Monsters! Monsters! the setting!

[ishtar]

Love it!

[ProfGremlin]

Wow, Devadasi, you're sure setting the bar high on this! I love what you've done here. The scans of your notes really add to the ambiance of your write up. The character sheets are your typical awesomeness. When I read about the Jaegermeister I had a flashback to the steampunk comic Girl Genious. I look forward to seeing this setting develop. Exalt! as soon as the cannon reloads...

[trrebmahl]

Awesome setting and awesome notes, character sheets and drawings! I especially love the drawings. Thanks for sharing this devadasi! Have an exalt!

[branderwydd]

I agree with the previous posts - great stuff, keep it coming. I too will probably steal some of this to use at some point. Exalt.

[devadasi]

It is the western border of the Gulch that is most permeable.

The Dwarves at Fort Huron maintain the southern wall, and do a d**n good job of it. Not only do the dwarves keep their portion of the masonry in good condition, but they actually maintain gaurd patrols on top of the 12' barrier 24 hours a day. The eastern border requires no manufactured wall, as this is the site of Big Battle Ridge, a cliff of sheer granite nearly 350" high.

The Knights of Dariel, and the human army of King Ryan Justworthy ( the radiant) maintain the Northern border, from South Bridge tothe eastern end of mirror lake longitudinally.

The western border wall has collapsed in many places. The elves of Gnarlian's Wood just don't seem to have a lot of interest, preferring to use Gnarlian's Wood ITSELF as a naural buffer to any incursion from the Gultch. This has generally proved effective enough. Living, animated trees, known as "the Congress" often lay down roots near the edge of the Wood just to keep an eye on things, and fairy hives can also be found with some frequency near the edge of Gnarlian's Wood. Woe to the monster who angers a nest of these little fae.

Also, likely in provokation of both the elves and the monsters, the Army of Salvation ( funded in part by dwarven industrial wealth) has recently finished contruction of a medium sized citadel at the northern end of the western border between the rez and the forest. They hate the idea of control not being maintained.

Nonetheless it would be the western border that our Merry Monsters would cross when making their way to the town of Saltine, 15 miles south. They delved into the edges of Gnarlian's Wood.... careful not to penetrate deeply and always keeping open field in sight.

But first! , just before crossing out of the Gulch, they come upon an odd sight..........

[devadasi]

Even for stone hearted monsters, the scene is grisly enough that the group doesn't particularly want to meet the monster or monsters that perpetrated it.

A makeshift shrine has been assembled amongst the loose boulders and rubble of the terrain. The headless bodies of four members of the Army of Salvation are aranged in odd contortions on the ground. The left hands of all four have been removed along with the heads. These, unlike the heads, are missing.

The heads, still adorned with their large, mitre-like hats, have been propped up on boulders. Waxy, yellowish candles, no longer burning. aranged around the heads give testament to some kind of ritual? Rotten food is placed in front of the heads. Oddly shaped seeds pushed into the eye sockets.

( Aside: many will notice this game a bit gorier and more"adult" than the campaign presented in "Tales of Moribund and Ur".... its good to be a little more free to explore some stuff still a little to complex for the teen game)

I encourage monsters to have a "quirk", and the crocodilian Jaegermonster's quirk is that he is obsessed with hats ( professor, I think the player, Patrick, had the book you mentioned in mind when he created this character)

the Jaegermonster examines the hats with interest, ignoring all the other weirdness. Three of the hats are 7" tall, and one is 9" tall. He inquires as to their quality. I assure him at least one hatter went mad rubbing mercury into the fine beaverfur that made these hats. He selects the 9" mitre.
"Not my style, but still, a fine hat should not be left to the elements."

The half-demoness ( i guess the other game might call her tiefling), suddenly decides to strip the uniforms off of two of the bodies. She keeps one for herself and gives one to the werecat, the only other character who can look pretty much human if need be. the demoness and the sabrecat take the 7" hats.

None of the Army of Salvation silver daggers to be found here. Nor any coin. the group, peers into the forest of dead trees to the west..the broken down wall cannot be far from here.

Not wanting to be around if the perpetrator of this scene returns, the group scrambles off toward the wal.l

( all of this is the work of Eunice the Annishag, who, gathering spell ingredients one eve under a dark moon, ran into a party of Salvation Knights, who demanded her conversion lest she face divine wrath. It was the last threat ever issued from the lips of this particular Godsoldier.)

[devadasi]

I break here for a little more campaign background, as i want this folder to remain more about the setting than about my own individual game.

GNARLIAN- is an ancient, and possibly semi-divine being. He takes the form of an enormous griffon with radiant golden fur. He is believed by the elves and fae of Gnarlian's Wood to be infinitely just and wise. His wings are glowing shades of green and blue, not unlike the feathers of a peacock. He lives at the top of a high spire of rock in the northern reaches of Gnarlian's Wood called "Griffon's Perch"

Many normal griffon's utilize the lower and mid regions of this high spire as a nesting and mating site.

The bravest warriors among the wolf rider elves often attempt to scale this spire in order to steal feathers or eggs. Those who succeed are instantly afforded high status.

It is believed that the souls of those who fail go directly to Gnarlian.



I cannot deny that Gnarlian's Wood has been modeled to a large degree on Narnia, and on Elfquest, and that Gnarlian himself is a stand in for Aslan in this world.

Blightus, the evil lich who resides on the reservation will eventually rope the characters into a plot against Gnarlian.... but i don't want this to happen until the monsters are higher level, and have a few more resources to work with. Also i need to find a way to make Gnarlian a little more insufferable.

Part of the whole dynamic of this Monsters! Monsters! game is to make the "good guys" ( the citizens of Hylax) so self-righteous and stereotypical and annoying and such that my players WANT to kill, eat, and maim them. In other words, the Monsters kind of need to be anti heroes........ not the ultimate embodiment of evil.


any suggestions on how to improve the setting, or any ideas you might have for adventures in a setting like this ( especially for those who might use something like this someday) are super appreciated.

Rampage On!

[devadasi]

Another of the long term campaign plotlines involves Mt. Krushmore. It is, in fact true that the mountain behing the faces houses a dwarven military complex.

Ken wrote somewhere that all the incentive a dwarf needed to turn to the dark side was to be shown enough gold. I took that and ran with it a little, and other than the Army of Salvation, dwarves will make some of the clearest adversaries long term.


Dwarven geo- engineers have recently begun to posit the liklihood of enormous mithril reserves located in the earth below the Gultch. This posits a problem for the chief of Fort Huron, Lord Foepounder. The dwarves obviously need to get at the mithril, but Hylaxian treaties insist that the Gulch be territory of the monsters in perpetuity. This all sounded well and good when the Gulch seemed like nothing more than an inhospitable waste..... now it looks like prime real estate.

Gnarlian and King Justworthy are unlikely to amend any treaties in favor of dwarven strip mining in the Gulch. Therefor, Foepounder has reasoned, the only solution is to have the monsters aggravated enough to start a 6th monster war. Thus the Mt. Krushmore Monument.

But the dwarves also want to end the war quickly, with a minimal number of monsters able to "dig in". Thus they have begun stockpiling enormous supplies of yellow musk creeper pollen. Working in sealed environments, they have managed to stockpile an amazing 486 barrels of yellow musk creeper pollen, all stored in the facility behind Mt. Krushmore. The carving's mouths will be rigged to open and the barrels will roll out.... plummetting 350 to the ground. the Geo-engineers estimate that if wind conditions are favorable, 65% of the rez could be infected on the first day.

In addition to countless barrels of pollen the facility also stores hundreds of barrels of a fungal defoliant developed by the dwarves. The plan is to allow one month for full infection on the rez., with unlikelihood of further spreading, then to bomb the rez with mass amounts of defoliant, thus killing all the inhabitants without much actual physical combat.

The dwarves plan on moving in and establishing control before the Hylaxian Republican Council can even respond properly, or garner enough information to know what is happening.

The assault on this miliary complex is still a few levels away though... so i have time to plan more.

Attachments:

[devadasi]

Gnarlian and some of the elven tribe representatives.

Attachments:

[zanshin]

Very cool stuff.

Ideas wise, plots from Westerns might be worth a look - Chatos land perhaps? Some Dwarf Tax collectors get lost in the wilderness of the reservation? Or The Searchers/Monsters Inc - the 'monsters' come across an ickle Dwarf baby - what to do? Duck You Sucker aka A Fistful of Dynamite - the group team up with an explosives (gunpowder) expert

Vietnam might also be a useful source of ideas, from the Monsters persepective - resistance tunnels, trying to link up with another Monster nation maybe? Perhaps even very soft hearted campaigners for monster rights might try to help in potentially misguided ways - a Leprechaun on the edge perhaps...

[derv]

Fun stuff devadasi. Sounds like your group has a lot of options to explore.

[ProfGremlin]

Ok, I have an idea for you - the monsters need mounts. Think Dune meets Tremors. The monsters have been breeding the wyrms as war mounts for years. The 'spice' even has special properties they don't discuss (or fully understand). As a side effect of their breeding program they created a few mutations - and quickly found them dubiously useful. This would be the assblasters and shriekers.

Imagine the look on the face of the dwarven sapper who comes across one of their tunnels.

"Wyrm-sign?! We have wyms and 'blasters the likes of which not even the Trollgod has seen before!"

[devadasi]

definitely appreciating all the ideas. I should probably say that in the short term, i want to preserve the status quo at Buzzard's Gultch. So my original intent with regards to the Mt. Krushmore scenario in particular, is NOT to actually have the war. ( though the dwarves would like that) but to have the Monsters! eventually learn of the plot and intervene in order to keep in from happening.

I think first players need to learn to love the gulch, or at least call it home, and the only way to do that is to get some adventures with well rounded NPC's under my belt. Belugha was a start.

I guess what i need most at this point is some colorful additional RESIDENTS of the gultch, and some possible plotlines that they might be involved with that i can hook the PCs onto.

[devadasi]

Meanwhile back in Sunday night's adventure:

The town of Saltine within sight, just a few orchards and cowpastures away, the group gathers quietly at the edge of Gnarlian's Wood and waits for the sun to set. Farmers begin to leave off tending their fields, and make their way towards home. Lights begin to be lit in the distant windows.

The party is surprised a bit when a group of four centaurs stride handsomely into the clearing. One is pulling a cart with two large barrels on it. One leans down and begins pulling kindling together for a campfire.

"eeewwwWEEEEE! we are goin' ta get RIP roarin' drunk TWO-night!"

"Maybe one o' them elf gurlz'll come walkin' out that forest and we can get us some HootieHOOOO!"

"YeeeeeHAAAA!" The cart has been unfastened and two of the centaurs go to opening up what appear to be kegs of mead and wine.




"Hungry." says the landshark.
"Horsemeat is goooood eatin'" says the weresabrecat.

the demoness, who seems to grow more cunning by the hour, asks me just how hormonal i think these clowns are.

"extremely?" i reply

the group comes up with a plan. The jaegermonster casts Hidey Hole on the group, all gathered tightly together. The the demoness put the hood of her cloak over her head, but made sure to keep her rather voluptuous body exposed.

She stepped out into the clearing.


"Jeb, tell me i ain't dreamin'" says centaur #1, elbowing his close pall in the withers.

"whut the....." a piece of wheatstraw dropps out from centaur #2's teeth "Lord Dariel's Mercy, lookie HERE!"

All the centaurs are now focused on the girl who has stepped out of the wood.

"Hello boys." the demoness says in a singsong voice.

"who ARE you?" one of the centaurs asks... slobber dripping from his lower lip. All four centaurs have begun "showing a little" in the horsemeat dept.

"Just one of a group of lonely ladies who can't seem to find anything to do on this fine moonlit evening."

"She got's friends!" says centaur #3.

"Come here honey, and give this big beast some sugar" says centaur #4

"Not out here in the open... the Godsoldiers might find us" says the demoness... come into the forest with me, and meet my lonely sisters"

"Ain't safe goin in that forest" says centaur #4 "them aelves will fix you up like a pincushion."

" we don't do that... its a rumor" the demoness says, looking down at her figure and caressing herself a little. Charisma roll. success.

"Let's go cecil!" Says centaur #1 to #3.

He doesn't have to ask twice.

Less than a minute later the redneck centaurs find themselves in an ambush. The party succeeds at a luck roll and the ambush is effective. The have the entirity of one round to freely attack. The Bigfoot goblin attemps to bring his warhammer to bear on the crotch of a horny centaur's groin. ( i thought this was awesome because Anastasai, who had never gamed, and looks like a typical Alabama or Texas Southern girl is playing Sad Sack)

Unfortunately she rolled a 3, and is instead kicked directly in the teeth by the centaur for 13 points of Con. He has a breastplate, but i rule he is kicked in the head. His tooth flies out and hits the demoness in the face for 1 point.


The demoness is having more success with her warhammer. She literally crushes the skull of her opponent. The landshark has bitten off the human portion of his centaur, and the sabrecat is already butchering the (preferred) horsemeat half of hers.

Not having a proper weapon of her own yet, the sabrecat decides to use one of the iron shod horselegs as a club.


Night has come. Warm lights becon from Saltine in the distance.

the Landshark burps.

"Lets put on these Godsoldier uniforms and see if we can get through that gate." the demoness says to the sabrecat

[mahrundl]

Nice, devadasi! And totally Exalt-worthy!