Imura (City)

"The fucking mirrors! They are everywhere. In the department store, on the corner of every street, in the window of every building in the city. I feel…I feel like I'm not the one looking into the mirrors, but they're looking back at me."
— Kiefer Sutherland (as Ben Carson), Mirrors (2008)

Long ago, before the events of the apocalypse, the city was a wondrous place of magic that was mostly powered with smoke and mirrors. Country yokels who would come to the city for the first time were often dazzled with the shimmering lights that reflected off the mirrors throughout the city. There were mirrors for scrying, mirrors for beautifying, and most importantly, mirrors for teleporting from place to place. These were no ordinary mirrors of wood and glass but magical fields contained within large metal frames.

Unfortunately, horror struck the land. For no reason that could be fathomed, people turned into monsters and slaughtered countless innocents. The leaders of the world seemed to transform into demons and unleashed terrible weapons of magic on their own people. When the devastation was over, the world was left with only a few survivors, many of whom had gone mad.

The once proud city is now a ghost of its former self. Where magic mirrors once stood now stand empty frames of metal. Mother Nature has been insidiously reclaiming the city for her own, sending out tendrils like tentacles over the works of man. What few people remain in the city no longer remember the purpose of the ubiquitous metal frames. They only know that these frames once held magic that died long ago.

No one ventures into the streets at night for it is said that horrible monsters, remnants of a time past, prowl about in the dark, searching for prey. Even during the daytime, people are forbidden to venture into the mysterious building known as the academy, which everyone knows to be cursed. Mother Nature herself shuns the place. The few plants that had attempted to take root around the academy have withered and died.

The City Now

After the apocalypse occurred, the people who maintained the magics that sustained the world were all but lost, and with them their knowledge, not that many were particularly interested in utilizing it at that point anyway. However, magical anomalies, the kind you'd expect when equipment powered by magic began to erode, cropped up with regularity for some time until it ceased to function. One such exception, however, is the magic that maintained the lush appearance of the city. The magic was designed to draw in soil nutriets and the like from the surrounding area and funnel it into the city, which is what allowed a jungle oasis of considerable size to thrive in the middle of a desert. However, in time, the checks on the amount funnelled broke down and it went out of control, turning the mild desert surrounding the city into an absolute wasteland.

Of course, when you have an area with fresh water and life, other life flocks to it. The city, by those who don't live there, is known to be a dangerous place where predators lurk around every corner seeking abundant prey drawn by the water and plant life. It is also believed to be cursed, with strange artificats of a forgotten time dotting the overgrown ruins. Few know about the settlement at it's center.

The magic that still sustains the city, at the expense of the wasteland, maintains its somewhat pleasant, if dilapidated, appearance. What was once a beauty derived from order and careful precision has fallen into beauty from chaos and haphazard coincidence. Ruins decades into disrepair lie covered in overgrowth and vegetation. Mirrors of all types still dot the city, a reminder of the power they once held. Buildings lie crumbled or on their way, though some still stand in firm denial of their imminent and unavoidable fate. Those not so lucky, in this moist atmosphere, appear sickly with moss and mold.

At the center of the city, what was once the beating heart of the magic that powered the entire world, is the academy, a haunting and dangerous place. Its very appearance gives a sense of dread and foreboding. Near the academy is the settlement, the only location in the city that's inhabited by humanoids… well, friendly humanoids.

Connected Areas

Wasteland
Settlement

Visual Appearance

imura_01.jpg
imura_03.jpg
imura_04.jpg

Tag: 04_ci_imura_ex

Appropriate Encounters

Large herbivores
Stalker types of predators; cats and lizards
Large Insects
Snakes
Other tribe scouts?
Exiles from the settlement?

Custom Content Requests

Vines
Mirrors
Overgrowth
Mold/Moss retexture on buildings
Buildings with holes in walls, collapsed roofs, etc.
Large Roots, growing up out of the ground
Paintable textures, cobblestone overgrowth

Gameplay

1. There should be two paths through the city which intersect several times, one along a main path of relative safety patrolled by a large predator or group of predators and a smaller path through dangerous hostiles. PCs good at rock throwing are able to throw rocks to distract this large predator and clear the path, and find safe rock throwing points by using the Rope and Grapple to reach ledges overlooking the path, and those who fail to distract the large predator or wish to avoid that can take the smaller, hack and slash paths through the area.

Imura Map for paths:

imurapath.jpg

2. Should we wish to include a sidequest to kill the large predator, provisions must be made.

Music

Here is a list of possible music files that have been composed for this area.

1. Imura

2. Flower of Ruin

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