Spes Magna Games

One of my goals for Tiamat’s Throne is to provide locations and hooks for just about any type of fantasy or science-fiction game players might want. Adhara is rough-and-tumble world of farmers and anarchist artists with Pre-Rage ruins lost on uncivilized continents. Bellatrix is a hotbed of high-tech corporate intrigue set on cities floating above a waterless, lifeless planet. Castor is a low-tech quarantine world overrun by the undead. The arctic planet Deneb combines corporate oppression, a decadent aristocracy, and caverns full of degenerate outcasts.

Here’s rough-draft text for Adhara:

Population: 657,000
Atmosphere: Breathable but dense. Use those pressure masks!
Climate: Tropical to temperate
Government: Agricultural Republic
Tech Level: 3

Adhara was founded by the Striker Pact, a paramilitary conglomerate that specialized in establishing military outposts for frontier sector security. The planet was nearly ideal for colonization. Its biosphere is human-miscible, but its atmosphere contains unusually high concentrations of gases that make pressure masks necessary for breathing outside environmentally controlled buildings. During the Age of Fire, almost the entire original population of Adhara was killed by the dragons.

Recolonization of Adhara began a few decades before the Age of the Phoenix. Duke Apophis relocated natives of his throneworld Whetu to Adhara. The new Adharans have taken to the planet well-enough. Their tech level is still sub-par, but the reconstruction proceeds nonetheless. Most Adharans work in agribusiness. The planet’s temperate weather and rich soil regularly yield large agricultural surpluses.

Politically, Adharans have divided themselves into three competing republican districts, each one focusing on different crops and related products. These republics are small, and they are clustered on one of Adhara’s smaller continents located in the planet’s southeastern hemisphere. Relations between the republics are generally cordial. Adharans pride themselves on their vibrant interdistrict arts communities. Adharan fine arts can fetch high prices among discriminating collectors on other worlds, and the most successful Adharan artists sometimes go on interplanetary tours.

The vibrant arts communities have proven problematic in the past. Artistic expressions of contempt directed against Apophis and Tiamat resulted in violent reprisals. Since those dark days, Adharan republics have instituted severe restrictions on freedom of expression. Political speech and art is heavily regulated, and the penalties for underground art are particularly harsh. This conflict between a famous cosmopolitan arts culture and repressive controls on artistic expression is a sore spot with many Adharans.

The “art police” lack the personnel and expertise to adequately enforce speech laws in a few economically depressed wards. Radical underground artists run illegal presses and traveling galleries among the underclasses of these areas. Missionary priests associated with the Domini Canes also aid and abet these criminal artists.

Adhara is also a tomb world, a fact of interest to black marketeers as well as Duke Apophis’s agents. Whetu’s draconic master is rumored to maintain a covert force of soldiers, archaeologists, and Pre-Rage specialists on Adhara. These units comb through the blasted ruins on Adhara’s other five continents, seeking to claim whatever Pre-Rage artifacts can be found.

Tags: planetary tour, Tiamat's Throne

For Swords & Wizardry:

Golem, Book
Hit Dice: 5 (25 hit points)
Armor Class: 8 [11]
Attacks: 2 fists (1d6)
Saving Throw: 12+
Special: Answer questions, healed by magic scrolls, hit only by magic weapons, immune to most spells
Move: 12
Alignment: Neutrality
Challenge Level/XP: 8/800

A book golem is a servant created by a powerful cleric or magic-user to assist with research. Only +1 or better magic weapons can harm a book golem. A book golem is immune to spells that do not involve fire. It takes +1 point of damage per spell level from fire spells. A book golem can be healed by adding a magic scroll to its pages. The golem heals 1d4 points of damage per spell level contained on the scroll. The scroll can never be retrieved once it heals the golem. Three times per day, the golem will answer a “yes/no” question. There is a 50% base chance the golem has the knowledge available to answer a question. This increases by 5% for every point of Intelligence above 12 the golem’s creator possessed. If the golem cannot answer the question, there is a 50% chance it gives the wrong answer. This chance decreases by 5% for every point of Intelligence above 12 the golem’s creator possessed.

Tags: monsters, Swords & Wizardry