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Author Topic: (ISG) Cathlan - Dungeons  (Read 12540 times)

NJW2000

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(ISG) Cathlan - Dungeons
« on: August 01, 2015, 09:52:39 am »

Cathlan.

Mountainous, untamed lands. Farmland shallow and frosty at best, crawling and putrid at worst. Far from the cool, refreshing breezes smuggled through the heat of the midday from the grand incarnate oceans in the West, and equally inacessible to the scarf-wrapped desert traders winding their way through the domestic, civilised continent from the serpent dunes and beyond in the Southeast, carrying the melange, the intoxicating spice that lulls the mind, dampens the wit, and makes all men look on one another with the friendly, soporific eyes of brothers. The spice, which encourages commerce, stability and wealth, while instilling a reluctance to enter war, never makes it as far as Northern Cathlan.

 In this part of the world, conflicted, feral, needy Cathlan is the only country changing and growing. It's an inspiring place to be alive, right now. But not always an easy one.

Cathlan itself is made up of three city states surrounded by a few hundred miles of land they control: warlike Hasloc, archaic Mossholm, and vibrant, eerie Cobble.

You cannot recall where the the lesson went from there, but you keep your eyes screwed tightly shut.

You are a boy?/a girl?

You are of noble, if modest birth: child of a small duke of the city-state:

A.
Spoiler:  Hasloc (click to show/hide)


B.
Spoiler:  Mossholm (click to show/hide)


C.
Spoiler:  Cobble (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: world map (click to show/hide)

Don't worry, Cobble won't be as badly draw if I have to draw another scene from it. Is image size ok, guys?
« Last Edit: August 24, 2015, 10:19:48 am by NJW2000 »
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ATHATH

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Re: (ISG) Cathlan
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2015, 12:38:38 pm »

Male, Mossholm
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*slow clap* Well ATHATH congratulations. You managed to give the MC a mental breakdown before we even finished the first arc.
I didn't even read it first, I just saw it was ATHATH and noped it. Now that I read it x3 to noping

Spiderking50

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Re: (ISG) Cathlan
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2015, 01:02:49 pm »

Make cobble
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High tyrol

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Re: (ISG) Cathlan
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2015, 01:23:20 pm »

Ptw
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StrawBarrel

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Re: (ISG) Cathlan
« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2015, 05:14:17 pm »

Post to watch.
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NJW2000

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Re: (ISG) Cathlan
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2015, 06:08:03 pm »

  Yes, Mossholm, that ruined and sun-dappled metropolis. You were the son of a merchant-duke, the closest one can get to real power in Mossholm without becoming invovled with the secretive alchemist bureaucrats or the shady artifact dealers. Many days, sitting on a grassy verge or the branch of a tree, the feeling that you would rise even further, past the tame and beloved gentry, to become a leader, something great, someone as purposeful as the mighty, ancient baobabs, and as puissant as the fabled root-sorceresses of distant centuries. You felt that you would never end up as some brazen, expendable biblionaut dashing through ancient sea-bound libraries, or some petty witch or warlock lulled into donating their essence to the great mana-pools by the gentle and intoxicating canopies of the Yew-trees they tended.

No, you felt yourself far above all that, and had good reason to believe you were.

  You still vividly recall that day when the grove-master of your father's corral-estate, that gruff and muscled centaur Alyks, called you into his office and told you that the tender sapling of your youth was about to be broken and split, then regrown in another, stranger direction. Your father had become obsessed by an eccentric tome, that one of his customers, a prince from outside Cathlan, buyer of food and plundered books and rare devices, had hinted at, concerning the quaint and curious practice of the reanimation of dead plants through brine and salt, which was hidden deep in a submerged library that remade itself every few hours, shelves turning and twisting underwater to resolve the labyrinth into another intricate form, broiling coils of books for miles, dotted with the crushed bodies of those that ventured into the maze unaware of the entrapments. Despite his wise manager's advice, your father had become fixated on this practice, and, seeking to expand his business beyond even the jurisdistriction of the alchemists ruling the city themselves, had entered this tomb in which none dared set foot.

  He did not come out. While inured to most of the dangers and creatures of the depths of submerged literature, he probably still wanders down there, unable to find either exit or the hidden tome he seeks, unless he has given up already, and let himself be filtered down through the sunken floors of the library by the constant turning, and lies enshrined in coral at the bottom of a great trench of dusty pages and strange substances, like blood, far heavier then water.

  It was soon after he went in that the family's business was dissolved. Your mother, having no interest in commerce, spent many of her days languishing beside the unbroken waters of your glade-pool, forgoing her usual Hasloc rigourous training programme and military diet, growing thinner and weaker, till not even the suggestion of a return to her warlike native land could bring a faint colouring of happiness to her cheeks. Soon after, she made her way to one of the steaming mana-pools that provide energy and magic to proud Mossholm, and dived in, letting her essence, her mind, her abilities be consumed by the unknowing waters, leaving you completely alone. Only Alyks attended the wake you decided to hold for your parents, against custom as your father's remains had not been found and your mother's fate was proclaimed to be not death but rebirth. It felt like death to you.



  You turn from such thoughts, going back to earlier memories, in which you (a.) spent your days at home, looking after cousins and visitors and the children of the neighbours, studying, learning wit and guile from your elders, and the arts of rhetoric and persuasion, while watching the goings-on of your father's business?

Or did you (b.) spend your hours of freedom roaming Mossholm, running between the trees with gangs of satyrs, scrapping unarmed, laughing and stealing fruit from glade-merchants, emulating the uncouth men of the artifact-peddlers, making yourself rougher, sharper, more streetwise?

Or was that time (funny how you scarcely remember what your main occupation was) (c.) spent simply running from branch to branch, climbing trees and towering ziggurats and spires of stone, and participating in your mother's training regime (though only the gymnastic parts, of course)?


((Sorry for textwalls, guys, I write in WRITER dox for speed on a bad CPU thus have no paragraphing skills. Also, again, is image size ok?))
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High tyrol

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Re: (ISG) Cathlan - in need of suggestors!
« Reply #6 on: August 02, 2015, 08:59:30 pm »

C
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ATHATH

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Re: (ISG) Cathlan - in need of suggestors!
« Reply #7 on: August 02, 2015, 11:34:03 pm »

A
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Quote
*slow clap* Well ATHATH congratulations. You managed to give the MC a mental breakdown before we even finished the first arc.
I didn't even read it first, I just saw it was ATHATH and noped it. Now that I read it x3 to noping

StrawBarrel

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Re: (ISG) Cathlan - in need of suggestors!
« Reply #8 on: August 03, 2015, 09:38:40 am »

C
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Spiderking50

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NJW2000

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Re: (ISG) Cathlan - in need of suggestors!
« Reply #10 on: August 03, 2015, 06:09:49 pm »

C.

Yes. You've always been a masterful climber and acrobat, more comfortable clambering up treetrunks and stone monoliths than talking to people or roaming the streets of Central Mossholm.


You wish you were up a tree or on top of a ziggurat, unreachable, serene, right now, so you wouldn't have to make any more choices, could remain where you were, give in to entropy.

But that's not to be. One final decision, before you start fending for yourself, moving away from friends and family, though you never had many of the former, and all that remains of the latter is Alyks, a spiritual father. But now, shaken loose from his comfortable manager's position, he plans to enlist in the Hasloc centaur cavalry, a priviliged and elite set of troops, but a job that takes one far from house and home.

You realise you haven't even been listening to him. For what's probably the last time, you focus on his gruff, slow voice.

"So which will it be? You can fend for yourself, free to work or study or roam as you see fit throughout Mossholm, then leave or stay as you see fit once you turn eighteen. You'll have no home, and nobody to look after you, but there are many opportunities for a bright young lad of fifteen years here."

He gestures at an ordinary-looking glade.

"Alternatively, you can stay here, do some modest work, be fed, looked after, claim what's left of your father's estate once you turn eighteen, with some satyrs I know and trust. Your father provided money for your care, and it wouldn't be bad to tend the trees and plants and spirits of one of the ancient holy glens for a few years."

He regards you solemnly, dark, loving, loyal horse's eyes staring from the face of a troubled man.

"I can't tell you what to do. But I'm sure you'll be happy, whichever you choose."
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StrawBarrel

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Re: (ISG) Cathlan - in need of suggestors!
« Reply #11 on: August 04, 2015, 01:27:57 pm »

((ooh, is that a dragon?))

you can stay here, do some modest work, be fed, looked after, claim what's left of your father's estate once you turn eighteen, with some satyrs I know and trust.
We need to improve social skills. But we're leaving as soon as possible.
+1
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ATHATH

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Re: (ISG) Cathlan - in need of suggestors!
« Reply #12 on: August 04, 2015, 01:59:23 pm »

((ooh, is that a dragon?))

you can stay here, do some modest work, be fed, looked after, claim what's left of your father's estate once you turn eighteen, with some satyrs I know and trust.
We need to improve social skills. But we're leaving as soon as possible.
+1
+1
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Seriously, ATHATH, we need to have an intervention about your death mug problem.
Quote
*slow clap* Well ATHATH congratulations. You managed to give the MC a mental breakdown before we even finished the first arc.
I didn't even read it first, I just saw it was ATHATH and noped it. Now that I read it x3 to noping

NJW2000

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Re: (ISG) Cathlan - Tradgedy
« Reply #13 on: August 09, 2015, 07:22:26 pm »


((OK, from now on, the pre-scripted part is over, and you guys have free scope with suggestions, though rolls may interrupt that. Sorry for lack of updates, was stuck in the conutryside for ages, with no internet, also accounting for stupid length, sorry about that too.))
« Last Edit: August 09, 2015, 07:51:29 pm by NJW2000 »
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ATHATH

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Re: (ISG) Cathlan - Tradgedy
« Reply #14 on: August 09, 2015, 08:39:27 pm »

To the submerged library!
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Seriously, ATHATH, we need to have an intervention about your death mug problem.
Quote
*slow clap* Well ATHATH congratulations. You managed to give the MC a mental breakdown before we even finished the first arc.
I didn't even read it first, I just saw it was ATHATH and noped it. Now that I read it x3 to noping
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