City of Urzud: Descriptions
by John CalvinHere is a first pass at some descriptions for the city (it's still pretty rough):
Locations
1) The Great Wall - Constructed by monolithic stones sheathed in steel, the wall has miraculously remained mostly intact. The climate however is steadily taking its toll on the structure, as water and ice have peeled away the layer of steel in several places, undoubtedly helped along by beastman hands. Several tribes making their homes along the inner wall have been stripping the metal away for generations and using it to smelt weapons and armor.
2) Bastions - These six huge stone keeps are built along the inner length of the Great Wall, each pair flanking one of the three pits sunk into the city. Largely explored by the beastmen, the innermost sanctums may still yet hold secrets.
3) Eastern Gate - This small gate is surrounded by a gatehouse, and was intended as the main troop portal for the city in ancient times. Now it serves much the same purpose although now it is manned by the very creatures it was once designed to keep out.
4) Southern Gate - Large with huge steel doors that slide along the inner surface of the wall to open. The gate was obviously intended as an entrance for the colossal earthshakers that once operated from here, but are now frozen open by time and ice. The gates may still function as intended, but closing them now would destroy a myriad of makeshift structures attached to them or nearby on the ground. Instead Warwrag's Wargs, some of the largest warriors in Urzud, are tasked with keeping order here and insuring that enemies of the beastmen do not enter the sacred city.
5) Inner Wall - This section of wall surrounds the Southern Pit, although it has been breached in the north and east. Rubble causeways lead up from the pit to each of the breaches.
6) Shaker's Graveyard - The Shaker's Graveyard is the name given to the Southern Pit. It is filled with ramshackle huts and makeshift dwellings, and is always heavy with the smell of smoke and greasy fires.
7) Shaker Berths - These three colossal structures are lined with scaffolds and machinery once intended to house earthshaker war machines. Now the scaffolds are used by the Muur Smiths, as frameworks from which to construct hanging dwellings and workshops. The beastmen still put much of the machinery to good use, although probably not toward its original intentions.
8) Earthshaker Corpse - What appears to be the remains of a colossal headless suit of armor rest here, splayed out across the floor of the pit. The earthshaker has been smashed and abused over the centuries by vengeful beastmen who still maintain a cultural memory of such machines hunting their species. Now its insides are claimed by a number of different factions, among them the Bone Skulks, and several distinct religious cults.
9) Storehouse - multiple structures used to store the military's food supplies, now used as tribute vaults by the most powerful tribes.
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10) Inner Lake - Fed water by the damaged mechanism of the city itself, the lake is brackish and foul, and probably fills several underground chambers as well as the area above ground.
11) Holy Ground - The raised center of the city is holy ground to the beastmen, and taboo prevents most from entering except on holy occasions.
12) Earshaker's Head - The severed head of the earthshaker (entry 8) was dragged here shortly after beastmen took the city. It is from here that the leading chieftains meet. Should any one of them unite the city, this would become their stronghold.
13) Central Vault - The largest structure in the city, the inner sanctums of the Central Vault have never been breached by the beastmen. Each year, amidst much pomp and ceremony, a single band of beastmen is selected to brave the dangers of the dungeon in an attempt to retrieve the fabled Blue Knife.
14) Roc's Nest - This massive tower connected to the Central Vault once held aloft the sacred Hawk of Andahar, though now the remains of that once majestic onyx icon lie smashed at its base. In its place several dark feathered rocs have taken up residence (from which the tower now receives its name). The inner chambers are the home of the Black Roc Wokani, a secretive society of wokani that terrorize the populace.
15) The Well - Another sacred site in the center of the city, the well is responsible for providing most inhabitants with water. Great machines still toil here day and night in order to bring clean water to most locations within the city walls.
16) The Sprawls - Pits, mud huts, and hide tents make up the vast majority of dwellings in the Sprawls, where most beastman tribes live outside the city's walls.
17) Scaffolding Market - This rickety scaffolding climbs up both sides of the Great Wall. For those who can navigate its heights without fear it is an excellent way to enter the city unnoticed. Although the scaffolds are filled with merchants and scoundrels, few guards are posted here.
18) Arena - Used as entertainment by the more savage inhabitants of the city, the arena not only provides a venue for bloody combats, but also houses some of the unique creatures that find their way to the city through underground passages.
19) Worm Holes - These gigantic holes in the earth were made shortly after the beastmen took control of the city when several giant worms broke through the surface to terrorize the new inhabitants of Urzud. The holes have almost undermined the integrity of the northwest portion of the wall, in addition to allowing denizens of the deep to find their way into the city.
20) Fuming Towers - Whatever the purpose of these ancient towers was in days long gone, now they serve as homes to the most powerful mages in the city. Ash gray spires constantly surrounded by billowing clouds of black smoke, the towers radiate a constant heat. Those that rise up from the depths of the stagnant lake are also surrounded by waters that boil and bubble.
Special Materials
Andahar Onyx - Fragments of the Andahar Hawk are tended by the Black Roc wokani, and often used in the crafting of their magical totems and gri-gris.
Blackmoor (Muur) Steel - This steel, stripped from the facings of the Walls of Urzud, is one of the hardest and most resilient metals known on Mystara. The beastmen have managed to divine the secrets required to shape this metal, and will sometimes make exceptional weapons and armor from it. More often they trade it to the Troll Mages of Grondheim.
Organizations
Black Roc Wokani - A group of secretive and terrifying beastmen mages, based out of the Roc's Nest in the central city. These wokani mark themselves by wearing jet black feathers in their headdresses and robes, and are one of the few groups who can enter the sacred ground of the central city freely.
Ragar's Horde - Orc horde
Carmag's Horde - Beastman horde
Bone Skulks - A tribe of goblins that bases itself out of the earthshaker's corpse, the Skulks know every inch of the city and its surrounds. When acting openly they dress in white and wear some animal skull atop their heads, however when stealth is called for the Skulks have no restrictions. Currently the band is led by a sniveling, conniving goblin named Feari.
Muur Smiths - Several troupes of hobgoblins and like minded beastmen have banded together to take control of the earthshaker berths. Here they make their homes as well as their workshops. Their foundries are constantly burning and sending foul, greasy, smoke into the air.
Wawrag's Wargs - Filthy and mangy, these wolf-like humanoids are among Urzud's best hunters and trackers. A band of them guards the South Gate, but most can be found roaming about the countryside on the prowl for easy game or some cruel sport.