[Pre-Recruiting] Ashwell

[Creamsteak]

Ashwell was a remote farming community of little importance to the world until an earthquake struck the parish forty years ago. Following the quake a number of sinkholes opened up under various major structures in the town making many of them uninhabitable, even sinking some completely into the earth. After the initial damage, many residents left, while only those too poor or stubborn to leave remained behind.

Some of the poor or desperate people that remained attempted to plunder the ruins for any valuables that had been abandoned. In truth, some succeeded in finding lost treasures in the ruins of the church, the brewery, the fort, or the manor. Some treasures were easily identified, while others were not so familiar. In time, rumors spread that the parish had been built over a much older city, one which had itself sunken beneath the earth many many generations prior.

Over the years a new town sprung up around Ashwell, one built by new hands working with old stone. Some of the uncovered city below was intact, and the city combined new, old, and much older into a strange testament of ingenuity. The civilization that had been here before had a type of magic that was not well understood to the sages of the modern era. A new artifice had to be invented to repair and make use of this foreign technology.

This thread is not a recruitment thread, more of a Q&A and establishing some initial interest. Ashwell is a setting idea I have that is inspired a bit by settings like Ptolus or the Tower of Druaga. In some ways it calls back to ideas I had some 15+ years ago, and also to some of the "spires" that were in Living En World. It's also partially inspired by a game I played in many years ago called the Psionicle, and to the magic and nonmen of the Aspect Emperor series of books, perhaps with a bit of your typical cthulhu mythos eldritch horrors in the background.

Ashwell is set in a world where "magic isn't real" to the world as a whole. People around the world might be spiritualists or have religions or beliefs, they may even believe in witchcraft, or misunderstand perfectly natural occurrences to be mystical in some way, but the world largely seems to behave according to natural science. The city of Ashwell, however, is on the boarder to a whole new strange world in more than one way. The occurrences in and around Ashwell may have great significance in discovering where the world as we know it may not be what it seems.

Ashwell the parish was built on top of cyclopean ruins of a culture that seems almost cut out from the storybooks. Tall, broad, almost uniformly strong and perfect-seeming. Or at least that's how their artwork is depicted. Yet these precursors also appear emotionless, cold, devoid of anything but an icy stare into the void. Their relics and artwork are largely unmatched in quality and perfect depiction, yet it lacks anything other than form and purpose. There is no embellishment or exaggeration, only strict adherence to duplication of reality. And these ancients are no longer with us, only their ancient tombs and structures. Their artifice hints at languages that "understood" reality, analogies that validated what is real, and concepts that if understood could turn the world inside out.

Still further, peeling back the layers of the onion you may find what the precursors were hiding from, creatures that were predators upon creativity, imagination, and emotion. Something dwells deeper. Thought made manifest. Ancient horrors that defied a rigid reality. Psychic and ethereal things from the void stretching their squishy bits through the cracks in our reality.

So a society of technology and the natural world uncovering the city of the arcane theologians and their magic and gods that tried to block out the realm beyond in the nether and the mind.

So who might be interested? What do you want to know? What kind of adventures would you want to have in this place?

The game would be D&D 5e largely, though with some amount of house rules and variants I'd clearly communicate.

 

[Matthan]

Honestly, it sounds like a great setup for an investigative dungeon crawler. When I read about a setting that has a large mystery at its core, I want to investigate that mystery. So, if you ran the game and if you let me play, I would want to be exploring the ruins, unraveling the mysteries of those who came before, and quite likely, preventing history from repeating itself.

I'm not sure if that's the way you would want to go or if you would like the mystery to be unknowable or unattainable, but that's what sparked in my mind.

 

[Azurewraith]

Definitely this needs to be an exploration dungeon crawl no two ways about it. Survival elements would add an interesting twist maybe the ruins descend for days maybe weeks so managing resources would be a must. Diplomatic elements could complement dungeon diving, I would find it highly unlikely that your group is the only one scavenging down there maybe certain wealthy people are funding expidtions down. Maybe just maybe someone or a group of people know all about what's down there and a plot comes about to keep its secrets lost, who doesn't love a bit of intrigue? Oh and one last thought it seems like horror would have a good place here.

Seems like a solid setting to run an adventure of many facets in.I would definitely be interested in playing but first question time!

How would magic classes work being magic isn't real?
Would darkvision function as we know it? Seems to me it could reduce alot of resource managing of torches.
Are the Cyclops of this forgotten culture similar to modern day one's? Heck are there even modern day Cyclops?

Sorry wasn't supposed to bombarded you with questions... it just happened.

 

[Creamsteak]

How would magic classes work being magic isn't real?

Well first to be clear, the world at large does not believe it's real. It's very strange that certain events, devices, and people are coming out of Ashwell. Yet, most of it is attributed to found technology. While some people in the world at large might consider these things miracles or somehow the work of demons or something, most people attribute it all to devices they simply don't fully understand... not unlike a person who knows how to use their computer but not how it works on a fundamental level. And in some sense, even if you are a proficient user of these spells, you might be missing some understanding on some level. It might be a bit of a mystery to you.

Magic would generally work by the book, but the narrative and conceptual part of it is definitely meant to be a little different.

If you're a bard, you're someone that is just starting on the path of understanding something the world at large doesn't know about. Bards would "sing" or perform anagogic magic. Your actions exalt creation or destruction. It's not something most people would believe is possible. Your actions turn on the resonance between meanings and concrete things. It uses creative metaphors to implement spells.

If you're a wizard or similar type of spellcaster you're starting to scratch at the doors to fundamental truths hidden in reality. Your ability to cast spells is entirely "logical", and your spells are based on your understanding of reality is "gnostic" as in knowing the secrets of reality. Everything you do makes a certain kind of absolute sense. Of course, the world at large doesn't think this is possible, and it's very likely you're among the first people broaching this subject.

Sorcerers and Mystic (Psionic) characters definitely are calling on something from within. Likely tethered to emotion, theirs or others, or to something primordial and ancient buried inside themselves.

Warlocks and Clerics, characters with patrons more or less, are likely attuned to certain gods or demons or other entities that may either be commonly believed in by groups throughout the world, or known only to the character. Either way, the god, patron, or whatever it is calls the character to this place for some reason for some act.

Other characters, even martial ones, might have a taste for any of the above. A barbarian's totem spirits might refer to something inherent to them, or something outside looking in.

Would darkvision function as we know it? Seems to me it could reduce alot of resource managing of torches.

I'll likely be putting together a specific collection of races, and I do intend for darkvision to be more rare than it is in the core rules. I still think it might be available, but I want it to actually be "special" if it is.

Are the Cyclops of this forgotten culture similar to modern day one's? Heck are there even modern day Cyclops?

No modern day ones. I meant Cyclopean more in the sense of huge and of a certain kind of stonework. The precursors happen to have had two eyes. Cyclops don't exist in the known world, though they might exist in what's down below.

More questions are fine. I know it's hard to fully communicate a setting short of a book or something, so I'm trying to figure out what people would want to know, etc.

 

[Azurewraith]

Excellent here's another one. The underdark, is it a thing? Does this empire intersect with it?

 

[Creamsteak]

When you ask if the underdark is a thing, which question are you asking? It wouldn't be the FR's underdark, that's for sure.

 

[Azurewraith]

More if there is a complex network of underground tunnels under the "over world" not is it the home of drow made by a crawling God. Sorry I have always been terrible at getting my thoughts into a written medium just ask any of my old teachers.

 

[Creamsteak]

There isn't anything like that that is commonly known about. Some people refer to the ruins under Ashwell as "a mansion" almost as if there might be others. If there are others, and if people know about them, it's not common knowledge. If there are roads between these places that may or may not exist, they are not well traveled.

 

[Azurewraith]

That may or may not have been a good answer. Care to share more about these races. I'm big fan of hearing out other people's homebrew as an avid Brewer my self.

 

[Creamsteak]

I don't have a fully realized set of races and cultures for the setting. I imagine Ashwell as being in a new country as a bit of a melting-pot type area that has drawn a lot of attention. Culturally most people here know the most about the human realms, and not a whole lot about far off places.

So the country Ashwell is in was once populated primarily by peaceful friendly halflings. Four of the five tribes of men invaded and conquered that country over a period of about two-hundred years. Over another three hundred, they created a new country of their own intermixing the cultures of the tribes. A lot more scientific advancement has happened on the "mainland", not quite an industrial revolution, but at least an era of prosperity and advancement as opposed to a dark age.

The Five Tribes
The five tribes come form the same continent, and while they are very different they are all technically of the same race.

Norsirai
The typically blond-haired, light-eyed, fair-skinned tribe predominantly concentrated in the northern edge of the continent. Their language is known as Nord. Although they mostly live on the northern fringes, they were once the dominant civilization.

Ketyai
The typically dark-haired, brown-eyed, olive-skinned tribe predominantly concentrated in the southern, western, and eastern part of the continent. Their language is known as common. The Ketyai are the largest tribe of Men and currently the dominant civilization.

Satyothi
The black-skinned, black-haired but green-eyed tribe predominantly concentrated in the southwestern nation of Zeüm and the southern extremities of the continent. The Satyothi merchants and nobles are among the most wealthy individuals in the world. Their language is known as Zeuri.

Scylvendi
The dark-haired, pale-eyed, and fair-skinned tribe predominantly concentrated in the Steppes of the continent. Their language is known as Skaaric. The Scylvendi are pastoral nomads and very isolated from the other human cultures. When they make war, they are known for their savagery, cruelty, and mercilessness.

Xiuhianni
The black-haired, olive-skinned tribe that still dwells beyond the Great Sea, who did not migrate to the continent with the other four tribes. Some of the Ketyai on the eastern fringes of the new continent have some racial characteristics of Xiuhianni, as they overlap.

Demihumans
Demihumans are definitely less common, with the exception of halflings, as they are not native to the area or likely to end up there in great numbers. Racial tensions are intended to be high.

There are rich dwarves that rule a desert kingdom on the other side of the world. All about gold and riches and such. Poor human children are taught that dwarves are the way they are because greed makes them short and petty and fat.

Elves live near the coasts and tend to be merchants, pirates, fishers, etc. Often thrown insults about having come from the ocean and actually being mermaids or harpies or similar.

Gnomes are tinkers and thieves. People are superstitious about offending them because they tend to have family that finds out and they tend to be vengeful.

Halflings have been oppressed for years and while they have lived peaceful lives in the past and are not enslaved any longer some of them now have a deep need for vengeance against their once oppressors.

I'd likely allow a lot of out of the box races as well, but some limitations. Like no dragonborn or lizardfolk types, or goblins or orcs or other things.