[FULL] OOC: Dichotomy's Age of Worms Redux [FULL]

Dichotomy

Explorer
IC Thread, Part I
IC Thread, Part II
IC Thread, Part III
IC Thread, Part IV
IC Thread, Part V

Since the beginning of history, humanity has measured time in Ages. Ages of Glory, of Dreams, and even of Great Sorrows mark the human tally of years, giving a sense of order to the events of past centuries. But one age has yet to occur--an age of darkness, of decay, and of writhing doom. Witty bards and wrathful preachers know it as the Age of Worms, weaving it into the peripheries of their passion plays as a mythic era of destruction that could begin at any time. Astrologers, diviners, and the servants of Fate know more. The canniest among them fear that the Age of Worms has already begun.
 
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Dichotomy

Explorer
Relatively brief introduction to Diamond Lake: [sblock]Overview: Diamond Lake

Diamond Lake nestles in the rocky crags of the Cairn Hills, three days east of the Free City to which it is subject. Iron and silver from Diamond Lake’s mines fuel the capital’s markets and support its soldiers and nobles with the raw materials necessary for weapons and finery. This trade draws hundreds of skilled and unskilled laborers and artisans, all hoping to strike it rich. In ages past, Diamond Lake boasted an export even more valuable than metal in the form of treasure liberated from the numerous tombs and burial cairns crowding the hills around the town. These remnants of a half-dozen long-dead cultures commanded scandalous prices from the Free City, whose insatiable covetousness triggered a boom in the local economy. Those days are long gone, though. The last cairn in the region coughed up its treasures decades ago, and few locals pay much mind to stories of yet-undiscovered tombs and unplundered burial cairns. These days, only a handful of treasure seekers visit the town, and few return to the Free City with anything more valuable than a wall rubbing or an ancient tool fragment.

In the hills surrounding the town, hundreds of laborers spend weeks at a time underground, breathing recycled air pumped in via systems worth ten times their combined annual salary. The miners are the chattel of Diamond Lake, its seething, tainted blood. But they are also Diamond Lake’s foundation, their weekly pay cycling back into the community via a gaggle of gambling dens, bordellos, ale halls, and temples. Because work in the mines is so demanding and dangerous, most folk come to Diamond Lake because they have nowhere else to turn, seeking an honest trade of hard labor for subsistence-level pay simply because the system has allowed them no other option. Many are foreigners displaced from native lands by war or famine. Work in a Diamond Lake mine is the last honest step before utter destitution or crimes of desperation. For some, it is the first step in the opposite direction: a careful work assignment to ease the burden on debtor-filled prisons, one last chance to make it in civil society.

Despite its squalor, Diamond Lake is crucial to the Free City’s economy. The city’s directors thus take a keen interest in local affairs, noting the rise and fall of the managers who run Diamond Lake’s mines in trust for the government. The city’s chief man in the region is Governor-Mayor Lanod Neff, a lecherous philanderer eager to solidify his power and keep the mine managers in line. Neff exerts his capricious will via the agency of the grandiloquent Sheriff Cubbin, a man so renowned for corruption that many citizens assumed the announcement of his commission was a joke until he started arresting people.

The alliance between the governor-mayor and his pocket police might not be enough to cow Diamond Lake’s powerful mine managers, but Lanod Neff holds a subtle advantage thanks to the presence of his distinguished brother, the scrupulous Allustan, a wizard from the Free City who retired to Diamond Lake five years ago. None dare move against Neff so long as Allustan is around.

Instead of scheming against the government, Diamond Lake’s six mine managers plot endlessly against one another, desperate to claim a weakened enemy’s assets while at the same time protecting their own. While they are not nobles, the mine managers exist in a stratum above normal society. They consider themselves far above their employees, many of whom are indentured or effectively enslaved as part of a criminal sentence. The miners’ loyalty tends to map directly to the working conditions, pay, and respect offered to the miners by their wealthy masters.

Diamond Lake (small town): Conventional; AL N; Population 1,023; 800 gp limit; Assets 40,920 gp; Isolated (96% human, 2% halfling, 1% gnome, 1% other races).
Authority Figures: Governor-Mayor Lanod Neff; Balabar Smenk, mine manager; Chaum Gansworth, mine manager; Ellival Moonmeadow, mine manager; Gelch Tilgast, mine manager; Luzane Parrin, mine manager; Ragnolin Dourstone, mine manager; Sheriff Cubbin; Tolliver Trask, garrison commander.

How to Get There
Most people arrive at Diamond Lake by carriage or by accident. The Able Carter Coaching Company possesses a fleet of horse-drawn coaches, and inns positioned at various points in its paths. It has direct connections between Diamond Lake and the Free City (3 days east), the town of Blackstone (1 day east), the town of Elmshire (2 days north), and Blackwall Keep (2 days southeast).

Another sure-fire way to get into town is to commit a crime in the Free City, especially one involving debts. A lot of criminals are offered extended stays in one of Diamond Lake’s mines in return for a deferred sentence, so many people arrive in town with shackles and an armed escort.

How to Get Out
Depending on your situation, you might have a hard time leaving the town. Hiring a coach from Able Carter costs the standard rate of 3 copper/mile. Horses are available for sale at the Lakeside Stables, but the ostler Lanch Faraday is known for rather vicious mood-swings; be sure to check any mounts you buy for odd bruises.

Passage is available across Diamond Lake, but with the lake’s excessive pollution (the result of mining run-off and extensive smelting), there are no longer any other towns on the lake’s shores. The retired marine Durskin will gladly take passengers across the lake, assuming they can deal with the smell of urine and the constant flea-bites. The Cult of the Green Lady has a sailboat and will gladly ferry passengers, as long as they’ll listen to a sermon along the way.

Where to Stay
Most people who lack the resources to own a residence in Diamond Lake (those that could be bothered to, that is) stay in Jalek’s Flophouse, a ramshackle warehouse within smelling distance of the lake. Anyone willing to stay within it must pay 5 cp per night, paid to a massive, helmeted mute named Golot. No one has an address at Jalek’s; the room you keep is the room you get.

It’s also possible to stay at the Midnight Salute, though most of their clientele don’t actually sleep there for long. Anyone willing to pay above-average lodging fees will find plenty of pampering for their money – and, the more money they show, the more pampering they can get.

Most travelers and passersby stay at the Able Carter Coaching Inn, but only long enough to book passage out again. Rooms cost 1 gp per night, and stabling is available for 5 sp per day. (The Lakeside Stables are cheaper for horse-storage, but Faraday’s reputation and temper bring many to consider the extra expense well-spent.)

Where to Visit
Every day, when weather is permitting, merchants line the central square with hand-carts full of merchandise, baskets laden with fruit or pastries, and scams to separate the foolish from their coin.

People seeking a little culture in their spending go to Lazare’s, a cozy gaming parlor facing the central courtyard. The town’s elite gather there nightly to challenge each other at dragonchess, or outwit each other at dragonfire (an ante-based card game). Visitors are expected to bring their own dragonchess pieces (each booth has its own board set into the table), but rental sets are available for the unprepared.

Those looking for more culture, but less class, go to the Emporium to see the two-headed calf, the contortionist, the fortune-teller, and several other oddities. They also go there to throw their money away at various games of chance, including dragonfire, norebonne (a dice game), and a contest known simply as the Rat Game, in which rats race through an open-topped maze. The winner then gets to fight several jermlaine while in a drug-induced frenzy.

The town is laced with run-down ale-halls with poor reputations, watered-down ale, and no entry-fee. (Both Lazare’s and the Emporium charge you just for showing up.) The busiest of these is the Feral Dog, a rather sleazy tavern known best for its dog-fighting pit and its frequent brawls. Its gaining popularity for a house-sponsored knife-throwing contest, but its ale will never win any awards.

Many people stop by the Hungry Gar to eat throughout the day, though it certainly can’t be because of the quality of the food. If you’re looking for a decent meal, go elsewhere – but stop here if you’re looking for quantity; the portions, like the proprietor, are very large.

The Midnight Salute is a by-the-numbers bordello, which means you can get just enough liquor to lower your inhibitions before engaging in more, well, engaging activity. Don’t expect much in the way of food or drink – if you’re there, you’re there for other reasons.

People looking for a more straightforward tavern – the kind where you can actually enjoy yourself without risking a knifing – go to the Spinning Giant, named for the faded fresco on the front wall of a dancing imbecilic hill giant in a yellow dress. Mostly patronized by the garrison soldiers, this place has higher-than-average quality beverages, food that actually takes some effort to prepare, and a clientele that frowns on pickpockets and rowdies. Try their garlic butter rolls, and be prepared to pay handsomely if you ask for wine.

The largest shop dedicated to food is the Rusty Bucket, a restaurant that had to change their menu after the lake’s fishing went bad (as did the lake itself). Since the owner, mine manager Chaum Gansworth, stays out of the political maneuvering common to the other managers, most of the town considers the Bucket to be neutral territory. Try the brisket, but be sure to ask for light gravy or they’ll smother your tray.

Where to Shop
Most shoppers in town end up in Taggin’s General Store one way or another. The interior matches the exterior: chaotic, disorderly, and verging on collapse. Somehow, Taggin manages to keep mental track of the location and quantity of everything in the store; the shelves seem to be randomly filled with whatever will fit, but the owner can rapidly find anything requested. If you’re in mind to buy a canary from his over-full cage, be warned: any canaries that get out while you’re getting one must be paid for.

Those with the money for a good-natured mugging go to Tidwoad’s, the local jeweler. The gnome running this shop brags that his display cases are theft-proof, and he will be straightforward about just how badly he’s cheating you. He will gladly buy most valuables, but starts haggling at about one-third an item’s value – except for gemstones, for which he only charges one gold in twenty. He also rents out storage vaults, with safety ensured by the presence of a pet shield guardian named Festus.

Looking for weaponry? Try the Captain’s Blade, an efficient shop that sells weaponry of all sorts. Tyrol Ebberly, an inveterate gossip with a fanatical devotion to armaments, loves to show off his best wares, and keeps a surprisingly large selection available.

If your combat style favors distance, you’d prefer Venelle’s, a distinctly-carved building near Allustan’s house. The proprietor favors bows and arrows, but she also keeps some crossbows and slings on hand. She keeps a small selection of armor and other weaponry available, having traded her own work at the Free City. To get on her good side, bring along some knowledge of elven culture.

Anything metallic can be had at the Osgood Smithy, as long as you can deal with the smell of soot, loud noise, and a blackened handshake and slap on the back from Osgood himself. His memory is nearly flawless, and his metalwork is just as good. His specialty is masterwork armor, though he leaves the leatherworking to Venelle.

Diamond Lake’s smelting facility doesn’t initially seem like a place to visit, but anyone willing to endure the stench of fumes, scalding heat, and noxious runoff can buy alchemical mixtures (and even magical brews) from the chemist Benazel. Be prepared, as he’ll talk your ear off while he wraps your purchase.[/sblock]

Full Players Guide to Diamond Lake: [sblock]The ramblings of Knuckston Grizzlebeard, common miner and regular patron of the Feral Dog Tavern, a week before his death by a falling girder in the Tilgast Mines:

So, you wanna know what life is like in Diamond Lake? Hells man, why would you want ta give a second thought about this place? It’s a piss hole. My old bones sweat their last in those mines, and I’ve got nothing to show for it except a case of gout and the hacking lungrot.

You ain’t going away are, ya?

Well then, sit down. . . I’ll talk to ye about the sights around here, but it’ll cost ya a few rounds . . . the Good Dwarven stuff too, you cheapskate.

Okay, where was I? Diamond Lake, a cesspool like no other. . .

Politics

Governor-mayor Lanod Neff is the head cheese around here. He’s been appointed by the Free City itself because his father was a head cheese and got him started with a position at the Garrison that he didn’t deserve. Now, he sits in his massive manor house on the hill overlooking the town. It’s constantly under construction, mostly so Neff can try to outclass the other bigwigs in this berg.

The man himself? Hells! He’s a lying, cheating philanderer who spends more time chasing tail than doing any real work. He lines the pockets of his cronies to stay in power, and pays off that sheriff to keep him and his boys in line.

If it weren’t for his brother, Allustan Neff, Lanod’s body would have been dumped into a dry mine years ago by the other power brokers in town. Allustan’s a pretty powerful Wizard, probably the smartest man in town. I heard that back in the Free City, he had designs on being the head of a wizard’s academy, but fell out of favor and was forced into retirement.

Since he was born and raised here, he ended up back where he started. I like to think he may have ran away from the big city with his tail between his legs, but, um . . . don’t tell anyone I told you that.

Anyway, the law around here, if you wanna call it that, is a big old bastard named Sheriff Cubbin. It’s no secret he’s in the pocket of the Mayor, and spends his time drinking and carousing in the various cathouses. When he got elected Sheriff, we laughed in our cups and threw darts at his head, until he arrested us all with his private battalion of cronies. Dark hearted bastard. . .

The only other law in town is the Garrison, ran by Captain Tolliver Trask. He runs about 60 men in the old keep, but the snots never bother to step foot inside the town proper. Mostly, they patrol the miles of wilderness outside of town, and pray to their self-righteous god of honor. Truth is, Trask doesn’t care a lick for Diamond Lake, and he keeps his men out of our affairs. He’s just here to make sure his precious metropolis the Free City don’t get attacked from our direction. If anything really bad happens here, the gates of the keep will shut so fast that any honest wage earner standing in the way’ll get dashed against the walls.

Business

The mines are everything here, and I’ve been breaking my back inside of ‘em for 30 years. The mine managers come and go, and deeds exchange hands over blackmail, gambling, and even downright murder and theft. At least that’s the rumor. It a tough business and I can say that through it all, I’m still here, digging away to line the pockets for every backstabbing sithspit that ever owned a mine.

Right now, there are six mine managers, who are considered to be the ones that matter in town. They have the chink to ignore the law, and hire their own thugs to keep order in their respective areas of business. They fight with the mayor sometimes, but for the most part they don’t do much but bicker amongst themselves for every scrap of ore they can squeeze out of the hills.

You want a rundown of who they are? What’s the point of that? It won’t last. . .

Ah . . . the hells with it . . . keep the ale coming. . .

Right now, the comer is Balabar Smenk. He is a fat, lecherous bastard who got his start from his old contacts in the Free City. He spends his time gambling, drinking, and scheming up new ways to take over this entire town. The mayor hates him, mostly because he’s scared. Smenk owns 4 mines right now, and is poised to get more. Balabar may have just enough of the town in his pocket to stage a coup of his own, but he’s usually too powdered up with perfume and sweaty finery to think about lifting a sword.

Of course, this has really pissed off Gelch Tilgast. Right now I work for the old fart, but it may not last. Before Smenk come into the picture, Gelch reigned over this berg for years like a petty lord, and now he’s getting a taste of what it’s like to be on the outs. I’ve even heard rumors that he’s trying to get support from other mine managers to fight off Balabar Smenk, but that’s probably hogwash. Tilgast doesn’t know which way is up these days, and they sure as hell wouldn’t deal with him after the way he’s backhanded them over the years.

He’s still better off that Luzanne Parrin. She inherited her mines from her mother, who died in the Red Death when she was still a pup. Now, twenty years later, she’s almost bankrupt, and it’s no secret that she’s sleeping with Chaum Gansworth to try and protect her own skin. She’ll be broke soon.

Chaum Gansworth has been in town for a while, and keeps a pretty low profile. Other than the fact thathe’s sleeping with Luzanne, there ain’t much to tell. He does own the Rusty Bucket, and has dinner there quite often. I guess his mines are doing okay, but then again . . . how the hell am I supposed to know?

The same can be said for the other two mine managers. One’s an elf, some prancing panty waste named Ellival Moonmeadow. He only owns one silver mine, and doesn’t have anything to do with regular townsfolk like us. He just hangs out with his fellow elves, doing . . . well, whatever it is elves do when they’re together. Haw ha!

The other one is a dwarf, named Ragnolin Dourstone, who’s been here ever since I can remember. Like most Dwarves, he does well for himself in the mining profession, and has handpicked a number of spots to start new mines, all of them pretty damn successful. So far, neither Tilgast nor Smenk has managed to dent his business one bit . . . though they’ve both tried their best over the years.

In addition to the mines, all six mine managers share a single smelting house, located near the old piers. It’s pretty much monopolized by the city council in the Free City, and run like a tight ship. The chief smelter, Vulgan Durtch, is a recluse, and the entire operation resembles a fortress with no windows, and no unguarded entrances. They had to step things up a bit security wise, after one of the mine managers sabotaged a rival’s shipment.

History

Well, I can’t really go back all that far. My memory gets a little fuzzy when I think back to the old days. . . I do know that the area near the lake was run by some uppity feudal lord a long time ago. He built a keep, which currently houses the Garrison’s men. There are also a couple of old fences in the cairn hills where he tried to get his farming subjects to grow carrots and potatoes. I wonder how many of the idiot’s subjects starved to death!

Well, his sons started exploring the cairns and old gravesites that litter this whole area. I guess they found quite a bit of loot from the olden days . . . and I don’t mean 50 years ago. I mean really old days. Hundreds of years ago.

Anyway, all this loot attracted the attention of the Free City, and pretty soon they bought off the noble kids and annexed this whole area for themselves. They hired a group of adventurers to explore it all, and sucked every last treasure dry from those old tombs. That would have been the end of Diamond Lake, except prospectors and surveyors came in and took measure of the land. It’s still useless for growing anything but weeds, but wouldn’t you know they discovered a massive cache of silver lodes and massive veins of iron under the hills, including the one we’re sitting on right now?

Now, years and years later, it’s said that that we’re the cornerstone of the Free City’s ore supply. Not like they’d pass any of that wealth onto common laborers like us, you understand. When I was a kid, getting a meal was as easily as casting a line in the Lake. Now, the smelting house and associated runoff has polluted the water so much, the merchants have to send off to the Free City just to get a week-old, salted flounder.

As far as recent history goes, there ain’t much to tell . . . honest folk are still getting screwed and the wealthy are still getting richer off of our sweat. Let’s see. . .

There’s an old ring of stones out in the boonies, called the Menhirs. It’s visited by Rangers, Druids, and other freeloaders. No one knows who built it, but they say the worn stone have been there for centuries.

The Old Observatory used to be a haven to some scholarly Monks, who used to prance about and read off astrology. They packed up shop when I was just a kid, and since then it’s pretty much sat abandoned.

Then, of course, about 19 years ago, a pretty bad plague called the Red Death swept through and killed a good many of us. I lost my sister to the Boneyard, and me son’s still got vapors and can’t make a living. I even had it myself, but it’s weren’t too bad on me. I did get a pretty lumpy scar from it on the back o’ my head though. You wanna see it?

No?

Ah well. . .

Entertainment

There’s nothing like spending a day’s wage in Diamond Lake. We may not get much in the way o’ housing, sanitation, or any of that frilly city crap that doesn’t do any good anyway . . . but we do have entertainment in spades.

If you have the money, the Emporium is the place to be. It’s run by a lady of the night, Zalamadra, and she’s got a whole cadre of the sweetest ladies you ever saw at her disposal. They sit in perfumed glory in the upstairs area she calls the Veiled Corridor. There aren’t any veils there that I’ve seen, but then again, I’ve never asked for one. There’s also a Den on the top floor where you can obtain the use of other substances that twist your mind around and make you talk funny, if you’re into that. There are plenty of games of chance, and a very interesting freak show downstairs full of dangerous and exotic creatures. Just last week, I heard a rumor that a crazed demon child escaped it cage and went on a fiery rampage. They haven’t caught it yet, and I’m keeping a sharp lookout. They say its hide has magic designs on it, and I’ll bet its worth a few pennies to its owners. I have a boot dagger handy in case I run into the thing.

If you like boredom, you can always visit Lazare’s House. It’s a fancy, high class place with a steep price I remember when Lazare managed a mine in town, until his wife got sick and he was bankrupted, selling everything to that bastard Smenk. Inside his place, there’s no music, no dancing girls, and no fun. I heard everyone sits at tables and plays Dragonchess, a game with over 40 pieces and a multilevel board. Lazare used to be a champion, and has somehow pushed his habit on some of the upper crust. It’s a snore, but at least you can gamble on it.

If you find yourself a little light of chink, there are a few other places you can visit for fun. The Midnight Salute is a pretty cheap place to get some female action, but they cater heavily to the Garrison’s crowd. If you’re looking to get drunk or do some low-end betting, there’s the Feral Dog, where you can see some pit dogs tear each other to pieces, and get into a bar brawl or two. It can get rough, even for a guy like me, but it’s worth it because they don’t charge you to get in. Your other choice among the chaff is the Spinning Giant, but the other patrons are usually garrison soldiers, so you have to be tolerant of drunken chants and men who like to slap each other on the butt. They don’t tolerate stealing or bad manners, and there isn’t a card game to be found anywhere in the vicinity.

If you’re just hungry for some food, you can go to the Hungry Gar. The chef there is a pretty decent cook, but there’s only so much you can do with snared rabbits and deer meat. One alternative is the Rusty Bucket, which has a pretty decent common room as well.

Finally, if information of the outside world is your cup of tea, many out-of-towners stay at the Able Carter Coaching Inn. The main thrust of the business is running coaches and supplies back and forth to other parts. Boarders from all over stay there, mostly for short term business, so a good conversation about other part o’ the world are in good order there. Plus, if you’re willing to pay, they’ll take horses too.

Nine Hells, you can always do what I do. You can always spend thirty years of your life slaving away to Gelch Tilgast, only to see your life get poured down the drain when he sells the mine to Balabar Smenk in a few years. Smenk pays two coppers cheaper, and you work a longer shift. Bastards.

Shops

There are plenty o’ places to get business done in Diamond Lake. You got something to buy or sell, you can most likely procure your needs right here.

Let’s see. . . we got Tidwoad’s Jewelry, run by a uppity gnome of the same name. He cheated my mother out of her jewels for half their worth, so I can’t vouch for his honesty, but you should see his collections in the window – whew! . . . He swears that his shop is burglar proof, and so far, no one’s taken him up on the challenge. I’d like a few of those baubles for myself, that’s the honest truth.

The General Store is where you can pick up just about any mundane equipment you’d ever need. Taggin runs it pretty reasonable, and has all the supplies you need to travel overland for a month, or survive a mountain climb. He stays outta people’s business, and sticks to his own outfit.

The Lakeside Stables are run by a half-elf named Lanch Faraday. I ain’t ever owned a horse myself, so I don’t know him well. I only met him once, during a card game, but I took my leave when he upset a table and pulled a knife. He’s a mean, sour drunk, but he takes care of most of the community’s horses, so he can’t be all bad.

If you’re looking for weapons, Tyorl Ebberly has a good shop. He claims to be a watch captain in the Free City, but he must’ve done something wrong to end up here. He has a few artifacts from the Cairn hills that he’s found. If your interested his place is called The Captain’s Blade.

Venelle’s contains some of the finest bows in the land. Venelle herself is happy to sell anything she has, if she can locate it through all the clutter o’ her shop. I took up bow hunting myself once, and stood all day in a tree stand, on her advice. The only thing I caught was a damned cold.

Manlin Osgood. . . now there’s a man I can hang a reputation on. He’s a right fellow and an able drinking companion, if his head’s right. He doesn’t bluff at cards, he’s always ready with a backslap and a handshake, and he makes the finest masterwork armor in the region. A few from the Free City come to Osgood’s Smithy special, just to access his team of apprentice blacksmiths.

That’s about it. There are other places in town to get things, but I wouldn’t recommend it. When your life depends on a wooden girder underground, you better make sure the right hands set it up, if you catch my meaning.

In Diamond Lake, it’s better to be gouged by an honest exploiter than outright cheated by a thief, so stick to those places I mentioned . . . you should be fine.

Churches

There are a few churches in town that have gained a following, but I wouldn’t recommend any of ‘em. The best church for me are the Halls of the Veiled Corridor, where you can tithe your money for a cause that’s worthy of your coin, and get a little bit of sweetness besides.

However, if you insist, you can go to the Church of Ct. Cuthbert, right on the center of town. The sermons there are full of piss and vinegar, led by Jierian Wierus, whose favorite activity is to flog his own backside with a cat-o-nine-tails, and go to the seedy parts of town to covert others to do the same. His following is 150 strong and growing.

If they’d make you feel welcome, you can go to the garrison and sit at the Chapel of Heironeous. It’s mostly full of soldiers, who like to puff themselves up with honor before riding around the countryside in their fancy armor. Valkus Dunn is the righteous bastard in charge, preaching about public do-goodery, but doing nothing about it. He opens the service up to the public, but no one goes except men who swing swords for a living.

If you like nature, you can traipse out in to the boonies to visit the Bronzewood Lodge. Its run by Nogweir, a cleric of Obad-Hai who likes to scare people about bogeymen in the hills, but I can’t imagine why they’d sit out in the middle of nowhere with nothing to entertain them. Trying to fill the coffers so he can get back to real civilization is my guess.

There’s also a Temple of Wee-Jas around here somewhere, called the Cult of the Green Lady, but you won’t see them much unless you go the Boneyard and visit the graves they tend to. When my Suzie died from the Red Death, they took her thin, deformed bones and washed her up real pretty. Then they stood around and gave a little speech about mortality and life, but I didn’t have a penny to give ‘em. They went ahead and did it for free.

Anyway, that’s pretty much a good rundown of Diamond Lake for ya. You wasted enough of my time, so get out of my face and stop asking questions. I got a few coppers left in my pocket, and I want to get to the Emporium to see that damned two-headed mule again . . .



Knuckston Grizzlebeard was buried in the Boneyard of Diamond Lake. His burial was overseen by the Cult of the Green Lady, and he is survived by his adult son Renald Grizzlebeard, in the direct custody of the mine manager Gelch Tilgast.

“The joys of the rich man are nothing, as they who hang around with sinners, scoffing at the simple paths of righteousness. Their delights are a pittance compared to eternity, and their rewards shall be devoured by the wriggling powers of darkness. They seem as trees along a riverbank bearing luscious fruits, but I tell you: they are plagued from within by blind, consuming things that eat without mercy and leave nothing behind. Not a one of them will be safe on the day of final judgment, when the slithering darkness feasts upon them. We tread toward a red day, full of writing doom and a dread feast of bloated, ravenous hunger. Dark times is coming. Slithering times, when the clouds snuff the sky and the austerity of flesh is the path of salvation. Be ready, and prepare your body for the coming Age . . . an Age of Worms . . .” - Jierian Weirus, Priest of St. Cuthbert


*This guide created by WerePlatypus on Paizo.com boards.[/sblock]

 
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Dichotomy

Explorer
BACKGROUND ON THE TOWN OF DIAMOND MINE AND ITS INHABITANTS [For characters with ranks in Knowledge (local) only]
[sblock]
The Emporium

Every week, hundreds of miners boil up from the depths, their pockets lined with freshly earned coin. The Emporium exists to separate the men from the money, and at this it is paramount among Diamond Lake's diverse businesses. Ten years ago it was simply Zalamandra's, one of a dozen vice dens along the Vein. Its ill fortunes changed the day its charismatic young madam seduced Professor Montague Marat, proprietor of a traveling sideshow and curiosity collection passing through Diamond Lake. The two soon joined forces, and a cavalcade of freaks and eccentrics moved into the building's lower floor. Thus was born Zalamandra's Emporium, and Diamond Lake has never been the same.

Upon entering, visitors encounter a small desk station manned by a grinning, businesslike attendant named Gaspar. The thin, balding man smiles wryly at all times, a gesture accentuated by his upcurled moustache. The house charges three coppers for access to the 'Gallery of Science' along the first floor's central corridor, and three silver for access to the lushly decorated upper floor, which features a large gaming hall, an exclusive entertainment club, and the infamous Veiled Corridor, where any pleasure may be obtained for the right price.


Lazare's House

Those seeking a relatively cultured nightspot often congregate at Lazare's House, a cozy gaming parlor situtated on the Vein's central square. In contrast to the ostentatious banners and garish chipped paint on the Emporium across the street, Lazare's exudes a quiet sense of class with a stylish stone and timber construction and distinctive crooked-peaked roof. Inside, Diamond Lake's elite match wits over dragonchess, a popular game in which two sides of 42 pieces contest over three 96-square boards representing the sky, the earth, and the underworld. Pieces include the griffon, sylph, oliphant, basilisk, hero, thief, and paladin. Scholars claim that the game is a metaphor for the celestial struggles of fundamental law, chaos, good, and evil. In Diamond Lake, it's principally another justification for gambling.

A central hearth, constantly stoked by the courteous staff, serves as the hub of a roughly circular interior. Along the ring, eight alcoves offer an excellent location for private conversation or even romantic trysts. Each alcove is a half-moon of posh benches encircling a rectangular table bearing a special built-in dragonchess board. Visitors are expected to bring their own pieces, but may rent a house set for 2gp. This fee effectively keeps out the riff-raff, making Lazare's a haven for visiting dignitaries and Diamond Lake's upper class.


The Feral Dog

Since both Lazare's and the Emporium charge a small fee for entry, Diamond Lake's poorest laborers must turn to a collection of run-down ale halls with more sullied reputations. The busiest by far is The Feral Dog, a sleazy tavern on the Vein's central square. Every night and especially when the workforces of several local mines let out at the same time, cheering laborers within the bar scream obscenities and wave betting vouchers over two dogs in a lethal pit fight. No one savors the tinny ale, but the place is more about camaraderie, bravado, and desperation than about expecting exemplary quality or service.

A gang of criminals casts a broad shadow over The Feral Dog's squalid taproom. The patrons know from experience to respect the word of Kullen, the silently seething albino half-orc who leads the motley band with little tolerance for insolence and a powerful backhand.

Arguments commonly erupt at the Feral Dog, especially during the dogfights, when betting often grows contentious and even violent. About once a month, a drunk miner falls or is pushed into the thrashing dog pit, with predictably tragic results. During the worst brawls, someone usually gets knifed. A festering garbage pit in the sharp crags behind the building is said to hold the corpses of as many humans as dogs.


Church of St. Cuthbert

Each of the establishments along the Vein's central square trade in the exploitation of human vice or false hope, and the tower-flanked Church of St. Cuthbert is certainly no exception. Within this austere stucco structure, the poorest of Diamond Lake's poor huddle in a torch-lit sanctuary listening to the fiery sermons of Jierian Wierus, a bombastic orator whose populist rants appeal to the best virtues and values of the common man while at the same time preying upon their fears and superstitions. Wierus endlessly preaches a creed of common sense, honesty, and self-sacrifice, encouraging his faithful to give penance to St. Cuthbert by whipping themselves in repetitive acts of self-mortification. His growing cult, now some 150 strong, gives succor to the dregs of Diamond Lake society and is seen as a menace by the town's mine managers, government, and other religious figures. Many claim that the flagellants seem to follow Wierus as much as they do St. Cuthbert, and it is only because the charismatic firebrand somehow keeps his followers from breaking the law that his sect has been allowed to thrive.


Tidwoad's

Sooner or later, adventurers looking to sell loot will cross paths with Tidwoad, a cantankerous jeweler with a meticulously arranged shop located on the Vein's central square. Tidwoad's is as close to a bank as one can find in Diamond Lake, and the gnome keeps several small vaults in the crawlspace below his workshop. He maintains a collection of his finest gems in a showroom display case, boasting that his establishment is completely theft proof. A shield guardian named Festus helps to keep the gnome's theft-free streak alive with powerful stone fists and a constant focus on protecting the shop.


Sheriff's Office

When a barroom brawl gets out of hand or when visitors threaten to upset the balance of power in Diamond Lake, Governor-Mayor Lanod Neff relies upon the discretion and agency of his private police force, assembled from a collection of corrupt watchmen gathered during Neff's youth as a watch captain in the Free City. Nearly all of them were drummed out of service in the capital due to some indiscretion, but each maintained a hold over municipal authorities (often in the form of potential blackmail fodder) strong enough to ensure that they were not bounced from the service entirely, but instead reassigned to Diamond Lake.

Led by a boisterous alcoholic named Sheriff Cubbin, the six thugs who comprise the constabulary see to the general safety of the town and ensure that Neff's schemes go off without a hitch. They take a keen interest in unusual visitors and in the dealings of the town's mine managers, Balabar Smenk and Gelch Tilgast in particular. The police don't care one whit about crimes committed against the mine managers' agents, but decorum insists that they persecute overt crimes committed against the managers themselves to the full extent of the law.

The Sheriff's Office off the Vein's central square contains living quarters for all six constables and a twelve-cell jail filled with a motley assembly of drunks and maniacs.


General Store

Running a successful business in Diamond Lake means avoiding entanglements with the constantly maneuvering mine managers and scrupulously avoiding favoritism (real or perceived). No merchant better understands this reality than Taggin, the amiable master of the town's largest general store. Tables line the walls within, stacked high with rope coils, lanterns, bottles, gloves, and gear. Wagon wheels rest against barrels filled with nails or candles. The inventory includes most common adventuring gear, and Taggin cheerfully offers to special order anything he does not have in stock from the Free City, a process that 'usually takes about a week.' Taggin is just shy of middle age, but dresses somewhat stylishly for his class. He has a handlebar mustache and full, receding blond hair. He treats women of any race with exceptional politeness.


The Hungry Gar

Guld Tortikan, head chef at the Hungry Gar, claims to serve the finest meal on the Vein. He is mistaken.


Jalek's Flophouse

When the lake turned foul, Diamond Lake's modest fishing industry fled the town, leaving a wake of empty warehouses and bankrupted fishers. Some of these warehouses became stockades for mine managers, packed with raw ore and letters of credit from the Free City and beyond. Others fell to ruin and became infested with squatters and addicts. Jalek's Flophouse, situated on Front Street within smelling distance of the lake, is the town's most famous warehouse, as it houses nearly a dozen pitiful indigents fighting off destitution with a handful of copper. A rotting wooden framework within supports a lurching, mazelike second floor, where every step brings an alarming creak and the walls thrum with muffled conversation. Lodging is 5 coppers a night, paid to a massive, helmeted half-orc mute named Golot. The brute pummels those who do not pay until they flee or die. No one has an address at Jalek's - the room you have is the one can keep. Most rooms lack doors, let alone locks, but the shifting inhabitants and the chaotic layout of the upper floor makes it one of the best places to disappear in all of Diamond Lake. The halfling landlord Jalek lives in a rooftop apartment and is seldom seen. The Cuthbertine flagellant Jieran Wierus frequently visits the flophouse, where he recruits a growing tide of converts.


Smenk Residence

A corpulent elemental of corruption and bad taste, Balabar Smenk lords his political clout over everyone in Diamond Lake save the governor-mayor and garrison commander, whom he privately mocks. Smenk has wrestled four mines into his possession in the last ten years, and has designs upon the rest. A coven of sycophants and hired goons surrounds him at all times. Rumors suggest that he has powerfully connected friends in the Free City.

Smenk lives in a sodden old mansion a century past its prime. Three thugs patrol the streets around his home, warning anyone they see to go away with a sneer and the brandishing of a lead pipe. Despite these precautions, Smenk's front door is always wide open, fulfilling an old public promise that he would always be available to his miners.


Deepspike Mine

Balabar Smenk uses this abandoned mine only for storage (and, rumor has it, occasionally to disappear the body of a slain enemy). It is protected by a padlock on an iron door.


Garrison

Centuries ago, long before the foundation of the Free City, a petty lord commanded the shores of the lake and the nearby iron ore and silver mines from a sturdy hilltop keep. Today, the refurbished ruin of that keep serves as home to more than 60 members of the Free City Militia, soldiers tasked with patrolling the northern hills, keeping watch over the lizardfolk-infested Mistmarsh to the south, and liaising with halfling, gnome, and dwarf communities in the region.

A third of the soldiers are always out on patrol, a wide circuit of nearby roadways and wildlands that takes them away from Diamond Lake for a week at a time. Remaining soldiers drill, maintain the garrison, hunt, and familiarize themselves with local terrain.

The bored soldiers present rich mining ground for a cadre of clerics and paladins of Heironeous, who provide spiritual and magical aid to the warriors from a stately chapel within the garrison fortress.

Captain Tolliver Trask, the garrison's aging commander, distinguished himself in a recent war and has the respect of his charges and of the community at large. He cares little about the day-to-day politics of Diamond Lake, and encourages his men to stay out of local business. He sees his job as critical to the defense of the Free City. Diamond Lake is just something that happens to be near his important work.

He supports Governor-Mayor Lanod Neff out of respect for the political process that put him in power, if not for the man himself. He trusts three advisors more closely than any of his other associates. The Heironean chief cleric Valkus Dun acts as Trask's spiritual advisor and foil. Trask's best friend is Dietrik Cicaeda, the middle-aged Chief Cartographer of Diamond Lake. Cicaeda is the region's sole legal authority regarding issues of land ownership, making his journals and maps among the town's most valuable treasures. He and his work thus enjoy the official protection of the garrison's walls and soldiery, and remain safely locked away from the town's manipulative mine managers. Chief Scout Merris Sandovar, lately of the Bronzewood Lodge druidic community three hours northeast of Diamond Lake, rounds out Captain Trask's inner circle.

The complete garrison force consists of 60 soldiers. Militia members typically wear leather or chainmail armor and carry a longsword or shortbow. This force is divided into thirds, with each squad led by a lieutenant. These individuals have the ear of Captain Trask and the admiration of their charges.


Chapel of Heironeous

Most of the guards and soldiers serving in the Diamond Lake garrison honor Heironeous as the patron of justice and martial prowess. The Invincible One's temple is little more than a large high-ceilinged chamber within the garrison itself, but it boasts the second largest congregation in Diamond Lake, as well as one of the village's most dynamic personalities in the form of its high priest, Valkus Dun.

Dun came to Diamond Lake two years ago, after the previous high priest vanished under mysterious circumstances. Local gossip holds that Dun once had great prospects in the Free City's immense Sanctum of Heironeous, but that politics saw him exiled to an assignment in squalid Diamond Lake. Nevertheless, Dun took to his assignment with zeal, and the weekly services have taken on an activist spirit. While the garrison commander urges his charges to stay out of local affairs, Dun instills in them a duty to the villagers and urges them to make a difference in the community. the resulting tension, between the garrison commander and Valkus Dun as well as between the Heironean soldiers and the disreputable elements of Diamond Lake (which is to say nearly all of them), is palpable.

A massive wall fresco of a mythic battle between perfect Heironeous and his traitorous half-brother Hextor looms over the chapel's bronzewood altar. The holy image is lit by dozens of guttering torches at night and by several stained-glass windows during the day. Weekly services exhibit a great deal of fraternity and sober, harmonic hymns. The are open to the public, but are dominated by soldiers and guards.


Lakeside Stables

While the common folk of Diamond Lake have plenty of reason to despair of their living conditions, they remain several times more fortunate than the community's horses, who predominantly dwell in the run-down Lakeside Stables under the careful watch of the brutal Lanch Faraday, a portly ostler prone to distressing mood swings. Customers commonly complain of mysterious bruises on their horses, evidence of Faraday's uncontrollable rages. Still, the price is right, and the walls around back keep the horses relatively safe from theft, so no one has yet pressed the issue.


The Midnight Salute

This by-the-numbers house of ill-repute caters to the garrison crowd and anyone seeking a less exotic (and less expensive) experience than that offered by the Emporium's legendary Veiled Corridor. Its proprietess, the ravishing Purple Prose, stresses discretion and decorum with her workforce.


The Spinning Giant

When not drilling, sleeping, or on patrol, garrison soldiers flock to this raucous two-story tavern to meet with friends, chant drinking songs, and drown themselves in ale and good cheer. A blue-shingled roof tops filthy white plaster walls. A faded fresco painted on the building's face depicts a dancing imbecilic hill giant in a yellow dress. Patrons must enter and exit via a door positioned between the giant's legs. This is Flailing Felanore, a dim-witted young giantess captured by the garrison militia 40 years ago and 'granted' to the proprietor of a favorite watering hole to serve as a mascot. The attraction worked, drawing visitors from as far as the Free City to gawk and stare at Felanore's awkward gyrations. Though Felanore died from an outbreak of the Red Death plague, nearly 20 years ago, the free-standing circular center stage on which she once pranced remains the most prestigious musical venue in town, if not nearly the most titillating.

Garrison soldiers make up most of the Spinning Giant's regular patrons, with a handful of mine overseers and merchants rounding out the crowd. Most who come here consider themselves honorable, and expect similar conduct from others. They do not tolerate pickpockets, and respond harshly when confronted with a crime in progress. They hold a similar disdain for Diamond Lake's constabulary, and have made it known on many occasions that Sheriff Cubbin and his boys are not welcome on the premises. Nor do they welcome Diamond Lake's poor, including most miners. Regular patrons routinely "suggest" that riffraff instead visit one of Diamond Lake's other fine establishments. Soldiers act with bravado in these encounters, knowing that most of the Spinning Giant's other customers will have their backs should a fight break out.


The Captain's Blade

Tyrol Ebberly, a severe-looking man who claims to have once been a watch captain in the Free City, runs this small shop with efficiency. He's an absolute fanatic about weapons, always showing off his masterwork items with enthusiasm. He's also an inveterate gossip, and asks endless questions about peoples' affairs, trying to learn more about how they were wounded or why they're looking for money. Ebberly has any melee weapon up to 900 gp in stock, but must send away for more expensive items, a process that takes several days. He specializes in masterwork melee weapons, and keeps his surprisingly wide selection displayed on the walls. He does not offer any masterwork ranged weapons, and sends anyone looking for them to Venelle's, across town. "Don't forget your coin purse," he sniffs indignantly. "You're sure to need it there."


Venelle's

A redolence of fresh pine suffuses this handsome establishment, a distinctive structure that incorporates intricate carved patterns and upright logs. The proprietor, a curious woman named Venelle, makes masterwork bows and arrows, and also deals in other weapons and armor imported from the Free City in exchange for items of her own design. The shop is a bit chaotic, with various items piled on tables. Armor sits loosely on too-small dummies. Venelle has a touch of elven blood about her, and is pleased to entertain guests who appreciate arrowcraft and elven culture. She has friends among the Bronzewood Lodge, and greets other characters from that nearby community with smiles. Venele carries most weapons and armor priced up to 900gp, but must send away for more expensive items.


Allustan's Residence

The "smartest man in town," a friendly wizard named Allustan, dwells within a charming red and deep blue house on one of the rare stretches of healthy grass in all of Diamond Lake. A small meditation garden abuts the face of the house, incorporating vertical stones and small pools of concentric circles. The fresh paint and well-tended yard contrasts sharply with the rest of the seedy town, a testament to the locals' respect for (or fear of) a man whose prowess is known as far as the Free City.

Allustan grew up in Diamond Lake with his brother, Lanod Neff. The sons of the town's powerful and efficient governor-mayor, they abused their influence and shamed the mine managers with social indiscretions. When finally they went too far, their father sent them both to the Free City, urging Allustan to seek an education and placing Lanod in a plum assignment with the city watch. Allustan soon found himself in the prestigious University of Magical Arts, where his apt scholarship and bravado caught the attention of a powerful master wizard named Tenser, a dynamic figure who traveled with some of the most renowned heroes of the day.

Tenser offered to take on Allustan as his apprentice, assuring him a life of thrills and discovery. What Allustan got was a window into a world of manipulative chessmasters willing to backstab trusted friends to honor abstract principles of balance and neutrality.

Though he thrived in the company of Tenser and his ilk, the politics proved too much to handle, and he split with the group more than a decade ago after a bitter ethical dispute. He retired to Diamond Lake only to find his inept brother in charge and facing challenges from all sides. So he remains, knowing that his presence supports a corrupt leader but unwilling to leave his family to the wolves. The same political disinterest that got him into trouble with Tenser keeps him from seeing the worst of his brother's offenses.

Allustan offers his library and considerable intelligence to the citizens of Diamond Lake as a sage, although few miners have reason to seek his services. Allustan charges a standard rate of 20 gp per question. He does this more to sate his curiosity than for the money; gains from his adventuring days easily cover his modest lifestyle.


Tilgast Residence

Ten years ago, the aging Gelch Tilgast held the reins of Diamond Lake's ore trade, a position he'd enjoyed most of his life. Then Balabar Smenk and his boundless ambition came to town. In his youth, Tilgast would have relished the challenge, but he didn't move fast enough to block Smenk's ascent, which has led directly to his own decline. Tilgast currently fuels enormous energy into building an alliance against Smenk that includes Luzane Parrin and a handful of weak mine managers from the neighboring towns of Steaming Springs and Blackstone.

The grandeur of Gelch Tilgast's stylish estate far outstrips its owner's current influence, which has been in free fall since Balabar Smenk first infested Diamond Lake. Tilgast maintains a family of seven fine thoroughbred horses within a well-managed stable enclosed in a stockade wall. Wealthy visitors and a few residents of the town pay 1 gp per day to stable a favorite horse within the compound, where a clutch of meticulous grooms tends to the animal's every need.


Old Piers

In decades past, nobles from the Free City flocked to Diamond Lake to sail upon its crystal clear waters. Mine tailings, waste runoff, and other pollution ended the practice almost a century ago, but the rotting carcasses of once elaborate piers still jut into the lake's murky waters. A few masts peek out from the surface, tombstones of abandoned fishing vessels from more recent times. Regular fish cannot survive in the tainted waters, leaving only dangerous, hardy predators like the ravenous, toothy gar that have become such a problem in recent years. Those who venture across Diamond Lake do so at their own risk.

For a piece of silver, a retired marine named Durskin will ferry up to six passengers across the lake in his sloop, a dingy vessel called the Autumn Runner. The destitute boatman lives on the deck of his boat, which smells of urine and teems with fleas and sea mites. Those seeking a safer passage must rely upon the Harkness, a ten-man sailboat maintained by the shadowy cult of the Green Lady, who use the vessel to cross back and forth between Diamond Lake and the cairn in which their order holds its services to Wee Jas, goddess of magic and death. Passage on the Harkness costs 3 sp, and passengers must endure bothersome sermons on the exquisite beauty of death and the arcane prowess of the Dark-Eyed Lady. In either case, it takes about 30 minutes to cross from one shore of the lake to the other.


Able Carter Coaching Inn

The Able Carter Coaching Company connects the Free City to its satellite towns via a fleet fo horse-drawn coaches and an inn positioned in every leg of the journey. Diamond Lake’s hostelry offers 20 rooms for let at a rate of 1 gp per day. Stable services are available for a fee of 5 sp per day. Four guards keep watch on the place throughout the day and night and can be hired to ride with a coach for an additional 5 gp per guard per day. The following chart shows travel time from Diamond Lake to other locations. Journeys listed as “wild” involve at least one night in the wilderness, when the coach is a sitting duck for the numerous bandits who infest the hills and vex the garrison’s militia.

Code:
[b]Destination       Days     Direction     Wild?[/b]
Blackstone          1        East          No
Blackwall Keep      2      East, South    Yes
Elmshire            2        North        Yes
Free City           3        East          No


Parrin Residence

This is the residence of Luzane Parrian, who is one of the mine owners in Diamond Lake, which she inherited from her parents. When Balabar Smenk arrived in town years ago, he quickly started acquiring Parrian's assets and holdings. Over the last few years she as watched as her closes friends, allies forged during her mother's time, fell into bankruptcy or were killed thanks to the machinations of Balabar Smenk, who at the same time continued to press her on the romantic front. Perrin once lived in the home now occupied by Balabar Smenk but was forced to relocate to this shabby manor about three years ago.


Greysmere Covenant

Three prominant representatives of the dwarven stronghold of Greysmere, many days to the south across the treacherous Mistmarsh, live in this sturdy brick and timber structure. Greysmere imports some of the raw iron ore unearthed by local humans, as it bears a color prized by the most skilled artisans and metalworkers of the dwarven clans. Dulok Blitzhame leads the delegation with straight talk and cunning pragmatism. The other councilors, Galuth Grobadore and Bitris Ruthek spend much of their time representing the interests of Greysmere in neighboring communities.


Gansworth Residence
In the 14 years since he came to Diamond Lake, Chaum Gansworth has remained in the background, never drawing too much attention to himself while quietly amassing a fortune from three very productive mines. Gansworth lives in the heart of Diamond Lake, at the end of a cul-de-sac marked by a memorial obelisk dedicted to the memory of a mine collapse 70 years ago that killed more than 300 miners. A low wall surrounds most of the two-story structure, and five loyal sentinels guard the compound at all times.


The Rusty Bucket
This popular restaurant used to specialize in fish, but since the lake went bad its' been forced to adapt to a land-based menu. Within, green stained-glass windows filter eerie light into the main dining room, where the intertwining melodies of a trio of pipers enhances an ethereal atmosphere. Guests dine in a large common room, with a handful of nicer tables situatied in a roped-off area beside the main dining hall. The far table, on a raised platform overlooking the private room, is reserved for Chaum Gansworth, Diamond Lake's most calculating mine manager and the owner of the Rusty Bucket. Gansworth rigorously pursues a neutral stance in all political dealings, afraid to expose himself to an enemy's treachery by making an overt move against one of the other mine managers. As a result, all fo the town's major political plaerys consider the Rusty Bucket neutral.


Moonmeadow Residence

Unlike the other mine managers of Diamond Lake, Ellival Moonmeadow manages only one mine for the government of the Free City. Moonmeadow owes his longevity to a keen intelligence and a reclusiveness that offers few chances to become embroiled in local affairs. The only thing that brings him into the public eye is dragonchess, and even then he plays only with opponents capable of challenging his instinctive, complex style. The blond, well-dressed elf rarely consorts with humans at all, preferring the company of six grey elves who also hail from his homeland, the distant realm of Celene. Decades younger than their master, these elves mix more readily with the folk of Diamond Lake, occasionally visiting the Emporium's opium parlor, Lazare's House, or Venelle's. Moonmeadow's sprawling manor surrounds a central courtyard containing a meditation garden, an ostentation of peacocks, and two green-and-brown-pelted cooshees, mated elven dogs who have accompanied their master since his days in Celene.


Osgood Smithy

The distinctive "O" maker's mark of Manlin Osgood is a regional sign of quality powerful enough that lesse blacksmiths in neighboring communities often forge it to maintain competitive parity. Osgood and his team of seven apprentices and journeyman smiths specialize in masterwork armor and household items like canteens, canisters, tools, and the like. Osgood is somewhat coarse, unfailingly polite middle-aged human with a bald head and a walrus-like mustache. He always remembers a customer's name, and greets frequent patrosn witha hearty handshake and a slap on the back.


Smelting House

A century ago, local mine managers maintained their own smelting houses, but constant conflict resulted in frequent sabotage that choked the flow of resources from Diamond Lake to the Free City markets. The city directors reluctantly stepped in, monopoloizing the smelting trade and basing the town's only smelting house in a massive fortress-worshop perched on the edge of the lake. Runoff slag belched from the great sub-surface pipes accounts for the majoirty of the pollution that has killed off most aquatic life in the region, and production these days is more robust than it has ever been. The rarely seen chief smelter, Vulgan Durtch, is one of the richest men in Diamond Lake, but few neighbors know anything about him.

A tower on the building's northwest corner serves as the residence and workshop of Benazel the Alchemist, a talkative chemist from the Free City who oversees the alchemical rituals and regents necessary for the smelting process and who makes a minor fortune selling potions from his first-floor office.


Diamond Lake Boneyard

The town's overcrowded cemetery used to be a great source of bodies for medical students in the Free City and unscrupulous necromancers, but the Cult of the Green Lady has put a stop to that. Throughout the day, a handful of green-robed acolytes wander the cemetery chanting songs holy to Wee Jas while tending graves and clearing vines and mude from stone markers dating back hundreds of years. Tales abound that one coffin in the boneyard -- no one is sure just which one -- contains not a dead body, but dozens and dozens of gold bars.


Neff Manor

Governor-Mayor Lanod Neff's sprawling manor house squats atop the hill overlooking Diamond Lake, a tangle of scaffolding, wires, and workcrews. Protected by a wooden stockade wall, the manor houses the political apparatus of the town, including several meeting rooms, a courthouse, and numerous bedchambers for visiting dignitaries and (just as frequently) Lanod Neff's countelss cronies and concubines. Visitation with the governor-mayor is by appointment only, with an audiences sometimes taking weeks to arrange.


Dourstone Mine

This iron ore mine has kept strong for centuries, predating the formal establishment of Diamond Lake as a vassal of the Free City. Ragnolin Dourstone has managed the mine since the very beginning, when he chose this spot seemingly at random.


Menhirs

This worn old stone ring is often visited by residents of the Bronzewood Lodge, and is sacred to druids and rangers, a relic from a time when teh laws of the wilderness governed man as well as animals.


Old Observatory

This crumbling abandoned observatory once housed an order of monks obsessed with the heavenly bodies of the nighttime sky.


Dourstone Residence

This squat, well-protected manor is the home of Ragnolin Dourstone, who is one of Diamond Lake's most responsible mine managers.


DIAMOND LAKE'S HINTERLANDS
Beyond the streets of Diamond Lake is a jagged expanse of wilderness. Wandering bands of militia patrol the region, keeping it mostly safe for the merchants, pilgrims, and travelers heading to and from the Free City. The following locations, while technically outside the town limits, play important roles in local affairs.


The Twilight Monastery

About two hours north of Diamond Lake, a towering crag called the Griffon’s Roost casts a dark shadow over the muddy road to Elmshire. From a perch hundreds of feet above looms the cat-infested Twilight Monastery, a three-towered monument to an obscure philosophy of the Distant West. Two score monks dwell within the monastery, dedicating themselves to a litany of exercises meant to perfect the body and spirit. The secretive monks hold dusk as the holiest of hours, and sonorous chants emit from the Twilight Monastery’s central courtyard when the night sky appears in the heavens.

Foremost among the monks is Izenfen the Occluded, a peerless masked combatant thought to be one of the wisest figures in the hills. Travelers frequently seek her council, but most leave Diamond Lake without ever having gained access to the Twilight Monastery, for Izenfen deigns to speak with only a handful of pilgrims foretold to her via the agency of the night sky and an immense mirrored lens called the Censer of Symmetry.

When word of the Censer’s predictive prowess spread to the miners of Diamond Lake 20 years ago, a desperate contingent petitioned Izenfen to predict the location of the richest unclaimed local ore deposits, appealing to her compassion with tales of starving children and dangerously unpaid debts. The masked mistress of the Twilight Monastery rebuffed their pleas, triggering the miners’ contingency plan—an ill-fated invasion of the monks’ compound that left seven miners dead.

Immediately thereafter, Izenfen gathered a cadre of stealth assassins from the ranks of her best warriors, and silently set them upon the surviving invaders who still milked wounds in the petty shacks along Diamond Lake’s waterfront. Rumors suggest that Izenfen’s masked silent killers remain active to this day, citing the disappearance or mysterious deaths of nearly a dozen political enemies within the town.


The Bronzewood Lodge

The ring of crumbling menhirs on the bluff overlooking Diamond Lake is a remnant of an ancient human druidic culture that once inhabited the region. They too came to the hills for the ancient cairns, seeing them as monuments to great ancestors of the invisible past. Although modern humans displaced the native druids during great migrations over a thousand years ago, pockets of indigenous architecture and culture remain. Foremost among these near-forgotten practices is veneration of Obad-Hai, the Shalm, the brooding patron of wilderness and natural order.

Druids and rangers who honor the Shalm and a host of minor nature deities and fey spirits (the so-called Old Faith) routinely congregate in great moots three hours northeast of Diamond Lake, at an ancient megalithic structure called the Bronzewood Lodge. Devotees of Ehlonna or the elven pantheon are welcome at these meetings, if a bit gruffly, but all other attendees must be invited personally by someone already within the circle of trust.

A small permanent community inhabits the Lodge itself and the wooded copse surrounding it. Perhaps 30 assorted druids, rangers, and scouts protect the sacred site and keep watch on the nearby roads and valleys. Occasionally, they step in to rescue a traveler from some natural menace, but just as often they warn explorers to stay on the roads and let the wilderness take care of itself. Their leader is Nogwier, an aged proponent of the Old Faith who strives to keep the focus of his community on preservation of a near-extinct way of life and away from anger at the Free City and its operatives in Diamond Lake, whose avariciousness continually rapes the land.


The Cairn Hills

A few hundred years ago, intrepid explorers discovered a fantastic cache of priceless artifacts entombed in one of the hundreds of ancient burial complexes hewn into the crags surrounding the Free City. The trove attracted legions of treasure-seekers to the Free City (then a mere trading post), and unbelievable wealth plundered from the tombs. The wealthiest explorers became the city’s first nobility, and the Free City quickly became associated with easy wealth and fabulous archeological artifacts from long-dead civilizations that appeared to predate the emergence of gnomes and dwarves in the region. But the wealth didn’t always come easy, as many of the forlorn tombs provided deadly surprises in the form of bound demon guardians, relentless constructs, and ingenious magical wards and traps. The hilly lands surrounding the City became known as the Cairn Hills, and the hunt for lost treasure became an important part of the region’s cultural heritage.

But the treasure didn’t last forever. Eventually, the cairns dried out, and unplundered tombs became more and more difficult to locate. Every decade or so a lucky explorer managed to strike it rich, but even more came away from their endeavors with nothing more than broken ankles and clothes singed by the fires of ancient protections. Several vanished entirely. Over the years, the Cairn Hills began to lose their allure, and the City fell upon difficult times.

Although abandoned cairns host no few bandit troupes and savage humanoid enclaves, two nonhuman communities play an important role in the Free City’s economy, so much so that they impact even the remote mining town of Diamond Lake. These are the gnome warren of Grossetgrottel and the dwarven stronghold of Greysmere.

Three days (by coach) northwest of Diamond Lake, the Cairn Hills Trail enters a region of steep crags pocked with natural caverns. Five of these caverns lead to an interconnected series of gnome villages called Grossetgrottel. The gnomes of Grossetgrottel specialize in rare gems rescued from the subterranean depths, but each of the five villages focuses on a different trade or specialization. All told, some 800 gnomes call the place home, though about a quarter as many “expatriates” live in the Free City itself or in the mining towns surrounding it. Able gnome wardens and gem-encrusted constructs stand vigil over the surface entrances to each community, and nongnome visitors are subject to the legendary gnome suspicion.

South of the immense Mistmarsh, the Cairn Hills jut up to become the Abbor-Alz Mountains, and in a tight valley stands the imposing dwarven fortress of Greysmere, its impressive stone-carved façade reflecting in the still waters of a placid mountain lake. Tall mountains completely surround the valley, making the citadel one of the most easily defended locales in the region. Unusually for the dwarves, Greysmere stands open to all visitors, who are welcome in the enclave’s upper markets and vast, agoraphobia-inducing galleries. More than 400 dwarves dwell within Greysmere, under the guidance of Fionor the Rude, a downright mean little fellow who invites all new guests to his dinner table in hopes that they might provide a moment’s entertainment. Despite his boorishness, Fionor respects those who command respect, and is a trustworthy friend.


Cairn of the Green Lady

Far less welcoming are the brooding inhabitants of the Cairn of the Green Lady, a reclaimed tomb on the opposite shore of Diamond Lake itself. Cloaked in robes of green and quick to threaten outsiders, these two-score devotees of the death goddess Wee Jas honor a fallen saint of that deity with mournful prayers to departed spirits and mysterious explorations of the hills nearby. They base themselves in the tomb of this departed servant of the Dark-Eyed Lady, whom they believe died during a great migration of humans across the treacherous hills more than a thousand years ago. Diamond Lake’s Governor-Mayor Lanod Neff trusts the cultists only because they protect the town’s boneyard from the sinister attentions of the community’s most depraved residents. The order’s leader, the enchanting Amariss, is always on the lookout for new recruits.


DRAMATIS PERSONAE

AURIC (Human M): Braggart whoclaims to have won the Maiden's Belt from the Free City's gladitorial games. While the belt looksauthentic, none has found the resolve to truly question him on it. Perhaps this has to do with the spiked gauntlets and the huge arms that they cover.
ALLUSTAN (Human m): Wizard and "the smartest man in town"
CHEZABET (Human f): Emporium fortune teller
VELIAS CHILDRAMUN (Human m): Fatherly cleric of Hieroneous
DIETRIK CICAEDA (Human m): Chief Cartographer of Diamond Lake
SHERRIF CUBBIN (Human m): Corrupt Sheriff of Diamond Lake
RAGNOLIN DOURSTONE (Dwarf m): Mine manager
DANNATH (Human f): Lazare's daughter and hostess of his House
VALKUS DUN (Human m): High priest of Hieroneous
TYROL EBBERLY (Human m): Weapon dealer, owner of the "Captain's Blade"
CHAUM GANSWORTH (Human m): Mine manager
ARIELLO KLINT (Halfling m): "The Combustible Magician", entertainer at The Emporium
KURLAG (Half-ogre m): Bouncer at The Emporium
LAZARE (Human m): Proprietor of Lazare's House and dragonchess enthusiast
MELINDE (Human f): Charming young warrior priestess of Hieroneous
ELLIVAL MOONMEADOW (Elf m): Mine manager
GOVERNOR-MAYOR LANOD NEFF (Human m): Rules Diamond Lake for the Free City of Grehawk
NOGWIER (Human m): High cleric of the Bronzewood Lodge
LUZANE PARRIN (Human f): Mine manager
PURPLE PROSE (Elf f): Madame of The Midnight Salute
MERRIS SANDOVAR (Human m): Chief Scout of Militia
TOM SHINGLE (Boggle m): Emporium contortionist
BALABAR SMENK (Human m): Mine manager
SHAG SOLOMON (? m): "The Wild Gentleman", entertainer/freak in the Emporium
TIDWOAD (Gnome m): Gem monger and proprietor of Tidwoad's
GELCH TILGAST(Human m): Mine manager
TOLLIVER TRASK (Human m): Militia garrison's aging commander
DOBRUN TRENT (Half-elf m): Militia lieutenant
MIKKELA VENDERIN (Human f): Militia lieutenant
VENELLE (Half-elf f): Bowyer/fletcher for Diamond Lake
JIERIAN WIERUS (Human m): Flagellant high priest of St. Cuthbert
ZALAMANDRA (Human f): Queen of the Veiled Corridor
WILLIAM (Dwarf M): Lazare's Doorman and right hand to Dannath. While he allows any to enter if they mind their manners, there are few he considers truly worthy of spending time in Lazare's House.
KHELLEK: (Human M): One of Auric's companions and apparently the brain behind Auric's brawn and Tirra's brashness. A cynical man, he enjoys the game of Dragonchess and is said to be Lazare's equal at the game. Although Lazare merely smiles and waves away such claims, the fact that he has not met the stranger's challanges has given many a pause to ponder if it is true.
TIRRA (Elvish f): Flirtatious elvish woman fond of playing Rings at the Feral Dog. Using her skill, as well as her beauty, with her daggers, she has not lost a match since arriving in Diamond Lake three days ago.[/sblock]
 
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Dichotomy

Explorer
Here's a link to the code you need.

Link to GitP's PbP guide. Recall that about 1/4 down is the "Post Formatting" section. I prefer the Prose format, but in the PRESENT tense. Also, for OOC stuff, rather than using brackets, I prefer for it to be in a spoiler block.

Diamond Lake map (letter sized PDF) - DM copy
[sblock=Proposed New Class]Druids are broken. Sorcs suck. Here's a proposed fix.

The Fey Caster
Hit Die: d6
BAB: poor (as Wizard)
Saves: Good Fort, Ref, and Will
Skill Points at 1st level: (6+int modifier) x4
Skill Points at each additional Level: 6 + Int Modifier
Class Skills: The fey caster's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: As druid.

Code:
[B]The Fey Caster           Hit Die: d6                                     
        Base                                                                             
        Attack    Fort   Ref    Will                                             
Level   Bonus     Save   Save   Save   Special                                    [/B]
1st     +0           +2     +2     +2     Animal companion, nature sense, wild empathy
2nd     +1           +3     +3     +3     Woodland stride
3rd     +1            +3     +3     +3     Trackless step
4th     +2           +4     +4     +4     Resist nature’s lure
5th     +2           +4     +4     +4     
6th     +3             +5     +5     +5     
7th     +3             +5     +5     +5     
8th     +4             +6     +6     +6     
9th     +4             +6     +6     +6    Venom immunity
10th    +5            +7     +7     +7     
11th    +5         +7     +7     +7     
12th    +6/+1         +8     +8     +8     
13th    +6/+1         +8     +8     +8     A thousand faces
14th    +7/+2         +9     +9     +9    
15th    +7/+2        +9     +9     +9     Timeless body
16th    +8/+3     +10    +10     +10     
17th    +8/+3     +10    +10     +10     
18th    +9/+4    +11    +11     +11     
19th    +9/+4     +11    +11     +11   
20th    +10/+5    +12    +12     +12
The listed special abilities are all as listed for the druid, except as noted below.

Wildshape
Does not exist.

Spells
A fey caster casts divine spells, which are drawn from the druid spell list. He can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time, the way a wizard or a cleric must (see below).

To learn or cast a spell, a fey caster must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a fey caster's spell is 10 + the spell level + the fey caster's Charisma modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a fey caster can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is as given on Table: The CLERIC (in the SRD), EXCEPT that instead of having a domain spell slot, the fey caster's extra slot is reserved for summon nature's ally spells (though the fey caster can still spontaneously cast such spells as a druid can). In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Charisma score.

A fey caster's selection of spells is extremely limited. A fey caster knows spells as indicated on Table: Sorcerer Spells Known, EXCEPT the fey caster is treated for this purpose as one level higher than he actually is, and the fey caster automatically knows the [summon nature's ally[/i] chain of spells. (Unlike spells per day, the number of spells a fey caster knows is not affected by his Charisma score; the numbers on Table: Sorcerer Spells Known are fixed.) These new spells can be common spells chosen from the druid spell list, or they can be unusual spells that the sorcerer has gained some understanding of by study. The sorcerer can’t use this method of spell acquisition to learn spells at a faster rate, however.

Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even-numbered fey caster level after that (6th, 8th, and so on), a fey caster can choose to learn a new spell in place of one he already knows. In effect, the fey caster "loses" the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, and it must be at least two levels lower than the highest-level druid spell the fey caster can cast. A fey caster may swap only a single spell at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that he gains new spells known for the level.

Unlike a wizard or a cleric, a fey caster need not prepare his spells in advance. He can cast any spell he knows at any time, assuming he has not yet used up his spells per day for that spell level. He does not have to decide ahead of time which spells he’ll cast.[/sblock]

[sblock=Houserules][sblock=Hit Points]The intention was max at first level, then a "true average" thereafter.
d4: at even levels (level 2, level 4, etc.) get 2 hit points; at odd levels get 3
d6: even 3; odd 4
d8: even 4; odd 5
d10: even 5; odd 6
d12: even 6; odd 7[/sblock]
[sblock=Spellbooks]After great discussion, we decided to keep RAW. To summarize what RAW are:
1) Either make a DC 20 + spell level spellcraft check or use read magic to decipher the spellbooks;
* Failure on this spellcraft check means you have to wait until the next day
2) Spend an entire day (for each spell) studying it, then make another spellcraft check (DC 15 + spell level) to "understand" the spell;
* Failure on this spellcraft check means you can't "understand or copy" the spell; you can't try again until you get another rank in spellcraft
3) Spend an entire day (again) and use up 1 page per spell level (at a cost of 100 gp each page) actually writing the spell in his spellbook.
* This is the copying cost and does not include any "borrowing fee" or the like
More specifics in post 200 on OOC thread page 14.[/sblock]
[sblock=Crafting]You can create any wondrous item whose prerequisites you meet. Enchanting a wondrous item takes one casting of every required spell for every 1,000 gp in its price, and a minimum of one day. To enchant a wondrous item, you must spend 1/25 of the item’s price in XP and use up raw materials costing half of this price.[/sblock]
[sblock=Death and XP]Use RAW
Any creature brought back to life usually loses one level of experience. The character’s new XP total is midway between the minimum needed for his or her new (reduced) level and the minimum needed for the next one. If the character was 1st level at the time of death, he or she loses 2 points of Constitution instead of losing a level.
unless the character was more than halfway to reaching the next level. In that case, the character's new XP total is set at that same fraction of the way between the minimum needed for his or her new (reduced) level and the minimum needed for the next one.[/sblock][/sblock]
 
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Dichotomy

Explorer
[sblock=Encounters defeated]3 grimlocks
Grimlock Kennel Master & 2 krenshars
2 grimlock archers
2 chokers
Grimlock barbarian
3 grimlocks
2 grimlocks
6 grimlocks
Grimlock chieftain
3 grimlocks
Grimlock cleric
4 acolytes of vecna
Allip
The Faceless One
(Slightly toned down) Ebon Aspect [sans Erdolliel]
Group of crappy NPCs [sans Erdolliel]
Erdolliel's magical mysterious journey through death
4 Bandits
4 Lizardfolk
A whole bunch of encounters that happened during our live session
Giant crocodile
3 spawn of kyuss
3 bandits
Scaring away 8 commoners and 1 cleric
3 Displacer Beasts
6 worgs
Dire wolverine
2 trolls
2 rogues
Chimera
Merchant and incited crowd
Martal & Regim
3 Mimics
Wide mouth spiked pit trap
2 Invisible Stalkers
Giant Octopus (yes, I'm giving you the XP for it)
Illusory Spiked Pit Trap
6 Doppelgangers
2 (more) Doppelgangers
Erdolliel Doppelganger
3 Doppelgangers w/ fighter levels
Greater Doppelganger
2 Wide Spiked Pit Trap
2 Poisoned Ceiling Spear Trap
2 Drow Fighter
4 Shriekers
Yellow Mold
3 Drow Fighters
5 Drow Fighters
Drow Cleric
Glyph of Warding
3 Octopins
Advanced Octopin
Octopin [sans Nethezar]
Mind Flayer Sorcerer [sans Nethezar]
Stone Brain Dominate Trap [I'm given Nethezar XP for it since his protection from evil spells constitute a good contribution to your surviving it]
4 Human Zombies [sans Nethezar]
Spirit Naga [sans Nethezar][/sblock]
[sblock=XP]Previously:
Erdolliel: 34,199
Nethezar: 31,145
Kushnak: 33,789

My current tally:
Erdolliel: 43,999
Nethezar: 32,000 (FYI it gave Neth more XP to award him XP before deducting for his death)
Kushnak: 43,589[/sblock]
 
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o3caudata

First Post
alexis is our party's human cleric.

Her color is: (this one)

i can't resist it... medium turquoise is just too awesome...that one's nice too... but pretty close to the dwarven rogue... and who want's to get that close to a dwarf anyway....wait, i already used that one... and it's my favorite so far... well i like the puke green too...ok i can.... is deep sky blue something like deep space ninei don't know if i can resist this onethis is pretty damn ugly.... what the hell is medium turquoise?this must be my color This is also my colorThis is my color?is this too darkwheat beer tastes good
 




Split the Hoard


Split the Hoard
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