Cat Herding [actual play]

So in the regular game the party is on the road trying to distance themselves from recent exploits. The party currently ranges from 2nd to 7th level (1-2nd,1-3rd, 2-6th and a 7th who is the only original character for the campaign to survive from the 1st session) they are down to less then 2 grand in gold between themselves and for magic items they have a few healing potions, a scroll they forgot about, a manual of grim magic, a ring of vanishing, a talisman from a witch and a fireball wand (they've been doing a great job of avoiding treasure).

In a small roadside town they notice the barmaid talking with a curious small cloaked figure with odd feet, they note the critter and pay the serving girl for a little information, she offered little and disappeared after that.
That night an unknown assassin plops a greyooze into one of the rooms they are renting in the inn. They destroyed the ooze and followed the tracks outside briefly and went back to bed. In the morning they decided to not follow up on the attack.
On the way out of town they follow the road and come to an oddly narrow portion with a steep hill to one side and a pond the other where they are ambushed by kobolds who pelt them with darts but flee the counter assault. The PCs move down the curious road coming to a washed out bridge realizing they were led astray by an illusion they find their way back to the royal highway.
(They had no desire to pursue the kobolds into their tunnels or figure out who whipped up the illusion)

The next large town they hire some boats to move them downriver faster then they can go on foot before moving down the road again at the next good sized town. They discover a patch of wall built from old stones from a ruin that has an inscription upon it...they found a functional magic gate to Fomorgard and they used it .... so much for weeks of travel to the capital.
(Fomorgard is the not the capital it's a fortress occupied by giant high up on a mountain as far as they know)

While the players are away on Tekumel

Been a busy DM of late getting a campaign ready that I plan to use for a few years.
I've gone a different route with campaign maps then is usual for me, I'm focusing on political features over terrain. Sure the rivers have a big impact on the political lay of the land so I'm not ignoring geography but I'm not making it the picky element of campaign development just yet.
I want the players to be aware of "the end game" early on and jump into it as much as they wish (with a little prodding from me) so politics are important.

I'm going for a fairly classical Fantasy RPG setting. I'm dumping the kitchen sink approach however and moving things that don't fit the main campaign to elsewhere. (That's why I did all those lunar encounter tables).

Here is my political map for Riperia as it exists to date:


Somewhere on this map I'll be placing Fomorgard and using that as the campaign's central dungeon focus. There will still be a number of smaller "dungeons" but the mega-dungeon will be Fomorgard (which is taking longer to develop then I planned).

What's on the boil for development-

Nailing down the house rules.
- Formalizing the combat variant
- Finishing up the Wizardly magic rules, along with spell lists.
-Finishing up the Clerical magic rules, along with spell lists and a host of divine entities to bargain with to gain spells.
- Getting the classes tweaked and created for the house rules to fit the campaign

Campaign Development
- Lot's of encounter tables. I'm a big fan of these I can't help myself. Planning on a host of encounter charts to cover a wide range of areas within the campaign. Batting about a lot of ideas currently. I'll bring this up on a future post.
- More detailed map(s), lot's of maps make for a detailed settign in my book.
- Describe what's on the maps. Simple detail that gives room to build as needed. Pages and pages on cities and baronies my PCs will never visit would be totally pointless.
- Fomorgard, needs more and more work.
- and much much more

All while the players in my group are wandering about a section of the dungeons under Jakalla.

Notes on the posted map:
Everything done in photohop so far. The posted image is an indexed gif but I have a working layered photo shop copy for editing and updating. I'll eventually get around to a more detailed map using illustrator but this will do for some time.

Fomorgard: Castle Sketch

Here for folks curious in the matter is a low resolution, low detail sketch of Fomorgard.



The sketch is lacking a lot of detail and the simplicity conceals the size of the place. The outer walls themselves are huge, high enough to keep giants out. Being the visual person that I am, I'll be working up models and renderings of the details of the place to post here on the blog and have some art inside the finished work.

Fomorgard: Spelte Vaettir

Here now are some of the potential occupants of Fomorgard or the nearby wilds.


Spelte Vaettir (Harvest Elves, Speltev)
No. Enc.: 2d6 (6d10)
Alignment: Neutral (Evil)
Movement: 120(40)
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: 1
Damage: As weapon
Save: F2
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: III x 6, X x 2
XP: 38

The Spelte Vaettir, also known as Harvest Elves are a grim reminder of how cruel nature can be. The Harvest Elves consider themselves to be the true masters of natures bounty and demand tribute of the younger races that would till the soil and graze beasts in their fields. Those that do not comply or offend ancient tradition may escape wrath for years but when vengeance comes it will be savage and certain. Unlike many elves, they are a tall people (6-1/2 ft) but still of the very slight build associated with most elves. Their clothing and hair match the autumnal colors of the deciduous forests and hillsides they dwell within and their skin is a silvery-grey not unlike moonlight. They can see only a short distance in total darkness (having 30 ft infravision) but can see for hundreds of yards in a starlit night. They can easily move silently 90% of the time and are all but invisible when hiding in the outdoors. All Spelte Vaettir are able to cast 3 spells a day drawn from those of 1st level illusionists and 1st level druids.
In a group of 10 or more one will include a Harvest Knight (60%) or Green Jack (40%) able to act as F4/I2/D2 or T4/I3/D3 respectively. In their lair or in special raiding parties there may be individuals with the abilities of the Fighter,Illusionist, Druid and Thief classes that range as high as 6th level in any of the classes.
The Harvest Elves arm themselves with spears, strange polearms, long-bows, axes, sickles and long swords. They protect themselves with unusual armors that look to be a scale made of leaves, these armors never survive into the next spring if captured in battle or stolen away.
If somehow trapped by iron bonds a harvest elf can not escape and will actually lose all will to do so in short order (after failing a save vs wands), they will obey masters if possible but will shortly wither and die (in but a century or two).

Who Dwells in Fomorgard?

I've begun preliminary work on a commercial old-school adventure-site module currently bearing the working title of Fomorgard. The module will center on a massive castle originally built by the Fomorians from where they did rule as far as their great reach did extend. The castle changed hands a number of times over the ages and each era's occupants have left their mark on it's massive walls and grand towers. Now nominally abandoned this castle draws the attention of brave adventurers willing to pit themselves against horrors rumored to dwell in vast halls guarding treasures long lost to the world of man.

There is a lot of work ahead of me and I ask you my gentle readers for a bit of advice as my notes are not yet tied to any one set of rules:

What rules system would you like to see this written for?

1. Labyrinth Lord with the Advanced Edition Companion.
2. The Basic Fantasy Role-playing Game (BFRPG)
3. Swords and Wizardry, core rules
4. Sword and Wizardry White-Box
5. House Rules meant to supplement any old school rpg
6. House Rules written as rules adequate enough to run the adventure.
7. Generic Fantasy rpg
8. other