Hollowfaust: City of Necromancers

1 HOLLOWFAUST: CITY OF NECROMANCERS Table of Contents Preface 3 Introduction 4 Chapter 1: The History of Hollowfaust 10 Chapter 2: The City 22 Chapter 3: The Necromancers 72 Chapter 4: Hollowfaust Adventures 94 Chapter 5: Spoils &Denizens 101 Appendix 111 Map of Hollowfaust 132 2 PREFACE Preface If you or your players are the type who see necromancers as emaciated semihuman monstrosities, crouching on thrones of bone and bidding their shambling, deathless legions to conquer and destroy, be prepared for a shock. Hollowfaust's necromancers are a breed apart: erudite, sophisticated, learned and only occasionally evil. If you enjoy messing with your players' heads and shattering their preconceived notions, we're proud to help. If, on the other hand, the notion of sensible, neutral-aligned necromancers who view death from a scientist's perspective and who have no ambitions of world conquest messes with your head, we're even prouder. You won't find the stereotypical evil necromancer in Hollowfaust. What you and your players will find is a place of learning, exploration and science – where the secrets of life are exposed and explored by studying death. Spellcasters will find new opportunities working with the mysterious Guildsmen, warriors can seek employment as guards or independent agents, clerics can pursue their faith's principals without fear and rogues can do what rogues do everywhere. Although the dead walk in Hollowfaust, there is much there for the living, as well. Hollowfaust is a welcome addition to the Scarred Lands setting, where we endeavor (hopefully with some success) to mix the familiar with the bizarre, adding new twists to traditional fantasy roleplaying. Although its authors, editor and developers no doubt felt somewhat undead by the time this project was finished, we're proud of the end result and hope that both you and your players will come to know and appreciate Hollowfaust and its people as we have. But be careful; don't get to know them too well, lest you end up staying there much longer than you'd originally planned.... Sword & Sorcery Studio 3 Introduction "Thus did the outcast necromancers find for themselves an empire and a subject people in the desolate, barren land where the men of Tinarath had driven them forth to perish." – Clark Ashton Smith, "The Empire of the Necromancers" From the letters of Seraat Vekela, journeyman to the Library of Lokil: 4 INTRODUCTION 5 HOLLOWFAUST: CITY OF NECROMANCERS From the diary of Eltana Tran of the Order of the Mornig Sky: 6 INTRODUCTION 7 HOLLOWFAUST: CITY OF NECROMANCERS City of the Dead "These are the gates of the Free City-State of Hollowfaust. Beyond this portal are no laws save those of Hollowfaust. Beyond this entrance is peace, unless you bring war with you. May you find what you seek within. – Formal greeting offered to newcomers by the Guardsmen at the First Gate Welcome to the City of the Necromancers. Hollowfaust isn't the sort of city that comes to mind when choosing a "home base" for the usual campaign. In most people's opinion, there's just something ... unsavory about necromancy. (Most people across the Scarred Lands share this opinion, by the way.) If you asked the average fantasy gamer or reader just what a "city of necromancers" might be like, they'd probably describe a plague-ridden graveyard with a tiny group of mortal sorcerers commanding legions of zombie soldiers. And these necromancers would, of course, be plotting to take over the world. Hollowfaust, however, is something different. It's a place where adventurers can indeed gather in a tavern to swap tales of glory or hawk the butchered parts of their latest monstrous kill. It's also a place where they can see macabre puppet shows, involve themselves in the intrigues of the necromantic guilds or take on commissions to root out titanspawn in the neighboring mountains. Hollowfaust easily serves as a source of antagonists; there are plenty of potential villains lurking in the labyrinthine catacombs of the Underfaust – villains with plenty of grotesque undead minions to send after a bothersome party. Hollowfaust can also be an interesting "change of pace" locale for characters to visit. Finally, Hollowfaust can function as a remarkable base of operations from which characters might explore the Scarred Lands – particularly if many (or all) of the characters grew up there! What is Hollowfaust to the Scarred Lands? It's an enigma, a neutral power that has yet to reveal its hand. What is Hollowfaust on a more personal level? This volume merely presents what is known and leaves readers to draw their own conclusions. What Is Hollowfaust? Even by the standards of the Scarred Lands, Hollowfaust is a strange place. A council of mages – necromancers, really – rules the city and dwells within a labyrinth of catacombs and tunnels that stretch throughout the core of a dead volcano. Yet very ordinary people populate the city and mill about its houses, shops and inns – a city that, about a century ago, stood uninhabited. In effect, Hollowfaust is a city of two layers. The Civilian Quarter essentially comprises the surface or "city" layer, fulfilling the usual purposes that 8 INTRODUCTION cities do: a place to unwind between adventures, to antly surprised, particularly given that heroes' bodies are purchase interesting equipment and to get mixed up in much more valuable than are those of ordinary citizens. urban adventures, which means interacting with some Primarily, Hollowfaust is a place of learning. very "colorful" citizens. Although it doesn't lie along The imagery on its flag symbolizes the knowledge that major trade routes (and therefore doesn't lend itself to Hollowfaust's founders valued so highly – seven "international" adventures, as would a place like arched gateways leading to enlightenment, the lantern Mithril), Hollowfaust nonetheless makes an of intellect illuminating the path. When searching for interesting base camp from which to launch expeditions information that is particularly esoteric, dangerous or into the Ukrudan Desert, the Festering Fields or the especially secret, people generally first consult Hornsaw Forest. Hollowfaust's somewhat macabre necromancers, The Underfaust comprises the second layer of while the Guildsmen's trove of knowledge doesn't the city – part royal court and part wizards' guild. quite match that of their Lokil neighbors on more Gaining access to the Underfaust is tricky business for mundane matters. anyone other than a resident necromancer, but once The necromancer stereotype – a cadaverous, inside, characters will have ample opportunities to barely human creature in black robes adorned with dabble in dangerous intrigues. Belligerent skulls, working evil for unfathomable and hateful characters, however, will find the Underfaust the reasons – is challenged by the Underfaust's residents. mother of all dungeoncrawls – Yes, evil does reside within the necromancer's – Which is an endeavor that should be strongly Sovereign Council, but alongside compassionate discouraged. Antagonizing a magocracy defended by idealism and even-handed pragmatism. For legions of tireless, merciless monsters would be an outrageous, incomparably evil necromantic villains unwise and ill-advised course of action, by any that satisfy the superficial stereotype, explore standard. neighboring Glivid-Autel. But Hollowfaust's Hollowfaust culture itself presents intriguing necromancers, who speak to the dead in respectful tones challenges. Its legal code has some very interesting and whose actions run the gamut between villain ramifications. Murder, rape and torture are all and hero, defy easy categorization and generate punishable by death, so stabbing someone in a bar fight excitement through intriguing ambiguity. could lead to problematic circumstances. Additionally, Enjoy your visit. the corpse of anyone who dies within the city's walls – And don't die. visitor or denizen – becomes the governing necromancers' legal property. Characters accustomed to cheap-and-fast resurrections will be unpleas- 9 Chapter One: The History of Hollowfaust "The casual historian is a pernicious individual. His eyes glaze over when asked to absorb more than two or three facts at once, and he loses the threads that matter in his hurried desire to speak in terms of general categories. Although every story detail matters, these dilettantes mask their incomplete understanding of events by speak' ing in broad terms, glossing over specifics that prove to be key. My case in point: Sumara. Few of these history dabblers would be able to pluck and accurately recount Sumara's tale from the lexicon of stories surrounding the Divine War. Thus they fail to grasp the significance ofthatcity's later resurrection – orreanimation, if you will. Then they wonder what this "Hollowfaust" they've been hearing so much about really is and why they should be interested. Gods deliver me from such a plague on learned man!" – Yugman the Sage, 148 AV * * * Hollowfaust, like many other cities of the Scarred Lands, was founded after the Titanswar's conclusion. However, unlike most of the city-states now dotting Ghelspad, Hollowfaust was "fleshed out" on the bones of a city with no living descendants. Many buildings, streets and passages remain empty in Hollowfaust – a mute testimonial to the civilization erased by the eruption of Vangal's Throne. 10 CHAPTER ONE: THE HISTORY OF HOLLOWFAUST commerce there. Many slaves changed hands in the Sumara golden city, as did other beasts of burden or of the hunt. Although Sumara was not Zathiske's largest Long before the Seven Pilgrims founded the or richest trade center, the empire took pride in its City of the Necromancers, there was Golden valued city. Sumara. Sumara sat at Mount Chalesh's base, bounded to the north by lushly forested mountains The Sumarans were a body-conscious people; and to the south by sweeping, fertile plains. It was they highly valued cleanliness, health and beauty.

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