Rhapsody

Regardless of what it once was, Rhapsody is now a ruin. The domes and the spire have collapsed and been taken back to the seabed. Somewhere within are the bodies of Markham Jaxx, the architect of the city, and Sniffletash Brownfinger, the tyrannical despot who took control after the Guild's first visit there.

Rhapsody is a sunken city beneath the waves to the south of the East Ridings. It was envisioned as a utopia by its creator, Markham Jaxx. He built it in his home country of Tookay as an arc ship and traveled somewhere far from home with hundreds of like-minded people to scuttle his creation to the bottom of the sea. Here he hoped to realise his dream of a life of innovation and freedom. This was many decades ago and he has not been heard from since he left his homeland. Since then his vision has fallen into disrepair and chaos.

After nearly 15 years of running smoothly, a highly addictive psychotropic substance was found in slugs discovered on the sea-floor nearby; nicknamed “Slice”. This was used by almost the entire population for recreational purposes. Slice can also be refined into something called a “Slugmid”, applications of this gave people powerful and dangerous spell-like effects. The subsequent 5 years of overuse of this powerful and addictive substance, and the associated violence, resulted in the death of most inhabitants and the permanent change of the physiology of all the survivors. The arcane-technology of Rhapsody remains mostly intact but nobody within has the knowledge or ability to control it any more.

All the biological inhabitants of the city, no matter their race, now live barely into their 20th year. This is a side effect of their ancestors overindulging in the effects of the sea slugs' toxins. They reach intellectual and sexual maturity, and their adult size, by their fifth year. What they call generations are barely more than 5-10 years. As such, the fall of the city and the loss of its secrets is only 60 years ago but would seem to the inhabitants to be approximately a dozen generations.

Each of the 4 domes of the city has tunnels connecting them to the other domes. Plus, between each strut of the dome they have an airlock leading to the sea.

**Wonder City**

This was the living and commerce part of Rhapsody. A small city in and of itself. Labs dedicated to natural philosophy and magic dot the city, now disused; as well as casinos, clubs, hotels, and other night-life venues which are heavily used. The Slicers, as they call themselves, are descended from the original users of Slice, and they still partake heavily of the substance. They live short violent lives of hedonism and violence. They are often heavily scarred from wounds that are self-inflicted or from violent disagreements with other Slicers; or they are modified in other ways such as hooks and weapons embedded in their flesh.

The dome of Wonder City is approximately 10 miles in radius. It is closed to the sea with substantial blast shields but its lighting system, magical lights along each of the 12 struts that make up the dome between the panes of toughened glass, is set to a perpetual twilight. The Slicers do not seem to mind as they keep no record of time or date. The Slicers occasionally raid into Arboretum for sport, sometimes they return with prisoners to torture, sometimes they do not return at all. But no other Slicer ever cares because they do not form friendships or bonds. Their incredibly fast physiology means that they must normally sleep 2 hours in every 6 to maintain health though many use various drugs to mess with this cycle. Their world of perpetual twilight follows no rhythm.

On the outer edge of the dome lies a dome control pod. This controls the day-night cycle, the blast shields, a security lockdown, O2 levels in the dome, and a self-destruct mechanism for the dome. The Carnelion Hotel is the largest building in the city and it served as Dukain's home and base of operations. It contains a substantial Slice refinement lab. The tallest building is Jaxx tower; this houses a museum of the history of Rhapsody up to its fall. The body of Markham Jaxx was found by the Adventurers in his office, having killed himself during the final hours of the collapse of the city. It was oddly well preserved for having been there for 60 years.

**The Slicers**

They have abused Slice for so long they are all addicted. Once per 24 hours, at 6am, the servitors come through the passage from the Docks to deliver food and slugs. There is always a fight between slicers to get the first share. And there are frequent deaths, and always the remnants of previous fights (including bodies and broken food containers, but no slugs are ever left behind). The servitors are not attacked because Slicers who used to do that ended up dead and nobody tries it any more. They occasionally attack the Arboretum for fun and prisoners but never pass into The Docks or the Fortress. The Slicers will attack anyone not their own but a group addicted to Slice and happy to partake will easily be included in their midst as one of them.

- Doc - A Gnomish Slicer - He has a lab in the Carnelion Hotel and provides the best Slice injectors  refined from slugs. He also has a selection of Slugmids. A group of Slicer technicians help him with his work.

- Dukain - A Goliath Slicer - Now dead, killed by the Guild. He ruled a section of Wonder City from the safety of the top floor of the Carnelion Hotel, the largest building in Wonder City. His veritable army of Slicers is loyal to him. He used to hold a staff of office that was a Titan Control Rod. The party of Adventurers killed him and his retinue.

Sniffletash Brownfinger - This former adventurer has taken up residence in the Carnelion Hotel and taken control of it. He holds the titan control rod.

**Arboretum**

This area was the natural part of the city. It is a huge dome filled with trees and rivers and gardens. It is home to the Wood Folk. These are the descendants of those people who fled Wonder City during the violence and so they became cut off from Slice. They now consider the slugs to be a forbidden danger that brought their ancestors low.

The dome is identical to Wonder City’s dome except the metal shields are up so the sea is obscured. The lights in here go on a cycle of 18 hours daylight and 6 hours of darkness; to simulate a normal rhythm. The whole city was once designed this way. To the Wood Folk this makes no sense but is part of their world. Their lives work on what they call “sleep-wakes”. Like the Slicers they need 2 hours sleep in every 6 but they do not use any stimulants so they must follow their biological imperative and for the most part they stick to this rhythm. For them, days have no meaning, so the 6 hours of darkness registers to them as one sleep-wake in four being dark.

On the outer edge of the dome lies a dome control pod. This controls the day-night cycle, the blast shields, a security lockdown, O2 levels in the dome, and a self-destruct mechanism for the dome.

The Wood Folk consider their dome to be the entire world, nobody for a dozen generations has been or seen outside of it. However, they are aware of the Door of Heaven and the Door of Hell. These lead out of Arboretum but are inaccessible to the Wood Folk. The Door of Heaven leads to The Docks and the automated warforged deliver food to them in the morning at 6am every day. Or, to them, the start of every 4th sleep-wake, after the dark one. These doors only open when the packages come and taboo prevents the Wood Folk from entering. The Door to Hell leads to Fortress and Wonder City and occasionally Slicers come through and capture Wood Folk to abduct them away. More often than not, the Wood Folk kill the Slicers, they are organised and capable, while the Slicers are mad and uncontrolled. But sometimes the Slicers will kill Wood Folk and take prisoners, never to be seen again. The Wood Folk will not willingly enter Hell. They do not go near the Control Pod, it was guarded by angels.

**The Wood Folk**

These are a simple people with a simple religion. They revere the “Angels” who bring them food through the Door of Heaven and fear the “Demons” who occasionally attack through the Door of Hell. The Angels are the Warforged servitors who deliver food and slugs to each pod as they always have done. The Demons are the Slicers from Wonder City. The Wood Folk send back the crates of slugs and abhor their use, this is based on legends of their ancestors, not based on knowing what they are. They do not know the link between the slugs and the Demons but will be distrustful of anyone coming from the Gate of Hell and actively abhor anyone showing signs of Slugmid addiction. They consider Quett, Wen, Ash and Sniffletash to be Angels. Graves and diaries and records in their village show that living for 15,000 sleep-wakes is considered an old age, this amounts to only about 15 years. So the 60 years since the fall of the city is 12 generations for them. They speak of their ancestors setting up homes here in the long-long-ago.

- Gaelan - Leader of the Wood Folk. An elf. Wise but stern. Protective of his people.

- Quista - A captain of the Wood Folk rangers. A gnome.

- Drutar - A captain of the Wood Folk rangers. A dwarf. One of a very small number of Wood Folk who believe it is worth going through the Doors to see if there is anything beyond. He was convinced by the adventurers to give up on this intention.

**Fortress**

This 5 mile radius dome houses an abandoned military area including prisons and barracks. Patrolled by Warforged guards on set paths. The Warforged use to act as the city’s law enforcement but now only patrol the Fortress. They will still occasionally save shipwreck victims and put them in the prisons. When the city was functional these people would have been given a chance to join the city or even leave safely depending on what information they might have gathered. However, now the city is in disrepair there are no leaders so nobody comes to see the shipwrecked mariners and they end up dying of starvation in the cells.

**The Docks**

This dome is 5 miles in radius and houses the the area of Rhapsody that delves into the sea for resources. The systems are all automated by insentient Warforged drones. Though one Warforged has grown beyond his programming to become a properly sentient creature known as Father. He is deep within The Docks and coordinates the actions of the drones. They are mostly automated and act on impulse.

The Dock once had an escape vessel on its outer skin, now missing since it was used by the adventurers to escape the city.

The passages to the other areas only open up once per 24 hours (in the morning) to allow the servitors though to provide food and slugs to the two domes.

- Father - A warforged plugged into a magical mainframe. He manages the infrastructure of the dock and is knowledgeable of most of Rhapsody’s mechanisms. He will do his best to protect the Warforged under his control but understands that they might be hostile, so may need to be destroyed for the good of the adventurers or the Wood Folk. He hates the Slicers but can do nothing to stop providing them with food and slugs. “I can no more stop the servitors in their tasks than you could stop your heart from beating”. Since the beginning of Sniffletash’s reign he has tried getting messages to the Guild through his limited control of the Warforged servitors to beware Sniffletash.

**Spire**

In the centre of the city is the Spire. It extends up to the surface with the topmost part acting as a storm generator to dissuade nosy visitors. The lower levels were locked off from the pathways that connect the city’s 4 main domes together, but became open when the security lockdown was lifted. The ground floor of the Spire contains a lift and a Warforged Titan to protect it. Surrounding this central area is a maze of tunnels and maintenance passages. The guild members destroyed the titan on their way out but Sniffletash has since repaired it and set it back to patrol. The storm generator is controlled by Sniffletash and switched on and off remotely to allow his servitors and new submersible ships out of the city where needed.