Friday Encounter: Healing Spring

This encounter is best suited to an out-of-the-way location that must be discovered by the players, such as in the wilderness or in a dungeon. It could also be used in a town, though this may change some of the dynamics involved. It may be useful to have this encounter foreshadowed in rumors from NPCs, such as people in nearby towns claiming to have heard of a spring with magical healing properties, so that the party will be able to recognize the spring and its abilities when they find it.

The party should come upon an enchanted spring, where cool, clear water bubbles up from the ground. The water is always clear and clean regardless of the surrounding conditions, and it sparkles with a bluish sheen when the light hits it. If one bathes in the water for at least one hour, they will find that their wounds are miraculously healed, and they feel rejuvenated with a surge of energy.

In game terms, bathing in the spring conveys all the benefits of a long rest, and also removes any negative conditions one is under at the time. The water loses its magical properties if it is removed from the spring and cannot be transported. The spring may be visited any number of times; you may wish to mark the hex or point this encounter was obtained on, if using such mapping schemes, in case the players want to return to the spring

This may seem like an unusually generous encounter, but there are a number of ideas at hand here. It can be useful to have a resting place in the middle of an otherwise dangerous or inhospitable area in order to give the party somewhere they can backtrack to - think of the bonfires in Dark Souls, for instance, and how staying within a safe distance of one while exploring often becomes a strategy in and of itself. This goes doubly so if you are using Gritty Realism rules or only allow long rests in a safe location, so opportunities to heal to full are at a premium. Having a safe place that the party must return to can change the dynamics of how they explore.

Note also that the location of the spring itself may not necessarily be safe. The party might think they've found a spot to rest, but if enemies do come upon them while they're bathing in the spring, they may need to defend themselves unarmed and without equipment, providing its own tactical challenges.

In fact, the spring happens to be known to a tribe of elves (if in the wilderness) or goblins (if in a dungeon), who consider it a sacred site. The tribe is fiercely xenophobic and tends to attack unfamiliar people on sight - and if they were to find those strangers defiling their holy ground, they would surely not be amused. Every time the PCs visit the spring after the first time, there is a +10% chance that a hostile party of five goblins or elf scouts will be at the spring. If the party spreads word of the spring, they may encourage others to seek it out for themselves - and this may bring them into conflict with its guardians...

Three Demons

If I'm going to use demons - especially big, important, named demons - in my games, they aren't going to be something as simple as bosses to be defeated, with lots of HP and powerful attacks. That's boring. Demons are far more interesting if you stop thinking of them as enemies and think of them more as patrons - forces that could grant the PCs great power if they so wish to seek out their attention, but at a great price. Drawing on their depictions in folklore and mysticism, they're unique beings with their own agendas, exploiting the foolishness and temptations of mortals to corrupt them into acts of cruelty and chaos, and no PC who consults them should do so without it coming back to bite them in the end.

Here are three demons inspired by Goetic traditions and The Book of Ebon Bindings. Their summoning rituals are intended to be handled through narrative tasks and requirements, as described in this post on ritual magic.

Sifunoth, the Great Black Goat of Nowaub

Sifunoth is a Mighty Great President of Hell with forty-four legions of demons under her command. She is known as a patron of witches and is called upon at sabbaths and black masses to teach the secrets of magic to those who beseech her. Her cult is believed to have arisen in the last days of the ancient Nuwapian empire, but the rituals to summon her, and the secrets she is said to teach, have been passed down for generations, and cults to her now exist throughout the known world.

Appearance: Sifunoth typically appears as a large black nanny goat, and can assume the form of a normal goat in order to disguise herself. However, she prefers to manifest as a goat with a thousand writhing, spindly legs like those of a centipede.

Personality: Sifunoth addresses her mortal followers in an perversely grandmotherly tone, showing them cloying displays of affection and offering personal investment in their concerns. However, she is not wont to give good advice, and will always suggest acts of violence and cruelty as the solution to problems.

Summoning Ritual: Sifunoth may only be summoned under a full moon, beneath a clear sky, and when the moon appears directly above the summoning site. A scaffold of wood, eight feet tall, must be constructed, and atop it, three braziers must be lit with six juniper twigs and six aspen twigs each, before an incantation is read in Ancient Nuwapian. Then, the summoner throws themselves backwards off the platform; they may not look behind them to make sure it is safe. If the ritual is performed correctly, they will land atop Sifunoth's back, as she has miraculously manifested just beneath them, and expresses concern for her disciple risking themselves in such a fashion. The ritual takes three days to prepare and twenty minutes to perform.

Blessing: When summoned, Sifunoth will teach her disciple the secrets of magic. She will offer to impart the secrets of a random first or second-level spell from the Warlock spell list; ideally, this should be a spell that would be of use to the summoner and fit their personality and tactics. If the summoner does not think this spell would be useful, she will propose another until they approve of her offer. Then, she will press her forehead against the summoner's chest, and the summoner will instinctively know how to cast the spell. They may cast it three times per day (if first level) or once per day (if second level), using Charisma as their spellcasting ability. They can cast the spell even if they are not ordinarily a spellcasting class.

Price: Those who learn magic from Sifunoth are marked by her favor. They grow coarse black hair like that of a goat all over their bodies over the course of the next week; if they attempt to shave this hair, it grows back the next day. Others will likely regard affected PCs with suspicion and fear if they do not hide this effect.

Ritzenfauer, the King of the Labyrinth

Ritzenfauer is a King of Hell with seven legions of demons under his command. He rules from the center of the Labyrinth of a Thousand Torments, a seemingly infinite maze of corridors, pits, and deathtraps. He is known for his power over life and death, and teaches the secrets of transcending the limits of bodily mortality. Previously, he was imprisoned by an order of Torvaldic monks in the Silver Chains Priory in Togarmah, but was released by a ritual gone awry. Though he will still respond to summoning rituals, he has taken to his freedom and wanders the Mortal Realm looking for those he can lead astray. As a result of his imprisonment, he is resentful of Torvald and his faithful.

Appearance: Ritzenfauer takes the form of a shriveled, withered figure wrapped in a blue or red shroud, his face always obscured by shadow save for a pair of piercing red eyes. When in the guise of a mortal, he always walks with a hunch.

Personality: Ritzenfauer conducts himself in a stuffy, formal fashion, speaking to mortals from a place of power and dignity. He is not afraid to use mortals as pawns to accomplish his goals, and often makes offers to them that he has no intentions of holding up his end of the bargain on.

Summoning Ritual: Ritzenfauer may only be summoned on the Tenth of Winemoon (equivalent to October 10th, or the tenth day of the tenth month in the world's lunar calendar). A sigil must be drawn in black chalk with five candles made from human fat placed equidistant to one another around its radius. Each candle must be lit in sequence after an incantation is spoken in Old Golniri, and the center of the sigil must then be anointed with the blood of three different people mixed in a brass bowl. The ritual takes half an hour to set up, an hour to perform from start to finish, and must end at the stroke of midnight. If the ritual is completed successfully, Ritzenfauer will appear at the center of the sigil and offer his blessing.

Blessing: Ritzenfauer's blessing will allow his disciple to defy the laws of mortality. If accepted, the next time the disciple dies, they do not start making death saves. Instead, they will begin slowly regenerating, their mortal wounds knitting themselves back together over a period of three days. This will work even if the disciple's body was completely destroyed, such as through a disintegrate spell; their body and all equipment will regenerate from nothing. The period of regeneration is painful and the disciple remains conscious throughout the entire process; they cannot do anything more than lying around and moaning in agony until the three days are up.

Price: Ritzenfauer is amused by the fact that mortals are so afraid of their own mortality that they would not consider the greater picture. Although his blessing will work once, should the disciple die for any reason after regenerating, they do not regenerate a second time, and their soul is condemned instantly to the Labyrinth of a Thousand Torments. They do not make death saves, may not cheat Death, and cannot be revived by any means short of retrieving their soul from the Labyrinth directly.

Art by getsugadante

Lagaaz the Festering

Lagaaz is a Prince of Hell with two hundred legions of demons under his command. Like many demons, he is a bringer of pestilence and affliction, and his minions carry it forth unto the mortal realm. However, Lagaaz does not see disease as merely a way to inflict harm on mortals, but also as an incentive to further his own aims. He has the power to heal mortals of disease by taking it on himself, and he delights at inflicting mortals with plagues so that they will sell their souls to him for relief from their misery.

Appearance: In his true form, Lagaaz appears as a horrendously bloated decaying corpse covered in boils and weeping sores. His right leg is the foot of a crow, and his left leg is unnaturally short. He also sometimes appears riding a donkey. If disguised as a mortal, his face is always hideously disfigured with scars and boils.

Personality: Despite his grotesque appearance, Lagaaz does not behave as an afflicted person would - he is, in fact, incredibly spry and full of energy, and his lesions do not seem to bother him. He is a fast talker and a slick con artist, akin to a carnival barker or a used car salesman, attempting to dupe his disciples into selling their souls before they can realize the price of his offer.

Summoning Ritual: To summon Lagaaz, one must exhume four bodies that have died of the same plague after they have been buried in the ground for exactly three days. Their hearts must be cut out with a bronze knife and burned on a pyre with the four bodies arranged around it pointing in the four cardinal directions. As the fire burns, the summoner must walk in a continuous circle around the bodies, sprinkling their feet with water mixed with the dirt from the exhumed graves, until the flames begin to dim, at which point the summoner must stop at the feet of the closest body and hurl it into the fire. As smoke rises from the pyre, Lagaaz will appear inside and offer his disciple to come to him. This ritual takes five hours to prepare, and two hours to perform.

Blessing: When summoned, Lagaaz will invite his disciple to step forward and place their hands upon his corpulent, decaying body. If they do so, they will find themselves gripped by a surge of vigorous energy. They gain Inspiration, and any diseases or other conditions they are subject to are immediately removed as Lagaaz absorbs their affliction into his body. They permanently gain immunity to any diseases and poisons thereafter.

Price: Lagaaz has removed his disciple's afflictions and taken them into himself - however, the ritual must be continued in order to maintain that state. Once a month, Lagaaz's disciple must murder a person who is innocent of any crimes and who does not hold any antipathy toward them and hang their body from a tree as a sacrifice to the demon prince. In addition to compromising the moral fiber of the disciple, this often necessitates they keep moving, as the disappearance of the sacrificial victim will surely be noticed, particularly when their body must be displayed in so conspicuous a fashion. If a month goes by without such an offering, the disciple is stricken by every disease that Lagaaz has absorbed into his body; they have Disadvantage on all attack rolls and ability checks; automatically fail all saves (including death saves); and will die in three days. If they commit a murder within these three days, the effect is immediately revoked.

Outlaws of Sonderlund

In Sonderlunding culture, there are some crimes so severe, it is deemed that not even execution will suffice.. Murder of a kinsman, the breaking of an ancestral oath - there is no codified set of circumstances for when such punishments may apply, as they are often meted out in an ad hoc fashion as an individual ruler sees fit, particularly in the disorganized Highlands, where thanes and kings rule by tradition and force of arms. But everywhere in Sonderlund is the concept of an outlaw understood, and the threat of being outlawed known and feared.

In most lands, to be declared an outlaw means that one can expect no protection from the law of the land, and that any matter of crimes directed against them shall go unpunished. In Sonderlund, however, there is more to the idea than that. Because of Sonderlund's long tradition of ancestor worship, it is believed that if an outlaw cannot be forgiven in this life, they may at least do something worth remembering with their dying breath, so that their progeny may still look back on them with honor. To this end, the greatest honor for an outlawed Sonderlunding is to die valiantly in battle against a worthy foe.

Sonderlunding outlaws roam the roads in search of a glorious death - their sentence is not the executioner's axe, but the battlefield, and they may never know peace. To die of natural causes, in fact, is considered a grave dishonor, and a sign that the outlaw was too much of a coward to face their fate, or else that they lacked the drive to redeem themselves with a death that may live on in the annals of history. So too, it is dishonorable for an outlaw to meet death at their own hand. Their dying breath must be made with a heroic effort, against an opponent that they must give all their effort against. It is even more honorable if they die while inflicting mortal wounds on their foe, but this is not necessary - only dying in battle is.

The life of an outlaw is not an easy one. While in the domains of their kin, they can expect no mercy or hospitality, for to aid an outlaw is believed to bring ill fortune upon one's household - the outlaw must meet their destiny by their own efforts. This leads to them being rather itinerant, going from place to place to seek new challenges and to avoid persecution. All the same, outlaws often acquire somewhat of a fearsome reputation, both for the nature of their crimes as so severe as to warrant their punishment and for the rugged sensibilities that allow them to survive on the road. Many petty thieves and brigands have actually given outlaws a wide berth, either out of fear of retribution, or because they know that it would dishonor the outlaw to fall victim to such an ignoble fate.

The travels of an outlaw may even take them beyond the lands of their people, or even beyond Sonderlund, and many outlaws have become great heroes in other lands, whether as slayers of monsters or generals on the battlefield. Beyond their homelands, outlaws are not necessarily shunned, but it is rare for them to lie about their status as an outlaw if they believe they will not be recognized, as this is seen as incredibly dishonorable. The pursuit of a heroic death is a solemn and important one, and one that outlaws are wont to accept as their fate, grim as it may be.

A quirk of this practice is that an outlaw who has slain many foes and survived to tell the tale is, technically speaking, not very successful as an outlaw. It means they are a mighty warrior and warranting of respect, but also that they have not been able to find an enemy that will grant them the death they seek. If an outlaw manages to best a foe without dying in the process, they often set their sights on an even greater challenge, hoping this will be the one. After all, they do not merely want to die, but to die heroically, and there is not much heroic about dying to rabid rats when you have slain dragons in the past. Though Sonderlunding honor culture may seem primitive and barbaric to outsiders, they have a great reckoning of the merits of many deeds and how they should be ranked, and this is not to be taken lightly.

For an encounter with a Sonderlunding outlaw, see here.

Art by Roman Zawadzki

Background: Sonderlunding Outlaw

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Survival

Tool Proficiencies: One set of artisan's tools of your choice (your trade before being outlawed) and one musical instrument of your choice (a hobby you picked up to pass the time on the road).

Languages: Sonderlunding, one other language of your choice.

Equipment: A cloak with the tartan of your former clan, a dungeoneer's pack or an explorer's pack, a musical instrument of your choice, and a pouch containing 25 GP.

Feature: Worthy Foe. You seek a glorious death in battle, and you have an eye out for a foe worthy of doing the deed. You can issue a challenge with the effects of the compelled duel spell, so long as the target's challenge rating is equal to or higher than your level. If the target of this effect is a Sonderlunding, it has Disadvantage on the saving throw. If you drop to 0 HP during this duel, you have Disadvantage on all death saves made and cannot cheat Death.

Reasons for Being Outlawed (d12)

1. Committed murder against a member of your clan.

2. Broke an ancestral oath issued by one of your ancestors.

3. Partook in an affair with the spouse of your thane.

4. Toppled an important runestone.

5. Committed treason against your clan during a time of war.

6. Defiled a sacred grove.

7. Killed a sacred beast revered by your clan.

8. Lost an heirloom belonging to an important ancestor. 

9. Neglected a task entrusted to you by your thane. 

10. Killed a druid your clan was in service to.

11. Brought a fey curse upon your people.

12. Aided a necromancer.

Friday Encounter: Wishing Well

This encounter may be used anywhere. It may be found in the wilderness, on the side of a road, at the center of a town, or in a dungeon. Ideally, the party should hear rumors of the wishing well before they come across it so that they know its properties and how to use it.

The party will come across a well or spring beside a large hawthorn tree, the branches of which are laden with many-colored ribbons and strips of paper (if this encounter is used in a dungeon, you could have them tied to rafters, pillars, or stalactites around the well instead). On the ribbons are inscriptions that all describe a wish, left there by previous travelers.

If a PC writes down their wish on a ribbon and hangs it from the tree, the next time they take a long rest, they will receive a vision of a beautiful woman bathed in light. This is the fey spirit who guards the well, and who works its magic. In a soft and soothing voice, she will describe the payment needed to grant the PC's wish.

Any number of wishes may be made in this fashion, and they will always be executed to the PC's desire, without being twisted or deliberately misinterpreted. However, the wish will not be granted unless an appropriate offering is brought to the well. This offering should fit the principles of equivalent exchange, approximating the metaphysical value of the wish. For instance, if one wishes for wealth or power, they must give up something worth the blessing, such as an eye. If one wishes for a magic item, they may be told they must obtain a rare object that proves their worthiness of using it, such as a dragon's scale. If a PC wishes to bring someone back from the dead, they will be told they must drown someone else in the well so their soul can take their place in the Land of the Dead. Use your judgment as a DM to come up with an appropriate sacrifice or challenge for the reward - and keep in mind that the fair folk find our notions of ethics and morality amusing at best.

You could think of this encounter as something of a quest dispenser for PCs to be able to initiate quests for the rewards they seek. I've heard of some DMs having players write "wish lists" of magic items they want to obtain over the course of a campaign. I find this idea utterly ridiculous - it takes away from the impact of obtaining such a reward if you knew in advance you were going to get it anyway. However, this way, if a player really is set on a particular item, you can make sure they have a way to get it - with an appropriate price they can decide whether or not is worth paying. Alternatively, it could be used as a way to give the PCs bonuses at a price. You may wish to mark the hex or point this encounter was obtained on, if using such mapping schemes, in case the players want to return to the well, or if whatever quest it sends them on would take them elsewhere.

Once whatever payment the spirit demanded is thrown into the well, the PC who made the wish will find that it is miraculously granted - any blessings they wished for are granted to them, items will appear in their possession suddenly, and any changes they wish to be made upon the world are enacted. If they climb into the well, there is no sign of the offering(s) anywhere. Alternatively, you might have the offerings stick around, but removing them from the well would condemn anyone to a curse...

Honor in Sonderlund

Sonderlunding culture puts a great importance on honor. Sonderlundings strive to live honorably and perform heroic deeds, both for their own standing and to advance their legacy so that they may be remembered as worthy ancestors. Here's an optional house rule to model the consequences of Sonderlunding honor culture. While these rules are geared toward Sonderlunding characters, they could easily be adjusted to suit similar cultures in the Lunar Lands, such as those of orcs or Northmen, or in other settings.

A character using these rules should write an additional stat on their character sheet called Honor. All characters start with 10 Honor, except characters with the Criminal background, who start at 5 Honor. These starting values may be adjusted based on character backstory, with permission of the DM.

During a campaign, a character's actions or conduct may cause them to gain or lose Honor. The DM should tell the player to adjust their character's Honor up or down when they perform such deeds, assuming that they have a witness to verify their account or provide evidence of their doings. A list of some common situations that may cause a character to gain or lose Honor can be found below. This list is not meant to be comprehensive, and a DM may need to use their judgment to determine the impact of actions not listed here on a character's Honor.

Performing necromancy: -100

Breaking an ancestral oath: -25 

Breaking an oath: -10

Attempting a quest with special circumstances (ex. defeating an opponent without weapons or armor) and failing: -7 

Attempting a quest and failing: -5

Being defeated by a weaker foe: -5 

Being taken captive: -5 

Committing murder: -5

Disrespecting a thane, king, or druid: -5

Fleeing battle: -5 

Refusing to pay weregild if requested: -5

Committing theft: -2 

Willfully lying: -2

Making a pilgrimage to a sacred place: +2

Recording your deeds in a runestone: +2 

Attempting a quest and succeeding: +5 

Avenging a fallen ally: +5

Defeating a member of a rival clan: +5 

Following in an ancestor's footsteps: +5

Making an ancestral oath: +5 

Attempting a quest with special circumstances (ex. defeating an opponent without weapons or armor) and succeeding: +7

Slaying a foe in battle: +enemy's CR minus PC's level (minimum 0)

Offering treasure to your liege: +1 for every 100 GP in value. 

Offering a magic item to your liege: +2 for Uncommon, +5 for Rare, +7 for Very Rare, +10 for Legendary, +20 for Artifact.

A character can boast of their heroic deeds to impress others. They may roll 1d100 if confronted by a non-hostile NPC; if the result is less than their Honor, that NPC becomes friendly. If using a reaction roll, you gain a +5% bonus to reaction rolls for every 10 Honor above 10, and a -5% penalty to reaction rolls for every 3 Honor below 10.

If a character's Honor ever goes below 0, they are declared an outlaw. Members of their clan may perform any crime against them (up to and including murder) with impunity, and they may not receive any benefits from members of their clan (for instance, they will be turned away if they attempt to visit stores or inns run by a clansman). They may or may not be considered redeemed if their Honor goes back above 1; DM's choice.

At 70 Honor, a character will receive a gift from their liege - usually a magic item or other such treasure suited to the character. They will be expected to pay the gift back in service or with another gift of a similar value.

At 80 Honor or above, every week, there is a 10% chance a character will be challenged to a duel by an opponent of similar strength. If this duel is refused, they lose 10 Honor.

At 90 Honor, a character will receive an invitation to the court of their liege, who may serve as a benefactor or quest-giver. If they refuse this invitation, they do not lose any Honor, but their liege may be insulted.

A character may not have greater than 100 Honor, or less than -100 Honor.

These rules were adapted from those given in the HR3: Celts Campaign Sourcebook for 2e D&D, by Graeme Davis.

Sonderlunding Ancestor Worship

Although Sonderlund practices the Old Faith, its Old Faith is a different kind than that observed by the elves or the hillfolk of Vardessy, Kvesland, and Togarmah. Although there is obviously overlap between all these groups, what characterizes Sonderlunding religion is a belief in ancestral spirits as the chief forces that must be obeyed and appeased, and that allegiances are sworn to.

Many Sonderlundings can trace their lineage back to ancient times, and they maintain extensive genealogies, often recounted through a long and unbroken oral tradition. They do this to recount the heroic deeds of great ancestors, reiterating their glories and attesting to the reasons as to why they must be honored. Though Sonderlunding religion does not deny the existence of gods, demons, and other spirits, it asserts that their intentions are not as important as those of the ancestors - after all, they are distant creatures, existing on a level beyond mortal comprehension, whereas the ancestors were once men and know of earthly concerns. Surely, then, they would have the intentions of their descendants closer at hand.

Sonderlundings believe that one must respect the word of their ancestors and live by it. This reinforces the stratification of societal roles; if one had an ancestor renowned for great deeds in a particular field, it is held that their descendants must follow in their footsteps to honor their ancestor's contributions, and thus, Sonderlunding traditions tend to be a family affair - warriors beget warriors, artisans beget artisans, druids beget druids. Even more important, of course, is the ancestral oath. A Sonderlunding may make an official declaration that is to be recorded in history, and their descendants are expected to live by it and honor it throughout the generations. Much of Sonderlunding law is codified through the ancestral oaths of past thanes and kings, which are held to be permanent and binding, and a not insignificant task of the druids is to interpret these oaths, the situations in which they apply, and when, if ever, it is acceptable to act against them. To a Sonderlunding, defying the word of an ancestor is seen as the ultimate form of disrespect and dishonor, and is never taken lightly.

Sonderlunding tradition holds that the ancestors build great palaces in the Land of the Dead, and that when Death takes one's soul, they join the ranks of their forefathers, where they feast and rejoice together. However, the spirits of the ancestors may be called upon to affect some change, however limited, upon the mortal realm. Many villages in Sonderlund have a shrine devoted to a past ancestor that the people make offerings to so that their spirit is appeased and grants them guidance in their particular field, and Sonderlunding druids often invoke their ancestors to grant them power while casting spells. This means that one's ancestry is important in determining what prayers may be made - it is considered rude to call on someone else's ancestors, so ideally, ones' own lineage should have ancestors suitable for a given prayer. For instance, if one's great-great-grandmother was a forester, her spirit will be a better one to call upon for aid in tracking game than one's great-grand-uncle who was a shipwright. If all else fails, however, it is considered acceptable to make a general invocation to the ancestors for aid in a given task, if one does not know of a particular ancestor that applies.

All this carries a particular implication. Unlike in Pantheonism or Elementalism, where the most honorable cosmic forces are beyond mortals, it is possible - rather, inevitable - for mortals to become ancestors. Thus, Sonderlunding culture places a great deal of importance on achieving glory in one's field to ensure that one may become an ancestor worth praising and invoking, and to ensure one's deeds live on in history. One who dies without accomplishing anything particularly impressive is doomed to be forgotten - but a great hero is remembered. It is not uncommon for old Sonderlundings who believe they have not accomplished anything in life to go out and seek one last glorious deed to accomplish (or die trying) before their time is up, in order to ensure they may be venerated by future generations.

As a material consequence of ancestor worship, Sonderlund's landscape is dotted by graves, barrows, and runestones commemorating historic deeds. As much of the populace is illiterate, these markers serve as a means to record the stories of their ancestors, and they are deeply woven into oral tradition, to the point where directions in Sonderlund often make mention of a particular barrow or shrine as a point of reference (because of course everyone knows which barrow Colum mac Dubh the Slayer of Men is buried in).

It also means that in Sonderlunding culture, it is important to respect the dead. In most lands, necromancy is not strictly illegal in and of itself, but it does carry the unsavory connotations that go hand in hand with grave robbery and meddling with corpses. In Sonderlund, however, to defile a tomb is a grave sin, and one that will bring down the anger of the ancestors. Necromancy is almost always punished by death, though some have gotten around this by issuing an ancestral oath that their bodies may be reanimated after death if any descendants should wish to perform such experiments.

Lastly, it is a consequence of ancestor worship that progress in Sonderlund - particularly in the isolated Highlands - moves slowly. Technologies like plate armor and gunpowder, as rare and expensive as they are elsewhere, are practically unheard of in parts of Sonderlund, as people are wary of new and unfamiliar things that their ancestors did not know of. Sonderlunding culture has remained largely the same for centuries, in no small part due to the traditions of ancestor worship and ancestral oaths.

Friday Encounter: The Lost Boys

Hook

This encounter is a simple one, but one designed to place the PCs in the forefront of a moral dilemma where there's no easy answer and see what solutions they come up with. It can be used along a road (preferably a remote one away from civilization) or in the wilderness.

For this encounter to work best, the DM should foreshadow it with rumors planted in advance. Some time before this encounter, the PCs should receive word of a ferocious band of brigands preying on travelers along this route - perhaps hearing the story in a town along the way, or seeing a wanted notice posted at a crossroads. Importantly, it should be made clear that no one has ever gotten a good look at the bandits, and they don't know what their faces look like or how many there are. All that's known is that they are ruthless fighters and will take no prisoners.

When the PCs run into the bandits, they will announce their intentions by having four of their number hiding in the bushes and firing arrows in the party's direction in an ambush. Roll Stealth against the PCs' passive Perception to see if the bandits are noticed; they have Advantage on their Stealth roll due to being concealed in the underbrush. If the bandits aren't noticed, they get a surprise round.

After this round, the leader of the bandits steps out to accost the PCs...and there, they will see that these bandits are led by a young boy of about ten named Cian, carrying a sword that seems too big for him, but nonetheless conducting himself with the seriousness of a hardened criminal, demanding that the party turn over any valuables if they want to get out alive - or, as he puts it in a gravely serious voice, his men will see fit they pay with their blood.

In fact, all the bandits are children, ranging from four to twelve. Cian was the survivor of a raid by bandits that killed his parents and burned his village, but he was able to hide and escape detection. This event taught him a harsh lesson - that one may only survive by virtue of strength, cunning, and ruthlessness, and that the law of the land does nothing to stop those strong enough to not fear it. He decided that he would become a bandit just as ruthless as those who laid waste to his home, and that he would never be weak again. To that effect, he recruited other children orphaned by the raid, their strength later bolstered by wayward orphans and runaways, teaching themselves to fight, rob, and survive in the wilds. Now, they have formed a gang that preys on travelers to survive, and despite their youth, they've managed to carry on well enough for themselves.

The children will stand with their weapons drawn, carefully eyeing the party while Cian makes his demands. However, if the PCs won't hand over their valuables or seem hostile, Cian gives the order to attack, which will see four of the children staying in the bushes to fire arrows on the PCs while the rest of the gang rushes them in melee. Cian will make it readily clear that he isn't bluffing during any such negotiations, brandishing his sword and proudly boasting that he has killed a dozen men (this is, of course, exaggerated, but he has killed two, and others in the gang have blood on their hands as well). The children show no signs of hesitation either; they are swayed by Cian's charisma and believe his might-makes-right philosophy wholeheartedly in the absence of any better role models.

There are in total twelve children in the ambush, including Cian. All of them have the stats of bandits, but are Small size, have 6 HP each, and have Disadvantage on their attack rolls, as they are untrained in their weapons and wield them clumsily. Nevertheless, they are fierce fighters - in their naive understanding of the world, they believe themselves to be invincible and overestimate their abilities while underestimating their fragility. After all, they are mighty bandits! As such, if anything happens that would cause the children to rout, they make their morale saves with Advantage.

Obviously, what makes this situation difficult for most PCs will be the moral dilemmas involved. The children have every intention to do them harm, but fighting back means harming children, something many parties will balk at. Perhaps the party will try to talk the children down with reason, or perhaps they'll have to find a non-lethal way of dealing with the problem. Either way, it should make most PCs think twice about going headlong into combat, and encourage them to think outside the box - as long as you aren't playing with murderhobos, anyway. And if you are, I pity you.

The Old Faith

In ancient times - before the times of great kingdoms - much of the western part of the continent was settled by small and secluded tribal villages, and these people followed what is now known as the Old Faith. Over the centuries, owing to migrations from the east and chieftains realizing that claiming the favor of divine beings was good for politics, the traditions of Pantheonism steadily took hold. Yet, the Old Faith still persists, in lonely villages, distant islands, and among the rough hillfolk who maintain their old existence in the deep valleys where the trade routes do not reach. The Sonderlundings, too, honor the Old Faith, bound as they are to follow the wishes of their ancestors, though the closer one gets to Vardessy the more influence there can be found from their Pantheonist neighbors. In the Highlands, however, the Old Faith is at its strongest. Many a Highlander will scoff at the Pantheonist's ways as those of soft and cowardly folk who must rely on foreign gods to protect them - though Pantheonists, in turn, often regard those of the Old Faith as backwards, superstitious barbarians, if not outright demon worshipers.

To consider the Old Faith as its own religion is a bit of a misnomer. While the cults of the gods have defined holy texts and formal officials, the Old Faith does not. It is rather a collection of various folk traditions, and no two communities share exactly the same beliefs. There are, however, a few common features among Old Faith cults that define them as belonging to such traditions, often by means of setting them apart from Pantheonist customs.

While Pantheonist temples are staffed by priests, monks, and nuns, followers of the Old Faith look to druids as their spiritual leaders - those who can commune with the natural world; who know secrets that other mortals do not, and who can serve as a go-between to bridge the gap between the worldly concerns of mortals and the machinations of higher beings. Rather than belonging to a specific order or creed, druids are often those with particular skills to make them well-suited for the job, and they may be mentored by elder druids to prepare them to step into the role when their time comes. They know many spells and rituals passed down from one generation to the next, ones that help them communicate with the spirits of all things, or to call upon their aid in times of need. As a part of their initiation, an apprentice druid may be sent out into the world on a journey, such that they may come to know and understand the land and accept their place in life.

Followers of the Old Faith do not have temples in the way Pantheonists do. They recognize the concept of holy ground, but often this is not land that is so sanctified through rituals or divine acts; rather, sacredness is something inherent to the land itself. A given hill or lake or tree may house a particularly powerful spirit, for instance, and the power of that spirit becomes the subject of reverence. Rather than building structures to gather and perform rituals, those of the Old Faith tend to perform much of their worship in the open air at these sacred places. To build a temple there, it is said, would be an act of disrespect to the spirits, as it would be to attribute importance to the works of mortal hands rather than to the sacred place itself. They do, however, mark sacred places with altars, cairns, and stone circles, many of which have stood for millennia.

Lastly, not all followers of the Old Faith worship gods as discrete entities. All things in the Lunar Lands have some degree of life force to them - even rocks and plants down to the last blade of grass or grain of sand - and many Old Faith traditions direct their worship to these spirits of the land. Others, particularly in Sonderlund, worship their ancestors, and some cults recognize deities of their own, though these tend to be strange gods specific to a given locality, many taking the form of animals, that are regarded as belonging to the community, if with much greater powers. Pantheonist theologians argue that these are in fact manifestations of their own gods, but many Old Faith believers scoff at such allegations, insisting that their gods are closer than the distant gods of foreigners, who must surely have greater problems to concern themselves with and would never heed the word of a mortal. Other Old Faith traditions direct their veneration to the Fair Folk, though less out of admiration, and more to appease these capricious spirits with offerings and placatory rituals so that their mischief does not bring ruin upon them. And others still worship the elves, who are seen as being closer to nature and to their fey forebears - in fact, many Old Faith traditions grew out of elvish customs, and almost all elven communities practice some form of the Old Faith, though they regard the traditions of humans as embarrassing corruptions of the true way.

Though largely supplanted by Pantheonism in more settled lands, the relationship the Old Faith has with the Pantheonists is not one of adversity or persecution. Worship of the Old Faith is not considered immoral, and it is not as a whole held as a ruse by demons (though some individual cults may be demonic in nature) except by the most fanatical of Pantheonists; as Hell is the domain of demons, mortal souls can only be sent there by directly selling their souls, not by following the wrong creed. Most Pantheonists simply regard followers of the Old Faith as backwards and parochial, whereas the worship of the gods is the path of modernity and embracing the brotherhood of one's fellow man instead of clinging to insularism and tradition - their worship is something to be laughed at rather than hated and feared. Though many Pantheonist saints are celebrated for introducing worship of the gods to lands once held by the Old Faith, this is not a victory over evil, but merely an advancement of the divine plan.

Ironically, in many regions that have long since embraced Pantheonism, the legacy of the Old Faith is not forgotten. There are many local rituals that can be traced back to origins in the Old Faith, and many folk saints may well be ancestral or nature spirits that were subsumed into Pantheonist traditions. If one is used to practicing the rituals of the Old Faith, after all, it is easier to simply claim that one's god was in fact an aspect of one of the Pantheon or one of their saints than it is to adopt an entirely new philosophy and traditions. There are many small villages where the local shrine is built over or nearby a sacred place of the Old Faith, and the ways in which locals conduct worship there are hardly any different from those of their ancestors.

Old Faith Cult Generator

This cult worships... (d6)

1. a local god

2. the spirit of a long-dead leader

3. the land itself

4. the fairies

5. a nearby clan of elves

6. a demon in disguise; roll again to determine what it masquerades as

...and meets at... (d6)

1. a sacred tree

2. an ancient stone circle

3. the summit of a holy mountain

4. the shore of a sacred lake

5. the homes of the faithful

6. a sacred cave

...to practice rites involving... (d10)

1. dancing and chanting

2. the sacrifice of crops

3. the sacrifice of animals

4. the sacrifice of humans

5. offering libations

6. designating a member of the congregation to marry the spirit and live as a hermit

7. ritual combat

8. assuming the forms of animals

9. hunting game to offer to the spirits

10. entering trances to consult with the spirits

...in order to... (d8)

1. obtain good harvests

2. ensure favorable weather

3. have victory in battle

4. placate otherwise harmful spirits

5. be blessed with prophetic visions

6. heal the sick and wounded

7. inflict curses upon one's enemies

8. come closer to understanding their cosmic purpose

Friday Encounter: To Catch a Pickpocket

Aladdin

This encounter is best suited for an urban setting - specifically, an outdoor area where there will be dense crowds of people. A marketplace is probably the most obvious, but it could just as easily work for any other open-air setting where people congregate, such as a theater or a square where an important figure is making a speech. Some setting-specific options include a Cantonal Assembly in the Freikantons or a royal election in Togarmah. All that's really important is that there are enough people to bump into and block sight lines. Certain details may need to be adjusted accordingly for a different setting - as with any encounter, don't be afraid to tweak things to best suit your table or campaign.

While the PCs are amidst the crowds, one of them notices someone has picked their pocket. Ideally, this should be the PC that seems the most outwardly wealthy, such as someone wearing heavy armor or exquisite clothes. This encounter is really more aimed at creating amusing chaos that could set up hooks for further adventures, so it's probably best if the item stolen is fairly inconsequential, like a coin purse - something that would set the party back enough that they'd want to retrieve it, but not something the party would be screwed over without.

At any rate, when the PC looks over, they see a halfling dart through the crowd and disappear into the distance with the stolen item in tow. Now, the PCs will likely want to pursue the thief - but in such a tightly-packed crowd, disaster is bound to happen!

Enter Action Time. Mechanically, the encounter is mapped abstractly to represent the commotion of a busy square bursting into a squabble, so as the DM, you should note how many moves away the thief is from the PCs and in which direction. It will probably be easiest if you plot the positions of each PC and the thief on a grid - you shouldn't show this grid to the players. The thief moves at the beginning of every round. To handle this movement, roll a d8: on a 1, he moves north; a 2, northeast; 3, east; 4, southeast; 5, south; 6, southwest; 7, west; 8, northwest. If he would move in a direction that would cause him to run into a PC, reroll the direction. Don't tell the players what direction the thief moves yet; see below.

At the start of each PC's turn, they must make a Perception check. The difficulty starts at 5, and increases by 2 for each move the thief is away from the PC. For instance, if the thief moved north from the starting point and the PC hasn't moved, the DC to spot him is 7. If, however, the thief moved north, the PC moved south, and then the thief moved north again, the DC to spot him on the next round is 11, as the PC is three moves away from the thief. If a PC spots the thief, they know which direction he is running in that round.

After determining if the PC spots the thief or not, the player chooses a cardinal direction to run in. Roll a d10 to determine what happens in the commotion:

1-2. Nothing unusual happens this turn. The PC moves as normal.

3. The PC moves as normal, but in the commotion, a merchant's stall gets knocked over, spilling the contents everywhere. This creates a diversion; the DC to spot the thief increases by 2 for the next PC.

4. The PC bumps into someone, knocking them to the ground. If they stop to get them back on their feet, they skip movement on this turn. If they keep running, the bystander will alert the guards (see 4 below).

5. The PC bumps into a town guard, knocking them to the ground. Now the guard wishes to have them arrested for causing a disturbance. If the PC stops to explain, they skip movement on this turn. If they keep running, the guard starts pursuing them. This doesn't affect any rolls, but after the chase, the PC will be cornered by the guard and have to explain themselves.

6. The PC runs into a barricade or other obstacle. They must make a DC 10 Acrobatics or Athletics check to clear it, or they skip movement on this turn as they waste time going around.

7. In the commotion, an animal breaks loose and starts charging through the crowd. The PC must make a DC 10 Animal Handling check to calm it down, or they skip movement on this turn as they waste time avoiding the beast.

8. The PC moves as normal, but runs into a wall or other impassible obstacle. They may not go the same direction on their next turn.

9. The PC moves as normal, but it turns out they didn't actually see a halfling moving in this direction, just a child they mistook for the thief. Reroll what direction the thief moved in this round; all subsequent PCs that spot the thief this round see him moving the new direction.

10. The PC moves as normal, but then gets swept up in a throng of people moving a different direction. They move an additional space in that direction - roll the direction as for the thief, but reroll any results that were the same direction the PC moved in.

The chase lasts for five rounds. At the end of the five rounds, if any PCs are within three moves of the thief, they manage to apprehend him. He will give back the stolen item if met with a show of force, unwilling to risk his head - but, optionally, he might have connections to other criminals, who now know the PCs are in town. If no PCs are within three moves of the thief, he is nowhere to be found. Either way, though, the PCs might have more problems to deal with...

Note that those using 5e rules (as I do) may note that there's an obvious interaction between these mechanics and the City Secrets feature of a character with the Urchin background, which allows them to move through crowds twice as quickly. If you wish to represent this, allow a PC with the Urchin background to make two moves per turn. Note that this may lead to them catching up to the thief, which is not supposed to be possible before the five rounds are up under the way the mechanics are designed - it's supposed to simulate the kinds of chase scenes we see in movies, not so much a realistic chase. I would personally treat a PC and the thief occupying the same space to mean that the thief moves on his next turn, and the DC for that PC to spot him on their turn is 5, but if you wish you can also end the chase if the PC and the thief occupy the same space - though this might lead to short and uninteresting chases.

The Ancestral Lands

Starting to the southwest of Vardessy and stretching far out into the western ocean, Sonderlund is often described as a land out of time. It is a place of deep, dense forests, misty moors, and rugged hills, and it is perhaps the strongest holdout of the Old Faith, a remnant of the many tribal ancestor-worshiping cultures that once dominated the western part of the continent before the introduction of Pantheonism. The Sonderlundings are a stubborn sort that are reluctant to turn their back on tradition, and many still practice the Old Faith, honoring ancestors, nature spirits, and the fair folk and living by the oaths they swear to such powers and to one another.

Yet, even Sonderlund is not untouched by the hand of civilization. The eastern part of the peninsula is dominated by a confederation of fourteen thanages; the territories of powerful nobles who have managed to unite the varied clans into kingdoms of their own. These thanes meet as a council to determine matters of policy through common consensus, and this has allowed them, as a unit, to deal with the Imperial powers of Vardessy and the wealthy City-States as equals when they could never measure up on their own. Though the thanages still officially practice the Old Faith, there are many Pantheonist temples to be found within their borders, and many rituals once known only to the druids have been adopted into local cults of varied gods. In turn, Sonderlunding tribal customs were tempered, and the thanes adopted a form of feudalism more akin to that found in Vardessy.

That is, except for in the Highlands. Although much of the land under such a name is indeed hilly, the term "Sonderlunding Highlands" formally refers to any part of Sonderlund not under control of one of the thanes. Some thanages were unable to expand further into the difficult hill country, others were repelled by hostile tribes unwilling to surrender their arms to foreign rulers, and others still fell victim to the roving bands of orcs, elves, and even deadlier things that called the Highlands their home. Whatever the case was, a sizeable part of Sonderlund remains a wild frontier, one that outsiders often perceive as lawless (though this perception owes more to the distinct culture of the region). And, through a combination of isolation and the bitter refusal of the people to accept change, the Highlands have held onto their traditional customs for centuries.

Here, the druids of the Old Faith enjoy places of authority in noble courts. Here, honor is everything, and one is expected to swear by the word of their ancestors just as much as they would to a worldly liege, even long after their forefathers have passed. Here, to break a blood oath is a greater sin than even murder, and one punished more harshly. Here, mankind holds to small and scattered villages under the banners of petty chieftains, and borders are constantly drawn and redrawn with skirmish and bloodshed. These are the Highlands - the lands some might call barbaric, and others might call truer to themselves than any other.

Freikantons Hex Map

It's time for a map of the Freikantons and the surrounding areas. Each hex equals three miles. Note that the Canton of Ochsebad is not included on this map, as it is not contiguous with the core territories of the Freikantons - it is located to the northeast. Hexes 034.000 through 034.007 correspond to hexes 000.003 through 000.010 on the Ochsebad hex map; see that post for details.

Click here to enlarge

002.025: The Monastery of the Holy Keys, a monastery devoted to Torvald in the Canton of Elgenheim. The Scarlet Blades (see hex 003.028) leave the monks here unmolested, as even they consider it bad luck to attack holy places. As such, the monks keep a number of treasures and relics here, trusting they will be safe.

003.022: The city-canton of Thuriengau. See here.

003.023: This tower guards the pass between Elgenheim and Thuriengau, restricting outside access. It is manned by a Swordsister named Karin von Dreher, who is known for enjoying a good duel. If she is bested in honorable combat, she will happily grant her opponent freedom of passage without paying a toll.

003.028: Castle Carnelian, the headquarters of the reclusive Swordbrother company known as the Guild of Scarlet Blades. See here.

004.026: The village of Effering. It is occupied by simple farmers who have as of late been struggling with the devastation of a raid by "bandits," really members of the Scarlet Blades (see hex 003.028) in disguise. The townspeople have been rallying men to launch a retaliating strike, unaware that the bandits are Swordbrothers.

004.029: The village of Wittenbeck. It is located in the shadow of Castle Carnelian (see hex 003.028), and the people there pay tribute to the Scarlet Blades in the form of crops. Despite serving the company, they speak of it in hushed whispers, and no one has ever seen inside the castle save for one man, Reinhardt, who claims to have broken in one night and mapped a section of the corridors without being detected.

005.019: The village of Neundorf, an isolated settlement located in a narrow valley. The people are suspicious of outsiders, believing the outside world is a cesspool of sin, crime, and demonic influence.

006.013: The village of Holtzen. Located in a forest clearing, the people make their living hunting and foraging in the woods, and are familiar with the surrounding wilderness; outsiders often hire them as guides.

006.024: The village of Theln. A vassal of Baron Aldred (see hex 008.022), there has nonetheless been a fad sweeping through the town of people romanticizing and celebrating the life and escapades of the Swordbrothers, and several townspeople have run off to join them - leading to the Baron putting strict curfews in place to prevent this phenomenon from cutting into the ranks of his workforce.

006.029: The Three Boars, a roadside inn on the road leading into the Canton of Elgenheim. The innkeeper lives in fear of the "bandits" the plague the roads and the Scarlet Blades (see hex 003.028), but doesn't realize they're the same force. He will caution travelers to be wary and not arouse suspicion.

008.018: The House of the Sun, a Solennite monastery in the domain of Baron Aldred (see hex 008.022). The monastery boasts a hermitage that is currently inhabited by Theothelm, a man found dwelling in the woods who claims to have prophetic visions.

008.022: The manor house of Baron Aldred of Laurenz, a Vardessian nobleman. Though his demesne is surrounded by Swordbrother holdings, it is not itself a part of the Freikantons. He finds the Swordbrothers to be overly boastful foppish louts at best, and as a threat to his authority at worst.

008.026: This castle belongs to Lord Otwinn, a vassal of Baron Aldred (see hex 008.022), and guards traffic along the Westereine River. Many members of his family display webbing between one or more fingers - unbeknownst to him, a distant ancestor of his was born of a tryst between a noble and the nereid dwelling at hex 008.030.

008.030: The ruins of an old abandoned castle sit on a small island in the middle of Lake Hersch. Once, a bridge connected the island to the mainland, but now it can only be reached by boat. A nereid dwells in the lake and makes her home on the shores of this island; she will offer guidance to those who approach her with respect, but she has capricious and vindictive tendencies and may just as easily lead travelers to their doom if she decides she dislikes them.

009.011: The village of Langerhorn, the largest settlement in the Canton of Himmlen. It is home to a large inn, the Oak and Fountain (so named because these things once stood by the entrance, though the oak fell long ago and only the fountain remains). Swordbrothers of the League of the Roughshod (see here) often gather here to drink and share rumors.

010.014: The Abbey of the Holy Mountain, a convent located in the foothills of Mount Alsen, a mountain holy to the fertility goddess Eostre. It is said that she descended from the slopes of the mountain to bless the fields of what is now the Canton of Alsental. To this day, it is common for pilgrims to take journeys up the mountain looking to be blessed with good fortune, and the nuns of the Abbey house and supply those looking to make the journey - not all of whom return.

010.020: A stone circle sits on the banks of the Westereine River here. Homesteaders in the area know of the circle, but avoid it; during a full moon, it is said, it becomes a gateway to the land of Faerie, and those who step into it may be lost in the fey realm.

010.025: The village of Mannsenkirch, a vassal of Baron Aldred (see hex 008.022). Local rumor holds that a dwarven blacksmith dwells in the mountains to the east and can forge many wonderous things, but no one has been able to find the hidden door to his forge (see hex 011.023).

010.035: This castle belongs to the Crowns of Steel, a Swordbrother company known for their ruthlessness. They watch over a narrow valley and will shake down any travelers who look wealthy enough to warrant their notice.

011.010: A village of elves is hidden in a grove here, under a spell that causes it to be invisible except by moonlight. The elves have been known to raid nearby settlements to steal babies, and the people are fearful of their wrath.

011.023: A dwarf blacksmith named Tirist Zefonzon dwells in a cave here, hidden by a door of master craftsdwarfship that blends almost perfectly in with the surrounding rock. He is willing to forge a magic item for anyone who retrieves the chalice from the goblins at hex 013.024.

011.028: The city-canton of Werseid, a staunchly neutral town and a hotbed of crime because of it. See here.

012.008: The city-canton of St. Cadmus. Originally built as a Marsean abbey, a town grew around the monastery, though the monks still hold sway over local politics. See here.

012.018: This castle belongs to Lord Eskil, the brother of Lord Markham of Alsental (see hex 014.011). Many people regard him as a more valiant and honorable nobleman than his brother, but as his castle is within the boundaries of the Canton of Frisenburg, he has no claim to any authority over the people of Alsental, and he is reluctant to abandon his home.

013.006: The Monastery of Holy Seclusion, formed by a sect that split off from the monks of the Monastery of St. Cadmus (see hex 012.008). They hold that the Monastery concerns itself too much with such secular affairs as politics and has been corrupted by town life, and dedicate themselves to a life of asceticism and isolation to turn their attentions to the gods.

013.009: The village of Pollhorn. The people have been suffering from a rash of missing children, with many blaming elves (see hex 011.010), but no one has been able to locate where they, or the children, are. Some have begun to question if Nadja, the town herbalist (and, increasingly, a suspected witch) is eating the children (she is innocent; the elves' village cannot be found because it is hidden by a spell).

013.012: The village of Manniholz. As the largest village in the Canton of Alsental, it is a major market for the surrounding settlements, who gather to sell their wares - and also the headquarters of the Bannermen of Lord Markus, the patron Swordbrother company of Alsental, who can often be found selling their services and boasting of their heroic deeds at the same markets.

013.016: The city of Frisenburg, the largest city of the Freikantons, and the center of the canton of the same name. See here.

013.024: A clan of goblins dwells in the mountains here. Long ago, they stole a finely-crafted emerald chalice from the family of Tirist Zefonzon (see hex 011.023), and keep it in a place of honor. The whole clan will surely rise in defense of the chalice if they feel it is threatened.

013.035: Marwin the Magnificent, a wizard with a rather inflated ego, lives in this tower. He holds himself to be a great and accomplished magician and demands that anyone seeking an audience with him proves themselves worthy of his attention by completing a dangerous and demanding quest. In reality, he doesn't want to bother with people and is just making up tasks to keep them occupied.

014.011: This manor house belongs to Lord Markham of Alsental. His ancestor, Marcus, took the side of the Swordbrothers during the Swordbrother Revolt, and the family was allowed to hold onto power afterward. However, the Swordbrothers regard Markham as a lazy, corrupt fool who shames his family's legacy; he neglects martial training and is content to profit off trade and the labor of his vassals.

014.015: The village of Wulheim. It was said to have been founded by a master archer, and every year a prestigious archery competition is held. This year, the prize is to be an enchanted arrow that will always return to its quiver when fired.

015.008: This cave is the entrance to the lair of a gryphon. Hillfolk in the mountains revere the beast as a god, but lately, it has been drawing the ire of farmers in the valleys below, as it has begun carrying off cattle to devour.

015.019: The village of Oberbrunning. Secretly, the townspeople have formed a cult that worships demons, meeting at the stone circle at hex 015.022 to offer sacrifices in exchange for bountiful harvests.

015.022: The people of Oberbrunning (see hex 015.022) use this stone circle to consult with the demon Uzrin. The fiend has called upon them to offer sacrifices of livestock, but as of late, he has begun curious as to what other depravities he can tempt them into - and plans on demanding human sacrifice!

015.031: The village of Lahen, the largest village of the White League. Although many villages of the League train as a militia to defend their homes against attack, Lahen has grown slack on such duties, preferring to enjoy its harvests and grow wealthy off of trade, and the people are known to be lackadaisical and placid. They are rivals of Orrendorf (see hex 014.031), but the feud has not led to bloodshed. Yet.

015.033: The village of Orrendorf. A mining community in the hills, its people are poorer and more practical than those of Lahen (see hex 015.031), which has resulted in the two villages becoming rivals of one another - Orrendorfers regard Laheners as lazy and cowardly, while Laheners feel Orrendorfers are rough, boorish, and uncivilized.

015.036: The village of Wielham. Owing to its isolation in the hills, most of the people here are followers of the Old Faith, and regard Pantheonists as superstitious fools who they are not afraid to openly mock.

016.017: The village of Bocksdorf. Like many in the Freikantons, the people here are herdsmen who send their cattle into the mountain meadows to graze during the summer and bring them back at winter. However, one herdsman has been having a problem with his cattle being stolen by fairies living in the mountains.

017.010: The dwarven city of Vadalbos. The dwarves here have long traded with the people of the Canton of Meschiendorf, but they have lately grown reclusive and greedy, demanding more for their wares. The miners have discovered a lost dragon hoard deep in the tunnels beneath the mountain - and now, the nobles have begun being taken over by dragon sickness, falling victim to greed.

017.024: The village of Nassweg, a mining town in the mountains. Some of the deepest tunnels in the mines have broken through to the World Beneath, and a number of miners have gone missing - they are now prisoners of a warren of Rat Men!

017.035: The village of Farnau. They are vassals to the Abbey of St. Konrad (see hex 018.034) and supply the monks with a tithe of their produce. They are also obligated to defend the Abbey if it is attacked, and its men train in the longbow from a young age.

018.014: A village of elves lives at the foot of a mountain here. They view the mountain as their god, and only the elders of the village are allowed to climb its slopes in order to commune with the spirits.

018.022: The village of Passelburg. It is a close ally of Eusel (see hex 020.024), and lately, the town council of Eusel has begun secretly shipping weapons to a ring of bandits living in Passelburg to weaken the authority of Frisenburg (see hex 013.016).

018.031: Behind the waterfall here is a cave where dwells the huldra (stats of a succubus, but without a fly speed or the Etherealness feature) Calia. Appearing as a beautiful woman with the horns and tail of a cow and a hollow back like a rotten tree trunk, she takes human guise to lure men back to her lair to eat them.

018.032: The village of Bruegen. Lately, a woodcutter named Bernhard has disappeared, and his wife Veronika is distraught. He has, in fact, been eaten by the huldra Calia (see hex 018.031), and his wedding ring can be found among the bones in her cave. If proof of his death is brought to his wife, she will accept that he probably deserved such a fate for cheating on her.

018.034: The Abbey of St. Konrad, a Voltanite monastery. It is home to the largest temple in the White League, and people from across the canton make the journey there to attend services during holidays. Because of this, rumors from far afield may be shared here.

018.037: The village of Kemnitz. Recently, the village hired a band of Swordbrothers, the Hawkshields, to defend them against a raid by orcs, but did not have the means to pay them as much as they demanded. As a result, the Swordbrothers are now laying siege to the town, intending to make it known that they won't tolerate being stiffed - by force, if need be.

018.040: The village of Reutling. Rumor holds that the town cemetery is haunted, and that those who stay awake there overnight will be visited by spirits. One ghost knows of the location of the ancient dwarven tombs in hex 030.020.

019.010: The village of Wambelin. It is ruled by Sir Helmfreid von Herten, a knight whose family owned the land before the Swordbrother Revolt. He is hostile toward Swordbrothers, who he blames for bringing ruin upon his family and their estate.

019.026: The village of Mendigen. It is home to an alchemist who has brewed several potions of invisibility, using them at night to pretend to be a ghost and scare away merchant caravans so they do not disturb the meadows where he gathers reagents for his potions.

019.030: A clan of Iron Orcs lives in the hills here, mining ore from the mountainside. They have a tenuous peace with the White League and have vowed not to attack their villages, but many keep a wary eye on them, and the Swordbrothers are prepared to intervene if they must.

019.038: The Convent of the Blessed Halberd, a convent devoted to Kerne where an order of warrior nuns live and train. Some of them have gone on to join the local Swordbrother company, the Brothers of the Bear (see here), and many Swordbrothers from across the Freikantons make pilgrimages here to pray for victory in battle.

020.005: The village of Korse. A local, Henrik, is plotting a heist into the vaults of the dwarven citadel of Senglalilom (see hex 023.003), and is looking for volunteers to join him in braving the dangers such a task entails.

020.008: The Monastery of the Golden Eagle, a monastery devoted to Voltan. The monks here devote themselves to upholding and enforcing the law of the land, and they hold a strict and merciless court over criminals brought to them from throughout the canton - often delivered to them by the Swordbrothers of the Sworn Holy Swordsmen (see hex 021.009).

020.019: The Monastery of the Weary Travelers, a monastery devoted to Marseah that serves to house those traveling on the roads, providing the amenities of an inn free of charge - provided one is willing to sit through the monks' sermons. It is built in the center of a massive stone bridge of dwarven origin, one that has stood here since time immemorial. Though most of the monks are Marseans, they also venerate Meili, the god of roads and travelers, and a shrine here is dedicated to him.

020.024: The town of Eusel. Built on the shore of the lake of the same name (and extending into its waters on a system of platforms and bridges), it is one of the largest towns in the Freikantons, but still a vassal of the Canton of Frisenburg without its own say in government affairs. The people there consider Frisenburg a rival, and there are many plots at hand to undermine its authority.

021.009: The town of Meschiendorf, the center of the canton of the same name. It is home to the headquarters of the Sworn Holy Swordsmen, a Swordbrother company that serves the Monastery of the Golden Eagle (see hex 020.008) by tracking down, recovering, and - in some cases - summarily executing wanted criminals in the name of Voltan's justice.

021.029: The town of Krielow. Recently, a Swordbrother who cannot remember where he came from or even his name came into town; the locals regard him mainly with amusement. In fact, he is under a curse cast on him by the Rat Men in hex 017.024 after he tried to investigate the disappearances in Nassweg. He vaguely recalls dark tunnels and the scuttling of rodents, but not much else.

021.035: This castle belongs to Sir Thorsten von Setzer, a landed knight. Although the White League is governed as a confederacy of free villages without much in the way of nobility, he nevertheless owns property there, though his authority doesn't reach far beyond the walls. Although he is proud of his status as a knight, he isn't much of a fighter, preferring to let his hired Swordbrothers actually guard the castle while he competes on the tournament circuit.

021.037: The town of Rahmskent, center of the canton of the same name. It is overseen by Lady Yvonne Freudenberger, who sees to it that the town is clean, appointed, and well-maintained at all times in the hopes of impressing the local Swordbrothers. As such, she looks down upon travelers who don't keep up with the act.

022.007: This castle is the headquarters of the Band of the Iron Ring, the Swordbrother company in control of the Canton of Skalden. They maintain trade with the dwarves of Senglalilom (see hex 023.003), and twice a year, the dwarves come to exhibit their goods in a market fair that draws visitors from across the canton.

022.014: A standing stone sticks up from the lake here. One who kisses the stone will be able to breathe water as though it were air for the next 24 hours.

022.017: This castle is manned by the Swordbrothers of the Fellows of Adelbrecht. Its catacombs are said to house the tomb of Adelbrecht von Bergshafen, the first Swordbrother, himself. His zweihander is said to be able to call down thunder and lightning if the magic word is spoken by its wielder - but in order to obtain it, one must be able to best his restless spirit in combat. Many have approached the Swordbrothers looking to take on the challenge, but few have succeeded.

022.023: The dwarven fortress of Tol Duroz. A very old citadel, only the top layers are actually in use, and they have been built on top of many successive layers of ruins. Even the dwarves living there often find new and undiscovered artifacts in the vaults of the earth.

022.028: The black dragon Witherwing lives in this cave. His poison is so deadly as to pollute the waters of Lake Eusel by his very presence, and fish have been turning up dead near the shore as of late, much to the frustration of the fishermen.

022.032: The village of Westrom. Most of the inhabitants are halflings, though more and more humans have settled in the area with trade passing through here - something that the elders of the halfling community lament for disrupting their traditions.

023.003: The dwarven city of Senglalilom. It has close ties with the Canton of Skalden, and traditionally one of Skalden's two representatives sent to the Confederation Council is drawn from here. This has led some to regard the fortress as a an unofficial canton - and some to lobby for it to become an official canton.

023.005: The village of Bergholz. It sits down the water from Senglalilom (see hex 023.003), and occasionally, gold and gems wash down the river into the fields. The locals have been hoarding such treasure for years now - but if the dwarves became aware of such a thing, they would surely not be amused...

023.013: The village of Ellense. The people here subsist off of fishing in the nearby lake - and one fisherman claims to have caught a huge fish with scales made of gold, but it got away! Is it all just a tall tale, or something more?

023.036: The village of Kurtzdorf. It is known for its brewery, which brews a particularly strong ale - in truth, the brewers get their hops from an enchanted grove in the hills they keep the location of closely guarded, and the hops themselves can induce an hours-long slumber in any who consume them straight.

023.039: Castle Ulfshoff, which guards the Wolf's Maw Pass between Vardessy and Alcasse. The castle guards a strategic chokepoint and is regarded as nigh-impenetrable - and few have escaped from its dungeons. The Brothers of the Bear have their headquarters here.

024.010: The village of Trieb, a peaceful community of halflings who prefer to live quiet lives of farming and rarely leave their homes. That was, until one young lady, Rowena Honeywise, ran away from home on her wedding day, and now her family is distraught (she found her life incredibly boring and wanted to see the world, and is now at the castle at hex 025.023, looking to join the Steelsworn League).

024.012: The Abbey of St. Sigeric's Banner, a monastery devoted to Kerne. Though the monks themselves are not warriors, they pray for the success of the Swordbrothers, and many aspiring mercenaries have had their statuses raised by performing tasks to win the favor of the Abbey.

024.022: This mining camp was funded by the Swordbrothers of the Steelsworn League (see hex 025.023) to bring in revenue for their operation. As of late, the miners have been turning up dwarven artifacts dating back to the time of ancient Tol Duroz (see hex 022.023). The dwarves will be happy to see them returned, but the Steelsworn League would benefit greatly from their value...

024.026: The Abbey of St. Cleothilde, a convent devoted to Eostre. As of late, the nuns have been stricken ill by a mysterious sickness - in truth, they are being poisoned by the influence of the dragon Witherwing (see hex 022.028).

025.007: The village of Kaltenau. The people here pay homage to a shrine devoted to Olmo, god of the sea, on the banks of the river; the statue appears to be carved from the same stone as the standing stone at hex 022.014.

025.013: The town of Bergschafen. This was the birthplace of Adelbrecht von Bergschafen, the first Swordbrother, and as such, it holds a festival every year commemorating the hero's exploits. Many Swordbrother companies advertise themselves during such an occasion, either seeking jobs or recruits, and a great tournament of arms is held, with the winner achieving fame and fortune.

025.016: The city-canton of Hagen. It is a major market town, and many Swordbrother companies large and small are located here. During the day, any number of mercenaries may be hired...during the night, when ale flows and arguments between rival bands get heated, fights often break out in the streets.

025.023: This castle is the headquarters of the Steelsworn League, the Swordbrother company in charge of the Canton of Thurstental. The company is known for hiring foreigners and travelers from all lands, and a number of miscreants have run away from their lives - or, in some cases, from the law - to join in search of a new life. Among them is the halfling Rowena Honeywise (see hex 024.010).

025.029: The ruins of the lost dwarven fortress of Dothanak lay here, long since overrun by orcs and goblins. Even the trollkin dare not go deeper into the vaults, where the spirits of the dead are said to haunt the halls...and perhaps even worse things beyond.

025.035: The village of Bregofels. Located on the shore of Lake Baaden - a cursed lake said to spawn monsters - it is heavily fortified to ward off attack, and the local Swordbrother company, the Legion of the Blue Hounds, maintains a permanent garrison. The market sells all sorts of strange alchemical reagents harvested from such creatures' bodies.

026.018: A tribe of elves dwells in a grove here. They are close allies of the villagers of Findel (see hex 027.012) and are sworn to come to their aid, but they distrust all other humans.

026.022: The village of Immelweis. For some time now, sheep have gone missing only for their mangled bodies to turn up outside the town, but it was only recently when a child was found dead - leading the townspeople to suspect a werewolf is on the loose. The town blacksmith has galvanized a mob to rise up against a forester on the outskirts of town he claims is the culprit - secretly, though, it is the blacksmith himself who is the werewolf, and he is trying to bury suspicion.

026.025: This mining camp was funded by the Swordbrothers of the Steelsworn League (see hex 025.023) to bring in revenue for their operation. A thief once hid in the mines while escaping the law, but fell down a mineshaft and died - now, their skeleton lies deep below the earth, with the loot in tow.

027.010: The village of Eisling. It is the largest village in the Canton of Galenwald and holds a hunting lodge where the local Swordbrothers, the Company of Merry Elks, hold their meetings. They are great trophy hunters, and have a tradition of preserving the taxidermied heads of some of their most notable kills.

027.012: The village of Findel. It is said that a villager long ago won the favor of the elves of the forest (see hex 026.018), and they will provide protection if the people are threatened.

027.022: The village of Allenmark. Near the town is a series of old burial mound said to house the tombs of ancient kings, buried with their treasure...though no one has been able to retrieve that treasure and live to tell the tale.

027.033: The village of Ummel. It is located further up the hills from Bregofels (see hex 025.035), and serves as a lookout for monsters emerging from Lake Baaden, with the townspeople regularly electing a watchman to monitor the lake from a tower in the center of town. However, the duty currently sits with Leonie Hildeburg, a rather scatter-brained young woman who doesn't pay much attention when she needs to, and focuses too intently on things that don't matter.

028.001: A red dragon by the name of Firefang lives in a cave in the mountains here. The creature enjoys toying with people by dropping rocks and breathing fire into the pass below for his own amusement - and this has disrupted traffic through the mountains.

028.008: The village of Harenstein. A rustic settlement in the middle of the woods, the people here survive off of hunting and foraging berries - as well as serving as spies for the Company of Merry Elks (see hex 027.010) in exchange for a payment in food.

028.020: The village of Berdorf, the home of the Society of Wineskins - the Swordbrother company in charge of the Canton of Simmenswald. The village boasts extensive vineyards, and many wines can be found in its markets - and are enjoyed by the Swordbrothers, who as a result aren't the most driven of people.

028.024: The village of Hinterzhof. The people here control a pass through the mountains between Halvardy and the Freikantons, and are eager to greet visitors. They don't hear much from the outside world, and will take travelers into their homes to hear their stories.

028.026: This castle belongs to the Brotherhood of the Iron Helmet, the Swordbrother company in control of the city-canton of Delbent (see hex 028.028). It sits in the middle of a narrow mountain pass, ensuring that no one can get into or out of the valley without their knowledge.

028.028: The city-canton of Delbent. It is economically prosperous due to the rich fields of the Delbental Valley, but the people have grown parochial and closed-minded due to their isolation, with many never leaving the valley. As such, inbreeding is not uncommon.

029.003: This castle belongs to Count Ernst Laugerhauf, a Vardessian noble. He has been cut off from trade due to the routes to his castle being blocked off by the predations of the dragon Firefang in the north (see hex 028.001) and the independence of the Canton of Oschebad to the east. His people are growing tired of this.

029.014: This tower once belonged to Johann Worner, a wizard who secluded himself here in the study of immortality, intending to become a lich. He died before he could separate his soul from his body, but as a result, he did achieve some form of immortality - his ghost was bound to the tower by virtue of the unfinished business he had left in life.

030.020: A complex of ancient dwarven tombs is carved into the side of the mountain here. Each holds the remains of a bygone king, buried with their treasure - and plenty of traps to deter would-be grave robbers.

030.028: A herd of cattle grazes in a meadow here, all bearing a brand in the shape of the holy symbol of Volos, the god of herdsmen. They are the god's property, and anyone who harms or steals them will be subject to his wrath.

030.032: The village of Stauhauft. The League of the Blue Hounds sometimes draws men from the village as recruits to bolster their ranks against the monsters of Lake Baaden. Being so distant from the lake as to be safe, this has led the townspeople to grow hostile toward the Swordbrothers, who they feel are taking their people as slaves - and they have begun talk of revolt.

031.004: The village of Delinghof. It has of late been under attack by marauding bandits - some from the Canton of Oschebad, while others are from the tower at hex 032.008. They don't realize the attacks are coming from two different groups, and neither does either bandit gang.

032.008: This watchtower was under the control of Dame Isabella Strom, a knight whose connections to the Rittersmark were cut off when the Canton of Oschebad declared independence. As a result, she and her men-at-arms have turned to banditry, seeing nothing better to do and feeling abandoned by Duke Leo of the Rittersmark when he stopped sending aid.