I'm seriously considering renaming the Hill Country. I have a Northumbria and a Southumbria on either side of the Umber river. What if I change Northumbria to North Humberland and Southumbria to South Humberland, and the entire Hill Country as Humberland? I'll think about it, but I probably will go for it.
The image is a grok generated image of Torkertown, a fictional town in the public domain that's part of the Solomon Kane mythos. It's a cool name, and it's public domain. Why not go for it?
I've tossed around several labels for some time for regions of the Hill Country, but I don't think that I've always been super consistent with my usage of them. I thought it would be good to document what I think that "latest" is. Originally, the Hill Country was just a region in itself, but of course, it's big enough to have more than one region; at least as large as a Western European country of the past, like France or Old Germany or the Austrian Empire, etc. or as big as one of the big western states of the US like Wyoming or Montana.
This isn't meant to be a list of details of the map, but rather of higher level "regions" within the Hill Country, most of which I've already developed many smaller details already.
The "core" of the Hill Country is the two regions Northumbria and Southumbria, both so named because of their relation to the Umber River, which runs through the southern part of the Goldenwold. Northumbria is driven, in large part, by the major urban settlement Garenport, which is the most important city in the region, and a real city and a powerhouse financially, militarily and in every other sense.
Southumbria, on the other hand, has Barrowmere in somewhat the same situation; by far the most important urban center; really the only truly urban center. Barrowmere and Garenport are rivals, both commercially and politically—and even philosophically, as the self-styled Grand Duke of Garenport wants to unite the two regions more intimately and set himself up as the king of the newly christened Hill Kingdom instead of Hill Country. Luckily for the other regions, he's got lots of problems at home that are distracting him from pursuing that agenda too hard.
Both regions have subregions. Northumbria's Garenkarst Peninsula is east of the Waychester Bay and therefore unrelated to the Umber River, and the Northwoodshire region is between the Umber River and the large forests to the south. Technically it belongs to Southumbria, and it looks to Barrowmere for leadership, but only a little; the region is really kind of autonomous and independent in many ways.
There are two more recent expansion regions, where settlement from Hillmen is relatively new, and has opened up new frontiers for the Hill Country. The so-called East Marches are really more to the north even of Northumbria, and stretch from the territory of Cayminster (which is definitely in the Northumbrian orbit) across the northeastern edge of the Darkling Sea, and have now started to spread southwards across the eastern edge of the sea a bit in the form of Woodrow's Hamlets, a small subregion that's considered part of the Marches. Burlharrow is the largest urban (using the term somewhat loosely) area here, and they have both some commercial dependency still on Garenport, but also a great deal of resentment about it, and it is largely made up of common folk who urge for breaking with Garenport more explicitly, at least politically. Regardless of its politics, it's far enough away from the remainder of the regular Hill Country to be an afterthought in many ways to them, but as more and more settlement is moving into this area, that will probably not be true forever.
The West Marches on the other hand are truly separated from the rest of the Hill Country, and far enough away from it to be independent. Settlement of Hillmen in the region also is shared with some few peoples who were already in the area, although much of the West Marches is ranchland or other depopulated wilderness. Bucknerfeld is the largest city in the area, and it thrives on trade across the Great Northern Road with distant destinations in Lower Kurushat, Baal Hamazi and places like Simashki. But Hillmen have also spread recently down into the so-called Cactus Balds, and homesteads, ranches and more are now common in these relatively dry hills—in spite of their names, they're not necessarily completely bald nor covered with tons of cactus, although to the Hillmen, the prickly pear and other cactuses were a unique element that caught their attention. Mostly they are lightly covered in pinyon-juniper savanna, gray oak and even mesquite, interspersed with lots of tough grasses and the iconic cactuses which so caught the imagination of the Hillmen who otherwise weren't familiar with them. If you want a real world analog, go check out the Davis Mountains in western Texas—but then moderate the climate a bit. The summers aren't so miserably hot.
I'll probably draw up a quick map that's specifically focused on labeling these regions, and otherwise sparse on more detailed labels, and post it when I get a chance.
Here's my original summary for this front.. It's a nice place to start.
The swamp snake cult, centered around the blinded medusa who instead of petrifying her victims, she hypnotizes them and gradually starts turning them into snake cultists. She's not truly blind, because all of the snakes have eyes too, but you get my drift. Heavily based on Cult of the Reptile God combined with some of the early Age of Worms adventures and Lovecraft's story The Shadow Over Innsmouth except with lizards and snakes in a swamp instead of fish on the coast.
Eltdown is a place on my map that stands at the gap between the Knifetop Mountains in the south and the Sabertooth Mountains in the north. While this is "on paper" the border region between the Hill Country and Timischburg, the reality is that neither nation controls, nor even has much interest in the region of Eltdown. It would seem that Eltdown would be a regular trade route between the two, but for a variety of reasons, it's actually not. Rather, there's more traffic up the river through Timischburg to Mittermarkt, and from there across well-traveled overland routes, over some relatively gentle low passes in the southern Sabertooths, skirting around the southern edge of the Haunted Forest and from thence to Barrowmere. This is a change from what I've previously published, where I implied or even stated in vague terms that the Fenroad was the only reliable route; I now consider the Fenroad to be an alternate with an evil reputation; in fact, the Fenroad has fallen in many cases to disuse and disrepair because of the opening of safer routes over lower passes. Eltdown has, therefore become a bit more of a backwater than it already was. There is still some traffic between Barrowmere and the hamlets and towns of southeastern Timischburg on the Fenroad, and some even travel between Barrowmere and Mittermarkt on the Fenroad, but not much. It is—in theory—faster than going over the mountain passes, even if the passes are relatively easy, and certainly in the dead of winter when the passes might be snowed in, the Fenroad is the only good choice, but the Fenroad is known to be dangerous and undesirable. Eltdown itself has a reputation as a grim backwater best avoided, and the Fens have a fell notoriety, and the quality of the road is poor, which could negate whatever benefit there is for crossing the lower road instead of the passes—even in the winter.
The Fens themselves are, of course, soggy and reeking of decay as rotten grasses and sedges gradually turn into peat. Heavy brush, matted grasses, bushes and low-growing or choked out trees are also common, and the Eltdown Fens are infamous for being almost constantly socked in with persistent thick fog. Sullen and unfriendly swampies, of uncertain ethnic origin live in small hamlets along the Fenroad, and even maintain a few stops for travelers, and they have more farmers, hunters, and swampie relatives who live a bit further from the road, but nobody human goes very deep into the fens, and what exactly is lurking in the center is the subject of garbled rumor and legend.
Of course, column #1: The Murder of Alpon von Lechfeld, has its finale in the fens themselves; that's where Otto von Szell and Loriana Stefanescu are hiding out, because they're trying to awaken Bokrug. That's part of what lurks in the center of the swamps; the half-buried city that was destroyed by Bokrug eons ago, and where he still lingers in torpor or hibernation, or death or whatever exactly his status is. But there's more to the fens than just this, and this column highlights more of the dangers of the Fens. Clever or enterprising PCs could even, potentially, get this "cult of the reptile god" and the cultists of von Szell to cross paths; they're not likely to be amicable or happy with each other's agendas, although the PCs would have to put some real effort into actually getting to the "let's you and him fight" solution to dealing with either of them. The cultists do have enough discipline to not jeopardize their agendas fighting another unrelated cult that happens to share geography. But it remains a potential idea for enterprising PCs to even the odds against both cults from both columns (and I still have one more column that will touch on the Fens too; more possibilities!)
Eltdown itself is a pretty sinister place, and many of the people who live there are part of a cult called the Learned Children of Heqet. Heqet is the blind medusa, who in spite of the fact that (because she's been blinded in her main eyes) she can't turn anyone to stone, she can dominate them instead and the dominated gradually start to take on snake traits as the domination fades, so that they become willing cultists. The snakemen also mate with some of the people of Eltdown, and as in Innsmouth of the Lovecraft story, they will eventually, as adults, turn into snakemen, although they first spend time as human-looking, albeit sometimes with funny features. Passers-by attribute these funny-looking features to the ethnically mysterious background of the Eltdowners combined with inbreeding that sometimes happens in small, backwoods places, so the truth is not suspected. In any case, these cultists don't really like strangers much, and most of the rumors about the Fenroad actually are attributable to Eltdown. The PCs might be accosted to be kidnapped and taken before Heqet on the road into or out of Eltdown, or if they look like trouble-makers, they might be accosted at night in their lodgings in town. (I'd give them a chance to escape before being taken to Heqet; that's more of a finale after they've been working the reptile cult for some time.)
Secondly, the PCs might well discover others who have been kidnapped by the snake cult (cult of the reptile god!) Some of them are beyond saving; they've either been too converted into snake people themselves to be savable, or they've been blinded as part of a sacrificial ritual (makes sense for a blind medusa) and temporarily enslaved until they can be killed. Many of these are in town, and I anticipate that there's a lot of work to do to clean up the town, or at least save some of the people in town who aren't already cultists.
Thirdly, some of the smaller villages might be under attack by cultists too, or people have been kidnapped in large numbers, etc. A small swampie village called Rael Kernal could face an all out assault, if you want to just have a good, tense combat. If you want the whole thing to be more sinister than an all out assault, on the other hand, you could have snakes or burrowing snake-men attacking more surreptitiously. Depends on how you need the game to play out at this juncture if you're running it; is a more straightforward defense of a village what you need, or a desperate attempt to root out hidden enemies that you can't see coming? Alien vs Aliens, so to speak. They can also both be done, which would make this block three and four, I guess.
Fourth, and this is the last one of what is a slightly abbreviated column, the PCs would presumably root out the cult by entering the fens, finding Heqet's temple or lair, and killing her. Maybe they do something else with her, but I'm going to assume that by far the most likely result is that's how they handle it. Especially if they've had NPCs that they liked who were blinded or killed, or if they were themselves captured at some point. Most PCs I've known are motivated at least as much by revenge as by anything else.
Maybe there can be a fifth element as an epilogue too; what to do with the cultists? Most of them are irredeemable, many of the captives are maimed; but some of the snake cultists, because of the domination effect of Heqet, are victims rather than monsters. Of course, the PCs might say; "we beat the bad guy; the clean-up is on you now." And they might even have good reasons for doing so, because the rest of the campaign 5x5 of Cult of Undeath isn't sitting around waiting for them to set up the Eltdown Charity or whatever. But I'll leave open the idea that Eltdown has been decimated, and if it's even possible to recover is not clear, without some help or intervention from someone.
I actually kind of like the idea that if the PCs decide that they can't help Eltdown and move on that some other group of NPCs, maybe even my thoroughly despicable anti-PC group, comes in after them, sets something up, and even claims credit for liberating the town. Maybe it will eventually come out that these anti-PCs were allied with Heqet's cult all along. I did mention that they're the worst, right? Terrible, terrible people. I don't actually intend to set them up as an enemy to be confronted in this 5x5, but I still like the idea. When they show up in some other 5x5, if that's what happens, the PCs will automatically hate them.
Otherwise, though, I'll just keep the last box empty for now. I'm sure in play something will suggest itself.
The woodwoses, or 'woses (or simply woses) as they are sometimes called, are an unusual demihuman race in the Dark Fantasy X setting that are the descendants of ancient werewolves. Today, the curse of lycanthropy is very diluted, and isn't really a "curse" per se to most of them; rather, they are simply a race of human-like people that have some unusual characteristics because of the ancestry that they have. This lycanthropic heritage makes them slightly more animalistic; they tend to be somewhat hairy, occasionally bordering on furry, walk with a stoop, but they are strong, have sharp teeth and eyes and ears, a keen sense of smell, and are very adept at the wilderness. In fact, most of them feel uncomfortable spending too much time in urban settings, and they often wander as part of that uncomfortableness.
Woodwoses have no real homelands of their own. By nature, they are unlikely to band together in organizations larger than a modest sized tribe or clan. Maybe of these clans live quiet lives far away from humans or other demihumans in the deep forests that stretch across the Three Realms; the Wolfwood in particular is fairly thick with them, but they also live in the Chokewater Forest, the Garenkarst Woods, and the Bitterwood. Not all of them live in the forests, though—there are tribes in the pinyon/juniper scrublands of the Boneyard. Of course, not all woodwoses live in tribes in the wilderness; the ones that you're actually most likely to encounter are the homesteaders who live in the rural areas, mingled with humanity. The Copper Hills and the Garen Hills in particular have many such woodwose homesteaders, and for the most part they reject the clan life, and are welcomed by their farmer and homesteader neighbors, who value their greater skill in the wilderness when it comes to hunting and providing.
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| Woodwose homesteader couple |
The tribal woodwoses aren't necessarily as friendly, of course. They are rather insulated, by choice, and when they do interact with the outside world, they're often viewed with suspicion or even hostility because of their tendency towards banditry or other hostility towards anyone traveling through their territory. In addition to this, woodwoses are often associated with organized crime in urban areas; there is a long tradition of woodwoses being the "muscle" for cells or pockets of the Chersky Mafia.
This tendency towards wandering and crime means that unknown woodwoses are often looked at askance in communities where they are not known, sometimes most especially by any more settled woodwoses already in the community. They tend to feel that they have worked very hard to integrate themselves into their communities, in spite of being outsiders by race, and don't want anyone coming along and jeopardizing it with bad behavior. However, what many wandering woodwoses do is follow a pretty routine route, and while they may not stay in one place, they are well known by the various communities that they pass through, and their ability to bring news and reports of conditions outside of the community is valued, and their judgement is often trusted.
Deep in the Wolfwood and (allegedly) in the Bitterwood are tribes of woodwoses that have full-blown werewolves as their chiefs or shamans, and they practice strange cults to the Moon and to lycanthropy generally. These are the most feared woodwoses, and some believe that they will kidnap isolated farmers and homesteaders, and those that they don't kill may become infected with werewolfism themselves. Because of this, in Timischburg in particular, and farther to the north, woodwoses are much less likely to be seen positively than in the Hill Country.
Below is a selection of woodwose characters, just to give a better example of what their physical appearance is like
While of course there are many personality types among the woodwoses, there are three stereotypes, and the majority of woodwoses seem to belong to one of these three personalities:
— loners and introverts who have few friends, are quiet and stoic, and prefer to spend their time on isolated homesteads, or even in the wilderness.
— koryos packs, who model their behavior on wolf packs. Somewhat jingoistic and often hostile, these will be drawn to other woodwoses, and see most other people as marks or prey. Many of the urban thugs who work with the Mafia belong to this personality type.
— the final, and most likely to be encountered frequently by hillmen in particular are the loyal seconds; they don't crave leadership, but they crave integration into a community, where they are extraordinarily loyal to the community and strive to be seen as trusted and useful members.
Like all of the demihuman races, woodwoses have a curse that occasionally manifests. In this case, it is a lingering trace of their lycanthropy. During full or nearly full moons, their behavior can occasionally become erratic. They will be at -1 on all d20 checks, except for in combat where they will be a +1. They will also get sick and have further penalties if exposed to (or wounded by) silver. This isn't meant to be a penalty applied universally; in fact, it shouldn't be a factor at all unless you (as GM or player) decide that you want that to be a plot point or conflict to explore; it otherwise happens so infrequently as to not be something that would otherwise need to be defined.
This is maybe a little bit shorter than most of the other Race Deep Dives. In reality, the woodwoses have always lacked the same kind of history as most other races. They aren't a discrete population group, except for some of the tribes deep in the wilderness, but have rather been always drawn out of regular human communities during their origin as werewolves, and even as their werewolf curse started fading, they tended to reintegrate, or remain integrated, as the case might have been, with other human communities. While not always trusted or welcomes, especially in the early days when their association with werewolves made them much more dangerous, they're never had their own homelands, or been completely disassociated with human communities, which means that in many ways there is less to say about them. Even now, their relationship, although maybe not quite as tight as they would like, with the human communities around them defines the woodwoses more than their connection to other woodwoses.
In my last post, I discussed the concept of contacts, some rules for how to deal with them, and offered a few sample ones that would be relevant, especially in the SHADOWS OVER GARENPORT campaign, or the Hill Country overall. Here is a list of several more contacts. Some of these will not necessarily be Hill Country or Garenport centric, and may be OK to take in another campaign, such as CULT OF UNDEATH or MIND-WIZARDS OF THE DAEMON WASTES. Many of them are either important iconic PCs that won't make the cut anymore after the consolidation of iconic PC groups, others are patrons from earlier campaign briefs, and some are NPCs that, assuming that they survive and the PCs develop friendly relationships with them, could be added as contacts during the course of play.
While she could provide actual adventuring support, she's really meant to be a resource available for downtime consultations. She can cast numerous spells, work with all kinds of magic, and provide all kinds of advice and consultation on anything occult-like going on that the PCs might stumble across. Alys is young, pretty, blonde, and looks like a a classic beauty of the Hillman race. However, this is an illusion.
Alys is actually a wight; an undead horror, who happens to be a talented spellcaster as well. She is beholden to a more powerful undead master. However, her loyalties are somewhat divided. In spite of herself, her condition, and her situation, she will become fond of the PCs and will want to see them succeed in their endeavors, and wants to stay with them, even when they eventually become a risk to her master. Although she is beholden to this master, she also hates him, and would not weep if she were freed from her obligation to him.
Well, she's an undead creature. She won't weep anyway. But you know what I mean.
If playing a SHADOWS OVER GARENPORT game, she would be available to the PCs fairly late, but the real exciting drama with Alys would come most likely in the CULT OF UNDEATH campaign; with the assumption that the same PCs would play both campaigns back to back. She's kind of an interesting option for a contact, because she's more of an active NPC than most contacts would be in most respects. She wouldn't be available at character creation, but is a contact that could be found in game, and her level would presumably rise as she spends more time with the PCs and becomes more fond of them over time.
Because of this, Brythe almost never leaves tower in... again, whichever city you need her to be in. She will receive the PCs in the lobby of the tower, if they come to visit her in person, but will probably not show herself, preferring to keep the lobby very darkened, and her physical form hidden behind thick curtains or even a grated door. If she is gained as a contact, however, she doesn't need to be physically present to contact the PCs (or vice versa) she will give the character a small round stone inscribed with a few curious runes. If the character sleeps with this stone in his bedroll, or pocket, or otherwise on his person, he can speak to Brythe (and she to him) in his dreams as needed. If this is done repeatedly, eventually the rune will start to appear as a small mark on the skin of the character, and when it is fully realized, the stone will no longer be needed.
Brythe is a prodigy in sorcery. She can, if convinced, cast spells for the PCs. She can give PCs spells that she believes that they are capable of learning. She can also offer all kinds of advice on occult and magical concerns. Most importantly, as she is constantly looking for a way to reverse her corruption and expand her own power, she will have things that she wants from the PCs, and is a great source of potential side quests and other tasks, which she will barter for with the benefits that she can provide.
Brythe is very bitter about what has happened to her, and this is reflected in her arrogant and angry way of reacting to the world. Unfortunately, she doesn't accept responsibility for her condition, and hates the world, her former teachers, or anyone else who she can rationalize as a person to blame other than herself for her mutations. Or for that matter, anyone she can blame for doing anything wrong or inconvenient for her at all. But she is helpful, if you can tolerate her abrasive personality.
When one of his rash friends was killed in a job gone wrong, he remembered his dream, cashed out with his fences, and traveled in style by coach across the Great Northern Road. He'd barely reached the technical edge of the Hill Country, when his coach was set upon by bandits. Because he was carrying everything he owned, he ended up penniless because of this unfortunate setback, but still—he had skills that he could put to use, and he did to gradually start reacquiring his fortune... although it galled him to now be taking it from what he considered his own people in his own homeland. One night when robbing the wrong house... maybe it turned out to be the right house. The man was a ranger in Barrowmere; an old, venerable, well-connected ranger. And he saw something in Dean that nobody else had. Bannermane found a real job; as a spy; using his skills to help his people rather than take from them. After the initial shock of the change, Dean found that he quite liked the work, and he liked feeling like doing what he was good at was actually doing some good.
Dean can be consulted, if he's your contact, for all kinds of information; politics, the nobility and other important people, crime, and the comings, goings and likely secret intentions of many who come and go. Because his assignment is what it is, he can be found anywhere; much of his best work happens away from the Hill Country, but he can be found there too; albeit Bannermane isn't much of a rural kind of guy. Big cities, where the movers and shakers operate is where he's likely to be.
In a pinch, Bannermane can also part with excellent spy tools. Some very unusual things he can actually go and get that the PCs may not be able to, or be able to afford, due to his past as a cat burgler; a skill that he still has.
Dean keeps a much lower profile than when he was robbed. He's actually fairly wealthy, but he looks like a rather common, plain artisan; extremely non-descript and someone you wouldn't look twice at. He's also extremely talented as an actor, impersonator, and at disguising himself. If Dean himself isn't where the PCs are when they need him, someone who is part of the Ranger spy network who knows him may be, and can either get in touch with him quickly, or provide some portion of what Dean might if he were there.
The fortunes of the de Vend family, needless to say, took a severe downturn from that point on, but Fredegar was able to marshal most of what remained of the properties and valuables, set up his remaining cousins and elderly relations financially who—as near as he could tell—were uninvolved with the Troubles, as he calls them, and have enough for himself. All of the remaining de Vends live much more modestly than they used to, but they are still borderline idle rich, unless they are ambitious enough to take an interest in some enterprise, which many have. Fredegar's own inheritance has often been supplemented by money made by his younger brother in the fur trade, since his brother heartily approves of his mission.
Fredegar is kind of like a traveling knight-errant mixed with the Inquisition. As a contact, he is knowledgeable about geography, and especially nobility and the other wealthy and powerful (he often stays as a guest of former friends of his uncle when traveling). He can be approached for help in terms of items, gear, knowledge, or even first-hand support if one is going up against a supernatural or cultic threat. He is also a strong source of side quests of that type, and he does offer support for such side quests as well. He's a powerful warrior, so he can stiffen many a weaker party of adventurers if absolutely necessary, but he should most often be seen as too busy with his own pursuits to chase down every rumor or assist personally in every mission. Which is exactly why he's often a font of side quests; stuff that he doesn't want to leave unaddressed, but which he doesn't have time to get to himself.
Once characters have Fredegar de Vend as a contact, they may also be able to contact the many branch offices of his cousins mercantile pursuit, drop the famous (among his family business, at least) knight-errant's name and receive some help second hand as well.
Anyway, as I said, Tane is a middle-aged merchant prince, originally from Northumbria. He was engaged to the Grand Duchess Josephina once upon a time, and left Garenport for Barrowmere years ago when it turned out that she was going to marry the Grand Duke instead. He's well connected across the entirety of the Hill Country, but also, as noted above, other lands as well. But outside of the Hill Country, you won't find branch offices, or a representative, or a wagon or caravan route (or docks; those are found on the Darkling Sea and a few river ports only) in smaller communities, only in the major cities.
When Revecca is a contact, this is after that; she has decided that rather than waiting to become a damsel in distress again, that she will take matters into her own hands. Her studies and training have allowed her to become a pseudomage, a safer although much more expensive alternative to being a sorceress or witch.
Because of her history with the PCs, she'll be a very accommodating contact who wants to help them as much as she can, including putting them up, giving them supplies, and maybe even sharing some of her magical items. The problem with Revecca is that she's a little too eager, and wants to come along. She can offer some good help, but she also still needs some looking after; she's pretty young and pretty green still. As well as being just pretty! :)
Wreldane, however, likes to do some of this work "off the books" with talented freelancers. Many of these are themselves former Rangers themselves, but former Rangers still willing to work in the field are few, so much of what needs to be done needs to be people who are unconnected in any way with the Ranger Corps. Wreldane carefully vets potential freelances, but if you have him as a contact, then you are already pre-vetted.
In addition to being a major side-quest source, Wreldane is a font of information on how to successfully fight supernatural threats, as well as a possible source of the gear needed to fight them (silvered weapons, etc.)
You're not likely to talk to Wreldane himself very often; he's older, he has a political/administrative role within the Ranger Corps, and he spends most of his time in Barrowmere, consequently. However, he has many agents, and they identify themselves with a special coin, and he will often send them around to recruit or give information or help to his freelances.
Wreldane is a powerful force within the Hill Country, and while he does occasionally look further abroad, his influence and reach drops off precipitously beyond the borders of the Hill Country.
How to use contacts? By contacts I mean something more than just the idea that a PC has a family, maybe, or friends. Rather, I mean that the PC has professional or personal contacts of enough power, influence, or knowledge to be useful to him in game. Maybe they've got a network that can be accessed in various places, like a criminal mob, or something like that. Maybe the PCs were childhood friends with someone who went on to become an important political or military figure in the kingdom. People who can offer real, substantial aid during the course of a campaign.
It's not in my nature to make overly complex systems of rules, because I greatly dislike doing so. But it is in my nature to come up with handwavey, and simple subsystems that allow players to roll more dice.
So, if a PC wanted to have a contact in his background that could offer meaningful and substantial real aid during the course of the game, how would I do it?
First off, recall that in Dark Fantasy X, a character puts all equipment on his person in one of twenty slots that he has. But these slots don't literally represent "slots" on your person, and there's no paper doll like expectation, like a video game. Spells count as slots, for instance, and if you want to use them, they have to be on your person. Contacts will similarly take item slots, and to be used, have to be "equipped." How many slots a single contact takes represents how "good" of a contact it is, i.e. how successful and likely he is to actually help you in a tough spot. A contact can be a one, two or three slot contact. Depending on how many slots he takes up, that's how many d20s you are able to roll when making a contact check; and of course, you take the highest roll.
The Contact Check When making a contact check, you first need to be able to get in touch with your contact. Contacts are not like Tom Bombadil; you don't get to simply recite a rhyme and have your contact instantly appear to bail you out of trouble. That doesn't mean that contacts need to be difficult to reach either; many contacts, especially two or three slot contacts, can be contacted via dead drop, via a network or agents, etc. and if you can afford to wait a couple of days tops, you'll probably get an answer from your contact.
The DC for a contact check depends on what you're asking. If your contact is some kind of sage, academic, or other holder of obscure and esoteric knowledge, and you want him to translate an ancient text for you, or tell you something about the provenance of an ancient relic, etc. that's probably a modest DC, unless it's something really obscure that your GM doesn't think hardly anyone is likely to know. I'd usually go for a 10-15 or so, with 15 being really obscure.
If you want your contact to give or loan you something spectacularly unusual, rare or precious, like a magic item that you need to overcome the innate magical protections of a daemon, you're probably only going to be successful on a natural 20—and even then, your GM may rule what you're asking is so unreasonable that even a natural 20 will only give you a partial success.
On the other hand, if your character concept is a "pseudomage"; a mechanic who's whole schtick is imitating magic by using magic items rather than taking the risk of casting actual spells, then you probably have a supplier that you can buy from at a more reasonable DC; 15-18 or so, depending on the power of the item, as well as a stiff fee for finding it. For this kind of thing, if you fail, especially by a relatively small margin, you can probably try again a few weeks later.
To make the check, your GM will tell you the DC, which he'll estimate by accounting for what kind of contact you have (is the help you're seeking in his wheelhouse or not?) and how reasonable it is that a contact would actually provide you with what you're asking for. Again, with a DC being between 10 and 25 or even a little more at the high end. Roll a d20 for each slot that the contact takes up, select the highest result, add your character level, and meet or beat the DC to be successful.
How many contacts can you have? As many as you're willing to sacrifice slots for. No contact can be more than a three slot contact, but if you want to have four three-slot contacts and are willing to permanently use 12 slots to do so, knock yerself out. It's highly recommended that if you have more than one contact, that you make them a different kind of contact with a different specialty.
Of course, a more economically viable way to do this is to have different players have different contacts, so no single character has to dedicate too many slots to them. Of course, when the party is looking for help, they better be together, because one character's contact will be meaningless to another character in the party.
Creating Contacts To create a contact, you'll have to work closely with your GM. For GMs, it may actually be prudent to get a handful of index cards and create contacts in advance that PCs could choose, or at least use as a model. This way, you can be sure that nobody is creating a contact that isn't appropriate for the type of campaign you're looking to run.
Contacts need the following information to be useable:
- Level (i.e., how many slots does he take, 1-3. This more reflective of the closeness of the relationship between the contact and the character, but some contacts who are more limited in the scope of what they can offer may not be able to rise about 1st or 2nd level.
- Name, race, a few other distinguishing features.
- Area of expertise or specialty
- Where is he to be found, usually, and if he's not there (or if the PCs are somewhere else) how can he be contacted? Note; not every contact can be reached from everywhere. A contact with a political career in Garenport can be reached easily in Garenport itself, without too much trouble elsewhere in Northumbria, and with some possible delays anywhere else in the Hill Country, but if you're far away from the Hill Country, he probably can't be reached at all. (In which case, he probably isn't a very good candidate for a viable contact in a campaign that takes place somewhere other than the Hill Country.)
- A quirk or two of personality, including maybe something that he'd be especially willing to help with, and something that he'd be reluctant to help with. Or maybe he wants PCs to do something for him before rendering his help, etc.
I've created a few example contacts. In fact, as I've decided slowly that I wanted to merge my iconic PCs, I thought it might make sense for the unused iconics to turn into contacts instead. But I have some other NPC characters here that I always intended to be helpful contact-like characters from the get-go.
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| Alpon von Lechfeld |
Von Lechfeld is an older, middle-aged man, who has a dispensation from various authorities to study things would otherwise be illegal for most. His knowledge of the occult, necromancy, daemonology, and the forbidden is prodigious, although he himself is no necromancer or daemonologist. Rather, he's occasionally offered his services to various organization, such as the Shadow Rangers, the pursuit of rooting out these baleful influences. He studies them with an eye towards protecting his people from them.
Von Lechfeld tends to be friendly and polite, if closed off and quiet. His eyes get hard and he will go out of his way to help anyone who is on the track of a vampire, but he clams up and will often send away anyone who brings an influence who he believes might threaten his daughter.
Von Lechfeld holds forth in his manor outside Cockrill's Hill, a town in the eastern end of the Copper Hills in the Northwoodshire section of Southumbria, but he still travels a fair bit consulting his colleagues, or otherwise doing research, and he can be found sometimes when needed in any urban area in the Hill Country, or even the eastern part of Timischburg, where he still maintains contacts. Sometimes dropping his name in an academic setting can be as good as talking with him personally, as people who know him, or know him by reputation may be willing to help a friend of his. When he's not readily available, he can be reached by messenger bird (pigeons being the most commonly used, but occasionally specially trained ravens, usually an NPCs animal companion) or by express post, a service throughout the Hill Country that's somewhat similar to the old Pony Express.
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| Drancent Hewe |
Drancent is best consulted when one needs knowledge about something that is hard to find anywhere else, especially about history or geography. When the PCs need to find anything that they can about some lost artifact, city, powerful relic belonging to an ancient historical figure, etc. Hewe is their man.
Hewe is a Zobnan grayman, and a confirmed bachelor, although he's still only in early middle age (because of the pale coloration of graymen in general and their white hair in particular, they sometimes look older than they are anyway.) He's in good shape, but he is somewhat indolent in his habits. He can sometimes be more easily persuaded by someone who brings him a fine wine, exotic cigar, or who buys him a very fine meal first. He's a snappy dresser in finery that looks a bit exotic, but would otherwise be fit for what most people imagine nobility dresses like. In spite of all this, he's not averse to some real adventure, and if you have a really exciting (to him) thing that you're looking for, he could even be convinced to come with as a guide or on site expert. Although he'll probably pack way too many clothes and require his own packhorse (or two) for all of his luxuries.
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| Shule |
In addition to being an informant about what's going on in the criminal underworld, Shule is also an important liaison between the PCs and potentially all kinds of other criminals and the services that they might offer; smugglers, black-marketers, fences, protection, and more. However, if it's the Chersky Mafia that you're trying to get information on, the only thing Shule will give you is whatever intel can be used to discomfit them. He hates the Chersky Mafia with an abiding passion, and isn't super keen on any kemlings at all, frankly, whether they're related to the Chersky Mafia or not. This can occasionally get the PCs in trouble, if Shule's prejudice against the Cherskies causes the PCs to be seen as enemies of them as well.
Shule has a rat that he always keeps with him, and he's rarely seen without it perched on his shoulder, or resting in one of his pockets. Sometimes he holds it up on his wrist and speaks to it. Some who know him believe that the rat is actually the eyes and ears of Shule's outfit, and that somehow he is able to communicate what he sees back to Shule, which explains his preternatural street smarts. Others, of course, think that this is superstitious nonsense.
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| Oisin Dughall |
Oisin's support to potential PC activities can be quite varied. There are fewer experts with more knowledge of the backwoods and backcountry of the Hill Country than Oisin, and he can be consulted about what happens and what's to be found outside of settled areas, where his advice and knowledge is second to none. Where he can be even more helpful, though, is that because he's always on the move anyway, it's not hard to convince him to travel with the PCs for a short time, offering his expertise freely. Any time travel rolls are made through the Appendix travel system with Oisin in the group, treat such rolls as effectively +5 due to his expert knowledge of the geography. He's rarely lost, he makes good time across the wilderness, and he's an expert at finding food as well as avoiding trouble from other travelers, wildlife, or anything else that you might find in the wilderness. He's also a fierce fighter when he needs to be. However, he'll never stay with the PCs for long; a few days to maybe a week or two tops—and less if they are heading into a town, city or even a village for more than a night, or if they are magnets for trouble getting involved in all kinds of combat with all kinds of things.
Oisin is friendly to those he knows, but always chary, with everyone. His eyes dart around carefully, he rarely looks you in the eyes, he often stops and ignores you, even mid conversation, as he listens for something beyond you; in short, he always behaves paranoid.
——( † )——
That's enough for now. The post is long enough and it's getting late in the evening. When I come back for part II, I won't have more rules, but I'll have probably half a dozen more example contacts, some taken from NPCs in the campaign(s) and others as former iconics who didn't make the cut when I reorganized the iconic parties.
Let's annotate my new SHADOWS OVER GARENPORT map, shall we? Most of the important locations are detailed a little bit in the 5x5 supercut, or the original posts, but I'll briefly mention them here too, as well as the other areas that are either newly labeled, or which the 5x5s don't assume the PCs will get to, just for background info.
As noted in the last post, this is ~95% or so of the Hill Country. Technically there's an expansion region just to the west of this map, with some ranches and homesteads on the western slopes of the Sabertooth Mountains, in the so-called Cactus Balds dry foothills. That said, there isn't anything developed there from my point of view yet other than that there are dry foothills called the Cactus Balds between the Sabertooth Mountains and the Boneyard desert basin, and that hillmen settlers live thinly in said hills, so you're not missing much. The Boneyard, the Indash Salt Sea, and the northern attachments to the Baal Hamazi section of the map (really Lower Kurushat in this case) would be to the northwest of this section of the map, and Timischburg is to the southwest, west of the Knifetop Mountains. I've never mapped out anything to the north, east or south of this, but Hyperborea would (eventually) be found north of here, Gunaakt would (eventually) be found to the south, and "the Old Country" lands where the hillmen and Timischers ancestors ultimately came from are somewhere vaguely to the east, including Normaund, Skeldale, Carlovingia, Culmerland and Brynach.
Some of those areas are out of scope for the entire setting, and while they'll be vaguely referenced, I'll never do any development of them at all. And, of course, some of them will be further developed in the next two campaign plans, as I make them.
Northumbria This is one of the two largest component areas of the Hill Country, and mostly falls under the political and social orbit of the large city Garenport. The Umber River is considered the dividing line between Northumbria and Southumbria overall, although once the river empties into Waychester Bay it doesn't quite work that way anymore; Northumbria also contains the Garenkarst Peninsula down to the southern edge of the two bays of the Darkling Sea.
Southumbria This is the other major component area of the Hill Country, and is similarly under the influence of its biggest city, Barrowmere, on the shores of the large Lake Byewick. Whereas the elites of Northumbria recall the privileged position of nobility and royals in the courts of the Old Countries and look to recreate them somewhat, the Southumbrians are more dedicated culturally to the flatter, less hierarchical society that the hillmen have always enjoyed since leaving the Old Countries. Important landed gentry, successful merchants, artisans, and political leaders, etc. certainly have more influence than others, but in theory, there is nothing preventing anyone from reaching those ranks if they're hard working, ambitious and a little lucky, so they resist the self-styled Grand Duke of Garenport and his ambitions to unite the Hill Country into a Hill Kingdom with himself as the first king, driving an important political wedge between an otherwise united hillmen people.
Wolfwood Serving effectively as the northern edge of the developed setting, and a formidable barrier to travel further north, the Wolfwood is largely trackless, gigantic, full of dangerous wildlife, monsters, bandits and savages, and more. It represents the epitome of dangerous and untamable wilderness, and PCs wandering under its outer eaves will find that it shares features with Tolkien's Mirkwood, The Old Forest, Fangorn Forest, and the great Black Forests of Germanic mythology which were an effective boundary to their known world in the earliest Middle Ages.
Great Bight An area that is having some very tentative settlement by hillmen looking to escape the crowds and politics of the south. This is a combination of a natural bight in the woods, along with some felling of trees and clearing of land to expand it slightly. There aren't as yet any reliable roads, villages or towns in this area, but it's not completely unsettled either, and if wandering this area, you'll find it a mix of open wilderness and small homestead farmers of hardy hillmen.
East Marches While Northumbria and Southumbria are the two main regions of the Hill Country, there are two smaller and less culturally significant smaller regions too, the East and West Marches. The East Marches are north and east of the Darkling Sea. Cayminster is a significant port city that serves as a kind of gateway to the East Marches, although its still aligned with Garenport, and is considered part of Northumbria proper. The real center of the "movement" if you will of the East Marches is Burlharrow, a modest city or largish town with a fairly independent minded populace that is both still somewhat dependent economically on trade with Garenport (through Cayminster) yet also more and more resentful of its influence, and pulling away from it in ways that they can.
Woodrow's Hamlets A new settlement that the Sovereign faction in Burlharrow is encouraging growth in. Mostly its disaffected Northumbrians, leaving their cities behind, who are driving the settlement of this fairly clement and fertile farmland on the eastern shores of the Darkling Sea. But some of their own Marcher people are relocated to this area, as well as Southumbrians and others, and it is a place to watch for future development.
Darkling Sea A very large freshwater sea, comparable in size to the Great Lakes; the main body being more or less Lake Superior sized, while the Waychester Bay and Waybight are respectively like an attached Lake Huron and Lake Michigan hanging down from it. Because it's a more Western themed lake, it's not meant to imply that it would look like Michigan or Ontario, simply that that's about the size it is. The water is warmer than the Great Lakes. Maybe prehistoric Lake Bonneville would be a better comparison, or an extra large Black Sea during the Ancient Greece period. The water is fresh, not too cold, full of fish, and not overly stormy, making it a fairly reliable and fast thoroughfare relative to traveling by land around it. Most of the cities, towns and sleepy fishing villages on it are hillmen in nature, owing fealty or at least a tributary relationship to either Northumbria or Southumbria, but Lomar is the big exception.
Chersky Island A previously abandoned island on the Darkling Sea. Relatively large, capable of supporting a number of small villages, it had been largely ignored by the hillmen except for a handful of hermits or loners, and even Kurushat and Baal Hamazi when they swept over the area in the past did little with it (the Hamazin built a few forts, but they were only occupied for relatively few years). More recently, orcling refugees have petitioned the various local governments to be allowed to settle on it so that they wouldn't bother the locals as they migrated northwards by forming ghettoes or other hot spots for unrest among the hillmen, and now there are several small villages of orclings who farm, fish and otherwise keep to themselves, attempting to build an independent new nation in the region.
Cayminster An important trading city on the northern shores of the Darkling Sea. It's pretty bustling, and serves as "the gateway to the East Marches" not to mention anyone else who traffics for any reason in the northern reaches of the sea. As well as being an important port city, it's also a major hub on the Eastern portion of the Great Northern Road. It is almost completely hillmen in ethnicity, and has close political and social ties with Garenport.
Burlharrow As mentioned above in the East Marches entry, Burlharrow is the hub and center of activity for the entire East Marches region, which is politically and socially kind of a break-away region, refusing to bend the knee to the elites of Garenport, yet still needing them economically.
Lomar Another important city on the northwestern edge of the Darkling Sea. Although many hillmen live here as an important plurality, it is really a city of the graymen, fleeing the wreck of Old Hyperborea. The original arrivals, settlers and founders of the city were from the civilized city-state of Zobna within Hyperborea. The Zobnans are friendly with the hillmen, welcoming many of them in their city (and many of them traveling, trading and otherwise traipsing across the Hill Country in turn) and the culture of Lomar has become largely syncretic; many Hillmen customs, political ideas, and even fashions have become second-nature to the Zobnans of Lomar. However, there is also a more recently arrived plurality of Old Hyperboreans from the city-state of Nyx, and they are much more jingoistic, and unwilling to assimilate to hillmen customs, or even Zobnan customs, causing a great deal of social and political conflict in Lomar. See the graymen racial deep dive for more information (note that I wrote that before I adopted the name of graymen, so I still call them just Hyperboreans.)
Calak A notorious orcling pirate haven on Chersky Island
Barion, Wrynn, Edenna and Roclus Peaceful (mostly) villages of orcling farmers and fishers on Chersky Island.
Kavust Prairie A wide expanse of fairly dry grassland stretching far to the east of the Darkling Sea. Sometimes called the Great Eastern Desert (although desert in this case shouldn't be taken too literally; think of the Great Plains prior to the advent of windmill driven wells, making the land unsuitable for much of anything except buffalo hunting) it presents a formidable barrier to travel to the east. Although the founders of the the Hill Country and even the elite class of Timischburg originally came from the east, they did so in generations past when the climate was a little wetter and cooler, making travel more manageable. As the Kavust Prairie has become drier, it is nearly impossible to cross easily. Dry electrical storms, lightning strikes and wildfires are common deep in the prairie. Dangerous wildlife and reputed haunted sections make it even worse. It's been many years since regular immigrants from the Old Countries crossed over to the Three Realms.
Great Northern Road An ancient highway built before the arrival of the hillmen that travels all the way from Burlharrow to Vuukrat and beyond to the shores of the sea in Baal Hamazi, built and otherwise maintained by the Hamazin and Kurushat empires, it originally went only as far as Lomar. The extension from Lomar to Cayminster is relatively newly built; for many years traffic between the two was done rather by ship (and much of it still is.) This new section is still somewhat primitive compared to the paved stone ancient sections of the road. The road from Cayminster to Burlharrow is now considered the easternmost extent of the Great Northern Road, but in reality, that road existed already before the connection between Lomar and Cayminster was built, so it got "grandfathered" into the Great Northern Road designation by fiat. In reality, this section is better maintained and more heavily traveling than the preceding section between Lomar and Cayminster. However, as the threat of orcling piracy on the Darkling Sea has become more serious, more and more merchants and travelers are preferring the road to the sea, so traffic has seen an uptick in recent years.
Only the eastern half of the Great Northern Road shows up on this map, of course, but it extends considerably farther to the west.
Plateau of Leng This mysterious geographic feature is more than just an imposing physical feature, it is also a magnet for queerness and dark sorcery, and evil people and things have been known to live there since time immemorial. Luckily, they are mostly content to stay high up on their plateau, so little is known about this place, other than to avoid it. In any case, it doesn't feature in the campaign, so I'll not elaborate too much on it here, other than to point out that it is known to be inhabited by cannibals, ghouls, and even more foul creatures. Although not shown on this map, the benighted city of Kadath of the Great Ones is located here, and the infamous Vale of Pnath; a deep cleft on the top of the plateau.
Bucknerfeld Built around and even within the caldera of an old extinct volcano at the northern edge of the Sabertooth Mountains, and close to the salt flats where once the shore of the receding Indash Salt Sea (to the west of this map) came, Bucknerfeld is another fairly cosmopolitan city. Although currently considered a hillman expansion settlement, its position on the Great Northern Road means that leftovers from the Hamazin and Kurushat empire still linger here too. It is the most important (and most northerly, so far) city of the West Marches, which mostly extend south of here along the Cactus Balds, foothills of the Sabertooth Mountains on the western slopes.
Sabertooth Mountains A large mountain range, similar to parts of the Rockies or Alps that separates the Hill Country from the lands to the west of it (except see Bucknerfeld above.) Rough, difficult to travel through or even to, they are an imposing and effective barrier to the west, with few passes, all of which are difficult to find and cross. However, to both the north and south of the range, the land is lower, and the Great Northern Road passes just to the north of the range, and the Fenroad that crosses through Eltdown connects Southumbria to Timischburg.
Goldenwold A grassy prairie that is mostly unsettled, although large tracts of farmlands on either side of the Umber River is growing year by year across it. As of now, it's mostly a barren big game land notable for large herds of buffalo, wild horse, and antelope, as well as the red cheetahs, red lions, sabertooths, cougars, bears, wolves, coyotes, and other predators that hunt them. Many hunters also come to take the enormous ivory tusks of the naked mammoths and hairy mastodons that still roam this territory as well, prompting some of the landed gentry in the area to push for some control of the territory so that they're not over-hunted.
Umber River The largest river of the region, providing irrigation to the farmlands between the Goldenwold and the Copper Hills, as well as the technical boundary between the regions of Northumbria and Southumbria—although the rural inhabitants of this region tend to care less about the politics of Barrowmere and Garenport, and don't particularly consider themselves overly loyal to either. In fact, many of them are somewhat impatient and exasperated with the political division between the two halves of their people, and believe that it should be done away with, and the Hill Country go back to being a united nation of one hillmen people. The river itself is not navigable, due to rapids, waterfalls, and an extended wooded area that is dangerous to cross, so few major settlements have sprung up along its sides as of yet.
Tazitta Hills An area of drier badlands, where hillmen are generally not welcome. The inhabitants, such as there are, of this area are leftover Tazitta tribesmen (hence the name) who were still here in scattered small bands when the hillmen arrived; although rumors of their ancient more powerful and prosperous polities of the past suggest that they were once a much more widespread and powerful and civilized people than the rump end of their populace that was left for the hillmen to discover.
Copper Hills An important part of the northernmost part of Southumbria, squeezed between the forests and the Umber River, the Copper Hills is an important source of mining for the Hill Country. In spite of the name, iron is more plentiful here than copper (although copper was found first, and is what first drew miners to the area) and even silver and gold mines have occasionally been found here, although generally believed to be mostly played out now. Two important towns anchor both ends of the hills; Pineytop and Cockrill's Hill, although many other smaller hamlets, villages and minor settlements are scattered throughout the hills. Both are a little bit more ethnically mixed than is normal for hillmen settlements, as in the past many orcs were employed as manual labor by the early miners. Many of these have moved on for Chersky Island, but a number still remain. It's also one of the places where woodwoses are more prone to gather in the Hill Country, and many were there before hillmen settlement had expanded very much. And, of course, many people of mixed hillmen and Tazitta blood live in the area, since the forest has lingering tribes of the secretive and clannish Tazitta people still wandering them in whatever numbers yet remain.
Waller's Grove, Roan's Mill, Rettersville and Benchley are all smaller towns nestled in the farmlands between the Copper Hills, the Umber River and the Waychester Bay. This area is collectively called the Northwoodshire, which I didn't have space to label on this map, and is an important part of the second column of the 5x5. Although on the northern edge of Southumbria, it is very typically Southumbrian; landed gentry own large tracts of land, worked by tenant farmers and small villages of artisans, traders, and other support staff, while away from these large plots, many independent smaller homesteaders make a riskier, yet potentially more profitable and certainly more independent living. As you get to the northern part of the Northwoodshire, the grassland is drier and less fertile, and traditional farming gives way to cattle (mostly) ranching. In spite of the independence of the homesteaders, they are friendly with the sharecroppers and landed gentry, because the Tazitta and others are not always peaceful, and a strong united hillman front is sometimes required for mutual protection.
Waychester Bay A major part of the Darkling Sea that swings deeply south on the west side of the Garenkarst Peninsula. Heavily traveled, and a major hub of trade between Northumbria and Southumbria.
Waybight A major part of the Darkling Sea that swings mostly south on the east side of the Garenkarst Peninsula. It is only lightly settled, and no significant towns exist on its shores.
Garenkarst Peninsula A large peninsula that is associated with Northumbria and Garenport in particular, in spite of its relatively southwards position. A (poor) road connects Garenport to eastern Southumbria across this peninsula, although by far most such traffic is by boat. Although green and covered in trees, this isn't very arable land, made up of rocky and steep limestone karst hills. Some few small settlements and homesteads are on the peninsula, though, as well as small herds of cattle, sheep and horses. The peninsula is also where many from the Garenport area go for game meat, which is plentiful here. The road is notorious for bandits which harry small groups or single travelers.
Garenkarst Woods The thickets part of the forest on the peninsula is the Garenkarst Woods. There are many possibly spurious stories told about witches in these woods. The portion called the Garenkarst Woods is more rolling rather than steep, but in reality the Garenkarst Woods and the Garen Hills are more a question of degree rather than clear separation.
Garen Hills The drier part of the hills that are steeper, rockier, and have fewer trees are traditionally called the Garen Hills, but as noted above, there isn't really a clear separation between the Garen Hills and and the Garenkarst Woods; the more easterly part is simply lower and less rocky and has thicker tree covering than the western part.
Garenport One of two of the largest and most important cities in the Hill Country, Garenport is the political and social center of Northumbria, and the self-styled Grand Duke who claims sovereignty over all of Northumbria lives here. His wealth and power extends to some degree throughout all of Northumbria and even beyond, although how well his subjects actually recognize his right to govern them varies considerably (although to be fair, where there is more skepticism of that right, it's a moot point, because that is usually the more rural and far-flung parts of the region anyway.) Garenport is more traditional in many ways, and looks back to the privilege of the nobles of the Old Countries, and seeks to replicate them in the Hill Country, whereas the character of the hillmen is somewhat skeptical of that entire concept; many of their ancestors having fled the Old Countries generations ago specifically to not be told what to do by self-important nobility. Garenport, as you can imagine, features heavily in the 5x5 for SHADOWS OVER GARENPORT, especially in the first column, and more information about goings-on in the city can be found in the 5x5 posts.
Chokewater Forest A large forest region that separates the Northwoodshire from the more southern part of Southumbria (sometimes flippantly called the Southwoodshire.) Although thick and overgrown, this isn't a particularly dangerous forest; and I mean that relatively. There are no large number of ghosts and hauntings, no werewolves, thurse tribes, woodwoses, necromancers, or other inordinate hazards; just thick woods, and potentially dangerous wildlife and bandits. It's still avoided, but mostly because it's difficult to get through (and the mundane hazards may be mundane, but will still ruin your day) meaning that there's only a fairly narrow corridor between the forest and the bay to travel from the south to the Northwoodshire. This constricted travel corridor is part of what causes the Northwoodshire to have a unique personality; it is relatively isolated and insulated from cultural or political problems or influences related to the rivalry between Barrowmere and Garenport. The Chokewater River runs through the forest, often running at various rates of flow, so that sometimes it's a little babbling brook over rounded stones, while other times it spreads in vast wetlands through the trees, making it another hazard of travel. To the western edge of this forest, the ground rises and becomes rockier, until it becomes literally a small mountain range, called the Chokewater Range (not labeled, but clearly marked). The tops of some peaks peek (no pun intended) out above the trees, but mostly they are completely blanketed by the forest. On the western slopes, however, the Chokewater Forest takes on a much more sinister nature, and this part of the vast woods is called the Haunted Forest.
Chokewater River See above. Running from the Chokewater Mountains, it passes through the Chokewater Forest, where you can easily see where it got its name. A small stub of it runs out of the forest across the cleared land and into the southern Waychester Bay. Here, an old stone bridge allows traffic to travel safely across the river along the road that connects the main part of Southumbria to the Northwoodshire.
Haunted Forest Read the full write-up here, but otherwise, I've copied and pasted (with some small edits to bring it up to date) the important part as follows: The territory of the Hill Country, up to at least the borders of what is today Timischburg, was probably first settled by early ancestors of the Wendaks. Some few still live deep in the Haunted Forest and other remote areas of the territory, but it is here that their touch is the least disturbed. Cursed burial grounds, sacrificial altars, barrows and more leave their lingering taint on the ground, and there is a rumor that "sympathetic magic" ties the Wendaks to the land in a way that it does not for other peoples; the land itself, and some kind of genius loci favors them and occasionally actively fights against more recent interlopers. In addition to a kind of vaguely defined genius loci haunting the region and making modern peoples uncomfortable deep in the forest, lingering semi-sentient spirits either cursed Wendaks or those whom they summoned in ancient times still linger, worn down to being little more than vague emotional resonances of hate and defensiveness, but which can occasionally embody themselves in bodies of earth and wood and stone, animate ill will in the animals and trees and brambles, or even appear as wraiths or wights of some kind. These spirits are not organized by anything other than a general animus towards anything in the forest that is not Atlantean, and they are usually essentially mindless, possessing no thought, but only emotions such as hate and rage.
Evil empires of kemlings and surturs washed over the territory in the past as well. They built fortresses and waypoints and roads, some of which still linger in the forest, and the evil influence of their sorceries still taint the territory around them. The kemlings were descendants (in distant generations) from daemonic ancestors, and they used their dark magic to "burn out" pockets of resistance against the Wendaks. While the genius loci of the forest has re-encroached on this territory to some degree, the curse of much of what the kemlings built still is there.
The modern population is not cursed or evil, of course, but their ability to have "settled" the forest is limited. They have been more successful where they've cleared it, and turned it into farmland, and torn down the stones of whatever menhirs and henges or crumbling fortresses of the past might have been still there. This has only happened to a small degree around the very fringe of the forest.
The latest to enter the forest, however, have been various dark sorcerers, witches and worse who, being driven out of civilized society, have sought refuge in the forest and established their own small, haunted demesnes deep in the woods. Many of these are necromancers, or wizards who speak with other spirits besides the dead; strange fey spirits, or even daemons.
Therefore, the haunted forest has layers of hauntings, many of which are actually in open competition with each other.
Pickton One of the few settlements just outside of the forest, nestled in the arms of the western Chokewater Mountains, but south of the wide expanse of trees. Pickton is a lumber town, and provides much of the wood that makes its way to Barrowmere and beyond.
Lake Byewick A large freshwater lake, on the shores of which is Barrowmere, the political and cultural center of Southumbria. Some other towns are on other portions of the lake, but it is not necessary to travel by boat; the lake is large, but a modest coach ride will get you to the far side and to Willow Springs or Omsbury without too much trouble.
Barrowmere So named because of the ancient Kinzassalian barrows and marshes that surrounded Lake Byewick when the hillmen first arrived. This fertile land quickly grew in population, and today Barrowmere is one of the largest cities in all of the Hill Country, and rival to Garenport. As Garenport is the center of Northumbria, Barrowmere is the beating heart of Southumbria. Ruled by an elected Lord Mayor, the city is heavily focused on trades, crafts and artisanal industry, and powerful guilds, merchants or self-made wealthy hold sway. In fact, there's often ill-disguised contempt for the pretentions of the elites of the north, who claim to be nobles.
Omsbury A smaller city on the north shore of Lake Byewick. It is connected by a fairly direct road to Pickton, and lots of lumber and timber traffic on great wagons goes up and down this road. Omsbury processes some of this lumber, and has a thriving furniture industry. Many other logs are placed directly from the docks into the lake and poled along south to Barrowmere.
Willow Springs A market town on the eastern side of the lake, a little off the beaten path. It's become also a quaint resort town, and many wealthy merchants and politicians from Barrowmere keep luxurious cottages on the shores here
Knifetop Mountains Very steep and sharp mountains that, among other things, provide a barrier between the Hill Country and Timischburg in the southern edge. There are few passes, and most are out of the way and as difficult to even reach as they are to cross.
Eltdown A backwards and surly town on the edge of the fens. Important mostly because the only reliable road between Southumbria and Timischburg passes through the gap (the Fenroad mentioned above) between the Knifetop Mountains to the south and the Sabertooth Mountains to the north. However, travelers are cautioned to stay on the road, as the fens themselves have an evil reputation. The people of Eltdown don't have any particular loyalty to the Hill Country or Timischburg, and may be partly hybrid in their blood, although others claim that they are the remains of an even more ancient people that lingers. I have an older but still mostly accurate larger write-up of this location here.
Eltdown Fens Dark and foreboding swamps, fens and marshes that linger in the broad and vast hollow between the two imposing mountain ranges to the north and south. It is rumored that it was once a lake which has been slowly being overgrown and reverting to swampland. It is also rumored that a fell city of some ancient evil people lurks yet deep in the marsh, although if anyone has found it, they have not brought back any report of it. People generally avoid the fens, and those who do not are seen suspiciously as likely witches or sorcerers, meddling in things that they should not. The suspicious Eltdowners occasionally get overzealous if they hear of anyone wishing to explore the fens, and simply lynch them before they can bring more trouble down on the heads of the town.
Chatterwash River (North and South Fork) A river that flows eastward from the Knifetop Mountains. The southern fork continues south out of the reckoning of the hillmen, but the north fork fails and dumps into a gigantic mire. Fertile farmland covers the land between the two forks, and feeds much of the lands between the Thursewood in the south and the Haunted and Chokewater Forests in the north.
Chatterwash Mire The ignominious end of the north fork of the Chatterwash River. A strange collection of outlaws and secretive cultists live deep in the swamp, making it dangerous to traverse except in large groups, especially at night. These people have a preternatural affinity to their terrain, and few even see them. They are superstitiously rumored to be unable to speak except in the calls of birds and animals, and to live exclusively on the blood of human (and demihuman) victims but these tales are not true. Probably.
Burham's Landing This town, more than most, is put off by the political conflict between Northumbria and Southumbria, since the majority of their livelihood is facilitating trade and travel between the two along the Waychester Bay. Travelers are a common sight on the street, and the people are fairly open and don't like to take sides.
Roanstead A smaller town that's a satellite, of sorts, to Burham's Landing. Nestled near the Thursewood Forest, it is also a garrison town, and Fort Roanstead is the original reason for the founding of the town. The training facility for the Hill Country Rangers is here. Northumbria isn't thrilled by that, but the Rangers have steadfastly refused to get involved in politics, and refuse to bow to either the power base of Garenport or Barrowmere either one.
Thursewood Forest A deep, dark and vast forest, notorious for the presence of the thurses that gave it it's name; bestial, savage humanoids that are generally believed to be unable to reasoned with or lived with at all. A generation ago, a large force of violent thurses attacked and burned down Rabb's Hill, which had been a thriving town before that. The fire ended up burning out of control and a large stretch of the forest remains an obvious burn area, with blackened dead trees and blackened ground, lightly covered with new growth. The thurses were themselves caught in their own blaze, and many died in the forest fire. The rallying Southumbrians killed or chased off the rest of them, and the thurses have been quiet since. Most believe that their numbers are greatly reduced since the Rabb's Hill Massacre, and that they are relatively powerless deep in the eaves of the forest.
Rabb's Hill A smaller settlement of brave and hardy souls is trying to rebuild Rabb's Hill, but it is a new venture, and remains both poor and poorly defended.
Orcling Trail The route that orcling refugees take from their homeland of Gunaakt to the north. Most of those that travel this trail are making for the Chersky Island far to the north, and have yet many leagues to travel.
Ruins of Dunsbury Mostly just for the GM's reference. The Southumbrian column of the 5x5 has the PCs seeking an ancient gold idol hidden in the remains of a crumbling villa called Dunsbury near the Orcling trail.
Grym's Tower Mostly just a reference for the GM. Few people in the Hill Country remember the name of Jareth Grym, and of those, even fewer know his current whereabouts or activity, thinking him just an old bogeyman or serial killer story from a prior generation.
