Place: Dample

History

The village of Dample was a normal fishing village, like many others in the Bay. Its population of roughly 150 set to work each morning, going out on trawlers to try and fill their larders and their purses. The uruks of Dample got along well enough with the nearby alfar villages, but as the situation in the Belltower Council became more heated, relations began to decay. Finally, war broke out, and the fate of Dample took a left turn.

Like everyone else, the citizens of Dample wanted to hope that things could be resolved easily and peacefully, but as skirmishes began to run back and forth over the borders that possibility seemed to evaporate. To the west of Dample, the Uruk militia began to set up a fortified camp on the Old Road where it crossed the border. Eddershot was in a solid position to protect the narrow land entrance into the Uruk nation and the Alfar attacks on it all ended in failure.

The war abated for a time while both sides hurried to bring in the harvest before the frost arrived, but in the first months of winter the alfar decided to take a different strategy. Frontal assaults had not worked, Eddershot was simply too strong, but the southern coast of the uruk nation was poorly defended. And so the alfar used the first of the new ships the hodekin had built, and staged an invasion into uruk territory, establishing a beachhead at Dample.

It was still early in the winter, so there were still some hours of daylight, but the alfar chose to begin before dawn had broken. They opened up with ship-mounted ballistae, the massive darts set aflame and lighting the way for the landing. A few of the townsfolk were alert enough to take up arms, but most were busy trying to extinguish the flames that were devouring their homes. The alfar ships came in close, and the landing parties began to sweep through the town, slaughtering as they went. The people of Dample fought hard, but they were far outnumbered.

Only one-third of the people of Dample escaped to safety that morning, fleeing up the Stony Road to Wigby or the Lane to Hagen. By the time the alfar and hodekin forces reached Wigby, a defence had been mounted, led by the elben Graf, Joral de Roen. The defenders pushed the invaders back, driving them back to their ships at Dample. The village was retaken, and the invasion rebuffed, but Dample had been reduced to smouldering ruins, haunted by the ghasts of the slain.

What is there? Who is there?

Very little remains of the village, those survivors who did not immediately join the militia have taken up residence elsewhere. Dample’s Reeve was in Rackholl when the attack occurred, leaving his Deputy in charge. She led the village’s defence, but was unfortunately one of the first to die. The ghasts of the slain townsfolk linger around the ruins even today, two years later. Normally a ghast would have long since crossed over in that time, but something keeps these ghasts anchored to the world in their ruined village.

The only building that is still standing in any stable manner is the kirkhall. The sturdier construction of the kirkhall, coupled with its distance from the shoreline, contributed to its survival. Those who observe the ghasts have noticed that they seem to congregate in the kirkhall every Volands, as if attending services. Other strange behaviour exhibited by the ghasts includes the fact that they usually will not interact with the living; normally a ghast is every bit his or her own self, but dead; the ghasts of Dample, in contrast, rarely even acknowledge the presence of the living. Sometimes they will speak as if still living their lives, often talking to people who are not there, even carrying on entire conversations with them. Today, the living generally avoid Dample, though regular patrols keep watch on the southern shoreline, in case of a repeat attack.

Geography

Dample sits near the pointed tip of the northern shore of the Narsund. A small wood used to grow just east of the village around the kirkhall, but much of that perished in the fires during the attack. The Stony Road passes through this dead wood as it comes into the village from the north. The other road, the Lane, passes south of this wood on its way east to Hagen. Most of the village sits between the kirkhall and the docks in the west. Most of the burnt-out buildings are missing roofs, and many have lost walls as well. The docks are still mostly intact, though the fishing vessels were all either scuttled or taken by the alfar in their retreat.

Adventure Hooks

The ghasts of Dample provide potential adventure. The questions of why they still cling to the world and why they seem to act as if they are still alive and yet don’t see or react to living beings are mysteries that your adventurers may wish to solve. It’s possible that there is some sort of magical artifact affecting the deceased in odd ways, or perhaps the trauma has scarred the ghasts and they won’t cross over until the alfar have been defeated and punished.

Another idea, if you wish to begin your campaign earlier in the war, is to have you adventurers participate in the battle and subsequent evacuation. Perhaps they can tip the balance of the battle, or help more to escape. If you wish, you can have the ghasts create a vivid hallucinatory re-enactment of the battle, so the party can experience the battle without shifting your campaign back in the timeline.

Friday: The Sorrows Festival

Culture: Weapons

In Butter Bay, a weapon is more than just a fighting implement; a person’s weapon is a part of them, a part of how they choose to fight. Separating a person from their weapon, especially their saege knife, is like taking away a part of their soul.

Saege Knife

The saege is a somewhat unique weapon, culturally speaking. Unlike many other weapons, every man or woman who has gone through Namelessness, and therefore has come of age, carries a saege. The blade serves as a reminder of Voland’s ordeal, which the Namelessness mirrors, and the treachery of Bishal. Bishal’s blade, as described in the Libram, served as the template for the first saege knives long ago, but their design has changed and varied over time. Some in the Order think that the original pattern should be restored, but others believe that it is, in this case at least, the thought that counts.

When a nameless youth regains his or her name during the Nighsend celebrations, they are given a saege as a sign of their accomplishment. It is not uncommon, especially among poorer families, for a blade that once belonged to a deceased relative to be passed on to the new generation. Wealthier families see it as a point of pride that they can afford a new saege for each child. Among the nobility, however, sentiments often swing back the other way, and many of the leaders of the Bay carry finely crafted knives from before the Freeze.

Though a token of remembrance of a person’s faith, saeges also serve a more utilitarian purpose. Whenever someone needs a knife to cut twine, to skin an animal, or any number of other mundane tasks that arise in their daily life, their saege is the tool they turn to. This is also interpreted by some devout as redeeming Bishal’s implement of terror by turning it into a tool for the benefit of the people.

Racial Weapons

The saege, while always carried by warriors, is seen by many as the incorrect tool for combat. Instead they turn to more powerful weapons, and each race has its own favoured selection.

The alfar, who idolize instinct, are well known for their use of simple weapons that could be easily improvised in many situations. The quarterstaff is commonly used among alfar, as is the baston. The baston is, like the quarterstaff, usually just a simple length of wood, but it is much shorter than a usual staff, being about a foot and a half long. Bastons are often used in pairs, and more elaborate examples may have chains or spikes attached to them. The alfar are also associated with their use of bows for ranged combat.

An elben’s weapon, on the other hand, is nothing so easily replaced. The weapons made famous by the elben are known as klaeths. Similar in design to a real world katana, klaeths are made by skilled bladesmiths from skymetal mined from an impact crater near Tallfalls. Klaeths, like bastons, are often wielded in pairs. The most famous feature of these weapons is that they never lose their edge, and thus never need sharpening. Some klaeths are specially designed to be thrown.

Hammers are the favoured weapon among hodekin, though they are rarely used by yadekin who tend to fight with their saeges. Usually made from the heavy lead mined in Torlich, hodekin hammers are decorated with runes from the ancient tongues. Though some hammers are designed to be thrown, hodekin generally prefer to use crossbows as their ranged weapons. Some yadekin have even been admitted into the army as crossbowmen because of the shortage of soldiers.

The uruks have turned picks, used by workers in the mines, into weapons of war. War picks are vicious weapons that have been adorned with barbs and hooks so as to deal more damage to the enemy. In ranged combat, the uruks have also begun using crossbows based on hodekin designs. Wealthy uruks may fight with steel swords, or even klaeths purchased from their elben allies.

Humans are the least focused of the races in terms of weapons. Many humans have taken up the alfar arts of fighting with quarterstaves, while others have followed the example of the uruk and turned their tools into weapons; axes in the case of the humans. In the human militias spears are often used because of their scant use of metal, while human nobility, like the wealthy uruks, often own expensive steel swords. Even families that are not wealthy may still possess swords passed down from before the Freeze.

Looking at other races, varkers tend to use very simple weapons such as clubs and slings that require little in terms of industry to produce. Depending on the tribe, varkers might or might not carry saeges; Redfeather varkers mostly do, but they don’t attach the same spiritual significance to the blades as the people of the Bay. Merrow warriors nearly always carry tridents, while their vellan slaves fight with a mix of clubs, picks, and axes. Undead thralls sometimes fight with weapons, but as often as not simply strike with their bare hands; the same is true of the shaldu demons.

Weapons in Game

Within the game, assuming you are using 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, you can use the following chart to determine what weapons to use. Even if you are using a different game system, it should be simple enough to make the appropriate connections yourself.

Bay Weapon	Associated Race	4th Edition Weapon
Axe	Human, Vellan	Axes
Baston	Alfar	Flails, Maces
Club	Varker, Vellan	Maces
Hammer	Hodekin (female)	Hammers, Maces
Klaeth	Elben	Heavy Blade
Pick	Uruk, Vellan	Picks
Quarterstaff	Alfar, Human	Staves
Saege	All	Light Blades
Spear	Human	Spears
Sword	Human, Uruk	Heavy Blades
Trident	Merrow	Trident, Tratnyr
Bow	Alfar	Bows
Crossbow	Hodekin, Uruk	Crossbows
Sling	Varker	Slings

Friday: Half-Bloods

Introduction: Recent Events

The tranquility of the life in the Bay has been interrupted more often in the century–and-a-half since the Freeze began than before, but those events are rarely more than momentary inconveniences. In the past, raids by varkers seeking resources or merrow seeking slaves happened rarely enough that people needed not always be on guard, and even the odd appearance of a ghast or blackham was swiftly dealt with. Still, in the past decade things have changed, and people no longer even have the illusion of safety and security. The primary contributor to this state is the war.

Origins of the War

Some say that the war has been slowly brewing since the start of the Freeze, owing to Barton Butter revitalizing the people’s faith. One unforeseen consequence of this newfound faith was the conflict that it might bring. Each race has a somewhat different interpretation of belief in Voland. For the alfar and the elben that belief is somewhat more abstract than the other races; they believe that Voland and Bishal are not so much beings as personifications of ideals, ideals of thought. Simply put, the elben believe in reason, while the alfar believe in intuition.

To elaborate, the elben believe that the ideal and correct way to view the world is through the lens of reason and logic, and that decisions should never be made and actions never taken without careful consideration. For the elben Voland represents the supreme intelligence, a being that considered each step of his creation and foresaw the consequences of each decision; Bishal is little more than a wild beast who struck at the first sign of weakness.

On the other hand, the alfar believe that instinct and intuition are far more valuable than reason, allowing one to see the correct course of action in an instant. Agonizing over decisions and over-thinking details leads to nothing except indecision and self torment. They view Voland as a being who in his divide wisdom simply understood all; while Bishal was a scheming and calculating creature who spent long ages plotting against Voland.

These two opposing viewpoints seemed harmless enough at first, but tension grew over time. The event which many agree was the ultimate trigger of the war occurred at the Belltower meeting of 144 YotF. While the Kindred, an organization dominated by alfar, had possessed a Belltower seat for nearly a century, the Academy, an organization dominated by elben, did not. The Academy had petitioned for inclusion in the council for many years, and the matter, which had come to a vote twice before, was once again brought to the floor.

The elben, supported by the humans and uruks, voted in favour, while the alfar, supported by the hodekin and the Kindred, voted against with the Order choosing to remain neutral. The sonnen (human-alfar half-blood) Steward ruled that the Academy would not have a seat. Outraged by this result, the elben and uruk immediately left the meeting, declaring that they would not return until the decision was reversed.

In the months that followed, fights between elben-uruk and alfar-hodekin groups became increasingly common, culminating in a riot in Dunstable outside the Kindred’s lodge in the town. The Seer, leader of the Kindred, demanded that this threat be dealt with, but the human authorities were reluctant to anger the elben and uruk leadership. Ultimately, the Alder and Vidame decided to protect the Kindred themselves, which sparked a declaration of war by the Governor and Graf. A few skirmishes were fought before the spring, but the war did not begin in earnest until the harvest was complete the following autumn. In the three years since, the two sides have fought several major battles and a number of entrenched camps have been built. While healing magic means that fewer soldiers have died than one might expect, that fact has only served to make the deaths that have occurred sting all the more.

Before the War

Prior to the outset of the war, other matters were at the fore. In the late winter of 141 YotF a coordinated varker attack struck the Bay from several directions. Luckily, a hunting party that had ventured into the wilds west of the Friar’s Wall had a run-in with a varker scout and were able to bring a warning in time to rebuff the attack.

In response to increased aggressiveness by merrow in the past decade, Baron Ebraen Coel was organizing a push to secure more territory on the coast so that fishing and whaling vessels would be more secure venturing out into the sea. Construction of ships had already begun in Colvey, Cheslyn, and Wisbech when the crisis relating to the Academy turned violent. This mission was effectively cancelled by the war, with both sides using those ships in their war efforts.

Since the War Began

While the humans and the Order have thus far remained neutral, there are some who would like to change that. A religious group calling themselves the Blackwood Scions has risen in prominence advocating that the humans enter the war on the side of the alfar-hodekin alliance. Their base of operations, the Blackwood Abbey, was founded shortly after the onset of the Freeze by Palaster Sams, a Keeper who believed that the Freeze occurred because Bishal had returned to the world from Nifel through arcane magic. Because of their beliefs the Scions claim that the Academy is little more than a poorly disguised cult to Bishal and must be destroyed. There have been rumours in the last year that the Scions may be plotting to overthrow the Baron to achieve their goals.

The Baron, for his part, is focusing the resources of the human nation on protecting the Bay from merrow whose aggression seems to be ever-increasing. There have also been rumblings of renewed varker attacks, primarily related to the Redfeather varkers near the Riddelmere. One researcher has been warning that Koshac, the varker lich defeated by Barton Butter, is not gone for good and may rally the varkers against the Bay. Few among the citizenry, however, are paying much attention to these other threats with the war so close to home.

Monday: The Calendar used in the Bay