We Built this city on an Artifact of unbelievable Power. (City)

[BRC]

Rock an Roll may have been involved too. I just got my hands on Cityscape and so I am setting of to design the city that the campaign I will run will take place in, I'm calling it Inferno Bay.

A little bit about the world, the world is currentally in an Age of Peace, by which I mean there was a big war and the big evils, armies of goblinoids, hordes of orcs, giant deamons with swords burning with pure hatred, ect, were all defeated. The PC's will mostly be taking on insidiuous Cults. I have plans for them, but they are neither here nor their.
I'm using Reinnessance era tech, so there are firearms. I may dip my toes into the sooty water of Steampunk, but maybe not.

Anyway, Here is the City Map, roughly drawn and unfinished but still.


http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w27/bloddyredcommie/InfernoBay.png
City Districts/Points of Intrest

1. The Steaming Pyramid: The most famous landmark of the city. During the Age of Conflict a spear known as the Inferno Spear was crafted. It was forged on the elemental plane of fire and burned with a heat so intense that it was never actually used. When it was wielded in battle, it's bearer had to shield themself from the heat, and most foes were simply incinerated when they got too close. After the Age of Conflict it was decided that it should be sealed away in a great pyramid of stone, and so it was, sealed within walls of force and massive stone. The area near this pyramid became known as Inferno Bay, and before long people began moving there. In order to counteract the heat of the spear, a great aquaduct was created that constantly poared water onto the pyramid, cooling it off but creating alot of steam. This Aquaduct also brought water to the growing city. When deposits of metal were found nearbye, the steaming pyramid was put to use. Special shelters and walkways were constructed on it's slopes and the heat of it's stones was used to aid in the refining and forging of metal. It's dotted with founderies, which stimulate the city economically. Most of the steam actually comes from the great basin at the top and the water that pools around the base of the pyramid. Most of the pyramid itself is safe to walk on, provided one is wearing thick shoes and dosn't mind some humidity.
2. The Great Aquaduct brings water to the city and to help keep the pyramid cool.
3. The Pits: Rich metal deposits lie under the cliffs near Inferno Bay. by digging deep shafts and massive pits these minerals are extracted and shipped off to the pyramid for refining before being sold overseas VIA the docks.
4. The Great Elevator: Before water from the Aquaduct enters the city, it passes through a turbine. This turbine powers the Great Elevator, which brings citizens and cargo up and down the cliff. though other methods of transport up the cliff face are available, the Great Elevator is by far the most used.
5. Koboldtown: After the Age of Conflict what were reffered to as Monsterous Humanoids were forced to join society. To this day they are still highly disapproved of and often live in their own neighborhoods. Koboldtown is one such neighborhood. Humans, dwarves, and halflings of the rougher sort are not unusual there, but orcs, kobolds and goblinoids make up the main occupants. It is a rough part of town, with it's legitimate workers often working on the Steaming Pyramid, in the mines, or carrying crates at the docks. It hosts a famous, almost constant Bazzar where items of all degrees of legality can be purchased.
6. The Docks, consisting of Shipyards, Warehouses, taverns, and all the other things a seaside district is expected to have. Has a famous marketplace.
7. The Gates: Home to the nobility and powerful merchant families, The Gates is a wealthy neighborhood where personal security forces well outnumber the city guard. The district's name refers to the fact that most of the residents live in gated compounds.


I can't think of any other districts. Some should be standard residences and workplaces of course, I want an areana somewhere, and one district should host the government and temples. Maybe a Magical academy somewhere. I'm looking for ideas/suggestions/questions.

[KingGolem]

Ok, first of all, Inferno Bay is a great name. Nice work. :smallcool:

Now it seems to me that you certainly must add an Arcane District with that magical academy. It seems to me that there would be quite a few wizards left over from the Age of Conflict, and there must have been some still around to create the Steaming Pyramid. However, I would place the Arcane District a good distance away from the Gates, for you have no doubt read about the dangers of arcane and alchemical polution in your new copy of Cityscape.

As for the Arena, I would suggest putting it towards the Kobold District, and perhaps you could have dishonest arena managers organizing groups of thugs to kidnap orcs and kobolds for combatants. The PC's could be drawn in to this when one of the mine directors says that several of his employees have stopped showing up to work.

And finally, I have a question concerning the Great Elevator. It says that the water passing through a turbine powers a lift. What nature of lift is this? Judging by your statement about Steampunk, I can assume that these "turbines" simply collect kinetic energy which is used to operate the lift mechanically. If that is the case, I think it would be easier to understand if you used "water wheels" instead of "turbines."

[BRC]

The way I see it, the farther you get from the Steaming Pyramid, the richer things get as it's not exactly comfortable or quiet to live near, But then against it contains an artifact of unbelievable power, so the wizards proably wouldn't mind living next door. Maybe I'll cut district 12 in half and make it the magical university.


I actually like steampunk, it's just that if I go full steampunk it opens up a whole new can of worms. I think I'll have the world set up so that if you wait a few decades, it would become steampunk, but right now they are just using steam engines for the things they used steam engines for in the real world. No flying machines, but yes steam powered cranes.

The great elevator comes from the earlier days of the city though, so it's entierlly kinetic and powered by waterwheels.

[batsofchaos]

Looks great so far. I have a couple suggestions of where to place things.

Section 10: This section should probably be the business district. The elevator leads straight to it, so naturally they'd want to pass visitors through long lines of shops. Bars, inns, and banks would also be at home here. Further away from the main strip may have manufacturing and warehouses.

One thought to contemplate would be if the elevator has any sort of defenses in case of attacks from the mainland, and if so does it cut in to this section at all.

Section 8: Seems like a good location for government and temples; far away from the less desirable section of town and nestled right next to the rich section.

Section 11: Looks good for the residential of less well-off folk who aren't in the slums.

Section 12: I agree it would be a good point for the magic-section. I'd say that the practitioners probably commute from their homes in sections 11 and 7; that way they can work by the artifact but live in more comfortable spots.

Arena: Put it at the intersection of 5, 11, and 12.

Don't have anything for 13 or 14. Maybe a military section? I don't know how armed and armored folks in Inferno Bay are.

[Victor Thorian]

Good idea about the spear Mister Bloody Red.. oh.
A question though, what happens if the water that's poured on the spear is somehow cut off?

[BRC]

@ Bats: I have a feeling that most defenses would be at the top of the cliffs. But there might be somthing down there. I like all of your district ideas though. I was thinking of having section 8 be the upper-middle class area. The Gates is the super rich neighborhood, Section 8 is all the people who work just under the super rich, the managers, personal assistants, accountants, ect. Maybe 13 would be a good government section
@ Victor: I don't know, nobody really wanted to test and find out. Proably nothing good though.... Hey, does anybody smell that *Sniffs air*, it smells like...an adventure hook!

[Victor Thorian]

Perhaps the evil overlord could just use the spear to melt his way to the core of the world, put a bomb there ( if there are guns, I thought there would be gunpowder too ) and threaten everyone else.

"If you do not give me five billion dollars, I mean gold pieces, I will blow up the world! Muhahahaha ( evil laugh )"

I am sorry I am not much help.

[BRC]

The Campaign, if you must know, will be that the PC's are members of an inquisition, investigating a conspiracy. They technically have "Do whatever you want and get away with it" badges, but using them will proably tip their targets off as to who the PC's are and that the inquisition is onto them, so they are working in very deep cover. Their foe is a conspiracy that includes everything from an organized crime gang, to a rapidly falling noble house, to a mining company and a merchant company. Ive yet to decide what exactly the conspiracy will be trying to do, but it will definetally have somthing to do with the spear.

Do you think I need to map the city out street by street, or will it be enough to just have a the districts, maybe the major roads, and the general locations of important sites.

[KingGolem]

Do you think I need to map the city out street by street, or will it be enough to just have a the districts, maybe the major roads, and the general locations of important sites.

Yeah, just map out the major roads and important sites. Draw up encounter maps as necessary. For example, if your players fight some thugs in an alleyway, just sketch out the alleyway. I don't think anybody will care exactly where that alleyway is.

And one more thing, you might want to keep a list of street names nearby, for when the players ask what the name of the little (previously unnamed) side-road they're on is, you will be able to answer by just picking one from the list and crossing it off.

[BRC]

Maybe I'll split District 12 into the university and a park of sorts. Lessee, what are some other points of intrest I should have in this city

An Opera House of some sort?

A monument to some hero from the Age of Conflict?

I dunno, gimmie ideas!

[KingGolem]

I think you could work with a memorial district. Maybe you could have park or something in the center with a big temple to (insert deity here) and some statues and memorial plaques to fallen heroes. Maybe the road leading up to the big temple could have paving stones carved with names of the soldiers who died in the Age of Conflict (like the memorial to the Vietnam War; the individual names aren't really important to everyone in general, but they do provide a scope of the death). And then along this road their could be a few shops where they sell worthless crap to tourists. :smallbiggrin:

You ought to put the memorial district in section 9 or 12, next to the business district, because it's likely to be a good tourist trap.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

And one more thing, you might want to keep a list of street names nearby, for when the players ask what the name of the little (previously unnamed) side-road they're on is, you will be able to answer by just picking one from the list and crossing it off.
Take it one step farther. Draw up random buildings and alleys and such, and draw from them as you need. Once you've already had an encounter in an alley or such, mark that down on your map. Otherwise, it's just an all-purpose thing that you can use at any part of the city.

With slight tweaks, of course.

But unless you want to do gobs of work, don't meticulously plan everything out. Just have large lists of potential things to improvise from. Remember: locations are fluid. Until your characters hear about or experience a location in a particular place, it could theoretically pop up anywhere.

[DracoDei]

If most of the surface of the pyramid is cool enough to walk on, and assuming it is NOT honeycombed with cooling tunnels that the water flows through, and they picked a reasonably thermal shock resistant stone, with a high heat capacity (the amount of energy necessary to raise a given volume of a material a given amount of temperature), and a high melting/decomposition point, then cutting off the water would probably still leave anywhere from days to months to get it reconnected before anything perminant happened to the pyramid and even more time before it got hot enough to cause heat-stroke in neighboring districts, catch stuff on fire, or China Syndrome.

[BRC]

I was actually imagining it with some tunnels in the pyramid, but not honeycombing it, more like a bunch of small tunnels right at the top that takes the water straight down to the spear, and some more that send the steam out the sides, but it's not exactly honeycombed, and the stone is pretty heat resistant. The way I see it, if the water was shut off, it would take about a week or two before you started geting heat stroke amongst weaker people who lived very close by. It would be awhile before things got really bad, but the city proably has some contingency plan in case the water supply gets shut down.

But then again, maybe the evil plot isn't just burning down the city, but simply needs the water supply off for a day or so.


Also, I was thinking of drawing up a few streets and alleys to randomly draw from as needed anyway. And currently I'm planning on splitting section 12 in half, with one half being the university and the other being the memorial park.

[DracoDei]

Sabotaging the waterway makes a great diversionary tactic at the very least.

Also, consider the idea of having the steam piped off like the Roman hypocausts(sp) to heat nearby buildings in winter (unless it is a tropical climate).

[BRC]

Alright, some important Locales for Inferno Bay.

Koboldtown Bazzar
Location: Koboldtown (District 5)
Description: Located in the heart of Koboldtown, the bazzar runs by no real organizational system, vendors simply get an appropriatally sized spot either through luck, intimidation, or violence, and spread out a blanket, set up a quick stall or tent, or just park a cart. Here they will aggressivly sell their wares to anybody passing by. Pretty much everything is for sale in the bazzar, from the standard things like food, clothing, and furniture to weapons, armor, and random junk. It is not uncommon for a vendor to be selling "Magic Items" or "Potions". If these do hold any magical power, chances are that it is rather minor and that the vendor has ridiculously overpriced it. However, for the savvy buyer ( one with Detect Magic or ranks in Knowledge:Arcana) the market hosts many people selling random odds and ends they had around, or thieves selling their latest aquisitions (The city guard rarely if ever visits the bazzar). Many a buyer has found such a vendor unknowingly possessing a magic item, believing it to be little more than a shiny bauble worth a few gold pieces. However, if the vendor see's you discover somthing to be magic, a smart buyer knows never to let this show on their face, lest the vendor jack up the price. This market is mostly frequented by the residents of Koboldtown, but students from the university can be seen, wandering the market looking for magic items (These students stand out like a sore thumb, and so vendors always increase their prices when selling to one).

Docks Market
Location: The Docks (District 6)
Description: The Docks market is where you can find fishermen hawking their latest catch, sailors selling small goods aquired in distant seas, plus craftsmen and brewers from the city selling their goods. Unlike it's Koboldtown cousin, the dock's market is actually fairly legitimate. Most of the merchants stick around for a few days, or come back often, and so they want word to get around about their wares and prices. Therefore, you are unlikely to get ripped off. At the same time, most people here have taken the trouble to have things checked out for magical properties, so the chances of a lucky find are much rarer. This market is frequented by people of all economic and social classes, though the truely rich are more likely to pay somebody to do their shopping for them.

The Hall of Ledgers
Location: The Docks (District 6)
The hall of ledgers is an odd place. it is, well, a long hall with rows of merchant company offices facing towrds the central hallway. The windows and fronts of these offices are chalkboards displaying what goods that company currentally has for sale, in what amounts, and available for what prices. They also display what goods they are looking for. Usually, one or more members of the company remains in the office, while others wander the concourse looking at what the other companies have for sale. When they see a potential sale or purchase, they enter the office and begin negotiations. The Hall of Ledgers is where the real economic momentum of the city occurs, it is said that a shipload of timber can change hands twelve times without leaving it's warehouse.
The Glory Pit
Location: The intersection of districts 5, twelve, and eleven.
Description: A city like Inferno Bay would't be complete without a gladiatorial areana, albeit, one with a history. During the Age of Conflict, the Glory Pit was a training facility for an army known as the Blood Horde. Here the Blood Horde trained it's elite shock troopers in live-fire drills. To aid in this, the Glory Pit was interwoven with powerful magics. provided certain arcane mechanisms are in place and properly directed, it is capable of, within itself, Raising and lowering Walls of Stone, as well as casting Move Earth, Wall of Fire, Summon Monster I-V, Wall of Blades, and Spike Stones. These must be carefully positined ahead of time to work, but they can be activated rather suddenly, creating a much more dramatic proposition. Originally, these were used to ensure only the most skilled warriors survived the training. Now these magics are used to make gladiatorial matches much more interesting. What was once a simple walled pit of sand with an attatched bunker has been expanded. Above ground seats, booths, and shops have been added. Below ground, a vast network of bunkers, training rooms, animal pens, and storage has been added to support the fights that occur above. The magical effects inquestion are limited in power and can only be done a few times a week, so most of the fights are fought on a standard areana, with tournament championships or hyped up prize fights being fought within a ring of fire while summoned beasts arrive to make things more interesting.
Memorial Park
Location: The eastern half of district 12
Description: Situated near the steaming pyramid, Memorial Park is a monument to the battle that felled Gorlash the Flamewielder, the fire giant who wielded the Inferno Spear and commanded the Blood Horde. The Spear currently stands exactly where he fell, as nobody could think of a safe way to move it, so they instead built the pyramid over it. One of the most famous parts of this park is the famous Hero's Charge. During the battle of inferno bay, a batallion of knights for the Order of Herodus charged the Blood Horde's lines, allowing the archmage Philimus to mount what is now known as Victory Hill, getting him and his fellow casters close enough to Gorlash's command post to destroy it with an epic spell. Both the charging knights, and the Archmage have been immortilized with statues. At one point in the park, you can see the knights charging forwards on horseback. On top of victory hill, you can see Philimus, his three apprentices, and twenty one wizards whose names and identities were never recorded. Each was in the midsts of casting the ritual spell that slew Gorlash. Surrounding them at the base of the hill, the knights stand with swords drawn, fending off a counterattack. For a reasonable price tour guides will gladly take you through the park and let you walk the footsteps of Philimus. Afterwards he will take you somewhere were you can by overpriced souvineers.

More to come, in the meantime, Comments?

[KingGolem]

Ok, those locations look pretty good. However, I have one concern about this part:


Situated near the steaming pyramid, Memorial Park is a monument to the battle that felled Gorlash the Flamewielder, the fire giant who wielded the Inferno Spear and commanded the Blood Horde. The Spear currently stands exactly where he fell, as nobody could think of a safe way to move it, so they instead built the pyramid over it.

:smallconfused: Nobody could think of a safe way to move it? They didn't have any wizards nearby who could cast some sort of elemental resistance spell (my books are in the next room, I don't feel like looking up the exact name of the spell) and then using telekinesis to move it? Or, assuming that there were other fire giants in the Blood Horde, couldn't they just go pick it up while they were trying to figure out a way to get close to it?

Oh, and here's another idea: assuming that the Inferno Spear is hot enough to incinerate anybody who gets too close to it, how did they get close enough to it to build a pyramid over it?

[BRC]

Ok, those locations look pretty good. However, I have one concern about this part:



:smallconfused: Nobody could think of a safe way to move it? They didn't have any wizards nearby who could cast some sort of elemental resistance spell (my books are in the next room, I don't feel like looking up the exact name of the spell) and then using telekinesis to move it? Or, assuming that there were other fire giants in the Blood Horde, couldn't they just go pick it up while they were trying to figure out a way to get close to it?

Oh, and here's another idea: assuming that the Inferno Spear is hot enough to incinerate anybody who gets too close to it, how did they get close enough to it to build a pyramid over it?
Hmm good point, if they had an epic level wizard (which they did) he proably could have figured out a way to move it saftely.

Maybe it wasn't so much that they couldn't move it, as it was that they couldn't think of a better place to put it. The Age of Conflict was still going on, the order itself didn't have any superpowerful vaults to stick it in, and everybody else was too busy fighting other evils (The Blood Horde wasn't the only nasty thing during the Age of Conflict, not by far). Plus, nobody else nearbye really wanted it, and though they could deactivate it temporarilly, even that wasn't a sure thing in the long term, imagine what would happen if they were just carrying it through a town or were on a boat and the spell randomly failed. To secure this I'll say it had some property that made putting it in extradimensional storage space or teleporting with it a Bad Move. So the remaining Knights and the Archmage decided to just leave it where it was and build a vault around it, hence the Steaming Pyramid. Heck, maybe that's how the city started, the Knights built their new stronghold (While were historying here, let's say that the Blood Horde had destroyed their old one) in the valley, nearbye villagers, still worried about Blood Horde remnants, moved nearbye for protection, and eventually that grew into a fully fledged city. Maybe District 13 was originally the Knights fortress, and now serves as the city's seat of government.

Thanks KingGolem, your annoying question has given me great ideas!

[BRC]

Some Details on the Government.

Government
Left over from the days when it was run by the Order of Herodus, the mayor is given the title "Knight-commander", and the city council are reffered to as the "Twenty Shields". Another tradition that carried over was democracy. During the Age of Conflict, the order chose it's leader democratically. Technically, this still occurs in Inferno Bay. However, the power is almost entierly in the hands of political bosses and guilds who direct the voting of their constituents and members, occasionally they don't even vote, the guild will simply report X votes for a certain candiate, where X is the number of members in the guild.

The Millitary
In the Age of Peace, a large millitary is hardly neccessary. However, the city state of Inferno Bay maintains a force of about three hundred soliders just in case. Mostly these consist of Pikemen and Musketteers, with magical support available on request from the university and the temple. Inferno Bay also has a navy consisting of one battleship and three frigates, primarily to fend off the odd pirate attack. The main purpose of these soliders is simply to exist, and so with the exception of clearing out the occasional bandits nest or providing backup to the city guard, they usually just hang around running training drills within the fortress. Occasionally, the city will hire them out as mercenaries in foriegn wars, but this is fairly rare.

The City Guard
While the millitary simply sits around, the City Guard is high overworked, and very skilled. A succsession of highly competant Commanders has turned the city guard into a highly efficient force almost capable of keeping a up with the citie's crimes. Most Guard recruits are orphans who are adopted by the city and trained from a young age. They wield Swords, Saps and Bolas. Some people find it odd that the police are more skilled than the millitary, but considering how often each finds itself in combat situations, it actually makes sense. (To represent this, I will use Warriors for the soliders and Fighters (or occasionally rogues) for the police). Like with the millitary, Magical support is available for the police from both the academy and the temples, however the police force keeps some wizards and clerics on staff full time to aid with investigations and to heal officers injured in the line of duty. Recentally the five major guard stations were linked with Aspect Mirrors ( com Scoundrel)

[Cryopyre]

Well, hot water is a commodity, I think the pyramid would be converted into a massive bath house. Tourists and locals alike sitting on the warm steps as warm water cascades down them.

[DracoDei]

Doesn't it all come out as steam?

[BRC]

it does. I'll draw a diagram of the Pyramid eventually.

On one hand, if I do want to go with an industrial-revolution feel, using the steam makes sense. On the other hand, the visual image of a big stone step pyramid with lots of steam coming out of it is pretty cool, and I could justify it by saying city authorities don't want people messing with the pyramid in case that's cover for going after the artifact.

[BRC]

I remade the city map and named all the districts

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w27/bloddyredcommie/InfernoBay-1.png
I decided that while the lower vents in the Pyramid are used to power nearbye factories (the district known as "The Mills"), the upper vents are left open, so you still get that clouds of steam coming off it.

[DracoDei]

That works... you could also say that in the summer it is as you have said, but in winter the upper vents are piped out for heating purposes (again depending on climate).

[BRC]

Excep that nobody rich enough to afford such a service lives near the pyramid, they all live as far away from it as possible due to the noise and humidity it creates.

Anyway, I'm going to type up a guide to the city for my players describing the whole thing about the Spear, the various districts, and the various points of interest. Here's the first part

The Legend of the Inferno Spear
Eons Ago, a spear was crafted in the elemental plane of fire. It was a weapon of unbelievable power, merely being near it was enough to kill mortal men without significant protection against it’s heat. Throughout time, it had many wielders, some good, some evil, but all of which possessed immunity to the weapon’s effects. It burned armies and leveled cities during the Age of Conflict, and it was feared by all who saw it used in battle. During the Age of Conflict, a fire giant named Brakard came into possession of the Spear, and used it to raise a vast army known as the Blood Horde which swept across the continent of Il-hatar, crushing all those before them, as even those who could match the Blood Horde’s armies fell before Brakard and the spear. Of the many warring powers during the Age of Conflict, the Blood Horde was the most feared. However, in the 323rd year of the Age of Conflict, The surviving Knights from the Order of Herodus, whose fortress had been taken by the blood horde years before, joined with the archmage Philimus and his pupils with the intent of destroying Brakard once and for all. They met in a bay where The Blood Horde had a training camp, the knights performing a seemingly suicidal charge intent on taking a certain hill. However, this charge allowed Philimus and his apprentices to get within range of Brakard himself and cast an epic spell that pierced Brakard’s defenses and slew him. With their leader dead the Blood Horde splintered and the Knights seized Brakard’s treasury, swollen with the spoils of conquest. They used this money and Philmus’s magic to construct a great stone pyramid above the spot where the Brakard had fallen, his corpse still clutching the spear, and an aqueduct to bring water from the nearby mountains, constantly drenching the Spear and keeping it’s unbelievable heat in check. The Knights also built a fortress, and Philimus raised an island near the pyramid in order to protect it. Due to the nature of the artifact resting there, the bay was soon named Inferno Bay. Before long the remnants of the blood horde began raiding nearbye villages, causing people from all over the continent to flee to Inferno Bay, to live under the twin protections of the Order and the Archmage. And thus a city was born.