Task A: Starting Location 1: Arnlaugs Carcass

[Grützi]

As promised heres the thread regarding our Starting Location 1.

Arnlaugs Carcass

History
34 years ago famous bandit lord Arnlaug the Joyous, finally tired of robbing and blackmailing the nobles, set out to find something new.
At the fringes of the mountain (the zone? the plateau?), hidden in a small valley he found the fossilized carcass of a giant, vaguely insectoid creature.
In the cavities inside the long dead creature he build his stronghold, attracting all kinds of dishonorable folk over the years.
A safe haven for all kind of thieving folks and down on their luck nobodys, Arnlaugs Carcass is a rather chaotic place.
Rumor has it that deep inside the Carcass Arnlaugs workers mine for gold, silver, gems and even stranger materials ... found nowhere else.

As I find it tremendously easier to work with some visual aids I drew some quick map how i imagine the place right now.

Arnlaugs Carcass Map

In the Front we got Mandible Market (the Mandibles?) a kind of rough and dirty thieves market.
Through the mouth we'll get into the Innards where Alchemists grow Fungus and other strange ingredients, fortune tellers do their work and healers use the minerals to tend to the wounded. To the north lies the shanty town of those that aren't well regarded even in this chaotic environment. The Ill, the crazy or simply those that ran afoul of the wrong people.
On top of the main body lies Arnlaugs keep from where he rules his little kingdom with an iron grip. A waterfall drops down into a huge basin from where it flows into the great beasts body to emerge in the town proper and exit to the east at the tails.
At the end of the beast lie the mines where Arnlaugs men dig deep into the beasts body to unearth gold, silver and other even more precious materials.
What exactly goes on there is privy only to Arnlaugs men and those that work there ... even though none of the workers ever leave as they live in a special Area just south of the mines.
Anyone crossing Arnlaug or his men the wrong way gets thrown into the mines ... never to return.
The Town proper lies in between two of the beasts great legs and is generally called In-Between Plaza because of this.
The proper Gate to the west and the rubble gate to the east allow passage into the town ... even tough both are controlled and taxed heavily by Arnlaugs mercenaries.

Special Places:
The Broken Pincer Inn
Just outside of town lies the Broken Pincer Inn, named so because it actually lies inside the giant, broken Pincer of the long dead creature.
Founded by the retired Cleric Asturval it's sort of a neutral ground between the different factions in the city.

The raised Leg
While the whole beast lies dead inside a small valley, one of it's main legs is still raised as if to hoist the gigantic body upwards at a moments notice.
On top of the "knee" Arnlaug build a small watchtower to survey the surrounding lands. Rumor has it, that a hidden passage allows Arnlaugs men unseen entry into the town.

So far from my side.
I will build more from here on, but I'm glad about any help or criticism.

The Mines allow for a bit of exploration even inside the town. And right now I imagine sort of 3 factions: Arnlaug and his mercenaries, a sort of thieves guild and some group of alchemists and healers. The broken Pincer Inn and Shantytown would be relatively neutral.

Ideas to work from:
Do something with the eyes of the carcass?
Strange materialsthat Arnlaug uses to keep the upper hand in his struggles.
Strange religion worshipping the beast?

All of this is still in a rough state and open to any change necessary.


Edit:
And now you can see the map ...

 

[DangerousPuhson]

Ideas to work from:
Do something with the eyes of the carcass?
Strange materialsthat Arnlaug uses to keep the upper hand in his struggles.
Strange religion worshipping the beast?

Loving it!

My thoughts on these points:

Eyes - rotted away (eyes are soft, should be exoskeleton only if the thing's been dead a while). Maybe the mandible market extends up the face of the creature into the eye sockets.
Materials - I would jive on the idea of these strange biological "lumps" (alien lymph nodes or something) that even Arnlaug doesn't know what they are (not xenobiologists), they just call them something like "squishies" or something. Their origin is a closely-guarded secret, but obviously originate from within the carcass. Their effect would be something biological; an adrenaline surge or strength boost or something that turns his retinue into super soldiers. Either that, or they are an addictive drug, and he uses his supply to control addicts.
Religion - maybe not a whole religion (the community seems too scattered for that), but it'd be cool to have a few doomsday-nutjob types out on the corners preaching about how "the great beast will shake us all off and eat the world" or some such thing.

 

[Beoric]

So, there used to be this bandit around here, Arnlaug the Joyous, who made quite a name for hisself robbin’ ‘n’ blackmailin’ the nobles. Kind of a folk hero, see? No, I don’t know why he was called “the Joyous”, shut up and lemme tell the story.

Anyway, one day he up ‘n’ quits banditin’, no one knows why. And he goes and he finds this huge dead bug, big as a hill, and it’s been dead so long it done turned to stone. So he carves a bunch o’ holes in the bug and set up shop doin’ gods know what, ‘n’ a bunch o’ thieves ‘n’ robbers and all manner o’ washed up ‘n’ dishonorable folk go ‘n’ join him.

I dunno what they’re doin’ there but it can’t be no good. Probly buyin’ and sellin’ all manner o’ contraband. I also heerd they made slaves outta all the folk they kidnapped, and make them work in a mine for gold and jools. And they mine for other, unnatural stuff too. Gives me the creeps, them out there diggin’ in an old bug’s guts. I reckon y’all oughta steer clear a there like most decent folk. No good’ll come o’ goin’ there.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

History
34 years ago famous bandit lord Arnlaug the Joyous, finally tired of robbing and blackmailing the nobles, set out to find something new.

Wouldn't it make more sense that his banditry career came to an end because he was exiled, instead of "he quit"? We're gonna need to take every opportunity to put the setting into subtext for the players.

"For 34 years, famed bandit lord Arnlaug the Joyous was the scourge of the aristocracy, robbing the wealthy blind and collecting their most perverse secrets. When they finally hauled him out in chains, no judge would to sentence him to the gallows - through arcana the dead can still speak, and Arnlaug had a head full of dirty secrets. So he was banished instead, to a place where his words couldn't escape back into civilized lands."

 

[Ice]

As promised heres the thread regarding our Starting Location 1.

Arnlaugs Carcass

History
34 years ago famous bandit lord Arnlaug the Joyous, finally tired of robbing and blackmailing the nobles, set out to find something new.
At the fringes of the mountain (the zone? the plateau?), hidden in a small valley he found the fossilized carcass of a giant, vaguely insectoid creature.
In the cavities inside the long dead creature he build his stronghold, attracting all kinds of dishonorable folk over the years.
A safe haven for all kind of thieving folks and down on their luck nobodys, Arnlaugs Carcass is a rather chaotic place.
Rumor has it that deep inside the Carcass Arnlaugs workers mine for gold, silver, gems and even stranger materials ... found nowhere else.

As I find it tremendously easier to work with some visual aids I drew some quick map how i imagine the place right now.

Arnlaugs Carcass Map

In the Front we got Mandible Market (the Mandibles?) a kind of rough and dirty thieves market.
Through the mouth we'll get into the Innards where Alchemists grow Fungus and other strange ingredients, fortune tellers do their work and healers use the minerals to tend to the wounded. To the north lies the shanty town of those that aren't well regarded even in this chaotic environment. The Ill, the crazy or simply those that ran afoul of the wrong people.
On top of the main body lies Arnlaugs keep from where he rules his little kingdom with an iron grip. A waterfall drops down into a huge basin from where it flows into the great beasts body to emerge in the town proper and exit to the east at the tails.
At the end of the beast lie the mines where Arnlaugs men dig deep into the beasts body to unearth gold, silver and other even more precious materials.
What exactly goes on there is privy only to Arnlaugs men and those that work there ... even though none of the workers ever leave as they live in a special Area just south of the mines.
Anyone crossing Arnlaug or his men the wrong way gets thrown into the mines ... never to return.
The Town proper lies in between two of the beasts great legs and is generally called In-Between Plaza because of this.
The proper Gate to the west and the rubble gate to the east allow passage into the town ... even tough both are controlled and taxed heavily by Arnlaugs mercenaries.

Special Places:
The Broken Pincer Inn
Just outside of town lies the Broken Pincer Inn, named so because it actually lies inside the giant, broken Pincer of the long dead creature.
Founded by the retired Cleric Asturval it's sort of a neutral ground between the different factions in the city.

The raised Leg
While the whole beast lies dead inside a small valley, one of it's main legs is still raised as if to hoist the gigantic body upwards at a moments notice.
On top of the "knee" Arnlaug build a small watchtower to survey the surrounding lands. Rumor has it, that a hidden passage allows Arnlaugs men unseen entry into the town.

So far from my side.
I will build more from here on, but I'm glad about any help or criticism.

The Mines allow for a bit of exploration even inside the town. And right now I imagine sort of 3 factions: Arnlaug and his mercenaries, a sort of thieves guild and some group of alchemists and healers. The broken Pincer Inn and Shantytown would be relatively neutral.

Ideas to work from:
Do something with the eyes of the carcass?
Strange materialsthat Arnlaug uses to keep the upper hand in his struggles.
Strange religion worshipping the beast?

All of this is still in a rough state and open to any change necessary.


Edit:
And now you can see the map ...

This is wonderful!

If i was going to change it, I would number the places and have everything that is listed on the map in the 'special place' section, for example:

1.Mandible Market
Rough and dirty thieves market.

2. the Innards
Here alchemists grow fungus and other strange ingredients for their machinations. Fortune tellers tell their fortunes, and healers use the minerals, fats and tissues of the carcass to tend to the wounded.

3. Northern shanty town
Here dwell those that aren't well regarded, even in this chaotic place. The Ill, the crazed or those who simply ran afoul of nefarious people.

4. Arnlaug's Keep

Placed on top of the main body lies a roughly built keep. From this ramshackle fortress, Arnglung rules his little kingdom with an iron grip.

5. the waterfall
a great cascade drops down into a huge basin below. from where it flows into the great beasts body to emerge in the town proper and exit to the east at the tails.


6. the mines
At the end of the beast beast lies the mines, where Arnlaug's men dig deep into the beasts body to unearth gold, silver and other even more precious materials.
What exactly goes on in these mines is privy only to Arnlaug's men and those that work there. Many of the workers never leave as, they live in a special area just south of the mines.
Any unfortunate soul who crosses Arnlaug or his men gets thrown into the mines ... never to return.

7. The proper gate to the west and the rubble gate
These gates allow passage into the town. They are both are controlled and taxed heavily by Arnlaug's most trusted mercenaries.

8. Barracks
Three large, utilitarian stone block buildings are linked by stone walls, inside the walls is a roughshod collection of shanties and hastily erected structures.

Maybe mark the mouth on the map an write a short description for it too.

Insect mouthparts - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Finally, I would add a read/paraphrase aloud for the very first time you see Arnaug's carcass, something like A giant bug lays in the distance. As you approach, the immensity of it only grows. Dead and un-moving, it's gargantuan, bulbous body juds lifelessly into the air, as if it were a small mountain itself. It's colossal head lays upon the earth, it's immense eyes stare into nothing and from it's huge face emerge magnificent tusks that lay perfectly still. So big, it is, that a keep of no small proportion rests upon it's back.

Your map is excellent. It is incredibly imaginative and evocative. One thing to improve is the A. diagram. I had to spend a bit of time looking at it to figure it out and I am still a bit confused of how it relates to what is below it. Maybe draw a full side-view?

This is very very very good though and I really like it. I am really excited to see what else you come up with.

 

[Beoric]

"For 34 years, famed bandit lord Arnlaug the Joyous was the scourge of the aristocracy, robbing the wealthy blind and collecting their most perverse secrets. When they finally hauled him out in chains, no judge would to sentence him to the gallows - through arcana the dead can still speak, and Arnlaug had a head full of dirty secrets. So he was banished instead, to a place where his words couldn't escape back into civilized lands."

I like this, but it shouldn't be common knowledge, although it should be discoverable with a little work. And it should be relevant to interaction with Arnlaug.

 

[The1True]

"squishies"

definitely someone has figured out how to harvest a fairly excellent (but toxic) narcotic from these...

 

[Grützi]

Thanks for all the kind words I will incorporate most ideas here into the location when I'm home later.

 

[Grützi]

Little Update:

Lets take a closer look at the head of the beast.
DP suggested the market goes onto the head into the eyes so I ran with that.
Imagine a few more tents, carts and makeshift huts ... I got tired of drawing them


A - Mandible Market Square
Food, drink and the stuff you'll get on any halfway well stocked market.
B - The Broken Eye
Here you'll get magical ingredients, curses, strange mixtures and all manner of arcana hogwash.
Part of the original, crystalized eye is held aloft by big beams of wood, scattering the light into many colored beams, that give the whole area a slightly otherworldy feel.
C - The Colored Gardens
The whole central eye is one big, rather luxurious brothel and pleasure paradies. Here you'll find every pleasure available to man and even a few that are not meant for humans ... at least that's what the market criers tell you.
Half of the eye is still covered by the original, crystalized eyeball under which the namegiving gardens are located, always awash in a dozen different colors.
D - The Hollow Eye
Want to have someone killed? Coveting your neighbours riches? Or simply looking for stuff thats illegal even in this lawless land? Look no further than the Hollow Eye, where you'll met fences, thieves and other unkindly folk.
E - Watchtower of the Town Guard
Build into the empty socket of one of the smaller eyes. Good point to survey the valley in front of the town. 2 guardsmen are always present. Barracks and armory are located at the base of the tower, built into the head of the beast.
F - Main Entrance
Entrance into the Innards. A great barricade protects against all kind of intruders. It's always guarded by at least 4 guardsmen in Arnlaugs service.
Everyone entering the town will be taxed according to offical decree and the whims of the specific guardsmen (bribes always welcome)

A few of the other things:
History
Arnlaug getting banished sounds better than him leaving voluntarily.
Right now I think that maybe he was banished because killing him would allow someone to get his secrets from beyond the grave and it would've upset his many followers resulting in some kind of uprising.
Maybe Arnlaug wasn't even really banished, but took a deal. Stay in civilized lands and be killed (all fallout be damned) or go into the wilds, carve yourself a little kingdom and get some help from your old enemies. They would basically pay him to stay away from them and make some trouble elsewhere.
So Arnlaug has good contacts into the old world and can get his hands on luxury items and stuff. This would help explain how he could stay in power with relative ease. In turn he keeps the powers in the old world abreast of whats happening int the zone.

Doomsday insect cult
Yeah, a whole religion is to big for that ... I'll run with the nutjob doomsday wackos that camp around town and try to recruit more for their cause.

Materials
Lots of potential here.
A thing we should defintely add or at least think about is this: What about Stone to flesh spells? Could someone turn the petrified body of the beast back into dead meat?
Maybe thats whats going on in the mines. Could neatly explain how Arnlaug gets some biological stuff out of some long dead stone husk.
I will write down a list of possible materials and effects in the next few days ...

Factions
As it stands i envision the following big factions:
- Arnlaug and his men (town guard, rangers in the surrounding wild and mercenaries)
- The alchemists that turn stone to flesh for him, mix the special droughts for himself and his men and experiment on the dead meat of the beast (and get some special rights out of it)
- A union of thieves, whores, forgers, assassins and basically all other unfriendly folks

Arnlaug controls the keep, the mines and in-between plaza and is by far the most powerful of the three.
The alchemists control the Innards, have much influnce in Shantytown and can get away with nearly everything as they are sorely needed by Arnlaug (and they know this)
The Thieves union controls the head, Mandible market and can get you anything except "squishies" (which annoys them to no end)

A few minor ideas for the factions:
The rangers Arnlaug employs to survey the lands are based from the watchtower on the raised leg, led by a charismatic fellow named Tynvast.
Arnlaug fears Tynvast is gunning for his head and thus has given himand his men some rather hard assignements in the last months. Arnlaugs men treat the rangers poorly and their base in the watchtower of the raised leg is always understocked and the last to receive new stuff. This of course has lead to exactly the situation Arnlaug feared from the beginning ... Tynvast has started to look for allies to secure his furture in the city. He isn't thinking about betraying Arnlaug right now .... he's merely keeping his options open.

The alchemist keep their recipes and formulas tightly guarded but everything leaves a trail in this world.
In the last few weeks some unknown force has begun to collect information about purchases the alchemist made, about their daily routines and the people they talk to. Who these agents and spies work for is unknown at this point.

I would love to have a plothook about the thieves union starting some scheme to finally get someone into the mines and get information back out ...

A general idea regarding the whole town
A the creation and demise of the great beast is surely connected to the ancient civilization or their demise we could work something in here.
Insects are normally associated with hive minds and I was thinking that maybe our carcass wasn't that different here.
So while the carcass has been dead for untold years, a strong psychic aura of it's old hive mind still lingers inside.
Anyone trying to read minds could get some kind of psychic backlash as his mind is linked to some inhuman, ancient force. The contact is brief, damages the user and maybe ... gives him/her some useful information ... visions of locations or secrets in dungeons maxbe?

Thats it from my side for today ... let's see what you got for me

 

[DangerousPuhson]

Oh man, way cool! The map is great, the places and factions are interesting, the whole of it is just really fantastic! Great job so far, I can't think of much that needs improving upon, but if I had to offer up a further suggestion, would it make sense to have The Hollow Eye be some kind of establishment, like an inn or guild hall or something? You'd still have all the skulky types and assassins for hire and whatnot, but they'd probably be trying to hide it I'd think (or at least, not be so open about it, like a Black Market), otherwise I don't see how Arnlaug would tolerate it in his town considering he's supposed to be the one with all the killing power. Just a thought, but maybe the ruffians try to disguise their operations there for the sake of saving Arnaug some face, even though he and everyone else in town knows what the Hollow Eye really is? I imagine Arnaug's got some spies in there anyway, but it'd be funny to have an establishment like a tavern where the party goes in and asks for food, and the server (who is really an assassin) is like "Oh, wow, you actually want...food? Um, ok, hold on, I'll see if we have any food around here..." because he just assumes everyone is already in on the "secret". Would be kinda funny.

Otherwise, I think all your bases are covered.

 

[Ice]

Little Update:

Lets take a closer look at the head of the beast.
DP suggested the market goes onto the head into the eyes so I ran with that.
Imagine a few more tents, carts and makeshift huts ... I got tired of drawing them
View attachment 41

A - Mandible Market Square
Food, drink and the stuff you'll get on any halfway well stocked market.
B - The Broken Eye
Here you'll get magical ingredients, curses, strange mixtures and all manner of arcana hogwash.
Part of the original, crystalized eye is held aloft by big beams of wood, scattering the light into many colored beams, that give the whole area a slightly otherworldy feel.
C - The Colored Gardens
The whole central eye is one big, rather luxurious brothel and pleasure paradies. Here you'll find every pleasure available to man and even a few that are not meant for humans ... at least that's what the market criers tell you.
Half of the eye is still covered by the original, crystalized eyeball under which the namegiving gardens are located, always awash in a dozen different colors.
D - The Hollow Eye
Want to have someone killed? Coveting your neighbours riches? Or simply looking for stuff thats illegal even in this lawless land? Look no further than the Hollow Eye, where you'll met fences, thieves and other unkindly folk.
E - Watchtower of the Town Guard
Build into the empty socket of one of the smaller eyes. Good point to survey the valley in front of the town. 2 guardsmen are always present. Barracks and armory are located at the base of the tower, built into the head of the beast.
F - Main Entrance
Entrance into the Innards. A great barricade protects against all kind of intruders. It's always guarded by at least 4 guardsmen in Arnlaugs service.
Everyone entering the town will be taxed according to offical decree and the whims of the specific guardsmen (bribes always welcome)

A few of the other things:
History
Arnlaug getting banished sounds better than him leaving voluntarily.
Right now I think that maybe he was banished because killing him would allow someone to get his secrets from beyond the grave and it would've upset his many followers resulting in some kind of uprising.
Maybe Arnlaug wasn't even really banished, but took a deal. Stay in civilized lands and be killed (all fallout be damned) or go into the wilds, carve yourself a little kingdom and get some help from your old enemies. They would basically pay him to stay away from them and make some trouble elsewhere.
So Arnlaug has good contacts into the old world and can get his hands on luxury items and stuff. This would help explain how he could stay in power with relative ease. In turn he keeps the powers in the old world abreast of whats happening int the zone.

Doomsday insect cult
Yeah, a whole religion is to big for that ... I'll run with the nutjob doomsday wackos that camp around town and try to recruit more for their cause.

Materials
Lots of potential here.
A thing we should defintely add or at least think about is this: What about Stone to flesh spells? Could someone turn the petrified body of the beast back into dead meat?
Maybe thats whats going on in the mines. Could neatly explain how Arnlaug gets some biological stuff out of some long dead stone husk.
I will write down a list of possible materials and effects in the next few days ...

Factions
As it stands i envision the following big factions:
- Arnlaug and his men (town guard, rangers in the surrounding wild and mercenaries)
- The alchemists that turn stone to flesh for him, mix the special droughts for himself and his men and experiment on the dead meat of the beast (and get some special rights out of it)
- A union of thieves, whores, forgers, assassins and basically all other unfriendly folks

Arnlaug controls the keep, the mines and in-between plaza and is by far the most powerful of the three.
The alchemists control the Innards, have much influnce in Shantytown and can get away with nearly everything as they are sorely needed by Arnlaug (and they know this)
The Thieves union controls the head, Mandible market and can get you anything except "squishies" (which annoys them to no end)

A few minor ideas for the factions:
The rangers Arnlaug employs to survey the lands are based from the watchtower on the raised leg, led by a charismatic fellow named Tynvast.
Arnlaug fears Tynvast is gunning for his head and thus has given himand his men some rather hard assignements in the last months. Arnlaugs men treat the rangers poorly and their base in the watchtower of the raised leg is always understocked and the last to receive new stuff. This of course has lead to exactly the situation Arnlaug feared from the beginning ... Tynvast has started to look for allies to secure his furture in the city. He isn't thinking about betraying Arnlaug right now .... he's merely keeping his options open.

The alchemist keep their recipes and formulas tightly guarded but everything leaves a trail in this world.
In the last few weeks some unknown force has begun to collect information about purchases the alchemist made, about their daily routines and the people they talk to. Who these agents and spies work for is unknown at this point.

I would love to have a plothook about the thieves union starting some scheme to finally get someone into the mines and get information back out ...

A general idea regarding the whole town
A the creation and demise of the great beast is surely connected to the ancient civilization or their demise we could work something in here.
Insects are normally associated with hive minds and I was thinking that maybe our carcass wasn't that different here.
So while the carcass has been dead for untold years, a strong psychic aura of it's old hive mind still lingers inside.
Anyone trying to read minds could get some kind of psychic backlash as his mind is linked to some inhuman, ancient force. The contact is brief, damages the user and maybe ... gives him/her some useful information ... visions of locations or secrets in dungeons maxbe?

Thats it from my side for today ... let's see what you got for me

This is all good.

You presented a lot of things in this most recent post which I think you could just put on a rumor table and be done with.

Maybe do some short write ups on the NPCs and their motives, weird personality quirks, and a few typical things they would say.

Are you planning on doing a map of the keep or mines?


This location is pretty well developed, and you probably want to start thinking about how you want it to look on paper and how you want to make it usable for a DM.

How many pages are you envisioning this to be? In my mind, it would be about 4, but obviously that could change very easily.
Here's a terrible ASCII version of how I think this would be most usable. Pretend you are looking at a book:


Page 1 - Page 2
__________________
|Maps...Y Map.....|
|...............| Key........|
|...............|.................|
--------^---------

Page 3 - Page 4
___________________
|NPCS.....Y HOOKS|
|.................| ETC...,.....|
|.................|..................|
---------^----------

I am looking forward to dumping my players into this.

 

[The1True]

Holy crap we've got some creative people!
I might have a cult for you, still fleshing it out...
The ne'er do wells of this settlement need some proximity to the outer world and one or two secret ways to get there so they can make money doing what they do. The civilized kingdoms know of them (and often use them for their dirty work), mostly hate them but it would be too much trouble to cross the mountains and tromp them (thus far).

 

[Grützi]

@DP:
Hell yeah thats hilarious ... I can see my dumbass players doing exactly that already
Will put something to that effect into the text.
Right now i tought about an auction house where stuff and services are auctioned off to the highest bidder. Maybe Arnlaug has a permanently reserved seat and a first bid right or something. Could allow crafty players to meet Arnlaug outside of his keep.
A tavern would also work well ... but I rather not put another tavern so close to the Broken Pincer Inn ... then again this could be a sign for clever players that somethings up ...
Or we put a horribly boring front onto it all ... The guild hall of the scribes, accountants and tax consultants ... for example.

@Ice:
Right now I'm mainly using this thread as sort of a dumping ground for my ideas to get them down somewhere. Which info will go into which table, piece of text or picture I will decide later

I will try to get a map of the keep and in-between plaza, the mines and the innards with shanty town together. But right now the maps are mainly for myself/us to get an overview of the place. Still I would like to include as many detailed maps of the Carcass in the final product.
Judging from your reactions the place seems to be well suited as an interesting home base even for longer play ... as the carcass has a rather "unusal" layout I think having detailed isometric maps will help DMs and players a great deal to wrap their head around what is where.
So im thinking maybe 3 pages of maps and another 2 to 3 pages of text (hooks, npcs, factions,...) ...
We also could put the basics in the adventure/product and release a gazetter of the Carcass with additional infos for further use ...

I will write up the most importants NPCs with quirks, personality and stuff later. Each faction should get at least one contact person for players + a few interesting inhabitants of the Carcass.
So far I have:
Arnlaug the Joyous
Tynvast (leader of the rangers)
Leader of the smiling knifes (the city watch so to speak, basically Arnlaugs mercenaries)
Chief alchemist
Asturval (ex-cleric, owner of the Broken Pincer Inn, all around badass)
Thieves guild contact

@The1True:
Thanks man
Secret entrys can be put in rather easily ... flesh your cult out a bit more and we'll drop it right into the Carcass

 

[squeen]

How about having a lingering anti-magic aura associated with the carcass so that using magic in town is either very dangerous or next to impossible?

 

[The1True]

How about having a lingering anti-magic aura

Nice. And that wraps around to later when we meet live variations of the giant prehistoric bug, giving them some innate magic resistance!

 

[DangerousPuhson]

when we meet live variations of the giant prehistoric bug, giving them some innate magic resistance!

Are we perhaps thinking a sort of "Land of the Lost" style adventure, where the party goes into a crevasse and ends up in a preserved paleolithic -style oasis? Perhaps encountering a tribe of Lost Civ super-advanced cavemen or something?

 

[The1True]

I was thinking more along the lines that the Ancients preserved various Precambrian monstrosities and now they're getting loose as a result of upheaval and sloppy exploration.

 

[Grützi]

Next update:

The Broken Pincer Inn


Build by former cleric Asturval 16 years ago and operated by her and her servants ever since, the Broken Pincer Inn is the biggest and best known Inn in and around Arnlaugs Carcass. While it may not be the most luxurious of establishments (that honor goes to the colored gardens) it is well frequented because even Arnlaug thinks twice before causing a ruckus in Asturvals domain. This independence is not the only reason the BrokenPincer is well liked by the common folks of the area, for once a year Asturval holds a great festival in honor of all good deities. At this joyous opportunity the former cleric of insert good god here blesses the people, shares her enormous wealth with them by providing free food and drink and gives them ample opportunity to simply enjoy life and forget their sorrows and hardships.
Arnlaug of course hates this public display of wealth and generosity with a passion, but has yet to do something against it as Asturval is well beloved and acting against her will surely cause commotions or even uprisings in town.

Asturval
chaotic good former cleric of insert good god here
around level 12-ish
45 years old
beautiful but stern, passionate and outgoing A shadow somethimes crosses her face when she thinks nobody is looking
Asturval served as a cleric of good deity for most of her live until she had some kind of epiphany when she turned 25.
After that she declared, that she would "do good where it matters most", packed her stuff and went into exile in the wild lands willingly.
After wandering for about 4 years she finally emerged in Arnlaugs Carcass with money to spare and great plans. She began to build her tavern right into the broken Pincer just outside town and opened the Inn for business. A stable presence in the town ever since, Asturval is well beloved for her generosity and nearly compulsive need to help lost causes.

Notes from my side
The whole Inn should fullfill two functions in the setting:
1. It's just a damn cool place to be
2. It's a neutral ground between the different factions of Arnlaugs Carcass
As such I hope a group spends some time there so I fleshed the place out a bit more.

Asturval
What was her "epiphany"?
Right now I'm thinking she had some kind of vision about the ancient civ and what killed them. Maybe her god send it to her to put her exactly where she needs to be, maybe it was just luck.

How did she get all that money?
A wandering cleric coming into town with sacks and chests full of money is a rather strange sight indeed.
We could connect her money to another place in the setting. I also would love it if she has some dark secret ... nothing to terrible, but some dark stain in her past she tries hard to forget/eliminate.
How about this?
Maybe she got her riches from the thing that lives under Bowmans Pastures?
She struck a deal with it or stole from it and escaped. Whatever she did wasn't exactly good or noble and it haunts her to this day? She left someone she loved behind as payment? she didn't help the settlers there?
Maybe the entity under Bowmanns Pastures wants revenge ... or will someday call in a favor still owed?

Watcha think guys?

 

[Grützi]

And one more update

The Innards

The whole area is inside the part right behind the head of the Carcass.
Fortune tellers and other hedge wizards squatter in the main tunnel right in front of the alchemists gate.
The alchemists that are allied with Arnlaug live and work in their own separated cave where they can pretty much do as they please ... as long as they get results to Arnlaug. Herethey transmute stone to flesh, experiment with whatever they get and mix potions and other drugs for Arnalug to use.
Shantytown sits nearly forgotten to the north of the Carcass, squeezed between the Body and the Canyon walls. Only Thieves, beggars and healers ever really go there.
If you want to go to the keep or In-Between plaza you'll have to pass a guardhouse and a fortified gate, which is always manned by a dozen of the smiling knives.

The whole Area should work as a shady pseudomagic area in which shady deals can be made and the alchemists can be investigated. Shantytown serves as another neutral ground, but thats just because no one cares enough about its inhabitants to investigate further. A fact that is used by thieves and assassins to strike deals and smuggle contraband. There will probably a few secret passages in and out of shantytown for smugglers and thieves to go about their business.
The healing house is the one good thing in this area ... at least for now. Maybe the alchemist sponsor it and the healers experiment on unsuspecting patients with some "squishies" lent by the alchemists?

So far from my side.