|
Post by Scott on Jan 25, 2023 22:43:48 GMT -5
Anybody know of any good material on Narwell? With a listed population of 2,900 it's the smallest town on the Wild Coast. Based on the references that St Cuthbert's followers can be found on the Wild Coast, and its proximity to other places listed, I have it as a place where cleric's of St. Cuthbert hold some sway, it's a little less wild there. Any thought? My cousin's magic-user has moved into a castle just outside Narwell's territory,, but it Is his nearest neighbor. Based on the town's small size and Maylin being a follower of St Cuthbert and already having a cleric of St. Cuthbert as a henchman he'll get a little support from that faction, but what else could come up? He's on his way o Narwell now to try to recruit a few more henchmen.
|
|
|
Narwell
Jan 25, 2023 23:21:06 GMT -5
Post by grodog on Jan 25, 2023 23:21:06 GMT -5
|
|
|
Narwell
Jan 26, 2023 19:10:27 GMT -5
via mobile
grodog likes this
Post by Scott on Jan 26, 2023 19:10:27 GMT -5
For inspiration I looked up “nar archaic”. From old Norse: corpse, a dead or lifeless body. Not the inspiration I was expecting, but it’s still inspiration.
|
|
|
Post by geneweigel on Jan 26, 2023 19:45:35 GMT -5
All roads lead back to Rob, does anybody but me have those Barbarous Coast maps? Was Narwell rebranded as "Deepton"?
We were doing some sort of collaborative creative activity around "Jepton" which was a parallel of "Safeton", right?
So if "Deepton" was Narwell that would imply some kind of underground involving water.
|
|
|
Post by Scott on Jan 26, 2023 23:17:59 GMT -5
That sounds right. Jepton was on the coast, so Safeton. Deepton was inland close to a river on the edge of a forest, so Narwell.
|
|
foster1941
Warlock
Duke of California, Earl of Los Angeles, Knight Bachelor
Posts: 475
|
Post by foster1941 on Jan 27, 2023 14:57:25 GMT -5
As Allan alluded to above, I've got a ton of stuff on my version of Narwell and surrounds. It's pretty much all whole-cloth made up (AFAIK anything Gary or Rob did with the town never made it into print, and the later-era stuff was rejected in toto). The town is the terminus for cross-forest trade roads to both Verbobonc and Dyvers, but as the woods have become more dangerous much of that trade has dried up so the town has become a depressed backwater. There was also a salt mine near the Jewel River that played out (and is now a multi-level dungeon, of course), adding to the town's economic woes, plus a refugee crisis of people migrating north from the more dangerous parts of the Wild Coast and setting up a large lawless shantytown outside the town walls. There's a natural hot spring in the hills above town that has developed into a Sanatorium where rich people (from Dyvers mostly) come for rest and recuperation, and an adjacent casino (temple of Norebo) to keep them occupied and fleece their money. These rich folks don't have much to do with the poorer townsfolk. The town is nominally ruled over by a former bandit who spends most of his time drinking and gambling at the casino and leaves the actual business of governing in the hands of his put-upon assistant and the chronically-underfunded town watch. The real power behind the throne is a criminal syndicate based out of a logging camp north of town (and associated with a bunch of assassins, a local sub-chapter of the Dyvers assassin's guild) who also secretly run the casino (the "chief priest" of Norebo is actually a fake, a mountebank) and also have their hands in both trafficking lotus blossoms (effectively fantasy meth or heroin) up the Jewel River from plantations in the Pomarj (which in turn are secretly operated by the Scarlet Brotherhood; the lotus plants were originally cultivated in Hepmonaland) and in supplying slaves to the Pomarj-based slavers (see A1-4). They also have a semi-regular bloodsport games in the casino basement where slaves were made either to fight each other or an assortment of tame monsters. There's also a preacher of the Elemental Evil cult operating in the shanty, trying to gain converts disillusioned with the local temple of St. Cuthbert that is focused entirely on the within-the-walls citizens and turns up their noses at the plight of the dirty refugees. All of this, plus two dungeons (the aforementioned abandoned mine plus the caves that were published in the "No Artpunk" anthology Allan linked to) and a wilderness hex-crawl in the Welkwood is the adventure book I've been working on off-and-on for years and have mentioned a few times before. The text is like 90-95% done, and will probably run around 150 pages when it's all done (with the town stuff being maybe a third of the total). All of the proper names mentioned above have been altered in the text (Warnell, Free Shore, Palm March, Gemstone River, Whither Woods, etc.) to avoid infringing on third party IP. If you're not looking to use all the (low-level) adventure stuff and just want some quick detail on Narwell for a group of PCs passing through temporarily on their way somewhere else all of my stuff is surely overkill (though at least theoretically a higher level group could still amuse themselves at the casino - I've got a bunch of colorful NPCs who can be encountered there, and you'll actually get to make use of some of the gambling rules in DMG Appendix F) but if you're interested in seeing what I've got drop me a PM and I can share there WIP draft (note: this offer only applies if you're one of the 4-5 regulars here who I know; if you're some random reading this sorry but you'll have to wait until I put this up for sale, probably/hopefully sometime later this year ). EDIT: Looking closer at Scott's OP, a 14th level PC with a stronghold nearby would definitely overpower any of the stuff I've written - even my "boss" NPCs are all only around 8-10th level at the most - so I don't know how much help or interest this would be for your needs
|
|
|
Narwell
Jan 27, 2023 15:42:51 GMT -5
Post by Scott on Jan 27, 2023 15:42:51 GMT -5
My primary interest in Narwell would be more for the political intrigue, and not so much the standard hack and slash adventure fare, so j just the personality and faction info is helpful.
|
|
|
Post by GRWelsh on Jan 28, 2023 8:49:09 GMT -5
Nár is a dwarf from the Dvergatal. His name is usually interpreted to mean corpse but that's open to question. In Tolkien, Nár was the dwarf who witnessed the orcs hack apart Thrór's body and throw pieces of it to the crows -- which led to the War of the Dwarves and Orcs. I wouldn't put it past Tolkien to take etymological inspiration from Old Norse and to have thought of his Nár as the "corpse-viewer."
I had an idea that Narwell was named after a dwarf who once built a well there. In later times the humans who settled there may have forgotten the origin of the name. I once discussed this with Rob and he mentioned a Hold of Nar he detailed for the Kron Hills, which was possibly related to Narwell's name. I liked the idea of a subterranean dwelling built by dwarves under Narwell that the humans living there now don't know about (possible low level adventure).
Noting EGG's description that the Wild Coast towns were guild-held I took that to mean they weren't ruled by traditional nobility but by guild masters, councils, aldermen, tribunes and such. To me, the really interesting part of the Wild Coast was what EGG wrote about the outcasts, malcontents, ne'er do wells, minor lords and robber barons. Around and in between the various guild-held towns are minor fiefdoms and robber baronies with various alignments and levels of legitimacy (ranging from toll collectors of a road guarded to highwaymen). It is the perfect region for a "By this Axe I rule!" mentality by player characters who want to set themselves up as lords without having a king or other sovereign to answer to. But the players would have to deal with NPC holdings similar in size to what is described in the PH for name level characters, as well as the various malcontent bastards running around.
|
|
|
Narwell
Jan 28, 2023 9:04:01 GMT -5
Post by geneweigel on Jan 28, 2023 9:04:01 GMT -5
When talking to Gary about the Wild Coast, I was getting a feeling, nothing really solid, that it was reserved as a sort of fuck around slot for players. So the examples of the towns may be remnants of former game play. This is just they way that he was talking referring to Rob's dispute over where Robilar's castle was in the "Wild Coast" (Lower Greyhawk border?) which seemed vaguer than the Darlene map.
|
|
|
Narwell
Feb 2, 2023 23:24:00 GMT -5
Post by grodog on Feb 2, 2023 23:24:00 GMT -5
My primary interest in Narwell would be more for the political intrigue, and not so much the standard hack and slash adventure fare, so j just the personality and faction info is helpful. My article on Factions in OJ#31 might be useful inspiration: greyhawkonline.com/oerthjournal/Allan.
|
|
|
Post by Scott on Feb 3, 2023 16:14:10 GMT -5
After failing to find any henchmen in Narwell, Maylin travelled to Dyvers to try again. His luck was better there and he picked up A 2nd level ranger and a 2/2 high elf fighter/magic-user. Years ago Maylin and his henchmen did To the Aid of Falx. I set it in the highest hills in the center of the Gnarley. After recruiting his new henchmen Maylin decided to go pay Falx a visit. Maylin told the dragons about his castle and asked what was going on in the area. Falx told him about increased humanoid and bandit activity (it’s 578 CY and ToEE related). He also said that the followers of Orcus were getting strong in Rappan Athuk. He also reminded him that there is always adventure to be found in the Greyhawk dungeons. Maylin then asked for advice on convincing a good dragon to move into his castle. Falx explained that it wasn’t likely unless he could rescue one that was already imprisoned by somebody else. Maybe challenge one to a duel or pay it lots of treasure to stay with you for a while. Falx informed Maylin that the reason why he was in the hills in the Gnarley was he was guarding a permanent gate to the negative material plane in the cave system he was in. He was trying to discover a way to destroy the gate, but u til then he was keeping evil beings from using it and trying to stop anything from coming through from the negative plane. Some time in the future he may find a way and send some PCs on a mission to retrieve an item. Falx and Maylin traded a few spells, and Maylin finally left to return to his castle. He’s planning on going to Rappan Athuk next.
|
|
|
Narwell
Apr 16, 2023 8:21:31 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by grodog on Apr 16, 2023 8:21:31 GMT -5
All roads lead back to Rob, does anybody but me have those Barbarous Coast maps? Was Narwell rebranded as "Deepton"? Sounds like Rob will be returning to this project, at least tangentially, in the near future. Allan.
|
|
|
Narwell
Apr 17, 2023 5:00:57 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by geneweigel on Apr 17, 2023 5:00:57 GMT -5
Well, that sounds good. The T1-4 (1985) add ons that I've been doing are going to have a Wild Coast tie-in as the next installment but it will be non-interfering as usual.
|
|