The elven city-state of Barkenholdt is a large, sprawling metropolis made of living trees and crawling with insects. Traveling from one end to the other is a domestic journey that takes five legs of travel.
Here are some common destinations and the distance they are from Barkenholdt:
| Ironlight | 3 legs |
| Kilnrest | 2 legs |
| Longtower | 3 legs |
| Pillervault | 4 legs |
| Slagfroth | 1 legs |
| The Hell Pit | 6 legs |
| Thronehill | 4 legs |
The city of Barkenholdt is one of the safest places in the world to be. Getting there, however, requires you to traverse the Cloversea Forest: a massive wilderness spanning a third of the continent’s surface that is home to some of the most dangerous predators and people around.
When traveling into Barkenholdt, your Challenge Rolls are compared to the following chart:
| 1 | Mosquito Cloud |
| 2 | Poison Frog Nest |
| 3 | Bumble Shredder Hive |
| 4 | Nettle Pools |
| 5 | Black Horn Grazing Grounds |
| 6 | Dark Thicket |
| 7 | White Grove |
| 8 | Ambush Meadow |
| 9 | Python's Canopy |
| 10-11 | Municipal Checkpoint |
| 12 | GM-instigated madness. |
| 13-15 | Murky River |
| 16-19 | Winding River |
| 20+ | Clover Shrine |
Once within the city, each district has its own sub-city area that is two legs of domestic travel downward and a similar canopy region that is a single leg of domestic travel up.
| Canopy Region | 1 leg |
| Undercity Carpet | 2 legs |
When you enter this location, roll your Totemism with Endurance against a difficulty of 8 to resist mosquito-bourne illness. A failed roll imposes a handicap.
Resident mooks:
As you enter this location, roll your Totemism with Grace against a difficulty of 8 to avoid contact with the frogs leaping from the nearby trees. A failed roll imposes a handicap.
Resident mooks:
As you enter this location, roll your Totemism with Awareness against a difficulty of 8 to avoid stepping into the territory of these over-sized flying insects. Failure will incite the wrath of the drones and impose a handicap.
Resident mooks:
This location consists of shallow pools of water overgrown by a poisonous vines that causes tremendous irritation upon contact. As you enter, roll your Totemism or Notice with Awareness against a difficulty of 9 to avoid the pools. If you fail, your skin starts to burn, crack, and blister and the infected area start to numb: suffer one handicap.
The large and territorial, wild blackhorn rhino grazes in this area. As you enter, roll your Empathy or Totemism with Cunning against a difficulty of 10 to avoid upsetting the beasts. Failure will create two Blackhorn mooks in this location hostile to your company.
Resident mooks:
This location is so densely overgrown with plants that entering it will cost 3TP unless you’re a native jungle animal (such as a puma). Any puma occupying this location at the start of the round gains +3TP. The difficulty to attack occupants here is increased by +1.
Resident mooks:
Entering this location requires you to roll your Empathy with Cunning against a difficulty of 8 if you haven’t killed any forest wildlife or 12 if you have. Failure means that you display a lack of reverence for the sanctity of forest life and the White Stag here gores you, imposing a Handicap or two if the stench of death is upon you (if you’d killed a forest animal during this challenge).
Resident mooks:
This open meadow location is being watched by aboriginal Greenwalker Elves who consider your presence in the sacred forest to be a blasphemy. If you have a tribal pendant, there’s a 50% chance that they won’t attack you but this doesn’t protect your companions.
Resident mooks:
As you enter this location, you must roll Notice or Totemism with Awareness against a difficulty of 10 or lose all your Tactical Points to a Great Boa that leaps upon you and attempts to strangle you. If you are a Dwarf, the difficulty is 11 instead.
Boa creatures can enter this location without TP cost. All other combatants must spend 5TP to enter here.
Resident mooks:
A temporary check-point has been established by the constabulary of Barkenholdt. They’re inspecting all travelers, looking for contraband goods. If you are working an illegal contract or otherwise possess some contraband item, they will begin a fight unless you succeed at a roll of Empathy with Cunning at a difficulty of 12.
Resident mooks:
You come to still river that’s blackened by the chlorophyll of the local plant life. This makes the water an excellent place for alligators to hide.
Resident mooks:
There is a deep river that winds snake-like patterns through the jungle here. Fording it requires you a roll of Totemism with Endurance against a difficulty of 9. Failure means some of your supplies get swept away and you lose 2 Supply Tokens. This river is being watched by some of the more zealous natives.
Resident mooks:
This is a clearing blanketed in clover that the natives consider so sacred that they will only enter it to remove profane intruders such as yourselves.
Resident mooks:
Atop the trees of the city is the world of the Canopy Region where the boughs are thinner and daylight is more abundant. Here the “top elves” tend to giant birds that are trained to provide taxi services for those needing to cross the city quickly.
There are also many bands of monkeys living in the higher reaches of the city. Tourists think these creatures are the cutest things in the world but the locals think of them as vermin.
Because the canopy is vital for keeping the right balance of light needed by many of the city’s work bugs below, picking leaves from the canopy is illegal and punishable by harsh fines or even imprisonment.
Only the occasional caretaker bothers to descend to the ground beneath the city’s catwalks. Here the world’s largest population of the largest bugs scurry about performing their unique function in the city’s ecosystem.
Many of the creatures that live in this dark, under-city world are dangerously venomous. They will become hostile to anybody not properly perfumed in the pheromonal concoction – which differs from season to season and from suburb to suburb. Each neighborhood represents a unique ecosystem and its native bugs are incapable of surviving anywhere else.
Anything that falls the hundreds of feet from the catwalks above is considered forever lost. Biodegradable things are quickly dissolved by the acidic secretions of beetles bred specifically for that task. Anything that doesn’t dissolve easily is collected by ant-like insects that make piles of such foreign objects. Caretakers will haul these heaps of garbage out every century or so.
Centuries ago, demons blew a hole in the earth and crawled from it to wreak havoc upon the land. That hole has come to be known as The Hell Pit and is a common destination for Earthhewn dwarves and tourists who want to be driven clinically insane.
Traversing the diameter of the Hell Pit is a domestic journey that takes six legs to travel.
Common places you’d rather be than the Hell Pit (and their distances):
| Barkenholdt | 6 legs |
| Ironlight | 5 legs |
| Kilnrest | 6 legs |
| Longtower | 6 legs |
| Pillervault | 5 legs |
| Slagfroth | 6 legs |
| Thronehill | 2 legs |
Getting to the Hell Pit from any of the above places requires passing through a region called The Great Graveyard of Nations: the ruins of the human kingdoms that were destroyed by rampaging demons and a place that remains ever horrific even after the demons' defeat.
Use the following charts for trips into the Hell Pit:
| 1 | Blooming Rubble |
| 2 | Vile Feasting Pit |
| 3 | Vile Feasting Lake |
| 4 | Muncher's Castle |
| 5 | Vaporous Cloud of Hunger |
| 6 | Vaporous Cloud of Malice |
| 7 | Blooming Death Range |
| 8 | Feral Survivor Grounds |
| 9 | Vaporous Cloud of Suffering |
| 10-12 | GM decides what happens |
| 13-15 | Wretched Hive |
| 16-18 | Wretched Ghetto |
| 19 | Horrific Cloud |
| 20+ | Den of the Profane |
Other notable places that are a domestic journey away from the Hell Pit proper include:
| The Desecrations | 1 Leg |
| The Great Defiling Temple | 3 Legs |
If you enter this location while carrying more than three Supply Tokens, you must haul all your gear over very difficult terrain; roll your Scavenging with Power against a difficulty of 8. If you fail, your wagon is badly damaged and you must suffer a Setback to repair it or lose three Supply Tokens.
Resident mooks:
As you enter this location, you must roll your Notice or Scavenging with Awareness against a difficulty of 8 or else fall into the Bile Pit location.
This challenge comes with the following secondary location:
Resident mooks:
As you enter this location, you suffer 2 stuns as a family of Vile Stalkers ambushes you. Roll your Scavenging with Grace against a difficulty of 8 or else fall into the Large Bile Pit location.
This challenge comes with the following secondary location:
Resident mooks:
The fallen remains of an ancient castle seem to radiate an eerie foreboding. The crumbled walls all look rather indistinguishable and the anxiety the place fills you with makes it easy to get lost. When attempting to leave, roll your Scavenging with Cunning against a difficulty of 9 or become confused and remain in the location.
Resident mooks:
There is a dark cloud of mist here that fills you with an insatiable hunger. As you enter and at the start of each round, roll your Scavenging with Resolve against a difficulty of 8 to resist the temptation to devour any food. If you fail, you must discard a Supply Token or suffer a Handicap.
No resident mooks.
There is a dark cloud of mist here that fills you with a profound hate for all living. As you enter and at the start of each round, roll your Scavenging with Resolve against a difficulty of 8 to resist the urge to harm others. Otherwise, inflict your Power in damage against a random ally.
No resident mooks.
A clearing of several acres is carpeted in human corpses several dozen deathblooms are feasting on this rotting buffet. As you enter, roll you Scavenging with Resolve against a difficulty of 8 to resist the urge to vomit. Failure costs you 2TP.
Resident mooks:
As you enter this location, you are ambushed by a mob of feral human survivors: lose three TP. At the start of each round, the shrieks of the denizens is so maddening, it inflicts 1 Stun.
Resident mooks:
There is a dark cloud of mist here that causes physical pain and misery. As you enter and at the start of each of your turns, roll your Scavenging or Virtue with Resolve against a difficulty of 8 or suffer 3 Stuns. If you have no TP’s, suffer 3 Wounds instead.
No resident mooks.
Wretchlings in this location have 2 Damage Reduction.
Resident Mooks:
Wretchlings in this location have 2 Damage Reduction and attacking them has +1 difficulty.
Resident mooks:
The sky here is obscured by the floating mass of hundreds of Bulb Horrors. Entering this location inflicts 4 Wounds as their barbed tentacles flail about you. At the start of each round, all non-fouled occupants here suffer 5 Wounds.
Resident mooks:
The ruins of an ancient castle have become the home of humans engaged in the unthinkable: the deliberate worship of the evil that once ruled these lands. They’ve placed traps all over the grounds to snare hapless victims and sacrifice them at an altar made of demonic bones. Attempting to leave this location requires a roll of Scavenging with Awareness against a difficulty of 10. Failure inflicts a handicap as you are caught in a nasty trap that prevents your departure.
Resident mooks:
If you were to fly a few miles into the air and look down on the continent, it would look like it had a hand seven-fingered hand print on it with a large eye at the center of the palm. The “eye” in this picture is the Hell Pit itself. The palm is the devastated ruins of extinct human civilizations (the Great Graveyard of Nations) and the fingers are a set of “highways” built by the demons to hasten their march into the world. These roads are called “The Desecrations.”
Each of the seven Desecrations is a path traversed by a Demon Lord as their invasion began. These roads are cobbled with black stone carved to look like human skulls and are recessed three feet into the ground. The curbs look like three-dimensional animations of floating skulls devouring one another.
Once one steps into a Desecration, the view of the world is blurred and darkened. Very little light penetrates the hellish boundary that engulfs this road. Fires will not kindle upon this road, food seems to spoil very quickly here and any water that touches the ground immediately evaporates.
It is said that the road was enchanted by the demon lords who made it to accelerate the march of their minions and to better support their supply lines. If one begins an international journey from one of the seven Desecrations, the number of legs required to complete the trip are half what they would be otherwise but any supply tokens you have will be lost. They say it was because the demons didn’t want their minions to have the option to retreat that the speed benefit doesn’t work the other way around.
Very near the Hell Pit stands a castle built millennia ago by a long forgotten human civilization. It is widely believed that this castle was re-purposed as a torture chamber where the demon lords themselves indulged their lust for pain. Many believe that the kings or holy priests of from human societies were tortured here and some believe that they still live today, living trapped and abandoned somewhere in the depths of this dilapidated structure.
The main reason that people believe this because hundreds of Fouled creatures emerge from the castle every day – a rate that far exceeds usual Fouled reproduction. The tentacled beasts are believed to be hosted in bodies kept supernaturally alive by ancient, demonic magic and the fouled are free to reproduce without killing their hosts. The few who bother validating this claim are never heard from again.
The moat surrounding this castle is filled with skeletons, its walls and towers are crumbling with age but the structure has yet to fully collapse. Attempts to destroy the castle have been met with fierce resistance from the Fouled that emerge here and the risk that these monsters use any invaders as hosts to increase their rate of reproduction makes most nations afraid to try razing the place.
The cosmopolitan city-state of Ironlight is a major trade hub of the world. It’s situated in a geographically convenient place and is home to people of all walks of life.
During the Fiend War, Ironlight was a military fortress from-which many historic marches began. Its martial history has two major consequences: 1) there are many nearby demon graves from-which fouled monsters will make large incursions, 2) the modern civil government has a tenuous political relationship with the independent, sovereign militia that resides here.
International travel from Ironlight includes the following legs:
| Barkenholdt | 3 legs |
| Hell Pit | 6 legs |
| Kilnrest | 3 legs |
| Longtower | 4 legs |
| Pillervault | 5 legs |
| Slagfroth | 3 legs |
| Thronehill | 3 legs |
Domestic travel can also take you to the following historic sites:
| [Corpse of Lt. Wrathmonger](./places.html#Corpse of Lt. Wrathmonger) | 3 legs |
| Fallen Den of the Incubi | 4 legs |
| Grave of the Putrid Seven | 3 legs |
| [Lord Agony's Corpse](./places.html#Lord Agony's Corpse) | 5 legs |
Whenever traveling into or around Ironlight, use the following chart to generate your challenges:
| 1 | Failed Caravan Site |
| 2 | Trouble on the Tracks |
| 3 | Craven Bandit Hideout |
| 4 | Skullmunch Wrangling |
| 5-6 | Peoples' Impromptu Court |
| 7-8 | Victims of the Times |
| 9 | Plague Bearers |
| 10-12 | GM-Instigated Madness |
| 13-15 | Stonking Site |
| 16-18 | A Sultan's Purge |
| 19 | Horrid Brambles |
| 20+ | Echoes of Agony |
Immediately after the Fiend War, it used to be every person’s civil duty to serve in the Ironlight militia and to go on regular tours looking for Fouled monsters to slay. Over the centuries, the Fouled population dwindled and the requirement was removed. People still go on these tours today but because it’s so rare to meet more than a couple of deathblooms, the practice has been relegated to a tourist attraction.
Here you stumble upon a group of such tourists who were unfortunate enough to encounter a real swarm of fouled monsters and were defeated by them. Only one wounded deathbloom remains and it feels cornered when you arrive.
Resident mooks:
The Earthhewn rail road is a vital piece of infrastructure that connects Slagfroth to Ironlight, enabling trade between these two cities. As you travel along the tracks, you notice that a pryrwretch is actively trying to bend the rails off the ties.
In the distance, you see train approaching. If the beast is left uninterrupted for four rounds, the train is at risk of derailing.
Resident mooks:
Ironlight’s economy and population have grown so explosively that it’s now possible to engage in highway robbery without immediately being caught. This leads to the recent rise in highway crimes. The two governments of Ironlight squabble over which of them is responsible for policing the highways: the Martial society saying that crime has always been under the purview of the Civil Government while the Municipal Council asserts that the Martial Society has always kept the peace outside the city walls.
Here you stumble upon a camp site that’s obviously a cache for stolen goods. You can loot the place to gain a supply token.
Resident mooks:
A group of dwarves has cornered a skull muncher here and is currently attempting to capture the beast. As you enter this location, the thrashing of the beast and the crossfire from the wranglers make for a hectic environment. Roll your Notice with Grace against a difficulty of 9 to dodge the mayhem or suffer 8 Wounds.
Resident mooks,
In the middle of a clearing there is a tree stump upon-which rests a shackled human. Surrounding him are a bunch of robed figures who are busily chanting “kill the racist!”
If you and everyone with you is an elf, you can attempt to leave this location by rolling your Diplomacy with Cunning against a difficulty of 8. If there is at least one non-elf in your group, the difficulty is 13. Failure causes the lynch mob to accuse you of being racist and they will try to kill you in the name of justice.
There’s a 50% chance that the Petty Thief will attack you even if you rescued him.
Resident mooks:
A company of the martial society has been ambushed here and only one, very badly wounded militia man has survived. Unfortunately, her wounds have left her easy prey to a deathbloom that has already infected her with the fouling.
Resident mooks:
A large merchant company has been overrun by The Fouled and their bodies are now hosts to the creatures' young. This has driven them mad left the place heavily infested. As you enter this location, you must roll your Notice with Awareness against 8 or suffer 3 Stuns and 4 Wounds due to ambush.
Resident mooks:
The Earthhewn Clan has received good intelligence that there is a heavy fouled presence here. They’re responding in the way that they normally do: With heavy artillery fire. At the start of each round, this location suffers 2 Siege Damage.
Resident mooks:
The Sultan has sent some pilgrims to this area to clean out some of the most densely packed fouled. They’re currently in over their head here and at risk of being overrun.
If you help the pilgrims purge all fouled from the area, your company will be rewarded with 50 cons and you may roll your Commerce with Cunning against a difficulty of 10. On success, your group gets another 10 coins for every die stacked toward the roll.
Resident mooks:
You reach a dusty plain with very little vegetation. As you enter, roll your Notice with Awareness at a difficulty of 11 or take a handicap to the Lashing Filth ambush that lurks beneath the dust.
Resident mooks:
A sudden gust of wind sweeps through here, carrying a ghastly howl that chills you to the bone. The wind carries a cloud of dust that stinks almost as overwhelmingly as it blinds. As you enter this location, take 4 Wounds plus another 4 Wounds if your Virtue is less than 5.
Resident mooks:
Wrathmonger was one of the most accomplished strategists in all of Lord Agony’s army. His success earned him the adoration of his demon lord and the ire of all his other superiors. Agony enjoyed watching his generals conspire in vain to defame or assassinate this lieutenant but would have enjoyed it as much if they’d succeeded. Wrathmonger was far too wily for them to ever do so.
Although far less arrogant than most other devils, Wrathmonger was still given to the typical demonic bravado. His haughtiness proved to be his undoing as he longed to be the first demon to slay the human Sultan who’d killed so many of his brethren. In his eagerness, Wrathmonger chased the human into an ambush where Earthhewn and Barkenholdt forces cut off his retreat and stonked his forces into oblivion.
This strategic location is the entry to the caverns that have formed under Wrathmonger’s skeleton. As you enter this location, you take 3 Wounds from Deathblooms that spring from the shadows and ambush you.
Resident mooks:
This torture chamber specialized in the seduction and torment of women. This was the first demonic outpost that the Allied Forces of the World razed. Although the site was not of great strategic importance, many lives were lost in the assault.
After the last demon lord fell, many surviving incubi took refuge in the dungeons here where they remained unnoticed for over a decade. When it was discovered that the den again housed its signature devil, the world spared no expense in purging it once again.
The Martial Society of Ironlight makes regular trips to this location to ensure that it remains unoccupied. Aside from the occasional Fouled, there hasn’t been much activity here.
Resident mooks:
There were seven lesser devils that all hated Lord Agony. This is entirely normal for demons but they did something unusual: they entered into a pact that, whatever the cost, they would try to usurp their master. They cared more about defeating him than securing power for themselves individually.
Agony sensed their motive and assigned them to govern distant torture chambers where he secretly hoped the Allied Forces of the world would attack these traitors piecemeal to rid him of the problem. The seven feared this very possibility and eventually decided to preempt it by striking Fort Ironlight first.
Frostbeard spies voluntarily interned themselves in the torture chambers of these devils so they could monitor communications between them. Through their efforts, Fort Ironlight was able to prepare and launch a counter-preemptive strike, defeating all seven of these devils here at their rally point.
There are seven Putrid Spire locations here. Entering them requires you to climb several hundred feet of sheer rock: Roll Mountaineering with Endurance, difficulty 13 or suffer two handicaps from falling.
At the tops, there are several bones of imps and animals that were sacrificed to empower vain protection spells used here. There’s a 25% chance that there is also 100 coins of loose coins scattered at the top of each.
The demon Lord Agony was the leader of the nine demon lords that invaded the world. He was the single-most hateful, most cunning, and most powerful of them all. His death cursed the land, ensuring that nothing would ever grow on the surface for miles around — thus turning what was once fertile grasslands into “The Dead Plains.”
People very rarely venture near Lord Agony’s corpse. The reasons are numerous but the most obvious is this: as you near, you will grow tremendously nauseous, requiring you to roll Virtue with Resolve to press through the pain and eventually Virtue with Endurance to keep from vomiting your guts out. Each time you regurgitate, consume a Supply Token or suffer a handicap due to dehydration.
This location is the point of entry into the caverns that formed under the corpse of Lord Agony. As you enter, you must consume a Supply Token or suffer a Handicap.
Resident mooks:
Kilnrest is the port city on the east coast that’s the political and religious capitol of the East Isles Kingdom. It’s a short distance from major religious sites of Islander culture and the major trade hub on the island of Outershoal.
Major cities and their distance from here:
| Barkenholdt | 2 legs |
| Hell Pit | 6 legs |
| Ironlight | 3 legs |
| Longtower | 4 legs |
| Pillervault | 2 legs |
| Slagfroth | 2 legs |
| Thronehill | 4 legs |
No matter where you come from, getting to the city of Kilnrest will bring you along one of the coastal roads and passing by several lumber mills and port towns. Because of an ever growing political unrest in the area, the sorts of challenges you may face are specified in this chart:
| 1-2 | Vicious Tides |
| 3-4 | Arid Lumber Farm |
| 5-6 | Populist Bridge |
| 7-8 | Royal Blockade |
| 9 | Mergrave |
| 10-12 | GM dictated chaos. |
| 13-15 | Seaman's Unmarked Grave |
| 16-18 | Innocent's Grave |
| 19 | Rioting Peasants |
| 20+ | Failure of Martial Law |
Other destinations from Kilnrest that are a domestic journey away:
| Outershoal | 3 Legs |
| Quietcrest | 2 Legs |
Over the course of the last century, the tides of the Eastern shores have become violently unpredictable. As you enter and leave this area, there’s a 17% chance that a large wave smashes the beach and washes away two of your Supply Tokens.
No resident mooks.
Though the sky is very often overcast, the rain so very rarely seems to fall on the land. The local lumber farms suffer the most from the particularly dry weather. If you stop to rest here, there’s an 8% chance that you’ll start a wildfire and suffer a setback. Foraging here has +3 difficulty. Leaving requires you to roll Scavenging with Endurance or consume an extra Supply Token.
No resident mooks.
You come to a bridge that is guarded by a half dozen armed humans who demand a toll of 10 coins for each person crossing. If any traveler refuses to pay, they will attack.
Resident mooks:
Knights have built a small barricade on the highway and are currently threatening a group of armed civilians arrayed before them. Nobody appears to want to fight. You can convince both parties to let you pass through by making two consecutive rolls of Diplomacy with Cunning at difficulties of 10 each. You could try helping them settle the dispute by rolling Diplomacy with Cunning at a difficulty of 12. You can detour around them by suffering one Setback (ref Setbacks).
Resident mooks:
The bodies of several merfolk have washed ashore near the road. Their bodies are currently being feasted on by some deathblooms. Leaving unnoticed requires a roll of Guile with Grace against a difficulty of 8 otherwise, the Fouled notice you and attack.
Resident mooks:
The road passes along a beach carpeted in sea weed. The crush of the tides seems to bring a haunting howl with it. Attempting to leave this location requires you to roll Lore with Spirit at a difficulty of 8 or you’ll upset the ghost of the mariner who died near this shore.
Resident mooks:
There is an old, abandoned gallows here, its wood platform rotten and the rope decayed into a tattered mess of threads. Attempting to leave here requires a Virtue of 6 or better or a roll of Lore with Cunning against a difficulty of 8. Otherwise, the ghost becomes upset.
Resident mooks:
The road passes through a town that currently exudes great pillars of smoke and the sound of gun fire tears through the sky. As you pass through this town, roll your Tactics with Cunning against a difficulty of 9 to avoid the mayhem or take a handicap from a hurled rock, bottle, or gunfire.
Resident mooks:
A skirmish between knights and civilians resulted in many corpses which the local Fouled have taken advantage of. Leaving this location requires a roll of Scavenging with Endurance against a difficulty of 8 or you get lost in the sea of corpses and forest of burning buildings.
Resident mooks:
Outershoal rests on the largest tropical island held by the East Isles Kingdom. A century and a half before the Fiend War, this town was settled by religious migrants who were considered, at the time, very heretical for their view that one day, the True King would die and that society should prepare to make a smooth transition when that time came. The particulars of that religion faded over the centuries, however, and today, so incredibly few remember the details of their sect’s doctrines that there are no “told you so’s” flying about.
The city of Outershoal is the largest city outside of the mainland holdings of the Kingdom and a successful trade hub where merchant ships stop to unload their cargo. Over the centuries, it’s also become a well fortified outpost initially for defense against pirates and today, is used as a staging point for the Royal Navy in the war against the merfolk.
Surrounding the city is a tribe of aboriginal elves that, over the centuries, have never integrated with the human settlers. The relationship between the two societies has always been one of mutual respect and occasional camaraderie. Most frequent contact between them comes in the form of trade where the elves will exchange wild boar meat in exchange for cookware, tools or weapons. The peace between these people has always been considered so important that harassment of elves is a capital offense in Outershoal society.
Originally settled by lumberjacks, the island of Quietcrest is the only place the coveted masterwood tree can grow. The elven natives taught the early settlers how this incredibly soft material can be carved then hardened into a very strong one through proper treatment. The reconstruction efforts of the last century have relied heavily on wood exported from Quietcrest which has brought great wealth to the locals.
Another distinct feature of Quietcrest is the abundance of brick in the area. Nearly every building is made of the same red cubes and the beaches are lined with heaps of them. Ships coming to obtain lumber will use bricks as ballast then discard them upon arrival. The locals have used this abundance of bricks to erect churches, court houses, and hundreds of shrines that protrude from the water around the island. Even today, the discarded ballast bricks are used to build new shrines to honor the missing god.
The elven and human populations of this island have mixed more thoroughly than any place outside of Ironlight, building houses next to one another and working along side each other in the acres of lumber farm that dominate the island’s surface. The native shamanism has integrated itself into the worship of the True King mostly because of its importance in helping the local export grow quickly.
Nestled deep in the Glacier Cap mountains, Longtower is the central hub of the Frostbeard clan’s administration. It’s home to the tallest structure in the world: the central heliography tower that the city is named after.
The skyline is a sea of constant flickering as its forest of towers exchange thousands of messages, carried by color-coded pulses of light. Every city block has a library with volumes of dry, factual information that Frostbeards read with a nearly religious fervor.
As the sky is always a-glow with the pulsing of communications, the streets are always bustling with the clatter of cart upon cobblestone as merchants trade in the most precious commodity in all the world: food. The produce that’s acclimated to the tundra environment has become staples of the world’s diet, thus bringing grocers from all over the world to the streets of Longtower.
Distance from Longtower to other international locales:
| Barkenholdt | 3 legs |
| Hell Pit | 6 legs |
| Ironlight | 3 legs |
| Kilnrest | 4 legs |
| Pillervault | 2 legs |
| Slagfroth | 2 legs |
| Thronehill | 4 legs |
It’s believed that a main motivator for the Frostbeard affinity for long-distance communications is the fact that their clan lives in some of the worst weather and on some of the most treacherous terrain. Traveling these mountains is quite dangerous and costly and includes the challenges on the following travel chart:
| 1 | Icy Cliff Face |
| 2 | Icy River Rapids |
| 3 | Thawing Lake Surface |
| 4 | Prey of the Pack |
| 5 | Unfortunate Alpaca |
| 6 | Unfortunate Wolves |
| 7 | Narrow Canyon Passage |
| 8 | Frigid, Towering Summit |
| 9 | Overrun Relay Station |
| 10-12 | GM-Instigated Madness |
| 13-15 | Wretched Ice Burial |
| 16-18 | Lost Ancient Mine |
| 19 | Ferocious Blizzard |
| 20+ | White Death's Rumble |
Common local destinations near the city of Longtower are as follows:
| Tower of Sutherstill | 1 Leg |
| The Township of Driftstone | 3 Legs |
Leaving this location requires you to scale a cliff. Ascent requires a roll of Mountaineering with Endurance at a difficulty equal to the number of Supply Tokens you have plus 4. Failure means you fall and take a handicap. After three tries, you will be able to leave this location regardless of the outcome of the roll (but you still take the handicap on failure). You can choose to abandon supplies here (discard any number of Supply Tokens) to make the climb easier.
No resident mooks.
The trail leads to a footbridge that is overrun with the frigid current of recent, sudden snow melt. The bridge is slick and will require your Mountaineering with Grace to roll against a difficulty of 8 in order to prevent the current from sweeping you or your gear away and imposing three setbacks.
No resident mooks.
Recent snowfall has buried the trail and the causeway typically used to cross the frozen lake before you. Making your way to the other end will require rolling Mountaineering with Grace against a difficulty equal to your number of Supply Tokens plus 4. Failure will impose two setbacks as you fight of hypothermia and struggle to salvage your supplies.
No resident mooks.
Your campsite finds itself surrounded by a pack of wolves protecting their territory. You can dissuade them from attacking you by rolling your Empathy with Awareness at a difficulty of 8. Failure begins combat.
Resident mooks:
As you enter this location, roll your Guile or Mountaineering with Grace at a difficulty of 7 to avoid waking the tundra deathblooms that hibernate in the corpse of a dead alpaca. Failure rouses the little abominations and they will spring from their hiding place to inflict a handicap (this is an ambush) and begin combat.
Resident mooks:
Your campsite finds itself surrounded by a pack of wolves that have been driven mad by a Fouled infestation. As you enter, roll your Notice with Awareness at a difficulty of 9 to spot the wolves before they attack you. Failure gives them +3TP’s.
Resident mooks:
The road follows a narrow pass that’s lined with many hidden caverns that are known for their bear populations. It is not possible to bypass this location once you’ve entered it. You must either return to the previous location or advance to the next.
Resident mooks:
The air in this location is very thin. As you enter, roll your Mountaineering with Endurance against a difficulty of 10 or suffer a setback on failure as you must make frequent stops to catch your breath.
Resident mooks:
You come to what appears to be an abandoned Heliogrpahy tower. You look for supplies but find none. As you attempt to leave, you find that you have roused hibernating deathblooms which now block your exit. Leaving this location requires you kill all fouled here.
Resident mooks:
The walls of this canyon are coated in a thick layer of crystalline ice where hundreds of deathblooms were suddenly trapped in the frozen sheet of water. The onset of daylight has started to thaw this icy prison and you must tread lightly to avoid accelerating its collapse. As you enter, roll your Mountaineering with Grace against a difficulty of 10 or unleash the deathblooms.
Resident mooks:
Bad weather forces you to take refuge in a cave which proves to be an ancient dwarven mine that may have been forgotten centuries ago. You may suffer two setbacks to explore this mine. If you kill all of its current residents, you are rewarded with an ancient treasure.
Resident mooks:
Reward:
Any item randomly selected from the following chart:
An ornate gauntlet
Horrible weather reduces visibility to nil. If you move at all, you’re at great risk of getting lost and if you hold still, you’re going to have to dig yourself out of enormous snow banks that form.
Suffer one setback for every die stacked toward this challenge roll.
No resident mooks.
As you enter this location, roll your Mountaineering with Grace against a difficulty of 15. Failure triggers an avalanche where each occupant here suffers a handicap for every die stacked toward this challenge roll.
No resident mooks.
Located two days' journey away from Longtower is the farming community of Driftstone. This holding of House Cavernwrought uses the warmth generated by their volcano as well as the nutrient-rich soil that surrounds it to raise crops all year round.
The locals are clandestine people who do their best to politely hurry strangers on to their next destination. They are inclined to only sell food to trusted merchants from Longtower and will often pretend to be legally forbidden from trading with anybody else.
Some fissures in the area surrounding are used to capture heat which is used to power local mills which grind grain into flour and press fruit into juices and preserves. Times when the volcano emits the most heat are exploited to help the local glassblowers create mason jars that contain exported produce.
This heliography tower is one of the oldest standing structures in all the world. For the first four hundred years of its existence, it was also the tallest. Today, it is one of the most active relay stations, carrying messages from Longtower to every other foreign holding in the clan’s possession. Around its base are enormous stables where horses wait to carry messages on cloudy or otherwise obstructed communication days and for miles around those are endless fields that raise feed for the animals.
Unlike most other towers, Sutherstill’s workers and defenders reside here for life. They raise families in the tower house, and treat the tower as its own city – which it’s nearly big enough to be. Its farms usually produce more feed than is needed for their livestock and they often donate the excess to Silverveld companies or the Sultanate to feed their own animals.
One of the families that works in the tower also operates a near-by mine that produces copper and the occasional precious gem. Many donated gems are used to adorn the banquet hall where the families often gather for regular festivities.
Pillervault was once a rarely-visited place because the only ways into the deep, underground city were long tunnels that started at the tops of mountains. The long trek from peak to dwarven catacomb was too much for most people to attempt. This annoyance became the city’s greatest strength when the toxic vapors began spreading throughout the land. Yellow clouds of death seeped down into most Stoneglaive strongholds, killing the resident dwarves instantly but Pillervault was one of very few cities that eluded such fate.
The primary function of this city today is to house the treasure that’s gradually salvaged from the other, uninhabitable parts of the Alliance’s territory. Because dwarves regularly pass through the city with large amounts of money, it’s also become a gargantuan underground shopping mall as peddlers clamor to sell their wares and get a piece of the bounty that exists here.
Because so much of the area around Pillervault is underground, if you ever run out of Supply Tokens, you are assumed to be in total darkness as you’ve run out of torches.
Distances between Pillervault and common international destinations:
| Barkenholdt | 4 legs |
| Hell Pit | 5 legs |
| Ironlight | 3 legs |
| Kilnrest | 5 legs |
| Longtower | 2 legs |
| Slagfroth | 4 legs |
| Thronehill | 4 legs |
From the city’s main corridors, domestic journeys along secondary tunnels can take you to private troves owned by the following great houses:
| Readybeard Collective Cache | 2 Legs |
| Trove of House Emberknuckle | 3 Legs |
| Cadaver of Colonel Putrescence | 4 Legs |
When traveling to or around Pillervault, you’ll roll against the following travel chart:
| 1 | Vigilance Against the Fog |
| 2 | Oven Tunnel |
| 3 | Toxic Fording |
| 4 | Vigilance Against the Fauna |
| 5 | Forest of Sightless Eyes |
| 6 | Web in the Dark |
| 7 | Put Out That Light |
| 8 | Feud in the Darkness |
| 9 | Frothing Rocks |
| 10-12 | GM-Instigated Madness |
| 13-15 | Munchathon Tunnel |
| 16-18 | Frothing Infestation |
| 19 | Deathbloom Chamber |
| 20+ | Throne Room of the Imp God |
The yellow mist that creeps through all the canyons and valleys surrounding is sometimes unavoidable. The local dwarves hate it so desperately that the words “fog” and “vape” have come to be used as curse words. When you must travel through the “deathvapor,” it is vital that you tightly seal your food, water, and face to prevent exposure to this deadly gas.
As you enter this location, roll Spelunking with Resolve against a difficulty of 8 to make sure you’re vigilant in guarding against the gas. Failure imposes a handicap for every die stacked toward this challenge roll.
No resident mooks.
In order to avoid toxic gas, you use a tunnel that is known to cut through a nearby mountain. It just so happens that this mountain is also a volcano and the tunnel is swelteringly hot. Roll your Spelunking with Endurance against a difficulty of 8. On failure, you must consume two Supply Tokens as you need the extra water to keep from dehydrating in the heat.
No resident mooks.
Fouled beasts have recently destroyed a bridge that passes over a stream of murky brown water. It appears as though you could scale the tunnel walls to get across by rolling Spelunking with Endurance at a difficulty of 9. Failure imposes a handicap for every die stacked toward this challenge roll.
No resident mooks.
You stumble upon a lurking Soulamander. As you enter this location, you must burn an Essence (ref Burning Essence) or suffer a handicap to your Spirit. The scent of your living soul may attract more hungry Soulamanders to the area.
Resident mooks:
A band of soulamanders has nested in this area and they’re delighted to smell you. As you enter, you must burn an Essence (ref Burning Essence) or suffer a handicap to your Spirit.
Resident mooks:
As you enter, roll your Spelunking with Awareness at a difficulty of 9 plus one for every die stacked toward this challenge roll. If you fail, you’re caught in a giant spider web and you lose one Turn Token and all Tactical Points.
Resident mooks:
As you enter, the cave is assumed to be lit unless you and all other combatants here state that you are extinguishing your torches and moving through in darkness. If you do, your pace is slowed and you must consume a Supply Token (or suffer the appropriate handicap) to leave.
Resident mooks:
A soulamander was about to eat the blusternewts that nested here but your arrival made for a juicier target for both sides of the conflict. As you enter, you must burn an essence (ref Burning Essence) or suffer a handicap to your Spirit. If all combatants here wish to proceed in darkness, you must spend one Supply Token (or suffer a handicap) to leave.
Resident mooks:
The cavern floor here is particularly slick. As you enter and leave, roll your Spelunking with Grace at a difficulty of 10 to avoid slipping. If you fail, you suffer a handicap and can’t leave until your next turn.
Resident mooks:
As you enter, roll your Spelunking with Awareness against a difficulty of 11 to avoid stumbling into the skullmuncher’s lair. If you fail, take one handicap for every die stacked toward this challenge roll.
Resident mooks:
As you enter, roll your Spelunking with Grace against a difficulty of 8 to avoid being ambushed by a lurking Foulfrother. Failure imposes a handicap.
Resident mooks:
Deathblooms have infested a very large blusternewt nest and have begun to gnaw at the walls of the cave looking for a way to the surface. The ceiling creeks and groans and bits of rock are tumbling from above. As you enter and leave take 5 Wounds from the churning mosh pit of deathblooms and falling rocks. Each time a combatant enters or leaves and each time Mass Damage in inflicted here, there’s an 8% chance that more ceiling falls, inflicting two handicap on every combatant here.
Resident mooks:
During the course of the Fiend War, the local mountains were carpeted in the corpses of fallen imps. It took decades to clear paths through the carcasses. It’s no shock to the locals when they find forgotten heaps of dead imps. What is shocking here is that the imp corpses are being used as hosts for deathbloom larvae.
If you attempt to leave while the Rotten Bloom King is alive, you will suffer four handicaps.
Resident mooks:
Where the wealthiest and most powerful houses have vaults in the central chambers of Pillervault, the less auspicious houses have banded together to establish their own treasure vault in one of the peripheral tunnels a short distance away. Those that join this collective and house their wealth here tend to be those who do not want to put all their faith in the good book keeping and security of a single authority.
This treasure trove’s remote placement makes it very defensible, with fewer access points than you’ll find in most other chambers. This helps compensate for the fact that the security is also slightly less organized than that of a trove managed by a single house.
The houses of the Stoneglaive Alliance is renowned around the world for its fierce independence and house Emberknuckle is the epitome of this tradition. They have staunchly refused to store their treasure in the heart of the city as most other houses in the Alliance — some say because they simply like being different. The Chieftain of the house has never bothered to clarify the reason.
Even though this trove maintains one of the smallest collections of wealth, it is also one of the most fiercely guarded with large numbers of troops guarding it and an abundance of deadly traps that seem insane even to other dwarves.
Deep below the chambers of Pillervault is the only underground devil corpse in all the land. Colonel Putrescence was one of Lord Despair’s most cunning servants and was able to lead an imp legion through volcanic passages far below the mines of Pillervault. To the colonel’s great misfortune, the local miners were already struggling with the integrity of their tunnels so when they saw a great devil and his minions approaching, they simply gave up on reinforcing the shafts and watched the cave collapse upon them; crushing Putrescence’s body beneath the heavy rocks, leaving only his head and the upper half of his torso exposed.
As with other cadavers, the mouth on Putrescence’s skull has become the entrance to a long, mysterious, winding tunnel, its walls lined in purples veins of luminescent slime and its contents including a great many useful chemicals that, if you’re willing to brave the treacherous environment, can be sold for a handsome profit to the unscrupulous.
For centuries Earthhewn Clan was quite proud of the fact that the fires of Slagfroth had never ceased burning. This mountain keep was instrumental in manufacturing weapons during the War and the foe made it a point to sack the city. The clan stalwartly held off a demonic siege for years and the city limped along as best it could under constant bombardment but the expense of maintaining the industrial complex was so high that the clan shut the city down after the war.
The fires of Slagfroth were recently rekindled with much fanfare. At long last, the tradition of refining ores, cutting jewels, and manufacturing fine steelworks has resumed and this great city has again become a bustling hub of international trade.
Non-dwarven visitors may find the polluted air in Slagfroth’s caverns nigh unbreathable. To accommodate their guests, Earthhewn dwarves invest tremendous effort in building well-ventilated, filtered caverns to protect the frail lungs of elves and humans.
Slagfroth is a place for those seeking jewelry, steel, glass-work, weapons, armor, music and theater of such quality that the pollution is worth enduring.
Common international destinations and their distances from Slagfroth are as follows:
| Barkenholdt | 1 legs |
| Hell Pit | 6 legs |
| Ironlight | 3 legs |
| Kilnrest | 3 legs |
| Longtower | 2 legs |
| Pillervault | 4 legs |
| Thronehill | 5 legs |
Even though domestic travel requires traversing a great many miles as you wind through the canyons and tunnels in the Cragsplendor Mountain Range, covering those miles is comparatively easy with the abundance rail road with inexpensive fare. Here are some common local destinations:
| Blackengold Caverns | 2 Legs |
| Hotstone Spring | 2 Legs |
| Weldington (capital city) | 3 Legs |
Because the Cragsplendor Mountain Range has been thoroughly settled by the Earthhewn Clan, you will always be assumed to be traveling by rail unless explicitly stated otherwise. If you are avoiding trains, every journey in the Cragsplendor requires double the legs to complete.
Whenever traveling to or around Slagfroth, you’ll roll against the following chart to determine your challenges:
| 1-3 | Fouled Up The Works |
| 4-5 | Coal Shortage |
| 6-7 | Barricaded Station |
| 8-9 | Fluther of Fouling |
| 10-12 | GM-Instigated Madness |
| 13-15 | Battle at the Switch |
| 16-18 | Ancient Dam |
| 19 | Monster on a Bridge |
| 20+ | Trainly |
A swarm of deathblooms nearly derailed your train. The vehicle has taken serious damage and needs to be repaired. Before you can leave, someone must have succeeded at a roll of Engineering with Cunning against a difficulty of 8.
Resident mooks:
Your train has mysteriously run out of coal and an improvised heat source will need to be improvised in order to make your way to the next station where you can refuel. In order to leave this location, you must succeed at rolling your Engineering with Endurance against a difficulty of 8.
Resident mooks:
You come to a station that’s been abandoned due to fouled infestation and thus, hasn’t been resupplied in weeks. If you kill off all the fouled, you’ll gain friendship with the Blackengold Rail Company. In order to leave, you’ll need to help your train find food and fuel to last until the next station. To do so, roll your Engineering with Cunning against a difficulty of 9.
Resident mooks:
Your train passes through a group of bulb horrors that will be groping into cars, looking for tasty passengers to slurp up. As you enter, roll your Engineering or Athletics with Grace against a difficulty of 10 in order to avoid contact with the beasts. Failure inflicts as many handicaps as there were dice stacked toward this challenge roll.
As you approach a switching station, the engineer notices that the signal flags aren’t reading correctly so you’ll have to stop and make sure the switch is correctly set before advancing. In order to leave this location, you’ll need to set the track switch.
This challenge comes with the following secondary location:
Resident mooks:
During the Fiend War, imps were sent to sabotage this dam and flood the nearby valley by some coincidence, the Earthhewn dwarves had the same idea and they tried to lure a demon army into that same valley. Both demolition teams met and killed each other off, leaving only a few powder kegs that went undiscovered until detonating here a week ago in a freak accident.
The tracks running along this dam have consequently been damaged and you’re going to need to repair it in order to proceed. You must roll Engineering with Endurance at a difficulty of 8 in order to leave this location.
A majestic suspension bridge sprawls over a massive canyon. This edifice was one of the last structures built before the Fiend War and has stood steady ever since — a testament to the genius of its builders. As your train passes over it, a large, tentacled beast crawls out of the canyon and onto the rails, blocking your way.
As you enter this location, take a handicap for each die stacked toward this challenge roll. If this location suffers four or more Siege Damage, every occupant suffers ten handicaps and ten setbacks as the bridge collapses.
Resident mooks:
Your train is derailed and you are stranded. As you enter this location roll your Engineering with Cunning against a difficulty of 11 and suffer one handicap and one setback for each die stacked toward this challenge if you fail.
The coal mines of House Cogworthy are among the most productive in all the Earthhewn Clan. The Cogworthies have employed all their mechanical skills and tinkered together a fully automated coal mine. Because machines do all the labor, they can eschew many of the safety concerns that living miners require. The air can be dirty, the shafts can be tiny, and if there’s a cave in, it’s only a matter of time before they can dig the machines out (with other machines, of course) and put them back to work.
Directly adjacent to the noisy coal mines are opulent, subterranean caverns where the residents live. The wealth that comes from this mining has made the dwarves of House Cogworthy focus more on their craftsmanship. They love the performing arts but are especially fond of making complex machines with cogs, gears, hydraulic pumps and springs in them. Three of the seven dams surrounding Slagfroth were designed and built by engineers here in the Blackengold Caverns and these dams have all survived more abuse than any other dam in the history of the world.
Blackengold Caverns is the home of several fine theaters and manufacturing plants and is the only mine in the area with air that’s breathable by the other races.
The noble house Glistencarve maintains a quarry that exports marble and granite for the world’s reconstruction efforts. This area has some of the most beautiful and diverse kinds of stone and it’s therefore coveted throughout the world for any building of great importance.
While extracting the stone here, the dwarves also found a large, natural hot spring buried deep in the caverns. They decided to build bath houses around these springs and cities around these bath houses, with casinos, taverns, concert halls and, curiously, Ferris wheels on every corner. Thus Hotstone Spring has become not only a major source of building materials but a major tourist attraction for those who can afford such things.
Early in the Earthhewn Clan’s existence, they often fought with a rival dwarven clan that would raid caravans carrying merchandise from the local mines. It became such a burden on the clan’s resources that they established a fortress that sat mid-way between the three largest cities. The then unpopular House Gorgenbrew was assigned to man this fortress and guard the precious minerals here until they could be taken under escort to a buyer.
The Gorgenbrews got bored of waiting around for the treasure to come to them so they started sending out hunting parties looking for raiders. It wasn’t long before the rival clan was driven out of the land completely — whereupon House Gorgenbrew chased them into their own land and started the rival clan’s own towns. The fortress became not just a cache for the clan’s original treasure but a hoard for all the treasure captured from the rivals.
One day, a Gorgenbrew lord decided that he should extract a service fee from all the treasure he was guarding and nobody was equipped to resist this effort. This ultimately lead to House Gorgenbrew assuming the Chieftancy of the clan, that “service fee” being formalized as taxes, and the fortress being declared the Capital City of the Earthhewn Clan nearly overnight.
Long before the war, Thronehill was a quiet little city. The Sultan ruled his humble little domain from this town that was surrounded by hectares of farmland and things were simple.
Much of the surrounding plains have been leased to the Silverveld Compact who now graze their mammoths there. Much of the farmland has become a point of acute international attention as it is one of the few places with arable soil.
Because of the Sultanate’s key role in the Fiend War, many of the world now look to Vineyard’s state religion for guidance and comfort in these harsh times and so Thronehill has become a destination for people who seek nourishment either physical or spiritual.
International travel from Thronehill is as follows:
| Barkenholdt | 4 legs |
| Hell Pit | 2 legs |
| Ironlight | 3 legs |
| Kilnrest | 4 legs |
| Longtower | 4 legs |
| Pillervault | 4 legs |
| Slagfroth | 5 legs |
Thronehill is surrounded by the following temples, each a domestic journey away:
| House of Integrity | 2 Legs |
| House of Sacrifice | 4 Legs |
| House of Temperance | 3 Legs |
Travel into or around Thronehill will involve challenges from the following chart:
| 1 | Grazing Time |
| 2 | Rustler's Standoff |
| 3 | Fugitive Defiler |
| 4 | Roadside Business Proposal |
| 5 | Political Activists |
| 6 | Herdself's Plight |
| 7 | Eager Entrepreneur |
| 8 | Dangerous Contract Exchange |
| 9 | A Town in Peril |
| 10-12 | GM-instigated Madness |
| 13-15 | A Sacred Trust |
| 16-18 | Siege of the Scrolls |
| 19 | Bounty Escort |
| 20+ | Lurking Decay |
You awake to find your campsite surrounded by grazing mammoths. When you leave this location, avoid enraging the beasts by rolling your Empathy with Awareness against a difficulty of 8. Failure results in a handicap as you spook the mammoth and get smacked around. If you attack the mammoths, the herdself will retaliate.
Resident mooks:
Fugitives have fled the city and managed to take several head of mammoth hostage. Because of the agreement with the Silverveld Compact, the Sultan has forbidden local law enforcement from jeopardizing the mammoths but they’ve issued a Hue and Cry and are asking for all able-bodied people to help control the situation.
You can talk the fugitive down by rolling Diplomacy with Awareness at difficulty 10 and gain 1 XP if you do. If you fail, the fugitive will cause the herd to stampede and there’s a 50% chance of you gaining an enemy of a Vineyard Herdself. If you attack the herdself, you’ll gain enmity (see Friend/Enemy Records) with the Silverveld Compact.
If you walk away and do nothing, you will gain enmity with the Thronehill Constabulary, for neglecting the call to Hue and Cry.
Resident mooks:
The constabulary stops you and says they have issued a Hue and Cry and require your assistance. Attempting to avoid or disrupt this duty will earn you enmity with the Thronehill Constabulary and you will be attacked by the enforces.
The enforcers lead you to a cottage not far from the road. On the roof stands a man showing signs of early Fouling. He has taken a woman hostage and is threatening to kill her if anybody approaches.
You can talk him into surrender by rolling Empathy with Cunning at a difficulty of 12. Failure results in him slitting the hostage’s throat and starting a fight. Success earns you friendship with the Thronehill Constabulary.
Resident mooks:
A traveler stops you on the road and says that he has become unable to fulfill a trade contract because of a family emergency and he would like to sell his contract and related cargo to you to cut his losses. Roll your Commerce with Cunning at a difficulty of 8 in order to get a good deal on the Contract.
If your roll doesn’t beat 5, you agree to a terrible deal and lose 15 coins. If you succeed at the roll, you must spend 30 coins and will gain 50 if you can make it to Thronehill without more than one Setback.
No resident mooks.
As you pass through a small suburb, you find the streets busy with elven protesters who decry the evils of theocracy. Some have captured a local cleric who is also the governor of the homestead and are demanding he abdicate his position on threat of death.
You can talk the protesters into disbanding by rolling Diplomacy with Cunning at a difficulty of 8. Success will earn you friendship in the Thronehill Constabulary. Failure will result in the governor’s execution and riots may ensue.
Resident mooks:
Political thugs here have the following Simple Action abilities:
Make a Martyr:
A local herdself tells you that he’s lost track of one of his mammoths. After relaying the tale, the beast appears now driven mad by the effects of Fouled infestation. It charges straight for a nearby village.
This challenge includes a secondary location:
Resident mooks:
If you don’t have an active trade contract (see Trade Contracts), this becomes a Roadside Business Proposal (ref Roadside Business Proposal) encounter instead.
If you have an active trade contract, a traveler stops you and sees your cargo. He tells you that he has recently lost cargo and will be unable to fulfill his contract but would like to buy your contract to cut his losses and avoid infuriating his wife.
If you’re willing, roll your Commerce with Cunning against a difficulty of 9 to strike a good deal. If your roll doesn’t beat a 7, you strike a terrible deal and will end up losing 20 coins. If you succeed, you will make the profit you had planned on and you will gain friendship from the Goldenscribe Merchant Society.
No resident mooks.
A traveler stops you on the road and asks if you would like to do business. He tells you that he’s been hired to escort a fugitive to Thronehill to answer for some crimes but friends of the fugitive have been harassing him the entire way and his son is now gravely wounded as a result. He would like to be rid of the contract and offers to sell it to you.
If you agree, increase your Danger Level by 4 and every time you roll this encounter for the rest of the journey, this encounter automatically becomes a fight with the resident mooks.
Roll your Commerce with your Cunning against a difficulty of 9 to strike a good deal. If your roll doesn’t beat a 7, you negotiate poorly and end up losing 15 coins. If you succeed, you’ll spend 50 coins now and gain 150 if you reach Throne Hill with no more than two Setbacks.
Once the deal is struck, the traveler flees but his pursuers spot you and attack.
Resident mooks:
Pillars of smoke are visible ahead. As you crest a hill, you see the gates of the next homestead locked, its people standing on the walls with their halberds and muskets at the ready, attempting to fend off a pair of mammoths that have become heavily fouled.
Leaving this location requires you to sneak past the ravenous beast by rolling Guile with Grace at a difficulty of 11. If you fail, you are gored by its enormous tusks and you take a handicap.
This challenge has a secondary location:
Resident mooks:
You find a cleric mortally wounded on the side of the road. He tells you he’s been attacked by brigands seeking a holy artifact that he has been transporting. He fended them off but fears they will return.
You may attempt to bind his wounds by rolling Medicine with Cunning against a difficulty of 15. If you succeed, you gain friendship with the Thronehill Constabulary. If you fail, his dying request is that you carry a small locked box to the House of Integrity and give it to the priests there.
After he dies or leaves, the brigands return and attack.
If you deliver the artifact, you gain friendship among the Priests of the House of Integrity.
Resident mooks:
Sacred texts from the House of Temperance were being transported to a nearby homestead where they were to be displayed during the town’s annual festival. The resident immigrants became offended by the municipal subsidy of this religious rite and have stopped the caravan of clerics that were escorting the documents.
If you save the scrolls from damage, you will gain friendship among the Priests of the House of Temperance. If you save any of the Temperance Devotes from death, you also gain friendship of the same.
This challenge has a secondary location:
Resident mooks:
You chance upon a caravan carrying one of the most horrific things imaginable: Upon a cart, there lays the body of a 12 foot tall devil. The fiend has obviously been dead a long time but its rotting stench is attracting Fouled from miles around and the caravan members are having a hard time fending them off.
Resident mooks:
You come to a small farm covered in dead grapevines and decaying sheep carcasses. If you attempt to leave this location while there are any Fouled here, you suffer one handicap for every die stacked toward this challenge roll.
Resident mooks:
This temple is said to be built on the ground where an angel descended from Heaven and anointed viziers with miraculous powers. When visitors from around the Sultanate visit Thronehill, they will often make this temple the first place they visit when arriving and the last place they see before heading home.
Each visitor must receive permission to pass through any of the gates that lead into the temple grounds. This permission is given liberally with a warm smile and a kindly welcome. Nobody has been denied entry in over seventy years but everyone makes it a point to remind visitors that entry to the House of Integrity is a privilege.
Within the outer walls is an expansive garden spanning several acres with water fountains, flower beds, rock gardens and many doves, peacocks and an assortment of tropical birds. Several shrines house ancient artifacts from the founding of the Sultanate.
At the center of the grounds, is the temple proper. It’s a humble building when compared to the surroundings; two stories of wooden pillars capped with a domed roof and surrounded by heavy tapestries wrapped tightly around the pillars so as to be almost as firm as a wooden wall. Priests prevent casual entry into the structure and forbid ascending the spiral stair case at the center that leads to the second floor. They never explain why.
This temple is said to be built on the ground where an angel descended from Heaven and gave the Sultan a holy glaive of demon slaying. This same weapon went on to become a legendary artifact among all the nations of the world because of its integral role in the Fiend War.
The front lobby of the House of Sacrifice houses this very glaive where it sits on display within a glass box. At least two guards stand by the glaive at all times and prevent anybody from coming within reach of the artifact.
Placing this legendary artifact very near the temple gates was a deliberate distraction that keeps tourists far from the inner gardens where scribes copy scripture and the most senior monks temple mint coins for the Sultan’s treasury.
The fires that melt the metals for minting include as their fuel some personal possessions donated by the Sultan’s subjects. It’s believed that these sacrifices imbue the coins with magical properties or good luck. Immolating sacrifices for the mint is considered personal business that shouldn’t be on display so this temple is gated off and guards prevent entry.
It’s widely believed that humans did not originate in this plane of existence but fled here as refugees when a cataclysm drove them from their homes. Legend says that angels from heaven escorted the humans to this plane and gave them a home here. This temple is built on the site where the angels are said to have bid the human settlers farewell.
This temple has an expansive garden that would take a domestic journey of two legs to fully traverse. The building itself is quite small and access to all but the most privileged of priests is forbidden though none of its contents are a secret: several scrolls containing ancient scripture, some cots where priests may sleep if they require special guidance from heaven, and a small altar said to be the last surface stood upon by the escorting angel.
Touring the house of Temperance is not as welcoming as with the other temples in the area. Priests who guide guests around the grounds demand utter reverence and self discipline. Exhausting rites are required of everyone before they enter any of the shrines and the visitors are no exception. Even those who are not members of the religion consider it a great accomplishment to climb the stairs that lead up to each shrine while holding heavy stones overhead and reciting scriptures from memory and so there are many who try.