Kaarlo Tenhunen | Tor Abbey | Goblins of the Death Rune | The Wailing Monk | The Moon Burnt
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: The Boar’s Head at a Glance
Download
Standing on an anonymous alley hidden deep in the Shambles, the Boar’s Head tavern has ever been a haven and hangout for thieves, pickpockets, thugs and worse. Illicit and illegal doings and plotting are commonplace at the Boar’s Head. Now the thief Nikolai Tornia, a rising star in the Shadow Masks, seeks to turn the place into his own personal fief, but, as he does so, the place comes to the attention of a certain band of adventurers…
Languard is a city of adventure! This month, visit the Boar’s Head tavern in Languard’s Shambles (or any slum district in any town or city). Add this thieves’ dive to your campaign today!
02: Kaarlo Tenhunen
Ashlarian Legendry (Master Vampire)
The master vampire Kaarlo Tenhunen arrived in the city of Languard during the winter of 325 NR.
At first, he was subtle and slowly built a small group of devoted (living) minions to do his bidding and bring him food. Kaarlo sought long-lived, pliable servants, preferring elves and their kin, and bound them to his service with promises of immortality after 150 years of service.
As Kaarlo’s hunger and appetite grew, though, so did rumours of a merciless and voracious predator dwelling somewhere in the city. In 473 NR, the Fellowship of the Light discovered his lair—an opulent rambling three-storey manor with extensive cellars—in High City and drove him from Languard. He fled to the dismal swamp-village of Thornhill but was slain there later that year.
Terrible stories now hang over Kaarlo’s abandoned, crumbling and ignored mansion, which has stood empty for over a century. An air of decrepitude and decay hangs over the ruin. It moulders amid a dense stand of tall trees that have grown tall and gloomy, casting the once opulent manor into near-perpetual shade. While no one has dared enter the manor in decades (or dared to enter the place and survived the experience), virtually every High City resident knows of the place and its sinister, blood-soaked history.
03: Tor Abbey
Ashlarian Lore (Fortified Abbey)
This fortified abbey, a holy place devoted to Darlen (*LG greater god of law, order, justice and the sun), wards the Duchy of Ashlar’s western border from its high perch in the Dying Hills.
The sun banners of the Order of the Watch Eternal flutter proudly from the abbey’s impressive ramparts. Devoted to Darlen, this Order of the Watch Eternal stands between Ashlar and the darkness pressing in on all sides. Its members are heroes and protectors of the common folk. A few of their number also delve into the sinister, benighted mysteries of Gloamhold—convinced that some ancient terror lurks deep within. The order comprises paladins, lawful good fighters and priests of Darlen.
Superbly sited for defence and well garrisoned, Tor Abbey is thought impregnable to any normal force. Its high walls sprawl across a lofty, wind-battered hill. Sheer drops to the north, west and south surround the abbey, forcing visitors (and attackers) to approach from the east. The abbey’s defenders keep the immediate surrounds denuded of all vegetation capable of hiding an intruder, and several watch towers ward the abbey’s approaches. No conventional force could approach the abbey unseen.
Built around the Hall of the Blazing Light, the abbey is both a military fortification and a holy place of veneration and worship. Extensive, heavily warded catacombs below the abbey house the order’s glorious dead. As the forces of evil and darkness seek to eradicate Ashlar and more of Darien’s faithful fall in its defence, the catacombs burrow ever deeper.
04: Goblins of the Death Rune
Campaign Component (Aytpical Gobline Tribe)
The deranged Goblins of the Death Rune dwell in the old, flooded gnomish minehold of Glimmerstone. Obsessed with magic, the goblins hunt wizards, sorcerers and warlocks and force their doomed captives to add their knowledge to the tribe’s store of eldritch power.
The legendary goblin hero Iglex Fril founded the Death Rune tribe after he survived an archmage’s *symbol of death*, which slew all his companions. Iglex was intelligent (for a goblin) and became obsessed with the arcane symbol that could bring death to so many. He desired to harness such awesome power for himself—with it, he could subjugate all other goblins and become a mighty king! Iglex died before he could realise his (wildly unrealistic) dream, but by then, his obsession had taken root in the tribe.
Now led by their wizard-chief Shik Zekka, the Death Rune tribe is a small one. If it were not for the tribe’s numerous spellcasters and impressive collection of spellbooks, scrolls and the like, it would have been wiped out long ago. (Some books and items are beyond the goblins’ abilities; such items are kept hidden and safe against the time their mysteries can be unlocked.) The tribe also keeps almost a dozen wolves as pets, guards and mounts and has secured the services of a small number of bugbear mercenaries.
Much of the goblins’ home, Glimmerstone, is flooded. Only the mine’s uppermost levels—arrayed around the unknowable deep Blackglimmer lake—remain habitable. These small, cramped tunnels suit the diminutive goblins well, and the goblins are adept at sculling across the lake on crude but serviceable rafts and catching the plentiful eels and fish dwelling therein. Sometimes, lone goblins disappear on the lake, but the lives of goblins are normally short, unpleasant and violent, and the disappearances go unremarked upon.
Linked Book: GM’s Miscellany: Monstrous Delves
05: The Wailing Monk
Campaign Component (Ghost)
The village church is haunted.
Every year, on the anniversary of his death, the ghostly figure of a cowled monk appears outside the village church. The silent figure seems to struggle with some unseen foe before rushing into the church. A few minutes later, the same ghostly figure appears atop the church’s tower. It again struggles with an unseen foe before plunging—screaming—from the tower’s parapet to the ground far below.
To see and hear the Wailing Monk is to invite death.
Several folk are reputed to have died after witnessing the Wailing Monk’s death-plunge. Now on the anniversary of the monk’s death, the village church and its immediate surrounds are abandoned—villagers staying with distant friends or taking rooms at the village inn for the night.
Local gossips tell the Wailing Monk’s story. Long ago, the church’s priest was accosted by a wandering brigand. The brigand stole the priest’s ornate silver and gold holy symbol before dashing into the church to take refuge atop its tower. There the monk caught the brigand and in the ensuing struggle fell to his death. He can only be laid to rest if his holy symbol is found and interred with his remains, which lie behind the church in a well-tended grave-shrine. (As the monk died well over a century ago, the villagers have long since given up on ending the haunting and have grown resigned and accepting of his annual appearance.)
06: The Moon Burnt
Campaign Component (Werewolf Cabal)
Most werewolves are vicious, solitary predators that hunt the wilderlands for their prey as their primal urges take them, but the Moon Burnt are different. This secret cabal of natural lycanthropes—those who can control their affliction and their base urges—dwell (mostly) in peace with their neighbours.
The Moon Burnt have learnt that to feast wantonly is to court death. The Moon Burnt have also learnt that few of the locals care about the fate of travellers and strangers. The Moon Burnt have learnt how to sate themselves. Many of the werewolves work as carters, coachmen, hunters and wandering merchants or run traveller’s inns or similar establishments—professions giving them access to a steady procession of fresh prey.
Cabal members wear full moon pendants and decorate their homes and places of work with moon emblems to identify themselves and to pay homage to the moon.
On the night of the longest full moon of the year, in the depths of winter, the Moon Burnt gather for the Grand Hunt. This orgiastic bloodletting takes place in a remote forest, and the Moon Burnt spend the preceding weeks gathering suitable prey.
The Moon Burnt also savagely hunt down and slay other, less restrained werewolves. Such wanton, mindless killers bring unwanted attention and are dealt with swiftly and harshly—no one bitten by a Moon Burnt must be suffered to live. Thus, ironically, some of the Moon Burnt have become known as monster slayers and protectors of the common folk.
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.