User:Bill/City of Sepulcher

Status

In Progress

Session Notes

Treatment

Introduction

Unlike the standard set-up for D&D where player characters meet up, agree to go on a road trip to overcome evil and/or get cool stuff then trek all over the place or dive down a hole, Sepulcher is a static, city-based game inspired by the idea that a boom town might grow up around a dungeon entrance. For folks that aren't conversant with D&D tropes, dungeon is the collective term for any underground environment populated by monsters and traps that guard various treasures.

Setting

This game would offer as much dungeon delving as anyone might want or unlimited social interaction. Your group may choose to enter the dungeon after procuring a license from the office of adventurer relations or you can pursue power and wealth above ground. The dungeon over which Sepulcher has grown is said to be the ruins of an ancient city and its catacombs. Legend has it that in the deepest recesses of the catacombs are ancient tombs containing the entire wealth of the empire that once made its capital here. Only the most learned of seers know the true name of the lost city and that the very utterance of it is accursed. How true these legends are is debatable, but several times a year the survivors of one band or another emerge from the pit bearing golden coins minted by no remembered kingdom and artifacts of great value.

The city is ruled by a mysterious Unseen Council that is rumored to be made up of powerful mages, demons, ghosts, disguised dragons, or any number of other outlandish claims. Some claim that the council is actively preventing the discovery of the ancient treasure of the fallen empire. Others believe that it is all a farce and that the council has intentionally seeded the dungeon with small amounts of gold to keep a steady traffic of adventurers coming into the city. All that is known to be fact is that the Unseen Council demands a heavy toll from those that would enter the lost city and that they seize the maps of any who return from the catacombs.

The trade guilds are powerful as well and enforce significant tithes on anyone plying his or her arts in Sepulcher, with which they pay several mercenary companies ostensibly tasked with protecting their members. Working as a cooper, mason, or spellcaster in Sepulcher is enormously expensive and the cost is passed on to the customer. Due to this many unsuspecting adventurers find themselves bankrupted by a single journey to the lost city. The Hidden Society's ranks swell with these castoffs and the trade guilds garner easy justification for their tithes by pointing out the rising wave of crime in the city.

Rules

I can run this with any game in my collection. For D&D3.5, I'd allow everyone to start at ECL 5 with level 7 starting wealth; up to a quarter of which may be used to purchase items. WotC sourcebooks only, no magazines. For D&D4, everyone would start at level one with double starting gold. For other rule sets I'd have to think a little about it and discuss what exactly everyone wanted to do.

Actual Game

I offered this setting as well as Magocracy of Dholavira and Winter's Grasp to a newly assembled group. They elected to go with it because it is the most traditional of the three.

Characters

Character	Race	Class	Level	Player
Drimmel	Dwarf	Barbarian	4	Matt
Glimm	Whisper Gnome	Rogue	4	Aaron