Brancalonia - Bay Of Princes

[xaosseed]

Brancalonia in Menagerie World: a band of dubious rascals, engaged in questionable enterprises too dangerous for others; keeping your community safe in the crumbling remains of the elven empire.

Themes of wilderness exploration, treasure hunting, heists, crimes.

Aim to be VALUE compatible; Brancalonia rules are a mod to 5e. Perpetual T1 accessible to newbies but with persistent world for repeat players. Setting is a homebrew menagerie world to allow any character to join the table.

Episodic adventures contained in a session. Will have a central location in-game, a Den in Brancalonia rules so every session starts and ends there. Each session starts at the Den so whoever is present is just the gang available for todays job (allows open table drop-in/drop-out)

This is the start of the sessions log on the forum

DISCLAIMER Sitting to a Brancalonia table, your character is broke - “I’ll do this job for a plate of food” broke.

Mechanics

• E6 – level up from 1 to 6 as normal, then after level 6 whenever you would level-up you gain another feat instead.
• Knaves Rest – short rest = 8 hours, long rest = 7 days
• Online news board – there will be an online news board – perhaps on the discord or my blog of things happening which may be warnings, clues or adventure hooks.
• The Den and Grandluxuries – effort may be spent to upgrade your base which gives you boons before a job
• Bounties & Notoriety – the Royal Register tracks misdeeds and assigns you all a bounty, which comes with greater notoriety but bounty-hunters may come to collect
• Non-lethal brawl rules – separate moves, use of props, ritualised combat from old etiquette of the elves. Draw a blade or cast a damaging spell and everything shifts to standard 5e combat
• Shoddy & Counterfeit gear – currently you are equipped with the best you could get, and its not great

BrawlRules-compressed.pdf (541.7 KB)

[xaosseed]

Setting: Menagerie World

Everything below is for curiosity, none is necessary to know before joining a game

Many thousand years back the elves conquered all this space, set about raising up animals to become more elves and then a thousand years ago they abandoned these overseas holdings and went home. All the animalings left behind are half-finished elf-creation efforts.

Our current realms have all fallen out of the old elven colonial empire except for Shamunz, the remnant of the dwarf-lords realm. In between those we have two ‘memory/culture forming’ periods - the colonial conquest of these Southern Reaches by the elves and the fight for power in those same realms by the elves abandoned vassals - the era of the Predator Queens.

Alerimysa - new kingdom forged from the chaos of the Predator Queens

Neavethiylian - stubborn elves, those who refused to join the great retreat, bastion of the old ways, an old elf state maintained by non-elves

Shamunz - dwarven lands – insular, last bastion of dwarven power, source of finest metalworking

We are set in more of less the high-tide mark an old colonial push by an offshore culture. The people living here now are a mix of the animal-lings were uplifted by the incoming elves and the previously existing dwarf, giant and draconic cultures were swept before the colonial drive and have left traces behind. These older cultures blended into the current most common culture. There are not so many original members of the culture around so these will likely be present as variations on the practices of the majority

Inhabitants Menagerie World has a lot of species, kin groups and peoples about

• Animal-folk of various sorts ~ 40%
• Humans incl. tieflings, genasi, halflings, etc ~ 15%
• Insect-folk of all sorts ~ 10%
• Aquatics, Avians, Goblinoids, Saurials & constructs each ~ 5%
• Remainder ~ giants, fey, plants & odder things
• Elves and dwarves are relatively rare about this part of the world but feel free to use their PHB stats reskinned as an animal-folk if you wish – all animal-folk are paused elf-raising endeavours that became their own peoples when the elves departed ~ 1000 yrs ago

Faiths around the Bay of Princes: much has been swept aside by the current majority - the old animist religion of the elves being replaced by the standard D&D pantheon. There are hold-overs from the old animists, I think potentially scary druids in goblinpunch style. And in the north west, we have the Kirianshalee cults living adherents who think the lich-priests running the Land of the Dead are doing it wrong.

[Burek]

A band of misfits traveling together charmed their way into longer-term lodging at the Golden Rooster, owned by Rufter. To settle some of their debts, make themselves at least a bit useful to the world at large, or perhaps to make a name for themselves, Rufter revived the Brotherhood of the Old Bucket and sent the five knaves on an adventure.

They were to find the village of Borgorato, which for many a year has failed to re-pay a tribute to the Brotherhood of Old Bucket, and settle it through any means they know. They left Rufter, and Rufter might have been left without one of his fine vintage reds during the departure. They travelled along a river to the Hangman Inn where they were told to get more info. Here, various denizens of the world productively chopped into the hours of the day, at least if you call drinking ale by the barrel-load productive. The knaves, making some friends in the process, got information about Borgoratto - for many years, the village was abandoned, infested with spider crows.

The band “procured” some mounts at the inn stables and set their sights on finding out if the village even existed as a billable entity. Travelling through the forest, they happened upon a thick, unnatural mist, nearly splitting up along the way. There, they encountered an undead creature and a running brain, both of which they took care off, but not without questions arising. Hiding from a rainstorm at a derelict chapel, the Tabaxi of the group made it a point to make the night a horror movie for the halfling. As if perpetuating horror stereotypes, or just perhaps wanting to be part of the fun, the long-dead denizens of the chapel’s graveyard decided to not be dead anymore and do the spooky undead attacking the party scene, a bit early for Halloween. With their mix of punching, slicing & holy powers, the party made solid work of their party crashers.

Hiding at the altar, the party unearthed a holy artifact, Saint Gonnello’s Knuckles. The legend goes that Saint Gonnello used to punch a lot of heathens and afterwards rest his heathen-worn knuckles in a bucket of water. Some of his saintness still seeps from the knuckle bones into water, giving it restorative powers, something the saintly party quickly connected the dots on.

Descending into the village below at the break of dawn, the party found no trace of spider crows, but quickly found the eery quiet of restless spirits that still populated the place. The whole village was in disrepair, haunted by the image of what it used to be. Finding out that the evil energy of the place was to quickly descend upon them, the knaves erratically searched the Manfreda household where they found out that it might actually be their brotherhood owing a debt to the deceased of this place. With their holy holyness of the holy people of the party, they set about a ritual of cleansing the evil through a burial ceremony, aimed at putting the restless spirits to rest.

Our knaves rightly deserved the succeeding little bit of coin still to be found in the village, as they took in the revived chirp of the birds and rustling of the trees that returned to Borgorato.

[katnyx]

Dear Diary,

Mighty Rum may live again!

Now that my clandestine distillery puts me at risk of bounty hunters, I have tried to shackle up at the cockerel with some other petty criminals. Alleged. That’s important to them.

Anyway, the other day old Ruthger Punchrabbit got tired of me, Laxodon, Eel and Thak and sent us to collect the dragon Bigad’s treasure. Bigad, so the story goes, has not been seen in years and years. I agreed because I wanted to check on my distillery on the way there, and I had nothing better to do.

Anyway, the 4 of us set out from the Cockerel to find Vondela of Peara who had a treasure map. On the way we walked past the distillery but decided not to go in. It looked to be in great condition though!

We did meet a noble knight on his steed who seemed eager for adventure, and eventually we turned around and took him with us after initially assigning him to distillery guard duty.

We found Peara at the Hold Cain Inn, but before we got talking to him we were brutally attacked by and brawled with a weird guy called Turtlehead Tony and some of his friends. Naturally, my brawl-proven band of babboons (oh diary, I say this lovingly!) defeated them without much trouble.

Only problem was, it turns out vondela of Peara is a… Well… Money maker who sold the treasure map multiple times, each time assuring the buyer it was the only copy and hiding the fact he couldn’t read the book it came from and was merely tracing.

Seeing as we had nothing better to do and still hoped for treasure, we followed the map anyway.

We went up the big river, hiding our motives whenever we encountered travelers. I did gather some great rum making herbs and other secret ingredients.

After cozy nights by the fire, we got to a more lonely part of the journey. We should have known that something was off when we saw smoke rising uo, but decided to ignore what we saw and push ahead. We did meet a charming young lady after that, she lived by herself and had no recollection or at least no answer to how she got to be in thT situation. She said she had an axe but the others convinced me not to invite myself into her gome to see it.

A few hours later, we started to get a bit tired when suddenly, our brave knight pointed out… Dragon tracks!!!

There was a possibility that it was another large animal of course, but at this point we were prepared for anything. While we were arguing about what to do, turtlehead tony and his scoundrels showed up behind us! We did have time to hide and wanted to let them go ahead. If the dragon was alive, at least tony and his guys would be eaten. If the dragon was dead, we could follow behind and just deal with Turtlehead.

Somehow I got confused, though, maybe it was the lack of rum or something. So I took a stone and threw it at them from behind, and well, it landed in the lake. Did I mention there was a lake? And a cave.

Anyway, turtlehead was still mad because of the other night, because he attacked us. We were doing alright defending ourselves, but then I guess my stone kinda woke the dragon Bigad - I guess he was just sleeping, not dead.

What’s that saying, draco dormiens nuncam titillando or something? So now we were kind of busy fighting the dragon and I got badly injured and couldn’t really participate in the fighting much; but the rest of them seemed to do okay. Most of Turtlehead Tony’s guys died, but I guess he and the rest of my group of uhm, alleged, petty criminals joined forces, and defeated the dragon. We did have our knight’s noble steed to carry back some stuff, but a lot of it was useless.

Anyway, sadly the knight didn’t make it, but at least now I have money to oay back Ruthger and stay at the cockerel a little longer and I have funds and herbs RESTART THE DISTILLERY AND SELL MIGHY RUM when the action has blown over a bit. I do wonder if that will happen seeing as Lax is sure to write a newspaper article about the whole thing. Oh well.

Laxodon suggested I take classes in self preservation so as to not wake sleeping dragons. Maybe he has a point? Right now I’ve just been sober for too long so I’ll join the others in a night of drinking and brawling.

Oh diary, even at 270 years of age, this dwarf takes such comfort in knowing she has one friend who will never abandon her.

Sincerely, Mardred

[jboimler]

To my undying Master!

Thank you for lending me your powers for the last couple of days. The uncouth tavern keeper Rafka pushed another seemingly safe money-making mission onto us.

“There is another DEAD bigat out there!” he said. “It’s DEFINITLY DEAD!” he said. “You just have to find it faster then the other hunters!” he said. In his delusional world it seems that all the dangerous monsters died of old age, and they all leave enormous riches behind.

With his “assurance” we started our travel to Roca Bernardo, a small village near where the bigats liar should be. I should have noticed that something was of, when one of us stayed back with some “stomachache”. This left just us, a merry group of four arguably capable swashbucklers.

There was Francis the journalist who gets into the thick of it for his stories, the two Lathander worshippers Bradly and Elathiel and me a black cat on his last couple of lives.

After a surprisingly smooth journey we arrived at Roco Bernardo in the evening to be greeted by the spriest oldest guards you can think of. Lazy as hell but be wary if you don’t pay the toll. One second, the guard was sleeping and the next there was a spear at Elathiels throat.

After solving the situation peacefully by bribing them with a good (at least not bad) bottle of wine we traveled through the streets to the center of the village where we heard a commotion. During the walk we planned how we should present ourselves to the people of the village and the other bigat hunters who had already arrived. We concluded to use Francis as the face of our group because he was part of a team which killed a bigat not long ago. I used the powers you gave me to make his clothes seem more valuable, more like something a successful bigat hunter would wear. So, I made it look like a fancy dragon scale armor with bigat teeth all over and it was decided that Elathiel would introduce Francis as the biggest, strongest, best of hearing, tallest, … and much more, bigat hunter galore of the region.

The nearer we got to the ruckus in the center of town we noticed that the villagers were actively avoiding us. No one made eye contact and they closed their doors and windows as soon as we were seen. This didn’t sit right with me, so I diverted our group to get to the bottom of this strange behavior. We bribed an owl family for some information and a bowl of the best mouse soup from all Brancalonia. I was blessed that they shared it with me. (I even think I got one of my lost lives back.)

They told us that the locals didn’t get along with the bigat hunters. Just the merchants liked them because the hunters were buying their overpriced wares. First they denied any knowledge about a bigat but then the grandfather vaguely remembered a story from his grandfather who told him that the former countess used to pay tribute to a bigat in the village. It was called the bigat wedding where someone was “married” (sounded more like sacrificed) to the bigat when it woke up after a long hibernating phase. This new information renewed our belief that the bigat was not as dead as advertised and reinforced our conviction to get help (meat shields) from the bigat hunters to secure a victory in the inevitable fight. And who would be better to lead such a troupe than Francis, an already successful bigat hunter.

At the marketplace we encountered four different groups of bigat hunters drinking and feasting outside the only standing tavern of the village. The other taverns were unusable because of fire damage. Elathiel tried to introduce and hype up Francis to the people there, but sadly he failed miserably. Luckily Francis saw in one of the groups the wizard Satar who he knew from the last bigat hunt. With all his charm and some glib words, he convinced Esterina, the leader of the group, to let us join the spike gang in their hunt for the bigat. To solidify us into the gang we helped them in the bar brawl which broke out later when more people got drunk.

Early the next morning the two Lathander worshippers tried to get some information from the street vendors by inquiring about maps and stuff. There we learned about the tide mountain range, which comes and goes with the moon phases. (WOW! There is always more to learn out there.) Once the whole gang was ready, we headed to the river. Because we found out that the bigat comes from there to get its tribute when it’s awake.

During our track upstream near the river, we met another friend of Francis from his last bigat hunt. The noble knight Rokaspra and his trusty horse who chose to search with us for the bigat. Sadly after a whole day of searching we didn’t find the lair of the bigat. So we decided to camp and get ready for the night.

Suddenly during the night, we heard a loud growling or howling which sounded like a bigat. To attract the bigat in our direction the wizard Satar imitated a bigat mating call. This worked perfectly and we soon heard a big creature making its way to us. Once it arrived, we ambushed it with our combined powers. To our astonishment we learned that bigats can burrow and move in the earth, which was especially surprising to three members of the spike gang who died when the bigat emerged right beside them. Fueled the fear of the bigat fleeing under the earth we hurried up to kill the bigat.

On the next morning after the fight, we tracked its traces back to the lair and found enough money to keep Rafka happy and off our backs for a couple of weeks.

[xaosseed]

A map with locations of recent adventures marked in.

[xaosseed]

More deep background for the curious:

A Beastman Came Upon A Beast - d8 superstitions around who can be eaten

d8 reasons to fear the legacy of the predator queens

NPC mannerisms: d66 animal-folk attitudes

d14 small gods of the animal-lings

[xaosseed]

Rumors heard at the Golden Cockerel

1. Peach Cider, the most appreciated drink of the Golden Sun tavern, has deteriorated significantly in the past months - people aren’t getting drunk anymore! Someone needs to go Tassonia and get them to sort it out.
2. The new Duke de Savedra is setting up hunts past Cat Castle in the forest of Batta for dreaded wild horses.
3. An old soldiers map points to a treasure buried near a farm, the current holder of the map willing to sell because of tales of a fearsomely scarred viperwolf has emerged from the mists around Penumbria and prowls the countryside.
4. Preachers normally confined to their posts on the road to Penumbria have begun prowling further afield with accusations of blasphemy, complaining about peoples fun. They are especially incensed about the approaching Red Carnival with its revelry, parties and indecencies set to engulf the city of Amnasseanase
5. Queens Guard have been spotted in the Ditch of Serpents, rumored to be chasing Ghino de Fosca’s band after a massacre

[Atanen]

Dear diary!

What a great weekend! We saw Rothgar twice yesterday! It didn’t happen’ much since I arrived in this new village, saw a couple of guys (and gals of course!) who could have been adventurers seeking a thrill like me, but we never talked to each other before. Now it was the time, since Rothgar got a letter from an old comrade seeking help with a food problem (he wrote it differently)! They have too much of it, he might send some hungry adventurers to get rid of some boars in the forest (and we just did! Hear me out)! Getting ready to go, we saw Rothgar a second time, as he said we should instead take the boat (just as we finished packing the cart with our stuff and nice rum made by Barrún)! The boat ride went uneventful, if you don’t mind me feeding the fishes…(I used to swim, not to sail on some bloody boats) My new friends decided to suggest the goblins (the ship owners) to stay and we went with the old comrade of Rothgar up to the village of Ponteratto to have party! They loved our stories and didn’t mind Zell defeating their kids in a joust on Minastas’ shoulders (as a grim reaper )! The next day we wanted to head out to the forest to take a look at the boar situation with the “head” hunter, but he vanished. We took the live wood puppet of the sorceress to guide us there - turned out to be a terrific idea, she couldn’t be poisoned (we tried to calm her down with rum)! After some nice walk (with bathing and landslide…it wasn’t a boring hike) we found a log cabin with tracks of 2 different humans, truffles in butter in crude jars and lots and lots of smoked and to be smoked pork (a.k.a. the food problem)! I decided to take things in my hands (and pockets, belly etc.) as the boars began to “howl”. The people in the village said that they would be howling like were-whatevers, eating people and acting strategically, until then I just didn’t believe it! We tried to lure them to the cabin, they didn’t want to have lunch - but we did! That’s where we needed to calm down the puppet (successfully). As it was clear that they are not coming to us, we decided that we should go to pay them a visit. We sneaked past some patrols, and found their cave (since when are they living in caves?), with a big poop-pool at the entrance. Our zoologists were convinced that this behaviour is highly unlikely of boars! We made one plan after the other (that was the last time we saw the puppet), even wanting to conceal our odours with boar-poop…but nah! We threw a bit of smoked pork in the cave, casted a silent fire illusion, hid on the trees, used nasal diversions of another kind, and to escape a patrol already looking for us, rushed into the cave (with Minastas’ lead). We found nasty surprises! Several boars bathing in clean water, nice made nest with flowers and hoarded snacks! Wall paintings of gods of some sort (which we couldn’t learn much about)! And finally, a kitchen where the butter-truffles were from (with cook!) and a “big city hall”, where the hunter from the village argued with two unfamiliar hillbillies and a boar on his hind legs! We immediately rushed into action (not wanting to get caught hiding), bought a jar of truffles as a conversation starter, and led ourselves to be introduced to the boar king. As we convinced him to let us arrange a trade between them and Ponteratto, the 3 humans arguing wildly against each other now began to accuse us with stuff, which didn’t really work because the 2 bums turned out to be the ones killing and smoking the boars! As the hunter from Ponteratto was allied with the 2 (and Zell made a hilarious deception move, convincing the boar king), he made a run for it too (and was bitten by Barrún as a poisonous spider). All 3 came to a stop in the hall, where Garett began a brawl and Aurora summoned a boar who snuggled them all to a stop. Things went rapidly after that, we showed the cabin to a delegation of boars and arranged a truce and trade with Ponteratto. We liberated the cabin of the heavy horrors, left just enough smoked meat in the cabin for evidence for the negotiations. Since the goblins with the boat were gone, Garett and my humble self needed to hastily botch a cart together to save the donkeys back home from a darker fate…