Bay 12 Games Forum

*Polling for interest or if this is even possible for most players computers*

What do we think about generating a world where civilization, megabeast, semi-mega, werecurse, demons, necromancer, etc are all set to extraordinarily high limits on the largest possible world?
Then we pick the civilization that is the worst off and we play them to eventually conquer the whole world?

The Goal:
-Build a fortress or series of fortresses that naturally see multiple generations live in throughout our playing
-At the same time work to take over the world without having to force ourselves to slow down(thus the world size)
-No in-game time limit on your turn so we can cover as much ground as we need

For added enjoyability require every dwarf to be named uniquely so when we are looking at the family tree of their great grand-children it is easier to figure out the long epic saga of that particular family
high number of monsters and such is so we don't run out of !Fun! halfway through the project; which has happened to me before.


My story of an attempt at this:
[spoiler]
I generated a world just like this and found a dwarf civ of all purple eyed dwarves who unleashed the clown apocalypse on themselves in world gen while also being surrounded by two goblin civs who had 50k+ populations. We picked up in a volcano for endless forging. Our food source was a beak dog farm from our raiding and merchants brought us all the alcohol we needed, although we did occasionally produce our own. To take out one civilization my army reached close to 1000 kills per-dwarf and we built literal highways from the melted gear of our enemies and then metal pillars of the same to create a roofed roadway. After first civ was defeated I sent an adventurer to go and find the slab of the other one's master and then used it to bind him and forced him to join us to help destroy his own civilization. It was epic seeing the named children of my named dwarves picking up the gear of their parents and continuing on the legacy!

The surface world is gone. An event only known as the Calamity occurred three hundred years ago wiping away all sapient surface life. The only survivors are those who already lived in or fled towards the great dwarven forge city of Swordburn. The city was already one of the largest in the world before the calamity, but with the influx of refugees and soaring population growth they have been forced to expand ceaselessly downwards for new resources and living space. The city is broken up into districts and each can have it's own unique governing style as long as they all pay tribute and show obeisance to the over-government. Each district also tends to develop it's own culture and outlook as it fills with different races with different backgrounds. These cultural changes are also influenced by where the district is: Is it a series of converted mining tunnels? An underdark border town? A massive forge that works all day and night? Perhaps one of the elven garden districts where life is preserved? Keep all these in mind if you make your own custom district.
Magic is forbidden in the city. In fact, it's existence and that of divine powers is largely unknown to the populace leading any users of divine or arcane powers to being arrested or killed by the over-government(More on that in character prep)

Swordburn is ruled by a monarchy, although heirs are chosen by the dwarven assembly rather than the monarch. The ruling clan is known as the Blackstone clan and they rely heavily on a secret police force that operates from a prison known as the Onyx Tower to deal with threats before they come up. For the most part the over-government doesn't care what districts do as long as tribute is paid, but they will ensure order when they have to.

Swordburn is a massive city-VERTICALLY-. It grows downwards more than it does outwards and as such it can be broken into three vertical layers.

Upper Layer: This is the original layer of the city. It is filled with traditional dwarven architecture, massive forges, libraries, temples and overall a wealthy and well-maintained populace. Immigration to upper-layers is often near impossible due to spacing issues and each district approaches population management different, but more fairly than other layers. The upper layer is majority dwarven with at least one major elven district. Most raw resources from below flow into the upper layer and once processed most of it stays there although some does return to improve the living situation below.
 
Middle Layer: The middle layer is highly inhabited, but in the old days it was the frontier of the city. Mining tunnels, outposts, farms, and other such border necessities and raw resource manufacturing. As the city filled and these locations were stripped they were filled with inhabitants instead. Due to the background though most settlements look like tunnel warrens, although the modest wealth of those living here has permitted them to make it look as homely as possible. Most residents have been here for generations and fight fiercely to maintain positions for descendants. There are only two underdark settlements in this layer as it is too high above the underdark to reach more.

Lower Layer: This is the frontier. The lower layer has untapped mineral resources, exotic underdark biomes, and seemingly unlimited space to expand and very little government oversight. This attracts unregistered and illegal settlements to prop up and these are tolerated as long as tribute still finds a way to the over-government. Thanks to this the people may exist in whatever anarchic shape they so desire with the loss being that they receive virtually no protection from the over-government. Magma pockets flooding tunnels, forgotten abominations being released by miners, the overwhelming amount of poisonous flora, the alien environment's tendency to drive people insane, and the terrifying monsters wandering the depths are only some of the things people may encounter down here! Still, people come in droves to settle motivated by desperation, greed or freedom. Mining guilds recruit workers to send them into dangerous mines and some of these guilds are reported to not always require the individual's consent before they are "hired". Adventurers come to make names for themselves and nourish the mushroom forests with their own bodies producing wood for ill-equipped workers attempting to harvest resources without breathing noxious fumes.
Most upper-layer citizens deny the existence of the lower layer.

I only allowed the classical set of fantasy races from the surface present: Dwarves, humans, elves, and goblins. Half breeds of each race are also acceptable. All other surface races either have never existed or were forgotten completely.
All underdark races are available for use, including and especially sapient cavern races from dwarf fortress to be homebrewed in. Personally, I excluded deep gnomes, duregar and drow because I have other future plans for them in this setting.
The rest of this section is the lore background of the other races present


Dwarves: Dwarves are the ruling population of Swordburn. Not only is the city originally designed to suit their habitation, but other than goblins they are the only ones to truly have adapted to underground life. Although many clans aren't originally from the city they have still found a place in the hierarchy of society, one that favors them, for most positions and habitations are inherited and no one keeps better records of family deeds, inheritances and trades than dwarves. Although rare some dwarves may not know their clan or may have lost them all. This dwarf's presence would be viewed as an ill-omen as they are either cursed by the gods or guilty of incredible ignorance.

City Elves: When they lived on the surface the elves were an entirely nomadic people living at one with nature and making great use of magic. Now separated from their beloved forests they find themselves both superbly blessed and deeply cursed. Using their powers they have achieved a wealth and splendor in their own districts that surpasses all others, but have reached an extreme of cultural decay and degeneracy. Elves born into and living in the city are deeply hedonistic, selfish and closed off from the short lived races. This attitude and power is tolerated as they have been able to maintain a small amount of surface animals and plants in special biomes and provide a substantial amount of assistance in agriculture as well as their famous "Elf Lanterns" which glow and light the many roadways of the city without noted power source. Most elves stay to their own districts neither allowing other races in nor spending much time out among the others!

Wild Elves: Some elves have refused to give way to their new way of life and instead have fled into the underdark. Although life is brutal and harsh it still follows the tenets of nature and the elves have adapted believing they are the only true followers of Cacame's path. They are difficult to reach and rumors portray them as hostile savages, but the wild elves are well known for assisting travelers and will warmly receive any who happen upon them.

Humans: Before the calamity humanity was just barely breaking into it's bronze age. Now, thrust into an alien environment and alien culture many have lost their cultural identities blending into the dwarven. To be a human in this world is to be one without a sure identity. Tribes and nations stopped existing for a people who found strong identities in both. Now every human must answer the question "Who am I and what is my value?". They are the physically largest race in the city and thanks to this they are well received and sought after for hard labor. The positive history they have with the dwarves often leads to more favorable concessions. Most humans dwell in the middle-layers with the race leading the expansion to the lower layer.

Goblins: When the calamity happened only a handful of goblins were allowed into the city, as the majority of their race was in a vicious genocidal war against the dwarves, after words the goblins disappeared within the tunnels and sewers of the city and over the generations grew to be the numerically largest race in the city. When young goblins are vile, selfish, cruel and overwhelmingly hostile, but if they survive to an older age they often calm. Some districts outright ban goblins from entry much less settlement and the dwarven military only successfully holds the hordes back thanks to the fact that goblins are just as likely to attack one another as they are non-goblins.

Underdark Native: As the city ceaselessly expands this leads to many interactions with the local species of the caverns. In some cases this might be brutal expansion over tribal territories while others are more peaceful coalescences. Sometimes creatures like Gorlaks venture to the city looking to bring some light into a dark place. The cultures, species, and motivations of underdark natives can be more than one can imagine! Swordburn residents frequently distrust them though and some districts forbid them a place.

Perceptions on religion: Religion in Swordburn is a unique experience. How different groups perceive the religions of others creates a lot of variety relating to alignment. For example dwarves and humans consider the elven forest spirit Cacame to be chaotic neutral, but the elves don’t recognize the chaotic or lawful axis. To them Cacame is simply good. For the sake of clarity and ease for alignment all deities are going to be marked by their alignment according to dwarven sensibilities since they are the dominant power.

Dwarven Religion: (Lawful Good/Neutral) Dwarves generally worship a pantheon known as the Twelve. These gods represent different aspects of dwarven society and life. Although most religious knowledge was lost during the collapse most dwarves still call upon and cite the gods when in need. The Twelve are encapsulated in the Old Temple of the Twelve that occupies the upper layer. Some dwarven deities may fall out of the spheres of the 12. They are either the gods of dwarven travelers forced to settle into the city, exiled ones or sometimes one of the 12 under an unrecognized name.
Deities of the Temple of the Twelve

Avuz: mountains

Tosid the Greatest: Strength, Oaths, Courage

The Gorge of Amethysts: Jewels

Ral Wealthjewels the luxurious Gold of Pearls: Wealth

The Spry: Death, Rebirth and Birth

Midor: Deformity and Suffering

Oboth: Scholarship, Writing, Poetry

Nekut the Hole of Murk: Darkness

Lek: Persuasion, Speech

Arban the Defender: Fortresses, War

Shosel: Love

Belal: Marriage, family, trees, rain, thunder, storm and lightning

Limul Oilgorges the Bronze Silver: Earth, crafts, ingenuity, labor


Humans: (All Alignments) Human religion has mostly ceded into dwarven. Many of their gods had similar spheres and they adapted to using dwarven names as a result. Still, human society conflates the role of politics and religion together, a staunch taboo in dwarven society. This along with desires for more representation in dwarven religion led to a New Temple of the Twelve forming in the Middle-Layer. The deities keep their names, but take on more human forms with newly invented tales to give humanity a sense of ownership on these identities. This temple is ruled by royal priests that ultimately serve the human monarchy recognizing one human monarch as the representative of the gods and sole true leader of the Temple.
In the fringes of human society people insist on referring to the gods by their ancestral names and challenge any authority claimed over them.
In many parts of human society a mysterious monotheistic religion is on the rise. It is hard to fathom for most people of a god that doesn’t occupy only a few spheres, but all of them and the religion is still widely misunderstood and underrepresented

Elves: (Chaotic Neutral)Elves worship only one entity, a nature spirit named Cacame. The traditional wood elves don’t view themselves as worshippers per se or build temples to the spirit, but instead view it as a universal force in all of nature. It provides and empowers in return they honor, respect and never take too much. The city elves are, in practice, mostly agnostic. They will still acknowledge Cacame as their deity and will become hostile to any who assume otherwise. City Elves tend to view that Cacame was a literal spirit that dwelt on the surface and therefore didn’t follow them below in contrast to the traditionalists universal view. Fringe believers view it as a collective consciousness of the forests or even of the elves themselves that manifests itself around them.

Goblins: (evil) To put it as honestly as possible; Goblins worship demons. In their own mythology the select demons that wandered the earth pre-collapse and led the goblin tribes were ascended goblins. Goblins may build shrines for the previous demons of the world, but in practice their focus and desire is in emulating and becoming more like them. Commonly, goblins dream of world conquest and becoming the most powerful being on the planet and so their beliefs all revolve around accomplishing this end. Names of known demons: Apufi of the Labyrinth, Gogol the ungodly onslaught, and Uzin Scrapefist.

Cults and the Underdark: (any alignment) Many cults pop up in this metropolis and so any variation of belief is encounterable. Not only this, but just because a religion originates with one particular race doesn’t mean someone else might not actively follow and worship those deities.
In the Underdark many mysterious beliefs are cropping up and there are some who believe that the strange and terrifying beasts of the underdark are infiltrating the minds of the city.

 You are a prisoner of the Onyx tower. Any knowledge of your existence has been wiped from all official records. You have walked the line of usefulness as a prisoner. Too weak and you’d be disposed of as a waste of resources. Too dangerous and you’d never be permitted to leave your cell. Or worse.
You and other prisoners have been released temporarily to complete an assignment for the Tower. Find the dwarf: Dana Frostmourne. All you have to go on is the last district she was sighted in and orders to bring her back. Your warden will accompany you on this journey to assess and monitor your actions. You may survive the many dangers of your investigation, but it is he who will decide if you survive after it is over.

Will you attempt to make your escape? Will you dutifully obey? Who is this dwarf that you might be sent after her? Or is it all a test? They have tested and prodded you many times since your imprisonment and it is often difficult to tell when you are being tested or not.

There are three kinds of people who end up in the Onyx Tower

Underdark Monsters - Assessed as threats to the City they are usually imprisoned either in the tower or in one of the city’s arenas to fight for the entertainment of all. All the guards would need to arrest you is your appearance.
Pros:
Difficult to Discern - Your appearance is notably “inhuman”. Your expressions and intentions are hard for others to read giving you advantage on deception.
Underdark Experience - You are moderately familiar with the flora and fauna of the underdark and will have advantage on any checks regarding

Cons:
Xenophobia - Your inhuman appearance is disturbing to most people and the difficulty they have reading your expressions decreases overall trust. Some will refuse to talk to you or even report you to authorities if they can see you are not a native city-dweller. Disadvantage on persuasion and certain NPCs will refuse to speak with you.

Poor Fit - Depending on your race clothing, weapons and even common foods may not be fit for you. Depending on your race you will have to make greater strides to take care of yourself.


Magic-User: The existence of magic is hidden from almost everyone in the city and little is known about it. The lines between magical and divine are totally unknown to people. Your very existence is illegal and you were likely arrested merely for having the powers much less what you did to be noticed. Imprisoned magic users range from total solitary confinement to being permitted limited facility use for the sake of magical research. You are kept collared with a special metal that actively suppresses your power. When it is removed your powers will very slowly return to you.

Pros:
Surprise - No one in the city is prepared for magical techniques or qualities. Defenses, enemies, etc are all built with traditional methods in mind. Your abilities may be incredibly useful in the investigation providing you can navigate the cons
Cons:
No Witnesses - Your powers must be kept secret. No one should see you use magic. If they do and realize what they saw they must be silenced or you will be in breach of one of the few requirements of your new freedom. You may roll deception/sleight-of-hand or other similar stats while using magic in attempts to hide it while casting.

General Populace: The Tower also holds anyone and everyone who is a threat to the City or the ruling over-government. One doesn’t even have to be convicted to be arrested. Being a potential threat is enough. You are enough of an asset that you have not been executed and dumped somewhere and it is likely important to you to avoid this fate. General Populace are imprisoned based on a variety of threat levels. Each city district has its own prison so make no mistake that your presence here indicates that you are more than just a normal convict.

Pros:
Easier Integration: The city is designed for people like you and so being released back into it you will find it much easier to operate within the city compared to the other two prisoner categories
Tailored for you: Most gear and supplies in the city are tailored for someone like you and so most stores or dead enemies have things you can use if they are within the city.

Cons:
Where Dark Things Hide - The underdark is a disturbing place not fit for your species to dwell within even if many times your people have had to. You will be particularly susceptible to certain underdark threats. Disadvantage in certain underdark scenarios.

Prologue: This entire scene takes place inside of a large cage on the back of a tamed Draltha. The players, who are prisoners of the tower, are all chained inside the cage with each other being taken to a location they know nothing of. This prologue is actually to give time for the characters to introduce themselves, or not and sit in silence the whole time, either way helping to define each others personalities and character to one another.
Eventually the draltha stops in the middle of a tunnel somewhere between the bottom of the upper layer and top of the middle layer. The guards let the players out, undo the shackles, and set a bag of equipment down for each of them. All but one guard leaves, identifying himself as Ral Ivoryink. He is sent to watch their progress and ensure their loyalty, but will overall not help them with their mission
Their mission is to locate Dana Frostmourne a strangely thin dwarf with white hair and scars going down both eyes. She was last seen outside the district that the tunnel they are in leads to. They may bring her back alive or dead. Ral Ivoryink expects them to figure out finding her for themselves to prove their worth and won't have much patience for whining or badgering for more details.

They are explicitly told by Ral that if they are not allowed to tell anyone that they are from the Onyx Tower or anything about the tower! Also no one is allowed to see and recognize any magic or divine gifts! This can be creative for players as they either try to stealthily use powers or perhaps they simply kill all the witnesses! Either way the Tower will not tolerate the populace knowing that they exist or that such powers exist.

Act 1
Picking up the Trail
Dana was last seen in the dwarven district of Deeprun. It is a set of mining tunnels, that once fully excavated, were filled with homes instead. The dwarves have made great attempts to make it homely over the centuries putting planters of glowing mushrooms outside of doors or finding other means to add a sense of liveliness. Thanks to dwarven eyesight they have no need for bright light other than their glowing mushroom plants and so the entire town is dimly lit.
The players MAY get caught up in local dwarven politics and struggles, but the only two pieces of information they need to advance the main story is the following:
*Dana met an elderly dwarf woman named Hubesli Cragslane
*Dana then departed for the underdark district of Redwall
Dana came to Deeprun looking for the descendants of a dwarf named Torag Ironfist, but it turns out that the dwarf left the town himself over two centuries ago to go to the border town known as Redwall. Learning this Dana departs to follow the old trail.

Whether they choose to involve themselves in the coming and going of the town or simply get the information and move on is up to them, but before they leave they SHOULD be confronted with the different problems going on(in the locations section). Regardless, when they leave town Ral will question them about their decisions and motives refusing to betray any emotion or hint of judgement. He asks and when they answer, or don't, he moves on.

From here they shall have a travel section to Redwall. Even if these are dwarven dug roads they are still dangerous. If the players choose to they will find an old dwarven miner bunkhouse converted into an inn. For a staunch fee they can safely sleep there and be well fed, although depending on their appearances they may be questioned by other patrons!
If they refuse and choose to camp they will be attacked. Roll a d-4 to determine whether it will be goblins, giant rats, a swarm of creeping hands, or wild dogs. Then roll a d12 for the number of enemies.


Act 2
The Mad Dwarf
Redwall was a border town a couple of centuries ago, but now is a proper town. By middle-age europe standards it might even be a city!  It is built upon an actual layer of the underdark overlooking a large underground lake. Observing the lake one can see large glowing mushroom stalks jutting out of the mostly still water. The town is made up of buildings made from fungus wood, whose glowing light has mostly dimmed to provide interesting hues of yellow, white or red wood. Redwall is named in spite of its walls actually being made from white fungi-wood because of the amount of warfare and bloodshed by the locals to maintain the position.

The district has yet to be officially incorporated into the city and resists it leading to it being ruled by militia gangs who only cooperate because the threats of the underdark are greater than each other.

This district is the most diverse one that the players shall encounter as well as the most free one. Asking around the district will have them sent to a particular gang of humans led by a bandit named Cutter. He met with Dana as apparently a dwarf named Torag Ironfist was their gang's medic, an impossibility because of the time that had passed from his departure from Deeprun to how old the human gang members were. Cutter was not very helpful to her and will be even more hostile to the players following her. They may intimidate or beat the knowledge out of him, find a note, or perhaps if they don't succeed at any of those find a witness to where Dana went next:
Torag left the town into the underdark two decades ago, to his assured doom in the locals minds, and Dana went after him.

The players may seek a guide to get through the mushroom forests, but if not they will need checks and will encounter things along the way.
Regardless, at some point before they leave mention Redwall's war with the Molemarian tribe.
As they leave Ral will once more question their behaviors without judgement.

After following the trail for a couple of days the party shall be ambushed by Molemarians in the underdark. Whether you make it a combat or a cutscene is up to you either way it will end with a Molemarian shaman using his powers to cause a cave-in onto the players to kill them.
They will awaken chained to a wall in a small cave. After some moments their captor will enter who turns out to be Torag Ironfist himself! The dwarf is far too old to still be alive and is very much insane as he uses rare magic and experiments on sapient beings to prolong his life. He is mostly incoherent and came to gloat over and openly ponder what he was going to do with the players. He will put Ral Ivoryink to sleep and drag the dwarf away. Screaming will be heard later.

When he leaves the players will have opportunity to break out and after doing so they can explore some of the other parts of the cave. The store room that has their gear also has another surprise: The headless body of Dana Frostmourne and her severed head resting on the neighboring table with glowing blue eyes. Despite her death she will speak with the players and it turns out she is a necromancer. A very old and powerful one. She promises to clue the party into everything that is happening if they will help her. It is possible to reconnect her head with her body successfully with a check.

If the party wishes to follow the screaming they can save Ral Ivoryink from his torment at Torag's hands. Ral being alive and having a favorable opinion of the party is necessary for the good ending of the story.

Regardless, when they leave Dana will inform the party of everything, which even Ral knows nothing of as he is just a loyal officer of the tower.

The Big Reveal
Dana Frostmourne's true name is Dana Iceblade which is the name of an old dwarven family that had multiple rulers on the throne of Swordburn. She and many others of the original nobility of Swordburn were alive when the calamity struck the world. In fear and desperation of their city's future they all turned to necromancy and immortality. This was all well and good, but for the ruling queen it was not enough. She had the immortal nobility imprisoned in the Onyx Tower, the first residents of it, and they worked and researched for her to build her a throne. Each other necromancer was used and when considered useless eliminated until Dana was all that remained and escaped, but she did not escape to survive, but instead to stop the queen. The secrets of necromancy are mostly lost to history, and the concept of lichdom is lost completely, but the queen found another way to total power: A necrotic throne. It seethes with enough necrotic power that the user of it can command the powers of a lich. With it the queen is immortal, but still enjoys the pleasures of living. With it the queen has raised armies of the dead, a deep taboo amongst dwarves, and uses them to wipe out groups that oppose her. Her army grows and Dana is sure that one day the queen will use her army to purge any that do not give her total obeisance. She has replaced the leaders of the dwarven military, aristocracy and bureaucracy with intelligent undead obedient to her.

From here the players have three options:
1.Believe Dana and seek the downfall of the Queen with her(Ral will not believe her, but can be convinced to come along and see the evidence himself if the players have proven themselves good people)
2.Turn her in. This will result in the players being executed along with Dana for knowing too much. This results in the Queen's rule being undisputed and no one discovering her secret
3.They may attempt to flee the city and live in exile. This will lead to a doomed encounter with a cave dragon ending their saga and leaving the Queen's rule undisputed. Dana will not go with them, but will fail without them.
From here we proceed as if they picked option 1.

Act 3
With Friends Like These...
Dana hoped she could use her old contact of Torag Ironfist to contact influential friends to expose the queen. This failing she seeks after an old companion from before her imprisonment.

From here the players will traverse the underdark, back the dwarven highways and then travel to the upper layer to the Elven district.
The district does not allow non-elves free reign in the city and only allows them entry with approved purpose. Dana possesses the seal of her contact Lord Miwafe. The guards are willing to escort the players to his estate and then straight back out of the district.
The district is the most beautiful and wealthy place the players will have ever seen. Magical lights, gardens with plants and animals from the surface, beautiful art-like buildings with sculptures and artwork everywhere.
It should be a striking experience to the characters who have experience radically different districts in the city and the strangeness of how the elves can so openly have magic in their district. The answer being: Influence

This is not an exploration section and the guards will absolutely prevent them from doing so and instead the players are taken straight to their destination.
Once there they will be allowed an almost immediate audience, but Dana is shocked that it is not the Lord Miwafe she knew, but his son, who was only a child when she last saw him.
As it turns out the immortal lord was murdered long ago and the young, decadent and outright evil heir has taken over.

What are the elf's motives? How does he display his degeneracy and arrogance? You decide, but either way he agrees to help because it benefits him in some way. He will assist the party into getting into the city of the dead, a massive tomb complex, where they will acquire hard-evidence of an undead army that he can use to expose the queen. For Dana this is not enough though and she will urge the party that they should use the royal escape tunnel that connects the royal palace to the tomb complex. Once inside they should destroy the throne and then expose the queen once she is powerless.
Otherwise once exposed she may simply use her army prematurely to wipe out her enemies.
The party's next destination must be the city of the dead.

Act 4
Power
Parts of the city of the dead are crawling with undead and other parts are empty. Areas expected to see regular maintanence or visitation are kept empty of undead, but huge swathes of other portions find bodies filled with unlife pressed together.
The party will work their way vertically through tombs until reaching the level Dana describes. If Ral is with the party he will now be convinced as the party finds the particular tomb with the hidden passageway stuffed end to end with zombies. For Dana this is no concern as the dead will not attack her unless specifically commanded to, but they will attack the party upon detecting them.

The party will have to create a suitable distraction or fight through the horde to the narrow passage the secret entrance is contained in.
They must then hold the horde back while others pass checks to locate and activate the switch. After words they must successfully close the door behind them from the pushing horde of zombies to prevent being overwhelmed.
This should be an overwhelmingly dangerous encounter with a large potential for death. Don't be afraid to have npcs sacrifice themselves if needed.

Regardless they will end up in the royal suite where nobility keep multiple rooms. The party can take the time to loot great treasures and baubles. They do need to worry about prematurely setting off an alarm if a servant or noble sees them though.

They can make their way to the throne room from there.
Inside is general Martok the leader of Ral's military order and the Queen. Martok turns out to be an intelligent undead of extreme power and the queen will quickly initiate combat as power from her throne courses through her scepter and body.
This should also be a close battle with losing possible. If Martok dies the queen can resurrect him on her turn and he returns to full health.

Once dead the party now has access to several endings to the story defining the future of the city. They will each have to make a willpower save and the ones who fail will attempt to take the throne for themselves(perhaps working together to share it)

1.You take the throne for yourself: The queen rarely interacted with the surrounding city and no one ever saw her outside of her undead servants. So, no one noticed the change in rulership. Thanks to the throne you are now immortal and will rule and guide Swordburn to the future you see fit for it (If Dana is still alive the party will have to kill her for this ending)

2.You destroyed the throne: The city falls into total anarchy either within weeks or days. Whole districts will likely collapse as the leaders of the over-government simply fell over dead all at once. Could this be the end of the last bastion of surface life?

3.You give the throne to Alelu: Alelu honored his vow of patronage although his interest was largely in chaos. He briefly uses the throne to  send hordes of undead to attack districts, including his very own, despising the stasis of peace they live within. Before anyone can be wiped out completely though he destroys the throne. He does not take power of the city for himself either, but works to oversee the transition to a more anarchic setting where each district rules itself. The Blackrock clan is devastated between the loss of queen, the undead attacks and the overthrow that Alelu oversees and become an inconsequential clan.

4.You destroy the throne, but report back to Alelu: Alelu releases the information of the queen’s evil and demise and helps to ensure the city falls into total chaos, but never so much that it endangers himself or dooms all of civilization. He has the most fun he has ever had in centuries.

5.Secret Ending where Ral survives and is persuaded: Ral convinces the party to not destroy the throne outright. Instead, he uses his position with the over-government to rally it together and bring order. Each intelligent undead is slowly replaced with living counterparts as the positions are adequately filled. The throne is finally taken apart and all the dead released and properly interred. Without the undead the new over-government can’t operate alone and is forced to start accepting help from other districts and races. This also leads to them better representing and assisting with the needs of the many districts. Ral would later oversee the dismantling of the Onyx Tower prisoner program.

At the end of Act 2 we learn of the true villains and plots going on in the city, but perhaps you want something different? Change it! The truth of what Dana is doing and who she is not revealed until the end of Act 2 including why the players have been sent to handle this delicate task leading to a tidy situation where the DM can easily replace the last two acts with a preferred story!

My party actually met all the prerequisites for the secret good ending. They were all anti-authority good guys and one was even a pacifist! But they were convinced that putting off the throne's destruction would lead to more evil while others fought to protect it. As the party began killing one another one of them revealed his powers came from a contract with a god of true death and in that moment he cast a spell and destroyed the throne locking them into Ending 2. Half the party lives in the underdark after this occasionally going into the dying city to help people and improve things. The few people who know of their deeds hate them for it. The plot twist true death worshiper and one other player use the queen's key to the surface to try their luck on the destroyed world above...

Adventure mode is only available for the classic form of dwarf fortress although it is planned for release for the steam version. In adventure mode you can control characters from any species and almost any civilization(provided they aren't extinct) and explore and interact with your generated world. Adventure mode also has unique creatures that can only be found in that setting and it serves as an interesting way to see how your fortress is faring up close. In this case there is no player made fortress in this world and so it is untouched by me other than my adventurers I am making

This was the Age of the Swamp Titan having just left the age of the Bronze Colossus and the Swamp Titan. The Colossus rampaged civilization throughout history and died, but the titan still lives because it has isolated itself in a remote swamp only ever encountering those foolish enough to hunt it. To the artic north lies enough goblins to outnumber the world multiple times over. To the south-east the undead wipe away all life unimpeded.



The age of Goblins
An incredibly brief and uncharted period of time in Adelaathira. The goblins made up more than 2/3 of the world's sapient population and with the many threats to the world defeated, including the swamp titan that ruled this world, they were poised to tyrannize all life. Until the Rhino demi-god Kivish descended from the heavens. Within months of the Age of the Goblins beginning the race was rendered endangered.

Kanil Inchwhip the Humorous Belly of Bites

Kanil started out in a bandit fort caught between an encroaching invasion of the living dead from the East and a resurgence of the Goblin hordes from the West. Either out of respect or fear his bandit chief regularly sends him on dangerous missions that takes him very far away from the fort and nearly kills him and his trusty elephant:
Pamud Breachedancient the Toe of Calamities.
Kanil bears an artifact two-handed sword named: Cloudfought

Kanil has no interest in purging the world as I plan to, and is a lot like other humans other than the fact that he feels nothing for those who die and feels a grim satisfaction at killing he's perfectly normal!
Kanil's purpose is to defeat the two great evils of the East and West freeing the world from the goblins and the living dead through sheer force of strength and will.



Conclusion (Spoilers here!)
Kanil successfully defeated the goblins, but discovered they were simply the vanguard of an empire 60x the number he fought. With the invasion dealt with, for now, he fought the necromancers and defeated them and their many resurrected legendary warriors who served as commanders. Kanil fought one final great final battle with the swamp titan and deity before being broken and having his hip destroyed. He barely escaped with his life, but was left internally defeated by the incident: Will he find the strength to rise again?


Picture is NOT MINE here is a link to the artist I don't draw and I'm not taking credit for this awesome piece: https://www.deviantart.com/dracolychee/art/Guy-with-sword-color-358811716


Itha Feciciyaba
Source: https://www.deviantart.com/arttair/art/CommFEB2020-831752437


Itha is an anarchist and a bard being the first elf in his generation to be commissioned to the path of the speaker of the forest. Itha believes that this was no coincidence and that it is up to him to stop the goblins from the north from destroying his homeland using the power of his voice and ideals. He will strike out north and convince the goblins to throw off their shackles and abandon the wars to the south and having them turn on each other instead.

Conclusion:
Itha failed in his mission having been discovered by the goblins. Anywhere he went he was from then on attacked on sight and doggedly pursued by goblins. Before quitting the mission he caused many small rebellions and incited the entire population of goblin beak dogs into attacking their masters.

Kivish Abbeymysteries the Auburn Deity

A rhino man literally descended from the heavens to defend the world from the apocalyptic threat of the goblins. The rhino is named the auburn deity from the blood that coats his body from battle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0PKG5-t3zU
I'm not a kobold myself, but I just find them so fascinating
They reproduce through egg-laying which is clearly superior
Naturally mischievous and likely to get into antics. The definition of chaotic neutral