Mark Plemmons
Explorer
Treebore said:
Well, everyone gets "sparked" by something different. The one thing I remember most when I first read over the pre-3e version was Dynaj (reproduced here for your benefit).
City-State of Dynaj
Population: 4,000 humans of primarily Dejy blood.
At a Glance: Humanoids walk the streets with impunity, but they are few. Gnome or halfling visitors with Nanakary accents are just as rare. Giant stone buildings tower above the city, where people live and work in their shadow. The people of Dynaj ignore these monstrosities, paying them no heed.
A crumbling stone wall encircles the city. Iron gates to the west and north stand open, with creeping vines showing their disuse. A warm fog creeps inland from the Sea of the Dead. The folk of Dynaj do not welcome it; the fog means that soon a ship of some kind will wreck, sink, or simply lose its passengers without a trace. They call the fog Gythali or “Shroud” for good reason.
Government: A council consisting of the head of each of the five clans runs the city-state whose ancestors originally settled the area. While two of the clans are sympathetic with the evil to the east, one clan adheres to the goal of one-day turning the city into a bastion of good.
Presently, one council seat is open, having been vacated when its holder died of an accidental overdose of poison. Believing he was building up an immunity, Thekney Osh ingested a fatal level of poison that built up over the last seven years.
Economy: Dynaj is the nearest safe harbor for ships damaged in the whirlpools of the Sea of the Dead, which makes it attractive for mariners seeking to collect salvage rights and captains in need of repair as well. Despite the need, the city's docks are barely adequate for the job. The shipwrights are mediocre, barely able to service a large seafaring ship. Many Reanaarian captains prefer to trust to fate over letting a Dynaj wright repair their ships.
Valuable exports include gold mined from the broken Khydoban Desert, beer (served at almost every table at every meal), their unique faience money (a glass piece worth 5 gp), and medicinal herbs taken from the hardy desert plants.
The city imports foods, wines, and silver, which is always in short supply. Fine cloth is a valued commodity, but it is more common as a smuggled item than an honest import because of steep entry taxes on foreign cloth.
Military: The city's military numbers approximately 100 heavy footmen (banded armor, morningstar, and steel shields) that patrol the city walls. The council feels no need for a large standing army, since most rulers are afraid to threaten Dynaj. The superstitious humanoid tribes to the northeast do not cause any trouble within the city itself, but they do harass the outlying farms and ranches. Actions against orcs and kobolds provide the army with most of its activity.
Temples: The Dynaji tolerate all religions. Because of this tolerance, many evil religions flourish here. The Congregation of the Dead has the largest temple in Dynaj. High Harvester Semantoth led the faith for eleven years before his death and for the six years since his death as well. His now-undead status is alternatively admired and feared by the populace. Semantoth has forced the council to allow the Congregation of the Dead to preside over all funerals in the city, a concession the other priesthoods despise.
Field Leader Anferset of the Church of the Life's Fire openly disobeys this order, despite three arrests that resulted in a heavy fine, a lashing, and the loss of one hand. Asherset is desperate to change the law or find some way around it. He is very afraid of dying if he should be caught again, and he is also afraid of whatever hidden reason Semantoth has for wanting the law in effect.
Mages & Sages: Dynaj used to have a strong community of sorcerers, but the sorcerers have dwindled over the past several generations. Sages speculate that whatever trait that allows people to use sorcery is disappearing, and they cannot explain why.
Now the city's principal spellcaster is Senchet Amon, a clear-headed man with great interest in maps, especially of the deep desert. The council suspects him of being in contact with the rumored city of undead in the Khydoban. So far, he has not caused any harm within the city, so they take no action against him.
Underworld: Dynaj's greatest crime is grave robbing. The tombs of wealthy kings and nobles fill the ground, waiting for rediscovery and plunder. Despite clever concealment, thick stone tombs, and deadly traps, rogues penetrate the tombs with alarming efficiency. Horrific punishments await the successful, but the thieves cannot resist the lure of gold.
The city's sole thieves’ guild avoids the tombs. While not above buying stolen items, the guild members prefer the easier marks of foreign merchants, priests, and careless nobles. Guild Master Kentat served on the council for two years before he was discovered to be secretly wed to the only female council member. Since Dynaj's law prevents husband and wife or other relations from serving on the council together, Kentat resigned (and stepped down as head of his clan). He accepted the post of Guildmaster instead of asking his wife to abandon her position after eighteen years of public service. Curiously, this position holds a great deal of prestige because the Guildmaster is not allowed to steal; he supervises the stealing of others.
Interesting Sites: Dynaj is replete with interesting sites. First, the city-state's domain is riddled with canals to serve the arid farmlands. The grid of canals means that short footbridges are also frequent. To the east, where the city's domain extends into the desert, the break between living dirt and dead ground is abrupt. A visitor might see a family of shirtless men working in a barley field only 20 feet from a hyena's desiccated skeleton.
The Congregation of the Dead's influence is visible in the architecture and layout of the city. Homes have altars where people make sacrifices to the spirits of the dead. Some sacrifices are an appeal for wisdom, love, or health; others are appeasements to angry spirits. The buildings include multi-story mausoleums, where the living preserve the dead in great reverence. Nobles and powerful merchants can afford interment in gilt sarcophagi, buried among the treasures of their life. Council members lie in fine linens, buried with slaves, animals, coins, and magical items. The oldest of these monuments are step pyramids over a hundred feet tall that are visible from miles away.
Special Notes: What makes this community such a frighteningly unique place is the abundance of undead found in the Khydoban Desert, which is aptly nick-named the Dead Lands. This unusual distinction makes the city a haven for unsavory individuals seeking to interact or do business with Dynaj's unholy neighbors. Desperate generals occasionally visit Dynaj, seeking to hire undead mercenaries.
It is rumored that somewhere in the Dead Lands lies an entire country populated with undead and ruled by a lich lord. Although these rumors are unsubstantiated, certain merchants head east from Dynaj with full cargoes and return with empty wagons and pockets lined with gold.
