Locations

The following locations play important roles in this story.

The newly formed village of Willehad-im-Wald (German for "Willehad in the Forest") is near a stream or small river running through a forested area with light, rolling hills and gently sloping mountains. The village is located after painstaking planning, surveying, and preparing. This exact spot is optimal regarding the quality of trees for logging, the earth for farming, the size and flow of the stream, and placed equidistant from large settlements of importance to trade and along the logical route if a road were suddenly built between two that were not previously connected. The scenario assumes that the land belongs to the bishop, but is not currently used, although the bishop can easily be replaced by another lord; Relisius can be assumed to have obtained permission from more than one authority.

The default location assumed in writing this scenario is in the lands southwest of Bremen. Germany and the Rhine Tribunal were chosen because here you can find both wild areas protected by humans, as well as towns rapidly expanding due to trade in this period. As the city of Bremen is in a special situation due to its Imperial privileges, the usual and bothersome business of reigning nobles isn't relevant. This is a good environment for a meddling Hermetic magus like Relisius of the Soterists to run his little game in.

Of course, the key point is that the village must be close enough to the player covenant to threaten its resources. If the covenant is north of the Alps little needs to be changed beyond the names, but other regions may require some modification of the village's economic base and activities.

The village starts out as a simple camp at the riverside, on a flat and sandy patch of land. There is a track running perpendicular to the river, with the ford near the center of the settlement. The first wooden structures are built here as well, and farmhouses spring up along the river and the road, with stretches of fields behind them, cutting into the forest. More fields and pastures for livestock are established in the surrounding forest. The logging camp and any new features, like the clay pit, are connected to the center of the village by new paths, like spokes in a wheel. As the camp grows, the tracks are improved and new ones are created, connecting the wheel spokes. Initially, the presence of pious peasants listening to a priest results in a Dominion aura of 1. Once the church has been consecrated, this rises to become as high 3. For more detail on population and features, refer to the insert "Expansion of the Village."

The villagers are at first wary of strangers, but open up as the settlement grows and more travelers and traders pass through. However, they react even more negatively to displays of The Gift than most mundanes, and are quick to call individuals with it heretics and witches, and to call upon the help of their priest. This is the result of mental conditioning performed by Relisius and his co-conspirators.

If the story is set in the Theban Tribunal, the village is called Dryaklios; if in Normandy, it is called Ginestet.