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A lot of people seem to feel Saventh-Yhi is much to underdeveloped, so let's develop it together.
Let's flesh out all the buildings that stand out on the map but have no description.
Significant structures on the map like:
- White stairs with round plaza west of Area D
- 3 waterways with 8 square buildings between D and E
- 4 three-story ziggurats at the shore of E
- Row of square buildings blocking the road to Spear E
- Ruin on island south of E
- Plaza soutwest of J1
- Dam northwest of M
- Two-story ziggurat in G (copy-paste building from K4) + tower south of it
- Row of 4 square buildings between G and D
- Buildings on the island south of F2
- The towers(?) on the F Islands
- Buildings northeast of F3/F4
Round gray plaza with thing in the middle east of D3:
Aveshai's memorial
A large plaza paved with gray granite, the stones are cracked and withered but seem to once have been smooth and polished. Monoliths from the same stone surround the place.
In the middle of the plaza stands a tall pedestal decorated with bas-reliefs depicting battles between human and serpentfolk armies. On top of the pedestal stands a large marble statue of a cyclop. The giant holds a huge sword in his hands and stares vigilant into the jungle to the east.
A row of square towers to the northeast of the plaza form the city border.
Good idea. While I'm brainstorming on this, I'll mention that what the campaign (and this city especially) is missing is the pulp-theme that tried to inspire this module. Indiana Jones.
So I'm trying to figure out some series of linked areas that all give the PCs a piece of a phrase to translate, and getting all (or most) of them is nessecary to find then open a sealed door somewhere. Maybe this gimmic will replace the Juliver thing. (As it's a total bummer to learn that she & Eando got there first.)
I don't want to put "haunts" into Saventh-Yhi per se, but I want there to be some sort of location-based supernatural mojo for the PCs to experience. Perhaps a stationary artifact, perhaps a vortex of soul energy...
Alternatively, I could just put a giant rolling boulder somewhere. :-D
So I'm trying to figure out some series of linked areas that all give the PCs a piece of a phrase to translate, and getting all (or most) of them is nessecary to find then open a sealed door somewhere. Maybe this gimmic will replace the Juliver thing. (As it's a total bummer to learn that she & Eando got there first.)
Perhaps the door to the Vault of the Boday Thief is sealed and needs a phrase to open? This would prevent the players from entering it before the Gorilla King arrives.
Perhaps the door to the Vault of the Boday Thief is sealed and needs a phrase to open? This would prevent the players from entering it before the Gorilla King arrives.
So I'm trying to figure out some series of linked areas that all give the PCs a piece of a phrase to translate, and getting all (or most) of them is nessecary to find then open a sealed door somewhere. Maybe this gimmic will replace the Juliver thing. (As it's a total bummer to learn that she & Eando got there first.)
First thing I told my players (they are preparing PC's at the moment) is that I ban "comprehend languages" for SeSk - translation has to be done the hard way
Man, don't start this thread NOW! I'm delivering my master thesis in a month, then I'm devoting my free time to fleshing out Serpent's Skull for the summer (my group will be done with Racing to Ruin around the middle of June). By the time I can pitch in, this thread is probably dead.
My ideas: I wanted to throw in a couple of memorable monster lairs or trapped locations with some fancy loot to have "one-shot pauses" and think about some ways the factions can interact with the tribes to create intrigues and opportunities for diplomacy. I was also thinking about having some "backup chieftains" who can take control if the original leader dies, since I think it would be lame if the entire tribe just rolls over if the PCs kill their boss.
On translation: We have an archivist bard with high int, I had to go with the "yes this is Aklo/Azlanti, but it's an old dialect, so you have to use some time deciphering it"-method for Smuggler's Shiv. However, I guess his Knowledge and Linguistics is gonna be through the roof by lvl 7, so I'm going for only giving them pieces of the story instead of having translation be the bottleneck. That way they won't get the whole story right away, but can discover pieces as the adventure unfolds.
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I made some changes to the Demographics of the city.
First, I replaced the Trogs with a tribe of Lizardfolk. Most of the tribe is Neutral, but they are ruled by a caste of NE Warrior/Priests of the Red Mantis God. This way the PCs can 'liberate' the Lizardfolk from their evil overmasters. It also gives them another non-evil faction in the city to ally with.
Second, I replaced the Degenerate Serpentfolk with Werecrocodiles. This way the PCs do not get tired of Serpentfolk. Besides, I like the idea of Werecrocs.
I can post stats for these new tribes, when I get home.
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Factions:
1. Sargava Govt - My plan is to have them siege the War District. Their 'Army' is made up of 50 Level 4 Phalanx Fighters, 25 Level 4 Crossbowmen Fighter, 15 Fighter 1/Expert 3 'Siege Engineers' and 10 Level 4 Clerics of Adbar. I figure, they will be getting reinforcements to keep their numbers constant.
This should keep the charau-ka occupied. I figure forays into this zone will be like entering a war-zone with random artillery fire and skirmishes between the Government troops and charau-ka breaking out.
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Our group has gotten BORED here too.
I also made the military district a war zone, but have the trogs and the charau-ka vying for power and control of the entire city (with the Gorilla king as the main force behind all the charau-ka)
I have the human tribe basically as "refugees" hiding out the war.
Our group has basically defeated everything but the Gorilla king and His "men".
It has taken forever, as this place was incredibly boring.
The giant bat was a particularly memorable encounter.
I made some changes to the Demographics of the city.
First, I replaced the Trogs with a tribe of Lizardfolk. Most of the tribe is Neutral, but they are ruled by a caste of NE Warrior/Priests of the Red Mantis God. This way the PCs can 'liberate' the Lizardfolk from their evil overmasters. It also gives them another non-evil faction in the city to ally with.
Second, I replaced the Degenerate Serpentfolk with Werecrocodiles. This way the PCs do not get tired of Serpentfolk. Besides, I like the idea of Werecrocs.
I can post stats for these new tribes, when I get home.
great idea, I will steal this !
I am thinking of changing out some of the challenges to gain control of a section of the city.
Rather than being sent to eliminate a certain creature(s), they are sent to retrieve an item, which has Indiana Jones style defenses. And, along the way, if they happen to eliminate those creatures, the leader that sent them on their quest is even happier.
Some leaders, rather than needing to be eliminated, could be intimidated by how well the PCs succeed, allowing for the possibility of gain the fearful cooperation of the leader and their section. This could also lead to some interesting RPing if/when another group tries to gain control.
And even those that have no intention of cooperating, and who cannot be "frightened" into cooperation, will send the PCs on quests, to further their own aims. Depending on the situation, they may "reluctantly" decline, dismissively and/or condescendingly decline, or try to take out the PCs.
We're on book 2, but naturally as GM I'm looking ahead and I'm wondering if maybe you put in capture points that are critical for defending and exerting influence over territory. I was looking at possibly adjusting the tribal totems by adding an offensive component to them. Say the ability to call down lightening, blast fire, throw boulders or something. Sort of treating them like machine gun bunkers with the Tribes using them to defend/control a bit of territory with a smaller size force.
So PCs might aim to capture them and in doing so cut off a tribes power/defenses. Rather than having to go out like genocidal maniacs they've got a strategic capture point. I've got a rogue and the guys have adopted Ishirou so maybe I could set up an infiltration/assassination quest.
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the main thing i did to help was i totally played up the radiant muse's insanity. an example: she would only listen to the party unless they were also acting out scenes from various plays and musicals she has written over the centuries (actually plagerized from original residents of saventh-yhi, i have some old books of shakespeare from my college days, musical scripts i got from my mom).
i also recommend using the traps from the support article in vaults of madness, i especially liked the dragging hook and the pendulous stairs.
i also used lurkers from misfit monsters redeemed and i put a wolf-in-sheep's-clothing in the residential district.
i used fungus leshys from kingmaker pt4 (blood for blood) as experiments by egzimora that didn't turn out how she wanted so she set em free (i used giant and advanced templates).
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the main thing i did to help was i totally played up the radiant muse's insanity. an example: she would only listen to the party unless they were also acting out scenes from various plays and musicals she has written over the centuries
That's a great idea! My players LOVE insane characters, their current favorites are Dog's Tongue (remembered fondly) and Pezock. They enjoyed fighting the cannibals mostly because they are crazy savages. I dunno what that says about my rendering of insane characters or their playstyle, but it makes me want to play up some of the "nuttyness" of some of the NPCs in later adventures (I'm imagining the head priest of the Muse to be pretty nutty too, just look at that picture). I'm currently looking forward to the snake god-woshipping monkey-man in adventure 2 (just hope they don't kill him instantly).
Maybe steal some stuff from the Lizard King in Rivers Run Red to use as a lizard men tribe in Saventh Yhi? Maybe they have been infiltrated by an agent of the Aboleth?
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i also based the boggard chieftain on llurr from omicron persei 8 from futurama, the rest of the boggards are also based on the omicronians
the main thing i did to help was i totally played up the radiant muse's insanity. an example: she would only listen to the party unless they were also acting out scenes from various plays and musicals she has written over the centuriesThat's a great idea! My players LOVE insane characters, their current favorites are Dog's Tongue (remembered fondly) and Pezock. They enjoyed fighting the cannibals mostly because they are crazy savages. I dunno what that says about my rendering of insane characters or their playstyle, but it makes me want to play up some of the "nuttyness" of some of the NPCs in later adventures (I'm imagining the head priest of the Muse to be pretty nutty too, just look at that picture). I'm currently looking forward to the snake god-woshipping monkey-man in adventure 2 (just hope they don't kill him instantly).
Maybe steal some stuff from the Lizard King in Rivers Run Red to use as a lizard men tribe in Saventh Yhi? Maybe they have been infiltrated by an agent of the Aboleth?
Wait who is Dog's tounge?
The savages all being raging barbarians was insane! IF It wasn't for judicious use of entangle and lots of ranged weapons, and the fact we set every hut in the camp on fire, that would have easily been a TPK.
Pezcock got ignored with our group, big crab tank thing, left it alone.
No one apparently cared about the radiant muse being insane either. It was kinda funny, the party had just "come to expect it", this place is so crazy it's no wonder she's insane!
They actually thought the druid chieftain was insane. I played the Tribe of the sacred serpent like natives from Indiana Jones, so I guess they thought everyone was insane.
No one could act or perform for a monkey's uncle so they had to go do a quest (or three) to amuse her.
This party has jumped and killed everyone so far. I was really surprised this didn't degenerate into a fight, I kinda wanted to use the muse in battle. (of course the main "i kill it" guy is back in college right now so his PC is a GMNPC right now)
The Fungus covered ziggurat and the part with the vegepygmies was just boring, and the part with the verdant sorceress seemed, well under developed.
So I combined the two areas and had the pygmies working for the sorceress, I turned the russet mold fungus into a giant semi active tree that had grown over the ziggurat.
The areas or "limbs" of encounters would move/sway (the sorceress could control them) so it was like adventuring/fighting on an escalator where someone else was controlling the up and down.
So during fights, enemies would get closer or farther away without the PCs or anyone else using their moves.
One of the PCs described it like fighting on a landslide.
So terrain was really difficult and some players resorted to jumping instead of climbing or trying to move normally and the ronin with his heavy armor was really reduced to using his bow. (nothing wanted to get near him and his katana)
I used rough assassin vine stats for the tree attacking the PCs directly.
This way it made getting rid of the "russet mold" more interactive than blasting spells at it to kill it off.
Took several days of adventuring to clear it and made of an interesting 'outdoor dungeon'
Made their terrain an enemy too and it was very challenging. I think everyone so far enjoyed that the most.
I wish I had statted up the sorceress completely differently, she was a very challenging BBEG on her own, and it seemed she was more apt for combat than had any good spells to cast, of all the things that were there I had left her alone and just dropped her into the custom encounter, and as a result, she wasnt particularly challenging or memorable.
I had made the Vrykolkas (I can never spell that) her right hand man,as they had 'teamed' up. and Threw in some undead spawn that had been former sacred serpent tribal members to beef up the mooks.
As a result the weirdo vampire guy was way more of a memorable bad guy for them.
Depending on your party, I guess I would tweak that hag some.
Combining those areas freed up a district so I added in that gorilla king already being there and laying claim to city districts and the charau-ka in the military district being under his control in addition to the "vacated" district.
My group wasn't really getting the whole "spear of this or that" theme so I have a witch and a cleric dehrri (winged gorillas) that know something about the spears and have activated the two that the Gorilla King controls.
I also thought it was weird that "everyone" in the district of an activated spear get's the effects of the spear (which just seemed pointless) so I changed it to anyone who has spent 24 hours in the district gets the effects of an activated spear, so, as a result, the charau-ka are very aggressive i repelling invaders into their controlled districts. I'm trying to use this as a vehicle to draw interest to the spears. So far it's really a focus on let's get rid of everyone out my sandbox, and Ill play with the toys later, kind of thing.
It's really hard to make the toys interesting because there isn't enough written about them.
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Another idea, I was thinking of changing the Half-Orc Ghost to be a Human Ghost who died when Saventh-Yhi fell. Edit: The Ghost was a human sacrifice by the cities population as it went mad right before Earthfall from the spores. They butchered the body and scatter the bones as protection from the coming disaster. Only by finding and burying his scattered bones can he finally be put to rest.
I was also thinking of throwing in random, 'haunts' showing life 10,000 years ago within the city. Maybe have them scripted to follow the fall of the city, ala System Shock 2.
ya, i hated the ghost of previous adventurer. That just stinks. The long lost city, no one could find, it was hidden by powerful ancient magics but some doofus stumbled in on his own 'by accident'.
I just skipped the whole thing.
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This is an awesome thread, stealing most of this.
I plan to tweak the madness spores to tie it into the first book, by changing the plot to it being preparations by a sleeper agent for the exiled Zura cultists. The doom foretold all a cover to put the tomes in place as day housing for when the zurites convert the population to vampirism. The spores were sabotage in prep for the zurite coup, undead vampires being immune.
Remohs beat me to posting the system shock 2 haunt idea.
Also cribbing the idea of making the test of strength vs the son of the gorilla king, from another thread, with it all being the GKs using the PCs to rid him of his popular son who's become a rival
Also, same as the ghost, also altering the whole missing pathfinder plot to make them just pathfinders kidnaped by the serpents rather than stealing the PCs thunder by having done it all first.
Also keeping Yazoth alive from book one and making her the boss villain to tie all the books together, making all the later serpentfolk encounters tied to her parallel quest to find the skull and raise yderseus, rather than having everything be coincidental and unrelated
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There was (IMO) alot of stall in the 3rd book, I added a Spear of seven parts, each part had corresponding powers to the district it was found in, and when connected formed a monstrous humanoid bane spear.
It was like bread crumbs, kept the players looking for the next part etc etc, and I Had runes on each piece that tell a apart of the back story (kinda like egyptian hieroglpyhs) to get information and story line to the players that seems to be , well, missing a way to get to them.
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I think adding in "lights" like the ones in Ilmurea would be fantastic. It would give the city a very-much-needed futuristic feel.
Essentially, Ilmurea is made of serpentstone, which can be "programmed" to light up at specific times, under specific conditions, etcetera. Essentially, the stone glows in patterns. Filling Saventh-Yhi with this stone would make it feel more futuristic and wonderous than it just being a loose collection of destroyed houses. Tie these in to numerous powerful magical spells that still linger, and you could have some fun.
For instance, when first entering the military district, the walls may light up if the PCs are openly carrying weapons. When entering the mercantile district in the early morning, the shops may all have bright and colorful lights that illuminate the signs of each shop. There may even be lighted pathways leading to specific parts of the city, such as banks, government offices, etcetera. Parts of roads may be lit up to denote "do not cross" during specific times, akin to a modern-day traffic light, controlling the influx of foot traffic in the city. The path the farmers take from the agricultural district to market may be lit up one way during the morning and another at night. More importantly, each spear could glow brightly during it's respective day of the week, and finally, to give a sense of wonderment, the entire city could glow a dim green or blue until around 10pm after sundown, in which the city slowly dims into darkness in many places to signal that curfew is up. And then, hours before dawn, the city begins to light itself again.
It could be interesting. Add in the people who live there, and it definitely is. The human tribe could have massive murals and paintings incorporating the glowing of the stone, such as bright circular lights denoting eyes, or massive splashes of color denoting water, lava, the sky, grass, etcetera. The charau-ka and boggards would avoid places that lit up in colors unfavorable to them while creating dark churches out of places that glow vibrantly red or black, the colors of their gods. The troglodytes and serpentfolk may use these lights as signals to mount defenses, such as the bridges slowly coming alight as someone crosses them, or parts of the temple district glowing as their churches are "filled" by the exploring PCs. Animals could flock to or away from the lights as well-- maybe the Chimaera's nest is in a building that, now that it is crumbling, only glows green, which soothes it? And, of course, the separate districts could communicate crudely through these lights, making alliances, declarations of war, etcetera.
It could add some flavor.
About to start books 2 and I'm wondering if theres something/s I could be doing to set up book 3 better? Based on some comments in this thread and others I'm thinking of slipping in some serpentfolk spies in the expedition and may have them do a bit of sabotage work.
But are there any other little touches that could be done?
About to start books 2 and I'm wondering if theres something/s I could be doing to set up book 3 better? Based on some comments in this thread and others I'm thinking of slipping in some serpentfolk spies in the expedition and may have them do a bit of sabotage work.
But are there any other little touches that could be done?
well if you want to go that route, there is something like servants of the coil, or something like that, which are serpent folk that hide/disguise themselves as people.
But how would the serpent folk know about the expeditions?
maybe the one on the shiv had an accomplice or some coils waiting for her in elder, and when she didn't show, they some how got wind of the PCs and the other expeditions??
My group really bonded with the NPC castaways and shared everything with them. I also used the pregen characters for the guys to save (2 lived) so theres them too. Add to that the bard has a Wisdom of 4 and tends to blurt everything and anything out. Gotta love the bard...
The group has spent 8 days deciphering the notes and locating Tazion so in that time someone could have leaked something. Plus thats plenty of time for news to get out about the Shiv being cleared for others to go explore the island. From reading through the forums I've decided that Yarzoth (Ieana) will come back into the fold and thats how I'll justify it.
I like the idea about the Servants of the Coil (wiki calls it: Coils of Ydersius) and will probably have a few pop up in the expedition and the rival camps. My group are still doing negotiations with the different factions and are currently trying to form a coalition expedition with the Pathfinders and Sargavan govt. So there could be agents undercover in those two factions. I could see spies being in those two factions as the Pathfinders would get a lot of news and info from adventuring groups and they do explore ancient ruins so it makes sense to me that they'd have someone in there. And naturally spies in the government makes sense as the government is involved across the region.
I might have them behind the riots in an attempt to delay the PCs expedition until their investigation team can get back from the Shiv. Cheers for that Pendagast.
I plan to have Yazoth survive and become the major villain, questing to reach Ilmuria parallel and one step ahead to the PCs. I'm making all the later serpent folk encoutners all connected to her in one way or another to tie it all together, and just rename the final boss to be her. It's a pretty simple fix, really, just teaking the fluff a little.
Even if she doesn't survive Book I, you can say she successfully used a scroll of Sending to notify her people prior to the PCs reaching her. Coils agents thereafter recovered her & rezzed her to get the details, and she's back in the game.
I'm curious to how people have gone with their recreation of Saventh-Yhi?
Whats worked and what hasn't worked?
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a couple things i'm working on for second go at serpent's skull, i'm planning on referencing the argental font on smuggler's shiv (more of a pirate/treasure hunter group then save the world group).
one thing that worked was i created a hag druidess with a small army of fungus leshys locked in power struggle with the vegepygmies, i also played up the gloom and oppressiveness of the residential district.
one thing i want to do with this go around is replace the gibbering mouthers in the trader bowl, if anyone has a suggestion that'd be great.
i replaced the aboleth with a wily inkanyamba ( i wasn't a fan of the aboleth in the first place and this gave it more of a jungle feel then a "how the *#!# did an aboleth get to a lost city in the interior of a jungle" feel). ugimmo i made a bit deranged and high on blue dragon flies, hence his running away from the tribe at the behest of his "god" (really a really powerful hallucination).
i'm also ramping up the treasure, i was rather disappointed in that regard with this ap. it seems kingmaker had way more treasure then serpent's skull (probably just perception, a lost city is supposed to have a good amount of treasure)
I'm done with my thesis now, and spending a whole lot of time fiddling with Saventh-Yhi. So far my ideas have been mostly cosmetic (thinking about how to RP the tribe-NPCs and how to "sell" the different tribes to my PCs), but I've also written some basic "fleshed out random encounters". I'll post some of it soon.
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My players started City of Seven Spears last week. They decided to set their campsite up on Uggimo's island in the government district.
Now last session, they defeated Uggimo and made their first foray into the serpentfolk controlled section of the district. They will undoubtedly run into the Rakshasa soon. Reading up on the Rakshasa, it seems like his plans and the detail in general leave something to be desired.
To flesh out his plan a bit and make it fit an intensely clever narcissistic hedonist, I decided to flesh out his strategy a bit.
If he notices the PCs approach (which is just about certain if they get in a tussle with serpentfolk), he will become invisible and observe the PCs. When he is ready, he will pick out a PC to target for his pleasure, assume the form of an attractive tribesman of the opposite gender, and attempt to lure them in by pretending to be a prisoner of the serpentfolk they have just slain.
(As a side note, I changed the overpowering scent to a subtle one... curious PCs who make a perception check might find some bodies stashed in a distant corner of the dome, perhaps being a clue to Akarundo's true nature)
If they party tried to get him to leave, he will make up a fictional serpentfolk priest whose magic holds him thrall, implying some geas like effect. He will try to get the PCs to bed down for the night, saying he can keep them safe in the dome. He will try to lure an attractive character or a Lothario into a tryst for the evening.
Sometime during the night (especially if the above fails), he will try to use message, suggestion, and silence to lure away a second character, and assume a different form, pretending to be another figure (say, a tribseman related to the first) and attempt to have a good time with the second character.
Eventually, he will tire of the PCs or they will see through his ruse. He will sneak away if possible, and get the serpentfolk to come visit, possibly using illusion spells to create the sounds of one of the supposed identities being abducted by serpentfolk.
Then he'll make a grand play of having the serpentfolk bear up his alter-ego onto the ziggurat, possibly having earlier intimated that sacrifice is in the offing. If the players decide they need to execute a daring rescue, so much the better.
Of course, at some point this will likely all seem too odd for the PCs. When that happens, Akarundo will likely shed his disguise and blast them.
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Finished part 2 last week and am now planning/prepping past 3. I will be taking advice on other posts and prepping part 4 at the same time.
I think I'm going to use it as a template and change a lot of the areas. I'm getting rid of the monkey men and using the north area as a stronghold for Lizard men and Kobolds who have taken over that portion of the city. They have turned to worship the serpentfolk and sacrifice slaves to them in the centre area. I have changed Kline and he is now a Dwaf Clan chief of one of my pc's who has been captured (backstory for the pc here). This makes the whole idea of the pc's finding both cities first valid.
the Pc's will enter from the south not the north and are bascially tracking the dwarf along with finding the city (this gives the pcs more reason to explore the city). This also means that the north and the stronghold of the lizardmen/kobolds will be tackled last if possible. I will leave the Boggard swamp area as it seems OK but the Temple district I'm changing to include undead and some haunts, traps etc. The Mantis blade will be here in a temple to the mantis god prob in the zigguarte here with mantis guards , traps etc. thinking of adding a human from the muse area here in need of rescue which will help with getting to that area. Also no Aboleth seems too weird to me.
The muse area im using as the pc's link to find out where the dwarf has gone as humans here have been captured by lizardmen for sacrifices, they suggests asking the vegepygmes for help in the rescue.
Not quite sure how to do it all but the Lizardmen area will have a few dino's and might even have the plaza area near the ziggurate as a gladiator area, maybe. Havnt quite got it yet but the premise is there so far..will be pretty pulpy if I can do it kind of Doug Mclure/lost world type with Indy elements along the way
A lot of re-working but I think it will be better, also the pc's are on there own, no expedition, they went there own way so I don't have any factions to worry about other than the villans who are tracking them (the aspis who have been hired by the Baron of Saragava as the pcs decided they would hire a hit man on him in the city earlier as I made him a very despicable colonail plantiation type owner, the hit didn't work).
My AP has taken a very interesting different turn and the pc's are really challenging me, which is great :)
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So, in the stickied thread about City of Seven Spears, someone asked me how I customized my adventure and population statistics. I still don't have too much time to go into that, but I already had my population statistics done before now, so I'll post those here.
I don't say where anything is in the city for the most part.
[these] mean the noted thing is already included, (this) is usually just to set something apart or put a personal note, {this} is to clarify what I'm talking about, and <these> are used when I'm giving sub-groups of larger numbers, usually used like so: <x10>.
I completely made up the names of the vampires under undead, except, of course, for G'bala. The dire tiger zombies don't technically have any template except the "fast" template, but I beefed them up. Several creatures aren't noted as existing in Savinth-Yhi (more standard undead and jungle creatures), but I added them anyway for making the whole city more rounded. I mostly don't note where creatures are stationed here, unless I'm talking in broad terms like a district. This is missing a few unique creatures.
As I'm running off of home-game info, and attempting to translate it into generic-game-info, a few numbers might be slightly off (both from the book and in my computations). I've tried to correct the computations to make sure they work out (such that the total number of undead is actually the total number of undead, for example), but I might not have corrected everything.
Corpsespun: 5 [1 dire crocodile and 4 boggards]
Ghast: 13 [Sozothala and twelve others of his creation]
Ghost: 84
** Basic (8) [four Pharsman clerics]
** Ombombo (76)
Heuceva: 3
Mummies: 272
Rawbones: 2
Shadows: 558
Specters: 4
Tikoloshe: 108
Vampires: 12 (all members of the vampire cult of Zura long ago)
** Basic [Ekyona, representative of Rest (that is, he was the head of the Residential District, and currently resides sealed in a deep, hidden crypt below Egzimora's manor... which was once his); Poltis (persuasive)]
** Savage [Shokula, Ignat (savage)]
** Shadow [Mistus, Oratu (swarmform)]
** Terkow [G’bala <vault>, Potan]
** Terror [Dochyan, Fectice (psychic)]
** Vrykolakus [Vryk, nameless (moonbane)]
Wights: 556
Zombie (juju): 13
Mindless: 150
** revived fossil <x1> [kongamato {dragon}]
** skeleton (electrical, frost, nimble) <x82>
** zombie (bloodthirsty, fast, hunting, unkillable templates) <x67> [3 dire tigers]
In our game, all five factions were hammered into a singular entity by very powerful magic, skilled diplomacy, and rather impressive chicanery. Some folks were brought back from the dead, and others were brought in. This will explain the existence of anomalies like the Aspis Consortium or Red Mantis twice (the PC-consortium is in competition with Aspis Consortium, but they are both basically the same thing, for numbers) - the faction forces listed here are all more-or-less allied with the PCs (who also created a schism between the Red Mantis) as opposed to the ones below.
Consortium (143 + Leadership) <Dargan Etters, Edren Lekadnus, Brigga>
Pathfinders (67 + Leadership) <Aumivor Glaur, Gelik, {+3 unique to game}>
Pirates (89 + Leadership) <Kassata, {+1 unique to game}> {one other leader and 120 others not in city, plying the sea}
Red Mantis (12 + Leadership) <Chivane> {55 others in Riverman’s Guild}
Sargava (127 + Leadership + 50 Ivory Cross) <General Rotilius>
Residential District (272)
* Vegepygmies (270 + Kliboolya)
* Hag (1) [Egzimora]
Farming District (432)
* Nisps (3) and Piranha Swarms (2 swarms; roughly 200; N/A)
* Boggards (356 + 29 {sub-chiefs} + Garluu {chief} + Umagu {oracle} = total 397)
* Outsider (1) [name forgotten]
* Green God (1)
* Umasi (30)
Religious District (323)
* Red Mantis (237 + 82 {acolytes} + Lessikal)
* Camulatz (1)
* Jungle Mantises (3)
Artisans District (275)
* Tribe of the Sacred Serpent (268 + Ossand)
* Radiant Muse (1)
** Sacred Basilisks (6)
Government District (113)
* Outsiders (8)[Akarundo, Kalid-Shah, 6 ooze mephits {2 advanced}]
* Degenerate Serpentfolk (105)
Military District (868)
* Charau-Ka (492) and Dire Apes (370)
* Girallon (5) [including Olijumi]
* Outsider (1) [name forgotten]
Economic District (18+some not noted here, such as the giant bat)
* Keches (18)
This is the list of the opposing forces, but it introduces new factions that are unique to my home game. I fully expect no one else to use them, but they're here nonetheless. The Darklight Sisterhood is here in order to claim things for Cheliax in opposition to the Pathfinders. The Mzali got wind of a major caravan headed somewhere important and, through spies, learned of the plot, and so are here to gain whatever they can for their Child God. The Cult of the Old ones is here to learn if any information can be gained to create a second age of darkness (and they'll be delighted to discover the spores). Both the Aspis and the Red Mantis are the results of schisms that appeared in our game created by the PCs through various means. The Aspis below are run by the local guy mentioned in the Sargava supplement, while the Red Mantis are led by a woman who calls herself Crimson Rain (in our game). Each other the others are completely arbitrary and, I figured, had no real place here.
Ugol’otha, and 4 Gibbering Mouthers
THE GORILLA KING (in the Economic District) [7 thousand]
* Three thousand charau-ka
* One thousand, five hundred girallons
** Nine hundred base girallons
** Five hundred [SPECIAL] girallons
** One hundred [SPECIAL] girallons [WITH WINGS]
* Two hundred awakened chimpanzees
* Two hundred dire apes
* One hundred [INSERT WHATEVER IS APPROPRIATE FOR YOU]
* Two thousand human slaves
THE ASPIS CONSORTIUM (in the Economic District) [142]
Leader: DEFINE AS NEEDED FOR YOUR GAME
Aspis Mercenaries (34)
Aspis Legionaries (47) [5th level fighter <x1>, 3rd level barbarians <x2>]
* [2nd level rangers <x4>, 1st level rogues <x40>]
Warehouse Workers (60) [guards 2nd level warriors <x8>]
* [research crew 2nd level experts <x8>]
* [work detail 2nd level commoners <x44>]
THE MZALI (in the military district) [90]
Leader: DEFINE AS NEEDED FOR YOUR GAME
Heretic Hunters (24)
* [4th level ranger <x24>, 3rd level ranger <x1>, 2nd level ranger <x2>]
* [1st level ranger <x40>]
Sacred Workers (50) [awakened zombies (1st level commoners)]
Honor Guard (15) [plague zombies <x5>, flame skeletons <x4>, wights <x3>]
* [mummy <x1>]
THE CULT OF THE OLD ONES (in the military district) [92]
Leader: DEFINE AS NEEDED FOR YOUR GAME
Doom Prophets (24) [all 4th level: clerics, oracles, sorcerers, wizards <x6 each>]
Cell (29) [5th level wizard <x1> {“right hand”}]
* [3rd level sorcerers <x7> {“left hands”}]
* [8th level [3rd oracle 3rd sorcerer 2nd mystic theurge] <x1> {“tentacle”}]
* [2nd level rogues <x20> {“grubs”}]
Cultists (23) [all adepts: 3rd level <x1>, 2nd level <x2>, 1st level <x20>]
Sacred Ones (15) [dark naga <x1>, ooze mephitis <x2>, chockers <x5>]
* [ettercaps <x4>, spider swarms <x3>]
THE DARKLIGHT SISTERHOOD (in the military district) [150]
Leader: DEFINE AS NEEDED FOR YOUR GAME
Darklight Sisters (40)
* [4 each 1st level clerics (Asmodeus), fighters, rangers, wizards = 20]
* [2 each 2nd level clerics (Asmodeus), fighters, rangers, wizards = 10]
* [1 each 3rd level clerics (Asmodeus), fighters, rangers, wizards = 5]
* [1 each 6th level clerics (Asmodeus), fighters, rangers, wizards = 5]
Chelaxian Hellknights (24) [4th level fighters]
Command (70)
* [1st level commoners <x50>; 1st level experts <x10>, 1st level warriors <x10>]
Legions of Hell (15)
[Barbazu (“bearded devil”) <x1>, Imps <x2>, Lemurs <x5>]
[Kytons <x4>, Hellhounds <x3>]
THE RED MANTIS (affiliated with Ilmazgorti island, not the PC) [85]
Leader: DEFINE AS NEEDED FOR YOUR GAME
Red Mantis Assassins (6) [10th level {2 fighter 3 rogue 5 red mantis assassin}]
Shadow Strikers (15) [6th level {5th level rogue, 1st level assassins}]
Red Mantis Priests (24) [4th level clerics]
Rogues (46) [5th level <x2>, 4th level <x4>, 3rd level <x5>, 2nd level <x6>, 1st level <x29>]
Death Squad (10) [1st level warriors]
Finally, the random encounter stuff.
An important note on animals: there are over 10,000 animals in the local environs (including birds, fish, frogs, and insects of all kinds, to name but a few) not accounted for here in order to help with the food chains due to low-to-non-existant CR - what's listed below is either on the random encounter chart for Savinth-Yhi in both books, or the random encounter chart for the Screaming Jungle (which I figured was close enough for these purposes); whatever is missing is, from what I can tell, unique and should be mostly accounted for elsewhere.
Aberrations
** Gibbering Mouther: 273
** Froghemoth: 57 <I'm not too sold on this, but as you can have random encounters with the things in adventure 4, I figured that the Green God was an advanced one, and the rest were just "normal" ones, mostly in the center lake>
Animals
** Ankylosaurus: 805
** Bat Swarms: 881 swarms <roughly 300 bats per swarm>
** Boar: 870
** Brachiosaurus: 207
** Crocodile: 866
** Dire Ape: 484
** Dire Bat: 286
** Dire Tiger: 64
** Deinonychus: 806
** Gorillas: 856
** Leopards: 882
** Lizards (giant, frilled): 378
** Mega-Piranha Swarm: 785 swarms <roughly 400 fish per swarm>
** Monkey Swarm: 880 swarms <roughly 60 monkeys per swarm>
NOTE: I made these howling mandrake monkeys for flavor
** Pteranodons: 839
** Rat Swarms: 896 swarms <roughly 200 rats per swarm>
** Snake Swarms (venomous): 810 <roughly 100 snakes/swarm>
NOTE: I made many of these viper vines for flavor
** Tigers: 429
** Triceratops: 53
** Tyrannosaurus: 106
Constructs
** Stone Golems: 23
Humanoids
** Charau-Ka [savage]: 195 <in groups of 3 to 8>
** Popobala: 1
** Serpentfolk [seekers]: 120 <in groups of 4, 8, or 12>
Magical Beasts
** Camulatz: 229
** Chimera: 251
** Girallons: 537
Vermin
Army Ant Swarms: 261
Giant Spiders: 574
Jungle Mantis: 535
So anyway, this is Savinth-Yhi as it is in my game. The numbers are beefed up a bit, and really, it doesn't matter to get the exact number down.
For the curious, my usual formula for figuring out how many creatures there are of whatever goes as follows:
IF the monster is noted as being met in a set of "XdY" (such as 2d4) on the random encounter chart
THEN there are 900 minus (their CR+their highest % roll on the random encounter+their maximum number rolled). This is the number of animals of this kind. If it is anything other than an animal, take only 2/3 of this number.
For example: Jungle Mantises are met in 1d4, have a CR of 8 and if rolled 83-86. So, we take 4 (the largest number you can meet), 9 (their CR) and 86 (the highest percentage they appear) for a total of 4+8+86 or 12+86 which equals 98. 900-98 = 802. If Jungle Mantises were Animals (which, thankfully for the entire city, they are not), that would be how many there were. However, as they are Vermin, there are instead only 2/3 that number. So, (802*2)/3 = 1,604/3 = 534 total. Compare that to my number above and (with a little rounding) you can see how I got the number I did.
IF the monster is noted as being met by itself, or "1" (instead of, say 2d4) on the random encounter chart
THEN there are 450 minus (twice their CR+their highest % roll on the random encounter). This is the number of animals of this kind. If it is anything other than an animal, take only 2/3 of this number.
For example: Mummies are met by themselves (there's only 1), have a CR of 5 and if rolled 31-32. So, we take 10 (their CR x2) and 32 (the highest percentage they appear) for a total of 42. 450-42 = 408. If Mummies were Animals (which, yet again, thankfully for the entire city, they are not), that would be how many there were. However, as they are Undead, there are instead only 2/3 that number. So, (408*2)/3 = 816/3 = 272 total. Compare that to my number above and you can see how I got the number I did.
Some creatures, like the Catamultz, mentioned below under "Bad Example", I used some arbitration, mixing formulas together and adjusting the number as I saw fit. For those creatures that didn't appear on a random encounter list, I simply adjucated a number that "felt" right (I figured fewer skeletons and zombies would survive/be created over the years than mummies in their tombs and incoporeal creatures, so that's why there's less).
Anyway, I hope that helps and/or is fun!
EDITED to remove a pointless note from our game
EDIT 2: Ugh, the formatting thing is awful. Totally buggers it up all sideways to Utah. Fixing.
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The boggard oracle has something close to 35K+ worth of treasure and isn't that hard as written. I'm going to add some more unusual undead to that encounter- like the weird crawly guys from the back of module 1. Oh, and have Humphrey Boggart levitate before the encounter starts.
I'm also going to revamp or just eliminate the random encounters. 3 dire bats is not fun at level 7.
As other people are doing, I'm putting some of the factions at war with the chuka-kara. I kind of like the idea of the Aspis trying to bribe them with baubles, but them being so militant that they don't fall for it.
The serpentfolk island needs- something- Right now it's basically two guard encounters plus the boss. Oh and the weird snaky thing that my party will probably avoid.
I really think the key to saving this thing is faction stuff and really ramping down the "fight 2000 patrols" parts.
I'm really not sure wtf to do with the aboleth. There's an evil mind controller that's the final plot to module 4, so why do we need one here?
Those are over-all fairly solid ideas. One thing about the mind-controllers, you're not just dealing with two, but four so far in the campaign, and three in this AP: Yarzoth (beginning), the aboleth, the hag, and the intellect devourer. One of the most interesting things I could think of is layering them. If Egzimora (the hag) is still around, consider having her dominated by Yog'oltha (the aboleth), which would make her look like the mastermind... until she's destroyed and the same issues keep coming up. Basically, Yoggie dominates people and has them doing archeology for him. Have weird groups of natives just hanging out doing archeology, ignoring the PCs, cataloging things in different languages. If the PCs run into a few of these, then it'll become obvious quite quickly that something is amiss.
One other thing with the factions. I beefed the Gorilla King into a full-fledged faction of his own (with phenomenally high scores, making it clear that only personal action would work with him, you can see what I did with his numbers above) attempting to gain discoveries and claim Savinth-Yhi as his own and everything. It was via his presence, actually, that I had the Maka-Yika (and the devourer after them) enter the city, so it's not like the PCs were beaten here yet again. I also made the Maka-Yika into a faction, and the Serpentfolk Seekers, by boosting the latter's numbers with a teleportation circle (created by way of a magical amulet one wore that worked similarly to a one-way status/scry effect for anyone with the other amulet. This allowed for a brief 100-critter invasion of serpentfolk into the city as they zeroed in on the amulet's location (after sending the scouts first) and opened a teleportation circle there, then begun finding artifacts and discoveries and treasure for themselves.
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I read all the posts here and I must say that you guys sound like you've been doing this for a while. When I read the 7 spears book through, I was a little lost. I really wasn't thinking about what the other factions would be doing since it wasn't noted in the book.
I like the idea of the spears affecting the whole city. This could be interesting if certain factions control different spears and turn theirs back on when it turns off. Also, the PC's, who are allied with the pirates, ventured into the military district and fought Olujimi, however he escaped. While they were gone, their camp got hit for 10 destruction points so they are most likely going to hang around for a couple of days to make sure it isn't wiped away. That will allow for some of what I have planned to take place.
Thinking more linearly I came up with a timeline of events. Of course this will be affected by what the PC's eventually do.
Day 1 -all groups set up camps as described in book.
Day 2 -Sargarvian Government leads an attack on military district.
-Aspis Consortium infiltrates the mercantile district. They remain in the district and can help or hinder PC’s.
Day 3 -The Red Mantis infiltrate the Temple district.
Day 4 -Sargavian attack is finally repulsed by Olujimi. 50 Charau-ka killed. Jask and 5 other fighters are captured and sent to the arena to fight a dinosaur or two.
-Pathfinders attack the residential district.
Day 5 -Aspis Consortium Attacks area E2
-The Red Mantis forge an alliance with Lessikal.
Day 6 -Sargarvians regroup and attack again defeating Olujimi.
-Red Mantis move their camp to peninsula between L1 & L2
Day 7 -Grugonoth is awakened and routes the Sargarvians. They return only if he is dead. When they return, they set up permanent camp in area D1. Twenty days after they return, they accidently figure out how to activate the spear and do so if it is not already on. If it is turned off, they do not know how to turn it back on.
Day 8 -Sargaravian Government will attempt to recruit the help of the PC’s if they have not already secured the sector.
-Aspis Consortium retreats out of area E2, and moves camp to peninsula just south of E5.
-Pathfinders kill 118 vegepigmies and are allowed to look around the area. They set up camp in the long tan building just southwest of G1.
Day 10 -Aspis Consortium explores E3 and is driven off by the chimeras. Ishirou is captured and they "play" with him. AP remain in their camp until Chimeras are defeated by PC's. Once cleared, the Consortium figures out how to turn on the spear in 10 days by the jewels. If changed, they do not want pay to turn it back on.
Day 15 -Gelick is captured by Egzimora.
Day 16 -Red Mantis activate Temple spear. They keep reactivating it unless the military spear is active.
Day21 -If the Aspis Consortium is established in the mercantile district and the Sargavan Government in the military district, they will join to clear what remains of the government district (F). This will happen 5 days after both are established in their districts.
Day 22 -Pathfinders activate the residential spear. Unless hindered, they will do this each night. This does not work as Red Mantis activates there spear as soon as this one is activated. By the next day they allow the residential spear to stay on all night, turning on theirs in the morning.
Day 25 - If not allied with AP, the Sargaravian Government regroups (assuming they have been in camp for 15 days) and attacks the nearest, weakest sector.
Day 30 -Red Mantis find the Mantis Blade and it is given to Chivane. Chivane assumes control of the temple district. (Red Mantis must be driven off in addition to other conquered conditions having to be met.)
Day 31 -Ishirou is finally killed by the goat head of the main chimera as it played too rough.
Day 35 -Red Mantis launch an attack on boggards in Farming district, in an attempt to get ‘key’ to Savath’s Crypt.
Day 40 -If the Pathfinders are still in the residential district, and Egzimora is still alive, they fall under her charm and fight for her, until she is defeated.
Day 45 -Gelick succumbs to the torture and becomes a vegetable man.
Day 60 -Red Mantis is finally repulsed by the Green God. (may or may not have found the key). Sasha is separated from the group makes her way to the PC’s camp (maybe).
Day 100- If the Pathfinders are still in the residential district, and Egzimora is still alive, they have irrevocably started turning into vegetable people and cannot be redeemed.
Day 120- If the Pathfinders are still in the residential district, and Egzimora is still alive, they are all advanced vegetable people.
This is all very flexible, depending on how fast or slow the group pushes through the sectors. However, this does give me a sequence of events.
I have not looked at the next book yet, and I was wondering how these events will work into the next adventure.
The timeline is pretty good, however as each of the groups arrive at different times (at least according to their staggered arrival at the temple of light), I'd recommend not having "day 1" actually be "day 1", but rather be the point by which all groups have finally set up.
EDIT: also, make sure it's flexible enough that if one faction is destroyed (a distinct possibility) that the timeline doesn't come to a crashing halt). It seems you've done that, but I'm just sayin'. :)
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Thanks. I did think about some of the groups getting there erlier or later than the PC's, due to the reason you named. My guys got to the outpost 3rd because they let their supplies burn up. They didn't think it was their responsibility to take care of ther fire.
However, I think I am on the same wavelength you are with regard to the start day. Even if camp is established, who can tell how long things will take to get a party ready to send out into the city. (Also, the PC's have no idea (nor do they really seem to care about the time lines of the other groups).
I toyed with the idea of one or the other groups being destroyed. I have been playing up the rivalry between the PC's and the Red Mantis, and have built in a showdown in the temple district, so they will probably end up being wiped out by the PC's. The hot elf leader woman might make it out with the evil sword. Based on the way the Aspis Consortium is in this adventure, they will likely bite the dust due to the position I put them in. If they take control of the Market district, then the PC's won't have the pleasure of doing it. Short of that, I can see them being soul food for the magical beasts.
My main concern was how a senario like this will play into the rest of the adventure. There is a chance for the PC's to reunite with all the NPC's from the first book, but the posibility of some of the other factions being ruined is a definate possibility. I just don't want to be painted into a corner by not having key parts of this game in tact.
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Since I have played this out a little with my group, I have modified the timeline somewhat. I made the other factions start exploring the different sections of the city. I also used someone's idea of having a set number of research points from each city district, but changed the discovery DC to 25 in general, 30 if the section is hostile, and 20 if it has been tamed. Furthermore, I tied how much a faction (including PC's) knows about a section to to how many points they have. If they have all the points from a district (roughly 20) then they know all there is to know including how to activate that particular spear.
The other factions pretty much follow this rule as well, however there is some fudging of their stats if they fall to far behind with the research or if it looks like they are going to be destroyed too early.
Doing things this way changes the timetable somewhat, due to how many discovery points a group has and/or which way the PC's go.
This also allows for the exploration to be done away from the table, saving our meeting time for fighting and such. Sometimes our group will go two weeks without playing and they are able to tell me their parameters for exploration, either to keep rolling up days until they have explored their conquered section, or roll out a certain number of days till the convoy gets back, or until something major happends like accumulating 15 destruction points.
Since this group is allied with the pirates, one of the ways they can gain status is to donate 10,000g to the free captains. When I told my group that, and they saw what they would get in return, they were not impressed. However it gave me an idea. The way I initially thought the camp store would run was that the players could buy or sell anything under a certain price (2,000g) and every other purchase would have to be sent for. I decided to extend the pirate donation rule to say that for every gold they donated to the pirates, the store's trade capacity would increase by that much. Currently they have donated an additional 2,000g. I am also adding additional trade capacity (200-500g) when the PC's stabilize the reagion either by defeating or allying with other factions or city zones.
So far this has worked out well.
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Also, another thing that my group seemed to like. Jask was captured by the monkey guys and was taken to the arena with some other soldiers to fight two allosauruses. Of course the PC's arrived just in time to watch as one of the dino's dropped Jask.
They immediately jumped down the 20 wall into the fighting pit and engaged the dinos. I also put 50 monkey men in the stands and gave the PC's 1 turn to act before the monkeys noticed them. When they did they all started throwing rocks and debris into the arena. To simulate that, at the end of each turn I rolled 10 d20's 5 times and kept note of how many natural 20's I rolled. For each 20 rolled, I rolled a d8 to see who was hit based on their initiave order number, then rolled a d4 for damage. It really amounted to nothing more than a nusance, but added some flavor to the show especially when I said that most of the rocks were covered in monkey excrement.
When the PC's killed the allosauruses the monkey men all ran away in terror.
Okra...by the arena, do you mean the plaza where the girralons are?
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I know what my players are going to obsess over: what does the Tribe of the Sacred Serpent eat? There are 280 of them, but everyone either seems to be on active military duty or else working on their arts and crafts in J3. On the one hand, this makes for very cool flavour. On the other hand, I know my group well enough to know that this will hurt their suspension of disbelief.
So I want to give some actual thought to what these 280 people do all day (at least when they're not hit with the black plague). The military personnel are clearly necessary, given the nearby threats, and some sculpture has to happen to keep their insane god from wiping them out, but they still need to eat.
The area south of their territory looks like it has been cleared. (I recognize that this is probably just so that the compass rose could be visually obvious, but that doesn't change the fact that it was drawn over cleared ground.) I speculate that there is some cultivation there of beans and root vegetables and maybe even grains. The hunters probably kill some game, but not a lot; I don't expect that these tribespeople have a lot of meat in their diet that isn't aquatic. On that note, there are no docks in their territory but I suspect they'd still have some boats and might engage in occasional fishing. Perhaps the boats are simply pulled ashore from that tiny pond east of J1.
This also opens up the possibility of some more roleplaying encounters. The tribesfolk might value not only sculpture but also people who can provide red meat. They might be out in their boats on the lake, but be very obvious in their haste to get home before the sun sets (to avoid the nocturnal mokele-mbembe). They could do stuff in their spare time other than all congregate in those six enormous gym-like rooms and carve. (You have to figure that at the very least people sneak off on their own occasionally, given that there's a next generation.)
There could also be the start of some basic village basics, such as a mill and even a pub.
Has anyone done much in terms of roleplaying the Tribe of the Sacred Serpent?
You could easily say that each member does an hour or two of farming each day to ensure the community is fed. Or they could have a slave race as servants - but I'd be careful with that as some groups would find the slavery aspect vile.
Whose to say that their craft isn't making the most beautiful garden that contains a variety of exotic fruits. Maybe someone else is a brewer trying to craft the ultimate beer. The vines that cover the buildings could have nourishing berries that the druids use for goodberry to feed the community.
So now the fact that I've lived in a city all my life counts against me. Is it enough to have the civilian population spend an hour a day? I checked Fief and Magical Medieval Society, and I'm still having trouble figuring out how much work it is to feed someone.
Are you suggesting that they don't cultivate the fields to the south? It looks like about six or seven acres of land, if I'm understanding non-metric measurements properly.
Thanks for the response!
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Are you talking about the fields in the Farming district? That area is described as extremely swampy and riddled with sinkholes. Probably not the best place to farm. Plus it's under the control of the boggards in the Farming district... enemies of the Radiant Serpent humans.
Also close to the Green God's tribute island. NOT someplace they want to wander around. :)
I just assumed the humans survived by hunting boars in the surrounding jungles up and down the slopes of the valley. Probably some foraging for roots, fruits and berries too as BQ said.
I meant the area southwest of the Farming District (south-southwest of the Artisan District). Aren't the swampy, sinkhole-filled fields entirely east of the Artisan District?
Wouldn't a diet consisting primarily of boar be unhealthy (not to mention binding)? If they're foraging instead of cultivating their vegetables, I'd expect them to get relatively little yield.
I'm a little unclear on who (if anyone) spends much time on the lake itself (excluding the bridges). I know that the mokele-mbembe is terrifying, but it never comes out during the day. I'd think that pretty much everybody in Saventh-Yhi would want to be eating fish.
I figure the boggards use the swamp lands around their district for both agriculture and raising big bugs, or something. There are no fish in their private lake, so if they do want some they'll have to use the big lake, same as everyone else.
Any thoughts on how vegepygmies feed? They're carnivorous (Tome of Horrors Complete, p. 626), so maybe they, too, send out hunting parties? Troglodytes presumably also hunt for their food, and of all the groups it's easiest to believe that the charau-ka subsist entirely off hunting. The serpentfolk are the biggest puzzle to me after the humans; they're carnivorous but they don't raise any food animals and they don't have any fishing boats. (My plan is to give them fishing boats and free-range chickens.)
I know a lot of players don't care about this stuff. If you're planning to handwave it then that's cool, but I have to put at least a little thought into it or it'll affect my players' enjoyment of the setting.
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You're right! The areas I was thinking of ARE more to the east. Teach me to answer without the map in front of me! :)
I see the area you're talking about around the compass now. And though the valley is surrounded by steep cliffed mountains, I see no reason not to put some fields up in the slopes there. Put a few flat fields up on the cliff tops and call it good.
As for the lake, yeah the mokele-mbembe is the real danger at night, but during the day probably the biggest danger would be all the crocodiles (and the sarcosuchus when it comes out to feed in the lake).
But fishing certainly makes sense to augment the diet of most of the inhabitants of the valley.
Also it's mentioned that the tribes will come to blows not infrequently. I'd imagine that the more savage races (trogs, serpentfolk, charou-ki, boggards, vegepygmies) would have no problem cooking up prisoners or fallen enemies. (Human, the other white meat) Probably helps keep the valley's tribal populations in check as well. Shrug.
Tbug,
I've been thinking about the same issue.
I'm planning on telling the party that the slopes all around are tiered but mostly overgrown. The exceptions are a sizable banana and coconut plantation behind the monkey men (Bananas for eating, coconuts as amunnition for the Throw Anything feat) and most of the slopes behind the Artizan District.
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This summer i'm doing serpent's skull again and plan to get rid of the vegepygmies and replace them with...... elizgamora redone as a druid with her hallucinogenic fungus leshy minions. i'll post them as soon as they're done.
my other idea is involving araneas somehow, maybe replacing the gibbering mothers in the trader's bowl.