/tg/ - Traditional Games

>>423219

This dwarven city lies within a large mountain range, and is the most northerly-expansion of the line of dwarves that rule over the range in question. It would house tens of thousands of dwarven inhabitants, and be built within the mountain without much in the way of external modification excluding a large entryway leading into a valley to the West. It has a large central chamber running the vertical length of the mountain and deep into the Earth. The valley to the West, known as The Golden Way, was formed by the run-off from the mountains, a river cutting through it, and the dwarves maintained that river by directing the flow of run-off and meltwater which they used as a water source. This valley is secured by a wall at its mouth, beyond which lies the interior of a minimally-explored continent. A road leads from the entry to the city to the central gate of this wall, around which a settlement of humans and other surface-dwellers was extant while the city was in prominence.

The city has fallen and has been fallen for quite some time by the time the players will encounter it, and at that point, filling much of this central chamber is a temple to one of the dwarven gods which was built in a malign fashion by a nefarious force, and it reaches all the way to the top of the chamber (and in fact beyond).

DM info:

The city is going to be partially associated with an adaptation of the origin story of the Skaven -- https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Skaven; https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Skaven#The_Doom_of_Kavzar -- whereby an Outisder of aberrant and/or demonic character arrived to offer aid to a dwarven kingdom which had been toiling at the creation of this tower-temple within the mountain for hundreds of years, perhaps a millennia, to little avail, after their king declared he would build a magnificent temple WITHIN THE MOUNTAIN which 'reached the clouds' (how they could achieve this without doing it OUTSIDE the mountain had yet to be discerned, and thus work wound up being bogged down in minor details and repetitive demolition/reconstruction).

The malign 'benefactor' arrived and offered to "construct a temple within the mountain which would touch the very moon" and complete the work in just a month, asking as payment only that he could add a great bell to the top of the temple as his gift to the gods. Word was sent to the king that the temple was complete, but when the king and his subjects viewed it, it was clear it merely reached to near the top of the mountain's interior. The stranger had disappeared, but left instruction that the bell be tolled on the night of the full moon, which coincided with the night of the temple's "completion"/his disappearance, and that all would be made clear. Clearly great magics had been worked, for the would-be temple was strange in shape and construction to the dwarves, seemed impossible in its proportions and architecture, but the dwarven king would not let his boast (or perhaps his grand/father's boast by this point) go unrewarded, and so the mechanisms were activated and the bell was rung. Long story short, this resonant ringing caused a gate to open around the bell and all sorts of trouble follows.

>>423220

Here's my basic outline:

Building temple, stagnating effort, Horned Rat in disguise offers aid

"Temple that will reach the Moon itself!"

Requests only...

Resources for ritual to complete task

To add own supplication to the Gods upon temple

Dwarves and surface-folk agree to terms

Carries out ritual within temple, opens Moon-Gate to some far-distant lunar view

In cieling of central shaft, as though looking into space

Stranger is gone, obscure 'supplication' left in unknown and malign script

Temple doors sealed, cannot be opened by any means

Over next 9 months, viewpoint through Gate grows closer to dark-side of Moon

Each night at midnight, spire bell rings 9 times

Soon becomes obvious, is not this world's Moon

Conditions begin to deteriorate within first few months

Moon-Rats begin to appear, food stores regularly raided, tainted or destroyed

Outside, black clouds gather; oily rain and ashen hail blight the Golden Way

Noxious dust-like particles 'snowing' through Moon-Gate, poisoning city

Some leave, but thousands remain, unwilling to forfeit their homes

Over next half year, conditions worsen further

Fragments of unknown noxious stoney material begin to occasionally fall from Gate

Gate-fragments poison and mutate those in proximity

Meteors of similar stone begin to fall in region, esp. during New Moon

Moon-Rats infect kobold pests, first demonic/aberrant kobold were-rats emerge and wreak havoc

Already-depleted food stores in constant peril as starvation looms

Skulking vermin make off with the careless and weak

Sections of city flooded or uninhabitable due to Gate-soot

Water supplies tainted as well, making recovery more difficult

Gate-sooted sickens many, causes strange mutations, esp. in children

City driven to panic, desperation setting in as packs of vermin stalk the corridors

Those attempting to escape blocked by Orc Raiders at valley-mouth

Massive battles rend valley defenses, small settlement founded in ruins thereof

At 9th stroke of bell on 9th day of 9th month, entire mountain shakes with "contact"

Spire now touching similar spire of a structure on lunar surface, through Moon-Gate

Structure is temple of Nag Um Ngatha, the Nine-Tongued Worm

First Moonbeasts lurch through Moon-Gate alongside servants of The Walking One

Remaining inhabitants slaughtered, driven mad, or forced to brave the deep-dark undercity

Few survivors to reach small settlement at the Golden Gate result in city considered lost

That's about all I've got at present, and frankly, I'm not much versed in the dwarves and am not entirely sure how to go about approaching the design of the city, what cultural angles I need to be aware, nor even certain central concepts (what god is the temple devoted to, for example? the head of the dwarven pantheon or is there someone better suited IYHO). Any insight you can offer would be helpful.

>>423222

Actually, I do have a bit more:

Size

The city of ??? covers an area of approximately 379 acres, with a total population of 23 thousand people.

The population is mostly dwarf (79%), with smaller numbers of humans (9%), halflings (5%), elves (3%), gnomes (2%), half-elves (1%) and half-orcs (1%).

Wealth

The city's gold piece limit is 40,000 gp. Anything, whether it be mundane or magical, having a price under that limit is most likely available for purchase. The total amount of available coinage, or the total value of any given item of equipment for sale at any given time, is 46,000,000 gp.

Power

Magical (LN)

Magical (LG)

Non-standard (LE)

Don't know about extended worldbuilding, but one thing you could use as a starting point to separate the culture from human culture is to start from the idea that dwarves associate being deeper in the ground with status. So whereas men would build tall towers to showcase their authority, the Dwarf king would have have an ornate chamber at the very bottom of the city. Rich humies live in penthouse apartments, rich dwarves live in the tenth sub-basement.

>>423228

>So whereas men would build tall towers to showcase their authority, the Dwarf king would have have an ornate chamber at the very bottom of the city.

That's good shit. Keeping in mind the sort of disjointed context to the declaration itself -- a temple that will touch the clouds WITHIN the mountain -- which is only furthered in disjointedness via the inclusion of such a cultural theme.

Mushrooms is the main source of food. Dwarven hardiness means that they can eat fungi that are poisonous to humans.

>>423265

>Mushrooms is the main source of food.

And booze! Their weaker alcoholic drinks are famed throughout the whole country. Especially their Dwarven Pilzner.

>>423219

>Any maps

Maybe look up some Dwarf Fortress maps? I'm pretty sure there are some good 3D models out there.

Thread theme?

WFRP 2nd ed - Karak Azgal.pdf

You have a great start, anon. Perhaps you could consider the head of the Dwarven pantheon, but are there any dwarven gods which are specific to the mountains or sky in your world? They may be better suited. Perhaps a particularly religious dwarven king upheld his god as the most righteous, honorable, just, or something similar, and to exemplify his devotion to that god the king made his declaration. Could the dwarves be descended from their gods directly, or are they mere creations? If it's the former, it could be an attempt by the king to honor his progenitor.

> Door frames are 5'3 instead of 6'8 on average

> Stationary typically comes in A5 instead of A4

> Produce is cheaper by volume since it takes less to feed a family of dwarves

> Don't know music theory but standard notation and scales reflect a more limited number of notes to accommodate making instruments for smaller hands and arms, stringed instruments in particular are probably tuned higher on average than non-dwarven equivalents, though this really depends on how dwarven bodies are proportioned.

> Few songs, stories or poems contain details on weather, the sun, day/night or most other natural phenomena we take for granted.

> Precious metals are slightly less precious since dwarves are mining anyway as a function of building any and all structures they need and discovering rare ore doesnt involve much extra effort as much as is does extra luck

> Calender's are neither solar nor lunar, time is measured by a candle-clock burning at a known fixed rate, precise dates and times are kept by the civil/religious magistrates who sound alarms at relevant intervals (first quarter, half-candle, third-quarter, new candle) alarms probably aren't sounded during the "sleep" period. The length or even existence of weeks/months are entirely civil/liturgical and are unrelated to seasons and astronomy.

> Real-estate is evaluated by volume, not area.

> Cemeteries do not exist instead family estates build a tomb/catacomb attached to their main property/structure. The "landless" poor or those otherwise without families to receive their body are dumped into wherever waste is normally deposited.

> If slimes and oozes exist municipalities share a communal ooze-hole where an ooze is kept to dissolve the waste that the community produces.If slimes and oozes don't exist it probably all just ends up in an underground canyon.

> Fire is used very cautiously as you do not want to burn up all of the available oxygen in an underground space and suffocate you and everyone you care about.

>>423370

>> Door frames are 5'3 instead of 6'8 on average

Because its not like dwarfs will need to carry anything, in fact every passage should be dwarf sized hole.

>standard notation and scales reflect a more limited number of notes to accommodate making instruments for smaller hands and arms

>Precious metals are slightly less precious since dwarves are mining anyway

Everything is so fucking wrong, shut the fuck up with your stupid greentext.

>>423377

> Because its not like dwarfs will need to carry anything, in fact every passage should be dwarf sized hole.

I was assuming an average dwarf height of 4'5-4'9 . I don't know about you but my doorways are only about 6 inches taller than I am.

> erything is so fucking wrong, shut the fuck up with your stupid greentext.

>dimensionally smaller stringed instruments aren't higher than larger ones, bass guitars don't have longer necks than a classical guitar.

> Larger woodwinds aren't lower than smaller woodwinds.

> ukele's, mandolins and dulcimers do not have fewer "strings" (I know a course is made of two strings but they are rarely tuned to different notes or played as separate units from their pair)

Have you ever played an instrument before? I grew up on mandolin, dulcimer and banjo which are very different from guitar and the people I know who play primarily guitar or piano/keyboard have a very different sense for how they go about understanding and playing music than I do. You can call me wrong all day long but the physical size of an instrument is important to what you can and cannot do on that instrument and a culture that has physically smaller instruments are going to have developed a different sense for music than one with larger ones.

>>423377

>Everything is so fucking wrong, shut the fuck up with your stupid greentext.

You should stop posting. >>423370 is the best post in the thread, delivers actual logical (aka high quality) worldbuilding ideas that would make for more believable dwarfish societies.>>423370

OP here, good contributions abound. Keep em coming.

Fruit bats are their main source of protein, the guano doubling as mushroom fertilizer. Eels and cave fish secondary sources.

One must carve stone carefully, lest you accidently make a rune. Tales tell of careless dwarves being throw hundreds of feet by explosions, electrocuted by bursts of lightning, and stomped underfoot by enormous golems.

They were the first race to discover concrete, but use it little on its own. If a living stone pillar is chipped the may use it as a filling being a perfectly carved replacement facade. This aversion to concruction is what led t ok the troubles of the tower. The visitor was welcomed when he demonstrated the ability to grow living stone.

>>423462

>is there any particular reason why are you limiting yourself this way? is there ANYTHING stoping you from changing these powers to what you want?

What I want IS to limit myself in this way, it often helps to create avenues of thought which might otherwise not be reached.

>why not make one of the powers a chaotic guild of tricksters, headed by a court jester of the old king, the one from before the fall?

An interesting idea, but as the city will have fallen by the time the players are engaging it, not likely there's going to be much fun to be had with them given the city is likely to have been dead for nigh unto a millennia. I'm really just trying to get a good vibe on the context of what the city and its lands were like BEFORE the fall, so I can grasp what they'll be like AFTER. But, again, an interesting concept that I might integrate in some capacity.

>>423466

>>423472

Likewise.

>>423466

Bats are skinny and very light. So, fish.

Or even bugs. Perhaps breeding of cave crickets for more meat? Substandard thin-legged crickets and some kitchen refuse can be fed to the fish, so the produced biomass is used well.

>>424013

>Kind of like turkeys, becoming domesticated and impossible to survive in the wild

Boy, you don't know turkey.

>>424058

Where I live, there was a turkey farm where the owner released all of them into the wild a couple of decades ago. Their population has been growing. Turkeys are tough bastards.

>>424062

>>424058

Also I took your statement as all turkeys, not just farm ones. I was thrown off by turkey being used rather than other examples like chickens.

Sage for double post.

>>423996

How bout crustaceans?

The local surface river systems are heavy with oversized crayfish, and I had the modern settlement employing those as a food source.

Massive stone aquifers full of big fat crayfish... and giant blind catfish?... And a subsequent ecology of lesser crustaceans/arthropods (giant subterranean isopods)?

>>424013

>Giant flightless bats

Like nutria.

>normal sized bats

Still a crunchy snack on the grill

>Wētā

I like those as companion animals.

>>423370

> Produce is cheaper by volume since it takes less to feed a family of dwarves

Wouldn't food be more expensive per volume since less would be produced per capita? Also being underground I would imagine food isn't as abundant as above ground, even accounting for dwarven agriculture, fishing, hunting and gathering.

> Calender's are neither solar nor lunar, time is measured by a candle-clock burning at a known fixed rate, precise dates and times are kept by the civil/religious magistrates who sound alarms at relevant intervals (first quarter, half-candle, third-quarter, new candle) alarms probably aren't sounded during the "sleep" period. The length or even existence of weeks/months are entirely civil/liturgical and are unrelated to seasons and astronomy.

Perhaps underground seasons could be based on various underground phenomena, like having a wet season/dry season cycle based on when snow melts on the surface and underground rivers swell each year, or if part of the year has more earthquakes/tremors than usual.

Also since there is no sun it would be fun to play with the sleep cycle, like having a 16 or 40 hour day/night cycle. You could also have multiple sleep cycles going simultaneously: dwarves have a 16 hour work day, they work 8 hours, sleep 4 hours and have 4 hours to themselves. In addition there a 4 'shifts' each dwarf belongs to based on the family they were born into, so that at any given hour 50% of the population is at work, 25% is asleep and 25% is off work.

> Cemeteries do not exist instead family estates build a tomb/catacomb attached to their main property/structure. The "landless" poor or those otherwise without families to receive their body are dumped into wherever waste is normally deposited.

I feel like usable organic material would be at a premium so deep underground because due to the lack of sunlight there would be no photosynthesis to replenish nutrients in the soil or whatever growth medium they use, bodies would probably be composted or cremated and used as fertilizer in some way, perhaps thrown into an underground lake or pond to feed a population of subterranean fish and crustaceans.

> Fire is used very cautiously as you do not want to burn up all of the available oxygen in an underground space and suffocate you and everyone you care about.

Cities would need many ventilation tunnels to move fresh air into the tunnels and flush toxic air out. The complete absence of photosynthesizing plants and the sheer number of dwarves not to mention the vast amount of air breathing fungi and animals needed to feed them would quickly fill the atmosphere with toxic levels of CO2. Deeper areas would need fresh air to be manually pumped through a system of pipes and tubes by necessity and the majority of the population and farming areas might need to be located quite close to the surface to avoid this and function via diffusion. Ventilation and exhaust shafts should lead to cold surface environments to assist with this, as cold air from the surface moves down into the tunnels and hot air from the depths of the city rises.

>>424013

>>424081

Bush meat is a really good way to get seriously ill, anons.