POVERO REFERENCE

[ewancummins]

[ewancummins]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/or ... 6756bb.png

My drawing of a high elf musician from the Elfin Court of Tanglewoods.

(The Elf-inhabited portions of the sprawling wilderness of the Tanglewoods is where Tom's (elf) mother came from.)

[ewancummins]

A partial list of the major families of the Crabclaw Peninsula and their principal resources or specialty manufactures:

• Arawald (grain and cattle)
• Burgoddin (lumber, tar)
• Dagrelle (highest quality tabak)
• Giserlin (fruit, silk, fustic)
• Otstrand (salt, shellfish dyes)
• Unwyne (ships and boats)

[alhoon]

Do we know of this?

[ewancummins]

Do we know of this?

Trade-savvy characters might know some of this with a successful INT roll, because goods from this country are traded northwest across the sea, in Povero.
Characters making a CHR check can pick up some of it from the ship master or his officers before debarking.

I've deliberately left out symbols, faction relationships, heads of houses, etc.
That stuff you'll have to learn in play.

[ewancummins]

http://pin.it/vrWAVyI

That's a CRUDE first draft map, and subject to revision before play begins.
I'm going to add scale and also details like towns, borders, place names, etc., and probably adjust the coastlines and rivers a bit.

But it should communicate the basic concepts:

peninsula
jungles down south/on the mainland
river system and hills
port city sits on an estuary/river mouth
major families dominate a large area
Povero across the sea to the NE
The Isles of the Zikandroon off to the NW

[ewancummins]

The Crabclaw Peninsula extends northward from the northern shore of the southern continent: a long sea-voyage from Povero.
A council of aristocrats from the allied townships and counties of the peninsula sponsors regular patrols in the countryside and maintains a small naval militia, forces adequate to the routine enforcement of law and the civil defense of the towns and farms. The council often hires adventurers to undertake special missions.
Dark, humid forests blanket the hinterland south of the peninsula. The civilized men of the peninsula have raised a chain of forts to hold back the painted semi-human savages and fierce monsters of the subtropical jungles. Expeditions from the peninsula regularly leave the forts in search of dyewoods, exotic pelts, ivory, emeralds, naphtha, and other natural treasures.
Most of the human inhabitants of the peninsula come from the same stock as the Ostremannic conquerors and settlers of the north. A dialect mutually intelligible to that used in Povero serves as the common tongue.

[ewancummins]

DUNGEONOLOGY

Or Science in this campaign

Spontaneous generation
https://www.britannica.com/science/spon ... generation

This process has been observed in some parts of the underworld.

Geocentric model: the prevailing model used by astrologers (which are the same thing as astronomers)

https://www.britannica.com/topic/geocentric-system

The classical four elements model is supported by evidence-- elementals!

A literate PC with above average INT has very likely read or heard of some of this stuff.

[ewancummins]

THE KING'S FIFTH

Some rulers demand a fifth of any buried treasures and dungeon loot recovered from their lands (and the same for silver and gold from mines).
Of course, in order to actually enforce such taxes, these rulers must be able to defeat miserly or rebellious adventuring parties.

[ewancummins]

BANKS and such


Usury:
Usurers exist in most cities. Among the Ostremannic cultures and similar nations, usury may be legal, but it's not respectable.
Think of harlots and pimps. And none of the glamour of a beautiful courtesan. A usurer might get rich enough to buy his way up into middling social status, but the taint of his profession clings to him.

Good-aligned clerics strongly condemn charging interest on loans to the poor and to anyone in distress.

Evil clerics don't care about the morality of all this stuff, of course, though evil clerics from privileged backgrounds often share social prejudices against usurers.


Pawning objects:

Pawnshops aren't uncommon in the port cities and other centers of trade. Some are fences but others are reputable brokers.


Letters of credit:
Merchant houses and big guilds sometimes use magically-marked letters of credit, but this is big biz stuff that has little or nothing to do with ordinary transactions on the street level.


Temple vaults:
Civic temples in some towns act as bank vaults, storing valuables in return for monies donated or services rendered.

[ewancummins]

science part 2

The Moon

VIEW CONTENT:

Using spyglasses, some keen-eyed astrologers have noted what might be snowfall and/or drifting dunes on the cratered lunar surface.

If your guy doesn't have astrology NWP, he's not likely heard of this recent discovery.

[ewancummins]

INFRAVISION NOTE
for players of demi humans in the current party

Others may feel free to read it.

Steve's character has likely seen what I describe below but does not understand the how and why of it.

VIEW CONTENT:

A network of cooling veins in gnome's faces activates with infravision, and turns the skin under their eyes purple or blue.
This phenomenon is not well-known because it cannot be seen by humans except in normal light--light which would spoil infravision and soon cause the cooling system to shut down. But a gnome emerging from darkness into light may at first appear ashen in the face with dark bags under his eyes and spidery veins visible on his cheeks brow, and nose.

Elves and half-elves possess a similar adaptation, though the look isn't the same. More wan and ghostly than ghoulish. Human accounts of 'ghost fairies' and 'hollow-eyed stalkers' may be partly based on this.

[VAN]

Spooky!

[ewancummins]

Some common oblations and sacrifices


THE WINGED VICTRIX

The arms and armor of defeated enemies, in particular trophies gathered from chaotic or evil foes



THE SPEAKER IN STORMS

sacrifice of birds
libations of wine or oil poured into bodies of water after storms

THE FLEET MAIDEN

sacrifice of hares


THE BLIND JUDGE

eyes of beasts, consumed as part of a ritual invocation

THE GREEN CORPSE
First fruits, buried


THE PALLID DREAMER

mindaltering and/ soporific fungi and plants, consumed or smoked

THE BRUTAL MASTER
Captive enemies and rebellious slaves put to death by crushing or beating



LADY OF POISONERS

Beasts or men slain with a poisoned knife or needle-prick
herbs or weeds gathered, dried, and burned as incense
(Rank odors, not sweet smells)


THE FLAME OF ANARCHY

Arson of buildings and crops, in particular those belonging to lawful or good creatures
Holocaust of talking, thinking beings

[ewancummins]

Slavery and indenture in the Crabclaw Peninsula



Indents

Persons under a limited contract of servitude. Apprentices are considered indents. Some persons voluntarily enter indenture to pay off debt, and others (only of the lower classes) may be pressed into temporary servitude by the courts.

Birthslaves

Persons born and bred to servitude. Trusted more and treated better than enslaved felons. Most work as servants or entertainers.
Some grow up in the service of a noble family, but others are raised by the licensed slavers of Karseport.

Captives and felons :
Baseborn, unransomed enemies and felons of various sorts.
Galley-slaves and mine-slaves


Kidnapping a free person (monsters don't count, as a rule) and subjecting him to slavery is a felony, itself punishable by enslavement.

Smuggling slaves is considered piracy.

If master begets a child with his female slave and either acknowledges the child as his or is compelled to do so by a lawful authority, then the slave woman is manumitted along with the child.
Status, free or slave, comes through the father.
Proving paternity can be tricky.

Force may be used to discipline slaves, but deliberately killing or maiming slaves is a crime punishable by fines.
Abused slaves may seek sanctuary in a temple or shrine, but temples and shrines do not have to grant this favor and a master may reclaim his slave whenever the slaves sets foot outside the temple threshold.
A temple might refuse to help the slave, return the runaway for a donation from the master, negotiate a transfer of title and resale, or seek to reconcile master and slave.

Slaves can buy their freedom by agreement with their masters. This isn't common, but the Burgoddins make use of the option in their lumber camp recruiting system.

Serfdom isn't typical in the lands of the Crabclaw.