easy to fairly difficult.
Along the Great Road (noted on the map as connecting most of the major settlements), travel is easy along a well-paved and drained road. Travel is at 2 hexes per day on foot for a lightly loaded person who is pushing his speed.
In the plains or along the River Eglantine and its branches, travel is at 1 hex/day. In the badlands or hills, travel is difficult over broken terrain and proceeds at a 1/2 hex/day. Poling a barge or coracle down the river is again a far superior method of long distance travel on the North Town side of the lines, and a traveler can make 4 hexes headed south in a day or 3 hexes headed north (upstream).
Travel through the DMZ involves sneaking past entrenched battle lines and evading wandering patrols probing the enemy’s defenses, and should be a scenario.
Ashes, TO ASHES EGLANTINE
High Mountains Low Mountains Desert
Arable Plains Bog/Fen Shallow Water/Brackish
Ashes, TO ASHES EGLANTINE
a. North Town & environs. South Town itself is a town of about 2,000 people, based upon a rebuilt pre-Abjuration castle. The entire town is built of reclaimed ruins and salvaged stone, and is as a result durable and defensible. Food shortages and long lines are commonplace, and the entire town is constantly on edge as a result. (Food goes to the Church and soldiers first, of course). A fair concentration of basic crafters can be found.
The economy is largely barter-oriented, although a system of scrip (paper money) is used for larger transactions, and pre- Abjuration Eglantine currency is used and accepted by some for small purchases. Like many early Dark Ages towns, North Town’s primary function is as the headquarters for the military; taxes and in- kind contributions to the military effort are extracted to support the town and Church. b. South Town & environs. South Town itself is a town of about 2,000 people, based upon a rebuilt pre-Abjuration castle. Except for the castle, however, it is a town of sod huts, dugout cabins, and farmer’s crofts, protected by earthen palisades. It is situated at the end of a brackish inlet, and supports a fishing dock and a small number of strictly coastal fishing boats. None dare to venture into potentially richer grounds beyond the mouth of the inlet, given how many have tried and never returned.
The economy is also largely barter-oriented, although a system of scrip (paper money) is used for larger transactions, and pre- Abjuration Eglantine currency is used and accepted by some for small purchases. Like many early Dark Ages towns, South Town’s primary function is also as the headquarters for the military; taxes and in- kind contributions to the military effort are extracted to support the town and Church. Food is rarely in short supply in the South, but wood, stone and metal are extremely scarce, bordering on unavailable. All such durable goods go to the soldiers and the
Church first, of course.
Again, if the PLAYERS get a chance to visit both sides of the lines, or observe Northmen and Southmen in Crystal Lake, the parallels between them should be played up to the maximum. The people look the same, dress the same, sound the same, and act the same, with only different shortages and the substitution of the words “North” and “South” in their respective propaganda messages to distinguish them.
c. Crystal Lake. Crystal Lake (population ~500) is situated at the edge of a mountain lake in a pocket valley along the Great Road. Each entrance to the valley is heavily fortified, but people passing through or having legitimate trading business in town are permitted through with few questions. All persons being trade goods into town are searched by Browning’s gate guards and taxed 10% in kind at the gate.
The town is beautiful and picturesque. It survived the Abjuration largely intact. The buildings are of brick and stone; the streets are paved; there are underground sewers and privies in the buildings; and parks, art and statuary (appropriate to a town of its size) are on display. Everyone has enough and some are even wealthy, as it is the only avenue of trade in a region that badly needs some.
In order to maintain its neutrality, persons coming in and out of Crystal Lake are only permitted to trade with licensed, resident merchants and warehousemen. When dealing in ordinary goods, each only takes a
Ashes, TO ASHES EGLANTINE
modest margin, and the town government acts as a trade guild to enforce this. However, there is a thriving black market in just about everything; the blue-liveried guards ignore it if it is in things for which there is no large market (such as rare antiquities, books or magic).
The town operates on a system of scrip and books of account; to pay for a room at the inn, one must have a credit. (Unless you want to keep careful track of such matters, use the Wealth system and make broad assumptions about what the PLAYERS can afford).
Since persons from both the North and South come here, there is much opportunity for adventure and skullduggery. People get mugged, knifed, robbed, hired, offered corrupt deals, and run out of town with disturbing regularity.
The Coursers and Heroes of Old are active in Crystal Lake, and both Halflings and Dwarves frequent its inns and shops. The guard views its job as protecting the residents and keeping the peace, not policing every dispute between visitors.
d. The Great Road. A Roman-style road whose enchantments helped it survive the Abjuration intact, the Great Road connects all of the major settlements in Eglantine. It is a hazardous place. Each side wants to disrupt the flow of goods coming out of Crystal Lake and headed for the other side. This leads to a thriving banditry business, both state-sponsored, semi-state sponsored, and completely freelance.
There is always work to be had in Crystal Lake escorting caravans back to North Town or South Town. The Road passes by and through numerous (largely picked over) ruined towns, villages and even mighty cities, now uninhabitable because of a lack of ready food and water.
e. Oracle of the Three. Population ~500. The headquarters of the rotten-at-the-core Eglantinian Church of the Circle, the town is a fortress directly governed by Steven, (Northern) Center of the Circle. He keeps a
personal elite guard as well as a task force of Reapers on hand. About 300 farmers, a support bureaucracy of about 100 clerics and a garrison of about 100 troopers reside here. Stephen and his ilk even have a stable of horses, which they keep a tight monopoly on, doling out horses only to garrison commanders and high ranking clergy for their personal use, to the Reapers, or for special purposes.
f. The DMZ. Trench warfare at its finest is practiced along the DMZ. The armies of the North have formed an entrenched, fortified battle line (complete with watch towers, hidden pits, obstacle fields and diseases of exposure) across a 20-mile wide frontier between the sea and the mountains. The South has done likewise.
Despite the fact that only 7,000 people are sustained by the lands of the North, they keep a staggering and crippling 2,000 troops on the line at all times. The South engages in similar crippling behavior, keeping 3,000 troops out of its 10,000 population on the line at all times. The 40 miles or so of fertile, watered, highly productive land in between the lines is uninhabited and full of burnt-out villages, as well as ruins considerably less explored than elsewhere in Eglantine.
The decades of lack of inhabitation have caused scrub forest to take over the DMZ area, oddly providing a potential boost of valuable resources to each side. Nonetheless, each side covertly patrols the forests and constant skirmishes occur, preventing any serious efforts at resource extraction.
Periodically, one side or the other enters the DMZ in force and dashes itself against the others’ fortifications in an effort to advance the lines.
g. The “Great City”. Formerly the royal capital of Eglantine, it has become grown over and is deserted, except for the Great Road. The Road runs through its middle, past flattened and bombed-out hulks of magnificent architecture and once-soaring
Ashes, TO ASHES EGLANTINE
towers.
It takes an entire day on the Great Road to traverse the “Great City.” Despite its size, both the land and water are poisoned as the result of the Abjuration, and nothing lives here. Well, almost nothing.
Occasional adventurers and treasure seekers have occasionally plumbed the depths of the once-mighty capital, looking for lost magic, weapons, or other easily-movable treasure. The easily found is gone, but the “Great City” is vast, overgrown in weeds and brush, and there are doubtlessly hidden vaults and caches of valuables to be found.
Several parties of treasure hounds have failed to return over the years. Reasons commonly attributed to these disappearances include: violence at the hands of other treasure hunters; hauntings; fell traps (magical and otherwise) and the fact that the “Great City” is simply labyrinthine and difficult to navigate.
Were one to add to this list the fact that a
major demon, Slithlug the Crawler (use
typical Shoggoth statistics and description) is magically trapped in the City and barred only from approaching within sight of the Great Road, then this would then be a fair summary of the hazards of the “Great City”. h. The “Great Port”. The Great Port is another sad sight.
Once a mighty seafaring city with a population in the tens of thousands, the Abjuration caused the vast bulk of the Great Port to collapse into the sea. A few odd buildings still remain, outlying areas along roads leading into the town.
The water is clear, cold and very deep, and one can see the rubble field lying under 20 or so feet of water. A few small fishing villages do exist in the area, and occasionally, someone tries to skin dive for treasure.
The Great Port is likely the best place in the World to skim through ruins that actually contain something valuable (subject to the salt water damage of a century), although
the demons long ago went through it and cleaned out most of the magical items. The fact that the Great Port has been largely cleaned out, alone, should pique PLAYER suspicions, since extended exploration of the Great Port would require magical assistance. Nonetheless, a rumor circulates among the Heroes of Old that a mighty sword, Justice, a relic of the royal house of Eglantine and a legendary symbol of royal authority, lies somewhere beneath the waves in the Great Port.
The demons, for their part, are troubled that such a powerful weapon could not be accounted for after the Abjuration.
i. Elf Gate. Historically much less fascist on a day-to-day basis, but still not much better off, Elf Gate is a larger farming village of about 200 people at the northern edge of Eglantine. Here, the Great Road dead-ends into functionally impassible, high mountains, although one can see ruins from what was once a majestic gateway to the North of town, high up on the slope. Before the Abjuration thrust up this mountain range, the Great Road continued North into Fallingstar. The ruins on the slope are what remain of the next stretch of Road.
Nowadays, Elf Gate still feels the heavy hand of the North Town tax collectors and troop levy, but the people are far enough away from North Town that their activities largely go unnoticed. To add to this, both the local garrison leader, Undersheriff Ricken “the Beef” (Evil, Lawful) and the local Church presence, Brother Tomas (Evil, Lawful) are harboring thoughts of secession. Each believes that the war (while the South is undeniably evil) is not to their advantage, since they are as far away from the front as one could be, and capable of self- sufficiency. The scenario The Lord of
Nothing explores Ricken’s rebellious
interest in more detail.
In addition, Elf Gate sees the occasional desperate refugee or foolhardy adventurer en route either to or from Fallingstar, as this is still the most passable (or least impassible)
Ashes, TO ASHES EGLANTINE
of the ways between those regions. 9. Sample NPCs.
a. James, Soldier of the North (or South, it really does not matter).
James is a 16 year old recruit in one of the armies. He is among the luckier ones. Because he is seen as somewhat promising, with the potential of being a sergeant someday, he was not immediately sent to the front. Instead, he has been assigned to garrison duty behind the lines at one of the villages. If he was seen as an average specimen, he would be sent right to the front and have to convince the field commanders of his worth.
With a year behind the lines to mature, Jon will learn a few things about tactics and survival. Then he will be sent to the front lines and try to survive his initial year as the assistant squad leader of a patrol of 10 men. If he survives that year, he might get promoted to sergeant, and if he keeps surviving, someday he might get sent back to garrison duty off the lines, train more men, and take a wife. It’s a glorious life; his parents really are proud of him.
James, Soldier of the North.
STR 13 DEX 13 INT 11 CON 13 APP 13