Chorospyrog, The City of Crystal Worm Towers

On the misty mud plain of Fosmuck, often hidden by dust storms, is the tower city of Chorospyrog. Though its enclosed streets are now ruled by the Star Judges this was not always so. Here is the history of the city of  Chorospyrog: 

(I went quite full on using this: http://lizardmandiaries.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-automated-past-and-present-atomic.html to generate the history here!) 

• The city was formed when Great Mud Leviathan, the rubble creator, encountered the Crystal Worms. The leviathan would destroy everything it saw, trashing and melting the stone of the earth into mud, but when he saw the glittering hides of the Crystal Worms frolicking in his trail of devastation his hunger was sated for a moment.   
• As Great Mud Leviathan stopped his thrashing the mud froze, capturing the Crystal Worms. In a moment of reflection and seeing he had doomed that which he loved, Great Mud Leviathan was ashamed and buried deep beneath the earth. His rage at himself, and endless thrashing in the core of the world keeps it warm and alive. 
• But the crystal worms were trapped in the hardened mud and they froze. Their giant bodies become the towers of Chorospyrog. Their complicated and arcane maws still top the towers. 
• The tendrilic hearts of the Crystal Worms slowed. They were Rainbow Diamonds the size of a man, sprouting endless tangles of crystal veins. The hearts were slowing but they lured the monsters of Fosmuck to the Worm Towers. 
• The hooved, horned blood suckers of the mud plains all gathered in a horde at the base of the towers. The dying diamond heart maddened them. These were four legged beasts of stone, massively horned and with a proboscis that pierced the earth for water and blood. 
• The horned bloodsuckers smashed their heads against the base of the Worm Towers. They were the first excavators of Chorospyrog. The stony creatures all died attempting to burrow to the diamond hearts of the worms - their normal breeding patterns abandoned. 
• Then the first people came to Chorospyrog. Holy sailors who travelled in pairs. The Diamond Hearts called to them beyond the seas. The sailors made homes in the holes the horned bloodsuckers dug and wore their bones. The sailors planted the first crops of jelly, the foodstuff that continues to support all that live in Chorospyrog. 
• The sailors continued the work of the horned bloodsuckers, hewing the walls of the Worm Towers in search of their Diamond Hearts. They used the horns of the blood suckers to mine. But, an ancient sickness sucked from the earth by the horned bloodsuckers was still in their bones - and this sickness was given to the sailors. 
• The sailors were infected. They could only rest and mine and forget to eat and love. They could always hear the clanging of brass in their ears. 
• As the jelly crops rotted, the sailors continue to hack towards the Rainbow Diamonds. They did not notice the gilded maggots crawl into the lower levels of the Towers. At first the maggots ate the bones of the ancient horned bloodsuckers, and then they ate the bodies of the fallen sailors and then they ate the living sailors. The maggots were gold and ate very fast and they swelled in size and emitted much gas. Finally they ate the last of the sailors - who had nearly found the first Rainbow Diamond. The last sailors continue to swing their horn pick axes as they were swallowed whole by the now enormous gilded maggots.
• Then came the first Worm Kings. Two twin brothers who had abandoned their homes to roam the world and hunt and protect the innocent. They took a single tooth from each beast they slew - and their bodies were covered and armored in teeth. 
• When they came to the Worm Towers a fat, swollen gilded maggot made the mistake of attacking them. The beast was slain. Its stomach was cut in the fighting and out fell the bodies of several of the sailors. The brothers were enraged by this and slew every last gilded maggot in the Worm Towers.
• Covered in the slime and blood of the maggots the brothers came upon the Rainbow Diamond - just behind a thin wall of Worm Flesh. They smashed through the wall. The oldest brother reached out to the Rainbow Diamond and its tendrils of crystals wrapped around his body and smashed it into a paste. The oldest brother's mind was filtered into Rainbow Diamond and he become enthroned in a Worm Tower - its first king.    
• His younger brother screamed in rage and grief and struck at the walls of the Worm Tower. He was smashing and paining the very brother he grieved for. 
• The younger brother left Chorospyrog but vowed to return to avenge his brother. He would come back and smash all of the Rainbow Diamonds in the towers. 
• Decades later the younger brother returned with a team of men and women and trained eagle mites - winged creatures bred for their ability to eat stone. The eagle mites were famed for the usefulness in building and working with stone in high places.  They would rip apart the Diamond Hearts. 
• The younger brother returned to the room where his brother was destroyed by the  Diamond Heart. The heart was not there. The room and been shaped and warped. It now resembled the brother's childhood room. The younger brother dropped to his knees sobbing, realizing the tower he had just travelled through had been shaped to take on the appearance of every room he and his brother and travelled to. From their childhood home, to the coastal inns, it was all here in the Worm Tower. 
• The younger brother could not sense the Diamond Heart that killed his brother, but he could sense the one in the next Worm Tower. He had his team whip the eagle mites to eat towards the heart - he would face this Diamond Heart and demand his brother back. 
• When the younger brother - another decade later - found the next Diamond Heart, he was old and weak. A community had grown in the Worm Towers they were excavating - the jelly crops had been replanted and their was plenty food for all. When the room with the  Diamond Heart was excavated it did nothing. It ignored all that visited it until the younger brother arrived. 
• When the younger brother came to face the Diamond Heart, he reached out to it - longing for answers. It pulverized him into red mist - and the second Worm King was enthroned. 
• The two brothers were re-united within the crystal matrix of the Worm Towers. They warped the forms of their towers to accommodate the community the younger brother had grown in the towers. They helped the jelly grow and people travelled across the Fosmuck mud plains to live in Chorospyrog. There they could be fat on jelly and live in the calming rhythm of the Diamond Hearts. 

And so it came to be that Chorospyrog was transformed from the corpses of enormous Crystal Worms into a thriving, jelly fat, city. Some pertinent details: 

• Eight more Worm Kings were enthroned - but most only remember the first two kings. The twin brothers and their armour of teeth are seen as the founders and true rulers of the city. 
• The eagle mites were grown and bred and become a specialty of Chorospyrog, any builder in the city is also a skilled eagle mite trainer 
• Jelly crop is still the staple food of the Chorospyrog diet. 
• Gilded maggots are a dangerous nuisance on the lower levels of the city. They can still eat men whole. 
• Outbreaks of clanging sickness are somewhat common. Those infected either experience Diamond Heart mania, or will not leave their bed. They complain of endless brass clanging in their ears. 
• The citizens are fond of decorated themselves with horns. 
• The armour here is "teethed" rather than "scaled".
• A council of Star Judges rules the city from The Tower of Asteria. They are in the process of installing a more authoritarian form of rule for the city - based on the councils collective moral superiority. 
• The city guard always travel in pairs and wield sharp, lithe, pickaxes instead of swords. 

Recently: 

Rot has begun exuding from the walls of the city. Shiny, spikey, ectoplasm. It is hard and sharp and spreading. The Star Judges claim the rot is from moral ineptitude that has spread throughout the citizenry - and that only ethical cleanliness will save the city...

The rot is in fact the spreading hives of obsidian beetles clawing their way through the walls. They have jaws of metal and are the size of small dogs. They are spewing forth from a colony in the mud to the south of Chorospyrog. 

Map: 

(The city was stocked using: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/365147/Infinigrad-The-Weird-City-Toolkit ) 

1. The Tower of The Older Brother: Factories producing teethed armour and pickaxe weapons. The mud of the plains creeps into the tower here and swirls across the walls. Many residents are beset by clanging sickness and sleep in beds of mud. 

2. The Lost Tower: Overrun with gilded maggots and obsidian beetles. Teams of paired horned pickaxe wielders are here to reclaim the tower.  

3. The Tower of The Pump: Monks of a mud and water based cult work water catching devices that run along the walls of the tower. They also operate mud filtering devices that procure clean water from the mud field of Fosmuck. The monks of Mud are richly adorned as their services are valuable. They are close allies of the Star Judges. 

4. The Market Tower: This area serves as the foreigner quarter - An abundance of inn and markets. The tower has a somewhat abandoned feeling too it, locals fear the ire of the Star Judges for interacting with outsiders. 

5. The Tower of The Younger Brother: Many farms and training grounds for eagle mites. The exterior walls are exquisitely detailed from eons of eagle mite working. The breeders are very pushy in trying to sell their eagle mite stock. 

6. The Muck Tower: All the unwanted refuse of the city is stored, treated, thrown away, here. A high pile of foulness in the mud beneath the tower. Rumours of revolutionary anti Star Judge groups (The Teeth Brothers, The Bloodsuckers, The Maggotkin) dwelling here. The walls are engraved with anti Star Judge sentiment.  

7. The Forgotten Tower: The Worm King/Diamond Heart in control of this tower locked it away from the rest of the city long ago. Its dark crystal walls are all closed. Windows and doors filled in. 

8. Worm Head Row: A bridge with the  crystal mansions of Chorospyrog's most powerful. Foreigners excluded and refused entry. 

9. The Hive: The pleasure quarter of the city. Filled with eagle mite fighting pits, slime bars and jelly banquets. Foreigners barely tolerated. Awash with conspiracy, adventure and dodgy dealings. 

10. The Records Tower: A store of food and water for the entire city. Heavily guarded by pickaxe wielding guards accompanied by trained fighting eagle mites. The upper levels are devoted to Chorospyrog's city historians, who sit in mirror filled rooms wearing cloths of shimmering silver. 

11. The Tower of Asteria: House the council halls of the Star Judges, rulers of the city. They live, study and preside in the highest levels of the city - watching the stars all evening long and deducting the right and moral actions to take  from their movements. 

12. Houses of the Diamond Hearts: 6 of the 10 Diamond Hearts have been recovered and put on display in temples here. Being in their presence is purported to have mutative effects. Heavily tooth armored guards protect the temples. All of the priests that tend the crystals are in a conspiracy to attempt to over throw the Star Judges. The conspiracy refers to itself as The Way of The Worms. 

13. The Library Tower: At some point in history this Worm Towers Diamond Heart was destroyed. The tower is crumbling, falling apart. Dust storms from the plains whips into the wide open holes of the walls. A library of public record was once housed here - but it has largely fallen into ruin. The most important books were moved to the Records Tower. It is very likely the floor or walls will collapse while travelling here.  

Find out more about Chorospyrog here: http://lizardmandiaries.blogspot.com/2021/08/chorospyrog-player-character-generator.html