Not sure I want to keep the name 'Heggler's Point' - so called because of a chicken farm on the point. ('Heggle' is the the root of 'Heckle', a Heggler is a person who sells eggs, and the term as we know it came from the fact that they would sell rotten eggs during public punishments and other events welcoming ridicule. Charles III charged a premium from the hegglers present for the execution of (already long dead) Cromwell....)

On the flip side, what are the odds that anyone is likely to know that? (Hell, why do I know that?)

And I definitely need to redo those maps.... CC3 makes much better looking maps than FM 5 did.

Looking at the files, I have more than 30,000 words there, decanting my notes back into English is likely to add about 1,000 to 5,00 more, at a guess.

I have about one or two months to get it beaten into shape, that's when he will be finished upgrading his cooling system, so I can have his old one.

I got a lot more of it done tonight than I expected. The fun is going to be statting things out for Pathfinder. As I went along some of my more confusing notes started making sense.

Bed time now, I bet I dream about naval invasions and pirates forming a defense fleet. (In the real world there was not a whole lot of combat when Eastport was taken by the British.)

Major Plotlines:
Blackwater Pirates
The Fall of Hook Point Fort and the Invasion of Heggler's Point
The Devil Walks
Desperate Allies
Never Trust a Pirate

The Auld Grump

Okay, two more points, then bed....

1. AAAAAAaaaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhhh! He wants me to add a romance plotline! (His fiance will be one of his players.) AAAAAAaaaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhhh!

2.

That is exactly how the barn on Heggler's Point should look.

It is likely that the PCs will find themselves trapped inside it at one point... Looks like it should hold them for the amount of time it takes for one good strong kick. (Seriously, Str check 10+? Maybe? It's meant to keep chickens in, not heroes.) Mind you, the thing stinks of chickens....

The Auld Grump

Adding a complication to the world - the Tarramach Orcs.

The complication comes in because not all the orcs are in a state of war with the settlers.

Not all the orcs that are at war are local to the area.

Not all the settlers, including a big chunk of the military, draw a line between 'friendly orcs' and 'unfriendly orcs' - an orc raid is likely to bring retaliation down on completely innocent orc villagers, simply because they were nearby.

The orcs are not the invaders, they are an aboriginal people. Humans, dwarfs, et. ali are the invaders.

Half orcs are called half-breeds and are generally disdained by everyone.

There is a school down the coast that teaches orcs, trying to bring them in to the settlers' culture. It is religious in nature - for a long time the denomination responsible for the school was outlawed from the area, under pain of death. (In part for claiming that orcs have souls.) They are still not welcome, but are no longer outlawed, in part because the school is open to all, with no fee.

The Auld Grump - Hayward Free College.

Still reworking the maps... I needed to change some references - I doubt that 'Boston' is going to be one of the locations on his world map.... So I need to go over place names with him.

On the plus side, my old case has enough room and power for the new motherboard and cards, so it won't be gotten rid of - making the process a little faster. Drives can stay, but most likely won't. (Remember when 750 GB was a big drive?)

The power supply was apparently chosen with an eye to expansion, and will handle the two new cards and the cooling just fine. (The cooling he is upgrading to has a separate power supply... which is why I am getting his hand me down. Two power supplies for a single computer seems a bit much, eh?)

Currently at 23,030 words, most of the removed material was specific to S&B. He laughed at the incident with the outhouse.... (Probably wasn't funny at all to the person that it actually happened to.) The event was stolen from a book by Thomas Bailey Aldrich -

The Auld Grump

Oh, give me a break! Who the heck did I think that I was fooling?! I found a site on my map labeled 'Forge Valley'. It's a valley, with a stream and a forge... much like a similar valley in the eastern part of the Americas....

Incidentally, the war that I was building the campaign towards was not based on either the War of Independence or the War of 1812, but rather the French & Indian War, with elves standing in for the French and orcs as the Indians. It is not that the elves like the orcs, it is simply easier to have the orcs doing the fighting and dying.... And the elves are paying well for atrocities into the bargain. (Including slave running and the taking of scalps, as well as the occasional massacre.)

Both sides are pouring men into foreign lands to do battle. Supply lines are stretched, and naval engagements can determine whether one side or another has men or munitions at any given time.

Many elves are Chaotic Neutral in the setting, and orc raiders (as opposed to orc villagers) lean toward Chaotic Evil.

Goblins are wood fey, and opportunistic in their attacks - faking signs of one side or another, when they can get away with it.)

Fighting elves and orcs in the woods sucks! - I was reminded of this when I found the lyrics for Boatman's Cure.

The Auld Grump, also apropos - a song based on a ghost story from the 1750s.
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Piper's Refrain

I'll tell it to you as they told it to me
By the glow of the campfire burning.
By the banks of the water where we sported and played,
They once faced the fury of battle.

CHO: And up through the Champlain came the Highland Brigade
The pipes and the drummer played "Scotland the Brave."
But when they sailed home the piper's refrain
Was, Oh, how cruel the volley."

To one Duncan Campbell it came in a dream
That he'd meet his fate where he never had been;
Where the blue waters roll and the stickerbush tear,
It's "Travel well, Duncan, I'll wait for you there.

"For the French and the Indian have challenged our King."
(To a soldier like Duncan, no need to explain.)
"It's many a time I've travelled the waves
To find my fate in the fire."

From Fort William Henry their boats have shoved off
To the North of Lake George in the morning;
To the place the Frenchmen call Carillon,
And the Indians: Ticonderoga.

And the word struck Duncan like a thunderbolt there;
Everyone knew of the warning.
"Oh, give us a tune to remember me by,
For tomorrow I'll not be returning."

When the gunpowder flashed, the Highlanders died,
Never again to walk the hillside.
In the wilderness green, in the sun and the rain,
It's here they're forever remaining.

And I've told it to you as they told it to me,
Of one Duncan Campbell and the Highland Brigade.
When the campfires flicker in the summertime's wane,
through the mist on the water comes the piper's refrain.


I fought all through this wilderness in '59,
I still fancy I see shadows moving time after time,
I still fancy I see shadows moving time after time.

If it doesn't lift your spirits, well, it leaves you numb.
The best cure for shadows is a bottle of rum,
The only cure for shadows is a bottle of rum.

Barbarians, rogues, and rangers, in among the happy little trees.

The Auld Grump

One of the PCs has now spoken to The Hag of Heggler's Point - calling her 'Mrs. Heggler'.... A sea hag, organizing a gang of wreckers - some scrags opportunistically pick off survivors, and once or twice one of the wreckers. A half ogre poses as the hag's son. In the event that the PCs investigate the hen house then he will close and chain the door behind them - making the door the strongest point of the building.... He's none too bright.

There is a child tied up in the hen house. Just a little snack for later. (A lot of monsters eat children, so much more portable than adults....) She has eyes of two different colors.

Which reminds me, I have been thinking about creating some non-evil hag variants, much like the Witch of the Westmorelands or the Maid on the Shore. It doesn't always have to end in gingerbread.

The Auld Grump

Sent in the first draft the other day - he wants some more done with the pirates.

Adding two more pirate groups - one of which will lose a ship to the Wreckers early in the arc.

So, three pirate factions - one completely despicable, one opportunistic, and one driven by revenge.

There is also a faction of smugglers, with some overlap with the opportunistic pirate group. (The opportunistic group spend most of their time as either legitimate merchants, smuggling, or freight hauling. Piracy is something to do when the ship would otherwise be empty.)

For those interested - the child with the bi-colored eyes is a Changeling, in Pathfinder that is a half hag, and why I am working on a few non evil hag variants. The Heggler Hag is her mum, and when she could not bring the child to Evil she decided to eat her instead. Picture a twelve year old neutral good second level witch.

Right now, in the kid's game, she has been taken under the wing of the inquisitor.... Funny, but so wrong.... The hag has gotten away (she will return later) and the half ogre is dead. They have discovered the bodies buried under the coop, the bones gnawed, and broken open for the marrow.

The Auld Grump

Two drafts after what I had thought was the final draft....

Noticed some oddities in the aftermath - the most common spellcaster in the setting is Witch from the Advanced Player's Guide. Scariest spellcaster is an aging orc Summoner. Not initially antagonistic to the PCs, but may well become so. Respected and feared among his tribe, and honored for past deeds.

Spellcasters are more common among the orcs than they are among the humans - the Summoner, a few Witches (some hated and feared), a blind Oracle (same village and tribe as the Summoner), and a few Sorcerers.

Humans have Witches (some of them with souls as black as night), a few Sorcerers, only a very few Wizards, all in cities, some attached to the military. One Inquisitor (a right evil bastard, who thinks that his cause is righteous), a sprinkling of Clerics, including two Black Robes (missionaries of a forbidden religious sect - both Neutral Good - forbidden does not mean Evil).

Hopefully the PCs won't assume that all the orcs are bad guys.

Elves are more coordinated in their spellcasters, mostly Wizards and Sorcerers. Their single Cleric is a captured human, forced to perform healing for the elves. Despite their orderly military the elves are mostly Chaotic Neutral, with a few Lawful Evil exceptions in charge.

The Auld Grump

Well, my part is done, waiting on him to finish his system so we can cannibalize parts for mine.

He is pretty happy with the setting, likes the fact that there are so many conflicts going on, and that there are no clear cut good or bad guys in regards to factions. All the factions have plenty of each.

He did wonder why I had so many witches, I explained that it seemed a better fit than the adept NPC class. A deacon with spellcasting might be an adept, a minister is more likely a cleric, but hedge casters are mostly witches. I wish that I had covered more of what would be rural Pennsylvania in our world - folk magic is a little more accepted in that area. (Most houses have a good luck hex, for example.)

I was right in regards to his having a general lack of information regarding the French & Indian War, it seems that history is not as well covered these days. He was horrified regarding the taking of scalps as beginning with the French paying the Indians for trophies. (He has a French last name.) It was a pretty nasty war, atrocities on all sides of the conflict.

Ah well, I have some free time on my schedule now that the project is finally put to bed.

The Auld Grump

Part of the 'Value Added' ended up being paid off tonight - I ran an 'Emergency Session' to get the party together for him.

The reason for the panic? The players decided that they wanted to side with the local orcs.... He was thinking 'Pirates! Yarr!', but they were thinking 'Orcs! Waaaggh!' So he wasn't ready for the PCs to get friendly with what he was still thinking of as 'the monsters'. The Tarramach orcs are the tribes and peoples from the Canadian northeast down to what would be the Ohio River in our world. The largest group is called the Nation - more accurately a loose confederation. They will continue trading with the Braithe, but will otherwise sit the war out. While some orcs are still armed with bows most use muskets that are either traded or raided from the immigrant settlers.

Out of five PCs three were half-orcs - Witch (the wife of the soon-to-be-DM), Cleric, and Ranger. A human Rogue and a dwarf Ranger rounded things off. (Two Rangers, but different archetypes - one was a woodsman (half-orc) the other a boatman (dwarf - played by the soon-to-be-DM).

So I slapped together a 'River Recon' mission, with the PCs mobilized from a local militia. I followed the general theme of mission, things go bad, things get worse. Their mission: Gain intelligence of orc movements up North around a river and lake (in our world this would be Lake Champlain).

They managed to separate and intimidate one of the Northern orcs to gain the needed information, only to discover that the orcs had already mobilized for an attack on their own army's base camp. The half-orc Witch was very effective during the interrogation - managing to scare the piss out of the captured sentry. Good use of magic for special effects, the threat of curses (Hexes), and a sleep spell to keep the guard quiet while they bound and gagged him, leaving his knife where he could just barely reach it with his feet.

The party back in time for the tail end of a massacre - the only survivor was a trader who had fled, one who had had an argument with two of the half-orcs in the party. They killed some stragglers who had stayed after the battle to do some looting. The captain that they were supposed to report to was among the slain.

The PCs raced for town, only to find that the trader had told authorities that the half-orcs in their number had provided intel for the enemy. Not quite a lie - the trader believed it, but was wrong. As far as the trader was concerned an orc was an orc, even if they belong to allied peoples such as the Nation, the Mohecs, the Cherrooc, the Irahoo - in the long and the short a series of such incidents lead to the alliance between the Braithe (humans and dwarfs) and the Cherrooc being broken, and a second war along the same front. (Yeah, the party got to be at the forefront of history - go team!)

The last hour was spent breaking the half-orc PCs out of the stockade - the players with imprisoned PCs taking over some pregenerated temporary characters. (The dwarf Ranger did a good job of recruiting fellow boatmen to create a distraction. So much of the force was away from the stockade, leading with a large number of drunk boatmen and a burning warehouse - that of a forwarder who was well known for cheating boatmen working his charter.)

That gives an excuse for the PCs to be siding against the Braithe, while not siding with the elves and their allies. They will mostly be siding with either the Nation or with the Cherrooc.

Not exactly ex-tempor, I am not much good at improvising. I took a common enough wargaming mission, took setting elements, and based the adventure on that. Knowing that the Braithe were going to screw up their relations with one of their allies made it easy to have the half-orc PCs part of that history - the setting, as written, assumes that that second front has already opened, I just placed this first adventure six months before the official start date of the campaign.

Amazingly enough, none of the PCs died, and only one went into negative HP. (Shot by the folks that they thought were their side.)

As an aside - the magic blue smoke has still not escaped from the computer, things are looking good.

The Auld Grump

*EDIT* I also handed off an encounter that the players did not get to - a treant Witch, based on this miniature by Ultraforge:

In an area with a bad reputation among the orcs - a good way to take while fleeing? Maybe, but there is a reason for that reputation, and she's that reason. In a straight up fight she would slaughter the PCs.... (CR 12 vs. first level party....)

Revising a bunch of NPCs, mostly witches, to go with archetypes and patrons in Ultimate Magic. Hedge Witches are a nice fit for many of the nicer witches.

You know, I don't think that insomnia is going to be a problem tonight, I'm already yawning....

The Auld Grump, it couldn't be from staring at pages of stat blocks, could it?

Split off the posts about the computer.

When I first started this topic I thought that I would split it more or less evenly between the setting and the computer. Instead I seem to have been much more interested in the setting, going on volume alone. The number of revisions, all but one at my own behest. Including the one last night, which updated about 20 NPCs.

Thankfully, it is now done, payment received, last but one revision finished, 30 pirates to be painted. I suspect that I will do one last job on it, updating some Fighters to Gunslingers when Ultimate Combat comes out. (Partly done already, using the Playtest version of the class.) I recommended not using the armor penetration rules that Paizo saddled guns with in the setting, dropping the price, and making guns Martial, not Exotic, weapons.

The Auld Grump