Seven Swords: a mini-setting

[taichara]

Seven Swords

The Lands of Rethen

a setting for Lindwyrm

and other adventure games

A mighty kingdom once ruled these lands of Rethen.

But Revar fell, in a cataclysm that left Irria, its shining capital, a blackened husk of shattered towers.

The blight that followed cut a swath through the Seven Swords

until the Blood Picket’s obelisks

were erected around

Irria’s shattered outskirts.

The Swords have squabbled and allied and spilled blood for generations now,

leaving Irria’s remains

and the blasted lands beyond

to the foolhardy and the Great Beasts

in order to contend for power

amongst themselves.

But something stirs in the mountain peaks and the depths of the earth, something bleak and foul,

and three oracles shrieked

of the Boneshadow

before taking their own lives.

Irria, First and Fallen

The Mirror Of The Sky exists no more than Revar itself can be said to exist. No longer is Irria a gateway to lands beyond the Ten-Thousand Pillars; no longer is Irria a sprawling sunwheel of polished roads and soaring towers of pale stone and glittering glass mosaics inscribed with poetry.

A wretched wasteland carved into the very earth, scattered with half-melted ruin and unnerving glassy growths erupting from the ground below; a twisted, clawing mass of charred spirals where the Mirror Palace once stood; a blackened void across the great mountain-pass where the Chalcedony Gate once rested; all this and more, within the forsaken territory that once was Irria, hedged in by the red granite obelisks – a massive half-ring of solid wardings – of the Blood Picket. Inside, strange black thorn thick as a warrior’s calf twine around fallen glory and, in the centre of the fallen city, a great maw into deepest darkness slowly opens to the depths below.

The Seven Swords

In the cataclysm's aftermath, the Kingdom's "Seven Swords" – the six territories once welded together by the Sapphire Throne, and the devotees of White Scale Island – promptly fell to seeing to their own people. Why claim a shattered ruin of a capital filled with death? And by the time the seeping remnants were contained, the Seven were firmly entrenched as sovereign entities of their own.

Each Sword is governed from a city that shares its name. Borders ebb and flow, and the future promises even more of the same.

Why seven swords? None are certain, now; but some look to the broken blade over Romfai's great gate, and wonder.

Aurel, Golden Heaven

Nestled in the midst of lush meadows and gently rolling fields, Aurel lifts a proud and gleaming face to the skies and proclaims its bounty and its successes to all that will listen. Life is good here; pledging oneself to one of the many Golden Houses, even better; and with Great Prince Amreya no longer content to merely passively absorb the small hinterland domains at the edge of Aurel lands, wise souls scent the possibility of open war on the wind. But with whom? More concerning are the rumours of Black Tempest messengers in Amreya’s court and drifting through Aurel’s markets, when tales claim the House of the Storm was slaughtered …

Surrun, Last Wish

At a remove from the Empire’s fall by the Moon Sea’s Crescent, the families gathered to White Scale Island once had all the respite they needed to build a sprawling town of fishers, salt-gatherers and artisans under the watchful eyes of the Hopeful Ones, devotees of Shatriya the Last Hope. But now their town, Surrun, is a growing celadon-eaved city, and Fisher-Prince Navar tires of ignoring the mainland’s developments while disbursing goods, counting coins and listening to prayers. The growing Last Wish fleet may soon seek the mainland not for trade at all. Younger folk are eager to make a lightning strike – especially those who feel less successful, or lacking in connection to Shatriya – while many of their elders eye Surrun’s lack of fortification and fear raising Fathom’s ire if the Beast is disturbed by the fleet.

Kervala, Ironheart

Only fools venture deep into the Ghost Forest, they say; fools and those desperate to bargain with Whisper. But Kervala’s courtyards and domes were not raised by fools. Its sturdy walls contain the greatest exorcists, enchanters and diviners the land has seen in centuries, schooled in lore distilled over generations, while the petty masters of its stillness gardens murmur pleasantries that soothe the nerves and pluck tidbits of gossip and truth from their visitors like deer nibbling spring buds. And the Ironheart families, without fear, venture deep into the Ghost’s cairn-lined trails to bring forth forest wonders. Whisper has not yet intervened.

Hauresh, the Winter’s Breath

Built on – built into – a pocket vale in the ribs of the craggy northern reaches of the Ten Thousand Pillars, Hauresh is as proud of its freshly soaring fortresses as of the deep-burrowed mines that fed the construction. Hauresh fears no marching army, believing the peaks at their back, Nightmaster and the lesser beasts of the Cold Children Forest will hamper any invaders and their own skills will do the rest. Nonetheless, Steelmaster Viryn takes note of the tales coming up from Aurel to the south and considers preparations of his own. The smiths of Hauresh create wonders, and amongst them the Ashen Hammer guild is famed; now the Hammers call many to the banner of a new project, one of lightly-framed flying craft powered by magic and spirit-fire from their ores. But some ores come back from Hauresh mines dark and oddly oily now, and forge odder still.

Dakath, the Black Tempest

The House of the Storm is no more. That’s what they say; that’s what the eye sees, a swath of targeted destruction that tore towers from battered stone foundations and sent firestorms flowing through Dakath’s main streets as its grim citadel-castle collapsed. The price of crossing one taboo too many, they say; the House of the Storm offended their ancestors and their peoples’ ancestors one too many times, and the Demon-Saint came calling to scour them from the earth. Now Dakath has no Storm Duke, no iron-eyed noble lancers, and the people of the city are trying to pick each other up again in the face of the carnage. Better to regroup and recover and try to salvage herds and wares and ancestral shrine pillars. Yet there are whispers that, beneath the cracked foundations of Tempest Citadel, remnants of the lord-families remain.

Romfai of the Blade

Austere and unornamented, Romfai – the Castle of the Blade – crouches behind the Spur Of The Ten Thousand, surrounded by a thin blanket of orderly, plainly built households, more permanent camp than town and certainly no city. Its lands are peppered with similar small hamlets and households, tiny villages and gathering-grounds; Romfai itself gives an air more temple than fortress. Romfai’s people grow their crops, leave offering ribbons when harvesting from the groves of the Red Banner and Blood Banner Forests – and dedicate their second children to becoming ferocious scholar-warriors. None explain to outsiders the meaning of the Castle’s name; none explain the rusting, ancient sword, strangely shaped and shattered to pieces, nailed above the great gate in the Castle’s outer walls.

Firal, Old Memory

Once a place of scholarship, a land famed for its cataloguing of ancestors and gods, of memory rituals and death-rites, Firal changed its face when Irria fell. Spurred by the capital’s fleeing populace, the death-sages of Old Memory turned to confronting death head on. It was Firal witchery that conceived of the Blood Picket, and Firal artificers that braved the miasmatic flux that spread from Irria’s ruins to erect the first of the obelisks. And the people of Old Memory turned their knowledge of the dead and the strange and the bestial to becoming, not archivists, but hunters and grim wardens stalking the length and breadth of Rethen. Now Thrice-Slain Jadannu sends their messengers to the other Swords, because a new threat is on ancestral lips; but will any answer?

Spires of the Moon: Two strange spiralling structures of blue-ivory, flanged with curving balconies, that have stood on either side of the Singing Lake for time out of mind. At irregular times a gleaming grey-gold bridge spans the Lake, rippling; and some crossing it disappear.

Sea of the Moon (the Rethr Ocean): So called by many because of the lumps of amberlune that sometimes wash up on shore, similar to that which makes up the Towers.

Ghost Forest: Sprawling across the southern peninsula, tangled with delicate stiletto-long thorns and coiling vines that move on their own, famed for the colourless ragged birches that dot the dense hazel-and-maple stands … and known for silent voices.

Ten Thousand Pillars: The collective name for the massive mountain ranges that hem in the lands of Rethen. The Peaks are riddled with mines, delvings, lost labyrinths, stone-carved shrines and stranger things.

Cold Children Forest: The northern forest of birch and great pine and black spruce. The undergrowth is sparser here, and the cold can be pitiless, as the Forest’s name suggests. Tales say Nightmaster patrols pillars of skulls.

Forest Of Silence: The great eastern forest, with Dakath’s city crouching to its south; mixtures of trees, oak and hazel and maple, juniper and persimmon and willow. There are few cairns, but deep within the Forest lie massive stones carved with twining sigils.

River of Dreams: The river that, once, led down through and away from Irriai on one of its main branches; Hauresh and Firal claim its remaining roots. The dreamsalmon runs have been growing unpredictable.

Singing River (Lorin’s River): Originating north of the Forest of Silence and from the Singing Lake, with Aurel’s gleaming palace-city nestled close. Lorin’s River has many tiny feeders that appear and disappear, feeding the broad Golden Plains.

River Of Grey: South of Romfai’s capital, running southeast, good for travel and prawns; and recently exposing bits of stony armour and petrified artefacts, none knowing the source.

Great Beasts and Other Forces

Rethen abounds in beasts and monsters, spirits and the restless, but of those four walk a line between monstrousness and far more than that – and a fifth lurks in the dark and the dead.

Nightmaster

Deep in the northern mountains, throughout Cold Children Forest, bitter and frostbitten; there in the peaks and forests runs Nightmaster, a great black-brindled wolf scarred by spear and flame, a grizzled forager with a heavy pack strapped to her burly shoulders. Nightmaster may lead a wanderer back to their path or to their lost ones, or an unwise prospector or would-be lordling to a cold and sharp-toothed doom by fang or ice or impaling branch. Some say she lairs within the shadow of Black Winter Peak.

Fathom

From the depths of the Sea of the Moon and the rocky beds of the great rivers swims Fathom; massive coils of emerald and foam-white scales, rippling crests and needle-claw fins, bringing healing elixirs and lingering, flesh-devouring death while soothing words slide from a peddler’s throat or long reptilian jaws that are slow to anger but swift to strike. Balance must be maintained. Fathom cares not for mortal encroachment on the depths of the waters and will plan for days before their wrath rains down upon offending ships and fishers.

Whisper

Is it the Ghost Forest that shelters Whisper; or is it the great Forest Of Silence to the east, or perhaps the tiny Forest Of Silver Tears? Or is it all at once? Perhaps so, as tales tell of them all, and Whisper gives no answer if he is pressed on the question – before filling the questioner’s mind with nightmare – whether he be pale apparition in bruised robes, blind warrior in bleached armour, bloody-velveted hind, or a glimpse of dead white eyeshine from the corner of one’s vision. Riddling wisdom and strange sorcerous baubles await those who approach Whisper well and are able to pay the fey prices he exacts for his trinkets and oaths.

The Demon-Saint

Steely flesh and coppery mane and curving horns, a predator’s gleaming eyes and clashing tusks; clad in baroque and ancient armour of iron and pearl and glass draped in tattered silken finery, the Demon-Saint wanders the breadth of Rethen bringing death to those deemed unworthy by talon, moon-blade and black iron staff. Some tales say the Demon-Saint’s retributions are the will of ancestors or gods; others murmur that the Demon-Saint first strode the land after the Empire fell, and one must draw one’s own conclusions from that. And it is also said that a plea to protect innocence may stay a judgement, or even draw the Demon-Saint to intervene …

The Boneshadow

Death is not the end; everyone in Rethen knows this, even those who don’t worship their ancestral spirits directly. But sometimes, death – or what comes after death – changes a soul. The Boneshadow may have been mortal, once, or perhaps sported mortal blood; no matter. His black whispers can thread through the mind and prompt one to horrors; and deep in fissures in the peaks of the Ten Thousand Pillars, the Boneshadow gathers adherents to himself with promises of fortune and revenge and petty power. Some describe him as nothing but a voice in the shadow; others describe bleak black finery, scorched bone and delicate threads of jewels.

Deep behind the Blood Picket, in the mountain plains of shattered Irria, lies a blood-dark gash. From the Maw spill dead warriors in pearl-black armour and bloodless witches shrouded in white.

Faith, Devotion and Other Intangible Things

Two forces in Rethen draw the devotion and worship of its people – the wychling creatures of the wild, and their own ancestors, heroes and villains both. Most everyone has a beloved grandaunt or family scion to give offerings to and beseech for advice, protection or blessings; dedicating a task, a creation or a battle (among other things) is an everyday occurance. Folks dedicate shrines and special tokens, maintain graves and monuments, and recount stories and tales. Some ancestors are fearsome entities, more appeased than beloved, but acknowledged all the same.

In a similar vein, powerful or particularly unearthly beasts and spirits are greeted with offerings, prayers, wards – and, many a time, grim Firal hunters when they turn out to be less than benevolent. The Great Beasts have many adherents; their own responses are variable.

And gods? Ancestors grown beyond their descendants? Great Beasts of begone aeons? Ilusion puppeted by the dead, the unhuman and the opportunistic? All of these? Who can say?

Spells and Magic

Spells

* Craftmaster's Eye: Determine materiels, origin, value or weakness of one object

* Winged Trove: Transport up to one 1' cu. of material / lvl to a known place with space

* Quicken Embroidery: Specific pattern can store a spell or object for 1 day

* Beckon Earth's Bones: Draw stones to surface 20' rad., toppling anything on the ground

* Blossom Poppet: Animate plant into small servant creature (1 HD), 1 day/lvl

* Bleak Tidings: Target consumed by nightmares; -4 to Cha, ML, Reaction tests; -2 to other tests; 1d4 days

* Frostglyph: Leave glittering mark; 2 hp/lvl damage. Must be touched, read or moved.

* Smelt: One metal object no larger than a grown adult melts. 1d6/lvl damage if in contact.

* Soulgem: +2 to any test, Save or damage caused, 3 / 12 hrs. 1d4 hp damage after the first.

* Whispering Thread: Ward, 10' sq. / lvl; informs caster of creatures that pass it. 48 hrs.

* Prism Storm: Conjures a blast of brilliant, glassy bolts, 60', 2d4 targets, 1d4 / lvl + 2 Bleed/action.

* Flower Lung Curse: Target loses 1 Con (or HD) / day until Save or curse broken.

Magic Items and other Prodigies

- Amberlune Lantern: Stronger than a glowpod, casting faintly azure light, 8 hrs/ration or 2 hp blood

- Ryslily Petal: One white petal to sustain a week or heal all wounds or other miracles. Only found as petals, the flower unknown.

- Follow-Me-Not: Silky blue-brown powder, dusted on self to be untrackable for 12 hrs.

- Time-Ending: Anything coated by this translucent resin is preserved indefinitely. 1 oz. = 1 cu. ft.

- Whisper's Token: Not named as such, really; a lock of hair, bit of velvet or other small thing that can be used to return to the Beast's presence once.

- Flamequench: Splashed around a 30' rad., this amber fluid prevents any fire for a week.

- Undernail: A spike of a cold black substance; a palm-sized nail of coagulated spite. Driven into the earth, gradually sickens all in a half-day's travel. Dead rise to serve the Boneshadow.

- Black Oak Fang: A mask of dark wood resembling a predatory beast. See in the dark, 2-in-6 tracking; take beast form, but Save or trapped 24 hrs.

- Master's Seal: Heavy seal-stamp in glass or marble or raw sapphire, used to unlock ancient locks and wards of the Kingdom throughout the land.

- Glaive Of Night And Day: Polearm of nightiron inlaid with gold and silver, edged with opalescent Irrian adamant. Properties of both, can wound unearthly creatures, grants +2 AC (day) or +2 Saves (night).

+ Irrian Glass: Famed for its mosaics and its shining domes was the Mirror City; and also for this wicked, bubbled adamant prized for blades. A weapon of Irrian glass is hard as steel and inflicts Bleed 1, 2 or 3 with each injury.

+ Pale Heart: Certain trees and shrubs of the Ghost and Silent Forests have cores of a dense creamy substance like bone or ivory instead of heartwood. Pale heart is valued for charms, statuettes, beads, wards and weapons against malignant dead.

+ Earthmarrow: A waxen, iridescent tawny crumbling substance sometimes found in fissures, deep mines and delves. A pinch is believed a sovereign tonic. An ounce to coat the body protects as light armour for a day and offers protection (+2 Saves) vs poison and disease.

+ Amberlune: A blue-silver-golden, shimmering solid, occasionally translucent, that washes up on the shore. Often carved into beads or used for sculpture. Carrying amberlune protects against mental influence, but slowly crumbles away as it is used up.

+ Nightiron: Blue-black metal found in the northern Pillars. Armour of nightiron absorbs the blood of its wounded wearer, later offering healing (4 :1); weapons of nightiron absorb the blood of those it wounds, as additional injury to be dealt. The size of the "pool" is variable.

Encounters In Rethen

* Fellbeast: Add the following to a creature: +2 AC, damage causes 1 Bleed / 3 HD, soulbite: Save or 1d3 Will loss (24 hrs)

Creeping Shards: An amalgam of broken finery and brittle glass and blood-red plasm. 1 HD, AC 11, +1 rasp or dart (1d4, 10' range), ML 11, absorb magic, dazzle: Save or blind 1 hr

Guide: A holy crow; a corvid with golden eyes; a sign of help and hope from beyond. 1 HD, AC 13, +1 peck (1d2 + stun 2-12 min.), ML 10, flying, heal 3d4, create meal, break curse, mundane immune

Wandering Light: A drifting orb the size of a spreading hand, a pale white glow with pinpoint core, delicate as glass. 1 HD, AC 10, +1 touch (1d2), ML 6, flying, mesmerize: Save or watch the light until shaken or injured

Jeltail: Strange, wobbly, soft-bodied, like a terrestrial tadpole the size of a hefty dog. Its gelatinous flesh is oddly appealing. 1-2 HD, AC 11, +1 (or +2) beak (1d6), ML 6, tail slap: Save or drop item, gel rations: 1d3+1 from carcass

Boneshadow Acolyte: This wight has, willingly or no, given themself to the Boneshadow. Thin black veins, hollow eyes. 2 HD, AC 10, +2 knife (1d4+1), ML 7, 2-in-6 chance of one spell, spite: every wound taken, cause 2d3 damage to nearby target or cause next action to fail

Rainribbon: Eel-like, serpent-like inhabitant of rivers, brooks and marsh. Transparent, swift. 2 HD, AC 16, +2 bite (1d6), ML 6, amphibious, first strike, always wins initiative

Khaan: Tall, stout avian, flightless and clawed; a deep blunt beak and crested skull. Can be ridden. 3 HD, AC 12, +3 bite or kick (1d6), ML 7, kick: stunned, 1d3 actions

Wolfwraith: Shining grey bones in clinging miasma of lupine shape. Points of ruby light for eyes. Terrible and relentless. 3 HD, AC 14, +3 bite (2d4), ML 11, half-damage mundane, fire + cold immune, mark: find injured victim, tireless

Mournwitch: Appears a corpse draped in white, but is very much alive. 4 HD, AC 12, +4 claws or wail (1d6 or 1d3 within 40'), ML 8, sorrow: Save or require another Save to make any action (1d4+1 actions), feast of tears: gains 1d6 hp / subject under sorrow, 6 spells

Gorgon: Low-slung prowling predator, like a fusion of monitor and great cat sporting deep jaws and sabre fangs. 5 HD, AC 12, +5 bite (2d6), ML 8, Bleed 2, shake: seized victim stunned 1d4 actions

Grave Warrior: Grey pallor, pearl-black mail, utter silence as they ravage. 6 HD, AC 15, +6 dread weapon (2d4 + dread: -2 next action), ML 11, +4 castigate resist, blight: -2 to Saves vs magic or disease + mark victim for Boneshadow

Scarknight: Relentless. Encased in pearl-black plate, weapons limned in blood and darkness. 8 HD, AC 17, +8 weapon or dread bolt (3d4 or 1d8+2 + Fear 1d6 actions), ML 12, mundane immune, cold immune, +4 castigate resist, engulf: immobilized, 1d4 / action, until freed/three Str tests

A Handful of NPCs

01. Trishala, weaver from Flickering Grove; blunt workaholic; heart-pendant

02. Runn of Dakath; one-eyed, seeking a wellstone for district rebuilding

03. Joun Dusk, wandering whitesmith and trader from a northern village

04. Nanda Vu; lean, murmuring; claims to be a poet, seeks to spread the bonesong

05. Rill Brencen, jovial river-captain; constantly counting prayer-beads

06. Oluye, woodcarver and charm-engraver, scouting for the Fisher-Prince

07. Thicket, wild of eye and tangled coils of hair; once an ancestor-priest, now mad oracle

08. Andan, taciturn sword for hire; searching for family; glass-spire shard

09. Rosarian ku-Velan, Aureli lordling exiled for opposing the Grand Prince

10. River-Winter, forager and witchling; scarred and wise; beaded fur mantle

Factions And Gear

Gilded Web: A network of scholars, reclaimers and couriers passing texts and discoveries across Rethen.

[yellow, gold or amber web pattern]

- relic charm, ciphered map, scrollcase, mount or homing pet, lantern

Moonbridge: Dedicated to gathering up the traces that appear around the Spires Of The Moon; absolutely certain the bridge between grants actual lunar travel.

[silver and blue arc or crescent]

- amberlune token, silver penknife, journal, vial of blue-gold dust, goldnut kernel

House Of The Grey: Continuing the old ways of Firal and others, wandering death-ritualists and funerists.

[grey disc]

- winding-cloths, dagger, wicker pack, pouch of salt, scented oils

Azure: Seek the revival of the Kingdom, the restoration of its lost royal scions, and – at least – the remnants of Irria's shimmering glory.

[any multicolour sigil; blue and rainbow bead]

- (broken) glass signet, tower stone, historical or legendary text, packet of notes and letters, blood drop in glass locket

Equipment Kits

Medium: Offering bowl, bone relic, censer and resin, blessed tassels, curved knife

Warrior-scholar: Light armour, 1 weapon, chosen text, writing kit, personal notes

Diviner: Bundle of scrolls, dose of void, casting stones, dagger, knotted cord

Ghost forager: Satchel, cairn stones, knife or adze, herb packets, glowpod or pale heart twig

Papermaker: Portable screens, cloth or plant shred, broad knife, sample sheets, chapbook

Mercenary: Light armour, 2 weapons, unit badge, pouch of trinkets

Reclaimer: Map, 1 weapon, amulet, broken statuette, adamant or steelmilk ingot

Wondersmith: Miniature anvil, smith's tools, maul, small cart, clockwork pet

Glassmaster: Satchel of fragments, miniature anvil, crucible, metal pipe-staff, glass knife

Some extra equipment:

Hirelings, wage per day:

Village Militia 1 gp

Mercenary 3-10 gp

Lantern Bearer 5 sp

Scribe 5 gp

Crafter 15 sp - 10 gp+

Labourer 5 sp

Sage 100 gp+

Tables and Inspiration

Adventure Seeds

01. A group from a Dakathi village are hoping to find someone to approach Whisper for advice

02. Fires keep erupting outside prominent Kervalan scholar-halls and stillness gardens

03. Drifting blue-gold flames, that do not ignite, have left Cold Children Forest

04. Venture past the Blood Picket and bring back samples of soil, water, growths –

05. They say a star fell somewhere in the northeast of the Ten-Thousand Pillars; its metal ripe and waiting …

06. A young Firal hunter seeks aid in tracking down their erratic mentor

07. For the ambitious – or brazen – surely riches await in the Tempest Citadel's ruins

08. The last leg of a secretive caravan from Hauresh to Kervala requires new guardians

09. Silver-boned wolfwraiths stalk a village's fields and livestock – and children

10. A representative of Great Prince Amreya declares the group anathema – why?

Ruins and Rumours

01. An Ivy Tower – carved with it, covered in it – found in the north of the Silent Forest

02. A brigand leader, Lothan Blindeye, newly wields a nightiron blade; where was it found?

03. Strange constructs of leather and frosty iron drift over the Cold Children Forest

04. A madman from a Romfan village claims he was given a mission by the Demon-Saint

05. Dead Man's Fingers, a cluster of tumbled spires and domed caps, rises off the coast

06. The Sisters, a traveling ring of six wild plum trees offering safety and rest within

07. In the Cloudmoor, Black Chaser's Manor hunches over a deep stone-lined shaft

08. High above Dakath in a mountain valley lies the Shrine of Fate’s Broken Wheel

09. Fathom was seen swimming up the River of Dreams with a great pearly orb in their jaws

10. You've heard, too? about the grey-armoured dead that night-walk and murmur in the soul?

Seven Swords by E. A. Bisson is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0