Romans + Druids + Cthulhu

[Dannyalcatraz]

Take it and twist it...The Dragon Empire of the North invaded Eastwards into Asia, and eventually conquered your version of China. Perhaps later intertribal struggles severed the bonds and China broke off, but with a culture that is a fusion of Viking and Han.

BTW, historical evidence for this kind of thing exists to some extent: the most recent thing I heard was that a group of Viking tribes known as the Rus went Eastward to invade northern Eurasia...an area that became known as Russia. In our world, they stopped, in yours, they don't have to.

 

[ssampier]

adventure idea (in story-form)

Watchers in the Woods

Weird, eerie flashes of light and odd noises are seen in remote villages in Southeast Danan. Villagers report that the light and odd noises appeared mostly at night. Some villagers report seeing a small band of men disappear into the woods. One villager swears that one man had a yellow odd shaped tattoo on his face. Most villagers also report that the noises and light disappeared after that night.

In the Forest

Some distance in the forest, there is a unnatural clearing. Near the tree line is a body of a man in robes. The man has no tattoos on his face or otherwise. He has no weapons or armor. The man has a small black book with writing that you can't read or understand.

In the middle of the clearing is a strange black, metallic object. The metallic object is a perfect cube, but with round edges. Each side is 9 feet long.

The captain of the guards claims his guards did not find the body of the man the other night or the metallic object.

A strength DC of 40 is required to open one of the sides of the cube (it doesn't matter which side is opened). Inside is a pure black, shiny interior. The walls, ceiling, and floor seems to bend and flex at weird angles. Inside is pitch black darkness.

Your eyes adjust to the light and inside is a long room. The room contains the bodies of two illithids. One illithid is slumped on a black throne, of sorts. The other illithidis lying motionless on the floor*.

When you cast Detect Magic, the aura of the room nearly blinds you. As your come back you see now see thousands of glyphs on the floor, ceiling, and walls.

....

I'm going by the assumption that Cultist of the Yellow Sign and the mi-go don't like each other very much. Essentially the illithids, working with the mi-go, gated into this world, lost control of their vessels, and landed in the field. The mi-go survived, but the illithids died. The mi-go left to find help and no one could understand them. A few days later, the Cult of the Yellow Sign came to destroy the mi-go. The cult killed most of the mi-go, but one cultist got his brain surgically removed. The other cultists ran off. The book is simply a translation in an archaic script of the King of Yellow play.

I haven't decided how far I want to take this. I figure the PCs can take a whole host of options to decide what to do about the cube, how to translate the book, or just to ignore the whole thing. After a week of the cube appearance, most villagers will have signs of obvious non fatal poisoning; a la radiation sickness. A Cure Disease spell will cure the symptoms, but the disease can reappear.

* I so wanted to close and lock all the doors and have a disembodied voice say, "I want to play a game."

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I like the Gnomes as Germanic...especially if you play up their mystic nature, possibly even making them the mystical "Little People" of legend...complete with a civilization that is largely out of phase with the rest of the world- a version of Underhill, if you will. Give them a bit more innate Fey magic and Tuoborg forest makes a lot of sense.

To expand on this...

Up the airy mountain
Down the rushy glen,
We daren't go a-hunting,
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl's feather.
Down along the rocky shore
Some make their home,
They live on crispy pancakes
Of yellow tide-foam;
Some in the reeds
Of the black mountain-lake,
With frogs for their watch-dogs,
All night awake.

High on the hill-top
The old King sits;
He is now so old and gray
He's nigh lost his wits.
With a bridge of white mist
Columbkill he crosses,
On his stately journeys
From Slieveleague to Rosses;
Or going up with music,
On cold starry nights,
To sup with the Queen,
Of the gay Northern Lights.

They stole little Bridget
For seven years long;
When she came down again
Her friends were all gone.
They took her lightly back
Between the night and morrow;
They thought she was fast asleep,
But she was dead with sorrow.
They have kept her ever since
Deep within the lake,
On a bed of flag leaves,
Watching till she wake.

By the craggy hill-side,
Through the mosses bare,
They have planted thorn trees
For pleasure here and there.
Is any man so daring
As dig them up in spite?
He shall find the thornies set
In his bed at night.

Up the airy mountain
Down the rushy glen,
We daren't go a-hunting,
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl's feather.
-- William Allingham

Green jacket & red cap...sound familiar?

 

[Whisper72]

On the issue of the sacking of Rome. How about the 7 hills of Rome (or at least one of them) is the prison of an elder and the whole idea of the sack was a cover for cultists to try a rescue...

 

[ssampier]

Hank likes the gnome, Hank likes the gnome...

So are you are saying the Hills do have eyes?

...

...

(crickets)

Seriously, Whisper72 I think it's a cool idea. Do the hills of Rome have a lake or other natural structure that could give a hint to what is down there?

Danny, I read an interesting post about gnomes, comparing them to the rabbits of Watership Down. I have no desire to repeat the post, but basically gnomes are concerned about self-preservation. 1) Gnomes routinely spread urban legends about themselves and their homes. 2) Illusions hide their homes. 3) Build magical items or steamtech in their forest hideouts to defend themselves. 4) Speak with animals is helpful so they can spy on their visitors.

That said, I have no problem changing to them to be more fey-like. As long as we can avoid the Lawn Gnome Syndrome.

Muddy Gnome Ideas

Faerie Fire, cast as a Standard Action once per day
Vulnerable to cold iron
Antithesis of rat men

 

[Whisper72]

I do not believe there is a lake, but maybe you can substitute that with a large temple that sits on top of an underground basin.

Maybe the Roman Baths are actually the tip of an underground lake...

 

[Psychotic Jim]

Here's a random thought. You know how everybody in the Empire were supposed to make sacrifices to the Emperor? Well, what if these were part of some elaborate ritual set to bring the Great Old Ones back? And everybody made a sacrifice, the icky Things from Beyond came a little bit closer to breaching the dimensional barriers.

 

[ssampier]

the hills do have eyes

Whisper72, cool idea, though not exactly what I had in mind. I should have been more clear. I was going to steal Ray Winniger's idea from his DungeonCraft column in one of the print issues of Dungeon. What if the lake was artificial and was created as a warning? The lake shape could spell-out a word of warning in an ancient language.

The artificial lake shape idea is pretty subtle. The rule of threes says I can do it. I just need two more clues, too. That said I could still have an ancient temple with bathhouse or cistern as a clue also.

Psychotic Jim, neat. I was actually thinking of using the ancient Estrucans for something. The Estrucans could have given the Romans the tradition of sacrifice without them realizing the ultimate purpose; bring back the Old Ones!

The Hills of Rome

I was reading more about the Seven Hills of Rome. Of course we know the Romulus and Remus story. The part I am not getting is why are important. I see on Wikipedia there are a lot of cities founded on 7 hills.

I live in the Western Mountain States. My current city sits on 5,300 feet above sea level give or take. It's difficult for me to understand how hills that are relatively tiny are significant.

Is the number 7 sacred? In one muddy thought I was thinking of making the number 3, 5, and 7 important. Why? They are all prime numbers... beyond that...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You know how the Rockies overlook everything?

Well, in a relatively flat area, a decent hill (about the size of a foothill in the Rockies) dominates the landscape- key for military tactics (and avoiding floods).

A ring of 7 such hills in close proximity creates a broad area that you can defend and that conceals the city within their boundaries.

 

[ssampier]

Kasgaard (KAH-guard)--Russia and Baltic

Part of the same continent as Jord, stretches east to west to the Unknown East. The land is cold and unforgiving.

Kas travelers to the continent are given disparaging nicknames due to the animal pelts they wear.

Akrane--Ukraine with a bit of fantasy thrown-in

Mysterious land south of Kasgaard. The capitol, Chorn, is on the Northern border and frequently trades with Kas. The Akrane soil is mostly infertile, containing mostly mud flats with occasional grasslands. The Rojan trace their history from here. The Roj myths says a terrible disaster occurred thousands of years ago, scarring the land forever.

More recently the region has been settled by some Kas wizards. They are recruiting Kas and Akrane alike to build strange oval shape buildings. Their purpose is a complete mystery.

Background: I was inspired by a couple of sources. I was recently reading the 3.5 Eberron book and I was inspired the drawings of the Riedra monoliths. Second I have always like the Invoked Devastation in Greyhawk. Lastly, I was thinking of naming the ovals as a play on the Egg of Coot in Blackmoor.

Unknown East

Generic Asian Land. As per Danny's idea, the Jord raiders conquered fantasy China hundreds of years ago, leaving dragon iconography and mythology in their wake.