Community Forums: Portlandio Town Key: recovering harbor/trade after typhoon + earthquake; foothold of civilization on continent. Players can add (homebrew world building)

Town needs the following craftsmen: Wheelwright Cooper Weavers Glassblower Dyer Basically anyone on this list:  <a href="http://www.listology.com/list/jobs-ancient-medieva" rel="nofollow">http://www.listology.com/list/jobs-ancient-medieva</a>...

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Good suggestions Torvald . Those exist in Portlandio in the background & the ones that anyone wants to visit in-game will get Numbers/Locations on map, like if it matches an NWP that you have, or want to learn, or if you employ their services or ask their rumors or sage advice. I can already see the wheelwright reason, what-with Swargen wheeling that dragon-meat cart around town, slinging steaks. Presenting... Portlandio town map screen shot overview as of today! Here is a good graphical overview of the town's booming expansion. More buildings exist than the number represented on-map so-far, as it's an ongoing work-in-progress.  CLICK MAP TO ZOOM SIZE Map of the town of Portlandio in Homebrew World 2E -- This is provided as a bird's eye view, to see the neighborhoods, districts and distances, for your tactics of proposing any townie defenses, buying real estate or other ventures. You can scope-out many important locations like Horukh's dry-dock facility (Northwest corner of the harbor), and Swargen's Inn (south-east side of town, near the exit to the Human/Lizardman Trading Post). Lord Harlepen has decided to sell his manor on the cul d'sac in East Portlandio. He is moving out to a gated keep in Moor's End.  He'll make an offer to the party to sell his old manor-house if anyone in the party wants to buy it.  Lord Harlepen is the knighly-looking fellow, who wants to meet with the party for another reason (a mission to deliver a token to Ota Sura's summer house).

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If it was me, I'd build a castle or fortress on the hills by the lighthouse. It is surrounded on three sides with water; with limited land access. This location would have command of the entire harbor and overlook the lowlands. Fortifying the town would require the following: Curtain wall extending around the perimeter of Portlandio Keys areas within town would have interior walls Parapets constructed at specific intervals Three main gates - North, West, and East Barbican(s) for each gateway Each gateway - Iron wrought portcullis and metal plate hardwood doors Each parapet & barbican would have: garrison, armory, and supplies Iron chains that can be drawn up to block the harbor entrance A dry moat outside the walls is preferable but optional. However, the outlying woods will have to be cleared; as far as feasible.

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Forum Champion

That's awesome Torvald . We can start doing a lot of that right away (conceptually-narratively and on-map). The town is bustling enough & has immigrant work force ready and waiting (out of work dwarves, gnomes, humans from the South, humans born here in the frontier continent, a handful each of minotaur, lizardman, and some others too). It seems Portlandio can afford to start constructing the defenses that Torvald , Horukh and others in the town are lobbying for. If you want to start building a Castle for the Party, that would be a personal expense, where-as the city wall can be funded with public money.  I agree with your site-placement for the castle. Maybe you need to start by buying the empty real-estate site there, to reserve it against some other Lords & Ladies coming to stake their new Keep or Manor on your favorite spot.  I doubt you can afford a castle as-of-yet, but maybe a plot of land on a prime location. Maybe start with a guard-house or an initial tower there, if the party can afford this, AND of course this is only if you want to Headquarter in Portlandio. You might want to build somewhere out-of-town, off on the Regional map instead of the townie map. This is your decision ( party , with leadership from Torvald ). Portlandio Town Defenses, challenges setting it up There are various challenges, including some I've thought of so far: political quagmire in the city council ( Thoma et al),  obtaining the co-operation of the regional military (Korean army, Yi Bang, Yi Ko, Che Won , etc), getting the different temples/churches priest leaders on board (since currently they contribute to magical defenses protecting Portlandio) financing the construction overseeing the construction workers, hiring, pay, and workmanship, geographic-geological and hydrological, engineering and design planning, time, calendar, seasons, weather delays, timeline for construction and expected completion phases of the project, and... meta wise... biggest challenge... drawing representation on the map!!! Who wants to help with this? Chris Airen ? We can play-out some of the challenges, and fast-forward narrate others.  Some of the party has relevant Charisma, and other NWP, skills to bring to bear on these challenges. I think the biggest hurdle to completion, honestly, is simply drawing it on the map in a way that looks decent to us, without spending too many hours on the map drawing. Narrative and story-wise, and payment-wise and work force, I don't see a problem with building these defenses. Portlandio is ready to spring for this, if all the parties can be brought to the negotiating table & funds allocated.  Timeline-wise, winter is coming soon, so we will need to discuss and narrate together to decide when the wall will be completed, and how much can be built this year. Meta-plans for how to get this started on-map and in-game: 1. We need to start drawing the wall, and number buildings for the garrisons, armory, supply places. Going to need Player help with this ( Chris, Jennifer  or others can help draw on-map too!). 2. Draw-in the iron chain plans for the harbor. Chain can connect to the Sea Fort ( Horukh construction plans project) on one side of harbor entry. 3. I'll paste-in parapets & gates from the Marketplace art. 4. I'll delete or over-write some of the woods where you say the forest needs to be cleared. 5. We will imagine & narrate the finer details of barbicans, portcullis, and doors. 6. We'll discuss and decide collectively in-game about the timeline, to see when each phase will be built and roll for challenges that may arise. Keep the ideas coming.  I think this is a fun & different part of the game to include, and it ties in nicely with some future scenarios and adventures, so this is a worthwhile productive gameplay foundation to build in the Portlandio town map.

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Gold, Great feedback! I agree with your premise. If the party decides to stay in Portlandio we should slowly start buying up strategic parcels of land. It would be a sound investment; even if we simply hold the properties for future resale. More to come later...

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MissingKarma

Sounds fun! Just let me know when/what/where to throw in and I shall work on it throughout the weeks. I can use the draw tool or if you give me access (not sure if it is possible) i can drop images down say for when the wall/portculis/gates are built etc.

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Chris said: I can use the draw tool or if you give me access (not sure if it is possible) i can drop images down say for when the wall/portculis/gates are built etc. @ Chris , The fact you can use the draw tool is a perfect start for now. With the way Roll20 works, Players can draw anytime on Portlandio map. Can't think of any drawbacks to it unless someone went wild with scribbles (and if so we could still erase it, if it's on the Token Layer, so a player drawing mistake is not a problem anyway). As a Player you can draw only on the Token layer.  Next time I can copy everything that's on Token Layer (except PC tokens) over to the Map Layer, and then it's locked in. For placing Marketplace pictures, it's possible. I can make you a "Co-GM" temporarily. You could manipulate graphics that I throw down on the table (Example: I could put a pile of portculis & wall images from the marketplace, and you could move/resize/place them).  It might let you throw-down your own graphics, but it won't let you pull them from my Marketplace access, but it WILL let Co-GM manipulate Marketplace graphics that I put on the table for you.  It just so-happens that I have a rather large collection of Marketplace art. So the technique is that I would put a pile like puzzle pieces, and you can place them around the map as makes-sense, while in Co-GM mode. Note: When in Co-GM mode, one could click into Map Layer and really mess things up by accidentally selecting-shifting-deleting the background map.  So just mainly work in the Token Layer, which is the default place, and it should be fine. I'll make a Backup copy of the campaign periodically just-in-case. We should try to remember to repeal Co-GM status on game-day, to preserve little secrets that I handle in the background in Fog Of War & Dynamic Lighting.  For the most part those kinds of monster-secrets are not pre-placed on display that you could stumble across in-game. A few are, but no big deal. There are a couple Pages that could contain spoilers for yourself if you start clicking around the Shark Fort pages (chart of adversaries), but for the most part the actual monsters and secrets are not placed on-map yet anyway, so there's not much to accidentally peek at.  There aren't any GM-layer secrets written on Portlandio page, so it would be fine to work there, if you just stay on that page. As of now, Chris : Use drawing tool.  Start and continue whenever you have time and feel like working on the town, for the next week. Any number of regular-sized buildings going along the existing roadways would be good. There is a pretty big street leading towards the beach, that should probably have some K-Marts and Walts (big box stores), some middle-class housing, and a few larger manors/estates with an ocean-view.  They also need a few more houses out in Moor's End.  You'll find I added 3 grave-yards, the dry-dock, and 2 keeps.  There are techniques for non-square buildings, you can draw a circle, ellipses, with the shape tool.  If you want an "L-shape" or "T-shaped" building, try the Polygon tool and make an outline with a fill-color.  Putting just a few non-square buildings would go a long way.  Make some of the manors, mansions, keeps, or government buildings to have courtyards and architect shapes.  As of later (by next Monday game session), I'll pull in a pile of Marketplace graphics and set you temporarily as a Co-GM to place them.  That will cover the few-areas that we want a 3D map effect, map symbols & tokens beyond just a box, probably just for walls & keeps & gates & towers, and sometimes churches/temples.

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This is terrific stuff.  I will try to lend help on this.  The Beacon on the hill summit can be built around, and in time, upgraded.  Portlandio is in need of several varieties of urban upgrades.  At risk of turning the game into "Papers And Paychecks," I'll put forth that Horukh can offer guarantor investment bonds for city projects that will raise Portlandio's safety and standing.  It will probably mean he would have to stand as an official for the city for a short while though. ( Note to Gold: Horukh is a Count, but none of us know anything about Princesses, Queens, Kings etc. in this game world as yet.  Officially, Horukh even outranks his Altan "parents," but I don't know, as a player, where his rank and appointments came from.  I have just been assuming there is some distant High King.) The NWP that Horukh is working towards is Strategy & Tactics .  Since he is established as having designed battlements and keeps in his past, and he has been operating with a small unit of special operators, it makes sense to me.  I bring it up here as a way of expressing that my/Horukh's designs for city defenses would have some education behind it. One thing Horukh needs very much is a highly secure place to work, because he builds testing models of his inventions and architecture.  Someone getting in and just getting a look at his design studio could find out about Portlandio defenses.  I'd like to put forth the suggestion that the Beacon itself could become his secure place and be built onto, with him or the Challengers acquiring the whole hilltop. Also, being a flyer, Horukh is very interested in the value of altitude for monitoring the city and its environs.  Ideally, he would like air patrol vessels to be just as important to the city as its coast guard is.  The undeveloped areas around Portlandio are either cover, or battlefields, waiting to happen.  Air patrols would allow 20 or 30 miles' warning of approaching troops.  Horukh's wishful thinking is that some great noble avian race would be persuaded to call Portlandio home, but by the book, things are limited to Aaracokra (not very bright + claustrophobic), Giant Eagles/Owls (not very bright/ravenous appetites), griffons (idiot feathered thugs), and so on.  Besides, Horukh would look at humanoid golden eagles or intelligent griffons and sigh wistfully.  He'd wanna be like them.  He's just a lil' burd.

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Larry, Would it be safe to say that Horukh is the highest "ranked" nobility in Portlandio? I definitely think he should leverage his personal wealth in purchasing land. However, the main question for the party is should we stay in town and settle down. Or claim some bordering territory for ourselves. (We could even say we did it for Porlandio; but it would still effectively be ours through conquest. The idea is to gain approval and be an independent and allied state. Similar to the rank of Baron.) Both options would require massive amount of money, time, and political capital.  Torvald obviously leans towards option #2. His rationing is and land claimed would be ours outright; using the conquest model. An old castle or abandoned fortress would be ideal. He would forgo that for a location with a strategic resource or trade route. (Tolls roads and bridges we major sources of medieval revenue.) Using this plan, we could start small with a simple stone keep with a wooden palisade; both easy to construct with unskilled labor. However, this would be a completely new startup with a long term return on investment.

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Continued... Staying in Portlandio would be easier due to it's great location and natural harbor. Plus access to external trade with the various mainland empires is a big selling point. (It would be extremely lucrative if we can corner a luxury market.) The town also has a growing population. This gives us access to a growing pool of skilled and unskilled labor. Additionally more people who can serve in the military. Torvald feels the biggest problems with option #1 are: 1.) Dealing with the pre-existing political and power structures. Many factions are directly opposed to each other Very little cooperation amongst the ruling council An inept and corrupt bureaucracy & military 2.) A total lack of physical defense 3.) Lack of available monetary funding for capital projects 4.) Lack of access to natural resources 5.) Portlandio makes a tempting target for invasion. 6.) One of the mainland empires may decide to annex the town. 7.) Any improvements we build could be appropriated by a future government.

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Quick aside... I think if we are serious about the land game everyone needs to read the D&D 2e Castle guidebook. It can be found in pdf form with a simple search.

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MissingKarma

*Frog wonder's to himself what all the fuss is about keeps, manors, and shops as he finds a nice bed of foilage in the outskirts of town*

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I have a couple of thoughts on that... Right now I think of Portlandio as already being our territory, but it is "hemmed in" by its dangers.  Pirates that way, orcs that way, scary forest that way, sharkmen that way, and so on.  Portlandio is booming, but it is also constricted because the dangers haven't been "cleaned out."  What we did with the Lizard King and the swamps was a great feat for Portlandio: we made a safe(r) border AND a trade partner, as well as a military backup on that front. I think that the more dangers we get rid of around Portlandio, the more the city can "breathe" because of the reduced pressure.  When it reaches a tipping point in population, it can effectively defend itself, and it will become a city-state.  That makes the whole city our castle. :) And you're right, it may well be that Horukh *is* the highest ranked person in Portlandio.  More importantly, the public perception may likely be that, after his successful negotiations of SEVERAL treaties and agreements that benefit the city, he's "Portlandio's Count Horukh."  The Nobleman side of him means he does state-level diplomacy.  The city itself has its councils and mayorial departments, its own city guard and contracted/tolerated mercenaries.  As far as I know, Portlandio does not yet have a "recognized" diplomatic representative, and Horukh could become that either by public opinion pressure, or by distant-kingly-appointment.  It would make the place I mentioned with the Beacon make more sense too. The Challengers can not only work on our own projects, but can become trainers for others.  (I was going to take/earn the NWP "Educator" but we may be able to do a stats-check instead)  I foresee the Challengers becoming a franchise, or a guild of sorts.  Scouts and adventurers, special operations teams.  Real-world, I am descended from a people called the Sauk And Fox.  They were city planners and strategists; in fact the town that would become Chicago was laid out by them, and many cities are based upon their designs.  It was said that a single Sauk And Fox strategist was worth ten warriors.  They would assist ally tribes or be hired out as single "mercenaries" to guide other tribes' warriors.  That is what I see the Challengers of Destiny as being like: a small band of specialists who work extremely well together, improve where they live, but can take on much bigger forces with their small number due to expertise and their ability to direct others.

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Players, all of the above is pretty much good-to-go and adopted, or underway, or is possible to get underway on game-days.  I would like to cover every point, but I'll save some of my reply for game day Monday. Upcoming Monday Oct 19 gameplay agenda preview Right now I mainly wanted to jump in to allow the discussion to continue rolling, because I am going to be traveling on Sunday to Monday morning, with plans of being home in-time for game session Monday. That's a heads up so that you know I'm traveling in case I end up late or absent, I will be making all efforts to be here in time for game. This Monday we will continue all this town development, role play a meeting with Lord H, draw on the map, have Duo roleplays like last week but this time with Mora back in the RP, and we'll talk about the "big picture" as Larry laid it out for the surrounding threats in the region. Journal XP possible for townie thread ideas/discussion Participation in this, or an excerpt of this, can count as anyone's Journal XP for the week, too. So don't necessarily feel like you need to double-up and do Journal writing if you at least have time to read the Town Map & Inn threads, and jump in with your thoughts here.  Of course regular Journals are still valid, encouraged and XP'd too.

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Larry, Great feedback! I do suggest we do a full comprehensive study & evaluation of Portlandio next game session. Any survey needs to include the following: Forest quality - Do we have the necessary hardwoods (oak, maple, etc...) Mineral wealth - A local source of iron would be exceptional Stone quality - Do we have access to strong granite like rock Land & sea distances to above resources - Can they be exploited effectively How the town is primarily fed - Agriculture, fishing, hunting, etc... Again, Torvald thinks our biggest problem is going to be in the political arena. We need to either co-op the town council or deftly eliminate them from Portlandio's power structure. Once in control we can start purging the incompetence and corruption. Now that I think about it... I think trade maybe our path to power. The more groups we ally or help, the more economic partnerships open up. If we leverage this into influence or money we'd get a leg up in muscling out the competition.

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Hello everybody.  It's my brain again, and my brain has a few things to say. Related to the defense of Portlandio, I would like to share this quote: "For example, mounted combat was all but discarded in the late 1500s, as combat grew to resemble medieval Tertio combat (a combination of pike armed footmen supporting Arquebusiers and Archers), with ranged combat accounting for as much as 70-80% of all casualties by the 1575. As such, shields were a huge part of combat, with large mobile shields made of wood or bamboo were common the battlefield—and all but unseen in cinema. By 1590s, the arquebus and field fortifications had become the standard tactics of the day, and huge field battles on open ground became increasingly rare, with battles coming to resemble large sieges than field battles."    When Horukh talks about the use of earthworks as channelling traps, he is speaking of ways that others might not understand without seeing a model.      The idea is not to just have a usual rampart, and then an open field.  The idea is to have levels of earthworks arranged in sequence like a broken herringbone pattern, with destructible bridges between them, and, "water features."  Atop the earthworks things like container gardening can be placed, or drying racks.      The idea is that a mass invasion, that "would have" been done with columns of troops and siege engines, instead gets split up into, say, sixty little invasion groups that must drop down to personal shield level scale instead of five story tall rolling fortresses..  The earthworks have overlapping field of fire as well as increasing height, and are much like ziggurats in profile (to reduce possible shelter area from missile weapon attack angles).  Then, when the city archers deploy, the IDEA is for them to do an orderly to retreat.  Leave the bridges in place after pulling key-pins that will make them collapse if crossed.  The invaders will see the tactical advantage of the archers' height and take those earthworks, either wasting a lot of time climbing the angled sides or using the bridges.  Of course, when ten or so of them are on the bridge, it collapses and drops its own weight and theirs on their channeled troops below.  Odd how those bridges have so many hundreds of decorative spikes below them, isn't it?     Woven in with the earthworks, "water features" can have perfectly good crops in them, but they also make a secret flanking network for swimmers.  A barrier to orcs and the like, they're fast-access waterways to swimmers.  No housing is allowed in this area becaus ethe idea is for the whole area to be sacrificial.    Put most simply, wherever you dig earth to make a rampart, you also make a trench.  Ramparts and trenches turn a flat battlefield, once usable by seige engines, into impassable terrain, and any mass unit tactics that might have been planned (like swath and egulf envelopment army tactics) wind up being broken into unmanagable numbers of small units trying to navigate climbs, falls, and water of unknown depths without line of sight of their command.     Horukh's opinion is that Portlandio should use the very local forest before someone elses it against them.  Again, this works in several ways:      It creates usable building materials.      Much of the building material can be hardened to make support framing for stabilizing the earthworks.      It resource-denies mass invaders.  Most large armies move in to attack, then halt and build their seige machines and camps from what is already there near their target.  Flat areas and lots of trees means : Portlandio gets sealed in on at least one side, and the invaders make shiny new catapults, trebuchets etc from the forest they harvest.    Then follows Horukh's simple and elegant plan for aerial reconnaaisance... but that is another tale.

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Larry does this picture kind of match what you've described? Classical fort design from the early age of gunpowder... Notice that it is several layers of fortification within each other.

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Super job on finding those pictures! I adore the design of star forts. :)  Their genius is in the overlapping fields of fire.  Picture a conventional "keep," a tower with four sides.  Onrushing attackers face one or maybe two sides of defenders.  With a star fort, attackers face at least three sides of defenders every which way, sometimes as many as six, but if they capture a section, they don't get the advantage themselves (unless they need to attack their own people, in which case they have a bad, bad day all over.) That said... Star forts are not outstandingly effective in the age of indirect-fire weapons such as longbows and catapults, which is what I picture Portlandio as being in.  They are a super design, and act as a force multiplier (twenty archers can be as effective as thirty because of positioning around the attackers).  Direct-fire weapons are great FROM a star fort but not against them.  Alas they're just a little more vulnerable to high-arc indirect fire like trebuchet.  The star fort is genius in inevitibly-flat terrain, which is why they were embraced by the Dutch. The idea behind the earthworks is to create terrain useful to the city but useless to a seige.  There's no point in trying catapults and trebuchets against Portlandio if you can't roll them into range. Good research!

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I managed to screenshot the entire town in several sections & stitched it back together in Photoshop for a composite town map, Jennifer's suggestion. Ended up with a total resolution of 5403 x 4604 to encompass the full annexed town area. This composite map provides 2 immediate benefits, Portlandio town map page should load faster in Roll20 for everyone. Sending the full resolution PNG file as a guide to Larry for drawing a city wall! Presenting... Portlandio town map screen shot overview updated! Here is a good graphical overview of the town's booming expansion. It's an ongoing work-in-progress. CLICK MAP TO ZOOM SIZE The latest Map of the town of Portlandio in Homebrew World 2E -- This is provided as a bird's eye view, to see the neighborhoods, districts and distances, for your tactics of proposing any townie defenses, buying real estate or other ventures.  A city wall is proposed by party members of the Challengers Of Destiny. Larry offered to draw the walls, which we can add onto this map.

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Some thoughts to share about being “the bird in charge….” Now, Count Horukh can not become a King or a Prince---or probably anything involving royal bloodlines or marriages, when it comes to Portlandio---doubly so because his actual parentage or even species is in question to some degree. However, he CAN become the Archon of the region, centered upon Portlandio ( <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archon" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archon</a> for an historical example) by choice of the people combined with his own investment. In time, a strong subset of archons can take his place when he is on expeditions with the Challengers. Keep in mind that at its height, Athens had a population of around 40,000 people and it was the center of world-changing arts, sciences, warfare and medicine, as a city-state. If you look at Portlandio as a “ mini-Athens ,” then a single Archon and his staff could coordinate the treaties, mayorial and civic chapters, military oversight and territorial awareness.  (In the metagame, by the time the Challengers are taking on Really Big Threats, the Archon system will be well-established and Horukh can gracefully bow out and leave the area if need be, without guilt) (Designer’s notes, “Behind The Scenes:” Ever since he found his bravery and became an adventurer, I play Horukh as a clerical kind of Leonardo da Vinci, able to see very big pictures and small details, but can relate to others on a personal level. That is why I think of it as possible to do all these things with the single character: he is a very high-intelligence, high-wisdom, high-charisma, high-perception, methodical little bird. When you consider that the real-world Leonardo did stuff like plot how to take down an enemy state by diverting away the entire river that fed their city, created calliope artillery, tanks, parachutes, sanitary planned cities and waterclocks, all without a drop of magic, stuff like I have Horukh do isn’t so extreme.) At this moment in the game, Horukh has the backing of the banks, the harbormasters, shipwrights, the maritime council, and the support of the swampfolk and civic popularity, plus the hero-glow of the Challengers, who manage to whup-ass on dangers and then feed the hungry after every mission.

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Blood lines smudge-lines... Be like Conan and take the throne of Aquilonia *cough* ... I mean Portlandio by force! (Like Ash said in Evil Dead: Army of Darkness: "It's good to be King!")

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I like all these ideas, Larry , Solid . Archon Horukh is neat and appropriate as a rank to develop over-time. It makes sense. The comparisons with Mini-Athens (+High Magic +global multiculturalism +more monsters = Portlandioish ), and Leonardo da Vinci ala Horukh tactics and qualities, are equally taken on board and acknowledged, incorporated, relevant inspirations. This summary is neat so I'll quote this here, At this moment in the game, Horukh has the backing of the banks,  the harbormasters, shipwrights,  the maritime council,   and the support of the swampfolk   (Laffite) and civic popularity,  (Portlandio, diverse walks of life and sectors of society) plus the hero-glow of the Challengers, who manage to whup-ass on dangers and then feed the hungry after every mission. I would add: Some of the clergy from places like the Greek Church and Kemetic Temple. And there are probably more, it's a growing consortium. He's even a Big Bird on Wall Street.

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That middle picture!  Just look at that Power Tie! It all started with "Hey, "Archon Horukh" sounds way cool."

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The latest map of "Muddy Portlandio" which is like Portlandio 5.0 in the evolution of the map Orienting everyone to Muddy Portlandio for March game play PC2 party, now heralded as The Company of the Broken Spear , returns to the typhoon-cleanup town of Portlandio, which is now appearing as "Muddy Portlandio" following the floods > winter freeze > and snow melt. The latest version 5 of the town map, thumbnail above, full size map page added in-game. Players will be given opportunity of Worldbuilding as a different mode of creative gameplay. Add to the Portlandio town key. Your additions should be conceivable within the setting, and fitting to your character in some manner, interest or connection.  Each PC will be asked to add at least 1 building, place or NPC.  This could be goods or services related to your proficiencies and interests (such as adding a Wagon Shop ),  or it could be a social place ( Hot Air Balloon Rides ),  or it could be anything that you see fitting in this town when you consider & realize the condition and timeline of the town as it stands today ( Roto Rooter Mud Removal Services ). You can post your ideas in this thread immediately, if you like, or open up for Questions or Discussion. By game-day I plan to take note of at least 1 town-adding idea from each Player who is playing. We will go around the table and find out what each Player wants to see added to the town map & why. DM Note -- I understand from discussions with Solid in game last-week, Baradin at least would prefer to create your own homestead somewhere afield NOT in Portlandio. That is understood. You aren't forced to defend Portlandio, build walls, or set down any roots there unless your Character wants to.  Some of the PC's have established connections in this town, or reasons for rebuilding her. Others would prefer to get out of town.  We will play both. Think ahead, on Muddy Portlandio. What would your PC try to find in such a town? I mean, what would your PC go looking for when you finally get back to the largest town in the region? Would it be gambling? Discount store? Races? Shopping mall? Training? Organic foods? 24-hour gym? Book Club? Scribe? Sage? Druid? Vortex or wormhole to another plane? Bright lights big city? Escorts and company of the night? Identify services? Information NPC's? If we (as a group) can "conceive" of how your idea could fit into our town, given the setting, given the timeline -- then it will be endorsed and incorporated.  You make it real. There could be some ideas that go too far ( Free Wishes Guy ), but we try to keep an open mind for creative ideas that are colorful and even beneficial and advantageous without defeating the game or the setting (like maybe you want to add 250 halflings attending a gaming convention in town who all want to get Furnace's autograph okay that might work ). DM reserves the right to edit, respond and modify ideas, to fit. Please Read or Re-read the thread above this post (from last year, from the top) to get the idea of how we can play-out some worldbuilding on Portlandio's current contents. Skim the map key as it stood back-then.  Add a typhoon, then winter, now snowmelt and cleanup continues. Particularly newer Players -- Silks, Aepod, Illusive Manager -- please review the existing thread from before your tenure. This will help orient you to the town before we return to playing there in the upcoming session. - DM Gold

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Muddy Portlandio Roleplaying Orientation Who can you talk to in town? Anyone, of course. Let's do roleplaying, investigation, plot development.   Q&A is welcome both PbP (Play By Post, ask here in the forum),  and we will also engage this gameplay mode on Monday in the live session. Buff-up on the PC's, NPC's and personalities around Muddy Portlandio.   Thinking ahead will help us organize & play efficiently with a lively pace,  without missing any plot-moving details and important clues that could be discovered. Plus the roster is entertaining reading in-itself, a Playbill of Characters. This took a while to put together the list, so please take a few minutes to read over it between games. Larry asked me for the list of the Monster allies.  While I was making that, I went ahead and listed everyone who has a Token in Muddy Portlandio. Organized them into tiers, And wrote a description for each person in the roster. Enjoy! Reply with Questions, ideas, roleplaying, or any other ones I missed who should be listed here. PC1 The Challengers Of Destiny Horukh-The-Silver(Larry) --- Kenku-like Bird-man PC foreign noble Egyptian / Kimetic Priest, Lawful Good proponent of Portlandio and erstwhile leader of The Challengers Of Destiny party. Last we heard, during Horukh's efforts in the post-typhoon rescue operations, he was accosted and escorted away by a group of cowled monks from the ruined Greek Chuch, for an interview or investigative hearing taking place in the government district. He has not been seen by the Challengers or the local people since that day. Torvald(Solid) --- PC Dwarf Warrior stationed at The Giant's Beard The Money Pit Swarg-Inn, leading The Challengers Of Destiny. Airen(Chris ) --- PC Bullywug frog-man Conjurer mage, with a faerie dragon familiar. He denies involvement in The Challenges Of Destiny publicly but is rumored to be the party's leading magical force, in fact, many local Portlandio teens have Airen posters on their wall. Rhubarb --- faerie dragon familiar of Airen's. Swargen(Paul) --- Norseman tall human Priest of Thor, Swarg-Inn owner in The Challengers Of Destiny who has adventured lately with Company Of The Broken Spear. Apparatus-Kwalish --- this is a magical submarine owned by The Challengers Of Destiny parked in a secret pirate cave on the coast. Not a sentient person but listed here as a town-available feature. Kryikh(Gray) --- XPC Kenku Transmuter mage who is stationed at the Magic School tower and guards certain items like a Philosopher's Stone and a Magic Caldron. Deactivated member from original Challengers Of Destiny. Kaz(StarGazer) --- minotaur priest of dawn for Lathander Morninglord, who was saved from stone by The Company Of The Broken Spear. On-leave member from original Challengers Of Destiny. Mora(Jennifer) --- XPC Half-Elf Rogue on leave from Challengers Of Destiny, her human father is a Locksmith in town, while her elvish mother is missing (at large) for reasons tying into the larger Homebrew plot. Mora's Aunty is Ota Sura, and she might know more about where Mora's mother has gone. Jaxon-ClericOfZeus(NPC) --- human ally who studies weather patterns, used to work for the Greek Church that was destroyed. PC2 The Company Of The Broken Spear (subteam of Challengers Of Destiny?) FurnaceDrake(Larry) ---- helpful, smart and well-meaning but excitable and dangerous Fire Drake companion of Sigma's. Sigma(Larry) --- PC Minotaur Ranger path-maker and monster herder. Member of The Company of The Broken Spear. Ampton(Aepod) --- newest PC, Gnome Rogue Tinkerer and Celestial-Astral-Spirit Investigator in The Company Of The Broken Spear. Javen+StonePony(Solid) ---- PC Baradin the Cavalier's War-horse and a magical stone pony sidekick. Baradin(Solid) --- PC Human Cavalier who was magically gated here against his will, from his Arthurian-style home continent far across the oceans of Homebrew world planet. Leader in The Company of The Broken Spear. Cylara(Silks) --- PC Elf Witch who was met in the forests of the coastal wild, they are coming into town for their 1st time officially. The one who does magic in Company Of The Broken Spear. Olly-Lynx(Cylara) --- Cylara the Elf Witch PC has a unique relationship with Familiar animals, they are able to summon a variety of them. FriarHugo(Hans) --- PC Human Priest Of Ilmater cleric of Suffering portfolio. Company Of The Broken Spear. WeiTing(Chris) ---- PC Flind dog-man Earthbender elementalist. Keeps his distance on the perimeter of The Company of the Broken Spear. Rajhad(Paul) --- Halfling Thief XPC of Paul's who can still be met in town. Company Of The Broken Spear. Monstrous Allies and Recruits around town area: HILL-GIANT-Norrik ---- sort-of cockney speaking Hill Giant with knowledge of "The Steading Of The Hill Giants" being built, voiced by RainbowSilks. WinteryWolf-Da'nagri --- Norrik's animal companion wolf. HILL-GIANT-Lando ---- dumber, impulsive and hungry/drunken sidekick of Norrik's. Perrytonn (chicken-sized cross of a heart eating eagle & a deer) Aurumvorax named SNUSH (8 legged golden badger) 5-PIXIES -- they have 5 individual names and personalities. Pranksters with pixie-cuts. Rescued by Friar Hugo from Quicklings torment and competition from Frosts. Kobo --- kobold train-hopper with an Iron Flask magic item. Lizardman-Sissy-Seacatcher(ST) --- Lawful Neutral lizardman who leveled up, it seeks to assimilate into town life. Roof-Cat-Is-Back (it is a Tressym, intelligent flying kitty) -- confidant of Mora's. WHAT-THE-FECK-IS-THAT (a Xaren, magic-eating creature from The Plane Of Earth Elemental New Jersey) Exposed-Cliff-Faces (are actually Galeb Duhr, slow sleepy boulder earth elems with long view of continental history) Crom The Sage (DEAD) lying in repose or buried by now, if you ever need to talk to him again try Divination spells. NPC and XPC people you can talk to: Freda(Smith) Stoutly(Smith) SMITH(Smith) --- allies / contacts of Torvald's. MortTheRaven(GnomeNPC) --- one-armed diplomat who immigrated from a fancy civilized continent far from the South. Beartram (Chris-S) --- XPC Druid who can shapechange into a bear, he lurks near a Stone Henge on the North side of town. Loyal-To-Che-Won --- a member of the Koryon military ranks who had a neutral encounter with the Challengers in the swamp, and later fought alongside your allies in the multi-army Battle Of The Shark Fort. Anyone else from the Map, Map Key, from the past game record, or from our new Worldbuilding additions this week. Associates - Followers - Troops of General Yi Bang, since General Yi Bang himself is not in town, he went North to lead fighting against the invading orcs. Associates - Followers - Troops of General Yi Ko General Yi Ko himself is in town, whether there is anyway to encounter him or not. Associates - Followers - Troops of General Che Won General Che Won himself is in town, whether there is anyway to encounter him or not (you can try). Che Won was an ally to the Challengers in the Battle Of The Shark Fort. Lord Harlepin's Door Guard. Lord Harlepin is out of town, and has few associates left here. He also went North to fight again in the orc wars. Places (just some of the places, add any other places found on Map / Key) Fly By Night Fighting Tent Strawberry Fields Militarized City Gate Magic School Smoke Shop House Of Coin Spy Shop Market Mrs Teva Meat Pies The High Street Government District, City Council Jousting Field The Mere Docks Linden Hill Dry Docks -- destroyed in typhoon, starting rebuilding Greek Church ruins --- the place was destroyed in the typhoon attack Sea Fort Office -- destroyed in typhoon Sea Fort Construction Site Temple of Chauntea Egyptian Temple Herbalist Mave --- shop destroyed in typhoon Swarg-Inn The Money Pit The Giant's Beard -- tavern, inn owned by The Challengers Of Destiny NE Camp -- refugees after typhoon displacement SE Camp -- refugees after typhoon displacement SW Camp -- refugees after typhoon displacement NW Camp -- refugees after typhoon displacement Lord Harlepin's Keep -- East side of Portlandio near the High Street, it is boarded-up and locked Carver Creek Penrost Woods Temple Farm King's Wood High Copse Peveril Farm Peddlar's Wood Moor End (suburb small town) The High Moor Old Town Ruins Harbor High Cliff Harbor Low Cliff Beach Any other place from the old Map Key Any other place you see on the Map Any other place we add in Worldbuilding gameplay mode!

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Sigma the Ranger organized several work crews, some humanoid, some lizardman, some mixed, and constructed a basic but servicable boardwalk so Portlandio can make some first steps towards being a healthy trading town.  Unless some underwater allies, strong spellcasters, or waterbenders can help out, the bay is still too silted up to bring in any deep draft vessels, so trading ships have to wait at anchor while tenders transfer goods.  It is slow, but it is something, at least until the harbor is dredged of all the mud runoff from the city. Interestingly enough, the lizardman crews are VERY well behaved under Sigma.  They even wear blue armbands or rags to identify as units.  They do not mind working in the mud in the least, so the humanoid crews do the shimming and hammering work on the boardwalk above while the lizardmen set the piers in the dwarven-made stone footings.  Sissy, the lizardman diplomat, is very happy with how relations are going. Almost immediately as a section of boardwalk is put up, small stalls are spontaneously built into the sides of them by locals, sometimes worked on before a walk section is even opened. Small vendors are getting back into business despite the mud. The boardwalks are currently being extended, to a narrower degree, into the refugee settlement areas.  The locals help with rope-rail making, while the crews build and then move on.  These aren't built for the weight of horses and wagons; the idea is to get a solid walkway between tent rows. Sigma has openly posted for the help of any waterbenders.  He has also sent a personal message to the logging camps upriver where he used to fell and split timber, requesting more structural poles and rough cut flats.  Sigma plans on meeting with Beartram at some point so that the Druid can mark trees that are preferred to be felled in the nearby forest. In Portlandio center, a main boardwalk arches over some of the loading docks and piers below, with enough clearance that they can become operational again some day.  That is called "Ponte Centralo," and the similar wide boardwalk to the big business and administration center is called "Ponte Regalo."  The names began as a joke, but then Portlandions started attaching bits of bunting and ribbon, even shiny leaves and seaweeds, to the rope-rails.  It might be due to fey intervention, too.  Sometimes the decorations are from deep in nearby woods. (Historical note!  This is the Ponte Vecchio (The Old Bridge), and its origins are a lot like the boardwalk side shops hanging off its edges in Portlandio.  The bridge's predecessors were much lighter weight, but when the new, stone bridge was designed in the mid 1300s, they incorporated the idea of the side shops into it---three stories' worth.  Neat how things can evolve!)

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