Notes for a New Campaign City, Parsantium

[RichGreen]

Here's a location in the Old Quarter:

Vishnu Mandira
Situated in the temple district of the Old Quarter, this huge building is the biggest temple to a Sahasran god this side of the Pillars of Heaven mountains. Dedicated to Vishnu, the most-widely worshipped god in the Vedic pantheon, the mandira has four ornate pyramid-like towers: the tallest is over 200 feet high with the others progressively smaller. The outside of the structure is covered in intricate brightly-coloured carvings of the Sahasran gods, folk heroes, animals and monsters. Inside, the garbhagriha (“holy of holies”) forms the central focus, housing an idol of Vishnu reclining on a great serpent. There are also subsidiary shrines to the other gods, including Mitra (“Light of Blessings”), Surya (the sun god) and Varuna (deity of the cosmic order). It is customary for visitors to remove their footwear before entering the temple, and to make offerings of flowers, rice or sweets at the shrine of the god they are beseeching for help or guidance.

Several sacred cows, painted virulent shades of blue or purple, wander the temple grounds. One of these cows, Amaravati, has become awakened through proximity to the god and has been known to give spiritual advice to visitors at the temple in return for sweets (treat as an augury spell with a 70% chance of accuracy in answer to questions about the next 7 days)


Any comments?


Richard

[RichGreen]

Temple of Niu Dahan
Like many of the gods of Tiangao, Niu Dahan was once human, a Tiangaon merchant during the Seven Kingdoms era who made his fortune running caravans throughout Tiangao and beyond during what was a particularly dangerous period in the empire’s history. He was always ready with a crafty scheme to make money and is renowned for his daring escapades, once evading capture by bakemono bandits by riding away on the back of a tiger. He was the first merchant to cross the deserts and the Great Grass Sea from Tiangao to Parsantium centuries ago, and is now worshipped as “City God” of Parsantium in addition to his status as God of Wealth by the city’s Tiangaon residents.

The roof of the Temple of Niu Dahan is its dominant feature: this is green and decorated with figures of the Tiangaon gods and lucky symbols such as dragons and carp. Stone lions guard the temple entrance. Inside is a small courtyard with a large bowl where incense and paper offerings are burnt. Beyond is the main hall which contains an intricately carved altar and a great statue of Niu Dahan riding his tiger. There are gongs, side altars and adjoining rooms with shrines to other gods, chapels for prayers to the dead and displays of funerary plaques. Red (representing joy), gold (heavenly glory) and green (harmony) are the dominant colours and Niu Dahan’s symbol, a set of scales, is everywhere. There is no set time for prayer and no communal service except for funerals. Worshippers enter the temple whenever they want to make offerings, pray for help or give thanks.

Golden Mosque of Jisan the Bountiful
Also called Jisan of the Floods, this goddess symbolizes fertility and productivity and is the most-widely worshipped Akhrani deity. There are several mosques in the Old Quarter, but Jisan’s is the largest and most splendid. The mosque has a shining gold dome situated over the prayer hall, a vast courtyard with a large fountain for ablutions before prayer, and four beautiful minarets over 300 feet tall from which the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer five times per day. There is no furniture in the prayer hall: this allows for as many worshippers as possible to pray inside.

Niu Dahan is from Dragon Fist; Jisan is from Al-Qadim.

Any other ideas for Old Quarter locations?



Richard

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I've been thinking that the gods featured in Green Ronin's excellent Book of the Righteous could become the gods of the Batiaran citizens of Parsantium, replacing the D&D pantheon (3e or 4e version). The Holy Basilica would be dedicated to the Great Church (ie the whole pantheon) rather than Pelor and there would be temples to individual gods around the Imperial Quarter.

Do any of you have any experience of this book in play?

Cheers


Richard

[RichGreen]

The Theatre of Aymara, Mercantile Quarter

Parsantium’s huge theatre was built five hundred years ago during the reign of Florian I and is constructed in the semi-circular Batiaran style and holds an audience of up to 5,000 citizens. The theatre has exceptional acoustics, so good that even a whisper from an actor on stage can be clearly heard by someone sitting right at the back of the audience.

The audience sit on tiered rows of limestone seats, directly facing the stage which is raised several feet above the front row. In front of the stage is a large archway, known as the proscenium arch which acts as a window through which the theatregoers view the play; this arch also has a curtain which can be lowered or drawn closed. At the back of the stage is the skene, a building with doors that serves as the backdrop in Batiaran theatre. Since the Theatre of Aymara is situated near the shore of the island, the view behind the stage is of the Corsairs’ Sea.

The Aymaran Festivites are held twice per year, taking place in early winter and late spring. This consists of a week-long drama competition in honour of the goddess in which seven playwrights much each enter three plays: two tragedies and one comedy. For the last three years, the talented but very conservative dramatist Dulcitius won five out of six times, but the winner at the most recent festival was the iconoclastic and charismatic young bard, Iancu Petronas.

Traditional Batiaran drama involves two or three actors wearing simple white robes and different masks to depict the various characters they are playing, plus a chorus of half a dozen others, dressed in black who provide commentary on the action. No women appear on the stage; female roles are always played by men. Violence is also never shown: when somebody is about to die in a play, that person is taken to the back and offstage to be "killed" and is then brought back "dead."

Iancu Petronas and his friends and contemporaries are determined to change all this. Their modern plays feature a bigger cast, colourful costumes, female performers playing women characters, comic relief in serious plays to keep the mob happy, and above all, sublime use of language and poetry. Swordfights and violent deaths take place on stage and there is an attempt to create realistic scenery by hanging painted backdrops on cloth from the roof of the skene. Unsurprisingly, Petronas and his “new drama” is popular with many theatregoers and disliked by Dulicitus, Vetranis and other traditional playwrights. Iancu and his friends are also habitual drunks, carousers and womanizers, frequenting raucous festhalls and taverns such as the Winking Vixen and the Fallen Angel in the red light district in the Old Quarter. This has made them even more despised by the establishment.

Aymara is the goddess of love & the arts <see Book of the Righteous>

Any comments?


Richard

[Tonguez]

Originally Posted by RichGreen

[b]Iancu Petronas and his friends and contemporaries are determined to change all this. Their modern plays feature a bigger cast, colourful costumes, female performers playing women characters, comic relief in serious plays to keep the mob happy, and above all, sublime use of language and poetry. Swordfights and violent deaths take place on stage and there is an attempt to create realistic scenery by hanging painted backdrops on cloth from the roof of the skene. Unsurprisingly, Petronas and his “new drama” is popular with many theatregoers and disliked by Dulicitus, Vetranis and other traditional playwrights. Iancu and his friends are also habitual drunks, carousers and womanizers, frequenting raucous festhalls and taverns such as the Winking Vixen and the Fallen Angel in the red light district in the Old Quarter. This has made them even more despised by the establishment
Any comments?

This is awesomeness, especially as it gives Bards a purpose beyond fascinate and a bit of intrigue and tension in the world of fine arts is just too juicy for words

I was going to suggest a brothel for the old quarter so I'd love to see the Winking Vixen and the Fallen Angel write ups

[RichGreen]

Originally Posted by Tonguez

This is awesomeness, especially as it gives Bards a purpose beyond fascinate and a bit of intrigue and tension in the world of fine arts is just too juicy for words

I was going to suggest a brothel for the old quarter so I'd love to see the Winking Vixen and the Fallen Angel write ups

Glad you like the theatre! Will have a think about the brothels (!) What are the essential elements of a fantasy city brothel, do you think?

Richard

[RichGreen]

As requested by Tonguez, here are two of the Old Quarter's most famous brothels:

The Winking Vixen
The Winking Vixen is a typical Old Quarter bordello (or “stew”) on the waterfront, and like many of Parsantium’s brothels has a stylized lyre, the symbol of Aymara, Goddess of Love and Desire, carved into the lintel above the front door. The interior is decorated with erotic murals and sculptures depicting priapic satyrs and buxom maidens indulging in various acts of congress. Patrons are served expensive drinks and food by bare bosomed waitresses as they recline on silk cushions, smoking sheeshah, and watching a succession of sensual and bored erotic dancers remove their seven diaphanous veils. The performers offer private dances in curtained booths or company for the rest of the night in the scruffy rooms upstairs.

The owner of the Winking Vixen is Zeno Meverel who owns a dozen taverns, inns and brothels in the Old Quarter’s red-light district and is connected to the criminal elements of the Hidden Quarter. He is a greedy, grasping man who takes a huge percentage of his girls’ wages. The madam is Eusebia, a retired whore who does her best to look after the welfare of the girls, fiddling the books to allow them to keep most of their tips. If Meverel finds out, he is likely to take a terrible revenge on her.

The Fallen Angel
Altogether more sophisticated and attracting a richer clientele from across the Strait as well as decadent poets, artists and actors, the Fallen Angel caters for those with a penchant for pain alongside their pleasure and other specialist tastes. Located off the main drag, the brothel is dark, lit only by sputtering candles, and is hung with black and purple drapes and curtains. Clients are shown up to a private room where they can indulge their fantasies with the woman or man of their choice. Because it caters for the darker side of human sexuality, the brothel attracts its fair share of debauched individuals, some of whom like the actor Marcus Hape <Elder Evils p.70> have an interest in the “forces of darkness”. The Fallen Angel’s red leather-clad madam, Firmina, is rumoured to be a priestess of Malcanthet, Queen of the Succubi – this could be nonsense but, if so, she has done nothing to set the record straight.

Prostitution is legal, but was banned under a previous (female) basilea who disapproved on moral grounds. This only drove prostitution underground, leading to control by criminal gangs, so it was legalized again.

Clients at any brothel need to beware the “crossbiting” con, where the con man would storm in at the critical moment, pretending to be an aggrieved husband. The victim would then have to pay extravagant amounts of money to be allowed to leave the premises, his reputation and person unharmed.

Any comments or suggestions?

Cheers


Richard

[RichGreen]

Hi,

Up-thread, we discussed having a fourth quarter to the city -- the Hidden Quarter. I'd like this to be an undercity, beneath the Old Quarter and the cemetery (not yet marked on the map!) which lies outside the city walls to the south east.

The Hidden Quarter is going to be the home of much of the city's criminal element as well as forbidden cults and monsters. It's a network of ancient tunnels, sewers, abandoned basements and so on, dating back to the city's foundation by Sahasran refugees fleeing the empire of Kadar.

Ideas so far include:
- a rakshasa crime baron (who is likely to be connected to the campaign's major villain - an ancient rakshasa imprisoned in the ice at the top of the Pillars of Heaven mountains)
- a cult of the Black Mother (Kali) that dates back to the original refugees from Sahasra
- ghouls beneath the slums (but not the graveyard)
- an abandoned temple, partially flooded with muddy water (occupied by blind fish and maybe worse). Its columns are strange and malformed, made from mismatched blocks piled on top of each other, held together by the weight of the city pressing down on them from above. Some of the pillars are carved with monstrous faces. The air is close, fetid and swampy.

Who/what else lives beneath the city? What are they up to?

I need suggestions for NPCs, factions and monsters that would be fun as this part of the city will be a major focus for adventures.

Cheers


Richard

[Nellisir]

Originally Posted by Tonguez

You could make the Ghouls not-undead and instead cast them as denigerate humans who infest the catacombs and survive by eating the corpses of the dead (and the living)..

Skulks (from Tome of Horrors) might be fitted into this niche.

[Nellisir]

Originally Posted by RichGreen

Who/what else lives beneath the city? What are they up to?

Don't forget; you've got a major city straddling a strait between two seas.

What's going on underwater? Are there local communities of merfolk? Kuo-toa in the Hidden Quarter?

[RichGreen]

Originally Posted by Nellisir

Don't forget; you've got a major city straddling a strait between two seas.

What's going on underwater? Are there local communities of merfolk? Kuo-toa in the Hidden Quarter?

Good point, and I've always liked kuo-toa.....


Richard

[Nellisir]

Originally Posted by RichGreen

Good point, and I've always liked kuo-toa.....

And the kuo-toa like you too...lightly browned, with a little garlic and melted butter.

[RichGreen]

Originally Posted by Nellisir

And the kuo-toa like you too...lightly browned, with a little garlic and melted butter.

Surely they prefer their food raw?

Since I'm unlikely to run the Shackled City adventure path in its entirety, I could steal the kuo-toa dungeon in Zenith Trajectory (I think) and use this somewhere in the Hidden Quarter. I like the idea of having kuo-toa creeping around the Old Docks at night, preying on the poor souls living in their houseboats and ramshackle huts.

Any other ideas?


Richard

[Leif]

Originally Posted by RichGreen

Who/what else lives beneath the city? What are they up to?
I need suggestions for NPCs, factions and monsters that would be fun as this part of the city will be a major focus for adventures.
Richard

Have you thought about a family or two of otyughs that live in the UnderCity and dine in the city dump?
(Gosh, I may be showing my age: I'm not even sure that said monster made it into 3.5 ed.!)

[RichGreen]

Originally Posted by Leif

Have you thought about a family or two of otyughs that live in the UnderCity and dine in the city dump?
(Gosh, I may be showing my age: I'm not even sure that said monster made it into 3.5 ed.!)

Classic D&D monsters! Yes, they're in the 3.5 MM. How about this
great picture from Pathfinder?


Richard

[Nellisir]

One thing I'd be careful to do (and this is more of a general comment and reminder than a criticism) is always put some kind of hook or mystery in every description. You did it with the brothels, but not the temple & the mosque. The theatre is ambigious.

[RichGreen]

Originally Posted by Nellisir

One thing I'd be careful to do (and this is more of a general comment and reminder than a criticism) is always put some kind of hook or mystery in every description. You did it with the brothels, but not the temple & the mosque. The theatre is ambigious.

Good point -- you're right. Funnily enough, I was thinking this myself earlier today -- I was reminded of the original Dungeoncraft columns Ray Winniger did in Dragon. One of his "rules of Dungeoncraft" was that whenever you designed something, you should attach a secret to it, which is a cool principle to stick to.

Will bear this in mind for future location write-ups and I'll see if I can think of any hooks to add to the temples -- feel free to suggest any! I guess an NPC or two for each wouldn't hurt either....

Cheers


Richard

[Nellisir]

Originally Posted by RichGreen

Will bear this in mind for future location write-ups and I'll see if I can think of any hooks to add to the temples -- feel free to suggest any! I guess an NPC or two for each wouldn't hurt either....

I don't have a really organized scheme or anything, but when I'm writing descriptions I just try to throw in something that I (if I were an adventurer), would be curious about. Usually just a single line or quick aside; one doesn't need a whole outline, just a seed.

I guess the pertinent question is:

What is weird, odd, unusual, interesting, or unexplained about the item being described?

[RichGreen]

Originally Posted by Nellisir

I don't have a really organized scheme or anything, but when I'm writing descriptions I just try to throw in something that I (if I were an adventurer), would be curious about. Usually just a single line or quick aside; one doesn't need a whole outline, just a seed.

I guess the pertinent question is:

What is weird, odd, unusual, interesting, or unexplained about the item being described?

Good advice, thanks! If you do that, a throwaway line of description could interest the players and become part of the adventure.

[RichGreen]

Here's a new location with a couple of adventure hooks:

Flotsam

Boats of every size and shape bob on the water, connected by a baffling web of piers, gangplanks, and rope bridges.

Part of the Old Docks, the “boat town” of Flotsam consists of around 70 boats, and is inhabited by some of the city’s poorest citizens, those who cannot afford to live in a tenement building. Most of these are Sahasrans belonging to the artisan caste (Shudras), although many halflings live here too. Flotsam is completely afloat; the residents live in houseboats and do their shopping at other boats. Even longtime Flotsam-dwellers must relearn their way around the neighborhood if they leave for a time, since it constantly rearranges itself.

As well as houseboats, there is a temple to the seven river gods, the Sapta Sindhu, a shrine to Anwyn (goddess of the hearth, home and small folk), and a number of trades and services including a bait and tackle shop, a basket weaver, a netmaker, several carpenters and boatmakers, and a very basic boat- tavern called the Fat Grouper, run by a truly miserable halfling called Glyn Merryfield who constantly complains at the injustice of him ending up in Flotsam. Most of the people living here work as longshoremen, in warehouses, or on the fishing boats. Fish naturally forms a big part of the Flotsam diet and the smell of grilling fish pervades the evening air.

Once a year, in late summer, the Festival of Flowers is celebrated by the people of Flotsam. For a month, all the boats, even the Fat Grouper, are decorated with hanging baskets full of beautiful red, orange and yellow flowers. On the last day of the festival, the flowers are all cut and cast into the Dolphin Strait to honour the Sapta Sindhu. If a pod of dolphin appears, the people of Flotsam are going to have a lucky year. No dolphins have been seen for the last seven years…

Adventure Hooks
Recently there have been a number of disappearances from the inhabitants of Flotsam, mostly longshoremen and dockworkers. The City Watch aren't really interested, claiming that the missing men have probably left town. A gang of gnolls led by the tattooed Orloch Scragmane is to blame; these gnolls are selling their captives to kuo-toa living in water-logged caverns deep beneath the Old Quarter.

Mangesh, a dock-worker, is really pissed off. His boat keeps springing a leak because someone or something is pulling the nails out holding it together. The culprit is a nail stealer <Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary>, a tiny rust-coloured woodpecker with a very strong beak that it uses to obtain pieces of rusty metal as part of its courtship ritual. Its partner has built her nest at the top of the mast of the nearby Fat Grouper.

Any comments or suggestions? I'm keen to develop the gnoll gang and kuo-toa some more. I have a nice kuo-toa temple from Zenith Trajectory (Shackled City adventure path) that I can use if the PCs go beneath the city into their territory.

Cheers


Richard