The Lost Leagues / The Shadow Pearl

[Two orcs]

No! The people in the Pearl are not an allegory. The situation is inherently untenable. Being cut off and predated the population shrinks year by year. Eventually all trees (except the Ghost Trees?) have been felled, and the Pearl if placed in darkness will have the crops wither. Even werewolves (or especially werewolves) can starve and the Pearl shatters at the death of the Baron and The Lost Leagues reappear in the world - a mysterious and sad place!

An easy solution is vassalizing the Baron, allowing a trickle of trade or even new colonizers to enter. The (evil) status quo is upheld. But slaying the tyrant is not a fruitless effort (though some peasants will develop misplaced nostalgia thinking back to the simpler times of The Curse).

 

[Two orcs]

Hex borders:
River - swimming breaks track if go upstream or downstream, passeble by wolves not knights
Subtype: Ford, narrow crossing
Cliff face - impassable by wolves and knights, thief + rope ladder optimal solution
Glass - border of realm, outside distorted but can be interpreted by long observation, weeps water

Hexes:
Woods - slows knights, visibility only if adjacent
Subtype: Ghostwood - wails when intruded by anyone, interaction with trees dangerous
Subtype: Logging - visible from three hexes, lumberjacks present will fight wolves
Settled - Peasants, visible from far height or if unobstructed, peasants will join fight vs wolves cower from knights
Subtypes: Farmstead, Pasture (abandoned, overgrowing), Tar production
The Hamlet - Abandoned buildings, smithy, crazy stay-behinder, barricades (wolves howl to knights if shut out)
The Keep - See detailed map

Overview: From heights see all of a valley (give players terrain map for adjacent zone)

 

[Two orcs]

The Ghost Wood
The spirits of the dead are unable to find afterlife and are caught by growing trees. They manifest as distorted bark faces, sometimes several per tree, and cluster in groves. Such trees wail and whisper at the sight of people or animals, saying aloud what or who they see (if they knew their name in life). This sound carries far over open areas but is dampened if it has to travel through two hexes (880 yards) of woods. Stumps of burnt out torches will be found planted by certain trees as relatives of the dead will come and keep them company and honor them.

If a face is approached roll reaction as normal. Unless friendly the eyes will start to glow and if the gaze it met a sinister empathy will overcome people (unless save versus spells, protection from magic or a psychopathic character). They will relieve the final moments of the trapped spirit, roll on the table below (incomplete)
1. Sickness - Gasping Death in pneumonia till one night of bedrest, Cure Disease heals
2. Logging accident - 1d6 hours in moderate pain from imagined bleeding or crushing injury, move ½ speed can take no actions - healing magic cures
3. Starvation during a year of night - 7 days of terrible hunger, refuse to eat food as dream vision makes it seem like human flesh, sawdust or other repulsive or inedible thing - force feeding results in spewing - Magically created or purified food edible
4. Ridden down and slain by knight - Quick death - Learn face of particular Knight, 1,400 xp awarded if personally get revenge on that individual
5. Torn apart by wolves - 1d6 minutes paralyzed in horror and pain, when facing wolves treat as hit by Fear spell
6. Crucified as rebel - 1d6 days paralyzed arms wide in anguish with stigmata, get good intelligence on the Baron and the Knights who watch your death with glee - Healing magic interrupts process

 

[squeen]

@Beoric I always imagine your post read in a very saturnian voice. Don't you ever let yourself get carried away by your passions?

I also like that @Two orcs won't let his vision be swayed.

These a funny sort of yin-yang for me with the public D&D spaces...even all the products Bryce reviews. If I absorb too many, my personal creativity goes in the toilet. It feels like everything has already been done, and that everything is commonplace.

...and yet, sometimes things I read about D&D (theory---as opposed to actual adventures) that get me pumped, and make me want to write more. But often don't lead immediately to anything concrete.

Then there's this third state, when an idea just catches you and takes you places you didn't expect. It just wants OUT. That's the only really productive state (and the best). Something it takes the pressure of an impending game to break the Writer's Block for me.

The joy is creating...and after that initial rush, you can allow yourself to be critical---but not during, and certainly not before.

Been too busy to say much. That's the best I can do today.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

he people plot rebellions, which are ruthlessly crushed; that is, until a stranger(s) enters the land and leads them to victory. Which lasts until the stranger(s) dies or leave, and the Baron is reborn from the well of blood and tar in the bowls of the Keep, which can never truly be cleansed..

Dammit, I said DOWNPLAY the similarities to Curse of Strahd.

 

[Two orcs]

Loggin The Ghostwood
If a tree is felled (under anguished cries) the flesh of the tree is ghostly white and with unnatural strength and lightness. Ships made from it will have superior qualities (one superior quality as per ACKS masterwork ships) though will suffer terrible storms at quadruple the normal rate and count as permanently cursed, no crew will serve if they know. Weapons made from it appear superior but are in fact cursed, though they can harm the werewolves of this dimension. The curse is that harm dealt to creatures other than the werewolves is felt by the wielder, a killing blow causing a round of "death". Shields however are a boon to the wielder as opponents feel themselves battered, this is excellent material for crafting enchanted shields.

Can be processed into bone white tar that stinks of death. If further processed into firebombs or torches they count as magic weapons. The light shed by burning ghost tar reveal invisible things.

The people of Tarvale will oppose the cutting of the trees and refuse to aid in processing the wood. Only if their efficacy is proven will they cooperate.

 

[Beoric]

@Beoric I always imagine your post read in a very saturnian voice.

That is worth pondering. I know when I write something with the intention that it be spoken, I use very different language. I doubt you would describe that as Saturnian.

Don't you ever let yourself get carried away by your passions?

Of course! But my passions tend to be earnest.

 

[Two orcs]

The Wolfpack
A pack of 30 broad faced wolves, a mix of insolent lean adolescents and massive overfed adults. The alpha pair are patient and cunning and know of missile weapons and their ranges. If they pass a strange scent trail they will follow it unerringly. If it crosses a river they will swim it and then split the pack in two to find it again, upstream or downstream, howling when they do to reassemble. If a trail leads them to a settled area they will circle around for up to 16 hours before they lose interest and return to their lair. When not tracking the pack roams a set route, only track their exact position if the trail of the players intersect the route.

When tracking they travel at half speed, with their quarry in visibility range they travel at full speed.

When they see their quarry they will attack if they outnumber them three times or more (count riders as two beings) otherwise they'll keep out of bowshot and howl to alert the knights who arrive by the fastest route. They will always fight in the prescense of the knights. If the knights are on the other side of a mountain they will not hear the howls and the wolves will relent after 16 hours. If attacked by a superior force the wolfpack will retreat to their lair - howling and yapping all the way.

 

[Two orcs]

The Werewolf Knights
If intrusion is unknown their daily routine is 8 hours of work, 8 hours of play and 8 hours of rest. Work means riding in force to a random settlement to collect taxes and do razzias for werewolf slaying weapons. About once per week they decide someone is too far behind on taxes and they take a member of the family back to the Keep to torment and devour. Play means spreading out to hunt game, practice their knightly skills or howl at the gray skies (appear on wandering monster table). They all rest at the Keep, unarmored and in a big huddle with 1 keeping watch from the tower at a time.

If intrusion is known 16 hours per day day will be spent patrolling the marked route. They track by scent like the wolfpack but only cross rivers at fords and have no fear of entering settlements. If a trail leads to a settlement they will interrogate the people there who will:
1-2 Tell the truth (tracking continues without delay)
3-4 Lie skilfully (tracking continues in direction offset by 60 degrees)
5-6 Lie poorly (delay 30 minutes as the knights kill 1d6 people then roll again on this table)

Should the players seek parley the knights will approach in force and the Baron will negotiate at a safe distance. If the players present a good case for why the Baron's position is untenable (players have unlimited reinforcements, threat of destroying the Lost Leagues entirely through magic) they get +4 to the reaction roll and on a "Friendly" result he will accept vassalization and paying 3gp/family/month in tribute. If the Baron suspects they players have few resources or have foolishly brought their resources into The Pearl he will attempt to destroy them.

If the knights catch sight of intruders they will continue pursuit but howl and so call the wolfpack to them. Howls are blocked by mountains. They are not shy of engaging in combat without wolf support however.

If routed the knights will retreat to the Keep have keep a defensive posture for 8 hours, hoping to rest and figure out a tactic for the next engagement. Parley at this point is at +2.

 

[Two orcs]

The Weather
The sky is perpetually overcast. The air is warm and damp. The horizon is never far away and the glass encasing The Lost Leagues is apparent as condensation weeps down and form streams that run down the valleys and gather in smoking lakes. Light sources from outside the glass appear as distorted suns. The outside world is visible but distorted over the horizon, stretched shapes of people passing by and noise as thunder heard underwater. When something remarkable happens outside people will gather and gawk - speculating what is going on and praying for salvation. People seen outside will be known to the people and assigned nicknames based on their apparent features - "Red Hat" "The Watcher" "Sky Polisher" "Stormsinger". They will have nicknames for all the player characters, even if spotted briefly and even people not engaged in the struggle against the Baron will be excited to meet them for that reason alone.

When The Pearl is in darkness The Lost Leagues experience moonless night. The inhabitants work and travel under torchlight and pray fervently for light to return. They are always prepared to endure a long night, but after 6 months food and light become scarce and people start to die of starvation and despair. Every 6 months after this the population is halved. The wolves see 60' in pitch black and track prey well by scent though they avoid people of become prey themselves, the knights too see in pitch black but resort to travel on foot as their horses don't and become more cruel and beastlike as a result.

 

[Two orcs]

Hooks / Timeline
Arrange or randomize the order of these events, the last one is how the player's encounter The Pearl.

1. The goblin Ashkallog put it in his bag of bullets. The Leagues experience two years of night punctured by minutes of day when Ashkallog loads his sling or arquebus. Half the population of The Leagues die of famine. The Goblin is a hated figure and both children and adults are afraid of ending up in The Goblin's Bag. Ashkallog belong to the The Grey Ears tribe who slather themselves in clay as camouflage against rocks and protect against insects when they go spear fishing in the nearby swamp. Ashkallog will launch The Pearl at the players in battle.

2. The adventuring thief Lars the Laconite (7th level) replaced his blinded eye with The Pearl. By means of an eye-patch he would release or contain the shadow and aid in daring robberies. Lars is known to The League as The Cyclop and his days are refered to as the half-days as the eye socket covered half The Pearl (though which side depends on the direction Lars faced at the moment). The players find him dead in a dungeon, wounded he dragged himself to die in private, like some animal. Or he lives and a 7,000gp bounty is on his head after opening castle gates to a steppe horde.

3. The catfish found The Pearl in a muddy riverbed. The time in the riverbed was good for The Leagues as they experienced day and night almost as normal though the shapes of fishes and boats moving about unnerved the people. The fisherwoman Hoki speaks to the party half in fear and half in pride. "I was gutting the catch the the shore when a shadow leapt at me from inside a catfish. I nearly fell in the water but I pointed my knife at it and said "Return to the murky depths son of Sedna and content yourself gnawing fishtails not manflesh" and my spell kept it paralyzed so I could run away. We have not dared go back yet as we lack slaying spells."

4. The thaumaturge of Buche has disappeared into The Pearl (and been slain by The Baron). The Pearl is held by an eagle's claw stand in his workshop next to a magnifying glass. Several sketches of The League's landscape are scattered over the room and a large vat of dye and several sets of robes in different colors. Research notes say "To announce oneself and counterfeit the spirit as that which The Occulting Eye drinks and desires." The workshop has generous windows so The Leageus experience day and night as normal and many put their hopes in The Wizard to save them, though The Baron pounced too quickly. The players will either hear of his disappearance or overhear a couple of drunk 1st level mages (Castor Castaffix and Irene Iridescent) discuss burglarizing his workshop to steal his spellbook.

 

[Two orcs]

Rumor (place this on an extant rumor table)
You see on this old map! Tarvale! Now that mountain ends in a steep cliff, but there used to be a mighty stronghold there and village. My father was there on business, he swears it, and this map proves it. Did a fortress and thousands of people just sink into the earth?

(visiting the spot will indeed show a steep and perfectly cut cliff face and the people in neighboring baronies will confirm that 30 years ago the cruel baron Alarik reigned in Tarvale and that after the people broke out in open rebellion the entire barony disappeared - the ground closing up like a wound where it had been)

 

[squeen]

So rich in details. Nice stuff. Must be fun at your table.

 

[Two orcs]

Warning: Self indulgent rambling below
My table is fun! My first direct contact with D&D was Baldur's Gate II and I try to recapture the feeling of adventure from that game, a world that is brimming with adventures large and small and always a couple too many to deal with. Lesser adventure games have a very neat way of presenting quests, there is a guy or even a billboard handing them out and they are always good for a 15-60 minute chunk of play. In Baldur's Gate II an adventure can be two conversations long, or dozens of hours of play, and you never know which when you find them. Some you find in hidden nooks, some thrust themselves upon you, sometimes literally (one starts with an angry peasant throwing a sword at your head then running away). They are also nested with adventures only found inside other adventures. This is the ideal I aspire to with The Shadow Pearl, an unknown world just out of reach. I will put it in my own campaign in the most offhand manner possible - ideally the players sell it or tuck it away to discover its truth much later.

The result of not flagging an adventure and not sticking to a formula, is important for the sense of exploration. When my players find a dungeon, or a sub-section of a dungeon, they are never sure if it is just a few rooms or some 100+ room behemoth behind those doors. Running in roll20 I make efforts to obfuscate further by sometimes using "screens" many times larger than the dungeon map, or sometimes smaller and cut into parts, and always a bit offset, so they can't be sure if they've reached map edge proper.

I think however I will halt myself and not make this adventure too fractal. A gothic pocket dimension in your pocket, and DMs who love loose ends can easily put a small dungeon or whatever inside, but to design for others detail that does not heighten the whole should be cut. It is after all a module.

 

[squeen]

@Two orcs : music to my ears. So good. So right.

 

[Two orcs]

Readable? Interesting?

 

[Two orcs]

Of the 32 werewolf knights I've written 4 characters with their own quirks and personalities. All NPCs will be presented in a short table, and it struck me maybe the table is enough and my prose too padded. Read my table entries and then the full descriptions and say if the full descriptions add enough.

Lutholf the Ledger	Human face, muttonchops, fangs slur speech, leather bound ledger	Records and invents taxes, revels in being the most hated
Sir Dunstan the Darkwolf	Armor and fur blackened with far	Abilities of 5th level thief, hunt people and sheep together with wolves Throatripper and Gutslicer, barely tolerated by peers
Sir Edric the Wolfpup	Prominent wolf ears, white fur, regal bearing	Imposing build (32hp), knightly honor but cruel to commoners, uses weapons even on foot, slew maiden in love with him
Mangy Martin the Man-at-arms	Lolling tongue, sparse hair, flat yellow eyes	Sick with consumption (5hp), robs healing herbs, sleeps outside huddle because contagion risk, would betray comrades for cure

Lutholf the Ledger is human faced with prodigious mutton chops, fangs that slur his speech and a leather bound ledger where he breathlessly notes who is behind on their taxes. He delights in being the most hated of the werewolves other than the baron. "A silver arrow would be too good for Old Muttonchops, he should be drowned in a barrel of shit" "The Ledger was a cruel son of a bitch even before The Curse" "One day I'll wipe that grin off his face, I'll pull his teeth out with silver pliers".

Sir Dunstan the Darkwolf combs fur with tar and blackens his mail with soot to skulk and prowl while his brothers in arms rest. He has the abilities of a 5th level thief even in armor and will together with his two wolves Throatripper and Gutslicer devour sheep and people who wander alone. His fellow knights disapprove of this behaviour but are unable to prevent his going as the baron tolerates it. They insult him openly "brigand" "cowardly shadow" "You love tar so much I should drown you in the pit".

Sir Edric the Wolfpup is the youngest of the knights but is the most imposing nex to the baron (32 hit points). He sports prominent wolf ears and white fur. A squire before The Curse he clings to the knightly ideals and while cruel and cannibalistic towards peasants he will not discard his arms on foot and will respect calls for single combat or parley from a warrior. "Do not let the bright eyes of the Wolfpup deceive you – a maiden in love called his name and he split her face open with his hammer and fed her to the pack."

Mangy Martin the man-at-arms is sick with consumption (5 hit points). Lolling tongue, sparse hair and flat yellow eyes tell you that he is sick. He eagerly rob peasants of their healing herbs and tinctures. He is more detested than hated and he is not allowed to sleep near the other werewolves for fear of contagion. He would turn on the others if promised a cure.

 

[Beoric]

Like the map, assume it's Wordlographer, what tileset did you use?

Chart would be enough on its own, but writeups do add something. May expand on this after work.

 

[Two orcs]

I used gimp2 and a free brush set (I can link it if you want it) for the trees and mountains, the structures and lakes I made from scratch.

 

[Beoric]

I'm no good with Gimp, I pretty much only use it if I need to crop something precisely or add a transparency.