Limnus Vale: The Village of Poddle

This is entry sketches another adventure site in my Limnus Vale setting. It follows, and expands upon the previous Ruined Limnus Encounters and The Ruined City of Limnus posts. Written for old school D&D, but suitable for any edition, and easy to drop into any existing existing fantasy setting.

Geography

The halfling village of Poddle is built upon the rolling fields between the plateau of ruined Limnus to the north and the shadow of the Fangs to the south. To the east a tangle of woods and rocky foothills tumble to meet the the base of the treacherous Ashen Peaks. To the west, a small dirt pass meets the Traders Way which winds to the north and south.

Lifestyle

The halflings of Poddle possess a rare genius of wool-craft, and their dyed yarn have become a high value item in Pul to the south. Cartloads of colorful bundles are shipped down the the trade roads and turn a healthy profit. Life in Poddle is busy, tidy and prosperous for the halflings. Up until recently, monster incursions have been few and far between, manageable by the sheriff and his deputies.

Poddle is exclusively populated by halflings. The village is a mixture of small family homes, farmhouses, quaint shops and merchant stalls. Most of the halflings live in spacious circular cottages of wood, stucco & thatch painted bright cheerful colors. Every halfling keeps personal gardens of flowers and vegetables. Families, labor in the fields and orchards. Corn, and wheat are staples, but also potatoes, cabbage, pumpkins and squash. Apples, pears and peaches are abundantly harvested from numerous groves of fruit trees. This bounty is sold at the the Poddle town market, but also traded south with Pul in the form of grain, cider, jams, pickles and other preserved goods.

Dress & Culture

Poddle halflings dress in colorful oversized embroidered wool sweaters tied with belts at the waist, and large and absurdly designed felt hats. The halflings are incredibly fecund. It is not uncommon for the average family to have anywhere between 6-12 children, all spaced closely together. All halflings are implicitly trusting, and painfully polite and gracious. Complaint or rudeness is considered a sign of ingratitude, and is avoided as a matter of deep cultural habituation.

Giant Long Hair Sheep

Poddle's prosperity is chiefly through their trade of soft wool, and dyed yarn shorn from their exotic giant long-haired sheep. At the edge of town, several long curvilinear barns are built to house the animals. Keeping and breeding these animals is a notoriously difficult task. The Giant Long-Hairs are of a singularly difficult disposition- prone to escape, and foul tempers. The secret of the halfling’s success at shepherding is their consummate skill at dog-training.

Shire Collies

Shire Collies are long used and trained by the halflings for generations out of memory. They have alert pointed ears, a soft mottled coats of rich chocolate brown, and a white belly and neck. They are extraordinarily intelligent, trained from pups to obey complex voice commands and whistle patterns. The dogs excel at herding and watching over the sheep, as well as being loyal companions to the various families. Rumor holds that some halflings can even speak the sharp barking language of the collies.

Problems in Poddle

Lord Grunewold arrived two years ago and began flexing his influence from the reclaimed watchtower known as Cloudspear Keep high in the Fangs to the south. His herald rode into Poddle one morning announcing “The Heir of Limnus has returned! He ushers a new an age of prosperity into these lands!” The halflings were prospering just fine before, but being polite, and trusting of authority, they agreed to this new Lord’s dominion.  Grunewold soon demanded a tax of wool profits, in exchange for his “protection”- protection that has amounts to little more than harassment at any sign of halfling curiosity toward the ruins of Limnus or Grunwold’s broader interests in the valley.

Produce Tax

At the beginning of spring, things got worse. Grunewold's soldiers began demanding cartloads of produce as a new monthly tax. Vegetables, apples, cider, beer, eggs, smoked meats, pickles--a full cart from every farm is now the Lord’s claim. His riders swoop in unexpectedly to make sure the carts are being filled regularly. As a result, the halflings have begun to live more frugally- donating food from their personal gardens and pantries, to offset this terrible price. Privately, they don’t understand why Grunewold is being so cruel- they hope he has a plan, and will someday soon make good on his promise of prosperity and protection.

Bugs

Lord Grunewold’s co-conspiritor, the wizard Xasthur has begun an operation of clearing out the mines in the hills south of Limnus. This has disturbed the habitat of several monstrous vermin. Giant centipedes, spiders and beetles have been sent scuttling to the north in search of less hostile tunnels. Several of these creatures have begun lairing in the natural tunnels beneath Poddle. These vermin have begun digging to the surface to attack sheep. Worse still, two collies have died in defence of their charges.

Emergency Bells

Sheriff Finn and his deputies were on the scene at the last attack and managed to gravely injure a giant centipede before it scuttled away. But people are beginning to fear that the fields are becoming hostile, and that their sheep and dogs are no longer safe. Townsfolks have begun to hang ”emergency bells” near their homes and farms in the event of future attack. As a result most silverware and any spare metal objects have been melted down by the town blacksmith. The bells can be seen hanging from the eaves of homes and heard tinkling in the breeze.

Tunnels

The bugs will get more bold if left unchecked. Large burrows in the grazing fields can be followed back to the main tunnel complex. On any given day, there is a 1 in 6 chance of a random bug encounter. As the weeks pass, the chances increase by 1. Before long, the halflings will be forced to reckon with the issue. At first they will try to stop up the holes and set overnight watches. They may even succeed in killing a few, but soon the halflings themselves will start getting injured or killed. The most decisive thing to do is to go into the tunnels and destroy the insects at the source. There are active brood-nests within the tunnels and earthen chambers housing egg caches and larvae. If these nests can be destroyed, the insects will vacate the surrounding tunnels.

Lloyd’s Wall

In response to the recent threat, the village carpenter Lloyd and his three eldest sons have begun constructing a palisade of sharpened logs 8 feet tall around the village. It is an impossibly difficult task for the four of them, but they are determined that if they begin, others will join in. The other halflings think Lloyd is being eccentric and over-reacting. At the present time, the wall is barely 50 feet wide, but Lloyd spends his every waking hour working on it at the expense of other jobs. He is determined to keep his people safe.

Poddle Rumors and Plot Hooks

1. Lord Grunevold’s has a daughter who wears a porcelain doll’s mask. She can be heard screaming high in the tower, sometimes all night long.
2. A merchant stayed in Poddle a month ago, who said he was attacked in the night by a gang of skull faced demons. He lost his cart and all of his goods, and barely escaped with his life.
   
3. There is a chasm filled with the bones of giants and treasure east of the Fangs. The giant’s skulls are filled with golden teeth.
4. The Doom of Limnus came beause the miners dug too deep and angered a terrible power deep beneath the mountain.
   
5. A red robed man and the Lord's knights has been seen riding up into Limnus every morning for the past week, sometimes they bring carts with them, and stay until dusk.
6. Sometimes at night behind the orchards you can hear the sound of hammers echoing off the hills, like someone is digging in the distance.
7. Before Limnus was destroyed by an earthquake, the miners found the bodies of ancient dwarves e deep in the mountains. The miners were trying to dig deeper to find out where they had come from when the whole mountain collapsed during the earthquake. The dwarves were buried in the Limnus graveyard.
8. There is a lake on the rock shelf above the valley that feeds the stream that flows past Limnus. It is said that in the center of the lake is a stone island, and in the light of the moon a white spire can be seen reflected in the lake.
9. During the Doom, some boulders broke free from the mountain side and floated right up into the air! There is a big one high in the hills north of the Fangs.
10. The town herbalist will pay good money for the bloodberries that grow in Limnus. It's said they only grow in the places where people have died, and their blood has soaked into the ground.

Poddle NPC’s

• Mayor-Bobbert
• Sheriff -Finn
• Deputy-Shiloh
• Deputy- Sage
• Town Carpenter- Lloyd
• Matron- Lola
• Herbalist- Marta
• Blackmith- Janos

Poddle Random Tables

WHO?

1. Town drunk
2. Dirty raucous children
3. A blind old old man
4. A group of giddy halfling girls in bright wool dresses
5. A mother leading her troop of 3d6 children
6. Farmer with his cart of produce
7. Town deputy with a shiny badge
8. Group of slow moving elderly halflings
9. Flirty halfling ladies
10. Strapping young halfling youth
11. Village handyman
12. An elderly matron
    

DOING WHAT?

1. Eating (1. pies, 2. pickles, 3. muffins, 4. roast chicken, 5. apples, 6.eggs, 7. mashed potatoes, 8. bowl of berries)
2. passed out and snoring loudly
3. Breaking into a wooden crate of full of produce
4. Dancing wildly
5. playing with puppies
6. Arguing/ agitated (roll another “who”)
7. Singing / playing an instrument
8. Relieving themself publicly
9. Kissing/ hugging (roll another “who”)
10. Sobbing loudly
11. Gossiping intensely (roll with “who” and about “who”)
12. Wrestling a sheep

WHERE?

1. In a pub
2. In a house where they don’t belong
3. In the middle of the street
4. In a barn/ hayloft/ animal stall
5. In a vegetable patch (1. Potato, 2. Cabbage, 3. Cucumbers, 4. Squash, 5. Corn, 6. tomatoes)
6. In an orchard (1. Apple, 2. Peach, 3. Pear, 4. cherry )
7. On a large tree branch
8. On a rooftop
9. In a hammock
10. In a hallowed out pumpkin
11. In a sinkhole
12. In a sheep shearing stall