Crabwell, The City of the Eternal Voice
Welcome to Crabwell, our fifth borough! Crabwell is a city whose history, laws, and architecture are all deeply intertwined. The city's underlying legal code is established by decree after decree echoing out from the city's central tower, a mysterious building from which an omniscient voice spouts new laws each evening. Everything about Crabwell centers on the (immortal?) Entac, who has led the city through thousands of years of ups and downs.
In many ways, Crabwell is the your prototypical Renaissance era fantasy town. It has massive walls, a pleasant canal and river, and large pieces of municipal infrastructure side by side with homes and businesses. As far as RPG utility goes, it may just be our most instantly usable city yet, easily plopped into just about any fantasy campaign. Beneath the surface, however, Crabwell has layers upon layers of nuanced worldbuilding. The city's government, religion, economics, and military are explored in great detail in the massive document that accompanies the city. Of course, you can always just treat Crabwell like a generic fantasy city and slap your own coat of worldbuilding paint on it. That's the beauty of RPGs, baby!
While in Crabwell, your adventurers might:
- Uncover the true nature of the voice inside the Omniphone
- Flee from the overzealous guard force
- Tackle epic quests for the city's leader
- Prevent a catastrophe that threatens the entire nation
Maps
Crabwell is a city that you're going to want to include in every campaign: massive walls, a pleasant central square, and a calm canal are the obvious focal points. In the center of the city is bizarre Omniphone, a tower topped with braided horns that emit daily decrees.
Great megastructures litter the city: the Hedral Prison in the northeast, Blynka's Reserve in the southwest, and the Cathedral of Thaella in the southeast. Beyond the city walls, things become much quainter as city streets give way to idyllic pastures.
Patrons at the General Messenger tier or higher gain access to a variant of this map with the whole city in turmoil. Fires and rubble litter the map. The cause of this catastrophe is left ambiguous, so you can easily use it for a demon attack, a war, or a natural disaster.
Patrons at the Chief Courier tier also gain access to a number of interior maps: the Liquid Truth bar complex, the Omniphone, the Scriveners' Tower, the Hedral Prison, the Public Stables, the cathedral, and one of the cottages on the outskirts. No matter where you party plans on going you'll have an appropriate map to show them, perfect for VTT gaming.
Music
Wander the early-Renaissance city streets and bask in the melancholy lutes, flutes, and hand drums that score the bittersweet mood of the setting sun. As you and your party make your way through the ancient city you're going to want this album of 6 tracks tailor-built to help evoke all of the moods of Crabwell. Things are generally peaceful in Crabwell, so many of these tracks are calm and contemplative, perfect for “calm before the storm” sessions. As things start heating up, “Approaching the War Camp” sets the scene perfectly for rising tension. “Hewn from Mythic Stone” is (at the time of writing) our most popular track on Spotify. Give it a listen!
