Post/Author/DateTime	Post
JadeFox 06-19-05, 08:11 PM	This thread is a reposting and revising of an older, less formatted thread: http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=391070 This is a game world I was hoping to use in an upcoming camp I'm running, but it is still vastly incomplete. I think it has a lot of potential, but it’s still riddled with holes and has huge area’s that aren’t written up yet. In the theme of the “assemble a dungeon” threads I was hoping my fellow DM’s here could help me write up the other contiants in full detail. The idea for a ringworld comes from Larry Nevin’s books, the contiant I have shown here as an example (#27) is an original work. Table of Contents Post 1) Glossery of Terms Post 2) Ringwold for dummies Post 3) Geographic Description Post 4) World History Post 5) House rules, new magic items, new races Glossery of Terms The Ashen: A loose alliance of monsters humanoids, non-high elves, and many monster races that inhabits the terratory on the northern half of continant #24. CG/NG in overall alignment. The Confederation: An alliance between Humans and Kobolds ruled with an iron fist by a ruthlessly effeicent fasist govenment. No other races have any role here other then as slaves, with the exception of High Elves or freed-slaves who may become 2ed class citizens. Inhabits the southern half of continant #24. LE in alignment. Ringworld:An inconciveably vast, ring shaped structure that goes around this systems star. 100,000 miles across, 1 AU in radius, the ring is the creation of an unknown race usually referted to as "The Forgers" due to their obvious skill in metalworking. The Arch: Since at any given time, parts of the ring may be in shadow, from the surfase the ring looks like a huge arch in the sky. Some primative cultures do not know the ring exists, they think the world is flat and the arch hovers in the sky. Shadow Squares: A collection of blocks held together with wire that orbits the star just inside the ringworld. They create an artifical day and night by blocking out the sun at key times. Scrynth: A copper-red metal created when a forger artifact called the Maker is applied to normal copper. The same material the ring world is out of. There is no known way to distroy it other then a Desentegrate or Wish spell and it is slightly lighter then mithrel. Active Site: For the most part, the ringworld is intert. Other then the natural weather patterns, it's just a band of metal. There are a few places however, where the Forgers magic/machine creations still work activly. Sometimes these machines are simply off, sometimes their dangerous, either way, people tend to avoid these areas. Spill Mountain: Spill mountains are a system of pipes and hills powered by centrifical force. They, with the assistance of the occasional active sight, brudge away sediment that's collected on the bottom of the ringworlds seas and spit it back on land. This dirt builds up over time, forming mountain-like features.
JadeFox 06-19-05, 08:13 PM	Ringwold For Dummies A ringworld is a structure built around a systems star. It’s roughly 1 AU in radius, and between 50 and 200 thousand miles across. It has the surface area of hundreds, if not thousands of planets, and a habitable atmosphere, making it the ultimate solution to overpopulation problems. This ringworld is built in a staggered design, where only a tiny fraction of it’s available space is used for land. It’s built as 155 earth-sized landmasses with huge oceans in-between them, as well as two “super oceans” built across from each other on opposite sides of the ring. The world description here only talks about one of the world-areas, continent #27.
JadeFox 06-19-05, 08:13 PM	Geographic Description and World History (overview of both, because this is the level of detail I would hope your future posts would give. For my full, long and boring version, see the thread I linked too at the start. Maps also available in origonal thread.) Continent 27, called Terra by it's inhabitants, has never been a peaceful place. Inhabited by primitive (relativly) humans in the South-West, arrogant and powerfull High-elves in the South-East, Kobolds and huge roaming Gnoll-Tribes in a thin strip of grasslands down the middle, and all manner of druidic and powerfull magical creatures in the massive woodlands that exist to the north, it’s a mixing pot of every dangerous and aggressive race in the book. In addition, it is one of the few super-continents to possesses large island chains around it. It is split by six rivers, two mountain ranges, and one huge valley/crevasse. Cursed by a bi-annual storm season, a bi-decadle drought season, and largly infertile soil, civilization had a hard time developing here. The first real traces of the "modern" worlds civilization began 300 years or so before the campaign story starts. At that time, the Kobold-engineers of the Prax tribe struck a deal with the stronger but less advanced human barbarians in the area. In exchange for protection from other people, the kobolds would build an aqueduct to supply the human village with fresh water for irrigation. Both the humans and kobolds flourished from the arrangement, and eventually the two groups grew close. Within three generations of the original agreement, the humans went from living in huts and using copper weapons and leather armor to building small cities and possessing high quality steel weapons and 'legionnaire' style plate mail. The kobolds, without having to dedicate as much of their populace to defense, were able to advance their knowledge of the sciences even further and raise their standard of living to levels unheard of at that time. Armed with this power and knowledge, the alliance expanded its borders outward, first trading with, then allying with, then assimilating nearby human villages and kobold tribes. The first real test of this civilization came 230 years before the campaign starts. An epic gnoll horde, over 10,000 gnolls strong, migrated south due to food scarcity in the grasslands belt. Such migrations had happened before, and had always taken a huge toll on the area. This time however, 3000 human soldiers with 1500 kobold archers for support moved north and engaged the gnolls before they could reach the young empire. The gnoll invasion was brutally crushed, with 2000 gnolls captured, and the rest either killed or forced to return to the grasslands belt. As the victorious army returned home, the humans and kobolds discovered a pleasant benefit of war: Slave labor. The capture of the gnolls who tried to flee back to the grasslands, plus raids against other non-human/kobold settlements closer to home provided the new empire with all the cheap labor it needed. The empire that previously grew slowly on the foundation of diplomacy, how expanded with leaps and bounds on a foundation of war and cheap labor. In less then a decade after the failed gnoll invasion, the remaining human and kobold settlements were brought under the Empire's grasp. By the end of that decade, every village in the south-west of Terra was part of the Empire's realm. There was a 50 year lull while the Empire gave itself a pat on the back, consolidated it's power, and brought it's outer-territories up to speed with the more modern developments. But a problem eventually developed that brought this period of inactivity to an end. The original slaves captured by the Empire had been relatively easy to break into service. A combination of both benevolence to slaves who did their job(with even a slight chance of freedom), and brutal suppression of any revolt had made the Gnolls a productive worker class. But as the empires population rose, more slaves were needed. Long-range invasions to the gnolls territory for the sole purpose of slaves wouldn't have been cost-effective, and even if they had been, at it's current rate of expansion the empire's need for labor would soon out-strip the gnolls population growth rates. And so, the Empires generals looked to the far north, with its strange magical creatures and elven-breeds and the east, with the magical but stagnant high-elven empire. As the raids against these two respective groups began, it looked as if the expansion of the empire had finally been curbed. Both the creatures of the north and the elves of the east managed to repel the Empire invasions easily enough. But then, a totally unanticipated event occurred. The high elves sold out. The high elven empire had existed before Koblds and humans had even evolved, but it had become obsessed with the subtle intricacies of magic and the finer points of their fine traditions. To many of the young(relatively speaking) elves, this was maddening. A group of these elves within the government struck a secret deal with the humans: The elves become a part of the empire with all the support, territory, and raw-materials they want, and the high-elf mages give the humans and kobolds training and support. Once the deal was struck, the high-elf leaders were murdered in their sleep and a new government took hold. Overnight, the Empire had been turned into a Confederation and doubled it's territory in the process. To the elven breeds and other magical creatures of the north, this act was not only a horrendous act of betrayer, but it put them in serious danger from the humans. With elven magic supporting them, the humans make strong gains into the north. In response to this, the people of the north formed the alliance known as the Ashen. Far less rigid then the Confederations agreements, the Ashen are little more then "We wont' attack you and you won't attack us until the humans and those backstabbers are delt with." Although this did much to slow the humans, the Ashen lack the organization to completely stop the Confederation armies. As the game begins, the Ashen are slowly being pushed back..........
JadeFox 06-19-05, 08:25 PM	Forger Items: Name: Forgers Aid Classification: Construct Availablity: Rare Description: A golem like construct made of Scrynth in the form of a 8ft tall faceless hunched over humanoid with four arms. A wide variity of smiths tools are clipped to it's torso. It stands perfectly still, vacently staring off into space unless given an order. It will not defend itself when attacked unless specifcly ordered to do so. Effect: Aid's will totally ignore anything that goes on around them, unless given one of the following command words spoken in the Forgers tounge(note that 10 ranks in Knoweldge: History and previous experance with Forger ruins is a prerequsite to taking this language): Go, Stop, Attack, Examine This, Build This. The go, stop, and attack commands are completly straightforeward. Telling the construct to examine somthing will cause it to pick up the nearest metal object to it and examine it. Telling it to build somthing will cause it to proceed to any forge in it's vecnity and attempt to build the last metal item you told it to examine. It constructs things in half the time a human smith would, but cannot construct anything with a build DC over 22. Name: Box of Replication Classification: Major Wonderous Item Availability: Uncommon Description: A 3x2x2 chest made of Scrynth. There is a quartz crystal imbedded in the top of the chest that has a dim blue or red glow. Effect: The color of the crystal indicates if the box has been assigned or not. An assigned box will contain one mundane item when you open it, no matter how many times you open it and take the item out. An unassigned Box will do nothing until one non-magical item weighing less then 10lb's and containing no gems, heavy metals, or percioius metals is placed inside it and the box is closed. At that point, the gem turns red and the item will forever be inside that box when you open it. Name: Pendents of Item Forging Classification: Major Wonderous Item Availability: Just one so far Description: A pair of identical circular pendents made of steel. One is marked with a I and the other is marked II. Effect: The Pendents do nothing unless a spellcaster wears the one marked "I" and attempts to forge and item while someone else is wearing the one marked "II". If the person wearing the second one allows it to happen, and is fully aware of what this entales, he loses EXP in place of the itemforging spellcaster. For every exp point the spellcaster would normally loose, the new victem loses 3. Name: Goggles of Ore Identification Classification: Medium Wonderous Item Availablity: Common Descrption: A pair of reading glasses made from Scrynth with no glass in the lenses. Effect: These glasses reveal the presense of ore under the ground. When the wielding wears them, he sees a glow whos brightness and color varies with what metal there is and the amount. Gold == Gold Silver == Silver Blue == Electrum Green == Copper Red == Iron Confederation Items: Name: The Soul-Breaker Classification: Major Artifact Availabilty: Unique Description: A quarterstaff made out of 18, 2 inch-sections snapped together Effect: The breaker is just a +5 Quarterstaff unless the point is pressed to the temples of a creature who is at 0hp and concious. (Not negative). When this occurs, any impulses the creature has to opposed the Confederation are forever wiped from it's mind, and in their place is put a degree of actual loyality. The effects of this item can only be reversed with a Wish spell. --------------- New Races: Slave Gnoll Descriptions: Gnolls the confederation had bred for maual labor Stats: As per Gnoll in the MM, but with +2 STR, and -2 INT Civilized Gnoll Descriptions: Gnolls bred for more servant rolls, this breed had to be smart enough to handle more complicated tasks. Descriptions: As per Gnoll in the MM, but with +2 INT, +2 CHA, and -2 STR.