Yenrak
Explorer
Here are my notes for the game we will play Sunday. I don't actually read all this stuff. But writing it out ahead of time helps me get in the right mindset.
Black Birds in Morning, Travelers Take Warning
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
The time for celebrating your victory over the goblins who had infested the Tomb of the Knights of the Blue Wyrm is short. Less than an hour after your return to camp, head teamster Rafferty Tannerson gives the order to get the caravan back on the road.
You are all still feeling the pain from your fight to rescue the boy from his goblin kidnappers. Your spells are depleted, your wounds still fresh. Heading out on the road now will mean you will not get a chance to recover until you make camp tonight. If you encounter more danger on the road, you’ll have to face it in your weakened state.
But it is not clear that resting here will be any safer than moving on. Landon recalls that there seemed to be many more sets of bedding than the goblins you encountered in the tomb. So there may be a band of goblins roaming nearby. They may even just now be discovering that someone has attacked and killed their comrades.
[Players should decide whether to move on or stay in place. If they want to remain, they will have to make a persuasion check to convince either Rafferty Tannerson or Master Peddywinkle to remain in place since both men are inclined to make more progress on the trip.]
Black Hawks Up
Regardless of which they choose, the PCs have a chance to learn about the dangers of the Black Ravens ahead.
[Make a perception check.]
As you break camp, saddle the horses, and pack the wagons you notice that Rafferty keeps looking up toward the sky. It’s a clear day with few clouds. A brisk wind is in the air but no hint of trouble.
[Persuasion check if PCs want to ask what is bugging Rafferty.]
“I don’t like the look of those birds,” Rafferty tells you. “The Tribe of the Black Raven claims the land from the Ice Lakes to the sea. This road crosses right through it. We had best hope we don’t have to deal with Uthgardt barbarians as well as goblins.”
[Insight or History check. Alternatively, a Persuasion Check to Convince Rafferty or Peddwinkle to explain more about the Uthgardt]
The Uthgardt are a black-haired and blue-eyed barbarian people who live in the wilderness of the inlands of the Sword Coast. Their territory stretches from the western edges of the Neverwood to the Coldwood, from the Spine of the World as far south as Stone Bridge. It is said they are descended from the ancient Netherese and Northmen who left the coast and the cities for the savage frontier.
For the most part, they regard the civilized folk as adversaries with ambitions to enslave “the free people,” as the Uthgardt regard themselves. Some mostly keep their distance from the city folk but others are more aggressive, occasionally pillaging and destroying caravans and isolated homesteads. They are forever a menace to all folks who travel the Sword Coast too far from the outposts of civilization.
Of all Uthgardt, the Black Ravens are the most conservative, holding tightly to the old ways and reacting violently to the new. Pureheartman and his assistant, Wulphgehar, are the only shamans tolerated by the tribe. Clerics who seek to enlighten the Black Ravens are likely to find themselves labeled heretics and hunted down by the angry barbarians.
As far as the caravans who ply the north are concerned, the Black Ravens are the worst of the tribes. Black Raven warriors are renowned as bandits, gaining this reputation because they prey on those whom they despise the most foreigners, especially merchants and missionary clerics. They seek to destroy that which may threaten their way of life.
The tribe is aided in their quest by their totem, the gigantic ravens of Ravenrock. The raiders sit astride massive ravens, swooping down out of the sky to rob and terrorize caravans. The Black Ravens have little respect for tribes who dwell in towns (particularly the Thunderbeast and Griffon tribes), since those tribes have adopted foreign ways. In return, they are enemies of those tribes. King Gundar Brontoskin, the Thunderbeast chieftain, offers a bounty for the destruction of the ravens’ eggs.
Because their raiding spoils are tainted with foreign influence (including gold, jewelry, weapons, fabric, and other nontribal prizes), these items are sacrificed to the Black Raven and secreted away in Black Raven shrine, near the Ravenrock ancestor mound. The Black Ravens protect their shrine closely and do not welcome foreign intrusion. Woe to the person who is caught searching for--let alone robbing--the tribe’s treasure-laden shrine.
The Black Ravens
Ancestor Mound: Ravenrock
Chieftain: Ostagar Tenfeather
Shaman: Pureheartman
Ritual Enemies: Griffon Tribe, foreign merchants and clerics
[History check to learn more about Uthgar]
The Uthgardt take their name from Uthgar Gardolfsson, a great hero-chieftain who battled giants and orcs and conquered much of the North.
Gardolf Beorunna, the Thane of Ruathym, raised a son named Uthgar Gardolfsson who became a great warrior and tactician like his father. Unlike his father, though, Uthgar gained great strides in cruelty, becoming a true genius in the punch and counter-punch of armed combat. Yet for all his skill and knowledge, Uthgar truly yearned to prove his worth in battle. Once completing the rite to manhood, Uthgar gained his own fleet of boats, gaining the title of Thane.
On his first quest across the seas, he attacked Bjorn’s Hold on the Ice Peak and returned with boats laden with furs and fishbut no gold. His people were disappointed with the lack of truly useful treasure, so Uthgar set out again, this time for the coast of the Great Island (the continent of Faerûn). He attacked the civilization of Illusk and successfully subdued the central government, killing its rulers. This freed the Illuskans of their bondage to the spellcasting heathens, and Uthgar expected the people to rejoice. Instead, they attacked the barbarian and his warriors, destroying his ship. Uthgar and his remaining men were forced inland, with the Illuskans hoping that the savage beasts of the North would finish off the troublesome barbarian and his warriors.
But Uthgar and his followers survived, raiding town after town across the North. These raids also served to swell his followers, as men and women impressed with his fighting prowess joined him in his ever-increasing raids. With these new followers came the knowledge that Uthgar needed to survive the harsh environment of the Great Island. Uthgar was a man of tradition, however, and even though he raided villages for food, clothing, and treasures, he still felt obligated to defend the villages that chose to swear fealty to him. When an orc horde swept south from the Spine of the World, Uthgar and his people stood and faced them.
Uthgar was not the only brave warrior to die that day, but his loss was felt the greatest. In honor of their fallen lord, the survivors of the horde renamed themselves as the Uthgardt, the descendants of Uthgar. Uthgar was buried with all his belongings along with an honor guard of seven warriors, brave souls who died with him in battle. The nearby ground was piled high above his body, and a huge stone was placed on the apex of the mound. Seven smaller stones were aligned around the mound to permanently mark the location of his body. The ground was consecrated by the tribal shaman and became a holy burial ground, the first ancestral burial mound as well as the foundation of a tradition that lives on today in Uthgardt tradition.
An Unexpected Journey
Rafferty Tannerson gives a whistle to the team and the caravan starts up the Northern Means once more.
The Northern Means is little more than a track through the hill country that stretches south from the mountain range known as The Spine of the World. The green spring scrub of the hills is broken by outcroppings of grey rocks. The road winds through hills, over hills, and into deep valleys. It is often hard to tell what lies ahead because of the hills. And impossible to know what lies over the hills to your left and right.
You are still at least 18 days away Bryn Shander. Ahead of you is the roughest part of the journey, through a narrow and treacherous pass through the Spine. You expect to reach that eight days from now, weather permitting and barring any trouble from the bandits, barbarians, and goblinoids known to plague this area.
The next outpost of civilization is Nightstone, a riverfort that guards the bridge over the River Iceflow. A three day journey up the road, Nightstone is a very old place that began as a trading post and a waystation between the civilized lands to the south and the Savage Lands to the north. Over time, a small farming village formed around the trading post on the natural island in the river. Eventually, the place was fortified with walls around it and the bridges converted to drawbridges.
[History Check: Nightstone got its name from a massive chunk of obsidian that stands in the middle of its village. The megalith is said to have strange glyphs carved into it and radiates magic. No one, however, has discovered its origin or its purposes. The villagers have long assumed it is a relic of some bygone age or empire.]
Every hour into the journey, have PC in the lead roll a [Perception Check].
First success: “You spot ravens overhead. They seem to be circling high above the caravan.”
Second Success: “Over the hilltops to the east, you see movement out of the corner of your eyes. It looks like a humanoid shape. But just as you turn your head to get a better look, it vanishes behind the hills.”
Third Success: “More movement to the west. This time it looked like a figure on horseback. They are far off still. And after a moment, they are gone behind the hills.
Fourth Success: “This time it is in the east. Another horseback figure. A pair of them in fact. And, again, they are gone in a moment.
Fifth success: Fegolos.
“There’s a figure in the road up ahead. At this distance, it is hard exactly to make out what it is. Not quite a horse and rider. Perhaps a person riding a bull.”
Pause for reactions.
“As you draw nearer, you get a clearer view. It appears to be a cow in the road. Standing on top of the cow, is a small man. A halfling, you think. He is bent over double, apparently pulling the skin on the back of cow.”
Reactions.
The hobbit looks up at you with a surprised and confused look on his face. Maybe even a bit of embarrassment. Quickly, however, his expression changes to a broad and friendly smile. He stands upright.
“Hello, little people, elves and humans alike. Be not afraid. I mean you no harm. I am Felgolos and I mean you no harm. I know I am fearsome to behold and your souls quake at my presence. Invoke not my wrath, however, and you may pass freely.”
Fegolos is dressed in typical hobbit attire. A smart vest, a bright white shirt, and well pressed if well worn slacks. He carries a walking stick but no weapons you can see. His hair is a red mop of curs and his face covered in freckles. He looks like he could be a fierce opponent in a smoking contest and could probably cook a feast to compete with the finest chefs of the North—or eat one, given his portly belly.
He stretches out his arms as if to yawn but suddenly loses his balance and falls off the cow. The cow twitches a bit but otherwise takes no notice of the little hobbit.
Fegolos is an adult bronze dragon who used his change shape ability to escape a confrontation with a Cloud Giant. After his change, however, he stumbled and took a nasty blow to the head. He is disoriented and unable, temporarily, to change back into a dragon. But he also has not realized that he has not changed back. When the party came upon him, he was attempting to fly away with this cow.
Fegolos will insist that he is a dragon. Tells the party that they may call him Fegolos the Friendly. I plan to play this up to comic effect: a small hobbit who insists he is dangerous and that the party is probably scared of him. He only realizes he is in hafling form if the party points it out to him.
He has no guile and no intention of deceiving the party. An Insight Check will reveal that he believes his own story. Players may make a History Check to see if they know Fegolos’s history. They will not know he often takes the shape of a hobbit.
As Fegolos is not quite sure what is happening to him, he will ask to join the party—assuming they are friendly—on their caravan for the time being. He wants to bring his cow. If the party permits, he hops aboard one of the wagons and rides along.
Black Birds in Morning, Travelers Take Warning
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
The time for celebrating your victory over the goblins who had infested the Tomb of the Knights of the Blue Wyrm is short. Less than an hour after your return to camp, head teamster Rafferty Tannerson gives the order to get the caravan back on the road.
You are all still feeling the pain from your fight to rescue the boy from his goblin kidnappers. Your spells are depleted, your wounds still fresh. Heading out on the road now will mean you will not get a chance to recover until you make camp tonight. If you encounter more danger on the road, you’ll have to face it in your weakened state.
But it is not clear that resting here will be any safer than moving on. Landon recalls that there seemed to be many more sets of bedding than the goblins you encountered in the tomb. So there may be a band of goblins roaming nearby. They may even just now be discovering that someone has attacked and killed their comrades.
[Players should decide whether to move on or stay in place. If they want to remain, they will have to make a persuasion check to convince either Rafferty Tannerson or Master Peddywinkle to remain in place since both men are inclined to make more progress on the trip.]
Black Hawks Up
Regardless of which they choose, the PCs have a chance to learn about the dangers of the Black Ravens ahead.
[Make a perception check.]
As you break camp, saddle the horses, and pack the wagons you notice that Rafferty keeps looking up toward the sky. It’s a clear day with few clouds. A brisk wind is in the air but no hint of trouble.
[Persuasion check if PCs want to ask what is bugging Rafferty.]
“I don’t like the look of those birds,” Rafferty tells you. “The Tribe of the Black Raven claims the land from the Ice Lakes to the sea. This road crosses right through it. We had best hope we don’t have to deal with Uthgardt barbarians as well as goblins.”
[Insight or History check. Alternatively, a Persuasion Check to Convince Rafferty or Peddwinkle to explain more about the Uthgardt]
The Uthgardt are a black-haired and blue-eyed barbarian people who live in the wilderness of the inlands of the Sword Coast. Their territory stretches from the western edges of the Neverwood to the Coldwood, from the Spine of the World as far south as Stone Bridge. It is said they are descended from the ancient Netherese and Northmen who left the coast and the cities for the savage frontier.
For the most part, they regard the civilized folk as adversaries with ambitions to enslave “the free people,” as the Uthgardt regard themselves. Some mostly keep their distance from the city folk but others are more aggressive, occasionally pillaging and destroying caravans and isolated homesteads. They are forever a menace to all folks who travel the Sword Coast too far from the outposts of civilization.
Of all Uthgardt, the Black Ravens are the most conservative, holding tightly to the old ways and reacting violently to the new. Pureheartman and his assistant, Wulphgehar, are the only shamans tolerated by the tribe. Clerics who seek to enlighten the Black Ravens are likely to find themselves labeled heretics and hunted down by the angry barbarians.
As far as the caravans who ply the north are concerned, the Black Ravens are the worst of the tribes. Black Raven warriors are renowned as bandits, gaining this reputation because they prey on those whom they despise the most foreigners, especially merchants and missionary clerics. They seek to destroy that which may threaten their way of life.
The tribe is aided in their quest by their totem, the gigantic ravens of Ravenrock. The raiders sit astride massive ravens, swooping down out of the sky to rob and terrorize caravans. The Black Ravens have little respect for tribes who dwell in towns (particularly the Thunderbeast and Griffon tribes), since those tribes have adopted foreign ways. In return, they are enemies of those tribes. King Gundar Brontoskin, the Thunderbeast chieftain, offers a bounty for the destruction of the ravens’ eggs.
Because their raiding spoils are tainted with foreign influence (including gold, jewelry, weapons, fabric, and other nontribal prizes), these items are sacrificed to the Black Raven and secreted away in Black Raven shrine, near the Ravenrock ancestor mound. The Black Ravens protect their shrine closely and do not welcome foreign intrusion. Woe to the person who is caught searching for--let alone robbing--the tribe’s treasure-laden shrine.
The Black Ravens
Ancestor Mound: Ravenrock
Chieftain: Ostagar Tenfeather
Shaman: Pureheartman
Ritual Enemies: Griffon Tribe, foreign merchants and clerics
[History check to learn more about Uthgar]
The Uthgardt take their name from Uthgar Gardolfsson, a great hero-chieftain who battled giants and orcs and conquered much of the North.
Gardolf Beorunna, the Thane of Ruathym, raised a son named Uthgar Gardolfsson who became a great warrior and tactician like his father. Unlike his father, though, Uthgar gained great strides in cruelty, becoming a true genius in the punch and counter-punch of armed combat. Yet for all his skill and knowledge, Uthgar truly yearned to prove his worth in battle. Once completing the rite to manhood, Uthgar gained his own fleet of boats, gaining the title of Thane.
On his first quest across the seas, he attacked Bjorn’s Hold on the Ice Peak and returned with boats laden with furs and fishbut no gold. His people were disappointed with the lack of truly useful treasure, so Uthgar set out again, this time for the coast of the Great Island (the continent of Faerûn). He attacked the civilization of Illusk and successfully subdued the central government, killing its rulers. This freed the Illuskans of their bondage to the spellcasting heathens, and Uthgar expected the people to rejoice. Instead, they attacked the barbarian and his warriors, destroying his ship. Uthgar and his remaining men were forced inland, with the Illuskans hoping that the savage beasts of the North would finish off the troublesome barbarian and his warriors.
But Uthgar and his followers survived, raiding town after town across the North. These raids also served to swell his followers, as men and women impressed with his fighting prowess joined him in his ever-increasing raids. With these new followers came the knowledge that Uthgar needed to survive the harsh environment of the Great Island. Uthgar was a man of tradition, however, and even though he raided villages for food, clothing, and treasures, he still felt obligated to defend the villages that chose to swear fealty to him. When an orc horde swept south from the Spine of the World, Uthgar and his people stood and faced them.
Uthgar was not the only brave warrior to die that day, but his loss was felt the greatest. In honor of their fallen lord, the survivors of the horde renamed themselves as the Uthgardt, the descendants of Uthgar. Uthgar was buried with all his belongings along with an honor guard of seven warriors, brave souls who died with him in battle. The nearby ground was piled high above his body, and a huge stone was placed on the apex of the mound. Seven smaller stones were aligned around the mound to permanently mark the location of his body. The ground was consecrated by the tribal shaman and became a holy burial ground, the first ancestral burial mound as well as the foundation of a tradition that lives on today in Uthgardt tradition.
An Unexpected Journey
Rafferty Tannerson gives a whistle to the team and the caravan starts up the Northern Means once more.
The Northern Means is little more than a track through the hill country that stretches south from the mountain range known as The Spine of the World. The green spring scrub of the hills is broken by outcroppings of grey rocks. The road winds through hills, over hills, and into deep valleys. It is often hard to tell what lies ahead because of the hills. And impossible to know what lies over the hills to your left and right.
You are still at least 18 days away Bryn Shander. Ahead of you is the roughest part of the journey, through a narrow and treacherous pass through the Spine. You expect to reach that eight days from now, weather permitting and barring any trouble from the bandits, barbarians, and goblinoids known to plague this area.
The next outpost of civilization is Nightstone, a riverfort that guards the bridge over the River Iceflow. A three day journey up the road, Nightstone is a very old place that began as a trading post and a waystation between the civilized lands to the south and the Savage Lands to the north. Over time, a small farming village formed around the trading post on the natural island in the river. Eventually, the place was fortified with walls around it and the bridges converted to drawbridges.
[History Check: Nightstone got its name from a massive chunk of obsidian that stands in the middle of its village. The megalith is said to have strange glyphs carved into it and radiates magic. No one, however, has discovered its origin or its purposes. The villagers have long assumed it is a relic of some bygone age or empire.]
Every hour into the journey, have PC in the lead roll a [Perception Check].
First success: “You spot ravens overhead. They seem to be circling high above the caravan.”
Second Success: “Over the hilltops to the east, you see movement out of the corner of your eyes. It looks like a humanoid shape. But just as you turn your head to get a better look, it vanishes behind the hills.”
Third Success: “More movement to the west. This time it looked like a figure on horseback. They are far off still. And after a moment, they are gone behind the hills.
Fourth Success: “This time it is in the east. Another horseback figure. A pair of them in fact. And, again, they are gone in a moment.
Fifth success: Fegolos.
“There’s a figure in the road up ahead. At this distance, it is hard exactly to make out what it is. Not quite a horse and rider. Perhaps a person riding a bull.”
Pause for reactions.
“As you draw nearer, you get a clearer view. It appears to be a cow in the road. Standing on top of the cow, is a small man. A halfling, you think. He is bent over double, apparently pulling the skin on the back of cow.”
Reactions.
The hobbit looks up at you with a surprised and confused look on his face. Maybe even a bit of embarrassment. Quickly, however, his expression changes to a broad and friendly smile. He stands upright.
“Hello, little people, elves and humans alike. Be not afraid. I mean you no harm. I am Felgolos and I mean you no harm. I know I am fearsome to behold and your souls quake at my presence. Invoke not my wrath, however, and you may pass freely.”
Fegolos is dressed in typical hobbit attire. A smart vest, a bright white shirt, and well pressed if well worn slacks. He carries a walking stick but no weapons you can see. His hair is a red mop of curs and his face covered in freckles. He looks like he could be a fierce opponent in a smoking contest and could probably cook a feast to compete with the finest chefs of the North—or eat one, given his portly belly.
He stretches out his arms as if to yawn but suddenly loses his balance and falls off the cow. The cow twitches a bit but otherwise takes no notice of the little hobbit.
Fegolos is an adult bronze dragon who used his change shape ability to escape a confrontation with a Cloud Giant. After his change, however, he stumbled and took a nasty blow to the head. He is disoriented and unable, temporarily, to change back into a dragon. But he also has not realized that he has not changed back. When the party came upon him, he was attempting to fly away with this cow.
Fegolos will insist that he is a dragon. Tells the party that they may call him Fegolos the Friendly. I plan to play this up to comic effect: a small hobbit who insists he is dangerous and that the party is probably scared of him. He only realizes he is in hafling form if the party points it out to him.
He has no guile and no intention of deceiving the party. An Insight Check will reveal that he believes his own story. Players may make a History Check to see if they know Fegolos’s history. They will not know he often takes the shape of a hobbit.
As Fegolos is not quite sure what is happening to him, he will ask to join the party—assuming they are friendly—on their caravan for the time being. He wants to bring his cow. If the party permits, he hops aboard one of the wagons and rides along.
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