EPT Session Report: The Tale of Dagazar

I, Dagazar, who came to the city of Jakalla seeking fame and fortune, had until just a few days ago only found poverty and despair.  The gates that lead from the Foreign Quarter to the areas of the city where real wealth can be obtained are locked tighter than the chastity belt of a virgin sacrifice to Sarku three days before her death.  With my last golden kaitar gone into the hand of some wine maker, I no longer could afford to live in the meager tenement that had served as my abode since I arrived in the City Half as Old as the World.

But, as I was out on the street with only my sword an armor to keep me company, I overheard two gentlemen discussing a plan to win gold for themselves.  They were from distant lands, just as I am, and they were planning to explore the manor house of Kotaru hiChakresa.  I offered them my services as a slayer of men and beasts, and they graciously accepted -- allowing me a share of whatever treasure we might find in that abandoned house.

After acquiring what little supplies we could attain in the Foreign Quarter, we paid a fisherman to take us in his small boat out to the island on which sits the manor.  Rather than landing on the beach, as we saw other ships had done, we decided to circle around the island to get a feel for the place.  While doing so, we spotted what we knew to be a sea cave and decided that this cave would be the place we began our adventure.

We waded in the chest deep water, with me being careful to carry my pack over my head so as not to wet my supply of torches.  Luckily we soon found a dry enough place to light a torch and continue on into the "caves."  My companions were Orin the Wise and Orin the Witless.  Orin the Wise was a priest of some god who is foreign to my people, and I would guess foreign to Jakalla as well.  Orin the Witless was a warrior much like myself, but he was given to a pride that may one day prove to be the death of him.

I went ahead with my torch, and we soon found both an idol wrought from a strange stone with gold decorations that made it appear most valuable and an obsidian dagger that was too large to comfortably fit a man's hand.  I shudder to think what dark creature could have carried such a thing.  Soon after this we found that the cave was only a small part of a larger complex, and after the cavernous antechamber we were greeted with the squared masonry of -- presumably -- human hands.

We did not get very far down these man made corridors before we heard the sound of voices gibbering in some tongue foreign both to my islands and the wretched city in which I find myself.  Orin the Wise seemed to understand their ramblings and warned us of their approach.  Orin the Witless and I set an ambush that would prevent their travelling further down the hall, and we waited for them to arrive.  They soon did so.  Both were soldiers in some foreign army my comrades inform me is an enemy to Jakalla.

Through bravery and force of arms we attacked and slew a host of the villains.  Wishing to be modest, I only took two of their heads as trophies so that the others of my tribe would not be jealous.  We then took what little valuables the heathens possessed and returned to Jakalla.  There, some acolytes of Sarku were willing to mummify my trophies so that everyone might know who brought those two to their end.  I have tied them to my belt, and there they will remain.  Hopefully soon I will be able to add others.

The City at the Center of the World

In the eyes of the people of the West, Zenopolis is a city without equal either in luxuriousness or depravity.  Its domed temples and tall spires are a testament to a bygone age: the age of the Empire.  When the barbarians swooped down from what is now Novgova into the Dark Country and the West, the Empire could do little to resist them.  Plagued by internal struggle and external invasion, the emperor Zeno moved his capital to an island city once used to as a fortress to defend against pirate attacks from the Desert Lands.  The Empire may have withered, but in the eyes of the people of Zenopolis some corneal of it still remains.

Zeno did not only move the capital.  He also revived the worship of the Old Gods.  While the Church of Law still exists legally, it does not hold the position it does in the west.  Instead, a cacophony of religions exist in the City at the Center of the World.  The Church claims many of these are diabolic in nature, and the clergy shudders to think what slithering things these deranged madmen worship.

Zenopolis's climate is arid when compared to the West, but the trade from the Desert Lands, the Dark Country, and places even farther than that have made it rich.  Its armies are filled with soldiers from across the World, though the Autocrat is particularly fond of using barbarians from the Dark Country as his personal guard.  Many of these men fled the lances of the Sword Brothers and found employment in the City.  It is sometimes said that the Autocrat's fondness for them goes beyond mere martial prowess, but most of the barbarians would staunchly deny this.  Such activity is unmanly.

Zenopolis is not the first built on this island.  Even before the imperial fortress, cities existed here.  The location is perfect for trade between the East and the West, and as such there has scarcely been an epoch where the island was uninhabited.  Rumors say that the ruins of these cities lie beneath the current edifices.  They intertwine and overlap creating a network of tunnels, chambers, and catacombs which could never be fully mapped.

In the days before the Church of Law, many of the temples possessed undercrofts and secret chambers that connected to these dungeons.  Since the revival of the Old Ways, many of these structures have seen renewed habitation; however, most still languish in obscurity.  It is said that when they were sealed, many of the priests and oracles were still inside.  What has happened to these populations in the thousand plus years since they were trapped inside is a mystery.

A more intriguing mystery, however, is what became of the golden idols and relics which were sealed in as well...
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Recently, my mind has been filled with ideas for different games.  I was having a hard time picking one, but earlier tonight I decided to take the common elements and spin them off into their own project.  The above is a result.

Essentially, I wanted to make an EPT style Underworld that was heavily inspired by CAS's Zothique cycle; however, I don't want to abandon the work I've already done on the Dark Country and the World.  Hopefully, this is a good compromise.

The monsters will not be standard D&D fair but neither will they be LotFP creatures.  I'm not exactly sure what they will be yet, but I have some ideas.

Potential

Hill Cantons' recent post on the possibility of a set of online Tekumel games got me thinking: what if this is the place where the old style of campaigns gets resurrected?  

I'm not telling those involved how to organize their game, but if they wanted to set up several referee's with their own sections of the Jakallan Underworld (or with various underworlds in various cities through the Empire as Barker suggests doing with multiple DMs) with an open pool of "barbarian" characters to slum around in each that would be pretty metal.

EPT is one of those things that I marvel at from afar.  I'm not one of those guys whose loved it forever but never played that Chris describes here.  I just found out about it a couple of years ago from this OS thing we've got going.  As glorious as Barker's creation is I'm more interested in using it to fuel my own project like Ilion* or Uz.  I must say though that I am looking forward to seeing what these groups who have caught the Tekumel bug are going to do with it.  I'd probably tinker with it myself if I didn't already have a game going.

Maybe they'll get enough referees that I could get in a slot as a player.

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* I take slight offense at Barker's lumping in "Greco-Roman" with the Medieval aspects of a standard D&D fantasy milieu.  Outside of my own interpretation of the Wilderlands, I haven't found a setting that has enough mystery cults in it.