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The Soul Yard

A Five Fingers Adventure Location

The Soul Yard is an adventure location for use with Five Fingers: Port of Deceit. The area south of the city is detailed and adventure hooks are provided for all levels of play. Players wishing to explore this area may wish to consult with their GM before reading the details of this article.

GMs should consult Five Fingers: Port of Deceit for more information of this area and for instruction on using the “Legend & Lore” and “Rumor Has It” callouts. Adventure hooks provide a variety of scalable encounters GMs can use at various points in their campaign.

South of the sprawling city of Five Fingers, across the Choked Finger Channel on what is technically Cygnaran soil, rests an ancient blood-soaked region called South Shore. This bleak site was the location of massive Orgoth’s slave camps, where thousands of native Immorese labored and died to build roads and fortresses for the Tyrants. The location of some of the last battles to drive the Orgoth from western Immoren, the South Shore’s bloody past marks the land. Newer graveyards in the South Shore village provide rest to the city’s dead, though recent Cryxian activity threatens to make that rest uneasy.

Secrets buried in the Gnarls, and the rumors of restless dead and Orgoth treasures, bring scholars, ghost hunters, and adventurers to the South Shore.
The South Shore can provide many adventuring opportunities, particularly for campaigns set in Five Fingers. The village itself provides adventurers with a place to rest and recoup between adventures.

The whole region was once a flood marsh. The first settlement was a small hamlet of hardened pioneers that depended on fishing and waterfowl. By the time of the Thousand Cities era, the hamlet had grown into a bustling town, whose mills supplied the sailing vessels for much of Thuria. When the Orgoth blackships made birth in the Bay of Stone, the invaders choose to build a fortress on the impossibly rocky islands where Five Fingers stands today. Thousands of slaves were brought for the construction of the fortress, and those who died were cruelly dumped in mass graves in the south. Later, the first Orgoth overlord of the area was buried in a great mausoleum atop the mass grave of thousands of slaves worked to death.

The Sons of Thuria, then a collection of escaped slaves bent on revenge were the first in the area to join the growing rebellion against the Orgoth. A series of battles were fought on the downs that fringe the South Shore. After months of siege reinforcements from the Iron Fellowship arrived only in time to witness the destruction of the fortress from within — before the Tyrants withdrew across the ocean.

The lands of the southern shore hold more dead than living. The Rebellion battle-downs are marked by the huge sword of an ancient colossal, and nearby are the so-called ‘Tombs of the Heroes’, a dozen mausoleums with the remains of leaders of the Sons of Thuria who fought the Orgoth. The mercenary company, which bears that name today, protects the area, considered a hallowed Rebellion monument.

Because there was little land in the city suitable for a burial-ground, the practice of bringing the dead across the channel continued throughout the city’s history, and the three graveyards that resulted are still in use. For those unwilling to conduct a burial at sea, it is common for people of Five Fingers to say their dead ‘went south’, or ‘crossed the Choked Finger’.

South Shore attracts its share of necromancers, bone grinders, and others who seek to exploit the remains. Cygnaran garrison forces, along with hired adventurers, conduct occasional sweeps to round up lawbreakers, but they are too few to make more than a token effort. Smugglers regularly cross the Choked Finger Channel, bringing illegal or highly taxed goods into Cygnar and returning to Five Fingers, according to rumor, with necromantic ingredients and loot from robbed graves.

South Shore Village is a tumbledown collection of shacks and huts, occupying the space between three great graveyards and the Choked Finger Channel. Although the south bank is technically Cygnaran territory, the locals treat is as part of Five Fingers. The thousand or so inhabitants scratch a living from fishing, farming, herding, and traffic passing through to the city. Cygnar employs border guards, but their presence does little to prevent smuggling. The village boasts only a few buildings of note, including the Cygnaran Customs House, Meerik Stables, the ramshackle South Shore Inn and the only stone building, the squat Tranquil Passing Mortuary.

No bridge crosses the rock-choked channel, but a single ferry line links the settlement to the city. Those who use the ferry are merchant trains bringing goods to or from Ceryl by land, or inhabitants of nearby villages seeking to sell services or goods.

The ferry boat is a flat-bottomed, 20-foot side-wheel steamship, owned by brothers Brogan and Kell Strop (both male Thurian Rog 6) and piloted by Kiel Wallerford (male Thurian Exp5) from a small jetty at the east end of the village. The walk-on fare is 2 sp each way, with no charge for horses and other beasts if the owner promises to stable at Strop Grooming and Stables on Hospice Island not far from the ferry’s landing. Otherwise, the charge is a “silver a leg”. Charges for wagons and carts of goods usually are negotiated, with prices ranging 3 to 12 sp per axle.

The undertakers of Five Fingers land at the jetty, using black-painted boats to bring corpses for burial. It is whispered that some of the undertakers bring more across the channel than the lamented dead; every so often Cygnaran customs officials make a coffin search, ruffling a few feathers, but finding little.

The two stories of the South Shore Inn tower above most of the village. It stands in the middle of town on an unpaved street in sight of the ferry and a cross from the new customs house. The South Shore Inn is run by the scarred and sour-faced Alix Brand, a lame and retired woodsman (male Morridane War 2/Exp 3), and his wife Marta of 30 years (female Morridane Com 3).

The Inn provides rest for those waiting for the ferry or tedious custom inspections. It boasts a dozen small rooms (5 sp per night/10 gp per week), a large common room (1 cp per night), and an uncharacteristically well-appointed and warm suite above the kitchen (considered a good bargain of 2 gp per night). Marta’s meals of local fish and fowl (2 sp) bring local laborers in nightly and the Crane Island’s Flying Distillery ales (4 cp mug) and rum (2 sp pitcher) prove popular.

In summer, travelers and merchants fill the inn, waiting for their fortunes in the city across the water. In winter months, the inn’s rooms are mostly empty, except for those hiding from city troubles. Marta and Alex are hard pressed to keep up the place, with each winter taking its toll on the building.

Sander Leach (male Thurian Bdg6) runs a small time dredging service and serves as the village’s fix-it man. His bodged steam-sloop finds employment recovering wrecks of ships that tried to sail the Choked Finger. He spends the majority of his time working the channel and leaves his place in the hands of his goblin assistants, the helpful Gill (male gobber Bdg4) and bullying Tak (male bogrin Ftr3).

Leach collects odd bits of metal and can bodge damaged mechanical equipment for a fee (normally 10–50% of the item’s value, depending on the damage). He also buys mechanika bits salvaged from the Battle Downs.

Sander maintains a scrapyard near his ramshackle building, guarded by three large dogs left to roam the grounds (see No Quarter Magazine #7 for details on scrapyards). A large, cracked diving bell that might be serviceable given a good bit of bodging, stands out from the junk.

Rall Meerik (Thurian Exp3) is the fourth-generation owner of the Meerik stables, which, until recently, served as the only stabling for merchants and tourists entering the city from the south. Most opt to leave mounts in the care of the Meerik’s before conducting business in the city (1 sp per day versus 2 sp a day with the Strops). The opening of Strop’s Stabling on Hospice Island had little effect of Rall’s business until ferry owners began issuing free rides for those using their services. Although his family steers clear of involvement with the High Captains, Rall is considering petitioning a Low Captain to intervene.

The Meerik home and their sprawling stables — capable of housing up to 200 horses, mules, and stock — sit on the south end of town. The stables once employed up to 20 workers, but now Rall only has his family of four and himself to manage the family business.

The graveyards on the southern shore have received the city’s dead for centuries, attracting necromancers, Cryxian agents, and adventurers to fight them. Common folk avoid the graveyards, except during funerals, or if they are lucky enough to gain employment as gravediggers in this moribund place.
The South Shore Graveyards are segregated into three plots administered by the Tranquil Passing Mortuary Services.

Known locally as the South Field, the Commoners’ plot is a vast pauper’s graveyard, where the graves of the poor mingle with nameless bodies that turn up in the city’s shadowed alleyways. With burial pits dug and re-dug, the soil is a jumble of bones, rags and other debris. The few monuments visible here are crude wooden boards — recycled from the broken coffins of previous occupants as often as not — with names and dates crudely painted or scratched on them. The South Field is the fastest growing of the yards and receives the majority of the dead. The continual growth of the graveyard is evident in walls that contain it, where newer walls are found as the yard stretches southward. These outer and the middle graves are sometimes subject to grave robbing but its tenders largely overlook this.

West of town lies the the last resting place of many of the middle classes; those who can afford a more genteel burial. Those with greater wealth avoid burying their loved ones here, and some prefer burial at sea. The monuments range from simple inscribed headstones to small mausoleums and family crypts. Much of the graveyard is tidy and free of encroaching undergrowth thanks to local workers hired by the descendants of those interred. Burial requires a substantial fee and a suitable family name. The truly powerful try to arrange for burial in Five Fingers under the Cathedral of Morrow, but this is an adequate compromise.

The official name of the east fields is “Thurian Rest”, however, locals refer it as the “Towers” from the number and size of monuments that crowd within its ten-foot boundary wall. From a distance, it might be mistaken for a small town. Here lay the once rich and wellborn, often those who had lost their family fortunes but reserved enough for a comfortable final rest. These plots are sometimes protected by elaborate magical and mechanical security measures and are the graves of those desiring permanent monuments and too proud to be forgotten with burial at sea. Wealth alone does not buy a place in the Thurian Rest — only those of recognized Thurian blood tracing back to noble families of the vanished kingdom are buried here. Their vanity continues after death, as several families compete for the most ostentatious graves, hiring sculptors and artists to redecorate them as styles change.

Known locally as the Gnarlroad, the Western Tradeway continues its run south through the Gnarls for about 75 miles, linking the village and the ferry with the Twelve Day Road that runs between Ceryl and Orven. Given the propensity of the Gnarls to overgrow land almost as soon as it is cleared, the road is treacherous, and most travelers go in large, well-armed bands due to the dangers of the forest.

A gang of highwaymen known as the Fist of Cancienna (FFPoD p.97) roams this area, preying on lone travelers or small groups. Led by Lagdor Hammerhand (male ogrun Bar8), the Fist are criminals from Ceyrl, New Larkholm, and Five Fingers, nominally reporting to High Captain Waernuk. He uses them to gain the treasures missed by his pirates at sea. Hammerhand recently plundered a sword from Devourer cultists near Demonhead pass (See Iron Ender in Foundry, Forge & Crucible in this issue), but is not yet aware of its power or curse.

A customs post is stationed not far south on the Gnarlroad within sight of the village. From their guard tower the officials get a wide view of the battle downs during the day and will intercept any caravans attempting to bypass the gate. Sgt. Henderson (male Midlunder Ftr6), a retired trencher, takes his duty seriously and has recently told his men to be more vigilant of activity in the Gnarls. He is aware of Hammerhand and the Fist but does not have the manpower to confront them. He will gladly supply adventures with what Cygnaran military gear he has on hand (such as smoke grenades, military rifles, and ammo) if they can guarantee results.

On the north edge of the Battle Downs, an immense sword rises high in the air, its blade plunged point-down into the earth. Its origin is unknown.

Many of the worn names inscribed on the Colossal Sword can be found among mausoleums to the south. Enshrouded by oaks that keep the location hidden from prying eyes, the tombs lie nearly undisturbed. One tomb houses the illustrious dead of the Sons of Thuria. Each corpse is protected with traps, magical and otherwise, to ward off looters and necromancers.

A troop of three mounted exemplar knights from the Protectorate of Menoth are camped at the tombs after a long and hazardous overland journey tracking an infernal agent into the Gnarls. Knight Errant Bryson Borne (Exe 8) and his two remaining cohorts are chasing an agent of Anton Velliten (male Thurian Clr9/Mal3), a former cleric of Morrow now turned Infernalist. The depth of this plot is too deep to detail here, but is related to the Nonokrion Fellowship (IKWG, p.135) and efforts to instigate slaughter and war.

In his work to the southeast, Anton unknowingly desecrated significant Menite tombs and drew the wrath of the Knights Errant, who vowed to bring him to justice. They did not expect their prey to be quite so crafty or to make it so far from their homeland. Exemplar Bryson and his knights have made camp here to pray and prepare for their descent into the hellish forest after their prey. They are mistrustful of everyone in these unholy lands, but are in need of information on the area and know they must deal with those they would otherwise avoid.

Although the northern fringes of the Gnarls (IKWG, p. 192.) are less perilous than the deep woods, they hold their share of perils, and only the foolish venture into the forest unprepared.

A group of loggers has set up camp near the village, felling trees on the northern edge of the Gnarls. With the aid of an old and sometimes unreliable steamjack, they strip felled trees and drag the trunks to the river, where they are lashed and nailed together to be floated across the river to Five Fingers. Wood is in high demand in the city for construction, and fetches an excellent price.

Two score men (War1) work at the camp. Once a week they descend upon the South Shore Inn for rum and gambling. The state of the Gnarls can be gagged by the talk of these men, though now without buying a few drinks first. None are willing to go deeper into the woods and it is easy to read their fear when they speak of it.

Several bands of smugglers ship goods across the Choked Finger Channel in either direction; their existence is an open secret. The Cygnaran border guards are too few to do much to prevent the movement of Wake Isles contraband.

One gang of smugglers deserves special mention. Led by Rath Mullen (Thurian male Rog6/Ptl2) and working under the protection of High Captain Riordan, they cross the water by night to raid the graveyards, supplying necromantic materials to the Thamarites of the Shroud. They have mounted two small expeditions to the ancient slave graves, but on both occasions were repulsed by the undead that haunt there. So far, the Cryxian agent Thuronimus Bale has managed to keep his presence a secret from the smugglers, as well as from the rest of the local population, but if the conflict between the smugglers and the necromancer escalates he may act openly or withdraw to a new location. He is reluctant to take either course.

East of the village, hidden from sight behind the old Orgoth levee, a small inlet with a shallow bottom is used as a landing ground by Mullen and his smugglers. Their normal modus operandi is to and there under cover of darkness or bad weather, using a black-painted boat with muffled oars. A few stand watch over the vessel (the GM can vary the number and level of the guards to present the PCs with a suitable challenge), while the rest go about their business. The guards carry a horn to raise the alarm if they are attacked. The smugglers can be encountered at night anywhere between the cove and the grave plots, but are wary (performing Spot and Listen checks) and will seek to hide if they hear or see anyone coming.

Deeper in the forest stands a ruined tower, completely overgrown by vine-covered oaks and almost invisible. Constructed by the Orgoth, its black stone walls stand three of stories high, but a small underground complex survives beneath it. The Cryxian necromancer Thuronimus Bale (male Scharde Nec9/Clr7) has made his headquarters.

An Orgoth scholar, Bale has spent his life seeking to harness their dark magic to his benefit. A dutiful agent of the Dragonfather, Bale was assigned to utilize minions to watch the southern passage to Five Fingers. Bale has managed to discover the location of the tower and bypass its traps and gaining control of its undead protectors. Now both mechanithrall and Orgoth Dread guard the otherwise empty tower. From the rooftop of the tower and using his mechanikal lenses, Bale can spy the hazy coast of Hospice island as well as nearly all of South Shore and its graves.

At night the necromancer delves into his pursuit of crafting himself a steel body: the secret transformation into an Iron Lich. In order not to be disturbed Bale uses his skarlock thrall to watch from the rooftop and stations a troop of Mechanithrall in the nearby woods. With his attention diverted to his studies, much of the activity in the forest has passed his observation.

Recently however, Bale dispatched a group of smugglers seeking out an old bone yard in the Gnarls. This was the first Bale has heard of the slave graves and now that he has finished animating the transgressors into new thralls, he intends to seek out the location of the “soul yard” in hopes of finding fresh deposits of Necrotite.

The massive, long lost graves of the slaves who perished while building the Orgoth fortress at Five Fingers, lay deeper in the forest. Vines and trees now cover the mass grave, where thousands of slaves were buried by their Orgoth masters centuries ago. However, in this traumatic age, the dead rest uneasily.

The encroaching forest hides the entrance to an Orgoth tomb. The first Orgoth overlord of the area lay buried in an elaborate underground mausoleum. It remains undiscovered, and its traps and magical defenses untried — knowledge and wealth wait for those with the daring and ability to survive its perils. GMs should see “Uncovering the Orgoth”, No Quarter Magazine #5, which offers some advice on designing Orgoth dungeons.
Even at the time of the Rebellion the tomb was largely avoided due to the two restless spirits haunting it.

The tormented soul haunts this site, vainly trying to guide the souls of those buried here. Once a priest of Morrow, Alain Rhinehart (Clr6 ghost) saw to the overwhelming needs of the slave camps of the Orgoth. Alain was slowly driven mad with grief and anger at the brutal efficiency the Tyrants’ depravities. The overlord of the project had Alain killed in sight of this still hopeful flock in order to instruct them on their true fate. The following day, Alain’s ghost appeared and haunts this place ever since, as granting futile last rites to the dying in an attempt to guide them to Urcaen.

The ghost of Alain Rhinehart may mistake characters entering the graves as Orgoth or slaves. Alain is not immediately hostile but becomes so if anyone disturbs the rest of the dead. He speaks with a deep accent lost to history — madness and grief also make it hard to communicate with him. Alain avoids his final rest until he knows all the dead (including the graveswarm) have been laid to rest, given last rites, and the tomb of the overlord destroyed. Robbing the tomb, rather than destroying its contents, sends him into a rage against the tomb raiders.

When the Orgoth used their dark necromantic powers to create the tomb for their overlord, they unleashed a great threat. It remains to this day, moving in the earth as it seeks to extinguish all life within its grasp. Made of the bones of the dead, a graveswarm dwells in the site of the fallen slaves, mindlessly seeking the death of any living creature that enters their unhallowed ground. While almost nothing exists of the slave corpses, the graveswarm recently gained the bones of several would-be grave robbing smugglers.

Other Threats — The Gnarls are filled with various threats, including wild animals and beasts. Some, however, are more organized and live deeper in the forest.

Trollkin — A small Trollkin community lies deep in the forest. Although the neighboring humans have never set eyes on the village, it is generally known that there are trollkin somewhere nearby in the Gnarls, as individuals and small groups sometimes come to South Shore Village to trade. However, they take great care to prevent being followed back to their home and more than one group of adventurers set off to track them, never to return.
PCs that have played Smoke on the Water (No Quarter Magazine #4) may recognize these trollkin as members of the Golmhurt kith.

Led by a druid named Ranna Greel (female Morridane Drd 10/Blc 3), a group of twenty Wolves of Orboros (Morridane Ftr4 or Rgr2) are exploring the western reaches of the Gnarls. They come into occasional conflict with the local Trollkin (see above), which is likely to intensify if Ranna’s superiors in the Circle decide to establish a permanent presence here.

Graveswarms are a terrestrial variation of the aquatic Boneswarm — an animated mass of skeletal bits found in places where masses of bodies have laid without proper burial rites, such as Orgoth mass graves or the bone bits of Cryx. It is drawn to life, which it attacks without mercy, but rarely leaves its graveyard lair for long.

See the original NQ to D20 Stats, or Unleashed Core Rules (P. 461) to IKRPG Stats

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