Bazaar Fantasia: A Merchant Company GSRP In Magical Early Modernity [OPEN RECRUITMENT]

[Namaroff]

IC Thread
The year is 800 A.D. (After Defeat of the Necrolord by the Hero of Light) in the known world (consisting of the Eastern Continent, the islands of Western Gekoumene, and the Cloud Kingdom). In the current Magical Era, spells devised by studying the demons of long gone necromancers have created an age of agricultural capitalism and a commercial revolution. Advancement in spellcraft allows access to new deposits of resources and an uneasy peace enlivens international trade, but most of all dungeons from the fallen civilizations of the glorious past act as a driver of almost unlimited economic growth. Three vast trade networks dominate commerce for the time being, but as an independent merchant with a small company at your back you intend to challenge the status quo and become a prince among merchants!

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THE GSRP

Character
Pick a species, name and home country. Then pick a Dungeon Ability and a Overworld Ability. This is the leader of your merchant company. Write a short bio.

Company
Pick a name, a country of headquarters, and two Company Abilities. This is the company you intend to challenge the merchant elite with. Write a short description.

Dungeon Abilities

• Class - Warrior: You are a frontline fighting adventurer.
• Class - Mage: You are an adventurer who fights with ranged magic.
• Class - Thief: You are a specialist adventurer, deft with traps and locks.
• Class - Priest: You are a support adventurer with high magic resistance.
• Class - Explorer: You are a jack of all trades, master of none, adventurer.

Overworld Abilities

• Artisan: You are some type of craftsman (like a baker or a blacksmith), able to turn commodities into goods yourself (or repair them) without taking them to market to have it done there.
• Farmer/Rancher: You have a ranch or farm at your headquarters where you can cultivate, multiply and modify Meat/Dairy/Livestock or Fruits/Vegetables/Flowers/Grains.
• Mason: You are a builder and architect able to improve your headquarters over time, or rapidly with resources.
• Professional: You are some kind of performer, doctor, or teacher able to make a living off your skills while traveling through the world.
• Appraiser: You can identify the make and origin of loot without bringing it to market.

Company Abilities

• Ship: You have your own ship, allowing you to travel mapped sea routes safely and quickly. Without one you are at risk of pirates and mercy of haggling sea-captains.
• Caravan: You have your own caravan of sturdy wagons, allowing you to travel mapped land routes safely and quickly. Without one you are at risk of bandits and the mercy of lightfingered cart-drivers.
• Men-at-Arms: You command a small company of mercenaries as part of your merchant house. Military tactics don't work well in dungeons but are very useful for tough situations on the overworld map or taking the risk of hiring yourself out in wartime.
• Laboratory: The practical-applications mages at your headquarters will study loot to invent new products that the customers don't know they want yet.
• Secret Society: Your Company is a front for a cult, ninja clan, or illuminated lodge able to exercise influence in a different way than a mere merchant can.
• Family: Your Company is your literal family, through blood/marriage/adoption/Beastman friendship ceremony. They'll act to help you even without you asking and have stronger bonds of loyalty than hired hands.

Lore Dump I:

Spoiler: UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD THROUGH LOOT

UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD THROUGH LOOT
Item
Commodities Tags: Stone/Metal/Wood, Coffee/Tea/Tobacco, Meat/Dairy/Livestock, Fruits/Vegetables/Flowers/Grains, Salt/Sugar/Spice/Herbs, Oil/Fuel, Cloth/Textiles, Paper/Ink

Goods Tags: Weapons/Armor, Potions/Drugs, Books/Periodicals, Coin/Gem/Jewelry/Art/Instrument, Baked Goods, Beer/Wine/Liquor, Clothing, Tools/Equipment

Personnel Tags: Servants, Mercenaries, Tutors/Translators, Musicians/Performers, Smiths/Craftsmen, Builders/Laborers, Barber/Dentist/Surgeon, Mages, Thieves, Warriors, Priests

Vintage
Legendary Tags: Titanmade, Dragonscale, Sunblessed, Moonblessed, Demonic, Golem

Make Tags: Horde [Orc, Goblin, Gremlin, Troll, Hobgoblin], Beastman [Lizardman, Other], Man [Human, Halfman], Elve, Titanspawn [Dwarf, Gnome, Giant, Ogre]

Origin Tags: Magic Era, Church Era, Necrodynasty, Druidic, Draconic Age, Golden Age, Titan Age

EXAMPLE LOOT

Far East Granite
Tags: stone/metal/wood, horde
Granite from the Hordelands. Mined from the quarry at the Thrak Morra cryovolcano by the order of the Hordemaster's Fourth Sublord.

T'far'jit (Snakesword)
Tags: weapons/armor, beastman
Sword of lizardman make. Whistling, flexible steel whip sword from the continent's Southeast swamps.

Constanzia Fumincheo
Tags: servants, man
Human maid. Middle aged woman from the southern kingdoms.

Moonsilver Graces
Tags: coffee/tea/tobacco, elve
Coffee of elvish make, which elven roastmasters' select from the finest berries by use of displacer beasts as smellhounds. Berries are retrieved from the beast droppings, cleaned, dried, and roasted.

Power Pills
Tags: potions/drugs, titanspawn
Potion of dwarvish make. Graham Underlake's muscle maximizing power pills.

Into the Air: A Girls' Primer
Tags: books/periodicals, magic era
Book from the Magic Era, a century old. First edition textbook on the use of flying brooms, spellcraft developed by studying demon magic.

Crusader Doubloon
Tags: coin/gem/jewelry/art/instrument, church era
Coin from the Church Era, a few hundred years old. Coined likeness of The Hero (as a Halfman), commemorating the crusade's execution of the last necromancer, Greavelia the Blood Knight, and comparing it to the Hero's defeat of the Necrolord centuries before that.

Petrified Panem
Tags: baked goods, necrodynasty
Bread from the Necrodynasty, a thousand years old. Fossilized loaf originally baked by the reanimated skeletons of humanity's enemies in the furnaces of the Necrolord's capital on the Cloud Island, to feed disciple mages until they grew to adulthood, ripe for undeath.

Ancient Pale Ale
Tags: beer/wine/liquor, druidic
Beer from the druidic age, a few thousand years old. Made by the hunters of the primeval forest spread by the elven druid kings, lagered in a cave ever since. Made with wild yeast caught in the beards of the extinct giant red yak, and hops gathered from cannabidiol treants.

Thermal Ice Age Tunic
Tags: clothing, draconic age
Shirt from the draconic age, tens of thousands of years old. As humans, elves, and beast men made few lasting goods of quality from this era beyond pottery, it is likely of Titanspawn make. Made from either a synthetic dwarf made fiber or the hair of a now extinct animal.

Golden Tower Cuirass
Tags: armor, golden age
Breastplate from the golden age, a few hundred thousand years old. Brought from the moon by an elven colonial administrator. Made of moonsilver, a moving liquid metal that takes shape when struck and is not normally found on this world.

Fireforge Hammer
Tags: tools/equipment, titan age,
Hammer from the titan age, an eternity's years old. Tool of a firekin elemental forge master, before their species died out in the titanomachy.

Underworld Ruby Apple
Tags: fruits/vegetables/flowers/grains, titanmade
Seed from the fruit of the Earth Titan. Will grow in any soil into a spiny fruit only the strongest can survive eating, granting a fragment of Titan power to the one who does.

Shellshatter Ink
Tags: paper/ink, dragonscale
Ink made with a dragon's tear. A priceless component for spellcraft, worthy of the personal grimoire of the world's greatest mage.

Gadilaean Lyre
Tags: coin/gem/jewelry/art/instrument, sunblessed
A lyre gifted to a Gekoumene songwriter in love by the sun goddess, as part of a prophecy that ended tragically. Its music moves any heart, and even the trees and stones.

Nikkernock Slippers
Tags: clothing, moonblessed
Sandals, not just from the lost elven city on the moon, but stolen from the court of the moon goddess herself. Intended for traveling the space between the stars, but on the world have been used to traverse the crushing depths of the ocean.

Decarabian Imp
Tags: barber/dentist/surgeon, demonic
Usually takes the shape of a buzzing, stinging fly, but those who know it's name can conjure it to take its true form, a handsome barber-surgeon of indeterminate species and sex. Performs its duties unerringly, but will claim the leftovers for itself.

Vemoritas Magia
Tags: mage, golem
A stone construct in the perfect likeness of a famous mage, down to their memories and mana. Control tablet missing or damaged.

Lore Dump II:

Spoiler: NAMES, PLACES, AND HISTORY

NOMASTIKON
Titanspawn

• Dwarves: Scottish/English names with surnames after places and places named in very literal english (ex: Whiterock, both a place and a family name)
• Gnomes: Welsh sounding names, literal english epithets instead of surnames (ex: Quickhands)
• Giants and Ogres: Irish sounding names, literal english patronym/matronym surnames (ex: son of X, daughter of Y)

Man

• Imperial Human: Romanesque names and dog latin place/thing names.
• Southern Human: Italianesque names and place/thing names.
• Gekoumene Human: Greco-Japanese names and place/thing names. Family name before given name.
• Halfman: Medieval and regional Spanish sounding names, no surnames, name places/things after people

Elves: Germanic/Norse sounding names, with the most fairytale sounding versions for places and things.

Beastmen

• Lizardman: Fantasy gibberish names and nouns with lots of x's, z's, and apostrophes.
• Other Beastmen: Shorter apostrophe based names with no x's or z's (ex: Ko'Bol)

Horde

• Orc: Morkborg ass very metal sounding Nordic-ish names with a dash of fake fantasy Sumerianish, with guttural combinations of syllables (ex: Mag Thraka, Ur Ngoth). Surnames are a combination of those sounds and english descriptors (ex: Guzzkill, Bloodthrag)
• Goblin: Descriptive english names (ex: Bright Eyes) and nouns (Glimmerstab).
• Gremlin: Like a cross between elven and orcish names and nouns (ex: Althibuzz, Gorelai).
• Troll: Like orc names/nouns but with lots and lots of x's and z's like a lizardman.
• Hobgoblin: Onomatopoeia given names with descriptive english family names (ex: Screek Redhat)

ATLAS
Holy Empire: Founded by the Patriarch of the Church of Light during the Church Era, with an elected human emperor from the lesser kings and lords of the empire.

• Magne Vitruvum: Kingdom of humans and halfmen. Patchwork of kingdoms, duchies and counties.
• Magne Dryades: Kingdom of elves who, after warring with Beastmen and creating the Horde to try to fight the Necrodynasty alone, finally allied with humanity. The Church of Light is not the only official religion, the royal family and most of the upper nobility are still Moon Goddess worshippers.
• Magne Gnomus: Ostensibly the kingdom of dwarves who converted to the Church of Light from their normal Titan-worship, but in actuality the majority population are elves, with only the Dwarven patricians of Whiterock able to vote in their republican system.
• Magne Felidae: Kingdom of catmen who converted to the Church of Light during the Church Era's crusades against the Necrodynasty. Ruled by a parliament with property qualifications to enter.

Beastman Empire: Lizardman-led caste based theocratic empire dedicated to Saurianism (the Dragon Cult).

Free City of Ko'Bol: Independent mercantile city-state created by the secession of heretical lizardman priests and the dogman caste of the Beastman empire back during the Druidic Age. Citizens are called Kobolds, without distinction between lizard and dog.

Undermarch: Far Southern dwarven military dictatorship established in a subterranean war against a long-forgotten menace.

Southern Kingdoms: Human kingdoms established by explorers and treasure-hunters in the late Church era through the current Magic Era.

• Regia Garofano: Kingdom of the Carnation, very Prussian and militaristic
• Regia Rosario: Kingdom of the Rose, nautical kingdom interested in becoming a trading hub to rival Ko'Bol. Established by sailors rather than overland expeditions, the royal family is hosting the Hordemaster's daughter as part of a diplomatic mission controversial across the human world.
• Regia Margherita: Kingdom of the Daisy, more devout to the Church of Light than the Holy Empire even.

Goto's Land: A vast and fertile volcanic valley surrounded by high ravine walls, this defensible breadbasket was settled by a halfman gentlewoman named Goto during the Church Era. The Church of Light is tolerated but ancestor worship of one's family and clan network is the state religion, incorporated into the plutocracy's rituals and traditions.

Erolkonig: Neo-druidic elven kingdom, isolationist except for the Gotolander halfmen who pass in and out of their territory.

Hordelands: The Orcs were created by the Elves to defeat the Necrodynasty, and instead revolted and created Goblins, Gremlins, Trolls and Hobgoblins in their own image. Under Orcish Hordemasters, this Horde made their home in the most inhospitable part of the continent - full of volcanos, glaciers, cryovolcanos, and killer salt geysers. Practice ancestor worship and an imperial cult of the first Hordemaster.

Strathammer: Kingdom of Titan-worshiping dwarves, with half their traditional population behind the border of the Hordelands.

Cloud Kingdom: The Cloud Isle was originally home to the Golden Tower of the ancient Moon elves, the same way the continent was home to the Garden of Humanity. Human colonists settling the mostly abandoned island after the fall of the tower and the burning of the garden discovered the Tower's Control Slab, founding the Necrodynasty based on the Cloud Island as its innermost territory. When the Hero of Light defeated the Necrolord, some Necrodynasty human and halfman cities converted to the Church and some new settlements were founded by crusaders of various species. However few wanted to emigrate to the former home of the lord of evil, and the indigenous ogres and giants predating the elven colony gradually reestablished control, with a unified kingdom under a royal family of giants and ogres both. Followers of the Church of Light.

Western Gekoumene: Western island nation of humans, under a clan confederation and military dictatorship not unlike that of dwarves, especially the Undermarch. Worship the Sun Goddess in a different way than the Church of Light and always have, but the holy powers of their priests are the same.

HISTORIA
Titan Age: Elemental Titans created the world. Titanspawn civilization (Dwarves, Giants, Ogres) eradicates Elemental (Firekin, Earthkin, Waterkin, Airkin) civilization in a war that divides the Titans and leads to their own destruction.

Golden Age: Sun goddess creates a garden on earth and creates Humanity. Elves colonize from the Moon and build a Golden Tower to control operations from.

Draconic Age: Born from the Titans' hearts in the depths of the earth, Dragons emerge and ravage the planet in fire, mating with surface life to create monsters everywhere. The garden burns and the tower falls. Beastmen arise from draconic descent, with Lizardfolk claiming divine right of rule over all other beastman races.

Druidic Age: Cast into the wilderness from the fall of the tower, elves discover the seeds of the garden of the goddess and use it to spread primordial forests across the world. Heretical lizardfolk form a union with dogfolk to create the Kobold Nation. Halfmen arise from Human descent, Gnomes arise from Dwarf descent.

Necrodynasty: A human philosopher discovers the golden slab from the lost elven tower and uses it to end death, conjure demons, and create golems. Elves create orcs to combat the legions of the dead, but orcs revolt and create the other Horde from in their likeness from the spawning vats - goblins, gremlins, trolls, and hobgoblins.

Church Era: The Sun Goddess intervenes to grant divine power to all who believe in her. A Hero of Light (every species claims them as one of their own) chosen by the Goddess destroys the Necrodynasty and priests of all civilizations create a universal Church of Light across the world - except in the Hordelands which refuse the healing power of the Goddess the same way they refused the immortality offered by the Necrodynasty.

Magic Era: (current) Relics of the Necrodynasty, after purification and censorship by the Church, combined with techniques learned from fighting Demons who are master mages themselves, lead to a new high age of magic - with magic allowing a technological and material level of wealth and commerce between the civilizations previously thought the sole realm of the gods.

Lore Dump III:

Spoiler: TRADE NETWORKS AND ACTIVE DUNGEONS

TRADE NETWORKS
Merchant Union: Founded by human craftsmen in the Church Era (but open to all species), who had not yet to benefit from the rapid expansion of the Magical Era that allowed human made goods to compete with dwarven and elven goods in quality, the Union grew on the wisdom of its investments from carpenters switching from houses to building ships that were ready in time for the crusade against the Cloud Island to then investing the profits into building their own cities within cities in every port they traded in. They don't have the warships of the Kobolds or the imperial favor of the Whiterocks, but they live and eat together and that's how they make their bets and acquisitions as well.

• Fluminides: Not the capital of the current Cloud Kingdom, but its largest city and also home to the most foreigners. A city built by the Necrodynasty and then emptied for a time during the crusades.
• Venustus: Union City within the Holy Empire. Headquarters of the Union.
• Castalustra: Union City within the Holy Empire.
• Pontepunkt: Capital of a county within the Holy Empire. Famous for its wool.
• Slornaka: Union City within the Hordelands. Located in volcanic swamp. Half the population is dwarven the other half are Horde species.
• Flakkus: Northern Horde city and headquarters of the Fourth Sublord.
• Alfarmok: Southern Horde city, named for the Elven fortress where Orcs were first created. The vats are long gone but it remains the Horde's center for magical research.

Whiterock Clan: Once an obscure dwarven clan, one of many in the City of Whiterocks, the mage Hamish Whiterock rocketed his family to the top of the city (and Empire's) elite by developing a new magic to extract gold, salt and fuel-oil from deep soft earth inaccessible to ancient dwarven mining techniques. Now their trade roads mark the continental interior and they are the royal bankers to the Holy Emperor.

• Whiterock: Capital of the Magne Gnomus republic within the Holy Empire. Headquarters of the Whiterock Clan.
• Lacaton: Imperial city dredged from below sea level for sulfur mining.
• Wauseel: Elf city within the Holy Empire. Situated above a lake famed for its healing waters.
• Allheim: Elf city within the Holy Empire. Home to the Imperial University, which accepts students from all social classes from every corner of the Empire.
• Xa'Na'Toth: Beastman Empire capital, on the edge of the great desert.
• Eterano: Second city of Regia Garofano. Former home of the Southern Patriarch of the extremely devout Southern Church of Light, but due to the monarchy seizing control of the city, the Patriarch fled to Regia Margherita.
• Ft. Invincible: Northern outpost and military port of the Dwarven Undermarch, pointed against the Horde across the bay.

Free City of Ko'Bol: The Sha'Ra, Sea-Law, is imposed on the high waves by the Kobold Navy, a all purpose military whose sailors and marines come from the mandatory national service of all citizens, who are alike in dignity under the law. Because lizardmen outlive dogfolk, those who complete their national service and live long enough to purchase their own merchant ship to profit from the city's trading empire are almost all lizardmen. The sole exception are the Caninos (using human naming conventions), a new money intermarried Human-Dogman merchant family with connections to all three Southern Kingdoms.

• The Free City itself
• Al'Xa'Gn'Na: Beastman city in the middle of the swamp.
• Sh'Al'Ma: Beastman city famous for tropical hardwoods.
• Colosso: Capital of Regia Garofano and home to its famous general staff, the city is like an anthill built out of a vault of stone excavated for Titan relics by its original dwarvish inhabitants before human settlement.
• Westport: Undermarch's access to the Western sea. A site of intrigue for spies for the bordering Margherita kingdom.
• Za'Nir'Ha'Xan: Beastman city built into an active volcano, once home to the greatest garrisons of Lizard priest-warriors during the Necrodynasty wars with humans and elves, now a center of agricultural commerce on the far side of the desert.
• Jiminisi: Capital of Western Gekoumene.
• Kyotokos: Largest regional Far-Western city of Western Gekoumene.
• Polisan: The third city after the previous two Gekoumene cities on this smaller island were destroyed over the ages. Home to the only major mine in the entire Western Gekoumene.

DUNGEONS (data still being transferred)

1. Mt. Atlas, a dungeon created by the Sky Titan. A whirlwind has prevented anyone from the work of opening the giant doors at the top of the peak yet.
2. Howling Heath, a source of revenue for the Cloud Kingdom which built a labyrinth around the plain where the winds drive the unprepared mad, charging adventurers for access at the toll-gate.
3. Nine Sighs, crumbling Necrodynasty bath on a naturally occuring hotspring is a source of strange sightless monsters plaguing the countryside.
4. Lake Allerleirauh, a reflecting pool with an ancient elven name, smallfolk (by giant standards) bandits in the area are hindering access to the magical palace under the lake.
5. Lux Brigantes, a lighthouse constructed in the likeness of the Hero (if assumed to be human) by the first Holy Emperor. Through divine blessing the great lamp never goes out or requires new oil, and the interior of the colossus has been sealed and trapped by powerful spells. Touting these as spiritual challenges to test the faith and discipline of pilgrims, the Church charges a toll to enter. While not popular with adventurers, the effect of divine radiance on small flora and fauna have produced souvenirs popular back on the mainland.
6. Devil's Sea, also known as the Cape of Eumadoxumi. A section of open ocean where ships often go missing or narrowly escape harrowing attacks with phantom ships. A great mana presence seems to be drawing in the shipwrecks to the center, creating a dungeon currently being charted by a ship of ascetics from Gekoumene, the Zonchiskti.
7. Tethyean Rift, the great barrier reef off the Pontepunkt peninsula, the mana-rich environment made it the most popular undersea dungeon in the past, and the local flora and fauna were hunted to near extinction. Since then strange giant monsters have emerged from lower levels to patrol the dungeon. Very recently, a confirmed autopsy by doctors of the Merchant Union revealed them to be a tribe of giants wearing magical armor, triggering renewed interest in the mana source.
8. Kottotake, the mushroom forest. A poison dungeon that has killed many adventurers with inadequate protection. Even indigenous Gekoumene shapeshifting monsters ("Xenomono") usually thought immune to poison are found dead around the toxic region, with bite wounds dripping corrosive venom.
9. Kyaenoghara, the sea of trees below a holy mountain became a web of darkness after a man-eating spider spirit appeared following an ill-omen two hundred years ago. The former court magician, Chloros Domon, took to the forest in recent years after being declared an outlaw.
10. Map error.
11. Tomb of the Tyrant Wyrm, a Beastman Empire holy site in Tyrant Canyon on the far side of the great desert. Its suspected a powerful mage has occupied it.
12. Lavender Grows In The Desert, easier to say in Beastongue. This flowering barrow mound has massive mana but the rooftop garden has holes and signs of entry.
13. Unconquered Lion, a massive stone sphinx in the heart of the Beastman Empire, after a previous adventuring boom the emptied upper floors have become home to the native desert monsters.
14. The Enemy, a giant cavern in the remote jungle with the face of stern man. Shielded by powerful magics.
15. Map error
16. The Babbling Spire, a legendary dragon hoard in the redwood forests of Magne Felidae. Legend says the Siren-Wyvern compelled mortals and monsters alike to construct this magically protected wooden tower after the rise of the Druid-Kings and the spread of the primal forest. Every chamber is protected by a magical riddle and adventurers have encountered regional enchantment based monsters like nymphs.
17. The Sun Stones, ancient human standing stones that served as a calendar and astronomical tool, are home to a dungeon discovered by holy site desecrating grave robbers and fortunehunters, who left without the shirts on their backs. Each chamber of the dungeon below, which descends in a spiral, requires magically enforced bargaining to proceed. The fox with a burning tale that lives in those halls, sometimes taking the shape of a human woman, will offer things in return only to 'outfox' all who try to recoup their losses.
18. Gullenfort, a halfling hillfort from the druidic age and the emergence of the culture. The top floors are full of deadly magical traps and have received decent treasure reviews from adventurers.
19. Goodfellow's Well, a popular Gnomish hotspring inn, the heat vents below it attract cave-dwelling forest monsters and foolhardy adventurers alike. Famed not for deadliness but for fool's gold and beffudling enchantments, with adventurers leaving as frogs, bodyswapped or otherwised hexed to go to town for de-cursing.
20. Dreikreuz Manor, family seat of penniless elven nobles on the wrong side of the dwarven/elven kingdom border, discovered a Dwarven mithril gate beneath their wine cellar a century and a half ago. They don't charge reputable delvers to make an attempt, greedy to negotiate a share in the fortune it could unleash if opened.
21. The Gristmill; in the wildflower fields outside Lacaton stands an ancient Beastman mill, used to feed their dragon overlords in that era. Outlaws and heretics from across the continent and beyond claim it as their fortress, openly defying the Emperor to disseminate radical pamphlets and outrageous proclamations. The high mana indicating a dungeon has prevented sending in knights.
22. The Black Library. An onyx building, in the style of a pantheon, in the middle of the elven forest is hardly subtle. This Necrodynasty relic was declared purified of demons by the Church, after crusaders reached the bottom floor, battling demons (mana-based beings strong in combat magic) protecting the blasphemous literature. But it must have not been cleared because the mana presence failed to dissipate over time and instead attracted the monsters of the forest to refill the emptied chambers. Crusaders aren't professional adventurers and it shouldn't be a surprise that they missed sections of the dungeon while going for a direct route to the bottom.
23. The Chimera Pit, discovered when a mineshaft sunk by Dwarven migrant miners in the Hordelands unleashed hybrids of local area monsters, which took over the entire mining system. Due to tense relations between the neighboring dwarven kingdom of Strathammer and the Horde Sublord (a Gremlin) of the dwarven majority region, the dungeon is open to adventurers without toll or legal penalty.
24. Urngurnd Tar Pit: Part of the Gutseiric Mana Line discovered by gremlin magic researchers from the institute at Alfarmok. The sheer mana of the line makes using magic to move through the tar, survive the heat and pressure, and navigate without air and light, impossible. It would take incredible non-magical physical capabilities not yet demonstrated (despite troll special forces cadets making the attempt since discovery) to find the path without dying on the way.
25. Tower of the Mad Mage, another dungeon on the Gutseiric Line, but this time outside Hordelands and in Erolkonig's border region, which is home to the goblin river city of Stenchwater. For three hundred years mage Vortigess, a "wild elf" from the Erolkonig, has been using the power of the Mana Line all for herself without the outside world becoming the wiser due to how insular and remote the region is, and how little Erolkonig communicates with the outside world. Recent interest due to the discovery of the line have resulted in long-range magical retaliations across the region.
26. The Green is the only place in the world where goblin fruit (and vegetable) and goblin livestock can normally be grown, as the soil is fertile with the collected dead of the Horde - whose flesh is unnatural to the known world due to its origin in the near mythical 'breeding vats' of the late elven empire in its wars against the Necrodynasty. While Horde species can eat plants and meat from other biomes, they lack critical nutrition and malnourishment on campaign has stopped total Horde invasions of other nations before. Both out of respect of their dead and for the importance of the crops to feed the whole nation, this section of fertile valleys is strictly off limits to foreigners. This Southern entrance to the Green and its many secrets is the training ground of the Borg Gluk Tak, known to some enthusiasts of Gekoumene culture as "The Goblin Ninja Corps".
27. The Northern Entrance to The Green. All Horde bodies must eventually go into the Green and such it was with its founder, the first Hordemaster. His monument and the monastery of the Horde's chaplain corps, upholding the imperial cult of the first Hordemaster and supervising ancestor related disputes within the Horde, stand guard over this entrance to the top-secret farmlands.
28. Trollcrusher: The first dungeon discovered along the Gutseiric Line, not that far from Alfarmok and the institute of magical research. Rumors from the well disciplined Horde indicate disgust among some of the troops about the researchers, now occupying the dungeon, collaborating with some kind of loathsome, but intelligent, monster inside in order to study the secrets of the Mana Line. Prior to the discovery the primary purpose of the wild dungeon, whose entrance is in a stone gorge, testing and training the regeneration capability of the Horde's troll shocktroopers.
29. x
30. The Buried Citadel, a completely abandoned subterranean metropolis, is shunned by the Undermarch dwarves who consider it the capital of their now forgotten - and long vanquished - nemeses. Monsters from the canyon riddled surface hide in here during the day and maraud the lands at night. Coins found here match those found at the Ocean Palace.
31. Holy Oak, a giant tree planted by an ancient Druid-King at the base of a mountain. Mana detection indicates a dungeon but no one has figured out a way in yet.
32. The Ziggurat, a tolled dungeon in the swamps of the Eastern colony of the Beastman Empire. Adventurers have brought back extremely valuable pelts of dire-beasts not indigenous to the surrounding swampland.
33. The Ocean Palace, a dungeon made of raging torrents of seawater contained by immense mana, suspended in the air high above the inner sea. Those with the means to access it have reported moonbeasts, like displacers, suggesting ancient elven origin, but recovered coins and treasure items are of completely unknown make.

Spoiler: LORE REVISIONS

Giants don't have human proportions, all Titanspawn have 4 fingered/toed hands/feet and torsos of equal length to legs. Compare to how human proportions are that head and torso together are equal length to the legs and their hands reach their knees. Titanspawn's hands only reach past the hip/mid-thigh. Horde have equal torso to leg length, but brachiated arms that knuckle drag down to the ankles. Elves on the other hand have legs longer than human proportion and their hands reach to the knee.

Turns, Orders and IC's
Each turn the characters and the NPC trade networks will try to acquire loot from dungeons (and other means differing from company to company) to bring to market for a profit. Payment can be more loot useful to the company, currency (to be elaborated on in play) or even land, titles and social influence. All of these will be tracked publicly for all player and npc merchants.

At the start of the turn the markets across the map will list loot in supply and loot in demand, but that doesn't mean you can't create demand in the right logical place for the right item at the right time. Major world events will be tracked as well to help with this.

Players may submit up to 200 words each turn to describe what dungeon they are going to delve and what market they are going to, in which order, what of their possessions are up for sale, and their general priorities and approach. There's a lot of leeway - for instance bringing goods to market outside of a known trade hub might be risky but if successful over time you might make that location a new center of trade outside of the cartel networks. Cooperating or sabotaging other players or independent NPC's is always possible but the three major trade networks will always be trying to screw you in some way.

Please format your orders in a SV PM to me as Bazaar Fantasia: [Character Name/Company Name]

Deadlines, Updates and Discord

I'll keep deadlines updated here
CURRENT TURN AND DEADLINE: Turn Three Deadline Friday May 4th

Please join the game discord here: Join the Martigan's Game(s) Discord Server!

 

[Salbazier]

Charming worldbuilding.

Assuming open recruitment, I'm interested. Will whip up something once I got home.

 

[Simpli]

=}+{=
=} The rising Dawn Arcanists Consortium {=

Spoiler

=}+{=​

Leadership: Griseldis Ubbelohde
Species: Elf
Dungeon Ability: Mage

Offensive Magic​

Mana Sense (tracking magic and magical ecology)​

Riddles and Puzzles​

Spellcraft (utility magic and magical theory)​

Overworld Ability: Appraiser

Headquarter: Fluminides

Company Abilities:
Caravan: Powered by magical control stones, these sturdy carts are decked out in magical tools and symbols, both for practical purposes and impress the casual onlooker. Able to move through even hardy terrain, their presence allows the Consortium to undertake far ranging expeditions.

Laboratory: Set into the refurbished remnants of an old tower, the Dawns Arcanists have brought quite many tomes and tools with them to the cloud Kingdom. Together they put their magical know-how and learned artisanship to good use by examining the remnants of ancient times to derive useful knowledge and spells for this new Magical Era.

History:
Originating from the Imperial University, the Consortium is an alliance between multiple mages and their apprentices of which Griseldis is both the oldest and the most well read, giving her a natural role as trusted mentor and leader to those younger than her. While the laboratory had originally been part of the University proper, the prizes paid for many of the recovered artifacts hampered a true scientific and magical study of the ancient arts and knowledge. As such Griseldis gathered like minded mages, her students and theirs, for a trip across the sea towards the Cloud Kingdom.

While not many would traverse to the place where great evils had taken their place and had their roots, the Consortium was more than eager to see the land for themselves: what other place in creation offered artifacts dating back to the ancient moon elves, their Necrodynasty derivatives and the enduring traditions of both giants and ogres?

Arriving at Fluminides they found a city growing on top of a city: new arrivals and daring settlers breathing new life into a place that had been utterly emptied by the crusades - with new structures using the stones of the old ones. Following their own needs, the Consortium was able to secure a tower for their experiments and storages, it was unclear of which fortification it had been part off, but the foundations and cellars were strong and true and as such it was restructured into a true mage tower.

And now that they were here - it was time to seek out what they had come for: knowledge and the means to turn it into the kind of product that would fuel ever grander and grander projects.

=}+{=​

 

[Magus Explorator]

Marcolo's Baubles and Bludgeons





​

Leadership: Marcolo Pollo
Species: Human
Dungeon Ability: Explorer
Overworld Ability: Appraiser
Headquarter: Regia Rosario
Company Abilities
Laboratory: A nice converted manor on the outskirts of the city, previously owned by the Marcolo family however with the current heir's perchance for Exploration and for his growing trade ventures it has been converted as a laboratory.
While not the most secure place available the closeness to the city and vast fertile farmlands fits Marcolo very well.

Secret Society: The Enlightened: His contacts from his heyday as a young explorer have evolved into a secret society known as "The Enlightened." United by Marcolo, these individuals share a daring and possibly heretical goal—to study and catalog all forms of knowledge. Their plan involves gradually releasing the amassed research for public consumption, ensuring substantial profit. In their pursuit, no knowledge is deemed beyond study.

However, some whispers cast a darker shadow over the institution. While most scholar members adhere to societal norms, a faction deviates. Their actions range from grave robbing for dissection, manipulating prisoner transports in Horde land to reach destinations with fewer prisoners and fuller pockets, to forming unholy pacts with creatures unknown to man. Disturbing gossip surrounds these members, and if discovered, they typically meet an "unfortunate" accident. Yet, the old saying prevails— "success washes away all sins." Those labeled as "dark" members have their sins forgiven if their research proves to be valuable.

History:
Born into a wealthy land-owning family, Marcolo's early life was comfortable, raised as the heir to inherit their flourishing farming business. However, the young lad rebelled against his father's wishes, aspiring to become an adventurer and seek glory exploring the hidden corners of the world.

His wish came true unexpectedly, as a shipwreck claimed the lives of his lord father and mother, thrusting him into the role of family head. Determined to pursue his heart's dreams, he utilized his family wealth to kickstart his adventuring days with a bang, successfully looting tomb palaces and remnants of tribal camps from ancient times.

While he achieved success in adventuring, his most potent weapon was his tongue. a merchant once said "That clever devil, you start talking about the weather and end selling all your earthly possessions and firstborn while he grins at you with a smile like a cat that just caught a succulent bird" referencing the adventurer.

Employing his guile, he actively worked on his public relations, releasing carefully edited exploits in the form of books to distance himself from the stigma of the "uncultured adventurer" with his upper-class upbringing and stories.

However, he faced a challenge in his early success, with "reputable" wizards charging exorbitant fees for analyzing and refining his products. Seeking an alternative, Marcolo formed alliances with unconventional practitioners, colloquially known as back-alley mages, shaman wannabes, or wizards with delusions of grandeur. Marcolo referred to them as "valued customers," as they often waived fees and processes, lacking the robust networks of their more reputable peers, opting instead for "first pick" from his goods.

Over time, these wizards and researchers, whether successful or not, found themselves jobless, prompting many to travel to Regia Rosario to negotiate with Marcolo for more permanent partnerships. From these humble beginnings, his corporation, "Marcolo's Baubles and Bludgeons," emerged—a collection of eccentric researchers with a penchant for monologues, embarking on an arduous climb through the ranks of Rosario's markets.

The first shop of Marcollo, how such a building passed the inspections from the city builder and guards is nothing short of a miracle ​

 

[Lord Necromancer]

Character:
Human
Fabius Julii

Dungeon Abilities:
-Class - Warrior: You are a Frontline Fighting adventurer.
--Heavy Weapon (Halberd)
--Leader
--Packmule
--Spellcraft

Overworld Ability
-Mason: You are a builder and architect able to improve your headquarters over time, or rapidly with resources.
Company name: The Platinum Order
HQ: Magne Dryades, Town of Silver-Veil (About equidistant from Dungeons 18,19,22)

Description: Born from the desperation of the Julii families exile, the Platinum Order is a more militaristic merchant company that is willing to trade even in war-torn areas for the right price. Willing to trek near battlefields, through bandit infested forests, across monster infested plains, and over hostile mountains The Platinum Order will trade anywhere if they can make a big enough profit.

Company Abilities
-Men-at-Arms: You command a small company of mercenaries as part of your merchant house. Military tactics don't work well in dungeons but are very useful for tough situations on the overworld map or taking the risk of hiring yourself out in wartime.
-Family: Your Company is your literal family, through blood/marriage/adoption/Beastman friendship ceremony. They'll act to help you even without you asking and have stronger bonds of loyalty than hired hands.

Bio: WIP

 

[Laplace]

THE BOSS THE BOSS THE BOSS THE BOSS

​

NAME: NAN KRUK DRANG
SPECIES: MESMERIZING LIZARDMAN
DUNGEON ABILITY: PRIEST
OVERWORLD ABILITY: PROFESSIONAL

THE FAR FLYING XOCH'FITLAN
​

COMPANY ABILITY: SHIP
COMPANY ABILITY: FAMILY

Equal shares for all, and for all an equal share! Nan Kruk Drang is the ninth generation master of the Far Flying Xoch'fitlan, a triple masted galleon dedicated to the Nan family's gods- the uncounted generations of Nans past, all the way back when they walked about on four feet, commanded legions of terrified thralls with their imperious gaze, and turned legions into ashes. Their trade has seesawed wildly from mercenary, to pirate, to banker, to brothel owners, to grain haulers, to jewel haulers, to just about every mercantile and mercenary activity under the sun. The Far Flying Xoch'fitlan too, has changed. The original ship, a large dugout canoe, now forms part of the keel, having been sung into that shape by a hired mage.

Each generation of captain engraves their story into the figurehead of the ship, and eventually, when Nan Kruk Drang is old, his scales dull, he will take up a knife and whittle his greatest accomplishments there, and then passing on from a mere man to a living ancestor. But until then, he feels the siren call of exploration. New shores and new markets, new monopolies all waiting to be seized. There's money to be made, and glory to be added.

 

[Namaroff]

I'm liking all the applications so far, I'm thinking I'm keeping sign ups open and start the game on February 1st if there's sufficient players.

I could use the time to finish writing the public facing headers for the dungeon list and the first set of market supply and demands, so if you think you might want to play please start on an application, we aren't running off ahead of ya.

 

[Salbazier]

Sazanka Trading Company

Spoiler

The first sip quenched my lips and throat
With the second, my sadness melted down
The third filled my empty soul
With the fourth, past anguishes brushed away
revealing the shine of sweet memories
The fifth purified

The sixth sip I took in joy and serenity
With the seventh, came a wind calling me home
Ah, where is home?
The long road has eroded it away from me
but in this cup of tea
home remains

Spoiler

Inspired by Seven Bowls of Tea by Lu Tong

The above is posted on every property of Sazanka Trading

Leadership: Zento Ixa

Spoiler

Species: Human
Origin: Gekoumene
Dungeon Ability: Warrior
Overworld Ability: Farmer

Headquarters: Gekoumene
Company Abilities:
-Ship
-Men-At-Arms

Bio:
Born to mercernaries, raised among mercenaries, and worked as mercenaries since young, for a long time Ixa only understood violence. That changed with a chance encounter. Wandered off on his own in the wilds after a certain job goes badly, while trying to find a place to camp the night he run into someone else. Though the meeting was intially started with tension, it eventually managed to settle into a cordial one. The two spend together a time of easy conversations, a simple but warm meal, and most importantly -as Ixa would claim later- a few cups of the most delicious and soothing tea.

That day, Ixa's life change a turn. He become a tea afficianado, exploring the world to find more things about tea and to share it with others. Through tea, he build connection with people. His sword arm is still as ready as ever, but now it swung blade for greater purpose.

Events and life accumulate, and now Zento Ixa is the head of a trading company large enough to face greats of the world. The Sazanka trades in many things, but the passion of Zento still remains the main drive: to find more tea through the world and share the soul-balming beverage with others.

 

[Namaroff]

Spoiler: Species Size Chart II

​

​

Spoiler: Priests

Neo-Druidic Elf (inspired by popculture/wiccan druids), Ancestor Worship Halfman from Gotoland (inspired by Basque witches), Saurianist High Priest (inspired by Confucian and Daoist priests), Imperial Sun Priest Catman (inspired by Lutheran priests), Horde Chaplain Hobgoblin (inspired by pagan Roman priests), Southern Kingdoms Sun Priest human (catholic of course), Moon Priest elf (inspired by what druids actually looked like in roman times), Titan cult priest dwarf (asatru inspired). I forgot a Gekoumene human Sun priest, maybe a mix between a Shinto shrine maiden and a East Orthodox priest.​

​

Spoiler: Warriors

Cloud Kingdom clan spearman and "Young Blade" (mercenary youth that go fight on the continent) in the center, Horde trooper (troll) and Horde officer (orc) on left and right. Holy Empire terratanei (human) left, Beastman Empire Na'Hax (foxman but could be from any of the subject tribes) right, Strathammer highlander center and Undermarch regular equipped for subterranean combat on the right​

Spoiler: Thieves and Explorers

Left to Right: Union merchant (imperial human), burglar (imperial halfman), Ko'Bol sailor (dogman), Whiterock Miner (imperial gnome), Horde ninja (goblin), halfman archer (gotoland halfman), felidae acrobat (imperial catman), fencer (souther kingdoms human).​

​

Dungeon Delving I

Economic History of Dungeon Delving​

Prior to the rise of the current trade networks, dungeoneering was seen as a mercenary profession, with the appearance of one being like a local war attracting hungry fortune seekers from all over the world. Regulation was scattershot, with only one famous tolled dungeon in the previous eras (the now defunct Castle Zordread in Gotoland) and most being responsive for economic booms and busts in previously monster plagued towns.

Adventurers would loot the levels haphazardly, allowing strong mana to attract new monsters, attracting more adventurers to a dungeon with less easily access treasure, while driving up cost of living in the town to dizzying levels. Most adventurers would leave still poor, skipping out on debts, while a small class of heroes would gain name recognition while making enough to support themselves, and only one party finally solving the source of mana on the final level and being rewarded not with liquid capital but local rents and titles, trying them to the area forever and forcing them to resettle and start families. Indeed poor adventurers fed neverending small scale conflicts like princely wars in the empire and crusades against remnants of the Necrodynasty. Successful adventurers became the bulwark of the middle nobility, the only to have won their fiefs through arms in the past one to three generations.

But mages, rarely given hereditary titles due to fear of interference and popular superstition against new spellcraft, benefitted the most. Dungeons became labs of the universities and mage guilds, providing more samples of legendary and forbidden magic alongside relics of the Necrodynasty jealously guarded by state museums and church archives. The Magical revolution that made trade with Gekoumene and the Cloud Kingdom relatively safe and quick sparked a mercantile revolution in exotic spices and advanced agricultural techniques, throwing the continent into a frenzy of agricultural development and expansionist monetary policy.

Now in the throes of these massive changes to every day social conditions, dungeoneering plays a part of investment and speculation rather than a simple gold rush.
[/SPOILER]

Dungeon Delving II

A Study of Delver Classes ​

Explorers
In the gnomish scholar Gwenith Flametail's field defining text on dungeoneering, she defines an Explorer narrowly: an adventurer* 1. strong enough to wield a two handed tool like a mattock that they carry on them into the dungeon on their person without being encumbered, experienced enough to use that tool both for excavation and combat without grievous error; 2. devout enough to bless holy water and carry a well-thumbed pocketbook on curse identification; 3. and finally sensitive enough to detect mana.
In actuality an explorer is legally, at tolled dungeons, the class of anyone who is not obviously a warrior, thief, priest or mage. Monks from Western Gekoumene have been misidentified as explorers on the continent, while some famous adventurers jammed into one of the four traditional classes may now be thought of as explorers, such as the Giant Thief Connor Duggan. Too large to fit in secret passageways or deal with the delicate machinery of traps, Connor was no clumsy ogre, and as an island nobleman was a well educated dilettante not an ogre warrior with a maul claiming it his burglar's tool. In good faith it would be impossible not to label him an explorer.

Warriors
Backbone of the party, the warrior is often misunderstood. After all, roving mercenaries or questing knights predate the economization of dungeons by mortal society and the professionalization of the dungeon delving classes. The key development of class characteristics predates modern dungeoneering, and instead was an acceptance of the necessity of protecting mages with bodyguards. A frontline fighter, that is the first thing of what a warrior is. These were not the most efficient damage dealers but stood between monsters or rival mages and their master/employer, "taking the heat off" and attracting trouble. The Hero of Light's party in the quest that began the Church Age, turning men (humans/halfmen) against their Necrodynasty and gaining the support of the fallen elvish empire and the isolationist dwarves, had a frontline fighter - Gulak Zamzug. Gulak the Orc was a descendant of the Hordemaster, who had led the Orcish rebellion against the elves several centuries earlier in the Necrodynasty Era. She was preternaturally strong and fast, even for an orc, through martial arts technique and training both physical and meditative. What she lacked in agility and dexterity she made up for in sheer space should cover in a moment and sheer force she could impact with a blow. And she wore heavy Horde armor. Strength, speed and weight - combined they create force. By turning herself into a missile, practically launching herself into the enemy ranks, she gave the Hero and the other companions time to act and exercise their magical abilities. While the Hero remains unquantifiable, a miracle of the Goddess, his party created the very archetypes of the modern delving economy.

Thieves
Famously controversial, the Thief Class was once tantamount to calling someone an outlaw, or an escaped convict. In the early days of dungeon delving, most towns around a dungeon boom would have punishments of cutting off the hands of thieves, lower case, while greatly needing the skills of Thieves uppercase. Of course today, comparative prosperity, mass literacy and the printing press have changed social attitudes towards criminal punishment, and the genteel shops of the bourgeoisie or even the scummiest pawnshops would not be able to function if every casual browser was under such threat if suspected of shoplifting. Instead the Union, Whiterock, and the merchant-princes of Ko'Bol are at work steadily forming a professional class of thief-takers and inspectors to deal with problems of spies, saboteurs, labor agitation, and other things more subtle than highway brigandry.

Beyond the controversy around the name there is still a split within the profession. A professional dungeoneer specializing in disarming traps and picking locks may not be expected to carry a weapon at all. Legal Thieves Guilds in the Empire act as a professional service, both for testing and designing the vaults of the rich and powerful, and for efficiently looting (or "salvaging") wrecks and tombs that have not been transformed into dungeons by mana. It is a delicate task to remove everything valuable outside of an ancient elven barrow without collapsing it on you, even without monsters, and even today it is not strange for mages to cast spells protecting their property or for access to a chamber to be controlled by a mechanism based on magical riddles or mechanical puzzles. These are cool-under-fire professionals, able to hang back in a party and avoid danger through stealth and agility unlike a civilian tradesman brought down by the cheap and foolish to do the same work.

Contrast these experts with the various subclasses of warrior often officially recorded in dungeon censuses as thieves: archers, Gekoumene (and Horde, who imported the concept) ninjas, the lithe and agile fencers of the Souther Kingdoms, Catmen who go unarmored to maximize their superhuman agility, and other forms of agility based warriors. Most of these could be expected, through the manual dexterity and high perception necessary for their forms of combat, to detect traps but lack the engineering and lockpicking expertise to disarm them or to open sealed passages. Instead they trade these abilities for something warriors weighed down by heavy armor or modern military grade crossbows could not do - ambush and backstab monsters in the hostile and uncharted environment of a dungeon.

Priests
Referring again to Gwenith Flametail's "Dungeonmaster's Manual", a priest has the following responsibilities inside of a dungeon: healing, dealing with the undead (the most common form of necromancy, often naturally occuring in high mana environments - ghosts have always existed as long as mortals have), and perhaps most important of all lifting curses. In the Holy Empire, the Church has senior priests able to deal with more advanced necromancy such as exorcising demons and altering the magical script animating golems. A professional adventurer might never reach this level, due to the rarity, and instead focus on applying themselves to defensive and support magic*, but not every priest is a magic-user per se - the Church considers healing and curse-lifting to be a divine exercise but shield magic to be secular spellcraft. It would seem certain forms of priestwork do not require a person to have the same strong mana and advanced technique of a mage, study of religious texts and personal discipline and willpower are more important to decursing for instance. There seems to be a metaphysical connection between magic resistance and the magical undoing of spells and curses. It is also common for priests in the dungeon to either have this "support mage" capability or wield some kind of blessed weapon, as the Church crusaders do.

Mages

*Defined by her as a term for a dungeon delver doing it as a full-time job for a sustained period, prepared for both combat and looting, distinguishing from early attempts by knights or tradesmen to do the two tasks separately in the confined and mana-rich environment of a dungeon.

**In the Beastman Empire, where mages are still seen as a threat to the social order, priests were historically the primary spellcasters.

 

[Always Watching]

"Kill the world! That's how you make money."​

Character Name: Grel Mentik
Species: Gremlin
Dungeon Ability: Thief - To compensate for his stature, Grel uses an extremely agile and sneaky fighting style. He also has a killer's eye, and often is able to study dungeon layouts and traps to deconstruct them just by sight.
Overworld Ability: Artisan - Grel is a proficient blacksmith and tinkerer, studying the weaponry his company provides and always seeking to innovate upon them.
Bio: For generations, the Mentik Mercenary Company was a family business, ownership of was passed down the line to the eldest Mentik, a gremlin possessing avarice and ambition, unparalleled. Yet how could the fates forsee the birth of twin Mentiks born at the same time? With the two brothers developing radically different ideas on where to take the company, co-ownership was untenable. Meanwhile, splitting the company would leave both brothers unsatified and unable to fully reach the heights they strive for.

So, the matter of the Mentik fortune was to be settled with fortune itself. Fate would take the wheel as a set of dice would be used to decide the fate of the two brothers, the loser offering their life and their shares of the mercenary company to the winner. The pact was sealed, the dice were cast, and….

Grel won the dice roll, lopping his brother's head off his shoulders and taking the mercenary company in a deadly new direction.

Grel has always had an infatuation with weapons. The way wielding one commands respect and attention. The way they shine in the light. The way they do their bloody business. Even as the tiniest little spawnling, Grel had contributed to the company by helping the blacksmiths and warriors take care of their equipment. And as he grew, that didn't change. Grel looked after the arms of the Mentik Merc Co as if they were his own kids, becoming well versed on blacksmithing and weapons manufacture. And now that he's ascendant, it's Grel's ambition to build, sell, and even personally use the greatest weapons in all the lands.

Company Name: Looten Plunder Security
Headquarters: Hordelands
Company Ability: Laboratory - The research and develop of Looten Plunder is turned towards getting the biggest, baddest bang for their customer's buck. Utilizing the arcane to develop products that armies, adventurers, really anyone who needs something dead, can trust in the thick of combat.
Company Ability: Men-At-Arms - Having formerly been a mercenary company, Looten Plunder still employs a formidable force to serve as their own security, and will even rent out "Security Specialists" wielding their latest and greatest.

History: Previously, Mentik Mercenaries were a Horde in miniature, being composed of trolls, hobgoblins, orcs, goblins, and gremlins. They sold their services to mostly horde conflicts, barring one or two skirmishes elsewhere. With the transition into Looten Plunder Security, the company has become far more cosmopolitan, recruiting from other races as well, though maintaining an aggressive Horde-based company culture. Instead of acting as solely mercenaries, Looten Plunder has taken to dungeoneering, using what they take to develop weapons, armor, dungeoneering equipment, and security systems. And once they have working prototypes, they're not afraid of turning those same dungeons into field tests for their latest works-in-progress. They then sell the finished products to the highest bidder and fellow adventurers while keeping the best toys for their own use during future excursions.

---

"Feed the world! That's how you make money!"​

Character Name: Gia Mentik
Species: Gremlin
Dungeon Ability: Chef (Priest) - Rather than employ divine arcana to keep his fellows fighting spirits up, Gia relies on his magical recipes. Gia's cuisine is a mixture of potioncraft and cooking that creates potent meals infused with exotic ingredients.
Abilities: Protective Magic, Cursebreaking, Food Healing, Mana Sense,
Overworld Ability: Rancher - Gia is as good at cultivating ingredients as he is at cooking them. Able to maintain his farm back at the headquarters to grow ingredients both mundane and monstrous.
Bio:For generations, the Mentik Mercenary Company was a family business, ownership of was passed down the line to the eldest Mentik, a gremlin possessing avarice and ambition, unparalleled. Yet how could the fates forsee the birth of twin Mentiks born at the same time? With the two brothers developing radically different ideas on where to take the company, co-ownership was untenable. Meanwhile, splitting the company would leave both brothers unsatified and unable to fully reach the heights they strive for.

So, the matter of the Mentik fortune was to be settled with fortune itself. Fate would take the wheel as a set of dice would be used to decide the fate of the two brothers, the loser offering their life and their shares of the mercenary company to the winner. The pact was sealed, the dice were cast, and….

Gia won the dice roll, driving his butcher's knife deep into his brother's heart and taking the mercenary company in a tasty new direction.

Gia's role in the mercenary company growing up was in the kitchen, ensuring the fighting forces of Mentik's Merc Co were well-fed and ready to brawl. Noting their myriad tastes and learning how to appeal to them, Gia became a master in the kitchen. And became obsessed with creating new and exciting recipes that his company mates could enjoy. Over time, Gia developed this into a canny knack for cuisine and the business behind it. Gia desires to plunge into dungeons and discover exciting new ingredients he could use to revolutionize the culinary world, as well as control the marketplace of the world through it's stomach.

Company Name: Stuffit Down Foods
Headquarters: Hordelands
Company Ability: Caravan - Gia's caravan is well armored, fast, and kitchen capable, possessing a fleet of carts that can prep meals on the go.
Company Ability: Men-At-Arms - Having formerly been a mercenary company, Stuffit Down Foods still employs a formidable force to serve as their own security, and will often use them to hargest interesting new ingredients that disagree on whether or not they belong in Gia's pot.

History: Previously, Mentik Mercenaries were a Horde in miniature, being composed of trolls, hobgoblins, orcs, goblins, and gremlins. They sold their services to mostly horde conflicts, barring one or two skirmishes elsewhere. With the transition into Stuffit Down Foods, the company has become far more cosmopolitan, recruiting from other races as well, though maintaining an aggressive Horde-based company culture. Instead of acting as mercenaries, Stuffit Down Foods has now taken to dungeoneering, gaining riches in both coin and culinary material. Most monsters are actually quite tasty if prepared well, and through trial and error (aided by the iron stomach possessed by most Horde races) Gia has developed many recipes based off what you can find in a dungeon. Stuffit Down Foods also serves the adventurers that dive into dungeons, opening stalls and tweaking their menus to cater to the tastes of different races.

 

[Carol]

NAME: FIF'DO
SPECIES: DASHING DOGMAN
DUNGEON ABILITY: WARRIOR
OVERWORLD ABILITY: MASON​

History yawns in the relics of the Hi'Gid (Spiral Journey). Fif'Do shepherds a caravan that traverses the perilous path from dungeon to dungeon. One without an end in mind. Profits drive her indefeasible adventures to more places, more feats, and more dangers. As long as the treasures flow, their flag flies free with no day like the last. The irony of a trained mason leading the amorphous enterprise is not lost on Fif'Do. But bedlam is the stone that she hews with pleasure. Hi'Gid's origins lie in a group of Kobolds. They were reckless youths who chose to band together for plunder rather than heed the call to national service. Their definition of togetherness crossed the line into intimacy soon after. Each member of the caravan enters a covenant of shared love: they are romantically involved with one another. A partner so to speak. Before the authorities caught them, their wagons beat the road with blazing speed to the adoring cry of "ADVENTURE!"​

 

[NSchwerte]

Character Name: Despecho Bloodyfingers (their last name is a result of Horde influence and is about their gruesome work when performing their surgeries)
Species: Halfman
Dungeon Ability: Warrior(?)
Wielding an incredible Heavy Crossbow, Despecho is an expert in landing a bolt half as big as he is in the exact weakspot to fell a monster of any size - including surely the giants and ogres who have infested their homeland
Overworld Ability: Proffessional - Surgeon


Not everyone was united against the Necrodynasty. A core of human and halfman supporters, convinced by the promises of immortality and prosperity granted through cheap undead and demonic labour had fought for and stayed loyal until the end, only for their struggle to be rendered useless when The Hero and the accursed Sun Goddess struck down the Necrolord.

While the crusades would continue to destroy all remnants of Necrodynastic presence, Despecho's ancestors had realised their defeat just as the Sun worshippers celebrated their victory and taken a collection of surviving ships into exile from the Cloud Kingdom, making a living as pirates preying on the Sun Worshippers and praying for a return of the Cryptolord instead.

Such a return did not come to fruition and through the ages the Necroloyalist diaspora spread far and wide across the known world, with Despecho hailing from a family settling in the Hordelands, where at least the accursed Sun Goddess was spurned just as their beloved Necrolord. Often serving as trade intermeditaries between the Horde and the Holy Empire, where their knowledge of Horde Customs and Halfman status made them useful to ease frictions.

With Regia Roseria extending feelers of diplomacy towards the Horde, Despecho decided to grasp the oportunity by the throat and moved their base of operations to Alfarmok, prepared to strengthen connections and profit from them in turn.

A true believer in the invetiable return and triumph of the Necrodynasty over the Sun Godess, her cruel minions and of course death and misery itself, this belief in a promised, better future has made them bitter at the current, mortal, poor world, where the Sun Godess reigns supreme opressing her creations and the true history is erased. Often sardonic and mean in private, Despecho has still learned the essential trade of always keeping a mask to conceal their true feelings and allegiances to the outside world.

Gregarious and always happy to meet new people, this mask is an experienced diplomat, able to negotiate between two sides that had previously been ready to come to blows and charm many they meet in their travels, always making them easier. Without a doubt very helpful in that pursuit is their training as a doctor, with both sides of the Halfman being most at home in that twilight between living and death while they fight with the Sun Godess to delay her scorching grasp from taking another soul so soon.

Company Name: Hades Company
Headquarters: Alfarmok, Hordelands
Company Ability: Secret Society - The Necroloyalist Exiles
When the Necrodynasty fell, many cheered, thinking a great Evil had been defeated. But while the Sun Godess may have had convinced many of bending their knee to her and accepting her cruel reign, the supporters of the Necrodynasty saw what was really happening. Casting down the mortal races for trying to rise above their station, the Sun Godess had succeeded in ending the greatest opportunity for a better future for the mortal races.

Robbed of their chance at immortality and prosperity, many supporters of the Necrodynasty were forced to find an arrangement in the countries of their enemies, with every successful crusade causing another exodus into the wider world. While many of these Exiles had died of persecution or poverty, there is still a collection Necroloyalists scattered all across the known world, hiding their true beliefs from the prying eyes of the Sun Goddess and hoping for a better future and a new Necrolord to usher it in.

Company Ability: Ship - Hades - Despechos ancestors fled the Cloud Kingdom on some of the surviving warships of the Necromancer Navy. While these ships have long been lost to the sea, their spirit is said to live on in the replacements procured from wherever they currently found shelter.

The Hades inherits its name from one of the proud capital ships of the Necrodynasty, which had sunk in a skirmish along the coast of Undermarch. Of orcish design, it can fit great quantities of goods and the required defenses against naval threats too, with Despechos contacts among the Exiles still plying their ancient trades further ensuring their safety.

 

[Easter]

Name: Heldin Eisherz
Species: Elf
Home Country:Erlkonig
Dungeon Ability:Class - Mage
Overworld ability:Artisan: You are some type of craftsman (like a baker or a blacksmith), able to turn commodities into goods yourself (or repair them) without taking them to market to have it done there.

Company: Goldener Wald
Headquarters: The town of Schwarzwald near Erlkonig's lone dungeon
Overworld Abilities

• Artisan: You are some type of craftsman (like a baker or a blacksmith), able to turn commodities into goods yourself (or repair them) without taking them to market to have it done there.

Company Abilities

• Caravan: You have your own caravan of sturdy wagons, allowing you to travel mapped land routes safely and quickly. Without one you are at risk of bandits and the mercy of lightfingered cart-drivers.
• Laboratory: The practical-applications mages at your headquarters will study loot to invent new products that the customers don't know they want yet.

Biography: Heldin was never normal for an Erlkonig child, while she held all the love of nature that her fellows had she also had a mind for bending it to her interests. She was always tying small flower crowns, or making toys out of sticks, or looking into what the animals of the forests had made themselves. But it was when her parents began to teach her their trade as hunters she truly took to Erlkonig woodcraft with aplomb, wandering the woods alone at an age that would likely mean death for any other species. Climbing towering trees, exploring root structures big enough to build a house in, or interacting with creatures many times her size, all was something she was comfortable with by a young age.

However, this is not what made her special, nor what would eventually lead to her rise in the world. That would be her magic, Heldin was someone gifted in magic. Combine that with her natural inclination to nature and she made an incredibly talented druid, especially in the art of crafting with living wood. Creating tools, weapons, and even toys with specially enchanted wood that made them as strong as metal, as light as a branch, yet also capable of flexing like it was still alive. Making her a valuable craftswoman that any clan would be proud to employ. Though, the ability to blow up a squad of goblins in one go certainly helped as well.

But her ambitions didn't rest there, no she wanted to truly rise in the world and explore all she could of her craft. Something that being a clan mage would never allow. So she went to the one place in Erlkonig that allowed for rapid advancement, the dungeon. With her skill and magic she was able to earn enough coin to found an organization, one that she could sell her goods through and make use of for her own ends. Whether it would ever be more to her then a tool… well only the future knows.

 

[Namaroff]

(moved)

 

[Namaroff]

I don't think it would have a big impact on the game given acquiring loot and experts to help you get more loot is the cure element, but just for letting people express their ideas of dungeoneering class I'm considering letting people pick off these lists

Pick 4. If you have 2 or more from one list that's your class (if you have 2 from one class and 2 from one other that's a dual-class). If not you are an Eexplorer.

Just an optional character customization thing.

Warrior
Heavy Weapon
Defender (frontliner, tank)
Athletics
Leader
Packmule (always has picks and shovels, torches and rations, etc)

Priest
Faith Healing
Cursebreaking
Turn Undead
Protective Magic (wards, shields, buffs)
Blessed Weapon

Mage
Offensive Magic
Curses
Mana Sense (tracking magic and magical ecology)
Riddles and Puzzles
Spellcraft (utility magic and magical theory)

Thief
Light Weapon (anything from daggers to compound bows to fencing sabres)
Pickpocket
Lockpick
Backstab (including ninjustu)
Stealth
Disarm Trap

 

[Namaroff]

Today's the last day to start up. Game goes live tomorrow when I post on the ic thread: Bazaar Fantasia: In-Character Thread IC - Fantasy

I'll also link it here and on the discord when that happens.

 

[RamiroGalletti]

And ... Watching the IC thread. See what you guys and gals doo

 

[Romulus]

​

Name: Valeria Ithoriel
Species: Elf
Dungeon Abilities: Class - Warrior
- Defender
- Leader
- Protective Magic
- Offensive Magic
Overworld Abilities: Appraiser

---

​

Company Name: Golden Bough Logistics Company
Company Headquarters: Allheim
Company Abilities:
- Caravan
- Family

Company History:
Valeria Ithoriel is the 4th daughter of House Ithoriel, a member of the nobility of Magnes Dryades, and rulers of one of its Counties. For all that she is nobility, she is still only a 4th child. She will inherit none of her family's lands and responsibilities, for that is for her eldest brother's right, the 1st child. She will not inherit her family's business properties and act as the spare inheritor, for that is her eldest sister's right as the 2nd child. The 3rd child, another older brother, joined the military of the kingdom. Her position thus, merited the best education and training her house could afford and no inheritable familial fortunes.

She had a choice in front of her, to join the military like her third sibling, to be married off to another noble family for some sort of advantage in the noble games, or... she could attempt to strike it out on her own; make her own success and fortunes with the advantageous she's afforded. Thus was born the Golden Bough Logistics Company, based out of the capital of Allheim, an independent mercantile organization specializing in the transport of people and goods around Magnes Dryades and the kingdoms of the Eastern Humans and Halfmen.

The core of the Golden Bough Logistics Company is a set of retainers from House Ithoriel, given permission from the it's head to follow Valeria in her ventures. They make up the trusted inner circle and personnel taking up critical managerial positions responsible for the business to function and the guards responsible for securing their headquarters and the bodyguards of Valeria Ithoriel. While Valeria leads dungeon expeditions and the primary trading caravan of the company, these men and women are the ones who stay at its headquarters turning dungeon curios into tradeable products, managing, properly storing, and selling products bought and sold across its reach, and keeping eyes and ears open for any news that could affect the company and Valeria Ithoriel (for bad and for good).

The Golden Bough may have been established with the assistance of House Ithoriel for one of its daughters, but with the advent of a new golden age of prosperity, the future is for the Company's taking.

Golden Bough Adventurer Party, Supporting Members:

Spoiler: Yelren Nernessa

Class: Warrior

Spoiler: Nerilee Lune

Class: Thief

Spoiler: Mialynn Nesimath

Class: Priest

 

[Namaroff]

The game is now live with turn 1!

@Romulus as Valeria Ithoriel the Elven Warrior-Mage and the Golden Bough of Allheim
@Easter as Heldin Eisherz the Elven Mage and Goldener Wald of Erolkonig
@NSchwerte as Despecho Bloodyfingers the Halfman Warrior and the Hades Company of Alfarmok
@Carol as Fif'do the Dogman Warrior and the Hi'Gid Company of (Ko'Bol? Somewhere else?)
@Always Watching as Gia Mentik the Goblin Chef and Stuffit Down Foods of the Hordelands
@Salbazier as Zento Ixa the Human Warrior and the Sazanka Trading Company of (Gekoumene? Somewhere else?)
@Laplace as Nan Kruk Drang the Lizardman Priest and the Far Flying Xoch'Fitlan of (Beastman Empire? Somewhere else?)
@Lord Necromancer as Fabius Julii the Human Warrior and the Platinum Order of Silver Veil, Magne Dryades
@Magus Explorator as Marcolo Pollo the Human Explorer of Marcolo's Baubles and Bludgeons, Regia Rosario
@Simpli as Griseldis Ubbelohde the Elven Mage and the Rising Dawn Arcanist Consortium of Fulminides
@LazyHedonist as Own Spark the Gnome Mage and the GEMS company of Undermarch
@MurderChicken as Ahk Zan Yuk the Lizardman Explorer and the Zar Abak Clan of Za Nir Ha Xan
@averagename as Crassus Brokta the Human Explorer and the Honorable Fulminides Trade Company


We're still accepting new players, deadline is Friday 5pm est March 8th (a week from now).

 

[Salbazier]

@Salbazier as Zento Ixa the Human Warrior and the Sazanka Trading Company of (Gekoumene? Somewhere else?)

Click to shrink...

Oh ooops, yeah Gekoumene.

 

[averagename]

Company Name: Honourable Fulimides Trade Company
Company Headquarters: Fulimides
Company Abilities:
- Ship
- Men at Arms

For God and Profit

The fulimides trading company was recently set up in the commerical heart of the cloud kingdom. A new style of company, one whose onwership is publically traded inthe coffee houses of Fulimides it is a well capitalised organsiation. Its mandate is to open new markets tot he cloud kingdom. The martial nature of the cloud kingdom has led it to view trade and war as being not mutually exclusive. Some might call them armed entrepreneurs, others privateers. The small size of the company has resulted in it avoidng notice form the large guilds that be.

TLDR: Early EIC, just hear to make money & nick shit.

Name: Crassus Brokta
Species: Human
Dungeon Abilities: Class - Adeventure
- Defender
- Leader
- Protective Magic
- Offensive Magic
Overworld Abilities: Appraiser

The current capitain general of the company and leader of the board Crassus is charged with expanding the company to new markets and he will do so.

 

[LazyHedonist]

this looks fun. will add pics later
Character:
Race: Gnome
Name: Owen Spark
Home Country: Undermarch
Dungeon Ability:
Class: Mage

Spoiler: Class Skills

Offensive Magic
Mana Sense (tracking magic and magical ecology)
Riddles and Puzzles
Spellcraft (utility magic and magical theory)

Overworld Abilities:
Mason: You are a builder and architect able to improve your headquarters over time, or rapidly with resources.
Bio:
-TLDR: Family very important
Owen wasn't always a good son, preferring to spend his time playing with his friends, messing around and avoiding work whenever possible, nothing truly bad, just a normal kid not wanting to grow up, but life has a way of punching us in the face when we least expect it, and punch it did. Owens father was killed by bandits while on the road, a tragic event that marked the end of his childhood, luckily for Owen the family always helps its members. His uncle took the reins of their small company, helped him, and his mother grieve, and set him up with tutors when he saw how lost he was, and now, after years of study, he is finally ready to take the reins of the company and make his family proud.

Company:
Name: G.E.M.S. (Gnomish Enchantments & Magical Supplies)
Headquarters: UnderMarch
Company Abilities:
Laboratory: The practical-applications mages at your headquarters will study loot to invent new products that the customers don't know they want yet.
Family: Your Company is your literal family, through blood/marriage/adoption/Beastman friendship ceremony. They'll act to help you even without you asking and have stronger bonds of loyalty than hired hands.
Bio:
Smallish trading company centered around innovation, smart deals, and providing a high quality product that their buyers are going to come back for, you don't need the deal of a lifetime, you need a slow steady flow of capital, for the best gems are made by careful work, diligent study, and honestly above all.

 

[MurderChicken]

Leadership: AHK ZHAN YUK
Species: Lizardmen
Dungeon Ability: Explorer
Leader
Faith Healing
Mana Sense (tracking magic and magical ecology)
Stealth
Overworld Ability: Farmer/Rancher

Name: ZAR ABAK

Headquarter: Beastman Empire, city of Za Nir Ha Xan

Company Abilities:
Secret Society: Your Company is a front for a cult, ninja clan, or illuminated lodge able to exercise influence in a different way than a mere merchant can.

Family: Your Company is your literal family, through blood/marriage/adoption/Beastman friendship ceremony. They'll act to help you even without you asking and have stronger bonds of loyalty than hired hands.

History:
The old clan of Ib Zask Ab, they follow an ancient heresy of saurianism, then cast aside from the realm of politics through a series of underhanded plots. Now, under the leadership of AHK ZHAN YUK, the ZAR ABAK seek to colonize new territories with the hopes of spreading both their flock and faith.

 

[Namaroff]

New applicants so far all accepted, please join the discord server and let me know if you have any questions, I might have some for you as well. Orders are 200 words in an SV pm due Friday, the vibe is you can both hit a dungeon and hit a named or unamed spot on the map to sell/buy things each turn and of course do headquarters stuff. If you want to do other things like harvest resources or buy goods in one spot and take them to another, rather than delving dungeons, that's cool too.

 

[Namaroff]

Ok, turn one orders are due in two days (Friday) at 5pm EST. I've got 6/13 orders in. Good luck with orders and please try to get them in on time or let me know over Friday and the weekend if you'll be late due to circumstances, so I can plan around and have people's orders be more interactive with each other.