Highland

The Great Gazetteer of the World, Known and Unknown

For Gods & Monsters Adventure Guides

Highland

The Great Gazetteer of the World, Known and Unknown

by Jerry Stratton

Copyright ©2011

http://www.godsmonsters.com/

The elders of Israel gathered together, and came to Samuel, and said to him, “behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Make us a king to judge us like all the nations.”

The thing displeased Samuel, and he prayed to the Lord. The Lord said unto Samuel, “hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. Show them the manner of kings.”

And Samuel told the words of the Lord unto the people. He said, “this will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you. He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots. He will appoint captains over thousands, and captains over fifties, and will set them to plow his ground and reap his harvest, to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.”

“He will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks and bakers. He will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give them to his officers and appointees.”

“He will take your servants and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your oxen, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep, and you shall be his servants. You shall cry out on that day because of your king whom you have chosen, and the Lord will hear you not.”

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1, published by the Free Software Foundation. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License”

September 8, 2018

About this book

Adventure Guides

The items here are designed for Adventure Guides to read. You can take the information here, copy out the parts that reflect player knowledge, and under normal copyright law (or the GNU Free Documentation License, if necessary) reprint them for your players. Since this is FDL open text, you can create your own document from it under the terms of the Gnu Free Documentation license in the back.

Why Highland?

World books are difficult. If they provide too much information, you can’t use it during play. The best world is one you know so well you’ve created it yourself. But too little information doesn’t help either: you might as well start from scratch. Highland (hopefully) provides an interesting framework on which you can build. You can pull pieces of it and re-use them.

Highland isn’t really meant for you to use. It’s meant for me to use. I built it slowly, starting with a nice map and a couple of small towns, and a short history detailing the American west feel combined with the ruins of Europe. If I’ve tried to make this book useful, it’s because I’ve tried to make it useful to me.

This book also provides a context for standalone adventures such as The Lost Castle of the Astronomers, Illustrious Castle, and The House of Lisport. When using these adventures you can pull the locale from Highland even if you aren’t using Highland itself.

You can use one of its towns or areas as a starting point and build your own structure on that part of the framework. Or, you can start with one small town and slowly introduce more areas as the characters travel.

Highland is designed for the rural adventurer, where characters begin in small villages or remote areas and move in toward civilization as they learn more and more about their world’s past. It was designed as a version of the standard fantasy world imprinted on the American old west. The two most common starting points I’ve used are Stone Goblin and Hightown. Both places are on or near a commercial hub, but are still small enough for villagers to dream of adventure.

Stone Goblin is near the edge of the world: if you fall off, there are Elves and Celts and strange forests. Hightown is on the other edge of the world: the Leather Road, “beyond which lie dragons”. It is also situated between several of the old schismatic orders. Their castles, abandoned or not, are great sources of adventure.

Highland

No Kings

“Nine hundred years ago, the world was destroyed in the third cataclysm—the cataclysm of Earth. It brought the thousand-year rule of peace. With the coming of the true Pope out of the East in the 1,000th year of the cataclysm (the 2,000th year of our Lord anno domini), the final cataclysm of Air will bring forth the reign of God. The third cataclysm was a punishment by God for the creation of Kingdoms. In the time before Christ, the prophet Samuel warned us against Kings, but we didn’t listen. Christ tried to return us to communities of Peace outside of Kingships, and the Roman empire crumbled, but we built our own Kingdoms to take its place.”

For nine hundred odd years this doctrine has been taken very seriously in Highland and in South Bend. Schismatic Orders have tried to forge kingdoms from the new lands West of the High Divide, but such attempts have been met with resistance not only from the established Church but from the common people who have no desire to see another cataclysm when they can still see the effects of the previous one.

It has, however, been nearly a thousand years since the third cataclysm. It is the 991st year of the cataclysm of Earth. Scholars are beginning to theorize that the remnants of lost civilizations might be from Druids, not previous Christian kingdoms. Others are questioning the difference between a kingdom run by a king, and a set of duchies coordinated by merchant councils in the South, or a valley dominated by a single city in East Highland. Some are questioning the coming of the fourth and final cataclysm. Perhaps they never cared, but it was always far enough away that it didn’t matter. Or perhaps out of pride they believe that the works of their lives cannot and will not be lost. The 1,000 year end of the fourth age is no longer a far away event. If it happens, it will happen within the lifetime of those currently alive.

Some say it will not come; others say we can never know the true time of the Pope’s coming, according to the Bible. The early years of the cataclysm were not easy ones in which to keep records. We may not know the true year; the 1000th year of the cataclysm may come early, or it may come late. Indeed, the biblical reconstructions say this. Others question even the bible: no true Bible has been known to survive, so any interpretations of existing bibles are interpretations of flawed sources.

Some secular leaders are beginning to question the primacy of canon law.

Black Stag is large enough to consider bringing the rest of West Highland under a Black Stag-dominated merchant council similar to the councils of the South—for protection against the creatures of the Forest. The Dukes and Duchesses and minor princes of South Bend are beginning to wonder if the time has come for a stronger rule, and that perhaps the doctrine of the Church is outdated and superstitious. There are even those in the Church itself who feel it might be time to declare a Pope to self-fulfill the thousand-year end and turn the de facto Church rule into an official one. That God’s promise to return the Pope from the East was a symbolic promise and that the Pope shall arise from the current Church in East Highland (according to Crosspoint adherents) or with the rising sun (according to others).

Christianity

Christianity is the major religion of Highland and Great Bend. Christian priests are not generally also prophets, though they can be. They can also be warriors, sorcerors, doctors, politicians, scholars, or simply priests.

The College at Crosspoint is managed by the church.

Christian priests may marry, and women are allowed to be priests, although this is rare. Women are rarely placed in rural areas unless the Bishop or local pastor wishes to stir up the locals.

The highest rank in the church is Bishop. There is a bishop at Crosspoint and at Black Stag. Next is the Pastor. There is a Pastor for each major population area. There are three Pastors in Crosspoint, one in Watertown, two in Black Stag.

Each town substantial enough to be on the map will have a priest.

The church system is the fastest communications network in Highland, which gives the church some small amount of power beyond its religious and canonical power. Officials of the church, including local priests, have legal immunity from secular power. Church officials must be tried within the church. Most church trials will take place in either Crosspoint or Black Stag. By church teaching, canon law takes precedence over mere secular law.

The church vehemently opposes Druidism, which has been pushed south and north in west Highland, and eradicated in east Highland. The church heavily frowns on midwives, but rural priests tend to respect them. They don’t particularly like the community of Calling either, but tend to ignore them.

Most church documents are in Anglish. Ancient is only used in the upper hierarchy for the most important documents, as well as for legal proceedings within the church.

Scholarship

Following the Cataclysm much knowledge was not only lost, but destroyed. Mankind blamed scholars for delving too deep into forbidden mysteries. A major reason for the proliferation of scholastic orders across the mountain was to escape the pogroms against scholars.

The Order of Illustration, for example, left for the uncharted wilderness across the High Divide in order to safeguard their growing collection of pre-cataclysm and post-cataclysm books and writings.

While hatred and fear of scholarship has died down somewhat, there is still a deep distrust among the common folk toward those who search for knowledge. The remote town of Biblyon, which embraced its pejorative common name, is an exception much-visited by scholars.

The image of the devil in Highland is familiar to us: cloven-hooved, horned, with a forked tail. Highland’s devil also has a body covered in nonsense Latin.

The Goblin Wars

In the year of the Cataclysm 896, night trolls (a West Highland term for goblins, hobgoblins—what East Highlanders know as orcs—ogres, and trolls) and other creatures swarmed northward led by a mysterious hooded wizard who became known as the “goblin mage”. Christian west Highland had been expanding south of the Leather Road as early as 558 when the Astronomers set up their castle there, but more recently farmers and hunters around Black Stag had begun crossing over. Someone triggered something, or perhaps it was mere chance, but first Brightwood Crossing and then Hightown, Biblyon, and finally Black Stag and other towns up the river were overrun. Refugees fled northward ahead of the night trolls.

The Knightly Orders along the High Divide mostly fell to bickering among themselves over who would lead whom. Only the Order of Illustration provided a strong defense against the hordes, and when their castle fell they joined the general resistance.

Emissaries were sent east and north pleading for assistance. Even the enmities with the Celts were momentarily forgotten—on both sides. Christian militia and Celtic warrior fought side by side. The Elves of the Long Lakes responded, as did the Dwarves of Mentarn and Hitarn. Even the tiny folk of Erventon arrayed themselves with pitchfork and sword alongside painted Celts and Christians against a tide of orc, ogre, and stranger creatures marching toward their burrows and huts.

The battles lasted for five years. The battlefields of the goblin wars dot the old roads and the abandoned towns and villages of Fawn River. Ghosts of north and south whisper upon them in the dark recesses of the night. In the end, the creatures simply faded into the forest, fled south again, or disappeared downriver.

There was neither treaty nor demand, but ever since the night trolls fell back there have been no settlements south of the Leather Road, and the Deep Forest has grown in mystery and myth.

The villages and towns of west Highland suffered considerably. Many towns along Fawn River were abandoned. Warriors or relatives returned to bury the dead, and then moved to a more fortunate town up or down the river. These ghost towns, with hastily-built cemeteries just outside, are a common site from the barges and trading boats that travel Fawn River.

Magic in Highland

The history of magic in Highland is the story of a few unique and legendary researchers who through their genius have advanced the techniques and power of sorcery. Even up to the last century a mind like that of Charles Dodgson could make great strides in their chosen field. His spells remain the state of the art in mentalism, and one commonly used in East Highland still bears his name, the infamous “Dodgson’s Eyetrick”. But it was his Phantasmal Reality formulas that truly made his name in the annals of magic. Dodgson was known for his advocacy of openness among sorcerors, a stand not known before or since. He gave some of his spells freely; others he traded on condition that he be allowed to make free the spell he acquired. His most famous trade was his first level Minor Phantasm for the freedom of the second level Silence, a spell which, as a mentalist, he had no use for, and Farseeing.

One of Dodgson’s contemporaries, John Isaacs, virtually created the field of metamagic, and attracted students from around Highland who eventually became the Order of Hidden Mysteries after the Zodiac dispute. While many of Isaacs’ magics have been lost following the dissolution of the Zodiac, his spells and those of his school remain the core of the metamagician’s bag of tricks.

Despite the high regard in which sorcerors hold the giants of their field, sorcerors remain secretive and highly protective of their own spell repertoire. Many spells are available only to students of certain teachers, or in certain areas of the world. Some spells have been lost completely and cannot be known unless they are found again.

Classical wizardry is limited to the Christians of West Highland and the Elves and Gnomes. Even the so-called “barbaric” Celts use a form of mnemonic wizardry involving rune carvings. Similarly, the gypsies of Great Bend use a form of mnemonic wizardry involving rings or gems.

The many orders of mages in and around Highland include the Order of the Astronomers, the Order of Illustration, the Stigmas di Cristo, the Bissonites, and the Order of the Zodiac. The Astronomers, with their castle south of the Leather Road, have not been heard from since the Goblin Wars. The Illustrators faded out soon thereafter, although much of their knowledge lives on in the “Walled Library” at Biblyon. The Order of the Zodiac broke up due to disputes among the students of Isaacs after Isaacs’ death, and many of John Isaacs’ spells were lost forever.

The Bissonites remain a viable order in Crosspoint, devoted to understanding the traces mankind leaves on the world in passing through it. They are most famous for their founders’ spell allowing the translation of written and spoken language. “Understand Languages” is probably the most common spell throughout the continent. It is in the repertoire of most mnemonic mages throughout Highland and South Bend.

The Wizards’ Council in Black Stag is a powerful political force in the region of West Highland. One spell that everyone knows they have is highly coveted: the dreaded invisibility spell that allows the target to walk unseen.

Lesser orders include the Knights of the Sacred Scrutinies, the Order of St. Patrick (Quis Separabit?), and the Order of the Thistle (Nemo Me Impune Lacessit). The rival orders of the Knights Templar and the Knights Caelius are mostly militant orders with little magic.

Famous Sorcerors

Perceptions of Sorcery

Outside of Biblyon, sorcerors are still viewed with distrust. When inexplicable things happen, known sorcerors tend to be given the blame if at all possible. Even when sorcerors perform accomplishments that could be explained normally, it will often be seen as resorting to sorcery.

What’s different?

There are a few things one might expect Highland to have due to its similarities to medieval England but which it doesn’t, and some things it does have that might not be expected.

Animals

Highland has no donkeys, and thus also no mules. People generally make do with horses and oxen for carrying heavy loads.

Highland also has no domesticated cats. It does have dogs of various species, and wild cats (bobcat and cougar) are relatively common.

Food

Highland has no American corn, as expected. The term “corn” is used, as is normal for this time period, for the dominant grain. Usually this will be wheat. Rice is grown in some areas of South Bend.

On the other hand, Highland does have potatoes, and South Bend has tomatoes.

For oils, besides butter and lard they use flaxseed oil. In the east they also press oil from camelina (gold of pleasure, for gold oil) and in the west from sunflower seeds.

Tobacco

Tobacco is available, though rare, and comes from Erventon. Called northweed, its use was limited to the northern villages of West Highland until the Goblin Wars. It is still rare enough, but its use has spread to some of the southern towns. Adherents argue over the merits of Weaving Weed and Fartown Leaf, the two sources of northweed in Christian Highland.

Tobacco has spread by way of Pirate’s Cove to Crosspoint. When one talks of the “smoke-filled bars of Crosspoint”, it is a specific kind of bar that is being discussed: one where you keep an eye on your money and a hand on your dagger.

Alcoholic Beverages

Beer, ale, and wine are the main alcoholic beverages in Highland. The Celts distill uisge beatha for ceremonial purposes, and some of this whiskey makes it to Crosspoint via Pirate’s Cove. Whiskey ranges from 40% to 50% alcohol.

Some backwoods farmers on the High Road will freeze hard cider during the coldest months of the year, and “distill” what they call Druid Cider (and what the rest of the world calls High Cider) by removing the ice. High Cider is generally 30% to 40% alcohol.

South Bend and Great Bend, great exporters of wine, also export dragon’s breath, a beverage distilled from wine. It is what we would call brandy and is 40% to 60% alcohol. Dragon’s breath (also called feu du serpent among the Franks) is made generally for export, as it travels better than wine. Dragon’s breath is also added to wine, bringing the wine up to 18% to 30% alcohol by volume, making the wine travel better. Most of the wine exported north from the Bend is this export or port wine. Because of the relative ease of transport, the higher concentration ports are typically less expensive, and sold in less reputable areas, than the ports whose concentrations approach that of normal wine.

While some port (and dragon’s fire) is beginning to make its way into West Highland, most of this goes to Black Stag.

Time Passage

Watches of the Night

Highlanders measure time in hours, however East and West Highland have different forms of hours. In West Highland, there are twelve hours in every day. The first hour begins at sunrise, the sixth hour ends at high noon, and the twelfth hour ends at sunset.

Nighttime is divided into four relatively even watches. The first watch begins at the end of evening twilight (often about half an hour after sunset) and the fourth watch ends at the beginning of twilight in the morning (often about half an hour before sunrise).

The length of hours, and the length of watches, changes depending on the time of year: no matter how long or short the day is, there are always twelve hours in it.

West Highlanders will also speak in terms of “half hours” and “quarter hours”, even during the night watches.

Sundials are the most common form of timepiece in West Highland beyond relying on a simple “general feeling”.

Clocks began to come into common use in East Highland in the mid 1600s. Some early clocks attempted to continue the tradition of exactly twelve hours in the day, while jettisoning “watches” and replacing them with a similar number of hours in the night. The great golden clock at lost Kristagna is rumored to have such a clock, where six o’clock in the morning always matches sunrise, and six o’clock in the evening always matches sunset.

It was easier to make clocks with even hours, however. Today in East Highland, and among scholars in West Highland, timepieces break the day into twenty-four even hours, with twelve o’clock at both noon and midnight. The day traditionally begins at midnight, which means that the morning and the evening hours paradoxically start at 12. Twelve midnight through eleven in the morning are marked with “AM” and twelve noon through eleven in the evening are marked with “PM”.

The Calendar

Highlanders measure time using a Julian-style calendar of one leap year every four years. The current year is 1991 AD, more commonly written as 991, the number of years since the Cataclysm of Earth in 1000 AD.

Holy Days and Days of Celebration

Easter and other dates

Some Easters and Harvest festivals:

Money

By far the most common form of trade in Highland is barter, especially outside of the two major cities. Elves, Halflings, and Gnomes work strictly on a barter basis, not trusting coins at all.

There are two major mints in Highland: Crosspoint, in east Highland, and Black Stag in west Highland. Both mints give their coins reeded edges to discourage chipping the metals.

Crosspoint Mint

In Crosspoint, “the ship and sword” is slang for good money.

Black Stag Mint

Other Mints

Many of the Orders also have or had their own mints, often using a combination of silver and copper known as “electrum” in the Ancient tongue. These coins are often interesting, but hold little value beyond the metals.

Dwarves also mint their own coins. Their coins are larger than normal, about the size of the United States half-dollar. These are so highly crafted that humans prize them as art, paying double, triple, or even more depending on how common that coin has become in human cities. Each Dwarven extended family mints their own coins using different combinations of metals and different styles of art.

Weather

From the Dark Forest to the northern plains is six hundred miles south to north, similar to the distance from, say, Montreal to Norfolk. From Hightown to Erventon is four hundred miles. This is all temperate region. The Leather Road gets snow perhaps two months out of the year, from mid-December to mid-February. Further north there is more snow, and in the Deep Forest the things that live there grow unchecked year round without the cleansing effects of winter except for once every ten years or so, and that does not last.

Crosspoint, on the bay, receives little snow during the winter months, but may occasionally receive some. Watertown, a mere sixty miles north, generally receives snow once or twice a year, and sleet a little more often.

Northward, in Stone Goblin, the Long Lakes, and Erventon, snow can arrive as early as late October, with occasional last gasps in early April. Usually, it will snow sometime in late November or early to mid December and partially melt in late February. In the Long Lakes, the weather is often more unpredictable due to the effect of the lakes.

Sports and games

Archery

Archery contests are usually organized by town leaders, and encourage townsfolk and the nearby community to hone their skill at bow and arrow. Most towns in west Highland, if they have an organized fair at all, will have an archery contest in the autumn fair once the harvest has been collected.

Horse racing

In West Highland, horse racing is often an impromptu sport. A couple of racers will announce that they’ll be at so-and-so field on a specific date, and any challengers can show to compete. Stakes are occasionally money, but most often some trophy symbolic of the time of year, such as a silver crown of thorns near Easter, or a silver-and-gold encrusted statue of some local hero of the wars.

More informal races might even be for ownership of the steeds.

Fork hosts horse races in their Arena. Prizes are money or land.

Horse shoes

Farmers, guards, and equestrians alike enjoy an afternoon or evening tossing horse shoes at posts throughout Highland.

Riddles

Riddle-contests are binding ceremonies, though the people won’t call them that. Riddle contests will be accompanied by vows of assistance, or passage, or just being left alone. But there must always be two stakes to a riddle contest. If a caravan-leader riddles a band of brigands for safe passage, for example, the most likely counter-stake will be the right to take anything held within the caravan, whether owned by the caravan company or held personally by an individual.

Breaking a vow made at a riddle contest has dire consequences, both socially and statistically.

People

What do people look like?

People in Highland and the surrounding areas look like we do, for the most part.

While Highland proper is very homogenous culturally, its people have a range of hair colors, eye colors, and skin tones. In West Highland and East Highland, hair colors of black, brown, blonde, and red are all common. Eyes are generally brown, hazel, or blue. Green eyes are uncommon but are known to exist. Skin tone ranges from white to dark brown (what we call Caucasian and Black), with white and lighter shades being most common.

There is no more stigma applied to any of these variations than there is to hair color or eye color in our modern world. As with blondes in our culture, there is some rivalry, and people make jokes about gingers and so on, but no one really takes it seriously. Any enmity is directed toward goblins, orcs, and half-orcs for the most part, where it belongs. In Highland, there is considerable prejudice against the Celts, who are all called “Druids”, and everyone everywhere thinks the people of Pirate’s Cove are scum to the last man.

The people of the Celtic Valley have a similar range of hair, eye, and skin tones, with more redheads and blonds than are found in Highland. Green eyes are slightly more common among the Celts and Norse. White skin is much more common among the Celts, and predominate among the Norse.

Down in the Bend they have more varied cultures, such as the Franks, the Gypsies, and the Highlanders, and across the uncrossable seas there are other cultures as well; in most of them, however, the same general mixing due to the cataclysm applies. The cataclysm mixed everyone up; in different areas, different cultures became dominant, but there was no stopping the mixing of the peoples.

Political suffrage

Throughout East and West Highland, most male citizens can vote for their locale’s popular seats. Qualifications vary, but throughout the West voting is open to anyone who appears on the citizenship rolls for that locale and who can sign their name.

Women have the right to vote throughout the river cities of West Highland and in most of the other towns throughout West Highland. While suffrage movements exist in other parts of the world, women’s suffrage (along with the West’s relatively open qualifications for everyone else who isn’t part of the elite) is generally considered an example of the backward, backwoods nature of life in West Highland.

Nobility

Within Highland, titles of nobility matter more in some places than in others. Black Stag has few titled masters living within it; Fork has many of the old nobility congregating around it.

Within West Highland, the main title of nobility is the Earl. “Earl” is a warrior title, though many Earls today would be hard-pressed to raise a regiment. Many families that retained the warrior tradition in the last century died in the Goblin Wars. Many that did not die lost their lands or found their seats abandoned.

Generally, an earl holds a manor, provides military protection or owns a business, and has many officials beholden to them.

Earls are generally addressed as “Lord” and their wives as “Lady”. For example, Lord Lisport, Earl of Lisport and his wife Lady Melissa Courlander. During war, an Earl who raises a regiment will be a Colonel. They’ll usually have a Lieutenant-Colonel as a second-in-command, and Captains beneath them, with Lieutenants beneath the Captains if necessary.

There are some Counts in East Highland and a very few in West Highland. “Count” is the main title of nobility in South Bend. A defeated, disgraced, or landless Count may choose to leave the Bend and travel North. The wife of a Count is a Countess. The first son is a Viscount.

East Highland

In the cradle of the High Divide and the Sea Haven, east Highland is a center of commerce. Ships arrive from Great Bend laden with fruits, clothing, and other sundries and specialties, and return to Great Bend with leather, pearls, silver, and iron from the High Divide.

Most of east Highland is on the coast.

East Highland escaped most of the ravages of the Goblin Wars. They lost quite a bit of trade from west Highland for the duration of the war, and because of this fewer trade ships made the long trip north from Great Bend. So people had to tighten their belts, and fortunes were lost, but few people died. No towns were emptied, no castles lost, no cities overrun.

Crosspoint

Crosspoint is the largest city in not only in east Highland, but in west Highland as well. Built on a hill overlooking the bay, Crosspoint has long eclipsed its sister city of Watertown across the bay.

The mayor of Crosspoint is elected by the council of guilds.

Watertown

Crosspoint’s grimy sister, Watertown boasts a shadier port and a colder, windier climate.

High Town

Confusing enough for foreigners because it shares its name with the main stop off of the leather road, High Town is quiet enough. It stands on the edge of a tall cliff overlooking the sea.

The River Valley

Known for its lush, wet farmlands, there is no major town within the River Valley, merely many small farming villages.

Haven

There are many lost villages scattered throughout Highland, towns long abandoned simply because their peoples left. Haven died more quickly, in the great storms that preceded the Goblin wars.

Calling

Founded in the year of the cataclysm 755 by Alvon Peter, the community of Calling is an attempt to return to Eden. Alvon Peter is known for the utopian discussion Reconstructing Eden in which he tries to discern God’s purpose in casting humanity out of Eden. The Community of Calling, while founded as a small community, now consists of several small communities. Peter’s vision is adamant that Eden can only be reconstructed in small groups.

Although Alvon’s vision is little more than an extreme interpretation of the church’s teachings on the evils of kingdoms, Alvon and his community are considered minor heretics. His writings are on the church’s list of forbidden materials, and must be destroyed if found.

Tower of Ages

On a great gray cliff jutting out into the water, a forbidding tower stands quietly against the sky. It’s been there as long as anyone can remember. There are no legends about it, but it appears in the oldest of them. Who or what is its owner? Who walks its silent halls? No windows mar the stark exterior; no doors beckon at the base. It stands, immovable, waiting, for something only it knows.

Pirate’s Cove

“Johnny Cover” is slang in the cove for the landlubbers who live in the city of Pirate’s Cove. While the slang is definitely pejorative, Johnny Cover is still a wily beast. Pirate’s Cove has little in the way of authority beyond clan, guild, and connections.

The city itself is a haven for pirates and far from the grasp of the civilized world.

The population nearby the cove includes the spreading infestation of villainous rejects from the city as well as Jutes, Vikings, and even some Celts from across the Divide. Much of Crosspoint’s whiskey comes from the renegade Celts of Pirate’s Cove.

West Highland

Most of west Highland is on the Fawn River. Most of the rest is on the west side of the High Divide.

Taverns and Inns

Travel accommodations throughout west Highland are haphazard at best. Most travelers will find unoccupied forest to set camp, or will ask a nearby farmer if it’s okay to sleep on untilled land (or will just do it and not ask).

There just aren’t enough travelers to support inns in most towns. Near the mountains, only Biblyon and Hightown have inns, and Hightown closes up during the winter.

The only inn on the old roads is the Weaving Well in Weaving. There are no inns along the Leather Road except in Hightown.

Fawn River, between Black Stag and Fork, is more populated and is heavily traveled. Thus there are inns in most towns along the river, though many people still camp in unoccupied areas along the river.

Most inns in west Highland will also have taverns either as part of the building or attached to it. Any area with enough people to support an inn will usually support a few more taverns. Taverns along the river or in the larger towns (such as Hightown or Biblyon) will resemble the stereotypical fantasy-medieval tavern. Except in the biggest taverns, food is likely to be brought in by the tavern-owner from nearby shops and resold at a higher price.

In the smaller towns and villages along the old roads, a “tavern” might be no more than the home of a villager who has recently brewed a batch of ale. In these remote areas, nearly everyone brews beer or cider, and some will brew extra; when the batch is ready, they put a sign out and let the neighbors know, and for a few nights they are the local tavern. Such homestyle taverns will usually also offer bread, or maybe even meat pasties, along with the drinks.

Hightown Pass

There are two passes through the High Divide: Unicorn Pass and Hightown Pass. Unicorn Pass is four hundred miles north of Watertown, on the southern borders of the Celtic lands. While it is only twenty or so miles north of Fawn River, it is not generally used by Christian Highland.

Hightown Pass begins a “mere” hundred miles from either Crosspoint or Watertown. It extends another seventy miles through mountainous terrain. Movement through the pass is at half speed: usually, it takes a week for a walker or a loaded caravan to arrive through to the other side.

The Leather Road

The Leather Road, named for the major item of trade from west Highland to east, extends two hundred and fifty miles from Hightown to Black Stag. For most of its length, it is a natural path, worn further by centuries of travel, man and animal. Trees do not grow there, or grow sparsely, the land is relatively level except for the small rivers that occasionally cross the path, and the ground is firm enough for carriages and wagons. Movement on the Leather Road is unobstructed.

Few towns, however, live on the road. Those that do stand ten or ten or fifteen miles north of the road or more. The Leather Road is also something of a barrier, a border between north and south, between civilization and the dark unknown. The border itself is safe enough to travel with an escort, but it is not safe to remain still for extended periods.

At the stone, iron, and wood bridge where the road crosses the Old Deer River, for example, the ruins of Brightwood Crossing lie empty. Brightwood Crossing was a reasonably-sized town a hundred years ago, but it emptied in the Goblin Wars. Several decades ago some enterprising souls tried to restart the horse and shipping trade that was Brightwood’s main business, but few came to live there, and those that did moved slowly away. The shadow of the forest was too heavy at night, and the eyes in the night too close.

Hightown

Hightown, some seven miles north of the Leather Road in the foothills of the High Divide, is the center of trading between East and West Highland. Merchants from Crosspoint come across the mountains and sell their trade at Hightown to merchants from the river cities of West Highland. In turn, they purchase leather and other goods from the river merchants. Much of Hightown’s trade is in barter, as merchants trade their goods for goods from their counterparts.

The pass across the mountains is called Hightown Pass. Hightown Pass is the only way across the mountains between West Highland and East Highland without traveling far north and back down again. The pass still rises an easy 3,500 feet above sea level, and Hightown, on the lower western side of the pass, is still 2,000 feet above sea level. Dawn comes late to Hightown: the sun does not rise above the mountains for an hour after it would if the mountains weren’t there.

The center of life in Hightown is the market. Many West Highland merchants never leave West Highland, and many East Highland merchants never go further west than Hightown. Caravans will stock up on the supplies they’ll need to cross the High Divide or to travel the Leather Road, depending on which way they’re going. Hightown is the only choice for such supplies, and they know it. Prices are usually about 20% higher for arms, armor, dry rations, and other traveling supplies. Still, it often is cheaper and easier than carrying enough supplies for a round trip.

Villagers from the surrounding villages will come to sell their crops or wares, and perhaps to pick up a few things themselves but mainly the Hightown market is by merchants for merchants. Occasionally, Knights of one of the northern Orders will send a delegation to purchase or commission supplies.

In almost all cases not involving merchants (and in many cases involving them also), trade occurs without the use of money: barter is the way most trade works in Hightown. An important part of interpersonal relations in Hightown is determining what the other person would want enough to trade for a good deal for what they have.

Hightown is also called “Leathertown” by some East Highlanders, for the abundance of leather goods in the market.

Hightown practically empties during the winter months. The inns close, the market empties. Some inn owners, those who live in their property, will remain, and there are a larger and larger number of “citizens” of the town who remain throughout the year. But for the most part Hightown exists for the market trade and it does not exist when there is no trade.

Fawn River

The Fawn River is the line of civilization in west Highland. There are some towns on the western slopes of the High Divide, but except for Hightown these are generally affiliated with one of the old scholarly or fighting orders. Many of those are long abandoned as the orders have been dying out. Fawn River is where most people live, culminating in Black Stag at the southern “end” of the river.

Travel up and down Fawn River is by horse (on land), or by barge, rowboat, or sailboat. On the upper river, horses are used to pull barges upriver if poles or oars are impractical. On the main river, sails are used. Smaller boats will also be carted overland.

Within Black Stag, government officials (and all official government documents) call the river “Stag River”, and have done so since the law was passed requiring it in the term of Mayor Albert Walsh in 1947. “The land is no longer young, and the river has grown.”

Aletown

The ale of Aletown, some say, is worth the trip overland from Lowhill or Newhorse to this outpost on the upper river. Fewer actually make the trip, and most of Aletown’s ale makes it down the Fawn River the same way everything else does: through the Fork.

Black Stag

Life in Black Stag, at the edge of the civilized world, is hard but stable. The town is run by the mayor Robert Walsh, who basically inherited the post from his father Robert Sr. The mayor is appointed by a small council of aldermen but once appointed holds the office for life. The mayor and council are advised by the Black Stag Wizard Council that the current Walsh instituted. The mayor appoints and leads the standing army, which also acts as a police force. There is one sheriff, twenty-nine captains, and 174 men-at-arms. Each captain leads a force of six men.

Mayor Walsh looks to the day when the cities and towns of the Fawn River are united under a single command, preferably his own. He is working on “security pacts” with the other towns of the region. Walsh argues that the wealth of West Highland will grow with greater trade, and that trade will grow with greater uniformity of law and with safer travel conditions. He’d like to keep the village of Hightown open year-round, for example, and then possibly re-open Brightwood Crossing to provide aid to caravans and other travelers.

The Black Stag Wizard Council has five sorcerors. The council chair is John Engle, a hard, manipulative man with his own designs on power. Sorcerors are appointed to the Wizard Council on a vote by the Wizard Council, the Town Council, and the Mayor. Two votes are enough to appoint a new sorceror or remove an existing sorceror from the council.

The Bishop of West Highland, John Green, holds little political power in Black Stag but is working at thwarting mayor Walsh’s ambitions as against church teachings regarding kingdoms. Bishop Green maintains a guard of ten to thirty warriors. He has no sorcerors in his guard and will not hire any for religious reasons. He maintains some contacts and even some odd friendships with the free sorcerors of West Highland, however.

Black Stag is at the western end of the leather road, and is the reason for the road’s name. The most coveted product of west Highland is produced in Black Stag from deer and other animals hunted in the forests upriver. The tanners of Black Stag know their worth and guard their processes zealously.

Crystal Waters

Located at the base of the Elfstream, from which the Long Lakes empty into the upper river and strengthen the weaker fork of the Fawn River as it trickles into Aletown and the unknown, Crystal Waters is known for its beautiful waterfalls.

There is some traffic from Newhorse overland to Crystal Waters, but travel through the forest being somewhat dangerous, most folks take the longer trip up the river and down the river, which being such a long trip most folks just give up and don’t take the trip at all.

Fartown

A tiny village a hundred miles northeast of the fork at Fawn River, Fartown is a quiet place. William Dreardon, a merchant and farmer rich by Fartown standards, has little to compare to the merchant-leaders further south. William’s younger brother Tom is in the service of the priesthood in Stone Goblin.

Father Arthur Creidon, a sorceror of small renown, is the only authority figure Fartown has. He keeps his sorcery mostly under wraps, but he’s an eccentric young man to the rest of the town. He has spent time in both Crosspoint and Biblyon before being posted to Fartown. He corresponds with Tom Dreardon of Black Stag on the nature of light, and his spells experiment with light. He has a spell that tints light in a short range, for example, and another that creates a small mirror in the air.

Fartown is known most among connoisseurs of northweed. Many smokers swear by Fartown leaf, assuming that the plant is grown nearby the town. In fact, the tobacco leaf is traded within Fartown by Celtic traders who have traveled to Erventon to acquire the coveted plant.

Firetree

Roald Padua was traveling north from Black Stag in the 289th year of the cataclysm when the Lord appeared to him in a flash from the sky, burning a great tree to cinders in minutes. Padua organized a band of followers and founded the village of Firetree at the location of his divine revelation. The burnt stump itself had disappeared, itself miraculous as Padua had marked the location and his marker remained. Legend has it that anyone who finds the burnt stump of the firetree (which usually happens at the first rays of dawn) will be granted one wish. Legends are mixed on whether the wish will be granted benignly or malignantly.

The hereditary mayor of Firetree, John Brussels, has no direct heirs. His nephew, Andrew Brussels, is thus the center of many intrigues, or at least as many intrigues as a town this small can support. The mayor enforces order and creates laws. He also appoints the sheriff and the standing army.

The council of seven controls Firetree monetary policy and pays for the mayor’s soldiers. The councilmembers are elected by the merchant guild of Firetree. The relationship between the council and the mayor is often acrimonious, and political infighting has kept Firetree from growing as much as it could.

Firetree’s law enforcement consists of Sheriff Charles Hunter and six other captains. Sheriff Hunter and each captain lead a patrol of three soldiers.

Fork

Where the Fawn River forks into the Fawn River to Black Stag and the upper river down to Aletown, merchants congregate to barter with northern hunters, furriers, and farmers. Everyone on Crystal Waters or north of the fork with something to trade make their way to Fork.

This was once a small trading stop similar to Hightown, but the merchants recognized its importance and built it up as a full-fledged town. The merchant guilds run the town, and basically leaves everyone alone unless they are adversely affecting trade. Merchants who use Fork for any length of time will find it safest to become a member of a guild. The guild of Merchants Guilds has branches throughout the river communities.

The town’s unsavory appeal is assisted by the number who, having made lucrative trades, return home with little more than they started their journey with. Scams, ruffians, and gambling offer many opportunities for the newly rich to return to their common status.

The town is managed by the High Guildmaster, technically an elected post from among all guilds, but in practice controlled by the Merchant’s Guilds. The election occurs among representatives of each official guild in the Guilds Council.

Fork is a walled town and it guards its borders zealously. No one may carry a weapon or wear armor without a license from the Office of the High Guildmaster or the Guilds Council. In practice, this is the most abused law within Fork. Bribes will speed the granting of a license, and bribes will also allow offenders to avoid arrest, to avoid imprisonment if arrested, and to leave prison early if imprisoned.

Licenses are easiest to acquire for rapiers (10 shillings per month) and short swords (12 shillings per month). Licenses usually take one to six months to acquire. Bribes are most effective when carrying those weapons, or other small weapons such as daggers. Transporters will carry weapons from the town’s gates to storage for retrieval when leaving Fork. Most quality inns will have a transporter on call. Transport will cost 5 to 15 shillings depending on the weapon and the inn.

The High Guildmaster and any member of the Guilds Council may temporarily rescind the prohibition in emergencies.

One of the most powerful guildmasters is “Sparkling” Danny Chaverson, head of the Two Horses Gaming Guild. The Two Horses includes in its ranks nearly half of all gambling houses in Fork, and controls quite a bit of underground trade and other unsavory activities.

Lowhill

The nominal ruler of Lowhill is the Count’s family and their guard, making Lowhill an anomaly in west Highland in supporting, or at least condoning, a noble class. However, power is also concentrated in many competing craft and labor guilds, each charged with protecting its members and taxing its area of influence. Guilds are taxed in turn by the count. Each guild will have a guard of from ten to thirty strongarms.

There are also “noblemen’s guilds” with their own guards: the Society of the Rose, the White Oak, the Burning Sun, and the Quarter Moon Society.

Fishermen have their own guild, as do most other craftworkers, and laborers. There is even a Commoner’s Guild for all who do not have a guild of their own. Their taxes pay the Contessa’s guard, charged with the protection of not only their “guild” but also the Contessa and her female relations.

The current ruling family is Count William Astorbury, his wife the Contessa Maria Cérés-Astorbury, and their children Lord William II and Lady Susan Astorbury.

Life in Lowhill is a dangerous affair, and it is the lucky commoner whose day is not afflicted with some intrigue.

Newhorse

The horse-races of Newhorse in the late summer are one of the major events of west Highland, and make Newhorse the center of the horse-trading season. Long a source of new steeds for trips north and south, the council devised the “horse Olympics” as a means of cementing Newhorse’s status as the number one place to go for quality horses: even when they don’t have the best, the best come to them.

Pike Hole

Pike Hole is the last stop on the journey north to the fork, where those seeking to trade their leather, fur, meat, and other saleable items constantly stream. Pike Hole is also the first place where those who have gained or lost money at the fork stop to guard their gains or lament their losses.

Stone Goblin

Stone Goblin is a small village known most for the stone statue of a night troll in the town square. The story is that the troll was caught there at sunrise and turned to stone after the local farmer (John Smith) tricked it into forgetting the time.

Today, Stone Goblin is the ‘city’ to a number of even smaller villages nearby. Traders who aren’t going all the way upriver will sometimes go overland from Firetree to Stone Goblin to trade their wares to merchants more familiar with the area, or will travel downriver to Stone Goblin and then go overland to Firetree. Neither of these are major sources of visitors, however, as most traders prefer to keep to the river.

Stone Goblin makes a good place to start young adventurers. At the edge of civilization, there are old battlefields in the hills to the northeast, there are Elves up the Elfstream, and completely unknown lands to the west.

The Cloven Shield

The major gathering place in Stone Goblin is Barky Snell’s Cloven Shield. Jim Snell can be found behind the bar there just about every night. At least once a week, Barky Snell, Father Tom Dreardon, Old Will Deerborn, and Captain Bill Ridder meet at the Shield ostensibly to discuss village matters, but mostly to drink and tell tall tales of their younger days. This usually happens on Friday nights.

The Cloven Shield has two waitresses, Alice Ridder and Carol Langtree. The two women alternate nights, except for Friday nights when they both come in.

The Cloven Shield has a common room for two pennies, or a private room with two beds for one shilling. Beer runs a farthing, and if the crew have had time to cook a meal it will run two pennies a person, one penny for regulars. They usually have meals on Friday nights.

William Deerborn

Known simply as “old Will” around Stone Goblin, William Deerborn is relatively well-known among wizards. He specializes in insubstantiality. If you use Stone Goblin as the starting point for a campaign, Will would make a good teacher for any player character sorcerors.

Will has been around for a long time. Some of his stories in the Cloven Shield take place during the Goblin Wars ninety years ago. Some of his stories involve his youth in the now-lost river town of Bedford Falls.

“The war was… at first it was an opportunity. The world was in trouble. My companions and I—Jay Edonton, Carl Sheer, Morris McCormas, and there were others who walked with us for a time—we left our town on the river and went into the wood. We harassed the goblin armies for a time, learned their ways and tried to learn the ways of the hooded man. When our Bedford was about to be attacked, we raised the militia; our army fought well, but we had no chance, so did our best to evacuate the town and sent the men on to other armies. Then we faded back into the wood and turned to delaying and harassing the goblins, and scouting for the armies of men.”

“At first, it was exhilarating. It was what we were born to. Heroism, surely. There were heroes everywhere in those days. But in the end most of the heroes found death, in burnt towns and battlefields black with crows. The stink of the hooded man was everywhere.”

Most young folks think he just knows how to spin a tall tale. Their elders think it’s either some magic he knows, or simply what it is, that the old blood of Methuselah runs true.

“A hundred years ago we turned back a great army. A hundred years ago one of those armies marched into Weaving Wood and disappeared. Those memories now could be a thousand years old; the legend of the Weaving Wood is nearly forgotten, and where remembered some attribute it to the ancients. It is as if the past were stretching backward. What if it stretches so far that it breaks?”

William Deerborn is a twelfth level classical sorceror.

Captain Bill Ridder

Bill left Stone Goblin for a seafaring life when he turned fourteen. That was 946. Bill lost his right leg in a shipwreck off of Danger Bay thirty years ago in 961. He returned to Stone Goblin with enough money to build a large farm. Bill’s brother Kenneth stayed in Stone Goblin and married Alice Wilson, but Ken died sixteen years ago. He and his sister-in-law have never gotten along and still don’t, but they look after each other.

Father Tom Dreardon

Born in Fartown, Tom studied at Crosspoint for five years before taking his vows. Tom is only twenty-seven years old. He’s been in Stone Goblin now for four years. He may soon be courting Carol Langtree, especially if Barky Snell has his way. Tom is an odd duck in Stone Goblin and likes nothing more than staying in the Rectory reading books he’s acquired from the rare book merchant passing through. He maintains connections with Crosspoint colleagues and occasionally receives writings from the College. He is especially interested in the refractory nature of light. His experiments make no sense to the rest of the town, but they are certainly interesting to look at. He doesn’t know it, but his own writings on the subject are beginning to be noticed in both Crosspoint and Biblyon.

Tom’s family, including his older brother William, are in Fartown.

Alice Ridder

Alice is John Wilson’s younger sister. She married Ken Ridder but Ken died fighting a man-eating cougar sixteen years ago. Captain Bill is her brother-in-law. Her own brother, John Wilson, is married to fellow waitress Carol Langtree’s aunt Mary.

Carol Langtree

Carol is the younger of the two waitresses. Her father John Langtree died of consumption three years ago. Carol’s mother Susan still runs the family farm. John and Jim Snell were close friends, and so Jim ensures that good workers know of the Langtree farm.

Carol’s younger sister Gwendolyn (Wendy) can sometimes be found in the bar as well, often in the company of Carol’s cousins James and Carol Wilson, the children of Susan Langtree’s younger sister (John, Jr. died recently).

Susan and Mary Conner were the most desirable young women of their generation, and Carol has the fortune (or not) of inheriting their beauty.

Other Folks

The Smiths, supposedly descended from the original Smith who founded Stone Goblin after his mishap with the night troll, are common enough around here. William Smith is occasionally found in the Cloven Shield. He and his wife Susan Smith lost one child, Arthur, but still have Arthur’s younger brother David to raise. William traveled to Crosspoint when young and returned with his wife, Susan (Ascot). William is known as Bill to his family, but is usually addressed as William to distinguish him from Old Will or Captain Bill.

The High Road

Biblyon

Known throughout Highland as a seditious home of sorcerors and schismatic knights, the “Babylon of Books” takes that name with pride. The Order of Illustration built Illustrious Castle overlooking the valley in the year of the cataclysm 291, as a place to preserve the lost knowledge of the Ancients. The Order searched the destroyed world for ancient books, for people who remembered stories their great grandparents told of the pre-cataclysmic world, and for pre-cataclysmic artifacts.

In 615, the Order founded the library in the valley; by 699 interest in the order’s scholarship had risen enough to justify building a great Dormitory to house visiting scholars. Somewhere along the line, the people of the town took the derogatory name that others assigned to them and made it the name of their town: Biblyon.

After the Goblin Wars, the Order fell to power squabbling. To protect the library, the librarians founded the Tutoris Libris, a secret order of adventuring scholars to keep the town safe, and to continue what the Order had given up on: searching out lost knowledge. When the Order committed suicide in 911, the Tutors no longer needed secrecy; they built the House of Tutors in Biblyon in 916, and to this day are known to search the ends of the known world for lost knowledge of the ancients.

You can find more detail about the Babylon of books in the Gods & Monsters adventure Illustrious Castle at http://www.godsmonsters.com/Haunted/.

Weaving

A tiny town in north-central West Highland, Weaving is a small way station on the High Road between Hightown and Fork. Weaving is known for its rich farmland and exports grain and vegetables to the towns along the Fawn River as well as the towns along the High Divide.

Among connoisseurs of northweed, Weaving is known for Weaving weed. Though smokers assume the plant is grown throughout the north, the tobacco is grown in Erventon, and traded through Celtic traders and other travelers who go through Erventon. Though few know it, there is much trade between the Celts and Weaving through Bailabann up the Dowanthal river.

The Weaving Well

A round, stone well sits to the right of a wide door on a two-story building. The sign out front announces “The Weaving Well” in both letters and signs. The stable doors are off to the left, and you can both smell and hear the horses inside. Smoke rises from the chimney and you can smell the warm scent of baking bread.

Townsfolk and a few merchants mingle outside by the well. Men move in and out of the crowd, through the swinging doors of the inn and also from the street.

Weaving’s only full inn gets its name from the Wells family and from the well out front. This moderately-sized tavern and inn is the major meeting place along the High Road. Everyone who takes the High Road makes sure to go past the Weaving Wood and stay in Weaving at the Well. The Well has a central common room just beyond the main entrance which is also where the tavern operates. When the tavern closes for the night, the tables are moved aside and travelers may bring their bedrolls out. There are also several rooms ringing the common area on both the first and second floors.

The Weaving Well is run by an ex-pirate named John Cover, who married into it.

A wiry old man, with a neatly-trimmed beard and a gold earring in his left ear, greets you as you walk in. He has just stepped out from the kitchen on your right and sits at a table with some other people. He would be out of place here even without the earring, but the townsfolk take little notice of him.

“Johnny Cover” is a derogatory name in Pirate’s Cove, though the people of West Highland don’t know this. John came here twenty years ago and cleared some farmland north of the High Road. While he gave up most of his old ways, he spent much time at the Well. Initially shunned for his strange looks and ways, his gregarious manner and tall tales slowly gained him acceptance, to the point that he eventually married the widowed Mary Flanders, now Mary Cover.

The Well comes to Mary through her father, Brian Wells. Her first husband, Kevin Flanders, disappeared in 972, probably lost in the wood, only a year after they married. They had no children.

John Cover came to Weaving by way of Unicorn Pass and through the Celtic lands. He speaks Celtic and Frankish as well as Anglish (his native tongue), but he does not read or write.

John and Mary have four children. Their twin girls Amelie and Lillian are fifteen years old and give their family and the town good-natured trouble. Their nineteen-year-old son Brian and their eighteen year old son Cory assist in the stables and other chores at the inn, while the twins stay in the kitchen and cook. Early in the evening, John will direct them, but later he’ll be in the bar with the guests.

On rare occasions, old friends of John from his pirate days or his travels through the Celtic lands have been known to visit.

Weaving Weed

As the main stop for Anglish-speaking traders from Bailabann, a decent amount of northweed travels through Weaving, and the people of Weaving smoke quite a bit more than towns south of the High Road. While smoking is forbidden by custom inside the Weaving Well, a smoker looking for conversation can almost always find someone out front of the tavern. “Taking a drink at the well” has become synonymous in the area for having a conversational smoking break.

Dowanthal Peak

Dowanthal Peak is a low mountain or tall hill north of where the High Road turns west toward Weaving. The steep rocky outcrop juts fifteen hundred feet into the air and is the marker travelers use to know that they are near Weaving. Dowanthal Peak’s south and east face are in the Weaving Wood and nearly unreachable from the road because of this.

Dowanthal Peak is seven miles east and three miles north of Weaving.

Dowanthal Peak rises out of the forest before you. The tall rock’s craggy and bare face stands as an eternal marker: here, and no further, is the edge of civilization. Soon the High Road will circle west toward Weaving. Already, the wood grows thicker and deeper. A canopy of leaves and branches forms above you. Shafts of light shine through the trees, illuminating dust in golden sparkles against the forest green.

Dowanthal Peak was once an Underground outpost of the Sakmat.

Dowanthal River

Dowanthal River comes down from the north, and flows around the west side of Dowanthal Peak. It runs right through the south part of town (Riverside). It weaves quite a bit, and in fact travelers cross it three times on the High Road.

Weaving River

Weaving River comes out of the Weaving Wood. The Weaving River comes down from the mountains before going through Weaving Wood. It is a mighty river during the spring when the snowmelt fills it. It often overflows its banks and changes course.

The Weaving Wood

Four miles east of Weaving is the west edge of the Weaving Wood, a thick, impassable forest of oak and ash intermixed with hawthorn and ringed by yew. The High Road passes through the southwest edge of the Weaving Wood, and locals will warn that the wood remembers the ax that cuts it. Few are foolish enough to chop within its borders. Legends abound of those who “angered the wood” and later disappeared while on the road. Years ago Aidan Collins became lost in the wood and returned a pale reflection of his old self; he retired to a cottage outside of town, cleared all the trees around it, and never leaves.

Townsfolk do not speak of the strange lights that sometime appear on the road, but will encourage anyone who does to ignore the corpse-lights of the Weaving Wood. The wood is rumored to have been the home of Druids long ago. Perhaps four hundred years ago (“or was it fourteen hundred?”) an army of Christians destroyed their temple and all of the Druids there. But the Druids with their dying breath cursed the Christian army, and the army itself never left the forest. Their ghosts still haunt the thick wood.

During the Goblin Wars, an army of goblins entered the wood in search of the legendary Druid treasure within. They never came out, and now their ghosts join the long-lost Christian army to tempt travelers into the unknown dangers of the Weaving Wood.

After the curse, travelers began to use other routes to Fawn River, resulting in the other Old Road, more and more southerly towns on the river, and ultimately the Leather Road and Black Stag. Those travelers who still travel the Old Road know that once Dowanthal Peak comes into view, do not stop until you come to the Weaving Well.

Human Languages

Anglish and Celtic

Anglish is the most common language used in Highland. It is basically English. There is also Celtic spoken in the northwest among the Celts, and a Germanic language among the barbarian tribes in the northeast.

Ancient

Scholars and sorcerors also use the Ancient tongue, which is a bastardized form of Latin. Because of the relative paucity of Latin texts that survived the Cataclysm, you should feel free to make up Ancient phrases without worrying too much about whether you get the Latin “correct”. There are several English-Latin dictionaries available via web searches.

Frankish

Frankish speakers sometimes travel north from Great Bend to Crosspoint, and can be encountered there or rarely as part of merchant caravans crossing the leather road. Frankish is an old French, in the same way that Frankish is an old, but outside-influenced, English.

Old Roman

While it doesn’t appear to be related to the Ancient tongue, the language of the “traveling Romans of Great Bend” is called “Old Roman”.

The Ocean

The ocean is a mass of roiling waters and dark skies. The eastern sea is the end of the world. No vessels capable of safely traversing the ocean exist. The constant storms on the deep ocean make travel beyond the sight of shore deadly. There are legends of strange boats arriving from beyond the storms, battered and torn. Most people, however, believe the world is flat, and that the tumult on the sea is the water running over the side.

Ships are made in Watertown. Forests in the northwest are cut, and the logs come down the river to the shipyards of Watertown.

Pirates will steal merchantmen and outfit them with weaponry, including low level sorcerors, archers, and crossbows. Very rarely, a prophet of the night gods will sign on as a pirate to further some nefarious purpose.

Ship Information

Highland and Bend merchants use curragh, cog, and coaster-style vessels to transport goods and people. Cogs and coasters are preferred for goods for their tonnage and speed. Sailed curraghs carry people and are slower, but are much cheaper.

Further north, some of the barbarian tribes use drakkar and knarr to travel along the coast in raids and trading missions. To the average coastal highlander, barbarians and pirates are the same thing, with different ships.

Cog

For its size and its cargo capacity, the cog is most suited for carrying goods from Highland to South Bend. It sports three sails. The cog is the most commonly used ship in Highland.

Coaster

The coaster gets its name from its mode of travel: it never sails out of sight of land. In Highland, of course, no one sails out of site of land, but the coaster was the first sailing ship used for trade in civilized Highland. It is commonly used for trade between two nearby ports. It is commonly used, now, in South Bend, where there are many more ports than in Highland. In Highland, coasters, will travel from Watertown to Crosspoint, or from Crosspoint to High Town.

Coasters sport two sails.

Curragh

The curragh in Highland is quite a bit larger than the curragh we’re familiar with, but is still the smallest of the merchant ships used in East Highland. The curragh may be either sailed or rowed. It boasts two sails and is also designed for rowing. The curragh is often used for passenger transport between nearby ports.

Drakkar and Knarr

These ships are rarely seen in civilized Highland, but they ply the sea around Pirates’ Cove and have been known to travel as far south as the Tower of Ages. They are used by the Norse and the Jutes for trade and for raiding.

The Knarr run about fifty feet long and are used mostly for trading. The Drakkar are about seventy-five feet long, and can hold 80 fully-armed raiders. These ships are able to handle storms well. They also have a low draft, which lets them land directly on a beach, rather than requiring deeper-water harbors. They’re light enough to be carried across land. Many of these boats have sails, though they are primarily designed to be rowed. The Norse sit on chests containing their personal possessions when they row.

Highland to Bend Sea Travel

All of these costs and times are measured from Crosspoint. Costs from Watertown are 10% higher and another half day.

Costs may be bargained down significantly if the customer is charismatic and not tied to a specific time or captain. Winter travel is more dangerous, and costs rise 50% from December to March.

Travel Times

Travel times can vary considerably depending on weather, especially for sailing ships.

Shipping Costs

There will be a discount of 1% for every three tons on a coaster or cog. Costs are in Crosspoint shillings and pennies, and are per ton.

Travel Costs

These costs are per person, and include basic food and lodging. Costs are in Crosspoint shillings and pennies.

Charter Costs

Chartering a boat can be time-consuming and requires planning in advance. A boat is rarely available for charter in less than a week. The initial payment must be paid to reserve the ship, and the costs per day must be paid on taking the ship. Costs are in Crosspoint shillings and pennies.

Charter costs include a basic crew. Tipping is generally accepted and the expectation of tipping will usually produce better service.

The Elves

The Elves are the largest of the Faerie races, and the most human-like in appearance. Elves are very long-lived, and some remember the cataclysm, Melantalen as they call it.

Elves prefer to live near large amounts of fresh, clear water. The central Elven culture is in West Highland, by the Long Lakes, but some also live in the River Valley of East Highland. These are the Kiero and the Kimel, respectively.

The elves of Highland consider themselves visitors to this world. There are still a handful of Elves who vaguely remember the Melantalen, or Cataclysm. There are even more Elves who grew up as the Elves rebuilt their living spaces and “city” after they were cut off from their older, far grander, city. The Elves are only one and two generations away from the Elves who lived before the Cataclysm.

There are also rumors of an evil Elven race living in the Dark Forest, or somewhere in the Underground, the Kivian. Then again, there are rumors of an evil Halfling race in the Dark Forest. You can’t believe everything you hear. The Kivian are used mostly as a cautionary tale for children, and most adult Elves believe that if the Kivian existed they would be found. The Elven scouts are not known for their fear of traveling, even into the Forest.

Elves gather most of their food from the forests and fields, and grow the rest. Elves can subsist on a very small amount of food. If they are eating well, they need about one quarter of the food a human needs. If they start eating meat or dry rations, however, they will require a more normal amount of food. Most Elves will not eat meat, and are unused to it. Warriors, especially the Rivelaelfte, have learned to eat a wider variety of foodstuffs.

Time

Normally Elves do not measure time more precisely than talen, the day, and that’s more precise than they like to get. Precise appointments among the long-lived race are difficult. They do not have a unit of time smaller than a day, though they can use night, day, dawn, and dusk as times when absolutely necessary.

Their medoral is somewhat equivalent to the human month, though it is measured by constellations (somewhat like the human zodiac) rather than by phases of the moon. Elves measure two seasons: erilen, winter, and karvan, summer.

The Elven year is kilanv, seven years is temas, ninety-eight years is timostine, and nine hundred and eighty years is ralmostine, about an Elven lifetime. The next temas and timostine are in 994, and the next ralmostine is in 1092.

Elves have long lives, and their lifestyle leaves them much free time. They use it to visit and celebrate with friends, to carry on hobbies such as gardening, sailing, creating musical and visual arts, or many more. They also may spend their time traveling from village to village around the Careleran, the Elven Long Lakes. Some few also spend their time traveling about the known world and learning the languages and cultures of other races.

Medorale

Except for Medoralenalveron, the Elves keep their “months” by the stars. When the three stars of Toralne Deme come over the morning horizon in the spring, a new kilanv has begun.

Note that the Christian dates slowly shift over time as the constellations change in relation to the years, and there can also be slight differences over the four-year leap year cycles.

The first day of Medoralenalveron and Vonorel are holy days for the Elven people, and begin a one to twenty-seven day celebration. Every temas the celebration lasts three days. Every timostine the celebration lasts seven days and every ralmostine the celebration lasts the full medoral.

Elven government

The Council of Sages

The Elves of Highland are guided by a group of sages known as the Ilendor, the oldest and wisest of the long-lived and wise race. The Ilendor meet every temas or so at the Long Lakes to exchange new knowledge, organize old knowledge, and discuss concerns old and new.

The Ilendor are self-appointed guardians of the Elves. Some are powerful wizards, prophets, or warriors, but all are learned sages and have proved their worth over the Elven ages.

Vel amean Tirtalien evano

The traditional farewell of the Rivelaelfte to comrades heading into danger and death, vIHOmaOn DerDOHeWn avOno, means “walk safely under Tirtalien’s light”. The Rivelaelfte are a semi-secret society of warriors and scouts charged with the protection of the Elven lands. Rivelaelfte warriors travel throughout the lands gathering information and looking out for the future of Elvenkind.

Members of the Rivelaelfte will often be warriors, thieves, or at higher levels multi-typed thief-warriors, warrior-sorcerors, or thief-sorcerors. Their specialties will tend to be nature friend, vigilant sleep, animal companion, and perhaps charismatic healing, exemplar, team combat, weapons master, or contacts.

The Rivelaelfte maintain a view on the present as well as the future. There is a saying among them that “alen tenolfey ri anofey Careleran” (OHIn DhnoHVa re OnoVa carIHarOn) which is to say that “the sun rises and sets on the Elven lands.” This is a reminder to them, and to their more long-winded fellows among the Elven sages and council, that some troubles do not respect the long-term Elven worldview. A day is the same for an Elf as it is for a Giblen or Magiblen. Some things must be handled “today”, not merely “now”.

Religious leaders

All Elven religious sages are prophets. The prophets of the Elves often work loosely with the Ilendor and the Rivelaelfte to guide and protect the future of the Elven lands. You can find more information about the Elven deities in Divine Lore at http://www.godsmonsters.com/Divine/.

Communication

Forest signs

The so-called “forest language of the Elves” is actually known by only a few Elves. Any of the Rivelaelfte will recognize it. It is used mostly by non-evil Faerie of the wood.

The forest language is a language of signs. Rocks, twigs, and leaves may be arranged to sign the language; markings may be made in dirt or on wood. For those who are unaware of the language, the markings are difficult to see. They blend in with the foliage and look as if they naturally belong.

The forest language may be used to discuss fairly complex but concrete topics. It can be used to discuss things, races, directions, times, colors, actions, and numbers. It is more difficult to use the forest language to discuss individuals, philosophical concepts, and specific items.

The Leaves of History

The Elves have a library filled with scrolls detailing the history of their race and their gods. There are three libraries: one open to any Elf or Elf-friend, one open to trusted Elves or trusted friends, and one open only to the Ilendor. The second library includes much information brought back by the Rivelaelfte about the cultures and ruins of Highland and the surrounding areas.

The third library includes more secret information brought back by the Rivelaelfte, but also includes ancient scrolls predating the Melantalen. Some of these scrolls describe a world completely unlike that in which the Elves currently live.

Language

Alphabet

The alphabet of the Elves uses seventeen basic glyphs, with two variations of each glyph. You can download what is currently a very unstable truetype font of the Elven alphabet at http://www.hoboes.com/library/downloads/Biblyon/HighlandElvish.zip. This version does not handle circling multiple letters.

Vowels

In Elvish, vowels are mayamuh (maROmE).

For vowels, the first variation is a “sharp” (cri) and the second (circled) a “flat” (wol).

Lip-Consonants

Elvish sees two different kinds of consonants. One is maysuh (maZU).

For consonants, the first variation is a “soft” (leng) and the second (circled) a “hard” (mug) pronunciation.

Mouth-Consonants

The other kind of consonant is matehss (maDIZ).

Punctuation

Two slashes (.) end a sentence. If slashes appear also at the beginning of a sentence, it is an emphasized sentence, or an exclamation. Elvish rarely uses commas, but if it does, a less than and greater than symbol are used (,). Likewise, parenthetical expressions are rare in writing. But when used, the parenthetical is separated by a less than (()and then a greater than ()).

There is no question mark. Questions are preceded by “gar” (CUr). If it is obvious that the statement is or will be a question, however, the “question mark” is omitted.

Word Order

Sentences tend to be in Subject Verb Object order. Adjectives tend to follow the noun they modify.

There is little distinction between nouns and adjectives. If two nouns occur next to each other, the first one tends to be the noun, and the later ones adjectives. Such constructions can be, but are not always, combined into a single word. If such a thing is encountered often or is emblematic, “the tall ruins” is “dimiler”, and “these tall ruins” is “dimileril”. Otherwise, these would be “dimi ler” and “dimilil ler”, respectively.

There are a few exceptions. For example, viredor, or king, will always be preceded by its adjectives.

Dictionary

Word Modifiers

When a modifier connects via a vowel with another word that has the same vowel in that place, the vowel will either be contracted into a single vowel, or an ‘l’ or ‘t’ will be placed between them. In general, if the nearest consonants in the word are mesa, an ‘l’ will be used. If the nearest consonant in the word is a metess a ‘t’ will be used.

bel+ (bIH): empty of, void of

+de (dI): you [verb] (plural you)

den+ (dIn): long, wide

+dor (dor): high, leading, exalted

+(e)da (adU): [noun] was verbed from, verbed out of

+il (eH): this specific [thing]

(+)fey (Va): (does) to, on (something)

ki+ (ce): gerund/noun-ify a verb

+le(+) or +len (HI): (something) of (something else)

+lva (HvE): in, with (service, feeling) for something

+me (me): you [verb] (singular you)

+na+ (nO): like the, as the, of the, as in a comparison between two things

+neng (nIN): southern [thing]

+ore (ora): at the [thing]

ral+ (rOH): 10 of

+rie (rea): passing of, death of

(+)ri (re): [something] and something else

+ta (DE): across the, though the

+thon (tUn): son of [person]

+tie (Di): we [verb]

+tieh (DiI): they [verb] or he, she, it [verbs]

(+) vey (va): [did] to or on something

+vo (vo): in/at a/the [thing or place]

+ya (RE): I [verb]

Nouns and verbs

adril (OdreH): steel

adrilamean (OdrAHOmaOn): a bright, hard, meteoric metal that rivals mithril

alel (OHIH): sky

Alen (OHIn): the Sun

Alveron (OHvaron): the male ruler of the Alvirel

Alvirel (OHvirIH): the Elven pantheon

ambe (Omba): great, powerful, strong

ambean (OmbaOn): death

Ambelide (OmbIHeda): The Tyrant (a constellation and medoral)

amean (OmaOn): illumination, light

amro (Omro): pour (refreshing liquid)

ano (Ono): to set (as sun, star, moon)

Arador (OrEdor): Goddess of Memory and Learning

ark (Urc): paper

arkil (UrceH): book

arlie (OrHeI): wisdom, understanding

arlin (UrHAn): forest

Arlindor (UrHAndor): High Forest of the Alvirel

Avieglien (UveaCHeIn): messenger-god and trickster

bari (bUre): is for, exists for

bedaroltav (badUroHDOv): juggler

Bedaroltav (badUroHDOv): The Juggler (a constellation and medoral)

bien (bean): until such time as, until

caero (cUaro): the lands, the countries

Careleran (cOrIHarOn): Elven Lands (Long Lakes)

Carenarlindor (cOrInUrHAndor): High Forest, the Elven homeland

caro (caro): ground, land, country

Cartoril (carDoreH): Elven Island (Eastern Continent)

cri (cre): a sharply pronounced vowel

dagla (dOCHE): to guide, to lead

danvir (dOnver): spiders

daro (dOro): to bear, carry, use

daya (dURE): I am [something]

deme (dIma): three

dier (dear): carried, transported

dimi (deme): ruins

egla (aCHE): message

eglien (aCHeOn): messenger, courier

elanvedo (IHOnvado): welcome to (a place)

elda (IHdE): sight, eyesight

eleber (IHabar): to appear as from nowhere, to come into sight as a surprise

elessan (IHIIZOn): swords, weapons

elessar (IHIZUr): starlight

elide (IHeda): eyes

eran (arOn): snow

Erilen (arAHIn): Winter

ero (aro): to snow

evano (avOno): from henceforth, from now on, in the future

eyanvir (IROnver): butterfliders

fedama (VIdUmE): to defeat in battle

fediam (VIdeOm): [someone] defeated in battle [someone else]

fien (VeIn): wind

gar (CUr): the following sentence is a question

genesiervel (CInIZearvIH): the screaching dead

Genesiervel (CInIZearvIH): The Banshee (a constellation and medoral)

Giblen (CAbHIn): short Night Troll

hik (hAc): new

idal (edOH): care

idali (edOHe): carefully

Ilendor (eHIndor): Elven Council

iltava (eHDUvE): weaving

ire (era): silence

Iredana (eradUnE): The goddess of weavers and the bearer of the thread of life

Karug (caruC): Dwarves, as a race

Karvan (carvOn): Summer

Kiero (cearo): Elven peoples (Long Lakes)

Kilanv (ceHOnv): year

Kilian (ceHeOn): Elven peoples (Dark Forest)

Kilon (ceHUn): Halflings

Kimel (cemIH): Elven peoples (River Valley)

Kir (cer): Elves (of Cartoril)

kiriev (cereIv): love

kirivel (cerivIH): living

komor (comor): squirrel

Komor (comor): The Squirrel (a constellation and medoral)

komorleran (comorHarIn): snow squirrel

lanvo (HOnvo): to circle, revolve

lavel (HOvIH): to protect

lear (HIUr): smith

leece (HeZ): hatred, racial

lelanv (HaHOnv): during, in the time of

lelern (HIHarn): bird, sparrow

Lelern (HIHarn): The Sparrow (a constellation and medoral)

lene (HInI): above

Lenecarilestetel (HInIcarAHIZDIDIH): The Deep Forest

leng (HIN): a soft consonant

lentav (HInDOv): fire

Lentav (HInDOv): The Fire (a constellation and medoral)

ler (HIr): tall

Leralv (HIrOHv): the Long Lakes

lero (HIro): tallest

Lerovian (HIroveOn): North Star

lian (HAOn): tree

Lian (HAOn): The Tree (a constellation and medoral)

lilen (HeHIn): protector

lirel (HerIH): sword

Lirel (HerIH): The Long Sword (a constellation and medoral)

lon (HUn): an animal burrow in the ground

madra (mUdrE): to forge

maedra (mUadrE): forged

Magiblen (mOCAbHIn): large Night Troll

mayama (maROmE): vowel

Medoral (mIdorOH): star's month

Medoralenalveron (mIdorOHInOHvaron): Alveron’s month

Melantalen (mIHOnDOHIn): the Cataclysm

mele (mIHI): humans

melo (mIHo): to rain

mentav (mInDOv): magic

mentavassar (mInDOvEZUr): sorcerors

mesa: a lip-formed consonant

metess (maDIZ): a mouth consonant

meth (mIt): our

Mien (meIn): Dragon

mithril (metrAH): Elven steel

Morefien (moraVeIn): the god of ocean, lake, and river

morilvan (morAHvOn): traveller, wanderer

morlv (morHv): river

Morlv (morHv): The River (a constellation and medoral)

mug (mEC): a hard consonant

natang (nEDON): battle, serious fight

ngor (Nor): cold, adjective

panvono (BOnvUno): victory

rael (rUIH): peace, serenity

Ralmostine (rOHmoZDen): 980 years

ralv (rOHv): lake

ralvana (rOHvUnE): boat

Ralvana (rOHvUnE): The Boat (a constellation and medoral)

rejh (rIj): stone, rock

rerar (rIrOr): forget

ril (reH): metal

rivel (rivIH): life

Rivelaelfte (rivIHaHVDI): Elven scouts

rugo (ruCo): earth

samessang (ZOmIZON): armies, troops

siero (Zearo): horrible

siervel (ZearvIH): undead

Talen (DOHIN): day (sunrise)

tang (DON): war

tava (DOvO): craftsmanship

tel (DIH): deep (below)

Temas (DamUz): 7 years (14, old)

teno (Dano): to rise (as sun, star, moon)

thlien (tHeIn): turned back, sent away, forced away

tial (DAOH): reign

Tialnambe (DeOHnOmba): A great princess of the elder race of man

tien (DeIn): eagle

Timostine (DemozDen): 98 years (196, old)

tir (Der): moon

Tirtalien (DerDOHeIn): the female ruler of the Alvirel

tor (Dor): high, exalted

toraln (DorOHn): star

Toralne Deme (DorOHnadIma): The Three Stars (a constellation and medoral)

toril (DoreH): silver

torilvan (DoreHvOn): constellation

valon (vOHUn): along side, along with, joined with

vana (vUnE): horse

vaneda (vUnadU): to appear/arrive (somewhere)

vano (vOno): to ride (a riding animal), to sail (a boat)

vel (vIH): under, protected by, shrouded by

velire (vIHera): to disappear (from sight)

vera (verO): gratitude, thanks

vest (vIZD): cavern

Vestelerivel (vIZDIHIrivIH): Caverns of Life

vi (ve): not, no

vian (viOn): rolling plains

viredor (verIdor): ruler, king

virethon (verITUn): prince

vlang (vHUN): scream, yell

vonorel (vUnorIH): unicorn

Vonorel (vUnorIH): The Unicorn (a constellation and medoral)

wenthes (mInTIz): was presented to, was gifted to

weos (MaUz): present to, gift to, give to

were (MIrI): mountain

weta (MaDA): to leave, go, disappear (from somewhere)

wol (MUH): a flatly pronounced vowel

The Dwarf Halls

There are three major Dwarven cities in west Highland. The Dwarves most commonly seen among humans are travelers from the underground halls of Hitarn in the mountains north of Biblyon.

Most humans have seen nothing more of Dwarves than the huge coins they use for barter, and few enough have seen that. Travelers who meet Dwarves on the road may be surprised by the Dwarves they meet in their underground halls. Those Dwarves who choose to leave the great halls are friendlier and more open to meeting new people than their compatriots who stay behind. Most Dwarves are quiet around strangers, taciturn, gruff, and inclined to isolation.

Hitarn

The folk etymology for Hitarn is that it derives as southern halls. Dwarven mythology says that there is a greater Dwarven hall far north in the huge mountains of the great Dwarf-lord Oberon. The Dwarves of Hitarn will say that their halls were started as the last, most southern outpost of these legendary forebears.

The Dwarves of Hitarn have a great affinity and affection for the Celts. Of Celtic assistance in their battles with the giants, they will say “wila verae iklo aeyraer.” “That is a debt we do not forget.”

Hitarn Dwarves, especially those with a divine calling, may make pilgrimages to the battlefield at Fomhor Achadh.

Mentarn

According to the legends of the Mentarn clan, the silver-studded halls of Mentarn were first excavated not by Dwarves but by a great silvery dragon. Thousands of years ago, the Dwarven prince Obeag lead an army of Dwarves to end the depredations of the dragon, defeated it, and took the halls for their own.

There is a strong bond between the Dwarves of Mentarn and the Elves of the Long Lakes which, while rarely needed, has never been broken.

The deep center of the Halls of Mentarn, to which all caverns lead, is the great clear lake of Megrion, where the bones of the dragon sank on its defeat. Great silver and crystal arches encircle the lake, leading both up and down to the various halls of Mentarn, and a deep white light infuses cavern reflecting the silvery roof in the still waters of the lake.

Feltarn

The dour and taciturn southern Dwarves are renowned among even the Dwarves for their ore-lust and deep-delving. The great halls of Feltarn wind completely through the mountains, providing a Dwarven pass from the River Valley to the Deep Forest. The Dwarves of Feltarn keep the location of their eastern entrance a secret known only to themselves.

The Cataclysm

Among the tales the Dwarves tell of the Cataclysm, are that it tore asunder the mountain home of Dwarf and Giant. Where once the Dwarves and Giants battled for control of the mountains, each now lived in mountains hundreds of miles apart, separated by the Celtic valley.

Language Notes

The Dwarves use two written languages: reckoning is a simple means of tracking trades and shipments. They use a variation on Celtic runes for more detailed records, though they don’t keep a lot of them.

Dictionary

Parts

+ar: plural

+klo: does not, do not, will not

ke+: gerund (turn a verb into a noun)

ti (tee): we, of a large group

wila (weel): this is, this is a

Verbs

aeraer: forget, discharge, let slide

rifel: live

Nouns

adro: steel

Ergandion: goddess of ancient wisdom

fel: a pass through mountains

fest: cavern

gri: world, the lands

hi: southern

Kerifelfestar: the living caverns

meen: beard

Men: Dragon

Obeag: the messenger of the Dwarven gods

Oberon: chief of the Dwarf gods

ona: ending, finish

ro: metal

tarn: town (in the mountains)

teng: strong

tengro: mithril

toro: silver

verae: debt, favor

Adjectives

dri: northern

Erventon

The burrows of the Halflings are, like the Halflings themselves, stuck halfway between the abodes of men and Elves. Halflings speak Anglish. They are experts at sausage-making, beer-brewing, and relaxation. Their lifespan more closely resembles that of humans, but their slow-moving lifestyle that of Elves. Their soups take days to ripen, their pipes hours to empty.

Climate

Erventon is nestled in a large valley in the Great Mountains, and their climate is warmer and more comfortable than the surrounding areas. This facilitates their abundant crops, which in turn facilitates their easy-going lifestyle.

Language

The Halflings speak a dialect of Anglish, though with sprinklings of Celtic throughout. The Halflings of Outer Erventon will also often know Celtic, as they must speak it with the traders.

The Halflings write in Elvish, though they write rarely. They will often mark their buildings with a single letter to signify the first or last name of the owner.

Time

The Halflings love their celebrations. The first day of the Pipe is a feast day, and the best of the smokeweed is saved for this day. The first of the Tea Cup, the Juggler, and the Plate are also feast days, and there is a planting feast sometime in March depending on the whims of the weather. The month of the Hero’s Feast is strewn with special meals and gatherings, some of which are made up at will, others of which last through the years.

Calendar

The Halflings use a calendar similar to that of the Elves, though they have their own names for the months. Each month is a constellation. When that constellation comes over the horizon, it is that month.

The first day of the Unicorn and the first day of the Hero’s Feast are also holy days for the Halflings, and filled with joyous worship. Every month, however, will begin with at least some celebration.

Crops and Herds

Erventon’s greatest, and for the most part only, export is their tobacco. They grow wheat, barley, rye, and smokeweed in the summer. They grow potatoes, tomatoes, herbs, garlic, and onion throughout the spring, summer, and autumn, as well as other vegetables such as turnips, carrots, lettuce, and cabbage.

Erventon farmers also raise horses, cattle, pigs, and sheep. The domestic animals, including the sheepdogs, of Erventon are reduced in size similar to the Halflings themselves.

Dragon’s Wine

Halflings drink both beer and wine. Those Halflings who live in holes will store wine for special occasions. Some also enjoy a special high-alcohol wine, similar to port wine, during the month of the Dragon. They enhance the alcohol content of this wine by heating wine in lamb and cow bladders. This draws the water out, leaving a highly-flavored alcohol behind.

Trade

Known throughout Highland as northweed, Erventon’s smokeweed is traded through Celtic traders to merchants in Fartown and Weaving. Tobacco became popularized, if not popular, throughout West Highland during the Goblin Wars and has since spread all the way to Crosspoint, and from there to Great Bend.

Most trade with the outer world takes place in Outer Erventon, an arc around the valley where Halfling culture more closely resembles Celtic culture than the three-culture hybrid inside the valley.

Religion

The Halflings worship three nature gods, Deirdre, Erin a’Dale, and Glen of the Green.

Deirde is the river goddess who lit the sun on the first morning and whose daughters live in the mountains.

Erin a’Dale is goddess of peace and contemplation, whose spirit lives throughout the valley and warms the land. She is also a singer, and inspires all who sing in the valley.

Glen of the Green brings messages from afar and may be found at any time drinking alongside you should you drink in the fields or forests.

Small shrines (marked with the Elvish for ‘D’ or ‘A’) may be found throughout Erventon for the worship of Deirdre and Erin. The springs that the Celts call the Three Springs of Brigit are, for the Halflings, dedicated to Deirdre.

The Halflings do not have a mythology of the cataclysm.

The Celts

In the northern reaches, above Unicorn Pass, the Celts and Druids live free from the shackles of god or man. Living between the Norse, the Jutes, and the Christians, the giants and dwarves, the Celts are a trading, hunting, and fighting culture. North of Christian Highland Celtic is the lingua franca, though many traveling Celts also know Anglish and quite a few of those know Dwarfish and Jute.

The Celts prefer to stay away from the mountains, and live on the hills and plains between the two ranges. Near the mountains, horses and pack animals are unsafe: they attract hippogriffs and gryphons.

The great mountains of the west are almost always visible in the Celtic valley: its high peaks are visible from a hundred and forty miles away, or five to six diagonals on the map.

Religion

Druids

The Druid is the wisdom of the elite circle of Celtic society, organizing the Bard and Learned Warrior. Druids are prophets of Oghma and the World Tree Crann Bethadh. Oghma is also known as the man of the crossroads, and his symbol is the Celtic cross that marks the four corners of the world. At the center of the crossroads of the world is the World Ash Crann Bethadh. Oghma climbed the World Tree for nine months during the great cataclysm and returned with the knowledge of life. The roots of the World Tree begin at the beginning of the worlds, and the highest leaf extends beyond the end of time.

Druids speak their own secret language, Wynecht, in addition to speaking the Celtic tongue. Bards and Learned Warriors (Fienna) of unproven ability (fourth level or lower) are forbidden to learn this language. They must learn the language before acquiring ninth level. Druids will only teach the language to Bards and Learned Warriors of proven ability and loyalty.

The talisman of the Druid is mistletoe, holly, and scythe.

Wandering Prophets

The Fánaíochtmhar an Feochán are the prophets of the Celtic gods. An individual prophet is often addressed as Feochán. There is otherwise no hierarchical organization of Celtic prophets or priests. Celtic prophets are often also warriors. Deities of the Celts include:

Brigit

Brigit is known for healing, and her healing wells are perhaps the most common shrines in the Celtic valley.

The worship of Brigit in the Celtic lands mirrors the worship of Mary in Christian lands, when it comes to her healing wells. Brigit, however, is known for her fiery smithcraft as well as healing. She is the goddess of any craft that uses fire to create. In this role she may be worshipped by crafters of any moral code.

Bards hold much respect for Brigit, because of her role in facilitating poetry and music. In some of the legends of Brigit’s origin, she is the daughter of one Druid and raised by another.

Whiskey, You’re the Devil

The Celts discovered whiskey, or, as they call it, uisge beatha, the “water of life”, in the seven hundreds. They had earlier discovered the secret of distillation from their contacts with the Ice Giants across the Great Mountains. Celtic whiskey is distilled from malted barley, and used by the Celts for ceremonial and medicinal purposes (generally the same thing).

While the Celts mostly limit whiskey drinking to ceremonial purposes, some outlying northern tribes have begun distilling it for trade, using a mixture of malted and unmalted barley. Most of this whiskey makes its way to Pirate’s Cove, and a bit from there to Crosspoint.

Herbalism

The Celts use a wide variety of teas for medicine and for ceremony. There are teas for meeting, teas for friendship, and teas for farewell.

Teas are usually made from flower petals, from hemp buds, or from the inner bark of trees.

Guest Houses

Despite the warring nature of Celtic clans, the Celts also value hospitality to travelers. The guest-halls, or aoighall, of the Celts are generally simple in nature, combining a wide room with a fire and a bar. In general, no one sleeps until everyone sleeps.

The Cataclysm

In the ancient days, the Druids tell, there were no wandering priests. Then, besides serving the World Tree, individual Druids might also wear the torc of another deity. Some Druids even wore the torc of the one god! The World Tree grew jealous, and in her rage she nearly destroyed the world. In those days the Celts lived throughout the area known as west Highland, but after the Earth’s rage they survived only in the northern lands.

Today, Druids are forbidden to serve any other than the Tree and Oghma, and no Celt may wear the torc of any god or man.

Time

The Celts measure their months strictly by the moon. They don’t have specific names for each month, but may name those that begin with one of their four festivals. For example, the month corresponding approximately to the Christian May is the month of Beltane.

The Celtic calendar is fixed to the moon, the stars, and the seasons. Samhain, for example, is the midpoint between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, with the celebration occurring on the full moon nearest that point. And Imbolc and Lughnasadh are tied to the herds and the harvest, with Imbolc starting with the first births in the spring, and Lughnasadh starting with the first harvest in late summer. The Druids will set the official dates.

The three-day feast of Samhain marks the Celtic new year, and the Celtic assembly is traditionally held during the feast. The feast begins on the eve of Samhain and continues for the next two full days. During these feasts there will be places set for the dead to eat and to celebrate, and tales of both recently and long-deceased ancestors will be recounted.

Beltane is marked by the lighting of bonfires in high places. The shrines of Beltane are also used for warnings. The Druids keep these shrines manned by apprentice fienna and bards at all times.

Wizard Runes

Celtic wizards are mnemonic. They, rather than using special components, used carved runes as components. However, these carved runes must be carved during a specific natural event. The rarer the normal components, and the higher the spell’s level, the rarer the natural event must be. First level spells, for example, might have to be carved during a specific lunar phase, or from a twig bathed in the sun’s dying light. Fourth level runes might have to be carved during one of the equinoxes. A ninth level spell’s runes might have to be carved while a comet is in the daytime sky.

Places

Bailabann

Bailabann is the closest Celtic community to Christian Highland. Ninety miles northeast up the Dowanthal River, this tiny community with its hide-covered halls stands in the rolling foothills near the lightly forested plains west of the High Divide. The trappers of Bailabann trade with Weaving to the southwest and the Dwarves of Hitarn about 60 miles to the south. Dwarven goods are often available in Bailabann, and the Dwarves themselves occasionally travel to the town for trade.

Before you, the hide-covered halls of a busy village cling to the gently-sloping sides of the hills. A stream crosses the valley’s entrance and continues back southwest to the Weaving Wood and Highland. People bustle from house to house along the stepped paths and roads of the hilltown. Other people, fat grizzled old men from the look of them, sit in partial darkness by the halls, smoke rising from the doorways and roofs. Small houses dot the grassy ground.

Because it lies on the other side of the Weaving Wood, the Christians of Weaving are mostly unaware of its existence, though they do know that Celts trade with their outlying farms. Travelers who use Unicorn Pass, such as John Cover of the Weaving Well, know of its existence and will use it as a stopping point in their journeys north or south. Because of the animosity that some folk have toward the Celts, despite their assistance in the Goblin Wars, such travelers rarely speak of the Celtic town.

Bailabann is one of the main routes through which northweed arrives in Highland.

Bailabann is also the last stop of Druids who have been called to risk the Weaving Wood (or, as they call it, croomfrith, which is to say “the bent forest”), to commune with the world ash.

In the Celtic tongue, “Bailabann” means simply “Rivertown”.

Because Bailabann is traveled by so many races, much can be learned in the town.

Why is Weaving called Weaving? Is it the spiders or the trees?

Celt: “Names have meaning. When you give a name to something, you shape one corner of its soul.”

The battle of the giants at Fomhor Achadh?

Dwarf 1: “My father killed a dozen ice giants at Fomhor Achadh with his axe.”

Dwarf 2: “My father lost his axe in the skull of one giant, and took a pick to ten others.”

Where are your fathers now?

Dwarf 1: “Oh, he’s dead. Buried in battle by the valley of bones.”

Dwarf 2: “Aye, so he is, and my father too. Precious few returned from Fomhor Achadh. That some did is thanks to the brave Celts. That is a debt we do not forget.”

Dwarf 1: “I remember when the warriors returned. I was but knee-high to a cobolum.”

Dwarf 2: “But the giants were defeated, and they have not returned.”

Celt: “You might still see giants in the cold north, but if you pass them widely they will pass you as well.”

What is the “cold north”?

Celt: “The cold north is the great western mountains; the warm north is the valley nearest the eastern mountains, to the pass. There is a piece of the warm north where Erventon lies, but for the most part that mountain is rocky and cold.”

Brigit’s Springs

In the high hills of the Great Western Mountains, just north of Erventon, is one of the greatest—and simplest—of the Druidic shrines. The triple springs of Bridget are a source of healing and wisdom.

The springs may be reached from the Celtic lands through a winding path that leads southwest up the mountain and to the springs. They may also be reached from Erventon, through an even more winding path that leads past the three pools fed by water falling from the springs above. The springs may also be reached, through a long mountain path, from the Long Lakes.

The pools are in a small, alcove-like enclosed plateau which overlooks the Celtic valley to the east. The springs themselves are on a somewhat larger plateau which looks out to the southeast, east, and northeast, with the snow-covered mountains behind to the west.

Water from the springs pours down in a small waterfall over a cliff to the pools below.

Each of the springs is partially enclosed by a low rock wall. Traditionally, each spring provides different assistance: one for healing, one for fertility, and one for wisdom and inspiration. The water is extremely cold, fed by the snow that trickles through the mountains from the higher peaks. It is a strong mineral water and slightly carbonated.

Each of the rock walls has, if one looks very closely, Elvish characters written that have faded almost to non-existence. They read “courage”, “peace” and “making”. In Elvish, these are courage, rael, and maedra.

There are special ceremonies at Brigit’s spring on Imbolc and when healing is needed. Individual Celts will climb to the springs and tie strips of cloth, or rags of clothing from a sick person, to the pines near the springs, for healing purposes. There will always be some strips hanging from the trees in the upper plateau.

When the wind blows in the mountains, a faint whistle echoes in the clearing below the springs. The Celts say that this is Brigit’s whistle, and it sounds almost like a harpstring as it dies down. The nearby Halflings say that a “young lady of the hills” can be heard singing in the wind. They call the pools the waters of Deirdre.

Brigit’s springs are a pivot of the world, a Chaotic +3 place of power, and mark an endpoint of the ley lines that go to Fomhor Achadh and Dowanthal Peak. The waters will provide assistance according to the faith, motivations, and needs of those using them.

Bridlas

This small town in the foothills of the mountain is the last town on the road to Brigit’s Springs. Within the shrine to Brigit here is a perpetually-burning cauldron of fire. The fire is tended by three priestesses of Brigit.

The Burren

Known as “the barrens” in Anglish and Arlindor’s Ebb to the Elves, this rocky plain, surrounded by low cliffs and rock walls, is avoided by Celts, Halflings, and all civilized folk. Rumors speak of giants as old as the world, and ancient Elven shades in the dark places of the Burren. The Celts say that it was once a great forest of the Druids, like the Weaving Wood, but it was destroyed by the Druids, by something that they summoned, or by something they were fighting.

The Burren are about sixty miles north of Sneem, and about thirty miles wide, roughly circular. The rock of the Burren is used for building in the nearby towns and as far south as Sneem. Most of the rock is harvested from the western cliffs, which are taller and more easily mined than the southern and northern sides. Toward the east side of the Burren, the “cliffs” fade to little more than rock walls that can be easily climbed over.

Very little grows in the Burren. Only small plants and occasional grasses poke through the rocky furrows.

To the Elves, this is once-sacred ground. Arlindorie (UrHIdorea) is “the passing of Arlindor”. Elven poetry speaks of it as “the green receding sea”. The high forest once shared space with the earth in a few remote places. The rocks of Arlindorie was one of these places. This is where Tialnambe and Alveron would walk together with their son in the morning of the world. But, in the days before the cataclysm the high forest retreated, leaving a land of little magic and shadows in wet crevasses. Some creatures that were slower than the forest remained: the grey men, and goblins, and, in some stories, the Halflings of Erventon.

Dungarvin

The largest town near the mining villages of the Burren, as well as the nearest large town on the tobacco road to Erventon, and the largest stopping point on the easiest road around the Burren between the north and south of the Celtic valley, Dungarvin is known for its transients, miners, traders, and travelers. Rougher crowds will stay at the less expensive Golden Fleece (if they stay in a house at all). Merchants and travelers with more money will stay at the Cauldron.

Dungarvin is also a fort town, built during the Goblin Wars against goblins from the west and the south, and still maintained against the giant-kin, though memory of giant incursions is fading among the non-druidical Celts. The fort of Dungarvin is managed by the Fienna and by the Druid in the wooden fort at the walls outside of the town.

The Fienna still mark, with obelisks, the furthest point that the town is allowed to expand: if the town grows too close to the defensive walls, those walls lose their effectiveness.

The town is looking to grow beyond the standing stones, especially in the north and east.

Fomhor achadh

A trace of the morning’s mist still floats, like a thousand rivers, amongst the curved white arcs rising like plants from the grassy ground.

In the harsh afternoon light, the sun casts short, sharp shadows from bone to ground, crisscrossing the fields with white and black like an ossuary chessboard

Another sixty miles north of Bailabann, on the road to Unicorn Pass, is a field of giant’s bones nestled in a small valley against the mountains. Three hundred and fifty years ago, in 1641, the Dwarves of Hitarn and the Celts of the region met the giants on the field of battle. The giants were marching on Hitarn. The Celts could have let them pass, but they did not, and the Dwarves remember that debt.

The bones are bleached and mostly buried, but in several places still extend two yards above ground with tall grasses growing around them. Huge skulls, four feet wide, lie half-buried in the dirt. In barrows and caves surrounding the valley lie the many Dwarves who fell, “buried in battle”, one of the greatest honors of a Dwarven warrior.

The battleground is always misty, and the density of the mist can be very heavy. This is why the Dwarves and Celts chose this as the battleground. The giants were holding to the mountains after crossing the plains. The fog rolling down from the mountain turned the size of the Celts and Dwarves to an advantage, as they could hide within the mist.

Fomhor Achadh was called the Valley of Mists before the battle. The valley of mists is a +1 place of power aligned toward Order. There are ancient, ruined shrines in grottos in the mountains.

Rathnaskilla

A small village in the grasslands between Fomhor Achadh and Fawn River, Rathnaskilla is probably the nearest Celtic village to a Christian town, being about 60 miles from Fartown through light forest. It is 40 miles west of the High Divide. The self-assumed leader of Rathnaskilla is an old Bard named Fingol Twomey, who settled here several decades back to start a family. He has at least one granddaughter, Aoife, who is just coming of age.

Rathnaskilla has a large guest house and while it is not in any sense a trading town it does see Celtic travelers from the Celtic valley heading into Christian Highland.

Sneem

About 60 miles north of Rathnaskilla is the river-town Sneem, the southernmost Celtic ferry-crossing across the Fawn River. The next crossing to the south is at Fartown.

The True Family

There is a sinister world alongside the world we see, an invisible world pregnant with secrets. Every child who has come upon a mirror in the dark knows this.

It is a world where words hold hidden meanings, where texts are palimpsests beneath which other texts lurk. Where only madmen know the truth, for sanity is a willful ignorance of the horrors that walk the earth at the edge of perception.

Among the worshippers of the true family, the visible world is the least real of all worlds; the dangers of the real world are the least feared, for there are far worse dangers hidden in the shadows and unholy angles of the shells.

The dry city is one finger of the true family’s home. Like the Chaotic Mist, it is an extension of otherworldliness into the “real” world. Unlike the Chaotic Mist, it does not merely grow and contract from a single location. The Dry City may appear anywhere, like a Pocket Domain but larger and more sinister. It actually takes over the region where it appears, and spreads the papercuts out to capture more souls to take away when it leaves.

Patriarchs

Worshippers of the True Family tend to be Ordered or Ordered Evil. Their prophets use spirits of Order, Death, Charm, Prophecy, and Prophet. There are three powerful patriarchs of the True Family, and many lesser members.

Nias

Nias is the Bishop of Bone, the twin bishop, seated at the throne of dust in the dry city. His riddles bring down kingdoms. He commands the blood-knives. The blood-knives bring people who read alone and late into the dry city by cutting them out of mundane reality.

Nias may appear as twin bishops, holding court in a tower of bone. Nias is fond of riddles, and may present a difficult riddle which, if solved, will convince him and the city to leave.

He may also appear in Leisesheim amongst discarded children’s toys and forgotten machines.

Laten

“As I was walking on the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today. I wish, I wish, he’d go away.”

That man was undoubtedly a servant of Laten. Laten is the nobody, the horse of hunger who commands the five riders of the night: death, war, famine, plague, and oblivion. He sits alone in Nottamun Town, waiting for the infernal trumpet that will signal the loosing of the five horsemen.

From the apocryphal revelation of the Stigmas di Cristos:

And behold, the Lamb opened the first seal, and the lion, in a thunderous voice, cried, come and see.

And I saw a white horse, and a bowman astride it. And upon his head was placed a golden crown; and he went forth to conquer.

And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the Calf cry, come and see.

And there went a red horse, and the rider thereof was given power to take peace from the earth, that they should kill one another, and unto him was given a ruby sword.

And when the lamb had opened the third seal the man-beast cried, come, and see. And I beheld a black horse, and the rider thereon held a pair of iron balances.

And in the midst of the four beasts a voice said, A measure of wheat for a pence, and three measures of barley for a pence, and see that you not hurt the oil, nor the wine. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the eagle say, come and see.

And I beheld a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him, and Power was given unto them each a fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

And from the midst of the beasts, the voice cried again, come, and see. And I beheld the rider who was not there.

And his name that sat on him was Oblivion. And in his hand he held nothing, and the Lamb shivered as he passed.

And the first beast cried, The end of all time.

And the second, The end of all space.

And the third, The end of all life.

And the Eagle cried, And of all gods.

And the Lamb opened the fifth seal.

Hetae

Hetae is the hidden word, the queen of insects. She spreads infection, but not mundane infection; her infection eats time and space, her plagues are plagues of metal and gear. Hetae controls the creatures of nowhere. Her victims work tirelessly and thoughtlessly within her insect mesh. Some depictions of the insect mesh show it, like an ant farm, beneath the ground. In the books of the True Family, however, it is depicted as a different angle on reality, a place that can be entered with the right words in the right place, twisted in the secret angle.

Tetemempören

Far to the west strange creatures dwell, and among them in the terminus of the northern fawn river are the Camprye. Insular and unfriendly to strangers. They live among marshes and lakes in the foothills of the Great Mountains.

The Camprye live upon the water. The water rises and falls seasonally, and brings their houses with it. Their houses are of reed, twined together into huge, arched beams.

Language

The Camprye have no written language. Though there are instances in the underground of a runic form of the language, the Camprye have no knowledge of it.

Sentences

Sentences are constructed with the verb first, then the object, then the subject. Adjectives follow nouns. For example, “Paersrole attacked the Oruat” would be “kempino Paersrole Oruat”.

Verb Rules

The base form of verbs is the informal present ‘I’. Infixes modify the first person, as follows:

Present I is not generally used except with reduplication, or as a plural. Both the “I” and “you” forms represent singular and plural.

Reduplication of the infix indicates extent; i.e., right now, far past, or far future.

Negation is marked by placing ‘el’ in front of the infix. Negation may be reduplicated to indicate stronger negation.

Queries are marked by placing ‘am’ in front of the infix. Note that if the infix is reduplicated, the query does not have to be reduplicated, but it can be, so as to indicate a very strong questioning. Reduplicating the query is as much as to say “don’t do that” as “why are you doing that?”

Adjectives we would form with “ing” are formed by combining the present and future infixes. This is to describe a noun that is doing that sort of thing right now. Adjectives we would form with “ous” or “y” are formed by combining the present and past infixes. This is to describe a noun that is the kind of noun that does this sort of thing. The form of infix that matches the noun is used (usually, they, he/she/, it, or them). For example, telirisilo is an adjective for someone that is fidgeting now, and telirililo is the adjective for the kind of person who fidgets. There is no reduplication on these forms.

Nouns we would form with “er” are often variations on the base form (before where the infix would go) with “ai” added to the end. The noun telai is a fidgeter.

Verb examples

Sentences are generally of the form verb-object-subject. For example, Telekai killed the orc chief: Mekilalo kantirai tikim Telekai.

Many sentences will have no subject word. Pronouns such as “I”, or “they” must be inferred from the verb form. For example, They flew to the mountain long ago: Letalaltae tetemempören.

Verbs

Nouns

To pluralize a noun, add ‘r’ to the end of it. Nouns that end in a consonant will have the plural form in parentheses. The vowel added is pronounced in an abbreviated manner.

Nouns are often emphasized by repeating the last syllable. Extreme fear, for example, would be ketaetae. Extreme darkness, ikaelolo. A great wind, lelele. Generally, if a noun ends in a consonant-vowel, the consonant and vowel are repeated. If a noun ends in a consonant-vowel-consonant, all three are repeated. If a noun ends in consonant-consonant, only the final consonant is repeated.

ae-aga: face

aekel (aekeler): door

aelgen (aelgen): outside

gangai: renderer, tearer

gra: disappearance

iaegra: appearance

ikaelo: darkness

imes (imesir): badger

kaeles (kaeles): snow

kaelo: light

ka: eye

kai: caller, summoner

karu: crab

kerai: protector

ketae: fear

keto: insect swarm

kugae: maw

le: wind

lek (lekar): eagle

lenkititopes (lenkititopeser): river

lor (lor): fire

lud: person

luim: a people or group of people

malatar (malatar): child

mekai: killer, murderer

neta: rod, sceptre

ork (ork): duck

oru: bat

paer (paer): slug

pes (pesir): water

pören (pörenor): rock

ran: faith

rantaera: wind

rol (roler): nothing

saepes (saepesir): pond, small lake

saern (saern): forest

sakm (sakmer): spider

santaer (santaer): bubbles, boils

srol (srol): emptiness

supes (supeser): lake

tömene: mesh, web

tetemempören (tetemempören): mountain

tik (tikir): orc

miritel (miriteler): affection

tolu: dislike

Pronouns and Articles

The “im” form of a noun can also be used as an adjective.

There is no equivalent of “the”. Unless im or ki are used, the meaning will be the same as if, in English, there were a “the” as appropriate. Thus, kilipaego pören is I moved the rock.

Adjectives

Adjectives (including those made out of verbs) generally follow the noun they describe.

aelgen: without

elekiraes: forbidden

ga: pink

kem: deep (below)

lekrae: unseen, hidden, invisible

memen: tall

peme: dark

pent: red

set: short

soom: spiked, toothy

srimaeg: crazy

srole: stupid, idiotic

sut: long

tae-ele: dark (deeply so)

Other

For example, tele kair, summoners of the wind.

Sounds of the Camprye

The Underground

Many of the creatures of the underground are listed in the Encounter Guide using their Camprye name, and others have Camprye names that they are known by in the underground.

Aeagarsut

Gakemai

Gangai

Kamekkipialo

Karuat

Ketelekrae: pronounced ketaelekrae

Kugesum: pronounced kugaesum

Oruat

Sakmat

Santaeraeagar: Beaked Sweepers

Other places

Icelands

West of the Great Mountains, the climate changes, becoming significantly colder. The air is dry and cold, and any water tends to freeze. Even the surface of the great inland sea is often frozen, however, the ice is a dangerous place to walk. Pockets of liquid brine remain frozen within the ice, and travelers can fall through to the below-freezing liquid.

Forest

Everything south of the leather road is the “deep forest”. Even deeper into the “deep” forest is the legendary “dark forest”, where evil abounds, and beneath canopies of wet, dripping leaves that block all light slimy creatures roam and deranged races dwell. When people talk about “The Forest” they mean south of the Leather Road.

The World Beneath

The underworld can be entered only through the twisting caverns of the Great Mountains (Tetememporen in the language of the Camprye) far to the west, the Rocklands past Pirate’s Cove, and the mountains on the North end of the southern continent (Oruneda in the language of the Ife). This, at least, in the western hemisphere. The path is long and hard, through miles and miles of caverns, miles beneath the surface of the land.

There are different areas of the underworld. In the west, large open areas combine with twisting caverns to form the Kemetesupes, “deep waters” in the language of the Camprye, and the Pemenpor in the language of the Poruat. Here are the wide open ranges of the Poruat cities. Beaked sweepers live in isolated regions to the north of this area. Strange animals wander these regions—amoebic, fungoid, and the sakmat. Darkness is nearly absolute, except for the occasional glowing fungi caverns.

In the north, the leviathons of the deep singly rule their territories, often in conjunction with whatever humanoid creatures can be subjugated—a tribe of Karuat here, some Elves there, Night Trolls here. These huge creatures live in great underground lakes surrounded by tiny caverns.

Beneath the southern continent, strange creatures wander the bedrock underworld. Wild eyed killers, Kutmat, Tentamorts, and even stranger creatures all vie for power beneath the Ife Nlah.

The various underworlds all have one thing in common. Ancient, cursed gods, with such euphemisms as “The Elders”, “The Old Folks”, “The Great Ones”, or “The Kindly Ones”, are in some way worshipped. Strange creatures are called forth and occasionally wander the world. Weird rituals and sacrifices are performed to call these powerful beings.

Only rarely do these creatures wander the upper world. They must occasionally, for the Camprye have legends of creatures who vaguely resemble the Poruat, the Sakmat, and the Oruat. Of course, there is the strange relation between their languages. In Ife Nlah, the Kutmat figure prominently in legends. Although the upper classes believe them to be only legends, the lower classes still leave offerings at cave entrances to appease these strange demons.

And there are legends also of marvels. So deep that the air itself weighs upon your shoulders, on the other side of creatures too horrible to describe, stands a door bound in unbreakable iron and inlaid with silver so fine that a torch reflection lights the cavern around it.

Tales of Highland

Heroes and villains

Robert Annis, Prophet of God

In the sixth century after the Cataclysm, Robert Annis was an ironworker touched by God.

Goaded the Wells family of Crosspoint and blessed them as they went into battle.

Boaz of Bordonne

In 1697 AD, Boaz fled into the mountains and possibly over the mountains into the Deep Forest, after liberating some of the treasure of the tyrant Prince Stomroy of Bordonne, a northern principality in South Bend. Hidden in the mountains, Boaz’s reputation drew to him an army of farmers and merchants dedicated to the overthrow of Prince Stomroy. Boaz led his rebel armies out of the mountains to skirmish with the Prince until the Prince was finally captured and imprisoned. Boaz and his armies placed a young cousin of the Prince on the throne, who ruled with far more wisdom and compassion, and who took Boaz’s lieutenants as his own.

Boaz himself disappeared into the mountains, to return whenever he is needed to shatter the iron fist of tyrants.

Elroy Courlander, Earl of Lisport

The last seated Earl of the House of Lisport, Elroy Courlander defended West Highland in the early years of the Goblin wars. The charismatic Colonel Courlander raised an army from his lands and the towns along the Leather Road, successfully defending Brightwood Crossing (where the Earl had holdings) and Black Stag in great battles during the summer of 896. In the winter, he returned to give the sad news to one of his three daughters that her fiancé had died in the (First) Battle of Brightwood Crossing. Melody Courlander brooded the whole winter, and in the deeps of 1897 she murdered her entire family, including Colonel Courlander and his two trusted lieutenants.

Only Melissa Courlander’s son by John Alegar (and Alegar himself) survived. Their descendants manage Lisport House in Fork, the last of their holdings. Lisport itself is one of the many abandoned towns of the Fawn River, having been overrun by a Goblin army following the murder of Courlander and his lieutenants.

Elroy’s brother, Lieutenant Aaron Courlander, is presumed to have died with the Astronomers, the lost Order south of the Leather Road, which he joined as a young man.

Hanthur, Prophet of God

Hanthur was a convert from the far north who came south to Crosspoint in the late fourth century after the Cataclysm. He aided the Order of Illustration in the thirteen-eighties, in 1385 blessing their golden staff of the dove during the battle of North Haven Hill, against the mountain Goblins.

The Three in Shadow

Alazar of the Night, Measure, and Taurus lived in the late sixth century after the cataclysm. Taurus was a great warrior of the Astronomers and was instrumental in clearing the area around Kristagna of evil creatures. But he was seduced by the servants of Satan: Alazar of the Night appealed to his pride and drew him into the service of these two powerful sorcerors, Alazar and Measure.

Measure is known for several spells, such as the legendary Fool’s Magic (now lost to the lost Astronomers) and Secret Message (known to the world as Measure’s Secret Message). Measure was a close friend of Taurus in the Order, and worked to make a great weapon of power to advance the Order’s cause in the rough wilderness. Alazar twisted the weapon, and twisted Measure as well, so that the two great heroes of the Astronomers turned to shadow and the night.

Legends

The Great Cataclysm of Earth

We are now in the age of Earth. Nearly a thousand years ago, the second cataclysm destroyed much of the world as God looked down upon the degeneracy of the Ancients, and destroyed their power. The first cataclysm was flood. The second was fire. The third was earth, of which we are currently within the age of, and the fourth and final cataclysm will be air. The cataclysm of air will bring us to the age of Air, and mark the return of God to the world. This world of trials shall become the world of heaven.

The Village on the Dry River

Long ago, and far away across the High Divide, the village of Twin Trees lived and grew on Verdey River. Farms prospered, with crops fed from the clean water of the river, by complex irrigation designed and maintained by the town leaders.

One year, after a long and dry summer, the river dried up. The next spring a trickle appeared, but that dried up also. For many days the villagers prayed and prayed for water for their river.

One morning, everyone awoke to discover mud at the bottom of the river and their irrigation canals. They were amazed, for it had not rained that night.

The next morning, the same thing happened.

On the third night, many villagers tried to stay awake, to see the water come. Eventually, all fell asleep. When they awoke, the water had come and gone again. They decided it was a gift from God, and they were not meant to see the water come.

But one man was determined to see the river come to life. He slept all day, and when night arrived he awoke and walked along the river, toward the mountains.

Early in the morning, a couple of hours after midnight, water came rushing down the river bed. After an hour, the water stopped. The man continued walking until dawn. Then he want to sleep. At dusk, he continued walking. Once again, a few hours after midnight, the water burst down the river, ending an hour later. This was repeated for weeks as the man followed the river further and further toward its source.

Finally, weeks after he had started his night journey, an hour or so after midnight, he came upon a hole in the mountain, and the river ended there. He looked around, and saw some Pixies playing about in a nearby meadow. He hid and watched them for a while, and then decided to have some fun with them. He took some small pebbles and began flinging them at the flying creatures. They ran away.

He returned to the hole in the mountain, but no water came out that night, nor the next, nor the next. After a week of waiting, he started back toward the town. Back over his shoulder, he noticed storm clouds gathering. Before he returned, it started raining. The night he came into town it rained, and the next day it rained, and the next. The next day a great flood burst from the river, washing the town away and destroying it forever.

(Some storytellers end the story without the storm: after weeks again of traveling back downriver, with no water coming down the river at night, he returns to a dry, deserted ghost town.)

The Lost Army and the Weaving Wood

Hundreds of years ago, when the Druids still walked the forests of Highland, one of the strongholds of these evil men were the Houses of the Wise. Here, in the midlands of West Highland, the Druids cast their spells and spread their lies across the lands. Their alliance with the underworld gave them infernal knowledge of the future, and some of weak heart even went to the Houses to hear—or change—their own future. All for a fee, of course, and the treasures of the Wise were rumored beyond measure.

The people of West Highland, aided by the Knights of the Stigmas di Cristo, took up arms to drive the crones and warlocks of the Druids out of their stronghold forever.

With God on their side, they succeeded. But in his death throes the Great Druid lay a curse upon them, a curse that they would never leave the forest alive. When a lone survivor arrived in Stone Goblin weeks later, he swore that the trees themselves carried out the Druid’s curse.

When the goblin mage’s armies came north, one general, hearing the rumor of the great treasures, diverted his army of goblins to search for the ancient Druidic temple. That army disappeared, to the relief of west Highland’s defenders.

And the treasure has never been found.

The Lost Merchants of the Forest

They were all dressed in clothing so out of fashion I thought I was in Black Stag. The captain of the guards had a beautiful daughter. I stayed with them for a week.

When I returned to Biblyon I found that seven years had passed.

The Path of God

To sailors, the south sea is called “the path of God”. According to stories passed among them, there is land on the other side of the storms, and when the storms abate, sailors too far out of the Bend can see the hard, rocky, unforgiving coast of the other side of the tumult.

Legends abound of the strange, painted, human-like creatures that live in that dangerous land, and also of the treasures of gold and emerald which they wear as if it were leather or dyed cloth.

Crossroads Under the Earth

So vague and sparse is knowledge of the quadrivium that only the eldest Elves, the wisest sages, and the most persistent wizards know of its legends. Alternately located in the Great Mountains or in some higher mountains further west, all agree that to reach it one must travel many miles and defeat or evade legions of horrific creatures.

The Elves regard the caverns, which they call vestelerivel, as that which brought about the cataclysm. The caverns, they say, then spread throughout the world in a great burst of life, throwing everything out of balance before contracting upon itself as an empty snake leaving its skin. They believe that the caverns are centered across the great sea. They have a story of a great Elf, Terelesanmor, who was lost in a battle with night trolls in the time of the Goblin Mage. He was later found coming out of the Great Mountains, naked, shivering, and crazed, raving about having crossed a great sea, some horrible humans (melelesieroe) and huge peaks extending as high as the arch of Tirtalien’s stars and as low as the vestelerivel. Terelesanmor died of his travails, and never regained his sanity. (Terelesanmor also figures in legends of those battles, and of something powerful and secret stolen from the Goblin Mage.)

The Ancients speak only rarely of the quadrivium, a source of great power and an entrance to many lands, it is also connected with suicides and the dead—or the almost dead.

Books of Highland

Most books are hand-copied by scribes, and thus expensive. The printing press has not yet been developed, though wood-carved presses do exist and can be used to create prayer sheets and picture books.

The Great Books

There are four mythical books of the wisdom of ages, one of light and three of darkness. Two have names that were old when the ancients were young, in a language long unspoken.

The book of light is the Testaments of God: the Bible, and its many Remembrances.

The remaining three are Shadows of the Lightbringer (Delomelanicon, Book of Ebony Delight); Images of the Lost (Necronomicon); and Yellow Crawlers of the Road (The King in Yellow; The Queen’s Maze, Insects of the Ultramesh).

The motto of Shadows of the Lightbringer is sic luceat Lux: a tree at a crossroads split by lightning and a coiled snake, insects eating at the roots.

Books of magic

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Under the name Lewis Carroll, Charles Dodgson’s strange and wonderful creations are, in bowdlerized form, available in many well-to-do households. However, these works, including the legendary unexpurgated Alice’s Adventures Underground, contain secrets to some of the ritual required to create a pocket domain, as well as allegorical teachings on the use of illusion and phantasmal forces.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland can be found at FireBlade Coffeehouse, http://www.hoboes.com/FireBlade/Fiction/Carroll/.

The Hidden Fullness of Fragmentary Evidence

Hidden Fullness is mentioned in The Lost Castle of the Astronomers as well as in Illustrious Castle.

Interpretation and Control of Somnambulist States of Being

Isaiah’s Somnambulist States is mentioned in The Lost Castle of the Astronomers.

Involuntary Reactions to Imaginary Stimuli

Charles Dodgson’s Imaginary Stimuli is mentioned in The Lost Castle of the Astronomers.

Magical Auras and their Identification

Measure’s Magical Auras is mentioned in The Lost Castle of the Astronomers.

Morpheus Somnium

Of the many books lost when the Astronomers disappeared, this is perhaps the most legendary. Morpheus Somnium contained dream spells known only to the Order. You can find more information about Morpheus Somnium in the adventure The Lost Castle of the Astronomers.

Phantasmal Realities

Charles Dodgson’s Phantasmal Realities is mentioned in The Lost Castle of the Astronomers.

Residual Auras of Human Writing

Lawrence Bisson’s treatise on extracting meaning from unknown writings is mentioned in The Lost Castle of the Astronomers.

Ring Magic of the Traveling Romans of Great Bend

Ring Magic is mentioned in The Lost Castle of the Astronomers.

Survey of Classical Sorcery in Western Highland

Classical Sorcery in Western Highland is mentioned in The Lost Castle of the Astronomers.

Wise Words about Magical Research

Charles Dodgson’s Wise Words is mentioned in The Lost Castle of the Astronomers.

The True Family

Discussing Lesser Families

This introduction to the True Family for Family novitiates is mentioned in Illustrious Castle.

More When Doors Mow Spun Gifts

Perhaps the most obscure and difficult of the True Family texts, More When Doors is mentioned in Illustrious Castle. An excerpted text is available in Lost Castle of the Astronomers.

The Fit May Rule

This teaching guide for True Family initiates is mentioned in Illustrious Castle.

Lord Thew’s Family Tales

This True Family book is disguised as a series of inscrutable children’s stories. Lord Thew’s Tales is mentioned in Illustrious Castle.

Histories

History of the Pre-Christians

An attempt at reconstructing the history of “the Jews” that are mentioned so often in biblical remembrances. History of the Pre-Christians is mentioned in Illustrious Castle.

The Holy Bible

No full copy of a Holy Bible is known to have survived the Cataclysm. Every church has a Remembrance, which is a collection of biblical stories written down after the Cataclysm. Some Remembrances are more trusted than others. There are also apocryphal bibles, bibles that are known to be incorrect but are presented as “close to” the true bible or even as handed from heaven.

Reconstructing Eden

This theoretical discussion of what Eden must have been like was written by Community of Calling founder Alvon Peter before he founded the Community. It includes many sides on topics such as “Did predators eat meat or were they vegetarian?” It also discusses whether God will allow humans to try to rebuild an Eden, whether that is humanity’s purpose, whether suffering is humanity’s purpose, or whether humanity does not know its purpose. Reconstructing Eden is mentioned in Illustrious Castle.

Survey of Possible Geographies of the Holy Roman Empire

Geographies of the Holy Roman Empire is mentioned in The Lost Castle of the Astronomers.

The Travel West

This is an account, written in the Ancient tongue, by Astix Morellus, advisor to the abbot who brought the Illustrators across the mountains in 1558. It is available in an Anglish translation also. The Travel West is mentioned in Illustrious Castle.

Natural science

Brewing Barley and Wheet

A theoretical and practical manual on brewing beer and ale from grains. Brewing Barley and Wheet is mentioned in Illustrious Castle.

Gems and Mineral Lodes in the High Divide

Gems and Mineral Lodes in the High Divide is mentioned in The Lost Castle of the Astronomers.

Herbal Lore of the Celts

A collection of in-person studies of Celtic herbal lore and plant magic. Herbal Lore is mentioned in Illustrious Castle.

The Known Heavenly World

The Known Heavenly World is mentioned in The Lost Castle of the Astronomers.

Life-Cycle of the Giant-Kin

This short, somewhat inaccurate, anthropological study of goblins, hobgoblins, ogres, and trolls paints a picture of cannibalism, in-fighting, and inbred hatred. Life-Cycle of the Giant-Kin is mentioned in Illustrious Castle.

Planets and Stars: A Comparative Study

Planets and Stars is mentioned in The Lost Castle of the Astronomers.

Plant Cycle of the Chaotic Mist

This collection of drawings and suppositions about the plants that exist in the strange unworldly mists is unfinished. It was authored by the scholars of The Stigmas di Cristo. Plant Cycle of the Chaotic Mist is mentioned in Illustrious Castle.

Spices of the Phoenix: A Catalog

Spices of the Phoenix is mentioned in The Lost Castle of the Astronomers.

Adventure Guide

Unwinding the World

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

What was the Cataclysm?

The fabric of reality is unraveling. At the edges of frayed reality, things get jumbled up. Out on the dangling threads are dead worlds, such as Dead Rome at the Crossroads. Slightly further in are decaying civilizations such as the world of Barcelas and Fading Highland.

As you move further in toward the center of reality, or the center of the Dreamlands, life becomes more and more vital.

If the unwinding of the world is an important feature of your games, it may be useful for the characters to meet someone old enough and knowledgeable enough to speak with them about the Cataclysm. I’ve used a Bean-Si at Brigit’s Springs to great effect, and the following quotes assume an ancient Elf of the old race.

Silence. Deep in the distance a faint song rises, unearthly and sad. It dies away so slowly you aren’t sure it’s gone now.

You hear the flutter of wings. A flock of sparrows rises around you and spirals into the sky. There is a tall and beautiful woman sitting on the stone; her face is veiled, but the moonlight that shines through the hole outlines a glimpse of gold at the edges of the veil.

She speaks in an ancient form of Elvish. If she chooses to speak with any who do not understand Elvish, she will gracefully scoop a handful of water from the waters of wisdom and offer it. Those who drink it will be able to understand her.

These are possible responses to some of the questions she’s likely to be asked.

“Welcome, children of men.”

“I have had many names, and I will not tell you my true name. In your tongue, you may call me Maria.”

“Can you not feel it in the seasons? Have you no tales of ancient times? The world is winding down.”

“The Elves? They do not visit as they did of old. They fear.”

“They begin to fear the seasons. The Elves, too, are winding down.”

“The eternal crossroads. Where, or whether, it stands today I know not. It may lie beneath the ocean, or hidden deep in the cavernous earth. Or it may lie across the world. You have seen echoes of it, I think. The eternal crossroads is the pivot of the world. Its echoes ripple through the roots of the world. Cartoril was the first and strongest echo. The Brilliarch’s Rainbow City was dimmer but an echo all the same. Tialnambe walked in its shadows; her husband knew the crossroads itself.”

“The great tree is the root of the world; the eternal crossroads its head. It is in the heart of all civilized races.”

“Cartoril, the silver city.” (Care tore eel)

If they ask about the Cataclysm, she can sing it for them. They will suffer the normal affects of a Bean-Si’s song, including gaining injury points.

A wave of orange, yellow, and brown rolls over you, like an autumn at the edge of a clearing. Then there is the silence as between thunder and lightning. The ground cracks open in a tumult of noise. You tumble into an endless abyss; below you a dull fire sucks in sound and feeling. Ancient gears of a giant mill turn slowly in the unearthly orange glow, grinding the world into dust.

A rust-red path leads out of the gears and into a coruscating mist. The mist rolls back as you fall and reveals a great city upon a green lily-covered plain. Two wide ochre roadways wind through the plain and intersect at the center of the city. Crystal spires rise from the city; they project all of the colors of the rainbow and then some onto the thin mist. Great silver towers, lined with green and gold, reflect the stars—unless the stars are a reflection of the great silver city.

As the world crumbles into the city, vines rise from the crossroads, twirl around the pieces of the world, and roll them together. A woody vine twines itself around you and lifts you from your descent. You are passed from vine to vine, root to root, branch to branch, soaring now high above a great green forest. Mighty roots thread across the two sides of the world, sealing them together like a jagged unmatched puzzle. Far in the crevasse of the world, insects of rust and worm climb from the burning gears, eating at the vines. One of the vines snaps. The world teeters, and the great forest bends around you at the horizon.

When they awake, they will hear the whistling of the wind, musical as pipes in the distance.

You may, of course, also wish to add other things to the dream that foreshadow future adventures or add mystery to old ones.

The Crossroads, the World Tree, and the Eternal City

Throughout all cultures you’ll find the symbol of the crossroads etched into our hearts: the Christian cross, the Celtic cross, the ankh, the sunwheel and the wheel of life and the swastika, are all echoes of the Eternal City at the crossroads.

The crossroads branch out into the Red Road. The Road travels through all the lesser worlds. Off the road, portals are required to cross from world to world. But when you walk the road, you see the true world, and you can more clearly see that the world is unwinding, raveling down. It is the loam of the world-tree.

The closer to the crossroads, stranger the true world. Very near the Eternal City and the creatures of the insect mesh terrorize local communities.

The start of the road is always marked by flower-bearing trees: apple trees in bloom, or cherry trees, or yellow trumpets. The road is a hard red clay, cracked at the edges, twining through the worlds from the crossroads and the Eternal City. Long ago carriages plied the Road but today it is covered with sand.

In Highland, the Red Road may be found amidst the pyramids of ruined Egypt in the Dark Forest. The path is marked by yellow trumpets, and leads into the southern mountains, but never reaches South Bend. The road is difficult to follow at first, but as they near the mountains becomes easier. When standing directly on the path between the trees, a pass is visible through the mountains. It exists only for those on the path.

There is a painting of the trumpets, pyramid, and road in the castle of the Stigmas di Cristo; the painting itself is magical and powerful.

Today the city is a city in slumber, its inhabitants bedded within their crystal mansions, their dreams leaking into the back alleys and side streets of the city itself.

Archetypes in Highland

Warriors

Warriors are common in Highland as well as north and south. In the north there are pirates, Vikings, and the barbarian tribes. In the south are the great guardsmen guilds and the warriors of the duchies. In Highland itself, guards are in demand to assist caravans across the mountain and across the leather road. The Elves have the Rivelaelfte. In Biblyon, in the shadow of abandoned Illustrious Castle, the Tutoris Libris range the known world to wrest knowledge from the dark corners.

Thieves

Thieves are certainly common enough in the larger cities such as Black Stag, Crosspoint, and Great Bend. They are also well known in places such as Pirate’s Cove. Thieves—better known as spies—are maintained by city governments such as in Black Stag and the various merchant-run cities in South Bend.

Some cities will even have rival governmental organizations each employing their own spies.

Sorcerors

Even today people are distrustful of sorcery and those who practice it. Universities and libraries will attract sorcerors, and many of the sorcerors of Highland are private individuals who use their knowledge to fund their studies. Black Stag maintains its own wizard council for the furtherance of that city’s goals.

In the south, every count will maintain at least one court wizard, whose functions are entertainment in times of peace and defense and offense in times of war. Many court wizards also command branches of their master’s army, or at least high-ranking court guards. Court wizards rarely have time to further their own studies, focusing as they must on inter-duchy intrigues and spies.

Prophets

There are few prophets among the Christians in either Highland and South Bend. Prophets that do arise almost always do so in the furtherance of some saint, or of Mary. Prophets are somewhat more common among the Celts. Where Christian prophets arise only once ever few generations, there are usually two or three Celtic prophets wandering the Celtic lands, as well as several Druids.

Monks

Psychic powers are nearly unknown in and around Highland. There are no Monk guilds or training orders in this part of the world. Any who find themselves with psychic ability must self-train. While psychic powers are unknown among the elves, those humans who have psychic power nearly always carry elven blood. That is, they are half-elves.

Those who wish to play a more traditional order-trained Monk will need to look to the Eastern continent and the Kari, whose pantheon is in the Divine Lore book.

Languages in Highland

Most human characters will know Anglish as their cultural language. There are a few other languages open to them, though knowledge of Goblin, Gnomish, and Giant should be rare among humans.

Written forms exist for Anglish, Elvish, Frankish, Romany, Celtic, Ancient, and Halfling. Pirate’s Pidgin is often written using Anglish characters, and Norse is often written using Celtic runes.

Spell Availability

Spells marked as “any” are generally available from anyone, and no great pains are taken to protect them. Many of them are easily discoverable in great libraries, such as the Library at Crosspoint and the Biblyon Library. Such spells are used as bargaining tools to gain other such spells. Spells marked as “unknown” are generally unknown in Highland, unless someone invents them or rediscovers them. Spells marked as “lost” are known to have existed, but are currently unknown.

Other spells are available only by inventing them or by acquiring them from the folks who do know them. In some cases, such as the Astronomers, the folks who do know them are themselves lost. But hope springs eternal, and a sorceror or group of sorcerors occasionally try to find the lost spells of old. Usually they never return. Sometimes they return bedraggled and empty-handed. But once in a while such a group will discover, in some lost castle or ancient book, a spell thought lost forever or never known to have been found. Such are the tales that wizards tell in bars after council meetings and chance encounters with old friends.

First Level

Second Level

Third Level

Fourth Level

Fifth Level

Sixth Level

Seventh Level

Eighth Level

Ninth Level

Tenth Level

Eleventh Level

Twelfth Level

Fourteenth Level

Sixteenth Level

Wandering Encounters

These encounter charts cover wide areas, and may be used for general wandering encounters or simply to see what kinds of creatures inhabit those areas and how often they’re likely to be met. You may also find these useful when constructing your own encounter charts for specific areas within these more general areas.

Kinds of Encounters

Chaotic Mist

These creatures will always be encountered within or near a heavy fog.

Fantastic Creatures

Most animal-like fantastic creatures will hardly notice the characters; those that eat livestock might descend upon the characters’ packmounts if they have any, but unless the characters do something stupid to attract the attention of, say, a gryphon, these fantastic encounters will be marvels to tell about having seen when they return home.

Multi-race brigands and travelers

When the encounter is with multi-race brigands, determine how many brigands there are and then roll again on the main table, limiting results to Civilized Peoples and Humanoid Creatures. These two categories should always be next to each other, allowing you to roll a smaller die if possible. For example, on the Offroad to the Long Lakes encounter chart, there will usually be two to seven brigands in a multi-race band. Civilized Peoples and Humanoid Encounters run from 01 to 30 on the Main Table. So rather than rolling d10 and d10 to get a number from one to one hundred, you can roll d3 and d10 to get a number from one to thirty.

If that’s confusing, don’t worry: just use a normal d100 and ignore results which do not indicate Civilized People or Humanoid Creature.

Undead

Vampires tend to be encountered as one vampire with the rest consisting of vampire slaves. Undead encounters will occur in an appropriate location: phantasms or poltergeists in abandoned homes, ghouls in a cemetery.

Deep Creatures

These creatures tend to be encountered in dark places or caverns, or at night.

Highland encounter notes

Animals

Characters encounter animals all the time, and almost certainly more often than will be indicated on the encounter charts. Rolled encounters are encounters that have significance. So, rather than simply seeing the animals, the animal encounter may somehow impede the character’s progress, provide a comedic interlude, or otherwise impact on the character’s tale.

Many of the animals listed on the charts do not have a corresponding entry in the Encounter Guidebook. Such animals are not normally a threat to the characters.

South of Unicorn Pass, dire wolf encounters only occur in the winter.

Humanoid Creatures

Encounters with Goblins south of the Leather Road are 75% likely to include d4 Hobgoblin leaders. North of the Leather Road, encounters with Goblins are 25% likely to include d3 Hobgoblin leaders. Far north, encounters with Goblins are 15% likely to include a single Hobgoblin leader.

Masquerades

Many of the masquerade encounters also show up elsewhere on the charts. The difference is that masquerade encounters will be with a creature acting as a human. Deity encounters may be with deities acting as just about any creature or thing, as appropriate. The characters may never know they met a werewolf, dryad, phantasm, or god. Such encounters are unlikely to result in combat now, but may set up a later adventure when the characters discover that their acquaintance (perhaps by then a friend) has a secret.

Snakes

Copperheads, watersnakes, and rattlers are standard poisonous snakes.

Cats

There are no housecats in East or West Highland, though feral Egyptian cats exist deep in the Deep Forest. Highland does have bobcats and cougars and, further south, jaguars. Jaguars are called tigers by Highlanders, as the term “jaguar” is unknown.

West Highland

The High Divide

From Hightown Pass to the Dowanthal River there will be villages on the roads and in the foothills of the mountains, but these are small and rare, especially further north. Encounters occur 20% of the time every 12 hours.

Main Table

Animals

Natural

Humanoids

Fantastic

Civilized Peoples

Men

Masquerades

Snakes

Demons

Deep Creatures

Undead

Faerifolk

Chaotic Mist

Dragons

The Roads

When traveling the Low Road (the Leather Road), the Old Road, and the High Road encounters occur about 20% of the time every 24 hours. For Halfling, Elf, and Dwarf, and travelers encounters, see Medium Groups.

On the Low and Old Road encounters with “Caravan” are really with “Merchant”.

Main Table

Civilized Peoples

Masquerade

Humanoid Creatures

Natural Encounters

Animals

Snakes

Fantastic Creatures

Offroad to the Long Lakes

Encounter 10% of the time every 24 hours.

Main Table

Civilized Peoples

Masquerade

Humanoid Creatures

Natural

Animals

Snakes

Fantastic Creatures

Faerifolk

Demons

Undead

Underground Creature

Dragon

The Eastern Foothills

These encounters cover the area around Hightown and Biblyon and somewhat further north. When traveling north of the Leather Road, encounters occur about 20% of the time every 24 hours.

Main Table

Civilized Peoples

Masquerade

Humanoid Creatures

Natural Encounters

Animals

Snakes

Fantastic Creatures

The Deep Forest

When traveling south of the Leather Road, encounters occur about 20% of the time each day and each night.

Main Table

Civilized Peoples

Human

Masquerade

Humanoid Creatures

Natural Encounters

Animals

Snakes

Fantastic Creatures

Chaotic Mist

East Highland

High Divide to Sea Haven

From the High Divide to the Sea Haven. Encounters occur 10% of the time every twenty-four hours. In East Highland, powerful apparitions (such as phantasms) are sometimes called “Edge Demons”.

Main Table

Civilized Peoples

Masquerade

Humanoid Creatures

Natural Encounters

Animals

Snakes

Fantastic Creatures

Demons

Undead

Underground Creature

Dragon

The North

The Celtic Valley

The Celtic Valley, far north and protected by the High Divide and the Great Mountains, is mostly immune to invasion, but it has its own special creatures to beware of. Encounters occur 20% of the time every twenty-four hours.

Main Table

Civilized peoples

Human

Masquerades

Humanoids

Natural

Animals

Fantastic

Dragons

Undead/demons

Faerifolk

The Cold North

The mountains of the west from north of Erventon to the Far Pass. Encounters occur 25% of the time every twenty-four hours.

Main Table

Civilized peoples

Human

Masquerades

Humanoids

Natural

Animals

Fantastic

Dragons

Undead/demons

Deep Creatures

Faerifolk

The Warm North

The mountains of the east, from the Dowanthal River up to the far pass. Encounters occur 30% of the time every twenty-four hours.

Main Table

Civilized peoples

Human

Masquerades

Humanoid Creatures

Natural Encounters

Animals

Fantastic Creatures

Dragons

Undead and Demons

Deep creatures

Faerifolk

The Underground

Marshy heat pockets and jungle heat pockets will, 50% of the time, have dangerous plants and animals: roll d6 times on the grove table.

In the underground, plants, especially molds and vines, can grow as often on walls and ceilings as on the “ground”.

Beneath West Highland

Encounters occur on 15% every 24 hours. Salt traps are dangerous: if walked upon, each character must make an Evasion roll or fall in, becoming covered with salt. Suffocation will occur unless the character is removed.

Main Table

Natural Encounters

Grove

Lode

Intelligent Creatures

Animals

Creatures

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Version 1.1, March 2000

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Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format, SGML or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming simple HTML designed for human modification. Opaque formats include PostScript, PDF, proprietary formats that can be read and edited only by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or processing tools are not generally available, and the machine-generated HTML produced by some word processors for output purposes only.

The "Title Page" means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material this License requires to appear in the title page. For works in formats which do not have any title page as such, "Title Page" means the text near the most prominent appearance of the work's title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text.

2. Verbatim Copying

You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3.

You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you may publicly display copies.

3. Copying in Quantity

If you publish printed copies of the Document numbering more than 100, and the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies. The front cover must present the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition. Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other respects.

If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent pages.

If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy a publicly-accessible computer-network location containing a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material, which the general network-using public has access to download anonymously at no charge using public-standard network protocols. If you use the latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one year after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that edition to the public.

It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document well before redistributing any large number of copies, to give them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the Document.

4. Modifications

You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:

1. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the Document, and from those of previous versions (which should, if there were any, be listed in the History section of the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version if the original publisher of that version gives permission.

2. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in the Modified Version, together with at least five of the principal authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has less than five).

3. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version, as the publisher.

4. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.

5. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other copyright notices.

6. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public permission to use the Modified Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.

7. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Document's license notice.

8. Include an unaltered copy of this License.

9. Preserve the section entitled "History", and its title, and add to it an item stating at least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page. If there is no section entitled "History" in the Document, create one stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified Version as stated in the previous sentence.

10. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the network locations given in the Document for previous versions it was based on. These may be placed in the "History" section. You may omit a network location for a work that was published at least four years before the Document itself, or if the original publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.

11. In any section entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications", preserve the section's title, and preserve in the section all the substance and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.

12. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and in their titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.

13. Delete any section entitled "Endorsements". Such a section may not be included in the Modified Version.

14. Do not retitle any existing section as "Endorsements" or to conflict in title with any Invariant Section.

If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's license notice. These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.

You may add a section entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the text has been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a standard.

You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only one passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or through arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of, you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit permission from the previous publisher that added the old one.

The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.

5. Combining Documents

You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified versions, provided that you include in the combination all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its license notice.

The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but different contents, make the title of each such section unique by adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number. Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work.

In the combination, you must combine any sections entitled "History" in the various original documents, forming one section entitled "History"; likewise combine any sections entitled "Acknowledgements", and any sections entitled "Dedications". You must delete all sections entitled "Endorsements."

6. Collections of Documents

You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released under this License, and replace the individual copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other respects.

You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individually under this License, provided you insert a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow this License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.

7. Aggregation with Independent Works

A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, does not as a whole count as a Modified Version of the Document, provided no compilation copyright is claimed for the compilation. Such a compilation is called an "aggregate", and this License does not apply to the other self-contained works thus compiled with the Document, on account of their being thus compiled, if they are not themselves derivative works of the Document.

If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one quarter of the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed on covers that surround only the Document within the aggregate. Otherwise they must appear on covers around the whole aggregate.

8. Translation

Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4. Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special permission from their copyright holders, but you may include translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a translation of this License provided that you also include the original English version of this License. In case of a disagreement between the translation and the original English version of this License, the original English version will prevail.

9. Termination

You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly provided for under this License. Any other attempt to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Document is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.

10. Future Revisions of this License

The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.

Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this License "or any later version" applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.

Highland

A wide, open land ranging from the Long Lakes in the north to the Dark Forest in the south, from the safe port of Sea Haven in the east to the growing towns on the banks of Fawn River across the Leather Road to the west, Highland is sparsely populated. Life in Highland is quiet and slow for the farmers and trappers who populate it.

But hidden in the mountains are abandoned castles of ancient orders. Dotting the deep forest in the south are ruins of an ancient culture. Guarding these ruins are creatures of legend, creatures of tooth and fang and claw. Giants, and ogres, night trolls, dragons.

For most, life in Highland is uneventful. But it was not always like this, and it does not have to be.

Not for the adventurous soul.

Vel Amean Tirtalien Evano