The Empty City

Alabaster Anathema

Alabaster Anathema

Junior Member
Not Sure if iv posted about this before or not, regardless


Im just about every campaign iv ever put together at some point the Pc's decide that opening up the city is a good idea


and not that i blame them


dont get me wrong its not an easy hurdle to jump over due to getting there and just surviving in the city long enough to make it happen


but also its not exactly hard with some of the Solar Integrity charms that make you immune for ya know...24 hours


and the rewards seem pretty swank as well, i mean at least according to the book one of every artifact you can possiblly think of and a bunch of factory catherdrals


while like i said most characters may not likly have the compacity to repair or even the knowledge of how to get them working in the first place


but does this happen in anyone elses game does this city just draw characters in or has it largely remained as it always has empty.


any idea's for good obstacles getting there?
 
any idea's for good obstacles getting there?
Click to expand...
Start with "everyone else who wants to get at the city".  This can be a remarkably large and dangerous collection of forces.
 
In that list you can have: Seventh Legion, Scavenger Lords, petty theives, cultists of some god or demon, actual gods or demons, Immaculates, Dragon Blooded from the Realm, Saloy Hin's outcastes, Abyssals or perhaps a DL himself trying to break the curse (Walker perhaps?), Fae (PM me if you wish to learn about a few Fae I threw at that place once), GUILD, GUILD, GUILD, perhaps Ma-Ha is trying to take it with his barbarian hordes?


That's all I got from the top of my head.
 
What Chtulu_Wakes says. The Invisible Fortress in the Time of Tumult adventures present a very powerful treasure to be hunted, and some beefy foes. Denandsor is an even better known target and an order of magnitude greater reward. When you consider that the guy who is closest to taking the Scarlet Throne is in the tiny town of Wangler's Knob looking for the Fortress, there's no telling who all is hunting the Empty City.


At a bare minimum I'd say Sidereals are interested in it, Abyssals, the upper eschelons of the Immaculate Order, every nearby (within 1,000 nation) city should have an outpost nearby. This is a good time to introduce other cultures as well, with hunters from as far as Gem, Crystal, and the Archipelago. It's even conceivable that a few gods whose aspects involve solving mysteries, archeology, and other related topics woulc be there.
 
Hell, I had plans to unleash the AI that controlled the city upon the surrounding nations and cities. I wrote about that a long while ago. Something on how the city was completely automated. More of a project gleaming in some Twilight's eye at the time. Wonders of untold precision and craftsmanship lie underneath that city...waiting to be unleashed.


:D
 
While there may be some effort to stop the PCs arriving at the city it the real powers (7th legion, realm, sidereals, death lords) will make no effort to stop the party entering and opening up Denandsor, these powers will ether think the party is another doomed group of scavenger lords, or know they are solars and thus have a chance. Once the city is assessable to everybody then everybody and his uncle will charge in trying to take a piece, the major powers will be trying for ownership, how much will be left  for the PCs will depend on what steps they manage to take to defend the city from looters and invasion.


Edward
 
In my older 1E game, the PCs opened it...


Then promptly blew it up cause they had no idea how to run half the machines.
 
No, Waaaagh! is a battle cry, but only if you have a green streak through you.  Panzee beakie luvvin git...   :P
 
I'd honestly tweak the canon setting a bit and throw in more than the automata who are immune to the emanations coming from the palace in the center of the city.  


Perhaps some of the more unfortunate scavenger crews remain in the city, driven completely mad and twisted by the warping energies of various broken artifacts and Essence-leaking manses that haven't been repaired since the days of the Great Contagion.  


Fauna native to the area could also be tweaked to have suffered from such dementia and perhaps twisted by the selfsame Essence leaks in the city.  


And have fun with other kinds of automata besides the patrolling guardians.  WotLA contains a great deal of other mechanical goodies you can tweak and throw in the path of your players.


If you're feeling particularly sadistic, throw in a sentient warstrider at them too.  Those are always fun.


The Seventh Legion game I ran included a foray into Denandsor after a crashed skyship.  I used all the above, and good times were had by all.
 
There is some information on it in the Compass of Terrestrial Directions: the Scavenger Lands. Chapter 7 of that book is about Dendasor.
 
Duh! That's the only Compass book I own and I forgot all about it. :)


I haven't actualy read the book, but mostly because my campaign long since vacated the Scavenger Lands for parts farther North.
 
Just from what bits I've skimmed I believe you. However, my free time is being spent almost completely on figuring out some stuff for the following week's game. :)
 
My only complaint about the Scavenger Land's coverage on Denandsor, is it's lack of a map...  Maps make it so much easier to understand the general layout of a city.
 
When it comes to Nexus, all I needed was a rough idea of where things were.  The one in the Scavenger Lands is perfect for me, because it gives me a way to associate where the characters are, or where their base of operations is.  I also like maps that leave you plenty of room to add your own stuff in.  The bare bones Scavenger Lands one with the districts, tombs, and major landmarks, is great for this...  at least, IMHO.
 
::casts Forum Resurection Prana::


If a group of solars were to actually make it in, turn off the curse, reset the guardians, and generally make the place inhabitable again. How long do you think it would take other powers that want the place (like those mentioned earlier in this thread) to notice the curse is lifted? How long (in months) would these solars have before they're over thrown and tossed out?


New campaign, just needing ideas for a time frame. If they were quiet, kept to themselves, didn't invite everyone to live there they might have a few months I figure. Anyone else find that might be correct?
 
Well, the Walker in Darkness has his sights set on Densandsor, so he might find out faster than the rest. Next would be either the Mask of Winters or Lookshy, followed by the Realm, barring special circumstances.
 
IIRC the Guild has permanent looters camps here, as well as several other Scavenger Lords... so if the curse was lifted, the first thing they'd have to deal with is the lootlust of the locals. Of course Walker would be aware before the rest of the big ones.


There would be an inevitable struggle for Denandsor within the next few weeks considering what it potentially holds, and unless the players have the means to say "Back the fuck off my turf bitch" to Walker or Lookshy... they're likely to be politely put aside with a gentle pat on the head and a smile and a comment like : "nice kiddo, go play now, mommy and daddy need to have an adult conversation."
 
In one game I did back in 1E, is that I decided that the aura was actually the creation of a first age Solar Exalt.


The general idea was:


During the Usurpation a Night Cast Solar hid herself in some kind of cryostasis device that hid her from fate deep under Denandsor. In the Contagion, the governor of the city opened her pod up, along with activating too many different devices, and somehow horribly changed her nature into something... Else.


The way I wrote it, Denandsor was pristinely untouched, as this mad solar (think ess 10 night caste) went around murdering anything she came across. The PCs she let live so she could "educate" them to be good solar boys and girls. Since they were solars, I decided the power didn't work on them. Their lessons would start with something practical, then would devolve into how a essence converter was good for pulling the eyeballs out of small children and how satisfying the screams were... Among other disturbing things.


I think it's important to take canon, and if you don't like it, suitably change how the aura works to suit your campaign.
 
So far, because I want my solars to "win", my Denandsor is quite cannon. Only solar exalted are going to make it in, no matter how many mortals they want to bring with them. I have also set it up so that the automata in the city are not innately violent, unless the solars are foolish enough to enter certain areas they are unwelcome. And once they are in the city, they should have little problem opening it up, aside from the void of essence regaining, which they might view as a need for haste.


In the scavenger lands book it nicely details how the solar party can "win" and take back the city with little incident, but it never states all who would know if the curse were lifted.


It states that once exposed, people generally do not stick around, so I don't imagine there would be constant looters, but I don't think the solars could go more than a season without being found out.
 
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