Community Worldbuilding Project [Ishka: Urban and Urbane]

[Strawman]

The secret documents only the curator has access to sounds cool.

Organization:The Purge Squad

This group is made of fallen paladins from The Holy Swords. Named after the purge squads that fought the same disease as Baltin, this organization takes similarly drastic measures to fight evil. They openly attack evil, and sometimes they attack groups of residents they beleive are allowing evil to continue. They operate mostly in secret, but occasionally a member will try to make himself into a public martyr so that people will accept their cause. The amount of public support gained by this varies, but The Purge Squad are generally considered a criminal and possibly evil organization. They are sometimes described as a hate group against the undead. Both The Purge Squad and The Holy Swords claim that their group is more true to Baltin.

[Renrik]

We've got religious fanatics, racists, communists, primitivist terrorists, and more. Bravo!

I want to make it clear, on the Wild, as we have been using it so much for various things, that they are in addition to being a terrorist group also a supportive network and nurturing society among their own.

[Strawman]

Some places of Interest-

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The World’s Restaurant – This massive restaurant is in the Entertainment District. It features meals that contain every potential food ingredient in the world, as well as many from other dimensions. There are even magically preserved ingredients made from extinct animals, sold at extremely high prices. Those ingredients are guarded by high-level Halflings that appreciate a good meal.

Dr. Hope’s Quiet House – This house is in the Necropolis. Just as the Holy Hands offer undead a chance to repent, Dr. Hope offers the living a chance to sell their living bodies for the benefit of their loved ones. Dr. Hope is a lich that will offer a substantial amount of cash for a living person willing to give up their body and/or soul. The cash is given to a recipient designated in advance. If the soul is sold, the amount of money is substantially greater. Dr. Hope makes his customers as comfortable as possible before he takes his payment, a process always done very quickly. (Inspired by a scene in Soylent Green).

Oh, and some more things for the museum-

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Paintings of Coliseum Grand Champions (those who have become champion in all coliseums in the city)

Paintings and dioramas of the city at various points during its history (10 levels, 15 levels, mid big tower construction, etc.)

The original “bone shield” wielded by a fallen paladin that fought for undead rights. It is a powerful magic item or artifact.

Some adventure hooks-

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1)In a commons area, the streets and buildings have all been covered by moss. The Wild is suspected, but MI determines the moss to be harmless. Several sick residents beg to differ. It would cost time and money to remove the moss, so the city has put the supposedly harmless moss low on its priorities. A sick resident approaches the adventurers to ask if they can help out, as the Street Builders will not be available to help for another two months. If the adventurers accept:

A)They must determine the effects of the moss.
B)They must counter the effects or remove the moss.
C)They must determine who is behind the moss and prevent reoccurrences

This could be an introduction into a large campaign revolving around fighting The Wild.

2)The Bizarre Bazaar has a pet section. Some mischievous kids were seen releasing numerous pets from their cages. The kids and the creatures ran away. Now both are missing. The adventurers must:

A)Find the kids and bring them back safely, so that they can be punished.
B)Find the creatures and return them alive, even the dangerous ones.

[Renrik]

Another idea:

A number of upper-class elves are murdered, with the symbol of a goblin religious group written in blood nearby. The elven community is up in arms, but the goblins deny any involvement, pointing out that the murders are inconsistent with the religion's philosophy and methods. Racial tensions rise and, at the same time, class resentments flare up as goblin labor representatives accuse the wealthy elves of being in league with the Steamworks owners and hoarding the city's wealth. Needless to say, the Humans First operatives who are comitting the murders are thrilled.

[Dragon Elite]

Anyone want another world building project?
Plot hooks

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A painting is stolen from the museums.
The adventurers must:
A) Discover who took it
B) Find the painting.
C) Bring back the person responsible

An elf leader has been kidnapped
The adventurers must:
A) Bring the elf back
B) Bring the person responsible back

The gnomes treasury was arsoned
The adventurers must:
A) Take a evaluation of the items left in the treasury
B) Return any and all missing items
C) Bring back the person responsible
Arson and theft.

[jagadaishio]

Place of Interest:

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Colosseum Gigantica: The largest arena in the city. The arena itself is a demiplane housing nothing but a two-mile-radius arena. The building in the city is a block-sized round building in the Entertainment District with a gate in an archway every ten feet. Events that take place in the Colosseum Gigantica range from gladiatorial matches to sporting events to wizard duels. Whole wars are sometimes even fought by foreign parties using the field as neutral grounds. The purchase of a ticket also provides the purchaser with a pair of binoculars that magically enhance the user's vision to allow the viewing of the entire arena floor; the binoculars are teleported back to a storehouse at the end of the match for which they were purchased. The Colosseum required an enormous investment to get started, but at only one gold per ticket, no matter the event, enough people go to events that its draconic investors have been seeing massive profits from the venture.

Sin: It's rumoured that at the bottom of the spiral that is Hedon is a venue so vile, so perverse, and so despicable that it can only be called Sin. It is supposed to hold things that even some of the most evil of gods would cringe at the sight of, all for the pleasure of the bizarre clientèle that can make it that far. Those who have gone there and come back are all either incurably insane (as the spell) or unwilling to admit that they got that far and weren't repulsed. As such, the place remains little more than a rumor to this day.

Mhol's Theatre Extraordinaire: This theatre sits soundly in the upper levels of the Entertainment District. From the outside, the theatre looks relatively unremarkable. Indeed, until the show starts, it remains quite ordinary. However, once the show begins, it becomes obvious that there is something odd about the actors: there is only one. The whole theatre is manned by a single changeling, all of the lights and stage crew work performed by invisible servants. Mhol himself changes shapes between lines to play each part, conversing with himself. It's said by some that there is nothing more peculiar than watching this charismatic, hyperactive changeling sword fight or act in love scenes with only himself.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Thats helpful, though I thought I'd point out you accidental left out the districts after Mithral Heights. Also, just a thought, but it might help to alphabetize the districts.

Owrtho

Bugger, I had a feeling I'd missed something. Here goes take two, now with alphabetization:

Districts

The Academy: A massive macro-school of all manner of higher learning. Mages, mechanists, and other scholars are trained here. Most move on to the district of their profession (the Mage's District and the Steamworks respectively for the listed examples) when they finish their training. Some, however, remain to study new concepts and make breakthroughs of their own. Such individuals lead a life of learning.

Aerodyne: District on the Plane of Air, a trade hub.

Aquarene: District on the Plane of Water, exports riverine and natural resources.

Collected College: A sub-community of the Academy, its purpose is as a lab and research ground for professors and other people who make their own education their life instead of a career.

The Commons: Not so much a true district as the place in between districts. Tends to house lots of housing with only a few shops or taverns. The suburbs of the city. Is policed by volunteer neighbourhood watches and the occasional M.I.

Customs and Immigration: A district that has a number of artificial gates which open to a variety of planar cities periodically to let in waves of new citizens. Potential citizens who aren't useful, who are impoverished, or who don't have a useful skill are turned away.

The Dark City: A former drow citadel annexed after a bloody conflict in the deepest levels of the mines. The Dark Army of city-loyal drow still besiege the castle of the Queen they betrayed when she attempted to fall back to her stronghold and leave her people to be conquered. Contains housing for the deepest miners, lodging for the Dark Army, and a large branch of the Steamworks.

The Draconic Heritage Collective: A district of beings with dragonic blood built around a temple dedicate to two ancient dragons (one red, one gold) within. The ancient dragons started a game of strategy against each other centuries ago. They have since become players of business and are the two richest individuals in the city.

Entertainment District: A district of theatres, musicians, artists, and performers. People go here for family-friendly and though provoking entertainment. They also go here to see people gutted by each other in gladiatorial fights. It's a very popular district.

Everdark/Shadowgate: Either two distrcits or a single one in which Shadowgate is a neighborhood. Everdark is a lightless place for nocturnal and darksighted creatures who don;t want to see the light. Shadowgate has spontaneous portals to the Shadow Plane and is beloved by casters of mysteries.

Galdren: The great fields that stretch as far the eye can see, a source of food for the city. They are run by small collectives which send representatives to central council for wider infrastructure planning. skill sharing, discussion, and electing a representative to the city.
Redmere: A district on the other side of the gates to the Plane of Fire. Trades with the denizens.

Gate Raiders: Occasionally, bizarre or random-looking humanoids will spill out of a random gates, stealing, killing, and retreating back into the gate just as it closes. Those that are captured die shortly after the gate closes and, as such, current policy is to just kill them outright. No two look alike. Sometimes a marauding monster will spill out instead of raiders. People looking to get on the good side of local police are well-advised to put down such monsters - if and only if they have sufficient skill to.

The Grove District: A district whose layers are made up of massive living trees. Rangers, druids, fey, treants, and other nature beings make their homes here. The Streetbuilders have to work almost constantly keeping the various groves navigable by walkways in the branches. The Groves export large amounts of fruit and edible fungi to the rest of the city.

Gulliver's Heights: A district built by and for the creatures of size large and larger of the city. It has stable clouds above it for cloud and storm giants. They mostly keep to themselves, but tend to keep cupboards or closets converted to (massive) guest rooms for any miniscule, medium or smaller guests. It is the largest district, if not the most heavily populated.

Hedon: A red light district built in a spiral pattern in one of the larger cavern networks of the city. The deeper down the spiral that a person goes, the more perverse and disturbing the wares offered becomes. Most people can't even bring themselves to walk all the way to the bottom. There are technically no layers in this district, as it is a spiral. People found to be committing a crime are captured and sold into slavery in this district until they pay off their debt.

The Hunting Ground: A corporately sponsored hunting grounds for big game hunters and creatures that have a biological or psychological need to hunt. The Alliance smuggled in more dangerous creatures for bored hunters. Some of the creatures were too dangerous to successfully take down, and the grounds grew overrun with dangerous creatures. It was sealed off from the public, and grove rangers frequently make raids to try to regain control, gaining combat pay and a bonus based on the danger of creatures they take down. The Alliance still smuggles in skilled or stupid hunters and the Wild seeks to release the seals, allowing the dangerous creatures to return the city to a natural state.

Lake District: A district of floating buildings with prime apartments and underwater communities for water-breathers. Is a massive source of fish and edible water-borne plants.

The Mage's District: A district set up by and for magic users. It has a gate to the astral plane, around which was constructed the Bazaar of the Bizarre. All manner of constructs and magical items come from this district. Those who need to commission a magical service need only come here to find it.

The Necropolis: A district of undead, policed by the Order of the Bone Shield, who are involved in capturing and punishing undead criminals and rogue mindless undead city-wide. Contains a gate to the Negative Energy plane, where rich undead build homes. Bodies from the rest of the city are sold to the Necropolis for labor and dietary needs of its citizenry.

Primordium: The seat of the city's ruling council, a pocket dimension in the original village from which the city was founded.

Ravenshome: A district full of raven statues. Those that break major laws disappear. Those that break minor laws have their offenses appear in a tattoo on their arm, listed in over 100 languages. Those that conceal their tattoo feel pain, and concealing their offence is added to the tattoo as a crime. Those whose tattoos get too large disappear. Anywhere you go in the district, there is always at least one raven visible. The crime rate in this district is incredibly low, and people who grow up here almost always end up with some sort of mental or emotional issues.

Stadel: A district which vanished suddenly and existed in a void for centuries. One day it returned as suddenly as it vanished, having apparently survived the void by the skill and guidance of the Stadel family. After returning, they fought a short battle with the rest of the city before being comforted. To this day they are largely isolationist and xenophobic.

The Steamworks: A steam-powered industrial district. It is actually made up of a number of unconnected sites scattered throughout the city. Most of the city's technological advances, refined metals, and other manufactured objects come off of a Steamworks line. There is enormous conflict and strain between merchant managers and unions in the district. The steamworks hold gates to the elemental planes of both fire and water to allow for infinite steam power.

Temple District: A district of temples, hospitals, and academies for paladins, clerics, and other clergy. People go here to worship and receive aid from their organizations. The temple district at large publicly denounces, and would have made war to if not for the law, the Necropolis. A portal to the positive energy plane exists here.

Ungul: A small community attached to one of the groves designed around the needs of four-legged creatures of the city. It was designed and built by centaurs, and it is still administered by them to this day.

The Vault: An extradimensional prison where convicted criminals serve their sentence. It is policed and wardoned by constructs. It is rumored that terribly magical experiments are perpetrated upon the people jailed for life.

Organizations

Cave Knockers: Keep the tunnels maintained and mapped, and make new tunnels. Sometimes required to fight unexpected threats in their line of work. The Streetbuilders of the caves.


Civil Servants: A public bodyguard service for other public service organizations like the Streetbuilders. They are not a police force. Their sole task is to protect their charges.

The Collective: A communist pro-union organization in the Steamworks. The unions don't official endorse it. Its actions tend towards protest, sabotage, and even attack on the merchant managers.

The Council of Ministers: Appointed by the Grand Council, it consists of the directors of the various citywide departments. Each seat has two chairs, one for the minister themselves, and one reserved for their second, usually the director of some powerful organization. The current list of ministers is the following:
The Minister of the Interior: the head of the bureaucracy that runs the Streetbuilders, the Cave Knockers, and the Trash Collectors. The second seat is held by the High Engineer of the Streetbuilders.
The Minister of Justice: Heads the bureaucracy that inspects and coordinates all the police-departments, primarily the city-controlled ones (Like the Elemental Guard, the Vault Wardens, and M.I.). The second seat is held by the M.I. Director.
The Minister of Magic: Part of the bureaucracy that keeps track of and handles most of the magic items the city controls. Conducts a census on the number and power of spellcasters in the city, and general handles the magical affairs the government needs too. The second seat is held by the Arch chancellor of the University.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs: Handles all relations between the City and the world outside. The second seat is held by the current leader of the Merchants Guild.
The Minister of War: Theoretically, this seat would be held by the Commander of the City's armed forces. However, because the city lacks a standing army, this seat is held by a bureaucrat who leads a small department that keeps track of the city's preparedness for war, and would, in the event of a conflict, become the top commanders of the city's army. They are almost never consulted.
Minister of the Treasury: keeps track of the budget and the city's funds. The second seat is held by the president of whatever is the largest bank in the city at that time.
The Minister's Council has no actual voting power, instead serving to run their departments and advice the Grand Council on various issues.

Cut-Throat Alliance: An organization that makes crime a business. Comprised of 80% of the organized criminals and 50% of the disorganized criminals in the entire city. Potentially the most powerful single organization, they have hidden teleportative gates throughout the city for their agents to use for a variety of purposes.

The Elemental Guard: Police force and defensive garrisons of the elemental colonies.

The Eyes: A now illegal network of divination aided and amazingly skilled spies who keep track of everything going on in the city. Founded under a former regime, and since outlawed, they still report to the city's council, who do not publicly condone their actions. For the right price, they can provide amazing information.

Gatekeepers: An organization which is devoted to ending these mysterious raids on the city. Some stay behind to aid the police and guards, but most patrol the multiverse searching for the source of the attacks.

The Holy Hands of Saint Merkiel: A coalition of healers who have set up hospitals in every district in the city. They publicly, vocally oppose the existence of the Necropolis and undead in general. They take no hostile actions, but offer euthanasia to any undead that enter, much to the dislike of the Necropolis's residents.

Humans First: Humans first is a speciest organization which exalts humans and wants all other races to get out. They hold that the original village was a human village, and therefore only humans deserve to be residents. They are often ignored, in spite of rumors that many policy-making officials are secretly members.

Municipal Investigators: An organization to handle trans-district criminals, the Alliance, and other such criminals. They serve principally as investigators, and rarely perform arrests, but will do so if needed. They are called in on every Alliance-suspected crime.


The Peacekeepers: An underground organization dedicated to solving the inevitable conflicts that arise due to the vast number of very different cultures the City is home to. They work as intermediaries or buffers between groups that share hostilities to reduce the odds of a sudden riot. They also send anonymous tips to police organizations in an effort to solve hate crimes. The members often hire and work alongside bounty hunters to hunt down criminals and gangs that threaten to cause chaos, and even donate to help cover the cost of paying bounties.

Shadow Martyrs: Ex-Cuthroat Alliance members and other victims, the good guys in the dark.

The Streetbuilders: A municipal organizations of builders, their primary purpose is to make sure layers don't collapse down on each other, an almost constant task. When they finish repairing everything, they're given a public building task. Most such buildings are unfinished when the Streetbuilders are called back to their repair work, and sit unfinished forever.

Trash Corps: The Trash Corps pick up the trash and bring it to landfills, burn it, compact it, recycle it, etc. They also maintain the sewers (except for its structure, which is left for the Street Builders). They are generally understaffed, although for some reason the richer districts always have their trash collected on time

The Wild: A neoprimitivist organization made up of druids, rangers, and other pro-nature organizations. Their long-term goal is to return the area covered by the city to a state of nature. They seek to break the seals around the Hunting Grounds and let nature do its work on the rest of the city.

Places of Interest:

Arcane Sewers: The Mage District contains a great deal of spilt potions, magical waste, and broken objects of a magical nature. When all of these combine and fester in one place, stuff happens, usually bad. That is why The Mage District has a separate sewer/garbage system for potentially dangerous magic waste. This area is sectioned off, and barricaded so that creatures born of the waste cannot escape into the city. A special division of The Trash Corps takes care of the Arcane Sewers. They are required to have arcane magic, and they carry around bags of holding to transport more dangerous waste.

The Block: This large and crowded apartment building has a peculiar habit of flickering about several districts, appearing in certain vacant lots in each in a semi-predictable pattern, slightly controlled by its inhabitants. Its tenants trade between districts and practice home industries to keep employed. It usually has a number of guests in it who wish to catch a ride to the next stop and see the world.

The City Forge: The single largest forge in the city. The truly massive machines that the rest of the Steamworks often need for their jobs are forged here. It is staffed almost exclusively by tough, old, skilled mechanist dwarves.

Colosseum Gigantica: The largest arena in the city. The arena itself is a demiplane housing nothing but a two-mile-radius arena. The building in the city is a block-sized round building in the Entertainment District with a gate in an archway every ten feet. Events that take place in the Colosseum Gigantica range from gladiatorial matches to sporting events to wizard duels. Whole wars are sometimes even fought by foreign parties using the field as neutral grounds. The purchase of a ticket also provides the purchaser with a pair of binoculars that magically enhance the user's vision to allow the viewing of the entire arena floor; the binoculars are teleported back to a storehouse at the end of the match for which they were purchased. The Colosseum required an enormous investment to get started, but at only one gold per ticket, no matter the event, enough people go to events that its draconic investors have been seeing massive profits from the venture.

Copper Junkyards: The various scrapyards of the Steamworks. Poor tinkers and mechanist will go here for raw materials, and it is seen as the ultimate sign of the waste and corruption of cities by the Wild. Rust monsters tend to live here, much to the chagrin of anyone walking past with a particularly delicious piece of metal on their person.

Crystal Observatory: An observatory built in the Mithral Heights by professors from the Collected College. They are always looking for new, better crystals to use as lenses, and are willing to pay exorbitantly for them.

Dr. Hope’s Quiet House: This house is in the Necropolis. Just as the Holy Hands offer undead a chance to repent, Dr. Hope offers the living a chance to sell their living bodies for the benefit of their loved ones. Dr. Hope is a lich that will offer a substantial amount of cash for a living person willing to give up their body and/or soul. The cash is given to a recipient designated in advance. If the soul is sold, the amount of money is substantially greater. Dr. Hope makes his customers as comfortable as possible before he takes his payment, a process always done very quickly.

Element Guard HQ:The headquarters of the Element Guard is a large brick building in the Mage's district. Within it are massive libraries of historical texts, cultural texts, and maps of the various elemental planes compiled by generations of arcanists and Guardsmen. The headquarters is regularly staffed only by scholars and officers with other Guardsmen only passing through to and from their posts. The main hall has four massive doors, each carved with the name of the element of the plane it leads to in a hundred different languages. The Water and Fire planes both have environment-controlled airlocks before their gates, but the Earth and Air doors lead directly into the main halls of Terradome and Aerodyne.

The Founder's Museum: Created shortly after the Primordium was completed, it contains many artifacts and items from the city's history. While there are many recent items relating to big events, the name comes from the handful of items that are believed to be from the city's early days. There is little known of the items that can't be discerned just by looking at them, and even the museum itself doesn't have much information about the items. Founder's Museum lists a name, where the item was found, and several theories about the owners and what they used for it.
The Museum is patrolled by several constructs, and while there are daily tours the security is tighter then Fort Nox ever dreamed. Alarms that teleport the would-be thief straight into a holding cell when tripped. Very thick walls of admantium. Placement of varrying runes in layer after layer. Constant montioring by five high level wizards via scrying at any time. Several imitations of the items scattered throughout the facility, ensuring that actually stealing what you were looking for is a guessing game. Teleportation is blocked at all times using several redundant layers of enchantments. The building's walls are covered in detection spells and turrets of the highest quality, to deter riots or anyone bold enough to seige it. To top it all off, dozens of constructs patrol the building in perfectly timed shifts and paths that ensure no inch will be unmonitered for even a second. If all else fails, the wizards will raise an alarm, attracting the attention of any and all available Eternal Guards.

Holy Ground: The holy graveyard in the temple district. They refuse to sell their dead to the necropolis, and therefore maintain this expensive burial ground with the tithes of their congregations.

Mhol's Theatre Extraordinaire: This theatre sits soundly in the upper levels of the Entertainment District. From the outside, the theatre looks relatively unremarkable. Indeed, until the show starts, it remains quite ordinary. However, once the show begins, it becomes obvious that there is something odd about the actors: there is only one. The whole theatre is manned by a single changeling, all of the lights and stage crew work performed by invisible servants. Mhol himself changes shapes between lines to play each part, conversing with himself. It's said by some that there is nothing more peculiar than watching this charismatic, hyperactive changeling sword fight or act in love scenes with only himself.

Random Gates: Random gates will sometimes appear throughout the city for random amounts of time. Magical devices which provide a countdown for the gate's disappearance and devices which hold open the gates are (relatively) common.

Sin: It's rumoured that at the bottom of the spiral that is Hedon is a venue so vile, so perverse, and so despicable that it can only be called Sin. It is supposed to hold things that even some of the most evil of gods would cringe at the sight of, all for the pleasure of the bizarre clientèle that can make it that far. Those who have gone there and come back are all either incurably insane (as the spell) or unwilling to admit that they got that far and weren't repulsed. As such, the place remains little more than a rumor to this day.

The Sleeping Army: There is a cavern filled with this vast army, made long ago in a terrible conflict and put to rest, to be awoken in a time of need. They attack anyone with a weapon, but some hide among them unarmed.

The World’s Restaurant: This massive restaurant is in the Entertainment District. It features meals that contain every potential food ingredient in the world, as well as many from other dimensions. There are even magically preserved ingredients made from extinct animals, sold at extremely high prices. Those ingredients are guarded by high-level Halflings that appreciate a good meal.



I think I got it all this time. Added in a few more recent ideas, trying not to change the wording too much. Except The Peacekeepers, which I think I may have trimmed too much.

[Terror_Incognito]

Here is another Place of Interest.

The Hole in the Ground
The Hole in the Ground was discovered by builders converting a second-story shopfront in an apartment. When removing the floor, instead of seeing the room below they saw the Hole.

The hole is exactly 20ft in diameter and appears to be bottomless. It also has the curious ability to prevent all form of flight, both magical and mundane (starting 50ft from the top).

The Hole in the Ground is now a major tourist attraction. For a mere 1 Silver you can look in to hole and for 4 silver more you can drop something into it.

In addition a thriving rope making industry has developed in the area around the Hole to provide for those who wish to climb down.

[Strawman]

The Hole In The Ground might mean that there is no garbage/sewer problem in the city. Everything would go straight there.

[Dragon Elite]

Bu what about the smell from sewage? Not so much of a tourist attraction anymore.

[kopout]

having the rope "brake" would be an interesting way of murder.

[Strawman]

Or a quick gust of wind out of earshot to knock people off the rope. Everyone would assume that they just lost their grip.

I could imagine different versions of the hole could be in a campaign. The original bottomless one is the standard. An alternate would be a hole that used to seem bottomless, but is now quickly filling up with the city's garbage and sewage. Keep in mind that the city has not had to use landfills or anything for decades, and is completely unprepared. That could make for a whole adventure's worth of quests.

[jagadaishio]

Organization: The Guild of Freelancers

The Guild is an organization of generalists. Rather than being specialized, as the Mage's Guild, the Fighter's Guild, and so on, it accepts people of all manner of specialization and skilled generality. When the Guild receives a commission, it posts it on the boards in all of their guildhouses throughout the city, the required specializations and number of people listed at the bottom. The boards are magical and updated in real time, so as soon as someone of a required specialization signs up, the requirements on all the boards change to account for the new individual. The guild is considered a fantastic organization for bored adventurers, and it pays well if infrequently. The guild typically only receives commissions that no other guild is capable of, whether it's because it requires a number of specialities or because it requires a very broad skill base.

[Dragon Elite]

Should we try to make a campaign in this setting?
It would be a good way to see what we need to do.

[Strawman]

I've started working on a campaign, although it's very bare-bones right now. Also, the time limit imposed in it may be way too short.

The Garbage Campaign

Diviners have discovered that the city's bottomless hole is finally filling up. After two months it will no longer be useable as a dump spot for all the city's garbage and sewage. If the city is not prepared by then, it will be very, very bad.

The adventuring party has been commissioned as an Emergency Garbage Task Force, E.G.T.F. They have been given various assignments to complete within a two month time period.

Assist in the creation of landfills and recycling plants.

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-Get funding from individual residents of Mithral Heights for the creation of landfills and recycling plants. This would lead to a number of smaller quests, one for each resident being obtained.

-Reduce widespread vandalism in Hedon that is using up all the streetbuilder's time, preventing them from being able to work on large scale projects. A crime lord is causing gangs to use vandalism on government properties in Hedon.

-Convince the dwarven district to give up a new cave they found, so that it can be made into a landfill. You must give them something or perform them a service that they deem equal in value.

-Convince tiny residents of the city to map out all the hidden and forgotten places in the city that might be used as landfills. They have been having problems with another district lately, and would like your help in resolving the matter.

Help establish the Arcane Sewers.

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-Convince a high level arcane spellcaster to head up the division of trash corps that runs the Arcane Sewers.

-Monsters born in the Arcane Sewers are attempting to break past the barricades. Quell this dangerous rebellion. Depending on how complex the Arcane Sewers are, this could be a whole dungeon.

Slow the fill of the bottomless pit, thus increasing the time allowed to complete the campaign. These are optional to the quest.

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-Convince druids of The Grove and wizards of The Academy to create a fast reproducing subspecies of Gelatinous Cubes. Then devise a way to safely drop the cubes into the bottomless pit.

-Buy high-yield explosives from a prominent gnomish inventor. These are meant to expand the lower parts of the pit. This option is not available during the final week of the campaign; the pit would be too full at that point, and the explosives would be dangerous.

Also, in order to provide a reprieve from a plot-heavy campaign, there is a mandatory concert you must put on. You must help a theatre troupe put together a concert meant to raise awareness of developing a garbage-conscious lifestyle.

Finally, the campaign ends in front of the pit, where a ceremony is held. During the ceremony, a monster emerges from the pit. You must defeat it with the aid of the city's forces and the high level caster you recruited for the Arcane Sewers.

[Terror_Incognito]

I like your ideas for using the hole. I had also envisioned mages and explorers constantly trying to reach the bottom, hence the thriving rope making industry.

I love the mental image of Coruvaan, Grand-High, Exalted Archmage of the Scarlet Sigil being pelted with garbage as he is lowered down the Hole.

[BRC]

Point of Interest: The Warehouse
The Municipal authorities need to store things. Lots of things, so spread throughout the city is a series of Warehouses. However, each of these individual warehouses leads to a single pocket dimension exactly twice the size of all the warehouses combined. With the exception of a few civil servants at the doors, most of the space is unguarded, simply containing vast amounts of raw materials and tools for the Streetbuilders, Trash Corps, and Cave Knockers, as well as Food stockpiled in times of plenty as proof against famine,. However, better guarded sections contain the City Archives, a massive arsenal of outdated weapons (in case the city needs to raise an army), collections of magic items, and even the city treasury.

One feature of the Warehouse is that books and food (in their respective sections) will not rot or decompose.
The space is truly massive, and with the exception of people coming to collect stuff, and a few simple constructs, few people spend much time there, and some far-away areas may not have seen outsiders for centuries. Who knows what could be lurking back there between rows of crumbling bricks or shelves of tomes full of agricultural and tax data.

[Owrtho]

Point of Interest: The Rules of the Ravens
In the center of Ravenshome is a large square pillar 15 feet by 15 feet reaching from the top of the highest level of the district to the bottom of the lowest level of the district. The entire pillar is decorated with ravens, etched in a style similar to the marks that appear on the arms of criminals in the district, and the corners of the pillar are carved to look like the raven statues that can bee seen wherever you go, one atop the other each on a small perch. In the central level of the district, the populace has gone and started carving in blank areas of the pillars, all the rules that the ravens seem to enforce with the mark, and the approximate length of the mark they cause. They have also noted the crimes that seem to cause disappearances among the district such as murder. Every so often when a new rule is found people have it carved in a blank spot on the pillar. Aside from the pillar, the area is known as being where most who move to ravens home to hide from the alliance or other powerful groups move to (at least at first) so that they are able to easily check what the rules are in case they forget.

Owrtho

[Strawman]

I imagine that groups like The Wild and The Alliance will try to raid guarded warehouses. Adventuring parties could help defend the warehouse, or prevent the attack. Or aid in the raid if they're evil.

[Renrik]

I imagine that groups like The Wild and The Alliance will try to raid guarded warehouses. Adventuring parties could help defend the warehouse, or prevent the attack. Or aid in the raid if they're evil.

Or Chaotic.

[jagadaishio]

Or Chaotic.

Because sticking it to the man isn't any more inherently good or evil than the man itself is.

[Strawman]

I've made up the introduction for the Garbage Campaign.

Intro-

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The Garbage Campaign

You are standing in your boss’s office. She is sitting behind a wooden desk covered with stacks of paper and scrolls. She quickly makes red marks on documents while she talks to you.

“Hello everyone. I’ve called you here for a very important duty. As you all know, the city uses a bottomless pit for its entire garbage and trash disposal. Recently spelunkers have discovered that the pit is not truly bottomless, and that it will be full soon. If the city does not have a fully functioning alternative garbage disposal method when the pit fills up, all hell will break loose.

“You have been commissioned as an Emergency Garbage Task Force, or E.G.T.F. for short. There are several objectives that you must complete before the pit fills up. This document here lists all of the objectives and sub-objectives.”

The DM hands each player a copy of Document 1A.

“Now, The Academy predicts that the pit will fill up completely in three months. If you have not finished your job by then, it may be too late. The Academy did postulate some ways to delay the pit’s filling up. I included those in the document.

“Oh, about objective three, I’m sorry about that. I don’t think there’s any point to it, but the City Council put it on there.”

Your boss stops doing paperwork and looks up, “The city needs you. You’re all we can spare, everyone else is working on maintaining the city or other garbage related duties. Don’t expect any help. That being said, do you have any questions?”

After the players ask questions, they can decide where to go next. The DM may decide what the player’s boss would or would not know.

Document 1A-
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E.G.T.F. Objectives
The following are a list of duties assigned to you, a member of the Emergency Garbage Task Force.

1. Assist in the construction of junkyards, landfills, and recycling plants.

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a. Discover the reason for rampant vandalism in Hedon. The vandalism is using up a considerable part of the Street Builder’s time, preventing them from building landfills as quickly as needed.

b. Recently the Dwarven District discovered a gargantuan cave. Convince them to allow the cave to be used as a landfill, instead of a residential location.

c. Acquire donations from prominent families in the Mithral District. The donations will go to creation and maintenance of recycling plants in the Steamworks.

d. Convince several families of giants and ogres in Gulliver’s Heights to move so that their neighborhood can be turned into a landfill.

e. Organize citizens of Smallville for the purpose of searching the city for unknown planar gates. Any newfound locations that are uninhabited will be used for landfills.

f. Discover the source of dire animals in a giant compost farm in Galdren.

2. Ensure the quality of the Arcane Sewers.

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a. Convince one of the city’s more well known arcane magic users to become the new head of the Arcane Sewers. Anyone on the following list would be acceptable.

i. Alabaster Grant, retired guard from The Museum.
ii. Onigh, first half-orc professor of the arcane in The Academy.
iii. Elinor Crinne, talented daughter of Mithral Height’s Crinnes.
iv. Dr. Despair, a lich that was once in the employ of Dr. Hope.

b. Ascertain the safety of Arcane Sewers barricade, and eliminate any potential dangers within the Arcane Sewers.

3. Raise the citizenry’s awareness of the garbage problem.

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a. Convince a well-known theatre troupe to put on a play addressing the issue of garbage.

b. Find a large suitable location for the play to be held on a regular basis.

c. Attend the play on opening night and make sure everything goes smoothly.

4. Assist in an MI investigation of a plot by The Wild to derail the garbage effort. The Wild wants the city to fall apart after it can no longer handle its own supply of garbage. Use one of the following methods.

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a. Infiltrate The Wild and dismantle their plot from the inside.

b. Discover key members of The Wild and assist in their arrest.

c. Convince The Civil Servants to station a significant amount of guards at all landfills and recycling plants.

I’ve included some ways that you can slow the pit’s filling up - Boss

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Some members of The Grove and The Mage District were working on creating a quickly reproducing gelatinous cube. If a few dozen of those were put in the pit, it could considerably slow matters. However, several weeks during the project’s conception, The Wild attacked part of The Mage District. A large amount of the Mage District blamed The Grove, and the project was called off. If you can bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice, you may be able to convince the teams from The Grove and The Mage District to work together again.

Additionally, there is a gnomish inventor that lives on the Lake District. He specializes in high-yield explosives. They are extremely expensive, but you can try to convince him that he should donate some. If the explosives are dropped in the pit, it could widen considerably at lower elevations, increases the space for garbage to fill.

If you can come up with any other ideas on how to slow the pit, you have unlimited access to the pit. Feel free to use your own solutions.

End of Document 1A
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[BRC]

Can I just say, I love the idea of a campaign based around finding a place for the city to put it's garbage. It tells alot about the type of setting
"So, in this campaign do we stop a demon cult?"
"Nope"
"Do we slay a dragon?"
"Nope"
"Okay, what do we do"
"Establish landfills"
...

[Renrik]

How does a city this size funnel all of its garbage towards one area? I think the bottomless pit should be used for the vast majority of the garbage in a specific area, but not for all the city's garbage. There would need to be a complex system of gates leading all the garbage there, otherwise, and with the truly massive size of this city and its colossal population, I don't think it likely that there would be a single place. I think some other ones would exist as well, and part of a garbage campaign should be to expand those ones.

[Renrik]

Though, on the garbage campaign:

Recruit mages to build more gates to allow the flow of organic waste to Galdren to be used as fertilizer, compost, and mulch. Lobby the Streetbuilders to build more infrastructure to help Galdren transport the waste to its new home.

Members of the Grove or even some more pacifistic members of the Wild could help in the mulch scheme.

[jagadaishio]

Idea: what if it turns out that the pit really IS bottomless and the build up is really just due to a blockage part way down? The party's whole campaign would prove (at the very end) to have been for naught, as dropping down a few barrels worth of Alchemist's Acid or a gelatinous cube would have cleared the blockage like a massive dose of industrial-strength, magical draino. Alternatively, the problem with the hole filling up could easily be solved by getting someone to manoeuvre a sphere of annihilation down into the pit. That would dispose of non-recyclables bore quickly than any other method. The point with all of this garbage stuff, though, is that in a magical world where there are Fabricate spells, all organic materials would go to compost and all inorganic materials could be easily recycled. I can't imagine the city having, or needing, a massive dump spot for anything other than the arcane waste that the Mage's District puts out.

[kopout]

OR instant fabrication will create a consumer society that produces massive amounts of waste because that can literally make more out of thin air.

[Strawman]

Okay, I really want the Garbage campaign to work, so I've tried to come up with logical explanations for its validity.

Fabricate spells, and things of a similar nature, can only be cast be spellcasters of a certain level. I imagine that those casters are rare enough that they cannot handle the city's trash load, especially since not many casters would want to spend their days dealing with trash.

The sphere of annihilation actually gave me an idea. Maybe the bottomless pit wasn't found. It was made. A hundred or so years ago, a group of powerful spellcasters decided to solve a bulk of the city's trash problem. He had a large funnel shaped cave dug deep into the ground. At the bottom of that cave, clerics created several Spheres of Annihilation. Pipes and chutes and planar gates from all over the city led to the spheres, made to go away forever. While it did not handle all of the city's garbage, it did substantially ease the strain garbage had on the city's budget.

Then, the other casters made an epic-level spell that would hold the spheres in place permanently. It would also protect the spheres from meddling, destruction, or anything else that could cause the spheres to stop working as intended.

But recently the gods spoke to their clerics and told them of impending disaster. There was something in the void that the Spheres of Annihilation connected to. That something, be it beast or deity, was eating the garbage being sent to it. And it was moving towards the source. The clerics of all deities (other than those who want the world destroyed) immedietly declared that the spheres must be closed. The most powerful mages in The Mage District said that because of the epic-level spell, it would take them months to close the spheres.

Thus, the players must prepare the city for increased garbage in the time before the spheres are closed. It would mean removing from the campaign anything about slowing the filling of the pit. Also, there is talk of the casters making a new solution for garbage after this that will work better, but they are all busy with the potential catastrophe.

The final boss I mentioned in the original outline of the campaign would be a young spawn of the mysterious creature heading towards the spheres. The spawn got through just as the spheres were closing.


Anyway, that's my idea. Is the whole garbage setup and campaign more plausible now?

Unfortunately, in this design there would be no room for splunking in a bottomless pit. I imagine in a city this large there would be caves so large that you could spend a decade getting to the bottom of it anyway.

[Hylleddin]

...

Thus, the players must prepare the city for increased garbage in the time before the spheres are closed. It would mean removing from the campaign anything about slowing the filling of the pit. Also, there is talk of the casters making a new solution for garbage after this that will work better, but they are all busy with the potential catastrophe.

The final boss I mentioned in the original outline of the campaign would be a young spawn of the mysterious creature heading towards the spheres. The spawn got through just as the spheres were closing.


Anyway, that's my idea. Is the whole garbage setup and campaign more plausible now?

Unfortunately, in this design there would be no room for splunking in a bottomless pit. I imagine in a city this large there would be caves so large that you could spend a decade getting to the bottom of it anyway.

How about this:

The city has several naturally occurring not quite bottomless pits that it has been using for garbage disposal. A short while ago, some of the more heavily used ones filled up. The garbage has been rerouted to other pits, but it's only a temporary solution. The people in charge investigated the other pits and found out that they would be full in about three months.

This allows adventures centered on slowing the problem and gives more pits to go spelunking in.

(P.S. Great setting!)

[Renrik]

I think we should use the spheres of annihilation idea, but also have some landfills that be spelunked in, kind of merging the last two posts.