Reviving the Dead Horse

Actually I'm reasonably sure that made no sense, but whatever.

A couple of developments here, or actually a single development that has two parts. A bifurcated development as it were, or a developmental hydra. Anyhoo, I've decided that the Kroviy setting isn't a great one for a game. It's just too damned bleak. There's no real chance for the PCs to achieve anything of lasting import, and there's no particular chance for them to stay alive and honorable. Either they'd keep their integrity and die on a Quixotic quest to preserve the light from the rising tide of darkness, or they'd compromise their ideals and survive as something less. It's pretty grim.

On the other hand, it's an awesome setting for fiction, for precisely the reasons listed above. So, currently my intention is to write a short story set there and see if I can make it fly. If I can, I'll work on something longer and see what shakes out.

The second development to come out of that realization is that I need a new fantasy game world. I've decided to run a voice-over-internet/virtual tabletop game, and I'm coming up with a new setting for that. I'll blog here when I remember about development issues with that, and we'll see where it goes.

It died

Well the fantasy game sort of up and died. It happens all too often. My F2F group just plain fell apart, as they do when people have lives (lousy life-havin' bastards). I could still run it PBEM but for me a large part of the charm was to run two separate and parallel incidences of the game and see how they each turn out. So, with one off the table, I will...table this for now. Who knows, maybe a new group will coalesce and be excited to play it and I can haul it out of mothballs. I have a lot of work done on it already so it wouldn't be too terribly hard to put it in working shape if I come back to it.

So, in lieu of that, I think I'll use this blog as a place for some other things I've been working on, and as a sounding board for ideas, and as a place to vent my copious spleen. For example, "Copious Spleen" would be a decent name for a rock band. See? Insights like that, you don't get anywhere else. Also, "Donkey Food Donkey."

In a day or so I will be posting something I'm fairly proud of, which is a random adventure generator for superhero games, particularly Champions. So look for that if you give a damn, and let me know what you think.

It's been a hard day's knight

When it comes right down to it, the Arthurian mythos that I'm trying to emulate is mostly about big men in shiny metal cans riding around and doing cool stuff -- in other words, knights. I never considered doing this game without having knights in it because they're the heart and soul of the whole enterprise, the men of noble heart and virtue who are willing to fight and die for honor, glory, a lady's smile or a wonderful idea. An Arthurian-flavored game without knights would be pointless.

However, I didn't want the same old take on knights that every fantasy game comes up with. I wanted something flavorful, unique, and interesting. I wanted something rooted in Slavic culture. I wanted something cool.

Fortunately, as it turns out, there was something ready to hand for me to get all inspired by: the Polish winged hussars.

Seriously, take a look at these guys. And another look. And another. Do these guys kick ass or what? They're knightly, they're colorful, and they're exotic, what with their wings and their leopard pelts and their way cool armor. I mean check out this son of a bitch -- he might be Earth's coolest guy not named Chow Yun Fat. And they really existed.

Now, I couldn't just lift them wholesale because they didn't exactly fit what I wanted. They were in the gunpowder age, for one thing, so they carried pistols and carbines but not shields. Can't have that. And historically they were more a standing army than a feudal body, and so I had to change that too. But when I made a couple of minor modifications, I would have just what I wanted.

And so I introduce you to the Kroviyan knight: the rycerz (same spelling singular as plural, with the singular pronounced "REET-sir" and the plural "REET-sirz." They're an entirely hereditary noble class, sometimes landed and sometimes serving as retainers for other nobles. They were developed by Krol Holleb I, first king of Kroviy Mir, as an outgrowth of the heavy cavalry of the Thegan Empire, which ruled Kroviy (among many other places) for centuries before falling and plunging Kroviy into decades of chaos. During the peaceful Kroviy Mir era they dedicated themselves to questing, fighting the occasional barbarians, controlling bandits and the odd monster incursion, and participating in the extravagant courtly life of the kingdom; these activities still continue today, but they are much...busier now that chaos has once more descended upon the land.

In addition to their swanky armor, they carry a shield, a 15-18 foot lance called a kopia, a sabre, a thrusting sword called a koncerz, a heavy mace called a buzdygan, a hand axe, and a pick-hammer called the czekan -- yes, all on one guy. Rycerz are walking armories. Historically they carried all that plus a brace of pistols and a musket!

Unlike traditional Western European knights, the rycerz relies on speed and maneuverability in battle much more than pure power and invulnerability. They're certainly heavy cavalry and better armored than anyone else on the battlefield, but they're not the horsebound tanks of Arthurian lore.

Historically the hussar's wings appear to have been for ceremonies and parades rather than battle use; theories about them making it hard to pull the hussar from the saddle with a lasso or making a terrifying noise in a charge have been disproven. However, I like those ideas and so rycerz wings will provide a DCV bonus vs. lasso and a PRE bonus for intimidation/fear Presence Attacks, giving them utility in battle -- they're just too fucking cool not to have them serve a useful purpose. In addition, they serve as a form of heraldry, with the feathers being dyed in colors of the Hala for quick identification of friend and foe in a dusty combat -- kind of like the flags worn by samurai. Wings are also the symbol of the rycerz, and they're conferred upon a young man when he attains that full rank; in other words, in a Kroviyan context Edward II would have said of the Black Prince at Crecy, "Let the boy earn his wings."

That's a quick overview. There will be a lot more about them in the game, of course. I'm really excited about these guys, and I hope they're as interesting to the players as they are to me.

The best laid plans of mice and men are subject to...aw, screw it

I really wanted to get a lot done this last weekend and I did, at least on Saturday and early Sunday, but then my brain went screwy and my mood collapsed (THANK YOU MAJOR DEPRESSION, ya bitch). But I did manage to get enough done that it wasn't completely wasted -- I pretty much finished work on both major religions and a lot on the culture, and I also finished working on one of the two main barbarian groups, the Aahtel Islanders. I'm putting the Aahtel here for your perusal.

“Here’s how we began…”

As told to Sandomir the Sailor, Kroviyan merchant, by a drunken Aahtel warrior in a brothel in Palola

“If you want to know the truth of it – the real truth, not the twaddle they teach you at your mother’s tit – then listen, because I’ll tell you.

“In the beginning, the Aahtel people lived in all the land you call Kroviy, all the way up to the northern mountains. Now in those days the land was bigger, because then the land stretched all the way down to what’s now the western tip of Harvikka, unbroken and fertile and green. We lived there with our gods, who had made us from mud and blood, and we were happy because we fought each other and the monsters in the woods and the swamps and we were warriors.

“Then came you Kroviy from the north, crossing the mountains with your strange ways and your strange gods. You couldn’t beat us in war but we let you settle anyway because there were only a few of you and it amused us to have someone to kill besides each other. But you bred like rats and brought your cousins from across the mountains and before we knew it you were many, and not just a few. So we had a war then, a long war that your people have forgotten all about but we remember. And for hundreds of years we fought you and our gods fought yours and the land was laid to waste and ruin.

“And then your gods came to our gods under a branch of truce with a proposition for dividing the land between your people and ours, because you Kroviy are cowards who have no stomach for a real fight. And a few of our gods were against it – Harvikk and Nuava, Karppu and Kovguulu, the brothers Rihhiloand Riihilatu, and Innamu and Pettuo – but most of them decided to make peace and divide the land, you Kroviy in the north and us real people in the south. Back then we had many gods, not just Eight, you see, and most of them wanted peace because they were just as cowardly as your gods.

“So the gods who wanted peace met with your Kroviyan gods for a great feast to celebrate the peace. The Eight who didn’t want peace stayed away, and that was a good thing too because your gods were treacherous. Of course. They drugged the beer of our gods and put them to sleep, and then killed them while they slept. And then they sent a great cataclysm to the land of the south where all our people had gone in anticipation of the peace. They broke the land and sank it into the sea to make us drown, or threw up the land in great mountains to make us plunge to our deaths, thinking that they could kill all our people at once in that way. But the Eight, who had their domains furthest to the south, managed to save their lands and the people on them, and that’s how the Eight great Aahtel Islands were made, and how you cowardly Kroviyans came to have the fair and fertile lands while we Aahtel got stuck with the crumbs. And that’s why we’re determined to this day to take back what belongs to us and show you Kroviyans what’s what.

“Now drink up. You’re a good fellow. See that whore over there with the red hair? I’ll buy her for you tonight.”

Introduction

The Aahtel are a violent and aggressive warrior culture that have inhabited the scores of islands in the Aahtel Island chain from time immemorial. In recent years they gave capitalized on the distractions on the mainland (beginning with the Scathilene War, proceeding through the Kroviyan Civil War and into the present Chaos) to secure a large dominion on Kroviy and to bring about the fall of Kroviy Mir.

Society, Culture and Attitudes

Aahtel society is based primarily on the concept of heimo, or clan. A heimo is a group of extended families related through intermarriage and proximity, with strong ties going back often hundreds of years. Heima may be anything from 50 to 500 persons strong. The heimo is the fundamental social, religious, political and military unit of society, and all activities revolve around it. An Aahtel’s first loyalty is to clan first and anything a (distant) second. A heimo is a peaceful social unit where there is surprising harmony and warmth. An Aahtel considers all members of his heimo to be first-degree relations, so that an insult or offense to one is an insult or offence to all – likewise a favor to one means that all are in debt until the favor is repaid.

The heimo is run by equally by the Selja, the council of the wisest and eldest members of the clan (male and female), and the Johtijuus, who is the elected by all adult males as the most respected adult male in the clan; most Johtajuusa are great warriors, but some are priests, smiths, traders, or others who have made their name in some way. Within the heimo no fighting is allowed; all disputes are referred to the Selja and their decisions are final.

There is no question that the Aahtel have a male-dominated society; only males can own property, bring grievances before the Selja or the Johtijuus, and only males can initiate divorce proceedings. Aahtel men are expected first and foremost to be superb mariners, as boats play such an enormous role in their culture. They are expected to be strong, brave and resolute, utterly honest, faithful to their word when given, good with weapons and their trades, and inured to suffering. Men are esteemed in proportion to their abilities at fishing, farming, crafts, and arms, as well as their courage, honesty, ability to father strong children, good nature, and stoicism in the face of pain or danger.

In spite of the aforementioned, females hold a high and honored place in society; females have sole say on how children are raised, how their houses are run, and who may enter the house. Adult females are never subject to harm by another member of their heimo (though corporal punishment is a frequent event for children of both genders) and any husband who beats his wife or mistreats her in any other way is subject to intense pressure from the other members of the clan to mend his ways. Women are respected largely in proportion to their ability to bear healthy children, cook, keep good house, mend fishing nets, gather and grow foods, tend animals, provide good conversation and companionship, and give good advice.

For children too the heimo is a welcoming and safe place. Although spankings and beatings are common enough for misbehavior, since every member of a heimo is a first-degree relative children have as many fathers and mothers as there are men and women in the clan. They never lack for education, attention and mentoring, and their guidance and growth is one of the primary concerns of the heimo as a whole.

As peaceful and nurturing as life within a heimo is, relations between clans are liable to be turbulent and violent. Aahtel honor is a touchy thing, and anything from an insufficient offer of bride-price to failure to yield at the crossing of paths may lead to a feud. Feuds may be settled by nonviolent contests in athletics or riddles, by a payment of silver or kind, or by an apology; however, most feuds are settled with combat. Combat in feuds may range from a fistfight between two men to a deadly battle between whole heima, and they may continue to escalate and spiral if one or both sides refused to accept the verdict of the contest. Often enough feuds leave several on both sides dead or crippled before they are settled by the wise heads of the Selja of the involved clans.

Aahtel culture is based around farming, herding, and especially fishing. Craftsmen are respected – and smiths are revered as wizards – and traders are generally tolerated as useful undesirables. Priests are given an honored place as mouthpieces of the gods, but the Aahtel are a vaguely irreverent people at the best of times and as likely to give nothing more than lip service to a priest as to obey his commands.

The Aahtel have always been a slaveholding culture. However, Aahtel custom expressly forbids the holding of Aahtel as slaves (raataas), even those of other heima. Therefore, the number of raataas in their possession was always limited to those unlucky coastal-dwelling or mariner Kroviyans they could carry away. However, with their successful invasion of the mainland, many tens of thousands of raataas have come into their grasp, and as such the economies of the Aahtel chieftainships has become largely a slave-based economy, with raataas doing all the menial work and even being used as currency. Given how plentiful raataas are they are viewed as somewhat expendable; however, Aahtel do not tend to wantonly and randomly kill their own slaves (the raataas of other heima are, of course, another matter and when clans are battling slaves are usually slain out of hand if they cannot be carried off). That is not to say the life of a raataa is a good one – they’re worked mercilessly, punished harshly, and subject to whatever indignities their masters desire to inflict – but they are at least viewed as valuable property.

The typical Aahtel displays an attitude that is paradoxical and puzzling to most outsiders. On the one hand he is belligerent, touchy, violent, greedy and aggressive, and thinks nothing of killing anyone outside his own heimo; on the other hand he is generous, honest to a fault, courageous, daring, clever, and extravagantly hospitable when he has offered hospitality. During times when there is no active state of war, most Aahtel heima even welcome Kroviyan traders and travelers, which confuses many Kroviyans. Aahtel always tend to be boisterous, however, and almost all of them have a propensity to drink in excess and become violent when they do.

Religion

Aahtel religion is polytheistic and worships eight gods, each of whom have both sphere and geographic identification:

Harvikk, Lord of Oaths and Leadership, and of Harvikka Island

Innamu, Lady of the Sea, Storms and Winter, and of Innamo Island

Karppu, Lady of Crops and Herds and All that Grows on the Land, and of Karppa Island

Kovguulu, Lord of Weapons, War, and Feuds, and of Kovguula Island

Nuava, Lord of Ships and Fishing, and of Nuavo Island

Pettuo, Lady of Birth and of Women, and of Pettu Island

Rihhilo, Lord of Striving and Glorious Death, and of Rihhila Island

Riihilatu, Lord of Strength and Enduring Suffering, and of Riihilati Island

Unlike Krovist priests who are priests of an entire pantheon, Aahtel priests are sworn to the service of a specific deity. Priests may be identified by the elaborately carved “godsticks” they carry; each deity has its own specific shape and decoration pattern for its stick. The separation of worship in this manner tends to lead to rivalry between Aahtel from various islands; usually benign, this rivalry can turn violent if drink is involved – and with the Aahtel, drink is always involved.

Aahtel worship tends to be a crude affair marked by simple ceremonies. Most ceremonies and holidays are tied to a specific deity and are marked by sacrifices and rites particular to that deity. The only four general holidays are the two equinoxes and the two solstices. All deities require blood sacrifice (usually animal, though priests frequently draw their own blood in special services, and all deities have at least one holiday that calls for human sacrifice).

Ekkulatti Edestakainen (Cult of the Return)

The most important religious movement in the Aahtel Islands in the last two centuries has been Ekkulatti Edestakainen, or the Cult of the Return. While all Aahtel hold as a truism that they originally inhabited all of Kroviy and were driven out by treachery, until the last two hundred years this was mostly just a fairy story taught to children and then ignored. However, c. 1250 TC a movement began that claimed as a divine imperative that the Aahtel were destined to return to the mainland and conquer it in the name of vengeance for their long-ago betrayal. This movement took hold among priests of all deities and rapidly gained converts, especially as the unprecedented run of good weather led to a population boom, and subsequent land shortage, in the islands. While this cult was ardent in its teachings, for the most part it was a minority view that gained little traction among the broader population. However, in the last forty years the population pressure led to a growth in this cult, and by the time of the Scathilene War and the beginning of the serious Aahtel incursions it counted well more than half of the Aahtel as adherents. The Ekkulatti Edestakainen was the most active element in the conquest of southern Kroviy, and as such they took the most casualities; still, the creed utterly dominates the Northern Aahtel and is a strong presence in the lands of the Southern Aahtel; it is almost absent in the Blizni Islands Chieftainships. It is know that there is still a strong element of those Aahtel still in their home islands that oppose the Cult, but no details of this are known.

Military

Every Aahtel able-bodied male is trained as a warrior from the time he is strong enough to bear mock weapons, and every male so trained is expected to bear arms during war. However, the Aahtel have no professional military class such as rycerz; every warrior has another profession as well. All the males of a clan assemble at the call of the clean leader and follow his direction. Aahtel rely on personal courage and valor for their effectiveness in combat and generally know no tactical maneuvers beyond “charge” and “hold fast.” Exceptional warbands, such as those under Juumo, can be a very definite exception to this, however.

All Aahtel are trained to fight on foot as infantry and aboard ships for battles at sea. They have no tradition of cavalry, though important or wealthy warriors do sometimes ride to battle before dismounting to do combat. Typical Aahtel warriors wear studded leather armor and carry a medium shield along with a spear, a long knife, and several throwing javelins. Wealthy warriors frequently wear chainmail, though they also carry a medium shield; wealthy Aahtel tend to use swords over spears, though they too use javelins and carry the Aahtel long knife as a backup weapon. The Aahtel have no tradition of using the bow, though since their conquest of large stretches of Kroviy individual warriors have begun taking up the weapon.

Political Groups and Divisions

Although the Aahtel have their primary political affiliation at the level of their clan, four broad political alliances have occurred as their lands have expanded. These are not in any way kingdoms, as their leaders are far too fractious and formally recognize no higher authority, each grouping has a “first among equals” leader that is usually deferred to by virtue of his accomplishments.

Aahtel Island Chieftains

The Aahtel Islands Chieftains occupy the traditional homeland of the Aahtel people, the multitude of islands in the Selekon Sea. Although their population was much depleted over the past 20 years through war and emigration, they still remain powerful and important. The current “leader” is Maunu, a priest of Riihilatu. He is an outspoken opponent of Ekkulatti Edestakainen and the invasion, saying frequently and to all who will listen that the invasion is a foolish mistake that will lead to disaster for the Aahtel.

Blizni Island Chieftains

The Blizni Islands, former domain of Hala Morswin, are probably the least powerful and important of the Aahtel confederations. The Aahtel who settled here are more likely than others to believed that the wars of conquest have gone on long enough and that the Aahtel ought to be satisfied with what the have. Paradoxically, the Blizni Islands Chieftains also produce almost all of the seaborne raiders that still harry the Kroviyan Coast. Their “leader” is a graybearded old warrior named Vilho (called Vilho One Eye) who is renowned for his cleverness and patience. To those under his influence he advocates settling down where they are, farming the land, and growing rich in that manner. His is a fervent opponent of Ekkulatti Edestakainen and recently banned priests of that cult from the lands controlled by his clan.

Northern Aahtel Chieftains

The Northern Chieftains are the most populous and powerful confederation of Aahtel. Their leader Emppu is a firebrand Kovguulan priest who is currently the most effective leader of the Ekkulatti Edestakainen, and he has drawn to him like-minded warriors and settlers from all the other chieftains. This large group of barbarians is eager for another fight and is spoiling to attack their next foe; they will probably attack Narostia as the greatest remaining threat, but the possibility exists that they will turn their attentions on Dziki or Sokol instead.

Southern Aahtel Chieftains

Led by the canny and experienced warlord Juumo, the Southern Aahtel are a powerful force. They are strongly influenced by Ekkulatti Edestakainen and plan the eventual conquest of Hala Sokol. However, there is a consensus among the chieftains, led by Juumo, that it is more important now to pause for several years, perhaps a decade, and consolidate what has been won before undertaking new conquests. Not everyone is under this belief, of course, and small groups (and even whole clans) continue to act aggressively in pursuit of land, plunder, and raataas.

Physical Description

The average Aahtel is both taller and broader than the average Kroviyan or Thegan, with large and muscular frames. They tend toward being shorter of limb than most other ethnicities which often gives them a barrel-chested appearance of great strength. Males average 71” in height and 180 lbs; women average 67” and 155 lbs. Their skin is fair. The most common colors for hair are light brown, blonde, red, and white (many Aahtel children are born with white hair) while eye color tends toward blue, gray, or violet. Their features tend to be high-cheekboned with long, straight noses and long chins.

Men grow long beards from the time they come of age, generally wearing them chest-length throughout their lives. Beards are braided and adorned in a specific manner based on clan relationship, which serves to some extent as heraldry does in Kroviy. Most of the time adult men dress in the best clothes they can afford, as there are no sumptuary restrictions (though it is considered bad form to dress better than the head of your clan) and tend to wear a great amount of jewelry and precious metals. Battle scars are flaunted, especially facial scars, and are sometimes accented by special clothing or by staining the skin with various natural dyes.

Women grow their hair long from the time they come of age, never cutting it except to express shame or mourning. Aahtel females tend to be broad of shoulder, hip, and bust, and although they tend toward a ruggedly beautiful appearance their overall size often makes them intimidating for peoples of other races. In contrast to men, women dress plainly, even severely, and never wear jewelry or makeup.

Aahtel children of all classes dress in rugged clothes suited to hard wear. Children of both sexes dress the same and have their hair trimmed almost to the scalp, making it difficult to tell boys from girls, especially for outsiders.

Things that go bump in the AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH WHAT IS THAT???

OK, so part of the fantasy genre is monsters and the killing thereof. Part of the Arthurian genre is monsters and the questing to kill them. Part of Slavic folklore is monsters and their doing with heroes. So, I pretty much need to do some stuff with monsters in this game.

However, what I don't want is just another fantasy hackfest where orc corpses get piled up by the score and the PCs make jerkoff motions as they say, "Oh yeah, another dragon. Big whoop." What I want to shoot for instead is the feel of both Arthurian and Slavic legend where monsters exist, but each one is extremely dangerous, each one is unique, and each one is legendary. If a PC is involved in killing even a single monster over the course of his career, I want it to be such an achievement that people point him out in the street and tell his story again and again. So monsters need to be tough -- extremely so -- since defeating one is probably the highlight of a character's career. But more than that, a monster can't just be a collection of stats and treasure. A monster has its own story, its own meaning, and its own reasons for existence.

I've taken a stab at coming up with some monsters to place around the lands of Hala Sokol, where the play will start, and I've detailed them below with the information most PCs would have or be able to obtain easily. Let me know if I've hit my mark here.

Bohdan Polegli (Bohdan the Fallen)

According to legend, the fell and evil creature known as Bohdan Polegli began his life as Bohdan, a simple Poreian monk of Kroviyan extraction. Some time in the century after the Thegan conquest of southern Kroviy, Bohdan entered the newly established Poreian monastery of Sw. Ulesz at Chormnow, where the Leonikov flows into the Lotny. The majority of the monks were Thegans and there was considerable resentment of a Kroviyan in the holy order, especially given that Bohdan evidenced such holiness and understanding of the creed, and that he advanced so quickly. On or around the year 900 he was murdered, apparently by jealous monks; the killing was never solved, and indeed was hushed up or ignored by the Poreian leaders of the monastery. Shortly thereafter Bohdan’s ghost made its first appearance, a mournful but harmless reminder of the crime (according to legend the ghost would merely appear in the Poreaium, walk into the courtyard and then fall and vanish, apparently re-enacting Bohdan’s last minutes), and it made repeated appearances over the next two hundred years. However, in 1203, for unknown reasons the ghost of Bohdan turned violent, and in a single night it slaughtered every monk in the monastery who could not flee its wrath. The monastery was abandoned and has remained haunted by the vicious revenant in spite of repeated attempts to banish the spirit; these attempted banishings tend to end with the dismemberment of the priest conducting the ceremony as well as any others Bohdan Polegli can catch. It is believed that there is considerable wealth still remaining in the ruined abbey on the lonely hill above Chormnow, but none who have ventured after it have returned.

Bohdan Polegli is a ghost of terrible and malign power, capable of killing a man at a stroke. Normal weapons appear not to harm it whatsoever, and the one attempt to destroy it by magical weapon (Pan Alekszin’s fabled sword Obronca) resulted only in the momentary disruption of the spirit; it quickly reformed, and Alekszin was lucky to escape with his life. Bohdan the Fallen is thought to wield dark magics in addition to its strength, for its eerie cry can cause terror in man and beast and the wounds it inflicts, even when not immediately fatal, tend to fester and rot in such a way as to kill the victim later after much suffering. It is described as a black shade, vaguely man-shaped and sized, wrapped in rotting monk’s robes.

Ciocia Czerdusza (Auntie Blackheart)

Ciocia Czerdusza is a cruel and powerful water spirit who inhabits the northern branch of the Greater Wolny delta near where it is joined by the Plawa. She has inhabited the spot for several hundred years at least and perhaps longer; the area has always had a wicked reputation among fishermen and Ciocia Czerdusza’s presence might explain that. She is known to create sudden whirlpools, eddies and currents that drag boats and swimmers to their doom, as well as shredding nets, scaring off fish, and generally making a nuisance of herself. The local fisherfolk venerate her as a minor goddess, hoping by sacrifices to ward off her wrath; this has no apparent effect, but the fisherfolk swear things would be much worse if they didn’t make the sacrifices. It is worth noting that she doesn’t discriminate in her rages – an Aahtel raiding fleet moving through the area for a descent on Hala Sokol in 1449 was sunk almost to the last boat, and few of the barbarians escaped with their lives.

On the rare occasions where she has been spotted directly, Ciocia Czerdusza has been described as a beautiful but dangerous-looking woman with pale blue skin and flowing green hair. She seems to possess vast stores of water-magic.

Czlek-Pistulka (The Man-Shrike)

Deep in the Mapla Forest lurks an enormous bird called Czlek-Pistulka. Referred to in very early Kroviyan legends, the Man-Shrike appears to have been a resident of the deep woods since time immemorial. In spite of this, little is known of the nature of the creature because of the extreme vigilance with which it defends its territory. It streaks down from the sky on any human who would dare trespass, catching them up in its claws and impaling them upon broken tree branches to rot. The motivation for this is unknown, since it does not return to eat its prey like a normal shrike, but scholars speculate that the bird is some sort of mystical guardian of some unknown thing in the forest. This theory is buttressed by the fact that the bird’s feathers, which may occasionally be brought back to civilization by foolhardy woodsmen, display remarkable magical properties.

Czlek-Pistulka is an enormous raptor with a wingspan in excess of 35’, a wickedly hooked bill, and terrible claws. It is colored in a pattern of gold and dazzling blue, and its feathers have a metallic sheen. It is unknown whether it is intelligent, and it does not appear to use magic.

Ludojad and his Family

The Ludojad Forest is named after this horrible creature who has lived in the woodland since shortly before the Thegans withdrew from Kroviy in 1330. No one knows where he came from – he simply appeared from the heart of the forest one day and slaughtered and devoured a camp of loggers, then withdrew into the heart of the woods, and once every couple of years since then he reappears to raid nearby villages and kidnap women; it is known that Ludojad eats many of the women he takes, but some he keeps for less describable purposes. Several determined attempts to locate and destroy Ludojad have come to naught, as the monster knows the deepest forest intimately and uses his knowledge to lure his would-be hunters to their doom. Periodically Luojad appears with what seem to be his children – offspring, probably, of the ogre and the unlucky women he doesn’t devour. Many of these “children” have been slain, but there are always more to replace them.

Ludojad is a hideously ugly ogre some 11’ tall and massively muscled. He has skin the color and consistency of tree-bark, and his teeth are enormous fangs. He is tremendously strong and wields a fire-hardened tree branch as a club; sometimes he drives captured swords through it to make a crude morning-star. His skin is as hard as iron; however, he can be injured, and grievously so – however, he apparently has high regenerative abilities, as he has regrown lost limbs. He is not known to use magic, but he is extremely clever and cunning and knows a vast amount of wood lore. His children appear as smaller versions of Ludojad, usually between six and nine feet tall, and are considerably less dangerous than their father.

Mruczecy Milja (Grumbling Milja)

Mruczecy Milja is a malign water spirit who inhabits the dangerous tidewater marshes south of the Narjew River. She has lived there for as long as anyone knows, occasionally killing venturesome peasants who have sought after the rich bounty of that treacherous area. She was largely ignored by the Thegan military, though several rycerz during the Kroviy Mir period quested to kill her; none returned. One of them, Joris Polinar of Lisch, carried a magical shield that presumably would be with his bones, or in Milja’s watery lair, now.

Like most water spirits Mruczecy Milja has a fluid form, but most reports put her appearance as a humanoid-shaped congealing of water and muck between seven and ten feet tall. It is thought that she fights by attempting to drown her opponents, and she probably also can manipulate water and mud to do her bidding.

Obolynski Lajdak (The Hound of the Obolyn)

This fell beast occupies the Obolyn Wood, a small but thick wilderness between Walim and Chutsze. It was first reported just nine years ago, during the Civil War, when it mauled a caravan on the Walim-Chutsze road and killed nine persons and more than a dozen beasts. Since then it has terrorized the countryside, killing cattle and sheep and the occasional peasant. Repeated attempts to track the beast and destroy it have proven entirely fruitless, for it seems that Obolynski Lajdak can avoid being discovered when it wishes.

Descriptions of the Hound of Obolyn are of a jet-black dog or wolf some six feet at the shoulder with glowing red eyes and a reek of sulfur on its breath. It is described as being astonishingly strong and fast with deadly teeth, and it is also said that it can disappear in any shadow. It is not known whether Obolynski Lajdak is intelligent or capable of using magic.

Siwy Myscha (Gray Myscha)

In the Srebro Gol, in the triangle made by the Lotny and Luko Rivers, is an abandoned mine of considerable depth, and at the foot of the hill the ruined town of Grawa Gorny. Between 1296 and 1431 Grawa Gorny was one of the richest mines in all of Kroviy, bringing first the Thegan Empire and then the Ksiaze of Sokol a fortune in rubies and spinels. However, in 1431 the miners fled the pits, screaming that a terrible creature of living rock had killed several of their number. A pair of expeditions led by rycerz failed to return from the depths of the mine, and thereafter the mine was closed and the town died. The Ksiaze was planning a third, much larger expedition to hunt Siwy Myscha for the summer of 1441, but the outbreak of the Kroviyan Civil War upended that scheme and none have ventured into the pits since.

Accounts from the miners were necessarily muddled, but as best as can be determined Siwy Myscha is a vaguely humanoid creature slightly taller than a man but much thicker, with a huge maw filled with jagged stone teeth. Some miners claimed that it could also change shape as it passed through tiny mine corridors.

Stary Swiekra (Old Mother-in-Law)

Stary Swiekra is a hag who has lived in a cave in the Cienisty Wood area of the Srebro Gol for at least two hundred years. The land for some miles around her lair is difficult in the extreme, with sheer crevasses and nigh-impassable forest, and Stary Swiekra never ventures out of it, so her existence would be harmless were it not for the fact that many believe there to be a rich deposit of silver in the area. Stary Swiekra dislikes intruders, and at least two dozen prospectors and woodsmen have disappeared in the area over the year. Local legend holds that the skulls of those she had killed stand on posts around her lair, and have been enchanted to give her warning when strangers approach.

Stary Swiekra is said to be a nine-foot-tall crone with skin made of living stone, hair made of leaves and twigs, and eyes like opals. She is known to be strong enough to tear a horse in two, and her magic is such that she can make the forbidding terrain near her cave “come alive” and do her will.

Necessity is the mother of (re)invention

Sometimes negative events can have positive and unforeseen consequences; the technical term for this is, I believe, either "serendipity" or "that was actually kinda...good."

Case in point: me. More specifically, the main map for my fantasy game. I spent many, many hours over a week or so putting it together in Campaign Cartographer 3, sweating over this and that, and generally trying to make it so it was useful, informative, and attractive. And when I was pretty certain I had it right (at least the area where the big kingdom had been, which was the most important part) I decided I'd move on to the smaller area map of the lands still under enlightened control. In order to do that I wanted the main map open so I could look over on it and see what went where, so I pushed that down to half a window so I could have the new map open on the other half of the screen and just look back and forth. Good idea, right?

Well apparently not, because doing that immediately crashed the program, and every time I tried to start it up after that, it tried to open the map in the half-screen window and instantly crashed again. So, I lost my map?

Not so fast, thinks I, I can see if I can open it in Campaign Cartographer 2, which is a less functional version of the same program. So I open it and, of course, it immediately destroys all the cool CC3 things like bitmap fills and sheets and I lost EVERYTHING on the map except an outline of the continent against a white background. Dude.

So anyway I managed to re-import it into CC3, but all the data that had been lost stayed lost so I was almost back to square one. After an evening of fucking around with it I managed to restore a lot of the data, but I was so angry and what was lost was so valuable and difficult to replace that I decided (in a fit of pique that is characteristic of me) to just start the whole goddamned thing over again. So I did...

And it turned out infinitely better. It was prettier, smoother, more useful, better for the game, AND it took me very little time to do as compared to the original. Don't believe me, look for yourself. This is the first map, this is the new version. Now, again, I hadn't even filled in the northern area on the first map, a lot of detail was lost on it, and the second one has a lot more layers and information, but still...STILL! The first one is functional and doesn't outright suck, but the second one is something to actually be proud of. I'm happier with it on all levels and it will make for a better game.

I guess if I were more of a kitten poster person I'd make some comment about making lemonade and all that, but I believe that if God gives you lemons you find a new god. So maybe the takeaway lesson from this is that sometimes things really are better the second time around.

And let this be a lesson to me: just because I write it doesn't mean anyone gives a damn.

A sitko by any other name would smell as sweet

There's a fine line to be walked when creating a fantasy game when it comes to the languages involved. On the one hand you want to use enough in the background to make it really seem like the people in The Land of Make Believe aren't just speaking English with a goofy-ass faux-Elizabethan accent, but on the other hand it's easy to go overboard and make it so omnipresent and onerous that it's difficult to communicate anything.

Case in point: Kroviy, the land of the fantasy game I'm making. I've mentioned before that Kroviy is inspired by both Arthurian and Slavic themes, and for me one of the key components of the Arthurian mythos is that Arthur and his men are fighting to preserve the fading Romanitas of the fallen Roman Empire -- that is, ideas that were brought from the outside and found to be good and worth preserving, even in the face of adversity. I have than dynamic in this game too: the Kroviyans were a bunch of barbarians prior to their conquest by the Thegan Empire, and then the Empire fell they had been civilized and wanted to keep what was best from their former masters. The tension and conflict between native Kroviyan culture (including language) and Thegan culture (again including language) is going to be one of the central themes of the game.

As one could pretty much guess, the Kroviyan language is strongly based on Slavic tongues (particularly Polish, since it uses the Roman alphabet and is easier to read than Russian, and I found a kickass online translator here), and what comes with that is all the things one would expect from Polish: letters in unfamiliar combinations, tongue-twisting consonants, that sort of thing. For the tongue brought by the imperials I selected not Latin, but rather the the Greek of the Byzantines -- I did this for two reasons: one, the Byzantine culture is intimately tied to the Slavic and it made it easier to adapt a lot of other linguistic things, especially names, and two, the Byzantine and names are sufficiently obscure to most gamers to sound "alien."

And here's where it gets tricky. I have both Slavic and Greek-inspired names floating around and I want to use them to give Kroviy a definite sense of place and culture, but how much is TOO much? Noble horsemen won't be called "knights," they'll be called "rycerz" and the former ruler of the land will be Krol Holleb rather than King Holleb, that much is clear. But the politics of the land is dominated by great houses/clans -- is it better to call them Houses to keep it familiar, or to call them Hala (a Polish word for House) to get the flavor? Is it better to call the lowest subinfeudinated unit a manor or a dwor? Where do I draw the line? Where does it cross from being immersive to irritating? My sense is that really common words should just be English -- I don't think I want to be in the position of correcting people by saying, "You're not crossing a bridge, you're crossing a pomost" or "No those aren't peasants, they're wloscianin." I mean I don't want to LEARN Polish or expect my players to.

So, where's the line? Anyone have any thoughts?

And let this be a lesson to me: just because I write it doesn't mean anyone gives a damn.