Epic Level Handbook

cartel members wanted the trade to come to them, ratherthan having to seek it out. And after decades of searchingfor just the right demiplanar location, plus decades morein construction and settlement, not to mention the millionsspent on advertising and urban development, thecity of Union was born.The city has been in existence for almost eighty years,so it is quite young by almost every standard, yet it hasseen an unprecedented population explosion during thattime. The mercanes are artists of trade, after all. Famousand infamous personalities have come and gone inUnion, but the call of steep profits remains the heart ofthe city’s attraction.USING UNION IN A GAMEThe city of Union can easily be dropped into any campaignsetting. By its nature, it’s easy to access from justabout anywhere. Most epic characters rely on their ownmethods for traveling between spheres of existence, butUnion still functions as a hub for travel since it connectsto just about everywhere else in the multiverse, sooner orlater. Union is an ideal location for meetings betweenepic NPCs, a great place to hunt for unusual or valuableitems (the marketplace of Union is legendary for itswares), and often a place where important news ofcosmic scale is first heard.Naturally, Union has been geared for epic-level play.But what does that mean? Well, it’s not the kind of localethe PCs can just waltz into and take over, yet at the sametime, it’s not so controlled that it’s no fun for epic characters,either. The mercanes who run the place have triedto ensure some level of security (their livelihoods are atstake, after all), so the Union Sentinels (the peacekeepingforce created and controlled by the mercanes)do a good job of deterring crime, preventing invasions,stopping the rampages of powerful characters, and so on.At the same time, the Union Sentinels can’t stop everythingthat goes on, and don’t pretend otherwise. If a disruptionappears that the Union Sentinels can’t handle,the mercanes have other ways of dealing with it. Theircoffers are full, and, as the saying goes, there’s always abigger fish in the sea, one that might be willing to dealwith a problem for the mercanes. Ultimately, the city ofUnion is an interesting enough place that epic characterswant to or need to visit it (the seeds for the kinds ofadventures in which epic characters want to partake canbe found there).Finally, the description of the city of Union found inthis book is necessarily sparse. Certainly, the details ofa city of over 100,000 inhabitants could easily fill abook this size. But the demands of space require alighter overview; thus, the view of Union providedhere is just a foundation. The DM could easily incorporatethe settings and maps associated with Unioninto another city of his choice more suitable to hiscampaign. On the other hand, sufficient informationis presented in this chapter to run Union completelyout of the book.MERCANE UNION COUNCILThe mercanes’ most famous enterprise is the planarmetropolis of Union, which they founded and continueto administer. Thirty-three mercanes sit on the UnionCouncil, which orders all the affairs of the city. Theorganization known as the Union Sentinels has its charterof authority directly granted by the Union Council.CHAPTER 6:AN EPICSETTING249