Quote from The_Summoning_Dark >>

I honestly want this to be a campaign.

 I mean if you've got players....

To me, the best stories are the ones with a fundamental degree of wonder injected into them. Sure, you could have a romp around the countryside, fighting archmagi and sahuagin and gargoyles and whatever else. Or, you could do the same thing, but on a mountain that's floating in the sky.

I don't think dragons have been incorporated into this story yet, and I was recently researching the Hanging Gardens of Babylon so here's this: 

Lady Caterina Von Dunmore discovered a giant egg on one of her adventures and brought it back to her home as a curiosity. The egg turned out to be that of a blue dragon and hatched into an adorable little wyrmling. Caterina decided to keep the dragon because she believed it could be trained as a pet, not realizing how intelligent and cunning it would become. The dragon continued to grow in size so she constructed the Hanging Gardens of Dunmore, a terraced garden that hangs from the bottom of the Floating Mountain, to house it away from civilization. She filled the garden with wonders that she collected from her travels in order to amuse the growing dragon and fill its hoard, but it always demanded more and threatened to leave and unleash its draconic might on the people of the mountain. Dragon sightings have been reported and Lady Caterina has disappeared. The party must find the Hanging Gardens which the dragon uses as its lair, infiltrate it, and slay the dragon. 

Quote from The_Summoning_Dark >>

I don't think dragons have been incorporated into this story yet, and I was recently researching the Hanging Gardens of Babylon so here's this: 

Lady Caterina Von Dunmore discovered a giant egg on one of her adventures and brought it back to her home as a curiosity. The egg turned out to be that of a blue dragon and hatched into an adorable little wyrmling. Caterina decided to keep the dragon because she believed it could be trained as a pet, not realizing how intelligent and cunning it would become. The dragon continued to grow in size so she constructed the Hanging Gardens of Dunmore, a terraced garden that hangs from the bottom of the Floating Mountain, to house it away from civilization. She filled the garden with wonders that she collected from her travels in order to amuse the growing dragon and fill its hoard, but it always demanded more and threatened to leave and unleash its draconic might on the people of the mountain. Dragon sightings have been reported and Lady Caterina has disappeared. The party must find the Hanging Gardens which the dragon uses as its lair, infiltrate it, and slay the dragon. 

THis is Shocking!

And with iit requiring them to take that one secret tunnel off the 7th level of the caverns, they may have a much harder time accomplishing that than they realized! Why, they might even have to face that clockwork golem that guards the entrance, now that the once wonderful steps to it were destroyed in the Old City's collapse....

Also, don't forget that thisis a mountain that is sitting ther in the air! 

Such a thing is doubtless to be of great and grand importance o that group of mages who want to take it and move it to help them in their civil war in a distant land.

And we should not forge the stories that are told of a band of hardy adventurers -- an Elf known for his power with a bow, an axe wielding dwarf, a human warrior, a halfling warrior-rogue, and the beautiful human wizard who are said to have gotten lost in the caverns in ages past (and I am stealing this straight from the images I am looking at in my copy of the 1e DMG under the random dungeon tables).

Quote from AEDorsay >>

Quote from The_Summoning_Dark >>

I don't think dragons have been incorporated into this story yet, and I was recently researching the Hanging Gardens of Babylon so here's this: 

Lady Caterina Von Dunmore discovered a giant egg on one of her adventures and brought it back to her home as a curiosity. The egg turned out to be that of a blue dragon and hatched into an adorable little wyrmling. Caterina decided to keep the dragon because she believed it could be trained as a pet, not realizing how intelligent and cunning it would become. The dragon continued to grow in size so she constructed the Hanging Gardens of Dunmore, a terraced garden that hangs from the bottom of the Floating Mountain, to house it away from civilization. She filled the garden with wonders that she collected from her travels in order to amuse the growing dragon and fill its hoard, but it always demanded more and threatened to leave and unleash its draconic might on the people of the mountain. Dragon sightings have been reported and Lady Caterina has disappeared. The party must find the Hanging Gardens which the dragon uses as its lair, infiltrate it, and slay the dragon. 

 

THis is Shocking!

And with iit requiring them to take that one secret tunnel off the 7th level of the caverns, they may have a much harder time accomplishing that than they realized! Why, they might even have to face that clockwork golem that guards the entrance, now that the once wonderful steps to it were destroyed in the Old City's collapse....

 Precisely

You did groan a the "shocking", right? Tell me you groaned. Please!

Yes

Quote from AEDorsay >>

You did groan at the "shocking", right? Tell me you groaned. Please!

 It was more of a chuckle. 

I honestly don’t think I’ve ever immediately loved an adventure setting/premise as much as this, and we’re barely getting started. What we have already could easily be a very full campaign.

’Course, I can’t use it at the moment because my current campaign is at its very beginning and we’re lucky to play once every 2 or 3 months….

Quote from Helmut_McQuack >>

’Course, I can’t use it at the moment because my current campaign is at its very beginning and we’re lucky to play once every 2 or 3 months….

Oh no! That sucks.

Quote from IamSposta >>

Quote from Helmut_McQuack >>

’Course, I can’t use it at the moment because my current campaign is at its very beginning and we’re lucky to play once every 2 or 3 months….

Oh no! That sucks.

 I mean, it is what it is. *shrug*

Even worse is that I have plans for multiple subsequent campaigns connected to the first. I'll get to 'em eventually... though I should probably write more of my ideas down, lol.

For a very early rough draft (click to embiggen).

I am thinking that the Sahuagin factions are based on opposite sides, and conflict *beneath*. I will do a rough "area" on this one, then do a section map for the "new" and probably three section maps for "old" (represented by the ugly areas).  Will add in some forest areas (there's a lake and  swamp right now) and that weird little pointy bit along the bottom is where I will put the winch.

Was thinking the "bridged" chunks where the old city fell off are still unstable, but the magic that keeps the mountain up above the waters is still there so they stay either floating (islands) or bridged and ready to crumble.

Two entrances.  Used a pretty tight grid to make it easier to do section maps, but no scale yet -- will do that once I do the sections and start to paint in the terrain "colors". 

Will also try to do a "from the side", showing how the lower section is large enough for a complex series of caverns and the mountain rises majestically above the base (with four little mountains that sorta poke down as well).

Suggestions, feedback, everything you know the drill

Dammit, now my brain is going, lol.

So, some of the Sahuagin are trapped in the hanging gardens, having tried to get in during a storm not too long ago (a cyclone or hurricane or something that really lifts the waves). Which means it is also partially flooded, which has the pretty little pet feeling pretty lotta upset. They also discoverd the three clockwork golems -- Hickory, Dickory, and Dockory -- and now Dockory lies in pieces *but is still functioning and aware*.

This means we can introduce weather effects, as well. And even a "countdown" sort of thing if we want (a new big storm is coming! tis the season, y'know!)

Also, to get the mcGuffin, the seafolk have decided the townsfolk are a bother because they keep whining about monsters and curses andand of course they are useless for mining or digging-- they can't see any darn thing.

I feel like there are at least three "linear" phases (arrival, town, caverns) but will set the map up to allow for a lot of little things (oh dear, my grandkids went off to play and I can't find or hear them! COuld you brave folks help?).

Lastly the town should be full of sculptors and similar artisans because that trope is just too good to pass up on, and gives us a way that the townsfolk support themselves (narrative basis).

Someone needs to figure out how the PCs *get* to it, lol.

I love Hickory, Dickory, and Dockory. Where did they come from? Are they made by the evil archmage? Ancient remnants of Old Etrianos? Created by Vaniro Da Laritico?

The map is cool. Do you know where New Etrianos is going to be on it yet? 

Kenku yearn for the ability to fly again so they would probably be drawn to a mountain floating in the sky. Maybe there is a group of kenku dwelling in a part of the ruins. They force the other criminal gangs to pay a fee to them or else they will use their favorite form of execution: The Plummet, the highly ritualized punishment of pushing someone off the mountain. Their king is a dark kenku assassin who wears a set of fake wings similar to how a human king would wear a crown. Maybe they have imprisoned Da Laritico in his tower, forcing him to craft a machine that will grant them flight. 

How did the party get here? That is a good question...

Quote from SirTawmis >>

Since the world build was fun...

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):

The caverns and such are the current state of a creatures circulatory system. It hasn't moved in hundreds of years so people forget that they live upon the back of an immense flying turtle.

The initial thought is that the bad is the anti-bodies of this creature when in truth, the bad is a cancer eating away at it.

Quote from The_Summoning_Dark >>

I love Hickory, Dickory, and Dockory. Where did they come from? Are they made by the evil archmage? Ancient remnants of Old Etrianos? Created by Vaniro Da Laritico?

The map is cool. Do you know where New Etrianos is going to be on it yet? 

Kenku yearn for the ability to fly again so they would probably be drawn to a mountain floating in the sky. Maybe there is a group of kenku dwelling in a part of the ruins. They force the other criminal gangs to pay a fee to them or else they will use their favorite form of execution: The Plummet, the highly ritualized punishment of pushing someone off the mountain. Their king is a dark kenku assassin who wears a set of fake wings similar to how a human king would wear a crown. Maybe they have imprisoned Da Laritico in his tower, forcing him to craft a machine that will grant them flight. 

How did the party get here? That is a good question...

 

 Those are good questions on the Golems, but I should note that I am leaving those answers up to others, lol.

New Etrianos will be about a third of the way between Old Etrianos and the Mountain, the hills being the place they decided was the edge of the deadly zone. Also about as far as they could go, given they can't see any better than I can, lol.

someone said "campaign" and I always think of a campaign as multiple Adventures so I am thinking about what we could do.

I will lay claim to the culture of the Etrish people, though, unless someone beats me to it!

Edit: I should note that I am spending this current evening *also* working on contracting a disease, and the effects of diseases. Given that there is a 1% chance each of contracting such wonderfully cinematic diseases as Andromede (andromeda strain), Ripley (King's Dreamcatcher, but with a hint of Alien), Trips (King's The Stand), Geostigma (that FF movie), and Timethief (ages you one year for a week) I am feeling as if I am evil and cruel. But one is a lot more likely to contract Influenza (the prior are all a single number on a d% table, the flu is 36 to 96), a day long stomach flu, or a high fever (5 to 35 combined) I don't feel near as bad as I would if there wasn't cure disease available, lol.

(I should also note that I am unlikely to use these rules unless it sorta helps in the story, but better to have than not ;))

Hold on, there seems to be some miscommunication - is this mountain floating on an ocean or in the sky?

Quote from AEDorsay >> 

Edit: I should note that I am spending this current evening *also* working on contracting a disease, and the effects of diseases. Given that there is a 1% chance each of contracting such wonderfully cinematic diseases as Andromede (andromeda strain), Ripley (King's Dreamcatcher, but with a hint of Alien), Trips (King's The Stand), Geostigma (that FF movie), and Timethief (ages you one year for a week) I am feeling as if I am evil and cruel. But one is a lot more likely to contract Influenza (the prior are all a single number on a d% table, the flu is 36 to 96), a day long stomach flu, or a high fever (5 to 35 combined) I don't feel near as bad as I would if there wasn't cure disease available, lol.

(I should also note that I am unlikely to use these rules unless it sorta helps in the story, but better to have than not ;))

 Diseases can be great for plot hooks. I created a disease that plagues the avian races (aarokocra, owlin, kenku) called chicken pox. It slowly turns the bird folk into large chickens and so far the only cure comes from a rare tree with feathers for leaves. I know it's silly and I doubt I will ever actually use it, but it is fun.

Quote from Helmut_McQuack >>

Hold on, there seems to be some miscommunication - is this mountain floating on an ocean or in the sky?

 Apparent, it is floating in the sky over an ocean...

Also, Still very rough (I usually go in and tweak at detail stage after I am happy with the rough), but...

Sahuagin camps are in place, New town is in place, the stone trees are in place, the Kenku settlement is in place, and if this is a giant turtle whose whole body is covered, then the hanging gardens are in danger! 

Also, I won't be able to do the side view. 

Added some crevices, still haven't done painting yet.