Notebook Digitization Project

[theinfn8]

I mentioned I was working on moving my old game notebooks to digital format and I felt like sharing a piece of the first notebook. Focused mostly on campaign material for a setting about The Golden City. Here's the "intro blurb", the overland map, and the city map (before cleaning up the line work).

 

"Two generations ago, the world died. During the Burn the High Mage of the famed magical academy, the Golden City, erected an enormous barrier over the city and much of the surrounding land. The city accepted any refugees from the Ruin that had outlasted the Burn, survived the twisted creatures that hunt within it, and managed to fight their way to the barrier. The city has grown immense with refugees and now their descendants. Far beyond the capabilities of the original city to contain. In this press of humanity, life continues under the light from a sun shining red through the safety of the barrier. Aside from the question of meeting daily needs, there is always the worry of how long the barrier can last. Of how long the monsters can be kept out. Or, if the monsters within will eat you first."

 

[MordeanGrey]

Tell us more! I like to hear what other GMs design and the stories they share.

 

[theinfn8]

You asked for it. The campaign is mostly intended to take place in the one main city, so most of the detail I have is aimed at fleshing out the situation there. The map includes several other "areas of interest" in case players wanted to go out and explore, but with the politics and danger involved in just staying in the city, it never really came up. I have info on the Great Houses I can post if there is interest... and when I have the time to finish moving it over.

 

Locations

The Golden City

The Golden City is the beating heart of the Protectorate. It far outstrips the size of other cities within the barrier. This incredible size comes with all of the perks one would expect from city living. It also comes with all of the negatives that civilization brings with it. The press of people often times makes life cheap.

History

Long before the Burn, the Golden City was one of five famed magical academies in the world. In a world of kingdoms the academies maintained status as Free Cities, sometimes deep within territories of other countries. Each city managed its own governance and enforced their independence via a mutual defense agreement. Most were not interested in controlling the cities, as the apolitical stance of the institutions provided training for the mages of many of the surrounding kingdoms.

 

The only recorded time this was tested, a king assembled a large force and attacked the Golden City. The High Mage at the time, HM Jorus, created a large barrier around the city, forcing the army to lay siege. Over the next few days, the Red, Green, and Black cities transported magic wielders to the Golden City. This combined magical might was brought to bear on the enemy and destroying it. The entire war was over in less than a week, the king did not survive the confrontation.

 

After the Burn, there has been no contact with any of the other Free Cities. Truthfully, no communication with the world outside of the barrier has ever occurred. Anyone who has left and returned reports the same thing. Devastation, tainted land, and the soulless monsters that hunt in it. Evidence seems to indicate the Golden City is the only remaining bastion of uncorrupted life on the planet. All thanks to an alteration to the original defensive spell that protected the Golden City so many years ago.

Layout and Geography

The Golden City is divided into roughly four main districts, the Palisade, Up Town, Down Town and Rat Town, with the quality dropping off the further out one goes from the center of the city. There are two main roads at the edge of each district (roughly circular and encompassing the city) called the Outer and Inner Loops. In each of the cardinal directions there are four great roads, named for the direction they travel.

 

The Outer Loop, while well defined, is not paved and provides a visible demarcation between the more permanent buildings and the sprawling refugee camps surrounding the city. All of the encampments are collectively known as Rat Town. There is no effective outside border to Rat Town and its size grows and shrinks in accordance with the number of fires, refugees, purges, or recruitment drives. Life is tough and cheap in Rat Town. The dwellings can range from tents to ramshackle huts, with few even semi-permanent buildings. Anything can be found here, including hedge witches. The Wardens periodically come out to purge the place of such illegal magic.

 

The portion of the city between the Outer Loop and the Inner Loop in the center of town is known as Down Town or, sometimes, as Low Town. The buildings are all permanent structures, with wooden buildings comprising most of the construction and the more center buildings being made from brick and stone. On a map, Low Town possesses many well spaced buildings, but the reality is that most of the alleys and courtyards are also filled with temporary structures. In some areas this creates a twisting maze of “streets”. In some ways, this makes it more dangerous than the tent cities surrounding it. The size of Low Town doesn’t increase much, as the forests within the barrier are mostly protected (and limited) and the quarry is poorly manned due to it being a more dangerous duty. This means that most wood, stone, and new metals come from those adventurous enough to foray out into the Ruin and recover what they can. It is a high stakes, high rewards situation.

 

Between the Inner Loop and the Palisade is Up Town. Up Town is the more middle class section of the city. It consists of traders, skilled tradesmen, and those who manage to pay higher rents by whatever means necessary. There are paved streets, usually regular patrols, and while life is hard the general living status is much improved over those in Rat Town. The buildings are permanent structures, close packed, often at least two stories, and more often than not existed before the Burn.

 

The Palisade encompasses the original defensive wall of the academy, the buildings within it, and the academy, the Lycaeum, itself. It is roughly diamond shaped, with impressive 30 foot walls and larger towers at each point. This is the Golden City proper as it was when it first became a Free City. The original town and structures that existed to support and defend the academy of the arcane. By comparison, the Palisade is lavish. Wardens patrol the street, there are only upper echelon businesses, a small park with running water from the well maintained portions of the aqueduct and sewers, along with numerous estates.

 

Four massive gates give access to the Palisade, each controlled by one of the Great Houses. While technically an “openly accessible” area of the city, the reality is more that you require papers to be in the area. Wardens may request to see proper paperwork and will escort individuals out of this portion of the city that can not present them or a solid reason for being there (or for looking too shady). Wardens are ever-present, if not exactly on every corner. Response time is extremely short.

 

To the north of the city is a small lake used to feed the fountains and sewage system of the city via an underground aqueduct. The aqueduct feeds

Each quarter created by the cardinal roads and outside of the Palisade is administered by the four Great Houses. House Tirnan, Syvanthis, Wylderken, and Doromond. Some take more, or less, interest in maintaining order, keeping the city in repair, and helping those who live there. Even those with the best intentions find that they lack the manpower and resources to completely shepherd the heavily overpopulated city.

 

Law and Order

The city is ruled by a council with a representative from each of the Great Houses and the High Mage himself. Communal laws, restrictions, and codes are worked by this council. Most enforcement is up to the individual house. Laws regarding the use of magic are enforced by the Great Houses, but the Lycaeum maintains an elite guard called the Wardens that operate independently of the houses, with jurisdiction within the entire barrier.

 

Each quarter is almost its own mini kingdom. While each Great House decides how it will control its territory, there are several laws that all of them must enforce. The basics, murder, theft, etc. are all accounted for, but each interprets the law slightly different as well as the means of enforcement and punishment.

 

House Tirnan has a strong stance on enforcement of the law, but a mild approach to punishment aimed at civil penalties (fees, fines, and public service). House Doromond takes a similar approach, but aims their penalties with a goal of rehabilitation. Wylderken has a very loose enforcement policy, but tends towards extremes on punishment. House Syvanthis enforces and punishes with extreme control, some cases taking a protracted length of time.

 

Additionally, each quarter is patrolled by guards from the houses. Service in the guard fulfills military service obligation, but may not actually be any safer. While responding to a riot situation, a guard unit in the Wylderken Quarter was completely wiped out, along with a one block area when the mages decided to end the riot.

 

The major issue of legal control is magic. There are two major edicts regarding magic. All magic users must be trained in the Lycaeum (or under Lycaeum oversight) and teleportation magics are completely forbidden. Both are in place to protect the stability of the barrier. Breaking these mandates are nominally punishable by death. That being said, minor acts of magic are generally ignored until the individual becomes a nuisance to someone. It’s hard to keep minor magics from the populace in a city ruled by magicians.

 

Magic items that possess enchants more powerful than a base enchantment require a registration. Items are magically tagged, their signature recorded, and listed as belonging to an individual. Those found with an untagged item that requires it will generally have the item confiscated with no opportunity for retrieval. Likely, the item will be broken down into components and used to further the magic studies of students at the academy. Some particularly powerful and dangerous items may result in commensurately harsher punishment.

 

All crafters of magical items must be certified for the process and have the proper permit. Those who sell the items are required to keep meticulous records and can be audited at any time.

Depending on the current training cycle, there is sometimes a glut of weak magical items on the market. Of course, there are always buyers interested in breaking magic items down for components.

 

Politics

The Golden City is ruled by a council of five people. Each Great House appoints one representative to the council to represent their interests, with the fifth spot being occupied by the High Mage. He stands in overall control of the council, though he is rarely in attendance at meetings. The actual day to day running of the city is left to the discretion of the houses and captain of the Wardens. The houses cooperate to a degree, but find themselves, at times, competing for control, interpretation of law, distribution of food, and any dozen of other matters.

 

Within the structure of each house is a network of families, guilds, and individuals. Most of them looking to ascend to the status of Great House or House Master. There is a level of prestige and power that goes with the position. Some houses are rife with infighting. Backstabbing, gossip, intrigue, power displays, and even assassination are not unheard of. Life can be very cheap in the Golden City, even at the top.

 

The Ruin

If everything under the barrier is safe, everything outside of it is the Ruin. The land itself is tainted and twisted. Most plants will not grow and those that remain are warped and usually poisonous. Water sources are similarly poisoned and non-potable. Man-made materials seem to wear and break quickly, and even being in the Ruin seems to slowly suck the life out of people. Extended time in the Ruin slowly wears away at an individual’s sense of self and basic humanity.

 

This alone makes travel in the Ruin difficult at the best of times, but things are worse than that. Lurking in the Ruin are creatures that have succumbed to the taint. Some are animals and many are what used to be sentient life that stayed too long in the blasted land. These grotesque monstrosities, the Twisted, only exist to exterminate life. They are drawn to it like moths and regularly throw themselves against the barrier trying to get in and wreck havoc on the inhabitants. When their numbers are large, or a particularly powerful individual attacks, the Twisted occasionally succeed in breaching the barrier and entering into the comparatively lush lands. The borders of the barrier must be patrolled constantly to keep numbers down and clean-up incursions.

[MordeanGrey]

Nice. So are there physical walls completely around the city, or just the magical barrier? Can people see the Twisted attack the barrier? I like the idea of horrible things that are threatening, but unable to get inside.

 

It sounds like it's set up for lots of intrigue in the city itself, although I'm sure my players would want to sneak out to raid the Ruin.

 

What is the plot line for your group in the city? (major goal, rivals, conflict, etc.?)

[theinfn8]

You know, I never wrote up a description of the barrier itself. Think giant translucent red magical bubble. But it's miles across. Crossing from one side to the other would take about 4 days at a moderate pace.

 

Food is rationed heavily for most people, and ration marks are the most common currency followed closely by barter. To get marks, service in the system is required. Working the farms, as a guard, in the militia patrolling the barrier (which would have the Twisted visibly massing and the need to fight them). Not a part I've transcribed yet.

 

This is the hook I used last time I ran it:

 

Themes

Keywords: Survival, Ethics, Mystery, Investigation, Apocalypse

What are people willing to do to survive when resources are limited?

What will people sacrifice for survival?

How strong is the human spirit?

What darkness could do this to the world?

Expect a lot of interesting but hard moral choices.

[theinfn8]

Great House Wylderken

House Master: High Chief Bragnan Wylderken

Quarter: South West (Hare Quarter)

Colors: Green and Copper

Heraldry: Vert an ivy wreath copper a rabbit rampant copper
 

Structure

House Wylderken is ostensibly a tribal meritocracy. Clan law places a High Chief in charge of the Great House, with a Council of Chiefs meeting to hash out the direction the house will go. Any clan member can challenge for a position of leadership. The dispute is then settled via combat. The exact form this takes is decided by the leader being challenged, with specific victory conditions agreed upon by both parties. If no agreement can be made in a reasonable amount of time, the challenge typically falls back to single combat. However, this could be any form of contest, from a game of chess on up to an open battle between two clans (and possibly their allies) in a grand melee. It is not unheard of for people to die in some of these confrontations.

The reality is that the position of High Chief is very rarely challenged (only once since arriving in the Golden City) and passes from High Chief to chosen successor (not necessarily a male heir, but in practice always a Wylderken).

Most major decisions are made by the Council, which currently consists of seven clans. Wylderken, Towering Oak, Regal Owl, Howling Wolf, Soaring Eagle, Charging Ram, and Spider. Each clan additionally consists of several smaller Families that differentiate themselves to a greater or lesser degree depending on size and ability. The High Chief has the authority to make decisions that affect the entire House without consulting the Council, particularly in matters that involve defense of the House, but the expectation is that he will seek counsel from the clans first.

History

The clans lived far to the north of the Golden City. The ancient law of the High Chief had been recorded, but the seat had not been filled in generations. The six clans could not agree on who should fill the position and squabbled among themselves, only banding together to fight incursions by outside influences. When the world came crashing down, it was Chief Bragi Wylderken that was able to step up, organize the clans, and fight their way to the Golden City. It cost all of the clans dearly, but none as much as Wylderken itself. Even over a great distance and insurmountable odds, they managed to win through.

In recognition for the bravery and grave losses suffered by Wylderken, the Clan Council agreed to place Bragi as the first High Chief in the new era. High Chief Bragi proved adept at adapting to the situation of their existence and secured a place for the clans in the new government that was forming and solidified control as a Great House.

A generation later, House Wylderken acquired Clan Spider after the group had a falling out with House Syvanthis. This arrangement also allows politics to less frequently deadlock when opinions differ in the Clan Council.

Relations

House Tirnan: “They are like the red viper. Slippery, sneaky, and deadly when mishandled. But all creatures have a greater part to play in the dance of life.” Wylderken are aware of the subtle manipulations of House Tirnan. They often simply choose to ignore it. The house has free will to make the best decisions it is capable of and, ultimately, nature will find balance.

House Doromond: “I don’t understand their adherence to dead gods, but at least they don’t back down from a good fight!” The religious devotion of many in Doromond is not really understood by the house at large. They have little regard for the faith of the house, but they have a great respect for their willingness to fight for what they believe in.

House Syvanthis: “Action is what is needed in this world. Not endless arguments over finer points of law that have no meaning in this age.” House Wylderken have little patience for the glacial pace that House Syvanthis often operates at. Nor do they have a like for the codified adherence to law demonstrated by the house. Freedom of choice and doing what one feels is right in the moment are far better than being bound up in committee trying to decide what to do.

[theinfn8]

Great House Tirnan

House Master: Lord Caius Tirnan

Quarter: North Western Quarter (Eagle Quarter)

Colors: Gold and Black

Heraldry: Sable 2 chevronels crimson an eagle displayed or

 

Structure

Great House Tirnan is a loose conglomeration of guilds with a representative, the House Master, that is elected for a five year term. The rules of the house are collected in a set of Articles that layout the process for this election, who gets a vote, the powers of the position within the Great House, and many of the interactions between the various guilds. However, each individual guild manages its own process of selecting a representative to cast a vote in the election. The proceedings are a lavish overnight event, where all of the guilds attend. The estate is sealed off from the outside world while the votes are cast.

 

The House Master has a lot of power in governance of the quarter, but due to the need to balance the benefit of the other guilds, the position is forced to dedicate a significant effort into politicking. The position does come with control over the military forces and guard, but there is no guarantee these organizations will back any particular individual during a power play. The position is typically more than most people are willing to actively vie for.

History

Great House Tirnan as an overall organization has used several different names since its creation. Whenever a new guild or house comes into ascendancy as House Master, the name typically changes to reflect the individual in control. When the barrier went up and the refugees started pouring in it didn’t take long for the guilds and merchants in the area to realize there was a lot of money and power to be had. As the government of the Protectorate was being formed it became clear that no one guild or house was powerful enough to have a controlling voice.

Over the next few months, the guilds started banding together to form what is officially recognized as the Coalition of Guilds. The previous mentioned naming convention means that it is almost never referred to by the official name except in official state documents. The Coalition itself has been a powerhouse in the government since it amalgamated control.

The position of House Master tends to stay consistent for long periods, with few actively seeking to take the position. The current Master, Caius Tirnan of House Tirnan is a merchant house originally from the city of Amalfi, with a tenuous claim to nobility (the claim is to control of the barony, but the facts have proven suspiciously difficult to verify). After the Burn, they made their way to the Golden City with incredible wealth and a large body of refugees in tow, but at the cost of a significant quantity of the house’s mercenary guard the Ivory Crow. The house established itself and started aggressively expanding into numerous markets and acquiring real estate. Much of their control is rumored to extend into the black markets and control of major criminal activity within the Golden City.

For many years House Tirnan was content to play as a major power within the Coalition. Recently Lord Tirnan (he doesn’t push the “Baron” title if no one questions “Lord”), decided to assume the position of House Master and manipulated, wheedled, convinced, and some say bribed his way into the position. His first term so far, has run smoothly and beneficially for the Coalition. He actively pushes the interests of the Coalition generally and House Tirnan specifically. Both have benefited greatly. In the process he has made friends and enemies in equal number and the looming House Master vote is a major concern on the horizon.

Relations

House Doromond: “Those Doromond dogs don’t deserve to rule! They have neither the acumen nor the strength to do what needs to be done.” There is a lot of animosity between Tirnan and Doromond. Tirnan despises Doromond’s slavish adherence to religious ideals. Altercations between the two houses in the streets can turn into bloody affairs.

House Wylderken: “The Wylderken are a barely controlled tornado. The trick is aiming it at your enemies and watching the devastation.” House Tirnan views Wylderken as incompetent and ineffectual. But, this plays right into their desires, giving them a strong foothold into the quarter and a secondary source of revenue. Tirnan often plays on the inherent aggression of the Wylderken to get them to provide more bodies for the militia and defending the borders than is their legal due.

House Syvanthis: “One thing you can count on Syvanthis for is endless hours of debate. They are unlikely to ever reach a decision quickly and very rarely stray from it. Sometimes, this can be useful.” Tirnan maintains a politely neutral relationship with Syvanthis. To say they are on good terms is perhaps stretching the relationship a bit, but Tirnan is willing to work with them. The massive codex of laws that Syvanthis maintains for order in their quarter has given Tirnan a brisk business in lawyering.