Proposal: Tomas Renfield level 7 Human Wizard.(Uh, with 11,000 characters, is 1 level 7 character o.k?) Tomas Renfield
Tomas Renfield is an aspiring wizard who hopes to become a level 13 Paragon wizard someday.(In real life terms. Like, he wants to gain the power to cast spells a level 13 wizard would.) He is a young man who is good at giving a good show.(Prestidigitation) He seems to have forgotten everything about his life up to age ten. Other than that, he is a very quick witted fellow, who hopes to combine genuine magic with entertaining tomfoolery in order to make a living. A small city like this one should help him get on his feet.
I've been using Thorast Kax in my campaign, but the community effort has born little fruit.
I would be willing to give it a go, including a detailed account of the happenings at Thorast Kax with the curse warped dragon and the surviving inhabitants.
Bofbin Axebreaker had a great deal on his mind. Foremost on his mind was financing the trek south, which was becoming problematic with the sharp rise of prices withing the destoryed city of Thorast Kax. He, along with most of the dwarven community of the burning city owed their lives to an impetuous, young, dwarven cleric of Thane named Baloril.
Bofbin approached Baloril, who was working his frustrations out on his anvil.
"I never really thanked you, for my family, and for our community," said Bofbin, an old dwarven patriarch.
"I had to do something. I had to help," said Baloril.
"I can't help but notice that you seem troubled, however. And I can assure you that this anvil has done you no ill will," said Bofbin, trying to lighten the mood. Bofbin placed a hand on Baloril's hammer arm.
"I am scraping off the slag. I have forged a symbol of Thane for Costran, the good farmer who has become a true beacon of the people," answered Baloril. "Where would we be without him?"
Baloril had trouble lifting his head to meet Bofbin's gaze.
"I feel empty."
"It is disheartening to hear this, for all the good you have wrought. Joy should be your companion," Bofbin said, consolingly. "Tell me, what troubles you child? Surely not the fate of the city. It wasn't anything you could prevent, and your compassion is far from empty."
Baloril lay his hammer down.
"My comrades and I enjoined in righteous battle, and met evil face to face like I have not done in a while. It was good and I used His word to lift my fellows and lay the fear of Thane across the hearts of the worst creatures. Even in the face death, the demonic wretches would unleash all of their hatred...," he paused as he visualized the battle fresh.
Seeing that this was going to be no casual conversation, Bofbin asked the young dwarf, "rest from your labors and talk with me over drink, this sounds a good tale for heavy stout."
"I will drink with you..."
Bofbin led to one of the prepared wagons, lifted a couple of stools, and tapped some stout for each of them in the mugs from the Dragon's Berth tavern.
"Demonic, you say," prompted Bofbin, once they were both seated.
Baloril took a revitalizing drought before he began again.
"Gnolls of this region. Surely the force of chaos that brought the dragon of Thorast Kax to bear. They have risen to the occasion."
"Yes, I fear for our travels," Bofbin interjected.
"As we all should. And the cirumstance that have brought us... brought me... to this loss of faith..."
Bofbin looked surprised at this revelation.
Baloril continued, "we set out to find the teifling, the confounding devil woman who has thwarted our peace. The others felt... felt... well that she was needed and that she had more to play in their quests for right."
Baloril took another long draft, collecting his thoughts.
"I found word of her whereabouts and felt it was best to aid them," Baloril explained. "The young noble there... the ranger," he said, pointing to Arianna across the way near another group. "She had seen the tiefling taken by gnolls."
Rather than let the young dwarf wallow, Bofbin tried to drive him to the point.
"So what then brought about this loss of faith? Was the battle not won? You survived at least, and I have heard news in passing of your companions."
"Well... we tracked the gnolls and entered into glorious tussle with them. It was uplifting to see our warriors fall and rise with His word. And when all of the vile things had fallen or apparently left in fear, one remained. It threatened young ones it had taken with death, and when it unleashed its wretched fanged fury at them.... it turned to and seemed to beg for mercy... as if it would know what that was.
"I felled it with the might and pleasure of His word in my heart. And when the creature lay unmoving, it was then that Thane left me... when I should have felt his hand the most."
"You seem surprised that such a beast could bargain for its life," queried Bofbin, looking down to the dirt.
"His presence has disappeared completely...what does a demon know of death and loss?" Baloril finally has the strength to look Bofbin in the eyes.
Bofbin looked up to meet his gaze.
"You are zealous, child. Your markings done in the old way. You weild a power greater than you now comprehend. In your haste to deal revenge, you forgot mercy, and indeed justice. I do not envy you that choice. And I cannot pretend to know how a gnoll understands what it is to surrender."
Baloril looks on intently, the words striking a chord in him.
"Yours is a more difficult road than most dwarves will ever know," finished Bofbin.
"I failed... I failed to know Thane. I failed to aid the young ones."
"The gnoll is dispatched, and in that you have not failed."
"Handing out death was my only option," sulked the young dwarf.
Bofbin spoke sternly, "you speak then, like the gnoll, without consideration for mercy. It is this adherence to mercy, to law and good, that separates us from them."
Baloril looked away, pained.
"And if this is the lesson Thane teaches you, take it to heart. Outwit your quarry, judge with reason and conviction, but do not lose yourself fully to the fury which wells within you. It can be a source of power and conviction, but unchecked, and outside the bounds of Thane's tenants, it may lead you down a dark path."
"How will I know? How can I spread the terror of Thane to the hearts of his enemies?"
"Give no opprtunity for surrender, judge quickly, but with a full knowledge, and never let them make a fool or a mockery of Thane.
"This trial seems a test of your faith, not a lack of it. And it is good that you seek council, though I will not always know the answers. It is in your connection to Thane and His teachings that you will know."
Baloril shook his head, slightly side to side.
"I... I cannot know... how can I learn to be judge over such infernal things? My hammer is my law. How will it know right?"
"You have the knowledge and the facilities to judge. If not, I would not be seated here now. Your mind and soul are more than a match for your hammer. Trust not only in the strength of your arm, but in the strength of your will, the strength of your conviction, and the strength of Thane. Know that He cannot lead astray."
Baloril lifted Thane's Dread, the name of his hammer.
"I cannot... I can't let this law bear justice without the truth. But can I... or you... ever fully know it?"
"Though the things you fight are creatures of lies and deceit, when you feel lost, trust in your connection to Thane and his divine guidance. Turn to him, and you will know."
"For the first time in my life, I actually fear my own weapon."
"You should fear it. It controls your destiny. Drive that fear outwards, or it will consume you. Make your enemies feel that fear."
"Who am I to wield it? I cannot be the harbinger of it's doom again. I must relent. Can my battle ever bear good again?"
"With good judgement, and the conviction to act, you will become a beacon of good."
Baloril looked at Bofbin, a little more hopefully.
"You are saying... the hammer MUST swing."
"You are the hammer. You fear the power inside yourself. The hammer is an extension of your very being. Your actions will shape the world around you, better to shape them as you know how, with a hammer and anvil."
Baloril's eyes widened, and he drug a long draught to the bottom of this mug.
"You then ask, what is your anvil? It is your companions. And as you removed the slag from your anvil, so must you help your companions. They need you, lest they fall."
"You are saying.. I must fight... and guide them. Lighten and purify their way."
"I leave that to your wisdom. I have offered what advise I can, but I do not pretend to hold so much sway over the cleric of Thane. But it seems you know your path."
"The path would not be seen without your clarity. How can I repay you for your sage words?"
"Bless our new endevors, and continue to be a force for good in this land. That is all I can ask."
Bofbin finished off his mug, then looked out over the plains below.
"I may never fully know Thane's will. Perhaps it is the craftwork I will pursue all my life," said Baloril, his path now clear.
Perhaps this should have been offered up at some point.
Towns That Were Planned The most famous and striking planned towns in ancient times were built between 3,000 and 2,000 years ago in the district surrounding the eastern Mediterranean, by the Cretans, Greeks and Macedonians. Alexander the Great (who lived from 356 to 323 B.C.) founded many new cities in countries he conquered, and filled them with his soldiers and ex-soldiers. Later on the Romans did the same in western Europe and England. These cities were usually on new sites, and could be completely planned in advance, because the powerful rulers who ordered them could take the land that was needed by force and did not have to bother about the wishes of the people sent to live in them. The plans of many of these ancient cities can still be traced in ruins that have been dug out, and here and there in cities that still exist. They are usually simple plans, with two straight roads crossing at right angles in the middle, narrower roads at regular distances, big squares for markets and public buildings and for drilling troops, and walls for defence against attackers. The houses are mostly massed together between the narrow roads, without gardens, for in those days the ordinary citizen did not have much say about where he was to live. However, the main purpose of the cities was to be military strongholds, and for this the plans were good. Often the grouping and design of the public buildings was noble and beautiful. These ancient plans had a big influence on the building of cities. Their main ideas were copied, for instance, in the many new towns built in France, England and Wales, for similar military reasons, in the time of Edward I (1239-1307). Among them were Conway, Caernarvon, Winchelsea and Kingston-upon-Hull. At Chester the main Roman streets crossing at the centre (The Cross), and the city walls can still be seen. At Winchelsea the original plan of che time of Edward I is still almost intact, because the town never grew. Some of the ideas in the old plans were carried over into towns and parts of towns built by rulers or great landowners in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Other interesting designs, however, came into use as well, such as the "radial" plan —like the spokes of a wheel or a spider's web— to be seen in Karlsruhe (Germany), Washington (United States) and Middlesbrough (England). There are many books that show how ideas of lay-out spread from one place to another through the centuries.
Towns That Just Grew Planned lay-out, however, has been the exception and not the rule in the world's thousands of towns. In the newer countries there were sometimes plans of straight streets crossing each other at right angles, but otherwise the use of land and placing of buildings was not planned at all. Most towns just grew anyhow. The rea¬son is simple. Agriculture came before cities, and all through history land has mostly been owned in small pieces by many owners, each of whom originally farmed his own piece. When trades and handicrafts and manufacture began, and more and more people moved into large villages which grew into towns, each man built his house or shop or workshop to suit himself or his work, on the piece of land he owned or could buy from another person. To begin with, there was very little to stop a man either from putting his building where he wanted, or from using it or enlarging it as he chose. Perhaps the earliest limit on what people could do with their houses came when states or cities stopped them building right into the streets by which they and others were supposed to be able to reach their houses. However, even that was not at first strictly enforced, and as more and more people went to live in towns, the buildings got bigger and more crowded. When a man had enlarged his building to cover his whole plot, and was stopped from building into the public road, he built up higher, and sometimes extended his upper storeys over the road. In York there is a street called the Shambles, from the top windows of which people cart shake hands across the street. In many old towns buildings became so close together and so high that they cut off each other's light. Overcrowding, dark rooms, and lack of fresh air and drains caused terrible plagues. Fires spread and destroyed vast numbers of houses. Gradually the authorities had to make laws to limit the height of buildings, to insist on enough light and air between them, to make them fireproof, and to secure wider roads for increasing traffic. But towns went on growing to such an extent that these laws could not keep them healthy or convenient. People changed the use of their buildings: houses became shops, workshops and factories, and gardens were built over. Back-to-back houses that did not even have yards, were built in large numbers in some towns. So towns which had been open, healthy and pleasant when small, became crowded, dirty, dangerous, unsatisfactory muddles as they grew bigger. After a time, as these changes took place, even the few cities which had been well planned to begin with became inconvenient and confused. Because of gradual rebuilding and other changes the original plan disappeared or became out-of-date. Today, for instance, in towns where the old planned streets still remain, traffic has increased so much that they are now far too narrow. Now and then a city used to try to improve things by widening streets or pulling down the worst slums, but until the 20th century there was no regular means of preventing such problems from arising. The growth and changes produced new problems faster than such clearances could put them right.
The Citadel Megadungeon: http://yellowdingosappendix.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/the-citadel-mega-dungeon-now-with-room.html
