The Maxim of Steel: In a Land of Dark Towers

The Maxim of Steel

A Land of Dark Towers

"This land                                  is                                              shudder." -Broken Telegram sent by the Erchwald Expedition.

Past the Sea of Tumultuous Peril, littered with hundreds of destroyed naval vessels, is the continent commonly known as Shudder. Shudder is the land of black spires jutting upward from a land containing many biomes. Its size rivals Velas in width and the breadth of it contains hundreds of colossal black spires that reach toward the heavens. These frightening edifices are sanctuaries in this new harsh land. Strange anomalies, constant calamities, terrible monsters, paranormal activity, harsh landscapes, and unknown terrors lay beyond the radiating cordons around these spires. The towers themselves seem to reach past the heavens and range from 5 to 20 miles in width while the outside cordons terminate around 20-50 miles in a circle. Within the cordon is arable land containing sources of water. Inside every tower are angel engines in miniature facsimile to the miraculous Heaven Engine of Zothica. These angel engines do not to give the same powers. The purpose of these strange machines of glowing tubes and metal legs is unknown. They may be responsible in keeping the terrors of the land at bay. They do not keep back the dangers up the floors of the towers. 

Shudder is subject to colonization and expansion aided by aeroship companies, nations, and organizations with interest in what can be found within the towers along with what can be gathered outside their safer cordons in the perilous reaches. For in the towers lies the great risk of dangers from the terrain of the different levels and the monsters within but also treasures and loot that can fill the bank of simple contractors and provide greater treasures for the powers that be to exploit in their goals. Great charters are bought from aeroship companies that hold each tower in a strange lease. These charters allow one to claim these towers with the foundational and continuous aid of the aeroship companies. The companies guarantee trade, communication, and shipments between the towers and the old world. However, each charter company has ulterior motives and each are most certainly motivated by profit. That is when they are not outright arms of old-world powers with their own agendas. 

The towers and the rights to settle within them are bought by hard cash through the charters or by funding from outside interests that can simply take them if they have an aeroship fleet. 

The Maxim of Steel Setting

The Maxim of Steel is a setting within the greater world of Riddle of Flame. It is a settlement building, dungeon diving, and exploratory setting. The players are Keepers, chartered owners of a black spire on the continent of Shudder, and they are responsible for delving up into the monster, trap, and puzzle-filled levels of one of many colossal black spires along with enticing new settlers to their claim and building a settlement from a simple colony to a thriving vertical metropolis within the safe ground borders of their home. They do this via loot from the tower, by the use of longterm resources found within them, through research funding, and any other means to exploit the towers and the lands. 

The towers themselves have ascending levels that present multiple small worlds to explore. One can find themselves ascending the great stairs snaking along the circular walls of the tower and find themselves in a humid jungle with man eating sickle-appendage trees and then after chopping through the brush and climbing a mother set of stairs will find themselves in a frozen tundra with man-swallowing creatures disguising themselves as puddles on the ground and then climb up the stairs again to find caverns filled with an ancient enemy to civilization long since thought undead to then climb the stairs again and find a giant stone cemetery guarded by vengeful spectres. The levels are random in what can be found and within are treasures including magical artifacts and the less obvious sources of unique resources such as plants that can treat heart conditions that jut from those sickle trees or special crystals found growing within special nooks and crannies of the tundra level which can serve as an alternate source of power to aetherium. What may be extremely interesting to researchers are the aetheric stones found embedded in the roof and walls of each level that seemingly allow the different levels to exist by their effects. A jungle level may have a stone that gives off the life-giving energy of the sun while another stone produces the necessary components of the rain to nurture the flora within the level. These may even be able to be scavenged and used like the magical hearthstones and air bubble stones of the old world, but at the cost of ruining the level. The levels are more difficult to tame the further one goes up and seemingly not one charter settlement has reached the top. 

The frontier of Shudder offers multiple opportunities as a setting. Instead of getting into the nitty gritty of settlement building one could be a simple contractor hired on to explore the towers, find loot, and give a percentage back to the town while interacting with a steady cast of characters. The dangerous wilds outside the cordons contain great rewards for great risk in the form of magical anomalies and the chance for hunting exceptionally dangerous monsters. Along with this, the towers themselves are often engaged in diplomacy, rivalry, and intrigue. Towers trade with each other, ally with each other, sabotage each other, and outright war with each other. One could play as a contractor or railroad boss exploring and mastering the lands by building great fortified rails across land connecting one tower to another in great fortified trains and defending the railroad against raiders, monsters, saboteurs, and others that would deter progress.