New Zone: Tri-Kingdoms

[PotatoJedi]

Raslen, myself and Swade had a chance to explore this new zone after appearing in it. Joshua has also been there with me though only briefly for a minute.

The zone appears to be in a mediaeval setting but with steampunk technology added in. Any higher tech requires a very difficult exertion of will in order to work. We were not able to discover any exact specifics. Magic appears to work unhindered. We do not know if there is a Clem's. When you look up at the sky, it is very pretty though you can easily tell you are not on earth.

There are dirty coloured rags on the edges of the forest (I believe only the Drohen Forest though maybe further) which act as markers. Extremely high-tech camera juicers are located in some of the trees (nailed in) though they did not appear to be connected to anything. Unsure how they work, if at all. Presumably belong to the aliens.

Brief history: A long time ago, aliens or something came out of the sky. Huge battle between the 3 kingdoms over two centuries ago. Aliens wiped out the armies in Bleakmere and chased them all back to their kingdoms, then they came back to Bleakmere. 3 kingdoms declared that the Drohen Woods should be left to the aliens.

Travelling merchant came called Geld Garren, great man. Made a bargain with the aliens and was able to set up a trading post which became known as Bleakmere. Reason why unknown. Garren family is the strongest of the merchants. If you do any violence, a blob of silver comes and engulfs you, suffocating you until you die. Bleakmere has found a way around this by using robots to perform said violence. Seem to only cover areas past the markers. The Silvers love the forest and so no wood is allowed to be harvested from Drohen Woods.

There appear to be 3 major kingdoms. See map below for locations.
    Kingdom of Blood: Appear to have Victorian-like/generally really fancy dressed nobility of some sort. Werewolves as guards in some cases. They also have vampires. Regular people are just standard mediaeval kind of clothing. Standard mediaeval weaponry.
Flag: Black stylised sun rising over red hills. Language: Blood (Finnish) Currency: Blood Notes & Teeth. 1 GP = approximately 2 BN. 1 silver = 35 teeth.

    Commonwealth of Zamora: Somewhat colour-coordinated.
Guards: dressed in red.
Merchants: gold and white.
Beast tenders: Brown and green.

Also known as the “tarn (?)” Riders. Fly some kind of birds. Language: Georgian (unknown what they call it locally). They also have mages. Currency: Flurbows & Shmeckels. 

    Democratic Iron Republic Kingdom: Clockwork-style. Black. 
They have steam-powered robots. Powered armour. Pistols. Clockwork-style everything. Lots of gears etc, coal powered.
Special kind of coal. Small. Used to power various things. The kingdom itself uses an intricate rail network. It is hot and arid. THEY HAVE SPICES. Language: Huttese (unknown if they call it something else locally). Currency: Bap.

The Fey kingdom believe that all humans should die. Warned by Puddle Foot not to go there. They were driven back to the quagmire by the humans which is why they hate them so much. All 3 kingdoms hate them.



Some Fey, except for the Lords and Ladies, are susceptible to cold iron. Burns them.



We only visited one city – Bleakmere, located within Drohen Woods. It is considered neutral ground. There are no roads leading to it, only well worn paths. It is a Trading City built high up into the trees with buildings built upon large circular platforms. Narrow bridges connect everything together. There are no railings or other defences to stop people from falling over – this is intentional. Small 3m x 3m platforms can be raised by a small team of workers in order for people to get up into the city. They are guarded as well, though the guards have no weapons – only armour. The city has various things for trade including some interesting magical items which cost between 800-2400 (or thereabouts) BN. It costs 5 BN per person for one day's worth of food. Renting a house is very expensive (unknown). Homeless people not allowed and will be thrown off the ledge.

Before you can go up the elevators you will be searched by the guards. Anything which is deemed to be a “trade good” (generally several things of a certain type that you may possess) will be taxed, i.e. you must pay in order to bring it up. Declare if you have anything to trade.

After speaking (or attempting to) to the guards, they brought out Puddlefoot: small Fey/house elf. Tour guide. Speaks many languages including Fey (English). Hairy, brown skinned, ugly, dressed in rags, couple of wooden knitting needles sticking out of his belt. Translation services: 14 BN for the week, 300 teeth for the day.
If you do not have any currency on your person, he can take you to Cash4Gold up in the city to exchange your gold/silver and then pay him. He is aware of the existence of DORAs. Locally they are called "the undying ones".


Drohen Forest:
    Guarded by the Silvers. Any violence will result in a silver blob coming out and suffocating you to death as it tries to engulf you. Same with chopping down any trees. To avoid this, travel outside of the marked area (coloured rags on the trees). Travel a bit further just in case (a day or 2 to be safe).



Rumoured to sometimes have monsters who hunt humans.



No trains allowed. Only carts.


Cockburn Forest:
    Statue relics/guards. Attack people if they get too close. They make sort of a barricade to keep people back. Rumoured that it animates armour to attack people, even animating the armour people are wearing to attack them with it. Killing the statues – they come back later. This will anger the humans as they are the ones who made them to keep the Fey out. Combination of gear work, magic and vampire mojo was used in the creation.


Geld Garren founded Bleakmere after striking a deal with the aliens. Strongest merchant family in Bleakmere; run the place. Nobody dares cross them. 100 years ago, the Crisper family did and were wiped out by the silver alien blobs. Extremely thorough eradication. Nobody even knows where there holdings once stood.



Garren family collect a small percentage of each transaction done in Bleakmere.
Rent lands in the unwalled town for those who wish to stay there though it is very expensive.



                                                                                    Map

ibb.co/3N7GSDJ

[Fantômas]

Hopefully the Commonwealth of Zamora is not into slavery (mainly women) and BDSM..... The aliens aren't known as Priest Kings are they?

[PotatoJedi]

We don't know much about the Zamorians other than what we saw in their trading caravan and what we were told by Puddlefoot. Didn't seem like they had any slaves… What are you getting at? Is this more old shit?

The aliens were referred to as "The Silvers". No priests or kings or anything.

Also, forgot to mention. We were given cards by Puddlefoot. If we ever come back, we can show them to the guards and they will call him down rather than trying to communicate with them.

They didn't really seem to put that much value on gold and silver. Other commodities seemed to be more pertinent. Anything "new" is always in demand. No idea what it's like in any of the kingdoms – only Bleakmere, and it's very expensive there.

[jlevy531]

Are there Dwarves there?

[PotatoJedi]

Not that I know of.

[Fantômas]

Re my question Freddy, I vaguely recall reading some novel written by John Norman, where people were called Tarn Riders and rode giant birds of prey. The books had a not nice take on women being submissive and often slaves, bdsm style stuff. It was set on a planet called Gor which was located on the opposite side of the sun to earth. There were aliens which controlled the level of technology were referred to a Priest-Kings.

[PotatoJedi]

That may still be true. We don't know. We didn't visit the Commonwealth of Zamora nor did we see any slaves in the trade caravan. The tarns do sound like what you described though. Again – we didn't see them. Only what we were told.

[PotatoJedi]

Updated with more information:

Fey: They were driven back to the quagmire by the humans which is why they hate them so much. All 3 kingdoms hate them.

Some Fey, except for the Lords and Ladies, are susceptible to cold iron. Burns them.


Commonwealth of Zamora: have mages.
Kingdom of Blood: have vampires.

Drohen Forest: Guarded by the Silvers. Any violence will result in a silver blob coming out and suffocating you to death as it tries to engulf you. Same with chopping down any trees. To avoid this, travel outside of the marked area (coloured rags on the trees). Travel a bit further just in case (a day or 2 to be safe).

Rumoured to sometimes have monsters who hunt humans.

No trains allowed. Only carts.

Cockburn Forest: Statue relics/guards. Attack people if they get too close. They make sort of a barricade to keep people back. Rumoured that it animates armour to attack people, even animating the armour people are wearing to attack them with it. Killing the statues – they come back later. This will anger the humans as they are the ones who made them to keep the Fey out. Combination of gear work, magic and vampire mojo was used in the creation.

Puddle Foot: He is aware of the existence of DORAs. Locally they are called "the undying ones".

[Scott]

Aug 2, 2019 12:52:50 GMT PotatoJedi said:

Any violence will result in a silver blob coming out and suffocating you to death as it tries to engulf you.

Are the "blobs" like a floaty spheroid blob or more like a puddle on the ground blob?

[PotatoJedi]

Puddle on the ground blob. They don't float. They can go up surfaces etc.

[PotatoJedi]

Minor update: Commonwealth of Zamora speak Georgian (unknown if they call it something else locally).

[PotatoJedi]

The Stargate in the sewers of disappointment leads to the Badlands in Tri-Kingdoms. It's a one-way gate. We are not sure how the Stargate works or if it is able to take you elsewhere. To activate it, simply touch it. Please ignore any semen fluid you may find on it.

In the Badlands we found a corpse of someone from the Democratic Iron Republic Kingdom. Besides notes on what appeared to be information on aliens and alien probings, we found another interesting note. It appears that this man, aside from his interest in aliens, had been sent by the Democratic Iron Republic Kingdom to deliver a message to the Kingdom of Blood stating that the Iron Republic would like to ally themselves with the Kingdom of Blood against the Commonwealth of Zamora in an effort to take them down. It was signed by Chancellor Woolworth Higglebottom and there was room for another signature, presumably to whomever it was being delivered to in the Kingdom of Blood.

We believe aliens killed the man though Alex didn't seem overly convinced. It was quite savagely torn apart. On his body we found a strange clockwork pistol which Vincent took and some other communication-like device. A lady momentarily appeared on the device after we pushed some buttons and said something but we did not understand what was said. The device was then destroyed immediately. It emanated Tech Magic.