Caislen Campaign Notes

Ancient Crompse is defined as being “ancient” by the following:

1. 800. The average lifespan of an Elf.
2. 6-8 Generations. The rate at which it takes DNA to reduce to water down from an original source based on real world science.
3. The assumption that Elves probably start breeding anywhere from 50 to 100 years into their lifespan.
4. The Crompse Causal Loop giving us the above to work with based on Jules becoming a descendant of Skip with 1% of his DNA.
5. Resulting in “Ancient” Crompse being set in a time period somewhere between 4800−6400 years prior to the start of this campaign.

Warning: These are really DM style notes, not a backstory or recap.

Ancient Crompse was created in an almost random manner involving scribbling a few notes on index cards, looking at a few random tables, asking not entire sober players to contribute the names of a few buildings they'd like to see, and other means. The only mandatory elements for this city going into a game session were that it be full of bandits & an NPC painter for the sake of the Crompse Causal Loop, have a Hag that could place curses as a fortune teller, have a carrot field and a coliseum or at least the start of one. That satisfied any off handed comments or hints about the place prior to the session, and as an ancient one shot visit scenario not much else mattered at the outset. Which is always fun for a Dungeon Master that wants to improvise a little instead of stick to rigidly set conditions. Anything lingering post session could be explained away as a victim of time and change.

So this city ended up with these highlights, which might be worth revisiting the concepts of later if/when The Party ever decides to visit MODERN Crompse. Some things could still be standing after thousands of years, or maybe they are not. So long as their are carrots and a coliseum, not much else matters unless it needs to.

• Gin Giant Tavern - if it was still standing thousands of years later it'd be an epic pub.
• “Mynt”, the name the players gave for the wood elf woman of loose moral character that would do the deed with Skip.
• “Goelle” the Hag/Fortune Teller - This is who cursed Skip. This would involve determining the lifespan of hags, which I have not really thought out. Her gimmick is to be used as a vehicle for the DM to put some tarot cards on the table and do readings for the player characters, which then mostly come true.
• “Vampire Duck-Troll” - Players were lured to a carrot field to fight a “vampire duck” because I had a rubber duckie vampire laying around. During combat one of them joked that maybe the duck is just the animal form, since they can normally turn into bats, and this one could be something bigger. So I grabbed a troll mini and showed it as the true form, thus a vampire troll that could turn into a duck for an animal form. Vampires are terrifying, but a vampire that also embodies a lot of troll traits, and is a bandit, is just terrible. They didn't have to kill though, instead they gave it 20 gold to buy its bandit friend and promptly left. Given that vampires are basically immortal, this thing could still be around today.
• The painter that creates the painting involved in the loop was a halfling named Cynthia. Not sure if that'll ever matter. However as part of game play Jules had her create a second painting for one of the bandits. This would have happened after the PCs returned to their normal time. To fill a loose end out there in the larger world of plots, this painting was of the bandit sorcerer “Chalula”¹⁾ that had a creepy fetish for burned hands and a little museum of them, because Jules said a painting of that was fine to get him to cooperate with the important painting first. What she never knew was that her likeness was also added to the painting by his request. This painting made its way to a random archive in Castle Caislen which is where Tod Fuzzybutt saw it one day in the distant future.
• Marble Statue of Ratri - This is based on a real world goddess legend. She is the personification of the night. And in this town was linked to those who roam in the darkness, like rogues/bandits. If there is any lingering bandit culture left in this town should the modern version be visited, this or newer incarnations of it could exist.
• Sodium Well - a well that was cursed at some point, probably by the hag noted as the fortune teller, so that it only produces salt water and is unsuitable for drinking. There's really no reason a curse would fade away over the years. It had a little offshoot tunnel 12 feet down inside of it where urchins were hiding.
• Map - one player character bought a map of the nearby area while they were here. It is the base map for the modern version as well. So that'll be useful if they return.
• PLATINUM BEAVER - this was the local bank. The owner of the bank was a wanted person and an undefined underling was running the bank. What is note worthy is Alimir deposited some gold here in a savings account that accrues interest. Obviously a tactic to come back in the Present and cash out a massive amount of money building up for thousands of years.²⁾
• A player suggested store was “Arcane Business Supplies” which didn't even get visited but would be damn fun to have in the future, somewhere, somehow.
• LIBRARY SPECIFICALLY OWNED BY A WIZARD - This was a player suggestion and they visited it.
  • I grabbed a mini-figure to improvise the wizard, which was probably of a halfling, but we couldn't be sure, and it was late. Somehow everyone insisted it wasn't a halfling, but rather a wizard that walks on their knees and we agreed this would be canon.
  • When Jules needed noble clothing for the painting in the Crompse Causal Loop she bartered with this wizard, who did not want money, but clearly had a decent wardrobe. This led to the very interesting decision by the players to barter the Ring Of Snakerection for the outfit. They very clearly explained the ring and its power to this wizard.
  • I told them because they were handing over such a thing to an NPC that they had to name the NPC, and because they'd given her a snake themed magical item they decided her name would be “Coral” as in coral snake.
  • As a final act when having the painting made I let them chose the background that would be painted in behind Jules and the bandits and they asked for “library.” Which would be modeled on this store that Coral runs.
  • So this leaves a vibe of a lingering connection, or a new stone as of yet to be unturned, because if you were to revisit the history of the Ring Of Snakerection you'd see that a Wizard long ago abducted an elf and not too far away from here…³⁾
• Note that it can snow here in winter, an observed fact from the session.
• Ancient/Crompse is located to the immediate west of Goldvale, but Goldvale did not yet exist when Ancient Crompse did.