The Major Locales of the Crimson Sea

Holy Vesturia - Seat of the Holy Covenant

Of all places sacred to men, none shall be held as high as Grand Vesturia, the Birth-Place of the Great Blood-Covenant forged between men and the Gods-to-Be. Its tall spires scrape the very skies, its statuary raise profligate hands to receive blessings from above, its people offer their all to the Grand Church of Blood-Communion.

And all are lead in Worship by his Most Holiness, Pontif Sanguinius the First and Only, forever and ever, Amen; who forged the Promise on which all who live on the Shores of the Crimson Sea do dwell. And blessed too be his Crimson Ministers who tend to the herds of the High Shepard of men.

During the day, Vesturia is a quiet bustle as humans tend to themselves and their daily tasks, underneath the watchful eyes of the Crimson ministers, who are jealous of their flock as a husband is jealous of his wife. In the darkened manors and homes of the Gods-to-Be, the Crusaders of the Covenant play at high society in grand symposiums and soirees. At night, men huddle in their homes, and try to shut out the sounds of the bloody violence, the screams of demons, and the Victory Hymns and exultations of the Crusaders. 

The Church of the Holy Covenant rules all in Holy Vesturia, as it should be, for only through his Most Holiness can men ever hope to escape the horrors of the Night.

Sight-Seeing in the Red-Walled City of the Holy Covenant:

- The Mighty Cathedral of the Glories of the Blood-Pact - Where his Most Holiness, the First and Only (forever and ever, Amen) Pontif forged the Covenant with men, and the First of the Red Ministers joined him in holy brotherhood. Its tall, white-stone walls stand out against the dull greys and blacks of the Cities, an endless reminder of the Dominion of the Church.

- The Conflagration of the Apostate - Once a glorious estate of much wealth and the home of a noble lineage, the current occupant (who has lived there for over two centuries now) performed an unforgivable sin in the eyes of the Church: he poisoned himself. It was such a sin, Pontif Sanguinius himself came down from the Cathedral of Glories wreathed in wrath and power, and laid down upon the Noble and his house a terrible curse. Now it stands forever, as does its owner, only they are wreathed in an eternal flame, ever burning in parts, ever smouldering in places, always blossoming with smoke, forever and ever, until such a time as his sins have been scoured away in cleansing fire.

- Wolf-Pyre Plaza - A great square at the bottom of the steps leading up to the Cathedral of Glories, its centre is blackened and charred, for it is where the Beasts and Demons of the Night are burned as the morning sun is only just daring to rise, to the furious jeers and cheers of the Crusaders still high on the Night's Hunt-Lust.
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The Bone-Metropolis of Demise

Built by those who would escape the Tyranny of the Church, Demise was constructed in the one place the Church would never find them, in the titanic, skeletal remains of the so-called "arch-demon". Though now the Covenant are well aware of the dissidents, they can no longer easily crush them, thus they bide their time and plot the downfall of the Corpse-City.

The skull of the Demon has been fashioned into a kind of Anti-Cathedral, the eyes and nostrils filled in with stained-glass, and the teeth hollowed out into the pipes of a Great Organ, played only when the Red Ministers of the Communion that are captured face their now traditional execution; a stake through the heart and decapitation. 

The City proper is built in the hollow of the Rib-Cage, the tall off-white towers rising in their arcs above the homes and buildings, fashioned into Watch-Towers. The Left Leg and the Right Arm have been fashioned into the Western and Eastern Wharfs respectively, as the Right Leg has long been lost to the Waves of the Living Sea. The Shoulder Blades, flanking the Anti-Cathedral, now form the home of the Ivory School, and the Noble Houses of the City Founders. The Pelvis is the foundation of the grand Fortress of the City, and stands as their great Fastness against the Churches Crusaders. The City has now spread beyond the confines of the almighty bones now, and only continues to grow from those that escape Vesturia, and the growth of hope and rebellion against Pontif Sangunius.

Their true strength, though they do not know it, lies in the Ivory School, who practice the lost and ancient art of Bone-Carving. They have created and discovered many tools that are particularly effective against the Gods-to-Be, and when the Church finally makes their move against Demise, they will find it a much more stalwart foe that any guessed it to be.

The Leviathan Yards

Huge, Pallid, and Ever-Squirming and Writhing, beasts like beached whales mount the shore leaking foul fluids into the furious sea, and birth the Flesh-Hulks that can sail the Living Sea.

The Harbour-Masters of the Leviathan Yards are some of the most feared (and rich) individuals of the Crimson Sea, second perhaps even to The First and Only (forever and ever Amen) Pontif of the Church of the Communion. Certainly they are second in influence, as they sell the Living Ships that alone are capable of surviving the Attentions of the Crimson Sea for any length of time without cracking open like a nut. They charge exorbitant prices, which are duly paid for now.

They are something like a cross between Spiders and Lobsters, standing up like a crooked old man, most of their limbs tucked away like a mental-patient while the main arms constantly scribble in their record books, their multi-facet eyes dancing this way and that and their mouths full of articulated teeth chitter quietly even as they speak to you. They are thin and long, unlike their worker-soldier brethren, who are much like them, only shorter and fatter, like crabs in the way the Harbour Masters are like Lobsters. Their thick, almost lacquered armour plates have been know to turn aside even the heaviest sword blows, though their underbellies have proven to be relatively soft.

This isn't to say that they aren't also feared in battle. Most every power on the Crimson Sea has tried once or more to take the Leviathan Yards for themselves. All have failed, the Nerve-Arresters and Claws of the Worker-Soldiers proving devastatingly effective even against the terrible power of the Crimson Crusaders. Mercifully, they have neither the numbers nor the inclination for conquest, as far as is known and hoped.

The Supra-Human Republics

The last (and most recently founded) of the Mighty Powers of the Crimson Sea, the Supra-Human Republics are feared by just about everyone. Of course, the Red Church of Vesturia is the most powerful and feared of the cities of the Living Sea, but the Supra-Human republics have proven themselves their equal in terms of the fear they spread, in the way they deal with prisoners, in their ever-changing and unpredictable power struggles, and in the doom they represent for Man-Kind.

They are the pinnacle of Human Evolution, as they tell everyone, beyond the Gods-to-Be of the traitor-state, beyond the Homunculi of the Alchemists, beyond the Star-Priests, beyond the Elves, beyond all and any! Their biology is as perfect as can ever be attained, neither age nor sickness nor exposure will ever slay one of their number, and their unimpeachable flesh is left behind by the Crusaders of the Church, evidence of their superiority!

In one aspect they still seem human though, they squabble endlessly and constantly. The Republics are fractitious in the extreme, and new havens are constantly being born left and right, and coups are levied against the new most treacherous and decadent of the Doges, only to be replaced by a Doge twice as corrupt and reprobate again. Trade continues to thrive in the turmoil though, and thus the Apex of Men supports many of their lesser kind in orbiting towns.

Of course, there is much war made between the Republics and Vesturia, the one enemy the Doges can actually ally as a group against for any amount of time. Such wars are often short-lived, as the Crimson Crusaders must always return to The City of Red Walls before the fall of night, and the Doges can never actually organise any kind of co-ordinated assault against the Holy City, their fragile alliances born of mutual hatred of the Red Ministers finally being overtaken by the storm of their petty squabbles. It is doubtful the Republics could ever actually overcome Vesturia; their numbers are too few, but the Church is determined to exterminate them, which betrays more than the ever-teethy smiles of the Ministers could.

Within the Republics themselves, the Supra-Humans dwell in endless luxury and fathomless melodrama, constantly seeking deeper and deeper depravities to explore and thrills to chase. Around them, "lesser-men" toil to sustain them, even as the Supra-Humans bully them to work harder and harder.

Of the origins of the Supra-Humans, they will not speak. Many rumours have been circulated (many certainly started by the Supra-Humans themselves), perhaps they are the final result of an Alchemist's life-time research into the creation of perfect Homunculi, or maybe they are renegade Ministers of the Church who have overcome their needs and vulnerabilities. It is even possible that they are lying, and sustain themselves purely on magic. No-one can tell for now, and if the secret is anywhere, it is in the dread-hearts of the Palaces of the Doges of the Supra-Human Republics.

Brygge: Town of The Serpent Baron

I warn you in advance, this thing knows no bounds in terms of disorganisation...
A town, ruled by a Tyrant, with an invisible serpent around his neck that whispers magic in his ears. If he can just crush the Resistance, and erase the last traces of subversion, he could become a god...

Terrors

1 - The Serpent Baron, Nathair Illiad - The cruel and imposing ruler of the town, blessed by a powerful serpent spirit who has developed a symbiotic dependency to the Baron. Dreams of ascension to Anti-Sainthood, though he doesn't see it that way, and of usurping the Duchy from Don Hatori.
2 - The Slithering Priest, Donovon Lascal - Has three acolytes, and they pretend to be adherents of a Saint of Guile and Wit. They are merely sycophants of the Baron and his Parasite-Spirit, and have been granted powers by the spirit.
3 - The Three Lieutenants - Granted minor powers by the Baron, they are his right hand, and main agents in the town.
4 - The Baron's Fangs - Assassins of the highest calibre, most of the town aren't even aware they exist.
5 - The Basilisk - Dwelling beneath the castle, most of the town believe it to merely be a legend.
6 - The Whispering Deceiver - The Serpent Spirit who has attached itself to the Baron. Incredibly selfish, self-serving, and sycophantic. Final goal is to become strong enough to challenge Yig for patronage of the Serpent-men, though for now, the Baron has shackled its will to his.

Features

1 - The Baron's Castle - Has traits like the Corrupt Lord's. Serpent themeing is kept pretty subtle for the most part. Has entrances to the True Temple, and a tunnel to the Secret Dungeons underneath Wooden Street.
2 - The Temple of the Scaled Saint - A front for worship of the Deceiver, where the Slithering Priest dwells and spreads the whispers of the Serpent.
3 - The Secret Dungeons - Where the political prisoners of the town are thrown. 2 in particular are kept in padded cells, and are pumped full of all manners of poisons, and enchanted so that they will not die from the corruption coursing through them. Every so often, the Baron sends loyal cultists to extract some of the poison running through their veins...
4 - The Seven Stars Tavern - A hub of dissenters against the Baron's rule, the Resistance. Secret as of yet. Connections to a secret underground hideout beneath the Shrine of Saint Thomas.
5 - The Drowning Posts - Where executions take place, people are tied to posts and left to sink down into muck and suffocate. Officially only used for murder, arson, and treason. Many political prisoners end up here unannounced.
6 - The True Temple - Down beneath the town, where worship of the Serpent and the Baron is conducted openly and nakedly.

Treasures

1 - The Baron's Spear - Master-work spear, the blade appears to erupt from the gaping mouth of a serpent; enchanted to transform into a serpent when the fangs of the serpent head taste blood.
2 - The Minx's Eyes - Twin gemstones named for a Minx-shaped spirit who gifted them to humanity as a ward against poisons.
3 - Many Potent Poisons - He breeds them within a pair of desperately wretched prisoners in the secret dungeons.
4 - Rod of Fangs - Wielded by the Serpent Priest, partially transforms into a serpent, and is a catalyst for spells.
5 - The Baron's Treasury - Full to bursting with years and years of harsh taxes and fines.
6 - The Snake-Skin Bracers - Allow you to see through your sense of smell, even if otherwise blinded.

The Serpent Baron

He found the Whispering Deceiver out in the forest one day, wrapped around the neck of a beautiful woman, compelling her to catch and swallow mice whole for it. He took both for his own, and broke their spirits, they now both serve him.
He will break the whole world, if he can.
He is normally quite charming, and a dab-handed liar. You'd never suspect he leads an insidious cabal.
Knows three spells; Hypnotic Gaze, Snake Swarm, and Scale Skin.
Aside from his spear, he wields a great Butcher's Blade, which can be wielded one handed only if you have 15 or higher strength. It has a series of groves which allow it to hold twice as much liquid as a normal sword might be able to (poison in every case for the Baron).
Once per day, he can exude a poison breath, which deals 1 damage for each point which the victim's saving throw fails by. If the save result is a 1, they are instantly on 1 hit point if they wouldn't be lower.
Every other round, can replace one of his normal attacks with a special grapple, which if successful, can then consume another attack, to throw the grappled creature as a ranged weapon dealing bludgeoning weapon as a javelin, and knocking both targets prone on a hit.
If he is ever reduced to 0 hit points and not killed outright, he will consume the Deceiver's spirit, and become a Serpent Demon as a last ditch effort to survive.

The Serpent Baron's Appearance

1 - Green Slitted Eyes
2 - Huge Frame - At least a head taller than the tallest party member (usually at least)
3 - Slightly too large Incisors
4 - Ermine Cape - He really freaking hates ferrets and such animals
5 - Serpent Theme - Seems merely fuedal at first...
6 - Surprisingly thin Cheeks

The Serpent Baron's Equipment

1 - The Serpent Headed Spear - When it deals maximum damage on an attack, it transforms into a 3HD serpent to fight for the Baron. If killed, the serpent reverts back to spear form; the haft will be broken, but it is the spear-blade and its setting that are actually magical.
2 - Butcher's Blade - Detailed above.
3 - Serpent Scale Armour - AC as Half-Plate, with no other penalties.
4 - Twin Fang Ring - Can hold enough venom for one dose, which can be delivered almost undetectably with a touch by two, needle sharp fangs.
5 - Blessings of the Serpent - The Spells and Poison Breath detailed above.
6 - A Small Pouch of Poison Vials - Mostly hidden by his clothes and cloak, it contains holders for three vials of particularly virulent poisons, though these must be administered as usual.

The Baron's Ascension

Should the Baron's plans advance far enough, or he is driven to out of desperation, the Baron can begin his ascension on the Night of the Full Moon. At the end of a lengthy ritual, which takes the whole day beforehand, and is very vulnerable to interruption, and culminates at the stroke of Sun-Down, the Baron will then be suddenly encased within a great egg. During this time, he must be bathed in the light of the full-moon as much as possible. Cloud is not enough to disrupt it, unless it is supernaturally thick, but if he is out of the light for a full 10 minutes, the ritual fails, and he will hatch still human. The egg is otherwise invincible, except to high-level magic, for the duration of the Night.  During this time, if the Resistance is still active and knows of the Ritual, they will attempt to interrupt it and will be successful on a 4 in 6 chance. If the ritual succeeds however, he emerges a great, Serpent-Man hybrid with the strength of a god, or close to one. If it fails, he is human, and human forever. Therefore, he will only voluntarily undergo the ritual if he is certain he is entirely safe, since it is so delicate, and there is little margin for error.

Notable NPCs in the Town

1 - Mazdan Hobburn, the Master Blacksmith - one of the most skilled smiths this side of the capital, he forged the Baron's weapons and armour. Has no stake in the politics of the town, but obeys the call of money faithfully and discretely, if offered enough. His premises are in the Town Square.
2 - Urguyle the Wise - A wizard of some small power, he lives on Beech Street, between two empty lots, as the houses that used to stand there burnt down mysteriously. Not powerful enough to resist the Baron alone, and as of yet has incurred no bad blood between them. This cannot last forever. Has a decent magical library.
3 - Barkeeper Yuvio - A key member of the Resistance, and Proprietor of the Seven Stars Tavern, the cellars of which are used to co-ordinate the Resistance's efforts. Brave and steadfast, will cover the other Resistance members' escape to the Shrine of Saint Thomas through the secret cellar tunnels, a ploy which has so far seen them elude suspicion.
4 - Father Remmel - Head priest of the Shrine of Saint Thomas. Has an assistant, Harren, but they are desperately underfunded due to the taxes of the Baron. Sympathetic to the Resistance, but as of now, they are unwilling to commit to openly opposing the Baron.
5 - Notary - Celebrity - Scion of an Old Bloodline: Lord Elias Sturngart - Distantly related to the old ruling family of the county. They haven't ruled in decades, and he is disinterested in the responsibility, but he has the strongest claim to the title after the Serpent Baron. Lives in the Sturngart Manor on Rose Alley.
6 - Dweller - Shaman - Purge the Guilty: Ruffick (Words-in-Stones) - Seeks to destroy those who have debased their souls (The Baron and the Priests) and the Spirit who has lead them astray. As of yet does not know who it is the town, does not yet suspect the Baron. Lives in the woods just outside the city.
7 - Agent - Secret Police - Break the Local Faith: Office Nathan Shultz - An Agent of the Corrupt Lord, and a member of the Foundation. While the CL is not yet aware of the Baron's disloyalty, Nathan is on a mission to break the faith of the locals, as part of the CL's wider initiative, and will soon come across evidence of the liberties the Baron has been taking. Staying at the Haberdashers on Ash Street.
8 - Foreigner - Brass Bastard - Take Revenge on Someone: Silas Am'Thrick - Seeks revenge on the Slithering Priest, they have bad blood between them. Silas sought his metal as part of an old downward spiral because of what the Priest did to him. Hiding in the Town Sewers, plotting.
9 - Dweller - War Veteran - The Siege of Ulm: Ered Thuringen - A veteran of the coup that crowned the Corrupt Lord, he is a stalwart support of the CL, and won't stand to see him so openly disregarded by the Serpent Baron. Living on Oak Street.
10 - Foreigner - Angel - Bury the Dead: Raphael - Seeks to release the souls of those executed at the Drowning Posts, their preserved organs won't release them. Will help only so long as their task is done. Once its finished, they are gone.
11 - Undesirable - Changling - Secure a Life of Luxury: Scrilk - Did not wish to be what it is, but it won't let that stop it from using its gifts to take what it wants. Hasn't considered replacing the Baron, thinks its too risky to do alone, currently has its sights set on Lord Sturngart, thinking that he is rich, but out of the way. Currently has replaced on the Sturngart's servants.
12 - Agent - Bounty Hunter - Inflitrate the Circle of Meira the Heretic: Hogen Grent - Meira is one of the Slithering Priest's acolytes, and leads a sub-cult in her own time. The Serpent Baron set the Bounty Hunter on them without knowing that they are one and the same, wanting all worship within his own cult. Staying at the Severn Stars Tavern.

The Town Watch

All three Officers have the following gifts of the Serpent: Darkvision (based on scent), slitted eyes, forked tongues, and subtle scales on their chests (minimum AC is 2 more than normal), as well as those in their description.
1 - Captain Drummond - Leads the larger unit of footmen, and overall commander of the town watch. Cruel in a cold, detached sort of way. Unshakable. Keeps his left arm tucked inside his cloak at all times, since it is infact a serpent attached to his shoulder. Wields a duelist's rapier.
Has quarters on Oak Street.
2 - Captain Caid - Leader of the "Green Rain" archer unit. Disinterested in the whole cult deal, very much interested in the power it brings, so is willing to play along. Can spit caustic venom up to 20 feet.
Has quarters on Ash Street, which he shares with a girlfriend, who is in hiding from her vengeful husband.
3 - Lieutenant Farron - Leads the smaller unit of footmen, zealous and righteous. Wields a two-handed battle axe. Can hypnotise with his gaze over a minute at any time, or with a glance once per day.
Has quarters on Cedar street.
4 - The Footmen - Consisting of 2 Units, 1 of 15 men lead by the Captain Drummond, one of 9 lead by the lieutenant. All mere spearmen with swords too, almost all (80%) inductees of the Serpent Cult.
5 - The Green Rain - A unit of 12 archers lead by Captain Caid, who use poisoned arrows.
6 - Yara, the Honest Watchmen - One of the most stalwartly anti-cult members of the watch. Pretends to be merely indifferent to avoid suspicion and probable execution. Diligently gathers information about the cult, hoping to bring it down from the edges.

The Twin Fangs

Taken from the streets, extensive brainwashing has rendered them incapable of doing anything except what the Serpent Baron orders. They are his secret assassins, not even the Slithering Priest knows about them. They are brutally efficient, and have a perfect record (so far). They have extensive training and equipment, including snake-sticks, a smoke grenade, a flash grenade, paralysing poison which they apply to their weapons, and caltrops coated with a numbing chemical.
When they are not "on duty", they live in spartan quarters in the Secret Dungeons.

The Slithering Priests

Sycophants of the Baron deluded enough to worship him and his loathsome spirit. Donovon pretends allegience to a Saint by the name of Darian, though there is no such saint, and he instead venerates the Deceiver. Wields the Rod of Fangs, and knows four spells: Scaleskin, Fog Cloud, Snake Swarm, Paralysis. He can ritually sacrifice one of his acolytes to regain a spent spell, which triggers a morale check from the other two.
The three Acolytes are Meira, Jaimie, and Peiter, and they each know one of Donovon's spells, in the order given above. Meira has taken matters into her own hands in regards to furthering their faith, and has started a sub-cult of her own in secret. If it grows enough, she might be a force to be reckoned with.
The Acolytes live in quarters in the False-Shrine of Darian, in the Town Square, but Donovon has private quarters in the Baron's Castle.

Other Locations of the Town

1 - The Watch Barracks - Set near the eastern gate, on Oak Street, which leads back towards civilisation. One of the officers of the watch is always on duty here. Another is on patrol, and the third is off-duty, or attending court with the Baron.
2 - The Town Square - Set before the castle, the Serpent Baron adjudicates court cases in front of the people here, and makes announcements every so often. Well patrolled by the watch.
3 - Rattle Street Market - Though there are some stalls that are open all week, on the first two days of the week, the nearby farms will bring out whatever produce they do have. On those days, the streets nearby are congested beyond belief. The town watch doesn't go there on those days.
4 - The Cellars on Wooden Street - Owned almost completely by the Baron and rented to poor serfs who can't afford the rent and are thus utterly trapped. The cellars themselves are used to store all kinds of slightly illegal material. The serfs can't complain. The ones that try, disappear. Most Cult activity takes place here, and it contains an entrance to the True Temple, and is the main entrance to the Secret Dungeons.
5 - Rodrigo's Haberdashery - A front for the Secret Police in Brygge, the Serpent Baron does not suspect, but if he did, it would not take long for him to discover the deception. On Ash Street.
6 - The Town Sewers - Not particularly extensive, but a culvert on the western walls does run through both the Sturngart estate, and the western-most watch tower of the Baron's castle.
7 - Dice House: The Smiling Siren - The premier arena of luck outside Regensburg as the owner would say, the Smiling Siren has attracted a rather large clientel of both those who hold the Baron's favour, and those who have earned his ire and have large 'debts to the state' to pay off. Run by a weaselly fellow by the name of Hacken, he isn't particularly threatening, but his three thugs are. Lieutenant Farron has a bit of a habit here, and has racked up a bit of a debt, which the house has as of yet been understandably unwilling to attempt to collect. Hogen the Bounty Hunter has been frequenting this place too, asking around subtlety for information on his mark. On Cedar Street.
8 - Brothel: Madame Salaciea's - Not quite so seedy as others, but not great. The main selling point is the great discretion the Madame offers for guests of... unsavory appetites. Captain Caid frequents the place. Elias Sturngart makes the occasional incognito visit here. On Rattle Street.
9 - Fair: Saint Thomas' Feast - A week-long feast that began just yesterday in fact, a long table is laid for a meal in front of Saint Thomas' Shrine, and food is brought out for any and all to enjoy just before sun-down. So far this act of good will has gone unopposed. The Resistance, among others, will use it as a meeting point, and the Baron will grow suspicious of it.
10 - A Beautiful Shrine: Shrine of Saint Thomas - One of the last remaining establishments not touched by the Baron's Cult, will offer sanctuary and aid to any and all that need it, especially those not well-liked by the Baron. On Willow Street.
11 - A Statue of an Old Hero: Statue of Lucian the Dragon-Crusher - The founder of the town who supposedly wrestled control of the area from a fearsome dragon. In the Town Square.
12 - A Beautiful Garden: The Snowdrop's Waltz - A Spiral path through many pale flowers. A private meeting point for the Resistance. Just off the Town Square.

Miera the Heretic

She is still loyal to the Serpent Baron, she just has... divergent thoughts about this whole serpent thing. She still offers praise and worship to the Whispering Deceiver, as is right and proper, but she offers veneration to the other Reptile Spirits of the world, secretly, and with a few other followers she has gathered in secret all by herself. She follows the commands of the Baron and the Slithering Priest, but she would be deeply disturbed to know that the Baron has unknowingly set a bounty hunter on her.
Her cult currently has 3d4 members.

Table of Town Events

Roll once per week, or after the PCs are the cause (whether its public knowledge or not) of some disturbance in town.

1 - The Resistance is Revealed - The first time this is rolled, the Baron discovers that there is a Resistance movement at all, and posters for information about them will be posted. This won't result in anything by itself, but it will mean the PCs cannot approach the Resistance anymore, though the Resistance can and will still approach them. The second time it is rolled, the Resistance is discovered, and all members will be taken straight to the Secret Dungeons, except Yuvio, who goes straight to the Drowning Posts. The Resistance is done. Subsequent rolls are treated as "An NPC disappears".

2 - The Resistance is Revealed - As Above.

3 - An NPC Disappears - So Below.

4 - Meira's Cult Advances - The Sub-Cult doubles in size. If the Sub-Cult reaches a size of 30 or more, she attempts to seize control of the Cult from Donovon. She will succeed. The Serpent Baron will be amused by her usurpation with a 4 in 6 chance.

Little would change if Meira does usurp Donovon, she would assume his stats, and begin serving the Serpent Baron herself. If this is rolled again after she has usurped Donovon, the Baron discovers her heresy, and destroys her.
Once the whole business is resolved one way or the other, treat this as an "An NPC disappears" instead.

5 - Yara's Plans Advance - The first time this result is rolled, Yara gains sufficient information to be useful to the PCs. On the second roll, she will approach the PCs about a plan she has thought up. With each subsequent roll, she uncovers something further that makes the plan more likely to succeed.

6 - The Changling's Course Advances - The first time this is rolled, the Changeling replaces a Butler in the Sturngart household. The second time this is rolled, they replace Elias' personal butler. The third time, they replace Elias themselves. Each time they advance, it becomes harder to convince them of any path other than replacing Elias.

Once the Changeling has either replaced Elias, or has reached some other resolution, treat this as an "An NPC disappears" instead.

7 - An Auspicious Omen - The Statue of Lucian undergoes a small, but notable transformation. The Dragon is replaced with a Serpent. The statue will be removed for "renovation" within a day, but word will get around. The next "The Resistance is Revealed" result is treated as a "The Resistance's Aims Advance on a 3 in 6 chance, or is instead ignored.

Once the whole business is resolved one way or the other, treat this as an "An NPC disappears" instead.

8 - An NPC disappears - Roll on the Disloyal PC table (see below). That NPC has run afoul of the Baron, and has gone. 1 in 6 chance of going straight to the Drowning Posts. Otherwise, they end up in the Secret Dungeons.

9 - Someone is left out to Die on the Drowning Posts - Randomly choose someone locked up in the Secret Dungeons, they are left out overnight to die on the Drowning Posts. At this point, the Baron knows everything they knew, and they are worth nothing more to him. If no-one is in the Secret Dungeons, treat this as a "An NPC disappears" result. 

10 - The Secret Police Uncover the Truth - The first time this is rolled, the Secret Police discover all they need to order the Baron's murder, and they begin plotting. The second time this is rolled, there is a 1 in 6 chance the attempt succeeds, a 3 in 6 chance it merely fails, and the final 2 in 6 chance that the Baron discovers the attempts, and is forced to declare war on Don Hatori, expelling or killing the Secret Police in Brygge in the process.

Once the whole business is resolved one way or the other, treat this as an "An NPC disappears" instead.

11 - The Serpent Baron Uncovers the Secret Police - The first time this is rolled, the Baron discovers that the Corrupt Lord's Secret Police are investigating him. The second time this is rolled, the Baron completely destroys the Secret Police's efforts in Brygge, killing all of them except Officer Nathan, who is imprisoned in the Secret Dungeons.

Once the whole business is resolved one way or the other, treat this as an "An NPC disappears" instead.

12 - Hacken tries to collect - He has finally tired of Farron's habits of not paying up, and he has sent his goons after him. There is a 2 in 6 chance that the attempt is successful, and Farron dies in the ensuing struggle, no blame can be traced back to Hacken. Otherwise, Farron kills his assailants, and the Smiling Siren burns to the ground the following night, Hacken disappearing down into the Secret Dungeons.

Once the whole business is resolved one way or the other, treat this as an "An NPC disappears" instead.

13 - Urguyle and the Baron have a Spat - The first time this is rolled, bad blood begins to foster between Urguyle and the Baron, and Urguyle is suddenly a lot more sympathetic to the rebellious elements of the town. The second time this is rolled, Urguyle and the Baron have a confrontation, and Urguyle always loses. There is a 3 in 6 chance he dies in the fight, which will level much of Beech Street, otherwise, he is sent to the Secret Dungeons.
Once the whole business is resolved one way or the other, treat this as an "An NPC disappears" instead.
14 - Ered Thuringen Surges Forth! - When this result is rolled, Ered joins forces with a party aligned against the Baron (randomly chosen from; The Resistance, The Secret Police, and Ruffick the Shaman). If this result is rolled again while he is free, they make an attempt on the Baron's life. They always fail, and Ered (along with other named characters) is thrown into the Secret Dungeon. If this result is rolled while Ered is in a Watch Cell (see below) he daringly escapes!
Once the whole business is resolved one way or the other, treat this as an "An NPC disappears" instead.
15 - Ered Thuringen is Arrested - His speaking out against the Baron can be ignored no longer, and he is thrown into a cell in the Watch Barracks. If this result is rolled again while Ered is in the Cell, he is then sent to the Secret Dungeons.
Once the whole business is resolved one way or the other, treat this as an "An NPC disappears" instead.
16 - Silas Am'Thrick confronts Donovon - In the Town Square, there is a rather explosive confrontation between Donovon and Silas. There is a 3 in 6 chance that Silas kills Donovon, who is succeeded by Meira as if she had usurped him. There is only a 1 in 6 chance that Donovon kills Silas. If Silas wins, or just isn't killed, he has to then roll a dice below what he previously scored to escape. Otherwise the town watch catch him, and he is thrown into the Secret Dungeon for the Baron's curiousity, he has never seen a Brass Bastard before...
Once the whole business is resolved one way or the other, treat this as an "An NPC disappears" instead.
17 - Caid and Elias cross paths - When this is rolled, Caid discovers Elias' more... improper tastes in women, and blackmails him for money. The second time this is rolled, it happens again, and Caid and his mistress have enough wealth to skip town, never to be seen again.
Once the whole business is resolved one way or the other, treat this as an "An NPC disappears" instead.
18 - The Bounty Hunter tracks down Meira - Meira's treachery and heresy is discovered by the Bounty Hunter. There is a 5 in 6 chance that Meira can bribe Hogen to be quiet. Each time afterwards, Hogen wants more money for his silence, and the roll must be made again, with a cumulative -2 modifier. When the roll is finally failed, Meira is sent to the Drowning Posts, and Hogen leaves town with a rather fat purse.
Once the whole business is resolved one way or the other, treat this as an "An NPC disappears" instead.
19 - The Resistance's Aims Advance - So Below.
20 - The Resistance's Aims Advance - The first time this is rolled, the Resistance covers one of their Requirements (see later). Each subsequent roll, there is a 2 in 6 chance that the Resistance makes their move. If they do, roll a d10. If they roll under the number of needs they have covered, they overthrow the Serpent Baron, and free Brygge from the Serpent Cult. If they fail, they will all be thrown into the Secret Dungeons. If they don't make their move, they cover a new need instead.

Disloyal NPCs

If you roll a NPC who has already been taken, use the next result down. If all NPCs down are taken, go upwards instead.

If all Disloyal NPCs "disappear", then there will be no-one left to stop the Baron, who will Apotheosise into a Mighty Serpent-Demon on the next New Moon (see the Baron's entry above).

1 - Barkeeper Yuvio
2 - Father Remmel
3 - Harren, Remmel's Aprentic
4 - Elias Sturngart
5 - Ruffick
6 - Silas Am'Thrick
7 - Ered Thuringen
8 - Raphael
9 - Yara, the Honest Watchman
10 - Officer Nathan Shultz
11 - Hacken
12 - Meira the Heretic

Disloyal NPCs can be rescued from the Secret Dungeons, though after the first time someone/a group escapes, security increases so much that it is almost impossible to break out anyone else without defeating the Baron in full.

The Resistance

They are a few desperate people who can see that the tyranny of the Serpent Baron will end nowhere well, and they plan and plot and hope, so that one day they might live free of his scaled clutches, or else die trying to snap off the fingers that strangle them.

The Resistance has 10 basic needs to overcome the Baron:

Needs:

1 - Weapons

2 - The Castle's Plans

3 - Information on the Baron

4 - Spiritual Aid

5 - Magic

6 - Armour

7 - Money

8 - Knowledge about the Serpent Cult

9 - Martial Training

10 - Luck (this can never actually be attained, outside of some stroke of myth)

They can cover these needs through the Event table, or through the actions of the PCs. For many of these needs, the party will probably need the assistance of another NPC, though they can supply some by their own expertise, or by the DM's discretion.

For the long-term prosperity of the town, the Resistance will also need a plan to replace the Serpent Baron, or things will get out of hand very quickly. They will neglect this for too long without help.

The Serpent Cult

The band of foolish sycophants and deluded worshippers makes up fully half the town in some capacity, though only a small percentage of that actively participates in cult activities. For the most part they are quite secretive, but a few flap their gums under certain pressures:
Pressures to spill the beans:
1 - Booze
2 - Some other drug
3 - Gold
4 - Love
5 - Violence
6 - Promises of Power
If you try to bully the wrong person, you might end up on the wrong end of the Town Watch. More than a few businesses have been torn out by the Watch because of jealous cultist competitors.
They meet sometimes in the Cellars underneath Wooden Street, and perform strange, undulating rituals. For the most part its quite harmless stuff, but with each ritual performed, the Baron's power grows.

Rumours

When gathering rumours, there is a 2 in 6 chance that you'll just get useless nonsense. Other wise, you get a roll on the following chance, with a 1 in 6 chance (on the same roll) of getting either a double roll, or some elaboration. If the same result is rolled again, further elaboration is given.

1 - People keep gathering at Rodrigo's for some reason.

2 - People keep gathering at the Snowdrops' Waltz Garden for some reason.

3 - I swear, someone was killed at the Drowning Posts last night.

4 - There's an underground movement against the Baron somewhere in town.

5 - People keep gathering at the Seven Stars tavern for some reason, they don't come out though.

6 - People keep leaving Saint Thomas' Shrine, they don't go in though.

7 - Something is up with Father Remmel, I tell ya.

8 - Something is up with Yuvio, the barman at the Seven Stars, I tell ya.

9 - I've heard that Elias Sturngart's family used to rule the city.

10 - I've heard that the whole damn Town Watch are in some sort of Cabal or something.

11 - There's a strange old man hiding out in the woods, he's hiding something I'm sure.

12 - People enter some of the houses on Wooden Street late at night, sometimes less come out.

13 - You go to the Rattle Street market on a farm day, you won't see a watchman for a mile.

14 - Heard there was some guy going around telling people he's an angel or some such.

15 - Thought I saw some guy in weird armour running around the sewer system once.

16 - I think that guy living in Lonely House on Beech street might be a wizard you know!

17 - The same people keep taking the same seats at Saint Thomas' feast. Its weird. 

18 - Some war vet keeps yapping on about how evil the Baron is. Come on, right?

19 - Captain Drummond has a gammy arm, childhood illness I heard.

20 - Buddy o' mine works for Lord Sturngart, they're acting all weird all of a sudden. 

21 - Lieutenant Farron's eyes aren't right, let me tell you.

22 - I've heard weird noises coming from under the Baron's castle, let me tell you.

23 - Mazdan's the best damn blacksmith you'll ever meet!

24 - The Corrupt Lord has sent his Secret Police here for some reason.

25 - The Baron has hired a bounty hunter for some reason, you see him at the dice house.

26 - Meira is running some sort of secret society.

27 - Lieutenant Farron has a mistress with a rather violent husband.

28 - Lieutenant Farron has a bit of a gambling problem.

29 - Captain Caid sometimes goes to Madame Salaceia's brothel.

30 - Elias Sturngart sometimes goes to Madame Salaceia's brothel.

Druids of the Old Ways

In these current times of Truth, Culture, and Enlightenment, Druids have had to change. They accept cities as their own environments, alien to their own, and have accepted their small, verdant bastions on the edges of Civilisation, filling in the gaps as it were. Indeed, at this point, this is all some Druids have ever known.

Some refuse this.

Out on the Frontiers, in the Deepest Forests, Druids of the Old Ways still lurk, primal and wild, still in touch with the Earth they speak to through their feet, still whispering to the trees, and the flowers, and the animals. They watch through dust-scratched eyes at the pomp and self-importance of Civilisation and loathe it.

They want it to wither and die.

Druid Aspects:

1 - Skies - The powers of the winds, and the clouds, and the weather.
2 - Predators - They take what strength allows, though they walk alone.
3 - Swarms - They flow and roil, and will always find a way to survive.
4 - Spores - They spread slow roots, and only fruit and bloom when necessary.
5 - Feathers - They spread their wings and take flight, speeding through the air.
6 - Trees - They have a hide of bark, limbs like branches, hair like leaves.
7 - Petals - They blossom with beauty, though hidden when they wish it.
8 - Herds - They stand firm and tall together, and alone they are lost.
9 - Scales - They slither and crawl, cold blood in their veins.
10 - Fins - They swim and dive, the water is their world, not our solid hell.
11 - Winds - They whirl and cavort as they please, winding and free.
12 - Flames - They are bright burning and endlessly feasting, theirs is fury and chaos.
13 - Waves - They are a slow strength, but in the end, they always win.
14 - Stones - They have roots of rock, the strength of stone, and tectonic intuition.
15 - Claws - They slice and catch, digging into flesh, hooked and curved.
16 - Rots - They break down what others leave behind, one's waste is their treasure.
17 - Bloods - They hold the crimson key of life in their hands, dripping from their chins.
18 - Packs - They have the strength of the pack, and the strength of the pack is them.
19 - Webs - They trap and subsume, awaiting their prey to come to them.
20 - Nights - They are the watching eyes in the dark, the black figure in the distance.

There are no Druids of Bones, those are the Domain of the Shaman.

Their magic is slow and flexible, and is only decided through committee. They have no power of their own, they borrow t from the earth, and must offer gifts and friendship in return. Rituals and rites are theirs for the world to listen, and they take their knowledge of what has worked before, for the tastes of the earth are slow to change.

They alter the world to their wishes, they command the elements, they befriend animals and banish foul humours, they cleanse and dirty, they preserve and defile in turn, they reap and they sow again, but only at the whim of the world, at the pace of the natural order.

These are their homes:

Blood Aspect Groves
1 - A Space set about with Bones and Blood
2 - An Area with a Wall of Sewn Guts
3 - A Deep Hole Stained Red and Strewn with Bone
4 - Bones Hang by Gut-Springs from Branches

Building-Aspect Groves
1 - A Ring of Stacks of Stones
2 - In Ruins Torn by Trees
3 - Within a Wooden Pallisade
4 - A Stone Patio-Mural
5 - An Overgrown Henge
6 - A Ring of Standing Stones

Tree-Aspect Groves
1 - A Cathedral of Tall Trees
2 - A Hollow beneath Arching Roots
3 - A Stand of Trees
4 - A Huge Ring of Bushes
5 - A Platform Ringing a Great Tree
6 - A Glade Cleared of Trees

Water-Aspect Groves
1 - A Circular Lake with an Island
2 - A Crescent Bay
3 - A Ring of Coral
4 - A Clearing in a Kelp Forest

Fields Grove
1 - A Scorched Glade
2 - A Circular Hill with a Bare Top
3 - A Mushroom Circle
4 - Within a Ring of Brambles

Mountain Grove
1 - A Mountain Plateau
2 - A Mountain Peak
3 - A Cave at the Bottom of a Crevasse
4 - In a Volcano's Caldera

Underground Grove
1 - A Painted Cave Beneath the Earth
2 - A Gently Sloping Pit in the Earth 
3 - A Cave that Admits a Glorious Shaft of Light
4 - A Deep Shaft of Empty Darkness

They are utterly unlike us, they drink toasts with the mud, they share food with the beasts, mouth to mouth, they drink from the udders of trees, their homes are not homes are we know them. They submit only to strength and the will of the earth. Some groves follow Arch-Druids, strong like stones. Some follow the beasts who only last night mauled and ate the last Arch-Druid in their sleep.

If they were still worthy of being an Arch-Druid, they wouldn't have been eaten.

These are their Allies:

1 - A Local Spirit God
2 - Animal Kings
3 - A Local Monster
4 - Powerful Monsters
5 - A Naturalised Druid
6 - A Fae Contingent
7 - A Colossal Beast
8 - A Tree, brimming with Anger
9 - The Very Sky Itself
10 - The Very Land Itself

Their Magic, as has been said, is the Magic of the Earth. It is also the Magic of Connections. If a Druid is sick, they must offer medicine to the mountain where the plants they ate were taken from, or to the woods where their meat was hunted, for that must be where the sickness had its original root. If they wish to curse their enemy, they must find a herd of deer from which they last took their food, what easier way to harm a person than through their stomach? If they wish to bring rain, they must stab the earth with knives to bleed it of its water, how else can they get it to beg for more?

These are their Holy of Holies:

1 - A Great Spirit Tree
2 - A Mighty Foundation Stone
3 - The Bones of a Titan
4 - A Grand-Totem
5 - A Thunder-Circle
6 - A Unique Stone-Formation
7 - A Hot Spring
8 - An Almighty Semi-Sentient Plant
9 - A Causeway of Hexagonal Stones
10 - A Pit of Endless Flames

Travelers on the roads tell many strange stories of the Druids of the Old Ways. Most all of them end up being true too, though sometimes the travelers aren't even aware that the cause of what they have seen is the Druids. They see strange formations of rock and the trees that have improbably grown around them, they see odd lights in the vast distance, of a small stand of trees that issues forth oceans of mist. They see animals with the heads and faces of men, they see trees branches that end in flakes of stone, they see rivers that run not with water, but with clouds. They see that stars fall to earth and dance around rings of stones. 

These are their Strange Rituals:

1 - They have built a great Pyramid of Wood and now they burn it, they cast leaves into the flames and breathe in the heady smokes
2 - They have strewn the whole, still-living body of a beast about the trees and dance in the bloody rain that falls from it even as it screams
3 - They paint the grove in Psychadelic Hues, whirling and twirling and trilling to the beats of strange drums and eerie songs
4 - They dress themselves in bones and twist their bodies around them, cutting themselves on their own clothes, as the blood-lust sets in
5 - They trail chords behind themselves, sewing them together as they dance, some of them become trapped within it, as the dance intensifies
6 - They process around the grove as the Sun rises, they watch as the light rests on the Grove, cheer, and then bathe it in blood to trace the path of the light
7 - They dig at the earth with their hands and smear it on their bodies, they eat the worms they find, they chew in the roots, they push stones down their throats
8 - They rut together in a tangle of limbs, berries and fruits are pushed into mouths and smeared on flesh, bones break, teeth fly, blood spills
9 - They drag forward a beast, tie its legs together and push it to the ground, then they beat it with rods until it is a bloody pulp slopping further and further apart
10 - They swim together, diving and cavorting about the waters, they grab fish with their hands and tear them apart with their teeth, they wind weeds about their limbs
11 - They dance in the rain, beat their feet into the mud as their arms are raised up to the clouds, they scream and yell, clawing at the air
12 - They sit in a circle, each with an animal in their arms, they hold them close and delicately, cooing to them, stroking their skin, feeding them small morsels

They cannot help but change their shapes sometimes. Sometimes they cannot change back. The worms that speak with the voices of men, the trees that sing songs in the wind, the man with hooves for hands and with insects for his tongue, they are druids, and they are not even particularly bothered by it. They can always change it later. They never do, they take it as it comes, they flow like water through the tides of life. Even if a full-formed Bear were to tear forth from their chest, taking with it their lungs and their heart, they would not mind as their body exploded around them. This has been observed and recorded by civilised folk. The records were later burned by the Witch-Finders.

These are the signs of their Devotion:

1 - Their Eyes are the Eyes of another Beast
2 - They bear mighty Antlers on their Heads
3 - They have vines twisting into and round their skin
4 - They have flowers blossoming from their hair
5 - Their skin is as bark, ragged and jagged
6 - Their skin is covered in mangy and patchy fur
7 - Their hands end in wickedly sharp claws
8 - Their flesh is like stone, rumbling as they move
9 - Their flesh crawls with insects, no, is insects
10 - They sprout fruiting fungal bodies from their back
11 - They have a crest of feathers running down their arms
12 - Their flanks are covered in a coating of scales
13 - Their skin is coloured in many bright hues
14 - Their mouth is full of mud that spills forth in a torrent
15 - Their blood is the filthy water of defiled lakes
16 - Their limbs are long and stretched, ending in huge hands and feet
17 - Their bones are bared to the whole world through ragged holes
18 - Their flesh is covered by armoured chitine-plates
19 - Beneath their thin skin, their flesh is a mess of rotten plant-meat
20 - They have too many limbs, like a spider

They do not hate life, they hate order. They do not hate the stones, they hate the cities they are built into. They do not hate you, they hate what you have learned, what you will try to spread, what you are a sign of. Thus, they will expunge you. Perhaps they will also ask the Shaman to rend apart your spirit once they have rended apart your flesh and bones and painted themselves with the fluids of your eyes and brains.

This is what they fight with:

1 - A Crooked Spear tipped with Flint
2 - A set of Beast-Claws wrapped into their fists like Knuckle-Dusters 
3 - A Great Club of Bones tied together with dried sinews
4 - A Whip of still-living and whipping roots studded with thorns
5 - Their own Bear Hands, tipped with wicked nails, stained with blood
6 - A Wind that flows about them, Suspending Razor-Rocks within it
7 - A Swarm of Insects and bugs that swirls about their arm
8 - A Bubble of Earth that flows around them at their feet like a dog
9 - A Team of Beasts who heed the words of the Druid
10 - An Improbable Storm-Cloud, bristling with thunder
11 - A Wood and Bone Apparatus, sporting at the end the snapping jaws of a beast
12 - A Mantle of waving Tentacles of bone and meat
13 - A Rock, pitted and stained, sparks fly from it when it strikes
14 - A Flame that lives within their chests, they let it free as they breathe and scream
15 - They Crawl in the Mud, and their limbs burst forth from it in improbable places
16 - Their jaws distend, and a Tide of Spider Limbs roils forth from their gaping maw
17 - Their Own Bones burst forth from their flesh, whirling and whipping about them
18 - They Dance crazily and jauntily, and the dance is infectious
19 - They Weep, and as their tears hit the earth, the Earth sprouts forth teeth and jaws
20 - Their Blood tears itself from their flesh and forms jagged, crimson thorns and brambles

Gardens of the Briar Hags

Hmmm, I seem to find myself writing more and more adventure outlines. I don't seem to mind this.
Anyways:

The Hook

Out in the woods, far from any village, is a grand and winding Hedge, perfectly trimmed and metres tall. It encompasses a huge area of the woods, and no-one really knows what lies within; except that it is all gardens of the most beautiful and wondrous sort.

It is the Gardens of a Coven of Briar Hags, botanical spirits of nurturing and growth, twisted and crooked by superstition and myth. They spend their days tending to the plants and holding High Tea with Nymphs and Dryads, and they abhor outsiders. Still, this does not deter the bravest and most foolish from attempting to trespass their sacred space. Those that return bring tales of impossible beauty and strange treasures, and also of terrifying plant-beasts and dangers. This does not deter future trespassers.

The Characters of the Gardens

THE HAGS

There are three Hags that dwell within the Gardens; Granny Thistles, Nanny Greenteeth, and Auntie Midden.

Auntie Midden
This Hag cares for the Mushroom Patch particularly, and is responsible for consolidating waste into the Compost Heap. Her skin is soft and milky, her clothes mouldy and fruiting. She is always damp and smells like oldness. She is meek for the most part, but quickly blooms into a great anger when threatened. She nurtures, but often in the form of benign neglect; she inspects the Mushroom Patches very thoroughly, but rarely takes much action unless forced to. She is more proactive with the Hanging Garden however; though that mainly takes the form of carefully arranged frames for the creepers and plants to grow up and spill out from. She somehow still creates arrangements of great beauty with her laissez faire gardening.
Her schedule takes her all about the Gardens, collecting waste and dumping it on the Compost Heap. She spends a lot of time in the Mushroom Patch and Hanging Garden too.

Nanny Greenteeth
The youngest of the Hags, she is endlessly energetic and enthusiastic of her care of the Vegetable Patch, Herb Garden and endless trimming of the Hedge Maze. She is particularly fond of the hard-fleshed plants like the trees and bushes, and often forgoes her secateurs for her huge beaver-teeth, gnawing away at branch and trunk. The least subtle of the hags, she scoffs down sandwiches and drags huge wheelbarrows of tools behind her, ladening herself down with axes, shovels, rakes. Her greatest pride is the Promenade through the Arboretum, which she has devoted herself to above all other parts of the garden, though she does have a soft spot for the vegetables too, which she prepares for the Hag's meals.
Her schedule takes her around from the Herb Garden to the Vegetable Patch, round the Hedge Maze, and finally through the Arboretum.

Granny Thistles
The oldest and most careful of the Hags, Granny Thistles is the most meticulous of the three, and the only one who cares for the Rose Garden: she will not permit the others to touch it save with their feet and gaze. Her hair is knotted brambles woven around flowers, and her eyebrows thorns. Her gaze is stern, and her hands and flesh gnarled. She has the greatest access to and affect on the powers of the Garden, which slightly twists in her presence, more so when she is angered. Of all the Hags, it obeys her over all.
Her schedule takes her down the western side of the Gardens, beginning in the Flower Beds, then the Rockery and Water Gardens, then the Butterfly Gardens, and then down the Promenade to the Rose Garden, where she spends much of her greatest efforts.

"Nephew"

What the Hags will only refer to as "Nephew" is an immense Stone Elemental who dwells in the earth beneath the gardens. How he came to be there, no one is telling. How he came to hold a pseudo familial relation to the Hags, no one could say. But when the Hags are run tagged by trespassers and thieves, they call upon nephew to teach the interlopers a lesson. 

They only do this in the most due of circumstances, since he inevitably brings devastation to the garden with him. 

The Nymphs

The Nymphs of the Gardens are relatively peaceful and benign creatures, four in all, dwelling in the various fountains and water features of the Gardens. Their names are Pacifi, Atlanta, Arcturus, and India.

Pacifi is the Nymph of the waterfall and lake in the Water Gardens, and is the oldest and strongest of the four. She is beautiful, interesting, and utterly bored. She knows much of trees and the waters, but she desperately yearns to know more of the world beyond the borders of the garden. Of all the Nymphs, she is most likely to both be able to, and want to, stand up to the hags.

Atlanta is the Nymph of the fountain at the heart of the Hedge Maze. She is rambley, engaging in excruciatingly circular conversations, entirely oblivious to the annoyance of her audience. She knows much of the flowers of the Garden, and desires only to be content, and to feel joy. She will stand up to the Hags for those she likes. 

Arcturus is the Nymph of the ice pool in the Rockery. He is cold and distant, and will rarely share his knowledge of stone. He craves Pathos, but his personality makes the chances that he will ever receive it desperately slim. He will turn over intruders to the Hags without much thought of it. 

Finally India is the Nymph of the hot springs in the Hanging Gardens. She is mysterious and exotic, and is intimately familiar with the roots and things that creep beneath the earth. She desires to be exposed to beauty, and craves new and pleasurable experiences. She will help those who please her, but not to any particular difficulty. 

The Dryads

The Dryads are altogether stranger than the Nymphs. They care for the living plants and growing things of the world, and thus they are drawn in great numbers to the Garden of the Hags. They have no particular innate love of the Hags, save for their care for their plants, and as such they share a sort of distant alliance of convenience.

They are subservient to a being who lives just behind the bark of Trees, the Great God Pan. Pan is ancient, wild, and powerful, on par with the oldest Forest Gods. For the most part he dwells in a pseudo-dimension of wood, an eternal bacchanalia of unrestrained decadence. He can be tempted away from his revelry, though only by the most interesting individuals and requests. He is dark and monstrous beneath a thin veneer of light-heartedness, huge and wooden, with a barely formed face and huge, curled branch-antlers. The trees are his first and foremost love, followed closely by unrestrained, animalistic desires of course.

The Gardens

The Hag's Cottage
Here is the Home of the Hags, their rooms, their secret belongings, their larder, and the prison which lies beneath it. They sleep here, or maybe they only pretend to sleep. They certainly cook here, and some of what they make is even edible, potentially even beneficial! There are many traps however; nothing malicious of course, it is merely that the natural habitat of the Hag is naturally inimical to humans.
Connects to the Herb Garden, the Flower Beds, and the Vegetable Patch.

The Herb Garden
The herb garden contains many rare and unusual herbs, some unknown to even the most ardent herbologist. They are ripe for the taking, but the Hags come here early in the day, and will quickly notice theft.
Contains the "Tower Ruins", gothically-inclined psuedo-ruins built for the aesthetic pleasure of the Hags, and now home to a Spirit that represents this fascination with decay and destruction, at least on the facade level.
Connects to the Hag's Cottage, the Flower Beds, and the Vegetable Patch.

The Flower Beds
Here, flowers are allowed to grow wild and rampant, with occasional pruning and nudging. There is much beauty here, enchanting and wild.
Contains the Greenhouse, the Glass Stronghold of the Legionnaire's Rose.
Connects to the the Hag's Cottage, the Herb Garden, the Rockery, and the Butterfly Gardens.

The Vegetable Patches
Swathes of tilled earth give way to rows on rows of neatly nurtured vegetables. They are all perfect specimens of course, and some are particularly special. Theft here will not go unnoticed, the careful ordering of the vegetable ensures any absences are quickly spotted.
Contains the "Stone Circle", and the Compost Heap. Much like the Tower Ruins, the Stone Circle was created to have the impression of age for the pleasure of the Hags, and the Spirit within reflects the values that the Hags believe the Circle should have. The Compost heap is the opposite; it is utterly unsightly, filled with rotting plant flesh, and teeming with worms. One of them is horrifyingly big.
Connects to the Hag's Cottage, the Herb Garden, the Hedge Maze, and the Butterfly Gardens.

The Butterfly Garden
Here, all manner of plants are cultivated and specifically chosen to provide a beautiful home for butterflies and other such insects. The Hags have made careful bargains with the insects to insure that the teeming swarms of fluttering bugs will quickly report intruders to the hags, and harass and bother such intruders should they get into a sticky situation.
Contains the Pavilion, and the Fool's Honey. The Pavilion is where the Hags meet for High Tea, and always has a pleasing and magical plate of curious sandwiches, which may or may not confer benefits or curses upon their eater. The Fool's Honey is detailed below.
Connects to the Vegetable Patch, the Flower Beds, the Rockery, the Arboretum, and the Hedge Maze.

The Rockery
The Rockery climbs up a small hillside towards the Flower Beds, and leads down via winding paths to the Water Garden. Many Motelings have been gathered to form the foundation of the Garden. Nephew spends what little of its time it does spend above ground here, and it plays little games with the Motelings when the Hags aren't watching.
Connects to the Flower Beds, the Butterfly Garden, the Arboretum, and the Water Garden.

The Hedge Maze
Winding and Non-Euclidean, the Hedge Maze is a masterwork of topiary spacial Distortion. It doesn't really lead anywhere, except back to the Entrance, to the Lover's Tunnel, and to the Great Fountain at the centre. Or as close to the centre as a non-linear maze can actually have. Sometimes it also impeaches on the Undying Lands, and more than one Fae now endlessly wanders the Maze.
Contains the Grand Fountain of the Nymph Atlanta.
Connects to the Vegetable Patch, the Butterfly Garden, the Arboretum, the Hanging Garden, and the Mushroom Patch.

The Hanging Gardens
Modelled after some ancient city, the Hanging Gardens are thick with the perfume of flowers, and rich with Grape-Vines. There are many small Pagodas on many different levels arranged around one long plaza. Green vines against off-white stone.
Contains the Hot Springs of the Nymph India.
Connects to the Hedge Maze, and the Mushroom Patch.

The Mushroom Patch
Relatively small compared to other parts of the Garden, it is nonetheless lovingly tended to as well. All manner of strange and wonderful fruiting bodies can be found here at all times, though of course the main body of the garden actually lies down beneath the surface, growing and growing...
Contains the Lover's Tunnel, and the Destroying Angel, which is detailed below, and which guards the Lover's Tunnel. The Lover's Tunnel is a secret. None have seen it before, they were all taken by the Angel. Something valuable must be inside, of course, beyond the secret way into the Hedge Maze. Some say it is an elixir of eternal love. Others say it must be a fountain of youth. Who could say?
Connects to the Arboretum, the Hedge Maze, and the Hanging Garden.

The Water Gardens
The calm and serene Water Gardens are arranged around a pond on a higher level, which feeds a small waterfall leading down to a small and perfect lake. After a stressful day, one of the Hags might come here to relax, and wash her calloused feet, much to the chagrin of Pacifi.
Contains the Lake and Waterfall of the Nymph Pacifi.
Connects to the Rockery.

The Arboretum
The Trees of the Arboretum grow tall and proud, green of leaf and strong of root. Many bear bite marks, but that's just from the pruning. Many Dryads are here, nurturing the trees, and spying on intruders. The Barkskin Pangolin can often be found here too, rubbing its rough bark-plates against the trees. It is often shooed away by the Hags if they catch it in the act.
Contains the Promenade, and the Starting Point of the Titan Oak. The Promenade is lined with only the most perfect specimens from the Arboretum, and provides a direct and straight path to the Rose Gardens. It is also lined with white-marble statues of Soldiers and Lovers, who spy on the path for the Hags. Some of the Knights might be bold enough to attack.
Connects to the Butterfly Garden, the Rockery, the Hedge Maze, the Mushroom Patch, and the Rose Garden.

The Rose Gardens
The most perfect and beautiful of all Gardens, no mercy at all shall be shown to those who trespass here. None.
Contains the Eternal Tree, the Pride and Joy of the Hags, and which is the source of the Eternal Apples which are detailed below.
Connects to the Arboretum.

Beasts of the Gardens

These are essentially the creatures that are on the Encounter Tables, though the Fool's Honey, Destroying Angel, and Sweeper Fungus are placed on the Map, rather than randomly encountered.

Legionnaires Rose
The Rose that is also called the Phalanx Rose, or the Spartan Flower, consists of small, plant-creatures about the same size and shape as a child, with heads made of luxurious rose-flowers. They are dreadfully territorial and expansionistic, though the Hags keep them contained in the Greenhouse. They wield spears and javelins made of long, thin thorns, and shields made of scraps of bark, and fight in disciplined formation.

Aella's Orchid
A huge, vibrantly-coloured orchid that moves around on long, vine-like legs. The flower of the Orchid forms a great cup-pit at the apex of the creature, and is full of a thick, almost ropey acidic-mucus that looks like a pit of coiling, roiling snakes. The Orchid uses its tendril-limbs both for movement and manipulation, and throws its prey into the Flower-Pit to digest them.

Venus Man-Trap
You see a women, alluring and almost hypnotic in her movements and appearance. You move closer, and she pulls you into her silky embrace, whispering sweet nothings in your ear, your eyes close, content and relaxed. The Plant's jaws close. You are gone.

Wolf-Nettles
Wolves made of tense, entwined nettles. They act much like regular wolves, only instead of biting their main form of attack is to bodily throw themselves at you and to knock you down and sting you. It is only painful at first, but after that it is numbing. Once you are too numb to move, the wolves drag you away into the long grasses where it is safe enough to sting you until your heart explodes inside your chest.

Foxglove Packs
This roaming bush-like beast is covered in thousands and thousands of tiny foxglove flowers, each barely the size of a finger. When threatened, the Bush-Beast releases the flowers, which form tiny little fox-flowers, and they rush towards you in a swarm. They deal you no harm, but they force themselves down your throat and into your stomach, where their poison does its work. The bush then slowly envelops you under itself and sets roots in your still warm flesh to feed as you rot.

Hangman's Willow
For all the world it appears to be a willow tree, but stray too close, and the long thin branches whip up into a frenzy and try to loop around your throat and lift you up into the tree to hang you. In larger brawls, those swept up will also be used to batter those that have so far avoided the branches.

Black Widow Lily
A huge spider formed of plant matter. The abdomen is formed by a huge Lily-flower, and the stamen within are a writhing web. The spider's teeth are thorns, and its legs are twisted roots.

Topiary Boa
A huge, 40 foot long serpent fully 6 feet thick made up of a huge volume of topiary bush. Its only attack is to batter foes with its weight, or "swallow" them up inside itself. It can't digest such swallowed creatures, it mostly has to leave them there and batter them to death with the movements of its innards.

Barkskin Pangolin
A huge, donkey-sized Pangolin named "Cat" with skin like the most rugged barks, covered in jagged edges that the Hags have encouraged into a diet of meat.

Vegetable Crustaceans
When dormant, they appear to be tiny little vegetable jack-o-lanterns, if disturbed, the vine-like hermit crabs within emerge. Mostly they don't harm you much, they just get in the way and trip you up.

The Vine Kings
Luxuriating men made of vines who only relax and have long, drawn out symposiums on the nature of nature and enjoy afternoon tea with the hags. If disturbed or threatened however, they explode out into horrible vine-tentacled octopus-plant-beast-monsters.

Mature Mandrakes
Like men, but lumpy, brown, bruised, and vague misshapen. They run about like children who have only just discovered walking and scream at things when scared. Their screams are physical, and tear up the ground and throw away threats. Their song is melodic and hypnotic. They never fight directly, they only have the minds of children, but they will scream and run about like headless chickens if anyone tries to meet them with violence.

The Destroying Angel
Also called Satan's Angel, or the Demon Fungus, it is a mycellium that spreads beneath the Earth, and is thuslywise invisible for most of the time. When disturbed (ie. when someone walks on it) it fruits up its defence, the Destroying Angel. It is a muted and raw grey, with fibrous wings, hollow eyes and mouth, and "arms" that meld into its chest as if held in an organic straight-jacket. It approaches implacably, and the mouth stretches down and down, fibering the whole body to make the mouth wider and wider, and eventually the entire angel begins to split open to swallow up an unfortunate, and drag them down into the earth. It is almost invincible, and mostly unstoppable, for it is the Mycellium beneath the ground that is vulnerable to harm.

The Sweeper Fungus
A great big rotten ooze that absorbs the detritus and compost that doesn't end up in the Compost Heap. Leaves behind a trail of stinking mold, much to the annoyance of the Hags who never quite seem to be able to schedule the time to deal with it. Not particularly aggressive, but it releases stunning spores when damaged, and wounds erupt with sharp, flailing tendrils.

Fool's Honey
A honey coloured ooze, mostly content to stick to its lair and cultivate its honey-comb. If disturbed from its tasks, or if the royal jelly it guards is taken, it will spawn swarms and swarms of bees to attack intruders.

The Titan Oak
Basically a massive treant, brutally strong, and uses its strength to hurl front-liners at the back-liners. Basically invincible and somewhat implacable, but really slow and somewhat stupid. It will chase you, but it is so slow that it will quickly give up on it. It can root itself into the earth for quick regeneration, but it cannot move during that time, and up-rooting itself is painful and time-consuming.

The Hazards of the Garden

These can be rolled as part of the encounters above to add extra dimensions to fights, or encountered as barriers themselves.

See Above
Venus Man-Traps
Hangman's Willow
Vegetable Crustaceans

Quick-Earth Mycellium
The earth beneath the Mycellium is soft and spongy, though its appearance doesn't betray this. When stood upon, the fungus sucks the unfortunate down into the near-liquid earth like sentient, malevolent quicksand to entomb you and digest you away from the light and the surface.

Strangle-Grass
This long, dry grass goes for the throat when you walk through it. It tangles you up and pulls you down, entombing you int hick, thick wrappings of grass. Highly flammable, though that also applies to those tangles up in the grass.

Pyroclastic Mold
Giant, vibrating puff-balls the size of chairs, disturbing them detonates them in a fiery explosion. Not as damaging as you might expect, but the noise is sure to attract attention.

Treasures of the Garden

Minor Treasures:

1 - Exceptionally Beautiful Flowers

Particularly found in the Flower Beds, Butterfly Garden, and the Rose Garden.

2 - Exceptionally Potent Compost

Particularly found in the Compost Heap.

3 - Exceptionally Useful Herbs

Particularly found in the Herb Garden.

4 - Alchemical Ingredients

Particularly found in the Herb Garden and the Rockery.

5 - Highest Grade Seeds

Particularly found in the Flower Beds, and the Rose Garden.

6 - Tasteful Statuettes

Particularly found in the Flower Beds, the Promenade, and the Rose Garden.

7 - Hag-Sandwiches

Particularly found in the Pavilion. Better than they sound.

8 - Highest Grade Fruit and Vegetables

Particularly found in the Vegetable Garden.

9 - Sweetest Nectar

Particularly found in the Butterfly Garden.

10 - Silver Birds

Particularly Found in the Butterfly Garden, and the Hedge Maze. 

Which Might Be Found In:

1 - Seed Stands
2 - Fruit/Vegetable Boxes
3 - Compost Bins
4 - Pedestals
5 - On the Plant Itself
6 - Tastefully Arranged in a Vase

Major Treasures of the Garden:
1 - The Green Thumbs
Found strung around the necks of the Hags.
An enchanted digit, blessed by plant spirits to ensure that the wearers garden is always blossoming and blooming, even into the start of the winter months. Somewhat morbid.

2 - The Cherry Blossom
Found in the Deepest Heart of the Arboretum.
A tree of exception beauty, no harm can befall any who stand in its shade, and similarly, any buried within its roots will accept no magics of any kind, except those that aid in the rebirth of its spirit.

3 - The Royal Jelly
Found in the Lair of the Fool's Honey.
Particularly potent, it invigorates the flesh and heals wounds, and the imbiber projects a commanding aura of majesty for a time. Drink too much though, and you become rich and sweet like honey itself.

4 - The Shaman's Friend
Found in the Flower Beds, Butterfly Garden, and Hedge Maze.
The seeds of this Poppy are a powerful hallucinogenic, with a curious twist; when brewed into a tea and drank, the drinker can also see and talk to spirits that are normally invisible. Drink to much however, and you will be taken by them, never to return to your mortal flesh.

5 - Mandrakes
Found in the Vegetable Patch.
These shrieking plants are always in demand by alchemists for their curious properties, the most well known of course is their key part in the creation of Perfect Homunculi (in theory at least).

6 - Sunset Lilies
Found in the Rockery, and the Water Garden.
The petals of this Lily can be ground up and made by alchemical processes into a soft, sweet smelling incense. When burned, it ensures a peaceful nights sleep, and strange, deep dreams of water, and that strange land some occultists call Nevuah.

7 - The Mighty Vegetable
Found in the Deepest Heart of the Vegetable Patch.
It seems just like any other vegetable of its kind, but when removed from the pacifying magics of the Hags, it will show its true nature. Roll on the table below to determine what this is:
1 - The Vegetable grows, and grows, and grows, to huge proportions!
2 - The Vegetable is a particularly large specimen, and will regenerate its flesh infinitely as long as it is allowed to remain rooted into the earth. 
3 - If left to mature, it will grow into a 4HD vegetable Knight, who will show great kindness to those who nurtured it in its infancy.
4 - If left to mature over the next year, it will grow into a lignified castle of moderate size and dazzling beauty.
5 - If baked into a pie, those that eat of it will be satisfied for many, many days. 
6 - The vegetable will be hard and grey, seemingly rotten, but it can be smelted into particularly potent ore for a curious metal.
7 - If left to mature, the stem of the plant will grow to truly preposterous proportions, opening up a way to the empyreal realms of the sky, or the stygian realms of the deep world, 50/50 chance of each.
8 - If eaten raw, the flesh of the eater will toughen and become ripe, adding addition HP and a small regeneration factor.

8 - Eternal Apples
Found in the Deepest Heart of the Rose Gardens.
These Apples are those that Heracles journeyed for at the farthest ends of the earth. Some say that from their juices, cider that provides life eternal might be brewed. Maybe.

9 - Heart Render Worms
Found in the Compost Heap.
These small worms seem small and innocuous, but that belies a curious savagery when exposed to human flesh. Some particularly sadistic assassins will place one in a target's meal, who will have no chance to survive if they eat it.

10 - Grit Wine
Found in the Hanging Gardens, or the grapes used to make it are at least.
The wine brewed from this grey and gritty vine is also grey and gritty, and thoroughly unappetising. Indeed, few can stomach it without vomiting. Except, curiously, wizards and other such magic users, who find it invigorating and empowering, unless they vomit it up to. They are better at keeping it down that most.

NPCs of the Old Frontier - Probably Part 1

Much like before, but now a brainstorm of people.

The Bombastic Knight
Hereby named Sicacio. Here are his rolls:
His Quest: Avenge a great wrong from his past.
His Hallmark: Has a mysteriously exotic origin.
Traits: Always is prepared for anything and everything, and has particularly cutting words.
Flaw: Unobservant and thus, easily surprised.
His Followers:
- 2 Swords men lead by The Slice'n'Dice, a sword for hire.
- 5 Swordsmen lead by a lieutenant of The Slice'n'Dice
- 4 Skirmishers lead by The Knife Boy.
So, they wield lots of knives and shorter blades for duel-wielding, and some ancient wrong has brought him to an exotic land. Cool, might make him an ex-knight of the Holy Covenant from the Crimson Sea in the East. Not quite asia-land, probably go for more of a Italian flavour (though that's mostly from the name tbh).

The Mad Wizard
As of yet unnamed, they do have a Tower and an Entourage however. They are going to be mostly absent to start with. 11HD I think, potent but not godlike.
His Entourage: Only three members, as declared by the dice gods.
- 10 animated scarecrows clad in vines and plant-flesh
- A pair of pallid and docile men who vomit swarms of snakes, which are the creature's true form
- 4 athropomorphised sand-men
His Lair: Has a standard entrance
Form of the Lair: An Inverse Tower, diving deep into the earth, rooms radiating out like branches on a tree
Aspect of the Lair: Embers (presumably on the inside)
Purpose of the Lair: It was a monument to the Wizard's glory
Difficulty of Access: It is surrounded (covered methinks) by an impenetrable barrier
Cool Bit: Cosmolarium - Like an observatory, but instead of the stars, the alignments and motions of realities and planes.
Denizens: Of which there are 4
- An Alchemical Homunculus (70% quality, i.e. 7 HD)
- Fungus forms (1 Over-mind, 5 servitors)
- A Bound Deity
- A Fellow Wizard of HD 10
Defence:
- An Anti-flesh field (presumably an extension of the difficulty

The Corrupt Lord - Hereby named Don Hattori
He is to be the first overarcing villain. He shall be in command of a few groups of Bandits and Outlaws.
Vice: Envy
Traits:
- The Corrupt Lord just keeps stealing the weapons and abilities of those they fight and fight with.
- They have just about everything they could possibly need or want in every place they could conceivably have it
- The Corrupt Lord just takes everything that's precious to anyone they can, even if they don't want it at all, they just can't help it.
- They and their guards have plenty of human shields; the people the Lord has kidnapped over the years
- And has a body double to defend them
The Lords Lair Traits:
- Positive: The Lair rises up high into he air
- Positive: It is run about with mystic wards and sigils
- Negative: Guards are forbidden in parts of the lair for some reason
The Lord's Fighting Style: Throne-Bound
The Body Guards: 7 Iron-Clad Warriors (the Iron Banner, 2HD each)
The Agent: A Brutal Sword's Master
The Agent's Trait: Not above taking Bribes

The Forest God
Aspect: Leaves [Plant Aspect then]
Form: An Owl [Leaves for feathers then]
Feature: Emits mist and fog [From between its feather-leaves]
Sacred Space: A Flower-blanketed Field [Deep within the Woods]
Followers: I think we'll go with 3, since its not massively high-level, but not a pushover.
- 9 Dryads
- 2 Shambling Mounds
- A Flowering Colossus
Powers: Again, I we'll go with 3
- Shape Wood
- Sudden Decay
- Devolve (went with this because I rolled Sudden decay twice, might be a good way to randomly determine if a Forest God has an off-aspect power tbh)
Sweet, a giant, leafy owl monster thing. I think it'll be 8HD or so, not a juggernaut, but respectable, especially with its buddies around.

Many Barrow Kings
As many as necessary, and one High-King of the Barrow Fields to form a potential over-arcing villain.
A couple of Barrow Kings:

Mode of War: Hexblade
Guardians: A Plant Ally
Minions: Skeletons [Probably vine-clad to carry on a plant theme if it works out]
How Shall Ye Know It?: By the howling of spirits at the witching hour [Plant spirits duh]
Aspect: Slowly collapsing within [choked by plant roots no doubt]
Where is the body?: Suspended in a pillar of Amber
Form: A Long passage into the Earth
Mundane Treasures:
- Ceramic Arts
- Tapestries
Magical Treasures:
- Rune Stone Spire [The Lonely Dolmen?]
- A Bloody Altar [Where the Plant Spirits received their blessings]
So he's a plant-based curse-wielding warrior, and the Plant Spirits are angry because they haven't had any offerings in a long, long time. Cool.

Mode of War: Weapon Master [Harpoon right?]
Guardians: Ancestor Spirits [His old whaling crew?]
Minions:
- 4 Guardian Statues
- An Animated Mural [Of a whale-hunting party I think]
How Shall Ye Know It?: By the shrine to the spirits of the dead at its peak
Aspect: Haunted by ancient and extinct [sea?] beasts
Where is the Body?: Laid out in a rotten and ragged boat
Form: A Maze-like hive of tunnels and chambers
Mundane Treasures:
- Shaped Amber and Shells
- Finely-wrought Weapons
Magical Treasures:
- Blood of the Earth Blade [Harpoon more like]
- Char-Brass Brazier [Where they made their weapons]
An ancient mariner who hunter old sea monsters. Nice.

The Judge, his jury, and the Executioner
A Low-level villain having 'taken over' one of the frontier villages.
As my post basically. Threatening and vaguely sympathetic until you see him brain someone.

The Shaman of the Old Ways
A low-level villain menacing a village.
Spirit Followers - Aspect: [Aspects rearranged a little for fitness]
- An Eagle - Cloud
- An Elk Stag and Doe [On whose antlers the birds perch] - Mud
- A Pair of Owls - Lake
- A Flock of Crows - Tree
Spirit Powers:
- Barkskin
- Wild-Shape
The Sacred Space: A Rock Bound Garden
The Totem: A Knotted, Carven Staff
How do they make contact?: In the coiling of Blood in Water [a pool in the garden]
What is their Relationship?: Friendly
Their Tasks (in order):
- Spread the trees of a Grove
- Sabotage a Hunt
- Feed a Person to the Wilds [the hunter?]

Some magic item smiths
Lets roll some shall we?
- A Magic Tattooist
- A Potion seller, who is known to cut his potions with other substances
- A Demon who sells the belongings of the Departed-for-Hell

Houndmaster Shawshanks
A skilled horse-archer with a pack of top-of-the-line hounds. Bounty-hunter and thief-taker extraordinaire. Wield's a sniper's crossbow, and has a variety of cool ammos:
- Molotov Bolts
- Hallucinogen Bolts
- Manacle Bolts
- Hound-Marker Bolts
Can move up to half speed and shoot with a penalty, or stay still and snipe at full capacity.
The Dogs are pretty scary too. 2:1 ratio of light to heavy dogs
- Lightly Armoured Dogs: Super fast and grapple/harass to keep the enemy pinned.
- Heavily Armoured Dogs: Super tough, and shove and pin and tear.

The Crowskin Witch
Was burned alive for witch-craft, but saw it coming and managed to arrange a way for her to survive by making a bargain with a particularly powerful Crow-Spirit. She's still covered in burns, and has been stealing other people's skins to replace the ruin parts.
Wields a staff topped with a snapping and pecking Crow's head and wings.
Has Crow-Skin minions that flap about and spy for her, but that have to also feed their original flayed bodies, which the Witch keeps safe mounted on her wall.
She makes feathery charms that she can throw which then transform into crow-minions to do tasks for her.
Has a cape of crow-feathers, which allows her to fly and disappear in a flurry of feathers.
Her final trump card is her spirit-ally, which is this huge, Crow based Owlbear beast, which lets be honest, is much spookier.

Sure-Blade Vermont Audeline
A Master Duelist, claims to have only been bested by his first teacher.
Of noble birth and countenance, but gets carried away with the bravado sometimes. Abandoned his birthright to follow his heart for adventure.
Supremely mobile, evades opportunity attacks especially with ease. Wields an Estoc w/ an ivy clad hilt, green and growing. Sometimes he has to brush the vines off his hand. Also wields a shield-breaker dirk, and elven crafted (no-one knows that little tid-bit) tuning fork-esque weapon that he uses as a parrying dagger, and that also shatters shields it hits.
Supremely confident.
Accompanied by a pair of veteran soldiers who stick around for violence and gold, a tracker who is in love with him but won't ever tell him, and a butler, because he needs a butler Godsdammit.

Troll-Skinner Druugan
Huge, like 8 feet tall. Wears curious (troll) skins which stick to him a little like soggy dough. His flesh regenerates when he's worked up, and thats when the skin molds into him a bit. It would be tough to remove them.
He carves runes into stones to imbue them with power. If he anticipates a fight and has the time, he will carve many runes into the battle field with all manner of effects to gain the advantage. Will carve gigantic runes for huge benefits if he can spare the time. If really desperate, he might even carve them into his flesh, but he hasn't yet, because he doesn't know what effects that may or may not have.
Has a reputation for being something of a legendary badass.
Strong enough that people that try to grapple him often end up getting grappled back in return and thrown about the place.
His axe is fitted with Life-Stones (a wound dealt by a weapon fitted with life-stones only heals when touched by that weapon's life stones).
Finally has a number of scrimshaw daggers, carven such that once they go in, they don't come out again for love nor money.

Old-Bones Hewarn

Lord Godfrey Brachenfells
The Vampire I think, maybe 5 HD.
Aspect: He is a Black Captain: He commands the powers of the night atop a black steed.
Lair: He hides in a Gallery.
Powers: I think my vamps start at 3HD or so, and Godfrey is a couple of hundred years old, so 3 powers.
- Physical: Regeneration
- Physical: Impossible Speed [It was strength, but I executively changed it to speed because I want him to dual-wield hand-crossbows.
- Necromantic: Call Souls
Weaknesses: Of which he has 4
- Weakened: Living Wood
- Weakened: Ink
- Immobilised: Hanging Ropes
- Deadly: Sunlight
Vice: Betrayal
Tell-Tale Sign: He casts no shadow nor reflection
Minions: The way I wrote it, he should have 1 set, but I'll give him 2. He is a Black Captain after all.
- 9 Sycophants
- 18 Ghouls [The numbers were the other way around, but I thought it made more sense to swap them.


Purifier Hazel
Armed with a Censer-Maul, and attended by many Men-at-Arms. The fumes of the censer embolden her men when she attacks. A Paladin-esque figure to her men, her touch heals them, though only them.
She is an aasimar, though she doesn't know it.
She also carries a pair of silvered hammers, 2 vials of blessed water, a Decree of Authenticity and Authority from the Cardinal himself, and the Tooth of St. Woldan, carved into a tiny skull which whispers wisdom and warnings at night.
Her men are more traditionally armed and armoured, some manifest minor miracles. She is proud of them. Perhaps too proud.
She is on a particular mission to hunt down a demon called the Dredge.

A Few Bounty Hunters
I think I'll do three, one with 3HD, one with 4, one with 6.
Name: The Breath-Taking Havand
Archetype: Pit Fighter
Traits:
- Weapon Master
Weapons: Blade and Dagger
Secondary Equipment:
- Nets
- Knife-Boots
Reputation: Brutish
Current Mission: Steal Something
Drawback: A Double Agent [Didn't realise they were that subtle, that's probably why they make a good double agent though]
Lackies:
- A Talented Herbalist [to patch them up presumably]
Damn this dude fights dirty.

Name: Lucard Grisling
Archetype: Assassin
Traits:
- Trapper
Weapons: An Exotic Weapon
Secondary Equipment:
- Hooked Ropes
- Choke-Gloves
Reputation: Implacable
Current Mission: Maiming
Drawback: Itchy Trigger Finger
Lackies:
- An expert poisoner
Damn, you don't want this one on your tail. That's brutal! Just hope they spring the trap too quickly I guess...

Name: Jeremiah Hunsun
Archetype: Hunter
Traits:
- Charms and Wards (4 charms)
- Disengager
Weapons: Spear and Shield
Secondary Equipment:
- Spined Armour
- Electrified Weapon
- Knife-Boots
- Knuckle-Dusters
Reputation: Stalker
Current Mission: Kidnapping
Drawback: Super Paranoid
Lackies:
- An Alchemist
- A few good swordsmen (going with d4+2, so 3)
A consumate survivalist it seems. Probably how they made it this far.

Dungeons of the Old Frontier

This is just some conceptual stuff for a Campaign I hope to run soon. Maybe you will like some of the ideas enough to steal and remold them for your own.

Candlemarsh
Small Hex-crawl, run as my post pretty much.

The Alchemist's Manor
Uses the Foxglove Manor map from Rise of the Rune Lords Probably.
Will eventually be its own post I think, but for now:
The Old Alchemist, Arnault Roftengirt, passed away peacefully in his sleep. His house however, has passed into chaos and horror.
Enemies:
- The Quicksilver Serpent: A Giant Snake made of silver poison
- The Formless One: A Doppelganger, but huge and rotten
- Poor Old Jeeves: The butler, horribly mutated, corroded, misshapen
- The Aqua Regiad: An Acidic Nymph, corrupted by the Alchemist's experiments
- The Menagerie: A big ol' horde of randomly generated mutants
- The Corruption: A growing, night-black fungus that might overtake the whole area
Goals:
- Destroy the monsters (particularly the corruption)
- Steal the Old Alchemist's heirlooms and treasures
- Recover his Alchemy Notes and Equipment
- Alternatively, burn it all to the ground
Treasures:
- The Distillation Knife (Rather than damage, it seperates into composite parts, same difference to living things really)
- The Alchemy Notes
- The Vessel of Solomon (which the Witch-Finders really, really want for some reason)

Voras - the Wandering Grove
Like the Candlemarsh, as set out in its post. Will wander the forest hexes of the sandbox.

Various from the Bundles of Shrines/Caves/Tombs
For now, I'm going to roll 2 from each table. As such we have:
Shrines:
- 16, 3: An ancient burial mound that druids and spirits frequent.
- 13, 2: A scorched and broken shrine haunted by a demon.
Tombs:
- 6, 1: A crystal-bright and ever sun-lit tomb of a vampire
- 8, 1: A tower of tombs, high up: saints, low down: demons
Caves:
- 18, 1: Flesk Hole - an over-hang hiding the ruins of an insect-man city
- 7, 3: Wormcrawl Fissure - the old lab of the Worm-That-Walks, where he has abandoned the imperfect, but still potent, vomitorious dead.

Garden of the Briar Hag
Not sure what map to use, probably one of my own creation.
Much inspiration from the Gardens of Ynn I expect. (Which is also fantastic btw, go buy it)
The Briar Hags care only for their schedules, and their plants. You can steal one, and disrupt the other. Care to guess which?
Enemies:
- [Randomly generated?] Ambulatory Plants
- Carnivorous Flesh-Eater Plants
- Dryad Friends of the Hags
- The Briar Hags themselves
- And their Giant Earth Elemental 'nephew'
Goals:
- Steal all the cool plants there are
Treasures:
- Plants
- Flora
- Vegetation

Honest Martyn's travelling Carnival
This post is really nearly finished, just need to input a table from a note-book which I keep forgetting to pick up.

The Temple on the High-Moors
Also a post that is in the works, the tables are all done, just needs uploading.
A pair of warring factions of the Great Powers of the Might Realm struggle over the Temple on the Highmoors. Cool spirit monsters, which side is in the right?

The House of THEM 
Uses the map of Briarstone Asylum from Pathfinder's Strange Aeons.
THEM are about as close to Lovecraft as I will stray with this one, in the flesh at least.

The War-Grave of the Fireflies
Not sure what map to use for it atm.
A Raggi-Esque Nega-Dungeon. As the name-sake implies, there is only misery and death here.
Enemies:
- A barbed wire spider construct thing
- "Swift Death" it teleports around to enemies it can see at astonishing speeds. Hit and run attacks.
- Flame-Nurses that 'tend' to the fallen
- Ghost soldiers that only bog you down with their semi-corporealness
- Sentient Mud Floods
- Swarms of flying arrows, knives, stones
- Giant-Demon Warlords with telescope fingers they shove down your throats
- Psychopathic adventurers, driven mad by the graves
Goals:
- Don't die
- Lay the spirits to rest if you really, really have to
Treasures:
- Like none.
- Seriously.
- Okay, maybe a terrible murder weapon that would kill you if you use it too much, is that what you want? More death? Did you learn nothing from the hell you just traversed?

Hive-Fortress of the Myrmidons
Ants. Lots and lots of Ant Monsters.
- Workers: Essentially non-combat non-characters who do ineffable works for the hive
- Soldiers: Fighty bois
- Fire: Burny bois
- Winged: Skirmisher bois
- Queen: The heart of the hive, kill her, and it all falls apart
- Weaver: Weave. What else? Basically a sub-type of worker
- Carpenter: As weaver above, but wood workers
- Bullet: They charge forward at self-obliterative speeds
- Crazy: Berserker Soldier bois
- Electric: Lightningy bois
- Drones: Elite Guards of the Queen, upgrades of other soldier types
When the hive grows big enough they build a giant mechanical Ant-Mech to carry off a Queen-larva to become the basis of a new hive far away.
Goals:
- Like, stop them colonising the whole world I guess?

The Goblin Tower
Basically a rework to expand the Goblin Tower from 4e's dungeon delve. The Goblin King has stolen a Crown of Sorcery from the Crypts beneath the tower, and turned the whole area into his private "kingdom".

Pickman's Cult of the Exquisite Model
Uses Iris Hill grounds from Pathfinder's Strange Aeons
An artsy doomsday cult, inspired by the short-story, and the Fallout 4 quest.
Enemies:
- Artwork come to life
- Aesthete Cultists
- A Mad Painter that paints life [Might be influenced by a reread of Magnificent Jam van oops, or whatever his bloody name is]
Goals:
- Uproot the cult
-Reclaim the manor ground
-Recover some really, really off-the-beaten-path artworks
Treasures:
- The Pigments of the Mad Artist: Use to create tiny, abstract gateways to Nevuah, realm of dreams
- The Eye of Judgement: A great painting of a Squid's eye embedded into the wall. Oh, the horror.
- There's probably some nice art in there somewhere...

The Old Forges of the Dukes - Sandpoint Glassworks
Uses Sandpoint Glassworks from Pathfinder's Rise of the Runelords
Might just be a base for a Bandit Group in the Employ of Don Hattori. Maybe not. Needs thunking.
Potentially the path I'm going for here will be its just a cool place to find, with a whole bunch of things the party can 'unlock' eventually, with some traps and a monster or so.
Enemies:
- Something that sleeps in one of the forges
- Collapsing architecture, ancient malfunctioning fail-safes, etc
- Dire-Weapon Spirits, demanding to be wielded once more
Goals
- Regain the use of the forges, which would be one way of getting masterwork weapons easily
- Gain a bunch of texts about magic-weapon creation
- Loot it of any Old Empire weapons that may yet remain
Treasures:
- A stash of Masterwork weapons
- The Forges of the Old Dukes
- The Diamond of Steel: A magical rapier made so by centuries of slaughter, seems almost crystal clear, and pierces armour like it is nothing.

Thistle-top Isle
Uses Thistle-top Isle from Pathfinder's Rise of the Runelords, though probably not its dungeons
Might just be a base for a Bandit Group in the Employ of Don Hattori. Maybe not. Needs thunking.
Maybe the Base of the Witch-Finders? Or some other more enemy faction.
Enemies:
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Goals:
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Treasures:
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Fane of the Oath-In-Iron
The oath in iron are a lost order of exceptionally lawful paladins from the earliest days of man. Sealing themselves in Golems so that their spirits could fight on pay the deaths of their bodies, they have in turn been sealed in a tomb. Enterprising parties might stumble upon such a tomb and so awaken the sleeping paladins of law.

Enemies:
- The Oath in Iron: Immortal, warforged-esque, 40k dreadnought-esque paladins
- The Keepers: ancient, ancient undead caretakers of the paladins. Only a small amount of combat prowess. A few would sacrifice themselves while others ran to awaken their masters
- The Unrighteous: the now - somewhat - demonic prisoners of the Oath, secured in alchemical prisons.
Goals:
- Stop the Oath coming after you (if you're an adventurer, you can't not do something to piss them off really) once you've released them
- Commune with powerful and knowledgeable Unrighteous
- Stop another group waking up the Oath
Treasures:
- Oath Golem-Tombs fir slain buddies
- Unbreakable Prisons
- Various sacred lawful paraphernalia

The Cathedral of Hate

Enemies:
- The Sisters of Hate: Bandaged, bird-masked warrior women who would slaughter man-kind
- The Yellow Demons: They instill hatred and destructive energy into the Sisters
- The Wreckbond Titans: Massive necromantic constructs built into beasts of war from the corpses of the desecrated
Goals:
- Stop the Sister's prospective genocide
- Defile the hidden shrine to the Demon Lord X, who stokes the sister's flames
- Recover the Sister's kick-ass weapons
Treasures:
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The Garden of Lady Statues
Yo, a Medusa lives here, and she has power over statues. What you want?
Will probably end up using a map of my own design, or possibly the one from Tomb of Annihilation that's basically just this idea right? Let me check. (As a side note, oh man is the map of Omu cool. Totes gonna steal that too. Fight me.) Yeah, nangalore is pretty banging, gunna use that, or heavily steal from it at least. (As a further aside, damn, is the art for DnD 5th wasted on shit adventures sometimes. Especially the stuff they're putting out recently. How about an OSR punk-wave book in the Sabbath/Stuart style with choice pieces of Wotc art ehy? I'd buy that.)
Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled dungeon.
Enemies:
- Lady Statues, the Medusa (maybe the singular medusa of the world, or certainly only one a few.)
- Animated statues moved by the will of Lady Statues
- Some sort of pathetic snake-esque Igor character. Maybe like Engyi from Dark Souls, burdened down by the weight of his own snake-attachments
Goals:
- Liberate the Garden (and thus its loot) from the grasp of the Medusa
- Rescue those turned to stone by the Medusa
- Gain access to the Waters of the Fountains which are well magical (totally realised each dungeon needs a "Treasures section too, not content anymore to shove it all in Goals anymore, brb)
Treasures:
- The Magical Waters of the Fountains, which cleanse the body of curses (such as petrification, doesn't work so much of Medusification apparently)
- The Medusa's own blood, a powerful alchemical product
- The Adonis of Persepholi, a statue of no small value in the art world (also a petrified angel)