Results of the 15 Axes and some thoughts/questions about this coming session

Aesthetic Era:  Almost everyone voted for blended/invented, with Victorian as a somewhat distant 2nd

• So, um, what did ya'll mean by blended/invented?  I can think of at least two options: 1) an aesthetic clash between ya'll foreigners and the natives and 2) D&D's usual wild and woolly mix of inspirations.

State of the Tools:  New Tech + Magic, with a slight preference toward magic being the norm

• What are ya'll imagining in terms of new tech?  I'm thinking, especially because ya'll wanted to be from the Free City, that this refers to steamtech/steampunk, but IU could also do things like resurrect some of my magical low-metal technology ideas, like the combination aqueduct/telegraph idea I had a while back . . .

Gritty v. Clean:  Mix/Middle Ground
Setting Clarity to Players:  Some Surprises

• So, what do ya'll think we need to establish to ensure that it's some surprises and not unpredictable?

Setting Equality:  Strong and Skilled
Style:  Primarily solving mysteries and exploring, with a decent amount of puzzles and skill-based challenges
Combat:  Light
Player Choice:  Choose Your Own Adventure

• Here's the one part where I assert a preference of mine and see what the group says.  Although I will create a branching plot structure with readily visible decision points if ya'll like, I was really hoping for more of a sandbox kind of structure, wherein I create the world and ya'll find your way through it, exploring and making connections.  What do ya'll think?

Player Thought:  3

• If we plan to do more of a sandbox structure, would a good and useful map (at the beginning, rather than vague directions and rumors that become a useful map through trial and error, which is my preference) help achieve this balance of player thought?

On Task:  Slightly Important
Success, as Seen by the Players:  Healthy Mix, with a slight preference toiwards Things Don't Go Smooth
Success, as Seen by the Characters:  Middle Ground
Stakes:  Primarily personal/party, with saving the Free City a distant 2nd

• Does this mean just keeping yourselves alive, building fame and fortune, or resolving some deep personality issue?  Or some combination?  Or something else altogether?

Humor:  Comedic Touches
Rating:  Fuck if I know, most of ya'll didn't fill that part out

All of this leads into this Tuesday's session:

First of all, we need to finish the last lingering bits of character creation.  Those are:

• character traits
• passions
• character conflict/personal stakes
• equipment

Second of all, I have been thinking of starting the game with ya'll's ship approaching the island when it gets attacked by pirates.  This is at least partly because Madagascar (the requested inspiration) is famous for its pirates.  I am curious if ya'll have an opinion on WHICH pirates, exactly, will be attacking your ship:

• Criminal-type pirates who don't give a damn and are just out for booty (that is, they're the most likely to just kill you, though that's not a certainty -- you don't have to kill them just to survive)
• Proto-anarcho-democratic pirates (look up Libertatia) who admire the Free City and therefore might be better-disposed to its citizenry
• Native pirates who often engage in slaving
• None at all, the first session consists of nasty weather which wrecks the ship, stranding you on the island
• None at all, the first adventure consists of your arrival at the leper colony

Which sounds best to ya'll?

The Set-Up

The sharrug gatorfolk are rising up against the Free City. Slithering their way through the tangled network of sewers and basements and first floors and second floors that have been built and sunk into what were once these lizardkin's bayou dens, they have struck into deep and unprotected parts of the city. Repeatedly.

Only 40 years into their newfound and hardfought independence, the Free City finds itself faced with a seemingly unconquerable foe, one driven both politically and spiritually to greater and greater acts of savagery. The citizenry cannot turn to either the Haeno clans nor the nations of Aporuë for help. The Two Kingdoms and Aprasaham care little for their fate, and the tribes of both Ndata-mbanye and Pesh find what help they can send weakened by the rightful anger they feel at their oppression by the colonizers. Only the Burnt-Out Coast seems willing to help, but they seem ineffective against these attackers.

The famed Free City University, refuge for all manner of strange studies, has stepped up with one of their wild theories. At this point, the citizenry of the Free City cares little for the oddball directions into which their desperation pitches them. They have sent you as their last, best hope.

The University keeps records of old texts written by the first Haeno and Aporuëna to have settled Pesh, some few even predating the outbreak of the First Free City War.  These books include Peshwa descriptions of shurrag origins, which tell us that they came many thousands of years ago from an island far to the south.  Subsequent investigations sought answers from the shurrag.  Given the gatorfolk's propensity for savagery and the colonizers' blinding curiosity, these investigations looked more like tortures, but answers were achieved in those days before walls and paving stones pushed the gatorfolk to the edges of the bayou.

The shurrag claimed that they were descended from a race they called the arallav, who walked invisible through the jungles and swamps of the island.  They spoke also of items and places of great power to which they still feel a spiritual connection, if a distant one.  Haeno researchers, in marginalia scribbled amongst these notes, questioned if the island meant was the obscure island of Salgam south of Aprasaham.  Further researchers, building on an ever-dwindling stream of information, have determined that sharrug magical bodies maintain a link to these faraway places and objects of power.

Your mission?  Travel to Salgam, an island still largely unexplored by foreign peoples, find those sacred places and/or objects, and pull on them to ensure the Free City's victory.  The University suggests that there are two possible solutions:

1. If you can find the three Sampy Houses, and if you can find the one with the appropriate sampy (magical artifacts whose powers extend over the entire community and ensure the ruler's sovereignty and the integrity of the state) and install the small god you carry with you in that House, the Free City will gain the protection of those sampy when battling the sharrug for as long as Mboloké's child lives there.  The appropriate sampy are kelimalaza, which turns rotten eggs into weapons with power beyond imagining, ramahavaly which controls all forms of reptile and repels their attacks, manjakatsiroa which protects the sovereignty of the king from rivals, and rafantaka which protects against injury and death.
2. If you use Vanmi techniques to build a grigri magic bag containing not only the bit of river muck from the Free City but also some sort of appropriate connection to the Twelve Sacred Hills of the island, whosoever wears the grigri bag will find eirself victorious against the sharrug, no matter the odds, and can lead Free City forces as a conquering hero against the gatorfolk.

In order to achieve all of this, you are sailing on a ship headed with supplies to the leper colony that was established long ago on the island.  Nations from all over the world relocate their lepers, plague-ridden, and grotesques to this colony, so that they don't infect or bring down those nations.  From there, you should be able to delve deep into the surrounding jungle on your quest for survival.

Good luck.

Civic Cult of the Free City II

The Integrated Revolutionary Committee of the Free City maintains a civic cult, rooted in the religion of Vanmi, the highly-syncretic faith developed by the Ndata-mbanyiti diaspora.

The focus of this civic cult is a deity called Mboloké, with a much reduced focus on his many children. Mboloké is depicted as a sphinx made out of stone and iron and is said to stalk through the city and eat the brains of those citizens who catch his fancy.  His portfolio includes solitude, filth, ugliness, midden heaps, prisons, armies, labor, alienation, fog, ghost rock, poverty, love, money, pavement, trees, visions, omens, hallucinations, miracles, ecstacies, dreams, adorations, illuminations, religions, breakthroughs, crucifixions, epiphanies, despairs, minds, new loves, suicide, and (most importantly) the Free City itself, and it is whispered that his voice can be heard in the sounds of screaming children, boy-soldiers sobbing, and the weeping of old men in the plazas.  He lives under stairways.

Roads of Mboloké include:

• The Nightmare of Himself
• Mboloké Swecra:  Mboloké Original One
• The Loveless
• Mboloké t'Aigul:  Mboloké of the Brass Tower
• Mental  Mboloké
• The Heavy Judger of Men
• The Congress of Sorrows
• Mboloké Ho'oh ???:  Whose Buildings Are Judgments
• The Vast Stone of War
• The Stunned Colonizers
• The Clockwork Mind
• Whose Blood is Running Money
• Whose Fingers Are Ten Armies
• Whose Breast is a Cannibal Dynamo
• Whose Ear is a Smoking Tomb
• Whose Eyes Are a Thousand Blind Windows
• Whose Towers Stand in the Long Streets Like Endless Gods
• Whose Labor Dreams and Chokes in the Fog
• Crowned With Chimneys and Antennae
• Whose Love is Endless Ghost Rock and Stone
• Usurious Lightning Soul
• Whose Poverty is the Specter of Genius
• Whose Fate is a Sexless Cloud
• The Mind
• In Whom I Sit Lonely
• In Whom I Dream Angels
• Who Entered My Soul Early
• Bodiless Consciousness
• Who Frightened Me Out of My Natural Ecstasy
• Whom I Abandon
• Light Streaming Out of the Sky
• Skeleton Treasury
• Blind Lord
• Demonic Overseer
• Spectral Nation
• Invincible Madhouse
• Granite Cock
• Monstrous Bomb
• Gone Down the River
• The Whole Boatload of Sensitive Bullshit
• Ten Years' Animal Screams and Suicides
• Mad Generation
• Down on the Rocks of Time
• Real Holy Laughter in the River
• Of the Wild Eyes
• Of the Holy Yells
• Bidding Farewell
• Waving
• Carrying Flowers
• Into the Street

According to Free City Vanmi lore, the world began as nothing but chaos with a single egg found in its centre. From that egg,  Mboloké Swecra is said to have hatched and begun to form the world.  Mboloké Swecra then created kel-Gaid, kel-Kiap, and kel-Nitarig, the small monster gods of time, space, and reversals, as well as the lake trio, Tirpsem, Eixu, and Fleza, said to be the embodiments of emotion, knowledge and willpower respectively. From there, these small monster gods created the world and Mboloké Swecra fell into a deep slumber, to awaken only upon the victory of the Free City in the Second Free City War.

According to one Free City Vanmi legend, the Brass Tower once stood as a home for Mboloké t'Aigul back in Ndata-mbanye. At one point, the Brass Tower was struck by lightning and burned to the ground, only to be quenched by the rains that followed soon after. Three nameless small monster gods were said to have died with the tower’s destruction but were resurrected by Mboloké Ho'oh as Wokiar, Yetné, and Enucius—the roaming legendary dogs who are said to have taken on the three characteristics of the tower’s destruction (electric, fire, water), as well as the legendary birds Onucitra, Sertlom, and Sodpaz.  It is said that upon the Brass Tower’s destruction, Mboloké t'Aigul left to find a new home, eventually finding the land that would one day be the Free City, while Mboloké Ho'oh flew off in search of someone pure-hearted enough to be taught how to capture and train the small monster gods.

A fifth trinity of Mboloké's children (it's a bit of a theme) that are very famous and powerful are often referred to as the “weather trio” due to their weather-affecting abilities.  After the world was created, it is said, the weather trio was responsible for its composition and shape. Nodourg was responsible for the matters of the land while Ergoyk was responsible for the matters of the sea. Azaqyar, said to reside in the highest air, maintains its role by making sure Nodworg and Ergoyk don’t quarrel with one another.

According to other lore, Sagigiger was responsible for pulling the continents of the world in place by using ropes, working for his siblings the weather trio. After it was done, it created the first three golems in its image from clay, ice and magma. These not-quite-small gods were known as Coriger, Eciger, and Leetsiger respectively. However, other small gods who witnessed Sagigiger’s power decided that it was too strong and sealed it away inside of a temple underneath the Free City. The three golems were separated from their creator and taken to what is now the Burnt-Out Coast where they were sealed away in separate chambers guarded by intricate puzzles in hopes that one day a trainer may be able to tame them and tame Sagigiger in turn.

Still other tales tell of an ancient civilization that lived around the Free City, the same civilization, the tales say, that built the mysterious mounds that dot the continent of Pesh. Two brothers are said to have founded this civilization with the help of a mighty draconic small god. However, the two brothers became divided upon how the land should be ruled and the dragon, unable to choose one side or the other, split itself in two and became Marisher and Morkez.

Marisher and Morkez are the representations of civic order and emptiness as well as truth and ideals in the Free City. Supposedly, after a great and evenly-matched battle between the two, the brothers set aside their differences and claimed that there was no right side to their arguments. However, their sons resumed the conflict later on and Marisher and Morkez allegedly destroyed the region with their fire and lightning abilities, disappearing thereafter.

Three small gods represent how the sky helps nourish the earth. These small gods are Sudanort of wind, Surudnuth of thunder, and Surodnal of rice.

Many other small gods are famous, for a wide variety of time.  Wem is speculated to be the true first child of Mboloké. It remains elusive by having the ability to change its shape.  Ibelec is said to be able to travel through time.  Iarkrad and Ailleserc represent the phases of the moon and are said to be responsible for nightmares and good dreams.

The Grand Bazaar

Zep Tepi's Grand Bazaar is renowned throughout the Two Kingdoms for its diversity and the sheer span of its shops.  Over two square miles of street are covered in bright tenting, and a wide plaza in the center of the square serves as a stage for the sale of animals, slaves, and unusual artifacts.  More than three thousand merchants hold shops in the area, and travelers often rent locations in the center of the plaza from the city, putting up temporary sales-tents and hawking their wares to anyone who comes near.  Of course, this chaotic environment is rife with thieves, so travelers are suggested to beware any "guides" who offer a tour of the city.  Real guides will be city-sanctioned and carry badges issued by the local qaidū.  Those who do not have such badges are almost certainly thieves trying to con the unwary into dark alleys.

Zep Tepi also has a tremendous pillar placed in the center of the bazaar, where offers for mercenaries are pinned to the wooden post.  This serves as a central area for such characters to get work and is a popular area for them to practice their fighting in a dished area of the ground nearby that serves as an impromptu arena.  In this way, the mercenaries show their skill to those who would wish to hire them.  The practice also draws many gamblers willing to bet on the outcome of these relatively friendly duels.

Ribat kel-Fatah

The bridge known as the "Victory Fortress" spans the Rabhaszem River in a wide band of gold, encircling both sides like a lover's band.  It is wide enough to march four large wagons side-by-side across, and even then there is room for others to walk between each of them.  The bridge is arched high above the river's waters, and the high columns that raise the stone above the river are shaped into key-stone arches much like the doorways of the masjid.

The bridge is almost a century old, and when it reaches the 100-year mark next year, a great festival has been planned to celebrate the union of the two halves of Zep Tepi.  Already, flowers are being grown on either side of the bridge, to offer spectacular color to the ceremony when it comes to pass.

Enhatyaka Masjid

The Enhatyaka Masjid is the largest religious mnument in the cities of the Two Kingdoms.  There are those seasoned travelers who claim that it outdoes the ancient Crypts of Duru, older even than the cursefolk-guarded Tomb-Riddled Cliffs and now buried in desert sand, lost to time.  Ten thousand craftsmen worked on it for more than sven years to raise it from empty earth into the magnificent structure it is today.

The masjid can hold up to 25,000 worshipers, and over 80,000 more can be accomodated on the plazas and balconies of the building overlooking the ritual area.  The highest minaret rises to a point over 200 yards into the air and is lit each night by over a thousand anterns within the spire.  The interior of the masjid is made of cedar carved by hand and fitted in ornate patterns all over the building.  It is one of the most sacred places in Zep Tepi, and the pharaoh himself worships within its magnificent architecture.

Khasbah tiz Ouregis

The Khasbah tiz Ouregis is one of the largest fortifications in the Two Kingdoms.  It stands more than eight miles in circumference and has over 200 gates looking down onto the city below.  Its walls are made from red clay -- stained red, some say, by the blood of those who defy the pharaoh.  Inside the walls are a number of buildings, streets, an trde centers for citizens to bring in portions of grain as taxes and for selling it again in hard seasons.  The eastern wall of the Khasbah overlooks the bay where the Rabhaszem River enters the Lachrymose Sea, and along the southern wall stretches one of the largest and most beautiful gardens in the world.

The garden at the edge of the Khasbah is known as the kel-Ilief.  It was created by a pharaoh long ago to commemorate those who had died defending the city.  After the monument at the center had been constructed, women of the city and all over the Two Kingdoms began to bring plants and place them around the towering statue.  As these plants took root and grew, the garden began.  Today it encircles a square area of almost a half-mile, fed by the river below and its plazas and flowering plants are considered one of the great wonders of the city.

The Khasbah is a peaceful place well-guarded and lit at night by traveling lantern-bearers who are paid by the city to keep the streets safe from crime.  It is a fairly cosmopolitan area filled with street vendors, rich merchant areas, and the nobility of the Two Kingdoms.