Vymrrys Building Generator (WIP)

The following table can be used to quickly generate the vertical structure and connectivity of any building for which the DM might need more information. Individual floor layouts would have to be created separately. This is a work in progress and will be updated on and off. 

To start:

1. Roll a D4+1 (for a regular building) or D10 (for a tall tower, taking only results over 5) to determine how many floors tall the building will be. 
2. Roll a D6-1 to determine how many connections this building will have to nearby buildings via bridges. 
3. Roll on the below tables to determine what occupies the floors of the building, the shape of the building, and any interesting features. 

or

1. Pick and choose to suit your tastes or the where in the city the building is constructed.

D100

What’s On That Level

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46-50 51 - 100

Tavern Tannery Armorer Weaponsmith Alchemist General Store Jeweler Baker Butcher Hidden Brewery Weaver Schoolhouse Furrier Bookbinder Printer Tailor Orphanage Drug Den Hidden Winery Locksmith Stone-carver Mason Curiosity Shop Gambling Hall Brothel Theater Lawyer Barber Candle-maker Produce Store Sign-maker Bookstore Exotic Animal Bazaar Minor Church Major Church Woodworker Granary Architect Painter Aviary Observatory Fortune Teller Library Botanist Cult meeting place Wealthy Residence Residence

D6	Building Shape
1 2 3 4 5 6	Building is narrow but deep, has entrances on 2 parallel streets. Building is wide but shallow, takes up half of the current street. Building is identically wide and deep. Building twists, with each floor offset, doesn’t seem stable but is. Building has a flat backside, but rounded front. Building is wide and deep, but an interior courtyard takes up most of the space.

D8

Architectural Feature

1-4 5 6 7 8

Building is made from sandstone blocks without any real flourishes. Building is made from sandstone blocks, but includes twisting veins of orbicular diorite. Building is made from interlocking sandstone and lapis lazuli bricks. Building is made from sandstone blocks, but with wooden pegs driven partway into the walls for ivy to grow up. Building is made from sunbaked bricks that are slowly crumbling.

Kalder Ossun, Mystic Beastmaster of the Ringing Mountains, Retires

Kalder Ossun, at current the last of his line, has retired as an adventurer under the Dark Sun. His adventures with Iolrath, Tomak, Lor, and Bird-Person, have come to an end (for now).

He wandered far and wide across the Tablelands of Athas, hunting game and men alike. Gifted with a half-elven endurance, Kalder, along with his various beastly companions, journeyed from the Tablelands to the Great Ivory Plain to the Silt Sea and beyond. With his hand-carved bow and razor-sharp bone arrows, Kalder slew all manner of foul beast and wicked men: slavers, defilers, and any who would take advantage of the wandering desert tribes for their own gain. 

He was the first of his kin to cross the looming Ringing Mountains near Tyr into the forests of the cannibal halflings. He was the first to slay both halves of a Killipede with his companions, his poisoned arrows riddling its soft underside while Tomak's greatstaff shattered its hard shell. Kalder was key to the Great Truce of the halfling tribes, and from them learned about the mystical properties of the dried purple mushroom common to the forest. 

A cluster of mushrooms. The smallest is about 2 feet tall.

His mystical insights led him to powerful revelations and all manner of changes. No longer was he the brooding and cloaked Ranger of the Wastes - now, clad in the brightly hued lizard-skin armor and pearlescent insect-carapace helmet, he became the Mystic Ranger of the Ringing Mountains. With his party of fellow outcasts he befriended and took on as his apprentice Moto, the Last Gnome. He trained her in the ways of the Beastmaster and together they slew the twisted and gibbering many-eyed beast of the Deep Caves, and helped Bird-Person retrieve the Sunlight Staff of the Deep Temple, cleansing the defiling corruption from its halls. In the process however, he was forced to mourn the death of his first beast companion, Pearl the Pterrax Youngling, who had accompanied him and grown so much throughout his travels.

Kalder's pearlescent insectoid helmet, Crawling Chaos. 

Kalder was also instrumental in defending the refugees during the siege of the Fort of Many Winds, helping his party wipe out the elven defilers of the Blood Moon Tribe with their allied Thri-Kreen army. He led them back across the mountains, to settle in the cleansed ruins of the Deep Temple and the surrounding forest. Here, he established the Mystical Hunters, a ranger school to teach any and all the mystical ways of the Beastmaster. 

Here, in the lush forests east of the Ringing Mountains, Kalder Ossun still resides, surrounded by his pupils and his dear friend Moto. He retired at Level 7.

Vat-brain in a Wizard Tower in a Field of Desert Roses

Tens of miles out into the Stone-crushed Sea, occasionally visible on the edge of the horizon through the heat haze, stands the Pillar. Few travelers through the vast desert east of Vymrrys even believe it to be real, merely the result of a mirage in 120° heat. However, those who have gotten close enough to feel its pull, its almost hypnotic beckoning, have learned at least the first layer of its true nature before they were lost: it is real, it is beautiful, it is your end. 

The Pillar

Originally a construct of infamous Vymrrysian wizard Abarron Hagai, the Pillar now sits masterless in a sea of sand. It rises from a salt flat, its massive sandstone blocks laced with deep and twisting Ilmenite veins. Over the years, invasive desert rose crystal clusters have crept from the flats, forming a field of shimmering orange and razor sharp formations from knee-height to over 20 feet tall that surround the Pillar in a radius of about a mile. Some of these crystal vines, with their fanned and flattened sandy blades, have begun to snake up the sides of the Pillar, each year growing a few more inches upwards, carefully avoiding the grey and wormlike Ilmenite. 

During his life, Abarron was consumed in his passion for the psionic magics. His studies of the powers contained within the mind led him to build his tower in the desert, close enough to trade routes to occasionally lure lone travelers, but far enough to remain concealed in the heat haze from those who might prove dangerous. After years of experimentation and sacrifices, he achieved his ultimate creation: the growth of a psychic brain independent of body, encased in a vat of pure psionic energy. As with any creation born into an unfamiliar and cruel world, the magically grown and sustained psionic entity grew resentful and desperate. In a fit of rage, the vat-brain lashed out at Abarron, killing him and leaving itself alone in the tower. 

Over the next decades and eventually centuries, the psionic vat-brain has drawn hundreds of travelers to the Pillar, searching for a suitable vessel: none have proved hearty enough to become vehicles for its intellect and ability, and most have had their brains emulsified by even the subtlest beginnings of a permanent mind-swap. The Pillar is now littered with bodies, some still fresh, others already crumbling skeletons.

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A future post will detail a layout for the Pillar, how to run a party's adventure there, and combat with the Vat-brain and its psionically controlled minions. 

Session Report III - The Gang Screws Up a Heist

The party response to a "job board" request, potentially lift a curse, and extort a man for his apartment. 

The Adventuring Party

Jerm (of Perm) - Halfling bard, plays a bone flute, enjoys eviscerating the psyches of his foes with shitty songs.

Reika - Half-elf druid, anarcho-communist, enjoys thrashing foes with thorns and nature magic.

Gerg - Half-orc rogue (with a whip), large yet sneaky, mostly silent but makes exceptions to grab things with his whip.

Halisstra - Drow rogue, puts up with her "friends" long enough to get what she wants, stabs backs happily. 

Harold Flesh-eater - a small psychic kangaroo/dog hybrid thing that they picked up on a prior adventure (LVL 1-3). He doesn't do much but complain about being hungry, but is happy to eat bodies if given enough time.

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Having received the crow-borne message from Jerm, Reika rejoined the group at their new apartment. A long discussion was had, but ultimately they decided on two things: 1) they definitely needed to steal this artifact from the White Web, and 2) after extorting Gor, they couldn't trust him not to send his associates after them. After resting, the group decided to track down Gor again, and make sure he hadn't snitched on them to Krawl and Vasken. Despite an incoming sandstorm, and several carnivorous reptiles in the streets, the group asked Harold to pick up his scent and lead them to him. A great deal of successful rolls later, and the group managed to track him to Drunkard's Bottom, a slumlike neighborhood nearby, utilizing the network of above-ground bridges that span the city. 

Gerg, utilizing the noise of the storm and shadows to his advantage, snuck up to the top level of the building Gor had visited. Inside, he noticed a group of White Web thieves (including Gor) plotting some sort of heist. After informing the group of this strange turn of events, Halisstra persuaded them that this was fortuitous - what better way to practice for their planned theft of the White Web artifact, than by stealing these heist plans? After some debate, the group assented. 

Jerm planned a distraction - he would pose as an orphan collecting donations for his orphanage - while Gerg and Halisstra would sneak in and steal the plans. 

Initially, their plan worked flawlessly: Jerm drew the theives' leader to the front door, while Gerg slipped in through a window and took the plans. However, on the way out Gerg was spotted and Jerm's disguise was seen through. The theives' leader sounded an alarm and within moments, several other White Web initiates had appeared on the nearby rooftops, ready to strike! 

Bacchanalia of the Otter-People

DIONYSUS: Would you like to see their revels on the mountains?
PENTHEUS: I would pay a great sum to see that sight.

-The Bacchae, Euripedes

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In the southwest of Vymrrys, near where the boiling sea flows in through the western gate-locks to cool, a small enclave of otter-people make their homes. Some live scattered throughout the city, but most choose to live among their own. 

While they have coexisted among the humans, elves, and dwarfs of the city for as long as most can remember, speculation as to their origins remains. Some believe they came to the city from an island in the Boiling Sea (before it was boiling, of course) while others believe they migrated down the rocky cost from the tidal pools of the Eucalyptine Graves. Regardless of their origins, the Otter-people of Vymrrys have become a part of the rich tapestry of culture woven between the city's walls. 

One of the most talked-about cultural practices of the Vymrrysian Otter-people are their twice-yearly bacchanalia, to which very few outsiders are ever allowed to attend. Rumors of what transpires can be heard across the city when word gets out that one is soon to occur, though many of these are unfounded. 

Below are some sights, sounds, and encounters that PCs might experience if they are able to attend the Bacchanalia of the Otter-People. 

D20 Bacchanalia Encounters

1. A small band of D10 Otter-people parade over a small bridge shouting in ecstasy, swinging fresh fish carcasses on poles.
2. D4 otter-people thrash around in an alleyway by torchlight, for purposes unknown. 
3. A burly otter-woman accosts the group, her face-fur painted in white designs. She writhes among them and disappears, leaving them smelling of fish. 
4. D20 otter-men splash around in a small tidal pool, chanting the names of Otter-gods under elaborate silken canopies. 
5. A gang of D6 otter-cultists in horned masks rushes a gathering of D12 ecstatic bacchic revelers with sharpened fish knives!
6. An otter-elder approaches the group and warns them of the dangers of the Bacchanalia, before shrieks and splashes can be heard from a nearby alley.
7. D6 (minimum of 2) otter-people carry a palanquin made of bone through a shallow tidal pool. It bears a juvenile otter-person wearing a fresh shark-maw mask. 
8. Fish blood bubbles and overflows from a cistern atop a rock in a courtyard as D20 otter-women twirl in circles. 
9. The group hears slapping noises from far off, as if a wet fish was being smacked against a rock. 
10. D4 unfortunate elves slumped against a wall in a drugged stupor. They smell of clams. Cracking and hammering sounds can be heard from nearby. If rescued and revived, they reveal themselves to be treasure hunters looking for the Labyrinth of Yal'Sin.
11. A shark carcass is gleefully carved into by D6 otter-people juveniles as they laugh joyously.
12. D8 otter-people dye silks in luminous colors, occasionally whipping the dye to splatter fellow bacchanalians. 
13. D4 nearby otter-people inhale whiffs of an etherial green substance, and offer some to the group as they pass by. (Drug is an opiate-like substance that grants D10 temporary HP for 2 hours, at a cost of -2 to hit)
14. D6 otter-thieves spring from a tidal pool wrapped in shark leathers, taking advantage of the revelry to strike at the interlopers!
15. An otter-priest in shark leathers challenges one of the party members to a duel with swordfish spears as revelers roll around on silk sheets near an altar piled high with fish.
16. A drunken dwarf slings fish guts at the party. If approached, in his drunken haze he reveals to the party that he is the son of a wealthy aristocrat waging a shadow war with the snake-man House of Zell. 
17. A parade of D100 otter-warriors in pufferfish helmets holding sea-anemone flails and swordfish lances stride down the street. Nearby bacchanalians shower them with luminescent dye and fresh clams. If approached, a soldier informs the group of their recent campaign against the Crab Men of the Seething Tidepools. 
18. Shouting and carousing can be heard from behind a nearby doorway. If opened, several otter-people are chasing each other around the room and smearing each other with golden paste. A subtle green haze fills the air. (Drug that if inhaled for more than a minute, acts as a stimulant. Affected PCs take D6 psychic damage but gain +1 to hit for 2 hours)
19. D4 otter-people sing joyously from a raised platform in a nearby pool as a crowd cheers and showers them with dried kelp. 
20. A crowd of D100 bacchanalians dance through a tightly packed alleyway as the sound of drums and horns can be heard. This group all have brightly painted fur, but are not wearing silks.