Barrow Builders
When the servants of the Stone Lords rebelled, slaying their masters and unleashing the Things Below, those who died in the uprising were hailed as martyrs. The survivors raised mounds of earth and stone to honor them, simple barrows built with human hands and human arts.
Society collapsed. Horror swept the land.
Petty tyrants and sorcerer-kings rose to power. They had barrows built to honor loyal vassals or to seal away the ghosts of those they had betrayed.
Fleeting kingdoms rose and fell. Rulers raised grand barrows and had themselves interred with riches, slaves, and followers in tow. Fueled by dark magic and the power of the Things Below, some of these tyrants reigned on even after death.
In time, the power of the Things Below diminished. Subjects rose up and overthrew their masters. Tyrants began to fall.
Those who could not be killed were sealed away in barrows. The current age arrived.
Many barrows still remain. A few are simple graves. Many are haunted or cursed.
Some imprison ancient evil. They dot the World's End, especially in the Steplands. The Hillfolk shun them, and warn all travelers away. For they descended from the Barrow Builders, and those who cast them off. They know what horrors those earthen mounds contain.
Names
Breton- or Cornish-inspired, similar to Hillfolk names but with more vowels: Alana, Arzhel, Brandan, Corent, Deniel, Enora, Gwenael, Herve, Judikael, Karenza, Katell, Maben, Margh, Nolwenn, Piran, Ronan, Winoc, Yanick, Yezekael.
Hooks
- An artifact that the PCs want lies in a haunted barrow mound
- Some fool unseals a barrow and lets phantom riders loose
- Someone acquires the tether of a deathless one
- Hillfolk are furious that one of the barrows was looted
Themes
Pick 1 or 2, or roll .
| 1 | Revolution: hunting down the Stone Lords, upending the status quo |
|---|---|
| 2 | The works of the Makers: torn down, vandalized, repurposed, lost |
| 3 | Societal collapse: famine, shortage, hoarding, violence |
| 4 | Sorcerers and necromancers: recklessly wielding power they can't control |
| 5 | Human sacrifice, blood magic, the courting and open worship of the Things Below |
| 6 | The horrors of war: pillaging, looting, slaughter, dislocation |
| 7 | Refugees, desperate and afraid, seeking safety, settling for survival |
| 8 | Sorcerer-kings and petty warlords with their grand, bloody ambitions |
| 9 | Conquest/oppression/enslavement |
| 10 | Intrigue/betrayal/civil war |
| 11 | Rulers clinging to power, even from the grave |
| 12 | Heroism and hope and perseverance, the casting off of tyrants, the slaying of monsters; the forging of a new age |
Questions
- Where is the nearest barrow-mound that you know of?
- What strange sign marks it?
- What tall tale have you heard of it?
- What story do you recall, from the terrible days after the Makers fell?
Lore
Everyone knows:
- That old barrows dot the region
- That they're smaller and cruder than Maker-ruins
- That Hillfolk shun them
- That they supposedly contain great treasure and great danger
One might know:
- Where a few barrows can be found
- That they were built by the Hillfolk's (reviled) ancestors
- Of a particularly (in)famous figure among them
- The horrors from those times
- A tale about a specific barrow
Very few know:
- What a given barrow contains
- Where a specific figure is buried
- The true story behind a barrow
Sites
Barrow Builder sites are most common in the Steplands, especially around Blackwater Lake and Three Coven Lake. Plenty can also be found in the Flats, the South Manmarch, and along the Dread River. A few can be found in the Huffel Peaks and as far north as the Foothills.
To create a Barrow Builder site, pick one or have someone roll the Die of Fate.
| 1 | A cave, in which they or their victims lived/hid/died/ were interred (combine with 1 or 2 themes, Themes) |
|---|---|
| 2 | An old battlefield or mass grave, likely haunted |
| 3-4 | A reclaimed Maker-ruin (see below) |
| 5-6 | A barrow |
Reclaimed Maker-ruin
Choose or roll for its origin. Create the ruin from the appropriate tables, rolling with advantage for its condition at the time the Barrow Builders claimed it.
| 1 | A Green Lord ruin |
|---|---|
| 2 | A Rime Lord ruin |
| 3-4 | A Tempest Lord ruin |
| 5-6 | A Forge Lord ruin |
| 7-10 | A Stone Lord ruin |
| 11-12 | A ruin of multiple groups (roll |
twice)
Then pick or roll for a theme to reflect how the Barrow Builders used it,
1-3 signs of their presence, and its current condition. Populate the site with artifacts and dangers of the Barrow Builders, as well as those of its original owners.
| 1-2 | Ghosts/psychic imprints |
|---|---|
| 3-4 | Remains/bones/graves/memorials |
| 5-6 | Damage/plunder/vandalism/graffiti |
| 7-8 | Distinctive material culture: refuse/ pottery/tools/art/statuary/textiles/etc. |
| 9-10 | Crude, human-sized additions/ adaptations/repairs |
| 11 | Altars/idols/offerings/arcane symbols |
| 12 | Maker artifacts, repurposed |
| 1-4 | Shattered and laid waste by time, disaster, or vandalism; mostly buried, overgrown, collapsed; its purpose unrecognizable |
|---|---|
| 5-8 | Crumbling, largely buried, overgrown, or hidden away |
| 9-10 | Buried, overgrown, or hidden, but mostly intact |
| 11-12 | Fully visible and strangely well-preserved For more examples, see Blackwater Lake and Three Coven Lake. The PCs are searching for the fiery heart of the Stone Lord ruin that the Barrow Builders reclaimed. Looking at the tables on Stone Lords I end up with a warren of multi-storied, brutalist apartments—housing for laborers—built around a single, giant-sized manor where the overseers dwelt. Maybe this was a plantation, with a small army of lithic servants For the Barrow Builders' theme, I roll an 11 ("rulers clinging to power, even from the grave"). For signs, I roll a 5 ("damage/plunder/vandalism/graffiti") and 10 ("crude, human-sized" modifications). For the current condition, I roll a 9 ("buried, overgrown… mostly intact"). I ponder a bit, and come up with this: A sorcerer led the humans here to rise up against their overseers. The sorcerer then claimed the manor as his own, along with the device that charged and controlled the lithic servants —a device powered by the Mindgem's makerglass heart! He turned the manor into a crude palace and sent "his" people back to work the fields. When they eventually rebelled, he was mortally wounded but transferred his soul into the device that ran the lithic servants. With his mind now spread among the many constructs, he squashed the uprising. His rule grew increasingly erratic, brutal, and ineffective. The tenements became more squalid and desperate. Folks fled. The sorcerer didn't care. Now, the complex lies empty: overgrown, half-buried, stripped of anything of value, and home only to a dwindling army of lithic servants and the fractured mind of a paranoid sorcerer. |
- Mindgem Mindgem. I think it's in a Stone Lords maintaining the complex?
The PCs are following the River Sruth out of South Manmarch when they encounter a barrow. I roll a 10 for terrain ("tree(s), savannah, thickets"), a 9 for a theme ("conquest/oppression/enslavement"), a 12 for size ("manmade hill"), a 1 for purpose ("to honor the interred"), a 3 for architectural elements ("obvious entrance"), an 11 for condition ("strangely intact, fully visible"), and a 12 for features ("roll twice"). I then get a 4 ("corrupted by the Things Below") and a 10 ("treasure," with a 2 for the amount remaining). For the corruption, I turn to The Things Below and come up with a then by a seal being broken. I ponder a little, and come up with this: A lone hill rising from sparse woods on the river's south bank. The daughter of a warlord commissioned it. Hundreds of slaves built it. When it was done, she had the slave's skulls caved in, to be interred with her father and his riches. After the daughter's brief reign ended, some fools pried open the stone doors to loot the warlord's tomb. They found chambers full of death, madness, and cursed gold. Those few who made it out were never the same. The barrow still lies open and treasure still remains, but no one with a lick of sense goes near it.
Marshedge and through the poisonous place, with themes of death and broken bones, first caused by a blood-offering and They are the most obvious remnants of these bloody times: dome shaped earthen mounds. Most folks assume they were all tombs, but that's hardly the case.
Pick or roll for themes, its size, its purpose, 1 or 2 architectural elements, its condition, and a feature. Place the barrow in an appropriate terrain for its region. Fill it with artifacts and dangers of the Barrow Builders or the appropriate region.
| 1-4 | Small: just a few paces across, no chambers to speak of |
|---|---|
| 5-8 | Medium: big as a house, a few cramped halls/chambers |
| 9-12 | Large: a manmade hill, riddled with chambers/passages |
| 1-3 | To honor the interred |
|---|---|
| 4-6 | To bind/torment the interred |
| 7 | To protect the interred |
| 8-9 | To hide something away |
| 10 | To leverage/maintain fell magic |
| 11-12 | Roll , twice |
| 1-2 | Megalith(s)/cairn(s)/dolmen(s) |
|---|---|
| 3-4 | Obvious entrance (likely sealed) |
| 5-6 | Irregular/elaborate/oval shape |
| 7-8 | Works of the Makers, recycled |
| 9-10 | Walls of dry-stacked stones |
| 11-12 | Built around a spring: water bubbling up/pooling/flowing out Even in large barrows, chambers and passages are cramped and claustrophobic, often with packed-dirt floors and lined with large slabs of stone. |
| 1-4 | Collapsed, torn open, only hints remaining |
|---|---|
| 5-6 | Partially collapsed or torn open, but largely intact |
| 7-10 | Mostly intact, but overgrown or partly buried; easy to miss |
| 11-12 | Strangely intact, fully visible |
| 1-2 | Haunted, marked by dool trees |
|---|---|
| 3-4 | Corrupted by the Things Below |
| 5 | Protective spirit(s)/construct(s)/demon(s)/spell(s)/trap(s) |
| 6 | Connects to caves |
| 7 | Inhabited by local beasts/bandits |
| 8 | Useful or valuable flora growing on/in/near it |
| 9-10 | Treasure (roll to inform how much remains) |
| 11-12 | Roll again, twice For more examples, see Blackwater Lake. |
Artifacts
The Barrow Builders gladly looted and repurposed whatever treasures they could, and often dabbled with dangerous powers. Their sites often contain artifacts related to:
- Death and the undying
- The Things Below
- The Stone Lords
- Other Makers, especially the Forge Lords or the Tempest Lords
Various Treasures
- A rusty Y-shaped pendant (Value 0), symbol of the cult who fed the Voice of the Eternal Maw
- A bronze blade from a metal construct's limb, remade into a brutal axe (close, messy, awkward, +1 damage, Value 1)
- A map (fragile) to the barrow of a famously rich warlord
- Ancient grains in wax-sealed jugs, still good and worth 1 Surplus (immobile)
- A Maker-era gold coin (Value 2), found in a mass grave, the tether for a ghost
- A fine torc of aetherium around a skeleton's neck; shocks its wearer if they try to remove it or engage in any sort of violence
- A spear (◇ close, thrown, beautiful, indestructible, 2 piercing, Value 3) made of makerglass, shaft and all, found in a hero's tomb
- A ◇◇ Stone Lord's cleft skull, coated in gold and studded with gems (cumbersome, Value 4)
An Old Bronze Dagger
Tinged green, but sharp and sturdy. In the chaotic days after the Makers fell, it was the weapon of a desperate father. He killed his own brother with it, to protect his children's food. He killed others, too, to make sure his family had enough. So many, many others.
The dagger holds a shard of that father's desperate will. When you Seek Insight about someone while carrying the dagger, add the following to the list of questions you can ask. If your hand is on the hilt, you can ask one of these questions for free, even on a 6-.
- What of mine do they most want?
- How am I most vulnerable to them?
- What do they carry that is useful to me?
If a PC keeps the dagger, treat it as a threat (a MacGuffin; Instinct to cause paranoia).
The Three-star Crown
A circlet of whitest gold, set with three black sapphires that shine like stars. It was made by a renowned smith, an apprentice of the Forge Lords, at the command of a petty warlord. The warlord was so pleased, he maimed the smith's hands so that she could never make its rival. The smith killed herself in despair, cursing the crown to steal the hopes of all who wore it.
When you wear the crown and interact with someone who fears or respects you, you roll +CHA with advantage. Alas, each time you don the crown, roll +WIS: on a 10+, tell the GM one of your hopes and why you doubt it can be achieved; on a 7-9, tell them a hope you have abandoned; on a 6-, you fall into a deep despair that lasts until you rouse yourself to face a mortal danger.
If the crown is destroyed—the gems shattered, the metal reduced to slag—then the despair is lifted and all lost hopes are restored.
A Lead Bracelet
This heavy, black metal torc is set with a red gem. It feels good upon your wrist.
Makes you feel important.
When you wear the torc and threaten someone that you consider beneath you, lose HP equal to the torc's current Cost ( to start). They are filled with fear; the craven will flee, cower, or grovel, and even the brave will flinch and hesitate. Each time you use the torc, the Cost increases by 1 die size (max ).
When you wear the torc for a week without anyone questioning your authority, decrease the Cost by one step (min ).
Minor Arcana
Pick 1 or have someone roll.
| 1 | An old scroll case |
|---|---|
| 2 | A tattered mantle |
| 3 | A disturbing mask |
| 4 | A vellum scroll |
| 5 | A silvery signet ring |
| 6 | A mummified hand |
Major arcana
The following are particularly likely to be associated with the Barrow Builders:
Dangers
Hazards
- Unstable construction
- Perilous stone
- Cursed objects
- Darkness, deep in a barrow
- Low ceilings, cramped quarters, poor lines of sight
Banefire
Curtains or pillars of heatless flame, blue or green or purple, with no obvious source of fuel. Banefire features in many tales of the barrows: to repel, to imprison, or just as an uncanny feature of the mounds.
- Spring forth with little/no warning
- Blind them with sudden light
- Block a path or a line of sight
- Burn spirits, the undead, and living souls ( damage, ignores armor)
Something interesting: Ghosts and other spirits fear banefire as much as mortals, but the inhabitants of some barrows can control it.
Something useful: Banefire burns only where it's meant to; it never spreads. Each banefire is anchored to a blackened bone, all that remains of the mortal whose body and soul were sacrificed to fuel the flames.
Traps
They put all that effort into building barrows. They weren't going to leave them unguarded.
To create a trap, consider the barrow's purpose and what it contains, and where the trap is found. Then pick or roll for the trap's intent, its trigger, its tell, and as many elements as makes sense. Imagine how it works. If you like, prep GM moves and/or an impending doom for the trap, and maybe a custom player move.
| 1-2 | To kill/maim/injure |
|---|---|
| 3-4 | To repel/separate/deny/isolate |
| 5-6 | To weaken/hinder/delay |
| 7-8 | To capture/punish/torment |
| 9-10 | To alert/awaken/prepare |
| 11-12 | Roll twice |
| 1-2 | Stepping/entering/being/staying somewhere |
|---|---|
| 3-4 | Touching something |
| 5-6 | Moving something/picking it up |
| 7-8 | Breaking/disturbing something |
| 9-10 | Opening/closing something |
| 11-12 | Perceiving/examining/tinkering with something |
| 1 | A brief warning before it goes off |
|---|---|
| 2-4 | A tiny detail, easy to miss |
| 5-7 | Unusual construction/decor |
| 8-10 | Bait |
| 11-12 | Clear signs—it's obviously a trap |
| 1 | Camouflage/illusion/deception |
|---|---|
| 2 | Gravity/weight/mass/hardness |
| 3 | Blades/spikes/needles/pointy bits |
| 4 | Wire/rope/pulleys/contraptions |
| 5 | Tension/pressure/springs/balance |
| 6 | Chemics/poison/acid/gas/fire |
| 7 | Special materials (see below) |
| 8 | Runes/glyphs/sigils/marks/spells |
| 9 | Light/dark/heat/cold/noise/quiet |
| 10 | Thoughts/emotions/mind games |
| 11 | Spirits/constructs/undead/vermin |
| 12 | Previously triggered/disarmed Special materials might include hazardous growths, orichalcum, black iron, dark ice, makerglass, aetherium, red crystal, and/or other things of your devising. |
Examples:
- A pit, 15-feet deep, the bottom lined with rusty spikes; covered by taut fabric, pebbles, and dust
- A gap runs down the ceiling of a low tunnel; stepping on a flagstone releases a swinging axe
- A puzzle-box on a decoy coffin; futzing with it releases stabby little constructs from the coffin
- A corpse's sword; moving it pulls a wire, which upends an urn full of salt and releases a trapped wraith
- A rune-etched doorway; any who try to enter stop, turn around, and forget the last few minutes
- Opening the door to the final vault
requires removing a keystone; the whole barrow will collapse
- Sconces of glowing makerglass; break the rune-seal on the sarcophagus, get fried by lightning
- A dead-end, the word VIGILANCE carved on the far wall, the room full of colorless, odorless gas; causes headaches, irritability, fainting, death
People
- Hillfolk, warning away explorers or chasing them off
- A hdour, antiquarian, or sorcerer, seeking knowledge/artifacts
- Adventurers, hunting treasure
- A necromancer, consulting with those long-dead
Monsters
- Ghosts and revenants, haunting barrows, reclaimed ruins, old battlegrounds mass graves
- Constructs, stolen from the Stone Lords or made using their arts
- Corrupted beings, ancient pets of ancient sorcerers, or local fauna affected by lingering evil
- Spirits of the wild, bound by old spells
Barrow Wight
HP 14; Armor 4 (resilience), 2 vs. bronze or fire (mail)
Damage rusty sword (close, forceful) or crushing grip (hand, grabby, forceful)
Special qualities bound to their barrow
Instinct to protect their hoard
- Utter an echoing warning
- Block an exit
- Stand fast, refusing to be moved
- Keep fighting with or reattach a severed limb
As you might expect, grave robbing was always a problem for the Barrow Builders.
But a clever sorcerer had a solution! So many hateful spirits roamed the world in those days. Why not bind some to the corpses of the deceased, and let the dead guard their own treasure?
Phantom Rider
HP 14; Armor 2 (lacks organs, shield)
Damage spear (close, thrown) or trample (hand, forceful) or bow (near)
Special qualities bound to their bones; can travel far and wide; can't manifest in daylight; takes + damage from silver
Instinct to seek tribute, to lord over others
- Speed across the landscape like the wind itself
- Form a body of soil, dust, and mist
- Flank and harry their foes
For a time, it was common for warriors to pledge both their lives and their deaths to their lieges, and to be interred with their horses and their fellows in their master's tomb. Thus, they could live on in death, still basking in a grim and joyless glory.
Deathless Ones
In the time of the Barrow Builders, many warlords and sorcerers were obsessed with immortality. A number of them found it—or something like it—through undeath.
To create a deathless one, imagine a warlord (someone similar to a Manmarcher chief, North Manmarch), a sorcerer, a necromancer, or a hdour. Consider making them corrupted by the Things Below. Add the undead tag, and give them +4 HP because they are animated by more than biology.
From there, pick or roll for the tether that sustains them, how it sustains them, and its limitation. Then pick or roll for the deathless one's current state. Consider where and how they (or their influence) might be encountered. Let this all inform their story, their personality, and their stat block.
| 1-2 | Small (needle, torc, ring, etc.) |
|---|---|
| 3-4 | ◇ (sword, scepter, crown, scroll, mummified hand, etc.) |
| 5-6 | ◇◇ (shield, standard, urn, etc.) |
| 7-8 | ◇◇, cumbersome (bust, cauldron, coffer, tapestry, etc.) |
| 9-10 | immobile (hoard, tree, cave, statue, sarcophagus, etc.) |
| 11-12 | fragile and roll again (egg, porcelain, mirror, device, etc.) |
| 1-2 | It hides their death/heart/soul |
|---|---|
| 3-4 | It anchors their soul to the world |
| 5-6 | It feeds/renews/recharges them |
| 7-8 | It gives them leverage over the Lady of Crows |
| 9-10 | It shields them from the Lady and the Pale Hunter |
| 11-12 | It suffers age/death/decrepitude in their place Unless their tether fails or is destroyed, they cannot truly die. Their body will eventually heal or regenerate, or their spirit will possess some hapless victim. |
| 1-2 | They can't leave its presence |
|---|---|
| 3-4 | It must be fed/charged/maintained |
| 5-6 | It must be relocated often |
| 7-8 | Its destruction results in their instant, terrible, final death |
| 9-10 | If "killed," they require outside aid to be restored |
| 11-12 | Roll twice |
| 1-3 | Greatly diminished, perhaps destroyed and waiting to return |
|---|---|
| 4-6 | Imprisoned and largely forgotten |
| 7-9 | Hidden, apathetic, self-involved |
| 10 | Trapped, but with some influence |
| 11 | Secretly active, pursuing schemes |
| 12 | Roll twice I've established that the Mindgem's fiery heart is in the clutches of a deathless sorcerer, whose soul inhabits an arcane device that controls a number of I start with a sorcerer, corrupted by give him a terrifying gaze and the ability to inflict false sensations. For marks, I give him slow-healing wounds and strange fascinations (he's a voyeur). (immobile, fragile tained," and that "its destruction results in his final death." For a current state, I think he's "trapped, but with some influence" via the lithic servants he can possess. I picture him in his oversized manor, seated on a makeshift throne, permanently wounded, unable to move on his own. A dozen faceless stone servants attend him, moving him like a puppet when needed. Behind the throne is a contraption of rune-carved stone and crystal, the makerglass heart burning at its core. His mind is spread among his servants, some of whom scour Three Coven Lake for artifacts, gossip, and materials to maintain his device. Should the device fail, his consciousness will splinter and his body will finally die. The servants, each containing a splinter of his soul, will fight each other for primacy. None will succeed. lithic servants. El'rash-Orra. For gifts, I I already decided that he had "anchored his soul" to an arcane device in a Stone Lord manor ). For a limitation, I think the device "must be fed/charged/main-I write up his stat block like this: |
MYGHAL, DEATHLESS SORCERER
Solitary, Undead, Corrupted, Paranoid,
HP 16; ARMOR 4 (wards)
DAMAGE word of false pain (near, area, ignores armor)
SPECIAL QUALITIES tethered to the device; broken body; aware of all that his servants perceive INSTINCT to jealously hoard secrets
> Inflict false sensations on others
> Fix someone with his terrible gaze
> Reveal a plan or a horrid truth
> Control his lithic servants like they were extensions of himself
> Recover from any wound, slowly and never fully