Thalys's Wondrous Songbird | Ohara Lof | Blackmould Keep | Holy Well | Monksbridge
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 Swandex
The 2025 edition of the Swandex lists all the 20 Things, Dungeon Dressing, Dungeon Backdrop, Eventures, Mini-Eventures, Monstrous Lairs, Urban Dressing and Urban Locale instalments published by Raging Swan Press up to and including December 2025.
This is a massive (and jolly useful) update to the previous editions of the Swandex, which would not be possible without the support of our patrons.
02: Thalys’s Wondrous Songbird
Ashlarian Legendry (Artefact)
Crafted at the zenith of Ilathyel’s shining glory, Thalys’s Wondrous Songbird is a sentient artefact of subtle but awesome power. Forged by the greatest elven artificers and loresingers to celebrate the blessed union of the elf-queen Thalys Loraijor to her consort Niaeven, its beautiful song can control minds, change the weather and weave many other powerful magics.
The Wondrous Songbird was lost in the chaos of Ilathyel’s final collapse and has appeared sporadically across the Known World ever since. It was last seen in the company of Vilimzair Aralivar, the World’s Greatest Ever Bard and Legendary Pirate Captain, who sang several duets with the bird. Perhaps it was these sublime duets that brought the peerless singer to the attention of Seluria Inamiltae, the elven goddess of romantic love and beauty, which in turn resulted in Vilimzair’s elevation to quasi-divine status as her consort and lover.
In any event, what became of Thalys’s Wondrous Songbird after it parted company with the Great Bard is a matter of much debate. The elves ever seek it, and other, less scrupulous folk also hunt for it. The Wondrous Songbird’s value as a mere work of art is incalculable; successfully harnessing its powers could bring its possessor untold wealth, power and influence.
03: Orara Lof
Ashlarian Lore (Personality)
Dead these 300 years, Orara Lof’s was a peerless sculptor and painter whose works are still widely sought by the great and the good. Orara was of exotic and unknown origin, and her craft and skill were (and still are) without equal.
Nobles and the wealthy fell over themselves to own just one of her creations, and kings and queens sponsored the mysterious woman to craft awe-inspiring tableaus and paintings commemorating themselves and their deeds. Orara Lof’s creations were so fine, so exquisite, and so lifelike that wizards and their ilk also sought her out to craft certain statuettes, figurines and statues vital for their eldritch doings.
Her works are now scattered throughout the Known World, and so fine are they that their value has only increased in the centuries following her death. Works inscribed with her maker’s mark—an intertwined OL—are much sought after by collectors, the nobility and wizards. Magical items using her creations as their base, such as various *figurines of wondrous power*, golems and the like, are reported to have enhanced abilities as a result of her matchless skill in depicting the relevant animal or individual.
04: Blackmold Keep
Campaign Component (Ruin)
The very stones of Blackmold keep are said to be cursed.
This ancient ancestral pile stands at the end of a narrow causeway amid the stinking, black waters of a dismal fen. Once home to the Pasanen family, Blackmold Keep is now empty and abandoned—or so people think.
The keep, once a grand place, is slowly sinking into the mire, dragged down by the immense weight of its crumbling walls and lop-sided towers. Bird excrement and virulent black mould gift the fortress an ill, rotting aspect that gives the impression that the stones themselves suffer from a terrible disease.
Rumours—oft repeated by the simple folk of the nearby villages—tell how the last generations of the Pasanen family grew strange and remote in their dismal home. Other, darker rumours, less frequently whispered, relate how the Pasanens “consorted” with the lizardfolk dwelling in the locality and that several of the family’s children—hidden away at birth—were born with terrible and hideous abnormalities.
A generation or two ago, the locals noticed that lights no longer blazed in the castle windows and that the weeds and long-needled brambles endemic to the swamp had begun to reclaim the causeway. The Pasanens—never common sights in the locality—dropped from view and were generally assumed to have succumbed to one of the virulent diseases lurking in the swamp.
But the truth of the matter is far more horrifying. Cramped and fetid, now half-flooded, cellars riddle the ground below Blackmold Keep. Within these cellars dwell strange and hideous half-lizardfolk, half-human aberrations—the last of the Pasanens…and they are hungry…
05: Holy Well
Campaign Component (Ruin)
A gnarled and twisted yew tree—majestic and timeless—stands amid the ruination of an old church and its sprawling, weed-smothered graveyard. Named the Bent Old Man, the tree, at almost 2,000 years old, is far older than the ruined church. It has seen much in its long life. Indeed, the church is not the first place of worship to stand upon this holy site. Some of the stone blocks used to build the church come from a much older structure. A careful examination of those aged blocks may uncover strange markings suggestive of an atavistic druidic origin.
Butterflies and bees buzz about the tree’s mighty 30-foot girth in the summer, and a great feeling of peace and tranquillity fills the area. Folk are calmer, and people speak softly in the Bent Old Man’s presence. Lovers come here to trade sweet nothings in the tree’s shade, and sometimes those engaged in arguments and disagreements are dragged here by friends or relatives to resolve their differences.
The Bent Old Man’s roots quest deep underground to a deep and secret grotto. Here, the borders with the fae realm are thin, and some of that otherworldly place’s essence seeps through into the water. This enchanted water has helped the Bent Old Man grow strong and wide; it sustains and nourishes the tree.
An artesian spring draws its waters from this secret grotto and bubbles to the surface, emerging through a great rent in the old church’s altar stone. A small pool lies before the altar, and the locals believe its pure waters have healing properties. Those who are ill or sick often come here to drink of the spring’s water or to bathe in the small pool. The pool’s fame, burnished by a steady trickle of folk who vow the spring’s water healed them, is slowly spreading—soon, no doubt, an ambitious priest, adventurer or lordling will claim the site and the pool as their own. Violence and death may yet come to this most holy and tranquil place.
06: Monksbridge
Campaign Component (Hamlet)
The hamlet of Monksbridge straddles the swiftly flowing River Nin. An old, ivy-strangled stone bridge, barely wide enough for a cart, crosses the river. The bridge, along with the nearby Monk’s Rest inn, are the reasons for the hamlet’s existence.
The Nin is narrow, deep, and swift. A weir lies immediately upstream from the bridge and controls the water level of the river. It makes fishing easier, as well as making it hard for the salmon endemic to the river to head upstream to spawn. The villagers eat well—if a little repetitively.
A monastery lies a half-day’s walk beyond the bridge. Some of the hamlet’s peasants work at the monastery, but rumours of corruption and wrongdoing by several of the monks are causing unease among the populace. If scandal strikes the monastery, it will inevitably spread to engulf Monksbridge, and several families rely on work at the monastery to feed their families. The hamlet’s de facto leader—Reko Kaleva—is keeping an eye out for someone to get to the bottom of matters at the monastery and to resolve things quietly and discreetly.
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.