Font of Exalted Deeds | Rivengate | Watchit | Black Mountain | The Goblin Barn
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: Beyond Languard's Walls
Languard dominates a wide peninsula of rich, fertile land separating Hard Bay from the winter-storm-lashed sea. The surrounding lands are mostly ordered, peaceful and civilised, but to the north-west, across Had Bay, lies the Mottled Spire and Gloamhold’s doom-drenched halls. Easily visible from the city, the Mottled Spire looms on the horizon like a gloomy giant of fell mien.
There is more to Languard than what lies within its city walls. This week's free download provides an at-a-glance looks at the interesting locales dotting the city's hinterlands.
02: Font of Exalted Deeds
Ashlarian Legendry (Holy Relic)
Wrought of white marble, shot through with gold and platinum and studded with a myriad of precious gems, the Font of Exalted Deeds is a breathtaking sight. When bathed in the rays of the morning sun, it bedazzles the eyes of all who gaze upon it.
The Font of Exalted Deeds is a holy relic of the faith of Darlen (LG greater god of law, order, justice and the sun). The centrepiece of the Hall of Heroes at Tor Abbey, the font, is reputed to hold great power. Questing knights drink from its blessed waters before sallying forth to push back the ever-rising tide of evil besetting Ashlar, and those seeking guidance on matters spiritual pray before its glimmering magnificence.
Long has its resplendent, shining beauty been a target for the forces of evil. In the mid-300s a skeletal knight of great might invaded the Hall of Heroes and smote the font with a huge two-handed morningstar. Driven away before it could destroy the font by the great hero Alric Willanan, the unnamed minion of evil has long been sought by Darlen’s vengeful servants. The clergy used gold and platinum to repair the damage wrought by the skeletal warrior’s assault and bound even greater protections into the font’s glimmering form.
The Font of Exalted Deeds is also known as the Font of the Questing Knight and Alric’s Charge.
03: Rivengate
Ashlarian Lore (Gloamhold Locale)
Rambling over five main levels, Rivengate comprises much of Gloamhold’s ancient outer defences. Built to ward the approaches to the Twilight City, it is the most accessible of Gloamhold’s regions, and thus also one of the better known.
Rivengate’s upper levels remain a mystery to most. Rumours speak of vast, gloomy temples, as yet undisturbed, vaults brimming with treasures from a bygone, lost time and even of the Splintered Stair—a secret and precipitous passage reaching—it is said—all the way up to the Shard high atop the Mottled Spire.
Several locales of note lie within Rivengate. Of some, such as the Bridge of Sorrows, the Catacombs of the Sundered Obelisk and the Shrine of the Cloven Altar, little is known but their names. Some of the better-known locales in Rivengate, however, have entered local legend.
The seething, foam-flecked waters below Rivengate are particularly hazardous. Many underwater dangers—jagged rocks, savage rip tides and more—await explorers attempting to access Rivengate and the areas beyond. Only skilled or lucky captains dare to sail into the gloom of Rivengate’s gaping maw. Within flows the dark and treacherous Murkwater.
04: Watchit
Campaign Component (Gnome Hold)
Built into the side of a lonely hill overlooking a dismal and miasmal goblin-infested swamp, the gnomish watch-warren of Watchit is a rare speck of civilisation and cheer in an otherwise gloomy swath of the world. The gnomes hail from the Burrowdale clan and are ever-vigilant against the Yellow Fang goblins who claim the swamp’s fetid precincts as their own.
While the goblins are primitive, they have forged an alliance of sorts with the crocodiles dwelling in the swamp. Like their normal brethren, who ally themselves with wolves, so the Goblins of the Yellow Fang use crocodiles as steeds, guards and even pets. The goblins wield clubs studded with dozens of crocodile teeth or spears tipped with the teeth of particularly large, elder crocodiles. Such weapons leave distinctive marks upon the bodies of the victims, but most such unfortunates usually end up in the bellies of the goblins’ crocodile allies, and thus the evidence of their raiding is often “concealed”.
The Burrowdale gnomes rarely venture into the swamp—to do so is exceedingly dangerous—and are content to counter the goblins’ rare forays into the wider world. An old trade route skirts the swamp, and this old path—sunken in places—has been the site of many skirmishes over the long years of the goblins’ and gnomes’ enmity. Mostly safe during the day, woe betide any travellers caught upon its noisome, muddy length after dark.
05: The Black Mountain
Campaign Component (Dragon Lair)
Rearing from the surrounding golden, wind-blown sands like some primal giant of terrifying immensity, the black mountain dominates its surrounds. Dwarfing even the tallest of the ever-shifting dunes clustering close upon its flanks, the Black Mountain shines eye-wateringly brightly in the desert sun with a lustrous peculiarity that defies rational explanation.
Some believe the mountain to be a gigantic black diamond cast to earth by a god. Others believe it is the atrophied heart of a gargantuan, long-dead starspawn or primal demon slain millennia ago. Whatever the truth of the matter, the Black Mountain is a surpassingly dangerous place to visit for a great wyrm—the blue dragon Andrarith Felwyr—dwells within.
But beyond the Black Mountain itself and Andrarith other marvels and perils lurk in the locality. When the wind blows hot and strong, travellers report that the very dunes themselves hum and sing. Most lay the blame for this at Andrarith’s feet, for who else but a dragon of elder might could enchant the very sand of the desert itself? Others mutter that the sands themselves are alive and sing to attract gullible fools in the same way a will-o’-wisp uses its corpse-light to lure idiots to their doom.
Over the long years, several bands of adventurers have sought to slay Andrarith in his lair, buried deep at the Black Mountain’s zenith. No group that has dared the so-called Wailing Dunes has ever been seen again.
06: The Goblin Barn
Campaign Component (Ruined Local Landmark)
Standing on the edge of town amid a swath of brambles, weeds and twisted shrubs the blackened ruin of the so-called Goblin Barn lingers on as a visible reminder of a terrible atrocity.
Fifty years ago, a band of adventurers—the Swords of Righteousness—defeated a marauding tribe of goblins plaguing the town. Instead of putting all the goblins to the sword, mercy stayed the adventurers’ sword arms and instead they brought the survivors—mainly women and children—back to town. While the townsfolk debated what to do with the prisoners, the goblins were locked into an old, disused barn on the edge of town.
A week later, an unknown person or persons—tiring of the endless debates over the prisoners’ fate—set fire to the barn, killing all the goblins imprisoned within. The act shook the town to its core, but despite extensive investigations, the perpetrators were never found. The Swords of Righteousness, stunned at the cruelty meted out on helpless prisoners, settled in the town. When many of the townsfolk demanded that the Goblin Barn be pulled down, the Swords of Righteousness protected the site. The town would not be allowed to erase such a terrible act from its history.
Half a century later, but one of the Swords, the elderly half-elf Kanbrar Sehietier, remains to watch over the ruin. When he dies, he knows the townfolk will waste no time erasing the stain on their ancestors’ honour. While Kanbrar searches for a worthy soul to continue his vigil, even he does not realise what horrors the townsfolk’s actions could yet unleash if they are allowed to pull down the Goblin Barn…
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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