Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Cyber-Dave Feb 18, 2009 11:13:25	...the city of Suderham described in Dragon 163's skill challenge article? Seems like a neat article to use as the basis for a quest, but I am wondering which city would work out best for this skill challenge in FR.
#2 lord_karsus Feb 18, 2009 15:07:59	-What's that city like? I don't have access to the online stuff.
#3 Cyber-Dave Feb 18, 2009 16:25:02	There are four quarters in the city: the military quarter, the wealthy quarter, the thieves' quarter, and the official quarter. The city is ruled by slavers, and is generally considered to be hostile to the players. Moving through the city without incident requires successful skill checks. Enough incidents and the ruling class of the city starts locking the city down until it eventually starts to feel like an armed camp that is almost impossible to move in (attempts to move around through the city lead to confrontations with the guards).
#4 rinonalyrna_fathomlin Feb 18, 2009 19:35:40	Sunderham is a city in the Greyhawk setting (I *think* in the Wild Coast area), a locale from the old Slavelords series of modules. There are four quarters in the city: the military quarter, the wealthy quarter, the thieves' quarter, and the official quarter. That in itself is not particularly distinct--it is a pretty typical breakdown of your garden-variety fantasy city (poor section, wealthy section, government section, etc.). The city is ruled by slavers, and is generally considered to be hostile to the players. Moving through the city without incident requires successful skill checks. Enough incidents and the ruling class of the city starts locking the city down until it eventually starts to feel like an armed camp that is almost impossible to move in (attempts to move around through the city lead to confrontations with the guards). If you want a city in the Realms to be specifically like this, it might be a good idea to fashion your own. I can't think of any cities in the Realms that are specifically like that (I can easily see this happening in a drow city, by the way).
#5 lord_karsus Feb 18, 2009 19:51:08	That in itself is not particularly distinct--it is a pretty typical breakdown of your garden-variety fantasy city (poor section, wealthy section, government section, etc.). -Yeah. -Funnel a little more information to us. What race primarily inhabits the place? What's the largest minority? What's the population? Uh...More stuff like that, if you can.
#6 Cyber-Dave Feb 18, 2009 20:46:23	-Yeah. -Funnel a little more information to us. What race primarily inhabits the place? What's the largest minority? What's the population? Uh...More stuff like that, if you can. Well, according to the article, the primary race is human. Largest minority is hobgoblin. Its a major city, so a large population (though obviously its not Waterdeep). And, other then it being a large city, consider both the first two elements mailable (as I can always change the primary/secondary racial inhabitants of the city to something else with a little effort). The main key points are: Its ruled by slavers. Its hostile to the average adventurer (meaning you probably require a permit to visit, in order to ensure that you are visiting for business purposes). Its a large city. It is not in the underdark (though underdark suggestions are neat, and I still welcome them, they don't work for the quest idea I am working out in my head).
#7 lord_karsus Feb 18, 2009 20:51:39	-Hmm...There's nothing I can think of off the top of my head that fits perfectly with the concept as presented that already exists. There's a whole bunch of smaller cities and realms and kingdoms in the Border Kingdoms area (or, rather, were; I don't know what's up there in 4e) that you can insert said city into wholesale. The area has Oeble, where "monstrous Humanoids" live alongside with Humans and others, and attitudes are pretty "mean", so to speak. You can either adapt Oeble into what you are looking for, or just smoosh Suderham in the area as is all together.
#8 crossroads_wanderer Feb 18, 2009 21:57:27	There are already some places that are similarly nasty in the area, but I think that it would also fit pretty well into the Moonsea, though there aren't any existing cities that I know of that fit that description.
#9 Cyber-Dave Feb 18, 2009 22:21:31	The Moonsea would work out nicely for my overarching campaign. How about the pirate city in the center of the sea? Would something like that be similar to this concept? That could work out very well for my setting... Alternatively, is there anything along the dragon coast that might work?
#10 rinonalyrna_fathomlin Feb 22, 2009 0:14:53	It is not in the underdark (though underdark suggestions are neat, and I still welcome them, they don't work for the quest idea I am working out in my head). I know Sunderham isn't in the Underdark, I just thought it be a plausible location for a similar city.
#11 JudgeDookie Feb 22, 2009 20:20:26	There are four quarters in the city: the military quarter, the wealthy quarter, the thieves' quarter, and the official quarter. The city is ruled by slavers, and is generally considered to be hostile to the players. Moving through the city without incident requires successful skill checks. Enough incidents and the ruling class of the city starts locking the city down until it eventually starts to feel like an armed camp that is almost impossible to move in (attempts to move around through the city lead to confrontations with the guards). Sounds a bit like Innarlith to me. It sits on the shore on the Lake of Steam. It has the quarters you speak of, more or less (called 1st to 4th, respectively), and money is power there. On top of that, the strife there has already pretty much done the "lock down" you described twice already.
#12 lady_rolindin Feb 22, 2009 20:40:07	Starmantle, Westgate, Ilipur, Proskur any of these along the Dragon coast will work. If not then place Suderham in Thay before the spell plauge, the city would work good with the Thayens culture.
#13 therealdm Feb 23, 2009 14:16:17	use a city from Vaasa.
#14 quale1 Feb 23, 2009 15:38:01	Impiltur is the best place for hobgoblins, if you want to stick to canon
#15 markustay63 Feb 23, 2009 16:25:42	Veldorn = 'Monster Kingdom" Old Vaelen would be perfect - there's very little in the way of official lore, and what little there is can be ignored. A harbor could presnt a problem, but it does sit on the Liontongue River, so that should do the trick. Edit: Just realized that map was one I took down awhile ago - I threw a scale on a more recent version, for anyone interested. Veldorn Region
#16 zaeshir Feb 23, 2009 20:53:51	I immediately thought of Luskan (in its 4th Edition incarnation) for some reason, though it's not really run by slavers. That or Wheloon (again in 4th Edition). Again, no slavers, but it's probably not accepting of outsiders. In fact, when I was reading the article I thought that it would be fun to use that, with some flavor modifications, when my party ends up there
#17 rinonalyrna_fathomlin Feb 23, 2009 21:13:01	I immediately thought of Luskan (in its 4th Edition incarnation) for some reason, though it's not really run by slavers. It could be tweaked, though. I'm not sure, but I don't think Sunderham was always run by Slavelords, either.
#18 JudgeDookie Feb 23, 2009 23:22:05	Trusted advisors.