I have randomly generated this ruined city. The map itself is stolen from a diagram of the Hermitage by Rem Koolhaas, the font is stolen from the Planet of the Apes, and what's in each area has been generated using only the "weirdness" tables from d100 rolls on the random stock-the-hexmap tables in the Lesserton & Mor supplement.The background white/green is open ground, the red is buildings, the pink is thorny black vegetation, and the gray is rubble. Height of each building is d20 stories.
A Hunting ground for a senile mimic
B 25' deep pit 10' diameter
C Peach orchard
D Unstable ruin
E Clan: 80 Orcs 20 male 20 female 36 young
F Clan: 140 Orcs 35 male 35 female 63 young
G Pitfall
H Infestation of giant rats
I 11 Dead magic zone--70' radius and an ancient exposed basement 5' long, 5' wide, 10' deep
J Greenish trickling stream with insect swarm
K Hunting ground for a giant black widow spider
L 2 open pits: one is 30' deep pit 20' diameter , the other is 25' deep and 5' diameter
M Pretty flowers that, if picked, act as shriekers
N Ancient exposed basement full of rainwater--if you drink it then save vs poison or contract a disease 20' long 10' wide 10' deep
O Good spot for an ambush (but currently unoccupied)
P Active excavation--a bunch of organized people from nearby digging
Q Ditto, but it's also currently an empty zombie lair
R Giant rat infestation
S Clear pool 8' diameter where a boar and a giant weasel are drinking
T Pitfall
U Unstable ruin
V Ancient well
W Good spot for an ambush (but currently unoccupied)
X Ancient excavation with a black pudding lurking in it
Y 3o' mushroom w/40' cap smelling of cinnamon. Poisonous. No save.
Z Ancient well
Anyway, your assignment: Make Rem more interesting.
Add a comment adding something, or expanding on the relationship between things that are already there. Don't try to build Rem in a day, just add one detail that makes this place a wee bit more fun.
Read the comments before yours first--there may be something there you can build on...and feel free to stop by again later after some details have built up.
Also, feel free to end your comment with an incomplete sentence for the next participant to add something, like "the coffin is full of rusty...".
23 comments:
The organized diggers at P have trapped a Shambleau in the pit at B. If she is freed they will be really pissed.
Shambleau stats at:
http://ixians.blogspot.com/2011/02/saturday-night-specials-shambleau.html
N - That's a pretty spacious disease! HEYOOOOO
But seriously folks:
C - The peach orchard is a courtyard closed in on all sides by the walls of other buildings, but open to the sky. It is only accessible through a door in the building to the south.
The north 1/4 or so of the area is walled off and filled with gardening tools. There is one tree growing here, planted with a seed from a Peach of Immortality stolen from the gods. This mortalgrown tree would never confer immortality, but it might have other effects. For example, the abandoned orchard is now overgrown with vegetation, including strange plants such as...
...including strange plants such as... a stunted apple tree with bright red apples, with skin so tight that look like they're about to burst at any moment. If touched, they explode in a splatter of gore: inside each is a blood-red centipede, poisonous and hungry.
Z: Ancient Well
A grey stoned well, with a rusted winch attached to a piece of frayed rope, that looks new but gnawed. Down the well lies a small cave, just visible above the dank water. Arcane runes are scrawled in the wall, moss coats the interior, and the smell of rancid fish wafts from the cave, carried on a breeze that rises and falls, as if the cave was breathing.
Inside the cave is...
A The mimic often transforms into incongruous items -- such as boats, banana trees, a kobold in a bathtub -- and worse, sometimes forgets that it's not actually that item, so will happily sit there, disguised, long after any potential prey has passed by.
As such, it doesn't get to eat as often as it should, and a small tribe of goblins -- from one of the small buildings to the north -- have taken pity on it, bringing it food and keeping the spider from K away.
The leader of the goblin tribe is a large and clever orange goblin called Thukknot. He...
@Simon Forster
Inside the cave is... a Giant Undead Toad. His name is Manchester. Previously a friend or accomplice of the Boar & Weasel from (S). Whilst exploring the city he was cursed with undeath and driven away by his 'friends'.
He became undead by drinking the rainwater in (N). (I guess thats why he became giant as well.. I propose he is 20'x10'x10'.)
He is vindictive and vengeful, desiring only the misery of his former companions.
(N): A contagious and sentient Undead was buried under the stones of this basement centuries ago. His contagion has spread to the rainwater now filling it. All the Orcs know of the curse (but not the source) and keep covert watch over the area to prevent things drinking from the water. They missed the toad due to being drunk.
(Rushed last post - Wanted to get something down so that people knew I was working on that topic) (The breathing, smell etc is all Manchester)
Further to my last regarding Z: The Runes are almost as Ancient as the well. Manchester doesn't know what they are for (They are for you to tie this place into your setting). There is a secret door under the water leading to a subterranean and submerged cave system.
There is very little of interest in the hidden cave system, but it is where 18 Zombie Orc Children live (from tribe E). They have killed and eaten anything that used to be alive down there (And tested the rope to see if it was food. It was not food.)
I got carried away.
...Inside the cave is a pack of Brass Jackals, who live behind a curtain of Tantalus Vines. The former residents placed them here...
...called Thukknot. He has a fondness for fried blood centipede, and often contracts with adventurers to retrieve them from C.
U: Unstable Ruin
A crumbling tower, leaning to one side, a dark doorway leading in. It looks like it is about to fall down at any moment, but that is not what is unstable. It actually exists in an unstable temporal vortex, the interior shifting between three different times: one the past, one the present, and one the future.
In the present it is a ruined tower, debris filled and dangerous to enter due to the risk of falling rocks (5 in 6 chance of rocks falling). Orc children from (F) sometimes come here to dare each other to enter the tower.
In the past...
And in the future...
[On to you...]
Sorry - I should have refreshed, I guess.
...The tower was a breeding place for animals of all sorts, which were fought in the lowest section. Certain strange creatures live there which no longer exist such as...
All of the buildings are made from a porous rock that will swell and groan in any any sort of rain.
The air in the city smells sweetly of rotten vegetation
Unstable ruin (future): There is no tower. The sky is a dark purple and casts an eerie and diffuse light all about the place. There is no sun that can be seen. Where the tower once stood a massive beanstalk rises up into the clouds.
Unstable ruin (past): The city and tower are gone. You stand amidst a thick green jungle. The air is heavy and wet. Huge flowers hang from overgrown vines and emit a cloying fragrance. A loud buzzing can be heard in the distance.
Area S: The boar (Eddard) and the giant weasel (Snarflin) are actually polymorphed rival magic users. Roll 1d6 for each minute. On a 1, the respective mage is aware of his state and able to think as if he were a human of intelligence 16. On a 5 through 6, he acts as a normal animal of the type specified.
The people at P are not, as they might first appear, archaeologists. Instead of digging something up, they're burying something which will become more powerful and/or valuable in the future; their plan is to use the unstable tower at U to go into the future and dig it up again. The object they are burying is...
The northeastern part of the ruins is swampy. A deep spring rises to feed the stream at [J], and the Eyebiter Orcs [E] guard this relatively fresh water and don't let others drink. Eyebiters can be identified by the countless welts of insect bites.
The greenish water trickles south, feeding into the cursed cistern of necromancy [N] and also seeping into wet ground that supports some peach trees [C]. The Eyebiters claim the orchard as well.
The rival Fist Orcs [F] are more numerous, but lack access to fresh water and food. The strangely resilient and crafty monsters at the pool [S] make it hard to get water there, so the Fist Orcs usually have to drink from the tainted cistern and most are ill. Their leaders are raising the black pudding [X] to enormous size on scraps and garbage. They hope to steal stone troughs from the excavators at [P], fill them with pudding, and stage a decisive ambush at of the hated Eyebiters, dropping corrosive, living goo from the ruined walls at [O] onto their helpless foes.
Also: THANKS FOR CHECKING OUT LESSERTON & MOR!
...The object they are burying is a chest full of gold. THey are burying it where they know that a bank will be built; inside are instructions to place it in the vault. The interest is enough to make them far richer than they are now.
C-...including strange plants such as... a tree growing not from a seed, but an egg laid by the black widow from K, this tree's bark is glassy and black and forms patterns of spiderwebs but only if viewed closely. The fruit this tree bears are actually cottony egg sacks that will hatch into full grown giant black widows in 1d10 days. There's a recipe that involves boiling an egg sack (with spider inside) as a soup.
The recipe can be found in...
Requires... as ingredients
and has... as affects if drank, used as splash weapon, etc.
The Eyebiter Orcs paint their left hands purple. The Fist Orcs paint their right hands purple.
...strange plants such as a beautiful, old, twisted tree, that fruits and flowers at the same time and gives the sweetest, most succulent blue peppers. Its roots can be found spreading into any water pool across the map; they are ravenous for man-flesh.
...farts.
The Fist Orcs paint their right hands purple because they're left-handed. The Eyebiter Orcs, though also left-handed, do it to make fun of the Fist Orcs, because their lack of eye-biting and _______ seems unorcish. The Eyebiters also love to ________ _______, being inveterate party animals. Both orc clans get their paint from the _____________ in ____________.
The giant rat infestation started as a small rat infestation caused by the ____________, before goblins started feeding them extra ___________ to increase the population size. The whole area, riddled with rat-gnawed holes, is disease-ridden, filthy, and probably going to collapse soon. The goblins, when they want to grab some rats, generally sending the goblin called Ratgrabber to do it. Ratgrabber is lame, smells like ________ and is often crabby. Sometimes, though, it's the pleasant and cheerful goblin Pulchritudinous Foppish ______ instead, if Ratgrabber's down with the rat-pox or the rat-__________.
The empty zombies gain different magical abilities based on what they're filled with, like ___________ if they're filled with ___________, or ____________ if it's ___________ instead. If however, you...
An unholy screech for 3d20 damage (And yes, the d30 rule applies, though modified so that you can roll the same amount of d30s) if they're filled with the blood of Orcish children
The time traveling diggers at P are in fact the very same zombies at Q.
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