Author Topic: Inside Mount Belnos  (Read 3565 times)

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Offline janpmueller

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Inside Mount Belnos
« on: March 21, 2009, 05:14:23 AM »
Hi everyone,

in a campaign of mine, players are right now entering the volcano Mount Belnos to meet up with a dubious group - seemed like a good place for such a gathering. Seeing the Belynar map, there is a palace on the east side of the volcano crater, and a bridge which seems to be further up, connecting two buildings of unclear use.

I'd be interested in your ideas what these buildings are. This is not about canon, but more about interesting ideas about the city. I tend to think the palace is a dwarven palace from when the dwarves helped build Belynar, but OTOH, their main base was Blackflame, and they probably had royal roads to take them home in the evenings... no use for a temple at the construction site.
The other likely candidates are, of course, Cyrads and Narsin, the latter being a bit more probable because they are said to have extended the underground city and worked with strange lights.

Apart from who built it, what kind of a palace would be built where it's dark most of the time? There wouldn't be a nice garden, and few would like to stroll around in a place like that (apart from dwarves). Why build a palace (as in: very beautiful house) were few can enjoy it?

The bridge has built by the Cyrads and modified by the Narsin, but what was its use? Is it a shortcut to reach the northern part of the city? Would anybody really walk all the way up the mountain instead of around? Even it it were shorter, it would be a hard walk. Or is there something in the buildings connected, and while you can reach one just like that, you need the bridge to reach the other? If that is the case, what kind of a place would that have to be, given that it's obviously meant to be hard to reach...?

Anybody interested to join in these musings? :)
"What's in the box?" - "Pain."

Offline Arioch

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Re: Inside Mount Belnos
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2009, 09:10:17 AM »
Apart from who built it, what kind of a palace would be built where it's dark most of the time? There wouldn't be a nice garden, and few would like to stroll around in a place like that (apart from dwarves). Why build a palace (as in: very beautiful house) were few can enjoy it?

The bridge has built by the Cyrads and modified by the Narsin, but what was its use? Is it a shortcut to reach the northern part of the city? Would anybody really walk all the way up the mountain instead of around? Even it it were shorter, it would be a hard walk. Or is there something in the buildings connected, and while you can reach one just like that, you need the bridge to reach the other? If that is the case, what kind of a place would that have to be, given that it's obviously meant to be hard to reach...?

I think that the palace was built there for symbolical reasons rather than pratical ones:
- it's built high above any other dwelling in Belynar: it was clearly occupied by someone really important, who wanted to underline his social position.
- it's hard to reach, you have to climb (or fly) to the top of the mountain, and the only access seems to be by the "narrow bridge" (see also image below, it shows what I think is the way to the palace): again the person dwelling in the palace is trying to underline his importance, you must prove yourself worthy to gain the right to see him/her.



So probably the palace was home of the rulers or the high priests/mages of Belynar (and it's probably guarded by various golems, constructs, etc...)
I suppose a magician might, he admitted, but a gentleman never could.

Offline Rasyr-Mjolnir

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Re: Inside Mount Belnos
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2009, 06:59:09 AM »
Belnos contains a lot of interior tunnels. There is actually a lot more of the city within the mountain than on it. The bridge actually is nothing more than a short-cut for those inside to get from one side of the interior to the other.

Also, the bridge is NOT at the top of the mountain, it is down inside the cone. The bridge is approximately at the same level as the bath house on the outside of the mountain.

Offline janpmueller

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Re: Inside Mount Belnos
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2009, 10:13:23 AM »
Okay, great, we have an interior city, supposedly Narsin-built a few centuries ago. The magical lighting (rules, p. 143) will most probably not be functional anymore, either because the Devastation drained the place of its mana, or just because it's so long ago. The restoration by the Ritual of Estrousal may have helped some illumination to return, I imagine, giving the underground city an eery feel, amplified by the intimidating architecture of the Narsin and the statues of great mages.

Arioch, I'll go with your idea of a path between the southern end of the bridge an the palace, but probably on this underground path there will be wide caverns containing the houses of the rich and powerful, being able to build their houses near the palace. That could also mean that riches and magical items of great power could be hidden in some of these houses... This already adds a lot of flavor, thank you two for your replies!

Now, I'm still wondering/ inventing what kind of palace that is. Would it be a religious place for the Narsin to wander to, or  would it be a palace of one of the most powerful among them? I suppose it would be the ladder, bowing to a deity doesn't seem to fit the Narsin very well. In this palace then, luxury would be in abundance. Rotten expensive carpets, broken expensice paintings... many some magical luxury/ showing-off like floating stairs leading to certain areas, enchanted doors that open by themselves, etc. etc...
Most won't work, given the devastation, but maybe some bits still do, or partly do, like one of the enchanted door squeaking every once in a while as it still tries in vain to open to a presence that seized to be centuries ago.

:)
"What's in the box?" - "Pain."

Offline Rasyr-Mjolnir

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Re: Inside Mount Belnos
« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2009, 10:40:30 AM »
The underground portion was built by the Cyrads -- There are bits in the book (and in the Gazetteer) that confirm this -
(click to show/hide)

Offline Arioch

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Re: Inside Mount Belnos
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2009, 08:32:29 PM »
The underground portion was built by the Cyrads -- There are bits in the book (and in the Gazetteer) that confirm this -
(click to show/hide)

Cool!  ;D
I suppose a magician might, he admitted, but a gentleman never could.