INTRODUCTION
This is the tentpole-megadungeon* game I hoped to run before
I turn 50, trying to use all the gaming skills I’ve developed since 1982 to run
the sort of game I was trying to run in, well, 1984. A Tentpole-Megadungeon is a
game set in a dungeon so big it’s not reasonable to expect the PCs to clear out
every room as it has internal ecologies, cultures and agents that keep it a
living rather than static environment. Tentpole versions of these are campaigns
where what the PCs uncover in that dungeon influences the whole setting and can
keep the players occupied for the whole of the campaign, with trips to places
outside the dungeon to break up the action or pursue clues.
13TH AGE GAME MECHANICS
I am suppressing my tendency to wildly edit game
mechanics. The only change is that High Elves no longer have a Teleport power
because it’s not in keeping with the AD&D 1E aesthetic of the game setting.
It’s been replaced with “Thou Shall Not Hinder Me”, which are flashes of
badassosity that throw your opponent off stride, letting you disengage from
close combat without a chance of getting hit. Otherwise, all the mechanics in
the 13th Age core book stand as written.
ICONS OF THE CIRCLE SEA
I’m ditching the default setting for an updated version
of my High School D&D game. This meant changing up some of the Icons to fit
the setting.
(The original icons are here http://site.pelgranepress.com/files/13thAge_Chapter_One.pdf)
Player Characters start with 3 points of Icon
relationships that determine how often the character gets a benefit from their
relation to the icon. These relationships can be positive (the Icon or its
agency actively helps you out because they like you), mixed (they help you out
but maybe just because you share the same enemies) or negative (other people
who hate the icon help you out, or you know enough about the Icon to have an
advantage in thwarting their schemes). Obviously, the PC heroes have more
positive relations with the Good icons and negative relations with the Bad
ones. In any event, here are the Icons of the Circle Sea
Archmage: High Elf wizard & adviser to the True King;
he left for an age and it all fell apart. He's trying to rebuild it, chasing
rumors of a lost heir and looking for new Valiant for the Isles. He's a Merlin
figure, with a bit of Gandalf mixed in - capable of vast power, but relying on
subtlety. (Good)
Crusader: A Paladin of the Last King (and the True King
before that), he will cross any line to hold off chaos in the Isles of
Humanity, and builds a new Valiant in his soul-scarred image. Imagine if Sir
Agravaine was Camelot's last survivor and guiltily overcompensating to make up
for his failings. (???)
Dwarf King: The Guildmaster has enticed the Dwarves from the
Underdark to again have wide trade relations with the Isles. This brings great
wealth, old resentments and new risks. Deals made with Dwarves are almost
always profitable, but they are demanding employers. (???)
Elf Queen: In the North she weaves the three strands of
Elves and an alliance with Humanity, but the pattern is tangled with no True
King and the Drow carving a new empire in the Northwest as the Western Empire
collapses. She needs reliable agents, but sometimes mortals are sacrifice pawns. (???)
Grandfather of Assassins: The name is a lie; the Old Man
and his disciples are willing to take anything, including your life, if the
price is right. The only thing they won't steal is your freedom. The
Guildmaster hopes that the Grandfather can be bribed to oppose the Slave Guild.
The Slavers would buy his neutrality. (???) [replaces Prince of Shadows]
Great Gold Wyrm: Since the time before time the Wyrm has
sealed the Rift that both fuels all magic and would destroy the world if
opened. Its dreams inspire all mortals to make a better world. Alliance with
his Icon allows both following a generic 'good' but also getting involved in the affairs of dragons.
(Good)
Guildmaster: When the Last King's deception was revealed,
the Guilds took the reins of government in the Isles. Some say it is better,
some worse; all agree it is better than chaos. Mankind is in a transition from
Feudal Monarchy to Guild Capitalism; whether is stops before brutal oligarchy is unclear. (Good)
[replaces the Emperor]
High Druid: Three Ages ago the Druids were driven from
the Western Empire, which has now suffered ecological collapse. The High Druid
needs agents to keep the Isles stable as she deals with this crisis (which is
already feeding a Drow empire to the Northwest) (???)
Lich King: A threat for Ages, his destruction ended the
11th age. Now, with the Valiant destroyed, there are troubling signs that
either other Evil Undead and Wizards view for his title, or the Original Lich
King is reformed and awakening his cabals, cults and agents. (Bad)
The Slave Lords: This guild trades in, and profits by,
mortal misery. They have many customers: secret plantations and mines on the
Isles of man, the Southern Orc tribes of the Pirate Queen, the growing Drow
empire. Their ultimate goal is corruption of the Guildmaster to an oligarchy of
mortals as property. (Bad) [Replaces the Diabolist]
Pirate Queen: An Orc Maid who hears the voices of the gods of chaos, her fleet
comes from the South to plunder the
Isles, divide them an ultimately destroy them. She's an Orcish Joan of Arc
being advised by demonic forces to destroy Mortal civilization. (Bad) [Replaces
the Orc Lord]
Priestess: A lifetime of revelations united the voices of
the Gods of Light - the elvish Ancestor-Spirits, Baldur's kin in the East,
Kukulcan and others in the West, in one woman. Her devotion holds the Circle
Sea together in this age, but she has no heir. Will one be found? Or the
Priestess reborn? (Good)
The Three: Ages ago the greed and power of Dragons drove
the Dwarves under the Circle Sea. With the Dwarves returning, the Dragons stir
as well, searching for gold and power. The Red will rely on brute force, the
Black on its cults, the Blue on sorcery, but all have their greed. (Bad)
GEOGRAPHY
The Circle Sea isn’t exactly a circle, but cartography
isn’t a developed science yet, so the circle idea holds.
To the North are the Elven lands, where the Elf Queen
tries to hold together an alliance of her ageless and sorcery-fueled High Elf
brethren, the Wood Elves who are weighted down with divided loyalties with the
High Druid and doomsday-laden prophecies, and the Dark Elves, who are carving
out an empire in the chaos to the Northwest.
To the West is the Western Empire, a land populated y
elves, orcs, half elves and half orcs that built a technologically advanced
culture of cities and agriculture that thrived in part by ignoring the High
Druid. Facing starvation and ecological collapse as their overworked land gave
up any hope of crops, they are fleeing to the Northwest, into the arms of the
Drow. The High Druid and her allies have bent almost the whole of their
attention on saving the land, if not the people.
To the South are the Orc Lands, chaotic and wild jungles,
unforgiving pampas and fierce diseases. The Orcs were driven here by the elves
in the first Ages of the world, and many hold deep grudges. An Orcish Maid is
hearing voices of chaotic gods and is leading many of her people to form a
Pirate Army to scourge the Circle Sea. Many suspect they are being aided by the
Slavers Guild, who are profiting mightily in these chaotic times.
To the East are the Isles of Humanity. In the 5th age
these Isles were the landing place of Those From Beyond The Sunrise, men with
skin like bone and metal, most of whose faces were wreathed in flame. A
renegade had stolen the wife of one of the Sunrise People’s nobles, and the
chase ended in these isles with their dragons sunk into the sea and no way
home. The Sunrise People took brides from those of the isles, and they became
Humans. The noble, called Courage, and his wife, Grace, were the first True
King and Queen, and they shared the gifts of Those From Beyond The Sunrise -
wheels, horses, pigs, the language of Wizardry, and many others. This was the
True Kingdom.
THE HISTORY OF HUMANITY
Humanity came to the Circle Sea in the 8th Age, (as the
Western Empire measures the ages) with the arrival of those from the Lands
Beyond the Sunrise. The quest to recover the stolen Grace brought Courage and
his followers here, but in the chase their dragons were sunk into the sea. With
no way home Courage’s men took brides amongst the Shankill Isles folk, and thus
started the race of Humanity. Courage had assumed the features of the Isles
Folk, with raven-black hair and a visible face, but his men had faces wreathed
in fire, and Grace was surrounded by a halo of sunlight. All had skin the color
of bone, and skin that could not be pierced by blades.
Their son (the first True King, Arn) and the children of
the other unions, looked more like the elves and orcs with every generation,
but as they often sport ice blue or verdant green eyes, pale or ginger hair,
and beards among the men that rival a dwarf’s, you can always tell a Human.
(And if their skin is no longer invulnerable, their armors are superior...)
Courage and Grace brought with them many things - the
secrets of wheat and the wheel, the pig and the horse, riddles of steel that
rivaled a dwarf, and most importantly a new language for Wizardry. The Archmage
had been a Sorcerer among the High Elves who had developed wizardry as an art
with the Western Empire as they developed the first language of wizardry, being
able to bind their memories so that other wizards can see what they saw, learn
what they learned, feel what they felt even when the wizard was ages dead. When
the Archmage met Courage he learned that the Blood Bay Prince had studied with
the Archmage of the Sunrise Lands. Courage taught the Archmage the new language
of wizardry, and the Archmage put it to good use, spreading this new power
among the isles so that Human Wizards kept as great an edge as Human fighters
did with their weapons and horses.
Courage also treated with the Dwarf King, and the trade
of wheat and ale for masonry and metal brought the isles castles and cities,
blades and armor, gold and prosperity - this treaty lasted until the Dragons
drove the Dwarves back into the Underdark to avoid their depredations. He made
alliances with the Elf Queen with the Archmages aid, trading promises of mutual
protection and the two cultures sharing their arts magical and musical. The
Half Elf Bard is the child of this union. Courage made treaties with the Orc
Chiefs, but none would last with those chaotic people. There was always the
risk of war with the Orcs.
And so the True Kings ruled wisely and well for the 8th
through 11th ages. Then, in the 12th age, while the Archmage was away, a
courtier at King Gawain II’s court swapped his child for the rightful heir in
the hours after birth. The poor child, not of the true blood, faltered as king,
ruling unwisely. Only one of the Valiant, the True King’s knights, discovered
what had happened, but held his tongue as he feared the revelation would split
the Valiant, the courts and the country. Perhaps he made the right decision.
But the kingdom fell, the Last King engaging in a litany false ideas compounded
by bad judgments and concluding with treasonous acts against the Kingdom. The
Last King sundered the Shankill Isles government, and of the Valiant only the
one who held his tongue, now called the Crusader, survived. He is now, perhaps,
mad and will save Humanity even if it means burning down every village in the
isles.
The Guildmasters seized control to hold the chaos at bay,
and the 13th age has seen their rule fo the Shankill Isles, some good, some
bad. The Guildmaster has enticed the Dwarf King back to the surface for the
betterment of both races, which may again draw the Dragons to end them both as
well. He has ships trading among every isle to improve every distant outpost,
but there are so many that the Pirate Queen has arisen among the Orcs to prey
on them. The guilds try to govern with the best of intentions, but the Slavers
Guild now entices them with the high profit of human misery. And in all such
times, there are rumors of the heir, the lost True King or his children,
somewhere in the Isles. The Archmage, the Crusader and the Guildmaster all
search of that child, and all for their own reasons.
And this is the history of the Five Ages of Man in the
Circle Sea, and of the Islands in which we set our tale.
THE ISLES OF HUMANITY, SHANKILL ISLE AND MORDHA TOWN
The Isles of Humanity are a temperate to tropical island
chain where each island has variations on a shared culture and language. To the
north are the Elvish lands (where non-elves do not go) and to the south is a
vast desert empire. The Isles trade between these powers and amongst
themselves. Once each island was its own dutchy with dynasties of knights and
wizards but with the fall of the Last King wealth comes from trade, fishing and
some farming. Family manors, crypts and castles of the large islands interiors
are left to rot in the pursuit of trade.
The second largest isle, Shankill, is a trade center, a
city state with an extensive fleet, a sizable military force and the oldest
church on the isles. It also has the most abandoned properties on the interior
which many a rogue and sell-sword have looted over the decades. The mythical
crown jewel of these is the ruins of Mordha Castle: once home of the isle’s
ruling dynasty, built over the mine that was the Mordha‘s source of income.
This was wounded when the Dwarves withdrew, and weakened again when the Lich
King, to whom there were rumors of Mordha allegiance, died at the hands of
Cathoris of Haven,
The Mordha, led by wizard Malcolm, tried many stratagems
to prevent a loss of familial power all to no avail. Mordha Castle fell from
the mountain in an earthquake after decades of scrambling for power. This was
the end of the Mordha family’s struggle to keep power even as their chivalry
fell to rot. The debris of the castle
flattened much of the surrounding city. Now just a small town, Mordha Town,
remains, trading goods from the encroaching jungle to the harbor cities. While
treasure hunting bands have sought entrance to its secrets they have all either
failed to gain entry or failed to return.
Mordha’s Town contains about 300 citizens, not a
backwater even if it’s not huge. It survives based on three factors:
First, it’s on the overland route between Shankill and
Alboling., another major settlement on the island, and there are still some
people or objects that are better transported overland; Mordha’s town is a
logical stopping point
Second, there are jungle-provided products that are
hunted and farmed here and sold to the coastal cities. Several other inland
towns also act as aggregating points for the hunters and small plantations
(here they’re banana farm, or more precisely plantain plantations, plus some
chocolate). This gives the town a second income stream rather than just being a
way-station.
Third, there’s inertia in that the town was here, has an
existing infrastructure (including sewers) and enough natural resources to
support a population. People are nothing if not resistant to change, and this
is as good a place as any.
Given that, the rest of the town is easy enough to
fill in. We have three different business sectors:
The people who cater to overland trade: there is an inn,
a tavern, a small house of negotiable comfort, tradesmen to repair wagons and
tend to pack animals and a place that sells cured rations and watered wine.
The people who tend to the outlying farms and hunters: a
general store that takes credit from established farms, a place that rents long
term flops to hunters; people who tend to what the hunters bring in (those PCs
with hunting/cooking background will get some data on what there is to
hunt/cook around these parts), , warehouses for the plantation goods before
they move to market and probably a guild hall/clearing space for the plantation
farmers to air our their grievances.
The people who have lived here forever as social and
physical infrastructure: there is a mayor of some sort, masons, guards
(supplemented by the guards of caravans and planters are certain times of the
year), sanitation workers, a teacher or two, tradesmen for a town, priests,
spouses, children and so on..
It’s a small, unexceptional place in many ways, but much
of its livelihood is dependent on the trade from Shankill to Alboling. As such
the bandits are a real problem, which is why so many Icons have sent PCs to the
area to put a stop to it.
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