Welcome to the Raging Swan Press blog. Herein you’ll find resource and advice articles to make your game better. From time to time, we’ll also post exciting Raging Swan Press news!
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We storm into February with a small flock of new resources for your gaming pleasure along with some new pages for our website.
y of Ashlar is small and constrained. Always, the forces of evil and shadow press inwards upon its borders. If it were not for a stout few, death and darkness would have long ago overwhelmed the land. Dunstone was once Ashlar's northern bulwark. Now…
Successful thieves need a fence—someone willing to buy and sell their ill-gotten gains. Like their customers, such folk must keep their true business secret, and thus, they often openly practise some other legitimate trade.
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.
Merchants, traders, artisans, and some ordinary folk, need somewhere to store their bulky goods. Some own their own warehouses, while others hire the requisite space on a temporary basis.
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.
Houses of worship and quiet contemplation stand in or near many settlements. Within, the occupants seek spiritual enlightenment in the service of their patron.
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.
Normally places for the poor or the penny-wise, boarding houses offer lodgings and food; most such places offer only the barest of essentials to their guests.
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.
El’s Mere was once a shallow, marshy lake. El’s Mere Way skirts the site. Local tradition has it that a young man, El, drowned while swimming in the lake. His ghost appears on the anniversary of his death to moan of his fate to any he encounters.
Read MoreVibrant trade towns are a key feature in many campaigns. Adventurers must shop, after all! Use this list, to add pieces of interesting dressing to the vibrant trade towns in your campaign:
Read MoreSlaughter Ford boasts a foul reputation. A century ago, water spirits drowned a great company of marauding orcs at the ford. Ill-hued lights, unwholesome noises and strange doings have since motivated travellers to seek safer routes.
Read MoreSimuna Kaivas (NG male human) clutches his painful belly. This rotund man suffers from food poisoning, which he got at a nearby inn. He needs help, but can offer only thanks in return. Well-connected locally he spreads word of the characters’ actions.
Read MoreMost dwarven holds are vast and ordered halls filled with solemn and stoic craftsfolk. But that’s not Feigrvidr. Some say it’s not a dwarf hold at all, but rather a lawless mining camp ruled by dwarf thugs and ruthless agents of the ruling thane.
Founded less than three years ago by Svingal Halfbeard, the ore coming from a vale carved out of the headlands of the Titan Peaks is of the greatest purity and the works coming forth from Feigrvidr’s forges are both subtle and ingenious, rivalling those of any traditional dwarven stronghold. The great wealth coming from the foot of the Titan Peaks was only the beginning, now with the discovery of ancient and abandoned giant halls deeper among the mountains’ spires adventurers are flocking to the camp, increasing its wealth and its danger.
Read MoreCutt Quarry has been almost abandoned for decades. The mad introvert Kildork Cutt (NE male dwarf) dwells therein. The madman carves elaborate, disturbing sculptures into the cliffs, for an unknown purpose. Sometimes, people disappear near the quarry.
Read MoreKeveral’s Point juts from a rocky escarpment overlooking the road. Its shape is reminiscent of a squashed human face. Folklore identifies the point as an immense slumbering earth spirit. Locals ascribe minor rockfalls and tremors on the point as its snores.
Read MoreHidden in the wild uplands beyond the Selka River, the sinkhole-mine of Delthur’s Folly is a byword among the locals for a fool’s errand doomed to fail. The only survivor of the fated expedition—driven mad by his ordeal and raving of “the water’s sibilant whispers”—died shortly after staggering into Dunstone a year or more after Delthur and his miners disappeared into the wilderness. And yet, every year adventurers cross the Selka in search of the mine—gold and silver are said to lie within. Some return empty-handed and some do not return at all. Local legend has it that something terrible dwells in the mine.
Read MorePekka Ihamuoto (N male human) wanders from place to place looking for work. Pekka is a skilled mason, and highly educated. He travels with his son, Reko, and wife, Esteri. A laden cart pulled by two horses carries the family’s possessions.
Read MoreCrumblestone Castle is cursed. Abandoned after its occupants sickened and died, it is a shunned place. Now even the place’s walls and towers have a leprous aspect as stone flakes away from the structure. Rank, noxious weeds fill the ruin.
Read MoreUrban adventures are often set in slums. In slums, the long arm of the law is often absent, thieves and cultists are rife; opportunities for adventure abound.
Read MoreAili Kekko (CN female half-elf bard) terrorises fellow travellers with wildly off-key singing, terrible lute playing and inappropriate songs. The goddess of music cursed Aili for lampooning her consort, the legendary bard Vilimzair Aralivar.
Read MoreHungry Gully grows a bit wider every year, and every year the locals add to the earthen span linking its two sides. When flooding weakens the span, travellers must make lengthy detours. Plans for a stone bridge stall on the subject of cost.
Read MoreMuch of the borderland is still unmapped. Some notable features have become local landmarks and serve as waymarkers or meeting places.
Read MoreBone Mill stands by a river flowing through an old battlefield. Sometimes, bones washed out of ancient burials foul the mill’s mechanism. Sometimes these remains awaken from their long slumber, and undead beset the mill.
Read MoreBleak Hill stands stark above the surrounding plain. A score or more stone cists dot its oddly flat summit. The mysterious cists are long since looted. Rumours speak of secret shafts plunging deep into the hill from one or more burial sites.
Read MoreAamu Kare (LN female human) perpetually searches for work. This gloomy, withdrawn warrior has exceptional luck; she has been the sole survivor of several groups. Some call her lucky, others say she is a harbinger of doom. She struggles to make friends.
Read MoreAs well as the mundane and the expected, dungeons can feature many strange or bizarre things. Adventurers delving into almost any dungeon are virtually certain to encounter and battle outlandish, alien creatures in the course of their explorations. They may also encounter any number of strange magic effects.
Read MoreWiomet’s Tower juts skyward from atop a bluebell-cloaked hill. Dense stands of hawthorn surround and fill the decaying tower’s sunken ha ha. Built for an exiled widow, the ruin is a gloomy place despite its idyllic surrounds.
Read MoreTumblestone Quarry cuts deep into Sentinel Hill. Overlooked by a crumbling watchtower, the quarry is a popular sheltered camping spot. A deep pool fills much of the quarry, and a path winds up from its chilled waters to the ruined tower.
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Everyone—even the powerful—has enemies, and the Nameless Mage was no exception…
A free GM’s Resource for any fantasy roleplaying game.