The World of King of Kings: The Kingdom of the Straits

Just like with my last post, it has also been more than a year since my last King of Kings worldbuilding post! I won't bore y'all with a rehashing of my intentions for the series; this is the second part in a hopefully multi-part series of posts about various parts of the world of King of Kings, told primarily through rumors, character backgrounds, random encounters, and the like. Check out the previous World of King of Kings post for a rundown on the general historical timeline of the setting and stuff about the Enlightened Empire, the core setting of the campaign!

 

From the Church of Abreha wa Atsbeha, near Wukro, East Tigray, Ethiopia

A map of the Kingdom of the Straits, with south on top.

THE KINGDOM OF THE STRAITS

Situated to the southwest of the Enlightened Empire is the commercially powerful Kingdom of the Straits, so called because it stands astride three points which control the flow of east-west trade. The Kingdom's capital, She-ako, abides among looming obelisks in the heat of the southern continent, although its influence reaches much farther. The wise and magnanimous kings of She-ako are rich off of trade, and patronize the only bank which loans to Shahanistanis, Gnostic Elves, and Dog-Headed Men alike. It was this grand bank that, along with the kingdom's fleet of Frogling-operated sea vessels, bailed out the Enlightened Empire during the Fifty Years' Crisis (when amazons, dog-headed men, and rebels almost tore the Empire apart).

Due to its geography, the Kingdom of the Straits can be neatly divided into three parts. The Kingdom's mainland stretches from windy highlands (the old heartland, where the capital is located) down to the sweltering lowlands, where the Kingdom's two main rivers empty into the sea. Across from the mainland is the arid peninsular province, rich in frankincense, myrrh, and cinnamon. This was its own independent kingdom centuries ago, before one of the kings of She-ako invaded and razed its capital, Hudh, to the ground. The last of the Kingdom's territories is the small settlement of Kago on the heavily forested Isle of the Moon, little more than a trading outpost for tropical fruits and pygmy elephants.

 

Aksumite governor and Arabian troops, Angus McBride

RUMORS ABOUT THE STRAITS

Roll 1d12:

1: In the markets of New Hudh and elsewhere, a message is preached aloud and whispered at night: the last of Hudh's ancient kings still lives, and his return will usher in a millennium of independence for the peninsula. 

2: Beyond the southern mountain passes dwells the man-eating, four-eyed, ax-headed ogre Bulgu. The country is defended from him by a great warrior that wields stelae as if they were clubs.

3: A frogling sorcerer from She-ako has cast a spell on select coins from the grand bank that lets him see through the drachmae as if they were eyes. Only small signs, the barest of distinct notches, will show which coins are ensorcelled.

4: In the highlands around She-ako, every blacksmith in every town can transform into a hyena simply by biting his metalworking tongs.

5:  There is a frogling sailor who moors in the port of Kago with a ship made of banana peels, propelled by fruit flies. To some he is kindly despite his gross exterior, to others he is a rapacious pirate.

6: Dwelling in the mountainous highlands are emaciated ants with the faces of lions.

7: The southern amazons are engaged in a jungle war with the merchant princes in Kago. They burst out of tunnels dug beneath the undergrowth.

8: The elephants from the Kingdom of the Straits are the wisest of elephants, baptizing themselves in rivers and performing funerals for their dead. However, they are cursed, because they worship the moon.

9: Ostrich-hunters will trick these anxious birds by bending over and holding up an arm in imitation of the ostrich's silhouette, holding their spear between their toes until it is time to strike.

10: The bank of She-ako puts out bounties for those who have debased or defaced the currency; punching a hole through a coin is a death sentence.

11: Laughing leucrottas, with reddish fur, cloven hooves, and a single solid flat tooth on bottom and top jaw, lurk in the highlands. They compete with ghuls for corpseflesh, which they masticate into a paste. The King of Kings has been seeking out one to add to his menagerie.

12: A fisher-witch of the lowlands rides on twin crocodiles, one foot on each, as she evades the soldiers of the king that keep peace in the river deltas.

 

Statue of the Occulted King (in reality, Dhamar'aliy Yuhbabirr of the Himyarite Kingdom of Yemen)

CHARACTER BACKGROUNDS FROM THE STRAITS

Roll 1d10 or pick (in parentheses are the starting items afforded by the background)
1: Abandoned Ambassador (letter of introduction, a tattered and stained gabi, a walking stick, a gold and pearl memento of home)
2: Agent of the Occulted King (eyes that glance back and forth, a quiet whisper, a silver icon of the Occulted King's hand, a curved jambiya dagger)
3: Dhow Sailor (a dhow, your sea legs, 40' of rope, a short dagger)
4: Disgraced Banker (stolen lockbox with 30 coins in it (1 drachm each), one ear cut off, a great sense of appraisal)
5: Elephant Wrangler (A baby elephant, 60' of rope, 2 spears, experience grappling large animals)
6: Exiled Moneyer (a defaced coin on a string, a crucible for melting metal, a hammer and anvil die, quick feet)
7: Incense Harvester (a thick cloth used for climbing trees, a hammer and scraping tool, thick calluses, a hunk of sweet-smelling resin)
8: Orator of the Occulted King (a scroll of propaganda poetry, a silver tongue, a silver icon of the Occulted King's eye, a curved jambiya dagger)
9: Spice Merchant (a crate of cinnamon, a laboring servant, a set of scales)
10: Stele Carver (a hammer and chisel, extensive construction experience and knowledge of stone, a cowrie-shell necklace declaring your importance)

Fallen obelisk, more standing in the background, Aksum, Ethiopia

TREASURES FROM THE STRAITS

Roll 1d10 or pick:

1: Silver filigreed censer, filled with frankincense.

2: Specialized mancatcher, used by the march-rangers of the northern borderlands to ensnare headless man-eaters whose faces are in their chests. Its wider grip grabs them at the waist.

3: Jambiya dagger in a jewel-encrusted sheath.

4: Fan made from ostrich feathers.

5: Statuette of a previous king of She-ako carved from elephant ivory, set into an ebony base.

6: Wooden helmet that covers the neck and head, with a visor of ivory that can be lowered to block the gaze of the dreadful catoblepas.

7: Amphora with swirling designs, filled with hundreds of coins.

8: Silver necklace with a small walnut shell, complete with hinge and lock; when the walnut locket is opened, it contains a lock of the Occulted King's hair.

9: A gold statuette of a crocodile with a woman sitting atop it.

10: A stone chest full of cinnamon; but be careful! There is a 2-in-6 chance the cinnamon has been adulterated with wood shavings!

Dawit II, emperor of Ethiopia 1507-1540 (its kinda tough to find Ethiopian pictures contemporary with late antiquity unfortunately)

EMBASSY FROM THE STRAITS

The embassy from the straits is a potential random encounter (namely a subtype of the "nobles and veterans" encounter type).

Composition of the embassy:

The Ambassador: as a 1+1 HD noble. Carrying a letter of introduction that declares their stated purpose (roll on the table below). Wields a gold and silver staff topped with a wooden carving of the local god of She-ako.

2d6 slaves.

1d6 lesser ambassadorial staff.

1d3 cooks.

1d3 merchants.

1 augur trained in ornithomancy.

2d6+1 guards (as veterans).

Horses and mules enough for all the above and to transport all the embassy's food, supplies, and any gifts or tribute they bring with them.

The embassy's stated purpose:

Roll 1d6:

1: Summoned on behalf of the satrap to observe local games (and do some trade-related dealings on the side).

2: Investigating rumors of activity by partisans of the Occulted King in the satrapy.

3: Delivering a bank loan (transported in amphorae and lockboxes) to a noble client.

4: Negotiations with a Gnostic Elf merchant (the embassy has gotten lost, in no small part due to the chaos on the border between the ever-warring Gnostic Elves and the Enlightened Empire).

5: Giving tribute to the Kanarang in recognition of his essential role in keeping the lands of civilization safe from the barbarous Land of Darkness.

6: The embassy is more or less autonomous, the ambassador having received a vision in a dream telling him to go north.

The embassy will have with it treasure and tribute, including:

1d3 items from the above treasure list.

4d6x10 She-ako coins (worth 1 drachm each)

Animal skins (incl. elephant, lion, catoblepas, ape, and ostrich feathers) collectively worth 2d6x20 drachmae

Crates of cinnamon, sesame, frankincense, and myrrh worth 500 drachmae or more.

The King of She-ako confronting notables of Hudh... or, in reality, Negus Najashi (possibly the king Armah) refusing the request by the Quraysh to send back the Muslims who emigrated to Ethiopia back to Mecca (from a 14th century manuscript by Rashid ad-Din Hamadani)

Much later than the period I usually take inspiration from, but this was too cool to not include: a plaque depicting a lion from a Zagwe dynasty era church, originally manufactured in southwest India!

Goin' Through the Fiend Folio Part 14 (Retriever to Sheet Phantom)

Alright, back to reviewing every monster in the Fiend Folio, a classic series on this blog that... jeeze louise, the last time I posted one of these was more than a year ago! Uh, my bad. I already talked about why I wasn't so active on the blog in a post back in May, but like, all that goes double for just never getting around to reviewing the FF again. Anyway, here's the first installment in the Goin' Through the Fiend Folio series, here's the last installment, etc etc, let's pick up where we left off!

Retriever

★★★☆☆

Nasty, bloody, and real effective, the retriever is a certified Fiend Folio classic! Six-eyed (with four different eye-rays that cast fire, cold, lightning, and a transmutation spell!) and four-bladed spider-things, constructed by the demon-lord Demogorgon, built in such a way that they "strike maximum terror into their victims." In this description, Demogorgon comes out sounding like a mad scientist of some sort, like a Dr. Frankenstein or a Yakub, except instead of making the white devil race, he made a bunch of evil robot spiders. Or, well, me calling them robots is maybe projecting back onto them somewhat. You see, I was first introduced to the retriever in the 4e Monster Manual 2, the very first D&D book I ever owned, before I even knew what D&D really was! I think I've mentioned this on the blog before, albeit briefly; I basically treated it as a bestiary that communicated an implied setting all its own, with no connection to anything else. And I loved the retriever in the MM2. 

 

You won't hear me say this often, but I actually prefer the version of the monster in 4e than I do here in the AD&D Fiend Folio. This is doubly shocking to me because the FF retriever has art by my favorite Russ Nicholson, with his grotty style bringing a slimy hairy vibe to the original retriever's illustration. And I love grotty, slimy, hairy beasties; but the sleek, explicitly robotic design on the 4e retriever stands out so starkly against monster other demonic entities, giving it a quality almost similar to the smooth slicked-back look of Giger's xenomorph design. Mechanically, the two aren't actually that different; both have four eye rays (though the 4e retriever has each ray pairing a damage type and a lasting effect, so an acid spray that also blinds the target, a thunder-ray (whatever that is) that stuns the target, etc.), both have bladed claws they make melee attacks with, etc.; the major differences are that the AD&D retriever has a fear effect that causes all characters of level 5 or less, or all monsters of HD 6 or less, to save or flee, and that the 4e retriever has a self-healing ability, a "retrieve" ability that grabs a target on a failed save, and "Unerring Accuracy," which allows it to TELEPORT to the approximate location of a given target. That is so cool, and means that the retriever actually, y'know, retrieves; it is a creation given a particular target to teleport to, grab, and then disappear (tho there's a "cooldown" on its unerring accuracy ability). I don't like 4e mechanically, but this retriever that actually retrieves is a much more compelling creature than Dr. Demogorgon's fucked up and evil spider (as much as I love Dr. Demogorgon's creation; one of the more boring elements of the 4e retriever is that it isn't related to any particular demon, but just to "the primordials" in general).

 

 

The 4e MM2 retriever

The revenant in COMBAT

Revenant

★★☆☆☆

This creature has pretty much the same problem as the penanngalan from our last entry: a way too long description that prescribes one particular narrative arc of dealing with it. The revenant (another example of AD&D statting up every single synonym for an undead monster as its own separate entity) takes up a full page and some change to more or less just describe an animated corpse motivated by vengeance against whoever killed it, ceaselessly seeking out its murderer and their associates; on top of that, it cannot be killed by any means except fire, and its limbs will continue to attack even after being severed, and will reattach themselves if they are able to. There you go! Doesn't need a full page of description! But, of course, they have to go into what specific ability scores someone must have to become a revenant when killed, the fact that its immune to turn undead (for the reason that it isn't evil but instead is neutral? Didn't know a cleric's turn undead only works against evil undead, apparently), the fact that it will only attack by strangulation not with weapons, its immunities, eye-based fear ability, when it will hunt down the killer's associates, and how it doesn't even have to be the body of the person killed (very weird and arbitrary decision). This is pretty clearly intended to be a punishment for murder-happy players, unceasingly hunting down the party but with abilities that counteract most strategies players would use to combat the undead. A murder victim hunting down their killer from beyond the grave is incredibly compelling, but the execution here is clunky and overwrought. Love the two Russ Nicholson illustrations they gave it though.

Rothé

★★☆☆☆

Shaggy-furred bovines that live underground. That's about it. They're smaller (only 4 feet tall), presumably as an adaptation for their subterranean environs, but other than that they are little more than cows or yaks. I like the image of underground bovines, but I think I would rather just use normal cows or some kind of explicitly troglobitic cow, rather than this bespoke fictional species. Just kinda meh. 

 

Sandman
★★★☆☆
"The sandman's name describes it exactly"-- I have to appreciate a monster description that opens with that! Mysterious humanoids made from sand that make all who come within 20 feet (or who touch them) very very sleepy. They aren't hostile, only acting to forcibly remove someone asleep under their power if they happen to be in the sandman's lair. Simple but effective! I think I would want one more incongruous weird element to add some depth; as it is right now, the sandman is little more than a word-association game between the fairy tale sandman and literal sand. 

The sandman is our first Fiend Factory creature in this post! The original Factory sandman is more or less the same, just left a bit vaguer in terms of mechanics; though it is also noted that the sandman will attack players at least until they fall asleep, whereas the Folio description doesn't mention attacks on players (though perhaps its assumed). Don Turnbull, in his note on the monster, remarks that the sleep effect means defenseless players left open to wandering monster checks! That's such a good thing to point out; a generally non-hostile creature that incapacitates the players and leaves them open to wandering monsters is always a good thing to have in the dungeon. He also asks why the AC is so high, and y'know thats a good question, I hadn't noticed that: both the Factory and Folio versions of the sandman have AC 3, one point less than plate and shield. Also, the illustration is different, the Factory sandman being much more indistinct, leaning over into a crumbling limp, with "hair" caught in the wind, while the Folio sandman is just a frowning dude done in a stippled style.

Scarecrow
★★★☆☆
It's a scarecrow! The opening line to the sandman's description could work just as well here. Everybody loves a good spooky scarecrow. These are magical constructs that "always... appear evil and of malign intent," and they have turnips and (based on the illustration) gourds for heads. The one weird thing is that the scarecrow has a charm effect that causes the viewer to be stand shock still, as if under the effect of a hold person spell, out of "fascination." Don't know how I feel about that effect, its pretty basic and incongruous but not really in an interesting way. Nothing much else to say, although gotta shout out another great Russ Nicholson illustration!

Screaming Devilkin
★★★☆☆
Despite appearances, not actually a demon or devil, but simply a mundane creature that looks like one. The description specifically compares screaming devilkin to mephits, although its illustration is much more like a chubby little devil baby than the more gremlinesque mephits. Always hostile, always attacks (boring!!), although it attacks with a barbed tail which is always fun. More notably, the screaming devilkin, well, screams! It will constantly scream in the presence of other living creatures, and its screaming is so loud that conversations can't be heard through it and all those in the range of the screaming have to make a save to even just attack or cast a spell. Not the worst power to have, although it's more or less the same thing that the classic Monster Manual monster the shrieker has; I definitely prefer weird screaming mushrooms to weird screaming devil babies.

Shadow Demon
★☆☆☆☆
Incredibly boring. Maybe doesn't quite deserve a 1 star, because it is honestly usable mechanics-wise, but conceptually and mechanically its just boring. "The essence of a demon imprisoned in the form of a shadow," whatever that means; ultimately, it just means that its a souped up alternative to the shadow from the Monster Manual, with a more typical sorta-edgy demon silhouette complete with bat wings and an evil glare. It is more powerful in darkness and weaker in light (yawn! who could've seen that coming!), can cast the darkness spell, has a strong jump because of its wings but can't fly, etc. And it takes up half a page of description to basically say everything that someone would just guess from "shadow but with more magic powers." Very low conceptual density!

Sheet Phantom and Sheet Ghoul
★★★★★
YEAH I'M GIVING THE SHEET PHANTOM FIVE STARS SO WHAT!!! This is one of those classic Fiend Folio monsters that everyone loves to crack jokes about and say is stupid, but that's because everyone hates IMAGINATION and the horror that can come from something incongruous or somewhat goofy. These two monsters are actually listed in reverse order from how I have them here, just due to the alphabetical order, but the sheet phantom is the more important of the two. Sheet phantoms are wraithlike undead that appear as rectangular pieces of cloth (translucent and ghostly? The exact appearance of the rectangle is unclear in the text, just the measurement) and crawl up onto ceilings to drop down on their victims, suffocating them until they perish and rise anew as a sheet ghoul. The description for the sheet ghoul doesn't mention that the sheet phantom hangs on the ghoul, but many later illustrations (see below) depict it that way. Sheet ghouls don't have the paralysis powers of the ghoul, but in exchange they can shoot acid from their nostrils!!!! I love that so much!! Why does the wraithlike sheet phantom cause its undead thralls to snort acid? It feels so gnarly, and like maybe it would slowly corrode and destroy the sheet ghoul as it uses the attack; maybe a sheet ghoul under a sheet phantom's thrall for long enough has a dripping, melting hole in the center of its face where its nose once was, corroded away by its acidic snot. The imagery of the sheet phantom's suffocating attack is also delightfully horrid; I can't help but love the pathetic horror of someone flailing on the ground as they are choked to death by a piece of cloth. I love every single thing about the sheet phantom, this is a sleeper hit!!! The description does note how similar the sheet phantom is to some of AD&D's similar drop-attacking monsters, namely the Lurker Above, a similarly maligned creature from the Monster Manual that I just love (and recently mentioned in the description for my Man-Mimic Lizard!); it even notes the possibility that the sheet phantom is in fact an undead Lurker Above, which is pretty thought-provoking (although I don't know how much it adds to the funny creepiness of the sheet phantom itself).

Here's the illustration from the 2e Monstrous Manual Compendium Fiend Folio; I think the sheet phantom ought to be bigger than that, but I love the image of it hanging on the sheet ghoul's head like that.

That's all for now! The letter S also just so happens to be one of the most monsterful letters in the Folio, so we will be picking up where we left off next time, with the Shocker and, more notably, all the types of Slaad! Stay tuned!