Ladontia – HorrorFall
This is Adam’s campaign, in which we have been playing since sometime in 2014. We are currently a few sessions away from completing this run, and will be moving onward to a new campaign in a few months, using the DragonQuest gaming system, as heavily modified by Adam and Bjoern.
From Adam’s original description:
Terrifying world details
The world which Ladontia is on is part of a double planet system. The two planets are tidally locked to each other, and thus rather than rotating on their axis instead revolve around their mutual center of mass. Days in Ladontia are 44 hours in length, and the second planet Arkivoy is always a halfway up the sky from the horizon. Arkivoy appears 6 times bigger than the earth’s moon does from earth, and is more reflective. Arkivoy is always full at sunset, waning as the night goes on and fading to black just before sunrise. During the daytime Arkivoy is backlit by the sun and is only barely visible as a somewhat darker patch in the blue. The orbit of the two planets is not aligned with their passage around the star, so that the planets do experience seasons. Since the planets show their same face to each other at all times only solar tides affect Ladontia, and thus they are fairly small. There is an eclipse at midday on the equinoxes.
The Ladontian clock starts at sunrise on the equinox, which is labeled hour 1. Ladontians sleeping schedule is usually to be awake for 10 or 11 hours or so, take a nap for an hour, and then sleep again at the beginning and end of night time for longer stretches (usually 6 hours sleep, 12 hours up, 6 more hours sleep). Ladontians generally eat six meals a day; four in the daytime and two at night.
Ladontia’s year is 220 days long, the equivalent of 403 earth days. They have ten 22 day months consisting of three 7 day weeks and one festival day.
A history of money in ladontia
Before the Horrorfall, the continent of Ladontia was then the human Kingdom of Ladontia. Humans ruled primarily because of their superior numbers and because of all the name-giving races they were the ones who wanted to the most. Dwarves, Elves and Mountain Goblins maintained their own independent ruling hierarchies within the borders of the human kingdom, in each case using a system of what amounted to individual city states which were loosely associated. Hobbits and River Goblins found themselves subject to the human leaders since they hadn’t bothered to elect leaders to dispute this with the humans, and by and large they were as content to pay their taxes into human hands as they would have been to those of their own species, as were the individual examples of Elf, Dwarf, and Mountain Goblin that chose to live in human cities.
Because Humanity controlled the bulk of trade in the kingdom, human money was the most commonly used, with both Dwarf and High Elf minting money of equal value to the human coins, the only counter example being the Dwarfen Imperial, which was of a higher denomination than any coin used by humans. Things changed somewhat as the Horrorfall approached when the Elves of Thera began to issue new coins which were slightly smaller than those used by human and dwarf, with each coin containing about 95% of the metal of its human counterpart. This was both a move by Thera to flex their growing economic muscle and to gain an economic advantage by trying to pass their coins off as being as valuable as those of other races. Bitter negotiations were carried out over this, and nothing was concluded before Horrorfall.
The power dynamic has been changed drastically by the Horrorfall. Human’s greatest asset had always been their superior numbers and industriousness, but when the horrors came this proved to be a great weakness. Before the Horrorfall the racial demographics of Ladontia was about 85% human, 5% hobbit, 5% river goblin, 3% elf and 2% dwarf with an unknown number of mountain goblins. But it soon became clear that there would never been enough room in Kaers to house anything like the entire human population of Ladontia, and the vast percentage of those who fell victim to the Horrors were human. After Horrorfall the racial balance had changed to 35% human, 28% dwarf, 25% elf, 5% river goblin, 2% hobbit with again an unknown number of Mountain Goblins.
In the wake of Horrorfall, the monetary system has changed again. Because River Goblins emerged from the Horrorfall earlier than most everyone else, and because they are now (at least temporarily) the predominant traders of the land, their monetary system is the one most used. This is unfortunate in many ways, one of the chief being that they use a base 6 mathematics and everyone else uses base 10. Both Thera and Throal continue to use their own currencies, and conversion between the three coins are difficult for the novice to attempt.
Goblin Coins
Wailing Grizby: This coin seems to exist primarily so people can use the oath “I don’t give a wailing grizby what you think!” and so misanthropic merchants can give pointlessly exacting change. It is minted out of bog iron and 36 wailing grizbys are worth 1 one-eyed grizby, or slightly less than a tenth of a cent. The coin depicts the goblin hero Grizby wailing out his anguish with his left food caught in a trap
One-eyed Grizby: This coin is minted of copper, and 36 of them are worth 1 Royal Grizby or about 3 cents. The coin depicts the left eye of the Goblin hero Grizby, which was said to hold the power of aging the cheese.
The Royal Grizby is a small silver coin. 1 royal grizby is worth 1$. 36 royal grizbys are worth 1 fantod. The coin depicts the time when the goblin hero Grizby was crowned the king of splinters, a position he soon abdicated when he saw the throne he was expected to sit on.
The Fantod is a small gold coin. 1 Fandtod is worth $36. 36 Fantods are worth 1 Kreeval. The coin depicts an elegant lady decorating a servant with flowers and candles.
The Kreeval is a large sized gold coin, and the highest denomination. The coin depicts Sir Cedromere, the fictional goblin king, performing a sneeze. It is worth $1,296