TEXT: Dungeon Crawl Classics
            AMP
  Location - Cillamar City
   
      http://knightsinthenorth.blog/
  This document outlines and describes the history of Cillamar City, from the ancient past to the
  modern day. 
             
   
              
   
              
   
              
   
              
  THE HIVE-CITY OF THE ANCIENT RACE
  “In the antediluvian days, when the ancestors of men had barely learned to speak, what is now known as
  Cillamar City was built by the Ancient Race. Their hallowed hive complex stood proud at the center of the
  thrice walled metropolis, protected by a plethora of enslaved races, and a magical barrier of eldritch make.”
  The history of Cillamar City starts back when the ancestors of modern men were but barely
  sentient apes, enslaved and abused by the races who came before them. The City was built around
  the only known hive of the Ancient Race: a strange strain of ultra evolved wasp-like beings. They
  knew the secret of the Void Engines, and the process to distill green obsidian from the viscous
  secretions of the degenerate members of their breed.
  The foremost scholars and those few visionaries who gaze towards the past with the refracted
  sight of madmen all agree that the Ancient Race resembled insects. Standing on four legs, with
  another four appendages to spare for arcane arts and draconian adjudication, these creatures
  created a hive for their Queen.
  The Queen lay in her throne room at the pinnacle of the hive, with only the magically hidden
  prison of the King above her. The race propagated much like bees or ants, with one key difference:
  only one fertile male and one spawning female existed at any given time, and in this matriarchal
  society the breeding King was always imprisoned and hidden within a stasis field above the hive
  complex. The rest of the Ancient Race consisted of infertile hermaphrodites and degenerate,
  writhing larvae.
  Below the Queen’s abode was the Void Engine, an eldritch creation of ingenious construction. It
  projected a field of magic around the hive and the surrounding City, protecting it from harm. On
  ground level the hive was filled by a labyrinthine conflux of passages, containing the living spaces
  of the lesser members of the race. Still below were the spawning pits, where the undeveloped
  segment of the Race churned mindlessly in bottomless chasms.
  Outside of the hive, the City spread out in wards, much like now. The innermost ward was for the
  envoys and diplomatic missionaries from other races of this vaunted past. These missionaries were
  little more than prisoners, pressed between the hive and the outer city. For beyond this ring lived
  the slaves, drawn from every extant race and dominated by the insectoid intelligence of their
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  masters. Still further out were the drones: members of other races bound to the Ancients by
  contractual obligation rather than magic.
  There are multiple theories on how the end of the Ancient Race came about. The most prominent
  assumption is that they ended up embroiled in a war with another advanced race from their
  epoch, and lost. Their Void Engine and its shield was unable to protect the City from the onslaught
  of apocalyptic power, and its protection was brought down in a cataclysmic explosion which
  melted the glorious spires of the City, and almost destroyed the towering hive itself.
  Key facts about the Hive-City:
  •
  Very little is known about the Hive-City in the height of its glory, apart for the facts listed
  above (basically, this is a cue for Judges to fill in their own versions of ancient history).
  •
  It should be noted that the Hive-City originally consisted of three outside rings and the
  Hive itself: most of the hive proper was destroyed in the cataclysm that ended the rule of
  the Ancient Race, creating what is later known as the Tower Ward at the center of the City.
  The Tower of Cillamar is actually the hardened core of the hive of the ancient race, and the
  walls surrounding it are actually what is left of the outer shell of the hive. Most of the outer
  construction of the hive was disintegrated or turned to gleaming green glass.
  •
  The hive itself contains ancient, antediluvian magics and treasures (and the Tower of
  Cillamar is a great location for a mega-dungeon based on this history).
  •
  The ruins of the Hive-City are integrated into the construction of Cillamar by later settlers.
  The material is known as green obsidian, and has in many places been melted to a glass-
  like sheen. It also radiates moderate residual heat, so that the City is never covered in snow.
  •
  For reference, here are the stats for a soldier of the Ancient Race: 8’ tall, super-intelligent
  wasp-like creatures, with a hardened chitinous shell covering most of their body. (Note that
  other  classes  within  the  race  have  varying  statistics  and  powers,  ranging  from  bio-
  luminescence to mind control).
  Ancient Race Soldier: Init: +5; Atk: claw +8 (1d8), mandibles +4 (2d12) or weapon
  +6 (1d12); AC: 18; HD: 3d12; MV: 40’ or fly 80’; Act: 2d20; SP: stinger attack, uses
  d30 as action die, 1d14 damage + poison (DC 18 Fort save or death, if successful an
  additional d14 damage); if stinger attack is used, soldier dies within 1d3 rounds;
  Saves: Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +4.
             
   
              
   
              
   
              
   
              
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  MODERN CILLAMAR
  “A vaunted city, set in four concentric wards centered around a towering spire of strange and convoluted
  construction, Cillamar is a beauty to behold from afar. The odd tower at the center seems to sprout upwards,
  like the spine of a branchless tree, and the ancient walls of the City are made of  glassy, green stone.”
  Cillamar City is the capital of the north. It is the largest city north of the Needletop Mountains, and
  a central location for commerce and activity in the region. It is an old city, built on the strange
  ruins of an even older civilization. The old structures and the city walls are built from green stone,
  oddly glassy in its complexion. The recent structures are of a more mundane make: whitewashed
  walls, sturdy black crossbeams and thatched roofs. The City is divided to four Wards, set in
  concentric circles and ascending toward the tower at the center.
  The outermost Ward is known as the Slum Ward. The ancient buildings in this area are mostly in
  ruins, and the Ward is encircled only by a low protective wall, mostly of recent build. The newer
  buildings are simple in construction, although most have multiple floors. The Slum Ward is very
  crowded in some areas, and houses the City’s poorer residents, caravaners passing through and
  vagrants of all walks of life. Additionally, the City Necropolis can be found here.
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  The area between the outer Slums and the central Wards is the Guild Ward. Most of the City’s
  commerce happens here, as the Ward houses the guilds and the more respectable establishments.
  Many of the buildings have their lower floors made of the odd greenish stonework, although even
  here the damage to old structures is evident, and most buildings have been expanded and rebuilt
  in a more modern style. The Guild Ward is set apart from the Slums by a high wall of ancient
  construction, with massive gates guarding each cardinal direction.
  The Ward surrounding the center of the City is the Noble Ward. This area has most of its ancient
  architecture  intact,  with  only  minor  modern  alteration.  Green  obsidian  mansions  here  are
  inhabited by wealthy nobles and other members of the ruling class, and the less fortunate are kept
  out by the Noble Guard: a private army paid for by the ruling families. The Ward is surrounded by
  a great wall, with only two gates to the lower areas of the City.
  At the center of Cillamar City stands the great Emerald Tower, surrounded by the abandoned
  Tower Ward. No one has entered the towering Spire for several generations, and even the Noble
  Guard avoid walking the non-euclidian streets of the Tower Ward. Strange things are rumored to
  happen there, and whispers tell of misshapen things lurking in the gargantuan central construct.
  The Spire itself rises to the sky like the peak of an antediluvian mountain, it’s walls marred and
  glassed over by some great force. Drakes can be seen circling the highest top of the Spire, and
  sometimes strange lights shoot down from high cracks, disappearing into the night sky.
  Key facts about modern Cillamar:
  •
  The City contains some 200,000 people.
  •
  All basic services are easily available, more rare or complex services are available on a DC
  10 search check, which may be modified based on Ward.
  •
  Rumour table DC is 5, general social activity DC is 10, which may be modified based on
  Ward and social standing.
  •
  Cillamar has temples to all of the major faiths, and even shrines of the lesser cults can likely
  be found here.
  •
  The Ordo Arcana is known to keep an eye on the goings on in Cillamar.
  •
  The Slum Ward and the Guild Ward are protected by the City Watch. They are a (free-
  lance) police force and fire brigade, running on “donations” and the Watchman’s Tax
  levied from the guilds and other movers and shakers in the lower Wards.
  •
  The Noble Ward is policed by the Noble Guard, which is a well trained and equipped
  private army reporting to the leading nobles of the City. The Noble Guard also nominally
  watches over the Tower Ward, although patrols are nonexistent. 
  •
  There is a Thieves’ Guild in Cillamar City, it’s mostly active in the Slum Ward.
  •
  There is an extensive and ancient sewer system under the City, connecting all of the Wards
  with dangerous and badly mapped ancient passages. It is said that the sewers go all the
  way down to the Underdark, a darkened biome of strange caverns.
             
   
              
   
              
   
              
   
              
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  CURRENT CILLAMAR
  “On the 3rd day of the Paw, in the Year of the Second Minotaur, a great calamity faced Cillamar City, as
  the worshipers of Justicia and Nimlurun took to arms and confronted each other on the streets. An avatar
  was born to the Nimlurunites, and Justicia’s forces arose to face this new threat to Law.”
  In the Year of the Second Minotaur, a force of adventurers rose from the ranks of the the peasantry,
  and settled in Cillamar City. Their deeds are known far and wide, and they in turn are known as
  the Prodigies of Erayo1. 
  From their number, the Mother and Father of the Clean Child consummated their union in an
  unholy place, and spawned the avatar of Nimlurun: the Clean Child, in whose footsteps plague
  runs amok and disease proliferates.
  This event drew both Nimlurunites and the more proactive members of Justicia’s faith to the City,
  where they eventually came to conflict: the Clean Child was born, and the old battle between
  Chaos and Law was re-alighted in the twisting streets of the the City.
  The conflict came to a head at the Battle of Wormwood Square, where the forces of the two deities
  were evenly matched, between them a line of squamous worm-zombies, created by the City Watch
  to cease the war. Led by Hadrathia the Eager, the City Watch had prepared a plan based in eldritch
  witchery, and using strange magics created an army of zombie creatures to quell the riot.
  There the lines stood: Nimlurunites led by Nimed the Unclean and the Mother of the Clean, Lushy
  Logborn; Justicia’s forces mastered by Bolvar, Father of the Clean Child and recent convert to
  Justicia’s mercy; and the center was held by Hadrathia the Eager and the worm-spawn zombies of
  the City Watch.
  In the ensuing battle, Nimed the Nimlurunite zealot sacrificed himself to power the Clean Child.
  He became the Cringed One, the highest ranking official of the Nimlurunite faith by sacrificing all
  he had to the cause of the unclean god. The conflict escalated into chaos, and while the battle
  raged, another force took action.
  As the battle went on, the mages of the Ordo  Arcana intervened. Through  some unknown
  emissary, they had successfully managed to set the roots of a powerful encasement ritual on the
  City. Their goal was to entrap the battle within the ancient City, to leave the primal forces of chaos
  and law to their war, and to lead in a new wave of wisdom and prosperity in the surrounding
  countryside.
  As their spell took effect, Cillamar City was covered by an impenetrable sphere of magical make:
  anything beyond this is mere speculation, but the once great center of power in the north is now
  1
  For more information about the adventures of the Prodigies, see the campaign chronicle on KitN.
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  held in a dome of persistent magic, with only the peak of the central spire rising above the
  shimmering shield.
  Key facts about current Cillamar:
  •
  Cillamar City is shrouded in a mysterious dome-barrier. No one can enter or leave the City
  easily. The only entrances to the City are:
  •
  Through the spire top, which peeks out from the dome, high above the City proper.
  This entrance is guarded by a roost of drakes.
  •
  Through hidden caverns connecting to the catacombs under the Necropolis. The
  caverns are full of giant spiders, and the Necropolis houses the restless dead.
  •
  Through the Underdark, as some of the deepest sewers connect to these deep caves.
  •
  Through a gate to the Elflands, reputedly hidden somewhere in the dilapidated
  wastes of the Slum Ward.
  •
  Within the City, the warring factions of the Nimlurunites and Justicia’s church (along with
  other lawful cults) compete for supremacy.
  •
  The Nimlurunites are searching for a Star Stone, into which a portion of their deity’s
  power was transferred in the Battle of Wormwood Square. They are led by the new
  Filthpope, Nimed the Cringed One.
  •
  Justicia’s church has allied themselves with other lawful cults. They are rumored to
  be searching for ancient hyperborean artefacts hidden somewhere in the collections
  of the guilds and the noble houses, to somehow break the barrier closing off the City
  from the outside world.
  •
  Civil order has mostly succumbed to chaos, with every man simply working to keep
  themselves alive. The noble houses are closed off from the rest of the City, protected
  (for now) by their private armies.
  •
  Basically, all of the notes about modern Cillamar still apply, with the caveat that things are
  in a constant turmoil and chaos reigns.
              
   
               
   
               
   
               
   
               
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SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG (osr)/Supplements/DCC - Cillamar City (web acc).pdf