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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Electric Wizard" data-source="post: 6098509" data-attributes="member: 83982">Lochgate Lodge (13.10)Connected to Hexes 16.16, 23.11 and 22.11The Lochgates, a werebear clan, dwell in this sprawling hunting lodge when not roaming the forest as great bears. The lodge has been built, destroyed and rebuilt countless times through the centuries. Some wings of the house have rough timber walls and sod roofs, while others are sophisticated masonry and stained glass. Each wing reflects the builders' tastes and level of wealth. The lodge rises from the rocky banks of Loch Sable, a narrow but very deep lake with black waters. Fishermen draw up pale, eyeless fish and huge crayfish from its depths. The Lochgates are a temperamental, quarrelsome lot. Damages done to the lodge are more often caused by spats between relatives than by raiders. The house's matriarch, the plump, long-toothed Marcila, does her best to send her feuding kin on errands to different necks of the forest until their tempers cool. Whether they are slaying some beast, retrieving honey from giant bees or hunting the white stag, the knights of Thring and forest folk find these questing werebears to a be a dangerous nuisance. Despite their tempers and crude manners, the Lochgates are decent folk who wish the best for their neighbors, even if they are loathe to become entangled in their alliances.Lochgates claim that the founder of their house, Sweitbor the Roarer, was the legendary fifth Duke of Thring. Their version of the myth was that Deloc, the fourth duke, recruited a band of chivalrous werebears to battle Gore. Deloc named Sweitbor his heir after discovering that his son and daughter were plotting to take his throne and imprison him, and Sweitbor reluctantly accepted the mantle when Deloc died in a duel with Gore's Swordsage. The rest of Thring insists that Sweitbor was a brutal usurper who took the throne by force, and that his short reign was justly ended by Deloc's children.Connections-Seven Paces, the fabled weapon of Hardrald Longspear (23.11), rests above Marcila's mantle. It has been in the lodge since a Marcila's great-uncle returned from a quest to the Freeholds.-Grondelgar serves as captain of rangers in Winds (23.11), and he vows to return with Seven Paces on his next visit to his grandmother. He is more interested in being hailed as a hero than he is in fulfilling any duty to the town.Hooks-Who are some other Lochgates?-Who helps the werebears build and rebuild the lodge?-What else lurks in Loch Sable?-Do werebears get any unusual benefits from the honey of giant bees?-What is the white stag? Why does everyone want to slay it?-Was Sweitbor the Roarer, the fifth Duke of Thring, a hero or villain?-When have the Lochgates become entangled in regional politics? Whom did they serve and how?</blockquote>

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