Return to Ysmyria
October 12th, 2010
Hello everyone, and welcome back to another Grave Plots, where we endeavor to bring you new plot hooks and adventure ideas each and every week. This week, as you will remember from yesterday, is Explorer Week. The terms “explorer” and “adventurer” are highly synonymous and in fact are often used interchangeably. This week I would like to share a scenario with you that can make for a very interesting exploration-themed adventure, or string of adventures. The following “mirror scenario” is designed to provide the whole range of classic exploration themes wrapped up in an exceptionally fantastic (in the classical sense of the word) package.
A note about mirror scenarios
I’m personally a big fan of mirror scenarios, as those of you who read this article regularly will probably already know, and so I thought I’d just take a moment to explain a little bit about what a mirror scenario is and why they can be so interesting. A mirror scenario is simply any scenario that could be run from another angle without changing any of the core facts. As a DM, these scenarios are most useful if you either give your PCs a lot of freedom in choosing what they do, or if you intend to replay an adventure more than once, exploring different viewpoints; this can be particularly handy if your group is really committed to a particularly interesting adventure that just happens to be a meat grinder. As a column writer, mirror scenarios have the major advantage of being modular so that our readership can determine what kind of adventure they want to run. Ok, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to business.
The Flying Isle Scenario
The far off and isolated land of Gharha is dominated by fertile fields and lush tropical forests, ruled by the stable and powerful Empire of Ahara, and shadowed by a massive floating landmass nearly half the size of the Gharhan continent itself. Located high above Gharha is the mystical land of Ysmyria, with its many mountains and all-encompassing jungle. It exists as it always has, drifting slowly over the land of Gharha and the surrounding sea, paying little heed to the workings of the world below. Inhabited by both ancient beasts and a noble culture of warrior monks called the Ra, Ysmyria is a land steeped in tradition and magic. Through their ancient myths and most archaic historical records, both continent and airborne island remember a time when their peoples were one, though centuries have gone by without any contact between their peoples. Now, after many years, that’s about to change.
Where no man has ever been
The Empire of Ahara unified Gharha under one flag nearly two centuries ago and has been fighting off foreign invaders ever since; that is, until around two years ago when, following the victory at Stonehead, Ahara signed a mutual nonaggression pact with their enemies. In the time since, the dissident movement in Ahara has become more prolific, believing the empire to be growing stagnant. To make matters worse, Emperor Timur II recently died, leaving his 17-year old son, set to inherit his father’s position, vulnerable to those who would try to steal his power or topple the empire. Timuren IV has, however, done a fantastic job of outmaneuvering his political rivals and avoiding an all-out civil war that could threaten the entire continent as well as the empire. His chief tactic in silencing the dissident movement has been to start a number of projects to recapture the imagination of the people. By far his most ambitious project is the exploration of the sky isle, a feat that has never before been successfully completed. All previous attempts to reach the island by magical means have outright failed, and all scouts sent up using some kind of fly spell have failed to return.
Now, armed with a new foreign flying device (a dirigible) and a crack team of explorers (the PCs), Emperor Timuren IV is planning on accomplishing a task which has eluded great men past: a complete survey of the floating island.
In order to accomplish Timuren’s request, the PCs will have to take flight in a rickety dirigible and ascend thousands of feet into the air before reaching the island’s surface. On the way they make first contact with the island’s xenophobic inhabitants who, while riding giant winged saurian mounts (wyverns, pterodactyls, dragons, or whatever else takes your fancy), attempt to prevent the PCs from ever reaching their goal. After a desperate aerial struggle, the PCs should reach the harsh jungle terrain of the deadly island. Perhaps to the PCs surprise, they find the jungle island to be inhabited by a great and ancient civilization, as evidenced by their monolithic buildings, complete mastery of the terrain and powerful nature-integrated infrastructure. The island’s inhabitants are initially very hostile towards the PCs and try desperately to force them off the island; however, PCs who make some attempt at diplomacy may find them to be a surprisingly reasonable people, open to negotiation with people from Gharha. Their culture encourages discipline and honor as the highest values, so PCs who convince the Ysmyrians to cooperate with their survey find them to be trustworthy, though untrusting as a people. PCs should also quickly realize that Ysmyria mystical traditions and warrior societies would make them to formidable a foe for Timuren’s army, so the best option for bringing Ysmyria into the empire will likely be a lengthy diplomatic process.
Ysmyria has a complex theocratic republic, whereby a high priest is elected from each of the island’s nine religious sects, and these nine sit on a single ruling Grand Council, which decides the fate of the Ysmyrian people. All Ysmyrians belong to one of the nine religious sects, and disputes between the sects are settled in ritual duels between feuding members. The Grand Council collects taxes and levies workers to accomplish various social projects such as the building and maintaining of roads, aqueducts, and bridges, as well as civil defense against the various uncontrolled monsters that inhabit the island, most notably green dragons, wyverns, dinosaurs (if you like) and a savage tribe of lizardfolk who occupy a small portion of undesirable swamp land on the island’s southernmost peninsula. The people of Ysmyria are also gifted artists in their off-time, and have a strong cultural appreciation of ethereal music and abstract sculpture. The island’s natural resources are mostly unexploited, as the Ysmyrian grand council refuses adamantly to despoil their island; therefore, apart from a few quarries, the islands resources, which include lumber, iron, sulfur, gem quality stones, gold, and silver, remain largely intact. Agriculture is conducted in large gardens attached to the flat roofs of many of the large structures. Long term diplomacy will probably take some time, and who better to conduct negotiations than the PCs?
Ok, well that’s it for this week’s Grave Plots. I hope you enjoyed the plot… oh, wait - what’s that you say? “I thought this was a mirror scenario, so where’s the other side?” A good question; I guess you’ll just have to wait till next week to find out! Until then, I would like to wish you all the best in your gaming endeavors.