PROSPERITY, THE REMNANT CITY
PROSPERITY, THE REMNANT CITY
“The hardest thing is not to achieve Prosperity, but to free yourself from it.”
Prosperity is a city located in a pocket of interspace whose entry point changes every day. Upon entering it, every character receives a “citizenship visa” which consists of a magical contract that updates in real time according to their achievements. Receiving the visa generates a negative cost of 1,000 credits for the character, which cannot be refused. You are unable to leave Prosperity until you pay off your debt, even by magical means. Treat every “citizen” as a continuous target of the “planar anchor” spell cast by a 20th-level cleric. Gold, silver, copper and precious stone coins have no value in this strange city. In Prosperity, your lifespan, talents and skills make up the monetary system. In short, you are the true wealth of Prosperity.
The exit point from this pocket of interspace appears in front of you when your debt is paid off.
The city
Its architecture varies between its different urban layers and all citizens are permanently busy working, hoping to accumulate enough credits to be able to free themselves. Begging and deliberate cheating are punished by “assimilation,” although legal, albeit immoral, contracts are permitted by the city. Many traders make shady deals taking advantage of peculiarities in the laws, although never violating them.
Daily housing and food are not free and are available from 10 credits per day on floor 1. It is possible to find citizens of all intelligent species in the world of If and beyond, and extraplanar beings are often victims of Prosperity.
The metropolis is divided into several “floors”, which are overlapping layers of urban constructions. Each character spawns in Prosperity on a floor appropriate to their level. There is an administrator for each floor, who are always 2 character levels higher than the maximum for that layer.
Floor 1 – Effort (Lvl 1 to 5): creatures from level 1 to 5 appear in Prosperity on the floor called “Effort”. It is the lowest of them all and its architecture is much simpler. It is dedicated to manual labor and activities considered “inferior”.
Floor 2 – Progress (Lvl 6 to 10): creatures from level 6 to 10 appear in Prosperity on the floor called “Progress”. It is the second urban layer, dedicated to processing activities of raw materials coming from the Effort floor. Its architecture is refined and pleasant, with impeccable urban planning.
Floor 3 – Ascension (Lvl 11 to 15): creatures from level 11 to 15 appear in Prosperity on the floor called “Ascension”. It is the third urban layer, dedicated to specialized activities such as engineering, production of magical items, clockworks, administration of assimilator troops, spies and patrollers. Its architecture is ostentatiously opulent.
Floor 4 – Merit (Lvl 16 to 20): creatures from level 16 to 20 appear in Prosperity on the floor called “Merit”. No one knows what activities this floor is dedicated to or who its inhabitants are.
Assimilation
If you are punished for begging, cheating, stealing, or any act that harms the Prosperity economy, you will be punished by assimilation. An assimilator will be assigned to pursue you daily until you are successful in your mission. He will cast a 9th level effect that will permanently transform him into an object part of the city, with no movement capacity or the minimum necessary to perform some repetitive work function. The target of the effect must make a DC 30 Will test. On a critical success, they are immune to further assimilation attempts for 1 week. On a common success, the target does not suffer the effect, but may be targeted by it again the next day. On a failure, it is immediately assimilated. In a critical failure, not even when you clear your credit debt, your original physical form is not recovered: the creature has already become a permanent part of the city and only a spell like wish is capable of reverting it to its original form.
The exact new form of the assimilated creature depends on its original qualities. A particularly beautiful phaemon can be transformed into a decorative statue for the exquisite squares of Prosperity, being forced to sing at pre-determined times. A powerful magibrute can be transformed into an assimilator to hunt down and punish lawbreakers. A tarkal with high intellect may be employed as an engineer, administrator of a specific sector of the city, etc. The city always aims to extract the maximum potential from each individual for its economic growth.
Adequacy
Each day that a character resides in Prosperity, they must perform a Will test that starts at DC 10+1 each day (maximum 40). On a critical success, the target is immune to the effect for 1 week and its acceptance rating changes one step towards “hostile”. On a success, nothing happens that day. On a fail, your acceptance rating as a permanent citizen changes one step toward fanatical. On a critical failure, it changes in two steps. The initial degree of acceptance is declared by the character himself when entering Prosperity for the first time. When you reach the “fanatic” level you become a permanent citizen and even when you pay off your debt you are absolutely against leaving the city and will use all your available resources to never be taken away from you. You will work incessantly to accumulate positive credits for the simple reward of primitive accumulation itself. A fanatic has his home plane changed to Prosperity. If he is on another plane and is the target of spells such as “Banishment”, he will be sent back to Prosperity.
Degrees of acceptance: Hostile > unfavorable > indifferent > favorable > welcomed > fanatical
Hostile: You despise the city and its values and will do everything possible to get out of it as quickly as possible.
Unfavorable: You still want to leave, but you prefer to use the city’s legal means to accomplish this by paying off your debt through hard work.
Indifferent: Prosperity isn’t that bad. Outside there is only chaos. Maybe you would leave if a very convenient exit appeared in front of you, but in reality, it doesn’t matter if you stay or leave.
Favorable: This is quite a place to live! The opportunities for personal growth and work are inexhaustible. You don’t want to leave unless you’re forced to.
Welcomed: you love Prosperity and feel part of it. The city has become part of what defines your personality and you feel perfectly adapted to it, it is your true home. You don’t want to leave and even if you are forced to, you will fight not to. If you are at immediate risk of death, you will agree to leave, but you will do your best to return as soon as you can.
Fanatic: the reason for its existence is Prosperity. There is nothing out there or inside you that is more important. You will fight with all your strength to never be taken away from the city, even if you are at immediate risk of death. Dying for Prosperity would actually be honorable.
Demand system
Characters with positive credits can create demands for characters with negative credits, who can accept or refuse the offer. The demand creator establishes how many of his credits he offers for the service. At the end of the task, this amount is transferred from the creator’s visa to the visa of the character who carried out the activity. Demands can be as simple as “bring a basket of apples for 5 credits” to “Capture the rebel wizard Olzabar alive and bring him to me for 300 credits”. The more difficult or risky the task, the greater the amount of credits offered as a reward. Some of them are offered directly to a specific character, while others are released publicly. Public demands are often contested by several candidates. The first person to successfully complete the task receives credit, while the rest are left with nothing.
For Game Masters reading only:
The city itself is considered a solid remnant that echoes the psychic impression of greed and material attachment of an entire banking metropolis existing in the universe prior to the existence of Glitch Mundi. Unlike common remnants, Prosperity has an unusual level of power because it is the sum of thousands of psyches, instead of a fragment of a single one. It is inadvisable to treat her in the game as a “monster” or a mere enemy to be faced, however, if the situation requires it, treat her as a 20th level character who casts spells like a cleric of the same level, whose edict and anathema follow below. Prosperity is a conscious city, but not omniscient. She can cast divination spells to attempt to obtain specific information only from within her domain, but not from outside. Countless orbs of surveillance, patrollers, and spies, however, complement the city’s senses. These agents can report to any surveillance orb or administrator and the city will automatically know about the information collected.
Edict:
Maintain economic order, increase the quantity of goods and create value for the city above all.
Anathema:
Break the economic order or knowingly allow the city and its assets to be devalued or lost.
The idea of “creating value” cited in the city’s edict is abstract and separate from the need to increase assets. The city’s value can be increased by keeping a powerful heroic figure captive eternally, or a bard capable of singing about the city’s glory, or by recruiting people to attract more new citizens from the outside world (always subjecting the recruiters to spells that force them to accomplish this mission).
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