These are ideas, concepts, cameos, fragments and pieces of lore that can germinate and become a great adventure. They may sprout in any one of many different directions and can branch out to create a wholly unexpected ending. Use or abuse these adventure seeds as required!
The Advisor
Cassius Longinus is an eminent Ionian speaker and philosopher - he is also the advisor to Queen Zenobia. He has tutored her son and as she seeks advise on Imperial matters, Longinus has always been there to advise her and given her access to his repertoire of powers. He also lusts after his mistress.
He hates the desert, camels, flies and nomads of every kind, but his passion for this ‘Cleopatra of the Desert’ is unwavering.
Are You Not Entertained?
Touring the provinces and cities are acting companies, led by a manager (of varying abilities) and staffed either by trained slaves or freedmen, both men and women. Their most popular shows at the theatres of the towns and cities are pantomimes, where the actors mime
to singing, dancing and lots of music and extravagant special effects.
Sometimes the actors might have speaking roles. Masks are always worn and often depict stock characters (the wily slave, the old man, the boastful warrior etc). The public often demand more and more lurid and vulgar shows.
Intrigue always follows the touring company. They are treated poorly, much like the gladiators owned and rented out by their manager - the lanista.
The touring company may provide great cover for a group of Adventurers - especially since the actors wear elaborate costume and masks when on stage.
Theatres are always open-air and between the stage and the seating is a circular area (the orchestra) for the chorus to dance and sing. At the back of a stage is a well-built building frontage which is used in all of the performances as scenery. Actors retire to rooms separate from and behind this stage backdrop. The ‘Deus ex Machina’ is any elaborate contraption designed to create the special effect of divine intervention, the machines might cause actors to fly or disappear through the stage or vanish in a puff of smoke.
Cassius Longinus
MIGHT 2 COMBAT - 2 POWERS
FATE 4 Previous XP: Philosopher Measurement
HITS 22 Special Skills: Powers, Organize Compel Truth
CRAFT 4 Turn A Profit Potion of Aqua Vitae
LEARNING 6 Money: 1000 denarii Detect Lie
Culture: Imperial (Ionian) See Secrets
ARMOUR No Armour Languages: Fluent Ionian Potion of Aqua Somnus Fluent Imperial Potion of Telepathy
Basic Aramaic Potion of Pure Natron Basic Ancient
EQUIPMENT:
Small Library of Scrolls Alchemy Equipment
4 Potions of any of those can brew Bag of Stormsand
Scroll of Irem Golden Fly Necklace Magnifying Lens
Atlantis - the Sunken City
Fabled Atlantis was a rich trading island in the Aegean Sea. The Atlantean civilisation was fabulously wealthy, cultured and sophisticated, with sprawling palaces and mountain-top temples. But the gods destroyed Atlantis, forcing it below the waves.
Only the tiny island of Thera remains to indicate where Atlantis has sunk. That,
There beneath the seabed, the survivors of the catastrophe fight for survival against the Tritons, a cruel race of fish-men (think of the ‘Creature From The Black Lagoon’). Most of the city is under the seabed, and accessible by caverns and tunnels but in places the sea has flooded entire areas.
Babylon - Mother of Harlots
It was the ancient Seleucid king surviving Babylonians and settling them in nearby Seleucia-on-the-Tigris, the king hoped to save the remainder, as immense circuit walls. Rivers became moats on two sides. There were vast temples, palaces, fortresses and a towering ziggurat to Bel-Marduk the powerful patron god of Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar had done much to turn the city into the grandiose metropolis that it is remembered for. He also constructed its famous Hanging
Gardens for his homesick Persian wife.
But conquered by Persia, Babylon lost its shine and the Persians used their own cities for administration. Alexander the Great came to Babylon, but his successors, the Seleucids wanted to make a fresh start. A new rival, Seleucia-on-the-Tigris sprang up.
Babylon was doomed.
For five hundred years the ruins of the city have attracted unofficial settlers;
monsters of every kind, cultists who
have been expelled from their own cities, bandits, treasure seekers, the scum of the earth. It is said that the great treasures of Nebuchadnezzar are hidden in secret chambers within the priest of Thoth hires the Adventurers to steal a baboon from a merchant who is planning to sell the creature to the amphitheatre at Antioch. Although he won’t say why he wants it, it is because he believes the baboon to be very, very intelligent and blessed by Thoth (who can appear as a baboon).But what if the baboon doesn't want to be captured?
What if its owner is a gangster and the baboon controls the gang? And what is the true connection with Thoth?
Bad Beer
A farmer approaches the characters asking for help; the beer he brews is
trying to scare the farmer because the farmer accidentally killed his oldest son five years ago. More beer turns bad, little witch-craft statuettes are left at the farmer’s door, his cattle die in agony in the fields. Sorcery? The stranger’s other sons are actually carrying out a psychological campaign against the farmer. The ‘wizard’s’ sons will defend their father if need be. The characters will soon realise that the stranger has no powers and put a stop to the harmless (if terrifying) fear campaign. The stranger and his sons will be detained by the local noble for judgement. But the ‘hauntings’ continue... The farmer becomes distraught. The characters should discover the truth about the
In the hill-land south of the old Persian capital Susa stands an impressive stepped pyramid-temple (ziggurat) constructed by an ancient king called Untash-Napirisha. Surrounded by other, more conventional temples and a massive stone wall, the ziggurat was to be a symbol of the king’s new rule. But something happened - evil took hold of the ziggurat’s priests and the place was centurion at Fort Babylon (the legionary fort at Memphis) is keeping dead men
on the payroll and burial club. He is pocketing the moneys owed to these supposedly still living legionnaries (and cutting it with his deputy the signifer who is the century’s paymaster). For the sake of his friend’s widow he wants it sorted out and the dishonour brought to his comrades removed.
The Buried Tower
A rumour can be picked up from the Saraceni tribes and from merchant caravans about a tower standing out of a dune field in the Nafud Desert, and of a light that shines at its top at mid-day. descend into the sand? And what is that light? Maybe a reflection ...?
Caverns of Endor
The small hill-top village of Endor in Solyma is the home of the “Demon-Witch”. Her slight stone-tower does not seem threatening, but has tunnels that lead down into a maze of underground passages and caverns that eventually connect to the Underworld.! All manner of terrifying monsters and demons inhabit these caverns along with shades of the dead waiting for the subconscious call of the Demon-Witch. Some do not know not that they are even dead. All the tunnel’s inhabitants are at the beck and call of the Demon-Witch.
Cedar Mountains slay the mountain demon Humbaba. But the god lives still and is a terrifying embodiment of the violence of nature.
The Cedar Mountains are a forest-clad death-trap for the foolhardy. But its precious, aromatic wood fetches a high price for use in palaces and temples.
Can the Adventurers accompany a party of carpenters into the forest to fell some timber, make rafts of it, then float it down the river to safety, all the while fighting off attacks from malign supernatural entities?
Charon - The Reaper
Charon is the bald-headed and battle-scarred leader of the gladiators-turned-mercenaries called the Myrmidons. He is grim and fatalistic warrior, intensely proud of his rough men.
A Close Shave!
A hairdresser needs the Adventurers’
help. He recently attended to the wife of a local city magistrate. He was fitting her with a new wig in the current fashion made from the blonde hair of Gothic prisoners of war. He happened to overhear her husband chatting to a friend about a plot to poison one of the city’s senators. That night an assassin came into his barber shop and tried to silence him! He needs protection, and a way to get proof of the plot he overheard. The city senate must hear about this.
Elephant Island
The most southerly point of the Imperial province of Ægypt is Elephant Island, which sits in the middle of the River Nile opposite the frontier town of Syene. The island is one of several rocky granite islands standing in the
Nile. It marks a frontier region of granite outcrops and rocks sculptured by the swirl of the rapids into fanciful shapes. There are many quarries in the area also. The province depends on Elephant Island for trade, since it is home to a merchant colony trading in ivory and other goods from Golden Meroe and from Axum beyond. But beneath the island is a vast network of caves from which the Nile wells up each year to produce the inundation, the fertile flooding of the valley. These mystical caverns were created by the local god Khnum and are home to a whole variety of supernatural creatures, clustering around the magical waters.
Festival of Luna
On the 24th of Augustus a festival of Luna is observed. Most shrines and temples to Luna in the big cities also house a mundus or ritual pit that actually leads to the Underworld. On this day the cover is removed to allow the spirits of the dead to roam free. The day is holy and public business is forbidden. Perhaps the Adventurers might meet long dead friends and foes walking the streets. Very disconcerting!
The mundus is also opened up on the 5th of October and the 8th of November.
Fistfuls of Silver
A small walled village or town on the fringes of civilisation is currently home to two bandit gangs in hiding. Both are at war and the citizens of the village are suffering. When the Adventurers enter Charon
MIGHT 5 COMBAT +3 GEAR
FATE 5 Previous XP: Gladiator Shortsword +2
HITS 19 Special Skill: Killing Blow Spear +3
CRAFT 1 Money: 45 denarii Manicae -1
LEARNING 2 Culture: Imperial Helm -1
Languages: Fluent Imperial
ARMOUR Light
seeking supplies or help, they are drawn irrevocably into the feud. As they enter the village one gang has just kidnapped the daughter of the village chief. The villagers want the Adventurers’ help but can offer no reward. Soon after the kidnapping bandits try to hire the Adventurers to kill the rival bandit chief. Before they can do anything, this other bandit gang threatens to kill all the Adventurers and six innocent villagers unless the Adventurers murder the boss of their mortal enemies ...
Flocks By Night
A local farmer has had his sheep eaten or stolen (they have vanished). Who or what has been stealing them? The farmer hires the PCs to investigate.
They go with the shepherd boy to watch over the flock at night. There is little pay, perhaps a free meal and a sheep to take away for food or sacrifice. In actual fact the shepherd boy is the culprit - he is a werewolf but doesn't know it. The changes are not timed with the full moon as in Western mythology. A sound should distract the characters, the sheep become restless and the shepherd begins to round stragglers up. When they all return to the shepherd boy, all that is left is a patch of blood. Is he dead? Eaten? The group is then attacked by the werewolf springing from a nearby outcrop. When killed, the beast turns back into the boy, complete with wounds. The farmer, when told, tells the PCs with a heavy heart, that he took the boy in last year - he found him wandering, lost and hungry. For complications the shocked farmer accuses them of murder and sends a slave to the village to inform the elders.
The PCs can either stay for a trial lifeless. Imperial survivors, reluctant to leave, pick out a precarious living, Persian commoners have moved in to herd their cattle in the uncultivated fields as well as search for valuables.
Treasure hunters gather looking for lost Imperial gold. Dura is a refugee centre, a ruin inhabited by gold-diggers, army deserters, exiles, survivors and sundry opportunists. Will the city rise again?
Which faction will come to the fore? Or is the skeleton being picked clean?
The Great Labyrinth
South of the pyramid of Pharaoh Amenemhat III in the royal necropolis of Hawara near the Fayum, stands a sprawling maze-like complex of fifteen hundred chambers underground and another fifteen hundred above ground connected by winding passages. Cutting through the structure are a dozen roofed courts. The sands of the desert have half filled this enigmatic structure. What is this building? Why was it built? One philosopher contends that it is the remains of a mortuary temple to some ancient Ægyptian king, another that the Great Labyrinth was built by the Vizier Joseph to see Ægypt through a long famine. Perhaps it was constructed as a treasure house by the architect Imhotep, builder of the first pyramids. Whatever its original use, the Great Labyrinth (called this by Ionic and Imperial philosophers) was repeatedly raided and attacked by invaders over the years. The Great Labyrinth lies in ruins partially buried by creeping dunes. The floor-
plan was lost long ago and parties sent in to recover treasures and other items never return ...
The Hunted
A young clerk from an Ægyptian Temple of Maat (Truth) needs help - he has just taken the death-bed confession of a dangerous killer who says he was an assassin in the pay of the High Priest of Maat - Ægypt’s greatest judge and an Imperial official from the governor’s office. So he cannot turn to his superiors, and the killer’s evil and bloodthirsty gang, the Amemets (Devourers) are on his trail. He needs protection, for the Amemets are sure to track him down. What is the solution?
Should he flee Ægypt with the Adventurers - or face his foes?
Irem - City of Pillars
A lost city of wealth and decadence deep in the Desert of Lost Souls, close to the Sabaean frontier. Through this city was said to flow all of the perfumes, exotic spices and rare materials so sought after by the empires of the day. But the impious King Ad brought disaster onto his people, his dynasty and his tribe, and the sands swallowed up Irem and obliterated the camel trails that led to it. It is said that some wise old Saracens keep the secret of Irem’s whereabouts, but refuse to reveal that secret for fear they unleash the terrible destructive Angel of Death that destroyed the city and the people. It is said the Angel waits there still, trapped within the confines of that dead city waiting for the time it is needed once more. He who can bind and
control the Angel will surely be able to vanquish the massed armies of the world. Let us pray that no lowly nomad with ideas suggests such an enterprise!
The Iron Gates
The Cilician Gates is a high mountain pass through the Taurus Mountains that allows access from the plains of Cilicia into the high plateau beyond. It was known in ancient times as the Iron Gates, and the valley carrying the pass is still riddled with old mine workings, tunnels, caves and old mining works.
Regular troop patrols keep the pass open, but the old tunnels and caves are never investigated. What ancient horror still lurks there from the dark days before the Empire? If it awoke, and the pass were closed, Adventurers would need to be called upon to find out what it was!
Jadhimah - The Jackal
King Jadhimah al Abrash is the leader of the huge Saraceni tribe, the Azad. He is a leper who worships two ancient carved stone idols, representations of the desert god Dushara. He leads a standing army of nomad mercenaries that strike fear into the hearts of caravan leaders, pilgrims and other desert travellers. Jadhimah is the sworn enemy of the infamous Warrior Princess Zabbai, ruler of the desert fortress of Baydah.
The Labyrinth of Minos
The wife of the ancient Cretan king Minos, Pasiphae had an illicit liaison with a sacred bull and the product of this union was the half-bull half-man Jadhimah the Jackal
MIGHT 4 COMBAT +2 GEAR
FATE 2 Previous XP: Desert Warrior Shortsword +2
HITS 22 Special Skill: Desert Travel Bow +2
CRAFT 1 Money: 145 denarii 10 Arrows
LEARNING 1 Culture: Aramaean
Languages: Basic Aramaic
ARMOUR No Armour
Minotaur, a beast so savage only human blood could satisfy it. To imprison the beast, Minos had his architect Daedalus construct the Labyrinth below his palace at Knossos. To feed its appetite Minos demanded youths from a vassal city called Athens. The prince of Athens, Theseus, was one of those youths and he is supposed to have slain the Minotaur and found his way out with a trail of twine he had left behind.
Today the Labyrinth is a vast underground complex harbouring deadly traps, fantastic treasures and many terrible monsters - the most that fell soon after the Trojan War.
Latrines their business. What stories, rumours or whispered secrets might you hear? Is it a place for secret meetings? It is pretty clear that lots of wheeling and dealing did go on in the latrines (in the forts, the baths and the public ones too).
The Legion of Doom
In 701 AUC the Imperial general Crassus led a vast force against the Parthian king, but his army suffered the terrible wrath of the burning desert and the Parthians picked off soldiers on the march. Crassus tried to face the Parthians, but their horse archers continually avoided close combat while inflicting massive damage which lowered Imperial morale. Now desperate, the legions made a forced
march to Carrhae, but many small units became lost in the desert and fought for their lives. The Imperials that won through to Carrhae found it without supplies and the Parthians were on their heels. The end came quickly. Crassus was killed and the main body destroyed or captured. Out of an Imperial force of 36,000 men only 10,000 survived.
There are rumours that many of those
There are rumours that many of those