Fabula Ultima 1 - Welcome to Ruzeon

Wooo baby let’s go. We had our first session 0 tonight. We made the world and things like that, and made characters. The process was enjoyable enough and I need to share some details.

First, the world. We were using the prompts from Cartograph to build the world. I had organized map markers into two categories, terrain and settlements. We took turns placing items, and then I drew a card and read from the appropriate prompt deck.

The first round, we could only take terrain tiles. We got to pick which we took and where it went, but then had to riff off the prompt. The second round was settlements only.

The third and fourth rounds were pick any of the 7 items (Open land, water, mountain, forest, encampment, town, city).

For the final pass, I drew from the Discovery prompt table and once I read it, I allowed them to pick what and where it was.

In all, we got a map with a lot of cool places that aren’t named yet, but I have the groundwork for making some adventures.

Since starting this post I have named almost everything, and took some names from players about areas important to them, if they wanted to give it.

Some key locations

Settlements

Metizzare - The captial city of the largest sky island. A city where the infrastructure is made of mimics, who live in harmony with the people inhabititng the city. Young mimics will become small things like wallets, jewelry, or pins, and gently siphon off some energy from their host. As they grow they can turn into things like furniture and appliances, before growing into new buildings. The buildings in turn can be customized relatively easily, as the mimics can alter their interiors to accomodate the people living within. An office building of a now-out-of-business company can be easily rennovated into apartments just by conferring with the mimic that is the building and any smaller ones within. The PC with the Impassioned Scholar identity (Chimerist 3/Symbolist 2) is from here.

Bastion - A city built for fights. Many fighting tournaments of all types are held here, but every few years the big Tournament of the Hunt occurs. The winner receives two main things. First, the right to try to hunt the mythical beast in the dense woods to the north. Second, because nobody has returned from the woods, the city has started to change it’s name for the victor to honor them for a few years. The Honorable Rogue (Rogue 2/Weaponmaster 1/Florist 2) is from here.

Waystone - A city built on a leyline of Fire and Earth, where magic runs rampant through here. A city primarily of Elementalists, people who aren’t affiliated or primarily attuned to Fire or Earth magic cannot hold positions of authority within the city. The Exiled Scion (Elementalist 2/Entropist 1/Sharpshooter 2) is from here originally, before moving to a different town.

Yuventus - Why yes, I was just thinking of Seria A teams and thought Juventus was good enough to jack, since I’ve been using tweaked versions of Italian words for a lot of location names. City that is teeming with magic, as it is the natural location where dragons go to die. Magic has infused itself into the desert sands, the architecture and the water of the city. It is also a key trading point that connects a few different sky islands. Since magic is so common, people lacking natural magic talent are ostracized. The Future Famous Inventor (Tinkerer 1/Fury 1/ Guardian 3) is from here.

There are a couple other cities/towns, such as a bureaucratic-hell city, a city under a mountain range that divides two lakes, a small prison island, and a town of people who can fix anything… at least temporarily.

Landmarks

We have a mountain that is rumored to grant sentience/understanding, in the middle of a dangerous mountain range. Dragons were rumored to have been Drakes who reached the summit and were given the spark. Some inanimate objects have been rumored to been animated, and now exist as very rare Intellegent Items. We have the dragon nesting grounds on a smaller island, with the only people present are a race of elves who inhabit a tower there. Rumored as dragon riders, they appear to be some of the only people tolerated by the dragons.

A Volcano rises up through the clouds, cresting alongside the sky islands, erupting in showers of fire, earth and lightning.

A well maintained grove of trees that if you look too closely, is actually made of crystals covered with bark and leaves. Stay too long and your aether will be sucked by them, and funneled down below the island.

A tower, descending downwards below the clouds. This will be an optional megadungeon I think. I’ll have to look up the Abyss rules for that.

A weird, malignant growth in the sky in the northern region, just appearing to float like a nexus of energy. This is where I am starting the game.

Conclusion

I’m actually pretty happy with how this is shaping up. I’ve had some ideas to start us off, to get the party hooked into something bigger than themselves, and then a starting adventure. We’re looking golden. I don’t want to spell out too much here until I actually run the thing, because Card is Subject to Change, and I may come up with a better idea day-of the game.