The Keep on the Ukian March

Art by Anders H

Way back when, I posted a list of published modules, adventures, and locations I had placed somewhere in my setting, embracing the spirit of modular content that could be dropped into an existing game world. I don't think there's any official product that shows this spirit any more than The Keep on the Borderlands. It's designed to be a dungeon (or group of dungeons), a village, and the surrounding areas between the two, ready to drop into any setting, or indeed for a setting to be developed around it. I can only imagine how many settings the humble Keep has seen itself embedded into, and even though it was later retconned into being a part of the Known World of Mystara, it was written with the intent of being free for the DM to customize to suit their needs, to the point where, famously, the NPCs don't even have names - you're supposed to do that yourself. When I placed the Keep in my setting, I did so in the Ukian March of Vardessy, placing it on the...well, borderlands between the Empire and the rugged lands of Ukiah. As we focus in on Ukiah for the Year of the Gazetteer, it's only natural that I explore how I would customize The Keep on the Borderlands to fit the Lunar Lands.

The Keep

The Keep described in the module is Snowhall Keep, an outpost of the Empire of Vardessy, and the political center of their portion of the Ukian March. It was established as a garrison against further incursions by Ukians, as well as the orcs and goblins that also call Ukiah their home. In addition, it is a place where those expeditions going deeper into the March to hold the line against the forces of the Khan can rest and resupply. To that end, there are many soldiers and mercenaries that pass through here, but also caravans from further afield looking to trade with Ukiah. Though the Keep has grown into a self-sufficient settlement of its own, it still wears its history as a fortification on its sleeve, with the people living a regimented life and experiencing few of the comforts that might be better known to those within the imperial core.

• The corporal of the watch is Wulfram Nohl, a sellsword who pledged his service to the Margrave and was eventually appointed to his position when he was impressed with his service. He was a wanted outlaw in Vardessy, but fled to Ukiah knowing he would be pardoned there. His reputation is known by the guards, who regard him with suspicion, but aren't willing to test his patience.
• The bailiff is Sir Tycho von Beckenbau, one of the Margrave's knights. He is rather paranoid about security, and takes great pains to ensure the Keep's defenses are not compromised; to this end, he holds his men-at-arms to exacting standards. His coat of arms is a pattern of blue and white wavy horizontal lines, recalling waves.
• The jewel merchant is Mikhail Otten, a wealthy trader from Halvardy who is here to do business with the nobles of the Keep. He hopes to expand his enterprises into the Ukian lands and do business with the clans, but finds the tension between Vardessy and the Ukian clans an unseemly obstacle to his plans, and is frustrated that the peoples aren't on better terms. His wife, Sylvia, is less pleased with the more spartan conditions of the Keep and would wish to return to the comfort of home as soon as possible.
• The priest is Hadrien du Romaine, and he and his acolytes are members of the Rightful Order of Lescatie - those that hold the opinion that Wilmarina I is a pretender to the position of Matriarch. He had fled to Ukiah in the face of persecution in his native land. He is not a spy for the Caves of Chaos; however, he is a coward who will sell out his loyalties to their denizens in exchange for safety when he feels himself threatened.
• The smith is Karl Warner, a vassal of Sir Beckenbau who accompanied him to the Keep to lend his services. He is a loyal man, sworn to the service of his liege. His two apprentices are Inga Salzwedel, a patient, obedient, and clever girl, and Johanne Seiker, a boy with dreams of something bigger who has been known to be a troublemaker.
• The provisioner is Rudolf Hummel, a merchant who chose to stay in the Keep to do business with the mercenaries who pass through. He is a proud member of the Margrave's militia and fancies himself a great fighter, though his wife, Cornelia, feels that his training is little more than a formality and that he shouldn't make such claims.
• The trader is Wendelin von Langenburg, and was once a soldier in the first Ukian Wars against Jahken Khan. Though he has settled down since, he is still a member of the militia, as are his sons, Andre and Pepin. In his stint in the military, he did much business with fur traders among the Ukians - and became quite aware of how brutally cold the winters could be.
• The banker is Sigmar Lehr, a former mercenary who settled down in the Keep after being hired to repel raids by the hobgoblins years ago. He regards the hired guard, Diedrich Jansen, as a protege of his and has helped him train in the fighting arts, though Diedrich is loyal only to money and only sees Sigmar as a paying client. The clerk is Greta Falke, an old woman with a sharp tongue and a few magical tricks up her sleeve.
• The captain of the watch is Sir Werner von Bram, a knight in service to the Margrave. His coat of arms shows a goat's head in silver on a red field, with two silver spurs in the chief. He is a firm believer in the ideals of chivalry and judges those who do not abide by him as beneath him.
• The innkeeper is a stout man by the name of Taln, who lives with his wife Nina and their son Paul, and the inn is called the Emperor's Arms. He is a modest but honest man who only wants to sustain his family, though he is reluctant to get involved with trouble, even if things get rowdy in the inn.
• The barkeep is Dmitriy Sieger, a Kvessian man with Northman blood in his veins, and his tavern is called the Stumbling Reindeer. He is a jolly soul and will often strike up conversations with his patrons, and offers toasts to great heroes frequently.
• The guild master is Kurt Hofer, an emissary of the League of Three Crowns - a prominent association of merchant guilds primarily operating on the Sea of Bartel. Although Ukiah is far from their sphere of influence, he hopes to expand its reach into the March, and his exacting standards are in the aim of securing dominance over trade routes in the area.
• The curate is Gerhard Bader, the Archbishop of Ukiah, and an official in the Cult of Voltan. He is a loyalist to the Matriarch, though he has never been to Lescatie in person. All Voltanite cults in the Marches report to him, though in other lands, he is regarded as something of a backwater hooligan, with his diocese being on the far edge of civilized lands. Like many important officials in the Cult, he is a monk and has devoted his life to the study of theology, philosophy, and magic.
• The captain of the guard is Sir Matthias of Leistadt, a knight in the service of the Margrave. His coat of arms is a white swan on a green field. The sergeant of the guard is Sir Alwin Fulchard, a close friend of his even if they don't see eye to eye on Alwin's rowdier ways. His coat of arms shows three boar's heads in gold on a black field, with a gold chevron in the middle.
• The two corporals of the guard are Borislav Ruslanov, a Kvessian mercenary, and Josefine Mainz, an outlaw who fled to Ukiah seeking shelter. Both view each other as boorish louts and thugs of ill respute, and they have a fierce rivalry over the favor of Sir Matthias.
• The scribe is Sir Jacob Hasse, an official of the Keep and a warrior-priest of Mimir. He has pledged his service to the Margrave, though he finds his current position to be far less interesting than what he was promised. His coat of arms is a white book on a blue field.
• The advisor is Lamminkyla, an elder of one of the elven tribes that dwell in the forests of the March. He came to live in the Keep as an ambassador to the Margrave, though he came to enjoy the comforts of his new home and has eschewed the more rustic ways of his ancestors.
• The castellan is Margrave Godebert Sturm, the official in charge of the Ukian March, and the feudal lord of all Vardessian nobility therein (though there are not many beyond the Keep). His coat of arms shows a gold raven perched on a white wall, against a purple background.

Adventures Outside the Keep

This section can go largely unchanged. The one difference is that the denizens of the raider camp in area 3 are not merely bandits, but a party of Ukian warriors in the service of Kostten Khan, led by a fierce fighter by the name of Jaaggar. They are here to spy on the Keep for their master, and have evaded detection thus far by posing as a group of traders. In addition to the treasure listed in the book, they travel with their horses, a small herd of sheep, and a yurt that they have pitched not far from their camp.

The Caves of Chaos

Rather than a singular ravine, I would likely break the Caves up into a number of separate mini-dungeons spread over the map as proposed here. Most of these are simply the settlements of different tribes of orcs, goblins, and other races, and are not necessarily allied to one another.

• The merchant in area 24 is Steffen Bunchoten, a member of the League of Three Crowns whose caravan was ambushed. His wife, Anja, is an enchantress and made her dagger herself.
• The Shrine of Evil Chaos is now Broken Skull Canyon, a cavern that once belonged to the gnolls in area J, but that has now been taken over by a cult of necromancers. The gnolls avoid the cavern, as they can smell the stench of death on the air. The cult worships Bune, the Mighty Great Duke of Hell - a demon who has taught them in the arts of necromancy. It is led by Sir Hans van Russem, the evil priest; he was once a paladin of Torvald, but was corrupted by the very demons he swore to oppose, and went mad with power. For now, he is content with gathering his followers and waiting for further directions from his master, but how long will that last?

Mezurdim

Popular wisdom might hold that Ukiah is a wasteland of nothing but snow, trees, wild beasts, and men who act like wild beasts. But that would not be true. Many wonderous things can be found within the borders of the Ukian lands. Among them is Mezurdim - the Jewel of the Dwarf Holds. Of all the dwarven cities and fortresses that dot the mountain ranges of the land, Mezurdim is easily the largest and the grandest; if any one hold could claim to be the capital of the dwarven lands, Mezurdim would surely be it. According to dwarven tradition, it was built on the site that the first dwarves emerged from the earth - and with how long dwarven memories are and how meticulous their histories are, there may be some truth to that.

Art by Chenyang Huang

Although there are many dwarves that live among humans and have assimilated into their culture - not, of course, without holding on to their own esoteric traditions - the great dwarf holds are massive complexes of tunnels, chambers, and towers extending both above ground and far beneath it, constantly expanding over the many centuries they have stood for. Each hold is, in effect, a self-sufficient community housed inside one structure, with its own farms, forges, and living quarters. They are testaments to the dwarven drive toward craftsmanship, each one a marvel of architectural engineering. And none of them is greater than Mezurdim.

Technically speaking, Mezurdim sits within Kvesland's portion of the Ukian Marches. But in practice, it is autonomous from Kvesland, with its own king and its own society - as the spiritual home of all dwarfkind, no one really complains if it must exert its authority. For that matter, it has never really considered itself a part of Ukiah, nor do the Ukians lay claim to it. It is nestled in the Great Wyrm Ridge, a formidable mountain range second only to the Halvards in height, with high craggy peaks, steep cliffs, and harsh winds guarding it against incursions from the nomads of the plains or the goblins of the Ridge's many valleys. To even get to Mezurdim is an undertaking in and of itself, and many expeditions to seek the fabled city of the dwarves have ended up crushed beneath avalanches or succumbing to starvation - it is no wonder, then, that the city must sustain itself.

Art by Pixel

But despite all the dangers, there are many reasons to go to Mezurdim. Travelers have charted a few routes through the mountains to reach the great dwarven hold, but those who wish to make the journey must be aware that even the safest route carries its perils - and that many maps in existence are forgeries made by unscrupulous charlatans that will lead only to frustration at best and death at worst. The city is a polity in its own right, and Kvesland maintains diplomatic relations with the dwarves there - the royal court has an ambassador from Mezurdim who supplies them with the finest gifts every Midwinter. So too there are plenty of caravans, both from Ukian clans and the settled kingdoms, that travel to Mezurdim for trade, supplying the dwarves with rare materials in exchange for their fine works of art.

Of course, not all goods Mezurdim produces are valued only for their aesthetics. The dwarves are renowned as makers of magic, producing unbreakable chains, multiplying rings, statues that speak, swords sharp enough to cut mountains. Many a traveler has sought out the great smiths of Mezurdim to create wondrous things. But the dwarves, of course, are not wont to share their craft with outsiders without due payment for their services, and many who have tried to swindle them have been stricken with curses.

Those who are lucky enough to lay eyes upon the Jewel of the Dwarf Holds will find it a marvel to behold. It is the product of generations upon generations of dwarven artistry, and possesses wonders beyond imagination. The part of the city that is above ground consists of two great towers hewn from the living stone of the mountain, each of them covered with ramparts, towers, and intricate engravings, menacing with spikes and encircled by bands of precious stone. They house many wonders of their own, such as the Palace of the King, from which pours four artificial waterfalls; the Hall of Heroes, a gallery of statues of all the great kings and ancestors of the dwarven people; and the Grand Temple of Weyland, the center of the cult to the god of craftsmen and artisans. Such a temple draws many a pilgrimage from devoted craftsmen, both dwarven and otherwise, and is said to be the finest marvel of architecture in all the land. In addition, the temple is used to exhibit the masterworks of Mezurdim's craftsdwarves, so that all may see the perfection they have wrought.

Curiously, the name "Mezurdim" translates to "three towers" in the local dwarvish tongue, but there are only two towers standing. According to legend, when the first king of Mezurdim was on his deathbed, he promised the city to whichever of his three sons could construct the greatest tower. One of them, thinking he could impress his father by constructing a great work of architecture in a fraction of the time as his brothers, decided to expedite the process by employing goblin slaves to construct the tower, and it was finished before either of his brothers were halfway done. However, the old king was unimpressed - his son showed no appreciation for his own work in tasking it with others, and the slaves put no heart into the construction when they were forced to build the tower. Not even its architect could claim he was proud of his handiwork when he had only constructed the tower as a means to his own advancement. Disgusted by his sloth and carelessness, the king exiled his son, who took his retainers and dug deep into the earth, disappearing into the bowels of the World Beneath. Before he left, though, he issued a curse upon his breathren, and his tower would soon collapse in a great earthquake that left devastation in its wake. Historians debate as to whether this was a result of the curse, or if he just rushed along the construction and didn't properly brace it against earthquakes.

Art by Crocorax

Whatever the case is, it is known that there are ruins of a bygone age beneath Mezurdim, ruins that not even the dwarves have charted, and ruins they have locked away behind closed doors, kept out of sight out of fear for what dangers may lurk in the shadows. Some brave treasure hunters have gone into these forgotten vaults and emerged with riches, and some have even claimed the passages go all the way to the World Beneath. Perhaps these are the same tunnels the spurned brother dug on his exile - and perhaps their denizens are descendants of his line...

Friday Encounter: Wispers on the Wind

If there's one D&D monster I don't think gets used to its full potential...it would be the peryton. I've already written extensively on this subject. But if I had to pick another, it would definitely be the will-o-the-wisp.

I think my issue with how people use wisps boils down to my issue with how a lot of monsters get used - people aren't able to look beyond the statblock. They assume that a wisp is there to be fought. That the wisp itself should be the danger. I mean, it has combat stats, you must be able to fight it, right? But perhaps more than any other monster, the will-o-the-wisp is one that deserves to be something more than a combat encounter. When the party encounters a wisp, it should not be a cue to draw swords and start fighting immediately. In fact, I would argue that the wisp's stats probably shouldn't come up at all. If you're fighting a will-o-the-wisp, you're doing it wrong. The wisp shouldn't be trying to pick a fight with the PCs - it should know it can't take them by itself. But it doesn't need to.

If you look at the folklore behind wisps, you'll notice that they're most commonly associated with leading travelers astray to fall victim to dangers in the wilderness. But you don't really see them attacking people directly. A wisp isn't an enemy, it's an omen. It should be a trap for gullible travelers to get themselves into trouble - or perhaps a warning sign for danger up ahead. And an effective will-o-the-wisp encounter should reflect that.

Wispers on the Wind

This encounter should occur at night, while the PCs are traveling - it can work if they are moving through the wilderness, ideally through a swamp, but it can easily fit in a number of different environments, even in a dungeon. Regardless, the PCs should notice a light out in the darkness, fluttering back and forth. It will do this to try and get the PCs' attention, lingering around until it's sure that they've noticed it - and then, it will shrink away, retreating back into the shadows.

This light is, of course, a will-o-the-wisp. But in the darkness, it should be hard to tell that for sure. It could be an unseen figure holding a torch or lantern, or, yes, even just a ball of swamp gas. PCs who pass a DC 15 Arcana check will be familiar with wisps, knowing that they are the lonely spirits of those who died in the wilderness far from home and civilization, and that they want nothing more than company. Unfortunately, they seek out such company by leading other travelers to their doom in the hopes that their spirits too may linger.

If the PCs follow the wisp in the direction that it retreated to, they will always see it in the distance - it will always seem to be one step ahead of them, staying back and darting around corners, but never staying in one place long enough for more than a passing glance. It's trying to lead them along, after all, and it hopes to do so by encouraging their curiosity, so once it knows that it's being followed, it won't let itself be studied easily. The wisp continues leading the party along a distance, until they're a good ways off from the path they were on originally.

Eventually, the wisp will hang in the air above a certain spot, staying still and waiting for the PCs to approach it. But the spot it's stopped at holds some danger for the party, in one way or another - the wisp has led them into a trap! Feel free to tailor this situation for the environment you're using the encounter in. If the wisp was encountered in a swamp (as is traditional), for instance, it could be leading them into a mass of quicksand. Or it could be encountered on a high mountain pass, where it could try to lead them off a ledge, or onto a rickety bridge that will surely give way if the PCs aren't careful (and in the dark, they may overestimate the stability of the bridge). In a dungeon, it might stop over a concealed pit or another trap. Or it could just lead the PCs into the path of hostile enemies. Whatever the case will be, the wisp will not try to engage them directly in combat. That's not what it's there for. It's already brought its targets to their doom - now, it's up to whatever other dangers are in the area to do the hard part for it.

Even if the PCs manage to escape whatever danger the wisp led them to, however, they'll likely be a good ways off their path. This is the wisp's backup plan. Whether by leading them into danger or just waiting for them to succumb to the elements, it's determined to have a new friend, one way or another...

The Ukian Marches

Art by Ci-Annwn

When Vardessy and Kvesland came to one another's aid against the raids of Jahken Khan, they were not so foolish as to withdraw from the territory they claimed. The threat of a united Ukiah was one that called for strong defenses, and the two powers could not afford to leave their frontiers unguarded against another incursion. To that end, both Vardessy and Kvesland established their own Ukian March within Ukian territory, occupied by their armies for the purposes of maintaining a garrison and monitoring actions over the border.

Owing to Ukiah's harsh environment and paucity of resources, the main purpose of the Marches is defense, not economic prosperity. The occupied territories possess many robust fortresses and walls - many of them, especially deeper into the region, are wooden pallisades and motte-and-bailey constructions, though the largest and most prominent are of stone. So too, the roads are lined with watchtowers to keep watch for incursions by raiders and to set an alarm if necessary, and patrols are a common sight, with the few brave caravans that trade between the settlements often heavily guarded. All who live in the Marches are well aware that disaster may befall them at any moment - and if they're lucky, it will be in a glorious, interesting way at the hands of the fearsome Ukian riders, rather than merely succumbing to famine and the brutal winters.

Nevertheless, the Marches have their settlers nonetheless. The Queen of Kvesland and the Emperor of Vardessy wished to reward their generals for their service in the prolonged and bloody conflict, and carved out fiefs and baronies across the steppe for them to house their families and retainers, giving them a rare opportunity to advance their social standing in exchange for pledging their sword arm against raids. So too, there were many second sons of knightly lineages, with no hope of inheriting the family fief, who joined the war in the hopes of settling the land won, or who came to the Marches later to take up vacant plots under their protection. They are petty nobles, each perhaps ruling over a few scattered villages and maybe a monastery nestled amidst the steppes and forests, but land is land.

Then, there are the outlaws. By imperial decree, one who was declared an outlaw (and thus free to be killed without punishment) in Vardessy proper would not be prosecuted as such within the boundaries of the Ukian March. This served two purposes - for one, when a harsh life in the Marches seemed unpalatable to many, the Emperor needed to ensure there was incentive for people to migrate there and hold the line against the Ukians; furthermore, this would ensure these hardened criminals were at least far from civilization and at the mercy of Ukians, orcs, elves, and the elements, and that if anything happened, it was at least happening to them and not productive members of society. Many bandits and thieves were among the first few migrations to the Marches, if they could make it there without being recognized along the way. In the imperial core, those from the Marches thus have the reputation of being brutish, untrustworthy, and barely more than barbarians themselves - though in truth, many settlers have done quite well for themselves, with some bandit gangs having settled and formed villages of their own. As long as they're directing their raids against enemies of the crown, they can be left to their own devices.

There are few settlements in the Marches larger than a small village, and those that are are usually only so large due to the protection of a keep. The settlers live a hardscrabble life, subsisting off of tilling the fields when they aren't too frozen to work and cutting wood in the dense forests. They quickly realized there was little use for luxuries when wealth was hard to come by; often, barter dominates, given that goods are innately useful and valuables can only be counted on to arrive when the merchant caravans make it to town and hopefully haven't been picked clean by then. Raiding by Ukians is accepted as a part of life in the Marches, and many settlers train to at least be able to defend themselves.

Some clans can be counted upon to trade - some even in exchange for providing defenses against raids by other clans - but the prevailing view among the Ukians is that there is something unnatural about the settlers. They stay in one place, with houses that are simply unsuited to easily packing up and moving elsewhere when needed - what fool would do such a thing, when the weather itself can be a formidable foe? Their presence would be a source of amusement, were it not for the fact that several migration routes of Ukian herds pass through now-settled territories, which has sparked clashes and disputes. Since taking his father's place, Kostten Khan has vowed to drive the settlers away from Ukiah and restore balance - and many are sharpening their swords for the day such aims will be realized. At the same time, the first generation born in the Marches is just beginning to come of age, and no one knows what may come.

Art by Justin P. Feil

The Vardessian part of the Ukian March answers to Margrave Godebert Sturm, who carries out the Emperor's will from his post at Snowhall Keep. The second cousin to the Duchess of Halvardy, he was originally an unlanded knight before being granted the postion as a family favor. Though he has proven to be a canny ruler and his men have held the borders against incursions, he was abruptly placed on a pedestal perhaps too high for him on short notice, and he sometimes finds himself confronted with decisions he never could have prepared for. Often times, he has needed to rely on mercenaries to do the dirty work for him, since he doesn't need to worry about managing the competing interests of his knights and lieutenants that way. But perhaps he overspends the Keep's funds on such contracts...

The Kvessian part of the Ukian March answers to Margravine Alvilde Zima, who rules from Kalmanskiy Castle. Like many Kvessian nobles, she is a student of the mystic arts, and prefers to keep herself secluded in her tower, leaving day-to-day operations to her generals. She pursues her studies with the intent of securing dominance over her protectorate, and her spells have granted bountiful yields to nearby farmers and called down storms against invaders, which has made her popular among the peasantry. However, her distance from domestic affairs have led many of her high-ranking officials to grow impatient with her, and they are secretly planning a coup. None of them are prepared to take on such a sorceress, and their efforts have stalled without a means to level the playing field against her power. But should they find one, they may grow bolder...

History's Greatest Hits

I've posted a fair amount on this blog about the Dragon Quest series, and in particular Dragon Quest III, a game that I grew up with and which influenced my approach to DMing. I've always been intending to go back to the game and see how well it holds up from when I was a kid, and I've finally gotten around to doing it. It's definitely made me more interested in pursuing the rest of the series, both out of personal interest and to mine it for gameable ideas, but for now, I'm starting with the one I remember. In doing so, I noticed one thing interesting about the game and its world, and something that I've seen in quite a bit of fantasy worldbuilding.

See, the world of DQ3 is recognizably a malformed, rotated version of our Earth. The continents are largely recognizable, and there are areas based on real-world regions located where you'd expect them to be. However, while the geography matches up, the history not so much. The game plays it fast and loose in respect to historical accuracy, and it's not afraid to mix and match different eras in its inspiration. The first town you go to after leaving your homeland is noticeably based on imperial Rome, complete with colosseum. But across the sea is a region that recalls ancient Egypt, where you delve into an ancient pyramid (of course) to retrieve a magic key that allows you to access a town that corresponds to Portugal during the Age of Sail, and from there you get a ship you can take to areas reminescent of feudal Japan, medieval Scotland, and a town of settlers on the continent equivalent to North America. It's all there in the same world, at the same time, and nobody questions it - it just is.

It's an approach to worldbuilding I've dubbed a History's Greatest Hits setting, and DQ3 is far from the first time I've seen it. There are plenty of settings out there that flippantly and shamelessly crib from real-world history, mashing together the fun parts of different eras into a single world. Probably the most famous literary example is Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age, which grew out of him wanting to write historical swashbuckling adventure, but not wanting to tie himself down to accurately depicting any one era - it's a setting where Conan can fight knights in one story and Egyptians in the next without anyone batting an eye. The Known World of Mystara has also often been described this way, with its Byzantines, Mongols, Vikings, and Arabs all a stone's throw from one another, although it's perhaps not quite as drastic with how it's willing to stretch the limits of contemporaneity. Warhammer Fantasy, although its baseline is somewhere around the 1500s, still has a Renaissance-era Holy Roman Empire with a (French-speaking) Arthurian England to its west and marauding Norsemen to the north. And, yes, my own Lunar Lands is no stranger to this phenonmenon either, with regions based on Dark Ages Scotland, colonial Mexico, Renaissance Italy, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Abbasid Caliphate all coexisting, to name a few.

Deadliest Warrior

It's easy for me to see why a setting like this might come to be. While a History's Greatest Hits setting might risk questioning by historians on how plausibly the different cultures and technologies of these far-flung eras can coexist, and perhaps that stretches the boundaries of versimilitude, they're usually designed with a more utiltarian purpose - versimilitude comes second to providing a theater where exciting adventures in different settings can happen with the same characters in the same world.

They're also helping in providing touch points to players and readers to understand the setting - not everyone is willing to sift through an eighty-page history of the Great War between the Zornaphian Satrapies and the Oligarchs of Runos, but if you pitch it as "it's basically ancient Greece," say, people will instantly have a good idea of what things look like, how people act, and what they can do. They're easy to handle on the writer/DM side of things too, since a lot of the worldbuilding is already filled in for you; the most you might have to do is throw in a few points of divergence to make things interesting ("It's like the Aztec Empire, but with the dueling culture of 18th century Prussia!") or to see how things can fit together ("Why would there be Landsknechts on the border with Mongols anyway?"). Plus, there's just some people who recognize that seeing a samurai and a musketeer team up to fight cavemen is just inherently kind of neat. I don't think it's any surprise that so many fantasy writers fall back on settings like these, and there's almost certainly many examples out there that I missed.

Friday Encounter: Stampede!

This encounter may be used while the PCs are traveling through a rural environment or on a road or trail. It will perhaps work best in an environment with established traditions of driving livestock over long distances, such as with the vaqueros of Valossa or the herdsmen of Ukiah.

While the PCs are traveling, up ahead, they can see a large herd of livestock being driven down the path, goaded by herders on horseback. Depending on the setting, these might be cattle, horses, reindeer, or any sort of large domestic beast common in the area. Suddenly, the herdsmen lose control, and the animals begin to speed away from them - and straight toward the party! They can hear a great thundering of hooves approaching, and clouds of dust rise over the horizon as the herd grows closer and closer. They'll have to act fast - a stampede is coming!

The idea behind this encounter is to give the party an exciting and dangerous scenario that demands quick action without involving combat, forcing players to think in creative ways as to how to apply their characters' abilities. At the start of the encounter, enter Action Time. In addition to the PCs' initiative, the DM rolls 1d20 to determine initiative for the herd.

The stampede starts 100 feet away from the party. On each PC's turn, they may make an action. Most commonly, this will be to try and get as far away from the stampede as possible, such as by using a Dash action. On the stampede's turn, it moves 50 feet in the direction of the party. At the beginning of each round, roll 1d20 to determine if any complications come up that round:

1. Poor visibility (such as dust clouds or wind). All PCs must make a DC 10 Perception check or have their speed halved for the round.

2. Obstacles block the path (such as logs, trees, or large rocks). All PCs must make a DC 13 Acrobatics or Athletics check to bypass the obstacle or have their speed halved for the round.

3. The ground becomes rocky and uneven, acting as difficult terrain. PCs must move at half speed for the round unless they have some way of circumventing the terrain.

4. One PC determined at random must make a DC 13 Acrobatics check or trip and fall prone for the round.

5.  The path is straight ahead, and could easily be traversed in a sprint. Each PC may move two times their normal movement speed this round (four times if using a dash action!), but must make a DC 12 Constitution save if doing so or take one level of exhaustion.

6. One PC determined at random must make a DC 13 Acrobatics check or get their foot stuck in a hole. They are restrained until they can make a DC 13 Acrobatics or Athletics check.

7. The path takes a steep slope upward. All PCs must make a DC 13 Athletics check or have disadvantage on all actions for this turn. Alternatively, they may take one level of exhaustion to bypass this effect.

8. A barrier blocks the path forward (such as a fallen tree, stone wall, or fence). All PCs must make a DC 12 Acrobatics or Athletics check to jump over the barrier or lose a turn as they waste time climbing over it.

9. A hazard of some sort (like falling rocks or brambles) is in the party's path. All PCs must make a saving throw appropriate to the actions they are taking to avoid it; on a 1-9, they take Dangerous damage; on a 10-14, they take Setback damage, and on a 15-20, they take no damage.

10-19. No complications arise this round.

20. The PCs are unusually lucky. Each PC may take an extra action this turn.

If any PC starts their turn behind the stampede, they take 2d10 bludgeoning damage as they are trampled underfoot. If three rounds of this pass, the stampede passes by and the affected PC takes no further damage. A PC may use the Help action to pull an ally out of danger.

Once ten rounds elapse, the animals skid to a stop and the herders manage to get them under control.

PCs may wish to make attacks or spells against the stampede, if they think it will do anything to stop it or slow it down. Use the stats of an Aurochs (see Volo's Guide to Monsters) for the stampede as a whole should they become necessary, with the exception that the stampede has 380 HP. It would be unlikely for the PCs to take it out, but not impossible - although the herdsmen will not be happy with them if they do!

If a PC wishes to calm the herd down, they must make three successful DC 15 Animal Handling checks on consecutive rounds, using an action for each. They have Advantage if they can communicate with the animals somehow, such as a speak with animals spell. If this works, the herd disperses and the stampede ends.

As always, don't be afraid to let your players improvise and come up with their own solutions. They may well surprise you!

Shamans of Ukiah

In a harsh land like Ukiah, no one can expect to survive on their own. The communal structure of Ukian life, built around family ties, is a testament to that fact. But there are still reasons for Ukians to live alone. One might commit a grave enough crime to warrant exile from their tribe, forcing them into a lonely existence. As the Ukians do not believe in spilling blood against their kin, this is effectively their equivalent of a death sentence, leaving the condemned to the elements - but occasionally, an exile may eke out a life for themselves, sometimes even journeying west and south and finding work among outsiders.

The other reason a Ukian may live alone: if they are a shaman.

Though it isn't uncommon for Ukians to know a few simple spells here - usually those who are naturally talented, as the Ukians are largely illiterate people with no time to study grimoires - it is the shamans who truly carry on the magical traditions of the land, and who are regarded as masters in their craft. They are revered for their abilities to project their spirits from their bodies and into other realms, where they confront, negotiate with, and at times do battle with higher powers. Ukian shamanism displays a syncretism of traits from Pantheonism and the Old Faith, with a hierarchy of revered spirits - the most honored are the gods, who are greater than any other and who are recognized by all the tribes, but each tribe has its own pantheon of domestic spirits of the land and of their ancestors. Khans, generals, and elders of past generations may be called upon by a shaman, whose spirit may take a journey to the Land of the Dead to consult them in matters that ail the tribe.

In Ukiah, shamans are born, not made. No one becomes a shaman who has not been marked for such a fate from birth. Odd physical features, such as birthmarks, extra fingers, or being born with teeth or a caul, are considered signs that a baby will grow up to be a shaman, but other times, it is simply that they carry an aura of power that may be felt by those who know how to attune themselves to it. In the Lunar Lands, some people are simply born with more magical aptitude than others, just like how one can be gifted at a particular craft - in Ukiah, however, this means much more.

When one who is destined to become a shaman comes of age, they are sent away from their yurt to live with another shaman as an apprentice. A shaman may have a number of apprentices at one time, and their duties may include mundane tasks such as gathering firewood and looking after the herds so that the shaman may devote their time toward more spiritual pursuits, but these apprentices also undergo training in the arts of magic, mastering the same spells and rituals that their mentors did. Once the master has taught their apprentice all there is to know, the apprentice goes off into the wilderness to establish a yurt or hut of their own as a shaman.

Ukian shamans do not belong to a clan or tribe. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that their tribe is that of all shamans, and their clan is that of the spirits of the land and of the dead. A shaman may inhabit the same lands as a tribe, and in some cases they may even travel along with a clan, but they are not considered part of the clan, nor are their spouses or children, and their livestock and property is not considered to be owned by the rest of the clan (woe betide the fool who borrowed a shaman's tools or slaughtered one of their goats without permission). Shamans are allowed to marry and have children, and indeed some Ukian clans claim descent from shamans, though many choose not to in order to focus on their arts, living in the wilderness as hermits along with their apprentices.

Shamans enjoy a place of honor in Ukian society; Jahken Khan, the first to unite the tribes of Ukiah, was himself a shaman, and his magic proved a great asset in his wars of unification. Because shamans have great powers beyond the ken of most Ukians, they are often sought out to lend their aid in matters such as telling the future, healing the sick, finding lost items, or dealing with magical threats (or sometimes becoming magical threats to one's enemies). They do not perform such services for free, however, not even to their own parents or siblings - after all, they are not part of the same clan; indeed, a member of any clan can seek the aid of any shaman, even if that shaman was born to a rival clan, and it is considered rude for a shaman to refuse services for such reasons. A shaman may demand tribute in the form of animals, trade goods, or tokens of metal, bone, or gemstone used to focus magical energies, the latter of which are often hung from the shaman's drum as a display. Cheating a shaman, or otherwise drawing their offense, is definitely not advisable.

Music plays an important role in Ukian shamanism, and many spells are cast in the form of songs, not unlike traditions of bardic magic. However, not all Ukian songs are magical in nature, and shamans make use of the same motifs and instruments as more mundane songs. This music is characterized by a form of animalistic chanting called joiking and the beating of a reindeer-hide drum. Shamans often work such performances into rituals, in which they work themselves up into a trance, during which they pursue audiences with spirits or allow them to possess their bodies so that they may work their skills.

In fact, a Ukian shaman drum has many uses, and they are not limited to the use of shamans. Every yurt has one, each of them one of a kind and passed down from generation to generation; when a new yurt is built, a new drum is made and consecrated in a special ritual to imbue it with power. These drums are inscribed with runes and diagrams so that when a pointer made of metal or bone is placed on the drum's surface and the drum is tapped with a hammer, the movement of the pointer can be interpreted as an oracle. For instance, if the pointer points to an image of cattle, and then an image of arrows, it may be interpreted as a sign that disease will strike the herds. Ukians use shaman drums in such a fashion to plan journeys, predict the future, and guide them through difficult decisions. Though anyone can use shaman drums in such a fashion, Ukian families are fiercely protective of their drums, and refuse to let them fall into the hands of enemies. Many carry powerful curses that afflict those who would steal them...

Ukian Shaman Drum

Wondrous Item, common

Art by Kati and Teemu Paananen

If a pointer is placed on the surface of this drum and it is hit with a hammer, the motions it takes and the images it point to can be used to tell the future. Once per day, a Ukian shaman drum can be used in a ritual that takes one hour to perform in order to cast Divination. Alternatively, a user who is attuned to the drum can use it as a spell focus or to cast Foresight, Contact Other Plane, or Scrying once per day using a ritual that takes one hour to perform. Only one spell can be cast using the drum per day. Only Ukian shamans can attune to the drum.

The Ukian Way

For the Ukians, the yurt is more than merely a shelter from the elements. It fits that role, yes - a circular lattice of flexible wooden beams draped with felt and animal skins, providing a dwelling that can easily be assembled and disassembled so that its parts can be carried wherever its owner goes. But the yurt is also the core unit of the Ukian people, and their way of life. Each is home to an extended family, typically headed by the patriarch of a clan and including all his sons, their wives, his unwed daughters, and his grandchildren. All of them dwell in the tent, returning there to take meals and to sleep on the floor beneath furs. It is thus a place of meeting where the family comes together after the day's work is done to sing songs, drink mead, and make plans for the next day. It holds all of their belongings, and all of their livestock are kept not far from the tent. The family may change as elders grow old and die, as warriors are slain, and as daughters leave one yurt to marry into another, but the same belongings, the same wealth, and the same yurts all stay in the family and are passed down for as long as they remain viable, communally owned by all members of the family, who decide on what to do with them by mutual agreement (though this is often guided by advice from the patriarch).

Sometimes if a family grows too big to fit within a single yurt, they may split off and build yurts of their own, but they usually still travel with their kindred, unless great offense forces them to separate. So too, after two families are married, it is not uncommon for their yurts and herds to travel together. A group of individual families joined this way makes a clan; a group of clans united by a common ancestor or way of life makes a tribe. The Ukians take their geneology very seriously, and they keep meticulous records of who belongs to what tribe - any Ukian can trace back their ancestry to their clan and tribe, and the leaders of the tribes - the Khans, usually generals appointed by the elders of the clans for their leadership and skill in battle - know the clans under their command.

It is only recently that Ukiah saw its first Great Khan, a leader capable of uniting all the tribes under his banner. But even then, the structure of tribe, clan, and yurt has not been forgotten. As a matter of fact, because these systems of relation and loyalty arose to help promote communal effort and mutual survival in the harsh lands of Ukiah, they also provided the perfect framework for organizing an army. Much like a general commands several lieutenants, who each commands several warriors, a Khan commands the heads of several clans, to whom the elders of each family turn for advice. Indeed, it is not unlike a feudal system, though it is not tied to land. The family goes wherever they go, making long journeys between the grazing lands in the north when they will sustain their herds in the summer and the forests of the south when they must take shelter from the cold winters.

Tall and slender, fair in both hair and skin, and dressing in furs and hides, the Ukians could be mistaken for elves, and it is thought that they may have some elvish blood, far back. They are not a people of great wealth and splendor. They are practical folk - their home is a brutal one, and they must make do with what they have. Without the means or the lifestyle to grow crops or extract ore, they must live off the land; they forage for food and raise animals for meat, milk, and hides, including cattle, sheep, reindeer, horses, and (in the mountains) llamas. While they will trade with the occasional caravan for luxury goods, often dealing in furs and ice from the mountains, they cannot expect this to be a regular occurance, especially in times of war - which have grown more and more common with the pressure of raids and the encroaching occupation of the Vardessians and Kvessians, though some clans maintain trade deals with their settled neighbors. Instead, the Ukians have a robust wealth of knowledge of what plants can be eaten, where to go to find medicinal herbs, how to navigate the trails, and how to survive for long periods in the cold. As the Ukian winters are harsh, cold, and snowy, they have even developed a means of running across deep snow, placing minimal pressure on the ground at each step to avoid sinking.

And of course, they are quite apt on the battlefield. Every Ukian trains in archery and riding, and the arts of wrestling, falconry, and knifeplay are highly valued as well. Not only are they skilled hunters, they are also fierce fighters, and the able-bodied men and women of any yurt will not hesitate to take up arms in its defense. Every Ukian family is a hunting party and a military unit if it needs to be, and when they count orcs among their neighbors, this is a necessity. So much more the better, when their close familiar ties ensure their cooperation.

Predictably, the Ukians most commonly are worshipers of Kerne, god of war and the hunt, and Volos, the god of cattle and herdsmen. Many follow the Old Faith as well, and there is much debate as to which of the powers they invoke are deified ancestor and nature spirits and which are manifestations of the gods - perhaps it is a mix of both. They do not have free-standing temples, and their altars usually take the form of carved wooden poles or stones bearing holes for libations. Ukian worship is often a brief and simple affair, with warriors making personal offerings for good fortune but little in the way of rituals. Unless the shamans are involved, that is...

Background: Ukian Tribesman

Weapon Proficiencies: All simple weapons

Skill Proficiencies: Nature, Survival

Tool Proficiencies: Artisan's Tools, one musical instrument of your choice.

Languages: Ukian

Equipment: A hunting trap, a set of travelers' clothes, a shortbow, a quiver with 20 arrows, and a pouch containing 10 GP.

Feature: Survivalist. Deep snow does not count as difficult terrain for you. Additionally, you are familiar with any natural features, trails, and resources in territories you have been previously, and can find food and fresh water for yourself and up to five other people each day, provided that the land offers berries, small game, water, and so forth. You also can expect your yurt, clan, and tribe to shelter you, assuming you have not done anything to offend them.

Friday Encounter: A Pilgrim's Burdens

This encounter should be used when the PCs are on a road, on a journey from one place to another along the route. It will have the most impact if the system you're using has encumbrance rules and if the players track them.

Dark Souls III

While traveling the road, the party should cross paths with an old man heading the same direction they are. He has a long white beard, and he wears a wide-brimmed hat and a weather-beaten cloak pinned by a seashell; a DC 7 Religion check will indicate that this is the mark of a pilgrim. His back is bent and stooped over with age, and he teeters along on a walking stick. Most notable, however, is the fact that he is carrying a great load of bags on his back, clearly struggling against their weight - his body shudders as he moves, and the bags bulge from the load shifting around inside of them. As he walks, one of the many satchels he carries on his back splits open, and a few gold coins and jewels spill onto the road behind him; he continues on his path, seemingly unaware of this.

The "pilgrim" is, in fact, Meili, the god of roads and travelers. Characters that pass a DC 15 Religion check will know that Meili often walks the roads in disguise to test the virtues of mortals; clerics or paladins of Meili, or characters with the Acolyte background that belonged to an order devoted to him, will know this automatically. As a matter of fact, Meili intends to test them through this encounter.

If the PCs ignore the pilgrim, nothing of note happens - but as soon as he is out of their field of vision, the next time they look in the direction he was, both he and the spilled wealth are nowhere to be seen. Nothing else happens.

If the PCs attempt to help the man carry his burdens, or point out the money he's dropped, he will be grateful for their aid and commend them on the care they are willing to show another traveler. He mentions he is on a pilgrimage to a shrine not far from where the party is headed to, and asks to join them, citing that a weary old man like him is at the mercy of bandits and the elements if he was to make the trip alone. Optionally, you could spin this out into a whole escort mission, introducing other encounters along the way (such as an attack by highwaymen, or a rickety bridge that the man is liable to fall from); at each step along the way, Meili will be judging the PCs for their honesty and their courtesy to their fellow wayfarers, especially those weaker than they are. He will also ask them questions about who they are and where their journeys have brought them - but he may make reference to information about the PCs' pasts or other adventures that they have not shared, indicating he is more than he seems.

Once the PCs are within sight of their destination, when they are out of sight of any onlookers, Meili reveals himself. He tells the party they have passed his test and that they display all the virtues an honorable traveler would. As a reward, he will grant them a blessing - the next time they embark on a journey of similar length, they will find they are able to make it in less time than they anticipated, and arrive at their destination in half the time it would take them otherwise.

If, however, the PCs try to steal the man's treasure, or attack him or otherwise accost him, Meili will be displeased. He suddenly rises to his full height with strength and spryness defying his apparent age, and announces in a booming voice that the PCs are cruel and callous ruffians who would take advantage of an old man, no better than bandits. He will then inflict a curse upon them that they may bear the weight of their sins!

PCs receiving the curse will find that the weight they are carrying is unnaturally heavy and cumbersome. The weight of all the items in their inventory is multiplied by three if they tried to steal the pilgrim's wealth without him noticing, or by five if they attacked him. If using other encumbrance systems, feel free to come up with a suitable effect that carries the same penalty (for instance, for a slot-based encumbrance system, the PCs may lose two-thirds or four-fifths of their slots). Alternatively, PCs traveling under the increased load take a level of Exhaustion each day unless they abandon two-thirds or four-fifths by weight of their inventory. As this is an act of divine intervention, a remove curse spell or similar effect will not alleviate the curse; it will only go away when the PCs reach their destination, hopefully having learned something from the ordeal.

The Howling Steppe

There is nothing worthwhile to be found in Ukiah, so the wisdom goes. It is a wild land of rugged mountains, deep dense forests, and endless plateaus, where beasts roam free and men live like orcs. Even the Northmen are more civilized than the Ukians - they at least have towns and villages.

The Ukians, meanwhile, are nomadic pastoralists, living off the land and driving their herds of cattle, horses, sheep, and reindeer from one meadow to the other as the seasons change, their settlements little more than camps of yurts gathered around a communal pasture and likely to be somewhere else in a month. They dress in leathers and furs, they fight with bows, spears, and knives, and they are just as wont to raid their neighbors as trade with them.

Art by Gambargin

In truth, the Ukians' way of life was shaped by circumstance. The northern lands they dwell in have poor soil, and the terrain is foreboding - to say nothing of the brutal winters, where temperatures can drop below freezing even out on the treeless plains. So too, they count among their neighbors the goblins of the Great Wyrm Ridge, the Northmen to the west, the elves of the deep woods, and the Northborn Orcs of the Icy Coast, subject to their predations and caught in the middle of their wars. To survive in such a harsh climate, they were forced to make do with what they had. Forced to fight for their lives, they became ferocious warriors; every Ukian, it is said, trains in the bow from the day they can walk. Forced to forage for food, they became keen trackers and hunters - it is said that every Ukian knows what herbs and roots are edible, how to harvest syrup from trees, and how to pursue tracks through the snow. They are not merely barbaric rabble - their society is surprisingly regimented, with every tribesman knowing their place in the hierarchy of their clan and the role they have to play. They have no other choice; if they weren't so strict, they would surely perish.

The fearsome reputation of the Ukians would soon become known to their more settled neighbors in Kvesland and Vardessy - they made periodic incursions on their frontiers, raiding villages for crops and valuables. For the most part, however, they were of relatively little concern - their attacks were infrequent, the borders were well defended, and the Ukians waged war among one another often enough to keep them too busy to mount any organized threat.

That was, until the unthinkable happened.

In the last forty years, a great warlord rose up among the Ukians, by the name of Jahken Khan. Through a series of conquests, alliances, and political marriages, he managed to unite the various Ukian clans, organizing them into a formidable army. And it was that army that struck Vardessy with incredible force, driving many from their homes and even managing to claim several of the very fortresses built to defend against Ukian incursions.

Scrambling to defend themselves against this threat, the armies of Vardessy and their Kvessian allies were able to reclaim the lost territories and beat back the Ukian hordes. They made considerable incursions into Ukiah, establishing a system of marches and allotting the land to their nobles. This was a task of necessity, and one geared more toward strengthening the border than for any economic value brought by the land, but there were enough would-be settlers to volunteer for such a goal - second sons of noble families in need of their own manors, rootless mercenaries rewarded for military service, and even criminals who fled to the Marches to escape the law. Over time, these settlements were able to keep the hordes at bay, and the attacks have since dwindled.

Of course, the fighting is not over. The Khan's son, Kostten Khan, has since taken over his position, and already he has made great claims toward restoring his family's glory, with some clans hailing him as a prophesized leader who may yet eclipse even his father. The settlers have bred resentment in the Ukians, disrupting their trails and grazing lands, and many disaffected tribes have flocked to the Khan's banner.

Yet, settlement has not ceased either. There are still many reaches of Ukiah that are yet untamed, and many trails that have yet to be charted. Local nobles offer hefty prizes for those who return from such expeditions, and many have felt this is the opportunity they need to win their fortune and to make a name for themselves. But how long will such arrangements be feasible before another war breaks out?

Togarmah Hex Map, Part 2

As promised, here's the second half of the Togarmah hex map. Go here for Part 1.

Click here to enlarge

Togarmah Hex Map, Part 1

With another month coming to a close in the Year of the Gazetteer, it's time for another hex map. Each hex equals six miles.

This is probably the biggest and most detailed hex map on this blog to date, and for the sake of length, I'm breaking it up into two posts. Stay tuned for the second half tomorrow.

Click here to enlarge

Friday Encounter: The Magnificent Party

If I had a nickel for every time I blogged
about a guy named Akira who inspired me,
I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but...

If you've been on this blog long enough, you'll know how much I love feudal drama and how underutilized I feel it is when it comes to creating conflicts in medieval fantasy. If you're looking for examples of how feudalism can create meaningful and interesting situations for adventure stories, I don't feel there's any better source to turn to than the works of Akira Kurosawa. His movies usually take place in feudal Japan, on the fringes of society, in a world of isolated villages, roaming bandits, and nobility that is often corrupt, distant, or both, and they show how feudal societies can make for memorable scenarios to explore that facilitate such worlds while also allowing broader, more sweeping political tensions to take place in ways that they couldn't in more decentralized "points of light" style settings.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Kurosawa's work - and Seven Samurai in particular - has been adapted into so many different genres. The basic framework can just as equally be applied to a Western like The Magnificent Seven, a space opera like Battle Beyond the Stars, and whatever A Bug's Life is. I think they can easily apply to medieval fantasy too, and that's what this encounter looks to investigate. Not only would it be a fun scenario for a tabletop session, it also flips the script to allow the PCs to be defending an adventure site rather than invading it, keeping things fresh!

The Magnificent Party

The easiest way to run this encounter is to have the PCs stumble upon a beleaguered village while on a road, but it could just as easily see the townspeople go to find the PCs elsewhere while seeking aid. While you could drop it into an existing campaign, it might also work as a one-shot scenario, in which case the party could be brought together from a number of different backgrounds, all recruited for a common goal. Alternatively, one could use it as the first session of a campaign to serve as the origin story for the party (it worked for the TV series), though it might be a bit deadly at lower levels.

Background

For a long time now, the village of Tracenka has been under the grasp of a maraudng band of orcs, who demand tribute from the townspeople in the form of crops and other goods. The village is far from the authority of its feudal lord, and the townspeople are growing tired when help has not arrived. Recently, the village elder has received intelligence that the orcs are planning on attacking the village at nightfall - but this time, he intends things will be different. This time, he hopes to recruit the PCs to defend the town against the orcs. But the orcs will surely not surrender without a fight...

The Encounter

This encounter is essentially split into two parts. When the PCs arrive in Tracenka, they will have twelve hours before the orcs attack. This will give them time to prepare for the battle.

Use the map below to plan the encounter and to run the battle. It is helpful to provide it to the players to aid in their planning efforts as well.

Click to enlarge

I recommend using this encounter with my terrain rules for a more interesting experience. I marked a few areas on the map with terrain tags that would apply:

A. Well (Climbable, Concealing, Three-Quarters Cover, High Ground, Pit)

B. Barrels and crates (Concealing, Three-Quarters Cover)

C. Fences (Climbable, Concealing, Three-Quarters Cover, High Ground, Impassible, Ledge) 

D. Balconies (High Ground) 

E. Sheep flocks (Wildlife)

Here are some options for preparatory work the PCs may do before the attack:

• Fortifications:
• A high barricade spanning ten feet can be constructed in two man-hours (ie. a single PC can construct the barricade in two hours, or two PCs can construct it in one). The barricade provides full cover and is impassible. A creature can destroy the barricade in two rounds using their action to attack it, or two creatures can destroy it in one round. A large creature can destroy the barricade in one round.
• A low barricade spanning ten feet can be constructed in one man-hour. The barricade provides three-quarters cover and has the Climbable, High Ground, and Ledge terrain tags.
• A trench spanning ten feet in length and five feet deep can be dug in two man-hours. The trench provides three-quarters cover to creatures inside of it and serves as difficult terrain for creatures passing it. It also has the Climbable, High Ground, and Ledge tags.
• A pile of trash serves as difficult terrain for creatures passing it. It can be constructed in one man-hour.
• Traps:
• Caltrops can be made out of nails and cover a 5-foot square area. It takes thirty minutes to lay 5 square feet of caltrops.
• Grease can be laid over a 5-foot square area and behaves as the spell. It takes thirty minutes to lay 5 square feet of grease.
• Tar can be laid over a 5-foot square area. Creatures passing through tar, or starting their turn in it, must make a DC 12 Strength saving throw or be grappled until their next turn. It takes thirty minutes to lay 5 square feet of tar.
• The village has access to three hunting traps which may be placed anywhere on the map. For the purposes of balance, it takes thirty minutes to lay a hunting trap, including any owned by the PCs.
• Training:
• There are twelve able-bodied men who might be able to be trained into a reasonable fighting force to defend the town. They can be armed and given rudimentary combat training at a rate of one man-hour per villager. For each villager trained in this way, add an NPC scout to the party during the combat.

Once the twelve hours are up, the orcs will begin to attack in waves. Reinforcements will arrive at a rate of one wave per round for 10 rounds. For each wave, roll 1d8: on a 1-2, they arrive from the north path; on a 3-5, from the west path; on a 6-7, from the south path; on an 8, they make a surprise entrance from the east. The waves are as follows:

Round 1: 2d6 goblins

Round 2: 2d6 goblins

Round 3: 2d4 hobgoblins

Round 4: 1d6 orcs

Round 5: 1 ogre

Round 6: 2d6 orcs

Round 7: 1d4 bugbears

Round 8: 1d4 orcs and 1 orc Eye of Gruumsh

Round 9: 2d6 goblins and 1d4-1 (minimum 1) orogs

Round 10: See below

At Round 10, the leader of the band - an orc war chief named Orgha Broken-Tusk - decides that any fighters who can hold out this long against his army must be worthy challengers and descends to the village with his retinue of bugbear bodyguards, equal in number to the number of PCs minus one. He demands the fighting pause so that he and his retinue may engage the party man-to-orc in single combat. If Orgha is killed, however, the battle will immediately resume with the rest of the orcs joining in.

At five rounds after Orgha is killed, or 20 rounds after the start of combat (whichever comes first), the orcs realize the fighting is futile and retreat. The battle has been won!

Further Developments

If the orcs are successfully driven off, the village elder will thank the PCs and agree to provide them with 30 GP and five rations for each party member, plus a single ring of evasion. He admits that it isn't much and apologizes that he didn't have more to give. Still, the party will be hailed as heroes whenever they return to town, and any villager will gladly provide them a free bed and meals. You may want to mark the location of the village on a hex or point map, if using one, to keep note of it in case the PCs revisit it.

The orcs will not attack Tracenka again, having been shown how fierce its defenders are. However, they will not forget how formidable of foes the party was. It is possible they will send another champion to challenge them at some point - or perhaps Orgha himself, if he survived the battle, may become a recurring adversary, seeking a rematch.