Jikara: The Towering Temple
Modeled and rendered with SketchUp, composed and painted in Photoshop:
This is a campaign world my DM developed as a "sandbox" exploration adventure module for Pathfinder:
Welcome to Jikara, a world of swords and sorcery!
Centuries ago, a river changed course and began flowing through a ridge. Stories say the event was
caused by erosion, creating a water gap in the mountains. The saru civilization on the other side of the
ridge sent explorers down the river’s new path. They found a desert valley now being fed with a mighty
river, and life springing up everywhere. As the water spread, much of it evaporated. The fog settled at
night, keeping the water in the valley. Soon, they sent settlers down into the Valley of Vapors.
The expedition leaders were sarus with mighty white plumes. They brought citizens, workers and slaves
and established a village in a river bend. To make finding it easier, they built a mighty temple. To this
day, the village itself doesn’t have a name; if people live in it, they say they live by the Towering
Temple. The village grew and thrived for many generations, maintaining contact and trade with the saru
empire over the mountains.
That time is long past. The last visitor from over the mountains came and went before you were born.
Some say the Riverside Road has all but washed away.
The river flows on, stronger than ever. The valley is green and lush. Plants and animals are abundant.
The environment is ideal for growing crops and raising animals, so there hasn’t been a need to explore.
Once or twice a year, the Breath of the White Wolf blows down through the valley, clearing the air and
cooling the land.
But the river pours fast and ground water levels have risen over the centuries. Old basements are
flooded. Once prosperous crops are struggling in boggy soil. If the river cuts much more of the bank
away, the Towering Temple’s foundations would be in danger.
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• Jikara [the planet] has extensive rings with many satellites, visible day and night. If you can see the sky, you
can determine the cardinal directions. Inner rings rotate with the planet. Outer rings rotate in a
retrograde motion, though this is only visible with careful study.
• Over 70 visible moons orbit the planet. This is not counting hundreds of “moonlets” within the
rings. Due to the rings and the many moons, Jikaran nights are brighter than Earth’s. There are
astromancers who can name every one of them, but they’re weird people.
• A few other planets are visible, but most people just know them as bright, stable stars. The other
stars change as often as the clouds, and people think nothing of it.
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The tower is based loosely on the 3-D paper-craft Wizard's Tower by Fat Dragon Games. Here is a photo of our DM's initial setup of the Towering Temple village for our first session:
http://www.terrainosaur.com/jikara/vov_temple.jpg
I've been keeping an adventure log on Terrainosaur's forum if you're really interested:
http://www.terrainosaur.com/gallery/...?t=391&start=0
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