I haven't written this up yet.
The Megalopolitan Knights are important enough to have their own page.
The College of Knowledge is important enough to have its own page.
Megalopolis is a rapidly-expanding city on the world of Va.
A hundred years ago, there was nothing there larger than villages. On the edge of a desert, a river flowed down from the mountains into the swamps, where it evaporated away. Between the mountains and the swamps, there was a point at which the river was wide enough, shallow enough and slow enough to be forded.
Then a party of adventurers, the Knights, showed up. They slew the river monsters. Then they slew the swamp monsters. Then they slew the desert monsters. Then they slew the mountain monsters. The heads of the villages, seeing the way things were going, arranged that their children married those adventurers who hadn't brought female companions with them.
When the adventurers had run out of monsters to slay, they built castles, as adventurers do. The City of Megalopolis grew up around the castles.
Two generations later, it is still growing. There is a prophecy that one day Megalopolis will be bigger than Atlantis, and the Megalopolitans believe it.
The aristocracy of Megalopolis is descended from the original adventuring party. In principle, if not always in practice, they are lawful good. They encourage immigration, to ensure that their city continues to grow. The middle and lower classes are almost all immigrants, vastly outnumbering the descendents of the original villagers, and are of all alignments.
Today, there isn't a monster within a hundred miles of the centre of Megalopolis. Unless, of course, you count the Knights.
If you have to make up anything about Megalopolis, just imagine what would happen if a party of player characters ran riot and had two generations to consolidate their ill-gotten gains.
Megalopolis is situated at the western extremity of a rocky desert. Three rivers cross this desert without watering it to any significant extent.
To the north-west of the city, the rocks get larger and turn into mountains. Several sizeable mountains are visible from the city. Two rivers, the River Kenkoylu and the River Reashass, flow down from the mountains.
The official centre of Megalopolis is a ford which crosses the River Kenkoylu. Since Megalopolis has expanded mostly eastward, into the desert, rather than north-west into the mountains or south-west into the swamps, the geographical centre is much further east than the official centre.
From Megalopolis, the River Kenkoylu flows south-west into the swamps. There are plans to drain the swamps so that Megalopolis can expand in that direction too (the swamps are already drying out as Megalopolis takes more and more water from the rivers which flow into them).
The River Reashass flows eastward through the northern suburbs of the city, and then turns southwards. It then flows southwards through the eastern suburbs of the city until it meets the River Trattaighora.
The River Trattaighora rises in an entirely different set of mountains, more than a thousand miles to the east of Megalopolis. By the time it comes close to Megalopolis it is flowing in a generally south-westerly direction. One can ride from the centre of Megalopolis to a riverboat terminus on the River Trattaighora in a couple of hours. After leaving Megalopolis, the River Trattaighora flows through the swamps, parallel to the River Kenkoylu.
According to the Order of the Knights of Megalopolis, the desert, swamps and mountains are ruled directly by the Order of the Knights of Megalopolis. A ring of castles in the desert marks the official boundary of this territory. The (perhaps more hospitable) areas on the other sides of the desert, swamps and mountains are provinces, ruled by provincial governors who are appointed by the Order of the Knights of Megalopolis. There is some constitutional discussion as to whether the office of provincial governor is or is not hereditary by default, and, as with all constitutional discussion in Megalopolis, sooner or later a duel will be fought to decide the matter.
The province immediately to the east of the desert is Bresshire. The large province of Selitionornacticold is immediately to the north and north-east of Bresshire.
The province of Jattny is a long way to the north of Megalopolis. To get there, you either have to cross the desert or the mountains or go the long way around, via Bresshire, Selitionornacticold and Voubstrowizasta.
There are several provinces to the south of Megalopolis, on the other side of the desert or the swamps, but these will not appear in phase one.
The climate of Megalopolis is very dry. The prevailing winds are from the north-west, and by the time they have crossed the mountains there is little moisture left in them.
The thick light blue lines are rivers. The one at the top of the map is the River Reashass, which flows from west to east. The one on the left hand side of the map is the River Kenkoylu, which flows from north to south.
The brownish areas are marketplaces. The one with the dark brown ring around it is the original fortified settlement from which Megalopolis grew.
The seven green areas are the estates of the seven major families of Megalopolis.
The purple area is the College of Knowledge.
The black rectangles are important buildings.
The dark grey lines are major roads. A road is major if a wagon going one way can pass a mounted knight going the other way without either of them hitting anything. There are bridges where these roads cross the rivers. The bridges are relatively new, and the rivers are fordable at these points. There are grey rectangles where some of the roads cross. These are open spaces.
The pinkish colour is built-up area, buildings and roads not wide enough to count as major roads.
The official religion of Megalopolis is Megalopolitan Orthodoxy.
The rules of Megalopolitan Orthodoxy are simple:
Ve was chosen as patron deity of Megalopolis on the entirely spurious grounds that his name sounds rather like Va, the name the Megalopolitan Knights gave to the world.
Anyone theologically-inclined (such as players who want to play Megalopolitan Orthodox cleric characters) should note that Megalopolitan Orthodoxy is henotheistic, with Ve being the chief deity. Megalopolitan Orthodoxy teaches that the chief deity of other henotheistic religions is Ve using a different name, and that all henotheistic religions are mutually compatible with one another and should tolerate one another.
Megalopolis does not have laws. It has the Knights.
In the event of a dispute, the disputants appeal to the Knights to adjudicate. If they appeal to the same Knight, he decides matters, and his decision is final.
If they appeal to different Knights, things get more interesting. The two Knights will, at first, attempt to come to a reasonable settlement. Quite often, they fail. When this happens, the case is decided by trial by combat. For minor disputes, the Knights usually appoint champions from amongst the ranks of their followers rather than settle the matter in combat themselves.
Alternatively, the disputants may consult the sages of the College of Knowledge. The sages have compiled a record of previous decisions made by the Knights, and will happily consult this record to look for precedents. Neither the precedents nor the sages' interpretations of them are legally binding, but many disputants will be prepared to accept them rather than appeal to the Knights.
Most of the important people in Megalopolis are associated with either the Megalopolitan Knights or the College of Knowledge, q.v. Here are a few of those who are not.
Stamekun Thertrah is someone whom player characters are almost certain to meet if they visit Megalopolis. He makes a point of introducing himself to any new adventurers arriving in the city.
Thertrah's day job is as editor of Mind Magic Monthly, a rather poorly-produced magazine which nominally describes illusion and enchantment spells and their uses. The problem is that it does not have a natural market. Serious magicians buy copies of the professional journals published in Atlantis. These are expensive, particularly since one has to pay transportation costs as well as professional membership fees, but they are worth it. Dilletanti buy glossy illustrated magazines, also published in Atlantis. These too are expensive, but they look nice and do not make the reader think too hard. Thertrah's magazine is neither rigorous enough to satisfy real magicians nor easy enough to read to satisfy dilletanti, and the print quality is poor (Thertrah uses a multiple-copy spell, the results of which do not match the clarity of the original). Its only advantages are that it is local and that it is comparatively cheap.
The surprise is that Mind Magic Monthly actually runs at a profit. Less surprisingly, it runs at a very small profit, not enough for Thertrah to live on.
From time to time, Thertrah will go adventuring, but he does not enjoy it. It's dangerous!
Thertrah's main sideline is introducing people to other people. He refuses on principle to introduce people to assassins, but almost anything else goes:
Thertrah expects to be paid, not so much for passing on information (which, he believes, anyone could find out with a little persistence) as for not passing on information (such as not telling everyone that you came to him asking where you could hire a trustworthy spy). While Thertrah is garrulous and asks a lot of questions, the question he asks most often is "Would you like to write an article for Mind Magic Monthly?"
Thertrah would like to use his spells to seduce attractive young women, but somehow it never works out the way he intends. Either their boyfriends turn up, or they make their saving throws, or they turn out to have elven ancestry and be immune to charm spells, or something else entirely unexpected goes wrong. It is a running joke in Megalopolis (and can be used for comic interludes).
Thertrah has no known enemies, but his only friends are and Ozmont, a lecturer in illusion at the College of Knowledge, and Kryptos, head sage at the College of Knowledge.
[AD&D-Specific] Stamekun Thertrah, human male, Str 10 Dex 16 Con 9 Int 14 Wis 6 Cha 8 Align CG Hp 31. Illusionist, level 12.
Angoaenehuan, a necromancer of lawful evil alignment, is head of the Polythaumatic Institute. This Institute claims to rival the College of Knowledge, but no-one outside the Polythaumatic Institute takes this claim seriously. His main political concern is to stop his best staff defecting to the College of Knowledge.
The only advantage the Polythaumatic Institute has is that it teaches psionics (whereas the College of Knowledge does not). The study and use of psionics is regarded as dangerous, and the psionics courses only accept people of proven lawful alignment.
Angoaenehuan is a social climber with poorly-concealed ambitions to join the Megalopolitan Knights. He is Roxxune Krypwja's lover, but she is reluctant to let him take the relationship further.
Although Angoaenehuan's sexual preferences are entirely acceptable to the people of Megalopolis (the bed he shares is that of one living person of the same species, approximately the same age, and the opposite sex, and that is the way he likes it), this is unusual for a necromancer, and he knows it. He reacts badly to jokes about sex, and particularly to jokes about necrophilia.
The adventurer LonaLona has a town house in Megalopolis, but he is more likely to be out adventuring than in residence.
Click here if the player character decides
to remain in Xukry's company and go on to Yjsbso.
The player character may ask Nylchrinie to remain in Megalopolis too.
If she does, make a loyalty roll.
If the roll is successful, Nylchrinie remains with the player character as a henchwoman.
For her twenty weeks in the show, give the player character experience points as follows:
add her charisma, dexterity and intelligence, and multiply the total by twenty.
If Nylchrinie remains with the player character, calculate her experience points using
the same method, but halve the result as she is an NPC.
The ring is magical.
It enables the wearer to cast one cantrip (player character's choice) three times per day.
If Nylchrinie remains with the player character, her ring is magical too.
Amongst the options available for the player character are:
If the player character takes Xukry's letter of introduction to
Kryptos,
Kryptos will say that he does not have anything for her at the moment (this is true),
and pass her on to Stamekun Thertrah.
Thertrah will know of a number of possibilities for the player character, including:
Constitutional change might not sound particularly interesting to adventurers.
But read on anyway.
Megalopolis does not have laws. It has the Knights.
There are those, even amongst the Knights, who find this unsatisfactory.
One of these is Krynev Iczmonicernat,
a young and idealistic Knight who has
been reading his grandfather's books on constitutional theory
(his grandfather was Patriarch of Megalopolitan Orthodoxy).
Krynev's ideal is that Megalopolis should become a constitutional monarchy,
in which government is exercised by a parliament in which all four important
branches of Megalopolitan society (nobles, priests, wizards and the middle classes)
are represented. Legislation produced by this parliament would be passed to the
seven Dukes, heads of the senior Megalopolitan families,
who would have a collective veto
(if four Dukes approve a bill, it becomes law; if four Dukes reject a bill, it is vetoed).
Krynev is a Duke himself, but would deny that his ideal is influenced by personal considerations.
Clearly, changing to this system would create winners and losers,
and that is where the fun starts.
Winners:
Losers:
Krynev is far too sensible to walk down any dark alleyways alone,
and he and his (few) friends are competent swordsmen,
so challenging him to a duel would be at best unreliable.
Those with an interest in stopping Krynev's radical ideas at source
would be interested in hiring someone who could find a more subtle way to dispose of him.
Note: the player characters are extremely unlikely to succeed in the ostensible
aim of this adventure. It can be used either to introduce them to
Aurelius, a major NPC who may be helpful to
them later in the campaign, or to guide them to
Selitionornacticold, where they are more likely
to find adventure than they are hanging around in Megalopolis.
Hearing that the player characters are looking for adventure, Stamekun
Thertrah introduces them to Stisje Erlernia, an exotic foreign enchantress.
Just in case the player characters do not recognise her for what she is, he
will point out that (a) she is exotic, as she speaks with a unusual and
distinctive accent, (b) she is foreign, as she puts her surname first (rather
than last, as is common practice in Megalopolis), and (c) all exotic foreign
women are enchantresses, aren't they?
[AD&D-Specific]
Stisje Erlernia, elven female, exotic foreign enchantress,
Str 10 Dex 15 Con 10 Int 16 Wis 11 Cha 17 Align CN Hp 32.
Enchantress, level 13.
Stisje Erlernia wants the player characters to bring her a certain magical
orb. It is easy to recognise. It looks like a crystal ball, but smaller, and
it is green. She also knows roughly where it is and how to get there. Take a
riverboat to Cychinfur-in-Bresshire, then take another riverboat to Mestraken,
and then head south. You'll know the place when you get there.
Erlernia apologises for the fact that she cannot accompany the player
characters. She claims is busy with a vitally important piece of spell
research. In reality, she is too lazy. As far as she knows, the mission is
a simple go-and-fetch one and she cannot be bothered wasting time on it.
Erlernia does not appreciate that the mission is a lot more difficult than
it sounds. She has been to the
Mirror Mansion herself, but it was a long
time ago, and she does not realise how much things have changed. She is
unaware that anyone there knows how to use the orb, she does not appreciate
just how many people live there and how powerful some of them are, and she
thinks that a medium-level party should be able to walk in, find what she
wants, and retrieve it for her.
Erlernia offers to pay the player characters for their time and all reasonable
expenses, including travel there and back by riverboat.
Erlernia is used to getting her own way, and she will not take no for an
answer. She knows some very subtle and very powerful charm spells, and one way
or another the player characters will agree to what she wants them to do. If
casting domination on the party leader is what it takes to get the
party to agree, that is what she will do.
The party will then travel through Bresshire.
If nothing interrupts their journey, they will make their way to Mestraken,
from where, depending on events, they may end up either at the
Mirror Mansion or in
Selitionornacticold.
After a while, Erlernia will realise that the party she sent is not coming
back. No problem. She will ask Stamekun Thertrah to find her another party.
See the regions around Megalopolis:
Xukry's Illusionist Show in Megalopolis
Adventure Hook for Spies and Assassins
Other Adventures