Halen Kalmarinen | Centuars of the Cloven Horn | Battle Horn of the Dwarvish Lords | The Whistling Island | The Renitent Guard
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: Inner Cover
November’s inner cover presents 20 more cool words and the names of 20 dungeon names for your game.
02: Halen Kalmarinen
Ashlarian Legendry (Personality)
This legendary warrior and hero of old is famed for his magic spear, Alaeyoar and his many glorious victories over the forces of evil, chaos and darkness.
Alaetoar, an enchanted spear of surpassing sharpness, was famed for also being able to resize and reshape itself into a variety of weapons. Its normal form was that of a standard footman’s spear, but on command it could transform into a halberd, lance or longspear, and it could set itself against a charge.
Halen Kalmarinen was a boon-companion of Arndul Nenonen, the half-elven adventurer who founded the Duchy of Ashlar almost six centuries ago. Halen died somewhere in Gloamhold’s Twilight City during one of Arndul’s early explorations of that foul and benighted place, and Alaeyoar was lost. Since the legendary spear was lost, many expeditions have been launched in search of it and Halen’s remains. So far, none of the expeditions have reported success, and thus the legendary weapon probably remains mouldering in Gloamhold’s benighted depths.
See Also: Gloamhold, The Twilight City
03: Centaurs of the Cloven Horn
Ashlarian Lore (Tribe)
The centaurs of the Cloven Horn came to Bleak Moor centuries ago, fleeing the incursions of humans into their traditional hunting grounds. In the Bleak Moor, they discovered a territory too difficult and remote for the humans to easily colonise and fell in love with its stark, natural beauty. Although never numerous, they claim the whole swath of the moor bounded by the Tangled Wood to the east and the Black Hills to the north. While they allow other folk to cross the moor, such travellers are rarely unobserved—most groups being shadowed by either a lone scout or one of the many giant eagles that serve the tribe’s druids.
Blood enemies of the bestial minotaurs dwelling in the Black Hills, the centaurs of the Cloven Horn ever struggle to counter the raids of their savage, implacable enemies. Aid from any quarter against this malignant threat is much welcomed.
Windswept and lashed by summer thunderstorms and harsh winters, the Bleak Moor is aptly named. Seemingly a wilderness, it is an ancient place of great, but stark, natural beauty. Few care to tread its wind-worn reaches, and no major roads cross the moor, although meandering tracks link the Cloven Horn's various settlements and sacred places.
The jumbled ruins of a long-fallen civilisation dot the northern hills. From them, the Yith once ruled. An ancient race of winged bat-like creatures, the Yith bent a ferocious tribe of minotaurs to their will, setting these powerful, but unpredictable, minions to protect their high fortresses. Although the Yiths’ hold over the Bleak Moor has long since loosened, their bestial servants yet remain and wage savage, implacable and merciless war upon the centaurs.
04: Battle Horn of the Dwarvish Lords
Campaign Component (Artefact)
Lost centuries ago when the last dwarven high king, Elrak Farnoen, fell in battle fighting the elder wyrm Maugharn Xinwyr, the Battle Helm of the Dwarvish Lords is a potent symbol for the dwarves. Dwarven heroes, many claiming descent from the fallen House of Kings, have quested for the Battle Helm of the Dwarvish Lords, but it remains lost.
The battle helm is part of the War Gear of the High King, a collection of artefacts of power forged many centuries ago by the legendary smith Torroc Weraln. Powerful enchantments are woven into the adamantine helm. As well as providing excellent protection from physical attacks, it gives its wearer preternatural awareness and the ability to see the unseen. Dwarven hero-sagas ascribe other wondrous powers to the Battle Helm, which—apparently—only a true descendant of the fallen House of Kings can fully utilise.
05: The Whistling Island
Campaign Component (Island)
The Whistling Island is slightly misnamed. It is not the island that whistles but the score or more sea stacks standing close in against its cliffs.
The Whistling Island boasts a single shingle beach; a faint, steep pass climbs from the beach into the interior. Wave-battered cliffs ring the rest of the island, and just offshore, 20 or so spray-slick sea stacks rise out of the white water breaking against their indifferent bulk.
The sea stacks are not natural features—a close examination of the nearby cliffs reveals ancient, worn tool markings. Millennia ago, a forgotten people carved the stacks from the island and fashioned them as secure reliquaries for their sacred dead. Numerous tunnels and crypts honeycomb the upper reaches of each sea stack. The dead—inviolate and eternal—slumber within. It is these tunnels and passages that give the island its name. Strong winds blowing through these passages create a high-pitched whistling sound audible for miles. Superstitious sailors believe the island to be haunted and the whistling to be the sound of ghosts or demons trying to lure sailors to their grief against its gaunt and grey flanks.
Innumerable seabirds—including several pairs of huge, highly intelligent sea eagles—nest upon these sea stacks. The birds, always hungry, prey on their lesser brethren and enthusiastically hunt any explorers trying to come ashore.
Inland, the island is all but barren; no trees grow here. Instead, small shrubs and thick, coarse grass predominate. Here and there, wind-lashed ruins—perhaps temples given their layouts—stand drunkenly, seemingly on the very verge of collapse, on high, exposed bluffs and headlands.
Few sailors willingly sail within miles of the Whistling Island, and no comprehensive search of its tombs and ruins is known to have ever been made.
06: The Renitent Guard
Campaign Component (Dungeon)
A squat and gloomy castle of sinister and ancient construct lies in a deep cavern far below the realm’s capital city. Sinister legends and rumours hang over the fortress and its Renitent Guard. Most folk believe the place to be nothing more than a myth or legend. Only a few sages, other learned folk and experienced adventurers know the truth of the matter.
Scores of indefatigable iron warriors—each imbued with the skills of a master swordsman—stand ceaseless vigil upon the nameless castle’s spell-warded ramparts and towers. This is the aptly-named Renitent Guard—deathless and incorruptible soldiers ever-loyal to their master, a surpassingly powerful demi-lich of unknown name and origin. Sentient iron golem captains—some possessing powerful battlemagic—command the Renitent Guard.
Given the castle’s formidable defences, of those who have gazed upon its grim battlements, few have ever seriously contemplated assaulting the place; even fewer have survived the ensuing carnage. And thus, at least for now, the secrets of the castle and its deathless lord remain unsolved.
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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