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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8243803" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/S9USrX7.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Chapter 4: Ghaistala and the Ring of VirtueThis covers the “big picture” history of the world of Ghaistala, as well as common religions and the prominent superhero group known as the Portaleers.Ghaistala had divine icons who rose out of nothingness, much like any typical D&D world. The Titans embodied seven virtues, with concepts such as Intellect, Honor, Friendship, and Duty. They created planets in a solar system they dubbed the Ring of Virtue, each taking a personal celestial body as their home. Ghastaila was not claimed by any Titans and civilization grew from the flourishing life. But a foul power of evil nonexistence known as Nul arose, spreading chaos in an event known as the Maddening. Paragon, one of the Titans, managed to save reality but at a terrible cost known as the Toll. Paragon died, civilization fell into ruin, and the planet Kkryt shattered into a field of asteroids. The surviving Titans built a memorial to their fallen kin’s example called Beacon, which sent a signal to worlds beyond the Ring of Virtue. Portals from other worlds and planes opened up, and people settled in the area, turning the memorial into a city worthy of Paragon’s example.The planets bside Ghaistala have life and are inhabitable, but due to their distance and necessity of magical travel not much is known about them by the general public. They do have cool brief descriptions such as Starcyte which is said to have a massive planet-spanning city, or the forest planet of Gotmah which holds storehouses of lore managed by the titan Intellect. The planet of Ghaistala proper is not well explored beyond Beacon’s valley; beyond the Protectorate Peaks live colossal monsters ranging from giants, dragons, and kaiju who occasionally breach the mountains to cause trouble in Beacon. There’s also a unique pseudo-kryptonite element known as Paragite which can weaken those empowered by arkwave energy based on duration of exposure, with in-game effects ranging from halved damage to unconsciousness.The Titans are like gods and can appoint divine champions; even Paragon’s ideals can be instilled in people. There're seven Titans to choose from, and they have every non-evil alignment represented save for Chaotic Neutral along with a decent assortment of domains. Beyond these beings there are other gods, including now-forgotten old indigenous deities of Ghaistala who are said to be sleeping in the sky, as well as the faiths from portal-drawn immigrants both old and new. A few cultural myths and festivals are also detailed, such as the belief that the other planets are heavens where devotees of the appropriate Titan go to serve them and rest, or the Awakening Festival which is held annually to commemorate the 20-year pulses of arkwaves which grant people superpowers. Every 20th year the festival’s held after the pulse so that people can demonstrate their newfound abilities.The Portaleers are Beacon’s oldest and most famous superhero team, modeled and named off of the seven Titans. Their original team was made up of otherworldly immigrants, but in future generations they have passed their Mantles on to future worthy candidates upon their retirement or death. The Mantles are special artifacts bearing powers related to the associated Titan, and each member’s team name follows this model: “The Mantle of Honor, the Mantle of Paragon, etc.”Sadly no game stats are given for the Portaleers, but we do have writeups on their backstories, personality, and overall power sets along with artwork for each of them. The Mantle of Paragon is a two-fisted alchemist who once treated the former Mantle of Paragon at her clinic; the Mantle of Honor is a kobold warrior and son of a barbarian chieftain out in the Nul Wastes who finds his responsibilities between his tribe and the city divided at times; the Mantle of Intellect was born into a family of noble mages but dedicated himself to becoming “Elven Batman” when he discovered he had no magical talent; the Mantle of Willpower was a sidekick to the superhero who bore the Mantle before him, and has the ability to turn her body into any stone or mineral she comes into contact with; the Mantle of Friendship is a gnome with super-speed; the Mantle of Heart is a tiefling bard whose blindness caused her to gain an appreciation for the subtleties of music; and the Mantle of Duty is a half-living, half-undead archeologist who can control weather and cosmic forces. Finally there’s Docent, a golem advisor who takes care of the management of the Portaleer’s headquarters in Paragon’s Peak.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/hHDErjL.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Chapter 5: City GazetteerBeacon is called the City of Heroes not just for the Portaleers. Be they mundane or magical, empowered by arkwaves, science, or sorcery, Beacon has a knack for drawing the best and most valiant figures from across the planes, inspiring ever more generations of do-gooders in their example. In spite of its unique protectors, Beacon is a dangerous city, full of crime and corruption within and threatened by outside evils as well.Beacon is a vertical city sitting on a bay at the southern end of an unnamed western continent, with some outlying regions and communities. The city itself is a democratic council system where local neighborhoods elect people to the Senate. Public servants known as lamplighters perform typical law enforcement duties and must live inside the neighborhoods they police. Its prison system focuses on restorative justice over retributive justice, meaning that most jails have centers of learning and recreation to help inmates rehabilitate, and only the most unrepentant and violent criminals end up in the Resolute Redoubt super-jail or exiled beyond the Protectorate Peaks.Beacon’s major sections are separated into four levels. Lowcity is primarily lone-income, industrial, and is home to 40% of the population. It is associated with crime and corruption and various crime syndicates and crooked cops congregate here, although most of its residents are more or less normal people in not-so-deal situations. Smugglers are known to ply their trade among massive stalactites in a neighborhood known as Titetown, while word around town is that the Paragite Pub is where to go if you want to find a fence or an ear to the ground on the goings=on in Lowcity.Serenity is the artisan’s quarter of Beacon and home to 30% of its population. Mostly middle and working class, it is most famous for the Crater, a ruinous expanse of broken foundation from an old supervillain battle. The place goes unrepaired as superheroes use it to lure villains and monsters there for minimal risk of collateral damage and injury to bystanders. Serenity’s also home to the Public Library and Archive which has advanced magitechnology recordings in addition to books and scrolls, and private social gatherings and entertainment such as the multi-dimensional Club 52 and the Kobold Club are home to more typical fantasy adventurer “hero for hire” types and hard-boiled detectives.Argentum Square is a governmental neighborhood, devoted to scholarship and civic administration. Home to 25% of the population, it houses the overworked Justicarium courthouse, the Portal Plaza which sees the majority of Beacon’s otherworldly immigrants, and the Library of the Spire where some of Beacon’s greatest minds study, debate, and research...both legitimate projects and more troubling lines of inquiry.Paragon’s Peak is home to the highest-class 5% of Beacon. From this neighborhood people can get a holistic view of the city below from Paragon’s Overlook, or look to the stars above at the Godswatch observatory. The Atrium of Lights is the headquarters of the Portaleers, with the surrounding trees the only place casting shadows of any real size. The Resolute Redoubt is the neighborhood’s largest mark of shame, a super-prison housing Beacon’s most dangerous and unrepentant criminals too dangerous to be sent into exile.The Protectorate Peaks are technically not part of Beacon, but are included in this chapter nonetheless. Widely considered the final frontier of civilization bordering wildlands filled with monsters of Leviathan proportions, the Peaks are home to a secret fortress known as Hope’s Bastion. The Bastion is manned by four regular occupants who are superheroes from an alternate timeline where a villain known as the Warmonger destroyed Beacon with an army of brainwashed Kaiju. They also have access to Photon Rifles and Arkwave Pulse Grenades, technology developed from this futuristic timeline.Although the text earlier teased at the major sections being inspired by the different comic book eras, I’m having trouble matching them up. One would assume Lowcity to be Iron Age with its systemic corruption, but the Kobold Club feels a bit closer to Golden Age pulp sensibilities. They come off much more as typical neighborhoods in a fantasy city, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it does feel like a case of telling over showing.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/Mcr4j4C.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Chapter 6: Regional GazetteerThis details the outlying regions beyond Beacon. A rather short chapter, the individual descriptions are rather brief and home to but a few adventure hooks. The Darnan Forest is home to a settlement known as Hearthfire who trades with Beacon but whose inhabitants pride themselves on their independence. The Grey Rise is a mountain range home to the Asha Trading Company, the setting’s characteristic Evil Megacorp which runs a company town of indentured miners. The Ivory Wilds are a jungle so named for omnipresent white choker vines which crush living prey in order to feed their soil. The Klachton Ocean and Everglint Bay sit adjacent to Beacon and connect the city to outlying islands (some of which have pirates!). The Mirrored Wetlands are a swamp whose water is clear as glass during the day but at night darker things stir deep beneath the surface. Finally, the Nul Wastes are a barren wasteland home to only a few scattered bands of barbarians and is ground zero of Nul’s defeat.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/d0ljgXl.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Chapter 7: OrganizationsThis chapter details 17 organizations pertinent to the world of Ghaistala, some beneficial to superhero PCs and some which they’ll find to be at natural odds. Every entry has a small list of Notable Members and 3 adventure hooks.Armorer’s Guild: These guys specialize in security-based equipment and defensive magic. They often hire adventurers to procure promising technology and magical items from ruins and have an interest in arming the outposts beyond the Protectorate Peaks to expand civilization.Artisan Affairs Bureau: City bureaucrats who regulate the city’s artistic and literary businesses. They are particularly insistent in the enforcement of permits, and most people view their existence as a perfect example of bureaucracy where there needs to be none. They come across as more comedic than anything, and their adventure hooks center around strange happenings from weird artwork and exhibit heists.Asha Trading Company: If Lex Luthor was an 1800s mine owner, he’d be running the Asha Trading Company. Although most people know this corporation is full of wicked naughty words who keep employees in virtual slavery, they make so much money that Beacon and other settlements rely upon their exploitative labor. They seek to grow beyond their meager outposts outside the city. Adventure hooks naturally involve thwarting them, from aiding an anticapitalist miner’s strike* or preventing the megacorp from collapsing the city of Beacon into the earth via a massive diamond drill machine that is mining paragite beneath the surface.*I’m not exaggerating, the book actually titles the adventure hook “Anti-capitalist.” Which I’m totally down with, by the way.Collegium Beacuarus: This pseudo-religious movement believes that the act of knowledge and inquiry is a holy expression, but not all people are worthy of such knowledge. They hope to achieve a kind of spiritual transcendence, and have a deep interest in the legacy of Paragon and the Titans. Adventure hooks involve unearthed secrets of the past, from stolen books to two time-travelers at cross-purposes claiming to have knowledge of Ghaistala’s pre-Maddening civilizations.Court of Empty Night: Vampires who want to return to a prehistoric ‘golden age’ when sapient beings were easily-hunted primitive tribes helpless at the hands of monsters. They include vampires, werewolves, and other monsters who derive sustenance from mortal life forces. Their NPCs and adventure hooks are straightforward horror movie monster stuff.Gardeners’ Union: This organization is more of a social club of people with a love of gardening and beautifying the city via floral designs. Their leader is a treant, and they like to collect exotic seeds from worlds beyond the portals. Their adventure hooks involving various plant monsters run amok.Guild of Exploration and Reconnaissance (GEAR): Adventuring scientists who seek to learn as much as possible about the worlds of the Ring of Virtue and beyond.Their adventure hooks involve Fantastic Four-style trips to strange and exotic lands.Heroes Guild: An organization that officially signs up and provides support for Beacon’s superhero community. In exchange members must respond to the call for the city’s defense as part of a super-militia at the government’s request. You don’t have to sign up with them to be a superhero, although they help give a sense of legitimacy to those who do.Lamplighters: Cops and trouble-shooters assorted into teams of five with distinct roles (loremaster, chaplain, interpreter, medic, and ‘buster’). They’re basically the people who solve petty crimes and clean up the small fry once the superheroes are done fixing things in the big leagues.Lenskeepers: A guild of glassblowers and cleaners who evolved into a covert intelligence network as their various janitors and window-washers are often paid no mind by the average citizen. Fortunately they are mostly good-aligned, and use the secrets they learn to tip off superheroes and do-gooders in order to avert disasters and tragedies.Lookouts: A Lowcity-based organization of regular citizens and superheroes who investigate missing people society has neither the time nor inclination to find. They are the enemies of the Court of Empty Night, who make a habit of preying upon such people to minimize risk.Scroungers: Salvagers and machinists whose headquarters is underground beneath the Crater. They scrounge a surprising amount of valuable material from the various superpowered fights above, and can fashion such scraps into surprisingly-powerful technological and magical items. They even managed to revive someone known only as “the Retired Hero,” whose powers are so dangerous to the city above he lives with the Scroungers who he treats as his new family.Shattered Sons: Superheroes who view the government of Beacon as a corrupting tool which only attends to the needs of the few at the expense of the many. Some even extend this enmity to the very concept of government itself. They specialize in going after corrupt politicians and business leaders who manage to avoid prosecution due to their power and influence. The book takes a rather positive view on them, and their adventure hooks involve the PCs helping them uncover government conspiracies and injustices.Society for the Preservation of Normalcy and Decency: Un-powered and non-magical people who feel that the superpowered community is more of a curse than a blessing. They come from people who suffered losses during collateral damage from fights, and advocate for alternative means of keeping Beacon safe. A rare few at the top levels of SPND have more nefarious motives. They believe that the Maddening was actually a time of liberation, and Nul a failed hero who was on the verge of freeing mortalkind from the tyrannical Titans. They view arkwave-empowered supers as the primary prevention from Nul returning, and secretly set out to bring death and misfortune in order to hasten his arrival.Stiltguards: Lowcity laborers who use clockwork and steam-powered stilt-suits to do maintenance work on the level’s various machinery. They help out the community in more subtle ways, such as clearing out debris and minimizing damage from factory hazards. They find themselves at cross-purposes with the Lamplighters due to differing priorities on how to “clean up” the neighborhoods.Tenebrignis:A highly secretive organization rumored to be a “shadow government” of Beacon. They...don’t really have anything substantial detailed besides the fact that they know of secrets so terrible they must safeguard them from the public.Treestriders: Inhabitants of the Darnan Forest who seek to protect the ecosystem of their home from unchecked industrialization and toxic magic.Thoughts So Far: The chapters are short, but there’s just the right amount of content and adventure hooks in each of them to give workable material to the GM. While I understand that Beacon is the central point of the setting, the Regional Gazetteer has hardly any material for adventure creation. The Organizations are an interesting array of groups who for the most part have built-in reasons for getting involved in PC affairs. Some of them are more of an attachment or incidental to such events, such as the Artisan Affairs Bureau and the Gardeners’ Union. I’m quite fond of the Scroungers, who definitely feel like a concept that would organically arise from the tropes of a comic book universe.Join us next time as we get a look at Beacon’s finest and foulest in Chapter 8: Notable People!</blockquote>

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