I knew my players were going to spend at least one session of
out Lamentations of the Flame Princess
game dealing with the fallout of their last adventure and taking care of some
administrative activities like selling loot and restocking gear. As such, they’d
spend a good chunk of the upcoming session in and around the closest
settlement.
Vincent Baker’s seminal game Dogs in the Vineyard has great advice on how to create
towns, and I’ve used those techniques for creating locations for years. Figure
out who the important and interesting NPCs are. Figure out what they want.
Create interesting conflicts between them. Make them come to the PCs with their
problems. Figure out what would happen to everyone if the PCs did nothing.
That’s how I put together the little village of Hegendorf.
Feel free to use it in your own games.
(My players should stop reading here.)
Hegendorf
Hegendorf is a small village consisting of a
few central buildings and about a dozen outlying farms. Most of the villagers
are related in some way, with intermarriage between extended cousins. The
detrimental effects of inbreeding haven’t quite manifested yet, but it’s just a
couple of generations away. Hegendorf doesn’t have a proper inn or tavern. The
trading post acts as a common meeting place. Visitors can usually find a
farmer willing to let them sleep in their barn for a couple of silver pieces.
Hegendorf lies a day’s travel north of Nonsbeck. The Abbey
of St Agnes, where the sisters brew surprisingly decent beer, is half a day’s
travel to the east of the village.
Unless otherwise noted, all NPCs are 0-level humans.
1) The village well sits in the center of what passes for
the town square. A bronze sculpture of a turtle is bolted to the rim of the
well. Villagers rub it for good luck when they draw water. Its shell has been
worn smooth over the years.
2) The village lacks a proper church, but it has a small
shrine made of mortared fieldstone next to a humble meeting house. Friar Hubert, a Franciscan priest,
oversees the shrine. He is terse and cynical,
and the past several years of war, famine, and death have severely tested his
faith. He was in love with Brenda the herbalist, and her death at the hands of
the witchfinders three years ago has weighed upon him. He mistrusts the nuns at
the Abbey of St. Agnes.
3) Alexander Hegen
runs the village trading post, buying and selling goods from the villagers as
well as any travelers passing through town. Alexander is tall, ruddy, and built
like a tree. His wife, Gertie, died
of fever three years ago. He is childless, but dotes upon his 2-year-old niece.
His sister Ilsa is married to the village blacksmith. Alexander is vocal in his
disapproval of their marriage. Hegendorf doesn’t have a mayor, but Alexander is
well-respected, and serves as the de facto headman of the village.
The trading post serves as a common meeting place for the
men of Hegendorf. When the weather is pleasant, villagers drink and kibitz
while sitting on barrels and benches on the large, roofed porch. They all crowd
inside when it’s too cold out. The trading post sells all basic equipment and
the standard rural prices. It does not usually carry weapons or armor, except
for hatchets, wood axes, and knives. There is a 20% chance that Alexander has
1d3 shortbows in stock. If it does, there’s still only a 50% chance that there
are 1d4 dozen arrows for sale. The trading post isn’t a tavern, but it does
sell the beer that Alexander buys from the nuns of St. Agnes.
4) The blacksmith’s shop is an old but sturdy building with
large wooden shutters that can be opened or closed as the weather permits. There
is a small stables attached to it with 1d4-1 horse at any time. A stout cottage
where the smith and his family lives rests behind the smithy.
The blacksmith is Antonio
Palmetto a short Italian man with a wiry build, a large moustache, and
broken teeth. He currently has no apprentice but is looking for one. Antonio is
married to Ilsa, the shopkeeper’s
sister. She is tall and auburn, like her brother. They have a daughter, Eleanor, who is 2 years old. Antonio is
secretly sleeping with the charcoal burner, something his brother-in-law
suspects.
5) The charcoal burner, Black
Molly (level 2 Specialist, 4 dots in Bushcraft)
is in her early 30s with short, black, frizzled hair. She is constantly covered
in soot but has perfect teeth. Molly settled in Hegendorf about 5 years ago. She
is an unmarried, outgoing, and independent woman with strong opinions. Therefore,
she is largely mistrusted by most villagers. She is sleeping with the
blacksmith. Molly always seems to have more money than a simple charcoal burner should. This
is unrelated to her affair with Antonio, she’s just thrifty and lucky with
money.
Molly lives in a small hut just outside of town near the
woods, next to her large charcoal kiln. She has befriended a wolverine (named Wulfrick; HD: 3, AC: 14, 1d8 ravage,
Morale: 11) that guards her home. The trees around her home are decorated with
a variety of “granny magic” charms and talismans that don’t really have any
arcane effect.
6) Stanfred Hagan, aka “Sergeant” aka Old Man Hagan is 70 years old and can still kick your ass (level 3 Fighter). He is either senile or insane, depending who you ask. He always dresses in full uniform including
breastplate, epaulets, and sword. He is tall and crane-like with a ratty gray
moustache. Old Man Hagan assumes an any stranger or foreigner in town is a Swedish
soldier come to kill him, and will act accordingly.
Old Man Hagan lives alone with his dog, Manfred, in the
largest house in town. It’s a two-story house with an actual slate roof, but the
whole thing is in poor repair. His living room features several antique German
flags and a massive painting of the Emperor. He possesses many old swords and
armor and has 2500sp in a hidden cache. His home is festooned with a variety of
homemade anti-Swede booby traps.
No one has ever seen his dog Manfred, as the dog never
leaves the house. “Manfred” is actually a 4HD demon (use the Summon spell) disguised as a small black
schnauzer. Manfred whispers blasphemies and paranoid conspiracies into Hagan’s
ears as he sleeps, and is the cause of the old man’s insanity.
7) The small abandoned cottage was the home of Brenda the herbalist. The roof has
fallen in, the windows are broken out, and the herb garden is a tangled,
over-grown mess. After Alexander’s wife died three years ago, the witchfiders
came to town and hung Brenda as a witch. The house has been considered unlucky
ever since. It could be purchased for 75% the normal price, but would require
repair, and anyone who lived there would be considered unlucky by the
villagers. A small iron box holding 150sp, a silver dagger (worth 10sp), and a medicinal
draught (heals 2d4hp) is hidden behind loose brick in the remains of the fireplace.
8) Karl Hogon, is
the local pig farmer and town drunk. He lives on his small, muddy farm with his
horrible wife Bathsheba. Karl is always
filthy and perpetually broke. He hates his wife and lusts after Black
Molly. It was Karl who ratted out Brenda
the herbalist to the witchfinders. Karl has plans to break into Old Man Hagan’s
home to find his treasure cache, but so far he hasn’t got the nerve. If a
disreputable-looking group of visitors come to town, he’ll candidly tell them
about his plans to rob the old man, offering to split the take 50/50.
The Outlying Farms
- Hegen
- The Other Hegens
- The Tall Hegens
- Hoggle
- Hugun
- Higgins
- Huggins
- Hogan
- Hygynn
- Holder
- Hogarth
- Johnson (no one trusts the Johnsons)
If the people of
Hegendorf continue their business without a group of Player Characters coming
in and interfering with their lives, here’s what happens:
In a couple of weeks, Karl Hogon finally decides to rob Old
Man Hagan. The pig farmer kills the old man in his sleep, and Manfred the dog reverts
to its true, demonic form and tears Karl apart. With its favorite toy dead, the
demon takes up residence in the woods and spends the next several weeks killing
livestock, children, and travelers.
The village is in a panic, and the witchfinders are called
in to find out who brought the demon to Hegendorf. Blame immediately falls upon
Black Molly. Friar Hubert, feeling guilty for letting Brenda die three years
ago, comes to Molly’s defense. Unfortunately, the friar gets into a scuffle
with one of the witchfinders’ thugs and takes a sword to the neck. Molly is
burnt at the stake, and the witchfinders leave, confident of a job well-done.
With his illicit lover murdered by the witchfinders, Antonio
is swallowed by guilt, turns to drink, and becomes abusive to his wife and
child. While drunk at the forge, he has an accident that burns down the
smithy, the stables, and his house, killing Ilsa and Eleanor. This enrages
Alexander, who strangles the blacksmith to death. With his life and village in
shambles, Alexander leaves Hegendorf forever and become an adventurer.
Meanwhile, the demon continues to prey upon the outlying
farms until the families turn against each other or flee the village in terror.
Hegendorf lies in ruins.
