(Interest Check) Black Hack 2E: Cobblefell

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hawkeyefan said:
So that brings up a question for me....I only saw mention of a “bow” in the Thief class description. I don’t know if I just missed it in the Warrior class, but I don’t recall. I just put “bow” without worrying about heavy or light.

It’s not a big deal or anything, just curious. I didn’t want to poke around in the book beyond the player section to try and find out.
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I'm going to assume the Thief class is referring to the Light Bow from the Equipment section. Poke away past the player section if you have the feels btw. We're grownups, we can read the DMG and still mange a certain suspension of disbelief. :grin:
 
OK, info dump the second, the environs of Cobblefell. Tomorrow I'll try to get the town specific info up.

Around Cobblefell

Cobblefell lies in the northwestern armpit of the Empire, hundreds of miles away from anything that matters, in the remote province of Harith. The closest city is the provincial capital of Durnang, several weeks away to the south and west. Despite its remoteness, Cobblefell is a prosperous town. The reopening of the cobble pits has brought an influx of people and coin to the town, and increased communication with the capital. Cobblefell’s economy otherwise rests on two key products, wool and tobacco. The wool of Harith is famed throughout the Empire for its water repellent qualities (a product of an herb that makes up a key part of the sheep’s diet), and the ease with which it dyes. The smoking of pipes is a bit of mania with the elite of the Empire, and the tobacco of Harith is among the best. Beyond that there are some skilled tobacconists in Cobblefell who combine that fine tobacco with a variety of rare herbs to produce some immensely sought after blends. The remoteness of Cobblefell also makes it a destination for Adventurers of all sorts. Not as many as you might think, since glory is in short supply this far from civilization, but there are a greater concentration of reported unexplored ruins near to Cobblefell than anywhere else in the empire.

To the west of Cobblefell a traveler first climbs the Grey Downs, a pleasant area of rolling hills and scrub that is home to most of the sheep herds of the area, as well as the Weavers Guild compound. Also on the close edge of the Downs is Slate Manor, ancestral home of the Cobblefell’s ruling family, the Trethanes, but abandoned these many years since the family line failed. The manor has recently been reoccupied by a southerner, who is slowly renovating and expanding it. Beyond the downs come the High Fells, a much less hospitable place, on the edge of which lies the newly reopened cobble pit and mining encampment. Treeless, craggy, waterlogged, and wreathed in mist, the Fells have claimed many a traveler. Strange dolmens dot the hilltops of the Fells, and legends tell of strange misshapen beasts gathering there and cavorting around bonfires and worshipping dark gods.

To the east lies the Wildwood, a vast expanse of dark and tangled woods that spreads south from the edge of the mountains for hundreds of leagues, and no one knows how far east it extends. The periphery of the forest is less dangerous, and some people make their homes there, hunting, charcoaling, and subsistence farming. The Wildwood had a dangerous reputation as a place of both monsters and madness, and by most accounts it seems somehow alive and malign. Strange stories of encounters with fantastical beasts and dark horrors are common, and everyone seems to know someone who knows someone who went into the Wildwood but never came out or came out gibbering and insane. There are legends of a Bramble Queen who rules over the wood, and who feeds on misery and madness, but who is also sometimes described as a savior of travelers in need. What is known is that ruins containing relics and wonders dot the wood, like the bones of a dead kingdom not quite buried.

Rumors you have heard since arriving:

1. Strange dancing green lights have been at the edge of the forest

2. A great black Wurm was seen on the High Fells, flying east

3. There are lots of comings and goings from the mining camp, but there are less people there than there should be

4. Disturbing bloody totems have been found in the Wildwood, made of bone, flesh and branch

5. Some Stedholdters are sacrificing people to appease the forest gods

6. The new owner of the manor is a Warlock and summons demons to do his bidding

7. There is a secret war in the Wildwood and battlefields littered with dead dot the forest

8. Tribes of strange giant cannibals inhabit the Wildwood to the north

9. Children have been disappearing from isolated farms close to the downs

10. Monks put Vaseline in their slippers, that's why their so fucking quiet
 
#10 is pure bullshit. If we put it on our slippers, we'd leave a snail trail. We put Vaseline on our bald heads to create a shine to disorient our enemies or cheat at cards...
 
Banzai550 said:
#10 is pure bullshit. If we put it on our slippers, we'd leave a snail trail. We put Vaseline on our bald heads to create a shine to disorient our enemies or cheat at cards...
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See? Its about finding that sliver of truth. :thumbsup:
 
OK, last data dump.

You arrived in Cobblefell about a week ago, provisioned and ready to head out into the wilds in search of glory. However, the Adventuring Writ you were expecting to be waiting for you has not yet arrived. You have been doing the occasional odd job and getting to know the town, but your funds are running perilously low, and your retainers restless. You have been in regular contact with the Chancery Clerk, Dorrin Quinn, who has been friendly but has no information about the status of your writ. You haven’t yet met the Magistrate in charge of the Chancery Office in Cobblefell.

You are quartered just outside the walls, renting a barn from a retired tobacco farmer named Aldo Grinnel. Aldo’s son now handles the farming part of their business, but Aldo still does a roaring trade in boutique pipeweed blends. He stores his wares in the barn after they are packed and the whole building is redolent with a spicy tobacco smell. There is a loft with beds, a small kitchen area, and several empty stalls that could house horses.

Aldo is a hale and hearty octogenarian, still upright and spry for his age. He has a wild shock of white hair, which he has a habit of running his hand through while he talks. He is a merry fellow, with a twinkle in his eye and always quick with a jest. He isn’t charging you but a fraction of what you think the barn would normally rent for, but he seems to enjoy the company. He has a workshop next to the barn, where he often sleeps, and also maintains a fine house within the village walls. He can most often be found puttering in his workshop or sitting on his veranda and enjoying a nice pipe.

I've attached a PDF that contains all the writeups so far, plus some additional info, like the Weavers Guild, and a list of establishments found in and around Cobblefell.
 

Attachments

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OK, I got a party summary sheet done, which will get uploaded to Google docs (as an XLS)so you can all manage your own bit. For now just take a look at the PDF and lemme know if it's right. We can add in the retainers and party goods once we finalize those. Do you guys want a page with you contacts added? I can do that.
 

Attachments

  • Cobblefell Party Summary.pdf
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One more write up, I forgot about religion. This bit will be appended to the Campaign document as well.

THE PANTHEON
Despite what people think, Gods are not exactly unique beings that exist in some sort of immortal stasis. Gods derive their power from worship and deeds, and a history of the gods would have to be more of an archaeology, with the Sage peeling back layers of history to examine the bones and relics of dead gods from ages past. But dead is not the right word either. The divine spark that is at the core of a god’s power is indeed immortal, and is also aspected. So gods do not exactly die, but shed their skins like an insect only to be born again. The spark is not memory however, only motivation and interest, so the gods exist on a wheel of pain, being born again and again only to repeat their sad dramas.

THE FIVE
The Empire has worshipped the gods they call The Five for millennia. Each of the Five has many aspects and names, but they are only five. First and greatest is the Hearth Mother, goddess of Warm Fire and Hospitality and gifted for her sacrifice of an eye with keen foresight. Her husband is the Blind Weaver, who weaves the skeins of fate from the wool of his magical golden sheep. His shears snip the threads of our lives, and by his servants we are guided to the shadowlands. These two have three children, The Huntress, the Smith, and the Farmer.

The Huntress is the goddess of Humanity’s unending war against the Wild. This is a war that cannot be won, only fought, and she is the goddess of watchfulness, of the road, and of the camp.

The Smith is god of Building and Making, of bulwarks against chaos. Language and writing are two of his chief concerns, as without these men are but beasts.

The Farmer is the God of growing things. Not the wild deeps, but of growing things tended and tamed by the hand of man. He is also the god of Children, who are all his province until their nameday.

THE ONE
In the more recent past a new god has risen in the Empire, Malthus the Eternal, Most High, Lord of Cleansing Flame. His worship has bred a very different sort of church form the very personal worship of the Five. The Church of the Eternal Flame is decidedly secular in its desire for wealth, status and power. They build grand temples, wear jeweled robes, and have the ear of the Empires elite. The Inquisition of the Flame functions as the Empire’s secret police, rooting out corruption, disloyalty, and the malevolent agents of dark powers, especially agents of the God-Alchemists, whom they claim are worming into the heartwood of the empire spreading chaos and dissension.

THE DARK
There are many other gods than these. Gods of the deep wilds, of the seas, and of murder, wrath and corruption. None of these are worshiped openly in the Empire, but there are secret cults aplenty, and who knows who is worshiped in the far flung corners of the world, beyond the borders of civilization and the reach of the inquisition.
 
The pantheon as written is essentially the gods of civilization on the one hand, and everything else on the other. The Five themselves could be seem as aspects of more primal ideas. So gods from outside the empire could be aspects of anything on the list, although the culture in question could have very different views about what's in and what's out, as it were. As far as the Eternal Flame goes it's all pretty much heresy of course if it comes form outside the Empire. Within the Empire the Five are tolerated, but not actively encouraged.

The idea of aspects allows you guys to essentially make up any god you want, slap an aspect on it, and go home happy.
 
OK, lets finalize equipment and henchmen. Here's the list of equipment I came up with:

8 Rations Ud8
6 Waterskins Ud8
2 x 50'' Rope
Tinderbox Ud6
1 Bedroll Each
10 Torches Ud8
Mess Kit

Feel free to suggest additions to numbers or content. More rations and water perhaps. Anyway, within reason we'll just tack it on. The only real barrier is having to carry it all. Which brings us to retainers. You can have three common, or one common and one rare. Previously a porter, a guide and torchbearer were suggested, but it can be whatever you want. I'd like these to look like NPCs, so name, personality and a quirk would be fancy.

I'll get the OOC thread up today, and I'd like the first post from each of you to be your character, along with background and contact, just so we have them all in place where they can easily be edited and referenced. I'll link all the pdfs to that post as well. Once we finalize the kit and peeps, I'll upload the party summary XLS to google docs and we can work on getting access for everyone. I'm just about ready to rock, prepwise, just putting the finishing touches on a few things. So we should be able to start quite soon, which is exciting.
 
Stupid question maybe Fenris-77 Fenris-77 ....but did you share a character sheet you want us to use? I can find one online I expect, or worst case take a pic of the one I did by hand and upload that to the OOC thread, but just wanted to be sure.
 
Nope, I didn't actually. You can feel free to gin one up, but form fillable ones aren't thick on the ground. I found one that's done in PP using text boxes that I put on my google drive. Link You can request access and dick about with it. There is a sheet for each class plus a blank one. In some ways it might be easier to just format one right in a post in the OOC thread so it'll be a couple of steps easier to edit and maintain. The real key is that it needs to be kept updated, at the very least as you level, so however you think that'll work best. I would like one to be visible, not an attachment, in the OOC thread.

I just put up a character summary XLS up that is also intended to be updated (which you'll also have to request access to), but that's just the basics, not backgrounds and contacts. That's so the whole group have easy access to everyone's basics.
 
If you guys would prefer I could add a post specifically for contacts and whatnot that could be added to as the campaign progresses. I don't mind keeping that bit updated.
 
Sounds good. I’ll just type it into a post so that it can be easily edited. Wasn’t sure what format you wanted, but that’s simple enough.

A contact list sounds good to me.
 
Sirgurd Balgus
Faction: Balgus Mining and Excavation
Background: Younger brother of the mining group's owner, Darja first met Sirgurd after a small accident at the mine. A few workers having been injured she had the simple enough task given her powers of nursing them back to health. However her spirit was restless around the mine and doubly so around Sirgurd for reasons it refused to explain simply asking her to "keep an eye on him". Daraja hung around enough to suspect that a side vein of the mine hit on some older artificial structure. Whether this is source of the extra profits the mine keeps from the town council or not she hasn't yet been able to tell. The crates brought up are marked "To his Excellency" before being carted off by horse.
To keep tabs Daraja has kept up her on and off post as the mine's medic for now.
Appearance: A large man, muscular but not defined with coarse red skin from years in the mines. From his bright blue eyes and streaks of jet black in his greying hair you can tell he was a looker in his youth.
 
OK, we have contacts save Bunch's but he can add his later. We just need to get the retainers and gear decided on and we can get rolling. I have a couple of ideas for retainers, if you guys like them we can use 'em

Emmet Pickney - Porter - a moon-faced and lugubrious man who constantly talks about his mother's many aphorisms. He's proved stouthearted so far.

Pip Mandolgran - Torchbearer - perhaps 16, Pip wanted to get out of the slums in the provincial capital. He has a constant wide-eyed-ness about him like the world is constantly surprising him. Very excitable.

Gan Fallowfield - Guide - a shifty older fellow you think is probably a poacher. He knows the area well, and is obviously and old hand in the wilderness. Tends to tap his nose while he's thinking.
 
OK, lets get the equipment sorted. Here's the list I came up with to get the ball rolling:
8 Rations Ud8
6 Waterskins Ud8
2 x 50'' Rope
Tinderbox Ud6
1 Bedroll Each
10 Torches Ud6 (Ud8 above was a typo)
Mess Kit
And here's a handy chart with average uses by Usage Die:
image_2020-11-27_210406.png
So one Ud8 Rations should last about 3 days. Encounter rolls consume ration sometimes, and the Camp process is variable as well, but 3 days is a good rough estimate. So for a two week trek each character would want to have 5 rations.

Light is another matter entirely. You roll the light source usage die every time you take a turn in minutes (not moments) so a torch will last for an average of 5 turns. That's something between 30 and 60 minutes of emulated time, as the number of minutes in a turn isn't set. If you think of a turn as maybe 5 to 10 minutes you'll be in the right ball park. You probably need at least two torches burning at once for the whole party. I'm not running mega dungeons, so you don't need to worry about being in the dark for days at a time. I'm also not opposed to the party being able to make torches, but it would be time consuming (hours), and that isn't good on the random encounter side of things.

Also, you don't need to feed the retainers, for the sake of simplicity they will have food when the PCs have food, and go hungry when the PCs do. Just keep in mind they do suffer from morale and might run away. The Porter is the only one with inventory slots (12 slots). I'll toss you guys a bone and say the Torchbearer can carry 5 torches in addition to his personal kit.
 
That's seems like a decent starting set to me. Anybody feel we should have climbing gear beyond ropes?
 
Séadna said:
That's seems like a decent starting set to me. Anybody feel we should have climbing gear beyond ropes?
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Weeell, it's enough food for maybe a week at most given 6 PCs. If you think that's enough, great. You're going to be eating it though, so stocking up seems like a win-win situation.

Iron spikes (Ud6) could double as pitons, and a grappling hook could be added. Both would take up an inventory slot. There's also Climbing Gear, which would give advantage to one PC on climbing tests, and which also takes up a slot. The Thief already gets advantage, but it might be useful as a backup on another character.

Candles (Ud4) and Chalk (Ud6) had also occurred to me a potentially useful, but I'm leaving the specifics to you guys.
 
Hey sorry for not responding sooner. Thanks for the reminder Séadna Séadna . Been busy with family stuff this weekend.

I think the basics that Fenris-77 Fenris-77 laid out all sound good. I’d say yes to add some more food and chalk and iron spikes. If we can fit climbing gear, then it’s probably a good idea.

Beyond that, I think the basics got us covered, right? I’ll take a look at the book tomorrow and see if anything jumps out at me.
 
It seems everyone is one the same page. We dont need a finalized list until the group actually leaves Cobblefell.

I'm working on a map of the village, but we dont actually need that to start either IMO. Im done with the bestiary and mostly done roughing out some adventure locales so I think we're pretty much ready to go. I'll post an IC thread later today. I need to finish polishing some NPC sketches first, but thats it.
 
We should wait until we know where we're going before stocking food. And in that vein, we should take hefty retainers over skinny ones just in case...but I'm down for taking a climbing kit for Yu.
 
So how much is the food and other supplies going to cost us?
 
Nothing. You bought it with your collective savings upon arrival. Anything that doesnt get added here comes out of your meger supply of ready coin.
 
IC Thread is up, so we're live.

please add mentions ( Fenris-77 Fenris-77 or whomever) to any posts that are aimed at, or reference, other players. the Lord of Luck guard your poor souls.
 
Oh, as you probably noticed, I'm using normal dating. I thought about getting some sort of fantasy dating thing going and then decided that wasn't a profitable use of my time. I will try to keep the date rolling as we post though.
 
Ok I think I'm roughly caught up on this thread. We need my faction contact correct?

I'm envisioning Avral having contact with a Stedholder who did business with his prior lord. Someone who wouldn't know Avral is on the outs with the court just yet.

Faction: Stedholders

Background: Avral often handled messages between Argyle Brandish one of the Stedholders who runs a tobacco farm. Avral worked hard to get to know Argyle so he could impress upon his employer the specific features and work that went into his lords favorite smoke. Avral has learned much about Argyles business and the economic stresses he is under. He hopes to play on Argyles greed/desperation to ingrate himself and take advantage of his connections.
 
Just a note for our magically delicious characters, the spells for BH are, on-purpose, very bare bones in their description. I absolutely encourage you to find clever ways to use them and I'll be pretty flexible about how that plays at the table.
 
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