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tauster
Senior Scribe
Germany
399 Posts |
 Posted - 24 Aug 2007 : 13:56:46
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I try to do a writeup for a business-idea centered on the Rock of Bral (the asteroid city within the tears of selune).
The theme is a service that collects all the manure and organic litter from the city (which would clutter up pretty quickly without that), transports it to a asteroid base within the tears of selune (six small linked-by-bridges asteroids), where it gets sorted out (there's still some valuable stuff in it, sometimes) and composted. The earth is then sold to the "garden asteroids" (or whoever wants to buy highly fertile earth), where foodstuff for Bral is grown.
My question: what monsters do exist that are thematically linked to manure, dung, earth, etc.? I want to throw in two or three that can be of use there and would like such an "olfactoryly demanding" environment.
my ideas up to now:
- shambling mounds (what could they do there in terms of useful work?)
- a druid as man in charge (plant growth-spells)
- some kind of worms... any ideas for a "fantasy earthworm"?
- an otyugh (sp?) (dunno what it could contribute, apart from the smell, though...)
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Halidan
Senior Scribe
USA
470 Posts |
Posted - 24 Aug 2007 : 14:40:46
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My first thought (based only on your title) was Otyugh. Let the otyugh be the "sorter" - the one who roots through all the trash to dig out anything valuable in it. Th otyugh thinks he gets to keep the valuable stuff as treasure, but the opperator of the plant simply puts the otyugh to sleep on a regular basis and cleans the poor beast's treasure pile out.
I like the worms idea. What about using Bloodworms? They're an old 1E monster, originally from White Dwarf magazine and later from Fiend Folio, that basically act like any other worm - they ingest bulk and night soil comes out the other end. Or maybe minimal purple worms?
I'd also think about using mudmen. They're intellegent, animated blobs of mud that typically form when soil has been exposed to a magical liquid. Use the mudmen to mash the nightsoil together with water (perhaps adding minerals or other additives) to form a slurry and spead it out into racks for drying.
Once the mud-slurry is dried, you could have crystamals, sandlings or some other mineral/rock monster crush the dried bricks back into something resembling soil.
I hope these ideas help. |
"Over the Mountains
Of the Moon
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied,
"If you seek for Eldorado!"
Edgar Allen Poe - 1849 |
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Ergdusch
Master of Realmslore
Germany
1720 Posts |
Posted - 24 Aug 2007 : 15:04:35
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First thing - is that not in outer space? meaning is there air to breath? If not the perfect "monsters" would be some kind of clockwork creatures sorting the trash and shredering it and whatnot, I think.
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"Das Gras weht im Wind, wenn der Wind weht." |
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Sian
Senior Scribe
Denmark
596 Posts |
Posted - 24 Aug 2007 : 16:05:32
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| ergdusch ... planescape |
what happened to the queen? she's much more hysterical than usual
She's a women, it happens once a month |
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Ayunken-vanzan
Senior Scribe
Germany
657 Posts |
Posted - 24 Aug 2007 : 17:00:25
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| You should consider to populate your compost heap with one or two Ankhegs (MM I). By burrowing they lace the the heap with tunnels for air which is necessary for a proper decay. And by snatching away some of your other monsters for dinner from time to time, they help prevent over-population. They can even eat decayed and decaying organic matter which further promotes the making of compost. |
"What mattered our lives now? When our world had been torn from us? Folk wept, or drank, or stood staring out over the land, wondering what new horror each dawn would bring."
Elender Stormfall of Suzail
"Anyone can kill deities, cause plagues, or destroy organizations. It takes real skill to make them live on."
Varl
FR/D&D-Links • 2ed Downloads |
Edited by - Ayunken-vanzan on 24 Aug 2007 17:23:45 |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36995 Posts |
Posted - 24 Aug 2007 : 23:40:05
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quote:
Originally posted by Ergdusch
First thing - is that not in outer space? meaning is there air to breath? If not the perfect "monsters" would be some kind of clockwork creatures sorting the trash and shredering it and whatnot, I think.
Spelljammer is indeed a space-based D&D setting, which linked three of the main settings of the time (Dragginglance, Greyhawk, and the Realms) thru space travel. Without getting into specifics, one of the precepts of the SJ setting was that anything with mass (meaning planets, asteriods, people, ships, etc) created its own gravity (or gravity plane) and this gravity would hold a bubble of air around the object.
So it was basically fantasy space travel, ignoring the whole vacuum and explosive decompression ideas.  |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36995 Posts |
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Alaundo
Head Moderator
United Kingdom
5701 Posts |
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Ayunken-vanzan
Senior Scribe
Germany
657 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2007 : 11:20:45
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| As helpful as they both are for waste disposal, I think in this situation they are counterproductive, since all you get when using black puddings or gelatinous cubes is more black pudding/gelatinous cube, but not compost. |
"What mattered our lives now? When our world had been torn from us? Folk wept, or drank, or stood staring out over the land, wondering what new horror each dawn would bring."
Elender Stormfall of Suzail
"Anyone can kill deities, cause plagues, or destroy organizations. It takes real skill to make them live on."
Varl
FR/D&D-Links • 2ed Downloads |
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tauster
Senior Scribe
Germany
399 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2007 : 12:11:58
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thanks for the great input, all!
otyugh as "sorter": great idea, will probably be included.
mudmen: 2E Monstrous Manual states that they are unintellignet. So I don't think they are able to do anything useful, apart from guarding certain areas. Still, they could have easily formed from some overlooked magic and now invest certain areas of the "dump".
Ankeghs: hmmm... dunno if they can burrow through solid rock - in that case they would have tunneled through the asteroids so much that they resembled a swiss cheese. Not quite what the owner could wish for. If, otoh, their tunneling is limited to soft earth (dung and compost), they might be useful both area guardians and to enrich the soils (like earthworms). According to MM (p.7), they eat decayed organic material (great!), but vastly prefer fresh meat. Additionally, the owner might hunt them down from time to time and sell the shells to somebody who works them into armors, as well as sell their digestive acid.
puddings and jellies: I wanted to leave them out, because
a) the players will expect them all over the place, so I want to surprise them by not giving them what they expect.
b) slimes & jellies as well as gelatinous cubes don't leave anything organic behind after digesting stuff, so they are the bane of any honest compost-producer. Still, I think there might be a pit in which noxious organic waste (or organic "stuff" that has to dissappear really fast and without a trace) will be disposed by means of a g'cube.
I still have to find a kind of worm I really like. Maybe I just stay with giant but harmless earthworms. They can be creepy like hell when appearing en masse, so the players won't be looking for trouble and can be distracted by them from some other real menace.
Thanks for all the ideas, and please, keep them coming! I still haven't decided about the owner. Race, personality, background... If you have ideas about what would make a cool Garbage collector in the spelljammer universe, fire away! |
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tauster
Senior Scribe
Germany
399 Posts |
Posted - 31 Aug 2007 : 15:48:37
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As always, things turned into unexpected directions during writing...  Here is the first draft.
I appreciate ANY form of input/feedback!
Name: Knip’s Waste Management
Type: space dump
Location: A small cluster of asteroids near Bral (or Dragon Rock) in the Tears of Selune
Quality: -
Prices: -
Danger: 2-5 (5 adventuring on the ground of the five astertoids (diseases, monsters...))
Description:
Wherever lots of people live, they produce waste. Normally, in groundling settlements, the material is shoved outside the city or village and that’s it. On asteroid settlements, it’s a bit more complicated. Most asteroids are small compared to the hinterland of groundling settlements, there is usually no place for a dump. Often the problem is solved by catapulting the garbage off the asteroid or just throwing it over the sides, where it bumps a little up and down until it comes to rest on the gravity plane and slowly drifts out of the air envelope.
Thus, many spacer settlements have aquired a formidable ring of trash around them. That’s no problem, not even for approaching spalljammers: they just home in above or below the ring and avoid crashing into unpleasant “trash missiles”. If the asteroid settlement has a rotation axis, the problem gets a bit more complicated since over time, the rock acquires not a RING but a SPHERE or garbage that surrounds it on all sides.
[delete the follwing paragraph if you use Bral instead of Dragon Rock and don’t want it to rotate!]
In the case of Dragon Rock, the rotation of the asteroid gave birth to “Knip’s Waste Management”, and the city has been better off ever since.
Knip, or Knipthegrandsonofthegreatgnomewholiberateddragonrockfromitscloudofjunk, as he calls himself officially, is one of the cities most important people (...and one of the richest, though only a few know that and Knip tries everything to preserve tha status quo). He is in close contact with the cities government, has very good relations to key organisations like the customs authority, waste-intensive guilds (with some of which he has separate contracts), the transport guild and the city watch, only to name a few examples.
Knip’s Base of operations is a cluster of small asteroids in the Tears of Selune, where he deposits and processes all the waste materials from Bral/Dragon Rock.
History
Five of the six rocks have been drawn together by unknown means several hundred years ago, since on old star charts describing the tears in detail, there is nothing to be seen at the place where they are today. The “Fetid Five”, as they are commonly known, are only a dozen meter apart from each other.
All but one asteroids are linked to each other by wooden contraptions that look like bridges and seem, despite their decrepit appearance, to support their own weight as well as that of the wheelbarrows. Still, for many newcomer the experience of crossing these bridges is unsettling at best and traumatic at worst. There are stories of people being dangled by members of the watch [or whatever authority your settlement has] from the rickety wooden constructions by flimsy ropes with only distant Toril below their feet visible, to pry secrets from them. The method worked remarkably often, if one believes the stories.
When Knip’s father took over the business from his father (the founder), another rock was moved there. Again, nobody knows how the asteroid was moved since it cannot be seen from Bral as it is behind the other five. It’s arrival was noted by passing ships who discovered a sixth rock, a little outside of the Five’s shared air envelope, linked to the others by means of a tremendous iron chain whose links are about one meter long. At that time, the construction works of the manor was already under way, so the asteroid must have been there for at least a tenday.
Even more mysteriously, no rock of that size is missing in the near proximity of Selunes tears, so it either must have come from the heart of the tears (which is entirely possible, since there is no star chart or map exact enough to cover ALL asteroids of that size) or somewhere else completely. Nothing mysterious happened after the arrival of rock number six, so the spark of interest fizzled out after a few weeks and everything went back to normal. Even the name of the “Fetid Five” stayed the same, since only five are visible from Bral.
Since the asteroids are close to Bral (or Dragon Rock, or whatever asteroid city you prefer), there is no need for helm-driven ships. Members of Knip’s Waste Management use large rafts, driven by all kinds of nonmagical engines to commute between Bral and the Fetid Five.
Ecology
In terms of numbers, most of the animals on the Fetid Five are insects. Flies dominate the air, bugs (mainly dung beetles) the ground. Scoop up a handful of earth and you will see scores of worms hard at work. With so much food around, many first-time visitors wonder where all the birds are – until they discover the snakes and rats who populate the five asteroids in huge numbers.
Higher up the food chain are gophers and mongoose who prey on beetles, worms and snakes. It is rumored that some of the cute beasties are more intelligent than animals are normally. Some workers have reported hearing high-pithced “voices” when near them, but so far nobody cared to look into the affair.
The atmosphere of the five rocks is breathable, but the experience is not a nice one. Some say it’s “like falling face-down into the mud of Waterdeep’s Rat Hills on a hot summers day”. Knip’s workers are used to the stench and don’t seem to notice it anymore.
Knip, however, enjoys completely fresh air in his manor on the sixth rock, thanks to the Vegetation that covers every available surface of the rock, and thanks to the separate air envelopes. There is a kind of “space ferry” installed alongside the huge iron chain, where passengers can pull themselves forward to go from the fetid five to the gnome’s manor. The distance between the air envelopes is short enough, so the passengers personal air envelope suffices.
One of the five asteroids has acquired another kind of resident. Shortly before Knip took over the business, his father was tragically killed by his own waste... in a way, at least. While he was inspecting the compost, it suddenly arose in a vaguely humanoid figure and drew the gnome below the earth, along with the two workers accompanying him. The investigation of the city watch (the Fetid Five are regarded as city area and thus are subject to all laws), turned up the bodies of the three – and the murderer: The waste itself had beome sentient!
The reason could never been determined, but the most probable explanation is magical or alchemical pollution.
The asteroid was abandoned immediately. Magical examinations brought up nothing – the wizards divinations were able to identify the monsters as mudmen, but no spell, neither arcane nor divine, could locate the them. After a few decades of isolation, the asteroid was slowly used again as dump. Today, it is used as dump for materials that cannot be composted like toxic materials and slags from the smities. The barges just fly ofer the asteroid and dump their load. The bridges leading to the “Toxic Rock” are blocked but not quarantined. Large signs warn the irgnorant of “Dangers by poison, disease, monsters and unknown sources”.
Behind the scenes: All that glitters... is sold.
Like many dumps, the five asteroids are a treasure trove: virtually anything can end up in the garbage – and Knip’s sorters sifts through the piles, diligently and with an almost intuitive sense for valuable stuff. Even without the compost-business, the garbage-trade is highly profitable for him. He jealously keeps that a secret, of course. More than a few people have been found dead shortly after visiting the Fetid Five. Most of the time, they have shown signs of diseases, but quite a lot of them really died because they got the hang of how profitable the sifting-business REALLY is...
The lions share of what Knip’s sorters find in the garbage is sold to various business contacts:
The gnome is on best terms with a couple of Dohwar merchants and often sells whole container full of unsorted junk to them, which they in turn sort out, polish up and resell. Gnomish spelljammers like to buy raw materials for “ship enhancements” on a regular basis. Scrap metal is sold to smiths on Bral (Dragon Rock). Interesting and more valuable objects are sold to Al'Azan's Shop of Wonders [thanks to novamaster for that great contribution!]. Many rich spacers thought they bought curio there which originated directly from this or that ancient culture, while instead it came directly out of the scrap heap.
DM ideas:
Corpse-hunting
The Fetid Five are the ideal place to get rid of corpses. Need I say more? :o)
You don’t even need undead (throw in some rumors about undead on the Five for good measure anyway), just having the PC to sort through the fermented waste can spark off lots of adventures. Apropos “sparking off”: where waste ferments, there is biogas. Highly flammable gas, at times. Or gas that works like helium. Imagine the party with squeaky voices for a few days (and force them to roleplay that!).
Rumors about spirits and reports of ghostly vioces actually originate from the Tavi (see “Clever cuties” below), who try not to talk when others are within earshot but are sometimes just too talkative.
The monsters are loose!
One fine day, a little too much “magical toxic waste” accumulated on the compost-heaps. The mudmen, normally just resting below the loose earth, become more intelligent ...and more ambitious. They claim three of the five asteroids as their own and fight all trespassers. Flying a few feet over the ground is the only save way of maneuvering; everyone walking is attacked from below.
It can happen while the PC are officially (more fun: inofficially!) there to search for the whereabout of a corpse or an object that was thrown in a garbage heap by a gangster while he was chased by the guards/PC (the heap was cleaned up and tansported to the Fetid Five before it could be sifted through).
Clever cuties
The rumors about intelligent gophers are true. While nobody knows where exactly they came, they have been identified as Tavi’s, a magically bred race of mongoose from a pirate city called freeport. [See “Creatures of freeport, p.68-71, Green Ronin Publishing GRR1027] *
They are so smart that they are on the brink of forming a rudimental culture. Maybe it was a load of magical “toxic waste” or an odd combination of substances from some alchemists shop... anyway: some of them are able to form actual words now – and most of the time, their sentences even make sense... in a way.
Word of the talking mongoose spreads out to Bral/Dragon Rock, and soon everybody wants to have one. Players can find themselves as Tavi-hunter on the ground (throw in “The monsters are loose!”) or employed by a druid or ranger who wants to protect or resettle them to a groundling world. The Tavi themselves have to be persuaded to leave their old homeland (which, with all the food and almost no predators around, is a paradise to them).
* If you don’t have access to “Creatures of Freeport”, substitute the Tavi with Beguilers from the 2nd Edition Monstrous Compedium Forgotten Realms Appendix, MC11. Other alternative Races: Chattur (MC7) or Sleeks (MC9).
The Hamster is loose!
Recently, a gnomish ship crashed on one of the rocks. Whether the crew was dead or alive is up to the DM. Survivors can be interviewed supply clues, while “everyony dead” is more mysterious. Both alternative have pro’s and con’s.
In any case, however, there was at least one survivor: a giant space hamster or more precisely: an INVISIBLE giant space hamster (IGSH). Whatever the reason for the PC’s presence on the Fetif Five, they will meet it (or them – see “more fun”) and will have to deal with the invisible menace.
More fun: If you want to be REALLY mead with your players, push the crash a bit back the timeline, make it a mated pair of IGSH and let them start reproducing! |
Edited by - tauster on 31 Aug 2007 17:12:18 |
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Ayunken-vanzan
Senior Scribe
Germany
657 Posts |
Posted - 31 Aug 2007 : 17:10:25
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The ideas are all brilliant! Especially the one with the IGSH(s). In
quote:
* If you don’t have access to “Creatures of Freeport”, substitute the Tavi and with Beguilers from the 2nd Edition Monstrous Compedium
delete the “and”.
I cannot believe it that “hinterland” made it into English ... |
"What mattered our lives now? When our world had been torn from us? Folk wept, or drank, or stood staring out over the land, wondering what new horror each dawn would bring."
Elender Stormfall of Suzail
"Anyone can kill deities, cause plagues, or destroy organizations. It takes real skill to make them live on."
Varl
FR/D&D-Links • 2ed Downloads |
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tauster
Senior Scribe
Germany
399 Posts |
Posted - 31 Aug 2007 : 17:13:40
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thx!
I had a great time with he writeup, as always when I let my imagination run free and don't know where it leads to. :D |
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Sian
Senior Scribe
Denmark
596 Posts |
Posted - 31 Aug 2007 : 19:41:03
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| aren't the hamster a Permanently reduced and invisible Giant Space hamster? *g* |
what happened to the queen? she's much more hysterical than usual
She's a women, it happens once a month |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36995 Posts |
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Faraer
Great Reader
3308 Posts |
Posted - 01 Sep 2007 : 01:35:14
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quote:
Originally posted by tauster
- an otyugh (sp?)
Also known in the Realms as gulguthra.
The Wizardry computer games feature the creeping crud, which sadly never made its way to D&D. |
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sirreus
Learned Scribe
USA
118 Posts |
Posted - 14 Sep 2007 : 19:24:12
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i didn't see a mention of carrion crawlers, though a gelatinus cube is also great. a wierd thought: surely in this city people come up misssing, so what about a cadaver collector to retrieve bodies. they're undead so they don't eat sleep or reproduce. this could not only aid in missing persons but also help in the capturing of murderers. |
"The measure of an undisciplined mind, is that the intellect allows emotion to challenge the observed truth" Richard Baker |
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looking for "dung monsters"
