MarkOliva

11/13/2011

1596

This week, with our 37th Jörðgarð (TM) Map of the Week, we begin looking at the last of the eight dark draug settlements in the ruins of the fallen Æsir Empire, the ruins of Garndi's Crossing. During the great wars, Mýsing, the baron of Garndi's Crossing, went over to the Darkness and allied with the high draug Martröð, who made of Mýsing one of the nine dark draugs. (A dark draug is similar to an OGL 3.5 lich.) As a result, Mýsing sacrificed his free will and bound it to that of the greater Darkness and Martröð. The high draug fell, but Mýsing still is a slave of the Darkness. He has no desire to turn from evil, but he hopes to regain his free will.

Although Garndi's Crossings no longer exists, Mýsing still claims to rule it, and he still insists that his followers address him with his noble title, baron. That following is a collection of lesser draugs who survived the wars and who remained bound to his will now as they were before Martröð's fall and of evil Slovánski humans who have joined in the baron's new crusade to shed his shackles of Dark domination.

All draugs are to a certain extent insane. Transfiguration into an undead robs a human soul of some of its sanity and makes of it a chaotic creature. Mýsing appears to be more insane than any of the other eight dark draugs, and that manifests itself nowhere so much is in his theory of the nature of life. He has come to believe that the spark of life is the spark of lightning. Thunderstorms occur, according to Mýsing's teachings, as a natural process that continually renews the energy of life within the jörð.

Thus, like Dr. Frankenstein in the book of the same name by 19th Century author Mary Shelley, Mýsing is convinced that he can use lightning to infuse life into a body that no longer is alive. His theory also is that - once he has this technique perfected - he can apply lightning to himself, to restore him from undeath to life. Then, he believes, he will be able to reclaim his own free will, because he no longer will be a draug. After that, he intends to have his followers make a god of him.

Key to the Map of Garndi's Crossing:

(Unnumbered) Orc Tents. Several smaller tents are scattered throughout the area. Off duty orcs sleep there.

1. Orc Command Tent. The leaders of the 25 or so orcs who have guard duty in Garndi's Crossing are in this tent.

2. Orc Armory. The orcs have their weapon cache here. Two orc warriors always are on guard here.

3. Orc Supply Tent. The orcs keep their supplies here.

4. Orc Mess Tent. The orcs' dining area.

5. Draug Quarters. The red draugs and dark rider draugs have their quarters in this windowless wooden structure.

6. Red Draugs' Tower. The four red draugs have their laboratories here.

7. Mýsing's Tower. The dark draug dwells and conducts his experiments here.

8. Temple of the Rising Darkness (Gagnauga Uppganga Dimma). This is the central temple of Mýsing's new Rising Darkness religion. This also is the area where new clerics and priests are trained.

9. Monastery. Most of the clerics dwell here, along with student clerics and priests.

You can get this map in two versions:

1. The original Fractal Mapper (TM) 8 map in FMP format, fully editable, from our Jörðgarð web page (33 MB). This version includes a 14-page PDF pamphlet that tells you how to use the map in FM8.

2. As a JPG flat map of 1360 x 1020 pixels (1.1 MB), with the hyperlink below.

Both versions are released for personal and commercial use under the Open Game License Version 1.0a, which you can read on the Jörðgarð web site.

The Jörðgarð web site:

www.vintyri.org/joerdhgardh/joerdhgardh.htm

Next Week: Garndi's Crossing: The red and dark rider draugs' lair.

Mark Oliva
The Vintyri (TM) Project
www.vintyri.org
info@vintyri.org