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BinaryDoubts posted:Pretty rough that getting blood eagle'd is considered a coward's death, when it's undoubtedly one of the worst possible ways to die. Not to justify it, but I think the idea is similar to the Soviet Army line of thinking in that "if you got captured alive, then you weren't fighting hard enough." Which is weird when it comes with a divine proclamation in spite of the fact that people fall unconscious all the time when fighting. You'd think the gods would know that.
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Mar 30, 2018 01:47
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 The Northlands Saga Adventure Path We briefly talk about the introduction and the background for the start of this epic saga. The PCs are in service to Jarl Olaf Henrikson; they may be huscarls, as favored servants, close friends, or at the very least wintered with him to make acquaintance with the household. Jarl Henrikson may not be part of the greater clans like the Gats or the Hrolfs, nor is he the Køenig of Hordaland, but due to his authority within the largest city in the Northlands he is a very powerful man. In his youth he was a Viking and warrior par excellence, but in his increasing years he's living out a semi-retirement in the nearby village of Silvermeade Hall. The Adventure Path on the whole spans 16 in-game years between 12 adventures. They are not evenly spaced; the first eight happen within the span of 3 years, then the gaps between adventures get progressively longer to the point that the time between the penultimate and final adventure is 6 years! The idea is that the rare and legendary sagas are not so common as to dominate the PCs' lives, giving time for them to rest on their laurels. This makes it all the more significant when our heroes must leave hearth and home to band together against a great threat. Here and there throughout this Let's Read, I'm going to explain What I Changed in my own games, from otherwise troublesome mechanics to plot points which could use tuning up. The Northlands overall has a lot of content, but aside from a few exceptions a lot of the adventures are mostly stand-alone. Due to this it don't always feel connected beyond a few NPCs at times. I made it so that earlier adventures have events hinting at the later ones; this created a more believable world for my players and made them go "Oh, so that's what this is about!" a few times.  We get a mini-game meant to be run during winter months between adventures. As winters are long and boring in the Northlands, the rare (relatively) warmer days provide relief which locals use to hold intense physical challenges to blow off steam. And those of a more cerebral mind may use the ample time indoors to study, play games, and the like. Each PC rolls an ability check appropriate to their activity or class, and they gain a corresponding amount of Experience (individually) depending on the result. At low levels the experience gained can be significant, but over time it becomes paltry sums midway through the Adventure Path. The adventures are abbreviated as such: NS[X]: Place Title Here. NS1: Vengeance of the Long Serpent is not the "first" one in this book. The 2011 run began with that adventure and carried all the way up to NS4: Blood on the Snow. Level-wise this took PCs from 5th to 10th, but to simulate a 1 to 20 Adventure Path two prequel adventures (both labeled NS0) were made. They seamlessly flow into the rest of the Adventure Path, making reference to characters and events which show up in NS1. NS0: Spears in the Ice Part One, Spring Rites  Jarl Olaf Henrikson has three daughters. Inga, his oldest one, is going to be wedded, and the PCs are summoned to his hall by a herald. Preparations for the Spring Equinox, a holiday dedicated to Freyja and traditionally used for weddings, are underway. Jarl Henrikson gets down to brass tacks and explains that his three daughters wish to gather flowers for the celebrations. He wants the PCs to escort them and see to their safety while they ride to a meadow of flowers outside town. The area around Silvermeade Hall isn't particularly dangerous unless one goes too deep into the woodlands or barrows, so it is not your typical heroic saga. Henrikson comments as such, but mentions that once they become great warriors and see their share of death such slice-of-life memories will be "a boon beyond naming." The adventure goes into some detail over the flower arrangements for the holiday, along with the specifics of the food eaten with the Jarl (black bread, butter, spring greens cooked with white beans and ham hock, pickled flounder, and several pints of beer if anyone's wondering). The PCs also get the opportunity to learn of the eldest daughter's husband, in that he's a member of the Gat family. Jarl Henrikson is trying to make alliances in the even of civil unrest on account of the dispute over Hordaland's leadership. This is an interesting tidbit of politicking, but unfortunately it doesn't evolve into a plot point later on in the Adventure Path. What I Changed: I made it so that Inga's betrothal is to an NPC of my own creation, Arvid Anudsson, son of Anud Curse-Spear. Anud Curse-Spear plays a significant role in NS3: the Death Curse of Sven Oakenfist, and provides the party a built-in excuse to visit his hall.  Pictured left to right: Runa, Fastvi, Inga Jarl Henrikson's daughters await the PCs on horseback. We get some information on how to role-play them during the adventure. Inga is a spoiled arrogant girl who treats the PCs like servants at her beck and call, but a high-status male PC she'll be very polite and flirtatious towards. Fastvi, the middle-youngest, is obsessed with swords and stories of great warriors and will pester the fiercest-looking fighter-type in the group with all manner of questions. She is very impulsive and will get into some minor troubles during encounters unless the PCs reign her in. Runa, the youngest, is quiet and reserved, seemingly talking privately with an imaginary friend named Javik. Appropriate Knowledge checks confirm that her birthing was a difficult one, and that out of desperation Jarl Henrikson requested the aid of a seiðkona (a witch) to ensure both mother and child's safety. Ever since Runa has been "not quite right" by mentioning vaguely o future events yet to come. During the ride to the meadows there are some non-combat scenarios as a means of establishing group dynamics. One encounter has the PCs meet the jarl's other huscarls on the hunt for a bandit. A few of them mock the PCs for being "such brave warriors to escort little girls for flower-picking," although their leader Hallbjorn will be reasonable and try to put a stop to any fights. This is a good means of foreshadowing, for they appear in the next adventure after this, NS0: Wyrd of the Winter King. Hallbjorn Bolverkson appears as a recurring NPC in future adventures beyond that one too. Some other encounters include Fastvi speeding her horse ahead and trampling through a farmer's crops, a family whose cart is stuck in the mud (who the adventure implies are Odin/Thor/Frigga in disguise) and will cursed/bless each party member with a single reroll of a d20 depending on whether they helped or not, and a very friendly dog in the flowerfields who Runa becomes enamored with immediately. All of these non-combat encounters contain Experience Awards for proper resolution and/or good role-playing. There is an exception where in one encounter Inga playfully tries to kiss the PC she's enamored with in secret and XP is gained if the other sisters/PCs don't find out. But if the PCs tries to pursue the relationship further she slaps him and said PC loses 200 XP. I'm pretty sure that encouraging the unfaithfulness of a fiancee shouldn't give you Experience Points.  Unfortunately Runa's strange nature is no mere happenstance. The witch who acted as midwife, Sibbe the Unkempt, had her aid forced at swordpoint by the jarl, and as a result she placed a dark hand-shaped birthmark over Runa's face to maintain an arcane connection. Now she plans to kidnap the Jarl Henrikson's daughters for human sacrifice during the Spring Equinox, which will greatly enhance her own magical power! In order to perform the kidnapping, Sibbe employed two brutish outlaws (Njarni the barbarian and Gufti the rogue) to transport a heavy Andøvan tablet to create a super-powered sleep spell in the meadows. The PCs will feel drowsy as they notice three suspicious characters entering the field of flowers, and must make Will saves each round as the bad guys run to kidnap the girls (who automatically fall asleep) and fight anyone left standing. This is very much an "unbeatable boss fight" type of deal. But at least the book gives good advice to tell players not to waste their reroll boons from the wagon encounter or similar metagame currency in play. Elves will be unaffected but outnumbered, although the AP hasn't taken into account the possibility of an all-elf or mostly-elf party throwing down with the main villains right then and there.  Once they come to, they will find the girls missing and have to follow their tracks. The friendly dog from the earlier encounter will be present to help them out, with appropriate skill checks (Perception, Ride, Survival, etc) in play to catch up with the kidnappers. The rest of the adventure is in a "race against time" format. Sibbe intends to sacrifice the girls on top of a mound in the Barrow Lands, which is 8 hours' travel from the meadow. The PCs have 14 hours total before the girls are murdered. Various complications (getting lost, difficult terrain, certain encounters) may cost the PCs 1 to 2 hours. To make up for this they can can double their overland speed by hustling at the cost of taking nonlethal damage. Personally speaking this is a rather risky take. As 1st level characters, hit points are in short supply and they have no time to rest and regain spells. The addition of a dog DMPC can help during encounters as a minor benefit. Although the encounters leading up to the clash with Sibbe aren't too difficult, you should keep a close eye on the makeup of your party when running this. Going back to the Jarls' hall is not a recommended option, as this is not only putting more time between them and the kidnappers, Olaf Henrikson will be enraged at the PCs' incompetence: quote:To return to their jarl with tales of a sudden magical attack, strange footprints, and missing daughters will see them cast out, and likely challenged to duels of the holmgang between the hazel posts by the older huscarls. The PCs would be branded liars, brought before the next Thing (should they live that long), tried for murder and kidnapping, and then declared outlaws. After that, it will be a race to see who kills them first, the jarl or someone wishing to curry favor with him. Continued in Next Post
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Mar 31, 2018 08:11
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Spring Rites, Part 2 There are a few set-piece encounters marked as numbers on the map above. Given that Sibbe's trail is the top looping line on the above map, I can't see most gaming groups hitting Encounters 11 to 13 unless they get really lost. It's a shame as some of them are cool, and I ran those during the interim between this adventure and the next one to make sure the PCs leveled up. The initial encounters up to the Barrow Lands are standard fare: a swamp troll (which doesn't fight to the death but is very dangerous, with 38 HP and Regeneration), a bunch of drunk cattle raiders who have a weregild (bounty) on them, and bandits and wild boars in the forest. Some of the more interesting encounters include an undead hound blocking a bridge across a moor, a Bearsarker hanging himself on a tree as part of a ritual to Wotan who utters a premonition of later events in the campaign if uninterrupted: quote:The storm will come and Donar’s usurper must be laid low. Ice and cold threaten the world. The glowing stone must be returned for mind’s-worth.” There's also the opportunity to stumble upon a bandit hideout who the huscarls from above were hunting, as well as a bunch of faeries partying in the forest. If the PCs humor them they find their wounds cured, never get lost again in the woods, and wake up 4 hours before dawn (this can take them back in time). As the PCs are on a time-sensitive mission, this will not be a likely occurrence.  Once the PCs reach the Barrow Lands, things get real creepy real fast. Sibbe possesses an Andøvan Barrow Charm to ensure safe passage, but for the PCs their trek through the desolate waste has them run into a skeletal warrior risen from the dead. Accompanied by 4 soldiers, he gestures silently to a 1 on 1 duel with the party (to death, first blood, or unconscious depending on the would-be duelists' apparent health). As long as the PCs act with honor the undead will let the group pass upon completion, regardless of the outcome. The PCs can take the skeleton duelist's treasure if they win and gain XP for dueling him even if they lose. I rather like this encounter. It sets up the fact that they are in a world with different social norms than most settings, and the mechanics reinforce this. The final encounter is a Fight at the Stones. Regardless of the time of day a lightning storm will strike and hordes of undead Andøvans come charging out of barrows to the tor (hill). Sibbe's theft of the amulet, combined with her ritual, has disrupted the natural order of things and encouraged the relic's owners to act. However the Barrow Charm prevents the undead from approaching directly, so the undead king leading the hordes hopes rather to corral the PCs (or make them rush faster) to Sibbe's location. I've heard of kings railroading adventuring parties to the plot hook, but this is ridiculous! As for the showdown with Sibbe, she and her two thugs are within some Andøvan standing stones at the top of the hill. There is mention of environment and how it can be used for advantage: PCs can climb up a slope in the dark for Stealth and cover, pushing someone off the edge/down the slope deals falling damage, and those standing atop the standing stones risk being struck by lightning. For her part, Sibbe is busy preparing for a ritual, with a curse-enchanted Runa helping out as Inga and Fastvi are rendered bound and helpless. Njarni and Gufti stand watch and if they see the PCs' approach will warn the witch so she can buff them each with enlarge person. This is a rather difficult fight. In addition to the 3 foes, Sibbe herself has a Summon Monster II spell, and the enlarged raging barbarian can deal 3d6+12 damage with a greataxe and +7 to hit. If the battle turns against her she will command Runa to briefly attack the party with her fledgling magic in order to cover her retreat. What I Changed: At the time my party comprised of a Skald, a Rogue, a Jotun, and a DMPC dog but I still feared an overwhelming encounter especially as the party was softened up by earlier ones. I changed things around so that the outlaws in the Bandit Hideout encounter were on the path of travel rather than in the forest. They earlier tried to jump Sibbe's party when they recognized the jarl's daughters, hoping to get a ransom but the witch's magic proved unexpected. She took out a few of their number and the survivors aren't exactly keen on fighting. The bandits had a sorceress NPC among them with healing potions, so if things turned violent the PCs had an opportunity to heal. But on the other hand they weren't eager to go into needless combat and had a mutual grudge with Sibbe. Our skald seized on this and Diplomacized the bandits into an unlikely alliance. There numbers gave the party a better shot in the final battle. Whether or not you do it my way, I do suggest sprinkling healing potions in the various encounters on account of 1st level fragility. Resolution The adventure's conclusion can go several ways. If the PCs lose or do not catch up in time, anywhere from one to three of the daughters will be killed (Inga, Fastvi, and Runa in that order). If all three die, then Sibbe will transform into a younger version of herself and becomes a level 8 witch. If the PCs survive (unlikely) the undead will disperse on their own but grow much greater in number over the following months. The PCs' hurried rescue did not go unnoticed. Jarl Henrikson noticed that they and his daughters were staying later than usual. He followed the PCs' trail straight to the mound with a band of warriors and huscarls in tow. He will be happy (less so one or more are dead) if any of the girls were saved, and grant them metal arm-rings as gifts: the more girls saved, the more valuable the rings given. But before our party can leave, the undead warriors gather around the warriors but do not attack. Rather they seek to parley: the boxed text more or less states this so it will be spelled out to the players. Tension builds as their barrow king approaches, taking out a magnificent bronze sword and mimics the putting on of a necklace. If the PCs give him the stolen barrow charm, he will present his sword to the party in exchange. The greatsword is Hægtesse ("Fury"), and has the furyborn property which temporarily increases the enhancement bonus for every iterative attack the wielder makes against the same opponent. The jarl's householders are in awe, including the ones that mocked the PCs during their first meeting. They now hold respect for the PCs that not only saved the jarl's daughters, but the one who faced an Andøvan king and lived to tell the tale. Once safely back at home, the PCs will be further rewarded with masterwork items appropriate to their class. There will be celebrations and characters will ask the PCs to retell their exploits while feasting at the hall. If any of the girls died the atmosphere will be more somber, and they will have lowered standing in Jarl Henrikson's eyes (but not so much to mitigate their ability in saving the other girls). If Runa is alive talk of her sorcerous powers will be vehemently denied by the jarl. He is unwilling to confront this obstacle and threatens a PC who persists to holmgang. Runa can either be tutored secretly to better control her powers, or the trauma of the kidnapping will cause her to try and repress them. The adventure makes mention of multiple possibilities for Runa, although none of this is expanded upon in the later adventures. I presume it's because she can die if the PCs really gently caress up. What I Changed: The PCs managed to save all 3 daughters. I had 2 new players at the time interested in joining the game, and one of them wanted to play a Nûklander witch. I decided to downplay Jarl Henrikson's magephobia and had him hire said PC to be a "consultant in the magical arts." She was also to ensure that Runa's powers do not cause any further harm. Finally the party gets bonus Experience Points depending on how many girls they saved, if they got possession of Hægtesse, stopped Sibbe's ritual, and/or kept Runa's sorcerous secret safe. Concluding Thoughts: Spring Rites has a strong start. Its noncombat encounters pave the way for future events in the campaign and provide a good means of experience advancement. It has an epic feel to it too for a 1st-level adventure: we have a fight among standing stones during a lightning storm, a duel with an undead skeletal champion, and the PCs can get a cool named magical weapon...all at 1st level! Its weak points are the super-sleep railroad (which is a bit too blatant in execution) and the "race against time" isn't ideal for a beginning party. But overall I'd say the good outweighs the bad and gives a strong first impression for players on the mood and feel of the Northlands! Next time we cover Wyrd of the Winter King, where the PCs raid the iceberg palace of one of Althunak's warlords!
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Mar 31, 2018 08:12
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NS0: Spears in the Ice Part Two, Wyrd of the Winter King  This adventure takes place six months after the end of Spring Rites. By now the PCs should be 2nd level, and are once again called into service by Jarl Olaf Henrikson. Winter is coming, and the harvest has been poor. Henrikson called the PCs into service plus 60 members of his household to join him on his ship The Long Serpent. and undertake a voyage farther north than any Northlander has ever sailed. Hopefully they will find land with valuables to claim and arctic animals to hunt (walrus tusks, sealskins, whale blubber, etc) that can be used to trade for grain in a worse-case scenario. No plan survives first contact with the enemy. Unbeknownst to the people of the Northlands there was once a vast empire of the Uln in the Far North. When the Ulnat put an end to Althunak's reign of terror, the demon-god's faithful went into hiding. One of the more well-to-do survivors was Prince Uth’ilopiq, who went into suspended animation in his frozen fortress the Ice Palace. As the eras passed the land it sat upon broke off with flowing glaciers; reawakened, Althunak's champion waits as his fell fortress slowly drifts south to lands which know not the dread legacy of the Lord of Ice and Cold. What I Changed: I renamed Althunak's most common title to the Lord of Ice and Stone. Two of his temples in the later adventures are called the First and Second Temples of Ice and Stone, plus it is less of a redundant descriptor. quote:When five days out of the North Sea and into the embrace of the Great Ocean on your journey, Young Ljot yells out that he has spotted land. A small glint of reflected light can be seen on the horizon. Jarl Olaf orders that a course be set toward it. As the longship approaches, a huge iceberg comes into view, less a floating block of ice than an island — a full glacier perhaps — of ice drifting through the sea. Such a large iceberg has not been seen in generations. A closer view spots a break in the valley along with a palace of towering spires. Being a bunch of adventurous Vikings, the jarl is naturally inquisitive as he tells of a legend he once heard of a city of ice filled with treasure floating in the sea. Four of his huscarls, who were NPCs from the Spring Rites adventure, are eager to go explore. It is presumed that the PCs tag along as well, or are told to do so by the jarl for some much-needed experience. The ship's crew levels the oars parallel to the water's surface and up to the iceberg's land so that the huscarls can valiantly "run the oars" with no difficulty, but the PCs have to make an Acrobatics check when doing the same thing or fall in the water and risk exposure to cold weather. The NPCs in question are all Fighters and much more experienced than the PCs, ranging from levels 3 to 8. They do not have stat blocks as the adventure will separate their two groups soon, and the adventure calls out that their wyrd foretells their doom upon this land of floating ice. There's One-Eyed Sven who's a friendly mentor type, Berg Geirson who is the group's Debby Downer pessimist, Young Ljot a shy yet courageous archer, and Hauk Arinbjornson a headstrong mercenary from Vastavikland who hopes to prove himself worthy to serve in Jarl Henrikson's household. But once they get on shore everything goes south quickly. A magical trap within the Ice Palace triggers, causing a huge storm of icy wind sounding like "the Horns of Hel" barrels down the iceberg's southern cliff. It risks burying slow characters in snow, reduces visibility, and once it relents the party finds themselves separated from the huscarls who came ashore. The Long Serpent is nowhere to be found as the supernatural winds blew it far away. One-Eyed Sven's hunting horn sounds from somewhere in the valley (the NPCs rushed far ahead during the storm) as a clue to their current location. What I Changed: Where to begin? First off, the whole "stumbling upon the BBEG's lair by chance" wasn't my style and I wanted a stronger start. I instead remade the adventure hook into rumored reports of warriors raiding coastal settlements via a traveling iceberg. They'd make to retreat, only for an unnaturally early winter to blow in to the area, bringing starvation and making the people more desperate for "protection" and tribute. A messenger from one of these settlements made his way to Halfstead and warned Jarl Olaf Henrikson of the plot. The jarl decides to strike at the iceberg with three longships prematurely before it can sweep into Hordaland, turning the expedition hook into a straightforward raid. I altered the wind trap so that giant icicles were being catapulted from the Palace once the PCs and huscarls made dry land. One of the icicles sunk a longship, prompting the other two to set sail and stay mobile so that they won't be sunk and stranded on the iceberg. There was still unnatural snow, but it gave the PCs an obvious objective ("disable the icicle generator") as well as showing off that the Winter King doesn't screw around. The way to the Ice Palace is rather straightforward. The iceberg has a set of cliffs at the center, but a valley opening in the south allows for an accessible (if steep and treacherous) climb. Most of the encounters are environmental challenges: being quiet to avoid triggering an avalanche, finding a way to cross a chasm spanning icy water, a windswept sky bridge leading to the Palace proper, and a cave full of warring degenerate mephit swarms who quickly fill the valley. During this time the PCs can find the unconscious body of One-Eyed Sven: he triggered an avalanche with his horn, and is damaged to the point that healing magic will not be enough to revive him back into fighting condition. He's the only NPC who can be saved during this adventure, and PCs who take the challenge of keeping him warm and safe throughout its duration will get bonus Experience Points at its conclusion. Young Ljot, however, is not so lucky, blown off the sky bridge to his doom. The Ice Palace  Here's the real meat of the adventure. It's a 53-room dungeon crawl with 3 levels (main level, towers, lower vaults). A good portion of the rooms have encounters or traps of some kind (22 out of the 53), and the adventure does not assume that the PCs will clear out all or even most of them. A fair number of combat involves battling undead zombies, skeletons, and a few cultists of Althunak (zombies with the quote:"Speak the wellspring of life." Answer: "Blood." The palace has cultural legacies of a forgotten civilization and writings in Old Uln, with emphasis on Althunak's favorite things: violence, sacrifice, cannibalism, and winter. There's a fair number of good treasure in the dungeon, such as a +1 flaming short sword, +1 frost longsword, various spell scrolls, a Ring of Protection +2, and even a size-changing folding boat in the pockets of one of undead acolytes. There is also thousands of hacksilver worth of mundane art and jewelry to collect, too. It's a pretty good haul for 2nd-level PCs, but the treasures are rather spread out and given that Prince Uth’ilopiq is a Load-Bearing Boss it's not the kind of dungeon you can explore again. What I Changed: In keeping with the "raid" simulator I had going on, Jarl Henrikson's longship came ashore to the north side where he and a small contingent of warriors made their way up to the Ice Palace via climbing axes and picks. The PCs got there first, but after a particularly unlucky encounter with skeleton warriors they set up camp and the Jarls' forces made their way there. They had NPC Vikings help them in some encounters and restocked supplies in "liberated" sections of the dungeon as an impromptu resting/trading area. It was assumed that there was fighting going on elsewhere the PCs weren't, and given the layout of the Palace it would be counterproductive to bunch up all the allied forces in a single location.  The Throne Room is home to Prince Uth'ilopiq, who became aware of the intrusion upon his icy dominion. The corpse of Berg Geirson, frozen where he stands, is just outside the throne room's doors. While sitting on his throne the Prince can summon figures of undead and axe beaks (ostriches with sharp beaks) from hanging tapestries to attack the party and defend their master. He can also surround his throne with a cube of force which levitates him up to the ice bridge at the second level of the dungeon. Otherwise the Prince prefers hit and run tactics, stalking the PCs via hidden corridors (which are actual rooms on the map) and summoning reinforcements through various tapestries. Prince Uth'ilopiq is a pretty tough customer. He's a level 3 antipaladin, undead, and a hoar spirit on top of that. He has a Cone of Cold that deals 4d6 damage and Save-or-Suck claw attacks which can paralyze someone for 1d4+1 rounds on a failed Fortitude save. He has 70 hit points, 21 AC, and very high saves (fort/reflex/will +10/+9/+13). His only real weakness is that he takes double damage from fire attacks. The adventure strongly implies that the final battle with Prince Uth'ilopiq should be on the bridge. You may have noticed that I haven't spoken of the fate of Hauk Arinbjornson. Well turns out he's alive and is climbing his way up the central spire to make a surprise leap attack at Althunak's favored. This will happen in one of two ways: if the PCs reduce the boss to negative hit points, or if they are struggling and need to get rescued. Either way Hauk's axe embeds in the Prince's skull at leap's end. To avoid falling while climbing Hauk had the axe's leather thong wrapped around his wrist, which ironically pulls them down together to their deaths. Not even a feather fall will work, as the Norns cut the threads of both their foe and companion. As soon as the Prince dies, the magic holding the supernaturally-huge iceberg unravels and the very land violently rumbles. Earthquakes trigger avalanches as bridges, towers, and support structures of the Palace break apart. The adventure does not call for skill checks or risks of damage; it's presumed that the PCs are running like hell. Once the PCs make it to the shore, either they escape with the folding boat or a section of ice breaks off into the sea with them on it. In the latter case they will be adrift for a day before Odrik Ragnarson, the captain of one of Jarl Henrikson's other ships, finds and rescues the party. He will ask for a 10% cut of the treasure recovered from the Ice Palace: the adventure explains that the treasure is technically the Jarl's for them being members of the crew, and the captain has to give up his share too along with expenditures for additional space and supplies to cover the PCs. I can get that justification, but I can see some gaming groups arguing with him all the same. As for the fate of the Long Serpent, the Ice Palace's fell winds blew it mightily off course, and neither Ordrik nor any others know of its fate. The adventure assumes that if the PCs have the folding boat that they will sail south back to Halfstead in hopes of reuniting with the longship. If One-Eyed Sven was rescued, he will run the jarl's household in his absence and grant the PCs a place of high honor at the table for their great renown. And this is how our tale ends. What I Changed: I hate how Hauk's sacrifice is meant to play out: no matter how it's resolved it either feels like a kill-steal or a Deus Ex Machina. I let the PCs hold all the glory as the Skald dealt the last blow. Grievously injured, Prince Uth'ilopiq laughed as he tugged himself forward on the blade, exclaiming how with his death they will all be buried with him. Instead I had Hauk disable the undead controlling the magical ice storms in the tower and had him jump down to fight Uth'ilopiq's other minions during the bridge battle. I also nerfed the Prince's abilities a bit, including removing the Save-or-Suck paralysis, lowering his AC to 15, and making his cone of cold deal half the damage it normally would do (2d6 instead of 4d6). Concluding Thoughts: Wyrd of the Winter King is a pretty fun adventure. The dungeon-crawling aspect may take some tweaking, and the PCs really do need a means of restoring HP and abilities if you run it straight. The load-bearing boss and the fight with Prince Uth'ilopiq establishes a good precedent for the next 2 adventures where the Cult of Althunak plays a major role. One thing I'd mention is that this adventure is very undead-heavy, which is not a standard for the Northlands in general. A cleric or someone who can channel energy can make encounters significantly easier, and certain archetypes such as illusionists and enchanters will be at a disadvantage here on account of common undead immunities. I would also suggest letting the PCs level up as soon as they hit the experience requirements rather than waiting until the end of the session. This is in account of the relative "fast pace" and multiple challenges of the dungeon. Next adventure is Vengeance of the Long Serpent, where our heroes learn the fate of their Jarl and a grave new threat facing the North!
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Apr 1, 2018 00:07
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Tibalt posted:I'm enjoying these write ups by the way. Although for a low magic setting, they aren't waiting on having you fight a demon prince in a floating ice castle. The Northlands is peculiar in this sense. The closest analogy that I can think of is Dragonlance where the Player Characters due to their destiny/occupation/luck just happen to stumble onto the wonders of the world that 99% of the population never sees or interacts with in their lives. Additionally the adventures are a bit of a roller coaster in the sliding scale of Supernatural Wonder to Game of Throwns grittiness, although the AP has a relatively linear increase in level-based challenges regardless of the magical commonality at the time. Think of Homer's Odyssey: after escaping the clutches of a witch, evading the sirens, and not getting swallowed by the sea monsters Scylla and Caribdus, Odysseus' final fight is killing all those suitors who want to bone his wife. Fortunately the Northlands has a more epic ending than this. The adventure after this, NS1, has mostly nonspellcasting human opponents and some mundane (yet vicious) arctic animals and sea creatures. Then in NS3 you're tracking down the half-divine daughters of a Norn to lift an undead viking's death curse. In NS4 you're rounding up village militias to wage war against a rural beast cult comprised of humans and monsters, then in NS6 you're searching for the leaves of a mythical tree beyond the plane of Midgard to save a city from a divinely-inspired plague. NS8 is rather egregious in that it's for levels 12 to 14 where a lot of Pathfinder players can fly and turn invisible for hours, teleport, and eat trolls for breakfast but the main crux of the adventure is hunting down some human assholes who burned down a hall with people inside...and they don't even have a single spellcaster among them! And when NS9 picks up the PCs have to defend the besieged Hall of the Hearthstone from flying dragons among other monsters. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 07:22 on Apr 1, 2018 |
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Apr 1, 2018 07:16
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[img]https://i.imgur.com/RQ0PXsa.jpg?1][/img] NS1: Vengeance of the Long Serpent  This adventure is quite a leap from the prequels because it's meant for PCs of 5th level. Going by Medium Advancement in Pathfinder that would require 15,000 XP. It's likely that the party may be a level or two short, particularly if they rushed through the Ice Palace in Wyrd of the Winter King. Even if they took care of most of the encounters, the jump between 3rd and 4th is nearly double (5k to 9k). I believe that the AP is meant to be Medium Advancement, but I've heard of gaming groups due it on Slow. I can only speak to my personal experience running this on the Medium Advancement Track, but I genuinely can't see running this campaign on Slow unless you artificially pad out the campaign with random encounters and sidequests. Still, we managed well at level 4, although we had relatively powerful PCs minmax-wise at this point. As for the adventure proper, it takes places 6 months after Wyrd of the Winter King in the season of summer. While in the busy port of Halfstead, there is much fanfare as the Long Serpent pulls into harbor. Many onlookers are familiar with the Jarls' ship and eager to learn of events, but the Vikings who come off bear looks of defeated men and women. Not all survived the voyage, and family members discover their loved ones' absence all to obvious even when unspoken among the crew. Hallbjorn Bolverkson walks off by himself to the nearest tavern, which also bears his namesake: Hallbjorn's Folly. PREMONITION!!!  He appears a bit happier if the PCs make introductions, asking about their time on the mythical iceberg and the fate of the huscarls who went with them. During the conversation he explains (with liberal use of boxed-text kennings) what happened to the crew of the Long Serpent and their jarl: the ship made land at a coast rich with game of seal and whales. But they were ambushed one night by strange men who attacked their camp. Jarl Olaf Henrikson was one of those killed. The cry for vengeance encouraged their pursuit tomorrow, and they cornered their new foes in a hall full of strange treasures and trinkets. The last surviving attacker was taken, and told Hallbjorn's warriors of a village of stone dedicated to 'Althunak' further north before cursing his name. Hallbjorn responded by slaying him and tossed his body into the sea. Having taken significant casualties, the voyage was made back south with what loot they got to trade for necessities back home. At this point Hallbjorn asks the party if they are courageous enough to join him among new replacements to avenge their jarl. He produces some of the strange jewelry and gold taken as loot, which PCs familiar with the Ice Palace's decorations can recognize being similar in design. What I Changed: Naturally the last adventure I ran rendered the mystery of the Long Serpent moot, so I decided to have it be that the PCs were on guard at home while an expedition to the Far North was made. The default story hook works, even though it has the offscreen death of the PC's boss. It motivates them via vengeance, as well as potential greed for more mercenary-minded characters with the loot found. As Inga and the daughters were alive, I had some role-playing scenes with them, with Inga wanting to help fund their voyage as well as having her suddenly being thrust into responsibility as the next jarl in line. Once the PCs accept his offer Hallbjorn becomes a new man. Through the next day he quickly stocks the ship with a crew of 50 and ready to sail again on the morrow. He has a deal with Jarl' Henrikson's widow and families of the lost crewmembers: grant them a share of the loot obtained in the journey back to the Far North. He graciously gives 500 hacksilver each for PCs to outfit themselves and their animal companions/retainers with supplies for at least 2 months. The Voyage North This adventure, including both the voyage and their time in the Far North, is expected to last for 2 months give or take a few downtime events. There is a mechanic for food to track for the crew. Supplies can be restored via random encounters (giant crabs are surprisingly edible) and hunting with appropriate skill rolls. Additionally, a lot of loot here (and in the Far North) is less coinage and more things like blubber, ambergris, walrus and mammoth tusks and the like. Basically resources from animals which would be worth a pretty penny. Given that the PCs have a ship and crew, there's no listed weight and the profits gained for PCs are presumed to have taken into account the 50 something other sailors getting their due as an abstract resource (you can get a lot of stuff from a whale's body). I like this touch: one, it cuts down on excessive book-keeping and two it has a believable sense of loot acquisition outside the typical "dungeons full of treasure chests" vibe. The first chapter of this adventure is a mixture of random and set-piece encounters at sea. Encounters are rolled every 3 days, meaning that PCs are fighting at the top of their game in terms of spells and per-day abilities. The encounters include storms, a non-hostile dragon turtle, a dire shark who's only a threat to those who fall overboard, a giant squid which makes a hit-and-run for tasty morsels, and an island with a sea hag. The first set-piece encounter includes the opportunity to harpoon a narwhal: this endeavor is handed as skill checks rather than straight combat, and grants a good bit of supplies, treasure (ivory), and of course Experience Points. The second encounter is far more serious, as a red sky at morn indicates a brewing storm. In spite of the preparations undertaken by the crew, Mother Nature gives the Long Serpent the fight of its life. PCs have to strain the oars to maintain forward momentum, and the temperature is dropping causing freezing water to spill onto the deck. There is a risk of PCs becoming exposed to cold weather from getting soaked, losing their footing, and even falling overboard depending on the results of their skill checks. Hallbjorn is at the rudder, and his lifeline is snapped as he and several other crewmen wash away. This is no ordinary storm, for a few sailors swear they saw a beastly visage in the waves; one that has an uncanny resemblance to face on the coinage taken as loot by Hallbjorn from the last expedition. Hallbjorn's seeming death is a scripted event. This is to make it so that the loss of leadership causes the sailors to debate who to nominate in his place. This will be one of the PCs, but several factors determine exactly who gets the role (trained in Profession Sailor, worships a sea god, acted with courage, etc). They won't be completely in the dark, as Hallbjorn's maps and notes are still onboard to consult. Our final encounter before Chapter 2 of NS1 occurs two days after the storm. A lone Ulnat warrior in a kayak was blown offshore and suffering from thirst and exposure. If the PCs save him, they learn that his name is Yilithi (he doesn't speak Nørsk but can gesture), and he can give directions to his village. What I Changed: At this point in the AP I realized that there was a heavy male bias in NPC demographics, so I changed Yilithi to be an Ulnat woman named Aluki. Her role in the story was more or less the same, but the players liked her so much that they later had her on a Leadership cohort. Continued in next post Libertad! fucked around with this message at 06:50 on Apr 2, 2018 |
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Apr 2, 2018 06:48
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Vengeance of the Long Serpent, Second Part of Post Exploring the Far North  This portion of the adventure gets a lot more sandboxy. There's a main goal which unfolds, but the PCs have more or less relative freedom when and how to handle it (as long as their food supplies last). The big picture is that ten years ago the Children of Althunak cult is on the rise again thanks to an Ulnat outcast named Elvanti. Angered at the fact that a women he desired wouldn't marry him, he fled when everyone else told him to stop being a "Nice Guy." Filled with revenge against those that spurred him, Elvanti made his way to one of the cities of the Uln and made a pact with the demon-god. Coming back to Ulnataland with fell supernatural powers, he froze the elders of his tribe in magical ice and and did the classic "I am the Dark Lord, join me or die" speech. Over time his cult grew, and it was members of this cult who attacked and slaughtered Jarl Olaf Henrikson and the people of the first voyage. The various numbers on the above map represent Ulnat villages and in 2 cases the burial mounds of the jarl's crew (which the PCs should not loot unless they want to fight risen dead and their own crew) and a big temple to Althunak under construction. Most of the villages are having trouble, either under the thrall of cultists or at war with them. Killing or driving off the cultists (who can range in number from 3 to 18) liberates a village and lends the aid of Ulnat warriors (who are Rangers) to fight at the PCs' sides. The relative center of the Children of Althunak's forces and their leader in the region are headquartered at the Second Temple of Ice and Stone (first one is far north in the ruins of an Uln city). The adventure is "won" once the PCs successfully lay siege to that shrine. Strangely enough, the sailors on the Long Serpent are not discussed how/if they are deployed to help liberate villages. There are random encounters in the Seal Coast of Ulnataland, although they're mostly mundane yet vicious arctic animals. One of them's a herd of mammoths who have the most to give in food and hacksilver ivory as loot. Although they are incredibly strong and risky to fight unless the PCs have a means of outrunning them, separating one from the herd, and/or get off a lucky save-or-suck spell. What I Changed: The adventure runs the risk of becoming very samey in terms of combat. Besides their boss at the Temple, the Children of Althunak have universal stat blocks for every village: rank-and-file cultists (Barbarians) and spellcasting shamans (Adepts) who have ice mephit familiars along war-trained dogs (wolves). I spiced things up by having one village overseen by a single shaman who oversaw a kettle of demon-gods (dogs with fiendish template); I had the village with the magically-frozen elders home to some assassin demons, and put a few hala demons (aerial) at the Temple of Ice and Stone. An additional complication is the large amount of allied NPCs which could prove hard to handle. I had it so that the forces represented total units for the eventual assault against the Temple rather than constant travel companions. 1 or 2 NPCs can show up when liberating smaller villages, but I had a system where for every allied warrior I would subtract 1 enemy NPC/monster during the temple assault to represent casualties and distractions among the opposition. As for how the PCs are supposed to get the gist of this, Yilithi is insistent for them to visit his home village of Laquirv (area 5). Once they get inside, Yilithi's father introduces himself and explains the geo-political climate of the Seal Coast along with Elvanti's backstory. He's surprisingly fluent in Nørsk, once having accidentally visited the Northlands via a freak storm blowing him off-course (trait seems to run in the family). He hopes that the arrival of the Dragon Riders (their term for Northlanders) will be a boon in fighting those who sold their souls to Althunak, and tells the group about the Legend of Heroes' rock: a burial tomb which may provide guidance of how those long before once vanquished evil. He also mentions the idea of liberating villages to gain allied forces if the PCs do not come up with the idea themselves.  Heroes' Rock is technically an optional dungeon, but contains some important equipment and some information on the rise and fall of Althunak in times long past. It's quite small, 4 rooms and only the entrance has guaranteed combat: a golem made of skitched skin animated by a spider swarm. The burial vault contains pictographic murals explaining the history of the Uln and Ulnat people. At one point the specters of the three Ulnat heroes who fought the original Cult of Althunak materialize: if the PCs can prove that they they have good intentions said spirits will loan their magical treasures to the PCs for the duration of their war against the cult. If the PCs try to renege on the deal (keep the loot for themselves afterwards), said specters will hunt down the PCs to take back the items. Although there will come an opportunity for the PCs to gain these as permanent treasures in the next adventure The magical items are quite good. They include a +1 animal-bane scimitar, a wand of fireball with 13 charges, scrolls with the fly, mending, and tongues spells, and the legendary sword FELLFROST! What I Changed: I learned sometime that the IRL Inuit fashioned some tools out of meteorite iron. I decided to reflavor Heroes' Rock as being the dug-out remains of a meteor containing cold iron, which gave the village of Laquirv an advantage in resources. Both in being useful for metalworked tools and for the materials' ability to harm demons. Against the Children of Althunak  The final chapter of Vengeance of the Long Serpent discusses how the Children of Althunak react at the large-scale level to newfound resistance. They will fan out in patrols around the coasts with kayaks and move mobile villages inland. The cultists also need to stock for provisions so they won't fortify a single base and hold down indefinitely. Unless the PCs tip their hands do not know the nature of the force ("are they Ulnat or foreigners, random or tactically coordinated, etc?") so they are divided in how to handle the threat. As for the Temple proper, it is located on a plateau which gives the cultists an ample field of vision which to spot intruders, and is labor-intensive in the requirement of slaves for its construction. Specifically, a big-rear end statue of Althunak is the major project: a gaping maw, a crown of icicles, and dried blood for a nice paint job. The guards can be quite varied in number (1d10+10) with 1d3 hunting dogs per cultist, and the adventure encourages the GM to alter the numbers depending on the PCs' forces to ensure a reasonable challenge. The High Priest of the Coming Winter is here at all hours. He has levels in Adept, a rather low-power NPC spellcasting class, but the trick up his sleeve is that he's a werebear unafraid to mix things up. Several of his spells are geared around buffs such as bull's strength and bless, and he has obscuring mist and web for battlefield control. Defense-wise he's quite tough, with DR 10/silver (which the PCs are not guaranteed to have via loot) and up to 22 AC depending on which form he takes. When the fighting starts, the cultists will defend the cella (main house of worship containing the statue). There are noncombatant family members of the cultists and slaves present, the latter of whom will not take to arms unless the High Priest is slain. At this point the slaves will take up arms of fallen cultists and turn on the remainder as well as the noncombatants and dogs unless the PCs stop them. What I Changed: I removed the presence of civilian cultists from this as well as their potential slaughter, on account that role-playing out the consequences of war crimes didn't fit with the previous adventures' derring-do heroism and overall wouldn't lead to good times with my gaming group. Once the cultists are defeated, the surviving Ulnat will topple the statue of Althunak, and there's a king's ransom worth of loot to be claimed in the cella (over 15,000 hacksilver worth). After the Seal Coast is freed from the Children of Althunak's grip, the Ulnat present several goodwill offerings for the PCs before they leave for home, including various trade goods and a staff of the woodlands which can do various druidic spells. They also hope that the PCs return again as friends and trading partners. Back at Halfstead, Olaf Henrikson's widow is expecting a portion of the proceeds. Although the deal was with Hallbjorn it would be the honorable route for the PCs to maintain this deal. If the PCs do so, the widow will let the party keep the Long Serpent on account that her family won't be using it for some time. She says it is better served on the high seas than rotting away on land. What I Changed: I used the deal with the family members to show off the gift-giving experience campaign house rule even though it is meant to be used for the party's servants and hirelings. Concluding Thoughts: This is a pretty good adventure. It starts out linear but opens into a bit of a sandbox, has abstracted treasure which makes sense in the context of the world, the natives are not helpless people waiting to be saved but fight alongside the PCs for an eventual battle at the main temple, and speaking with the legendary heroes to get their magical gear on loan is in line with Spring Rites' Hægtesse. Such options make getting new equipment feel like momentous occasions. The Northlands has a pleasant variety of adventure types, and after a "race against time" and "dungeon crawl" adventures, the "sandbox liberation" that is Vengeance of the Long Serpent helps keep things fresh. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL! Althunak is pissed at this major setback, and although there are no explicit encounters the adventure suggests peppering the next few adventures with signs of his displeasure: cold-based monsters appearing out of nowhere, localized freak weather, etc. Good thing the PCs will be wrecking the original Temple of Ice and Stone in the next adventure, NS2: Beyond the Wailing Mountains!
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Apr 2, 2018 06:50
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hectorgrey posted:Nicely done, JackMann. Now, let's see if I can finally get this last update to the 3.0 PHB posted... I notice that if it's a really long post, splitting the post into two parts helps. I did that with some of my Northlands entries.
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Apr 2, 2018 09:45
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NS2: Beyond the Wailing Mountains  Beyond the Wailing Mountains takes place 9 months after Vengeance of the Long Serpent as a new spring dawns. Whether by paranormal activity of an Althunakian flavor, visiting the Ulnat again, or receiving word from a northbound friend or ally in danger, the PCs are back in Ulnataland. The adventure also suggests the possibility that the PCs may wish to put a stop to Elvanti once and for all immediately after Vengeance of the Long Serpent, and to adjust the season accordingly. There is less of a jump in terms of character progression, with the minimum recommended level being 6th and the maximum recommended being 8th as opposed to Long Serpent's 5th/7th. With the exception of NS10: the Broken Shieldwall, every adventure in this campaign bumps up by 1 level for recommendations. The adventure proper begins in Laquirv. Kelvani, Yilithi's brother and Kelvani's other son is back...dead, and encased in a block of ice impervious to mundane fire. The body within has an obviously broken jaw and posed to hold a severed hand and bloodied spear, meaning he did not die of exposure. Clearly this is the work of the Children of Althunak! The PCs do not have much respite to contemplate the weight of this before the cult follows up their warning with a proper raid. A legion of yetis and ice trolls attack the village, with the PCs fighting 3 or 4 of them while the rest battle Ulnat warriors in the background. Kelvani's corpse reanimates as a fetch (cold-based undead) and slays his own father. Once the battle is done an Ulnat examines an ice troll's monstrous form and sees the face of Klinqa: the women who rebuffed Elvanti's advances! In fact, the many ice trolls of this adventure are Elvanti's "snow brides," women captured from the cult's conquest to be made into his concubines. Faced with this sudden discovery, Yilithi gathers up the surviving elders and further explains things to the party. From speaking to the former slaves of the Cult, he learned that the one they were building was referred to as the "Second Temple." Combined with Elvanti's first exile beyond the northern mountains, it's concluded that the Children of Althunak are still active beyond known Ulnataland. What lies Beyond the Wailing Mountains his people know little of, save that the trail is littered with the bones of heroes." Naturally, Yilithi and the Ulnat wish the PCs to help them once again. However, they may necessarily be alone. With a diplomacy check they can recruit up to 5 Ulnat Warriors (2nd level rangers) along with dogsleds (the latter of which can't be taken across the mountains). Yilithi will also suggest one more visit to Heroes' Rock, and the spirits there will lend the party their magical items again. What I Changed: I replaced the ice trolls with human Adept cultists using disguise self spells to appear as frozen undead. I did this both b/c I had a policy of not incorporating themes of sexual assault into the campaign, as well as being a tactically challenging alternative (fool the party into thinking they have undead immunities). Ulnataland  The first chapter is just the voyage to the foot of the mountains, and has no plot event or set-piece encounters of note. We get a description of the wilderness (tundra with poor game) along with random encounters which are the same as in Vengeance of the Long Serpent save they now include some more dire animals and friendly Ulnat hunters. Yup, it's only 2 and a half pages. This must be a new record for lack of length. Trail of Ravens and Beyond This is where things heat up. This chapter is divided into two regions: first is the Trail of Ravens crossing through the Wailing Mountains. Travel is slower, the nights are longer and colder, and the random encounters include more dangerous foes. Two notable one-time encounters include a frost giant loyal to the Cult and a pair of Remohraz tainted by the demon-god's influence, along with ogres, normal trolls, and yetis (oh my)! 50% of the random encounter results are natural hazards from crevasses, avalanches, and blizzards. The White Fields of Death are a vast plain of snow and ice. Technically this is part of the Lost Lands' northern pole, and no living soul, not even among the Ulnat, are known to have crossed its horizon. It may as well be endless, and being at the polar caps the sun doesn't seem to set for days. The environment here is harrowing; the reflection of the sunlight off the white snow can cause blindness for 1d4 days on a failed Fortitude save, and the place is so cold (-30 to -60 degrees Farenheit) that by a strict reading of the Pathfinder environmental rules characters will take 1d6 cold damage every minute regardless of the clothing they're wearing, no save. I can't help but think that this is an editing mistake, but the adventure itself refers to the Environment section in the corebook for cold dangers. There's no way a party without endure elements or cold resistance will be able to complete this adventure without dying of exposure, and food and crops here are non-existent. If you still want to maintain a "dangerous land" feel, I suggest delaying the damage to every couple hours, or a day if the group has no magical healing sources. As there are no civilizations to hide their presence, Althunak's demonic minions are free to rule openly, and random encounters include several varieties of evil outsiders, including a unique encounter against a corrupted dire bear animal companion known as Blue Fang the Snow Bear:  Awww, he looks so sad... The only set-piece encounter here is an artificial blizzard over a lake of frozen corpses (remnants of Hvran's army). The creator is Kaliope, an Ulnat woman who is now a yuki-onna...an evil snow spirit from Japanese folklore. What was that about not borrowing from other mythologies, Northlands?  Kaliope is the "boss" of this chapter. The blizzard is a constant environmental hazard which hinders the PCs, and Kalope resorts to hiding underneath the ice and grappling PCs to drown them. Once she dies the storm dissipates, and they get a +2 spear from her corpse for their troubles. The Temple of Ice and Stone  The final chapter covers the ruins of the City of the Lord of Winter, the center of Althunak's worship on the Material Plane. The city itself sits on the edge of an unfrozen lake in which the demon-god's corpse is said to lair. The statues and reliefs throughout depict the eternal-winter-cannibalism motif the Lord of Ice and Cold is known for. The city's natural defenses include the Lake of Frozen Screams (which deals lethal cold damage upon immediate exposure) and the outer wall (C1) which is rather simple in its lack of murder holes and armed patrols. The front gates (C2) have elite cultists known as Eaters of Men (Barbarians), and the main street (C3) has regular patrols of more Eaters backed up by shamans and ice daemon marauders as backup. The residential structures (C4) are the living quarters and contain cultists along with kidnapped Ulnat slave women who grant bonus experience for each one who is saved. What I Changed: My players are too canny to just waltz in the front door and cruise down an open street, so I had ice daemons along the wall. Seeing them from stealth outside, the party elected to use the folding boat to sail along the Lake and scale the Temple. They did bypass the city encounters, but when it came to the dungeon they reverse-fought their way out of the Temple once their business was done. The Temple of Ice and Stone is a 50 foot tall fortress with a granite foundation. It sits above the Lake of Frozen Screams and has a series of tiered bridges and chambers connecting it to the rest of the city. The Causeway Head has a great treasure, a pair of sapphire eyes on a giant statue of Althunak worth 10,000 hacksilver each. The bridge has a flight of gargoyles who can be bypassed with use of a ritual which can be figured out via Knowledge-Religion, and the entrance to the people proper has half a dozen low-level acolytes who are no real trouble for 6th-level PCs.  Elvanti awaits our heroes in the main cella (big atrium-like place) in front of a humongous statue of his dread lord. Elvanti, Chosen of Althunak and Oracle of the Perpetual Winter, has undergone a change into a hideous ape-like monstrosity in the intervening years. In addition to the 2 snow brides willing to battle at his side, Elvanti himself is pretty tough: he is physically focused, has spell resistance, a fly speed, and limited-use ice storm and call lightning spells which he can use thanks to open skylights in the temple. In fact, said openings are marked on the temple's maps and he will use it on exposed PCs, adding a tactical mini-game for movement and positioning. Elvanti can also turn others into Snow Brides by draining their Wisdom with a grapple, and invoke a save-or-die by encasing a victim in frozen ice as an inference of Kelvani's ultimate fate. Should the PCs win, they find much in the way of valuables. The greatest treasures include: the crown on the statue of Althunak worth 20,000 hacksilver plus 29 crystals worth 21,750 hacksilver, a +3 icy burst greataxe etched with scenes of Althunak feasting on mortals and demons, and plenty of fine tapestries, silk, and various art objects. What I Changed: I kept Elvanti's stat block the same but made his appearance a physical human. The previous adventure still had him as such, and I felt that having him be as mortal as everyone else made his evil feel more "real" and approachable, even if ultimately unjustifiable. I also swapped out the pair of snow brides for a babau demon who acted as his second-in-command. The adventure mentions that the death of Elvanti is a great blow to the Children of Althunak, but this is still a setback rather than a full victory unless the PCs find a way to destroy the Temple itself or at the very least breaking down the statue. This will cause the forces to scatter to the four winds rather than rebuild. If any of the PCs are divine casters of a deity, then said gods will now know of Althunak's existence, causing the demon-god to go on the down-low and not wanting to risk a "battle he cannot win." Still, Althunak knows how to hold a grudge and from then on winters become colder, fires take more effort to burn and give off less heat, and remnants of his cult will go south to hunt for the ones who wounded them so in the form of suggested random encounters for future adventures. What I Changed: Funny thing is, given that his presence dominated 3 out of 4 adventures so far, Althunak won't make a comeback until NS9. Yeah, they weren't kidding about him going into hiding. I more or less had his cult make a reappearance in NS7 as part of my rewriting process for that adventure. On the plus side, the Ulnat are grateful for their victory. Any snow brides still alive turn back into human forms and will be the first to come forth with marriage proposals for PCs. And heroes who die are buried in a new cairn at Heroes' Rock. And speaking of Heroes' Rock, the spirits there give the party their blessings to keep their magical relics: quote:“Know that though beaten, the Icy Maw is not destroyed. He will return, and he will seek you out to slake his thirst for vengeance. Your very lives are now a quest against the Cold Dark, and your hands are worthy to hold the weapons that bear our legend. Go and keep these items with our blessing; may they protect you from the coming darkness." What I Changed: There were no snow brides (and thus no marriage proposals), but Aluki (the male "Yilithi") wished to venture to the Northlands alongside the PCs after a farewell to her family and a promise from them to keep her safe. Concluding Thoughts: The adventure's very linear, and slow in regards to having random encounters be a significant factor in the first two chapters. That is, if the party triggers them at all. But I did like the playing up of the eerie nature of the polar region and the "tactical weather" mini-game for Elvanti's fight. The less-knowledgeable PCs thought the "eternal sun" was witchcraft. After a quest on a forlorn iceberg and two adventures in Ulnataland, it seems that it's been a while since the PCs adventured in the Northlands proper. Well the next quest makes up for that on a region-trotting journey where our heroes seek to lift The Death Curse of Sven Oakenfist! Libertad! fucked around with this message at 09:46 on Apr 4, 2018 |
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Apr 3, 2018 05:42
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NS 3: The Death Curse of Sven Oakenfist  Oddly enough, this is the only Northlands adventure with unrelated cover artwork; there is someone chained to a rock in this adventure, but not a bearsarker. It's also for levels 7th to 9th. After two adventures in Ulnataland, the Northlands Saga goes back to the heartland...literally, as the PCs are invited to winter at the hall of Jarl Anud Cursespear in Storstrøm Vale. The man is one of the most powerful men in the region, who although loyal, brave, and generous has also used various shady dealings to get more political power for himself. The adventure makes several suggestions as to why the PCs would be staying here (winter travel is hard and dangerous, owe a debt, family relative, etc) as well as a list of pre-adventure winter pastimes and random encounters while out hunting. One of the encounters is notable. Whereas most are varieties of dire animals, owlbears, and Northlands aurochs, one involves five bandits ambushing the party. They use the Highwayman stat blocks from the Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide and are incredibly well-equipped, armed with magic spiked chains and potions of invisibility even though they have "fallen on hard times." What I Changed: As Inga (now Jarl of Halfstead) was married to Anud's son, she was visiting the hall to meet her husband's relatives and requested the PC's presence. This also helped provide another strong hook for the PCs finding a way to undo the curse, as now she is part of Jarl Anud’s family and thus affected as well. My PCs also noticed that the bandits were extremely well-armed for common ruffians and became very inquisitive as to where they came from and who hired them. On the spot I made it so that Granny Ǽstrid, a senior of the Gat clan, was behind their employment. Jarl Anud was making several favorable trade deals with the Hrolfs, and the Gats did not like this one bit. This also helped highlight the legendary feud between the two families, which plays a major role in NS5: Raven Banners Over Gatland. The actual adventure begins as an uninvited guest bursts open the doors of the hall with a deathly chill as Sven Oakenfist makes his presence known. A massive 8 foot tall, clearly undead Viking strides up to Jarl Anud. He accuses the man of being an honorless cur, followed up by a threat that on the Feast of Freyja he will return to the village and slay everyone there. And then he leaves just as suddenly by a gust of wind. Everyone in the hall is spooked out of their wits, and Jarl Anud is the first to speak. He explains of how Sven Oakenfist was the leader of a vicious band of bloodthirsty raiders who sought to attack while the men of the village were away a-viking, and how he as a boy slain their leader by striking at Sven with a spear. The raider, who has the blood of Odin coursing through his veins, laid a dire curse to gift Anud with wealth and power for fifty years, only for it all to be taken away in due time. Anud also mentions that the accusations of dishonorability aren't as bad as any other jarl, and that Sven is the real honorless one for going after women and children. After a motivational speech of how it would be terrible to send his sons to die for him and how he's now an old man, if there are any heroes among the hall willing to put a stop to Sven Oakenfist's dire premonition. Naturally, the adventure assumes that the PCs will rise to the challenge. What I Changed: I also had it so that the community's Thing was taking place, and the longhouse had Anud resolving various disputes between local families. When Sven Oakenfist burst in, he taunted Jarl Anud into attacking him in a blind rage, which during the Thing is a major faux pas (violence is only acceptable via holmgang). As a powerful spirit his blows were useless. The party skald saved the Jarl's honor by complimenting his supposed canniness: quote:Good thinking my Jarl, checking to see if he held such a trick. How can one duel something that is not of flesh and blood. I'll get right on crafting you a weapon that can deal damage to your challenger! Had you not done that, a most dishonorable trick would have been pulled on you! I also changed the backstory so that Jarl Anud, as a twelve-year-old boy, snuck up to Oakenfist's camp while he was asleep. Taking a spear and coating it with animal dung, he snuck into the raider's quarters and stabbed him in the heart before making a run for it. He could not win in a straight fight, but Anud wanted vengeance, and vengeance he got when Sven died an ignoble death in the wilds as his feet finally felled him. I also deleted the whole "well I'm not really that honorless" part of the speech and made it so that Anud had a fear that sending members of his own hall on the quest would fold into the curse (if they die on the journey, then Sven is reaping what he sown). This was to make his part seem more justified and throw off cases of suspicion (“maybe the crooked jarl really the one in the wrong?”), as Anud’s “dishonorable past” doesn’t come into play here or in later adventures. The Daughters of Skuld  Fun fact: this was the original 2011 map of the Northlands. Given that a death curse by a divinely-descended being is super-strong, it will take equally-divine power to undo. Via the rolling of one of many Knowledge checks and/or the hiring of sages, the PCs can learn that the only people capable of this are the Daughters of Skuld, half-divine women living within the Northlands along with their locations. The majority of this adventure involves visiting them and overcoming their trials and can be visited in any order. The PCs can even visit one , two, or none at all and head directly to Oakenfist's barrow. This is inadvisable as the specific undead monster he is depends on the amount of Daughters which have been visited (from a mighty CR 17 winterwight to a meager CR 6 specter). Each Daughter has a theme: they are all quite mad, and their obsession is acting out a certain folkloric archetype which the PCs must cater to in order to secure their cooperation. The PCs will also need a ship to visit them (Yrsa and Old Meg are on islands) which can be rented out. The first Daughter listed is Yrsa the Fair, who is chained to a rock on an island between the straits of Hrolfland and Estenfird. She is quite literally a Damsel in Distress, and takes note of any PC who acts chivalrous in trying to come to her aid. But just like in the storybooks, a simple breaking of chains won't do as a shadowy dragon known as the Shrieker of the Dark attacks the island! Once the beast is slain Yrsa allows herself to be freed. She rewards each party member with a magic item personalized to their role if they were courteous, along with a tale of a nimble bird who tricks a serpent into biting itself as a hint to use the very spear which slain Sven Oakenfist. Personally this is a bit counter-intuitive (it sounds like one needs to trick Sven into attacking himself) so I'd suggest rewording the tale if the PCs don't pick up the meaning with a Knowledge check. Also Yrsa will visit one PC who stood out as courageous alone at night. She basically offers to have sex with that character as a reward, and if the PC accepts they gain a divine boon where up to 3 times they can reroll a single d20 and take the better result. But if they turn down her advances for any reason, she curses them with the opposite: the GM can force a reroll and take the worse result up to 3 times. What I Changed: Aside from the coercive nature of "have sex with me or I'll curse you" the whole reward-sex trope is kind of creepy to do especially when it's from an NPC who's a complete stranger. I merely had her kiss the forehead of the troll-blooded PC as a sign of affection and thus give the boon that way.  The next Daughter is Mother Hengrid, a woman whose cottage is located within the wild forests of Seagestreland. When the PCs set foot on shore they are attacked by Mongat raiders, fantasy counterpart Mongols from the Sea of Grass. The Mongat all ride on horseback, but their superior mobility is hampered by the many trees preventing charge attacks. PCs lassoed or captured will be taken back to their camp to be put with other prisoners there. The camp is also its own encounter. What I Changed: I replaced this encounter with a Northlander trader negotiating with some Seagestrelanders versed in rune magic. The trader was one of the followers of Hengrid Thorsdottir, an NPC who plays a major role in the next adventure, Blood on the Snow. A group of Jomsviking raiders hunting for loot and slaves ambushed the negotiations, causing things to fall into a free-for-all. The PCs who stumbled upon this learned the extent of what was going on, and the Jomsvikings were none too friendly so it wasn't hard to take sides. After saving the trader and Seagestrelanders, they met Thorsdottir in the village of Dnipirstead, where they learned she was gathering hired help to fight the Beast Cult up in Estenfird. Due to being on a current adventure, they could not join her at the moment. After several days of forest exploration, the PCs stumble onto Mother Hengrid's Cottage. It has no true location and often moves of its own accord to make it easier to find for those seeking it. Mother Hengrid acts very much like a doting parent: she believes that the PCs are children playing at adventurers and alternates between supplying them with good food and cleaning their equipment, while also ordering them to clean themselves up in a giant hot bath and do various chores. As a half-divine woman she is incredibly powerful, and attempts to refuse her cause "naughty" PCs to teleport into her basement for a time out. A basement which can spawn giant insects as random encounters (but are not too tough CR wise). Mother Hengrid will not discuss the PCs' quest or Sven Oakenfist's curse, saying that now's not the time and instead asks them to help out with three chores. The first chore involves fetching firewood...guarded by an angry lumberjack troll; filling a cauldron with water from the river...where 10 giant frogs wait to attack the party; and feeding the dogs out back...who happen to be yeth hounds who only fight momentarily before running off with their morsels. PCs who point out the danger of the tasks meet the excuse that they are things "big boys and girls can handle easily." She is kind enough to use healing magic on the party if they get injured, though. Only once the chores are done does Mother Hengrid explain a way to undo the curse: find the hand that slain Sven Oakenfist, and have it slay the wight. Before sending them off, she gives each PC a stew-stuffed gourd which is able to heal the drinker as well as restoring spell slots and days-per-use abilities. However it spoils in a month, meaning you should encourage the players to use it during the course of the adventure as the next one takes place several months afterwards. Continued in Next Post Libertad! fucked around with this message at 09:46 on Apr 4, 2018 |
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Apr 4, 2018 06:53
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The Death Curse of Sven Oakenfist, Final Part  The final Daughter is Old Meg, who lives in a cavern on the southern end of the Isle of Jomsburg. She is not a member of the Jomsvikings and has no relationship with them, but the location of her home and the island's dire reputation make it so that she never has to deal with unwanted visitors. We get a brief description of the island: tall cliff walls on all sides and a fortress-city up above. Plenty of siege engines, plus sea caves at the water level are used to store their ships for a highly defensible location. As for Old Meg's Cavern, it is up a 300 foot high cliff face above a rocky reef which requires Profession (Sailor) and Climb checks to make it up safely. The cave has no defenses aside from a pack of ice drakes who attack anyone who does not drop an offering of a marked token (there's a bunch of them in an alcove) in the pool at the entrance. The flash-frozen corpse hurriedly dunking his hand into the pool, token in hand, provides a hint of what to do. Further inside, the party comes face to face with a frozen menagerie of legendary heroes of the Northlands thought dead or missing. The adventure gives a detailed write-up of their names, heroic deeds, and magical items encased within them. In my game, this caused the party skald to hate Old Meg with a passion. Old Meg huddles in a small chamber with a fire, and she very much acts like the Creepy Old Woman Who May Be a Witch archetype. She offers to help the party, but only if they abide by the laws of her house: speak not of what occurs here beyond that they ventured into her cave and later came out, nor tell others of the boon they sought and gained from her. Only after swearing an oath will she present her challenge.  The PCs must beat Old Meg in a game of Hnefatafl, a real-world ancient Germanic and Celtic strategy board game. However, the pieces used are all but one Player Character shrunken down to fit on the board (excess tokens are allied bugbears), and the opposing side are bugbears. The PC tokens are moved about by a character who elected to be the player (who I’ll refer to as the chessmaster), and Old Meg controls the bugbears at the north, south, east, and west ends. There are several rules to how the game is played, but I'll boil it down to the essentials: 1.) The PCs win if the central "King" piece escapes to one of the four corners of the board, which takes on the visage of Jarl Anud. Old Meg must kill the PC tokens to win the game. 2.) The minigame uses the PCs' real abilities and attacks, but their movement is controlled by the chessmaster who moves them around like tokens on the board. 3.) In lieu of initiative the chessmaster goes first, moving one token. Old Meg does the same with her own pieces. After both sides go, the chessmaster may move the king. 4.) Pieces must be adjacent to each other to attack, even with spells and ranged abilities, and attacks of opportunity are not triggered for movement. The king cannot be attacked. 5.) When a token attacks an opposing piece, the attacked can make a single attack to counter. 6.) Old Meg interrupts the game six times. Three to ask a riddle, and three times to cheat. If the chessmaster guesses correctly, he gets to take two turns. Guess wrong, and Old Meg takes an extra turn. Old Meg cheats by casually bumping the table, sending 1d4 pieces to move up to 3 squares away of her choice. Now bugbears are quite easy to fight at this level of play. As the party goes first and the king cannot be destroyed, they have things in their favor. The only difficulty I can foresee is for players who have a naturally low AC/HP combination and may be easy targets for the bugbears, or whose abilities are tied up in being mobility or save-or-lose. The odds are good, although if Old Meg wins, the defeated PC tokens become permanent board pieces and the chessmaster is told to leave or join the other frozen heroes of old. If the party win, each PC may ask one boon of her: either the taking of a magic item from one of the frozen heroes, or ask about the Death Curse (one PC can ask while the others get treasure). Meg gives a premonition which basically states that there's a chance the curse may be lifted if Jarl Anud sacrifices himself. Remember that oath Old Meg made the PCs swear? If any of them go back on it, the entire party's teleported back to the hnefatfl board and must win to gain their freedom. Riddles posted:1. “A wonder on the wave, water becomes bone.” Answer: ice on a lake or sea What I Changed: I made the dire mistake of revealing the rules for this minigame during the game session rather than beforehand, making it so that a few players had to stop in-media-res to get a proper sense of things. I also discarded the riddles and 2 of the cheating features on account that the addition of new "rules" was forestalling the flow of play. The Barrow of Sven Oakenfist  At some point the PCs must confront Sven Oakenfist, right in his barrow which is conveniently several miles away from Jarl Anud’s hall. This is not to be undertaken lightly; depending on the information they found, they may need the presence of Jarl Anud Cursespear and/or the spear he used to kill the undead wight. The power of the curse is that Sven will rise again at full strength in 1d4 rounds if defeated unless one or both conditions are met. There's a 25% chance of slaying the wight permanently if someone other than Anud uses the spear, but if Jarl Anud wields it the chance increases to 75% or 100% if he strikes a flat-footed Sven. The other 100% chance is if Anud is convinced to willingly sacrifice himself to the wight. Fortunately the spear is still in Jarl Anud’s possession and doesn’t require its own quest to find. If Anud accompanies the PCs, he takes a group of huscarls and several sons to accompany him, but waits outside until the PCs cleared each room but the final one. At this point he follows them inside. What I Changed: It feels a bit cowardly to have a jarl show up with a small army only to make the PCs do the dirty work themselves. I had him accompany the party inside the dungeon on the first room. This made him seem more of a proper leader and added in the complication of ensuring his health to reach the final room. The dungeon itself is small and linear, with several undead vikings and thralls animating to attack. In Sven’s life he was egoistic enough to be buried with his own ship, which has some secret compartments containing treasure. The quest’s villain awaits our heroes in the final room, accompanied by 10 skeletal huscarls. quote:"Hark, for I see you have come to seek your own wyrd, that to die at the hands of the Jarl of the Sea and his loyal huscarls. Have then, and let the battle-dew fly from our thirsty steel serpents! Commence the slaughter, my brothers, and let none escape!” Gotta hand it to Oakenfist. He's the most eloquently-spoken bad guy so far in this Adventure Path. Once he is killed for good, his minions de-animate and the very tomb begins to crumble. PCs can take the time to grab 1d6x10 hacksilver worth of valuables per round, although the entire structure collapses in 2d12 rounds and instantly kills all within (no save). Now I do not know if by "tomb" they meant the final room or the whole complex; 2d12 is a very swingy number. Although it's possible the party may have access to Dimension Door (mine did) or teleportation effects, given the length of the dungeon low rolls may as well spell the death of the party if it’s meant to be the entire complex. What I Changed: I did not roll for the time limit. I only would have if PCs got greedy or dilly-dallied. Also not a change per se, but one of the PCs grappled Sven Oakenfist to expose his wound to Jarl Anud to strike the killing blow. It was within the flat-footed parameter ruleswise, and it worked well. If the PCs are successful, Jarl Anud (or his heirs if he's dead) awards the PCs magic items according to their personality: the greatest warrior gets a Frostbrand sword, the slyest PC gets a rust-covered bag of tricks, etc. Each magic item also has a small explanation of how the jarl came upon it in his earlier adventures. But there is one treasure meant for the whole party: the Tusked Whale, a fully outfitted longship complete with a crew of 50 from the jarl's household now in the PCs’ service! Concluding Thoughts: The Death Curse of Sven Oakenfist rates highly. It is an open-ended sandbox where just about every major task has some puzzle-like element to solve or quirky plot element in the case of Mother Hengrid. The battle with Sven Oakenfist is a definite highlight, as it forces the PCs to hold their ground for proper conditions rather than batting the enemies' health to 0. Next time we wage war on the Beast Cult of Estenfird in NS4: Blood on the Snow! Libertad! fucked around with this message at 09:47 on Apr 4, 2018 |
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Apr 4, 2018 06:53
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NS4: Blood on the Snow  Hengrid Donarsdottir is one of the most famed living heroes of the Northlands. Descended from the legendary god of thunder himself, she is the Beast Cult of Shibauroth's greatest threat in Estenfird. As a result the foul worshipers of the demon-god are engaging on an unprecedented campaign of terror to lure her into taking a siege position in Three Rivers. With a major desperate strike they hope to kidnap the Daughter of Thunder and Storms in order to sacrifice her to their deity. The PCs can get involved in the adventure are in a variety of ways: perhaps they heard Hengrid's call to arms across the Northlands, they have personal ties to Estenfird, a religious or divine caster receives visions from their deity to venture here, or some other reason for being up there. Blood on the Snow is part wilderness trek, part strategy wargame recommended for 8th to 10th level parties. The PCs begin in the port town of Vöss and must visit villages on their way to convince the local hirthmenn (militia) to march with them to Three Rivers. Complicating matters is that Estenfirders use an anarchistic direct democracy model and thus the PCs must win over people at the local Things via social skill checks. Single target enchantment spells won't work due to the political structure. Additionally many warriors are reluctant to leave their families behind in the fear that their communities will be less-defended from Beast Cult attacks. The higher their social skill check at the Thing, the more hirthmenn join the PCs' number. Random encounters up to Three Rivers are assumed to be larger skirmishes, with the presented enemies being the forces the PCs must deal with (be they cult leaders or VIPs). To simulate losses among the hirthmenn, the adventure suggests adding up the hit point totals of all the PCs and cohorts and doing a 'health roll call' at the end of the encounter. If the party lost 25% of their hit points, the hirthmenn suffered 25% casualties. Army minutia, such as equipment, supply lines, etc are not dealt with in favor of personalized heroism. While at communities the party can use Diplomacy and Knowledge skills to gather information about the Beast Cult. A particularly high Knowledge skill can reveal the Beast Cult's true plan as well as the fact that the cultists bear runic tattoos with protective magic. A sidebar also suggests having arrogant cultists unwittingly give away their plans as a demoralizing tactic if the PCs did not catch on: explaining how they plan to capture Donarsdottir and rape her, and (if they already caught her) how they already have her at their secret lair to sacrifice to their god. All this is mixed in along with taunts at perceived weaknesses of the PCs. What I Changed: Whelp, another sexual violence inference to delete for my home games. In fact, this adventure is a bit more heavy on this subject matter than the others. Beyond the taunts, one of the information gathering skill checks reveal that the Beast Cult are fond of raping the villagers of settlements they attack, and Hengrid Donarsdottir is naked and bound on the altar during the final encounter. On the more tactical side of things, I also added an involved mini-game of hired help to supplement the local hirthmenn. Mercenary groups both foreign and local were in the various towns the PCs could visit. They ranged from democratic revolutionaries from Bard's Gate (who find Estenfird's style of government appealing) to Monrovian knights searching for a cure for their cursed king (who is not cursed in the standard setting). They each had a mini-encounter for the PCs to complete in order to have them march with the army. I may post a more detailed post on this, as otherwise the various factions and their quests would take up too much word count here.  There are some random encounters on the way: cultists attacking a village, an empty destroyed settlement, sabre-tooth tigers, and even a sapient tree who strangles its victims to death. There's a one-time encounter where the PCs can gain the aid of a mythical creature known as the Great White Stag who knows all the safe, secret routes of the forest. He also tells them about a planned ambush near the town of Risør, a later set-piece encounter. Halfway between Vöss and Three Rivers is the village of Risør. Although walled and relatively safe, the place is near-full capacity as farming families and their livestock seek refuge behind its fortifications. The hirthmenn are aware of Donarsdottir's call to Three Rivers, but are fearful of doing so in that they believe the Beast Cult is close to their settlement. They are right, as there is a large force waiting to ambush the hirth army. This is the last set-piece encounter of Chapter One, and includes 10 Beast Cult warriors, 3 trolls, and 5 worgs complete with a rolling log trap. But if the PCs gained the aid of the Great White Stag, they use a secret route to ambush the ambushers and gain an automatic surprise round! One thing I'd like to mention: the human Beast Cult warriors are meant to be the mooks of this adventure in the form CR 3 human barbarians. However, they have extremely high hit point values while raging (67) and their runes grant them barkskin, bull's strength, bear's endurance, and freedom of movement along with immunity to mind-affecting effects. This grants them 26 Strength and Constitution also while raging for very high attack and damage values for enemies of their level. The runes can be dispelled via an erase spell, but the 20th Caster Level (!!!) makes this a challenge for 8th-level PCs. And it wouldn't matter in the heat of combat, given that the adventure expects the PCs to take on around a dozen or more per battle along with various monsters. What I Changed: Needless to say I nerfed the beast cultist's hit point values to avoid overly-long combats. Besides our party witch, save-or-dies were not my gaming group's strong suit. Continued in Next Post
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Apr 5, 2018 06:09
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NS4: Blood on the Snow Part Deux The Battle of Three Rivers  When the PCs and their army reaches Three Rivers, they find that the Beast Cult arrived well ahead of them. Warbands in loosely-organized encampments burn fires throughout positions in the forests. Fortunately the bad guys cannot mount a united front (yet) and loud squabbles are common enough that PCs can use Stealth/Disguise checks to sneak their entire army to the gates of Three Rivers. On a failure they'll have to deal with an encounter and potential battlefield casualties. Once inside the town's walls the PCs' hirthmenn unite with the local defenders, and the party can position themselves where they wish among the town map. Aside from a few healing potions and scrolls the PCs do not have much time to plan or rest, for the Beast Cult makes their move shortly after their arrival. The adventure suggests two options, and the GM is free to use one or both: first option is to present a series of random and set-piece encounters during the siege where the PCs take out key warbands. The amount of hirthmenn recruited has an effect on encounters in the form of reducing the numbers, hit points, or both via a percentage value to represent injuries and casualties from superior forces. The second option is to make use of Pathfinder's Mass Combat Rules, and statistics for army units on both sides are provided. This would be a cool idea save for one minor detail... The Battle of Three Rivers is meant to be an unwinnable encounter. Not only are the hirth militias lovely in power, the beast cult units are both more numerous and stronger. The idea is that the town will fall, and the PCs discover the cults' real mission and set off to save Hengrid Donarsdottir. As this is the first time the Mass Combat Rules are used in this Adventure Path, thrusting them onto first-time players only to not make a difference in the long run is Bad Game Design.  Several major encounters during the sack include a war mammoth brought from Nûkland to bash down the southern gates, fire drakes setting the Great House of the Gods ablaze, and a giant demon-badger burrowing a tunnel into Three Rivers' farmland (T5). The last encounter is quite deadly in that the badger immediately lets 48 cultists through until the tunnel it leaves behind plus 20 more per minute until it is collapsed. Jesus Christ, running this last encounter'll be a nightmare unless you use the Swarm, Mob, or Troop templates to simulate large numbers! Hengrid Donarsdottir stands guard over the Allthing, where the town's women, children, elderly, and wounded are being kept. She is amply fighting off cultists and giants with her mithral hammer Thundersurge. Hengrid is a level 12 aasimar Fighter. Sounds like a good ally to have on the PCs' side right? Nope, in reality she's a Faux Action Girl with no stat block for this adventure and will get kidnapped by a flame drake offscreen after being overcome by her wounds. What I Changed: Hoo boy, where to start? Well first off I beefed up the Hirthmenn and nerfed the human Beast Cult army units who are amusingly more powerful than the monster units. In addition to the Hired Help I added some units representing common Northlands archetypes: Cunning Women as magical medics, Shieldmaidens as defensive fighters, and Bearserkers as glass cannons. I made it so that the number of recruited hirthmenn added bonus token units on the map. I used an ultra-simplified version of the Mass Combat Rules, given that this was a small-scale siege meant to be done within an in-game day rather than a long, drawn-out war on many fronts. The last part is what the rules were originally meant to simulate. I also had it so that the Jomsvikings were helping supply the Beast Cult with weapons and advanced military tactics. In my campaign the organization was hired by the Empire of the Huun, a major superpower in the Lost Lands' eastern continent. Their mission was to weaken the Northlands for invasion by sowing political discord, including exacerbating the Gat-Hrolf feud. The fall of Estenfird and the defeat of Hengrid Donarsdottir is meant to serve as a severe morale blow. The Empire of the Huun in the default adventure path otherwise has no presence until NS10: the Broken Shieldwall where they show up out of nowhere. I ran both encounters and used Mass Combat Rules, the former of which were interspersed between rounds of mass combat. I divvied up the flame drake, war mammoth, and dire badger (reflavored as a giant worm) as three major encounters happening at once: this forced the PCs to choose which to prioritize in handling personally while letting the other defenses weaken. In keeping with the Beast Cult's true goal, I had it so that the bulk of their forces massed among the south as a diversionary tactic so that the riverside groups and flame drakes had an easy strike at the Althing. The players came up with an interesting plot to use charges from the wand of fireball as well as strategic ice-breaking to weaken the iced-over river on the east side. One of the players mentioned that even in winter, the river beneath is still flowing, therefore it will be a "pull" on the fractured ice to further weaken it to heavy loads. I don't know if this works IRL, but it sounded plausible enough for the game. I also changed the plot around so that Hengrid Donarsdottir knew of the Beast Cult's plan to sacrifice her. However, as their tattoos also had anti-divination abilities (my addition) her plan was to let them capture her so that one of Three Rivers' godi or cunning women may scry on her position. This way they can locate their central headquarters and strike them down once and for all. The PCs burst into the Hall of the Althing and saw Herjof the Bloody-Handed, the Cult's leader, tying Hengrid's unconscious form to a flame drake. The party fought him and cut the ropes as the hall collapsed around them; the skald scarred Herjof's runes to disable his runic protections just as the cult leader contingency-teleported back to the lair. The PCs were understandably angered at Hengrid putting so many lives at risk, but they used this temporary advantage to scry on Herjof's location. The Stones on the Marsh  Once the Beast Cult flies off with Hengrid Donarsdottir, small warbands retreat while others stay to plunder the town. This final portion of the adventure assumes that the PCs give chase. The cult's lair is in the Yellow Light Marshes, a realm with a foul reputation home to will-o'-wisps aplenty. Random encounters here include both the aforementioned glowy balls of death as well as a "winter worm" remorhaz. The Stones are a man-made array of standing stones located within the huge tangle of a thorny hedge maze. Characters can move through the squares with overgrowth, but risk damage and poison. The various rooms here include various beast cultists and giants either on patrol or "baptizing" captured hirthmenn in muddy water with gradually sinking chains. There are also hangman trees, bog mummies, and evil fey such as redcaps to contend with here. The climactic encounter is in area 11 at the Stones themselves. When the PCs arrive, Hengrid is bound and naked in the center, surrounded by blood-red candles and iron spikes overseen by a huge bull-headed statue. Herjof the Bloody-Handed is chanting a prayer in Abyssal while green hags sing a chorus in tune with the prayer. This is a pretty intense encounter. First off we have 14 human cultists surrounding the stones, 3 green hags (who thus form a covey), an obsidian minotaur which animates in 5 rounds, and Herjof himself. The Beast Cult's leader is a tough guy, and perhaps one of the few NPCs who threatened my party with actual death. He's a 13th-level cleric with several save-or-die spells along with a bunch of battlefield control ones. Destruction, Disintegrate, Blade Barrier, Harm (which deals 130 damage at his caster level), along with some buffs such as freedom of movement and bulls' strength/bear's endurance are but a few of them. The obsidian minotaur and will tear out Hengrid's heart and eat it in 6 rounds after its own activation (11 rounds total) to complete the ritual. If Herjof is killed while it is animated, the minotaur will blindly rampage by attacking friend and foe alike. If the PCs fail and Hengrid is sacrificed, a tide of blood and gore shoots out of the altar and foul omens simultaneously erupt across all the Northlands. The minotaur transforms into a thanatotic titan as Shibauroth gains an avatar in the mortal world and absorbs Donar/Thor's divine power. He will reign a path of destruction around Estenfird and begin to establish a dread domain. Given that the rest of the adventure path presumes Hengrid's survival, this is more or less a Non-Standard Game Over. But if Hengrid is saved and the Beast Cult routed, a thunderstorm like none other will rain down on the Beast Cultists and all of their hidden lairs. Herjof, whether he's alive or a corpse, is burned in spontaneous combustion. The people of Estenfird have little to reward the party with, but the true treasure is a personal visit by Thor himself! One day the PCs find themselves lost in a fog, only to come upon a glorious hall where a party of unearthly proportions is held in their honor! After a night of revelry they wake up with some personalized magic items; and as a cherry on top, once per campaign each individual PC may have the favor of the gods intervene on their behalf in the form of a Limited Wish spell. What I Changed: The PCs managed to save Three Rivers. Upon the disappearance of their leader, the warbands retreated; this left the more disciplined Jomsvikings to be captured or slaughtered by the hirthmenn. A few survivors holed up in a grainary and used the food supply as a hostage. Feeling betrayed by the Beast Cult yet unwilling to die needlessly, the PCs brokered a deal to tell them of the Beast Cult's plans in return for letting them go (once the Beast Cult was dealt with first). The assault upon the Stones was done without any ritual, and I reflavored the divine storm to be that of the stone pillars overloading with magical power (which our party witch dispelled). The PCs spent a good time doing character development post-adventure. Due to a near-death experience at Herjof's hands our skald desired to part ways with the party as a means of bringing in a new PC next adventure. Combined with the fact that Hengrid didn't need saving and this made for a satisfying conclusion, I did not have them meet Thor. Concluding Thoughts: Once again the Northlands manages to throw a novel mode of play every new adventure so far, this time in the form of a low-scale wargame. Blood on the Snow's a bit rougher than the others and needs additional tweaking, particularly the Mass Combat encounter. The final fight can be extremely deadly for even optimized parties on account of Herjof and his minions having superior action economy and debilitating spells. Counting the two prequels, we are halfway through the Northlands Saga Adventure Path! Join us next time as we take the fight to the Jomsvikings directly in NS5: Raven Banners Over Gatland!
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Apr 5, 2018 06:09
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gradenko_2000 posted:could I ask for a short description of how the mass combat rules (or at least the simplified version you used) works? How did you find them? In short, you have tokens on the battlefield, with size categories representing the armies. Each army unit derives its stats from the most common creature/class type within it. Overall, Mass Combat boils down to "move your army up to an enemy army, roll 1d20 and add Offense Modifier, compare to the enemy's Defense Value, damage dealt is the Defense Value subtracted from the total Offense result." Given the swingyness of the D20, this means that a very high result can wipe out an army, but as army units can conceivably be anything from Level 1 Commoners to Fire Giants there's just as much potential variety in the powers of army units as in standard combat. The default mass combat rules were too cluttered with extraneous modifiers and variants. There's plenty of description for weather, terrain, spells, and class features and how they can impact things. For myself, I included no Boons or Commander abilities, Army Resources, and so on and so forth. I consolidated things down to Hit Points, Army Challenge Rating, Offense Modifiers (attack bonus), Defense Value (AC), along with damage. I changed the speed to reflect the number of squares an army could move (standard speed was too slow for map), and put all special abilities/conditions under "Tactics." Personally speaking, I found that the rules worked well at least for my group. To be fair a lot of it came from the fact that once the war mammoth crashed the gates the players moved most of their pieces to form a choke point while the eastern river became a natural barrier. The terrain slowing down the advance of the Cult helped them take on the armies at a reasonable rate. Also here's a complete list of hired help descriptions, if not their stat blocks: Bard's Gate Exiles: Supporters of the now-suppressed democratic revolution from their home city, these exiles see a kindred spirit in the Things of Estinfird. They are more than willing to water the seeds of liberty, whether it’s with the blood of beastmen or tyrants. Here are the other units I included: Castorhagian Necromancers: Hailing from a city built upon the labor of the unliving, the necromancers of Castorhage are nothing if not pragmatists when it comes to the dark arts. From alchemical concoctions to battlefield necromancy, the fires of war only strengthen their talents. Endholme Arcanists: Hailing from the continent’s most prestigious wizarding academy, the arcanists of Endholme seek the mysteries of the beast cult’s runic tattoos and magic items. Having proved remarkably resilient to magical tampering, Thorsdottir believes that hiring expert help is required to discover any weaknesses. Foedewaithian Judges: Hailing from a southern empire of Law and Good, its citizenry is now more concerned on keeping to their own affairs. But rumors of growing demonic cults in foreign lands encouraged more than a few "renegades" to adopt a more proactive policy. Monrovian Knights: Currently on a quest in the Northlands to save their cursed king, this lot is more honorable than the typical sellsword. Albeit their mission is their primary goal, appealing to their better natures might win their aid. Ulfhanders: The warrior-cults of Odin have embraced the harshness of the wildlands, but are by no means enamored of the beast cult. On the contrary, they view their monstrous forces as the worthiest challenge in the land.
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Apr 6, 2018 00:15
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NS5: Raven Banners Over Gatland  At this point in the Adventure Path, the PCs are most definitely heroes of renown especially given their last few quests. Even better, future plots make assumptions that they are famous rather than just random adventurers. Raven Banners Over Gatland is designed for parties of 9th to 11th level, and the first adventure proper to feature the Jomsvikings as a major antagonistic faction. Fun Fact: The Jomsvikings have the same name as a semi-legendary order of Nordic mercenaries during the 10th to 11th centuries. The backstory for this adventure is that the clan elders of the Gats and Hrolfs finally came to an agreement to end their mutual blood feud. Ljot Gatson and Magnus Hrolfsblood both agreed to marry their eldest heirs in Trotheim. As both wife and groom-to-be carry the bloodline of the last High Køenig, it also provides an opportunity for one of their descendants to regain that glorious title. Sveni Ljotsdottir was to sail into the city via a fleet of longships, but the Jomsvikings kidnapped her with the aid of weather and illusory magic. Naturally, this caused both sides to blame the other: the Gats blaming the Hrolfs for staging a kidnapping, the Hrolfs claiming that the bridal offering was but a ruse. Tensions are quite high, and the raven banners of war are being flown throughout Gatland. The reason the Jomsvikings did this was because both clans are their biggest clients, and a peace treaty would be bad for business. Ten years ago they also made an exception to their male-only membership policy to recruit a witch by the name of Jasella. She gives them magical aid, which they used to conceal their ships. Our adventure begins while the party is traveling in the vicinity of Storstrøm Vale, perhaps as invitation to the wedding; Jarl Olaf Henrikson was an ally of the Gats, after all. And just like the start of a random encounter we open up with sounds of battle nearby. Njal Magnuson, heir of the Hrolf clan and husband-to-be, is under attack by Gat warriors. Already a score of them lie dead around the single man, and the boxed text shows off his desire for a fair fight when one of the attackers stumbles and trips but Njal lets him regain his footing. Hrolfland for the Nords posted:While simpering Southlanders might mock the beleaguered man for refusing to strike down a helpless opponent, PCs of Northlander stock will be duly impressed by his honor. Any Northlander PC that moves to help him receives an award of 100 XP for assisting a man obviously favored with the courage of Donar. Any PC who stands by and watches him fall (which he will in 3 rounds if not aided) or assists in attacking him receives an unfavorable wyrd and takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls for 1 month as a result. It should be noted that even a PC who is a Gat receives this curse as mind’s-worth is thicker than even blood among the Northlanders. The adventure presumes that the PCs will rush to Njal's aid. The Gat warriors are 11 strong already aided by potions of bull's strength. Now while 9th and 10th level PCs should be quite tough, the length and difficulty of this battle is predicated on the party make-up. The Gats are 7th level fighters with respectable HP and AC (78 and 22 respectively) plus they have good melee attacks and each of them wields +1 weapons and armor (wasn't this a low-magic setting?  ). But their Reflex and Will saves are crap, their touch AC is a mere 12, and their sole ranged attacks are crappy 1d6 damage shortbows.After the battle Njal thanks the party and explains who he is. He is suspicious of Sveni's disappearance because there was no wreckage of the ship nor dead bodies cast up on shore. While searching for clues he got attacked by Gatlanders and all his huscarls died in the attack, so he offers the party wealth if they help escort him to Trotheim. While on the way, they pass by a shephard's cottage which is randomly attacked by GIANT SCORPIONS from the Forest of Woe. The grateful shephards, upon recognizing Njal, explain how while watching their sheep they saw a strange fog following some dragon-headed longships. It seemed as though their presence was intentionally concealed by the weather itself. They began chasing another longship with white foxtails hanging from the spar (a Gatland ship). One final clue is that the fog-shrouded ships flew the banner of Jörumungandr the World Serpent, the symbol of the Jomsvikings.  I just love how the giant scorpions are entirely incidental to this revelation. I have to wonder how the players imagine this tying into the greater plot if at all; then again, with all the giant animals the PCs encountered this is probably par for the course in the wild North. Incensed at this revelation, Njal pays the PCs to escort him to Trotheim, and once there he gathers a crew to head back home and plan what to do. He adamantly refuses for the PCs to come with him, as it is A MATTER OF FAMILY HONOR.  The adventure fast-forwards 1 month later (the book suggests running a sidequest or interlude) where the PCs receive an urgent summons to go to an isolated farmstead outside Trotheim. It is in fact is an invitation to a secret meeting between the Hrolf and Gat elders. The sender does not reveal much save that "rich rewards" are promised. Also no divination magic or skill checks confirm the source of the summons, but confirm nothing to indicate that it's dangerous. The adventure doesn't explain how the jarls have autofail anti-divination measure. I get that they're well-connected, but the PCs are famed heroes and likely great mages of note by now.Once inside the farmstead home, the PCs come into a dimly lit, tense meeting of the clan leaders along with a bunch of equally-surly huscarls. Jarl Magnus Hrolfsblood breaks the ice by thanking the party for saving his son, but mentions his son needs saving again. Shortly after Njal set sail to kick Jomsviking rear end, his father received a package from Jomsburg containing a severed ear and ruby red earring worn by his son (the boxed text earlier noted it in Njal's description). As much as Magnus and Ljot would love to take the fight to Jomsburg directly, their children are hostages. Additionally both clans purchased the services of the Jomsvikings in the past, who will use this as blackmail material on them. As the PCs are known as Top Men who laugh in the faces of beast cults and undead vikings, the elders wish to hire the party to undertake a stealth mission into Jomsburg. They will reward each PCs' weight in rings as reward, but if they fail the Gat-Hrolf blood feud will be unstoppable. Fun Fact: if Njal died in the earlier encounters, the NPC to be saved is his younger brother Finni who went missing. This doesn't have the same bite to it; I get that Finni may be a "replacement" groom, but the circumstances of the first few encounters played up Njal as an important guy (plus the whole "distinctive ruby ear" warning doesn't work). What I Changed: I found the whole scorpion and "don't come after us" thing to be a bit counter-intuitive in terms of PC motivation. Of course the players are going to bite down on the adventure hook, especially if it's to prevent the Northlands (and likely their homes) from becoming a raven's feast. I had it so that both Sveni and Njal were kidnapped before NS5's onset. The beach encounter was replaced with Granny Ǽstrid fending off a group of generic raiders. She mentions that while en route to Trotheim, her longship was attacked and ran ashore. Sveni was kidnapped in spite of the crew's best efforts and she was the sole survivor. The PCs investigated the nearby longship and noticed footprints of differing sizes in the sand: those of humans and common giants alike. With some Knowledge checks the PCs realized that the only group in the Northlands other than the Beast Cult who has non-hostile relations with the Jötnar are the Jomsvikings. She took them to the secret meeting in Ljot's place save it was in a seemingly abandoned building in Trotheim. I had Aluki (Leadership cohort character) suggest the idea of infiltrating Jomsburg by commandeering a Jomsviking vessel at sea and disguising themselves as the crewmembers they slain. Navigating Hostile Waters  The PCs are lent control of the Grænir sea vessel in Trotheim's docks...which has the exact same ship stat block as the Tusked Whale. The voyage to Jomsburg Island calls for every 12 hours of sailing. The first two set-piece encounters are ho-hum (draugr undead sailors and four sea drake scouts working for the Jomsvikings), but the real fight here is when a pair of Jomsviking vessels cloaked in mirage arcana spells sneak up on the boat. The captains are not spellcasters but use rings of spell storing developed by Jasella to do this. They dematerialize when they're close enough that the PCs' ship cannot outmaneuver them, hoping to wedge the trapped vessel between them and clip their oars! We get a detailed one-and-a-half page description of naval action the PCs can take and how the Jomsvikings will react. This is one of the more infamous "mook swarm" encounters in the Northlands Saga. Between the two Jomsviking longships is a total of 78 Jomsvikings along with 2 officers and a pair of common giants. Although the enemies attack 20 at a time, they still have 10 more to act as archers. The jomsviking rank-and-file are 4th level Barbarians with 51 hit points each, but the rest of their stat block isn't anything special. Combined with the Beast Cult last adventure, I have to wonder how the designers expect these encounters to be run. Was their entire party made up of blaster casters and battlefield control specialists wiping out a dozen enemies each with repeated castings of Fireball and Black Tentacles?! Killing half their number allows for an easy surrender with a DC 13 Intimidate, but that's still 41 enemies. What I Changed: I cut down the Jomsviking mooks from 78 to 12. With the giants and officers there were still 16 enemies in total. Beneath the Jomsburg  The adventure takes into account the possibility of commandeering a Jomsviking ship, as well as the PCs using the mirage arcana ring to mask the Grænir or even coming into port openly. However the adventure shoots down all of those ideas as the main harbor has a series of winches on stone columns with connected giant chains. The chains normally dip below the water's surface but can be raised to block entry from unwanted ships: quote:It is easy to see even from a distance that the passages between the island outposts are so narrow that their guards will easily be able to get a good look into any ships passing through (even those under a mirage arcana), and between the chains and the suspended logs, any attempt to do so would be incredibly risky. Even in the gear and longship of the Jomsvikings, the chance of discovery and the deadly consequences of such should lead the PCs to want to find alternate means to reach the island and have a chance of locating their quarry before escaping. The adventure assumes that the PCs will not attempt to sneak or force entry into the main harbor. If they do, the GM will have to adjudicate the near-insurmountable opponents that they face. Otherwise, see “Making Landfall” for an alternate means of reaching the fortress. Boo to railroads. The adventure presumes that the PCs will find a hidden cove with cliffs leading up to some caves as the only real entrance. The place is guarded by several monsters enscorcelled by Jasella. Later on they find some ancient headstones, where the original fey inhabitants of the isle take notice of the newcomers. With the strange feeling of being watched, a redcap named Drexelex approaches and explains how the Jomsfolk drove his people into hiding. He offers the players a deal: kill the Sea Wych (Jasella) and present proof of her death, and they'll help the party find the kidnapped heirs. A nearby patch of dreadweed parts to reveal a secret passage leading into the tunnels beneath Jomsburg (the above map). It's also revealed that the Jomsvikings and Jasella worship unknown dark gods. What I Changed: I had the PCs meet Drexelax and the fey later, after Jasella's death. I let them go into Jomsburg with disguises. While inside they found themselves inside a huge "war room:" Lines of warriors took turns placing hands on a burning stone to hopefully become godi of Surtr (or combust in the process), siege architects debated whether to continue using the Northlands' The Tunnels include encounters with half-ooze giant lobsters, a precarious harbor overlook where if a PC falls they land in the middle of a bunch of Jomsvikings and are captured (can be saved by Drexelex), an extraplanar spider eater which haunts the rest of the overlook, a torture chamber with a crucifixion spirit (isn't this from Roman/Christian mythology?  ) and some devil and giant guards. The last room with the pentagram is Jasella's hall, where she plans to sacrifice a captive Sveni Ljotsdottir to her dark gods.Jasella is a 13th level witch and has an array of powerful spells, but she is likely to be overrun if the PCs approach with stealth and/or beat her in initiative. She opens up combat with a save-or-die blasphemy followed by turning invisible and summoning a monster, but all of these spells would take 3 rounds worth of actions for her. There's also a half-page dedicated to Jasella's backstory, which the PCs are unlikely to find out: basically she was unknown among the Northlands until 10 years ago she washed up naked on Jomsburg's shores. She strode up to the Jomsking, offering to serve him. In that time she spread the teachings of devil worship among the Jomsvikings' already-existing Dark Gods via subtle theological propaganda. Once Sveni is is freed she can be taken safely back to the ship. Drexelex will honor his end of the deal and reveal that the other "princeling" is held captive in the higher tower in the back of the fortress-city. He mentions that that if they are willing to face the beast of the island and answer the riddle of the Bloody Stones, they can sneak directly into the tower. The PCs can spend the night at their ship to rest and recover, on account that Jasella's dark magic rituals require complete privacy and last for days. In fact, the PCs can technically complete this adventure with just Sveni; it does not have as happy an ending and less rewards, but it's a possibility. What I Changed: I had the bearded devil guards in the same room as Jasella to provide more of a challenge. I also replaced Sveni's 4 Aristocrat levels with 8 levels in Fighter. I figured that as the eldest daughter of the Gats she could fight, but unless unbound and healed she would not be in any such condition to do so. She fought alongside the PCs, hoping to save Njal. I had the door in the southern end of room 13 lead out to the standing stones with Drexelex, where the PCs met him for the first time. The deal was changed around: if they could slay the Jomsbeast, the fey will help them escape the wrath of the Jomsvikings if they fled to their tunnels. The fey told them the Riddle of the Stones as part of a secret passage into the tower where Njal was being held. Continued in Next Post
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Apr 6, 2018 07:42
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NS5: Raven Banners Over Gatland, Part Deux The Stones and the Spire  Drexelex guides the party to another hidden trail near the coast, outside another cave which is home to the legendary Jomsbeast. They're even kind enough to tip off the creature's weakness (cleansing the spring). Naturally the spring and the river runoff is dirty and merely touching the water risks disease. The Jomsbeast is the only monster here, guarding a heaping helping of treasure both magical and mundane. Drexelex words the request that it seems that killing the Jomsbeast is a necessity, but only a few kinds of water-based and curative spells can unpollute the spring. Spells which not all parties may have. The monster has Fast Healing so theoretically the PCs can drop it and exit the room deeper into the caverns before it wakes up again, but fortunately there's a decanter of endless water among the treasure which can dilute the spring! What I Changed: I altered the encounter so that using good-aligned magic and/or plunging a holy weapon into the lake at risk of disease can work for cleansing the spring. The rest of the caverns have encounters with various aberrant creatures, and possible patrols of Jomsvikings. As for the Riddle of the Stones, the last room has a Cthulhoid horror known as a moon-beast sitting over a portal disguised as a stone feature. It offers the party the opportunity to answer a riddle to learn the secret of the Bloody Stones, but if they fail they must fight it in combat.  quote:Pale queen in her cavern court The answer is the moon. quote:It is possible your players may be true scholars of the Lost Lands and are aware that there are two moons over the world of Lloegyr. If they seem thrown off by the clues provided in regards to the Moon, feel free to inform them that Sybil the Dark Sister, the smaller moon, has little effect felt on the tides and is much less prominent in the night sky alongside Narrah the primary moon so that the riddle could refer to Narrah the Pale Sister. “Narrah” and “the Pale Sister” are both acceptable answers to the riddle. “Sibyl” and “the Dark Sister” are not. This is kind of weird, on account that what came to my mind and the players was that the "twin" was its reflection in the water's surface. Additionally the cosmological features of the campaign setting should be one of the first things to tell the players. Espcecially where it differs from our own Earth, and certainly not halfway through the adventure path! The moon-beast tells the PCs that the Bloody Stones secret is that of the blood of sacrifice. He then reveals glowing runes which teleport the PCs in a flash of blinding light. The party ends up at the top of a briar-choked hill with a stone alter and skeletons of past sacrifices (thus the moniker Bloody Stones). The spire of the Jomsburg fortress is nearby, lit by a single red light up top. There is one more encounter with some blood-sucking plants and plant-controlled giants and Jomsvikings. But spilling one's own blood on the altar spares them the plants' wrath. What I Changed: I mixed in the lovecraftian horror with references to Norse mythology. The moonbeast mentioned that it existed since before Ymir's bones set into mountains and repeatedly referred to Midgard as a corpse-world. I cut the briar encounter due to time constraints. The spire itself is a spacious place, the home of the Jomsking. Amid the roaring fireplace and luxurious surroundings lie the macabre idol of the Dark Gods and the chained, tortured form of Njal Magnusson. The Jomsking, a morbidly obese man named Ût the Fat, is a human cannibal who has been feasting on the flesh of Njal while keeping him alive. What follows is combat with the Jomsking and his rock troll bodyguard. If the idol is destroyed, Ût shrivels down to his frail true age (100 plus years) and suffers big stat penalties. The "dark god" in question is the Oinodaemon, which a Knowledge Religion check can reveal. What I Changed: Ût the Fat's stat block is a level 10 Fighter of Large size category with the Broken Soul template. He's quite good in melee combat, but his Reflex and Will saves are awful: +5/+3. Our party witch would have turned him into anti-climactic mincemeat, so instead I replaced him with a fire giant and a pair of hell hounds. The battle took place in a luxurious hot spring, and one of the pools the Jomsking used as a two-way scrying filter to speak with the Emperor of the Huuns. The Emperor was less than pleased about his organization's failure in Estenfird, but the Jomsking happily announced that he sabotaged the Gat-Hrolf peace process. Presenting the form of a caged Njal, the Emperor's mood lightened. None of the PCs recognized him, as the continent of Libynos is virtually unknown in the Northlands. During the battle the Jomsking used his rock throwing ability to strike at the lids of hot tubs, spilling over gallons of scalding water as an area-effect attack. Once Njal is rescued, the PCs can loot the room for some sweet magical items, and the Jomsking himself bears a unique crown. The crown grants +2 to the wearer's AC, attack rolls, damage rolls, and immunity to cold environmental conditions. Jomsvikings within 60 feet gain +2 to attack rolls and saves vs fear, but the crown's only weakness is that it is immediately recognizable in the Northlands and imposes a -5 penalty on social skills among the non-Jomsviking population (but +5 Intimidate). I don't know if the rock troll counts as a Jomsviking, but this 60 foot radius buff is kind of wasted given there are no Jomsvikings in this encounter and the organization cannot be taken over by the PCs as part of this Adventure Path. The PCs must escape Jomsburg, and if they were particularly loud in fighting a warband is heading up the spire. The adventure suggests various means of escape like tying tapestries together to make an impromptu rope or using the Riddle of Stones to teleport. Although at this levels PCs with spellcasting potential can fly, teleport, turn invisible, summon monsters, and all manner of means of getting back to their ship safely. In fact in my own games the Nûklander witch teleported Sveni and Njal while the party members left behind leaped out of the tower and made a mad dash to the Bloody Stones. The sail back to Trotheim is uneventful, and just in time for the wedding. The parents are happy, and a grand celebration is underway. The PCs receive their weight in arm-rings (15,000 hacksilver for medium PC, 5,000 for Small, and 60,000 for Large) and as a bonus, the Gats and Hrolfs show the PCs the contents of their familial vaults' greatest treasures. Each party member can choose a magic item of their choice. If only Sveni was rescued the magic item list is smaller. But there's one person who doesn't like a happy ending, and that's Old Meg. The Daughter of Skuld makes her way into the feast hall as an overpowering divine force which subconsciously encourages people to step aside: quote:"Oh, dearies, you failed to invite me, your grandmothers’ grandmother to this wedding feast, yet you both sprang, many generations back, from this shriveled womb. You, who have not just the blood of heroes, but the blood of gods in your veins, yes, and the child that already grows in fair Sveni’s womb — for they were not as chaste as they should be on that long trip across the whale road from the Jomsburg, now were they? — will one day be not just Køenig, but High Køenig and ruler of all the Northlands. That is a tale for other days, though, a tale of battle-dew and bone-white ribs basking on foreign shores. Fun fact: Sveni's infidelity is never remarked upon by anyone, nor plays a role in future adventures. It sounds like this occurred during the PCs' travel back to Trotheim, but there's no opportunity for them to find out if Sveni's dallying with one of the crew. I'm thinking that this is here to paint Old Meg as a vindictive passive-aggressive woman who loves to hear herself talk. She disappears in a flash of light, and the mood is totally soured. The adventure ends in media res, with NS6: Plague in Trotheim taking place next gaming session. Alternate Endings: If only Sveni was saved, the Gats are happy but the Hrolfs slip away quietly; Njal will be murdered and his head and genitals will be mailed to Magnus Hrolfsblood. The PCs will earn the enmity of the Hrolf clan for failing to save him. There is still a feast instead of a wedding, and the Gats are hit harder by the plague in the next adventure. The Hrolfs are accused with claims of black magic and withcraft flying about, but full war is stymied for a time only due to the Gats' forces being much smaller from disease. If the PCs cannot save either Sveni or Njal and return empty-handed, they will be branded as cowards and failures, unwelcome in all but the most wicked lands. Wherever they go people spit on and throw garbage at them. Rumors swirl around that the Hrolfs paid the party off to not find Sveni, and Jarl Ljot Gatson does everything in his power to ruin their reputations. This almost sounds like a Non-Standard Game Over, but the adventure suggests that curing the epidemic in the next adventure can earn them redemption. Additionally NS10: the Broken Shieldwall assumes that Njal and Sveni survived and wedded to produce an heir, but if not then other nameless heirs take their place which kind of defeats the purpose of this adventure IMO. Concluding Thoughts: Raven Banners Over Gatland is a bit railroady and feels artificially enforced in spite of potential magical infiltration. The moon-beast's riddle is good if not for unnecessary world-lore, and the Isle of Jomsburg is appropriately dark and foreboding. The encounters have a diversity of monsters with a more overtly supernatural flair. Its largest weaknesses are the opening scene and the huge amount of Jomsviking enemies during the sea travel section. Join us next time as our heroes set out on a quest to cure the Plague in Trotheim (NS6)!
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Apr 6, 2018 07:42
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DAD LOST MY IPOD posted:I think the implication isn’t that she was unfaithful, it’s that she hopped in bed with Njal before they were officially married (which would explain why nobody cares) Yeah, for some reason I read "chaste" as "faithful." In that case Old Meg is just telling unnecessary details about other peoples' sex lives. I realized that in hindsight, the dying speech rules mean that the backstory accounts of people like Jasella can be learned by the PCs as they narrate their lives before their timely death. I am going to admit that I never did this in my campaign; partly because it feels unfamiliar, and partly because I don't have time to write flowery verses for every BBEG. Although that would be totes cool to do in an ideal campaign.
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Apr 6, 2018 21:07
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NS6: Plague in Trotheim  Unlike the last few adventures which usually had 6 to 9 months of interim time, Plague in Trotheim begins immediately after the end of the last one. It is suited for levels 10th through 12th. So far in the Northlands Saga we're 8 adventures in out of 12, but only 3 years out of the 16 year timeline. I guess after all the huge problems the PCs cleaned up, it's taking time for enemies to respawn. So at this point in the Saga the low-magic chastity belt comes off and we start getting into High Fantasy territory. We've got valkyries, gods speaking through the mouths of godi, mythical disease-curing trees, dragons, kaiju trolls, and demonic prostitutes...wait, I didn't mean that kind of fantasy! This adventure has some backstory that isn't exactly revealed through normal play. See, Wotan saw a dire premonition in the Northlands' future involving Hengrid Donarsdottir which can threaten the realms of Asgard and Midgard. The vision was incomplete, but he knew that great heroes were needed to save or defeat her. Sadly he couldn't find any heroes fitting this description, so he bade Loki to come up with an appropriate test to separate the wheat from the chaff of legendary mortals. Loki being Loki, he came up with the plan to spread a divine plague which could only be cured by the leaves of the legendary Ettielweiss Tree...which he also sent his agent to destroy. The Ettielweiss Tree's power also prevents the coming of the Fimbulwinter, a years-long unnatural winter which is also one of Ragnarök's precursors and thus the opportunity to replace Wotan at the head of the pantheon.  Loki figured that the best way to spread the plague would be to place a plage-ridden kiss on several trusted sexy devils known as lilins. They went to Trotheim and spread the plague as an STD by posing as prostitutes. With the arrival of many newcomers for the wedding, business was booming. Now before you ask how only six women manage to screw thousands of people into the plague, the adventure has an explanation for this. Being magical it quickly mutated from an STD to an airborne sickness as the primary vector. The plague's effect is such that it is a fast-acting wasting virus that eats away at muscles and tears away at the membrane of the lungs. Due to the weakening of strength, it quickly became known as the Straw Death. What I Changed: The "mutates into airborne virus" seems like a means of maintaining suspension of disbelief, but the initial STD nature and seductive devils (who also are fought in a brothel) felt too much like the writer's masturbation fantasy. I still had devilish handmaidens enacting Loki's will, but they had a role more akin to "chemical weapon scientists." They initially tried to make the disease carried in the stomachs of cattle animals to transmit via consumption of many feasts, but that was not quick enough so they used magic and natural law to mutate it into a waterborne vector. They also used magical disguises to pose as false godi and spread misinformation about the plague's origin counteract the legitimate godis' prophecy. The PCs encountered the handmaidens not in town, but later on in the Andøvan Mountains. Our adventure begins one day after Old Meg's declaration. Throughout the city divine spellcasters and nonspellcasting godi alike all proclaim the same message: quote:Pestilence creeps the sleeping streets. This can even trigger in the middle of sleep or combat and repeats on an hourly basis, and if no PC fits the above description the one with the highest Wisdom score will do. A Will save can suppress it, but otherwise imposes the dazed condition as their body is more or less taken over. This is the work of the Æsir and Vanir spreading hints for the cure: the Eittelweiss Tree. One week after the outbreak, the city is in shambles: trade has fallen, dead bodies are collected in ox carts, a huge pyre burns outside fed by corpses, people keep out of contact from even trusted friends and neighbors, and families hire masked men known as "mercykillers" to euthanize loved ones. Barring the PCs there are only four characters in the city capable of magically curing disease, and they're being stretched to their limits. The party, along with other prominent citizens, is summoned to the Thing where Trotheim's Jarl Gyrthyr makes a statement. He believes that the plague is from Hel, and that the godi's prophecy must be a clue. He appoints the PCs as temporary members of the city guard and to investigate a cure. What I Changed: I made the jarl a woman named Annette to place more women as prominent NPCs in the adventure. A City Under Siege  The first chapter of this adventure is a series of 8 linked encounters, 7 of which can be played in any order. They are meant to showcase the desperation of the city. A few of them are rather standard (a distraught woman who refuses to give up her love ones' corpses to the ox cart and risks getting sick herself), a torch-bearing mob angry at the Gods for forsaking them and causing destruction in anger, a desperate father tying his wife and youngest sons to a pyre as a sacrifice to the gods to stave off the plague, and a fire elemental coming to life upon the pyre outside the city. But three bare special mention: The first one involves a pair of mercykillers being refused entry into a building by a spear-wielding huscarl. The pair were paid to put down a pair of young women, but mixed up the address and are at risk of killing the wrong people. The adventure mentions that this occupation is seen as regrettable yet honorable work in the city. PCs who take a diplomatic result can put a stop to things and investigate. The huscarl and women inside (the wife and oldest daughter of an absent jarl) show no signs of the disease. If no fighting breaks out the huscarl thanks the party with a greater horn of blasting with one use left, while the mercykillers reward the PCs with silver arm-rings...and go on down the street to the correct address. If the party doesn't intervene, Olaf kills one of the mercykillers before being killed himself along with the two women inside. What I Changed: Hoo boy. Where to begin. I noticed that my gaming group was becoming uncomfortable with this so I sped up the encounter, although the witch used an enchantment to make the mercykillers wander off aimlessly. Personally speaking this whole encounter is kinda screwed up. Regardless of how you feel about euthanasia IRL, the mercykillers' work is not at the personal request of those suffering but family members taking the ultimate decision into their own hands. The adventure expects the nonviolent situation to be "oh hey wrong address" and no opportunity for pointing out that it should be in the hands of those suffering how to die as a moral diplomatic option. The other notable encounter involves a group of Nûklander elves who Kidnapped a Godi known as Biornólfr of the Well. Jarl Gyrthyr approaches the PCs in a panic, asking them to find the godi as a first priority. The elves did this to demand that the priest cure their patriarch (who contracted the Straw Death) as well as any family members who will fall ill. As Biornólfr burned all his remove disease spells for the day, he's not going to be released anytime soon. The godi and elves are holed up in a longhouse in town. There's an awful lot of Nûk here: 14 combatants (a mixture of sorcerers, barbarians, and archers) and 30 noncombatant women and children. What I Changed: I had this as the final encounter in town, and made it so that Biornólfr of the Well was the one who revealed the secret of the Eitwelweiss Tree to the PCs. I also allowed the PCs to negotiate with the Nûklander elves before actual combat, with the added complication of an angry mob outside the house barely held in check by city watch guards. The witch, having recognized the voice of one of her family members inside (who she was not on good terms with) opted to nonviolently disperse the mob outside. The rest of the PCs snuck into the longhouse via a chimney. Although combat started, the party used non-lethal damage and eventually talked some sense into the elves via the school of hard knocks. The last encounter takes place when the Jarl triangulates the source of the plague with the help of a Monrovian diviner wizard. It is at a Brothel known as Jurda's Roof: quote:Jurda’s Roof (area 9) is well known in Trotheim as a brothel that has existed for many years. Some of the PCs may have even visited it in the past, though if so, they have fortunately not done so since the plague first appeared. It is easily located in one of the poorer sections of town near the southern end of Trotheim Island. I prefer to let my Player Characters imply their own sexuality, thank you very much. The interior of Jurda's Roof seems...normalish if a bit off. The diseased harpist mindlessly plays an off-key tune again and again, and the landlord counts the same stacks of hacksilver again and again. The lilins continue infecting clients the old-fashioned way as a group of men wait their turns in the common room. In fact the employees are harmless zombies animated by the devils. The lilins will fight to the death, being too arrogant to think mere mortals are a challenge. Aside from the +1 longswords the devils carry the landlord has a potion of gaseous form, a wand of see invisibility, and a scroll with a 9th-level spell on it (Astral Projection). Now how did a mere landlord get his hands on that?! You might be wondering if any of these encounters were supposed to provide clues to the Eittelweiss, right? Nope! In fact, the revelation occurs via actions completely outside of the PCs' decisions. Erik the Wotanson and actual descendant of the god himself, sacrificed his last good eye in exchange for wisdom and received a vision.  At the next assembly of the Thing he explains how he saw a vision of an immense tree, with the walls of Trotheim at its roots. A great stormed swept through as it bloomed, causing flower blossoms to spread about. The town turned normal again as the flowers blew away, a new sense of peace. Erik, the Jarl, and the rest of the Thing feel that this tree is the key, and legends speak of the location of its vale somewhere in the Andøvan Mountains. After gaining a map the PCs are sent on a quest to find the Eittelweiss Vale. What I Changed: I excised the brothel encounter, and had Biornólfr of the Well be the deliverer of the prophecy. Instead of at the Thing he revealed it directly to the PCs after they rescued him by performing a divination spell in a pool of water (graciously provided by the shield of the party's new dual-shield Fighter PC). I altered the vision so that the PCs saw it directly rather than being told, and made it so that the Ettielweiss fell among masses of warring battalions. When the battle cleared, a dwarf dug up from the ground like a mole and took some of the tree's scattered seeds. The backstory in my games was that there was an Ettielweiss Tree in Midgard, but its legendary healing properties caused all manner of people to war over its ownership. The dwarves in their wisdom took the last seeds to safeguard its legacy in their kingdom of Nidavellir. The PCs learned of this and the location of the Vale via Knowledge checks and folklore. Among the Andøvans  The second chapter's a relatively short one. It's a somewhat linear progression up the mountains with some set-piece encounters. If the PCs try to use magical flight to more easily traverse the path, a flock of continually respawning perytons attack the group every day. The adventure says that "it should soon become apparent that flying in the mountains is not going to help the PCs reach their goal any sooner or more safely" yet perytons are rather weak straightforward enemies who won't pose much of a threat to a party at this level. The first encounter involves a village whose inhabitants are now fetch undead possessed by hellwasp swarms as part of Loki's machinations. The undead try to scare the PCs off with a dire message of doom and gloom how the gods are not their friends. The second encounter involves a herd of onyx deer territorial of a meadow the party must pass through, and the third encounter is a lead-up to a miniature dungeon. A two-headed cyclops known as the thrall collector is out hunting for slaves with some common giant minions, and figures the PCs would make for great unpaid labor. The thrall collector has his own 4 room dungeon full of more common giants and a captive cloud giant woman who is implied to have been raped (although the adventure does not state this overtly). If the PCs unshackle her she fights the rest of the giants with them. She will visit the party a month after the adventure's completion to grant them a stone mined from thunderhead clouds worth 60,000 hacksilver. What I Changed: I had the hellwasp swarms be under the control of the lillins. One of the swarms flew off after sustaining heavy damage to report back, and the PCs followed it. Another fight broke out with the lillins, but the PCs interrogated one of them and learned of Loki's plans. The thrall collector and the cave lair was excised for time constraints as well as being a bit samey in the makeup of the giants (HP bags, melee attacks). The Ettielweiss Vale  The Ettielweiss Vale is not on Midgard, but in fact blooms within an extradimensional storage space accessible only via a gate of dwarven make. Skrymir, a titan guardian, holds the key to the dwarven tree gate and will only let those deemed worthy pass. The PCs will notice the massive giant's presence long before they see him, as he's fond of playing loud yet pleasant melodies on his 70 foot tall harp. Fortunately he's one of the Chaotic Good ones and is quite happy for new company. He asks the PCs about their past adventures with compliments at the ready as well as the rules of the tests. Each of the tests may be undertaken by one PC at a time, but if they fail another PC may take their place. They are allowed full use of any magical items during the test, and can use any buff spells before the tests proper. But spells cast during the test count as cheating, earning a slam attack to knock some sense into their heads. For the first and third tests he uses the heal spell to remove the negative effects (barring the curses). Winning a test on the first try causes the titan to grant a magical item as a reward (a frozen tear from his eye which is a staff of frost, a piece of jewelry in his beard that holds spells, and a wand of fireballs plucked from his ear) along with Experience Points. But if a PC fails they suffer a curse which is only lifted via powerful magic or curing the Straw Death (withered limbs reducing speed, becoming mute, or having their alignment changed respectively for each test). The first is the Test of Trades where a PC and Skrymir exchange two blows each, one at a time and taking turns. If the PC is still up, or the titan falls unconscious, the party wins. But if the PC is reduced to 0 hit points or less, he loses. The next test, the Test of Wits, requires the PC to answer 2 riddles: quote:Riddle #1: By nature solitary, scarred by spear and wounded by sword, I am weary of battle. I see the face of war, and fight hateful enemies and sometimes even friends. In the midst of the spear-din all crave my company but will eventually abandon me. I am the boon companion of jarls and hirthmenn alike, yet I hold no hope of help coming to me in the battle before I’m eventually done to death. The Test of Cups is a good old-fashioned drinking challenge, save it is magical Elysian mead quaffed by titans and gods, and both contestants take gulps from Skrymir's giant-sized drinking horn. Each draught requires a Fortitude and a Will save, with the former save causing 1d20 wisdom damage on a failure and the latter causing a random alignment change. If the PC finishes drinking two draughts while remaining conscious, or Skrymir falls unconscious from Wisdom damage, the PC wins. What I Changed: Role-playing a mute character is quite a challenge, so when the witch failed the second test I had her only be able to speak in Giant which only the troll-blooded barbarian/rogue understood. PCs who pass all three tests are given a six-foot-long key, but otherwise they must steal it from the titan. Given that titans have constant True Seeing and +33 Perception along with every powerful stats, you should probably tone down those features in case of a loss. As for the gate, it leads into an extradimensional demiplane. The entryway follows a long carved tunnel of dwarven make and the only time in the adventure path where being a dwarf provides an in-universe benefit: free success at a Knowledge check to recognize its make! The tunnel ends into a beautiful, vibrant valley which oddly has sunlight. But a massive tree over 500 feet high dominates the view: the Ettielweiss. Unfortunately the tree is under attack by Loki's forces: a pair of underworld dragons digging up the roots, 40 moss trolls with adamantine saws cutting off the branches, and three large patches of a supernatural black mold known as Helsmuth eating through the trunk. Each of these three challenges is handled separately. The dragons are straightforward in taking out, but the helsmuth is immune to all damage save fire and cold (the staff and wand from Skrymir are perfect for this, as is Fellfrost) or a remove disease spell. However, damage causes the mold to explode into a 100 cubic feet of spores that cause Constitution damage and a long-term stun condition (4d4 rounds). The adventure also notes that the fey known as mites find Helsmut a delicacy, are immune to its effects, and can destroy 1 patch per minute. These creatures can be summoned via Summon Nature's Ally I, but the adventure provides no means of finding this last weakness out either in the adventure proper or by Knowledge checks. Finally, the 40 moss trolls are scattered about the tree which requires climbing to find. They do not fight the party all at once, instead swarming several at a time every round. For once the adventure realizes how much this would be a logistical nightmare to run straight and instead represents the enemy horde via automatic swarm damaged based upon the number involved. Unfortunately the adventure still has killing them the old-fashioned way of one at a time or a bunch via area of effect spells. There's also detailed environmental description, where a falling PC can lessen damage by grabbing passing branches in time or how the foliage can be used for cover. The trolls retreat once 25 of their number are put down. After saving the tree, the PCs are visited by a valkyrie astride a many-legged horse to congratulate the party, telling them of how even in Valhalla the PCs' fame has spread. She gives them an urn filled with the tears of Freyja to restore the trees' wounds and make it whole again. But the interaction doesn't last long as she must go back to her home plane. The urns however are valuable gifts, and one is a decanter of endless water. Gathering the blossoms from the tree is trivial now. What I Changed: I was kind of miffed that the dwarves never played any sort of role in this setting beyond that one gate, so I had it so that the portal was an extradimensional way to Nidavellir, a realm beneath Yggdrasil's roots and home of the dwarves. I was keen on wondrous descriptions: a seemingly endless black sky from which mountain-sized roots hung, with villages and castles built upon them and giant branching leaves. The glint of Níðhöggr's teeth could be seen in the background as vast expanses of ivory white chewing on roots. The villages were home to dwarves, who lived and worked much like people in Midgard save their fauna was distinct. Giant beetles pulled yokes to till the soil, and blacksmiths pulled metal quills out of giant porcupine-like monsters to fashion into bladed weapons. The party was escorted to the king's throne room, which floor was a giant clockwork mechanism portraying the visages of the gods and famous figures. The figures were on a path all counting down to the foreboding landscape of Ragnarök at the room's edge. The King of the Dwarves was willing to grant the PCs leaves from the Ettielweiss no strings attached before one of his advisers informed him of an immediate attack upon the castle and Tree by shapeshifted agents of Loki. I cut out the part with the Helsmuth and focused on the fight with (fewer in number) trolls and dragons. One of the dragons killed Aluki, causing our witch to fly into a murderous rage. Desperate, she brought her friend back from the dead after making a pact with her patron, who asked a favor: "when you kill a god, let me ascend to his place." She accepted, and although nobody but her at the time knew of this pact the magical power was for all to see. The King of the Dwarves was aware of the taint of dark magic and although grateful for them saving the Tree, he forbid the PCs from ever setting foot in Nidavellir again. At this point I felt was a good closing time for the adventure and excised the next encounters (save kaiju troll, which I incorporated into NS7). The PCs have to make their way back to Trotheim. Loki is now desperate and pulling out all the stops. The first encounter are six blue dracolisks hunting them down, and the second is a valkyrie who fell for Loki's deception and is going to steal the blossom. She is disguised as the one the PCs met in the Vale, but if they see through her ruse she engages them in combat. If she gets the blossoms, she will mean to go to Trotheim, but forget and instead flies east into the mountains with one last chance for the PCs to catch up to her. The final encounter is a nine-headed Jotund Troll rampaging towards Trotheim whose quaking footsteps can be felt long before it's seen. The guards cowardly abandoned the walls and only the PCs can put a stop to its warpath. After the troll's defeated, the PCs must find a way to spread the blossoms' power. This is not via a skill check but rather several suggestions. The Ettielweiss' power is such that plucked petals regenerate and just about anything plausible can work: sprinkling them in the town's water supply, doling them out like communion wafers, or even burning them in incense for those to breath in the fumes. In 2 days' time the plague's influence will be gone for good. Erik Wotanson makes his way, blind and accompanied by an unkindness of ravens, with an ornate box containing rewards for the PCs: Hurguð the Piercer of Scales and Sleipt the Awakener. The first item is a +3 adamantine distance seeking returning dragon-bane spear (that's a mouthful). The second is a ring which allows the wielder to cast meld into stone at will, but if they slay a flying monster of 10 Hit Dice or more its true powers awakens as a ring of elemental command (earth). The PCs are hailed as heroes although celebrations are muted on account of the many deaths suffered. To amend this loss of life Wotan blesses Storstrøm Vale with an abundance of herds and crops for the next 7 years. Concluding Thoughts: I have mixed feelings about this adventure. On the one hand when I personally ran it it had lots of exciting moments, particularly defending the Ettielweiss Tree, saving the godi taken hostage, and Skrymir's tests. On the other hand, I had to change parts of the structure, and the opportunity to travel outside of Midgard was kind of a letdown in the default adventure when the plane was an otherwise featureless Vale. The first chapter in Trotheim has unlinked encounters and some problematic elements (mercykillers and fiendish prostitutes) and the overall set-up feels more at home in the Forgotten Realms than a sword-and-sorcery low magic setting. But that all pales in comparison to the next adventure NS7: the Return of Hallbjorn, which I more or less had to rewrite from the ground up.
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Apr 7, 2018 09:59
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NS7: The Return of Hallbjorn  This adventure is suited for levels 11th through 13th. I'm not going to be doing What I Changed notes for this one. All of that will be in a post of its own, as I more or less had to rewrite this module from the ground up. Why? Two words: Skraeling trolls. After saving Trotheim from a dire fate, the PCs have 2 years of leisure time and by now are famous throughout the whole Northlands if they aren't already. But since their rising days from Vengeance of the Long Serpent, Hallbjorn's been busy. The former captain of said ship is very much alive, and not because of resurrection magic either. After being knocked off his ship, he caught hold of a lone kayak once manned by the Ulnat warrior Kelvani by sheer luck. It had enough supplies to last him for a bit, and the brave Viking paddled using the currents and the position of the stars in the sky. Eventually his kayak came upon the shores of a warm new land known as the Oestyrn Isles, also home to stranded Northlanders who originally meant to sail north to Estenfird 70 years ago. From their view, this colony of "Nieuland" was a fertile paradise of mild winters where old clan grudges were forgotten. But Hallbjorn still longs for home, and with a newly-built ship he sets off for the Northlands. It is a warm fine day in Halfstead when Hallbjorn's ship comes into harbor. The sighting of his face causes a stir and it's not long before news reaches the PC's ears. Hallbjorn is more than happy to see his old friends from half a decade ago, and just as eager to hear of their many exploits. In a game of one-upmanship he tells them and everyone within earshot of the land of Nieuland and its many untamed lands and lost treasures. Tales grow wildly out of proportion, claiming that the legendary Viking of the Henrikson household slain a dragon, married a princess, and many other wild tales. Naturally the Køenig of Hordaland (now 14 years old) is interested in arranging a meeting with Hallbjorn and the PCs at his hall. During the feasting the party can make skill checks to separate truth from fiction of the wild tales. Eventually Hallbjorn tells the truth of things to the Køenig's mother and the PCs: a group of thrydreg trolls the colonists call Skraelings (term for "barbarian or "foreigner" in Nørsk), long indigenous to the island, have been attacking the people of Nieuland. Hallbjorn fears that they are massing in numbers great enough which they won't be able to withstand. The regent mentions that she secured a deal with him: that Hordaland will help settle the new land via trade agreements and with grandiose plans to enrich Halfstead even further. The adventure points out a minigame system in the adventure's appendix for PCs seeking to become jarls, along with Regent Gudrid promising 10,000 hacksilver as a forward loan. Hallbjorn knows of a secret fast route to the Oestryn Isles, but all the other colonists have to use Halfstead's trading ports. The expedition takes a year of planning, and during this time the Isles see a new influx of colonists. Unfortunately word has spread to many ears, including the Jomsvikings who begin making raids on colonist and skraeling settlements alike. What's more, a monstrous shaman known as Half-Face is stirring the skraelings into a larger warband. This, combined with the strained resources, is enough to push the skraelings over the edge. quote:It is only a matter of time before they come into contact with the Northlanders and bloody war rips through the forests. Only the timely intervention of the PCs can spare the fledgling colonies from the dual threats of the Jomsvikings and the skraelings. Dual threats you say? Guess how many set-piece encounters involve Native American trolls? 17. Guess how many involve Jomsvikings? 1, and it is optional. So, where to start? Although the skraeling's stat blocks are mostly Chaotic Neutral, they are the villains of this adventure. Besides one NPC there is no resource or option to broker a peace deal, unite against the Jomsvikings, or even convince Hallbjorn and the colonists that their expanding settlements are only going to make things worse. Even the boxed text is biased: quote:Nieuland is the home of an evil and secretive race, an age-old enemy of the Men of the North, the thrydregs. Unlike the thrydregs of the Northlands, these trollish folk descended from survivors of a once-great island nation far to the south now sunken beneath the waves of the Great Ocean who came northward after the fall of their nation in mighty ocean-going canoes. This wandering people found the Oestryn Isles and settled there, only to discover the waters around the islands already the home of many clans of trow. The trow and southerners warred for many years, decimating both sides, but ultimately the trow overcame the newcomers and enslaved them, creating a new breed of thrydregs unique to the Oestryn Isles. The Northlander colonists who have encountered them call them skraelings, which means simply “foreigner” or “barbarian” in the Nørsk tongue, though it has come to be identified with this specific race of thrydregs to the Nieulander colonists. So are they Evil, or are they Chaotic Neutral? Upon the Transborean Current  The first chapter is a linear ocean voyage. The Oestryn Islands are 7,200 miles east of the North Sea, which would ordinarily take 100 days but Hallbjorn's secret Transborean Current shortens this to 81 days. In addition to a colony of glowing jellyfish which the sailors take for a good omen, there is a set-piece encounter with 5 coral giant scavengers. Later on, the crew briefly catches an ominous sighting of a Jomsviking ship before it mysteriously disappears. Finally, the fleet comes under attack by 11 trow (aquatic trolls) astride a dragon turtle. The Colony of Nieuland  This section of the adventure is an open-world Colonialist Sandbox. There's a host of stand-alone encounters and settlements. The western colony of Kasternack is where Hallbjorn's fleet makes first landing, and the PCs will gain a warm welcome by the local jarl. The laws are different: land is free for the taking as long as nobody else already laid a claim to it. The adventure encourages the use of the Jarl mini-game rules to encourage settlement building and for the GM to use existing encounters and ones of his own design. In terms of locations, there are 19, one of which is Hammer Cleft Mountain and covered in its own chapter. Not all of them are notable or interesting enough to include in this review, so I'll focus on a few. C, G, K, and P are skraeling villages, a few of which have Native American-style names (Beaver Lodge, Running Wolf Village) with description of the number of warriors and noncombatants who include children (who have no stats thank god). D is an abandoned camp which has the corpses of people tortured and nailed to the trees by Jomsvikings (which is in fact the title image of this adventure). The massacre site can give some clues to the identity of the attackers. H is a pool where a green hag and her dire crocodile pets seek to ambush boats and swimmers, while J is the ruins of a Northlander village where the Jomsvikings set up camp. They are a third party in this adventure, equally hostile to the colonists and skraelings alike and are not too fond of the PCs' sabotaging of their island fortress. L is a hill home to several huge monstrous statues which can animate into stone golems. If the PCs attacked the skraeling villages mentioned above and Half-Face is still alive, then he'll lead a war party to attack and kidnap several Northlander farmers to perform a human sacrifice here. If he is not stopped, the golems will animate and he'll command them to besiege Kasternack. Half-Face will not fight to the death, instead dimension dooring back to Hammer Cleft Mountain. O is home to a sasquatch family and their young. They are not eager to start combat, instead using traps and howls to frighten anyone away. If the PCs rescued a sasquatch from a viper vine (one of the random encounters) the family will look on cautiously. The rescued one's among them, and out of respect they gift the PCs fresh game, water, and a masterwork shortbow. They can be allies of the PCs if a communication channel is opened (they only speak their own tongue), fighting the skraelings if necessary yet not a sustained war, and can show them a secret passage in area Q to ambush the camp up there. So what I'm getting is: Sasquatches good. Indians bad. Q is a valley home to a camp of skraeling warriors guarding the trail to the Highvale's lakes and rivers. R is home to an overlook containing a beautiful sight of the Highvale, a set of interconnected lakes and rivers home to many skraelings which is beyond the scope of this adventure. Giant beavers can be fought here and have their pelts skinned for hacksilver, but Survival checks show that a large number of skraelings headed up to Hammer Cleft Mountain, area S. Hammer Cleft Mountain  This oddly-shaped mountain is a dormant volcano long regarded as sacred to the skraeling tribes. We get a write-up of Half-Face's backstory. Basically he's a dorvae fiend with Wizard levels (Illusionist) disguised as a thyrdreg troll. Half-Face gained popularity among the skraelings by passing himself off as a great prophet, insisting that recent maladies are divine punishments for tolerating the presence of the colonists. All so he can gradually build a miniature kingdom in this tiny corner of the world with himself as head. Half-Face and the bulk of his forces lair in a fortress known as Smoky Lake Crannog which is on an artificial island surrounded by the crater's lake. The trail leading up to the mountain and the surrounding lake has a few monstrous encounters: undead skraelings, gnasher lizards, and some raggoths. The crannog has a large contingent of skraeling warriors and shamans, 5 biclopses, and 7 wolf-like raggoths to act as hunters. The adventure mentions the patrols and troop placements of the enemies around the fortress depending on whether or not the alarm has been raised. If Half-Face dies the chain of command passes down to his shamans, and if they and half the forces die the remaining skraelings flee into the Highvale. Some of the rooms hold monsters in captivity such as giant assassins bugs and a rogue froghemoth which lairs in a lagoon the inhabitants give a wide berth. However, there may be one person in this complex willing to reason with the PCs. A blind skraeling shaman by the name of Gray Bear is not too fond of Half-Face's ascension and has an inkling at his origins. Although not a fan of the colonists, he is undecided as to whether his new leader is ultimately helpful or harmful to his people. Gray Bear has an invisible pipefox companion to whisper into his ear if the PCs try to take advantage of his lack of vision. If the PCs remain nonviolent, Gray Bear tells them his suspicions and makes a deal: if the PCs kill Half-Face but spare any other skraelings they meet, the shaman will give them some healing potions as well as the dorvae's personal quarters. After which he'll dive into the lake and make his way to the Highvale.  Half-Face's personal lair is high security. A plank covering twilight mushrooms is triggered to smoosh them and release poisonous spores. This trap also alerts him to intruders, and his secret door closet is home to an adamantine cobra construct. Half-Face will reveal his true form to the PCs, exposing him as that of the Sceadugengan and forcing a Will save which stuns instead of shakens. Half-Face has quite a few good spells, which he'll but to use if he has time to buff himself before combat: Blur, mirror image, invisibility as self-enhancement, then black tentacles as a readied action on the next person who passes through his doorway. If the PCs are still alive, he'll follow up with save-or-suck spells such as feeblemind, phantasmal killer, and rainbow pattern. Like the encounter on the hill, he'll use dimension door to retreat if he suffers enough damage. The adventure's conclusion is open-ended. If Half-Face is dead, the skraelings give up their war against the colonists and withdraw into the Highvale. The PCs gain great reputations among Nieuland, but the adventure intones this is not the end of troubles. The Jomsvikings intend to send out more fleets to the Oestryn Isles even if their initial raiders were killed. If Gray Bear survived, he'll take control over the tribes, and Half-Face if he survives is now an outcast with no political power. The colonists will further encroach into the lands of Highvale and beyond. quote:The PCs can be involved in waging a war of conquest against the indigenous tribes or even ensuring that future contact with the skraelings are not hostile if they’d rather engender peaceful relations with the natives of the Oestryn Isles. Whichever way such future contact between the cultures might go, the PCs can be at the forefront of determining its course.  What a hard choice. On the one hand, I can re-enact an historical ethnic cleansing of a fantasy-coded real world group still suffering the effects of colonialism in modern day North America. Or we can not do that. Rise of a Jarl Minigame: So a PC who wants to become a jarl must fill out several requirements: they must have Leadership feat, must be at least 9th level in a martial class (or bard) and have no levels in a primary spellcasting class (unusual powers are scary), be 50% human, have 50,000 hacksilver worth of land, and a longship and crew worth at least 10,000 hacksilver. Once these are met, the PC jarl may make Diplomacy or Intimidate checks once a month to attract huscarls and freemen, who must be paid regularly for their services or else have them disperse. A jarl who risks losing his household may lose his followers and assets, and must make a Charisma check to hold onto them. Penalties are imposed for a variety of reasons, but a check may be bypassed upon a successful related quest or leading a financially lucrative raid. This is simplified, but it sounds like there's a lot of complications and difficulties in becoming a jarl? So what are the benefits? Only one. The huscarls have at least 3 levels in one of the appropriate jarl-friendly classes and may accompany the PC on adventures. But at this point we're 12th to 14th level and such characters will be of minimal use in combat. Concluding Thoughts: Even barring the racist overtones of reducing Native Americans into monsters for loot and EXP, The Return of Hallbjorn has a lot of flaws. One, Hallbjorn himself does not play a large role beyond the initial opening. Second is the fact that it seems that the writing process took a sudden left turn: the Jomsviking threat was initially played up in the text and even featured their handiwork on the cover art, but then were reduced to a single optional encounter. Unlike Raven Banners Over Gatland or Plague in Trotheim there is not a sense of impending doom to spur PCs onward. The open world sandbox may be interesting, but the vast majority of locations are single encounters with nothing in the way of dungeons or complexes to explore. Although there's an impetus of "we must save the colonists," this adventure is very greed-driven whereas prior ones just as strongly played on PCs' possible altruistic intentions. But what gets me most of all is the fact that Ken Spencer was the same writer for this as the adventures in Ulnataland. Comparing them is so jarring that it feels like there was an entirely different writer for this part. The Ulnat were fantasy counterpart indigenous Americans, but had several things going for them. They were human, the major conflict was a civil war with a demonic cult and not the people as a whole, they were just as willing to fight for their freedom than let themselves be rescued, only the cultists had levels in barbarian (most Ulnat were Rangers), and the backstory of Heroes' Rock shown that they had a story of legendary figures in the Northlands Saga alongside the more familiar Nordic heroes. Join us next time for NS8: the Hallburning, where the PCs must bring to justice a group of cowardly murderers and unmask a conspiracy in the making! Edit: For what it's worth, Ken Spencer commented on the review on another site about this adventure: quote:I normally do not comment on let's read or reviews of my work, but I feel there is something that needs to be brought up. I wrote the settings guide and NS 0-4. By the time of NS-5+ I was heavily involved with my work on Rocket Age and other projects. The rest of the Saga was completed based off of my notes and outlines by Greg Vaughn and Kevin Wright, thus the change in tone and style. Partially this is because of the break in time between working on the earlier part of the series and when work on the compilation book was started. Freelancer have to take the gigs they can, which sometimes precludes doing the gigs they want. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 03:52 on Apr 8, 2018 |
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Apr 8, 2018 02:56
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NS8: the Hallburning  This adventure is scaled for PCs levels 12 to 14. I made a Sliding Scale of Supernaturals in regards to the Northlands Adventure Path during my own campaign. Its creation was when I began noticing a bit of a divergence in magical tone and wonder as the plot continued, less like a steady increase and more like a roller coaster. quote:1-Game of Thrones: There are magic, and dragons, and undead, but they're hardly understood, outside of Westeros for the most part, and only show up when poo poo's about to get serious. From cultural osmosis I learned most of GoT's conflict are things that would be regular occurrences IRL. Initially the first few adventures hovered around 1 or 2, with Wyrd of the Winter King shooting up to 3. Death Curse of Sven Oakenfist and Plague in Trotheim were rare 4s. When we come to the Hallburning, things slip back down to 1. The primary evil in this case is not fiendish cults, risen spirits, or the machinations of wicked mages but a more down-to-earth, human corruption. There are monsters in this adventure, but they are tangential encounters when it comes to hunting down the perpetrators of one of the worst acts one can do in Northlander culture: The hall of Gundrik Arison, Jarl of Vestfemarken, was attacked by raiders at midnight. They blocked up windows and doors as they threw torches in the homes and barns of people lay sleeping in their beds. The jarl's wife Runa (not the one from Spring Rites) was the only survivor, bearing horrible wounds. After telling others of this terror, an emergency meeting of the Althing of Storstrøm Vale was called. Three of the hallburning's participants were captured and force to talk. They named the master of the deed as Cnut Anglison, Jarl of Østfold who long bore a grudge against the Arisons. The Althing ruled that the Anglisons were declared non-entities whose lands were open to raiding and Runa's brother Heinring Erikson of Roskiled offered five pounds of hacksilver for the head of each hallburner. Cnut Anglison is guilty as sin, but Jarl Heinring is an accomplice. He long desired a greater share of his family's fortune, and made a deal with Cnut to burn the hall while offering to do his part to cover up his trails. Cnut would gain his revenge, and Heinring would inherit Vestfemarken through Runa. But with the ruling at the Althing, he double-crossed Cnut by helping capture the men who named and shamed him. This way, Erikson can inherit his family's lands as well as Østfold's. Our adventure begins as the PCs meet Heinring and Runa in their home in Trotheim. The word of the event spread far and wide so the party will at least have heard of it. They inform the PCs of the background and the reward (five pounds of hacksilver plus the Wave Sword, Heinrig's longship). They also get the chance to see some other bounty hunters in the hall who they can learn more information about by skill and magic.  What I Changed posted:In the default plot, the involved parties are those the player characters have never heard of or met earlier on in the Adventure Path. The primary hook for the Hallburning is righteous justice as Northlands society is honor-bound to take action against those cowardly enough to slaughter an entire hall's inhabitants in such a way. So instead I made some major alterations to the Hallburning while keeping a lot of the encounters intact: The three other groups of bounty hunters are meant to be possibly-recurring villains or allies through this adventure seeking to get their hands on Cnut first, although Javik is almost guaranteed to be an ally and the Ravensons are opposition by default. Even if the PCs gain Dorna's respect, in a later encounter she will merely try to capture and disarm them rather than kill them. A few encounters feature the bounty hunters, but if they are killed prematurely the next ones will not happen. Successful divination spells and skill checks can impart personal information about them. Dorna Helsdottir and the Vicious Get: Dorna is Two-Face if he was a woman godi of Hel. She has a twisted sense of justice, more than eager to punish lawbreakers in her goddess' name but has no problem killing those who so much as get in her way. She has a skald partner by the name of Adevir Óddson fond of writing poorly-worded poems about her. The Vicious Get are a band of barbarian cutthroats who only follow Dorna and no other. The Ravensons: This three-person adventuring party seeks to make their way up in the world by claiming the head of Cnut and his hallburners. They include two fighters, Silent Tor and Grondi (spiked chain, poisoned heavy sword), and an arctic druid by the name of Vigdís Snowfox. Javik Wolfsblood: This is the Wolverine of the bounty hunters, a wild ranger who relies only upon himself and his trusty giant wolf. He was a childhood friend of Runa and secretly loved her yet respected her marriage to another. Javik's not in it for the money or reputation: he wants revenge, pure and simple. What I Changed posted:I only used Dorna Helsdottir for this. She had a pack of Advanced Winter Wolves instead of the Vicious Get, and I reworked Adevir to be an alchemist who throws runestones instead of bombs. She believed that Njal Magnusson was one of the hallburners and kidnapping Runa, so she sent her wolves to gradually wear him down as they went through the forest of Hordaland. The PCs convinced her that she was making a mistake, but once her wolves get a quarry nothing would stop them. She reluctantly let the party kill her wolves to save Njal. This encounter took place before the arrival at the High Pass but after visiting Eiderlec. Storstrøm Vale  The PCs learn from Heinrig and Runa Gundrikswife that Cnut and his men are somewhere up in the Waldron Mountains. Specifically they are holed up in an Andøvan ruin which has an auto-fail to all divination and teleportation magic within a 1 mile radius, a classic Pathfinder standard of shutting down powerful magic instead of building adventures around their possibility. This is all so that the adventure can force the PCs to rely on mundane means of tracking a 175-mile trail. We even get a one-page description on Trondheim ponies if the PCs need some lent to them, and a possible setback if they do not keep constant guard over their mounts: one of the Ravensons breaks into their stables and absconds with their mounts. quote:The PCs may have the magical capabilities to chase down the Ravensons and overtake them before they get too far away, but remind the players that taking the time to do so only gives the other bounty hunter groups more time to get ahead as well. The missing mounts will not be recovered before morning, so the PCs just have to wait and hope to overtake the honorless curs on the road. At this level, it's entirely possible for a Summoner to have a flying eidolon, for a Sorcerer or Wizard to set up Contingency spells, for a Druid or Ranger to have an animal companion powerful enough to cause a ruckus against some level 8-9 upstart adventurers, or any other number of means to ensure that a simple snatch-and-grab is unlikely to work for long. Our next encounter involves a first meeting with Doran Helsdottir, who legally purchased a thrall who was working off a weregild so she can sacrifice him for good luck. Technically speaking Dorna is legally in the right, but the thrall was about to pay off his debt in full in 2 months. She will give the PCs an hour to replace him with a more suitable sacrifice, or if they persist she will order the Vicious Get attack the party to take them as sacrifices instead! After this encounter resolves, Javik returns the PCs' stolen mounts to them. Although he is wary, he has a sense of honor and figures that the PCs would be a better bet in taking down Cnut than some desperate horse thieves. He refuses any offers to work together, stating that he hunts better alone and automatically travels faster than the PCs if they try to follow his trail. The trail along the Saubd River to the mountains includes seven linear encounters. Two involve tangling with the Ravensons one of which has them sabotage a ferry's crossing, one involves a sudden snowfall, another a completely-unrelated band of Mongat raiders seeking to kill the PCs for loot and experience, and a possible ambush by Dorna Helsdottir. One of the more interesting encounters involves a crag giant named Norgrun and his gorgimera pet who is scavenging the already-raided ruins of Østfold. He is a tough customer, capable of summoning earth elementals to help him fight. But in exchange for beating him, the PCs get the Regalia of Gunnlagr as treasure (chainmail, maul, and helmet) which can resize to fit them. There are also a pair of human children kidnapped from the hall of Eidrelec which is on the way to the mountains. Bonus Experience is gained for ensuring the children make it back alive. What I Changed posted:I had it so that the PCs encountered the crag giant among some Andøvan ruins in the Forest of Woe. He managed to capture Runa (the sorcerous daughter of Jarl Henrikson) for his stewpot when she and Njal got separated from the winter wolves. She replaced the two children, obviously, and the PCs went to Eiderlec on account that it was on the way to Halfstead and likely had other survivors of the burning of Silvermeade Hall. Our last encounter for this chapter is in the village of Eiderlec, a small mining town ruled by Jarl Luthr Eider and his wife. The two children from the giant encounter are his niece and nephew. Whether they tell him or he guesses, the jarl figures that the party is hunting for the hallburners and reveals that his huscarls saw no sign of them around. He invites the PCs to stay for a spell. Unfortunately Cnut Anglison caught word through contacts that some bounty hunters are headed his way and sent out several warriors to burn down Eiderlec's village. Eight of them (a 10th level fighter and 7 7th-level Warriors) silently take out the village's lax security unless the PCs take precautions. They throw torches on the roof of the hall and wait for people to try and flee out the front door to slaughter them in a chokepoint. This encounter has a series of round-by-round events of what happens if the fires are not put out, ending at round 20 when the roof of the hall collapses which causes instant death (no save) to anyone not immune to fire and able to survive without breathing. A captured raider confesses to Cnut's hideout. The PCs also get a hefty reward of 1,000 Experience for every member of the hall who survives the hallburning. What I Changed: The Østfold warriors were changed to Hrolf Vikings (out of disguise), and Eiderlec had Hallbjorn's crew present. The party at this point knew that the Hrolfs were invading Hordaland but since they did not know why at the moment, the PC witch was reluctant to visit their hall and end up drawn into some propaganda trap hinging upon cultural honor. She instead spoke in Nûk to Hallbjorn's wife (an NPC of my own creation) about the false flag operation. They learned that the Hrolfs were planning to attack an abandoned tin mine in the Forest of Woe, so the PCs departed there. As they tipped off Hallbjorn's crew and used stealth to exit the village, an encounter was averted. The Hrolfs would have attempted to burn the hall to kill off the PCs given that the party's reputation and magical powers were well-known in the Northlands by now. Along with their connection to Silvermeade Hall, Jarl Magnus Hrolfsblood didn't want any loose ends. The High Pass  This chapter of the adventure is two dungeons in one. The first is the High Tower which is part of the no-divination no-teleport crumbled Andøvan ruin. It looks over a pass which leads to an abandoned Tin Mine. There are watchers in the tower who will spot anyone during the day unable to conceal themselves, causing them to unload a boulder trap avalanche. If the PCs are on good terms with Javik Wolfsblood, he will come out of hiding. The ranger is willing share the information on the number of enemies and their placements around the tower as well as the entrance to the Tin Mines. He won't fight alongside them, but volunteers to create a distraction to draw away some guards. The tower itself has two dozen wardogs near the entrance, a trio of hired hill giants, a 10th-level commoner servant with stunted cranial growth and a limp (along with unique special qualities to cover both), 15 Østfold warriors, and Cnut Anglison and his huscarl Hegi Einarrson. There's a secret door in the kitchen (given away by wafting scent of tobacco smoke) which provides an alternate means of going into the tin mines. If you can't tell, the opposition here is woefully undermatched for a party of low-teen-level characters who likely have magical aid. This, along with the heavy emphasis on riding by horseback and mundane tracking makes me believe that this adventure was originally meant to be written at a much lower level. Cnut's minions will fight as long as they think their leader is safe, but the man himself is cowardly and surrenders to the PCs to face his judgment at the Althing. He is only doing this with the belief that Heinring will somehow acquit him. The adventure presumes that the PCs seek to take Cnut alive, and if they seem intent on killing him while in their custody he will activate his ring of freedom of movement to slip his bonds and escape. What I Changed posted:I excised the hill giants to include more Hrolf warriors (who had the same stats as Østfold warriors but wore full plate). Cnut in this scenario was having second thoughts about his role as "villainous Southlander" in the eventual plot to unite the Northlands. When the PCs show up and begin to effortlessly slaughter the false knights he decided that he wanted to die known as a true Northlander and surrendered to the PCs. He offered to use his testimony at the Althing of Halfstead against Jarl Magnus Hrolfsblood on the condition that he be allowed to engage in a duel than to be executed in bondage (a way to secure himself a spot in Valhalla as a warrior). I also made the secret room in the kitchen contain some exotic seeds from Southlander realms which were not present in Silvermeade Hall. Given that such valuables would not ordinarily be taken on a risky voyage to the Northlands, this served as a piece of evidence the PCs could present at the Althing of Jarl Magnus Hrolfsblood's guilt. The mine entrance is concealed, and home to inhabitants all its own such as six wyverns, a carnivorous blob, some traps, and a small family of ogres and their herd of boars. Cnut Anglison has an arms-length relationship with three of the more experienced ogres (trio of Ranger sisters), so he stationed two of his huscarls to keep an eye on them. One's a level 12 barbarian, the other a multi-classed expert/rogue fond of strong-smelling pipe weed. Why so many dead levels in a crappy NPC class I don't know. The Return to Trotheim  Jarl Heinrig dispatched 13 of his own men (who may or may not be with the Ravensons) to follow the PCs' trail. Their leader, Harald, hails the PCs peacefully. He has payment and a writ of ownership for the longship to give to the PCs as early payment. But if the PCs have no living prisoners, Harald and the Ravensons plan to ambush and kill them and collect the reward for themselves. But if Cnut plus any others are alive, they are nonviolent in their intentions and claim to seek to transport the prisoners back to Trotheim. The scowling faces of the Ravensons are meant to warn the party that they are planning to take credit for the work they done and spur them on. The adventure's all too happy to inform us that any mounts of the PCs are going to be in poor shape from arduous travel and may not be able to keep up. It's mentioned that they can get new fresh mounts at Eiderlec if they saved the jarl earlier. This is all well and good, but given that the PCs have Cnut Anglisson (or evidence of his death) they can just as easily overland flight/teleport/etc back to Trotheim and the adventure does not take this into account. The next encounter involves Harald planning to execute Cnut (much to the bewilderment of his soldiers and the betrayed Ravensons) and any other hallburner prisoners. Whether the PCs get there in time (and whether or not they can save and ally with the druid survivor) is based on whether or not they gained fresh mounts. If Cnut is dead, a captured warrior will confess to Jarl Heinrig's plot, overcome with guilt over his leader's dishonorable actions. If Cnut is taken alive, he realizes that Jarl Heinrig had no intention of clearing his name, and is willing to cooperate fully with the PCs if they let him die "with a sword in his hand" when the time for sentencing comes. Choosing to honor this grants the party bonus Experience as an appeal to their mind's-worth.  Hillfolk: Holmgang by Merlkir of Deviantart Once the PCs get back to Trotheim, a crowd begins to stir. An angry one who wants justice to be done and execute Cnut right then and there. Heinrig and Runa Gundrikswife come forth, and there's some social skill checks throughout to calm the crowd, to detect odd body language from the jarl, and whether or not they can call for an Althing for a trial first. Jarl Heinrig and Runa will be very insistent on arguing against this plea, and the PCs have several modifiers they can use as a bonus (saving Eiderlec from a hallburning, showing off the Regalia of Gunnlaugr, etc). There is a "last chance" check to do if they fail at first, but if they fail again a Nonstandard Game Over happens as the PCs will either have to fight every able-bodied warrior in Trotheim and become outlaws or let the prisoners in custody be killed; no testimony against Jarl Heinrig will work until several months later in the spring. But if an Althing is called, Cnut and the hall burners are put into custody, and Jarl Heinrig will have an assassin disguised as a thrall to poison their food. The encounter after that is the Althing proper, where Jarl Heinrig makes his move: quote:“Yes, I’m sure they’ll have quite the story to tell, one worthy of the fireside in the dead of winter when the birch logs burn high and the drinking horns run low. The drunken ramblings of boastful braggarts. I’m sure we’ll all be highly entertained, and the skalds will sing of it for years to come. There's so much wrong with this. If this adventure is not being played as a stand-alone, the PCs saved the very city this Althing is in from a horrible plague, in addition to their many other deeds. The immediate declaration of the holmgang is stated by the adventure to be a "trap" so any opinion or ruling of the assembly is nullified due to calling upon the gods. This goes against the Northlands Saga Campaign Guide's rules for the Thing, where a holmgang in a dispute grants half the opposing votes to the winner. And what if one or more of the PCs is a godi of Wotan? Can his holy status counter this? But that doesn't compare to the anti-climactic ending. The final encounter of this adventure is a holmgang between Jarl Heinrig and one of the PCs who rose up to the challenge. Heinrig himself is a multi-classed fighter/rogue of 13th total level. He is optimized for sword-and-board fighting and focuses on sundering the PCs' shield rather than going for direct kill with an adamantine longsword (which ignores hardness). But if the PCs' Combat Maneuver Defense is so high, he'll change to lethal tactics. The crooked jarl is also a cheat, having taken a potion of bull's strength beforehand and has a druid within the crowd ready to silently cast warp wood or heat metal on the PCs' shield. Heinrig will declare any obvious magic in this fashion to be the will of the gods, which many in the crowd fall for. Even if caught the judge's lack of magical experience is not enough to declare the duel a forfeiture. Given that Heinrig isn't going for a kill, it seems that he's trying to disgrace the PCs and have them declare outlaws, right? Nope! The adventure removes all sense of agency and choice by having a literal Deus Ex Machina to occur. It does not matter if the PC is on the verge of losing or if they're about to win. The goddess Hel intervenes as she possesses the widowed Runa, condemning Heinrig for his crimes as her face takes the visage of the goddess herself. Grabbing a nearby spear she throws it at his throat, ending Heinrig's life. So in the end, Hel will kill-steal your boss battle and more or less dispense judgment that everyone accepts. The adventure concludes by having Heinrig's longship, the Wave Sword, granted to the PCs along with potential opportunity for the party to claim Cnut or Heinrig's halls for themselves. What I Changed posted:Throughout the adventure I provided several opportunities to gather evidence against Jarl Magnus Hrolfsblood; his son Nja's testimony, the lack of kingdom emblems upon the plate mail, the presence of armor markings upon Cnut's skin from the plate mail, as well as the exotic seeds in the tower's kitchen. I had the PCs roll Diplomacy vs Magnus' Perform Oratory to see how many votes they got; there was no need to call for an Althing, as one was already convened in regards to the "Southlander threat." 80% voted in favor of Magnus' guilt, so in order to push himself from 20% to 60% he challenged the party to holmgang. He had a bearskin cloak to use as the arena between the hazel posts, but I allowed the PCs to pick any hides of previous monsters they slain during the Adventure Path. The chose the skull of the Jotund Troll whose mouth was propped open. Concluding Thoughts: The Hallburning is rather weak. The plot is railroady and Cnut's testimony (nor that of other NPCs) does not matter at all given Heinrig's outburst. When it comes to the level of magic at a high-level party's disposal the adventure either does not take this into account or autoblocks it in the case of the dungeons. It's unconnected nature and rather low stakes in comparison to prior quests feels at odds so late in the Saga. The addition of yet another ship (albeit one with superior stats) feels a bit redundant given the PCs had plenty of opportunities to gain vessels of their own earlier in the campaign. On the plus side, things really pick up again in NS9: Daughter of Thunder and Storm! Libertad! fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Apr 10, 2018 |
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Apr 10, 2018 05:32
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NS9: Daughter of Thunder and Storm  Unlike the previous adventures, Daughter of Thunder and Storms is suitable for levels 13th through 16th. I have not actually run this adventure yet (we just finished NS8: the Hallburning) so I do not have any notes on What I Changed. There are few great heroes of the North who can match the PCs in power and deed. Hengrid Donarsdottir is one of them*. Unfortunately her time in the captivity of Shibauroth's cultists made her susceptible to demonic influence. After many years Althunak drew upon one desperate attempt before his divine essence is destroyed from the earlier destruction of his temples. And that involves possessing the body of the greatest heroine the Northlands has known. When Hengrid sails for the Hall of the Hearth Stone, she lays siege to it and steals the sword Kroenarck. This is one of the three artificats necessary to open a portal to the Ginnungagap in Mount Helgastervän, where she can make direct contact with the Lord of Ice and Cold. If the demon-god is successful in this endeavor, he will enact his will on Midgard in full control of Hengrid and bring about the Fimbulwinter...and thus the onset of Ragnarök. *But if she is dead since the PCs failed Blood on the Snow, Astra Thunderswif is the one to slay the divinity of Shibauroth and her replacement for this adventure. Our adventure begins with a summons with all possible haste from the Hall of the Hearth Stone. This is the most sacred godshouse in all of the North, and due to its reputation the PCs are assumed to have already been there and studied the environs carefully for teleportation purposes. Hengrid carved a swathe of destruction, leaving plenty of structural damage and an unnatural iceberg covering the hearthstone beneath the building. The senior godi Kollsveinn Hearthson appraises the PCs of the situation: there are unnatural monstrosities within, and he impresses upon the party the need to save the people still inside and to get to the hearth stone as quickly as possible. What Kollsveinn is not telling the PCs is that he has suspicions that Hengrid sought a secret chamber within the stone for the legendary sword. The sword was secret because otherwise all manner of opportunists would have come to claim it and become the next High Køenig.  The Hall is an architectural marvel, a walkway held up by magical and mundane supports over a river. Inside are various halls with shrines to gods and carvings displaying the history of the Northlands. The dungeon is rather straightforward, although Area 15 (the hearthstone) is surrounded by an invincible supernatural ice stone. The only way to it is via descending through a hole in Area 6. The complex is full of ice elementals, devil gods (cold-based animals), godi and former members of Hengrid's crew taken over by Althunak's fell power (becoming evil clerics or barbarians), frost drakes, and even a glacial ooze from the Ginnungagap. The "boss" is an ancient white dragon who is summoned if the PCs break the snow crystal, a magical giant snowflake anchoring Althunak's dread influence in the Hall. There are several survivors the PCs can rescue as well as the Warspear of Kein, a treasure in a storage closet. The legendary weapon was originally taken down from a mantle by the godi for cleaning and then forgot about somehow. The island containing the Hearth Stone has evidence of a destroyed room as well as an empty treasure box and debris. Once the Hall is cleared out, the godi and hirthmenn will move in to make repairs. Kollsveinn meets the party again and explains the truth of the Hearth Stone's secret chamber and the sword within that Hengrid Donarsdottir somehow knew about and stole. Via prayer with the Æsir he learned that she is under the influence of a powerful spirit of the Ginnvaettir: Althunak. However testimony from a surviving godi mentions that even as she destroyed the hall she spared him and gave him her waterskin so he would not die of thirst. This is seen as evidence that the real Donar is still somewhere inside, fighting and exhibiting one of the Nine Virtues of Donar (hospitality). The Nine Virtues of Donar play a major role in this adventure. Right before the final battle the party has the opportunity to impress upon Hengrid of the hero she still is by using examples found throughout the adventure. The more examples they give, the less power Althunak has over her body. In fact, the form of the final boss of NS9 is effected by the amount of examples given. The saved godi utters a prophecy... quote:"Three keys he needs to feed his fury; ...and then one of the godi stabs him to free an ice oni secretly implanted within him!  In the aftermath of the combat, the PCs can make knowledge and divination checks about the Nine Virtues of Donar, Ragnarök and the Fimbulwinter*, as well as Korenarck's legacy, how it was forged in the fires of Mount Helgastervän, and the Gates of Hel within that mountain. There is a sidebar on if the party uses divination to track Hengrid: Kroenarck has an anti-divination field, but indirect things like tracing Hengrid's route and lucky yes/no questions via Commune work. Otherwise Kollsveinn will use his spells to reveal that Hengrid crossed the North Sea in record time and wrecked her ship on the Virlik Cliffs (in Nûkland). There's also mention of how wind-based magic can be used to speed the party's travel by ship if they don't teleport. *the end of the world and the three-year-long constant winter preceding it respectively Additionally, each chapter further has updated information for divination spells cast regarding Hengrid and the recovered keys required to open the Gates of Hel and thus entry to the Ginnungagap. The Virlik Cliffs  This is another dungeon crawl, where the PCs find the wreck of Hengrid's ship and later on a dungeon in the form of a cave filled with Wikkawaks (goblinoid monsters). In fact, the first time in this entire adventure path do goblins of any sort appear! A secret shrine to Althunak is located in a fog-filled cave near the crash site, where Hengrid claimed a prehistoric idol of Althunak within as the second key to the Gates of Hel. The PCs may find it on their own, or by meeting an entity known as Old Sea Mother (pictured above) who will tell the party about it as well as Hengrid's movements to the Wikkawak lair. But she will only cooperate if they beat one of her children in a game of Hnútukast, a game where two parties throw bones at each other until an eye is taken out or blood is drawn. The Wikkawak lair feels a lot like filler; Hengrid tortured and corrupted the chief, causing him and the rest of the tribe to resort to previously-unpracticed cannibalism. The Wikkawak within are low-CR monsters with levels in the Warrior NPC class at best, with the only "strong" encounters the chieftain, his jotun consort Griseld, and a pet akhlut in a nearby chamber. The main focus of this dungeon plotwise is to have a surrendered Griseld remark upon how she has never seen a Northlander warband "show such discipline" in regards to Hengrid, which is one of the Nine Virtues of Donar. The Tundra and Nûkland  After the PCs make their way out of the caves, the party follows Hengrid's trail out into the tundra. Every few miles are dead wikkawaks and human huscarls with choice pieces of flesh removed. Hengrid is searching for the third key, located in a forgotten crypt where the first Winter King, and first worshiper, of Althunak rests. Along the way the PCs come across the ranger Geirolf who was originally hunting for monsters with his companion. But a savage wolf-beast has been harrowing him, even as he stands guard over his fallen ally's body for 9 days (an oath he swore). It's 8 days in and asks if the PCs can help stand vigil with him for one more night. If they agree, he promises to serve them as thrall for a year and a day. He provides information to the party if they stay, telling of how he met Hengrid's war party. Several of the beasts sought to devour him, but she struck one of them down with her hammer to spare him. In spite of her distinctive appearance he could not believe that she is the heroine of old, but notes that she gave him an amulet of Donar before leaving (loyalty virtue, refusing to be disloyal to the symbol due to her actions and giving it to someone worthier). As for the wolf-beast, it is an advanced greater barghest with the jotunblood template. Technically a subversion of the rules as the barghest does not have the giant subtype. Later encounters include a wendigo seeking to give nightmares of starvation, cold, and cannibalism to the party while they rest. The next encounter's a camp of Hengrid's left-behind human and wikkawak followers who fell to cannibalism and turned upon each other. They are under the thrall of the wendigo's psychosis. At one point one of them will transform into a wendigo themself and fly off into the night, prompting a surviving berserker to realize his eventual fate and ask the PCs to grant him a merciful death. The crypt of the first Winter King is a spooky mound containing an ancient skeleton encased in ice with its skull removed. Hengrid ordered her minions to excavate the mound, where she removed the head to take the crown and third key for the Gates of Hel. The wendigo previously stalking the party enters into the crypt with its howl attack to possess the skeleton as a winterwight. The final encounter for this chapter is in the taiga forest, with increased evidence of Hengrid's band diminishing in number as the bestial huscarls consume each other. The only encounter here is with a manitou who appears as a tree-like giant. He tells the PCs that Hengrid wrestled a forest drake and forced it to fly her to Mount Helgastervän. As for her remaining minions, they transformed into baykoks who interrupt the party's conversation; the manitou vanishes instead of fighting. Due to their cannibalism they will attempt to eat any fallen enemy, but not before wasting time fighting among themselves. The manitou will return, granting a magical pinecone for defending the forest (saving throw bonus) and remark it odd that the monsters stayed. "Apparently she left them behind in order to complete her quest without their help." Self-Reliance, another of the Nine Virtues. If the PCs need help traveling to Mount Helgastervän, the manitous calls an elder air elemental to carry the PCs in its whirlwind. Mount Helgastervän  This legendary mountain has a prominent presence in the stories of the North. It was where Kraki Haraldson recovered Kroenarck from its depths after slaying a dragon, and is home to a legendary dwarven forge. It is currently home to a kingdom of giants. There are many communities within this mountain beyond the scope of this adventure: the fire giants are a labor caste for a tribe of jotuns deeper within, and the deepest caverns hold a clan of dwarves. The mountain entrance is guarded by Rethryvimar, a wounded tarn linnorm within a subterranean pool. She is weary from a fight with Hengrid and willing to talk with the PCs instead of immediate battle. She does not wish to let mortals pass through her territory again and informs them of a side passage, only to betray the PCs in a second thought of not wanting others to know of her lair. The PCs may figure out that Hengrid displayed another of Donar's virtues, meaning she "refused to back down and shown great courage even when she didn't have to." The rest of the dungeon is a fire giant fortress as well as various lava flow caverns and tunnels. Fire giants, volcano giants, and fire lizard pets are frequent encounters. There's a surprising variety of types, from regular old fire giants, fire giant huscarls (Fighter levels), fire giant smiths (hammers but no armor), and even fire giant children who use ogre stats (WHY?!). There's a forgotten tunnel where Kraki Haraldson cavred a Runic inscription into the wall: quote:53 days out of the Vale entered the din of spears with the Red Beast Verthenstyr in its cave. 4 good men soaked in battle-dew to stand upon the banks of the Storm nevermore. A sword for kings as a prize. K.H. It is possible that the PCs may be able to earn an alliance with the volcano giants, who serve an old red dragon named Eskvrcar. Although seeming servants of the fire giants, the dragon wouldn't mind having their lands and resources to herself, so the PCs may be able to get an audience with her via a shaman middle-man. If the PCs act appropriately obsequious she offers to grant them safe passage and an item of choice from her hoard if they bring her the head of the fire giants' jarl. Speaking of treasure, there is a secret artifact within the dungeon's temple of Surtr: the Mead of Poetry. Given that this artifact instantly grants 3 levels in Skald (the advanced class guide or the Northlands archetype), that does raise the issue of whether or not to let the PC level up in the middle of a session or not. Leveling up in Pathfinder is time-consuming in comparison to other RPGs.  There's also a secret door here leading to the final section of the dungeon. It is guarded by a cinder knight and leads to the Gates of Hel. On the way the PCs can find the fabled forge of Bvalin and a very deadly trap which turns the door and surrounding walls into lava (which deal 20d6 damage per round). Alas, the forge's smith is deceased, pinned to a statue by the Gates by the possessed Hengrid. He has a weapon tied to his hand via a piece of fabric torn from a winter wolf cloak. A successful knowledge check points out that dying with weapon in hand guarantees your place in Valhalla, and Hengrid displayed the virtue of mind's-worth. But due to the dwarf's oath to guard said gates, he still exists as a ghost here. Bvalin tells the PCs that Hengrid already passed into the Ginnungagap, the void-like portal floating between the statues. Although she used the three keys, all hope is not lost: the PCs may yet deny Althunak's vessel by stopping her "by skill of tongue or spill of blood." He also informs the party that they have enough time to rest if they need it (10 hours), but due to his oath Bvalin must face the PCs in battle before they can cross. He will rejuvenate and keep watch over the three keys (all in depressed sconces) to ensure that nobody closes it while they're on the other side. The Ginnungagap  The final chapter of this adventure takes place in another plane entirely, the primordial realm which existed before Creation. It is a hell-like realm home to evil outsiders, wendigos, and the souls of unclaimed mortals. The Ginnungagap has its own planar traits: it is strongly aligned with Chaos and Evil, so characters and spells opposite one or both alignment suffer inferior mental skill checks and caster levels. This portion of the realm is metaphysically beneath the Lake of Frozen Screams, meaning the edges wrap in on themselves. One hour in this place equals one day on the Material Plane. The first challenge within this realm is a cave full of acidic negative energy geysers which cause the party's flesh to degrade in small black flakes. Hengrid left a trail of flakes behind her, lending evidence of perseverance as one of the Nine Virtues from the horrific damage she endured. Outside the cave is a bleak, black wasteland with smoky and smudged features. The dark sky has bluish light in the impression of a frozen lake, with a distant hillock the major feature with a corpse-like giant laying upon it. Hengrid Donarsdottir is here, holding up her hammer as green flames descend to slowly bring the comatose Althunak to full power. Travel to the hillock is subjective and does not follow the laws of physics. There will be a certain amount of random encounters beforehand, with the number depending on the Will Save of a designated PC guide. They are appropriately creepy, including advanced gibbering mouthers, lesser banshees, various kinds of demons, and even a mammoth-drawn sled upon which sits Kimrach Ulnslayer, a frost giant who played a major role in the subjugation of the Uln.  The final encounter of this adventure takes place as the PCs come up to an obviously-corrupted Hengrid Donarsdottir. The ritual to revive the god to his full power is nearly complete, and instead of immediately attacking she engages the PCs in a mocking conversation. Although she speaks confidently of the Fimbulwinter's inevitable arrival, a Sense Motive check looks into her eyes to reveal the distraught heroine within. As the ritual has a few hours to go and she will not attack until the PCs do, the players control the pace. This is handled not by skill checks but by pure improv role-playing. For every example of the Nine Virtues they give, the weaker Althunak's hold gets. PCs who make clever use of kenning, deliver their speeches in a suitably heroic oration, as well as any other examples the PCs come up with that the adventure did not include, add additional "examples." A list of eight virtues are provided along with their place in the adventure. The one I did not mention earlier was her Industriousness into getting into the mountain by collapsing a stone outcrop to create a precarious causeway. The ninth unmentioned one, Truth, comes into play later. Once the PCs finish their speeches, Althunak loses patience and attacks via a demon-possessed Hengrid. There are one of five forms she takes, all with varying levels of ex-paladin, from most to least powerful: a wendigo (CR 20), an ice yai oni (CR 17), a jotun (CR 14), a cold rider (CR 13), or a yeti (CR 12). As a result, the climactic battle varies largely in difficulty; however this is only Althunak/Hengrid with no assistance against a full party. This means that the action economy is in the PCs' favor. All of the forms allow her to generate a huge iceberg as an AoE attack, DC 28 Will save attacks (touch attack which corrupts the soul, or a bomming voice which Dominates Monster on evil creatures) in addition to the monster's natural abilities and the properties of her signature weapon Thundersurge. Regardless of the form, the Experience is suitable for a Challenge Rating 20 encounter due to the climactic nature. If Hengrid is defeated in battle, the green fire nimbus retreats from her and her broken body changes back to her original form. The fire takes on the form of Althunak as he attempts to bring the Fimbulwinter to reality: quote:“She is no more. She is nothing. Althunak is all. There is no truth but Althunak. Althunak is here! Yet Hengrid gradually awakens, confused and believing herself to be the evil god as the demon lord begins to shred the last of her identity: quote:Tendrils of green flame continue to stream from the maiden’s still form and cause her cheeks to grow hollower, her eye sockets to sink deeper. The demon is drawing the last bit of the essence it needs as it feeds off of her to reach its full might. The sunken eye sockets flicker, and you catch a glimpse of clear blue eyes. The maiden yet lives if only for a moment more. She struggles to speak, “Who? … Is that me? Am I Althunak?" There is one more virtue: truth. Whether by coming to their own conclusion or via a Knowledge check, they can remind the daughter of Donar of her true self along with bonus Experience to go with this. In a final act of defiance, her soul fades from her body as Althunak rises seemingly at full strength. Yet the icy barrier of the sky cracks open as Donar himself soars down on a goat-driven chariot! With a mighty blow with the power of an erupting volcano, the Æsir slays the Lord of Ice and Cold once and for all! With a respectful reverence, he places a hammer amulet in his daughter's hand, her faith her truest weapon. He shares a meaningful look at the PCs before he departs for Asgard. Hengrid seemingly rises from the dead, yet she is not of Midgard any longer. She is a valkyrie, and in addition to heartfelt thanks she mentions how her duty is to find the greatest of heroes upon the battlefield to bring them home. And she can think of no worthier heroes than the PCs which stand before her. Concluding Thoughts: This should have been the final adventure. It is a bit of a straight dungeon crawl with unrelated enemies, but the opposition really sets the epic tone for the Northlands. Giants, dragons, demons, venturing to the primordial void, engaging a role-playing speech challenge with the final boss who is the god-possessed body of the setting's greatest hero. The ending part with the valkyrie hits me right in the feels and is a perfect way to end such an epic campaign. Overall, Daughter of Thunder and Storm made up for Return of Hallbjorn and The Hallburners because it actually felt heroic. I will say that the alternative option for Hengrid's death in Blood on the Snow feels weak, in that it's an unheard-of NPC cleaning up the PCs' mess from that time. Otherwise I like this. But what could the foe of the final adventure be? With Althunak's influence gone, what is there left? The Jomsvikings? Loki angry at being thwarted in Plague at Trotheim? Nah, it's a completely unrelated and unheard-of bad guy faction: the Huuns, inhabitants of a distant mysterious empire from the eastern continent of Libynos. Join us for our final adventure in NS10: the Broken Shieldwall!
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Apr 11, 2018 08:24
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NS10: The Broken Shieldwall  This is it. The final adventure in the Northlands Saga Adventure Path, for levels 16th to 18th. There has been 6 years of relative peace since the defeat of Althunak and the passing of Hengrid Donarsdottir. In that time old Meg's prophecy of nine years of bliss came to be, as Njal Magnusson took up leadership of Hrolfland after the passing of his father. After finishing a successful war against mountain folk and thrydreg raiders he established trade ties with Nieuland . He even established a colony of Hrolfsberf in the far western edge of the continent of Libynos. For a while, things were on the up-and-up, but his wife Sveni died in childbirth after the delivery of their second son. To make matters worse the colony of Hrolfsberg was attacked by strange forces, its entire population slaughtered and ritually staked. It was discovered that the raiders bore coins minted in Mulstahba, a pseudo-Arabian city-state whose land-bridge canals control trade between the northern and southern seas. Normally they were neutral and kept out of people's affairs beyond trade, but this seeming hostility was enough to get Njal to mount an army to take the fight to their citadel-city of Jem Karteis. He also took along his 14 year old eldest son Eymund and eventual High Køenig . The result of the campaign has not been heard of in months, and the loss of such warriors risks opening much of the eastern Northlands to attack. Fritha, the 8-year-old daughter of Njal, is a preternaturally-gifted seer who with the aid of other godi experienced a vision: to save not only the Køenig and his army from destruction (who are alive yet caught behind enemy lines) and to save the entire Northlands, a Great Northern Army must be assembled with the PCs at the helm. But the real masters behind the scenes are the Huuns, whose advance forces more or less took over Mulstahba via a coup. This is but a part of a much larger plan to invade the Northlands and eventually all of Akados. One Thing to Clear: the PCs gained the sword Kroenarck as a reward for NS9, as the dwarf smith Bvalin may only rear end to the afterlife when the sword's placed in the hand of the rightful High Køenig of the Northlands. Given that merely carrying this sword will summon all manner of opportunistic troublemakers and no end of grief, Bvalin transforms the sword to appear as a different legendary blade: Magnarck, a golden sword lost at sea. The adventure begins with the PCs arriving in Trotheim at a gathering of some of the greatest political rulers of the Northlands and Kollsveinn Hearthson. The above information is more or less relayed (save the details of Njal's ascension which is public knowledge), and after taking a palm-cutting blood-oath to Odin and Thor the PCs have a task: gather up warriors from Storstrøm Vale, Estenfird, and Vastavikland. Gatland and Hrolfland are already willing to commit given Eymund's blood relation, and the Køenig of Hordaland has also committed his forces. The PCs can handle each region as its own sub-plot in whatever order they please, but before they head off Kollsveinn has one more thing to give them: Skíðblaðnir, the magical dwarven ship capable of shrinking down into a portable cloth! Man, this adventure path hands out ships like candy. But this isn't just for fun; it's meant to get around Mulstahba's territorial defenses later on down the road. The adventure path notes that while the PCs are more than capable of using divination and teleportation to locate Njal's forces, the point of the AP is to gather an epic army and a small-group hit and run would rob them of that. All Southerners Look Alike to Me posted:This is not some vapid Southlander adventure where so-called heroes battle evil simply for profit or diversion, and the means to the ends are no more important than the ends themselves. No, this is a Northlands’ adventure, and its heroes are Northlanders for whom concepts such as courage, striving against hardship, and mind’s-worth stand as greater reward than a king’s ransom in hacksilver. As such, a Northlander has no qualms about going at it the hard way rather than finding the easiest route. That’s not to say that they won’t take the easier route if there’s no good reason not to; Northlanders are lusty and often larger-than-life, but they’re not stupid. Rather, in this case the Norns have spoken through the runecasting of the soothsayers and Frítha. Though it may well be within the capabilities of the PCs to quickly travel to Mulstabha on their own and singlehandedly defeat the enemy and rescue Njal, as Northlanders they would not because the fates have decreed it so. The runes said that the venture of the Great Northern Army would be successful only if it the PCs led it personally. For whatever reason, that is what the gods stipulated to prevent failure in the rescue of Køenig Njal, and as true Northlanders, the PCs know it is not the place of mortals to question the will of gods. Instead, it is their place to bear up under whatever hardships the gods have placed before them and prove their mettle so that they may brag about it to legendary heroes of old over drinking horns filled with mead in the corpse-hall of Valhalla. That is the stuff that makes a Northlander. Wyrd bið ful aræd. It's rather railroady, although I wish the adventure built around this a bit. Although saving Njal is a thing drawing the adventure forward, the larger threat in waiting is the Huun Imperium's plan. Even if Njal is found and taken back, the creation of a Great Northern Army is a necessity if this information is found out by say, scouting around Mulstahba and noticing that the city's underwent a change in leadership. Anyhoo back to the adventure. The Great Army of the Northlands  The first chapter out of four is actually the longest at 31 pages, enough to equal an entire adventure in page length. In order to gather the forces for Storstrøm Vale, the PCs must attend the Althing and use Perform (Oratory) and various other skill checks to win over the votes of various factions. Given that the PCs are quite literally the highest-level badasses in the Northlands, holmgang cannot be used to win votes given that the PCs' victory is a sure thing and slaying/disgracing beloved leaders for what is to be a unitary thing isn't a good idea. Additionally, no magic may be used in the hall during the votes. Every faction has a list of their concerns, their spokesmen, how many votes they have, and what arguing points can be used to help persuade them. The actions of previous adventures can play into this: mentioning the saving of Trotheim to sway the traders, having a colony in Nieuland to act as a supply line in war, using NPCs from prior adventures such as Jarl Anud Curse-Spear to vouch for them, etc. I particularly like this, in that it strongly plays upon the actions of earlier adventures to make the PCs' accomplishments matter right now. If the PCs can score 95 out of 142 votes (2/3rds majority) they get army units from Storstrøm Vale. If not they will have to make do without them in the coming battles. The side-quest in Estenfird you'd think would be harder, given that they use direct democracy. But the adventure has this covered. The PCs' heroism and the news of a great army has already reached this frontier land, and the larger villages appointed representatives to head for Vöss to hear from the PCs and carry the news back to their people to deliberate. The meeting was intended to take place in a large barn, but Jomsviking assassins under the payment of the Mulstahbin government already got here. The 24 representatives are dead and hanging from the rafters, and the Jomsviking's druid officer transformed the warriors into disguised trees to better ambush the PCs. The Jomsvikings underwent some level-ups since Raven Banners Over Gatland with assassins being multi-class barbarian/fighters/rogues at 4 levels each; the common giants have 5 levels in fighter, and the leader is a 15th-level druid. Mulstahbin coins can be found on their persons or in their longship. News spreads fast of the massacre and soon the Estenfirders are united in a way the PCs could not do. Their anger will initially be towards the Jomsvikings, but the coins are ample evidence of Mulstahba's guilt. The final realm is in Vastavikland, the hardest and toughest realm of a hard and tough campaign setting. Even the ruler Kol the Redhanded's authority is but as long as his sword-arm, and when the PCs meet him in his fortress-village he's quite eager to explain how things are done here: quote:I am Kol the Redhanded, who killed Hermund Giantson on the mountain and drank the blood of Óleifr’s wife before his very eyes — just before I plucked them from his skull. I am the deadliest raider of the North Sea and the Scourge of the Southlands. I am Køenig of Vastavikland by right of the might in my sword arm, and my blood-worm drinks deep of any who dare challenge. I will rule until I am too old to fight and some other comes to challenge and wets the floor of my hall in my battle-dew. This is the way of the true Northlander; this is the way of Vastavikland. None question my right to rule, yet even still my word reaches only the length of my sword. Beyond the walls of Smølsünd other Vastaviklanders may say unto me ‘Køenig,’ but it is not worth a piss in the sea if my sword cannot reach them. They know this, and I know this. This is a land of free men, and it is the way of Vastavikland! This is but a portion of the boxed text, but I really like this dude. Kind of a shame we only see him in the last adventure. Instead of politicking or voting at a Thing, the only surefire way the PCs can unite Vastavikland for their fleet is to fulfill a prophecy: kill the legendary dragon Hlundel. Before they do this, the PCs can make skill checks to learn of the dragon, the legend, and previous heroes who fought it (Diplomacy attempts gets them laughed at). When they are ready, the party along with Kol and a gathering of people prepare either to fight or watch the proceedings. Hlundel is a taniniver, basically a disease-focused dragon, and the last two heroes it killed are juju zombies under its control. It is powerful in melee and has some sickness-related debuffs and spells, but since the PCs have 3 rounds to prepare before the mountain quakes and it shows up it should not be too hard for characters of this level. Once the PCs get as many factions as they can, we get a detailed write-up of the Great Northern Army using the Mass Combat Rules. Instead of a single huge unit, it’s a bunch of units separated into smaller armies based upon region. The Vastaviklander and Hordaland armies are by far the most disciplined, being made up of 3rd-level Barbarians and 2nd-level Fighters respectively. Estenfird is the smallest army with 1st-level Warriors, and Storstrøm Vale's Army are also 1st-level Warriors but whose numbers can vary depending on whether the PCs made a deal to keep some warriors at home to defend the Vale or not (in order to gain the votes of one of the factions). Hrolfland has the largest army numberwise but most are 1st-level Commoner feudal peasant conscripts. There are also rules for splitting up the armies into smaller units after they take a certain amount of casualties. All told, the maximum number of this army is 14,000 souls (not counting leaders and PCs) and 280 longships. Before sailing out the warriors feast, drink, and give their goodbyes to friends and family. Ljot Gatson makes an animal sacrifice of a prized stallion to win Odin's favor and hopefully bring a good omen. The 19-day long journey to Mulstahba has no random encounters, on account that any common dangers by now would be trivial to the PCs and not worth worrying about.  When the fleet reaches Mulstahba, making land is far from straightforward. Much of the island is covered in marshland and the water level changes rapidly based on whether it's high or low tide. To prevent ships from being stranded on land, the people of the peninsular land-bridge use long willow stems known as withies to mark passages that can support vessels in both high and low tides. Unfortunately the city-state's magical diviners are well aware of the planned invasion and moved around the withies. One of the Northlander scout ships is beached, but Skíðblaðnir's portability serves as a useful countermeasure. The PCs cannot carry the whole army with them, but they can scout ahead to find safe landing quickly. There is a swamp fort which must be taken care of to let the rest of the army pass through without incident. The fortress is kind of a "filler" dungeon. The main entrance is guarded by carved animal statues which transform into enemies in waves for the PCs to fight (but can be dispelled). The interior is full of marsh giants and lizardfolk mooks of middling challenge rating (8). Iskarfa is a green hag witch and commander of the giants, who when killed transforms into a peluda dragon which causes the ground in the room they're fighting to give way to lower flooded passages.  After the fortress is taken care of, the PCs are tasked with scouting further inland. There is no army on the main shore, but there is a small elite team of assayers dispatched to lay magical and alchemical traps along the shore to cripple the Northlander fleet. They also happen to be some of the most politically powerful people of Jem Karteis remaining after the Huun coup. They're a five-person band: Boabey Mhez, a crazed pyromancer who believes he's actually a fire elemental and can wild shape into one; Ezkercia S’tinbxa, a conjurer wearing a veil of coins who has a legion of eunuch bloodragers to carry her in a palanquin to prevent her from touching the ground (a superstition among Mulstahba's rulers); Bolatehbu, a dragon disciple sorcerer who initially wears a cloak but disrobes in combat to fight naked; Shith Kalhe, a necromancer who commands a war chariot pulled by a hill giant; and Tbyx, a crazy fire mage who is eager to kill people and is only along for the ride after the rest extracted a promise from him to obey their every command. Interestingly all but Bolatehbu do not have stats in the book; the other Assayers make reference to stat blocks from Paizo’s NPC Codex, which is surprisingly common for this last adventure. Most enemies beforehand were fully-statted in the adventure path. It's generally only monsters and mooks who get the 'see book X' treatment. Fortunately all of these statblocks are on the D20PFSRD, so you don't need to buy a whole new book to use this adventure!  The Land of the Bull From the Sea  This is a relatively short chapter. From way back in Blood on the Snow we used Mass Combat Rules only once, but now they're coming back in full force! The main battle here is when the ships of the Great Northern Army begin to sail to the shore to meet the first of the Mulstabhin army. The PCs' actions can help even if they don't choose to command the army; using area of effect and terrain-based spells on the army can lower their Offensive and Defensive modifiers when the actual battle comes,. There is an encounter on the plateau when a team of elite assassins will sweep into the northern units to lay havoc if the PCs don't wipe them out as its own encounter. Initially the battle begins with crappy Hrolflander conscripts and a better Gatlander unit on the PCs’ side; although initially outnumbered, every few army phases (basically rounds) more Northlander ships dock to provide more units until the whole Great Northern Army is present. In case the gaming table's not interested in mass combat rules, there is a Narrative Summary to sum up the action. Although a good idea in principle, it's very wordy and has the feel of reading a fictional novel. It even dictates the actions of PCs (presuming common archetypes), which I personally find a big no-no. There's also a detailed sidebar explaining how to calculate treasure shares gained during this battle and future ones, both to divide among the PCs and the army units. I personally find this extraneous; it's already late in the campaign and given the process it's unlikely the PCs are going to have enough time to craft expensive magic items or buy more longships/siege equipment given that the only major trade city nearby is the one they’re invading. One thing that brought a chuckle out of me is in an example provided in the sidebar, the party cleric keeps a larger share via a loophole where he's the owner of Skíðblaðnir and entitled to a captain's share...with no crew to split the proceeds. The party acquiesces to his demands as he's the only provider of magical healing. I get the feeling this happened in the Northlands' playtesting phase... The army makes camp at the shore to recover their losses. The battlefield attracts all manner of carrion, including creepy crab swarms that make distressing scuttling sounds and are kept at bay from the ships via ring of brushfire torches. The assembled godi spellcasters are doing their best to cast divination after divination spell to locate Njal to no avail, while using their own to ward the army from scrying attempts. The reality of the situation is that the wyrd of Njal is not to be hunted and cornered, but to face his foes in open battle. As such the Æsir are engaging in a cosmic spellslinging game with Nergal (the Huun's patron deity) to counter the influences of each other's spellcasters on Midgard. The Northern Army does not have much to go on besides the fact that "the setting sun hides the Køenig of the Northlands," but a distraught new soldier comes in. He claims to have seen the shade of Lord Jorund (a Hrolfand leader who perished in the preceding fight) repeating a single line: quote:'The doom of the North lies where the Bull climbs from the sea. They that would stay the hand of darkness must go there and look for the mark of Donar, but they must go alone for the army marches to Ragnarök and not god nor man can say its fate while the Bull yet stands unbroken.’ Certain skills and research infer that Mulstahban folklore tells that a mythical bull rose from the sea to become leader of what is their modern nation, and the city of Jem Karteis has an architectural design akin to that of a bull: two fortress-spires as horns at the front gates, with buildings sloping down a cliff to form the bull’s back, and the "legs" are a pair of sturdy cliffs rising out of the sea where the docks are located. As such the Great Northern Army must continue westward to find Njal's forces while the party infiltrates Jem Karteis to find the mark of Donar. Along the way the adventure provides optional encounters in the form of mass combat encounters for the army and encounters for the PCs. The adventure advises changing the size and scope of challenges to avoid the army from taking too many casualties for the eventual grand final battle. The "random" encounters for the PCs are one-time occurrences and appropriately powerful, providing a bit of world-lore for Mulstahba: 1.) a road of staked skulls who provide divination to the Deathspeaker necromancer responsible for its upkeep (an astrological divination spoke of a Road of Souls to defeat the Northlanders); 2.) a former battle of Mulstabhins and a portion of Njal's forces dead, where appropriate checks can show that it's not just Mulstahbins they fought (the Huun) and possibly non-humanoid tracks among them; 3.) villages either occupied (whose folk are protected by hobgoblin mamluks, elite forces of the city-state) or empty (Huuns slaughtered inhabitants for withholding tax grain); 4.) the Titan of Mulstahba, a jack-in-irons giant who is has an arcane archer and drummer bard strapped to each of its soldiers, and is one of the islands' most notable guardians. The Mulstahba of Jem Karteis  This chapter is a two-parter: the first portion is dedicated to an extensive write-up of Mulstahbin society and culture, and the second half covers the PCs' adventure for the mark of Donar. The detail for Mulstahba is quite commendable, especially on account that ordinarily in the adventure a lot of this would be passed over given the nature of it (sneaking in followed by big battles). I'm not going to cover it all, but I'll cover a few salient points. “Mulstabha” is a rather interesting word: it's derived from a minotaur sailor of the same name who landed his ship here and conquered the native tribes to build a large city. Very little is recalled of the minotaur king beyond speculation and legend, but the iconography of a bull rising from the waves to walk upon land is a huge fixture in Mulstahban art. The word "Mulstahba" is meant to represent government as well as a social contract forged to unite the people. Therefore, it is used to describe the homeland, the city-state, and its ruling king. The Mulstahba (city-state) of Jem Karteis is located inland, and is ruled by the Mulstahba (king) of Jem Karteis. This confuses a lot of outsiders, and the meaning of the word is meant to be sussed out based on the context of the sentence it's spoken in. Additionally while many people use Mulstahban passage for north-south trade (and indeed Northlanders have to pass through here to raid the Southlands beyond Monrovia), the city of Jem Karteis restricts entry to citizens only. Foreigners may only set foot on and trade in the docks which comprise the city's "hindquarters." Their monetary units are directly inspired by real-world Greek and Jewish currency: staters, shekels, drachma, dekastarter, and electrum staters. Although the sample NPC names don't sound Arabic or Greek that I know of, their use of mamluks and a military rank title of Emir-general were concepts of authority in the real-world Islamic Caliphates (and later the Ottoman Empire). Mulstahba is a caste-based society, where theoretically a person's lot in life is based upon the astrological divinations and prophecies. There are the Unseen, rulers directly related down five generations to the current and former Mulstahbas. The Unseen mask their faces and have strong taboos upon walking on the ground outside their homes (footwraps and palanquins get around this to varying degrees). The Unbearing are a conglomeration of religious and governmental authorities whose function is vital to running the city but do not otherwise have royal blood. The Unknown comprise common laborers, workers, and business owners, and one among them every year is elevated to the Unbearing caste to encourage loyalty and a sense of contentment ("if I win the nobles' favor I stand a chance!"). The Unwritten are slaves, criminals, and the poorest of the poor. It is common for higher-ranking Castes to be banished to this one for great crimes. The Uncasted includes nomadic tribes living outside the city and certain Hykadrion priests who are tolerated but do not have any specific privileges or restrictions. Then there are those who lie outside the caste system in their own social orders: the hobgoblin slave-soldier mameluks and the Unspeaking, an undead slave labor force responsible for mining, road-building in swampland, and other dangerous jobs. There are two major religious orders: There is Mulstahbin Astrology, where people chart the course of the future via a combination of study of the heavens and the natural philosophy of the world's elements. The second religion is known as the Hykadrion Prophecies, who hold more temporal authority and believe that dragons are sacred beings to revere and emulate. It is believed that such creatures will help save humanoids from a prophesied "Time of Darkness." As for the Huun, much less is talked about them, with the bulk in a single-page sidebar. The authors of Frog God Games have been building them up as a mysterious evil force for the Lost Lands Campaign Setting, with scant references to them in other products. This adventure ends with hints at their plans of a magical network of portals as a teaser for their eventual world domination. This is done by transporting whole armies around the world. The book doesn't out and out say it, but after looking at their military titles (aga, chorbaji, etc) as well as their scribes wearing red felt caps (a fez) they are more or less Fantasy Counterpart Ottoman Turks. That is, if Ottoman Turks were uniformly dark-skinned and worshipped the Babylonian death god Nergal. The Huuns live on the far eastern side of Libynos and contributed to several major campaigns fighting the Foerdewaith Empire and most recently the city of Bard's Gate. Their homeland is an arid desert and their warriors dress in black robes and paint their eyes and top half of their faces with kohl (mascara make-up). This last part earned them the title of "black-eyed Huuns" among their enemies. They are ruled by an immortal King of Kings who sat uncontested since their empire's founding, and they believe the people of the continent of Akados (which includes the Northlands) are descendants of one of their ancient enemies, the long-dead Hyperborean Empire. As a result, they have a major grudge against everyone west of Mulstahba and seek to show this in campaigns of slaughter. What I Changed: I made the Huuns in my campaign based off of real-world Hunns on account of the one-letter difference. They were much more steppe-archers than Ottomans. While their King of Kings still plotted the domination of Akados, he wants to turn the inhabitants into loyal subjects rather than outright genocide. During Return of Hallbjorn I had a colony of lost Huun scouts as one of the settlements along with Northlanders and people from the Ammuyad Caliphate; I had the Transborean Current be a sort of Bermuda Triangle-like effect of taking lost voyages to Nieuland’s shores. Although I still had the Huun as a sort of mysterious stand-offish group, they allied with the PCs when a branch of the Children of Althunak was using supernatural localized winters to force the various settlements and (human!) indigenous people to pledge loyalty. I plan to combine bits of NS10 with NS9 to wrap up our campaign early, where the Huuns invade the Northlands while an Althunak-possessed Hengrid is stirring up trouble. Although the King of Kings is villainous (he wants to find a way to control Althunak's power to direct the Fimbulwinter against enemy nations) the allied Huun NPCs from NS7 can make for potential strange bedfellows. But I have yet to tell that story... But enough about late-game world-building, let's move on to the adventure! This part of the chapter is a dungeon crawl where the PCs encounter a massive ringed fortification. As the PCs are presumed to have all manner of magic, class features, and even just high Stealth at their disposal, encounters and eluding detection are assumed to be automatic. There is a section of wall being repaired where a huge split from a great lightning bolt hit many years ago. This is obviously the mark of Donar, and here the PCs can go into an underground section and make an unlikely ally. The dungeon beneath the wall holds brass golems, a pit of chain worms, and legions of undead slave miners in tunnels full of flammable gas. Some undead will notice the PCs' intrusion to report to their master: Islaug, the first Jomsking cast out from the Jomsvikings to sail to unknown shores. He and a crew of loyalists landed in Mulstahba and gifted with undeath from their dark god managed to survive for several centuries underground. If the PCs do not immediately attack, he will explain his story and how he can aid the party in the eventual battle: the undead laborers are commanded by a necromancer bearing a black stone which can bend undead to his will. If the stone is destroyed he can lead an army of the unliving to fight for them. He addresses the PC bearing Kroenarck, even if the blade is disguised and not currently wielded. Later on in the dungeon the PCs can find several Huun soldiers, who are alternately spear-bearing infantry or astride Karkaddan mounts. There is also a prison where Huun scribes take notes of the confession of Mulstahbin prisoners with the aid of a crucidaemon and a giant martuush (cobra-scorpion hybrid) to feed less compliant captives. The PCs can find a shrine to Nergal tainting a local water supply, as well as an incense-heavy shrine where several priests and Egyptian-style golem guards are maintaining a soul gate where several Huun assassins cross through to teleport elsewhere. This is one of the Huun's major military breakthroughs: via the use of unholy water mixed with blood a watery one or two-way portal can be made that acts as a scrying focus for the connected areas. Although still in the development stages, the Huun Imperium plans to create large enough Soul Gates keyed to strategic locations around the Material Plane to move entire armies around the world in an instant. In fact, examination of this particular Soul Gate after the battle shows a stone corridor hallway bearing the clan emblem of the Hrolfs. The Huun sent a team of assassins to kill Njal's family and other important people of the Hrolf clan! The next dungeon takes place in the tower of Stone Keep, the Northlands' greatest (and only) feudal-style castle. It's a short six-room affair, with the rest of the castle beyond the scope of this adventure. A group of Nachtjäger Rogues ambushed the guards while the Huun and their daemon allies went further into the tower. A pair of cacodaemons will shapeshift into guards to convince the PCs that nothing is amiss and the intruders are taken care of, although talking with them reveals that they know little of Northlands culture and a Perception check spots fresh flowing blood leaking out below a nearby doorway they’re guarding. Lady Sanja, the wife of the late Magnus Hrolfsblood, was killed by a daemon who’s now taking her disguise, but the two younger children (Fritha and Grimr) are in the last room. Fritha's precocious magic was able to ward the doors for a time, and when the PCs finished off the assassins she opens the door to thank them. She explains how the future for once is uncertain, where the Norns left their wyrds to chance instead of cutting the string. This is significant, as the forces of Fate do not often let mortals plot their own destiny. Still, Fritha explains the Huun's portal plan for world domination along with an omen from Odin: quote:"The sun does set but also rises And with that she tells of how the PCs are needed in the east again to help their father. The adventure mentions that one of the assassins has boots of teleportation the PCs can use, along with a portable hole to transfer the whole party if they cannot do so themselves (the soul gate to the castle's one-way). The Battle of Jem Karteis  We're in the home stretch baby! The last chapter of the last adventure of the Northlands is a good old-fashioned final battle between tens of thousands of soldiers with a mixture of Mass Combat Rules and personalized encounters for the PCs. The first part occurs when the PCs aren't here: Njal's forces, who managed to survive so far via hit-and-run raids and sacking villages for supplies, are headed to Jem Karteis. Njal saw an omen as two one-eyed ravens visited him while sleeping, which he interpreted as a sign to seek out their ultimate foes directly. Meanwhile the Great Northern Army is closing in on Jem Karteis. Our first mass combat encounter has Njal's outnumbered, inferior forces facing Mulstahbin cavalry. When the good guys suffer a heavy beating, the Great Northern Army joins the fray to save their Køenig and High Køenig-to-be. There's a bunch of detailed tactics listed for the Mulstabhin forces, along with a two page-long Narrative summary (but no PC-dictating this time!). Unfortunately, the assembled forces are but a fraction of the Huun's true might. Via a complicated series of sluice-gates and canals, a massive Soul Gate forms like a side-ways lake of blood over the wall, revealing a vision of a desert land with an old pyramid...and countless legions of Huun warriors, from humans to giants to Colossal armored glyptodons bearing siege towers! They charge through the join the fray and the Northlanders’ resolve wanes. Our PCs join the fray once they teleport back to Mulstahba. There is a strong sensation (like fingers pulling at golden threads connected to their souls) to head to the wall which bore the mark of Donar. Upon the wall is Servant Ali-Asekar, Death’s Master and Herald of the Bringer of Peace, the general responsible for Mulstahba's subjugation and the eventual destruction of the Northlands. He does not have his own stat block, instead using the NPC Codex's Death Master but with several domain spells swapped around. The PCs must scale the wall by might or magic and destroy the Soul Gate along with Ali-Asekar and his many guards and zombies. Additionally the black stone Islaug spoke of, is here too and destroying it (and Ali-Asekar) causes the next scene to occur. Setting fire to the tunnels below, sections of wall crumble to disrupt the Soul Gate (the PCs automatically escape harmlessly). Now the PCs can join the battle directly. If they tarry about on their own rather than shacking up with the larger forces, they encounter a fight with one of the glyptodon war-beasts and its tower's occupants. We go back to Mass Combat Rules, save that an Army of the Dead gives two more units on the battlefield (and of course more Narrative Summary). The final encounter is the Broken Shieldwall, the same name as the adventure. Some serious poo poo happens in a long amount of boxed text: Kol the Red-Handed lands a lucky critical hit on a war-beast's neck and sends it and its riders tumbling to their deaths, Eymund grabs a Huun's spear and stabs the eye of another war-beast to kill it, only for Eymund to encounter a pair of giants and Njal follows to save his eldest son. The PC bearing Kroenarck feels a strong pull, and if they get there super-fast via magic a pair of desert giants ambush them while the following boxed text is presumed to happen while the PCs are fighting. This is an interesting touch I haven't seen many other adventures do: Njal gets into a one-on-one duel with an armored troll. Although at one point the troll loses his weapon, just like way back in Raven Banners Over Gatland does Njal allow his opponent to regain his footing. But instead of rising the troll deceptively thrusts forward with his blade, straight through Njal's stomach and spine before the monster's skull is crushed in from one last blow. Njal breathes his last and a vision of the Norns cutting his thread flash by the PC's eyes. Eymund's sword shatters at the troll’s hands, leaving him weaponless as the enemy advances. He does not take his father's weapon, knowing that he must have it in his hands to reach Valhalla... At this point the adventure encourages the PCs to give/throw him Kroenarck, and the PC who does so gets 100k EXP and a +1 bonus to an ability score of their choice; the rest of the party gets 50k each. Eymund uses the sword to kill the troll in one hit (what's with all these Cutscene Powers lately?) as a pair of Sand Giants ambush the PCs. They're like desert giants but stronger. If the PC does not give the sword, the adventure's kind of at a loss for words as to what happens: quote:The rest of the adventure assumes that the PCs follow their wyrd set in motion decades ago with a call to the mead hall of Jarl Olaf Henrikson and give Eymund the sword. If they choose to not do so, all is not lost. Continue the adventure as written with the modification to remove Eymund receiving the sword. It may just be that the PC is destined to become the High Køenig of the Northlands, if the GM wishes to develop that campaign ending. But that's not all. The sword may be united with the High Køenig, but the Final Boss of The Northlands Saga has yet to appear. Continuing on, the Northmen seem to be winning against all odds, but something terrible happens: the bodies of the Huuns twitch, roll, fly, and otherwise move together to form a giant mound. But instead of a pile of bodies the corpses melt together into a giant amorphous pillar of bubbling acidic flesh. This is Ali-Asekar's last gambit, the summoning of one of Nergal's divine messengers into Midgard. I'm just going to say it. It doesn't compare to the fight against Hengrid Donarsdottir. The "Pillar of Nergal" is a living monolith, a monster from the Tome of Horrors 4. It is a CR 20 extraplanar ooze with good sensory capabilities (tremorsense & blindsight out to 120 feet), regeneration vs non-fire attacks, an impassible DR 10, and Spell Resistance of 30. It has the ability to spawn offfspring every 1d4 rounds (treated as their own monsters) but it's presumed that the Northern armies are fighting them so it's just the Pillar vs the Party. The Pillar has 5 attacks and can deal lots of damage in melee and 10d8 acid to those it swallows whole... BUT THE FINAL BOSS HAS NO RANGED ATTACKS OR MOVEMENT CAPABILITES! Yes, a PC with overland flight or even a winged mount can basically stay out of this thing's reach and whittle it down with spells and arrows (ideally fiery arrows). I realize I didn't get time to do an in-depth look at Hengrid in the previous chapter, but at least she had an iceberg AoE and a magic hammer which can be thrown and used to call lightning/wind wall. Besides the least-powerful yeti, each of the forms had some kind of ranged capability: cone of cold (wendigo), polary ray (ice yai oni), rock throwing for the jotun, a fly speed (wendigo and oni), and possibility some battlefield control and defensive capabilities such as a solid fog or gaseous form with the ice yai oni, or an at-will phantom steed and freedom of movement as a cold rider. Both bosses have an action economy disadvantage, but in this case Hengrid is most likely going to be a more entertaining fight. And the Pillar of Nergal is the ooze type, the second-least common creature type in this AP besides Fey and of a type not vulnerable to the Saga’s most iconic weapons! Concluding the Adventure Once the Living Pillar is felled, the remaining Huun forces fall into disarray and retreat. The Mulstahbin forces either surrender to beg for mercy from the Northlanders or attack the retreating Huuns for taking over their country. In the aftermath, a great haul of 1.7 million hacksilver is taken as loot to divide among the commanders and PCs. Many of the most powerful leaders of the Northlands fell in battle, and they cannot be resurrected as they became Victims of Fate. Aha, that explains all those one-hit kills! Eymund inherits the crown of Hrolfland at the tender age of 14 and is appointed ruler of Gatland as well as their Jarl. Køenig Leif Ragison of Hordaland swears fealty to him, and the Althing of of Storstrøm Vale appoints him Køenig of the Vale. Vastavikland and Estenfird are the only lands to not officially recognize him, but the possession of Kroenarck as well as the aforementioned claims of rulership more or less unite the Northlands. Eymund takes the surname Njalson instead of Hrolfsblood in honor of his father. As for the PCs, they are recognized as the greatest heroes of the Northlands and there's a bullet-point list of suggestions for their futures. They include becoming Køenig of Mulstahba which is conquered as a Northland province, becoming Køenig of Vastavikland for defeating Hlundel, becoming head of the Hall of the Hearth Stone for a godi PC, an arcane spellcaster is appointed to train Fritha, a diplomatic PC is appointed emissary to the Southlands in Bard's Gate, a guardian-type PC replacing Hengrid Donarsdottir as Protector of Estenfird, and for a Nûk or dwarf PC leading their people to establish a new homeland in the Seal Coast or Mount Helgastervän respectively. Finally we have an option of venturing beneath the Wold Tree's roots to bring news of the daughters of Skuld to the Norns, or clearing out the undead beneath Jem Karteis. quote:But all of that, as they say, is another story. The last bit translates to "Fate is inexorable." Concluding Thoughts: The Broken Shieldwall has the right tempo for an epic battle, only to be hamstrung by "but thou must" options and a little too much Cutscene Dialogue in both narrative summary and boxed text. The environs of Mulstahba, although quite evocative and cool, are a place never before mentioned in the adventure path. Eymund and his legacy feels like a bit of spotlight-stealing. Although his legacy was mentioned before by Old Meg 5 adventures ago, Eymund’s an NPC who the party has never interacted with and won't until the final battle. He's 14 years old by the time of this adventure, and the inclusion of a Chosen One Kid Hero doing all this superhuman stuff feels a bit jarring in comparison with the Northland's intended gritty sword-and-sorcery feel. The Huun more or less come out of nowhere and do not have that feeling of leading up to the big confrontation like one would do with say, Althunak's defeat. Whereas the Mulstahbins were portrayed with some nuance and had a surprisingly detailed society, the inner SJW in me can't help but bristle at the Huun being more or less swarthy Middle Eastern invaders part of a death cult. In short, Broken Shieldwall does not rate highly for me. But I feel that for a more holistic view of the entire sourcebook, we need to separate the Northlands into several "arcs." First we have the Prequel Arc of NS0, both very strong adventures which in spite of their low level sell you on the setting's themes and make you feel like big badass heroes right from level 1. Then we have the Kenneth Spencer Arc of NS1-NS4. It too is good, with plenty of variety from one adventure to the next. From Argonauts-style voyages to lift a curse to leading an Inuit uprising, there's something that keeps this Arc feeling fresh instead of stale. Then we have the Post-Ken Arc, NS5-NS10 where other writers take over based on his existing notes. And hoo boy do we see a massive change here! Raven Banners Over Gatland is good, clean fun. Plague in Trotheim is passable if a bit too high fantasy, and Return of Hallbjorn is straight up "slaughter the Indians for loot and EXP." Hallburning is several levels too high for its concept and involves characters the PCs never heard of or cared about to make things personal. Daughter of Thunder and Storm is perhaps the best adventure in that it wraps up the long-standing BBEG of Althunak with a touching mixture of role-playing and Nordic martial heroism. Broken Shieldwall feels like an extended sequel-bait for a Huun Invasion metaplot for a future Lost Lands book. But in spite of the gradual downward curve and additional personal changes to make the campaign work, Northlands overall is a very good book. I do not regret purchasing it and running it for 1.2 years. For in spite of the problems I outlined throughout this review, there is a golden core of material for a GM to mold into something beautiful. Join us next time as we cover a bonus stand-alone adventure in the back of the book: Winter's Teeth! Libertad! fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Apr 15, 2018 |
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Apr 15, 2018 02:16
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The Long Night of Winter NLS 1: Winter's Teeth  Yes that's reused artwork. And the main monster of this adventure uses the artwork of Grendel back in the Monster chapter too. So after the major Adventure Path are two appendices: a handout and map appendix, which includes player-friendly copies of all the maps and encounters as well as the GM's versions. I find this to be an excellent gaming aid, something a lot of books of its kind do not include. The pre-generated PCs are nothing special and don't really have anything to stand out being 1st level and all. The only exception's Jón the Tree, a giant-blooded fighter who due to his Large size and 20 Strength has a greataxe which deals 3d6+7 damage at 10 feet of reach. He's so clearly a superior option to the human huscarl fighter it's not even funny. But back to the main topic: the Northlands Saga had six stand-alone adventures known as The Long Night of Winter series published as their own books. They could be played between the major events of the Adventure Path or on their own. Each of them are prefaced with in-character text from a skald about to tell people a story which just so happens to be the adventure. The first of the series is included for free within Northlands Saga Complete, so I'm reviewing it here. Winter's Teeth is a horror-themed adventure for parties level 6th through 8th. The backstory is that late in the year the PCs are invited by Jarl Anbjorn Olefson to winter at his hall. Given that winters can very easily snow people in, both sides agreed to a pre-meetup 3 days in advice so that both they can gauge whether the other is agreeable company for several months. But when the PCs finally travel to Jarl Anbjorn's holdings, they find some vicious beast has rampaged through the village and slain just about everyone. The bulk of the adventure is a sort of murder mystery where the PCs look for survivors and possibly find the nature and weakness of the monster so as to slay it. The responsible party is Ofieg the Axe-Bitten, one of the jarl's Bearsarkers. Remember how way back in the section for new setting class archetypes I talked about inner fires? Well a bearsarker must temper their powers in moderation: rage balanced by wisdom, physical might with divine compassion, and madness with civilization. A bearsarker who becomes too isolated from one's fellows, uses their powers for wicked endeavors, or forsakes the gods is at risk of turning into a slåtten, a creature more bestial than mortal driven by a never-ending hunger. In Ofieg's case, he grew tired of his peers and chose to live up in the mountains by himself, and the next time he came back he slaughtered everyone here. The stats for a slåtten are given at the end of the adventure, but I'm describing it here for ease of reference. They are very powerful CR 12 creatures, which given the relatively low levels of most Northlanders earns their reputation as slaughterers of entire villages and breakers of shieldwalls. They are melee-focused, with claws and bite attacks (+23 to hit, 1d8+7/1d6+7) with rending powers and very high AC and CMD (27 and 33 respectively). But they are animalistic in nature (Intelligence 2) and besides this their major weakness is their formerly-divine connection. Divine spellcasters of Wotan, Donar, Baldr, or Tiwaz who attack the monster ignore its Damage Reduction, which is normally pierced by good-aligned weapons. When hit by such a foe, the slåtten must make a Will save or suffer degrees of fear which stack with every hit. Additionally, an herbalistic extract known as Wotan's Eye moss can be applied to weapons as a poison to get around its damage reduction. Personally speaking, I feel that this monster is rather over-powered for the promposed level range, barring PCs with builds to take advantage of its weakness. Although the adventure has some investigation as preface and wants to play up the horror angle of being in over your head, it jives against the Nordic heroism of standing your ground and fighting. To remedy this a bit the adventure proposes that if the PCs do meet the creature early on it may briefly attack delivering grievous injuries (or a death) before retreating.  The adventure begins at the beach of area 6, where the PCs presumably sail in and find a dozen dead bodies. After that the plot becomes a mystery sandbox. The adventure has a set of skill checks regarding investigation where the PCs can put together the pieces of what happened by visiting various areas and meeting survivors. When they come to the conclusion of the monster's nature, either by the aforementioned checks, meeting the monster itself, or visiting area 11, they can then roll checks to know more about what a slåtten is. When they learn of its weaknesses, checks to learn about Wotan's Eye moss and its possible location (south-facing slopes of steep cliffs) can let the PCs find its location. Area 1 is the farm of the now-slain Leifson's, who were done in by human treachery but whose corpses were later found and eaten by the monster. Area 2 is the jarl's hall, which has the scenes of dozens of people killed with rent mail and rotting half-eaten bodies all about. The hall has 3,000 hacksilver worth of treasure but looting the place is considered highly dishonorable. There are a few survivors, not all of whom are necessarily trustworthy: sometime before the rampage began a beached whale washed up on the dividing line of property between the farms of Bjarik Leifson and Jorund the Bald, whose farm is area 3. Bjarik and Jorund are far from friends and gave the jarl many headaches in resolving disputes over who claimed the whale's resources of ivory, blubber, and ambergris. When the slåtten began going on a rampage, Jorund took advantage of the situation. While the town was either out hunting the beast or staying to guard their homes, Jorund and his three sons attacked Bjarik's farm and set the home on fire. To ensure that the beast would not come for his family, Jorund tied down several goats and one of his thralls to stakes leading away from his home and towards the Haddsons' farm (area 8). But the reverse happened and the monster attacked Jorund's house. Jorund, his daughter Tofa, and his thrall Sigvat barely escaped. Jorund's group of survivors can be found in the fields of area 4, but although Jorund puts up a good front he is one sneaky snake who has no compunctions in betraying the PCs and other survivors if given the chance. Sigvat is a mute sailor who washed ashore in the village but could not prove his background. So when Tofa saved his life and nursed him back to health Jorund declared he had to pay off the debt as a thrall. Sigvat is very smart and loyal to Tofa in spite of what Jorund claims about him. There's also the jarl's son Egil who although capable of wielding a blade, yet is only 15 years old and filled with fear and survivor's guilt. Another survivor can be found in a secret sea cave (6a) who can reveal a rough description of the beast to the PCs. Area 7 is a safe haven being a godshouse and thus avoided by the slåtten. There are 3 survivors in here: Halli Buisdottir, a pious daughter of the village godi, Gnupa whose mind is broken and is reduced to crouching and stuttering, and Little Bolla, a 9 year old girl who was injured by the monster but managed to survive. Although lucky, she has the inner fire of a Bearsarker which is now just coming to the fore. Depending on the PCs' actions they can help her learn to temper this and not do anything stupid (like flying into a pseudo-rage at the slåtten's arrival). In time she will eventually grow up to be one of the greatest Bearsarkers of the Northlands. I almost feel as if this was meant to tie in to the late-game adventures in the main book on account of the year progressions or just a bit of personal plot development for the GM to take as they may. Area 8 is the Haddsons' farm, a sprawling collection of homesteads thanks to the clan patriarch having many children sired from his wife and thralls. In fact the slåtten was so busy killing the Haddsons it took the creature 3 days to kill them all. Now their large herds of cattle are roaming free in panicked packs about the place. Area 9 is Ofieg's cave retreat where he now sleeps during the day as a monster and leaves at night to hunt. Area 10 is the cottage of a local herbalist who wrote a clue in Runic about Wotan's Eye extract, and she fell to her death in area 11 trying to pick some from the cliff (which requires a risky climb check and/or Reflex save to avoid falling 50 feet). Rounding out this adventure is a table of random encounters, using a d20 table where +1 is added to the roll for every previous encounter for progressively more difficult fights. The slåtten can be encountered on a roll of 20 or higher, but the adventure advises having it show up immediately until the right tempo/progression has been met. Otherwise the author cautions you to have it be an indirect encounter: seeing a vague shape of the monster tearing cattle in half a fair distance away, a vague shadow of the creature shining down from a hilly slope, and so on and so forth. The other encounters include a very ornery dire bear who doesn't want to give up its hunting grounds to some new predator, a wolverine that went mad drinking the monster's blood, dismembered human body parts which animate as undead due to the slåtten's lingering malice (a one-time event), packs of wolf scavengers, very desperate bandits hoping to loot the farmsteads fast enough before whatever did this returns, a two-headed troll with a +2 morningstar wandering down from the monsters driven by the smell of blood, and a small family of yetis hunting the slåtten after it killed and eaten one of their kin.  The troll encounter may be a bit of a red hearing. Such a monster is relatively rare enough in adventures and supposedly strong enough to kill a bunch of people. The PCs may assume it to be the culprit. Concluding Thoughts: Winter's Teeth does not have a set conclusion or epilogue, unlike the main adventures. It has the right structure for a horror mystery, although the slåtten's stats should be considered carefully for GMs. Given the investigation-based nature, it favors PCs trained in Knowledge and wilderness skills to suss out clues, and less cerebral warriors may not do as well. Overall, this is a fine adventure. It doesn't wow me, but it's not bad and can make for a fine change of pace. So, that's it. We literally have nothing else to cover besides the OGL, the book's back cover, and a full-color poster map of the Northlands. I am glad that I got the opportunity to review this thing in such fine detail and share with you this truly unique adventure path and setting. I can't make any promises, but I have plans to review another setting I am passionate about in the near future: Midgard World Book by Kobold Press!
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Apr 15, 2018 07:20
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So on other message boards I posted this review there's a bit of a demand in curiosity on my revisions for NS7: The Return of Hallbjorn. I compiled a list of the major changes here: 1.) Half-Face in this case was still a Dorvae, but he took on the guise of Harald, a bearded Northlander godi who visited the witch PC at the end of Plague in Trotheim to commend her on the sacrifice she made for her beloved. Now he can treat her as an equal, given that she made a pact with her patron to let him take Althunak's place once she killed said god. He said that the Lord of Ice and Stone sends his regards, just as a huge jotund troll rose out of the stormy waves to throw giant rocks at Silvermeade Hall. After subduing Harald with black tentacles she reunited with the rest of the party who were sending out a fleet to attack the new threat. 2.) During the fight 3 longships from the sea arrived, Hallbjorn was among them. When the PCs were knocked off their summoned shark mounts and saved, only then did I reveal the adventure's name when they discovered the identity of their rescuer. In addition to Northlander Nieuland colonists, I had Ammuyad Caliphate and Huun sailors among the fleet, including two named NPCs for the respective factions: Nejla, a dimensional dervish Magus and Uldin, a Ranger whose hawk companion delivered potions and spell scrolls to characters climbing the troll/on other ships. My final NPC was Turid, Hallbjorn's wife and a Cleric of Odin. They did not get much screen-time save to give a "face" to the colonist factions, although I plan to have Uldin reappear in NS9 when the Huun invade the Northlands. 3.) I initially had no plans to have Nieuland contain indigenous people, troll or otherwise. But after some thought I decided to on account that our Norwegian gamer noticed hints of the Vinland Saga in the initial set-up. So instead I had the Oestryn Isles be home to a people known as the Crey, a human ethnic group strongly based off of real-world Cree people. 4.) The impetus to travel back to the Isles was motivated not by greed or crushing the natives, but when Hallbjorn discussed strange weather as of late in the normally temperate isles. When the witch PC informed him about Harald and discovered that said "godi" was gone, the tracks he left before teleporting had soil found only on the Oestryn Isles. The party realized that their old friend Althunak was making a comback in the place Hallbjorn ended up, and they disembarked to set sail once again. This was not a hard choice, as the sailors had friends and family back there. 5.) When the PCs arrived to Kasternack, they found a supernaturally cold fog over the area. A group of cloaked cultists of Althunak were holding a lottery where they gave each villager stones of different colors. Many of the stones were similarly-hued, but one of them was different from the others. When the cultists drew a stone from the bad, the person with the matching color was their pick. Said stone was enchanted with a geas spell to make the person travel alone to the Wolf Cairn Mountains. There were similar lotteries among the colonist and Crey villages. When the PCs arrived to stop this lottery, the cultists summoned a monstrous shadow dire bear (which existed in NS7 as a unique random encounter) to fight them. 6.) The witch PC ended up taking the stone from the "winner" in an effort to stop the lottery, only to be affected with the geas herself. Granted, this was a risky maneuver, although she had a cohort NPC she could play for the duration so the group was fine with this. I had the PCs basically follow her tracks and get involve in encounters on the way to help lead them to her. 7.) In Smoking Lake Crannog, Half-Face/Harald converted parts of the ruins into an arena-like stage for the champions to fight each other. The Cult of Althunak is most active on the fringes of the world, and it was not hard for them to learn of the Oestryn Isles' unique situation. With a "ship's graveyard" style mishmash of marooned cultures, the Cult could use it as a testing ground for the martial prowess of those respective cultures without incurring the wrath of their homelands. Half-Face threatened to plunge various villages into deadly winters if they did not choose a "champion" among themselves via the lottery system. He planned to have the champions fight each other and the winner would join the Children of Althunak (this is not a yes/no choice). 8.) In addition to Kasternack, I added the villages of Duhran near the south and Uliastai to the north to represent where the Ammuyad and Huun settled respectively. The troll villages I replaced with Crey villages. I had it so that the Ammuyad people were the only village who refused to pick a champion, so I had an encounter when a pair of osyluth (bone devils) were planning to blow up a large beaver dam and flood the village. The PCs managed to stop them, although Nejla did not know that and already offered herself as Duhran's Champion (much to the consternation of the community). 9.) I reworked one of the stone golems at Giant Hill to be a multi-armed ice golem which rose to attack the party for interfering with the aforementioned osyluth encounter. The witch PC met a champion from one of the Crey villages (Beaver Lodge) and his sister. There was worry he'd kill her right then and there, but the specifics of the geas compelled both of them to fight each other in the arena and not right here and now. 10.) I had inspirations from Vengeance of the Long Serpent to have Althunak-sympathizers among the various colonist and Crey villages which the PCs could root out and destroy. However this did not occur given that the PCs were in one form or another heading directly for the Crannog. The PCs were allowed entrance, weapons and all, in that the Children of Althunak were confident enough in their numbers and strength of arms that they "wouldn't be stupid enough to try something here." 11.) I imported the Lair of the Thrall Collector's giants from NS6 to be guardians at the Crannog, along with various Children of Althunak recruited from the various villages. Non-members were allowed inside as spectators for the eventual games, as Harald wanted a Rome-like Bread & Circuses element. He even told a story about the legend of Spartacus, a slave-paladin who in a decadent empire convinced his masters to pit him against the colosseum's monsters instead of the other slaves. Harald spun this tale into a similar act of self-sacrifice the respective champions chosen. What I revealed with a successful knowledge check was that Harald did not tell the part where Spartacus led a successful slave rebellion. 12.) The witch PC managed to exploit a wording in the geas spell ("travel alone to the fortress in the eastern mountains and fight the other champions there"). It said nothing explicit about killing them, so she used a covert message spell to the other Champions. The champions feint-fighted about while the other PCs snuck about to scan the crannog's defenses. At this point the player who used to play a skald but was now a fighter wanted to bring his old PC back, so I had him show up on an enchanted ship to disrupt the blood-sport. This distracted Half-Face/Harald and the various Children of Althunak that the witch, the Champions, and the rest of the PCs fomented a rebellion and started killing the cultists around the crannog. 13.) I planned to introduce the Jomsvikings as a hostile third-party, angered at the PCs for killling the Jomsking and wanting revenge. However this part was excised due to time constraints. 14.) Skraeling troll mooks were replaced with a mixture of human barbarian cultists and low-grade demons. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 08:38 on Apr 17, 2018 |
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Apr 17, 2018 08:36
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Impermanent posted:Thesis: Your Synthesis option is similar to how al-Qadim did this in 2nd Edition. All classes were boiled down to the standard 4, but each had to pick a common archetype from Arabian folklore to differentiate themselves from the others.
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Apr 17, 2018 20:37
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 Hello everyone. I'm still riding the writer's high from my Northlands review, so I'm striking while the iron's hot to cover another realm of which I have a great passion. The Midgard campaign setting is the brainchild of Wolfgang Baur, a world he's developed for his home campaigns since he was 14 years old. But unlike a lot of similar long-running projects which often turn into humanocentric low-fantasy, Midgard distinguished itself among the pack. The first glimpses utilized evocative world-building. Central and Eastern European folk tales served as major inspirations, and the initial products centered around a clockwork city that sat on the edge of foreboding forest (which may or may not have a mind of its own). Over time more material was released for Midgard in Kobold Quarterly and Open Design, Baur's gaming periodical and publishing house respectively. There were also crowd-funded "patronage projects" which acted as a sort of ur-KickStarter for fans. A proper campaign setting sourcebook was released in 2012 for Pathfinder/AGE System (Dragon Age/Blue Rose), but throughout its lifespan experimented with variant rulesets. To my knowledge, material for Midgard is available for the 3rd through 5th Editions of Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder RPG, 13th Age, Swords & Wizardry, and the AGE System. As of 2018 it released a mostly system-neutral World Book which advanced 10 years from the original setting. There's also a Player's Guide, Hero's Handbook, and Guidebook for Pathfinder, 5th Edition, and Swords & Wizardry systems to go together with the World Book as "sister supplements." The World Book is the one we're reviewing today; as the owner of both it and the 2012 version, I'll do my best to illustrate the major geo-political differences whenever they crop up. Our book opens with some in-universe fiction by Wade Rockett, where a group of adventurers are on a quest to discover what troubles the World Serpent's sleep in order to save their city from an undescribed darkness. The adventurers all contain character aspects from the setting, such as an undead ghoulish monk and a clockwork priestess undeterred by the cold blizzard sweeping over the land. I'm not really one for fiction in sourcebooks, so I don't have much to say other than it demonstrates how a Midgard adventuring party can include more exotic options of races.  Right from the outset, the Midgard World Book highlights several major aspects which set it apart from other settings. It acknowledges that there are many pseudo-medieval fantasy worlds on the market, so the Seven Secrets of Midgard are meant to be played up to make gaming sessions here feel like a truly different realm. I like this concept: with the wealth of 3rd-party material out there, it's very hard to commit to purchasing a new sourcebook that several others don't do already. [LIST=1] [*]A Flat World: Instead of a sphere, the world of Midgard is a floating disc-shaped object encircled by Veles, a serpent-god biting its own tail. Few have truly made it to the edge to see this great beast for themselves. The cosmos is similar, with a moon and stars, and there are rumors that a civilization of fey live on the "bottom half" of the world. [*]Elemental Dragon Lords: Dragons in Midgard are strongly keyed to elements rather than alignment and the good metallic/evil chromatic set-up. Several centuries ago most dragons combined their resources into forming a vast empire, realizing this could get them more influence and power than fighting amongst each other in hoard-filled caves. The Mharoti Empire is the most populous and powerful country in the known setting. It is here scaled races, from dragons on down to the lowly kobolds, are the dominant social force. [*]Gods That Dabble and Plot: The gods in Midgard are very active in the mortal world, although they wear masks to conceal their true identity. The reason for this is that one gains a god's power via murder or enslavement, and as such the masks make it so that the true number of existing gods is unknown. Deities may take a different name (and even moral code and teachings) from culture to culture yet are united by similar themes (Perun and Thor both command lightning). [*]Hidden Races: Midgard has several major races who had a prominent place in the world from the outset. But there are other peoples who are isolated enough that they only recently have been discovered to the point that they can interact with wider society. [*]Ley Lines and Shadow Roads: Magical energy known as ley lines rushes through the world, and enterprising mages can tap their power to fuel their spells. An ancient elven empire used said lines to create shadow roads capable of long-range teleportation to link their empire. Both sources are keyed to specific locations in the world and are prized by heroes and villains, kings and archmages alike, for the power they contain. [*]Shifting Borders and Falling Kingdoms: Midgard is not meant to be a static world where published material takes place within the same year in perpetuity. As you can imagine, Kobold Press has a sort of metaplot going for the setting in terms of published material. But this section is more personal advice for GMs to make politics, revolts, etc change the world around the PCs whether by changing things directly or from situations beyond their grasp. [*]Time Flies, and Status Matters: This part is expressed in two optional rules, one of which is detailed later. Time Flies is meant to cover longer-term campaigns over a period of months and years as personal progression is meant to be a significant undertaking of one's life. Going from apprentice to archmage in a year is not the presumed standard. Aside from time-sensitive missions and dungeon crawls, the rules suggest that the timeline advances by twice the real-world time that has passed between game sessions. For long-form sagas, it is two months of game-time instead. The Status rules are detailed later, which is meant to bake ancient-world style social status into a trait for characters. [/LIST] Personally speaking I like most of these iconic setting traits. I am a bit more wary of metaplots, and the time flies rules should be more subjective than definite; I prefer the Northlands approach, where individual adventures are spaced between each other by in-game years regardless of how many gaming sessions it takes to complete them. History  After this we get a timeline of events of Midgard, from the creation of the world to the modern day. The creation is subject to multiple interpretations, and the various races and cultures all have their own tellings. Dragons claim that the world was created by Veles for them to rule over, whereas the giants' insist the world was fashioned by the gods from the corpse of their murdered progenitor Aurgelmir. Regardless of the truth, it is known that the gods formed factions upon Midgard and warred against each other. The dwarves claimed that during this time they were created by the smith god Volund and the thunder god Thor to fight against the elves, giants, other races serving under the banner of enemy gods. During this time the dwarves achieved great deeds, but their halls fell from war and natural disasters. Historians have different reasons for this: some say they pushed they gods away and so were punished, while others say that elven sabotage and magic brought them low. The dwarves split in a diaspora with different cultural groups settling into new homes across Midgard. Around 5,000 years ago the mighty pseudo-Egyptian Kingdom of Nuria Natal arose among a ley line-powered riverbank. Their civilization is the oldest continuous human kingdom, surviving through times when the rest of Midgard was brought low into war and barbarism. Two-thousand years later there was also a technologically-advanced island nation of Ankeshel which had flying carriages, lightning spears, and other marvels. It fell beneath the waves from the horrors living under the sea. And 800 years after that, a second great nation of elves created a new empire connected by shadow roads. They even ruled humans and other races, who by this time saw their rule as preferable to the centuries of chaos preceding their founding. But over time new generations knew only of elven rule, and Young Kingdoms seeking independence grew in lands the elves chose not to govern. Many of these dynasties still exist in some form today, albeit more in legacy than in unbroken succession. Krakova and Zobeck number among them. 800 years ago a war known as the Black Sorceress' Revolt broke out in the western nations of Bemmea, where human mages relied upon risky pacts with dark powers to summon into Midgard as soldiers. A mutual arms race between humand and elves arose out of this. In desperation some elves threw their lot in with similar dark powers, creating the subraces known as the shadow fey among the elves and the tieflings among the humans. Shadow roads were shut down to prevent hellish forces from traveling Midgard at will, but not before the forces of the elven nation of Thorn marched through them long last time before disappearing completely. This began the start of the Great Retreat 482 years ago, when the elves withdrew in mass numbers from the mortal world. They left their empire barren in but a week. Other races stepped in to loot and occupy the empty lands, with the only elven enclave of Arbonesse remaining and closed off from outside contact. Gnomes, halflings, and servitor races were now free and directionless. 300 years ago a wise and powerful dragon known as Mharot created a political pact between others of his kind to create a Sultanate. As no dragon was willing to put another with supreme authority over them, they chose a human puppet prince to rule day-to-day affairs. The Sultan/Sultana paid tribute to the greatest dragon lords, and lesser dragons below them served as nobles administering their traditional lands-turned-imperial-districts. Utilizing legions of kobolds, dragonkin, and other subjected races, their power expanded across three continents by force or by treaty. They managed to crush the minotaur city-states and send their people scattered, but the dragons suffered their first major defeat from the god-kings of Nuria Natal. Even so, the Mharoti Empire still desires to claim the riches and land of Midgard under nobler guises. During this time the vampire and darakhul (ghoul) kingdoms of Morgau and Doresh formed, using the advantages of undeath to wage war at night and in winter. And the elves are starting to reappear in Midgard with little explanation on their part, seeking out ley line nodes, lore, and old religious sites. We end this section with a series of recent events within the past 50 years. More nations enter into defense pacts against the Mharoti, the formerly-imprisoned sea god Nethus is freed from his prison but brainwashed by the goddess Hecate into believing himself her loyal husband, the darakhul conquer the nation of Krakova to absorb into Morgau, the shadow fey hatch an unsuccessful plot to take over Zobeck, the Queen of Dornig falls into an enchanted sleep, the Mharoti Empire's former Sultana flees the throne due to a coup from her previous military failures, among other things. People of Midgard  We get a brief overview of the major regions of Midgard, which will be covered later in their own chapters. Midgard has seven major races, defined more by their representation in major world events and in some cases their commonality. There's also 8 minor races who have their place in Midgard. The races and their magical traditions are entirely in "fluff" (no game mechanics) but we're referred to appropriate system-based sourcebooks for Pathfinder and 5th Edition for actual rules. Each of the major races besides humans have a brief entry on cultural magical traditions which arose among them. Before covering the races we have the optional Status rules. Basically it is a score every character has. It can range from 0 (slave) to 60+ (legendary heroes, demigods). It is either a flat 4 if point-buy is used, or with a roll of 1d6+1. A PC adds their Charmisma modifier to their starting status, and one's race (and class if using the Pathfinder rules) can further alter it. In short, in an adventuring party NPCs will address the PC with the highest Status as the default party leader. There is a table provided to be used as a yardstick for an average NPC's social standing. Personally I find it rather arbitrary in places: what separates a "peasant" from a "commoner," and why is an archer's status just below a guild leader or bishop? It's also a bit restrictive, in that it may lock out certain character concepts with a bad roll. You wanted to be a noble scion wizard struggling with familial obligations of rulership when they'd much rather bury their nose in books? Too bad your Charisma is 10 and you rolled a 1 on the d6. Welcome to serfdom!  Humans are a farflung group and inhabit all sorts of social structures and kingdoms. We get a rundown on the major ethnic groups and their cultural languages. Caelmaran live mostly in the western lands and are closely associated with dark magic (sometimes unfairly, sometimes not). The Dornigfolk are humans living in traditional elven lands and as such adopted the language and culture of "the last bastion of the empire of Thorn." Kushites are people of Nuria Natal, the Mharoti Empire, and many Southlands kingdoms. The Madgar hail from the kingdom of their name and live among the Rothenian Plains; they are also skilled in animal husbandry and sadly prone to drunkenness. The Northlanders are pseudo-Scandinavians who hail from a martial culture. The Roshgazi are mostly a sea-faring folk who share close ties with the minotaurs. The Septimes (who call themselves the Manzaro) are the people of the Seven Cities whose realms are notable for their methods of ritualized, honor-based warfare. Finally there's mention of numerous smaller human ethnic groups and a perception among other races that humans are more prone to supernatural corruption. Dragonborn (known as Dragonkin in the 2012 sourcebook) are the youngest race of Midgard. They are humanoid reptilians imbued with elemental traits of a draconic lineage and organize their ethnic groups along these lines (interbreeding is possible). They comprise a huge portion of the Empire's military force where their breath weapons (and elemental resistance) are incorporated into military tactics and formation. As a culture tend to be very arrogant and patriotic, pointing out how relatively fast their civilization grew in spite of their race's youth. Dragon magical traditions focus on the elements and there are rituals capable of turning members of the reptilian races into "higher" forms (kobold to dragonborn, dragonborn into drake). Dwarves are divided into three major cultural regions. The dwarves of the Northlands are the most tradition-based, favoring the gods Thor and Volund and making continual warfare against the monsters of the northern realms and raiding coastal territories of the south. The dwarves of the Ironcrag cantons are focused in the crossroads and famed for their advanced technology, including gunpowder and airships whose construction is a closely-guarded secret. The dwarves of the Southlands live primarily in Nuria Natal and are integrated into the dominant human culture as bodyguards, warriors, creators of clockwork servants, and engineers of god-king's pyramids. Dwarven magic is believed to be learned from Wotan and are the mutual traditions of rune magic (which even non-mages can use) and ring magic. Elves once lived in a grand empire of Thorn, and although not the eldest race they take pride in teaching the human and dwarves "the art of civilization." As of now the few elves remaining in Midgard are part of three groups: the ruthless and duplicitous shadow fey, the nomadic Windrunners of the Rothenian Plains, and the river elves of the kingdom of Arbonnese. The Elfmarked are humans with traces of elven blood which sometimes manifest in ways such as pointed ears. Arbonesse elves have three names: a birth name by parents, a personal name taken upon adulthood, and a lineage/family name. Dornig law forbids those without elven heritage from appropriating elven names, but there's a brisk trade in genealogy in that realm for tracing one's ancestry in hopes of claiming this social status. Elven magic tends to be ritual-based and tied to the shadow roads. Gearforged are deceased souls imbued into an artificial clockwork body, first created by the priesthood of Rava. They were made to serve as soldiers in the city of Zobeck, and their bodies rely upon a combination of magic and technology to function. Their magical traditions involve soulforging (the creation of transplanting souls into gearforged bodies), and a tradition of Clockwork Magic focused around machinery. Kobolds were the slaves of dwarves long ago, suited to menial labor and minework. Many live in the fringes of society in dwarven kingdoms, and in the city of Zobeck are confined to a large ghetto. They learned to adopt unorthodox tactics to survive, such as trapsmithing, creation of small warrens, and dirty fighting. They dominate the mining industry in many lands, and in some cases they own their own mines which they guard fiercly. The Mharoti Empire is an exception to their otherwise low social status: there they are treated as being above humans yet still below dragonborn and dragons. Many kobolds throughout Midgard either aspire to travel there or view the realm as one of liberation. There is no mention of kobold-specific magic. Minotaurs are a searfaring race of warriors. They are fond of self-decoration, whether carving patterns in their own horns, shaving or dying their fur in certain ways, ritual scars, and braiding hair with tokens of fallen enemies. They are great lovers of food and many communities devote significant time to finely-prepared cuisines during festivals and important events. Minotaurs who have their horns broken face considerable stigma and must constantly prove their worth, which ironically has produced some of the most famous members of their race among the "brokehorns." Minotaur magic focuses on labyrinthine themes, from confusing illusory charms to traps and abjuration. Said magic is forbidden to be taught to non-minotaurs. Ravenfolk are also known as huginn or heru. They have small settlements all across Midgard and distrusted for associations with spies, thieves, and being all-purpose troublemarkers. The exception is in Nuria Natal where they are honored and serve in high positions in temples of Horus. But whatever culture they live in, ravenfolk take pride in being messengers for the gods; they do not choose which god seeks an individual, and it is an unlucky Ravenfolk who brings the attention of one of the Dark Gods. They claim to have invented or shared the runes of the All-Father, and tend to focus on prophetic and shadow spells. Shadow Fey are believed to be elves and goblins who swore an oath of service to Sarastra, the goddess of night and magic. They gained great power and prestige in the Shadow Realm, at the expense of being cut off from their former allies and an aversion to sunlight. They still adhere to the cultural traditions of their elven ancestors, and their magical traditions involve the manipulation of shadow and starlight. The Minor Races are low in number, too scattered or isolated to match the power and legacies of the major races. Their entries are much shorter here. The Aasimar are human descendants of angels concentrated in the realm of Ishadia and are engaged in a war of attrition with the Mharoti Empire. Bearfolk are anthropomorphic bears who live in roving bands concentrated in the Northlands and Shadow Realm. Centaurs roam the Rothenian Plains and have a violent history of banditry. They've even destroyed small nations and entire cities. Darakhul are undead akin to ghouls who feed upon the living. They have a pact with the Dark Gods and live in in an underground of Doresh. Dust Goblins are people who refused to be conquered or negotiate during wartime, but due to being on the losing side of many wars got pushed to the most inhospitable regions of Midgard. The text contradicts itself on the "no masters" part by mentioning that worgs and nightgarms treat them as pets and servants and in turn the goblins worship them. Dust goblins scavenge among ruins for relics to trade in cities, thus earning the "dust" moniker. Gnolls are raiders of the southern kingdoms and tend to be xenophobic, but have integrated to various degrees in Nuria Natal. Gnomes are a people whose ancestors earned the wrath of Baba Yaga and thus turned to the aid of devils for protection. They now mostly live in the forest kingdom of Neimheim of which little is known. Tieflings once dominated the noble families of western magocracies but are now reviled for being "hellborn," although shadow fey, gnolls, and gnomes tolerate them. Trollkin are people with mixed giant and fey bloodlines; they are known for being ferocious warriors as well as having powers over spirits and the roads between worlds. They have their own kingdom in the Northlands. Finally the halflings, or Winterfolk, left with their elven masters during the Great Retreat. Those few who stayed behind in Midgard are rarely seen and ply their trade on the rivers of the Grand Duchy of Dornig. Miscellaneous Stuff There's quite a bit of entries here for various cultural details. I'm not going to treat them as their own sections, instead surmising them. Time and the Seasonal CalendarWe get an explanation of Midgard's calendar system (12 months, 360 days and 6 intercalendar festival days) along with days of the week of the most populous cultures. We have a discussion of how various people mark their years. Travel, Trade Fairs, and Festivals: This has detailed accounts of the passage of days between well-known cities of Midgard both by foot and by horseback. Daily pay for guards is listed based upon profession, and there's a list of trade fairs based upon their location, date, and what goods are their specialty. Major holidays festivals around Midgard focus around seasonal changes. Some of the more interesting ones include the Lantern Festival during the Winter Solstice where a torch-light vigil to the sun-god parades around town; New Year's Dawn where people gather to watch the sun rise and bang pots and ring bells to drive away bad spirits; Hatching Day for reptilian races in which many of them are said to have their first birthday; and the Day of Misrule where a child is pronounced high priest or king/queen and the adults seek to fulfill their pronouncements. Ley Lines and Shadow Roads: Ley lines are primarily used to empower spells beyond their base capabilities. They come in three varieties based on strength: weak, strong, and titanic. The specifics for their game effects differ depending upon the rules system, but in general grant beneficial effects for free and/or add to the numerical values of spells. However, manipulating their power is no sure thing and mages risk backlash of varying magnitudes if they fail to concentrate the power. We also get a map of the known ley lines of Midgard:  The arrangements are not coincidental. More than a few nations based their territories on ley lines, such as Nuria Natal whose line more or less goes along the riverbanks. The Greast Wastes of the western realms are screwed up from the elf-mage wars and so has only one reliable line in the far west. Shadow Roads are basically fast-travel networks. The best-maintained ones are in the former elven lands of Dornig and can take 1d3 days of travel, but beyond there the travel times are longer (particularly in the Great Wastes where 1d12 is the standard). Not all shadow roads are safe. They may be guarded by celestial, fiends, fey, and other dangerous entities. In order to travel a shadow road, you must know its location and be able to open it via a Shadow Road spell or Key of Veles magical item. Some have additional prerequisites for their function, like only being usable on a full moon.  Magic and Scholarship: This section highlights the major magical colleges of Midgard and their specializations which aren't always wizardly in nature. Colleges tend to be specialized rather than generic, able to study a variety of magic but with a major emphasis on certain kinds. For example the Arcane Collegium of Zobeck is notable for clockwork magic as well as alchemy and illumination magic, whereas the Great Linnorm House is built out of the bones of dragons and makes heavy use of runic spells and has an all-female order of celestial magical practitioners. Languages: There are 28 major languages of Midgard. Whereas this would be a vestigial feature in most games, language has a folkloric effect and some of the more supernatural and stranger tongues grant speakers unique abilities. For example, mastery of Void Speech (spoken by alien gods and beings of the outer darkness) adds +1 to the DC of fear-related spells and skill checks, while Whisperium (a silent language of gnomes and diabolists) allows the speaker to cast a spell silently once per day. Many tongues grant a bonus on social skill checks related to their dominant culture 1/day. This both shows that the speaker's knowledge of their culture and phrases rather than being an outside, and reflects how concepts are more easily understood in one's native tongue. The World: The final section of this chapter talks about the setting's cosmology and the planes of existence. We know already that Midgard is a disc-shaped realm surrounded by Veles, but the Elves retreated to a land on the opposite side of the coin alternately called the Bright Land, Elflands, and similar names. Between these two sides is the Shadow Realm, a dark and forlorn place of nightmares. The heavens are geocentric, meaning that the sun, moon, planets, and stars orbit Midgard. The sun is the chariot of Khors, or Aten, or whatever dominant culture views as their sun god. There is a single primary moon and seven lesser moons known as the Mage's Stars for their symbology in arcane magic. Stars (not moons) in the sky are intelligent living creatures capable of coming down to Midgard, whether just to visit people or in need of great heroes. Six planets orbit Midgard, but most people only know of five and the sourcebook does not say if they too are disc-shaped. They are associated with various elements in alchemy or believed to hold sway over various aspects of the world. Asaph is believed to influence the seas of Midgard; Ermoan is a small and fast planet which some believe to be a comet or a lost court of shadow fey; the darkened planet known as Melgros is only able to be seen by those with the keenest eyes and thus earned the name "Archer's Planet" because most who see it happen to be legendary archers; Temperos is believed by the giants to be home of the gods; Tiomoutiri is most visible at sunrise and as such has a sacred spot among sun-worshipers; finally, Zuhal is considered to be responsible for controlling all magic. As for other planes of existence, they are the domains of the gods and their servants. There's the tortuous Eleven Hells; the gluttonous Evermaw which is the afterlife for all undead; the voidlike realm of the Ginnungagap full of alien, maddened creatures; the great marketplace of Lingedesh where anything can be bought and sold; Ravatet the Plane of Rusty Gears where forgotten treasures lurk among the junk piles and strange scavengers; Silendora, a mythical land believed to be where the Elves retreated; and Valhalla/the Storm Court, where gods of the North and of war come to meet and hone their blades. And connecting all the planes together is Yggdrasil, whose World Trees are its branches that poke into Midgard and allow travelers to visit other realms. They are revered almost everywhere they grow, and druids and worshipers of the Northlands pantheon treat their spells as if they were 1 level higher when on such sacred grounds. We get a list of known World Tree locations, including some of which became corrupted by dark powers. Thoughts So Far: Midgard has a sort of storybook feel in the set-up of its world, what with masked gods and talking stars and a flat world. The racial magical traditions, association of planets with alchemic metals, and list of colleges for spellcasters point to a high fantasy and high magic style of setting. Having the most powerful country be a non-human realm is also novel, and I do like how they gave learning languages mechanical benefits even if not all options are equal. The bulk of the rest of the book covers the various lands of this wonderful world: Next chapter we'll cover the Crossroads, the geographic and cultural heart of the continent! Libertad! fucked around with this message at 06:21 on Apr 19, 2018 |
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Apr 18, 2018 02:22
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Joe Slowboat posted:Midgard looks cool, but I have to note - that map looks a lot like Exalted's map, which makes sense given that I imagine they're both more or less 'the Mediterranean world of antiquity' but it's really strikingly similar. Link to Exalted map because it won't load up on this post. Hmmm, perhaps in the sense of "desert to south, islands in the west, snow in the north" but besides that it I am not sensing any uncanny resemblances.
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Apr 18, 2018 05:36
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  The second chapter of the book, and the first regional chapter, covers the Crossroads. Each major region of the setting has a sort of theme going for it, and the Crossroads is "feudal European trading hub." A fair portion of this chapter focuses on Zobeck, given its relative prominence in the setting, and has a bit more pseudo-steampunk elements in its gearforged and clockwork overtones. The Crossroads trades with all its neighbors, although some of them such as the undead kingdoms to the north and the Mharoti dragons to the south aren't above trying to strike hard bargains at swordpoint. Before covering the countries and city-states we learn about the cultural customs in the form of great gatherings and celebrations. Daughter's Feast takes place in Perunalia and sometimes the god Perun himself and his divine family attend; the Dwarfmoot is a seasonal open forum/court in the Ironcrags where all matter of deals and disputes are resolved; Knight's Call is a social gathering of warriors from various lands seeking to test their martial prowess against each other; and the Queensmeet is a grand tournament where knights and vassals compete for a bejeweled helmet set with a gold band whose champion must compete yearly to defend their holding of it. Additionally the section talks about how Ironcrag dwarves make use of indentured servitude from prisoners of war. They usually ransom them back to villages, but when people are unwilling or unable to pay they are used as a labor force for 10 years. Although Ironcrag law forbids starvation and torture of thralls and a decade is not long in a dwarf's lifespan, the practice alternately breeds fear and resentment. The former is beneficial to the Ironcrags in that many mercenary companies are less willing to perform operations in dwarven territory, but the latter is detrimental in that it gives rise to vengeful warriors who feel their lives have been stolen from long captivity. The Free City of Zobeck  Zobeck was once a feudal realm whose people suffered under the nobility of House Stross. But a Great Revolt among the common folk overthrew the crown and instituted a new form of government. Consuls comprised of merchants and politically-connected people, serve 5-year terms, and from among their number they appoint a mayor of the city to serve a 10 year term. Many Zobeckers prize the way of mercantilism, an ideal where commerce and personal skill are the pathway to success rather than a royal bloodline. This ideal is far from realized; in spite of their participation in the revolution, Zobeck's sizable kobold minority are denied employment and living space in most of the city. Most of them live in the cramped confines of the Kobold Ghetto which may as well be its own world apart legally and culturally. Zobeck is separated into 5 main districts, with 6 smaller ones. The Citadel District is where the wealthiest burghers live and is home to the knightly Order of Griffon Riders who act as an aerial cavalry in wartime. This District also sports the Free Army and its famed Zobeck Hussars. The Collegium District caters to the famous Arcane Collegium and the needs of scribes, mages, and intelligentsia. The Collegium spares no expense in protecting its assets, from clockwork traps to gargoyle guardians. In spite of its small student body of 40 it has state-of-the-art laboratories and libraries. The Dock District sits along the city's river and is the busiest area of the city. It is home to the gnomish Blue Barbers of Wharf Street who have hair-restoring tonics, but are rumored to be spies for the Shadow Fey. The Gear District sees to the maintenance of clockwork and steam-powered devices and is where the gearforged congregate for repair and socialization. The city government pours considerable expense into continual creation of gearforged soldiers, about one a month in addition to creations made via private donations. The Kobold Ghetto is a warren of streets no more than six feet wide with interconnecting roofs keeping out the sun. During the age of House Stross the Ghetto was a giant labor camp, and in spite of terrible conditions it produced more than a few kobolds responsible for valuable inventions but whose names are lost to history. After the Great Revolt the kobolds re-purposed the camp to be more generic residential space even if living standards are still poor. An unofficial network of linked iron chains and barrels act as impromptu river bridges for smugglers and other never-do-wells. The most infamous den of ill repute is the Pit of the Fierce Lynx, an underground gladiatorial arena where the winner is treated like royalty in the Ghetto for a week and a day. Beyond this we have brief mentions of minor districts, such as Lower Zobeck where the poor working classes live, a series of old mining tunnels known as the Cartways once used by House Stross for private parties, the Merchant District which has all manner of mundane goods along with strange magical items brokered at the Shadow Fey Exchange, and Upper Zobeck which is home to the Free City's centers of administration and government. We end our time in Zobeck proper with Places of Interest, such as the Old Stross Public Bathhoue which is a favorite social gathering spot for rich and poor alike, a bar of scum and villainy known as the Weathsheaf which welcomes gangsters, diabolists, and and "legitimate businessmen" operating under a tense neutral space, and the Winter's Kiss Shadow Fey Embassy whose location on Alchemist's Folly street seems to shift every so often. METAPLOT: Lord Mayor Karillian Gluck was a relative non-entity in the 2012 edition, and after a threat on his life by the Shadow Fey a dwarven woman known as Constantia Olleck now fills his shoes. She made a small fortune off of mule trains, and is forging alliances with neighbors in the wake of the Mharoti Empire annexing the city-state of Illyria (which is in the Seven Cities region). The Shadow Fey originally did not have an open presence in Zobeck save among informal traders, but the adventure Courts of the Shadow Fey involved their attempt in taking over the city. I do not own this book so I can't speak much of specifics, but while they haven't been driven out for failing in this endeavor they are kept at arms' length by just about everyone in the city. Outside the city walls we get some information on nearby villages and fortresses. Most of them don't have anything of note to mention in this reivew besides the Freehold of Obertal. This military garrison is commanded by a pair of wedded Griffon Knights who are abusing their authority to extort "protection fees" from travelers. There are entries on the most common trade routes, the prominent trading houses both domestic and foreign, and the mercenary companies. The latter group has the most interesting people, such as the Black Brotherhood who purse war for the sake of Mavros the War God, the gnoll band Hrothgar's Marauders whose leader is possessed by a dormant demon suppressed deep within his mind, and the mostly-gearforged Clanking Legion whose recent military victories are due to miraculous magic of unknown origins. We do have a wordy section on people daring enough to trade with the shadow fey. These elves view haggling for gold as beneath them, and instead prefer to trade unique magical goods for a fraction of a mortal's memories, "just a sliver" of a year or day of life, or sex. The last part is because such an activity provides a brief sense of "warmth" and intimacy among an otherwise jaded people. A pair of merchants named Jabber and Tuck Marick grew immeasurably rich from their deals with the fey, but in recent years things changed. Now most trade goes through the Shadow Fey embassy or Exchange, and the market for moonsteel-forged weapons (shapechanger bane) dried up as every fey merchant makes a prospective buyer swear an oath to never utilize these armaments against their people. Not claimed by Zobeck but a stone's throw away, the Margreve Forest is a woodland realm which has existed since time immemorial. Although there is no proof, the forest seems to have a mind of its own and those who pay it proper respect find their travels within easier...and those who despoil its bounty find that the very natural world turns against them. Doting parents and jaded elders alike caution people to stay away, and among monstrous horrors it is also home to the feudal ruins of House Stross, bandits, and even the secret mines of kobolds. There is but one trade road cutting through it, but as that road leads into the undead-ruled kingdoms of the north, it too has a grim reputation. Although it has a brief entry in the World Book, the Margreve Forest is very much a Grimm's Fairy Tales style of deep, dark wood. The Tales of the Old Margreve adventure compilation expressed these themes very well. Free Cantons of the Ironcrags  The dwarves of the Ironcrags organize into socio-political units known as cantons which center around a major settlement which has existed for at least a century. Although there are 13 presently the number of cantons fluctuates throughout generations as old ones fall, incorporate their neighbors, or break up into smaller cantons. They are autonomous, with their own customs, laws, and coats of arms. Like Zobeck the dwarves choose their own rulers rather than an hereditary aristocracy. The Bundhausen canton is the most open to outsiders and home of the yearly Dwarfmoot, making it one of the most politically powerful. Grisal's territory is claimed by both the Duchies of Dornig and Morgau, although the devoutly-religious dwarves put up a good fight in keeping the undead at bay. The Gunnacks are born travelers and lack not for natural resources. Kubourg's territory centers around a well-defended castle with extensive underground chambers. Hammerfell is named for its peerless artisans who produce famed magical runic Hammershields. Tijino is a gathering point for mercenaries who broker deals with southern cities to march to war. Finally, Wintersheim is home to a famed ranger society, the Order of the White Wolf, and shares many cultural traits with its Northlander kin. They even have a resident friendly white dragon named Hrothvengr. We get a look at some minor cantons who each have a unique theme to set them apart. For example, Bareicks are impoverished berserkers, while the canton of Templeforge has a holy shrine where they create airships. Our section on the Cantons ends with talk about lost halls and ruins. The Magdar Kingdom The Magdar Kingdom is your stereotypical Goodly-Good Knightly Realm. The Toussaint to the Witcher's Temeria, the Minas Tirith to Tolkien's Mordor. It is a monarchy where two major knightly orders serve Khors, god of light, sun, and justice; Lada, goddess of healing, love, mercy, and dawn; and Perun, god of war and storms. It is a stable realm in spite of regular skirmishes with the Mharoti Empire. In fact it is due to this regular warfare that the Magdars perfected the creation of iron-reinforced war wagons capable of linking up to serve as mobile walls and fortresses. Its cities are glorious fortified affairs, from the beautiful capital of Cronepisht, to Khorsburg whose white-golden marble cathedral is the site of many pilgrimages. Wizards help local industry in the creation of region-famous wines and whose war-mages reinforce military regiments. We get detailed descriptions of cities (who tend to center around a single economic aspect like brewery or smithing) and reinforced castles and citadels. METAPLOT: King Stefanos and his eldest son Zsigismond died at the battle of Marroc's Stand. This was a joint operation between their country and Illyria against the Mharoti Empire. Unfortunately it failed, causing the Mharoti warbands to go south and conquer the latter country. Now Queen Dorytta sits upon the Madgar Throne, grieving at the loss of her family yet redoubled in her efforts to repel the draconic threat. We get detailed descriptions of the two knightly orders: the Order of the Undying Sun is a military regiment supplemented by divine spellcasters of Khors and Lada, and whose paladins of the former god comprise their most elite units. The Order of the Storm is a mostly-cavalry order who worship Perun and have a bit of a rivalry with the Undying Sun. Both knighthoods were allied to House Stross and as such are not well-liked in Zobeck. However a mutual defense pact between the kingdom and the Free City against the Mharoti Empire shelves these hostilities for now. Perunalia  Also known as the Duchy of Perun's Daughter, this nation controls land and trade routes on the shores of the Ruby Sea. It is also a matriarchal society ruled by the demigoddess Vasilka Soulay whose very father is the god of war and thunder. It is a major center of lore and education, and the royal palace's library is open to the public one day a week. The Duchy is also a matriarchal society, where men are viewed as too driven by emotion and baser urges to be trusted with government and defense. Manual labor is considered the only proper venue to temper their impulses, and they are limited in rights in education, property ownership, and handling of money. The rest of Midgard, which is mostly a patriarchal setting in government and social mores (the bulk of Mavros' clerics are men for instance), finds Perun a strange culture at best or "shameless women" to be carried away in war and taught their place at worst. Perunalia is also known for producing peerless archers, and virtually every girl is gifted a bow at age 14 as a rite of passage. Villages and cities alike host archery tournaments for them to test their skills. Personally, Perunalia rubs me the wrong way. Midgard has a tendency to write up cultures which have oppressive traditions yet whose inhabitants are not necessarily stereotypically evil: Zobeck segregates of kobolds as an example of their hypocrisy of self-determination, and in spite of some legal protections the Ironcrags' slavery system breeds a lot of resentment. But in this country's case the overwhelming majority of NPCs in government are good-aligned, and quite a few of them are paladins to boot! I am reminded of the debate over Paizo's handling of Erastil, a Lawful Good nature god who was fond of traditional gender roles for women. This ended sparked a most idiotic debate among players over whether systemic sexism can ever be "good." Although Perunalia does not have the same bad taste as Erastil in that almost every society IRL is patriarchal and thus does not commonly map to "lived experiences," it still feels weird. As for cities and towns, Perunalia was historically part of elven rule and much of its architecture preserves this style. In some cases cities still retain their elven names. The Storm Court of Perun is a floating fortress and literal home of said god which visits the city of Orkasa once a year. However its presence can no longer be commanded by the Duchess: theories as to why include divine disfavor to the god's distractions from other wars and prayers committing his time. The Summer Gardens of Queen Osilessi was once a planned elven city of arts which sat at a shadow road nexus, but during the Great Retreat it has now become a ruined city haunted by griffons, drakes, and various monsters of the briars. Even a detachment of Mharoti soldiers where unable to claim it, and the surrounding forest is guarded by a group of armed bandits led by an elven enchantress known as the Apple Baroness. METAPLOT: The Electoral Kingdom of Krakova, along with the Principalities of Morgau and Doresh and the Cloudwall Mountains, were once counted as being part of the Crossroads region. But after the former's invasion by the latter they are now one greater kingdom which is covered in the next chapter. Thoughts So Far: The Crossroads are perhaps my least favorite region. It is way too close to cliche fantasy tropes from Chivalric Knightly Realm to Dwarven Mountain Kingdoms. The regions I enjoy the most, Zobeck and the Margreve Forest, really shine in their own sourcebooks but whose entries here are too brief to show off their most unique features. Ironically, Zobeck's use of certain titles such as burghers for wealthy citizens and hussars for elite military units make it the most authentically Central/Eastern European realm in comparison to the other nations. At times the chapter reads like a medieval economics survey where there's more focus on common trade goods for companies and cities in lieu of interesting adventuring opportunities in said places. Fortunately things get a lot less bland in the next chapter where we cover the Dark Kingdoms! Vampires, ghouls, and gnomes, oh my! Libertad! fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Apr 19, 2018 |
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Apr 19, 2018 06:03
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 Northeast of the Free City of Zobeck and past the perilous woods of the Margreve Forest lies a realm of darkness. The twin Principalities of Morgau and Doresh were once feudal realms like so many others. But now an undead aristocracy of vampires rules over the land exacting taxes of blood and coin from an oppressed populace. Politically separate from them is the Ghoul Imperium, an underground kingdom stretching from beneath the Ironcrags up to the former Electoral Kingdom of Krakova. The new province of Krakovar was once a realm whose King was chosen by vote among the noble families, yet its government was overthrown by a joint effort between tunneling darakhul troops and the vampire kingdom's Order of the Knights Incorporeal. Temples to Marena the Red Goddess and evil gods abound, and the vampiric aristocratic structure is a hierarchical pyramid of sirers and their spawn. It is not unknown for enterprising slaves seeking undeath to hire assassins to kill their would-be master once the blood-draining's complete so they can be undead and free. We open this chapter discussing the power groups of the Blood Kingdom: King Lucan (formerly Prince Lucan) is the most powerful monarch and the one who masterminded the overthrow of the living rulers 300 years ago. After that we have various noble families favored by Lucan and/or sired directly by him who tend to be managers of armies and large fiefdoms. Below that are administrators of smaller territories, and some can be darakhul or even prominent humans in addition to vampires. The Order of the Knights Incorporeal is the elite military arm of the Blood Kingdom's armies. The noble titles use Slavic descriptors, such as "voivode" or "voivodina" for generals or governers, and "gospodar" or "gospoda" which is Slovenian for "lord" and "lady" respectively. The Church to Lucan's State is the priesthood of Marena the Red Goddess, who has an aspect as a deity of death as well as one of lust and fertility. Marena's church has various female-focused social orders collectively known as the Blood Sisters, such as the Cantri Abbey which safeguards pregnant women and the Temple of Aprostala which is a pilgrimage site home to many violent sacrifices. The Blood Sisters are spreading their influence beyond Morgau and Doresh by setting up secret temples in good-aligned cities posing as brothels, where they gradually gain new converts with members-only orgies. You know, between the Northlands' Trotheim chapter and this, I'm beginning to see a theme of fiendish prostitutes in gaming material. METAPLOT: Originally the vampires' relationship with Baba Yaga has been complex where the witch would sometimes aid them, but she mostly stayed away from their realms. However, the Greater Duchy of Morgau established friendly relations with the gnomes of Niemheim, who are enemies of Baba Yaga. As of now the witch has not acted openly, but the queen-in-exile of Krakova is seeking to align with her against the undead; nothing has come of it so far, as her chicken-legged hut is notoriously hard to find even for her spy network of "mice." Lay of the Land  The Blood Kingdom of Morgau is made up of three former kingdoms: Duchy of Morgau, the Barony of Doresh, and the newly-gained northern province of Krakovar (formerly the Electoral Kingdom of Krakova). The first two kingdoms are gifted with forested highlands, and the Cloudwall Mountains to the east and the Margreve Forest to the south serve as natural defenses. Mist is common at all times of year, and the fields are richly fertile and the woods abound with game. Bratislor is the capital whose grim castle has a no-living policy. This changes during each solstice, where 100 unlucky citizens are invited and only one person ever leaves alive with their eyes and tongue gouged out. Hengksburg meanwhile is the most stable city and center of the Blood Kingdom's slave trade. The cult of Mammon is growing among the merchant class, and its undead Lord Mayor Rodyan demands a blood tax from each trader. Rodyan is also infamous for having a thing for teenage girls, and has went through 300 wives as he invariably ends up killing them during sex. METAPLOT: Recently a vampiric hunting party captured Dajan Savirne of Clarsaya, a 15 year old girl of Perunalia who is already an accomplished archer. She is going to be presented to Rodyan as an "amazon bride." Enraged, the paladins of Perunalia mounted a failed rescue mission through the Cloudwall Mountains. After only one survivor came back, they instead are focusing on strengthening the borders against further vampire raids. So there's a recurring element in this chapter of sexually predatory people in power. Beyond just the above example there's an example of Koschei the Deathless who arrives at King Lucan's balls with a new frightened woman in each arm; a satyr King of Rags who marries the daughter of the Lord of the city of Twine on her 16th birthday each generation as part of a fairy-tale style pact and whose lord seeks an end to this tradition; additionally the satyr's own daughters are drunkards who angrily attack those who refuse their sexual advances; the High Priestess of the Temple of Aprostala imprisons and sacrifices pilgrims who refuse to have sex with her; and the Cloudwall Mountains is home to ogre warbands who kidnap travelers to take as slaves and mates. I'm not going to complain of just one example in a book, but when you have five or six within the very same chapter and two of them involve victimized adolescent girls, I can't help but picture this as lazy writing for shock value. Vallanoria is a military city which is home to Marena's warlike devotees in the Temple of the Scourging Goddess. The town brutally crushed several rebellions, and there are rumors that the crows who fly about are disguised secret police. The Wendestal Forest and the Stale Wood is administered by Lady Chemaya, a lich of dubious loyalties whose alliances among the vampires shifts as often as she changes robes. The Stale Wood is a dark, cold place where no sunlight pierces through. The only true authority here is the King in Rags, an 8 foot tall satyr whose very presence corrupts the surrounding land in rot. The Cloudwall Mountains is the private hunting grounds of King Lucan and his favored servants. It is home to many dangerous monsters from two-headed eagles and rocs to ogres and yeti. Criminals and unlucky people picked out as human prey to hunt are sometimes let loose in the mountain range. Any lucky enough to make it over to the Rothenian Plains to the east earn their lives and freedom, although precious few complete the harrowing journey.  We get a half-page sidebar discussing the Ghoul Imperium. The wide-ranging nation is a vast connection of tunnels and caverns whose geographic center hosts Darakhan, the White City. Many underdark races such as dark creepers/stalkers, drow, derro, dwarves, and svirfneblin are conquered subjects. They have either joined the undead legions of the darakhul ghouls or were spared so that they and their descendants can act as cattle. The undead immunity to exhaustion means that army legions can travel 48-72 miles a day on foot (depending on the weight of their armor), and unintelligent zombies are used as "army rations" instead of the delicate nature of living cattle. It is only due to the ghouls' aversion to sunlight that they have not made inroads into the surface world, save their alliance with Prince Lucan against Krakova. The 2012 edition of the setting treated the Empire of the Ghouls as its own country entry, with some brief detail on its cities. These aspects are excised, although the entry was one and a half pages long so it's not a big cut by any means. Castle Lengrove and the Great Necropolis house the last tombs of the pre-Lucan nobles, a testament to what has changed. There is a large cavern opening to the Ghoul Imperium nearby which both countries use as a trade network. Leander Stross (recognize that name?), the darakhul ambassador to Morgau, lives here. Before moving on to Krakovar we have some discussing on the Grisal Marches and the frequent wars against the dwarves of the same-named Canton; Cantri Abbey whose safeguarding and helping of pregnant mothers is perhaps the Red Goddess' only positive social service; Temple Aprostala and its pilgrimage rites; Fandorin Keep whose has a secret portal to the famous Stross Library in the ruined Castle Shadowcrag; and the Blood Vaults of Sister Alkava which is a published dungeon crawl whose new priestess found a novel yet gruesome way of preserving extracted blood. The Province of Krakovar once chose its own kings. But now Lucan appointed Princess Hristina, Grand Marshall of the Ghost Knights, as the ruler of the newly-occupied territory. The landholding nobles known as the Slahta are still living yet forced to tow Hristina's line after she made several bloody examples of those who resisted. The old temples of Wotan and Perun were razed and converted to shrines of Marena and Mavros. The Ghost Knights have their work cut out for them here: Krakova's old spy network known as the "mice" are active and making alliances to stymie their occupiers, and a group of reaver dwarves from the Northlands established a new territory known as the Wolfmark in its northern coast. What's more, Krakovar's population is 7 times that of Morgau and Doresh combined and all but young children remember the days before unliving tyranny. Trolls and Khazzaki raiders care not for the change in administration and raid the eastern border. Krakova, City of the Mermaid is still open to trade. Reminders of its past glory, from the Assembly Hall of Magnates to Mermaid's Island where each new king was voted in and crowned, fell into disrepair and were barred off-limits by Hristina. The World Tree Temple in the city of Varshava was razed to the ground, much to the dismay of many citizens yet whose burning fumes sparked magical gifts in those who breathed it. Gybick, City of Scribes, is famed for its book trade. Spymaster Velda Lupei of the Krakovan "mice" is hiding out here, having burned most of her organization's records to prevent from falling into enemy hands. Yet still she hid some precious volumes containing information about the most senior spies and rebel leaders in an extradimensional space. The vampires of Wallenbirg are fond of hunting fey in the nearby woodlands, which inevitably makes the peasants suffer as the fairies kidnap children and command swarms of mice to strip the granaries bare in revenge. The ruins of Yarosbirg Castle was home to a religious order of light and life dedicated to the goddess Sif. A shield maiden named Sister Adelind fought bravely against the Ghost Knights, managing to incinerate the vampire lord Otmar the Sallow with a shining spear. Although legions of ghouls killed her, she earned sainthood and martyrdom among Krakovans and others defiant of King Lucan's rule. Many secretly visit the castle to leave tiny wooden shields and white flowers as offerings. METAPLOT: The entire section of Krakovar is pretty much a metaplot change. In the 2012 edition it did not have much in the way of internal or external conflict besides nobles jockeying for kingship. Ironically, Wallenbirg's relationship with the fey was still poor due to logging and the kidnapping/grain destruction methods of punishment were still the same. This time however it's the vampires' fault. If anything, the metaplot made this country a lot less boring! Our final entry for this chapter are the Nine Cities of Neimheim. A long time ago the gnomes were friendly folk: they taught humans the art of magic, eager to discuss the finer points of mundane occupations, and traded with the people of Krakova. But 200 years ago things changed for the worse when a gnome prince betrayed an oath to Baba Yaga. One by one gnome villages disappeared overnight as night-haunts, strigoi, and other servants of the witch hunted them down. The adult's beards were used for pillow-stuffing and the children cooked in her stew pots. The gnomish people seemed destined for destruction, but then a smoldering horned gentleman made a very generous offer to the King of the Gnomes. Ever since the gnome kingdom of Neimheim has lived under a diabolic specter. Temples to the lords of Hell are everywhere and devils preside over their towns as wardens against Baba Yaga's forces. Niemheim's borders are protected by magical defenses known as glower stones: crude structures in the shape of hunching gnomes who smile at those allowed entry, but glower and in some cases unleash magical spells on those not permitted to enter the forest. Once a month the gnomes must make blood sacrifices; if no strangers come into their seemingly-comfy little towns, they must provide from among their own people. As a result gnome traders and illusionists visit roadside inns and taverns to trick people with rumors of wealth and glory beneath their pine boughs whose inhabitants seem harmless enough with their red caps and pointy-toed shoes. With every band of travelers or foreign raiders that disappears within their borders, the gnomes send out a new batch of high-quality knives, tallow candles, pottery, leather, vellum, and other goods their forest home is ordinarily incapable of creating on its own. Nobody questions its origins. King Redbeard lives in a hidden palace in the Great City of Holmgard. His castle is a well-warded structure which can only be found when one receives an invitation: if such a boon is granted, the person wanders the streets at dawn until they somehow find their way to the front gates. Although an amoral snake-in-the-grass, the fate of his people is a heavy burden on Redbeard's shoulders. His greatest hope is to somehow make peace with Baba Yaga and save his kingdom from diabolical influence. His people are divided between wanting to pretend to live as normal a life as possible, and the other half fully embrace their encouraged evil. METAPLOT: Redbeard's ace-in-the-hole is the Offering Bowl, a secret cauldron shrouded against devilish detection. Carved from the oldest trees, it is guarded by his most trusted and loyal servants and Unera, one of Baba Yaga's daughters who uses magic to hide its presence. Redbeard hopes that if the Bowl is filled with the blood of innocent mortals, this will make up for his ancestor's wrongdoing to the great witch. MORE METAPLOT:It's not just Redbeard who is seeking loopholes. The unique invention of the Red Cap hat can shroud a gnome from Baba Yaga's eyes outside the forest proper by taking a bit of the forest with them. Plants, lichen, and mushrooms are packed into a linen scarf tied under the wearer's chin. As long as the flora within is fed and kept alive it will work, but the fear of losing it or having said plants die keeps all but a handful of gnomes from venturing outside Neimheim. Additionally, a blind gnome warlock by the name of Halivimar the Charred perfected a means of expanding Neimheim's borders: the planting of seeds brewing with foul magic can grow as much as 5,000 square feet of "sproutings" in less than a day. He's hired a group of scouts to plant these seeds across the Rothenian Plains and establish small enclaves. As for specific areas, we have the corrupted World Tree of Suf, which is used by infernal travelers on business in Midgard and whose acorns can be brewed into a brimstone-infused liquor. The cities of Volvyagrad and Holmgard see a lot of trade from non-gnomes although said people rarely seek to stay long-term. There are brief mentions of lesser towns, such as Hexen rumored to be home to a college of witches and wizards or Königsheim which has a temple to Chernobog home to an order of anti-paladin cavalry known as the Hellspurs. Thoughts so far: The "evil kingdoms" of Midgard are interesting places full of story fodder. The many factions, from vampire nobles to dwarven reavers and Krakovan spies, provide ample factions for PCs to ally with or turn against each other. The gnomes of Neimheim have a twisted fairy tale aspect of malicious fey. Yet in spite of the influence of devils there's a significant portion of their populace privately unhappy with the state of affairs and can make for an interesting PC exile concept. My only real complaints with this chapter is the repetition of weird sex stuff. Join us next time on the Rothenian Plains, where we explore the oft-unused fantasy counterpart cultures of the Eurasian Steppes!
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Apr 20, 2018 01:48
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 The Rothenian Plain is a huge open grassland of the east whose size dwarfs all but the largest of empires. The nomadic way of life is the norm here, and the only standing proper nation is the poor but proud Kingdom of Vidim. The steppes are the favorite stomping grounds of Baba Yaga, who plays the various factions against one another from year to year. And beyond are the mysterious lands of the Utter East who have yet to be detailed in any sourcebooks. Our first entry is not a nation or culture, but on Grandmother Baba Yaga herself. She's one of the major power players of Midgard, and although not a deity herself kings and gods alike treat her with a mixture of respect and fear. There is just as much fact known about her as folktales, and it's not uncommon for scholars compiling books about her to have the ink on their pages vanish or turn into paper-eating worms. But Baba Yaga's knowledge is boundless, from the last thoughts of the dying star Tovaya to the Words of Unfounding which can never be spoken lest they unseat the gods. She is willing to part with her unmatched knowledge for a high price, which usually takes the form of a fairy tale-style quest or sacrifice such one's own final breath. She lives in a mobile hut with enormous chicken legs capable of leaping in mile-long jaunts, and the interior is supernaturally large with all manner of rooms. Baba Yaga has an unknown amount of daughters, all beautiful fey known as vila. They too are powerful in the magical arts and have their own (albeit smaller) chicken-legged huts. It's not uncommon to see them cavorting in the halls and palaces of Midgard's nobility where some have the lord's ear. The less witting servants of the great witch are mystics who went mad from the knowledge imparted by her and who look for her influence in signs and portents. In addition to lore, Baba Yaga has a secret garden with unique ingredients capable of healing any affliction, tended to by mindless slaves who angered or failed her along with earth elemental guardians. But her most famous minion is perhaps Koschei the Deathless, a wicked immortal whose soul is embedded within an egg hidden inside a duck, which is nestled within a hare that rests within a goat. The egg's destruction means Koschei's destruction, and so Baba Yaga keeps the goat's location hidden to make Koschei do what she wants. METAPLOT: The kingdom of Domovogrod was the only other sedentary culture besides Vidim upon the plains. It was founded by Sivinvoya Vellaraya, a silver dragon who cared not for the Mharoti Empire's political goals and instead journeyed north to settle near a World Tree known as the Winter Tree. He taught the surrounding humans advanced farming and healing techniques to found the kingdom of Domovogrod. Although the dragon is long-gone, his human descendants ruled in his example. But now the kingdom's overrun by ogres, trolls, and giants of the Northlands, its capital city claimed by a gluttonous warlord unable to rise from his very throne. The Winter Tree now sits unattended beyond a small band of winterfolk druids and rangers. The last human bastion is a small town of fur-traders seeking vengeance against the giants. Khanate of the Khazzaki  The Khazzaki are a band of human and centaur nomads who live as horse and ox herders, warriors, and occasionally farmers. Their settlements are tent-like yurts, their leader is a Khan who has a military-like hierarchy of generals and soldiers spread among the clans. Although they have traditional lands, they are a far-flung people who can show up anywhere from the Crossroads to the Utter East. They warred against the Mharoti Empire, and Khan Bodhan Zenody is prepping for an all-out assault on either them or one of the greater nations for loot and glory. After successful raids and campaigns it is customary for Khazzaki to travel to the Red Mounds of Rhos Khurgan, a set of 32 burial mounds created by a forgotten race. One of the mounds is cursed and thus avoided. The Khazzaki treat them as sacred sites and pour wine on their soil as offered drink. For unknown reasons divine magic is warped and stymied around the mounds. The Khanate's closest thing to a proper city is Misto Kolis, which is more akin to a traveling carnival and has a sizable Kariv population. METAPLOT: One of the greatest scourges of the Khanate recently is not war but a disease afflicting their horses known as the Black Strangles. It spreads fast and affects even centaurs, and the Khan is hoping that a mysterious group of allied druids known as the Grassweavers of Perun may discover a cure. There's also individual tents of great fame, such as the Yurt Monasteries home to sorcerer-priests of obscure gods, the Black Wagon whose doom-saying oracle is a bad omen to encounter on the plains, and the Krasni Yurta whose wizard occupant enchanted its silk to be as strong as steel along with a pocket dimension only he and his guests can access. We finish this section with mention of the Khan's Three Great Treasures: Draugir the horse who only lets the true khan ride it and was won from Koschei over a riding contest; the An'Ducyr bow which was forged from the heartwood of a World Tree which grants magical sight to one who draws its bowstring; and the Dragoncoat, armor forged from the scales of a wind dragon which grants immunity to poison as well as enchantment and evocation spells of all kinds. We have a brief sidebar on Demon Mountain, a sulfurous place of foul reputation ruled over by a tiefling archmage known only as the Master. He claims to be the noble scion of Vale Turog and lives in a palace of bones he can never leave, but sends all manner of mortal and demonic minions to scour the lands. Fun fact: as he fathered dozens of tiefling children he sent out into the world in order to discover a way to undo his imprisonment. As such he was presented as a possible backstory for tiefling PCs Centaur Hordes of the Plain  The centaur clans are individually small yet possessed of a mighty reputation. They are mercenaries of great skill whose services have been purchased with meager oats and cheese. They are fiercely independent and although willing to work for others almost never acquiesce to assimilating into sedentary cities. They believe that true freedom is found via a nomadic lifestyle. The centaurs believe that their creation was by the god Perun after his previous creations failed. Humans had the ability to craft great tools but whose bodies were too slow and weak, while horses were fast and strong but too dumb and herd-like to produce cunning hunters and great heroes. It was the mocking of his wife that convinced Perun to give it his all and create the centaurs, combining the best traits of his earlier creations. We get a brief rundown of centaur culture: they herd goats and sheep and mark passage into adulthood when one can create and live in their own tent. They are nomadic but have favored locations to return to twice a year, and their mages are predominantly druids. Men are encouraged to be warriors and women are discouraged from journeying beyond the confines of their clan group. There is talk by the Chieftain of the Yendge Clan to unite the race under a single banner which the smaller tribes find amenable for strength in numbers. The Black Strangle disease is a growing plague among centaurs and known as the Long-Teeth among them. It causes their teeth to grow twice their normal size, makes the sensation of bright light painful, and causes excruciating pain to walk or stand. The final stage is the most dire, as it encourages the centaur to seek out others of their kind to bite and infect, now hardly better than a mindless cannibal. METAPLOT: The Grassweavers of Perun created a herbal poultice to prevent the disease from reaching this final stage, although centaur and Khazzaki both seek a true cure. There is rumor of a remedy in the city of Trombei. We finish this entry with a talk on centaur clan structure. They tend to be either steppe nomads, mercenary companies, or bandits, and all of them elect their Chieftains and war leaders via majority vote. The six clans listed here are the Dargit who are famed archers; Morav, whose bards' stirring odes strike inspiration into their allies and fear into their enemies; Ogol, a clan governed by druids who serve Perun and are on the hunt for the legendary spear Zonbol believed to be wielded by their god; Rhoet, a sadistic mercenary band with ties to Demon Mountain and the realm of Misto Cherno; Sarras, expert wine-makers; and Yengde, mercenaries and bandits who are famed for dual-wielding spears. Kingdom of Vidim Vidim's origins lie in a mutual defense pact between humans and huginn against dwarven and giant raiders. The kingdom makes the majority of its wealth through sea trade along the Nieder Straits, and most of its population are subsistence-based farmers known as serfs. Beyond the agricultural serfs are the boyars, nobles and vassals trusted with physical defense from foreign threats and local uprisings. Then there are the huggin, who act as a spy network who inhabit a rookery (impromptu ravenfolk neighborhood among a city's towers and multi-story structures) not far from the tsar's Scarlet Palace. The boyars and huginns do not trust each other, and the tsar is unable to quell the numerous duels and murders which crop up between both sides. The Tsar's judgment is unraveling due to his madness, which is kept secret by his inner circle to avoid the loss of national morale. Although they do their best to guide him to wise actions, this is not always possible. There are those suggesting the eldest Princess ascend the throne, although she's devoted to her father and brooks no talk of deposing him. His palace's major feature is the skull of a Thursir giant slain by the current tsar's father and is considered a good luck charm by many. We get brief descriptions of of three smaller cities of Vidim, as well as a natural feature of five pillars in the sea known as the Salt Fingers. The last one is so named because its foundations mysteriously bend and reform into new gestures on the eve of the winter solstice. Many astronomers, mages, and priests used to make pilgrimages here, but in recent times a group of violent merfolk sunk ships which get too close to the Fingers. Our time in Vidim ends with a talk of the capital's temple of Wotan which is a labyrinthine palace, and those huginn who live inside it experience a strange molting of feathers: blue-black hues are replaced with silver and gold, quite often followed by dreams of the Storm Court. Nobody knows for sure whether this is a gift from Wotan, trickery by Loki, or some other god's scheme. Wandering Realm of the Kariv  The Kariv are the other major nomadic ethnic group of the Rothenian Plains, although their travels take them to the Crossroads and other realms. They are more or less Hollywood Roma/Romani people: they dress in colorful clothes, are ruled by matriarchs who often have some form of magical talent, and are compelled to never put down stakes in a single location due to a curse afflicting their fertility if an individual stays in one place for more than several months at a time. The Kariv are divided into extended family units known as clans, although they have a king whose authority is weighed by every clan leader. METAPLOT:The current King Iqbal Lovari has recently gone missing for unknown reasons. Due to this many accusations are going about, particularly between the Lovari and Gallati families. There's also the King's would-be successor, Sanash, a young oracle who is skilled in divination and believed to be prophesied to unite the clans and redeem the Kalders. Ruling in Iqbal's place are Sanchari and Innessa, a pair of twins who are actually two souls sharing one body, but a third evil sister is currently asleep within and unknown to all. As for the curse affecting the Kariv, the Wander Curse is of unknown origins yet whose ultimate effects render the settler-to-be infertile. It takes place in stages, from a loss of creative arts and energy to having all their clothing and personal possessions fade into dull grey and brown colors. There is no known cure, and infertile Kariv are known as the Arrid who often resort to desperate measures such as dark magic to restore what they lost. METAPLOT: Oddly, the description of the Kariv has changed over publications. In the 2009 Dwarves of the Ironcrags sourcebook, the curse of the Kariv more or less forced them into a nomadic lifestyle, which in turn caused them to be heavily distrusted and vilified by more sedentary and dominant cultures. They suffered extreme systemic discrimination, which in turn caused the Kariv to be resentful of outsiders and thus feel less moral compulsion in cheating them for money or hurting them for slights: quote:Spat upon and insulted, their children beaten in open streets, their women violated with little recourse in the law—it is small wonder the Kariv hold together so tightly. Confl icts are handled internally and outsiders are rarely trusted. Aft er centuries of abuse, the Kariv feel no remorse for taking full advantage of dechas, or nonKariv, at every opportunity. Kariv believe their cons, swindles, and robberies balance the scales in a world where they are denied the opportunities and fortunes granted others. Every time a decha wonders why a Kariv commits murder, the Kariv merely point to any of their recently lynched people and shrug. Contrasted with the 2012/2018 description, the Kariv's anti-social relations are less due to institutional bigotry and more due to personal bitterness at their curse which causes them to lash out: quote:And yet, when the fires die down to embers and the shadows close in, the Kariv show their dark side. They drink and whore and gamble, the women as much as the men. They take chances that invariably lead to trouble; they cheat and lie to the Gadscho, their term for any who are not Kariv. And before the seasons turn, no matter how sweet the pastures or how warm the feather beds of a friendly host-town, they move on. Both examples play upon the "thieving gypsy" stereotype, although the 2009 had a much more plausible cycle of distrust and prejudice between oppressor and oppressed. It gives ample fodder for both sides to play off of each other's resentments and keep the status quo, while also making the Kariv's resentment understandable for what has been heaped upon them. The current Kariv primarily steal out of misplaced anger, and I don't feel that this is an improvement. We get a run-down of the eight largest Kariv clans: the Dakat, who are are horse traders rising up politically due to various shady dealings; the Galati, the closest the Kariv have to royalty and possess the best diviners; the Heph, who are patriarchal diabolists shunned by the other Karvis and allied with the Master of Demon Mountain; the Leanti, entertainers and bards who have a knack for thievery and castrate their prisoners...this last part is just thrown in their description with no context; the Lovari are the expert artisans and tinkers who are also prized as mercenaries; the Merceri, who are expert healers and worship angels, trusted for their hospitable demeanor and diplomatic skills; the Sergin, archers and trackers respected by others for their keen eyes and reflexes; and finally the Kalder, a mysterious clan who has many stories circling around them: some claim they were created in Baba Yaga's cauldron, others claim they are child-stealers and maiden-snatchers for Niemheim's gnomes, some say they are ruled by undead, etc. What is known is that they cannot produce diviners among their ranks, and their leader is a heartless man who exercises his power with violence and blackmail. The final pages of this chapter detail three locations: the Thin Trail which is the least traveled place in the Rothenian Plain and known to grant visions of monstrous leviathans moving upon charred wastelands. In order to find it you must follow mundane directions but must burn something precious between four trees on a specific hilltop to continue the search. The Cloud-soaked Cliff is in the northern reaches of the Plains, home to the sacred forge of the Lovari clan. It is said that the god Svarog himself blesses their work, woken up by the hammering smithies. The finest creations are sacrificed to the god by being thrown over the nearby cliffs, while the rest of the tools are either kept by the clan or sold to other people. Finally, the Wandering Bazaar is a mobile Kariv marketplace which stops by Ingot Lake. Anyone with enough gold may open a stall and sell anything which will not bring trouble to the community. The Bazaar often hosts an annually fishing competition with a healthy sum of gold as the grand prize. METAPLOT: The 2012 edition detailed the Windrunner elves, one of the three elven ethnic groups still present in Midgard. They are a nomadic people who broke off from the Arbonnese and organized into eight clans. They were known for the construction of windrunner kites, aerial gliders capable of lifting a human-sized rider into the air with a strong gust along with a trailing horse or oxen. Although not inherently magical, they are frequently blessed by priests of Ellel (one of Wotan's mask) for his association with the sky. The 2018 Worldbook mentions them here and there, but there's no in-depth write-up. Thoughts So Far: Baba Yaga could have very easily ended up as a Faerun-style mega NPC in that she's ultra-powerful and has her hands in all manner of affairs. But given that her motives are unpredictable and it's mostly her minions who intervene, I think that this keeps her as a more Lady of Pain style character who isn't likely to steal the PC's thunder. My favorite parts of this chapter were the write-ups of the Khazzaki clans and the specific locations. It's not often you have a Mongol-style fantasy culture in a game unless it's explicitly East Asian. The specific locations such as the Thin Trail and Wandering Bazaar are good adventure fodder, and the missing Kariv king and a proposed centaur nation make for good political conflict. I feel that the Kariv are racially problematic, and the centaurs do not have much to individualize themselves from the Khazzaki beyond being a monstrous race (there are even Khazzaki centaurs). I am a bit sad that the entry for Demon Mountain was excised to a sidebar in this book. Next time our travels leave the windswept plains for the grand cities of the Mharoti Empire, the most powerful nation in Midgard! Libertad! fucked around with this message at 10:00 on Apr 22, 2018 |
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Apr 21, 2018 00:49
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 For some reason I think about the Ikana Castle music from Majora's Mask whenever I look at the above picture. The Mharoti Empire is the largest country in the known setting of Midgard, both in land and population size.* Although a lot of their culture, titles, and religion are dragon-focused, they have an Ottoman/Arabian vibe with more than a few names containing the "al" prefix, marketplaces being open-air bazaars, as well as their emperor being referred to as a Sultan. The Mharoti Empire is an aggressively expansionist country, with propaganda teaching that dragons and the related reptilian races are destined to rule the world. Even many citizens away from the front lines are more than eager to support such campaigns as troops bring back much in the way of looted wealth. The newfound trade revenue flowing in from newly-claimed territories is just icing on the cake. For most of the 400 years since their founding, things only seemed to look up for the Mharoti. However the dragons are biting off more than they can chew: they are making way too many enemies too fast, fighting simultaneous war fronts in Ishadia, Khandira, and the Magdar Kingdoms not to mention the ongoing pacification of the newly-conquered Illyrians. Diplomats from Nuria Natal and Zobeck are forging mutual defense pacts with other city-states and nations, and there's a fair chance the Khazzaki tribes may invade. Anti-dragonkin pogroms in Capleon are being used as justification for a campaign against city-state, and there is talk the Mharoti might invade Nuria Natal next as their first foot in the Southlands. METAPLOT: The Nurian alliances and Capleon riots are metaplot things, but perhaps the biggest change is the crowning of a new Sultan. The previous Sultana was Casmara Azrabahir, a human woman with draconic blood. A violent coup was raised against her due to recent military failures in the Seven Cities and Khandira. Such losses resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers and an their dragon generals. She managed to take refuge in the Republic of Valera in the Seven Cities. Now for once in its history, a dragonkin and not a human sits upon the throne, Ozmir al-Stragul. Although he's proving to be a competent ruler so far, millions of Mharoti humans worry about their last great point of pride being taken over by their fellow reptilian citizens. *For an overview of their might, the Empire's population is 48 million (47 of that 48 dragonborn, humans, and kobolds) and its far western reaches are in Rumela, with a vassal state of Parthia in the east. Semi-related. There's an official interactive map of Midgard here. No other country comes close to the sheer manpower of the Mharoti. I made a list of most populous countries in the sourcebook after the Empire: Muria Natal at 13 million, Ishadia around 9 million, the Greater Ducy of Morgau, Doresh, and Krakovar at 4,356,000, and finally the Grand Duchy of Dornig at nearly 4 million. Most countries and city-states can barely push one million if they're not in the low hundred-thousands, and Dornig and Morgau are both influential enough to get their own chapters. In addition to airborne dragons and magical troops, it's not hard at all for the Mharoti to throw in human (and dragonkin) waves as a tactic to overwhelm smaller armies, and in most cases this works. Before diving into the imperial provinces we get a run-down of the Mharoti government structure. The empire's divided into provinces ruled over the most powerful and noble of dragons who have some degree of sway over the Sultan, while the Sultan (who cannot be a dragon) administers day-to-day affairs and commands the army. It is a species-based caste system: the bottom caste is the Jambuka, anyone who is not a reptilian and comprise mostly low-class laborers and servants. Above them are the Kobaldi who more or less fill the same social role as Jambuka, save they have an inflated sense of superiority for being "dragonkin" and control most of the mining and weaving guilds. Sekban are the lowest ranks of dragonkin (dragonborn and dragon-blood humans) who may be more skilled laborers. Edjet are military units of dragonkin who are raised to fight in a variety of ways from magic to martial might. Akinji are minor landholders and administrators who serve as officers and skilled troops in war. Timarli are the nobles and include dragons, drakes, wyverns, and related species who can range from owners of large farmlands and guilds to high priests, gentry, and generals. The Urmanli are 500 of the most well-connected true dragons. Finally are the Morza, nine Great Dragon Lords who administer each of the Empire's provinces, act as advisers for the Sultan, and are drawn from the ranks of the Urmanli when one of them dies. Finally we get a full-page sidebar discussing the make-up of a typical 30,000 Mharoti Legion, along with a list of troop types by caste and their roles (archers, infantry, air support, etc).  We have a sidebar about the Dragoncoil Mountains, a natural feature dominating the central Empire. The region's strong in ley line magic, a great resource which enhances the imperial spellcasters' magical projects. Now we get into the Provinces and the Morza, describing not only the land but also its ruler's relations and ambitions. Our first province is Gizmiri, a wasteland of red desert whose only major industries are mines and coastal fishing. The provincial capital of Sarkland is a trading hub famed for its magical carpets, and the Morza Ateshah's mere fiery presence causes nearby land to change into desert. Ateshah's secret goal is to research ancient knowledge to spread this across all of Midgard, which needless to say won't sit well with the rest of the Empire. Satarah al-Beldestani is the morza of Harkesh, although she wasn't always a true dragon. She was once a dragonborn paladin who ascended the Sky Stairs of Beldestan and returned transformed into a star drake. She's one of the more hawkish morza, seeking an all-out war with Nuria Natal which even by the sultan's standards is regarded as foolhardy. Harkesh is the capital of the Empire proper and is known as the Golden City. It's a trade hub where even merchants from enemy countries come: commerce and coin knows no national allegiance. We get a full-page map of Harkesh along with brief descriptions of various interesting locations, such as the Four Pillars of Wisdom which engage in ritualized rival school street fights with each other based on one of their god Azuran's directional winds. Although the Empire's founder Mharot is still alive and kicking, he is not one for politics anymore and is content to be ruler of the rural mountain province of Kalpostan. He spends most of his time sleeping but on rare occasions he speaks the Words of Transformation to ascend kobolds and dragonkins to the next higher form in the caste system. METAPLOT: A human soothsayer known as Enver Demir Demir al-Kaa'Nesh has the ability to read the dreams of Mharot, which he uses to relay his proclamations to the other members of his court. However al-Kaa'Nesh is getting up there in years and there is worry of who, if any, is trusted enough to replace him. The city of Kaa'Nesh is known for its blood mages, who found a way to grant magical ogres tattoos to drain the life force of those they wound in hand-to-hand combat. Due to this they make for valuable shock troopers. Ibbalan the Illustrious' claim to fame is being the eldest ruling morza thanks to a sacrifice to the god Baal. Now his very spirit possess his own treasure horde and capable of forming into a dragon-like form of coins and jewels. He oversees Mezar Province, secured on a vital trade route between the eastern and western realms of Midgard. It has two capitals based on the season, while Ibbalan's home city of Irkaly is home to the Elemental Academy which trains many edjet war-mages and timarli. Lashmaraq Talshah rules over Hariz Province, the easternmost realm of the Empire. She's a ruthless taskmaster and perfectionist, having spent decades to build an elite army one day capable of extending territory into Khandira and Beldestan. The other Dragon Lords fear her for her spy network and as such hope she remains distracted enough in this remote region. The province is mostly unsettled and poor, and the numerous nomads and Khazzaki raiders make enforcement difficult at best. Parsis the Hidden is the ruler of Betik Province and one of the two only golden dragons in the Empire. He is not one to delegate and loves to shapeshift into dragonborn and non-reptilian forms to take a "hands-on" approach of surveying the state of his province. The region is home to the Empire's greatest centers of learning; the Hidden University is notable for allowing entry to anyone capable of passing the exam's skills regardless of their race or economic status. The region is riddled with invisible castles and fortresses in the clouds, and its ley line-enhanced scrying is used to give directions to the Empire's armies and various other grandiose tasks. Rüzgar is a simple cave dragon. He cares little for governing Zaldri Province, his favorite thing instead to pit his armies against great foes and eat the greatest among the opposition. He gets on with the current Sultan in trading war stories and hypothetical invasions. His province is lightly populated, and its proximity to the borders of Perunalia and the Magdar Kingdom mean there are always legions patrolling the border. Marea Province's morza Yiraz Azah is unique in more ways than one. She's the only morza not from the Dragoncoil Mountains region, instead hailing from an unknown realm in the North. Yiraz prefers a honey-over-vinegar approach to imperialism, suggesting that future realms should be voluntarily absorbed via mutually-beneficial treaties, although this was before she became morza. She still talks the talk, but commits military forces against the cities of Kyprion and Triolo under self-justification that she would be a fairer ruler than the other morza. Her province is an exception in that dragonkin and kobolds are in the minority, and she tolerates local religious traditions outside the dragon pantheon. METAPLOT: The religious tolerance has come to a violent end when priests of Seggotan were believed to be organizing a rebellion after they started occupying and restoring abandoned temples. The Mharoti soldiers' murder of these overwise-peaceful people has only served to martyr them among the populace and inflame local resentment.  Rumela is the newest territory of the Mharoti Empire, formerly the Seven City realm of Illyria. They lost a long and taxing war with the dragons, its noble families fled to other cities, its Duchess chained to a massive stone block. She is kept alive by food and magic for all citizens to see how low their former leader fell. The Mharoti Empire is investing heavily in farm and pasture creation to recoup their losses along with rebuilding the capital city and palace. The latter especially to be more "dragon-friendly" in accessibility. Illyria/Rumela's non-dragonkin populace are awash with anger and depression over their loss. Many would-be rebels still lie rotting in mass graves and the remaining noble families are pitted against each other by the ruling morza to prevent them from reaching a united front. Glauvistus was the general responsible for the country's subjugation and is now its new morza. She is is intentionally making laws and taxes crueler to "drive out the rebellious spirit of risky citizens" in the belief that killing them right then and there will help subjugate the last threats to her rule. The White Mountain Marches are perhaps the last true area of resistance, although the Dragon Empire's struggles up there are more due to orc-human hybrid worshipers of the White Goddess who lair in the innumerable mountain caverns and peaks. Additionally there is the Lonely Spire, a small magical academy which is in a tense ceasefire with the invaders. This is because it's home to a great archmage notable for producing students of unsurpassed skill and Glauvistus' soldiers do not exactly know the true capabilities of what they might face. METAPLOT: Zrandres was a copper dragon prisoner who the Duchess put on display in Palasi, promising a grand reward to anyone who can extract a truthful statement from the constantly-lying dragon. Now the very same Baba Yaga-enchanted shackles which held him hold the Duchess, and he's now the morza's sadistic head of the occupier's secret police. Pathia is a vassal state of the Mharoti Empire. The reason they haven't been conquered outright is that the Parthians pay plenty in tribute, worship the dragon pantheon, and acts as a buffer zone between Khandira and the Rothenian Plain. Parthians are mostly humans who live off of trade and industry rather than agriculture. Their society places a high degree of politeness and hospitality even with outsiders, but they have a large number of blood feuds between their own cities and clans. Their capital of Isphahan is protected with enchanted stone and home to many temples. The city of Rhaga is home to the Collegium Elemental which sells iron spheres known as voidfire orbs capable of calling down a one-time flame strike spell. South of the country are numerous battlefield graveyards haunted by ghosts and latent magic of Mharoti-Khandiran wars. The Red Wastes are dry and inhospitable to most life, with the only major features the Halls of the Cobra home to a ghoulish death cult and Black Lion Castle which is filled with otherworldly hounds, oozes, and demons. Finally there's the bandit stronghold of Dorin's Tower which manages to avoid destruction for being a major supplier of water and provisions to to passing armies. The Forbidden Mountains of Beldestan is our first non-Mharoti nation in this chapter. We covered evil nations before, although in Morgau's case it was mostly an undead overclass. Even Niemheim has the gnomes between the rock and hard place that is choosing devil worship and sacrifice or suffer total genocide. But in Beldestan it's all evil all the time for fun! Human sacrifices are held every day, people praise the dark gods openly and fervently, slavery is used for manual labor, blasphemers have holes drilled into their skulls, kidnapping would-be brides is commonplace, and families betray and kill one another for entertainment. If it weren't for its crazy populace, the pilgrimage site sacred to all gods known as the Sky Stairs would get a lot more visitors. Said Stairs are home to many challenges, from giant eagles to strong winds and all variety of undead, but those who ascend to the last stair become favored in the eyes of the gods. The Towers of Khubara is a mountain nation of dwarves and humans who raise the fastest falcons in the world and mine all manner of metals. They are most known for mithral and the unique wave-washed steel. The latter can be forged into weapons capable of reducing the AC bonus of shields and worn armor on a critical hit against a target (no sunder mechanics necessary)! We have additional lists of interesting locations, such as the Giant Throne fortress which has an observatory detailing the process of how dragons turn into stars and stars into gods, the Grove of Silence populated by satyrs who worship evil gods, poppy fields presided over by gnoll-priests and ragers of Veles who derive the plants' seeds into addictive drug known as dragonsmoke or dragonpipe, and a miles-high World Tree home to the gods Vashnaya and the Monkey King. The Trees' wood can be fashioned into amulets to ward off darkness. Despotate of the Ruby Sea  Our final nation is the much-villified peninsular country of the Ruby Sea. Its claim to fame is slavery of all kinds, and its respectable war-galleys house possessed demons capable of being controlled by the forbidden magic of ship captains. They search far and wide for new people to shackle, and some of their best clients are the gnomes of Niemheim, the priests of Baal, the Mharoti Empire, and the Tsar of Vidim. The Despot Veltrin rules over the country as an absolute dictator, who forged his empire of shackles from asking Baba Yaga the secret to taking control of a beached demonbound ship. From her lessons he learned ways to make more of those ships and thus form a veritable army. Beyond this dark power, Veltrin's flesh golem bodyguards are animated from the corpses of former generals who plotted a failed coup against him. Slaves are kept in line with false hope and minor acts of "mercy" to keep them in line. Not having to serve the galley oars, magical healing, or a days' respite from labor make for powerful motivators, but so do starvation and lashes when those fail. In fact, the slaves are the city's greatest defense in a roundabout way. Via blood sacrifices to the White Goddess, slave-masters can temporarily transform slaves into hulking monstrous warriors. They were used to great effect in repelling Khazzaki raiders and Mharoti legions. Speaking of which, there is an unofficial alliance of sorts by said raiders: the Khazzaki give clandestine messages to the amazons of Perunalia to sail a warship and recover any of their captives while their mounted and centaur warriors plunder the Despotate's grain and farmland. Such widespread attacks cause much disarray among slaveholders, and many slaves use the opportunity to run off into the wilderness in hopes of making it to the Rothenian Plains or Perunalia or getting picked up by a friendly vessel. METAPLOT: The Mharoti's new Sultan demanded the Despotate to send him tribute, but Veltrin is ignoring him so far. Thoughts So Far: Far from your typical evil empire of doom and gloom, the Mharoti Empire is an interesting and varied land which gives a lot of fodder for adventuring opportunity, be they for or against the government. From the newly-conquered province to the private schemes of the Morza, it feels like a lot is going on in the region. Magic carpet shops, elementalist academies, ruins filled with the legacies of bygone times, and monstrous rulers make the Dragon Empire and surrounding lands feel full of great wonders and dangers. The Despotate of the Ruby Sea makes for a classic "fight the slavers" adventure hook, and the demon-bound ships are a novel idea. Parthia did not strike any strong feelings in me, but Beldestan's mustache-twirling populace is too ludicrous to be believable. It felt like the author wanted to make drow as a nation, but with none of the cool or sexy features that made those elves popular in the first place. But overall I liked this chapter. Join us next time as we venture into the Southlands, home of the Nurian god-kings and the swashbuckling Corsair Coast!
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Apr 22, 2018 09:59
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 The portion of the Southlands presented in the Midgard Worldbook is but the upper tip of a much larger continent with its own very good I might add sourcebook. The "Southlands" as a whole is more properly known by its own people as the Kingdoms of Gold and Salt for the propensity of such trade goods. The realms with the most interaction with the rest of Midgard are the River Kingdom of Nuria Natal and the nation of Ishadia, who both have strong history of divine legacies and are the main blockade against Mharoti domination of the rest of the continent. To the west of Nuria Natal is the expansive Dominion of the Wind Lords, where elements of nature coexist with nomadic tribes. At the far east are the naval cities of the Corsair Coast, where legitimate business and piracy often go hand-in-hand. METAPLOT: In an interesting change of pace, the chapter opens up by filling out recent significant events: a secret religious order of Thorth-Hermes known as the Emerald Order are undergoing diplomatic missions to noble courts in the Crossroads, Seven Cities, and the Grand Duchy of Dornig against the Mharoti Empire. The minotaurs, long enemies of the dragons, are rebuilding the fallen city of Roshgazi. The mysterious reappearance of the Lost Fleet and its miraculously-living crew are spearheading the efforts. A huge slave rebellion on the island nation of Shibai disrupted the flesh trade on the sea and caused more than a few newly-freed people to join freedom-loving pirate vessels for revenge. Finally, the rise of three evil cults are growing in influence. They include the antipaladin Doomspeakers, the Emerald Order of Thoth''s scholars who obey the prophecies of a mysterious green tablet, and the nomads of Selket's Sting who petition their scorpion goddess to punish their enemies. Nuria Natal The oldest surviving human nation bases its foundations upon a ley line-infused river. They are Fantasy Counterpart Ancient Egypt and have a close association with the gods of that pantheon. Their largest cities are named after their favored patron, such as Per-Anu and Per-Bastet. In times of great struggle and war the gods take physical form to enact mighty deeds. It is due to this divine protection that the Mharoti Empire has such great difficulty annexing their lands. However like any gods they cannot be at the beck and call of mortals, so some of their greatest mortal minions known as the god-kings were preserved in pyramid-tombs to awaken in times of great need. Some of them already walk the earth and do not always see eye-to-eye with the current ruler Thutmoses XXIII. Now Nuria Natal is more akin to a confederation of semi-autonomous city-states who unite together against a common draconic enemy. The entries for people and places of Nuria Natal are focused strongly on the cities rather than smaller settlements and villages. Nuria, City of the River, is the capital and home to many grand pyramids, tombs, and a souk operating on a series of transient barges. Corremel is the most fertile city famed for its top-quality grains and beer. Per-Anu, the mysterious City of Crimson Pillars, is closed to entry save to trusted allies of the Cult of Anu-Akma (Anubis). It is home to loyal undead and the Red Portals, extradimensional gateways to other times and places. Per-Bastet, the City of Cats, is a cosmopolitan hub of varying people and races governed by an equally-fractured council. Its most notable natural feature is a "river" of sand cutting through the city's core. Per-Kush is famed for its many domesticated exotic animals and is home to a dwarven smith famed for the creation of huge constructs in the name of Nuria's national defense. Per-Xor is an outlier as its people are followers of the Sun God Aten, a jealous deity who has no desire to share his faithful with the rest of the pantheon. Although professing loyalty to Thutmoses, there are preachers who seek complete autonomy. Our time in Nuria Natal ends with a list of famous tombs and ruins, such as a haunted pyramid whose vizier's devil-guided blood ritual went very, very wrong; shades of undead Mharoti buried in a sandstorm who still think the war's ongoing; and an evil offshoot of the Cult of Bast operating out of the ruined city of Tes-Luria. Free Cities of the Desert  Whereas Nuria Natal was Ancient Egypt-themed, the city-states of Siwal, Saph-Saph, and Makuria are more Arabian in flavor. They were once Nurian holdings, meant to serve as a buffer zone between the country and foreign lands. Now they are politically autonomous yet still maintain friendly relations with their ancestral neighbors. Siwal is built around a natural oasis enhanced with elemental magic, and magical vessels known as sandships are its major technological innovation. Capable of long-range trade, they are few in number but supplement the more common camel caravans. Siwal is also famed for the people's love of dance, and some even incorporate the practiced mobility into beautiful fighting arts. Priests of the water gods serve a vital social role in town and act as gardeners in addition to conducting birth and coming of age ceremonies for citizens. There's also a Grand Necropolis where a community of undead hold their own court at nightfall. Saph-Saph is situated on a common Tamasheq nomad route and is just as much a fortress as it is a settlement. The people worship Aten and their schools raise new generations of priests and paladins. Makuria, meanwhile, trades in sellswords and mercenaries while its queen plays Nurian and Kush rulers against each other to to help business. However, the Order of Horus provides a more productive use of martial talents by monitoring trade routes and keeping them safe from danger. Our last stop is at Golden Ulthar, a lush valley in the middle of the desert which remains so due to a forgotten civilization's land-changing magic. The only living entity of this civilization is the sphinx Sepenret, who lays eggs of stone which bear the kingdom's magic. She has a major incentive in preventing thieves and tomb-robbers from absconding with the eggs or other artifacts of Ulthar. In order to fulfill her duties, she relies upon wardens and trusted adventurers to recover these purloined treasures. [CENTER]Dominion of the Wind Lords  [/CENTER]The Dominion's lands dominate the majority of the northern Southlands, a harsh desert pocketed with rare yet precious oases and springs. The rulers are not mortals, but powerful creatures of elemental air represented by the four directional winds. These Wind Lords take an active interest in the affairs of the nomadic tribes calling the Dominion home. There used to be grand kingdoms here, such as Golden Ulthar and the minotaur city of Roshgazi, but their glory days are long past. The Jinnborn are one of the major nomadic groups. They are not human, but rather descend from jinn and range from the Dominion to Nuria's deserts. They have strong ties to the elements and land itself and call themselves the Sab Siraat, or "people of the path." They are a new race who are further detailed in Unlikely Heroes for 5th Edition or the Southlands Campaign Setting for their Pathfinder stats. As an owner of both books, they have a series of powerful abilities and in Pathfinder's case a slew of new feats. However, they are dependent on living in the desert and every month they stay away are afflicted with debilitating debuffs. This rather limits their playability in campaigns away from the Southlands. The Tamasheq are human nomads who are Fantasy Counterpart Tuareg people. In fact, Tamasheq is the name of the real-world language of the Tuareg! The Tamasheq organize into tribes of extended families known as vanhu who make regular trips between settlements to conduct trade. Although they portray themselves as simple nomads to outsiders, they have a secret thriving city known as Kel Azjer somewhere within the Dominion's mountains. We get a rundown on six notable vanhus who serve the various Wind Lords: the Vanhu Dewabi is ruled by a priestess who largely lairs within Nuria Natal and rustles camel for sport in addition to trade. The Vanhu Kozar serve Chergui the East Wind and use druidic magic to speak to nature spirits in order to avoid war-torn and dangerous regions. The Vanhu Lejai are fine warriors whose leader is a paladin with a pair of hunting cheetahs. The Vanhu Owey, Vanhu Adagh, and Vanhu Dinnij all serve Boreas the North Wind and have a hostile relation with the rest of the Tamasheq. They are some of the best cavalry in the Southlands and guard their elemental lord's broken tower which holds obscure knowledge. For specific locations, we have the city of Kel Azjer located within an obscure mountaintop. It is home to all the boons of a large city, with skilled artisans, schools of mundane and magical disciplines, and grand towers and plazas. A network of Red Portals connect to areas elsewhere in Midgard as well as the planar commerce hub known as the Marketplace. The Shrine of the Spider Prophet is home to the eponymous figure, a robed person covered in a swarm of spiders favored by both the wind spirits who whisper him secrets of the land as well as his patron deity Kwansi. He has high status among the Tamasheq and foresaw a prophecy when the Mharoti Empire comes to war against their people. He is in fact looking forward to the oncoming chaos to test his skills as a warlord. Two minotaur ruins of the Moon Kingdom are undergoing renovation by restoration efforts. The port city of Cindass is thriving in spite of its many unclaimed dangerous ruins inhabited by monsters and a fabled Golden Ark of Herosh. Roshgazi is home to a sprawling labyrinth whose halls shift of their own accord thanks to a sapient multi-personality artifact known as the Heart of Roshgazi. One personality is the kind-hearted Poet who is a helpful guide, but the malevolent Broken leads travelers to monsters and traps. The head of the lost Roshgazi fleet has returned to make repairs on the city, and whose leader is looking for a way to restore the Heart to its original state. Our final location of note is the Mardas Vhula-Gai, a relic of Ankeshelian days home to magic runes and vril technology. The place is home to tribes of goblins, metallic construct guardians, and a ruthless warlord known as the Tyrant of Maras Vhula-gai who's building up a small army of raiders and assorted scum. Corsair Coast  The final section of the Southlands chapter is also the least-detailed. The majority of focus is on Ishadia with brief write-ups for other realms. All of the people here rely upon sea trade for their livelihood, from merchant galleons to dangerous pirate vessels and warships. Ishadia still stands in spite of their century-long war with the Mharoti Empire. Many of their cities are now but crumbling ruins, having suffered great losses. There is a brief quiet of sorts lately, as the dragons find their attention divided with other realms. But the Ishadi still stand resolute for when violence comes again. Worship of angels permeates Ishadian society, and even the most bloodthirsty cutthroat pays them respect. The Old Gods of the celestial realms once lived among their worshipers, their unions giving rise to a relatively high population of aasimar (about 3%). Military service is compulsory for all adult citizens, a price the people accept as the cost of freedom from draconic domination. The capital city of Mardas Adamat's decorated dragon bone fortifications stand testament to that. The dammed city of Khazephon was once flooded by a dragon-caused tidal wave, and a group of lammasu sentries awaiting "the rise of a true king" stand watch over the vacant palaces claimed by the waters. Of greatest interest is the Phoenix Throne of Ishadia whose many broken shards hold powerful magic. Sequra is a tidy white city home to thriving criminal enterprises, and Shuruppak holds some of the largest and oldest temples in Midgard which used to connect extraplanar portals to the Seven Heavens. Pilgrims of many faiths from all over the world flock to the city due to this. The Sultanate of Shibai is an incredibly wealthy island kingdom which sits at the epicenter of seabound trade in the Tethys Ocean. It was founded by Ishadian merchants whose descendants control their own port cities, and centuries worth of immigration from various lands results in a very multicultural society. The capital has a street literally paved with gold, which of course is protected from looters by walls of force. Mhalmet, the City of Freedom, is a den of pirates, smugglers, adventurers, and merchants with the stones to hang around these dangerous people. A council of pirate lords, thieves' guild leaders, and caravan raiders known as the Black Table governs the city. Although many among their faction fight against the slave trade, they are not above extorting protection money from "liberated" people. The Sandalwood House is a social club of big game hunters and explorers who make expeditions into the Southlands for thrills and profit. Sar-Shaba, City of the Seal, was once the seat of the kingdom of Aksaba but now it serves as the prison of a thousand demons. Angelic sigils trap the mortal descendants of its princes and princesses who serve a generations-long duty to stand vigil over their ancestral land. But fiendish monsters aren't their only problem: a cult known as the Seven Wicked Blades is looking for a means to break the wards so that their objects of worship can run free across the Southlands. Thoughts so far: I have a soft spot for the Southlands, although that is mostly due to the setting book of the same name so I might be biased in this regard. There's quite a bit of adventuring opportunity in just about every realm, and I particularly like the "reverse tomb robber" idea of reclaiming artifacts for a sphinx patron. The minotaur cities in need of rebuilding serve as a plausible dungeon/settlement hybrid which makes sense, and the lost tombs of Nuria Natal along with its semi-independent god-themed cities are full of interesting plot ideas. Sar-Shaba is my only major source of contention. Given the wording of its entry, it implies that the wards are a two-way street in keeping people out and demons in. The Southlands Campaign Setting proper explains that mortals can cross past its walls while the demons cannot. This helps serve as a place for Shar-Shaba to actually adventure in without undoing the wards. But the Worldbook entry is not clear on that, so otherwise it can come off as "city full of interesting adventure only when all hell literally breaks loose." Join us next time as we sail north to the Seven Cities, a realm where war is not only a way of life but a most sacred calling of their patron god Mavros!
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Apr 25, 2018 02:27
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gradenko_2000 posted:Are there any straight adventure modules set in this world, for any system? Yes in fact, and quite a bit, too! The bulk of them are in Pathfinder, but there's an increasing amount of 5th Edition adventures as of late. A lot of them can be found here. Individual Adventures: Alleys of Zobeck (PF) Cat & Mouse (PF/5e) Shadows of the Dusk Queen (PF/5e) Tomb of Tiberesh (5e) Wreck of Volund's Glory (13A) Grimalkin (5e) Wrath of the River King (PF/5e) Blood Vaults of Sister Alkava (5e) Sanctuary of Belches (5e, setting-neutral but contains advice on how to run in the setting) Midgard Adventures Serial: To the Edge of the World (PF) The Raven's Call (PF/5e) Mayhem Beneath Demon Mountain (PF) Beyond the Ghostlight Reef (PF) The Buried Palace (PF) The Forgotten King's Tomb (PF) Adventure Anthologies/Megaventures: Tales of the Old Margreve (PF) Courts of the Shadow Fey (PF/4e, upcoming one for 5e) Streets of Zobeck (PF/5e) Midgard Tales (PF) Halls of the Mountain King (PF) Tales of Zobeck (PF) There was also an Eleven Arabian Nights adventure anthology, but that was backer-exclusive for the Southlands KickStarter. It is Pathfinder to my knowledge. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 23:08 on Apr 25, 2018 |
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Apr 25, 2018 23:03
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 The peninsular region known as the Seven Cities today was shaped by the old elven empire, its human vassals intentionally divided by the elves exploiting rivalries and grudges. The Great Retreat was a time of turmoil for the now-independent humans, and saw all manner of would-be emperors and warlords seeking a claim as rightful ruler. The larger cities managed to gain a level of security, but generations of war soon became a way of life for the Septimes (name for the people living in this region). But these are not viewed as dark times; on the contrary, just about every citizen looks on with pride that few other places in Midgard are more famed for its warriors. METAPLOT: The big changes are listed right up front. The oracles of Hecate managed to find a way to imprison the sea god Nethus whose very form was shackled in his temple. 8 years ago he was freed, brainwashed into thinking that she was his wife instead of his true beloved. Mnemosyne. The latter goddess is imprisoned in the very same temple which held her husband, and whose tears sustain the sea gods' heart. Illyria has been conquered by the Mharoti Empire, causing the Septime city-states to consider an alliance among each other as well as foreign groups against the dragons. Nethus aided the fleets of Capleon, Kammae, and Triolo along with Nurian Theurges to destroy the main Mharoti armada in the Battle of the Golden Wave. The Shadowy Fey attached a section of the Stross Library to the Great Library of Friula, causing all manner of supernatural woes to occur. The former Mharoti Sultana is a guest of Emperor Loki in Valera, her political knowledge of the dragon empire a useful tool in gathering together a Septime Alliance. Mharoti soldiers landed troops on Kyprion, and Kammae attacked Capleon due to factions among the latter city having years of financial relationships with the Mharoti. The Black Strangles spread to Trombei's cavalry. We have an outline on the city-states and their unique military and economic strengths, as well as some cultural notes which we will cover in their entries proper. Amusingly there would be eight cities, nine if we count the isle of Kyprion which is part of the region: Capleon, Friula, Illyria, Kammae, Melana, Triolo, Trombei, and Valera. Even when Illyria still stood in the 2012 guide it was still known as the Seven Cities. Melana is described as technically not part of the region proper due to its proximity to the Wasted West, and Kyprion is a vassal of Triolo. The latter explanations make sense, but you have to read the appropriate sections to suss it out. The Season of War  We cannot cover the Seven Cities without an overview of their distinct military culture. Mavros the war god is the most popular deity and patron of every city save Kammae, where Hecate reigns supreme. Warfare can be conducted for a variety of reasons, but there are divinely-set rules and guidelines for proper conduct. First off, there are five traditional reasons a city must claim to commit war and be made public, there are clear designations between enemy soldiers and noncombatant civilians (who are not to be harmed save in self-defense), government soldiers and free companies alike must wear clear uniforms to denote allegiance, the campaigning season ends at the winter months, and diplomatic lines to negotiation between warring cities must be always remain open. This last part is important, as the financial profit motive for war is taken into account: razing a city and/or committing genocide against a population not only falls under a war crime in Mavros' teachings, it also robs a conquering city-state from potential new resources and tax revenue. Payment of tribute, ransoms generated from prisoner exchanges, and Condottieri-style mercenary companies prioritize monetary and tactical advantages of war over bloodlust and vengeance. Unfortunately the Mharoti Empire has no sense of adhering to these ancient traditions, which gives them an advantage due to lack of scruples but more or less earns them the enmity of just about every Septime. METAPLOT: There were traditionally five legitimate reasons to call for war: to seize territory to which one has a proper claim, to secure Mavros' blessing, to avenge an insult against a ruler or people, to force payment of tribute, or to support an ally. Now with the fall of Illyria, punishing a city for supporting the Mharoti is now a sixth cause. The Republic of Valera is our first stop. Although not the richest it is the most devout, and it's common for poor families to give their sons to be trained among the priests of Mavros. An empire in name only, its government is divided between an Emperor and the Senate, although a military coup moved almost all the power into the former's hands. Emperor Loki V (not the god) is popular among the people, although the Senators are ones to hold a grudge. He hosts ambassadors from the Wind Lords and Nuria Natal along with the deposed Sultana in the eventual goal of repelling the Mharoti invaders. The Sultana is doing this in hopes of gaining enough allies from abroad so that she can reclaim her former throne. All these political dealings take place in the Adelian Palace, a remnant of elven architecture. The Palace contains magical features from ambient lighting, hidden shadow portals, and secret tunnels which exit out into various smaller areas around the city. There's also a growing movement of elf-worshiping cults who believe the shadowy fey's return is a herald to lost glory days. They are easily manipulated by their would-be gods into performing dangerous acts and are one of Valera's growing dangers. The Theocracy of Kammae Straboli, or Kammae for short, is a theocratic city-state undergoing a spot of nationalist fervor. The aid of Nethus' sea-titans and supernatural animals known as ghost-boars enhance their army's already respectable legions of warriors and divine spellcasters. Now that not one, but two gods are on their side and walk among the populace, it seems that Kammae Straboli has nowhere to go but up. But one of its social ills are requiem dens, addictive drugs which allow imbibers to speak to the ghosts of long-departed people. Even mages and priests use it to their advantage to commune with wise spirits from history, but the drug takes a potentially fatal toll on a person's mind and body. The Halls of the Oracle is a magnificent religious building, and the re-purposed High Sanctuary of the Waves sees the arrival of Nethus himself to bless an adoring faithful two to three times a year. In addition to divine services the oracles sell a magic drink called the Tears of Memory which invoke obscure lore, and there's a waiting queue of rich clients and more than a few would-be thieves with their eyes on discovering its secrets. METAPLOT: 25 years ago Hecate and her greatest oracle managed to imprison the sea god Nethus in one of his temples in Kammae. They also robbed his Mnemosyne of any memories of her husband, and gave the couples' newborn daughter to be raised by said oracle. Hecate sought to find a way to add Nethus' faithful to hers, and via a backers-only adventure obtained as a stretch goal for one of Kobold Press' KickStarters, she tricked several bands of adventurers into gathering Nethus' divine spark in the belief it would free him. Instead it removed Nethus' heart, allowing him to fully fall under Hecate's sway. He now believes that the goddess was his true wife all along, and that his "captivity" was him being nursed back to health after a grievous assault from the Mharoti dragon gods. Dalyora Podella, Nethus' daughter, has now been raised into the role of the city's warleader for an eventual campaign against the Mharoti. Now Mnemosyne is the imprisoned one, her never-ending flow of tears sustaining Nethus' heart and also used by the priesthood of Hecate for fueling powerful divination spells. We have a list of other sites near Kammae, from small towns to adventuring locations such as a volcanic mountain teeming with monsters and a legendary island with a ghost-haunted palace. The Ringwood hosts several isolated towns responsible for training elite units of Hecate as well as the creation of the ghost-boars, monsters imbued with the powers of Charon the god of death.  The Barony of Capleon is the southernmost of the Seven Cities and once counted Cindass and Roshgazi among its territories. Its ruling Baron Cazagoza sought to court favors with the Mharoti Empire... METAPLOT: ...which bit him right in the rear end, causing a significant portion of his own population and people from the other city-states to call for his removal. It's no longer safe for dragonkin merchants to visit after violent hate crimes from "so-called patriots." This angered the Mharoti, viewing the Baron as a ruler who can't seem to keep his own populace in check. Cazagoza's few remaining allies are the City Council and some merchant families who rely upon his navy for protection. Capleon's ironically-named City of Peace is home to some of the largest banking institutions in Midgard. The Salt and Spice Bank in particular is a veritable bazaar where speculative markets see the rise and fall of fortunes. The Southern Quarter is home to ethnic neighborhoods comprised of immigrants from Nuria Natal and Cindass. There's a gang problem of violent skirmishes which are kept in check by heavy fines for civil disruption and property damage...which implies that gangsters care about the rule of law. In regards to the seedier elements of the city, Lion's Rock is the Baron's secret prison of dissidents and a patriotic Guild of Poisoners use their talents to slay all manner of threats to the city-state. The Tumbles are the ruined Temple of Seoggotan, now hosting a floating tent-city and series of tunnels home to smugglers and desperate faithful huddling out of society's view. The priests of Seggotan were accused by Nethus of aiding Mharoti soldiers, and pronounced his judgment by demolishing the place. Finally there's a Roman-style colosseum known as the Blood of the Sea Arena whose proximity to the waterfront allows the building to host mock naval skirmishes at high tide. The Canton of Melana is in the far north of the peninsula and as such controls much of the overland trade between themselves and the Crossroads. Its system of government elects a pair of Censors (traditionally a dwarf and human) to leadership, although the most recent elections propped up candidates of radically different ideologies: one is an expansionist named Seppo Voller who has support among dwarven monarchists who seek to "liberate" the Ironcrags, while the human Jacopo Massaro is more isolationist military-wise and seeks only to keep trade relations with neighbors open. The city-state's significant dwarven population lives in the Undercity, comprised of Ironcrag refugees who resisted the region's transition to a more democratic form of government. The book also points out that the Monarchists are gender-egalitarian in comparison to their Ironcrag cousins, who "cloister their women" and do not let them choose occupations based on merit and capability.* There's also a hidden tomb of the last dwarven monarchists. A collection of notes written by the last King's oracle sister contain many prophetic insights; these publications were banned by Malena's censors yet still circulate. METAPLOT: Instead of a dwarf, the last Censor in the 2012 sourcebook was the kobold Vinzlo, who ushered in a new era of rights and respect for his people in the Undercity. After his term, he is now the leader of the Warren Guild, a group of kobold spies, couriers, trapmakers, and assassins. Some other interesting sites around Melana include the warlock of the Scarlet Citadel and his private army who sells his talents to the highest bidder. There's also the abandoned Sinkhole Mine, whose bottom levels literally fell off into a huge bottomless pit many believe to lead to the other side of Midgard. *I know that I pointed out earlier with Perunalia that Midgard is overall a patriarchal world, but the book doesn't exactly do a good job of showing this save in exceptions like the one above; the Ironcrags section of the Crossroads makes no mention of "cloistered women," so we have to find out about an important social aspect of their culture several chapters later in the book. Other gendered social norms in the setting are referenced in small snippets, like "giving a son" to Mavros' mostly-male priesthood or how Kariv women "drink and whore and gamble as much as the men do." This persists in several of Midgard's supplemeents, like how the aforementioned Kariv women are frequent targets of sexual assault from outsiders in Dwarves of the Ironcrags; or how in the Midgard Legends sourcebook there's a tale of how the gnoll scholar Calm-Tongue demonstrated to the people of the Northlands the value of women warriors. One of my pet peeves with Midgard is not that it has a patriarchal social system at all, but doesn't make this setting element obvious enough for prospective players and GMs. It's a major difference from otherwise-egalitarian settings out there, because a PC's gender in certain races or regions can be a significant hurdle socially if not mechanically. It would be like failing to mention that a certain nation in your setting is incapable of producing clerics, but said reference is buried under entries to an unrelated group later on in the book.  Friula, City of Secrets is no stranger to war, but that is not its strong suit. As the inherited legacy of a surviving monastery of a long-gone mystic order, Friula houses one of Midgard's greatest collections of books, scrolls, and records. Only the Magocracy of Allain and the Nurian temples of Thoth-Hermes can be count as its competitors. They even permitted Mharoti refugees and Arbonesse elves to donate their findings, much to the chagrin of other city-states. Friula's natural defenses include hills filled with basilisks so this is not a significant problem for them yet. The city's government is ruled over by the bibliotori, a council of 12 whose means of entry are by how much lore they can contribute to the city. They do not have control over the Great Library, which is presided over by the Keeper Lynnean Verdia... METAPLOT: ...who is in fact a disguised silver dragon defector from the Mharoti Empire! There's an uprising of fear among the populace, as the Great Library's vaunted halls seem to grow in size into endlessly twisting dark corridors. More than a few visitors and scholars mysteriously vanished, and the bibliotori fiercely debate how to handle this problem. The bibliotori's newest member is Primus Balack Giolan, whose alliance with the hags of Ghostlight Reef granted him an endless supply of artifacts to donate. He is in favor of using adventurers to save the problems of the Great Library, but finds himself blocked by the Keeper and his peers in this regard. The Bibliotor Uthan Bianco's family lives under a curse where a demon will claim a newborn child unless the parents can answer its riddle. When he could not answer it on the eve of his daughter's birth he agreed to serve in her stead. Now the demon manipulates Uthan to vote against issues which would help solve the problems plaguing the Great Library. The Great Library was a magical place even before the corruption. Living illusions, simulacrums of historical events, and eldritch guardians could be found within its halls along with a series of magical portals containing varying levels of danger. But two years ago the emergence of a portal to the Stross Family Library within the Plane of Shadow appeared. Its storehouses contained tomes believed not to exist or did not survive ancient cataclysms, such as Ankeshel vril technical manuals, a private diary of Baba Yaga, and tablets of the Southlands Titans. But the tradeoff is that one of the senior staff members is now enthralled to a demon, and a growing number of scholars and visitors are being killed and corrupted into shadowy thralls. Lynnean Verdia's fighting a desperate struggle, but even a dragon's power may not be enough... There is not much in the way of interesting surrounding sites near Friula besides Ghostlight Reef, which reaches deep into the earth and is believed to lead to other planar worlds. The Republic of Trombei is an economically powerful city-state with fertile farms and flanked by impassible marshes as natural defenses. The Republic's ruled by a council of landholders known as the Commune who elect a First Speaker to serve as a main administrator. Trombei's famed cavalry and centaur soldiers were a sight to behold in many campaigns, but the Black Strangles may cripple this great advantage. A dust goblin from the Wasted West perfected an alchemical compound to halt the process in horses, but with a 50% chance of killing the horse outright. As there are not enough clerics to eradicate the plague and those who do exist charge a pretty penny, the goblin's "miracle tonics" are the preferred option. Unfortunately the goblin's alchemy comes from moss scrapings of a Lovecraftian Waste Walker, and some of his racial brethren seek to kill him for this great heresy. The nearby settlement of Carpere is home to the annual Trombei Horse Fair, which sees tens of thousands of horses from mundane varieties to supernatural ones such as fey walkers and sleipnirs. Other troubles facing Trombei include centaurs in an old elven fortress closing theirs doors after the appearance of the Black Strangles. There's also a renegade section of Ceres worshipers known as the Reapers who use vandalism along with poisoned sickles and scythes to strike out at merchants who reap the bounty of the harvests instead of the farmers. A crumbling former castle known as the Wreck is occupied by a coven of hag cannibals who seek to construct a golem out of flesh and bones. They hope to house the avatar of their evil god in this when the time is right. The Republic of Triolo is home to corsairs famed across the western seas. The occupation of Illyria has hit the people hardest due to their proximity to said, and the Triolans are united in the goal of driving the Mharoti back. Its government is a complex system of two dozen merchant families, but the people who really get things done are its naval admirals: they include First Duke-Admiral Cadua, a minotaur who embarked on a voyage across Midgard where he sacrificed a horn, an eye, and a hand in exchange for peerless wisdom and a divine connection to Mavros. This earned him great acclaim when he returned to the city. Duke-Admiral Andreos Galatino is also a respected man, even as he spends most of his time in bed due to old age. Finally there's Commander Raniero Daliato, who heads Triolo's magical forces and elite units. Although Triolo is seeking alliances with the other city-states, there is worry among the leadership over the real reasons for Nethus' return which are only suspected, and Cadua is conflicted over when to send aid to Kyprion. For when he does, the dragons will attack Triolo directly. Triolo's harbor city is home to a large amount of Illyrian refugees. They joined the military forces and naval occupations in vast numbers for the eventual hope of freeing their homeland, and a fortified island known as the Sphinix holds large trade fairs. The neighborhood of Spada Quays is home to many taverns, gambling halls, informal duels, and all matter of entertainment. The minotaurs live in a labyrinth-like Minotaur Quarter where they more or less rule themselves. The invasion of Kyprion has caused fierce debates among them over whether to protect Triolo first, or join their kin on the isles to fight the dragons. The Illyrian Quarter is a sprawling tent-city, and the Stews of Triolo are home to the city's artisans and well-educated sex workers who supplement their income with divination, mapmaking, and alliances with corsairs and merchants. Factions near Triolo include Raguza, a city of pirates containing both licensed privateers and illegal scalawags; the griffon-mounted Sky Riders of Illyria who supplement Triolo with aerial scouting; the priesthood of Archae (one of Rava's masks) whose head oracle is magically frozen in sleep; and the secluded harbor of Turtle Cove, home to diabolist pirates unwelcome in Spada Quays and the rest of Triolo. One of Nethus' sea-titans, the Living Colossus, guards the habor of Raguza and single-handedly destroyed several enemy fleets.  The Serene Isle of Kyprion is not so serene anymore. Long the homeland of the minotaurs after the fall of their Moon Kingdom, Kyprion is a vassal of Triolo leaving its people without a true home of their own. Queen Kitane puts on a good public face as a serene priestess, but is privately angered over Triolo's refusal to send military aid. Although aware of the political realities of the dragons attacking Triolo in such a situation, this does little to alleviate feelings of betrayal. Kyprion's capital is Vespra, a lush and well-maintained settlement whose inhabitants greatly value music. Queen Kitane invites guests to her Palace to sleep in her labyrinthine halls, but every night bloody screams can be heard. This lead to rumors that both enemies and friends are invited but only the latter survive the visit. A Great Labyrinth surrounds the palace as a defensive region, home to many ancestral shrines and temples to Hecate. At night its many beasts and traps activate, and several times a year a great hunt of convicted criminals is held throughout the maze as a festival. Vespra's other "blood sports" location is the the Dancer's Courtyard arena. The Courtyard hosts ritual combat, duels to solve disputes, and ritual sacrifices of prisoners of war and criminals to the gods. Petitioners seeking justice, mercy, or revenge can be granted by the Queen if the person can sing a good melody. METAPLOT: Chamiras was once a modest settlement whose fine rope was crucial to the island's sailors and maritime trade. It also held a necropolis believed to hold a literal portal to the underworld. But as of the publishing of this Worldbook, it was invaded by a Mharoti Legion two months ago. They gained a foothold via magically created fog and invisibility spells, and most of the city's defenders were put to death. Now its inhabitants are press-ganged into working on defensive trenches and walls. The Legion leader Aarush Vedula wants to invade more of the island but her superiors want her to hold out for now, much to her consternation. METAPLOT: The city of Gramvar is a ruined realm, home to undead and demonic forces let loose after its binders were slain by an aerial assault of fire dragons. A small detachment of guards have their hands full in containing the monstrosities. Other locations include Longezza, whose population of Rava-worshiping weavers are exclusively women, and Spintarra whose great ironworks and mines supply Kyprion with its tools of war. There are Mharoti spies in the latter, and attempts to land Legions here have failed against the city's strong defenses. Thoughts so far: I really, really like the Seven Cities. The region has a diversity of locations and adventure material. Get your hands on the Tears of Memory in Kammae and possibly discover the dark secret behind Nethus' subservience. Go delving in a haunted library in Friula one day, then hunt criminals for sport in Kyprion's maze the next. Put a stop to shadow fey cultists up to no good in Valera and free dissidents from Capleon's secret prison. And that's not including the region's potential for soldiers of fortune to profit from military campaigns and sieges! Join us next time as we endure a trek across the Wasted West, the spellscarred ruins of demonic magocracies! Libertad! fucked around with this message at 01:36 on Apr 28, 2018 |
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Apr 28, 2018 01:30
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 Dominating the continent's far west, the Wasted West is is the result of magical warfare and pollution unleashing horrors into the world. It all started with the empire of Caelmarath whose human and tiefling citizens sought power the elves refused to grant, leading into the Black Sorceress' Revolt and the creation of eight split-off magocracies. After the Great Retreat, the human mages had no common enemy and turned upon each other from the resulting power vacuum. Much like an optimized 3.X spellcaster and a GM trying to keep pace, the various archmages engaged in a magical arms race. Ley lines were blocked and turned into energy sinks to summon otherworldly horrors known as Dread Walkers to Midgard. These beings were beyond the control of their would-be summoners; although they did a spectacular job in destroying enemy cities, their mere presence warped the surrounding land and threatened to spread beyond the magocracies to the whole world. The surviving archmages invoked a ritual known as the Great Slumber to slow down time around the Dread Walkers to a few steps a year. Now these invincible beings stand as living monuments to what was lost. As of today Allain is the only true surviving magocracy, and Barsella transitioned from mage-rule to a merchant's council. We get a list of the other seven magocracies and where their ancestral lands lair in the current Wasted West. Andarre was a nation of giants who were enslaved by Caelmarath, and whose cities were destroyed by hordes of summoned shoggoths. Caelmarath was a decadent empire with strong ties to the Eleven Hells. In order to protect its people from the Walkers, a ritual froze the capital city in time and transported it to the far corners of Realms Beyond. Carnessa situated itself in the lush jungles of the southwest peninsula for unmatched access to alchemy and herbal ingredients. It wasn't long before they too fell, as the entire peninsula was taken over by alien plants. Cassilon was a cosmopolitan realm of giants and shorter races living alongside each other, only to be burned down by Caelmarath's devilish patrons. Molovosch was a floating island brought crashing into the earth by the the Dread Walker Ornis Ammos the Sand Bird. Uxloon was the spark that set the fire for the Great Mage Wars in the first place: a mad archmage summoned the aboleth-created monstrosity Isonade to accost Bemmea's shores. A multi-national alliance of mages known as the Fulgurate Society summoned a Dread Walker to destroy Uxloon in retaliation. Finally, Vael Turog was ruled by demonmarked archmages who overthrew the original government and sought to cripple enemy realms with magical plagues. Their bio-weapons escaped the confines of their laboratories into the surrounding countryside, thus spelling the death of their realm. Following the former nations is a sidebar on Void Speech, which takes double the normal time to learn (in both time and language slots) and can imposed the frightened condition on those who hear it for the first time on a failed Wisdom/Will saving throw. However, PCs who converse with a fey or alien creature in the tongue risk gaining short-term madness if the communication carries on for more than 10 minutes. It's a cool idea, although the DC is set to 11 for the fear debuff and only works once. For this reason you should be taking the language for role-play over mechanical reasons. We get descriptions on the various still-living mortal and monstrous servants of the Dread Walkers, such as the evil satyrs known as selang, worm-like dorreqis whose alien pipings and cacophanies can drive mortals mad, and servants of the corrupted goddess Bacchana who's now the Lovecraftian Black Goat of the Woods. METAPLOT: Members of the Black Goat's Flock came together to open a rift in the sky and summon a treelike Dread Walker known as Y'gurdraketh on the Allain-Arbonnese border. Not at the best of terms, the mages of Allain and elves of Arbonnesse blame each other for the monstrosity's appearance. Unsurprisingly this lead to an increase in raids and skirmishes between the two nations. MOAR METAPLOT: Braagezz, a new Beloved Leader of All Goblins armed with ancient vril machinery, is uniting more dust goblin tribes under her control. She promises that the goblins will conquer the entire Wastes and already controls most of the tribes. She is preparing for war from her base at the Mercurial Tower. The Western Wastes  The opening text of this section notes that mere travel through this region should be anything but normal. Travelers superstitiously shield their eyes from the shapes of Walkers on the horizon, ley lines are broken and make using magical powers unpredictable, fields of doors stand on their own as remnants of a destroyed town, coagulated bloodlike lakes pose a hazard, and aberrant monsters occupying the crumbling ruins of towers and cities are but a few descriptions to showcase the unknown dangers. A list of the 10 Dread Walkers follows along with their locations and physical descriptions. I won't cover them all for the sake of word-space, but I'll include a few macabre examples such as Ashkharak and Gorthoga: the former a massive skinless humanoid with leechlike heads fighting its slug-shaped rival. Kb'r'ck is a mass of interconnecting crystal shards encasing the petrified remains of animals, plants, and people. They all surround a central nucleic mass which does not move so much as grow. Uthul-Vangslagish's discordant wailing can be heard from miles away, its thousands of tentacles ending in fluted openings. Various communities of dust goblins, cultists, and brave alchemists live around the Walkers to harvest resources out of the time-frozen abominations' flesh and/or to make religious offerings. The next section covers magical mishaps in the Wastes: in fact, every time a mage casts a spell of 1st level or higher in a region without a stable ley line (basically anywhere but Allain or Barsella), they risk an unintended side effect on a roll of 1 on a d10 (or d8 for teleportation spells) covered in the below table:  There's a 50% of a the spell not working at all, and a 40% chance that it works yet comes with a negative side effect. And one of those can potentially separate the caster from the rest of the party by a great distance! There's a 10% chance that it will beneficial. Although it appears that the mishaps will not trigger often, given how many spells a PC casts over the course of an adventure this is akin to how "critical fumble" rules hurt PCs more than NPCs when in the Wastes. The Supernatural Storms can both occur on their own as freak weather and as part of a magical mishap. They include the nonlethal yet annoying smagnetic storms which render metal arms and equipment virtually useless, to deadly gravity quakes which fling people into the air along with pelting rocks and pebbles. The grinding boneshards splinter into those unable to find shelter and deal damage over time. Perhaps the most debilitating are the time storms, which can age a character 1d10x5 years on a failed save and can end up being permanent if not cured within 24 hours. The time storms also bestow the effects of a revivify (5e)/breath of life (PF) spell on those who died within its vicinity. The zombie fog turns corpses into zombies whose movement is limited to within the fog, while heavy air threatens to fatigue breathing characters. Brief entries on strange landmarks around the Wastes provide adventuring opportunities, such as a castle-sized ooze known as the Hungering Cocoon filled with swarms of fetal creatures, or fields of eyes which appear as blue flowers from a distance but shoot strength-draining magical rays at those who trod upon them. I particularly like the Boils of Sarresh, bladder-like seedpods filled with air which dust goblins use to create floating traps and hot air balloons. The Seat of Mavros is a shrine to the war god and a popular pilgrimage site for religious and secular warriors. Its location in the Wasted West is quite appropriate, as the journey is a dangerous one. Clerics of Mavros stand at way stations along the route, doing little to directly aid travelers yet dutiful in retrieving the corpses of pilgrims. This is to ensure they have a proper burial rather than having their flesh and bones appropriated by alien horrors. The Seat has a sprawling tent-city around it with many arenas and dueling centers, along with crusty old veterans willing to impart learned wisdom. Finally we have the write-ups of the Waste's twin forests, the Roatgard whose warped trees are people transformed into agonizing plant shapes by an order of druids, and the Silk Thicket which gets is name from the horse-sized spider-monsters known as the chelicerae. These monsters learn the secrets of magic by devouring the brains of spellcasters, making them doubly dangerous to adventurers. Dust Goblins  Most of Midgard's goblinoid peoples live in the Western Wastes, and the book seems to use the terms "goblin" and "dust goblin" interchangeably. There's no indication if the latter are a regional race to their own, or merely a cultural nickname. Based on the text I presume they're one and the same. In times long past goblins used to live beneath the mountains near the Ironcrags, but the unearthly weather patterns over the former magocracies allowed them to migrate to the surface world. Goblins organize into semi-nomadic units comprised of tents and wagons, and many make a living scavenging relics and natural resources from the Waste's ruins and unnatural terrain. Many worship the Dread Walkers as gods, and a social class of spellcasters utilize the creatures' time-slowed twitches and movements into their auguries and prophecies. There are attempts to find ways to communicate with the Walkers via musical instruments such as drums and flutes, although there's been no appreciable progress in this regard. Beyond magic a few goblins discovered ways to utilize vril technology which their chieftains use to ensure other races will not underestimate them. We return to Braagezz, who look half-machine thanks to grafted vril prosthetics. Beyond her rising status we cover the eight known tribes, all of who congregate in the eastern portion of the Wastes. Their names are those gifted to them by human explorers, and they are loathe to share the names they use for themselves with outsiders. We've got the Bloody Tusks with monstrous war mounts; the Bonewraith cannibals whose last leader was a goblin mummy; the Dust Diggers with unmatched understanding in vril technology and whose encampments look like war machines; the Ghost Heads who have just as much undead members as living ones; the Maimed Ones who offer amputated body parts to the Dread Walkers in exchange for prophetic revelations of the universe's secrets; the River Rats who menace the bodies of water along the pilgrimage routes to the Seat of Mavros; the underground Sand Bird's Disciples live beneath the Dread Walker of the same name and raise nests of parasites and domesticated stirges for food and warfare. Finally the Scarlet Rovers are one of the most militarily-experienced tribes with assassins and bodyguards who sell their services to others. Countries and Realms The Green Duchy of Verrayne is a far eastern country in the Wastes. A fragment of former Caelmarath, it's ruled over by a monarch appointed by the druids of the Oaken Ring. The Duchy relies upon allied goblin tribes and the druids for defense. Supplementing their efforts are nine castles and fortresses lining the border operated by the vigilant Order of Seekers. Arcane magic is heavily distrusted in this realm, and the druids of the Oaken Ring made a pledge to restore the Wastes. They care fully for the ends of this pledge and perform many brutal deeds to accomplish the means: inflicting soldiers with lycanthropy to give them a combative edge, human sacrifices to hold the wasteland taint at bay, and using the entrails of pegasi and unicorns for divinations are but a few of their desperate tactics. In spite of these pursuits, the villagers of Verrayne live a relatively peaceful life and worship of the nature gods predominates their communities. The Grand Duchy of Bourgund is a small yet orderly city-state overseen by an order of White Knights. The Duchy's famed for its perfumes, whose creation is a closely guarded secret and those who threaten to betray this are put to death. The history behind the preponderance of perfumery is the nearby foul-smelling massive corpse of Zhergthoth, the only Dread Walker killed by mortal hands with the honor of that falling to the White Knights. The city's streets are clean and slums non-existent as the government uses funds to insure that every citizen has a reasonable quality of life. However, laws are strict and wizards constantly scry the populace for signs of trouble. It's not unknown for White Knights to suddenly teleport into an area where a crime's about to be committed. As for the White Knights, they are a military order who have a deal with the Magocracy of Allain. Mages of low promise, desperate straits, or scored the lowest on tests in Bemmea's schools swear an oath of loyalty to a single White Knight. As part of this oath they forge a bond with a suit of armor worn by said knight to act as a magical conduit between the two. The Knights' primary duties are ensuring public order in the city, protection of trade caravans and outlying villages, and killing rampaging monsters from the Wastes. Unfortunately it's been generations since the original Knights who felled Zhergthoth and many of their number are now more bureaucrats than warriors. The mages responsible for aiding their bound charges live in Mageholme Citadel, a gilded cage where wizards oversee their charges in well-appointed scrying cells. Most wizards learn both arcane and divine magic as part of their duties, and the most talented earn the title of Mystic Theurge (a Pathfinder/3.X prestige class). METAPLOT: The White Knights of Bourgund are an order who shares a magical bond with Bemmean mages. Bonded armor allowed a connected mage to impart spells to a knight, communicate with each other across great distances, as well as letting the mages scry on them. But the mages were held in check by a magically-compelled oath to that specific knight. This relationship carried on for a time, but a traitorous mage known as Daiquianis subtly manipulated the connection into tricking his knight's court to travel into a green dragon's hunting territory. The knights did not survive, freeing Daiquianis and 12 other mages from their bonds, letting them escape the prison of Mageholme Citadel to return to Allain. Now other wizards feel a loosening of said shackles and distrust among the knights is growing. You know, I seriously have to ask how Daiquianis managed to escape the Citadel, what with it being highly-secured and magically-warded. Mechanics: In the 2012 setting the Armor Bonded Mage was a wizard archetype which basically made a free suit of masterwork armor as an arcane bond. Said wizard could impart personal and touch range spells on the wearer at longer ranges (unlimited at 9th level), along with limited uses per day of scrying, unlimited telepathy, and spell resistance to the wearer of the wizard's Caster Level +5. I do not see an upgraded version in the Pathfinder/5th Edition sister system supplements. I do like the concept, but and it's a shame that 5th Edition does not have one. METAPLOT: A dozen huge monoliths of crimson stone stand around Bourgund's city. No mere statues, they are the sleeping forms of powerful giants created by Aurgelmir. It's only due to a religious order of Marena which keeps them from awakening. Sir Markus Alavaine of the White Knights sought to awaken the giants in pursuit of fame and glory under justification of ending their looming threat permanently. The plan went disastrously, and it was only due to a group of brave adventurers and the suicide of a Red Sister of Marena to redo the binding spell. Sir Markus was merely demoted for this, but he's resentful for this disgrace.  The Magocracy of Allain is the most-detailed entry in the Wasted West chapter. Not only are they the last surviving magocratic country in the region, their lands have a stable ley line which prevents the magical mishaps common elsewhere in the Wastes. The populace of Allain are not all mages, but they are veterans to the unfamiliar and unknown. Tieflings are common even among human couplings. They will never forget the dire prices paid in the Great Mage Wars, and spellcasting tutors emphasize pupils to use their talents to undo the damage to the land and not tread the path of their ancestors. To ensure that those with supernatural talent fall into trained hands, invisible hounds capable of sniffing out magic-users prowl the country for child prodigies. An unseen dog's howl in a village is often viewed as a sign that a child's been chosen. Although they are more common here than in other realms of the Wastes, arcane spellcasters of Allain keep a low profile: mundane cloaks are the bare minimum for disguise. Some of this is to avoid advertising their power and thus attracting rivals, but some of them do it to conceal hideous growths gained from dangerous experiments or infernal dealings. Allain's government is the Ninemage Council, a gathering of powerful spellcasters of differing alignments and magical traditions. In spite of their name one seat is empty: this is to honor the memory of representatives from Vale Turog, Caelmarath's ancient ally. The magocracy's laws are labyrinthine and complex, muddled by pages of mundane rules of governance mixed in with ancient pacts wrought by otherworldly entities. There's a lot of frivolous laws rarely enforced (using palindromes in common speech), but there exists a cottage industry of law enforcement who fines citizens and foreigners for violation of some obscure rule. The capital city of Bemmea is a settlement in the middle of the sea. A single land bridge accessible to the mainland via low tide. In fact the tides are artificially controlled by magical alterations to the weather so that the mages do not have to rely upon the mercy of nature to control entry to their city. Bemmea is tiny in area, yet its high towers house multiple living quarters for its residents along with lodges, laboratories, schools, and social clubs. The town's defenses hide in plain sight, from water elementals living within pools to golems made of cobblestone lying in the streets. The roads actually form complex glyphs when viewed from an aerial perspective. The Bemmean economy revolves around magical goods and teaching, and quite a few "discount scrolls" on sale are class projects and poorly-graded graduate experiments. The amount of magical academies number in the dozens, ranging from one-on-one tutorships to actual classrooms. Most apprentices begin training around ages 12 to 14 and finish their studies after a decade. Although tutors closely monitor their charges, there exist rivalries between students and the tedium of study's broken up with all manner of lodges and fraternities. Several of Bemmea's more notable features include the Labyrinth of Carreult, an ever-changing maze which can shunt one along the ley lines to anywhere on Midgard save the Western Wastes. As no magic functions within its halls, it's used for duels between mages using only fists and staffs. This is for those who wish to resolve disputes, but want to avoid punishment for magical combat. The Smoldering Library's arcane fires still burn as they consume vile, tainted lore, while the Grifyn and the Kimera hosts Pokemon-style summoning fights where spellcasters pit conjured creatures against each other for prizes and bragging rights. Meanwhile, smashed glyphships destroyed during the Great Mage Wars hold unclaimed creatures amid dangerous sea life. The other major city of Allain is Tintager, the Iron Metropolis. A border town guarding against the Arbonesse elves, its high walls and hard soil prevent even the toughest of weeds from growing. The only actual plants are cold iron feyward trees artificially smelted and formed to counter elven magic. Tintager is a dumping ground for unwanted tiefling children and disgraced Bemmean mages. Entire foundations of Tintager are formed from cold iron, and weapons and armor of this material are omnipresent. METAPLOT: The summoning of Y'gurdraketh got elves and mages sweating bullets. The Dread Walker originally wandered nowrthwest over the course of several months before stopping in a grove containing an ancient monolith. The abomination effortlessly slaughtered detachments of Arbonnesse scouts and Allainian mages while suffering no noticeable damage. Both groups are keeping tabs from a safe distance as a result, and cultists are already making pilgrimages to the grove to offer Y'gurdraketh sacrifices. The town of Maillon was originally a Bemmean neighborhood famed for its alchemical works. The place smelled terribly, so the Ninemage Council banned the trade and teleported the district into nearby swampland. The alchemists do not begrudge the Council for this; on the contrary, the marshes are home to rare and valuable ingredients, and the town's undergone economic prosperity for its wares. A lot of the old buildings are sunken into the swamp, so boathouses, gondolas, and stilted platforms comprise a majority of newer homes. The Bottle Market sells cheaply made potions of inconsistent quality which are praised by poor villagers and adventurers on the budget, or scorned by "proper" alchemists. A half-sunken laboratory of House Stross lairs in a rotting structure which can only be reached by boat. It holds all manner of vril artifacts, a portal to the Stross Library in Castle Shadowcrag, and monstrous oozes. We get a half-page description of alchemical hardwoods sold in Maillon complete with beneficial mechanics: wands fashioned from decaying corpsewood trunks provide a +1 on attack rolls when casting necromancy spells, shields made from Dampwood grant resistance from fire damage, scroll veneers can press residual ink onto a second page for spellbooks and scrolls, and Shrieking Planks built into furniture or building foundations will let out a piercing shrill when it detects nearby creatures of a specific type. The town of Cassadega was formed around the remains of an old Ankeshel ruin, and its citizens tirelessly devote themselves to restoring old vril technology. They repaired arc-cannons which were used to great effect against elf raiders, and they learned how to create charged batteries responsible for giving vril items their power. A bustling industry in rare and valuable vril items are being sold out of Cassadega. Mechanics: In short, vril is sci-fi technology nonmagical in nature. Such items are expensive and require rare materials found in Cassadega and Ankeshelian ruins to charge them. The Worldbook includes 4 examples of vril technology: a Cassadegan Coil Rifle which is basically a railgun, the ammo needed to use it, Vril Batteries which contain charges for vril technology, and the Vril Lightning Baton which can shoot a bolt of lightning whose damage increases the more rounds spent "charging" a shot: 1d4 if fired immediately, 3d4/6d6/10d4/15d4 for 1-4 rounds of charging. The Ghostlight Forest is our final entry in the Magocracy of Allain. The woods are infested with will-o-wisps who tempt travelers into getting lost, along with territorial dragons, man-eating plants, and vampiric mists which sap the vital fluids of sleeping campers. There's a grand shine to the Goat of the Woods here, along with an end-times-preaching blood mage giant and his army of slaves. Finally, there are moss-covered standing stones whose glyphs are capable of laying to rest the ancestral spirits plaguing a haunted giant, but only if the correct ritual is performed. That last part will be particularly important for our next country.  The Haunted Lands of the Giants are a forlorn wasteland populated by the larger denizens of the old magocracies. Although physically powerful, the greatest threat plaguing them is not the myriad horrors of the Wastes but the bodies and souls of their now-dead ancestors. The bones of many giants lair across the lands due to battle and enslavement during the Great Mages Wars. Every giant is haunted by the spirits of their kin, draining their vigor and constantly pestering them to lay their desecrated remains to rest in the cairns and tombs throughout the land. The amount of spirits who haunt a giant differ, and some come later in life, but they will come eventually as long as their bones remain unburied. The spirits can even possess a giant, and their animated bodies may rise to walk the land to perform strange rites with no obvious purpose. Now most giant cities are in ruins. Gangs and warbands lucky enough to have buried their ancestor's bodies the only ones with enough energy to rule over their peers. There is a brisk trade in amulets believed to ward away spirits, yet only a few are truly effective. The Barony of Trenorra is a bandit kingdom comprised of humans, goblins, and hill giants lucky enough to be unhaunted by their familial spirits. The three cultures get along peacefully enough, although Bemmean mages and their allies are unwelcome due to their history of enslaving giants. The Barony's south is home to a huge feature known as the Wall separating the jungles of the peninsula from overwhelming the rest of the land. Known as the Gardens of Carnessa, the magically-bred flora within the greenhouses quickly overwhelmed the magocracy, its inhabitants now dead and replaced with all manner of shambling mounds, assassin vines, and similarly-themed creatures. METAPLOT: In the jungles of Kush in the Southlands, there lairs an entity known as the Green Walker. It threatened to consume the people of Kush before a gathering of druids magically slowed time around it, much like the Dread Walkers here. Now its twin has been discovered within the Gardens by the elfmarked adventurer Tavereen Windrider. Dubbed Veth-Shoon, there are multiple theories as to how this dangerous twin arrived, but it created dozens of Bodysnatcher-style Vine Lords to go beyond the Wall and infect more people into its hive-mind. Our final destination in the Wasted West is Barsella, the so-called City at the End of the World. Its economy relies upon the dangerous sea trade of the Western Ocean and is a common launch point for merchant expeditions into the islands of the unknown west. The city's no stranger to land-based adventuring, and quite a few guilds fund journeys into other areas of the Wastes if it will bring treasure and trade back into Barsellian coffers. METAPLOT: The Western Ocean was once nearly impossible to navigate due to the magical influence of the goddess Mnemnosyne, but with her imprisonment by the oracles of Hecate many more ships are successfully making return trips to the city. They're flush with exotic goods and artifacts, enough return investments a hundredfold and resulting in an economic boom. However there is no consistent explanation of the islands of the far west. Sailors truthfully admit hundreds of different destinations on the same sea route, ranging from burning islands to ghost ships and leviathans. This does little to assuage the worries of financial sponsors. Barsella's streets are laid out to mimic an aboleth glyph connected with the presence of strong ley lines, and an order of geomancers devote their abilities to preventing this boon in the Wastes from decaying too quickly. Thoughts so far: Another strong chapter, just about every entry in the Wasted West can generate several adventure-worthy plots. Given how overused Lovecraft's monsters are, I have to give Midgard props for making its own godlike Dread Walkers instead of borrowing the Great Old Ones wholesale, notwithstanding the Black Goat of the Woods. The alien weather, terrain, and dungeons/wilderness locations do much to showcase that the West is completely, perhaps irreversibly scarred by magic. The cities of Allain manage to be both high magic and appropriately creepy without becoming standard high fantasy. The giants' ancestral curse is prime adventure material: "find my grandfather's bones, which may or may not be animated as undead, and bury it within this haunted cairn." The pilgrimage to the Seat of Mavros is a good way to encourage PCs to visit this realm, and the otherwise bright and shiny duchies of Verrayne and Bourgund have an underlying brutal government to show that this ain't no Magdar Kingdom or idyllic fantasy countryside. Our next chapter covers the Grand Duchy of Dornig, a forest kingdom which contains the last true remnants of elven culture on Midgard!
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Apr 30, 2018 07:46
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Bieeanshee posted:The Dread Walkers remind me of the very slowly encroaching Powers of the Night Land. Is this referring to Dying Earth? Cuz that's the first thing that comes up on my Google Search. JcDent posted:I like the cyborg goblin kim jong il. There's actually small accompanying text to the right and below of the artwork for every chapter heading. I haven't felt the need to include it as they're more or less describing what's happening in the picture, but I suppose I can go in and edit them if there's demand. The faceless entities are supposedly one of the many unknown creatures of the wastes: quote:The sorcerers and wizards of the West retain stranger servitors, and still command great magical power in a land largely fallen into ruin. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Apr 30, 2018 |
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Apr 30, 2018 23:20
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 The Grand Duchy of Dornig, also known as the Domain of the Princes, is an expansive forest kingdom in Midgard's northwest. It is flanked by the oceanic Neidar Straits to the north and the reavers who prow its waters, the Wasted West and Ironcrags to the southwest and south, and the Blood Kingdoms of Morgau, Doresh, and Krakovar to the south and east. In spite of being surrounded by dangerous lands Dornig's been stable for most of its history thanks to the oversight of its Beloved Imperatrix Regia Moonthorn Kalthania-Reln vann Dornig. One of the elder elves who refused to follow the Great Retreat, she carved her kingdom out of a tiny barony and brought stability to the turbulent, fractious times in the near-500 years that followed. The great noble houses of the Duchy are her descendants either by blood or marriage. I should note that Dornig's majority population is human, with the upper classes having higher than normal amounts of elves and elfmarked. This is because most of the elven population left during the Great Retreat, but the human majority more or less chose to preserve cultural elements of their rulers in contrast to the Septime cities or western magocracies. The biggest examples manifest in favoring elven blood in its rulers, the most popular religion being the Church of Yarila and Porevit which pays homage to the many-faced elf deity, and the fact that Dornigfolk are multi-lingual in both Common and Elven. The elves who did not or could not make the Retreat were members of the lower classes and social outcasts among their own people (the Imperatrix an exception) and either became small barons in what would become the Grand Duchy or retreated to their own communities in the River Court of the Arbonnesse. Humans in Dornig number around 3 million, elfmarked two hundred thousand, and actual elves less than 10,000. For some reason I really like this touch. Too many fantasy worlds treat culture as being immutable and inseparable from one's heritage. It plays around with the "elves as a dying race" concept by making their society not really gone so much as inexorably changed as it now lives on in the adoption of a younger, dominant culture. The use of elves as an "elder race ruler" for a human culture, that is also non-human in influence, is far more approachable to gamers than being ruled by cyclopean aliens or other equally distant precursors. METAPLOT: Things are about to get a lot more interesting in Dornig now that the Imperatrix has fallen into a coma which no mundane medicine or magic seems able to heal. Her body is still alive and taken care of in the city of Reywald, but her soul lives on as a white deer (a form she could project to scout the forests). Unable to return to her physical form for unknown reasons, she is trying to lure warriors from both Allain and Dornig to repel the Dread Walker Y'gurdraketh. Unfortunately the Black Prince of the shadow fey and other evildoers seek to hunt this White Hare as a prized trophy. And that's not counting the three noble houses and church struggling to fill the power vacuum. or the two aspirants seeking the Copper Sphinx Throne! Dornig's socio-political structure is a feudal collection of lesser noble holdings of varying size and rank who pledge loyalty to the Imperatrix or the three Major Houses. Otherwise all other land within its borders are the Imperatrix's private holdings. The actual boundaries are almost impossible to keep track of due to the ever-shifting nature of favors and land deeds, and more than a few mapmakers literally went insane in this pursuit. The Imperial Court has the final word on governmental affairs, but rely on the three Houses Major for advisory capabilities along with smaller vassals for tribute. The Court in question was mobile and used to move between the three largest cities. This purpose was threefold: to prevent invaders from seizing a capital too easily, for propaganda purposes to show that the Imperatrix's reach is not confined to a single city, and to encourage good behavior and bolster the local economy by gracing a city for a time. Conversely it is used to punish disfavored Houses by denying this. But alas, Her Beloved Majesty lies in Castle Grauburg of Reywald, which as the years pass looks to be Dornig's unofficial capital. We then cover the members of the Imperial Court as well as other high-ranking figures of the Duchy. There's quite a few of them, but some are explained later on, particularly the 3 major houses so I'm going to include a fraction of people instead of the whole list. There's the sleeping Imperatrix, who was a fair and just Chaotic Good ruler who's also the highest-level NPC in the Worldbook (bard 10/rogue 10/wizard 10)*; the crooked Lord Arcane Heronimus Abysin Aldous-Donner, an elfmarked wizard who's the ruler in the Imperatrix's stead and monitors arcane and magical affairs as part of his original job; Saintmistress Rowanmantle, the high priestess of the Church of Yarila and Porevit whose relationship with the Northlander barbarian settlements in Donnermark puts her at odds with House Aldous-Donner; Kalvora Moonsong, a full-blooded elf from the Summer Lands who wishes to claim the sleeping Imperatrix's throne and has the bloodline to prove it; and Queen Urzula of Krakova, leader of the refugees of that nation who's gathering what allies she can in the Duchy. *This seems frankly unnecessary on account that nobody else breaches the level 20 cap. We also cover religion in Dornig, which is dominated by the Church of Yarila and Porevit. The faith has a hierarchical system of government based out of a Twinned Cathedral, and supplementing this faith are various Gods common in the Crossroads regions. We have a sidebar on the Lords Arcane, a semi-secret government agency of arcane spellcasters headed by Heronimus Aldous-Donner. Their goals are to retrieve magical items and secrets from the ruins in the Arbonesse forests (and "unofficially" in the Tomierran forest), deal with and consult on magical threats, and wear rings which grant magical powers depending on appropriate roles and missions. METAPLOT: There's a recent revival in the worship of other elven deities due to the return of elves from the Summer Lands. Baccho, god of poetry, revels, and wine is quite popular but there are rumors connecting him to the Dread Walker which shown up on Arbonnesse's borders. The mother goddess Holda is gaining in popularity, and given her hierarchy above Yarila and Porevit is a growing concern to Saintmistress Rowanmantle and the Church. As you can tell, one of Dornig's major themes is political intrigue and alliances. There's even a minimalist system later to encourage PCs gaining their own baronies. A lot of the conflict and adventure opportunities are less dungeon-delving and more domain management or helping out a faction to gain favors, territory, etc. This is not exactly my cup of tea as I don't feel that this is Pathfinder/5th Edition's strong suit, and the barony-building is a bit too restrictive, but we'll get to that later. The shadow roads of Dornig are well-maintained and reliable, and more commonly known as fey roads. Every major city has well-secured portals controlled by the ruling House which can take all manner of sizes and forms. The shadow fey are doing their best to claim as many roads as possible within and without Dornig, but the Imperatrix made a deal with them to not bother her Court or traveling groups smaller than 20 people. What this means is that the shadow roads of Dornig are a safe, well-known, and popular means of travel provided that you're in the good graces of the appropriate House. Now we get to the cities of the Grand Duchy. They are the central locations for a Major House's government, surrounded in turn by subordinate baronies and vassals which connect to the main city by fey roads. The Houses who control Hirschberg, Reywald, and Bad Solitz are known as the Major Houses for their power and influence, while three "crown" cities have respective exceptions: Donnermark is a Northlander colony, Salzbach is technically autonomous but under charter of the Imperatrix, while Courlandia is not in Dornig proper and instead situated on a peninsula north of Niemheim and east of Krakovar. Hirschberg is the most industrialized city in Dornig thanks to its position as a trade haven and is managed by House Hirsh-Dammung. Prince Octabian Hirsh-Dammung is an old warrior of Perun who agitates to move the Imperatrix's body back to Castle Reln. The city long ago exhausted the nearby hills of ore for its forges, and now these caves are inhabited by all manner of unsavory beings. This prompted more active mines to open up farther along the sprawling territory. Most buildings are three or four story affairs, with residential space on the upper levels and tradecraft on the bottom. The city's proximity to the Ironcrag canton of Grisal and the vampire-ruled territory of Krakovar necessitates a large standing army. The Imperatrix's old home of Castle Reln is currently empty and well-maintained by the Hirsh-Dammung family, although some of its passages and wings remain sealed for centuries and likely have new, unknown occupants from the fey roads. Reywald is a beautiful city built around a lake and managed by House Aldous-Donner. Princess Lyndosa Aldous-Donner is the older sister of the current Regent of Dornig who often sleights her sibling by sending spies and adventurers to steal precious magical treasure from the Arcane College. Being home to the current Imperatrix's Court and the Twinned Cathedral, is sees all manner of well-to-do ambassadors and nobles, and Princess Aldous-Donner is looking for any reason to move the Court out and rule in peace. Whether it's by finding a cure or staging a "state funeral" matters not. The city's Arcane College is tasked with aiding armed forces in times of war and helping the Treasury of Antiquities recover elven magic from the ruins of the nearby Arbonesse forest. The High Platz in in Grauberg Castle holds the Imperatrix's sleeping form, and all manner of healers both legitimate and not can be found here waiting in a long queue. The lower halls are filled with well-wishers who hope for the Imperatrix's speedy recovery, so the place is always crowded. Halflings and gnomes are a common servant class and have their own neighborhood called Little Reywald. Considering that gnomes cannot go outside Niemheim before Baba Yaga's forces track them down, this seems like a bit of a plot hole unless House Aldous-Donner has something to keep away the witch or Halivimar the Charred's sproutlings are growing throughout the city. The book does not infer either option, so I have to wonder what's up with that.  Bad Solitz is perhaps the least hospitable city environment-wise and is managed by House vann Rottsten. Located in the Tonder Alps, a great wall surrounds the valley nestling Bad Solitz's inhabitants. The Archon Court of the elven empire favored it as a location spot for its mud baths. Now its fertile ground produces some of the best winery in the Grand Duchy. No volcanic eruptions have plagued the region during the entirety of the Imperatrix's reign, which is of great concern to the locals now that she's in a coma. Bad Solitz's other claim to fame is a vibrant artistic community and the largest library in the country. Said center of learning has a rivalry with the Great Library of Friula for who has the greater collection of lore. The nobility lives in apartments rather than castles or keeps, with more than a few secret doorways and hidden galleries connecting them together. The van Rottstens do not have a good reputation as far as nobles go: their family patriarch was literally dragged into the gates of Hell by summoned devils, and his illegitimate son Dimitor took the Houe's reigns at the tender age of six (and was also a level 6 Aristocrat at the time in the 2012 edition). Not one to let the threat of hellfire scare them away, the vann Rottstens are involved in all manner of backroom deals and not above making overtures to the Blood Kingdom or Grisal. METAPLOT: Demalla Ravensblood was the ruling regent in Dimitor's stead, but when Dimitor came of age at 16 she disappeared and nobody can find her body or contact her spirit. Dimitor's official story is that she's making a pilgrimage to Ishadia, but many suspect the spoiled teenager to be behind her death. Donnermark is a port city whose inhabitants share similarities with the lands and culture of the Northlands. In fact, they are the descendants of the crew of Hakon, a plundering viking who sought to raid Dornig. He gave a good fight and established a colony on the northern beaches, but the Imperatrix's forces were ultimately victorious. Instead of executing him, she invoked the wergild to make Hakon and his descendants pay for the damages. In exchange they gained control of the settlement that became known as Donnermark along with managing maritime trade. Now the people of the city are between worlds: viewed as barbarous and uncouth by the Houses, but too soft and foreign by Northlanders. Yorick Hakonsson is seeking to marry off his daughters to a great House, but neither find the idea appealing and would rather go on adventures. The Free City of Salzbach lairs in southeast Dornig near the Ironcrag Mountains. It was home to a fourth branch of the Imperatrix's family before abominations from the Wasted West demolished the town. With the fall of the House came lots of political friction over who inherits what territory...which was rendered a moot point when said land was being made uninhabitable by monsters. The Imperatrix stepped in and offered baronies to any group able to drive back the abominations. This offer worked in recruiting many capable men-at-arms, and now Salzbach is ruled by guilds who elect their leader in lieu of a House. METAPLOT: The position of lord guildmaster suffered a high turnover rate within the last 10 years. Three died of unknown causes, two were found guilty of corruption and executed, one married into nobility and had to step down, and one fled the country for Zobeck with several bags full of embezzled jewels. The current lord guildmaster is Michoda Swanne, whose company is barely better than a thieves' guild who sells "discovered artifacts." Now Salzbach is a den of thieves and the most well-to-do citizens have their homes guarded by private armies. The agents of the Lords Arcane heavily monitor this city as a result. The Barony of Courlandia is on a peninsula to the east of Krakovar. In the years of upheaval following the Great Retreat, the Imperatrix called in a favor from a red dragon adventuring partner known as Zennalastra to take control of affairs. Unwelcome among the Mharoti dragon lords, she relished the opportunity to set herself up as the Red Queen. Ever since she ruled the province as a benevolent tyrant. Retired adventurers make up her personal bodyguards, who more than have their hands full in keeping up with their flying mistress as she hunts bison on the plains or dives for whales in the Niedar Straits. Krakova's occupation has been on her mind as of late; although the vampires currently give her a wide berth the dragon struck up an unlikely alliance with Queen Urzula to gain informational advantages on her new neighbors. Other Cities include 11 other Houses and their territories. They are typically elfmarked and more rarely humans awarded territory by either the crown or three major Houses. The deed is not inheritable and lasts only for the lifespan of the recipient. However, good service can extend this into a proper feudal lineage where one's land can be inherited by offspring. Some of the more interesting houses include House Fratzon, looking over the merchant city of Gemport. The Fraztons swear fealty to the vann Rottstens, but may break away from this family due to Dimitor's unreasonable demands and other Houses seek to fund a rebellion. House Mervant holds the smallest territory in Dornig, specifically one tavern in Salzbach known as the Serpent's Ward. Merv VI is the first woman to inherit the title, and her tavern is a favored location by exiles and runaways. Hose Rhodewaldt has dubious elven heritage, whose ruling noble Magrave Jannis Rhodewaldt is the only elfmarked family member. He seeks to fund further discovery of elven geneology and hopes to marry his heirs into the larger family. His wife is a spy for the vann Rottstens who wish to add his territory to their holdings. If he dies, she'll be regent until the sons come of age. Jannis is aware of this but has no definite proof of treachery at the moment. Gaining a Dornitian Barony  We have a discussion on Dornig holiday festivals and social seasons, the greatest of which occur during the winter months. Such occasions are accompanied by presentations of new songs and plays along with masquerade balls and feasts among the nobility. During this time various Houses mingle, so there's intense competition in settling scores and making alliances; although duels are outlawed they still occur, and Saintmistress Rowanmantle prepares healing spells in the rare event of assassinations (but only for the benefit of the Major Houses). A peculiar tradition in Dornig banquets is the position of salt shakers in the middle of the table. A person's seating arrangement indicates social status the closer they are to the host, while those "below the salt" are seat-warmers to make the hall seem less empty. But how can the PCs interact with this? Well we now get to the nitty-gritty details for how a player can gain a barony in the Grand Duchy! The requirements are actually rather steep: only humans, elves, or elfmarked can be granted a deed, they must be level 10 or higher, and are recommended to have a Charisma 15 or better (never below 9). If using the Status optional rules they must have at least a 20. Beyond mechanical requisites, they must have the favor of a Major House or the Imperatrix to grant the deed, which is gained by valuable service and deeds within the Barony (foreign deeds do not count). An oath of vassalage must be made during court season to the Imperatrix or her representative the Lord Arcane via a geas spell. So what do you gain for this? Well there's no hard and fast rules, but you get a castle, keep, or manor next to a community with some form of agricultural industry along with a fey road gate connecting to other towns. You can lose a title for failing to turn a modest profit on the land in tax revenue, not providing soldiers to the army for times of conflict, not providing your talents to the Imperatrix or sponsoring Major House, as well as committing crimes against the Grand Duchy such as treason or spying for foreign powers. We get a one-page description of common complications and adventure hooks to give to a PC baron, ranging from peasant uprisings, nearby monster-filled dungeons, political corruption, and contested land grabs from nearby nobles. There isn't really much in the way of sample revenue generated or mechanical benefits, but Pathfinder has extensive kingdom-building rules already. There are some 3rd-party supplements for kingdom/domain management in 5th Edition, but I do not know of anything in the way of official material beyond the gp cost for stronghold buildings during Downtime. Swords & Wizadry already has domain management built into its classes by 9th level. So if you're playing Pathfinder or Swords & Wizardry you already have a useful set of tools for managing a barony. If you're playing 5th Edition...well, let's hope that Strongholds & Followers turns out to be a good book! Forests of Dornig  Although the Grand Duchy claims territory of the remnants of the empire of Thorn beneath the forest canopy, there are significant sections of wood which lay beyond the safe reaches of the Imperatrix or the Houses. The Arbonesse and Tomierran forests are primeval woodlands occupying the western Duchy, the latter holding the lost city of Thorn. METAPLOT: The Tomierran has been declared sacred ground by the Church of Yarila and Porevit, and thus no longer grante access to the Lords Arcane. Small communities of elves are popping up within the two forests in the form of small villages. They appear more or less overnight and its inhabitants act like they always been there. The borders between Midgard and the Summer Lands are murky in this region, so they may very well be right. Most elves in Midgard are either the shadow fey or live in the Arbonesse Forest. In the case of the latter, they are known as exiles who for various reasons could not or would not answer the Last Horn for the Great Retreat. They live in small subsistence-based communities which number no greater than a few hundred at most. Although they swear fealty to the Imperatrix, they are more or less autonomous and whose leadership is located among a series of white stone citadels known as the River Court. The Court is ruled by an elven wizard named Ulorian the First, whose power is waning as of late due to the influx of elves from the Summer Lands. The newcomers are tight-lipped as to the circumstances of their return, and the growing power of the Shadow Fey's Black Prince makes him wonder whether resistance or acquiescence is best for his people in the long run. Other interesting locations in the Arbonesse Forest include the Tilted Tower, once home to elven sorcerers who gave their lives to prevent the human magocracies from sinking their land entirely. Their mile-high structure now bends at an angle over the nearby shore. The Shadow Fey hold a nearby Court of Scandal beneath a barrow mound where they force prisoners to dance never-ending for them until they die or commit suicide...at which point their corpses are animated to continue the dance until they fall apart. A single golden throne sits unoccupied due to deep infighting, but legend says that one who can sit in it continuously for a year and a day will become ruler of all shadowy fey and lead a march to conquer the lands of their elven cousins. Finally there's the Gentle Rest, a rustic inn whose location continually shifts to be near travelers fleeing a great danger or on the brink of starvation. The Tomierran Forest is abandoned, unpopulated even by the new elven arrivals. It is a dangerous realm home to a rotting World Tree full of unrealized creatures due to the weaves of fate running threadbare. Warped fey and plants from elven experiments roam as free-willed former guardians along with elementals, owlbears, and perytons. The Forest attracts many treasure hunters in spite of its dangers, and in the past the Lords Arcane conducted official expeditions. Now the Church is in charge of guarding its borders, and looters caught must hand over their gains and share all that they learned. Lord Arcane Heronimus Abysin Aldous-Donner still lets "independent contractors" slip past ecclesiastical authorities in return for a portion of treasure. Looters will remain looters, so you may as well ensure that a portion of their ill-gotten gains fall into the Duchy's hands rather than a foreign trader's. The Ruins of Thorn are an eerie place. Abandoned meals are still warm, and mundane pets which should have died of old age still await their masters' return. Old runes and spells serve as magical traps, and in many areas time flows differently. An explorer may one day spend years surviving in Thorn only to leave and find out a day has passed. The lost Mithral Mines still hold entire caverns full of the precious metal, and explorers miraculously discover new hidden passages in the once-thought-completely-plundered ruins of the Raven Tower. Traps reset, buildings shift locations, and unknown tombs appear where there was but wilderness. Crows, ravens, and magpies infest the Tower and worshipers of Wotan consider it a holy site. There's a Stone Gallery near the Krakovan border containing basilisks and medusae, which has done little to turn away undead scouts. Finally, the wave-washed forests of Lost Arbonesse which sank during the Great Mage Wars hold many artifacts...provided that one can brave the ghosts and sahuagin lurking underneath the lightless waters. METAPLOT: The petrifying monsters were once a scourge in Krakova, to the point that the crown of that country threatened to take matters into their own hands if the Grand Duchy could not do the job. Now it looks like that point's moot on account of the vampires and all. We end our time in Dornig with a brief discussion on the Summer Lands, the plane of existence on the opposite side of Midgard. Here elves still rule and gnomes, goblins, and halflings are their servants. The royal court is overseen by a good-natured King Valeshi IX and whose wife Queen Haldifelli III has a great love of archery and ale. The Imperatrix of Dornig is one of their nine grand-children, and due to elven longevity the court's home to dozens upon dozens of great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, and so on and so forth who serve various roles ranging from generals, nobles, and priests. Visitors to the Court will be ignored and sent on their way after a nice meal unless they are famous or have a great offering to give. The elves of the Summer Lands are deeply enmeshed in their own concerns and so do not have much time for idle visitors. Thoughts so far: My thoughts on the Grand Duchy of Dornig are mild. The realm is themed heavily towards adventure hooks involving the various noble families, and the barony rules will not kick off unless you have the right kind of party and are barred from lower-level PCs. In comparison to the Seven Cities and Wasted West there's not as much variety in sociopolitical setups or potential dungeon crawls. Many members of the Imperial Court and lords of the Major Houses are verging on the extremely high levels (14 to 19), so the ability of outsmarting/challenging them to combat is unlikely for PCs unless they're nearing the endgame point of D&D/Pathfinder. Leave the sea of trees behind as we set sail for the Northlands in our next chapter!
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May 2, 2018 01:27
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 The Northlands are a distant, cold realm on the edges of known civilization. It is a beautiful place, with scenic fjords, skies alight with the aurora borealis, and glittering morning frost. But beneath this scenery is a harsh land of independent holdings, where a king is a man with a long hall and an ample fleet, where justice and vengeance go hand in hand, where monstrous kingdoms of wolfin worshipers of Fenris and giants of Jotunheim can eclipse human holdings if their wyrd wills it. Although it is more high-magic and made by different publishers and writers, a lot of Midgard's Northlands are reminiscent of Frog God's Northlands Saga. The social structures divide into thralls, karls (freemen), and jarls who the former freemen choose to serve as part of a greater community via informal oaths. The political landscape is fluid on account that divine right or royal bloodlines do not prop up a jarl's right to rule; instead merit is based on their own community trust and holdings. Although home to a variety of races, there's enough cultural similarities to the point that a human, trollkin, or goblin hall share common etiquette customs. In addition to jarls, democratic assemblies known as Þings help settle disputes, forge alliances, and conduct trade. Both at the Þing and in other circumstances, justice can be dispensed via a holmganga duel or payment of a wergild in valuables or blood. Sometimes a duel is not enough, and blood feuds can spiral out of hand as communities call upon sworn oaths and obligations to pull ever more people into the fracas. Northlanders hold a special reverence for fate, the collected destinies of all peoples whose lifepaths are weaved into the threads of the Norns' loom. They do not believe in chance, but they do give credence to luck which indicates a favorable skein of fate playing out for an individual. Charming men are called "woman-lucky" while skilled sailors are believed to possess "sea-luck." This determinism gives most Northlanders a strangely optimistic attitude: there is no use in complaining, and good folk should struggle on as best they can and hope that the rest of their thread is more fortunate. Nothing lasts forever and all things must come to an end, even the gods when Ragnarok shall fall upon the world. METAPLOT: Speaking of the end of the world, one of the more pernicious dangers of the Northlands is the rise of the Cult of Ragnarok. Although the timing is wrong and the stars are not right, many details spoken of in skaldic history are coming to pass, and people grimly prepare for Fimbulwinter. This is of course Loki's fault, who entered into an alliance with Boreas and Chernobog to create an evil cult to spread chaos of a "false Ragnarok." The cult operates via a widespread network across the region and counts many members of the major races along with monstrous allies. Kingdoms of the North  Björnrike is home to the largest gathering of bearfolk on Midgard. These anthropomorphic people reign over coastal plains and rolling halls, and the region's home to many bears of supernatural power prized as animal companions by druids and rangers. They live much like the Northlanders of other races, save that their feasting halls are much richer in honey and fish. The city of Bjeornheim sits by a coastal delta and river, using a network of ferocious beehives as a unique defense against monsters and raiders. As the city's inhabitants smell of honey, residents are immune to the bee's wrath. The mead brewed by Queen Yohana Honeyhair is known as the finest ale in the North, and many merchants brave trips here for the legendary taste. METAPLOT: The Cult of Ragnarok's created a balm which can ward off bees and is deploying it in trade against the kingdom's enemies. I love this country; now that bearfolk are a playable race in Midgard, Dovahbear is now a legitimate character concept. The Bleak Expanse is the largest territory of the Northlands, stretching to the farthest reaches north to unexplored lands. It is a tundra where the god Boreas reigns supreme, who rules from a mountain known as the Tower of the North Wind. At its foothills lies the city of Geskleithron, where one can buy bottled magical storms and frozen souls and memories. Massive sheets of ice known as living glaciers animated by the wind god slowly make their way across the land and to the sea. The rest of the expanse is populated mostly by hardy humans known as skraelings and some frost giants from Jotunheim. Numerous legends speak of lost palaces and tombs swallowed by the ice, and there's a small army of fire giants who live in a magically-heated region surrounding a geyser known as the Boiling Tower. The fire giant leader Aunvindri Against-the-Wind nurses an unknown grudge against Boreas and makes for an unconventional ally for travelers. Many an adventure found themselves indebted to the fiery warriors after being rescued from the Northern Wind's icy minions. Huldramose is an unconventional land situated between the marshlands of two rivers. A pair of elfmarked queens claiming descent from the empire of Thorn rule here, and the majority of its population are trollkin along with a small number of humans and fey races. The realm is so named for the Huldra, women trollkin warriors who comprised the first valkyries among Wotan's ranks. It is traditional for women to train in the fighting arts here, giving rise to many shield-maidens. There are still those who doubt the effectiveness of female warriors, but Huldramose's veterans soon change their mind if they live to tell the tale. METAPLOT: The queens of Huldramose found a sapling of a World Tree and are hiding it in a section of their royal household. Although they intend to keep it secret, its swift growth means that its discovery by the wider public is inevitable. Jomsborg is an island home to a four thousand strong society of berserker mercenaries. A fair portion are out on raids or contracts from various rulers, but the rest remain here to train for their next deployment. They abide by a strict code of conduct to defend each other in battle, to never flee, and to not speak ill of their fellows (irresolvable differences are resolved by holmgang). They have a humans-only policy, and prospective warriors can join by undergoing several trials of strength and martial valor. METAPLOT: A trollkin by the name of Solveig Rockhurler wishes to join the order and has challenged one of their members as part of the trials to enter. He is not the only trollkin seeking to join their ranks, and there is great debate over whether their requests should be entertained. Jotunheim is the most formidable kingdom of giants in the Northlands, if not in Midgard. Its inhabitants believe their homeland to be the site of their slain progenitor Aurgelmir and despair at how far they've fallen in might. Its population lives much like the rest of the Northlands, save that everything is bigger and the fire and frost giants are capable of living in more inhospitable climes. Beyond the fire and frost giants are the thursir, a breed of artisans barely stronger than ogres and low in status. Then there are the Jotun, who comprise the largest clan in population. The Jotun are the ones closest to their progenitor's size and strength, towering over buildings and each born with incredible magical powers. The frost giants cluster in the northeastern hills, while the fire giants live in a volcano range known as the Blodejord ("Crib of Earth's Tongue") In games mechanics terms, Jotun are CR 20 Colossal Giants (Midgard Bestiary for Pathfinder) or CR 22 Gargantuan giants with Legendary Actions (Tome of Beasts for 5th Edition). They are meant to be campaign-ending threats, and they comprise 13,000 of Jotunheim's 36,000 population. This is far and beyond the typical power curve even by Midgard's standards; there's quite a few high-level NPCs, but they tend to be rulers of nations or community rulers; as for the Mharoti Empire, its dragon rulers number only 500 and likely comprise all manner of age categories. Even Mharot himself is a CR 20 fire dragon. Given the fact that the giants are no allies of humanity or the major races, it doesn't seem like a practical realm for most parties to venture to barring campaign's end. And even then they would not be able to stand up to a community of Jotun barring some good optimization strategies. METAPLOT: The Cult of Ragnarok established its base in this foreboding region by allying with Utgard-Loki, a Jotun of considerable power and fame. He gives the cult members a safe haven, but beyond his reach not all giants are allies of the Cult. Some do not wish for Ragnarok to come, while others distrust non-giants in their domain who aren't thralls. Beyond the communities of giants sits the ruins of Ansaroth, unknown to any written history book. Its halls inevitably lead to a single spiral stairway. Trolls, trollkin, bugbears, and frost goblins in service to Boreas are stationed here to stand watch for unknown reasons. The cursed ruins' many strange sights, odd sounds, and mysteriously-missing bands of patrols are slowly turning them paranoid against each other. They now fight among themselves with little provocation. The small island of Skaldholm is famed for its bardic schools, hot springs with healing properties, and relative peaceful ways of its inhabitants. Rulership is determined by contests of singing, telling of tales, and competitive exchanges of insults every nine years. The crowned Master of Thyles sits at the network of spies and informants, and his power to destroy reputations with a choice catchy song or rumor makes it so few dare to vex this king. METAPLOT: The knowledgeable skalds were one of the first to learn of the rumors of a coming Ragnarok, and the Master of Thyles was about to discover the truth of the matter before Loki stole this piece of memory. He did it by tricking him into exchanging a secret for this piece of knowledge. This "Riddle of the Forgotten Thing" is now something the people of Skaldholm are trying to solve to no avail, and the Master sent out his best explorers across the lands to find the truth.  Stannasgard is the most open of the dwarven reaver kingdoms. Its mines form the backbone of its economy and the temples sport large priesthoods of Wotan, Thor, and Volund. Blacksmiths and artisans from the southern realms make pilgrimages here to have their tools and anvils blessed. METAPLOT: Stannasgard was once a major shipbuilding center, but a mighty red dragon named Visandred the Horse-Eater destroyed most of the docks. This will take years to rebuild and since many of the ships were bought ahead of time by foreign sovereigns, economic havoc is inevitable. Additionally, recent arrivals of trollkin raiders from Jotunheim encourage the town to spend what little it has in its coffers to forge weapons for an eventual battle. Tanserhall is the oldest dwarven city, home to the legendary Cradle Cave where the gods Volund and Thor breathed life into the first dwarves. The people of this realm are more pious than other reaver dwarves, and enact an elaborate sets of rituals to ensure both gods are placated equally to avoid the wrath that supposedly brought low their old kingdoms. Entry into Tanserhall is nearly impossible even for other dwarves, as a complicated layer of bureaucracy, purification rituals, and trap-filled mazes acting as bait for "impatient waiters" keep all but the worthiest out. METAPLOT: Chernobog's monstrous spawn are arising in the Cradle Cave's deepest reaches. Their disease-filled maws can turn warriors into more of their kind with a bite, preventing the dwarves from enacting a swift end to their spread. Thunder Mountain is a strange island of relative peace in the Northlands. Ruled by a dwarven cleric of Thor and former adventurer, it is also notable for allowing a significant minority of humans, huginn, and winterfolk halflings as equal citizens. This rankles the more conservative realms, yet none has summoned the courage to raid the place and because it is home to the Order of the Thunderer. The organization hosts a sizable number of clerics, paladins, and warriors of Thor who have the greatest track record in fighting giants and the Cult of Ragnarok's agents. Initiates are gifted with a silver hammer as part of their membership. METAPLOT: Agents of the Cult of Ragnarok assassinated two of the Order's greatest members: the archmage Delric and the scout Timesh. The Order's stepping up a recruitment drive to make up for these losses. Nearby Thunder Mountain is Reykurbrand Volcano, home to Sinmara the wife of Surtr. She rules a portion of mountain around the caldera, and it's believed that a portal to Muspelheim is deep within the volcano. Sinmara is dismissive of talk about Ragnarok, confident that her husband will stay safe as long as his favored sword Lævateinn (so central to the prophecies) is kept within a chest overseen by her. Thursrike is home to the oldest structures in the Northlands, but alas most of them are inhabited by ogres, trollkin, and all manner of giants. They live upon vast herds of livestock and have trading ties with Jotunheim. They are not the only dangerous inhabitants here, as remohazes, white dragons, bands of yeti, and other monsters are common between settlements. The Cult of Ragnarok bases itself out of the fortress of Birgkrona, assisted by a contingent of giant allies. Other interesting locations here include Älvaträd, a living tree temple sacred to the Vanir with root-driven passageways, and the abandoned fortress of Kupparsheim which descends deep into a field of ice. METAPLOT: A Jotun known as Laughing Kettil found that a bridge spanning a river gorge would make a nice backscratcher, and so he laid over the chasm for a rest. He hasn't gotten up in months, and seems oddly amenable to passersby using him as a bridge. However, he demands a toll in the form of a funny joke. In spite of his name, Kettil is a hard man to please, and he's not above squashing those who tell a really bad one. And even if a party's permitted to cross, his belly quakes from outbursts of laughter can plunge travelers to their doom.  Trollheim is one of the largest realms in the Northlands by population, its fertile forest sheltered from the worst of the winter's cold. A cosmopolitan place of humans, trollkin, dwarves, and other races, they are some of the north's most enthusiastic fighters and consider themselves the best of all people. A World Tree called Wotan's Tree is closely managed by religious huginn, and those who earn their trust can find portals to other planes among its branches. Legend tells that Wotan learned the powers of rune magic here. Trollheim's largest city is Noatun, guarded by a magical wall created by Njord (one of Seggotan's masks) to keep the waves of the wild sea god Aegir at bay. METAPLOT: For unknown reasons (but most suspect divine intervention) the trollkin are breeding true in unseen-of numbers. They are expanding their reach and encroaching on the territories of dwarven reaver clans, causing more of them to settle in Trollheim to better carry out raids against the invaders. This is upsetting the delicate power balances of the regions' jarls; Uffi Toothless, one of the most powerful of said leaders, is considering elevating a trollkin to jarldom as a goodwill offering. However, this is met with hostility from more than a few people quoting obscure poems foretelling a trollkin jarl as one of Ragnarok's prophecies. Additionally, it's been seven years since Jarl Asvaldr of the Havardr clan led a grand longship fleet to the southern realms. The fleet seemingly vanished, and the human population of western Trollheim are nearly leaderless from the loss of so many warriors and jarls. The Vargrike is a realm inhospitable to the two-legged races of the Northlands. Here the lupine people rule, from werewolves to worgs to winter wolves, all united in their howling praises to Fenris (one of Vardesain's masks). Other races are tolerated only as food or slaves, and what few land is farmed and tilled here is by said slaves and sedentary werewolves. The Moon Palace is the only "city" here, and it is a moss-covered ruin where an ancient werewolf queen known as Wargaz the Cruel rules. METAPLOT: The wilderness surrounding elven ruins of Thorn's outposts saw a large influx of fey beings. They've been causing a bit of trouble by curing werewolves of their lycanthropy. This is hardly a blessing as the ex-werewolves' rivals are quick to take advantage of their weakened state. Wolfheim is an isolated dwarf stronghold home to the most conservative members of the reaver dwarf clans. They raid and feud constantly, making continual trips across the Neider Straits to seize thralls to put to work in their mines or oversee their reindeer and caribous herds. They have an ancient pact with local winter wolves and worgs, who serve the dwarves as guards and scouts. The monsters are under no obligation to defend the slaves, who by law are forbidden from killing a wolf or wolf-like monster even in self-defense. Dwarves from less warlike cultures often seek out Wolfheim to test their mettle or find solace in what they imagine to be "true dwarven culture." METAPLOT: The occupation of Krakova by the vampire kingdoms is seen as a great trial by Wolfheim's dwarves. They established the jarldom of Wolfmark on its shores and are a thorn in the undead's side. Additionally, there's talk to occupy and cultivate the lands south of the ruins of Nordheim for more grazing spots and better trade with Wolfmark. Fallen Kingdoms of the North and Other Locations Due to the tumultuous nature of Northland realms, the region's kingdoms are home to countless former domains. Before the elves stole them, portals to Bifrost connected Midgard to Valhalla, the Plane of Spears, and other heavenly planes. Beyond petty jarldoms ended by annexation and war, the three most famous fallen kingdoms are below: Aurvang was once a dwarven hold famed for holding Wotan's sacrificed eye and the holy shield of the dwarven maiden Grajvar. It was brought low when a family of fire dragons incinerated the place after a trade deal gone sour. Dragons still hunt the fauna around here and the nearby valley, but rumors of halls of treasure is a potent lure for adventurers. Issedon and the Vanguard Kingdoms housed powerful wizards and warriors standing guard against the legions of Boreas. Their line of fortifications formed a wall-like structure on the border of the Bleak Expanse. The Northern Wind's minions could not bring them down, so instead he created the living glaciers to swallow their lands. But the people of the Wall still stand as undead ghosts and vættir ruled by an order of lich-commanders. Meanwhile, Issedon's sunken cities are populated by derro salvaging for artifacts, and a tower of this old kingdom has been unearthed along one of Trollheim's shores. Nordheim was the greatest kingdom of the reaver dwarves which fell due to unknown circumstances. From the wrath of the gods to treachery from the elves, giants, Boreas, or even demons from the Ginnungagap are but a few of the wilder explanations. But the most popular theory's from a group of scholars in Skaldhome who propose that the people of Nordheim angered Thor in taking their slaughter to extreme excess. METAPLOT: Several years ago the animals of the forest near Nordheim fled in vast numbers into Wolfheim. The reavers here sent a band of armed thralls to investigate, where they discovered a pit leading down into a temple home to an army of undead dwarves. The undead chased the thralls to the edges of the forest before retreating back to their domain. The skraeling tribes also speak of "ghost elves" in remote places in the mountains. Our chapter ends with a list of miscellaneous locations in the Northlands for adventuring opportunity. They include the Isle of Buyan which holds Koschei's soul, a mobile cloud giant city so rich it's rumored their thralls live like jarls, the forbidden isle of Loki home to the trickster-god's minions, the Isle of Swords where the first holmgaga takes place and shield maidens oversee duels, ghostly Phantom Isles haunted by all manner of evil whose locations on the sea change place, shoals home to selkies that lure sailors to their doom, and barrow mounds where local communities give offerings to their undead inhabitants, and rumors of the fabled lands of Hyperborea in Midgard's utter north. METAPLOT: Loki's servants guard an artifact known as the Loom of Fables. The loom is capable of employing powerful divination and illusion magic to monitor the Norns' threads and give false perceptions to prophets and sooth-sayers. The god erected a new hall to protect the artifact, which if destroyed will allow people to discover the truth of the false Ragnarok. Additionally, the Order of the Thunderer is researching a ritual to teleport people onto the Isle of Swords. They mean to draw members of the Cult of Ragnarok to the isle one by one, yet some worry that this ritual is in fact a trap laid by the cult. Thoughts so far: The Northlands is overall a strong chapter. It manages to capture a Fantasy Scandinavia feel while having a healthy mix of political conflict, forbidding wilderness, and potential locations for dungeon crawls. The local cultures are varied enough to feel interesting and not be too one-note, although the kingdom of 13,000 CR 20+ elder giants stretches credibility even if they are far from united. Most of the region's metaplot is tied to the Cult of Ragnarok rather than a bunch of unrelated events, which may not be to everyone's liking. On the one hand, fans of the 2012 sourcebook can use most of the realm unchanged and provides an in-built villainous organization to oppose. On the other hand, said cult's wide reach steals some thunder from the other, more localized threats. It has come time to leave the material world behind as we explore the Shadow Realm in Chapter 11!
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May 5, 2018 02:57
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 The Shadow Realm is not on Midgard proper. Rather it's beneath it, nestled between the sides of the disc Veles circles. It is here the Shadow Fey live, but they are hardly the only people who call this dark and dreary place home. The terrain is closely tied to Midgard, with numerous shadow roads connecting the two realms. Much of the geography is a dark and distorted mirror: a metropolis on Midgard may be a town full of shadow fey or umbral vampires, or even the ruins of where a thriving city once stood. The Shadow Realm is not underground; it has its own sky, although the heavens appear like a charcoal smear with no sun or moon, only twinkling stars whose light is quickly obscured by dark clouds. Spells also react differently: magic with visual elements may writhe with black veins, glow with sickly green or purple hues, and summoned creatures from this realm often have dark colors and malevolent eyes. Two new schools of magic developed from this plane: Illumination magic, originating among the shadow fey which has a dualistic nature between light and its absence, and shadow magic which taps into the plane's raw energy...often at a dangerous price. The natural world of the Shadow Realm is warped, overtly alien in some places yet deceptively similar in others. There are flora and fauna here who operate much like mundane animals in behavior, but just about each of them bear an unmistakable taint of shadow. An owl may have a human mouth, and predatory animals such as wolves and bears are far more common here. Rivers and lakes do not bequeath water, but instead are rushing torrents of dangerous pure shadow inhabited by hungry spirits seeking to draw unwary travelers to a watery grave. Doomsand, which is found in deserts and marshy bogs, can fill those trapped with depression as well as its more physical dangers. Some areas which intrude into Midgard manifest as darker shadows which can even impede darkvision known as hungry glooms. There are rules for all of these, and wilderness survival checks to find non-corrupted food sources suffer disadvantage (5e) or a suitable penalty to the roll (Pathfinder). Denizens of Darkness  The shadow fey are perhaps the most numerous and well-known denizens here, but they are far from the only prominent nation. Beyond the innumerable monsters and warped animals, the major races possessing the means of civilization are umbral vampires, bearfolk immigrants, exiles from the Ghoul Imperium known as the Twilight Empire, a loose-knit organization of champions of hope and light known as the Lantern Bearers, and an enigmatic organization of astrologers known as the Court of One Million Stars. There's also glowing spherical constructs known as witchlights which often guide travelers to safe havens, although few managed to learn their origins or goals. The Courts of the Shadow Fey are the main home of the namesake race, located on a high plateau in the heart of a dark forest. Their location corresponds to the Margreve Forest in Midgard, and the twin woods share many shadow roads between each other and exist in a symbiotic relationship. The shadow fey live in various towns and cities home to darkly beautiful glittering spires, impressive black stone bridges, marble colonnades, and beautiful gardens. Unless a traveler has the express permission of a high-ranking shadow fey, the communities appear seemingly abandoned. This is in fact the result of powerful illusion magic to confuse potential invaders, and only a true seeing or more powerful divination spell can detect the truth. Shadow Fey society is a feudal model divided into the Lower Courts (goblins and servants), and the upper class among the Royal Halls and Winter Palace. There are two noble families, the Summer Court led by the goddess Sarastra Aestruum, Queen of Night and Magic, and the Winter Court led by the Moonlit King Ludomir Imbrium the XVI. As of now the Moonlit King has been banished and Sarastra Aestruum serves as the ultimate authority. She is a fickle tyrant, not known for patience and whose allies and enemies shift rapidly. The Courts have embassies with all of the other civilizations of the Shadow Realm save the umbral vampires who attack everyone else on sight. But the Courts are not the only power players: there's a secret society of shadow fey and allied creatures known as the Lords of Light, led by a blind angel Revich. They seek to oppose the influence of demons and other evils within their race's society and maintain contacts with Lantern Bearer enclaves. And there are cults lead by demons known as the heralds of darkness who seek worship and can turn willing supplicants into shadow fey.  The major locations of the Courts of the Shadow Fey include Corremel, City of Lanterns. The settlement's a trade haven favored by dishonorable professions such as smugglers, slavers, bounty hunters, and other occupations of varying scruples. Its holds one of the few bridges safely crossing the river Lethe and corresponds to Zobeck's location in Midgard, and also has a shadow road connecting to a Nurian city also by the name of Corremel. Dalliance is a town famed for catering to pleasure and vices of all kinds, no matter how taboo. Hunt's Retreat is a dangerous forest favored by shadow fey nobility as well as the Lord of the Wild Hunt. Nightbrook Court is home to a trio of hags who look for the souls of evil people to trap in the river Lethe and turn into enslaved shades. They create these monsters out of mortal memories of pain and anguish, and are not above creating such memories themselves to drive grief-stricken mortals into surrendering them to make the suffering stop. The Sable Court is overseen by some of the Courts' best hunters and assassins. The Tower of Horn and Gold is the Courts' Fort Knox, responsible for mining shadow-tainted gold which is rumored to make mortals who accept them slowly give up their will and soul to the faeries. Finally, Wormwood is a walled fortress city serving as a barrier against the umbral vampires of the City Fallen Into Shadow. Oshragora, the City Fallen Into Shadow was once a grand realm of spellcasters who used their mastery of time magic to create grand works of art and architecture. But their excessive tampering with the river of time ripped their civilization from Midgard into a closed time loop to be devoured by Shadow, reborn and consumed countless times over. When the rogue magic finally abated, there was only Oshragora, a ruined and twisted landscape inhabited by creatures known as umbral vampires. Not the conventional blood-sucking kind, they drain life and vitality from the smokelike darkness emanating from their eyes, mouths, and noses. They are not ones to talk, but those few who manage to coax a conversation out of them find they make references to times and places that do not exist...or have yet to happen. Their leadership organization is unknown, but the Queen of Night and Magic promises an emperor's ransom for the first person to establish a reliable connection to the umbral vampires' leadership meetings. The darakhul of the Twilight Empire often make risky expeditions into the city on the hunt for a lost artifact known as the Eye of Veles. Oshragora often extends its temporal reach to other times and places in sections known as "splinters," which can bring back inhabitants from the far past or distant future. A splinter can range in size from a small building to an entire neighborhood. The bearfolk of the Moonlit Glade are researching into how the splinters function so as to better guard against them, as they are Oshragora's most potent means of extraplanar invasion. The Moonlit Glades are perhaps the least corrupted civilization among the Shadow Realm. It is inhabited by bearfolk from Björnrike, descended several generations down from warriors and druids who bravely ventured beyond Midgard to fight back the corruption infecting their kingdom. Their children's children still carry on the charge, and the fact that they (mostly) managed to avoid planar corruption is regarded as nothing less than a miracle. The Glade is unsurprisingly connected where the Nieder Straits would be in Midgard, and the terrain here is much closer to their northern homeland. Rivers are made of drinkable water and not shadowstuff, divine spellcasters of Freyr and Freyja (masks of the Green Gods) dedicate their lives to producing edible food free of shadow corruption, and a moonlit sky provides ample natural light. A network of rangers and druids maintain lines of communication between villages via a messenger service, and the place is home to immigrants of other races from the Kingdom of the Bear as well as renegade shadow fey. The Glade's form of government is managed by two independent authorities: a war officer tasked with defense, and a hierophant who manages magical affairs. Gulfwyr Moonrage fills the role of the former, a werebear who has accomplished many legendary feats in battle. The latter is filled by Ernalda Berlasdottir, the most powerful druid in the Glades who seems to be out of touch with the world around her. Her seeming dream-like state is in fact due to her never-ending vigil in maintaining the magical barriers holding back the corrupting forces of Shadow.  The Twilight Empire is composed of the remnants of Vilmos Marquering's Iron Legion, a group of soldiers in the Ghoul Imperium who plotted a coup against the establishment. It did not work out well for them, and they were pushed out into the outlying caverns far beyond the nation. Marquering led his people into a region later found to possess strong connections to the Shadow Realm, and thus the Twilight Empire was born. As a result their previous losses as well as being in a hostile new realm, the Empire is a military junta where Vilmos' top five generals command a major city within their domain. Most of its environs are located in a series of dark rifts known as the Black Iron Depths, located where the Ironcrag Cantons would be on Midgard. Vilmos is a paranoid ruler, who ensured his generals' unwitting loyalty with mithral bracers recovered from a nearby strange ruin. The enchantment of the bracers is that any general who tries to turn against him will elicit a violent rage in the rest of the ghouls who will then seek to slay them. The Twilight Empire maintains a strict ration diet for its citizens, and they regularly raid the other civilizations for food and slaves (often the two go hand in hand). The major cities include Zhurakh, which is the capital and filled with the Empire's most elite soldiers and secret police, the Blackmaw Legion; Blackstone, provider of the Ravenous Legion, the Empire's shock troops; Chaingard, a major focus for the Empire's save trade overseen by the Shackled Legion; Evernight, the center of faith with a grand cathedral to the ghoul god and warrior-priests among its Midnight Legion; Gallwheor, provider of the finest tactical minds among the Headsman Legion; and finally the city of Ossean, whose buildings are made of bones and is the center of necrophage arcanists who supply the Bone Legion with magical might. The Empire has a deal of sorts with the Courts of the Shadow Fey: in order oto gain passage along their shadow roads, ghoul soldiers serve as security for the more dangerous/at-risk roads. Right now the Twilight Emperor's primary concern is researching the umbral vampires, and via sanity-rending divinations into the minds of these monsters Maquering discovered an artifact known as the Eye of Veles which can grant one mastery over time and space. The ghouls do not have the resources for a full-scale invasion, so instead they rely on scouting parties into Oshragora for now. Witchlights manifest as white spheres which drift among the misty swamps and dark forests. Although bearing a resemblance to a will o'wisp, their intentions are mostly beneficial in the form of lighting the way to safety in the most dangerous places in the Shadow Realm. Witchlights can be created by powerful wizards, but this cannot account for the sheer number of them roaming the plane. They communicate by strobe pulses and can defend themselves with searing blasts of light. Although most are benevolent, some witchlights corrupted by ghouls are possessed of foul intent and intentionally lead people to danger, using their light attack to sever rope bridges and ladders at their most dangerous point. As for their relations with the other groups, some ally themselves as familiars to shadow fey sorcerers, disguising themselves as gleaming jewelry. Umbral vampires find their presence odious, while the ghouls of the Twilight Empire seek to capture them and perfected a ritual to turn them evil. The witchlight's only area approaching a settlement is an island known as the Light of Knowledge. Here on this island is a structure much like a library, but instead of books among its shelves there are multicolored stacks of light arranged in an orderly fashion. Witchlights can transfer their own knowledge to these stacks by adding a bit of their own light to it, and brass and silver constructs serve as managerial duties. The liosalfar, or light elementals, serve as security against any who would damage or corrupt the Light of Knowledge to foul ends.  The Court of One Million Stars is our last location within the Shadow Realm, a beautiful airbone cluster of spherical, domed buildings flying in the sky. Pearly-white stone gates link clusters of buildings via walkways, with the more prestigious inhabitants living closer towards the center. The largest residential spires are known as the Spiral-Downs which connect to each other via staircases made of moonlight. Each ascending level is home to more beautiful features such as buildings made from starlight and dreams. The court is home to beautiful gardens containing plants from the Shadow Realm as well as Midgard, and fey of all kinds (not just shadow fey) are frequent visitors. The Court's primary function is for those seeking to study Illumination magic, the stars, and celestial movements. To this end many of its domes provide a perfect view of every star, celestial cloud or nebula, and even the farthest reaches of the utterdark and the Void. The Courts' more notable inhabitants include Prince Valendan, an oddly non-evil selang and accomplished wizard of Illumination magic; Cylentha the Silver Mistress, a star* who descended down to Veles' encircled realms for unknown reason and serves as the Prince's adviser; a friendly yet insane void dragon named Phaerliggath who's eager to teach supplicants about Void magic and who Lady Cylentha does not trust. *We learn more about the stars of Midgard. When they land on Midgard or the Shadow Realm, they take the form of cloaked, hooded humanoid figures shrouded in an aura of starlight. They have their own language, and even those who communicate with them via magical aid find their manner of speech confusing. They often reuse terms, but with vastly different intended contexts and meanings even within the same statement. "The Void calls to the Void. It must not be allowed to answer" is one lf Lady Cylentha's few warnings about accepting Phaerliggath's tutelage. Entry to the Court is not an easy task. Witchlights can form bridges of solid illumination provided it trusts a traveler. Warriors of the Court guard gate houses which can form star-bridges leading up to the spires at certain times of the year. The most famous (and well-guarded) house is known as Vigil, a hovering disc whose gates are nearly indestructible by either mundane or magical means. One of the most powerful denizens of the Shadow Realm may not be the leaders of the aforementioned nations, but in fact a dragon known as the Endless Hunger. Vizorakh the Ravenous is the oldest cave dragon in existence who embraced lichdom via a ritual. His phylactary is an onyx gemstone the size of an elephant, and he prolongs his existence by hunting down other cave dragons in the depths of Midgard to add their souls to his phylactary. He frequently joins the Twilight Empire's expeditions into Oshragora as a disguised ghoul for unknown reasons. Beyond this his schemes are considered mysterious and spanning centuries, and he frequently meddles in the workings of the other factions of the Shadow Realm. Thoughts so far: An interesting thing to note is that the Shadow Realm did not have its own chapter in the 2012 setting book. Thus the reason I did not include any METAPLOT mentions. But overall it's a grand addition to the updated Worldbook. In most campaign settings the Shadow Plane or its equivalent is a one-note "dark place of evil and undead" without much variety. Here the civilizations/factions are varied, full of adventure material and good writing, and interact with each other in interesting ways. I did like the thematics of duality between light and darkness present throughout the chapter, such as the Court of One Million Stars, witchlights, and illumination magic. This makes sense of a sort in that shadows cannot exist in complete darkness. We're done with the realms of Midgard, but the party's not yet over! Join us next time as we meet and greet the divine Pantheons!
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 The gods and goddesses of Midgard are not timeless, eternal entities. During the era when Veles created and encircled the world of mortals, there were no gods. It was a prehistoric time where the few races that did exist were just developing the spear and the secret of fire, and the only kinds of spellcasters were druidic pseudo-priests who could speak to the dead. This all changed when Wotan bathed in the blood of a slain dragon and learned the secrets of godhood. He climbed the World Tree, learned rune magic among its branches, and he uplifted his fellow priests to become what we know now as the Northlands pantheon. Although they took pains to guard their wellsprings of power, Loki betrayed his fellows by granting the secret to his lover Bastet in the southern realms. From there more gods and eventually pantheons arose, and it was a time of great war and chaos. The specifics of history are highly biased as the current gods and their followers accuse the others of all forms of misdeed. But what is agreed upon is that Veles issued an ultimatum for the gods to no longer war openly. Instead they would wear masks and act through mortal champions and divine servants. This created a near-universal tradition among the deities of Midgard: a "mask" is not so much a literal garment as a deity taking a different form, title, and even domains and moral codes for their followers. There are still some similarities, and gods with some overlap in themes (such as Thor and Mavros) are often believed to be masks of the other. Not only does the tradition of masks prevent an accurate estimate of the true number of deities, it also allows a god to extend their influence to other cultures without the stigma and restrictions of the host faith. In fact, it makes it easy for a deity to fake their own death, only to masquerade by another realm in another culture of Midgard. Pantheons are generally grouped by geographic and racial territories: Northern Gods, Crossroads Gods, Dragon Gods, etc. This is not uniform, and various countries and city-states may swap out a certain deity or two in favor of one closer to their needs: an example is the worship of the Nurian god Thoth-Hermes in the Magocracy of Allain, whose emphasis on written lore makes him popular there. Sages claim that only 30 true gods can exist at a time, and only five within a great city, six within a great kingdom. More than this causes excess deities to fall into the ranks of demons and angels; still powerful, yet not true gods. The aforementioned realms of previous chapters hew to this format, with many countries and city-states with a listed regional pantheon of five deities (sometimes 4 or 6). They also mention the masks of a deity who goes by a different name in said place: for example, Wotan is honored in Ishadia by the name of Az, as is Perun who goes by the title Mavrash. Pantheist Worship: Most lay worshipers and divine spellcasters do not serve a single deity; instead they pay homage to a cultural god who most closely meets their needs at a certain point in life. In fact, both the Pathfinder and 5th Edition system supplements provide mechanical options for a Pantheist Priest. They are basically clerics, but instead of a single patron deity they worship five gods of their kingdom/region/city-state as a whole. Once every one or two weeks (depending on system) they pledge themselves to a single deity, gaining the domains and code of conduct of said deity. After the weeks' duration they switch to a new god to repeat the process anew. As deities even within the same pantheon can be at odds, violations of dogma only count when a pantheist priest is pledged to that specific deity during the time frame. The exceptions to pantheist worship are the Dark Gods and the Southern god Aten, who are too jealous to share their worshipers with any other gods. Design Notes: The author Wolfgang Baur is not as much a fan of the classic good/evil divide, instead preferring Midgard's gods to be akin to amoral forces of nature concerned with their domains of influence rather than championing Law, Chaos, etc. However, he acquiesces to the "requirements of role-playing games" and has most gods with a partial alignment axis. Instead of being Lawful Good/Lawful Neutral/etc, Wotan of the Northern pantheon is merely Lawful and clerics may be of any Lawful alignment. There are a few deities who have a traditional alignment (Khors is Lawful Good). Baur also notes that alignment-specific domains are optional in Midgard. I agree and disagree with the above. While it is true that the vast majority of deities in Midgard do not have alignment-specific domains, the exception are the Dark Gods, most of whom are quite clearly antagonistic and have the Evil domain in Pathfinder. It makes playing a Pantheist Priest impossible alignment-wise, as quite a few pantheons have deities of diametrically opposed alignments: Wotan/Loki, Baal/Azuran, and Horus/Bastet are Lawful/Chaotic, while Ceres/Hecate are Good and Evil. Finally, the stat blocks within this Worldbook show important NPC clerics who are two steps away from their patron deity in multiple places. This includes several Lawful Good Ironcrag and reaver dwarf priests of Voldun (Neutral). In Nuria Natal, the Reborn Queen-Goddess Meskhenit is a Neutral Evil cleric of Bastet (Chaotic). Meskhenit in particular had this same alignment in the 2012 sourcebook as well as the 2015 Southlands Campaign Setting expansion. The sheer repetition of such examples points to intention rather than accidental typos, and indicates that Baur desires for clerics to be unrestricted by alignment. If anything, choosing to keep partial alignments has only weakened internal consistency. The entries for deities are grouped by pantheons of related figures with rather detailed entries. Just about every god has an illustration, cleric domains for both Pathfinder and 5th Edition (and subdomains in Pathfinder's case), mechanical elements such as alignment and favored weapons, and fluff background with entries for common worshipers, holy symbols, notable books, their faith's common temple locations and designs, their suspected masks, relationships with other deities, and what the god demands from followers. The last part is important, as it is the deity's code of conduct and failing to abide by it results in a loss of class features for divine spellcasters. Some deities have codes easier to follow than others. For example, Loki has no tenets beyond "do what you think would amuse me," while Anu-Akma forbids tomb-robbing and stealing from corpses which is a heavy burden for most D&D adventurers. The Great Serpent  Veles is special enough to be an entry all his own. The great World Serpent defines the edges of Midgard as a coiling dragon-god biting his own tail. Veles is most well-known in the Northlands and the Mharoti Empire, although he is not worshiped elsewhere. The tides of the sea are due to his breath and storms originate from his great snorts and sneezes. A few sailors of the western seas claim to have seen his body in the form of a gigantic moss-green scaly wall in the ocean. Veles does not demand much from his worshipers and is unconcerned with rewards in the afterlife; instead he charges his few followers to take a nihilistic doomsday preparation outlook and ensure that the ley lines run smooth. Northern Gods  The gods of the Northlands are the oldest known pantheon in Midgard. They are men and women of action, who fight hard, party hard, and demand the same of their followers. Being a priest is not considered a full-time occupation, and clerics/druids/etc often belong to a more mundane occupation in their day to day life. Besides the dwarven worshipers of Thor and Volund, temples do not really exist save in consecrated ground of a deity's portfolio: battlefields, thunder-strewn mountaintops, etc. Freyr and Freyja are twin deities often worshiped together, who hold sway over fertility, magic, and farming. They gather fallen warriors to form an army for the Vanir. It is believed that the two are masks of Yarila and Porevit of the elven pantheon, or vice versa. Loki the Trickster is a man of many tales, a confusing web of lies, half-truths, and truths which but create more questions. He is many things the Northlands pantheon is not: duplicitous, allied with giants and monsters, and prophesied to betray his kin Baldur and bring about the twilight of the gods. He is most known for his mastery of fire and supposed invention of the net, two aspects of life vital to the Northlands' cultures. Sif is the wife of Thor and just as skilled in battle. The bow and arrow are her weapons of choice, and she is the leader of valkyries and shield maidens. She is worshiped in Perunalia and the patron goddess of Huldramose, and has a following in Krakovar due to the heroism of Saint Adelind against the undead occupiers. Thor is the larger-than-life champion of human and dwarfkind. Not a god to sit and wait for adventure to come to him, he rides across the planes in a goat-driven chariot, striking down giants and other monsters with his signature hammer Mjölnir. Thor is a popular god in the North, worshiped by reaver dwarves, vikings, warriors, and those who seek to drive back the monsters of the night. It is widely believed that Thor, Perun, and Mavros are all masks of the same god, but there is a rivalry among cultures of which one is the "true face." Wotan is the wise leader of the Northern pantheon and the one who started up all this godly business in the first place. He is a man associated with magic and wisdom, who gave his eye for wisdom and learned the mysteries of the universe from runes. He is also master of Valhalla, a gathering of the spirits of great warriors for the upcoming Ragnarok. He tends to be a god most Northlanders come to later in life, with the brash and young favoring other deities. But ravenfolk of all ages adore him, both for his wily nature and close association with ravens. Baldur is a popular god of the North, although he is a mask of Lada who is detailed in the Crossroads entry. Crossroads Gods  The gods of the Crossroads are a diverse bunch, given the regions' geographical centrality. The common conception of a "united" pantheon is a recent one, and gods and goddesses came and went in popularity, some given up once mortals found more suitable patrons or suffering death, enslavement, or adopting a new mask. The elven gods were once popular, and Khors was once considered the king of the pantheon but finds his worship fading outside of Grisal and the Magdar Kingdom. Rava's dominion over the gearforged and advanced technology marks her as the rising star of the region. More than any other realm, the faiths of the Crossroads are fluid. Khors is your stereotypical Lawful Good deity of knights, light, and justice. His priests number among many knightly orders, and his main focus is on safeguarding people from mundane and supernatural evils. Lada is the goddess of dawn, love, and healing. Her pacifistic teachings are standards most cannot live up to, but she and her faithful are held in high regard. Her priests operate public works projects such as hospitals and shelters for the poor and at-risk children and mothers. Lada's followers believe in voluntary euthanasia for those whose suffering is beyond the ability of divine magic to cure, which is the most controversial aspect of her faith. Perun is the god of war and thunder, who also governs the cycle of birth and cleansing of the soul. He is closely associated with Mavros who is believed one of his masks (they even share the same code of conduct), and as such his worship extends far beyond the Crossroads. His priesthood is 80% male, save in Perunalia where women warriors predominate. Rava (Ariadne) is the patron goddess of Zobeck and oversees knowledge, industry, and technological innovation. She is closely associated with spiders, often portrayed as a six-armed weaving woman. Although credited with the creation of the gearforged and closely associated with clockwork artifices, she is worshiped by alchemists, scribes, weavers, and other artisans. In Zobeck and the Crossroads she is known as Rava, but in the Seven Cities and southern realms she goes by the mask-title Ariadne. Volund (Svarog) is the god of earth and fire, one of the patrons of the reaver dwarves. He is closely associated with smithwork but also governs family, hospitality, and marriage. Among the Rothenian Plains the Kariv and Khazzaki hold him as a patron of horses, and the former have a creation myth of how the god stole the first horses from Boreas and taught mortals how to tame them. Volund is one of the most widely-worshiped gods and thus has many masks. Dragon Gods  The gods of the dragons are closely tied to the four elements and considered to be the literal children of Veles. They are not widely-worshiped outside the Mharoti Empire, but thanks to said empire's sheer size and number they are powerful and popular religions. Astronomy is a common practice among worshipers. Azuran is the four-fold god of the winds, closely associated with life, for it is said among the faithful that "all who breathe" are of his creation and every last breath is Azuran taking his due. The god's sects are divided into four directional winds. The East is associated with fate and fortune, the West with battle, the South knowledge and wisdom, and the North travel and wandering. Baal is a fire god considered the patron of the entire Mharoti Empire. All nobles of this realm worship him, and in turn he protects their divine right to rule. Many martial orders pay him homage, and his priesthood is heavily entrenched in the empire's bureaucratic institutions. His teachings are in no holy books, and instead his teachings are learned from a special order of priests known as the Baal-Shek. They recite his 444 sacred stories daily in order to maintain clear memory. Khespotan is a primordial deity of the earth and originally not a dragon at all. A dragon once swallowed him, and the god fought back from inside its belly. Khespotan absorbed his would-be devourer from within and emerged as one of the race's own. He stores millions of souls in flawless gems, all located within a great vault deep beneath the earth. Although not as active as Azuran and Baal in the mortal world, his faithful serve a vital function in funerary rites and burials: their temples provide free gravesites to the poor, dragonkin and non-dragonkin alike. Seggotan is the dragon god of the sea, rumored to have existed since reality's creation and will continue to do so until the end of time. He is a keeper of oaths, and his word is spread to the faithful via sea drakes known as Kyree. His holy verses take the form of songs written on sheets of silver foil, although there is no grand collection and many groups fight for control over the records. The reality is that the Song Pearls the sheets are transcribed from are dangerous to all of creation if combined together, thus the need for their scattering. Elven Gods  The gods of the elves were until very recently nearly forgotten among the peoples of Midgard. Their temples fell into ruin or where converted to other faiths. The only exceptions are Sarastra, the goddess-queen of the Shadow Fey who seek to make their move in Midgard, and the Church of Yarila and Porevit in the Grand Duchy of Dornig. The knowledge of other major gods of the elves are now returning with immigrants from the Summer Lands. Baccho is a whimsical god of poetry, wine, and madness. The Great Retreat hit him the hardest, and many of his faithful left behind in Midgard fell into a deep despair. His sacred teachings are many and self-contradictory, leading to factionalism and divergent faiths among his followers. What's ironic is his code of conduct is both short in comparison to others and quite hippy-ish: "Make art, and celebrate life to the fullest. Leave no stone unturned and unpainted. Rage, love, and make your mark on all things. Embrace the dragon and the lamb; both are your children." Holda is the mother goddess of all elves and oversees the seasons, hearth, and harvest times. She taught her children ways to create magical clothes (cloak/boots of elvenkind), and although much of this lore has been forgotten they still have a reputation as expert tailors. Her teachings are a mix of good living and natural conservation, with some holy book's containing farmer's almanacs and diagrams of ley lines. Sarastra is the patron of the Shadow Fey and the elven goddess of night and magic. She has no grand ideology or plan, instead driven by petty vendettas and fleeting whims. Her holy book is a tome of confusing puzzle-like riddles for her worshipers to figure out her desires. She encourages followers to master magic and the tools of deceit and for the latter her faith is outlawed in many regions. She counts many enemies among the other deities, but oddly enough she and Hecate are on neutral terms in spite of both faiths having deadly rivalries. This leads some to suspect one is a mask of the other. Valeresh is the honorable elven god of battle, his order famed for the creation of great and powerful magical weapons. A handful of them still exist in protected vaults of the former Empire of Thorn in Midgard, but otherwise the legacies of his teachings, holy books, and temples no longer remain. Yarila and Porevit are the most popularly-worshiped elven deities in Midgard. They are twin faces of the same deity: Poreveit is the god of harvest, wine, and greenery, and turns into the goddess Yarila during the next spring planting. They govern the harvest, are patrons of the forests, and dispense seemingly-indecipherable teachings to their druidic followers. It is in fact unknown which deity should be venerated at what times: this mystery is known only to the dual-deity's priests and peasants who rely on their blessings. Their code of conduct has a peculiar rule based on the gender of worshipers: male followers honor Porevit by participating in the harvest, while women followers honor Yarila by participating in spring planting. Southern Gods  The deties of Nuria Natal are ancient faiths who persevered in a grand human kingdom when other realms fell into chaos. They saw the rise and fall of hundreds of smaller gods within their realm, and as such seem impervious to time. Save for Aten, they all have animal heads and are fond of visiting their worshipers in physical form. Anu-Akma (Anubis, Hades, Hel) is the god of death, guardian of graveyards and tombs. His priests know anointing rituals for the nobility to help them rise as mummies and liches to defend their lands when the time is right. His worship takes a much darker aspect in the Ghoul Imperium, who revere him as a provider of new dead flesh for feasting. Anu-Akma is one of the most popular deities of Nuria Natal, and is the husband of Bastet; both faiths are known to have worshipers enter into marriages in emulation of their patrons. Aten is a jealous sun god who forbids the worship of all others by his followers. He is a foe of the dark gods and defends the faithful with his blinding light. However, he is intolerant to the point of violence, encouraging his followers to violently expel non-believers from villages, to pillage and desecrate temples of other gods, and to convert unbelievers or slaughter them as circumstances dictate. They reserve an exception for Khors and Lada who are viewed as Aten's semi-divine offspring: worshipers of these deities are considered to be in error and in need of being shown the proper path. His center of worship is in Per-Xor, and his greatest prophet Ra-Amon-Ra was turned into a martyr when he was slain by Mharoti dragonfire. This "messiah cult" is growing in popularity in both Nuria Natal and the Dragon Empire. The devotees of Ra offer hope and forgiveness, almsgiving to the poor, and dwarves and women comprise a majority of their followers (half of Ra's disciples were female). Both countries banned the cult's worship, which has turned the messianics dangerously violent as a result. And the kicker of this is that Aten is a Lawful Good god! This may sound downright insane, but keep in mind that Dungeons & Dragons settings have a rich, storied tradition of portraying Lawful Good gods of light as oppressive tyrants in savior's clothing. From the Istaran Kingpriests of Dragonlance to Pholtus' anti-magic sentiment in Greyhawk, Aten is just the latest in a long line of Lawful Stupid idiots. There's also a Chaotic Evil heretical cult who worships "the True Aten" as a lord of fire, and is believed to be the mask for Loki or one of the Dark Gods. Bastet (Ailuros) is a chaotic goddess of desire and wild abandon. She is revered among perfumers and alchemists, but also venerated as a huntress for her lioness aspect. She draws a diverse array of worshipers, from farmers who prize a cat's ability to kill mice, alchemists and perfumers honing their craft, temple prostitutes and dancers who heed her guidance for beauty and invoking passion, and gnolls and hunters seeking a fortunate hunt. She is popular in the Duchy of Bourgund due to their perfume industry, where she wears the mask of Ailuros. Bastet's center of worship is the metropolitan city of Per-Bastet, and while men may worship her the goddess only grants the right of priesthood and spells to women. Horus is the kingly lord of the Nurian pantheon. Although weakened from his battles with Aten and once engulfed by the fires of the desert, like a phoenix he rose from the ashes. He seeks to establish a lost Nurian golden age, and does this by both personally and encouraging followers to slay demons, push back the Mharoti invaders, and bring order out of chaos by putting down usurpers. Horus is popular in the eastern city-states of the Free Cities of the Desert as well as the Tamasheq nomads, and his teachings known as the Code of Horus serve as a legal foundation for Nuria Natal's governance. Ninkash did not originate among the dwarves, but is so closely associated with them that she is most often depicted as one. The Kariv brought her faith to the dwarves of the Crossroads, and she adopted the brewing rituals of Wotan's priests into a more joyful celebration. The goddess is closely associated with alcohol, beer particularly, and emphasizes its use as a form of social bonding in taverns and festivals. The priesthood is completely egalitarian, sporting both men and women with unrestricted access to hierarchies and training. They are well known for brewing Holy Ales, beverages laced with beneficial magical effects akin to potions. Thoth-Hermes is a god admired by scholars, thieves, merchants, and wizards alike. He is the patron deity of the Magocracy of Allain, and when those mighty mages found themselves stumped with a supernatural conundrum they often turn to Thoth-Hermes' priests. The deity has books containing his teachings, but all tomes are "holy books" to him: although knowledge may be safeguarded from prying eyes, the destruction book is an abominable act no matter the context or subject material. His temples are libraries, and many markets have small shrines with scales and a locked box for offerings (whose theft is sure to invite deadly retribution from his followers). City Gods  The elven pantheon was once the religion of the Valeran Empire, a vassal of Thorn. But after the Great Retreat the rising war culture saw the development of a different pantheon. Mavros is by far the most popular and considered the head of the Seven Cities pantheon, but every deity encourages their followers to war against each other and the forces of foreign gods. Religious debates are heavily discouraged in public forums, as one faith's is quite often tied to more earthly political alliances. Ceres the Provider is the goddess of harvest and civilization. She also oversees trade and the roads connecting communities, also vital features of society. Her holy days take place during harvest times and the changing of seasons. Although not pacifists, her followers' emphasis on "reasonable peace" makes her not as popular as other gods in the region. Darker cults worshiper her as Ceres the Reaper, using humanoid sacrifices and slaughter of enemies to ensure a good harvest. Ceres has no long-standing temples, with any such structures demolished via fire on their 50th anniversary to reflect the seasonal winds of change. We also get 5th Edition stats for the scythe: it's a simple melee weapon costing 3 gp. It deals 1d6+1 slashing damage, is 4 pounds, and has the heavy and two-handed properties. A pretty good deal at an affordable price! Charun is a death god tasked with overseeing the passage of souls from birth to death and to the afterlife byond. He protects planar travelers and his boat sails the rivers of realms beyond Midgard. He is an enemy of many fey and outsiders who visit the world of mortals: such beings often traffic in souls and thus disrupt the natural order. He is not respected in the Ghoul Imperium, and slaves secretly venerate him by pretending to offer rites to Anu-Akma. They hope the gods' protection will offer escape from a terrible existence. Hecate is an evil goddess of magic and the moon. Her motives are inscrutable even to other gods, and she takes one of three forms depending on the lunar phases: during the new moon she is the vengeful Lady of Darkness; during half moon she is the Lady of Sighs who whispers arcane secrets to the faithful; and during the full moon she's the Lady of Tears, a more benevolent aspect who reveals the future of the world as she grieves for its pain. Her enslavement of and marriage to the sea god Nethus resulted in the two churches uniting, although some priests of the latter think there's more to the story and suspect the worst. Her priesthood is strong and organized in Khammae Straboli, but beyond that city she has a diverse following of various sizes and among many races. Mavros the War God and His Order is the patron deity of the Seven Cities, whose entire culture revolves around fulfilling his tenets of holy war. His church is extensive, and the formal order of the House of Swords is both large and whose grounds are considered politically autonomous in the Seven Cities. Most citizens of the Seven Cities plus warriors of all kinds venerate him, but among women and children his aspect as a chivalrous protector is considered just as important as his military aspects. Mavros has two holy books, one of which is the rare Annals of Mavros whose text is impervious to copying and often moved or stolen by various divine heralds. Mavros used to be married to Hecate, but after her infidelity with Nethus he spurned her in favor of a marriage with Marena the Red. We have a sizable entry on the Order of Mavros, which trains martial orders as their own private army. Due to their politically autonomous nature, their grounds are often havens for criminals fleeing the law. Much like the French Foreign Legion IRL, said criminals can gain legal immunity and a new start by joining the order. In order to discourage opportunists, the Order sends such criminal-converts out as the first wave into high-risk wars. Deserters are hunted down by both the church and whatever authorities they first sought to flee. All worshipers of Mavros are expected to make a pilgrimage to the Seat of Mavros at least once in their lives, which starts at the House of Swords in Valera. The 900 mile journey through the Western Wastes is dangerous, but those who make it through alive take pride in their survival as testament to their faith and warrior skills. Nethus is the god of the sea. He was once a powerful deity worshiped all across Midgard, but ever since his imprisonment by the worshipers of Hecate he is but a shadow of his former self. Although freed, he is little more than a pawn of Kammae Straboli's oracles. It seems that he's forgotten his first wife entirely, although some believe that Nethus made a vow of service in exchange for his freedom. He was the patron deity of the island nation of Ankeshel before it sank, and his most devoted followers are all those who rely upon the sea for their livelihood. He is now a sworn enemy of the Mharoti Dragon Gods and wrought great devastation against the priesthood of Seggotan. Dark Gods  The wicked and forbidden entities known as the Dark Gods are not a single pantheon per se. Rather they are gods who fell from the ranks of true divinity into the realms of demons and devils. Desperate to regain their former power, they demand terrible deeds from their followers. Like Aten, they permit no diversity of faiths and demand that they and they alone be worshiped by priests. Addrikah is the insane derro goddess who is an oracle and interpreter to even more alien gods. She has little approaching an organized dogma beyond driving others into insanity and the sacrifice of sapient races. Most of her worship takes place among the deep caves of the earth by derro and other inhuman entities. Boreas is the son of Marena, tasked with one day plunging the world into a deathly, eternal winter. He lairs in the far North, brewing storms and sending minions of cold throughout the world. He is also fond of shapeshifting into the forms of animals and impregnating female members of the species whose forms he takes. Some of the best horses of Midgard are his spawn, and he claims to be the father of all winter wolves for similar reasons. Chernobog is the embodiment of mortal fears, known for his rapacious hunger and whose presence causes entire graveyards to rise in answer to his call. He is served by all manner of scum and monsters, and his greatest temple is in the gnomish kingdom of Niemheim. His teachings promote Social Darwinism of might makes right, to take what you want from the weak and never show mercy or weakness. As a mortal you are lesser than Chernobog and thus expected to serve him. The Goat of the Woods is one of the only two non-evil Dark Gods (Chaotic). During the time of the old human magocracies of the west, the Goat of the Woods was known as Bacchana, a deity of night, wealth, and fertility. She encouraged her followers to pursue all manner of lusts and excess, and was one of the most hawkish deities in the arms races of the Great Mage Wars. The atrocities of war, as well as her gazing into the alien realms, irreversibly changed her body and soul. Now both male and female, the Goat of the Woods is a hideous morass of monstrous appendages, worshiped in isolated groves. The Goat of the Woods encourages satiation of sexual desires and to expand one's mind beyond the bounds of sanity while flaunting mortal laws and traditions. The deity's followers consider cross-dressing as an act of devotion as well as a means of breaking laws and taboos. Conversely, the priests of the Goat are defenders of social outcasts, who seek to defend these people from the society that failed them. One of the most popular gestures among the faithful is the totally metal Sign of the Horns. The Hunter goes by many names and walks in countless forms. He represents the universal aspect of the predator, the one who pursues the thrill of the chase and the "eat or be eaten" cycle of life and death. He is worshiped by the most violent centaurs and bandits, and among the fey he is famed for his Wild Hunts which can enrapture even gods into riding a bloody path alongside him. In civilized societies his gatherings of faithful take the form of hunting lodges and assassin's guilds. The Hunter's priests claim that their god wears no masks, but others attribute like-minded gods to him. Mammon is the archdevil of greed, his claws capable of holding entire treasuries. He seeks to claim everything as his property, and to that end he will never be satisfied. He attracts many who lust for wealth and do not care about the ethics of how it's gained. He encourages wealth accumulation through means both fair and foul. Marena is the goddess of lust, death, and plague. She is the patron deity of vampires, ghouls, and female prostitutes. She is the state religion of the Greater Duchy of Morgau, but encourages evangelism among the poor in other lands. Her priesthood is one of the few means of social advancement for living citizens of the Blood Kingdom. Flagellations, branding, and executions by beheading are her most favored means of punishment. Orgies are a common form of worship and social gatherings in her temples. Vardesain is the other non-evil Dark God (Neutral) and holds dominion over hunger. He encourages gluttony, cannibalism, and wasteful excess. His followers are frequently power-hungry mortals and predatory monsters who care only for satiating their base needs. Vardesain's temples contain purple worms to devour sacrifices. He is the patron deity of the Ghoul Imperium, and encourages priests to devour the hearts of their enemies. The White Goddess was born beneath the skin of the world. The first entity she saw after clawing her way to the surface was Khors' divine radiance. It is said that she chased him across the horizon, devouring the surface-dwelling races along the way and forming armor out of their bones. The faithful point to the continual cycle of day and night as their patron's eternal struggle against the sun god. Her primary worshipers are orcs, a near-extinct race which was once numerous but now confined to the underground and most isolated reaches of Midgard. Her holiest days are the solar eclipse, believed to be a hole made in Khors' head when the White Goddess tore a portion of flesh and bone from his skull. During this time the orcs mass in great hordes to raid and kill. We get 5th Edition stats for a temple sword (one of the White Goddess' favored weapons). It is a martial melee weapon costing 25 gp. It deals 1d8 slashing damage, weighs 2 pounds, and has the Versatile (1d10) and Finesse properties. Besides the Core rapier and other possible 3rd party books, this is the only other 1d8 finesse weapon in 5th Edition D&D. Its 1d10 Versatile property can push this damage even further. Thoughts So Far: I really like Midgard's pantheons. The mask aspect is a cool and innovative concept for a divine origin, and I like how there's cross-cultural adoption of deities rather than having them be consigned to geographic areas. I liked the idea of de-emphasizing alignment, although I feel that the Worldbook did not go far enough in this regard. But besides the Dark Gods, it should not be too hard to let clerics be of any alignment given how most of the deities aren't innately tied to moral systems or demand atrocities. There is a bit of gender stereotypes among deities called out as being favored by women or have male-focused orders (Bastet, Lada, Mavros, etc) and associating cross-dressers and female prostitutes with the "evil pantheon" is more than a little problematic*. But overall I felt this to be a good chapter. *unless we count Bastet as a non-evil alternative for the latter. We're entering the home stretch now! All we have left to cover are the 5th Edition and Pathfinder Rules Appendices! Libertad! fucked around with this message at 11:06 on May 16, 2018 |
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May 16, 2018 05:01
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