You know what this reminds me of? The Ship that Sails Between the Worlds, of Moorcock's Elric Saga. A strange, construction that takes our heroes wherever they need to be, without all that pesky wandering. And of course, there could be the seed of a greater conflict here, such that the inn must gather the world's greatest heroes in order to defeat a great evil. An old idea, done in a fresh way. I agree that its not perfect, but it certainly is your best sub yet, Ramhir. Keep it up (And by that, I mean that I wish I were still pumping out subs like you. Don't let yourself run out of steam like me!).
Very nicely done! As the others have mentioned, a useful device for getting your PCs where you want 'em.
Well done, Ramhir! I agree with sver -- easily your best sub to date. I might even have a place for this in my campaign, so thanks for taking the time to write it up.
Shakes heads momentarily in disbelief, not for the quality of the post but because of the fact the dream was of sheep and not Llamas. Most know that the Strolenati are spawned from a race of super intelligent Llamas that direct the world and collect knowledge. Sheep is just so far fetched when you take this into account. In my mind I read Llama whenever Sheep was mentioned and it made MUCH more sense.
:)
I like them, but the term Strolenati has been taken already by the elite group of crack-pot muses that keep this place together. However, I like to imagine these sheep as our little experiment. A race of sheep that was created to act as a library of sorts by an ancient sect of knowledge-bearers. I would like to rework this into something a little more useful and with my own spin, if you don't mind. Solid 3, but .5 for inspiration.
The Mountain Sheep of the Strolenati
Many, many moons ago, as told by the Elders, we, The Sheep, inherited a great deal of knowledge from The Dreamers, They came to us and lay in our fields, staring into the starry night sky all fixated upon a single focal point, an unknown point in the blackness of space. The Dreamers dreamed, with eyes wide open, and we ate of the grass that surrounded their heads. The Ones who ate are now known as The Elders, immortal sheep whose knowledge surpasses that of even the most brilliant human sages.
Their spawn now make up the remainder of our tribe. The powers of the spawn are not a great, yet still impressive. They have a limited range of telepathy among other sheep, and the power of Thought Transfer, or The Sacred Mind Bond not to be done with lesser beings.
The Elders share a dark secret that not even their young spawn know of or could even imagine. They watch the world through the minds of mortals. Humans, Orcs, and Dwarves, their kin and their ilk, provide The Elders with many insightful ideas and musings that they have no outlet for. The Elders, content with this, speak to to each other of the race they have been gifted the insight into, for each elder can only see the mind of a certain bloodline of mortal beings. And through these ties, their view the world, chronicling and debating the history of mortals past, present, and future, in hopes that The Dreamers will return to collect the knowledge and relieve them of their burden.
Turn these sheep into the creators of the world encompassing Illamanati that are trying to bend the world to their own design slowly and methodically.
Not too shabby for a drug-induced epiphany (not that I'm endorsing the use or abuse of narcotics toward such ends). A herd of sheep with a collective awareness and intelligence would prove interesting. I could see a number of humorous applications for this during travel. The party somehow gets on the bad side of one of the elder sheep (perhaps they try taking pot-shots at it or kicking it off the mountain trail). From then on, all sheep in the region seem to have some sort of vendetta against them. When they go to bed down, nearby bleating keeps them up all night. When they wake in the morning, groggy, their equipment has been chewed up... lots of interesting and comical possibilities here.
3 (Solid post) + 1 (originality) + 0.5 (personal like)
This is a complete post: Proper back story, proper twist, can be integrated into any world.
I think even though this in a changed form could be used in game, it should be more viewed philosophically and comically. I f the writing style was just a bit better, it'd qualify for a 5 in my view...
Good job! :)
Oh, and any roleplaying and backstory oriented player might enjoy just hearing of these... :)
Locations (Establishment) (Any)
A very well written inn, it reminds me of the Tardis from the Dr. Who television series, (especially with it being larger inside then out) which is a pretty neat concept to see adapted to a fantasy setting.
A solid sub with lots of potential for campaigns where the gm is tired of lengthy overland travel, or wants to let adventures explore far off lands without spending several weeks on a ship or caravan.
Seeing a few plot hooks added to the sub revolving around the featured npc's or other difficulties the inn could find itself in, (such as appearing on the outskirts of a town in the middle of being invaded/razed by an enemy army or pirates) would add even more to the usability of the sub.
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