The player characters met in an ancient graveyard occupying the salt flats of a forgotten corner of a fire swept world. Each had a secret they swore they would never share, information about the long lost crypt of a dead sky pirate that once traversed the Rust and Sun Wastes in a ship fueled by the very fire that scorched the planet into the desert it was. None of them trusted each other. How could they?
A party of scavengers arrived on the backs of reptilian birds, two legged with sweet faces and bulging eyes. Weapons were drawn. Obsidian, stone, bone, stinger. Nothing made of metal more complex than copper. Armor made from scavenged hide and insect carapace. The fight ended quickly. No one wanders the wastes unable to care for themselves.
But what would this ragtag band find in the depths of that ancient pirate’s crypt? The usual horrors that the world has to offer. Forgotten technology turned to life by magic. Sand Ghosts trapped in an endless labyrinth of darkness, scratching their way along sandy walls. Light Stalkers blinking in and out of perceivable time, hunting those they know carry the gift of magic. An ancient spirit of the long forgotten feywild, perverted and bound to rusted iron junk in a scrapheap of collected memories from a long dead world. Behind all of it, a secret Vault of hidden elemental power that entices the scavengers of the world with promises of splendor.
Sand and Rust is a unique setting created for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. My co-writer and I joked one day while watching Mad Max: Fury Road that a D&D setting in an endless desert with punk elves and desert pirates sounded pretty cool. I’m fan of the Dark Sun setting, had been playing a bit too much Fallout: New Vegas at the time, and had just finished reading the Princes of the Apocalypse module from Wizards of the Coast so my brain was primed to generate a world of this exact quality.
We generated a few idea sentences, some explanation paragraphs, and some cool ideas. I’m going to dump them here for all of you to enjoy and hopefully inspire you to like the Sand and Rust setting. This is one of the two unique settings I will be expanding and creating professionally to make widely available to the world so if you enjoy this definitely head toward Patreon to help this dream come true.
Setting: Post-Apocalyptic, Desert Wasteland. There is no water in sight, just seemingly endless dunes, scrubland, and savannah. People have formed small tribal type villages with lively trade routes, since that is the easiest thing to sustain in a harsh environment. Between these villages, run various sand vessels carrying goods and travelers. Good money can be made by quickly traversing the waste, but the risks are many.
An enclosed wasteland of sand and stone dominated by cities on stilts, high plateaus, cities sunk beneath the earth, and wandering nomads navigating the sand seas on striders, skiffs, and flat-bottomed sand skimmers. Caravans haul vegetables, water, spices, and metal between greenhouse monasteries and skyscraper mines. Elemental magic is at its strongest. Water Shamen are prized in their tribes. Windmages pilot the dangerous, primitive sand skiffs. Those with control of the Earth and Sand have plenty of tools to control and Fire is what scorched the land.
Notable aspects of the Sun Wastes:
Greenhouse Monasteries: Adherents to ancient nature gods and goddesses that no longer walk the earth hide away behind high sandstone walls and beneath great domes of glass. Their greenhouses produce the most food and they guard their secrets of production jealously. Templars, crusaders, and knights defend the monks and clerics that work the greenhouses. Villages and trading hubs tend to grow around the Greenhouses. Smaller greenhouses are secreted away in mountain retreats. The leaders of the Greenhouses are called Elders.
Skyscraper mines: Before fire scorched the earth and sand came to cover the land there were buildings tall enough to scrape the sky. Then the earth swallowed and buried them along with the temples, castles, and other great wonders. The tallest of these Skyscrapers sometimes poke out from the sand. Daring individuals run mining operations to dive deep into these towers to locate metal, paper, clothing, and any relics or artifacts they can pull out of the past.
Culture: People have adapted the customs of the once isolated desert cultures to survive in this new world. Resources are scarce, causing many people to take up nomadic lifestyles. Herding has gained popularity, so most things are made of cloth and bone rather than wood and metal.
Villages: Most villages are built up out of the sand on platforms or in cliff sides to ensure that the shifting sands won’t bury them overnight. Others are underground, accessible only by a few poorly mapped access hatches.
Wind Cities: The very largest cities are found atop high plateaus, safe from unrelenting sandstorms and the most dangerous predators that stalk the wastes. Wind Cities make use of windmills to pump water up from deep within the earth to sustain large populations. They grow the cheapest of grains to sustain the largest of populations and they almost always have castes of slaves and gladiators to serve and entertain. Some sell themselves just to have a regular drink of water. No two Wind Cities are the same and no two call the same person ruler. Some titles that might be used: Caesar, Empress, Maharaja, Sultana, Prince, Emir, Archon, Pharoah
Pirates!: One of the many risks that traders encounter is piracy. Poorly protected goods are there for the taking, and the pirate’s life is attractive to many of the disenfranchised. Their vessels tend to be the fastest and the best armed, and the lack of law enforcement in the waste means there is little risk and much potential reward. Other crews ignore the traders and focus on bigger, more dangerous scores. The remnants of civilization live under the sands, if only one is brave enough to go get them. Turning to piracy is a powerful decision in the Sun Wastes. Caravans can opt for speed or security. Rarely both. Secure caravans are slow targets. A good pirate can stalk one for days, perhaps a full week, planning how to deal with siege weapons and hired guards. Fast caravans can’t hire too much security or they’ll cover cross the wastes in time. Enterprising pirates with a fast skiff might be able to take out an unprotected caravan if they’re lucky. Plenty of pirate crews roam the wastes and when they return to their secret caves laden with vegetables and metal they live like kings.
Elemental Cairns: Many magical individuals saw the apocalypse coming. They hoped to escape the effects of unbridled elemental turmoil. The 99 Elemental Cairns were created by 99 enterprising wizards and sorceresses working together to save knowledge. Each experimented to create the perfect Cairn that would preserve their power, knowledge, and lives past the destruction of the world. Some succeeded. Some failed spectacularly. Some preserved the wrong things.
Inspiration: Mad Max, the Bazhir from Song of the Lioness, the sandbending culture in Avatar, also pirates. Fallout. Dark Sun. Apocalyptic Fiction such as Alas Babylon.
Inspiration concepts:
Elf Raiders riding constructs of metal and rust powered by twisted fey spirits (motorcycle raiders)
Goliath Pit Fighters using giant shards of steel as swords, axes with obsidian heads, and maces made from giant bones.
Gunslinger half-orcs serving justice when the law is shown to be corrupt
Tribal cannibals stealing gnome inventors to keep their water pumps working
Dwarven excavators delving deep into the lower levels of a sand submerged skyscraper searching for power crystals, salvageable gold, tempered glass, metal wire, etc.
Genasi shamen braving the deep desert on skiffs made of scrap metal and precious wood, held together and brought to life by the captured, tortured soul of an elemental.
A cleric hurrying to hide an intact book before the attacking hordes of sand ghosts can strike.
Sorcerers in desert robes trying desperately to fend off a fire tornado that threatens their cliffside hovels.
Aarakocra darting in and out of battle in their canyon home to keep a giant from drinking up their oasis.
Fire scorched corpses rising on the side of a desert road to ambush a caravan of elemental rigs.
Makeshift airship pilots hauling miners up to harvest lightning and water from the atmosphere.
Falconers using their trained birds to hunt meaty insects in dusty badlands.
Druids preserving small plants in glass jars tied to their belts and hanging from their necks.
Halfling salvagers selling scrap with junkyard golems serving as their muscle.
Elemental monks with hydroponic monasteries, using their control of the elements to grow plants super-efficiently.
Common Items: Leather, Bone, Sandstone, Glass, Wool, Chitin,
Uncommon: Plants (Most kinds used for dye or medicine), Feathers, Furs
Rare: Metal, Certain Plants, Paper, Gems
Nearly Non-Existent: Certain Metals or Large Quantities of a Metal, Wood, Complete Books
Blade materials: Sharpened Bone, Obsidian Shards,
Arrow materials: Cactus Thorns, Bird Talons, Insect Stingers
Armor materials: Insect Carapace, Spider Silk, Boneplate, Hornmail
Solar Fever: I’ve seen madmen wander the sands with only the skin on their backs. Their shoulders crack from the strain. Their skin blackens and bubbles. Solar Fever at its worst. The tribals sometimes take in these sun pilgrims but most will die and become the Sand Ghosts that haunt the wasteland. The lucky ones will never rise to plague the living again.
Soulburn: We stayed in the ruins too long. Elemental fire permeated the metal, the dust, the rotted wood. Burned gods we breathed the damn stuff in even with our filters on. It hurts so bad to cough but every time I try to breathe I am wracked with them. I’m going to die soon, well before my comrades. Stay away from that cursed place. The ancient cults must have ushered fire into the world there. Burned gods let me die
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