This is the first follow up to my post
from the other week about designing a campaign setting based around a
giant's castle. I am going to make a few posts over the coming weeks
and months fleshing out the various factions and NPCs present in the
setting. Before that, a brief overview of the back story of the
setting for context.
Few records of human history in this region have been kept, but the following is what everyone in the land knows
about our heritage. Once upon a time, mankind ruled over this
region. The best wizards, clerics, builders and politicians from
around the land built or uncovered something very important on a hill
in the centre of the region. Scholars disagree as to the nature and
function of this place; some believe it was a site of religious
significance, others claim it was a place of arcane power, and others
say that is was merely a huge vault to store treasure. The truth has
been lost to time, or deliberately suppressed. One day, out of
nowhere, the Giants appeared. They laid waste to our relatively tiny
towns and villages and took over the structure on the hill, building
a huge castle on top of it before enslaving the thousands of people
who lived in the area. After generations of living under the rule
of the Giant King (name tbd), a group of powerful wizards hatched a
plan to rid the land of their oppressors. They infiltrated the great
castle and used their magic to open a number of portals to other
dimensions, summoning various bizarre and dangerous creatures from
alien planes. The Giants were killed or driven out by the
extra-planar monsters and humanity was free from them at last. The
castle still remains though, and it is still plagued by demons and
other creatures to this day.
Faction - The Cult
Humanity's tragic history is enough to ruin any belief in a higher power looking out for our interests, but people will almost always gravitate towards beliefs systems that give them comfort about their inevitable death and downplay the meaninglessness of their existence. Members of the The Cult believe not in gods, but in a peaceful afterlife in the Eternal Kingdom In The Sky. If to live is to suffer, than surely to be dead is to be in bliss? Believers in The Cult's teachings comfort themselves with the knowledge that they will go to heaven when they die, but they can't seem to shake that little niggling bit of doubt that tells them that their doctrine is rubbish and can't be proven. So they are always searching for proof that their beliefs are justified. This is what has brought them to the castle. They believe that the Original Site that the castle was built on was a temple, and would surely contain the proof of eternal life they so desire.
Members of the Cult act gentle and saintly when speaking to outsiders but tend to be completely fanatical once you get to know them. They wear greys, whites and blues - the colours of their Eternal Kingdom In The sky and like foggy and cloudy weather. They absolutely hate wizards and will often brawl or skirmish with them if they run into them on expeditions. They also claim to be hunters of demons, although nobody seems to have actually witnessed them defeating anything other than demon's lowly minions.
Typical followers
- Level 0 commoners, mildly armed
- Do low-risk reconnaissance or look after their base
- Friendly, won't try to convert you straight away but will try to lure you back to their base to talk to a priest who will
- Silently judgemental
Typical priest
- Level 1-2 priest (see previous blog post)
- Do the same stuff as typical followers but also explore for artefacts, perform ceremonies and give spiritual guidance
- Wear robes and carry vials of holy water
- This holy water, when shaken, will evaporate into a gas that hangs in the air and can burn/choke undead
- Want to convert you
Typical knight
- Level 1-3 fighter
- Wear metal armour with white or grey surcoat
- Kind and 'chivalrous' until they learn that you are an enemy of the church, then openly hostile and potentially violent
- Hunt demons, wizards, thieves and vampires - usually badly
- Want to die a good death
Important NPCs
Archmissionary Carlin
- Level 5 priest
- In charge of the whole operation in the castle
- Younger than you expect
- Tries to get you to convert by telling you about how much of a great community they have in the church
- Likes to carve wood for a hobby
- Dresses like a typical priest but is armed with a mace and wears chain armour under his robes
- Questioning faith but doesn't let on because he doesn't want to fail at his job
Quartermaster Lisa
- Level 4 priest
- Low-key total nutcase
- In charge of the base
- Practically worships Carlin, but will turn on him if she finds out his wavering belief
- Avoids talking unless to proselytise, punishes people by cutting their tongues out
- Wears gambeson instead of robes, armed with hand axe
Sir Kleland of the stone fields
- Level 8 fighter
- Captain of the knights
- Ripped
- Claims to have killed a demon once, won't stop talking about it
- Doesn't talk about his past, generally assumed to be traumatic
- Pretends to be devout but is really only in it for the money and excuse to kill stuff
- Sword expert, will spa with you just so he can humiliate you when you get rekt by him
- “I came from the mud”
- Basically just a high school jock with a sword and full plate
Blacksmith Smith
- Level 2 specialist
- Level-headed (in comparison to everyone else)
- Makes and repairs weapons/armour/horseshoes etc.
- Secretly buys and sells enchanted runes
- Filthy
- Speaks in a way that assumes you believe in the same stuff as the cult even if you aren't one of them
- Looking forward to a nice peaceful afterlife
- Modest
Base
- Re-purposed from a giant stable
- Contains:
- Chapel
- School
- Sleeping/dining space
- Blacksmith
- Armoury
- Fairly well-guarded
- Occasionally bothered by minions of the Apiary Demon who lives nearby, no one has been able to slay it yet so mostly everyone just pretends it doesn't exist
- Hole in the wall behind Smith's workshop leads into the kennels, only gives access to one pen which is locked and barred with metal
