City of Dragonwick

My players today brought something up in game: Dragonegg Quiche is an in-town delicacy (1).

ohhhhhhhh. brutal O.o

Liam and Harry, twins and youngest brothers of the Frogstranglers.

The Frogstranglers' first adventure that got them standing with the guild was clearing out a kobold hutch close to town.

Captain Waldorf Gunnelson
-Lawful Neutral
-Clipper Cartel guildleader
-Fair, but not afraid to act
-Long Memory

The Frogstranglers have a very positive public persona but are subject to infighting and conflict when not in public. Every brother blames another for perceived injustices. The more they fight, the less effective they are in combat.

The city pays pennies, whether this be to day laborers or guildless adventurers.

Captain Gunnelson got his start in The Wyvern's Bane under Bhavsar and earned considerable distinction, but his growing insistence that the future of Dragonwick's trade was at sea put him at ever greater odds with the temperamental Captain Spitfire. She and he eventually parted ways under quite strained circumstances. He currently runs the Clipper Cartel with considerable efficiency and in direct rivalry with his old mercenary crew.

To be fair, the city pays pennies because it's broke and unable to collect any taxes. It's a lawless libertarian utopia-nightmare. The labor classes have no protection but what they can take for themselves. Laborers in the tanneries in particular suffer the lowliest fate.

Adventure: The Birth of the Canal

Local infrastructure development to help increase productivity and keep up with outside demand has permanently damaged the Avanti Swamp and surrounding areas including the ancient waters of the Bog Elves. Certain key intelligentsia within the city are responsible for the civic works project that had also produced more jobs in the city which then drew more cheap labor elements to then work in those areas after the canals were completed.

These leaders of the town including a head librarian, an investor in the banking guild, and a residuum specialist are all now being targeted by outside elements. They will pay for what they have done, one way or another.

The temples of the Crossroads have an outsized presence in the Guild of Bankers and Money Changers; most Guild apprentices and journeymen - especially actuarial students - spend at least a couple years working in temple casinos or travelling with caravans and dragon hunts to gain practical management experience.

Guild headquarters are even located amid a number of the larger temples in a ritzy neighborhood on Gold Street.



(Accountants can be adventurers too, Jesse)

A well known revolt took place a few decades back created a government that lasted a brief four years before the guilds reestablished their dominance and reordered the labor structure and punished the leaders of the revolution.

"The produce of the soil maintains at all times nearly that number of inhabitants which it is capable of maintaining. The rich only select from the heap what is most precious and agreeable. They consume little more than the poor, and in spite of their natural selfishness and rapacity, though they mean only their own conveniency, though the sole end which they propose from the labours of all the thousands whom they employ, be the gratification of their own vain and insatiable desires, they divide with the poor the produce of all their improvements."

Some Dragonwick philosopher probably.

Changing the guild system to simplify. 4 Major Guilds: Dragon Rendering, Adventurers, Bankers and Money Changers, and Healers

Minor Guilds are not entirely without sway and are representative of where the products and money are flowing and what they're being used for within the city. Arsonist, Armorcrafts, Weaponsmiths, Potions and Spellcraft, Clipper Cartel, Culinary, and The Library.

Character List:
Frog Strangler Earl, Brother Adventurer
Frog Strangler Liam, Twin Brother Adventurer
Frog Strangler Harry, Twin Brother Adventurer
*Frog Strangler Bulgor, Half-Orc Brother Adventurer
*Frog Stronger Leyash, Half-Elf Brother Adventurer
Molly Dragontallow, Dragon Rendering Guild Leader and High Renderer
Ondo "Bonebender" Miritaak, Guild Armor Specialist, necromancer
Captain Gunnelson, Clipper Cartel Guildleader
Bayou Jo, Owner operator of Brillig Tadpole
Saanvi Bhavshar aka Captain Spitfire, leader of the Wyvern's Bane
Egar, Chief Pyrotechnicist
Madame Bovinry, madame *Raised the Frog Stranglers
Uncle Daddy, brothel security *Father of Bulgor, Uncle to the rest of the FSs

Locations within the port city of Dragonwick:

Caravan routes
Arsonist's Guild
*Other Guild Halls
Armory
Ossuary, the Dragonwick slums
*The Library
Temples of the Crossroads
The Big Temple - Seat of the Healer's Guild as well
Processing Plant
Mercenary Camps
unnamed brothel in port side seedy district
*Standardbearer's Office
Kobold hutches
Avanti Swamps
The Canal

Just saw the Molly is a half-orc and has a relationship with the Stranglers which I was just thinking about and tying into some other characters like thirty minutes ago. I thought I would spice up their brotherhood with some half siblings from the same mother. Then I thought about what if none of them had the same father (with the possible exception of the twins) and were all a product of brothel life. Now Madame Bovinry and Uncle Daddy had a real place in the story and weren't just on a weird island. Uncle Daddy is a cute double entendre in that both imply the BDSM services that the brothel offers and the adoption of a caring title that was bestowed on him by the five boys that he helped raise, only one of which, the younger Bulgor, was biologically his own (which was when he went from just Uncle Rothgar to Uncle Daddy). If Molly is also half-orc, maybe she is a "sister" of the stranglers either in that she was raised at the brothel from another mother, that she is a half sister of the brothers through their mother, or that she is Uncle Daddy's daughter from a previous relationship that was also raised in the brothel.

So I thought about what was most likely ready to be developed into a real city and this is the closest in terms of what pieces already exist. I think we could combine this with the Avanti Swamp and Bog Elves and Swamp Halfings to really create a fun supplement or Zine. I think we probably need a few more key NPCs including but not limited to:

Head Cleric
Head Banker
Head Adventurer
Additional Minor Guild Leaders
Labor Organizer in the Ossuary
Head Librarian
Casino Pit Boss, I see this as like a gnome Paladin DeNiro
Plant Manager

I think that this will get us some good distance.

Mereline Blitzbender - Female Gnome Paladin of the Crossroads
Serves as a functional pit boss but is known in the temple as the High Observer
Also serves in the capacity of enforcing bets and is known as the Honorer of Contracts
Always armed with a ceremonial warhammer which is more of an oversized + shape, it is both extravagant and functional
Is not known to be lax in the enforcement of their roles. Cheaters are made honest, welshers always pay.

Abner Macklemoor, relation to Zadie Macklemoor and Jonby Macklemoor, left the swamp long ago trying to liase the sale of lizards to buy out the mule market. While he was only marginally successful in that venture, he soon found need in other ways in the Ossuary, the only place he truly felt at home in the city. Now he helps organize Gadderings of workers to create community and redistribute support, connecting those that have with those that need. It also becomes a place to vent frustrations at the guilds that pay the day laborers pennies. Some voices are getting louder than others.

The Library of Dragonwick is not an official guild but it might as well be. It is a privately owned enterprise started two centuries ago as a simple letter writing outfit. The caveat was that the magical quill used to write letters and copy books had a memory and could be set to copy a facsimile of anything previously written. As the letter writer's collection grew, so too did his power. There was a small footnote of a tussle early on when folk found out about the copying but for some reason, it was calmed and called off fairly quick for unknown reasons.

Yeah can we change that to the family started out as penwrights. The Penwright Library actually has a nice official kinda ring to it. They made all sorts of magical transcription aids and soon it became both a way to earn a living but also keep tabs on folks. The pens could be borrowed for as long as was liked but a copy of every book needed to be given in payment. . . . Hmm . . . we need to workshop this a bit.

There’s some cool stuff here, but I feel like it still needs a bit of further consolidation and simplification in order to create a tighter product. I’m gonna offer some hack and slash editing feedback, so feel free to take or leave bits and pieces of what I say as you like.

Healers’ Guild
I don’t think this guild brings much to the table as a major guild in Dragonwick. They don’t fit thematically, because our major themes of the Dragonwick guilds are Wealth, Commerce, Craftsmanship, Resource Exploitation, Corporatism, and Dragons. I think they can be eliminated or made a minor guild in the background.

I do like a 4-Guild superstructure to the town though. So what could take this slot as the 4th major guild?

Temple of the Crossroads
Another reason to eliminate the healers as a major is so we don’t have two competing churches in the city. I think having multiple prominent religious orders in a city that’s all about Commerce detracts from the central theme. Then, I would make the title of the leader of the gambling-church "Banker-Cleric" or something. Arch-Broker and his Actuary-Priests. Notary-Acolytes who collect Ante-tithes.

Renderer’s Guild
I like this simplification down to 4 major guilds. I think you could even fold the Armorers, Weaponsmiths, Tanners, (and Arsonists?) as subsets of the dragon rendering cartel? Actually, maybe "Renderer’s Cartel" would be a nice title for that Guild? This set of craftsmen and businessmen is kind of the heart of dragonwick’s industrial park.

Penwright’s Guild
I’m also having a hard time fitting this new addition into the overall structure of the guilds. I could imagine creating a complementary Major Cartel that is composed of the Temple of the Crossroads (Gambling), and the Bankers’ Guild. I’m imagining the Penwrights as producers of pens that all of the bankers, merchants, and debt collectors use in their ledgers. Rather than just memorizing what the pens write, maybe they actually transcribe everything into a secret secured ledger held by the Penwright Guild! I’m imagining they’ve effectively created a blockchain, distributed trust network for this little libertarian paradise! They could be the central arbiters who resolve any disputes, validate debts, etc. Obviously this is all sensitive information, so they hold the master ledger in an secured vault.

In this way, they wouldn’t be stealing personal secrets wholesale — but certainly the ability to follow The money in the city tells them a lot about the secrets of the rest of the guildmasters of this city and gives them enormous power and leverage. Nonetheless, other Guild-leaders use their pens, because carrying such a pen allows you to carry out official transactions anytime and anyplace. You can travel abroad procuring goods, and carry out secure transactions in the master ledger without the risk or inconvenience of carrying cartfuls of gold! International banking at its best (and worst)! This would also tie the Penwrights back to some central themes of Dragonwick: Commerce, Libertarianism, and Power.

Kobold Hutches
Where are you imagining these? Outside of the city? I have a hard time seeing kobolds wanting to be part of a society that makes its living off hunting & harvesting dragons. But I think kobolds will come into play plenty as adventurers get out and hunt actual dragons. Maybe there are some kobold dens that hold information on the whereabouts of dragons, that lower level adventurers can assault to bring back dragon information?

You know, it just occurred to me how very much the Guild Leaders are like the hoarding dragons that they hunt...

Anyway, those are the ideas I’m throwing at the wall. Obviously this is your brainchild, so you have veto power on anything hat doesn’t jive with your vision. I’m trying to offer bolder input, on the assumption that you’ll use your veto aggressively on anything that doesn’t jive. But I think we’ve got a lot of ideas here now, and some bolder editing and reworking will create a more robust final product.

Do you have a google doc for Dragonwick? It might be time to graduate to that format, for the sake of being able to structure things clearly and edit easily.

Adventure idea:

1) A den of kobolds is raising a wyrmling after its mother was slain by dragon hunters. Ondo Bonebender hears word of his and tasks you with invading the den, capturing he wyrmling, and bringing it back to him.

2) A wealthy noble hires you to take him on a dragon hunt, so he can experience the thrill of killing a great beast himself.