Friday, April 23, 2010

This Land...

"As I went walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me that endless skyway..."
-
Arlo Guthrie, "This Land is Your Land"
Last Sunday, I mentioned the City sandbox campaign. I thought I might give a little more information on City, and its world.

The City sits at the mouth of the Eldritch River on the eastern coast of the New World (which isn't really new at all) facing the ocean, across which lies the Olde World which still suffering the effects of the strange weapons employed in the last war.

With the ocean and the Olde World behind us, let's heading out west. We come to the Smaragdine Mountains. These parallel the east coast, running into the sea in the north and petering out in the south. These old, forested hills are the home of superstitious yokels, moon-shining ogre clans, crafty conjure-men, and magical beasts. In the south, where the mountains shrink to hills, then flatten, and finally sink to vast swamps, we again find monsters--prehistoric holdouts and belligerent (and malodorous) skunk-apes.

West again, over the mountains, we find steel-towns, and corrupt Lake City, run by warring gangsters, on the shores of the Inland Sea.

Beyond the cities and still fertile farm lands, are the Dustlands. These were farm lands once, but now ruined by drought, ruled by sentient, malevolent storms--cyclone suzerains and tornado tyrants--and haunted by black-dust ghosts.

Eager to leave the Dustlands behind us, we push westward and find more mountains. These are rugged peaks that dwarf the Smaragdines, and shadow hardpan, high deserts. These are places of old mining ghost towns, deep canyons with ancient cliff dwellings, and strange, diminutive mummies that might still whisper in dessicated voices to those that will listen.



West again, one last time, and we're in the lands of Hesperia, and at another coast. Hesperia is the most civilized place we've come to since we left the east--and maybe more civilized, depending on who you ask. Sunny, palm-treed Heliotrope, in the south is the home of movie industry that entertains a continent. In the north is decadent San Tiburón, where lives a vagrant, who's either the Maimed King of the New World, or a sad lunatic.

And that's a brief, fly-over tour of a continent.  Sea to shining sea, as it were.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Three cheers for Emperor Norton... er the Maimed King. Awesome!

Trey said...

It's good to hsve my references caught--and appreciated. :)

Anonymous said...

Yokel. I love that word, it reminds me of those dreadful, yet necessary trips to Wal*Mart.

This would be an awesome setting for vs. Monsters.

Trey said...

Wal-Mart at night is very much like the more frightening parts of the Smaragdine Hills. ;)

I had not thought of vs. Monsters (never having palyed it, only read about it), but your right, though its default time is about a centruy earlier than what I'm aiming for.

Anonymous said...

There are a couple of supplements for vs. Monsters that brings it to a more "pulp" era. The setting is simple and can easily be built on. This my Halloween season go-to game.