Kids aren’t supposed to play in the Old Keep, but most young adults go exploring there once or twice. (By young adults, I mean 13-15 year olds, people who have chosen their professions and who are almost old enough to get married.) The Old Keep is disused, possibly dangerous, and reputed to be haunted or a site of bad magic. The Keep was the last point of defense when the ancestors to the Kalormyn defended this land a thousand years ago. (Stories vary. Kids collect and save them.) It's certain that something bad once happened there; a keep represents a significant investment of time and effort, and keeps are not just abandoned.

The PCs are a group of friends who have been together for all of their lives, went into the Old Keep last week. They went farther than they ever had dared before, past the dungeon.

Darmin, son of the Earl, found a sword, gleaming and clean. He picked it up.

Being responsible and not stupid, you took it to the Earl. The Earl said, "This stinks of magic," and called in the local witch/healer, Ordha. Ordha said, "It stinks of high magic. Send it to the king, he’ll have a mage who can deal with it." So the Earl called his master at arms, Maykkin, and gave him the sword, and told him that he would be setting out for Mekinil, the capitol, in the morning. Maykkin agreed and locked the sword in his room.

The next morning, it was in Darmin's room.

After much questioning, the Earl determined that the door had somehow been unlocked when a servant went in. She thought the sword belonged in the armory, so she picked it up. Before she got to the armory, she set it down in the kitchen. In the kitchen, the cook saw it and took it out to the stable and set it near Darmin's horse. A third servant saw the sword near Darmin's horse and decided it was the boy’s, so it should be put in his room.

Ordha said that Darmin has to take it to the capitol. The sword will allow nothing else. Because of the time of the year (after harvest but before the pass closes), the others can go with him.

It's a long, straight sword with a simple cross-guard. The tip of the blade is rounded. There are runnels up and down the center of the blade to reduce the weight. In the grooves are an inscription, which can be identified as Old Katon, but no one in Newmarch can read it.

The hilt is bound with purple leather and gold wire. It shows a certain amount of wear. You (or Maykkin) deduced:

• The user was probably right-handed.
• The sword is not rusted, although it ought to be.
• The sword shows signs of maintenance (sharpening, oiling).
• Purple was the colour of war to the old Mekin kings.

Quick notes about the Empire of Kalor:

• Collectively, the inhabitants are the Kalormyn. They are human, although there are also Orcs. The orcs are rarely seen these days, having been hunted down during the expansion. Orcs are occasionally seen (once a decade) in Newmarch, on the frontier.
• Called the Empire since the expansion done by Armid I; before that, it was just the Kingdom.
• Players come from the Earldom of Newmarch.
• The people are fair-skinned and stocky, with light-colored hair, tending to blue-eyed blondes. Brunettes are next most common, then redheads. Black hair is rare and considered unlucky. Brunettes and chestnut hair are common in Newmarch because they were the hair colors of the Wua tribes, who used to own this area.

The genders are not equal. Women have assigned roles in society. They tend to be diplomats and representatives, bards and actors. Women do not historically fight, and only someone from the outlands (like, say, the Earldom of Newmarch) would even teach a woman to use weapons. Women are the story tellers, the keepers of history, the tellers of truths. When acting in an official capacity (as a diplomat, for example), it is assumed that a woman never lies. She may shade the truth or omit facts until black is white, but she will never tell an out-and-out falsehood. In private life, of course, women are as prone to lying as any man.

You can regard all normal members of society as having the following psychological limitations (level 2 in CORPS terms):

• Respect for elderly
• Pride of empire
• Reluctance to kill people
• Obedience to authority

Magic is an integral part of society, even though not everybody can use it.

The social ranks are:

The vast majority of people have no "jobs"they are farmers, making a living. A village will have two or three people who have a profession or a trade, and they will probably train their firstborn to take on the business. Apprenticeships are for second and later children (usually sons).

Of the people with trades and professions, things are handled in different ways, depending on the area.

In Newmarch, in the Keep, kids help out everywhere as informal apprentices. (There are no guilds in Newmarch, so there's no real need to limit memberships.) By ten, a kid will probably know what he or she is going to do. Sometimes there's little choice: few children are born with the Power, so a child who does have it will probably be apprenticed to the local witch. The age of ten is not a hard and fast rule; it can happen that a child’s master dies or falls on ill luck before the apprenticeship is over, and the apprentice must take on a new trade.

The empire is divided into a number of provinces. Your province may be a duchy, a barony or anything in between, depending upon the social rank of your ruler. Not all landed lords rule a province; some (through complicated history) were vassals to other lords at the time of conquest, so they don't have representation in the House of Peers.

The empire is bounded on the east by the Belwyd Channel.

Major provinces include:

Population clumps occur in four steps:

1. Individual houses dot farmland and some forests. A house usually contains a family (three generations or more). Farmhouses, such as those of freemen or serfs, will usually consist of one or two rooms. Everyone sleeps together. (By the time a peasant child reaches puberty, he or she knows about sex. Noble children may not have this knowledge.)
2. Villages are a clump of houses; villages are usually a day's walk apart or less. A village may have a mill or a weaver. If it's on a traveled road, it may also have an inn. A village will usually have a walled area.
3. Towns are distinguished by the right to have a market. Towns guard their citizens quite closely, because a serf can become a freeman by moving into a town. There is an annual meeting at which new citizens are accepted or rejected. Towns also tend to have guildhalls. A town usually springs up around a keep, although they can show up in other areas. There is usually a town for every three or four cantons. Towns are almost invariably prosperous. A town will also grow up around most keeps. (The Old Keep in Newmarch is an obvious exception.)
4. Cities are quite rare. The old and new capitols certainly qualify; there may be others.

A thousand years ago, this area was held by one of the Mekin kings. The Wua tribes drove them out. All of the natives now are descendants of the Wua. When Ewdyn expanded the Kalor kingdom, he conquered this area. By size, it ought to be a barony, but because it's so distant, Ewdyn gave the noble who accepted it a greater rank.

The Earldom is divided into three cantons; a canton is basically a town and the surrounding area. Every canton has a sheriff.

Mostly the residents of Newmarch raise sheep and goats. The principle exports are wool, textiles, and cheese.

The Earl lives in the Earl's Keep. There are two other keeps in the Earldom: The Pass Keep and the Old Keep. The Old Keep was the Mekin kings stronghold, and is now abandoned.

Everybody agrees that the empire has only had two great kings Armid I and Ewdyn (this irritates the current King).

All landed nobles are members of the House of Peers although only between 40-60% of nobles actively attend. Some are too distant and some don't care.

Noble titles can be hereditary or lifetime. There are two military titles, knights and thanes. A freeman can voluntarily dedicate his life to his lord and become a thane. Thanes have extensive military obligations to their lords. A knight is the next stage up: becoming a knight is primarily a function of money (you have to be able to buy a horse), but it must also be recognized by your lord.

No doubt there are different grades of each which are only known to those in that social circle. For example, a Knight of the Circle is above a Knight of the Crescent but below a Knight of the Orchid.

A failed rebellion in the last century (resulting in the Regency) established the supremacy of the King. Actual day-to-day governing is mostly handled by the Privy Court, who are selected by the King. The Privy Court consists of members from the House of Peers and anyone else the King appoints. Statutes are reviewed by the House of Peers before the King passes them into law.

Laws can be generated in three ways: The Privy Court may draft a law, the House of Peers may draft a law, or the King may issue a law. Laws from the Privy Court or the House of Peers are debated there, and may be struck down if there is not enough support. The King may veto any law, but would be wise not to. No one can block a law which originates from the King, but members of the Privy Court may attempt to talk the king out of it.

In each province, law is administered by the landed noble. In Newmarch, the Earl sets aside one day a week to hear civil complaints and suits. Disputes with the lord himself are handled by a traveling judge who comes through twice a year. In Newmarch, he comes in the spring and in the fall.

Men are judges; women are advocates and mediators. This is not to say that it never happens the other way around (it often does), but formally, men are always the judges, jailers, and executioners while women are advocates and mediators.

There are at least two religions, one for the nobles and one for the rest of the population. They have a common ancestor, but the peasants regard them as two different religions.

The population at large follows an animist religion a little bit like Shintoism. Every place and many living things have a spirit, and those spirits may need to be propitiated. So many places have little shrines where offerings may be made. Most offerings tend to be plants or small gifts. Some generic classes of things have a larger spirit--there is a farming spirit, for example, and a domestic animal spirit.

There are a number of celebration days in the calendar but there is no priest. The local witch/wise woman knows these things.

The noble religion is obviously descended from the same sources of animist belief, but has a significant difference: The spirits are arranged in a hierarchy, and by offeringa sacrifice to a particular spirit, you automatically propitiate all spirits beneath them in the hierarchy. This in turn has led to the rise of priests, and a specific worship day. Nobles tend to invoke one of the six top spirits, since they control the lesser spirits.

There is high magic and low magic. High magic is the stuff of fantasies: magic swords, armies raised from the dead, magic artifacts, summonings. Low magic is everyday stuff: a healing, a poultice to ward off infection, a spell to make childbirth easier, detecting magic. (Anyone with magical ability recognizes magic; even non-mages may detect it half the time. [In CORPS terms, it's a difficulty 5 POW roll to detect magic.]

Every village has a local witch or healer (or several small close villages may share one). It's possible that the healer may be non-magical. . This is considered okay, because a child with the Power is not always available to take the position. The witch is a healer and a psychologist.

To perform low magic, a character must have a POW of at least 4 and the Witchery skill. Individual spells are secondary skills under Witchery. Sample Witchery spells include:

• Bless (Summon good spirits; used for fields, buildings, places)
• Cure disease (Add to HLT, only for diseases, requires ten successful applications in a row to actually cure the disease; difficulty 10)
• Detect spirits (Detect, spirits only)
• Ease pain (Add to WILL for the purpose of resisting pain)
• Exorcise spirits (Block Dominate)
• Heal injury (Add to HLT, only for injuries or wounds)
• Light fire/summon fire spirit (Blast)
• Sleep (Dominate)

The "Cure Disease" and "Sleep" spells are especially difficult; those effects are usually done with a potion or herbs.

All low magic spells require a lot of time and concentration, they may backfire, they require a skill roll, they have side effects, they require a minimum POW and they can be run at aptitude level only.

Unknown to most people (except for Ordha and possibly the Earl), the ability to perform high magic requires both magical ability and a certain mind-set. The mage must see the world in black and white, with no shades of gray in between. Only an obsessive personality can generate the intensity required for high magic. Kings may keep a high mage on staff, but then dispose of them. (High mages regard the compromises of kingship with a dark eye, and may turn away from the king because he has become "evil.") A high mage is something of a loose cannon. If one of the PCs is a student of Ordha's and if the GM deems it appropriate, then Ordha may give this warning to the PC before they leave.

In game terms, high magic requires a minimum POW of 4, a skill roll, it backfires, and it requires a psych lim equal to the level of the "High Magic" skill. High magic spells are Difficulty 6 or better. The useful spells are usually Difficulty 8 or better.

The Empire is just over 500 years old. It grew out of the Mekin Kingdoms, in the days when they spoke Old Katon. The rulers before the Empire are the Mekin Kings.

The Mekin Kings were of the Mekin line; the family conquered large territories. Each of the brothers (five originally, and their offspring) established his own kingdom. With time, they separated and bickered and quarreled. One of them (what later became the Earldom of Newmarch) was overrun by the Wua tribes.

Armid I determined to reunite the Mekin kingdoms. He succeeded in uniting many of the kingdoms on one side of the mountains, but not all. Three centuries later, Ewdyn finished the job, rejoining Newmarch to the Kingdom.

Since Armid I united the kingdoms, there have been three ruling houses:

• The House of Kalor (begins with Armid I)
• The House of Rol (this period includes the Regency)
• The House of Relyn (begins with Ewdyn I)

Since Newmarch is a frontier, weapons are on people's minds.

Not surprisingly, the type of weapon you use depends on your social status. For our purposes, there are three classes: Nobles, infantry (those who have seen military service of some kind), and peasants.

Many peasants have infantry skills. A freeman (such as nearly everyone in Newmarch) may be called upon by his liege lord, and if the crisis is protracted, there may be training in melee weapons. Also, wrestling is a popular sport in Newmarch, so many peasants have some degree of brawling or unarmed combat skill.

The following weapons are considered noble:

• Lance
• Mace
• Morningstar
• Cavalry sword. This is a lightweight sword, curved, intended primarily for cutting from horseback. It tends to be better made than a shortsword or broadsword. Treat it as equivalent to a saber in game terms.

No ranged weapons are considered noble.

The following weapons are infantry weapons:

• Large knife
• Poleaxe
• Broadsword

• Longbow

The following weapons are peasant weapons, weapons of farmers turned to war.

• Flail
• Quarterstaff
• Scythe
• Bow
• Knives

• Sling

For armor, nobles wear chain over padded cloth; the infantry wears cloth and leather. See below.

No ranged weapons are considered noble. Nobles only fight hand-to-hand, or from horseback.

Nobles wear padded cloth and chain (armor value 2/4). A knight would probably have mail as well. A thane may have mail but is more likely to have mail sewn to leather, or hardened leather (2/2) worn over padded cloth.

Winter clothing is worth 1/1 as armor.

There are monsters and spirits in Kalor. The most common boogeyman is the Orc, though others exist. There are also spirits (the "Blessed Folk") who may twist your way or mar your day.

Orcs are generally regarded as debased; possibly they are humans who were cursed eons ago for some crime. They are regarded as evil and if you see one, you should either run or kill it, depending on the situation.

The players have heard rumors about the Orcs but have never seen any. The Orc warriors are said to be fearsome to behold, with the horns of rams and fiery eyes, hideous monsters who feel no pain.

Orcs are also said to steal human children, kill them, and wear their skins. Through magic, they adopt the form of the child, but they can never hide their hair color or their eye color. Since all Orcs have black hair and grey-purple eyes, those hair and eye colors are considered unlucky.

Maykkin, the Earl's master-at-arms, claims that the stories are bunk.

Nobody knows exactly what kind of magic, if any, the Orcs practice. Ordha, the local expert, says it's probably low magicalthough once they had high magic.

There are rumors and tales of other monsters, and not even Maykkin calls these bunk. For example, in the far north live creatures who breathe fire and whose skin is as hard as rock.

The people of the empire don't make a clear distinction between the spirit and the corporeal. While some things considered spirits cannot harm you directly, others can.

In the Twilight Wilderness across the Belwyd Channel there are many fearsome beasts, including giant vermin and the Utrelt, a beast with the head, shoulders, and arms of a beautiful woman, but the body of a leopard. She seduces travelers and when they lie with her, she eviscerates them with her claws.

Closer to home, it's known that anyone who dies in a cowardly act will become a spirit, doomed to torment until they have helped a kinsman in a time of need.

These benevolent spirits are quite different from the malevolent spirits that feed on the living. Those might be encountered in any lost or abandoned place; they will fasten onto some piece of your clothing and cause you nothing but ill luck and weakness. The only cure is to abandon the cursed piece of clothing at midnight of the new moon, when the spirit cannot see you to follow you.

There are also stories of the Blessed Folk, who live in the remote corners of the world. Some are kin to the rocks; others to water; still others to trees. Although everyone knows a story of someone who has dealt with the Blessed Folk, no one has actually dealt with them directly.

In Newmarch, the stories of the Blessed Folk are taken more seriously than in other parts of the Empire. (This is yet another reason the PCs will be taken as rustics.) One spirit/Blessed unique to Newmarch is Contrary Tobe, a spirit who works for other spirits. Hell appear in nearly any form, usually a person, and lie to the unwitting victim. Tobe is particularly fond of guiding folk into bogs and fens, although any misdirection is suitable to him. Contrary Tobe is always malicious but not always lethal.

Characters are based on 100 AP and 50 SP; they'll actually have a little bit less than this amount based on their age. (Treat the Age disadvantage as subtracting AP and SP from age 16, at the usual rate of 2 AP per year, 4 SP per year.)

For practical reasons, you should probably keep your character in the 12-15 range; otherwise, its hard to have sufficient skills or characteristics.

The GM Information section has sample characters; ask your GM to show you one or two.

Really low attributes are discouraged because these people are peasants living a hard life. Weak children die.

Most attributes will be in the range 4-5. The exception is POW; most people have a POW of 1 or 2; a POW of 3 or more marks a child as being gifted.

If a player is going to play a student of Ordha, the local witch, the character should have a POW of 3 or better.

For Skills, use the High Fantasy Skill Tree from the CORPS rulebook. Most skill levels will be in the 2-4 range at this age.

Some notes about specific skills follow.

First Aid:

Although there are a few people in the major centers of learning who have what we might call "medicine" skill, almost all healing is done using first aid. Healers almost always have a profession consisting of First Aid, Botany|Herbalist, and Psychology. The latter is because helping you die easily is a major part of their jobs. It's very common for someone to have aptitude or aptitude+1 in First Aid.

Literacy:

Nobles are assumed to have literacy of some degree, although they default to only aptitude. Non-nobles must buy it; it's a language skill at normal cost, and their backgrounds must include how they got the skill.

Witchery:

This is the Healer magic skill. Rather than requiring Healers to buy each individual spell, spells are bought as secondary skills to Witchery. (Strict GMs may require the secondary skills; lenient GMs may simply assume that some knowledge of the spells is included in the base Witchery skill.) All spells are Difficulty 6 or higher.

Most people have unique names for their local area; it's rare to have the same name as someone else. If two people do have the same name, it's usually enough to say "Son of.." or "Young so-and-so" or "the Freeman" to identify them. Last names have come into use in the cities.

Non-noble names in Newmarch are a mix of peasant names of the kingdom and of old Wua names, distorted through time.

Noble names are largely the same throughout the kingdom, and derive from the names of Old Katon.

Below are some names used in this handout; use them as an inspiration of your own.

I've been thinking about the assertion that high fantasy is fundamentally about good and evil. The entire AD&D alignment concept makes much more sense once you look at it this way (although most people I know don't play it that way). But I'm too corrupt and jaded to be able to do a good'n'evil campaign. So here's the premise.

The sword was crafted in olden days by the sorcerors of the Mekin kings. It was crafted to be a heros weapon, and its name is roughly "drinker of the blood of foreigners." Only one who is of pure blood can wield it. The Earl's blood is not pure enough, or he would have found it when he was a child; however, his wife is pure-blooded of the old line, and their child, Darmin, is sufficiently pure that the sword will accept him. The sword is looking for a hero; Darmin is not suitable, and will be abandoned when one comes near.

The theme of the adventure is, "what is evil?" The PCs probably begin with the opinions of their culture: The empire considers the Orcs evil because they look human, but not especially human. They should be shaken up a bit when they discover that the sword considers them evil, because they are of a tainted bloodline. Further, they'll discover that all high mages have a rigid definition of evil. The Orcs consider the empire evil because it has displaced them. The intent (as soon as I figure out how to plot it) is to get one of the PCs to learn the Orc tongue.

The PCs should notice the parallel between how the sword regards them and how the empire regards the Orcs.

Final philosophies are up to the PCs, of course, but the session should at least introduce the ideas that each culture may have a valid point of view, that genocide is not a valid point of view, that fanaticism is undesirable.

Of course, you're running it, not me, so you may want to have an intercession by a god or some other absolute moral force. Thats your call. But that's not the way it's set up now.

The Orcs are Neanderthals. Until five hundred years ago, the Orcs (as they are known to the Kalormyn) were a stone-age people, savage fighters but no match for the superior technologies of the Empire (iron, the stirrup, and the wheel).

The Orcs (or Tattam, in their language) see themselves as displaced. Demoralized by the superior technologies of the Kalormyn, the Tattam retreated into the mountains. In the last 75 years, however, the Tattam have found religion and are returning to the lands of their fathers, to take back what was theirs. They are on a holy mission.

Note that a strong right/wrong mindset is essential to high magic....

The Tattam really do kidnap human children and raise them as their own. This is for two reasons: first, it enables some of the humans to get into the afterlife; second, it provides a source of translators. The Tattam are very adept at understanding languages, but their vocal equipment is sufficiently different from humans that they cannot speak most human languages.

The current leader of the Orcs is Hánt Dòwt. He is a religious fanatic and a military genius. He has converted the primary Tattam religion of ancestor worship into a powerful force. On the side of the PCs, however, he is getting older, and this has tempered his views slightly. Although he believes it would be better to exterminate the Empires natives, he will settle for the departure of all non-Tattam. On the other hand, if he must fight battles, he intends to win. And if he needs to invoke the Old Ancestors of Vengeance, he will do so.

These are the weapons native to the Orcs. Examples of Orc manufacture can be easily distinguished from those made by the Kalormyn. Most of the Orcs will use stolen weapons instead, if they can (especially after they have managed to take several villages).

In addition to these weapons, many Orcs have become proficient with weapons stolen from the Kalormyn. The traditional weapons have cutting edges chipped from flint or obsidian and can be exceptionally sharp. However, all of these weapons must be considered more fragile than the Kalormyn equivalent.

• Axe.
• Hunting Spear. Sometimes this is augmented with the atlatl. (The atlatl is used for hunting, but never for warfare.)
• War Spear.
• Knife.
• Bolas. Orcs are good with bolas. Experienced soldiers who have faced Orcs know that the time it takes to get out from a bola can be the time it takes an Orc to come cut your throat. Bolas are only used by the Orcs of the wastelands and marshes.
• Short Bow. Some tribes of Orcs use the short bow.
• Composite Bow. Other tribes have sophisticated bowyer skills and create double recurve composite bows from wood and animal parts.

• Sling.
• Rock. Orcs are pragmatists. They'll throw rocks.

Traditionally, Orcs wore padded cloth or leather. Some now wear stolen or bartered chainmail.

The Tattam traditionally use the following weapons.

The composite bows are cunningly made from sinew, horn, and wood; the axe, spear, and knife are traditionally stone, but since the rise of the new religion, the Tattam are increasingly willing to use (stolen) human technology.

I'll be following some (controversial) theories about language in the Neanderthals.

The Tattam can make only two vowel sounds, ah and oh. To provide the variety needed for a language, their language is tonal. The six vowel sounds are:

This is still impoverished, compared to most modern languages. The Tattam also cannot make the hard "g", "r", or "k" sounds.

However, you should know that the Orcs are very good at understanding languages. They simply don't have the vocal apparatus to mimic them properly.

This is not the entire story, just the part I've got plotted. In order to help others possibly run this thing, see the discussion of theme in the GM’s Notes section and then consider the list of events I'm trying to work in, after the plotted events. Structurally, I think there are four parts:

• Leaving Newmarch; this section ends when the PCs exit the pass.
• On The Road; this section ends when the PCs are captured by the Orcs.
• With The Orcs; this section ends when the PCs leave the Orc camp.
• In The Capitol; this section may be the actual end of the story. Or it may not; depending on what the PCs do, there may be a climactic battle after this.

1. PCs find the sword, sword gets returned, PCs get to go. The PCs overhear concerns that the orcs are uprising. They were destroyed a thousand years ago. Maykkin dismisses the idea: "There have been rumors of an Orc uprising since my grandfather's time. Unless I see more evidence than a rumor, I'm not inclined to believe it." The person who raised the concern says, "Sooner or later it will be true, Maykkin. What will you do then?" "Fight, of course. But let there be evidence first."
2. Going-away party. Lera is not happy about sending her only son away. Argument with the Earl. It takes a bit more than a day to make it from Earl's Keep to Pass Keep; the extra exertion required to make it in a day is not worth the delay in extra sleep. Each PC will probably receive some sort of gift from parents or tutor or master. For example, a student of Ordha's might receive some herbs; another might receive a better bow and some fine arrows.
3. You may want to skip over the departure from Pass Keep, although this may be an excellent time to introduce the Orc rumor. What is Darmin's relationship with his uncle? Depending on the weather and the speed the party makes, they will take six to ten days to cross the mountains. The players should pack food for that time. Packhorses or mules would be an excellent idea, although they are not necessary.
4. On the road, after guides have left, Darmin confesses that the sword sort of talks to him.
5. In the pass, attacked by snow leopard. This is very unusual, since a leopard must be very hungry or desperate to attack humans, and it's not even winter yet. Guide (Maykkin) injured. If they push on, they encounter the remains of travelers who have been slaughtered by Orcs.
6. Settling down for the night, they encounter the traveling players; an opportunity to send the guide back. Traveling players tell them that there's been early snow higher in the mountains, so they have to hustle if they want to get through the pass. The players will tell them that these are bad times for them; they can't compete with the "freak show" that Mad Hemter is displaying. (Hemter has a small menagerie that includes an Orc mother and child.) The players will leave in the morning. Depending on his wounds, they can send Maykkin back or they can carry on with him. For plot reasons, it works much better if Maykkin is sent back. If Maykkin is not sent back, the players will steal the sword; if they do, they'll all be dead by noon the next day. The sword doesnt care who dies so it can get to the Capitol.

1. If the PCs decide to turn back, Darmin will continue on without them. He has no choice. If they push through the pass, they'll get snowed on. There are shelters along the path; the shelters have a fireplace, though they may not have wood. If attacked by orcs on the path, they'll need the ability of the sword to get through the fight. But every time Darmin uses the sword to kill, his bond with the sword grows stronger.

2. Through the pass, they come to the village of Emperor's Rest. It's been destroyed, burned to the ground. The damage is recent: a couple of days at most. PCs are unlikely to figure out who did it. If Maykkin is with them, he can recognize the arrows as Orcish. However, the ground around the town indicates some organization and tactics, more than the Orcs have ever used, more than Maykkin believes they're capable of.

3. They can put together a shelter; the next day, they can walk to Arvet, which is a day's walk away. Mad Hemter is still in Arvet, if the PCs want to look him up. If warned, he will disagree that the Orcs could do such a thing. "Youre talking to a man who has seen many Orcs and I'm telling you they're not capable of that kind of planning." (The PC with the highest POW thinks that the Orcs in Hemters menagerie understand what is being said.) Hemter has two wagons, the two Orcs and a few wild animals. He's willing to travel with the PCs if they feel they need company and if he can be convinced that they wont be a liability. Hell even hire one of them, if one has sufficient animal experience and training. (The child of a herdsman would be sufficient.)

4. The Orcs attack, to free their captured brethren.

   If one or more PCs are kind to the two captured Orcs, then the PCs are captured when the Orcs overrun the town. They are not put to death, but are carried away--even if Darmin pulls out the sword and begins to lay waste to Orc warriors. (The Orcs have the advantage of numbers, and are like berserkers.)

   However, if none of the PCs were kind to the Orcs, then the PCs are in serious danger, and you should consider having them escape before the attack.

This summarizes some of the events I'd like to see included in "With The Orcs" and "In The Capitol."

I want the Orcs' side of the story told, so someone needs to learn the Orc language, or they need to be captured by the Orcs so they can speak with the children raised by Orcs. If there were some other emotional connection -- such as a love interest -- that would be great, but I wouldn't want to force it. (You could do a Fox Mulder and have one of the PCs have a lost sibling, kidnapped by Orcs.)

If they do meet an Orc translator, perhaps they'll take the opportunity to deliver the Orc message to the Capitol. ("Capitulate, get out, or else!") You'll have to decide how they prove their worth to the Orcs, so they can be sent to the King. (Events may fall out so that they are the obvious choicebut they may not.) Actually, they'll have to figure out how they prove their worth to the Orcs.

Once in the capitol city, there should be extensive opportunities for the PCs to be, well, laughed at. There should also be the opportunity to learn the truth about high magic and about mages, ideally by having someone meet a mage or a royal advisor (or both). Perhaps the man who beheaded the last mage.

If one of the PCs wants to become a high mage, then you could have the mages' point of view expressed as well.

You can play out the business of getting to the king however you want, but they should be able to do it eventually; after all, they have letters of introduction from the Earl of Newmarch and they have a magic sword.

Each character has (or should have) a transition through the story. The basic one, reflecting the theme of the story, is that evil wears different faces. Other characters have additional arcs.

Darmin has to deal with seduction by the sword. There should be a strong temptation to attempt to be the hero the sword wants. All through this there should be running pressures on him to treat his friends as less than human. (If Darmin is a PC, you'll need to work on this more. Remember to emphasize anything he can perceive as a slight from his friends.)

The following table shows destinations along the path and the travel times the PCs will use to estimate their journey at the beginning. Approximate distances are given, but the PCs do not know these numbers.

From Arminil, the players go upstream along the Keryn River to Muddy Water (where the Altoryin River joins the Keryn, bringing rich silt from Derwych). They must go by boat; many regions are not passable on foot. From Muddy Water to Kerynil, they must also go by boat.

The assumption is that a person can walk 30 kilometers in 8 hours, with a moderate load. (German soldiers in WWI usually made 30-40 km in the same time. More was possible but exhausted the soldiers.) Outside of Newmarch, where the territory is unfamiliar, 3 kph was used for a walking speed and an 8 hour day. A cavalry officer in the 19^th century could travel 60 kilometers in 6 hours, but no more without a replacement horse. (And a ridden horse must be walked 10-20 minutes every hour; packhorses do not need this break, if properly packed.)

According to The Cavalry Officer's Guide (US Army Press, West Point, NY, 1875), a pack horse can carry 20-25% of its own weight over uncertain terrain at 30 miles or 48 km per day (forced march), and 25 miles or 40 km per day (sustainable, with 1 day of rest out of seven). On good level terrain, a pack horse can carry up to 50% of its own weight at a rate of 20 miles or 32 km per day (forced march), and 10 miles or 16 km per day (sustainable).

Modern pack and riding horses run about 15-16 hands high and 1000-1200 lbs. (153-163 cm, 450-550 kg). In Kalor, theyre smaller, about 13-14 hands high and 600-800 lbs. (133-143, 270-365 kg). This means that every day, a horse in Kalor requires about 30 lbs (14 kg) of feed a day plus 6 lbs (3 kg) of grain, plus 5 gallons of water (19 litres, or 19 kg). Given the season, this 36 kg/day must be carried, along with saddle and other tack, and this comes out of the 68-90 kg a horse can carry.

If the players want to ride horses, point out that (a) horses require a lot of feed; (b) they will have to borrow the horses from the Earl, and horses are expensive; (c) only noble characters will know how to ride. Then use your own judgement.

Two sections: The first is a breakdown of NPCs by region and the second is complete writeups for some of the more important NPCs. Some of them can also be used as player characters.

The following are recommended as NPCs, although they could be player characters.

Darmin is the only son of the Earl of Newmarch. He is slender and fair. He is also somewhat bookish and lacks confidencehe is afraid of being thought weak or afraid; he overcompensates for this by being reckless and aggressive in combat.

Coddled by his mother, he has been raised by her to believe he is special and better than his friends. (She is of a pure bloodline tracing back to the Mekin kings.) His father disputes this, saying the burden of rule is heavier because the Kalormyn are no better than the Wua ever were. Darmin believes both of these at once: he hopes he is special and better than his friends, and he is afraid he will not be able to bear the burden of rule. Nonetheless, his father has raised him to try.

He is about to discover that he is not very good with Katon, the court tongue, that his accent is barbaric, his dress is antiquated, and his manners are slipshod. In short, he is about to discover that many of his worst fears about himself are true.

Lean, graying hair in a fringe around his head. His students say he has eyes in the back of his head.

Joined the army at 13, sworn as a Thane to the old Earl. Has worked and traveled through much of the kingdom since then. Injured a number of times (walks with a slight limp in his left leg, not as flexible as he used to be). He's ferociously healthy: injury and age are unlikely to bring him down soon.

He's done pretty much everything the army does. He has trained troops, led charges, beseiged castles, and killed men. Like many soldiers, he has no love for killing, but he can do it. His knowledge of architecture is specific to fortifications.

His family are dead. His sister had children, but they died in the epidemic twenty years ago. He rather adopted Gertad at about that time. He's fond of Darmin but worries that he might not have been hard enough on the boy for his own good.

Those who don't know him regard him as a loveless man, but that's not true. He's had two loves in his life: one died when he was young and the other he left behind in the Capitol. (Her husband may have died since then.) He would like to settle down, but he has stopped thinking about it. A shock (such as a lengthy recuperation time) might change his mind.

The snow leopard is the principal predator of the mountains between Newmarch and Normarch. They tend to feed off sheep and the larger animals in the mountains; they are also quite rare.

Snow leopards are renowned for their strength; a snow leopard can carry an adult man up a rock face to the narrow ledges the leopards prefer for eating. They are stealthy killers.

They normally avoid humans, for two reasons: there are easier things to hunt and eat than humans, and humans don't traverse the same territory. The leopards tend to be high on the rockfaces, where the mountain sheep and goats travel.

When hunting, it usually leaps upon its prey and takes its down with its powerful jaws, then eviscerates it with the hind claws. It will then drag the prey up to a secluded spot to be eaten.

Following are some characters I designed for the adventure. You’re under no obligation to use them.

Alfric is the third son of Eolfor the woodsman. Strong and sturdy for his age and size, he is often picked on by others. He often hides in the woods for days, living on his own. He tends not to speak unless asked a direct question. He is gentle and has never been known to have a temper. He is dissatisfied with his life but cannot articulate this dissatisfaction.

He loves his friend Migtana madly but doesn’t know she knows. (He would be mortified if he found out.) He's good with snares and traps and is an excellent hunter.

His mother has been dead for five years and his father is ill. His older brother Ked will inherit the land and his other brother Gat will inherit the woodrights. Alric has no interest in book learning, although he likes the idea of travel. Uncertainty about meeting new people has kept him from setting out.

Many people distrust Alric on sight because of his black hair and his grey-purple eyes, considered bad luck by the people of the Empire.

Migtana is tall for her age and chestnut haired (as are many of the Wua). She had intended to become a healer, but was stopped by her utter lack of magical ability. She could have continued as a healer without power, but Uft has the Power, and became Ordha's apprentice. Migtana instead concentrated on other traditional areas of knowledge for women in Kalor: politics. She hopes this trip will expose her to what she needs to know to move out of the kitchen.

She has never been satisfied with traditional roles. She bullied Darmin into teaching her the wrestling tricks he learned. She talks a lot and loves to spin stories. This is balanced by a hard head for facts and an almost obsessive need to keep her word. She is considered by the adults to be the most trustworthy. The Earl will give her some money for safekeeping and her mother will give her some spices.

She has two sisters and one brother, all older. They have found jobs with the Earl, as a maid, a cook, and in the stable.

Migtana knows of Alric’s crush and chooses to ignore it. She is fond of Darmin but knows they do not move in the same circles.

Given the feelings of insecurity common to several of the friends, Migtana is often the motivating force.

Tibal is brash, clever, witty, argumentative, and quick to back down from a fight. He is a poor athlete at everything but archery, hopeless in a fight. For all of his willingness to argue either side of an argument, he tends to be stubborn when he makes up his mind. He regards argument and wordplay as a different form of sport, since he doesn’t excel at most sports. He is weaker than the others (although he has excellent aim with an arrow, he draws a lighter bow than the others). In particular, he tends to harass and bully Alric.

Of all of the friends, he’s the most likely to be swayed by the offer of power.

His father, Tont, is considered a man of some importance in town. Tibal is occasionally called a dandy or a fashionhorse because he used to wear gloves to hide the dye stains on his hands. (He does not do this any more.)

Uft is the student of Ordha the healer. He is tall and awkward, not having yet grown into his adult body. He is strongly empathetic (treat as +2 to all people skills helped by empathy) and as such hates to see people in pain. He's still terribly earnest and aware that he does not learn fast, but what he does learn stays. All of this sometimes stays his hand when swift action would be better.

His father, Aldric the Freeman, taught him a bit of woodcraft, and he has learned from Ordha. He knows where to find herbs such as witchbell (which grants a true witch clairvoyance for the duration of its effect, although it's difficult to tell the truth from the hallucinations) and dogtongue (used to help the wounded); he knows roughly how much laughwort to give in a tincture and what the side effects of fireleaf are. He can dry them and prepare them.

When the others would spend time arguing, he prefers to sit silent, feeling somewhat inadequate. He's particularly impressed by Tibal's verbal pyrotechnics.

Of all of the friends, Uft is the only one who can read the Witches' Tongue.