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Ruined Halfling City
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This city has been abandoned since the Spellblaze, some of its grandeur lost
forever to the rages of the wild magics unleashed so long ago. The layout is
an open-air city with 4x4 buildings (3x3 interior space). Some buildings are
collapsed, others are empty. A few have inhabitants - and not the friendly
kind - the brain-eating kind. Roughly 2 or 3 buildings per level could be a
store-vault (with store-quality gear inside). Digging into any building
makes a "luck check" to see if debris cascades down in a small cone with the
player at the center. Each debris cascade would do approximately 20% of the
player's max health as damage, per cascade, per building. (If the building
is starting to collapse, GET AWAY.) The end boss would be "The Council" -
at least 5 yeeks, the rest are random other races but not halflings or
undead. Basically, the yeek slaves huddled away in some hidey-hole while
the Spellblaze rained destruction upon the city and eventually turned most
of the citizens of the city into the undead. Like the Rel yeeks, these yeeks
were thinking of a way to help shield themselves against trauma. Unlike the
Rel yeeks, these Yeeks were SCARED of the zombies constantly roaming,
looking for food - looking for them. In terror, they created a much stronger
mental linkup than the Way - in the Council, each member acts as part of the
whole in complete synchronicity. The yeeks managed to eke out a living,
raiding small farms for food. As for the non-yeek Council members, they are
lost travelers, merchants, or farmers who saw them raiding their crops and
livestock. The terror from the original yeeks in the Council permeates the
Council as it is now - this manifests as a small chance to disrupt mind-
slayer powers, and a larger chance to dirupt any powers of yeek players -
it is a competing Way, and the stray thoughts and emotions are confusing to
Wayist yeeks. The yeek Councilors can "harvest" non-yeek Councilors if they
need a quick heal, and may just harvest them to stop you from freeing them.
If you manage to kill all of the yeeks and save at least one non-yeek, you
get a "Memory Crystal" - an item the yeek Councilors used to create their
Link, and also an archive of their thoughts. Halflings can take this crystal
to the Wayist in the Complex and the Wayist will not attack the halfling
(but still won't confer the Wayist bonuses). Non-halflings can take it to
the Wayist and receive a better reward - an extra uvault item or maybe a
psionic-powered artefact if one gets added later. If a yeek receives the
crystal, though, a new ending opens up - a more democratic Way is spread
across the planet, accepting any who wish it and only to the degree that
each individual wishes - the Wayist yeeks learned a lesson from this and
realised that acceptance must be a part of the Way, and only when the Way
is accepted can someone truly be a part of it. It may take centuries, but
in the end, who could refuse the tranquility of the Way?