Please do not Take these Organs

Please do not [T]ake these Organs by JamesLeng
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An old school dice-based dungeon crawl, where individual suggesters control their own hapless adventurers.

This article contains spoilers! You were warned.

Plot Summary

Sorted by party / plot arc. The infobox, for comparison, is sorted chronologically.

The Accidental Pirates

A captain who doesn't understand why she's been put in charge, a crew that doesn't know what they're doing, and somehow every new encounter results in new, enthusiastic recruits.

Thread 1

Deep in the Bloodmist Labyrinth, a misfit band of adventurers get off to an auspicious start, leaving one of their own for dead after a comedy of errors and misunderstanding in the very first room (don't worry, he gets better. Mostly). They eventually find shelter for the night in a goblin outpost, only wake up as the surprise guest starts in a sacrifice to Orcus. Spiders and violence ensue.

Thread 2

Having slain their would be executioner, the PCs are hustled off to the surface by their goblin hosts, richer in reparations, loot, and companions. Emerging near the sea they declare themselves a shipless crew of pirates, explore the coast, do a favor for a coven and outrageously rip off a group of aliens in the process (the aliens made the mistake of trying to rip off the pirates first)

Thread 3

The pirates purchase and explore a cart of holding, build their ship, conduct a ritual magic ritual, and generally faff about before collecting their favors from the coven and sailing off into the sunset in search of fortune.

The Fire Hawks

A group of driven individuals inherit a mercenary company after the original members go missing, and set out to restore the company and rescue their predecessors, furthering their own ambitions in the process.

Thread 4

A second group of adventures begin their escape from the Bloodmist Labyrinth, beginning by an oversized enchanted chessboard. Along the way they learn to think with portals, recruit a division of flesh puppets, bicker, mutate, collect a fallen mercenary's dog-tag equivalent, make a bargain with an undead queen, and eventually escape to the surface though the Temple of Final Sacrament.

Thread 5

The party makes their way to Passholdt and earn a majority share in the Fire Hawks mercenary company. Their first paying job is as escort to a merchant vessel. Along the way, they decide to come to the aid of a town beset by a bandit army. Then a forest explodes in the middle of the battlefield.

Thread 6

The Fire Hawks work to escape The Green Tide, a brand new dungeon, before their clients sail on without them. Once free of the dungeon, they take on a problematic pair of former bandit leaders as new clients, complete the first leg of their journey, go shopping, and manage to raise two of the original Fire Hawks.

Thread 9

With a lead on their founder's missing spellbook, and perhaps their missing teammates, the Fire Hawks prepare to rob the church of Orcus.

Team Magic Sword

Brought together by a wish, a magic sword, an angel and a devil, a group of weirdos set out to restore a ruined hospital turned dungeon.

Thread 4

In the same thread where the Fire Hawks made their start, two smaller groups that would later unite work to escape the Bloodmist Dungeon. The first manages to escape by cutting a deal with the Gug and sailing to Passholdt (with some accidental arson). The second manage to escape as a result of a preposterous metaphysical mess kicked up a deck of many things.

Thread 7

The party is united, and begins their work to explore and restore the Mouth of Doom.

The New Guys

The latest group of adventurers stranded in the Bloodmist Labyrinth, who have yet to distinguish themselves.

Thread 8

Pending!

Player Characters

For long form character sheets, see here (google doc).

Listed in order of introduction, sorted by act, and by party membership.

Act 2.5

A new start running simultaneously with Act 2

Character	Class	Specialization	Summary	Player
Ivori of House Shinseina Kaigijitsu Goodhall	Huldra Kitsune Townie	Ninja	-	Kome
Erik Gunnarsson	Human Soldier	Berserker	-	Harbard Grim
Mizer	Man-Bat Rich Bastard	Thief	-	strngy
Lizzy	Anthro Leopard Gecko Hedge Witch	Golemancy	-	Santova
Grave, the Grave Digger	Barkskin Soldier	Honoring the Dead	-	Gravid

Act 2

The currently active session.

Character	Class	Specialization	Summary	Player
Maru Red	Tiefling Townie	Skald	A boisterous and bawdy musical brawler hungry for fame and afraid of being forgotten, with a spectral axe earned in an act of bloody vengeance at her beck and call.	Santova
Hore Wutashi	Gnoll-Human Hybrid Hedge Witch	Outsider Shaman	An erratic, bloodthirsty, and shameless cybernetically-enhanced murder-gnoll, complete with variable arm cannon.	Kome
Decaro Vos	Eel-man Soldier	Grappling	The friendly and good hearted paladin of a benign tentacle goddess, blessed with the power of holy mutation. Currently sporting a third eye, a crab claw, and naga tail.	strngy
Davina / Viste	Human Rich Bastard	Fencer	A noble swordswoman capable of cutting portals in air, prone to hologram flickering, and host to an extraplaner horror. Moonlights as a magical girl and seeks to restore her fallen house.	mageykun
Eric Grimwald	Human Rich Bastard	Commanding Others	A lonely soul, possessing a disquieting appetite and difficulties with conventional healing. He seeks the immortality of undeath and a bride with which to share eternity.	GB
Yisheng Ji	Half-Avian Hedge Witch	Healing / Medicine	A dour and serious medical professional in the style of an eastern cultivator. Capable of moving weightlessly, possesses perfect balance, and seeks true immortality.	Tunic
Maria Agate	Human Hedge Witch	Purifying Light	A fighting nun of a family order who wields a searing, purging light to combat evil and the undead. Skilled with knots and more abstract wards and bindings.	The Archivist
Daniel Agate	Human Hedge Witch	Purification	Maria's brother, and the black sheep of the family due to his homosexuality and a non-combative manifestation of the familial gift: an aura capable of repelling or purging poisons, curses and disease.	The Archivist
Djan Seriv	Elf (Orc) Soldier	Slinger	A soldier-turned-deserter who has the ability to manipulate most metals like putty, with the exception of a painful allergy to gold. He hopes to find both peace and revenge.	DanZapman
Rhea	Half-goblinoid Hedge Witch	Empathic Fire	A cheerful and somewhat guileless half-goblin fire priestess, from the deep underground. On a pilgrimage to the surface in service of her real passion as a dessert chef (and an unhealthy fascination with the sun).	mageykun
Geoffrey Vargas	Human Rich Bastard	Escapology and Evasion	A former Royal Guardsman, professional coward and most recently (and mostly accidentally) an ancestral sorcerer. A sigil burned into his flesh warns him of danger, but also attracts it to him.	Riotmode, strngy
Helen Nabot	Human Townie	Deception / Gall	An older intellectual and scholar, bearing a curse on her back (literally and figuratively) which she believes is slowly consuming her past. She's turned to dangerous adventuring in search of ancient secrets and a possible cure.	strngy
Azure Youngmason	Phoenix Blooded Harpy Rich Bastard	Entrancing Song	A self absorbed and flighty avian who expects to breeze through trouble with some combination of fast talking, sex appeal, her brutish slave, Pog, and conditional combustible immortality.	Kome
Isaiah, son of Elohim	Necrolithograph Hedge Witch	Death Domain	An ambulatory suit of armor with the mind of a twelve year old boy who ineptly attempts to conceal his unnatural condition. Prophet of Hanspur, blessed with the power to divine the wisdom of roads.	Santova
Pog Roastchester	Orc Soldier	Tank	Azure's slave and a being of astonishingly limited intellect and prodigious strength and resilience. Possesses porcine features and appearance.	Kome
Malkov	Human Hedge Witch	Lightning/Undead-Bane Chi Powers	A clawed and scarred martial artist and former victim of necromatic experiments who now seeks to destroy both the undead and their masters.	The Archivist
Wendy	Human Hedge Witch	“Miracles”	An ambitious tinker and gadgeteer with a holy touch, persecuted and driven from her home. Venom drips in both her words and teeth.	The Archivist
Nistamatsin	Demon Hedge Witch	Abjuration	A bound demon driven by conflicting and paradoxical desires who steals faces to hide the ghastly visage of his true form. His body serves as a living bag of holding, filled with blood.	strngy
Kent Vogner	White Elf Townie	Artificing	A mutant, an engineer, and a thief capable of great bounding leaps, and whose passage leaves ripples in stone. They seek social equality through freedom of information. They also adore spiders.	Santova
Valeno Nahesa	Vishkanya Townie	Rogue / Poisoner	A voyeuristic contortionist snake person on a journey to become a legendary master of poison, who has been marred by a demon-attracting curse.	Shadowkaisen

Group I, The (New) Fire Hawks

Maru, Hore, Vos, Davina, Ji, Maria, Daniel,

Group II, Team Magic Sword

Rhea, Geoffrey, Azure, Isaiah, Helen, Pog, Malkov, Wendy, Nistamatsin, Kent

Group III, The Dungeoneers

Valeno

Demoted to NPC

Eric, Djan

Act 1

^{[TODO: Add summaries, clean up relevant section in external doc]}

The original session, which died after we spent an entire thread faffing around setting up a pirate ship.

Character	Class	Specialization	Summary	Player
Marijke	Hedge Witch	Suggestion / Mental influences	A lucre witch turned pirate captain after everyone around her shrugged and offered to work for an order of magnitude less than she was going to make	mageykun
Sgt. Nick	Soldier	Intuition
"Sir" Garaile	Soldier	Single combat	A double jointed man with solid convictions and fierce loyalty, not to mention a few grisly trophies, oath to the Burning Hate, and a compulsion to give Kobolds a chance at a better life	Tunic
Nico Nashville	Townie	Bluff / Acting		CalimariGod
Yeven Surgis	Rich Bastard	Demons		Bad transetor
Than	Soldier	Sharpshooter
Dimitry "the White Snake" Nicola	Townie	Stealth, assassination, thievery
Letkra	Rich Bastard	Spear-dancing		Mitsukara
Riv	Hedge Witch	Alchemy / Artificing	Twice over a former slave who's education in alchemy came at the cost of her mental health and people skills	Santova
Ravenous Llyr	Soldier	Tracking / Hunting		Tunic
Stone	Hedge Witch	Spirits	A proud warrior, haunted by the spirits of his ancestors, who now seeks some peace and quiet through any means necessary	Santova

Notable NPCs

^{[TODO: add more NPCs, expand/add descriptions]}

Contemporary

Broken into rough groups, by location and/or affiliation.

In the Dungeon

(Queen) Aaphia

Ecton

Jank

An orc who once guarded a pie. Moved to Ecton after leaving the Bloodmist Labyrinth.

Mayor of Ecton

The mayor's a crafty-looking old woman in a broad brimmed hat. She can do some scrying and dowsing, but she's not much good beyond a couple hundred yards. Some of her responsibilities include administrative stuff and tending to wounded.

Mayors Apprentice

A woman with ulterior motives; used her position to convince the townsfolk that a return to Ecton was a bad idea, despite testimony of it's safety from the Firehawks. Last seen with eelmen outside of Ecton proper.

EOD Monk

The second-coil monk from the Esoteric Order of Dagon has oddly wide-set eyes, like Hugo Weaving if he never blinked

Inspector Trihs

Ecton guard squad leader who got caught up in the green tide. Ate lunch with Gorsk "every day for the last eight years". Some practice with the shortbow and halberd.

Gorsk

Ecton guard, who was dedicated enough to procedure to keep the door closed on Inspector Trihs.

Zelkor's Ferry

Has a number of long term residents, including a small contingent of guards and the Brislebacks, a family of wereboars who's presence deters bandits, despite the town's small size and relative independence.

Odo Bristleback

mayor, innkeeper

Amelia Bristleback

accountant, laundry, part-time gambler

Hazel-Eyed Tallie Bristleback

Amelia and Odo's daughter, serving wench, bondage expert & sadist for hire by the hour

Gumbel Bristleback

Tallie's younger brother, cook, part-time carpenter

Igor Bristleback

Tallie's older brother, deaf/mute, spacey and skittish, stablehand, unties knots, part-time masseuse

Vort Bristleback

distant cousin and half-orc but could be Igor's twin, stablehand, no 'inside voice,' calm in a crisis

Ysbel Cloudpine

serving wench, saint lookalike (apart from blond rather than green hair)

Big Morgan Smith

blacksmith, wagon repair, part-time armorer but not for anything fancy

Deslena Smith

pottery, chicken ranching

Rasmus Pye

general store, merchant guild contact

Meregan Pye

inventory control, clothing repair

Ulman Dark

Unlicensed Necromancer, "your one-stop shop for no-questions, no-promises, cash-up-front medical care." Ulman is married to Kanndra, and a friend of Eric's.

Kanndra Dark

Slightly corrupt itinerant bounty hunter. Married to Ulman.

Gutmark the ferryman

spends most of his time fishing

Adebrin the fishwife

meat preservation expert, gnoll liaison

Kalgor the dwarf

chaplain, librarian, gemcutter, relics appraised & some curses broken, spirit diplomacy, weddings, funerals

Captain Skorma

guard commander, medium infantry

Officer Bodi

guardsman, medium infantry

Officer Eldeshi

guardswoman, medium infantry

Officer Hanesh

guardsman, medium infantry

Officer Shuma

guardsperson, medium infantry

Officer Taom

guardsman, medium infantry

The guards show distant professional courtesy to everyone but each other. Any given time, there's one guard at the gate, one on patrol, two awake but off-duty (usually either sparring out on the grass, maintaining their gear in the barracks, or relaxing in the Black Boar Inn's common room) and two sleeping.

Near Zelkor's Ferry

Tethru Dark, moss troll

Kanndra's adopted child and Ulman's apprentice, reads future in own entrails, set up in Yorgala's old cottage

Khadeehya's Pack

gnolls camped out on a hill two miles south of the ferry, middlemen for ransoming captives back from bandits

Tall Jack Rat's bandit gang

bunkered inside the Mouth of Doom, trying to regroup after a devastating and seemingly unprovoked attack by some sort of forest guardian named Drusilla. Recently they've started working with a ragtag group of adventurers, with the goal of turning the Mouth of Doom back into a place of healing.

Niknak Tarbucket and affiliated kobolds

also inside the Mouth of Doom but mobile, regarded as relatively harmless apart from pranks, inordinately fond of fresh bread.

Drusilla

A powerful druid who commands droves of wolves, turns people into clouds, and sets the forest upon those who displease her. Her motivations aren't totally understood, but they seemed to be linked to preventing ecological disruptions.

Mouth of Doom

Tall Rack Rat and his gang, members abbreviated as TJRG, which include a five man orc brotherhood who are highly skilled, but poorly equipped with two handed axes, a five man squad of humans trained as light infantry and equipped with short swords and longbows, and two squads of archers.

Talk Jack Rat

Leader of a gang of bandits who are camping out in the mouth of doom after Drusilla killed their previous leader (Mikhail's Marauders) and reduced their numbers considerably

Owen

TJRG, has long, well groomed hair and uses a spear with a sling attached to the butt.

Eochaid

TJRG, worships Tsathoggua and as a result tries to do as little work as possible. Wears a snakeskin belt, and is interested in intellectual pursuits.

Nerys

TJRG, died after drawing from the deck of many things, but not before gaining a magnificent weapon and thereby finding their peace in the afterlife.

Lucjan

TJR, leader of the orc brotherhood, has a long blue scar

Kamil

TJR, part of the Orc brotherhood.

Karol

TJR, part of the Orc brotherhood.

Kasper

TJR, part of the Orc brotherhood.

Kazimierz

TJR, part of the Orc brother.

The (Original) Fire Hawks

An experienced and established adventuring company, whose membership is largely MIA after heading Down The Well, just like everyone knows you shouldn't. One group of PCs has inherited control of the company, and is now responsible for rescuing, recovering the remains of, or learning the final fates of the original team.

Captain Azarthraine (MIA KIA Active)

A dynastic sorcerer capable of 8th circle magic. In melee, he usually fought with a rapier whose 'blade' was made from a piece of green wood, or else a three-pronged spear loaded with various tricky enchantments. It could shrink to a concealable baton or extend to improbable length, flex like a gripping claw and then deliver electrical shocks, lots of other stuff. He's been planning and prepping for his last trip for years, maybe even before he founded the company ...and we're supposed to rescue this guy?

- Azarthraine has been recovered and successfully resurrected, but (A) he is in a new lizardfolk body that he is still getting used to, and (B) he does not have his spellbook, which had the necessary variables needed to cast most of his spells. However, he has retained an extensive education in spellcraft, and can use the Supreme Disintegration spell with a few mods, so he is extremely useful when fighting high-level enemies with flawed defenses.

Master Sergeant Oldaric (KIA PTSD)

A 6th level orc fighter. We recovered just enough of his remains to reincarnate him into a new body, if and when we can afford it.

- Oldaric has been recovered and successfully resurrected, but is suffering from severe dysphoria. Specifically, he is intrigued about his new female sex, but living in the body of a green elf has triggered severe psychological trauma due to his racism of elves. He is currently living in the pocket-dimension greenhouse owned by the Fire Hawks, waiting for the sedatives to cultivate so he can stone himself for the rest of the period between now and when he can get himself polymorphed.

Corporal Adrenai (MIA)

An elf who dual wields hatchets, and a semi-reformed thief. She joined the company when her opportunistic mugging took down a bounty target the team was in pursuit of. Rather than ceding the bounty to Adrenai, Azarthraine made it a new rule that when somebody jumps in and finishes a job the Fire Hawks should've already been doing, faster and better, the new kid gets a few shares of stock from everybody they upstaged if they agree to join up and share credit for the deed itself. (Which is how we eventually ended up in control of the company).

Lt. Mezuryk (MIA)

Male, able to tank traps?

Sister Kalina (MIA)

The chaplain.

6th Member (MIA)

Name and description currently unknown.

Acolyte Galanodel

A young half-elven woman with dark skin and teal hair, she served as Sister Kalina's apprentice in the worship of a minor divinity best known for promoting the construction of public libraries, doing clerical work to pay for room and board until she's fully initiated. Currently the most senior surviving Fire Hawk, our secretary, and sleeping with Davina.

Passholdt

Sasha Green-Iron

The Minister of Security.

Prince Aaron IV

Sovereign ruler of Orcmeet, Passholdt, and some 2500 square miles of associated hinterlands

Chrysomelkarcalchaxis

The Minister of Thunder, and an adult cloud dragon.

'Ratbag' Amphoranung

A half-orc, and the current arena mixed-melee champion. Very flashy style, using something like a quarterstaff but with double-bitted axeheads on both ends, He mostly twirls it around like a baton, while doing dance moves in full plate that most people couldn't manage stark naked.

Nick

An ex-PC, changed by his time abandoned in the dungeon. Shelf fungi encrusts his backpack, his clothes, and out of his skin. He's got a magic helmet with a light that keeps an air bubble around his head. Deemed mentally incompetent, and put under the care of a guardian.

Einsoku Amphoranung

A dynastic sorcerer with 6th circle spells, including but not limited to techniques for lifting multi-ton stone blocks with his bare hands, teleporting while carrying them, permanently transmuting them into flesh, and inscribing tiny runes which he can later spy through. Can also whisper to people from afar. The Minister of Punctuality, Chrysomelkarcalchaxis' son, one-third half-orc, and one-third some sort of god or demon.

Pickled Locust

Someone the Minister of Punctuality would liaise with for quarantine procedures.

Historical / Mythological

Zelkor of the Green Tassels

Azarthraine's beloved mentor, who disappeared Down The Well more than a century ago.

Aguinbreke

A blue dragon who held a high position (both literally and figuratively, an important government official in a large city atop the tallest mountain in the world) during the last days of the Old Empire. She observed how and why things went to hell, theorized how such a terrible thing could be prevented from happening again, and wrote a book about it. This book is now mandatory reading for every dragon, and is the shaping and motivating philosophy behind the entire dracocracy.

Red Bear

A red-furred bear which lives in an unsually large, hollowed out tree between Passholdt and Zelkor's Ferry. The bear doesn't usually attack caravans, but lone travelers go missing frequently. Weather, and perhaps more specifically mud, could be related to it's habits.

Religions / Gods

^{[TODO: add more gods, expand/add descriptions]}

Orcus

Tittivila

Tentacle goddess of flesh and growth. Associated with flowing saltwater and blood, Tittivila heals, transforms, and enriches the living. Her followers are often blessed with the power of holy mutation.

Tsathoggua

Frog demon nemesis of Tittivila. Associated with stagnant freshwater and phlegm, Tsathoggua befouls, preserves, and eventually consumes the dead. His most positive quality is a sort of vigilance, countless wart-like eyes too lazy to close their lids. Graven idols of otherworldly green soapstone watch over tombs, vaults, and treasure-caves long lost to history.

Agatia

Both an ancestor to Maria and Daniel, as well as their deity of choice. Goddess of Flames, Purity and Rebirth, she's kind of a bitch.

Philista

Patron goddess of the Passholdt forgeworks. Has three separate aspects, Weeping, Laughing and Burning, which are capable of acting independently (or at least, in different places).

Minor Library Deity

Name unknown, worshiped by Kalina and Galanodel.

"Fire Mom"

The fire divinity of Greznek, and goddess of hearth and home (think Hestia's portfolio, but not as nice or as passive?). Has lost considerable influence to Orcus since his worship was introduced to goblinkind. Rhea's mother, name currently unknown.

The Old Gods

Vast, impersonal, eternal, corresponding neatly to sacred numbers zero through eight. Their bodies are worlds, and more than worlds. Each of the Old Gods corresponds to - in some sense IS - a plane of existence, extending infinitely in at least one direction. To them, the greatest behemoths were as fleas and ticks are to us, and the Titanomachy was of no more significance than a skirmish between anthills over the right to harvest a spilled bag of candy.

Sacred Number	Name(s)	Plane / Physical Domain	Description	Symbol(s)
0	The Hollow Pillar	Illusion and discontinuity. Dreams, spaces behind mirrors, temporal stasis, teleportation mishaps that send people to something like the "minus world" of Super Mario Bros., and so on. Bags of Holding and other pocket dimensions are carved from, and eventually return to, that realm, but are not of it while they still function.	God of charm, death, beauty, physical prowess, void and the horror of non-being which precedes existence.	Polished stone hand
1	The Storm Forge	The layer of the sky where weather happens	God of artifice, nobility and weather.	Lightning-struck tower
2	The Blood Mire	Land, especially wetlands, but also including everything from beaches to the relatively habitable outside parts of mountains, plus rivers, most of the smaller lakes, and shallow caves. Continues at least as far down as the depth of topsoil and at least as far up as the tops of trees.	God of earth, plant and war.	Grain encircled by a blade
3	The Green Breath	The ethereal plane(s). Every space with life in it eventually develops an ethereal analogue.	God of air, repose and travel.	Pointed S-curve with a central pivot
4	The Burning Hate	The Sun	God of glory, healing, the sun and darkness. Bestows miraculous healing, righteous charisma, and simple clear-cut solutions to complicated problems (often downright horrific). He detests restless spirits and walking corpses for their inability to feel pain.	Golden face, scowling, with radial spikes
5	Tiamat, The Scaled Ocean	The greatest lakes, shallower parts of oceans and deeper parts of caves, including any serious dungeon.	God of destruction, magic and water. The root cause of seismic activity such as mountain ranges and earthquakes.	Black/blue/green/red/white pentagram
6	Serpenthearth, A serpent coiled around an egg	Something beneath the deepest caves, a secret hearth to light the darkest parts of the oceans	God of community, knowledge and fire. The root cause of geothermal activity such as hot springs and volcanoes. Reputed to have once swallowed the sun. Side effects from that act led to the extinction of all mortal life, then vomited the sun back out and created at least one entirely new category of mortal life just to get things started again.	Snake or hexagram around a burning egg
7	The Unbroken Word	The Stars (and more than just the stars)	God of protection, luck and rune.	Colorless geodesic dome or hollow web
8	The Horned Queen	The Moon	God of animal, madness, trickery and liberation.	Stylized spider with white mouth, raised pedipalps. Stylized rabbit/elf head with a fractal hat.

If there is an Old God whose sacred number is 9, it must be very strange even by the standards of inscrutable cosmic horrors, for no mortal has ever successfully worshiped it to efficacious result, nor knowingly visited it's domain and returned to tell the tale. There are creatures, called 'qashmallim,' 'mothmen,' or 'aeons,' which sometimes profess direct and personal service to, and orders from, such an entity... but then again, some demons or madmen can claim almost anything with that same utter sincerity, so it is also plausible they serve nothing but their own, largely arbitrary if not outright random, compulsions and delusions.

Places

^{[TODO: add more places, expand/add descriptions]}

Dungeons

The Bloodmist Labyrinth

The starting point of the quest. An underground maze.

The Green Tide

A primordial forest that spontaneously erupted from the earth outside Ekton's walls while the Fire Hawks were defending it from bandits. Flora in this region is infectious. Some spatial anomalies included.

The Mouth of Doom

A former 'hospital' that lost control of one of its test subjects and was devastated. Team Magic Sword has been tasked with bringing it back up to shape.

Rook's Vineyard

"we don't go there anymore". A ghost town, with something more sinister going on underneath the surface.

Cities / Towns

Passholdt

150 miles east of the dungeon's gazebo entrance. It's situated on one of the few easy paths across the mountains. Most people assume that's where the city's name comes from ("hold the pass") but the literal translation is "place of walking trees." Controls a road that leads to Orcmeet, as well as the land surround orcmeet, and uses irrigation assisted farming. Passholdt also controls several quarries, used for extracting construction stone, in the surrounding mountains. These quarries are virtually inaccessible without flying or magic, and instead of roads, Passholdt utilizes blink dogs with portable holes to transport materials. In addition, Passholdt also controls and utilizes a portion of the Stoneheart river, mainly through underground caverns. Water is diverted into an aqueducts, and primarily used for irrigation and a cooling pool for smelting. Finally, Passholdt has large logging interests, but trees are able to grow back faster than they cut them down; they control a border fort near Zelkor's Ferry and the territory of the Red Bear.

Orcmeet

Where they keep the arena, behemoth containment, military academy, proving grounds, and round-the-clock parties. Roughly 30 miles from Passholdt if you follow the aqueduct downhill from the east gate. Contains a fair bit of grass, and much more desert; not enough precipitation or ground water to support intensive agriculture.

Greznek

An underground goblin city, below the Bloodmist Labyrinth, that still primarily follows the old ways and the local fire divinity rather than this newfangled Orcus fad that has taken root in so many of the goblin settlements closer to the surface. Where Rhea's from.

Overmire

A city where tungsten is processed into immovable rods. Healthy commerce, a huge selection of things to do, and a disturbingly competent navy.

Eckton

A coastal settlement near an eelfolk colony, with a brand new dungeon on its doorstep.

Rook's Vineyard

"we don't go there anymore". A ghost town, with something more sinister going on underneath the surface.

Zelkors Ferry

A small town, relatively independent, and surrounded by rivers, forests and swamps oh my. 25 miles downriver of Passholdt, 50 miles upriver from the old coast road. Not far to the south you'll find Lake Laogi and Rooks Vineyard.

Races / Species

^{[TODO: expand/add descriptions]}

Known sapient mortal creatures (as opposed to animals and vermin on the one hand, or ageless spirits on the other) fall into five broad categories. Generally, any two members of the same category can produce fertile offspring, and parents of two different races will produce a child of neither parent's race, but within the same category. Mating across categories doesn't usually yield children at all, unless powerful sorcery is used to force the issue or one of the parents is a disguised dragon, in which case the resultant hybrid is usually sterile.

Even in-universe, these categories are incomplete, and do not account for everything.

• Elvenoids

  Would probably be called "humanoids" if elves weren't so stuck-up and insistent on defining the language around themselves. Not a lot of natural variation beyond the cosmetic, although (as cases like White Snake demonstrate) they're the most vulnerable to magical mutation.

  • Elves

    Mature an order of magnitude slower than orcs and humans, and have not been conclusively proven to die of old age.

  • Humans
  • Orcs
  • Eel-men

    Traditionally lives in or near Freshwater along the estuaries and large bodies of water that pepper the area near the coast. Reproductive R-strategists, they travel to the sea to lay many eggs. No bloodline inheritance, hatchlings that survive the trip back to an eelfolk settlement are adopted and communally raised. Tittivila worship is common. Ritualistic and/or pragmatic cannibalism is practiced as a form of respect for the dead.

  • Fishlike sapient amphibians (and non-amphibians)
• Eohippoids

  Can mostly be described in terms of combinations of human, equine, and avian traits.

  • Dwarves
    • Green Dwarves
  • Harpies
  • Centaurs
  • Minotaurs
  • Mound-Builders

    Resemble miniaturized humans (averaging just under three feet tall, around thirty or forty pounds), but they move in short jerks alternating with eerie stillness, like startled deer, or hopping sparrows, or praying mantises. Tend to use slings or javelins rather than bows, due to issues of scaling and sudden vs. sustained strength. They're good at climbing and jumping, amazing at sprinting, not so good at marathon running, or surviving extremes of temperature and food shortages. Habitually barefoot. They made it through the dark times after the collapse of the Old Empire by going nomadic, but unlike orcs, they mostly stayed in green areas, burrows and other crude earthen fortifications (hence the name) dug with help from giant ground sloths and domesticated dire weasels.

  • Satyrs
  • Sphinxes
• Goblinoids
  • Goblins
    • Forest Goblins
    • Tidepool Goblins
  • Hobgoblins
  • Man-wise Wolves
  • Blink Dogs
  • Squidlike Sapient Amphibians
  • Gnolls
• Dragons

  Largely solitary, comparable to apex predators even though they can apparently subsist on a diet of ambient magic and ordinary rocks with no more ill effects than a human living on bread and vegetable broth. There's pounced sexual dimorphism, female dragons are the large, intelligent and dangerous ones controlling large scale politics. Male dragons are considerably smaller, and may be clever enough for the basics of language and tool use, like apes or crows or dolphins or parrots.

  • Blue

    Breathes lightning

  • Bronze

    Breathes lightning

  • Cloud
  • Various other colors / types
• Troll-kin

  Unusual in that many of them aren't generally known to reproduce at all by conventional means.

  • Trolls

    True Trolls have a two-stage life cycle: a sapient bipedal hermaphrodite with hands suited for tool use, and a tangled serpent which grows additional heads when wounded. Sloughed or severed heads develop arms, legs, viscera, and self-awareness in no particular order.

    • Mountain Trolls
  • Hags
  • Huldra

    Make no damn sense physiologically: they could be mistaken for elvenoids, apart from the fox tails, but instead of a spinal column they've got a gaping hole, and instead of a normal array of vital organs, the inside of a huldra's torso looks like a hollow rotten log.

  • Lamias
  • Medusas
• Other / Unknown

  Various creatures that don't fit neatly within the dracocracy's scholarly taxonomy. (As well as those that perhaps do, but have not been properly categorized due to player ignorance).

  • Neogi / Eel-ticks
  • Umber Hulks
  • Ghouls
  • Gug
  • Qashmallims / Mothmen / Aeons
  • Vishkanya

Languages

Characters can have fluency on a scale of 0-3, where 2 is enough to avoid "my hovercraft is full of eels"-level errors. Spoken and written tracked separately.

This list merely covers those languages we have personally encountered; it can be safely assumed there are many more.

• Humish / Low Draconic

  The presumed default for most adventurers, unless otherwise specified.

• High Draconic

  Scholarly research tends to be written in High Draconic, but it'd be unusual for any non-dragon to have fluency in spoken High Draconic above 1, due to a mix of deliberate secrecy and physiological limitations.

• Elvish

  Elven language has two spoken dialects (green and white), which are similar enough that it's impossible to achieve full fluency in one without at least minimal comprehension of the other, but only a single written form, consisting of densely-packed ideograms. Elves also have their own system of sign language.

• Elemental Languages
  • Elemental Fire / Flametongue
  • Elemental Water / Seatongue
  • Elemental Earth / Rocktonque
  • Elemental Air / Skytongue
  • Elemental Wood / Forest-tonque
• Orcish Intertribal Trade Pidgin
  • Specific Tribal / Familial Dialects (Various)
• Quenyl

  No spoken form, just ideograms and sign language best performed by pairs of three-fingered hands sharing an elbow.

• Ghoulish
• Dwarven / Harpese

  Thought to be a distant relative of rocktongue, though any lingering similarities are readily apparent only to the most cunning linguists.

• Goblinese
• Vishkanyan
• Liturgical (Various)

Gallery

Official

Maps

Battle site, Greznek Fort

Seacoast

Eel-tick Base

Goyle Base

Partial map of the Bloodmist Labyrinth, past the chasm

Partial map of the Mouth of Doom

Fanart

Letkra By Mitsukara

Vos By strngy

Also Vos By mageykun

Geoffrey By Riotmode

Geoffrey By Riotmode

By GB

By strngy

Davina By mageykun

Rhea By Riotmode

By strngy

Maps

Cubic Cart of Holding By mageykun

Bloodmist Labyrinth (Part II) By mageykun

Overworld (initial rough) By mageykun

Node map of The Green Tide. Not to scale, cardinal directions inaccurate. By mageykun

Overworld By strngy