Runequest Thursday on Friday! Moonbroth Map and Legend!
Black Horse Mounted Crossbows.pdf
Currently, in my Brightwater Company saga campaign in the River of Cradles, the heroes are rushing to Moonbroth - which has recently been liberated by the White Bull confederation, then besieged by a Lunar army of Black Horse mercenaries and Pavis occupation troops - to prevent an assassination of a favored NPC that they became aware of during a heroquest in which they recently participated.
Yes - It HAS been a busy Dark Season for the Brightwater Company!
Since there is no canon map of Moonbroth, I thought I would create one so my players and I had a better handle on what went where. In doing so, I used the terrific write-up on Moonbroth by Nick Brook and Malcolm Serabian, found in the out-of-print fanzine "Tales of the Reaching Moon #15 - Prax: Part 2", from 1997. Thanks for the original material go out to Nick and Malcolm! I have tried to stay true to the material found there, but may have altered a thing or two for my campaign or because I misunderstood the authors original intent. I certainly have altered the political situation of Moonbroth to reflect my game, including the Lunars having been ousted from, and now desperate to retake, the supply route to the River of Cradles from Sartar.
Moonbroth Legend
I. Old Town: Oldest, pre-Lunar portion of the Moonbroth, primarily made up of adobe houses of Oasis People, with winding alleys and no civic plan. Geyserview is an old Lunar establishment here.
II. New Town: New Lunar town, laid out in a grid, with many limestone columns and arches, grander than Old Town.
III. Fortress and Redoubt: Ancient fortification, that dates back centuries to the time of the Pure Horse tribe, ancestors to the Pol Joni horsemen. Signs of being taken and rebuilt repeatedly over time.
IV. Moonbroth Market Square: Traditional market space, with columns awaiting the casting of a market spell and small shrine to Issaries which has been recently defaced and converted to the use of Etyries.
V. Lunar Siege-Works: A series of gambions, trenches and berms/ earthworks created to oppose a sally from the fortress.
1. Pilgrims Inn: This rambling old inn has occupied expanaded over time to occupy several adjoining buildings, the earlies of which are over two centuries old. Run by the Simaid family from the Heortland, the Pilgrim offers local cuisine with a few dishes from the original homeland. Accommodations run from shabby to fine, depending on the budget of the client. The Simaids have tried to remain out of politics, and curry favor with the new “governor” just as they did with the Imperial one.
2. Geyserview Tavern: A well-appointed inn and tavern, owned and operated by a lovely Lunar woman of rare wit and intellect who answers to Zavartia. The inn catered to Lunar pilgrims and wealthy travelers, but she has attempted to maintain neutrality since the regime change. Until the siege, the Geyserview has been filled with Pol Joni nobles. Now it is the HQ of the besieging Lunar army.
3. Temple to the Wandering Moon: Once this was a thriving temple to the Red, Blue and White Moons, as well as a number of spirit cults of the Lunar religion. Now it is empty, and was regularly patrolled by the zebra riders who had become the constables of Moonbroth. Currently, there is a unit of twenty Scarlet Swords Thorakites stationed there to watch over the roads and approaches to the fortress. Rumours abound of midnight sacrifices to one or another of the Mothers, though no one has been caught.
4. Seven Mothers Complex: The temple complex to the Seven Mothers is much more recent than that of the Wandering Moon and is only recently re-inhabited with the return of a few priests with the besieging army. Still incomplete, it suffered considerably in the Attack on Lunar Moonbroth.
5. Builders Camp: This camp was the home and operational area of the building crews for Lunar expansion. Now it has turned to the creation of siege materials. Thus far, it has only managed to provide some quick fortifications in the way of gambions, trenches and bulwarks of stone and gravel. Seige machinery construction has been hampered by the lack of local wood, though this is changing since the commander of the siege force ordered the destruction of a number of recent building for timbers. The workers, though Lunar in origin, are not particularly motivated to hurry.
6. Governor’s House: This is the current Commandery of the Besiegers. Reth-Sinnac and Syr Donnir White-Eye have an uneasy co-command.
7. Beatpot’s Moonrock Café: the preferred drinking post of the elite of the besiegers, Beatpots caters to all Lunar clientele who can afford it. It has no inn but has recently been granted a couple of nearby buildings in exchange for its aid in keeping morale high.
8. Ruined Temple of Yara Aranis: This temple suffered the worst in the Attack on Lunar Moonbroth, as well as afterward when the river dragon Kazakorang, and the manifestation of Jagrun Khan smashed its columns and walls into piles of stones. The current owners are turning that ready stone into curtain walls for their bulwarks on the high ground of New Town.
9. Caravanserai and Traders Rest: The market is laid out with four posts to support the Market spell but is otherwise flat and open. The caravanserai occupies the southeast corner and is protected by a low curtain wall designed to keep out haphazard nomad raids. It is currently occupied by thirty of the 3rd Black Horse Lancers, and ten members of the 5th Mounted Crossbows and their mounts. Trader’s Rest is an unhappy establishment, and not up to supplying the lancers in the way they would like to be accommodated. Billum Weysil, a Pavisite who is not well suited to running an inn, would leave if he could.
10. Sable Camp: Other than the remains of bodies and refuse from the Attack, the Sable Camp is camp for 40 Mounted Crossbows, the Shining Moom Phalangites, and the Waxing Moon Peltastoi at the moment. The Redoubt keeps a good watch, because the route from the camp is one of the better directions from which to mount an assault on the Fortress.
11. The Sacred Geysers of Moonbroth: Within the Fortress, the main geyser pool of Moonbroth is open to the elements above and situated in a sinkhole in the rocky hill on which the fortifications reside. The Moonbroth is an irregular pool about thirty yard across, with seven islands, each of which is a limestone tube that occasionally erupts with water from somewhere far below.
12. Fortress and Redoubt: The fortress is secure behind a 15 foot limestone curtain wall overlooking a downward slope that makes it significantly higher from outside. Natural terraces drop off to the east and northeast, leading to the Sable Camp and the valley within which are situated New Town and the Market. The Fortress is at higher elevation than Old Town.
13. The Tubes: Half a mile from the Fortress there is another sinkhole with lesser geysers. Spirits can be found here as well, but the place has a bad reputation locally, and no instances of visions of prophecying are associated with it. Dervishes sometimes camp here in hopes of acquiring a spirit, but there are tales of the geyser dragging some to their doom.
Combined Lunar Task Force
Lunar Light Impala Lancers (70)
Waxing Lune Peltastoi (100)
Shining Moon Phalangites (120)
Scarlet Swords (80 mounted Thorakitae)
3rd Black Horse Lancers (30)
5th Black Horse Mounted Crossbows (50)