Robber’s Bridge Concept Map (v3) by D. Koch

Hello friends!



Our adventure is really starting to come together. If you’re new to this series, we’re collaboratively developing a short Torchbearer adventure.



If you need to catch up:

Last time I asked for your input on various features of the map and you provided some great suggestions. Let’s nail down the details.

The Dragonslayer’s Shrine

Everyone seemed to like the idea that Ofnir the Black Wyrm, a legendary dragon of the Middarmark, destroyed the southern tollgate about 300 years ago. I really dig that idea myself, and I think I want to take it a step further: I think the Bjornings erected a shrine to Bjorngrim the Dragonslayer on the spot sometime after his death. The shrine could be largely forgotten and neglected now, though some members of his cult pass by it on occasion and leave offerings. His cult is tiny and not very well respected, since it largely consists of adventurers and other undesirables. Bjorngrim is only revered by Bjornings, though dwarves remember him and tend to respect members of his cult.



The shrine and the cult could be an opportunity for an interesting twist. What do you think? Ideas? What eerie development would make your skin crawl?



It’s also possible that the Bjorning clerics and paladins of Jernkloster have a connection to the shrine — their primary purpose is to contain the monsters of the Ironwold , which would make the tragic Immortal of monster-slaying and lost causes appealing to them. The raider cleric could well be one of their number. Do you like that idea? If so, how might we use it? Or should we keep the Cult of the Dragonslayer as something completely separate from the raiders?



Visually, parts of the ruined tower and surrounding stone are scored and blackened by the attack, some of it has even run like butter allowed to soften too long by the hearth.



Perhaps the shrine contains some relics from the long-ago battle: some dragon scales, a few slivers of the weapon that shattered in Bjorngrim’s hand as he drove away the wyrm? Perhaps that event is what precipitated Bjorngrim’s adventure to seek the Forge at the Heart of the World and treat with the dwarves to craft a weapon that would allow him to face Ofnir the Great for once and all ? Maybe a sliver of the weapon could act like a relic, providing a gear bonus to an invocation like Evocation of the Lords of Battle (assuming a PC is willing to plunder the shrine for it)? What do you think? What weapon shattered in Bjorngrim’s hand? What other details of the event might the players discover?



The Secret Passage

One of the things we’ve been going back and forth about is how the secret entrance to the Nykr’s prison might work. You provided some good suggestions around hidden hand-/footholds on the outside of the middle tower that lead to a trapdoor, but two suggestions really struck my fancy: A magic rune hidden behind a brick in the fireplace that teleports the party, and a mouse hole in the tower foundation that is actually a keyhole to unlock a hidden door.

Those gave me a fairy tale vibe, which I really like to incorporate as a spice when things are set in the Middarmark. What do you think about a mouse hole somewhere in the tower that, should a character kneel before it and peer in, transforms a character into a mouse? The mouse could then scurry down a tiny tunnel hidden in the tower wall to the prison? Do you like that idea or hate it? Would you elaborate on it? Do you prefer something more mundane?



The River Crossing and the Water Spirit

How do the raiders cross the river, given the broken bridge? It seems like we’re leaning toward the idea that they use a boat. I’m on board (sorry) but that makes me think about the nykr and why it’s trapped.



The nykr is a water spirit that appears in lots of Germanic folktales and fairy tales under a variety of names: neck, nixie, nocken and lots of others besides (in Beowulf they are referred to as ‘nicor’). The Rhinemaidens from Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen are nixen, a type of female nykr from German myth.



Nykr are known to delight in luring people to their deaths by drowning, though some among them are not malevolent, taking their joy in enchanting any and all with sweet music. Some would agree to go to live with a woman that fell in love with them, but they would usually pine for their watery homes.



There’s an old Swedish story about a poor fisherman who had a beautiful, young daughter. One day he met a nykr who promised him bountiful catches if the daughter was given to the nykr as a bride on her 18th birthday. The fisherman agreed, but when the girl turned 18 and the nykr brought her to his house below the waters, she stabbed herself in the heart rather than give herself to him. The story says that’s why some water lilies are blood red.



There are other stories that say that if properly approached, and if the right sort of offering is sacrificed (drops of blood, a black animal, liquor, tobacco, etc.), a nykr will teach a supplicant how to play enchanting music. Perhaps it could teach a magician or ranger the Celestial Music spell?



Why is the nykr trapped below the bridge? Some of you have suggested that the spirit isn’t entirely trapped. What if the ancient builders of the bridge wanted it to lure people attempting to cross the river to their deaths? What if they intended for the bridge itself to be the only safe way of crossing?



That, of course, would make it impossible for the raiders to cross the river using a boat, unless there’s some sort of trick to it? Maybe they have some sort of item that wards them against malicious spirits? Or they have the nykr’s lyre, and playing it calms the spirit and allows them to cross without succumbing to its siren song? Would that mean that the raiders actually are aware of the nykr and have come to an arrangement, or would there be another explanation for the lyre? Maybe they just stuff wax in their ears? Something else? What do you think?



One of you suggested that the river is haunted by the spirits of those lured to their deaths by the nykr. Should we incorporate that and if so how?



Also, do you think the spirit was always malevolent? Does it like luring people to their deaths? Or was it once a friendly spirit that has been driven mad by centuries of imprisonment? How was it imprisoned? What keeps it trapped? What might the PCs do to free it, should they be so inclined? If the PCs do it free it, how do things change? Does the river become more dangerous? Or, if the spirit was originally friendly, does the river become less dangerous? If the latter, would that make it easier for the Gotts to cross the river and attack Vargstrond?



Don’t be shy! Jump in with your ideas, even if it’s only to answer a single question. Every little bit helps!

