Kicking a dead horse one last time, it's all well and good to say that there's a great artifact that wizards have given up studying because they failed to learn anything, but there's precedent elsewhere of the Cyphergate. There's an entire wizard college in Riddleport that does nothing but study the gate, learns nothing, the gate doesn't really do anything apparent, but they're still there studying it. If we're talking about an artifact that actually has a noticeable function, there's no way wizards are just going to go away after a few years of not getting answers.
The evil Osirion monolith idea works because its function is known, no need to study, just avoid. The mysterious artifact idea works if has just arrived or just reactivated for reasons I've stated earlier. I just don't think a powerful artifact sitting around without attracting notice is at all plausible.
Perhaps it could have been a large city, but after the decline, and fall, it became more like a ring of small towns. As for the Stone, if we keep with the idea that it fell, maybe it could have always been there and the pre-city stumbled upon it and built the city around it. perhaps the idea of it coming from the sky is speculation.
I like the idea of a series of close knit villages. never done anything like that before.
To expand on my earlier idea, the area began as a much larger town, more connected to the outside world and with a much greater population. Some event destroyed most of the inner city--perhaps the central stronghold fell to some great evil, or some sort of natural catastrophe devastated the area (could be as simple as a freak earthquake that resulted in the whole area turning to swamp). This left a ring of isolated survivor towns around a central 'no-man's-land'.
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Perhaps it could have been a large city, but after the decline, and fall, it became more like a ring of small towns. As for the Stone, if we keep with the idea that it fell, maybe it could have always been there and the pre-city stumbled upon it and built the city around it. perhaps the idea of it coming from the sky is speculation.
I like this idea alot!!!
Perhaps it could have been a large city, but after the decline, and fall, it became more like a ring of small towns. As for the Stone, if we keep with the idea that it fell, maybe it could have always been there and the pre-city stumbled upon it and built the city around it. perhaps the idea of it coming from the sky is speculation.I like this idea alot!!!
This works for me too. I'm not a huge fan of swamps, but I suppose if we're talking marshes and bogs like on English moors, I'm good with it. Not a huge fan of the Louisianna swamp locale, which I guess this obviously isn't. Perhaps a combination of mushy swamp with wretched, decaying trees huge heavily with lichens and mosses.
I actually prefer the forest idea (I think grim mentioned that there was already a forest in that local too.) But at the same time, I have no beef with swamps.
I actually prefer the forest idea (I think grim mentioned that there was already a forest in that local too.) But at the same time, I have no beef with swamps.
Can't we have both?
I actually like the idea of wetlands rather than swamps.
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Wow, this is getting considerably more response than I expected. Please note that the recruitment is currently closed; I don't want this to involve too many people as that'll be rather chaotic.
I've decided to keep the actual design and involvement to those originally involved, before it gets too out of hand. Others are welcome to comment, but please keep these comments in the OOC tags.
The people involved are:
Mark Thomas 66
Rizzym Jadernai
Jlord
Sigz
Scranford
Vil-hatarn
Nazard
For everyone else interested in the idea, if someone wanted to organize something similar (which would allow a different idea to be developed as well), then it could be interesting to see how both progressed.
Current Votes Needed
-Terrain: swamp, wetlands, and/or forest?
-Group of small isolated villages or a single larger village, possibly partially ruined?
-Active artifact that everyone knows about or an unknown one that is becoming active somehow?
Terrain--I'd say some combination. Soggy forests, basically. Very thick, dark...
As I said in an earlier post, I like a group of isolated villages rising from the ruin of a larger town, but more in terms of population than physical location--the entirety of the original town should be consumed by the artifact and/or wilds; while the few survivors have formed settlements on the fringes of this dangerous region.
Nazard makes some good points on the artifact--I think it either needs to be not worth studying and/or just now activating.
My votes;
Terrain: wetland and forest.
Compostition: group of villages.
Artifact: unknown, just activated.
How about the villages (four of them) are the remains of market towns that grew up outside the north, east, west, and south gates of a large, prosperous, and perfectly square city. The artifact could even have been the creation of the original inhabitants of the city. The villagers don't even remember that their little hamlets used to be just outside great stone walls of a metropolis.
Some people have always wondered why the four villages were so perfectly arrayed with each other...
I had envisioned the villages being about a days journey apart. Not sure if a ruined city would work for this, as that would be a vast city, but if the villages spread out after the city was destroyed, perhaps in search of resources, then that could work. Maybe each village is basically self supporting, but has a particular industry they are known for, which keeps them separate and unique...Particular grade of wool, maple syrup, apple brandy, salmon fishing, etc.
Terrain: I like the deep forbidden forest, with numerous swampy areas.
Artifact: Perhaps this explains the destruction of the city. Perhaps something fell from the skys eons ago, and the constant experimenting, and testing caused it to explode destroying much of the city. The swampy and or haunted areas could be where shards of the stone landed...now inert...but rumors have it that deep in the forest there is a hidden cult, which still guards the heart of the artifact.
Current Votes Needed-Terrain: swamp, wetlands, and/or forest?
-Group of small isolated villages or a single larger village, possibly partially ruined?
-Active artifact that everyone knows about or an unknown one that is becoming active somehow?
1.)I say wetlands and forest; with maybe an added twist? perhaps due to the wet lands there is a constant fog or high chance of fog?
2.)I like the idea of 4 villages, that were once part of a large city or metropolis. Perhaps the old metropolis was closed off to keep whatever caused it's fall to not spread. Great Reason for adventures to sneak in through the old ruin walls to find lost treasures.
3.)If #2 is simmilar to how I voted, then the current people of the village should not know about this artifact, or recently discovered evidence to its existance. Possibly a reason to enter the ancient ruins...
I had envisioned the villages being about a days journey apart. Not sure if a ruined city would work for this, as that would be a vast city, but if the villages spread out after the city was destroyed, perhaps in search of resources, then that could work. Maybe each village is basically self supporting, but has a particular industry they are known for, which keeps them separate and unique...Particular grade of wool, maple syrup, apple brandy, salmon fishing, etc.
I think this could work too, just push the villages away from the ruins, and then the travelled pathes to the villages go around in a cirle, giving the ruined city a wise birth. It would take just under a week for a trade caravan to return home after visiting the other three cities.
Artifact: Perhaps this explains the destruction of the city. Perhaps something fell from the skys eons ago, and the constant experimenting, and testing caused it to explode destroying much of the city. The swampy and or haunted areas could be where shards of the stone landed...now inert...but rumors have it that deep in the forest there is a hidden cult, which still guards the heart of the artifact.
...and the cult could be recollecting these shards to rebuild it...
Things seem to have slowed down around here.
If I had my druthers, I'd go with an artifact created by the original city inhabitants which then destroyed them, rather than something falling from the sky. As somebody mentioned earlier, the Starstone is just too special to have it be the encore to something else.
I like the city 'falling from within' as well; could allow for quite an extended adventure too--surrounding wilderness, then closer to the ruins, just inside the city's walls, some sort of inner/capital district, the keep (or other central location for this artifact) and possibly dungeons or caverns underneath as well, in roughly that order.
What about some sort of organization - secular or sacred - dedicated to patroling the city wall border, keeping people out for their own safety. I'm thinking of the crazy kung-fu old guy from Stardust who stood around 24/7 keeping people from crossing the wall. They might have no more idea of why people need to be kept out than the average citizen, but they know danger lies within. Perhaps they believe (rightly or wrongly) that if somebody goes inside the ruins and returns, they'll bring disaster back with them.
The organization might also serve as local law enforcement.
What are we thinking this artifact should have been supposed to do? How about a necromantic fountain of youth device that was supposed to give the citizens good health and long life, but it went horribly wrong, maybe with a few original inhabitants in a sealed chamber, living for millenia off a spoon of sustenance and quite insane?
I am Legend mixed with IJ: the Last Crusade.
Too cliche?
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Current Votes Needed-Terrain: swamp, wetlands, and/or forest?
-Group of small isolated villages or a single larger village, possibly partially ruined?
-Active artifact that everyone knows about or an unknown one that is becoming active somehow?
Alright. Now that I'm done with all, and I mean ALL, of my loan paperwork for college....
- Terrain : I agree with Wetlands or Forest, as they can provide many different hazards that I have or haven't encountered before.
- Village: One or Many? I think Many with a central Ruins, as others have suggested. So, both - I'm in favor of either one, or both combined.
- Artifact: I think one that recently became active is appropriate - why else investigate it now rather than before? There has to a be a reason, if we're to eventually stumble upon it.
I'm really enjoying how this is turning out.
I'm going to bow out of this one.
I don't have as much time for this as I'd like so I'm stepping down for someone who can give themselves to this great concept for fully.
Thank you for having me.
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Alright, sorry to see you go and thanks for your contributions Sigz.
Welcome aboard Lost Soul.
So:
Several small villages (a good half-day or more from each other) that started out as outlying towns for a larger, now abandoned city?
An artifact in the ruined city, which is now becoming active again?
Alright, sorry to see you go and thanks for your contributions Sigz.
Welcome aboard Lost Soul.
So:
Several small villages (a good half-day or more from each other) that started out as outlying towns for a larger, now abandoned city?
An artifact in the ruined city, which is now becoming active again?
Sounds pretty good to me... I say make it a day and a half to the nearest village minimum. (personaly I like the circling the ancient town idea.) Was there a verdict on the swamp/wetlands/forest?
If it's a day and a half between villages, then isolated small keeps would crop up at the midway points to serve as stopovers for travelers and merchants, either operated by the law enforcement, what passes for the local military/militia, or a private operator, perhaps a retired adventurer or something like Oleg's from Kingmaker.
Perhaps instead of everybody weighing in piecemeal on all facets of this little corner of Golarion, how would people feel about doling out responsibilities for creation of discrete units, subject to DM Grim's final approval? There are seven of us: four of us could each take one of the villages (structure, histories, governments, major NPCs, etc.), somebody the local terrain and wilderness, somebody could flesh out ideas for inter-village affairs like a yearly market fair that rotates from village to village, and somebody could flesh out extra-village organizations, like outside peddlers and merchants or some sort of all-encompassing security or military force. We should leave the planning of the central city and artifact to DM Grim.
As for the four villages, there have been ideas of a magocracy, a theocracy, and a village council style. Perhaps we could have one of each, with the fourth village ruled by a benevolent retired adventurer, or perhaps a merchant's (or thieves') guild?
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A great idea, wish I'd spotted it sooner! Add me to the reserves list please!
I did a similar project some years ago where each participant was asked to flesh out five locations, there we ten of us involved so we ended up with a well fleshed out little village, Ulersthorpe, modeled around the Sandpoint template. So I'm curious as to how you plan to flesh out individual businesses, etc.
I love the direction you guys have taken so far, and personally I'd leave the monument accessible, perhaps something that the villagers have grown comfortable with and take for granted, but is still frightening in its own small way. Like the old creepy house in the neighborhood not scary during the day, but at night, or for children... The sort of thing youngsters might dare each other to touch, etc.
I'd also say that coming up with the basics of local legends is appropriate fairly early on in the process, as you want players to feel connected to them. Ideally you should be able to drop a little hint and have your players exchange glances and mouth "The Sandpoint Devil?!", or the like. Essentially pregame foreshadowing, with some nonsense thrown in, etc. Something vague, but defined enough to suggest interesting possibilities.
Example:
The Long Fingered Man:
Long ago when the village was still new a traveler passed through with his son and became too friendly with a local farmer's wife. The farmer caught the two together and a fight broke out, when the traveler's son tried to intervene the farmer struck him with his scythe and killed the boy. Scared of his crime being discovered the farmer struck the traveler and buried him in a hollow at the base of an old apple tree.
But the traveler was not dead, and the apple tree harbored a vengeful spirit of the old forest that hated the villagers for cutting back the great forest and somehow the spirit kept the traveler alive and changed him, joining with him. His skin grew course like bark, his features became twisted and gnarled, his eyes turned green and feral and his fingers stretched out into long covertous talons!
The farmer has three sons all of whom disappeared on the Longest Night leaving only the scent of apple blossoms. And each time the farmer found a new apple tree sprouting in his fields, and when he looked carefully at those trees he saw the faces of his boys twisted in terror!
And now the long fingered man comes for naughty little children throughout the village, especially those who disturb the spirits in the woods - or who don't do their chores!
Children's Rhyme
Don't do bad, be good if you can,
or you might meet the long fingered man!
Stay out of the woods, in their shadows don't play,
or the long fingered man will steal you away!
Apple blossoms, smell so sweet,
run, run quick, he wants your meat!
Apple blossoms smell so sweet,
if you don't want your own be quick on your feet!
My friends missing, don't know why,
but I hear screams when I eat apple pie!
My friends missing they tell me,
but I see his face in a new apple tree!
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If it's a day and a half between villages, then isolated small keeps would crop up at the midway points to serve as stopovers for travelers and merchants, either operated by the law enforcement, what passes for the local military/militia, or a private operator, perhaps a retired adventurer or something like Oleg's from Kingmaker.
Perhaps instead of everybody weighing in piecemeal on all facets of this little corner of Golarion, how would people feel about doling out responsibilities for creation of discrete units, subject to DM Grim's final approval? There are seven of us: four of us could each take one of the villages (structure, histories, governments, major NPCs, etc.), somebody the local terrain and wilderness, somebody could flesh out ideas for inter-village affairs like a yearly market fair that rotates from village to village, and somebody could flesh out extra-village organizations, like outside peddlers and merchants or some sort of all-encompassing security or military force. We should leave the planning of the central city and artifact to DM Grim.
As for the four villages, there have been ideas of a magocracy, a theocracy, and a village council style. Perhaps we could have one of each, with the fourth village ruled by a benevolent retired adventurer, or perhaps a merchant's (or thieves') guild?
Hmm, that's an excellent idea, since I think that we're in danger of getting bogged down right now. So lets try that out.
I will take the preferences stated so far and come up with a general location in an isolated part of Taldor.
Everyone involved: please create one of the small villages. Once a basic outline of the town is completed, post it and we'll integrate everything and iron out problems.
Rellen, you've been added to the list of replacement players/contributors. Also, I really like the Long Fingered Man. May have to steal him for my game at home, if you don't mind.
Personally I think small villages don't have enough population to support multiple forms of government. The leader of the City Councils could be a Mage, or a Priest, but I would think natural resources and farming would come before government...just my two cents. Also being in Taldor, I would think these villages were composed of people who were escaping from the yoke of Taldoran Politics. And did we decide on four villages. My feeling was for many throughout the region...maybe we only detail a few of them, but something about the area screams many small hamlets, each with some product to offer. I ready to go along with the group, so I'll wait to see what everybody else takes and take what's left.
In either case I'll take the small council run village...that way whatever we decide I'm doing the same thing ;-).
This village will be the small town of Goldleaf...tobac farming center of the region.
Whoops! I should read before I post. Rizzym beat me to the city council...unless we all go city council route. I'll wait to see the decision before proceeding
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Go right ahead, always happy for my ideas to be used.
At the risk of butting in I'll go ahead and propose a village.
Edgers Ford
This sleepy village sits next to the river Glint, a fast flowing narrow river in which gold is infrequently found. The Glint cascades into Gulper's Gulch, a dangerous and ravine rumored to be home to and then disappears beneath the ground into a narrow - just bigger than the river - hole known as the maw. Nobody has returned from within the maw, at least to the villagers knowledge, despite the inevitable rumors that the motherload lies within having been washed down for millenia.
Crude map showing rough geography
The majority of Edger's Fords economy is based upon gold panning from the river and Sheep Farming, the town is also famous for its stone carvers.
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Edgers Ford folk tend towards independence and irascibility, and as such there is no formal government in the village. In practice most decisions are made by vote in the village square run by either the Garrik Marn the Merchant - who buys the vast majority of the gold and runs a heavily guarded coach to the nearest city monthly - or Master Elmand the villages premier stone mason on the rare occasions he is not away on a commission.
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Population:
The populance is fairly unusual in that more than 50% are not families, but rather prospectors who have arrived over the years. A great many of these stay in the villages Flophouse and expeditions into the forest and Gulpers Gulch tend to keep their numbers well in hand. Many of these men have shady or down right dark pasts.
The remaining citizens are comprised of the Mason and Chipwell families stone masons almost to a man, the Marns a lesser branch of a well to do merchant family, and a number of less prominent families who run small businesses or the outlying farms.
I'm going to be fairly busy this weekend--everything is sounding great though, and I'll try to get a village up by Monday!
Meagher’s Grant, in many ways, is a village typical of many Taldane backwaters. Sitting to the east of the (Great Marsh) amidst thick, dark forests, it’s everyday folks make their living growing apples, pears, barley, and hops, and in brewing stout, mealy ales and hard ciders.
The village used to be reknown for its library, of all things, containing tomes and scrolls dating back millennia, though poor management and tracking of its resources has resulted in a rather pathetic remnant today. Rumours abound of secret chambers, hidden by magic, wherein a trove of valuable ancient books sits waiting to be discovered and introduced back into the world. Most folk view these tales as wishful boasting on the part of their wizarding ruling council and go about their business of farming and brewing.
Setting it further apart from the other hamlets in the area, Meagher’s Grant, for as long as anyone and any record can recall, has been ruled by a village council, all of whom are mages. Nobody knows why wizards and wizards alone are permitted to sit on the council or hold the mayoral office, but proof of magical abilities is part of the law and custom of the village and nobody would ever think to change it now. It is a source of some pride for the locals, knowing that their rulers are wise and educated mages. What they don’t know, is that no real wizard has actually sat on their ruling council for centuries – when the council needs to replace a member, someone is selected who is then taught various street magician parlour tricks which he or she uses to convince a gathering of the village that they are indeed a wizard. Because of this deception, Meagher’s Grant, unlike most other magocracies in the world, is a very unforgiving place for actual wizards. The Council does its best to run such folk out of town as quickly as possible, lest their fraud be uncovered.
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OK, let’s try to organize things here.
My votes are
1. Bogs & Forests. the terrain would look something like this mountain or hills, leading to forests, leading to bogs or marsh land, which runs into a river. My village Bogton (merchant rogues guild) will be on the river in the bog....more to come on Bogton
2. I think that the artifact is only known by some of the ruling council or guild heads in the different villages would be wise.
3. What should the population be in these different villages, what is our range? A small town might be better.
Settlement Type Population Range
Thorp Fewer than 20
Hamlet 21–60
Village 61–200
Small town 201–2,000
Large town 2,001–5,000
Small city 5,001–10,000
Large city 10,001–25,000
Metropolis More than 25,000
4. I definitely like the idea of having the ruins of either a large town or metropolis in the middle of all this. I would like to put forward that all the villages help to maintain the walls of the old ruins and they have a combined military force that patrols the area (as mentioned before). Maybe as of late there has been bickering on why they half to maintain the wall, or give military support. Having the PCs start out as a group helping either to maintain or guard the wall when plot hook A happens would be nice.
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Thorp______–4________1_____–10_______50 gp_________500 gp_______1st
Hamlet_____–2________1______–5______200 gp_______1,000 gp_______2nd
Village____–1________2_______0______500 gp_______2,500 gp_______3rd
Small town__0________2_______0____1,000 gp_______5,000 gp_______4th
Large town__0________3_______5____2,000 gp______10,000 gp_______5th
Small city_+1________4_______5____4,000 gp______25,000 gp_______6th
Large city_+2________5______10____8,000 gp______50,000 gp_______7th
Metropolis_+4________6______10___16,000 gp_____100,000 gp_______8th
Been really busy for a bit but I love seeing how well this has exploded into. Ithink the idea of being assigned to guard the wall creates a great opportunity for character backgrounds.
The child of a guardsman taking up the role, a convict sent to the wall to serve his time. The need to have the wall monitored and protected would definitely affect law enforcement. Damaging the wall would be considered a grave crime.
I like the idea of bogs and forests as well. Something that starts natural and becomes darker and more ominious as one progresses.
Been really busy for a bit but I love seeing how well this has exploded into. Ithink the idea of being assigned to guard the wall creates a great opportunity for character backgrounds.
The child of a guardsman taking up the role, a convict sent to the wall to serve his time. The need to have the wall monitored and protected would definitely affect law enforcement. Damaging the wall would be considered a grave crime.
I like the idea of bogs and forests as well. Something that starts natural and becomes darker and more ominious as one progresses.
And people who could affect repairs on the wall would be well-regarded. There would probably be a higher percentage of stone masons in these villages than normal villages would expect.
Not fully fleshed out, but some thoughts...
The northernmost town is primarily the home of hunters and woodsmen; its population is highly variable, spiking in the winter. Due to this constant flux, the community doesn't have a government so much as several unofficial leaders who are referred to when necessary, occasionally leading to conflicts when said leaders disagree. The townsfolk are good-natured though, and such disagreements rarely cause more than a friendly barfight or two.
The town contributes various products produced from the hides, bones, and lumber harvested through the year to the area economy, being especially well-known for their family of skilled bowyers.
Don't think we really settled on anything...I'd think larger village or smallish small town is probably the right range. Can vary a bit by town too--for example, my proposed hunting/lumber town is probably on the smaller side.
Some regions would also have a seasonal population shift.
This still happening? If not let me know when it starts back up!
+1 This was going fairly well...if it doesn't go anywhere, I may lift some of it for my own use!