Session #1

 

Our first session of the campaign was structured around Sigrun and Agnir’s move to the Giantdowns.  We used a GM emulator to structure the adventure and give us basic clues to what was happening and when.  The Castles and Crusades core books provided greater detail on the encounters through the use of random monster tables, treasure, and XP gained.  Anything not governed by those two elements was decided on by the two players.  It was a short session done over three hours while preparing dinner.

The weather was unseasonably warm the week of the journey; perhaps why Agnir and Sigrun decided it was time to travel.  The family, six freeman farm workers, and our two heroes gathered up their belongings to make the journey.  Three wagons were packed to the brim with tools and supplies, but most of the party made the trip on foot with the livestock.  The caravan set out early in the morning, traveling East a short distance through Romiene Province before turning south once they crossed into Hidaele Province. 

Romiene and Hidaele are covered in moors with few settlements.  The people here are mostly Anurian (human subtype), descendants of the colonist that came with Roele when he sought to conquer the Rjurik kingdoms.  They are a hardy people but distrustful of outsiders and they chose to remain hidden from the Rjurik caravan making its way south and east.

The caravan found a deserted campsite around mid-day.  Nothing of value remained and it was too early in the day to rest so the party moved on.  Late in the afternoon, one of the farm hands discovered a discarded pack near the side of the road.  There appeared to have been a brief struggle and tracks led off to a group of rocks nearby.  The pack contained food, water, some cooking utensils, and bedding.  The only interesting item within the pack is a letter agreeing to provide supplies and support as outlined in a previous letter.  The names and signatures on the letter are unknown to our heroes, so it is placed to the side as our heroes go looking for the owner.

The trail led straight to the monster’s den nestled within a rocky outcropping a short distance from the trail.  A group of five Giant Spiders ambushed the traveler and dragged him back for cocooning.  He’s no longer alive, but the spiders were not ready to give up their meal and attacked our heroes.  In the confined space, Ingvar used his shield to great advantage to protect himself and the druid.  Kaya used her Magic Stones spell to dispatch several of the spiders, before switching to her spear and killing a fourth.  Ignvar killed the last with his broadsword, but both heroes succumbed to the effects of poison after the final spider is slain.  They laid paralyzed but otherwise healthy until Agnir finds them an hour later. 

Agnir stopped the caravan for the day to let our heroes rest and recover.  Sigrun tended to the wounded while the farm hands settled the animals in for the evening.  Agnir’s trepidation on moving to the Giantdowns deepened, and he donned his armor.  He spent a restless night awake and looking for danger.  Agnir knows that in the morning the party will be in the Giant’s Fastness – the last province in Dhosone before the Giantdowns.

A late morning start gave the heroes some additional rest.  On their eastward journey, they spotted another abandoned campsite.  It seemed that our party was following someone else – maybe the traveling companions of the man killed by the spiders.  All that’s lost when the trail terminated at a ravine with a broken bridge.  The ravine was shallow enough to get the humans and the livestock across, but not the wagons.  Rather than looking for a different crossing site, Agnir directed the team to repair the bridge.  It will took the party the rest of the day to do so.  While they are repairing the bridge, another party appeared on the opposite side traveling west.

A Rjurik family of settlers fleeing from the Giantdowns appeared on the West side of the ravine.  A few days ago their homestead was attacked by Gnolls.  They sought safety with another family close by only to be attacked again.  They chose to flee westward to Dhosone to seek help and get away from the fighting.  The news increased Agnir’s anxiety, but it was too late to turn back.  By now, Lief Stoutspear’s sons know that Agnir abandoned his farm and his chieftain.  Lief’s sons and Ryurik tradition will not look kindly to that decision.  The Giantdowns still remains the lesser of two evils, and so the party will camp here for the evening. 

Around midmorning the caravan crossed the bridge and into Lemnjohen province in the Giantdowns.  Not long after arriving, the party was attacked by a Gnoll tracking party.  Two Gnolls were killed quickly by Kara, a third was killed by Ignvar, and the fourth one fled.  With in minutes, a frightened Rjurik youth emerged from behind a rock.  The Gnolls had been pursuing him for the last few days.  He is from Bjorlangen, like the party encountered the previous day, and tells the story of how the families and farms there were overrun from the North by the White Witch’s army.  The settlers were forced south into the barrows to escape the raiders.  Many Rjurik families are still trapped there, unable to flee farther south into Elven lands or East to Midjarna province.  He pleads for help and Ignvar and Kaya promised to do what they can to rescue those families.  Agnir pushed the caravan to resume its journey, and the youth chose to travel with them.

In the late afternoon the party arrived at Old Fort Lemjohen.  A party of 6 skeletons attack them.  In a spirited fight, Kaya and Ignvar defeated the ancient dead.  Sigrun believes these dead warriors are from the Barrows to the south.  The arms and armor are neither Anurian nor Rjurik but something much older.  Among the artifacts the skeletons were carrying was an Expertly Crafted Spear.  Even after centuries entombed with its previous owner, it has a keen edge and balance.  Kaya took possession of the spear as she prefers to use one in battle.

The Old Fort lemjohen gates were barred and soldiers posted to the walls.  Ignvar asked to speak to the fort’s commander, but the sergeant refused.  Rebuked, the party decides to find Sigrun’s childhood home.  Near dark out, they stumble onto to the remains of the farm.  It’s comprised of some rotting timber buildings and a few overgrown sodden structures.  There’s a well, and it’s in a surprisingly good state of repair.  It will take a few months, but the farm can be brought back to life.  Wearily, our party settles in for the night and we end the session.

Caya Gudrun, the Druid

 

Our last player character in this duet campaign is Caya Gudrun.  Caya is a freeman on Agnir Stoneshield’s farm and is relatively new to the area.  Her family originated along the coast and her brothers and father were sailors.  When they were lost at sea, Caya chose to strike out on her own.    she eventually toke up work on Agnir’s farm.  Caya is a devout worshiper of Erik and spends what time she can learning from the Druids.  Sigrun has encouraged her to do so and supplements Caya’s study with lessons on herbs found in the Northern Marches.

Sigrun and Agnir

 

Accompanying Ingvar to the Giantdowns is his great aunt Sigrun, her husband Agnir Stoneshield, and their young daughter Liv.  Sigrun knows that Ingvar’s half-brothers will resolve the succession dispute when their father finally passes.  She pleaded with her husband to move his farm to the frontier that is the Giantdowns, and convinced Ingvar to seek his fortune where his mother and Sigrun grew up.  It’s a desperate move to protect her only child and by extension her nephew if chooses to travel with them.   

Agnir knows the danger his family is in and the decision to move to the Giantdowns was neither a quick nor an easy decision.  He explored the Giantdowns with Lief decades ago where both found wives but not before facing constant threats of bandits, humanoids, and restless dead.  He’s under no illusion about his daughter’s future in such a hard place, but Lief’s once united family is separating into armed camps.  Agnir is taking his family, his livestock, and the freemen willing to brave the Giantdowns to the lands of his wife and Ingvar’s mother. 

Ingvar Liefsson

 

The first player character in our duet campaign is Ingvar Liefsson, a young mercenary and adventurer from Dhoesone.  Ingvar grew up near the border with Stjordvik and was exposed to both the traditional way of Rjurik life along with the more progressive culture of farming and city life that is settling into the Highlands.  Like most traditional Rjurik upbringings, Ignvar learned to hold an ax and shield from an early age.  As befitting his elevated social status in Dhoesone, he is also a capable horseman and can fight mounted.

Ingvar has his sight set on exploring the Giantdowns where his mother Ylva was born and raised.  Ylva died young and Ingvar has few memories of her.  She was the third wife of Lief Stoutspear, an older upper-class warrior and successful herder originally from Stjordvik.  Ingvar has several half-brothers and sisters from his father’s previous marriages, most of whom do not want to see their inheritance go to Ingvar.  Knowing his father extreme age and poor health, it will only be a matter of time before his brothers make their move to seize control of the family’s wealth. 

Barrows for the Giantdowns

 

Nearing completion on some terrain items for the Giantdowns.  I ordered four 3D printed barrows off of Etsy in December.  They have playable interiors if you lift off the roofs.  Once I finish them I'll post some additional shots of what the interiors look like.  Next up for these is some flocking and static grass after a little interior work.  I think using the two different grey tones for the stones really paid off.  The larger cairn stones would done in cold grey tones topped off with an off-white highlight.  The worked stones and the bricks were done with grey green colors and topped off with a green that was almost white.  

The Giantdowns

 

For our return campaign to Birthright and the lands of Cerilia, we’re going to start the adventures in the Giantdowns.  The Downs are perfect because there’s not an established kingdom there, giving a non-regent character the opportunity to build a kingdom from the ground up.  It’s also an old land with a lot of history that is detailed in the 1997 supplement King of the Giantdowns.

The Giantdowns are located in the Northern Marches of western Cerilia which is the main continent for the setting.  The Northern Marches is a somewhat wild area that serves as a buffer between three of the four human cultures.  In this buffer area, there are several small baronies and kingdoms and that includes non-human kingdoms like Thurazor (Goblin), Tuarhieval (Elf), Mur-Kilad (Dwarf). 

The Downs themselves are an uncivilized and settled region claimed by no one but still home to both human and non-human inhabitants.  Humans, Dwarves, Oroks, Goblins, and others all survive here.  The Rjurik made the region home when they landed on the shores of Cerilia almost 2000 years ago and pushed inland.  They live there still eking out an existance in the small family farmsteads of traditional Rjurik life.  Rumors say the Dwarves make the Silverhead mountains home, but no one knows for sure.  The non-human tribes roam the full length of the downs raiding human farmsteads and each other.

The living inhabitants of the Giantdowns aren’t the only inhabitants.  The Downs themselves get their name from row upon row of low evenly spaced hills.  Adventures and grave-robbers have found tombs and treasures in those hills.  They’ve also reported seeing ancient dead walking about – meaning the living are not the only ones to call the Downs home.

AD&D Birthright: Returning to my favorite D&D setting

 

Dungeons and Dragons was a huge part of my hobby hours as far back as elementary school.  Countless hours were spent delving into dungeons or exploring continents while our characters grew in power and wealth.  When we started, each game was really a one-off encounter until we stumbled onto the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.  From that moment forward our games were set in some type world with its own people, history, and geography.  It made our games more exciting to see the world change to our successes and failures.  

Everyone had their own favorite setting.  I think Forgotten Realms always held a special place if not the favored setting for most of the people I adventured with over the years.  Others favored Dark Sun with its post-apocalyptical fantasy setting or Dragonlance with the heroic focus on characters.  None of us played in the Greyhawk setting with the exception of playing Greyhawk Wars.  Some even preferred home-brewed settings where you had the complete control to create the setting, cultures, and history.  With the launch of Birthright in 1995, it became the favored setting for me.  No setting released before or since can hold a candle to cultures and history of the continent of Cerilia as far as I am concerned.  

One of the design elements that made Birthright so compelling to me was that it merged the character development in standard play with the mass battles of Greyhawk Wars.  Up to that point your D&D character could attract followers and build castles at high levels but there were really no rules for running your own realms.  Often there wasn't much your small personal army could do but garrison your castle for you while you were exploring dungeons.  Birthright changed all of that and even let you run a realm right at the start of character creation. 

I ran a campaign for almost two years in this setting before graduating college and taking a Commission in the Army.  The new career didn't give me much time for my old hobby, but I kept my box set and a few of the books from the 1995 release.  After 25 years, it's about time to return to Cerilia but this time as a player.  With 'GM emulators' prevalent after the COVID outbreak, I am free to explore and rule my own kingdom in Cerilia.  

I hear the Giantdowns is a good place to start.