An attempt to make an Eberron-themed ravenloft city

[NykylaiHellray]

If anyone has read my plaines of lost innocence topic, I am trying to make a dark steampunk city of twisted monstrosties and dark charecters.

All under the rule of the trainmaster, who may or may not be a dark lord.

As noted in the last topic, it became distracted from its main theme, so this is an attempt to get back to it.

The city is supposed to be a perversion of the steampunk cities of eberron, and also of sigil. A city that repersents the most darkest aspects of progress, of the caste system, of technology itself.

Taking inspiration from books such as the Dark Tower.

I am looking for suggestions, and any critique to make this fit in ravenloft more.


Description
The city was founded as New Glenwhich, but that was many many a year ago, and little if any of that once prosperus city remains.
What is left is twisted and broken, to lie forver in the shadows of the beast which lies now at the cities centre. The very thing this city now takes its name, the train station, Grand Central.

Some even mockingly call now this city Rune.

It all changed when he came, though some even say he did not exist at all, just the collective name for a group of entrepreneurs. But there fools, and he did.
Marcus Fleeting he was called, though I doubt that name was real. The Planar Consumption Engine he called it, it will change the world he said, and it did. It really did.

The Districts

The Watchtower - Rising from grand central like some foul totem, stands the most prominent feature of Rune. The watchtower, it can be seen from all across the plaines, and even in some of the lands beyond its borders. The central clock is a confusing array of dials and cogs, with arms which tell, second, minute, hour, day, month, year, century, and even millenia. There is also said to be one arm, that has never compleatly rotated, which they say as the rumours tells, only goes round once. Whats its counting down to, no one knows.

The Shackled Gardens- The Lords Ward - Suspended by chains, held in place by the cities walls. Lies the most exlusive section of the city.
The homes of the elites of scoiety, and the cities goverment.
Constructed when the Infection ransacked the city, as an escape for the rich to avoid the diseases of the poor.
Many a time servants are seen dropping from this paradise, due to the employers disatification with there service, or merely for there amusement.

Unamed middle class section - The second level is in the daylight, and is a sprawing metropolis. It is the level most seen by visitors. It is filled with merchants, and workshops.

The Maw - The Hive Ward The lowest level, is a mixture of slums, and factories, and also serves as a water collection basin. It is located just above the sewers, but alot of these open up into this layer, so disease is run rife.
It is the world of the slaves and the lower class, and as such many of the blind grey skinned orcs and morlocks (humans who have devolved over the genertions), with also many mutants and outcasts (there is also a civizilisation of drow down here, who usually live in luxury, and also organise the slaves, and also run alot of the criminal underbelly in grand central).
The main food source down here is a special type of black rice made to grow in darkness, another lynchpin of there diet is fungus bread, made from flour which is composed of the various fungi which grow in this damp underbelly.
Looks akin to a smog and darkness filled venice.


The Trains
The trains will take you anywhere, as long as its not out.

Necropolis Railway - When the graveyards burst there banks, and the dead walked the streets a new way to manage the constant flood of the dead that now rotted in the streets.
So the necropolis railway was devised. Taking the dead across the wastelands, through Necropolis, and then into the elemental plane of Graves.

Mistway Express - Will take you anywhere in the demiplae of dread, just remember to pay your fare.

[NykylaiHellray]

People of Rune

The Anonymous - Humonoids, who all look the same. There faces but a faint memory, there skin stretched over there heads, removing any sign which can tell them apart. They are the Anonymous, and they are legion.
The Anonymous, are a CN undead creature. Each one used to be another. But now fail to do so, left to wander the streets and the wastelands as the servants of the trainmaster. Your naighbor may disapear one day, and the next you see one more anonymous then usual. Both a reward and a punishment, for those who displease the lord.

Sometimes one will gain themselves again, and break free from the hive. But are left permently scarred, left without a face, and a life. Most go mad, wearing the skullls of animals to gain some sense of individuality.

(they are my anti dabus)

Influences are: Chatter from hellraiser, mr smith from matrix, the borg, faction paradox

Name: Mayour Grubwich III
Age: 64
Occupation: Mayor
Bio: The Mayour of Rune is a greedy pussball of a man, corrupted and fed by the money which endlessly flows into his pockets, from taxes and from his employer and master.
He runs the town for the trainmaster, provides a face, somthing to fool the poulace that they as a group have some control over the running of the city.He is Glutunnous as he is greedy, and often has food stains covering his shirt, his belly rasing obesisity new hieghts (and widths).

Name: Margret Lodd
Age: Unknown
Occupation: Pie Maker
Bio: In times long gone, she was a succubus, as beutifull and beguiling as the rest of her kin. But cursed by the dark powers she was. Stripped of her beauty, and power, forced to take the form of a hag.
Now she makes fine pies which are known throughtout the demiplane of dread, one may even be tempeted to be trapped in the demiplane just to taste one of her legendary pies.
Using her remain powers to drain the fear, the desire, and the despair from her victims, using the esscence of there soul as flavourings for her famous gourmet pies.
They say she has baked at least one of everything in a pie at one time or another.

[NeoTiamat]

Hmmm.... Interesting

Pros:

-Railways are always interesting (I mean, Ghost Trains, 'nuff said). The Necropolis Railway seems quite cool.

-The Anonymous are a *very* cool creature. Faceless undead that occasionally go crazy and wear animal skulls? Win!

-Margaret Lodd seems like an eerie character, and I can see a lot of possibilities for "Oh my lost power!" anguish on her part.

Cons:

-Much though I like the Anonymous, I think you might want to steer away from "Faceless Oppressed Masses" as a theme for your setting, if only because Paridon already fills that niche so well. I'd aim more towards pollution (although that step's on Nosos' toes a bit) and disrespect for the land/prior inhabitants, etc.

-"Lord's Ward?" "Hive Ward?" I trust these names are only short hand for their relative position, otherwise these are *way* too similar to Sigil.

[HuManBing]

The domain name "Rune" itself is a bit of a tip of the hat to Sigil too.

Are you aware that there's an online meaning to "Anonymous"? It basically refers to message boards which don't require registration to use. This allows floods of anonymous users to turn the board into a toxic place where abusive language and intentionally offensive posts are made and which basically outnumber any normal post. It's so pervasive that sometimes real life conflicts happen between posters if their personal information gets out. (Although whether Anonymous has yet matured into any sort of hacker's organization, as FOX News claims, is debated.)

















Other than that, I like the idea of the Anonymous in this campaign. If you can work in a snide nod to some of the online counterculture that is known as Anonymous as well, then so much the better.

(Rather like how I worked in a Pirates vs. Ninjas theme into the Gothic Asia project.)

[NykylaiHellray]

The ward names are more tempoary, until I find a better name =/. It has always been one of my failings...names....


Rune will probably stary, as noted this is my little tip of the hat to sigil. =).


The anonymous originally did begin as a joke race based on 4chan, but then I was thinking facelss undead could be really creppy.

A kind of secret police, following orders none can understand.

I will try and make alot of the emphasise on the pollution and the city as noted, keeping the anonymous low key. It also means if there are less of them, they will be creepier when people encounter them.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

"Perdido Street Station" and its sequals definitely spring to mind, when I read this stuff, Nyk. Also the Harrowing from Simon Green's "Nightside" novels. Very creepy!

[doctor-evil]

As an old Judge Dredd fan, I always thought that a steampunk version of megacity one would fit as an Eberron/Ravenloft crossover. A mega city in the mists with an upper class living in splendour and huddled masses living in perpetual darkness in the shadows and squalor between magic enhanced skyscrapers, with the populace subdugated by a tyrannical police force. Surrounding the city is a cursed earth no-man's land of unspeakable horrors (perhaps legions of cannibalistic undead), so the horror inside the city is (allegedly) preferable to the horror outside.

It would leave possibilities for some interesting adventures with a slight Soylent Green, Blade Runner etc twist.

[NeoTiamat]

*snaps fingers*

That's the ticket! Instead of going for another capitalistic hell-hole along the lines of Paridon, approach it from the point of view of a communistic-police state. Not necessarily the idealogy, but the Orwellian sense of always being watched. Sort of a non-militaristic Darkon.

You can have a *lot* of fun with the secret police, who might very well be the very Anonymous.

[NykylaiHellray]

I like these ideas =), talking about mega city 1, I was thinking that the city is compleatly unacessable from the wastes itself. Similar to the walls that surround mega city.

The only way in is the trains.

Another idea from the old version, is that the city is growing, like a thing alive (the actualidea is that the trainmaster's human body is just a rottng corpse, and that the city itself is him. Like he is a tree, and the train tracks are his roots).

There are miles of tunnels, and passageways that should not exist, in spaces that are to small to contain them. But filled with mutated horrors, and maddness. Think the darkside of silent hill.

[NykylaiHellray]

Another idea, I have just been given, is a perversion of the factions in sigil.

The Cabals

Seekers of the beast - The erradication of rational thought is there motto, and is the only rule this cabal permits. The devolution of the mind, going back to the primal roots from which all "intellegent" races came.
They belive in instinct, most of there members are degenerates, slipping further into more amoral beastial creatures.
They operate deep within the maw, and count many of the slaves among its members, especially the morlocks, who they considure very close to there idea of perfection.

[doctor-evil]

If this is an Eberron-themed city, many members of the above cabal could be shifters, hunting the populace of the depths of the city. Perhaps practicing cannibalism. The authorities deny that any of this happens in this "utopian state".

Again, bringing Eberron in, if there was a tyrannical policeforce, it makes sense that they would recruit the warforged into this force. Perhaps changelings also, to act as spys and informants. If changelings were part of "the system" this would prevent overlaps with Paridon. There could even be even special "blade runner"-like units that track down rogue changelings and warforged...

[doctor-evil]

I remember an excellent story in an old "Doctor Who Magazine" from 1981/82, where there was a decaying city surrounded by wastes, with small groups of poeple trying to defend themselves from degenerate human cannibals, whilst riding on a tube train. The story ends up with the humans uniting to defeat a cannibal tribe, and riding the train out of the city through a long disused and forgotten line, to the outside world. The above discussions reminded me of this story.

One faction in tthe Eberr-loft city could be a group trying to steal one of the many Eberron-type magical trains, and use it to get their freedom from the city. They say they have a map which shows a long forgotten subterranean train tunnel, filled with mists, that will take them outside the walls, away from their plight, and to a land where all are free...

[NykylaiHellray]

Like the ideas =), I have been meaning to introduce warforged, though have been debating how to make them work in ravenloft.

One idea is the mist extracted plants which power the city.

So many of the warforged could be powered by mistpower.

[NykylaiHellray]

Just curious, is there anyone who would like to help me write some of the locations in the city? or maybe invent some new NPC's?

[Rotipher of the FoS]

One idea is the mist extracted plants which power the city.

So many of the warforged could be powered by mistpower.

Heh. That would mean that these particular warforged could never leave the domain in question, barring drastic magical modification to make them self-sustaining. People who dislike the idea of "Eberronizing" Ravenloft might be more amenable to that, if these warforged are stuck in their native domain only; OTOH, making them PCs would be pretty much impossible, which some gamers would like and others may resent.

BTW, would these Mist-extraction plants be something that the residents of the city actually built? Or did they just appear at the same time as the domain, mysteriously chugging away? Because if it's the former, that would run contrary to the usual paradigm that nobody but the Vistani and a few Anchorites can have any influence over the Mists, potentially diminishing their mystery.