A city for my campaign

[thebax2k]

Glad you found a couple of ideas you could use Loogie. As I said, I'm curious to see how your city turns out.

One additional thought, since nothing in the city is quite what it seems to be, why not have the surrounding wilderness follow the same theme as well? The pc may have been told that the frontier is dark, untamed, brooding, savage wildlands that must be conquered and controlled. However, on a deeper look he may find it a place that holds allies, hints that things are not quite what he thinks them to be, and a final reveal that far from civilizing, the city is despoiling the lands around it. Megaliths, stone circles, eldritch ruins from civilizations long past would be perfect to hide in the deep wilderness.

Perhaps very deep in the wilderness is a site sacred to the evil deity the merchant follows? (Which is why the city may have been secretly founded in the first place--the city dwellers think they are settling the frontier, but are really there to provide sacrifices, slaves, soldiers, and workers for when the evil deity's site is fully empowered and/or the deity is released--I'd suggest that the pc dealing with the merchant and fort be low to mid level adventures, while taking out the remote site and possibly traveling to the planes where the deity is imprisoned should be APL 12+.)

[loogie]

Thats a great idea... the dark and foreboding forest where people seem to disappear frequently... I'm thinking, some dark shrine or such is being built in the forest, slaves to do the dirty work are being siphoned from the brothels/bars/etc via the underground tunnels. You drink a little to much in a bar one night and you disappear... as well as the odd strayed explorer who comes a bit to close for comfort... Because of the growing darkness in the forest, a multitude of horrors are attracted and taking up residence there, allowing for several forays into its depths to root out the evil... finally coming to the true reason it is a dark place...

As for the demonic worshipers themselves, I've planned to have them broken off into different sections, for instance, the knights themselves are meant to look like the good guys to onlookers, so they will separated from the actual priests and such who preform the demonic duties. The merchant and his guild will be even more removed, as would the bandits... Many of the members of any of these guilds will be oblivious to their actual intent, and will be much like the player, in that they are part of the evil organization without even knowing it (also making it much more then "find everyone who is part of this guild and kill them or bring them to justice" for many people may have not intended to do anything wrong...) The main purpose will be to allow these groups to be found and confronted, without knowing that the Dark priests and Valiant Knights are part of the same group...

I'm definitely getting more anxious to start work.. but i do still have some more work to do at school... i should get some time very soon, to write some of this down, and begin designing maps...

Thanks again!

[loogie]

I was just thinking, to add some extra influence to show that the forts occupants are very strict, ordered, and yet uncaring... what if the villages existed before the fort was erected, in the normal unplanned manner, but when the fort was founded, they forced the city to redesign its roads to be more orderly... causing several buildings and such to be moved, torn down, or even have such things as roads going right through the first floor of a building, creating a tunnel... any thoughts?