practice.
2) The harbormaster was suffering from a cronic disease. He _is_ a wealthy noble, right? There _are_ relatively high-level clerics in town, right? Why would he suffer? Was he an athiest who didn't want to acknowledge that a church could help? Was his disease soooo supernatural that no cure could be found - even using magic?
This happens to be one of D&D's weaknesses. Disease really doesn't frighten anyone unless it strikes immediately. Finding a town that is suffering under an epidemic is not likely. That's a whole different discussion, however.
3) With so much shipping, where is the boatyard? Sasserine has a harbor and such, but there is no large industrial section for the building / maintenance of ships. Where is the dry dock? It is inferred that wealthy clients contract for individual ships, but there is also a more conventional ship builder in town. Where does this take place?
4) Sasserine needs a navy. Whether it's made up of merchant marines or an actual fleet under the control of the Dawn Council, the town is a sitting duck without one. With the Crimson Fleet in the area, I'd think Sasserine would have set up a navy within the fist few years of independence.
5) There is no way that Sasserine could have been hidden all those years unless Cauldron was under the control of the Sea Princes as well. The two cities are kissing cousins. I don't remember my history from SCAP, but I don't think Cauldron fell to the Sea Princes. I just don't buy the "hidden from history" angle - unless I'm not seeing the obvious?
I'll stop here. These are just a few things that have been bubbling in my head while running this AP.
The other thing I would like to note is that the names of places and people need to be consistent. For instance, is it Merchant or Merchant's District? The treatment should be consistent. (/me admits this is a nitpick, but thought he'd mention it anyway.)
Cheers!
Some things in STAP don't make sense:
1) Exotic animal smuggling. I can see why the Dawn Council wouldn't want dangerous animals running around the town - but it doesn't make sense that business arrangements including them would be illegal. The capture, sale and shipping of said pets would be a great boon to the town economy. I suppose this explains why they are smuggled - but it doesn't explain why a town that is so liberterian would condemn the practice.
Traditionally, smuggling is not only a matter of transporting illegal goods, but also of transporting perfectly legal goods whilst avoiding the taxes, permits and qualifications their legal sale and handling requires.
We already know from the Players' Guide that even just applying for a licence to own a dangerous animal costs 50 gp per application, and at the given DCs many applicants will not be successful on their first attempt. If that's what it costs just for the right to own one of these creatures, imagine how much more expensive and difficult it is to earn the qualifications to handle, transport, train and sell them. And, as a luxury commodity, they probably attract high taxation.
2) The harbormaster was suffering from a cronic disease. He _is_ a wealthy noble, right? There _are_ relatively high-level clerics in town, right? Why would he suffer? Was he an athiest who didn't want to acknowledge that a church could help? Was his disease soooo supernatural that no cure could be found - even using magic?
This is highly campaign specific. In Greyhawk he might be able to buy a cure, in Eberron not so much. Furthermore, the game allows little in the way of cures for old age, and the harbourmaster's disease may simply be a symptom of advanced age. "Doddering old fool", Lavinia describes him, and it's quite possible that she's not being excessively unkind.
3) With so much shipping, where is the boatyard? Sasserine has a harbor and such, but there is no large industrial section for the building / maintenance of ships. Where is the dry dock? It is inferred that wealthy clients contract for individual ships, but there is also a more conventional ship builder in town. Where does this take place?
Shadowshore. That whole extensive dock area around O4 comprises the Shipwrights' Guildhall, associated construction areas, and sales of second-hand ships.
4) Sasserine needs a navy. Whether it's made up of merchant marines or an actual fleet under the control of the Dawn Council, the town is a sitting duck without one. With the Crimson Fleet in the area, I'd think Sasserine would have set up a navy within the fist few years of independence.
Not being a major threat to anyone is probably all that's keeping the town safe so far. And I suspect that with a united citizenry, Sasserine is pretty tough to crack. They've got a naturally defensible harbour, extensive croplands close at hand, and are backed by leagues of trackless jungle and treacherous swamp. They can't be starved out, and they can't be easily overwhelmed from sea or land.
5) There is no way that Sasserine could have been hidden all those years unless Cauldron was under the control of the Sea Princes as well. The two cities are kissing cousins. I don't remember my history from SCAP, but I don't think Cauldron fell to the Sea Princes. I just don't buy the "hidden from history" angle - unless I'm not seeing the obvious?
That one, I had trouble with. The effort involved in wiping the place from history seemed likely to be far in excess of the possible gains. More than that, Sasserine is a port, and ports thrive on trade. A secret port is an unprofitable port.
Furthermore, I can't see any compelling reason why it's there in the backstory. Why, fundamentally, does it matter whether or not anyone else knew Sasserine existed during those years?
Someone else can probably give you a specific name, but I seem to recall a port described in the Dragon Magazine article on the areas surrounding cauldron that contained a fleet from Cauldron and was dedicated to stamping out piracy in the region. Could be your missing fleet.
Sean Mahoney
MarkB, great reply.
RE Smuggling: There is a difference between smuggling animals into Sasserine for domestic consumption, and smuggling animals out of the jungle for sale to others (Scarlet Brotherhood, for instance). With the SB in control of the seas in the area, you'd think Sasserine would not be the choice for a gateway if you were smuggling said animals. I doubt they smuggle slaves, for instance, through Sasserine. I could be mistaken however.
Hmmm... an underground slave trade in Sasserine. I wonder what's been happening to all those poor wretches in Shadowshore?
RE Disease: I hadn't thought of the non-GH angle. I know next to nothing about Eberron, so what you say may ring true. However, while Lavinia calls the harbormaster a doddering old fool, I believe he is said to have a lung disease. That's nothing a heal spell couldn't take care of. In truth, a moderately well-off person should not be troubled by disease in core D&D. There's just no excuse for it.
That said, I wish disease was more complex in D&D. Being able to heal / remove it so easily really detracts from one of the major sources of woe in history. Everyone has heard of the Black Death, etc... but few realize just how much impact disease has had in the world. Even in the late 18th century, diseases like the Pox were cronic epidemic starters. I wish it weren't the case, but it still appears that the core system really short-changes the disease aspect.
RE drydock: Shadowshore is not big enough for a dry dock. Such an area would be huge - likely 1/2 the size of that district alone. That, and having an industrial eye-sore like a shipyard in the middle of town would be a no-go to the citizens, I would think. It could be that Sasserine hasn't been able to make one yet. Perhaps the Sea Princes would not allow them to have one. Maybe some enterprising merchant is going to build one to the east of Azure District. Dunno. It just does not appear that Sasserine has one - and I would think a town of this type would.
Sean wrote about SCAP mentioning a Cauldron-sponsored navy. That would be something I would be interested in finding out. Anyone know where the reference is from?
Creative Director
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In many cases, the problems you list arise from the simple fact that we just didn't have enough room to do Sasserine justice in Dungeon. As it was, it spilled over into Dragon and into a 16 page supplement; it could have certainly used more. Anyway; here's my replies to the issues you raise; some of them are similar to what's already been posted...
1) Exotic animal smuggling is a recent illegal activity; for a time, it wasn't illegal but then several events involving dangerous animals getting loose prompted the Dawn Council to make the practice illegal. It doesn't take too many escaped wyverns to get new laws pushed through...
2) The point of a chronic disease is that it keeps coming back. Islaran has had the disease cured before, but he keeps getting sick, and now that his family's fortunes are failing, he doesn't really WANT to get better. He's depressed and desperate. Now, that's kind of a cheesy cop-out, brought on by the fact that D&D doesn't let the rich get sick. That's a problem with the rules, and in this case I decided to toss out the rules in favor of a more compelling story. If your players wonder why he doesn't get cured, simply have them learn that he's just a sickly old man who keeps catching the same flu over and over and over...
3) Shadowshore's the primary boatyard; most of the docks along this section of town are where ships are built. It's not that big because the town's just come out of 100 years of occupation by a force that built their ships elsewhere; Sasserine's still growing. There is indeed a major shipbuilder in town, in any case; he lives in Shadowshore. Also: See #4 below.
4) Again, after coming out of 100 years of occupation, Sasserine didn't have a navy. She still doesn't really, but she's building one. The navy-building project actually happens down the coast a bit at a seaside citadel and drydock/boat building yard. This information had to get bumped to Dragon #349, in the Savage Tidings article that talks about the Sasserine region, but it's there. It's just not in the city itself. Given time and growth, I'm sure a larger, more industrious boat-building facility will appear closer to or even inside the city.
5) Cauldron didn't fall to the Sea Princes, and certainly wasn't hidden from Sasserine. But Cauldron's pretty hidden from the rest of the world. Frankly... I'd rather just dispose of the whole "Hidden City" angle. It's only in there because when we started to infer that Sasserine had a location in Greyhawk, a lot of fans got all worked up. "Why haven't we heard of it before? Why hasn't it been on the map?" By putting in a bit about the city being hidden, I was attempting to cater to that fan base but inadvertently enraged another fan base. Just goes to show you that:
A: You can't please everyone. and
B: Not every idea that gains power from internet sounding chambers is a good one.
Sean wrote about SCAP...
I apologize, I meant to say Sasserine, not Cauldron. The navy was to belong to Sasserine.
Sean Mahoney
2) The point of a chronic disease is that it keeps coming back. Islaran has had the disease cured before, but he keeps getting sick, and now that his family's fortunes are failing, he doesn't really WANT to get better. He's depressed and desperate. Now, that's kind of a cheesy cop-out, brought on by the fact that D&D doesn't let the rich get sick. That's a problem with the rules, and in this case I decided to toss out the rules in favor of a more compelling story. If your players wonder why he doesn't get cured, simply have them learn that he's just a sickly old man who keeps catching the same flu over and over and over...
And being constantly exposed to sailors who can not afford a cure every time they get sick doesn´t help any... Probably this cnstant exposure has lowered his resistance (read: CON) so much that he is constantly sick, and even a noble probably cannot afford a cure every week.
As to general diseases and outright plagues, these would be a danger even in D&D, as not every peasant can afford healing magic, and even in case of an epidemic, the clerics can not heal everybody.
And don´t discount human stupidity or plain laziness: There are cholera outbreaks in the late 19th century documented in germany (Hamburg 1892), when it was known already that the disease was spread through contaminated water, and still people took drinking water from areas of polluted water. I know of reports from a cholera outbreak in my hometown in the 19th century that people threw their garbage into the street wells from which they took their drinking water, in cases even animal carcasses were found in the wells...
Even today, with all our knowledge and medical treatments, this disease is not rooted out. A cholera epidemic started in Peru in 1991, claiming about 12.000 lives... Not to mention the danger in the so-called third world.
Stefan
Also, while a remove disease is certainly possible, consider this: it costs 150 GP to get a remove disease cast, assuming a 5th level caster is amenable to doing it. A higher level caster, a higher cost, and some churches less concerned with alleviating suffering might charge more for the "outside our jurisdiction" nature of the request.
150 GP for 1 remove disease. The DMG lists 200 GP per month as an extravagant lifestyle, staying in the best inns, eating the finest food, attending and throwing parties, wearing the finest clothes.
Since Sasserine's harbor was slowly falling apart due to inattention caused by the harbormaster looking for an heir, he began spending money to hire others to keep it running. I'd say he's running on the minimum to afford the lifestyle of his family, with the rest going back into the harbor.
Just because your a noble, and are therefore "rich", doesn't mean you're "Player Character Rich". A fifth level PC probably has more liquid assets than most nobles. Nobles are rich compared to commoners.
Unless were talking about Waterdeep, which doesn't count because most of the nobles are at least 5th level PC grade characters. Moderate sarcasem, but you know what I mean.
Look at it this way, the guy who works minimum wages (USA version commoner) makes, what, 20k a year if lucky? A doctor or lawyer (USA noble) could conceivably make 100 to 200k a year. But how much doe the people in the public eye, the one's rewarded by society for their contributions or cleverness? Bill Gates, top tier actors, sports stars? These people can exceed multiple millions, putting them (in relative comparison only, mind you) in the PC status.
Hope my convoluted metaphor makes sense, and doesn't start any odd debates or flame wars. Not my intent. Just trying to show how "rich" doesn't neccessarily mean "get whatever you want or need". There just seem to be degrees of "rich".
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I can think of several conditions defined as disease processes that lead to additional problems that would necessitate further restoration spells to fully deal with the issue, or in turn lead to further disease processes.
I think it depends on your definition of "disease" and what "curing" the disease essentially means.
For example, if a character got viral hepatitis, and had a cure disease spell cast, does that mean any and all possible
liver damage is cured as well?
Heathansson, thats a good idea. Perhaps a restoration would be necessary to repair permanent damage, and if it is not repaired, the character is more susceptible to other diseases.
So, there are several possibilities to explain a diseased noble/rich person in D&D.
Stefan
A lung disease that requires Restoration rather than simple Remove Disease makes perfect sense.
Someone I know suffers from an ailment that, if he'd ever been a coal miner, would have been termed Black Lung disease. However, they believe he got it from working in a cereal factory (from inhaling sugar particles over the course of many years). The lung is actually physically damaged. I imagine that other lung disease might be similar, with the Remove Disease spell curing the current infection or whatever, but leaving the scarring, holes, and so forth.
