Player’s Guide to Iron Crown V2.0 What is Iron Crown? The Iron Crown campaign takes place in the city-state of Iron Crown, located on the Astral Plane. The Astral Plane, despite what you might have heard, is a difficult place to get to and a nearly impossible place to leave. Planar Travel Planar travel is reserved for near god-like mages and spells like Plane Shift simply do not work. There are portals on the astral plane, but they are unpredictable and often lead to undesirable locations, such as elemental planes, rather than more hospitable locales. So if planar travel is so difficult, where do people come from and how do they trade between planes? The answer may surprise you. Traveling to another plane is not done by spells. Instead, there are "natural" methods of travel known as conjunctions. Planes come in and out of conjunction with the astral plane. Imagine a turtle swimming in the sea. Every thousand years he surfaces for air. Now imagine a wooden ring thrown into the ocean. The chance of a plane coming into conjunction with the astral is the same as that turtle poking his head up through that wooden ring. Fortunately for those seeking planar travel, there are many more potential points in space where a conjunction can occur, so although the chance of a conjunction is extremely rare in any one spot, the astral plane is infinitely large, so there will be a conjunction some place for each plane. On the negative side, conjunctions are unpredictable and can disappear forever at any moment, and those who know of them certainly have precious knowledge that the wish to preserve and not share with just anyone. Conjunctions usually manifest as pools of color, floating in the astral plane. Vision on the astral plane is limited to only a couple hundred feet, and space is infinite. Your chance of finding a pool by its lonesome is about the same as that turtle popping his head through that wooden ring. Worse, it may not be there any more, as they're impermanent. 1 Planar experts have tried to stabilize conjunctions, often building some sort of magical gate around them or other containment method to keep the conjunctive energies stable. Unfortunately, this can attract others to the gate, so the experts often try to hide the gate, possibly as a common doorway, statue, or monument. Conjunctions occur on prime or planar worlds as places of power. Energy wells, for example, might produce a conduit to another plane. So how do you find conjunctions on the astral? The easiest way is to find someone who already knows where they are. This usually means contracting with a trade house, as the warlocks of Iron Crown guard their conjunction knowledge. The relevant skill is "Knowledge: Cosmology," and is generally a skill only taught to yan- ki guild mages. The knowledge is not a universal skill and most yan-ki learn to find a conjunction affinity with only a single plane, as a means to control the information. Besides the yan-ki, some travelers have knowledge of conjunctions, such as the Tashtak. However, they have no desire to see foreigners invade their homeland, either for trade or more nefarious purposes. Astral Time Time on the astral plane is incredibly slow. Each day on the astral plane is equal to a minute on the prime planes. Those who manage to travel from the prime to the astral see their bodies aging at the prime material rate, a major reason why those near god-like mages wish to be there. However, the locals live relatively normal lives, with normal spans of time, susceptibility to disease and poison, and the need for food and water. Those born on the astral plane, even between alien parents, age at the native astral rate. It should be noted that alien women cannot conceive on the astral plane, although alien men can be fathers. Population Iron Crown is populated primarily by an ancient human race known as the Yan-ki. The plane has conditioned them for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. They have a light green skin tone, elongated “elvish” ears, and a resistance to some types of magic, thought to have been brought on by astral radiation. As the astral plane is attuned to magic, this warrior race has the ability to suppress magic by using the silence spell. Some say this is derived from their bardic tradition, and a deep felt need to silence ones critics. Yan-ki houses each have a special attribute, or talent, that defines their family. 2 The city is also home to other unusual races, including the red-skinned, perplexing verrik and the feral, jackel headed sibeccai. There are a few other unusual races found there, including a few tiefling and aasimar, although they’re not usually available as PC races. Lately these races have been joined by runechildren, more a calling than a race, and the fearsome litorian lion-men. All other PHB races are available. Intra-Plane Travel Although Iron Crown is isolated as a plane, the Astral Plane is populated by many groups of creatures that live in astral cities. These groups travel around the plane on astral ships, powered by the astral winds. Pirates, privateers and merchant traders are common. This is the primary method of spreading ideas, wealth, technology and races. Although you can use your mind to travel from place to place, it’s not as quick as an astral ship and it’s very dangerous. Pirates and privateers will often prey on such lone travelers and there are dangerous astral monsters that consider such travelers easy snacks. Regional Settlements Iron Crown is a major trading city; the astral dock often boasts dozens of trade ships. Nearby Iron Crown there are several settlements, The Rock, a large trading city located on a colossal piece of astral driftmetal, Tempest, a lawless, semi-permanent settlement of chained together astral ships, populated primarily by pirates and troublemakers. Bastion, Citadel, Stronghold, Rampart and Palisade are all military outpost populated primarily by The Iron Guard. Beyond these nearby settlements lie many strange, bizarre and deadly regions. • The Doldrums is a frightening region of empty space where no wind blows. It’s believed to be a graveyard for dead gods. Most ships won’t approach the region, in fear of getting their ships stuck. Pirates patrol the region, hoping to find a marooned ship. • The Dark is an area of astral space where there is no astral wind or clouds, where one can see for many miles with rumors of bizarre creatures and twisted arcane cabals (such as The Dark Pyramid). • Mining communities can be found throughout the region. Various precious metals can be found in the Astral. Some are simply astral driftmetal, a metallic ore that has magical properties against the incorporeal. Iron Crown was founded 3 with the wealth from this metal. Other more rare metals are located in the astral, many infused with power from their planes of origin. • The Old Ones. The Slarecians, or “Old Ones” live on the Astral Plane. They have enslaved many yan-ki throughout the centuries. Slaves are used to mine metal or other nefarious purposes. The Old Ones are the primary threat to Iron Crown, along with their evil servants, various fiends and the grimlocks. The City-State of Iron Crown Iron Crown is built upon a dormant construct, a moon sized spherical creature that once awoke and attempted to rid itself of the parasites living on its skin. There are hopes that this will not happen again, and digging into the construct is forbidden. Nevertheless, subterranean tunnels are everywhere in Iron Crown, built thousands of years ago. The most prominent feature of iron crown is Tehvins Vault, a spire that rises thousands of feet into the sky. This is the location of the most evil artifacts known in the multiverse. The vault was created centuries ago as a place to house these menacing threats. Since then, a full scale city has grown up around the citadel that protects the vault, much to the chagrin of the yan-ki, who expected this to be a remote outpost. Iron Crown is constantly rooting out evil mages in search of ways into the vault. So far, they’ve been successful. Citizenship Citizens of Iron Crown receive special protection under the law. Those who are citizens are protected by the law, while those who are not citizens of Iron Crown or an Iron Crown protectorate (like Bastian or The Rock), have few rights and little protection. Their ships can be confiscated by privateers and while visiting Iron Crown they have minimal rights and protection. Citizenship is established by having one or more parent a citizen of Iron Crown. Citizenship is not something you are born with, it's something you earn through service to the state, either officially, such as in a military or guard capacity or through service to a recognized religion. Citizenship can also be bought, through a lengthy and expensive citizenship process, including various oaths to follow the official faiths. What’s it like living there? Iron Crown is founded on mining and metalwork. The sky is often smoky and people are dirty, especially in the Craftsman’s Ward. The majority of people work in 4 craft industries or in trade. Crime is rampant, especially in some wards. Those of means hire private security and protection. Crime is a major industry in Iron Crown. The city has become quite wealthy by turning pirates into privateers and taxing their plunder.