D&D setting

I woke up a few days ago and I realized that I had e setting in my head for my D&D game.  The natural setting that is.  I had pencilled out the life cycle of the Dragon in this World, different than your typical Dragon life cycle.  In this World, dragons are seeding the clouds with their offspring.  They hatch in raindrops and snowflakes and they spend their time fighting each other and consuming each other and growing.  Fireflies, Dragonflies, Dragon Birds, Dragon Hawks, then they fork and some take to the land and mature more and others keep to the skies.  The dragon Squirrels, dragon Cats, dragon Wolves, Earth Dragons.  The sky dwellers become Kites of various sizes and then Wyvrens.    All this time they are consuming and broadening their area of control.  Then they become adult dragons at about ten years old.  They continue to age and grow, Young Dragons where they gain sentience and languages, Adults where they gain sorcery, Old, Ancient, Wyrm, Great Wyrm and Elder Wyrm.  All the time they are getting bigger and more powerful.  The last stage they become God Wyrm Dragons and become more like spirits and they fly in the skies seeding the clouds with their offspring.  But when man came to their continent, they battled and their magics clashed and the different life stages changed and became permanent for some.  There are dragon like things everywhere.  Moreover, the dragon life cycle means that there are Dragons everywhere all over the place.  

The natural world has insects, birds, reptiles and mammals, but in each of these niches there are dragons at different life stages, everywhere.  The summer nights are filled with the dull green glow of lightning bugs and the bright orange flames of fireflies.  The larger insects and tiny dragon kin are prey to bats and dragonflies and Dragon Flies; tiny lizards with wings the size of your finger.  Then one day if they live they instead of being eaten by bats, eat the bats.  They eat birds, or lose the wings and live like Squirrels eating small animals and mice, later foxes and real lizards and smaller dragons.  In a sense, insects, birds, reptiles, and mammals are joined with Dragons, to fill every niche in the wilds.  In the vast wilderness of the continent there are every type of animal and variations everywhere.  There are primates and lizards everywhere.

The sun rises in the West and sets in the East, because the north is actually the South.  So the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, but nearest pole is  north, the South pole.  I mean, if this world the Earth was a southern hemisphere dominant, our maps would be upside down from what they are.  On Earth if we look out from a plain, we can see about ten kilometers, on a hil out further, because the world is the size it is and the curve of the world is what it is.  On this world, this bigger world, you can see about 100 km, but that is true only if it were a plain and the haze of the day was nonexistent.  You can see further on a hill.  Like you would be able to see the lights of the city of Jarda on a clear night, sort of.  It is still over 100kms away.  

D&D longterm?

Near the village of Sunnydale, in the forests there is an old remnant of a bygone empire in the form of a road, over grown and in general disrepair.  But, it is also clearly more advanced than the roads of the nascent kingdom.  Where the latter is a dirt road the former is made of stone slabs, the later winds to its location, the former runs straight for stretches of time.  The haphazard placement of farms and villages is comfortable, but should it be explored the old road has regular and predictable stops along the way and at the ends the ruins of fallen cities, or their remaints.  One ends in a massive crater with shear glass like sides, perfectly circular.  The other ends in an overgrown riot with ancient buildings in groves of trees.  There are fountains that still work and sewers that are still conected and clear.  The fountains have a barrier that only lets residents of the city claim its water.  The water is fresh and provides health benefits to imbibers, but only if they drink from the fountain.  There is a community of kobolds and goblins here that patrols the area attacking anyone within fifty kilometers.  They bring the spoils to their queen, whom they worship.  They drink from the fountain as often as they can and so all members of the groups are about a foot taller than average and have an extra hit dice, in addition they are twice as fecund, wish is especially good since their queen will often dine on them if they fail to bring her wealth or better options for food.  Their queen is an ancient Green Dragon, and resides in the audience chamber of the palace along with one of the city's fountains.  The dragon is so large that if she were to try to vacate the room she would bring the entire castle down in the attempt leaving her unharmed, but burying her treasure.  If this happens she will be very irate and completely undamaged.  If the characters should venture in this location after battling the big goblins and the big Kobolds that have no treasure and discover the palace allow them to see the lazy flicking tail emerging from the doorway.  If they do not retreat immeadiately proceed with all intelligence.  The players might figure a way into the treasure hoarde, but if they fail the the dragon will capture some or all of the characters and hold them ransom, forcing the other characters to bring her more treasure provided that they are polite and respectful.  The dragon is Lawful Evil and will abide by her agreements.  In her hoarde, which she will proudly show off includes magical items that appeal to some of the character types.  She might be persuaded to part with those items if they present her with something more to her liking. She will be wearing magical items that she has.  In addition, she is an accomplished Illusionist and uses her powers to effect.  She knows that she is not the only power in the city and that she does not have the reach to establish total control, but maybe the Player Characters will help her.  There is a massive dungeon complex in the city out of her immeadiate range.  And there are three enemies there that hold her power in check.  A Mindflayer colony, a beholder and a powerful group of Aboleth.  All hold a number of NPC races hostage and is using their safety to manipulate the race.  

The city:  the city is large.  Very large.  The entirety of Greysteel can fit into one block, those that have been to Jarda would feel that the city would dwarf it like a mouse beside an elephant.  It is thirty kilometers in diameter and a perfect circle.  The walls are purely ceremonial, as there are no battlements and siege equipment, smooth and unblemished, only covered with the growth of thousands of years of vines that obscures a mosaic pattern which is purely aesthetically pleasing.  The buildings have a genuinely alien feel; everything is slightly off: the steps are a little too large for human or elf kind, like everything is made for a race who averages 6'6", where writing appears it is alien.  Any PC with a knowledges of more than six languages two must be of a humanoid language like Orcish an Gnollish has a chance to figure it out DC 25 on intelligence check, but only after hearing the language spoken.  This City is the first city of the Orcs.  It is built of imperishable concrete mixed with a low level electrostatic field, powered by nano solar generators imbedded in the surface. Many of the buildings on the periphery of the city still have working facilities including some working voice interfaces.  Anyone with good architectural and weather knowledge will recognize that many streets are laid out to catch the sunrise and sunsets of the solstices and equinoxes.  

There is also evidence that the city was witness to a great cataclysm in the very deep past.  The buildings on the eastern side have been blown over like trees in a great wind the ones on the western side are all damaged but less so than the ones to the east.  Many of the towers are resting on others like giant dominoes that were placed a little too close to topple over.  The towers in the east were destroyed, like a tree turned into toothpicks and left to scatter.  The toppled towers are most impressive; there is only one at is intact and it is in the west, smaller than the ones in the center by half, but still a five hundred meters tall.      

The Dragon and its lair:  in the center of the city rises a large temple dedicated to the Suns the temple is lower than many of the buildings nearby, the large boulevard between it and the city is littered with the corpses of the buildings.  This building rises like a cathedral made of crystal and white stone.  It is only two hundred meters tall and inside it is an airy shell, egg shaped internally and sculpted magnificently outwardly.  Large trees have sprouted out of the ground around the region, growing on the fallen buildings, in them, and around.  Within the dragon sits surrounded by its hoard which includes coins from empires that risen and fallen in the shadow of this sleeping city.  The dragon controls the north and the south of the city with its minions. It has grown to fill its home and cannot leave it unless she rips it apart, which she will do as a last resort.  She is a level 12 sorcerer, so that makes her a CR25 encounter (75000xp) she has managed to acquire a massive hoard which includes many magic items.  She will use these magical items to procure the services of the adventurers.  To clean out the interlopers in the rest of the city. There are three that she is aware of and her subjects are not up to the task, which should tip off the characters.  She will claim truthfully that she is very comfortable where she is right now, and her enemies are not stupid enough to come to her, so, she must find someone to take the battle to them.  She will be bargained with but she will not be trifled with.  She can tell when people are lying to her.  She will also send them to the targets she believes that they can actually win against like the Mindflayer colony and the Aboleth before the Death Tyrant.  When they are successful she will be generous in her rewards. She has many intelligent weapons in her possession, which she holds conversations with, she calls them her court.  She will never give up the Dragon Slayer's she has acquired.  She might offer them aid by giving them salvaged Orcish Disrupters, treat as wands of disintegration with 1d10 charges. 

The Beholder and its lair:  the intact tower is the back door for the Tyrant.  It can rise the shaft and exit the 500m after 7 minutes of flight.  The only way up without flight means fighting up the towers 250 levels.  There are about 700 zombies in this tower including 10 beholder Zombies, three guarding the top most level.  Should they smartly attack from the top the other beholder zombies will converge from the top at their best speed, which is one per minute. The best direction of attack is from below, where they merely need to avoid patrols of undead that include twenty zombies lead by an ogre zombie, the zombies include all the other factions troops.  The Death Tyrant has no hope of defeating the Dragon, but has the best chance of doing so, so it waits patiently gaining forces slowly.  It has blocked off all the entrances to its area with disintegration rays so that there is only one front door and one back door.  If hard pressed, it will recall all the powerful zombies and make a kill zone at the bottom of the tower.

The Illithid and its community:  located at the Orery is the entrance to the community,  there are three Arcanists guarding the entrance, they are actually using the device to attempt to figure out the best time to go forth in strength.  They are outcasts, but have determined that if they can discover the best time to go forth, they will be allowed to breed.  The three Arcanists control a group of nine Gith warriors.  These are remnants from the Illithid Wars.  Deeper in the caverns are a host of Kuo-Toa.  The Elder Brain resides in a cluster of 24 Mindflayers.  There are many servants located in the depths.  Intellect Devourers range around the Orery and the building obscures a passage down to the depths below the sewer and subterranean living areas there are pitched battles in this part of the underground between the forces of the Dragons and the two Underdark Players.  Each Mind Flayer controls Twenty-four CR worth of creatures, plus their leaders, such a as 12 ogres and an Ogre leader, 12 quaggoths, 98 grimlocks, 8 gith, 98 kuo-toans, or 98 troglodytes.   There are three large communities of Kuo-Toans with leaders numbering over five hundred, same for Grimlocks and troglodytes.  There are 24 ogres and 24 quaggoths spaced to keep the three armies focused.  The 40 gith are there too.  If the players should sneak past and kill the Elder Brain, this break the hold on two thirds of the inhabitants and they would rebel, possibly killing their controllers.  But any sighting of the characters would count as sightings by the whole.  The Dragon would like this option the best as it would be likely that she could gain some of the better warriors herself.  There is one Intellect Devour for every Mind Flayer.

The Aboleth and its communal lair:  the Aboleth have been probing this city for ages.  They have allied with a city of Duergar after they enslaved their enemies the Svirfneblin.  This means that they have a force of about a thousand slaves and allies.  They are pressing the Illithids from below and pushing into the sewers of the city.  The gnomes have summoned many Xorn and Elementals to aid them at the Aboleth's prompting.  They are not trying to take over this area, but they are getting information on the area.  They will take all their forces with them if threatened by a strong force.  The Duergar are intent on destroying the Illithids.  If this should happen they will gathers up the Kuo-Toans and the other Underdark residents plus as many of the other races and enslave them, nine per day.  They will retreat to the depths.  They will first try to lure a PC to their doom and abduct them to their master lair, the deep lake to the north, the crater lake, it is 15 kms deep and there are 10 more Aboleth there.  

D&D new Warlock

Warlock. 

Dragon Patron

1st dragon fear constitution check or faint warlock DC, 10'cube

6th you may ignore the damage of one attack as a bonus action, long rest

10th gain magic resistance and one elemental resistance of choice after a long rest

14th dragon Breath weapon 1d10/level

Shield, Thunderwave

Enlarge, flaming Sphere

Lightning Bolt, Protection from Energy

Fire Sheild, Stoneskin

Cloudkill, Cone of Cold

First One Patron

1st see future, gain advantage on one check in next minute

6th gain the full proficiency in all skills of one Ability, until a long rest where it may be reset

10th gain a one round as another class of the same level, spells must be selected after a long rest, but may be used as any class at notice

14th use a spell at a higher level that you can cast; can cast a 10 level spell slot; comes with a list of 10th level Warlock spells.  This spell is in addition to other spell slots.

Detect magic, Identify

Enhance ability, Moonbeam

Speak with Dead, Speak with Plants

Divination, Confusion

Legend Lore, Modify Memory

Level 10 warlock spells

Time step—backwards one minute DC 10; one day DC15; one year DC20; one century DC25; past millennium or more DC 30

—forwards one minute DC 15; one day DC 20; one week DC 25; one month DC30.  May interact with environment for one minute

Gaia's Rebuke d8x100 damage to one target bludgeoning and Force damage

Dimensional Walk.  Duration 1 day, end at casters discretion.  Move at best speed through anything.  Can be used to scout out a dungeon, treasure chests secret doors etc., or it could be used to fly through a mountain to get to the other side.

Bless Land.  On the first day of the month.  Cause an area that you can walk around between sunrise and sunset to receive a gentle rain at sunset thought the night.  At sunrise the rays caress the land and a full years growth will occur in the space of a day.  Fields will produce bumper crops and fruit will be large and perfect.  The land will need to rest after a casting and so one plot may be blessed only once a decade.  

Been away

I have not posted much in 2017.

I have been busy and they two things I have not been doing might be related.  I have not been reading and I have not been writing.

I have been trying to create stuff, I have been world building, trying to put the setting in my head into a game.  The childhood creation from when I was a teenager, the Land of Caranus.  I have been adapting it for a dungeons and dragons campaign using 5th Edition.  It is a less complicated setting, because books can be complicated, but roleplaying needs to be not.  So I have been exploring how to make the setting playable and not too complicated for new players and scary for experienced players.

I guess I am going to reveal my work for those that are not in the campaign, so Natural20, I will post a D&D in the title, and don't read those posts.

I have been watching a series on YouTube called Running the Game, by Matt Coville, just to refine my storytelling technique.  It is funny, I am of age with Matt and I have been playing just as long, but my style and his are similar enough, I admit that he is better.  I wonder what kind of GM I would have been without Autism….  What he says though is true, you need no experience to be a DM, GM or Storyteller, because we in the beginning had none either.  Still it is great that we can learn from others now.

First game is set for Januray 6… I don't know how it will go.

D&D plot Possiblly

Plot D&D 

The nemesis: the Lord of Greysteel.  

The lord of Greysteel is lawful evil, and a Mage.  He is in fact a Necromancer and arranged the attack on his family that elevated him to rulership.  The Humanoids that attacked and killed his parents and siblings were no fools and they, with the help of the Temple of Elemental Evil, captured one his siblings and secreted him to the temple to be held as a hostage.  The Temple has been blackmailing the Lord.

The Lord has not taken well to the blackmail, but he does not know where they are holding his sister, who is a Paladin.  He thinks it is in a neighbouring kingdom, a lawful neutral state with many civilized Orcs.  In any case he feels that this kingdom is most deserving for conquest anyways.  Convenient that orcs have such a bad name in Jarda.  His bounty on humanoids is to stir conflicts up between the two nations.  

The Temple Faction has only started blackmailing the Lord in the last ten years.  The lord has a number of projects on the go.  The conquest of the Orc nation is one.  The second is the search for immortality— and he is close on this, he has performed many of the rituals necessary to complete his induction as a Litch.  Third on his list to to uncover a great and powerful artifact that he discovered in part when he was a young Mage.  He has the hilt and the tip of an extremely powerful artifact sword.  He is not sure exactly how large the final product is, but he believes it is a larger version of a two-handed sword.  The blade is bright gold and very heavy, but he suspects that when it is assembled that it can be fully attuned to and will be feather light.  Just the hilt is assembled, but with that has given him some great powers, including improved Invisibility, teleportation and illusionary projections.  When it is fully assembled he believes he will be as strong as a god.

The players will find some of these pieces when ever they complete adventures.  First when they get them someone will make an offer to purchase the sword fragment, but the buyer will appear to be a little too eager to get it.  Then there shall be break ins and assassins.  The Lord will then contact the players and ask what all this disruption is all about?  If they tell him, the lord will attempt to broker a solution, he will offer to hold the fragments for the Players until they need them.  After a serious threat and damage to the town, he will insist that they surrender them.

As the players begin to bring in more and more humanoid ears and collect more bounties they will attract the attention of the constabulary.  After they bring in 100gp of bounties, they will get recognized and toasted in the Taverns.  When they hit 200gp, a Sargent will buy the group a round.  By the time they have got 100gp/ player they will be greeted by name as they enter Greysteel and by patrols.  And invited to eat with the Captain of the Forces.  When they hit the 1000gp range the Characters will be given rank in the army, honorary members, but with salutes.  Ranks, 1, 2, 3 and 4.

The characters, when they recover contraband from smugglers and pirates they will get a similar reaction as the bounty hunting line.  1000gp recovered, toasts, 2000gp they will get a round purchased for them, etcetera.  However, they will be snubbed too.  Every ten smuggler/pirate killed will result in an act of vandalism or petty violence, "you killed my daddy."  Ranks 1, 2, 3, and 4

If the characters lawfully pay their taxes when they bring in loot they will will get folk hero status as great adventurers. Ranks, 1-4.

If the characters are good about bringing in bounties and smugglers they will be given more leeway about paying tax on their gains.  Heroes after all are given a little benefit of doubt . . ..  Ranks add partially.  Highest rank + next highest rank -1 + next rank -2 = Yx10% of tax that can be avoided without penalty.  PLAY by the rules of the Lord and you will get benefits.  If they give up the artifact pieces they will get a free rank in every area.  

When the players get stronger, the Lord will enact one of his plans and use his mastery over the artifact to cause his army to attack the town of the player's biggest interest, he will make it appear as if they are attacking Orcs, and the villagers that the army is Orcs, either way refugees will talk about the attack on the village and how it was unprovoked and the Nation of Orcs must be destroyed.  If his sister has been freed at this point he may choose that as the time to begin.  

When the attack has occurred he will seek adventurers to lead the attack on the nation of marauding Orcs.  If the players do this they should see that it is the evil of the Lord causing the disruptions.   

Introduction:

Those of you who were born to this little Dukedom know the history of the area well.  Over one hundred years ago the Holy Kingdom of Jarda, at the height of its power, was threatened by a cult of evil men.  The cult performed many assassinations on the nobility before the cult was traced to its source, a Temple of Elemental Evil.  The might of the Kingdom fell upon the Temple and destroyed it utterly— or as near to completely as they could manage.  The King vowed that never should the kingdom be threatened again by such a force and empowered his Cousin, the Duke of Greysteel to settle the region with loyal soldiers of the realm, a reward for good service.  It was hoped that if good people lived in the temple's shadow, it could never rise again.  For two generations the town of Greysteel grew from its inspirational beginnings to a small Duchy with five small villages, Hommlet, Sunnydale, Nulb, Saltmarsh and Orlane.  Things were not always pleasant, time was not always favourable, but overall life is good here.  Few remember a time when the taxman from Jarda was last seen, but the old timers say that is was near fifty years ago.  There is little news from the outside world here, so the reasons for the abandonment are still a popular topic of discussion, second after the retellings of the attack on the Second Duke's retinue, which was wiped out to a man, leaving only the youngest son soul heir, back in the Keep.  It was common knowledge that he was left back because he was gravely ill, but some claim in the darkest hours of the night after the ale has flown freely, that he was not infact ill, but the mastermind of betrayal…. Whatever the case the time of his rule has been one of strength and order.  Taxes have been laid,  an army was raised and, fortifications built; the nation is strong and hearty.  The bounty on Humanoids is new, just in the past couple of years and every year their are tales of smugglers caught and hung for display, one in every village at least.  

Adventures that my be played herein: N1, N2; T1-4; U1-3

New D&D campaign 2

Turning your setting that you dreamed up in high school into a D&D or any roleplaying game setting has a few troubles.  The things that I thought were cool don't necessarily translate very well into a game; some sound great and neat in your head, but just get in the way of game play.  Like having a world with six moons and three suns and a opposite direction of rotation all sounded cool to my sixteen year old mind, well they still sound cool to my mind now, but they mostly mean nothing or make things complicated and only that.  So, maybe, just maybe I need to de-clutter the game setting.  For example, maybe three suns will work, since only two are ever visible, but dropping the moons down to three, allows each of the suns to have a opposite, because the gods are the moons and the suns.  Rotation direction is not important except for me, so drop it entirely.  

Sometimes things sound great in your head, and writing them out they still sound great, but when you tell someone about them, then you realize that you have been talking inside your head too long.  Far, too, long.

So, let's work with the changes.

Three Goddesses and three Gods.  The goddesses will represent Law, Chaos and Neutrality.  The Gods will represent Good, Evil and Neutrality.  

The Goddess of Light is Lawful (Green) Light, Forge, Protection

The Goddess of Magic is Neutral (Blue) Arcana, Knowledge, War

The Goddess of  Weather is Chaotic (Red). Tempest, Nature, Trickery

The God of Health is Good ( Small and White, 1/4 year rotation, eclipse every five rotations) Life, Protection, City

The God of Nature is Neutral (Medium and Blue, monthly rotation, eclipse every nine rotations) Nature, Grave, Life

The God of War is Evil (Large and Green, bi-weekly rotation, eclipse every 27 rotations) Death, Tempest, Forge

List of domains

Arcana.    Forge.            Life.         Protection.  War. 

City.           Grave.            Light.      Tempest.      

Death.       Knowledge.   Nature.   Trickery.   

Those six Deities are universal, but have many names but they always are portrayed similarly.

Each Lesser God is culturally dependent, gets two domains, but one must come from one of the two major gods, example: LG goddess of Righteousness, has one Domain of (Life, Protection, City, Light and Forge) and one other domain.  There could be a dozen different gods of Righteousness, that are LG and each could have different domains.  One might be the Bright Sword, Light and War, another might be Righteous Raven, Protection and Trickery.  

An Orc Pantheon would be culturally Orcish, but have possibly a similar list of gods as a nearby human pantheon.  A city might have many different Pantheons sharing a single temple, as long as the alignment and purview were similar, and a non human god could have human worshipers too.  

Languages.  Every character will have the minimum of Common and a racial language.  Racial languages are not just the typical Elvish and Dwarven, they are regional dialects.  Typical games, the characters know Common, but in this game world there are several Common Languages and they are all easy to understand and may have a full language underlying them.  For example, along the Great River, they use a simple form of River Elvish as a common language, but each region has a language that remains apart from that common tongue.  In the region of the characters start the common tongue is quite similar their starting language with words from many languages, cosmopolitan creatures of the area understand it and speak it, human and non-human alike.  The Main language they know is Jadanese and it is used in varying forms for hundreds of kilometers from Jarda, even Orcish and Goblin languages of the area is similar.  

Character Classes

Barbarian. There is a lot of rough terrain in the area so this is possible

Bard. There is a town and a number of villages in the area with a number of inns so there is a lot of employment. Good choice

Cleric. There are two primarily important sects in the area, and Agricultural Deity, and a forest deity, in the town there are other religions which can be invented

Druid.  Lots of nature.

Fighter, most common class

Monk, select a deity, must be Lawful, because discipline 

Paladin/holy warrior select a martial deity

Ranger lots of nature

Rogue . . ..  Smugglers not a lot of urchins or city style rogues but they could be escaping the city . . ..

Sorcerer.  Possible

Warlock.   Difficult, Elder Dragon, First One.  Often begins as an attempt to summon one of the outer plane creatures or inner plane creatures and results in a cosmic rift and something getting through, eager to enter new territory and exploit it, ie the character.  It ends in blood as a shadow leaps upon it and destroys it in one blow.  And the thing that destroyed it looks over the character and determines its worth and it's importance to the world, before it kills the character out of hand, or more rarely, it takes it on as an apprentice.

Seeking the elder gods they acquire a dragon of the Pact and it eats the character and moves on, or rarely he gives them a drop of its blood to drink.  Usually the blood kills that character, but rarely they survive and they are given knowledge and power.  

Wizards. 

Races

Dwarves. Mountain dwarves are rare have a good story

Elf. High elf, wood elf, river elf, drow are very rare, have a good story.

RiverElves don't get dark vision, but can breathe under water.

Halflings are more common than other non human races, they prefer the plains which dominate the region

Humans dominate the region.  Racially they have specific ability increase and use variant rules

Dragon Born/Tiefling.   Both represent a mutant race that comes from a land far away.  It could be that you   Replace breath weapon with a bonus spell related to your appearance

Gnome. Not common at the best of times, is there a secret settlement in the area good story

Half elf, which elf, with which race?

Half Orc, with which Orc race and which other race?

()()()()()()()()

Other Races:  these races are listed in the monster manual and many of them are listed as evil, but in this world free will is granted any intelligent species.  It is their choice to be good or evil.  Let each person be judged by the actions that they make!  Just as there are evil and good humans in the world, so can there be good and evil of each of the following.  You must learn to trust what you see before you and not what you were told in the crib.

()()()()()()()()()

The region that the game is set in has a few notable features.  There is the Wild River that runs through the region.  It is navigable just to the town of Greysteel, and then barely, further down river it becomes more navigable at the village of Saltmarsh. further downriver it joins with the Jarda river.  

There is a small spur of low mountains in the East, just about ten miles long and a mile wide.  They were mined by some race of dwarves at one time and most of the minerals ha e played out.  

The Salt Marsh, located outside the village of the same name.  There is a salt mine located there, the residents discovered it as the source of the briny marsh.  The Wild River is slightly salty down river of here, but it quickly becomes sweet.  

The River Run is too small to support boats, runs from Hommlet to Saltmarsh.

The Temple of Elemental Evil, destroyed a century ago, has been rumoured active ever since its destruction.  Surrounded by three forts that have long since fallen into ruin themselves.  

The Tower.  There is no door, no window, and no one can claim to have scaled it.  It is old, very old, but it looks new with no wear and tear.  No moss, lichen or vines grow up its walls.  Old maps claim that it sat near Greysteel when it was built, but now it sits far from there.  

Rumours in Greysteel:

The Tower has been known to move because it has legs and every once in a while it needs to get up for a stretch.  

There is a Ghost Haunting the village of Saltmarsh.

The Downs has been cursed and is suffering a horrible drought caused by the Tower.

Smugglers are rampant on the river particularly in Saltmarsh and Nulb.

Hommlet is a under suspicion by the Lord, because his family was ambushed by orcs near there long ago.  

The Temple of Elemental Evil is up and running, and it was responsible for the Lord's Family's death.

The Temple of Elemental Evil has been quiet for the last century because it was destroyed by the Tower as an example of its power.  

The village or Orlane is so prosperous because of a evil pact that is due to be called in soon.  

The Lord was affected with a debilitating curse that has disfigured his body and that is why he is never seen.  

Fishmen are living in the river downstream of Saltmarsh. 

Or s are gathering near The Downs, to capture the people and enslave them.

The Lord is slowly gathering forces because he knows that there is a huge nation of Orc marauders just to the south, if he gathers his forces too quickly, they will attack before he is ready.

D&D-New Campaign

There is a town, Greysteel, away from the main commerce routes near one of the great stands of forest in the world.  This town has aspirations of becoming a city of a sprawling empire, but has not yet been able to capitalize on those aspirations because the woods surrounding the south, west and east of the town are said to be filled with orcs, gnolls and goblins of all types.  And the river to the north has many outlaws and pirates.  Also there are many smugglers that frequent the area that dodge the taxes of the city fathers impose to raise money to pay for the defences of the city and pay for the army.  The leader of the area is wildly unpopular because he has put an income tax on the residents of 25% in addition to other taxes.  He says that the taxes are due to outlaws, the pirates and smugglers, and the humanoids attacking caravans and he is using the money to pay for town defences.  This is true.  There is a new stone wall around the town, and there is an actual paid military in the town of 200 trained persons.  Hey are trying to combat smuggling but are having little impact.  There is also a bounty placed on all humanoids.  1sp per pair of goblin ears, and 1gp/pair of Gnoll, hobgoblin and Orc ears.  The bounties rise to 5 and 25 for ogre and giant ears.  The result has been a rise in young people heading out into the unknown for a few years, some coming back with bounties, but many not coming back at all.

There are 5 villages in the area tied to the town through many relations, as they are the frontiers of the town.  Nulb, Homelet, Orlane, Hookhill, and Bissel.  

Homelet, moathouse law abiding, low smugglers. NG, LG, CG, N

Nulb, temple, smuggler base and pirates. CN, NE, LN, N, LE

Orlane, clearing past forest to south, swamp to the south. NG, NE, N

Hookhill or Bissel has a ancient tower nearby whose confines are a mystery

Other location has a ruin in the area perhaps, also there is a slaver in the area perhaps.

The area is dominated by a large old growth deciduous forest.  There is a tributary to a tributary to the Great River to the north.  It is navigable by small boats and barges.  Not far away by larger boats.  

The people of the land are mostly good or lawfully aligned NG, LN, and N.  the ruler of the area is the LE grandson of the founding family the keep at the centre of town dates from then.  

The neighbours of the region are not human necessarily.  In fact, to the South there is an Orcish Matriarchy on the other side of the forest proper.  There is another human settlement to the North, where the original lord and most of the residents claim ancestry. NG, N, LN They are about five days travel from the town and are not interested in the town at all.  There is a prosperous town to the west where the river widens.LN, LE, N. To the east is a wilderness that is populated by small bands of freeholders and humanoids, CE, CN, CG, N.

North to the Right 

West most is Nulb, then Homelet, Orlane, Bissel, Hookhill.  Greysteel is on the river.

Greysteel Keep was founded on a hill overlooking the Banebrook a little over a century ago.  Lord Greysteel was sent to keep an eye on a evil temple that the forces of the King in distant Jarda had defeated.  The King supposed that if the area was settled by good folk, there would be plenty of vigilant eyes to notice another rise of evil.  Lord Greysteel built a keep, and several fortifications to keep an eye on the temple.  At first the outpost received a lot of attention and tax collectors were a seasonal occurrence, then less until during the reign of the second Lord Greysteel they stopped coming altogether.  The first Lord Greysteel was the faithful administrator of the area for 23 years.  The first decade he built and established the keep and town and three forts closer to the temple.  Each of the next two years he founded a village and encouraged settlement there.  First Homelet, then Nulb, Bissel, Hookhill, and lastly Orlane.  It was shortly after that last village that the first lord died.  The second Lord continues to follow the path his father set for him but for not understanding the reason, for he had not been alive for the battles.  Twenty years into his tenure support from Jarda dried up and within a few years the Forts were allowed to fall into disuse.  The second Lord died during a tour with his family of the villages when the party was attacked by a strong force of humanoids, about forty years ago, he was survived by his youngest son, a mage, the family’s black sheep.  

Rumours persisted for years that the Lord had engineered the ambush on his family and that the pogrom on humanoids was meant to get rid of the evidence. The new Lord was the last of seven children.

Homelet was founded first of the five villages.  The sleepy hamlet is fairly prosperous with good land and fairly frequent travellers.   The people are good and the people follow an agricultural Deity and a nature deity.  These people have a number of rumours that have persisted.  The one about the Lord’s gain of power is a persistent topic, but they think the best of their lord.  There is some concern about Orlane, as more than one family has moved from there and to there.  They talk about the old outpost a few miles to the west, and the tower in the woods at Hookhill.  There is some discussion about the bounty on Humanoids, many feel that they should practice a live and let live attitude, particularly among the followers of the nature god and those of the Agricultural goddess are in favour.  There is a similar split in ideas for the followers of the two religions.  One thing they both agree upon is that smuggling is wrong and so is tax evasion, but still barter is the most common form of trade in the village and you can’t tax that.

Nulb is a different town.  The people here are cut from a different cloth.  They are closer to the abandoned temple and yet it is rarely talked about except indirectly as the cause of some misfortune.  The creek that flows through the village is slow moving and deep as it is connected closely with the greater river beyond.  A normal village with this situation would capitalize on the harbour and become a trading centre but not so here.  The land is marginal but the village was founded to keep a close eye on the temple, something they do to this day.  The bulk of the people still farm.  But many are supplement their income with smuggling, piracy and hunting.  Smugglers are typically people who are moral but need the income to stay a float.  Many are leaving themselves open to blackmail, and many are being used this way.  The river pirates operate far down river and chose their targets carefully.  There is not much to offer them here because the area is so poor and backward, but the hidden cove is welcomed.  The Pirates sell and pay their taxes at Nulb, but have offloaded all precious cargo at the local Haunted House.  There are two sets of pirates here one set works for the Temple and the other is based out of the haunted house.  The hunters are also agents of the Temple.  They ferry information from the abandoned outposts and the temple using a few businesses in the town to coordinate.  There are five factions in the town, Earth, Air, Fire, Water and the Greater Temple.  It is no wonder that the principal faith in town is a deity of stealth.  It is located in a pawn shop on the main drag, the temple is in the back.  The Agricultural temple and the Nature grove are not well attended.  Points of interest in the town include a large battlefield to the south and several large burial mounds in the centre where soldiers and enemies were buried and great heroes fell.  

Orlane is a town in decline.  The troubles that are affecting this town are large but come from one source.  The people in this town are being being abducted and charmed and returned.  The entire town is being subverted this way.  

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

The importance of faith.  

Nine days in the week.  Each month lasts 4 weeks, 12 months in a year.  One week in the winter of holy observance, 441 days in a year.  The week has two holy days one where the Red Sun covers the Yellow and one day where the reverse is true.  Priests get a +3 bonus to saves on the day of domination and +1 on the Eve and day after.  Three days there is no effect, when the other is in dominance, they get a Penalty of -3 and -1 respectively.  They also receive a bonus spell on the dominant days and lose one on the reverse.  Blue sun gods have none of this bonus but have an effect in the deep winter and high summer.

The deep winter the blue sun dominates during the Holy Week and in High Summer the blue is recessive.  Holy Week they get a +3 and in the Summer -3.  The Holy Week the Red and Yellow are both at disadvantage and during the High Summer, accept during Dominance the Red Sun the sky goes black and the stars come out, and during the Yellow, flowers close.  

:):):):):):):):)

Some changes.  The Village to the North-west will be called Saltmarsh, because there is a salt mine located above a mash on the river.  The mine was discovered as the reason for the salty nature of the marsh and has been mined by the locals and sold to merchants and sent along the river as export.  The river here is wider and more navigable than anywhere else in the area.  The river is slow moving too.   Small boat traffic can continue to Greysteel.  There is a branch of the river that heads north some ten miles down the river and heads to the old Jarda.  The series U1-3 can fit in here with little changes.  

The Village of Nulb is next, located on a separate river system, which meets up with the larger river five miles west of Saltmarsh.  The river is navigable for its length to Nulb but the river mouth is blocked by shifting sandbars.  There is a abandoned fort overlooking the river manned by temple agents.  

The next Village is Hommlet.  Roads lead to Greysteel, Nulb, Orlane and, the Downs.  The road to Greysteel splits off to Saltmarsh after a mile.  Hommlet is a hub of sorts.  

The Downs has a road directly to Greysteel, and one to Hommlet, which splits and heads to Orlane shortly afterwards.