Borough Bound

Thestwick 01 - Reclamation (Patreon)

Published:

2022-03-18 18:53:22

Imported:

2022-09

Content

One way or another, I will drain this fen

Welcome all to Thestwick-on-Alderham, the haunted fen city! Deep in the Alderham Fen, a small community toils away in the shadow of a long-forgotten keep. Now, the greedy lord of their duchy has come to reclaim the fen. Slowly but surely, he and his team of lackeys are draining the hostile environment of its waters. He wants your party of adventures to help ensure his plan goes off without a hitch.

Borough Guide

Our first PDF introduces you to the Alderham Fen, its duke and duchess, and their plan to transform this biome into endless farmland. There's just one thing: the fen is haunted. As such, the first thing they'll need is for you all to defeat the "wicked" bog witch of the fen. Of course, you and Anise Bloodbirch might have more in common than the duke suspects...

Maps

Thestwick is a bit of a departure for Borough Bound. In lieu of grand and crowded city streets, this is a backwater village that's just barely held together. It's also got a decidedly unsettling vibe. There are dangers in these waters, and they may arise as the fen drains. This first map encompasses the northwestern corner of the city, and the obvious point of interest is the massive waterpump. This colossal windmill is the key to the duke's reclamation.

Of course, we couldn't release a giant windmill without providing the interior. Dig into this multi-leveled windmill map for exciting vertically oriented combat challenges. We've also got two day-and-night variants for you: a misty vision of the village, and a pleasant variant for once you solve all the problems (or presumably: for before you party screws everything up).

Music

Our first track is "The Alderham Fen," a slow-moving ambient piece that points to the vastness of the unending marsh. Expansive strings call to mind plodding journeys, and the meandering winds give just a touch of melody to this melancholy exploration. The "Witch's Hut" rendition gives you bubbling cauldrons, squonking snail noises, and mysterious percussion. Honestly: it's a vibe.

Giant Snail Map | Collaboration with Stained Karbon Maps

For the first time, we've collaborated with our good friend Krane of Stained Karbon Maps! He's provided this lovely map of bog witch Anise Bloodbirch's home, a glorious witch's hut atop a giant (and we mean giant) snail. Whether your players decide to spare Anise or kill her, you're going to want this beautifully colorful map, in stark contrast to the spooky tones of the village itself.

Stained Karbon Maps has so many variants of this map if you want a little more variety in your giant snails, so please do check out his Patreon for so many more colorful battle maps.

Bog Hag | Collaboration with The Fluffy Folio

We've yet again teamed up with our pal Fluffy of The Fluffy Folio to bring you creepy/cute monster art and fun statblocks. Fluffy will be tackling all of the "villains" of Thestwick, and first up on that list is bog hag Anise Bloodbirch herself! Fluffy makes incredible designs that are unlike anything else in this space, and the clever mechanics are a great way to make these creatures feel distinct from the same old Monster Manual statblocks you've used 1,000 times.

As always, please check out The Fluffy Folio on Patreon.

Lotthingham Lice and Gumperham | Collaboration with Questiary

On the theme of monster statblocks and incredible art, we bring you another collaboration with our good friends over at Questiary! This week, they've provided statblocks for the irksome Lotthingham lice and for the giant snail Gumperham himself.

Questiary is going to be helping us out a bunch with Thestwick, and even still, this is just a small portion of what they're releasing in March and April. To get the full suite of monsters, check out Questiary on Patreon!