Sunday, November 3, 2013

Cities of Urbis - Building Bodenwald, Part IX

Continued from Part VIII...

Yet another Munich district, Aubing-Lochhausen-Langwied, was created by joining several smaller communities together. There is mention of a planned residential area named Freiham which will be built near Gut Freiham, a former noble estate which was once used by sheep farming. The entry for the latter also mentions a "childless count" whose distant heirs eventually sold the estate after he died. A scenario presents itself: A consortium of wealthy real estate speculators of Bodenwald want to build a large new residential neighborhood in this still largely rural district - but the heart of the area is pasture land owned by an aging, childless Count who refuses to sell no matter what. His distant heirs seem far more amenable to a sale, but the Count acts as if everything that happened since the Feudal Ages is one huge mistake and refuses to listen to even the most generous offers. One of the speculators or the heirs might be tempted to hasten the demise of the old man...

But not all is what it seems - the Count is secretly a worshiper of Cryelis, and the ghosts of his ancestors (who are buried on the estate) are literally haunting him not to sell the land. The Count realizes that his days are numbered, though - and to prevent the graves of his ancestors (not to mention his own) from passing into the hands of unbelievers, dug up and discarded so that peasant homes can be built, he is now seeking a young bride of good lineage with whom he can sire an heir. While his wealth makes him an attractive bachelor despite his advanced age, such a bride is unlikely to know what she is getting herself into...

The PCs can enter this drama on any side - on behalf of the speculators, the heirs, the Count, a would-be bride or just as random bystanders who stumble into the crossfire.

Aubing mentions the Dachauer Moos, a large mire in the area, parts of which were gradually drained to make way for settlements and agriculture. Let's assume that this process is ongoing in Bodenwald, and that it uncovers bog bodies from time to time... some of which might dead, but not the restful type. A mummy of an ancient chieftain of the area might haunt the mire, and be rather confused about how the region has changed over more than a thousand years. Its goal might be to get a proper burial mound at the site of  his ancient village (long since built over) which was denied to it when it sunk into the bogs instead of being buried with honor (incidentally, there are details about ancient burial sites in Aubing in the entry for the history of the area).

There used to be a "Chemical Factory Aubing" which we can transform into an Alchemical Factory without breaking a sweat. A likely problem is alchemical wastes leaking into the bogs. There are remains of a motte-and-baily castle, which now has the delightful name Teufelsberg - "Devil's Castle". Nobody is quite sure how it got the name, but I am sure I can come up with something suitably devilish for Urbis.

The entry for Langwied mentions that in 1908 someone found a pot with 1700 old Roman coins, a number that increased to more than 2000 after others searched the area. In Bodenwald these would of be Atalan coins. The find was recent, and now there is a local treasure hunt going on as others attempt to find more coins. Possibly there is even an old Atalan dungeon somewhere in the area...

The district entries for Allach-Untermenzing and Feldmoching-Hasenbergl have nothing of interest. The Laim entry mentions that numerous families from South Tyrol recently settled there. I'm not sure what the equivalent in Urbis would be - Siebenbund halflings? I am amused by the fact that this is the first district entry that mentions where the local red light district is, though I am sure it's far from the only one in a city of that size...

Anyway, that's it for the districts of Munich. And I think that's enough material for me to get started with writing up the individual Bodenwald district and coming up with a rough district map for the city. After that we can figure out what's still missing from our city writeup...


To be continued...

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