Fogs of Alderburg [5e Recruitment]

Main Points
•Adventure in Gothic fantasy fog-laden Mitteleurope. Hints of Castlevania, Grimm’s fairytales but mostly Hammer gothic horror. Enemies are witches, werewolves and vampires rather than goblins and dragons. Characters are vampire hunters, priests, hard-bitten mercs and werewolf-wise foresters.
•D&D 5e levels 1-7.
•Regular posts, every other day. Some house rules to keep things going
•Setting is a fantasy alt version of a tiny Mittel European state with some indirect references to far off cities like Berlin, Frankfurt or Roma.
•It’s a zero to hero adventure where characters start off as youthful prodigies, setting off from their hamlet, burgh or neck of the forest. Then develop into significant local presences. The characters’ mission is to help their old Count deal with local menaces such as lesser vampires, ghouls and a witches’ coven. Gradually they realise that the little Dukedom is beset with more serious threats and an ancient evil!
•Character Lineages are humans, halblings (a small fantasy concession), demi-werewolves, (perhaps also Grimm’s style dwarves?).
•Black Powder. To support a Hammer type setting, we’ll include black powder weapons (using the Age of Flintlock rules). Bows and crossbows are still used alongside these weapons. They can be wielded by any class.
-Pistol, three actions reload*, 1d10 piercing damage, range 30/120, costs 70 kreutzers
-Musket, four actions reload*, 2d6 piercing damage, range 100/400, costs 250 kreutzers
*Shooter can roll sleight each round as a free action to perform one of these reload actions
•Armor. We’ll replace standard armor with more setting appropriate gear:
-Gothic setting light armor: +2 (stout jerkin, strong boots, hat or hood, good cloak or equivalent; costs 10 kreuzers )
-Gothic setting medium armor: +4 (adding studded leather, heavy cloak, sturdy belts/girdle, or equivalent, costs 30 kreuzers)
-Gothic setting heavy armor: +6 (adding helmet, cuirass, leather gauntlets, or equivalent, costs 70 kreuzers)

Setting


--Count von Alderburg has a seat in the Hoftag, an assembly which includes nobility of neighbouring regions. The count is elderly, benevolent, slightly mad, sponsoring grand projects such as a mechanical clocktower and astronomical observations . His several children vary between kindness and cruelty. The Count’s own ancestors include some saints and heroes, but also vampires and a notorious mad scientist.

--The region is adjacent to small but bustling Silber Stadt, a cathedral and university city, and has a number of small towns with guildhalls, elected burgher meisters, beer halls and other Mitteleuropean stuff ging on! Although comfortable, the region is rather too remote to have prospered and its guilds grumble that they cannot grow rich. More prosperous Silber Stadt is autonomous from the Grafschaft, ruled by a council of prominent burghers.

--The region’s remoteness makes an island for dark, strange survivors of its darker age. Too often the dead rise as shuffling vampires, and wolves (and werewolves) roam the mountainsides. In the remote, foggy woods, hags and ghosts haunt the villages. The Count has a tiny standing army, but much of the regiment is now deployed to protect the lands of a neighbouring ally.

--Religion is Mitteleuropean Christianity with saints, the Devil and such. A crucifix blessed by a bishop would be a strong weapon against a vampire. Holy water can be drawn from a church font. Enlightenment ideas are creeping only gradually into the region. Witch trials are no longer held, but many wish for their return. Numerous saints. including some local favourites, are prayed to. Even characters with pagan patrons do not disbelieve in an all-powerful God and may mix Christian prayers into their spells. Those dealing with the pure occult dabble with powers that locals will consider dubious at best.

Making a Character

1) Please post your character ideas in this thread first, before making an actual build. Make a new character for this campaign rather than import and convert an existing one. Read about the setting and try to reflect some setting features in your concept.
2) Pick a German language name
3) Consider the information about backgrounds, below
4) Create a character concept, considering the following suggestions, or even better coming up with something of your own.


Setting Stalwarts (we can include more than one of each).
• Soldier (fighter)
• Woodsman/Jaegar (ranger)
• Bounty hunter
Special characters (one/party)
• Priest, monk or nun (cleric)
• Vampire hunter (cleric, fighter or paladin)
• (Ex-?) highwayman (rogue or fighter)
• Witch, sworn to a pagan deity, Old Mother Frost or such (Warlock or sorcerer)
• Wise(wo)man (druid)
• Magic fiddler, storyteller or hurdy-gurdy man (bard)
• Tinker/vagrant (rogue/bard)
• Magic clockmaker or toymaker (artificer)
• Occultist (dubious wizard)
• Bare knuckle prize fighter (re-skinned monk with Chuzpe for Chi)
• Demi-werewolf (barbarian, selecting wolf-themed features on advancement.

Common Backgrounds
A three-estate society operates with nobility (princes and high clergy), knights (Ritter), and burghers. Peasants are not consulted in the region’s government.
A local noble (noble ) is likely related to the region’s Count and can carry the title of von Alderburg.
Ritter (knight) families are treated with respect (referred to as Herr or Frau) though they often have little more wealth than the commonfolk. Ritter and Nobility gain advantage on social rolls when dealing honourably with those of lower estate.
Burghers (guild artisan, guild merchant) are tradesfolk and merchants who have grown wealthy from business. Jewellery and silversmithing are significant local trades.
The small city of Silber Stadt homes many wealthy burgher families (guild artisan, guild merchant again), but some hail from meaner slums (criminal, urchin, entertainer). Its small University nurtures many scholars (sage).
Those who live in the region’s foggy forests and rugged mountains often live in remote communities where strangers are seldom seen. These might include hunters, foresters, high country goatherds and poachers (adjust outlander).
Holy folk might hail from the Cathedral in Silber Stadt or its remote mountain monastery (hermit, adept).
The river serves as the highway linking the local towns. Many are born on its banks and work it as water-wise boatmen or fisherfolk (sailor).
The Count maintains a tiny local regiment of soldiers. Some locals have wandered from the region in search of adventure as soldiers (soldier).
Local wandering communities have long lived in the region, working as tinkers, pedlars and itinerant workers (charlatan, entertainer)

Sounds interesting. I'd like to apply when you're ready.

Thanks Griel. Please ignore my (deleted) instruction to post elsewhere—I’ll deal with applications in this thread as per normal. What idea do you have for a character?

I'm always interested in gothic adventures. Is this using the old 5e rules or will you be using the new 5.5e rules?

I haven’t looked at 5.5 so safer with plain ol’ 5e this time.

I'm interested in a (vampire?) hunter type of character, brash and hard-as-nails type. Elric (Steinhardt?) is a bastard son of a Count. He has a chip on his shoulder, detests the nobility, and driven to make a name for himself through deeds. With no acknowledgement of who he is, he's had to survive on his own. I was thinking he'd be an ex-soldier of some sort that became a bounty hunter, but if the campaign starts young, then I'll think up of something else. He relishes the idea of one day hunting down his family line's ancestors (vampires and the like) and publicizing it.

Mechanically, he'd likely be a Ranger, or if you'd allow it, the Blood Hunter class seems very appropriate here.

Ah! Well, the idea I liked best is the witch. A wise woman who spends her time mostly in the woods. She deals in hard to find herbs, mushrooms and what not mostly, but many in the towns also seek her out for advice, talismans, and totems meant to ward off spirits, or attract good fortunes. The local clergy probably don't like her that much, but she's never been credibly accused of doing anything untoward. They also whisper behind her back and tell their children that if they misbehave, Cäcilie Heck will snatch them up in the dead of night and turned into toads or crows that she puts in her stew pot.

The truth is not far off. She is a warlock dedicated to a local Baba Yaga type pagan diety. She doesn't take children, rather those that are truly a threat to society, murderers or unrepentant theives for example.Cäcilie identifies them and lures them out into the open so Baba Yaga can deal with them. As long as she serves in this way, the Baba Yaga won't go after more innocent people. The undead are threats as well. The Baba Yaga will not sully her hands with an individual monster, but if Cäcilie can identify a central cause, perhaps that would entice her patron to act.

Mechanically I'm looking at an Undead patron Warlock. The fear based powers fit really well I think.

Don't know if this is just because I'm Dutch, but your setting sounds fantastisch! I' d be interested in this game, and am thinking about a character based on a aged little red riding hood. A Jaegar Outlander called Eva. Clever, though a bit naive, cares non stop about the ones she loves, but ruthless to those who've wronged her.

This is a really cool gothic character concept. But looking at the blood hunter class it is surprisingly dark in tone, where I’m expecting our heroes to combat nastiness such as blood ritual. His hatred of aristos will also be tricky given the premise that the party is helping out a benevolent old local count.

I’m sure there’s a work around but I have to try to anticipate mismatches with the setting. And just to reiterate, it would be a great concept for a darker Gothic campaign.

Yes this sounds good. Baba Yaga is the right balance between a terrifying force of darkness and a kindly old crone. Oddly enough I thought exactly of this patron and came up with Old Mother Frost as the Germanic equivalent. A more middle European but still Slavic name — Ježibaba, say-- would fit the setting, which could have Slavic as well as German elements.

Still fussing over the name, wikipedia says that a related being, Perchta or Berchta ('Bertha'), was a goddess in Alpine paganism in the Upper German and also Austrian and Slovenian regions of the Alps. Maybe that’s a good fit?

As for the character, presumably she’d be a good egg opposed to evil despite her non-conformist practices. I’d also prefer characters to be young at the adventure start, so she might be starting off as a newly minted witch, trained by a grandmother or such?

I really like this! Characters start off as youthful naïfs, so she might still remember her youthful encounter with the wicked wolf or equivalent (it can be ambiguous as to whether she is LRRH, or a local analogue). She could live in the large forest in the south of the map.

I’m not a German speaker, so I’m probably murdering the German language even in the map. Which you’ll (possibly?)pick up on more than most!

Great! I'm thinking of basing her more on character traits, and a backstory with the feel of the story, than on the actual story of LRRH. Maybe some close relative got devoured by (were)wolves, or some other kind of monster, but I'm definitely open to workshop on that with you!
Haha, I'm not a native German speaker either, just enough to enjoy a holiday in Germany. But I don't care about a perfect German languages, it's fiction, and to me it feels like you created this the right way. So I won't correct you on your own language, even if I could!

Yes, that sounds ideal. I think we are thinking on v similar lines!

This sounds interesting! I also would love to apply!

tho i do have a question what is implied under the Demi-werewolf race? or is it a class? I currently am a bit confused....

Here's my character:

Hi Bubbles. Demi-werewolf is really more of a concept, though I described it as a ‘race’ as you could argue that somebody with werewolf attributes is not fully human. The player could explain how they came to be so. Perhaps they were bitten by a werewolf but managed to fend off the disease of lycanthropy. Or are the child of an actual werewolf. Or have lycanthropy as an ancestral curse. A suggestion—only— is that they come from a high mountain village where many have werewolf ancestry, after centuries of battle against true werewolves. It doesn’t have to make perfect sense, but some kind of nod to their origins would bring the idea to life.

My idea is to use the mechanics of the barbarian class to emulate low-level werewolf powers like fast movement and reckless attack. In rulebook terms, they are humans otherwise.

I’m always happy to workshop character ideas from a mechanical perspective. To go further in modelling a character’s lycanthropy, we also could use the mechanical template of the half-orc class to give them more wolfey features like dark vision and relentless endurance. Combined with barbarian class features we’d get a pretty good feel for someone with werewolf ancestry or powers.

Or have lycanthropy as an ancestral curse. - I like this option, let's say that Vulf family is a family of supernatural/monster hunters hailing from somewhere in the mountains (Althaus?) and the curse has been like part of that bloodline for a good while.

Ludvigs mom, probably with the small lad in tow, moved to another settlement due to not wanting to deal with being a part of sushi a dangerous family, for example, because she detests cruelty and aggression.

Let's say that Ludwig has faint memory of his father's family and where they live. He's his father's splitting image (a younger version ofc.). He doesn't know what they do, but Ma' quotes them as 'heartless monsters' probably due to strict family traditions and whatnot.

About the werewolf race/concept, but your suggestion about the half-orc sounds really good. I like it.

Yeah, we are on the same page. She's a good person, just doesn't conform to the current way of things. She doesn't mind being ostracized to much. She serves a patron that has a scary side, and she uses that power to help protect people, sometimes in a "scared straight' kind of way. I'm good with whatever name you want to give the patron, as long as the concept works.

That's fine, I didn't really have a specific class in mind, the ranger and blood hunter were just the two "hunter" types that immediately came to mind. As a ranger, he would see the undead as unnatural abominations, which seems to fit in well.

His hatred of the nobility is more out obsessive envy than outright hatred, and given that he's a bounty hunter type, he's not going to bite the hand that feeds him. It stems from him not being acknowledged as a bastard son, which gives him an excuse to pile on the hate, thinking they could do more with their money to help combat the supernatural, that kind of thing.

The tone I was going for was along the lines of Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust, if you're familiar with it. I'm also a huge fan of the gothic Byronic hero archetype, the flawed hero trying to not succumb to his flaws.