Fantasy Core Ireland--Adventure Part 1

FANTASY CORE RPG
(c) Jerry Harris, 2012
Published here as Open Game Content.

Adventure Index

Family Feud (1 XP for stopping the fight):

The characters arrive in Nenagh, a town in Tipperary County, Munster Province, in the afternoon into a major commotion. Outside of town in a field, two clans are arrayed for battle, hurling insults at one another. In-between the two sides, their lords with their champions and a priest are having a meeting. The townsfolk are watching nearby and egging on the fight. Bearing royal seals on their breasts, the characters will be allowed onto battlefield and to approach the negotiations.

The priest, Father Macgillycuddy, will immediately challenge the characters and explain that he is mediating an important matter of county business, namely a single-combat to the death between these two clans. Both clan lords will be dismissive of the high-king’s representatives and tell them to mind their own business. It’s up to the players to impress upon them their authority. The combatants are the Kavanagh clan lead by the excitable Nialls Kavanagh, and the O’Gradys lead by the stoic Connor O’Grady. Nialls is claiming that the O’Gradys, “Well-known for their ties to the unnatural,” are attacking their cattle with some form of devilry. Connor is claiming that they had nothing to do with it, and further a woman known to be a witch is in Kavanagh employ. This is probably her doing.

The two lords are about to let their champions (in this case, Nialls’ son, Fergus, and Connor’s heir, Cy) fight it out. It’s strongly implied that this event is really just going to be the precursor to outright clan war. The players will have to act quickly and decisively to keep them from fighting. (The good father can be used to help out, if the players are having too much trouble.) Both sides will be amenable to a temporary truce. Otherwise, a quickly escalating fight ensues, and the characters’ reputation in the county will have already gotten off on a bad foot (and they’ll always be reminded of it). In either case, the characters can waste little time in sorting things out before the fighting gets totally out of control, requiring army to put down.

The story of the provocation is fairly simple. Last night, a prize bull disappeared from the Kavanagh herd and was found drained of blood and hung from a tree the next day on O’Grady property. Guards watching the cattle were found unconscious and claimed an odd Black Mist overcame them. Neither side will admit to any wrong doing that might have started this.

(Sidebar: Not to say that they haven’t been going at each other lately. Nialls’ daughter, Sybil, is the latest conquest of Connor’s nephew and heir, Cy of Red Nail. Or the other way around. In any case, the tryst has been covered up by both parties given their already mutually soiled reputations. Tia, Sybil’s sister, however has taken the affair as a family slight (or perhaps just jealous) and personally gone after Cy in retribution. Tia is also secretly a witch who can take werewolf form and is in league with Fenris the Druid. Her attack left the handsome O’Grady with a scar across his face. He is itching for revenge as soon as he can figure out what attacked him. Also being covered up is an incident where an O’Grady family artifact has been swindled out of a cousin by a Kavanagh cousin for a bar of fairy gold, which promptly turned to lead. Connor wants the heirloom back and Nialls wants to know where the fake gold came from. Neither wants the incident made more public, as both cousins are currently missing.)

The clans and townspeople will disperse (completely disappointed) when the truce is made public. No one is going to want anything to do with the characters.


I'm out tomorrow.  I plan on being back and posting on Thursday.