Oddholme and the Sargrass

.....OddHolme and the Sargrass

(Posted by MikeK) Instead of city walls, All habitations in the Grass are covered by a dome. This is to keep the bloodflies and other very nasty insects out of the towns.

Pre-migration and pre-Sargrass Power, any open water was discovered and descended upon by pretty much every creature and insect within miles. So the domes were built over water sources to keep the fauna at bay. Not sure if that applies now, but it would have when the city was built.

Also, Oddholme was discovered, not built, by The Bloodpack and then populated with refugees. The dome and most of the structure is made of an unknown alloy crafted by unknown entities and is pretty much indestrucable, let alone flammable.

While I don't think the dome iteslf can burn, the occupants have brought plenty of flammable stuff into it. And any major fires inside would likely fill the dome with smoke where it would billow out of the gates and ventilation shafts, and cause havoc etc, etc, etc.

Oddholme would have a Council. Note while the dome is old, the place has only been populated by the current townsfolk for maybe a year game time. It was deserted before that. You're also gonna want to read up on the Portal, as thats what most of the group is gonna tie current events to. SteveK - can you shoot Tanner what we know on the Portal?

Also, no trees or lawns, as everything is under a dome and the only grass the community knows about is the Sargrass, which grows at an alarming rate and therefore wouldn't be used as ornamentation. Actually, it possible some trees might be introduced in the wake of the Great Migration and the awakening of the Sargrass Power. But, I'd expect them to be few and far between...

(Posted by SteveK) I've never played a stint as DM, so this is what I know as a Player.

ODDHOLME - An abandoned grass dome shown to the Bloodpack by some druid allies. The Bloodpack killed the abominations using the dome as a home and turned it into our own headquarters (since we were temporarily exiled at the time.) From what I understand, the Dome protects inhabitants from the extremely harsh Sargrass sun, flesh-eating bugs, and other dangers of the very dangerous Sargrass.

Dome Geography. - Inside the dome, wide and long corridors lead to a central meeting area with a 30 foot tall stone tower (very unusual). The Bloodpack members took various chambers near the central area for private apartments. Some walls and cielings of the dome are translucent, enabling light for seeing and growing a limited amount of food. Most food is from outside gathering of specialty Grasses and herding the slug-like Prarie Pigs.

Dome Portal - A stone table is the centerpiece of one room with only one door leading in. The walls and table are carved with strange runes that Tishe' was able to decipher as a portal of some sort. The portal (in the past) has led to an area of stone corridors like a wagon wheel; a central room with eight tunnel 'spokes' that lead to a circular corridor connecting all that in turn leads to off-set connecting rooms. OddHolme led to one of the outside rooms. We found Snake-taurs defending another outside room and a similar portal (never tried it). The Center Room was the focus of another adventure and led to the Center of the Continent and was protected by the combined Powers of the Southern Continent (no way through there). Later exploration found links from OddHolme Portal to Woldian League of Adventurers, Star Mages Guild, and the Catacombs. ((My thoughts - since the Portal is an alien magic that the Bloodpack barely understands, you as DM can do just about anything and justify the event.))

Dome People All the people of OddHolme have arrived within the last 6 months; either as true orphans of the Sargrass brought in by the Manfri, the drow, or the Bloodpack: or the contingent of Rattledam refugees the Bloodpack brought back (see below)

a. Leaders Former PCs whose Players have moved on are currently being the caretakers of OddHolme and managing the people. Funny enough, all three are drow: Murdock; drow wizard evoker, Vayine; drow ranger, Aeryon; drow fighter. V and A are brothers, Murdock is no relation. ((My thoughts - if you don't want them here, have the three decide to find the lost drow tribe of Ust Dehlmah, and leave.))

a. Militia. Falmar and Yanosh have been working with some refugees to get them organized into a militia. They would be 1st level Warriors if we're lucky.

b. Government Before the last time the Bloodpack left, we encouraged the OddHolme refugees to establish a group to do the day to day running of OddHolme. The refugees were going to do that with Murdock, Vayine, and Aeryon when we left.

RATTLEDAM - Once the biggest permenant settlement on the Sargrass Plains, the dome protecting Rattledam was destroyed during the Great Migration and Birth of Sargrass. (Bloodpack was there and helped. When we stole the coccoon, the Woldsblood pool it was floating in overflowed, destroying the lower caverns under Rattledam and making a big earthquake that destroyed the dome.)

When this event happened, the Bloodpack led a portion of the survivors to a new life in the deserted OddHolme. The remainder (supposedly) began rebuilding Rattledam and continuing to live under the rule of the Monks, thier Council, and thier adherence to secrecy and Parthenon.

GREAT MIGRATION A few thoughts on the Great Migration.

Legend says that when the Southern Continent gets to the edge of disaster, the Powers get together and move the Lands around like rearranging a giant jigsaw puzzle. This avoids cataclysmic war and also makes it impossible to have accurate maps of the Southern Continent.

Only 6 months ago (or thereabouts) the Bloodpack teamed with the Children of Chaos to get the COC through the OddHolme Portal to the Center of the Southern Continent. There the COC heroes helped initiate the GREAT MIGRATION. Lands flew about and rearranged themselves. (There is a map of where the Lands are now in the DM ONLY pages of the Woldipedia)

The Bloodpack has not been off the Plains or even to the borders since the Great Migration. Talking to some refugees while on the trail of the snake-taur slavers, the Bloodpack learned that Hook City is no longer in the north of the Sargrass, but somewhere else on the Southern Continent. This was of great concern to Tishe' and Falmar since both of them have relations in that big magical city.

But we don't know where Hook City is, and we don't know about any other lands that now may border the Sargrass Plains.