Codex of Elder Times | Kraken Bloodweed | Fallen Orc Empire of Nithor | Ravencrag Keep | Vanished Treasure Fleet of Talazar
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: Ashlarian Calendar
Download
In the original DMG (the greatest gaming book of all time), Gary Gygax said “Game time is of utmost importance.” He continued (with emphasis), “YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPT.”
I’m not going to argue with him, so here’s a free calendar: use it with the Lonely Coast, Picaroon Peninsula, the Duchy of Ashlar or the Citadel on the Wilderlands (or a setting of your own creation).
02: Codex of Elder Times
Ashlarian Legendry
The Codex of Elder Times—a legendary tome said to be of ancient pre-human origin and curious design—looms large over the history of the world.
The codex—a huge tome comprising wafer-thin sheets of beaten bronze protected by thick covers of some unidentifiable material—contains certain primal secrets of the universe. Written in an unknown, forgotten tongue, it survived ancient Varakar’s destruction and has sporadically appeared and disappeared throughout recorded history.
Surviving accounts of those who have possessed the book hint at the terrible secrets held within—secrets too shocking, powerful and sanity-shattering to be held in any mortal’s mind.
Dire fates have befallen almost all those who have possessed it. Some have been driven mad by what they learnt from the book, while others have been slain by close friends and companions. Others disappeared without a trace or unleashed devastation on an almost unimaginable scale after failing to control the book’s primal powers. Wars have been fought over possession of the Codex of the Elder Times, and countless power-crazed or merely curious folk have died in pursuit of it. Many sages and wizards now believe the codex to be cursed and view as insane any who voluntarily seek it out.
03: Kraken Bloodweed
Ashlarian Lore
This mottled black and green seaweed has jagged, tooth-like fronds that ooze a reddish-green sap. If a character touches the weed with bare flesh, the sap causes painful blisters and rashes. Vigorous washing with cold, freshwater, or milk can ease these symptoms. In rare cases, eating the weed leads to death, and skilled assassins steeped in herb lore are said to create deadly poisons from highly concentrated blood weed sap.
Kraken Blood Weed grows in profusion in and around doom-drenched Gloamhold and crumbling Greystone’s forsaken, crab-haunted harbour.
04: Fallen Orc Empire of Nithor
Campaign Component
A bloodthirsty dynasty of orc warlords—the bestial, semi-divine progeny of the orc gods Nargen Blood-Fist and Veznor One-Eye—ruled Nithor for centuries. Nithor’s iron-shod legions of berserk warriors fought unceasingly against the humans of Yex. The war against the pathetic and weak humans and their allies was a constant of Nithor until savage, merciless and ruinous civil war engulfed the empire. The destruction wrought in the decades-long war hurled the orcs further backwards into barbarity, irrevocably sundering Nithor.
When Yex fell into its own civil war, however, the orcs took advantage of the chaos and confusion besetting their hated enemies. From among the rabble of orc borderland tribes rose a mighty warlord, one claiming divine descent. A loose coalition of tribes broke upon Yex’s borders like a sudden winter storm and overwhelmed its weakened defences. By the time the orcs fell to fighting among themselves, Yex was no more.
Nithor sprawled across the Dargoth Hills—a hunched, time-worn range of low-domed hills interspersed with dank, repugnant pockets of marsh and mire. This forbidding, miserable and desolate hill rage extends for hundreds of miles eastwards, and the orcs claimed it all but for the mysterious Lake of a Thousand Stars on whose waters they dared not venture.
Exploring the Dargoth Hills and Nithor’s leavings is a dangerous affair with little prospect of reward. Many orc tribes dwell amid the ruins of their fallen empire, and most folk are content to leave shattered Nithor and its barbarous inhabitants well alone. Glittering glory and treasure lie elsewhere, and, in any event, Nithor lies beyond fallen Yex, making reaching it doubly difficult and dangerous.
(Read about the Grim Lands and fallen Yex here.)
05 Ravencrag Keep
Campaign Component (Dungeon)
Grim, grey-walled Ravencrag Keeps stands atop a wind-scoured narrow ridge amid a wild and untamed range of wooded hills far from civilisation’s glittering lights and soft comforts. Boasting formidable defences and supremely well sited, this old robber-baron’s fortress has withstood countless attacks from the savage tribes of evil humanoids who dwell amid the surrounding hills.
Also named Ironwolf Keep, after its hideously scarred lord, Morgan Ironwolf, there is nothing soft or easy about this old fortress. Ravencrag is a lonely pinprick of light amid the howling dark of the wilderness. Its defenders, though few in number, are doughty and vigilant. Adventurers also come to Ravencrag in search of reputation and glimmering treasure. These stout souls come to explore the wilderlands, slay monsters and push back the ever-present darkness. Although it is a hard place, reputations have been forged, and fortunes have been won at Ravencrag Keep.
But a single track links Ravencrag Keep to civilisation; it winds its way through the wooded hills, past the famed 200 feet high Grey Mistress waterfall—truly a spectacular sight after heavy rain—eastwards to the Duchy of Ashlar. Stockaded hamlets, isolated farmsteads and charcoal burner’s huts dot the surrounding woodlands. Such folk are as hardy as any borderland people and well-used to defending what is theirs.
06 Vanished Treasure Fleet of Talazar
Campaign Component (Weapon)
Laden with the vast hoard of the elder wyrm Vuthankaer, the four ships of the Vanished Treasure Fleet of Talazar disappeared over a century ago. Some fanciful tales blame the fleet’s disappearance on a storm of unnatural ferocity and duration, while others blame Vuthankaer’s vengeful ghost for its destruction. Whatever the truth of the matter, neither the fleet nor its mistress, the evil archmage Talazar Racalann, returned to port, and they are widely assumed lost.
The elder wyrm, a gold dragon of exceptional age, dwelt on a lonely island amid the Bitter Sea. Tales of his wealth were legion, and many black-hearted folk had tried to slay him and take it for their own. Talazar was an archmage as puissant in the arcane arts as she was lacking in mercy, empathy and charity. Reputed to be the greatest spellweaver of her generation, she had long sought immortality, and lengthy research had revealed that Vuthankaer’s hoard contained a singular item. This item, the gem-studded *Amulet of Maccan-Zar,* crafted from a single piece of sky-flung tordel was reputed to be the phylactery-prison of the elder lich-lord Ningia Ensarama. To Talazar, such an item was valuable beyond compare.
She slew the elder wyrm Vuthankaer in a mighty spell-battle and took the amulet and the dragon’s attendant treasures as her own. Her ships were dangerously overloaded, however, so great was Vuthankaer’s hoard, and they did not survive the storm or whatever other doom befell them. Some folk cling to the belief that the ships were driven ashore on some unknown island or stretch of isolated coastline and that Vuthankaer’s vast, glittering hoard could yet remain unclaimed.
Related: Read about Tordel here.
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.