Level Up (A5E) Sins of the Scorpion Age, Sword and Sorcery Campaign Setting

[GuyBoy]

Just a thought (maybe as a keen rugby player!);
Could one of the cities have a “great game” embedded into their culture, which would lend itself to an adventure hook or three for players.
Gladiatorial is an obvious S&S trope, but a major bull-leaping festival would seem to fit the culture fairly well. Victory in the contest would allow players to access important people, or a prize could be on offer, or it could be a punishment sentence or a famous competitor could have been kidnapped.
Just an idea.

 

[Steampunkette]

Definitely a good idea, yes!

So far, I've got 21 pages of Regions/Cities just within the Scorpion Lands. Pretty happy about that, so far. Gonna do the same with Annam, soon. But I also need to do up a Deities and Religion document pretty badly.

I had my husband look over it all and he got a bit confused about the religions. The idea is that people worship the Six and the Beast out of fear of the danger those deities pose, not out of love or affection, which the Flower gets -some- of. But the different religious groups I've outlined, so far, don't really represent that well because I just use the term "Worship" in the writeups.

Might make that my next goal once I create a Template for the different Deities and their religions. Including both presented Cults of the Flower, and the Dalat Mors (Which is part of Abu Sadin that hasn't really been shown quite yet).

Also pretty sure of the initial adventure I wanna include with the book. It'll center around Lagan and the Apostlate of Tyar. It'll also start at 7th or 8th level, probably, rather than being a level 1 adventure.

 

[Steampunkette]

Also of note: I work today and tomorrow and it's -ridiculously- hard to try and work on this with my cell phone. I should've brought my laptop, instead of this wireless keyboard and my phone...

 

[Steampunkette]

Arrrrrgh. I can't sit here, not writing, while waiting for biscuits to cook. I'll just jot down some notes to get thoughts out of my head.

1) Abu Sadin's prison, the Isle of Woe, is where the Council of Coins keeps the "Misfortunate" of Abu Sadin as slaves to the Council, which in turn keeps them wealthier than most other wealthy people and ensures they're kept in power each year.

2) Shuruti's gemstone mines have played out, but not because of overwork and harvesting. Instead, some magical effect is causing the gemstones to -rot- in the mines. Until they crumble to ash and powder if they're drawn from the stone. The powder, however, has powerful hallucinogenic effects that the ruling class largely uses to try and maintain control of the city. Namely by keeping a set of "Oracles" on hand who are gemdust addicts whose "Prophesies" are mad ramblings the ruler and other nobles interprets.

3) Il'sha-ah has tombs in it's pyramids for Am-Tet and other former Phaoris and their servants. But not all are still. Am-Tet is a good Mummy Lord but there are others that are cruel, or vicious. And all advise the current Phaoris in secret. Of late, the Phaoris has visited Am-Tet less, and become more aggressive toward others, particularly toward the Usurpers who seek the title.

 

[GuyBoy]

Il’sha-ah could also have its very own Akivasha homage. I always liked the slightly sympathetic treatment she got as a woman who “loved life too much”; 40 years or so before Anne Rice somewhat reinvented vampires.

I agree that a level 7/8 adventure would be good to include. The various hooks talked about earlier can encourage DMs to develop their own lower level ones.

Personally, when I run a campaign in your world, I might also cannibalise some of the adventures from the 3e Mesopotamia from Necromancer Games. The current Necropolis kickstarter of the old Gygax campaign is also adaptable.
That said, I’m also drawn to the dark fogs and standing stones of hag-haunted Neasc.

Designing a world while biscuits are cooking is cool!

 

[Steampunkette]

Kyran will be super easy to write up, since I only have to do the one city-state and I can put all the politics and flavor, there, into the organizations and mysteries section. Y'know, the different tribes and all.

I should probably write up a template for the different regional cultures with subheadings for different cities... 'Cause while the Empty Lands will have their own, largely Musarran, culture, places like Ondat and Qesh should have their own special notes.

Damn... I should probably make that part of the player-facing material, huh?

I must, truly, hate myself to try and do a full campaign setting and an attached player's guide...

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

2) Shuruti's gemstone mines have played out, but not because of overwork and harvesting. Instead, some magical effect is causing the gemstones to -rot- in the mine

Suggestion: The mine could be infested by a Xorn colony and the alchemist-drug-dealers could use the Xorn guano as psychoactive drugs?

Abu Sadin's prison, the Isle of Woe, is where the Council of Coins keeps the "Misfortunate" of Abu Sadin as slaves to the Council, which in turn keeps them wealthier than most other wealthy people and ensures they're kept in power each year.

This reminds me of Ravnica's Orzhov syndicate in which people can sell their afterlife to the church in exchange for a loan of currency in the present. The Syndicate-Church is mostly operated by indentured servant-spirits and undeads. Could be a good idea to have an island where the people can work off their debt as slaves in undeath.

 

[Steampunkette]

The Isle of Woe is both the name of a small island and the prison which occupies the majority of it's available landmass. Here, the misfortunate of Abu Sadin, and visitors to the city who have great misfortune, are housed. Taken under the purple light of the Lighthouse to live out the remainder of their days as slaves to the Council of Coins.

There, they grind wheat to grain, dig for iron, copper, and tin in the isle's mountain, or press olives into the finest oils that one can purchase. Any waste from their efforts is either made into food, in the case of grains and olives, or cast into the sea.

The bodies, however... The bodies never seem to wash ashore, unlike the hulls of Wheat and Barley, threshed and ground to fine flours, which litter the beaches as fodder for crabs, gulls, and rats.

 

[Steampunkette]

 

[Steampunkette]

One more and a second attempt at doing more of Musarra... after that, I'm done with all 22 (23 with the map) pages of the Scorpion Lands...