Cimmerian Blood

[Water Bob]

CIMMERIAN THICKET TREES

These large trees native to Cimmeria grow 80-220 feet tall. Their trunks average 10 feet in diameter, but longer diameters are not uncommon. The tree grows a light bark on its limbs that insulates it during the harsh Cimmerian winters, but this bark easily sloughs off--usually making the tree harder to climb--revealing a birch-like white surface below.

At about 40 feet, large limbs--some 3 or 4 feet in diameter--break out radially from the tree to twist and turn in impossible directions. These heavy limbs would eventually pull themselves away from the tree's central trunk were it not for the fact that the thicket trees grow in close groves to where the limbs of one tree actually merges with the limbs of another, creating lattice-like network of limbs, the trees mutually supporting each other, throughout the entire grove. These trees are uncommon even in Cimmeria, but when encountered, a large thicket grove can take up an area of several square miles. It is usually possible to climb a thicket tree and travel a long distance just by transversing the inter-locking limbs.

The trees attract parasitic vines that root into the thicket trees sloughing bark and wrap around the lattice-work limbs. The vines are typically thick enough to be used to swing from one limb to another.

A very long breed of poisonous tree snake is sometimes mistaken for one of these vines. These strangely shaped snakes are typically 2-3 inches thick but average 40-80 feet in length. Many times, the snake will wrap its taile around the limbs of a thicket tree, hidden among the tree's vines, and dangle with its head close to the ground to catch prey. There are stories of Cimmerians traveling the limbs of a thicket grove, grabbing a vine snake by mistake in an attempt to swing to another limb, having the snake's head curl up and attack it's unwelcomed rider in mid-air.

The wood of the thicket trees is very hard and dense, supported by the minerals in the typically rocky Cimmerian soil.

 

[Water Bob]

THE LAST FEW DAYS



It was three days ago. Not hard to remember. The old lady showed up in the village, riding that ancient wagon like it was her throne, wrapped in her ragged furs as if they were a queen's clothing. She brought that big kid, Silaigne, with her, along with that little girl with the bowl on her head. Mallie was her name. And, the others, too: Mallie's 12 year old sister, Mialee. Then, the two boys, 8 year old Regdar and Jozan, who'd seen 5 years. The old hag and her entourage.

They parked the wagon right in front of the longhouse, right there in front of everyone! Then Stenna marched--yes it was a march, too--right into the longhouse, grabbed the talking stick, and started yelling for Finn Elder.

And he came! And he stood there and listened to the orphanage hag rant and rave!

My eyes about popped out of my head.

Then, the big one came up to Finn, and they discussed him. And, the next thing anyone knows is that the Duncohr family could double in size. It all depended on how Silaigne did on the Ras Croi.

That next day, the race was run. Silaigne led the entire length--every lap.

As he ran, I heard all those around me talking about it. All those kids. The unwanted. Those that my kin and clansmen would not take in. The broken ones. By Finn's honor, they were all now Duncohr family.

I can tell you Caelis was not happy about it. Not at all. He said little, old Redbirth did, but he could have been called "redface" that day.

Then, there came that tapping. It was the other Duncohr kid, Branoc, slamming a punt up against the rock. He smacked that stone until the entire village was looking at him. Everyone was quiet. Then he declared his deasghnath with the young Grath warrior we had caught spying on the village from up atop the ridge a few days ago.

None of us knew what to think. We didn't! I got a strange, weasy feeling in my belly. But, then I dismissed it. If the Grath want a fight over this, then I say bring it on. We didn't do anything wrong, and as sure as The Morrigan has black teats, we are not going to run from any fight that the Grath can muster. I'll tell ye that, right now.

Still, some openly spoke of talking Branoc out of it. But, there was nothing to do. No turning back. The way Branoc did it, our honor demanded that he fight the Grath. It was a fair fight. And, both warriors knew going in that only one would be coming out. There were no surprises.

Yesterday, it happened. We all watched. Both Branoc and the Grath were naked except for loincloth. Both had a spear. The fight was quite short. Only a few seconds. Branoc took position,and the Grath swung at him so hard that Branoc's spear nearly cracked in twain. But, the clansman recovered, rebound, circled his grip, then drove that spear deep into the Grath's gut. Dark ichor flowed from the man's gash. From the color of the blood, we all knew the wound was mortal before the Grathman collapsed.

I pulled my axe from my belt. Everyone knew what had to be done. I tossed it into the field. It landed next to the body. Branoc saw it, walked over, picked it up, then bent over the inert Grathman. Gripping the dead man's hair with his free hand, it took Branoc four heavy strokes to break through the cartilage and neck bones. He pulled the head from the body and held it high, gore running down his arm, for all to see.

Branoc had become a man--a warrior. We all witnessed it.

I can only guess what will happen tomorrow.

 

[Water Bob]

CENTRAL CIMMERIA



Clan Bain

4 villages in a valley of the central Cimmerian plain, north of the Blood Glens.

Can field 70 warriors among the 120 clansmen.

They are primarily farmers and cattlemen.

Trading clan: Produces the best leather goods in Cimmeria.

Blood feud with the Darkwolf over a find of gold in disputed territory.

Bain fighters are typically not respected among other Cimmerian clans for lack of skill, though the Bain have dominated the Darkwolf in the feud.

Bain's 37 year old chief, Roth Nab Bain, has a Macbeth type relationship with his mother, Mathma Nab Bain.

All clansmen use the "Nab Bain" suffix to their names, which means "of the Bain clan" or "of Bain" in the Cimmerian tongue.

Clan hero Carac Nab Bain, 30 years old, is a contender to be chief.

Each clansman wears highly tooled leather garments.

 

[Water Bob]

CIMMERIAN THICKET TREES

These large trees native to Cimmeria grow 80-220 feet tall. Their trunks average 10 feet in diameter, but longer diameters are not uncommon. The tree grows a light bark on its limbs that insulates it during the harsh Cimmerian winters, but this bark easily sloughs off--usually making the tree harder to climb--revealing a birch-like white surface below.

At about 40 feet, large limbs--some 3 or 4 feet in diameter--break out radially from the tree to twist and turn in impossible directions. These heavy limbs would eventually pull themselves away from the tree's central trunk were it not for the fact that the thicket trees grow in close groves to where the limbs of one tree actually merges with the limbs of another, creating lattice-like network of limbs, the trees mutually supporting each other, throughout the entire grove. These trees are uncommon even in Cimmeria, but when encountered, a large thicket grove can take up an area of several square miles. It is usually possible to climb a thicket tree and travel a long distance just by transversing the inter-locking limbs.

The trees attract parasitic vines that root into the thicket trees sloughing bark and wrap around the lattice-work limbs. The vines are typically thick enough to be used to swing from one limb to another.

A very long breed of poisonous tree snake is sometimes mistaken for one of these vines. These strangely shaped snakes are typically 2-3 inches thick but average 40-80 feet in length. Many times, the snake will wrap its taile around the limbs of a thicket tree, hidden among the tree's vines, and dangle with its head close to the ground to catch prey. There are stories of Cimmerians traveling the limbs of a thicket grove, grabbing a vine snake by mistake in an attempt to swing to another limb, having the snake's head curl up and attack it's unwelcomed rider in mid-air.

The wood of the thicket trees is very hard and dense, supported by the minerals in the typically rocky Cimmerian soil.

This pic shows how I envision Thicket Trees.

The big limb is about 40 feet from the ground--you can tell by the female in the background. That's about average for most Thicket Trees. The trunk's circumfrence is quite large, and the tree is covered with vines. People climb the tree and walk across the tops of the limbs.

 

[Water Bob]

Crossing the Blood River, west of Seven Stones Ridge, in the southern foothills of the Eiglophian Mountains.

Several leagues southeast, the river flows, carrying its icemelt through a mountain bog area, then into extreme rapids, ending in a 200 foot waterfall, where the river continues down across the Hoath Plain, into the Field of Chiefs.

 

[Water Bob]

Two Handed Weapons that can be created at the Duncohr forge.

And popular Cimmerian swords. Notice the influence from the different cultures surround Cimmeria.

 

[Water Bob]

CIMMERIAN BLOOD - part one

In broad strokes, I give you the outline of the first selection of our massive Hyborian Campaign. Think of the overall campaign as a series of books, with each book telling a part of the overall story. Or, like a TV series, we've finished the first season, waiting for the second to start.

This first story introduced us to some of the main characters (probably more to come) and their world. This first "season" told the story of how these barbarian children became men. We saw the tests they needed to take to prove themselves. We saw them make their first kills. And, we've been tantalized by a dark evil that will stretch much farther than this first story-arc of the overall campaign.



PART ONE: In Part One of the story-arc, we saw these children (age 12) run the Ras Croi--the test that sets them upon the path to manhood. The characters trained with weapons and learned to become fighters. This part was also designed to teach the game mechanics to the players.



PART TWO: We drove things up a notch in Part Two. This is when the little girl, Mallie, was taken by the Grath. We saw the boys' first dangerous foray away from the village. Into the thicket trees they chased the Grath attackers in a daring chase, high above the floor of the Blood River Basin, across the branches of the massive trees that interlock with one another, making a giant, tree, thicket, grove.

It's not long before the characters learn that dark sorcery lives in the Blood River Basin. Time is not constant in this witched wood. And, it is populated by creatures known as the Chakans. The area Cimmerians believe these beasts to be kin to their ancestors from the time of the Breaking of the World. They are thought to be early Cimmerians that never developed and evolved, and thus, the local modern Cimmerians consider the Chakans as another Cimmerian clan. The Chakans are used in tales and myth among the local Cimmerians, sometimes as a way to scare children into sleeping in their skins. The characters, though, met these tribal, beastial people and found them to be more ape-creature-ish than human. Yet, a definite tribal intelligence abides among the Chalkan. And, the players learned that the Chalkans seem to have adapted to the strange way Time exists in the Blood River Basin.

As the adventure continued, the PC's survived capture by the Chakans and contact with Grath warriors. A big confrontation took place as the characters found where Mallie had been taken--a cave just south of the Blood River Basin at the edge of the dry and rugged Cracked Lands. This place is a mystery itself. Called Howling Cave, this place was discovered to be a natural cavern that had been worked by miners of some skill thousands of years ago. The characters encountered Grath warriors, and people, not Cimmerian, from another land...and worse. Sorcerous, demonic beings inhabited the cave as well, and the young Cimmerian warriors found themselves faced with the scaly hide of a demon from the deepest, darkest regions of the shadow world.



PART THREE: The last part of the story-arc saw the Cimmerian heroes rescue the little girl, Mallie, from the Howling Cave only to find themselves in a race for thier lives across the Cracked Lands as the demon tracked them with a band of risen dead--the same dead that the player characters had killed in the Howling Cave. The heroes faced a flash-flood, exhaustion, a hurricane force storm, and a climax with the risen-dead and the demon itself, before our main characters dragged themselves back into their home village of Seven Stones Ridge.

It had been just over two weeks since they had disappeared and started their chase after the young girl, Mallie, and their clansmen in the village were quite pleased to see them alive.

The two young Cimmerians, Silaigne, the orphan, and Caelis Redbirth, son to the clan chieftan, had earned their right to be called "warrior" and sit among the adults at the new moon gatherings. They had survived where adult, seasoned warriors probably would not have. They faced overwhelming odds, and won.

The two, since, have been recognized to have been born with Battle Destiny--the blessing by the war goddess Badh that makes them more suited than normal for the blade and the axe and war.



Several questions remained unanswered. Be sure to note that those will become paramount in the future story-arcs of....CIMMERIAN BLOOD!


NOTE: During this first story-arc, the two PC's, Silaigne and Caelis, have gone from 1st to 3rd level Barbarians. At the end of this first story, the PC's are 15 and 14 years old, respectively. They started the adventure as children and ended it as battle-hardened men.

 

[Water Bob]

Cimmeria Is A Big Place


That's the way I see it. Cimmeria is a big place. I believe that we sometimes think of the Cimmerian culture and the region's people with a myopic point of view. Within Cimmeria as a microcosm, there are going to be more advanced clans and those with less technological progress. There are going to be those that are closer to savagery and barbarism and those that are closer to being described as "almost civilized". Some clans are nomadic, wintering in one of a few choice spots, then moving north during the summer months. Others are not nomadic, living in wood and stone villages, as seen in both the '82 and 2012 Conan movies.

Just like other peoples and eras of history, the various peoples of Cimmeria fight amongst themselves and have different micro-cultures even though they share common cultural traits. A real world example are the American Indians. They they share some common overall cultural traits (they are Indians, after all), but the Cherokee are a vastly different tribe of people when compared to the Apache. There are the nomadic American plains indians, and then again, there are the Pueblo indians making structures in the side of a mountain.

I view the Cimmerians as no different than that--that there can be vast differences between the clans.

 

[Water Bob]

The PCs Are The First Generation...



For story reasons, I established in my campaign (call it My Hyborian Age) that, centuries ago, a smith emerged among the Grath clan--a clan of Cimmerians that live along the Diamondrun river that runs down the side of the Eiglophians. This is "game history". The Grath's existence depended on the river. They are fishermen, mostly, but someone finally figures out (maybe he is shown by a traveller or trader) how to make a living and support the clan by panning in the river.

It's not weapons they make. This ore is much like bog-ore. But, they learn to make metal instruments.

Who knows how long this goes on for, but at some points, maybe generations later, Aesir traders from the north side of the Eiglophians appear with a small amount of quality ore. The Aesir are miners, and some bright yellow-hair finally thought to see if they could expand their market. So, with a small store of ore in a wagon, they ventured south into the lands of the Cimmerians, comming upon the Grath.

There, a deal was made. Two villages depend on each other, one Aesir, and one Cimmerian.

I won't bore you with the details, but trouble errupted among the Grath clan, and that smith (years later) did the unthinkable and left the clan. He traveled south, just outside of the territory claimed by the Grath, and set up a homestead with his forge. The Aesir traders, appearing every year or so, followed the smith. Quickly, a new clan formed around the smith--and this becomes the players' clan: The clan of the Blue Fox, or Urrough, as it is said in native Cimmerian.

Of course, the Grath didn't just let the smith go easily and start a rival clan. No, there was a civil war, of sorts. A blood feud that goes on to this day. The major war between the two clans halted when the call went out to unite against the Aquilonians at Venarium. Both the Grath and the Foxmen sent warriors. And, after their return, the hostility returned but not to the level it was before Venarium.

To this day, the Grath and the Blue Fox are major enemies.

The players in my campaign are playing characters that are the sons of the son of the smith that moved south and started the new clan. That smith, Old Fionn, is advanced in age, now. His son is chief, Finn Elder, and also now a master smith. Finn Elder's sons (and the sons of his brothers) are the player characters.

I tried to created a rich, deep, believable, but interesting history from which to draw my campaign. The player characters are special in the sense that they are the first Foxmen to be born Foxmen. All others before them were Grath that followed Old Fionn south. The PCs are the first generation of this new Cimmerian clan.