Any information on Ten Spear (village in Sartar)?

[Jex]

Wait wait hold on I am dumb.  There is a much simpler obvious solution here: I can just use a different village.

The only reason I decided on Ten Spear was because I was looking for a settlement that was near the Colymar lands and not close to any major road, and that hadn't already been the focus of an adventure or otherwise had a lot of development, and Ten Spear seemed to fit the bill.  But now that I know Ten Spear has been the focus of an adventure (a noncanonical adventure appearing in a fanzine, sure, but nonetheless one that seems to be beloved by those familiar with it), well, that means it doesn't fit my criteria as well as I thought it did, so the logical course of action is to find another settlement that does.

There was nothing in particular in my original concept of the adventure that necessitated it being near the Upland Marsh at all, though once I decided on Ten Spear I did work that in and use some aspects about the Lismelder tribal culture.  Still, I can keep most of what I've done if I just use a different settlement in the area.  It looks like nothing much has been done with the Marshedge clan, and it seems to fit what I need just as well.  Maybe I'll just use Marshedge instead of Ten Spear.  The only thing I'll have to change is a few details in the backstory.

EDIT: But now looking at the maps of the Lismelder tribe, I have another question... but since this no longer has to do with Ten Spear, I guess I should probably start another thread for this.

Edited November 19, 2022 by Jex
Additional information

[soltakss]

14 hours ago, Jex said:

Oh!  I had missed that Tales from the Reaching Moon was an unofficial fanzine.  Thanks for pointing that out.

It is effectively semi-official, so you are probably OK to use its ideas and they are likely to stand.

My view is that we can wait for years until official Chaosium supplements come out for particular areas, or we can use what we have now and extrapolate. I prefer using what we have now.

 

[Peter Hart]

On 11/18/2022 at 3:09 AM, Jex said:

I'll share more when I've got more written, but I've (tentatively) finished the introduction of the adventure, which includes a brief history of the Lismelder Tribe and the Lonendi Clan in particular.  (I've managed to get my hands on Tales of the Reaching Moon #19 and Wyrm's Footprints #15 (the latter, of course, I just bought from the Chaosium store), and I've looked through them for any relevant information.)  The history of the Lismelder Tribe related in the adventure is basically all paraphrased from existing sources, but since there didn't seem to be anything on the history of the Lonendi Clan or Ten Spear I made that part up myself.  Here's what I have written about that (still subject to change, so if there's anything here that doesn't make sense or conflicts with existing information by all means let me know):

The Lonendi clan and the village of Ten Spear have their origin in the year 1412.  Word came to the Lismelder leaders that the undead were about to encroach upon an old centaur burial ground between the Sword and Crescent Rivers.  If the undead took over this area, not only would this be a great insult to the centaurs and their ancestors, but the reanimated centaur remains could be potent new recruits for Delecti the Necromancer.  Both to cement the Lismelder’s alliance with the Beast Men and to prevent the strengthening of the undead legions, a young Lismelder warrior named Lonendi volunteered to lead a small group to establish a presence near the centaur burial grounds and protect it from the walking dead.

              Despite the proximity of the swamp, the area turned out to be pleasant and fruitful, with fresh springs, blackberry bushes, and copses of oak, willow, and chestnut trees.  But almost no sooner did Lonendi and his companions build a fort there than an army of undead was upon them.  There were not only zombies and skeletons, and unique stitched horrors of the Necromancer’s depraved design, but Dancers of Darkness carrying twisted magical spears.  The Lismelder had seen those spears in action before, and knew what they represented: at the end of a powerful terpsichorean ritual, the Dancers would plant the spears in the ground, and the land around the spears would swiftly flood and become a part of the Marsh.  Clearly the centaurs’ fears had been justified—Delecti the Necromancer had every intention of adding this area to his domain.

It was a hard battle, and much life was lost, but Lonendi and his comrades in arms managed to fight back the undead hordes and prevent the annexation of the burial grounds into the Marsh.  In the wake of the battle, the inhabitants of the fortress gathered the magical spears of the defeated Dancers of Darkness, and, after suitable purification rituals to ensure that no taint of Delecti’s evil magic remained within them, they erected the spears as trophies to show their defiance of the Necromancer.  Ten spears were recovered in total, and so the stockade came to be called Ten Spear Fort—and as later more Lismelder settled in the area, Ten Spear became the name of the village that grew around it.  The hero Lonendi, as the commander of the warriors who had repelled the undead onslaught, was given the epithet Lonendi Tenspear.  Those who made their home in Ten Spear now looked to Lonendi as their guide and leader, and so he became the founder and chieftain of a new clan.  The clan initially took the name of the Willow Clan, after the trees that were so numerous in their home village, but more commonly was called after its chieftain: the Lonendi Clan.

Today, the old Ten Spear Fort still stands, still decorated with the captured and cleansed spears of the Dancers of Darkness, but it’s at the center of a thriving village.  (The centaurs are unbothered by humans living on their old burial grounds as long as the place doesn’t fall under the Necromancer’s control.)  The rotting horrors of Delecti the Necromancer are still a serious concern, but the village is well fortified against them, and its people manage to live their lives in the shadow of the dread Marsh.

Oh, one thing regarding the Crescent River mentioned in the first paragraph... I couldn't find a name anywhere for the short river southwest of Ten Spear on the 7E maps, so I made one up.  (As far as I can tell, it doesn't appear on the maps of the Upland Marsh in earlier editions, but one could assume that could be because it's too minor a river to be always worth showing.)  I chose the name "Crescent River" because there's a building on or near the river called Crescent Manor, and I decided in the absence of any other explanation for the manor's name maybe it was named after the river.  (Though admittedly, since Crescent Manor was built by Lunars, it could easily be named after the crescent moon...)  If there is an existing name for this river somewhere that I missed, though, I'd appreciate having it pointed out.

(The magical spears that the Dancers of Darkness use to expand the Upland Marsh are described in Tales of the Reaching Moon #19... the opportunity to connect those to the origin of the name of the village of Ten Spear seemed too good to pass up.)

Anyway, I'm going to be describing the village in more detail later; although I keep referring to what I'm working on as an "adventure" (because originally that's what I'd intended it to be), at this point I'm projecting that about half the document is going to be a detailed description of Ten Spear, and the other half will be the adventure scenario.  The goal is to have it finished by the end of the month, or by December 8 at the very latest; I'll definitely put a link here when it's done if anyone's interested.

Hi,

Sorry to join this thread so late!

Really like your backstory to Tenspear Village!

I wonder, did you ever finish your adventure and the write-up of the village?

The reason I found this thread is that I, too, am writing an adventure more or less based out of Tenspear Village. Hoping to release this via the Jonstown Compendium soon.

Would it be OK to incorporate some of your backstory to the village in my adventure?

If not, no problem of course.

cheers