Little House on the Borderlands: GM Notes:
NPCs you will meet along the way (1)
1) a greedy, sneering merchant from one of the merchant houses, who will try to take advantage of your situation or need
2) a friendly, naive, farm hand with a wagon
3) a gruff farmer who doesn't want nobody in his business
4) a wandering minstrel, who is down on his luck since he is terrible at singing and minstreling
5) a gang of very tough young kids
6) an extremely drunk old man
7) a mayor (Samantha) desirous of the safety of their town
8) a rich scholar (Chris Pound) who is writing a travel guide to the borderlands
9) a laconic goat herd
10) A young monk who has taken a vow of silence
11) an ebullient and strong farm hand (Roberta)
12) an annoying kid. "wat ya doing? why?"
13) a testy noble, visiting an ill-advised country estate (Vincent)
14) a friendly and fundamentally ok trader (Ravi). "my friend"
15) an old lady who will want to talk about herself
16) an old hermit who misunderstands everything you say
17) a card sharp who will pretend to be friendly and lie and to try find advantage
18) an clam breeder, who will try to sell you fried clams. suggestitive
19) fletcher, who will try to sell you arrows. suggestive
20) a spear maker, who will try to sell you spears. suggestive
NPCs you will meet along the way (2)
1) a ant-plant orchard keeper. only eats plants
2) a wine maker that runs a failing vinery. very drunk. very friendly
3) a group of head-in-the-clouds monks who are studying clam genetics
4) a group of orphans who will try to beg money. and keep coming back for me. Talk in baby voices, have pet dogs
5) a weirdo who keeps a pig farm on the edge of town. unfriendly
6) a merchant caravan, friendly and will let you know the news and help as they can
7) a messenger on a lathered horse, no time to talk, rushes by
8) an army contingent of 20 men. no-nonse martinent commander
9) a shady group of ruffians. neo-priests of Davkul
10) a man having sex with a sheep (at night)
11) a man who's been hanged from his foot. he sold somebody a bad pig. otherwise friendly
12) a man in stocks. he is severely unpleasant and insulting
13) a man with 2 tame pigs (Shana and Sarah). he oinks sometimes instead of talking.
14)
Interruptions & side plots
1) a volunteer milita. They are incompetent and will get themselves killed
2) another group of WitchHammers. They will want to contest the kill
3) an army garrison sergeant who will interfere with your plans by being too conservative
4) a wealthy civilian philosopher adventerur insists on riding along
5) a pilgrammage of estatic worshippers. dervishes, flagellants
6) a telescope that needs to get readings on a comet
7) a comet that puts strange vapors in the sky. causea time loop? Or was that actually premonitions instead?
8) a gypsy caravan. will fortell your future. gives +2 or -2 depending on the reading
9)
Combat Complications:
1) it turns out to be bigger than you thought
2) it turns out to have children with it
3) it turns out there have 2 (or 3) of them
4) the people you thought were helping are actually cultists
5) the people you thought were helping actually want to claim the bounty for themselves
6) there is wildlife in the area that interferes (dogs, territorial squirrels, raccoons at night, a bear)
7) there is a band of thieves & brigands in the area
8) it is actually a trap for you & you are the hunted ones here
9) spirits of death come to watch the battle
In general, Witches and Monsters are florid and cancerous, sprouting and infecting new things. Can always use that as an excuse for a stage 2 or stage 3 of combat
Neat locations:
1) a graveyard
2) a pond with reeds
3) a waterfall
4) a quarry cliff face
5) a crossroad at night
6) an abandoned village
7) an abandoned village town house
8) the ruins of a farmhouse, destroyed in a previous attack
9) the ruins of a village, destroyed in a previous attack
10) a fairy circle, with wisps of magic
11) a stone menheir circle, where weird things happen
12) a field of flowers, that seems to go on forever
13) a mill house with spinning water wheel
14) A gently running creek with pure clean water
15) a burbling sprin of pure clean water
16) A truly ancient ruin with abstruse markings
17) an orchard of tiny trees (they don't like big trees)
18) a giant oak that survived the colonization
19) an area of sickly fields, where nothing grows, and people grow sick and become strange
20) A gibbet where criminals have been hanged
21) a patch of thick berry bushes
22) a field of thorns
23) a field of wheat
24) an icy pond/creek
25) a dry, dusty creek bed
26) a pond that is teeming with fish
27) a stone road that cuts off suddenly
28) a giant metal spire
29) a giant metal sphere that will not move
30) a giant trapazoid that is 1/3 embedded in the ground. someone has built a house on it
31) a frictionless plane
32) a metal tree that cannot be harmed
33) a scenic house with hummingbirds and butterflies
34) a bog
35) quicksand
36)
Locations in the Forest:
1) A glass tree with a flame inside
2) a hole of complete nothingness
3) a large mirror set into a tree
4) a series of hemisphere rocks, each of a different material, each
5) a pool of infinite depth
6) a tree of many fruits
7) a glade of midnight (even in midday) and endless moons
9) a large fractal flower of a million colors
10)
Encounters in the Forest (they should encourage to chaos, wildness, freedom, exploration, ectasy, transformation):
1) a very large swarm of cats
2) a moving, curious shadow. will try to swallow you
3) a swarm of moths butterflies
4) a talking tree
5) a beautiful elf-man made of ice
6) a pool of water, that mirror people come in and out of
7) an glade with an infinite expanse of flowers, just keeps going further and further until you reach the moon