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Foreword

What is Eradain?

Eradain is a fantasy role playing campaign world. I was a fan of Tolkien at a young age and I have had a ravenous appetite for fantasy fiction ever since. Eradain is my own dreaming ground. The website of Eradain is a method of organizing my writings and ideas into something useable, primarily for Role Playing Games (Dungeons & Dragons in particular), but also for story writing and general daydreaming.

Please note that the writings about Eradain cover many times in its history and references (such as to a people or an event) may not be valid for every time period.

A quote to aspire to from Le Mort D’Arthur 1485: "For herein may be seen noble chivalry, courtesy, humanity, friendliness, hardiness, love, friendship, cowardice, murder, hate, virtue, and sin. Do after the good and leave the evil, and it shall bring you to good fame and renown."

-Lugoun

Campaign House Rules Outline Notes

Angharad_Campaign_("Last_Scion")

New Notes

09/12/24 Design of a stone age barrow (or something similar)

Barrow Maze

07/14/24 Worldbuilding

I love the geographic and resource oriented worldbuilding style of Tao of D&D Alexis Smolensk. Here are some notes from another source oriented toward worldbuilding for authors. If we start from the beginning, we would start with a topographical map, then a heat map, which impacts the seasons, weather and biomes for the lands of the world. Geology, Flora, Fauna.

• Natural Geological Resources - Where are there abundant natural resources (example "Main Mineral Depostis of Europe").
  • Native Elements - Found in the earth ready made, such as iron, while steel must be made (non-native).
  • "Aesthetic Elements" Gold, Platinum, Silver, Precious Stones, Diamonds (all native and primarily decorative purposes)
  • "Crafting Materials" Copper, Bronze, Brass, Iron, Aluminium, Tin, Lead, Zinc
  • "Construction Materials" Marble, Alabaster, Granite.
  • Salt?
• Flora - Find your biomes. Temperate deciduous. Average temperatures, extremes, seasons are cool (and wetter, snow winter, green spring and summer, 'bright' autumns), second rainiest of biomes, broad leafed trees, beech, ash, oak... Foliage, ground cover and shrubbery, resources such as forgeables and tools, birch clothing and edible bark, medicinal properties,
• Sloes are the fruit of the Blackthorn, a thorny shrub with dark purple berries. The berries are picked in autumn to make good old country wine and sloe gin for Christmas.
  • Blackthorn is one of the most abundant shrubs in British hedgerows. Landowners and farmers traditionally planted them to keep land borders and make cattle-proof barriers, because the thorny nature of the shrub forms impenetrable thickets. It bursts into life in early spring, when masses of densely clustered white flowers appear before the leaves are unfurled.

05/15/24 Jitte and Bronze Age Societies

Jitte In Edo-period Japan, the jitte was a substitute for a badge, and it represented someone on official business. It was carried by all levels of police officers, including high-ranking samurai police officials and low-rank samurai law enforcement officers (called okappiki or doshin). Other high-ranking samurai officials carried a jitte as a badge of office, including hotel, rice and grain inspectors (aratame). The jitte is the subject of the Japanese martial art of jittejutsu.

Taken from Unetice "oon-eee-tee-chee" Culture Dan Davis History 1800 BC Germany... Structure and organization of military units, axe wielding men, 15 axe men led by man using a bronze dagger blade, large bronze daggers and huge double axes for senior rank. Wore bronze necklaces or bracelets. Weapons produced by centralized workshops and distributed to soldiers (bronze "halberd"?)... An axe, a shield (?) and a spear for every household for the militia.

05/04/24 Woad

See Topography: Blueleaf

Real Waod Dye: Isatis Tinctoria Gillian Carr conducted experiments using indigo pigment derived from woad mixed with different binders to make body paint. The resulting paints yielded colours from "grey-blue, through intense midnight blue, to black". The dye chemical extracted from woad is indigo

How to Make Dye Out of Woad

Making woad dye is a lengthy process. The first step is to harvest leaves, and you will need a lot. Cut off leaves and wash them thoroughly. Tear or cut up the leaves and then steep them in water that is 176 degrees F. (80 C.) for 10 minutes. Let the mixture cool in an ice bath. This is crucial to retaining the blue color. Next, strain the leaves and squeeze them to get out all the liquid. Add 3 teaspoons (15 g.) of soda ash to a cupful of boiling water. Then add this liquid to the strained dye. Use a whisk for 10 minutes to mix and create a frothy brew. Dip out the brew into jars and let it settle for several hours. The pigment at the bottom is your woad dye. The liquid needs to be strained from the sediment. Very fine cheesecloth or other closely woven cloth can be used to facilitate the process. You can then dry the sediment for storage or use it straight away. To use it, liquidate the powder with water and add a tiny bit of ammonia. Heat the mixture up to a light simmer. Dip your yarn or fabric in boiling water prior to immersing it in the dye. Depending upon the color you require, you may need repeated dips in the dye mixture. Initially, the color will be greenish yellow but oxygen exposure helps develop the blue hue. In other words, the more dips, the deeper the color will become. You now have an all-natural indigo color tailor made to your needs.

04/11/24 Random Quote

"Those who play with the devil's toys will be brought by degrees to wield his sword. - Buckminster Fuller" Quote found at the start of an XCOM Enemy Within game.

12/11/23 Number of play sessions per level questions

Image of a Reddit poll. I think I would enjoy a game with 10 sessions per level. I would like getting a chance to fully explore (during adventures) all the aspects of a character build before going on to the next level. Getting skilled in gameplay by working with the other players as a cohesive unit, using their abilities to synergize with each other and kick ass in dangerous situations. Then level up and bring in new goodies to have fun with.

12/11/23 NPC Concept a Knight of Hel (Paladin of the Danrae Goddess Hel)

A third level 'Lawful Neutral' Vengeance Paladin of Hel with the Dueling fighting style, longsword and shield. His armor is "lamp blackened" in appearance. His side weapon is a wavy bladed Krisblade which may act as a holy symbol in a pinch (equal in stats to a shortsword). He has a half-white, half-black leather mask of Hel and leather cape (what type of leather??). Perhaps a Paladin of Hel may have come to serve some type of execution warrant for somebody... Possibly also used as ecclesiastical bearers of bad news from the highest levels... Could morph to a great weapon fighter instead and the two-handed Kris is now an official and holy instrument for formal execution (...there is a book series of an elder dying earth and a character that was a 'professional(?)' executioner).

10/10/23 Conquistadors/Danish Conquest of England (Vikings)

I did a search about "danish invasion of england timeline" An interesting quote from a site found under that search:

Æthelred was deposed by Swein Forkbeard, the leader of the invading Danish forces, and then, in 1016, Swein’s son, Cnut, finally toppled the West Saxon dynasty and seized the crown of England.

The most telling Anglo-Saxon response to these events is found in what is arguably the earliest surviving political speech in the English language, written by Wulfstan, Archbishop of York (r. 1002–1023). Wulfstan warned his audience of the dissolution of society:

The sermon of the Wolf to the English when the Danes persecuted them most, which was the year 1014, from the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Beloved men, realize what is true: this world is in haste and the end approaches; and therefore, in the world things go from bad to worse, and so it must of necessity deteriorate greatly on account of the people’s sins before the coming of Antichrist.

According to Wulfstan, the Danish attacks had been brought on by idolatry, treachery, enslavement and the violation of sanctuary. Barbarous humiliation followed military defeat. Wulfstan recounts how English nobles were forced to stand by while their wives and daughters were raped.

I was also watching a video on California history and consequences to the native people when the Spanish arrived (Moraga? ~1808).

• I imagine the Danrae invasion of Eradain, bringing with them new gods, violent conquest, devastating disease, and conversion to life as slaves/thralls and a foreign religion. The spread of plague and all the other travails lands in and near borderlands and frequent warfare.
  • Sounds like Daughter of the Empire series for Pug's experiences.
• MISSING FROM HISTORY: The names and deeds of the kingdoms on the maps that now just say "Danrae". It would be nice to make some map/visual progression of some sort through different ages of Eradain history.
• Should consider another campaign setting, lands closer to where the Danrae are active, the Meadowlands East of the Dagalethe Mountains and south of the Sar River. A bountiful land of gentle forests and hills from the great valley between the Dagalethe and the coastal range. Invasions, longships coming up the Veran River into all its tributaries. Perhaps there are even early invasions through Adler Pass where Angharad Temples have been sacked.

10/02/23 Nice Quote

From The Lamplighters League (pc game) "I will lend you my skills, if you will protect me from my enemies." I love this quote for a frenemy/ally npc (an ally weaponsmith in the game).

06/20/23 Tolkien & Tom Bombadil

An interesting note I saw on a YouTube video a quote from Letter 144: "...if you have, as it were taken 'a vow of poverty', renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself..." and "...watching, observing, and to some extent knowing, then the question of the rights and wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless."

06/12/23 Simple "Wheat Paste"

• 2 tbsp (18 g) white flour (strong flour or bread flour preferred)
• 1 cup (250 ml) water

Combine the flour and water in a double boiler or bain-marie and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, whisking constantly until thick and smooth. Transfer to a clean jar and cool completely. When cooled the paste should be solid, with a jelly-like consistency. Force the cooled paste through a sieve 2-3 times until smooth. Add a bit of water to thin to the desired consistency if necessary. Store in the refrigerator and use within 2-3 days.

06/11/23 Need a list of 'Otherworldly Patrons

"The beings that serve as patrons for warlocks are mighty inhabitants of other planes of existence - not gods, but almost godlike in their power."

In Eradain these beings will either be "aspects" of the deities in a pantheon, such as the darker aspect of Arawn, 'The Hunter', which serves as a patron for some warlocks.

Only Patrons that are aspects of deities in the pantheon are acceptable to the priesthood, followers of other Patrons are heretics. Other Patrons are major 'native spirits' and are typically malicious and evil by human standards.

• "The Hunter" - Dark Aspect of Arawn - This Otherworldly Patron emphasizes darker domains of vengeance at the Sanctuary of Arawn temple with a guild of warlock 'assassins' as followers, an accepted branch of the priesthood of Arawn (a "black ops" branch).
• The Archfey - Standard
• The Great Old One - Standard
• The Fiend - Standard

05/10/23 The Gray Man Novel by Mark Greanery

The writing gets better in book three for me. Here are some quotes that would fit well for a bandit clan:

"'We are outlaws. Our people have been fighting and killing for hundreds of years. We've been cattle rustlers; we've been highway robbers; we've raided Indian camps for their women, army barracks for their guns; we've robbed banks for their money. '...but I don't care. I am a warlord. I don't give a damn about the money. It is the fight that I love.'" "Shook the hand of a murderer of men, women, and children; a torturer of hundreds; a man who epitomized most every reasonable person's personification of evil."

There should be some hard-assed hill/mountain clans with this kind of reputation. Depending on how dark a campaign is, a party could help rehabilitate the clan, or work for them, use them as a resource, find reasons to attack their homes (wipe out the bandits)...

05/01/23 More Black Jewels

Quote from a Black Jewels novels wiki.
"Queens can use Craft (magic) to influence the land, and restore it when it has been tainted. Priestesses can lead important rites such as marriage, the Birthright Ceremony (gaining an adolescent level magical power), and the Offering to the Darkness (gaining an adult level magical power)."
"Queens are protected and honored, and the bond between a Queen and the land is essential for the continued health and well being of said land."

04/23/23 Influences and Ideas - Black Jewel Novels

I missed some new books from an old favorite series and I like the idea of adding concepts from Anne Bishop's Black Jewels series to the Angharad Clan rulers bloodlines. I have already been exploring the idea of using Ioun Stones as a "common" type of magical item that can give visual significance/evidence of someone's magical power and resources. Link that in to some limitation based on class levels. Maybe a limit to the number of Ioun that can be managed. Link that to the color levels of the gems in the Black Jewels. The number of stones and the color of the stones present (maybe one darker Ioun fills two slots where two lighter stones could be used).

If the source of the magical talent in the clan queen's bloodlines is sorcerous in nature, then a common bloodline type should be used for all Angharad. Draconic would be easiest. Can be modified, perhaps to use drakes instead of dragons, or otherwise tweak to Eradain's creatures. Houses affiliated with certain elements would be more prominent. Example House Raetha could have bloodlines for Brass, Gold and Red Ancestry, perhaps different branches of the house display characteristics/traits associated with those types of dragons (and can be used to shape politics/interaction personalities). Bringing in the "feral instincts" that are so much of the core of the Blood Jewel novels would be interesting. How would society work if rulers were more "touchy" in relation to those feral instincts for the need to get a mate and protect their young. Imagine if a will save was needed to resist some instinct. Only the strongest and strongest willed would survive.

Jewels and Blood hierarchy/castes

"Within caste, the higher ranking the Jewel, the higher ranking the person. A lighter Jeweled Queen is unlikely to become a Territory Queen if there are darker Jeweled Queens available. Within caste, males automatically defer to the darkest Jeweled male. In addition, the Blood are a matriarchal society. Males are supposed to defer to females. Because of physical and Jewel discrepancies in strength, Protocol is used to keep a precarious balance."

01/09/23 Random Notes

Random Notes to look up:

• Voyageurs / canoes
• Coureur_des_bois
• Engagé
• Lob trees were prominent trees used as guides or landmarks along voyageur canoe routes. Branches were lopped (or lobbed) off the trees just below the top to make them more conspicuous. They were located at important places along canoe routes to indicate a portage, trail, or direction to a fur trading post.
• Quote from something - When the end came, we had technical manuals, chemical compositions, melting temperatures, everything needed for a basic industrial base. We had a dozen people that could run auto fam tools and equipment, but not a sole left actually knew how to till the soil, or hunt, or weave... Many would starve while we fought our way back, relearning all the basic skills and crafts.

12/06/22 Midnight Suns Game

Note from the Marvel's Midnight Suns game that would make a great random legend for Arawn: "The Hounds of Arawn. Though we think of a hellhound's terrible visage and destructive power when we call it to mind, it said that the tamed hellhounds of Arawn, those of the legendary Wild Hunt, needed only the love of their master for subsistence."

07/18/22 Torch-Stave

Since light spells are at a premium and permanent light sources are rare, in addition to traditional torches, "torch-staves" are a commodity. Torch-Staves are torches on poles that may be carried more easily with longer (and heavier) lengths of burnable material. This was a good video about how this might have worked in past times: MEDIEVAL MISCONCEPTIONS: torches and candles

Medieval Long Torches

04/05/22 Patrons

Patrons outside of the accepted saints/angles/guardians/whatever within a pantheon are generally considered evil. Holy blades are holy only to followers of their pantheon. A party finding themselves opposing a paladin that represents a different religion would be interesting. Patrons - Based on the much-loved McCullough, Kelly – Fallen Blade Series, I will have a dark patron dedicated to moods/concepts of shadow-magic and justice but also vengeance (possibly also factions under the Patron). Other Patrons will be added when needed for a player concept. There should be another patron for the Wild Hunt, which is also of shadow.

Older Noes

03/24/22 Clerics, Druids and Priests (and NPC Classes) / Blessed Lands Most NPC's that have divine magic will be an NPC Class "Priest" (there will be other generic 'core 4' NPC classes). Any with other divine caster classes would be noted as blessed/skilled, but classed NPC's will be common enough not to make it a major social distinction impacting PC's and the term Priest is applicable as a general term for all types. The Angharad and Harad at least will have little distinction between a Druid or Cleric or other divine caster and for the Angharad all divine classes are considered to be part of the Circle. Whether you are a Cleric of Dana or a Druid of the Nature Domain, you are still a Priest of the Circle. Only certain recognized entities that are part of the Angharad Pantheon are allowed. Others are considered evil or corrupt spirits. Gods of other peoples are tolerated among the Angharad within guest/host boundaries. Heathen burning is a real thing, though out of favor currently, and Pict tribesmen and the most common criminals punished in such a manner. There is no numbers-based level limit restriction in general. You must be of a certain level and rank hierarchy in the Circle to qualify for the Great Druid's chair (whatever divine caster class they are). There are factions within the Circle, but no other accepted or acknowledged religious authorities outside the Circle and the people are devout for good reason.

A basic game concept is that lands that are settled and properly blessed by the Circle and with a Clan Queen of the right blood claim, etc., will have mild random encounter charts and other areas are not CR limited/scaled by player level, but based on location and proximity to the blessed lands. This very real benefit to the Angharad people is part of what their faith gains them.

02/16/22 Aegishjalmur ("The Helm of Awe" sigil)

Sigil "The Helm of Awe"

12/29/21 Other Gaming I have been experimenting with simple video editing. My first game video: Crossout PvE

12/28/21 Warrior Belts I would like to add an element for warriors like the Roman soldier's belt, a place to show their status as sworn warriors, where other soldiers would wear armbands or something. Hack-silver is the standard silver piece and the standard coinage used (among the Angharad and Harad in general based on local availability of metals). Instantly warriors can tell those sworn to a clan Queen. With the warrior aristocracy, those sworn warriors have prestige that others ("mercenaries" are of low repute, if they were honorable, why aren't they sworn to honorable service with a clan?). Maybe an article about currency would be good.

Roman Soldier's Belt

Falling Frontiers I am excited to learn more about this game: Falling Frontiers at Steam

Roles and Rules I am stealing this list and will incorporate its common-sense rules where appropriate as guidelines:

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12/27/21 thoughts on Angharad culture I love finding good history storytellers on YouTube. I often find plots and stories from history I can use for 'realistic' politics and conflicts and 'personalities' of actual people. The current analogy I am making to use "clan" in place of "noble" in the Angharad and uses the term Queen for multiple levels. I would love to replace that with a similar term that still carries weight of authority and matriarchy, at least at the base level.

Until I fully understand and rationalize how land and territory has been granted/ceded to a certain clan bloodline I am not confidant in the internal logic... The (safe, blessed, warded, ?) lands (D&D equivalent of "settled lands" encounter charts) are linked to bloodless blood magic. If this is the case, then how would inheritance work? You must be of the blood of the family line that made the connection to the land and have magic. It can be felt by those who have that link, though they may not understand what they feel without education. All such known are adopted into Sept.(?). The way to become more powerful in the game of Houses is to gain control of more lands that at "settled/blessed". How does one Clan gain another as a splinter/junior/cadet branch/ ... if non-innate-magic daughters were married into another clan, would they still retain that bloodline link and potentially bear a magically talented daughter with mother blood from her parent clan and father blood from her adoptive clan? No since the father blood never counts for inheritance... but it would for anything tied to bloodline and genealogy... perhaps since any female of the blood that displays magic is automatically adopted into Sept it doesn't matter. Also, if the land-link-magic only carries through the female line and that reinforces the matriarchical society.

Once the last innate magic bearing female of the line passes what happens? How does this 'mantle' get passed on to another clan (another bloodline's) Queen? Who says what clan bloodline gets to be the Queen according to Angharad law & tradition?

Control of productive and safe "settled/blessed" lands is linked to the bloodline of a particular family, but broken if that family line dies out through the female line. The magical link only passes through the female line. Men may be sought in marriage both for their family connections (looks like the men may need to bring a dowry?) and how strong their bloodline may be in magic. The families of the clan will all have children that may not have sufficient magical talent).

Angharad Clan Background - One bonus cantrip from list.

This emphasis on bloodlines would mean heraldry and genealogy would be critical knowledges for any "knowledge nobility" type checks.

10/3 Added complete current timeline to DM: Timeline

8/24 Looking at Logins and User Rights I am reviewing how to add contributor accounts and what access levels they have.

Updates 5/26/21 I have been slowly refining my ideas for the next Eradain Campaign and updating some details behind the scenes. I have decided where the ultimate goal of the campaign should lead (the current crisis and need for heroes). I want to campaign to have a sense of time passing and pressure increasing. To accomplish this, I need to create a general order of events in the world over the course of the campaign. Inserting a reference every game session to some event in the world as the "villain's" plot progresses and the impacts are felt (mixed with sufficient other interesting real and red herring news). Since this is a sandbox campaign, it can meander wherever the players want, but it will be important to me that the players sense that the world is moving about them and things change when they not present. I am also considering running two campaigns simultaneously, one in person and another Online using one of the virtual table top options available. I have picked my preferred virtual tabletop application, but I am going try it out first.

Natural Arches There are places in the earth where the land naturally forms an arch. Men have been known to disappear when walking through those spaces.

Player Actions in 5e While interacting with NPC's in a 'casual' situation, if they begin to take an action of any type, NPC's will have the opportunity to react and initiative may be called. Surprise may still apply. A round is about 6 seconds. Spellcasting with V & S components is noticeable. A good set up should give advantage to initiative or to surprise, such as casually turning around before casting a somatic only spell (I do not require material components except as spice unless it has a gp value stated).

Selected quotes I found here about surprise: https://slyflourish.com/surprise.html

There is no surprise round. The shot doesn't go off and get resolved before initiative is rolled. The minute any creature begins a hostile action against another creature, time stops and we roll for initiative.

When rolling for initiative the rogue gets a 19, the gnolls get a 12, Stompy the paladin gets a 7. When we compare the original stealth checks to the passive Perceptions of the gnolls, the gnolls clearly hear Stompy and clearly do not see Darkshadow. They're not surprised by Stompy and therefore are not surprised. Darkshadow still gets a shot off with advantage because the gnolls totally missed them but when their turn comes around, they can move and act. They're not surprised.

Notes about stealth found from https://olddungeonmaster.com/2014/12/28/dd-5e-stealth-and-hiding/

After searching through the rulebooks, the best definition of “being hidden” that I could come up with is this: “Your opponent either doesn’t know that you are there, doesn’t pay any attention to you, or doesn’t know where exactly you are located”.

The main rule in the Player’s Handbook for hiding is: “You can’t hide from a creature that can see you.” This sounds like it is saying that you must either be in a heavily obscured area or have total cover to even attempt to hide. I contend that this is not correct. It only means that whoever you are attempting to hide from is not looking in your direction (the DM has the final say on this).

You can attempt to hide whenever the creature or creatures you are attempting to hide from can’t see you. You could be invisible. (Being hidden is different from the “Invisible” condition in that you can be invisible and still not be hidden if your opponent can tell where you are by hearing you or by some other means.) Or you could be on the opposite side of anything that provides total cover, or in a heavily obscured area (such as darkness if your foe doesn’t have darkvision), or your foe could be distracted (if the DM agrees). You can also attempt to hide if you are in a lightly obscured area if you have the Skulker feat.

How do I hide? As a hide action in combat, or any time you attempt to hide, you make a Dexterity (Stealth) check and write down that number. As long as you remain in hiding, if any creature has a chance to detect your presence, their Passive Wisdom (Perception) score must beat your stealth check. I would rule that if you are hiding and cannot be seen and are silent the creatures would normally have no chance to detect you. If a creature is actively trying to locate you, compare your check to a Wisdom (Perception) check that the creature makes at that time. If you cannot be seen, or if you are in an area that is lightly obscured, they have disadvantage on the check.

What benefits do I receive from being hidden? If you are hidden before the first round of combat you can surprise your opponents and get a free round to attack them before they can react. (You are no longer hidden after you attack.)

On all attacks against you, the attacker must first identify where he thinks you are located. The attack will automatically miss if you are not in that 5 foot area. If you are in that area, the attack is made with disadvantage on the attack roll. The DM should require a roll with disadvantage, even if you are not in the targeted area and simply tell the attacker that his attack missed.

If you are hidden you make attacks with advantage. However, you will no longer be hidden if the attack hits or misses.

When am I no longer hidden? You can come out of hiding at any time of your choosing. You are no longer hidden if you attack someone even if the attack misses (exception: if you have the Skulker feat, attacking with a ranged weapon and missing doesn’t reveal your position).

If you move to a location where your opponent can see you, or if your opponent moves into a position where he can see you, or if the object or creature that was providing your total cover moves or is no longer providing cover for some reason, if you make a noise, or do anything that could give away your position, the creature you are hiding from can make another Wisdom (Perception) check to attempt to detect you.

If you move from a heavily obscured area to a lightly obscured area you can try to continue to hide but the creatures you are hiding from get a Wisdom (Perception) check to detect you.

Once you are no longer hidden your opponents will know where you are so they no longer have to guess where to attack. But if you can still not be seen (if you are invisible, for example), attack rolls against you have disadvantage, and your attack rolls still have advantage.

If they succeed you are no longer hiding so you don’t get advantage to the attack. However, if the fight hasn’t started yet, you have a chance to surprise them as long as they aren’t looking in your direction. In that case you an attack with advantage, but you will no longer be hidden as soon as you attack. If you are a 2nd level or higher rogue you can use a bonus action to attempt to hide again. But remember, if they see you duck behind a tree, they have a good guess at where you are hiding. In that case, when you stuck your head out I would give them advantage on their perception check – or give them an automatic success, depending on the circumstances.

The Black Books of Eradain For many years I kept a little journal wrapped in leather gifted by my spouse. The notebooks were swapped many times, until I started using other methods for my notes and scribbles. They are all lined up nicely twenty in a row. I'm going to post pages for the Black Books of Eradain with notes of old ideas I want to look at again or adopt.

Notes and Quotes to parse Here are a ton of quotes and some notes that I have collected and want to read through and cannibalize the ideas and flavors. Not all are adequately cited. Notes and Quotes

Over the hills... With the Angharad, sometimes someone who has passed away is referred to has Gone Over the Hills, but it is mostly used for those who have never been heard from again.

Government, fostering, coalitions Notes The section below is a great example of setting a world stage, the thinking of the government leaders, their interconnections, some hints of the government forms, with a touch of history on top of it. Concise, easy to read leaves plenty to the imagination. I want to incorporate this description (altered to taste) for one of the government systems in Eradain.

Quote from one of the Dragon Riders books: "She had her hand on Asgenar's arm, having known him a long time. Larad and Asgenar had been fosterlings at the Hold of Lord Corman of Keroon, though Larad had been elected earlier to his dignities than Asgenar. There's be no problem with this wedding, although it remained for the Conclave of Lord Holders to ratify it, since the progeny of this marriage might one day Hold either Telgar or Lemos. A man cast his seed widely if he was a Lord Holder. He had many sons in the hope that one male of his Blood would train up strong enough to be acceptable to the Conclave, when the question of Succession arose. Not that that ancient custom was as scrupulously observed as it had been. The wise Lord extended fosterage to the Blooded children of other lords, to gain support in Conclave as well as to insure his own progeny being well fostered." (insert Author and book) Music I stumbled on to Um heilage fjell by Ivar Bjørnson & Einar Selvik

Ioun / Manufacturing / Jeweler's Guild Ioun Stones cannot be manufactured. They are remnants from the Ancients and no known magic can duplicate the material. However, they can be "tuned" by the jeweler's art, enhancing or altering their powers. Despite ruining many Ioun in the process the Jeweler's Guild (need a name or KISS?) is a wealthy and respected faction. They are paid handsomely by the elite for their services. A popular commodity is Jeweler Cut Ioun fashioned into a necklace or other jewelry to be immediately available. Spell storing is favored for its versatility. The Jeweler's Guild is a secretive faction, their influence based on their crafting secrets, so they have security and some members are assigned guards by the guild. They also fund expeditions to locate additional sources of Ioun. The shards of the Ioun also have value. A sufficient amount of them can be fashioned into a Power Stone. There are two Jeweler's Guild Main Guildhalls located in Erada and Gilead. There is a decent amount of traffic between the two locations. Erada is the core of the guild because more stones are found in the West and make their way to Erada. The Erada Guildhall also has the benefit of trade with the Dwarves of Khuzdul, who are both supplier and customer for cut stones of all types (the Jeweler's Guild are superior to Dwarven gem cutters?). I picture the Jeweler's Guild technique to be sonic (air) related, perhaps a specialty sorcerer class/subclass are the true craftsmen of the guild. Maybe even hints of psionic elements? What are rules for psionics like these days? They used to suck.

This gives the impression of a high society, intrigue, and also High Fantasy. This evokes a feeling that many people have these items which is not the case. The world will still have a lower amount of magic than what is generally found in D&D, but a very significant amount of that magic will be in the form of Ioun. This means that although rare, the magic they find will be very flexible it its form and allow them to enhance their existing items.

10/15/20

I am going to use the New section to add notes from time to time.

11/14/19

Added a page for the Shadow Spire. The page is just an image, but its a great image by the artist Bergting.

12/28/18

I found a draft of a previously unpublished update to the Adventures of Thorn. I have added an entry for "The Lost Session."
Made updates to protected page with Eradain History.

12/15/18

Added a new pdf map of Angharad Clans and Settlements.

11/20/18

Added a page Rules: Metagame Concept which describes a method of generating adventure content based on a "meta game" between collaborators. Collaborators would use game like mechanics to compete against each other use the conflict as adventure material.

06/26/18

Added extensive information I had collected from several sources for the Underdark and the Incantation magic system. Incantations are a form of ritual magic that can be crafted to create interesting effects. The primary purpose would be for crafting specific use magical effects. For example the Druids of the Circle use an incantation (only useable in the Ancient's stone circle at the Sun Temple of Lugh or Erada) to create the Foundry Stones (elemental objects used to replace burning of coal or wood as 'clean' power).

05/21/18

Added legends of the Ghoul Queen and the Tarn Lords to the DM Timeline.

5/10/18

Continuing to search out old content and incorporate into the wiki. Recently I have added an additional short story from the Neverwinter HotTA days to Legends and Lore, but much of the info has been DM only content.

05/01/18

I have added a Beastiary page to start listing some of the different creatures that live in Eradain. I am in a quandary about whether to post RPG specific stat blocks since I am unsure if the next game will be Pathfinder or 5th Edition. If I do post stat blocks, I will need to research into creating template pages on the wiki.

04/10/18

I am scanning through material and picking bits and pieces to add.

Added a few more images and pictures. I am going to consider changing additional maps over to PDF format. They are more easily zoomable and have better detail than regular jpg files. They come in at about a meg each, while the better detail jpg images are ranging 1.5. It will be a pain to convert all the existing files, so maybe just a go forward... Added a page for the land of Angtiria, a 50-mile per hex continent map, added some goodies to the Maps page and reorganized it a bit. Added some of these same maps to the Angtiria Dathi Forest Region page.

Incorporated favorite info and added a link from The Welsh Piper - RPG Tools and Shortcuts for RPG Game Masters - Medieval Demographics Online. Awesome stuff for world building.

04/09/18

I am making periodic updates and adding pages without noting here. New DM only pages have been added, and an experimental map of Rhyas using a web browser based town generator and Visio. The quality is not so good, so I will experiment with different options.

03/28/18

Added additional information to Topography a new page about Rivers and Boats. A Reading List with many of my favorite authors was added to the Miscellaneous category. Extensive updates were made to the Angharad lore with pages for Angharad Clans and Clan Fionn.

03/20/18

Additional details continue to be added to the Angharad Campaign (2012) page, including new player detail pages with history and character developments. Additional enhancements have been made to many sections as I go through notes and add more details. I've been able to have installed an extension that allows for privacy of certain pages, so I can start adding DM only notes.

03/06/18

Adding a full campaign log to the Angharad Campaign (2012) page. These pages will continue to be expanded upon as new notes are located and incorporated.

02/26/18

Added extensive information to Realms and Cultures and got lost re-reading the Adventures of Thorn in Legends and Lore...

02/24/18

Moving Eradain to a new web host and changing to a wiki format and organizational structure.

09/12/12

Updated "angharad culture" page to include substantial information about the Angharad people. General information, their origins, their clan system of government, social classes, naming conventions, and general information about their laws and economy and trade. Future additions under the angtiria/angharad entry will probably include specific information about prominent clans and their heraldry, a listing of cities towns and a section about flora and fauna of the region.

08/31/12

Updated the Foreword above. Tweaked the "summary of peoples" and made a few edits to the "angharad religion". Still under construction is the "angharad culture" section to be updated as soon as I can settle on a final structure/order/inclusion/exclusion of the information to be presented.

08/21/12

Updated the Topography section of the website to be more accurate for the current generation of maps and to be more timeline generic.

Also, a new folder has been added as a holder for campaign specific documents, which contains the current version of the house rules: Campaign 2012. The E6 Rules have been placed there, and other documents relevant to the current campaign will be loaded to that location as needed.

-Also a quick update was made to the Angharad Religion page to reflect the E6 Rules Variant in the level titles.

06/30/12

Updated the Eradain continental map with Zoomify, a nifty tool that allows zooming and panning, etc.

I also recently picked up a tool called The Keep, "a personal information manager designed specifically for gamers". It's come in pretty handy and I've begun organizing all my Eradain gaming materials with it.

05/15/12

The old original Campaign Cartographer Eradain map links have mostly been revoved with just the continent map and map index left under "archive (old)". I have decided to not post the new Campaign Cartographer 3 maps for the time being. I think the exploration and discovery aspects of a new campaign will be more meaningful if detail maps arent immediately available to players.

I am still struggling with many of the finer details about the Angharad culture. On my "to do" list is to finalize some naming issues, then create basic statistics for all the towns and cities (and some villages), then outline which clans/cheifdoms control which territories.

01/01/12

Happy New Year! Eradain Continental maps updated with a few visual refinements. I've started work on the first levels of zoom for quadrant 3.

12/02/11

Angharad Religion page updated. Summary of Peoples page updated with current description of Angharad.

11/29/11

Menu tweaked for the new organization I may be using. The Timeline menu option was removed, and the separate headings of Cultures and Kingdoms have been combined into Realms & Cultures. After a lot of writing in the Angharad Campaign Guide, I decided that a lot of the more detailed information should be moved to the website and the Guide focused on the information relevant to the specifics of the campaign and the history included for its specific timeline. A lot of the existing content was originally written with a particular time period in mind, and its going to take some work to clean it all up.

11/28/11

Large map added. Links page updated. Content tweaks to update some existing material. Many original pages were written for a specific time period in Eradain history. My future plans will be to have different PnP Campaigns based in different time periods and different cultures, thus the website information needs to be as "timeless" as possible. A lot of work is being done on an Eradain Player's Guide and an Angharad Campaign Guide, which will be converted to PDF and linked on the website.

11/23/11

First updated map has been linked to the menu. You can easily see the difference between the original Campaign Cartographer (CC) and the most recent version (CC3). Next will be a larger version of the continental map (will require scrolling).

11/21/11

I will be spending some time updating Eradain content, beginning with some basic changes to the website. Old Neverwinter Nights information is being phased out. Newly updated maps created with Campaign Cartographer 3 will be filled in as they are created. Updated information will also be added to support paper and pencil D&D gameplay using Pathfinder rules. I have been delving into some 4th ed. D&D gaming, but so far Pathfinder (as inheritor of D&D 3.5) is my preferred system.

03/09/07

I have had to retire my e-mail address and remove it from the website due to spam issues. If you wish to contact someone about this site, please post in the Meeting Hall.

My work with the Heroes of the Third Age (HotTA) team is continuing, my current assignment has been the Ruins of Osgiliath. We are looking forward to a closed beta later this month. Please visit the website for additional information: Lord of the Rings: Heroes of the Third Age A Persistent World for Neverwinter Nights 2.

10/25/06

Neverwinter Nights 2 is now scheduled release at the end of October. I also believe that I have found a new NWN community to call home: Lord of the Rings: Heroes of the Third Age A Persistent World for Neverwinter Nights 2. I have made contact with the team and things are looking really good. Additional information will be posted in the meeting hall when I learn more.

As for the world of Eradain, I will slowly remove and archive the outdated NWN information and covert the site back to being focused as a paper and pencil D&D custom world.

04/26/06

Neverwinter Nights 2 is now scheduled for a September 06 release date. At this time I believe I will eventually seek out a larger community organization/world/server project to become part of as a DM/builder. I am also keeping tabs on Bioware's Dragon Age project, which will be much like NWN, but take place in Bioware's own custom world and ruleset rather than D&D.

Currently myself and several others are deeply involved with Eve Online, a great space MMOG. Its downloadable and there is a free trial available. See meeting hall for current gaming discussion...

11/23/05

Neverwinter Nights 2 is scheduled for release sometime in 2006. It will feature totally new graphics and improvements to the systems, tools and interface. I will be posting new, information and interesting links from time to time in the Meeting Hall. Please take a look and post any comments or questions.

01/13/05

Server Offline. The Eradain NWN server has been shut down until new content has been added. Post in the Meeting Hall if you have any questions or comments.

Logging into the Neverwinter Nights server requires the following (when its online): •All expansions: SoU and HotU (v1.65) •ADWTilesetHak006 (a great combo tileset pack) •Community Exansion Pack v1.5

10/20/04

Please see 09/13/04 News below for Hak Pack requirements for logging into Eradain. Module has been update to NWN 1.64, and other updates are made periodically, module version is now 2.53. Please post any ideas or comments at the Meeting Hall.

Made a long overdue update to Links page, The Cave link is still dead, but I'm hoping that it will become available again.

09/13/04

The Eradain Server and Module The World of Eradain is up and running.

Logging into the server requires the following: •All expansions: SoU and HotU •ADWTilesetHak006 (a great combo tileset pack) •Community Exansion Pack

Frequent updates are being made to correct bugs and make tweaks. New content and adventures will be slowly added as things develop with the closed PnP style campaign I am running. Eudoric and Pyrates are both working on additional content as well.

Please post any bug reports or comments and check for the latest news in the Meeting Hall!

04/04/04

The World of Eradain module currently under revision/construction will now also include the new Community Expansion Pack (CEP). The CEP is a project to take "the best of" community created conent, standardize it, and pad it to be compatible with any updates Bioware makes. The CEP include many new creatures, placeables, items, character portaits, new player heads. Please see the CEP website for additional information: Community Exansion Pack Website

This is a large download, but this standardized content will most likely be used by many modules and servers, so if you play online or build using the toolset, its well worthwhile.

New revisions are being made to Eric's Goblin Caves with the addition of new Goblin Appearance types and new goblin creatures such as Goblin Worg and Spider Riders as well as a few other new interesting creatures...

See the latest news and discussion in the Meeting Hall!

3/16/04

Overdue news update... The server has been shut down since December. With so much work going into the revised module and no new updates or content being added to the running version, I thought it best to take it down. The under construction module has been renamed from "Medrius" to "The World of Eradain" and has been updated to HotU. The module version has now reached 2.18. In addition the new Hak Pak added primarily for new Tilesets has also been updated: ADWTilesetHak006 This tileset has been updated for HotU and will be required to play on the server.

In addition old areas are being revised and many new areas are being added. My recent work includes updates to the Silver River and Dathi Forest areas, including installing the Goblin Caves created by Eric.

At this time the Eradain DM's are still discussing the potential impacts of Epic Levels and the powers of the new Prestige Classes as well as some of the new crafting features.

As usual, the latest news and updates can be found at the Meeting Hall.

11/14/03

Updates- A large number of new areas are being added to the module along with restructuring of existing areas. There will be many new places to explore and new challenges overcome. Factions have been added to reflect the Anghard/Danrae conflict and additional options are being added to support players joining different "sub-factions" for future quest options. A large amount of work has gone in to improving the creature spawn system, treasure, traps, encounters and other scripts which will allow DM's more options and flexibility which should equal more fun and surprises for players.

Any suggestions or requests for features/additions should be posted in the meeting hall.

09/30/03

Progress continues on the coming updates to Eradain: Medrius. We have decided to include community created content and in the future playing in Eradain will require use of a hakpak. We are using the tilesets ADWTilesetHak005 which are also used (required) by 'A Distant World' PW. Please visit the vault and obtain this hakpak. We are excited about the possibilities this new content will make available.

08/18/03

Just a quick note to keep the news page a little up to date. The Medrius Module which is running 24/7 has been updated to Shadows of Undrentide and has reached version 2.00 in beta. The Eradain Module can be found in the Persistent World Action category in the game matching service. Other recent updates include a new grouping friendly custom experience system and an improved "bleeding until -10" OnDying script. Currently the three active DM's (listed under contacts on the left menu) are working on new content and area changes. Please visit the Meeting Hall (forum) for the latest discussions and information.

04/18/03

Please see the Meeting Hall for the latest news about Eradain. The Eradain "beta testing" has reached Medrius version 1.50! The latest update has a fix installed for the exit/rejoin exploit to keep everyone honest. At this time only a few test quests are going to be implemented until we get Database Access up and running for true persistence. I am considering joining in the NWN Database Access Beta Contest, but the only thing I want to use it for at first is maintaining faction reputation and player quest states. Please post any comments, questions, bug reports and requests in the Meeting Hall!

02/07/03

Please see the Meeting Hall for the latest news about Eradain. We are still moving (at a snails pace!). At this time I have been wandering about and sampling many of the persistent world servers (primarily PW Action, but some of the PW Story ones as well) picking up ideas and hopefully learning from what I find there. I will be moving and without internet access during part of this month.

10/17/02

Long overdue update! There have been setbacks to the progress of Eradain. At this time I am the only DM actively working on creating the Eradain module and areas. Progress continues however, and DM's will be starting the painful process of alpha testing by the end of October. I apologize for the long wait and thank you for your patience.

As a reminder, the History has been updated with a Timeline and an Adventure Guide has been added to the new Neverwinter Nights heading on the menu.

08/04/02

Menu updated with new NWN section, player Timeline and Adventure Guide added. "Full" versions of history added to the DM page. A large "blowup" map of the territory surrounding Medrius has been added to the maps available.

07/07/02

Harad Pantheon has been updated and added to the menu.

06/26/02

A new Player Gallery has been added to the website. This is a listing of characters submitted, their race, e-mail contact address and registration status. The Player Gallery should be updated later this week.

06/24/02

Registration Update: At this time we will continue to accept player registrations, however since we are in the beginning of this process, in the throes of the learning, testing and building stages, there will be no official "accept, reject, resubmit" notice sent to players until further notice.

Submissions will continue to be posted in the Sanctorum for review and commentary by the various DM's and some refinements/additions will be made to the registration page.

06/19/02

NWN is out, I'm getting ready to install it now :) The player registration page is now available from the menu.

06/02/02

Updated Topography and the Kingdom of Erada to match with name changes made to some mountains and forests. Added additional details on the structure of the Danrae religion under Culture\Danrae Pantheon

05/13/02

Added new information about the structure of the Angharad religion on the Culture\Angharad Pantheon page.

05/13/02

Updated Map Index to an image map file for easier navigation.

03/29/02

Have converted some additional pages to the new format fully. Now all of the "Adventures of Thorn" should display properly. I have also added the hit counter back in on the intro page. Additionally I have moved the NWN ring code to the intro page.

03/16/02 Site News

Some minor changes have been made to the menu, removing the old AD&D 2nd ed. house rules and the dead link to the shadow thieves guild. The maps have been updated and links on the menu are now active. A new menu option called "map index" has been added to give viewers a better idea of where the map selections are on the continent. This will eventually be updated as an image map to make navigation easier. Additional areas of the map index can be outlined as new maps are added. If anyone is interested in having additional map areas added, please post your request in the meeting hall or send me an e-mai.

02/05/02 Site News

Nearly all of the existing pages have been converted to the new site format. The "Adventure of Thorn" still needs to be converted, I will begin work on that fairly soon. There are a few misc pages here and there that also need to be converted, they will be completed soon as well. The maps are the main portion of the work that needs to be done with the site to update it to the new format. I am not sure what the final maps section will look like, for the tim being I will merely place the existing maps in the new site format.

01/29/02 Site Updated

Well folks here is the new design, functional for the most part. Lug, I forgot to download all the spelling corrections before I re-uploaded so I will have to go through that again, actually I still need to spell check the entire site, so there may be some speeling errors here and there ;p. I have managed to get the message board to display the new menu, and the necessary CSS, however I cant get it to be displayed in the individual message pages. The board restricts message headers to 3k bytes and I need more than that for all of the menu and the CSS. Check out the board and let me know what you think. I still need to install some CSS coding on some of the pages to have them conform to the new design, but the site is functional.

As for the maps none of those links are live yet, all the maps have to be resized to a max width of 600, to fit. Actually the would fit as it, IF I removed the vertical banner on the right side. I can do that if necessary, that's up to the tyrant.

11/01/01 some more info

Here are a few more changes, mainly to color and a little to the formatting. I have added a little bottom and right border to a div.news tag, this could possibly be a div only tag. I am considering a group of div tags though to separate out some different things. We could possibly have a div.news, div.letter, div.speech, div.dimma, etc tags which control block level formatting, and can be useful for changing the display properties of large blocks of text. what you much consider is the box model formatting to be aware of some of the things that can be controlled using CSS2. The box model can be seen here. The margin, padding, and border all can be controlled in thickness, placement, which side is present, color style, etc.

10/25/01 site update

I am going to start a re-design on the site. I'm not planning anything drastic right now, just something to change up the look of the site somewhat. perhaps change the colors, graphics, fonts, text placement etc. If there are any suggestions feel free to post them on the message board or e-mail me so that i can shoot them down...er consider them ;p.

10/25/01 site update

I have made some small changes to the links page, mainly removed the links that were no longer functional, and I also have updated the gemworlds link. There will be more changes to the links page soon. I also have put in place a work-around for the scroll bar problem I have been experiencing with IE6. I'm not sure what is causing the horizontal scroll bar to appear when the vertical one does, but I will track it down.

8/19/01 news

A great deal of time has passed since the last official update, but background work continues in Eradain. The kingdoms option on the left menu continues in its development, with a selection available for Eradain (the central country named the same as the continent). Under Eradain are options to take a closer look at the borders and topography of the land, with links to a newly expanded topography page.

Also new this month is the addition of the Corsani pantheon, courtesy of adjudicator Damien Vryce. Along with the details of their religion, the culture -> peoples section has undergone some revision for the Corsani and a history is currently under development for these mysterious people of the eastern continent.

10/25/01 site update

Additions and clarification have been made to the NwN Eradain FAQ section based on input from adjudicator Damien Vryce. Everyone is encouraged to post ideas and suggestions at the meeting hall, which can be found under forums.