Notes for a New Campaign City, Parsantium

[RichGreen]

A Parsantium Tale

A very short story

Glyn Merryfield shook the wyvernbone dice together, bouncing them around in his pudgy, sweaty hand. He was one throw away, just one throw, from solving all his problems. For months Sarla had been talking about owning a “proper” tavern, somewhere on dry land, in the Makers Ward perhaps. Even the Poor Ward would be better than a floating hulk in the middle of the boat-town of Flotsam. The Fat Grouper wasn’t good enough for her. She deserved better. They both did. He'd spent enough time serving drinks to the fishermen, dockworkers and other losers that lived in Flotsam, and renting out his leaky houseboats to those who couldn't afford a proper roof over their heads. He was standing at the threshold of a bright new future.

He rattled the dice again. The twinkling magical lights inside Fahil’s made the faces of the other players glow in strange colours – giving them a greenish, reddish or purple tinge. Just one throw and his shrewish wife would be happy. Well, maybe not truly happy he supposed, but he would have some brief respite from the constant nagging as she planned where they would move to. How about The Blue Wolf? It was a lot better than the Grouper.

“Get on with it, halfling! Make your bloody throw!” slurred a nearby sailor. Glyn shook again and then let go. The dice tumbled on to the dark blue baize, rolling over and over, before striking the back of the table and settling into place.

“Naga’s Eyes!” called the stickman as his wooden rake gathered in all the coins on the table and swept away Glyn’s hopes and dreams. This can’t be happening, he thought, as he trudged away from the table, down the gangplank of Fahil’s Floating Palace and into the cold night air. I’ve lost everything. How in Anwyn’s name do I stop my wife finding out?

 

[RichGreen]

The World of Parsantium

Here's a map showing some of the lands surrounding Parsantium. I adapted this map from the one by Martin Springett in Guy Gavriel Kay's Sarantine Mosaic books.

Any suggestions for what to call the lands to the West that make up the fallen Batiaran Empire? I'm trying to avoid anything sounding like Europe.

 

[RichGreen]

A few brief notes on the places on the world map, such as it is. All of these need lots of expansion but the campaign is likely to stay in the city and neighbouring countryside for the first few adventures (Heroic tier?) before venturing to some of these exotic locations.

Caliphate of Akhran
Arabian-style lands, very much like Al-Qadim. Siwal, City of Gardens, from Open Design's Six Arabian Nights is situated on the edge of the desert.

Khemit
desert land of lost tombs, crumbling pyramids, nomads & dervishes and marruspawn <Sandstorm>

Tiangao
Oriental lands at the end of the Silk Road, borrowing from Kara-Tur and Dragonfist (where the name is stolen from)

Sahasra
Indian lands, vanara, rakshasas, nagas, blackstone gigants, jungle-covered ruined temples, the awesome cover of AQ's Ruined Kingdoms, legacy of the evil geomancers

Pillars of Heaven Mountains
the Himalayas of this world where the Rakshasa Overlord is imprisoned in ice, yikaria (yakfolk), monasteries and temples perched perilously on sheer cliffs, yeti, snow spirirts, lost Shangri-La type kingdom (warm, tropical valley where it should be cold).

Batiara
former centre of the Batiaran Empire, now a collection of feuding city states. The space between Batiara and Parsantium is a blank canvas for now.

Corsair's Sea
pirates preying on trade, island controlled by order of crusading knights, undersea kingdoms.


Plenty of room to add stuff as I come up with it or get suggestions here or on my LJ.

Cheers


Richard

 

[Gilladian]

Rich - no specific comments, but I've really enjoyed your thread over the last couple of weeks. Great reading!

Gillian

 

[RichGreen]

Rich - no specific comments, but I've really enjoyed your thread over the last couple of weeks. Great reading!

Gillian

Thank you! I enjoy writing all this stuff and am going to use it in my next campaign but it's good to know others are enjoying it too!

Cheers


Richard

 

[Ebonyr]

I've been really following this thread as well. A lot of detailed work, it gets the creative juices flowing.

 

[RichGreen]

4e Angst

Now that people are getting their hands on the 4e books and stuff is leaking on to the 'net, I've seen stats for some of the creatures I was planning on using in the early Flotsam-based Parsantium adventures. These aren't necessarily what I was expecting. For example, Orloch Scragmane and his gnolls were going to appear quite early on in the campaign but the lowest level gnoll in 4e is 5th level!

On the plus side, these stats might work for Jagadamba:

Howling Hag
Level 7 Controller
Medium fey humanoi
XP 300

Initiative +7
Senses Perception +10; low-light vision

Baleful Whispers (Psychic) aura 5; an enemy that ends its turn in the aura takes 1d6 psychic damage.

HP 83; Bloodied 41; see also shriek of pain
AC 21; Fortitude 20, Reflex 19, Will 18
Resist 10 thunder
Speed 6; see also fey step

m Quarterstaff (standard; at-will) * Weapon
+9 vs. AC; 1d8 + 4 damage
C Howl (standard; at-will) * Thunder
Close blast 5; +10 vs. Fortitude; 1d6 + 4 thunder damage and the target is pushed 3 squares.
C Shriek of Pain (standard; recharges when first bloodied) * Thunder
Close blast 5; +8 vs. Fortitue; 3d6 + 4 thunder damage, or 3d6 + 9 thunder damage if the howling hag is bloodied. Miss: Half damage.
Change Shape (minor; at-will) * Polymorph
A howling hag can alter its physical form to appear as an old crone of any Medium humanoid race (see Change Shape, page 280).
Fey Step (move; encounter) * Teleportation
The howling hag can teleport 10 squares.

Alignment Evil
Languages Common, Elven
Skills Bluff +11, Insight +10, Intimidate +11, Nature +10
Str 18 (+7) Dex 18 (+7) Wis 15 (+5)
Con 19 (+7) Int 12 (+4) Cha 16 (+6)
Equipment quarterstaff

Any advice?


Richard

 

[RichGreen]

The Sunset Lands

I had a good suggestion on my LJ about what to call the lands of the former Batiaran Empire to the west of Parsantium.

I've decided on The Sunset Lands, which fits in well with the etymology of the name Europe, as well as tying in with the Points of Light concept in 4e and the idea that this part of the world is in the Dark Ages after the Empire's fall while the eastern lands are much more cultured and civilized (relatively speaking at least). In Akhran and other places, the Sunset Lands are sometimes known as Erebu, meaning the Land of Darkness.

Cheers


Richard

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

Not posted on this thread for a while as I've been absorbing 4e and thinking how I am going to fit the system and Parsantium together. So far, I haven't worried about tieflings and dragonborn, but I have been doing some thinking about the first two or three adventures set in Flotsam.

Originally, the PCs were going to investigate the murder of Ashna, a girl in the Water Boys orphan gang, which would lead them to the human toughs of the Dockside Crew, then on to Orloch Scragmane's gnoll slavers and ultimately to a kuo-toan temple of Blibdoolpoop (based on the one in the Shackled City AP) under the city. However, gnolls in 4e are level 5+, kuo-toa are level 12+ so I've needed to have a rethink.

As before, Ashna is murdered by the thuggee Jagadish, sent after her by the Dockside Crew, when she witnesses slaves being unloaded from a pirate ship. The Dockside Crew are acquiring slaves for Orloch who is still a gnoll but his lackeys will be humans, halflings and possibly goblins. Orloch is also obtaining other slaves by having the Crew kidnap drunk longshoremen walking home late at night etc. The PCs meet the wife of one of these missing dockworkers while on the trail of Ashna's killer.

Orloch is selling slaves at the "Night Market", a shady marketplace beneath the city in the Hidden Quarter. PCs following the clues will end up here, having had run-ins with thuggee killers and the Dockside Crew. At the Night Market, Orloch's customers include:
- the Kali cult who are looking for sacrifices
- brothels looking for sex slaves
- a shadar-kai and his dark one servants
- a visitor from the Underdark (could still be a kuo-toa)
- a mad derro necromancer looking for victims to experiment on

The PCs aren't going to be able to confront everyone here, but perhaps they are able to rescue one or two slaves, including the missing dockworker whose wife they met. There should also be a final showdown with Orloch and his men - perhaps once the Night Market disperses, they take the unsold slaves back to his slum tenement?

Thoughts?



Richard

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I'm going to try and do some work on a first 4e adventure set in Flotsam this weekend. Any suggestions would be gratefully received!

I've been thinking of kicking off with a short adventure set in the Black Dolphin's Wake before running the investigation into Ashna's murder. This place is a renamed version of the Dead Pelican in Freeport (featured in the Freeport City of Adventure hardcover and in Pirates Guide to Freeport). Basically, the tavern is infested with rats which are coming up from the sewers and the landlord wants the PCs to get rid of them. However, the rats are there because of the tavern's dark past.

About ten years ago the Black Dolphin's Wake was opened by a retired adventurer named Mikulas who came to Parsantium after years of wandering and decided to settle down. The tavern offered cheap ale, cheap food and tall tales for the dockworkers and sailors who drank there. But Mikulas had a terrible secret: he had become stranded in the snows of the Pillars of Heaven mountains. When supplies ran out he made a pact with a demonic spirit (or daeva), murdered his companions one by one, and lived off their flesh until rescued.

Mikulas tried to live a normal life in Parsantium but the daeva wouldn’t let him. To appease it, he founded a small secretive cult operating from the Black Dolphin’s Wake. The cultists would abduct and sacrifice people to the demon, eating the organs of their victims to gain a small measure of supernatural power. The rest of the body would end up in the dolma (stuffed vine leaves) served at the tavern. Mikulas and his fellow cultists were cautious, preying on the poor and on sailors, people who wouldn’t be missed. However, their caution meant the daeva didn’t receive as many sacrifices as it desired or needed. To get what it wanted, the demonic spirit increased its hold over Mikulas and the others, driving them insane and sending them on a killing (and eating) spree, only for them to be discovered by the horrified patrons of the tavern who turned on them and tore them to pieces.

Now Riyad, an Akhrani sailor, owns the tavern but he has a big rat problem - they're everywhere. This is because Mikulas dug down into the sewer tunnel that runs beneath the building. Before he was killed by the mob, he hid the worst evidence of the cult’s crimes down there – skeletons, the victim’s belongings, his carving knives and the bloodstained four-armed idol housing the daeva itself – in this tunnel and boarded up the entrance. The spirit is still down there, still angry, and surrounded by a teeming horde of rats. The rats have eaten the remains of the cult’s victims and are warped by unnatural power; these rats have grown human-like faces (like Lovecraft's rat things) resembling the dead cultists and worship the daeva in their own bestial way – and they hunger for human flesh.

The PCs need to go down into the sewers, defeat dire rats (some of them rat-things with faces), rat swarms, spellcasting rats and the daeva itself.

Any thoughts?


Richard