Re: Your turn

tlhawk@???-??.org wrote:
> 
> >       Terry, do you honestly want me to fry the listserve?  If so, I'll post
> > my 30+ page sphere guide for Twilite space, the 12 page history of my
> > galaxy, and the 40 k graphic file of my galaxy (a modified NASA pic).
> > Unfortunately, all are incomplete (ack, I just realized I haven't worked
> > on my sphere guide in ages; I really need to update it).
> >
> > --
> > Night Druid
> 
> Okay, spoon feed us for a while. Best of...., or in installments.
> Post some samples.
>
> Can't send the graphics to the list, but maybe somreone with a ewb
> site could put them on display (hint, hint).
> 
	Most of this stuff will hit my web page eventually, once I rewrite
parts of it (I have done major changes to my universe, and I haven't
updated everything yet).  I'm trying create a nice, universal set of
deities, rules, and planes to make my little universe unique.  Anyways,
you wanted a sample, so here's Nightweb, a city of Drow located in
Twilitespace but could easily fit in almost any campaign.

Nightweb, City of the Drow
	Nightweb hardly resembles any other space city.  Instead of a city
built on an asteroid, the whole city is a free-hanging construction, all
alone in the night.  It is built to resemble a giant web, with a great,
bloated ebony sphere at its center.  The 'strands' of the web are about
75' in diameter, and span over two miles, from tip to tip.  There is a
great distance between each strand, allowing the web to be used as a
docking facility.  The interior of the strands are hollow, serving as
warehouses, inns, barracks, and corridors.  The shadowy corridors are
far more dangerous than the alleys of the most decrepit cities of
humanity.  Neogi slavers, Illithid assassins, and drow thieves can all
be found lurking in the darker reaches of the tunnels.
	At the cross-strands of the web, weapon platforms have been constructed
both above and below the strands.  Each weapon platform consists of a
medium ballistae and a light catapult.  The whole platform is magically
turreted, and is manned by a drow warrior and 4 slaves.  The warriors
are based in one of five barracks, while the slaves are kept in nearby
pens.  Each platform has 2 warriors and 10 slaves assigned to it, so any
battle will raise reinforcements quickly, replacing casualties quickly. 
Those weapons emplacements closest to the city proper are equipped with
magical weapons, such as disrupters, fire-ball flinging catapults, and
magnetizers.  These stations are always crewed by 3 drow warriors at all
times.
	The city proper is the great sphere of black crystal.  The sphere is
almost a half mile across, and has most of the properties of the crystal
that makes up the system's shell itself.  It is completely black, and
cannot be penetrated by any magic.  However, several entrenches do
exist, mainly where the web strands meet the sphere.  A single point in
the sphere, at the "southern pole," is magically treated so that a ship
can simply fly through it with no difficulties at all, though it appears
solid.  Only drow ships are allowed to use this portal, as it leads to
their private ship yards.
	On the inside of the sphere, there are three subcities.  The first is
the drow compounds.  They consist of many stagtites hanging from the
ceiling of the spherewall, many linked through magical walkways.  The
second part of the city, and the most populace, is the upper side of the
disk that bisects the sphere.  This area is home to drow commoners as
well as visiting illithids, neogi, beholders, and others.  The third
part of the city is the underside of the disk, which is used by the drow
as the docking facilities for their private ships.  The place is
elaborate, having a drydock for an armada, two for men-o-wars, and a
massive pool for war-landing ships.
	The whole city has a population of 4500 drow, twice as many slaves, and
1000 or so visiting merchants, pirates, and other evil beings.  The
entire city is very dimly lit, with purplish lightposts on major
streets.  Anyone using a lightsource greater than a few candles will be
arrested, and depending upon the mood of the person making the arrest,
faces a penalty which ranges from a fine to death.  Infravision works
normally within the city, but those without such sight is treated as
being in starlight conditions.
The Army: Nearly every inhabitant of Nightweb could be called for the
defense of the city, if it came to that.  Still, a standing army
exists.  It is comprised of common soldiers paid by the ruling council. 
In all, there are about two hundred drow soldiers and four hundred slave
creatures as part of the army.  Each drow soldier is equipped with a
suit of light chain armor crafted from the high quality iron mined from
nearby asteroids.  They use short swords, halberds, and light crossbows,
often crafted from the same high quality meteor iron.  These items often
have the same quasi-magical bonuses that normal drow items have, but do
not disintegrate in sunlight.
	The Army's command structure is surprisingly stable, no doubt to the
iron hand and will of the general in charge.  General Galsdjf is a
14th/15th level fighter/mage with an impressive array of magical weapons
and items.  He maintains tight control over his men, and keeps the army
safely out of the political maneuverings of the city proper.
	General aldfj orders are to keep the docks peaceful and watch over the
safety of the city as a whole.  Other than that, he is free to exercise
whatever orders he cares to.  However, as he has recently turned more to
the study of magic in it's more powerful forms, he cares not what goes
on.  So long as no riots break out, he lets the people do whatever they
wish.  As there is nothing that is illegal in Nightweb, searches for
contraband are non-existent.
	The army also counts five damselflies as part of its forces.  These are
used as presuit and attack ships.  Any ship that attacks another in the
docks is destroyed by the damselflies, their cargo seized (extra pay!),
and crews enslaved.  This rarely happens, as the council is interested
in increasing trade with other evil races.
	The army's sole purpose is to defend the city from attack, a long a
boring assignment.  They are mostly based in the docks region, leaving
the defense of the city proper to the "special units" of the drow
council.
	The "special units" is a small army of demons.  Lloth has arranged for
a powerful force of demons to be based here, ensuring the drow's future
in space.  The demons include 10 vrocks, 9 Bulezaus, and 3 yochlols, all
lead by a marilith.  The special unit answers to Lloth alone, and is
even above the council in authority.  This elite unit can also call upon
some 200 manes and 25 yeth hounds to deal with troublemakers.  Normally,
the manes are kept locked up in a tower of black stone, magically
enchanted to keep them contained.  The yeth hounds roam the streets in
packs, often lead by a vrock or yochlol who hunt down criminals (in
otherwords, anyone who has displeased the demons).
Important Features
1:  House of Starslayers:  The head house of the city, the Starslayers'
compound is a maze of stalagmites linked by railless walkways.  They are
strict Lloth worshippers, with the most elaborate and decorative temple
in the city.  Great magical defenses can be found throughout the
compound, including deadly glyphs, magically repeating heavy crossbows,
and many traps.  The house is ruled by a 18th level priestess of Lloth,
who is ruthless in destroying all rivals for power.  She commands no
large spelljammers, though her house does own a vipership, 2 scorpion
ships, and a damselfly, which are used either in trading operations or
as hunting ships when the matriarch decides to go a hunting.
	About five hundred or so soldiers can be found in the compound at any
one time.  There are about ten or so nobles, seven of which are female. 
Five of the females are priests, all but the high priestess being
between 5th and 9th level.  The other two are warriors, both 8th level. 
The males are all fighter-mages, of levels 6th to 12th level.  The house
matriarch has a nightmare steed and a hunting pack of no less than 4
displacer beasts.
	The magical items found in this house include a rod of rulership, a rod
of asorbtion, 12 or so magic weapons, 15 magic armors, 3 rings, 20
potions, 7 scrolls, and 5 other magic items (all determined randomly).
2:  House of Bloodmoon:  The second most powerful house, the Bloodmoons
have based themselves in a single, large stalagmite and four smaller
stalagmites.  The house is ruled by a 16th level priestess of Lloth who
desperately wants to rule the whole city.  Her house is far more active
in space than the Starslayers, and are attempting to gain a bigger
fleet.  
	Though the House has some four hundred soldiers, only three hundred and
fifty are ever in the compound at any one time.  The rest are always
aboard the house's man-o-war and two damselflies.  The nobles number 9,
including many priestess, mages, and warriors.  Most are multi-classed,
of levels 6 to 11.  The house also owns a rod of cancellation, 10 magic
weapons, 12 magic armors, and 20 other magic items (randomly
determined).
3:  House of Worldkillers:  Third in the ranks of power, the
Worldkillers are very ambitious.  They, knowing that they have little
chance of taking the city, have instead turned to spelljamming to gain
power.  Their fleet is the strongest of all of the houses, and is the
only one with an Armada, monarch-class, of course.    The Worldkiller
compound is extremely small, held only for the sake of appearance.  The
compound is a single, mid-sized steatite manned by a lesser mage of 7th
level and his trope of 30 soldiers.
	The rest of the house is found in space with the fleet.  The
Worldkillers have a monarch armada, an avenger class man-o-war, 2 bat
cruisers, and a squadron of 15 flitters.  About 300 drow crew these
ships, and are commanded by the many nobles.  Though the high priest,
which is of 13th level, has only five other nobles in her family, she
has made almost a dozen others into nobles to command the fleet.  All
other nobles are of levels 5 through 9, being mages, fighters, and a few
priestesses.  None but the high priestess herself knows how many magic
items the house owns, but their magic must be great, as they have been
active in seeking out such items.
4-9:  Lesser Drow Houses:  The six lesser houses of the city are
constantly competing for position and favor.  Each has it's own ideas
and advantages in power, though none could threaten the three main
houses.  Two of the houses are extremely active in spelljamming, though
the largest ship they own is a man-o-war.  The rest use heavily defended
compounds to protect themselves from each other.  Each house has about
200 to 300 soldiers, a half dozen or so nobles, and 20+ magic items.
10:  Lower City:  This large area is a maze of buildings and
structures.  Four major streets run through the area, but the rest is a
chaos of buildings.  The buildings are all beautiful, but none are very
tall.  The tallest structure is the Palace of Fiends, detailed below,
which is 100' high.  Most of the rest of the buildings are less than
three stories tall.
	This area is a riot of cultures and civilizations.  It is very much
like any other spaceport, except that the people that roam here are far
more dangerous than most.  It is very rare to find anyone who is not
using powerful magics or psionics to defend themselves against backstabs
and poison.  Just walking down the street is an adventure in itself. 
Needless to say, the many taverns and pleasure houses are pure murder.
11:  Palace of Fiends:  This massive structure dominates the center of
the lower city.  It appears as a massive domed structure with a single,
great tower at its side.  There is a single gate, which is always manned
by two vrocks.  Inside the dome, there are many private chambers,
torture rooms, and endless defenses.  The upper half of the dome is a
chapel to Lloth, though it is staffed by drow priestesses rather than
fiends.  The tower behind the chapel is where most of the demons reside,
including the marilith.  She makes her residence on the uppermost floor,
which has many comforts as well as battle plans and weapons.
	The whole place radiates magic, and was constructed in the Abyss.  None
can enter through magic, nor could one spy on the place with magic. 
Attacking it would be suicide, as the drow would rise up in mass to
defend it.
12:  Tavern of the Dogs:  The largest and best-known tavern in the city,
the Dogs is the place to conduct business over the best brew the city
has to offer.  A handful of beautiful drow waitresses service the
tables, wearing rather skimpy outfits.  They also service in other ways,
for the right price.  As the place has a standing rule against weapons,
many come here to enjoy themselves.
	The darker secret of the Dogs is that it is owned by a glabrezu.  He is
a rival of the marilith, and has come here to spy on her and to find
some weakness.  He uses the handful of cambion and abu-fiends he has to
spy on her and learn all he can.  His drow serving wenches are all
thieves of levels 4-9, and are used to pry information out of important
officials.  The glabrezu then uses the information to turn one faction
against other.  So far, he has managed to keep his presence a secret,
and has weakened those who could threaten his growing guild of spies and
thieves.
13:  Drow Docks:  This massive area is used both for docking purposes
and to grow food.  As described above, the dry-docks include slips for
an armada, two men-o-wars, and 3 other ships.  A watery pool, about a
quarter mile long and half as wide, dominates one part of the space,
used for water-landing ships.  Only half of the drow ships will be here
at any one time, either under repairs or getting supplies.  The rest are
in space, mainly hanging around the world of Outreach and its many small
moons.
	What space that has not been used for ships has been converted into
farms.  A large rothe herd, maintained by goblin slaves, wanders one
area, while massive fungi farms, monitored by myconid slaves, dominates
another.  In addition, the sphere wall has been embedded with a special
dirt that defies gravity, allowing a variety of hanging plants to grow
on the walls.  A special breed of wasps, magically bred to tend such
plants, harvests the crop for the drow.  What the drow cannot grow for
themselves, they trade for with the world of Outreach, a few hours
travel away.
14:  Common Docks:  This is the web.  This area is known for dark
corridors, deadly alleys, and even deadlier taverns.  It also serves as
a docking area for non-drow ships.  Some ships, like neogi ships, have
special docking doors on their hulls to allow the ship to dock without
exposing the dock workers (all goblins) to light.  Those without the
special doors must dock in the shadows, or pay extra fees.  As an entire
strand section can fold out, presenting a docking pier for any ship
under 300' in length, having a special door is not really an issue. 
There are facilities to handle almost forty ships at any one time,
though only half of which are in use.  Any evil aligned race or crew can
be found here, with the exception of surface elves.




-- 
Night Druid

"DAMN!!  I get 25 E.P. for sewing my own wounds???
I'm rippin' them babies out and sewing them again!!!"
-Bob, Knights of the Dinner Table

"I only chewed in self defense; I never swallowed"
-Draco, Dragonheart