Thursday, November 28, 2024

Wizard Dad: Locations, Encounters and Objects that can be found a Citadel Slum

So, I am playing an old school (genre not system) Sword & Sorcery campaign, the next leg of which takes me to the foreigners quarter of a community that live the shadow of a great and ancient citadel two miles into a glacier. I like my games to be a spontaneous as possible, but I don't necessarily want to spend a lot of play time working on trivium. So, here are three list of 10 things that can be found in the freezing foreign slums in the shadow of an ancient magical citadel... in a glacier.  

Encounters
  1. Guard Patrols. (Are they honest or corrupt? If corrupt are they just take a bribe corrupt or do they constitute a gang unto themselves?)
  2. Merchants. (are they poor and desperate? are they rich and cunning? are they poor and cunning? what do they have to sell?)
  3. Rats. (are they normal rats? if not how are they abnormal?)
  4. Stranded Foreigners (how did they get stranded here? how do they get by? why is there a foreign quarter at all?)
  5. A drunk or otherwise intoxicated person (do they even notice you? is it a well off citizen slumming? Is it a desperate soul seeking solace in a bottle? Are they aggressive? Are they hallucinating?)
  6. A local holy person (are they seeking converts? offering service to the poor? from a local cult? from a foreign cult found only in this district? Are they proselytizing?) 
  7. A local mystic (Are they a diviner hawking fortunes? A fraud seeking money? An alchemist seeking ingredients?)
  8. Thieves (are they part of a larger gang or organization? are they currently involved in thieving? are they seeking to profit or just to get by?)
  9. Citizens (are they here for business reasons? are they poor and outcast and thus have to live amid the foreigners? are they arrogant because of there station, even if they have little more than the poor?)
  10. A stalking beast (a dangerous animal released for the amusement of the mighty? a monster from the ice or steps? a mad man with a knife or sword? a murderous spirit?)

Locations
  1. Tavern or inn (is it clean? is it a pit? do they bother to keep it warm? is it upstanding or hive of scum and villainy)
  2. Guard Post (is it manned? clean? drab? full of trophies?)
  3. Bureaucratic office (what do they do? are they corrupt? is the building in good repair against the squalor of the district or is it a symbol of order dragged into the chaos)
  4. Private home of note (does it stand out because of its size? because of a aura of menace? is it a rambling mansion falling in on itself from disrepair, or the home of a famed hero/adventure/impoverished sage?)
  5. Hospital or sanatorium. (who is sponsors it? is it free in this poor district or another way of squeezing pennies from the poor? Is just a place to store the sick until they die or can adequate care be given? Does it favor a certain class of people or is it open to the public
  6. Casino or other house of Vice (does it front as a different sort of business? Is its trade open and visible or is it visited furtively? is it an accepted part of the district? does its reputation connect it to organized crime
  7. Temple (is this devoted to a single god? a local power? a foreign cult? or maybe it is a place of spiritual philosophy that transcends, or is beneath, the care of the great powers. 
  8. Apothecary (is this run by a wise one devoted to the healing arts? does it deal in trivialities as well as medicines? can you by illicit drugs at the back door and medicines out the front? does it even need to hide its darker more dangerous wares?)
  9. The home of a mystic (is this a failed sorcerer now living in exile and shame? a shaman of the streets? a diviner or some other fortune teller? a very talented fraud? a witch with all the dark bargains this implies? or just a lore master who knows a few spells, but is steeped in information)
  10. A gang warren (is this a brash building with the gangs symbol emblazoned on the building or is it just known as a dangerous place because of the ruffians hanging about the doors?)
Objects
  1. Object made of un-melting ice (what is it? a statuette, a tool, just a chunk of glowing glacial ice?)
  2. A weapon (what sort of weapon? is it broken? is it of mysteriously high quality?)
  3. Rubbish (compost heap? broken furniture? is there something shining in the heap?)
  4. A dead creature (is it a dog, a cat, a giant rat, or a human? Does it look out of place, diseased, mutilated, or dead by exposure?)
  5. Paper/parchment (a book page that has been ripped out? A lost note? a list? an official document now far out of place? a leaflet such as a religious track or advertisement?)
  6. Jewelry (is it junk jewelry? something simple of precious metal? Is it engraved? Does it have a precious stone? carved from ivory or bone?)
  7. Dice or cards (crudely carved or painted? single die or card with ominous portents? well painted cards or ivory dice in a simple crude box? marked cards or loaded dice?)
  8. Money or trade goods (a pittance? a substantial amount? too much to have been dropped by accident?)
  9. Teeth (Human? predator? on a leather thong? artificial? ivory? metal?)
  10. A key (simple? skeleton? barreled? engraved with address? so alien it may not be a key at all?)

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