TEXT:  
   
  Board Enterprises proudly presents 
  Build Your Fantasy World in  
  Small Bites 
   
  THE HARPOON HAPPY WHALERS 
  OF SCARET 
   
  aka All About Sea Ports 
  
  1 
   
  INTRODUCTION 
   
   
  Welcome to our latest edition of our Small Bites.  
  This month our theme is Sea Ports as seen with the 
  Harpoon Happy Whalers of Scaret.  We’ll hit on whalers, 
  shipping, ports, and some of the best adventure ideas that 
  are centered around the ports. 
   
  But what is this Small Bites thing?  Well, it is an e-
  zine published monthly.  But it is also a subscription box, 
  showcasing everything we’ve put out this month.  We’ve 
  packed it full of places, people, legends, advice, and 
  everything we think will help you whether you’re a 
  player, or a GM, or just interested in how other folks are 
  world building. 
   
  But most importantly, it is a way for us to 
  communicate with you.  But we don’t want one-away 
  communication!  We need you to respond, to get in touch 
  with us and tell us what you want, what you liked and 
  maybe what we should shy away from.  You can head to 
  the very end and find all of our contact details.  We will 
  respond to you directly, and we will listen! 
   
   
   
  Table of Contents 
   
  Introduction ..................................................................... 1 
  Fletnern Wiki................................................................... 1 
  The Sounding Board ........................................................ 4 
  Lifestyles of the Magical and Mundane .......................... 8 
  News of Fletnern ........................................................... 11 
  The Good Life ............................................................... 12 
  What’s Missing ............................................................. 14 
  In Conclusion ................................................................ 14 
   
  FLETNERN WIKI 
   
   
  All of these posts are out on the wiki as this is 
  published and you can refer to them.  We have gathered 
  them here, because we think they are valuable in a group, 
  and they all pertain to our theme for the month.  All of 
  them are also tagged as being in the categories of 
  “Scaret” and “Whalers” in case you are more 
  comfortable using the wiki instead of this edition. 
   
  Craiger Rockbottom 
  Legend 
      Nine hundred years ago, a huge galley sailed the 
  Anglic Straits.  Named the Craiger Rockbottom, this ship 
  transported stone across the seas to erect castles on the 
  new continent.  Laden with granite bound for Helatia, the 
  Rockbottom left Myork in the month of Elightel, hoping 
  to be early enough to beat the winter gales.  Three days 
  out from Helatia, an incredible storm hit the boat.  The 
  seasoned sailors tried to ride it out.  After eight hours, 
  three men had been lost overboard, and many of the oars 
  had been broken.  During the tenth hour, the main mast 
  cracked and broke off from the ship. 
      It was during the fourteenth hour that a block of 
  granite broke free and smashed through the hull of the 
  ship.  The sea began pouring into the hold, and no patch 
  could hold off the onslaught.  The ship was sinking into 
  the ocean, and the bucket crews were helpless to stop it.  
  The decision was made to dump the cargo.  The ship 
  continued to stay afloat for six more hours as the crew 
  fought for their lives.  As the ship slipped beneath the 
  waves, her crew went down with her.  An hour later, the 
  sea calmed. 
      The Craiger Rockbottom is sometimes seen off the 
  coast of Helatia still desperately trying to make it to port.  
  The ship is intangible, and no one can help these ghosts 
  to end their endless plight. 
   
  Glacier Point 
  City 
      Glacier Point is a Tanta Bosh town with a Xandrian 
  flair.  Glacier Point is the northernmost port that can 
  reasonably expect to be free of ice for at least half the 
  year.  Of course there are some odd superstitions that go 
  along with this, but it is a reliable summer port.  Here the 
  treasures of the sea are harvested and processed 
  throughout the winter.  Whaling, fishing and seal hunting 
  are all common activities leading to strong exports that 
  can help to augment the weak agriculture in the region. 
   
  Ice Flow 
  Region 
      The Ice Flow is a strong current that carries cold water 
  from Semphesteus and the Frozen Sea south through the 
  Anglic Strait.  The Ice Flow runs along the eastern coast 
  
  2 
   
  of Drentae or the western side of the Anglic Strait.  
  When it hits the warm waters of the Sea of Kautyr it 
  turns back on itself and runs northward along the western 
  coast of Hughijen.  Sailors leaving Scaret catch this 
  current and travel south before cutting across and going 
  north to Myork.  Sailors leaving Myork must break 
  across the northern current until they catch the southern 
  current to Scaret.  This is also the way these two trade 
  with Helatia.  The current is called the Ice Flow because 
  legends say it is caused by the melting of the Frozen Sea 
  and then the cold waters being rejected by the Boiling 
  Sea and sent back north.  (The surface current of the Ice 
  Flow varies between five and seven miles per hour.) 
   
  Kaettscher Movement 
  Group 
      The Kaettscher Movement was started in 640 by Liam 
  Michael Parchmentprinter, a Borten navigator.  During 
  his travels, he visited Purity several times.  Being a 
  navigator out of Scaret, he was trained by the priests of 
  Marina, so he had some knowledge of her religions, 
  though he was not a priest.  He was struck by all the 
  similarities between the Drentae religions and the Purity 
  religions.  He was an educated man and did some 
  research and began talking to the priests and scholars in 
  Purity.  He came to believe that the Purity version was 
  the more true religion having come more directly from 
  history. 
      While he doesn’t necessarily believe that the Drentae 
  versions of the religion are false, he believes that the 
  Purity versions are more correct.  He returned to Scaret 
  thinking that he could begin a group of similarly minded 
  people who would talk about religion and discuss the 
  ramifications of what he found; perhaps advance his 
  findings with more learnings.  But as people began to 
  understand what he was saying, he was ostracized.  The 
  people of Scaret, especially the religious, saw his story as 
  blasphemous.  What they heard him saying was that they 
  were all fools who had grown away from their gods and 
  that they needed to listen to him in order to get back on 
  the right track.  While that was not what he intended to 
  say, he as smart man but a poor communicator, and his 
  temper worked against him. 
      Despite the organized religions working against him, 
  Liam did gather some followers.  Eventually they needed 
  to leave Scaret, so they moved to Helatia where they 
  found a far more accepting culture.  In Helatia, the 
  Movement grew.  Liberal minds flocked to his way of 
  thinking and adopted his sense of curiosity.   
      Liam died in 651, but the Movement has survived him 
  and perhaps grown stronger not having the firebrand as 
  its leader.  Liam’s death was reported as due to natural 
  causes, but there are many theories that he was 
  assassinated in some manner. 
      While “kaettscher” translates roughly to “open 
  minded” (from Tandish), it is now believed to mean 
  “heretic” on the continent of Drentae.  In Helatia, 
  members are reasonably free of prejudice and ostracism, 
  outside the city, members would do well to keep their 
  affiliation quiet.  As conflicts between the Dinsthain 
  religions of Drentae and the Jemmistake religions of 
  Myork increase, most people of Drentae will equate the 
  Kaettscher Movement as being part of the Jemmistake 
  religions since both Purity and Myork are both on 
  Hughijen.  This is not at all the case as the Kaettscher 
  members still worship the Dinsthain gods, but the 
  common man may not understand that. 
   
  Lover’s Sorrow 
  Legend 
      The Lover’s Sorrow is a ghost ship that sails the 
  Barrier Ocean.  It will appear out of the dark or fog and 
  pull up to the side of another ship.  The ghost ship will 
  typically fade within a few minutes, but the fright of its 
  appearance often lasts a lifetime.  While visible, the ship 
  is intangible.  There is but a single passenger on board, 
  the captain Lumob (Loomo).  He will scan the ship, then 
  as he shakes his head in sadness, the ship fades from 
  sight. 
      As the story goes, Lumob’s wife was kidnapped from 
  Sambrek Island by demons from the sea.  He gathered 
  his crew into his small yacht and set out to find her.  
  After many trials, which they endured, their food ran out.  
  Being so far from Sambrek, they decided to push on in 
  hopes of making it to the Archipelago and finding 
  supplies there.  One by one the crew died.  Finally, 
  Lumob was alone and dying of thirst.  He offered a 
  prayer to the spirit of the sea and the spirit of the endless 
  sky, and by miracle, received rain.  He captured as much 
  as he could and sailed on.  After many years of fishing 
  and sailing, he finally died and now sails on as a ghost, 
  eternally searching for his lost love. 
   
  Oceans 
  Region 
  Barrier Ocean:  West of Drentae is the Barrier Ocean 
  serving as a “barrier” between Drentae and the Monster 
  Continent.  At its southern edge, the Barrier Ocean meets 
  the Boiling Sea.  Various map makers differ on the 
  boundary, but as the choppy waters of the Barrier calm in 
  the Boiling Sea’s undercurrents, most sailors can identify 
  the change.  The northern border is the Frozen Sea.  This 
  boundary changes with the ice flows.  While ice bergs do 
  float in the Barrier Ocean, the ice cap itself is the Frozen 
  Sea. 
  Semphesteus:  The Ocean Semphesteus separates 
  Drentae from Hughijen.  Named for an ancient Tandish 
  god, it is most often referred to simply as Semphesteus.  
  It is the most traveled ocean in the world, carrying 
  traders back and forth between the two closest 
  continents. 
  
  3 
   
  Boiling Sea:  The Boiling Sea surrounds Sulnuun 
  separating it from the other continents.  It also touches 
  the other oceans except for the Frozen Sea.  The Boiling 
  Sea is known for its calm surface and treacherous 
  undercurrents.  It is also known for its deadly calms that 
  prevent sailing ships from grabbing enough wind to 
  move. 
  Frozen Sea:  The Frozen Sea grows in the winter and 
  shrinks in the summer.  It is the permanent ice cap 
  covering the North Pole and ocean beneath it.  During 
  harsh winters it has been known to touch the northern tip 
  of Hughijen, thus creating a bridge of sorts between 
  Drentae and Hughijen. 
  Ocean Unknown:  Perhaps the least explored ocean of 
  the world, the Ocean Unknown separates the Monster 
  Continent from the Great Archipelago.  Barely touched 
  or crossed by ships, this ocean is dominated by various 
  species of whales. 
  Ocean Mysterious:  The Ocean Mysterious separates 
  the Great Archipelago from Hughijen.  Containing the 
  Quassim Islands and others, those seeking to explore the 
  Great Archipelago are advised to travel this way. 
   
  Portside Cathedral 
  Site 
      The Portside Cathedral is perhaps the best known 
  church in the city of Scaret.  Though it was founded 
  under the religion of the Seafarers of Marina, several 
  hundred years ago it converted to the religion of Marina 
  the Bountiful in order to include a larger number of 
  people.  The current High Priest is Bowvers Abscomb, 
  an incredibly practical priest. 
      The cathedral itself is a mortared stone building.  It is 
  a simple 18’ tall building with a peaked roof.  The 
  building is quite old and has been patched several times, 
  including a lightning hit that is assumed to be the wrath 
  of Sky.  It is not an impressive building, in fact looking a 
  bit run down both inside and out.  It is however a strong 
  tradition in the city. 
      The church itself is the core building, but within a 
  block or two of the historic church they have also built a 
  small seminary, church offices, a rectory, and some small 
  support buildings.  This “campus” is in many ways the 
  spiritual center of the city. 
   
  Scaret 
  City 
      Scaret is the one of the major ports for Drentae.  Due 
  to its location, it is the major port for the major cities of 
  Hughijen, except for Purity (which typically trades with 
  Helatia).  Geographically, Scaret is a low, coastal plain.  
  With the frequent rainfall from the ocean, it is one of the 
  lushest farming regions in the world.  While the terrain 
  and people are most similar to Ireland (red hair, freckles, 
  etc.), politically it is caught in a cold war.  Three major 
  militaries are all using the regions around Scaret as a 
  testing ground.  Though no major battles are fought, the 
  knights of Myork (Scaret’s official allies), the orcs of the 
  Wembic Empire, and the lesser nobles of Garnock would 
  all like to claim pieces of the farmland for themselves. 
   
  The city of Scaret is shaped like an “omega” (Ω) 
  with the “bottom opening” facing east out to sea.  The 
  “legs” are effectively quays.  They are fully paved and 
  effectively two miles long (each) and about a mile 
  across.  The city is shaped like an omega because it is 
  built around Scaret Bay.  The bay is roughly 1.4 miles 
  across, while the city surrounding it (at least the walled 
  parts) are closer to 3 miles in diameter. 
   
  Sea of Kautyr 
  Region 
      At the end of the River Fhearree lies the Sea of 
  Kautyr.  Kautyr separates the Anglic Strait from the 
  Boiling Sea.  With nutrients flowing into it from the 
  Fhearree and from the Ice Flow, the Sea of Kautyr is one 
  of the most heavily populated seas in the world.  Almost 
  every type of sea life can be found here from whales and 
  sharks to the smallest aquatic animals.  Despite the 
  abundance of food, fishing is not a major industry on 
  Kautyr.  The cultures that live around it simply do not 
  have the nautical skill to successfully plunder this 
  massive source of food.  The abundant food has attracted 
  sea serpents, leviathans and other forms of sea monsters 
  to this region, making fishing in it a rather risky 
  endeavor. 
   
  Stone Kraken 
  Site 
      In the middle of the Bay of Scaret is a rock formation 
  that is typically under the water.  These three rock 
  “pillars” have claimed an enormous number of ships in 
  the otherwise deep harbor over the centuries, to the point 
  that beneath them lie numerous ship wrecks (all looted). 
  
  4 
   
   
  Because of the danger to shipping posed by these 
  rocks, each has been capped by a large flag, with the 
  distance to the top of the column marked to warn passing 
  ships.  This allows any passing captain to see exactly 
  what the clearance is without knowing the times of the 
  various tides.  At the lowest tides, the tallest of the rocks 
  is roughly 2’ below the surface while the other two are 9’ 
  and 11’ down at low tide.  Typical tides will raise the 
  water line by about 8’, but certain conjunctions can 
  influence both high and low tides. 
   
  The rocks are most commonly called the Stone 
  Kraken or the Fingers of the Kraken.  While there are 
  stories about a wizard freezing an actual kraken into 
  stone in the harbor, these are considered a fun myth and 
  not believed.  Several projects have been suggested that 
  would use these pillars as a base upon which to build a 
  light house or other building project, but despite no one 
  believing the myths, no one (in authority) is willing to 
  start drilling into the pillars in order to secure a structure.  
  Part of this is fear of the myth being true and part is 
  because the pillars are not thought to be structurally 
  sound. 
   
  Wallwenter 
  City 
      Wallwenter is a whaling town, with several whaling 
  boats based out of its port.  Captain Bluthart was one of 
  the captains of those boats and has risen to town 
  magistrate.  Ian Yuris is the owner of three boats, but he 
  is a bit of a recluse.  Having inherited the ships from his 
  father, Ian travels to deal with buyers, but stays in his 
  manor house on the cliffs the rest of the time.  He relies 
  on Captain Bluthart to run the town and the commerce 
  there. 
      Captain Bluthart is an imposing and intimidating man.  
  He stands 6’6” with broad shoulders and a heavily 
  muscled build.  He ruled his ship through fear, and rules 
  the town in the same fashion.  He makes it a point to be 
  seen in town, almost always in his heavy, woolen 
  seaman’s coat.  He wears a full beard with small touches 
  of gray starting to peek through.  The citizens of 
  Wallwenter do not live in constant fear of Captain 
  Bluthart, but they would never dare cross him.  When he 
  walks down the street, people simply get out of the way.  
  Fear of him is instilled in their lives, and they simply do 
  as he asks out of habit.  They would not think to oppose 
  him, nor deprive him of anything he might want. 
      There are several small fishing boats that operate out 
  of Wallwenter.  These independent captains like to think 
  they are free of Bluthart’s influence, but they are not.  
  Bluthart controls the town and everything in it, including 
  the stores, the people, and the tax collectors. 
   
  THE SOUNDING BOARD 
   
  Followers of the Faith 
   
  We published Gods & Demons because we knew 
  that many role-players liked to have lots of gods to choose 
  from.  But there is a companion book that we probably 
  won’t publish:  Followers of the Faith.  Followers is a 
  book of religions.  I don’t recall ever seeing a game world 
  or role-playing game where there was more than one 
  religion for a particular god.  But let’s think about modern 
  religions; the ones that agree most closely are the ones that 
  fight over the more minor differences.  Why wouldn’t that 
  be the same in our multi-divine game worlds? 
   
  Let’s do a quickie example:  Marina is the goddess 
  of water and the seas.  The religion Marina the Bountiful 
  sees Marina as the goddess who brings the fish to the 
  fishermen and rain to the farmers.  Waters of the Rain 
  religion ignores the fact that Marina has anything to do 
  with the seas and see her only as a rain goddess.  Marina 
  of the Rivers sees her as the goddess of fresh waters and 
  believes she manifests as a huge catfish.  Everpresent 
  Aquatics (also known as Marina the Jellyfish) is a religion 
  once again focused on sea water and sailors.  They believe 
  that Marina has an enormous number of tentacles, and 
  each one follows those ships that she has blessed in order 
  to keep them safe. 
   
   
  But it’s more than just multiple religions for the 
  same god - What about the religions that might revere 
  more than one god?  The best example of this is the War 
  Twins: the brother and sister gods Manoto and Shade 
  being worshipped as twin war gods, where most religions 
  see Manoto as war god and Shade as the goddess of death. 
   
  Who cares?  Right, that’s the question we always 
  have to answer.  First off, for player characters, can they 
  only worship one god?  and if they do, what are the 
  relationships with the other gods?  Not every person who 
  worships a particular god will see in them everything that 
  everyone else sees.  In other words, gods should not be 
  one dimensional characters.  For the game master, these 
  
  5 
   
  little differences are typically the cause of religious 
  conflicts.  Sure, you can have the god of fire fight against 
  the god of frost, but if you want civil conflicts, rivalries 
  and even battles, you need people who worship the same 
  goddess but in different ways. 
   
  Look at Earth History, especially England.  Think of 
  the Puritans and all the problems they caused.  (Yes, I 
  blame the Puritans, yes, everyone pretends they were the 
  victims.)  If you want to add more to your game world, 
  you need to diversify your gods and religions. 
   
  Mermen and other aquatic races 
   
  Many years ago I wrote a book for another company 
  called Beneath the Waves.  I don’t think it is in print 
  anymore, but I think they did fold it into their world.  So I 
  thought really hard about it at the time and I still think 
  about this today - How do mermen live?  Or how does any 
  aquatic race live?  Here’s why I think it is so important: 
   
  At some level (I know this is an exaggeration, but it 
  is at least partially true) - all technological advancements 
  were based on fire.  What do I mean?  Well, the Stone Age 
  became the Bronze Age became the Iron Age because of 
  the smelting of metals - fire based.  Pottery - mud bricks 
  are OK, but the kiln is what makes them strong - fire 
  based.  Glass blowing - fire based.  Steam engine - fire 
  based.  Go back farther - fire allowed for warmth, light, 
  protection from animals, and cooking of foods.  Yeah - not 
  much technical advancement without those.  But think 
  about it differently - how many things could have been 
  accomplished without metal?  Nearly every tool 
  commonly in use is metal - axes for felling trees, most 
  weapons, nails, rivets, saws, etc.  I’m trying to avoid 
  saying hammers, because you can have wood or stone 
  hammers, but not for real construction. 
   
  Let’s try to be fair.  The American Indians (hope no 
  one gets offended by that term) did pretty darn well 
  without metal working, but they still had fire.  They had 
  pottery (fire based), they used flint weapons (no fire 
  needed), they were skilled leather workers (probably no 
  fire needed), and they even farmed to a degree (with non-
  metallic tools).  But they still had fire.  You think I’ve 
  gone completely off topic, but I haven’t.  So without being 
  able to light a campfire under the water - how do mermen 
  live? 
   
  Well, I gave them some tech - I figured they could 
  still use shells or some other containers to do alchemy.  
  (This is a high fantasy game!)  I allowed them a manner of 
  tanning that could be done underwater, so they had a form 
  of tanned “leather” fish skins.  (Been a while, but it may 
  have required whales.)  They had ropes and nets that they 
  could braid and could also make other textiles out of them.  
  Most importantly, they needed to rely on animal parts.  
  They used sharpened shells for knives and even something 
  resembling a macana (those Aztec swords with obsidian 
  embedded in the sides), though I think that used shark’s 
  teeth.  They used a lot of sharp and pointy objects, that 
  were recovered from dead sea creatures, to form their 
  weapons, but also their tools.  They couldn’t make chisels; 
  they pretty much had to find them. 
   
  So what’s the punch line?  Why should you care as a 
  game master and world builder what the mermen are 
  doing?  Well, you might not.  You might never care what 
  the mermen do because your characters aren’t going in 
  that direction.  Or you might assume that the mermen can 
  trade pearls for everything they need from the surface 
  folks (but then you need to consider that trade in your 
  economy).  I prefer to think that not every culture in my 
  game world needs to be based on something out of 
  Medieval England or the Lord of the Rings.  Nothing 
  against LotR, but it’s not like JRRT fleshed out the orcish 
  culture.  LEGEND QUEST has a race of winged humans 
  called lurians.  I’ve had to wonder - do they have any 
  smiths?  Wouldn’t the heat of a forge or smelter singe their 
  feathery wings?  So are they basically metal-less too?  
  Maybe they would have pottery and baking, but not metal 
  working.  What about lizardmen?  (OK, LQ doesn’t really 
  have those, but many games do.)  Are the swamp dwellers 
  smelting metals?  probably not.  I’ve even thought through 
  dragons and whether or not they should have smiths or 
  craftsmen.  I have usually thought they would have an 
  easier time of maintaining slaves to do that work for them, 
  but you never know.  Maybe your elves, dwarves, humans, 
  halflings and orcs can all live roughly the same lives, but 
  not the more exotic races.  If you don’t have fun thinking 
  your way through how these different folks would live, are 
  you really building your own world, or are you just 
  drawing maps? 
   
  
  6 
   
  Looting the Populace 
   
  This morning, I was thinking, ‘How do the poorest 
  folks in Brinston survive?’  Here’s what we know:  
  Brinston is built on a cliff overlooking the river.  The 
  river runs into the ocean right there.  The poorest folks 
  are the fishermen who do not own boats.  They live in 
  shacks on the sandy beach or under lean-to tents.  So 
  how do they survive? 
   
  Well, these folks have “nothing”, right?  Well, then 
  they die.  So if they are alive, they must have something.  
  I have often assumed that the poor on the beach worked 
  for others for food.  The fishermen go out before sunrise 
  (depending a bit on the tides) and bring in as much fish 
  and other ocean products as they can as early as they can.  
  Then their wives hurry the catch up the stairs (up the 
  cliff) to the Fishwives’ Market to sell.  But the people of 
  the city (even the poor folk) don’t typically want to buy 
  whole fish.  They would rather buy fish that had been 
  gutted and cleaned.  So the fishwives clean the fish in 
  their stalls while selling it.  But if the fisherman got 
  lucky with his catch this morning, she may need help.  
  Enter the really poor guy.  (The fishermen are pretty 
  poor, but they have boats and houses - small houses.) 
   
  So the poor guy walks the market and offers help.  
  Some of the fishwives will want his help with the catch, 
  so he can clean and gut the fish for her.  But he needs a 
  knife for that - and not a shiv, an actual knife.  Also, if 
  he’s working with some manner of mussels or shell fish, 
  he might need that kind of knife too.  These hard 
  working women are not going to pay him in coins - those 
  are too precious.  They will pay him in fish and mussels.  
  But how does he carry that?  In a bucket.  Also, that 
  knife is going to see a lot of hard work today.  He needs 
  a sharpening stone.  So now we know that a working 
  poor guy in the Fishwives’ Market in Brinston needs a 
  bucket, one or two knives (a fillet knife and a clam 
  knife), and a sharpening stone.  Now that’s pocket 
  change for an adventurer, but this guy was supposed to 
  have “nothing”, and now he’s got “the tools of his trade”. 
   
  OK - So he gets back to his shack and he has a 
  bunch of fish and mussels.  His life may be extremely 
  hard work but at least he’s eating.  Now you may think 
  he trades those fish for coins or something else, but he 
  can’t, not really.  If he knew how to sell, he would 
  probably be better off in life.  We know he’s at least 
  worse at it then the fishwives in the market are. Besides, 
  who is going to buy fish from “a beggar”?  So he plans to 
  eat his fish and mussels.  Does he have a pot?  Does he 
  have wood for a fire?  Things I know about Brinston - 
  the supply of fish is very high, so selling it (even trading 
  it) takes skill.  The supply of fuel is low, because it has to 
  be brought in.  There are too many people on the beach 
  to think driftwood will heat their homes, and the forest is 
  10-20 miles away depending on which direction you 
  head.  So no matter what we think about his ability to 
  come up with a pot, he is not going to come up with fuel 
  on a consistent basis. 
   
  So does he die?  Well, probably not.  I thought - 
  Maybe the government would provide fires for the 
  beggars, but that doesn’t fit the culture.  If he were in the 
  USA now, he’d have a home, an EBT card, a cell phone, 
  free internet and a bunch of other things I pay for, but he 
  doesn’t.  So they need to rely on the churches for charity.  
  Thinking about the culture of Brinston, I developed a 
  new religion (I’ve been doing that a lot lately).  This one 
  is now called Marina’s Merciful Ministry.  They form 
  small, almost communal homes for the beggars.  The 
  beggars are expected to come in with something, in this 
  case fish, and the chapel will provide for the larger 
  community using all the little things that the poor bring 
  in from their days of working.  The basic tenant of this 
  new religion is this:  Brakin (god of life and justice) 
  gives life to the mortals, but in his sense of justice, he 
  wants their lives to be hard.  Marina (goddess of the 
  seas) in her mercy provides for the mortals by having 
  fish, kelp, mussels and everything else in the sea for 
  them to harvest.  Life is still hard, but with Marina’s 
  bounty and everyone working together, all can survive.   
   
  See, I tried to figure out a beggar for Lifestyles, and 
  came up with a new religion as well.  Just keep asking 
  the next question as you develop your world, and it will 
  work! 
   
  Campaign Homebase - Sea Port 
   
  Because I like to have easy mission starters, I like 
  to have campaigns based in spots that bring out all sorts 
  of easy missions.  One of these is sea ports. 
   
  Sea ports allow for a number of major campaigns 
  and sub-campaigns.  The easiest of these is the basic 
  starter:  trade.  Sea ports are the trade hubs of the fantasy 
  world.  Every manner of good can be found for sale in a 
  sea port, which allows the players to buy what they need, 
  no matter how exotic.  But trade means money, and 
  money means missions.  It is easy to have merchants hire 
  adventurers as guards, to retrieve stolen merchandise, or 
  any number of trade related quests. 
   
  Sea ports are also the stepping off point for 
  explorations.  Whether they are sailing over huge 
  distances, charting island chains, searching for ... well, 
  whatever - if they are exploring, those missions are likely 
  going to start off at a sea port.  Sure there are land based 
  explorations as well, but even those often start at a sea 
  port, because it may be quicker to sail part of the way. 
   
  The other mission that almost has to start at a sea 
  port is anything having to do with the under sea.  These 
  are high fantasy adventures.  Mermaids and sea creatures 
  live underwater, and if your party plans to go there, they 
  are going to be leaving from a sea port.  Whether that 
  means jumping in there and walking along the bottom or 
  
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  sailing out and then diving, they still need to start at a sea 
  port. 
   
  Want more?  Pirates!  Pirates work in so many 
  different ways.  They can be encountered on the open 
  sea.  They can be based on islands that need to be 
  invaded.  They can be hunted in so many different ways - 
  as bounty hunters, as treasure seekers, as recoverers of 
  stolen items, or as those seeking to form an alliance with 
  the pirates.  Does that last one sound odd?  It shouldn’t 
  be.  History has shown us many times when “privateers” 
  came to prominence.  Sometimes they don’t even pretend 
  to be privateers, but just pirates, but they still wind up 
  being allied with official governments or rebels. 
   
  Of course we’re trying to convince you that sea 
  ports make for great campaign homes, but we’re hoping 
  that most of that has been accomplished.  Not only do 
  they allow for varied styles of missions, so they never 
  grow old, but they allow for a huge number of quest 
  givers.  Work for the merchants, the government, the 
  navy, or the kooky old explorer or map maker.  Any one 
  of these can sponsor missions and get the party moving 
  forward.  That is what you need right?  Something that 
  gets the party active, because an active party is typically 
  a happy party. 
   
  Mutant Animals 
   
  First - When I say “mutant” animals, I am not 
  talking about ones who shoot concussion force beams 
  out of their eyes or have three unbreakable claws that 
  extend from their fists.  Sorry if I roped you into this 
  unfairly.  (Though I do need to say that Cyclopes is SO 
  much cooler than Wolverine!!)  By mutant, I mean - not 
  like what they are on Earth. 
   
  I put mutant animals in my world for two main 
  reasons:  First, I want the animal to fill a gap that it really 
  doesn’t fill on Earth, but would still be really cool in the 
  game world.  For example:  Nanerette is a river town, but 
  I always think of it as being sort of like New Orleans.  I 
  know, Brinston is the city on the delta, but it is more like 
  Paris, and Nanerette is the city on the river, but more like 
  New Orleans.  Anyway!  So for Nanerette to be more 
  like New Orleans, I want there to be some manner of 
  alligator or crocodile to scare the locals and provide 
  reptile skin leather products.  Don’t judge me; it’s what I 
  wanted for that town.  The problem is that Nanerette is 
  way too cold in winter to support alligators or crocodiles.  
  So I mutated the caimans and gave them a special power:  
  Fletnern caimans can hibernate through the winter.  
  Boom!  Now, I can have reptiles in the more temperate 
  zones.  I can have caiman hunters who go out after 
  several different sizes of caimans (right up to the 125lb 
  indigo caimans).  This allows me to have the culture I 
  want and the products I want in the region I want.  It’s a 
  fantasy world, and if one can believe that dragons can 
  fly, you have to believe that caimans can hibernate. 
   
  The other reason I use mutant animals is to add 
  variety.  I do this for a number of reasons, but the main 
  one is to keep the players a little bit more off kilter.  
  When they see a blue furred cat moving towards them 
  through the night, they don’t know what it is.  Every boy 
  who grew up in Garnock knows that is a lion - lions near 
  Garnock are blue and have almost no mane.  But the 
  players don’t typically know that.  The lions in the 
  Southern Plains are golden like we expect from Africa, 
  but the ones farther north are a really deep midnight blue 
  - perfect for stalking prey at night around the swamps of 
  Garnock.  (But not in them, as the lions still aren’t big on 
  the whole stagnant water thing.)  Extra variety helps on 
  all sorts of stuff - extra products to put on caravans, 
  making different regions seem more different, and the 
  previously mentioned, fighting guys who know the rule 
  books better than I do.  I may have written them, but 
  didn’t memorize them. 
   
  There is a third reason, and it’s sort of a cop out.  If 
  I say that this is an indigo caiman who lives in the 
  Slyvanian Forest, no one can say - “You misunderstand 
  caimans.  In fact they would never act like that in real 
  life.”  Well, this isn’t real life.  It isn’t even Earth.  It’s 
  my game world, and I may have based the animals on 
  something similar on Earth, but they are not the same.  
  That way, they are whatever I decide they are!  My 
  gorillas eat meat and so do my pandas.  Take that Mr. 
  Nature Channel! 
   
  The Original Cartels - Whaling Vessels 
   
  How many of your read Moby Dick?  OK, not that 
  I’m suggesting you follow my lead on this, but I never 
  read the book, even though I was assigned it, twice I 
  think.  But I have watched the movie (instead of reading 
  that huge book) and I did get far enough into the book to 
  get to the part where they join the crew.  Upon joining 
  the crew of the Pequod, Ishmael receives a 300th lay and 
  Queequeg gets a 90th lay.  That means that Ishmael gets 
  1/300th of the profits, while Queequeg gets 1/90th or 
  1.11%.  Queequeg gets a much bigger share because as a 
  harpooner, he is vastly more valuable to the ship as a 
  whole compared to Ishmael who is a sailor who has 
  never been on a whaling vessel. 
  
  8 
   
   
  This is also how the cartels of Fletnern work.  The 
  cartels are better known for the caravan business, 
  especially as it is run out of Forsbury, but the whaling 
  ships do work this way as well.  Splitting the profits of a 
  business venture tends to incentivize the employees to 
  maximize profits, and to watch the others to make sure 
  they aren’t stealing or goofing off. 
   
  But the point is - if you go to work for a business, 
  you get a salary.  If you go to work for a cartel (and you 
  have a skill that is of value to them), you get a share of 
  the overall profits.  Let’s compare this to other jobs:  
  farming (share cropping) - you do all the work and you 
  actually get to keep maybe 50% of your profits.  Sheep 
  herding - you’re pretty lucky if you get fed and clothed, 
  but you’re probably working for your parents, so that’s 
  that.  Fur trapping - Well there you get to keep your 
  profits, or at least the profits you are able to get from the 
  trading posts.  Here on a whaling ship, you get a piece of 
  the profits and you don’t own the ship. 
   
  So, why?  Well, the whole watching each other 
  thing!  Also, the incentive thing.  That really cannot be 
  overstated, because this is dangerous work.  People die 
  on whaling expeditions, OK, not all the time, but it 
  happens!  Sometimes the whale wins.  Sometimes the 
  ship catches fire while they’re trying to render the 
  blubber into oil.  Sometimes they don’t find any whales. 
   
  That’s a big part of the issue here.  When we’re 
  talking about a cartel, you share in the fortunes, but you 
  also share in the losses, well, not the loss, but the lack of 
  profits.  Outfitting the ship with all the supplies 
  necessary to undertake the voyage requires a massive 
  amount of money.  That money gets “repaid” first.  
  Anything left over is profit, and those profits are split.  
  So if there aren’t any profits, then nobody gets paid.  
  That’s a pretty big risk for someone to take with six 
  months to a couple years of their life. 
  LIFESTYLES OF THE MAGICAL 
  AND MUNDANE 
   
   
  In hopes of defining things and hopefully making 
  them clearer, we’re going to establish a couple of pieces 
  of vocabulary:  A ship is a sea going vessel that has 
  sleeping quarters.  Everything else is a boat.  That means 
  if it does not go out onto the sea, it is a boat.  If it does 
  not have an actual place to sleep (hammocks do not 
  count here), then it is a boat.  Ships are assumed to have 
  places below deck or at least enclosed areas above deck, 
  such as a castle.  Otherwise they would not have 
  “quarters”. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  There are two “things” / platforms that stick out 
  from the shore and into / over a body of water:  a pier 
  and a jetty.  Piers are supported by piles, most commonly 
  wood, but sometimes something else.  Jetties are built on 
  fill, which means they are effectively attached to the 
  bottom of the body of water.  Think of it like a castle 
  wall built under water with the top sticking up above the 
  water line.  While piers and jetties go out into the water, 
  wharves and quays are built along the shore, parallel to 
  it.  Again, wharves stand on pilings, while quays are built 
   
    
  Simplified Map of Anglic Straits  
  
  9 
   
  up from the bottom of the sea bed.  Both of these extend 
  the shore line out farther, either allowing more space or 
  allowing the ships to come in to port despite possibly 
  needed deeper water than the original shoreline would 
  provide - or both.  We will try to stick with these terms 
  as best we can, but please forgive momentary lapses of 
  true definitions. 
   
  Whaling in Fletnern: 
   
  As is always the case, there is no “one size fits all” 
  when discussing a whaling ship, so we’re going to talk 
  through one of the most common styles.  This is the 
  “floating factory” often seen coming out of Scaret.  
  These are similar to what we would know as a “brig”, a 
  two-masted sailing ship running 85-100’ long and in the 
  175-200 ton range.  The ship carries whaleboats - 
  typically four, and under decent weather conditions can 
  probably be handled for short periods of time by only 
  four or five sailors.  This is important, because during a 
  whale sighting, most of the crew is going to be going 
  after the whale and not worrying about the ship. 
   
  The crew begins with the captain, not only an 
  experienced sailor, but with other qualities that are far 
  more important.  The captain is the king of the ship, and 
  needs the charisma or more commonly inspires enough 
  fear to keep the men in line.  He is assisted by three 
  mates.  The “glamor” job aboard ship is that of the 
  harpooner - one per whaleboat or in our example four.  
  There will also need to be some craftsmen on board, who 
  rank higher than the sailors (the crew) but not as high as 
  the mates.  These men would be the cook, the cooper, the 
  steward, and depending on the ship possibly a blacksmith 
  or a carpenter.  Filling out the crew are 16 sailors.  We 
  can be certain as to how many sailors there are because 
  they will have just enough to have four sailors per 
  whaleboat.  Fewer would reduce their chances of killing 
  whales and more would require them to split the 
  proceeds too many ways.  So all in all, about 28 men on 
  the ship. 
   
  Life aboard a ship can be pretty boring, and in the 
  best of circumstances it is.  Excitement means something 
  is going wrong, perhaps rough weather or some major 
  issue(s) with the crew.  Hopefully the voyage is calm and 
  uneventful, until someone yells “Thar she blows!” 
   
  But before we get to that part, the ship leaves port 
  in Scaret.  Whaling is a seasonal profession.  In the 
  warmer summer months, the whalers will need to travel 
  north to Semphesteus, where they will find the majority 
  of whales.  In the cooler months, the whales will migrate 
  south to the Sea of Kautyr, where they can breed in the 
  warmer waters.  Many whales have a twelve month 
  gestational period, allowing them to breed in the warm 
  waters, then return there to give birth. 
   
  Experienced captains have charted the courses of 
  the whale species that they hope to hunt and will follow 
  precise navigations in order to target the migration paths.  
  Less experienced captains are likely working from 
  someone else’s charts that they purchased in port.  
  Hopefully their charts are not the work of a conman. 
   
  During the voyage, one crewman will be perched 
  atop the highest mast, hoping to catch sight of a whale 
  spout.  Depending on the circumstances, these might be 
  seen from miles off, possibly as far as eight miles.  It 
  takes a trained whaler to tell the difference between 
  sprays and determine if this is a whale they want to chase 
  after.  Some whales may not be the right prey.  If the 
  whale is too big for the ship to handle or too often 
  aggressive against boats in the water, it may not be worth 
  the hunt.  Additionally, if it is known to sink instead of 
  float, the whaling ship may pass rather than risking 
  watching their prize slip away beneath them. 
   
  The actual hunting of the whale was done from the 
  whaleboat.  A whale boat is a smaller boat carried on the 
  whaling ship.  When the whale is spotted, they do not try 
  to maneuver the huge ship after the whale, but instead 
  send out the smaller, more maneuverable craft to catch 
  up to it.  These boats were often about 6’ wide and 25-
  30’ long.  They were typically crewed by four sailors on 
  the oars, the harpooner, and the boatheader, who was the 
  captain or one of the mates. 
   
  It was this small fleet of whaleboats, typically 
  under oar power, but sometimes using sail, that would 
  rush after the sighted whale.  But the rush had to be done 
  right.  Whales have very good hearing and too much 
  splashing and slapping of oars could warn the whale of 
  the enemies coming for it.  All a whale has to do is dive, 
  and it becomes nearly impossible for sailors to catch. 
   
  So the whaleboats hurry to catch up to the whale.  
  The first boat there is going to have its harpooner launch 
  a harpoon from as close as they dare get to the whale.  
  He’s not just throwing a spear, but a technologically 
  designed harpoon with a toggle head that will catch 
  within the whale’s blubber or meat and in most 
  circumstances stay imbedded.  That’s when the fun 
  begins. 
   
  Once the harpoon is sunk in and catches, the guys 
  on the whaleboat hang on for dear life, because that 
  whale is going to run, literally for its life.  But the 
  harpoon is securely tied to the whaleboat, so the whalers 
  are going along.  The rope will be wrapped around the 
  loggerhead and played out expertly in order to stay with 
  the whale, but also prevent the whaleboat from simply 
  being sucked under the waves.  This wild ride usually 
  lasted until the whale needed to come up for a breath.  At 
  that point, they would reel their boat in (it really wasn’t 
  reeling in the whale) to get close enough that they could 
  lance the whale, hopefully in the lungs or heart. 
   
  In Earth’s history, the harpooner would harpoon the 
  whale, but the boatheader would lance it.  In order for 
  this to work, they had to trade places in the boat while 
  
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  the sailors were reeling it in.  Forgive my lack of 
  maritime knowledge, but this seems a silly waste of time 
  and an unnecessary danger.  In Fletnern, the harpooner is 
  responsible for both the harpoon and the lance. 
   
  Once the lance was successfully struck, the whale 
  would start spouting blood, and then they knew it was 
  only a matter of time before it leaned over on its side in 
  death.  That’s when the hard part started.  Now they had 
  to get the whale and the ship back together.  Often times 
  the whaleboat, had to tow the whale back.  This is 
  because after the whale had dragged them across the 
  waves, their ship might not have been anywhere close.  
  In good conditions, the ship could come to them or other 
  whale boats might have been able to come help out. 
   
  Once the whale is back at the ship, they need to 
  chain it to the sides and start moving very quickly.  They 
  need to get as much valuable material off the corpse 
  before it either sinks or the sharks get to it from below.  
  They need to start cutting off the blubber, cutting it down 
  to size and getting it into the boiling vat.  If it is a 
  spermaceti whale, they will want to cut into that head 
  and get the truly valuable oil out, probably with a bucket 
  or a ladle.  They will want to get the teeth or the baleen 
  depending on what type of whale it is.  All of this is at 
  risk if they don’t move fast enough. 
   
  While the floating factory is the most common style 
  of whaling out of Scaret, it is not the only style of 
  whaling.  Many of the whaling ships based in Purity are 
  not floating factories, but instead hunt the whales that 
  feed closer to the shore.  Their sailors are experts in 
  trapping whales in a fjord, and then harpooning it, giving 
  the whale less ability to flee or dive too deep.  When they 
  catch a whale, they drag it back to one of their land based 
  factories. 
   
  Also hunting the Anglic Straits are some of the 
  elven communities from the Circle Forest.  They use 
  long boats to head out after some of the smaller, shore 
  hugging whales, especially in spring as they head north 
  along the western Hughijen coast.  They race out in their 
  long boats, using paddles instead of oars.  Their goal is to 
  harpoon the whale or porpoise and then tow it back to 
  shore.  Though few of the elven communities in the 
  Circle Forest do take to the sea (and rivers), these are 
  exceptional sailors and even raiders.  It is likely fortunate 
  that they do not band together into a more sizable force. 
   
  There are also some Tanta Bosh whalers based out 
  of landed villages in and around Glacier Bay.  Here they 
  aren’t using whaling ships at all but effectively racing 
  their whaleboats from shore any time a whale is spotted.  
  They too must tow the corpse back to land where it is 
  butchering on the beach.  While they feel this is a far 
  more “sensible” way to hunt whales, they spot far fewer 
  whales, other than isolated periods when the breeding 
  whales come in towards shore.  Their expenses are 
  obviously far lower. 
   
  The last way that whales are hunted is how the 
  aquatic races do it.  Whales are air breathers after all, so 
  the water breathing races will often use weighted or 
  anchored nets in order to capture and drown whales.  
  This is a very difficult way to hunt whales as whales can 
  be immensely powerful, and crafting nets strong enough 
  to hold them is no small feat.  Additionally many whales 
  can hold their breath for twenty minutes or more, giving 
  them a long opportunity to attempt escape.  However, for 
  the sea peoples, young whales as well as some porpoises 
  and dolphins can be hunted in this manner.  Plus, once 
  the creature is relatively secure in the net, they can 
  typically stab it with lances to weaken it and shorten the 
  time of the struggle. 
   
   
  It can take a Scaret based whaler ten days to get to 
  or from Semphesteus.  Because of this, they are likely to 
  stop in either Purity or Helatia to sell off some of their 
  cargo and take on supplies, before returning to home 
  base or before heading back out to hunt more whales.  In 
  the winters, the same is true of the Purity based ships, in 
  that instead of spending ten or more days sailing home, 
  they might dump their barrels of oil in Scaret and head 
  out for more.  Because of this, it can often be difficult to 
  tell where the ship is actually based. 
   
  Further blurring the lines on “home port” is the fact 
  that nearly all crew for the whaling ships are either 
  Bortens or Tanta Bosh.  Even the smaller number of 
  whaling vessels that are based out of Brinston or Caratok 
  on the other side of the continent are crewed by Bortens 
  and Tanta Bosh sailors.  It is more common for Purity 
  based ships to have Tanta Bosh crews and for Scaret 
  based ships to have native Bortens, but this is not a hard 
  and fast rule.  Whaling ships tend to be cosmopolitan, 
  and anyone who can handle the hard work is welcome. 
   
  
  11 
   
   
  NEWS OF FLETNERN 
  The Birth of Scaret 
   
   
  The region around Scaret was at one time a 
  collection of minor kingdoms ruled by elevated 
  chieftains who had stone castles.  As these things often 
  go, over the course of a generation or three, many of 
  these kingdoms started to combine with each other 
  through conquest or marriages and other alliances.  The 
  town of Scaret was established by one such king, but due 
  to the strong economy, the wealthy landowners of the 
  town ousted him after he raised their taxes one time too 
  many.  Not only were they able to oust their king, but 
  they were able to fend off attacks from all of the greedy 
  kings nearby. 
   
  For a short time, the town survived relatively 
  lawlessly.  Wise leaders saw that this was no way to 
  survive in the long term, and three clans came together to 
  form a city government.  The O’Doul, O’Candrel and 
  O’Jamiston families formed the Scaret Protection League 
  and began trying to convince the other clans to join them.  
  The SPL was the major power in the city for quite some 
  time, but this period was riddled with short periods of 
  great violence and unrest within the town.  Family feuds 
  caused clans to quit or even rebel against the SPL. 
   
  As the SPL seemed to be on the verge of breaking, 
  Sean Hamel arose as a leader.  Descended from the 
  O’Doul line, Sean had spent his youth abroad, training 
  and fighting wars for others, mainly Myork.  He was 
  therefore seen by many as an outsider.  Called home to 
  organize his family’s defenses against several other 
  clans, Sean used his training and some of his old friends 
  to form a small army and a strong militia.  With the most 
  powerful military force the city had ever seen, Sean 
  extended the hand of friendship to many of the families 
  who were avoiding violence.  His alliance grew as did 
  his militia, until such a time that it was obvious that 
  everyone needed to be allied with Sean Hamel or they 
  would wind up dead in a gutter.  (While Sean Hamel is a 
  hero of Scaret, no one pretends that his methods were 
  nice.  He demanded that everyone else stop fighting and 
  would kill the leaders who opposed him.) 
   
  While Sean maintained and enforced a truce, clan 
  leaders developed a better system of government.  Under 
  the new system, there would be a city council that would 
  be made up of members chosen by the landholders.  The 
  neighborhoods were mapped and each family was given 
  as many seats on the council as their allotted number of 
  acres implied they should have.  Of course with any 
  drawing of maps of this style, arguments and even fights 
  broke out over the drawing, but compromises were found 
  after the duels had been settled.  In the year 236P, the 
  first City Council gathered and began to pass laws. 
   
  Things went along fairly well.  There were only a 
  few fights every year in the council hall, and blood feuds 
  amongst families seemed to be a thing of the past.  Time 
  moved on, and the city grew in population, but not in 
  size.  The issue was that expanding the city required 
  redrawing the council seats, and noblemen who were 
  never fond of the City Council owned most of the land 
  outside the city.  Eventually necessity won the day and 
  the decision was made to build city walls, well beyond 
  the area originally declared as the city of Scaret.  The 
  land to do this was purchased from the neighboring 
  noblemen, and then sold to various families.  There was 
  a profit built into the sale of this land, and these profits 
  were used to start the city wall. 
   
  All this diplomacy with the neighboring nobles 
  resulted in a change.  It seemed that many of these petty 
  kings would rather join with the City Council than be 
  swallowed up by whichever of their peers found an 
  effective mercenary band that season.  Over the course of 
  the next twelve years, the newly designated “city-state” 
  of Scaret formed its new governing body.  They decided 
  to keep the City Council as it was, but they also created a 
  second body called the Chamber of Households.  Known 
  as the “House”, this body was made up of landowners 
  outside the city walls.  Depending on the acreage they 
  owned and the populations of that acreage, each of the 
  lords who were willing to join the city state was given a 
  number of votes in the House.  Various powers were 
  divided between the Council and the House, and these 
  powers have fluctuated to some degree ever since.  It is 
  also important to note that at the time of its inception, the 
  House was controlled by a slim majority by the same 
  landowners who controlled the City Council.  As more 
  and more landowners joined the city-state, this has since 
  reversed, and those families outside the city now hold a 
  modest majority over those inside it. 
   
  In its current state, the House controls most trade 
  issues, including taxes and tariffs both from land and sea.  
  The Council in turn controls the modest navy maintained 
  by the city-state.  Each landowner is expected to raise 
  
  12 
   
  skilled soldiers as are necessary to patrol their lands, and 
  this semi-professional militia is the formation of the 
  wardens that patrol most Borten regions.  Not all Borten 
  regions are within the city-state’s control.  The House’s 
  map does not travel as far south along the coast as many 
  people believe it does.  While the Wembic Nation has 
  conquered and allied with various Borten areas along the 
  coast, it has never intruded on the actual borders of the 
  city state, only on lands that were allied with Scaret. 
   
  Do not mistake Scaret’s government for something 
  similar to some modern two house republics.  The 
  authority of the City Council is not checked by the 
  House, nor is the House checked by the City Council.  
  Each is autocratic in its authority over certain items, and 
  only if these items overlap must the two bodies work 
  together. 
   
  Scaret’s government does hold power, but it is truly 
  the churches of Scaret where the power of the people is 
  held.  The followers of Sky, god of weather and nature, 
  and the followers of Marina, goddess of water, hold an 
  uneasy rivalry.  Civic officials will typically walk a thin 
  line between the two attempting to offend neither.  
  Should one church (or both) disagree with something 
  done by the House or the Council, the law is likely to be 
  repealed before the people rise up against their 
  representatives. 
   
  While the City Council seats were at one time each 
  owned by one particular family, over the many years, 
  some of these districts have been broken down into their 
  component parts.  Now, landowners must come together 
  to vote in their Councilmen, based on the square footage 
  of ownership they possess.  The election of Councilmen 
  or Housemen is similar to a modern caucus where voters 
  move around a large room indicating their support and 
  votes. 
   
  90P 
  Scaret founded 
  167P 
  Scaret overthrows king to become a “free city” 
  178P 
  Scaret Protection League formed 
  236P 
  First City Council chosen in Scaret 
  354P 
  City Wall started - New Council map drawn 
  366P 
  Chamber of Households formed 
   
  THE GOOD LIFE 
   
   
  The city of Scaret is arranged around the Bay of 
  Scaret.  The Bay is filled with piers and wharves.  These 
  are intended for the local ships - those consistently 
  housed here.  The piers for the ships with other home 
  ports are located on the “legs” of the omega shape that is 
  Scaret.  Most of the docking places in Scaret (both legs 
  and in the bay) are quays with piers.  This is because 
  most spots along the shore of the bay did not allow for 
  ships to come right up to the shore.  By dredging some of 
  the shoreline and building the quays, many ships can 
  come right up to the quay, or easily use the piers. 
   
  The best real estate in the city is along The 
  Boulevard.  The Boulevard is the main street of the town 
  and basically built on top of the quays.  This wide street 
  is paved, and few people understand that The Boulevard 
  is really “fake land”.  This is seen as the “coast” of the 
  bay. 
   
  While much of The Boulevard is lined with 
  warehouses, there are also some of the fanciest homes in 
  the city.  These manor houses are looking for the “best 
  air”.  They are also looking for the most prestige, and 
  being on The Boulevard is the most influential street in 
  town.  Understandably, this is also the most expensive 
  real estate in the city. 
   
  As the streets back away from The Boulevard, the 
  rents get cheaper but the position on the fashionable list 
  shrinks as well.  By the time your residence gets close to 
  the city walls, you’re living in the low rent district.  
  Scaret doesn’t necessarily have a slum, but the tenements 
  up against the wall are about as close as one can get. 
   
  One might think that the points of the omega 
  (where the legs meet the bay) would provide a benefit to 
  the harbor and the harbor patrol, but not so much.  The 
  opening of the bay is about 450 yards across.  There is a 
  chain that can be stretched across the opening in hopes of 
  preventing ships from entering, but it has not proven 
  effective and it is extremely difficult for the naval forces 
  to handle. 
   
  The chain (if it were in place) attaches to the two 
  light houses that flank the entryway to the harbor.  But 
  
  13 
   
  before you start thinking that these lighthouses are of 
  great benefit, you need to think about the terrain.  Scaret 
  is built on a low plain that runs into the ocean.  The tips 
  of the omega are small peninsulas.  Despite being built 
  upon raised platforms and being roughly 40’ tall, the two 
  light houses are difficult to see from any distance. 
   
  The light houses burn whale oil.  Depending on 
  whether the bay is open to ships or not, different glass 
  “windows” are put in place.  So at dawn, the green glass 
  is put up to show the bay is open to incoming traffic.  At 
  dusk, the red glass is put in place showing the bay is 
  closed.  Throughout the day, the yellow glass is in place 
  pointing out to the open sea.  The shore / city side is 
  lined with mirrors to reflect the light out the other 
  windows. 
   
  The flame burns all day long, but it is turned up 
  during the darker hours.  While the flame burns fairly 
  brightly, the colored glass is thick so as to strengthen it 
  against the storms experienced around Scaret Bay.  The 
  glass is so thick that it tends to diminish the brightness of 
  the light.  So between the lesser light and only being 40-
  50’ above sea level, the lighthouses fail to properly guide 
  ships in from any great distance. 
   
  To be fair, these lighthouses do a fair job of 
  marking where the land is for anyone sailing into the bay 
  and at a limited distance do help to guide ships toward 
  the shore, but they are amongst the most inefficient light 
  houses in any civilized city.  If it were not for the easy 
  access to nearly unlimited whale oil, these light houses 
  would have to be enhanced or removed. 
   
  Scurvy 
   
  It’s pretty hard to live the good life if you’re 
  suffering from disease.  One of the most commonly 
  thought of diseases associated with long distance sea 
  travel is scurvy.  Scurvy comes from a lack of vitamin C 
  in your diet.  While the sailors in your fantasy world may 
  not specifically know what vitamin C is, they do know 
  what they need to bring along. 
   
  The different cultures have different “cures” for 
  scurvy.  In order to get the disease, one would have to go 
  for a month or more without vitamin C, so even small 
  amounts of vitamin C in the diet can make it easy to 
  avoid the disease.  If someone were to begin suffering 
  from it, it would require them to take in more than would 
  normally be required in order to “cure” them of the 
  disease and alleviate the symptoms. 
   
  In the desert cultures along the east side of 
  Hughijen, the most common supplement is lemongrass 
  tea.  This tea is most commonly made with lemongrass 
  syrup.  The syrup is a mixture of the distilled essential 
  oils, but due to most production methods (done on the 
  farms), this syrup is only about half oil and half water 
  and other parts not fully removed.  Lemongrass tea can 
  be as simple as a teaspoon of syrup in a cup of water, 
  though many people make far more complicated 
  versions.  Lemongrass does have a lemony taste, but it is 
  also related to citronella, and that more pungent aroma 
  comes through as well. 
   
  On the far side of the world, the western shores of 
  Drentae, the elves and Marils harvest fartar beans.  These 
  beans are legumes that grow on large trees in and around 
  the Slyvanian Forest region.  The pods can be 12-15” 
  long and typically hold six “beans” (4-8 typically).  Each 
  bean is “the size of a finger nail”, roughly round, but 
  with a flat edge where it connected to the pod.  They are 
  not spheres, but much flatter, somewhat like kidney 
  beans only a little rounder.  A single bean weighs about a 
  gram and a half. 
   
  The ships that sail into Myork come away with a 
  slightly more fun means of preventing scurvy - 
  fermented orange juice.  Even though the juice is lightly 
  fermented, it resists the type of spoilage often found in 
  straight water barrels on long voyages.  Most commonly 
  called orangina, barrels of this stuff can be cheaply found 
  in Myork’s docks, as the orange crop is far too 
  overwhelming for the city.  If they were not finding ways 
  to preserve the harvest it would rot in the orchards. 
   
  The fortunate part for the whalers we have spent so 
  much time discussing here is that the skin and blubber of 
  the whales contains a large amount of vitamin C.  The 
  healthy dose is about 6oz., while the survival is only 2oz.  
  For the whalers, this is effectively free, but for anyone 
  else who would be buying it from the whalers, it is a 
  substitute “meat”.  This makes it worth something - 
  about half of what fish or whale meat would be. 
   
  In the Gold, Silver, and WHAT!?! chart you will 
  see each of these cures listed three times:  pound, daily-
  survival, and daily-healthy.  “Pound” should be obvious - 
  what a pound of the stuff costs, or gallon or whatever the 
  measurement is.  Daily-survival is the amount needed to 
  be taken daily in order to avoid scurvy.  Daily-healthy is 
  the amount needed to stay healthy, which is more than 
  simply avoiding scurvy.  Avoiding scurvy is important 
  but that bare minimum does not keep you healthy.  
  Daily-survival is the amount you give to field slaves to 
  keep them alive during the long sea voyage, assuming 
  the slave trader on the other end can fatten them up a bit 
  once he gets them. 
   
  Here’s one last one you probably didn’t expect.  
  Sauerkraut!  The healthy dose of sauerkraut (from red 
  cabbage) is about 5oz, while the survival dose is just 
  under 2oz.  The problem is that sauerkraut isn’t a 
  common part of the culture of most of the seafaring 
  folks.  Sure they’ll eat it if the other stuff has run out, but 
  they’ll be looking for their vitamin C elsewhere. 
   
   
   
  
  14 
   
  WHAT’S MISSING 
   
   
  This is the “World Walker” version of this edition.  
  Therefore it is not the complete version, but more of the 
  slimmed down version.  So the question could be - 
  What’s missing?  Here is a summary of what you’d see if 
  you got the Game Masters’ version of the book: 
   
  How to GM a ... Sea Encounter:  Whether it’s pirates 
  or sea monsters, fighting on water is different than 
  fighting on land, but as a GM what are you to do?  
  Here’s the answer. 
  The Enlistment Report:  Sailors are not simply warriors 
  on boats.  They are one of the true cosmopolitan societies 
  in the world.  With sailors jumping on and off at other 
  ports, you never know who will be on a ship, unless you 
  read this. 
  Gold, Silver and WHAT!?!:  Whether it is the products 
  harvested from the whales, some of the gear the whalers 
  bring aboard, or what is needed to outfit a whaling boat, 
  we’ve got the price list for you here. 
  $ilver Sense:  The last article told you what whale oil 
  was worth, but here we run the hard numbers:  how 
  much per whale, per different types of whales. 
  Monsters & Other Menaces:  There are many different 
  types of whales and we present them to you here, along 
  with notes on migration and even their migration patterns 
  in Fletnern.  We also give you one of our more 
  interesting Characters with Character - a titan whaler, 
  well maybe really a sea monster hunter. 
  Church Bells:  Scaret is a highly religious city, but the 
  rivalry between the goddess of the sea and the god of 
  weather causes issues.  But to muddy the waters further, 
  there isn’t just one religion for each.  Here’s a showing 
  of how world building includes religions. 
  Small Towns and City Neighborhoods:  Most would 
  assume that the major sea port in the area would be right 
  at the mouth of the river, but geology didn’t work out 
  here.  The obvious doesn’t always have to be the case. 
  Mass Market Magic:  Whalers do use magic, but they 
  don’t let their ideas get out to their competition.  So 
  while there is no mass market magic, here are some of 
  the things they do use. 
  A Funny Thing Happened ... Sailors are superstitious, 
  but in a high fantasy world, there is a reason to be.  Here 
  are some stories from the seaside taverns as well as the 
  explanations around some constellations. 
  Pull Back the Curtain:  What was the inspiration 
  behind Scaret, and how did it get “built” in Fletnern?  
  This one is directly for the world builders. 
  Y? Y? Y!:  Scaret is a sea port, but is it just a generic sea 
  port?  Not that we know what a generic sea port is, but 
  NO! it is not.  So how is it different from the other ports? 
   
   
  Do you know how to get the Game Masters’ 
  version instead of this World Walker edition?  Well, use 
  the links below to head out to our Patreon site and 
  become a patron.  Check it out because there’s a ton of 
  stuff that we’re doing, and we want you to be involved. 
   
  IN CONCLUSION 
   
   
  This subject is vastly too big for one edition.  It 
  would be silly to imply that simply because the seas are 
  so vast we can’t cover it.  But the seas are not just one 
  story.  We’ve hit the whalers pretty hard here, but we 
  have not yet touched on the sea merchants, pirates, 
  undersea cultures, or island dwellers.  Don’t worry; those 
  are coming! 
   
  If one of those subjects is exactly what you’re 
  looking for, then let us know.  We’re moving forward by 
  listening to what you folks are telling us.  How do you 
  tell us?  All the contacts are right here.  We are not only 
  willing to listen - we’re eagerly waiting to hear. 
   
   
  Patreon Project Site 
  https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4503957 
   
  Board Enterprises Website 
  http://www.boardenterprises.com/ 
   
  The Sounding Board Blog 
  http://boardent.blogspot.com/ 
   
  World of Fletnern wiki 
  http://fletnern.wikia.com/wiki/ 
   
  The Secret Word is:  Baleen 
  © 2017 John G. Josten 
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/_GM Books/World Building & Game Design/Board Enterprises/Board  Enterprises - Build Your Fantasy World - The Harpoon Happy Whalers of Scaret aka All About Sea Ports.pdf