DM-Nastics #127: On the Erode to Ruins

I am so glad I rolled 20 on this! Walking City!? Oh my goodness.

So here's what I am thinking.

City Name: The Lost Temple
Location: The Wandering Plains.
Lore/Legend:
Long ago, in the center of the Wandering Plains, stood a temple to the God Of Travel Meltanze (found here dungeonmasterblock.freeforums.net/post/4966/thread). Originally it stood as a place of pilgrimage to those that wandered the world. It became a large city that would provide respite for all those who were trying to cross through the Plains themselves.

But Meltanze grew restless with having his worshipers stuck in the same city all the time. So he summoned forth a great beast the broke through the earth underneath the main temple. As the creature rose, the temple's foundations fused with its back and the creature began to carry the followers of Meltanze with it. So now the temple goes though the Wandering Plains and is a much harder pilgrimage to get to.

Change to the map: 
I think the big thing that would change would be that there should be some crater added to the map where the town once stood. And maybe some footprints added to the Wandering Plains to indicate that there is this big creature romping around in there.

Rolled a 7 and a 5, plains and avalanche.
ok...I like a challenge.


Due to a massive avalanche in the Dayeimbe, the tundra has expanded (much like a volcano expanding an island), and several icebergs have broken off and sent towards the other land masses in a chaotic fashion. As a result, as some of these icebergs approach the remaining continents, they slowly melt and increase the water level of the ocean and create tidal waves that hit the coasts of Dayeimbe. Before the damage was done, many animals sensed the danger and made a strange migration to the mainland, with unexpected sightings of alligators, herons, and other invasive species to the mountains and plains further inland. After the waves started to crash in, many of those who lived on the coast who lost their homes had to migrate and make new homes for themselves. With the massive influx of life to the great plains, there was a great increase in farming and agriculture to keep up with the population, as well as sprawling cities. Many new organizations came to fruition, including the appeal of elite hunters preventing and thwarting bulette attacks, a farmers guild to maximize the efficiency of the land without creating dustbowls, etc. 

Changes to the map: altered coastlines, larger tundra, permanent dustbowls, cities located throughout the plains.

Oops! I didn't use my own account! That's okay.

I've checked the map and it doesn't seem to be like the first map done for Dayeimbe, and it also doesn't seem to have any of the material that people made in the DMNastics Forums. I do really like the map, but I just wish that what we made in the DMNastics for Dayeimbe ended up on this map!

I'll make sure to do one of these exercises soon!

Rolling 8 and 7.
Place: Desert
Event: Meteor Strike
Changes to the landscape: turning a part of the desert into glass, boosting local nations/citys economy and war capabilitys,
The tranquility of the desert is disturbed by a meteor strike, hitting the dunes and unleashing enormous amounts of energy. Fortunately no caravanners are harmed, and just some lower lifeforms such as scorpions and antlions are wiped out. But the changes in the landscape are still severe. The meteor strike resulted in the glassification of an area of more than a dozen square miles.
Exploring scientist and wizards soon find that this glass, named Sky-Glass can be used to make pristine scrying mirrors, so it doesn’t take long until the local powers struggle for control over this otherwise unobtainable resource.
These supreme scrying tools fundamentally change the art of war on Dayeimbe. Whichever army is in control of such objects has total strategic superiority, since every word spoken at an enemy war councils can be listened to and all the troops can instantly communicate their whereabouts and findings.
After some decades of fierce and bloody war a nation which harnessed these new war mantras first and to the most efficient degree arises as the monopolist on the now named Sky-Glass and tries to conquer the whole world.
After some centuries the Sky-Glass is used all over the world for communication and espionage, maybe some citys/states use it in a totalitarian way to observe their people.
Bonus twist: The meteor strike was orchestrated by a group of Mind Flayer Arcanists who can observe and alter all the scrying which is done with Sky-Glass. The world may now be heavily reliant on the usage of Sky-Glass for communication and they influence these channels to further their own secret agenda.

Alright, 17 and a 6! So Floating City affected by a Solar Flare, here it goes.

Long ago in Dayeimbe's history, the Forfeit Isles much larger at the time housed a monastery of graviton monks. The monks wishing to reclude themselves from the world to study their teachings pooled their collective energy to reverse the gravity flow keeping the monastery rooted to the Isle. Their collective harmony and strength, however, was more powerful than they projected not only lifting the monastery into the clouds but the entire surrounding valley and subsequently the city of Tia's Vestige deep within the clouds. Forced to deal with the consequences of their problematic withdrawal from society the monks ventured from their monastery to help the residents of the city adapt to their new location. Over the next few hundred years, the monastery's teachings of balance and study impacted the populace of the city. Tia's Vestige became a Mecca of technological advancement and cultural cornucopia, to those who could reach it. All the while the rest of Dayeimbe developed slowly their technology falling behind, and the floating city faded from memory and became much more myth than fact.

Unfortunately, for the monastery and Tia's Vestige all their technological advancements they had very little means to combat the sun itself. A large solar flare barraged Dayeimbe's surface with rogue photons causing a chain reaction throwing the gravitons which kept the city afloat to reverse polarity. The valley which held the monastery and Tia's Vestige came plummeting to the surface and immediately most residents of the Forfeit Isles knew what was no longer a myth. As the valley sheared a large chunk of the Forfeit Isles away and caused a massive tidal wave destroying many settlements on the Northwest side of the Isles. The only thing that remained of the city after the cataclysm was a few large jagged rocks which used to be the mountains of the valley. These jagged rocks mark an area now known as "The Vestige" and are a marker for anyone brave or foolhardy enough to search out the ruins of the monastery and the city's lost technology. The day which the city fell is also remembered among the residents of the Forfeit Isles as "The Day the Sky Fell" and everyone wears hats on that day to protect themselves just in case another floating city were to plummet.

Flooded City

Roll on these tables, or pick whichever option speaks to you the most. For maximum "natural disaster" mode you might want to actually include all of the options from the two d10 "events" tables! The best thing you can hope to achieve is to give your players the sense that there are hundreds of little scenarios going around at the same time and they can only reach a few. Can't save everyone, after all.

D12 Reason for Flooding

1: Heavy Rain (natural)

2: Heavy Rain (natural but everyone believes it to be magical)

3: Heavy Rain (caused by tears shed from the sorrow of Mielikki, God of the Forests)

4: Hurricane (natural)

5: Hurricane (natural but everyone believes it to be magical)

6: Hurricane (incurred for blasphemy against Umberlee, Evil Goddess of Storms)

7: Tsunami (natural)

8: Tsunami (natural but everyone believes it to be magical)

9: Tsunami (triggered by the awakening of a kraken in the depths of the ocean)

10: Army of water elementals led by the Leviathan, a whale the size of an island that comes from the Plane of Water

11: A direct portal to the Plane of Water accidentally opened by a wizard attempting to reach Limbo with a Gate spell

12: A transmutation wizard turned the castle into a very large decanter of endless water


D10 Events During the Flooding

1: A building's supports buckle and collapse from the strength of the current, sending hundreds of tonnes of debris crashing into the waves

2: Two small families huddle under a soaked blanket on the roof of their townhouse, waving for help

3: A lone outlander kayaks against the current in an attempt to rescue his dog

4: The remains of a sunken ship crashes through the city, unearthed by the tide

5: A young man kneels on the edge of a rooftop, trying desperately to fish his wife out of the current

6: Three children cling to a flagpole as the current carries them along, their strength waning

7: Heavy winds blow a man six feet into the air, then he comes crashing hard into the black waves

8: A sealed box is carried along by the waves; desperate banging can be heard from within

9: A large net is draped between two sturdy buildings, catching people as they are swept through the flooded streets

10: Horses shriek from inside a barn, slamming again and again against the locked and bolted barn doors


D10 Events in the Aftermath

1: Bloated corpses bobbing in the shallow water, unrecognisable; a woman wades through the muddy water, searching each corpse's fingers for her husband's wedding ring

2: The streets are so flooded that fish swim freely between people's legs

3: A raft floats by, carried by a simple cloth sail; there are thirteen people packed into a 10 foot square space

4: A merchant ship floats through the city streets, picking up stragglers and drying and washing them off ... for a price

5: Looters break apart warped and waterlogged walls in search of valuables in abandoned shops

6: An outlander in a kayak pushes by, his dog panting happily in his lap

7: People in 6-foot stilts carefully tread through the streets, avoiding getting wet

8: Children play in the muddy water, hauntingly innocent among the devastation around them

9: A wizard frantically fills up bag of holding after bag of holding in some misguided attempt to get rid of the water around the base of his tower

10: A doctor, exhausted from treating the legions of sick (due to the disgusting muddy waters), leans against a warped wooden wall, smokes lazily from a pipe, and checks her own blood pressure with some rudimentary instruments


D4 Impact on the Map

1: A new river is formed that cuts straight through the center of the city

2: The coastline retreats much further inland, encompassing the city entirely

3: An entire lake forms around the city, cutting it off from nearby trade routes

4: The city is forcibly erased from the map by politicians who don't want to recognise the need for emergency aid

Place: The Brimstone Oasis
Location: Desert