--The Meadows: A Nightmare named Rethan comes once a month, during the full moon, to one of the circles of stone monoliths here. It is a gateway to the Fey Lands, and the Nightmare would love to figure out how to open it and go through. It's an evil thing, a Bone Horselord, 6 hp, 1 armor, can talk and do magic.



--Dragon Mountain: How you deal with Dragon Mountain is up to you-- and the player with the Ancient Soul of the Dragon Prince, if there is one. Our suggestion is that there are lots of dragons inside, but asleep, hibernating (eggs, too, that don't seem near hatching). Then the Dragon Prince will want to find a way to wake them up//hatch them. Trying to do such things by CHANGING THE WORLD will wake or hatch ONE dragon. This limited result is because of THE INCIDENT-- the dream world is draining the dragons' energy. Then, the Dragon Prince will want to quest to learn how to fix THE INCIDENT.



--Tenwall, the Capitol: In the castle in the center of Tenwall is a Horror named Nauzir. It's a troll-sized suit of armor with glowing green eyes that can talk, 14 hp, 6 armor. It has heard that there's a magical item in the Magus Tower that can make Wraiths and Nightmares more powerful, and it wants someone to go get it. Nauzir doesn't dare to go get it himself because not only does he dislike sunlight, there's a Valiant out there somewhere that's his sworn enemy, and he's a little afraid of her. The Valiant's name is Ylna, and she has no idea where Nauzir is hiding-- she can be found near Dolorous Gard (IF the heroes are looking for her. if they don't know there's a certain Valiant that Nauzir is worried about, they're not going to run across her by accident). If they tell her where Nauzir is, she'll want to help fight him. Ylna has 15 hp, and she carries a shield that gives her 2 armor.



--The Dwarven Kingdoms: Any Dwarven Settlement the players find will be guaranteed to have a problem with a Nightmare that's started bothering it lately that they'll want help with. The largest Dwarven settlement in Sefonia is underground-- its name is Irondelve. The SECOND-largest Dwarven settlement underground, though, is named Steelhew, and they've really got problems. An invading Horror was recently defeated-- with great difficulty-- but it wrecked the defenses and fortifications badly, and there's really no time to rebuild. The mayor should really be talked into leading his people to find a new place to settle above-ground. The smallest mountain of the range that includes Dragon Mountain (the biggest) would be ideal. But he won't admit that it's time to move unless the heroes go and bring him a lost magic axe from a lost Dwarven settlement not terribly far away. The axe is currently (though the mayor doesn't know this) in the possession of a Nightmare named Zargad. Zargad looks like a bulky humanoid made of black crystal, and glows with an eerie violet light. Zargad is HP 6, with 4 armor, and has as many Wraiths (3 hp) working for him as you feel would be an appropriate challenge for the party.




--The Elven Forests:
----The Green Woods have plenty of Wraiths and less-powerful Imps and swarms, but the elves are numerous and organized enough to keep any real Horrors out-- so far. It does, however, require constant vigilance, and they just can't ever seem to get the upper hand.
----The Black Woods have two or three Horrors, but they aren't really very organized (so far).
----The White Woods have powerful and ancient Elven artifacts, but they also have the worst Horrors. The best-known one is a sort of large red worm that the Elves call Andorel, The Tunneler. Andorel is about 25 feet long, and quite strong. Andorel has 10 hp. It's not armored, but it regenerates 1 hit per round of combat. The only way to stop Andorel from regenerating is to use fire, but so far no one has been able to pull this off, partly because when Andorel is badly hurt, it'll try burrowing underground to escape.




Dolorous Gard, The Knightly Castle: What destroyed the knighthood was a magically-powerful Horror that made them fight each other. Its name is Inxid the Whisperer, and it's a shapeshifting Horror. In its true form, it's got only 5 hp and no armor, but it can take other forms. It divided the knighthood while the original Perfect Knight was away, breaking the Knighthood into multiple factions-- those who believed that an assault must be made on the Magus Tower to try to fix THE INCIDENT, those who believed that the entire knighthood should go and defend Tenwall, those who believed that the knights should spread out over the land and try to help as many of the defenseless people as possible... and in the end, nothing useful was achieved. Inxid will shapechange into anyone it thinks will be best able to persuade the heroes. It doesn't have to be a real person-- Inxid can fake being a real person perfectly well. Inxid can also tolerate everything but direct sunlight without showing that he's uncomfortable. What Inxid likes best is evil mischief-- causing trouble, dividing people's alliances, getting people killed. Inxid will happily send the heroes off to get in trouble that's a little over their heads without properly warning them... If Inxid is attacked or the heroes figure out what's up, he'll give a shout, and Wraiths will come and help him defend himself...







The Wicker Hills: One of the safer places in Sefonia, because of the wicker effigies. The secret is that they contain druidic magic, but their secrets-- and the secret that there even ARE still druids that remember the ancient ways-- are carefully guarded, so that nightmares don't learn of them (because then they'd want to stop them). If the heroes go to The Wicker Hills, someone will ask for their help. This is a hillfolk herbalist named Carlyle Longfoot, but he's also a druid. He wants help-- something is trying to find out the secret of the wicker effigies that keep the Hills relatively safe. People have been acting strangely, asking questions they'd normally never ask-- some of them asking questions they already should know the answers to. The answer being sought is that the secret of the wicker effigies is bound to an ancient tree in the center of the Wicker Hills, many centuries old. If that tree dies, the wicker effigies would lose most of their power to keep the hills free of Nightmares. The CAUSE of people acting strangely will eventually lead back to one home, owned by a Hillfolk merchant named Donal Hiddleston. He tried to put in a new wine cellar, and ended up finding an old Dwarven tunnel... it turns out that the wicker effigies don't work below-ground. A Nightmare with mind-affecting enchantments has been brainwashing everyone it can get Donal to lure down there. The Nightmare in question is named Murtgen-- it looks like a cross between a Blood Hound and a chameleon, with glowing, spiraling eyes that mesmerize. But this process wipes the long-term memory clean, so it can't make anyone tell secrets they learned long ago-- Murtgen has to make its pawns trick someone who has the info it wants into telling without being brainwashed. If Murtgen ever finds out the secret, it'll send its pawns to chop town the tree immediately. Murtgen has 5 hp and can mesmerize people who look it in the eyes. Anyone with an Ancient Soul, however, can roll Insightful to resist this. Once Murtgen is destroyed, his pawns will "wake up" and be just fine, with hardly any memory of what happened.







The Long River: Heroes exploring The Long River should start hearing about a Horror in the area-- a big one. Basically a giant crab has come... bigger than an elephant-- easily 20 feet tall and like 25 feet wide. Its name is Ithcarn. Ithcarn can tolerate any light except for direct sunlight, and he wants to destroy the sluices, flood the river, and then destroy the Dwarven Bridge. He's got HP of 20 and armor of 6. He can do 2 hits per attack (so 4 if going All Out). There are two things that the heroes have in their favor: 1, the riverfolk are brave, and can possibly be formed into a small army to help defeat Ithcarn, and 2, Ithcarn is actually afraid of fire. He will not fight nor press an advantage if faced with fire... If formed, the small volunteer army should probably fight as a unit capable of doing 2 hits per attack (so 4 if going All Out). They should have a collective 10 hp... but if they drop to 5 or less, they should drop to doing only 1 hit per round (so 2 if going All Out).

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Trevisi, The Port City: Trevisi is one of the most thriving cities of Sefonia. Its naval ships and city guards stand fast against encroaching nightmares. The Ancient Soul of The Thief gets to roll Soul to tell the secrets of this place.

The Depths: Below The Dwarven Kingdoms are The Depths. Few know any of its secrets. The Ancient Soul of The Dweller Below gets to roll Soul to tell the secrets of this place.


The Fallen Stars: It's said that long ago-- before THE INCIDENT, even-- huge things fell from the sky and landed in the sea, and became islands. The Fallen Stars are island city-states known for their cooking. The largest city is Vierna, on the island of the same name. The Ancient Soul of The Chef gets to roll Soul to tell the secrets of this place.


The Long Road: There are many roads in Sefonia, but only one, in the middle, that runs straight north and south forever, and that is The Long Road. Many villages and settlements lie on The Long Road. The Ancient Soul of The Musician gets to roll Soul to tell the secrets of this place.

The Sanctuary: A quiet place of courtyards and gardens, created for the purposes of meditation. There are swarms and imps and big imps, but Nightmares and Horrors do not enter Sanctuary. The Ancient Soul of The Weapon gets to roll Soul to tell the secrets of this place.

The Magus Tower: An impossibly-high tower. Not as high as the moon, but very, very high. The door is never locked, but there are dangerous things inside. Sensible people don't go too close to it. The Ancient Soul of The Magus gets to roll Soul to tell the secrets of this place... but even it does not remember all the secrets of THE INCIDENT.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:59, Thu 19 Jan 2023.