Monday, May 06, 2013

World of Samardan: Pekalium, the Tower of Strength...

Greetings, All:

Now that the A-Z Challenge is over, I only have two more locations that I want to describe here, and then I'd like to move on to the next step in the process of building a campaign setting, the Hall of Infamy. Before we can tackle that list of cool villains, though, I need to detail an abandoned manufacturing plant and some rich hunting grounds. First up will be the manufacturing plant.

(hex) Pekalium, the Tower of Strength

Ambiance: An ancient tower rises from the sands thirty feet tall, obviously the top part of a buried complex. The interior extends several floors below the surface and is remarkably well preserved, save for windows where sand has poured into the complex. Occasional animal tracks disturb the scattered soil, indicating the passage of living things.

History: This abandoned factory of the Ancient Ones has been protected from worst effects of the passage of time by being buried under sand in the wastelands of the Torafeldan. A recent earthquake uncovered the upper portion of it, giving access to remarkably preserved equipment. With some spare parts, a few repairs and a new power source, this site could be restored to almost full functionality.

Encounters: Within the Pekalium, adventurers will encounter numerous lairs of desert creatures seeking shelter within the complex. In addition, should power be restored, automated safety features may appear as traps or defense systems to the uninformed. Common encounters include kandori, viddrakkati and a large pack of hudyurkati (large, cloven-hoofed carnivores with an extremely powerful bite and the psychic ability to lure prey in for the kill).

Treasure: The true treasure to be found in this site is the possibility of a working factory that produces small airships. Even without that, the raw materials and semi-completed airship parts found in internal storage vaults would bring a fortune on the open market.

Adventure Hooks: Adventure hooks for this site could include the following:
  • Flying above the Torafeldan via a large airship, the merchant Pilot-Commander spies the tower and decides to land and plunder this newly revealed structure, regardless of the desires of his passengers and crew.
  • One of the survivors of an airship crash sends out a psychic call for help, drawing those who answer to the Pekalium, where the survivors have taken shelter.
  • Pansanu Rago Rananagan, a Husran tribal chieftain, is calling for a Great Hunt after noting an increase in hudyurkat attacks on his tribe in this region.
  • The Rakrani sage Loba Granbura, having heard of a tower in the wastelands that was recently uncovered by an earthquake, is curious enough to hire mercenaries to accompany her on a journey to investigate it.
  • The Siblings of the Sapphire Sphere, a mystic order of scholars of the Ancient Ones, seek brave souls who would be willing to follow an old map into the Torafeldan, in search of an ancient complex referenced in recently recovered materials.

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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