Journey to the Centre of Aerth after Starless Sea
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2022 10:32 am
So I've decided to follow up Sailors on the Starless Sea (Sailors) with #91 Journey to the Centre of Aerth (JCA) and I am keen to hear other peoples' experiences of running the latter.
The Viking Longship from the Sailors will take the PCs directly into the underground river detailed in JCA. This will allow me to skip over the first chapter of JCA (the journey to the remote arctic temple) and speed up the journey to Lost Agartha.
The PCs will have a series of encounters on the boat which, if they successfully negotiate, should take them all the way to the Lost Valley. I'm not interested in depicting a months long journey so it will be a matter of days, driven by the tidal wave and the Viking Ship's magical properties. I might even seed the idea that the ship originated in Lost Agartha and it is finally free to return to its home port, and it does so despite of the PCs efforts.
My PCs are newly 2nd level. I let them take first level after defeating the Bull Headed Beastman in Sailors and then gave them another level after defeating the Chaos Lord. JCA states its designed for 4th level PCs, but it seems to me level settings in DCC RPG are pretty arbitrary, so I am not sure it matters, though I might scale back the challenge level of some of the encounters.
I'm struggling with the latter part of JCA. Agartha is so loosely defined, that I am having trouble imagining it. I do have the supplemental book "The Lost City if Barako", but that's not terribly helpful. I would like to make Agartha a living breathing world, and I want it to have a multitude of different cultures and environs to explore. Since the PCs will, up to that point, not have had any town / village adventures or encounters, I want for Agartha to offer some respite as well as challenges. I want them to be able to carouse in taverns, treat with nobles, establish their reputations. We don't play very frequently and our adventures progress slowly (Sailors took 6 sessions) so inner-Aereth is likely to be the setting of our campaign for at least the next year.
I want to hear how others have described inner-Aerth, how expansive is it? Is it just a collosal cavern with some vague light source overhead, or is it like the inside of an egg-shell world, curving upward seemingly to infinity? I have the old BECM Hollow World books which depict something like the latter, with the molten core acting as a perpetual sun. I like that idea, but it seems a vastly different environment to the one depicted in JCA.
If anyone has written additional material for inner-Aerth or has some advice I would really appreciate anything. I am looking for any inspiration.
The Viking Longship from the Sailors will take the PCs directly into the underground river detailed in JCA. This will allow me to skip over the first chapter of JCA (the journey to the remote arctic temple) and speed up the journey to Lost Agartha.
The PCs will have a series of encounters on the boat which, if they successfully negotiate, should take them all the way to the Lost Valley. I'm not interested in depicting a months long journey so it will be a matter of days, driven by the tidal wave and the Viking Ship's magical properties. I might even seed the idea that the ship originated in Lost Agartha and it is finally free to return to its home port, and it does so despite of the PCs efforts.
My PCs are newly 2nd level. I let them take first level after defeating the Bull Headed Beastman in Sailors and then gave them another level after defeating the Chaos Lord. JCA states its designed for 4th level PCs, but it seems to me level settings in DCC RPG are pretty arbitrary, so I am not sure it matters, though I might scale back the challenge level of some of the encounters.
I'm struggling with the latter part of JCA. Agartha is so loosely defined, that I am having trouble imagining it. I do have the supplemental book "The Lost City if Barako", but that's not terribly helpful. I would like to make Agartha a living breathing world, and I want it to have a multitude of different cultures and environs to explore. Since the PCs will, up to that point, not have had any town / village adventures or encounters, I want for Agartha to offer some respite as well as challenges. I want them to be able to carouse in taverns, treat with nobles, establish their reputations. We don't play very frequently and our adventures progress slowly (Sailors took 6 sessions) so inner-Aereth is likely to be the setting of our campaign for at least the next year.
I want to hear how others have described inner-Aerth, how expansive is it? Is it just a collosal cavern with some vague light source overhead, or is it like the inside of an egg-shell world, curving upward seemingly to infinity? I have the old BECM Hollow World books which depict something like the latter, with the molten core acting as a perpetual sun. I like that idea, but it seems a vastly different environment to the one depicted in JCA.
If anyone has written additional material for inner-Aerth or has some advice I would really appreciate anything. I am looking for any inspiration.