Let's Build a Setting (Cityscape Edition!): Shale of the Underdark

[Bobbyjackcorn]

-snip-
Anyone bold or stupid enough to emulate the missing Scrutineers will find power lurking where they least expected it.

I love Conquerer Worms! Good addition!

[Cluedrew]

34. The Grocers (The Guild for Grocers, Bakers and Wholesalers)

One of the factions that control territory in Shale (6/9). They have little territory compared to the other factions, but quite a bit of sway in the other factions' territory. This is because, between the trades officially in the guild and their control of most of the usual land around Shale (which still is not that much) they produce most of the food consumed in Shale.

There official holdings are near the edges of the city, expanding around the warehouses where food is brought into the city. This means their territories are not actually continuous and would probably fall is another faction really tried to dislodge them. But no one has ever been ever been willing to risk that because of the likely fall out. So the grocers have maintained a kind of neutrality (one punctured by many small incidents) over the years.

I was also considering making a "weak" faction to blur the line between the 9 factions and other organizations, but this one popped into my head. By the way have we established the territories of the other known factions?

[Bobbyjackcorn]

34. The Grocers (The Guild for Grocers, Bakers and Wholesalers)

-snip-

I think you've got a good start, but what makes the grocers fit the theme? And how do they interact with the city as we already know it? The themes center around magic, gritty-fantasy, gothic elements etc, and it's already an established fact that most of the food comes from vents in the lake.
Try expanding on what makes the Grocers different from just any old food-distributor.

[Cluedrew]

On Theme: I figured mixing in food with politics fit the political theme. Starvation/famine as a weapon is kind of a plague so that fits that the gothic theme. It kind of interlocks with dangerous nature a bit, here food is power and power corrupts.

On Vents: Yes there are two ways I have thought of to fill that in, although someone else might have a different idea. The first is that the Grocers have some control over the fishing. The second to set the ratio of food to fertilizer that comes out of the lake more in favour of the latter.

On Difference: Is having your average grocery store being controlled by the mob not enough? Especially since how well that mob is getting along with the controller of your group effects what you will find on shelves (with nothing being one significant option).

Note: This is not a new item, although it is supposed to clarify #34 it is not supposed to add anything per say.

[rferries]

I think you've got a good start, but what makes the grocers fit the theme? And how do they interact with the city as we already know it? The themes center around magic, gritty-fantasy, gothic elements etc, and it's already an established fact that most of the food comes from vents in the lake.
Try expanding on what makes the Grocers different from just any old food-distributor.

I think grocers fits the "urban"/"gangster"/"film noir" theme pretty well.

[Bobbyjackcorn]

I think grocers fits the "urban"/"gangster"/"film noir" theme pretty well.

Sorry, I'm guessing it's a reference to The Godfather or some other element of noir, I've just never associated Grocers with anything gangster or film noir. Either way, I'm certainly not trying to rain on anyone's parade, keep up the good work guys!

[Cluedrew]

It is not a purposeful reference if it is one. I purposefully picked a name that would be a little bit weird assonated with who the grocers actually are. The idea was to hammer home how pervasive this all is, that even the grocery stores in Shale are more cut throat. ... Maybe that didn't work.

[rferries]

It is not a purposeful reference if it is one. I purposefully picked a name that would be a little bit weird assonated with who the grocers actually are. The idea was to hammer home how pervasive this all is, that even the grocery stores in Shale are more cut throat. ... Maybe that didn't work.

Ah I see. I felt grocers are a fairly modern/urban concept - a franchise business that in this case can be a front for organised crime. Serendipity then.

[Sgt. Cookie]

35. The Unflayed Minds

It is common knowledge that Mind Flayers are psionic abominations that feed on the brains of sentient races. It is also common knowledge that the Mind Flayer, Thask'aat does not. Or at least, that is what he claims. In any event, attacking Thask'aat would draw the ire of his cabal, a group of psionically gifted individuals known as The Unflayed Minds.

While psions are more cooperative than Wizards, primarily due to the fact psionic prowess is garnered through meditation and introspection rather than study, The Unflayed Minds treat each other more like family, teaching and guiding new psions as they develop their abilities. Russia's himself, while certainly not a "good person" is extremely loyal to those who follow him.

The Unflayed Minds are too inwardly focused and small to be considered one of the true factions, the personal power of its members gives it them the influence needed to punch above their weight class... At least from time to time.

36. The truth of Thask'aat

The truth behind the semi-public figure known s Thask'aat is quite simple: he's telling the truth about not needing to consume brains. While he has done so on occasion, primarily as a funeral rite amongst his cabal, Thask'aat actually derives sustenance from psionic energy itself. The latent energy produced by his cabal is more than enough to satiate him and thus does not need to "drain" psionic power from his followers directly.

[Bobbyjackcorn]

37. The Night Of The Dreaming-Maze

Between the Order Of Kal-Kantet and The Unflayed Minds, there is a certain rivalry. The Order does not appreciate Thask'aat encroaching on their potential new recruits, and the Unflayed Minds view the order as a powerful but unfocused group- after all, their "leader" doesn't exist, right? Normally this would only amount to a few bar fights, maybe some mugging, and hostilities would slowly ramp up. To keep both of their groups in check, the spirit of Kal-Kantet and Thask'aat organize an event every year's end for their people known as the Night of the Dreaming-Maze. On that night, a psychic maze is crafted in the Dreaming, and indwelled by monsters gathered from nightmares. Anyone who wants to face the challenge can enter that night in their dreams. Most do not return from the Dreaming-Maze- either the monsters in the maze, or getting lost itself, traps them in a catatonic state. Those who survive and make it to the other side become honorary Psychic Champions of Shale, and are permitted the services of both the Unflayed and the Kantet Lae for the remainder of the year. The city itself makes a celebration of the event, traditionally wearing chunks of psionic crystal around their foreheads for the day and feasting on fried octopi and dishes made from the brains of various cattle of the underdark. That night, they sleep, letting the name of the champion they want to succeed echo in their mind as they drift into the Dreaming.
Both Deathcap and Mr. Evenstar hold betting rings based around who will survive, seeing the event as a great yearly chance to increase income and expand their influence.

[Thorongil]

38. Lady Sellwyn's Seedlings

While rumors of a bright world beyond the dreary depths of Shale abound, few of the city's residents have the means or inclination to spend much thought on such frivolities. By and large, the nobility are too obsessed with maintaining their positions or indulging other desires.

Of course, there is an exception to every rule. Lady Demurra Sellwyn is the sole remaining scion of House Sellwyn, a once-powerful drow family. Lady Sellwyn's parents kept up the proper noble alliances and did not squander the family fortune. As a consequence, when the Raving Plague carried her parents away a decade ago (along with a sixth of Shale's population) the young Lady Sellwyn was left with ample means and no supervision, save a devoted pack of servants.

Instead of joining high society in earnest, as a proper noble should, Lady Sellwyn disdained the company of her peers. She retreated from the world, poring over her family's library, only to emerge a year later and make straight for the City Gardens. A few dusty tomes had infected Lady Sellwyn's mind with dreams of otherworldly delights of which she could only dream, and what intrigued her most of all was the prospect of growing things.

The City Gardens do keep up a couple modest greenhouses, and Lady Sellwyn found refuge in one dilapidated crystal garden, kept up by a cantankerous wizard whose only skill lay in a meager daylight spell. Entranced by the prospect of these living treasures, Lady Sellwyn took the wizard into her service, relocated his greenhouse to her estate, and put out word that she would pay handsomely for seeds from the so-called "surface world."

While her peers consider her "distracted," certain unsavory characters were only too willing to provide Lady Sellwyn with "green curiosities," for a price. More often than not, she purchased frauds, but rarely punished con artists for fear that she would drive away potential sellers. For nine years, Lady Sellwyn's been little more than a wealthy oddity of Shale's nobility.

On occasion, however, she gets lucky. Not long ago, a spindly derro trader got himself admitted to Lady Sellwyn's estate with the promise of "fantastic seeds from the world above!" At her gardener-wizard's urging, Lady Sellwyn hosted the trader at her manor while they waited for a crop of his seeds to germinate. They did, and with such gusto! Delighted, Lady Sellwyn paid the derro and sent him on his way, urging him to return if he ever came across similar curiosities.

Since then, Lady Sellwyn's more discerning servants have noticed a change in their mistress. Such a promising reward of her hobby seems to have simultaneously dampened her passion, and increased her obsession, strange as it is to say. She jealously guards the greenhouse from the servants, tending to the seedlings herself (with the aid of her gardener). Astonishingly, she's announced plans to visit The Lampshades' Pavilion of Delights with cuttings from her "little lovelies," which she hopes to show off to her fellow nobles, and maybe even gift a seedling or two to deserving friends of the family. While the plants might draw some interest, the re-emergence of such a fabulously wealthy indivual into high society is sure to draw more...

[Bobbyjackcorn]

39. The Tomb-Temple of Kaskal

Shale is home to many strange places, gods, and people. Perhaps the strangest of all three rests solely on the zombie lord Kaskal, and his temple in the city.
Rising like a jagged thorn prodding through the remains of the ruined cities beneath Shale, the Tomb-Temple of Kaskal is a constant reminder to the people that death is both older than man, and will outlive him. The structure is supposedly older than all the cities beneath it, and deeper into the rock than mortal man aught go, into the depths where Kaskal resides in his divine form. That is what his bodily vessel, the Zombie Lord Kaskal, claims at least.
He is an embodiment of the god they worship, of the same name, who represents riding the cycle of life's other half: unlife.
Undead, at least the reasonable ones, are permitted to stay in the city, providing they worship Kaskal and abide by his oaths. What his oaths are is known only to the undead.
Kaskal's Church of the Undead is one of the major factions, Kaskal himself is a diety known well to the city.
Most who worship Kaskal are split over those who believe he is a diety of the aspect of Dread, and those who believe he is of Darkness. Those who say Dread argue that the creation and institution of an undead society is a direct result of Dread's pull to escape death, while those who argue Darkness say that Kaskal's society of unlife merely serves to better enlighten people of the cyclic and ever-present natures of birth and death, seeing those who are undead as "born twice and destined to die twice."
In truth, only the undead and Kaskal know the secret of his Aspect alignment, which is not tied to Darkness or Dread, but rather to Change- a fact that would only become apparent to one whom knows the Oaths. Kaskal's Oaths require that undead in his service pay homage to him by honing the skills they cultivated in life, taking every opportunity to "live" to the fullest of their abilities. Great artists interred into unlife are expected to create greater and more extreme works, soldiers are meant to volunteer for dangerous missions, murderers are expected to push the envelope on their kills, and any less than giving your all in service is considered a violation of the Oaths of Kaskal. Those undead who have managed to stay alive in Shale within the Church have become invaluable members of society, operating on inhuman levels of skill.
Of course, there are unsanctioned undead who choose to avoid Kaskal and his Tomb-Temple. These fugitives assume false identities or hide in the outskirts or abandoned buildings, eeking by much in the same way as undead everywhere else are treated: hated by society and hunted when ousted.

[JoshuaZ]

40. The Heralds of Kal-Kantet

The Heralds of Kal-Kantet are a breakaway group from the Order of Kal-Kantet. The Heralds believe that Kal-Kantet didn't exist in the past, but rather is a powerful psionic being that will arise in the future to save the city. Kal-Kantent's mind is powerful that it defies the normal temporal order and causality. Whether the Heralds are correct is not clear: Kal-Kantet does not comment on their correctness but makes the same bargain as with everyone else: psionic knowledge in exchange for rewriting history.

[Bobbyjackcorn]

41. The King Rat


Every city has thousands of faces, voices, hands, and feet. For most denizens of Shale, these myriad of people passing by them every day are nothing more than an endless hoard of other lives, moving to and fro in the eternal sleep-walk of the collective unconscious. However, some know better.
Those paranoid students of history in the ancient city will note that for the past seven centuries, wherever there has been a large-scale confrontation between the balanced forces that dominate Shale, chaos and misinformation soon follow causing their conflict to fall apart without any major city-wide catastrophe. These same people will often also note that they've found a series of unimportant entities with no notable historical context are always at the heart of the dissolution of said conflicts- a whole host of unknown people working behind the scenes in perfect tandem to destabilize the conflict. Most such historians will posit that they believe there is a secret organization attempting to control Shale. As is often the case, the truth is even stranger than they could imagine.
Rumors among the Cellar Kingdom tell of a beggar who lived among them for a time who could change his form, utilizing this ability to trick the wealthy into giving to the poor, and use the poor in turn to steal historical texts and the tomes of magicians, never bothering to let his intentions be known. His identity and his true form were both a mystery to the people, but he was a fervent worshiper of Claine the Screwtailed Mindrat, a god of the Fundament of Thought, and so in time he came to be known as the mysterious "King Rat." Sadly, no more could be learned about the King Rat, because some years into his service to the Cellar Kingdoms he proclaimed that he was no longer needed by them, and he disappeared. However whenever dangerous knowledge is lost, whenever ambitious entities are struck low by chaotic circumstance, he is rumored among the Kingdom to be there.

[JoshuaZ]

42. The Three Molinar Siblings

The Three Molinar Siblings are a pair of two sisters and a brother. They came from the moderately wealthy Molinar family which has been around for a long time, but all three siblings have risen to great prominence through a combination of ambition, luck, and support of each other. Samantha, the oldest of the three, is of the few mages in Shale who also had studied psionics. If rumors are accurate, Samantha has found ways to combine her arcane powers with her innate mental abilities. She at different points was allied with both the Unflayed Minds and the Order of Kal-Kantet, but is only loosely affiliated with both now. It is possible that the combination of her skills make Samantha one of the most personally dangerous individuals in Shale. Samantha has a wealth of magical objects, some of her own devising. Supposedly she constructed three rings each of which protects the wearer from all sorts of mental attacks, and she has gifted one ring to each of her two siblings. Samantha currently has a project to try to encourage her fellow wizards to share their magical knowledge, but this is apparently currently meeting with little success. Rumors suggesting the the King Rat stole an ancient undeciphered text from Samantha may be just rumors.

Spoiler: Samantha's stats if one is using 3.5/PF

Show

It seems like by and large this is a relatively low magic setting. In that context, Samantha should probably be considered to be wizard 3/psion 3/cerebemancer 2.

Antar is the second sibling. He has risen to prominence as one of the leaders of the Grocers faction. Some stories suggest that he has used his sister's magic to help predict shortages of food or other resources, or perhaps to cause them, and that such timing has lead to his success. When pressed on the topic, Samantha apparently has responded by saying that she has better things to do with her time than assist her brother, and that anyone who thinks she could do such a thing vastly overestimate her power. Antar apparently has some form of on-again, off-again relationship with one of the Lampades sisters.

Deidra is the youngest of the three siblings, and is currently the Vice-Overseer for Construction and Maintenance at the Gondoliers; traditionally this position is the second most powerful in the Gondoliers, second only to the Overseer. While technically the Overseer and Vice-Overseers answer to the Council, they all also have membership on the Council and have a great deal of influence. Currently, Deidra is involved in a side-project to explore and understand the ruins which Shale was built on top of and around. While part of this has been an investigation of the Chain Bridges, she has also taken an interest in old caves and tunnels which the Gondoliers' own sewer constructions have sometimes run across.

For obvious reasons, some have expressed concern about so much power, both arcane and temporal, being concentrated in one family. But no one has yet seen it as sufficiently in their own interests to do anything.