Fort Covenant - On the Ocean Trade Route

 Had a bit of time of this wonderful Sunday afternoon, so I went and started working on a town for the next adventure or two. I also re-read the Delver books, realizing that he was including OSE adventures in there already! And each one goes up in levels for the players. So huzzah, I'll sprinkle some of those around the town at some point.

I'm also going to keep the location a bit undefined a bit, to let things settle in my mind. I know it is east of Windermere. I've never mapped that part of my world out. What I am thinking is to get the other players to help flesh out the world. Eventually we'll find the borders to Windemere and all that, but I'm hoping to build that out organically. What most GM manuals usually say: start in a central place, and build out from there. Not all of course, and for those who read my blogs, you know I just keep on mapping forever (...ever....ever in echos). Can't help myself!

Going through the town process for this settlement, we had some really interesting rolls. First, it starts as a military camp that evolved into a town. The eastern, to be named, kingdom put this military camp alongside the Ocean Trade Route to help protect those caravans moving through the kingdom. After more than 5 decades, the town has grown up around the camp, now a series of barracks inside the thick, stone walls. The focus of the town is still a military town: a lot of the services are oriented to our boys and girls in maroon. Yes, maroon uniforms. Hides the blood better perhaps. After time, wizards and magic users must have moved in: Fort Covenant's specialty is unique shipping methods. Not only do the caravans pass through, but there are gates (and good thing I am getting a book on gates though those may not really apply as these would be commercial gates. Perhaps one links to Ardonirane which would be handy as I do have that book and would like to use it!)

This is a large town, almost 6,000 people and perhaps 1500 buildings. Of that, 2,000 or so live outside the town walls. Most of the buildings are of moderate construction: decent but few are outstanding marvels. The town itself has a moderate prosperity: few are rich, but few are also poor. Oddly, for a town on a major trade route, its own market square is tight, with very few stalls. Each evening, there is an auction for the limited stall space in the market square. And in fact, it is unlawful for any overflow market areas outside the town. The troops maintain security along the trade route for leagues in either direction, but also do not allow for any free-standing markets outside the town. Not to say there are not hidden black markets (and I have a black-market supplement I need to actually read: the players would be most interested in this I believe).

The town is populous without feeling crowded and is surrounded by large agricultural farms. Oddly though, there is very little nightlife for Fort Convenant. Most shops and services close down, leaving just the inns and taverns open after dark. All the gates are closed and barred. The town watch is small, a couple dozen officers. They watch inside the town walls, while the Baron's troops handle things outside those walls. This is a convention started decades in the past, when there was a significant amount of robbery and thievery on the roads. When the kingdom finally turned an eye to the lost taxes, Fort Covenant was founded. 

Fort Covenant is ruled by Baronness Panax, of the Panax bloodline. She rules as her father did, commanding the troops and maintaining the military law. She is part of the city council, and has final veto power over anything. Not particularly imposing, rumors abound about her magical abilities but she has never used magic in the presence of anyone that can affirm this. She spends one day a week in the town hall, but most of the time she is in the fortress inside the city walls, dealing with the troops.

Fort Convenant boasts the Inquiry Bibliotheca, a huge library of books both mundane and magical. Its specials collections are kept behind well-locked and guarded doors and require approval to get into. The normal stacks carry books, scrolls and writings from most of the world, and there are several scribes who copy books. Its front doors have a pair of dragon statues that some say will come to life should anyone try and steal a book (finally someplace to use my dragon busts from the Reaper Bones Kickstarter! And should a player try to actually steal a book, I do have dragon minis). 

A few blocks from the barracks is the Crowbar, a dance hall that gets so crowded that you will need a crowbar to get in. No one remembers the original name. There is a weekly dance where the place gets packed, with soldiers, townspeople and visitors all together. The town watch keeps a few extra watchmen on duty that night as things can get rambunctious. 

And of course we will have merchant houses such as Gulark Nightspell, our tea merchant from what I am hoping is an exciting adventure. And using the ever-popular (at least with me) fantasy city generator I'll see if I can come keep hitting enter until I find a good map.

And this one ended up nice - it even has a Military Ward and the fortress/barracks I needed. May have to figure out the trade route. 

Interestingly, I can save off that city generated via a URL as well. I've downloaded a few versions of the city, but just in case I need to go back, that is an interesting and nice touch. Pretty sure I've tipped the creator once before - I may have to again.

While I am still working on my Windemere setting (and I may also update it to have all the characters statted out in OSE format, though that would be a lot more time consuming than the Fantasy Trip stats!) I am now wanting to work on this one as well. And if we get to play in the next couple of weeks, while I don't need all the details, I do need enough for my adventure to work. While it is probably a one shot, I am really hoping that we can get back to gaming. Or else I'll just have to figure something out: I really prefer face to face gaming. It is easier to read people, and for me to associate players and characters. As we don't do video on the Skype game night, it is hard to read people and for me to keep focus sometimes.

And I just realized I've been neglecting my Traveller high port. I've got the ideas floating in my head, but I seem to be having a hard time putting them down into something cohesive. The story of my life it seems sometimes: a lot of ideas but not enough action. But it was part of my January meta-challenge, so I feel I need to finish that up.

Finally - Happy Spring!