An empire that has for a long time been shut off from the rest of the world, allowing foreigners into only a certain district in a single port opens its lands up for the first time to adventurers. The empire Gotisch has set a 100 million gold reward for the completion of 3 seemingly different and unrelated quests.

The slaying of a beast beneath the ice of an eternally frozen lake located in Ice Forest, details of the beast are scarce but indicate that it draws its power from the surrounding environment, that it is large and that it is not a dragon.Why this beast needs to be slain is not told.

The following of a circle in the mountains, the circle is described as being large, round, purple and being unapproachable. The path of this circle is to be mapped, why is not explained.

And the recovery of bottle filled with a glowing substance lost somewhere in the Boiling Swamp. No more information is given. All Characters start in the same port.

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The populace is distrustful of all foreigners and most attempts to communicate with the populace will result in violence. Information must be gathered with bribes, taverns are a good place to start learning about who to bribe though bribery will be required there as well. Threats and violence will also work.

You can only have 1 character and you are free to team up with others or go it alone.

For balance reasons you can have your characters be as strong as you like but the stronger they are and the better their equipment the less gold they are allowed to carry at the beginning. A person who plays as a naked child with only 1 leg, terrible mutations and is on the brink of death can get up to 1,000 gold to bribe with.

Be wary of committing acts of violence, the military and city guards aren’t weak.

Lets see, magic in this world is only a matter of picking up a tome and memorizing the incantations and gestures. Spells with similar effects have similar words. Incantations can be in any language. More powerful spells have longer incantations. Many people learn some magic in their free time.

Wizard is an umbrella term for all who are proficient in magic, mages are a term used to refer to those who study only a specific magic school (Like a wind mage studies only wind spells). Sorcerers and sorceresses are wizards that use unorthadox forms of magic or magic like powers such as enslaving demons to themselves for power. Witches and Warlocks are users of illegal magic such as enthrallment and other mental manipulation magic.

Magical Energy is a passive force that permeates the world, and can be used to manipulate various aspects of it.

There are 8 elements

Wind (Manipulation and conjuring of gas and sound through gas)
Fire (Conjuring and manipulation of heat)
Earth(Manipulation and conjring of solid matter non-organic matter like rocks and metals.)
Electromagnetism (Manipulation and conjuring of electricity and magnetic fields)
Water (Manipulation and conjuring of liquids and the ability to move heat away resulting in ice.)
Space/Time (Manipulation of space and time, limited scope, most mages are unable to go beyond messing with a target’s gravity, inertia and sowing down or speeding up time slightly in a small area.)
Light (Manipulation and conjuring of light)
Dark/Holy (Manipulation of Biomatic elements. However the fragility of living cells usually makes anything except for hurting difficult. Forcing magic into the D.N.A. tends to mutate it, trying to regenerate limbs tends to come out wrong because of mutated D.N.A., so Psychic Magic, curses, minor healing and Necromancy are generally what this school is used for.)

Healing magic is the only legal use for the Dark Element and it is defined as Holy when used for healing. Healing magic is simply the act of sustaining damaged cells and providing them with some energy to speed up the natural healing process. Any wound aside from brain damage and having important organ destroyed can be survived with healing magic at hand as long as they are healed within minutes of clinical death, before Biological Death takes place.

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The climate of The Boiling Swamp is extremely queer, although it is true that the existence of such a locale somewhere as forsaken as Antarktis is in of itself strange enough; the climate is not what one could possibly expect. In Many places the temperature is quite comfortable rarely dropping below 60 degrees. In other places the temperature is dozens of degrees below zero and everywhere else the temperature could be anywhere in between, a few places have even been recorded to be greater then 100 degrees. Moreover, in the space of a few yards there could be as many as five dramatic temperature changes.

The consequences of this are that anybody traveling through the swamp will suffer severe shock and trauma due to the extreme differences in temperature their body experiences. Their bodies cannot compensate whatsoever and they go into shock followed by a quick but extremely painful death. No amount of training or conditioning can avoid that.

In order to protect their selves the people of Gotisch have set up large cisterns of water that have chemical fires beneath them that boil the water nonstop. The steam created by the boiling water powers turbines that direct the steam over the roads and settlements. The steam not only heats the air, but also acts as a conduit so that the heat from the warmest level can travel to other colder levels with ease. This keeps the temperature within the steam from being to radically diverse. However even though the steam is not especially dense, line of sight is still limited. When traveling to areas without the steam travelers must both drink a constant supply of heated water and wear insulated clothing over every inch of the body including the face not even leaving the nose uncovered, only leaving only the mouth uncovered but never opening it except to drink. Even then, rapid breathing can result in death at least in areas where the temperature above the three-foot line is cold.

The weather of the swamp is simple, it never rains it just has much snowfall, although if you are standing in a warm area you will be soaked through.

The terrain of the swamp is a mixture of steaming, shallow and murky pools, swaths of raised yet hot soggy mud created by cooled lava, and even a few hills. There are three large areas of the raised mud, the largest is south of the capital named ‘where food grows’, it is the only one used for the growing of food, another is on the northeast hemisphere and the last one is near the southern point of the swamp. There are five shallow lakes full of swamp water; three are to the northwest in a row and they are collectively called the river lakes, the largest lake being furthest away. The second largest is right to the northeast of the capital, it supplies the capital’s water in emergencies, and the last is far to the south of the capital. There are three hills; two separate the three river lakes and the third stand alone to the far east of the capital. The rest of the land is a fine mixture of short tracts of raised land and shallow ponds as well as what could be between those two extremes. It has not been explored in detail, and in fact, most of it has merely been surveyed from afar.

The thickest foliage grows on the large swaths of raised mud; here is also, the only place in Antarktis where you can find wooden trees in extremely thick forest like patches save for the large patch of trees discovered by the Grecians in an isolated valley in the mountains warmed by the lava. Sinkholes appear at random in these areas adding to the danger and on occasion plants saturated with volatile chemicals contact and erupt into a fiery explosion that resounds throughout the whole swamp. Quicksand is also a huge but thankfully predictable danger. The beasts here are surprisingly docile with there being only two known predators, a small snake that hunts in packs but still avoids people, for which there are currently no reported attacks on any humans, and there is a large mammalian spider like creature that keeps itself perpetually covered in webbing. The only other known danger is a small creature with a scorpion like tail and a centipede body; it is around a foot long and uses its tail not to fight but to spear the fruits of various plants that it eats. But then again the swamp is hardly explored.

Little is known about what is in the lakes because although they are shallow coming up to barely the height of a man’s chest in the deepest parts, they are so hot that just touching the surface of the water is enough to cause scalding and the deeper parts are significantly hotter. Yet various plants still float upon its surface, water comb trees grow from their depths their branches hanging over the water, insects buzz and land on the water’s surface, and creatures swim in their depths. The only dangerous creature known that lives in the lakes except for the wolfsnake is a small-shelled fish that jumps out of the water and clings to a host releasing acid mixed with eggs. The acid quickly burns through clothing and flesh and thus the eggs are released into their host where they hatch and eat away at their host’s fat stores for a week and then they travel to the stomach and induce vomiting which is how they escape. Then they burrow into the ground and travel to the nearest pool, pond or lake full of standing water.

The most dangerous area is the bog, which cover the majority of the swamp, it is a area full of both shallow water and raised soggy land mixed together rather finely creating the most unpredictable environment. It has the expected quicksand, sinkholes and beasts. In addition, the land itself is quite unstable, pressure builds up under the surface in various areas and erupt quite often showering the area with near boiling water. No beast here stands out enough to be worth mentioning at this moment. However, there are many beasts. Nothing lives upon the hills. The thick foliage hides the ground from sight most of the time.

There are various plants in the swamps as one would expect, but surprisingly there is no grass, the wet soggy ground combined with the extreme heat and constantly shifting ground means grass cannot grow. However, there are many other plants, which have unique characteristics that allow them to grow in this unique environment. Plants here cannot grow roots deeper then six inches because of the heat so to avoid unexpected blizzards ripping them out of the ground their roots have adapted to loop around the roots of other plants forming a carpet of roots under the soil so every plant anchors every other plant and is anchored by every other plant.

The Demon Leaf Bush is one of the most common plants in the swamp; it has two and a half feet long large dark green leathery leaves that look like pitchforks, the leaves have three long prongs on the end and a long and narrow stalk. The leaves arrange themselves side by side and in a vertical position all around the center of the plant, there are four layers of leaves, walling off the entire plant. Its center is full of a cottony substance for when the temperature drops such as when a blizzard hits, the cotton stuff fills up with hot water pulled from the ground via its tube like roots to avoid freezing. Inside the cotton are two-five small green circular citrus like fruits that contain a juice that when a large amount is combined with the diluted juice of the angel fruit ignites into an extremely hot and slow burning flame that is used in the chemical fires that boil the water in the large cisterns. The reason for the leaves’ positions is to keep heat from escaping the plant so it is not harmed during a sudden cold. Its roots are hollow, thick and leathery and wrap around other nearby roots as well as suck up hot water when needed. The leathery property of the plant protects it from both heat and cold. These are found all throughout the swamp. Their cotton is useless for fabrics.

Another common plant is the angel vine, it is named not for any specific characteristic of the plant but instead for the reaction that the juice of its irregular shaped yellow fruit has with the demon bush’s fruit. The result of these two connecting is a fiery explosion. The meat of the fruit is firm and hard and is surprisingly edible albeit bitter. The vine is extremely thick and long and thankfully grows only along the ground, the fruit sprouts along the side of the vine like a yellow aphid growth. There are no leaves but instead a green leathery bark. No one has ever been able to find the natural ending point of one of these vines.

The water comb tree is the only plant above three feet tall in the whole Swamp. It survives at heights up to 20 feet by drawing up hot water from the ground and distributing it throughout its whole via tubes and caverns, this makes its inside resemble that of a honey comb thus its name. When one chops at the tree with anything water pours out but only as much as was in the effected combs, sap in the tree quickly hardens as it connects with the air cutting off the water flow into the damaged combs and/or tubes. The tree is useless for standard wood uses, but its porous nature and natural resistance to leakage makes it very popular for storing beer and water.

Bloodletting’s Bane is a hard brown moss that carpets areas of the swamp, it grows one fourth of an inch thick and can grow absolutely anywhere in the swamp below the three foot mark including both on and under the water. It has an extraordinary ability to clot wounds, if you crumble it into the wound it dissolves in the blood and causes instant clotting of the wound, this can even quickly stop internal bleeding in the hands of a skilled physician. Thus its name Bloodletting’s Bane, it is the only plant currently known with healing properties of any significance.

Dusk Mushrooms are a strange fungus, they only appear at dusk hence their name, but they are seemingly everywhere when they do appear. They are a simple whitish-brown color and rarely grow larger then your thumb. When ate they are not deadly as one would suspect but they are dangerous all the same. They have some magical properties that cause whoever to eat any to be unable to stop casting spells, the spells they cast is rather random and not controlled, as you can imagine this is not something you want a mage to eat.

There are also normal cattails that are good for firewood, a yellow and completely mundane flower, some purple ridge fungus that has no special properties, a thick green vine with small green leaves that just grows from the trees without any properties worth mentioning and Spanish moss.

There are only three known plants grown in this swamp that are truly useful for food. Non-native plants cannot be grown in the swamp, even the grain for Gotisch’s beer must be grown in an artificial environment.

Tomato vines are a thin vine that grows in the swamp and has a blue fruit that tastes like a tomato, hence the name. Those grow very long and like to climb the Demon Leaf Bush eventually killing it. Their leaves resemble green grape leaves. The fruits are simply called tomatoes.

The White Pea Bush is a thorny and green bush with very tiny round leaves. The thorns protect grey pods full of white peas; the peas are like coconuts in both texture and taste. Between ten and thirteen white peas are in each pod.

The Swamp Potato is a red flower with an edible stem. The stem tastes like a potato with a strong sour aftertaste. The stem is used in a variety of recipes; most importantly, it can be used to make brownish-green bread. The stem never seems to become infested with insects or rot. This is because the plant’s stem has a weak poison in it, but the poison is not strong enough to hurt a person unless more then nine stems are ate, and then it only causes stomach pain. The poison is removed once cooked.

Many other plants grow in the swamp, which have yet to be studied, and even more plants that have yet to be discovered.

There are also many creatures in the swamps. These include creatures from all families, but it is thought that barely fractions of the creatures in the swamp to be currently known.

The fire train is a foot long reptile with a centipede like body and a tail that curves over with a hard sharp point. They use their tail to spear the fruit inside the Demon Leaf Bush, which they cannot reach otherwise. It is also used to defend them from their enemies. They rub the fruit of the demon bush over their body that spreads the juice over their body. Then they mix some of the juice from the angel fruit with their saliva and use it to ignite themselves. The flames do not hurt them because their skin is thick, filled with a natural fire and heat retardant. Unfortunately, the retardant cannot by utilized by people because if extracted it loses its retardant properties. The reason for this is that like all creatures, the fire train has an electrical current that flows through it, and this stabilizes the retardant. Remove the current and the retardant instantly destabilizes and loses its properties. The fire is used to defend its enemies far more then its tail because its tail is unwieldy and the fire train is slow. This also makes it dangerous to travelers, it is easily frightened and does not run away when it feels threatened but instead charges the threat to try to make it run away. Many travelers have been injured by this creature.

The dwarfed deer is a short deer. It feeds on the various leaves and soft vines in the swamp and is two feet tall. When it runs it never bounds higher then a foot yet still manages to attain speeds as fast as any other deer, but in doing so, it tires faster then any other deer, but the terrain of the swamp works in its favor and it still escapes with ease. It has short antlers but it prefers to run instead of fight, but if it feels it cannot escape it will attack. It is a popular source of meat since it tastes like beef as all venison does.

The Mammoth Beetle is as the name suggests a great big beetle. It weighs ten to 30 pounds, grows a foot high and between 2”6 – 6”0 in diameter, it is oval. The carapace of this beetle is very strong and nearly three inches thick, around the strength of copper. It feeds on all the various plants in the swamp and is a major pest for farmers.

The wolf snake is a small snake barely five inches long on average, but it has a powerful acid instead of venom that it injects into its prey that dissolves the flesh of its prey, it eats the slop created by it and swallows the chunks of flesh that are not dissolved. It hunts in large packs hence its name. It prefers the dwarfed deer but will also eat the Red-blooded spider, various fish, and the swamp leviathan as well as just about anything else except for the mammoth beetle and the fire train when lit. It does not seem to be aggressive towards humans though, which is odd.

The Red-Blooded spider is not a spider but instead an eight limbed mammal with the ability to produce sticky silk, it does not have any venom but instead it has a powerful set of jaws that it uses to tear its prey apart. It wraps five-inch thick sticky silk all around itself for both protection from the wolf snakes and protection from its chief prey the fire train. Without the silk, it stands at three feet on average making it the largest known creature in the swamp aside from the swamp leviathan. The silk cannot catch on fire but just melts into itself. The pseudo-spider shoots thick webbing at its prey, and if the targeted prey is the fire train, the webbing covers it and smothers the flames allowing the pseudo-spider to devour its meal at its own leisure.

The nightmare fish is a small-shelled fish that lives in the water of the swamp. It has multiple glands on its body that produces acid. The adults only feed on bloodletting’s bane. The fish leap out of the water at passing creatures including humans and land on them in order to lay their eggs; they release acid on the future hosts of their offspring. The acid quickly burns through clothing and flesh and thus the eggs are released into their host where they hatch and eat away at their host’s fat stores for a week during which the victim suffers massive hysteria (Hence their name) and then they travel to the stomach and induce vomiting which is how they escape. Then they burrow into the ground and travel to the nearest pool, pond or lake full of standing water. The young nightmares can burrow into the ground because the ground is very loose and wet to begin with, they can survive almost a week without water because their bodies have stores of oxygen in them, and they travel nearly ten feet per hour. This is more then fast enough to reach water.

The swamp leviathan is a large serpent like fish that breathes with gills not lungs and only lives in the large lakes. It grows over fifty feet long and over two feet in diameter. It eats anything in sight both plant and animal, it has been seen erupting from the shallow depths of the lakes to grab some food it spotted on land. The only threat to it is the wolf snake that has been seen gathered in packs exceeding the thousands to hunt one of these. This lake serpent is dangerous, and should be avoided at all costs. It can survive the heat created by magma and has shown strong resistance to all magic. The remains of a Leviathan washed up on the shore that had been killed by wolf snakes who abandoned the kill when a blizzard hit, it was taken to the city and dissected, the carapace was as strong as steel and twice the thickness of armor (8 mm) and the serpent had 14 hearts. Leaving the researchers to believe it may be more closely related to worms then fish or snakes.

The smoking frog is a large frog that lives solely in the bog; it leaps from water to land to water with ease as it hunts insects. The insects it hunts are dragonflies, normal flies and other small bugs. It is called the smoking frog because of the large amount of steam that one can see rising from it, this is because it lives in the hot water and when it jumps out the hot water still on it contacts with cooler air and makes steam.

The blurred tiger is a small tiger with a blurred green and brown design on its fur that allows it to blend in with the swamp. It is small no larger then a normal tomcat and very ferocious. It hunts its favorite prey the smoking frog with complete stealth, but if it has not eaten in over a day, it will attack even larger prey such as the dwarfed deer it will even attack humans.

Settlements in the swamp include the capital and seven small forts, the capital is described in detail elsewhere, but the forts will be described here. The forts are generally nothing more then a triangle structure with two gates that the road runs through; each point has a tower in it. Within the wall lies a stable with many horses, a barracks that houses a hundred soldiers, a small market and a small free inn. There are also many cisterns full of boiling water all through out the forts filling the air with warm steam. Houses for permanent residents and the families of soldiers also exist. These forts are used mainly to protect travelers who are crossing the swamp. The three western forts bordering the river also have a walled extension that houses a dock with riverboats that both fish for the leathery fish in the river and are used for transport. There are usually at least three ships armed with ballista for military use.

There are eight stretches of road that at least part of the road runs through the swamp. They will be described clockwise from the capital starting with the north. The northern stretch is 52.2 miles long, the last 8.7 miles being out of the swamp. The stretch ends inside the ice forest. There is one swamp fort along the road and a forest fort at the end.

The eastern road is 52.7 miles long; the middle road connects to its center, and at its end is the largest fort with 300 soldiers manning it. The fort is a dead end and is only there to watch the mountains.

The middle road connects both the eastern road and the southern road. It is 55 miles long, although on the map it looks shorter, this is an illusion caused by the curve. There is a fort in the center of the road.

The southern road is 46.8 miles long and runs south, at its end is a fort, and in its center, the middle road connects to it. This is the second safest road as it passes through ‘where food grows’, thus this road is patrolled heavily. Moreover, it has the greatest concentration of cisterns in order to protect the plants, making it even safer to travel.

The western road is 55.8 miles long and ends near a river fort. This fort is important as it guards the ends of both the east and west river roads and marks the end of the journey for travelers traveling on the river. As such, this road is more heavily traveled then any other road, and thus needs more patrols then any other roads. It has a normal distribution of cisterns.

The east river road is 163.9 miles long making it the longest stretch of road within the swamp. There are three forts along this road, the south river fort at the beginning, the east river fort in its center and the north river post 25.2 miles before the road’s end. The distance between the north and east river forts is great enough to force most travelers to camp along the road itself in the swamp. This is dangerous to say the least. The north fort is where all deep river ships must dock since the river gets shallower as it goes on eventually only having one narrow channel of deep water in the center. The northeast part of the road is actually a different stretch of road but it is counted to be part of this stretch for reasons of convenience.

The cross-river road is 23.8 miles long, it is built out of raised stone that goes above the surface of most of the water until the center, a large arched stone bridge is there which allows ships to pass underneath and people to cross overhead. This is not really a swamp road but is mentioned here anyway. There is a fort on both ends aptly named the east and west river forts.

The west river road only has a small section in the swamp, only that section and the section of road between the end of the swamp and the west river fort will be considered in this paragraph. The swamp section of the road is 22.4 miles long, the rest of the applicable road is 73.4 miles long, and travelers are guaranteed to need to stop for at least one night sometimes two. However, because this road also runs alongside the mountains only those well prepared ever travel it; this includes a large number of thrill-seekers. The west river fort is a large fort with over 700 soldiers; these are here to defend against the mountains.

There have been many strange sightings in the swamp and in the mountains directly bordering the swamp.

A large flat creature was sighted in the swamp; it was huge covering and area of over 100 feet and had no distinguishable features, in fact at first it looked like a huge gray shadow. However, the three witnesses said they saw a fire train walk onto it and the fire train screeched in pain but did not run, because its legs were being quickly dissolved by what can only be assumed extremely powerful acid. Within a few minutes, the fire train was nothing but a bubbling liquid and even that vanished. They walked over to its side out of curiosity and peer down; when they did, they noticed the large grey shadow was in fact a paper thin mass with insect like legs underneath it that walked over both land and water, possibly million of legs. The mass when it met an obstacle tore itself apart with a tearing sound and then recombined afterwards. The witnesses were on the road when they saw this creature pass over the road; it has not been seen since this sighting.

One time something extremely strange happened to the entire swamp, all of the water in the swamp began to boil at one time for no explainable reason. If this was not strange enough the water was colder then ice when it was tested, this lasted for three day then suddenly the boiling stopped, the heat returned and no ill effects were seen among anything. There are no theories as to how this could have happened.

Another time a strange thing was sighted among the mountains, a large glow was first seen coming across the mountains. Then a large thing creating the glow appeared it was a giant ring with another smaller ring inside it. It was half the size of the mountain. The rings both slowly turned clockwise the center ring rotating slightly slower then the outer ring. It approached the swamp moving not like a wheel but floating in the direction of its wide side. When it entered the swamp witnesses could see something that looked like writing on it, the ring did not go too far before curving around and heading back to the mountains. It has been seen multiple times since then but never entering the swamp. No one knows what it is.

Only 12% of the swamp has been explored. Moreover, no ice goblins ever venture into the swamp meaning despite the fact that is it unexplored and patrols cannot effectively defend its borders there is no threat from them.

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The Eis Forest is cold very cold. Temperatures stay at least -50 Fahrenheit, and in the three months of darkness, it gets much colder. Whistling winds blow through the frozen trees and Ice Goblins patrol both the ground and the treetops. Yet despite this, it is possibly the safest place to be in Antarktis. The trees break the winds so they are never dangerous, Blizzards are rare and food is readily available as are sources of heat. Dangers are few and easily avoided and most importantly it is the source of Gotisch’s most valuable commodity plastisch.
The Geography of the Eis Forest is simple. It is mostly heavily forested flatland. There is a large area of land covered by ancient icebergs that forms a sort of heavily forested rough hill area some of it resembling heavily forested badlands named Yellow Shine. There is a frozen lake in the center also covered by trees named Gelb Lake and a dry riverbed also covered by trees called the Gelb River.
Yellow Shine is so named because when one looks at it during the daylight hours the whole area radiates yellow light. This is of course due to the Harsch Trees growing throughout the icebergs including in between them, and the transparency of the icebergs themselves. These icebergs have an extremely low number of air bubbles trapped inside them making them transparent. This combination causes the spectacular display as the sunlight is filtered by the Harsch Trees turning it yellow and then it goes through the icebergs.
Yellow Shine is a rugged area where the icebergs form steep hills and almost badland like formations, but the trees protect the icebergs from the wind so they are slowly smoothing out because the surface of the icebergs are sometime melted slightly by the sun and heat generated by the Harsch Trees. There is an exceptionally high number of Yellow Boars and Gelb Bears here, but a surprisingly low number of Eis Peckers. Ice Goblin activity is high here and it is suspected that there are many Goblin strongholds here.
Gelb Lake is a permanently frozen lake covered by Harsch Trees; the ice is rough and covered by snow so it is not a travel concern. There really is nothing out of the ordinary about Gelb Lake other then the high number of Eis Peckers. There are moderate numbers of Gelb bears and Yellow Boars. For some reason, there are a low number of goblin activities here. It is rumored that something stirs under the ice but that is considered nonsense by the experts, nothing of any substantial size can live in solid ice. Not even with magic.
Gelb River is a wide dry riverbed covered by Harsch Trees. It connects to the Gelb Lake and is nearly a canyon. It used to connect to the North River, which is fed, by an underground stream that used to flow in two directions. Goblin Lore says that the Snow Spirits cut off the river from flowing southwards for a terrible reason. The riverbed lacks any distinguishing characteristics aside from its geography; there is a large goblin presence here. There are small numbers of all animals.
The Rest of the Eis Forest is made up of forested flatland. There is a moderate amount of Goblin activity, Yellow Boars, Gelb Bears and Eis Peckers. On the west and south edges are the only areas controlled by Gotisch.
The only plant in the forest is the Harsch Tree. This amazing tree is not really a tree at all it is in fact a moss. The plant does not use photosynthesis leading some scholars to believe it is not really a plant at all but something else. The plant can grow anywhere in the forest but outside of the forest it refuses to grow no matter what is tried.
In appearance, it can grow hundreds of feet tall and a single growth is always a symmetrically perfect circle with a diameter as many as dozens of feet long. The tree is a transparent yellow in color. When more then one tree grows close together, they can bond together forming irregular forms. The tree does not have any branches.
The tree is made up of loose plant fibers surrounded by a unique sap the fibers excrete in exceedingly large quantities. The sap is not sticky but instead smooth with the appearance of yellow ice. The sap generates a low electric current that heats the fibers. It insulates the fibers from the elements and provides nourishment for the various creatures. The sap is also a useful construction material. When the tree is damaged, it can repair itself within a day regardless of the severity of the damage.
No one in Gotisch is quite sure how this tree gets its nutrients; some believe there may be something in the air that does it. They are not to far off, in fact there is a large amount of carbon above the forest spewed by the volcano. The carbon travels downwards, the trees and loose plant fibers collect it and bond it with hydrogen from the snow as well as various other elements from the air, and that is how they thrive.
When the tree is being harvested, it is sawed down with high quality saws. Then it is dragged to the smelters. There it is melted down and the plant fibers burned away. When the sap hardens, it forms a smooth, solid material resembling plastic but in the minds of the citizens of Gotisch, it is like glass. This material is used in the construction of furniture and housing as unlike metal it does not freeze to a person’s skin. Real glass is still the preferred construction material but the glass needs to be imported. This material is called Harschglas and marketed as glass.

The Gelb bear is a semi-aggressive omnivore. The Gelb Bear has thick yellow fur that helps it blends in to its environment. It is roughly the size of a Black Bear. It has powerful jaws and strong claws, due to a body temperature just thirty degrees Fahrenheit below the boiling point, a large amount of steam rises from its body. It is believed that the bear is able to generate so much heat by burning the hydrogen it gets from the trees.

The Gelb Bear subsists primarily by eating the yellow boar and Harsch tree but it never takes more then a single bite from a single tree in one day. It can eat from this tree due to the heat of its breath which softens the part if the tree it is eating so its teeth are not damaged. Whenever it can though it hunts the yellow boar, it hunts by climbing the Harsch tree and then dropping onto its prey from above. Then it kills its prey as quickly as possible, for if it fails to kill its initial target it will be forced to retreat or be killed by the herd of boar. While if it kills the boar in his first drop the rest of the herd will simply run instead of risk a battle which would result in the loss of more boars.

The Gelb bear also hunts Ice Goblins and most recently humans when it can’t find a herd of Yellow Boars, it uses the same tactics. Particularly large bears will hunt humans and goblins indiscriminately, but besides this they are not that large a threat since they are rather easily spotted to the trained eye. The Gelb bear also enjoys the eggs of Eis peckers, but is rarely successful in getting them.

The Yellow Boar is a dangerous herbivore with, as their name suggests, shaggy yellow fur. They only grow two feet high, but they are strong and dangerous. They travel in herds and chew on the Harsch tree for nourishment. When threatened they charge the threat and bore into it with their large tusks. Their enraged grunting is the last sound many both Human and Goblin hunter have heard. However, they are easily avoided as they make no attempt to hide their grunting noises as they forage.

The Eis Pecker is the only bird in the forest. It is a medium sized bird with a foot and a half long wingspan. It has a long strong beak which it uses to peck at the Harsch Trees. The Eis Pecker does not eat the Harsch tree, but instead eats the Eis ants that reside in the upper areas of the Harsch Tree.

The Eis Pecker also uses its beak to peck open a hole in the Harsch Tree to lay its eggs in. The eggs are warmed by the tree itself while its parents guard the outside. Whenever a Gelb Bear looking for a snack climbs near the nest, the Eis Peckers dive bomb the bear driving it back down and sometimes sending it plummeting to its death.

It is believed but never been tested or proven that the Harsch tree does not repair itself while the eggs are hatching because the shell of the egg has magical properties that redirect the electrical currents of the tree to itself and away from the wound. But when the egg hatches the egg loses its magical properties, why this is not known, but it is known that the Eis Peckers do not have any magical properties about them. A true mystery indeed.

The Eis Ant is an ant that resides in the Harsch Tree, like a termite. They build their colonies in the tree in live in relative safety from all except the Eis Peckers. They eat the Tree itself and are constantly eating to prevent collapse upon their colony, when their new queen and males travel they take part of the Harsch Tree with them to keep them warm, the little piece they take with them loses its heat in an hours so that is how long the queen’s have to mate and find a new tree. Only one out of 100 queens succeeds.

Roads in the Eis Forest are constructed out of carved ice. Construction starts by first marking out the road then panels are placed into the sides of the marked. Then Hot water is poured to melt all the snow and ice already there evenly, the hot water is stopped by the panels. Then the water freezes and the road is done.

The major road in the Eis Forest is the border road; this road is 102 miles long and runs in and out of the forest. There is only one fort on the road and it guards the only road that leads into goblin territory. This fort is large with a garrison of three thousand troops; travelers must purchaser their supplies here or go without on the road. The road has only one branch before reaching the lumber town of Harscholz, a small town with only 900 citizens but over 5,000 soldiers. The branch merely leads to the lumber area.

The only other road is not wholly controlled by Gotisch. Only the first few miles are presumed safe the rest is in the hands of the Ice Goblins. The road is 37.4 miles long and ends deep in Yellow Shine, the construction stopped because of stiff Goblin resistance that climaxed in the battle of Yellow Shine where over 6,000 Gotisch soldiers died and nearly 20,000 Ice Goblins, none of the bodies were recovered.

There is also a spider web of short roads northeast east of Harscholz. These roads are used for the logging of the Harsch trees and as such don’t lead anywhere. It is nicknamed the Harsch maze. There was a notable battle fought in this maze when the goblins attempted to stop the logging. 4,000 Gotisch soldiers fell here and an expected 34,000 Ice Goblins died here. Only half of the bodies were recovered before the rest froze to the ground, interestingly no necrotic activity has been seen.

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The Gotisch Tundra is a desolate region devoid of all life. Winds howl across this frozen land and the temperature is so low that uncovered flesh will freeze in an instant. In the days of light on cannot see for its reflection upon the surface of the ground, and in the days of darkness one cannot breathe for fear of freezing ones lungs. Sudden windstorms created by the warm air high above the cold air are so powerful that they can tear the skin off one. Truly, this is a frozen hell.

The roads here are built are carved out of the ground and run deep, very deep. The roads are eight feet below the ground and took nearly five years to complete. To build these roads, First the workers hammer four hot rods into the ground to act as markers, these bars freeze almost instantly often shattering but no matter. Next, a wheel kept aflame with either tar or ever-fire the latter being preferred runs from bar to bar and back again creates a gutter. Next, they pour either flaming tar or liquid ever-fire into the center melting and evaporating the snow and ice, the burning liquids are stopped by the gutters created by the wheel. The flaming liquids must be refueled often, the ever-fire needing the least refueling as it is kept active by a mage, but those trained in the art of fire magic are rare in Gotisch. Even so, the mage does get tired eventually. It takes 6-7 hours before the fire reached the permafrost, once there it thaws the frost. Then the workers have but ten minutes to dig before it refreezes as the walls of snow and ice insulate the area. They repeat this process until it is deep enough. They smooth the ground and that section of road is complete. There are stairways placed at regular 10 mile intervals all along the roads.

There are main road leads from Harscholz to Gefroküste is 342.4 miles long. There is a road connected to it that leads to the Lebendig Swamp near Harscholz, a branch near Gefroküste that leads to a fort and another branch near the center that leads to Sudbollwerk and Bergbau. Along this road is the Brücke Bridge that rises nearly 100 feet into the air to allow ships to pass under it. Traveling across this bridge is not difficult since it has a gradual slope and is enclosed protected travelers from the wind.

The road leading to Sudbollwerk is 85.6 miles long ad has one branch from it that leads to Bergbau. Sudbollwerk is a fortress city that grew in population due to the influx of refugees escaping from the Druids. Before the refugees, it was merely a fortress. This road is the only roads where one must be weary of attack as Goblins often slip pass the city.

The road to Bergbau is 177.6 miles long. Its length is due to the constant winding it must do around the bases of the mountains. This road is technically not in the Gotisch Tundra but is counted here out of convenience. This road is exceedingly dangerous, as various creatures have been known to cross it. However, the creatures that have been seen crossing it will be told elsewhere.

The road that leads to a minor fort guarding the coast from Goblin landings is 17.1 miles long. The fort is important, as without it Goblins coming in from Kobold Island would be uncontested as they come inland.

The East River road is 382.3 miles long and ends in the swamp. This road is heavily traveled and occasionally is raided by Goblins. This road’s proximity to the river raises the temperature of the air near the road to bearable level.

Various more roads and settlements are planned or being constructed to house the refugees from the Gothic lands.

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The Southern Mountains are a large and almost completely unexplored mountain range in the southern area of the Continent. The Grecian Colony, Far Removed from Gotisch is to the east of these mountains, the Grecians brave these dangerous mountains for valuable and rare timber in a valley.

These mountains are ancient and full of creatures such as Dragons, Mountain Golems, Glacial Golems, Elementals and other creatures. The storms in the mountains are magical and will freeze anybody caught in the storms instantly, not even wizards can tame these storms.

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Very few adjectives can come even close to describing the Glacial Fields. Perhaps the closest term to describe it would be, “Badlands” but that is an understatement of timeless proportions. Vast fields of ice some towering hundred of feet into the air, sheer walls, steep and gradual slopes, canyons, gulley, pits, caves of various lengths and shapes that lead to any place imaginable, impossible formations and much more all are packed tightly into this large area. In the center of the Glacial Fields is a Giant Crater that steams and growls incessantly adding to Willy Wonka atmosphere in the Glacial Fields.

The Glacial Fields are in fact fields of continuous ice formed by Icebergs that have over time, been permanently packed together. Not even streams of lava can break up this ice before it cools. The various formations are formed by the act of grinding together the ice is continually doing, it is a slow process yet a powerful one.

This is where most of the Ice Goblins call home. They live in the ice itself and live off food stored from massive hunts they take against various behemoth sized creatures they come from the mountains to ironically hunt goblins. Other then those they fish, and hunt other smaller creatures in other locations; they are also no strangers to cannibalism.

It is also not uncommon for Ice Golems to be animated naturally from the ice by sudden concentrations of magic. For some reason the magic is usually Water elemental in nature leaving many to believe that it is artificial, however not all scholars agree with this and formulate other theories as to how it happens. Regardless it does happen and they are a threat to the unwary despite their general passiveness. Goblins do make use of them by capturing and training them.

On the south side of the Glacial Fields is a River of icy sludge, it is made by a lava pool beneath there that thaws the ice creating the cold sludge. There are fish and other creatures in there; however, no studies have been carried out due to Goblin Resistance. Goblins however often fish there so it is believed that there are few dangers in the river. In the river there is a strong current just under the surface, this is known by reading books written by the Goblin Chief.

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Volkemheits

The Volkemheits are Humans that have undergone thousands of years of Selective breeding tripling their lifespans. The goal of this selective breeding is eventual immortality.

The Selective Breeding is controlled by the Priesthood, they are immortals that were born that way and they desire immortality for their fellow citizens. They have a Oracle that looks at the lives of all their citizens, killing those who would have bad genes remotely.

At odds with the Priesthood are the Black Riders, who are traditionally allied with the Priesthood. The black Riders however disagree with the extreme methods used by the Priesthood, such as extermination of entire towns based on rumors of interracial affairs.

There is also the government and the military of Gotisch which is in between the two trying to maintain its own identity.

The Guilds are another entity in Gotisch fighting anything that hinders profits, they are essentially the rulers of the Foreign district.

Here is the list of their military which acts as city guards. All are armed with Katzbalger swords as sidearms.

Halbediers
Great Swordsmen
Mounted Slingers
Scouts (Scouts trained so their brains are incapable of discarding seemingly useless info like normal people, they are incapable of living normal lives. But see almost any trap possibly set. They are trained in anti-Guerrilla warefare and carry light weapons but heavy shields and ballistic armor. More details are possible.)
Armored Ballistae Wagons
Mounted Warders (Mages trained in the use of Wards and only Wards, basically anti-magic users)

Eis Goblins

The Eis Goblins were here on this continent way before the Humans, they started out as normal goblins but the climate forced them to work together and develop some form of government and they have had a loose monarchy for thousands of years. In that time they have managed to succeeded in keeping infighting to a minimal, decided on a single language and outlawed Jargon, developed a real military, trained some goblins in writing and reading and slightly mellowed out.

When the Humans came the Chief actually sent a diplomat, and kept his goblins from raiding for almost a week before war broke out. A real accomplishment.

Their skin is smoother then normal Goblins and has a bluish tint to it. They are about 3-4 feet high.

Military Includes

Goblin Swordsmen
Goblin Archers
Goblin Champions (Heavily muscled bruisers, their strength is augmented by Glyphs tattooed into their hides by the Sorcerers. They wield Maces)
Goblin Stahl (Goblins that have had their arms replaced with hollow metal filled with explosives, the metal tapers off so it can be used to stab. Death of the Goblin results in explosion plus he can will it. No shrapnel though.)
Goblin Sorcerers (Uses Tattooed Glyphs to cast magic, generally spells of pestilence like insect swarms, fevers, rats, itchiness, hail, darkness, etc. Annoying but not Lethal)
Ice Golems (Ice Golems Captured and Trained by Goblin Trainers which are armed like Goblin archers)

Snow Spirits

The Very First inhabitants here, they are essentially Ice Nymphs that took male bodies. They are rather Stoic. Little is known about them.

They are glassy in appearance, but do die when stabbed.

Military

Clangers (Sorcerers that fight with bells, they have a variety of bells that do various things such as summon local beasts and mess with people’s minds. They also carry a battle bell that releases a powerful burst of sound when used that effects everyone including the user, knocking them down and deafening.

Soldiers (Conjure weapons out of ice.)

Grecians

They really aren’t a race of the Continent, they have little contact with the rest of the continent just a little colony for getting wood to sell. The Populace constantly rotates.Won’t likely effect the RP.

The Military consists of adventures.



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The Capital is a sprawling City with a Large Warded Tower in the Center, steam obscures vision beyond a few meters and the sensation one gets is of a rural town. It is located in the boiling swamp.

The Port city is divided into 3 sections, the far eastern section is the Foreign district, the center section is a military buffer and the far west is the civilian district. It is on the coast of the Gotisch Tundra.

Sudbollwerk is a town in the south of the Gotisch Tundra, it is an 3 quarter circle shape surrounded by walls many layers deep and is in constant battle against the Eis Goblins.

Bergbau is a mining town in the mountain just a few miles in, it is less of a town and more a camp. A Magic Circle surrounds the town protecting it.

Harsch is by the Eis Forest, it is walled ad also attacked a lot. It is where the Harsch wood is smelted.

Gobkib is actually the Gobln name for the Volcano, it has the largest concentration of Goblins in the Continent.

Icic and Kold are Snow Spirit dwellings rumoured to exist in the mountains.

The Grecian Colony is simply called the Grecian Colony

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You can be anything you want, alien, elf, Hobbit, Bunny Girl, Only thing restricted is the mentioned races.

Name:
Equipment:
Skills:
Description of physical abilities such as strength:
Appearance:
Race:
Personality:
Bio:

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When you start you will be in the Foreign District of the Port Town, I recommend heading to the inn or Tavern and getting acquainted. Anybody not with you is a rival or enemy. If you feel you need info as to where to go ask, once you decided where you are going leave the city. I will constantly be pushing your characters, if they start lollididdling around doing nothing I’ll push you in the right direction. This will be a rather structured RP.

Remember all 3 quests need to be tackled for victory in this RP, and you are competing against each other to do this.

In fact just arrive at the port and I’ll have NPCs meet you.

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Oh no, the first section I just typed up here on the spur of the moment without proof reading and structuring(Or use of Microsoft word). The rest I had written up all before for my other RP forum, I was more careful on the rest.

I am also rather unused to having to do RPs like this. I'm used to having all the mechanics and everything understood without explaining, so usually the setting and purpose is transcribed IC

Like I would have normally typed up

Demut was in his study writing finishing up the last of the paperwork denying the Guilds their loans, they seem to forget they are supposed to be filling our coffers, when there was a knock on the door.

This would have been the extent of my post and everybody else would have played off this using their pre-established characters.

But as you can see such an opening leaves far too much assumed on the part of the reader in this RP forum. Nay, instead I had to adapt to how things are done on this forum. That means no OOC thread, no fancy opening and a lot of explaining. I also changed some names and such so as to be more understandable.


Fine, but let me explain to you the culture and history of the Gothic Population first.



Traits shared universally by all citizens of Gotischreich due to effective propaganda is a total distrust of foreigners that is bordering on Xenophobia, and a universal desire for immortality and the hope that one day that the children of their children will not have to experience natural death and old age.

Other important facts to remember is that all marriages are arranged before conception by the Priesthood of Volklemhiet, inbreeding is used methodically to enhance the genes, adultery is punishable by death without trial, prostitution is legal as long as the prostitutes are licensed and the act is completed either in the home of the client or at the brothel. There is love in few marriages, children are often killed at birth due to bad gene.

Goths are well known for their expert glass working and tend to make all their furniture and buildings out of it.

Goths live an average of 200 years now, they no longer suffer any genetic defects, they are about 6 inches taller then normal people and are incapable of feeling attracted to, or performing any sexual acts towards a Foreigner duew to an enchantment placed at birth.

Other then this they are normal, hopefully this gives you some idea what to do.


Also there are permanent residents in the foreign district you can play as.

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I really have little idea what to make of this. I assume historical accuracy means effectual accuracy. In which case you should have said you disagree. I am incapable of maintaining suspension of belief without effectual accuracy, I need at least a hand wave. I don't mention this in other RPs unles sits effecting me, but I do care about it in my own. I like having orderly RPs. This also means stupid decisions will get your character killed, but it makes a more interesting read.


A Katana can potentially cut 3-5 men in half with a single slice as long as they are stacked in top of one another. Anyway I just mentioned it because you may or may not believe the number of times I have had someone enter an RP with a Katana wielding warrior and slice men with platemail or chain in half with a single blow with the explanation, "Katanas were the best weapon ever, made by the Japanese the best people ever and used by the samurai the best warrior ever, it can chop through metal because it is such a good sharp weapon that moves really fast! Armor sucks-(Rant about how Knights sucked and Samurai and Ninjas are unstoppable."

I must admit when I saw you using a Katana, I had a strong feeling of disdain and assumed you also worshiped the Japanese.


He has a skirt down to his shins, so all you have to do is RP lifting a man's skirt to get your sword under there.



Well in order to stay in character as far as personality, you are actually going to be outside the tavern drawn to the crowds for some easy thievery. Being inside the tavern would be suicide for a thief actively stealing.
I request that all OOC comments be kept in spoilers now.

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OOC: There certainly isn't a lot of character variety in this RP. Have Lance simply be drawn to the Tavern if you want to participate right now. Or you can wait until afterwards.

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No, see, I had character variety. Lance is just your normal thief.

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Resisting the temptation to micro manage the battle is hard. That is not how things are done in this forum.

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No, I agree . I like to write a story that has some small amount of belief in it (obviously any story with magic and it instantly is fictional, but in my opinion, fiction is more fun to write then non-fiction). I like that when I write, too. The more believeable a story I am writing for, the more fun it is. And so far, this is a pretty good story to write in .



I agree, but they have to have no metal armor.

I like the form a person has to use when wielding a Katana. I also like to write in that "style" of combat. I also know a little-bit on how to use one. As you probably know, each weapon has a different way it is used (in the real-world at any rate ). A broadsword is used differently then a dagger. A bow is used differently then throwing knives (which are over-rated ), etc. etc.. If others had a weapon that used close to the same form, I would write in a weapon of that design (the closest, in my opinion, is the longsword, or a saber and even that is not used exactly the same) when I write. However, there is no such weapon that I know of, so I write combat using a Katana .

As a military historian, I have studied alot of weapons (if one is to understand a battle, the weapons and armor used by both sides help alot to understand why it went one way, or the other), so I feel pretty confident when I say that Knights, Samurai, and Ninjas would be decently equal. I would say the Ninja would be the most disadvantaged one (given the lack of armor). The other two, would be interesting. I would give the edge to the Knight, however. As the Samurai's weaponry would not beable to go through the Knights armor (seeings as how all their weaponry were designed for bamboo armor, or non at all). Not to mention their entire fighting style. But all the Knight would need would be one hit (which he probably would get sooner or later).

For chainmail, it may be that a Katana could cut through it. But I think that it would resist it. Platemail, absolutely not. The Katana would probably shatter on impact, if it did anything at all.

I worship no people. The people I have the greatest respect for is Americans (seeing as I am one ). So no, I am not one of those people who are like "OMG Japanese *drool*. Omg "random Japanese words here" *drool*. Omg, Japanese can walk on water... Etc. etc." .

I agree, it gets pretty annoying when people think one weapon can do it all (if it did, no one would have used a bow, darts, spears, etc.), when it clearly cannot.



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I have to watch myself, I almost went and said to Fraud that a punch in the face with chained fists would do more then bloody his nose. But restraint is needed.


I like the way longswords are used to be honest, European martial arts are just filled with so much more energy then Japanese. Of course it is necessary since a fight in armor with swords was not about getting past one's opponent's sword but his armor, making sure one is in a position to strike at the crook of the elbow, under the armpit or behind the knee and hopefully either pierce the chainmail or break something. It really adds another dimension to the strategy and sight of the fight.

Where a fight with Katanas is also elegant it seems almost static to me in comparison. The great importance of extension when using a Katana is what takes away some of the energy. Staying at the optimum distance for the Katana's blade.

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OOC: He had a chainmail skirt, we'll just assume Fraud reached up the man's skirt to stick his tool in him. I did say he was fully wrapped in chainmail. I just changed it to a skirt a few posts ago.

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OOC: Accepted Nacho, how about you play the role of savior right now in the tavern? Or you could strike out on your own or with one or both of the other two thieves.

And here is one of the big weaknesses of the Katana. Now that the other hitman is close to you, John's back is essentially to the wall with no where to walk backwards, the Katana is going to prove far less effective. Just as well perhaps, slashing weapons don't really hold up that well in extended or a series of fights without constant maintenance to deal with the notches.

I am quite curious to see how you improvise, I think you are an intelligent person. This is what I love about RPing, places characters in tough situations and watching them get out.

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If this is not what you had in mind for the story, let me know and I will rewrite it.


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OOC: I did say handle this as you see fit, this battle was mainly to avoid the empty, usually out of character personality and uncomfortable posts that happen when a conversation fizzles out.

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"tat" should be "That" Demu.....

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OOC: I assume that running man is the hitman.

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Hope this is okay, Demu.


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Unneeded post/


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