I have to agree with you on this point.

I always wondered why they would make such a big deal of these with the sites they developed, but never really tied them in to some kind of adventure or the like. As you said, characters get sucked in just to wander about and really not achieve much for the effort.

In a way I always thought they should relook these sites and develop some kind of vile reason for their being in place.

You know, expand on what they have done and develop the sites to bring them into play in a more challenging way.

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Roy Denton - the title says Baron, but Queen for a year. (Cheselyne I)

"Nathamh na hoibre an t-eolas"
(Knowledge comes through practice)

If I ever was to get the chance to use an Earthmaster site again I'd be sure to "flood" with some kind of inhabitants.

Godstones are fun, so maybe something came through.

Maybe something came through that got the attention of the local tribes.

Or maybe te local tribes just went there. Maybe they lost members to the stone.

Maybe that sinister Grey mage - whatshername ... Dyalne Dulye? - has gained some sort of control over the stones and is doing "imports" (materials, artefacts, creatures, all of the above) ...

Maybe there are more "bonus-yielding" items in other places like the ones in Kiraz, and a cult with otherwise sinister motives could evolve around this ...

Maybe the Augurs have been having "visions" relating to Pesino. Maybe the dwarves decide to return there for some reason.

...

I don't remember ... has Ridow ever been detailed?

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Harniac. That simple
I'm intolerant of intolerance. Intolerant people find that very hard to tolerate.

Wasn't someone into creating histories for houses somewhere? Maybe that would help these places. For now they are enigmatic and grand, i agree, so maybe an exercise of the sort you propose would be worthwhile - I mean, the buildings have to have served some sort of purpose to stand where they do.

Are they Mansions? Factories? Temples?

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Harniac. That simple
I'm intolerant of intolerance. Intolerant people find that very hard to tolerate.

This posting contains spoilers. If you play in my present campaign read at your own peril!
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I always thought that the idea was just to add a little something to the enviroment to make it intresting. In our games earthmaster sites have usually ben very frightening to the characters. The big looming buildings and ruins look threatening as they do not appear to be made neither by men nor for men. Superstitions flare up under such stones. Add in a need to go in and an Ivashu or two that habit the place and sheer terror is ready. Atmosphere is the key. If one just drives home the point how old the stones look and how very different they are from all stonework they have ever seen the characters should feel excitement indeed. Only a fool would not feel fear.

In my present campaign three out of four characters are Pvarists so I'm stepping up the supernatural terror. Perhaps The lights of Telumar turn out to be a color out of Space ála Lovecraft.

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Victory, Destiny!

Well it would be a bit odd if there still were a lot of stuff lying around in plain sight after all those centuries. All the stuff belongs to the people that inhabit it. Just place it where it/they live. On the other hand you could place a lot of things beyond the hidden door that is in all earthmaster sites. Just what kind of stuff makes a place intresting for you anyway?

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Victory, Destiny!

I had an idea after playing through "Halo" last month, of putting a new twist on the Earthmaster ruins. (Halo spoilers below):



The world of Kethria and its Earthmaster artifacts are not in fact modes of transportation, but the outer defenses of a prison, erected to contain the remnants of a deadly race of beings created by a god who was slain in the Natal Wars. The larval-state members of this race, known as the Flood, exist only to feed on others, and, by fusing with the corpses of those they swarm over and slay, can manipulate these bodies in a zombie-like fashion. Their incredible speed and ability to overwhelm all lifeforms made them an immense threat to those with whom they came in contact, and several nth dimensions fell before the Flood were stopped by an alliance of gods toward the end of the Natal War.

Judging that the only way of defeating the Flood was depriving it of food, an alliance of gods, along with their foot soldiers the Earthmasters, sealed the Flood within the nth dimensions they had already conquered. The gates themselves could not be destroyed, but they were "shifted" and twisted down to a single node: a Godstone located within the mountain stronghold of Larh-Darin on Kethira.

The Earthmasters, appointed to the task of containing the Flood, erected a series of Gates that served to capture and focus all attempts to exit the sealed nth dimensions and bounce them back to the prime gate in Larh-Darin. That gate is well hidden within the mountain complex, and protected by numerous seals of great power. Some have been pried from their settings in ages past and put to other uses by those who do not perceive their true function — the Sli-Hordrh, owned by Daelda the king of Evael, is one such artifact.

(The known functions of the Godstones are either features that allow the Earthmaster to quickly travel to a breech in the prison, or unintended but useful side-effects of their power.)

The Earthmasters remained on station for untold years, but eventually passed on. The seal on the prison remains strong, though the slowly failing power of the Godstone network may eventually threaten it. The few artifacts removed from the seal have also weakened it, but so few have been removed that the weakening is not yet perceptible.

The loosed artifacts have, however, led to mischief that may yet bring ruin upon Kelestia, for the Sli-Hordrh is not the only such artifact at large, and the Flood, though greatly reduced in numbers, are not yet destroyed.

In fact, the Flood. possessed of a hive mind, are in contact with a being they worship, and a being which regards them with favor. This being is known as Bukrai. Bukrai, unbeknownst to Morgoth (one of the gods who fought to destroy the Flood), has through its Shadow brought into being a secretive cult on Kethira, dedicated to destroying the seal (perhaps one of the 13 surviving founders of the Morgoth church was more deeply touched by Bukrai within the barrow of Urbrath). The members of this cult know nothing of the Flood, but are motivated by a desire to please their god, and by the knowledge of the artifacts to be won in doing so (some of the seal's artifacts are in the hands of the cult's senior members).

The cult is strongest in the Azeryan Empire, but has offshoots in Harn where many of the Godstones are (members, traditionally based in the chuch of Morgoth, also may be found within the church of Save-K'nor and the Shek-Pvar). It isn't a politically powerful cult. Focused more on the acquisition of knowledge, it is populated by sages and scholars, as well as able-bodied folk who can protect the secrets of the cult and brave the wilds. The cult's driving objective is to find Larh-Darin. Secondary goals include studying the Godstones and the acquisition of Earthmaster artifacts.

That's just a brainstorm. There would be more work involved in getting the above more in alignment with the info contained in various articles such as "Earthmasters." Fortunately, that article does suggest an ancient conflict the Earthmasters fought which nearly led to their defeat. The above might be tweaked in terms of timeline and details to bring into the mix Losenor, etc.

Extrapolating along these lines might liven up the Earthmaster ruins. Cult members certainly may be encountered in the ruins or centers of learning, though such encounters may not be deadly (is Lepridus of Telumar a member?). There may even be clues to the true nature of the ruins on their walls or in sealed rooms...

I have been toying with the idea off doing a campaign where the EMs start returning. Basically, the portals starts opening. Rocks start humming. People start disappearing. Cats and dogs start living together.

But seriously, I'd like to have a long story arch that involves some of the themes from the Riddle Master of Hed trilogy (Patricia MacKillip (sp?)). The Old Ones are reappearing. But what for? What will this mean for us? And who are they? I realize that this is sorta High Fantasy, but it would be fun to keep both layers (those who know the apocalypse may be here vs. the status quo) in static tension. Also, the question of these invaders being the actual or original EMs could be left unanswered....

Cheers,

Mark

Most of the Earthmaster sites are in remote and dangerous places. It may not be an exciting destination, but the journey will be exciting!

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"Rules are GOOD. Rules help control the fun!" -Monica Geller, Friends

I enjoyed Riddle of Stars by Patrica McKillip and still have my copy, its an interesting idea. Another borrowed idea I've used is the Stargate movie and TV series... evil, powerful parasitic beings from beyond show up and some secret group (which the PCs get recruited into or have encounters with) struggles to defend Kethira from this new threat.

I expanded on one of the ideas in the Earthmasters article. The creators themselves used the Godstones to travel across dimensions, until they reached Kethira. There, they found a naturally "porous" world in which it was particularly easy to build trans9dimensional gates.

Kethira thus became a travel nexus for all of Kelestia, and one of the most desirable pieces of real estate in all the known worlds. However, the presence of so many artificial gates punched through the fabric of Kethira's space-time has made the dimension a rather fragile place.

Despite that issue, all went well and the Earthmaster civilization prospered until they met a group of nasties (the Aggressors, as I've decided to call them) and terrible war resulted. It raged across the dimensions in the distant past, until the Aggressors started to gain the upper hand.

Forced to flee, and knowing the Godstone network could never be truly destroyed, the desperate Earthmasters did something a little crazy. Based on an idea I had in the Gwadira's Library thread, I think they went back in time to try to change the past. That created a paradox that destroyed their civilization, threw Kelestia into chaos and scrambled the Godstones irreparably.

Now, the Godstones open randomly, to different worlds throughout Kelestia. Whatever happens to be near can stumble through (or deliberately enter) the opened gate, and pass through to Harn. That means the region around the Earthmaster sites abounds with all manner of odd plants and animals that appear nowhere else -- and sometimes appallingly dangerous creatures or beings.

Worst of all, sometimes intelligent beings enter Kethira, bent on conquest. And, at some point, a gate may open unexpectedly on a remnant of the Aggressors, who have left behind scattered esoteric artifacts of terrifying potency.

-TSH

Back in 1986 I acquired a D&D module called Night's Dark Terror that involved an isolated farmstead being attacked by goblins, a mysterious tapestry that was a hidden map to a lost location, and a jackle headed culture within the lost city in the mountains.

I started working on converting this into a Harnic adventure in which the farmstead would be an isolated manor in the area of Olokand or Tashal, the goblins were a swarm of gargun hyeka (sp), and the lost city and jacklehead culture was a hidden site of the last remanents of the earthmasters themselves.

I ran out of time and became to busy to finish it back then and in the course of time lost most of my notes due to the many moves the military required of me.

Has anyone ever though about such a thing happening, some of them still hanging around for whatever reason?

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Roy Denton - the title says Baron, but Queen for a year. (Cheselyne I)

"Nathamh na hoibre an t-eolas"
(Knowledge comes through practice)

Maybe it's always been the intention to leave the details blank when it comes to the Earthmasters. That way they don't get in the way of the realism of your game.

Personally, I like them and the godstones. The godstones have a tendency to contaminate the area around them, whether with psychological problems, large interdimensional nasties, and small interdimensional nasties, like diseases and viruses, that Kethirans have no immunity to.

Don't know if anyone's ever read "Roadside Picnic" by the Stugartsky Brothers? In that book, aliens visit earth and leave behind relics. A black market develops of people brave enough to go into these areas and bring back these relics. The title refers to humanity being like ants at a roadside picnic trying to make sense of the alien's trash.

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Oh Crap!?! I'm starting to look like my Avatar!

I've used everything including Chthulu tainted lands, renegade Magi, and fanatical Clerics of Larani striving to destroy the "heathen lairs of ancient gods" as tools to spruce up the EM sites.

I agree that as written the sites are a bit ... sparse. But that just affords me a greater chance to create something unique for my game.

One of the things that I have done is granted VERY minor magical abilities to anything that has spent a long time within the aura of a Earthmaster Site. These trinkets, which have been everything from a gem that glows like a 20 watt bulb to a stone that always remains warm no matter where its placed, are sought after by collectors who feel they are the key to understanding the ancient and enigmatic rulers of the world. Which is totaly false, but still wholeheartedly believed by the collectors.

I personally love the way the sites are written, and how they encourage the GM's to bring them to life.

Just a couple of random thoughts.

The most integral use of a Godstone as a plot device in my campaign was in Tesien. The PCs were caught in the Hall of the Godstone and one of the PCs opened up the psionically hidden door to the flooded passageway. Another quick-thinking PC (a Shek-Pvar) activated the Godstone and allowed the rushing water to drain away before drowning the entire party. I was kind on the PCs and had the door to the flooded passageway automatically re-seal after a time-delay, so the whole of Tesien wouldn't drain away!

At other Earthmaster sites, my usual trick was to send through some kind of "demon" through the Godstone, including:
* A one-armed and one-legged cyclops that hopped madly about and hypnotised others into hopping uncontrollably as well;
* A bird that resembles a terran scarlet macaw, that threatened to spread a horrible and deadly disease on living beings if it got away;
* A gang of starving trolls from Midgaad (just mindless violence);
* A party of adventurers, who turned out to be ghosts slain by a rather nasty demon and were seeking to have their souls released.

On one other occasion, I had planned for an Earthmaster site to be psionically booby-trapped to cause madness (mainly paranoia) and cause the party members to turn on each other, but the PCs died before they got there so I never bothered to finish this plan off...

-=W=-

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WarFlail (aka Bill Gant)

I very much like this idea, especially if those trinkets are not very powerful, as you describe. This creates lots of adventure potential and another illegal ware the melderyni want to ban from circulation, I guess, without unbalancing the setting.
And BTW: Welcome to the forum!



I am undecided on this. While it is true they encourage GM creativity and are definitely the easy solution for those seeking a high fantasy setting, the descriptions could be a bit more vivid in a way. Some more aventure hooks would have been helpful, too.
Then again, Hârniacs have a big talent in filling the gap, as this thread shows - once again.

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Florian
A most unique Ivashu

Personally, I always thought the Earthmasters were Sleestaks, anyway: you know, the lizard guys who lived in caves and used portal stones to transport themselves from place to place?

What horror must have compelled them to take refuge in Terra's prehistoric past? Only Will and Holly know for sure.