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Thread: Maestinean Atlantis
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10-31-1998, 01:54 PM #1OlesensGuest
Maestinean Atlantis
Here is an idea I recently came up with and though I might get some good
input from you guys.
During the height of the Maestinean Empire, the two greatest Mastinean
cities were located on islands, one of them the now-Serpent's Isle.
Thier oter city was built before humans settled in Cerilia. On thier
trip to Cerilia, the Maestineans found a lush isle with seemingly
neverending beauty. The magicians and even the common people could feel
something stange about the island. What they felt was the meghible
(spelt wrong) suring through and around the isle. A settlement was
built on the island and eventually it grew into a great city. The few
elves who visited the island (since the Maesineans looked upon the isle
as thier refuge they kept froigners away) recongnised this power as
caerbhaighlien, a rare manifestion of meghible. The Island, located
equal distance from Djarfra, Cerilia, and Aduria; traded with many
diffent cultures and used the technologies they found in thier city.
After Diesmarr a blooded wizard came to the isle and became its new
king. He built places of magical learning that surpassed even the
College of Sorcery and the Temple of Rilni combined. But about two
years after Diesmarr, contact with this island was lost. Soon after,
the Serpent destroyed the Maesinean Empire in the Ajari Deeps. No one
know what happened to the great isle but priest of Nasari say that it
sunk into the sea and now lies on the ocean floor. Some wonder why
Nasri would let the sea swallow it up. Some think it was a young wizard
in traning who was going to be outcast but instead drew upon as much
power as he could and destroyed the isle. A few even think that the
isle was transported to another world (maybe Evermeet in FR?).
Well this is my little idea. I would make a great place to adventure.
Coments are welcome.
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10-31-1998, 03:11 PM #2Craig GreesonGuest
Maestinean Atlantis
Olesens wrote:
> During the height of the Maestinean Empire, the two greatest Mastinean
> cities were located on islands, one of them the now-Serpent's Isle.
> Thier oter city was built before humans settled in Cerilia. On thier
> trip to Cerilia, the Maestineans found a lush isle with seemingly
> neverending beauty.
> But about two
> years after Diesmarr, contact with this island was lost. Soon after,
> the Serpent destroyed the Maesinean Empire in the Ajari Deeps. No one
> know what happened to the great isle but priest of Nasari say that it
> sunk into the sea and now lies on the ocean floor. Some wonder why
> Nasri would let the sea swallow it up. Some think it was a young wizard
> in traning who was going to be outcast but instead drew upon as much
> power as he could and destroyed the isle. A few even think that the
> isle was transported to another world (maybe Evermeet in FR?).
A few ways I see that this idea could be used in a BR campaign:
1. The sunken island concept would provide a great place for underwater
adventuring. Maybe the city is now inhabited by sahaugin or some other
water-breathing race. Lots of magical ruins.
2. Maybe the island didn't go anyplace. It could still be where it always
was, hidden by some type of specialized warding spell. It could still be a
great society of mages who didn't wish to be bothered by the rest of the
world, or it might have fallen under the sway of an awnshegh. Maybe its
been hidden for many years by a warding spell, and during that time the
civilization was destroyed. It's now a ruined city inhabited by various
monsters.
3. The island could have been blasted into the Shadow World by some great
magical cataclysm (either Mt. Deismaar or something caused by the local
caerbhaighlien). The Masetians might still live there, fighting against
the horrors of the SW, or the entire civilization may have been corrupted
to become something terrifying. Another magical event might shift the
island back to Cerilia, bringing the SW denizens back with it.
Regards
Craig
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10-31-1998, 04:23 PM #3Gary V. FossGuest
Maestinean Atlantis
Olesens wrote:
> Well this is my little idea. I would make a great place to adventure.
> Coments are welcome.
I like it. The Masetian culture is one of the great unknowns of the BR
system. There has been some good stuff suggested on this message board and the
Netbook has some stuff if memory serves.
Here's a kind of weird suggestion: If you've read much H.P. Lovecraft maybe
you could reference his work a bit. The island could rise up out of the sea
for a few hours or days every few years like R'lyeh, the island upon which
Cthulhu is on. You probably won't want to put the Great Cthulhu actually ON
the island, of course ;) but a couple of humanoid sea creatures who appear to
be Deep Ones might be a fun reference.
Personally, I don't much care for underwater adventures. They just seem too
Little Mermaidish for me. With the exception of the sahuagin, most of the
races that live under the seas just seem pretty silly. I freely admit that
finding land-dwelling elves, dwarves and halflings perfectly fine while
thinking mermen, locathah and tritons are dumb is contradictory, but I think
this is one of those times when I'm going to just go with my impression and let
logic take a backseat.
For those reasons, if I was running the adventure you describe (and I just
might because I like the idea) I'd have the island rise up out of the ocean for
a day or two, maybe on the anniversary of it sinking, or every ten years or
so. This could be a holy day to Neserie, when the ghosts of her people walk
the streets of the once great island city and the spires and buildings of the
city see the light of the sun once again. These great buildings are
miraculously, perhaps magically preserved from the ravages of time and the
effects of salt water.
But it is a bittersweet holiday for the goddess, because mingling with the
spirits of her dead people are the minions of the dark power that sank the
island, and many of the Masetians have been transformed by these powers into
undead and other degenerate forms.
I've never run Gift of Azrai adventure in LoHK. Maybe the Masetian requirement
of that adventure could be combined with this idea? The party must locate a
Masetian artifact or consult the spirit of the last Masetian king who ruled the
island before it sank in order to discover the cure?
Gary
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10-31-1998, 04:37 PM #4Pieter SleijpenGuest
Maestinean Atlantis
A very nice idea and in effect it perfectly fits in one main idea in my
own campaign. Officialy the sahuagin of Brechtur are the only sentient
underwater race, but I allready had used a mermaid before I read about
it. It would have been easy to change the one mermaid the PC's had met
into an ersheiglien, but that idea did not fit in some things I had (and
still have) in store for my PC's. So I came with the idea that Nasri
saved some of the more withdrawn Masetians from the horrors conjured by
the Serpent dark curse by changing them into mermen/maids. They are
still affected by the curse and will never be able to cast wizard magic.
They are led by an ersheighlien called "the Mermaid", who is a high
priestess of Nasri. They keep themselves hidden from the world to avoid
drawing attention from the Serpent and other wizards against whom they
have little defenses. Besides humans are well known for their greed and
fear for the unknown and the Khinasi still tell stories about the
horrors that were summoned by the Masetians when they were using
powerfull magics to help restore their culture. This is off coarse not
what happened, but the Khinasi use this story to point out the inherent
danger of magic, pride and ignorance.
These mermen/maids would make the perfect inhabitants of the sunken
island. If the DM wants to, she could give them wizard magic. Neil
Barnes gives on the netbook a good suggestion for ocean sources. I am
still not sure if I want to use it, because coastal areas and coral
reefs are rather high in magical power (7 and 9 respectively).
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10-31-1998, 05:51 PM #5OlesensGuest
Maestinean Atlantis
> These mermen/maids would make the perfect inhabitants of the sunken
> island. If the DM wants to, she could give them wizard magic. Neil
> Barnes gives on the netbook a good suggestion for ocean sources. I am
> still not sure if I want to use it, because coastal areas and coral
> reefs are rather high in magical power (7 and 9 respectively).
Perhaps no one knows how to tapp the magic of the seas and those who have tried
have failed. There is a place where the secret is kept, however. You guessed
it! Maestinean Atlantis.
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10-31-1998, 07:12 PM #6BenandAmyGuest
Maestinean Atlantis
>
>Well this is my little idea. I would make a great place to adventure.
>Coments are welcome.
I've always pictured the Masetians sort of like the ancient Phoenicians.
See, they had this nice big city called Tyre. Then some nasty guys came
along and kicked 'em out. They were pretty good at sailing around in the
Med. and had some colonies here and there--so they took all their refugees
from Tyre and wandered around a bit. After a while, their ancestors founded
another nice little city called Carthage, and they became a great world
power until this little upstart Roman named Scipio came along...
Anyway, I see the Masetians like that. They had great trading posts
around Aebrynis, and explored lots of the world. (Carthaginians had posts as
far away as Nigeria and the Azores, and there are records suggesting that
they sailed around Africa.) Maybe Masetia pissed off somebody they shouldn't
have (like Rome) and wound up with their cities trashed. Then their colonies
would fall into decline, etc...
With the strategic position of the island you describe, it would
probably be a great place for a central trading hub in that part of the
world. I'ts inhabitants should probably know cool secrets about the unknown
parts of the world at the time, and this would be great stuff for
adventurers to find. Maybe they could find out where the Masetians had
trading posts in the outer seas, and what they found exploring those areas.
You could drop adventure hooks all over the place.
Hope this helps! :>)
Ben A.
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