Monday, April 29, 2013

World of Samardan: Yatdros, the Wandering Palace...

Greetings, All:

This is the twenty-fifth post in this year's A to Z Challenge series, which describes 26 different locations in the World of Samardan campaign setting, one for each letter of the alphabet. Today's post is brought to you by the letter Y. Y is for Yatdros, the Wandering Palace.

(Hex) Yatdros, the Wandering Palace

Ambiance: Floating several hundred feet above the blighted wastelands of the Torafeldan, the building known as Yatdros, the Wandering Palace, travels where the winds take it. This great structure is a mix of crystalline and organic surfaces, and sections of the lower floors have fallen away after centuries of collisions and decay. The interior of the structure is a vast network of inter-connected corridors and unusual rooms, dimly lit by a slowly failing power system.

History: Constructed in the days of the Ancient Ones, Yatdros no longer serves its original purpose, whatever it once was. Now, it serves as a home for flying creatures, as well as three small competing tribes of Husrani and humans that have each claimed sections of the structure as their own.

Encounters: The upper reaches of the Wandering Palace are home to wild gorbani and flocks of smaller flying creatures. The middle and lower reaches of Yatdros are contested territory for the two Husrani tribes and one human tribe that have somehow managed to settle the structure after leaping aboard during an occasional flyby of a hill or ruined structure.

Treasure: Yatdros possesses a large semi-functioning anti-gravity system akin to those found in small airships. If the Palace could be controlled, the Wandering Palace could become the largest aerial warship known in the region. In addition, the ancient food production technology feeding the inhabitants is extremely valuable to those regions that cannot grow enough of their own and must depend on trade to feed some of their population.

Adventure Hooks: Adventure hooks for this site could include the following:
  • A mystic order of Rakrani scholars renowned for their knowledge of the Ancient Ones, the Siblings of the Sapphire Sphere seek mercenaries to retrieve a specific device intact from the interior of Yatdros.
  • Mudo Pekaran, a master avian trainer from Pordel, seeks adventurers to locate the Wandering Palace and retrieve some of the wild gorbani eggs from the floating building to augment his current breeding stock.
  • Raganu Pekadevi Rekatur, the Lord-Emperor of Torkobalem, dreams of making the Wandering Palace his own personal warship. The Raganu has promised the coveted title of Doganu to anyone who can locate, capture, and deliver Yatdros to him intact.
  • Tamo Torkan, a Husrani Pansanu, wants to board the Wandering Palace as it travels through a small ruin of the Ancient Ones. His proposed tactics are daring, to say the least.
  • The Order of the Amber Eye, a mystic order of Sarrani oracles, believe that Yatdros, the Wandering Palace, will have significant bearing on regional events in the months and years to come. They are seeking observers to watch the floating building and report back on any unusual activities.

Standard Disclaimer: As I have not yet decided where to set this particular location on the map as yet, I've left a placeholder to remind me to come back to this in the future. Later on, I'll replace (Hex) with the actual hex location, when I put all of this together into a single document.

Enjoy,
Flynn

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