Welcome to
Celadon Forest, Nyrond
City to Ishtar
Along the banks, where the Nesser turns
sharply west, then South, then East again, lies the home city of the Celadon.
The riverbanks are high here, where ages of swiftly moving water have slowly
eroded and smoothed the limestone face of the bank. Rising above the bank, is a
great wall, as if grown from the rock below, smooth and seamless, curving up
from the waters edge. Its tall crenellations curved and smoothed, as if shaped
and formed by the waters touch.
Bright Green Pinions fly from its walls, and patches of ivy coat the
lower reaches.
The sleepy city of
The city itself covers many more times the expanse of other cities, but is less populated. Within the walls, even a deer might fearlessly wander, protected by the laws governing hunting. Birds fly free, darting amongst the trees. Squirrels and other small creatures look on from the many parks and green areas watching who comes and goes. And unlike other cities, the offal of the city is carefully managed, and not thrown out windows into the street but into sewers to the south, by purifying wetlands, which gently and naturally recycle the cities waste.
Imports: Metals, Textiles
Minor Exports: Elf
goods, Artwork, Bard Training, Gnome Artifices
Population (City Proper)
Yr 16: 20,000 (12,000 humans, 3,000 hobbits, 2000 half-elves,1000 elf)
Yr 30: 30,000 (15,000 humans, 12, 000 hobbits, 2000 half-elves,1000 elf)
Transient Population: 5,000+ Wemics, Hacdeshani, Forest Folk including 400 Mushroom people)
BriarThorn Hommlet: 5,000 Hobbits
Shireland Hommlet: 8,000 Hobbits
Entry
Approach
the City
The mile long approach to Selid-Din from the outer forest to the city gates appears
deserted except for normal travelers to and from the city. In the woods all
around the approach is a group of Baehr-Gur angels (5
in total – see Book of Exalted Deeds). These angels are summoned every
year to protect the approach. They will se their detect evil and sense
abilities to determine if any threats are approaching. Should they determine
there is a threat, the communicate this to the Gate Captain immediately.
Prison
Hill
There is a hill jus to the North of
the city that has a variety of different, scary looking tree’s upon it.
This is a prison where prisoners
are polymorph into tree’s and a plaque is put in front of the tree
outlining their offense. The tree’s are guarded by many Shambling Mounds
and a Treant who will only act if someone defaces, tried to free or harms the tree’s.
In addition, this area is warded by protections of the Warden of Seliid-Din (Court mage of Sparhawk).
Welcome Station
Approaching
the Gates travelers must pass a Checkpoint. This “Welcome Station”
is a tent manned by City Officials in the form of scribes who record
information as well as sketch visitors. These sketches and descriptions are
filed with the Minister of Defense Regents office as well as the Bardic Libraries. The Herald will question all person
entering the city as to their name, City, Race, God, Nationality and intent in
the city. The answers to these questions determine whether the person is
“welcome” in Selid-Din. See “Walls of Selid-Din”
- Bard – Some Good alignment usually 7th-12th
lvl - The Officials are all actually Bards that work for the City. While
they answer to the Regents office they are hired and fired by the
Magistrates Office. Thus the bards get paid A LOT to do really nothing but
ask some standard questions and bullshit with people. The same Bards
seldom take the job for long but are often rehired when they roll back
into town. They do tend to have excellent insights into nasties who might want to bluff their way past.
Stone of Questioners - All
Questioning is done on a Stone of the Questioners (a gift given for cities generosity
to Shrine of St Sunniva – cost city 100,000gp
in the lands for the Shrine). The stone is a 1 ft thick stone tablet 10ft sq
made of living white granite. This stone will cause all evil that steps on it
(no protections if willingly steps) to leave prints of smoldering black.
- 3 Questioners - Cleric 1st lvl x2 and
5th lvl x1
- 3 Dwarves care for the stone (Warriors 3rd
x2 and Expert 9th lvl )
- There are 20 Big Red One Privates (Ft 5th)
and a Corporal (Ft 6) on duty at all times.
- 3 servants, (Commoner 1st) 1 is a Darkfriend.
- Hallunigneic Mushroom x 4
Gates
- Gate Captain Robert Pierce of Critwall – Shield Knight Prestige Level 9th
..Robert is a LN(G) Shield Knight and has been permanently stationed
here as he has fallen for a ½ elf Liddya
(Commoner 1st). He was in real trouble until Ru the Bard was able to “recall” a link in
lineage between Liddya and the King Aranth…thus she is royalty. Robert is very happy
and does not want to leave Selid-Din for this
reason. He is not a political animal and has resigned himself to his
current position. He is not very loyal to the Regent nor does he like his
politics but he is very efficient at his position and that’s all he
is asked to do. He is very loyal to the order.
Boulevards
A newcomer to the city must stop in wondrous awe at the majesty of the
old oaks that line the boulevard, their strong and reaching branches
crisscrossing overhead before spreading to the sky. Shafts of crystal sunlight
penetrate the leafy canopy overhead like bright beams of brilliance lighting up
the green paths. The paths themselves, stone and grass, intertwined, so that
one always steps on enough stone not to harm the grass and yet there is a soft
spring in the step.
Cairns
The Cairns are fully described on the link. In addition, low level
magistrates (Druid 1st level) are on hand to explain the laws and customs to
new comers. They often tend to explain the reason behind the law instead of
technicalities. See “Cairns of Law” for the actual Laws.
Defenses
Shield Knight Horns – Military Alert
The
horns of the shield knights are often heard in the city coordinating military
forces. Through these horns, a series of standard battle commands can be
executed, coordinating forces citywide.
Light
Alarms
The
streets are well lit thanks to the Lights of Shammash.
These lights are designed with a series of colored glass covers that any
mounted person can easily reach. It is illegal to touch or misrepresent the
usage of these colors/items.
Normally,
the lights are white…but should someone change the color all wall guards
will automatically notice and anyone with a Spot Check DC15 in the city will
notice the change in hue. Some of the colors are used to track the movements of
City officials (the Regent, Bishop and Supreme Magistrate on call).
- White – Alls normal
- Yellow – Healer needed immediately
- Green – Location of the Chief
Magistrate on duty
- Orange – Restricted area – Public
do not enter
- Purple – Location of the Regent
- Pink – Location of Bishop
- Red – All forces to location at once
– Emergency!
Walls
of the First Citizen
In
addition to raising the mighty walls around the Protectorate, the First Citizen
Ligurius also set special protections around the
walls of the city. These Wards of Warning are spaced so they form a contiguous
and somewhat overlapping circles around the walls approx 300 ft apart (they are
800ft radius from the center). The contingency for them to attack is “All
those welcome by the Regent may pass” The following is cast at 20th
level.
Ward of Warning: This sphere is a
20ft radius per level of the Druid (but may be smaller) and may be visible (as
a blue shimmering) or not at casters desire. It causes x2 the casters wisdom in
Lordsfire damage each round spent inside, no To Hit
or save required. It will automatically deflect damage at x8 the casters wisdom
in Lordsfire for each attack. It may be taken down by
a Wish, Miracle, or Sin spell cast upon it. It normally lasts 1 day/level but
may become permanent if the caster expends 2500xp. Either way, the casting
exhausts the caster (loses 6 levels immediately through exhaustion, recovers
the levels normally) and must make a Concentration Check for every spell cast
until fully rested (DC15+spell level).
Githyanki Astral/Ethereal Blockade
On the
Astral Plane and Ethereal plane there is a Githyank Corrack Vessel (See Manual of the Planes). The Corracks both patrol the Astral and Ethereal planes hunting
for Mind Flayers. The Mind Flayers are constantly trying to destroy the
Screaming Griffon Fellowship in Selid-Din thus the
hunting is very good. They usually capture or kill 3-5 Mind Flayers per season.
The Githyanki patrolling will not approach anyone
with no psychic energies. However, those with psychic energies (psionics, drones) will be investigated and likely attacked.
If non-Mindflayers will face only the Corrack and 50 or so Githyanki.
Mind Flayers will face a more substantial force gated in right away.
Citywide
Spell Effects
The
following are protections that have been put in place that cover the entirety
of the city proper:
- Ellcrys Forbidding – No entry in a zone 20 mile radius
for any demons, devils, daemons or netherworldly
beings of any type. This includes non-corporeal undead but not physical
undead.
- Head
of the Defiler -
(No defiler spells under 7th level while head is in the Hall of Heroes)
- Staff Defense from Limbo (Spoils of War) – The city is protected from the entry of effects of Limbo denizens. In the attack on the city (YR20) by a massive force of Sladdi and Chaos Beasts and a group of Chaos Wizards were defeated. There 7 staffs were sacrificed to Spoils of War and thus the city is protected.
- Stone of Speaking - This stone on the Regents Tower allows all within the city to hear the words spoken by anyone on the stone.
Church Bell of Selid-Din
The Bells of Blessed Ishtar
are used in the announcement of two Holy Rituals. The sacrament of marriage
(see separate section in Church) and the sacrament of war. The
Marriage:
When the bell is rung slowly this means a marriage has just taken place. Anyone
copulating within 24hrs of hearing that bell has a 25% chance to impregnate. If
both participants heard the bell it is 35% chance.
- If sounded by Bishop, she may invoke City
Spell “Call to Arms” per the Epic Spell Scott will write
- If sounded by a 9th lvl+ Priest of
Ishtar, all city defenders hearing the
- If a normal person sounds the bell, all city
defenders are instantly affected by the Awaken spell and the Quick Sober
spell.
Mobilization
after Alarm
The city
mobilizes as listed below when it is aware of war (i.e.
- Church Bells ring wildly
- Net descends on
- All citizens report to
- All defenders arm and rush to preassigned locations on walls and in city
- Strongest Defenders of Ishtar to grainhouses
- Aeiral Forces n sky
- Platoons of cavalry rule the streets
- Red scarves placed over Streetlights in areas
of danger
- Light Cannons flash status to Critwall and other Allied cities
Intelligence
Intelligence gathering is taken very seriously. There is a variety of
sources that all feed into one central repository…Bas….whether they
know they are feeding Bas information or not. ;)
Animal/Plant Patrols
The Druids have established several groups of animals that probe the
woods and surrounding lands approaching the city and forest. These include
intelligent hawks, bears, raccoons, wolf packs, eagles and the like. There are also various intelligent
plants and fauna that send information back as well. Bas has several plants in
various Druids personal repertoire that collect this information for Bas and
pass it along.
Forest
Marshals
Small groups of rangers patrol the forests. While they provide little
in the way of info within the city proper, they are a solid source if
information from within the forest proper. These groups are guided by the Tree
and also have standard patrol routes.
They report directly back to the Great Druid but share their information
with the Regents Officers. Bas has
several plants within the Regents scribes offices to collect this data.
Other Areas of Intelligence include: