The Library

The library contains books on history, magic, and knowledge:

• History books
  • The Age of Dragons (see this post), a tale of what happened before the coming of men and elves to Mor-Thir.
  • The Towers, a book on the seven Towers, built where the blood of the ancient Wyrm was splashed; as it turns out, seven dragon tribes were tasked with protecting the towers:
    • Mareten Tower: Silver dragons (lawful white dragons)
    • Airwalker Tower: Gold dragons (lawful red dragons)
    • Pointless Tower: Electrum dragons (lawful black dragons)
    • Toprac Igne: Bronze dragons (lawful blue dragons)
    • Jungle Tower: Green dragons
    • Northern Tower: White dragons
    • The Spire: Black dragons
• Magical books
  • A tome of Dragon Knowledge: when attempting to research a spell on dragons with this book in your library, add +2 to the roll (worth 5,000 gp).
  • A tome of Wall Spells: when attempting to research a spell involving wall spells with this book in your library, add +2 to the roll. (worth 5,000 gp)
• Recipes for making:
  • Potion of Human Control
  • Potion of Longevity
  • Potion of Sweet Water
  • Potion of Polymorph
  • Staff of Commanding
  • Wand of Polymorphing
  • Chime of Opening
  • Armor +1
  • Weapon +1
• A divine book of the Way of the Dragon, describing an ancient order of dragon-clerics, tasked with protecting the land of Mor-Thir; the order is made of all kinds of dragons. Few have heard of, or interact with, the dragon-clerics. As ageless dragons, time is on their side.
• A Scroll of Arcane Spells (Written in Draconic): Lower Water (6th lvl)
• A Scroll of Arcane Spells (Written in draconic): Hold Portal (1st lvl)

The rest of the books contain various magical snippets, or information about ancient times, all worthy of adding to a magical library. As a note, a spellcaster requires a library worth at least 4,000 gp to be able to research first level spells; a further 2,000 gp is required for each spell level. For every 10,000 gp above the minimum value required, the spellcaster gets a +1 bonus (maximum +3) to his magic research throw. Thus, the maximum useful library value to research spells up to level 9 is 50,000 gp.

The Journal of Görkem Ebrahimi

The journal, taken from the corpse of (as is noted in its pages) Görkem Ebrahimi, contains a wandering missive of the last several months of Görkem's life. While Llarm read every detail, the majority of his story could be wrapped up in the phrase, "Fighting is fun, but now I'm hungry." In short, his story read as follows:

How does Wish work?

On Wishes

By Lucious¹

Property of Wrapport Library, Wrapport College, Wrapport, Mareten, Mor-Thir.

Wishes and miracles are strange, powerful spells, capable of manipulating reality itself.

Miracles, of course, are infrequent blessings handed out to faithful followers, and are often accompanied by divine quests, as difficult as they are mandatory. The more powerful the miracle, the more stringent the quest. The most powerful miracles, granting immortality, powerful enchanted weapons, and so on, are simply refused, or even punished, at the whim of the miracle-granting deity. Wishes, on the other hand, seem to have no oversight; at face value, it seems even the most exploitative wish could be made reality.

Retiring and New Characters

From this point on, players wishing to retire their characters may create new characters, starting at 1/2 of the experience gained since the start of the campaign. As of this blog, that is 10769 total experience points gained; that is per-PC experiences, using party majority for party splits. That means new characters will begin with 5385 XP, plus whatever extra experience they gained from frivolous spending. That will place most characters at level 3, with Airwalkers, Ectomancers, Thieves, and Spies at level 4, and expensive characters like the Dwarven Fury, most Elves, Gnomish Mage, Nobiran Wonderworker, Thrassian Gladiator, and Zaharan Ruinguard at level 2.

As the adventure continues, I will keep a running total of current starting XP. Additionally, once that reaches 20,000 XP, new characters will begin with a flat 16,000 gp, and can trade some of that gold for various magical items, as described on page 253 of the ACKS Core book; at 310,000 XP, it raises to 240,000 gp, and at 640,000 XP, it raises to 815,000 gp. Not that we're going to reach that point in a while, of course...

The Planets

There is no session today, so instead, you're going to get an extra, special (and also extra special) blog: the planets!

Mor-Thir is a popular continent (why is that? All will be revealed... eventually), but there's more to the universe than just one continent. Ignoring, for the moment (and for the sake of the plot), the other continents surrounding Mor-Thir; allow me to introduce you to the other planets in the solar system.

Now, even without magic, sages and wise men can chart the celestial bodies in the sky. Add in even a little bit of magic, and the other planets can become clear. While little is known about what inhabits these other planets (if anything), sages at least know about them.

The Desert People

In the deep desert, nomads roam, moving from hidden oasis to secret wells, tending their flocks, always on the move. They carry all that they own with them, caravans of wealth, though easily able to protect their fortunes. At its outskirts, men and lizardmen build their cities; few cities survived the attacks of the beastmen, and fewer cities still manage to flourish in the harsh environment. However, a few great cities managed to fend off monsters and brigands long enough to survive; of these, Korcu Baskenti is the largest, and most powerful. Desert spices and exotic trade flow through the city, as well as darker trade: slaves, stolen treasure, and dark magical items.

Language and Religion

The religions of Mor-Thir vary about a theme: a benevolent god, a trickster, and a serpentine god of chaos. Most Men of Mareten worship Alehim, and none other, though some men do follow the gods of other cultures. The men of the southern deserts worship Kai-ra, the sky god; Aladeen, a cunning opportunist; or Erklik, evil god of the underworld. The Northern Tribe worship the gods of Beasts. Dwarves serve Thor, god of thunder and earth; Loki, god of tricks; or Jormungan, the evil snake, destined to eat Thor. The gnomes and the descendants of the True Elves serve Danu, mother of gods; Manannán, god of boats and pranks; or Balor, a suspiciously serpentine one-legged, one-eyed giant whose gaze destroys all life. The Fae and their ilk serve (rarely) Lleu, uplifted king; Gwydion, trickster and prankster; or Ysbaddaden, a terrible serpent. The beasts and other tribal creatures worship the Bear, kind yet strong; Coyote, spirited trickster; or Serpent, the two-tongued creature that smells of death. The creatures of chaos serve a number of demons and dark gods, too many to list here, and there exist numerous minor gods and goddesses, worshiped or served by various peoples.

Mareten

The nation of Mareten is the oldest surviving nation, apart from the Dwarves; even the Dwarven cities were hard-pressed during the Age of the Beastmen. But how best to explain this ancient nation? A map, of course!

Calendars and Time

Time is a difficult thing to keep track of. Oh, sure, you can say that every time a party stops to rest, it's night time, and it takes a week to travel a hex, but does anyone actually keep track of those dates and times? I sure don't. In my Savage Worlds campaign, it's set in space, so I don't have to worry about any of that. I just make something up - "Oh, it's been about a week. Sure, that sounds right."

Making Mor-Tir

The continent of Mor-Tir is home to humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, lizardmen, and various other creatures both pleasant and foul; I have a lovely map of the area, but it didn't start in nearly such a beautiful way.