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In a merry green vale (Jonstown Compendium)


Minlister

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Hi, I finished the translation of my Lysang clan sourcebook for the JC. Lay-out is nearly done thanks to @Nick Brooke' help. I am waiting for the art as my drawing skills are SAN roll-inducing. But here are some pictures I composed for the "Glorious past of the Lysang" chapter. 

For two centuries and a half, the Arfritha Vale has been disputed between the warlike Malani and the proud Colymar. The clans settled in the valley, Lysang, Namolding, Antorling, Jensteli and Karandoli, struggled to survive.

            After Kallyr Starbrow’s defeat, the Lysang clan has betrayed the Colymar to join the Malani. But the clan’s chieftain had not anticipated all the difficulties born from this bold move and yesterday’s enemies make for uneasy friends... The clan is rife with internecine rivalries and old foes are stirring. 

            Now, Governor Fazzur Wideread has proclaimed an amnesty for Lysang warriors outlawed in the wake of the 1602 imperial conquest. Most of them are dead, but their sons and daughters are beginning to return to the clan’s tula.

            In a merry green vale offers you the opportunity to play one of these former outlaws...

            Return to the land of your ancestors! Rediscover their secrets while gaining acceptance! Enter the fray of clan politics and lead your kinsmen to freedom, whether from the empire or their own barbaric ways!

            In a merry green vale is a systemless sourcebook describing the Lysang clan and its surroundings in 1615. Its offers a comprehensive history of the clan and a full presentation of its ring, bloodlines, sacred mysteries (including a fully-developed heroquest) and major “movers and shakers” (ca. 46.000 words). Alongside the clan’s economy, a Lunar slave farm founded by the Assiday receives a complete description. Furthermore, a ca. 9000 words chapter details the neighboring clans, with special focus on the Malani tribe recently joined by the Lysang clan. As the clan is stuck between the hammer of the empire and the anvil of the resistance, a 17.500 words chapter describes both factions: the imperial army, missionaries and carpetbaggers face true heroes as well as dangerous fanatics, while darker forces intend to profit from their struggle. Finally, a ca. 8000 words gazetteer of the Arfritha Vale describes in details the more significant locations of the valley, offering many more story hooks.

            This sourcebook will be supplemented by a ca. 36.000 words Lysang scenario pack. It includes three scenarios: the first two are respectively a classic cattle raid, with a political twist, and a sandbox-style rescue mission; the last one is far more complex. A mysterious creature is attacking the Lunar slave farm: when ordered by their chieftain to hunt the beast for the benefit of the imperial steward the PC fall into a nest of intrigue where politics and myths are on a collision course.

The scenario pack is already written since it was initially conceived as a part of In a merry green vale. However, I would like to use the profits from the sourcebook to pay for extra art, hence the decision to publish two separate volumes. 

Lysang gesta 1.JPG

Lysang gesta 2.JPG

Lysang gesta 3.JPG

Lysang gesta 4.JPG

Lysang gesta 5.JPG

Lysang gesta 6.JPG

Edited by Minlister
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Is this translated from the 72 page French writeup of the Lysang clan which I found a year ago and downloaded before it vanished from the Internet, which I used as a basis for the adventure in our house campaign which Rodney participated in? Great stuff. I think I could upload it for those who read French, if that doesn't violate anybody's copyright, or even send it to you. There weren't any copyright indicators, maybe why the site isn't available anymore to the public. When still available it was:

https://uc8b9f981b616c60c6b8e0d091c2.previews.dropboxusercontent.com/p/pdf/AAjb_FckGMeNdvcLDntM5pSvxI-kqwAoNXmvSpNbYXGpK9Mkb8S65hzJU7M8QHQ60MCLfuh-YIyeYsvcBZrZFewiyVE4BQYet3Ro6oIpGf68J8YxOHaHi27lLjpdfERJmmoY1dGZl87cu5wgu4Y-f76tNpIWA6jGajiJosV1NYcw2n_OpCRI3wJplr4pD_6o4xe6g1BalEW0ACj_ktf70TtuNy1vpKuMH5VvudSxTbZYTc-D4YegJBJMwZvFGf5y6rdl0J9gAhLku7AHKvo3PRD-47g6OFIIrqY0zPUUOcbQL2mcV6YN6JJCEoq5sncw6vealeEteLEFwtzMB0DugGK5rSN0YpgPNb7AVsAP65Bse5WBfw70htfK3_J25sDzULT99-ynp_ZdIdpPVa5EsDzo/p.pdf 

Edited by Glorion
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1 minute ago, Glorion said:

Is this translated from the 72 page French writeup of the Lysang clan which I found a year ago and downloaded before it vanished from the Internet, which I used as a basis for the adventure in our house campaign which Rodney participated in? Great stuff. I think I could upload it for those who read French, if that doesn't violate anybody's copyright, or even send it to you. There weren't any copyright indicators, maybe why the site isn't available anymore to the public. When still available it was:

Set later, a thoroughly split up clan with factions reaching back to the clan's founding, with the lysang birds actually banned from the tulpa due to strange events hundreds of years ago, a renegade Great Tree in a mushroom forest allied with black elves and trollkin, a Yelmalion military leader allied with an Ernaldan priestess planning to sacrifice the clan chief in a Year King ritual to save the clan from the Great Winter, and all sorts of other partridges and pear trees. Fascinating!

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4 minutes ago, Glorion said:

Is this translated from the 72 page French writeup of the Lysang clan which I found a year ago and downloaded before it vanished from the Internet, which I used as a basis for the adventure in our house campaign which Rodney participated in? Great stuff. I think I could upload it for those who read French, if that doesn't violate anybody's copyright, or even send it to you. There weren't any copyright indicators, maybe why the site isn't available anymore to the public. When still available it was:

 

Too bad you did not ask permission. Minlister is the holder of that copyright (I believe) and you really should ask his permission. Just my two bolgs worth... Folks please do not downloads that until @Minlister gives his approval. 

 

Cheers

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... remember, with a TARDIS, one is never late for breakfast!

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Thanks @Bill the barbarian!

@Glorion

Yes, it should  be my document, I offered the French version. I am very glad you liked it and thrilled that you could use it in actual play :

But I can't check your version, the link doesn't work.

The current version should be much longer, however. In French it is ca. 220 pages, around 150 without the scenarios, so you should find new  things in the updated version! 

Edited by Minlister
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13 minutes ago, Minlister said:

Thanks @Bill the barbarian!

@Glorion

Yes, it should  be my document, I offered the French version. I am very glad you liked it and thrilled that you could use it in actual play :

But I can't check your version, the link doesn't work.

The current version should be much longer, however. In French it is ca. 220 pages, around 150 without the scenarios, so you should find new  things in the updated version! 

We used it circa 1625, with a visit to the Lysang clan in the process of dealing with a certain Dream Dragon... Our adventurers were tasked by Queen Leika with trying to get the Lysang clan to rejoin the Colymar, and the party leader took one look at the info from the Queen as to what was going on in the clan council and threw up his hands in despair. Indeed the link doesn't work, I put it up there for the sole purpose of enabling you or anyone else to verify that we were talking about the same thing who knew that link.

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@Glorion

Great!! It is nice that he threw up his hands in despair, there are two withered hands attached to the Lysang chieftain's torque: I can use them as spare pieces!

Maybe they could try their hands (hi, hi) at the heroquest? They can impersonate Boranini, the river god, go up the Quivini, built a glacier palace to offer Vadrus' daughters and marry them! And have merry hollri children to attack their enemies while riding the moving glacier down the valley!

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12 hours ago, Minlister said:

@Glorion

Great!! It is nice that he threw up his hands in despair, there are two withered hands attached to the Lysang chieftain's torque: I can use them as spare pieces!

Maybe they could try their hands (hi, hi) at the heroquest? They can impersonate Boranini, the river god, go up the Quivini, built a glacier palace to offer Vadrus' daughters and marry them! And have merry hollri children to attack their enemies while riding the moving glacier down the valley!

They could have done those things, but then they ran into a rattling chariot in nearby Farfield, and then started hearing rumors about Smoking Ruins. And a season or two later, after Queen Leika's glorious performance at the Battle of Dangerford, the Lysang clan council was finally so impressed that they up and rejoined the Colymar tribe after all. The party got partial credit for that, disposing so successfully of Storn had impressed the Lysang a bit. Now, after adventures on the Pegasus Plateau, they are off to Pavis on a special mission. Queen Leika wants to know some more about this Argrath fellow, now that Kallyr is dead and nobody seems to want to make her Prince of Sartar. There are rumors that he is involved with chaos there...

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Ah!! That's nice! In the current version  of IaMGV, Storn also plays a part, as the faction favorable to the re-creation of the old Triarchy is looking for a new wyter and put an option on Orgovale! 

If you want, I wrote a scenario in Prax. It is  about a locust invasion and the foundation of the White Bull society! As you read French you could try it! Just don't post it elsewhere, it is my next JC project.

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  • 1 month later...

Have a capsule review. I'll add this to DriveThruRPG once the book's been out for 24 hours. (Disclaimer: I helped with the layout and spell-checking for this book, because I thought it was great and deserved a bit of polish; that's how I've been able to digest it so "quickly")

If you like detailed backgrounds for Sartarite clans, you’ll love the latest Jonstown Compendium release: Vivien Prigent’s In A Merry Green Vale. This 165-page systemless sourcebook centres on the Lysang clan, whose ancestors settled the titular Arfritha Vale before the kingdom of Sartar was founded. Living between the Colymar, Malani and Cinsina tribes, they form a bridge between two areas previously detailed for HeroQuestWorldWars: the Colymar of Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes and the Cinsina of the Red Cow books.

The sourcebook is set in the Lunar Occupation period, with an innovative campaign premise that kicks off in 1614: the adventurers are the children of exiles, returning under an amnesty to a homeland they’ve never known, so the players can discover details of the setting alongside their characters. The pages that follow are packed with accounts of compromised clan leaders, local troublemakers and all-too-fanatical resistance to oppression.

As well as thoroughly detailing the history and politics of the Lysang clan, with personal profiles that set out the ambitions of every member of the clan ring and family head, there are short writeups for every neighbouring clan; descriptions of clan treasures; a fully fleshed-out heroquest (The Seduction of Gwyncariad) and hints of others; and local representatives of the Lunar Empire’s interests: religious, military and mercantile.

A gazetteer details ancient and modern landmarks throughout the Vale, many with fascinating local features and myths (and many with “eye-splitting Celtic names”). The book closes with six pages of Rumours and a nine-page “who’s who” indexing the name, tribe, clan, cult, faction and function of every named character in the region. This is essentially a gigantic bag of plot-hooks and thwarted ambitions, with complications aplenty for any sandbox campaign.

The author promises to follow up with a Lysang Scenario Pack holding three scenarios in this setting. “All three scenarios have been written with the objective to kick-start long-term campaign dynamics: none of them allows for perfect solutions since the best campaigns are woven from scenario loose ends.” I’m not sure that’s true – some of the best campaigns grow out of sourcebooks like this.

It's well worth a look, even if the period (1615-ish) and systemless / stat-free nature of the book aren’t entirely your cup of tea.

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Thanks!! That's actually a great feeling! In my job, I have published thousands of pages but curiously I never felt so excited!

I have translated around one-fourth of the scenario pack, so hopefully, by mid-November.

And yesterday, the Orthodox metropolitan bishop of Saint-Petersburg "liked" the book on Facebook: Glorantha is reaching ever weirder circles!!😝

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@coffeemancer

That's extremely generous of you! Of course, it would be very nice. The best place would be the Lysang Scenario Deck (I changed from scenario pack as I prefer the resultant acronym) as the layout of the sourcebook is done. 

I am not sure what is the professional-tier stuff you mention, but thanks nonetheless! 

 

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@coffeemancer Sorry, I did not understand! In fact, I realized doing the book that working on the iconography was extremely fun, especially when my wife joined in, that I did not ask any professional help (well, the results would have been better obviously, but the "Maximum Game Fun rule" also apply when working on this kind of project!). So, honestly, I think I will do the same thing for the LSD. But I will be delighted to benefit from your drawings! And I am ready to add one scenario just for the Zorak Zorani Moomin Troll!

Edited by Minlister
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7 minutes ago, Minlister said:

@coffeemancer Sorry, I did not understand! In fact, I realized doing the book that working on the iconography was extremely fun, especially when my wife joined in, that I did not ask any professional help (well, the results would have been better obviously, but the "Maximum Game Fun rule" also apply when working on this kind of project!). So, honestly, I think I will do the same thing for the LSD. But I will be delighted to benefit from your drawings! And I am ready to add one scenario just for the Zorak Zorani Moomin Troll!

Hah! That troll sure deserves some love.

If you have something in particular you want drawn just tell me and I'll give it a try.

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Hi, In a merry green vale is slowly amassing sales like a sacred beetle and I was wondering if anyone saw some important topic I did not address in the book, something that as a game master would be useful for you. If anyone spots such a blind spot, let me know, I will write the necessary complement and update the current version.

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