Broken Chain: Embershade Village I (worldbuilding)

The Embershade village lies on the edge of the Embran Woods, and the town was named after this forest. In the next 6 months I would like to take a closer look at Embershade Village. It’s a place where people live their life without the mingling of kings, governors or bureaucrats. There is certainly much to be done, in the way of adventuring and safety in the area. Threats are looming. But even in dire times, the villagers see their possessions as communal and share between each other. How will this work out for them?

Let’s plan out the village first.

The Embershade Village:

I know these things for sure:

·         There is communal storage in the village. I decide on three barns at town square.

·         There’s a gathering place. An amphitheater or a town hall would do. I decide on a round town hall, as the weather here is not that great.

·         There’s a river and a wooden bridge across it. Maybe a fisherman.

·         There’s some farming. I decide on five farm houses.

·         There’s an experienced logger and woodman near the forest edge.

·         There is a place to play sports or train weapons together.

·         There is one person that drives a cart up to other villages to trade goods.

·         There is one person that travels by boat. But he is only there once a month.

·         There is one smith to care for all things metal. He has a lack of new iron though (as it has to be imported), but has just enough to go by.

·         There is a small shrine cared for by the elderly. The shrine is not for a specific god, but for everyone that wants some peace.

·         There is no inn. Visitors are invited to stay in town hall, or at a home of someone.

·         There are two old watchtowers, in one lives a wizard.

There are some skill/ability challenges in the town:

STR: Help to roll a boulder off the road in the north.

DEX: Climb down the dried-up well. It’s a slippery slope.

CON: Help build a house in the village. Exhaustion looms.

INT: The wizard tries to learn you some arcane. Do you understand?

WIS: Scan the area for threats from the watchtower.

CHA: At the village meeting, convince others.

That’s already a lot of things. Here’s a map I drew of the village.

  

More will come next month, where we name people and give them wants/needs and dislikes.

Inktober and World Map creation

I love making maps for my games, even if they have little information that will actually be used. So today I'll show off some maps that I made. I usually draw with ink in my notebook, scan my notebook and color it with Photoshop. I'm really bad at using Photoshop, so sometimes I'll keep my maps unpainted.

I'm going to make 31 maps for different regions of the world in Inktober and put them all together in one file within Photoshop. I also might color them. It's going to be a project, but I'm really looking forward to it.

This is a map I made for fun. It's about desert settlements surrounding a lake. I numbered some interesting locations, although I never really filled them in with names or more information. This was more a practice run into drawing and painting. I really like how it turned out though as the water stands out from the landscape and the mountains look really rocky.

This is a map I made for the Island of Trasler's Wealth, after which this blog is named. I was messing around with Photoshop, which made me learn a lot, but also made me make mistake. I like the waterlines and the forests. The mountains are worse here, so I'll work on that during Inktober.

And this is the testrun for putting maps together for Inktober, The Western Waldayen Empire. You can see that the lines of the northeaster part are not that nice, as I had to twist the picture to fit on the rest, but I'm quite happy with the result. It's made out of three drawings put together. I can work on different settlement icons, but I should choose that before I go into Inktober.

In the end I can say I'm excited to go do Inktober and I bought a notebook today to do it. I'll post results here once every few days, when a continent is finished.

Also the next post on the 29th will be less rolling table, and more world building, but in October I'm returning to writing rolling tables for this blog again.  

Characters: The story of Gnome Bard Bassalt (Pathfinder)

To be fair, I had less inspiration to write something today, so I’m just going to tell something about a character I played in a Pathfinder West Marches game. I’m most often DMing, so I have only a few characters that I played and I really liked to play a Bard that time. I would like to use this space today to tell something about my preparation and the execution of my Bard.

First of all, regarding the preparation, I had a lot of time and I’ve decided that it would be fun if my bard would actually perform when he would inspire others or cast a spell. I wrote one short poem per spell/ability and changed them between the sessions whenever I had used them. It was haphazardly done, I didn’t spend a lot of time on these poems, so they were not great, but just the idea that someone prepared them, was enjoyable to the other players and to me.

Next to that I did a poetic write-up of the session every time. I had to write them in the toilet breaks at the end of the session, but I really liked doing it. They turned out quite okay.

Third and last, I ended up changing the history of the setting by introducing characters in my ‘folk songs’ that were integrated into the story, which was very cool for me and I really liked about the DMs of this West Marches campaign.

So I guess I just want to say, if you have time to prepare a character like a Bard with a bit of song or poetic influences, it is very cool and inspiring within the game and outside the game. I can definitely recommend it and if you have a nice DM, you can maybe even integrate some of your songs in the history of the lands.   

I’ll post some of my poems underneath:

Cure Light Wounds: My song and touch Will cure light pains Let me heal you Before you feint You’ll feel better In no time And rejoin battle As you feel fine! Cause Fear: Fear strikes your bones I frighten and I urge You to flee, I purge The lands of your blood And throne Begone fiend! Inspire courage: O heroes of these lands My acquaintances and friends Go into battle with much strength We will overcome and survive And return home rich and alive! Fascinate: Oh look into my eyes, Listen to my song I am so right I could never be wrong You won’t notice a thing This fascination will take long Countersong: Hear my song, my mighty allies Head my call, you hero of now Don’t listen to this magic Don’t listen to your doom Before you turn into a grazing cow

Discern North: The poles, where art thou The north is what I’m searching for To know where I am in this world Could anyone want some more? Daze: You mighty foe, be dazed Or may your home be razed By gods By evil Smitten to death And all your family caged. Mage hand: Telekenisis is what I do I can move 5 pounds of weight I float, I throw, I get And if you want something on your head That’s also okay, mate Read magic: I’m reading magic and singing while reading is highly distracting It’s like a beating Without the pain.

The Ring of Eldrahel:

"There was once a paladin

A knight armored in gold

His name carried prophecy

As the elders foretold

His name was king Eldrahel

His elven eyes were cold

But his heart was the warmest

A pleasure to behold.

Eldrahel owned

A magical ring

And when a goblin came

The item did sing

Goblin blood came upon

The gold and silver thing

It would never stop

No sleep got the king

The king threw the magic

In a volcano at night

After the last war in

which he did fight

And he fell asleep

With a deep sigh

For king Eldrahel

Knew that sleep gave him might."

The Prophet Arathol Arrives

The Prophet Arathol is a man in his 40’s. He wears rings on all his fingers and large earrings in both of his ears. He says he comes in name of his god. He comes alone or with a following, but he always takes the time to be there for those in need. Time seems to slow down around him.

The domain of his god is:

1. Time and Stars – Those who study the stars can know the future and the past.

2. Blinding Light – The fiery truth will burn all darkness away.

3. Darkness and Depth – In the deep of the darkness lives an answer for all.

4. The Moon, the Fading Light – Only when light fades can you know the truth.

5. Magic and Illusion – Every trick is rooted in reality.

6. Ritual and Family – The most important thing in life is order around you.

The people of the city flock the street to greet Arathol with:

1. Apathy, they actually are not there for him, but to celebrate a holiday.

2. Gatherings at home, made illegal by the ruling temple.

3. Sticks and stones that may break his bones.

4. A big parade through the city.

5. Familiarity, he is not the first prophet that comes by and not the last either.

6. lynching him on the town square, or hang him there.

What does the Prophet Arathol want in this city?

1. Free his god from the chains of the temple.

2. Gather people for a crusade to a far-away land.

3. Warn the people of this city of a dire threat that is coming.

4, Summon his god to the material plane.

5. Announce that the last era has arrived.

6. Get in control of a powerful artifact that is buried underneath the city.

The Underground Woods of Darathir

The Underground Woods of Darathir are place locked away in darkness, deep in a cavern, maybe even in the Underdark, or even further down. You have never encountered a forest like this before, with so many mutations and weird-looking trees. Roll on the tables to see what Darathir consist off.

Ground

1.      Rock. Just normal rock.

2.      Solid Darkness. You can’t see any ground and there might be gaps inbetween.

3.      Lava Streams. Be careful where you step. Preferred travel through the trees.

4.      Diamond. If you hold a torch above it, it shines so bright.

5.      Flesh. It’s really creepy and you feel sick with every step you take.

6.      Upside down and Roll again. The trees come out of the ceiling and slowly descend down.

Trees

1.      Tentacles. The trees reach out to you to grapple.

2.      Flying Fangs. More hovering than flying, there are huge fangs that grow leaves.

3.      Light Beams. Beams of light come from the ground in this place of darkness.

4.      Molded Silver. You never knew silver could stink so much.

5.      Fungus. Giant mushroom trees, what more can I say?

6.      Giant Lavender. It smells and looks like lavender, so it must be…

7.      Upright Snakes. A terrible spot where snakes grow leaves.

8.      Flowing Water. Waterfalls, but flowing up to the roof.

9.      Copper. It’s slightly rusted.

10.  Huge Stalagmites. Rocky outcroppings that have leaves here.

11.  Lava Bursts. The bursts of lava come every 90 seconds.

12.  Glass. There trees can be broken down easily, but be careful where you step.

Leafs

1.      Sparks. Sparks come out of the branches and trees and light up the room.

2.      Porcelain. It can be broken easily, but it probably sells well.

3.      Rusted Bronze. The easiest way to get some bronze is to go here.

4.      Feathers. Beautiful feathers in all colors adorn the trees.

5.      Golden Drops. Slowly dripping from the branches are golden balls.

6.      Eye Balls. They are looking at you, you know it.

7.      Small Anti-Magic Fields. Useful when going after a caster, but they lose the field when picked.

8.      Rubies. Red rubies hang off the leaves, far too high to get to.

9.      Fungi. Everywhere sprouts fungi, small mushrooms on top of the trees.

10.  Pure Darkness. You can’t see the leaves, but their absence notes them.

Creatures

1.      Funganoids. You can read all about them somewhere else.

2.      Scarabs. They scare you, they’re frightening big here.

3.      Stone Manticores. They can only fly for a second before getting tired.

4.      Tin men. Harvesting bronze in these forests.

5.      Vulnerable Gass Elemental. They can choke you to death.

6.      Blood Maggots. Make sure they don’t stick.

Inhabitance

1.      There is No One around in this forest, it grows wild.

2.      There is a cave system in the forest that might lead somewhere.

3.      There is a Village underneath the forest. It has a mine.

4.      There is a Village within the forest.

5.      There is a Sacrificial Place, an offering temple, a holy shrine.

6.      There is a Town within the forest.

7.      There are the remnants of a Great Fortress.

8.      The deeper layers of Hell can be reached. 

How would I use these tables?

When thinking of a celestial forest, you could go through these tables and pick whatever suits you best. You could also roll on the table and be inspired by the strange combinations that can come out of it.