Land of the Damned

[zyanitevp]

Well if you're going to the LotD you can go by sea, air, or water. If you go by water from
Bizantium you got the Sea of Despair to contend with. Enough said. And you can't dock a ship.
Razorwing was right you got these massive sheer cliffs that routinely have chunks break off so
climbing them is not a good idea. Not to mention things live on and in the rocks. And lying in
wait are a host of sea monsters, mutant sea life, and sea serpents.

If you come from the Sea of Despair, you have to deal with trained sea serpents of the
Zaranceti. These guys patrols the waters constantly and you could have 1D4 sea serpents
attacking your craft at the same time and the Zaranceti have patrols that always on the
lookout for enemy ships (hopeful more info about these guys and their sea serpents will be in
Phi sourcebook )

I have always enjoyed the Zaranceti, and looking forward to more new information!

[say652]

Any skilled GM familiar with TLOTD willing to help me with a crossover?

[zyanitevp]

Any skilled GM familiar with TLOTD willing to help me with a crossover?

The current expert would be Reagren Wright, who wrote Bizantium and has the best ideas where Kevin is at with LOTD now.

[Hotrod]

Any skilled GM familiar with TLOTD willing to help me with a crossover?

I did a Land of the Damned map a while back, which could be useful. Are you trying to take stuff in or out?

[say652]

Any skilled GM familiar with TLOTD willing to help me with a crossover?

I did a Land of the Damned map a while back, which could be useful. Are you trying to take stuff in or out?

I feel I failed in capturing the Lethality of the setting my last attempt.
I think this time with some helpful hints I can add the air of hopelessness that should accompany any excursions into The Land of The Damned.

[Reagren Wright]

Again all depends on which way you plan on entering the region will help determine
the lethality. Sea of Despair (use those random encounter tables from High
Seas and Bizantium random monster generator). Sea of Dread (working on a
new encounter table but you can use the one from Sea of Despair, but the closer
you get to the Land of the Damned from the Western Empire or Strait of Thunder roll
1D4 to see how many sea serpents attack you at the same time or hit them with a
squad of Zarcenti, use the patrol table used by the wolfen in Eastern Territory, but
remember they ride sea serpents and have them as attack animals). Northern Mountains (Chaos Lands has lots of rumor mills you can use to generate random encounter ideas) and if you read the page about the villages and such, you can
always roll and determine their size number. And you can pretty much make up any
sort of weird monster you want, its the LoftD all sorts of dimensional critter pop in
and out of there.

[The Beast]

I recall it being mentioned that the WE has the strait between them and the LotD blocked off to other ships by means of some sort of deal between them and the kappa that live in that region, but I don't currently remember which book I read that in.

Petty tyrants thrive when they have authority backed by vague regulations.

[say652]

The team used Dimensional Portal to the Byzantium Empire and tagged along on am Exploration Ship.

For the new Group I'm thinking a Green Lightning Storm to just simply dump them in the Heart of The Land of the Damned with no way of return.

Using the Heroes Unlimited conversion for Mdc to sdc, mainly because that's the book I have handy.

[Hotrod]

One central theme came to me as I was mapping out LotD. The four regions seem to correspond to different paths to damnation:
Eternal Torment: The denial of death
Darkest Heart: the corruption of virtue
The Blasted Lands: the devastation of war
The Bleakness: the oppression of tyranny
Broken Horn: the emptiness of regret

If I were to GM a campaign there, I'd try to build adventures/campaigns in each region on these paths to damnation in such a way that the characters have an opportunity to confront these paths to evil in a rather personal way, and some sort of opportunity to overcome them in a profound way. For example, to truly escape from the Eternal Torment, you'd have to embrace death, perhaps in an act of self-sacrifice. To escape the Darkest Heart, you'd have to make a moral choice for what is right rather than what is easy or safe. To escape the Blasted Lands, you'd have to show mercy to a mortal (or immortal) enemy. To escape The Bleakness, you'd have to give up power. To escape Broken Horn, you'd have to let go of that which ties him to the past and choose a new direction for your character's life.

The Land of the Damned is where great heroes go to die, and any who return should be profoundly changed by the experience. No character should be able to just power through the regions, and to attempt to do so will lead to a nasty end. Defeating the evils of the land is the lesser challenge. Defeating the evils within the player character should be the greater challenge.

[zyanitevp]

One central theme came to me as I was mapping out LotD. The four regions seem to correspond to different paths to damnation:
Eternal Torment: The denial of death
Darkest Heart: the corruption of virtue
The Blasted Lands: the devastation of war
The Bleakness: the oppression of tyranny
Broken Horn: the emptiness of regret

If I were to GM a campaign there, I'd try to build adventures/campaigns in each region on these paths to damnation in such a way that the characters have an opportunity to confront these paths to evil in a rather personal way, and some sort of opportunity to overcome them in a profound way. For example, to truly escape from the Eternal Torment, you'd have to embrace death, perhaps in an act of self-sacrifice. To escape the Darkest Heart, you'd have to make a moral choice for what is right rather than what is easy or safe. To escape the Blasted Lands, you'd have to show mercy to a mortal (or immortal) enemy. To escape The Bleakness, you'd have to give up power. To escape Broken Horn, you'd have to let go of that which ties him to the past and choose a new direction for your character's life.

The Land of the Damned is where great heroes go to die, and any who return should be profoundly changed by the experience. No character should be able to just power through the regions, and to attempt to do so will lead to a nasty end. Defeating the evils of the land is the lesser challenge. Defeating the evils within the player character should be the greater challenge.

Hotrod, great points, and exactly what I have down for a future LotD game! Scary!!

[Hendrik]

It is the 4 horsemen turned into regions.

[Hotrod]

(snip)

Hotrod, great points, and exactly what I have down for a future LotD game! Scary!!

Hey, great minds and all that. Man, I wish I could make the play-times for the Rebuilt campaign.

It is the 4 horsemen turned into regions.

There are some similarities, but the intent seems different. The Land of the Damned strikes me as more along the lines of the eternal punishments of Hades (as in Greek mythology, not the dimension), where the punishments are custom-fit to the crimes of the imprisoned servants of the Old Ones. The barriers around the regions aren't insurmountable, but because the denizens can't see past the crimes they continue to commit, they don't realize that they have effectively become their own wardens. By continuing to commit their crimes, they perpetuate their own prison. The undead of the Eternal Torment might have miserable lives, but they seem to have embraced their undeath and the evils that come with it. The Blasted Lands are chock full of factions who war with each other because war is what they do, and they can't turn away from conflict. The elves of the Darkest Heart cling to their comforts and leisure behind the safety of their walls, while the faerie folk bemoan the sad state of things without acting to improve it, and the werewolves embrace the darkest parts of their nature.

I'm just speculating on the other two regions, but I think the hierarchy of the Citadel is much the same; those with power aren't willing to give it up, even to escape The Bleakness, so they are bound to the Citadel. As for the minotaurs, they cling to their ancient nationalities even as they bemoan their own pasts.

My interpretation of the Land of the Damned includes a faint possibility of hope for those imprisoned there. The corruption of the Old Ones has held sway since shortly after the Alliance of Light created it, and the architects of the Land of the Damned likely planned for the inevitable defeat of the Garrison. However, I like to think that these architects might have seen some hope that the residents might rise above the misery and achieve some measure of redemption. That's why I see escape being more about character development than about the physical challenges and threats (though those shouldn't be ignored by any means).

The four horsemen, by contrast, seem like a more relatively straightforward external threat of annihilation that must be confronted and fought. The concerns with fighting them seem to be mostly practical problem-solving. The character development from that campaign is more about working out and implementing a war plan against the Horsemen, and any moments of character development are mostly incidental, not central to why they're there in the first place.

I occasionally wonder what it might be like to play a character who is an escapee of the Land of the Damned or Hades.