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[Let's Read] The Koryo Hall of Adventures
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8292509" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/GkuYsEq.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>Chapter 5, Part 3: Noonnara</strong></p><p></p><p>The northernmost realm of Jeosung, Noonnara contains some of its most inhospitable terrain. Cold year-round, the Infinite Forest is the furthest-explored area before the land gives way to the uncharted territories of the goliaths, and the charted territories are decentralized and self-governing. Every community in Noonnara has learned to stand on its own, knowing that outside help in the event of disaster is far from guaranteed.</p><p></p><p><strong>Kwanbuk</strong> Is the southernmost region of Noonnara, where the snow is omnipresent yet more readily traversable. Goliath warships from their far-off kingdom sail south, but most of them end up destroyed by unknown circumstances. Locals attribute this to a protective spirit by the name of Zud. The major settlement of note is Yangdong, home to a renowned training center for shamans that sees lots of traffic from Mudangguk. Their training regiments are harsh, where they live communally on subsistence agriculture and hunting, which has a track record of forming trusted bonds of friendship among the trainees which lasts long after they leave to walk their own paths. Shaman Paengteon, the leader of the town, has an honorary seat on Mudangguk’s Council of Twelve, and tension has arisen given how useful his community is for training the latter country’s shamans. He’s not afraid to use this as political leverage.</p><p></p><p>Also present in the region is the Shrine of Zud, where shamans help upkeep it to ensure peace and respect from the spirit, and the Banggeoson Watchtowers dating back to the Second Age (Age of the Dragon Kings) contain soldiers from Michuhol and Yodongseong to keep alert for foreign invasion. A lack of any significant foes and the harsh weather mean that most of them are in poor condition, with most soldiers reluctant to keep vigil outside for very long. The Yalu River has been the site of many battles, attracting souls of the dead, and a cursed pier known as the Crossing of the Dark Souls is unused due to having been built by monsters during the Winds of Darkness. It was also used by the Dark King himself to harvest soul-slaves, but this is the only time we see mention of such a character in this book. I’m unsure if they’re a mortal monster leader or a powerful spirit. Finally there is Ulchi Mundok’s Mansion, Jeosung’s sole community of goliaths living in the middle of an island lake. Their people are descendants of an exiled king and his entourage, and their martial reputation made them favored by various people as guardians for rare items and treasure. The mansion is a fortress capable of withstanding prolonged sieges, and the current goliath king keeps meticulous notes of the stored precious items and their owners in a secret journal.</p><p></p><p><strong>Dornod</strong> is home to the Infinite Forest, an artificially-created woodland by the Noonsalam to act as a natural barrier against northern invaders. Pine trees, rainforest vines, and other plants that can’t grow in the same climate can be found here, and the large amount of spiritual energy needed to maintain the biosphere has turned the place into a magic-sapping area deadly to unprepared spellcasters and spirits. Native wildlife has twisted into strange abominations from exposure to all the energy flowing into the forest. The Plains of Dornod are an equally-dangerous desolate realm, but the frequent blizzards prevent any landmarks besides the frozen rivers from aiding navigation. And some of those rivers are camouflaged by a thick layer of snow, and the wrong step can plunge travelers to an icy doom. The only reason people would come here besides to feed the Infinite Forest is to visit the Shrine of Yong, a building which is partially integrated into a giant spiral dragon sculpture whose body digs deep into the ground. It is said within a hidden set of stairs in the dragon’s body there lies a hidden temple of unknown origin and content.</p><p></p><p><strong>Cheonsanju</strong> is also known as the Land of Heavenly Mountain for housing Jeosung’s tallest peaks and the believed birthplace of the world’s first civilization. Lore states that this region was home to the last fortress of the Heavenly People before its inevitable demise, and the Followers of Hwanggung built their holiest temple somewhere deep within the mountain range. Said temple is accessible through the Ten Thousand Stairs as the first test of faith, and there are always pilgrims here using the quiet sereness to reflect on life and self-improvement. The other settlement here is Kuklak, a Noonsalam cliffside village of caverns warmed, lit, and gardened by magic which makes it a rather pleasant place to live.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/1N5CCZz.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>Dongnoonnara</strong> is home to the largest number of settlements in Noonnara. The Temple of the Midnight Oil is a watchtower with an everburning flame that acts as a guiding light to lost travelers, and a single monk keeps the flame alive and administers to the physical and mental needs of travelers. The Kingdom of the Fat Toad attracts travelers of a more selfish disposition, a kind of Fantasy Las Vegas founded by gnome thieves who nabbed a big score and built by dwarven engineers from Hwangmoon. All kinds of games of chance and skill are held here, particularly the famous Cave Games which is a part obstacle course, part gladiator arena where contestants have a chance at winning rare magic items and gold. A community of goblins with secret magical techniques live relatively unseen by the rest of the Kingdom by making a deal with the gnomes: the goblins are in charge of maintaining the ambient magic and build magic items for the Cave Games, and the gnomes receive 100% of the profits. The goblins don’t seem to mind.</p><p></p><p>Other communities are similarly rough and tumble, or well-ordered but martial in Hwangmoon’s case. Gungnae is practically a single cramped street (and many multi-level structures) running through a chasm where the Palm and the Eyes of Käl clash over territory. Hwangmoon is a dwarven community who control a vast network of underground tunnels they let travelers and merchants use for a fee. Although the environs are claustrophobic and require regular sweeps of air magic to keep breathable, many find it preferable to traveling on the snowy surface. Hwangmoon amassed a lot of money from this network and also deep mining, so they have a very strong militia and security to ward off thieves and organized crime syndicates in the other towns. In lieu of a typical prison, those convicted of major crimes are exiled to the “Jail of Hwangmoon” which is basically one giant dungeon crawl of monster-filled natural tunnels which <em>may</em> empty out to daylight in Noonnara’s southern coast.</p><p></p><p>The town of Yezo is the headquarters of the Eyes of Käl. While once a settlement of hope and happiness, it is now a chaotic community where everyone fends for themselves. Illegal substances are bought and sold openly, newcomers who look like easy marks are accosted by thugs, and members of the Eyes regularly get high and dance in public, sometimes engaging in orgies until they pass out from exhaustion. Omnipresent fire pits throughout the town are powered by vapors which increase sexual arousal, and the heat causes people to sweat all the time and…</p><p></p><p>...and I think this section of the book was written one-handed.</p><p></p><p>Tong-In is a hidden settlement of the Gomnaru Port Authorities. It is disguised as a simple fisher village, but the higher than usual presence of armed bands is a dead giveaway that something’s afoot. After some business disagreements with the government of Daewanguk, Gomnaru sought to resettle part of their navy in a realm less burdened by red tape. The Eyes of Käl sought to form an alliance, as they too had a bone to pick with the long arm of the law. Although there was mutual distrust and misgivings at first, the two came to an agreement: the Eyes would work with the Port Authorities in “port disruption missions” (aka piracy) and the gangsters could keep whatever look they could carry. So far this plan’s working great for both parties, although neither side believes that this alliance will last forever.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/2UNR5gj.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Our GM Tips for sessions in Noonnara suggest emphasizing the deadly nature and tight sense of community. The land is a danger all its own, but the people of the north can recognize the value of talented adventurers. Magic-using communities creating spots of warmth among the endless white, wayside shrines home to people from many lands, and nomadic groups saving people from blizzards can help show that there’s still a land worth fighting for even at the edge of civilization.</p><p></p><p>There’s far fewer NPC descriptions than in Mudangguk. We have only one major character and 15 minor ones, with the former being Lord Nahri of Hwangmoon. His in-character text has him presiding over a criminal before having him dragged off to the Jail of Hwangmoon.</p><p></p><p>As for sample adventure board notices, we have 6. Four tie into the locations proper, such as stealing the goliath king’s Treasure Log, finding what the Shrine of Yong contains for research purposes, conducting an ethnographic expedition on Noonsalam culture, and disrupting the “pirates” operating out of Tong-In. But one is generic and involves rescuing a yangban family’s son from bandits. Another involves tracking down and killing a party of adventurers sentenced to death by Koryo Hall, which definitely sounds like a moral dilemma particularly if they were people the PCs socialized with at the Hall. But the quest is marked for “Heroes,” which seems...tonally inappropriate and more of a Scoundrel thing to do.</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> Noonnara is less varied than Mudangguk in terms of themes: the harshness of the elements and far flung outposts of civilization is omnipresent, but there is some variety in the potential adventure locations and communities. Ulchi Mundok’s Mansion and Hwangmoon’s treasure vaults practically scream “heist mission,” and the adventure hooks for the Kingdom of the Fat Toad write themselves. Unfortunately some locations don’t work well on their own, having no hook beyond what the GM puts into them. The watchtowers’ poor maintenance seem like a great opportunity for invading goliaths, although said groups aren’t really given much material in the setting other than the fact that they exist, and their crashed sailing vessels indicate that the natural world alone is doing a good enough job at repelling them. The Infinite Forest sounds like a cool place to explore, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from D&D campaigns, nothing screams “forlorn place of death to avoid at all costs” than an entire region that’s an effective anti-magic field. Or one where magic becomes unpredictable and ineffective. Such concepts aren’t bad in and of themselves, and can be useful for world-building.* But given how strongly magic is tied into most classes of Pathfinder, 5th Edition, and OSR games, it requires some care in using.</p><p></p><p>*Final Fantasy 9 did a good job of this with Oeilvert, but it worked for the game on account that 1.) the party was blackmailed into venturing there and 2.) half the party members function just fine without magic.</p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we travel the expansive kingdom of Daewanguk, aka Game of Thrones Korean Style!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 8292509, member: 6750502"] [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/GkuYsEq.jpeg[/IMG] [B]Chapter 5, Part 3: Noonnara[/B][/CENTER] The northernmost realm of Jeosung, Noonnara contains some of its most inhospitable terrain. Cold year-round, the Infinite Forest is the furthest-explored area before the land gives way to the uncharted territories of the goliaths, and the charted territories are decentralized and self-governing. Every community in Noonnara has learned to stand on its own, knowing that outside help in the event of disaster is far from guaranteed. [B]Kwanbuk[/B] Is the southernmost region of Noonnara, where the snow is omnipresent yet more readily traversable. Goliath warships from their far-off kingdom sail south, but most of them end up destroyed by unknown circumstances. Locals attribute this to a protective spirit by the name of Zud. The major settlement of note is Yangdong, home to a renowned training center for shamans that sees lots of traffic from Mudangguk. Their training regiments are harsh, where they live communally on subsistence agriculture and hunting, which has a track record of forming trusted bonds of friendship among the trainees which lasts long after they leave to walk their own paths. Shaman Paengteon, the leader of the town, has an honorary seat on Mudangguk’s Council of Twelve, and tension has arisen given how useful his community is for training the latter country’s shamans. He’s not afraid to use this as political leverage. Also present in the region is the Shrine of Zud, where shamans help upkeep it to ensure peace and respect from the spirit, and the Banggeoson Watchtowers dating back to the Second Age (Age of the Dragon Kings) contain soldiers from Michuhol and Yodongseong to keep alert for foreign invasion. A lack of any significant foes and the harsh weather mean that most of them are in poor condition, with most soldiers reluctant to keep vigil outside for very long. The Yalu River has been the site of many battles, attracting souls of the dead, and a cursed pier known as the Crossing of the Dark Souls is unused due to having been built by monsters during the Winds of Darkness. It was also used by the Dark King himself to harvest soul-slaves, but this is the only time we see mention of such a character in this book. I’m unsure if they’re a mortal monster leader or a powerful spirit. Finally there is Ulchi Mundok’s Mansion, Jeosung’s sole community of goliaths living in the middle of an island lake. Their people are descendants of an exiled king and his entourage, and their martial reputation made them favored by various people as guardians for rare items and treasure. The mansion is a fortress capable of withstanding prolonged sieges, and the current goliath king keeps meticulous notes of the stored precious items and their owners in a secret journal. [B]Dornod[/B] is home to the Infinite Forest, an artificially-created woodland by the Noonsalam to act as a natural barrier against northern invaders. Pine trees, rainforest vines, and other plants that can’t grow in the same climate can be found here, and the large amount of spiritual energy needed to maintain the biosphere has turned the place into a magic-sapping area deadly to unprepared spellcasters and spirits. Native wildlife has twisted into strange abominations from exposure to all the energy flowing into the forest. The Plains of Dornod are an equally-dangerous desolate realm, but the frequent blizzards prevent any landmarks besides the frozen rivers from aiding navigation. And some of those rivers are camouflaged by a thick layer of snow, and the wrong step can plunge travelers to an icy doom. The only reason people would come here besides to feed the Infinite Forest is to visit the Shrine of Yong, a building which is partially integrated into a giant spiral dragon sculpture whose body digs deep into the ground. It is said within a hidden set of stairs in the dragon’s body there lies a hidden temple of unknown origin and content. [B]Cheonsanju[/B] is also known as the Land of Heavenly Mountain for housing Jeosung’s tallest peaks and the believed birthplace of the world’s first civilization. Lore states that this region was home to the last fortress of the Heavenly People before its inevitable demise, and the Followers of Hwanggung built their holiest temple somewhere deep within the mountain range. Said temple is accessible through the Ten Thousand Stairs as the first test of faith, and there are always pilgrims here using the quiet sereness to reflect on life and self-improvement. The other settlement here is Kuklak, a Noonsalam cliffside village of caverns warmed, lit, and gardened by magic which makes it a rather pleasant place to live. [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/1N5CCZz.png[/IMG] [B]Dongnoonnara[/B] is home to the largest number of settlements in Noonnara. The Temple of the Midnight Oil is a watchtower with an everburning flame that acts as a guiding light to lost travelers, and a single monk keeps the flame alive and administers to the physical and mental needs of travelers. The Kingdom of the Fat Toad attracts travelers of a more selfish disposition, a kind of Fantasy Las Vegas founded by gnome thieves who nabbed a big score and built by dwarven engineers from Hwangmoon. All kinds of games of chance and skill are held here, particularly the famous Cave Games which is a part obstacle course, part gladiator arena where contestants have a chance at winning rare magic items and gold. A community of goblins with secret magical techniques live relatively unseen by the rest of the Kingdom by making a deal with the gnomes: the goblins are in charge of maintaining the ambient magic and build magic items for the Cave Games, and the gnomes receive 100% of the profits. The goblins don’t seem to mind. Other communities are similarly rough and tumble, or well-ordered but martial in Hwangmoon’s case. Gungnae is practically a single cramped street (and many multi-level structures) running through a chasm where the Palm and the Eyes of Käl clash over territory. Hwangmoon is a dwarven community who control a vast network of underground tunnels they let travelers and merchants use for a fee. Although the environs are claustrophobic and require regular sweeps of air magic to keep breathable, many find it preferable to traveling on the snowy surface. Hwangmoon amassed a lot of money from this network and also deep mining, so they have a very strong militia and security to ward off thieves and organized crime syndicates in the other towns. In lieu of a typical prison, those convicted of major crimes are exiled to the “Jail of Hwangmoon” which is basically one giant dungeon crawl of monster-filled natural tunnels which [I]may[/I] empty out to daylight in Noonnara’s southern coast. The town of Yezo is the headquarters of the Eyes of Käl. While once a settlement of hope and happiness, it is now a chaotic community where everyone fends for themselves. Illegal substances are bought and sold openly, newcomers who look like easy marks are accosted by thugs, and members of the Eyes regularly get high and dance in public, sometimes engaging in orgies until they pass out from exhaustion. Omnipresent fire pits throughout the town are powered by vapors which increase sexual arousal, and the heat causes people to sweat all the time and… ...and I think this section of the book was written one-handed. Tong-In is a hidden settlement of the Gomnaru Port Authorities. It is disguised as a simple fisher village, but the higher than usual presence of armed bands is a dead giveaway that something’s afoot. After some business disagreements with the government of Daewanguk, Gomnaru sought to resettle part of their navy in a realm less burdened by red tape. The Eyes of Käl sought to form an alliance, as they too had a bone to pick with the long arm of the law. Although there was mutual distrust and misgivings at first, the two came to an agreement: the Eyes would work with the Port Authorities in “port disruption missions” (aka piracy) and the gangsters could keep whatever look they could carry. So far this plan’s working great for both parties, although neither side believes that this alliance will last forever. [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/2UNR5gj.png[/IMG] Our GM Tips for sessions in Noonnara suggest emphasizing the deadly nature and tight sense of community. The land is a danger all its own, but the people of the north can recognize the value of talented adventurers. Magic-using communities creating spots of warmth among the endless white, wayside shrines home to people from many lands, and nomadic groups saving people from blizzards can help show that there’s still a land worth fighting for even at the edge of civilization. There’s far fewer NPC descriptions than in Mudangguk. We have only one major character and 15 minor ones, with the former being Lord Nahri of Hwangmoon. His in-character text has him presiding over a criminal before having him dragged off to the Jail of Hwangmoon. As for sample adventure board notices, we have 6. Four tie into the locations proper, such as stealing the goliath king’s Treasure Log, finding what the Shrine of Yong contains for research purposes, conducting an ethnographic expedition on Noonsalam culture, and disrupting the “pirates” operating out of Tong-In. But one is generic and involves rescuing a yangban family’s son from bandits. Another involves tracking down and killing a party of adventurers sentenced to death by Koryo Hall, which definitely sounds like a moral dilemma particularly if they were people the PCs socialized with at the Hall. But the quest is marked for “Heroes,” which seems...tonally inappropriate and more of a Scoundrel thing to do. [B]Thoughts So Far:[/B] Noonnara is less varied than Mudangguk in terms of themes: the harshness of the elements and far flung outposts of civilization is omnipresent, but there is some variety in the potential adventure locations and communities. Ulchi Mundok’s Mansion and Hwangmoon’s treasure vaults practically scream “heist mission,” and the adventure hooks for the Kingdom of the Fat Toad write themselves. Unfortunately some locations don’t work well on their own, having no hook beyond what the GM puts into them. The watchtowers’ poor maintenance seem like a great opportunity for invading goliaths, although said groups aren’t really given much material in the setting other than the fact that they exist, and their crashed sailing vessels indicate that the natural world alone is doing a good enough job at repelling them. The Infinite Forest sounds like a cool place to explore, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from D&D campaigns, nothing screams “forlorn place of death to avoid at all costs” than an entire region that’s an effective anti-magic field. Or one where magic becomes unpredictable and ineffective. Such concepts aren’t bad in and of themselves, and can be useful for world-building.* But given how strongly magic is tied into most classes of Pathfinder, 5th Edition, and OSR games, it requires some care in using. *Final Fantasy 9 did a good job of this with Oeilvert, but it worked for the game on account that 1.) the party was blackmailed into venturing there and 2.) half the party members function just fine without magic. [B]Join us next time as we travel the expansive kingdom of Daewanguk, aka Game of Thrones Korean Style![/B] [/QUOTE]
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