Adventure Report – MAGI and the Mercenaries

Overview

Cast: Trouble (Blaspheme), Jacques (Werepanther), Arianwyn (Bane Sidhe), Ashoka (Hag), Sir Bel (Changeling) and the NPC Esmerelda (Noble Bard). DMing: Gavin Runeblade.

DM’s Resources: Shackles of Blood (villains, maps, enemies), Beauty and Blood (Esmerelda), Volo’s Guide to Monsters (enemies).

Background

The PCs were travelling out of Kentarre City to investigate what the Red Plume mercenary group is doing. Previously the Red Plume’s had been hired by someone from house Igorov (known as illusionists) to attack White Hall and lost nearly a score of excellent troops. This allowed the PCs to learn the identity of the attackers because only one group had lost so much fighting power. The Red Plume’s were recruiting out of an arena in the Immigrant Quarter of Kentarre City, infiltrated by Rudy. Rudy had determined that a noble family, the Dulo’s, were also recruiting from this arena. Captain Ehrlich, leader of the Red Plumes, had let Jacques know that they had some activities going on in the field which were still profitable for them. Specifically, they were hired to protect a province from hunter raids. Jacques took the PCs past his estate where they met one of Esmerelda’s bardic colleagues, Ophelia, who convinced them to look into the disapearance of an entire halfling clan in the nearby Dutchy of Passau. Ophelia believes that the Red Plumes are abusing their power and only proteting the humans while allowing the hunters to wipe out non-human citizens. Duke Tassilo, in theory, knows about this but has not taken action to stop it. After passing peacefully through the barony of Schalding they entered Passau pretending to be there to investigate some ruins. They discovered the valley where the halflings used to live had indeed been raided, but some humans had laid claim to the lands and were building new houses.

In this adventure

Trouble and Arianwyn spoke to the farms and learned that they were from the next valley over where the land was too rocky and the soil too poor to be successful. When they heard the local farmers in this valley were driven out, they seized the opportunity to seize the land claiming that “hunters don’t often raid the same place twice, besides the mercenaries are here now to protect us”. Trouble and one of the farmer’s sons discussed his desire to become a mercenary because it pays so much more than farming, making the father upset enough to kick Trouble off his lands. Jacques had to intervene and calm down the farmer so that everyone didn’t get kicked off.

Ash decided they weren’t worth saving or helping because they were too weak to protect themselves and too incompetent to find a way to make money in their old valley. They could have become huntsmen, raised goats, or found any other way to succeed, but by becoming opportunists who steal what they cannot earn, she feels they deserve to be left to fail again. Arianwyn came to a similar conclusion for totally different reasons, that being the fact they were mysogynists who felt women needed to be protected and sheltered instead of being willing to let them help.

Ash was able to scout the valley and the burned houses and her keen sense of smell and ability to speak to animals and plants allowed her to find evidence that tall and booted men surrounded the farms, then left in a group with halfling-sized feet. She also found where one lone halfling fled to the neaby stream but was shot in the back with a crossbow and his corpse wedged beneath a log. The bolt had a maker’s mark no one recognized, and the cost and rarity of crossbows (this was only the second anyone in the party had ever seen in their lives) made them worry if Duke Tassilo was involved in the raid. Also they identified that the bolt had been poisoned with Carrion Crawler Juice, a paralytic poison.

Sir Bel ensured that the halfling was properly cremated before the party moved on and after the funeral pyre was lit an elf allowed herself to be seen by the party. She questioned the party but their evasieness bothered her so she left quickly, having claimed that the Red Plumes were responsible for the raid that killed the halflings. Sir Bel was the most succesful at getting information from her as he was nearly as direct as she, and in the end they parted with a mutual salute of respect in Sylvan.

Ash continued to lead the party along the raiders’ trail and again despite her wilderness skills got the party lost so they had to spend a night in the woods at risk of monsters from the mists. Fortunately the night passed uneventfully and in the morning. Ash redeemed herself by finding an ambush from far enough away that the PCs were able to take their time deciding how to handle it. What she saw was two guards at opposite sides of a ruin acting as bait, with the four buildings in the ruin most likely filled with troops. Ash pretended to be a damsel in distress and used her supernatural beauty to trick one of the bait guards that there were hunters attacking her family in the valley with the farmers. Led by their officer, a warlock with fey powers and a pet shadow mastiff, the guards then marched off to protect Captain Erlich’s brother, leaving only two behind to “protect” Ash. They promptly tried to rape her and she drained their life essence to power her beauty and keep herself young.

After some discussion at this point Ash told his quasit familiar to invisibly follow Trouble (Jot had previously been spying on Esmerelda) and prevent her from learning anything magical if she gets suspicious. Jot asked “anything about anything?” and Ash clarified anything magical only.

The party moved on so as to be a safe distance away when the troops returned; and came up on the Red Plume’s camp. Ash led the PCs to approach the camp through usually impassable woods. The camp was in a clearning with a cliff to the north east, nearly impassable woods to all sides except a portion of the south west, and four wagons with cages blocking that one opening which also had a road. In three of the wagons were some halflings, and the fourth had a wild boar. There were a number of Red Plumes about, plus three tents and one very fancy Yurt with Red Pume banners on the front entrance. Arianwyn did note that the Red Plumes were the only fighting force they know of that is exclusively male.

After taking up positions to ambush them, Jacques shot and killed one of the Red Plumes (he was supposed to wait for Arianwyn and Ash to use spells first, but Jacques always forgets the plan). Arianwyn used Ash’s wand of web to trap the yurt, one tent and two guards. Ash summoned a huge ice storm to envelop nearly the whole of the clearing. Trouble, Jacques and Esmerelda flanked the north, Arianwyn and Ash the south, and Sir Bel held the east by himself. Most of the guards started slipping and haing trouble in the storm. Arianwyn used dissonant whispers to scare one into fleeing directly into Sir Bel who promptly cracked open his skull. Trouble and Jacques took down some more, Esmerelda put one to sleep and charmed another to go release the boar. Arianwyn snuck into the storm, mounted one of the wagons and used mage hand to yoke up the horses while driving it and the halfling prisoners to safety.

A half orc magic user came out of the yurt and after getting tangled in the web and storm, put up a frightening amount of defensive powers in one action then started to move against the three in the north. Jacques tried to shoot him but only got a shadow duplicate. Trouble fired a volley of blasts from a magic wand and removed all his shadow duplicates and blew apart invisible wards on him as well. The orc then manifested a two-handed sword into one hand and laid into Trouble with it, simultaneously firing off spells.

The charmed guard released the boar only t find that it immediately mauled him and spooked the horses attached to that wagon who pulled it away draggingthe poor guard with. When the ropes broke the wagon toppled and crushed the guard. The boar then turned on the last wagon whose horses also panicked tipping it over and injuring many of hte prisoners as the enraged pig started smashing the wood trying to get at them.

Arianwyn successfully got the horses from the second wagon to follow hers, rightfully guessing they were trained to work as a wagon train and play follow the leader, getting two thirds of the prisoners to safety. Ash and Bel took down all the guards who escaped the storm working their way to the north, including one Sir Bel killed in an offhand manner while just walking past him. As Trouble started to try and determine how the half-orc could cast so many spells, and such powerful ones, Jot the quasit decided that this violated Ashs instructions and used his terror ability to make Trouble (and only Trouble) see a giant demonic face in between her and the half-orc that screamed “BADGERS” extremely loudly, making Trouble magically frightened. Jacques fired again hitting the half orc who chided him for interfereing with a duel (implied to be against Trouble the Champion of Whitehall), to which Jacques rightly taunted back that he hadn’t called a duel. Trouble then backed Jacques and said “that’s NOT how you do a proper duel and came at him viciously. A Red Plume netted Esmereld and Jacques with a net full of hooks after Esmerelda detonated his sword in his hands. Ash, having come round the storm used a powerful dispel magic to strip the half orc of all his defenses only to be shocked to see that the body crumbled into lumps of clay out of which a small hedgehog crawled, then promptly curled into a ball and started making angry “pfft, pfft, pfft” noises at Trouble.

The last disarmed Red Plume tried to flee as trouble turned on him, plus Sir Bel was by then demolishing the Yurt checking for anyone else hiding, but Jacques shot him dead while stll entangled in the hoocked net, drawing a friendly chide from Esmerelda. Sir Bel teleported to the boar and crushed its hind legs and skull then started using magic to heal the injured halflings as Ash calmed the storm.

As the party spoke to the patriarch of the halfling clan they learned that they had indeed only been attacked by the mercenaries, not any hunters, and they took the wagons to go down the road to visit Duke Tassilo and press the case against them. The halflings also informed them that a group of Red Plumes had gone off to get another wagon so they could use it for some elven farmers nearby. A search of the yurt also revealed a letter to the half orc instructing him to work with the Red Plumes to capture people for the arena in Kentarre and bring them to someone named “M.” who would pay him for them. This letter plus the bodies of the guards and the halflings’ own testimony they felt was enough to ensure their lord did right by them. Ash asked his quasit to follow the halflings invisibly and make sure they got to the Duke’s castle, and also started trying to identify what was up with the hedgehog. She was able to speak to it and learn that it is a normal hedgehog and can’t tell humans apart well enough to know that Trouble was or wasn’t the person who imprisoned him in the clay body.

The party then decided to see about dealing with the two remaining known groups of Red Plumes, the column from the ambush and the ones going after the elven farmers. And that’s where we ended the session.

Behind the Scenes

MVP award definitely goes to Ash for this session.

The DM had the illusion shout “badgers” because apparently there isn’t a giant boar token in any of his fantasy grounds token bundles, so he was using a badger to substitute. Jot was breaking the 4th wall, and it was a nod to the webcomic GrrlPower when the main character is demonsrating he powers while taunting the Agency’s PR Officer.

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Trying to Cosmopolitonize Kentarre

As the campaign has progressed one thing I’ve been feeling has been missing is the sense of Kentarre as the center of the world. My intention was for it to be inspired by London, Rome, New York, British Hong Kong, Constantinople, etc. a city where people and “stuff” from all over the world can be found all the time. But it sort of just feels like a generic “big city” as I have been running it so far. Therefore, I am looking to make changes in the design/layout, the background environment, and the details.

Design/Layout

Right now Kentarre has its six “quarters”, but of them only the international quarter actually feels foreign. So I will be breaking up each quarter into smaller neighborhoods/districts and defining each one as having the feel of a specific kingdom. I’ll also be building a city map, first as a flowchart for easy navigation, then later in Campaign Cartographer for actual gameplay.

Background Environment

I’ll be adding some random encounters rather than as actual skill or combat challenges, but rather as flavor details. These will also serve the dual purpose of getting the background stories to evolve more.

Because I will know more what neighborhoods are like, I’ll be able to add descriptions of buildings, smells, people, etc, again just as flavor not really intended for major interactions as this campaign has a high tendency to get sidetracked as it is.

I’m giving each player homework to define something about their character that reflects their country of origin. Since the party is from all over, this will help each player decide for themselves how their birth nation has influenced them, but also gives the players some creative license to define their own characters and kingdoms. This can be dress, accent, possessions, behaviors (for example, on Earth as a greeting Asians bow, Europeans kiss the cheek, Americans shake hands, Romans clasped forearms, etc. so how does each character greet new people? and is that a personal quirk or trait of the birth nation?).

Details

Additional homework for every player is to give me a list of facts about the city they believe their character would know that the player does not. Minimum of one per quarter, one for the city as a whole, and 4 of the player’s choice I think sounds about right. Each one can be marked for public sharing among the group or to be a secret just for the player themselves, but minimum of two public and two secrets each.

I am also going to define and publish (not sure how yet, maybe a wiki and maybe a PDF or just blog posts, will have to do a poll or something) the following:

• List of all the 16 branches of the Imperial Family and some basic heraldry, which kingdoms each branch is affiliated with and at least three members of each, one of whom is in Kentarre.
• List of some important families and houses especially nobility. I’ll probably skip on heraldry here because of lack of time/laziness.
• List of the major religious groups and some related NPCs. Especially the ones that aren’t Sun & Storm, because I focus on those two way too much and need to add more diversity.
• List of the top guilds and at least two people to interact with from each be it a leader or a member. These will also connect to the new maps of the city.
• List of major scholarly sites and NPCs. Blah, blah, blah, new maps, blah.
• List of the NPCs that have popped up in game and where they are located in the city, again this will link to the new maps.
• List of major events and rumors that have popped up in game linked to the new maps.
• List of major danger sites. The city still does have places like old temples to The Demon etc, which aren’t safe, plus the entrances to the necropolis, some known widdershins, and so forth. Also it makes sense that some of the enemy kingdoms have embassies, and given the state of war in most cases, that would mean some very dangerous guards.

And I’ll have to ask if anyone wants/needs other information and how to have it presented.

I am writing this out so I have it in a single place for easy reference and so the players can refer too it, not just me the DM.

Domains Month 1 of MAGI

Writing this post has reminded me I really need to create a calendar system for Home. >.<

Updates and downtime for major characters (PC and NPC):

Rudy’s pirates continue to have moderate success pulling in steady income. The increase in ships evacuating the area of killer fog has not yet translated into an increase in income mostly because those refugee ships aren’t loaded with plunder. They have been taking slaves and selling them, but this is not their core business. Rudy replaced her town’s mayor with one of the officers off her ship who she trusted more, and began exploring her island and recruiting more troops.

Inshushinak’s castle was attacked by both a tribe of nomadic dragonborn hunters and a scouting force of troops loyal to the Fire Lords. Both were small incursions and his troops were easily able to repel them. The nomads were just passing through and raiding for supplies, while the Fire Lords have been probing all along the border. He continued to invest in long term projects like irrigation and better roads due to the harsh environment.

Hardyn’s’s clan keeps their doings quiet but he did let slip that they have had new mines opened officially following some successful scouting previously. They are continuing to explore the area near their new home. New being a relative term, after a major earthquake in the mountains and a migration of dark fey, including drow, they moved to a neighboring range of mountains where a branch of their clan had lived long ago re-opening the old fortress and expanding it. This was 15 years ago, but the dwarves talk like it just happened.

Challm’s bar is doing particularly well. The art gallery had its grand opening which drew a number of wealthy merchants from across the harbor and immigrant districts and minor nobles. When the killer fog arrived he had one of the few buildings with rooms to let so he is full every night as people who otherwise would be trapped move in. He invested his funds in a new bouncer, a warforged made in Passion and covered in embossed knotwork and strange symbols he had copied from a ruin in Passion that run in 4 rows of lines dashes and who radiates an aura of calm thanks to enchanted crystals embedded in his armor. He also hired a third set of siblings, this one identical twin Shades from the immigrant district. They work as servers in the bar and models for the artist in residence and security for the gallery.

MAGI’s shadowfell branch office remains haunted and understaffed. The branch administrator has met with a local group of Shades who have a number of towns in the area outside his office and who all thought that his building was an accursed temple to an unknown dark god. Despite his polite request they refused to forget that he told them it wasn’t and go back to believing it. On the other hand they have agreed to let him hire a small number of their more militant people as guards and they assisted him in closing the breach in the south east corner of the cliff so that now the only ways into the building are the three intended entrances: front door, the necropolis, and the mortuary portal. He is working on a complete audit of defenses, possessions, and the list of everything stolen from the breach of Vault B. He reports that like Whitehall he also received a package containing a number of broaches of safe passage through the Necropolis, and that there are now two bone golems embedded in the walls of the hallway leading to his necropolis door. They don’t seem to be hostile and indeed appear to be guarding his necropolis entrance.

Sir Bel’s estate has seen a small change in the grassy fields including a number of patches of clover spreading around the edges and the grass appears to be even fuller and healthier than usual. The wild horses are coming closer in to the villages and appear to have a number of colts. He focused his efforts on exploring in the hills and along the road to the south and east of Poleens, especially using his cavalry to secure the road within a day’s march south of Poleens in preparation for beginning a new settlement and some watch posts to permanently drive out the bandits. Investigation into the Fey civil war by his druid has revealed that they are unlikely to directly strike his settlements, but some damage might spill over, especially in the South West where the bulk of the fighting has occurred so far. The large patch of wilderness between Caer Rothi and the free Barony of de Ros has many hunters and fey who have responded to the conflict by withdrawing and becoming defensive, no one seems to be actively trying to exploit the situation yet. The Council of Caer Rothi volunteered the Miller to act as diplomat to de Ros because they felt he would represent the needs of the villagers who would be harmed by any conflict. Desiring to avoid conflict rather than exploit it himself, Sir Bel accepted the council’s nomination and sent the Miller with a small detachment including one of his own personal guard to de Ros formally to discuss joint observation and response to any changes in the conflict. He did follow up his initial report to the Count with a formal request for additional troops to have enough for near wilderness patrols just in case, he recruited a dozen local men, and informed the Storm Knights of what is happening but left any decision to send support to their discretion. Finally, he expanded his farmland and saved up funds for the future.

The Kentarre City graveyard has mostly recovered from the issues with ghouls and the more active necropolis has minimally increased hauntings. However there has been an upsurge in vandalism, thought to be a result of people moving out from the city to flee the Killer Fog. While the initial incursion onto the manor house was dealt with, the main group of vandals remains at large and are thought to be camping in the woods outside the estate, possibly poaching on neighboring lords’ greens. Lady Vashti has asked her staff to track them down and deal with them. Locals have subsequently been reporting increased sightings of giant rats which they mistakenly believe to be fleeing the Killer Fog and necropolis.

The D’Lantignan family in Imbilot sent a minor update with the latest trade ship arriving in Kentarre. Things rarely change back in the kingdom of lethargy and sloth and as expected nothing much exciting has happened. The allied dwarf clan did send a request to have the return voyage send samples of tools and craftwork from the Eastern Dwarven communities in Passion and Suemonom. The initial value of this delivery was gauged at over 200,000 gold, but the end price will depend on how sales go over subsequent months. Jacques’ initial convoy of alcohol and honey from Cait arrived in town safely, thanks to dwarven guards, but partly because of those guards had modest profit. He has opened a shop in the Royal Quarter where he will be working to expand his ability to move the exotic items he brings in from the far west. Finally, his soire that he hoped to have expand his business among the top tier of society wasn’t as successful as he wanted. He did have a good showing among the fey and outsider communities thanks to support from Challm and Hardyn and the new gallery Challm opened; he did succeeed in reaching the top tier of merchants and some visitors in the Harbor and Grey districts; but he was not able to entice any royals to attend, nor many new nobles. He did invest heavily in expanding the farms near Vinhaven in a bid to become more self-sufficient and less reliant on banking the windfall from each trade ship coming from Imbilot. Finally, he socked away most of the goods and gold from the ship while preparing to send it back next month.

Noteworthy events from around the world:

For 3 days (during the trip home from Cait) the entire world saw the moon turn pinkish red and people became much more angry than usual. Riots and violence occurred all over and many fierce battles were fought along the Consumption/Faseloo border. Rumors attribute this to everything from the newly discovered Monster Lord beneath Kentarre, Lord Oceanus in his lunar prison, another dead Monster or possibly Primal Spirit as with the 3 days of global sickness the month before, a battle between Primal Spirits (many different ones have been proposed), an attempt by the Hunters to destroy civilization, and three different groups tried to claim they were responsible including two cults that worship the demon and an archmage in Suemonom. Official word from the Palace is that the cause remains unknown.

Every night starting just before sunset and extending until just after dawn a deep fog rises out of the ground and filled Kentarre city and the surrounding lands. Initially it was limited to the Royal Quarter and the Harbor but it has since spread to the whole city and then out across the countryside. Currently the fog reaches 14 miles from the city walls and is spreading farther each night. Within the fog visibility is so limited that people can hardly see their hands before their faces and only magical light has any ability to penetrate to a significant distance. Each morning many bodies were found, some gnawed upon horridly, reduced to bloody skeletons, and others untouched but apparently dead of terror. Many confused reports of beasts ranging from flying sharks to undead, to evil fey, to multi-limbed horrors from nightmare have been reported. All the knightly orders are patrolling the streets with divine light and holy oil burning in lanterns, and the Empress has declared a curfew for the hours of the fog. Most of the evidence seems to link the phenomenon to the as yet unnamed Monster Lord of the Necropolis. Sailors report that the fog only extends half as far out to sea as it does away from the city overland (not more than 7 or 8 miles), but it is still spreading father. The grand cathedral of Ixion is illuminated all night every night and has been able to create a ring of fog free space extending out some 20 feet from the cathedral walls. Also the Palace grounds themselves are free from the fog all the way to the outermost fence. All the rest of the town is swallowed every night. Most buildings are safe, though frightening sounds are reported and a few buildings have been damaged or invaded. Bells ring every evening at the start of the curfew and every morning to mark the end of the curfew.

Word reached the capitol from far away Lyric that the expedition to the lost capital continues to go well and official relations have been signed between the Macareg dynasty and three clans of pirates who previously had maintained loyalty to supposed bastard descendants of the defunct Vavasour dynasty (killed off by Discord when the old capital was abandoned), and initial overtures of peace were extended to a major city apparently ruled by children of Ixion. Tragically the high priest of Lyric who served three generations of the Macareg family was murdered, details are sparse but apparently a local farmer and several villagers caught the assassin as he attempted to flee the colony while all the guards and troops were busy securing the body and guarding the other VIPs.

Rumors have spread around the Grey Quarter that the long rivalry between the de Knayth and Talbot families is on the verge of becoming a blood feud again. The de Knayth family weaponsmith’s shop burned down in the night and they blame sabotage from the Talbots. The Talbots claim monsters from the Killer Fog were responsible, or possibly the smith was drunk and burned it down himself because he was too ashamed to show his crappy work in public. Both families have taken to hiring criers to wander the streets announcing scandalous information about the other family and most recently the criers have had to use guards for protection due to being accosted by family and allies. Town guard and Grey Ladies are attempting to stay out of it as much as possible while also encouraging both families to cool down.

A neighborhood in the Grey District has been rumored to be immune to beasts of the fog. The claim is that in the proper light a giant spectral armored warrior can be seen towering over the area and no harmful beasts travel in the fog near it. While residents claim to have seen it, no official will admit to seeing anything. There are competing claims of whether or not attacks have happened within the neighborhood and exactly from where to where the safe area may or may not extend.

Out of Character
This moves the campaign forward in time ending the second month of spring and beginning the third (final) month. Basically ending April and just beginning May. Looking forward, Kentarre has hot and humid summers, being a coastal city with a generally warm climate much like Mediterranean France and Spain but not nearly as bad as Houston or Florida. That is still a month away however (functionally June), as there is still one more month of idyllic spring weather to enjoy.

MAGI Plots in Progress

To keep everyone on the same page, here are the plot lines that have been encountered or triggered in play:

• Trouble’s trouble
  • Cult of the Hulks
• Restore MAGI
  • Reeve of Lyric
• Fae civil war (South of Caer Rothi, undead come back to life to claim kingdom from brother)
  • Failing of Graveyard Wards
• Sunken Citadel
• Insane Island
• New Kingdom under Kentarre City

 

And these are the short summaries of the character backstories in progress (with Trouble’s already noted above):

• Inshushinak’s host body’s quest
• Arianwyn’s missing vaults
• Vashti’s dead aunt
• Jacques’ trade empire
• Bel’s changeling status
• Ruddy’s pirates

If there are any missing let me know and I’ll get them added to the list.

Caer Rothi, Domain Rough

Here is a rough draft of the Shapeshifter’s domain, Caer Rothi, the Rider’s Fort. I can’t get text to stay on the banner yet, not sure why. I suspect there’s like 9 copies of the name underneath it. Meh. I’ll figure it out eventually.

The territory he controls spans 12 “hexes” or 288 square miles, which is not too bad. Druid Grove up north, don’t leave the trail when heading to his hut. Golden tree marks a special resource, in that case bonus lumber, and the horses in the field are what the area is famous for. Most notably, they breed and train warhorses for the knights in town.

He has one small town, Rothi itself, three hamlets of less than 80 people, and one Thorpe (20 people). Plus two hardy families have isolated farms that might one day grow into hamlets. The watch towers belong to the local Baron and are intended, along with his fort, to protect the horses. Nearby hills and out across the grasslands are unsafe areas where battles with Hunters and other dangerous creatures are common. The hills in particular are deadly. Hence the older fort, Ladran, is now in ruins and haunted and unsafe to rebuild. The green stepped hills mark the sites of Faerie mounds, both allied with local Hunter tribes, hence the battles in the area.

A spreadsheet with information on all the settlements and the whole domain is found in my shared folder, but it is messy and I need to devise a better way to present and track the information.

His Barron and Count provide troops for the fort, plus the majority of the troops’ upkeep. Nevertheless as an undeveloped area, this estate is expensive to maintain.

His troops include one cohort of infantry, 100 soldiers and 20 archers, plus 26 cavalry scouts. These troops have a Captain and Lieutenant whose loyalty is to the Count, but who are good soldiers and have never challenged orders from Sir Bel. Bel has his own group of 15 men-at-arms who are loyal to him, though 1 stays at Capall’og to act as constable, and two more are at each of the hamlets for the same reason.

In addition to the stable and its horse lineages, the hamlet of Poleens has a famous trainer, third in his family to serve at this Caer on behest of the Storm knights (Fame +1, stacks with the fame of the stables). Because of the military presence and to make the locals feel a little more at peace, tradition has let Rothi town be ruled by a council of 7 members of the local community, with the Lord of Caer Rothi as the head of the council as well as absolute military ruler of the fort and surrounding lands (Counsil = +2 Society, -1 Law, -1 Lore) . Each of the hamlets has a burgher appointed by Sir Bel, who just kept the previously existing ones when he received the lordship (no mod for autocrat). The large local presence of soldiers with cash pay from the county means a lot of wasteful spending happens in town, but the officers and troops keep everyone in line most of the time (+1 economy, +1 corruption, +1 law). Sraheens has the only smithy in the area and thus gets unusually high traffic for such a small settlement (+1 productivity). The rich lumber near the druid’s grove brings Dereens huge benefits (+2 economy, +2 stability, +2 productivity, and a further +1 economy to the domain as a whole). The previous lord expanded the local mill with a second, some distance from the hamlet, which is a bit vulnerable to Hunters, but worth the risk so far (+1 stability, +1 BP/turn = ~2,000 gp/month). Sir Bel has one man-at-arms stationed at the mill for protection.

The downside of all this is that Rothi Estate is functionally impossible to truly control (DC 37 control checks with a max bonus of 13 from stability means it requires an impossible 24 on d20 to enforce an edict from the ruler), but it runs just fine on autopilot and has been extremely stable for generations. If the population expanded and the hamlets grew into villages, and especially if Rothi town grew large enough to support buildings that could take advantage of all the soldier’s money, then it could become an ideal estate: both prosperous and controllable. To start out, however, it dearly needs more farms to support the local population without relying on food shipments from the Count.

The estate lies at the west edge of the Barony of Aedo, which itself covers the whole west and south of County Chaisil. The Barron is named Cremthanin, and the Count has two other Barrons plus several estates under him. Cremthanin doesn’t have a champion but is himself a reknowned warrior. Caer Rothi and Caer Chasil are the only forts in the County, giving Sir Bel rather more leverage politically than an estate lord usually holds. Each of the other barrons have several watchtowers (Cremthanin has four, two right at the edge of Rothi). Also, only the two Caer’s have standing armies maintained at full fighting strength. The Count’s champion is a spear fighter named Byrne.

Sir Bel answers to Barron Cremthanin for any political or land-related issues. However the Estate is technically held by the Storm Knights, so for anything relating to the Caer itself, he answers only to his own Knight Commander. When granted the title over the estate, Sir Bel swore loyalty not to the Barron, but to Count Chaisil, and agreed to honor the commands of the Barron, but this divided loyalty gives him great freedom of action locally. Most commonly, Sir Bel leaves the Caer under the command of Captain Wolffe and lets the Council run the Town and everything operates effortlessly.

Map of Home vs Pangea

My world is based on pangea with one supercontinent holding nearly all the land mass.

Here is my map for MAGI with all the possible PCs’ lands compared to pangea if it were oriented similarly.

 

So, the Werepanther Jacques’ trade route is like sailing from Morrocco through the Mediterranean, through the Persian Gulf, past India, down the west of Australia and to New Zealand. Then going back.

All Magi Characters, Final Versions

Arianwyn

Ash

Bel

Inshushinak

Jacques

Rudy

Trouble

 

Everyone should also be able to find their characters in the “manage characters” tool in Fantasy Grounds even when the campaign is offline.