Vongyth | The Amma | Sepulchre of the Eagles | Wispman's Wood | The Iron Company
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: July’s Inner Cover
July’s new inner cover presents 20 more cool words and the names of 20 gangs for your game.
02: Vongyth
Ashlarian Legendry (Fallen Dwarven Hold)
Two centuries ago, the dwarves of clan Nurthen were typical of their kind. Dwelling in the fortified mine-hold of Vongyth, these industrious miners toiled deep beneath the earth to bring forth precious metals. Doughty warriors all, they fought hard to defend their home from the foul humanoids dwelling in the bizarre, grotesque depths of the Forest of Gray Spires.
Cut into the northern flank of the nameless plateau upon which stands the Forest of Gray Spires in the wilderlands beyond the Duchy of Ashlar’s southern border, Vongyth is a small, isolated place.
Proficient miners, the dwarves were wealthy, and it was their wealth that spelt their doom. A mated pair of green dragons, Klauthosk and Yeiarxin, fell upon several merchants carrying gold bars and other precious metals northwards into the Duchy of Ashlar for trade. After torturing (and then eating) the few survivors, the pair learnt Vongyth’s location and shortly thereafter—exhibiting typical, draconic greed—led their kobold minions in a devastating attack.
With acid and fang, the dragons drove the dwarves from their fortress, slaughtering all who resisted them. After the orgy of slaughter and looting, Klauthosk and Yeiarxin settled in the hold and ordered their kobold servants to find every scrap of treasure hidden therein. Sated by the carnage and the dwarves’ hoard-wealth, Yeiarxin laid several eggs, and the dragons began to terrorise and loot the surrounding area.
Thus did matters stand until the Crimson Swords invaded the hold 40 years ago and slaughtered Klauthosk and Yeiarxin along with scores of their fanatical, diminutive servants. Exulting in their victory, the surviving adventurers looted the dragons’ hoard and returned to civilisation to bask in the common-folks’ adulation and to enjoy all the comforts of life their new wealth could provide.
The years after the Crimson Swords slew Klauthosk and Yeiarxin saw a slow trickle of adventurers and dwarves seeking Vongyth—the adventurers in hopes of finding glimmering treasures missed by the Crimson Swords and the dwarves in the hopes of reestablishing their ancient home. None who have passed Vongyth’s graven valves of bronze-banded stone have returned to tell of what now lurks among the ruin of this shattered, fallen hold. Some folk whisper of a curse lingering over the place, while others mutter that perhaps the Crimson Swords did not slay all the dragons. Whatever the truth of the matter, few people now willingly seek out Vongyth.
See Also: Thunderaxe
03: The Amma Ashlarian Lore
Ashlarian Lore (Pirates)
The Amma has a well-deserved foul reputation. Rumours of terrible doings, smuggling, piracy and slaving hover over the galley and its crew. The blackguard Ambro Kontio captains the Amma. His crew includes the sea witch Kaija Kiekka and Otava Himottu, “the Strangler,” along with many other ne’er-do-wells.
Late of Languard, the Amma was a semi-regular sight off Ashlar’s northern coast. However, a run-in with a group of adventurers forced the galley to seek safer waters to the west. The vengeful adventurers have sworn to have their revenge upon the Amma and its crew for their theft of a beautiful figurehead the adventurers had just recovered from Greystone’s cursed ruins. The ship’s subsequent association with Kildrak the Mad, one of Ashlar’s most wanted criminals, has forced the Amma to flee—for the time being at least—further west to the comparative safety of the Picaroon Peninsula and the pirate haven of Deksport.
See Also: Kildrak the Mad
04: Sepulchre of the Eagles
Campaign Component (Dungeon)
Named for the gigantic twin eagle head statues, that some believe are actually immense griffons flanking a collonaded, rubble-choked entranceway, this well-known but never explored dungeon complex is of unknown extent. Variously named as a necropolis for an extinct people, the sepulchre of a long-dead giant king or a lost royal treasury, the sepulchre looms large in adventurers’ lore.
The ruin stands at the head of a wind-scoured hanging valley deep in a jagged and lofty mountain range. Just reaching the place is a feat.
Rubble chokes the dungeon’s outer hall and a great field of tumbled stone surrounds the place. It is as if the very mountain itself has tried to bury the place.
The scattered remains of several camps dot the debris field surrounding the ruin, and the heaped pile of stones is suggestive of organised attempts to clear a path through the rubble. All have been, thus far, to no avail, and no one is thought to have passed through the outer hall. Thus, what lies within remains unknown, but wild stories and conjectures speak of a race of fierce and arrogant half-eagle/half-human people who dwelled amid the crags and valleys millennia ago. Some believe that the Sepulchre of the Eagles is the last vestige of their power…
05: Wispman’s Wood
Campaign Component (Remote Forest)
Gnarled and twisted oaks and hornbeams grow thick in an isolated hollow amid the rolling, grey and brown of a desolate heath. This mist-drenched, isolated and little-visited place is Wispman’s Wood. Reputedly haunted by the spectral ghost of a lost traveller who died on the heath years ago during a ferocious storm, Wispman’s Wood lies far from any tracks or roads.
A thin, desolatory stream winds its way through the clitter, a wild confusion of splintered granite blocks of curious shapes and sizes, scattered throughout the wood. Sometimes travellers explore the fringes of the wood, but a profusion of aggressive and ill-tempered vipers dwell within. None come here, though, at night, during storms or when thick grey mists wreath the heath. Legend has it that at such times the dead traveller’s ghost ever-seeks warmth and is drawn to the presence of warm, living flesh in “his” wood.
An elderly medusa who possesses considerable druidic-like power dwells in the deepest part of Wispman’s wood in a squat, tumbled ruin of elder origin. A misanthrope, she just wants to be left alone. She warns interlopers—once—to leave. If they ignore her, she unleashes her slithering allies and her own considerable abilities upon them. Thus far, no one has survived such a confrontation.
06: The Iron Company
Campaign Component (Mercenary Company)
Feared for its puissance at arms, matchless discipline and mercilessness, the Iron Company is much in demand among nobles of a certain moral persuasion. This mixed mercenary band of human and hobgoblin veterans costs a veritable fortune to employ, but while the gold flows, they are supremely loyal to their paymaster. Woe betide any employer who does not pay the Iron Company their due; such unfortunate folk are liable to discover a blade in their guts at an inopportune moment.
Grangor Neffel, a veritable giant of a man famed for his two-handed greatsword Death’s Kiss, leads the Iron Company. Fearless in battle and a hard bargainer who well knows the value of his troops, Grangor is both honoured and feared by those who know him.
The Iron Company comprise about 200 veteran heavy foot. They are supremely well equipped—even the rank and file wear battle-tested plate armour—and their morale is high. The Iron Company travels with its own baggage train comprising cooks, weapon smiths, armourers and the like; most such folk are elderly or crippled warriors who can no longer serve in the front line.
In a few notable cases, the mere presence of the Iron Company has routed their enemies from the field or led to their opponents suing for peace. Few commanders are sanguine at the possibility of facing the Iron Company on the field of battle.
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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