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The Rusted Lamp
Several years ago, the shattered remnants of a trade caravan trudged wearily into the city. None of the survivors would speak of what befell the caravan or its missing members. None of them ever left the city again. Indeed, most of them were dead within a year.
The last know survivor, a once successful spice merchant named Ali Abfar, sold his home and all his belongings, then built a small tavern in the heart of the city, naming it The Rusted Lamp. It's namesake was a tarnished and weathered old metal lamp of curious design, which Ali enshrined on the mantle above the hearth.
Rumors have swirled ever since that the lamp once served as the prison of a powerful genie, and that the caravan's freeing of this being led to it's ravaging. Ali, himself, refuses to discuss the issue.
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Maryonmor Theater - commissioned by the fabulously wealthy former adventurer, Maryon "Tri-blade" Doral, this theater was carved by dwarven craftsmen into the heart of a massive rock island just off the coast. It contains a concert hall, storage rooms, dinning halls, kitchens, and rooms for all the performers. Visitors to the theater can stay overnight on one of the guest-barges floating around the island, or at the small resort village built on the nearby shore. In addition to the theater and its supporting rooms, the island is said to hold many hidden passages and chambers.
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A "who's the werewolf" mystery, where the ultimate clue to the bad guy's identity is in claw marks from one of its attacks. There are groups of 4 and 5 marks - showing that the monster is missing a finger. Maybe it's a long-suffering guardsman who almost always wears metal gauntlets or hides his missing finger behind a shield.
I used to be an adventurer like you, until I took a werewolf bite to the knee
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The Great Race
An eccentric and ultra-wealthy noble (perhaps a former adventurer), sponsors a Great Race type contest. The teams have to travel to various locations, with a riddle or problem to be solved in one location which leads to the next, and so on. Of course, somewhere along the lines, there’s a team ready to cheat.
And maybe the whole thing is actually a smoke screen. Maybe each challenge to be solved or defeated is part of some bizarre ritual, the result of which would be the summoning or freeing of some terrible demon/devil/undead monster/ancient evil. Maybe one team is trying to make sure the ritual succeeds, while another is actively trying to stop it.
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Dwarven Steam Bomb
A small, solid metal container filled with water. Cast heat metal on the container. The extreme temperature converts the water to steam, increasing the pressure in the container until it explodes. Could be done on a small scale, to defend tunnels and chambers. Could also be done on a large scale to attack armies.
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Argis "One Wand" Bulwick is a notorious pirate with a bit of otherworldliness in his blood, granting him some sorcerous talent. Several years ago, he lost his left hand to a rival's sword. He commissioned a dwarven friend to craft a cap for his stump containing a simple clamp into which he could place a wand.
Argis "One Wand" Bulwick is a notorious pirate with a bit of otherworldliness in his blood, granting him some sorcerous talent. Several years ago, he lost his left hand to a rival's sword. He commissioned a dwarven friend to craft a cap for his stump containing a simple clamp into which he could place a wand.
now THIS one I like!
It makes me wonder what happened to his other wand, though.
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Bereng the River Boulder is a guardian of the deep jungle, a massive hippo awakened to sentience years ago by a mysterious figure he remembers only as Bark Father. Bereng prowls the rivers deep in the jungle, protecting other animals and the occasional favored traveler.
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The Brothers Grell
Jonis and Izak Grell, more often simply known as The Brothers Grell, are known for their writing and artwork, respectively. Jonis has created a series of stories about a fantastic realm, meant to entertain children and teach them various life lesssons. Izak is an artist whose paintings are said to be so realistic they practically leap off the page. It has long been rumored that the two brothers worked together with a mysterious wizard to bring to create paintings of the realm from Jonis’ stories – paintings that one could enter and travel through.
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Dannag Stonecaller is a wandering dwarven monk, mystic, and seeker of knowledge. As a youth, he was trapped for four days by a cave-in. During that time, he claims to have had a vision of the fallen Elemental Lord Sairazul, the Crystalline Queen, in which she commanded him to seek out the Moaning Diamond and find a way to free her essence from that prison artifact. Most in hi community considered him to have gone mad. Shortly thereafter, he left home to try and fulfill his quest.
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A river goes over a high cliff at about a 30-40 degree angle, falling into a large, circular lake before continuing on through a narrow channel. The angle of impact of water creates a constant whirlpool in the lake. Rising from the center of this lake is an ancient tower - originally of elvish origin, but now home to a school of wizardy whose headmaster is a devil.
This devil is known only as The Foresworn Devil. The curricula and philosophy he espouses is decidedly neutral. None know his true name, nor whence he came from (other than Hell), nor why he is there.
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Gastell the Tamer is a half-elven ranger living in the wilds. Years ago, after spending several months being hunted and toyed with by a pack of wilderness-dwelling natural werewolves, he went mad. Developing an insane theory that werewolves could, like natural wolves, be domesticated, he began capturing lone werewolves and studying them. He also began studying alchemy, thinking it could hold the key to his eventual goal. His most current research is an attempt to develop an elixir that will reduce any intelligence in a transformed lycanthrope to more of an animal level, while at the same time making the creature more docile. He dwells on the edge of the woods, in a cabin built against a cliff. The cabin is built in front of a cave entrance, and he’s set up various cages within where he keeps his test subjects.
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Dannyr the Forgotten is a bard who once had the bad luck to somehow anger a powerful fey lord. The lord used ancient magic to curse the bard. Now, everywhere Dannyr goes, people enjoy his songs and stories. However, as soon as he leaves, the same people forget any details about the man himself. All they can remember are the songs and stories.....
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Chillspire is the tower home of a mysterious monastic order. It is located on a small island of rock, in the very center of a large, perpetually frozen lake, high in the mountains.
While the lake never completely thaws, the ice does tend to grow thinner during summer months, making it a dangerous trip to reach the tower. During the winter, the ice is much thicker, but the frequent snow storms make it easy to get lost.
Chillspire is the tower home of a mysterious monastic order. It is located on a small island of rock, in the very center of a large, perpetually frozen lake, high in the mountains.
While the lake never completely thaws, the ice does tend to grow thinner during summer months, making it a dangerous trip to reach the tower. During the winter, the ice is much thicker, but the frequent snow storms make it easy to get lost.
the Freehold order has found its home.
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the Freehold order has found its home.Chillspire is the tower home of a mysterious monastic order. It is located on a small island of rock, in the very center of a large, perpetually frozen lake, high in the mountains.
While the lake never completely thaws, the ice does tend to grow thinner during summer months, making it a dangerous trip to reach the tower. During the winter, the ice is much thicker, but the frequent snow storms make it easy to get lost.
It was inspired by a picture I saw this morning from Earth Porn.
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The Lake of Bones sits at the center of a small, desolate valley deep in the mountains. Nothing grows in the valley, and only a few dead trees reach their skeletal branches towards the sky. No animals make their home here, only insects and a few decrepit looking birds. The waters of the Lake of Bones are unusually still, and rising from the ground next to it is a single, rune-carved column of white rock. On certain nights, these runes glow with a pale orang light. The only things that move in the water are the skeletons of hundreds of fish – reanimated, but by what or whom no one can say.
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The Sea Song Tavern was established many years ago by a retired sailor, and is now run by his grandson. On the mantle over the fireplace, hangs a battered piece of hull with what appears to be the symbol of Desna burned into it. The old sailor had also been a devout worshipper of the goddess, and claims she saved his life when a ship on which he sailed caught fire during a storm by making sure the board landed near him so he would have something to cling to. What's more, the old sailor also claimed the board, from that day forward, acted as a good luck charm for him and whatever crew he served with. Certainly, there might be some truth to his claims, as the remainder of his career was quite save and successful. He retired with enough wealth and health to establish his inn.
From that day to this, many sailors have visited the inn and it's famous piece of flotsam. Most pay honor to the goddess or say a quick prayer while touching the wood. Many have claimed to then have good luck in their subsequent voyage.
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The Shattered Lamp of Al-Azad
This Major artificat was once the lamp prison of a genie. During a battle between the lamp's owner and a powerful demon lord, the lamp was crushed by the demons power, killing the genie contained within and infusing the pieces of the broken lamp with its magical essence. The destruction also scattered the pieces across the planes, with rumors should they ever be gahered together, the lamp would repair itself and the resurrected genie would emerge to seek vengeance against the demon lord.
The powers of the various pieces are varied, but among them are supposedly the ability to grant wishes and summon Edimmu. Scholars who have studied the artifact also report that some fragments seem to change powers over the years.
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Korol the Shaper
Rumored to have been born into a noble family, Korol is a druid and artist, known for using stone and plant sculptures to teach about nature and occasionally as rewards to those who aid him or perform some task. His sculptures typically consist of large blocks of stone with delicate, near-invisible lines creating a pattern across the surfaces. He then causes vines and other plant life to grow into these patterns, creating visible pictures that tell some story or impart some lesson (or both).
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The Lightening Isles are a pair of small, mountainous islands whose position and geography create a narrow, lightening-shaped channel between them. The area around the islands is the frequent target of powerful storms, lending credence to the rumor that the islands are home to a family of powerful sorcerers tied closely to the elemental planes of air and water.
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It would be interesting to analyze the historical development of dwarven weaponry. Some of their early tools - hammers and picks - would have probably been the first adapted as common weapons. How might that have lead to swords and axes? I could see an axe being a sort of cross between a hammer and sword, I suppose. How might they have first gotten swords? Maybe they came across swords of other races, then adapted and improved upon them.
Are blue jays on Golarion called blue jays? Or are they known by what should be their name: blue-feathered a~+##*$s of the sky?
This. Yes.
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I was thinking, a bit earlier, about what a College of Engineering might look like in the Golarion setting; what kind of subjects would be studied:
- Siege Engines, fortifications (and how to get through/around them)
- Roads, buildings, city walls, sewers, maybe even some viaducts
- Smithing, armoring, some minor mechanisms (clocks, winches, for example), metallurgy
- specialist study on how to produce equipment used by wizards/alchemists
- alchemists already seem to have a strong dose of chemical engineer, so you might conceivably find some of that studying going onAnd, of course, you'd have to have at least one, if not several dwarves on the staff.....
Revisiting this, each graduate of this school would receive a simple magical ring with their own personal seal imbedded in it. They can use it to mark their work with seals/runes/stamps/emblems that are permanent and difficult to fake.
Cool!
A 'Get out of being eaten free' Card! ;)
Thanks!
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The Tower of the Falls is a slender tower whose tip is of larger diameter, creating an overhang from which water cascades down all sides, forming a large, circular pool. A slender bridge arches from the edge of the pool, glass covered for most of its length to keep those traversing it dry. It ends at a decorative silver door some 20 feet from the water's surface. The tower is home to a mysterious family of elves, rumored to be allied to a powerful elemental lord.
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Blessed Lake and the Isle of Hunger
A secluded valley deep in the hills holds a small lake whose waters are always calm and extraordinarily refreshing. At the center of the lake sits a lone, barren island, covered in dead trees and teeming with pallid and emaciated figures. The lake is shallow, and the distance from island to shore is not all that great. The figures on the island are ghouls - no one knows how they get there. They have no food and are starving. Occasionally they fall on one or more weaker residents and devour them. Yet there numbers never seem to suffer and serious decrease. The reason they do not try to swim from the island is because the water's of the lake are Holy Water (hence the name).
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Just saw a trailer for a horror movie called Clown. It's about some dude who finds and puts on this clown outfit for his son's birthday, only to be unable to take it off. Then the outfit turns out to be the skin of a demon (or something like that), and starts to change him.
Got me thinking - something like that would be a cool minor (or maybe even major) artifact. Some Hellknight Armor that's actually the skin of some powerful devil. Whoever puts it on, slowly becomes the devil.