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[Let's Read] The Koryo Hall of Adventures
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8291637" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/CQSyJJl.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>Chapter 5, Part 2: Mudangguk</strong></p><p></p><p>Occupying the western peninsula of Jeosung, Mudangguk is peculiar for being a mostly-forested region, the home of the Koryo Hall of Adventures, and its large emphasis on spirits in politics and daily life. Although every major land counts shamanists among its number, Mudangguk’s founding by Yül led to various events resulting in a much more decentralized and pseudo-classless society. In lieu of the yangban system, Mudangguk’s communities do not have noblemen or aristocrats, instead making use of appointed people known as Guardians and Heads when larger-scale coordination is needed. There’s still division of labor and specialized occupations, but there are policies in place that mandate mutual aid and universal access to resources in the assurance of a minimum standard of living. In spite of this, there are still concentrations of wealth building up both locally, such as the Koryo Hall of Adventures and the Gaya Confederacy, which is a bit of a sore talking point among many.</p><p></p><p>Shamans have a distinctive role in the acting of intermediaries between the mortal and spirit realms, but as they are chosen by spirits and not mortal institutions their appointment is rather informal. For education, shamans and wizards travel between towns to ensure that citizens learn cantrips, and every five years a census is taken to see which communities are lagging behind for them to focus on more. Festivals and the concentration of jesa is more frequent, and everyone knows at least a few rituals to invoke when performing regular labor. In fact, Yül’s teachings of the common folk of the ways of spirits helped rapidly rebuild the realm and obviated the need for a professional soldier class to ensure defense and rulership. Effectively, the spirits of Mudangguk are a rather hands-off nobility, where jesa are the taxes to ensure mortals’ continued welfare.</p><p></p><p>For government at the national level, five shamans with proven track records for good skill and behavior are appointed to the Council of Five in five-year terms, while the Council of Twelve is made up of influential people across Mudangguk who don’t have to be shamans. In theory both groups have checks and balances to counteract each other’s power, but the Council of Five declared that all empty seats during the meetings are considered votes in their favor. Two members of the Council of Twelve are too far away to reliably visit every congress, but the honorific seat kept open for Yül (who rarely leaves her island fortress) effectively guarantees three votes for the shamans. This has gotten quite a few people upset, especially the Gaya Confederacy which is using this as an excuse to break away from Mudangguk. For relationships with other realms, they’re horrified at Haenamguk’s use of slavery to the point that trade sanctions have been threatened. This will hit the Gaya capital city of Saenam the hardest, and its guardian and self-declared King is hoping to gain Haenamguk’s favor and protection if the sanctions come to pass.</p><p></p><p>What follows, and is the standard for each of the four realm entries, are various sub-regions with major settlements and locations of note. Another recurring feature are Deed sidebar handouts acting as potential adventure hooks in the form of notice board entries pinned at the Koryo Hall of Adventures. They are scattered throughout the chapter and tied to the most immediate locations being discussed, and Mudangguk has 9 of them. Some of the jobs sample jobs include spying on the Gomnaru Port Authority, exorcising a ghost harassing a local community of farmers, intercepting and destroy a cargo ship containing a poison that kills tea plants, and disrupting trade deals between Hwando arms merchants and the dokkaebis of Jihaguk.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/h1Nf4LH.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>Kwan Province</strong> is home to the port town of Yonggu-Myeon as well as the head of the region’s Gomnaru Port Authority who are seen by many locals as unwanted foreign interlopers. Samjhok Chilseongmun is a collection of shaman communities overseeing a major gate for traffic.* Mudangguk’s capital city of Michuhol is home to a beautiful Tree of Souls whose roots run through the river bed, and the various buildings make use of existing natural terrain so as not to disrupt the local spirits too much. It’s mostly a crime-free city, but a major festival that occurs once every 25 years when Yül makes a pilgrimage to the Tree of Souls sees a lot of outside visitors. The city hires adventurers to keep a lookout for petty thieves and other opportunists of ill intent.</p><p></p><p>*It’s known as a Chilseong gate, which is referenced several times in the book but whose properties are unknown. Apparently it’s a magical gate of some kind.</p><p></p><p><strong>Yodong State</strong> covers the surrounding lands of the Yodongseong city-state, with roads connecting it to smaller communities for trade. The southern lands are used for tea farming, but the forested and coastal west are filled with evil creatures and watchtowers safeguarding society from such monsters. Increasing frequency of pirate attacks has threatened the fishing industry of Chungju village, and there’s some evidence pointing to false flag raids by the Gomnaru Port Authority using them as an excuse to make inroads “for maritime security.” Gwayang is a walled city that entered into a defense pact with Haenamguk to keep the surrounding seas safe, but behind the walls the Palm has a growing underworld presence. The city-state of Yodongseong is unique in being contained within a single massive tower with outer circles of earthen mounds for defense. The place served as a battleground during the Winds of Darkness, and the cantrips favored by its population are offensive in nature and its local council of Key Holders each bear one key that can open up a vault containing scrolls and tomes of great power to be used during a time of need. The community’s current Guardian is growing in age and has seen decades of short-sightedness and poor judgment in others that make him distrustful of training any successors. This in turn has impacted his ability to attend to his duties on the Council of Twelve, and there’s already bitter debates arising from the Key Holders and populace over his judgment. Michuhol and the Gaya Confederacy are hoping to sweep in if events get chaotic to provide security...and also cynically to expand their power base against the other, who would surely do the same.</p><p></p><p><strong>Namkaebi Province</strong> is a region blessed with soil ideal for tea farming. Sadly such fertile land has brought no end of grief, for various clans and the Gaya Confederacy have sought to get a heavier hand in the local economy. The headquarters of the Tea Farmer’s Guild tries to keep above it all, and their town of Goseong hosts their House of Happenings which is one of the best-defended buildings in Jeosung due to holding the secrets of preparing its famed tea. There’s also Hamheung, an impoverished town by the mudflats whose economy is supplemented by addictive drugs,* harvested body parts of protected creatures, and other illegal goods. Two such illegal drugs are Dallaeneum mushrooms and Gaeulsoop leaves. Gaeulsoop leaves are briefly mentioned but not elaborated on in the text proper, but Dallaeneun (there’s 8 instances in the book ended in an ‘n,’ 3 in an ‘m’) mushrooms have their own sidebar. They are harvested from an ooze-like substance emitted by said mushrooms, containing mild hallucinogenic properties. They are often used in shamanic rituals, but can also be used recreationally or distilled into alcohol. Improper use of them among many shamans caused fatal overdoses which resulted in their ban.</p><p></p><p>Taeyang and Sooptap are small arboreal communities of Nokyong dragonborn and halflings; the former still believe that the olds gods are alive and will return someday, and have great skill with wizardry. The latter build treetop houses and hanging bridges well above forest level, being semi-nomadic due to generations of hiding from monsters during the Winds of Darkness. They know where the best batches of Dallaeneum mushrooms grow, and trade them to people in exchange for food.</p><p></p><p><strong>Hamgyöng Province</strong> dominates Mudangguk’s southwest coast. Limestone caverns and rainforests are common here, and a unique breed of feather-winged goblins known as the Mulgashi live here in secret. They are neither hostile nor friendly to other humanoids, being uninterested in trade or interaction with other communities. Most of them live in Urigashi, a self-sustaining town protected by a magical shield. More open non-goblin communities include Inju whose warm beaches are a tourist hot spot, Yangyang which stands at the frontier between civilization and the dangers of Jobeuntang province, the capital of Saenam which is the center for the Gaya Confederacy and growing separatist movement, and a mostly-deforested region known as the Edge whose tree cutters have been attacked by unknown figures believed to be either Nokyong dragonborn and/or shamans. The Confederacy’s leader, King Suro, cares little for the contemporary culture of Mudangguk and pours money into ever-extravagant construction projects to celebrate mortal achievements both past and current. The pseudo-nation derives much of its wealth from timber and iron deposits, doing heavy trade with Haenamguk whose island lacks much in the way of forests and thus the accompanying woodcraft.</p><p></p><p><strong>Wünu Mountains & Jobeuntang Province</strong> are the least civilized regions of Mudangguk. The Wünu Mountains have a storied presence in Jeosung history, from the legend of the Five Sisters who raised the earth from the ground to form impassable mountains between two warring states to many historic strongholds of Yül’s shamans during the Winds of Darkness. There are some small communities of shamans who opt to live in the lower elevations, seeking out lives of spiritual retreat to bring one closer to nature.</p><p></p><p>There is also the dreaded land of Jihaguk, a subterranean network of unknown size filled with cities of dokkaebis and other fell monsters. It is from here the monstrous forces of the Winds of Darkness emerged to take over Jeosung, and the resentful surviving forces retreated here to lick their wounds. Some amoral merchants have even begun selling the monsters weapons in exchange for unique artifacts. There’s a worrisome rumor of a portal that links directly to Gamangnara, the darkest realm of the afterlife, to which the monsters have access. Finally there is the Giljobeun forest, a cursed place home to ghostly beings known as the Unseen who ambush and trap travelers by creating illusions out of their hearts’ desire.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/1XVPZ9x.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>There are only two settlements of note here. The first is Hwando, where the aforementioned merchants of questionable loyalties gather, and the bulk of the town is a haphazard collection of broken parts repurposed from crashed ships of prior ages. One of the few bright points in this broken realm is the Bulkyeryong restaurant, whose owner is rumored to be a retired pirate who discovered a love for cooking that changed his priorities in life. The second settlement is Wangonseong, a snowy mountain town home to an eroded shrine of the Followers of Hwanggung.</p><p></p><p><strong>Yuldö</strong> is a small island at the peninsula’s southern tip. Home to the legendary shaman Yül, its grounds are barred to all but her and those who earned her trust. She lives here year-round save during the Great Visit every twenty-five years.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/pVAy1TF.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Rounding out our chapter is a gallery of stat-free NPCs. We have 3 major characters each described in one page long in-character descriptions along with artwork, and 26 minor characters who have a paragraph or two worth of description along with their notable traits and adventure hooks. Our big three include the proud headmaster of the Saenam Naval Academy giving a rousing speech to the newest graduates, the Head of the Tea Farmer’s Guild who’s taking a hands-on approach in tracking down a would-be burglar of the House of Happenings, and a letter from the Guardian of Yodongseong reminiscing about happier times.</p><p></p><p>A sidebar offering GM Tips for sessions set in Mudangguk suggests playing up the “romantic mysticism” of the lands’ natural beauty and the ever-present influence of spirits. Some may even manifest in the mortal realm to ask the party for favors or act as obstacles in their adventures.</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> Mudangguk is a strong first entry for the realms of Jeosung. In spite of striving for classless ideals, there are still societal imperfections and the folly of greed corrupting many a mortal. It’s neither a tyranny by majority dystopia bound to fail, nor is it an uncritical portrayal like Eclipse Phase’s anarchist habitats. Most of the provinces have some kind of local conflict or danger ideal for adventurers to handle, and while there’s more of a “natural harmony” theme there’s a good division between wilderness and urban locales for such adventure opportunities.</p><p></p><p>There are some weak points I wish were expanded or touched upon. The presence of Jihaguk as the Evil Monster Nation feels like it could’ve used more word count, given the great emphasis on the Winds of Darkness. Some of the locales merely seem like interesting places to explore but have little beyond that, such as the winged goblins who more or less just wish to be left alone and don’t seem to be threatened by any dangerous forces in need of interloping adventurers.</p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we cover Noonnara, Jeosung’s frost-ridden final frontier!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 8291637, member: 6750502"] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/CQSyJJl.png[/img] [b]Chapter 5, Part 2: Mudangguk[/b][/center] Occupying the western peninsula of Jeosung, Mudangguk is peculiar for being a mostly-forested region, the home of the Koryo Hall of Adventures, and its large emphasis on spirits in politics and daily life. Although every major land counts shamanists among its number, Mudangguk’s founding by Yül led to various events resulting in a much more decentralized and pseudo-classless society. In lieu of the yangban system, Mudangguk’s communities do not have noblemen or aristocrats, instead making use of appointed people known as Guardians and Heads when larger-scale coordination is needed. There’s still division of labor and specialized occupations, but there are policies in place that mandate mutual aid and universal access to resources in the assurance of a minimum standard of living. In spite of this, there are still concentrations of wealth building up both locally, such as the Koryo Hall of Adventures and the Gaya Confederacy, which is a bit of a sore talking point among many. Shamans have a distinctive role in the acting of intermediaries between the mortal and spirit realms, but as they are chosen by spirits and not mortal institutions their appointment is rather informal. For education, shamans and wizards travel between towns to ensure that citizens learn cantrips, and every five years a census is taken to see which communities are lagging behind for them to focus on more. Festivals and the concentration of jesa is more frequent, and everyone knows at least a few rituals to invoke when performing regular labor. In fact, Yül’s teachings of the common folk of the ways of spirits helped rapidly rebuild the realm and obviated the need for a professional soldier class to ensure defense and rulership. Effectively, the spirits of Mudangguk are a rather hands-off nobility, where jesa are the taxes to ensure mortals’ continued welfare. For government at the national level, five shamans with proven track records for good skill and behavior are appointed to the Council of Five in five-year terms, while the Council of Twelve is made up of influential people across Mudangguk who don’t have to be shamans. In theory both groups have checks and balances to counteract each other’s power, but the Council of Five declared that all empty seats during the meetings are considered votes in their favor. Two members of the Council of Twelve are too far away to reliably visit every congress, but the honorific seat kept open for Yül (who rarely leaves her island fortress) effectively guarantees three votes for the shamans. This has gotten quite a few people upset, especially the Gaya Confederacy which is using this as an excuse to break away from Mudangguk. For relationships with other realms, they’re horrified at Haenamguk’s use of slavery to the point that trade sanctions have been threatened. This will hit the Gaya capital city of Saenam the hardest, and its guardian and self-declared King is hoping to gain Haenamguk’s favor and protection if the sanctions come to pass. What follows, and is the standard for each of the four realm entries, are various sub-regions with major settlements and locations of note. Another recurring feature are Deed sidebar handouts acting as potential adventure hooks in the form of notice board entries pinned at the Koryo Hall of Adventures. They are scattered throughout the chapter and tied to the most immediate locations being discussed, and Mudangguk has 9 of them. Some of the jobs sample jobs include spying on the Gomnaru Port Authority, exorcising a ghost harassing a local community of farmers, intercepting and destroy a cargo ship containing a poison that kills tea plants, and disrupting trade deals between Hwando arms merchants and the dokkaebis of Jihaguk. [img]https://i.imgur.com/h1Nf4LH.jpeg[/img] [b]Kwan Province[/b] is home to the port town of Yonggu-Myeon as well as the head of the region’s Gomnaru Port Authority who are seen by many locals as unwanted foreign interlopers. Samjhok Chilseongmun is a collection of shaman communities overseeing a major gate for traffic.* Mudangguk’s capital city of Michuhol is home to a beautiful Tree of Souls whose roots run through the river bed, and the various buildings make use of existing natural terrain so as not to disrupt the local spirits too much. It’s mostly a crime-free city, but a major festival that occurs once every 25 years when Yül makes a pilgrimage to the Tree of Souls sees a lot of outside visitors. The city hires adventurers to keep a lookout for petty thieves and other opportunists of ill intent. *It’s known as a Chilseong gate, which is referenced several times in the book but whose properties are unknown. Apparently it’s a magical gate of some kind. [b]Yodong State[/b] covers the surrounding lands of the Yodongseong city-state, with roads connecting it to smaller communities for trade. The southern lands are used for tea farming, but the forested and coastal west are filled with evil creatures and watchtowers safeguarding society from such monsters. Increasing frequency of pirate attacks has threatened the fishing industry of Chungju village, and there’s some evidence pointing to false flag raids by the Gomnaru Port Authority using them as an excuse to make inroads “for maritime security.” Gwayang is a walled city that entered into a defense pact with Haenamguk to keep the surrounding seas safe, but behind the walls the Palm has a growing underworld presence. The city-state of Yodongseong is unique in being contained within a single massive tower with outer circles of earthen mounds for defense. The place served as a battleground during the Winds of Darkness, and the cantrips favored by its population are offensive in nature and its local council of Key Holders each bear one key that can open up a vault containing scrolls and tomes of great power to be used during a time of need. The community’s current Guardian is growing in age and has seen decades of short-sightedness and poor judgment in others that make him distrustful of training any successors. This in turn has impacted his ability to attend to his duties on the Council of Twelve, and there’s already bitter debates arising from the Key Holders and populace over his judgment. Michuhol and the Gaya Confederacy are hoping to sweep in if events get chaotic to provide security...and also cynically to expand their power base against the other, who would surely do the same. [b]Namkaebi Province[/b] is a region blessed with soil ideal for tea farming. Sadly such fertile land has brought no end of grief, for various clans and the Gaya Confederacy have sought to get a heavier hand in the local economy. The headquarters of the Tea Farmer’s Guild tries to keep above it all, and their town of Goseong hosts their House of Happenings which is one of the best-defended buildings in Jeosung due to holding the secrets of preparing its famed tea. There’s also Hamheung, an impoverished town by the mudflats whose economy is supplemented by addictive drugs,* harvested body parts of protected creatures, and other illegal goods. Two such illegal drugs are Dallaeneum mushrooms and Gaeulsoop leaves. Gaeulsoop leaves are briefly mentioned but not elaborated on in the text proper, but Dallaeneun (there’s 8 instances in the book ended in an ‘n,’ 3 in an ‘m’) mushrooms have their own sidebar. They are harvested from an ooze-like substance emitted by said mushrooms, containing mild hallucinogenic properties. They are often used in shamanic rituals, but can also be used recreationally or distilled into alcohol. Improper use of them among many shamans caused fatal overdoses which resulted in their ban. Taeyang and Sooptap are small arboreal communities of Nokyong dragonborn and halflings; the former still believe that the olds gods are alive and will return someday, and have great skill with wizardry. The latter build treetop houses and hanging bridges well above forest level, being semi-nomadic due to generations of hiding from monsters during the Winds of Darkness. They know where the best batches of Dallaeneum mushrooms grow, and trade them to people in exchange for food. [b]Hamgyöng Province[/b] dominates Mudangguk’s southwest coast. Limestone caverns and rainforests are common here, and a unique breed of feather-winged goblins known as the Mulgashi live here in secret. They are neither hostile nor friendly to other humanoids, being uninterested in trade or interaction with other communities. Most of them live in Urigashi, a self-sustaining town protected by a magical shield. More open non-goblin communities include Inju whose warm beaches are a tourist hot spot, Yangyang which stands at the frontier between civilization and the dangers of Jobeuntang province, the capital of Saenam which is the center for the Gaya Confederacy and growing separatist movement, and a mostly-deforested region known as the Edge whose tree cutters have been attacked by unknown figures believed to be either Nokyong dragonborn and/or shamans. The Confederacy’s leader, King Suro, cares little for the contemporary culture of Mudangguk and pours money into ever-extravagant construction projects to celebrate mortal achievements both past and current. The pseudo-nation derives much of its wealth from timber and iron deposits, doing heavy trade with Haenamguk whose island lacks much in the way of forests and thus the accompanying woodcraft. [b]Wünu Mountains & Jobeuntang Province[/b] are the least civilized regions of Mudangguk. The Wünu Mountains have a storied presence in Jeosung history, from the legend of the Five Sisters who raised the earth from the ground to form impassable mountains between two warring states to many historic strongholds of Yül’s shamans during the Winds of Darkness. There are some small communities of shamans who opt to live in the lower elevations, seeking out lives of spiritual retreat to bring one closer to nature. There is also the dreaded land of Jihaguk, a subterranean network of unknown size filled with cities of dokkaebis and other fell monsters. It is from here the monstrous forces of the Winds of Darkness emerged to take over Jeosung, and the resentful surviving forces retreated here to lick their wounds. Some amoral merchants have even begun selling the monsters weapons in exchange for unique artifacts. There’s a worrisome rumor of a portal that links directly to Gamangnara, the darkest realm of the afterlife, to which the monsters have access. Finally there is the Giljobeun forest, a cursed place home to ghostly beings known as the Unseen who ambush and trap travelers by creating illusions out of their hearts’ desire. [img]https://i.imgur.com/1XVPZ9x.png[/img] There are only two settlements of note here. The first is Hwando, where the aforementioned merchants of questionable loyalties gather, and the bulk of the town is a haphazard collection of broken parts repurposed from crashed ships of prior ages. One of the few bright points in this broken realm is the Bulkyeryong restaurant, whose owner is rumored to be a retired pirate who discovered a love for cooking that changed his priorities in life. The second settlement is Wangonseong, a snowy mountain town home to an eroded shrine of the Followers of Hwanggung. [b]Yuldö[/b] is a small island at the peninsula’s southern tip. Home to the legendary shaman Yül, its grounds are barred to all but her and those who earned her trust. She lives here year-round save during the Great Visit every twenty-five years. [img]https://i.imgur.com/pVAy1TF.png[/img] Rounding out our chapter is a gallery of stat-free NPCs. We have 3 major characters each described in one page long in-character descriptions along with artwork, and 26 minor characters who have a paragraph or two worth of description along with their notable traits and adventure hooks. Our big three include the proud headmaster of the Saenam Naval Academy giving a rousing speech to the newest graduates, the Head of the Tea Farmer’s Guild who’s taking a hands-on approach in tracking down a would-be burglar of the House of Happenings, and a letter from the Guardian of Yodongseong reminiscing about happier times. A sidebar offering GM Tips for sessions set in Mudangguk suggests playing up the “romantic mysticism” of the lands’ natural beauty and the ever-present influence of spirits. Some may even manifest in the mortal realm to ask the party for favors or act as obstacles in their adventures. [b]Thoughts So Far:[/b] Mudangguk is a strong first entry for the realms of Jeosung. In spite of striving for classless ideals, there are still societal imperfections and the folly of greed corrupting many a mortal. It’s neither a tyranny by majority dystopia bound to fail, nor is it an uncritical portrayal like Eclipse Phase’s anarchist habitats. Most of the provinces have some kind of local conflict or danger ideal for adventurers to handle, and while there’s more of a “natural harmony” theme there’s a good division between wilderness and urban locales for such adventure opportunities. There are some weak points I wish were expanded or touched upon. The presence of Jihaguk as the Evil Monster Nation feels like it could’ve used more word count, given the great emphasis on the Winds of Darkness. Some of the locales merely seem like interesting places to explore but have little beyond that, such as the winged goblins who more or less just wish to be left alone and don’t seem to be threatened by any dangerous forces in need of interloping adventurers. [b]Join us next time as we cover Noonnara, Jeosung’s frost-ridden final frontier![/b] [/QUOTE]
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