Yun-Bai-Du: City of the Clouds Part I

I've been holding off posting any previews of Yun-Bai-Du, the Mu-Panese city-state that will appear in NOD 9 later this month (well, hopefully this month). I haven't actually drawn the map - though I do have it stored in my brain and hope to finally put the thing down on paper (or pixel) soon. In the meantime, enjoy a few sample locations.

The Bronze Rooster: This restaurant is so named for the fierce bronze roosters that decorate the corners of the roof. The restaurant is a two-story structure set atop a brick platform with a comfortable patio. The patio has wicker chairs that are usually occupied by the old men of the neighborhood smoking long clay pipes. The patio is decorated with terracotta pots overflowing with chrysanthemums and jasmine.

Beyond the door one enters a generously sized room with four large tables, each table capable of sitting ten people. The restaurant is run by Banaikht, a neat young man with saffron skin, dull black hair and striking blue eyes. Aloof and artistic, he regularly glides through the room overseeing the waiters and ensuring they are showing their customers every courtesy and then moseys through the kitchen sampling the cooking and giving brief, terse instructions to his chefs. Banaikht is married and has three young children, though wife and children never appear at the restaurant save for when she has them in tow on one of her shopping excursions. Banaikht is both chaotic and deeply impressed with fortune tellers and magicians.
The restaurant specializes in duck, serving it in several elegant and tasty ways, and is also well known for its excellent stock of wine (some imported from as far away as Lyon) and dragon fruit imported from the margins of Terra Obscura to the southwest.

Court of the Golden Rabbit: This brick courtyard is usually filled with a bazaar with booths selling exotic fruits and spices from the south. The bazaar is noisy and wonderfully fragrant, and is usually patrolled by two yari ashigaru. A brick shrine dedicated to the rabbit god Hu Tianbo is set in the middle of the bazaar and tended by a hoary old priest called Dawa. The shrine contains a brass idol of the Rabbit God, to which petitioners, always homosexual men, make offerings of chowed pork intestine and wafers of sugar. Dawa writes charms on pieces of paper and supplies them to worshipers for 1 sp each. The charms may be placed under one’s bed to bring luck in love.

One booth in the corner of the bazaar might be of especial interest to adventurers. Qan, an alchemist’s apprentice, sells small rockets and firecrackers there on behalf of his master, Temubo, who dwells elsewhere in the city. Qan is a mousy man with bad hair and severe acne, but he is quite knowledgeable about his stock and fancies himself dangerous with the ladies.

The court is surrounded by several spice exchanges run by Meng merchants. While shoppers purchase fruit and spices in the bazaar below, the spice merchants shout trade with one another up above using trained monkeys and pigeons to carry their orders and rolled up notes of exchange.

Temple of Genbu: Genbu is a folk deity. Also called Invincible Warrior of the North, he is represented as a giant black tortoise of terrible demeanor – spikes on tail and neck, tusks jutting from mouth. The temple is made of black bricks and has terrifically sloping roofs coated in tiles of bronze stamped with glyphs of warding. The building has but a single story and consists of an inner sanctum surrounded by apartments for the priests and storage and an antechamber where worshipers can leave offerings of cabbages and river stones and make prayers to the deity. The floors of the temple are all bare earth. The inner sanctum holds a hepatizon idol of Genbu and is mostly given over to a large pit in which resides the living idol of the temple, a massive tortoise that, though not black, corresponds in most other respects to the idol of Genbu. A wooden ramp allows access into the pit, and though the tortoise is rather fierce with outsiders, he is used to the priests. At night, he is taken from his pit, which is then covered by an iron grate, and permitted to roam the inner sanctum. Tunnels leading from the pit go to three burrows in which dwell females of the same species – Genbu’s harem, one might say. Once per year, a sacred red cow raised on a monastery outside the city is brought into the temple as a sacrifice to Genbu.

The cult of Genbu has about 250 avid followers in Yun-Bai-Du. The temple is under the command of Alasuja, a priestess of Kirikersan extraction, and home to 12 lesser priests. Alasuja has reddish-brown skin, dark brown hair that is always kept covered by a red scarf and blue eyes. Her appearance is always immaculate, and usually overbearing.

--

Image from HERE.

On Antigoon - City of the Sun

Yay - I'm about 90% finished writing my three cities - Antigoon, Lyonesse and Blackpoort. I think I'm going to crank out an article on "Well Dressed Delvers", make some adjustments to my Noble and Everyman classes (should post them soon enough) and then I'll be done with NOD 7. I've commissioned an illustration of the Cyclopean as well and maybe a short adventure for PARS FORTUNA. I'll have a full table of contents soon. In the meantime, enjoy some locales in Antigoon ...

The Merchant Adventurers: The Merchant Venturers are the most famous merchant company in the Motherlands, and among the wealthiest organizations on Nod. Their headquarters is a four story building of glazed brick, as black as a tinker's pot and adorned with white marble accents and sculptures of famed venturers and sea nymphs. The interior hall is floored with ebony and decorated with white velvet couches and burnished bronze furniture. A large troll, dressed in ruffled silks and satins and holding an ornate halberd guards the entry hall, terribly aware of the blazing furnace that rests just beneath the floor. A secretary in long, silk robes the color of desert sand and holding a wax tablet directs those with an invitation either to the lounge or upstairs to a meeting room. Those without an invitation are either tossed out by the troll or asked to wait while inquiries are made as to whether they will be seen.

The ground floor of the building houses a lounge wherein members may relax, play cards or backgammon, sip an aperitif and work on a cold piece of roast. There is also a shrine dedicated to St Meingold, patron saint of the company. The upper floors contain secret rooms and vaults, meeting rooms and guest quarters. Each floor is guarded by four swordsmen and a crossbowman wearing the livery of the Company, a blue field emblazoned with a black ship and two gold dolphins.

The current master of the Venturers is Glynnick Melf, a woman of forty summers who looks much younger. Glynnick has tanned skin that shows the effect of many years of sun and spray. She has brunneous hair worn in long curls and keen, beryl eyes accentuated with kohl. Towering and lanky, with a barbaric sense of humor, Glynnick has seen much of the world, from the dragon courts of Mu-Pan to the many-armed fanged idols of Kirkersa to the swaggering pirates of Janus and the reeking swamps of Rogue's Harbor in Antilia. She has bested vampires and mummies, beaten an ogre mage in a contest of riddles and stolen two hordes from under the noses of wyrms. Glynnick is married to Brabo, twenty years her junior and son of Prince Fortunatus. It is marriage of convenience to both of them, and neither take their vows seriously.

Kirikersan Factory: This 3-story baroque building was once the chief residence of the Stewards of Brabo, and is now home to the merchants of Kirikersa who work and trade in Antigoon. The factor is Shanthet, an effeminate man of great intelligence and a surprisingly deep voice. Capricious and always on the verge of an ill humor, Shanthet has rich, caramel skin, hair the color of moonlight striking a deep mountain lake and eyes of teal and Persian blue. Despite his slight figure and gauzy manner, Shanthet is a deadly warrior. He usually wears +2 armor of leather scales beneath his silk robes and his schooling in Kirkersan wrestling gives him a +2 bonus to grapple opponents or knock them prone. Shanthet is married to Divixa, a haughty woman of royal blood (distantly) from Kirikersa who is ever ready with a sneer and a petulent remark. His children, Seafren and Valdur are both cadets at the Academy.

Cut-Rate Alchemy: This 3-story brick building features a rank cellar laboratory and two frightened families of boaders. Rented from the government by old Caudryk (2 hp), a musty alchemist with greasy bangs and a gimpy leg, it is frequently wracked by explosions and engulfed by plumes of acrid, polychromatic smoke. Cauldryk runs a cut-rate business in minor alchemicals, though he is a master alchemist who is capable of producing astounding things. He knows the recipe for the universal solvent, but lacks the patience to see such an operation through. Cauldryk is a fanatical worshiper of Law, especially in the person of Prometheus.

The House of Brun: This two-story structure is constructed of brick faced with chocolate-brown marble. It features two large windows that face the street and a gilded door. The tables before the windows are reserved for the highest ranking nobles or wealthiest merchants in the chocolate house. Chocolate is served in the establishment mixed with creamy milk for 1 gp per cup, and small tins of powdered chocolate are sold as a medicine for 5 gp per tin. The house has become a meeting place of the elite, and a guard is usually posted at the door to ensure the riffraff stay out. The interior of the place is decorated with exceptionally fine furniture and paintings by some of the most celebrated artists in Antigoon, few of whom are wealthy enough to visit. The place is run by a young man called Garric Brun, a former pirate and “citizen” of Port January. Studious and intellectual, he now dresses in finery and talks politics and philosophy with the upper crust of Antigoon. Garric has swarthy skin that he lightens with powder. He has pumpkin red hair and glandaceous eyes that sparkly whenever a gold coin clinks in his purse.

Theater Sol and Theater Lune: These two theaters are run by twin sisters Herna and Gwelda, daughters of Juand, a famed raconteur and bard who died about a decade ago, leaving the old Theater Lune to his favorite daughter, Gwelda. Herna was incensed, and so used what money she could borrow to open the Theater Sol across the street.

The Theater Lune is a four story building of dressed, amber colored stone with white marble accents around the door and window. A crescent shaped window above the door gives the building its name. The Theater Sol across the street was also four stories tall, but a tall platform supporting a wooden sun painted bright yellow has been constructed to make it taller than its competitor. Both buildings have an antechamber equipped with benches where entrance can be purchased for a silver coin. Beyond the antechamber there is a large room, two-stories tall, with a stage and balconies for wealthy guests (1 gp) – other folks must stand through the performances.

Herna VeoJuand is a young woman, plain of face and standing only 5' 6” tall. A careless dabbler in Chaos, she has twice lost husbands at sea. Usually calm and forgiving, mention of her sister or father bring out her dark side. Herna has tan skin, flaxen hair and sepia eyes.

Gwelda VeoJuand is a compassionate woman who is married to a the playwrite Horngyrth (another annoyance to Herna, who failed at her own attempts to woo him). Bitter towards her sister, she could easily be her double.

On Lyonesse, The Gleaming City - Part Two

Salter Court
Salter Court is Lyonesse's equivalent of a central business district – mostly tall buildings, some brick, most timber-frame, used by merchants, factors and guilds. Merchants are common in this area, as are clarks hustling from one place to another. Nobles are notoriously absent from this area, unwelcome by the busy merchants. Most of the buildings on Salter Court are four or five stories tall and have multiple people living in the flats therein.

Feather Merchant: Fionath is a flighty, fancy woman who loves money and showing it off. She is an importer of feathers and down, selling the more common materials to stuff cushions and mattresses for the wealthy and retaining the rarer and more exotic feather that come into her possession – couatl, pegasus, cockatrice – are usually sold to magic-users and alchemists. Fionath has peach-colored eyes and silky, buff brown hair. She is quite compact, with intelligent, quick features and a ready wit. Success has made her lazy, and her connections to the counts of Iver has made her rather cold-blooded.

Gallery of Trades: This narrow building of four stories provides booths for all sorts of tradesmen, who must pay a small fee and turn over 10% of their profits to the mercantile guild. One can find cobblers, ropemakers, etc in this building, which is quite cramped and rife with pick pockets, beggars and trollops, not to mention bakers' boys with trays of hot buns and small meat pies for sale. The top floor contains the office of Breth, a spice merchant from Antigoon with a closet full of family skeletons.

Flagon and Swan: The Flagon and Swan occupies the ground floor (and its loft) of this building. The tavern is run by Valexine, a fragile looking woman with furtive, willow green eyes, silky, shoulder-length sooty black hair and a bland face. Allied with Guson, Valexine is an agitator for more control in the city-state by the merchant class. The Flagon and Swan serves wines and ales as well as coffee and a selection of snuff and pipe tobacco in addition to revolution. She allows the Princess Juliada and Geris the stable boy to use her backroom as an abditory.

Counting House: This building houses many mercantile offices, functioning much as a counting house. The most prominent tenant is Combanna, a plump woman, fit as a lass, brown as a nut, with long, wavy brown hair. A diffident art patron, she imports spices from Mu-Pan and Kirikersa, and is unhappily married to a sniveling aristocrat named Ysmay, a Kaspar. Combanne dreams of leaving Lyonesse for Antigoon, but is not yet wealthy enough to make the move. The building also houses the offices of Duhir, an obnoxious silk merchant who is suspiciously free with money for a man who has lost several barges to river pirates on the Danu.

Playhouse: Maggi (2 hp), an old woman from Ultima Thule, runs a very popular puppet theater. The theater holds about 30 people, with a small stage. Two women walk through down the aisles selling grapes and claret even after the house lights are down. The players, including Maggi, usually stage historical pageants and stories about the wild gods and goddesses from Maggi's native Ultima Thule. Maggi is a secretive woman who puts her heart and soul into her work. She does not deal well with criticism, flying into a bit of a rage when challenged. Maggi has skin the color of driven snow, sandy brown hair and eyes the color of winter wheat. A widower, she is devoted to the worship of Law. She wears a platinum ring worth 2,500 gp, a gift from her father who led a band of raiders.

Locksmith: Nevias is the finest locksmith in Lyonesse. He is an old man with tanned skin, chocolate brown hair and eyes like burning embers. Nevias is built close to the ground and he's shadow thin, the result of a large, psionic tape worm who dwells in his innards and whispers secrets to him in the night. Secretive and aesthetic, he has a weird obsession with vermin, especially snakes. Nevias is a stargazer, and can often be found on the roof of his building. He believes the key to understanding all things lies beyond the stars, and when he has a chance to speak with adventurers will immediately ask if they have ventured into the night.

The Blue Fairy: The Blue Fairy is a social club for the aristocracy. Admittance is by invitation (or membership) only. The Blue Fairy occupies the entirety of this four story building, having smoking rooms, an upscale tavern, guest rooms, a private gambling den and a trophy room. The club is overseen by Sanguria, a hauntingly attractive woman with a luminous pallor, goldenrod hair and misty gray eyes that betray an inner fire. Opinionated and demanding, she works the staff of the Blue Fairy quite hard, but they never seem to complain, probably because they, like she, are vampires. The social club provides a good base of operations as they slowly conquer the catacombs of Lyonesse. The next stage of their conquest involves conquering the city's nobility.

That Wonderful "Oh Crap" Moment for a Writer

So, I'm writing up Lyonesse and I take a quick look at NOD 6 because I can't remember a name of one of the powerful noble families - I tend to write in a stream of consciousness style - and then have this wonderful "oh crap" moment when I notice that a paragraph in which I note that the Diamontes overthrew the Mallor dynasty with the help of the Krumms is immediately followed by a paragraph in which I note that the Diamontes overthrew the Brute dynasty with the help of the Krumms. Damnit. For the record, it was the Brute dynasty, and also for the record - I have no idea if Bob the high priest was a joke I forgot to excise from the final text or if I was serious - either way, Bob it is!

And to keep this post from being nothing more than me admitting to screwing up, I present another locale from Lyonesse and the story behind it:

Flying Duck: The Flying Duck tavern is a sociable, musical place with a spacious common room filled with numerous tables both large and small, a few private booths and a side room open only to folks who know the password (see below). The place is run by Teine, a plump, ivory-skinned man with chins hung like curtains and blue-black hair worn down to his shoulders (a wig made from the hair of a captured Saracen, an article made in the Venatian League) and dazzling, peacock green eyes. Teine is assisted by a bouncer called Labrach.

Teine is analytical and quirky, and fancies himself a scientist and mathematician. In fact, he does have some skill in these areas, and keeps a workshop in the cellar hidden behind some old barrels and casks. Teine is a music lover of the first order, and offers cheap food and drink to minstrels and musicians who agree to play in the tavern. For this reason, the Flying Duck has music from dawn to dusk.

The side room can only be entered by speaking a password in front of the door, which is only a door in the academic sense of the world, for to be completely accurate it does not exist and therefore cannot be opened by any outside agency. Speaking the world causes the door to fully exist and open, revealing a dusty, dingy room with a floor marked by dozens of footprints leading from the door to an old cupboard. The cupboard is a singularity, existing in several Flying Duck taverns spread across the Cosmos. One enters the otherwise empty cupboard, which can hold up to 10 people, and then closes the door. One then waits for a few moments, opens the door and exits into another side room in another Flying Duck. One determines their destination by intuition and feel, initially having a 5% chance to end up in the correct Flying Duck, increased by 5% for magic-users and those with a Wisdom of 13 or higher. Experienced travelers increase their chances by 5% for every five trips they take through the cupboard, but the chance of success never increases to more than 75%. The cupboard cannot be used more than once per week by a given person, so cupboard travelers get used to spending time in far away, strange places. The password to enter the side room changes daily, and can only be discovered via the contact other plane or wish spells.

--

About two or three years ago, I was running my players through NOD for the first time, specifically the region known as Thule (it was called Og back then). The group had just picked up a new member, Luke, and thus the party had just picked up a new character, Dakk the ranger. Dakk, we decided, hailed from Azsor, a barbarian city ruled by King Mogg and constructed around a massive waterfall. Once the group entered the city-state, I asked Luke where they should stay, since it was his hometown. Of course, Luke knew nothing about Azsor, but he's that kind of player a DM loves - rolls with everything. He immediately announced that they should go stay with his parents. The party decides this is a good (and cheap) idea, and off they go. At this point, they (and Luke) discover that Dakk's parents are dwarves (mom puts her finger to her lips and then whispers "He doesn't know he's adopted) and this launches a running gag that Dakk thinks he's a dwarf - including Luke inventing his famous footy pajamas that his mom made for him that include a fake beard sewn into them. The group also discovers that Dakk's parents are the Nodian, dwarven equivalent of Frank and Estelle Costanza from Seinfeld, and they soon decide that an inn might be more comfortable. So - where now? Luke pipes up with the Flying Duck - a name that struck us all as so odd that every inn the group visited in every city (including the Asian-style cities of Mu-Pan) became the Flying Duck. As a DM, I then made the decision that the Flying Ducks were all interdimensionally linked.

I bring this up for two reasons - first, to thank Luke DeGraw for being a great player who truly left his mark on my little campaign world, and also to show that the best campaigns are not written on reams and reams of paper, but grown organically at the table. To do this, you have to be willing to cede some control over your world to the players, and they need to be willing to cede some control over their characters to you and to one another, but it makes for things you all remember and laugh about.

--

Image by NC Wyeth, via Golden Age Comic Book Stories.

On Lyonesse, The Gleaming City

[No numbers on this map yet - just place buildings where you'd like for now]

The Citadel
The citadel is a massive fortress, the center of government in Lyonesse and home to its king and many members of his court. The citadel is constructed from brilliant, white lime-stone. Its towers have conical roofs of sapphire blue slates. The walls of the citadel stand 40-feet tall, its towers 60-ft tall, and they are routinely patrolled by crossbowmen.

Within the citadel dwells King Tristram, his wife Queen Lenore and their children, Burgon, Damoun, Juliada and Pontinae. Princess Juliada is in line to take the throne when her father passes, while her brother Burgon has been promised the Duchy of Lutece as his own. Pontinae is slated for education by the church and a prominent place in the priesthood of Ceres, while Damoun will be apprenticed to Master Odumnovice when he comes of age. Other inhabitants of the citadel include the aforementioned court magician Odumnovice, Tristram's personal chaplain Father Roquelaure, lord high constable Ramee, the commander of the royal guard, the royal surgeon Dr. Menet and Fraien, giant, blue-black beaded master of the hunt. Various ladies-in-waiting and squires drawn from the nobility dwell in the citadel, and visitors from the countryside are common.

The citadel rests upon a fortified mount 20-ft tall. In front of this mount is the large, round bailey. The bailey is actually an open courtyard that is used for military demonstrations. A troupe of seven heavy infantry occupy the bailey at all times and the walls above are manned by fifteen crossbowmen, all elite men-at-arms (HD 2).

The City Wall
The city wall of Lyonesse is constructed from the same limestone as the citadel, and like the citadel is kept immaculate and gleaming. The wall is set upon a massive embankment (colored light gray on the map) that rises 30-ft above the surrounding land and is buttressed by 10-ft thick walls of limestone. The actual city walls are 40-ft tall. The guard towers are 50-ft tall, while the gatehouse stands 60-ft tall. The walls and towers are always staffed by soldiers – assume any 100-ft span of wall is manned by five cross-bowmen, while each tower holds five crossbowman and five heavy infantry with a sergeant-at-arms in command.

Gatehouse: The gatehouse, also called the Bridge Gate sports two steel portcullises and foot-thick doors of oak studded with hundreds of bronze nails in the outline of a lion rampant. The doors and portcullises are left open during the daylight hours, but closed (and never opened, save by direct order of the king) at night.

During daylight hours, two heavy infantry and four crossbowmen guard the entrance to Lyonesse, collecting tolls for an exciseman (1 cp per foot, 1 sp per wheel). The exciseman sits at a wooden desk with an iron strongbox that typically holds 1d10x10 cp and 1d6x10 sp per hour after daylight. The towers are used as barracks for twenty heavy infantry and twenty crossbowmen, who take their turns patrolling the walls and standing guard. The guardsmen are under the direct command of Captain Calie, an aging elven woman in platemail with skin the color of ancient ivory, hair of burnt umber and gentian eyes. Her natural grace and optimistic attitude have made her popular with the men-at-arms. Calie is one of the three famous “Harpies of the Bridge”, along with the female sergeants that command the guard towers that flank the gatehouse.

Mithras' Grotto: This 20-ft tall building has a peaked roof of stepped stone and bears no decoration other than a bas-relief of a bull's head over the iron door that serves as its entrance. The building is a temple to Mithras, the patron deity of soldiers. The upper portion of the building is an empty chamber decorated with frescoes depicting Mithras slaying a bull on the east wall and Mithras slaying a dragon on the west wall. In the middle of the room there is a secret trapdoor that can only be activated by simultaneously depressing hidden buttons in the frescoes, one on the bull's neck, the other on the dragon's breast, with a spear or sword point. Once opened, the trapdoor reveals a vertical shaft one can traverse using stubby iron bars that jut from the walls. At the bottom of the shaft one must let themselves drop about 8 feet to the floor of a man-made cavern. The cavern holds a shallow pool and behind it a sacrificial altar and idol of Mithras slaying a bull. The idol is made from marble and painted to look real. Here, soldiers gather under the guidance of Guson, the resident priest of Mithras, to sacrifice bulls and pay homage to their patron. The bulls are brought in through a secret tunnel that connects the cavern to the Corn Market.

Guson dwells in his own chambers in the gatehouse. He is a suave, well spoken man with black hair tinged white at the temples and an elegant pointed chin and aquiline nose. Guson always dresses in robes of blue linen over his plate-mail. He carries a shield bearing an image of Mithras and wears a red Phrygian cap in imitation of his deity.

West Tower: The west tower is commanded by Cwenen, young sergeant-at-arms with skin bronzed by many campaigns against Tristram's enemies, chestnut hair and large, hazel eyes that flit constantly about a room looking for threats. An overbearing disciplinarian, her soldiers also know her to have a heart of gold – many soldiers down on their luck have found a few extra silver coins dropped in their laps as Cwenen walks by. Cwenen nearly became a priestess, but her lack of patience for book learning and love of swordplay sent her into the military life. Cwenen's blade was taken as a prize when she faced down an orc chieftain many years ago on the field of battle. It is a bastard sword +1 of azure metal that grants its owner a +1 bonus to save against magic and, if it beats an opponent's AC by more than 6 points transmutes metal armor to leather and leather armor to cloth. The bastard sword was forged for the bard Longorius, aid-de-camp of King Rollo of Lyonesse during his wars to conquer Western Venatia. The sword is aligned to Law and does not permit its user to lie.

East Tower: The east tower is commanded by Sergeant Ursuin, third of the three Harpies of the Bridge. Ursuin is a young woman from Blackpoort who entered Tristram's service after saving Yarvis Krumm from bandits on one of his travels between Lyonesse and Blackpoort. Ursuin is tall and muscular, with tanned skin, bushy black hair and a heavy frame. Ursuin has a forceful personality, and few care to get in her way, though she is also very forgiving and great fun in a tavern brawl. During combat, she can choose to accept a -1 penalty to hit in exchange for a +1 bonus to inflict damage. Unlike her sister Harpies, she wields a battle-axe, a gift from Yarvis Krumm that is so finely forged it gives her a +1 bonus to hit.

All-Saints StreetAll-Saints Street is a fashionable promenade of sepia tiles and tall, imposing buildings of dark oak and yellow-white plaster. It is usually crowded with strutting students, aristocrats on parade, chattering bourgeois on the hunt for fun, strolling minstrels mingling their voices and lute-songs with the murmuring of the crowds, street performers in gaudy costume, coy prostitutes in their mandated yellow cloaks and partridge feathers tucked into their hair, beggars who look as though they've never missed a meal and craft pick pockets. The most impressive displays on the street, however, are made by the nuns of Nunnery of Proserpina. Each Sunday they emerge from their cloisters in vibrant blue robes and black shawls marked with the three golden pomegranate seeds that are the emblem of their order. Four nuns hold aloft a small golden altar of their patron goddess while the others hold sheaves of golden wheat and chant hymns in honor of Proserpina and Ceres. Young members of the order scatter pomegranate seeds while the senior members distribute silver coins bearing the goddess' likeness to the poor who line the street.

Nunnery of Proserpina: The abbey is a fine building of limestone, two stories tall, with a tall, peaked roof clad in copper. The abbey has an almshouse on Bulwarks Lane, where copper coins and porridge are distributed to the poor, a hospice for those who cannot pay for their care, especially farmers, a chapel, rectory and dormitories. The abbess is Damma (2 hp), a plump woman with short hair the color of dark chocolate (a well known vice of the abbess, who spends rather more of the abbey's budget on cocoa than she should) and olive skin. Damma is a devious woman, well versed in church politics and opposed to Bishop Bob, a member of the Kaspars, rivals to her own Papelard family. All nuns are technically married to Pluto, but Damma has been known to see men on the side when it was advantageous to her politically.

All-Saints College: All-Saints College was endowed by Queen Yvette-Mimi about 350 years ago. It occupies an ancient building of limestone, four stories tall and housing dormitories for the four sages and their fifteen to twenty students, lecture halls, a dining hall and kitchen and a small library with five tomes, these tomes composing the curriculum of the college. The dean of the college is one Malbot, a willowy man with thin arms and fingers and a face like a tack. Despite his imposing appearance, Malbot is a gregarious, good-natured old gentleman and much beloved by the students. Malbot is a devout worshiper of Ceres, but shares rooms with his good friend Guson, the cleric of Mithras who would like to overturn the old faith in Lyonesse and institute the worship a more robust and virtuous worship geared towards Law. Malbot often lectures his students on matters of divinity while walking through the streets of Lyonesse, sampling the wares of local pedlars and restauranteurs while he talks.

The Hôtel Kaspar: The hôtel of the Kaspars, the dukes of Brioche, is an imposing structure with a large armorial emblazoned on the third story wall. The house has four floors and a peaked roof with a copper roof. Two guards (heavy infantry) stand guard outside the thick oak front door at all times. Entrance can only be gained by getting past the butler. The hôtel is often visited by spies and various cousins and children of the Duke, who rarely enters Lyonesse for fear of assassination by his enemies. The main inhabitant is Tadoc, the Duke's son and an infamous rake who spends his time drinking, whoring and keeping ill company (including dwarves!).

The Yellow Queen: The Yellow Queen is a restaurant and tavern run by Ywell (3 hp), a halfling chef with a puffy face and nut-brown skin, grey eyes and shoulder-length black hair always kept perfumed and curled. The restaurant derives its name from a marionette of a queen in yellow that hangs from an upper window. Most folk in Lyonesse know the story of how a very drunk Ywell got the marionette hurled at him by an angry Maggi when he got rowdy in her puppet theater some years back. He never gave the marionette back, and the two would be enemies yet had not a basket of warm muffins not appeared on Maggi's doorstep the next night, and once a week thereafter. Ywell serves plates of trout in generous portions, steaming platters of escamoles in coriander sauce, bread dipped in cream and then fried in dill oil and ginger beer. His staff are all relations, and they are known to help themselves to patrons purses, replacing them after extracting a few gold coins or tiny gems. The restaurant has eight tables and five booths shrouded by curtains of light blue linen. The waiters and waitresses are famous for their copper helmets, essentially little kettles of hard cider worn on the head and in which patrons can dip their copper mugs. The upper floor is reserved for the “nobs”, and no pilfering is allowed there. Ywell can't personally stand the nobles, so he spends his time on the ground floor with the bourgeois and peasants, smoking his ivory pipe and swapping stories.

On Blackpoort, City of Thieves - Part Three

By gum, I'm busier than a one-armed paper hanger lately. Here's the Blackpoort post I promised yesterday - I got busy writing Lyonesse and forgot to post. Enjoy.

--

Crooked Street

Crooked Street (often just called “The Crook”) is a lively street of bustling crowds, where rich and poor mingle. The center of activity on The Crook is the Music Hall [18], of course, and the old street has become a center of the “Bohemian” art set in Blackpoort, drawing jongleurs, prostitutes, street artists, minstrels and clowns at twilight and lasting into the night.

17. Brigtan the Assassin: Brigtan is a young woman of modest means who makes a living as a duelist. Aloof and scheming, she appears to have been educated somewhere, but never speaks of her past. Her home is a single-story brick building with a slate roof and a conservatory in which she raises a number of “medicinal” herbs. Hidden beneath the conservatory, under a removable floor tile, is a small coffer holding 450 pp and a large, leather-bound bestiary. Brigtan is very short, with tanned skin, blond hair that always seems to be falling in her face, and hazel eyes. She is always dressed neatly, in a black doublet (actually a jack of plates) and black breeches, with an ornate longsword on her hip and daggers hidden in her tall boots.

18. Music Hall: Always surrounded by hustle and bustle, the music hall is the center of the Crook's cultural life. Owned by Leona Tattlewit, a young woman with alabaster skin, dark brown hair cut in a bob and aloof chestnut eyes with a touch of crimson. Tattlewit is tall and thin, graceful and with an airy, sylph-like beauty that belies her very precise and business-like mind. Her former husband, Sceath Tattlewit (RIP) was a well regarded actor, and she inherited the theater when he died. The music hall plays two-penny (well, 2 sp) operas to boisterous, noisy crowds. Halflings work the audience selling greasy viands and fruit and picking pockets (Leona gets 20%). The hall is a building of red bricks painted in bright, garish colors (blue, yellow, purple) and an old copper roof that leaks. Next week, they are putting on a musical production of a new play called The King in Yellow.

19. Foundryman's Club: This dimly lit social club is frequented by laborers of all stripes in Blackpoort, including poor adventurers. The club consists of a single story brick building with a tall, peaked, slate roof and a long, brick chimney. Inside, there is a common room with three round tables (old oak, varnished by several generations of use), four long tables painted red and a few semi-private booths hidden by lank, greasy curtains. The inn is run by Wolvine, a youthful woman with olive skin, thick, blond hair pulled back in a bun and hazel eyes always cast down in a serious look. Wolvine is a bit heavy-set, and usually wears a peasant dress. She inherited the club from her father, Olvus. The club serves black beer and pungent mead in wooden goblets. Steaming trenchers of eel and white fish are set on the tables every hour, and patrons are expected to drop a few coppers on the trencher after eating their fill. Wolvine, despite her surly exterior, is brave and virtuous. A widower who lost her husband, a man-at-arms, to some damn fool dungeon exploration, treats her patrons like her own children, doing her best to keep them on the straight and narrow and true to their lives and children.

20. The Old Miser: This imposing five story tower is the home of Nevenbak, a wealthy miser. Nevenbak's home, though once quite grand, has fallen into disrepair. The stone is black with soot and the roof is missing slate tiles. The corners of the roof were once protected by sculptures of eagles, but all but two of them have long since fallen into the overgrown garden. The garden is surrounded by a tall wall with a tarnished bronze gate. Nevenbak lives alone, having long ago driven away friends and family with his over zealous thrift and inhuman lust for money. He maintains a vault beneath his house that has yet to be cracked by the thieves of Blackpoort, though many have tried. Their remains now decorate the vault's antechamber, where dwells a captive owlbear, possibly Nevenbak's only remaining friend. Nevenbak spends his days in his counting house in the southern portion of Blackpoort, and his nights in the vault with his owlbear, counting his money (the horde now amounts to XXX and a potion of green dragon control in a dusty wine bottle. One of Nevenbak's arms is twisted, the hand atrophied into a hook-like claw.

21. Madhouse: Blackpoorters usually hurry past this somber, three-story building. Once a manor belonging to the extinct Usher family, the building is now a madhouse under the supervision of the priests of Mercurius, specifically Brother Candle, a well curtal friar with sun-kissed, happy wrinkles framing his eyes and light brown, tonsured hair. Candle's own mother went mad, so he has dedicated himself to caring for the insane and using what few powers he has to keeping them healthy. The other priests who work in the madhouse consider it a punishment, which is usually is, and often react accordingly to the needs of the inmates. It is also known to be a place where enemies of high placed men and women end up, often without the knowledge of Brother Candle. The windows of the madhouse have thick curtains of black velvet, used to keep the moonlight and its mind-bending power from worsening the condition of the mooncalves, lunatics and melancholics interred within.

On Blackpoort, City of Thieves - Part Two

Clanker Row and Guild Street
Clanker Row intersects with Guild Street in this portion of the map, but is otherwise hemmed in by the city walls. If Blackpoort is known for its soot and grime, Clanker Row is the reason for it. Clanker Row is the chief industrial corridor of the city-state, being home to dozens of smiths and iron foundries. Most of the traffic on Clanker Row is in the form of apprentices, journeymen and master artisans on their way to and from work or other appointments. Coal wagons and other carts carrying raw materials and supplies make their way up and down the street with distressing regularity, forcing pedestrians to the margins of the narrow, brick-paved path.

6. Grizelda the Smith: Grizelda's smithy is a single-story brick building with a large forge and well tended tools hanging on the walls. Grizelda is a blacksmith, focusing on tools and other non-violent goods, though she is capable of cleaning and making minor repairs to weapons, and might have a few old weapons and shields for sale, taken in trade from down-on-their luck adventurers. A mature woman, she was widowed many years ago and her son, the apple of her eye, serves in the Blackpoort guard. Grizelda has light olive skin, grey hair and green eyes. Her appearance is usually ragged – she is a hard worker, and can usually be found clanging away well after dark. Pessimistic by nature, she is not given to working on account. She has a large diamond worth 450 gp hidden in a wooden box nailed to the inside bottom of a barrel filled with sand and used for cleaning the rust from armor. She sleeps in a backroom.

7. Morgan the Smith: Morgan is a hot tempered and sadistic young man who hates his job, hates his life and hates everybody around him. He has tan skin and sandy-brown hair and always wears a perpetual scowl on his handsome face. His smithy has two stories, with living quarters for two in the upper story. A widower, he drowned his young bride in the Swiven River, attracting the ire of the nixies living there, who have conspired with other fey to ruin the young man's life.

8. Tatlana the Stable-Master: These stables, owned by Barno [26] and mostly serving the farrier [9] next door, are managed by Tatlana (5 hp), an expert groom and very attractive young woman underneath the grime and dirt she normally wears. With her olive skin, bright, hazel eyes and infectious smile, she has charmed more than a few travelers out of a meal and several mugs of ale – after a bath, of course. Tatlana is a solitary sort who prefers the company of horses to humans (again, outside of a brief tete-a-tete). Intelligent and inquisitive, she can also be quite violent when threatened.

9. Fridd the Farrier: Fridd is an ex-soldier who now works as a farrier, a sort of combination blacksmith and horse veterinarian. A mature man with deep wrinkles on his broad, expressive face, he has olive skin, thinning grey hair and dark, soulful brown eyes. A tape worm keeps him looking thin and drawn, even when times are good. Fridd carries a torch for Tatlana next door, but his craven and argumentative personality keeps her away. Fridd once took a bribe from the assassins' guild to mis-shoe a horse, causing it to rear and kill its rider, the son of a minor noble.

Fridd: HD 1 (5 hp); AC 9 [10]; Atk 1 hammer (1d4) or crossbow (1d6); Move 12; Save 17; CL/XP 1/15.

10. Iron Monger’s Guild: This ornate, four-story building is home to the Humble Brotherhood of Iron Mongers. The iron mongers own mines and sell iron to the local smiths and export ingots of iron and steel to merchants and smiths in Antigoon, Lyonesse, Pfeife. The front door is made of iron and covered in bas-relief sculpture of oreads and miners in mines. It is flanked by caryatid columns (non-animated) of miners carved from porphyry. The current master of the guild is Yavvoo, an old man who immigrated from Kirikersa as a youngish man who tired of his life at sea. Yavvoo has swarthy skin, curly black hair and green eyes. He only wears the latest fashions from Antigoon, and generally cuts a fine figure, all 5-ft of him strutting down the avenue with a gold-tipped walking stick and two burly guards in mail. Yavvoo has three wives and many children at home, and thus often sleeps in his room in the guildhall. A sober and honorable man, he indulges in no vice but does have a rather short temper that often leads him into confrontations he regrets.

--

Honestly, I don't remember where I found the art above, but there's about a 90% chance that it came from Golden Age Comic Book Stories.

On Blackpoort, City of Thieves

And so we begin the new year with another city-state of NOD. My goal is to write a city-state a week over the next three weeks, posting a few sneak previews as I go. Up first is Blackpoort, first mentioned in NOD 6 as a shadowy city of thieves and corruption. So, once more into the breech, my friends ...

--

Cathedral Square
The cathedral of Mercurius is one of the central gathering places for citizens of Blackpoort. From haggling merchants to canny thieves and politicians, anyone who needs to make a deal or garner some spiritual assistance to get ahead eventually finds their way to the cathedral to make a quid pro quo sacrifice of something shiny and expensive.

The square is paved in dark red bricks in a sort of staggered diamond pattern. A band of postulant monks and nuns keeps the square clean with brooms and selling bits of useful junk and found items on the side.

1. Cathedral of Mercurius: Mercurius' cathedral is a large, weathered construction of dark grey blocks of stone faced with sooty, yellow limestone. The building is covered with beautiful architectural details, including mulitple bas-reliefs depicting the adventures and accomplishments of Mercurius and his many children and consorts, including a large, cherished bas-relief of a voluptuous Venus on the northern face of the cathedral that attracts many offerings from hopeful lovers in the form of kisses from painted lips and garlands of white flowers.

The cathedral is surmounted by a tarnished dome of brass etched with protective glyphs and runes and several towers, each with a pointed roof and containing a large bronze bell. These bells are rung at midnight to call thieves, scoundrels and prostitutes to prayer.

The interior of the cathedral is dominated by a large sanctum containing an idol of Mercurius on the wing carved from white marble and coated with gold leaf. An altar before the idol contains slots through which offerings of coins and small gems are accepted. Vermilion robed priests are always on hand to advise petitioners and guard the locked iron boxes into which the offerings flow.

Surrounding the sanctum are a number of chambers used as storehouses of vestments, candles and other priestly paraphernalia, as well as offices, living chambers and rooms used for exorcisms, congress with departed souls and summonings. Secret doors in these ritual chambers lead into the subterranean levels of the cathedral, where the bodies of Blackpoort's deceased aristocracy are processed for their journey to the Ethereal Plane. The priests of Mercurius, now robed in sable cloaks and wearing bronze gorgon masks, remove the heads with a silver axe, anoint them with costly, fragrant oils and seal them with beeswax. The heads are then placed in terracotta boxes and placed on shelves in the flooded catacombs under the cathedral. The bodies are then loaded onto barges and poled to one of many grottoes that connect with Blackmere, where they are sold to the strange denizens of the black lake or sorcerers in need of bodies for their explorations into the unknown. The priests do a good business in bodies and funerary rites.

The head of the cathedral is the Archbishop Wontan, a delicately featured man with high cheekbones, creamy skin and curly brown hair usually kept under a skullcap of vermilion silk. Wontan is the eldest of many siblings, all of whom are merchants and tradesmen. He is married to the abbess of St. Autolycus Abbey next door and has a son named Bode, a rapacious little snit who sits on the city council for his father.

2. Domen the Baker: Domen's bakery is a single-story structure of blackened brick with three large chimneys that burn coal. The bakery has a 15-ft ceiling, a large work area that employs a dozen bakers and apprentices. A narrow strip facing Swindle Street has several tables for patrons to enjoy hot, buttered bread, frothy mugs of black beer (imported from the countryside) that is sometimes spiced with cinnamon and cloves and plum tarts. A private room in the back of the bakery is a favorite meeting place for rivals to make marriage deals beneath a small idol of Priapus, fertility god and son of Mercurius. The master of the establishment, Dolmen, is a self-effacing man with pale skin, beady grey eyes and short-cropped brown hair. Unbeknownst to the good people of Blackpoort, Domen is a maniac who wanders the streets at night murdering people and collecting their thumbs.
3. Fridaz the Barber: Fridaz is a strange man, lovely ivory skin, curly, golden hair and crimson eyes surrounded by a palpable melancholy. He rarely speaks, cutting hair (man of his customers are priests keeping their tonsures well clipped), shaving faces and pulling teeth, all with gentle competence and imparting a strange sense of calm and peace to his customers. Fridaz employs two apprentices, local boys who can only aspire to their master's skill. He also owns a large, golden cat who lazes about the shop, opening its emerald eyes when people enter the shop and giving them a long, hard look. Fridaz dwells above the shop in a simple room with his cat, gazing out the window late into the night, studying the stars. Fridaz is a fallen angel, come to Nod a decade ago to deliver a message to the Archbishop from Mercurius, and then staying on too long. He developed a taste for the night life and fell in love with a dancing girl.

4. Old Curiosity Shop: This shop is run by an antiquarian called Bodur the Bald, an old man with a crooked spine, thin fingers twisted by rheumatism and a deeply creased face. Bodur has all manner of useful items in his shop, most of them quite old, but sturdy. Bodur knows a story behind most of the items in the shop, from simple lengths of rope to a singular brass lamp lamp with inlaid ivory panthers that he will not part with for less than 1,000 gp, explaining that it was carried by St. Oglethwit in his ancient and well known explorations of catacombs and tunnels that now form the foundation of Blackpoort's undercity.

5. The Screeching Maiden: The Screeching Maiden is a decent quality coaching inn on the High Street and next to Cathedral Square. The inn is named for its “sign”, an old figure head over the entrance that is connected to a copper pipe that runs from a vat of water next to a hearth. As steam builds in the vat, it finally bursts forth from the maiden's mouth, giving off a loud whistle.
The entrance to the inn is via a double door in the inn's courtyard, where a groom awaits to take a horse and/or carriage to a shed just south of the inn, or by a cellar entrance on the High Street.

The Screeching Maiden has three floors, the upper floors given to a dozen private rooms and a large common room. The first floor has quarters for the staff and the owner, Clerren, and his family. There are two taverns, one in the south wing that serves the city-state's famous dark stouts and a menu of sausages, roast pigeons, sour dough breads and honey cakes for desert. One can usually find Nevin, a baronet, holding court here with his retinue of rakes and doxies. Nevin is a seductive man who spends money much faster than his manorial village can make it.

The more popular tavern for adventurers is in the cellar, where rot-gut liquor and heavily fortified wines and food brought down from the kitchen. The cellar is usually crowded, noisy and fun. A large hearth is shared with a “secret” room that holds a large tub of water available for private stews with the tavern wenches, Dawn (a mousy blond), Thomka (a tall, pasty faced red head with an infectious laugh and sparkling green eyes) and Xalta (a buxom emigre' from Mu-Pan with a round, pleasing face and a sultry voice). Gorlaf, a baudy jongleur who performs in his pantaloons and with a painted face, entertains most nights in the cellar, reciting dirty limericks and performing juggling tricks with daggers and wooden balls.

The landlord of the inn, Cleren, is a retired soldier who still carries his broadsword on his hip. He is married to Nemaeri, a woman from the countryside with a bit of hobgoblin blood flowing through her veins. She has reddish skin, black hair worn in long braids, and a chiseled, though pretty, face. She stands 7' tall in her stocking feet and is built like an amazon. Sturdy and voluptuous, she gets plenty of stares from the patrons in the cellar tavern, which she runs, but nobody is stupid enough to whistle. Clerren and Nemaeri have three children and employ ten servants.

One More Map and a Reminder

Finished my Lyonesse map today - I think it came out pretty good. It's based on Carcasonne, and if you manage to find a map of that picturesque old town, you'll easily see where my Lyonesse map fits in.

I also want to remind folks that my 10% off sale on my books at Lulu ends Jan 1, 2011. Probably no post tomorrow, so be safe this New Year's Eve - I'll talk at you again next year.

JMS

Kowloon, the Walled City - Imagination Fuel

This little documentary about the walled city of Kowloon (now apparently torn down) has some striking parallels with what I think we imagine medieval cities to have been like. Worth watching.

On Ibis, City of Sorcerers - Part Three

This continues the preview of Ibis, City of Sorcerers.

Part One (with map), Part Two

C. The Souk
The Souk is both a street and a market that stretches across the enter of Ibis, beginning in the accom-panying map, and extending well to the east. Along the souk are factories, dozens of markets (i.e. armor market, animal market, cooper’s market, etc) and a few counting houses, not to mention a large guard tower with its own dungeon. The road is paved with limestone from start to finish.

Crowds: The Souk is always crowded with people. At any given time, most of the citizens of Ibis, at least those without servants, end up on the Souk shopping for necessities and luxuries. Water bearers are common, as are peddlers selling honey cakes, boiled eels, salted dates, candied scarabs and other delicacies. Entertainers perform with pipes or juggle or do bits of acrobatic daring in the middle of the street for copper scruples. Guardsmen are ever present, clad in ring mail and carrying light crossbows and pole arms and usually accompanied by a sergeant in a dashing yellow turban with an ostrich feather.

Random Encounters
1 Adventurers (see end of article for sample NPCs)
2 Guardsmen (1d6 + sergeant)
3 Mages (two, preparing to duel)
4 Pick Pocket (save or lose a wallet ot purse)
5 Noble Retinue (Aristocrat with bodyguards and slaves)
6 Priests (1d6+6 carrying an idol and chanting)

Guard Tower: The guard tower is a remnant of one of the gatehouses that guarded the entrance to the old city. In fact, it still has a gate, though it is always left open for the old wall has since been torn down and recycled into building material for newer buildings.

The guard tower consists of an east and west tower, both rising four stories in height and being 20-ft in length and width. The west tower has a cellar that is used as a temporary dungeon – a few manacles on the walls and a hot poker for troublesome prisoners. The top story of the west tower serves as an office of sorts for the captain of the guard, Khnemu, a surly old gentleman missing an eye and most of his teeth.

Khnemu can be seen from time to time passing from tower to tower (they connect on the third story, over the portcullis) or wandering the souk inspecting the activities of his men. He wears a shiny cuirasse over a scaret tunic and baggy pants of white or grey and carries a light mace and dagger. In tow is a taller man with narrow eyes and a long, waxed mustache. This is Khnemu’s lieutenant, Zahur, a fair man with an eye for the fairer sex and a plan to outlive his captain and eventually ascend to his vacant position.

The remainder of the towers is given over to basic supplies, weapons (light crossbows, bolts, pole arms) and barracks for the fifty men assigned to the Souk and the surrounding streets and alleys.

Merchant Stalls: There are nine merchant stalls on the portion of the Souk that appears on this map. It is rare that one is closed during the day (1 in 20 chance). In general, assume that a merchant has what a player is looking for on a roll of 1-4 on 1d6.

C1. Jamila (3 hp) runs a stall selling hot drinks (tea, from a rusty samovar) and rolls spiced with cinnamon. The quality is poor, but the food is cheap and thus the stall always attracts a large crowd, mostly of laborers and bearers. The men and women chatter away at the stall and a person who spends a little time a few coins will usually (90%) pick up a rumor or two. Jamila (2 hp) is an elderly woman with reddish-brown skin and thick, silver hair that hangs down to her waist and is usually clasped back in copper bands. She is helpful enough, but move slowly, so most of her regular customers help themselves.

C2. Nexu (5 hp) is a clumsy oaf who runs a fruit stand, selling dates, figs and almonds. He currently has a croopy cough, turning often from negotiation (he loves to barter) to cough into his sleeve.

C3. Nit (4 hp) is a painfully thin woman with yellowish, leathery skin and limp, black hair. She always wears a tattered black robe and sells religious scrolls (hymns, not spells) and incense. Her work is of low quality and her prices very cheap. Nit (3 hp) treats haggling with contempt, for she considers her wares to be sacred and, thus, worth every scruple she asks. Most folk find her unpleasant to deal with – her eyes are always flitting about nervously, and she never smiles.

C4. Serq the bubasti (a cat-woman, see NOD #3 for more information) runs a fragrant booth selling bottles of scent. Her perfumes are excellent, and she is capable of concocting scents to attract and repel all sorts of natural (and monstrous) creatures. The centerpiece of her stall is a wooden idol of Bast, the cat goddess of the Nabu, and her own three black cats. Serq is cheerful and mischievious, but a bit on the covetous side, especially when a handsome stranger is nearby. She enjoys chit-chat, and it can be difficult to get a word in edgewise once she starts gossiping.

C5. Ubad is a nervous man in thick blue robes and a blue veil. He explains his veil by claiming to be a nomad from the vast desert of Nabu, but a true nomad could see through this easily for his accent is wrong and his slang is gibberish. Ubad speaks with a hollow, raspy voice. He serves watery soups with bits of unidentifiable meat floating in it, and cold, sweet tea that he keeps packed in wet towels. While his drinks seem popular with customers, few eat the soup because they suspect that Ubad is a ghoul.

C6. Funsani (3 hp) is a mournful, sickly widower who sells fish pies and other pastries. His stall consists of three of four wicker chairs beneath a shade and a wooden cabinet (that he carries on his back when coming and going) containing his wares, which he bakes fresh each morning. Funsani is a soft-hearted man and very sentimental (he has a locket with a lock of his dead wife’s hair in it).

C7. Hathor (1 hp) is a middle-aged woman who sells robes, tunics and other bits of clothing, all of the finest quality and intended as formal wear. While she often has one or two objects pre-made (or never purchased by the person who ordered them), she makes most items from scratch, and can usually be found in her booth sitting cross-legged on a woven mat, sewing or embroidering. She keeps two or three bolts of cloth in her stand, but has more cloth in her home. She is a devout worshiper of her namesake and attends prayers daily.

C8. Sabola (6 hp) is sadistic old bastard who runs a booth selling talismans, herbs and holy water, all of it authentic and of high quality. His talismans have a 1 in 6 chance of granting a +1 luck bonus to any roll, but will only do this once. Sabola has six children who help in his booth and who often receive a sound cuffing from their father when they are lax in their duties. He gets his wares from a holy woman who lives on the outskirts of town, and who can perform faith healings for a price.

C9. Moswen (6 hp) is a callous and barbaric woman, a true chaotic with a cynical sense of humor. She is tall and broad shouldered, and most suspect (correctly) that she has ogre blood flowing in her veins. That said, Moswen is married to a (corrupt) guardsman and has born him five atheltic children, two or three of which are usually helping at her booth. She sells maps to the various ruins and sites in the Nabu Desert (with about a 15% accuracy rate) and also deals in poisons, but only with folk who speak the cant and know a pass-word they can get from the local thieves’ den.

Ibis, City of Sorcerers Map

Here's my draft map for Ibis, City of Sorcerers, showing the university area (its the collection of large buildings roughly in the center of the map). The upper right-hand corner is a corner of the Nomarch's estate - the kind of gardens that a brash rogue from Cimmeria might stalk through on his way to liberate a tower from jewels. The lower left-hand corner is occupied by a bit of the grounds of the grand temple of Thoth, the patron deity of Ibis. The upper left-hand corner is taken up by curve in the River of Death and some quays, as well as a little cave that leads to ... something.

On Ophir, The City of Slaves - Part 4

The first three parts of Ophir can be found here, here and here. For information on the pantheon of Ophir, click here.

F. The Souk
This diagonal street of reddish clay is shaded by wooden slats and numerous striped shades hoisted on wooden poles. It is always thick with activity and hosts dozens of stands selling fruits, vegetables, foodstuffs, cloth, tools, trinkets, exotic animals, copper pots, crockery and other items. Smugglers and fences are common, as are beggars, street urchins, entertainers and common trollops. The guards work their way once every twenty minutes, extorting as much coin as possible from the peddlers and their customers (especially foreigners). Three idols of Melkarth, god of merchants among other things, line the street. It is common for large business deals to be consumated by spitting in the hands and shaking them beneath one of these statues.

27. Guardhouse: This building is constructed of limestone blocks. It rises three stories and is really more of a tower with a crenelation on the roof to protect archers. The building houses fifteen men-at-arms of the royal guard and their commander, Karba. On the ground floor there is a small cell with an iron door, and outside there are two pillories. If there has been a recent execution, the body or head will be displayed from the top of the tower. A secret trapdoor in the cell leads to the catacombs below.

Karba is a woman with long, raven-black hair held back in a thick braid whose beauty is only marred by the ever-present sneer on her face. She dresses in a chainmail hauberk over a scarlet tunic and wears a yellow scarf wrapped around her helm. She carries a red shield decorated with bronze studs and wields a curved long sword and dagger. Her soldiers wear crimson ring mail and helms circled with yellow turbans. They carry pole arms, short swords, short bows and five arrows each. Karba is a swaggering, rakish woman, an insult always on the tip of her tongue and her cold, appraising stare capable of making veteran warriors sweat. While her men patrol the area, she can usually be found at the Inn of One Thousand Delights [7] or the gambling hall [54], her feet on a table and a goblet of spiced wine in her hand.

• Karba: HD 5 (29 hp); AC 3 [16]; Atk 1 weapon (1d8); Move 12; Save 12; CL/XP 5/240; Special: Men-at-arms are +1 to hit under her command.

29. Temple of Astarte and Adonis: Astarte was once the patron deity of Ophir and she had a magnificent temple dedicated to her on a hill overlooking the city-state. The temple was sacked many decades ago, and Astarte fell out of favor. Her temple fell into ruin and her priesthood was forced to purchase and renovate a smaller structure into a shrine dedicated to the goddess and her consort, Adonis. The new temple is constructed from limestone blocks with a few horizontal bands of green marble as decoration. It is topped by a green marble dome. Within the temple there is a large space with a high ceiling dominated by idols of Astarte and Adonis. Behind are apartments for the priests, the largest belonging to Jumaga. Jumaga’s bed is draped with four leopard skins (worth 25 gp each). Outside the temple there is always a place for worshippers to remove their footwear and cleanse their feet before entering. Two guardsmen, Hayad and Alahm, guard the temple at night. Offerings of fruit, grain, flowers and money (4d6 gp) cover the altar in the daytime.

The temple’s priest is Jumaga, a youthful man impeccably dressed in white robes and well-spoken. He has two assistants, Iamir and Hada. Iamir, a gnome, looks younger than his master, and is opinionated and rash. Hada is quite young and only recently left his work as a shepherd. He is servile and friendly. The temple guards, Hayad and Alahm, are both young and foppish (baggy trousers, red sashes, velvet fez, curled mustachios and always annointed with fragrant sandalwood oil), and have only taken this job until something better comes along. Hayad is trusting and egotistical, and Alahm is a blustering fool. Jumaga has become popular in Ophir for his parables and generosity toward the poor. He is often out of the temple tending to the peasantry. A small vault is hidden beneath the temple and does not connect to the catacombs. Here, the priests hide escaped slaves before moving out of the city. The temple’s treasure, kept in a locked chest guarded by a spell that creates an invisible, deadly gas when the chest is opened without saying the magic words (“Quick Brown Fox”), consists of 400 gp and a garnet worth 1,000 gp.

• Jumaga, Adept Lvl 6: HP 23; AC 7 [12]; Save 10; Special: Adept spells (2nd); Leather armor under pristine white robes, winged sandals, sickle (treat as hand axe).

• Acolytes, Adepts Lvl 2: HP 2d6; AC 7 [12]; Save 14; Special: Adept spells (1st); Leather armor under white robes, shepherd’s crook, 1d100 cp in alms for the poor in a leather sack, small skin of ale for medicinal purposes.

• Hayad, Swashbuckler Lvl 1: HP 8; AC 8 [11]; Save 14; Special: Move 13, stunning attack 1/day; Long sword (scimitar), silver dagger, pouch of snuff, purse with 1d6 sp.

• Alahm, Swashbuckler Lvl 1: HP 5; AC 8 [11]; Save 14; Special: Move 13, stunning attack 1/day; Long sword (scimitar), silver dagger, silk slippers with curled toes, purse with 1d6 gp.

34. Chandler: Obna is a hedge wizard with a nasally voice and squinty eyes. Chivalrous and cultured, he can always be found with a clay pipe clenched in his teeth, blue smoke curling around his balding head. While Obna makes a living as a chandler, and is capable of enchanting his candles with spells that he knows. An enchanted candle releases its spell when the candle has been burning for 1 minute and lasts as long as the candle lasts, usually 1 hour. Enchanted candles sell for 100 gp per spell level. Obna lives with his wife Esther, a matronly woman of great beauty, wit and kindness. He has twin thirteen-year-old sons, Nabo and Onab, who are his apprentices. While Nabo is content to take over his father’s business one day, Onab longs for the adventurous life. Obna’s town house has four stories, the first containing a workshop, the second a living room and library, the third living quarters for the twins and the fourth a bedchamber for Obna and Esther. Obna’s workshop is protected by a second-hand homonculus called Tatty Tom that he received as a wedding gift from his former master. Tom’s actually shares his bond with Esther, and is goodhearted if a little mischievous. Obna’s treasure, kept in a locked chest hidden in his workshop, contains (beneath ratty blankets and bits of candle) 1,000 sp, 500 ep, 100 gp and a smoky quartz worth 4 gp.

• Obna, Adept Lvl 3: HP 11; AC 8 [11]; Save 13; Special: Adept spells (1st), skilled as a chandler; Dagger, darts (3), spellbook, snakeskin turban. Obna knows three spells, charm person, protection from evil, sleep.

• Nabo, Adept Lvl 1: HP 3; AC 9 [10]; Save 15; Special: Adept spells (1st); Dagger, darts (3), spellbook.

• Onab, Magic-User Lvl 1: HP 5; AC 8 [11]; Save 15; Special: Magic-user spells (1st); Dagger, darts (3), spellbook.

• Tatty Tom, Homonculus: HD 2; HP 18; AC 5 [14]; Atk 1 bite (1d3); Move 9 (Fly 18); Save 16; CL/XP 3/60; Special: Poison (unconscious for 5d6 minutes.

36. Vigilante: Jumog is a vigilante and a neurotic, opinionated loner. As a half-orc, he can pass for human, but has a pock-marked face and entirely too much bristly hair on his body. By day, he maintains an unkempt appearance as a freighter working on the docks. At night, he skulks about town in blackened chainmail, his face hidden by a scarf, waylaying the evil and wicked (especially the predatory priests of Lotan). His home is eqally unassuming, being a simple stone structure with a flat roof and a wood door covered in peeling white paint. A secret trapdoor allows quick access to the roof, and another inside leads into the catacombs. This trapdoor is covered by a heavy chest and locked. Jumog has very little treasure, giving most of what he takes to the Temple of Shedu [56], but he does have 100 gp, a rock crystal worth 5 gp and a bronze ewer worth 95 gp. His primary nemesis is the Black Orchid, the most skilled assassin in Ophir.

• Jumog, Half-Orc Fighting-Man Lvl 2: HP 13; AC 3 [16]; Save 15; Special: +1 strength bonus; Flail, chainmail, shield, brass holy symbol of Shedu (135 gp).

37. Warehouse: This mud brick warehouse contains stolen goods owned by the Thieves’ Guild. It is guarded by a jackalwere called Hadep and his pack of four. Inside the front door there is an empty desk. A loft on the east wall serves as the jackalwere’s lair. Their treasure consists of 2,000 sp, 2,100 gp and a moonstone worth 800 gp hidden under soiled cushions. The moonstone is coated in a contact poison that deals 1d6 dexterity damage each hour until neutralized or until 6 hours has past.

• Jackalweres: HD 4; AC 4 [15]; Atk 1 bite (2d4); Move 12; Save 13; CL/XP 5/240; Special: Sleep gaze, only harmed by silver or magic weapons.

39. Monastery of Melkarth: This monastery is a fortress-like structure of three levels. The first level holds a reception hall, a chapel of Melkarth and a large training chamber for the monks. The second level holds storage chambers, living cells for the monks, a kitchen and a dining hall. The third level holds living quarters and office space for the abbot and his officers. The abbot is Diyab, a mature man who is quite altruistic and courteous. His monastery is attended by fifteen monks. The monks of Melkarth go bare chested and wear loose pants and white turbans. They maintain long, curly, square-cut beards and full mustaches. When not in training, they either wander the city looking for good deeds to perform (especially against the cult of Lotan or the machinations of Ob [22]) or stand outside their monastery, demonstrating feats of strength and agility. The monks keep their treasure in a limestone sarcophagus. It consists of 4,000 gp, 2,000 sp and a chalcedony worth 1,550 gp. They are hording their funds to construct a larger monastery overlooking the city, provided they can get permission from Prince Zargo.

• Diyab, Monk Lvl 11: HP 69; AC 4 [15]; Save 4; Special: Move 24, unarmed attacks deal 1d10 and 1d6 damage, stunning attack 11/day, deflect missiles 2/rd, harm creatures only harmed by +3 weapons, slow fall, still body, fast healing.

• Monk: HD 2+2; AC 8 [11]; Atk 1 fist (1d6+1); Move 14; Save 13; CL/XP 3/60; Special: Stunning attack 2/day.

40. Animal Trainer: Zarda is a smallish woman with a piercing eyes and a pointed nose. She has red hair and bronzed skin and always dresses in clothes of deep scarlet. Zarda runs a kennel where she trains hunting and guard dogs for the nobility. At any given time she will have 1d10 animals in her care (and under her command). The kennel is located on the ground floor of the building, with living quarters on the two floors above. Zarda is middle-aged. She is cruel and antagonistic, and quite unstable mentally. She loves animals, and uses them to punish those who cross her. Zarda herself owns a large, red wolf named Jaza. Zarda hides 290 gp in a leather sack buried in the floor of her kennel.

• Zarda, Barbarian Lvl 1: HP 7; AC 6 [13]; Save 15; Special: Superstitious; Leather armor, curved long sword, dagger.

• Jaza, Wolf: HD 3 (14 hp); AC 6 [13]; Atk 1 bite (1d8); Move 15; Save 14; CL/XP 6/400; Special: None.

41. Healer: Nokin is a young man with an impressive physique and perfect smile. A skilled healer, he can be antagonistic towards patients who ignore his advice. Nokin is often involved in arguments with Alsha [43] and Zarda [40] over the noise produced by their establishments. At any given time Nokin will have 1d4 patients in his establishment undergoing some treatment (leeching, cupping, induced vomiting, etc). Nokin’s building is built of limestone with porphyry detail around the entracne, a thick wooden door painted white and bearing a painting of the caduceus. The ground floor chamber contains several tables and chairs, a single bed, cupboards filled with jars of leeches, medicinal herbs and cloth for bandages and a shrine to Asclepius decorated with fresh flowers. A locked iron chest holds more expensive tools (saws, needles, silk thread, etc). Nokin’s second floor contains a living room, dining area and small library. The third floor contains his bedroom and his treasure, 45 gp, 43 sp and 70 cp in a locked chest.

42. Leatherworker: Muam is quite a sight; missing an eye, his other eye has a nervous twitch, squeaky voiced, introverted and often morose. He has lived a life of great misfortune and loss. Muam is skilled at his craft, but works slowly. He is not capable of manufacturing leather armor, although he can repair it. Muam lives with his elderly mother in a two-story adobe building with a flat roof. Muam and his mother live on the second story, with the first given over to his workshop and supplies. His treasure consists of 12 gp and a silver medallion worth 10 gp that he lifted off a drunk.

43. Blacksmith: Alsha is a round, middle-aged woman with cropped black hair and large hands and arms. She usually has an unkempt appearance and is known to be rather arrogant. Alsha can make any type of metal tool as well as arrow- and spearheads. She employs five journeymen and three apprentices, the apprentices sleeping in the workroom at night. The upper story of her building is given over to living space for herself and her family. Her husband, Kobar, is a member of the royal guard (and disgruntled at its corruption under the command of Karba). She also has two daughters, Sifar and Alshada. A locked iron chest in their living quarters contains 122 gp. Alsha’s building is built of rough-hewn flint, with a yellow door and several shuttered windows on the ground floor.

• Alsha, Fighting-Woman Lvl 3: HP 25; AC 8 [11]; Save 16; Hand axe & chainmail (packed away), light hammer, 5 sp.

G. Street of the Ancestors
This street of hard-packed red clay is lined by several tall buildings. Small, clay idols line the sides of the street in little niches. These are ancestor idols, and even the most criminal Ophirian leaves them and the offerings made to them alone. Offerings include flowers, small loaves of bread and copper pieces.

48. Bakery: This large, adobe brick bakery is run by Sarah, a mature halfling woman who once lived the life of an adventurer. Sarah is trusting, outspoken and a bit tongue-tied around handsome elves. She runs a bakery and coffee house that is popular with foreigners in Ophir. The ground floor is divided into a bakery (five brick ovens), kitchen and coffee house. Sarah bakes pita bread (and serves it covered in savories on request), loaves of wheat bread and fruit and nut breads daily. She also serves cold meats and cheeses and dark coffee sweetened with honey. She employs several assistants and has two apprentices, both humans. Sarah is very popular in Ophir, especially with sailors, who refer to her as their “Little Mama”. Sarah and her apprentices live above the kitchen. Aside from an ample supply of flour, cheese and other edibles, Sarah keeps 300 gp and 500 ep in a locked iron box in her bedroom.

• Sarah, Halfling Fighting-Woman Lvl 5: HP 29; AC 9 [10]; Save 12; Chemise, head scarf (all clothing covered in flour), dagger tucked into the ribbon around her waist, short sword in her room.

49. Woodcarver: Muma the woodcarver has a collection of fetishes from the jungles of Cush and most of his business is in carving idols and holy symbols. An old, pot-bellied sinner, Muma has a beautiful young wife called Mara that most believe to be bewitched. The area outside his shop is littered with wood flakes and sawdust, but the inside is very neat. Muma can be found in the center of his shop sharpening his blades or carving an idol, his wife flitting around tidying up or serving him sweet coffee. Muma is very jealous concerning his wife, and usually sends her away when people enter his shop. He and his wife live above the shop in a lavish bedroom (rugs, silk curtains, bronze braziers, a cedar chest of clothing with a false bottom holding 20 gp, 110 sp and a sapphire worth 400 gp). Muma is perceptive and well-spoken, but not to be trusted. He is a devotee of Baal-Zebub, and makes sure that holy symbols carved for the gods of Law are tainted, giving the clerics that use them a -1d4 penalty to rolls made to turn the undead.

52. Excisewoman: Zita is an excise-woman (tax collector). She is youthful, capricious and rash, with the appearance of someone with little taste who has come into money. Zita is a cunning and overconfident tax collector. She is engaged in a little graft, and hoping its not enough to draw the attention of her superiors. Her ultimate plan, when she has enough money, is to buy a merchant galley and leave Ophir forever. Her home has three stories and is constructed of pearly white stones. There are two balconies on the second floor and the front door is constructed of wood and clad in greenish copper. Zita’s treasure (200 gp, a pearl worth 125 gp, a piece of coral worth 115 gp and a panther skin worth 15 gp) is hidden in a leather sack stuffed inside the wall behind her wardrobe. She is usually encountered making her rounds through the city accompanied by 6 to 8 men-at-arms. At night, she can be found carousing and on the hunt for male companionship, favoring the Inn of One Thousand Delights [7] and the Bloody Bones Tavern [10] as her hunting grounds.

[Referee Note: When Zita appeared in my campaign, for some strange reason her voice turned out to be that of Dr. Girlfriend from the Venture Brothers. She also seduced the party’s dwarf. Do with this information what you will.]

53. Scribe: Ho’am is a youthful scribe with an imposing height. Cautious and modest, he is a devotee of Lotan and quite wicked. Ho’am employs ten scribes, sending them to work for others or keeping them in the scriptorium to finish more important jobs. The scriptorium consists of a ground floor filled with writing tables and second story living quarters. His desk is adorned with a bone paperweight worth 20 gp. Ho’am has a strained relationship with Lathba the sage. The man is a good customer, but he is patronizing. Ho’am would act against the old man, but he has seen his prowess with a sword.

• Ho’am, Magic-User Lvl 2: HP 5; AC 9 [10]; Save 16; Special: Magic-user (1st); Dagger, spellbook, writer’s kit, 7 gp.

54. Gambling House: Evil Gladiator 6; braided hair, interrupts others, serious and dull. Mulla, an ex-gladiator with braided hair, runs a gambling house that specializes in “pit fighting”. The building is two-stories tall and made of masonry with a slate roof. The ground floor is dominated by a 20 foot tall cage in which combats occur. The back of the main floor features a long bar stretching from one end of the room to the other. A loft circles the main floor about 10 feet above the ground and leads to offices and Mulla’s apartment. Gladiators enter from a back room seperated from the main floor by a thick, stone wall.

When a fight is imminent, three clarks position themselves around the cage and the challenger is brought into the room and put inside the cage. When the champion enters, the spectators begin placing bets with the clarks. For most fights, the house has a limit of 25 gp on a bet, with odds determined by comparing the XP value of the contestants. Higher bets must be approved by Mulla, who keeps 600 gp on hand for losses. He also owns a scroll of invisibility that he would like to unload on a magic-user capable of paying 300 gp for it.

Contestants cannot wear armor heavier than leather and may not carry weapons larger than a short sword. Contestants can be determined by rolling on the charts below.

• Mulla: Evil Human Gladiator 6, HP 43, AC 16, MV 12, ATK short sword +10 (1d6+5) or spiked gauntlet +8 (1d3+3) or both +6/+4, SA +1 to hit and +2 to damage with unarmed strikes, SV 13, AB Str 18, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 11.

Contestant
1. Beastman Barbarian, Lvl 1d4+1
2. Human Barbarian, Lvl 1d4+2
3. Elf Swashbuckler, Lvl 1d4+1 (1 in 6 chance of magic-user spells)
4. Mechanical Fighting-Man, Lvl 1d4+1, studded with spikes
5. Dwarf Fighting-Man, Lvl 1d4+2 in gladiator gear
6. Human Fighting-Man, Lvl 1d4+2 in gladiator gear
9. Human Monk, Lvl 1d4+2
10. Bugbear
11. Ogre
12. Minotaur

• Beastman Barbarian Lvl 3: HD 3d6+12; AC 7 [12]; Atk 1 axe (1d6+1) or fists (1d2+1); Move 12; Save 13; CL/XP 4/120; Special: Cannot be flanked or back stabbed, fears magic, berserk (+2 to hit and damage, -2 to AC). Wears leather armor and carries hand axe.

• Human Barbarian Lvl 4: HD 4d6+12; AC 7 [12]; Atk 1 sword (1d6) or fists (1d2); Move 12; Save 11; CL/XP 5/240; Special: Cannot be flanked or back stabbed, fears magic, berserk (+2 to hit and damage, -2 to AC). Carries shield and short sword.

• Elf Swashbuckler Lvl 3: HD 3d6+9; AC 8 [11]; Atk 1 short sword (1d6) and 1 dagger (1d4); Move 15; Save 12; CL/XP 4/120; Special: Stunning attack 3/day, deflect arrows 1/rd.

• Mechanical Fighting-Man Lvl 3: HD 3d6+6; AC 5 [14]; Atk 1 flail (1d6+1) or fists (1d3); Move 12; Save 14; CL/XP 3/60; Special: Mechanical man abilities.

• Dwarf Fighting-Man Lvl 4: HD 4d6+8; AC 7 [12]; Atk 1 short sword (1d6+1) or 1 net (entangle); Move 12; Save 13; CL/XP 4/120; Special: None.

• Human Fighting-Man Lvl 4: HD 4d6+8; AC 5 [14]; Save 13; Short sword, leather armor, shield.

• Human Monk Lvl 4: HD 4d6+12; AC 7 [12]; Atk 1 fist (1d6); Move 16; Save 11; CL/XP 5/240; Special: Stunning attack 4/day, deflect missiles 1/rd, harm monsters only harmed by +1 weapons.

• Bugbear: HD 3+1; AC 5 [14]; Atk 1 bite (2d4) or 1 weapon (1d8+1); Move 9; Save 14; CL/XP 3/60; Special: Surprise on 1-3 on 1d6.

• Ogre: HD 4+1; AC 5 [14]; Atk 1 weapon (1d10+1); Move 9; Save 13; CL/XP 4/120; Special: None.

• Minotaur: HD 6+4; AC 6 [13]; Atk 1 head butt (2d4), 1 bite (1d3) and 1 weapon (1d6); Move 12; Save 11; CL/XP 6/400; Special: Never gets lost in mazes.

56. Temple of Shedu: The temple of Shedu is quite old. It resembles a Greek temple, with columns on the outside and an inner sanctum containing a marble and gold idol of Shedu. Behind the inner sanctum are sparse living quarters for the priests. Entrances to the catacombs have been bricked up to prevent entry by the Lotanites and other strange creatures. Unbeknownst to the priests, a bedlam has taken up residence in the catacombs beneath the temple, and it is slowly driving the priests of Shedu mad.

The temple is overseen by Hoda. Hoda is an aging cleric who keeps his grey hair and beard properly oiled and curled. Once a towering figure, he now leans heavily on his staff. He is assisted by Balhad, Ib, Hama, and Saysnah. The temple’s treasure now consists of only 1,000 sp. It is kept in a locked chest protected by a glyph of warding (a thunder clap that deals 6d6 points of damage and deafness for 4d6 hours).

• Hoda, Cleric Lvl 8: HP 42; AC 1 [18]; 7; Special: Cleric spells (4th); Mace, chainmail +2, shield, holy symbol, potion of healing. Hoda is mature, unkempt, neurotic, inquisitive and antagonistic.

• Acolytes, Adept Lvl 3: HD 3d6; AC 3 [16]; Save 12; Special: Adept spells (1st); Mace, chainmail, shield, holy symbol. All are trained in the healing arts.

57. Public Baths: The public baths are one of the oldest finest buildings in Ophir. They are built in the Roman style (pillars, painted stone), and consist of a reception chamber, dressing rooms (one for men, one for women), steam rooms (using the old Roman furnace concept), two pools fed by natural springs (no medicinal qualities) and an exercise room (with weights and massage tables). A day at the baths costs 10 gp, paid in the reception area. Massages cost an additional 10 gp. Attendants wait on customers in each chamber. Two guards (sergeants, 15 hit points each, armed with pole arms and short swords) are present in the reception hall and two more guard the owner’s chambers.

Above the reception area are the living chambers of Ubago, the old deviant who operates the baths. He is attended by young men (eunuchs) with shaved heads and bodies who wear only loin cloths. Ubago’s living chambers include a feast hall, a lavish toilet, an office decorated in antiquities dating to the days of the Purple Kings (such antiques are a hobby of Ubago, and people will find him as competent as any sage on matters of the history of the Wyvern Coast) and a large bedchamber. Ubago is a loud man with an aquiline nose. He is madcap and sensual, and sneezes frequently, especially around dwarfs. It is difficult to truly like Ubago, but almost impossible to hate him.

58. Wine Merchant: Saybee is a bald, gap-toothed man who runs an upscale wineshop purchased with funds he earned adventuring (mostly in the Klarkash Mts, a subject he will speak on endlessly). The shop consists of a long counter, behind which stands Saybee with a look of eagerness on his face. He is quick to greet customers and does his best to steer them to a proper wine and vintage. He stocks his shop with bottles and casques of wine from as far away as Lyonesse and Nomo. He sells the local spiced wine, but believes it an inferior product; he’ll even suck his teeth and roll his eyes slightly when a customer insists on it. Saybee is addicted to the black lotus. Because of this, there is always a 15% chance that his shop will be closed while he’s on a “trip”. Saybee lives alone. His treasure consists of 1,500 ep, 300 gp, 10 pp and a oval piece of polished lapis lazuli worth 95 gp that he uses as a focus for meditation.

• Saybee, Psychic Lvl 6: HP 10; AC 9 [10]; Save 10 (8 vs. mental); Special: Sixth sense, powers –mesmerism, mind thrust and telekinesis. Leather armor, curved long sword scimitar, dagger, crimson sash in which he keeps a packet of black lotus, three darts and 20 gp. Cautious and sympathetic, he touches people while talking to them.

59. Astrologer: Hobeah is a hedonistic and aloof worshiper of Marduk (he has a large, wooden idol in his parlor) and is an émigré from Ishkabibel. He has bronze skin, thinning white hair and a long, sparse, white beard. Hobeah dresses in colorful robes embroidered with images of shooting stars. Hobeah has three wives, Isha, the oldest, being his favorite. His only son, Juba, is his apprentice. Upon entering Hobeah’s shop one finds themselves in a plush parlor with expensive, though worn, mahogany furniture, the aforementioned idol of Marduk and several tapestries depicting astrological events. Beyond the parlor there is a kitchen and dining area. Bedrooms are on the two floors above. The attic has been transformed into an observatory, with a telescope, astrolabe and shutters that open to reveal the night sky. A table here is covered in star charts, and shelves covered with almanacs and books and scrolls on astrology line the walls. An iron chest locked with a superior lock (-3 to open) contains 262 gp. Hobeah is capable of producing star charts at a cost of 50 gp that have a 1 in 6 chance of simulating a scroll of augury in its overall effect (i.e. it contains knowledge that a person can later use to make a tough decision).

Augury
Level: 2 (cleric)
Range: Personal
Duration: Instantaneous

An augury can tell you whether a particular action will bring good or bad results for you in the immediate future. The base chance for receiving a meaningful reply is 70% + 1% per level, to a maximum of 90%; this roll is made secretly. A question may be so straightforward that a successful result is automatic, or so vague as to have no chance of success. If the augury succeeds, you get one of four results: Weal (if the action will probably bring good results), Woe (for bad results), Weal and woe (for both) or Nothing (for actions that don’t have especially good or bad results). If the spell fails, you get the “nothing” result. A cleric who gets the “nothing” result has no way to tell whether it was the consequence of a failed or successful augury. The augury can see into the future only about half an hour, so anything that might happen after that does not affect the result. Thus, the result might not take into account the long-term consequences of a contemplated action. All auguries cast by the same person about the same topic use the same dice result as the first casting.

60. Den of Thieves: This is a four-story, nondescript building of adobe. The doors and windows are always kept locked, and one might spot a shadowy figure on the roof from time to time. The first floor is a maze of corridors, dead ends, secret doors and lethal traps. The second floor is a crawlspace of trapped vaults containing the thieves’ treasure as well as supplies of water, iron rations, rope, torches and weapons. The third floor contains living quarters for the lesser thieves and training rooms, and the fourth floor has larger living quarters for the superiors.

The den houses eight footpads, including a gnome and halfling. The leader of the thieves is called Katya. Her lieutenant is Bors Turmudgeon, an immigrant from Lyonesse, and her sub-lieutenant is Kaffa. Ketta’s den of thieves is co-operative with Zargo’s assassins, but opposed by those merchants that do not deal in slaves.

The guild’s treasure consists of 11,000 sp, 5,000 ep, 1,000 gp, 100 pp, a jasper worth 6 gp, a +2 lance of polished oak with a steel head chased in silver runes and a recently heisted cargo of 100 coconuts that are worth 10 gp/coconut.

• Katya, Thief Lvl 10: HP 35; AC 5 [14]; Save 5; Special: Back stab for quadruple damage; Leather armor +1, brown robes with many pockets, short sword, three darts with silver tips, earrings worth 700 gp, jeweled dagger worth 900 gp, vial of acid, burglars’ tools.

• Bors, Thief Lvl 4: HP 12; AC 7 [12]; Save 11; Special: Back stab for double damage; Leather armor, short sword, dagger, burglars’ tools, 7 gp, polished quartz pebble that can be used as a magnifying glass.

• Kaffa, Thief Lvl 3: HP 9; AC 7 [12]; Save 12; Special: Back stab four double damage; Leather armor, daggers (3), burglars’ tools, 12 gp. Kaffa fancies himself a contender for guild leadership and Katya’s bed. She finds him an insufferable ass, but keeps him around as a potential fall guy should things ever go wrong. His presence in the guild also keeps Bors on his toes.

• Footpad: HD 2d6; AC 7 [12]; Atk 1 weapon (1d6); Move 12; Save 13; CL/XP 3/60; Special: Back stab for double damage. Have short sword, light crossbow, leather armor, burglars’ tools, 2d6 gp.