I’m planning on doing a reclaim the city type adventure in Celik. Just curious if anyone has any fun maps they’ve used before I start modding Phlan from Pools of Radiance/Ruins of Adventure.
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Did you say modding a map a map of Flan? Doctor Desty Nova approves anad…
Oh, city of Phlan. Sorry.
I don’t have any maps of Celik, sorry. There’s a lot of city, ruins and city ruins maps out there. You’re spoilt for choice really.
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I plan on hybriding Phlan with something like Rappan Athuk and running it like a West Marches game within the ruined city. Already looking at the random encounters from Ruins of Adventure and looking to mod them specifically for Athas.
I definitely want to run a unique gladiatorial set-up where fighters are dropped outside the walls where the monster congregate. Ropes would be dropped to the winners to escape after a successful fight.
Trying to think of old Green Age buildings that would have present day use, paralleling the unlocking of locations within the city.
Also thinking of factions, Tari, the undead, and all of the merchant houses, and of course templar spies. Maybe tagging in the hooks from SotDL and Dregoth’s minions.
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As I’m filling out my map of Celik, does anyone have any fun locations within the city Ruins for them to explore? Thinking a library, school for psions, keep, slums, market… anyone got any unique ideas? This is above ground currently, not below.
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I addition to the ideas you’ve already listed, how about a tower structure modelled after a windcatcher or something similar?
I know Celik wouldn’t have been in a desert in the Green Age, but it could be a psionically powered tower of some kind
- a condensing tower to pull and store water from the atmosphere instead of wells;
- a clock of some kind. I’m thinking something other than clockwork, more Narbondel-like from Menzoberranzan;
- a psionic defence tower. Maybe it projected a shield of some kind or could unleash energy against attackers (and is currently active, requiring adventurers to disable it);
- a scrying or communication tower designed to be part of a link of psionic comms across Green Age cities. The other towers are either destroyed (in the Seven Cities), or else damaged in various ruined cities across the world (Saragar’s would have been deliberately destroyed when it isolated itself).
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All good ideas. Could also have an ancient psion of the Green Age in an Obsidian Orb, like the Mindlords of Saragar, that can provide psionic training or unlock a wild talent in exchange for performing some task.
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I’ve also thought it’d be interesting to have various empowered items that suppressed or enhanced various emotions in different areas.
Like one that dampens aggression near the entrance to the market square. Another that does the opposite located at the city barracks that would have kept the guard alert. One that promotes hyperactive behavior in an old weaving building to promote productivity, etc…
I drew the map as if it was located on a long dried up river bed, making the city the easiest way to pass to the west from the world map (ignoring the 4E placement of Celik). This is also a reason why the new city wants to secure the ruins as it keeps the caravans running smoothly. This will also cause the attracted monsters to tend to congregate in the dry river bed below a couple sections of old bridge that lead into the bulk of the unclaimed ruins, gladiator fights will occur below, always threatening the chance of drawing odd monsters into the fights. A rope thrown will be how the victors leave or in the case of convicts, no rope being supplied.
I also made the walls a lot bigger than the normal city-state, the idea that the walls could never be fully manned or near impossible to hold if the ruins were ever totally cleared.
I’m debating on eventual placement of a psionic gateway to one or more of the old cities somewhere deep below. Currently musing on Guistenal, Saragar, Bodach even Ebe/Ur-Draxa, etc… as possible destinations.
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Hmm. I like this as I’m actually going to enforce the training rules in this particular game.
Now I need to decide if it’s already reclaimed or part of the undiscovered ruins.
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What edition will you be playing?
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2E as usual. Since I generally run play-by-posts I’ve opted out of training to keep the game flowing. But I like the idea of the party needing to deal with the trading house to advance at the beginning. Unless they want to level at a possibly slower rate or at the expense of more experience points.
It will make the indentured servitude option that much more tantalizing.
It will also be a great coin sink… I want the players to be making a decent amount of coin only to have it funneled back to the city and the house. Pretty sure they’ll get bitter enough when they see others spending “their” money as they get increasingly higher risks thrown at them.
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There was some content written for a City-State of Celik book, but it was mostly background/planning content not actual game/setting content. Along with it were some rough maps. Here’s one. It’s very rough and was for author use more than for a finished product.
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I like the amount of the city they’ve “liberated”. The spots that are marked wanted… was this to be anything in particular? Wells? Rumor of a powerful item, relatively intact building, etc…?
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I like the lifestyle costs that RPGA used. It takes the accounting out of what the players are doing.
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Do you know where to find this? I’m not familiar.
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In any RPGA module from the 3E era. If you can’t find anything, I’ll see what I can find when I wake up.
Found it. I’d probably structure this to levels of indentured servitude. Each year promised might take them up a living scale, but they’d also have more expected of them.
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- Fortress
- Barracks
- Palace
- School/seminary
- Temples (many, like in medieval european cities with only one god, and Celik was built during the Green Age)
- Commandery (base of a military religious order)
- Abbey and temple
- Underground storages for the market
- Great market with commercial hall/gallery
- Amphitheater (turned into arena)
- Noble cemetery (with a meorty running area surrounding the cemetery and adjacent temple, between the main road and the walls)
- Square with monumental fountain
- Baths
- Bridge
- Brewery
- Hospital
- Psionic school
- Great cemetery (built in the southern, extra-muros part of the city).
My sketch of Celik is quite different, with a more traditional design, and many religious buildings.
I would say the part controlled by the Mareneth is the northern part between the main road and the dried river, and maybe the northern part of the city on the other side of the river.
The southern part of the city on the left side of the river has a separate wall.
Comments welcome.
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Psionic mythals should exist in multiple places. Various degrees of functionality or randomness to be expected.
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@Killer_DM Robert did you ever get playing in Celik? If so, did you finish a map or develop something that you would want to share. I’m curious!
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