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2 years ago ::
Mar 16, 2011 - 12:35PM
#21
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Date Joined:
Jul 18, 2009
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My game will begin this weekend, and my players are pretty excited. I've decided that an ageless, immortal aboleth, called "The Abiding One", has wormed its way up through the flooded, labyrinthine tunnels of the Underdark to the bottom of Old Lake Strasa. As it lurks beneath the water, its very presence warps the minds of the weak-willed. The Abiding One is an alien and unknowable being; its goals and motivations are beyond mortal comprehension.
An unfortunate old human fisherman by the name of Caddis has fallen completely unto the aboleth's horrifying influence, and carries out its dark will unflinchingly; he lures unsuspecting victims to the water's edge, or grievously wounds them before violently dragging them under to be consumed -body, soul, and memories- by the Abiding One.
The aboleth uses its psionic powers and mastery of illusions to cover its own tracks, and should Caddis' activities become discovered, the Abiding One would consume him as well, and thoroughly enjoy re-living the old man's killing spree later on.
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2 years ago ::
Mar 17, 2011 - 12:14PM
#22
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Shovel, all of the responses that have come in so far have been great, but you are my freaking savior!
My creative side has an odd quirk: either I can come up with a really neat idea, but I struggle to fill in the details, or; I can take weeks coming up with a basis that's fundamentally flimsy, but I literally brainstorm forty-plus interesting details to work off of that basis. Doing both is hard for me for some reason.
So, when I say that the amount of thought you put into this is a boon, what I mean is "Will you go out with me?"
Milkducks, I really like your idea for making Strasa a semi-horror (or at least a very creepy) setting is superb. The aboleth is a very nice touch! I don't know if I'm sold on the asthetics of the brownstone architecture, but really anything would work.
The main source of inspiration for this idea was the movie Dark City (with William Hurt and Jennifer Connelly), if that gives you any idea of the tone I wanted the city to embody.
I'm actually looking forward to D&D Next. I think that every edition had some really awesome qualities, and every edition has truly awful design flaws. I don't expect Next to be any different, but if WotC is actively trying to incorporate the good bits into one unified whole, then I do expect it to be worth playing.
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2 years ago ::
Mar 17, 2011 - 12:50PM
#23
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Date Joined:
Sep 24, 2005
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I like it so much I simply must find a way to land it in Wonderful World.. perhaps I could hang *a* raining city somewhere in the ..oh good ness! I almost forgot. I have a region called The Sky Lakes. They are basically .. lets say the united kingdom, japanese islands, and the florida keys collected and tossed about ten thousand miles into the air. The orbit around a 'the great deluge' a water fall the size of the moon pouring out into the world. The Sky Lakes are the birthplace of the many colored Mans. The *most* human of the species of The Wonderful World (r) :wink: The most common player race are 'Blooms' also known as the walking flowers. They cannot speak.. they communicate through an intricate frond sign language. These descriptions are excelent inspiration for imagining the weather of the Sky Lakes Thanks for posting this!  I still think I am going to hang a raining city in High Skies closer to the source of the deluge. A pirate's cove. Hidden away.. and full of booty! :arr:
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2 years ago ::
Mar 17, 2011 - 5:39PM
#24
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Date Joined:
Jul 18, 2009
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Milkducks, I really like your idea for making Strasa a semi-horror (or at least a very creepy) setting is superb. The aboleth is a very nice touch! I don't know if I'm sold on the asthetics of the brownstone architecture, but really anything would work.
Thanks, man. The brownstone-themed architecture is really just aesthetically pleasing to me, more than anything else; feel free to ignore it, if it's not something you're into. I can remember being a young boy, I guess: my grandparents owned a nice brick/brownstone home, trimmed with dark woods (alders and oaks, I think), and I guess it just felt so nice and safe and warm inside. We get some nasty rain and snow storms up here, and looking out the old glass windows of that house was just great. I guess I think of memories like that when I think of Strasa; I think of comforting homes, full of warm colours; I think of baking bread and spiced wines; I think of little sanctuaries where people huddle together and share stories when it's bleak and storming and cold outside.
The granite spires idea fits well with Strasa, I think; I can totally see where you're going with it. But to me, it doesn't feel like a place I could live in. It feels a little too cold and unfeeling. I don't know much about how feasible it is to have brick or brownstone buildings in a place where it never stops raining, but I like the idea of sitting in a nice comfortable brownstone tavern, warmed by a great brick fireplace trimmed with brass, sipping spiced ale and hot soup, staring out an old glass window, warped by time, into endless rain.
That's the Strasa I'm using for my story, anyway.
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2 years ago ::
Mar 20, 2011 - 7:00AM
#25
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Date Joined:
Jul 18, 2009
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The game went really well last night. If you want me to post my campaign journal here, I can certainly do that.
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2 years ago ::
Mar 21, 2011 - 1:09AM
#26
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Absolutely, please do! I'm glad to hear your game was such a rousing success. I'm looking forward to reading what you have.
I'm actually looking forward to D&D Next. I think that every edition had some really awesome qualities, and every edition has truly awful design flaws. I don't expect Next to be any different, but if WotC is actively trying to incorporate the good bits into one unified whole, then I do expect it to be worth playing.
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2 years ago ::
Mar 23, 2011 - 4:00PM
#27
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Date Joined:
Jan 18, 2007
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Absolutely, please do! I'm glad to hear your game was such a rousing success. I'm looking forward to reading what you have.
Seconded!
Shovel, all of the responses that have come in so far have been great, but you are my freaking savior!
My creative side has an odd quirk: either I can come up with a really neat idea, but I struggle to fill in the details, or; I can take weeks coming up with a basis that's fundamentally flimsy, but I literally brainstorm forty-plus interesting details to work off of that basis. Doing both is hard for me for some reason.
Glad that my ideas were so well recieved! I find that I do my best work when I can take someone else's good ideas and run with them, and you've definitely provided an excellent starting point. I really love world-building, and I can only run so many worlds in my own campaigns, so it's fun to work on new stuff. If you've got some feedback on what you liked and what you didn't like as much, I can steer future posts in that direction. I've got a few more ideas and hopefully I'll have some time to spell them out, but if anyone has specific areas you'd like me to work on, I'll gladly explore them first!
So, when I say that the amount of thought you put into this is a boon, what I mean is "Will you go out with me?"
I'm flattered, but I'm already taken
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2 years ago ::
Mar 28, 2011 - 8:02AM
#28
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Date Joined:
Sep 23, 2006
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The main source of inspiration for this idea was the movie Dark City (with William Hurt and Jennifer Connelly), if that gives you any idea of the tone I wanted the city to embody.
Fine, fine film.
Would the citizens of Strasa be amnesiacs, too?
Would there perhaps be a group of unknown, unseen caretakers who maintain the city for their own purposes?
If so, I can't imagine they'd appreciate an aboleth parking itself on 'their' turf. Maybe they'd manipulate a party of adventurers to take care of this problem so that they wouldn't have to show themselves. Just throwing anohter idea out there.
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2 years ago ::
Mar 28, 2011 - 9:28AM
#29
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Date Joined:
Mar 16, 2009
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The game went really well last night. If you want me to post my campaign journal here, I can certainly do that.
Thirded!
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2 years ago ::
Apr 05, 2011 - 4:21PM
#30
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Date Joined:
Jan 18, 2007
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The game went really well last night. If you want me to post my campaign journal here, I can certainly do that.
I hope he didn't die
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