Thursday, August 5, 2010

Spit-Balling Ibis - City of Sorcerers

I began working on Ibis, the City of Sorcerers today - drawing a thumbnail sketch of a map, shooting around ideas for locations I want to place thereon (is that a word?). Thought I'd share, and ask if anyone has ideas for things they think should be in a pseudo-Egyptian city-state with a bunch of sorcerers residing therein (not that's a word).

- A bend of the River of Death with quays, crocodiles, a noble barge, maybe a half-submerged grotto filled with things unspeakable.

- An Inn (obviously I've put a lot of thought into this one).

- Clock shop - or general place to buy mainsprings and weird bits of mystic engineering.

- Tavern - a beer hall of some sort, lots of students, raucous - no magical stuff allowed, only for the normal folk who put up with enough magic during the day ...

- A den of thieves in an old, abandoned granary - stone tower, cylindrical, secret passages to a hidden quay (for smuggling), maybe to the beer hall, maybe into the sewers.

- A souk running through the neighborhood - lots of peddlers in tents/booths.

- Workshops - leatherworker, dry goods, pointy hat shop, fine wands and staves, weapons and armor, a tailor (mystic gowns for men).

- Mausoleum of a Nabu princess/queen.

- Temple of Thoth - big compound.

- Subterranean temple of Seth - hidden under something innocuous, maybe the wine cellar.

- Flophouse, apartments surrounding an open yard filled with weird mushrooms and mushroom fairies.

- Bakery / coffee house.

- A tavern with a wine cellar.

- Gardens of the Nomarch.

- Tower astronomical observatory.

- University - dominates the center of the map - library, lecture hall (old hall, new hall), shrine of scribe goddess, vaults holding magical experiments, manse of the chancellor, laboratories.

- Fortune teller.

- Animal Market - large building, selling camels, horses, maybe more exotic creatures.

- Temple of Hathor - temple whores

- Tavern frequented by mages, maybe with portals to other places and times.

- A pleasant grove.

- Barber/surgeon.

- Tobacconist - herbalist - pipes and other smoking paraphernalia.

- Sewers - open in a few places, tunnels inhabited by ghouls (the Mortuary Society, a recognized guild in Ibis charged with dealing with carrion).

- Guild of Astrologomages, Planet-Masters and Weather-Watchers.

- Orichalcum foundry and jewelers dealing in astrolabes and amulets - maybe a gnome factory.

- Emporium with weird doo-dads - no two of the same thing, nothing overtly magical, owner pays for rarities in coins of rose-gold.

- A mortuary for all of your mummy needs - maybe an adjacent shrine of Anubis.

- Wizard towers like minarets

- A serpentarium, for all of your asp and cobra needs.

- A used chariot shop, because I love the 3 Stooges [okay, maybe I'll leave this one out].

- Stone carvers - long factory, many monuments half-finished

- Vat and cauldron maker

- Printing shop

- Foreign merchants - true factory

- Industrial area with tanners, phosphorous makers, alchemists, smiths - have a tavern for working joes and host cock fights/bear baiting

- Scriptorium

- A snake charmer

- Physick who doubles as a detective

- Lapidary shop; meeting place for conspirators who want a republic like Antigoon


- Maybe a nice collection of low-level magic-users - diviner, necromancer, conjuror - along with an illusionist and elementalist. These will be spread throughout the aforementioned locations, so as not to make them too obvious - retired adventurers who have sought a safer life of commerce.

- Monsters - were-cobra clutch, vampire and minions, mummy and ghoul attendants, bandit king and men - laying low and recuperating, vaults of synthoids and homunculi, a well of souls

So - anything obvious that I'm missing here. I'll fill the gaps with other artisans, maybe a set monster encounter or two, but anything else?

2 comments:

  1. A place for hiring professional mourners for funerals?

    And if they dress like Egyptians, a place to by fake-goatees for ceremonial occasions.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brilliant - professional mourners were big in the day. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

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