In due course, I shall detail at least five locations in the Yjsbson Empire:
| Yjsbso, the Capital | ... | player info | ... | DM info |
| Bulwark, a strategically-placed castle | ... | player info | ... | DM info |
| The Western Temple in the Mountains | ... | player info | ... | DM info |
| The Eastern Temple in the Mountains | ... | player info | ... | DM info |
| The Tavern (and, below it, the Maze) | ... | player info | ... | DM info |
Local plant life is poisonous to people from other worlds. As a poison, it is fairly slow-acting, so spells such as slow poison and neutralise poison are effective.
Even eating herbivores (e.g. rabbits, which are to be found everywhere) is dangerous. See the DM info on the Tavern, which is the place people are most likely to do such a silly thing.
Eating carnivores (e.g. wild dogs, or even other adventurers) is safe.
Mead, derived indirectly from plant life, ought to be poisonous, but isn't. Some part of the process which produces the mead neutralises the poison.
There is also food, particularly fruit, imported from other worlds. It is available, but very expensive, in Yjsbso and the Eastern Temple. It is somewhat cheaper in the Western Temple, as this is where it is imported. It is entirely safe.
Pollen and dust from dead leaves are also poisonous. The air is largely free from such dangers in the mountains, so from this point of view, adventuring outside the two temples and the tavern is safe. Further south, in the capital and around Bulwark, the air is only free from such dangers when there is thick snow on the ground (the snow covers anything hazardous). Assume that in Yjsbso there is thick snow on the ground from around 50 days before midwinter to around 70-80 days after midwinter. The snow falls in Bulwark around 10 days after it arrives in Yjsbso, and clears up around 10 days earlier.
You will gather from this that the Yjsbson Empire is cold. Characters must take sensible precautions against cold (out of doors in the mountains in winter, against extreme cold); if they don't, hammer them!
The Yjsbson Empire is located on the world of Aclgjjnstmra. Don't even try to pronounce it.
Mount Yyhle is at the point where three mountain ranges meet. It is too tall and dangerous to climb.
The mountain range to the west of Yyhle is known as the Bsvjjtnku. There is a well-used pass across them, connecting the Yjsbson Empire with the northlands. The Western Temple is on the southern slopes, a little way off the main road leading from Yjsbso to the pass.
There are two mountain ranges to the east of Yyhle, almost but not quite parallel.
The more northerly of the two ranges is the Glqde. To the north of this are the barbarian theyndoms.
The more southerly of the two ranges is the Dzfwmczo. To the south of this is civilisation: the Yjsbson Empire.
The plateau between the two ranges is not civilised. See the wilderness encounter table.
There is a road crossing both ranges and the plateau in between. In principle, it is suitable for dog-carts, but it may not be in a particularly good state of repair.
The Eastern Temple is on the southern slopes of the Dzfwmczo, a little way off the main road leading from Yjsbso to the pass.
The Tavern is on the northern slopes of the Dzfwmczo, near, but not on, the road across the plateau.
The roads wind around a lot, and as the crow flies the Tavern is closer to the Eastern Temple than one might expect. It is possible to get from one to the other on foot, using a pass through the mountains, more quickly than by travelling round by road in a dog-cart. Rangers, and those with expertise in things like running or orienteering, may find it a pleasant exercise.
The road is not at all during the winter. It is used a fair amount during the summer, and the Tavern employs servants only during the summer months. The reason is political. The northlands are not a single kingdom, but a group of theyndoms. The most powerful of these controls the northern end of the other road from Yjsbso, the one across the Bsvjjtnku Mountains. If you want to visit the northlands without that theyn being aware of the fact, there is no choice but to use the more dangerous eastern road. Most of the people using the road will stop overnight either at the Eastern Temple or the Tavern, and particularly slow travellers will sometimes stop at both.
The Tavern and Maze are, technically, just outside the Yjsbson Empire, but not so far outside that anyone would argue the toss. For religious purposes, the Tavern is in the area overseen by the Eastern Temple.
Bulwark is a long way to the south of Yjsbso, effectively in the centre of the Empire, close to a strategic road junction and an equally strategic bridge.
Western Temple in the Mountains to Yjsbso
Eastern Temple in the Mountains to Yjsbso
Tavern to Eastern Temple in the Mountains
Tavern to Yjsbso
Western to Eastern Temple in the Mountains
Tavern to Western Temple in the Mountains
Yjsbso to Bulwark
Travelling north from Bulwark, there is no way to bypass Yjsbso. The journey from Bulwark to the Eastern Temple by stagecoach can, in an emergency, be done in eighteen hours.
Yjsbso's calendar starts with the legendary founding of the First Empire.
One upon a time, there was a sapphire mine in the Bsvjjtnku Mountains. The location of that mine is well known; it is completely worked out and has been for centuries.
There was, according to legend, a second mine. The second mine was said to have produced emeralds and rubies.
The wealth from these mines was used to hire an army, and the army conquered the lands to the south of the mountains, ruling it from their capital, Yjsbso, which they built where the roads south from the Bsvjjtnku and Dzfwmczo Mountains met.
The officers of this army made their horribly complicated and unpronounceable language the official language of the Empire.
The world of Aclgjjnstmra became isolated from other worlds. The two main reasons for this were (a) that the normal crossing-point between worlds, at what is now the Western Temple, was uncomfortably close to the sapphire mines, so use of it was discouraged by the First Empire military, and (b) that no-one wanted to visit a world with such an unpronounceable official language.
Although the sapphire mines in the Bsvjjtnku Mountains continued to pay for troops, the less-productive ruby and emerald mines in the Dzfwmczo Mountains had been worked out. They were converted into a sort of holiday resort: the climate around the mine was pleasant, cool in the summer but sheltered from the cold north-west winds in the winter. It is also warmer deep underground than it is on the surface.
The resort was popular, especially since from time to time visitors would still find an unclaimed emerald or ruby lying around.
The First Empire collapsed.
Although the sapphire mines in the Bsvjjtnku Mountains continued to pay for troops, the nobility had become decadent, and the Empire collapsed.
As the boundaries of the empire contracted, the precise location of the holiday resort (the erstwhile ruby and emerald mines) was lost.
After an interregnum lasting several generations, Ho the Ruthless, an evil necromancer and patriarch of the Dcjlan dynasty, founded the Second Empire.
During the generations of instability, the common people suffered greatly. They called out for a leader - any leader - who would restore order. They got what they asked for: Ho the Ruthless, a megalomaniac magician. He certainly restored order. Anyone who disobeyed him exploded.
Contact with other worlds was lost entirely. No-one wants to visit a world ruled by evil necromancers.
Even evil necromancers die eventually, and Ho the Ruthless was no exception. However, his dynasty of incomparably sadistic evil necromancers continued to rule the Second Empire. By this time, the Yjsbson language had evolved further, to include elements derived from various demonic languages otherwise studied only by evil necromancers.
Krda the Appalling, most notorious of all the Dcjlan dynasty (which is saying a lot), acceeded to the Imperial Throne.
Although most of the Dcjlan dynasty were necromancers, a few were alchemists. Krda the Appalling was one such. His favourite entertainment, it is said, was forcing a chosen victim to drink two magical potions simultaneously, to see what would happen when they mixed. It was the unpredictability, as much as the joy of seeing intelligent beings in agony, which he found appealing.
Most sages agree that the fact that all Yjsbson plant life, even pollen, is poisonous is a legacy of one of Krda the Appalling's more unusual experiments. (However, some disagree, saying that is older than that and dates from Ho the Ruthless.)
Krda the Appalling died, but the Dcjlan dynasty continued to rule.
Although, at its height, the second Yjsbson Empire reconquered most of the territory which the First Empire had lost, the ruby and emerald mines were not rediscovered. Either there was some magic concealing them, or more likely, people were simply looking in the wrong place.
Finally, and not before time, the Second Empire collapsed. Although there were plenty of evil necromancers around, the people had finally tired of being ruled by them.
The main cause of the sudden collapse seems to have been that people realised that they had evolved immunity to the poison in their local plant life. They no longer needed the protection of powerful necromantic spells.
At least the evil necromancers had provided stability. After around fifty years, the people tired of chaos, and the priests of a previously-obscure sect, that of Pnmjje the Munificent, God of Commerce, enthroned the first Emperor of the Third Empire.
The priests introduced a simplified version of the Yjsbson language, and it is this simplified (but still unpronounceable) language which is used in everyday commerce. However, the nobility refuse to use it, preferring the more complex and even more unpronounceable version which had evolved during the First and Second Empires.
Someone absconding from the Yjsbson Army, heading in the general direction of the northlands, came across an isolated building which looked like a disused tavern. The patrol chasing him found him asleep there. A member of the patrol fell through the floorboards. The captain of the patrol rescued him, discovering the maze below the tavern in the process, and realised that he had found the legendary emerald and ruby mines.
Then word got out, and adventurers from all over the known universe congregated at the tavern. A fresh group usually arrives every midsummer.
The Third Empire seems to be on its last legs. Factions in the south of the Empire are openly talking of secession, which is not a good sign. Various descendants of First Empire nobles, and various evil necromancers claiming descent from Krda the Appalling, are eyeing the Imperial Throne and weighing up their chances.
Today, Yjsbso's main distinction is its particularly bizarre, complex and unpronounceable language, really three languages, the harsh and vowelless First Empire Military tongue, the amazingly recondite Second Empire Necromantic tongue, with its eight distinct genders, and the somewhat simpler Third Empire Commercial tongue. There are abstruse rules about which tongue should be spoken when and to whom, and even the locals have trouble speaking it correctly. Most people who have dealings with visitors from other worlds will have learned the Common Tongue; those who can't will have commissioned magical items (usually rings) which enable offworlders to converse in fluent and correct Yjsbson. Many social climbers who have trouble remembering which variant of the language to speak in which situations wear similar magical gadgets.
Only five Earth species are also found in the Yjsbson Empire: humans, wolves, dogs, rabbits and rats.
Dogs have evolved to fill several ecological niches. In particular, they have evolved to fill the niche of large carnivore.
Most other ecological niches are filled by indigenous reptiles, related to dinosaurs and dragons. The most bizarre of these are dragon-bees, the creatures which produce the honey which is fermented to make mead. Functionally, they are identical to bees except that they don't sting.
The people of the Yjsbson Empire build down into the ground, not up into the air. There are two main reasons for this:
The tallest building in the whole of the Yjsbson Empire is the lookout tower of the Imperial Palace in Yjsbso, which has two stories above ground level.
The deepest building in the whole of the Yjsbson Empire is thought to be the Imperial Palace. However, although no-one knows exactly how deep the Imperial Palace goes, the maze (the old ruby and emerald mines) is almost certainly deeper still.
The priests and priestesses of Pnmjje the Munificent, God of Commerce, preach equality between the sexes. Civil society has not really caught up with this novel idea, but is at least trying. The military is not, particularly in the higher ranks.
Roll on the following table to determine NPC sex, where this is not known in advance or obvious from context. Table A is for military officers. Table B is for military NCOs and private soldiers. Table C is for civilians who own property (e.g. shopkeepers, merchants) or have some other significant social status (e.g. necromancers). Table D is for that part of society under the direct control of the priesthood (including secular employees of temples) and for civilians who own no property. Table E is for specialists in enchantment magic, who are predominantly female.
| Sex | A (d100) | B (d100) | C (d100) | D (d100) | E (d100) |
| female | 01-22 | 01-27 | 01-35 | 01-48 | 01-86 |
| male | 23-99 | 28-99 | 36-98 | 49-98 | 87-99 |
| other | 00 | 00 | 99-00 | 99-00 | 00 |
Yjsbson society is predominantly lawful neutral. Roll on the following table to determine NPC alignment, where this is not known in advance or obvious from context.
| Alignment | (d100) |
| Lawful neutral | 01-40 |
| Lawful evil | 41-60 |
| Neutral | 61-80 |
| Neutral evil | 81-90 |
| Lawful good | 91-92 |
| Neutral good | 93-94 |
| Chaotic good | 95-96 |
| Chaotic neutral | 97-98 |
| Chaotic evil | 99-00 |
Yjsbson society is predominantly human, and all random NPCs are human. There may be half-elves around, but they do not turn up on random tables.
Further tables will appear in due course.
This encounter table applies specifically to the uncivilised plateau between the Glqde and Dzfwmczo mountain ranges. Wilderness wandering monsters know their place and avoid civilised areas, including the Tavern.
All monsters are standard monsters, appearing in the usual numbers, except as noted below.
| 2d10 | Monster |
| 2 | Basilisk |
| 3 | Deinonychus |
| 4 | (day) Adventurers // (night) Vampire |
| 5 | Sinister Bats |
| 6 | Ghouls |
| 7 | Goblins |
| 8 | Hobgoblins, 2d10 |
| 9 | Orcs |
| 10 | Orcs |
| 11 | Wild Tigerdogs |
| 12 | Ogres |
| 13 | Ogres |
| 14 | Trolls |
| 15 | Cyclops |
| 16 | Hill Giant |
| 17 | Ettin |
| 18 | Mountain Giant |
| 19 | White Dragon |
| 20 | Silver Dragon |
Adventurers: in due course, I'll put up an encounter table. In the mean time, assume that they're a group of deserters from the Yjsbson army. Most of them will be fighters, but they'll have a cleric (of a military deity) and probably an offensive spellcaster too. Adventurers only appear during daylight hours (at night-time, you get a vampire instead; no-one, particularly low-level adventurers, should be out in this freezing cold wilderness after dark).
Tigerdogs: treat as lions in all respects except that they don't have the additional rake attack. Tigerdogs hunt in packs, like wolves.
There are also lots of wild rabbits. Anyone looking for them can find them. Their purpose is to supply a base for the food chain.