d20 Gold Rush Games The Village of Briarton.pdf

A D20 S YSTEM ™ F ANTASY S ETTING FOR H EROES OF A LL L EVELS

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W RITTEN BY

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A DDITIONAL MATERIAL & E DITING BY

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I LLUSTRATIONS BY

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C OVER DESIGN AND PAG E LAYOUT BY

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and Action! System are trademarks owned by Gold Rush Games. ‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are trademarks of Wizards

of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License version 4.0. A copy of

this License can be found at www.wizards.com/d20.

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Conrad Martel

Customizing the Village

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Religion in Briarton

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Lord Roderick Arundel

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Blacksmith’s Shop

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Castle Angorn

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Index

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This book outlines the fantasy village of Briarton

in five chapters.

Introduction: This chapter describes how to use

the material in the rest of the book.

Overview : This chapter covers the basics of the

history, economics and daily life of Briarton.

Arundel Manor: This chapter provides informa-

tion on the home and family of the local lord.

The Village: This chapter details the village itself

and other inhabitants of Briarton.

Outlying Regions: This chapter covers the area

around Briarton, including several people of note and

places of interest.

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Patrick Sweeney is a freelance author living in

California. He is the co-author and publisher of Mon-

ster Island: The Game of Monster Combat by Firefly

Games. His interests include gaming, science fiction,

camping, nature photography and comic books.

Christina Stiles is a freelance author living in

South Carolina. Her writing has appeared in Liber

Bestarius , Way of the Witch and Games Unplugged . She

is the author of Atlas Games’ Unhallowed Halls ad-

venture and co-editor of the upcoming Uncommon

Character book. She is also president of Bizzaro

Games, whose first product, SpirosBlaak , a D20 cam-

paign setting, will be released soon.

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Village. The very word conjures up an

image of a sleepy, bucolic paradise. Safe,

secure, far from the dangers to life and limb

of the warring frontier and to soul and

money-pouch of the big city.

they know all the participants by name.

And occasionally even the sleepiest village

can find itself caught in a crisis, forcing

farmhands and shopkeepers to leave their

refuge and venture forth, without en-

chanted swords, head-to-toe steel armor

and heavy tomes full of incantations, de-

termined to deal with the emergency sim-

ply because they have to—no one else will

do it for them.

In fantasy roleplaying, a village isn’t

where one finds excitement. At best it’s a

place one passes through on the way to an

adventure, or returns to after the expedi-

tion—a place where the normalcy of fam-

ily life is contrasted with the dungeon’s

weirdness.

Starting a campaign from a well-crafted

village, the GM needn’t contort his

storyline to explain away a city conve-

niently provided with novice dungeons for

the rookies sitting just yards away from

medium-level dungeons for more experi-

enced adventurers and cheek to jowl with

higher-level dungeons for the most accom-

plished characters. Only when being a

growing fish in a shrinking pond grows

tiresome does the hero have to move on-

ward and upward through the chain of

larger settlements and stronger challenges.

Maybe, just maybe a player character’s

background mentions that he grew up in

an unnamed village somewhere, but it’s al-

ready a distant memory by the time the PC

meets the rest of the party in the tavern to

await the mysterious stranger who walks

in carrying a plot hook.

And that’s a shame, because a village

doesn’t have to be a backwater to be

glossed over in the rush to get to some-

where more exciting. A village can be an

integral part of a hero’s origins or his on-

going career, a destination worth dealing

with on its own terms, instead of local color

to rush past along with the rest of the fla-

vor text.

Even the greatest heroes can have

humble beginnings, and even the humblest

village can have a legend’s start within it.

—Spike Y Jones

When you come right down to it, a vil-

lage is a better place to start an adventur-

ing career than larger urban communities.

It can provide all the basics needed for a

neophyte hero: starting equipment, chal-

lenges geared to his abilities, a non-player

character cast there to serve his needs and

thank him profusely for his efforts on their

behalf. It can have all the urban adventur-

ing features—love, jealousy, greed, myster-

ies, politics—in a more concentrated form

where the player character feel their stake

in the outcome of events is greater because

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modify it for his own use. The village has a good mix

of businesses, but more can be added, such as a saw-

mill in the woods or a number of farms raising pigs

and cattle instead of crops. Others can be expanded

over time; for example Elfrid, the wife of Edmond

Stumptooth, opening a seamstress’s shop in Briarton’s

heart.

And along with the 50 or so villagers presented

here, there are 400 more who receive no mention.

Most are farmers who owe fealty to Lord Roderick

Arundel, but there are also children to consider, new-

lyweds clearing land on the forest margins to begin

their new lives together, and retired older citizens liv-

ing with their still-working families. While the orc

raids of a decade and a half ago broke a number of

family ties, many of these other Briarton residents

are relatives, through blood or marriage, of some of

the NPCs who are detailed here. If the player charac-

ters claim origins in Briarton, they’ll likely be related

to at least a few detailed residents, even if only dis-

tantly.

The Village of Briarton presents a fully detailed fan-

tasy village of shops, an inn, a temple to a healing

deity and other places for use in any campaign world.

Briarton serves ably as the settlement nearest the

dungeon: a place to rest, heal, sell loot and replace

lost equipment between expeditions.

The village and its environs are home to a number

of adventurers, both active and retired, some of whom

can be persuaded to join an adventuring party, par-

ticularly in a just cause. They may also agree to serve

as mentors or teachers to PCs. Briarton’s less extraor-

dinary inhabitants also possess information about the

region’s history, geography and legends, and many

useful skills they could be persuaded to teach.

Briarton can also be used as the starting point for a

new campaign, with players taking the parts of young

inhabitants seeking adventure. Some non-player

characters could be turned into player characters, or

new PCs with ties to the village can be created. Some

PCs might already be apprenticed to appropriate

mentors.

As well as expeditions to various sites in North

Province’s hinterlands, there are opportunities for

adventure in Briarton itself, most notably uncover-

ing a hidden cult of evil’s activities. But the village

primarily serves as a solid base of operations for an

adventuring party.

Briarton is rife with opportunities for strong

roleplaying, however. It is filled with interesting

people who have rich personal histories, tales to tell

and (more importantly) stories waiting to unfold.

While many of these stories are hinted at in the de-

scriptions of people and places, scattered through-

out The Village of Briarton are a number of Interaction

Seeds: suggestions for adventures, subplots or op-

portunities for the heroes to involve themselves in

village life.

R ELIGION IN B RIARTON

Erilys’ shrine is a focal point of community life in

Briarton. The shrine offers protection and stability to

the village, and its priestess was midwife at the birth

of most villagers below age 20; only the cultists of

Vextra prefer Henna the Wise’s healing potions over

Maerwynn’s ministrations. But while Erilys is wor-

shipped by almost all in Briarton, she isn’t the sole

deity revered by any villagers. There’s room for the

introduction of other patron deities for any character

in the settlement, including personal shrines and re-

ligious symbols. If the worship of Erilys clashes with

the details of a GM’s campaign, it would be best if

she was replaced by a deity with similar attributes

instead of being simply removed from the setting.

And while only a handful of Vextra’s worshipers

are described in The Village of Briarton , there could

easily be a few more living in the countryside or in

the nearest settlements beyond Briarton. Vextra could

be replaced by another evil deity, but if the god’s re-

moved entirely other reasons will have to be devised

for the personality quirks of the cultists.

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The Village of Briarton has been designed to have

few elements preventing GMs from placing it neatly

into almost any medieval fantasy D20 campaign.

While there are scattered geographic and political

references, details have been left deliberately vague

so they can easily be replaced with elements of GM-

created or published campaign settings.

And while complete and ready to use as is, Briarton

itself isn’t so exhaustively detailed that a GM can’t

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Thirty years have passed since Lord Roderick

Arundel received a land grant along the River

Drewett in the vast, untamed North Province from

the king of Galien as a reward for his brave deeds.

The young lord, seeking to make his mark on the

world, gladly accepted the charge to help civilize the

province by building a manorial village.

Attracting farmers, craftsmen and other brave

souls seeking a fresh start to his banner, Lord Arundel

set out for the wilds of the North Province. Soon a

prospering new village surrounded by rich croplands

stood along the river. Lord Arundel named the com-

munity Briarton for the thick briars of the forest they

cleared.

Time passed, until 16 years ago Briarton celebrated

the marriage of Lady Alianora, daughter of Lord

Arundel, to Sir William Fitzhugh. The splendid wed-

ding was held in the stately manor house, with many

nobles in attendance and a song-filled festival held

in the village.

Though an outsider to Briarton, chivalrous Sir

William quickly won over the villagers with his cour-

age and friendly manner. The village rejoiced when

he and the Lady Alianora produced a son, Robin

Fitzhugh, a year after their wedding.

A bare few weeks after the happy event, however,

tragedy struck the quiet farming community.

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Blood and fire engulfed Briarton. A midnight raid

by vicious orcs left several villagers wounded or dead

as the smoke of burning homes rose into the starlit

sky. Even worse, the orcs carried a handful of villag-

ers off to their dank lair in the ruins of Castle Angorn.

A stalwart party led by Sir William braved the

dungeons of the castle to rescue the prisoners. They

retrieved the survivors, but Sir William perished

while fighting the orcs. All of Briarton grieved when

his companions returned with the tale of his final

battle.

Reminders of the raid are plentiful in Briarton even

15 years later. Kenrick the Lame, now the village

glassblower, took the leg wound that gave him his

name while protecting his family from the orcs as a

teenager. Many whisper that the dangerous foray into

Castle Angorn broke the nerve of Leoric the Old, start-

ing his descent into his sad status as the village drunk-

ard. Grimbor, the half-orc son born of Ailith the Pot-

ter nine months after the raid, serves as a constant

reminder of the tragic events. While he is loved by

his mother and accepted by some, lingering hatred

of orcs by other villagers makes the hulking teenager

an outcast in Briarton.

In the years since the raid, Briarton has prospered.

Harvests are good, and new craftsmen have settled

in the village over the years. Travelers are welcome

at the inn, and wandering tradesfolk make Briarton

a regular stop on their circuits.

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