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Salt in Wounds - Overview & Origin

The City of Salt in Wounds

Lawful Evil Metropolis

Statistics

Corruption +7; Crime +4; Economy +15; Law -6; Lore +3; Society +8
Qualities Plagued, Notorious, Cosmopolitan, Tourist Attraction, Prosperous
Danger +15
Government Oligarchy
Population 155,000 (Incredibly diverse)

Approaching the City

Everyone knows how the City of Salt in Wounds came about. But for those who have not visited in person, it is hard to conceive of the scale of the place. It is even harder for outsiders to understand how wholly the economic engine of butchering the bound Tarrasque has transformed the society of Salt in Wounds and reshaped the surrounding landscape.

Upon approach to the city, the first thing a traveler will note is the sounds of the monster screaming. Its roar echoes

Tarrasque-Fed Mutations

 

The essence of the Tarrasque bleeds out into Salt in Wounds and the surrounding landscape, reshaping the creatures that live there. These changes can affect both mindless beast and sentient citizen alike. Mutations are commonly gained through drinking Tarrasque blood tainted 'red water' and thus particularly common amongst the most impoverished citizens and wild creatures who do not have access to imported water.

Mutations can also be gained

The Ghouls of Salt in Wounds

Despite the more poetically minded chroniclers claiming that the entire city is comprised of ghouls and parasites, literal ghouls comprise only a small percentage of the population of Salt in Wounds. While the statecraft of 5th House has gained them begrudging legal acceptance by the legislators (aka the other meridian houses) they are still largely despised and feared by the general population.
The primary legal argument that 5th House presented to justify the legalized creation of ghouls is that issues of ghoul attacks/violence is driven by unsated hunger for flesh, which -they argued- would never

Coins of Salt in Wounds

While awash with foreign money, as a point of pride Salt in Wounds mints their own coinage. The currency of the city features several distinct features. First, these copper, silver, gold and platinum tokens do not sport portraits but instead are pressed with famous phrases, maxims, and laws spouted by the aristocracy: which phrase is selected for placement on this year’s platinum (and -to a lesser degree- other metals) is a source of much competition and political maneuvering by the Binder-Lords.

In addition, the center of each coin features a small conical point on one side with a small hollow that can accommodate another coin’s point on the reverse face. These are referred to as the ‘tip’ and ‘divet’ respectively. This construction makes Salt in Wounds coins easy to stack securely on top of one another (useful for quick counting and pushing stacks of coin back and forth across a table without risk of toppling). Coins are usually kept in neat rows within pouches with reinforced corners. Out of towners can often be identified by how they improperly shove coins into their pockets where they are liable to jut uncomfortably into flesh (or poke out of fabric). However, some especially cautious merchants are known to deliberately keep the tips of their coin stacks pressing into their skin to be aware if there’s a change in weight resulting from a visit by one of Salt in Wound’s notorious pickpockets or as part of a religious practice known as ‘merchant’s penance.’

Slang Related to Coins

To ‘know the pain of their stack’ refers to an individual with business acumen or is otherwise good with money.

When discussing transactions or jobs; commerce can be described as ‘tip’ which means ‘above board’ and can be discussed openly, while ‘divet’ dealings are secretive, under the table, and usually of dubious legality (if not wholly black market).

Slang Terms for the Denominations of Coin

Copper | Spike

Silver | Scale

Gold | Bone

Platinum | Horn

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Salt in Wounds Map

Inexpensive, poor quality maps like this one are mass-produced by slave-scribes and sold (or even given freely) to visitors and the curious the world over. They are usually further annotated with different taverns, merchants, and lodging locations claiming to be the best (but ultimately determined by kickbacks received by the map making shop).

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The Wyvern Siege and the ‘All Consumption’ Doctrine

In 67 AB, a human mercenary warlord named Segund the Wyvern King (so called for his command of two dozen of the creatures) set his eyes to conquer the booming town of Salt in Wounds. Leading an army of 10000 (bolstered by the aforementioned Wyverns and other magical support), the brilliant logician managed to scale the steep track to Salt in Wounds with only a minimal loss of life. Before him, he faced hastily conscripted forces of around 2000 militia, mercenaries, and irregulars and so –confident of an easy victory- the general was already plotting how to best leverage this conquest for further gains.
As the army grew closer, Salt in Wounds

11 Crimes and their Punishments

The city of Salt in Wounds tends to have extremely harsh penalties for infractions (although imprisonment or hard labor are almost never used). The most common punishments are fines (even for serious crimes for those who can afford it) followed by flogging,

Cult of Renesec: Lord of Mutation

Renesec is the obscure, largely unknown God of Change who is said to have no fixed appearance, house or location of worship. His/Her/It’s few devotees meditate on their god’s presence in the growth of crops, the aging of a face, the overthrow of a government. Renesec’s most ecstatic worshippers adopt radically different mannerisms, behaviors, and even personalities at an irregular schedule and hence are despised outcasts as individuals who are not able to function in society writ large or even writ as small as an adventuring party. However, Renesec has a thriving cult in Salt in Wounds who seek to understand and grow close to their God as the ‘Lord of Mutation’ whose power and majesty can best

Surrounding Locations

The Laboratory of Dr. Mundacri Dr. Mundacri is (possibly was) one of the finest alchemists of this age who left Salt in Wounds to pursue their research outside of the city’s environs (and in a more controlled environment) by setting up shop in a derelict manor and orchard that had been abandoned when the taint of the Tarrasque soured the land. Provided with men & material, the brilliant researcher vivisected dozens of mutated vagrants and hundreds of exotic beasts to divine their secrets. Before their correspondence with some

Dwergo Alchemical Revenants

Dwergo are the ‘true dwarves’ of legend; six foot, 500 hundred plus pound savants who lost their war against the elves after suffering from a reproductive curse that caused them only to be able to give birth to the greatly diminished dwarves of the modern era. They have been extinct extinct for 2000 years.
In their ruins below Salt in Wounds –the deepest rooms of the CapCaps- a frigid tomb was discovered by explorers which held the preserved corpses of several thousand Dwergo; many of which featured intricate clockwork prosthesis. Knowledge of this discovery

Sage's Row

Sage's Row is a series of interlocking streets famed for its preponderance of alchemists as well as other researchers of the arcane and mundane alike. By city edict, every other building sports tall smoke stacks - venting clouds of colored fog and ash of variable toxicity. Most times, a breeze takes the offending miasma and disperses it harmlessly... though if

10 Delicacies of Salt in Wounds

Five-Roast Five-Roast is a stirge stuffed in a singing house-lizard stuffed in a hatchet beak stuffed in a juvenile remora flea stuffed in an axe beak. Before encasing it in the next layer, each animal is cleaned, skinned/plucked, coated in

Colors, Symbols & Iconography of Salt in Wounds

As a polyglot metropolis, Salt in Wounds is awash with color, symbols, and imagery imported from dozens of ethnicities and cultures. However, certain motifs carry over into the sigils, seals, and other identifying marks of the aristocratic houses, merchant guilds, and those belonging to high profile individuals.
Of course, imagery

5 New Monsters: Hatchet Beaks, Infiltrex Harpies, Alchemical Oblate, Stunted Stone Giant, Clot

Hatchet Beak

This diminutive subspecies of axe beak (a supposed cross-bread with blood hawks) is a creature common to Salt in Wounds although many more thousands have been exported in recent years. These riding dog sized birds can readily serve as mounts for small creatures in addition to providing home & property defense or even serve to bolster militia forces. While not

Ramora Fleas

These gigantic vermin –roughly the size of a horse- are one of dozens of native species of parasite & symbiote that live upon or within the Tarrasque. However, they are one species that has managed to thrive even post-binding and represent a continued threat to the citizens of Salt in Wounds and its environs. Ramora Fleas resemble exactly a titanic version of an ordinary flea that can be glimpsed under a magnifying lens; all chitonous plates and oversized legs. When not feeding upon the Tarrasque, they can grasp a creature with their forelimbs before plunging their mouthparts into flesh, and their ravenous thirst can drain a man in less than a minute. They are also capable of leaping hundreds of feet, even whilst holding a screaming duergar.
Due to their mobility, Ramora Fleas represent a fast moving hazard to the entirety of the city and beyond. God-Butchers regularly scour the surface of the Tarrasque to kill these creatures and destroy their eggs; issuing city-wide warnings when they plan to disturb a patch of the things… anticipating that dozens if not hundreds will flee over the walls of the fortress Salzinwuun into the districts beyond. Certain individuals with racial or magical control over vermin prize these creatures as incredibly powerful servants and mounts.


(For some of my thoughts about the size of Salt in Wounds' Tarrasque/how horse sized creatures could hide on it - check out some of my design notes here.)


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The Marrow Miners & Mirayda of the Five Cask Clan (GM Knowledge)

Note: this post includes *excessive* 'secret' information about Salt in Wounds. GMs welcome. If you ever plan on *playing* in a Salt in Wounds game you might want to skip this post.

The Capcaps

Almost everyone has heard about the tunnels and passageways that riddle the earth below the city of Salt in Wounds – the so called ‘Capcaps.’ Unfortunately, much of what is ‘known’ is incorrect, the product of speculation, heresay, and unsubstantiated rumor liable to get a would be explorer hopelessly lost.

The Capcaps are an odd mix of ever-changing ankheg hunting-tunnels, the ruined vaults and halls of the abandoned

Races of Salt in Wounds

These are the most common races in Salt in Wounds and what sort of place they make for themselves in the city.




Human Humans are the most common race of Salt in Wounds and dominate most power structures. However, given the incredible diversity of the city, it is important to note that they are not the majority, merely the largest minority. Notably, humans of dozens upon dozens of ethnicities live and work in the city. Common wisdom holds

Salt in Wounds and the Wider World | Synoma – The Fantasy Cold War

(Note: Salt in Wounds is designed to be largely standalone, isolated, and able –with relative ease- to be plunked right into your favored game world. Just select an out of the way valley amidst the mountains –preferably somewhere you can imagine daring heroes trying to lure and ambush the Tarrasque- and Salt in Wounds can easily fit there. The city’s unique features justify it as able to function more or less anywhere. However, Salt in Wounds is officially part of Synoma which is a fantasy setting in the midst of a ‘cold war.’ The post below discusses the world of Synoma in broad strokes as well as Salt in Wound’s place there.)

Synoma: The Fantasy Cold War

Built upon the ruins of empires of old,

Adventurers in Salt in Wounds

Every region and city of the world produces adventurers; those exceptional individuals who hunt monsters, recover artifacts, thwart (or enact) magical plots, and/or otherwise deal with the issues beyond the ken of the vast majority of the population. The unique features of Salt in Wounds however ensure that certain qualities (favored tactics, abilities, and even psychological quirks) are often found in the adventurers who hail from the land that exists in the shadows of the Tarrasque. These commonalities include (but are not limited to):

• Strongly Favoring Two Handed/high damage weapons With so many monsters and threats of Salt in Wounds having some capacity for regeneration or to otherwise shrug off minor lesser blows via damage reduction, a common adaptive tactic is to simply do massive damage capable of severing limbs or cracking through the toughest armor.
• Obsession with Recovering Organs, Teeth, and Other Viscera Moreso than most of the world’s adventurers, those of SiW see great value in the parts of monsters and will take great pains to collect glands, teeth, and more… most especially for rare creatures. Even if they have no particular interest themselves, experience has taught them that there *will* be an interested alchemist who will pay well for any hitherto unknown or rare biological samples. This quirk often gives adventurers from Salt in Wounds a reputation for ghoulishness or the ‘salt stink’ – a foul aroma  emanating from packs stuffed full of rotting, improperly preserved meat.
• Solo Tactics Given the moral outlook of much of the city, it can be difficult for adventurers originating in SiW to trust one another to the degree necessary to utilize advanced, team based tactics. Most adventuring groups are short term affairs driven by a ruthless mercenary calculus/ As such, most adventurers favor developing themselves to be as self-sufficient as possible. The exceptions however are notable (see below).
• Inhuman Loyalty Group Membership is the primary survival strategy in Siw and as such the members of the various factions (God-Butchers, Merdian House, Circle of Release etc.) are nearly inhumanly loyal to whatever they view as their ‘clan.’ Those rare groups of adventurers who learn to view their party as the primary group support are legendarily devoted to their fellows, recognizing that the success of their group is the only thing that is keeping them alive in a hostile city & biome.

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The Salt in Wounds Mindset

The culture and common mindset of Salt in Wounds is quite unique to the city. As one of (if not the most) populous cities on the planet, Salt in Wounds society is extremely insular and individuals tend to be focused on their own affairs. While traders

Tarrasque Fed Template

Tarrasque Fed Creature (Simple) (CR +2)


Creatures in and around Salt in Wounds often take on the qualities of the Tarrasque. These monsters are usually more powerfully built, with thickened, armor like skin, and the ability to heal from wounds quickly. Creatures with the Tarrasque Fed template are fiercer, driven by a powerful hunger and thus more likely to attack than their ordinary cousins.


Quick Rules: +2 on to hit and damage rolls; (melee), +4 to AC; +5 Fast Healing.


Rebuild Rules: AC Increase natural armor by +4; Ability Scores +4 to Strength. Special Add Fast Healing +5




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The Salt in Wounds Calendar

Salt in Wounds uses a simplified calendar based on seasons rather than month. The annual tracking of the calendar begins with the binding of the Tarrasque, hence the current year is 213 AB (After Binding). While the nature of the city’s unique weather removes most of the markers of traditional seasons the citizenry still count by them. Each season is broken up into 12 seven day weeks for a total of 84 days per season. A date might

Festivals of Salt in Wounds

The City of Salt in Wounds features hundreds of celebrations, block parties, and feast days ranging from local neighborhood affairs to events put on by obscure religious sects to bacchanalias that surge through the municipality sweeping up young and old alike. What follows are three of the largest and most significant festivals of the city.


Binder’s Glory Celebrated 10-13 Days into Fall Held to

D6 Encounters for Sage's Row - Alchemist/Wizard District

Sage’s Row is the district of Salt in Wounds dominated by wizards, alchemists, and others of an intellectual bend. Magical mishaps are commonplace here.

1. The party encounters a half-elven street peddler named
   

New Monster: Testing Apparatus (Construct)

This small, hand-sized construct is an odd assortment of brass clockwork, bone, and sinew. Usually constructed by an alchemist looking to help discover medical data, these devices have six copper legs that end in hooked talons with a mosquito like 'face' that is a thick syringe. Small clear vials of brightly colored, viscous liquid cover its back.
When encountered, the testing apparatus rushes the least armored target

D6 Encounters for the Beast Crown Aristocratic District

The Beast Crown District is the wealthiest corner of the city in addition to being home to the aristocratic Binder-Lords, various high end vendors, and the Stage-Courts. What follows is a list of random encounters for a party traveling through this zone.

D6 Encounters for The Throat Merchant District

The Throat is the commercial district comprised of everything from bazaar-like clusters of brightly colored tents, to raised auction blocks, to looming guild halls built of polished Tarrasque bone. The following is a selection of random encounters for a party travelling through this zone.

1. The party is confused for a group of exotic slaves (with one of the PCs assumed to be the owner) but Quine Calafax, a foppish gnome slave

The Church of the Monad

The Church of the Monad is one of three religions in Salt in Wounds that are largely unknown beyond its borders: the other two being worship of Macinfex - God of Butchers & The Holy Writ of Coin Everlasting.

THE CHURCH OF MONAD

The Church of the Monad is a religion favored by many of the intellectuals, alchemists, and monks of Salt in Wounds. While adherents can be found the world over, Salt in Wounds is most definitely the seat of its power, such as it is. Adherents to the

Salt in Wounds Alchemists: 5th Edition Version

The Alchemist class for 5th Edition was designed by the exceptionally talented Rich Howard and originally published on Tribality. A full fledged Alchemist supplement (featuring 7 total tradition options) is available now through Drive Through RPG. Information below posted with permission.

The Alchemist

Alchemy is the study of the fundamental physical and magical forces of the universe, and many believe the precursor to “true magic”. Like wizards, alchemists examine and experiment with the world around them, not only infusing potions with arcane and scientific power, but creating devices that make the world around them easier to survive. The ready availability of Tarrasque blood and magically infused viscera means that alchemists are extremely common within the the City of Salt in Wounds; and the unique economy of blood, body, and bone powers their craft in ways unique to the metropolis.

Of all Alchemist types, Metamorphic Alchemists

D6 Random Encounters for the Tail Stones

The Tail Stones district is the lower class area of Salt in Wounds; still largely destroyed following the devastation of the 12th Meridian Crisis. What follows is a selection of random encounters for a party moving through this area of town.

The Enders (Public Knowledge)

The Enders are the rumored group of individuals interested in discovering or inventing a way to permanently kill the Tarrasque. While this was the stated goal of the original heroes that bound the Tarrasque, most modern citizens of Salt in Wounds have no interest in the pursuit as it would, effectively, destroy the economy and reason for existing of the city. In addition, the majority of those rare individuals who would be interested believe

Salt in Wounds Around the Web.

Hey all, I just wanted to shoot a quick ‘meta’ post about what Salt in Wounds has been doing around the web.

Financial Support

Just a reminder that I’m able to do weekly posts (and recently added guaranteed crunch posts) thanks to the financial support via Patreon. If you’re not a patron, please considering backing me (even if only for a $1 a month). And if you’re already a Patron, thank you so much.

Social Media + Feeds

Salt in Wounds has a facebook page which you should totally ‘like’ if

Stone Giants of Salt in Wounds & The Granite Shard War

The Mammoth Wardens were (are) the tribe of indigenous stone giants native to the area in and around Salt in Wounds. The Granite Shard war was (is) a conflict that took place between them and the defenders of the Fortress Salzinwuun.


The Mammoth Wardens


Since the binding of the Tarrasque a decade prior to the onset of hostilities, tensions had been rising between the stone giants and the polyglot of adventurers, military forces, and merchants encamped around the beast. The continuing presence of the Tarrasque had scared away most big game (including the titular mammoths on which the giants relied

Blood Domain: Favored Domain of Macinfex (5e)

The Blood Domain was designed by the incomparable Brandes Stoddard. You can read more about it (in addition to design notes) here. Reposted with permission.

Macinfex, god of butchers, holds spilling of blood and the cutting of flesh as the essence of holiness. As such, many of his clerics opt to channel their god through the use of the Blood Domain, especially those with a more militant bend. Some clerics of this domain actively spread violence wherever they go (butchery of all), while others use its power to assure that bloodshed is

Tarrasque Flesh Golems

Tarrasque Flesh Golems are terrifying constructs utilized in and around Salt in Wounds while being virtually unknown beyond city limits. Crafted (primarily) from the freshly extracted flesh, carved bone, and neural tissue of the Tarrasque; these golems are pulsating, oozing figures which seem to pulse with life even as their creators insist that they are 'merely' constructs. As a result of the material used in their creation, these golems move faster and are stronger than those composed of other bodies. Even worse for would be

The Process Guild

The Process Guild is the institutional organization that handles liscensing and represents the interests of the various regular butchers, sorters, refiners ect who receive raw Tarrasque viscera wholesale (from the God-Butchers and Marrow Miners) and then process it into components for later commercial resale to the other dominant professional associations (the Sage's Council and Blood Merchants). The various members of the Process Guild

5 Monsters for the Heartsblood Marsh

The Heartsblood Marsh is the artificial ecosystem created by the mad druid Afrindi Gunterhix to process the Tarrasque blood and other waste leaving the city of Salt in Wounds via the Red River. The following list is a selection of some creatures that can be found there.

Grippli/Bullywug

Pathfinder Version / D&D 5e Version MM Pg 35

Heartsblood Marsh is full of savage Grippli. Most of these creatures worship the Fungal Sieve as a god and nearly all of whom are relentlessly hostile to outsiders. A large portion of

The Marrow Miners (Public Knowledge)

The Marrow Miners are the guild with the extraction contract for the 12th Meridian of the Tarrasque. Other than the God-Butchers, they are the only group with the legal authority to work directly on the Tarrasque and there is plenty of mutual antipathy between the two groups. Founded after the 12th Meridian Crisis, the Marrow Miners have distinguished themselves by taking any ‘willing to work’ and paying fair wages. Their recruitment efforts include hobgoblins, orcs, and many from the lower classes. The general goodwill this generates amongst most of the city is tempered somewhat by racial and class based antagonism towards many of the Marrow Miners.

Since their founding, the price of much Tarrasque viscera has lowered precipitously (this include reagents and rare cuts which the Marrow Miners hypothetically can't access). The Marrow Miners (in addition to their 12th House Sponsors) are widely suspected to be major players in the organized crime of Salt in Wounds, particularly in relation to smuggling. The guild however dismisses such rumors as God-Butcher lies meant to discredit the organization.


To learn more about the founder and secrets of the organization, click here.



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Tuska

There are places throughout the planes where torture beyond mortal comprehension takes place. Devils & demons have their hells and stranger, more twisted creatures have odd pits where cruelties are inflicted eternally. And, there are pockets on the mortal plane where incredible evil and torment exist: the labyrinthine dungeons of a mad king perhaps, or upon the sacrificial altars of a heartless summoner. But pain on the mortal plane is always limited by the lifespan of and resiliency of the creature suffering. However, the hundreds of years of torturing the (immortal, regenerating) Tarrasque has created something new.

Something unique.

Something dangerous.

The agony of the Tarrasque has created

Bakal Filligreen - Master of the Twisted Glass

Spoiler Warning: If you’re playing in one of the Salt in Wounds Tabletop Games this weekend, don’t read the following as it contains potential spoilers.

Bakal Filligreen
Race Half-Elf, Male


Age 120 Years Old

Affiliation Council of Sages

Description


The wiry, smartly dressed half-elf peers at you from behind small glasses, the lenses seeming to gleam with opalescent light.

History


The son of a minor cousin of 9th House and a drunken elven berserker who’d come

Moira Tynheart - Halfling Smuggler

Moira Tynheart

Race Halfling, Female

Age 63


Affiliation None


Description


Moira Tynheart is an elderly Halfling, face heavily lined with age. She dresses in poor, baggy clothing that disguise her shape. Despite her many years and apparent poverty, she moves briskly and with confidence; careful observers always note that she still seems strong and vital. She is missing four fingers, a fact she generally disguises by wearing stuffed gloves. Moira can usually be found sifting the outflow of the Salzinwuun Charnel Sluice Grate, looking for odd scraps of value washed out with the rest of the slurry.


Backstory


Moira Tynheart was born to a family of poor halflings, who split their

The Fortress Salzinwuun

The fortress Salzinwuun is located near the exact center of the city of Salt in Wounds. Though referred to as a fortress, this tremendous black-stone fortification is a wonder of engineering more properly considered a castle. Salzinwuun is and will –in many ways- always serve as heart of Salt in Wounds; it is the base of the God-Butchers, first processing center for Tarrasque viscera, security to prevent untoward access to the beast, and first, best line of defense should the Tarrasque ever free itself.


History


After the first slaying and binding of the Tarrasque, the heroes