Part of the conceits of the Lost Artanis campaign setting is the idea that it so easily fits the “classic” campaign set-up, as a consciously inherent aspect of its design. That is, the PCs can literally enter the setting fresh off a ship from Hanar-Across-the-Sea, into a land they only have the vaguest knowledge of. Thus I don’t have to worry about why the PCs don’t already know a bunch of people (although I can still pull out the “someone you met on the ship” card if I need to introduce an NPC whom they can probably trust).
However, details as to what they see when they step off that ship are lacking.
First, I have to decide what the best landing point is. Do I want to start a party in Aedgaria, Lippegen, or New Valais? All have different opportunities for a band of adventurers. I choose Lippegen, specifically Osttur.
The PCs arrive in the port at Durst, and then are taken by coach to Osttur in a week, where the promise of employment by petty landowners to the northeast of the town has drawn them. They are to serve as a force of warders to “supplement” the soldiery of the Markgraf and protect the settlers. In reality, the Markgraf’s soldiers never venture more than twenty miles from the town gates, so they’re on their own, along with several other similar bands of warders who act in semi-competition. To complicate matters, there is a ruined Artanian town in the woodlands, and it is thought that many of the creatures that are making life hard for the settlers are coming from there. After five years, they are to be rewarded with homesteads of their own, but it’s a dangerous job, and few live or stick around long enough to collect that reward.
Naturally, nothing says they all must come from the Dual Kingdom of Grott-Heimburg. The good folk of Lippegen are more than happy to get their employees from Valais, Wynnland, or elsewhere. Thus, if someone wants to play a ranger or a halfling, they have options that fit into this setup.
Next step: some small-scale maps of the area the PCs will be operating in, Osttur itself, and the ruined Artanian town.
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| The map is mostly unchanged, but I did add a few more Artanian ruins, including the one in the woods northeast of Osttur. |
