D&D 5E An Earthmote Falls? Reimagining Kuluth-Mar for Tomb of Annihilation

[Quickleaf]

Tl;dr How would you imagine a floating city (like Sokovia from Avengers) that crashed into a jungle basin?

Kuluth-Mar appeared in the Age of Worms adventure path in Dungeon Magazine; it was an ancient city that Kyuss ruled from, where undeath was glorified as the ultimate goal. Though loosely set in the Amedio Jungle in Greyhawk, it was a site unconnected to the rest of the world; like much of the adventure path, it was meant to be adapted to the DM's setting-of-choice. Pretty much the only area detailed was the Ziggurat of Kyuss; the city was just painted in broad strokes with shallow monster factions vying for control. Eric Boyd (a prolific D&D author who co-wrote Serpent Kingdoms among others) wrote in Dungeon #130 supplement that Kuluth-Mar could be placed in Chult, and offered a compelling history for doing so. It's not canon, but the idea struck me enough to include in my Tomb of Annihilation game.

Instead of doing a straight conversion – which [MENTION=6776887]Tormyr[/MENTION] has already done a fine job over here – I decided to advance the timeline, focus on the city holistically, and incorporate a friend's idea of a "crashed sky city." Adventurers raided Kyuss' ziggurat at the center of the ruined city, causing the cactus/key-shaped spire at the top to crumble. When it fell, it destroyed the obsidian wall around the ziggurat keeping spawn of Kyuss within, but also led to destruction of many monsters/traps in the ziggurat.

During the Spellplague (which I'm making more like "Acererak's Cataclysm" to tie it to the adventure without involving lots of FR meta-plot), an earthmote lifted up the entire city of Kuluth-Mar...as if it was Ubtao's hand itself lifting the corrupted place toward the sun...or perhaps Acererak's magic lifting the city up to reach something beneath it? The city already rested in a swampy valley, so this uplift turned the valley into a vast basin into which surrounding rivers poured, creating a murky lake at the bottom. However, eventually the magic holding Kuluth-Mar aloft faded ...just as Ubtao's presence faded from Chult... and the city crashed back into the jungle basin (star destroyer style). Only a few of the most prominent structures survived this fall, as well as those structures at the city's periphery which were never lifted up by the earthmote & were clear of its impact zone.

Falling prone in certain areas of the slanted city could lead to precipitous slides/falls, and periodically the city trembles and groans as it sinks/settles into the muddy waters below.

I was struck by this concept art in my re-imagining:

And I started to brainstorm interesting sites according to the 4 quarters of the city...

CENTER

• Ziggurat of Kyuss: overgrown & changed since the Spire of Long Shadow adventure, not sure how yet, likely new occupants

NORTH QUARTER (HIGHER)

• Public Baths: Lair of death tyrant Ballaxxus, territory marked with zombies, Ballaxxus was captured by yuan-ti and experimented on - in the DMs Guild adventure Ruins of Hisari - so fears the yuan-ti in Kuluth-Mar, claims heat of baths "soothe his insufferable nightmares", also is served by charmed river trolls "scrags", gate to Elemental Plane of Water spills from baths to create a river running through city which mingles with other waterfalls occurring naturally.
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SOUTH QUARTER (LOWER)

• Necromancer's Market: Vast amounts of spell components, gems, even corpses were traded in Kuluth-Mar, where undeath was pursued with religious fervor. Small flocks of eblis inhabit some of the ruin-islands amidst the sunken lake. Crocodiles swim about in the murky waters. Caves formed from the initial impact and exacerbated by rain/erosion line the southern banks of the lake. An aquatic thessalhydra* lurks in the depths, feasting whenever it senses a creature fall into the water. Treasure likely lies among sunken ruins.
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EAST QUARTER

• Wight Estates: The powerful and wealthy of Kuluth-Mar who served Kyuss well were transformed into wights, and treated as a superior class of citizen. Their dwellings once went up the walls of the basin, so only a few of the lower lying ones remain after the impact. Wights in ToA's random encounter table are mentioned as pre-dating Acererak and the Spellplague...so having them originate in Kuluth-Mar makes a lot of sense. However, a group of yuan-ti heretics inhabit these ruins; they have abandoned worship of Sseth after their empire was wiped out but refused to embrace Dendar the Night Serpent who offered only total annihilation; instead they revere the vestige of Kyuss, seeking to unlock the secrets of undeath.
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WEST QUARTER

• Arena: Once the site of horrible bread-and-circuses wherein the living were pitted against undead to demonstrate the weakness of mortal beings & traitors were killed via executioner's axe wielded by enslaved minotaurs (tying into the minotaur culture once present in Omu & hinted at in ToA). Some spawn of Kyuss are still trapped in the arena, which has been taken over by troglodytes who've scavenged the old culture of Kuluth-Mar. Cultural parasites, the troglodytes seek to make captives more troglodyte-like via nasty tortures even as they seek to fill the void in their loathsome non-identities. Their shaman-chief collects skulls of Kuluth-Mar's dead, speaking with them to recreate a ghoulish facsimile of what once was.
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[Tormyr]

Really, really well done and thought out. I had just gone with the defaults in the adventure because we were running Age of Worms, and I figured they would go straight for the ziggurat. No, they proceeded to trigger just about every quadrant over the coarse of two sessions. Cue DM play it by ear!

 

[Quickleaf]

Thanks Yeah, give players options a, b, and c...and they'll do x, y, and z.

I have 2 questions I'm pondering:

1. What other buildings would exist in such a city of undead? And which would be most structurally sound to survive the fall?

2. What would the impact result of such a fantastical crash be? For example, would there be fractures/chasms running through the city? Would some the raised section have crumbled off due to shearing stresses?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I dont know the whole story, but I think you need to have the whole sink slowly as the player explore the place!

I think this is a good opportunity for a fun-house dungeon based on exploration challenges, puzzle and traps, like White Plume Mountain. I've add a good result by converting some of the puzzles/room challenges from some Legend of Zelda dungeons. That depends on much gonzo you can tolerate in your game, that is.

By the way, consider your idea stolen for my next campaign.

 

[Quickleaf]

I dont know the whole story, but I think you need to have the whole sink slowly as the player explore the place!

I think this is a good opportunity for a fun-house dungeon based on exploration challenges, puzzle and traps, like White Plume Mountain. I've add a good result by converting some of the puzzles/room challenges from some Legend of Zelda dungeons. That depends on much gonzo you can tolerate in your game, that is.

By the way, consider your idea stolen for my next campaign.

Nice, yes I was thinking of putting "sinking tremors" on an encounter table for the fallen earthmote ruined city.

I'm imagining the city's "ground level" is far more full of fissures, waterfalls, and gorges (called "Ataaz" in Tomb of Annihilation) due to the impact of crashing into the ground years ago. So falling prone could result in a precipitous slide into heavens know what.

Compounding the design challenge, there are apparently ruins the city was built on top of that predate even Kyuss. Spire of the Long Shadow hints at these being spellweavers but doesn't get into too much detail. Maybe one of these gorges cracked open a vertical access to this dungeon, like cracking open a pomegranate.

 

[hawkeyefan]

What about slave/food pens? Some kind of prison or hold where mortals are kept for nefarious purposes. Such a place would likely be sturdy and may even have magical defenses that would help it survive the fall.