Post by Rabbit on Apr 10, 2013 16:34:25 GMT -5
This is a game theme I've been building for a while. Maybe someday we'll play it. 
Gate Crashers:
An ancient planar gate, first created by the mindflayers (thousands of years ago) is currently the center point for a trading post within a modern Duerger metropolis. There is an uneasy truce between some of the more powerful underdark races because they all benefit from the use of the portal. A boom town on the frontier of all the universe.
Player Races: Players are encouraged to choose from the following races. Other races are subject to DM approval.
Duerger: the Duerger are the most populous race. They rule the city and The Gatehouse.
MOTIVATION: The Duerger hold tightly to their grip of power over the portal. Despite the natural power struggles for dominance the Duerger are content with their trading partner agreement with the Githyanki. While they would not admit it openly the Duerger are not a race with much tradition in arcane and technology to travel the plains, and without their trading partner the portal would be worthless. They accept the drow's presence because the elves bring items of drow-make and technology of their own. And the Duerger take taxes (and bribees) from the drow traders so the Durger authorities find it beneficial to keep a few drow around. The city around The Gatehouse is large and there is a larger Duerger capital city about three days march should the Duerger need reinforcements.
Drow: there is a notable amount of drow present in the city, but their political influence is (by Duerger design) minimal. Drow here tend to be Houseless or of low birth. Many have left the great Drow cities in search of their own fortunes.
MOTIVATIONS: Drow armies attempted to take the portal for themselves in centuries past but failed. The distance from drow strongholds proved too difficult (The Gatehousehouse’s disruption of Transmutation spells negated most teleportation tactics.) Eventually the drow were able to find a foothold not through conquest but through commerce. In coming ages drow without noble standing formed a merchant class in Silver Falls. The drow merchants are accepted by the Duerger as long as they pay their fees, taxes, and bribes while keeping their interests focused on merchant activities.
Githyanki: the githyanki have become the traveling merchants who bring wondrous items from other planes to the "port city." Most stay only long enough to; sell their wares, do some trading, and return to their planar travel. However, some have made a home of sorts in the city. Like the drow these are often those that have little standing among their own race or perhaps they fear their Lich-Queen and her tendency to soul-feast upon her subjects.
MOTIVATIONS: The githyanki are seen as pirates by most any race that is aware of their existence. The reason is simple, because they are. But even pirates need a place to sell their wares. The githyanki use this portal as a safe harbor and a place to sell items they have no use for. They can also trade for items that might otherwise be out of reach. And while the githyanki are confident they could send an armada through the portal and conquer the underdark they would be robbing themselves of a long term commodity. The githyanki are happy with the Duerger running the Silver Falls as they see them as more dim-witted and easier to control than the plotting drow.
Slave Races: these races are used for labor, bodyguards, and war fodder. They have no standing in society and are seen only as beast of labor; Orcs, Goblins, Ogres
Enemey Races: each below race has an unreconcilable 'blood-feud' with at least one of the Player Races that likely has lasted for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. As a part of the city truce, the allied player races often treat these enemy races as their mortal enemies as well, since their plots will likely harm their own schemes.
Mind Flayers: the ancient illithids once enslaved the githyanki ancestors but lost control when they lost their vast empire eons ago. With groups living both in the underdark and on other distant planes the mindflayers would no doubt like to reclaim the planar portal for themselves.
Durro: an off shoot of the Duerger these insane creatures are beyond reason. Yet somehow they persist in the underdark and can become a nusaence (or worse) if left unchecked.
Elves (surface): from time to time the surface elves (and their allies) stumble into the underdark on one nieve crusade or another. Self-Righteous hypocrites with more luck than they deserve.
Dwarf (Deep/ Hill): The duerger and the other dwarf races have hated each other as long as their history has been recorded.
How The Gatehouse Works:
This is the great secret of Sillent Falls. Public history states that Duerger Artificers unlocked the mysteries of The Gatehousehouse, which most Dueger choose to believe. Some of the other races and more skeptical Duerger harbor doubts. Doubts that are best kept to themselves.
Locations:
Silent Falls: duerger city where the Planar Temple is.
The Bazaar: main market place of Silent Falls.
Dagger Valley: ward where drow are permitted to set up shot. Was the poorest part of Silent Falls until the drow refurbished it. A mix of homeless dueger and drow who are forced to tolerate them.
The Gatehouse: a massive complex with seemingly endless doors to other plains. There are also multiple floors and wards where travelers can stay. Most githyanki do not leave The Gatehouse while in Silent Falls.
Black Well: this is a lower chamber that serves as a dock for the Githyanki ships. A constant stream of black matter swirls just beyond the docks ready to pull anything it catches into the Astral Plain. This is the only set portal to receive “ships.”
Traveler’s Rest: The area east of The Well. This area around The Gatehouse has an unusual effect on most magic, especially transmutation. This strange effect is attributed to The Gatehouse and thought to perhaps be a protective field.
The Armory: A subsection of the Bazaar specializing in armors and weapons crafted by duerger artisans. Thuldor Grif has a stronghold here and is master patron to the toiling craftsmen.
Iron Vice: capital of the duerger kingdom. Several leagues from Silent Falls, but still demand tribute.
Brief History:
Deep in the underdark there was an immense cavern that naturally formed from an underground water flow. Someone (presumably the Mindflayers) expanded the natural cavern into a city sized chamber and built a castle sized inter-dimensional portal. The arcane technology used to build and operate this device is still beyond the knowledge of most modern arcanist. For reasons unknown, the mindflayers left the chamber and abandoned the portal.
Throughout the centuries various underdark races made refuge in the chamber. The residences changed, often, usually after a new race killed off the previous tenants, but a name eventually stuck, Silent Falls. Named after the natural cavern formed by an ancient waterflow that dried up before anyone’s living memory. Meanwhile The Gatehouse sat silent and unused. Most inhabitants did not even know what it was beyond some sort of illithid “temple.”
Eventually the chamber fell into the hands of the Duerger Empire. Silent Falls became a prosperous city and the Duerger expanded the chamber adding new passageways and fortifying their defenses. And then one day.... The Gatehouse was activated. The who, what and, why are closely guarded secrets known only by the most powerful Duerger. The Dueger quickly established trade relations with Githyanki based out of the Asrtal Plain.
Despite a few invasion attempts from Drow and other would be usurpers, the Duerger strengthened their control and have turned Silent Falls into a boom town on the frontier of all the universe.
Gate Crashers:
An ancient planar gate, first created by the mindflayers (thousands of years ago) is currently the center point for a trading post within a modern Duerger metropolis. There is an uneasy truce between some of the more powerful underdark races because they all benefit from the use of the portal. A boom town on the frontier of all the universe.
Player Races: Players are encouraged to choose from the following races. Other races are subject to DM approval.
Duerger: the Duerger are the most populous race. They rule the city and The Gatehouse.
MOTIVATION: The Duerger hold tightly to their grip of power over the portal. Despite the natural power struggles for dominance the Duerger are content with their trading partner agreement with the Githyanki. While they would not admit it openly the Duerger are not a race with much tradition in arcane and technology to travel the plains, and without their trading partner the portal would be worthless. They accept the drow's presence because the elves bring items of drow-make and technology of their own. And the Duerger take taxes (and bribees) from the drow traders so the Durger authorities find it beneficial to keep a few drow around. The city around The Gatehouse is large and there is a larger Duerger capital city about three days march should the Duerger need reinforcements.
Drow: there is a notable amount of drow present in the city, but their political influence is (by Duerger design) minimal. Drow here tend to be Houseless or of low birth. Many have left the great Drow cities in search of their own fortunes.
MOTIVATIONS: Drow armies attempted to take the portal for themselves in centuries past but failed. The distance from drow strongholds proved too difficult (The Gatehousehouse’s disruption of Transmutation spells negated most teleportation tactics.) Eventually the drow were able to find a foothold not through conquest but through commerce. In coming ages drow without noble standing formed a merchant class in Silver Falls. The drow merchants are accepted by the Duerger as long as they pay their fees, taxes, and bribes while keeping their interests focused on merchant activities.
Githyanki: the githyanki have become the traveling merchants who bring wondrous items from other planes to the "port city." Most stay only long enough to; sell their wares, do some trading, and return to their planar travel. However, some have made a home of sorts in the city. Like the drow these are often those that have little standing among their own race or perhaps they fear their Lich-Queen and her tendency to soul-feast upon her subjects.
MOTIVATIONS: The githyanki are seen as pirates by most any race that is aware of their existence. The reason is simple, because they are. But even pirates need a place to sell their wares. The githyanki use this portal as a safe harbor and a place to sell items they have no use for. They can also trade for items that might otherwise be out of reach. And while the githyanki are confident they could send an armada through the portal and conquer the underdark they would be robbing themselves of a long term commodity. The githyanki are happy with the Duerger running the Silver Falls as they see them as more dim-witted and easier to control than the plotting drow.
Slave Races: these races are used for labor, bodyguards, and war fodder. They have no standing in society and are seen only as beast of labor; Orcs, Goblins, Ogres
Enemey Races: each below race has an unreconcilable 'blood-feud' with at least one of the Player Races that likely has lasted for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. As a part of the city truce, the allied player races often treat these enemy races as their mortal enemies as well, since their plots will likely harm their own schemes.
Mind Flayers: the ancient illithids once enslaved the githyanki ancestors but lost control when they lost their vast empire eons ago. With groups living both in the underdark and on other distant planes the mindflayers would no doubt like to reclaim the planar portal for themselves.
Durro: an off shoot of the Duerger these insane creatures are beyond reason. Yet somehow they persist in the underdark and can become a nusaence (or worse) if left unchecked.
Elves (surface): from time to time the surface elves (and their allies) stumble into the underdark on one nieve crusade or another. Self-Righteous hypocrites with more luck than they deserve.
Dwarf (Deep/ Hill): The duerger and the other dwarf races have hated each other as long as their history has been recorded.
How The Gatehouse Works:
This is the great secret of Sillent Falls. Public history states that Duerger Artificers unlocked the mysteries of The Gatehousehouse, which most Dueger choose to believe. Some of the other races and more skeptical Duerger harbor doubts. Doubts that are best kept to themselves.
Locations:
Silent Falls: duerger city where the Planar Temple is.
The Bazaar: main market place of Silent Falls.
Dagger Valley: ward where drow are permitted to set up shot. Was the poorest part of Silent Falls until the drow refurbished it. A mix of homeless dueger and drow who are forced to tolerate them.
The Gatehouse: a massive complex with seemingly endless doors to other plains. There are also multiple floors and wards where travelers can stay. Most githyanki do not leave The Gatehouse while in Silent Falls.
Black Well: this is a lower chamber that serves as a dock for the Githyanki ships. A constant stream of black matter swirls just beyond the docks ready to pull anything it catches into the Astral Plain. This is the only set portal to receive “ships.”
Traveler’s Rest: The area east of The Well. This area around The Gatehouse has an unusual effect on most magic, especially transmutation. This strange effect is attributed to The Gatehouse and thought to perhaps be a protective field.
The Armory: A subsection of the Bazaar specializing in armors and weapons crafted by duerger artisans. Thuldor Grif has a stronghold here and is master patron to the toiling craftsmen.
Iron Vice: capital of the duerger kingdom. Several leagues from Silent Falls, but still demand tribute.
Brief History:
Deep in the underdark there was an immense cavern that naturally formed from an underground water flow. Someone (presumably the Mindflayers) expanded the natural cavern into a city sized chamber and built a castle sized inter-dimensional portal. The arcane technology used to build and operate this device is still beyond the knowledge of most modern arcanist. For reasons unknown, the mindflayers left the chamber and abandoned the portal.
Throughout the centuries various underdark races made refuge in the chamber. The residences changed, often, usually after a new race killed off the previous tenants, but a name eventually stuck, Silent Falls. Named after the natural cavern formed by an ancient waterflow that dried up before anyone’s living memory. Meanwhile The Gatehouse sat silent and unused. Most inhabitants did not even know what it was beyond some sort of illithid “temple.”
Eventually the chamber fell into the hands of the Duerger Empire. Silent Falls became a prosperous city and the Duerger expanded the chamber adding new passageways and fortifying their defenses. And then one day.... The Gatehouse was activated. The who, what and, why are closely guarded secrets known only by the most powerful Duerger. The Dueger quickly established trade relations with Githyanki based out of the Asrtal Plain.
Despite a few invasion attempts from Drow and other would be usurpers, the Duerger strengthened their control and have turned Silent Falls into a boom town on the frontier of all the universe.