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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CleverName" data-source="post: 4291657" data-attributes="member: 2591">Maelstrom Element CardsYou may notice a lack of political correctness, or at least an indulgence in the lurid language of the pulps that gave birth to swords and sorcery literature. This is on purpose, to get your thematic juices flowing. The text is meant as a starting point, not a prison. Trust your reaction to it. The idea is to print these out on cards, perhaps with some thematic art, and distribute them to everyone. (I would like to have at least 30 cards.) Each person will then have the opportunity to give some number of cards to another player. Then we use the cards as inspiration for sites on the map. Elaborate upon the card’s theme to create an NPC, site, city, or group within the setting.  You may wish to use these as inspiration for your character’s background, or starting points for games you might run in Maelstrom.1.    An Ancient Abode of Evil: This place was purged of evil long ago, but once again has begun to stir. Perhaps this is a sunken temple, once the home of a cold-blooded and malevolent cult, this sprawling complex was abandoned hundreds of years ago. Since that time a foul swamp has sprung up around the temple, which is slowly sinking into the mire. Explorers claim that beneath the water-filled hallways of the ancient temple an even older evil is stirring in the slime.2.    The Animal People: The beast people are a blending of one humanoid race with some other animal or creature, such as minotaurs or centaurs. Many of these creatures and their societies are brutish in nature, others are quite the opposite.3.    Astral Influence: The Astral Sea supports the dominions of the gods and acts as the dark river flowing to the pits of hell. The powers of this place often influence the world, or manifest in portals formed from shafts of light, rainbows, or the yawning mouths of caverns. This might represent such a portal, or a person or group tied to one of the gods or devils that make their homes along the silver sea. 4.    The Barrow: This is a tomb of some long-dead hero or figure of infamy. Perhaps it contains the treasures and corpse of the person, perhaps the power has attracted others to the barrow or some curse keeps its wealth intact.5.    The Beast Lords: The beast lords are known for some reliance upon or special rapport with powerful and/or exotic creatures. They may ride the world’s best horses, or command creatures that swim through stone.  This relationship colors nearly every aspect of their society, though that society may be civilized or barbaric.6.    Caravanserai: This place is known as a great market place, a place where many different kinds of people meet, perhaps drawn by its location as a crossroads of trading routes. This merchant’s roost could also have a darker side: a goblin market or a thieves’ bazaar. It may be a city known for its marketplaces, a literal crossroads, or a precinct within a larger metropolis. 7.    Cathedral: This temple is notable for its tremendous size and the commitment of time and material to finish it. Such things only occur under the direction of an absolute despot or due to a grand commitment by the faithful. 8.    City of the Lost Gods: Some dark force preserves the city, or prowls its ruins. Often those that worship the gods are now cursed to never leave or have degenerated after centuries of exposure and inbreeding. Perhaps they await saviors from without, or jealously guard their god.9.    The Dark Cult’s Fane: This location is treasured by a cult that worships inhumanly evil forces, elemental evil from some primordial age or twisted beings from beyond this reality. This place may contain a thriving cult hidden behind a benign mask, or one open in its profanity. The Star of Tears is suck a place. Here Five (or six, or eight) ancient towers surround a central pillar in this secluded mountain vale. All are of a strangely alien architecture. No one knows who built them, or why, or when. Most folk shun the place today, but a tribe of (kobolds, bugbears, humans, halflings) has recently taken up residence in the valley. At night, strange bonfires burn . . .10.    Dragonborn: Once masters of the greatest empire, the dragonborn are now wandering bands of soldiers, adventurers, and spell-slingers. Though many are honorable, this vagabond race was teetering on the brink of irrelevance before the cataclysm. Perhaps this disaster can be used to resurrect the greatness that was once theirs.11.    Dwarves: Dwarves, like many other races have glorious pasts, but like the humans, they are builders by nature and their long labors have rewarded them with slow but steady climb from the brink of ruin. Perhaps more than any other race, the dwarves are poised for another bid for greatness. 12.    Eladrin: Just as swaths of the Feywild have found themselves grafted to the world, so have its most inscrutable fey folk begun to move more freely about the world. The gray elves are both feared and revered by many common folk, who are entranced by their grace, but suspicions of their obvious magical nature and ties to the twilight land of the Fey.  Eladrin are often reserved and scholarly, unlike their moody cousins.13.    Elemental Majesty: This is a place tied to the four primordial elements of creation and the awesome power they represent. Perhaps it is a place tied to the realm of Elemental Chaos – they place of unending creation and destruction – a place that sees the world above as an aberration. The Primordials which dwell there would gladly return all of creation to the original state of the universe. 14.    Elves: Elves are creatures of the great wood. Their passions are quick and mercurial as a breeze in the treetops. They are creatures of the wilderness – especially the deep forest where the love to hunt. They are a nomadic people attuned to the provender of nature and the sweep of seasons. 15.    Faerie Intrusion: The Feywild is a land of arcane power, filled with enchantment and magnificence. It is home to creatures noble and heartless, beautiful and terrifying.  It is the wild heart of the fey.16.    Fen: These watery woodlands often house forgotten cities, ancient temples, and the nests of fearsome monsters. They might be the last refuge of a dying race, or the hideout of criminals.17.    The Ghost Town (Branwyn’s Folly):  This ghost town lies well beyond the last human settlement on the edge of the deep wilderness. Branwyn McMann founded the small mining village over a hundred (five, fifty) years ago, following rumors of a major silver discovery in the Bleak Hills. Local custom held that the caverns beneath the hills were dangerously close to the Underdark (or Shadowfell, or Feywild.) Despite being warned that disaster was certain to follow any attempt to mine or live in the hills, Branwyn managed to convince several dozen families to relocate with promises of riches untold. The last trader to visit “Branwynton” as it was called reported that not a single living thing was to be found in the town. No bodies, no remains, no sign of a struggle – but no people, no livestock, nothing. 18.    Goblin Market: We must not look at goblin men, / We must not buy their fruits: / Who knows upon what soil they fed / Their hungry thirsty roots?" / "Come buy," call the goblins / Hobbling down the glen. This may be a marketplace for banned items, a meeting place for evil, or a dark business consortium.19.    The Grotto: This is a place of underground wonder, a garden of stone and crystal. Perhaps instead it is a chthonic temple -- a realm of the dark gods best forgotten. 20.    The Guildhall: This may be a traditional confraternity of artisan workers, masons, carpenters, carvers, glassworkers, etc. Each guild controls secrets of traditionally imparted technology, the "arts" or "mysteries" of their crafts – which in a fantasy setting may incorporate magic.  A guild may dominate a city, village or act a secret society of kingmakers. 21.    Halflings: The river folk are far more numerous than they seem. While always on the move, Halflings move with their families, clans and traditions. Though the Cataclysm affected them as much as any other, they were among the first to being knitting the fractured lands back together again. Since roads were no longer trustworthy, Halflings had to find out where their new river highways led. 22.    The Haunted Wood: This forest is known for some kind of inimical force.  Its malevolence may be directed at all or only at a certain group.23.    Humans: humans are known for their versatility and unmatched energy and boldness. Their empires and many and varied, bound together by their relatively short lives. Their great abilities are always betrayed by their weakness; more than any other race, humans are known for their corruptibility. 24.    Incongruous Terrain: When the world folded in on each other some biomes were stranded in places where they should not have been, and perhaps cannot exist for long. Imagine a massive forest from the Feywild appearing in the middle of a desert.  With nothing to sustain the trees much of the forest has withered and died; only the persistent efforts of the original inhabitants keep small oases alive and growing.25.    Mercenary Hall: This may be a famous mercenary unit, or a place known for hiring mercs. 26.    Monuments to the Unknown: Detail some strange monument to a past that no longer exists. Does it have guardians? What secrets does it point to? Consider the Road of a Thousand Heroes.  Along the sides of ten miles of the great cost road we can find massive statues depicting warriors and adventurers of all races and types - including some unknown peoples. In the center of this stretch is an inn made from the fragments of several of these statues. It is run by a mysterious figure whose whole body is always covered in robes.27.    The Mountain Hall: This is a mountain fastness, above or below ground. Perhaps it is fortress of lost titanic race or a city of dwarven kings. This site may be a ruin or an active site. 28.    Necropolis: This may be a huge funerary site, the size of a city. Or, it may be literal city of the dead, home to an undead civilization. It may be one ruled by secret undead masters, or quite openly by the undead. Most likely, it is a place of evil.29.    Oriental Masters: These people or this place hearkens to the exotic pleasures, dissoluteness and, ultimately the corruption a society that has become too subtle and decadent to manage and has begun to feed upon itself. Yet, flawed as they are, the true rulers of this realm are manipulators without peer in the land. 30.    Outside In: From the depth of the cosmos alien minds regard the world with covetous eyes – one whose glance burns away sanity, ones whose tentacled caress turns matter to ash or warps it into blasphemous reflections of itself. These are the beings of Far Realm, the Outside and their progeny, the aberrations. They too have places tied to them, and their servants in our world.  31.    Ruin of the Great Beast: All that marks this ancient battle site is the huge, weathering skeleton of the great wyrm (or giant, or other titanic creature) that met its end here. From time to time antique coins, buckles, arrowheads and other bits of ironmongery turn up in the dusty soil around the skeleton, testament to the conflict. 32.    Shadow Incursion: The Shadowfell is the dark reflection of this world, and especially since the cataclysm, its influence sometimes spills out into this world. It is not a place of unremitting evil, but one touched by darkness, death and illusion. 33.    The Shrine of the Lost God: This site remains a mystery for those who know of it. Is the place a truly holy site, or has myth led to mere superstition? Such a place is the Skull of Gund.  Sages disagree is to whether this truly titanic skull is the actual, fossilized remains of some incomprehensibly gigantic creature, or instead an amazing likeness painstakingly carved out of the rock itself by some ancient and unknown people. Either way, it has been worshipped for centuries by a tribe of surprisingly peaceful hill giants, who claim that only their reverence keeps the malevolent spirit of the skull from manifesting.34.    Tieflings: Proof of man’s hubris and corruptibility, these beings are descended from diabolic pacts made long ago between men and the forces of evil.  Now they move about in small groups – knowing better than to associate in large numbers lest someone call for another purge...just in case the foul ones are in league again.  35.    The Tower: The tower represents the home of some isolated genius or genii. This may be a sanctuary, prison or tomb. Great knowledge or power is associated with the tower. 36.    Wasteland: This blighted area was once verdant and productive but now lies despoiled. What Eden was this place and what happened to it?</blockquote>

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