The following is the report of how I/Unuldor thinks Nec’perya should be built/defended. I’ll write it in order as if someone were arriving on the island via boat, as it’ll probably make it easier to follow than if I just write it up as a chart (though I’ll do that as well at the end for ease of reference).
First Impressions:
People can turn up in the city via one of two ways. Through the portal, or arriving via ship. The first thing people should see when arriving via ship is a wall and a fence of sharp rocks/spikes of either wood, stone or iron following the perimeter. I propose wooden for the short term, it can always be upgraded later. The spikes should be in the water, in order to conserve landspace, and the wall should be a high one designed to look intimidating.
Perimiter:
Spikes
Wall
Arrival:
When arriving on a boat, there are two places that people are likely to disembark. The North West pier (B11) or the South West pier (B2). Beginning with the North West pier, this section is where people are expected to disembark. Ferries or trade ships will be expected to pass through here. The building at D11 should therefore be turned into a ‘customs’ house. Walls should be erected between it and the coast so that anyone arriving off the ship has no choice but to pass through that building. There should definitely be at least 4-6 soldiers in sight either on the ground or on the walls. Inside that building we can have staff for security, clearance, introduction to the town (possibly a questgiver or two) and other things useful for PCs. This should also be the location of the general noticeboard. As for the South West pier, this should be a military dock. This makes sense both because we need one, but also because that’s where the Skum quest will be so it makes sense we stick our forces there. Therefore this space should possibly have small fast looking military ships in dock, or ropes ready to tie them to, and should definitely have officers stationed there. The end of the pier should have a gate leading into the city that has soldiers stationed on it.
Arrival:
Customs House
Walls
Military dock
Vanguard HQ:
The exit to the Customs house can be located at E10. The rest of that building should be made into the Vanguard HQ. This means immediate response time to military situations at the either dock once a military presence has been established at the south dock also. The interior will need to be formed to fit this purpose, which I suspect should involve a Mythal Forge in the magical area. I propose having the building go at least one story underground, thus there is space for magical experimentation, a prison, internal training grounds etc.
Vanguard HQ:
Interior
Leaving Customs:
Leaving Custom house as E10 there are three directions a visitor can go, up the ramp to the temple mount. Left/East towards where the fancy buildings are, and right/west back toward the docks and the portal point. We’ll begin by assuming they proceed up to the temple mount.
Temple Mount:
This area is pretty much done, though I propose the following.
Make the temple (H7) look a bit nicer from the outside, possibly more intimidating, and also, turn that big round platform (I5) into a place we can have public coliseum fights. That would not only be awesome, but it means bloodsports can be held right outside the temple. (OOC: Seriously, I would make NPC characters, get them captured on raids, thus giving our raids a target, for the sole purpose of getting put in there to battle, and I’m probably not the only one).
Temple Mount
Pretty up the Temple
Create Coliseum
Portal Space:
Let’s now assume that the visitor has spoken to someone and descends the mount, heading toward where the arrow cursor is on the map where the portal point is. This space has a tall tower (B8), the portal (C8) and a random run down building (C7). We should want this space to feel a little bit communal, but also very drow-like, for when people port into the area, so for these two buildings, I propose the following. The tower should clearly be a tower from the outside, and have at least one soldier on top as sentry, however, inside the visitors can descend into a small bath house. The other building should be a slaver house and be filled with cages, inviting people in to purchase slaves (OOC: even if the NPC responds with “I’m sorry, but only a matron can purchase these slaves”). Filling this space with both empty and full cages would enrich the area and give visitors the option of caging visitors also, so a secondary and public prison space for ‘lesser’ crimes. In fact perhaps we can stick a drow prisoner in one and have an agent offering rotten fruit/knives ready to hurl at the criminal (Minor quest could be throw daggers at the criminal until you roll a crit?).
Portal Space:
Sentries
Bathhouse
Slave market/secondary prison with cages
Where to Next?:
Once a visitor has visited the portal, the Customs/Vanguard and the Temple grounds, they’ve visited almost everywhere important for a visitor to know. In passing, they’ve probably also visited the main market areas, being the store/bar on the temple mount and also the slavemarket/prison. There are only three major areas remaining to be filled, Quest spaces, the Quellars and the apartments where the visitor can find a place to sleep if they’re not part of a house.
Apartments:
There are two options for apartments. The building at K9 or at K12. Either would suffice, however one of these needs to be converted soon/quickly in order for the whole area to feel more like a home and give visitors somewhere to go.
Apartments:
Pick one
That’s about it:
(OOC::)
The remaining spaces are completely available for later development. There is no need to pick them all out now. Most of the other towers can simply be built off the same model (just finish them up, build the conjoining wall between each tower and add a sentry on top). Let’s start with them finding somewhere to sleep. The remaining buildings can be converted when there’s something IC to convert them to, and the quellars belong to the quellars. Maybe a forging space could be useful or something. Don’t know. However, a few additional quest ideas to play around with that could be used to fill the blanks.
Parcel Quest: Dropping things off to each of the major buildings would be an excellent plan.
Retrieve X item from the skum: Obvious quest
Deliver a message to the Underport: Talking to someone in the vanguard may get given a parcel to deliver to Underport, or Lo’bsul. It’ll just be a great way to get the island feeling connected to everywhere else. Maybe more than one can be made to get people travelling in and out more.
Slavehouse, crit the crim: Seriously, throw daggers at criminal until you get a crit. It’s just a nice way to get people to get a feel for the kind of civilization of drow through action, not just through words.
Instructors: Kind of obvious, but putting it here in the quest section, because a few of these guys floating around would be nice.
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