Fantasy Ireland Adventure: Keeper Hill-Ref Overview Briefing

KEEPER HILL

A Fantasy Core and D&D 5^th Edition Fantasy Ireland Adventure

© Jerry Harris 2016

Published here as Open Game Content.

(This link will take you to the Fantasy Core Playtest Rules.)

Fantasy Ireland Index

Keeper Hill Index

Ref Overview Briefing

After you start reading the succeeding posts, I know what you’ll be thinking, “A lot of this material looks awfully familiar.”  In spite of that, this is a different adventure and setting, albeit with about the same maps and monsters.  This isn’t exactly a “re-mix,” but if that thought helps you digest it better, good.  Give it a chance. 

This would be a mid-level adventure (minimum 5^th level) for about six adventurers (raise the level if there are less).  The group should include a magic user.  This adventure includes some strongly motivated NPC’s and quite a few fluid encounters.  In other words, this might be a bit hard to run just straight from the text without adding some improvisation.  For the Ref, handling the various monsters and allied NPC’s may be a bit much.  You might consider allowing the Players to play the NPC’s during the battles, though with the caveat that you may (and likely will) take control of them at some point.  There’s a few encounters that need to happen, but some of the others may be considered somewhat optional.  I would not try to force everything, though the subplots here add to fun.  If part of a campaign, unaddressed threads can be used for future adventures.

As much combat as there will be inside Keeper Hill, negotiation skills will be paramount.  The Characters will almost certainly need help and at the very least information from the NPC’s inside.  The Ref should hand out 1 XP awards for good negotiations and role-playing when the situation merits (FC rules).  Hand out Inspiration for 5e.  (I’ve never used regular D&D XP awards, so you’re on your own for figuring that out).   

Further, this isn’t a kill-everything-clean-it-out dungeon (though that may well happen).  Keeper Hill is home to two clans of Humanoids.  This is Character knowledge that the Players need to know, the Formorians may be a bunch of warring clans of monsters, but they are, in a very loose sense, a nation and Keeper Hill is their sovereign territory.  The Humanoids are a nation that Humanity (or Milesians as they are called by them) has an informal truce* with.  A few skirmishes here and there between warriors are regrettable incidents or just business.  Invasion of each other’s living territory, murdering non-combatants, and looting (especially by a group known as “the King’s Men”) would be an act of war.  While humanity may be more numerous and powerful than the Formorians, even the High-King does not want to put that to the test on a battlefield against a bunch of trolls.

[* Sidebar for future adventures: The truth of the situation, that the characters don’t need to know right now, is far more complex.  Humanity has a formal treaty with the Fey (the Elves) after winning a war against them.  Humans got the land; Elves got the magic.  The Humans have trade arrangements forged with the Dwarves, albeit grudgingly on the Dwarves’ part. 

The Formorian situation is far more nebulous.  It is a tenuous, un-negotiated cease-fire.  The Humanoids have had enough of their forays repulsed and are so disorganized as a nation, that they have ceased mass incursions.  The Humans cannot realistically invade the Underworld to destroy them, lacking easy access to the Dark Road, which connects the Formorian cities.  Were there ever another true King of the Formorians to rally them, or the gates of the Underworld betrayed to the Milesians, the situation would change quickly. 

Currently, there is little peaceful relations between the races.  There are no trade agreements.  The Humanoids simply raid Human settlements if they want something.  The Underworld is virtually impenetrable to Human incursion.  Small groups of Formorians are harassed when found above, unless displaying a flag of truce.  Massed groups of Humanoids are assumed to be a raid and attacked immediately. 

Ireland is a small nation, but each Human county and Formorian Underworld colony tend to be very insular and isolated from one another.  So, there are Human villages that have enslaved weak Humanoid tribes (often using them as miners).  And, there are strong Formorian clans that demand regular tribute from weak Human settlements.  Shame would not allow these tales to circulate beyond their borders.]