Forest of Gray Spires | Ukre’kon’ala | Cuan Dyr Mine | Nag's Head | Achalar Mausoleum
Welcome to the Sunday Supplement, Raging Swan Press’s weekly email for GMs. This week, we have one free download, one piece of legendry, one piece of lore and three miscellaneous campaign components for your game.
Should we develop any of these idea further? Comment below.
01: August’s Inner Cover
Download
August’s new inner cover presents 20 more cool words and the names of 20 bays, coves and beaches for your game. Download it for free here.
02: Forest of Gray Spires
Ashlarian Legendry (Adventure Locale)
While not part of the Duchy of Ashlar, the Forest of Gray Spires forms its southern border. Deemed to be all but impenetrable, wild rumours cluster thickly about these brooding woodlands and the legion of strange, slender rock spires thrusting upwards into the sky. Eroded into weird and fantastical shapes by the frequent, fierce rains lashing the plateau, these jagged splinters of limestone rear from the forest like the towers of some legendary lost fortress of unspeakably vast extent.
The forest is a torturous, labyrinthine place which has remained nearly completely unexplored since Ashlar was founded almost 600 years ago. Few reliable paths pierce its depths, and no accurate maps of the interior are known to exist. (This doesn’t stop the occasional traveller claiming to have found a way through the labyrinthine forest to or from the Picaroon Peninsula hundreds of miles to the south and west.) The dense forest and horrendous terrain effectively block all but the most determined or desperate travellers from penetrating far into the interior.
For all that, adventurers often use the southern Ashlarian town of Dulwich as a base from which to explore the forest. Rumours and legends about the forest are legion. Some tales tell of a race of semi-intelligent apes dwelling deep in its most inaccessible reaches atop spires they have carved to suit their atavistic tastes. Others speak of a fallen race of forsaken, demon-worshipping elves or even a lingering enclave of cyclops yet clinging to their ancient heritage amid the crumbling, mossy ruins of their former kingdom. All such tales tell of the glittering hoards of ancient treasure waiting to be found, virtually guaranteeing a steady stream of adventurers intent on finding gold and glory in the Forest of Gray Spires.
03: Ukre’kon’ala
Ashlarian Lore (Foul God)
CE god of cannibalism, gluttony and greed
Epithets: The Ever-hungry Maw
Symbol: Fanged mouth
Domains: Death
Favoured Weapon: Dagger
Raiment: Blood-splattered clothes
Worshippers: Cannibals, orcs
Teachings: Greed is good, and the best food wriggles when you eat it. Plants are for animals; predators and the powerful eat meat—fresh meat.
Holy Text: Revelations of Utu’rak the Unstable
Worshipped by the savage and uncivilised orcs living on the tiny, scattered islands of the remote Coral Sea, the dark and terrible god Ukre’kon’ala is (mercifully) almost unknown in civilised lands. However, his worship, carried aboard the vessels of certain mariners, pirates, and privateers, has crept into a few civilised lands.
This foul deity demands terrible sacrifices—living humanoids eaten by his worshippers in horrific and indescribable, sanity-shattering bloody rites. The longer the sacrifice survives the ritual—and the greater their pain, suffering, and horror—the greater Ukre’kon’ala’s satisfaction. In exchange, Ukre’kon’ala gifts power and prosperity to his faithful.
Ukre’kon’ala’s worshippers are always deranged and often mad. They have seen and done things that no right-minded individual should ever see or do. They often dwell in coastal communities and have a connection to the sea. A few insane hermits dwelling on isolated islands or desolate stretches of coastline worship Ukre’kon’ala; woe betide any traveller or shipwrecked mariner unlucky enough to share such an individual’s fire at night.
Hat tip to Richard Green for Ukre’kon’ala initial design.
04: Cuen Dyr Mine
Campaign Component (Flooded Mine)
Lost among the heavily wooded slopes of a forested hill range, the Cuen Dyr lead mine is hard to find. A single, overgrowing track—barely wide enough for a narrow donkey cart—winds through the hills to the place. A mouldering collection of rough huts and the like—the original miners’ homes— surrounds the mine entrance, and what was once a clearing is slowly being reclaimed by the forest.
Prone to flooding, this lead mine has been abandoned for almost a decade. Sickness and fatigue plagued the mine’s workforce, making the mine’s profitable operation difficult. The place was abandoned after the mine’s water wheel broke, and the owner, Sakari Kainu, could not afford to fix it. Now with its lower levels hopelessly flooded, the Cuen Dyr mine is all but a lost cause; considerable gold is needed to fix the wheel, pump out the water and re-engage enough workers to restart the operation.
Luckily, for Sakari Kainu, he has enough raw materials to continue his trade for a while longer; Sakari crafts lead-lined lockboxes, coffers and chests designed to foil detect magic and the like. His work is specialised and expensive; few can afford his prices. As his supplies of lead dwindle, however, he ever more desperately seeks a wealthy investor to fund repairs. To this end, he glosses over any rumours of trouble at the old mine and instead paints a relentlessly positive picture of the operation. However, his former workers are still disgruntled and still feel Sakari owes them wages and compensation—such grievances will inevitably bubble to the surface if news spreads that Cuen Dyr Mine is once again in operation.
05: The Nag’s Head
Campaign Component (Seedy Tavern)
Local legend has it that the first sign for this dingy, backstreet tavern featured the caricature of the landlord’s wife in profile. By all accounts, their marriage was not a happy one, and when they split up and sold the tavern, the next landlord replaced the sign with something more traditional. Now, a badly painted horse-head shaped sign hangs over the tavern’s front door to “welcome” customers to one of the worst taverns in town.
The Nag’s Head is not a nice place to drink; much of the ale is little more than slop, the welcome is sorely lacking, and the decor is battered, stained and old. The tavern has a reputation as the haunt of ruffians, thieves and worse. Fine gentlefolk are never seen here. The balding, corpulent landlord, Paanu Kokko, is widely thought of as a thug and bully who cares only for gold. The watch knows of the place but rarely comes here—only when serious disorder breaks out do they concern themselves with doings at the Nag’s Head, and even then they prefer to leave the regulars to “police” themselves.
The Nag’s Head is a hard place for hard drinking. It’s also a place to find hard folk for hard tasks.
06: The Achalar Mausoleum
Campaign Component (Dungeon)
Standing at the centre of an overgrown and all-but abandoned ancient graveyard the Achalar Mausoleum is a squat, ugly building of surprisingly extent. About the mausoleum, tottering, vine-strangled, moss-smothered grave markers stand silent vigil as they have for countless years. Choked by dense ivy, covered in moss and screened by trees and bushes, the Achalar Mausoleum is an object of fearful conjecture by those who remember its existence. What is visible above ground, however, is nothing to the rambling complex below the mausoleum.
The Achalar family were once famed explorers; they scoured the world in search of interesting rarities and objects of art, but this was not their most interesting or worrisome trait. The family engaged in Ancestor Worship and built a museum under their mausoleum so that their dead relatives would have something to occupy them in the endless years of the dead-sleep.
Every year, on the anniversary of their ancestor’s death, the family would gather at the mausoleum and process their beloved progenitors through the ever-lengthening precincts of the subterranean museum. Many of the items therein are nought but exotic (and valuable) curiosities, but others—the leavings of fallen civilisations—are far more dangerous. One such item, the *Black Statue of the Squatting Toad*, is particularly troublesome for the spirit of an ancient power inhabits the pitted stone. Much weakened by the length of its existence and bereft of worshippers, it lurks in the darkness waiting for a suitable soul to enter its domain. Thus far, it has been unlucky, but when thieves enter its lightless realm, it will eat well and begin to regain its primal, terrible strength.
The Achalar family is now extinct, the last scion dying a pointless and ignoble death in a far-off land while questing for a centrepiece for the macabre museum. A sage, though, has recently come across an account of the family’s history and has grown curious about what ownerless treasures lie in the Achalar family vault…
Ashlarian (proper noun) of Ashlar; Campaign (noun) a connected series of adventures; Component (noun) a constituent part; Legendry (noun) a collection or body of legends; Lore (noun) knowledge and stories about a subject
Thank you for reading the Sunday Supplement; I hope some of the above material makes it into your game or sparks your creativity.
Remember, Everything is Better with Tentacles!
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