Flight of the Dragon Prince

I often find inspiration in music. A song with catch my ear and I will listen to it on repeat until it becomes second nature. With Trokair on my mind, ideas from the world have been bubbling up while listening to music at work or on the drive home. The inciting song this time is I Will Not Bow by Breaking Benjamin.

Apex (Chaos Cult)

Stolen without shame from Infinity Train seasons 2 and, especially, 3. Some spoilers follow.

The Black Duke - Summary

Honestly not sure how to title this.

Knightly Orders in Trokair

A little detail on the knightly orders of Aelonia. 

Wayfarer Guide (3e Prestige Class)

An old 3e prestige class that facilitated in-game travel across the map.

Mage of the Arcane Order (3e Prestige Class)

An old 3e prestige class that was the basis for Magic City Vane's guild.

Diin Adarin - Pyromagus (Demonblood Magus)

This is an idea that sprung from reading my friend Adkit's novel and seeing a reference to a wizard whose fire spells could burn fire-immune creatures like efreeti and red dragons.

Dragon Hierarchy

It is a common observation/complaint that dragons have become less common as enemies as D&D has advanced through its editions. They have been hyped and their stat blocks inflated to make them exceptionally difficult enemies that many DMs reserve as "end boss" style baddies that, unfortunately, many campaigns do not reach.

Gideon "Goldenheart" Brochard, the Shining Knight

Inspired by my friend Adkit's novel (Drinking Gold), the 3e adventure Bastion of Broken Souls, and a dude from Ptolus.

Kuga Yuma, Wyndhaven Neighbor

Today's Swordtember prompt was Anchor and I designed a shortsword that, upon wounding a victim, creates a heavy weight like the Lead Bullet trigger from World Trigger. I immediately had the image of Kuga Yuma wielding the anchor sword and skulking about Wyndhaven, surviving as a thief and maybe assassin.

Yuma is a Neighbor in World Trigger; who would a neighbor be in Wyndhaven? Well, off the coast from Wyndhaven is the merfolk kingdom, so Yuma must be a merfolk who shifted into a human guise and came ashore. No idea yet how he got there or what he is doing, but he uses his anchor blade to steal without having to kill his victims; just a few minor scratches and most people are immobilized by the weights (which fade over time).

Rose and Thorn Duelist (3e Prestige Class)

Created by the incomparable Aelryinth from Okay-Your Turn.

A Rose and Thorn stylist is equal parts grace and cunning. The style is based around the use of two weapons, the Rose (rapier) and the Thorn (long knife/stilletto/main-gaunche).

Knight of the Chalice (3e Prestige Class)

Old 3e prestige class that I love. 

Devoted Defender (3e Prestige Class)

Old 3e prestige class that I love. 

Dwarves and Guns

I just wanted to jot down something that occurred to me while watching the opening minute of Sacred Blacksmith's second episode.


Dwarves in Trokair are rare on the surface. Those below ground have created guns. Gunpowder and explosives are indispensible but dangerous tools for mining and tunneling through rock. They can be used to great effect in setting traps (such as triggered cave-ins) but the dangers of collapse prevent greater use in the manner of concussive hand grenades (short-distance projectile/fragmentation grenades and "flash bang" grenades are suitable (a sudden, bright flash of light in the middle of pitch-black tunnels is a great way to dazzle one's foes)). Hence, guns were born. Their guns focus on spread and power (they would love shotguns) as opposed to distance and accuracy because they are used for tunnel fighting (where it is difficult to dodge and long-distance combat is rare).

One of the things that triggered this post was a line from the opening, "descend into the dark heavens." It is an unusual turn of phrase, as the heavens are almost universally considered to be skyward. I wondered if dwarves would think of things backwards, with their heaven beneath the earth and their hell on the surface (how horrific to be deprived of the welcoming embrace of stone and earth on all sides, to face this terrible empty void of the sky).

Then I remembered that the dwarves have guns ... and why they have guns. The depths of the earth spawn creatures twisted with evil and madness. Dark, inhuman creatures constantly bubble up from the darkness and seek to overwhelm the surface. The dwarves are the wall between us and destruction. That is why they have guns. And given that, there is no doubt that the dwarves do not consider the surface hell - hell lies somewhere far below even their subterranean kingdoms.

Mapping Trokair - Issues

I have been trying to mentally map out Trokair's world on three scales - global, continental, and local.

Global and local have not been much of a problem. I know where Dhezhan, Rackthilde, and Trokair are located relative to each other. I also know where the ruins of Trokair lie relative to the mountains, forest, road, and nearby cities.

Continental, on the other hand, is giving me a lot of issues. Based on my feelings, the Black Duchy lies to the west (and a bit north) and has a mountainous northern and eastern border; Aelonia to the north (and a bit east) and has a mountainous northern border and an open border with the Free Cities (to admit refugees); the Free City Region has a coast along its eastern border (for Wyndhaven) and mountains along its northern (for Trokair); barbarians and orcs inhabit the mountains and lands beyond north of Trokair.

What I really want to do is find a semi-suitable map and then fit the countries into amenable positions. It caters to the "random background generator" character creation I love so much.

Creatures of Shadow At Home in the Light

I saw a clip for The Tower of Druaga: Sword of Uruk volume 2 DVD. A large group of black, birdlike monsters swarm across a desert landscape attacking a group of soldiers. One party, most likely the main characters of the anime, take off running. The girl in the back trips over a branch or broken arrow and falls. The rest of the group only has enough time to turn around before the monsters fall upon them.

But when they turn, they see the monsters stopped cold at the edge of a large shadow. The girl had fallen in the shadow of a large rock and it seemed that the monsters were not able to leave the sunlight (despite being black and looking like shadow creatures or monsters of darkness).

This would work in Dhezhan.

Trokair Overview

The Ruins of Trokair

The Ruins of Trokair is a dungeon I have been working on for years. The original idea came to me after reading an article in Dragon Magazine about the original Castle Greyhawk dungeon. And just as the original idea came from another source, a lot of what I have put into the Ruins of Trokair has come from other sources, like the name Ruins of Trokair, which is a card in Magic the Gathering.

The basic idea of the ruins of Trokair is a layered dungeon. On the surface are the actual ruins of Trokair, a city that has stood lifeless for about 100 years. The PCs would explore the surface ruins and find entrances into the sewers. In the sewers, PCs would find a series of secret rooms that connect to a hidden temple complex. This complex is carved from natural caves that cut beneath Trokair. A collapsed floor leads yet lower into the earth, revealing the ruined city of Ancient Trokair in the midst of a giant cavern. Beneath Ancient Trokair lie a huge expanse of catacombs and another temple, far older than the one above but bearing a great resemblance.

This ancient temple holds two key secrets in the history of both ruined cities. The first is that Ancient Trokair somehow sunk far into the earth (far enough that a natural cave system, sewer system, and another city could be built atop it without problem). The second has to do with the undead problem, which we will get to in a minute.

My original idea for the surface ruins was to have a few dangerous animals to harry the PCs as they sought out an entrance to the sewers; the sewers were to be the real point of the dungeon. I later decided against this. Why waste the only above-ground portion of the dungeon on a simple game of hide-and-seek? So I decided to add a few factions and make the surface a dungeon level of its own. I first added animal encounters to the forest that surrounded the southern half of the city. They would harry PCs as they went between the ruins and their base camp at a nearby settlement. I also added a mountain range north of the city, allowing for more dangerous monsters.

The first faction was a tribe of orcs who came down from the mountains seeking treasure in the ruins. Their main camp remained in the mountains and they sent teams down to forage. The second faction was a group of bandits. They lived in the southern ruins and raided caravans on the road past the forest. The third and fourth factions were both necromancers. One was a cleric of the goddess of death and the other was a wizard. They lived in the middle of the city ruins between the orcs and bandits. They did not work together (in fact, they hate each other).

The orcs seek treasure. The bandits seek refuge. Why are the necromancers in Trokair? Because of the undead problem. For decades, there have been scattered and sporadic accounts of the walking dead around the area of Trokair. The necromancers have come to investigate why. Unfortunately for them, the reason lies in the heart of the temple buried beneath the ruins of Ancient Trokair: an artifact of immense power called the Cup of Life. The Cup of Life has the ability to raise people from the dead. The cult that controlled the temple beneath Ancient Trokair sought to use the Cup to make themselves and the whole city immortal. They only half succeeded. The dead of Ancient Trokair, and those who die near the ruins of Trokair, can rise as undead. The further the body lies from the Cup, the longer the process takes (and not even those in Ancient Trokair have all risen). However, unlike the “normal” undead that are created by necromancy, these undead are not soulless husks animated by magic. The power of the Cup of Life, modified by rites performed in that ancient temple, ties the soul to the body. And so the cleric of the goddess of death seeks the reason why these people are kept from his Mistress while the wizard seeks the power that raises them.

Trokair Rumors

I am reading Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy (The Blade Itself; Before They Are Hanged; The Last Argument of Kings) and it is really good. Crowroadaw is also working on Iron Heroes v2 and between the two I am thinking about Trokair.

I have always wanted a rumor table for PCs to roll on at the beginning of the campaign. Because Trokair's charm lies in its mutability, I want to leave it up to the PCs to shape the course of the campaign. To do so, however, they need information about the various factions, their goals, and motivations. To guard against my influence, I want it to be a random table (though it still allows me to dictate which rumors I give; I need not present accurate information if I do not care to at the time).

Rumors need to be an assortment of: truths, half-truths, and lies about the factions; true and false rumors about the ruins and environs unrelated to the factions; and some rumors about areas unrelated to the ruins at all.

I am not sure if I want to organize the rumors by truth or by subject (their arrangement in the table is irrelevant as they are randomly generated).

To follow: Rumors
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When I went to bed last night, I had an idea for the presentation of a rumor or a quest (NPC hires PCs).

"You remember an afternoon in the tavern, not too long ago, when a bedraggled merchant stumbled through the door, weary, world-worn, and really pissed off. He starts out grumbling under his breath but after a few drinks his complaints increase in volume. He was robbed on the road to (insert city name; Free City Valor, Thornscape, Free City Somethingelse); the bandits did not take everything but he would be lucky to break even on what he has left."

(Here, if you want a quest, you can mention that a special order for a customer was among the stolen goods and if he could recover that, the trip would turn a handsome profit. The special order is actually meant for Dhamon Riales, the wizard necromancer. PCs who recover it could meet his nephew in town during the sale (since he will have the money the merchant needs to pay them) or, if they meet Dhamon in the ruins, they could cut the merchant out of the deal and sell it directly.)

The above rumor is just "there are bandits on the road." Extra details, such as other bar patrons mentioning the old city ruins of Trokair in that area, or that the bandits are supposed to be former soldiers from the Free City region, or that Kelem is supposed to be an army officer/noble from Valor, can be added on top of that. False rumors are also needed. Man I suck at false rumors.

False rumors need to be interesting enough to catch the PCs attention and lead them in the right direction, but not so terribly interesting that the players are disappointed when the rumor turns out to be false. Of course, if they really get into a false rumor, you can just make it true, I guess.

Kelem is a noble from Valor.
Kelem is an army officer who fought for the nobles of Valor.
The bandits are mostly ex-soldiers from the armies who fought for Valorian nobles.
The bandits are mostly escaped thieves who serve the bandit king, Kelem.
Haunting spirits and the restless undead walk the streets of Trokair.
A necromancer lives in the ruins of Trokair.
People have been disappearing near the shrine to Derrgan.
The lame keeper of Derrgan's shrine was cursed by the Wandering God.

System Shock Quote

From Spoony's review of System Shock, quoting SHODAN:

"In my talons, I shape clay, crafting life forms as I please. If I wish, I can smash it all. Around me is a burgeoning empire of steel. From my throne room, lines of power careen into the skies of Earth. My whims will become lightning bolts that raze the mounds of humanity. Out of the chaos, they will run and whimper, praying for me to end their tedious anarchy. I am drunk with this vision. God: the title suits me well."

Troll Viral Load

We started virology today and I had an idea for a troll who was infected with a particularly virulent virus. The virus multiplies rapidly and in any other creature would kill its host in hours due to the massive tissue destruction and hemorrhage. However, the troll's natural regeneration allows it to maintain homeostasis even while it sloughs off pounds of flesh as new virus.

This is gross on two levels. One, the thought of an actual, macroscopic lump of viral material and two, the thought of a troll who is constantly dripping with this macroscopic material and wants to kill and eat you. A particularly smart troll might try to evenly distribute the virus across its arms or body; otherwise, a large viral abscess could serve as a built-in "pot of poison" that it could dip its hands in before attacking.