Intro

OK. The pitch for this campaign is that your characters are in eastern Rethem looking for someone. the exact details are up to you. Some ideas:

• ·         A family member or friend of one of the PCs went missing.
• ·         The PCs are bounty hunters hired by a powerful guild to find someone who cheated the guild.
• ·         The PCs are working for a local lord to track down a troublemaker.

Except for Chybisa, all feudal kingdoms on Hârn are divided into judicial provinces called shires, which are subdivided into hundreds. By design, the boundaries of shires and hundreds often cut through the holdings of great nobles, which creates some interesting judicial problems. The chief royal officer of a shire is called a Sheriff (shire-reeve); that of a hundred is termed the Bailiff of the Hundred. 

Gerdel Hundred (a chunk of land) is the general backdrop in which this adventure plays. It is a hundred that has been the battle ground of a power struggle in the last decade. Themeson, the feudal center of the area, was held by Tharda, the eastern neighbor of Rethem, until it was seized by the Red Shadows of Herpa, an Agrikan Fighting Order, 12 years ago. In 714 a new fighting Order called the Cohorts of Gashang, took Themeson from the Red Shadows when they seceded from the original order. The Cohorts of Gashang do not pass on any taxes to the king in Shostim, but instead seem to consider returning the fief back to Tharda.

The Agrikans ruling the Hundred are notorious for the torture, mutilation, and sacrifice of captives and are in general oppressive rulers. The conflicts of the past 12 years have reduced the hundred’s population considerably. Fallow fields are a common sight. Since the split of the Cohorts and the Red Shadows, guildsmen started to leave the Hundred. Any possible income, including from mines and quarries, is spent on maintaining the fighting order.

Rethem is a fractious feudal kingdom on the western coast of Hârn. The kingdom's politics are dominated by the "black-souled and evil" churches of Agrik and Morgath. The threat of warfare between religious orders compounds the danger posed by rivalries between feudal lords. The political situation is far from settled and the threat of civil war looms over the kingdom. Rethem is bounded by the Kingdom of Kanday to the south, the Peran wilderness to the north, and the Thardic Republic to the east. With a long history of violence, rulership built on cunning and strength, and a shaky political structure, Rethem is viewed warily by its neighbors.

King Chafin III's precarious rule relies on a network of allegiances created by the careful placement of kin and the manipulation of competing loyalties that he may not fully command. Chafin often uses the threat of invasion to keep his rivals off guard. Five of Rethem's seven monarchs have died violently, and Chafin prefers his castle at Shostim to the royal castle in Golotha.

The kingdom's largest settlement, Golotha sits at the mouth of the region's main trade artery, the Thard River. The Thard valley has long been one of the most densely populated regions of Hârn and boasts the strongest economy in the west. The river brings goods from the east, while Golotha is a major trade center for whale oil and other riches of the sea. The kingdom's northern forests are rich in timber, furs, and mineral wealth.

To Be Continued: https://wjrmythras.blogspot.com/2024/02/s1-after-scoundrel.html