Chesterfield Dawes was one of Dartmouth's more famous explorers and adventurers, constantly exploring distant lands, unraveling mysteries, fighting evil cults, and otherwise leading a life right out of an adventure serial novel. Over the course of decades he amassed a significant fortune, one that his various relatives were eager to attain upon his death last year. Sadly for them, his will gave them but a pittance while reserving the lion's share for a new trust - the Dawes Foundation. He appointed various old friends and adventuring companions as trustees and tasked them with sending out suitable younger adventurers to take care of various unfinished business from his own adventuring days - getting to the bottom to old secrets, finding proof about the activities of various evildoers, and so forth. Many of these activities come with cash prices upon completion set down in the will itself, and anyone can attempt them as long they can prove their success to the trustees afterwards. Others will be ordered at the discretion of the trustees who search long and hard for suitable candidates, many of whom will be taken on as retainers afterwards and gain access to a special club house in Hensington.

So far, the Dawes Foundation has only existed for a year, but it has generated no shortage of news stories so far, and the public follows the exploits of its retainers with interest. Its future is still in doubt - even if it survives the numerous lawsuits the heirs of Dawes have brought against it, it is far from inconceivable that one of the powerful evil organizations the Foundation has fought will retaliate in a spectacular fashion. But for the moment, it thrives, and has become one of the most powerful group of adventurers in Dartmouth.

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Designer's Notes & Resources

This was inspired by the old Shadowrun sourcebook Portfolio of a Dragon: Dunkelzahn's Secrets which gives an excellent example of how a long and rambling will can generate adventures for years of game time.

• Portfolio of a Dragon: Dunkelzahn's Secrets @ DriveThruRPG

Comments

by jhubert

Praxus prides itself on being the leader in education among the Flannish Cities, if not the whole world - and its leaders know that to form a truly educated citizen, you have to start at an early age. But while its existing schools are already excellent, there is always room for improvement. For this purpose, an entire rural district of the Praxus Protectorate was set aside to test new educational methods - the Schola Provinciam.

Numerous small estates dot this district which serve as experimental schools (or "Praedium", as they are called) where educational experts can try out their various theories on how to best instill both knowledge and proper moral values into their charges. The different Praedia differ in the age of the children they teach, as well as their aptitudes, behavior, gender, and sometimes (though not always) their race, and have students ranging from a dozen at the smallest to several hundreds at the largest one. Each Praedium has its own distinct uniform with different color schemes, and the children are encouraged to compete for academic and sports honors with the rivals from the other schools. All of the schools operate as boarding schools, to keep the children from getting distracted from their studies. The schools run by the most renowned experts are in high demand from parents both in Praxus and beyond and have long waiting lists for admission, while those run by more obscure experts or those with less respected theories on educational methods usually need to fill out their student bodies with the assistance of government-run orphanages. The educational methods of those Praedia who produce highly successful graduates are eventually integrated into the standard Praxan school system.

Sadly, there have unfortunately been a number of cases where experimental methods turned out to be harmful for the children they were tried on. In other cases, educators have abused their power over their charges and terrorized them. When the Praxus Board of Education learns about such incidents, it generally tries to defuse the situation without creating a major scandal in order to protect the reputation of the Schola Provinciam, and the affected children and their parents are pressured to keep quiet.

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by jhubert

The Council of Captains is an organization regularly meeting in the Harbor borough of Dartmouth which sees itself as representing the maritime interests within the city. In earlier times, any captain of a ship who was in the city at the time was entitled to speak in and vote on the Council - which sometimes lead to the inclusion of some notorious privateers and pirates - but over time control of the Council ended up with the various major shipowners based in Dartmouth who stayed within the city around the year and were thus able to set the agenda - and eventually, voting power. Nevertheless, twice a year there are traditional "open sessions" where every shipowner is allowed to speak his mind, and which eventually culminate into major Harbor festivals.

While the various members of the Council - who are usually counted among the First Families - try to present a united front to the other power groups within the city, it remains a fact that most of them are business rivals who constantly scheme to increase their wealth and strongly compete for trade routes. There is heavy trading of favors when it comes to distributing newly opened routes among their members, and the only thing they can agree on is keeping outsiders from cutting into their business. Still, new shipowners in the city who have proved themselves to be smart and ruthless enough to withstand the united power of the Council are usually invited to join it.

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by jhubert

Little Atalus is the largest neighborhood of immigrants from the Parginian Rim in all of the Flannish Cities. Unfortunately, this has attracted the attentions of the Discendenti, who use this area as their regional headquarters and have throughly intimidated the locals. They have also brought their own priests of Cryelis with them, and they struggle with the older, local cult of the Goddess for supremacy in the city.

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by jhubert

Egress Point is the highest point of Wyvern's Cliff, and provides an excellent view over the ocean. Unfortunately, it is also the most popular spot in Dartmouth for suicides, which is where its name is derived from. On moonless nights the ghosts of those who have fallen to their deaths here can sometimes be seen.

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by jhubert

One of the most exclusive Gentlemen's Clubs in Dartmouth, the Order of the Hallowed Falcon consists of senior members of the First Families who meet regularly in a private estate in Hensington. Their members wear a signet ring with the symbol of a falcon as a sign of their membership. They tend to be a fairly conservative and politically active group, and are dedicated to maintaining the power and privileges of the patricians over the rest of the population, keeping patrician status limited within the First Families if possible, and maintaining their own power above the First Families, not necessarily in that order. In the past, they have conspired to keep newly rich upstarts in their place which they couldn't suborn or control through more direct means (such as permitting them to marry into the First Families). As of late, the upstarts they conspire against include Percival Shellard, the Lord Mayor of Dartmouth.

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by jhubert

The Unholy Pantheon is the largest and most infamous Hellfire Club of Dartmouth and is a favorite hangout of pact mages, self-described "free thinkers", as well as a large number of anti-theists who believe that the spiritual oppression of the sapient races by the gods is the real root of all evil. As a result, the street before the club sees frequent demonstrations by gods-fearing citizens protesting the wicked ways of its members, but thanks to its warlocks the club is well defended, and any protester who gets out of line will be singled out for some very creative revenge at a later date.

The club is named after a secretive group of (as rumors claim) 13 people which periodically meets in the back room of the club, and which is only referred to as the "Pantheon" by the other members, as their "suggestions" to them are usually obeyed as if they were divine pronouncements, and most members wish to curry their favor. The known members of the Pantheon include the most powerful warlocks in the city, though it also includes influential poets with no known supernatural powers. Rumors about the secret members of the Pantheon involve vampires, ghouls, devils, and even the dragon Venthirax.

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by jhubert

The Dark Tide is a combined restaurant, pub, and museum commemorating famous shipwrecks or missing ships throughout the ages. It has a large collections of memorabilia from wrecks, and the owner of the establishment is always willing to pay good prices for more such pieces of proven authenticity. It is a favorite meeting place for many people working in the shipping industry (with the exception of active sailors, who generally don't like to dwell on all the terrible things that might happen to their ships) as well as amateur enthusiasts of all things nautical. Someone wishing to research a particular ship could do worse than start his research here.

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by jhubert

The C-20 Club is one of the more exclusive venues in the city, as it is only open to those who can prove with their citizenship papers that they have at least 20 votes in the elections of Praxus, which means that they need to have at least a PhD or significant wealth. Thus, gaining entrance to the C-20 Club is a mark of passage that one has "arrived" in the high society of Praxus. While the real power brokers of the city tend to meet elsewhere, this club has no shortage of ambitious social climbers who seek allies in their further rise to the top, and more a few plots that shook the political and social scenes of the city originated here. Most of the major power blocks in the city have at least one informer here who informs them of any interesting developments.

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by jhubert

List of Praxus Districts

• Administrative Park
• Ardin Hold
• Batsbridge
• Belle Housing District
• Cattlesend
• Fredericksworth
• Galbinus Riverwalk
• Gi'Bralir
• Jillie's Bend
• Longhollow
• Monument Park Gardens
• Procus & Harvey
• Redborough
• Spelsburg
• University District

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by jhubert

The Dartmouth Board of Works is not just a department of the city government, but a semi-independent branch of the government in its own right, largely setting its goals and activities as it pleases. Thanks to a series of historic decisions and compromises, it is responsible for all the physical infrastructure of the City of Dartmouth, including its streets, sewers, and nexus towers (the Dartmouth Bus & Tram Company, which operates all public transportation in the city, is wholly owned by the Board of Works). In theory, its powers are broad, though in practice the Board of Works is kept in check by the courts, the Council of Mayors, and the office of the Lord Mayor.

The Board can determine the layout for newly-built streets and sewers, as well as alterations to existing streets (which are done to both improve the flow of traffic as far as that is possible, and to increase the flow of magical energies to the nexus towers). However, if this infringes on the property of someone else, the Board of Works is required by its charter to provide "adequate compensation". Invariably, the compensation offered by the Board of Works is below the real value of the estate, and equally invariably the owners of the land sue the Board for higher compensation - often absurdly high in the hope of stopping the project entirely, though usually this is more often the start of a lengthy series of negotiations between the Board and the land owners. In this way, important infrastructure projects will be dragged out for years before the first hole is dug, although in poorer areas legbreakers hired surreptitiously by the Board will usually facilitate a speedy ending to the negotiations. In contrast, negotiations for projects in wealthy areas such as Hensington, Duriam and The District can get very intense, since usually some locals will be for the project and others against it. Many feuds between the First Families were started, or at least maintained, over such issues.

The Board of Works generates income for its operations from two sources: Sale of azoth from the city's nexus towers, and an "estate tax" it levies against all property owners within the city, based on the estimated property value of the land in question (modified by size, area of the land, and numerous other factors). As usual, the poorer property owners have little choice but to pay, while the wealthiest families contest the estimates and often manage to stave off paying the tax indefinitely. Commentators often joke that the Board of Works is the main reason that Dartmouth is able to sustain a bigger population of lawyers than any other of the Flannish Cities…

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by jhubert

Possibly the largest trade and shipping company of Dartmouth, the Far Shores Trading Company specializes in trade with Hope Town, Ranya, and nations further east. It's biggest source of income are several colonies in Ranya where they harvest large amounts of opium and then sell it elsewhere - not just in the Flannish Cities but also in the Tsan Empire. However, four years ago the Celestial Emperor has outlawed the sale of opium because of its deleterious effect on his citizens. Loath to lose one of their main sources of income, the Far Shores Trading Company simply smuggled the opium into the Empire. This in turn has provoked further ire from the Celestial Emperor, who late last year gave the order to assemble a vast fleet to find the perpetrators and punish them savagely.

Given the slow speed with which the bureaucracy of the Tsan operates, the ships have not yet sailed forth, but they might do so any day now. The Company has learned of this and its leadership is now in a state of panic and trying to evade the consequences. It is not at all clear that the fleet would stop at destroying the Ranyan colonies, and given the past actions of the Tsan Empire they might not feel that their mission is over until they have occupied Dartmouth itself. The Company leaders fear the day the Lord Mayor of Dartmouth finds out, and will do whatever they can to both prevent this from happening and slow down the fleet. In the meantime, they have started to transfer as much money as they can without arousing suspicions to the Gemeinschaftsbank and other Siebenbund financial institutions…

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Designer's Notes & Resources

Urbis' very own equivalent of the East India Company - and they've managed to provoke the equivalent of the Opium Wars, too! Only in this setting the power distribution is significantly different, so the end results might be as well…

• East India Company Wikipedia entry
• Opium Wars Wikipedia entry

Comments

by jhubert

Phillip Ellwood always hated the so-called "adventurers" - their uncouth ways, their bragging about deeds which by all rights should be considered crimes, the way the newspapers adored them and rulers of cities pandered to them, and the fact that one of them seduced his fiancée away from him and killed his dog. Thus, he decided they needed to be show how pathetic and stupid they really were, and spent most of his inherited fortune on building a trap-filled mansion (complete with extensive subterranean dungeon) within the Dartmouth Protectorate. The traps were magical to make them harder to disable permanently, and were intended to humiliate just as much as they were supposed to kill. Flying custard pies filled with sharp razors, self-laying tables filled with delicious-smelling food containing poison which induced lethal diarrhea, swarming creepy-crawlies which would eat clothes and armor in a room filled with tiny spikes on floors and walls, and so forth. Furthermore, all rooms had small, concealed observation holes in the walls and ceilings allowing Ellwood to watch hapless adventurers stumbling through the rooms.

After the mansion was ready, Ellwood spread rumors about the many treasures found within (which was true, as he thought that without some rewards adventurers might just leave instead of foolishly forging ahead and encountering more traps). Soon, the first party of adventurers arrived, and Ellwood watched as they stumbled from trap to trap. He mocked them aloud for their failures to get around the obstacles, and laughed when two party members died in them.

However, he was quite surprised when the understandably adventurers managed to break through his hidden passageways, tied him up, and threw him into one trap after another until he died. After the disgusted adventurers left, his ghost rose up and haunts the mansion still, now universally called the "Trap Mansion". The ghost now repairs any traps that have been disabled, and waits for further adventurers to enter his house, which he will continue to mock and deride just as he was alive.

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I've recently read some older AD&D adventures, and in them, the whole point of some dungeons seems to have been merely to humiliate any adventurers that enter them - in some cases the builder of the dungeon will actually make fun of the adventurers entering it directly.

This is my take on what would really happen when a typical adventuring party encounters someone daft like that,,,

Comments

by jhubert

When the fabulously rich Graham Dodds died two years ago, his will stated:

"My mansion is full of traps and treasures. Whatever riches someone can carry out of the mansion belongs to him. Whoever can find the central room from which it is possible to disable all the traps shall inherit the entire mansion."

The neighbors hope that someone will find the central room soon so that the occasional screams will stop.

Dodd's living relatives also hope that someone will find the central room soon, as there is little point in trying to contest the will as long as all the traps are active.

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by jhubert

Ungol's Stairs is a long, narrow, and steep footpath rising from the northern end of the Harbor Borough up to Wyvern's Cliff. It derives its name from the fact that it terminates at Storm Abbey, a monastery dedicated to Ungol. Few people other than sailors wishing to visit the Abbey use this path, as there are better (if longer) paths up the hill and its steepness means that there are often serious accidents when people on it slip (though these accidents often involve alcohol as well) - in most years at least one person falls to his death. Traditionally, the corpses are brought up to the Abbey and buried there.

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by jhubert

Storm Abbey is a sprawling monastery dedicated to Ungol located near the southern end of Wyvern's Cliff, and a large tower on top of it also serves as the city's lighthouse (in addition to being a nexus tower in its own right - a refurbishment of the original tower which was not uncontroversial at the time it was altered).

Traditionally, the monks are retired sailors who were caught in terrible storms at sea and swore that they would dedicate their lives to Ungol if they would only make it back to land itself. The abbey is primarily funded by the Dartmouth Board of Works in exchange from the profits of the nexus tower and the service to the city its lighthouse provides, but the monks also support themselves by crafting souvenirs such wood carvings of ships, maritime animals, or famous buildings of Dartmouth. Traditionally, sailors who want to have good luck for a voyage climb Ungol's Stairs on the eve of the journey, pray at Storm Abbey, and then purchase one of the souvenirs as a good luck charm.

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by jhubert

The Rag Priest is one of the better-known street people of the Harbor Borough. He tends to harangue everyone he encounters about the sins of the world and the people within it and how this state of affairs is displeasing to a particular god (although which god is offended this time tends to change by the day, or sometimes by the hour) and what kinds of terrible punishments the god will enact in return. As local shop owners (who certainly don't want him in front of their shops) have found out, a few coins usually suffice to shut him up and go elsewhere, although in rare cases they only enrage him further. He can often be found in Fishermen's Square, yelling from the top of one of the boxes.

There are rumors that he has been observed to actually cast divine magic, but which deity grants him spells is unknown.

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by jhubert

Fishermen's Square is the traditional location of the main fish market of Dartmouth. It is also noteworthy for its tradition of public speaking - there are usually several large boxes in a part of the square on which anyone may climb and talk at the top of the lungs on whatever subject they want (and as they need to be audible over the cries of the fishmongers, they tend to be very loud indeed). As many of the speakers are incoherent and sometimes downright deranged, they provide quite a spectacle, and the more interesting speakers tend to draw quite a crowd. The less interesting ones are traditionally pelted with fishes, and some of the fishmongers sell some particularly old and smelly ones expressly for this purpose.

See Also

• The Rag Priest - one of the frequent speakers at the Square

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by jhubert

Lake Avon is said to be inhabited by a powerful (and possibly fey) spirit who has loaned mighty and pure warrior champions an artifact sword throughout the ages. Currently, the area surrounding the lake has become a popular resort with the upper classes of nearby Dartmouth. These guests derive additional entertainment from the occasional would-be champions who devise all sorts of novel ways to demonstrate their "worthiness" in the eyes of the spirit - so far, without success.

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Just adding another element of Arthurian myth to the setting - and giving it that unique Urbis touch.

• Lady of the Lake

Comments

by jhubert

The Special Bureau is the Office of the Lord Mayor's elite troubleshooting agency. Some of its members were exceptional members of the Dartmouth City Guard or Armed Forces, while others were former adventurers who were recruited through appeals to their patriotism (and the many perks of office). While their background and training are extremely diverse, they have in common that they are extremely capable and dangerous. They are paid very well (though not as much as mercenaries and adventurers of similar power might earn), and are given the best support and equipment the city can afford. In exchange, they are given the missions that the Lord Mayor cannot trust anyone else with (because of their sensitive nature), or if an immediate problem arises that no one else can be called for.

The relationship between the Special Bureau and independent adventurers is better than might be expected, for the city government realizes that there are simply too many missions that need to be done by the Special Bureau alone, and thus prefers to ask the latter for help in many cases so that at least half of the Special Bureau can remain in reserve at any one time - and furthermore, if the independents do a good job, they might in turn be asked to join the Special Bureau later on! The City Guard, on the other hand, tends to be jealous of the Special Bureau, while far too many Bureau members make fun of the guards for their relative weakness.

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The Special Bureau is intended as the answer to the question: "How does a city deal with high-powered threats?" (including high-powered PCs running wild) without (hopefully) overshadowing the PCs. The Special Bureau can also serve as an employer for an entire campaign - I recommend using Section 9 from the series "Ghost In The Shell" as an example.

Comments

by jhubert