 |
|
Background
Delving
There are basically three levels of Delvers, recreational, amateur and professional. Recreational delvers are people who make their living some other way but then hit the delve on weekends. Generally recreational delves are non-lethal and less dangerous.
Amateurs are making a living as delvers. They aren't really amateurs, but they aren't professionals yet either. Some amateurs have endorsements, but it is rare.
Professionals compete in two major leagues, the Entertainment and the Judicial league. They usually have a team sponsor and many will have individaul sponsors as well. Entertainment delvers do just that, they provide entertainment. Judicial league delvers settle disputes in a manner similar to trial by combat.
At the start of the campaign, the players are recently recruited amateurs. They've been invited to the town of Biskay and are part of a "farm system" for the entertainment league. Their only contact is a "promoter" named Severus.
Severus is an older balding man who is somewhat evasive about his background. He has never identified exactly who he works for and he probably never will. The professional teams are notoriously secretive about up and coming talent. Because of their amateur status, they have no written agreement with Severus, but have agreed to take his advice on things, which he offers freely.
The Delves
Recreational delves are often little more than elaborately constructed mazes with perhaps a few small traps and a half-starved animal or two as opposition. They tend to be poorly designed and often lack cohesion. There are no famous recreational Delvemasters.
Amateur delves are more like true dungeons, with rooms, puzzles, and serious opponents. Most are freeform, but there are a handful of 'standard' delves which Amateurs will sometimes run in order to establish records and credentials. Some amateur delvemasters gain notoriety but they are often snapped up by the professional leagues.
Professional delves are like amateur delves only bigger, better equipped and more dangerous.
Zarquin
The delves will take place in the City of Zarquin, a former neutral city in the middle of a barren wasteland that was used as a hireing ground for "adventurers" during the mage wars and was famed as a place to go to spend your wealth on women, drink, gambling and equipment. Since the start of the Delves as both a means of settleing political disputes and entertainment, Zarquin has become a "Las Vegas" sort of place with Delves, pit fights, Gladiator combats, Deathball and other combat sports as well as the center for the gambling on Delves on a global scale.
In place on one ruleing Wizard, Zarquin is ruled by a cartel of mages with no interest in running a country and a series of underling who plot against each other and take care of the day to day buisness.
Player will be housed in a former Inn called the Wine Cellar. The Inn had been built in a steep ravine below a fancy eatery, until it burned down and replaced by a private estate.
The Inn is a rambling multi-story building built alongside a angular water powered lift stops for 5 minutes each hour in front in the inn.
The city of Zarquin was once the capital of a small nation, which was destroyed by a earthquake spell near the end of the Mage wars. The spell split the city up with huge fissures, which rivaled the Grand Canyon and destroyed a basin sea, flooding the countryside with salt water before flowing back to form the shallow sea. A single river still flows through Zarquin down to the Shallow Sea, the River Zaier is broken up with waterwheels and dams, and channeled off to rice patties and fish weirs. Even with the massive works built to channel the Zaier, most of the fissures of Zarquin are damp bogs used by a dumping ground from the city above, or salt water swamps connected to the Shallow sea.
Many building survived the Earthquake and are still in use, the remains of the rest of the city has since been recovered as building material as Zarquin was latter built up.
After the earthquake many of the mercenaries who had descended on the town in search of loot choose to stay until they could hired out again. Others began to gather to provide services for the mercenaries and Zarquin soon became the place to go after a contract to spent money.
|
|