World building: Cascade

Thanks! I kinda go crazy with world building coming up with all sorts of oddball things, but this is the first time I've been able make use of it in an actual game rather than it being thought experiment stuff.

Regarding involvement from the elemental planes, as a part of the fallout from the Float, Cascade:

1) has less than standard gravity, so falling damage will either be 1d4 per 10' drop or 1d6 for every 20' drop (capping out at 10d6 at 200');

2) is populated by any number of flying varieties of sea critters including sky whales, and flying squid (the last was a direct request from one of my players, since you can't have a proper pirate game without being attacked by a kracken at some point);

3) back in ancient times, after the first cataclysm, the people of Cascade went about establishing a series of alliances and trade routes between their world and the different towns and emirates present on Air. Should the PCs ever find themselves slipping from Cascade to Air (I really want to contrive a way to make this happen), they'll be approached by a group of djinn who'll say something like "We still respect the old treaties. Welcome travelers." At that point, the PCs will have an opportunity to royally screw over their home world should they decide to behave badly towards their hosts. (I'm thinking their boat-demon will start pestering them to capture and "plug in" a djinn because "They look delicious and I'm hungry!") I'm kinda hoping they do, because it would be most excellent to have everybody trying to chase these guys down! ^_^

There are also a number of genasi/elemental-born throughout the world. Air types would be the most prevalent, with Water and Steam varieties next and just a handful of Earth and Lightning types. No Fire and no other quasi/para elemental types.

Right now, the world is just sort of a big mixing pot, with a lot of different elements tossed in together. I mean, I have an awakened velociraptor as one of the PCs which kinda implies that there are dinosaurs in this world.

Ooh! One other thing that I forgot to mention that I thought was completely fun to throw in: The elves, after having experience the trauma of three different cataclysms, have mostly gone off the edge. They've balkanized heavily into rival tribes, each one with a different fiend as their tribe's totem, and they've taken up the practice of cannibalism. Anybody who winds up lost in elvish territory usually ends up stuck through and roasted over an open fire. There are still some regular elves of course, but the bulk of Cascade's elves are savage demon worshipers.

I want to do something clever with the dwarves, but its hard to compete with that sort of awfulness the elves bring to the equation.

It's not the most current map I have of the world, but here's the basic gist of what Cascade looks like: Map Link. It's roughly the size of the eastern half of North America, from northern Michigan down to Florida, from the east coast to the middle of the Great Plains. I'm not usually a fan of maps that contain the entire landmass, as I like to leave at least one edge that leads off to unknown/unexplored lands, but in Cascade's case, I wanted to emphasize that feeling of isolation. Maybe many thousands of miles away, there are other lands. As far as the people of Cascade are concerned though, theirs is the only land in the world.

The circle of mountains/spikes is where I've placed the origin of the Thrust. Some legends hold that at the center is the point where Nike took flight as she left the world. Other stories speak of the arrival and march of an army of earth elemental-types. Others still cite the casting of a devastating, world altering spell. Yet more say that it's the spot where the gods struck down the hubris of mortal-kind. Needless to say, the land is devastated. I imagine the place is positively crawling with dragons.

In a later map, the stretch of land above the Thrust origin is filled with a colossal forest, filled with trees that have been caught in a endless autumnal state (aptly named "The Autumn Forest"). It's filled with elves, but they're not savages. I haven't exactly decided what their deal is going to be, but it's a cursed land and nobody ever goes there.

@Viking Legion: I like that direction for the dwarves. Somebody on Cascade needs to stay sane and the dwarves make for a sound choice. I think I had already kinda been penciling them in as being somewhat stable civilization. The seat of the dwarven civilization as it stands right now is in the upper left corner of the map I linked to. There are likely to be outposts and citadels throughout that entire stretch of mountains.

The idea of the Foundation scratches an itch that I wasn't even aware needed scratching. They'll make for some fun antagonists. I could see an elite squadron landing on the ship and trying to either free whomever they have strapped in as a sacrifice or trying to break the bond between the boat and the demon.

Re: that battle scene you're geeking out about: Imagine all of that going on, then having a third party join the fray (like a dragon, a kracken or that aforementioned Zeus love-interest). Cannons blasting, trebuchets/ballistae flinging, etc. Then into the middle of it BAM, the horrific screech of some creature-that-should-not-be. Oh yeah, I do love cinematic staging!

So the current party make-up:

Succubus Rogue/Ranger
Satyr Rogue/Swashbuckler/Sorcerer
Velociraptor Cleric of Typhon (I figure, why not let somebody worship a titan?)
Creepy demon-child sorcerer (custom race)
Elf bard

The party is actually pretty well rounded.

Double post

*facepalm*

I don't know why that didn't occur to me earlier, to put cannibal elves and dinosaurs together. It's such an obvious fit!

A scene I'm now going to have happen in this game:

Cannibal elves on pteradons vs dwarves in steampunk bi-planes vs pirates in an airship vs sky kraken or dragon

Quote:

The PCs are EVIL! They find some other guy and give him to the powers of the Underworld in exchange for their ally.

This might work for one of the Underworld ventures, but certainly not all of them. I do need to come up with a handful of Greek Myth themed Underworld punishments/trials for the party to overcome though.

I like this. I could see some obsessed mad inventor type who's been made immortal in one way or another. Maybe he's been captured by/working for the Foundation and has been the main reason for the development of all of their steampunk stuff. He knows that his airship is out there. He wants it back and sees the dwarves as the only group that would be able to get it back for him (or him to the ship).

Yeah, she's always coming up with crazy character/race concepts. She initially wanted to play an intellect devourer, but I said 1) you need a face and 2) you need some sort of manipulator appendages. I was trying to steer her into playing a gnoll, but I'm ok with the velociraptor.

I used the PF race builder and gave everybody a budget of 20 RP to make their race with. At level seven, that should roughly equivalent to the power of a standard race level 6-10 character. I have no idea if the rest of the party is overpowered or not, but I don't really care. I suspect this is going to turn into a bit of a monty haul game, but since everything else is going to be so gonzo I don't really mind. I've already promised them their own equivalent to Isla de Muerta so they can have a hideout to call home (but home bases do make for fun places for enemies to attack and raid, so I think it's a good thing to include).

Haven't worked this out yet. I meant to get my questionnaire out the to group before I got going, but I just ran out of time (life interferes). I have decided that, in addition to all the other madness, I need to include ninjas, since, y'know, pirates and ninjas hate one another.

And no theme music, sadly. Alestorm would make for a good choice though. I'll mention it to the group next time we get together.

No, it's an interesting suggestion. I've already established that there are flying versions of aquatic animals in this world (thank you Elemental Plane of Air), so flying sharks are fair game. Orcs riding flying sharks is too awesome to pass up.

Orcs on flying sharks
Elves on griffons and pteradons
Dwarves in bi-planes
Goblins on wyverns
Various contigents of flying air ships

This is getting both sillier and more fantastic as it goes. I love it!

So the party raided a castle. This was part of a complex plan to force a wedding between the prince and the succubus PC posing as the daughter of the count of the castle.

Here's what happened: The daughter, Circe (I'm going with the with Greek themes here), was captured earlier after the party decided to follow her during a jaunt into the wilderness (she had a reputation for travelling on her own). They followed her to a wooded glade and interrupted a tryst between her and Zeus. Zeus merely got a quizzical look on his face, told her to go away and told the party that they might want to leave (which they did). The succubus PC doubled back and charmed/convinced Circe that the party was there to help and protect her. They then led her back to their airship.

From there, they did a bit of reconnaissance at the castle (they sent the bard) and decided to attack after disabling the castle's ballista. The descended stealthily to the castle walls while the airship hid high in the sky above the castle itself. The plan mostly went off without a hitch, with the PCs entering the castle unsuspected while the ship attacked from above after dropping flaming barrels of oil. Much confusion, shapeshifting and high bluff rolls led the PCs right into the "safe" chamber of the count, whereupon the slaughtered him. The bard swapped clothing and used some magic to look like the count, then went about issuing strange "fall back to an even safer spot in the dungeon of the castle" orders. Several stupidly high bluff and disguise checks later, the party burned the gathered castle denizens alive. There's more to it than just that, but that was the gist.

Meanwhile, they discovered that the count and other castle folk were secret worshippers of Hypnos, and they had an "old lady" stuck in away in a hidden dungeon, attached to an alchemy lab. The lady in question is in fact a Night Hag, and the count was using her to concoct some alchemical substance (I haven't worked out exactly what). The upshot is that the PCs rescued her, took her aboard their ship and returned her "family heirloom" (ie, her heartstone, something that came up as vaguely magical when they detected at it). She proved herself to them by taking out some revenge on Circe (stabbing Circe's eyes out and carving up her skin a bit).

I had originally thought that the PCs might end up getting into a fight with her, or that, if they took her aboard, she would attach herself to one of the PCs to cause problems for. Instead, they went directly to Toruga (lifted more or less directly from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies), which should prove to be a much more fertile ground for a creature such as a night hag. She played it smart and laid low. She was free now and being delivered right into a den of inequity, no need to rock that boat.

Now the party has headed to the seat of power for the one still-good nation in the world. The plan is to have the succubus pose as a now displaced Circe. The story goes: she was gone when the castle was attacked by cannibal elf raiders, she was graciously picked up by this adventuring party, and the capital is the only place where she knows she has some sort of family. The end goal is to somehow force a marriage between her and the prince, which will draw out the statue that the party was hired to steal (I mentioned this earlier). It's horribly complex and convoluted, but should be fun if I can somehow keep all these moving pieces straight in my head.

The prince is of marriageable age and is currently being fostered/taught statecraft by the dwarves of the Foundation. I don't know exactly how they're planning on getting the him to return to the capital yet.

They sent the bard ahead and had him try to get in good with one of the noble families, the idea being that he try to sell his services as a wedding planner or something. I have no idea how that was supposed to work, but whatever. Meanwhile, the party arrived and "Circe" announced her presence to the castle, bearing all of the appropriate papers (which they reasonably would have been able to assemble after raiding the castle). Political buzz: "She's here to usurp the throne", "She's a fraud", "Such a tragedy what's happened to her family", etc.

Anyway, the bard got hired in as an accountant/clerk to a minor noble family with high ambitions and, after a few days of proving his worth to that family, was asked by the lady of the house to see if he couldn't make contact with the newly arrived Circe and introduce her to the lady's son. And that's where I did a fade to black.

Wonderfully convoluted!