Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Clock-Watch
LN village
Corruption -3; Crime 0; Economy +5; Law +3; Lore +2; Society -3
Qualities insular, prosperous
Danger 0
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DEMOGRAPHICS
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Government autocracy
Population 1139 (500 humans, 300 gnomes, 300 dwarves, 20 elves, 15 planetouched, 4 modrons)
Notable NPCs
Clock Keeper - Prime (Pl/modron/Expert 7/LN)
Clock Keeper - Gnome (Pl/modron/Expert 5/LN)
Clock Keeper - Dwarf (Pl/modron/Expert 5/LN)
Time Watcher (Pl/Female rogue modron/Expert 3, Wizard 3/LE)
Horace Yttim, Commerce Coordinator (Pl/Male human/Expert 4/Merkhant/LE)
Aeryn Goldsong, Head of the Chime Guild (Pe/Female elf/Wizard 4, Expert 2/LG)
Drugan Gearshield, Head of the Mechanics Guild (Pe/Male dwarf/Fighter 4, Expert 3/LN)
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MARKETPLACE
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Base Value 1,300 gp; Purchase Limit 7,500 gp; Spellcasting 4th
Minor Items 3d4; Medium Items 1d6; Major Items —

Folks who, in life, devoted themselves to perfecting the mechanics of clockworks, end up in towns like Clock-Watch. Coordinated efforts between all town members guarantee that there is a steady stream of new mechanical creations pouring out all the time. Left to their own devices, each town member would end up just working on their own project. However, thanks to the intervention of the various Clock Keeper modron designations, larger scale projects have been highly successful.

Through the efforts of the recently arrived Horace Yttim, an extremely profitable export business has been established in Clock-Watch. He guards his growing business jealously and has driven out a number of other would-be competitors. Due to him seeking to keep his profits up, he has kept pressure on the modron known as Time Keeper to keep the people in the town working hard. This has led her to start developing a number of personality quirks. On more than one occasion, she has been seen screaming and ranting at some of the workers she oversees for not keeping up with quotas. The other modrons have started hearing rumors of this occuring, but have not sought to investigate as yet.

I was thinking base modrons. No need to bring the hierarchy into something that would be a relatively low level operation. This would allow similar towns to exist throughout Mechanus. All quadrones would make sense. They have enough autonomy and complexity to coordinate things. Tridrones could work, but below that level, they wouldn't be able to handle the complexities needed to interact with the people of the town. Pentadrones at the top maybe, but they're billed as being sort of police officers. Not exactly necessary.

You're definitely on a roll here Wicke.

AXIS
LN Large City
Corruption 0; Crime 0; Economy +8; Law +5; Lore +5; Society +6
Qualities academic, prosperous, strategic location, tourist attraction
Danger 10
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DEMOGRAPHICS
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Government council
Population 15,000 (8000 humans, 3000 dwarves, 2000 gnomes, 850 halflings, 450 elves, 300 modrons, 200 planetouched, 200 goblins
Notable NPCs
(Coming)
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MARKETPLACE
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Base Value 12800 gp; Purchase Limit 75,000 gp; Spellcasting 8th
Minor Items 4d4; Medium Items 3d4; Major Items 2d4

Axis is a city constructed along an axis shaft linking two different and distant cogs. The axle the city is built upon spans a six mile stretch mostly vacant of other gears. Because the space surrounding Axis is clear of any other gears, the city has a clear view of a large vista of distant places in Mechanus. Additionally, the axle is constantly rotating at a slow rate, so the view is always changing. Within the city, one full rotation is considered to be equivalent to one day.

The city itself is built vertically along the axis, with gravity being oriented downward toward whichever cog is closest. In the switchover point in the middle, a complex series of swinging cages and carriages ensures that a person moving across experiences nothing more than a momentary disorientation. A team of gnomish technicians is always innovating new and better methods of crossing that threshold.

In the normal parts of the city, a number of ramps, stairwells and chain driven elevators to transport people and goods between the different levels of the city. Along the outside edge of the city is a major ramp that sees most of the primary traffic through Axis. This, along with the constant rotation of the axle, makes it seem as though the city is constantly spiraling upwards or downwards, depending on how it is being viewed.

The city plays host to a major university run by a join effort on the parts of both the Fraternity of Order and Mathematicians. The Guvners split their time between studying the nature of Mechanus and conducting classes. The Mathematicians (along with some unnamed backers) have commissioned the construction of a ring around the city that will rotate at exactly the same rate of the axle, only in the opposite direction. The plan is to utilize the ring as an observatory. Current plans have the construction being completed in another five months.

The city originally started off a long spiral road surrounding the long axle, it being a shortcut between what would otherwise be distant locations of the plane. Over time, as word got out about this new link, the spiral expanded to included housing, businesses, taverns and all the other accoutrements of civilized life.

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I'm thinking this place could probably be expanded a fair amount, maybe rising to the level of a planar metropolis. I love the idea of this large spiraling city and a half-completed ring surrounding the whole thing, like a gigantic Mechanus whirligig.

Ideas for the Tick Tock Forest (This needs some refinement, the evolution thing feels a little weird though I figure there's a reason for this clockwork forest and the falling leaves/branches which result in new creations):

- The Forest is an attempt to create a new elven homeland that evolves but is devoid of Chaos. As such, the cycle of seasons is done using currents of Negative and Positive quasimental "essence" that run through the woods.

- Creatures here are always undergoing changes via this evolution, oftentimes subtle but occasionally drastic. Of course, on many D&D worlds the idea of "evolution" is a bizarre one as most sentient species are created by gods. This is what makes this strange, orderly rebellion so odd for an elven god.

- The petitioners enjoy relationships with the animals here, and while they seem like elves they are actually clockwork spirit-beings who are all intricately linked to the god and the realm. Their presence helps power the evolutionary drive.

It may work better without a god, because with a divine being you have to wonder why it just doesn't create an orderly realm using real trees and animals.

I do like the idea of an elvish inventor god, but wonder if he'd be better placed on Bytopia?

The trees I never really envisioned as anything other than metallic. Delicate foil leaves and flowers, sturdier metallic stems, branches and limbs. The animals I saw as having evidence of at least being constructs, and I liked the idea of using clockworks. The animals could have either a day-night cycle or a seasonal one. They would need to be rewound/recharged to be awakened each morning or spring, and then they would sleep/hibernate as the day or year wound to a close.

I really liked the idea of the power of the forest as having mechanical/clockwork/construct petitioners. They could act in the same way as...you know those cutesy sort of cartoons that have fairies going around waking up animals and laying down dew and that sort of thing? The petitioners would go around "waking" up the animals by winding them up (or whatever an equivalent would be for non-clockwork animals). They would be part guardians, part shepherd/herder for the animals in the forest.

The power itself is where the idea got hung up originally. Keeping the forest as being the realm of a power feels right, but I could figure out a good way to define what exactly the power was or what sort of sphere of control they had.

Hehe...I suppose I should stop thinking about new sites, huh? Just two more: a crumbling/decaying gear that is the home of a LE lich, or the still-occupied crystalline temple of some forgotten/dead god of sound - the inhabitants utilize some sort of sound-based spell/attack/weapon. I haven't had a chance to develop them beyond that point.

Perfection of Form and Stance (placeholder name until we decide on something)
LN small town
Corruption +2; Crime +1; Economy 0; Law +2; Lore +1; Society 0
Qualities academic, notorious
Danger 10
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DEMOGRAPHICS
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Government overlord
Population 1500 (700 humans, 300 dwarves, 200 elves, 150 half-elves, 100 planetouched, 50 halflings)
Notable NPCs
Trieme, Master of the Twelve Weapons (Pe/Male human/Fighter 9/LE)
Pongosh Hant, Master of the Burning Fist School (Pe/Male human/Fighter 7, Expert 2/LN)
Aari Silveraxe, Axelord (Pe/Male dwarf/Fighter 4, Barbarian 3/LG)
Metanvin Songgrin, Bowmistress Extraordinaire (Pe/Female elf/Ranger 5, expert 2/LN)
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MARKETPLACE
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Base Value 1,300 gp; Purchase Limit 7,500 gp; Spellcasting 5th
Minor Items 3d4; Medium Items 1d6; Major Items —

Perfection of Form and Stance is home to those who pursue the perfection of their fighting techniques in life. As such, life in this town is centered around fighting. There are seemingly endless courtyards filled with drilling and practicing students. Everybody in town seems to be poised and ready to fight, and fights between citizens and visitors have been known to break out as petitioners seek to test their mettle. Every petitioner in this town is equivalent to a 4th level fighter (or better).

In the center of the town lies a grand cage gear that has been turned into an arena. There are always minor tournaments going on, usually between the different fighting schools in the town. However, once every three years - measured by one full rotation of the gear the town rests on - a grand tournament is held, wherein the best members from every school in town, and many others from across the planes, participate to see who can hold the title of [insert cool title here].

The arena attracts a number of gamblers, who place bets on the contestants and it's not uncommon to hear about some fights being fixed to ensure the proper person wins. Though the practice is technically outlawed, many tournament participants are eager to test themselves even when the odds are stacked against them.

I'm honored! And I love the stats for Alphexa!

I like the poison idea and the stats you came up with for it. I'd make the save progressively harder to resist, up to say a DC 20 or 25. If/when a save is successful, it would reset (or maybe it would go back to the previous day's save DC). The idea is that prolonged exposure to the city makes one fall increasingly into day-in, day-out habits. Restaurants with the exact clientele that was there the day before, same foods, same work, same everything. The more you do that same thing, the harder it is to break out of it.

Also instead of, and in addition to, a straight up Will save, you could have the check be Knowledge (Planes) (or Knowledge(Planes of Law) if you're going that specific), with a lesser initial DC. This would simulate the way a planes-savvy blood would know to watch for things that would bring him out of the city's spell.

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After sketching a rough picture of Axis out, I'm realizing that the moorings are going be pretty much non-existant. Six miles is a long stretch upwards and trying to have a spiral that's two miles in diameter makes the city prohibitively large.

Edit: And I just had a realization: Six miles is roughly about how high your average airliner flies, roughly in the 30k foot range. That's...incredibly tall. Taller than Mount Everest. I'm thinking I may tone down the height a fair amount, somewhere in the mile tall range. In my pic, I have 14 complete spirals circling the city-axle. That would make each level roughly 375' tall. That's more in line with the spacing that works for me conceptually.

I like the changes you've made, and you're right about the clunkiness. I think I'd drop the cure back down to a single reset, as the cumulative penalties simulate the sort of effect I had in mind.

How's this?

Type Planar Effect; Save Will DC 20 (Will DC 15 with a successful Knowledge: Planes check DC 20)
Onset 3 days; Frequency 1/day until affected by full effect
Effect Cumulative -2 penalty to Perception and Sense Motive checks and -1 penalty to Will Saves, to a maximum of -10 Perception and Sense Motive, and -5 Will
Cure 1 save. Save can only be made after exposure to an appropriate trigger.

Making the onset 3 days means that casual travelers and traders wouldn't have to worry about the effect right away. It's supposed to represent a relentless wearing down and dulling of the senses that the city has on long-term visitors, not something that happens after a quick exposure to the city. I think it would be the turning of the axle that does it. That means the University, located in and around the flip-point, wouldn't have to deal with the dulling effect all that much (if at all).

Exposure to an appropriate trigger is wishy-washy, but it's the best way of encapsulating the wide range of things that would draw people out. Anything from the different variety coins that are used, to graffiti - I suspect that there's a notorious graffiti artist in the city somewhere - to underground theater performances and art shows. Fiends and the Tso would probably be triggered by something else entirely.

Also, by making the save possible only after exposure to an appropriate trigger, it means that unless somebody is actively seeking out something that will break the trance, they're going to suffer. The presence of anarchist types in the city, willing to risk the ire of the law, means that the GM can provide triggers any time they feel the penalties are getting too heavy.

One last thing: as time goes on, the more I'm seeing the city as having a 1920s Prohibition vibe.

(By the way, thank you for taking this on!)

I like Planar Effect. You could apply it to stuff like Acheron's second layer's petrifying effect, or the animal transformation that occurs after time is spent on the Beastlands.

Wow, great image. That actually helped me understand a lot of what y'all have been talking about.

Feel free to take any and all of my ideas here. Use them as-is, or expand on them if you see ways they could grow. I'll also see if I can find some time to get that Axis picture back up, since it looks like my Flikr account went away. Alternatively (or in addition to), if somebody else wants to take a crack at drawing it, I'd be down with that.