d100 Rumours in Shadelport

The PDF of Shadelport has done better than my previous ones. Possibly a simple cover but probably being a big fat city book is the main driver I suspect. Anyway I got lots of kind words which is nice. And some weasels complaining It cant be printed (I still love you and I deliberately did this). I did print it from this file and might make a A3 print to further proof. When I'm happy I might make a improved version with a spine for LuLu because I'd like a hardback. I've had Interest in some of my other PDFs too and have agreed to revise Planet Psychon. I will probably make a version with all the more recent content added and with a fancier layout. I've had some offers of volunteers for this (well Chad anyway).

Well hopefully Shadel Port will be used by others and it might become a old school classic. While making It I got a few ideas like this one. I could probably do a A-Z post on each district and a expanded suburb encounter table. Certainly the city ruins might be worth delving into. I have had players spend most of their lives in the city or within a days travel.

d100 Rumours in Shadelport

01 The Barron eats babies every day to maintain his immortality

02 The Barron is really a devil or even one of the lords of Hell
03 The Barron under his mask is quite ordinary and walks among the people in disguise
04 The Barron wears a mask because he is hideously scarred in his early days as a mercenary or a pirate
05 The Barron is actually not immortal but is replaced by a chosen member of the secret police
06 The Barron is actually a spirit or ghost or wizard who changes bodies as they wear out 
07 The Barron tricked the lords of hell in a contract and cannot die or be killed by any god or other worldly being
08 The Barron is part god and cannot show his face or the gods will know his identity and some will seek to kill him
09 The Barron is so interested in adventurers and dungeons because he seek a artifact that will change the balance of power. The ancients had great magic machine wonders on the Island long ago
10 The Barron avoids total war with the mainland Emperor because he instigated the civil war and secretly supports numerous factions. Eventually he will assume control of the known world and as he is immortal everything is going to plan
11 The ancient Monster Empire used the city as the world centre of the slave trade. So not much has changed then
12 On the great jungle Island off the east coast, the reptilians who worship Tiamat plan to arise and destroy human kind with dragon fire
13 Sometimes there are signs of a great war under the sea. Strange beings wash ashore with fatal wounds
14 The elves have renewed trade with man for various concessions like not killing them or hunting unicorns. The Barron and the Empire both feat the Elves taking sides
15 The Dwarf ruins are scattered everywhere but none know why reason they have returned. They hate mankind for stealing secrets of iron and blackpowder
16 The great powers of the world all have eyes on Exile Island because the ancient treasures and secrets here will change the fate of nations
17 The strange men of the west bring the allure of Black Lotus, a viscous drug that turns men into slaves. The Barron's secret police are always struggling to control the trade
18 The goblins of the mountains and forests were bred by the elves to be a buffer between elves and man. Some have gone wild and savage rather than whimsical and mischievous 
19 A great humanoid kingdom of monster tribes in the hidden highlands is where the constant flow of them come from. 
20 The hidden giant kingdom was sealed away by Druids. Some day the giants will clear the sealed passage, unite the humanoids and invade the lands of humankind
21 Many tiny mountain kingdoms and inhuman villages are hidden away and many trade opportunities can be found 
22 A race of bright trolls in the mountains are not the insane horrors most know. They claim to be the parents of elves and dwarfs and know many elder secrets they do not share
23 Many barbarian tribes in the mountains live beyond the Barron and the Empire. Those that trickle into the city seeking work are the renegades, rebels, kinslayers and outlaws
24 The Elf King and Queen are fearsome and terrible beings and actually elder gods
25 The Bright Elves and Dark elves use mankind as a buffer between their woods but they are actually closer kin than most believe. Their king and Queen are the same rulers of both but are somehow unfathomably different
26 Every thousand years the dragon spawn pits of hell are unleashed and time is approaching when they will come again
27 Demons, devils and elder horrors are sealed in many dungeons, pits and under wondrous monoliths that cultists seek to free
28 Hybrid monster humans are hidden everywhere, secretly preying on humanity and serving tho long forgotten monster kings of old
29 The orcs of the city are loyal to the Barron and make up many of the city militia men and guards. That is because the Barron's wizards make them by some foul secret means
30 Everyday kobold slaves become more common and soon they will out number humanity and rebell
31 The secret police tolerate some unlawful gangs and criminal guilds and crush any that cross the Barron
32 The secret dungeons of the barons police are vast and sprawling labyrinths that reach across the city 
33 Secret police informants are everywhere often they recruited from tax debtors and criminals
34 The true agents of the secret police are a secret monastic order of fanatic assassins 
35 Many of the cities hated tax collectors and magistrates are secret police or guarded by them in hiding
36 The secret police keep in their watch houses shrines dedicated to the Barron
37 Secret police informants often watch the taverns and bards across the island, reporting sedition and slander against the Barron, they could be anyone
38 The dungeons of the Barron are full of idols dedicated to devils and lords of hell
39 The prisons of the Barron are many and varied, some for the rich are full of luxury, others are convict labour camps but the secret ones nobody speaks of
40 Some of the criminal guilds are so full of secret police and informers that they are just part of the Barron's security apparatus
41 Black markets come and go in abandoned houses, sewers and even whole backstreets
42 Strange shops come and go under bridges, in back alleys and dead end lane ways
43 Many guilds operate secret traders and back counter shops to sell illegal goods but you have to have insider knowledge to find them
44 The old guilds have established their rights and territories. Many will use assassins to deal with unauthorised competition
45 Merchant guilds all collaborate on price fixing and maintaining monopolies
46 If your not a guild member or a noble you are a nobody, but still slightly better than a mutant or a beggar
47 The merchant guildsmen fear not the militia only the tax man
48 There is nothing you cannot buy in the city markets or from a criminal guild
49 Many pay protection to criminal guilds to protect them from crime, the crime guilds are crueler and more efficient than the militia at controlling unauthorised crime
50 A cartel of kobold slavers wish to split from the regular slavers guild and there is great tension between the factions. Kobold traders say humanoids should be traded by a separate guild and humans should be free
51 Don't eat the pies, cannibals are everywhere
52 Orc food looks terrible but is surprisingly good and nutritious
53 A few bakeries have been caught using bone meal in their bread but orcs actually prefer it 
54 A butcher shop was selling meat wrapped in mummy bandages discarded by grave robbers and the victims died horribly of mummy rot
55 Inferior and old weapons are so common most sell them for scrap metal by the barrow load
56 Every day waggons of bricks and scrap are brought in from old dungeons being strip mined in the local areas
57 Cursed and magic items turn up for sale every day in the bazaar
58 Never accept strange goods from any murder hobo fresh from a dungeon, who knows what foul cursed trouble it would bring
59 There are many grog shops in the city but the cheapest are full of villains and the beer is often made with snake heads and alchemist waste water
60 Kobold slaves are so cheap some buy the old and wounded ones for the meat
61 There are so many dungeons within a day of the city but there is plenty or ruins to explore in the old town and even the deeps of the sewers turn up treasure
62 Gold and treasure are obvious loot but artworks, strange idols, rubbings from old rock carvings and ancient texts are all worth good money too
63 You can't just go looting dungeons like some amateur, you can register a ruin with the deed office or buy a out of date claim from the city clerk 
64 Some of the ruins are marked with city seals. They are either claimed by some party or deemed too dangerous to open by the city
65 Looting ruins and exploring sewers is all fun and sausages but all too adventurers come across forbidden cults who will kill any who witness their vile deeds
66 Some men are not what they seem. Some are hybrid monsters or devils or demons. Others are magical beings in disguise in the city for some dread purpose
67 The city rivers are choked in filth and waste and excrement and dangerous beings live hidden in the filth. The river nymphs are as lust as any but their hair is garbage strewn and unkempt, their naked skin is caked in filth
68 Be wary and keep your passport safe. If you are stranded in the wrong part of town without papers or friends you will wind up in a dungeon or trapped
69 The cities huge bridges are towns in their own right. A mile long and built by giants they tower over the river with palaces, arcades of shops and apartments. Deep inside are sweatshops and slums for the poor. Some never leave the bridges and without papers you will never get off
70 The wells vary in quality from suburb to suburb and the better ones have guards or gangs watching them who charge strangers a toll
71 Scum cove is where the poorest are herded and kept like a great prison. Without a job you cannot leave. People who go their looking for work must be careful not to start a job riot
72 Knotswarren is a lawless hive where the streets were long covered by shacks built on top of each other. The law never come here and the gangs rule the area and control traffic
73 Goblintown is where nonhuman (except elves and changelings) live by law unless they live in the household of a human or live in the militia barracks
74 Goblintown is avoided by most humans but if you don't act afraid or disgusted it is friendly enough
75 Mutanttown is where those with the mark of the beast dwell. They must wear a yellow bar on their clothing and serve the most polluting and foul industries. Many of the city sewer workers and rat catchers are recruited from here under contract but not allowed to join the sewer worker guilds
76 Mariners town is full of salty semen from across the world. It is dangerous at night and best look out for press gangs 
77 Gildedtown if for the new rich who think they will one day be allowed in to live in rich town one day. Most are conspicuous in faux status symbols like bad art and use old drain pipes as columns on their tacky mansions. Only residents, nobles or their servants are admitted
78 Gibbet bridge is the easiest to cross and used by the poor. It is always easy for anyone to get an apartment to rent here and some areas are ruined and squatted by gangs and worse. It costs only a copper coin to cross the bridge which is half price of a ferry or boat
79 Kings bridge has two separate roads walled off from each other, one for commoners and one for the rich. One way is a silver and is used by by the well to do (a copper per animal or servant or child). The other is a gold and for the very rich (silver for animal or servant or child). There are very fine hotels and shops here
80 The merchant district is easy to get a day pass for a copper and the markets are among the best in the world
81 Grogtown is a terrible cesspit of squalor and vice. This is where poorer visitors, barbarians, soldiers and farmers come to drink and whore
82 The University is one of the biggest and oldest in the world. The students are expected to be chaste and well behaved but many spend their free hours in grogtown
83 The University has a great library a huge and rambling collection that predates human occupation. Don't accept a job cleaning out the old stacks of monsters it is suicide
84 May private schools and teachers live in the university district and some secret schools in the sewers teach necromancy and demonology
85 The Holy district welcomes visitors by day and has thousands of temples and shrines from across the world even from cults long forgotten in other lands. Some come for charity or medical help or study
86 The martial district is where the Barron dwells in his palace with the army, militia, taxmen, magistrates, civil servants and the secret police. Otherwise very few are admitted without business and many are never released
87 The river has many skiffs, rafts, gondolas and ferries who will cross for a copper or two by daylight or silver at night when it is mostly forbidden
88 Were rats and ratmen and cults have their own city in the depths and own settlements and institutions mocking those of man
89 Devilswine are horrible were pigmen from hell who enslave mortals to be slaves. It can be hard to tell them apart from the typical greedy merchant or crime lord
90 Fishmen and squidmen in the deep come to kidnap human mates and hybrid cults serve them on the water side districts and infiltrate guilds
91 The old giantsbridge north of the city has a huge dungeon inside full of rebels, monsters and bandits but the army keep passage across safe enough
92 Adventurers are mostly looting dungeons in the southern mountains only miles from the city. The vault of the ages is the current hot complex that many never return from
93 New dungeons are found almost every day in the southern mountains
94 The Barrons wood to the south of the city is reserved for hunting by nobility and any other found there without a permit are killed as poachers
95 Ghostwood is south of the city and was a thriving kingdom hundreds of years ago but fell to plague and the area was covered by forests and monsters from the deeps came up to dwell there. Some find treasure there but most die
96 Wolfhead lodge to the north (once wolfwood) was a popular noble retreat for hunting but since unicorn hunting was outlawed the popularity has declined. The elves kill uninvited guests who cross the borders often with their trained werewolf hunting dogs. A green Dragon has been seen there as well
97 The villages on the grassy plains are quiet humble and sleepy places suspicious of adventurers and those without business
98 The yeomen surrounding the city who grow most of it's food have many rights and privileges over the common villains of the city. Many come from other lands and mistake them for common peons but they are under the protection of the Barron and the militia never trouble them
99 Spies from the empire are always in the city recording who criticises the Emperor or plots against him
100 Some say there are more gods than people in the city and at any time a few dozen petty gods walk it's streets, drink in it's pubs or stay in the temples with their followers