Sunday, December 22, 2013

The Gills Of Freeport


We're running a Fate of Freeport adventure at Con of the North this February, so I have been thinking about the setting a bit. One thing we know about Freeport is that it sits on a number of peridimensional Tidal Pools, interdimensional Nexus Points, and Weak Points between worlds. While the overall level of development in Freeport is similar to Early Modern Europe, multiple races (i.e., species-beings), make their home here, and the presence of odd or unusual races and peoples rarely raises an eyebrow. 

So as the locals say, "The Gills of Freeport are porous." Here is a 1d6-1d6 table representing some of the most common planar crossroads that may be open around the city (and in the surrounding lagoons) at any given time. I plan to use this table at least once in my convention game.


The Gills of Freeport Table

Roll 1d6-1d6 and consult the results below.
  • -5: At night, a patch of seaweed that clings to one of the prison Hulks lurking at the far edge of Freeport Bay extends deep inside the cavernous and deadly sea-labyrinth that guards the port of Imrryr, the Dreaming City.
  • -4: A secret stairwell in a salon frequented by students and rakes in the alchemist's haven of 17th Century Oxford opens onto a wine cellar of a similar establishment in the Freeport neighborhood of Cluster.
  • -3: The privy behind a gambling den in Freeport is contiguous with one behind a counting house in 17th Century Amsterdam.
  • -2: Weak points in the sewers under Freeport open into the much more extensive sewer and tunnel systems under the fortified town of Wermspittle. Due to inimical incursions of many different kinds (liquesent, rugose, fungular), Freeport is considering creating its own Sewer Militia patterned after that in Wermspittle.
  • -1: A dockside warehouse in Freeport opens into a similar structure in Haida Pakalla on the Southern Continent of Tekumel. The warehouse stinks and is filled with the miasma of dozens of Ahoggya stevedores who are working the docks of Freeport. Conflicts with Freeport's other stevedores are sure to erupt.
  • 0:  Nearby waters open into the Laguna de Terminos near the Mayan free port of Xicalango in the Yucatan.
  • +1: A pier in the harbor of Freeport opens onto a pier in the pirate town of Port Royal in Jamaica.
  • +2: A sail-mending house in Freeport opens directly into a similar establishment in the Arab city Basra, home of Sinbad the Sailor.
  • +4: A ladder running between the third and fourth floors of the lighthouse of Freeport bleeds into an external ladderwork on the airship mooring mast in the Lao royal steam city of Lan Xang. Everything  there is more advanced - even without magic.
  • +5: The Widow of Zheng is a miniscule volcanic island peak in the Serpent's Teeth. When the water around the peak begins to bubble and percolate, one the many terrible pirate fleets of the South China Sea can pass through a Sea Gate into Freeport Bay.

2 comments:

  1. Cool. Gaiman (and maybe Chesterton before him) calls these sorts of places "soft places."

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  2. Thanks! The list could be longer, but I just picked a few spaces I really like. Wondering if any of those South China Seas pirates have a Roman robot in their holds...

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