Continued from this post.

Now we come to the major ongoing projects the city has running. With a solid base of 25 seeds, I choose the maximum of 5:

• Peaceful Nuclear Explosions
  
• Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Program
  
• Chinese Say They're Building 'Impossible' Space Drive
  
• RAK Convention and Exhibition Centre by OMA
  
• The Army's Totally Serious Mind-Control Project
  

Now, there aren't any nuclear weapons as such in Urbis (though see The Hole), so I have to get creative here. But aren't nukes seen as a "hellish" weapon? Maybe instead of using conventional, safe Golem technology, maybe they are using devices powered by devils (keeping in mind the warlocks and devils already lurking in the city). Possibly they are digging some canals in the region, since that was one of the proposed projects for the peaceful use of nuclear weapons as well (no, I'm not kidding).

While the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Program would be a cool patron or antagonist for adventurers, I've already used it as a source of inspiration elsewhere in Urbis (in Hogenrood and the infamous Mine Shaft 23, respectively) and so I'll just skip this. The "impossible space drive" is more interesting - in Urbis, there is already some exploration of the local Solar System, which was pioneered by the city of Bodenwald and the Astromantic Society. Basically, you have to get to an equatorial mountain range from which teleportation rituals to other planets are much cheaper than from elsewhere on this world, and from there you can establish further colonies. But each interplanetary teleportation is still very expensive - so any city-state which could improve on this project would have an enormous head start in interplanetary colonization (and exploitation) over the others. So, what could Nimdenthal attempt? How about an infernal stargate powered by devils that avoids the use of expensive ritual materials entirely but which can be keyed to pretty much any location the operators want? Really, what could possibly go wrong with this?

And the next entry gives us an idea just where this infernal stargate will be built, as it describes a convention center planned for the United Arab Emirates which looks pretty much like the Death Star (no, I'm not kidding - look up the article with the associated images). Now, using exactly the same appearance would be silly - but placing the "Hellgate" into a vast, circular building would be entirely appropriate in my opinion...

The Mind Control Project described in the article isn't that impressive in Urbis, as this can already be done with golems to a certain degree. So let's say that the good folks of Nimdenthal have developed a way of using "mind control helmets" to control devils as cannon fodder. Entirely appropriate for what other hell-tech the city has created, and it does nothing to help their popularity - just like intended.


Next up is the "Major Personalities" category, which translates into important NPCs dwelling in the city. Out of 24 seeds I'm choosing 8 and get:

• Robin Stephens
  
• Homer
  
• Douglas Corrigan
  
• P. T. Barnum
  
• Henry Okah
  
• Bertie Wooster
  
• Fafnir
  
• Abraham
  

A Robin Stephens figure would work well as a major investigator/interrogator of the more benevolent remnants of the pseudo-KGB agency - someone determined to root out the corruption of the city without succumbing to corruption himself. He could make a good ally or patron for a group of like-minded PCs. Homer, in contrast, doesn't really fit into the relatively "modern" ambience of the setting as a living poet. But maybe there is a major center of literary research in the city that centers on a particular (fictional) "classical" poet? And to make it more relevant to adventurers, what if his works are examples of Coded Myths which contain secrets of powers for those who can decipher them - including (of course) how to summon otherworldly entities?

Douglas Corrigan doesn't work for Urbis, as there is no real artificial flight except for spells and some very rare prototypes, so I'll just leave him out. P. T. Barnum, on the other hand, would work well - and to make his equivalent more important to adventurers, it might be a good idea to make him a major underworld figure, with the Grand Circus of Nimdenthal a neutral meeting ground for all underworld factions. Naturally, the circus has a few supernatural defenses of its own - including (of course) Monster Clowns.

The Henry Okah equivalent works well as another major underworld figure (we are piling them up here, aren't we)? He's likely active in the Protectorate, possibly in connection with all those horse gangs terrorizing it and keeping a major protection racket going there. Given how important the city considers its self-sufficiency, he will be seen as a major threat to the established order. Bertie Wooster, on the other hand, will work as a comic relief character - a rich heir who gets constantly into trouble and whom the PCs might have to rescue from it.

Fafnir, if we ignore the dragon form, is a dwarf who killed his father to gain his gold. So let's say the richest dwarf in Dartmouth is the son of the former Hidden King (the secret ruler of the dwarf population within a human city) who secretly murdered him to inherit the gold. He is not the new Hidden King - he is considered too shifty for that by the other dwarfs - but he might put his money to use as an underworld loan shark. Like Homer, Abraham doesn't really seem to work here as a living, active personality. But maybe a number of the Protectorates are descended from an Abraham-like figure - representing a splinter sect of one of the established religions which is popular within the region.


We already have lots of political issues apparent in the city so far. But as there's a separate generator with a whooping 107 seeds, we might as well more. Most of these are based on various real world news items, and let's see how we can make them relevant to our city. I pick the maximum of 10 seeds and get:

• In Wal-Mart's Image
  
• Piracy may hit Egypt's Suez Canal revenues
  
• Cult, police clash at Iraqi religious rites
  
• North Korea Has A Mission
  
• Mayor Resigns, Claims Abduction By Satan Worshippers
  
• 'Nazi hunt' launched in S America
  
• Dubai tourists warned over tough drug stance
  
• Witchcraft rumor sparks riot at Congo soccer game
  
• Block the Vote
  
• India Gains on China in Asia's Space Race
  

OK, let's see what we've got here. The first article is about the exploitative way Wal-Mart treats its labor. But Wal-Mart is very much a 20th century American company, so it wouldn't quite fit here. That being said, mistreatment of labor is certainly appropriate for an Industrial Age setting. Maybe there's some company which has recently fired most of its human staff and hired goblins instead, because they are the only ones willing to work under such poor conditions for so little money? Meanwhile, the piracy near the Suez canal can be translated into piracy along the rivers and canals near the city - presumably sponsored by our Henry Okah-like figure.

The clash involving police and religious factions at Iraqi cult sites can easily be converted to the Nimdenthal guard cracking down on certain cults operating within the city - some of which are likely in league with devils (such as our Lilith-analogue). But are the guards hitting the right sites? And even if they are, are they willing to deal with the uproar of the overall religious establishment within the city? The "North Korea Has A Mission" article describes the decaying state of the nation's special forces. The same could be true for the special forces of Nimdenthal - during the time of the previous dictatorship, they were widely feared in the region, but now they are suffering from poor funding and poor morale.

"Mayor Resigns, Claims Abduction By Satan Worshipers"... well, that just fits perfectly in our overal infernal theme for the city, doesn't it? But what's the true story here? Was the mayor an innocent victim of a devil cult? Or is he a former member and the cult was unhappy he turned on them? And when he was "rescued" - was still the same soul inhabiting the body as before? And what impact will that have on the government of the city - and its future?

The "Nazi hunt" can be translated into a hunt for the worst criminals of the old regime. This might not just be a matter of bringing villains to justice (though this might be enough to motivate player characters) - it could also mean finding the people who know where the bodies are buried, and burying them next to said bodies so that nobody else learns about them. Player character bounty hunters might get involved in a very lethal web of intrigue if they pursue this - and will have to wonder if they were ever intended to get the bounty in the first place after finding and eliminating their targets.

The tough drug laws of Dubai could translate into equally tough drug laws here - after all, many of the Flannish Cities are very firm on "public morality", or at least pretend that they are. It is more likely, however, that this is nothing more than the natives protecting their turf and getting the guard to cooperate with them. If foreigners who come here to seek out forbidden pleasures, are stupid enough to get caught, and don't know how to properly bribe the authorities... well, there is no helping some people, is there?

If there is a city in the region where you'd expect witchcraft to manipulate a sports event, then it's probably Nimdenthal from what we've learned. I haven't made up my mind if it's soccer or some other game that was manipulated, though - since I haven't really put any thought into the sports world of the setting. Soccer actually would be appropriate for the period I am aiming for, so maybe I should leave it like it is.

As a young "democracy" and generally very corrupt place, vote fraud should generally be expected here. And who was likely the biggest beneficiary of such fraud? The Mayor - who, as we have learned above, may or may not be under the influence of infernal forces...

We've already learned that Nimdenthal has its own way of approaching the fledgling space race of the setting. But maybe the city has already made a splash - perhaps a prototype Hellgate already exists, but it is still fairly unstable and can only open a connection once per day or so. Still, this is enough for a proof of concept and might make it possible to establish some first colonies on other worlds - giving the city some much-needed infusion of wealth, and allowing it to get the funding for the much larger and more stable Hellgate in the future Death Star building. Just as the devils have planned it...


"Dominant Terrain" is inapplicable here - I already know that Nimdenthal has a Central to Northern European climate. The "Economy" section suffers from far too few seeds to be useful yet, so I will skip it at well. This brings us to "Famous Locations", with 71 seeds. I choose the maximum 5 and get:

• Schools and Universities
  
• Big Well, Kansas
  
• Palisades Rathouse
  
• Bad Guy Bar
  
• Tara, Ireland
  

So Nimdenthal has some famous educational institution. It would be very appropriate if this represented a school for warlocks in particular, since there are so many of them around (and just what would Hogwart's look like if its students were all would-be devil summoners? Hmmm...). The "Big Well" could be an aborted attempt from an earlier age when the rulers believed that Sheol, the home plane of the devils, was located deep within the planet. But of course, all they were able to reach was Terra Profunda...

The Palisades Rathouse was always one of my favorite locations listed in the Arcana Wiki (a bunch of crazed old women seeing it as their religious Christian duty to feed millions of rats? How cool is that for an adventure seed!), and here it ties in nicely with the rat kings I rolled up earlier. So there is one major rat king spymaster who is attended to by old twin women who worship him and obey his every command - this should work nicely to unsettle visitors. Presumably, the rat king itself will be hidden by a curtain from behind which it sends its telepathic voice...

A "Bad Guy Bar" is, of course, a perfect fit for a city so full of Bad Guys. It will likely be known far beyond the city's protectorate, and serve as a neutral meeting ground for all sorts of shady business. I just need to come up with some sort of unique shtick to make it stand out...

On the other hand, an equivalent of Tara, the old seat of the High Kings of Ireland, doesn't fit into the city itself very well. But it works better for the Protectorate, as the ruins of an old center for the Henge Culture (see the "Regional History" section of the Flannish Cities entry) that dominated the region before the goblin hordes decimated it. Now, perhaps, it has been claimed by a more modern cult (one of many within the protectorate) who have rather fanciful motions about what really happened back then...


Now we come to the final part of the generator - the history of the locale.

• Yasukuni Shrine
  
• Meteor Impact
  
• Californians are sinking themselves
  
• Oprichnik
  
• Peshtigo Fire
  
• 14-year-old hit by 30,000 mph space meteorite
  
• Curse of Tippecanoe
  
• Doomsday Cult In Cave Stand Off
  

A Yasukuni Shrine equivalent is easy to establish - a location that serves as a memorial of the "heroes" of the previous regime which is still maintained despite that regime's atrocities. Similar parallels can be found among modern-day Russians glorifying the times of the Soviet Union, despite the many atrocities during that period. The new people in power might not like it, but they fear backlash should they openly move against it. Thus, the memorial endures and serves as a rallying point for the reactionaries - including many former "Oprichniks" (the fourth random entry) who would have been the thugs death squads of the former regime.

Two of the results revolve around meteorites. Let's tie this together with the "Doomsday Cult In Cave Stand Off" article, and we get the following: A few decades ago or so, a then-14 year old boy gets hit by a meteorite. But instead of giving him 15 minutes of fame, he gets strange powers - including the power to control the minds of others. He slowly builds a cult base (one among many) within the Nimdenthal Protectorate, and manages to turn agents of the former regime into his brainwashed slaves. The agencies of the regimes wise up when it is almost too late, but the witch hunt for the mind-controlled traitors is fierce and the final raid on the cult compound saps much of their remaining strength. Thus, they cannot maintain control and the city-state undergoes a revolution where a new government steps into the power vacuum.

Using the "Californians are sinking themselves" article, it can be assumed that the new government is not able to create a balanced budget - and that the citizens are also spending their money like there's no tomorrow. Quite possibly because they believe there is not going to be a tomorrow...

The "Peshtigo Fire" equivalent could be a historic event which was caused by some powerful devils running amok - in other words, it wasn't just a big fire that destroyed much of the city and the surrounding areas, but actual hellfire. You think the people of Nimdenthal would learn not to meddle with devils...

The "Curse of Tippecanoe" refers to how many American presidents who were inaugurated in certain years died in office. For Nimdenthal, I think I'm going to do something more direct - since the defeat of Negroth the Doombringer, the then-current leaders of Nimdenthal were gruesomely murdered in every thirteenth year. While gruesome murders are in itself not surprising for the city, given its sordid history and character, and many of the murders weren't in any way directly related to the work of some infernal cult, rumors do persist. The one exception was - last year, when the current mayor was abducted by an infernal cult (and everyone assumed that he was as good as dead) but managed to escape. But did he really manage to break the curse? Or did he come back... differently? Again, rumors persist...


Well, that's it for the basic framework of ideas and concepts that the generator has provided - and I have plenty of material now that I can flesh out further now. I hope you enjoyed the ride - and if you have any ideas and suggestions for the Random Nations Generator, I am all ears!