Island of the Madling: Part 2.1, South of SSaur, Weather and Hazards.

Part 1
Part 2

The Wasted Plain and beyond, continued.

Tundra and sub-glacial areas are often exceedingly dry; however, the same process* that results in the drainage which fills Lake Brood and, in turn feeds the River Sphere, holds the Würm in check and results in a fairly constant level of humidity and precipitation in the region surrounding Ssaur.

Note: The Rüinlands calendar is a simple affair. There are 10 months each of 35 days. A buffer period of roughly 15 days (taken up by The Festival of Promadealus**) is situated between the end of one year and the beginning of the next. Years are not numbered or otherwise counted, but named after animals. The months are numerically named thus: Onemonth, Twomonth and so on through Tenmonth. The first day of Onemonth is coincident with the spring equinox. However, aside from the gradually lengthening days, the true effects of spring are not felt, during most years, until towards end of Twomonth. Summer is in full swing by the second or third week of Threemonth. The weather turns cold near the end of Fivemonth or the beginning of Sixmonth. Winter begins a month earlier and ends approximately half month later in the mountains.

There are only two discernible seasons in the Ssaur region, summer and winter. Spring and autumn come and goes so quickly that they are hardly noticeable. The soil of the wasted plain never thaws beyond a depth of 6-8 inches even in the hottest years.

* the exact nature of the process is unknown. Some scholars postulate that the heat from a natural magma vent, contained somewhere within the vast expanse of the Würm, erodes the glacier at about the same rate that it grows. Others believe that an ancient weather control station (similarly located) performs an identical function.

** This is basically a winter festival, characterized by overeating/drinking and gift giving; the significance of the name is unknown.

Weather checks:

Summer (Check twice daily) 1d6: 1-2 rain. 3: Cool and dry. 4-5: Warm and dry. 6: Hot and dry.

Winter (Check three times daily) 1d6- 1-2: clear & cold; 3: cold & snowing (1/2 move). 4: Really cold & snowing (1/3 move). 5: Blizzard- (1/4-0 move) characters may be snowbound. 6. Freak weather (referee’s discretion).

Note: blizzard conditions should continue for 1d4 days, obviating the need for further weather checks during this time.

Hazards:

Summer:

Insect bites: All living creatures crossing through the Dire hills or the Wasted Plain during the summer months are accompanied by a personal cloud of biting, stinging, feeding and breeding insects. Characters without adequate protection, during summer will lose 1d3 hit points a day to insects bites.

Bugway Grease, is a foul smelling, bug repellant salve for sale in Ssaur (and it can sometimes be found in Shards as well). A supply sufficient to protect an individual for one week costs roughly 10gp in Ssaur and twice that in Shards. A character with the forage proficiency, access to a forest and a supply of animal grease can gather the materials to make four times this amount for 1gp in 1d3+1 days. The grease itself takes four days to cook. This process is extremely odiferous, and if done anywhere within the walls Ssaur, besides the Horn, it will result in an arrest and a level 1 punishment.

Boilfly Fever: Many species of biting insects lay eggs in the soil, just above the permafrost layer, prior to the onset of winter. These eggs hatch in the early spring, inflicting three months of stinging agony upon the inhabitants of the plain and any other creatures unfortunate enough to find themselves there.

Successful boilflies, however, lay their eggs within the body of a living host during the final weeks of summer. The host then contracts boilfly fever. If the fever is fatal, and it often is, the corpse of the host usually freezes with the onset of winter. When the thaw comes in the spring the boilfly larva eat their way out of the host, and spend their summer much like the other insects of the tundra, feeding on aurochs and other beasts. Despite the fact that only eggs lain at the end of summer are likely to survive the winter intact, boilflies mate constantly and are always on the look out for a living host in which to deposit their eggs.

For every day spent on the plain, without being smeared in bugway grease, characters have a 2 in 6 chance of being bitten by a pregnant boilfly. Characters bitten must make a saving throw. Failure results in coming down with boilfly fever in 1d4 days, at which point another saving throw can be made. Failure of the second saving throw results in a coma and death in 1d6+1 days. The disease can be cured by a cure disease spell any time after the first failed ST. If the second ST is successful, the character must make one further ST in order to successfully fight off the disease; otherwise they will fall into a coma and die in 1d6+1 days.

Due to their scales Lizardmen receive a +5 to all initial Saving Throws vs. boilfly fever. the second saving throw, however, is made as normal.

Winter:

Freezing to death: Each day that a character spends out in the harsh conditions of the tundra or high country winter, they run the risk of freezing to death. The weather attacks the character, treating their constitution as armor class (ascending). If the attack is successful, the character must make a ST. A failed ST results in a temporary loss of 1 pt of constitution. The next day the weather attack will be against this lowered number. Three successful attacks and the character falls in to a incoherent state and dies in 1d10 hours- if not gotten to shelter. Sufficiently warm cloths provide a +4 to ST vs. Freezing. Due to their thick coats, Sasquatch characters receive a +5 to all STs vs. Freezing.

All lost Constitution points can be regained (1d6 hours per point) once the character gain access to a sheltered environment.

Well, we’ll get to those Mammoths and mammoth men (and some other critters) next time. This one went off in an unforeseen direction...

Madling Island 2

Before you can die on Madling Island, you must get there alive...

Part one is here.
Note 1- click on the pic for a larger image,

Note -2 links to Ssaur, The Forgotten Depths, and The Tower of the Changer can be found on the left, I did not link them again in the post.

Madling Island 2

Getting there and reasons to go:

Getting there

Preliminaries: reasons to go.

In my one on one face-to-face Metal Earth play test we’re about a session or two away from Madling Island right now. I wont force the issue, of course, but Scott (my player) has already taken his Shae sorcerer and henchmen (Two Minotaur adventurers and a Grey) through the Tower of the Changer and down into the Forgetten Depth (and found the teleportation pool back to Ssaur located in Hex 0703 of the Depths). He’s in the city right now, but I’m pretty sure his lust for magical treasure will goad him to the island as soon as he hears a rumor of it- which will be at the beginning of the next session.

As for how he got to the Tower of the Changer in the first place, at the beginning of our first session, I simply handed him a cruder version of the map above (hard to believe such a thing could exist, but it does) and said, “You left Ssaur several days ago, searching for a pathway in to a fabled hidden land that is supposedly rich in magical treasure; you’ve been dodging a band of Mammoth Men for three days and you’re just about out of food, You see a tower high up on the side of a mountain to the west.”

This above is pretty good example of my preferred method with which to start a campaign; it saves me from an evening of, “So you are all in a tavern,” which I find extremely painful. Furthermore, once the initial session (or two) is over (we played the Tower and the beginning of the forgotten depths in roughly 5 hours total play time) the players are likely to have a pretty good feel for the basics of the setting and some sort of idea of what to do next.

However, I am aware that not everyone likes to do things this way. And, although, I am doubtful anyone is actually going to use any of this material ‘as is’ I feel compelled to offer some alternatives to my rather draconian and ham-fisted starting procedure.

1. Characters are lost somewhere southwest of Ssaur. They spot the tower. The party comes up with its own reason for being there.
2. In Ssaur, there is an unnamed wine shop along the wall that divides Market Town from the Horn. The shop is frequented by members of all the races that can gain entry to the city, and by many lower and middle class Shae. Higher caste Shae will occasionally patronize the place while in disguise. One such individual, a Shae woman of obvious wealth and breeding approaches the party and offers to pay them a large sum of gold (referee’s discretion) to recover the body of her son Aldra, who 20 years ago ventured into the forgotten Depths in search of a fabled island supposedly stocked with treasure. She will give the players a copy of the map above- or one very much like it- whatever, it’s up to you (obviously).
3. The payers are caravan guards. You know what to do.
4. The players otherwise acquire the map (e.g. they buy it; win it in a card game; inherit it, or find it on the victim of a mugging).
5. The players find the abandon temple in Ssaur that contains the teleportation pool to Hex 0703 and start exploring the depths.
6. Some combination of the above.

I’m sure I could come with some more, but I’m sure that everyone reading this can as well.

Features of the Map:

The map features an area of indeterminate scale located to the southwest of the great city of Ssaur. The level of accuracy and the scale of the map are matters best decided by the individual referee. If one looks at the larger setting map, the scale and accuracy of which are also unknown at this time, one will see there is plenty of room to move on both of these issues. As a point of information, in my own game, I have decided not to decide- and I feel really, really fucking good about it.

Ssaur: soon to be remapped and updated, but the current version, available on the left, is close enough for now.

The Tower: in my game this is the Tower of the Changer. You must do as you will, of course.

The Long Stair: a leagues long, monster infested, storm prone, stairway cut in to the living rock. It leads to the Tower.

The City in the Mist: in my game this is the ruin located in Hex 0301 of the Forgotten Depths, it’s also probably important to mention that the scale of this map is completely out of whack with reality in my game. Anyway, I am eventually going to detail this location, but if you wish to use it in the meantime you are on your own, which is kind of nifty, really.

The Dire Hills and The Wasted Plain: both of these regions are dominated by large herds of dangerous herbivores and blood thirsty hominids known as the Mammoth Men.

The River Sphere: a wide, frigid and fast flowing river. Plied by steamships, manaships and barges, but also plagued by mutant pirates.

Next time: Critters- including, but not limited to, Dire Mammoth and Mammoth Men (neither will be quite what you expect, I assure you) as well as the legendary one eyed monster mammoth and terror of the wasted plain: Squint. Also, some encounter and weather tables for the region southwest of Ssaur.

Ssaur

Ssaur is one of the oldest extant cities on Xurk (the north continent) It is, and has always been the main home of the Shae. the city is divided into four districts, and can only be entered from the outside from the eastern most district: the Horn. Movement between districts is highly regulated. Only Shae, Lizardmen, and Greys are allowed to venture outside of the Horn. Humans are not allowed into the city at all except for in very special circumstances. The island upon which the city is built is generally very hilly; altitude increases sharply as one moves to the west; Stairs are as common as streets in the two lower most districts. Streets and stairs are absent from The Arbors and the High city both- these districts are restricted to higher caste Shae and their servants (mostly lower caste Shae). A closed network of Teleportation disks is the main method of conveyance in these areas.



Demographics:
Population: 25k
20% Shae
10% Lizard men
10% Grey
10% Mongrel
40% Minotaur
10% other



Districts:

The Horn:
The lowermost area of the city is rundown and extremely overcrowded. It contains both entrances to the cities Agricultural caverns (referred to as the Greenshaft), and most of the residents are employed in food production. Hron (similar to manatee, but domesticated) are raised in pools located on the lowermost levels of the Greenshaft. Crime is rife here, and injustice is the norm. A huge Tyrannical Minotaur named Braxis manages the Greenshaft for his Shae masters, and subsequently rules the Horn itself.

The streets of the Horn are little more than muddy alleys winding between closely packed ramshackle buildings of wood, mudbrick and wattle.

The stink is so bad the locals have given it a name: The Waft. Characters who hole up in the horn for any length of time will carry the smell of it (one part bovine, one part rancid vegetable, three parts rotten fish, four parts unknown) for 3-8 days (1d6+2). Furthermore characters who have been there for over a week, will have to make perception (or equivalent) to even know that they smell that bad. Entering other districts of the city smelling of the waft is against the law and will lead to a Level One reprimand (see below). Entering the Haunted wood stinking of the Waft is the equivalent to offering a dinner invitation to every hungry predator within several leagues.


Market Town:
Market Town is where most of the city's business takes place. Higher class artisans and merchants (mostly low caste Shae) live here. The granite cobbled streets are patrolled by squads of Shae guards. Market Town is an exponentially more pleasant place than the Horn. Indoor plumbing is the norm and there are several (racially segregated) public baths. That said, it is far, far easier to get arrested in Market Town. The Circle (the city's ruling oligarchy) has a much firmer grip on Market Town than it does on the Horn, and their wishes are largely carried out by the guard commander and high judge (a Lizard Man) Korid Firescale. However there is a thriving black market in Hron meat (especially the bacon-like Glisglis), magic/tech items and green lingerie.

There is a working Teleportation pool in a disused temple. It leads to similar pool in Shards. Some trade is carried out between the two cities utilizing the pool, but the tariff is so high that many merchants prefer the risks of using one of the thrice yearly caravans to convey their goods.

The Arbors:
The Arbors is a lovely wooded residential area filled with circular clusters of Shae roundhouses. Magically Tame animals and monsters roam at will- and enforce the peace. Shae belonging to the highest seven castes (there are 24 total) live here. There are roughly thirty families livng in the Horn. The members of the so called "Overcaste" are selected from these families- this designation is usually based on Magical ability. Entering the Arbors without special permission will result in an instant Level three punishment (see below).

The High City:
Similar in many ways to the Arbors, The High City is the home of the Overcaste, or the Circle, the city's ruling elite. Members of this "non-caste" and their immediate families are considered to have transcended caste distinction. They display their unconcern for such things by eschewing the color green in their garments and domiciles and living in elaborate rectilinear houses, some of which even have scandalous and decadent features such as stairs and windows. Members of the Circle are Powerful sorcerers
.
A huge Ziggarut juts above all the other structures in the High City. It is rumored to be older than the city itself. No one, not even members of the Circle, ever talks about it.



The Law:
Sumptuary Laws:
Non Shae are prohibited from living in round structures, owning magic/tech items, anything green (or made from jade), using wheeled carts, congregating in groups of twelve or more and eating Hron (see below) meat. Religion is not completely outlawed, but it is generally frowned upon by most of the city's residents from high to low- as is common all over the ME.

Criminal Law
The Horn is ruled by the law of the jungle, but in the other sections of the city it is really easy to get arrested; guard captains are authorized to pronounce sentence on the spot, and the punishments are harsh to say the least. These punishments come in three varieties:

Level 1: (social impropriety censure). If you talk to loud, smell bad, commit an act of rudeness against a Shae (or sometimes a Lizard Man) or are found in Market Town when you shouldn't be there, you receive a level one punishment. This consists of 10 lashes, six months of penal servitude in the Greenshaft (usually involving the most dangerous work, and branding with a fool's mark (on the ass).

Level 2: (petty theft, murder of a non-Shae, unauthorized possession of contraband) Same as above, except it's a year in the Greenshaft, the brand goes on the transgressor's forehead, and the criminal is expelled into the wilderness at the close of the sentence, forbidden to return to Ssaur.

Level 3: (Grand theft, public drunkeness, murder or assault of a Shae or any of their agents, wearing green in public) Simply put they drop you down into the so called bottomless pit on the Isle of Solitude. No one has ever returned; therefore branding and flogging are considered redundant.