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[Let's Read] Southlands Campaign Setting
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 7578967" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Chapter Seven: the Abandoned Lands</strong></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/das8IhD.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Dominating the geographical center of the continent, the Abandoned lands are a sparsely inhabited region where the capital of Glorious Umbuso once sat. The collapse of the titan empire and its ley lines left much of the region a dangerous place, but even the promise of riches and lore draw explorers to this forbidding realm every year.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Ramag</strong></p><p></p><p>The Ramag people were a tribe of humans allied with Glorious Umbuso, gifted with the ability to manipulate magical ley lines to help their larger neighbors build works of wonder. When the insane plague gripped the titans, the Ramag sheltered themselves within the city of Ramagani (or “home” in their native tongue).</p><p></p><p>Ramagani still stands to this day, geographically spread all over the Abandoned Lands and outlying regions but considered one city thanks to the network of teleportation portals. Said portals are linked together via stable ley lines and maintained by huge monoliths. The ambient magical energies of said structures slowly changed the Ramag humans into a still-humanoid yet highly magical race; most Ramag appear as humans, but with slightly longer limbs and much thicker strands of hair usually tied back in fanciful clasps.</p><p></p><p>Day to day life in Ramagani is much like that of other Southlands cities, although their teleportation network makes their civilization a trade hub par excellence. They also are the greatest repository of titan lore in the Southlands, privy to their language, hidden sites, and magical traditions unknown elsewhere. Ramag’s neighborhoods are arranged in a ring-like pattern with monoliths around the edges, and at least one of those portals leads to the main city which is located on an island off the southern coast of the Southlands. Maintaining the monoliths is a vital public service, and every adult learns an incantation to bind their soul to the structure in death and are entombed in the monolith. At its basic function this keeps the magical energy flowing, but the presence of more powerful spellcaster’s souls can grant bonus effects such as animated statue guardians, long-ranging abjurations covering entire neighborhoods, and so on.</p><p></p><p>If you’re wondering how far-spread Ramagani’s portals reach, the answer is very far. <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/153379/Southlands-Campaign-Setting-Map" target="_blank">You can download a free copy of the setting map from Drive-Thru RPG to see for yourself,</a> but the book itself lists eight of the largest ones: two just south of Kush, two near the Skittering Ones’ Web, one in Mafri near the Eleyin Mountains, one along the southernmost coast of Terrotu, one west of Terrotu, and countless more not on the map. The book teases us with potential lost portals used as secret refuges, failed settlements, and forgotten streets of other cities.</p><p></p><p>Ramagani’s government has a council of elders whose members are elected by popular vote, and a king or queen chosen from the elders during New Year celebrations to serve a 10 to 15 year term. The end of the term entombs the regent in one of the monoliths, usually to replace one with fading magical energies or reinforce a weakened portion of ley line.</p><p></p><p>Ramagani’s defenses are also appropriately extraordinary. The Stormwatch manages ley-line powered siege ballistae crackling with magical lightning to ward off enemy armies and monsters, while a guild known as the Scaled Keepers raise and hatch pterodactyl eggs in special incubated houses to serve the military as aerial cavalry. In the event of a magical disaster breaking or severing a ley line, the heavily-armed Ley Wardens patrol the Abandoned Lands’ environs to repair and protect them with exacting rituals.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Tosculi, the Golden Swarm</strong></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Mwxwjhb.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Finally we get to learn more about everyone’s favorite wasp-people! This section serves as an overview of all tosculi settlements in the Southlands, and not just the ones in the Abandoned Lands although they are most populous there. The buzzing sounds of the insect’s flying raiders is one of the most-feared things among the realm’s travelers, and there are few things which unite the Abandoned Land’s scattered people than an invasion of the Golden Swarm.</p><p></p><p>The tosculi worship the archdevil Arbeyach, working to expand their hives into new territory. Raiders kidnap people to take back to their hives, where they implant the prisoners with eggs for their larvae to feed off of and grow before emerging from the drained corpse as new tosculi drones or warriors. They have a hostile foreign policy with just about every other political power bloc, even each other. Although tosculi have the same long-term goal and worship the same god, their six major hives are ruled over by queens who all want to be supreme ruler of the Southlands themselves and brook no competition.</p><p></p><p>We get a list of four of the largest hives of the Golden Swarm. There exist smaller ones all over the Southlands, but tend to be tiny affairs ranging from two dozen to a few thousand tosculi at most. Snowcap Hive lairs in the cold mountains of the Southern Fringe (the following chapter), built from immense pillars of mud reaching into the sky. Titans’ Hive lairs in the southwest portion of the Abandoned Lands, a former settlement of Glorious Umbuso now almost completely encased in mud-like resin structures. It is unknown to what extent the tosculi are aware of the titans’ powers, although they do seem knowledgeable of the ruins’ many magical items. Corpsehive is perhaps the most macabre settlement, for a large portion of its structure is composed of tosculi corpses frozen in resignation, arms and jaws locked before death. The Corpsehive tosculi are also known to build sacred cattle of the Terrotu into their structures as well, their skulls separated as trophies on display by their queen.</p><p></p><p>The Great Hive of Arbeyach gets the most detail, and it’s not even in the Abandoned Lands proper: it’s actually east of Kush and west of Sar-Shaba, which would technically place it in the Corsair Coast. The Tosculi call it Crecretellock, or “Green Hill City” in their tongue. It was the first relam of the tosculi to convert to the archdevil’s worship, and for this loyalty they are the strongest and most fanatical of the hives. Arbeyach’s herald, the unique devil Ia-Affrat, sits within the hive and actually has contempt for the wasp-folk. He sees them as dirty, boring, and ugly and is prone to inflict abuse upon them for minor infractions.</p><p></p><p>The Great Hive is a mostly-vertical settlement, divided into sections of chimney-like hives. The Farsight Chimney grants the best view of the surrounding territory, while the Orange Chimney holds scribes, artists, merchants selling unique living items of the Tosculi, and swarm masters raising mundane insects to use in war or as sacrifices to Arbeyach. The Sky-Templer of Arbeyach is the religious center of the city and also home to its butcheries. The War and Commerce Chimney holds the living quarters for most of the soldier caste and serves as a storehouse and armory. The Royal Chimney hosts the hive’s governance and living quarters of Hive-Queen Tekli, who sits upon a throne of carved jet embedded with precious gems. A few travelers of other races are brought here to share news of caravan and settlement development, although the Queen is fond of inviting less-favorable visitors to her private quarters where she promptly insults and dismembers them.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Munayo, the Floating Village</strong></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/TtBBKO2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Lake Debari, the largest body of freshwater in the Southlands, holds an entire town upon its lulling waves. Hundreds of fishing-boats and barges lashed and tethered together form a city upon the clear waters. Many boats are capable of lone travel and have departed from the fleet, but most remain docked in Munayo for decades. The town’s ancestors swore an oath to never set foot on solid ground, for they are tasked with constant vigil of a threat they claim sleeps at the bottom of the lake.</p><p></p><p>They do not share this with outsiders, but the Munayo’s oldest stories explain of how their ancestors paid tribute to marid genies who lived within a magnificent city surrounding a portal to the Elemental Plane of Water. They later came to revere the titans of Glorious Umbuso who protected them from the dangers of the continent, and this did not seem to cause conflict between them and the marid. When the titan empire collapsed, a leviathan emerged from the portal and devastated the marid city. One of the dying titans tried to kill the creature, but the insanity wrought by her plague made her cast the wrong spell and instead put the beast in a deep slumber. The people of Munayo had a front-view stage to Umbuso’s burning cities and the broken remnants of the marid buildings. After mourning their lost neighbors, they made an oath to continue where the genies and titans left off by watching over the lake.</p><p></p><p>Munayo’s demographics are mostly Zwana humans, but some undines, elves, and fey-touched trollkin live among the boats. Seafood gained from fishing and diving comprises the majority of their diet, although a few sturdy boats with soil grow floating gardens. Everyone knows how to swim and the village’s warriors train in underwater warfare for the inevitable time when the behemoth rises. They have a large community of spellcasters, more divine than arcane, but bards are popular due to strong storytelling traditions. Much of the lake’s natural resources are turned into tools, and mussel shells are the most versatile. They can be used as pottery, eating utensils, or even forged into scale mail armor.</p><p></p><p>The people of Munayo accept foreigners into their settlements for three days, but those who wish to remain longer must become full citizens and “leave behind the land.” They undertake a test to dive to one of the ruined marid towers and retrieve a relic of that land; those who survive the ordeal are welcomed with a weeklong feast along with the full history of the Munayo and their status.</p><p></p><p>For those who wish to play as Munayo PCs, the village holds a blind lottery every three years for six among their number. Those chosen are tasked with venturing into the Abandoned Lands to harvest and trade for resources unobtainable on Lake Debari. Unfortunately this breaks their taboo, and they are treated as outsiders who must leave the village after three days once they return with the needed supplies.</p><p></p><p>Munayo’s entry ends with 14 locations within town and 3 adventure hooks. The hooks include an oracle making contact with a ghostly marid deep beneath the waves who is not all-benevolent, another involves helping an exile return a treasured keepsake to the village they were sworn to never return to, and the third involves braving the underwater ruins at the risk of waking the sleeping behemoth. The locations are nothing special, mostly detailing mundane stores and important personages responsible for community affairs.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Perils of the Abandoned Lands</strong></p><p></p><p>Most of the Abandoned Lands is located on the Aggesal Plains, home to very large wildlife such as dinosaurs and towering megafauna. Beyond these obvious dangers, a more subtle one deadly to spellcasters manifests from the warped and broken ley lines. Beyond the stable ones of Ramagani the majority twist, link, break, and form in random patterns. Any time a spell, spell-like ability, or magical item is activated, there is a 20% chance a caster is within a region of broken ley lines, triggering a primal magic effect on a failed concentration check (DC 15 + twice the spell’s level or caster level if a magic item or ability).</p><p></p><p>We have an entire table for failed results here:</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/4jSGr1D.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>As you can see, there’s a fair amount of negative backlash and unexpected positive results. <a href="https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?827103-Let-s-Read-Midgard-World-Book&p=21852550#post21852550" target="_blank">It reminds me of the Wasted West region from the Midgard Worldbook,</a> which more or less operates under similar mechanics.</p><p></p><p>Afterwards we get eight locations of miscellaneous locations within the Abandoned Lands. They include the Trollkin Kingdom of Nmabi ruled over by a reincarnated adventurer who believes himself to be a divine king; the Palace of the Heris, home to a community of white-furred sapient apes awakened by a long-dead race of sorcerers wiped out by a magical plague; the Rift Valley of Kimvai, home to titan-sized cavernous structures dotting the canyon walls where human and heru communities inhabit, some of whom gone mad and form cults to dark gods; the Shattered Roads, huge stone highways reaching out from Glorious Umbuso’s capital capable of doubling travel speed but filled with erratic and hazardous magic; the Skittering Ones’ Web, a rainforest home to a race of spider monsters who sold their souls to a demon lord and make raids against Terrotu and coastal vessels; and the Treehomes of the Mafri, a group of two dozen Zwana villages who live in a jungle canopy east of Lignas.</p><p></p><p>The Mafri worship serpents of all kinds, based on a creation myth where great snakes protected their ancestors from a cataclysmic rain of stone and fire, and leave sacrifices of prisoners to shrines. Precious stones are given back in the same location the day after as a reward from their gods. Their “gods” in question are subterranean serpentfolk who are more than happy to use the Mafri as a buffer against enemies and even have a few spies in Lignas (who they do not treat as an ally just because of a shared love of serpents).</p><p></p><p>Gala’ikos, the former capital of Glorious Umbuso, is second in the list but has more word count so I’m treating it as its own section. Its towering spires of crystal and glass reflect sunlight onto the streets, and some of the city’s floating palaces still orbit the perimeter. Although Gala’ikos still looks beautiful, the lost legacy of the titans can be seen in etched runes of blood written by victims of the maddening plague. The structures are built for inhabitants 70 feet tall, which would ordinarily make conventional travel for human-sized people difficult if not impossible. But many structures have separate human-sized entrances and stairs for the titans’ mortal followers which mitigates this. The titans’ descendants still occupy the city as deformed, insane beings a shadow of their former power. They are prone to violent mood swings, react with hostility to intruders, and worship the city’s magical devices and phenomena as though they were gods.</p><p></p><p>Some of the notable locations within Gala’ikos include a Floating Prison which housed some of the empire’s greatest criminals, but is now mostly empty save for a nest of vrock demons and a trio of evil gods imprisoned near the prison’s center. The Hall of Creatures is a crystal dome housing a menagerie of life forms from across Midgard and other planes. The menagerie’s occupants survived in their own ecosystem, malfunctioning construct caretakers barely able to contain the population. The broken wards are how the Abandoned Lands became home to so many dinosaurs and megafauna. Finally, six cocoons of floating crystal known as the Sleeping Gods each contain the comatose form of a titan, and the academy ruins they orbit hold the secret to awakening them.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Character Options of the Abandoned Lands</strong></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ppF8ssF.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>The PC-facing options are a bit short, focusing heavily on magic. Our sole new race is the ramag. They are heavily inclined towards brainy arcane caster types: -2 Strength and Constitution, +2 Dexterity and Intelligence, are Medium native outsiders, gain +1 racial bonus on all caster level checks made to use ley lines, treat Spellcraft and Use Magic Device as class skills, and have Spell Resistance equal to 11 plus their character level.</p><p></p><p>The only archetype we have is the Snakebound Hunter (Ranger), a tradition among the Mafri people who bond closer with serpents so as to be better hunters and warriors. They trade out wild empathy in exchange for a viper or constrictor animal companion whose progression advances as a druid rather than ranger. But their biggest class feature is replacing favored enemy and favored terrain for the ability to duplicate an extraordinary ability from an animal, vermin, humanoid, or monstrous humanoid within 30 feet as a full-round action a limited number of times per day (and for a limited number of rounds). At higher levels they can mimic more powers at once and choose from a wider amount of up to 6 other creature types (aberration, construct, fey, magical beast, outsider, and plant). The Snakebound Hunter eplaces hunter’s bond with the ability to gain a limited set of snake-themed powers (natural weapons, climb speed, scent, and/or natural armor bonus) for a number of minutes per day equal to his class level. Finally at 20th level they trade out master hunter in exchange for the ability to shapeshift into a giant anaconda at will and can cast spells in that form.</p><p></p><p>This is potentially a very powerful ranger archetype, as the mimicry ability can expose you to a large amount of variant monster-exclusive powers. The only major restriction is that it must be a creature physically present at the time, but with a friendly party summoner this can be circumvented.</p><p></p><p>The <strong>Magic of the Abandoned Lands</strong> has three parts. The first detail the game mechanics of ley lines, which are a reprint from the main Midgard books (2012 and 2017). For those unfamiliar with said ruleset, it is an unseen geographical feature restricted to locations, but with a proper caster level check a spellcaster can tap into the ley line and enhance a cast spell with an automatic metamagic feat with no increase of spell level. The metamagic in question is randomly rolled, and the ley lines’ overall strength (weak/strong/titanic) determines the overall strength of available feats.</p><p></p><p>A failure on a caster level check means the spell functions as normal, but a natural 1 causes the spell to be lost without effect, the ley line vanishes for 24 hours from being overtaxed, and the caster suffers a backlash which is a randomly rolled long-lasting debuff.</p><p></p><p>The ley line rules are a cool and thematic aspect and give an incentive for spellcasters and nations to fight over land and territory. All of the River Nuria is a Titanic Ley Line, for instance. But the lines being inherent on location means that their frequency in campaigns are subject to and reigned in by GM Fiat.</p><p></p><p>Tosculi Living Items are 8 new magical items made by the insectoid race to augment their drones when higher-caste members are in short supply. They are specially-crafted devices made to be attached to a living body via surgery and cannot be disarmed or removed, but can be attacked and sundered like an object.</p><p></p><p>The items include a stunted wing graft which grants a constant nonmagical feather fall and glide abilities; tosculi antennae grant the scent ability; tosculi carapace grants a +3 natural armor bonus which can stack with innate natural armor, and 2 of those points may be sacrificed as an immediate action to heal the wearer 10 HP per point of sacrificed AC; tosculi healing resin is smeared over wounds and broken objects, granting fast healing to injured creatures or removes the broken condition from an object; tosculi lenses make your eyes insect-like and grant +5 on Sense Motive and Perception checks in exchange for a -2 penalty on saving throws against light, gaze, and pattern illusion effects; tosculi pheromone glands allow silent communication with other gland-possessors at a range of 30 feet (people with scent can detect the general emotions and not the “words”); tosculi saliva allows other living items to be safely removed from helpless, willing, or dead creaturers; and tosculi spurs grant a retractable dagger-like weapon with enhanced versions that can deal acid damage or inject Strength-damaging poison.</p><p></p><p>The magic of the Abandoned Lands revolves around the legacy of the titans. Scholars of Glorious Umbuso deign titan magic as “Words of Power,” utterances which can alter reality. In fact, the 6 new spells are keyed off of the <a href="https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/variant-magic-rules/words-of-power/" target="_blank">Words of Power</a> optional subsystem of Pathfinder’s Ultimate Magic. In short, Words of Power’s magic are “wordspells” stringed together to form a spell’s combined effects. It is not a system I am familiar with, <a href="http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?291907-PF-CTP-s-Guide-to-Words-of-Power" target="_blank">but this gentleman on Giant in the Playground wrote a comprehensive guide for it.</a></p><p></p><p>The six new utterances include Fire in the Heavens, which can hurl several creatures into the air and set their blood on fire; Force Spike, a shard of pure force which smashes into a target as a ranged or melee touch attack; Polar Palsy which freezes a target’s muscles and blood with sheer cold, paralyzing them and dealing cold damage; Rending Word, which causes a creature to be afflicted with overwhelming fear to the point that their internal organs burst, potentially causing 200 damage on a failed save and disabling the target’s spell-like abilities for 1d4 rounds; Severed Tendon, which impedes a creature’s movement by reducing their base land speed by 30 feet (5 feet minimum) for the duration of the utterance; and finally Shattering Dream, which commands a creature to throw an object held in its hand as far as possible before the spell’s second effect shatters or severely breaks it.</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> The Abandoned Lands is a bit hit-or-miss for me. I got the feel of the whole “barren wilderness where giants once sat,” but areas with this theme are common enough in the other chapters that it doesn’t feel truly unique. The Ramag’s high-magic society is interesting and can be a useful nexus for “fast travel” across the continent. I cannot put my finger on it, but I liked Munayo. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeQRZZIpMwA" target="_blank">It reminds me of Fisherman’s Horizon from Final Fantasy 8, which had a very calming atmosphere and a populace dedicated to a worthy ideal.</a></p><p></p><p>The new rules options were the weakest part. The Ramag are a good race mechanics-wise and the Snakebound Hunter is powerful in the right hands, but the reprint of ley lines and the new magic being words of power meant that it was of limited use to me as I already own the Midgard sister setting. It may be of better use for those who purchased Southlands as their own product.</p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we cover the Southern Fringe, home to a lost minotaur colony, an island nation of xorn elementals, and a mysterious Bottled City home to assassins, thieves, and all manner of scum and villainy!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 7578967, member: 6750502"] [center][b]Chapter Seven: the Abandoned Lands[/b] [img]https://i.imgur.com/das8IhD.png[/img][/center] Dominating the geographical center of the continent, the Abandoned lands are a sparsely inhabited region where the capital of Glorious Umbuso once sat. The collapse of the titan empire and its ley lines left much of the region a dangerous place, but even the promise of riches and lore draw explorers to this forbidding realm every year. [center][b]Ramag[/b][/center] The Ramag people were a tribe of humans allied with Glorious Umbuso, gifted with the ability to manipulate magical ley lines to help their larger neighbors build works of wonder. When the insane plague gripped the titans, the Ramag sheltered themselves within the city of Ramagani (or “home” in their native tongue). Ramagani still stands to this day, geographically spread all over the Abandoned Lands and outlying regions but considered one city thanks to the network of teleportation portals. Said portals are linked together via stable ley lines and maintained by huge monoliths. The ambient magical energies of said structures slowly changed the Ramag humans into a still-humanoid yet highly magical race; most Ramag appear as humans, but with slightly longer limbs and much thicker strands of hair usually tied back in fanciful clasps. Day to day life in Ramagani is much like that of other Southlands cities, although their teleportation network makes their civilization a trade hub par excellence. They also are the greatest repository of titan lore in the Southlands, privy to their language, hidden sites, and magical traditions unknown elsewhere. Ramag’s neighborhoods are arranged in a ring-like pattern with monoliths around the edges, and at least one of those portals leads to the main city which is located on an island off the southern coast of the Southlands. Maintaining the monoliths is a vital public service, and every adult learns an incantation to bind their soul to the structure in death and are entombed in the monolith. At its basic function this keeps the magical energy flowing, but the presence of more powerful spellcaster’s souls can grant bonus effects such as animated statue guardians, long-ranging abjurations covering entire neighborhoods, and so on. If you’re wondering how far-spread Ramagani’s portals reach, the answer is very far. [url=https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/153379/Southlands-Campaign-Setting-Map]You can download a free copy of the setting map from Drive-Thru RPG to see for yourself,[/url] but the book itself lists eight of the largest ones: two just south of Kush, two near the Skittering Ones’ Web, one in Mafri near the Eleyin Mountains, one along the southernmost coast of Terrotu, one west of Terrotu, and countless more not on the map. The book teases us with potential lost portals used as secret refuges, failed settlements, and forgotten streets of other cities. Ramagani’s government has a council of elders whose members are elected by popular vote, and a king or queen chosen from the elders during New Year celebrations to serve a 10 to 15 year term. The end of the term entombs the regent in one of the monoliths, usually to replace one with fading magical energies or reinforce a weakened portion of ley line. Ramagani’s defenses are also appropriately extraordinary. The Stormwatch manages ley-line powered siege ballistae crackling with magical lightning to ward off enemy armies and monsters, while a guild known as the Scaled Keepers raise and hatch pterodactyl eggs in special incubated houses to serve the military as aerial cavalry. In the event of a magical disaster breaking or severing a ley line, the heavily-armed Ley Wardens patrol the Abandoned Lands’ environs to repair and protect them with exacting rituals. [center][b]Tosculi, the Golden Swarm[/b] [img]https://i.imgur.com/Mwxwjhb.jpg[/img][/center] Finally we get to learn more about everyone’s favorite wasp-people! This section serves as an overview of all tosculi settlements in the Southlands, and not just the ones in the Abandoned Lands although they are most populous there. The buzzing sounds of the insect’s flying raiders is one of the most-feared things among the realm’s travelers, and there are few things which unite the Abandoned Land’s scattered people than an invasion of the Golden Swarm. The tosculi worship the archdevil Arbeyach, working to expand their hives into new territory. Raiders kidnap people to take back to their hives, where they implant the prisoners with eggs for their larvae to feed off of and grow before emerging from the drained corpse as new tosculi drones or warriors. They have a hostile foreign policy with just about every other political power bloc, even each other. Although tosculi have the same long-term goal and worship the same god, their six major hives are ruled over by queens who all want to be supreme ruler of the Southlands themselves and brook no competition. We get a list of four of the largest hives of the Golden Swarm. There exist smaller ones all over the Southlands, but tend to be tiny affairs ranging from two dozen to a few thousand tosculi at most. Snowcap Hive lairs in the cold mountains of the Southern Fringe (the following chapter), built from immense pillars of mud reaching into the sky. Titans’ Hive lairs in the southwest portion of the Abandoned Lands, a former settlement of Glorious Umbuso now almost completely encased in mud-like resin structures. It is unknown to what extent the tosculi are aware of the titans’ powers, although they do seem knowledgeable of the ruins’ many magical items. Corpsehive is perhaps the most macabre settlement, for a large portion of its structure is composed of tosculi corpses frozen in resignation, arms and jaws locked before death. The Corpsehive tosculi are also known to build sacred cattle of the Terrotu into their structures as well, their skulls separated as trophies on display by their queen. The Great Hive of Arbeyach gets the most detail, and it’s not even in the Abandoned Lands proper: it’s actually east of Kush and west of Sar-Shaba, which would technically place it in the Corsair Coast. The Tosculi call it Crecretellock, or “Green Hill City” in their tongue. It was the first relam of the tosculi to convert to the archdevil’s worship, and for this loyalty they are the strongest and most fanatical of the hives. Arbeyach’s herald, the unique devil Ia-Affrat, sits within the hive and actually has contempt for the wasp-folk. He sees them as dirty, boring, and ugly and is prone to inflict abuse upon them for minor infractions. The Great Hive is a mostly-vertical settlement, divided into sections of chimney-like hives. The Farsight Chimney grants the best view of the surrounding territory, while the Orange Chimney holds scribes, artists, merchants selling unique living items of the Tosculi, and swarm masters raising mundane insects to use in war or as sacrifices to Arbeyach. The Sky-Templer of Arbeyach is the religious center of the city and also home to its butcheries. The War and Commerce Chimney holds the living quarters for most of the soldier caste and serves as a storehouse and armory. The Royal Chimney hosts the hive’s governance and living quarters of Hive-Queen Tekli, who sits upon a throne of carved jet embedded with precious gems. A few travelers of other races are brought here to share news of caravan and settlement development, although the Queen is fond of inviting less-favorable visitors to her private quarters where she promptly insults and dismembers them. [center][b]Munayo, the Floating Village[/b] [img]https://i.imgur.com/TtBBKO2.jpg[/img][/center] Lake Debari, the largest body of freshwater in the Southlands, holds an entire town upon its lulling waves. Hundreds of fishing-boats and barges lashed and tethered together form a city upon the clear waters. Many boats are capable of lone travel and have departed from the fleet, but most remain docked in Munayo for decades. The town’s ancestors swore an oath to never set foot on solid ground, for they are tasked with constant vigil of a threat they claim sleeps at the bottom of the lake. They do not share this with outsiders, but the Munayo’s oldest stories explain of how their ancestors paid tribute to marid genies who lived within a magnificent city surrounding a portal to the Elemental Plane of Water. They later came to revere the titans of Glorious Umbuso who protected them from the dangers of the continent, and this did not seem to cause conflict between them and the marid. When the titan empire collapsed, a leviathan emerged from the portal and devastated the marid city. One of the dying titans tried to kill the creature, but the insanity wrought by her plague made her cast the wrong spell and instead put the beast in a deep slumber. The people of Munayo had a front-view stage to Umbuso’s burning cities and the broken remnants of the marid buildings. After mourning their lost neighbors, they made an oath to continue where the genies and titans left off by watching over the lake. Munayo’s demographics are mostly Zwana humans, but some undines, elves, and fey-touched trollkin live among the boats. Seafood gained from fishing and diving comprises the majority of their diet, although a few sturdy boats with soil grow floating gardens. Everyone knows how to swim and the village’s warriors train in underwater warfare for the inevitable time when the behemoth rises. They have a large community of spellcasters, more divine than arcane, but bards are popular due to strong storytelling traditions. Much of the lake’s natural resources are turned into tools, and mussel shells are the most versatile. They can be used as pottery, eating utensils, or even forged into scale mail armor. The people of Munayo accept foreigners into their settlements for three days, but those who wish to remain longer must become full citizens and “leave behind the land.” They undertake a test to dive to one of the ruined marid towers and retrieve a relic of that land; those who survive the ordeal are welcomed with a weeklong feast along with the full history of the Munayo and their status. For those who wish to play as Munayo PCs, the village holds a blind lottery every three years for six among their number. Those chosen are tasked with venturing into the Abandoned Lands to harvest and trade for resources unobtainable on Lake Debari. Unfortunately this breaks their taboo, and they are treated as outsiders who must leave the village after three days once they return with the needed supplies. Munayo’s entry ends with 14 locations within town and 3 adventure hooks. The hooks include an oracle making contact with a ghostly marid deep beneath the waves who is not all-benevolent, another involves helping an exile return a treasured keepsake to the village they were sworn to never return to, and the third involves braving the underwater ruins at the risk of waking the sleeping behemoth. The locations are nothing special, mostly detailing mundane stores and important personages responsible for community affairs. [center][b]Perils of the Abandoned Lands[/b][/center] Most of the Abandoned Lands is located on the Aggesal Plains, home to very large wildlife such as dinosaurs and towering megafauna. Beyond these obvious dangers, a more subtle one deadly to spellcasters manifests from the warped and broken ley lines. Beyond the stable ones of Ramagani the majority twist, link, break, and form in random patterns. Any time a spell, spell-like ability, or magical item is activated, there is a 20% chance a caster is within a region of broken ley lines, triggering a primal magic effect on a failed concentration check (DC 15 + twice the spell’s level or caster level if a magic item or ability). We have an entire table for failed results here: [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/4jSGr1D.png[/img][/center] As you can see, there’s a fair amount of negative backlash and unexpected positive results. [url=https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?827103-Let-s-Read-Midgard-World-Book&p=21852550#post21852550]It reminds me of the Wasted West region from the Midgard Worldbook,[/url] which more or less operates under similar mechanics. Afterwards we get eight locations of miscellaneous locations within the Abandoned Lands. They include the Trollkin Kingdom of Nmabi ruled over by a reincarnated adventurer who believes himself to be a divine king; the Palace of the Heris, home to a community of white-furred sapient apes awakened by a long-dead race of sorcerers wiped out by a magical plague; the Rift Valley of Kimvai, home to titan-sized cavernous structures dotting the canyon walls where human and heru communities inhabit, some of whom gone mad and form cults to dark gods; the Shattered Roads, huge stone highways reaching out from Glorious Umbuso’s capital capable of doubling travel speed but filled with erratic and hazardous magic; the Skittering Ones’ Web, a rainforest home to a race of spider monsters who sold their souls to a demon lord and make raids against Terrotu and coastal vessels; and the Treehomes of the Mafri, a group of two dozen Zwana villages who live in a jungle canopy east of Lignas. The Mafri worship serpents of all kinds, based on a creation myth where great snakes protected their ancestors from a cataclysmic rain of stone and fire, and leave sacrifices of prisoners to shrines. Precious stones are given back in the same location the day after as a reward from their gods. Their “gods” in question are subterranean serpentfolk who are more than happy to use the Mafri as a buffer against enemies and even have a few spies in Lignas (who they do not treat as an ally just because of a shared love of serpents). Gala’ikos, the former capital of Glorious Umbuso, is second in the list but has more word count so I’m treating it as its own section. Its towering spires of crystal and glass reflect sunlight onto the streets, and some of the city’s floating palaces still orbit the perimeter. Although Gala’ikos still looks beautiful, the lost legacy of the titans can be seen in etched runes of blood written by victims of the maddening plague. The structures are built for inhabitants 70 feet tall, which would ordinarily make conventional travel for human-sized people difficult if not impossible. But many structures have separate human-sized entrances and stairs for the titans’ mortal followers which mitigates this. The titans’ descendants still occupy the city as deformed, insane beings a shadow of their former power. They are prone to violent mood swings, react with hostility to intruders, and worship the city’s magical devices and phenomena as though they were gods. Some of the notable locations within Gala’ikos include a Floating Prison which housed some of the empire’s greatest criminals, but is now mostly empty save for a nest of vrock demons and a trio of evil gods imprisoned near the prison’s center. The Hall of Creatures is a crystal dome housing a menagerie of life forms from across Midgard and other planes. The menagerie’s occupants survived in their own ecosystem, malfunctioning construct caretakers barely able to contain the population. The broken wards are how the Abandoned Lands became home to so many dinosaurs and megafauna. Finally, six cocoons of floating crystal known as the Sleeping Gods each contain the comatose form of a titan, and the academy ruins they orbit hold the secret to awakening them. [center][b]Character Options of the Abandoned Lands[/b] [img]https://i.imgur.com/ppF8ssF.png[/img][/center] The PC-facing options are a bit short, focusing heavily on magic. Our sole new race is the ramag. They are heavily inclined towards brainy arcane caster types: -2 Strength and Constitution, +2 Dexterity and Intelligence, are Medium native outsiders, gain +1 racial bonus on all caster level checks made to use ley lines, treat Spellcraft and Use Magic Device as class skills, and have Spell Resistance equal to 11 plus their character level. The only archetype we have is the Snakebound Hunter (Ranger), a tradition among the Mafri people who bond closer with serpents so as to be better hunters and warriors. They trade out wild empathy in exchange for a viper or constrictor animal companion whose progression advances as a druid rather than ranger. But their biggest class feature is replacing favored enemy and favored terrain for the ability to duplicate an extraordinary ability from an animal, vermin, humanoid, or monstrous humanoid within 30 feet as a full-round action a limited number of times per day (and for a limited number of rounds). At higher levels they can mimic more powers at once and choose from a wider amount of up to 6 other creature types (aberration, construct, fey, magical beast, outsider, and plant). The Snakebound Hunter eplaces hunter’s bond with the ability to gain a limited set of snake-themed powers (natural weapons, climb speed, scent, and/or natural armor bonus) for a number of minutes per day equal to his class level. Finally at 20th level they trade out master hunter in exchange for the ability to shapeshift into a giant anaconda at will and can cast spells in that form. This is potentially a very powerful ranger archetype, as the mimicry ability can expose you to a large amount of variant monster-exclusive powers. The only major restriction is that it must be a creature physically present at the time, but with a friendly party summoner this can be circumvented. The [b]Magic of the Abandoned Lands[/b] has three parts. The first detail the game mechanics of ley lines, which are a reprint from the main Midgard books (2012 and 2017). For those unfamiliar with said ruleset, it is an unseen geographical feature restricted to locations, but with a proper caster level check a spellcaster can tap into the ley line and enhance a cast spell with an automatic metamagic feat with no increase of spell level. The metamagic in question is randomly rolled, and the ley lines’ overall strength (weak/strong/titanic) determines the overall strength of available feats. A failure on a caster level check means the spell functions as normal, but a natural 1 causes the spell to be lost without effect, the ley line vanishes for 24 hours from being overtaxed, and the caster suffers a backlash which is a randomly rolled long-lasting debuff. The ley line rules are a cool and thematic aspect and give an incentive for spellcasters and nations to fight over land and territory. All of the River Nuria is a Titanic Ley Line, for instance. But the lines being inherent on location means that their frequency in campaigns are subject to and reigned in by GM Fiat. Tosculi Living Items are 8 new magical items made by the insectoid race to augment their drones when higher-caste members are in short supply. They are specially-crafted devices made to be attached to a living body via surgery and cannot be disarmed or removed, but can be attacked and sundered like an object. The items include a stunted wing graft which grants a constant nonmagical feather fall and glide abilities; tosculi antennae grant the scent ability; tosculi carapace grants a +3 natural armor bonus which can stack with innate natural armor, and 2 of those points may be sacrificed as an immediate action to heal the wearer 10 HP per point of sacrificed AC; tosculi healing resin is smeared over wounds and broken objects, granting fast healing to injured creatures or removes the broken condition from an object; tosculi lenses make your eyes insect-like and grant +5 on Sense Motive and Perception checks in exchange for a -2 penalty on saving throws against light, gaze, and pattern illusion effects; tosculi pheromone glands allow silent communication with other gland-possessors at a range of 30 feet (people with scent can detect the general emotions and not the “words”); tosculi saliva allows other living items to be safely removed from helpless, willing, or dead creaturers; and tosculi spurs grant a retractable dagger-like weapon with enhanced versions that can deal acid damage or inject Strength-damaging poison. The magic of the Abandoned Lands revolves around the legacy of the titans. Scholars of Glorious Umbuso deign titan magic as “Words of Power,” utterances which can alter reality. In fact, the 6 new spells are keyed off of the [url=https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/variant-magic-rules/words-of-power/]Words of Power[/url] optional subsystem of Pathfinder’s Ultimate Magic. In short, Words of Power’s magic are “wordspells” stringed together to form a spell’s combined effects. It is not a system I am familiar with, [url=http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?291907-PF-CTP-s-Guide-to-Words-of-Power]but this gentleman on Giant in the Playground wrote a comprehensive guide for it.[/url] The six new utterances include Fire in the Heavens, which can hurl several creatures into the air and set their blood on fire; Force Spike, a shard of pure force which smashes into a target as a ranged or melee touch attack; Polar Palsy which freezes a target’s muscles and blood with sheer cold, paralyzing them and dealing cold damage; Rending Word, which causes a creature to be afflicted with overwhelming fear to the point that their internal organs burst, potentially causing 200 damage on a failed save and disabling the target’s spell-like abilities for 1d4 rounds; Severed Tendon, which impedes a creature’s movement by reducing their base land speed by 30 feet (5 feet minimum) for the duration of the utterance; and finally Shattering Dream, which commands a creature to throw an object held in its hand as far as possible before the spell’s second effect shatters or severely breaks it. [b]Thoughts So Far:[/b] The Abandoned Lands is a bit hit-or-miss for me. I got the feel of the whole “barren wilderness where giants once sat,” but areas with this theme are common enough in the other chapters that it doesn’t feel truly unique. The Ramag’s high-magic society is interesting and can be a useful nexus for “fast travel” across the continent. I cannot put my finger on it, but I liked Munayo. [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeQRZZIpMwA]It reminds me of Fisherman’s Horizon from Final Fantasy 8, which had a very calming atmosphere and a populace dedicated to a worthy ideal.[/url] The new rules options were the weakest part. The Ramag are a good race mechanics-wise and the Snakebound Hunter is powerful in the right hands, but the reprint of ley lines and the new magic being words of power meant that it was of limited use to me as I already own the Midgard sister setting. It may be of better use for those who purchased Southlands as their own product. [b]Join us next time as we cover the Southern Fringe, home to a lost minotaur colony, an island nation of xorn elementals, and a mysterious Bottled City home to assassins, thieves, and all manner of scum and villainy![/b] [/QUOTE]
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