Sunday, 1 September 2024

Chagrinspire - New Settlements





































I needed some new settlements for my game and the players have taken over an outpost.

The first is how the party seized a new base
The second is generated from tables in the book

Tables I need
d100 stuff found in farmers' fields
d100 wasteland scrappers possessions
d100 train tunnel encounters
d12 visitors for each famous route to civilisation 

Current Party & Friends 2nd lv
Young Lawful Giant mason with a maul from the greater wastes hired a porter 
Rogue from coast here to escape dramas of civilisation hired a crook and 2 deserter spearmen
Dog abhuman with his new friend a huge war mastiff saved from a cult

A quick look at outpost:
Fort is undermanned but secure
Twice a day a dozen children are employed cleaning bricks and looting rubble
Surrounded by earth rampart with wooden steaks and a moat of yellow musk zombies and flowers.

They went to scout a possible tunnel into the fort through a train tunnel so they moved few tons of rock. Got into the tunnel and into the outpost station. Turned out the hireling army deserter auxiliary soldiers they hired were the same as recent bandit recruits. They backstabbed the bandits and got the soldiers to calm down until rest of the party arrived and recruited them. Next, they got to guards at te cage gate and got them to open the doors in bandit and soldier clothes and once inside busted out some prisoners. 

One was a weirdo in a trenchcoat who scuttled away talking to himself. They found merchant debtor sold into slavery and a clockwork spider they managed to talk to but it couldn't reply. Let the spider go remarking it understood common and ancient. Killed lots of guards and got some to surrender and locked them up. Freed 3 pit fighters one with knife hands, an oiled shaved moustache man and a grim woodsman. Found a couple of tough women and a knife-wielding maniac who knew where the boss's secret lab was. Killed the 5th level wizard with the magic surgical tools to merge beast and human into new deeply resentful monstrosities. Freed these and saved some with exposed organs on slabs. Now had an angry hoard of freed slaves and spilled int both surface level. Quickly they overwhelmed the several dozen bandits. The beast folk leapt to the upper walkways and slaughtered the archers. Found a druid with yellow musk zombies and they had to kill them too. Nobody was badly hurt and the scout mission turned into a lightning surprise attack.

Now the party are in charge of a bunch of freaks. They have the support of the local villagers and guild and the remaining people they released from captivity. There were children the bandits were using to search the ruins as exercise and so the youngest went into care of village farmers under the watch of the priest. 

Found out a trade caravan from the northwest had brought in canned alchemist grey slop synthetic alchemical food. Also links to slavers across the continent and the master here the Wizard was from the corrupt empire of the south east. The Druid was from Auldwood. 

Cleaning place up and repairing defences expecting a trade caravan and a train of slavers soon. They tampered with the tracks too and took a section to make into weapons for the abhumans (i rolled to attract the attention of the mysterious evil presence). Destroyed the evil surgical tools of the wizard and identified a +1 ring and found a chaotic aligned intelligent +1 rod with three cantrips built in. Is a siege mortar on one tower weighs almost a tone and can bombard enemies 1200 meters away. The rogue knows how to operate it but does not know how to artillery but can load it fast.

Outpost Population
Robert Gulp the porter with chainmail, club, backpack
Brother Mildrom visits often and sends word for 2 acolytes too help

30 children a dozen youngest now in the village, the giant encouraging the rest to help loot ruins with kinder more protective supervision. The priest has offered to send some to the theocracy of the templar south for schooling.

9 auxiliary spearmen (deserters from the empire) led by karl
3 bandit archers who surrendered early

12 liberated slaves 
-baker and three assistants
-weapon smith and three assistants
-leather crafter making armour

Borris Vanderpump - merchant (rogue 1) wants to open trade with north west
Fanby Klungus - merchant adventurer (rogue 1 warrior 1) wants to run store
Costa - village idiot (bard 1) claps and giggles and dance is his artform 
Chryspasia Underhill (rogue 1) dodgy tough dame but not evil
Jasper Hoop (rogue 1) was going to betray party but decided to hang around

3 gladiators (warrior 1)
Sticky Stabhands - has knife hands, now kids help him and smith made non lethal hands
Clancy the woodsman - grim silent stoic outdoorsman
Kaligra the strangler (former circus wrestler and strongman and tattoo artist, loves body oil and his moustache)

5 Abhumans (cultural humans currently)
Barry the ram man (shepherd with staff skill)
Sonja the rat lady (former street urchin with blades)
Peggy the goat girl (farm girl with clubs)
Tonya the rabbit lady (herbalist with sickle has hatred of dogs)
Egbert the ape man (very angry with axe is learning to frenzy)

2 months worth of gruel and army biscuits and a week of flour and bread making supplies
several good wells 
23 suits of leather armour
12 shortbows
200 arrows
8x shots of the mortar

lots of pots, pans, tools, building materials, chains

converting cells into private rooms

they also found slavers payroll chest of 3000 silver and 200 gold
ledgers of the bandits dealing with slavers including warehousing prisoners
wizard's surgical notes on making abhumans and observations of the druid use of yellow musk creepers

d12 Outpost Drama

1 Orc tribe painted as skeletons from the north arrive at trading meat, sulphur and saltpetre in return for metal weapons
2 Caravan of traders from Mercury Heights bringing alchemical synthetic canned foods for fresh food and relics and occasionally slaves
3 Scavengers came to trade ancient scrap and found food for gunpowder and alcohol 
4 Subtrain tunnel trouble d4 1=slavers train 2=morlock raid 3=giant rats 4=swarm of tunnel flies
5 Giant vultures circling in distance (d4km) d4 1=dead huge megafauna or dinosaur 2=caravan slaughtered 3=scavengers massacred 4=cultists massacred
6 Someone hears a noise from the cistern or sewers
7 Strangers want to trade they need d6 1=water 2=food 3=grog 4=slaves and have d4 1=scrap 2=rusty old weapons 3=meat 4=broken automaton 5=live monster 6=old books
8 Refugees arrive d4 x d4 hungry stragglers d4 1=commoners flee civilised war 2=escaped slaves 3=escaping persecution from a ruler  4=cult infiltrators
9 Tunnel repair automatons fix tunnels, replace lamps and fix rails possibly send automatons to collect stolen rails or set traps like shocking grasp or leave concealed mechanical observation eye
10
 The mimic eats someone
11 Invisible grey gnome spy 
12 
Curious minor spirit visits or tries contact

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New Settlement: Mercury Heights

Alchemist guilds of several lands operate this base in a ruined black sphere outpost fort to gather metal and rare elements as found in salt flats and toxic springs. The guild has brought the Bronze Legion spear company a famous millitary force that served several sides in the Civil War and an arqubus sniper team. 

The outpost is built on a ruin and the basement has various machine rooms, cisterns, sewers and train tube access. Some of the machines still operate and are hidden by the guild. It is well fortified by the old walls and the upper floors provide good fire arcs. Barbed wire surrounds the outpost and nothing grows here. All food is imported but a blacksmith and apprentices make weapons and repairs and parts for the secret machines below. Its a guild outpost and the shop, inn, stables are all guild operations.

The guildmaster Oulos Borignar 5th Lv wizard rules and keeps the secrets with his subordinate guld officers and his daughters. The blacksmith is his brother-in-law but they fued. The outpost has kennels for huge wardogs and it may field teams of a soldier and two wardogs to track enemies and to act as alarms.

The commoners here are all convict labourers brought here with a contract promising freedom and land here. Most of the commoners are quite skilled and work on the ruin and secret analasys of machines.

Black Sphere Outpost ruin used as barracks, storehouse and prison
Guildhall (former mansion) fortified close to outpost
-members tavern and trader, alchemy supplies, labs, apothecary, surgeon
Caravan Market and Inn inside a huge ruined factory with no roof  but good gate
-travellers arms tavern, supply store and smithy inside
Workers shacks are appearing and more ruins

Cults are trying to influence and infiltrate the village 
They say they seek ancient materials but some think they are secretly working for or are pawns of the black sphere
A tribe of wizard hating orc have attacked but they seem to be recruiting and uniting orcs against Mercury Heights
They want farmers or people who know how to make real food
The machines here may be capable of more than the guild say

Local Market Prices
Best spell component market in the waste
Food is notoriously bad and expensive for buyers and good for importers
Most regular adventurer gear is double price with 1in6 chance of a shortage

Healing brew - d4 HP and save vs addiction 25gp 
Healing potion 2d4 - definitely not addictive 100gp 
Strength +1 for one hour and save vs addiction 25gp
Imported beer by bottle 1gp
Cabbage Beer from keg local brew by wasteland scavengers 1sp
Frog Grog 1sp - (traded with frogs)
Swamp Weed 1sp  - (traded with frogs)
Turnip wine 4sp - local product traded
Alchemist Grog - 1sp a shot (diluted wood alcohol)
Alchemist gruel (fresh) - synthetic food grey sludge 1cp
Gruel in a can - 1gp
Unlabeled ancient tin - 4gp
Raw Turnip or beet - 1cp
Cabbage or a bunch of radishes 1sp
Rat Jerky - 1sp 
Can opener - 1gp
Dried Fish - 1sp each used for soup 
Alchemist Lamp* - crank handle a round per hour 80gp
Gnome Bread** - 1sp (from underland traders)
Gnome Pickled Mushrooms in a pot 1sp (from underland traders)
Gnome Beer - 1sp mushroom beer makes your copse grow mushrooms rapidly
Worms pickled in aspic jelly 1sp (from underland traders)
Jar of ancient buttons 10gp
Shot and ball - 1gp
Incendiary with fuse - 65gp
Grenade with fuse - 80gp
Ancient light musket - d6 with a spike bayonet in front 100gp (cheapest in the world!)
 
 *Koboldium power like a carbide spelunker lamp, if dropped in water, it produces a flammable gas bubble and needs chemicals replaced 5gp, salt also corrodes mechanisms). For 500gp you can get a magically resistant model but a permanent light spell on a rock is cheaper
**Mushroom flt grey bread causes melancholia if eaten daily more than 3 days. It keeps for months and if you plant in a dark damp place will sprout edible fungus. Goblins think this stuff is amazing the first few days 

d12 Quicksilver Heights Rumours
1 The cult of the black sphere might still be active so look out
2 The modern alchemist guild has nothing to do with the black sphere cult
3 The canned slop the alchemists make and call food tastes awful but it keeps well
4 They say you can spy on the outpost from chagrinspire
5 There are secret machines under the guild the masters keep hidden
6 Lots of weird cults in the area now causing trouble
7 There are huge alchemical apparatus on the plateau
8 Secret mutants pretend to be scavengers, the guards should search them!
9 The western roads are plagued by wicked elves, dwarves and giants
10 The smithy makes cogs and strange parts the guild scholars take into the secret machine rooms under the outpost
11 Some strange people are trading from the wasteland, I think some are cannibals
12 If you want a good time I hear there is a ruined bathhouse nearby where people go for a good time

d12 Quicksilver Heights Complaints
1
 They say we won't get mutations if we only eat canned food 
2 I hear strange underground rumblings sometimes
3 How do the local people make food here? Its a mystery
4 Our contract had good pay but the costs and risks are barely worth it for long
5 Barbarians and orcs are always attacking us for no reason
6 The food is terrible and the awful grog is overpriced
7 Have you got any fresh food? Have you seen any?
8 The guild have too many weird secrets
9 The cheap potions are more addictive don't let them switch them on you
10 When are we getting some farmers or trade routes for more? 
11 Have you heard when a fresh food caravan comes next?
12 Guards here are all dice addicts 

d12 Quicksilver Heights Encounters
1 Merchant with caravan guards crowding area
2 Alchemist guild official in robes with guards pushing through
3 Spearmen guards on patrol d4 1=harasing urchin food thieves 2=watching for mutant spies 3=beating a shoplifter while shop keepers applaud 4=chatting up someone or playing dice
4 Alchemists have a duel with pistols one shot each, mostly they miss or panic
5 Caravan traders start a brawl and spearmen guards take them into lockup in outpost
6 Urchins begging for food or work
7 Caravan arrives and people crowd around to see what food is brought in
8 Merchant offers old d6 light hunting musket for 100gp
9 Cultists or mutant caught and beaten and dragged to a cell in the outpost
10 Guild criers shouts out new rules, news and market prices
11 Strange miasma from Alchemist guild clears the streets
12 Explosion! d4 1=guns fired at orcs 2=alchemist guild rental laboratory 3=scavengers blowing up wreckage to get loot easier 4=mysteriously distant artillery

d12 Quicksilver Heights Jobs
1 Guard mineral gatherers in local wastes for sulphur, saltpetre, salt and other minerals
2 Stop this out-of-control automaton from smashing up a house
3 Smuggle these hams to a man waiting outside gates by ruins, don't let anyone know of this delicious secret
4 Guild needs some tunnels explored under the town, people who can keep a secret
5 Merchat wants an abhuman gang killed for killing and eating his lover's caravan
6 Go to the ruin on this map and fetch an ingredient or machine part
7 Explore the ruined machine spotted by local scavengers
8 Go bring us someone who can grow food in these local conditions
9 An alchemy guild master lost his fancy hat and requires someone to find it
10 A wizard died in a shack and his wretched familiar needs finishing
11 Undead from the Mudfields of No-man's land need culling
12 Someone robbed a guild millitary payroll find it 

d12 Quicksilver Heights Locals
1 Captain Rick Lancer leader of the Bronze Legion spearmen, is very serious
2 Doctor Rubbello Morkus - apothecary healer hoping to get a good job after contract over
3 Zamalla Valla - clerk of the guild who deals with troublemakers and secretary of the guild council, one of the grandmasters daughters in secret
4 Nobby Piles - blacksmith works for guild and makes machine parts and weapons
5 Itakon Metarch freelance sorceress will ID items is a spy for a distant kingdom
6 Phamlala Crumple manages the caravan in and market for the guild,  one of the grandmasters daughters in secret
7 Dick Cheesly merchant sells supplies in supply store in the market
8 Master Itelon Bargnor job is to root out spies, mutants and cults in the community
9 Master Cohen directs the guild apprentices making positions, gunpowder and drugs 
10 Mistress Klarion Minati, archeologist in charge of looting expeditions and buying scrap and minerals
11 Grandmaster Oulos Borignar 5th Lv wizard sent by home guild to seize alchemical secrets, minerals and lost relics
12 Shem-Bala the Alchemical hermaphrodite guild wizard made from fused male and female (alchemists wedding),. Offers magical transformations at low prices to needy skin pigment 100gp sexual characteristics 200gp species polymorph 400gp Alchemists wedding 2000gp but both must be consenting to fusion

 
d12 Quicksilver Heights Happenings
Flies swarm through the streets, in eyes, ears and mouth for d6 minutes
Mutant scavengers outside are angry they won't be let in to trade
3 Raiders attack and gates locked d4 1=orcs 2=barbarians 3=kobolds 4=bandits
4 Rats swarm everywhere stealing food and nipping people
5 Sickness outbreak d 4 1=contaminated water 2=disease 3=poisoning saboteur 4=mutation outbreak
6 An object falls from the sky close to the settlement and the guild wants it
7 Many heard chanting cultists in the fogs at night 
8 Dangerous Killdozer golem from the waste chases some locals then return to no man's land 
9 Tunnel collapse all rally to save the workers buried
10 Workers uncovered a monster and scattered, soldiers searched for some horror
11 Doppelganger agent of the black sphere replaces someone in the settlement
12 Cultist in disguise moves in

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