Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

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Anetra's picture
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Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Let's brainstorm some ideas for Mechanus gears!

I'd ideally like to get anywhere between 2 minimum and 5 maximum, though 3 or 4 is likely the sweet spot. The bulk of these should be stand-alone gears, but I wouldn't say no to fluffing up a particular section of Regulus, as long as that doesn't become the bulk of the content.

The goal is to create some Gears of Mechanus that the home DM can slide into their game without too much work on their part. I don't expect there to be much crunch in these articles, and they don't all have to be the same length -- some can be more detailed, or more interesting, than others.

I believe it behooves us to keep them pre/post-faction war neutral, so they can be used in games taking place in either timeline. Still, if applicable, a short paragraph on how the gear might change after the Faction War couldn't hurt.

If the Gear is inhabited, be it a metropolis sprawling over both side or just a small town on one of them (and I am of the belief that Mechanus could actually use more towns. I mean, people live there, and not just in Delon-Estin Oti), let's bust out the Settlement templates from the Pathfinder Game Master's Guide http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/mastery/settlements.html

For (poor) example:

SOME TOWN ON A GEAR
LN village
Corruption -1; Crime -2; Economy -1; Law +1; Lore -1; Society +3
Qualities academic, insular
Danger 0
================================================
DEMOGRAPHICS
================================================
Government council
Population 140 (120 humans, 10 planetouched, 5 gnomes, 4 dwarves, 1 half-elf)
Notable NPCs
Councilman Andris Paval (Pl/Male human/Bard 5/Mathematicians/LN)
Councilwoman Gabriella Yse (Pr/Female human/Wizard 3/Ln)
Councilman Viris Krander (Pl/Male tiefling/Wizard 2/LE)
Innkeeper Marcelle Jenis (Pl/Female dwarf/commoner 1/LN)
Trading Post Owner Argyris Ellis (Pl/Male human/expert 2/LN)
================================================
MARKETPLACE
================================================
Base Value 500 gp; Purchase Limit 2,500 gp; Spellcasting 4st
Minor Items 2d4; Medium Items 1d4; Major Items

... Also worth doing, now that I'm thinking about it: new settlement government types, settlement qualities, and settlement disadvantages designed with Planar settlements in mind. (Edit: New thread on that here.)

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

<--- Big Marut fan here if you can't tell by my avatar

I don't know if this has been detailed already, but doesn't one of the gears house a gigantic factory that produces Inevitables? If it's already been written up, I'd love to check that out.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

VikingLegion wrote:
I don't know if this has been detailed already, but doesn't one of the gears house a gigantic factory that produces Inevitables?

Neumannus

Anetra's picture
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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

atomicb wrote:
VikingLegion wrote:
I don't know if this has been detailed already, but doesn't one of the gears house a gigantic factory that produces Inevitables?

Neumannus

Very cool! I'll need to take peek into the listed sources later for my own purposes.

When it comes to articles for the fanzine, though, we should probably try to create completely unique gears, so Neumannus means we should steer clear of inevitable factories. What else could we do with inevitables, though? They are pretty dang sweet.

They may be constructs, but they're still intelligent. While a town populated by inevitables would be pretty unlikely (as they travel the planes searching for anyone breaking the law they protect), it's possible we could create a gear with a log cabin on it where one very old inevitable rests his weary gears. This inevitable doesn't search out transgressors, but instead, every so often someone comes knocking at his door looking to point one out.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

I fancy the idea of a Mechanus gear-town where the inhabitents seek to master a particular weapon or fighting style. It would be a rather dangerous place to go, because any visitors would find themselves as a test subject for a new technique or fighting stance. Some may fight to the death, some might just go for a sound thrashing, others still may decide to call off their attack if they prove to be more powerful than their opponent (you don't learn much if you're fighting a grossly inferior opponent).

Also, if any of you are familiar with the series, think Benedict from Zelazny's Amber series. He's a guy who would go between worlds, seeking out nearly identical battles, making one small change between them and seeing how they would play out. He would spend years perfecting one particular weapon or style, then move on to the next. He was basically unbeatable in combat (outside of dirty tricks).

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Wickle, that's a great idea! I love the town where everyone is seeking to master a weapon or a style of fighting, it definitely seems like somewhere that PCs could go looking to learn, too.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Oddly enough, I just watched Hellboy II last night and there's a scene that might as well take place in Neumannus, inevitables and all. I completely missed it when it was in the theater, but a really fun movie with several great planar-y set pieces.

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Re: 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
================================================
DEMOGRAPHICS
================================================
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)
================================================
MARKETPLACE
================================================
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.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

I love it, Wickle! That poor Time Watcher.

What types of modrons are the Clock Keepers? Is the intention for them to be base modrons, or hierarch modrons? If they're base modrons, this gear could be anywhere on Mechanus, but I feel that if they're hierarch modrons, it should probably be in Regulus. What do you think?

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

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.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

The Pristine Orchards

The Pristine Orchards are a series of interlocked pastoral gears, each one focused on growing a different sort of orchard crop. At the heart of each orchard gear sits a simple house. In each house, there is a master bedroom, a dormitory-style sleeping room, a kitchen/dining room with enough seating for 15 people (two benches on either side and a seat at the head of a table). Just outside, there is an outhouse and an open ring of grass. Beyond, lie the orchards, radiating out from the house in perfect concentric circles. Most are fruit or nut bearing trees, but there are a handful of fruit-bearing vine orchards. The crop plants in any given orchard are virtually identical to one another, as it all the produce they grow.

Every orchard is tended by an orchard master, who is attended to by six or eight workers. Visitors to a given farmstead are accepted as guests and allowed to join the crew for dinner and to bunk down for the night, in exchange for helping out with the orchards.

A gentle stream flows over and through each gear. Each stream is utilized for irrigation, and canals also run in concentric circles, alternating between rows of trees. Where the stream flows to the end of a gear, a large reservoir sits. As the gears turn, when the head of one stream matches up with the reservoir of another, the water starts to empty out. This flow of water hold true, even if the gears are at 90 degrees to one another.

On the gears, either waterwheels or windmills have been built. Each powers either mills for grinding, or presses for squeezing out the juices of the fruit. They see most of their activity during the fall season.

Seasons are measured by how full or empty reservoirs are and how strongly the streams flow. Springtime has the fastest flowing water, summer sees the reservoir half filled, fall sees the streams trickle down to nothing, and winter sees the reservoir filled to capacity. Springtime sees the arrival of the workers from the gear where the reservoir flows and the orchard master orients the new workers to the gear they're on. Summertime sees all inhabitants hard at work in the fields. Fall sees everybody gathering up the harvest. Winter sees everybody netting up the crop plants and prepping them for the arrival of springtime.

(If anybody can think of anything to add to this, feel free to take it and run! I also wonder if we should copy this thread to the RPG Discussion area?)

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

You're definitely on a roll here Wicke.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Hmm...some thoughts:

Most towns in Mechanus have strictly controlled populations, policed by either the government of a city or by the Modrons (or by some other directive force). Between the larger towns and cities on Mechanus, there is usually a steady trickle of immigration/emigration, such that there are always a handful of houses opening up. The people who move are sometimes individuals whose skills are needed in a new community. More often than not however, people are given notices that direct them to move to a new town or city, often with no apparent rhyme or reason. They are always placed in a new house immediately upon arrival, so there's virtually no gap in housing. Because of this it is an extraordinary thing to see either a vacant house or a homeless person in a town on Mechanus.

Roads and trade routes on Mechanus change as the gears turn. The fortune of cities rise and fall by how the gears turn. Guidebooks and confusing maps (at least, confusing to non-Mechanites) are sold for a nominal fee in most towns and with [appropriate skill check] they can be deciphered to some degree by even non-natives.

Some gears are designated as road-hubs, acting in the same manner as a railroad switch or junction. They're often more mobile than other gears, able to unlock from the gears they're attached to and adjust their position to favor the new road connection. These road-hubs end up being commerce centers in their own right, but due to the gear's usually small size, the population never gets very large.

More to come. This is actually taking more effort than I thought it would.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

I love the crossroads hub gear idea, Wickle! I'll see if I can work out a trading post type place for one.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

(Work in progress)

The Tick Tock Forest (Realm)

Character. The Tick Tock Forest is Mechanus’ answer to a nature preserve. The forest’s gear is filled with tall metal-organic trees through whose branches run all manner of woodland animals. Rather than the usual furry creatures expected, these animals are intricate clockworks.

Power. Aefea Tolos is a lesser elvish deity who delights both in nature and the intricacies of clockwork creation. Order is fine, but it must always be measured against how nature wants to live, and Aefea knows how to combine the two to bring out the beauty of both.

Description. The Forest is a place where order and mechanical precision is measured against nature and beauty. The landscape of this gear is dominated by an ancient forest. Metal trees sporting copper trunks and delicate leaves of gold and silver. The canopy is filled with clockwork constructs of animals that would normally fill forests.
The gear itself is 80 miles across.

Ok, the idea isn't really gelling in my head. The upshot of the location is that it's the realm of a minor elvish deity (maybe just a demigod), complete with ancient forest (but out of metal; I see copper trunks with a patina that mimics lichen) and clockwork/mechanical animals. The petitioners who live here are all elves, but like the animals, they're all clockwork. Other than that, they behave just as elves do.

The deity wanders the land, gathering up leaves and sticks and whatnot and crafts them into new animals.

If anybody wants to help me expand the idea, that would be lovely!

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

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
================================================
DEMOGRAPHICS
================================================
Government council
Population 15,000 (8000 humans, 3000 dwarves, 2000 gnomes, 850 halflings, 450 elves, 300 modrons, 200 planetouched, 200 goblins
Notable NPCs
(Coming)
================================================
MARKETPLACE
================================================
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.

-----------------------

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.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Oh man, I love that! I'll see if I can get some artwork done of Axis, because it sounds really cool looking (no promises though, must finish Kylie first).

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

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.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Hmm! I really like the imagery of the Tick Tock Forest, but I have some reservations about a location that's so heavily dependant on the inclusion of "clockwork."

This is going to vary from game to game, and from DM to DM, but core Planescape doesn't actually have that much steampunk/clockwork shenanigans going on. I know that a lot of people like to give Mechanus a heavy clockwork spin in their games, and that's fine, but I feel like the locations we offer should work for either preference.

Mechanical, or even biomechanical, trees are cool and can work in either case, but ... I feel like we should shy away from outright robots? Petitioners can look however the Power in charge wants them to look, but other than them, yeah.

I really like the forest and I'm excited about the potential it has. I'm going to think more about it and see if I can come up with anything cool for it. I just don't really want to turn Mechanus into Steampunkland.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

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?

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Alright. I have been thinking about the forest, and I have some ideas. (Please forgive any weird language quirks in this post, I'm on my phone and the text box scrolls weird, can't really see what I'm doing.)

I don't think the forest should be associated with a god of invention, but I do think we should give it a god. I think it would be really cool to have a new god in the issue, and maybe even a new domain or a spell or three the god's faithful is known for casting.

The look of the forest is really excellent, I'm pretty in love with it aesthetically. It doesn't actually need to be mechanical to liik mechanical, though. Like the Modrons, and like Mechanus itself, a tree can grow with a metallic bark while still being a natural feature of the plane. Especially when that plane is Mechanus.

I'm thinking we should create a lawful nature god for this realm, not one of invention or really preservation, as much as ... a gof that stands for nature and the natural world following a set of rules and laws. A god that sees the pattern a tree's branches grow out in as a small sliver of perfection.

We can make the trees in their realm 'made of metal' or even have gearworks sticking out of them without making them inventions, there's nothing telling us that Outer Planar plants have to look like prime plants -- in fact, there's everything telling us they don't.

... I feel like this post is hella rambley. Sorry ;_;. Can't really proofread atm though!

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

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.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Placeholder for Idea ->

The Hollow Sea is a continent encompassing hollow gear made of some transparent, magically hardened diamond with an ocean inside of it. A well regulated place for marine life that travels in an orderly fashion within this site.

Portals to other watery locations across the Multiverse exist, and it is believed that the Sea is a giant water "purification" cycle made to transmute the chaotic portions of these waters into Order, and then "infect" these places with the more Lawful water.

The Sea is overseen by the water elementals of Law (IIRC, these are ice crabs known as hyrdaxes.)

The Sea is magically illuminated, with the brightest areas being those closest to the gear's teeth and the center being a place of near absolute darkness. It is believed the master of the Hollow Sea lies in the center of the gear, managing the transubstantiation of the multiversal waters into a refined state of liquid Order.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Aaahh, I love it! The planes need more bodies of water.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Regarding potential forests in Mechanus, remember that there are different kinds of laws. I read some books on fractals and it was amazing how many bodies in nature (e.g. the general leaf structure of a fern) conforms pretty closely to a purely mathematical fractal pattern. Admittedly I don't know how I would incorporate such an idea into gameplay but I thought I'd throw it out there

I had one Mechanus gear/town that violated the "gear face is the direction of gravitational pull" rule. It was built on a vertical gear (I know it's all relative - but based on the gravity, it was a vertical cog). All the buildings were built around central pillars so that the structure would spin so that it's bottom always faced downward. Residents had to plan their movements based on where in the rotation they were (e.g. they could extend a walkway and reach a neighbor who would be accessible when at the "3 o'clock" or "9 o'clock" position but who would, at other times, be either above them (at "12") or below (at "6").
This vertical cog connects two larger cogs (both with normal gravity) which is overriding the smaller vertical cog. The smaller cog serves as the only trading route between the two large cogs
Perhaps the small number of thieves in town (this is Mechanus after all) would be experts at repelling and at timing the gear movement to make their escapes

I just considered this but how about the added complication, there could be an inner gear that has the same vertical gravity but which rotates at a different speed making travel more difficult and ensuring a monopoly for the residents on all trade between the two larger gears

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

I love your inner gear city/trade route idea, it's really similar to the crossroads idea we were developing actually, though perhaps more interesting looking!

Regarding the fractals, yes! That kind of stuff is exactly what I had in mind when I suggested a god of 'perfection in nature;' nature following a strict set of mathematical rules.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Guys, I'm so excited by how much content we have for this article!

We should definitely devote the most space to Axis, as 1) it's a planar metropolis and 2) it kicks ass. I'm still hoping to get some artwork done for it, too. So that should be super great.

Other than that, we have two cities:
- Clockwatch
- That city we haven't named yet, where everyone wants to perfect their martial styles

& either three, or four, sites:
- Pristine Orchards
- Hollow Sea
- Crossroads
- Tick Tock Forest?

This is so much stuff, oh my god! We seem to have some conflicting ideas of what the Tick Tock Forest could be, so I think we should table that for now and work on developing some of these other locations, because aaaahh we have so many!

Specifically, let's work on That City We Haven't Named Yet and Crossroads. Palomides' thoughts on Crossroads were really intriguing, I love their imagery of how the gear would connect to others at certain times of day.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

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.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

If you don't stop we'll need more than one Mechanus issue! Hahaha, I love that crystal temple too much, though! Maybe it's time for an Issue 3 x Issue 4 crossover -- a crystalline tower of a now-dead god of sound that's attracted Far creatures/acts as a conduit to the Far/Far Far Far Far Far.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Names for the martial perfection town: 'Pursuit-of-Excellence?' It seems appropriate for Mechanus bergs to have descriptive names, and it isn't inconsistent with canon or what we've done in this thread.

Still... not sure if I'm completely sold on it yet. What do other dudes think?

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Perfection of Form and Stance

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

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
================================================
DEMOGRAPHICS
================================================
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)
================================================
MARKETPLACE
================================================
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.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Here's what I have so far (updates to follow):

Axis, the Spiral City
Though Mechanus claims you as its own, I know what lies in your heart and it beats in time with the seasons of Arborea – poet anarchist, Amphine del Or’zho

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 20,000 (12,000 humans, 3500 dwarves, 2250 gnomes, 975 halflings, 450 elves, 375 modrons, 250 planetouched, 250 goblins
Notable NPCs
Alphexa Oldhaarm, headmistress of the University of Axis (Pl/female half-elf/Expert 7/Fraternity of Order/LN)
Peacekeeper Prime, overseer of the Axis city guard (Pl/rogue modron/Fighter 6/LN)
Parcozu, boss of the Downward Gear trading company (Pl/polymorphed devil/LE) (if somebody wants to come up with a suggestion for this, feel free)
Amphine del Or’zho, poet (Pl/male elf/Expert 2, Bard 2/Sensate/CG)
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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

On the physical aspects of Axis

Looking up at Axis during my approach, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a gigantic screw gear. I knew that my assessment was incorrect, that those are buildings spiraling up between those two cogs. All the same, that’s the impression I was left with.

It was hard to believe that the entire city stretched upwards for six miles, though I had been assured by my tutor that there was a gravitational flip-point half-way up the spiral, similar to what one finds on the Twin Paradises. I’ve also been assured that I won’t have to make the entire eight mile walk up to that flip-point either, as travel has been made much easier thanks to the tireless efforts of a team of gnomish engineers. Elevators! Can you imagine such a contrivance anywhere else in the Planes?

– Truman, incoming student to the University of Axis

Axis is built along a spiraling road that extends upward between two 6 mile wide cogs. The full length of the road, from city entrance gate to city entrance gate, has been recorded as being precisely 16 miles. The road stays a consistent 500’ in width. A small section at the mid-point of the road experiences a flip in gravity, identical to what one finds on Bytopia at one of the connecting points. This is discontinuity surrounds the entire mid-point of the city axle and has been the subject of much debate amongst the academicians of the city’s University.

A number of lesser “Mooring Roads”, each 200’ in width, radiate outwards from the axle at the cardinal directions and connect to the main spiral. Each mooring road is a mile long. Both sides of a mooring road have been built up to accommodate residences, businesses and government buildings. These buildings stretch from one mooring road to the one directly above. Stairs remain the best way to travel upwards/downwards through the city, though efforts on the part of the city’s civil engineers have seen the inclusion of a number of public access elevators.

Despite arguments for a unified look to the city, buildings along the main road are usually the most outlandish, made as a concession to the economic needs of cross-planar traffic. Off-plane visitors wishing to find accommodations more appealing to their requirements are recommended to search along the main spiral road. Along the auxiliary roads, the city structures take on a much more appealing uniform appearance.

A number of public and private viewing platforms line the outside edge of the city, affording visitors and residents alike the opportunity to view Mechanus from the city’s unique position. Visitors wishing to view the plane from the university’s better placed observatories much make arrangements with the school’s council. This is not recommended, as spots for access to these facilities largely go to scholars in residence. Presumably, once construction on the Observation Ring is complete, greater access will be available to non-university applicants.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Beautiful!

Also I just want you to know that I couldn't help myself, and I ran the last session of my game in Axis :D. The only thing I'd suggest out of the experience is working out how the city's lulling properties affect player characters -- will saves? Multiple ones, or just one? Frequency of saves? DCs? How long should this take to happen?

My gut is telling me that we may want to treat it similarly to a poison; or at least, use the poison stat block to describe how to deal with it.

I.E.,

Quote:
Type poison, ingested; Save Fortitude DC 13
Onset 10 minutes.; Frequency 1/minute for 4 minutes
Effect 1d2 Con damage; Cure 1 save

And then say something like...

Type Supernatural Effect (?); Save Will DC 15
Onset 1 day; Frequency Exposure to an appropriate trigger
Effect -5 penalty to Perception and Sense Motive checks; Cure 1 save

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

ALPHEXA OLDHAARM
Female half-elf expert 7
LN Medium planar humanoid (human, elf)
Init +0; Senses Low-Light Vision; Perception +8
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DEFENCE
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AC 12, touch 10, flat-footed 12 (+2 armour)
hp 31 (7d8-7)
Fort +1, Ref +2, Will +6; conditional modifiers +2 vs enchantment, sleep
================================================
OFFENCE
================================================
Speed 30 ft
Melee mwk dagger +5 (1d4-1/19-20)
Ranged mwk light crossbow +6 (1d8/19-20)
Spell-Like Abilities (Caster Level 2nd, concentration +5)
3/day - detect magic, read magic, mage hand
================================================
STATISTICS
================================================
Str 8, Dex 10, Con 9, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 11
Base Attack +5; CMB +4; CMD 14
Feats Skill Focus (Linguistics), Tinker With Magic, Cosmopolitan (Diplomacy, Perform), Magical Aptitude, Skill Focus (Knowledge Arcana)
Skills Appraise +8, Diplomacy +5, Linguistics +15, Perception +8, Perform (Oratory) +5, Profession (Clerk) +3, Sense Motive +6, Spellcraft +12, Use Magic Device +10; Knowledges Arcana +15, Dungeoneering +10, Engineering +15, Faction +10, Geography +10, History +12, Local +12, Nature +10, Nobility +8, Planes +15, Religion +10
Languages Planar Trade, Elven, 11 other languages
Faction Fraternity of Order, Deity n/a

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factotums
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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

I'm honored! And I love the stats for Alphexa! Laughing out loud

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.

------------------------

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.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

I feel like this is clunky and overly long :/. Also, I don't think increasing the DC with each failure is a good way to handle it -- it would be better to have the effects include a penalty on will saving trows. Which, now that I think about it, is probably something we want to do anyway -- if the Tso are taking people from Axis, those people are going to need to be failing will saves.

Type Planar Effect; Save Will DC 20 (Will DC 15 with a successful Knowledge: Planes check DC 20)
Onset 1 day; 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 Each successful save reduces the penalties by one step, until they are negated. Exposure to appropriate triggers grant additional attempts at the saving throw without incurring penalties for failure, maximum 1 additional check per day.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

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!)

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Looks good!

How do we feel about listing it as a "Planar Effect?" It could just as easily be a curse/magical disease/the like, but I feel like "Planar Effect" may be an affliction type we'll want to use again in the future.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

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.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

I'm still working on it, but this should get folk's imagination going:

Each level of the spiral is just under 400' tall, and the whole span is a full mile.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

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

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Want to get this back on track, with our new plan for shorter (8-15 page) zines I think it'll be much more doable.

Seems like we had a good number of potential articles?

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

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.

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

Axis still definitely the main thing, so probably 2 pages dedicated to it + art of it. Undecided if we should include stats for major players in Axis, as that could get RLLY LONG and, as much as we could probably dedicate a whole 'zine issue to just Axis, that is not the objective here.

Main Feature: 2 pages
- Axis (incl. art)

Secondary Feature: 1 page
- Clock-Watch (incl 4ish interesting items that can be purchased here)

Other Locations: 1/2 page each
- Crossroads
- Perfection-of-Form-and-Stance

Location Seeds: ideas w/o stats, 1/2 page total
- Pristine Orchards
- Hollow Sea
- Tick Tock Forest

(Including the Tick Tock Forest as just a location seed allows us to say "here's the aesthetic of a place, but what is it really??? The realm of an inventor god? Full of constructs? Just a peaceful Mechanus forest? YOU'RE THE DM YOU DECIDE!)

The above would give us 4.5 pages of Mechanus locations. If we're including stat blocks for Axis NPCs and such, then I would expand it to 4 pages from 2 and expand "and such" to include some notable locations inside the city, as it is a metropolis, after all.

Also, I was going to give Clock-Watch a full page so we could put items with it, but it might actually be better to put items in a different section, which would make it 1/2 page and take us down to 4 pages for locations (6 if Axis gets 4).

IDEAS :V

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Re: Issue 3: New Sites & Towns for Mechanus

While some of this slightly contradicts some of the points above, here are a few additional ideas that you might pick and choose from for Axis
-The Long Spiral Road – the main road that corkscrews up the entire length of the shaft, going through all parts of town. There are a number of secret “shortcuts” dug into the main shaft to allow quicker access along the same vertical level (i.e. two points might be right next to each other but separated by almost a full revolution of the Long Spiral (examine the groove on a screw to see this visually) - so a path may be cut into the shaft to create a shortcut) There may also be ladders (or cargo “elevators”) carved into the shaft to “shortcut” to a different vertical level.
None of these shortcuts are anywhere near as extensive as the Long Spiral and none connect directly from the bottom to the top of the axle
Local merchants keep the locations of the majority of these shortcuts secret as it allows them to trade faster between the two adjacent cogs than unknowing merchants who travel the full length of the Long Spiral. Different merchant families control different shortcuts and sometime sabotage each others routes (e.g. small cave-in in a tunnel, cut ropes on an elevator, dead magic aura created in area with magical lifting) in an effort to steer business to their own routes
[Side note: if you choose to set up toll booths along the sprial (bypassed by locals using shortcuts), the Long Spiral might get the nickname amongst non-local traders as "the Big Screw"]

A few businesses have multi-storied buildings that bypass a rotation of the Long Sprial (I would suggest that the 3rd floor of a three story building would reach into the next higher rotation of the spiral) so if you stay at the slightly more expensive inn, one could exit through the 3rd floor and actually save a day's travel going up the Long Spiral. These businesses can allow single travelers to bypass levels but cannot accomodate trade caravans and other large scale operations

-Comical legend (most likely false) of a drunk that tumbled/rolled down the full length (or at least half length) of the Long Spiral

-Elaborate mechanisms at the gravitational switching point used to handle large cargos. Not too jarring for merchants; but, like using the Panama Canal, they have to pay the locals to use these mechanisms – so that provides a source of steady income to the city

**Random ideas (is that an oxymoron on Mechanus?):
-The Clockwork Labyrinth: combination maze and puzzle box built within the interior of a giant cogwheel. Some internal gears have holes cut in their sides providing passage through provided the holes in the gears line up correctly for the traveler. One occasionally comes across half of an explorer who didn't time the shifting gears correctly

-Rectify, the Wobbling Cog: a gear on the "edge" of Mechanus that is starting to wobble and is theorized to fly off soon (into Acheron?) There is a local group trying to stabilize the gear but the arguments within the group as to how to stabilize the wheel might actually push it away from Mechanus

-The Inscribed Gears: a collection of gears with words printed on their sides. Viewers say that the gears rotating at different frequencies create seemingly random assortments of words that often provide keys to the creation of powerful spells or the "great secrets of the multiverse"

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