Aerial Adventure Guide and Áereth?

[Argamae]

I own the Sky Captain's Handbook (Aerial Adventure Guide Compilation) and I LOOOOVE it. It has such scope and style - wonderful! I am currently thinking about dropping it "into" or rather "onto" Áereth for my players to discover at some point. Do you have any "official" suggestions for this - or maybe even thought about ways to place it there as well?
I'd love to hear your comments...

[Jeff LaSala]

I knew I should have picked up the Aerial Adventure Guide last GenCon. I just don't know enough about it, but just off the top of my head I'd say there's a lot of potential for cloud giants and cloud cities in Áereth. Read chapters 1 and 2 of the GM's Guide to get info about how the giants fit into the world.

There's plenty to do with dragons, sphinxes, and rocs, too, in the aerial world.

[Argamae]

Thanks for the post, Jeff. Your comment gave me an idea...

... maybe the players will stumble upon a more "remote" part (think: "Lost Land") of Áereth (and there are lots of very remote parts to begin with) and find that in ancient times - in the wake of destruction from Aeshotal and the War of Divine Right - elder elven leaders used high magics to escape the flooding and annihilation of the ancient foresthome and fled to the skies. They vowed never to set foot again on that scarred earth which will forever be the burial place of their ancestral home and now keep their contact with land-bound races to a minimum. (This helps explain why scarcely anyone knows about the Sky Realms). They constructed the sky city of Serraine (as described in SKY CAPTAIN'S HANDBOOK) and other races followed them - or were "rescued" by them (which explains why there are others skyfaring races as well).
As for adventure or a threat - maybe there are still warlike descendants of that ancient Aeshotal who vie for control over the sky so they can then dominate the land. Hm. Sounds very epic. Think I will give this one a thought...
What do you think?

[Jeff LaSala]

I think that's excellent, Argamae. Now I wish I'd come up with it.

Yep, the War of Divine Right was back in a time when more epic powers were wielded. I can easily see a splintered group of elves flee to the skies. Are these sky elves from the Aerial guide anything like the avariel elves from the Forgotten Realms?

They vowed never to set foot again on that scarred earth which will forever be the burial place of their ancestral home and now keep their contact with land-bound races to a minimum. (This helps explain why scarcely anyone knows about the Sky Realms.)

I'd think the cloud giants would know about them, but cloud giants keep their own secrets. If you do involve the Lostlands, then you've got to bring in the sphinxes! They once had a great exodus from the lands, after the fall of the Sphinx Queen, but what if part of your epic campaign involved their return? Lots of fun questions ensure: What societal (and economic) implications would this bring? Where did the sphinxes go exactly? What prompted their return? Read the nation entry for Xa Deshret and you'll see what kind of fun you can have with the second rise of the Khonsurian Empire.

Also, are the sphinxes united? Or are there factions? Perhaps the androsphinxes are the only ones not bent on domination? And the ultimate question: what of Ankharet, the Sphinx Queen herself, imprisoned in her tomb? Whoever gets to her first determines the outcome: she either rises again, a demigod and pharoahess...or is slain at last?

Heh...I think I may be getting off topic now. But still, flying elves vs. hieracosphinxes is too cool an image to ignore!

[Argamae]

Now you've got me REALLY pondering about this little thought! And please - feel free to go off topic if you feel like it

If you don't mind, let's continue a little "what if" and brainstorming...

Are these sky elves from the Aerial guide anything like the avariel elves from the Forgotten Realms?

First of all: I don't know the avariel elves from the FR setting (never really read into it, I was more into the old Greyhawk and Mystara stuff). From the description, the Sky Elves once were just elves bored with the forest existance and looking for a change, basically. Finally the elf god Laelus (wind and storms) took pity and made for them to live among the skies. All in all they are more practical thinking than their ground-dwelling brethren and physically somewhat larger.
That about sums it up.

But going with my earlier thought I find it far more interesting to change the history of how they became sky elves (make it a little more "tragic" and injecting a little pathos). And in the age - as you said - mighty magics were far more common. So one could also imagine that the whole sky REALMS (namely the floating masses of earth and rock) have their origin in those time. Maybe the magical devastation which took entire islands and buried them beneath the waves and rockslides also levitated chunks of them up into the air!? There could be pockets of "raw" eldritch power (crystals, maybe?) within the floating land masses that keep them up (much like anti-grav). And thinking further - maybe those raw crystals are extremely powerful in their own right and some underground races mine for them... causing sky island to slowly sink while more and more crystals are being mined? Think of cool adventures around this theme alone!

I'd think the cloud giants would know about them, but cloud giants keep their own secrets.

Concerning the cloud giants - I love the idea; especially since I really dig the Aeshotal story and those of giants in general. So I would almost certainly involve them. It could be them through whom the characters would learn about the sky realms... maybe the cloud giants are the only caretakers "in the know" of the lofty lands, having vowed to defend the sky if ever there should be ground-dwelling races trying to seize them?

If you do involve the Lostlands, then you've got to bring in the sphinxes! They once had a great exodus from the lands, after the fall of the Sphinx Queen, but what if part of your epic campaign involved their return?

Sphinxes are also such great creatures that hardly get an interesting treatment in most settings or adventures, so you got my sympathy on that topic as well. And I just love their part in the history of Áereth as described in the GM's Manual. Since the Aerial setting already features "winged lions" its not hard to imagine sphinxes instead or alongside them. And following your suggestion, I read the Xa Deshret entry and immediately conjured up an idea... imagine a sky ship with or in the service of, sphinxes would crash land in the lands of the nalvor by sheer accident? It could lead to potentially devastating effects - the nalvor might take the ship and its crew as a divine omen: their long lost masters are finally returning! Maybe the downed sphinxes would recognize the signs of their once great empire - and start acting as "returned gods" who would then command the nalvor into building a new empire which could eventually affect larger parts of Áereth?
Many other possibilities come to mind...

[Jeff LaSala]

In the Monster Manual, cloud giants are "Usually neutral good or neutral evil," so take advantage of that: they can be both helpers or enemies. They should be both, at times. A faction of helpful giants...and plenty of bad ones. Stormcloud giants. And you can bet that the bad ones probably see Aeshotal as an iconic hero of giantkind.

Yeah, I'm not wild about elves just getting bored with the forest and taking the sky (though I'm sure there's a little more to it than that). Tragedy always begets cool things, good and bad. So go with your idea that it began with the War of Divine Right. Are sky elves winged, or do they just have magic of flight?

Here's another possibility. Most elves revered the goddess Ireth, the Starmistress, deity of forests and the night sky. What if, during the crisis at the end of the War of Divine Right, elven priests of the god Shul or perhaps even Madrah (they'd have a different name for him, though), became suddenly outspoken. They used all the power at their disposal to do just what you were suggesting, take pieces of their dying cities and float them up—lest they be swallowed by the fire and the sea.

So you could have little understood magic, the same kind that floats the cloud giants' castles, hold aloft remnants of Ahna-Vithyre. They suspended themselves high above the earth, but had little power left to defend themselves for a very long time, until their numbers could grow again. For their own survival, they'd have to remain insular and secretive. Hence, not many on Áereth know about them.

But of course there'd still be rumors. Strange sightings of elf-like angels, pieces of their floating keeps breaking off now and then*? How odd would it be to find a castle spire in the middle of one of the Lostland deserts? Most folks would assume the sands parted to reveal a piece of a ruin beneath the earth...no one thinks to look up. Maybe there's even an aerial/Áereth take on Area 51. A fortress somewhere on the ground that serves an the aerial elves' enclave to the ground world. Very hush hush, of course.

*Maybe that's the current crisis. Maybe the magic's failing, and so the aerial elves are hiring adventurers (the PCs, of course!) or going themselves (if the PCs are aerial elves) to find the old lore to keep their castles afloat. Too much was lost back in year 0. Most likely the secrets of that ancient magic is buried far beneath the waves of the Lirean Sea.

So either the elves find the ancient magic lost with the fall of Ahna-Vithyre, or they have to bargain with or steal from the cloud giants, who've been doing the floating-above-Áereth for a lot longer. Either way, it's a race against time. Eventually those flying elf fortresses are going to come crashing down!

And that's all not counting the sphinxes. There's a lot you can do with them.

[Argamae]

Jeff - you got me REALLY intrigued about all this.
For now, I planned to insert the Sky Realms at some future point. But with the creative juices pumping that might very well happen sooner than expected. Great ideas you got there... the take on Area 51 is particularly cool...
Thanks a lot!

And by hinting that the Lirean Sea might hold untold secrets of ancient magic, one might become intrigued into not only looking to the sky... but also beneath the waves... I like the idea that in order to help those who are so high above the earth it is necessary to travel to the deepest parts... into that dark world of deep sea horror!

I'll be back tomorrow when I have given all of this some time to think over. Cheers!

[Jeff LaSala]

looking to the sky... but also beneath the waves

This could also generate some cool, in-game riddles or prophecies. Something elemental sounding, involving air and water.

[Argamae]

It seems that I have a long-term campaign goal now.
Let's see if I can get all of this wrapped up nicely in easy-to-swallow bits.

The more I read into the descriptions of all the nations and geographic features of the Áereth Gazetteer, the more all sorts of ideas just spring to mind. You really got a lot of cool stuff in there, no doubt. I like the mix of some clichéd material and the nice little twists you've put on them.

For now, the group is travelling across the Theocracy of the Lance. Do you think that it might be interesting to others if I put some sort of blog of my ongoing campaign online?

[Warduke]

absoultely! i love reading about adventures in dcc world

[Argamae]

absoultely! i love reading about adventures in dcc world

Alright, done! Put it in DUNGEON CRAWL CLASSICS. Thanks for your interest.