Dragon 372: Backdrop - Tarmalune

[Shroomy]

A 14 page backdrop article by Ed Greenwood. Enjoy:

Dragon 372: Backdrop: Tarmalune

 

[Mentat55]

I've only just started playing in FR in our current 3.5e Shackled City game, but I think this was a very nice article (from a brief skim, mind you). Something like 14 pages about the city, with a small city map, a few notable NPCs and plot hooks, and lots of local color. I could imagine starting a campaign using the city of Tarmalune, passed solely on this article, dropped into any campaign world.

 

[The_Fan]

Okay, I just gotta ask...what the heck is up with Onster Glarrak? He gets like one line explaining who he is, and how he's just fat, ugly, and annoying, but a skilled orator. Then he gets an elite artillery statblock where he spits serpents and writhes away from all attacks? Did I miss something?

 

[kenmarable]

Okay, I just gotta ask...what the heck is up with Ontar Glarrak? He gets like one line explaining who he is, and how he's just fat, ugly, and annoying, but a skilled orator. Then he gets an elite artillery statblock where he spits serpents and writhes away from all attacks? Did I miss something?

Ed Greenwood wrote the fluff and WotC Development Team picked pieces to stat up? Or parts were edited down, including that? Or I'm not familiar enough with recent FR material and he might be an old NPC?

Just throwing some wild speculation out there. But I'll have to take a look - that does sound kinda funny.

"Tom the local blacksmith is a simple, hard-working man just hoping to marry off his daughter and find a good apprentice - perhaps in the same person."
Blacksmith Tom - level 25 fire archon-possessed human who melts and absorbs all metal within 2 squares in order to maintain his mortal disguise.

 

[Shroomy]

Note to self, don't read something that packed with fluffy detail really late at night...I just re-read the article at lunch and I have few complaints. If I was going to pick on one thing, I wish they had spent a bit more time detailing adventuring opportunities within the city or its immediate vicinity, the short hooks at the end were nice (as were the rumors), but the little of the preceeding material really links to it much. That said, I'm not sure exactly what I would sacrifice out of one of the longest articles to appear in 4e Dragon (and I'm sacrificing all the local color, like the bit about the eels, perhaps my favorite factoid in the article).

There was something that struck me as I was reading this FR article, while wizards were mentioned a couple of times, some of whom seemed to be somewhat powerful, there was a decided lack of archmages roaming the streets of what has to be one of the biggest cities on Returned Abeir (no high level clerics either, but then Abeir hasn't had much contact with the Gods lately). That's a bit weird to me...I like it.

 

[Aristotle]

Interesting article. Some similarity to the trade city at the center of my homebrew campaign. Mine has more of a "strangers in a strange land" feel as it's a western fantasy city founded on the shores of an uncivilized tropical continent with a bloody history. I'll definately be looking to this article as I put together a writeup of my city.