Many generations ago, the miners dug too deep and broke through into the lava tubes. All of the men working the mines that day died, and work ground to a halt. A few weeks later, work would resume once more, thanks in no small part to inflated wages to entice more workers. A month after that, lava flooded the mines once more, burning dozens alive.

Men are nothing if not stubborn, particularly when gold is involved, but after three similar incidents over the course of the next year, it got to the point where no one was willing to work the mines for any price. Trade continued thanks to the Sinhe, but the city was reduced to a shadow of its former glory.

Many generations later, the city was attacked by a lich named Krool’thex, who easily overwhelmed the modest defenses. Krool’thex was mostly interested in the mines, though. He animated zombies and skeletons to work them, but this proved inefficient. Though they did not complain, the sheer number of corpses required and frequency of the lava breakthroughs was inconvenient, to say the least.

Then Krool’thex had a breakthrough. He developed a lesser form of the ritual used to convert himself into a lich, and used this to create his new servants. These liches were little more threatening than they had been in life and retained their sentience, and the up-front costs were huge in comparison to animating lesser undead.

It paid for itself soon after, though, when lava once more wiped through the mines. Krool’thex had but to wait a few days and all of his servants had regrown and were once more forced to work the mines. The lich-king of the city used his wealth and free labor to construct himself a magnificent palace in Marrowgrim, and at the heart of the palace is a vault where all his slaves’ phylacteries are kept.

Today, Marrowgrim is even more successful than it was in ages past. Most are unaware of Krool’thex’s undead labor force, and those who do know of it overlook it in light of the profits to be made at the town. The city itself has become a bit of a hot spot for the surrounding nobility, who like to vacation there due to the surprisingly-complete lack of “riff-raff.” Free from beggars and thieves, the nobles walk the streets freely and peruse the varied goods which come along the river. For his part, Krool’thex seems content to enjoy the finer things in un-life and watch his city grow.

Encounters at Marrowgrim

The PCs meet a lich-slave who’s managed to run off from work. The slave begs for the peace of the grave, but unless the PCs can destroy his phylactery he’ll never get it.

The PCs are hired by a man who claims to be the rightful heir to the city’s throne, from before it was taken over by Krool’thex. The man tasks them with destroying the lich’s phylactery and then the lich himself, so that the city might once more return to his family.

Krool’thex quickly assimilates any foolish enough to beg in his city into his workforce. However, this is not enough to satisfy his ambitions, and the PCs discover that he’s arranging for merchants to kidnap beggars and vagrants from other cities and smuggle them Marrowgrim. This raises the question of exactly why Krool’thex needs so many slaves, as well…

She lights up a candle for hope to be found
Captive and blind by the darkness around
Firm as a mountain, she never will mourn
Timeless, she waits for the break of dawn
-The Maiden’s Hymn

On the northeastern coasts, just below the frozen wastes of Nordica, a small town named Maiden’s Watch operates a small, but successful, port.

The town is named for a statue found on a rocky outcropping of a mountain overlooking the town and abutting the sea. The statue is of an amazingly-lifelike maiden carrying a candle, and legend holds that it was once a woman who refused to accept that she’d been widowed.

For many years after her husband, a sailor, failed to return home, every night she would walk up to the outcropping and light a candle so that he might find his way home.

She did this until she died, and the gods took pity upon her. They rewarded her vigilance by turning her into a statue, and now every night after the sun sets and the stars come out, the stony candle held in the statue’s hands ignites into a brilliant light visible for miles around.

The Maiden herself has become a symbol of fidelity, dedication and love, and the statue also serves as a tourist attraction. It stands in the center of a ring of dirt, serving as a clear demarcation against the grass. Anyone or anything which crosses this threshold simply disappears, which has certainly saved the statue from vandalism over the many years, but also has stymied any attempts to study it.

Encounters at Maiden’s Watch

One night, the statue fails to light, causing chaos among the sailors depending on it to find their way to the harbor safely. The PCs are hired to investigate what’s happened and restore the maiden’s light.

The PCs need a star to activate some ancient machinery, and surmise that the maiden’s candle is a star itself. They must find a way to retrieve the candle, never mind dealing with the townsfolk who won’t be happy if they find out what the PCs are doing.

The Maiden’s Hymn stolen (though slightly changed) from Kamelot’s A Sailorman’s Hymn

Sultan Abdurahman is 104 years old, and survived only by one of his nine grandchildren, Rasshid ibn Taj ibn Abdurahman, the current heir to the throne. Abdurahman is always accompanied by his advisor, Nazim, a man who seems almost as old as the king himself. Known only to the Sultan himself, Nazim is actually a genie who’s advised every sultan in the city’s history. Nazim is bound to three duties: enforce the city’s laws, ensure the city prospers, and follow the dictates of the sultan. Each of the duties is equally important and given equal weight.

The PCs arrive at a somewhat inopportune time, as the same night they arrive there is an assassination attempt on Sultan Abdurahman. The attempt is botched, and it is relatively easy to discover that Nazim was behind it.

If the PCs suggest to the Sultan that it was Nazim, he dismisses that as preposterous (since he believes Nazim cannot harm him) When confronted, Nazim is clearly despondent about the attack, but unapologetic. He explains that Abdurahman, though once a great and powerful leader, has simply grown too old. He is older than any mortal has any right to be, and his mind has been ravaged by age. The Sultan no longer looks after his city as he should, is easily confused and his memory is all but gone.

The laws of the city are very clear, though: so long as Abdurahman still draws breath, only he may lead it. Thus Nazim orchestrated the assassination attempt so that the leadership would pass to Rasshid.

As if to punctuate Nazim’s accusations, the next day the Sultan holds court, and many seek him out for help. He seems to listen to them, but when asked for aid he has no idea what was just said, but rather he was (for example) entranced by the memory of a monkey he once saw stealing a fig from a goat. Nazim does his best to cover up for the Sultan, but there is little that can be done.

Ravnica: City of Guilds. A planet covered entirely by city, ruled by ten guilds vying for control and kept in check only by an ancient enchantment called the Guildpact.

Ravnica is the setting for the Ravnica block, the twelfth block of Magic: The Gathering, and setting for the Ravnica, Guildpact and Dissension sets. It is also an absolutely fantastic setting for your favorite fantasy RPG.

Pros

• The Guilds: The ten guilds which are central to the plot of Ravnica are also amazing resources for gamers. There’s so much intrigue and so many interactions and plot hooks that I don’t even know where to begin. Characters might belong to the guilds, trying to join them, trying to escape them, etc.
• Room for Expansion: Aside from the guilds, Ravnica’s actually not been explored that much. There’s room for pretty much anything in the city which spans an entire world.
• Dungeons: The city of Ravnica is like an urban parfait, with layers upon layers of streets and buildings. More importantly, while much of the city is constantly being demolished and rebuilt, there’s also room for ancient tenements thousands of years old, inhabited by Urza-only-knows what, and filled with ancient secrets and treasures.

Cons

• Lack of Diversity: Actually, not as big a problem as you might think. Despite the fact that Ravnica’s just one giant city, the city is actually quite diverse. Upscale high rises kept in pristine condition, dilapidated slums, dark and noxious sewers, etc. That said, at the end of the day, it is still a giant city, so you’ll never find, say, a mountain or a forest.
• Narrow power band: Ravnica seems like a setting with a relatively narrow band of power, where it’s difficult for me to envision truly epic stories. Using 4e D&D as a reference, I can certainly come up with a couple of challenges for 30th level characters (Niv Mizzet and Rakdos immediately spring to mind), but I can’t really see a whole lot there to challenge a group of really high-level characters. Ultimately what it comes down to is that, without making some radical alterations to the assumptons of your system, the “big fish” aren’t as a rule much more powerful than the “small fries.” Still in the D&D 4e paradigm, I probably would have difficulty coming up with much else to do beyond, say, 15th level. Then again, maybe not. Who knows?

The Guilds

Wikipedia, as usual, has a really great article on Ravnica, including awesome descriptions of the guilds. I’ll be going over each of the ten guilds in a bit of detail, and today we’ll be talking about two of them, the Azorius Senate and the Boros Legion. Not the most exciting pair, to be completely honest, but they have an interesting dichotomy. In essence, you might think of the Azorius as the lawmakers and the Boros as their enforcers. It’s a bit of a simplification, but not much.

The Azorius Senate: A bunch of pencil pushers and lawmakers who seek to create absolute order by stifling everything under layers and layers of bureaucracy.

To be completely honest, the senate is probably one of the more boring guilds, for roleplaying purposes. Sure, there’s some potential for entertainment as you stymie the players and have them arrested for not filing the proper paperwork before sticking their gum to the bottom of that table, but that would get old pretty fast.

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The Boros Legion: Think of the Boros as the natural result when you’ve got a town guard in a city that takes up an entire planet. They’re a regimented military which concerns itself with upholding the laws and morality, preferring swift action and retribution.

Again, not one that jumps out with any really interesting possibilities, but they’re sure to show up a lot. Whenever the characters are involved in some hijinx, a Boros guard’s probably not far off.

Tune in next week for House Dimir, the Golgari Swarms, the Gruul Clans, and the Izzet League!

At twenty-six, Lexandr married a prostitute he’d fallen in love with named Misty. Misty would end up giving him four children, all girls. Natasha was the eldest, followed by Tania and then the twins Rada and Raisa. Eventually Lexandr got a boy named Dmitri as well, from an affair with a woman who died during childbirth.

Over the past few years, Lexandr’s health has begun waning, causing a great deal of infighting as the siblings jockey for position as the heir to the family business. For her part, Misty seems content to party, get drunk, and bunk with whatever handsome suitor her affluence can attract.

Natasha, who grew up as the presumptive heir, is extremely jealous and fearful of Dmitri. She knows that her father was always disappointed in his lack of a male heir, and worries that even though the boy’s barely a teenager Lexandr may pass control on to him.

Dmitri feels little empathy towards his half-sisters. His father’s told him that he’s the son of a duchess, and he takes great delight in rubbing in the fact that his sisters are daughters of a common harlot.

The twins don’t care very much what happens to the business, so long as they’re taken care of. Where Natasha is a driven and ruthless woman, the twins are spoiled brats who take after their mother and want nothing more than a life of luxury and decadence.

Tania ran away when she was a teenager. Lexandr searched for her half-heartedly for a while, but in the end decided he didn’t miss her all that much. She was sick of living in her sister’s shadow, and decided to run away and make a new name for herself.

Encounters with the Ibanovs

One of the PCs becomes the object of Misty’s affections, and is showered with gifts. If he scorns her, however, she takes a grudge against him and does everything in his power to make his life a living hell.

Lexandr hires the PCs to find Tania. He’s become disgusted with the sycophants that surround him and believes that only Tania, who spurned him and his wealth so long ago, is truly fit to run the business.

Natasha and Dmitri each hire the PCs to dig up dirt on the other.

While the PCs are attending a formal party, the twins crash it and make a huge scene, flouting all senses of decency and propriety.

The culprit is a peculiar reaper designated 12-8-x, though he prefers Marek. Marek is unusual in that he doesn’t actually belong to the hive– at least, not this hive. Cut off from the hive, he must steal other reapers’ power sources to sustain himself.

Marek is stuck– voluntarily– in a time loop. Even he’s not sure how many times he’s been through it; part of the loop involves overwriting his memory. He could have been through dozens of times or billions. He’s not even sure where he’s originally from; by all logic, he simply shouldn’t even exist. But exist he does, and it is his goal to make his existence count.

His ultimate goal is simple: to help protect, arm, and inform those who can destroy the motori when the time portal reopens and they return to Ling’hurak. He hasn’t yet been successful, but each time he gets a bit closer. He carries with him a spare core, into which he programs specific information and instructions to help guide him in his next loop.

Only the most important information is stored in the core. As a sentient being, if he were to maintain the same continuous memory throughout all of his time loops he’d quite literally go insane. Much of his knowledge is based on triggering events. For example, a particular chance encounter introduces him to his charges (the PCs, of course).

Shortly after meeting the PCs, Marek believes the housewarming protocol is about to be enacted. He hurriedly rushes them out of the city so that they might escape the reapers’ slaughter.

Eventually, when the city re-opens, Marek helps smuggle the PCs inside. He informs them of how to destroy the time portal and stop any further motori reinforcements; however, before they can do that, they must help him jump back in time. This will require resetting the portal to just a few weeks prior and swapping out Marek’s core with the spare he’s been programming from this time loop. Heading back in time at the last possible moment, he’ll never know if the PCs were able to defeat the motori or not.

Malus Mundi is quite literally a little bit of hell on Earth. At its heart lies a gate to hell, and infernal creatures come and go freely, allowing them to enter our world. Thankfully, they cannot stray too far. While any mortal creature can pass through the red veil of the dome with no more difficulty than passing through a light curtain, the denizens of hell find it more solid than any wall ever built.

It is usually not advised for mortals to enter Malus Mundi, though they usually need not fear wanton slaughter. The fact that they can leave and return freely makes any mortal foolhardy enough to enter quite valuable to the wretched creatures within. Some mortals even have established permanent residences within the dome, though that requires the protection of a truly powerful devil to ensure that no “accidents” happen.

Encounters in The City of Devils

A farmer’s son, discontent with a rural lifestyle and seeing no alternatives, has ventured to Malus Mundi to forge a partnership with a devil. The PCs must stop him.

The PCs manage to earn the attention of two devils, who offer them jobs. Not accepting is not an option the devils offer; unfortunately, the two are rivals and working for either also earns the other’s ire.

It also fills them with a deep obsession, leading them to go to extreme lengths to win their love’s affections. A few days after the mirror is installed, people all over town are going insane. Friends and siblings fight and sometimes even kill each other due to the madness.

Doing some investigation, the PCs might find out that Arnett’s uncle was killed when he was a boy in a duel for a maid’s honor, and his grandfather killed a man to win over his grandmother. Shattering the mirror will release the fae, which must then be killed or bargained with to release everyone from its glamour.