Angharad Campaign ("Last Scion")

Adventuring in Eradain

Under Construction
Eradain is a homebrew campaign world with elements taken from many different sources- fiction, movies, history, gaming materials, etc.

Game play is a low fantasy, open ended sandbox style with a focus on combat. As a low fantasy setting, adventures in Eradain will attempt to capture some grittiness and moral quandary.

Eradain is also a low magic world where some items defy full identification. Adventures will be primarily overland in temperate woodlands and rural towns. Encounters are location based and are not necessarily scaled to character level.

Campaign House Rules Outline Notes

World Setting Themes (general thoughts under construction)

• Angharad Human Centric
• late bronze age/early iron age celtic feel, axes and daggers and spears are most common weapons (alongside some D&D 'simple' weapons and depending on the local customs, etc.)

General notes for planning a new campaign some day.

• Sandbox Homebrew Campaign Level 1-7 "Low Fantasy" campaign.
  • Campaign Setting Irish Celtic (TBD tribal/medieval/renaissance) culture in a pastoral, densely forested wilderness and river filled land.
  • Characters that make a setting appropriate background and tie ins are given an heirloom magical item.
• Rules System: D&D 5th ed.
  • E6 Campaign - A Campaign for Levels 1 through 7 where other 'normal' human mortals in the world have a maximum of 6-7th Level.
• No Alignment. Current edition of D&D seems to support this play style. For example, Protection from Evil is actually protection from summoned and undead, etc.
• Races - Angharad Human Only. Other races or human ethnic backgrounds become available later in campaign if new characters are introduced.
  • The Angharad language is "Common". Any Harad branch people on the continent can communicate in basic terms with each other using "Trade" (a learned argot related to all Harad branches).
  • There are limitations on languages that may be learned based on class and background.
  • Angharad Pantheon only. This is the dominate religion of the land. The Circle is the ruling body of the religion which is made up of coalitions of clerics, druids and other divine casters, centered in one of many religious centers.
• Classes
  • Divine Casters in general and special divine caster or those that rely on patrons will all have obligations, as their gods and patrons will have requirements for the power they give.
  • Wizardry. In Angtiria, Wizards and other classes that rely on spell books are rarer than others with divine or sorcerous powers.
    • Traditional Wizards (any class that has spell books) may face difficulties finding spells (but will find other perks in their adventures if they study the magic of the Ancients).
• Magic
  • The supernatural in Eradain has elements that relate to Shadow and the Ancients. The Shadowlands are a conglomeration of the Ethereal, the Feywilds the Shadowfell (Feydark), the negative material plane, etc. Everything is surrounded and permeated by the Astral Sea. Only very very knowledgeable experts would know any significant details about Eradain cosmology (in character). The magic of the Ancients, their lost ruins are the foundations of current mortal magic.
  • Magic that causes light effects are removed or weakened (adapted as necessary to reduce light effectiveness or increase the levels required to cast or both).

Campaign Game Zero Notes

12/29/24

• I'm also interested in some of the more mysterious things -
  • In this specific region is the lost Temple of Selene. The Seeresses of Selene were a powerful sect, but their lands and temple were overrun by goblins and from within the temple by mysterious creatures of shadow and horror and without by hostile goblin tribes. That is located some 40-50 miles to the southwest. I like mysterious ancient magic and will place that wherever I can cram it too. If you want to master mysterious powers of the Ancients, discovering the secrets of the Lost Temples is a way. There is a dangerous artifact "recovery" team at the Sun Temple of Lugh complete with the secret vaults where those the artifacts are stored.
• Will this be an E6 game?
  • Yes, NPC's the the worlds balance of power of creatures in general is based around human mortals being around 6th level with magic objects or abilities that would allow 7th (or higher for special NPC).
• Can arcana magic users (or non-magical classes) become members of the Circle?
  • Straight arcane casters can become lessor members of the circle, higher stations require patron or devine, highest require devine magic for the connection to deities of the pantheon and tend to be straight cleric or druid levels.
• Who is the current Great Druid, and/or what god/goddess is he/she aligned with?
  • The current Great Druid of Dana resides at the Temple of Dana far to the East. Nearby is the Sun Temple of Lugh, where resides the Arch Druid of the West, Neal Readda and this region lies under his hand and the Light of Lugh.
  • If you are a member of the Circle or a devine or patron type spell caster you will be subject to the laws of the Circle.
• The Circle leadership divided between those factions or just the rank and file?
  • These are supposed to be strictly for the lower levels of the organization where things like voting may be used and there is discussion and dialogue and compromise. Higher stations are supposed to maintain neutrality and generally does a good job due to devine influence, but all the gods of light and dark aspects and sometimes in the past such as the Blood Druids, darker paths dominated the Circle.
  • “It is part of the ongoing politics of the Circle what aspects of each deity are predominant based on the beliefs and attitudes of those in power.” The Blood Druids incident/schism is an example and there were others in the past, where the Arch Druid may as well have been the wicked witch of the west as far as the rest of the Circle was concerned.
• Reading what you wrote again, it would be interesting if a girl from the "disgruntled/black sheep clans, bandit lords, and possibly at least one branch of heretics" around Cerdwigg, who has magical ability and the queen trait, comes forward to contest for the queenship of Cerdwigg.
  • This is it exactly, there will be one or more such a girl. The starting "favored/shoe-in" candidate is a daughter from the old clan bloodline ensconced at Clan Mabryn and her father has used all of his resources to secure the Regency through is Mabryn Clan patrons. The Mabryn Queen sees only opportunity in stabilizing the area with any new Queen as she would be their nominal ruler in a vassal/feudal sense, as a Queen of higher station among the Clans.
• it might be interesting for the father/mother/some other relative of the girl to be the PC, working to advance her.
  • Yes. I am trying to save some facts for gameplay lol. The Mabryn Regent is the Father of the most promising and highly backed candidate and his tenuous male blood is all that connects his daughter to the old bloodline. This brings to me visions of dueling fathers, manipulating from the background, or like the sub-plot in Braveheart where the leprous father was whispering politics to his son and manipulating things in the background.
• Maybe the PC is himself / herself a druid, looking to promote themself in the druid hierarchy while promoting their girl relative in the clan hierarchy.
  • It makes sense to me that one pathway to power for yourself and your clan/family/faction would be to secure a Queen and have her be your ruler/ally/friend/patron/puppet.

01/08/25

Lugoun: For a male Angharad who is the acknowledged father of a possible Queen is indeed a potentially powerful position and contending with those of higher clan status in the Sept and backed by Mabryn is likely to be a challenge even if the girl has the blood and the magic. Such a person would likely be a or the leader of his minor clan/faction and as such would have the ordering of his household and followers and assets and responsibilities. If you are not currently a leader, you would be expected to become one once your daughter's status becomes known known.

The clans of the House Tiran (which your clan would likely be distantly related to and could count back however many generations) - House Tiran "COMMON TRAITS: AIR, LIGHT, SORCERERS, SWORDSMEN, MARCHER LORDS" A gentleman of any remotely noble lineage would generally be a classical fighter type unless he had other aptitudes. I was planning on creating a generic "Angharad Noble" NPC class as basically a simplified fighter with additional skills in diplomacy and for things like agriculture or engineering, whatever. Sorcerers will be a more common arcane class type overall among locals in the region and certainly a sorcerer knight type would be a deadly foe, but you can be whatever class has features you would enjoy using and we can figure out an interesting story. [11:29 PM]Lugoun: For a PC to be a potential Queen, she would have to have devine magic from a deity of the Angharad pantheon or have arcane magic, and would be noticed as soon as displaying a first cantrip. Otherwise any class and background can be had by a possible Queen. Those of the blood usually found in the higher status bloodlines/leaders of their groups/factions, as those that have it are adopted into the leader factions and pass along their genes there. This is a weakpoint in my imaginary culture as I do not understand how this process works for picking a new Queen by the Elders. Potential Queens here are all basically "Tanists" or heirs to power of this region and would become instant nobility and potentially gain access to significant resources, etc. (with plenty of strings). They would be expected to take on leadership duties and make decisions to get things done and improve the status of the clan while being observed by the "Clan Elders" who will ultimately decide who they are want to bend the knee to. They NEED the Queen. Life is hard on the frontiers without the blessings upon the land they provide... but there have been bad Queens.

I pictured the process could be as benign as simple chores and quests all the way to deadly intrigue and assassination depending on the local socio/political environment and the capabilities and maturity of the candidates. Perhaps a Tanist PC would be sent by the Elders to negotiate with a recalcitrant branch of hill clanners. Depending on the nature of the Queen (or the hill clanners), perhaps the issue could also be put to bed by the sword or whatever the PC decides to do to succeed. There will also certainly be supernatural and other threats coming through to civilized regions that they will be looking for users of magic to help deal with. [11:36 PM]Lugoun: If you like the black/sheep/heretic angle, you would have to decide how black and disgruntled you are in advance. If you are a full heretic, they still burn those sometimes even if they have not committed crimes. [11:54 PM]Lugoun: A druid would be a powerful choice as well, they were my favorite class before I became obsessed with rogues. (There is another book series (Roberson, Jennifer – Cheysuli Series) which has animal type shapeshifters mixed in with bloodline succession and mysterious magic, short books but there are a lot of them. I like how the world building and storytelling improve over the series.) As a Druid, you would be beholden to the rules of the circle (basically be a good druid whatever that means).

I don't know if I narrowed it down for you 🙂 I think I am intrigued most with the idea of setting you up as a baron type with holdings and some serfs and warriors basically being one of the Clan Elders that will decide who will be the Queen. [12:04 AM]Lugoun: For me generally in D&D, a PC would never have any consequences for their age, unless they chose to have that for roleplaying purposes or as a consequence of events in game (supernatural aging in a fight or something).

01/13/25

General Character

Dennis: “For a male Angharad who is the acknowledged father of a possible Queen…”: I think I like this kind of character the most, can we go with this?

And then from Game of Thrones, he could also have some Belon Grayjoy and/or Walder Frey in him, in terms of how dour he is.

• Great, I like the angle. I had planned to have several candidates for Queen, so this fits nicely.

Class

Class: I think a muggle class rather than a magical class is most natural for this character? Re: the Fighter-like noble class, Fighter is actually the only 5e class that I disliked playing. This character could be very (“small r”) roguish - how about Rogue instead? I’ve never played a Rogue before but I think it could work for the character and be fun.

• Play whichever class has the features you would enjoy for an endgame maximum 6th-7th level. The only ones I can think of as "inappropriate" would be monk or paladin and maybe barbarian if you go for any level of gentry.

*Noble vs. everyman

I’m open to either, whatever you would like. For everyman, I do like the idea that this hardened nobody discovers that his daughter has surprising abilities and decides to use her to climb as high and as fast as he can. In this case, “If you are not currently a leader, you would be expected to become one once your daughter's status becomes known” would be just up his alley.

• If you are open to either, I recommend either a Baron or a Yeoman social class level.
  • • As a Baron (of a backwoods clan, black sheep or not), YOU are among the Clan Elders (confederation of barons) who's election will pick from among eligible Queens (if more than one). You shall have lands, servants, men-at-arms, tenants, etc., in a very feudal system (but no one is bound to the land or a lord, no serfs), a settlement of at least a hundred. It would have to be a larger settlement or more of them if you wanted to have more soldiers on your own resources. For your household all the niggly details are taken care of by your Steward, whom you trust and at the start of the game is completely trustworthy. Your other household includes a cook, baker, alewife and one domestic. Your settlement has a weaponsmith, an extremely valuable resource in this region. You have two men-at-arms, soldiers who also fill the roles of settlement police and bodyguard. A settlement that size can summon up 10 militia for defense. Since most transactions on the manor are in kind, the privy purse contains 500gp and you have positive income with the modest household outlined, you but are more "land-rich", so converting that positive income and kind into coins can be a challenge here. You have one "yeoman" loyal to you with 1-2 levels in any class and they are one of your henchmen.
    • As a Yeoman, you are the barest sliver of gentry above commoner and are they typically warrior/knightly type (but could be a scholar, expert craftsman, or wizard, ranger monster hunter or anything) with their own small holdings and men-at-arms and owe fealty to whatever Clan Elder (baron) rules 'their' lands. I think it would be best if you were on good terms with this person but let me know what you have in mind for a nominal overlord and what their attitudes would be like.

Blacksheep

Either bandit everyman or bandit chief depending on whether we go everyman or noble. Variety of black sheep: maybe he’s from the bandit clans around Cerdwigg?

I think being a black sheep would be fundamental to his character, but I don’t see him as a full heretic.

• Heretic with a Queen for a daughter could be an interesting angle, but just being a good Angharad will probably be complex enough.

• Yes you would be from Cerdwigg or living there now.
• Here is a book quote that I pictured as something of the attitude of the most extreme outsiders/criminals: "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."

Richard III - And then Thinking about some existing characters who have some of this character in them: I often pull bits of Richard III into characters, that could be true for this character too, although I probably wouldn’t play him as Snidely Whiplash as Richard III is. Richard III basically uses his family, lies and misinformation, seduction, betrayal (even of his own family), and even murder to navigate shifting alliances, and has no problem associating with or employing the worst people to do it. Richard III also has this explicit Snidely Whiplash thing where he looks right at the audience / into the camera and tells the audience how villainous he is, reveling in it. But, I don’t think my character would be that cartoonish. Richard III also has a severely crooked spine and withered arm that Shakespeare uses to good effect. So, assuming we go this way I might want to think about whether he has any outward thing like that.

• I pictured the hill clan barons are like mafia families mixed with daytime soap opera.
• Those barons look upon the old clan bloodline Regent sponsored by Clan Mabryn as the Richard III type, he may be of the old bloodline, but he's been gone many a year back East...
  • I had specifically intended the Regent to be a cartoonish Richard III type.

unreviewed

And then from Game of Thrones, he could also have some Belon Grayjoy and/or Walder Frey in him, in terms of how dour he is.

Walder Frey is also kind of interesting in that he has a whole cottage industry of producing daughters that he has to marry off.

And from House of the Dragon, Ser Otto Hightower has a story similar to this character in terms of using his daughter to advance his house.

“For a PC to be a potential Queen…”: Assuming we go with the father as the PC, I guess this would all apply to the daughter NPC, and he’d probably get pulled into all of that though her?

Dealing with the hill clans would be a pretty natural task to fall to him, since he’s of their ilk as a bandit chief.

The Angharad religion is his nominal religion, but as a backwoods outsider, he’s always been apathetic about the Circle and in his own thoughts, he’s always held out the possibility that the pantheon gods and the Circle are bullshit. Now that his fate is tied up with his daughter’s divine magic, though, he will toe the line carefully in public.

Dennis: “I don't know if I narrowed it down for you I think I am intrigued most with the idea of setting you up as a baron type”:

I’m OK doing that instead of strict “everyman” if you want, let me know how strongly you’re leaning toward that. If he is a Clan Elder deciding who will be the queen, can he still have his own daughter in contention, still be a black sheep from one of the backwoods clans?

You said D&D 5e right? Are we going to use the new 2024 rules?

Depending on your responses here, let me start working on the specifics of his house and backstory and possibly come up with some more ideas for his personality and story for color (consistent with the black sheep father we’re discussing here)? I also might need an extra weekend to actually make the 5e character sheet…I have a good process for making a 5e character sheet, but it takes a few hours.