Communal Setting: Cambria

[NealTS]

All right, gang. I just got Heroes of Horror, and I'm looking to inflict it upon my players. I don't want to use a familiar, stock setting, though. A custom milieu will keep them on their toes. A bunch of heads are better than one, though, and there hasn't been a good communal setting-building project here for a while (that I've seen, anyway). So I bring it here. The usual rules apply. Anything goes within the limits set by previous posts. Try to keep the horror mentality in mind. Maybe this'll end up being what I'm looking for, maybe it won't. Either way, though, it should be a lot of fun.

Cambria is a rocky, wooded coast dotted with isolated settlements and fortified farmsteads. There never was a concerted effort made by any government to colonize Cambria, as it has few resources worth plundering. Hardy folk seeking to start a new life on their own have trickled in over the past hundred years, though. Most of these settlers were common folk in the old countries, scrounging together what little they could to pay for the long, rough ocean voyage and the supplies they would need until their farms became self-sufficient. Some adventurous nobles, third and fourth sons, usually, set out to prove themselves against the elements, but they rarely last more than a month before arranging a trip back on the next supply ship. Life would be hard in Cambria even if the only adversaries were the poor soil and frequent storms.

 

[Imret]

Hmmm. I am in need of a setting to run horror games in, and I'd be certainly interested in throwing in some ideas as they come to me.

I don't have a copy of Heroes of Horror, though, since the reviews have pointed me away from it; too much money for the roughly forty pages of mechanics I'd use, and only the Coming Back Wrong rules make me salivate to own it. I'd certainly be willing to throw in some ideas, though.

As long as you're just planning a setting entirely for personal non-profit use, I'd like to make something clear. I'm gonna have to include displacer beasts. I have some ideas brewing about that in particular.

 

[Tonguez]

Cambria is a rocky, wooded coast dotted with isolated settlements and fortified farmsteads. .

The Wreckers
With its rough rocky coastlines it is innevitable that some ships be wrecked and cast up upon the rocks, and thats where the wreckers come in. The Wreckers are a hardy bunch, who risk the winds and surf to go out and salvage what they can. Some are even willing to dive to recover sunken treasures.

Scavengers most of them, though a few more noble souls do take the effort of saving the ship crews and passengers before recovering the cargoes. Of course not all are so scrupulous and with no active Wrecking Court to determine titles, a few fights have erupted over ownership of properties which have made the Wreckers a greater threat than the storm and rocks!

Of course of more recent times strange things have been happening which has left the Wreckers themselves whispering. Like ships found with the entire crews slaughtered to a man, or even ships with no crews at all - every one is set alight and left to burn

Wreckers see a lot of strange things out on the surf and reefs, but perhaps some secrets are best left to the sea...

 

[mythusmage]

Rocky with poor soil you say. How close are the mountains and how tall are they? What legends are associated with the mountains? What are the mountains home to?

Was the land uninhabited? If uninhabited, why? If inhabited, who lived there and how were they forced out if they did not leave of their own accord? Who else covets the land?

Are the current conditions the norm? If changes are coming what sort of changes are they? Is it recently flooded land just now thrust up into the air? Are forces at work to drag it down again? Or is it land slowly sinking beneath the waves, with ground water growing ever more briny and creatures of the deep ocean swimming ever further up rivers and streams growing more and more brackish from the intruding sea?

How do the people dream?

 

[fnork de sporg]

All the treants in Cambria, the few that there are, are lawful evil druids of varying level. All of the wild animals in their care are evil as well and many of them have been awakened. Most of these awakened animals lead packs of normal animals, roaming the land and bringing woe.

Most inhabitants of Cambria just think of this as normal. The animal attacks are essentially random and the treants never leave their forests so the situation never draws any organized response.

 

[The Cardinal]

The hinterlands of Cambria, i.e. anything more than 40-50 leagues east of the coast, are dominated by a vast mountain range, stretching more than 900 miles from north to south, and with majestic snow-capped peaks more than 10,000 feet above sea level. The colonists call them the Duskfangs, for it is said that they often look like the white fangs of a great beast lying behind the dark green foothills of the Duskwood.
Rumors tell of an endless sea of grass and rolling hills beyond the duskfangs - a prarie ruled by bloodthirsty orcish nomads...

 

[NealTS]

As long as you're just planning a setting entirely for personal non-profit use, I'd like to make something clear. I'm gonna have to include displacer beasts. I have some ideas brewing about that in particular.

Oh, yeah. Just my own private group (and, I suppose, anyone else's that happens upon this thread and likes what they see).

An intrepid band of adventurers who had braved an inland expedition to seek out decent, defensible farmland came back, reporting a massive boneyard in the woods. The bones were mostly orcish in origin, and were entangled in thin, leafy vines. Something about the sight so unnerved the adventurers that they immediately returned to the mainland, and after that initial, sketchy report, they haven't talked about the expedition since.

 

[The Cardinal]

Refuge is the name of the northernmost harbor in Cambria: This town of narrow streets and timber-framed houses lies above a small sheltered bay to the south of the coastal area known as Firwood Coast.
About 3-4 miles south of Refuge one can find a stretch of rocky cliffs punctured by dozens of deep caves, many of them only accessible during low tide. These so-called Moanstone Caverns are home to a very aggressive type of giant carnivorous crabs, and also to - if local legend is to be believed - a coven of sea hags...

 

[The Cardinal]

Though there are still a few temples to the traditional deities to be found in Cambria, another religion has risen in this new world. Almost any town and most villages will have a so-called "Church" of The Faith. Followers of The Faith believe that all deities are just reflections and visions of different aspects of the One God - well, except for certain evil or chaotic evil deities who are either seen as mere demons and devils or as aspects of a dark and malevolent Anti-God, usually just called The Other. Churches of The Faith never contain idols or statues of the One God, but believers often carry small ritual knots - sometimes made of silver or gold wire, usually just some leather string - as a symbol of their religion. Priests of The Faith tend to preach a lot about the temptations of evil and the rewards of the afterlife...

 

[Tonguez]

All the treants in Cambria, the few that there are, are lawful evil druids of varying level. All of the wild animals in their care are evil as well and many of them have been awakened. Most of these awakened animals lead packs of normal animals, roaming the land and bringing woe.

Most inhabitants of Cambria just think of this as normal. The animal attacks are essentially random and the treants never leave their forests so the situation never draws any organized response.

But the The Council of Leaves, the Grove where the seven eldest Treants stand, is concerned. They have felt something stirring in the land and three of the lesser treants have been found withered and blighted, the beasts about them stricken and dying. The blight is spreading and the Council of Leaves do not know the reasons why. Is it the land rebeling against these human(oid) invaders, is it the end of the Teants reign or is it some darker blight...