Halfling Magic

Strictly speaking, the halflings of the Green Downs are not ones for magic. Mastery of the mystic arts involves hours upon hours of careful study, hours that most halflings would rather devote to honest farm work. So too, in such an insular society, halflings are reluctant to entertain the scholarly traditions of magic from outside the Green Downs.

However, it cannot be denied that the Hinnisch folk often encounter situations in which magic is useful. They too suffer ailments and need protection against robbers and the elements. They too lose tools that no one can find, and they too may be bedeviled by spirits. To that extent, the halflings have their own traditions of spellcraft that exist within their own communities.

In the Hinnisch tongue, magic is known as braucherei, and a practitioner is dubbed a braucher (pl. braucheri). There are only a select few families in the Green Downs that practice braucherei; it is a gift passed down through generations, and most halflings do not bother to study the mystic arts unless they are born into them. The braucher families keep meticulous records of their traditions, sharing their knowledge with their children from a young age to carry on their craft. All braucherei consider themselves members of the same extended family, united by craft if not by blood; as such, they do not intermarry, though any child with at least one braucher parent may have the gift. When a child is born to a braucher family, all braucheri in the nearby villages gather to celebrate the occasion. At these meetings, a ritual is performed to confirm whether or not the child has an innate skill for magic - if they do, they are taught the craft, trained from childhood to carry on the family business.

Braucheri deal strictly in white magic - that is, protective and healing spells. They consider offensive magic and curses - black magic - to be dangerous and unholy, and fear it. In game terms, they are best represented by clerics of the Life or Peace domains. Halfling magic, like the traditions of the cunning folk in human lands, is influenced heavily by religion, and incorporates prayers and the invocation of deities and saints, but braucheri are not ordained members of the Pantheonist cults.

The braucheri collect their wisdom in grimoires - which, in halfling tradition, do not consist solely of spells; a typical Hinnisch grimoire will also contain prayers, mundane remedies, and even recipes for food and drink. These tomes can be considered a collection of all information the braucheri consider useful to have at hand, which, for halflings, includes the more victual pleasures of life. The most prized grimoires of all, however, are the missives of heaven - texts held to have been miraculously delivered from the gods themselves. These texts are magic in and of themselves, and protect anyone who carries them from harm, be it from demonic powers or the hands of men. However, in order for such protection to apply, the user must abide by a code of conduct outlined in the text. Failure to live by its tenets means the spells will be undone.

Braucheri enjoy a position of status within halfling communities, revered as healers, teachers, and religious leaders. Many villagers will turn to them for help that only they can work. However, though it is unusual for halflings in general to stray far from their burrows, and braucheri specifically even more so, there are some that may be found plying their craft in other lands, or along the roads.

Art by Caterina Capogrossi

Background: Braucher

Prerequisites: Must be a halfling. Optionally, a DM may allow PCs of other races to take this background if they have, for whatever reason, been raised among halflings, but this is rare.

Suggested Names: Pennsylvania Dutch names, or classically Tolkienian hobbit names.

Skill Proficiencies: Arcana, Religion

Tool Proficiencies: Herbalism kits, one set of artisan's tools or musical instrument of your choice.

Languages: Hinnisch, Celestial.

Equipment: A healer's kit or a herbalism kit, a grimoire, a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 50 GP.

Feature: Hex Sign. You have been taught several apotropaic sigils, and can imbue them with power; halflings use these to decorate their barns and homes, and they are often of fine craftsmanship, featuring bold colors and artistic designs. You may spend an hour to paint a sign on a building no larger than a barn; all creatures within that building are under the effects of a protection from evil and good spell. This effect ends if the sign is damaged or the wall it is on is destroyed.

Friday Encounter: The Clever Stag

In the Lunar Lands, all living things - and some non-living things - are sapient. Every animal has thoughts and feelings, hopes and dreams, just like a person does; they just express them in their own ways, which make sense only to them. Each animal speaks its own language - they consist of certain sounds, gestures, and pheromones that are indecipherable to the uninitiated, but this is a true language, and one can learn to speak and understand it, though this is much harder than learning another humanoid language, and to speak it (rather than merely understanding it) may require the ability to vocalize subtle sounds humans cannot.

Here's an encounter that plays with that idea. It is best suited for a wilderness environment - ideally, it should be used if the PCs decide to hunt for game.

Background

Somewhere in this woodland lies an enchanted tree that has stood for untold millennia. If it is known, it is known only to the beasts of the wood, and any elves and druids in tune with its mysteries. This tree produces a sap that, if consumed, allows a creature to speak and understand any tongue - including those of the beasts and birds.

Also in this woodland there lives a stag named Barkbrowser (a literal translation from the cervid language, the subtleties of cannot be represented in text). Barkbrowser is a vain and conceited deer who is quite proud of his antlers. Although he, like all stags, sheds his antlers in the winter and grows back a new set in the spring, he is not content to let his old antlers be lost in the weeds, but would like to keep them at hand to marvel at his beauty. He regards his own antlers as a human would regard a work of fine art. Despite his vanity, Barkbrowser is a particularly clever stag, even by the standards of men. He fed upon the magic sap, and became fluent in all tongues - and quickly realized how he could use this ability to advance his own goals.

Barkbrowser's last set of antlers recently went missing from his stash. He learned from the birds and the squirrels that they were taken by Marielle Essert, an enchantress who dwells within a tower somewhere in the woods, who intends to turn them into powder for a potion. Barkbrowser knows that he, a mere deer, cannot hope to take on a powerful magician. However, he knows that the gift of speech can be quite useful for his purposes, and intends to use this to get his revenge.

The Encounter

The PCs should come upon Barkbrowser in the woods, perhaps while hunting, or by mere happenstance. Importantly, they should be led to believe that he is nothing more than an ordinary deer - up until they get close enough, in which he calls out to them in their own language!

He will claim that he is in fact a prince who was cursed by Marielle to take the form of a stag, and beseeches the party to help in lifting his affliction. He will not speak of his true name, or mention the magic tree - he wants the PCs to think that his ability to speak human speech is related to his "true" identity. He knows the location of Marielle's tower, though he has not gone inside of it and does not know its contents. What he does claim is that the PCs can find a set of antlers in Marielle's tower that, if touched to his skin, should lift the curse.

Should the party believe the "prince's" story and seek out Marielle, they will find that she mainly keeps to herself and has no outward hostilities to them - however, considering how she has set up her operations in the woods so that she is not bothered with meddlesome outsiders, she won't take kindly to intruders. She has a clay golem, inscribed with the orders to protect the tower, that she has constructed to ward off any strangers, and it will accost anyone who attempts to break into the tower. You can feel free to add other challenges you see fit to expand this encounter, or make the tower into a mini-dungeon, at your discretion.

Marielle keeps Barkbrowser's antlers in her workshop where she makes her potions. A skull is set in a niche over the door to the workshop and will scream if any unfamiliar creature attempts to enter the room (DC 10 Arcana check to identify this alarm). Marielle can hear this scream from anywhere in the tower and will come running if it is triggered.

If confronted, Marielle will have no knowledge of ever placing a curse on a prince and will be quite confused by the allegations. She will try to turn the PCs away, growing increasingly frustrated if they persist, but will not initiate violence unless she feels clearly threatened. She has the stats of a mage.

Further Developments

If the PCs return the antlers to Barkbrowser, they will of course do nothing - he just wanted to look at them. He doesn't care about any acts of theft or violence they may have had to perform to retrieve them - he's a deer, after all, and is hardly concerned with the notion of civilized morality. He's just happy to have his antlers back.

If the party was cheated into such deeds, there will of course be consequences. If Marielle is still alive, she will likely be displeased with the party for disrupting her research and interfering with her studies, and she may seek revenge. Alternatively, if she dies, her relatives or acquaintances may become enemies of the party. And the excuse that they were tricked by a talking deer likely won't hold up in the courts.

Of course, the PCs may wish to research why exactly there was a talking deer there in the first place, if he really wasn't a cursed prince. This pursuit may lead them to the enchanted tree, which could well be useful to them in their adventures. Barkbrowser himself might also become a recurring NPC, especially if the party decides to seek him out - a deer who can speak any language could prove the center of a useful spy network.

Wayward Halfling Youth

Art by Pajazet

As a rule, the halflings of the Green Downs are highly community-minded. They shun overt expressions of individuality as being arrogant and pretentious, preferring to focus on the practical matters of life. However, it is natural for the youth of any society to push back against its norms and values, and halflings are no exception.

In Hinnisch society, it is to be expected that young people will try to act out and rebel against society. The halflings have known this paradigm for generations. As such, they do not push back against it - they know it is natural for their sons and daughters to seek out independence when they reach a certain age, and as long as they are not disturbing the peace, they are allowed to do as they please. The wisdom of the elders holds that the wayward youth will return to the ways of their parents sooner or later; until then, it is best to allow them to live as they please. Fighting against their youthful whims will only encourage them more.

When life in the Green Downs is so heavily focused on the hearth and the fields, and it is considered gauche to be too concerned with matters outside of the home, teenage rebellion, in halflings, tends to take the form of leaving their burrows in search of more adventurous activities than they are used to. They may wish to see more of the world, and to deal with the ways of big folk, integrating into society more than is common in the isolated Green Downs. This period of wanderlust is so common and accepted, it has become something of an unwritten rite of passage in halfling society - in some communities, to leave the home and live among big people is a ritual anticipated by everyone in the village at the cusp of their adulthood.

Most commonly, halflings on this excursion will find work in a given trade in human lands, plying the skills they are familiar with from their time on the farm. They may serve as farmhands or shepherds, or they may ply their trade at woodcraft (the Hinnisch are known as great carpenters). However, it is not unheard of for them to find work in less honest trades. Their quick wits and their ability to fit into tight spaces are valued skills for burglars, and many a halfling has found lucrative work among thieves' guilds and roving bands of treasure hunters.

Typically, a halfling's excursion from their society lasts a few years, and ends with them returning to the Green Downs to marry and establish a burrow of their own (men also grow out their sideburns at this time, as a visual marker of their adulthood). The majority of halflings quickly realize that the farming life is a dependable one, and far less risky than one on the road. However, some of them do choose to stay in human society, which has led to many of them integrating into the settlements of big folk. In this way, they have spread far and wide beyond their homeland in the Green Downs, and can be found just about anywhere in the known world.

Worship in the Green Downs

The halflings of the Green Downs do not construct temples. In the Hinnisch philosophy, to build a specialized edifice for prayer, with all the statuary and ornamentation that entails, is too pretentious. The Hinnisch folk prefer things to be tasteful and practical, and there is no need to pray in gaudy building when one can do so at home.

Nor do the halflings have any priestly or monastic orders. Preferring to live for themselves and to be unbothered, they have little use for rigid hierarchies that arbitrarily allot power to some people over others. Instead, halfling religious traditions emphasize the value of community, and of communal life.

The practices of the Green Downs, though ostensibly part of the same traditions as the formal Pantheonist cults, have little oversight, and they have diverged in numerous ways. A key point is that the halflings believe that anyone can lead worship - if the prayers are written down, the sacrifices to the different divinities are understood, and the people know how to interpret signs that the gods are pleased or not, then there is no need to turn to an external authority for such matters. Holy symbols in the Green Downs are not the purview of clerics, and just about every family keeps a talisman or two to ward away evil spirits, just in case.

In lieu of temples, the halflings observe communal worship in their neighbor's homes. Every other Starday, and on holidays, a given community - usually about 20 to 30 families in the same general vicinity - gathers at the burrow of one of their number (the position rotates such that a different family hosts the service each time, usually hosting once every year), where the head of the household leads them in prayer.

This entails much more than simple worship, however. Much of the Green Downs consists of isolated homesteads, so these meetings present a rare opportunity for the community to come together and for people to catch up on local gossip, considering their only other opportunity to meet up with their neighbors might be on market days. Also, given the halfling propensity for gastronomy, these meetings always include a communal meal, which tends to take up much of the day. A portion of the food is set aside for the gods as a sacrifice, but for many this ritual is merely a formality and the real appeal is getting to share in the company of one's fellows - and to partake in the food, of course. It is no small undertaking to feed an entire clan of halflings, and every host family typically spends several days in advance preparing for the feast, which often includes delicacies seldom enjoyed on ordinary days. To cook a worthy feast and to impress one's guests is an important mark of good burrowkeeping.

Though they are intended to bring the community together, it is not unheard of for halflings to rope any travelers who might be passing through or staying nearby into their services - sometimes among the congregation, and sometimes to help prepare, if they are hosting. They have been known to insist on this, whether the travelers like it or not. Even still, there are plenty of reasons for travelers to look forward to a Starday in the Green Downs. For many, a Hinnisch Starday service is as good a place to hear rumors and local news as any tavern - not to mention to get a good meal and a pint or two of ale, and for free at that. Those unfamiliar with Hinnisch practice, however, should take note that, while ordained priests and monks of most Pantheonist orders study magic and can offer their services to worshipers, most halflings do not - if one is in need of healing, they may need to ask around for an herbalist.

Friday Encounter: Gold Rush

This encounter is probably best suited to a town, either one the PCs are currently staying at or one they encounter on the road.

While the PCs are at some public space (such as a town square, inn, or tavern), they hear a great commotion all around them as one of the villagers runs in, waving around a map. They explain the news - apparently, a group of treasure hunters were recently passing through this area, and they pinpointed the location of the burial mound of an ancient king somewhere nearby. As was typical in the area, the king is surely buried with a great treasure hoard.

Now, the whole town knows there's a untold riches buried nearby, just waiting to be discovered. This certainly isn't something the people are willing to keep to themselves. Now, it's a race to find the burial mound, and the treasure, before anyone else does - and the PCs are tied up in the middle of it all!

This encounter could easily kick off several sessions in the campaign. The idea is to throw the party into conflict with a number of different factions with a common interest. The town agrees that whoever can discover the treasure first rightfully gets to keep it, but everyone would like to get a hold of it for different reasons. If the PCs decide they want to get in on the hunt as well, they may end up butting heads against the other factions, or they might decide to ally with one or multiple parties - or even play them against each other!

A few rival parties are listed below, but feel free to add your own if you run this encounter. To give the PCs more of a hook to get involved, it's a good opportunity to bring in existing NPCs the party has met before - possibly enemies, but possibly even allies to stir up conflict.

• The Treasure Hunters: A band of itinerant adventurers looking to get rich quick by whatever means necessary. They aren't from around the town, and many of the townspeople distrust them, citing their nature as outsiders as a reason to cast doubt on what they say. Nevertheless, they boast of many accomplishments and heroic deeds, and have won some villagers to their side. Consists of Edmund von Schlosser, a stoic and dutiful but not very bright fighter; Trude Dreschner, a nervous mage; Ingiz Kibiteb, a canny, scheming, smooth-talking dwarf; and Hermann, a local with romantic ideals and delusions of grandeur swayed by the adventurers' tales and motivated to join their cause.
• The Nobles: Led by Dame Berit Hoekstra, a knight in service to the local lord; she feels that the wealth would strengthen her family's treasury, and has pressed her retinue into service in seeking out the hoard. She comes from a proud lineage of knights and looks down on the common people, but believes strongly in the ideals of chivalry and will not willingly lie or misrepresent her cause. In addition to Dame Berit, the party also includes her squire Erik, a mild-mannered boy who wishes to impress her but is afraid to speak up; and two men-at-arms named Sigmund Grosse and Natascha Sonnen.
• The Destitute: A band of beggars, farmers, and other poor sorts who have banded together under the leadership of Brenno Edernsert, a local who has appointed himself as a self-proclaimed champion of the people who wishes to stand up for the common folk against the oppression of the elite. They openly spurn the nobility, but insist that the treasure must go to those who could use it most and do not believe in hoarding wealth for personal gain. They insist on dividing the treasure up among each other, so if the PCs join in they may end up with a smaller piece of the pie. In addition to Brenno, the party also includes Hilda Dreier, the daughter of an ailing farmer who wishes to support her family through uncertain times; Arne Olson, a monk seeking alms to distribute to the poor, and Matthias, a runaway slave looking to buy back his freedom.
• The Outlaws: A gang of brigands hiding in the woods on the outskirts of town who have also gotten wind of the treasure, and would be happy to have it to line their purses. They have no interests in benefitting anyone other than themselves, and have no loyalties to the town or anyone in it, existing outside of society. They are not afraid to use lethal force against anyone who gets in their way. Consists of Hector the Red, a calm and cold-blooded swordsman; Leberecht von Baren, a boisterous, hot-tempered brawler with a taste for ale; Gustav Durr, a clever cutpurse who would rather hide in the shadows than engage threats directly; and Tanja Strobel, an expert markswoman who is keen on making ambushes.
• The Lone Wolf: Franz Sauter, a gruff old mostly-retired mercenary whose years of experience have made him grow cynical and weary of the world. Still, he thinks that he has one more brush with his glory days in him, and sees the treasure hunt as an opportunity to rekindle that spirit. He insists on working alone, arguing that he knows how to handle himself, and isn't interested in sharing - or in admitting that he would need to rely on help from anyone.

To give the PCs time to interact with the different parties, make alliances, or scout out the area, it's best to run this encounter over a period of several in-game days - perhaps a week, but you can adjust this period to be longer or shorter depending on what you're looking for in terms of pacing.

There are six possible locations for the treasure, shown on the diagram here. This information represents the treasure map shown to the party, so it's helpful to provide your players with a copy; their characters know where the treasure could be, but not where it actually is.

Each hex equals three miles, requiring an hour to traverse. Roll a d6 to determine which location the treasure is at. Once a creature is in a hex containing a possible treasure location, they must make a DC 20 Investigation check to search the hex. On a success, they know whether or not the hex contains treasure; on a failure, they waste one hour looking, but can reattempt the roll at a DC of 5 less (this can stack multiple times).

The first night, none of the competing parties will attempt to search out the treasure, but the second night, one party will make a move; the third night, two parties will make a move, and so on. Determine which party will make a move randomly, then roll 1d6 to determine which location that party will attempt to search. The rules for searching a hex are the same for the competing parties as they are for the PCs.

The party can spend one hour meeting with any of the competing parties, though they may or may not share information with them depending on their relationship with the PCs. Keep track of which hexes each party has searched to determine what information they might be able to share with the PCs - though they may also try to mislead them, if they see them as opponents!

If the PCs manage to find the treasure before any of their rivals do, it contains 1000 GP's worth of gold and jewels per party member, plus one magic item that would be useful for each member of the party (DM's choice). Even if an NPC party gets to the treasure first, though, that doesn't preclude the PCs from trying to take it from them...

There are a number of ways to customize this encounter. In addition to adding more rivals, you can add monsters, hazards, or additional threats as you wish to add to the challenge - and interesting interactions could occur if the other parties run into them too. You could even run the burial mound as a dungeon with its own traps, puzzles, and guardians if you want to give the PCs an extra challenge in retrieving the treasure. An alternative way to trigger this encounter would be for the PCs themselves to find the treasure map, and for them to be a little too loose in talking about it while in public - if the locals learn of treasure nearby, it's only a matter of time before word spreads...

The Halfling Heartland

Halflings can be found in just about any corner of the known world. Of all the humanoid races, they are the most integrated into human society; although they have their own villages, many of them live alongside humans, and vice versa. Halflings - or Hinnisch, in their native tongue - migrated just as humans did, and although they tend to live comparatively sedentary lifestyles, they still found places to settle across the continent, wherever there was pleasing climates and arable land.

However, all halflings claim descent from their native land, the Green Downs - a fertile region in what is now central Vardessy, where the foothills of the rough Schaderbergen Mountains to the southwest give way to rolling highlands and lush valleys. This area boasted good soil, bountiful woodlands, and was a place of relative safety and peace, sheltered from the outside world. In a sense, it was the perfect place for halflings, and the ancestral culture of these people was shaped by the terrain in which they first settled; a culture that still holds strong to this day.

There are halfling villages across Vardessy and beyond, but the Green Downs boasts the highest halfling population in the Empire. A heavily agrarian region, it has no large cities; the vast majority of its populace live in either small villages or solitary homesteads. This is just as the halflings like it - away from the hustle and bustle of urban life, they prefer to focus on the simple things. As the Hinnisch proverb goes, as long as the sun is shining, there is food in the pantry, the livestock are healthy, and the crops are growing, there is no reason to be concerned about anything.

Of course, the halflings of the Green Downs are not without merriment in their lives. Some travelers hold their taverns to be among the finest in the land (if a bit cramped for big folk), and they gather at weekly communal meetings at each others' burrows, where there is much drinking, singing, and dancing to be had. Ostensibly, these meetings are for the reading of prayers and the offering of sacrifices to the gods (Eostre and Solenna being the most prominent in Hinnisch practice), but they also serve as opportunities for local communities and extended families to reunite, and for news and rumors to be shared.

The Green Downs are not a single province of Vardessy - several duchies and counties claim parts of the land under their jurisdiction. However, in practice, the halflings hardly know their feudal lieges' names. Their relationship with the rest of Vardessy is somewhat of a mutual agreement of isolation - the halflings stay out of Imperial business, and the nobility is content to let them govern themselves. Their lives are so mundane that conflicts rarely come up anyway, and when they do, it is usually a matter uncomplicated enough that the patriarchs of the affected families can come to some settlement. But of course, adventure can be found anywhere, for those who know where to look, and the Green Downs holds wonders of its own.

Crownlands Hex Map, Part 2

Once again, another two-part hex map. Fortunately, the remaining two regions should be more sparsely populated, so this is likely going to be the last of this size.

Click here to enlarge

Each hex equals six miles. See here for part 1.