GM Faelyn' Falcon's Hollow Series

Game Master Faelyn

It is the 21st of Lamashan, 4714 and the short autumn seems to be giving way to an early winter in the Vale. It has been a cold, damp fall thus far and the rains have swollen the nearby River Foam.

Current quest:

The party has been commissioned by Laurel, the local herbalist to seek out three specific ingredients for a cure; Seven (7) Ironbloom Mushrooms, a rat's tail, and some Elderwood Moss. The party knows where they believe they can find the mushrooms, a distant dwarven monastery. Laurel directed them to seek out the witch Ulizmila for information on the rat's tail. And lastly, she told them to find Milon Rhoddam, the best woodsman in the Vale... if anyone would know where to find the oldest tree in The Woods, it would be him.

The group located Milon and obtained a map from him outlining the general path and locations to search. Utilizing the map, they located the Elder Tree and obtained a large section of Elderwood Moss. They are now setting out to find the witch Ulizmila to gather a rat's tail root...

Falcon's Hollow Demographic:

FALCON’S HOLLOW
NE small town
Corruption –1; Crime –6; Economy –1; Law –2; Lore –3; Society +4
Qualities: Strategic location, Superstitious
Danger +0; Disadvantages: Plagued
Demographics
Government: Council (Lumber Consortium)
Population: 1,400 (1,328 humans, 44 halflings, 14 elves, 14 other)
Notable NPCs
- Deldrin Baleson, Sheriff of Darkmoon Vale (LN male halfelf
expert 3/fighter 3)
- Lumber Consortium Overboss Payden “Pay Day” Teedum
(LE male human monk 2/fighter 3)
- Magistrate Vamros Harg (NE male halfling aristocrat 2/
sorcerer 5)
- Thuldrin Kreed, Gavel of the Lumber Consortium (LE male
human expert 3/rogue 9)
Market place
Base Value 880 gp; Purchase Limit 5,000 gp; Spellcasting 2nd
Minor Items 3d4; Medium Items 1d6; Major Items —

Website about Darkmoon Vale and Falcon's Hollow
Information on Important NPCs of Falcon's Hollow

HISTORY OF FALCON’S HOLLOW:

Falcon’s Hollow is a relatively young town—only 140 years old—but in that time, it’s had more than its fair share of tragic events and violent conflicts with monstrous neighbors. Tales of these events are passed on from one generation of old-timers to the next, cobbled together from “sawing dust” (chatting in the cutyards) or “blowing cinders” (telling tales around a hearth fire at Jak-a’-Napes, the Sitting Duck, or one of the other inns and taverns around Falcon’s Hollow).

Founded around 4573 AR, Falcon’s Hollow began as the latest in a long series of settlements hastily erected by the Lumber Consortium. Unlike its predecessor, Falconridge, Falcon’s Hollow successfully clung to its existence in the face of wild beasts, dark things from deep within the Vale, and other desperate trials.

The survival of Falcon’s Hollow is a testament to the steely resolve of its three founding families: the taciturn Larko clan, the brave Samkils, and the brutal Kreeds. These bone-hard folk weathered the Harpy-Hag Massacre of 4603, finally ending that conflict by marrying a Larko son off to one of the hag Ulizmila’s seemingly innumerable daughters.

The decade-long period known as the Misery (4631–4641) claimed most of the children of Falcon’s Hollow, before coming to a close when the attic whisperer responsible was found by Balkri Kreed and promptly dismembered by her furious hands—though not before it claimed the final breath of her son Talin, the last of an entire generation of the three families to be snuffed out in their cribs.

The Hobgoblin Strife of 4679 claimed the last living scion of the Samkil family, though more than a few oldtimers insist that the crossbow bolt buried in young Jebrika Samkil’s back bore a suspicious resemblance to those used by Thalsin Kreed, Thuldrin Kreed’s father. Most of the surviving citizens from that time bear scars from this savage contest over the region’s darkwood groves.

In 4701, the Falcon’s Feud concluded with the eradication (by mass burning) of the Larko clan, most of whom had become “unnatural folk”—changelings and worse—thanks to their ties to the hags of the Vale’s deepest wilds. Many townsfolk from that time cast their eyes downward when speaking of those events, uncomfortable with the tragic irony of this thread in their town’s history: the Larko family was the one to step up and sacrifice their eldest son to marriage with a hag’s daughter to ensure the community’s survival, and the same neighbors his sacrifice saved would eventually seize upon that tainted bloodline as cause for wiping out the family. Along with the end of the Samkil line at Jebrika Samkil’s death a few decades before, the extermination of the Larkos left Thuldrin Kreed and his son Jurin as the only surviving descendants of the original founding families, and the sole owners of the whole region’s Lumber Consortium chopping rights.

In more recent years, leprosy arrived at Falcon’s Hollow; around one in 10 of the residents have contracted the wasting disease, most developing it late in life rather than exhibiting effects at birth. A leper colony has sprung up on the edge of town, occupying an abandoned cutyard and log house and providing a refuge for those chased from the town by residents afraid of contracting the affliction.

The Night of Silver Blood werewolf attacks in 4712 left Falcon’s Hollow largely untouched, though the orphanage, Elara’s Halfway House, burned down shortly thereafter under dubious circumstances.

Maps:

Map of Falcon's Hollow
Milon's Map of The Woods
Closeup Map of The Woods

Images:

Dwarven Monastery
Falcon's Hollow NPCs

Darkmoon Vale Slang - Speaking Like a Valer:

Darkmoon Vale’s human residents all speak Taldoran (also called Chelaxian), the most widespread tongue in the areas surrounding the Inner Sea. They do so, however, with an accent that borrows from the speech patterns of both Andoran and nearby Isger. This distinctive vale accent sounds clipped and sharp, but not to the point of seeming angry. In addition to this unique accent, the people of Darkmoon Vale have their own dialect unique to the area. In order to help you blend in while exploring Darkmoon Vale, make sure to (correctly) use the following phrases.

Cutyard: A tree-felling camp that temporarily houses lumberjacks chopping an area of the woods.

Mudpot: A type of hot spring or fumarole consisting of bubbling mud instead of boiling water. Also called a mud pool or paint pot.

The Store: Lumbering supplies provided by the Lumber Consortium, which often come with additional “taxes,” even long after purchase.

Stoutfolk: What dwarves of the Five Kings Mountains call themselves.

Valer: A human born, raised, and living in Darkmoon Vale. Immigrants, transients, and non-humans are not Valers.

The Woods: Darkmoon Wood. Valers don’t call any other groups of trees “the woods.”

Houserules:

• Combat Maneuvers Do Not Provoke. In addition, all maneuvers can be attempted in place of an attack. All characters with a BaB of +1 or better count as having all "improved combat maneuver" feats for the purposes of feat qualifications. (note that this does not grant the usual bonuses to those maneuvers. Just the not provoking part. If you want combat maneuver bonuses you'll have to pay for them.)
Exception: Grapple checks to Pin are still standard actions.

• Reposition and Bull Rush are for shoving people off cliffs or into campfires. The caveat about not being able to move people into danger with these maneuvers is removed.

• Any creature with an Intelligence of 3 or higher receives Combat Expertise as a bonus feat at +1 BaB. Defending yourself with a weapon is instinctive and should not be taxed mechanically. You're already taking a penalty to do it. That's enough of a trade off.

• Improved Unarmed Strike is a Martial Weapon Proficiency. Anyone trained in all martial weapons knows how to punch someone.

• Spears of all kinds may be used in one hand by a character proficient in Martial Weapons. Because history.

• Characters have a number of Attacks of Opportunity each round equal to the number of attacks granted by their BaB. More skilled martial characters should be better at exploiting combat opportunities. Combat Reflexes adds AoOs equal to a character's Dex modifier to their number of AoOs a round.

• Characters have a number of Five Foot Steps each round equal to the number of attacks granted by their BaB. Mobility in combat is important. Nobody likes aborting attacks because they killed their enemy on the first swing.

• Reach Weapons do not use the ranged weapon Cover rules. Attacking from behind other people is what polearms are designed to do. A character shouldn't have to invest in archery feats (improved precise shot) in order to use a polearm the way they are designed to be used.

• Reach Weapons use the 3.5 Diagonal exception. Normally, pole arms do not threaten on diagonals, unless you are a large creature. Ignoring this little artifact of the grid makes pole arms more functional.

• Armor Spikes, Spiked Gauntlets, Bite attacks and other weapons that do not need to be employed in hands allow a character to threaten squares adjacent to them, even if they have attacked with a Reach weapon that round.

• Light Weapons can be drawn as a Free action. Treat them as ammunition. If drawing an arrow is a non-action, so is drawing a knife. Pistols count as Light weapons for the purposes of drawing.

• Spells don't Fizzle. Anyone that fails a concentration check doesn't simply lose the spell. Instead, the Scroll Mishaps rules will be consulted to see what happens to the magical energy when it is interrupted.

• Drawing Objects From Pouches: Any adventurer worth his salt knows that sometimes it's handy to have things like caltrops, tanglefood bags or potions as accessible as possible. As such, bandoleers and pouches are treated exactly like (and cost the same as) Wrist Sheathes or Spring Loaded Wrist Sheathes. A typical belt can hold up to six of them. With a belt and two bandoleers an adventurer could have as many as 20 ready pouches. This rule exists mostly because the system for retrieving small objects is total b~!!!#*!.

Initiatives:

[dice=Belladonna]1d20+5[/dice]
[dice=Greyson]1d20+0[/dice]
[dice=Nathaniel]1d20+2[/dice]
[dice=Ruhk]1d20+2[/dice]
[dice=Zirren]1d20+2[/dice]

Perception:

[dice=Belladonna]1d20+8[/dice]
[dice=Greyson]1d20+4[/dice]
[dice=Nathaniel]1d20+2[/dice]
[dice=Ruhk]1d20+4[/dice]
[dice=Zirren]1d20+7[/dice]

Sense Motive:

[dice=Belladonna]1d20+5[/dice]
[dice=Greyson]1d20+8[/dice]
[dice=Nathaniel]1d20+0[/dice]
[dice=Ruhk]1d20-1[/dice]
[dice=Zirren]1d20+0[/dice]