Let’s Make a Hexcrawl Setting

[Triskaideka]

The Glorious Reign of Doge Simone the Fowl (29.14)

It happened in a certain year that in the City of Shuttered Windows an election for the Doge was held, following the death of the previous Doge, as was the rule. The top contender for the Doge’s coronet was Simone the Foul, a singularly unpleasant but mind bogglingly wealthy patrician. Seeking to subvert the College of Electors, Simone the Foul went to great lengths to bribe not one, or some of the Electors, but every single one, reasoning that if they were all in his pocket he was guaranteed to win the election.

In one of the most ridiculous political accidents known to history, by clerical error Simone the Foul’s name on the list was replaced with that of his daughter’s pet rooster, Simone the Fowl, and when the secret ballot was read, it was found that Simone the Fowl had won the election by a unanimous vote, leaving Simone the Foul a fortune in gold poorer and in possession of the dubious honor of having been the only man in history to bribe the entire College of Electors and still lose the election.

The College of Electors was in something of a bind. Mad Doges it could deal with, but a cuckoo Doge? Searching the ancient bylaws of the City and consulting with the Matriarch of the Temple Indivisible, they discovered that the College could rule the City in the Doge’s stead if he was found to be incompetent, but only by consensus. Naturally, the Electors couldn’t agree on what to have for breakfast, let alone how to govern the City, so by default the government collapsed and the city fell into anarchy.

In practice, however, all the great institutions, guilds, bureaucracies of the City, together with the Temple Indivisible, formed an informal council and de facto ruled the City. Untampered with by the politics of the Doge and the College of Electors, the institutions of the city operated efficiently and effectively throughout this period, and the reign of Doge Simone the Fowl has widely come to be thought of as a golden age for Shuttered.

As for the Doge, he lived a simple, if scandalous (and perhaps a bit dashing), lifestyle. Widely considered a very handsome cuckoo, he scandalized court life by taking a pretty peasant hen as his common-law wife, with whom he had several dozen legitimate children. He also sired vast thousands of bastards through his many courtesans, and is generally regarded to have had more lovers than any Doge in recorded or oral history. To this day, cuckoos descended from his line are considered bringers of good fortune and talismans against evil, and are known as Simonian Cuckoos. Nobles prefer the beautiful cuckoos bred from his legitimate line, and genealogical papers proving their descent are extremely illegal to forge. The common folk are content with cuckoos descended from his many bastard lines, and are generally not particularly concerned about genealogical papers.

His glossy feathers inspired a carefully feathered hairstyle amongst the fashionista of the City, and there was no self-respecting dandy who dared to be seen without a massively puffed out bright red silk cravat, going so far as to drape them over wire cages strapped to the chest so they could puff out even larger. The same style, though much more restrained, continues to be worn to this day.

Doge Simone the Fowl was unusually long lived, and his reign lasted 21 glorious years before ending in murder most foul. Mad with envy and ambition, Simone the Foul wrung his neck in front of his horrified daughter, who had loyally served as the Doge’s caretaker, doctor, and assistant throughout his reign. For this fowl assassination Simone the Foul was barred from seeking the office of the Doge, stripped of his citizenship, dressed in rags, and exiled from the City in complete, perpetual and eternal disgrace. He fled to the foothills of the Barrier Range, where it is said that his ghost can still be heard crowing insanely.

Simone the Fowl was embalmed, interred in a gold, jewel encrusted casket, and laid to rest beside his common-law wife in a towering marble mausoleum along the White Road, financed by donations from all over the city. Simone the Foul’s daughter Geda the Fair, his care-taker, is also buried here. The Blind Doge is her direct matrilineal descendant, and he makes frequent pilgrimage to the tomb to pay his respects to his ancestor and her illustrious charge in a grand annual procession.

And that is why to this very day the people of Shuttered put roosters on their weathervanes.

Hooks
-What other momentous events occurred during the glorious reign of Doge Simone the Fowl?
-Does the ghost of Simone the Foul still haunt the foothills?
-Is Geda the Fair known for anything else?
-Who else might be descended from her?
-Are Simonian Cuckoos really lucky? Does it even matter if they’re legitimate or bastards?
-What kind of morons elect a chicken to high office?!

 

[Electric Wizard]

The Fishing Ogre (35.13)
Connected to Hex 39.14

An ogre named Rogdag dwells in the ruin of a lighthouse. He is unusually docile, almost to the point of timidity, and has never raided the nearby villages. He survives off of the eels and lungfish that lurk in the Keening Sea's shallows, but he sails his raft into deeper waters to spear giant catfish and bearded whales when he feels ambitious.

Rogdag meditates on the shore when not fishing. He flees if attacked, but he invites peaceful travelers to join him. Those who accept his invitation eventually receive a flood of future visions. Many of these visions conflict. Rogdag offers little guidance in making sense of them because his own visions are unpredictable and ambiguous as well.

This eccentric ogre was not born prescient or docile. He is the result of brain experimentation. Two years ago, Rogdag was kidnapped and taken to the rocky isles off of Veerhaven's coast (39.14). There, a mindflayer known as Hush attempted to redesign his large but crude mind. Hush hoped his experiments would discover a trigger or seed for psychic ability. Instead, his experiments altered the ogre's perception of time. Rogdag could not only see future possibilities, but he also emitted a field that affected others when they were in a receptive state.

Rogdag, of course, has no memory of Hush's experiments. But sometimes he wonders how he got the scar that divides the left and right sides of his head.

Hooks
-What other ruins dot the Keening Sea's northern shore?
-Bearded whales? Giant catfish? Lungfish? What other bounty can you harvest from the Keening Sea?
-Who has joined Rogdag in meditation?
-Tell me more about these rocky isles.
-How exactly can you kidnap an ogre?
-What about ogre brains interests mindflayers?
-What other experiments has Hush conducted?

 

[Triskaideka]

Everdark (01.03)

If one travels north along the cliffs from the Bitter Coast, one comes to a fog-shrouded place where the mountains drop precipitously into the sea. Here, the Road River flows out of a narrow mountain pass before cascading over the cliffs and into the ocean. If one were to follow the beaten road through the trees up to this pass and travel east along the bank of the river into the mountains, under the steadily thickening cloud cover they would find the monolithic Giant’s Bane Wall. Manned by a garrison of the dead and a few cheerful, pleasant men with strange eyes, this wall guards the pass into the Everdark.

The Everdark is a steep, narrow valley, its mountains tall and impassible on all but the west end, where the Road River carved a pass through the mountains eons ago. The river originates in a small, spring-fed lake at the very west end of the valley, where it then proceeds to cut a straight line through its middle. With its towering mountains on all sides, and the thick, ever-present storm clouds churning above, the entire valley is covered in eternal shadow, hence the name, Everdark.

Everdark is a shadowy, mist-shrowded land of giant conifers, flourishing ferns and creeping blood mosses and the valley is quiet but for the song of birds and the chilling, distant shriek of mandrakes. In the center of the valley is the curious Borough of Everdark. A walled town of crimson stone; it stands astride the Road River, made into a canal as it enters the city; with its two halves clinging to the steep northern and southern slopes of the valley. Here live the strange and kind folk of Everdark, known for their eyes of black sclera and amber iris, and cat-like slit pupils; their stories of orcish ancestors; their claim to be an ancient borough of the City of Shuttered Windows; the strange Earless Hounds whom they use to hunt the deadly mandrakes with; and the town’s prodigal son, arch-mage Vilenius Arkhaus, the Wizard-Architect and Lord-Elect of Everdark.

Connections
- In times long past, Vilenius Arkhaus built the Sealed Library (29.14.XX) in the Steeple of the Temple Indivisible.

Hooks
- Why do the dead guard the Giant’s Bane Wall?
- Where did the perpetual cloud cover come from?
- Blood mosses?
- Mandrakes?!
- How did the folk of Everdark come to live with orc eyes and orc blood?
- From whence comes the red stone of the Borough?
- How in the world did a Borough of the Shuttered City end up on the Bitter Coast?
- Earless Hounds?
- Surely there’s more to Vilenius Arkhaus. And why do they call him Lord-Elect?

 

[Triskaideka]

Canes Sanguis, the Templars Indivisible. (26.15)

The ancient and much-feared Order of the Canes Sanguis is the greatest arm of the Priests-Militant of the Temple Indivisible in the Shuttered Lands. Famed for their blood-red armor, fully enclosing hounds-head shaped helms, and impressive spears, these soldiers of faith, informally called the Templars, are the bloody face of the Temple Indivisible’s might. Though enrollment is open to any of the faithful of the Temple, the secret rites of initiation, the grueling training regimes, and intense religious instructions have been known to break average men and kill lesser ones.

But the product is hard to argue with- Knights of the Order of the Canes Sanguis are stoic, fearless, disciplined soldiers who temper their fanatical zeal for Alberon with cool, cunning, tactical practicality. They are still zealots though, and their hearts burn with hatred for heresy and foreign gods. These soldiers of god answer only to their Grand Master, who in turn is beholden to, and appointed by, the Matriarch of the Temple Indivisible.

Although their ranks are identically uniformed in their distinct and terrifying armor, their position can be determined by the material of the spear they carry. These spears are formed of a single piece of tempered metal, with a long, sword-like spear tip, making them heavy but powerful weapons. The lowest rank is of the Iron Spears, marking out the acolytes who have survived their training and initiation with lives and minds mostly intact. Above them are the Steel Spears, veteran members who form the majority of the seasoned troops. The next rank and those beyond are closed to all but those who can display some measure of divine power. These begin with the Mithril Spears, who are the paladins, battle-clerics, and inquisitors of the Order. Beyond them are the mighty Adamantine Spears the high officers of the Order. They answer directly to the Grand Master, who holds that Diamond Spear, the only exception to the rule, as its massive diamond blade is secured to a pole of adamantine. The Diamond Spear is passed from Grand Master to Grand Master, who serve at the pleasure of the Matriarch.

Though legions of the Canes Sanguis guard the Steeple and the Matriarch in the city, and others enact the Temple’s will wherever the City of Shuttered Windows holds power, the headquarters of the Order lie just outside the City, nestled in the mountains of the Barrier Range. Here stands the Kennel, the great fortress-monastery-cum-factory-cum-prison-cum-mine. Here initiates are broken in, and heretics toil to death and beyond in eternal repentance by pulling metals and gems from the mines, and working the factories, all to fill the coffers and vaults that finance the well-armed Order.

Hooks-
- Where does the name ‘Canes Sanguis’ and the Order’s canine theme come from, what does it have to do Alberon, and how did these holy knights come to serve the Temple Indivisible?
- Why spears?
- Who is the current Grand Master of the Order?
- Any famous members?
- Religious wars?

 

[Daztur]

For a long time now I’ve been spending more time hacking away at the compilation than on writing new hexes. So it feels nice to get back to writing up some new stuff. Here’s a pretty big dump of new content.

With a Mouth Full of Mud
Additional information about Hex 29.14

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Master Mason of the Honorable Society of Engineers (Hex 29.14.49) is Baron Harenghast (briefly mentioned in Hex 30.12), after all the leader of most every Shuttered institution is a member of the high nobility.

However, the Baron’s subordinates are not displaying the awe and respect that his lineage deserves but are instead rather annoyed at his plans to cut funding for the Crack-Finders, divert work crew to shoring up the foundations of his own tower and selling the sacred steel band of the Society to “honorary engineers.”

Luckily for the chiefs of the Society’s sub-departments, Baron Harenghast is incapable of speaking the Mud Tongue of the common people of the City and instead only speaks the High Tongue of the nobility. The same is true for many of the very richest and youngest of the nobility. This has allowed the chiefs to creatively “translate” his orders to make sure that the day when the City of Shuttered Windows finally sinks into the mud is not today.

Meanwhile, Baron Harenghast is pleased that most of his subordinates cannot speak the High Tongue. All legal instruction in sorcery in the Shuttered City is carried out in the High Tongue and while most every noble is capable of producing at least a few cantrips, the common people cannot even understand the names of the Thousand Spells and One. Also, while anyone with enough money can buy their way into the nobility, it is impossible to participate in the councils of state without being fluent in the High Tongue which can take years of constant study.

But the Mud Tongue is not without its own merits. Outside of the City it has another name: the Common Tongue.

Connections:
-Deep in the Gnomish Quarter (29.14.14) there is an illegal academy where High Tongue verb declensions are spoken of in whispers lest unkind ears hear them.
-Occasionally the mockingbird (25.07) can be heard calling out spell formulae in the High Tongue.
Hooks:
-What other institutions run Shuttered?
-What are the Thousand Spells and One?
-Why does Count Seutorian’s balloon look like Baron Harenghast’s mother (30.12)?
-Why is the language school illegal? Who is allowed the learn the High Tongue? How can you enforce that?

The Beauty of Olga Pignose
Additional information about Hex 17.07

Inspired by the mad complexity of the Spanish colonial casta system, the movie Dark Crystal and the weird bit in Genesis 6 about the “sons of god.”

The child of the local half-orc Hilda Pignose and a travelling half-elven bard, Olga Pignose is the most beautiful child in all of these Shrouded Lands. Her eyes can melt even the heard of a Hoard dwarf (33.00) and her hair is flowing midnight with such a sheen as to make even the elves of the Kingswood gasp with envy. She is already taller than her mother, but still more graceful than many of the finest Shadowed Ballet dancers (briefly mentioned in 50.11 and 40.20.01) of Shuttered.

Unbeknownst to Olga’s proud mother, an ancient scroll (of which every copy was burned long ago) entitled the Breath of Alberon seems to speak of the girl. The only known information about this work is a summary in the Record of Past Heresies (see the Sealed Library, Hex 29.14.XX) which talks of claims that Alberon will one day be born of elf and orc, and not of man, and that after he is born he will slip between the streams of time to rule the City in its gloried past (29.14.26). Few people take this seriously as everyone knows that elves and orcs cannot have children. There are also references to theories that there was once an ancient race of god-men that was sundered into the elven and orcish races, each of which contain only fragments of their ancestors’ glory.

But whatever else she is, Olga isn’t Alberon or a god-man. She’s a she who is still half-human. But the child isn’t too concerned with that. She’s busy exercising her wings and hopes that she’ll be able to fly soon.

Connection:
-Olga dreams of Mt. Scorshia (02.03).

Hooks:
-Who’s Olga’s father?
-What is Shadowed Ballet like anyway?
-Why does Olga have wings? How tall is she going to get?
-Is what is written in the Breath of Alberon actually true? Who were the ancient god-men? How did they become elves and orcs? Is Alberon going to be Olga’s son or what?
-The Record of Past Heresies has just a brief summary of the Breath of Alberon. Is there any way to get to the original? Maybe from a kobold (45.09)? A snake (41.24)? Did the Weeper read it (43.08)?
-Are there any other children of half-elves and half-orcs around? Both of those half-breeds are rare so their children must be even rarer, perhaps Olga is the first one.

The Tasty Tomb of the Thaumaturge
Hex 13.09

Inspired by: http://ofdiceandmenrpg.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/the-mellified-men-osr-monster.html as the suggestion of the blog’s author.

Many people have found it hard to believe that the great Severard of the Seven Chins could’ve been killed by a simple spider bite (13.08). They are right. Severard is only mostly dead. After being bitten by the giant spider he was in something of a bind: after all he had specifically created this spider so that its venom was proof against any magical cure.

But a mage always has a few tricks up their sleeve and Severard transported himself to this cave complex where he had been conducting experiments on subterranean bees and their magic-absorbing honey. He poured all of his magic into a great honey comb and then dove right in.

Honey is a wonderful preservative and the substance has preserved and slowly mummified Severard’s large body. The magic that the master cast on the comb is slowly leeching the poison out of his body, year by patient year, and one day Severard will emerge from his tomb. But for now only his mellified brain is still active and it is full of strange moods and stranger thoughts.

He has some influence over the hive of bees that grows ever larger around his tomb as they feed on the lilies that grow on the light of phosphorescent fungus in the dank caves that lead to the Sunless Sea (18.10.01). At his command the bees have begun flying out of caves at night to drag down the bloodless corpses of the victims of the spiders that now rule Severard’s Town (13.08) and bury them in honey.

If they are fresh enough, these corpses find their lost blood and organs replaced with potent honey and rise as undead with only the barest glimmerings of the memories and intelligence that they possessed in their past lives. However, this process takes some time so many clumsy arms grope out of the walls of the hive, seeking to grasp any passersby and drag them into the honey.

The hive zombies themselves are clumsy and stupid, but Severard hopes to gather enough of them so that their numbers can make up for these deficiencies. Their numbers are already large enough to make it difficult for any adventurer to brave these caves and gather the honey, but if they are able to do so it will fetch a good price due to its magic absorbing properties and yummy taste. However, if someone eats nothing but this honey they will find themselves slowly wasting away as the honey slowly suffuses and eventually mummifies their body.

Connection:
-If Barnabus Bludenoss (18.10) were to learn of the current state of Severard of the Seven Circles he’d gather up as many of his were-men as he could to try to destroy him and all of his bees.

Hooks:
-Who knows that Severard is still alive (if you can call his current state life…)?
-What is Severard planning to do with his horde of hive zombies?
-Are there any other mellified mummies out there? How do they differ from the normal sort? Can they be turned like normal undead?
-What is magic-absorbing honey good for?
-Why does Barnabus Bludenoss want to destroy his old master?

Triskaideka: so Simone the Fowl is was a cuckoo who interbred with a chicken so a lot of his kids have a rooster-like appearance? After reading this last post I looked up some Wikipedia pages on cuckoos and brood parasitism (birds laying their eggs in other birds’ nests, as some cuckoos do). Apparently some cuckoo’s engage in “mafia” behavior which explains why the hosts don’t just kick the planted egg out of their nest. What happens is that they lay their egg in another bird’s nest and then keep on checking to make sure that the egg (or the chick) is still there and if it isn’t they trash the nest and destroy all of the hosts eggs and chicks and do the same thing if the nest gets rebuilt. Since the host is smaller they generally stand a better chance of at least a few of their kids living to adulthood by knuckling under and accepting the parasite’s egg. This made me think of changelings of course which are usually described as elves but the behavior of these “mafia” birds didn’t’ seem to suit elves (they’re not thuggish, they don’t grow faster than humans and they don’t have much reason to give their precious kids to humans) so I thought that orcs would be a better fit instead.

I also used some Abulafia generators to help me fill in the details. They’re really really useful.

The Changlings of Northburn Holding
Hex 22.03

Northburn Holding is located here at the extreme edge of the Freeholds, wedged between orcish territory and the Kingswood. But despite this the holding looks like a prosperous and contented place with fat cows munching at the grass as goats gambol around them.

Despite the close proximity of the orcs there are no defenses that can be seen around the town, only the burnt out ruins of the Puce Keep. Instead the largest building in town is the Hundred Cheeses which is famous for its wide variety of grilled cheese platters, especially burnt cheese a local specialty that is made out of a mix of goat and cow milk in which the curd is caramelized.

But a closer look reveals that each and every family has a child that seems just a bit larger, just a bit greener and just a bit rougher than the rest that constantly demands attention and food from its parents. These are the orcish changelings that orcish mothers, who are annoyed by the unfairness of the Double Duty (26.01.04), drop in local cribs every so often.

Parents have to be quick to remove their own child from the crib before its new foster sibling throttles it but they never kill or abandon these orcish children as doing so would bring down the wrath of the mothers that sneak by every so often to peer in windows and make sure that their abandoned children are growing fast and strong.

Raising the changelings is a heavy burden to the families of Northburn but many think it is better than having to deal with orcish raiding parties, like the ones who burned the old lord out of the Puce Keep.

But still a large faction of the town chafes at the bargain that the town has made with the orcs. For example people here refrain from sex in the spring as orc children are usually dropped off at the end of the year and it is dangerous to have a baby in the house when an orc arrives (local superstition also says that sex delays the coming of spring). Also whenever an orc child dies a large and nervous feast is held for its family to convince them it was an accident.

An especially large number of problems have cropped up recently. Messen Benatr, a local wealthy farmer, was been brutally murdered and people are squabbling over who will have to care of his changeling. Similarly, Simon the Scribe is soon to be executed in an especially brutal fashion for the crime of killing his wife as she has an especially vicious brood of three changelings that someone else will have to take care of now.

This has all come to a dead with a recent raid by the major and his boys on the Shining Swordsman tavern under the pretext of “illegal badger baiting” as the tavern’s proprietor and several of the regulars have sought to bring in Grimkjel Koldranson (see 20.03 for information on Koldran’s many children) and his band of mercenary gnolls to butcher the changelings and fight off any orcish retaliation.

A third faction of humans just does their best to avoid the whole issue and hide their homes, shave their heads to feign illness or live only with members of the same sex.

As for the changelings themselves, what is there to tell? Usually blood calls out to blood and the changelings leave their battered by relieved “parents” to head up into the Grey Mountains. But still, many of these orcs harbor fond memories for their foster home (so many cows to tip, so many weak human children to bully, truly a paradise) and would be most upset at anyone who harmed their childhood home. But a handful of changelings become fully assimilated into human society and either stay in Northburn and try to make a life for themselves or set off for the Shuttered City, where orcs are viewed with far less suspicion than the raid-scarred lands of the Freeholds.

Hooks:
-Have any other villages cut similar deals with the orcs?
-What is it like to raise a changeling? Do orcs and their “parents” ever develop close bonds?
-How do these changelings fare when they return to orcish lands? Do they know how to speak orcish?
-Can sex really delay the coming of spring?
-What can you tell me of Grimkjel Koldranson and his gnolls?
-Why does living with members of the same sex prevent orcs from giving you a changeling? Why would an orc care?
-Any notable changelings?
-Do the orcs ever steal human babies when they leave their changelings?

 

[Daztur]

OK, here's what I'm planning to do next. Like I said in the last post I'm a bit burned out on editing stuff and doing art so I want to spend a while just writing stuff for the setting until we get to, say, Moby Dick length (frighteningly-enough at our current rate, especially with Triskaideka, that won't take very long, we should hit it by the end of the month...) then go add more art again and then think hard about how to reorganize the whole beast to make it more user friendly (with input from all of you of course). The way it's grown it can be a bit hard to find stuff, for example the main write-up for a major religion is buried as a sub-hex of an out of the way inn with other important bits of stuff developing the religion scattered all about. That'll take a while, but this setting is pretty damn awesome so I think it's worth doing. Maybe porting it over into a wiki some time? Although I quail when it comes to thinking about how much of a time sink that would be.

 

[Triskaideka]

No problem. I may take a crack at attempting to assemble some groups of information information into non-hex entries, mainly with the gods and religions.

As for the cuckoos, I was, embarrassingly enough, inspired by cuckoos from Ocarina of Time. In the Shrouded Lands lands cuckoos are large, territorial chickens that parasitize the nests of smaller birds. They are fully capable of flight, unlike Earth-chickens. Doge Simone the Fowl, his common-law wife and all his courtesans were cuckoos. So basically Cuckoos and chickens are one in the same in the Shrouded Lands.

 

[Triskaideka]

And yes they do peck people who attack them to death. That's just too strange and crazy NOT to- ... I just suddenly had an idea for a new hex.

 

[Daztur]

Sure makes sense, what we'll have to do eventually is strip all of the information that doesn't pertain to just that specific hex (like general cultural/species information) and dump it into a set of appendixes in the back. That way if you want to know about kobolds you can read the kobold entry in the races section, not have to jump between five different hex write-ups. This'll take a while, so some other stuff first...

The Box of Delights
Additional information about Hex 24.13

Inspiration: stolen from Oglaf.com (NSFW, very very NSFW)

When Gishard Penderghast looted Maddlow Castle (23.19) one of the treasures he brought home with him was the Box of Delights. But now Honorius Penderghast is sending excavation teams into the collapsed portions of the old family castle under the mountain so it is only a matter of time before it is discovered.

The box itself is dark wood and inlaid with mother of pearl from the Sea of Typhoons that form geometrical patterns. The magic that has been laid upon the box is that when it is opened anyone who looks upon it will be overcome with desire for whatever is inside. The enchantment is broken if the object is removed from the box or if the box is closed.

Currently the box contains a crudely-carved wooden monkey toy.

Hooks:
-What else can be found under the mountain?
-Why is there a monkey toy in the box? What sort of chaos has the box caused in the past?

 

[Daztur]

The Thief-Lord of the Fourth Castle
Hex 18.11

Inspiration: lots of bits and pieces from various things stuck together (including my very first D&D character from when I was in 5^th grade), the ring trick is from Oglaf.com again (again NSFW!!!).

The people here on the northern fringe of Thring do not approve of young Lord Kadash. This is not because he is from Jahur (19.31), many foreigners have married Thringish ladies and ruled in these lands and if the legends are true the fifth Duke of Thring was a bear all covered in hair.

No, it’s not who he is it’s how young Kadash became the lord of Fourth Castle. Here in the swampy north the old ways of Thring (see 27.19 for some of them) are kept far more than in the south. Here a lord’s new life begins when he retrieves the Lady of the Fourth Castle’s wedding band after it is hurled into the river and ends when their neck is ceremonially opened into the same waters. But this time when the ring was thrown into the waters and a hundred men plowed into the water to claim it they found that it was a cunning fake and that the true band had been in Kadash’s pocket all along.

But still, Kadash had the ring and was therefore the lord despite all of the howls and threats. In spite of his unpopularity he has won over his lady, who bore him a large healthy son six months later and his father in-law (whose death Kadash faked so he could stay hidden in his daughter’s inner chambers rather than be gnawed at by fish in the river).

So far the young thief-lord performed surprisingly-well and has managed to deal with the cantoblepas infestation where many headstrong knights failed by poisoning their watering hole with poisons of the cloud forest (47.00), which has made it much easier to gather the tasty local wild rice. He has even been able to make peace with the Barnibi (18.10) which has kept any more local peasants from becoming were-men.


But despite this many of the knights are weary of serving a thief and discuss how the time when the new lord’s neck should be opened into the river could be hurried along.

Hooks:
-Why is this the first castle? What happened to the other three? Did they sink into the swamp?
-Was the fifth Duke really a bear?
-Why does whoever grabs the ring get to be the new lord? When does the lord get killed to make room for the next one?
-What exploits were Kadash involved in before settling down here to become a lord?
-What other lords in Thring have become such due more to guile than force of arms?