Brainstorming eras of Portown Adventuring in YBB/YBA (Years Before/After Basic). Some dates from Holmes, with some extrapolation on my part:
100 YBB: Zenopus arrives, builds tower on hill over sea cliffs. Green Dragon Inn established.
~75 YBB: Zenopus begins excavating under tower. Adventure of era: Zenopus hires PCs to clear out ancient nonhuman ruins under his tower.
50 YBB: Tower engulfed in green flame, Zenopus vanishes. Adventure of era: Investigate disappearance of Zenopus
~45 YBB: Town demolishes 'haunted' tower
~5 YBB: Thaumaturgist arrives, builds or moves into small tower near the Zenopus ruins
0 YBB/YAB: Present day. Pirates/Lord Leomund (level 10 Fighter) ruler of town. Pirates/smugglers very active on Northern Sea. Bodies in graveyard transforming into ghouls from graveyard due to cultist activities. Adventure of era: Sample Dungeon. Investigate cult activities (adapt a CoC scenario?)
5-35 YAB: Quiet years. Old dungeon entrance sealed by Lord Leomund.
40 YAB: Lady Lemunda (also L10+ fighter) now ruler. Pirate & cultists have merged/transmogrified into new Dagonite threat. Adventure of era: Deal with Dagonite threat in old dungeon. #dagonite
I dig it. Perhaps add an entry for the prehuman civilization that built their city below the dungeons?
ReplyDeletere: Dagonite threat in 40 YAB. Haven't read Holmes' fiction, so I'm not familiar with his Dagonites. But it'd be fun to have the prehuman civilization have succumbed in a past aeon to the lure of HPL's Dagon (Great Old One) and migrated to the bottom of the sea, abandoning their ancient city in the rocky depths as a result. Fast forward to the present, a Temple of Dagon is one of the oldest structures in the town and rumored to pre date it; the cult is small but fervent, and involves perhaps two to three dozen families. Family members go about the town openly until they marry, usually in their early twenties; after that, as they gain status in the cult they successively cover themselves (first long garments, then hooded robes, then adding gloves and veils). In truth, this is to cover the progression of the "Innsmouth look"; it also enables the eldest members (who by then rarely leave their homes or the temple) to "disappear" without anyone noticing in town - one completely covered person looking not much different than another, they can keep the sham going if needed before publicizing that the now-departed-for-the-deeps relative has "died after a long wasting illness". The locals tolerate them since they are known to be able to call up fish from the deeps for the local fishermen (in truth, having their Deep One relatives drive the fish to the nets), but many townsfolk superstitiously avoid the cult families.
Don't forget the mysterious gold of the deep ones.
ReplyDeleteI was just starting a trip when I wrote this, and didn't get a chance to follow up on it until today, when I turned it into a blog post: zenopusarchives.blogspot.com - Portown Adventuring Eras
ReplyDeleteAndy C Great ideas regarding the Temple of Dagon. I have a file on the Dagonites (plus one compiled by Tony Rowe) and am going to update it as I re-read the Maze of Peril (coming soon as a new blog series)
ReplyDeleteChris Holmes Ah yes, the weird gold jewelry from Innsmouth: "Even now I can hardly describe what I saw, though it was clearly enough a sort of tiara, as the description had said. It was tall in front, and with a very large and curiously irregular periphery, as if designed for a head of almost freakishly elliptical outline. The material seemed to be predominantly gold, though a weird lighter lustrousness hinted at some strange alloy with an equally beautiful and scarcely identifiable metal. Its condition was almost perfect, and one could have spent hours in studying the striking and puzzlingly untraditional designs—some simply geometrical, and some plainly marine—chased or moulded in high relief on its surface with a craftsmanship of incredible skill and grace"
ReplyDeleteI've wondered how the Dagon it's forged their jewelry. They would presumably have to do it on land; an island perhaps.
ReplyDelete