Been thinking about starting locations after rereading the excellent Fishtown, particularly ways it could change or grow with time, so here’s a die-drop starting area in the style of Majula or the Firelink Shrine in Dark Souls. I have the itch to mess with rules, so it uses Into the Odd for no particular reason. Been bouncing between that and Troika for my next game.
How to Use it
- Regenerate the starting area periodically to see who’s left and who has returned
- Regenerate whenever there’s a TPK to represent time passing / things changing
- Make your own — all it requires is 15-20 NPCs. Each has
- A name and profession
- An appearance and (usually portable) shelter
- A line of dialogue that generally indicates what they want
- Maybe a secret
Die Drop
Roll a d4, a d6, a d8, a d10, and a d12 on a sheet of paper.
- The die’s size represents the profession of the vendor
- The die’s value indicates which merchant of the given profession is present
- The die’s location indicates where the vendor is in camp.
1d4 – Merchant
Sells tools and rations for 1s each
- Kikiriki
- Cosette
- Junero
- Rochambeau
1d6 Smith
Sells hand and field weapons for 5s each
- Sinfarrier
- Godsmith Rosario
- Royal Smith Soleil
- Gravesmith Sartana
- or greater – Nobody
1d8 Doctor
Sells antitoxin, vermifuges, bandages, and antiseptic for 5s each. Their sickrooms costs 5s a day, and allow players to recover from wounds without risk of infection.
- Lamplady Yuma
- Goodly Doctor Vire
- Relict Iuste
- Lonely Vedra
- or greater – Nobody
1d10 Magician
- Hexwright Jupitere
- Hidden Lunaire
- The Orminger
- or greater – Nobody
1d12 Stranger
You have to meet additional strangers out in the world before they start visiting camp.
- Beasty Saith
- or greater – Nobody
Friends
Beastly Saith
Oh, how this collar itches…they tell of a blade in the woods to the west that could cut off such a thing…I’d give you quite the toothsome reward. Ahahaha!
- A colossal leopard in a golden chain collar, sprawled out on silk cushions and blankets beneath the shelter of a red pavilion, illuminated by fuming braziers.
- A stranger. Accompanies clients as a hireling for 10 gp per expedition. +1d6 HP and +1 to STR and DEX for every 10 gp paid. Even if she seems to die, she can be found back in camp as if nothing had happened. Demands utter respect.
- 5 HP, 14 STR, 12 DEX, 11 WIL, 1 Armor, d8 damage
Cosette
I heard the deacon buried treasure in the old church’s graveyard before the hunters burned everything down. Bet there are some real nice shinies in that dirt.
- A woman in a black silk coat and a tricorn hat pulled low, slouched against a hound-drawn wagon.
- Sells gear. also, if players lose something that isn’t actively being sought by somebody else, it will likely end up in Cosette’s inventory in a session or two.
Godsmith Rosario
The fire, the fire, the forge’s flame…nobody remembers anymore…get me one branch of holy cedar, and I’ll smith you something like I did in the old days…hmmhmmhmm.
- A toweringly tall and beautiful woman working before a forge that burns with with pearly fire.
- A smith. Her refined weapons will not break or lose their edge from any mundane force or power.
Junero
Have you seen my husband? He left for the quarry to trap rabbits yesterday, but hasn’t come back.
- Salt-and-pepper stubble, wears a bandana to keep his hair out of his eyes, drinking something pungent out of a gourd on his belt, sells his wares from a creaking rickshaw.
- Sells gear. If assured of the party’s good intentions, he will sell charms for 5 gp each. Charms provide a +1 bonus to a stat until the first time a check with that stat is failed. Characters can only carry one charm at a time or none of them work. Possession of a charm is punishable by death by the law of the Carillon.
Goodly Doctor Vire
The denizens of yon belltower brew medicines beyond compare. A recipe, an ingredient, a shred of their flesh…oh, the ills I might cure with just a taste!
- Blindfolded with linen embroidered in gold with a single eye, wears a doctor’s white coat oddly trimmed with gold damask, works out of a lean-to of pine planks and oilcloth.
- A doctor. Brews one dose of red oil a week, which can be used to revive a mostly whole corpse to 1 HP and at least 1 in each stat if it has died in the last hour.
Gravesmith Sartana
The temper’s the thing, my friend…the best metal and the hottest flame do nothing without the right quench…would you have some blood?
- A stooped and wiry man who stares into the sickly flame of his forage with pale eyes, surrounded by barrels sealed shut with paper talismans.
- A smith. If furnished a fresh corpse, he will forge a weapon that deals damage equal to the damage the creature could deal with an unarmed melee attack.
Hexwright Jupitere
Fetch me the heart of a hunter, still fresh…heehee…I’ll bring those pompous belltenders right down to their knees…
- Wears black robes trimmed with fur, conceal their face with a fine black veil weighed with silver coins.
- A magician.
- Blank and Rotted Tome: read to learn unbecoming
- Tarnished Silver Grimoire: read to learn darksome song
Hidden Lunaire
Oh, hello there.
- An immaculate white tent, the brilliant lamp inside projecting its occupant’s silhouette against the side. The tent’s entrance is crudely stitched shut with rawhide. Entering the tent reveals there is nobody inside.
- A magician.
- Blue Sticky Lump: consume to learn eye
- Warm and Knotted Coil: consume to learn hands
- Twisted Tooth: consume to learn maw
- Pale Blue Cerata: consume to learn bloom
Kikiriki
Dubious and questionable, the lot of them. Listen to me, and I’ll tell you what’s what. Keeheehee!
- A wicked little fellow in a crow mask who hawks his wares from beneath a ragged awning.
- Sells gear, as well as random rumors for 3 gp a piece.
Kikiriki’s Rumors
- The priests of the old church buried their treasures in the graveyard before they all burned. Stupid! Stupid! The dead want for nothing!
- ‘Ware the hunters of yon belltower. I hear one is stalking prey as we speak. Don’t let them get you! Keeheeheehee!
- Some blundering trapper got himself caught by the thing that lurks in the quarry. What fool! There won’t be enough to bury!
- They say the light of a new moon reveals the unseen. Doesn’t make any sense to me.
- Oh the foundry on the lip of yon quarry, that hateful place, where my w–well, where I lost something I need. They say the metals they smelted there are useful and wicked beyond compare…
- There grows a lone tree of holy cedar in the deepest part of the western forest. I once knew a lady of the old court who said a flame stoked with such wood is blessed for as long as it burns.
- A noble of the distant Leopardy was exiled here many years ago. He’ll fight at your side for a fee and the chance to spill some blood.
- A spring flows to the west, on the top of yon mountain. Deep waters flowing on high…truly auspicious, no? Keeheheehee!
- I hear them tell of a goodly doctor who brews spurious concoctions from the flesh of yon belltower’s denizens. Not that I would ever drink such a thing.
- A passing magician remarked that a bellhunter’s heart must be filled with spite and ire, unsurpassed kindling for a terrible curse.
- In Tarrow Town, right beneath yon belltower, there is a boarded up workshop sealed with the mark of the Carillon…I wonder what misfortunes and curiosities could hide within?
- Long ago, before even the fall of the old courts, a cursed king’s cursed crown was cast into the pits to the east. Who would want such a thing, I wonder?
Lamplady Yuma
The night of the new moon…truly a revelatory time…hehehe!
- Long black hair, pale brown eyes that almost seem tinged with pink or red, wears voluminous vestments and a cassock. Her clinic is a collapsible A-frame tent with smoky braziers burning by the entrance.
- Provides services as a doctor. Sells up to one bottle of blue oil a week, which restores 1d12 HP.
- Suffers from a painful and wasting disease, is keeping it in check under the tutelage of Kith BYS, whose crypt lies hidden beneath her clinic. The treatments are slowly transforming her into something sinuous and many-eyed. If the hunters of the Carillon find out they will kill her and everyone in her clinic.
Lonely Vedra
In the shadow of yon belltower lies a town of useful fools, sheep for the dogs of the Carillon. Find the casket that lies in the well of my old workshop there, return it to me unopened, and you shall be richly rewarded.
- A woman with an enormous quantity of graying hair, stirring a seething cauldron in a cottage with a tarp roof.
- A doctor. Once a week, sells a Slippery Blue Mass that gives the user +1 Armor when swallowed. The user must make a WIL check every 10 minutes or the effect ends.
The Orminger
Ah…I’ve come so far, but not far enough, I’m afraid…my crown, my old crown, it lies lost in the caverns to the east…I’ve all but forgotten so much, but it still calls to me…please…
- A beautiful and impassive giant, easily twice as tall as a human, sprawled out on the ground, cheek flat against the dirt, only their face visible, their strange proportions and unfamiliar limbs both concealed and suggested by their voluminous robes.
- A magician. Reaches out gently with a huge and elegant hand and touches your brow with an elegant forefinger, bestowing a roll on the warlock table.
Relict Iuste
There is a mountaintop spring, past even the western woods, where water from the most profound depths flows…I should like a taste of it, someday.
- A potbellied old man swathed in tattoos in an unfamiliar script, wearing nothing but an open vest and breeches, smoking a rich-smelling pipe beneath an oversized umbrella.
- A doctor. Once a week, sells a huge and foul-tasting pill that gives advantage on STR checks and disadvantage on DEX checks. The user must make a WIL check every 10 minutes or the effect ends.
Rochambeau
Customers, on this night of all nights? Take care…I hear a visitor from yon belltower is on the hunt…
- Wears an oversized canvas coat and drawstring pants, sells her wares out from under a tattered awning illuminated by humming phosphor globes.
- Sells gear, as well as boxes of myrrh cigarillos for 10 gp each. Smoking a myrrh cigarillo keeps you from aging one day, and monsters hate the taste of a myrrh-smoker’s flesh.
Royal Smith Soleil
Oh, don’t look at me like that, I know already. Fetch me a bottle of the deep waters from the western mountaintop if you’re so bothered.
- A baboon in a leather apron accompanied by a swarm of macaque assistants with serious faces in a cyclopean stone workshop.
- A smith. Sells medium and heavy armor.
Sinfarrier
There’s a foundry on the far side of the quarry…bring me the ingots you find there… I’ll make you something you won’t soon forget…hahahaha!
- A lanky man in a heavy ceramic mask and a thick leather apron hammering on a curious porcelain anvil. Ram horns curl from his head, perhaps part of his headgear?
- A smith. His vicious weapons, made from black iron and flanged with silvery edges, deal +1 Critical Damage
