M is for Mikelmerck, Malfi and Meringue failure

M

Mikelmerck

New followers may not be aware of this, but I've been tatting about with an RPG setting for a while now.  It's been in abeyance lately due to having to be in shows and direct stuff, but there's a fair bit of material to be found on this vanity project already.

Mikelmerck is a fantasy Yorkshire turned up to 11.  For a selection of Mikelmerkian posts, take a look here.  Chris over at Bladesharp also has a couple of great Mikelmerkian entries which are well worth a look.  Although I'm not a mechanics bunny, I have been using Swords and Wizardry stats for the few bits that have such things.  Part of me would rather not use any stats at all, but the gamer-side rebels at having no numbers.

As is probably obvious, I'm a lot less interested in working out the mechanics than I am in the crossover between real and imagined myth.  It has been enormous fun and I'm semi-planning to see if I can do a test run with some of this material.  Possibly on G+, possibly just by good old-fashioned email.

None of this can happen until I've got Duchess of Malfi  out of the way.  This possibly overly-ambitious Youth Theatre production hits the stage in four weeks which is a petrifying thought.  We're pretty close to OK on it, but there is still a genuine knife-edge terror about the whole project.  Getting Webster's language sorted has been a huge issue and despite the numerous cuts, it's still one heck of a long play.  I am currently crossing my fingers and hoping the cast have the same sense of urgency that I do and have spent the Easter holiday constructively (i.e. making sure they know it).

On another issue entirely, I woke this morning to find the kitchen floor looking as though it had been hit by a polystyrene explosion.  Closer inspection revealed that someone had tried to eat one of my failed meringues and suffered the consquences.

Unfailed meringues

I made a batch for our Easter party last weekend and didn't beat the eggwhites long enough.  The results are explosive and not particularly edible as they turned into very hard biscuits of crystalline property.  I made a second batch which worked just fine, but my record with meringues is variable.  Either they are a howling success or they go drastically wrong.  No middle ground here.  I don't eat the things.   Egg white and sugar?  I ask you.  Why is that even a food?.

Even so, this particular failure is still better than my all time best failure when I made a superb batch of impeccable looking meringues only to discover that I had used salt instead of sugar.  Or rather I didn't discover it, but some pavlova lovers did.  Gastronomic treats of our time.

The lesson?  When re-using containers remember to label them properly.

Source of much inspiration

Bolton Castle in Castle Bolton

Ah, Yorkshire Dales, how do I love thee.

We've lived here nearly ten years now, and I'm still stunned everytime I drive up into the Dales.  Yesterday, Castle Bolton was my destination.  I narrowly avoided being late for lunch with the Swaledale Festival team due to taking the wrong road out of Richmond and ending up going to Castle Bolton via Marske and Marrick rather than over the Bellerby tank road.

As it happened, that turned out to be a good wrong choice.  Coming down off the tops, there was just enough mist left over for the whole of Swaledale to be semi-hidden behind a kind of ethereal cloud.  This sounds (and is) fanciful, but it reminded me of exactly where the notion of Mikelmerck as a border country came from. 

Purpose of visit - to scout the place out as a possible venue for some kind of awesome community drama project for 2013.  Said project is the combined brainchild of me, old mate Chris and the artistic director of the Swaledale Festival. 

Bolton Castle (confusingly situated in the hamlet of Castle Bolton, which mostly consists of one small church and the castle), has a ton of potential.  Most conveniently, a lot of it is still intact.  Even more conveniently, the intact bits include some large rooms linked by corridors.  There is potential here for a wonderful promenade performance of something.

Swaledale's event organiser and I hopped from room to room squeaking with delight as we discovered plentiful power sockets and handy niches suitable for suspending lights, hiding cast members and generally setting up some blissfully immersive scenes.

Before long, we'd conjured the mental image of the audience walking through a ship wreck as drowned sailors and ship rigging whirled around them to the accompaniment of a sung lament.  To be followed by arrival on a sandy beach where they would be greeted by rambuctious fisherfolk salvaging the wreck.  To be followed by them being met by the king of the island and welcomed to a feast and a tourney.

We must looked have a right pair of idiots.

Now to get to work on some serious plans.

I want it to happen.

It's all about passion.

Looking down my blog list this morning, I came across this interesting question from Charlie Warren, over at The Semi-Retired Gamer.

What follows isn't really an answer to his question, it's more of an early morning rumination on RPGs, why they appeal to me and what they attempt to do.  There is the slight proviso that  this has relevance to me as I'm attempting to add another setting to the towering heap in the form of Mikelmerck.  Let's leave the slowness of that process out of the equation for now.

RPGs are about drama and interactivity.  Communal story-telling, in short.  In order to tell a communal story, you need a shared world for that story to happen in - which is why there is such a plethora of game settings.

In the case of Mikelmerck, I don't yet have to make any really hard decisions about how much information is too much.  It's still evolving.  I am simply finding bits of intriguing story and putting them out there without much of an attempt to impose a system on them.  Looking at the work so far, what I have for the most part is a series of adventure seeds.  These are places players might go, people they might meet, events they might encounter and creatures they may run across.  Any of them could lead to a story.

If I was in a position to GM such a game, that might well be all I'd want.  I respond to story rather than system.  In fact I usually ignore system in favour of whether or not I like the setting.  It was designed for Runequest rather than 4e?  So what.  If it has images I like, people and places I want to visit, something I can feel passionate about, I'll use it.

Heading back to the original question, I'm slightly surprised to find that I don't need or even want that much information as a player or a GM.  What I do want is passion.  Information is just mechanics.  Mechanics can be got.  Imagination, passion and desire to be part of a world is something else. 

That's what I want.  There's a lot of it out there.

Mikelmerck - Beasties and beastie marks

Some places call them boogey men, but in Mikelmerck, they are beasties.  They are the dark things everyone tries to ignore in the hope that they will in turn be ignored.  They are the things all children know are real and most adults hope are not.  They are the meat of tall tales told in the long winter evenings by the fire to chill the blood.  They are things that are heard at night, when the house is quiet and before the comfort of dawn arrives.  When the floor creaks or a roof tile shifts, a beastie is moving.

Some families have their own beasties.  These are not the familiar ghosts who protect their kin.  Ghosts can do little against beasties, being of the same substance.

When first spotted, a beastie appears as an enormous crouching shadow and most people run from them.  For the courageous who hold their ground, however, the sighted beastie starts to shrink.  Continuing to stare at them is the surest way to remove a beastie, but there are dangers in that.

Some believe that looking too long at a beastie allows them to mark the observer.  Such a person is regarded as fearsomely unlucky as it is believed that they may give birth to a beastie themselves.

Fortunately, there is a simple charm to remove the beastie mark.  A toad must be wrapped in rowan leaves and buried under the doorstep on the night of the full moon.  Each day, for the full lunar cycle, the afflicted one must stop on the threshold and ask the toad to remove the mark.  When the toad is dug up, if it lives, it will take the mark away.   If the toad does not survive the process, the beastie marked will surely have warts.  Nor will the mark be removed.  Whether the toad lives or dies, the wrapping leaves must be carefully burned. 

Mikelmerck - Sheep Society and heroic clothing

Sheep are the economic basis of Mikelmerck.  Without them, society does not function. 

Scrivener Wainwright, that self-proclaimed authority on all things Mikelmerck has this to say.

"It is a pity that more poets have not honoured the sheep in verse.  Surely their extreme utility and interesting habits deserve more attention.  The black-faced denizens of the hills are supremely hardy and in the words of their shepherds, "canny buggers".  

The shepherds tell me that the Mikelmerck sheep are matriarchal.  In their quaint way, they describe it thus: 

"Flock allus follows owdest ewe, never ram.  Hims but for tupping, no matter what 'e thinks.  Done and gone, but ewes is forever.  Reason being, if she'n not smartish, she'n not get to be owd.  Fight like helldogs if'n flock's threatened.  Ram does nowt but charge, but ewes gang up.  Tupping time, rams gets het up and fights, but not proper-like.  All manlihood that is, no bloodshed.  But I seen owd ewe hold off wolf afore now."

From this we may gather that the flock may be a formidable adversary.  When one also considers the amazing properties of their wool, much lauded in the present time and for many centuries before, one can only wonder at the absence of bardic acknowledgement."

Wainwright continues in the same eulogistic tone for some time.  He describes in detail his pursuit of the secrets of knitting runes into garments made from Mikelmerck wool and his frustration at the refusal of the great knitting families to share any information with him at all.

This is not surprising.  It is certainly true that many unique and magical items can be created using Mikelmerck wool, but such things are not given merely to the curious. 

An old tale tells of a feylord who sought armour to protect him from a gigantic wyrm.  In order to gain what he wanted, he asked dwarven smiths, elven metalcrafters and human women to create their best work.  The dwarves laboured for gold,  and the elves for magic, but the humans asked for nothing but their time.  Unable to pay the human price, he offered instead to enchant the flock leader so that she would always be able to call on fey help. 

The feylord chose the wool.  It helped him defeat the wyrm and since that day, all owd ewes have a connection to the fey.  None have ever forgotten it.

Balancing Act

Half term has crept up with alarming speed.  January seems to have happened without my really noticing and taa-daa, suddenly it's nearly the middle of February.

The One Act Festival is a kind of starting post for the YT show season.  From here to the middle of July, we're in constant preparation mode as one show after another reaches the top of the heap.  In my case, it's Antigone first (12-13) March, followed a month later by Malfi.  Then I get a six week lull before Faustus crashes in.  In between those there are three other shows for which I have no direct responsibility other than being part of the YT team.  Which is, believe me, quite enough.

In the meantime, I'm honing my own acting muscles in Twelfth Night immediately after Antigone.  I've also somewhat foolishly agreed to stage manage Oklahoma! for the local operatic society.  Yay for good decision making.

Somewhere along the way, I also need to concoct a play for the Bowes Drama Club.

Oh - and I'm starting a long-awaited PTTLS course in ten days.  To make me eligble to teach adults.  Assuming that it doesn't get cancelled again.  Since I've been trying to do this blasted course since September, this is rapidly turning into a joke.  But I will keep trying.

Now, all this is either fun or paid or both so I'm not at all complaining, but it does mean I need to spend this non-teaching half term week with some care.

Where does the gaming fit into all this?  Where and when it can is the answer.  The PbPs will roll along quite happily as bar making maps they are not a huge time sump.  Those that have seen my completely inept mapping skills might well think not a lot of time gets given there either.

The real heartbreaker is Mikelmerck, which hasn't had anything like the attention it deserves for ages.  I'm missing it badly now, particularly as parts of the taster 4e adventure have been set there.  If I can find any time at all, I really want to write a starter adventure for it.  Hmm.  Maybe run a Google+ playtest? 

A curiosity

I mentioned I'm starting a one-shot play by post for a GM-less group.

That got underway today and to my amusement and without any really thinking about it, it's turning into a Mikelmerck adventure.  The reality is simply that it's been lying there unloved for a few weeks and I could not resist the temptation to see how the setting works.

All that has happened is that the setting is now a small Mikelmerckian town inhabited by accent-ridden Dalesmen worried about their sheep.  The adventure to follow will proceed along more recognisable lines, because this is supposed to be a taster for new 4e players, after all.  But even so, the setting feels easy to write and fun to play with.

Some of their wandering monsters may not be what they suspect.  Time to test-drive the bestiary perhaps.

Going to the Wall (Mikelmerck maybe)

This is one of my favourite places in the world.

I badly, badly want to add it to Mikelmerck and the only thing that's really stopping me is that it's not in Yorkshire.  Northumbria and very close, but not in the county of choice.  Think I'm going  to do it anyway.  How can I resist an adventure following the path of a ghost legion?

Mikelmerck - Thurizhelm

Thurizhelm is an oddity.  Consisting of three large circles, each linked by a broad processional way, it is the ancient meeting place for the old races of Mikelmerck.

The linking paths are lined with barrows - for only the greatly honoured were buried here.  In the early days of the Duchy, before humans got the upper hand, Fey, Dawners and giants met once a year on neutral ground.  Here they held Tynwald (discussion) and renewed their agreements about land and custom.

No blood is ever to be spilled in anger at Thurizhelm.  Much treasure may lie within its barrows, but none except the truly foolhardy would dream of venturing past its defences.

Mikelmerck - Bestiary continued

Black Pudding - not the breakfast foodstuff, but an unpleasant substance of unknown origin found mostly in mines.  It is said that the puddings are the congealed breath of The Owd Man - and that may be true.  Metal coming into contact with a pudding starts to dissolve instantly, to the ruination of many a good pickaxe.  Flesh fares little better.  They are hard to remove as, amoeba-like, the puddings simply become smaller puddings when hit.


Black Puddings
Armor Class: 6 [13]
Hit Dice: variable, depending on size (2-10)
Attacks: 1d8 but increasing depending on size
Special: Acidic surface, immune to cold, divides when hit for more than 6 damage with one attack.
Move: 3


Doom Hounds - are well known to presage death.  To see them is extremely bad luck.  For the most part they are found in castles and graveyards when there is no visible moon.   Their eyes glow with an unholy light, and they chase interlopers away from their preferred territory.  It is said that if anyone holds their ground and confronts such a hound, they may gain a boon, but this may be more optimistic than practical.

Doom Hounds
Armor Class: 4 [15]
Hit Dice: 4–7
Attacks: Bite (1d6)
Special: Breathe cold, immune to fear, large glowing eyes
Move: 12


Dragons - are said to exist in Mikelmerck.  Reports suggest that they have been dormant for centuries and now form part of the landscape.  This is not to say that they cannot be revived.  The long ridge running across the top of the Telrick Dale is said to be a dragon's spine.  If so, the creature is enormous.

Dwarves - are rare.  Lead does not interest them much as a metal and their interests lie elsewhere in Albion for the most part.  There is one known dwarven enclave producing superlative weaponry and armour, but the inhabitants are clannish even by dwarf standards. Visitors are most unwelcome, but occasionally a dwarven merchant appears at Strangmont market.

Eagles - are well known.  Captured young, they can be trained and are efficent hunters.  It is illegal for the peasantry to catch or tame an eagle.

Eagle
Armor Class: 4 [15]
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: Bite (1d6), 2 claws (1d4)
Special: None
Move: 3/30 (when flying)

Hulderfolk - the reclusive Hulderfolk seldom bode well for humankind.  They live in small family groups far up the Dales for the most part, keeping themselves to themselves.  Their connection with the earth and the Older is very strong.  In battle, Hulderfolk are fearsome.  With the exception of fire, little can really kill them and the creatures have long memories for those who try.  Hulderfolk have been known to raid villages for wives, typically selecting the strongest of the womenfolk as their prey.  A strong, but ill-favoured girl may even be offered to the Hulderfolk in an attempt to keep relations between the races pleasant.

Hulderfolk
Armor Class: 4 [15]
Hit Dice: 4+3
Attacks: 2 claws (1d4), 1 bite (1d8)
Saving Throw: 11
Special: Regenerates unless hit with fire.
Move: 12

Catching up

I have been a shameful laggard.  Not intentionally, to be sure, but even so, much has not been written lately.

What with the general festivities and our family trip to Cyprus, it's all been a bit busy.  Now however, the trees are down, the stockings put away and I can turn my mind to other things.  Gaming, naturally, comes to the forefront here.

To briefly update the games I'm running first:

Rune Stones has hit a road bump.  This saddens me, but was probably inevitable given that a major player has had to pull out for now.  Some games depend on certain characters for impetus and this is one.  I'm dithering about whether to call a temporary halt or not.  As it is the first game I ever ran online and has been going for over three years, I'm really reluctant to do that, but the thought is there.  New Year means reality checks.  In the end, it doesn't matter how much I love the thing if the players aren't biting and right now, they're not.

Tombs 1 and 2 on the other hand have recovered from their own slight road bumps and are both churning along nicely.  In the case of Group 1, they're neck deep in mummies.  Group 2 are advancing rapidly on the end of this section of adventure and have just met the relevant Big Bad.  He's a solo, which is usually doom to interesting fights, so I'm intrigued to know how he works out. 

Normally one of two things happens.  The Big Bad is piled with effects and demolished in very few rounds leaving the players feeling victorious, but underwhelmed.  The alternative scenario (Big Bad wipes out party in very few rounds) is equally bad.  I'm hoping for something a bit more knife-edge with lots of shifts of fortune.  Hoping.

Lost City is also doing nicely.  Having overcome the terror that was the stairwell, the party are dealing with a group of glass golems.  Thanks to Open Design's rather innovative approach to monsters, it is proving a toughish fight.  Hitting them hurts the party so they are having to think a bit about how they deal with the beasties.

Mikelmerck is due a lot of attention and should get it over the weekend.  A starting adventure is burgeoning and might conceiveably run on G+.  Many more monsters are pending, along with a couple more people and places.

Drama - the ever-present part of my life - resumes on Wednesday when Youth Theatre starts up again and we find out how many lines have been learned in the weeks off.  Costuming, props and lighting are getting closer to being nailed down in all cases.  The sewing machine beckons.

Damsons - is dependent on the weather.  So far we've had a mild winter and everything is growing.  Mind you, if I catch whatever blighter is digging up our winter onions and gnawing them, I'll turn the cat loose on it.

Mikelmerck - Noblebloods

Nobleblood.  Sensitive, fast and prone to breakdown.

In stark contrast to the Duchy pony, the Nobleblood is entirely the product of deliberate breeding for speed.  Among the nobles of Mikelmerck, horse racing has long been a popular sport.  Indeed for some it amounts to an obsession. Lands, power and people are good, but the honour of the race is what truly makes the heart beat faster.

There is some mystery about the origins of the Nobleblood.  Certainly it has little in common with the native ponies, being taller, lighter in build, very delicate and entirely lacking in the Duchy pony's ability to protect its rider.  Fairly solid rumour supports the notion that the progenitors of the Nobleblood are from fey lines. 

Noblebloods are, in short, a luxury item par excellence.  What they have in abundance is speed.  With that speed goes considerable fragility.  This fragilty seems to be the price to be paid for their blinding pace and their ability to pass on those genes to their offspring.

Most noble families have a studbook to their name.  In much the same way as Duchy ponies are used as high currency, so too are Noblebloods.  More than one marriage has been arranged to gain access to particularly treasured bloodlines.

Mikelmerck - a Monstrous update (or mini-bestiary)

A is for Algae - nasty stuff that is hard to detect.  Apart from being slippery, it has an additional hazard attached to it.  Any metal or organic substance it touches begins to turn to green slime (saving throw). It can be killed with fire or extreme cold, and the transformation process can be arrested by the use of a cure disease spell.

B is for Badger - highly territorial and believed to carry disease.  As a result, farmers hunt them relentlessly.  They fight back, but will retreat if they can.  It's true about the disease.

Armor Class: 4 [15]
Hit Dice: 1
Attacks: 2 claws (1d3), bite (1d6)
Saving Throw: 14
Special: None
Move: 6

B  is also for Wild Boars - again a hunted beast that fights back.  In this case, they do not die easily.

Armor Class: 7 [12]
Hit Dice: 3+3
Attacks: Gore (3d4)
Saving Throw: 14
Special: Continues attacking 2 rounds after death
Move: 15
Boars continue to attack for two rounds after they are actually killed before they drop dead.

C is for Changeling fey - like for example, the Shifty Gan.

D is for Dawners.  The dawners are what is left of the oldest humans.  Forced away from civilisation, they live a brutish life in isolated pockets.  Over the centuries, their culture (if it ever existed) has degenerated and they are only rarely seen.  They do not like strangers but sometimes hunt other humanoids for their own mysterious purposes.

Armor Class: 6 [14]
Hit Dice: 1
Attacks: Weapon, usually spear (1d6) or slings (1d4)
Saving Throw: 17
Special:  Dawners will always try to hide and ambush rather than confront directly.  In general they will aim to pick off the weak and retreat with their prey.  They are intelligent and canny hunters.
Move: 12

E is for Ettin - these dimwitted two-headed giants argue constantly and have no chance of setting up an ambush - nor it must be admitted, any desire to either.  Permanently greedy, they can be a great bane to livestock.  Canny villages have sometimes managed to frighten ettins away by threatening them with something nastier.

Armor Class: 4 [15]
Hit Dice: 8+2
Attacks: Weapon (2d8)
Saving Throw: 8
Special: Throw boulders
Move: 12
They throw rocks for 2d8 points of damage.

F is for Fey - the ever-present boundary crossers of Mikelmerck.  Warrior bands sometimes cross into the Duchy as part of their initiation rites. 

Armor Class: 5 [14]
Hit Dice: 1+1
Attacks: Sword (1d8) or 2 arrows (1d6)
Saving Throw: 17
Special: Immune to some magic, but vulnerable to cold iron
Move: 12

G  is for Guardian ghosts.

H is for Horse - or more usually the Duchy pony.  Jet black and hardy, these unflappable beasts have been used for centuries to carry lead down mountains and farmers up dales.  For nobles, horse-breeding is a permanent interest and the study of pedigrees is considered a proper subject for the aristocracy.

Horses are AC 7 [12], with Duchy ponies having 4 HD, movement 14 and Noblebloods having 3 HD, movement 21.  The phlegmatic Duchy pony is always gets a save v fear the first time it sees something new.

L is for Lycanthropes.  In Mikelmerck these are werewolves for the most part.  They are also rare, which is a great relief to anyone who has met one.

Armor Class: 5 [14]
Hit Dice: 4+4
Attacks: Bite (2d4)
Saving Throw: 13
Special: Lycanthropy
Move: 12

N is for Nixie.  Nixies are river spirits who infest the Roosh.  Endlessly curious, they are usually friendly, but can be capricious - as well as prone to forgetting that most species need air to breath.  Nixies do not live long away from water and they like new playthings.

Armor Class: 7 [12]
Hit Dice: 1d4 hit points
Attacks: Weapon (1d6)
Saving Throw: 18
Special: Charm
Move: 6/12 (when swimming)

One in ten of them has the power to cast a powerful Charm Person (-2 on saving throw) that causes the victim to walk into the water and join the nixies as their slave (1 year). Casting Dispel Magic against the curse has only a 75% chance of success, and once the victim is actually in the water the chance drops to 25%.

P is for Pheasants.

S is for Sheep.

Mikelmerck - Markets and knitting

Markets are a regular feature of life in Strangmont.  While barter is the commonplace day to day currency, for anything more out of the way than sheep products, a market is the only sensible option.  Strangmont holds the marketing rights for Mikelmerck and makes full use of them.

Craftsmen gather each month to trade goods and information in equal measure.  Here one may purchase basic supplies as well, as other more exotic things.  Very occasionally, fey traders arrive and their stalls are regarded with a mixture of longing and deep suspicion.  There is, as everyone knows, no such thing as a good fey bargain.  Or at least none that is good for the recipient.

The Duchy crafters have their specialities.  Knitwear is a major source of income for many families.  Nor is it to be despised.  Due to the hardy nature of Mikelmerck sheep, clothing made from their wool has extraordinary durability.  Some say that it is better than armour.  It must be confessed, however, that wearing Mikelmerck wool next to the skin is not recommended for the weak.

Each garment is unique.  Families pass down their pattens and guard them jealously.  In some cases, those pattens have particular virtues.  Members of the Thwaith clan knit charms against the cold into their clothing, while those of the Culd family have a long history of knitting clear sight into their clothes.  Some knitters will make special clothing to order for favoured customers.

Water-warded scarf with additional fey protection.  From the private collection of Scrivener Wainwright

Mikelmerck - The Leap

A simple stone cairn on the edge of a cliff is known locally as the Leap.

Here a foolish noble did his best to prove his indestructability and all but succeeded.  Waylance Aske, scion of a noble house was determined to prove that the blood of the fey ran in his veins.  His chosen method was to ride his horse off the edge of the cliff - certain in his own mind that the fey would protect him.  In the event, gravity paid more attention than any passing fey and he landed with broken legs on his still more broken horse.  Rescued the following day, he claimed to the end of his life that his survival proved his fey blood.  He was not believed.

For all his foolishness, Waylance may have been right.  It is possible he simply misinterpreted an older and stranger story.  Long ago, it is said, poets and bards would take the Leap.  For the worthy, the fey would catch and hold them.  When they returned home, they would have the words of the fey in their ears ever after.  There was a price, of course.  Their ravings were couched in such terms that few could understand them.  If any leaped and survived, their names are unknown.  For those that did not, their bones still lie at the foot of the Leap.

Sometimes their spirits still walk.

Mikelmerck - the caves beneath Strangmont Castle

Top down view of the caves.

The above map shows some of the difficulties involved in finding the caves beneath the Castle.  It is not that they don't exist, but the entrances are many and most lead to nothing in particular.  Nor are those entrances easy to find. 

Seen from the ground, there is merely limestone cliff rising steeply.  Covered in trees and brambles, it is not inaccessible, but it is inhospitable.  None of the openings are visible either from the top of the cliffs or from ground level.  If one could fly, perhaps the chances would be greater - and indeed watching the nesting patterns of birds has so far offered the best clues to possible entrances.

If Walt Mukel ever fulfils his dreams of finding a useful entrance, he will be hard pressed to make any use of it.  He has neither the skills, nor, if the truth be told, the inclination to go burrowing among the rocks.  Such activity is far below his sense of self-worth.  Paying the intrepid is one option, but he would need to be very sure he could trust such a group.  After all, he has not spent the best part of his adult life looking for secrets to have them blabbed about by some random adventurer.

Mikelmerck - The Strangmont Seneschal (8th day of advent)

I have every intention of doing backdated posts for the 6th and 7th days as well, but this is what you get today.  

The position of Seneschal at Strangmont Castle is hereditary.  This is due to an error of wording in the original contract, but after 700 years it is a little late to be setting right a bureaucratic error.  In any case, to do so would be to bring down the wrath of the Mukel family.  Never a large clan, they are nonetheless important and have made themselves more so with their tenacious hold on the post of Seneschal.

As the years have gone by and the Castle's importance as a politcal seat has dwindled, so too have the duties declined.  In honesty, they are now mostly ceremonial and for most of the people of Strangmont, the Seneschal is a kind of local joke.  Naturally nobody says so outright, but the tolerant politeness shown to the current holder speaks for itself.

Walt Mukel - Hereditary Seneschal of Strangmont Castle

Walt Mukel is not happy about this and longs for the glory days.  Now in his early thirties and unmarried, he has a two great ambitions.  The first is to wed so the line can continue through him rather than some outlier cousin.  His second great ambition is to find the caves beneath the Castle.  To this end he spends much of his time searching the extensive records for clues.

Walt has been postponing the search for a wife mainly because he feels he simply cannot spare the time.  He is also uncertain quite how to broach the matter.  He is anxious to avoid marrying someone unable to appreciate the importance of his lineage.  Locally, Walt is reckoned a good catch - being a pompous bore is not a crime, after all. 

Walt is often to be found fulfilling his duty to walk the walls with obsessive interest.  He always takes a small hammer and a tape measure with him, but hides both when anyone comes into view.

Mikelmerck - on weather (5th day of advent)

(Yes indeed, a slight sense of thematic need prompted this one, along with a semi-joke from Barry Blatt a few weeks ago.)

A bit parky,  frost, mist and breeze

Mikelmerckian weather has a charm of its own.  A charm hard to fathom for the outsider, but much appreciated by the natives.

Visitors say Mikelmerck weather comes in two flavours.  Cold and wet or the ever-popular foggy and wet.  This is an injustice as Srivener Wainwright demonstrates. He has conscientiously documented the various types of rain throughout the year.

1. Drizzle
2. Squally showers
3. Downpour
4. A good drench
5. Precipitation
6. Flurries
7. Torrent
8. Tempest
9. Heavy condensation
10. Heavy dew
11. Sheets
12. Freezing
13. Deluge
14. Sprinkling
15. Misting
16. Showers of mixed amphibians
17. Showers 
18. Thunderstorm
19. Cloudburst
20. Spitting

To these he adds the following seasonal options:

1. High winds (any time of year)
2. Dense fog (autumn and winter)
3. Mist (autumn and winter)
4. Early lying mist (spring and summer)
5. Gusting winds (any time of year)
6. Overcast (any time of year)
7. Dank air (any time of year)
8. Thick frost (autumn and winter)
9. Sleet (winter)
10. Snow flurries (winter)
11. Snowstorm (winter)
12. Mardy (when summer isn't what it should be)
13. Hail (spring and summer)
14. Blowy (any time of year, but notably in late spring)
15. Bit parky (only if the temperature drops below zero)
16. Sunshine (Progress time only)
17. Breezes
18. Gales
19. Clarty (summer only)
20. Sheepsky (a prelude to thunder)

Dense fog, overcast with spitting rain

Mikelmerck - Guardian ghosts and others (4th day of advent)

(Yes, I know yesterday's Mikelmerck post was on the 3rd day of advent, but the title was already absurdly long)

Due to the tendency of Mikelmerkians to remain in harness after death, ghosts are not so much feared as expected.  Held by contract to their households, ghosts are regarded as security.  They recognise members of the family perfectly well.  Selected friends may well be introduced to the ghost as well, so that they may visit in peace.  Strangers get a chillier welcome until vouched for.

All this is innocent and practical enough, but not all ghosts are so benignly tied.  Ghosts found in abandoned places may well be angry that they have not been formally released.  Over time, anger may turn to something worse and such ghosts may wander the Duchy seeking someone to put them to rest.  In general such ghosts will attempt to reach existing family members, but if that is not possible, anyone will do.  Some very long abandoned spirits may go entirely mad, believing any person they come across is a member of their former family.  Such a person will be relentlessly haunted until the ghost can be placated and released.

There are also stories of ghosts refusing to end their contracts.  These dangerous spirits hunt for a more profound unlife than the one granted to them and are drawn to sorcery of all kinds. 

Guardian ghosts
Armor Class: 6 [13]
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: Chill gaze (1d3), Touch (1d4)
Saving Throw: 16
Special: Immune sleep spells and normal weapons, paralysing touch
Move: 9
Challenge Level/XP: 3/60

Mikelmerck - pheasants (but not as you know them)

Mikelmerck Pheasant

Although extremely tasty and a prized delicacy, Mikelmerck pheasant is a rare dish.  There are good reasons for this.  At any time of year, the cock and hen pheasants represent a challenge.

Pheasants roam the moors of Mikelmerck almost entirely undisturbed.  Their peculiar defences mean that they breed untroubled.  Naturally this also means that their population must be culled if pheasants are not to take over the landscape and so hunting is a necessary, as well as a taxing sport.

During their breeding season, pheasants attract mates with their colourful plumage.  Males grow lengthy tail feathers which quite literally set fire to their surroundings.  Once a nest is built and eggs are laid, the females use their petrifying gaze as a defence.  Few creatures will live near a pheasant nest.  If the cocks are not setting fire to the landscape, the hens are creating sculpture gardens of unwary creatures.

The chicks do not develop their potent defences until the end of their first moult, and remain close to their home nest and parents until they do.  Anyone fortunate enough to come upon an unattended nest may capture the chicks without difficulty.  Pheasant feathers are highly prized as magical components as well.  A single pheasant chick can provide enough wealth to keep a family for many years. 

Almost their only natural enemy is the common weasel.  For some reason, weasels are immune to the gaze of the hen pheasant and they represent the prime enemy to the birds.  Humans too take advantage of the mustelids hunting ability and immunity.  Hunting parties arm themselves with weasels and ranged weapons and take to the hills in search of pheasant.  Such hunts are not for the faint hearted - and indeed the sport is mostly confined to the nobility.  Commoners prefer to find less exhausting ways to die.  Nonetheless, there are enough people brave or desperate enough to try to capture the birds.  Nobody knows how many worn stone cairns were once optimistic poachers.

Mikelmerck Pheasant
Armor Class: 6 [13]
Hit Dice: 3 during breeding season/2 during hunting season
Attacks: Gaze (1d3+ turn to stone (hens)/Fiery tail (1d4 + further 1d4 every turn until save) (cocks)
Saving Throw: 11
Special: Gaze turns to stone/Fiery tail
Move: 6/18 (when flying)
Challenge Level/XP: 4/600