Fernbanks | The Thirsty Parrot | The Burnt Forest | Thunder Falls | Six Odd Ales
Welcome to the GM’s Sunday Supplement! Behold four campaign components and a handy d6 list to add to your campaign and GM’s toolbox.
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Fernbanks
Hamlet | Forest | Fey
Buried deep in a wild and untamed range of wooded hills, Fernbank is an isolated, quiet place inhabited by hunters and charcoal burners. But a single, narrow track barely wide enough for a horse and cart links Fernbanks with the outside world. The hamlet stands in a steep hollow between two hills, and many of its houses are part-dug into the hills. Such dwellings have extensive root cellars. An ancient ring of tottering and be-mossed standing stones set upon the hills surrounds the hamlet.
The folk of Fernbank are universally seen as queer folk who worship the primal spirits of the fecund deep forest. They are also fiercely private, and—in the main—just want to be left alone to live in peace. Rumours circulating in the closest villages to the forest edge suggest that the folk of Fernbanks traffic with the fey in the forest’s deep and unknowable reaches and that some kind of pact binds the two peoples together. Lurid and sensationalist speculation about the nature of this pact is a common subject of debate in the nearby communities. Strange nighttime lights and sounds have been reported in the woods, and occasional disappearances from the nearby villages conspire to keep the rumours of feyish-doings alive. Few outsiders voluntarily visit Fernbanks, and even fewer willingly stay after dark.
The Thirsty Parrot
Tavern
The Thirsty Parrot is a raucous place set hard to the docks of a mighty port city. Here, bards are always welcome, and the ale flows freely. A beautiful sign, enchanted with powerful illusory magics, depicts a drunk parrot clutching—and then drinking—a mug of frothing ale.
A tavern has stood on this spot for centuries. Local lore has it that the original tavern was founded by a devoted member of Vilimzair Aralivar’s, the World’s Greatest Ever Bard and Legendary Pirate Captain, original crew. So enamoured was the crew member with Pluck, Vilimzair’s famed intelligent parrot companion, that he named the tavern in his honour.
Actual live parrots are a feature of this tavern. Visiting sailors, returning from distant climes, often bring a parrot or two for the half-elven owner, Dulaanis Koehver, who buys them for their weight in wine. The parrots are given free run of the place, and the regulars dote on them. Some of these feathered regulars had grown large and entitled to these indulgences. At night, the Thirsty Parrot is a cornucopia of languages, colours, sights and smells.
For all the wild exuberance of the tavern, the Thirsty Parrot has a reputation as an unlucky place. The tavern’s sign has been stolen so many times Dulaanis has had to pay handsomely to enchant it. Petty thefts, brawls and so on are common events, and the tavern has even burnt down on four occasions. After every disaster, though, the Thirsty Parrot returns—bigger, better and noisier than before.
The Burnt Forest
Forest
This wasteland of burnt and blackened skeletal trees sprawls over a rolling range of craggy, broken hills. The trees stand amid a wilderness of drifting ash, blown into ever-shifting drifts by the incessant wind that swirls about the hills as it ever has.
The trees’ branches, denuded and twisted, reach down to the ash-covered ground like the grasping claws of innumerable, ever-hungry predators. Amid the ruins lie the bones of the uncountable dead—animals and humanoids alike—caught amid the conflagration that swept through the forest. Old timers still recall the blaze, although none can agree on its cause, and its towering pillars of smoke and ash that reached seemingly all the way to the heavens themselves.
And yet, sometimes strange tracks—quickly effaced by the wind—appear in the dust blown about the fringes of the Burnt Forest and a goodly portion of folk venturing into the blasted place never return. Those who survive a trip into that desolate place speak of a deathly silence hanging over the place, broken only by the wind and the clacking of the forest’s branches. In the Burnt Forest, all is death.
Thunder Falls
Caves & Caverns | Subterranean
Deep in the bowels of the Underlands, the mighty Starless River endlessly hurls itself over the aptly-named Thunder Falls. The savage sound of Thunder Falls hammers the ears of those who draw too near to the place, and so powerful and loud is the waterfall that speech in its environs is impossible. Audible for miles, Thunder Falls is over 200 feet high and spray from it drifts through the surrounding tunnels, making them slick and more than a little dangerous. Nothing survives tumbling over Thunder Falls, and it presents a significant barrier to explorers seeking to reach the Darken Sea.
Persistent explorers can dare the surrounding tunnels. Delver lore speaks of a route that takes a circuitous path through a succession of caves that descend to the fall’s base. Part of this route requires delvers to clamber down a sheer escarpment of slick rock within sight of Thunder Falls itself. An elder roper lurks in a cave halfway down the escarpment and feeds on lone climbers, explorers and lesser denizens of the Underlands. This roper has grown old and cunning, and the crushed, disarticulated remains of numerous victims lie scattered about its lair.
Six Odd Ales
Six Things | Ales
Dragonfire Ale: Eye-wateringly potent and with an amber hue, this expensive ale is best enjoyed in small quantities.
Goblin’s Delight: Brewed from slops, leftovers and other things best not thought about, Goblin’s Delight is the drink you drink when your pouch is light and your decision-making is skewed. It’s not pleasant, but it is cheap, and it does the job.
Old Codgers: A small beer, Old Codgers is brewed for session drinking. It’s cloudy and a bit stodgy—like most of the people who drink it—and sediment often gathers at the bottom of the tankard. For all that, it’s cheap and has a devoted following.
Green Frog: This bright green gnomish ale is sometimes—for no apparent reason—slightly effervescent. It has a light, delicate taste and is surprisingly alcoholic.
Sailor’s Ruin: Laced with rum or brandy as circumstances allow, Sailor’s Ruin has a reputation as a drink of the dissolute or the destitute. It is not for the weak-stomached.
Peculiar: This popular near-black stout is thick and has a distinctively smooth taste. Peculiar’s halfling brewmasters keep the exact recipe a closely-guarded secret.
Campaign (noun): a connected series of adventures; Component (noun): a constituent part
Thank you for reading the Sunday Supplement; I hope some of this week’s Campaign Components make it into your game or sparks your creativity.
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.
Remember, Everything is Better with Tentacles!