Krayz started the original thread in here;
http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=118750.0I started reboot thread where I collected bunch of players, but overtime the matron mothers became unreliable to post and soon I NPC one, then two and then all three matron mothers and it drained me off juice to keep posts daily. So reboot is in here;
http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=120586.0Now, we seek brand new players and some old players roll new characthers (which must be posted in here or in OOC thread of the game). Game idea is basically that you roleplay as inhabitants of drow city of Erelhei Cinlu in sandbox setting (mostly drow but can give expectional chars opening but we want keep this game drow focused so no more than 1/5 players can be non-drow). We originally had multiple matron mothers but we decided for now we place all players under rule of a single house and single PC controlled matron mother (with few openings for freelancers and independant drows who work outside the house in merc fashion or run a business). So matron mother candidates must be able post daily for long term! Or very least consistenly once every 48 hours. First page of OOC thread have some house rules how seduction/willbreaking works (those interested on those things) and also posting format.
OOC thread
Erelhei-CinluHistory
Vault of the DrowHouse Eilservs was long the most powerful of Erelhei-Cinlu's noble houses, and long believed that the city should be ruled by a single queen of their house. When the other noble houses allied against the Eilservs to prevent this from happening, the Eilservs renounced the worship of the demon queen Lolth, turning instead to an Elder Elemental God. They then attempted to establish a puppet kingdom in the surface world dedicated to the worship of their new deity, hoping this would bring them enough power that their claims to supreme power in the Vault could no longer be denied. This scheme was thwarted by a band of adventurers.
The same adventuring party,with numerous allies, then entered the Vault itself and assaulted the Eilservs estates and the Great Fane of Lolth itself. In the aftermath the Eilservs were ruined, their wealth and power shattered, and vengeful priestesses of Lolth turned on them to exile what remained. Many fled to the lesser drow city of Angrimm, which was subsequently overrun by the vampire spawns by a female drow vampire countess known as De'lilyth.
The Priestess WarsBack in the city, the remaining noble houses squabbled for dominance. The Tormtor and Kilsek houses were the chief claimants, and the Tormtor elected to reject Lolth and embrace the worship of Kiaransalee to challenge the Kilsek's claim that their long devotion to Lolth had earned them the right to supremacy. The houses of Everhate and Aleval allied with the Tormtor, as did a group of extraplanar githyanki. With the Kilsek faction was aligned the houses of Despana, Noquar, Godeep, as well as the illithids who naturally opposed their githyanki enemies (most likely these were the illithids of nearby Dra-Mur-Shou).
As chaos and savage battles overtook the Vault, hundreds of drow died, as did hundreds of their mercenaries. Conflict lasted two centuries.
The war was finally ended after Eclavdra abased herself before Lolth and underwent a horrible punishment to prove herself. Surviving unmarred, she made a pact with her goddess whose nature remains obscure, but evidently involved seducing and betraying the demon lord Graz'zt. In reward, Lolth intervened personally to end the war. Though turning her concentration to this conflict cost the Demon Queen of Spiders her two
promising holdings in the surface, the war was ended definitively. House Eilserv was reinstated in power and House Kilsek was banished, replaced with House Archwinter who took over ghetto of the dead by House Eilserv blessing after arise of the rather unique case of matron mother who had single night slaugthered all siblings and own mother since she was send to be sacrificed by Lolth. Leaving no doubt that Lolth had been enraged wrong judgement call by former matron mother of Archwinter.
Most recently, House Lice-Drilloth has risen to power by exterminating the last of House Everhate by using army of spiders and handful driders. Also, House Shi'quos was displaced (destroyed) by the up-and-coming House d'Szeossen by using rather nefarious means, such as assassination and extortion, along with leveling accusations of treason.
The drow of Erelhei-Cinlu have gained a certain perspective from these tumultuous events, replacing overt military schemes with more subtle scheming, at least for the time being.
GeographyErelhei-Cinlu lies in a huge cavern, over six miles long and nearly as wide, beneath the Hellfurnaces known as the Vault (also known as the Vault of the Drow). A huge chunk of turnkeoite on the ceiling of the Vault gives the appearance of an alien moon, whilst much smaller deposits of other exotic minerals give one the impression of an starry night sky.
Major bodies of water within the Vault include the Pitchy Flow, the Weeping Spring that flows north and west into it, and the Mere of Glooms in the midst of the Weeping Spring.
Much of the Vault is filled with forests of lichens, crystalline growths, and fungi. Merchant estates are scattered south of the city, as are fortresses for the male and female orders of warriors. The city itself is built on the southern bank of the Pitchy Flow in the northern corner of the Vault. A single structure, the Flying Bridge, connects Erelhei-Cinlu with the other side of the Pitchy Flow. Across the river is a plateau containing the estates of the noble houses, and a tunnel leading to the Great Fane of Lolth.
The city of Erelhei-Cinlu is surrounded by a 30-foot-tall wall of seamless polished basalt, interrupted by 40-foot square towers at regular intervals. On the shores of the river, the wall is 50 feet high and without towers; the river wall is the exclusive domain of female soldiers.
The buildings of Erelhei-Cinlu are alien and strangely disturbing to human eyes, its streets narrow and crooked.
PopulationErelhei-Cinlu boasts a population of some 27,000 souls. 40% of these are drow, 15% are troglodytes, 12% are bugbears, 10% are surface dwellers and undead, 4% are mind flayers, 4% are trolls, 4% are yugoloths, 3% are kuo-toans, 3% are demons, 1% are svirfneblin, 1% are orcs, and 1% are githyanki or githzerai.
ReligionThe principal religion of Erelhei-Cinlu is the worship of Lolth, the Spider Queen. Other deities worshiped by the drow of Erelhei-Cinlu include Kiaransali, and Zinzerena. The priesthood of Kiaransali is dominant in the Ghetto of Chattels, though always under the supervision of Lolth's priestesses. The Great Fane of Lolth is located in a separate cavern; worshipers must leave the city and cross the Pitchy Flow and the nobles' estates to reach it. In the Ghetto of Foreigners, along the Street of Lies, the drow permit the temples of deities worshiped by other races, including Nerull, Boccob, Ralishaz, Incabulos, Erythnul, Beltar, Raxivort, Vecna, and Tharizdun, though the temple of Tharizdun is more of a museum than an active place of worship. After the resurrection of Orcus, one of his temples is said to be found here as well.
LanguagesThe drow speak their own dialects of the Elven language mixed with Undercommon, the common tongue of the Underdark. Drow often use Elven and Undercommon interchangeably, creating an effective pidgin language at times. Other races who come to the Vault of the Drow, including duergar, illithids, humans, and others, have their own languages but Undercommon serves as the lingua franca for trade.
TransportationA road leading from nearby tunnels and caverns opens from a fissure in the Vault's southern wall, leading past a fortress called the Black Tower a mile north before reaching the city proper. All non-citizens must stop at the Tower to be inspected; they are given green silk cloaks to indicate that they have been cleared. Foreigners without these cloaks are normally killed or enslaved by the drow in short order.
Cast
House of XXX
Unaligned (meaning outside house employees or independant workers)
Rules and RulingsStarting level: 14, so 12 class levels for drow characthers, including matron mothers.
Starting gold: 150,000
Stats: 32 point buy
Classes/Feats/Allowed Sources: I got wide selection of books so ask what you want use (feats, PrC's and so on). Recommended to have Drows of the Underdark book.
HP: Full in first level and each pairless levels (1, 3, 5 etc). Rest levels you get 75% of your HD as HP. Below is the formula for each HD;
d4=3
d6=4.5
d8=6.5
d10=7.5
d12=8.5
To make it easy to count round down the fractions and after all counting add +3 to your HP total to get the fractions.
Pictures: Here is nice link given by player for drow pic collection (females on top of the page and males at bottom of the page);
http://s749.photobucket.com/albums/xx134/ulthakptah/Drows/?start=allMatron MothersAny female drow who has 6 divine CL to able cast third level divine spells is able to become matron mother (expect few npc cases from Erelhei-Cinlu sourcebook). Unlike other chars matron mothers gain following benefits;
Bonus feats (for free)-Landlord feat from Stronghold Builder's Guide. It gives them 200,000 additional gold to build up their houses (and double up to 50,000gp any own starting gold invested to stronghold). I can assist on the building matter if you lack the book.
-Special house ruled leadership for matron mothers in below;
Drow Matron
Prerequisites: Drow female, able to cast 3rd level divine spells, GM's permission
Benefits: the character is the Matron of a drow noble House. She is the leader of a family of powerful drow nobles, and has a considerable following of commoners beneath her. This feat works almost identically to Leadership, only with adaptations suitable for a drow matron. Firstly, for the purposes of this feat, the character's Leadership score gains a +5 modifier. Secondly, there are no penalties to one's leadership score for Aloofness, Cruelty, Causing the Death of Followers, or having a Familiar, Animal Companion, etc (note that killing cohorts still brings penalties). Thirdly, all of the numbers on the table for Followers are multiplied by 10, but with stipulations on the Followers selected.
1st and 2nd level: These followers are required to be slaves of the following species; orcs, goblinoids, or other suitable species. They are not willing followers, and thus there are special penalties; they must be locked up unless under the eye of a follower of 3rd level or higher, or else they will flee and be lost until replaced.
3rd level and up: These followers must be drow (see Exception below), whether they are warriors, mages, or lesser priestesses. The highest two levels of followers must be devoted to the Matron's family, in the form of daughters, sons, nephews, nieces, brothers, sisters, etc.
Exception: Up to one plus Charisma modifier followers may instead be chosen from a likely retainer taken on by a drow Matron (GM's judgement), so long as its effective level fits within the total followers available (Note: these special followers can be chosen from the top two levels, despite those normally being reserved for family).
The Matron's cohort must be a male drow, who serves as her patron, unless a PC patron is chosen, in which case the cohort simply fills a role as a high-level follower.
The way how I measure how each house gains income is this; each matron of the house chooses 1 major source of income and chooses two secondary ones. No other house can share the major source of other house (that house holds monopoly in said business). But they can share secondary sources of income (meaning can select same secondary businesses). The way how it is handled is found in DMG II pg180; business management.
It means I tailor make if need be, a business which has one major skill related to it with two secondary skills (which mostly give bonus to business check). You take 10 with major skill and you must get 25 to get no loss of a income. If you go over that you gain profit. Now the list in DMG II is quite small and meaning just one business. But when drow house runs a business they run multiple shops, taverns and factories. So their income goes following; their major income has 1,000% bigger numbers and secondary have 100% bigger numbers.
The exact profit depends is the selected business high, medium or low in risk chances. Example if you take low risk chance business as major business, the DMG II shows that each point over 25 in the business roll you gain as 10gp each point. But as house major business you gain 10,000gp instead per point past 25. The business roll is done once per month and also you get business related event rolled by the GM (high risk business gets two event rolls). If your check goes under 25, you loose that said amount of coin from the house (there are bad consequences if your unable to pay the fine).
If some matron mother does not have DMG II I can explain it more thorough fashion in a PM where I can explain all factors which improve and reduce the business roll. However know that if you select example weapon industry as major business, having high ranks in craft:weaponcrafting would be major skill and so having high as possible rank/modifier in said skill helps.
