HYPERBOREA / Port Zangerios

**Posted by Druvas** 7/24/2017 5:22 pm

So this seems like a pretty awesome city. It appears to be the 2nd largest city in Hyperborea, at 20,000 souls. My players acquired a viking longship at the end of Tower of the Black Pearl and have been keeping themselves local, but are now bored with all the weirdos that live along Dagon Bay and the River Yys. Since the barbarian is stuck with the cursed mask of Jason of Vorhees on his face (and slowly going insane with the desire to murder horny teenagers camping near lakes), the party figured they might just fit in in the City of Masks. I don't think I have a lot of time to flesh it out, however. Are there any good canned cities that might fit the bill for this sucker? If nothing works quite right, I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on the city and encounter types.

The goals they hope to achieve in Port Zangerios are to:

1. Get the cursed mask removed from the barbarian's face before he murders the lot of them.
2. They discovered a large stainless steel cylinder that fell from the sky. They investigated it and are now dosed with a wee bit of radiation. Most of them are losing their hair and have red splotches on their skin. And they aren't eating much and feeling weak. (muhahahaaaa). Need to find a priest that will cure them.

I hope they achieve these goals, though I must admit a certain amusement with the barbarian flying off into a murderous rage whenever the mood strikes me and the dice go against the player. Anywho, enough about that. Port Zangerios!

**Posted by Ghul** 7/24/2017 5:57 pm

Read "The Moon Moth" by Jack Vance for inspiration. I was also influenced by Michael Crichton's posthumous novel, Pirate Latitudes, as I was developing the city. Throw in some Lankhmar, and you get the picture.

**Posted by Druvas** 7/25/2017 1:06 pm

Sweet! I found a copy for a few bucks on Amazon and ordered it (The Moon Moth). I'll start there and expand as needed. Thanks for the tip!

**Posted by measuredrums** 7/25/2017 1:17 pm

May I recommend Midkemia Press's 'City of Carse' (available here for a very reasonable price in pdf form... http://www.midkemia.com/), used in conjunction with Ben Ball's 'Hyperborean Encounter Table's? I'm going to use the Carse supplement myself (it's totally Humanocentric ... perfect for AS&SH), and Ben's Encounter Tables are without compare ... utterly indispensable.

**Posted by Druvas** 7/25/2017 3:44 pm

measuredrums wrote:
May I recommend Midkemia Press's 'City of Carse' (available here for a very reasonable price in pdf form... http://www.midkemia.com/), used in conjunction with Ben Ball's 'Hyperborean Encounter Table's? I'm going to use the Carse supplement myself (it's totally Humanocentric ... perfect for AS&SH), and Ben's Encounter Tables are without compare ... utterly indispensable.

Most certainly! I'll take a look at it. Thanks for the suggestion.

**Posted by Druvas** 7/25/2017 3:53 pm

Ghul, do you envision this to be a walled city? Or is its remoteness more or less a defense in and of itself, with the motley navy the only line of defense? Given the regular violent turnover of the governorship, I imagine any sort of organized city guard - assuming one exists - is either comprised of a permanent and independent force (sort of resembling the Roman Praetorian, maybe?) or perhaps regions of the city are defended by various factions that make sections of the city their own?

I know, I know, read the book. But I don't have it yet. :-)

**Posted by Blackadder23** 7/25/2017 7:16 pm

measuredrums wrote:
May I recommend Midkemia Press's 'City of Carse' (available here for a very reasonable price in pdf form... http://www.midkemia.com/), used in conjunction with Ben Ball's 'Hyperborean Encounter Table's? I'm going to use the Carse supplement myself (it's totally Humanocentric ... perfect for AS&SH), and Ben's Encounter Tables are without compare ... utterly indispensable.

Aw, that's nice to hear. It makes all the hard work worth it.

**Posted by Blackadder23** 7/25/2017 7:28 pm

If I were going to use a canned city for Port Zangerios, I would probably use Fever-Dreaming Marlinko.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/151165/FeverDreaming-Marlinko

It's very weird, and the city is divided into "themed" quarters that would go right along with the masks. So the inhabitants of the "Swine" quarter could favor pig masks, the inhabitants of the "Apiary" quarter insect masks, etc. There are some non-Hyperborean elements, but if desired these could easily be given facelifts - the Eld could be replaced with snake-men, the robo-dwarves with... I dunno, maybe gargoyle servitors or small iron automatons, and so forth. Every year the quarters have a competition where slave charioteers race and the losers are put to death, and it doesn't get much more Hyperborean than that.
The only problem is: Marlinko isn't a port (I know, just a "little" problem) so you would have to redo the map. Also, I don't think it's anywhere near as large as 20,000 inhabitants, although that would be easy to handwave. Anyway, just a suggestion. I recommend dropping a few bucks on it to steal ideas in any case.

**Posted by measuredrums** 7/25/2017 10:53 pm

Blackadder23 wrote:
Aw, that's nice to hear. It makes all the hard work worth it.

You're welcome!

**Posted by Druvas** 7/27/2017 5:21 pm

So... Got my copy of The Moon Moth. Apparently, the original story was turned into a graphic novel. Almost done with it in about 30 minutes... Grrr. Now I need the actual book.

**Posted by Brock Savage** 7/27/2017 9:05 pm

Ghul wrote:
Read "The Moon Moth" by Jack Vance for inspiration. I was also influenced by Michael Crichton's posthumous novel, Pirate Latitudes, as I was developing the city. Throw in some Lankhmar, and you get the picture.

Thanks for the insight! I was already planning to use a reskinned Lankhmar for Port Zangerios but I'll add the other works to my "to read" pile for inspiration.

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 7/28/2017 9:23 am

This makes me want to flesh out more what I have for Stonebrook...and look at the material mentioned.

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 8/03/2017 11:33 am

Blackadder23 wrote:
If I were going to use a canned city for Port Zangerios, I would probably use Fever-Dreaming Marlinko.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/151165/FeverDreaming-Marlinko

It's very weird, and the city is divided into "themed" quarters that would go right along with the masks. So the inhabitants of the "Swine" quarter could favor pig masks, the inhabitants of the "Apiary" quarter insect masks, etc. There are some non-Hyperborean elements, but if desired these could easily be given facelifts - the Eld could be replaced with snake-men, the robo-dwarves with... I dunno, maybe gargoyle servitors or small iron automatons, and so forth. Every year the quarters have a competition where slave charioteers race and the losers are put to death, and it doesn't get much more Hyperborean than that.
The only problem is: Marlinko isn't a port (I know, just a "little" problem) so you would have to redo the map. Also, I don't think it's anywhere near as large as 20,000 inhabitants, although that would be easy to handwave. Anyway, just a suggestion. I recommend dropping a few bucks on it to steal ideas in any case.

Good call, BA23. I concur.