Larm: The Lay of the Land

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 small, forested area near the village. This will offer a hint about why the original settlers chose this location to build their community. The trees of the forests of Larm contain unusual properties. The "Iron Pine" is remarkably strong and durable, and early explorers found that the strange wood resisted decay and withstood the elements longer than normal timber. Larm is know for the remarkable timber harvested from these woods, but jealously protects its claim over the wooded lands from outsiders.

This leads us into the third issue - given the fact that Larm has a relatively large standing militia, we can assume that there are legitimate threats to the village from the surrounding lands. Yes, it is true that Larm claims the forest lands and some of the militia patrols the stands of Iron Pine, but there are also other threats in the hills. Although just a seed of an idea now, I suspect that the presence of Dwarves in the nearby mountains has contributed to the need for Larm's militia.

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After watching several YouTube videos about solo gaming, I tried a short gaming session this weekend to get a feel for how it works. The following is a transcript of the game featuring new 1st Level characters for Old School Essentials. I entered the initial story prompt using Gemini AI and then physically rolled the dice and adjudicated the combat result using the rules system. All in all, I am very happy with the results and look forward to more encounters for this fledgling group of adventurers. Episode 1 - Encounter at Old Bone Hill Transcript (Bold Text is Gemini AI): Are you ready to embark on an adventure? We will be doing a classic dungeon crawl featuring three characters: first is Clover Berrycloth the Human Fighter; next is Strattford Vulgamoore the Human Cleric; and finally is Morgot Lank the Elf. These three have been hired to retrieve a wagon and horses that ran off into the old bone hill. The Old Bone Hill is a haunted place,...

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Encounter - Secrets of the Stones, Part 1

Erdogar Aker is a respected sage in the village of Larm. He is the man to see when questions of history and folklore arise. Although knowledgeable about many things, Erdogar's personal passion is uncovering the history of those who dwelled in the hills before the founding of Larm. He spends his free time writing and revising his tome on the history of the hills, about the peoples that came before. In his younger days, he was able to conduct field work on his own, spending weeks at a time in the hills south and east of Larm, searching for relics and scrolls left behind. But now, age has come for Erdogar, and the days of his scholarly travels have ended. It is for this reason that he contacts the players and proposes a joint expedition of discovery. Over several cups of tea in his cottage, he tells the players about a footnote in one of his scrolls, just an offhand remark by the scribe which mentions a message carved in stone on a great memorial w...

Shrine of St. Cuthbert

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