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I am curious about what other stretch goals you may have in the pipeline for us? But of course we have to reach funding first!
What will MSRP be post KS?
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Backed.
Richard, your adventures have been some of my favourites all the way back to The Styes and more recently, the excellent Dance of the Damned.
Plus I love the modularity of FGG's Lost Lands. Razor Coast has been fully integrated into my homebrew and I am scheming for the perfect city to soon become The Blight.
Very much looking forward to this.
Splendid, thank you Mythraine. I'm really glad you mentioned Dance (as well as the Styes of course), the Hell's Rebels AP is awesome and was great fun to be part of, but has had very few reviews for its parts yet. I guess the quality of work Paizo puts out now means there are less reviews, but I still miss the amount of feedback that there used to be, it's always useful.
Oo, don't tell Logue that, he'll try to invade the Blight:)
Huzzah!
There are lots of fantastic settings on the market, but to me, great though those settings are, they only really come to life when you walk the streets – when you and your friends take in the air, mingle with the locals and soak yourselves in the atmosphere of the place imagination has birthed.Each of the districts gets a run down on how it looks, sounds, smells and feels - which will be a great help in building that immersion.
Plus, there's a handy list of 7 words for each district, that will hopefully survive in their current form where the words are sized to their relevance by district in a wordcloud way, so Festival will say: …
Sugary Intimate
Sweaty Movement
Scream!
…Sticky Masticate…
If only we could do them in the colours they are now that would help too...
You should be able to go in and read the kickstarter where everything is explained. There are a lot of stretch goals. I think this one is ontrack to fund early.
Fingers crossed, we have some nasty plans if it does...
What will MSRP be post KS?
I think I'm right in saying $160 for hardcover and PDF Kryzbyn.
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Splendid, thank you Mythraine. I'm really glad you mentioned Dance (as well as the Styes of course), the Hell's Rebels AP is awesome and was great fun to be part of, but has had very few reviews for its parts yet. I guess the quality of work Paizo puts out now means there are less reviews, but I still miss the amount of feedback that there used to be, it's always useful.
Oo, don't tell Logue that, he'll try to invade the Blight:)
Huzzah!
I guess I'll have to review Dance of the Damned then!
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Plus, there's a handy list of 7 words for each district, that will hopefully survive in their current form where the words are sized to their relevance by district in a wordcloud way
Nice :) - is there somewhere that's unctuous? I've always liked that word.
I guess I'll have to review Dance of the Damned then!Splendid, thank you Mythraine. I'm really glad you mentioned Dance (as well as the Styes of course), the Hell's Rebels AP is awesome and was great fun to be part of, but has had very few reviews for its parts yet. I guess the quality of work Paizo puts out now means there are less reviews, but I still miss the amount of feedback that there used to be, it's always useful.
Oo, don't tell Logue that, he'll try to invade the Blight:)
Huzzah!
Huzzah! Thanks Mythraine.
Rich
Plus, there's a handy list of 7 words for each district, that will hopefully survive in their current form where the words are sized to their relevance by district in a wordcloud wayNice :) - is there somewhere that's unctuous? I've always liked that word.
Beautiful word Mark, it might well have snuck in there somewhere, these obscure words need love:)
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Patience Sister Blight, cease your stirring, the good people are feeding you and you're blossoming beautifully. Are those wings I see growing? No, something...different. Perhaps it is time to give the merest airing of your sick body, just a morsel...
The Sum of Her Parts
The Blight is in perpetual growth; her extremities groping blindly outwards and upwards, seizing and swallowing every feasible space in her hunger. Her greed is never sated, and as her limbs decay and collapse, so new ones rise from their ruins; lashed or spat into being on her own grave. Some have likened her to a mountain—her ramparts growing and falling like seracs and glaciers, her body never still or silent.
She never rests, never slumbers. To catalogue her is not easy, impossible some might say. To identify her component parts is challenging and strangely troubling, like dispassionately cataloguing what bodies died from or the effect of terrible diseases on flesh and bone and soul. In truth she has not fixed boundaries—the Between has seen to that—if a shop, an alley or even a whole street is sometimes taken into her grip, local people shake their heads and move swiftly on before builders seize the place.
She is formally made up of thirteen districts, although these districts are then segmented into parishes and smaller component parts. Our little list below merely kisses the rooftops, spires, alleyways and cellars of what lies below; it is less than a starter, a morsel perhaps, perhaps not even that. So brief indeed it doesn’t even have space for minor notorieties like The Eye, Hobbington’s Lamp or the festering Lychfens, nor even the seasonal districts like the Black Ice Fayre and Carnival.
And then there are other places, so many other places…
The Capitol
Rising like a mouldering fist from the banks of Sister Lyme, they say it can rain in one part of the Capitol and be sunny on another, its valleys and summits attracting mist and cloud like a mountain chain.
Iron soul of Castorhage, home to the Castorhage royal princesses and Queen Alice. It is also home to their extended, inbred and distended royal kin—the Tredici, the Borxia and numerous lesser families who have been taken to the ghoul-queen’s royal bosom to fester and envy and backstab.
The Capitol is vast, it is rambling and endless and decaying. The highest summits rise through granite rock over a thousand feet above the city streets below and it covers over a hundred acres, yet within the teetering, writhing floors that make up its whole—from the Soul to the Crown—it is beyond measure, it’s secrets countless and wicked.
The Artists’ Quarter
Heart of the city, the Artists’ Quarter is a hotbed of intrigue and anarchy, plots, blackmail and deceit. It is a swarm of noise and clamour, a potpourri of sin, exploitation and wickedness. It is also a place of hope. Spilling from the foot of the Jumble like an insane cat’s cradle, the Artists’ Quarter staggers down to the Great River through a shamble of tiny streets cowering beneath leaning sagging buildings.
A curious trio of powerful groups lurk within the quarter; firstly the Fetch, the hidden undead populace of the Blight, whose vampire elders find the waking nightlife to their liking. They and their slaves are profligate here. Opposing them are the triads of the Chi’en and Gtsang immigrants, who have flocked here for mutual protection. Finally there are the rebels and anarchists; drawn by the revolutionary plays and anarchist puppeteers. It is the one place in the city where the word revolution is said out loud.
The Barnacles and Great Dock
The Barnacles is a dizzying tidal-stack rising from the ocean, built upon various levels of tunnels that in turn link to the outer buildings (variously known as ‘nests’ or ‘limpets’ to the guards and workers). The Barnacles itself is ruled as an independent city-state by a group of greedy insular merchants, and who collect taxes from visiting ships, fund the local watch and arrange shady deals.
Clustered in and upon its surface, like limpets on a rock, are hundreds of buildings—variously thrown, tied, nailed and bolted to the precarious cliff faces, gripping for dear life above the jagged rocks below.
Booktown
“It has a unique smell, this place, of old books and ageing parchment, of ink and learning. This place of towers and strange bridges between buildings, this place where the streets are cramped with a curious mixture of all walks of life. The bewigged Urger rubs shoulders with the punkawallah, who in turn flees from the eyes of his cruel master the Overseer, who clutches a fistful of legal papers. A handcart full of heavy tomes is pushed by a reed-thin man wearing a turban, a donkey sags beneath its load of new wet parchment.”
Booktown is a canyon of buildings and towers, linked by innumerable bridges and gangplanks, rope bridges and ladders to enable the legalese and professors and studiers to get between their clients more easily.
It is the repository for tomes and grimoires, maps, arcana and worthy works. Bibliomerchants flock here to buy and sell, wizards peruse high shelves of arcane tomes, and hierophants puzzle over ancient holy writings. Above all, it is a repository for secrets.
Festival and the Great Fayre
Festival is basically a huge timber boardwalk town in the Lyme River, built around a squat grey hill. Covering twelve score acres, it rises through steep streets called the Skew, to the Great Fayre at the summit. The streets rise steeply between shambles of buildings built upon buildings, each bolted to the last, giving the place a spastic look and a feeling of imminent collapse—timbers groan and creek, bolts occasionally explode and evidence of shoring up and repair is everywhere.
Whatever you define as pleasure is available here, from simple tumbling clowns to sinister dark places where nightmares are drawn out of madmen and given breath and lust.
And wherever you go, there are the rats…
The Great Lyme River (a.k.a. Sister Lyme)
The Great River Sister Lyme cuts through the heart of the city, keeping at bay the districts behind its docks and warehouses, piers, treadmill ferries and boats. Manmade islands dot its surface, the largest being the Gyre (q.v.).
The spine of the city, Sister Lyme touches almost every other district and stains it, for many things find the river useful—not only smugglers and murderers, but those with secrets and those who wish to hide. There are many who use the river as a friend, the wererats from Festival, the Briny—the hated half-skum who hold their mothers in dreadful thrall—and the Illuminati, who use the Lyme as an ally to cloak their deeds.
Despite appearances, the foul waters are alive with strange life that feeds upon bilge and waste, huge pale sough-eels and slop-sharks, wallow whales and bog lanterns watch those above hungrily. To fall into the acid maw of a wallow whale is a guarantee of death.
The Gyre – The Town of Flotsam and Jetsam: The Gyre, the spiritual home of the Briny, is a well-known landmark, which lies in the Great Lyme River. It is a town built upon flotsam, which has formed into a slow whirlpool in the river and which rotates with the slowness of hour-hands upon a clock.
The Hollow and Broken Hills
Here, the land splinters and falls into the sea in a thousand spires and hollow hills. Miracles happen here; statues weep and wells remove maladies. This archipelago of tidal stacks, cliffs and islets, as well as being home to countless people, is home to churches. Temples and places of worship rise here, as well as the (now full) Great Blight Cemetery—itself now a huge area of decaying tangled briars and undergrowth, ruins and mausoleums.
Sanctuary. The most holy city-state within a city state, Sanctuary is the home of his Holiness the master of the church in Castorhage. The present ruler, His Holiness the Father of Castorhage balances a precarious thread between enemies, allies and those who wish to succeed him. The ruthless Borxia family number one of his Holinesses’ most troubling neighbours, this terrible family has designs upon the throne and crown of Castorhage itself.
The Jumble (a.k.a the Cat’s Cradle, the Madness, the Maze)
The Jumble is a vast, confusing maze of streets that rise upwards and outwards—some would say in mockery of the Capitol itself.
It is easy to get lost in the Cradle—streets sink below ground and rise again to rooftop streets, taking a dozen ladders before continuing along a gable which ends at a bare wall, beyond which may lie the garret of a naga artist, a madman or cringing orphans.
The Sinks
Castorhage, built partly upon clay and silt deposits, is literally dancing upon its own grave—the more weight that comes to bear, the faster the sinking takes place, and this is no more apparent that in the Sinks—literally a drowning town.
In 897 the then king of Castorhage—Branner—ordered the creation of a new town for artisans; this would be a place of grand canals and gilt buildings, of towers and cathedrals and art. Branner, always a strong willed child, decided that it would be wise to use an area of the city known as the Grey Lake, famous for its shallow waters, as the basis for the town.
Even at its finest, it was obvious that Bronner’s Folly (as it had become known) was sinking—towers leant, walls ruptured, cathedrals sagged. Yet after a few decades the sinking suddenly halted, and the town was left as it is today—a twisted wreckage of leaning walls and towers, exhausted battlements and dislocated arched bridges over canals that range between a few feet to bottomless.
Now the Sinks is the home to the disowned nobility; bastards, criminals, madmen, those who sicken, those who have wronged and inbred horrors. The nobles there like to think of the Sinks as an elite domain, a decadent aristocracy willing to take life to further extremes than those in the Capitol. In truth they are exiles; their crimes beyond even those considered normal in the Capitol itself.
Vampires infest some of these families, although they are always careful to conceal their gifts. For the rest, they are a disturbing mixture of hopes and fears, abominations and murderers. These nobles pay well, and have infested the Sinks with hangers on, traders, priests and others mad enough, or greedy enough, to live in the shadows of their masters and mistresses.
Stories persist that sea-devils, or sahaugin have been seen brazenly walking the streets here by night, and that the worship of their hellish gods goes on behind the gilt doors of this dislocated district.
Toiltown a.k.a. The East, East Ending, the State of Sweat
Everyone hates vast Toiltown, even the overseers and factory managers who deal out their cruel forms of justice within. It is a place of endless factories and sweatshops, workhouses and mills.
Washing up on the shores of the Artists’ Quarter and Bazaar, the East Ending is a rough place to wander in, but a good place to find information. A coin can buy many services—murder, in some streets—and in a town where the watch keep their distance, many people find Toiltown a good place to hide. With so many people crammed into the disgusting filthy place, trouble is never very far away, and many predators find the close proximity and cheap life very useful.
Beyond, the city does not so much stop as stagger out into the grey and green fenlands around—fens that are dangerous places¬—filled with bogs and pools. Yet at the same time a building site is rising here on top of the old places, slowly taming the land with dikes and fill to allow the city to burst its edges. The Wash, another aspect of Toiltown, is one sinking arm of the city that has lapsed into insularity that thrives in the mires around the city.
Town Bridge
The ‘Bridge with a Town on top’ Town Bridge is a teeming mass of trade and humanity crammed between the Great East Bridge Gate and the Royal West Bridge Gate—a distance of half a mile across Sister Lyme.
Underneath
The Great Dark beneath the city is vast, it is an endless length of tunnels and canals, natural cysts and shafts that fall for miles. The Underneath, they say, touches every part of the city, and every home lies just a god’s whim away from being devoured by the dark. There are countless tales of whole streets vanishing, and of caves opening suddenly beneath nurseries allowing faceless monsters to take babies.
Scrimshaw
Town Bridge is more than a bridge linking two parts of land; it also connects the Blight to a place in Between called Scrimshaw, a whaling island port on the Unsea, a churning elemental ocean filled with whales (and other things) that provides an astonishing profit to whichever gang happens to be running the link to Between at the time.
Although not truly part of the city, and one of many fickle Between places, so many locals have made the perilous journey to and on the Unsea beyond that Scrimshaw is often referred to as Castorhage’s thirteenth—and unluckiest—part.
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So much delicious morsels...
Alas this is a terrible hunger you have instilled in us Master Pett... that only the most fell of feasts will sate...
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Thank you for the synopsis overview of Castorhage, Richard. Booktown, the Artists' Quarter ... and especially the Sinks ... intrigue me the most. I like too, the fact that you have a dedicated section of vast darkness *Underneath* the city as well. That multiplies the adventuring possibilities in Castorhage by a factor of 2 right there alone.
I just hope there's a top-tier coffee shop or 2 somewhere in the Blight. To loiter about on a cold, gloomy afternoon and blissfully eavesdrop on the heavily-caffeinated gossipmongers ...
Heh heh, and you can feast in them all:)
Hey, if anyone is interested the interview from GameHoleCon of the FGG crew is posted here. It's toward the end around 33 minutes or so.
I knew I shoulda took that right hand toin at Albuquerque!!!
Huzzah and welcome Heathy:)
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Time for another quick sample...
Guilds and Clubs
Contacts are the common man’s way into the haloed halls of power. A beggar, it is said, could bribe his way to become a knight if he had the right luck and the vast amount of money it would take. In a city like this anything and everything is for sale, but anything and everything is also controlled.
There are thousands of clubs, guilds and cults in the dank city streets, each one seeking power, each one with relationships with others—some good, some bad—and each one capable of action, no matter how great or how small.
Being a member of a guild or club or cult opens doors, it brings the PCs into a new sphere of influence, opens up access to new spells, new equipment and new avenues of pleasure.
They can also be powerful; guilds own parishes within districts, clubs own officials, cults have the local Justice’s daughter kept in a dark place to make sure that their actions are unseen...
Making enemies of such groups is dangerous, simply because of the amount of power they have. A PC opposing a cult may find himself arrested on a trumped up charge, judged and hanged in a single night. Even breaking free of the gaol leaves him a fugitive, but there is always someone who opposes the cult that wronged the PC eager for new recruits.
Simply put, these groups give you another gaming option. You may wish to have them as shadowy background groups, you may wish to bring them to the fore.
Clubs are often described in a similar way to feats; they have a title, a prerequisite, and a benefit. They may also have a special entry and finally an advancement note. Guild’s operate more like class levels.
The Dwarven Beneath Brotherhood offer guide services to those exploring below the city streets. The Whispering Sisters are harlots who use their skills to take secrets from customers. The Amateur Mendicant Society are made up of nobles who walk the streets as beggars to try to unmask anarchists, the Royal Lamplighters are useful guides to have after dark and know the cities secrets better than most. The Gable Maesters know every inch of the rooftops and deny the claim that they breed the colossal spiders that are occasionally found there. They cannot, they claim, be responsible for the death of so many curious children who have climbed onto the city rooftops. Membership of the Rat-catchers, hated enemies of the Family, is by strict invite, the blood of a thousand wererats is on their hands and membership, like that of the many anarchist groups, is perilous.
There are said to be over 5,000 thieves’ guilds in the Blight, all a fragment of the Guild itself. Each of the core classes has a choice of cults, groups and guilds to represent them, the most infamous of which are the Dying City, a group of druids who aim to bring a plague upon the houses of all those who have stained the land with the Blight.
The Cult of N’Gathau act as emissaries for N’Gathau visitors (Tome of Horrors Complete 764) whilst the Tolling Bell aim to bring Orcus to the world. The filth ridden Followers of the Trail believe Jubilex already lives beneath the Blight.
Clubs
Unlike guilds (below), clubs are generally easier to join, rise within and leave. Like money feats, they are simply structured; with a prerequisite, benefit, special (but not always) and an advancement protocol.
Some sample clubs are given below for you to consider, your GM may have others to offer you or wish to flesh out herself.
Brothers of the Gables
Climbers, explorers and daredevils, the Brothers of the Gables delight in finding the highest buildings to climb, and reaching the most remote parts of the rooftops of the city.
Prerequisites: A would-be member must climb a prominent building within the city, facing at least a 150ft. Climb (DC 15). The DC of the Climb check is then removed from the Bluff or Perform (oratory) check made by the climber after the climb to try to gain entry. A base DC 45 check is required to gain entry, so that a successful DC 15 climb made lowers this check to DC 30 and so on.
Benefits: Membership opens doors to other routes, methods and ways up famous buildings, as well as knowledge of those places. Character’s gain a permanent +2 to all Knowledge (local) checks made in the company of at least one other brother when the check is made in relation to any tall building or high art of the city such as the Jumble.
Advancement: A member can attempt at least one qualifying climb (successful or not) per month as a member as listed above, to try to advance, but with a fall of at least 200ft. She can attempt to increase her standing in the brotherhood by making an immediate Bluff check (DC 20) after making the attempt, success indicates enrolment into an inner circle, where further techniques of climbing buildings are given, increasing the PCs Climb checks when tackling such buildings permanently by a special +2 bonus.
There are those in the city who seek out multiple climbs of astonishing danger, a member making a DC 30 Climb becomes famous, as does anyone climbing a building you regard as ridiculous (such the outside of the Great Royal Cathedral (Area C9). Famous members make all Bluff or Perform (oratory) checks at +2 anywhere in the city where they announce their fame. Other members are likely to commence encounters with such legends on at least a friendly basis.
Indulgers
Carousers and gluttons, the Indulgers are a loose affiliation of those who like the finer things in life, and indulge in them heartily.
Prerequisites: Various arms of the group are seen in the rowdier or more fashionable holes of gluttony and excess in the city. One need simply appear at one, and spend money trying to impress one’s would-be peers. Once per week a would-be member can spend 200gp, and make an immediate Bluff, Diplomacy or Perform check (DC 20) to gain membership. Membership requires the spending of 100gp per month minimum, but for each 50gp spent in excess of that checks (the 3 listed above) are increased by +1 in the city until the end of the month.
Benefits: Once per week, a member can ask an Indulger to spend the day making a Diplomacy (gather information) check on her behalf, at +10 to the check. The indulger also has access to money, as so many swyne are members; loans of up to 500gp are always granted, subject to a 7 day payback at 10% interest.
Special: Each month, a member faces a random city encounter.
Advancement: Roll 1/month for an opening (1d20); on an 18-20 the position of Honoured Glutton opens up after another member dies. The position costs 100gp per month, but allows access to a twice weekly request of the check above and loans of up to 2,500gp (5% interest). Honoured Gluttons can make a check once a month to see if the position of Hoglord becomes available. This position costs 250gp per month, but grants legal access to the Capitol and the Sanctuary as an honoured noble. Loans of up to 10,000gp are available, as detailed above.
Guilds
While clubs can be difficult to enter, one is member of a Guild for life, they are an altogether more serious path, and while bound by the one crucial rule—financial—they are in general a closer bound group. Guilds are handled rather like character classes, but with money being the crucial reason for advancement...
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Very cool and intriguing sample, Richard. Thank you!
***
I was re-reading your Kickstarter intro to The Blight. And I had noted where you talked about Castorhage being the location of your own home campaign (along with the past licensing issue regarding The Styes).
Could you share with us a little of the history and/or dynamics of having Castorhage as the primary campaign setting for you and your friends?
Will do Crai:)
Just a quick heads up and massive thanks to Robert Trifts and Michael Azzolino for last nights Chronicles Podcast interview, as ever it was great fun.
You'll all know the Chronicles Podcast I'm sure, and they're doing a special edition with the Blight interview with me and Greg Vaughan - watch this space.
Let's hope they'll decide to start up again, my fingers are crossed. If you haven't come across them before, do check out the casts they're brilliant.
Rich
There is a video in Update 8 that runs over an hour but is with most of the FGG crew. It is pretty informative.
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The level is at $44607 with 39 days left. Just making sure people don't forget about this KS.
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Beautiful word Mark, it might well have snuck in there somewhere, these obscure words need love:)Plus, there's a handy list of 7 words for each district, that will hopefully survive in their current form where the words are sized to their relevance by district in a wordcloud wayNice :) - is there somewhere that's unctuous? I've always liked that word.
Would your lovely tresses be considered unctuous, O Most Glorious One?
Would your lovely tresses be considered unctuous, O Most Glorious One?Beautiful word Mark, it might well have snuck in there somewhere, these obscure words need love:)Plus, there's a handy list of 7 words for each district, that will hopefully survive in their current form where the words are sized to their relevance by district in a wordcloud wayNice :) - is there somewhere that's unctuous? I've always liked that word.
Patience, cupcake, but spread the word far and wide that Sister Blight is slumbering too much now, she needs feeding or she may die before she has even opened her many, many eyes...
Ah, she stirs again...
Big update over at the Kickstarter chums, with a small sampler of the gazetteer- I'm down in a smugglers village just now so internet access is terrible. Assuming they let me leave I'll post it here on Sunday. Until then, please pay a visit.
Rich
There was a question in the Comments section about Print-on-Demand. Bill just answered that question.
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Patience, cupcake, but spread the word far and wide that Sister Blight is slumbering too much now, she needs feeding or she may die before she has even opened her many, many eyes...Would your lovely tresses be considered unctuous, O Most Glorious One?Beautiful word Mark, it might well have snuck in there somewhere, these obscure words need love:)Plus, there's a handy list of 7 words for each district, that will hopefully survive in their current form where the words are sized to their relevance by district in a wordcloud wayNice :) - is there somewhere that's unctuous? I've always liked that word.
Yes, O Most Abhorrent Lord!
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Woke up to see we've hit 360 backers.
She grows . . . . and consumes . . .
I'm beginning to get a good feeling about this, and yet at the same time, a very, very bad feeling..........
oh yeh baby...
By the way, sorry for the absence of links and updates - I've been in a notorious smuggling village in the north-east and only just escaped during the 5,200th verse of fifteen men on a dead man's chest....
M'narrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Sample Gazetteer Extract – The Hollow and Broken Hills
SPOILER ALERT. To give purchasers a chance to see the bulk of the city guide, here is a very short extract from one district, the Hollow and Broken Hills—the Blight’s main religious district. As it contains potential spoilers for the guide (but NOT the Levee AP) please do not read the extract if you intend to play in the city itself, although, to be truthful, the sample below is a tiny fragment for a vast whole…
HBH6 The Church of Saint Almonia
An island that is a single construction; a vast cathedral swallows this stack of stone that lurches from the edges of the sea, a similarly bloated town beyond smothering a wider stack. The town appears to be on the edge of ruin; its flanks are smothered in the uncertain embrace of a forest of scaffolding.
A huge swaying rope bridge links the island to the crowded mainland.
Also known as the Beacon, this church is the oldest in the district, and closer inspection reveals that it is in a state of collapse. One whole wing of the church fell into the sea only five years ago, and an almost daily cascade falls from one part of it. Within, the church is a curiously lop-sided thing; its wings and walls and buttresses have slipped, giving the whole place an askew angle of Between. Some say that it is the hateful presence of the Borxias (Area#HBH24) that has laid a curse upon the place and caused its demise.
Worship here is certainly a matter of faith; aisles are riven with shafts that plummet into the dark sea, transepts cling to the edges of breaking cliffs and distended naves grip on for dear life. The Sacred Brotherhood of Saint Almonia are charged with the upkeep of the church. The monks, devout worshippers of Mother Grace, are an arm of his Holinesses’ fighting wing, and are warriors without fear. Sometimes called the monks in iron skins, the brotherhood spend almost all their time now constructing and repairing, and have fallen into sin, brought on by their neighbours the Borxias. Outwardly, the monks and church are devout; their devotion to their collapsing home an article of faith and admiration, but below, after dark, sinning is embraced. A Cathedral of the Great Coven, the elemental bowels of the church are opened up to depraved orgies, summonation and sacrifice.
The present master, High Priest his most Sacred Devotion Earl of the Isle Hassop Brome (LE male human cleric of Mother Grace 7/diabolist 4) bastard child of Ambrogio Borxia (see Area#HBH24) is considered one of the most holy people of the city, and yet festers within the Great Coven; this church one of its strongholds. Part fortress, part living hellish thing, the lower reaches of the church house a devil-bloated awakened sailing vessel the Retribution, and a foul library containing infamous texts, unheard of spells that enslave and punish, and devil-bound creatures.
HBH7 Saint Lether’s Chapel
A gigantic natural arch clefts this island, which like others is carved into a towering cathedral. Ships pass below the archway, ringing their bells.
The mariner’s fortune, Saint Lether—patron saint of calm seas—has his chapel here. The vast rambling building is only manned by a skeleton staff now, led by Bishop Thresh (NG cleric of Brine 6). Ships that are able pass through the archway to receive blessings for their voyage and—so far—not a single vessel that has passed below the arch has been lost at sea.
Thresh is a curiously bookish character; fascinated by demonology and devil-worship, but purely from a confrontational viewpoint. Those invited across the rickety rope bridge that links to the mainland find a place oddly crammed with arcanum and grimoires. Thresh frequently tries to draw devils and demons into the building to question them, and has—through a number of secrets—been able to enslave a handful of demons to act as assistants in his research.
HBH8 The Tower of Heaven
A vast, almost mockingly tall structure slowly rises from this isle into the looming sky above. It is a supplication to the glory of Heaven, a growing tower that rises towards the sky above and pierces it.
Justice Weld Shortstone I – Master of Structures (NG male gnome fighter4/illusionist 5) is presently overseeing the construction of this holy building, a place seen by his Holiness in dreams as a stair to get closer to Heaven. An army of arcane engineers are working on the structure through calamity and disappointment. The whole structure collapsed during a storm six years ago and the story whispered about the city is that the place is doomed, but that his Holiness will not give up his vision for fear of injuring his reputation. So Shortstone toils, and uses his lofty vantage and location to feed information back to his true sponsor, Princess Rebecca of Mourney, who has several agents across the city state within the city-state but regards Shortstone as one of her most loyal. To keep his tenuous position, Shortstone ensures that rumours of his cruelty and vengefulness reach the right ears, despite his honesty, and his true cruelty when dealing with evil and wickedness is cold.
Convicts work on the fractious outer scaffolds of the place, which currently stands at almost nine-hundred feet. That Shorstone treats those in his care relatively well may be his undoing; his nature has been noted by many, and word and lies are spreading about his instability and the fact that he is deliberately failing to weaken his Holiness. The convicts work high on the structure and as they rise, a small township rises with them.
Within the convicts, a small group of briny, agents of the Madness of the Mirrorstorm, are implanting glyph-carcasses within the structure at arcane points; aiming to use the completed structure as a beacon to draw in a whirlwind storm-land plagued by kraken into the world.
HBH9 The Palace of the Holy
Here truly is a garden of paradise, an isle infested with statues and flowers and twisted ancient trees.
His Holiness’ sanctuary within the city-state, the Palace is a series of gardens and chambers linked across fabulous grounds. That his holiness does not invite visitors here—nor have any of his predecessors—has of course led to rife speculation about what is here. Wilder stories suggest that within the palace is a book which outlines all events in history—including those yet to come until the world is destroyed by fire. Some have conjectured that the devil himself is imprisoned in the bowels of the palace and merely seeing him would be enough to drive any lesser mortal mad.
A singular watch guard the palace—the Sanctum Paladinhood. These holy warriors are led by Sanctum Paladin Lord Grace (NE male human fighter5/aristocrat3/necromancer 4) who has spent the last years trying to gain access to and locate the secret chambers below. He is aware that somewhere below lurks a cyst within which are objects of incredible value and power, yet his cunning has not even come close to finding them. His followers, who number two score of fighter/wizards (all around level 8 in total).
There are indeed secrets within the palace, hidden behind countless secret doors and corridors is a holy treasury for the darkest and most powerfully wicked knowledge, including at its dark heart a copy of the Book of the Damned and the Song of Extinction (Pathfinder Campaign Setting—Artefacts and Legends). Within the secret horde are several minor artefacts and objects taken from Between.
HBH10 The Penance
The screams echo far from this tor which thrusts from the dark sea. This is a prison—of that there is no doubt. A thousand barred windows stare helplessly from the dark granite, whilst two fortresses bear sturdy iron bridges away from the place.
Welcome to the holy prison—god’s help you is the welcome prisoners receive when they are thrown into this open hell-hole. Those who are brought here are thrown into the township that blights the tor it is swallowed by; a lawless endless misery from which there is no escape. Some say that occasionally a doorway opens into the Furnace, and so desperate are the interred that they walk openly into that hell to escape this one. Grand Warden Briar (LE tormentor devil evoker 7) (Tome of Horrors Complete 201) rarely bothers to wear his human skin these days—unless his Holiness sends an emissary to question one of his brethren, that is. Briar is the consummate psychotic, and his questioning techniques are much prized by the more powerful and better contacted villains across the city; it is said that Briar can make anyone or anything talk, and talk long and loud and truthfully. To assist him, he engages a small cabal of amaimons (Tome of Horrors Complete 194) and a harem of sublimely vicious lilins (Tome of Horrors Complete 199) whose dark arts of drugging and poisoning have their roots in Little Chi’en’s apothecaries.
Two thousand is the average population of the Penance, but it changes daily; sometimes it swells after a purge, at other times sickness sweeps the place and its population falls to a few hundred. The prisoners are not fed or watered, and rely upon gifts from desperate relatives, or occasional slops from his Holiness. Tourists are actively encouraged, and various guides lead parties of curious or voyeuristic nobles, many of whom bring food to toss to the prisoners for amusement. A desperate disorder has blossomed into some sense within the place, and the current overlord of the prisoners, the terrible Mister Shingle (N male human rogue 7/commoner 3) rules the roost with the help of hand-picked thugs. Shingle lives a life totally detached from the prisoners, has his own tower and private chambers, and listens to songbirds singing whilst eating in luxury. Shingle is the Guild’s man on the inside, and is completely open and known to Briar, who accepts bribes from the Guild in exchange for turning the other cheek and allowing Shingle to question and investigate the prisoners at his leisure. Quite often certain facets of the Guild find a visit to the Penance very useful in loosening tongues.
THE PENANCE
N small town
Corruption +4; Crime +5; Economy -3; Law -7; Lore+0; Society -4
Qualities Notorious, Tourist Attraction
Disadvantage Anarchy (leader accepted but disinterested)
Danger 40
Government Autocracy
Population 2000 (1900 human, 50 gnomes, 50 others)
Notable NPCs
Mister Shingle (N male human rogue 7/commoner 3)
Pastor Heddlin, holy man of the Penance (NE male human rogue4/cleric of Brine 1)
Mistress Saddle, Queen of the Penance Whores (N female human urban ranger 2/rogue 3)
Base Value 1,200gp; Purchase Limit 7,5000gp; Spellcasting 3rd
Minor Items 3d4; Medium Item divine scroll of dictum, iron bands of binding, medallion of thoughts, +2 wounding scourge, wand of legend lore
I agree with GM Rednal. Since beginning my group in RA I have come to enjoy the Lost Lands a lot. I was getting sort of tired of Golarion. If I ran anything in Golarion it was in the least covered areas, such as east of the River Kingdoms.
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*Sigh*
I had promised myself not to spend so much money anymore on physical books, but this one as a pdf? No way. So, veteran status it is and I guess the Blight will find it's way right next to the Shackled City HC. Hope it isn't infectious 'cause Cauldron is deadly enough as it is.
*Sigh*
I had promised myself not to spend so much money anymore on physical books, but this one as a pdf? No way. So, veteran status it is and I guess the Blight will find it's way right next to the Shackled City HC. Hope it isn't infectious 'cause Cauldron is deadly enough as it is.
Huzzah!
Infectious....heh heh, no, not infectious............
Rich
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Just as an aside, a big shout out to Greg. It was him, Nick and you who made me seriously fall in love with Paizo stuff with your Dungeon adventures (as far as I'm concerned you're the Rat Pack of RPGs), so to see him working with FGG, and after having published Razor Coast now tackling this one makes me a happy little moth (especially as I loved the Styes.
The only problem is that my children may still be a bit too young to expose them to all this glorious madness. But as they tend to drive me insane sometimes (as children are prone to), I'll eventually have my revenge [insert Dustin Hoffmann's laughter from Hook].
Just as an aside, a big shout out to Greg. It was him, Nick and you who made me seriously fall in love with Paizo stuff with your Dungeon adventures (as far as I'm concerned you're the Rat Pack of RPGs), so to see him working with FGG, and after having published Razor Coast now tackling this one makes me a happy little moth (especially as I loved the Styes.
The only problem is that my children may still be a bit too young to expose them to all this glorious madness. But as they tend to drive me insane sometimes (as children are prone to), I'll eventually have my revenge [insert Dustin Hoffmann's laughter from Hook].
I think that trio of us made each other up our game continually, and we still goad each other as often as possible. Don't tell them but I find it impossible to pick out my favourite 3 adventures from either of them, some of the stuff they come up with is infuriatingly clever and amazing.
Greg is handling a chunk of the development here and that makes me really happy as I usually have to lean on Rob or James, and having a great developer is - as has been pointed out elsewhere recently - like being given your own personal angle to take care of you and remove the bits that might make you look stupid.
If the whole pans out as I hope it does, the whole AP and setting should be very memorable - I just hope it does well enough to warrant many return visits as there are a few things we can try here that perhaps wouldn't fit in the wonderful world of Golarion, awesome though that is.
Yes, not one for our younger players, but they'll soon grow and you can let them wander the streets at your leisure.
Rich
By the way, sorry for the absence of links and updates - I've been in a notorious smuggling village in the north-east and only just escaped during the 5,200th verse of fifteen men on a dead man's chest....
M'narrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Morpeth? Whitby? Or somewhere darker & more sinister?
Much darker - Robin Hood's Bay.........
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Great interview! Could we get Matt and Bill to do a podcast talking about OD&D/AD&D/OSR as a weekly thing? ;-) Really enjoyable!
The difficulty is actually getting the two of us to shut up. :)
At $47,913 with 32 days remaining. Please spread the word wherever you can.
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I was thinking of wearing a Giant Hat and ringing a bell.
Too much?
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At $47,913 with 32 days remaining. Please spread the word wherever you can.
Is the word out at all the other prominent RPG forums too? Like EnWorld, GitP, Reddit, etc?
Enworld yes, but I don't know about the others,