Shrine of St. Cuthbert

The overall theme of this dungeon encounter is giant insects lurking in the dark.  This will provide a great mini dungeon for low level characters and also allow the Dungeon Master to play up some of the environmental elements to create a feeling of claustrophobia and mild horror, through the use of creepy monsters along with a bit of standing water deeper in the mine shaft.  The overall quest is a simple one: mine owner Orson Trout has hired the players to enter the mine and recover as much of the valuable mining equipment as possible.  The longer the equipment remains unattended, the greater the risk of damage or theft. Room #1 - The Entry Chamber A cramped tunnel leading steeply down, the ground is a mix of loose stone and mud, with an area of ankle-deep standing water.  The purpose of the entry chamber is to set the stage for the players: the ground is slippery and unstable, the room is dark, the ceilings are low (about 5 feet tall), and there is smell of dank subterranean passages

A day's journey north into the hills beyond Larm a traveler will run into one of the many empty copper mines.  When the easily recoverable ore had been exhausted, the mine owners shut down the dig site and moved on to fresher prospects.  The hills are scattered with boarded up caves and shafts descending down into the earth.  These mines are considered worthless at best and dangerous at worst, since empty caves have a way of attracting wild creatures and deadly underground dwellers. But now, someone is buying up the rights to these abandoned mines and planning to resume excavations.  Orson Trout is a former digger in the mines who was able to scrape together enough coin to branch out on his own.  He has purchased one of the old copper mines and renamed it "Trout's Copper Cavern."  He claims to have discovered a new technique to extract ore from deeper in the rocks, allowing previously inaccessible copper ore to be mined and brought to the surface. All was going well i

Larm is not a walled settlement, and it is easily accessible to merchants, travelers, and scoundrels, alike.  To make up for this vulnerability, the noble houses from far off Dolmvay provided bodies to travel north and join the ranks of a small town guard.  These initial recruits were often too young, too old, or too self-interested to be of much use.  As Larm's population and ambitions expanded, it became clear that something approaching a standing army would be required. According to the founding charter signed by the noble houses of Dolmvay, Larm was forbidden from raising its own army.  But a purely defensive militia was technically permissible under the law.  This loophole was all that the early Magistrates of Larm needed, and by village proclamation, the Home Guard was created.   The Home Guard protects Larm from outside threats, both real and perceived.  They protect Larm's economic interests in the forests, the hills, along the river, and in the fields.  Merchants are a

The economy of Larm is based on resource extraction: crops are raised in the fertile river bottom lands; the legendary Iron Pines are harvested from the nearby forest; stocks of wild salmon are caught from the river; and copper ore is mined in the hills north of the village.  There is a natural rhythm to the farming, woodcutting, fishing, and mining operations.  Wealth is extracted from the rich frontier lands, profits are made, and a small tribute is sent back to noble houses in Dolmvay.  This arrangement works for everyone, and until recently there have been few problems. All that changed when the trouble in the mines began.  Copper mining has slowed in recent months.  As the deposits of ore in the hills closest to Larm have been exhausted, the miners have been forced to push farther north toward the mountains.  Despite early successes, the mining operations soon met with notable setbacks. Strange "accidents" began to happen.  At first, this was simply equipment that went m

West of Larm, across the river and into the outlying hill country, the nomadic peoples known as the Isvirin rule.  Living a more savage and primal life than the civilized townsfolk of Larm, the Isvirin are great hunters and warriors.  They are aware of the settlements in and around Larm, but keep their distance for now.  The Isvirin claim the hills west of the river, while Larm has laid claim to the lands east of the river.  For now, the two groups are not in conflict. The hill tribe makes no distinction between the land and the people.  Isvirin is the word for both and any attempt by outsiders to state otherwise would only result in confused looks from the tribe.  Throughout most of the Known Lands, ancestral groups tend to stay among themselves: there are human lands, there are elven lands, there are dwarven lands.  The Isvirin are the exception and make no distinction between groups of people within the tribe, they count humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs among their families. They we

South of the village proper, on the outskirts of town, travelers can find an overgrown field of sickly-looking crops.  The fields along with a dilapidated cottage and barn are home to Burto Broom and his three-eyed horse. Burto was once one of the most prosperous farmers in Larm, having settled on good fertile land irrigated by the river.  But all that changed two years ago when one of his horses gave birth to a most peculiar foal.   The newborn was small and weak, with a pale grey coat, and a fully functioning third eye in the middle of its head.  The tiny creature was rejected by its mother, abandoned, and left to starve. Burto's family and neighbors were horrified by the misshapen foal and pleaded with him to put the creature out of its misery.  But Burto loved the animal from the beginning and spent long nights in the barn feeding it, brushing its pale grey coat, and keeping it warm. Over the next few months, the horse grew stronger and larger, but the rest of the farm suffered

Not everything in the lands beyond Larm has a simple explanation.  These mysterious people, places, and things will be presented without comment.  Basic descriptions without a full accounting of their meaning or significance, whatever that might mean. The early woodcutters working in the ancient forests south and east of Larm found valuable stands of timber and eventually the legendary Iron Pines.  But they also found areas of the forest where the trees had been twisted and bent into strangely captivating geometric patterns.  These areas were devoid of ground cover - no bushes, shrubs, ferns, or even grasses grew in proximity to the bent and twisted trees. On one occasion, a crew of woodcutters failed to return to the village after a week in the forest.  When another crew was sent to relieve them, the missing woodcutters were found standing in a circle around a stand of the strange trees, silent, watching, waiting.  They had to be forcibly removed from the area, and when questioned lat

From the previous post we know that the authors of Labyrinth Lord gave us very little to work with in the published description of our beloved Larm.  We know that it is a farming and mining community.  We know that it is a river community.  And we know that it has a 100-man militia.  This information is enough to get us started, for it implies certain things about our frontier community. First, being some 140 miles (14 hexes) from the grand city of Dolmvay, we know that Larm must be largely self-sufficient.  To feed and support the 1,000 residents, Larm's farmers must be raising both crops and livestock.  Looking at the general terrain, we see that Larm is located in hill country to the east, and river valley to the west.  It is likely that Larm's farmers tend flocks of sheep and cattle, harvesting the wool and leather in addition to the meat of the animals.  In addition, the access to the river suggests that Larm has no shortage of fishermen. Second, from the map we can see a

The back cover of the first edition of the Labyrinth Lord retro-clone contains this passage: Back to the Basics of Fantasy Role Playing.  Enter a world filled with labyrinths, magic, and monsters!  You can take the role of a cleric, dwarf, elf, fighter, halfling, magic-user, or thief on your quest for glory, treasure, and adventure!  This is a complete role playing game.  All you need are a few sheets of paper and some dice.  Welcome back to the simpler old-school gaming experience.  The Labyrinth Lord awaits your arrival.  Can you survive the dangers of the labyrinth? With that glorious introduction in mind, I have begun working on a fantasy hexcrawl experiment, using the generic "Known Lands" map contained at the end of the Labyrinth Lord game book.  The idea is to use the published material as a starting point and move on from there.  A quick look at the map shows that there is a perfectly placed frontier community named "Larm." Not much is known about Larm, the