Trenicia:Campaign Guide

Background

Jelena's Ford. It's a small trading town, mostly a stopping point between the farms and the mountain mines and the city of Castronovo, which itself is almost just a stopping point to the shining jewel, Trenicia. But, most importantly, Jelena's Ford is home.

When you were younger, you and your friends always got into trouble. Exploring, fighting, pretending to go on adventures, maybe even going on adventures…

You finished your apprenticeship but you weren’t sure what to do. You didn’t like any of the “normal” options. You thought about adventuring but weren’t show how to start. You decided to come home to Jelena's Ford to think and, to your surprise, some of your childhood friends have done the same.

Shortly before you came home, Gabi Anicova, the eccentric herbalist who lived on the outskirts of town, was buried. She passed away suddenly in the market square, warning of a horde of skulls traveling through the mountains and a magelord swallowing the sun, leaving the town a little uneasy.

Sergios, Captain of the Guard, is one of the few who's taking her warning seriously but he has more pressing issues right now. He's recently broken his leg and can't travel. No one from the small hunting lodge north of town came to market this week and he's concerned for their well-being. And so, one day while you are catching up with your old friends, he has come to you, asking for a favor.

System

This game will use the Pathfinder RPG core rulebook and additional content from these sourcebooks:

• Advanced Class Guide
• Advanced Player's Guide
• Advanced Race Guide
• Occult Adventures
• Ultimate Combat
• Ultimate Equipment
• Ultimate Intrigue
• Ultimate Magic

Players are only expected to be familiar with the rules in the core rulebook. The GM will provide links to additional mechanics ahead of time if they will be needed.

Character Creation

Requests and notes

• Please plan and play your character in a way that contributes to the group's enjoyment.
• Please discuss desired character classes/roles with your fellow players. It's unlikely everyone can get precisely what they want but mutually acceptable agreements can be reached. (Also, let's try to avoid a party that could be TPK'd by an angry flock of seagulls.)
• This is likely to be a standard fantasy campaign with a mix of encounters, including combat. Please plan accordingly.
• A lot of Jelena's Ford is not set in stone. Feel free to set pieces in your backstories.

Rules

• Attributes: Point buy system described in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, 20 points. No attribute may be lower than 8.
• Alignment: Any, but player characters are expected to be heroes. (Also, let's try not to antagonize other players or the GM).
• Race: Any in the core rulebook (so dwarf, elf, gnome, half-elf, half-orc, halfling, human).
  • Variant racial traits from Advanced Race Guide and Advanced Player's Guide may be permitted with GM approval.
  • Players who wish to play a non-human race may want to read the section on racial stereotypes and prejudices below.
• Level: You start at first level.
• Class: Any from the listed sourcebooks except Spiritualist and Vigilante.
  • Aquatic familiars, e.g. octopi, are disallowed for familiars. Similarly, aquatic animals are not permitted for animal companions.
  • Clerics, paladins, and other divinely-influenced characters should look at the list of gods.
  • Beginning players are recommended to use the classes in the core rulebook. Beginning players may also benefit from the Strategy Guide.
  • Mounted combat is unlikely to be a common occurrence. Classes or archetypes built around mounted combat may be at a disadvantage.
  • Archetypes from the listed sourcebooks may be permitted with GM approval.
  • Samurai must be ronin.
  • Prestige classes (for later) should be discussed with the GM but are likely to be permitted.
• Skills: The primary sources of these are: Your character's life before apprenticeship, your character's interests, and your apprenticeship. Perception and Stealth are both suggested.
• Traits: Select two traits. Traits may be selected from the traits in the Advanced Players Guide except for the listed campaign traits. One trait may be selected from the campaign traits.
• Equipment: Purchased as per normal rules. Use the average starting wealth.
• Background: Players should answer the fifteen questions to help flesh out their character and provide information to the other players and the GM. PCs are either natives to Jelena's Ford or are friends of other PCs. Players are encouraged to discuss how they initially met and what sort of escapades they participated in.

House Rules

Terms

• Adventure: If you think of the campaign as a series of pulp novels, then each novel would be an adventure. (If you're not familiar with pulp novels, then think of the campaign as a series of short stories. This idea does not translate well into chapters for stories.)
• Downtime: The period of time between adventures. During this time, characters will be allowed to rest and run errands. Most of the time (but not all of the time), downtime will be long enough to train up to the next level if characters are eligible.

Leveling

Leveling up requires a non-trivial amount of activity, be it training, learning, communing with nature, taking lessons from the squirrels, etc. As a result, characters may only gain additional levels during downtime.

XP Awards

XP awards will be given at the end of an adventure. As leveling will only occur between adventures, this should not be an issue.

XP is gained based on completion of an adventure's goals and the difficulty of the adventure. Seeking out a group of goblins just to beat them up for XP, or, even worse, starting a bar fight, is not going to work.

Races

All races use the human age tables, both for starting age and for determining the effects of aging. (There are differences between races but they're effectively minor.)

Setting

The Cursed Isle

The Cursed Isle is a continent roughly in the middle of the world. It is vaguely rhomboid in shape with the southeastern corner entering tropical climes and the northwestern covered in tundra.

Millenia ago, it was believed to be where the gods first started making the world and raising the land from the sea. For that reason, it was called the First Land, the Holy Land, or the Promised Land.

A year after the War of Freedom, a plague swept across the land and killed 95% of the population of the continent. It would flare up a few more times in the next ten years but would not claim the lives of any natives. However, those not native to the continent are not immune and many who come within sight of land die within a few days. It came to be known as the Cursed Isle.

Humans make up the vast majority of the civilized population of the Cursed Isle. Other races, including dwarves, elves, gnomes, and halflings, are well-represented but are minorities. In some parts of the continent, they keep to themselves. In Trenicia, they freely mingle.

The Cursed Isle is host to many nations and cultures. Only once has most of the Cursed Isle been united under a single banner: The Magelord Empire

The Magelord Empire

Sick of the political infighting and wars (which they kept being commanded to take part in), a cabal of wizards and sorcerers met to find a way to achieve peace among the nations of the First Land. They discussed and discussed and eventually came to the conclusion that the existing geopolitical state would never result in something resembling peace or even cold war.

Some more reluctantly than others, they decided that the only way to bring about peace in their time was to replace the current order with one of their making. Grimly determined, they started planning the conquest of the continent.

They started in the east. Within fifty years, all of the human nations were under their rule. The age of the Magelord Empire had begun.

They divided the continent into thirty provinces, naming each after their capital city. A viceroy was appointed to govern over each province.

Over the next few centuries, the magelords used their magic to make life better for their people. Dimensional portals were set up to allow faster trade of goods between cities. Weather control magic thawed the tundra and allowed the people to farm where they couldn't before.

Once they exhausted the public works they could focus on, the ruling mages returned to their studies and gradually came became self-centered and uncaring towards their citizens.

A few centuries after they had united the human nations, the ruling mages made exorbitant demands of the elven nations. Disgusted, half of the elven nations elected to sail from the continent, cursing their forests before they left. Realizing they had gone to far, the mages tried to make amends with the remaining elven nations but they and the other non-human nations shut their borders and dealt with the humans as little as possible.

After about half a millenia, the mages started making demands of their own citizens as they started researching apotheosis. These demands included higher taxes on income and goods and forcing citizens to work on mining or gathering dangerous materials or to craft arcane substances that were hazardous to the health. The magelords also started seizing citizens for experimentation and sacrifice. It only took a few decades for unrest to spread among the people. Towns would go into revolt but would be quickly quelled by the military.

A revolt started in the province of Pobrezhia. First one town, then another, then three more, and then the entire province was in revolt. The viceroy was publicly hanged. While refugees started fleeing south to the province of Iwerdon, the magelords started making their own plans. They withdrew their military from the province, making the rebels think they were winning.

However, the magelords then sealed off the entire province. Into the province, the magelords summoned demons who then proceeded to lay waste to the province. Pobrezhia became known as the Demonlands. And it became the battle cry in the War of Freedom.

The War of Freedom

Emissaries from rebel groups all over the continent met in a small town named Zhentret in the northern province of Norsiden. They spent months discussing and debating how to overthrow the magelords. Finally settling on a daring plan (and the only one they thought could work), the emissaries returned home to start work on their individual parts of the plan.

The first move in what would be called the War of Freedom happened when a group of rebels assaulted the tower of Jendrich Goldenhair in north Iwerdon. Despite losing most of their band, they slew the magelord and used his tower to create a protective barrier around Iwerdon, negating the magelords' magic. Rebel groups slowly moved into Iwerdon and start to form an actual army.

After about three decades of fighting, the last remaining magelord was slain and rulership was returned to the people. However, quickly they fell to squabbling and the continent once again splintered into separate lands.

The Plague

In the absence of the magelords, the magical public works started failing. The portals no longer worked. Snow buried plains of wheat. Famine was widespread and affected everyone, from High King to serf.

Just when things couldn't seem to get worse, a plague broke out in a city in the east. Quickly, the plague spread across the continent, leaving vast death in its wake. Then, almost as suddenly as it started, it stopped.

As the survivors tried to cope with the world, they banded together, abandoning lands that wilderness quickly reclaimed. As the wilderness spreads, so would the scourges of orc and goblinkind which the magelords never completely extinguished.

The Rumelian Empire

In the years after the plague, most of the south of the Cursed Isle was united militarily into the Rumelian Empire. At first, the empire functioned due to the large number of mages who were able to keep some of the magelords' public works running, allowing the empire to be overseen by the Archon Basileus and their bureaucracy. After about a century, most of those had failed and the empire evolved into a feudal institution. After the first bloodline of Archons Basileus died out, the various provincial governors maneuvered and fought amongst themselves to determine who would rule the next dynasty. Each dynasty thereafter lasted only a few generations before scheming, unrest, and outright rebellion replaced the dynasty with a new one. Over the centuries, this took its toll on the empire until, eventually, the empire collapsed into a multitude of smaller nations.

The eagle was the symbol of the Rumelian Empire. Accordingly, the eagle appears prominently in the coats of arms of its successor nations.

Trenicia

Republic of Trenicia coat of arms

The Republic of Trenicia formed about a hundred and fifty years old in the waning years of the Rumelian Empire. It was originally a province centered around the city of Trenicia, one of the greatest trading cities of the Empire (and the continent). The Republic was one of the furthest provinces from the Rumelian capital and was one of the first to declare independence.

For the first eighty years or so, Trenicia was just a coastal city state, and still one of the most important trading cities on the Cursed Isle. Then they purchased largely unsettled land from their neighbor, the Belisarian Exarchate, and advertised it as available for settling by immigrants. The response was surprisingly high and resulted in bringing civilization to most of that land.

Trenicia sits on the coast at a river mouth and sheltered bay about two-thirds down the southwestern coast of the Cursed Isle. It is bordered on the northeast and east by mountains and not-yet-tamed wilderness, the west and southwest by sea, on the north by mountains and marshland, and on the south by the Belisarian Exarchate. Beyond the mountains to the east lies the Kinriviny Steppes, inhabited by orcish tribes. The few mountain passes between the republic and the steppes are fortified to prevent invasion or raiding.

The land is predominantly flat, with hills close to the mountain ranges. The mountains are the source of several west and southwest-flowing rivers. Marshes exist along some of the rivers in the coastal plains. Trenicia has a Mediterranean climate, with dry summers and mild, rainy winters.

Trenicia has four major cities:

• Trenicia, the Shining Jewel
• Castronovo
• Petthalia
• Kumai

Each city is the capital of a province. Except for Trenicia, each province is ruled by a governor. Trenicia's province, the original city state, is ruled by the prefect.

Who's in charge?

The current prefect is Mastino Carrara. He has been prefect for almost fifteen years now. He is in charge of the government and making sure the government fulfills its contract with the people.

The heads of the patrician families make up the Trenician Council. Every five years, the Council then elects one of its members to be prefect who is in charge of the government. The prefect nominally has full authority but is expected to consult with the Council. The Council can overrule a prefect's law or dictate but only with a unanimous vote.

The patrician families are all extremely wealthy merchant families, although some have been started by adventurers. (Becoming a patrician family requires a payment to the public treasury each year for the first ten years and then a payment every ten years after that.) The adults select the head of the family. This is usually, but not always, the eldest adult member of the family. The head of the family may be of any gender.

Provinces are overseen by governors who report to the prefect. However, each province is subsidized by a patrician family and that patrician family names the governor. Since the governorship reflects on the patrician family, the families almost always nominate skilled administrators.

The patrician families include:

• Argyros
• Bryennios (currently subsidizes the province of Petthalia)
• Carrara (currently holds the prefecture)
• Challant
• Choumnos
• Czartoryski (currently subsidizes the province of Kumai)
• Danesti
• Erdosh
• Glabas
• Grimani
• Keroularios
• Korvin
• Loredani
• Petraliphas
• Philes
• Privrednic
• Sapiega
• Srebrni Sokol
• Synadenos
• Tocho
• Voyk
• Zamplakon (currently subsidizes the province of Castronovo)
• Zlatnoko

Classes

Trenicia has two official social classes: Commoners and patricians. The merely wealthy, who don't have funds to join the patricians, act like they're a third class in the middle but it's not officially recognized.

Only patrician families can participate in electing the prefect or in subsidizing governorships. Patricians and commoners are otherwise not very different from a legal perspective (although patricians can usually get out of legal predicaments easier through affording better lawyers or other means).

Slavery is forbidden. (In fact, they received a large influx of ex-slaves when they declared independence.) Indentured servitude is permitted but the terms have to be fair for all parties involved.

Culture

The three concepts that perhaps best define Trenicians are: hard work, honesty, and self-determination.

Trenicians are masters of their own destiny. No one prevents a Trenician from pursuing and attaining his or her goals, provided they work hard at it. Trenicians commonly set small achievable goals (e.g. make three sales to the Katorian delegation or get a larger crop yield of carrots than last year) and then set additional goals when they achieve those. And they know that if they work hard, they can enjoy the fruits of their labor and then they can enjoy their rest time.

They will work together towards common goals. Everyone is connected. For example: A merchant relies on a crafter to make goods to sell. A crafter relies on the miner to mine the metals or gems and on the farmers to grow food. If the merchant does not sell the crafter's goods, the crafter cannot buy food from the farmers, and so on. As a result, there is a tendency to work toward the common good.

Trenicians believe honesty is the best policy. You can't work together toward a common goal with a liar. They will tell white lies or sugarcoat the truth but, as a people, they tend to avoid larger lies. Even the patrician families are forbidden from lying to the prefect when tax time comes around. (And the priests of Marren, The Judge, make sure they cannot lie.)

(It is worth noting that these are generalities and not constants. However, someone who lies regularly, and is caught in it, will see their reputation plummet.)

Trenicians respect adventurers because they are the epitome of self-determination. Many children dream of being adventurers and making the land safe before the realities of adulthood come crashing in.

Education

Education is available in most, but not all, of Trenicia. Almost all children in cities and towns receive education. Many, but not all, of the farming or mining villages have dedicated teachers as well. Learning almost always includes reading, writing, arithmetic, basic accounting, wrestling, and rudimentary weapons training. Additional subjects may be taught depending on the location. (For example, education in a port city may include sailing and navigation. Education in a farming village will likely include farming and livestock care.)

Within a year of turning fifteen, children receive basic military training. They are then apprenticed depending on their abilities, either to adults in the community or masters in a town or city.

Military

Trenicia maintains a small standing army. Being a mostly peaceful country, they have not needed a large army. In times of need, they will hire mercenaries, and sometimes conscript adventurers who happen to be in the area.

All adults are also expected to defend their communities if the need arises (but are also expected to know when to retreat).

Ostensibly, military promotion is done solely on merit but bribes for promotions are not unheard of.

Each town and city has its own local guard that acts as the police force for the community and for those around it. In times of emergency, the guard can be activated as a militia.

Magic

Trenicians generally have no deep-rooted fear of wizards, sorcerers, and other arcane magic users. They deal with spellcasters pragmatically: If they are a threat, they should be dealt with. If they're not a threat, they're not a problem.

Religion

The Trenician people are religious and believe in the standard pantheon. They are tolerant: You may pray to any gods you want, although worship of The Destroyer and The Darkness are commonly frowned upon. (And if the worshippers become a threat, they will be dealt with.)

The largest temples in Trenicia are to The Lord, The Lady, The Shining Moon, The Dreaming Moon, The Maker, and The Judge. Shrines also appear for The Knight, The Warrior, The Farmer, The Keeper, The All-Mother, The Sun, and The Ferryman. Small shrines can be found for The Reveler if you look hard enough. Hidden shrines to the other deities can be found by those who search for them.

Villages commonly have altars for The Lord, The Lady, The Farmer, The Maker, The Sun, The All-Mother, The Shining Moon, and The Dreaming Moon.

Crime

Smaller towns, like Jelena's Ford, experience a slightly below average amount of crime. Violent crime is rare but still unfortunately happens. The cities have a higher crime rate although violent crime is still rare. In the cities, crime tends to be organized and almost businesslike.

The town or city guard is responsible for policing. Schools in the cities train lawyers and judges. In towns and villages where there is no standing judge, the captain of the guard is allowed to make a preliminary ruling which will stand until a traveling judge can hear the case properly.

Punishments are meted out in relation to the crime. Death is an uncommon punishment for severe violent crime, e.g. murder. Crimes of property (e.g. vandalism or theft) commonly result in the criminal being ordered to pay restitution, either in terms of coin or in terms of years of indentured servitude.

All punishments may be waived if there are extenuating circumstances, e.g. self-defense.

Economy and Trade

The Republic of Trenicia is mostly self-sufficient. The settlers now produce a crop surplus so food is no longer imported. Some raw crafting materials are imported, as are fine and exotic materials (gems, silks, incense, spices, spirits). Exports include food, beer, wine, and trade goods.

Trenician beer is surprisingly good and is often in higher demand than their wine.

The vast amount of trade occurs via sailing ships. A small amount of trade occurs with the Belisarian Exarchate over the roads.

Names

Trenicia is fairly cosmopolitan. While a large portion of the populace is either Rumelian or of native stock predating the Rumelians, there are numerous settlers from numerous origins, so almost any sort of name is possible.

Those of Rumelian descent tend to have names based on Greek, Italian, or Latin names. (Ancient Roman and Ancient Greek names are also possible for older families.) They may or may not have surnames. Patrician families always use their surname.

The natives tend to have names based on Slavic, Croatian, Serbian, or Slovene names. They tend to have patronymic surnames (e.g. Petrovich or Petrova). Members of patrician families use their family name as well.

Dwarves tend to have Scandavian-like names. Elves tend towards something lyrical that may or may not mean anything. Gnomes usually have grandiose names (although usually signifying nothing). Halflings tend to take human names or names based on plants, with plain-sounding surnames that reference plants or places.

Appearances

As noted, just about anything goes. Those of Rumelian descent tend to have dark hair and olive, bronze, or tan skin tones. Eyes tend to be gray or brown. Natives tend to have Caucasian or olive skin tones with dark hair and gray, brown, or blue eyes. Settlers can have almost any skin tone, hair color, or eye color.

Dwarves tend to have Caucasian or ruddy skin tones. Elves, gnomes, and halflings have similar skintones to humans but tend to be fairer.

Race Relations

Dwarves

Dwarves are generally respected in Trenicia. They have the same tendencies toward hard work and honesty as most Trenicians, although they have a reputation for being miserly. Works of their blacksmiths, jewelers, and other crafters tend to be in demand.

Elves

Elves are distrusted due to their perceived bias against hard work. They are stereotypically believed to be artists who can create great things but rely on others to handle menial work. The stereotype is unfortunately rather untrue, since elves do believe in hard work and earning their own keep.

Gnomes

Gnomes are widely believed to be bubbly, erratic, and insane, yet harmless. They mean well but they tend to give headaches to "right-thinking" people. They always look on the bright side of things, possibly as a self-defense mechanism from falling completely into madness.

Halflings

Halflings are also generally respected in Trenicia. While they can't accomplish as much in the fields as taller races, they're excellent cooks and their hospitality is second to none. They're also usually cheerful.

The exception to this are settlers who come from lands where enslavement of halflings is common.

Half-elves

Half-elves tend to get treated as elves by humans, and as humans by elves. This puts them awkwardly between the two and can be maddening.

Half-orcs

Half-orcs are rare in Trenicia. They have an unfair reputation for being dim-witted and only useful for brawn. In border towns, half-orcs tend not to be trusted since they may be spies for orc raiding parties.

Cities

Trenicia

Trenicia, the Shining Jewel, is one of the largest and richest trade cities on the Cursed Isle. Almost all institutions in the republic, including the magic academies, churches, military, and so on, are based in Trenicia.

The original settlement, partly rebuilt during the Rumelian Empire, is a walled city with the docks outside. Since the influx of wealth into the city, more and more people live outside of the Old City. The Old City is divided into the moderately wealthy old families and the lower-to-middle class workers who either work in the docks, in the city government, or cannot afford land outside the walls. The rich merchant families mostly have their luxurious estates outside of the Old City. The older growth of the New City outside the walls was organic and poorly planned but the city government is trying to ensure better planning as more houses, estates, and businesses are added to the outskirts of the city.

Castronovo

During the days of the Magelord Empire, a palace was built at the confluence of several rivers, amid a trading city. That palace crumbled to ruins during the War of Freedom and the plague years thereafter and the city was reduced to a town. About sixty years ago, around the Zamplakon family built a new castle on the palace grounds and renamed the town Castronovo. Since then, the town has grown to a city again as the trade goods from the towns upstream come to the city to be bought and sold.

Castronovo is perhaps best known for the large number of blacksmiths and metalcrafters in the city who work the metals smelted in the mining towns into farming implements, weaponry, jewelry, and so on. Most institutions are represented in Castronovo.

Petthalia

Petthalia is a coastal trading city southeast of Trenicia. While it does not hold the same splendor or the same opportunity as Trenicia, the Bryennios family has shifted the focus of the city toward offering goods that cannot be easily found in Trenicia (including some illegal goods) or goods whose transit time on ship should be limited (e.g. livestock). It also handles a significant amount of the land-based trade, lying along the Rumelian Road.

Kumai

Kumai is the smallest of the four cities, located roughly east from Petthalia and along one of the rivers that flows to Castronovo. While lacking in the large amount of resources available in Castronovo's province, the Czartoryski family has transformed the small town of Kumai into the center of domestic luxury goods. The finest wines, spices, and more come from the lands around Kumai.

Foreign Relations

Trenicia only has one civilized neighbor, the Belisarian Exarchate. However, they maintain embassies with most nations.

Belisarian Exarchate

Belisarian Exarchate coat of arms

Another former territory of the Rumelian Empire, the Belisarian Exarchate has not been faring well. Between misrule of the exarchs, predations by their neighbors, and general calamities, the nation has teetering on the brink of collapse for decades. The Republic purchased land from the Exarchate partly as a means to support their neighbor, since having their neighbor fall into chaos would be bad for business.

The Admetian Kingdom, seeking to follow the footsteps of the Rumelian Empire, has recently absorbed one of the nations bordering the Exarchate and it may be a matter of time before the Exarchate is absorbed as well.

Admetian Kingdom

Admetian Kingdom coat of arms

The Admetian Kingdom is a warlike expansionist nation formed from yet another former territory of the Rumelian Empire. The ruler, Basileus Agelaus, is determined to reunite, and then surpass, the Rumelian Empire under his banner. Trenicia is still weighing its options on what to do if/when the basileus' envoys start making demands.

Kinriviny Tribes

The orcish tribes of the Kinriviny Steppe have no centralized leadership so there are no official embassies. Very few of the emissaries sent to the tribes ever returned so Trenicia stopped sending them. The tribes are known to be belligerent and are almost completely in conflict with each other over the few resources available.

Other nations

Trenicia maintains good relations with most civilized nations. Only the isolationist nations do not have a Trenician embassy -- and Trenician trade agreements.

Life as an Adventurer

Anyone can become an adventurer, although most people do not have the aptitude for it. Adventurers are expected to not rely on charity (although they may receive some anyway) and are expected to work toward the common good.

As noted above, adventurers tend to be well-respected by the people.

The Adventurers' Guild

As should be expected in a nation of merchants and craftsmen, there is a guild set up for adventurers. The primary function of the guild is to make sure those who would like to hire an adventuring party can be matched up with an appropriate party. Unfortunately, the guild tends to only have guild halls in the cities and large towns. Jelena's Ford doesn't have one.

The guild hall in Castronovo is selective about accepting new members, ostensibly to prevent the young and foolhardy from making poor decisions.

Life in Jelena's Ford

Jelena's Ford is a small trading town. It's situated on the banks of the Savine River, upstream from Castronovo. Here, farmers, miners, lumberjacks, and local craftsmen can sell their wares to each other and to merchants who then ship the goods down river to Castronovo or even to Trevinia. (See Jelena's Ford for more information.)

Sergios, Captain of the Guard

Sergios has been captain of the guard since before you were born. He could keep up with you when you were children but he's getting up in years now and isn't quite as spry as he used to be. He was a surrogate grandfather for many of you, sometimes stern and sometimes generous.

You don't know much about his past from before you were born. You know he used to be a soldier and adventurer before he settled down in Jelena's Ford.

A few days ago, he broke his leg. When he was riding on his rounds, someone shot his horse with an arrow and it fell, pinning his leg to the ground. He doesn't know who shot his horse but he'd like to find out.

He's concerned because no one from the hunting lodge came to market this week. Usually Brother Eumenes comes to market to buy food and to talk. Since he can't travel to the lodge, he's asked you to go by there and make sure nothing's wrong.

Gabi Anicova

Gabi Anicova was an eccentric herbalist who lived on the outskirts of town towards the forest. She would sometimes be asked for remedies for small issues, like a rash from poison ivy, or hay fever, nothing large enough to bother the town priests, and she would sometimes help the priests in healing when necessary.

Auntie Gabi — she insisted everyone call her auntie when they tried to call her something more formal — got along well with everyone, even you. If Sergios was your surrogate grandfather, she was your surrogate grandmother, sometimes giving you cookies or the time of day to listen to you or keeping you from getting in trouble with Sergios.

She seemed to have a gift of prophecy but she only spoke of it in times of great importance. Many of the adults did not take the prophecies seriously but Sergios always did. And you noticed that even if your parents laughed it off, the prophecies always seemed to come true. This is why her last prophecy bothers you but you're not sure what to do about it.

Auntie Gabi had an adopted daughter, Flutura Dejanovich, who also served as her apprentice.

Flutura Dejanovich

Flutura Dejanovich was one of your childhood friends. She was a frail girl back then with poor eyesight and an odd fascination with fire. She's grown up into a attractive and slender young woman with dark hair and eyes and an almost delicate quality to her fair skin and, although she wears spectacles now, her eyesight does not appear to have improved any.

When you went off for your apprenticeships, she stayed in town as Auntie Gabi's apprentice. Since Gabi's passing, Flutura has taken over her role as town herbalist. She doesn't have the same expertise that Auntie Gabi did but she is doing her best for her fellow townsfolk. Rumors suggest she may be fond of one of the forest druids, although he could also just be helping her collect herbs and protecting her in the forest.

Flutura has always had an odd fascination with fire. One would expect her to be frightened of it since she was the only survivor of a house fire when she was three, but it has always capitivated her.

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