CELTRICIA- Steel Isle Online Dungeon crawl

[LordVreeg]

How's the staffing for tonight?
Who do I have for 8:45 eastern?

[Seraph]

A resounding...maybe.  The frantic stuff is taken care of, but there are still things to do, and the gf is over.

[LordVreeg]

https://app.roll20.net/join/64904/0eW9tA
tonight

[LordVreeg]

Storm and work are conspiring.

I have a meeting then have to stack firewood for the storm coming in.

So SIG will be cancelled tonight.

[limetom]

Aww.

[LordVreeg]

A few ideas.

So, based on S-H's comments about wanting to create a character, and the current roster...I am thinking (just getting opinions) of a radical move.  Normally, as fans and players know after about 150 sessions, i run almost every moment as play time.

I am thinking, based on the fact that at the end of last session the group found familar territory and actually has a map to leave, to allow the group to jump ahead back to Steel Isle Town.  I normaally enjoy/find as necessity the justifiably dangerous period of getting back safely, dealing with the cultists and the Trine Guldana.  But I think the group needs a reformat.  This can let PCs get stuff together, make new characters, etc.

I got all OSR a whie ago, and the followers fit in ok with that.  But they get in the way with a chat based online game. 

I am also thinking about using the voice options on roll20.net, but not if that would lose  any players.   

[limetom]

I am thinking, based on the fact that at the end of last session the group found familar territory and actually has a map to leave, to allow the group to jump ahead back to Steel Isle Town.  I normaally enjoy/find as necessity the justifiably dangerous period of getting back safely, dealing with the cultists and the Trine Guldana.  But I think the group needs a reformat.  This can let PCs get stuff together, make new characters, etc.

I got all OSR a whie ago, and the followers fit in ok with that.  But they get in the way with a chat based online game.

I wouldn't be opposed. I think the biggest issue recently is that we just don't have enough regulars to pull old school roleplaying off.

[LordVreeg]

Well, that is one partial reason for the semi-reboot.  I would rather get SH a real character, as well as give anyone else a chance at making someone to join the group.  Also thinking of allowing, as I did in earlier games in my life, 2 PCs per character as an option. 

[Seraph]

I am all for going back to town and actually getting my own character.  But this thursday isn't good for me.  It will be valentine's day, and I will have JUST moved in with my girlfriend.  Things will be way too crazy to game.

[LordVreeg]

I am all for going back to town and actually getting my own character.  But this thursday isn't good for me.  It will be valentine's day, and I will have JUST moved in with my girlfriend.  Things will be way too crazy to game.

Makes sense.
Chargen should be done seperate, anyways.

[limetom]

If it's just going to be me and you, Vreeg, perhaps we should try and finish up Moss' private in town session? If not, more in the ruins is also fine by me.

[LordVreeg]

i think that I need to celebrate valentines day.  Been traveling a lot

[limetom]

Okay, enjoy y'all.

[LordVreeg]

well, it is important. 

I have been working on Steel Isle Town, though, a good amount.  The detail in the Southern fields area is interesting right now. Shuruum, the investments of the Sceding Tree, the trine guldana, the ladies...

[LordVreeg]

From The Southern Fields, the southernmost district of Steel Isle Town.

[ooc]
Just south of the port city of Steel Isle Town lies her largest farming area.  The Southern Fields is more of a collection of farms and marcher-style Farming communes than a real neighborhood or district. There are 2 of these communes which that are big enough to be considered small hamlets, places in between new and old farms.  The Southern fields, full of moors and empty hills, have long been the primary breadbasket for this area, with loamy fields bracketed by streams, swamps, and one decent sized forest.

Some of the families have been here for generations, and many of them know the legendary fauna well...legends speak of the Red Knight who prowls the area, and of Vernidale's Wolves, and even of the Ladies....



Overview
The Southern Fields is mainly very old; and is almost exclusively all farming territory.  Once very cleared, it went through two centuries of shrinking before reversing that trend in the last forty years.  It is less traditional farming land than wet and dry moors, full of mist in the mornings and empty.  And while the growth in Steel Isle Town has meant a growth mirrored in the Southern Fields, there are still sectors of land full of ruined farmhouses, abandoned stone walls, and trees and vines making inroads.  Of more immediate issue is the growing incidents with strange cultists, waylaying travelers, and holding strange rites.


Fauna
The amount of wildlife that moves in and about the Southern fields is staggering, as well as the sentient groups that also make the place home.  One upshot is that while many families have lived here and farmed here for decades or even centuries, people rarely travel in groups smaller than 3.  There are herds of huge Argussian Deer, stags whose head can be 7' high before we talk about their antlers.

Trine Herisiman and Trine Guldana both are seen regularly in the Southern Fields.  Trine Herisman is unique in that they have mining Black Klaxiks mixed in with the other ogrillites, and they exist mainly to the west of the Southern Fields, off in the valleys and mounds of the Western Hills District.  Trine Guldana is a gnoll-heavy tribal group that has their wandering areas to the south and west, and has recently been actively trading and strengthening relationships with the communes and farms, much to the delight of the inhabitants. 

In the forested far east of the Southern Field, there are infestations of ungols, huge and giant spiders. The swampier regions sometimes end up with giant turtles, and the Scaliks who hunt them as a delicacy.  There are also, due to this ilsand being their origin, a large population of Owlbears, which, thnankfull, exist singly and in pairs.

By far, the most scary denizens of the area are, like most areas, the huge amount of unshrived undead still left from the War of the Shield, and right after it.  While a great amount of them are seen only at night, or on occasions based on their life, or in boneyards, there are a few older battlefields where they can be seen regularly, and occasionally a cunning undead might create a band of lesser ones and go ravening...for this reason, there is always one shriving band on duty in the Southern Fields.



Noted Settlements and Geographic Regions
The Southern Fields is broken into 4 major areas, the Top Fields, The Western Hills, The EastWood, and the Far Fields.
The Top Fields are the north quarter of the region, pretty much from the SouthGate of town town to the tip of the forests.  This area is very settled and orderly, as it is right next to the City.  The North and West Corner of this area is dominated by the Parmenta Commune, with some 22 farming families all working next to one another.  The Parmenta compound is more like a small village, and has a walled redoubt as well as some common buildings and a few stores.  It is mainly in old wintric, marcher style architecture, and some of it is two centuries old.  The Church of the Autumn Harvest (Amrist) has a small temple (his small shrines to a few other faiths) here.  The Parmenta have some 4 sacred grove areas they maintain to increase and support the harvesting, as well as huge tracts of land in between them.

Due to the remoteness of this corner, the necromantic threats are less here than other areas.


The Western Hills are, as is obvious, the drier moors, streams, and foothills of the Ensight hills.   There are a few vineyards here run by the Chomack's Vintners, Black Vneersberry (called Karse)and Vneersberry both, in the valleys.  Since the karse wine has become fashionable in the last decade, winemaking has grown out here.  There are also a few Inns that do wine tours here as well.


The Eastwood area is somewhat better travelled, as loggers take the Runcho Road into the wood itself regularly.  Though the eastwood is pretty haunted (there are some Venolvian ruins here, like an ancient prison), Lumberteams go in with Shriving Priests due to the demands from builders and shipwrights.  There is an extended family of Ograks and Hill Giants who make their home and hunt in there, but who avoid the farmers, Lumbermen and Towners.  The Guellium traders have a large presence, including the HeatherHands (Shuruum and his family) farm, which is right on the Stontish Way, the main road from the South gate.  Just south of the Eastwood, the moors get very, very wet.  The Righthold Commune is technically in this district, the second-largest commune, tied to the Church of the Lawful Triumverate, and very Orcash and Stunatu dominated.

The Far Fields are the southern part of the region, swampier, more remote, and wilder.  There are mainly wide-ranging, family farms, with few visits from Panch Gregorian's Callto-men, and little town interference.  However, the Shriving patrols rarely get down there without being asked, and recently, the cultist of the Dark Way have been very, very active.  Indeed, there have been rumors of whole families being burnt out by them.  And in a reversal of the old fears, the only group really protecting the free farms and families is the Ogrillite Trine Guldana, the gnoll-heavy nomadic tribe.  The Trine themselves, while taking casualties in this conflict, seems to be warming to the task of defending the farmers.
[/ooc]