So, one of the things that old me has a dislike for doing but young me loved to do was draw intricate city and town maps. I just don't have the patience for it these days, but I used to grab a pad of 10 to an inch graph paper and just start designing a place.

In the years since, I ended up doing a lot of infrastructure related analysis work, including for city planners and large scale project architects.  Not to the point where I am an expert in all the plumbing and electrical and all that crap that lies beneath our streets, but in the sense that I understand how the infrastructure of our daily lives interfaces with how we live those lives and how we think and feel as a result.

Well, when designing the world, one thing I opted to do was not create city, town, village, Hamlet, or steading maps. I describe them in very loose terms and general info, but I realized when writing the Daisy story that I needed to know more about the ways that the cities operated and all of that, and so I just finished essentially creating the core infrastructure unit for the cities and towns.

I now know how many room there are in a Tenement (apartment building), that they have Water Towers and Wells, and water towers are not used for drinking water at all, That they have people operated pumps and pipes that go up along the outside of buildings. That I screwed up in describing the Cesspit in the Daisy story, although it would in fact be a great place to dump a body, but would be discovered the next shift or day because they stir that stuff and add things to it and then they turn it into compost that is delivered to the fields beyond the city walls.

I know how markets are set up, roads are laid out,  and I discovered they have bath houses, lol. I also know how much to charge adventurers who decide to take a room in a tenement. WHich, really, is based on Daisy's one room space, lol.

Took six pages to lay it all out.

Super nerdy, I know, but I love it. WHen I get back to daisy's story I can have even more cool stuff that filters in around the edges, and I think it will be a blast to look my players straight in the face and say "you gotta take care of your night soil." No, that does not mean I will make them do all of that stuff (like hauling it to the cesspit or to the public outhouse). It will be a joke that if they take me up on it I can run with, lol.

I know that feeling Dorsay, I used to teach a HS intro to architecture and civil planning class. Getting details even close to correct is a ton of work so I mostly let my “back brain” guesstimate that as I go.

Since the world build was fun...

Let's do another - same idea. Each person replies and fills in the next detail... And you can detail each section you answer, as much (or as little) as you want.

Name of the Adventure/Module:
Name Five Types of Creatures Found In the Module (detail as much as you want):
Name Five NPCs (race, class, names, up to you on the details):
Name the town that this adventure happens in or around:
What kind of dungeon, cave, sewer, etc., does the main adventure happen in:
How many levels to this dungeon, cave, sewer, etc. does this thing have:
Who or what is the main bad (can be a new NPC or new monster not mentioned or can be one of them):

Who wants to take the next question(s)? 

Quote from SirTawmis >>

What kind of dungeon, cave, sewer, etc., does the main adventure happen in:

 The cave system of the Floating Mountain where they will meet the big bad and discover what keeps the chunk of earth airborne. 

Quote from SirTawmis >>

How many levels to this dungeon, cave, sewer, etc. does this thing have:

The “luckiest” number of all: 13

A particularly quirky part of me wants to note that in order to reach the 13 level deep cavern system, the party must travel through the Vale of Shadowy Death, a place with immense stone "trees" that looks like a forest but with a winding, twisty pathway through it that constantly hides both the way forward and the way back, shrouded in a smoky, foggy mist that is perpetually obscuring anything beyond 30 feet, and within which one sees that passage and movement of shadows.

Quote from Wi1dBi11 >>

Name of the town: Etrianos - it lies in the greensward at the foot of the mountain. At one end of the town is the windmill, next to it but missing the driving link is the winch and hook. The windmill and the winch and hook have been there since before the village was founded. What the the hook was supposed to hold is unknown. The folk of the village have a recurring shared nightmare about the summit of the mountain but they can’t remember the details.

 I’d like to add that the village is called New Etrianos. There was once an old Etrianos and it was a large and thriving city. Unfortunately, it was built on the edge of a cliff which crumbled beneath its weight, destroying most of the city. There was only a small amount of survivors left and they rebuilt farther from the edge. Because only a few survived, New Etrianos is only a village and not a flourishing city like Old Etrianos. Near the edge of the mountain, there is the crumbled ruins of what is left of Old Etrianos. Townsfolk are unwilling to go there and only bandits frequent the place.

There's a cavern system with magical darkness AND a stone valley with obscuring mist? We really hate vision in this adventure.

OH, if you think we hate vision now, wait until you learn that part of the reason that the village had so few survivors is that most of them are blind or near blind, and deeply nearsighted, save for one very old man whose mother had taken him to visit relatives in the South, and returned to the ruins to find the city gone, and a few unseeing survivors of disaster., now, even he is losing his sight.

Quote from ChoirOfFire >>

There's a cavern system with magical darkness AND a stone valley with obscuring mist? We really hate vision in this adventure.

 Don’t forget the tribe of blind sahuagin.

Oh dear. I missed a lot of the fun…

I’ll tune in if I have more time!

Who will answer the last question?

Who or what is the main bad (can be a new NPC or new monster not mentioned or can be one of them):

Quote from The_Summoning_Dark >>

Who will answer the last question?

Who or what is the main bad (can be a new NPC or new monster not mentioned or can be one of them):

 
Lord Quing the Dark, the evil archmage who spread the magical darkness, and his even more evil nephew Loráng the darkknight.

So in the newly created world, we now have a newly created adventure!

Name of the Adventure/Module: The Floating Mountain.
The Floating mountain has three distinctive features: A windmill, a large greensward, and a large hook hanging from a winch.

Name Five Types of Creatures Found In the Module (detail as much as you want):

1. Aaracokra: these aggressive , xenophobic bird folk live in crater of the mountain, which was once a volcano. Their leader has been placed under a curse by the Creatures Below. They will only spare the party if they promise to save the leader of their village.
2. gargoyles: servants of evil earth, these stony foes have started swarming through a portal to assault the Aaracokra.
3. The Creatures Below: no one can see what these monsters look like because they live in the Twisting Caverns, where a magical darkness has rebases the area.
4. Sahaugin: in an underground lake lives a group of blind sahaugin who perceive things by echolocation. They hold a mystic artifact, guarded by The Tentacle
5. The tentacle: a mysterious slimy suckered tentacle that demands sacrifices every month on the new moon. In reality it is an kraboleth (kraken-aboleth) trapped under the lake bed with one tentacle free

Name Five TEN NPCs (race, class, names, up to you on the details):

Thundercrash Blacktalon, the hero of the aarakocra and the wife of the village's leader. She was struck by lightning while flying to the village from her original homeland, and fell to the earth aflame. Upon awakening, she had no memories. She's sworn to defend the village that saved her life, but the Creatures Below made it clear that if she intervened directly, they'd kill her husband. The others are not happy about her hesitation, but will never kill or exile her because every time lightning strikes on the mountain, it strikes her, and she's unharmed.

Crakk: Gargoyle jester. The only thing keeping the mad Gargoyle King from murdering his most trusted advisors and officers. Crakk is at his wit's end, and while he believes in the king's mission, he might betray him for the safety of the kingdom. Hasn't slept soundly in over a week, and habitually slips rock puns into his sentences even when he's trying to be serious.

Mad King Bol'dar: His original plan was to acquire the mystical artifact of the Tentacle. Upon arrival he discovered that it was no longer in the aarakocras' care, so he endeavored to coerce them into retrieving it for him. However, the king has lost his mind in the weeks since emerging from the portal. One of his most persistent hallucinations is that the floor is lava, and as he says, "the lava corrupts!" He orders his guards to kill anyone seen touching the ground, insisting that they have fallen under the control of a mysterious enemy. The aarakocra, he says, are the only conscripts he could trust (because they can fly), he just needs to capture enough of them to assault the Tentacle's forces.

Exorcist Zorm: A cleric of Moradin who was petrified long ago and recently restored to life by someone or something in the Twisting Caverns. This ancient dwarf allows the sahuagin to believe she was the victim of a basilisk, but the truth is that she experienced a prophetic vision centuries ago and petrified herself with divine magic, in order to be here when she was needed most. But what brought her back..?

The Hunter: High priest of the Tentacle, this sahuagin is tasked with collecting sacrifices. He resents the Tentacle's domination, and resents his commander for their choice to guard this place. Because of this resentment, he offers a head start to his victims along with a drug to suppress their psychic emanations -- without this, the Hunter's blessing of psionic detection would make the hunts a truly one-sided affair. The Hunter believes everyone should get a fair chance, even if the drug does induce a vicious sort of madness that makes it all but impossible for escaped sacrifices to rejoin any sort of community.

Artengu: Artengu is an aaracokra warrior who does not have a low regard for the other races like most of his people. He has red feathers and is an ancient hermit who is greatly skilled in blade craft. Not only does he create the finest blades with his Forge of the Five Winds, he also is a mighty swordsman that has trained many hero’s. He would have a stat block similar to a samurai fighter. 

Xaxatotl: A sahuagin with pale pinkish skin, unseeing eyes, and red gill frills. He lived with the sahuagin tribe in the underground lake, but when he was chosen as the sacrifice for the Tentacle, he fled to the city on the surface. Now he is a well known figure in the underground crime ring and leads a criminal gang.

Vaniro Da Laritico: A well known artist and inventor, he lives in a secluded tower on the edge of the mountain. There are rumors that he has created living machines and carriages that can fly, but he does not receive many visitors and it can be hard to tell fact from fiction. He would have a stat block similar to an artificer and his inventions would be reminiscent of Da Vinci’s style.

 Delacino Harabod: A gold Dragonborn, Harabod is a merchant who travels in her hot air balloon. She carries many exotic trinkets and specializes in maps of the island. She also has many pet pseudodragons who she has trained to be very obedient.

Miss Caterina Von Dunmore: An eccentric halfling woman, Caterina owns a wealthy estate on the mountain. She rarely resides in her estate, and prefers to explore the caverns of the mountain.

Name the town that this adventure happens in or around:

Etrianos - it lies in the greensward at the foot of the mountain. At one end of the town is the windmill, next to it but missing the driving link is the winch and hook. The windmill and the winch and hook have been there since before the village was founded. What the the hook was supposed to hold is unknown. The folk of the village have a recurring shared nightmare about the summit of the mountain but they can’t remember the details.

 I’d like to add that the village is called New Etrianos. There was once an old Etrianos and it was a large and thriving city. Unfortunately, it was built on the edge of a cliff which crumbled beneath its weight, destroying most of the city. There was only a small amount of survivors left and they rebuilt farther from the edge. Because only a few survived, New Etrianos is only a village and not a flourishing city like Old Etrianos. Near the edge of the mountain, there is the crumbled ruins of what is left of Old Etrianos. Townsfolk are unwilling to go there and only bandits frequent the place.

What kind of dungeon, cave, sewer, etc., does the main adventure happen in:

The cave system of the Floating Mountain where they will meet the big bad and discover what keeps the chunk of earth airborne. 

How many levels to this dungeon, cave, sewer, etc. does this thing have:

The “luckiest” number of all: 13

Who or what is the main bad (can be a new NPC or new monster not mentioned or can be one of them):

Lord Quing the Dark, the evil archmage who spread the magical darkness, and his even more evil nephew Loráng the darkknight.

That's a DMs Guild bestseller right there, lol

Quote from AEDorsay >>

That's a DMs Guild bestseller right there, lol

 
Well, it will be when it’s finished.  Now we need the map!

If I can grab a moment to take a break, I might just fire up Inkarnate sometime soon and do the top level, lol.

Suggestion: the sahuagin are divided into 2 or 3 factions. The largest (about half the population), which is currently in control, reveres the Tentacle as a god. The stronger of the two remaining factions detests the Tentacle and wants to leave the Mountain altogether, but they can't obtain enough influence in the leadership to make it happen. The sahuagin of the smallest faction are reclusive and mysterious; they're recipients of visions from some outside power that's slowly corrupting the sahuagin. It wants the mystic artifact and to destroy the mountain - but the corrupted sahuagin don't even know what it wants (only that they are to build up their influence quietly in order to take possession of the artifact), much less why....

I honestly want this to be a campaign.

What I love is showing off how everyone in this thread has all this creative energy in them.

It's really cool to see.