[Circle of Hands] Venture Prep: Hohhalde

[Nyhteg]

This is my first venture prepped from the published rulebook, so that's all quite exciting.
I'm posting the prep to get thoughts, suggestions, advice. Despite the number of words I've used, the actual prep was very light - explaining my thoughts is far more verbose than my notes actually were before I started writing, if that makes any sense.

Dice Results: black: 6 white: 5 red: 1

Location

Rolke
Town's going to be called 'Hohhalde' - the 'High Hill'.

I'm going to use the mountain fortress map from the rulebook because it's cool - it's the one with two castles/fortifications separated by a ravine and joined by a bridge. So I'm imagining a once imposing and well-defended mountain pass that's fallen into disrepair and semi-ruin, with a township that grew up around it over the years. The town kind of straggles up the hill towards the first half of the old fortress, then the second half of the fortress stands alone, higher up and isolated across the ravine.

There's a bit of scratchy hill farming goes on; some herding of sheep and goats; there's dense woodland all roundabouts, so there's hunting and trapping and foraging to be done by those who know how to; a decent sized stream/small river falls out of the mountain heights within easy walking distance and various pools provide some fishing if you've got the nous for it; there's an ancient quarry nearby but the skilled manpower to extract and work the stone has been effectively lost. The pass itself is pretty well-used (a traveler of some kind every three or four days or so), being a reliable route over this stretch of mountain in all but the worst weather, so there's a bit of trading goes on with the through-traffic...and also a bit of toll-taking when goods to trade are scarce.

Although there are a lot of sources for subsistence, none of them are massively abundant - life here has basically always been pretty tough but survivable.

Components

Just the one => Rbaja interference, covert or overt
The red 1 means the tone is 'Harsh'

I've decided to go with a wizard.
My suspicion is that it might be challenging to play (gulp! all those spells to have at my fingertips...) but I never used one during playtesting so I figured it was time.

So, I've got a wee bit of backstory sketched out, but the shortened version is - "a wizard showed up in Hohhalde last year and killed all the nobles and anyone who stood up to him, and now he's in charge but sort of reclusive and everything's a bit more (but not actually all that much more) sucky than it used to be."

Named Characters & Soap Opera

Eckhart - Wizard of Rbaja and ex-High Entertainer
Toughest character, stats based on highest PC values
1 Mark; insatiable appetite
3 Gifts - Lich ally; spread disease; distorted body part (extendable, toad-like tongue)

Eckhart's name is almost irrelevant because no-one knows it in town and his soldiers just call him 'master' or 'my lord'. He's Marked by Rbaja, of course, repugnant to look at - lank hair, rotted teeth, facial and arm scarring - and grossly fat. Because it amuses him, whenever he has to show himself to the Hohhalders he casts Seem to take on the appearance of a tall, athletic and handsome young godling, naked, golden and radiant.

His Lich ally has provided him with a small retinue of Spurrish mercenaries who act as his personal guard and armed muscle as required.

With the tone set at Harsh (basically 'business as usual') my thinking is that, after the initial spate of horror and bloodletting, Eckhart's currently pretty hands-off. Mainly, he keeps himself to himself up in the high fort (that's probably how the locals refer to them actually: the 'High Fort' and the 'Low Fort') and takes pleasure in the quiet, ongoing corruption of the town. Long term...maybe he's working towards an Enchantment or an Rbaja zone or a bit of demonic trouble-making, who knows. For now he's just messing with people's lives - he demands a daily and substantial supply of food and drink, pushing many to near or actual starvation; he spreads and maintains a constant background level
of disease and sickness among the population; his men press-gang the able bodied into toll-taking/extortion and even a couple of raids on smaller settlements in the area.

When townsfolk are injured or close to death from illness, Eckhart has them brought up to the fort for 'healing'.
As it happens, many are never seen again. Some he will allow to die; some he will imprison to torment or serve him as messengers and gophers for a while; some he will return to the town as a new, freshly re-infected 'patient zero'; others he will outright kill and/or Sacrifice. A few, however - just enough to appear confusingly benevolent - he will publicly and ostentatiously cure or heal. He functions pretty much purely on whim and whimsy in this regard.

As a consequence, most of the inner chambers of the High Fort are littered with bodies of the dead and dying, with rotting food and bloated flies, a place of disease and decay and filth. Not that anyone really goes there except Eckhart and his victims. When he needs to, he grants audience in the High Fort's empty outer courtyard, but mostly he communicates by messenger - and will often have an imp on hand for information gathering and courier duties.


Hendrik - Mercenary leader, high martial
5 8 4 2
Leads a group of six low and high martial type. He's tough, experienced, but getting weary of the cynical, fighting life now he's left Spurr. Working for Liches and dark wizards is all very well, but he's come to like the mountains, and grown close to Gudrun, one of the local women. He's actively considering leaving Eckhart's service and starting a new life with her elsewhere. And yes, he is definitely packing a chained mace, as are a couple of his men. ;)

The mercenaries make their home in the Low Fort - effectively a combination small barracks, storehouse and defended gatehouse. Although these men do mix with the general population by choice or necessity and have integrated with the townsfolk to one degree or another they are by no means universally accepted - feared and resented as often as respected.


Dietfried - Priest
4 2 8 5
A vehement opponent of Eckhart's presence here. His wife died of disease early on in the wizard's 'reign'. He plots in secret, sustaining resistance to the wizard, encouraging, organising and preparing for uprising and rebellion among others of like mind. He keeps a hidden stash of supplies for distribution to those in desperate need and organises care for the sick and wounded outside the town. Things are fraught between him and his daughter, Gudrun.


Gudrun - Dietfried's daughter, Outdoorswoman
4 8 5 2
In love with Hendrik. Helps her father out of duty (only), but wants nothing other than to leave the town with the mercenary and find a new life away from this hell hole. Naturally this causes no small amount of tension between Gudrun and her father (he has basically forbidden her to speak to Hendrik, ever).

Hulda - Farmer, Low Martial, de facto town chief
Although there's no true chief in Hohhalde any more, the person most people turn to for guidance and advocacy is Hulda. While she doesn't exactly like Eckhart's presence here, she believes that it's better to try to live under his rule than destroy everything in violent opposition. Eckhart saved her young son's life last month, strengthening her conviction that this is the best way, for now at least. Like everyone in town, she is wary and deeply fearful of the wizard but definitely content to consider him benevolent enough to tolerate and potentially even negotiate with. Things are bad, but they could be far worse and they might get better any day now with a wizard running the show and perhaps even expanding the town's power base.

Dangerous Locations

The High Fort - nasty, confusing, somewhat crumbling, two or three levels built up and into the mountainside, almost certainly under the effects of Trailtwister if Eckhart gets even a whiff of trouble. 

The 'Rebel Base' - A long, tall, ragged waterfall and secluded plunge pool, with lean-to shelters and a behind-the-falls cave where the Priest stores supplies and holds his religious smoke-ins and rebellious rumblings.

Tripwire

If Hendrik is killed, Gudrun will reveal her father's secret stash and rebellious plotting to Hulda, triggering anger, side-taking and open conflict among the townsfolk.

---

Including playtesting, this will be the fourth venture I've run so far, and of all of them it's the one I have the fewest pre-imagined possible directions for. Or rather, I can imagine some ways it could go but I don't mind in the slightest what happens. I just want to see how it plays out. It's intriguing to me particularly that I don't care what the wizard ends up doing or not doing. On paper, he's *obviously* "the Big Bad Guy that the players have to kill"...but depending on what they do, what they focus on, how they go about things, they conceivably might not even meet him.

One initial question in my mind at the moment - the mercenary dudes...are they all treated as Unnamed except Hendrik?

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Gethyn! I'm really looking forward to your interaction with the published book, considering the impact you had on it personally.

So, small question first: yes, treat every other NPC as unnamed, but be ready for rapid ascension. I'm beginning to think that's one of the main new skills for playing this game. I'm used to it from Trollbabe (also based on named/unnamed), and from using it as a personal tool for decades before formalizing it, but on reflection, it's amazing how absent the concept is from role-playing texts.

I might have missed it in your text, but I was wondering about Eckhart's healing - it seems that the rules on p. 118 will help you out here, as he should know a few white spells and cast them with Warp. Is that what you had in mind? If I were to intrude a bit more, I'd bring his healing factor a bit more into the situation, in that people might actually have a shot at getting healed ... it's not like he wants a mob arriving on his doorstep eventually.

Otherwise: what a wonderful, horrible, gross, nasty bastard, all the more so because you are all oriented without having to plan for a Boss Fight with him. Great named characters to start, too.

H'm ... other rules thoughts ... since spellcasting isn't Quickness-based, feel free to pitch his Brawn super-high. It means he'll be able to pump to 3:00 if you want, or to cast Stimulant or something similar on himself. Go over those spell rules - you realize he can simply conjure a nzagg into someone's lap, right? Or yuck! Spew forth a splotch. (Avatars, beasts, and eidolons require rituals to summon; demons except imps are snap-your-finger ... nasty, huh?)

Consider the lich a bit too; you may even consider it a named NPC (adding one at this point is OK by the rules), even if it isn't 100% active in the scenario unless/until prompted. At least decide what its driving desire is.

[Nyhteg]

Ron, hi - thanks for the reply

I'm really looking forward to your interaction with the published book

It was a thrill to see my name (and my sons' names!) there on the page, for sure. :)
So far, I'm definitely loving the subtle tweaks and changes you made from the playtest rulebook; some really elegant solutions and new introductions. It's come together beautifully - and the art is nicely chosen and very evocative of course.

I might have missed it in your text, but I was wondering about Eckhart's healing

Yep, my thinking is that all the healing and curative stuff is White magic cast with Warp.
You're right about the amount of healing that gets done, he certainly needs to do enough to create doubt and uncertainty about the squicky stuff he's doing. Makes him, if anything, even more unpleasant than he already is - fixing the very problems he's perpetuating...but not quite all of them and not quite every time.

since spellcasting isn't Quickness-based, feel free to pitch his Brawn super-high.

I was planning on that plus any extras I could reasonably call in.
Judicious use of Sacrifice could be doable, I was thinking. A handy Imp to tap perhaps.
What I lack in finesse I hope to make up for in power. ;)

I'm going to have to really cram on the spells though.
My current thinking - assuming it's not inconceivable he might end up facing all three PC Knights at some point - would be that a lone wizard's best tactic is not to immediately go for damaging shots like Blast, but to pump to 3:00 and start causing as much trouble as possible. Casting spells that will give his opponents things they have to pay attention to rather than him. Anything that will hinder or distract - Web, I suppose could be a good passive one, but those rules for summoning demons are appallingly scary, so probably that as much as possible!
A Draugr or two might be viable given the bodies he has lying around.

Any other top tips for wizardly wizarding?

I'm strongly drawn to the notion that Eckhart is definitely evil and spiteful enough to attempt to become a Haunt if he's ever killed in a manner that might allow it.

Consider the lich a bit too; you may even consider it a named NPC (adding one at this point is OK by the rules), even if it isn't 100% active in the scenario unless/until prompted. At least decide what its driving desire is.

My thinking is that the Lich is probably based in Spurr, and interested in tentatively extending his influence into Rolke, just to see what he can get away with. Eckhart most probably hails from the Spurr-Rolke borderlands originally, so would have come to the Lich's attention there. A neophyte wizard of Rbaja, naive in the ways of magic and power...all pepped up and ripe for encouragement and manipulation...Eckhart would have been too good an opportunity to miss.

Or...were you thinking the Lich could be literally present in the immediate locality (next valley over, or something)?

G

[Ron Edwards]

Going by the rules, the lich isn't in the venture. I think considering those details is helpful for you in thinking about Eckhart. It's a bit intangible and difficult to explain - suffice to say I'm not talking about involving the lich directly into the situation.