Wednesday, February 14, 2018

20 Quick Questions for Your Campaign Setting Answered

For fun I decided to write up my answers Jeff Rients's "20 Quick Questions for Your Campaign Setting", the original post you can find here. I'll be back to my megadungeon thing, encounter tables, races, and monsters presently.






  1. What is the deal with my cleric's religion?

    That depends on what religion you chose for your cleric and possibly what race the character is. Each of the eight goddesses have multiple aspects and can be worshipped in several ways themselves or as part of a personal pantheon. There are also innummerable demigods, mainly monstrous hyper-magical creatures, that could be your choice of god. There are many villages protected and dominated by demigod beasts where the creature is the focus of the local religion as well. Each choice will imply a different “holy person” class.
     
  2. Where can we go to buy standard equipment?

    Equipment can be found in most fortified villages with minimal effort, but their selection will be limited, each of the seven great cities has more goods and services than anyone could ask for, standard equipment will be easy to find.

  3. Where can we go to get platemail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended?

    In the great cities there is likely a business that specializes in this very thing and the trick is finding it, and paying their insane prices. If there isn't find yourself an armorer, get friendly, and get your coinpurse out because this is going to cost you so much gold.

  4. Who is the mightiest wizard in the land?

    Jaea the Manufact is a luminary among the group called the Children and the creator of their extradimensional campus colloquially refered to as “the Egg”. She is known to possess more raw magical power than anyone else in Booezor, though her energies are devoted to her new creations and maintaining the Egg.
     
  5. Who is the greatest warrior in the land?

    The Three Speakers who are the Speaker of the Tangle, the Speaker of the Vast, and the Speaker of the Peaks are each master rangers who represent their ecological areas. All three are inhabited by ancient nature spirits, and whenever one is bested their speakerhood and the spirit pass to the victor. All three are said to be invincible in battle within the lands they speak for.


  6. Who is the richest person in the land?

    The wealthiest individual in the continent is Ovocil, the unseen ruler of the subterranean city of Soec.  Ovocil mandates gate fees and a tax on all transactions, the city's resources are all at his command.  What purpose this amazing material wealth serves to Ovocil is as great a mystery as his appearance.

  7. Where can we go to get some magical healing? 
    Only some of the priests of the goddesses and demigods have the ability to magically cure wounds, and the most benevolent of them is Immacula, the goddess of rain and seeds. Shrines and temples to Immacula are the friendliest in any city, and the payment required for their services usually takes the form of small gems and rare seeds.

  1. Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions: poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, polymorph, alignment change, death, undeath?

    See above... except for “alignment change”. I don't normally mess with alignment change, and if I did you wouldn't solve that problem by finding a priest.

  2. Is there a magic guild my MU belongs to or that I can join in order to get more spells?

    Not really, wizards naturally distrust each other so organizations of them are very rare. You will not begin the game as part of one of these groups. Joining the Children, the Numismagi, or the Beetle Mages is a worthy character goal, and any group has unique spells to offer.

  3. Where can I find an alchemist, sage or other expert NPC?

    In any one of the seven great cities you will find such professionals, though Booezor boasts the most sages. Any village has a base ten-percent chance to have a single expert.

  4. Where can I hire mercenaries?

    Whereever you can find a whole bunch of people, a few will do nearly anything for money. Most hires are going to want to know specifics about the work, almost everyone has things they will not do.

  5. Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law?

    There are many isolated villages with strange rules. That said, only Tauk Toma the ancient temple city of the goboda bars weapons, and only Booezor (effectively) bars the public use of dangerous magic. The underground city of Soec demands a consistent toll of passage, taxes goods, and bribes to officials are a good idea. The twin cities of Anderside and Kraoshd can be similarly if not as effectively tolled and taxed, but the situation in each is always in flux.

  6. Which way to the nearest tavern?

    Where are you? Maybe seven hundred and fifty miles east or westward, maybe just down the street past the buskers, maybe three miles straight up through jet black stone.

  7. What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous?

    Now that is a tricky one. This is a monster and megafauna filled world, one would need to take down a creature so stupidly huge that it could eat a whole caravan (a Kitemouth or a Gorefex), some kind of unique named nature spirit, one of the innumerable demigod beasts, or one of the Nine Titans if one wanted the sort of fame that echoes from coast to coast. This is not to say that a person who can battle an andrewsarchus or an Elder'lisk one on one won't become known locally, but that's not fame.

  8. Are there any wars brewing I could go fight?

    No. Amassing an army and transporting it the huge, monster-filled distances between the seven great cities is impossible. Many people believe that the aerial insect slavers called the Shem will return en masse from their Crystal Hive on Shemna Island and take (or take back) the people's cities however, that'd be a hell of a war.

  9. How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes?

    Soec, the underground City of Monsters boasts numerous private arenas, each with a different theme and various events. Unfortunately in Soec, corruption means more matches are rigged than anywhere else, though the city's mysterious leader Ovocil supposedly has no interest in the fights beyond his tithe. More arenas can be found in the twin cities of Anderside and Kraoshd when their mad politics allow, and in the jungle city Fasinadas in the fasinaa First Realm. Finally, in the magic city of Booezor there are at least half a dozen Arena Spheres, some public some private. The spheres are large, inscribed stone arches that project a nearly transparent field of force that nullies magic and bars passage, and allow a crowd to observe a wizard contest in safety. 
     
  10. Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and/or fight?

    The Cult of the Black Sun are fanatical eclipse worshippers who of course, curse the light, sacrifice the unwilling, and work towards triggering an extinction event level permanent eclipse and guiding a new society in the darkness. They are the most known “secret society”, but all cities have at least one.

  11. What is there to eat around here?

    Plenty! Recognizable and unrecognizable foods with a greater selection as prices increase, abundant meats, root vegetables, fish, some grains, a huge variety of fruit, milk... from things, eggs, etc. Elk, antelope, diprotodon, moa, indricotherium, crocodile, turtle, and small bird are the most commonly eaten meats.  I have an equipment table that includes live animals and animal meat and byproduct prices that's nearly done.

  12. Any legendary lost treasures I could be looking for?

    Beneath Booezor lies the arch-ancient megadungeon called the Foabeléth Ordirrex, and at its lowest point is fabled to be the Inverted Throne, an artifact that will make the seated a king and provide the kingdom.
     
  13. Where is the nearest dragon or other monster with Type H treasure 
    Again not sure where exactly you are, this is a big place, but here are some examples.
    Shreenzepan the Jeweled Talon is the eldest kyanbolo (bird dragon) in the area around the way- town Sradahath, the smartest, and the most dangerous. Beyond the jewellery and magic items it wears on its talons in the kyanbolo way, it has a secret lair somewhere in the mountains. 
    Any of the semi-invisible flying mega-predators called a Kitemouth are likely to have a hoard of accidentally swallowed treasure inside their tremendous, and very long stomachs.
    Older Wood Wyrms, a kind of green forest dragon with vegetation growing from their backs, also swallow masses of treasure to keep in their crop or merely because they like it.
    And as always, there are many villages who worship and/or are controlled by power creatures, some benevolent, some less so. Such creatures often have a great hoard of treasure, often supplied and originally owned by their villagers.





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