Domain on the month: Verbrek.

[Epically]

I'm planning on sending my players to Verbrek soon, so I just popped off to the ol' DM resources here and discovered - to my surprise! - that Verbrek is missing out.

So what do you guys recon? I haven't seen a thread on domain of the month in my tenure here (I'm assuming they were done before I arrived) but now I get a chance to contribute (hopefully).

[Mistmaster]

This is not canon, but it is my personal take on Verbrek, maybe it can inspire you.:http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... f=1&t=9919

[brilliantlight]

My version is here http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... f=1&t=9846 although as the title suggests it focuses on Noah Timothy which I made the Dark Lord using QTR1 as the base for Verbrek.

[Epically]

So does this mean we don't intend to add Verbrek to the DM resources?

[Mistmaster]

No, only that your fellow members like to advertise theyr own products; Gonzoron or Joel will answer to your question,I think,

[ewancummins]

Arkandale Toothpick


A silver dagger with a heavy golden pommel, the hilt made from antler or hardwood

Most of these blades were made with naturally occurring alchemical silver (from placers and small mines in the valley of the upper Arden River).

aconite arrow poison



A pot of sticky arrow poison forms part of the standard hunting gear for Arkanalder/Verbrek folk.

The poison is made with wolf's bane. Kids learn to gather or cultivate the plant and to help brew poison from it.


Craft: Poison-making or Profession: Herbalist, in game terms.

EDIT

As you'd guess, I think people can't survive in such a lycanthrope-infested domain without some basic lore about those monsters.

[nothri]

Blasphemy! A new cult to the Wolf God has arisen in southeastern Verbrek, near the Invidian border and the former boundary of Arkandale. This cult is entirely human, and seemingly has earned the impossible feat of invoking the Wolf God's clerical magic. The ideology of the cult glorifies the hunt above all else, and while it acknowledges the traditional cult's view that the werewolf is superior to the human dares to suggest that such superiority is not set in stone. As an alpha must answer challengers to prove his superiority, so must the lycanthrope meet the challenges of mankind in order to maintains their place as the Wolf God's favored. If the humans are able to defeat the werewolf in the art of the hunt, despite all the gifts the Wolf God has invested in them, then humanity is more deserving of its respect. This doctrine alone is distressing to Alfred Timothy, who loathes humanity with a passion. But the apparent center of this cult has arisen in the very village that nearly burned him at the stake so many years ago- before a gypsy helped him to escape and his subsequent betrayal opened the lands of Verbrek to him. Who is spreading this faith and how do they grant humans the right to cast Wolf God magic upon baptism into the heresy? The young cult has proven popular among the mercenaries of Maloccio Aderre, who are quick to embrace the savage glorification of the hunter the cult emphasizes.

[Epically]

Reports of Vistani going missing/killed are amidst the rumors in Verbrek. Someone(s) is clearly violating the unwritten pact for safe passage. Alfred is not happy about this, as his curse is a direct result.
A meeting is called at the circle three months ahead of schedule, at the behest of Alfred. Those clans not attending are to considered treacherous, backstabbers, and to be killed on site.

Who is behind the Vistani disappearances? Is it a rogue clan looking for game? Did another clan discover Alfred's secret and is looking to exploit/bribe? Is this the doing of the Woodcutter's Axe who have noticed for no apparent reason the Vistani have free roam over the Domain and assume it has something to do with a werewolf pact?

[nothri]

A quick look at the old Ravenloft maps in the Realm of Terror "Black Box" (the best pre-Conjunction map available) shows a strange contradiction in locales in Verbrek. Specifically the location of the Circle. Originally it was in the far south near the Arden River. Now its located in the North at the edge of a Musarde tributary (the Winterfangs, according to the Gaz IV). We can interpret this as a clerical error...or that the Mists shifted the location during the Grand Conjunction and Verbrek's expansion into Arkandale...or that Alfred moved the Circle later. Perhaps he took the Grand Conjunction as a sign from the Wolf God? Perhaps he felt the slaughtering of the humans of Arkandale necessitated the move? Or was there a threat along the southern border and Alfred desired a more central locale to rule his realm? In any event, if the Circle has changed places, what is the status of the previous locale? Have the few remaining standing stones been reclaimed by the wilderness? Or do other things (restless spirits, shadow fae from Sithicus) dance between the forgotten foundations of the Wolf God's monument?

[nothri]

When he was still the lord of Arkandale Nathan Timothy maintained a virtual monopoly on travel along the Musarde over his borders. By employing his werewolf enforcers to attack any ship that had not paid his shipping fees Nathan was able to cultivate an upperclass of riverthanes by playing favorites with his partners and allies. Many of these thanes also happened to be werewolves like Timothy himself (apparently the veracious appetite and predatory instincts of a lycanthrope translated alarmingly well into the cutthroat arena of trade). Arkandale had no king per se, but the river merchants maintained something like a manor system over the villages along the Musarde, though their hand was far lighter than the aristocrats of Borca or even Richemulot.

Alfred Timothy has done his best to dismantle the system his father put in place now that the lands of Arkandale belong to him. Many of the manor homes of the thanes are now gutted ruins of broken stone and overgrown vegetation. But human infrastructure is a stubborn thing. Many a merchant prince fled to surrounding domains and simply maintained their trade practices from afar. And while the werewolf population of former Arkandale is in the minority compared to the savage number from the Verbrek wilds their numbers were strong enough and their influence wide enough to retaliate when their estates were attacked. If the werewolf clans who once served Nathan Timothy were to side with the human population (let alone arm them with firearms from the Renaissance domains loaded with silver musket balls, as some have threatened) the resultant civil war would at best end with a pyrrhic victory for Alfred and the absolute slaughter of hundreds of lycanthropes. So the old order remains, reduced substantially in influence but still profitting off of the river trade. Every so often a human thane will return to Verbrek intent on reclaiming his family's lost manor (or more often the fortune abandoned during the werewolf raids that drove them from the region). Success has been mixed enough that most of the former aristocrats send agents and the occasional adventurer to reclaim and rebuild in their stead.

Alfred has littler interest in the affairs of humanity, so has been content to ignore the comings and goings of traders so long as their influence does not clash with his own. This is a questionable policy, as a careful look at cargo and profits earned would not that the foreign coins several of these merchants are collecting and hoarding tend to follow a suspicious pattern. Gold and copper are readily spent on new cargo, repairs, paying crewmen, etc. Silver coins, on the other hand, seem to go right into the merchant vaults never to see the light of day again. Oddly, those merchants for whom this is true seem to have one other thing in common- the tattoo of a woodman's axe upon the breastbone.

[nothri]

What do the werewolves fear? Monstrous beasts who move beneath the moonlight secure in their place in the wilds of Verbrek as ordained by their god, a human might be excused with saying there is nothing the monster fear. But for all their gifts and powers, werewolves are not so different from men. In the light of day, a man might rest secure in his domain, master of all he sees. At night, however, men know there is much beyond the haven of his home. Wolves have senses beyond those of men, and thus they know better how strange the wilds of their home can be. For every familiar scent, there is another unknown, alien and unnatural. Rumor and hearsay about what stalks the deepest parts of the woods circulate every camp and gathering. There are places the wolves do not go, for entering the territory of the unknown dwellers ends in death and disappearance. Sometimes a young pack is forced out of established territory and must make their way into unclaimed places where the howling awakes things even the wolves fear to hunt.

The wolves would never admit to doing so, naturally, but from time to time a lone wolf ventures into the villages of man seeking those whose business is the hunting of monsters. Humanity is softer and more easily broken than the shifters, but they also do not burn at the touch of silver nor shy away from the smell of wolf's bane. Their dull senses make them braver in some situations, unaware that death hangs in the air promising their end. And some wolves reason that a human who can take on the skulking horrors the packs fear is a human that can be hunted later to high prestige and acclaim.

[Rogold Gildenman]

What happens when the Woods turn against the Werewolves? SOMETHING has come into the Wilds of Verbrek and it has made those high-timbered forests as dangerous for the Moon-turned as they have made it lethal to the Unchanged - yet what has changed the Woods is no friend to the Human Kind, for the Full Moon brings its customary executions and the Forest now takes its toll of Man only a little less hungrily than the Werewolves.

Who has done this? WHAT has done this? Is Alfred Timothy displaced as Master in his own Domain or have the Dark Powers simply decided to shorten his leash?

Only the Forest knows ...

[Rogold Gildenman]

Arkendale died bloody and only the toughest opportunists survived - many of the smartest now make a living by borrowing, thieving or soldiering in neighbouring domains and now some of them have struck on a nice little scheme; they will lead the brave, the stupid or the terminally reckless on a hunting run into Verbrek and (if they're paid enough) they'll even work to make sure you get back out again.

Unfortunately for them somebody with Real Influence stumbled onto evidence of this little racket and has decided to take advantage of their services on behalf of a near & dear rival; unfortunately for the Rival, he doesn't favour the Outdoor Lifestyle and has suffered an abduction - unfortunately for Our Heroes, they've just been employed to make sure this particular lost lamb manages to win Home from Verbrek or die trying.

At this point Dame Fortune is missing, presumed sadistic.