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

I like low-fantasy, but I am not swapping to running a Harn game just yet. This will include all the standard D&D type fare and memes. Written descriptions exposition may allow more cultural flavor and ambience.  

General Character

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”:

• Totally up to you. If you would rather be an arcane archeologist in Eradain looking for the Book of Infinite Spells, then do that. Your trail would start here and there would be complications and side plots based on events with the new Queen and other things that happen on a general timeline (planned, not written). If you leave the area based on your quest, that is where the focus will shift.

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. 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.

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

“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?

• Yes, I would say that even if you wanted to hand this off to someone else, such as the mother or other responsible person, you would have some responsibility and interaction based on your relationship.
• A mother would be a powerful presence in the girl's life if alive in this society with the matriarchal primogeniture.

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. Their holdings are more like a large ranch or small hamlet.

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?

• Yes, and would have all the more support for being a local even if they have hated your family's guts for ten generations (maybe).

Blacksheep/Ambition

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? 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.

• Yes you would be from Cerdwigg or living there now.
• The highest station you could obtain would be with an office in your daughter's court and her advisor and through her power in the local region and possibly beyond.
• 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."

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.
• If you had a more heretical bent, you could be full on dedicated to the downfall of society all the way to just being an ally of heretics, but in this fantasy world faith matters if you come to the attention of the divine.

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 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 and hist family have been gone many a year back East and their ancestors abandoned us to our plight back then...
  • I had specifically intended the Regent to be a cartoonish Richard III type.

The Circle

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.

• No bullshit for the Angharad society. Divinity is verifiable scientifically and the gods have made their presence known more than once. Currently they are very distant and beneficent but have had periods where they are more meddlesome like the Greek gods.
• It is precisely their divine blessings that you seek to obtain through the vessel of the Queen as a surrogate for the land.
• You definitely know to be careful in your public even if you are on board with the Gods and just not with the Circle.

Rules System

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

• I will just stick with the 5th version we have been running currently. Honestly the system does not matter just the pool of players using it and those are the most current rules I have.
• I plan to use "Take 10" a lot and assume Proficiency+Bonus+10 as a baseline for skill/knowledge and only have rolls if DC is higher than the baseline.

Start Working

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)?

• Totally experimental and when ready we can discuss a regular schedule such as weekly?
• In your background, please order your life however seems appropriate for your station and character including the people around you such as anyone you are beholden to if you choose not to be an Elder.
• Level 2 for this established/mature character.
• A simple heirloom magical item of around +1 power level.
• Background - The usual any two skills plus a Bonus Intelligence Skill Proficiency "Nobility" (sub-skill under History).

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.

• I have a wonderful last of its kind excel spreadsheet that I can enter a full 20 level character plan and it (mostly) calculates your sheet for the level of xp you have it set at. Multiple full pages including rules summaries for spells, etc., and I have exported the character summary sheet as pdf to send to you. Let me know if you are interested and I will either upload or attach in email It is 4mb.

01/17/25

Cool, I have some random thoughts about the local area people and politics to share below that might help you.

Basic Background

The people of this region generally associate their lineage with House Tiran and their previous Queens have been of that House.

Cerdwigg was razed to the ground during a past Goblin war, its queen and court lost. Only a non-magical blooded heir to the Clan name remained and their branch faded in importance over time and eventually were mostly absorbed into the remaining clan families and into the Sept of Clan Mabryn.

Without the blessings of a Queen, the region has suffered from constant incursion by creatures of the darkwood and remained generally disorganized against threats. The locals are all tough, many are dour. Everything is kept locked tight and secure against attack from man or beast. You do not travel after dark. Even to the other side of the village at least not casually, get an escort and a light. Each settlement and house is a little bastion.

Clan Mabryn in Gwindnyr has been nominal overlord and ally of the Cerdwigg minor clans and region, providing warriors for protection and healers other support for succor during hardship, a market for goods, mostly fair trading, etc.

Despite these honest efforts by various Mabryn Queens, there have been troubles and as is typical, a fragmented weaker party in a transaction will continually get the worst end of a deal. I did not picture the particulars, but there are treaties/contracts in place that are somehow both fair and too onerous, perhaps there is some graft or exploitive factor that only impacts some Clan Barons. And so divided as they are, the others see that as an advantage against their rivals. These would have to be related to the basic resources where the real money/wealth lies, products & goods and what is owed under a feudal type system. I still need to sort this underlying contention as it should come up in the background and events and dialogue.

• Basics of industry would be sheep and farm products with a few specialty products. In the past, Cerdwigg specialized creating glass from special sands upriver. Currently they made a lot of meade for export (they call their variety "metheglin"). That industry is gone now the furnaces and workrooms remain (dilapidated). The sand itself remains a valuable resource and there are "smuggler" types that brave the goblins to harvest it and will sell the sand downriver. There is Blueleaf in the forest and a Queen would guarantee better access to this resource. The mountains have some type of to be determined valuable mineral.

The Local Region

1. Cerdwigg sits at the top of a bluff in the middle of a V of the Prywn River and a small craft navigable not-yet-named river going north through the valleys and up into the hills. Downstream the Prywn River joins the Great Sinann River which traverses virtually all of the Angharad lands and changes its name only once on its way to the sea. Reaching Cerwigg by river actually requires a portage somewhere before the Agyn River.
2. The un-named river going north wends through several valleys north to the hills where there is good farmland.
3. The hills/mountains area has some type of valuable mineral, most likely something precious enough to be a source of income/stability for a non-bulky raw ore export (kind of like the special glass sand), but not wealth-inducing due to limited quantity and/or difficulties in obtaining.
4. The forests provide a variety of resources, timber, meat, furs, herbs, spices, nuts, berries, etc., including the precious Blueleaf.

I pictured 1 to 3 Clan Barons of consequence per region for a total of 3 to 9, but basically boiling down to the one top dog in each of the 3 regions being the primary deciders (but when the time comes each vote still counts the same for Queen). My basic plan was to beef up the number of barons for whichever faction was antagonist to the PC's faction, as generally I expect the PCs to win so they need the additional fodder.

Areas outside the light blue line is in goblin territory.

A - The Darkwood all manner of creatures from basically a level 7 wandering monster chart are there, a particular random threat are the Jurassic Raptor like Forest Drakes.

B - Once the settlement of Twynoch. Also destroyed by goblins and a giant resides in the ruins. This region has Serpent goblins.

C - Territory of the Krissblade Goblins that use poison and ride giant spiders.

D - The region of the Lost Temple of Selene, overrun by goblins and creatures of darkness.

E - Clan Dunrain, puppets of the generally hostile Clan Heth and rivals for claims on the territories of the Agyn River.

F - Clan Heth, enemies of Clan Mabryn.

G - Clan Fionn, allies of Clan Mabryn

H - The haunted Cynon Hills. Banditry is best exported lest you foul your own nest. This is a place they go for the traffic between Gwindnyr and Ceirin.

• Banditry in general, there would be two branches, those that prey on the roads and those that prey on the rivers. River bandits of course have greater logistical challenges.

I - The Nathair Picts. Once they were friendly and traded with the Angharad. They were fearsome warriors and some rode Forest Drakes as mounts. Something has changed, the trading stopped and then relations. Fewer Drake Riders have been seen and now strangers in their territory risk being attacked now without parley.

J - I think I skipped J for some reason.

K - Gwynledden Hills - like the Cynon Hills there are all types of tales of strange things in the hills of the darkwood. There is known to be periodic noxious and deadly yellow clouds that occasionally emanate from the area.

L - Source of the special glass sand and territory of blue skinned Jagged Spear mountain hobgoblins, known to use elemental lightning magic.

02/02/25

OK, so here's a tentative character writeup based on what we discussed:

The clan baron Rian rules the hills north of Cerdwigg and the Not-Yet-Named River that flows south from the hills to join the Prywn River at Cerdwigg.

Rian’s clan mines tin from placer deposits in the Not-Yet-Named River. The clan’s main settlement Stanton and Rian’s manor Duncassit are near the largest deposit.

Rian’s folk are also bandits. Among other dubious practices, they collect protection money from merchants travelling the Prywn, and his people have a permanent camp on the Prywn east of Cerdwigg, where they monitor traffic and collect.

(Although note that Keith says “H - The haunted Cynon Hills. Banditry is best exported lest you foul your own nest. This is a place they go for the traffic between Gwindnyr and Ceirin.”)

Of course, Rian maintains that the money goes to keeping river trade safe.

As a baron, Rian is a Clan Elder, but as a bandit Rian is a black sheep among the Elders.

Still, he is entitled to a voice in choosing clan queens in the Gwindnyr watershed.

Cerdwigg needs a new clan queen, and Rian’s own daughter Hari has shown the magical ability required to become a queen.

Despite the conflict of interest, and expected resistance from Clan Mabryn, Rian is bent on making Hari Cerdwigg’s new queen and on profiting from her accession.

Rian is fifty and has three sons and seven daughters - that he acknowledges.

He is determined to marry off the daughters to his advantage, but his oldest daughter Lilly is charmless and has no suitors.

Frustrated, in an effort to break the logjam, Rian has announced that Lilly must marry before any of the other daughters.

Although Rian appears gray and haggard - a Walder Frey type - he is still quicker and more dangerous than the younger men around him.

--

Notes:

I think that your notes on a baron’s household describe things pretty well. I could go ahead and find names for the folks you describe there (the stewart, man at arms, weaponssmith, etc.)

Also, I guess Rian’s clan need a last name or clan name, I can come up with that.

Stanton is my alternative to Darkwater - “stan” meaning tin. And similarly for Duncassit - “dun” meaning fort and “cassit” from the tin ore cassiterite.

02/18/25

Gwindnyr Watershed

02/21/25