Varakar and the Isles of Sorrow | The Thunderaxe | The Dancing Dragon Tavern | Crystal Caverns of the Arn Stone | Dark-Forged Weapons
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: Towns & Cities Markdown Sample
Download
Markdown is lightweight, portable and exceptionally malleable. Markdown is as useful as urban adventures can be challenging. This week, Raging Swan Press continues its quest into Markdown with the standalone Town and City files.
To celebrate this new addition to our markdown offering, we also have a brand new markdown page on our website. What books should we make available in markdown next? Let me know!
02 Varakar and the Isles of Sorrow
Ashlarian Legendry
Glittering Varakar died millennia ago, destroyed by a falling Vile Star that smashed into the sea, sparking a catastrophic series of earthquakes and tidal waves that shattered and then drowned this elder civilisation.
Varakar was a survivor from an earlier time and the last in a long line of human kingdoms. Of this elder epoch and its peoples and kingdoms, the history books are almost completely and maddeningly silent. At its zenith, Varakar was a centre of learning, wizardly might and civilisation—perhaps humanity’s greatest and most crowning success—before its near-complete annihilation. Some scraps of lore have survived to the present, and these fragments contain tantalising hints and clues as to Varakar’s great powers and achievements.
The elder kingdom’s remnants survive as the Isles of Sorrows. These legend-shrouded isles lie far out in the trackless, storm-scoured depths of the Bitter Sea. Their exact position remains a subject of wild conjecture and hot debate. No accurate map showing the isles’ location is known to exist. If such a map did exist, however, it would be a great treasure all of its own, for its owner would be in the unique position of being able to plunder the remnants of fallen Varakar.
Few mariners have gazed upon the Isles of Sorrow and their crumbling ruins, and fewer still have dared to put ashore to explore. Some say that Varakar lies beyond the Dismal Sea and that reaching it is nigh impossible; thus, anyone claiming to have gazed upon the Isles of Sorrow is mad, lying, deluded or drunk.
Still fallen Varakar—wreathed in legendry and rumour—lingers in the memory and lore of adventurers, sages and wizards. Every year or two, a new expedition, often guided by a newly-discovered map or fragment of unearthed lore, sails west into the Bitter Sea in search of Varakar and its remaining treasures; few return.
03 Thunderaxe
Ashlarian Lore (Weapon)
Thunderaxes are a remnant of the fallen dwarfhold of Vongyth and are part of the dwarves’ rich heritage of war. These fearsome weapons comprise a large ornate axe head welded to a heavy hammer head set atop a thick haft. Some supremely rare examples are forged from adamantine or tordel. They are too large and unwieldy to wield one-handed without special training—training that usually only a dwarf warrior possesses.
The secret of their making and wielding yet lingers on in the dwarven hold of Don Galir, which lies beneath the human village of Wellswood in the Duchy of Ashlar.
Hap tip to Martin “I think I’ll play a ranger” Webb for the initial concept of the thunderaxe.
04 The Dancing Dragon Tavern
Campaign Component (Tavern)
A giant mural depicting one of the amazing tales attributed to Vilimzair Aralivar, the World’s Greatest Ever Bard and Legendary Pirate Captain, decorates the front of this raucous tavern. The beautiful mural—a beloved local landmark—shows the Great Bard playing a jaunty tune on his lute so perfect that the great red wyrm Vaerosthrax is dancing a jig instead of falling upon and utterly destroying the port of Windhaven.
The tavern is known for heavy drinking, wild dancing and loud singing. Its portly owner, Elmo Karppanen, is a borderline alcoholic but revered locally for his warm welcome, excellent ales and extensive contacts both locally and in the wider area.
Every summer, the Dancing Dragon Tavern hosts a week-long celebration of song and music on a farmer’s field just outside town. In the weeks before the festival, bards, entertainers, singers, and others descend on the town. Hundreds of other visitors arrive in town to witness and partake in the festival. The festival brings much gold into the town, and preparations take weeks.
05 Crystal Caverns of the Arn Stone
Campaign Component (Dungeon)
Discovered by dwarven miners following a thin seam of spectacularly rare adamantine, the Crystal Caverns of the Arn Stone are a strange and dangerous place. Clouds of superheated mist drift through caves which are filled with glass-like crystals growing from the part-melted floor, walls and ceilings. To tarry long in the cave without magical protection against fire and heat is to court death. Not only is the environment hazardous, but fire elementals and other strange heat-loving creatures not of this world are often encountered therein.
Deep, jagged vents cut through the cavern floor, radiating outwards from the centre of the place where the legendary Arn Stone grows. This thick, transparent crystal, the length of a great wyrm, pulsates with a faint red glow; it is a portal to the Elemental Plane of Fire.
Some adventurers come to the Crystal Caverns of the Arn Stone to slay the elementals lairing herein or journey to the Elemental Plane of Fire. Others come to harvest some of the lesser crystals, for they have proved to be most propitious in the crafting of magic items designed to channel magical fire.
06 Dark-Forged Weapons
Campaign Component (Weapon)
Forged in darkness and shadow, dark-forged weapons channel the necrotic, negative energy of death and the undead. They are hateful, evil things.
Typically crafted in the Shadow Realms, such weapons can also be forged in places on the Prime Material Plane never exposed to light or at certain times of the year when the forces of evil and darkness wax great.
Most dark-forged weapons are of steel—albeit steel from the Shadow Realms—while a few supremely rare weapons are of dark tordel or ebon adamantine. Some dark-forged weapons are enchanted with powers to suppress or manipulate nearby light sources, while others grant the wielder powers and protections as if they were one of the undead. Goodly folk rarely wield a dark-forged weapon, and when they do, it is only in times of great need.
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!
Want the Markdown Files? Every member of our Patreon campaign gets the markdown files for the new-look Sunday Supplements to make it even easier to add them to their campaign.