Hexagnome in Dolmenwood

 I've been in love with the Dolmenwood setting since the kickstarter first launched (I know, late to the party), and I've finally been running a game in it! Early on, I started looking for modules that might fit the setting, and quickly fell in love with Hexagnome's work.

HexaGnome has created three stellar adventures: a low-level Faerie-Tale romp called The House Under the Moondial (my favorite of their adventures), a mid-level delve into an ancient temple that explores betrayal and the horrors of war called The Sepulchre of Seven (HG's first adventure, that made me fall in love with their work), and a high-level inter-planar campaign-shattering adventure that will shift the very fabric of your game world called He-Who-Claimed-The-Sun (their newest adventure, can also be run as a level 0 funnel).

There is a ton of overlap between the assumed setting of these adventures and of Dolmenwood, but there are unfortunately some key differences as well. In this post, I'm going to go over the high-level worldbuilding stuff, with a focus on He-Who-Claimed-The-Sun since it changes the most.

Obviously, major spoilers for all three adventures, but especially He-Who-Claimed-The-Sun! (and if you're going to play it, I'd really recommend going in un-spoiled.)

HexaGnome's History

The Sunnestead Sorceresse

• 700 years ago, there was War in the Northwoods, where Mortals fought against the faerie Sunnestead Sorceresse.
• A companion of Jayne, Half-Elven, called Rhain Dreamdust was captured while gathering vital intel - that the Sorceresse and the Frost Faerie forces would be weakest on the Spring Equinox, as the power of winter wanted.
• The legendary Saint Larme cut her way to face the Sorceresse, chasing her to the seat of her power, channeling the righteous fury of The One God to smite the faerie.
• It was a trap! The Sorceresse was in fact at the height of her power, and trapped The One God in order to steal his power. Since then, she has taken his place, ruling as "The One God."

Broader HG World Building

• Both The House Under the Moondial and He-Who-Claimed-The-Sun have Faeries who are powerful enough to act as Gods.
• The appendix to the latter calls these "Petty gods," beings who exist whether or not mortals pay attention (mostly "Fae spirits of a specific place, like a river or mountain"), in contrast to "True Gods" which thrive "on faith and worship." Very Terry Pratchett (intentionally).
• Powerful fae (and gods) can split themselves in two, leaving both their normal Self and their "Other." "If both halves are in different worlds, only the Other can feel pain, neither can die." If they are brought together, they can be killed. It's unclear to me if killing one is meant to kill the other - I don't think so? I think it would just remove those protections. Probably whatever feels more dramatic.
• The Lord and the Lady ("The Horned Hunstman" / Green Man and "The Sunnestead Sorceresse" / Winter Lady) are each other's Others, as are The Golden-Backed Gorilla and The One Blade. There's also a Witch in Moondial who has an Other.

Converting to Dolmenwood

HG has a lot of cool worldbuilding around Faerie and the syncretic faiths around them, but it is a bit at odds with how Faeries tend to work in Dolmenwood, with the Gwyrigons taking on more of that Old Faith syncretic feel. I personally love the wood gods, so I'm going to be leaning into them, but I'm sure someone more clever than me could find a way to make a more Faerie-based religion work in Dolmenwood as written!

The Faerie War and the Sunnestead Sorceresse:

• The war against the Cold Prince was 850 years ago, not 700, so the timeline shifts backwards 150 years to match up with Dolmenwood. All dates in HG modules should be updated accordingly.
• The Sunnestead Sorceresse took on a role as one of his lieutenants, leading his vast armies against the mortal forces.
• Both she and the Horned Hunter were in fact the same being, one of the Gwyrigons. Both the Lord and the Lady were aspects of this central god of the forest. The Green Man, Cwrnus, was the more venerated aspect of this God, as His reign was one of joy and plenty. The Lady's aspect was The Winter Lady, Cailleach, and Hers was a time of struggle and hardship, seeking warmth at all costs.
• Although the Wood Gods were displeased with the "arrogance and capriciousness" of the Faeries and initially hid from them, The Lady was even more troubled by the the Pluritine Church, who sought to stamp out Gwyrae.
• She took on the name "The Sunnestead Sorceresse," masking herself as a Fae in order to join the armies of the Cold Prince. As a God, her power was unrivaled (though she took pains not to upstage the Cold Prince), and she quickly came to command some of his vast armies. 
• The Sorceresse is believed dead by the Faeries, who think what the humans do, that she was slain by Larne. In reality, she left her army for dead, happy for her two foes to harm themselves.
• As a Gwyrigon, the Lady sympathizes greatly with the Witches of the wood who keep the ancient traditions. However, the greater a god's power, the less directly they can act on the world, and the infusion of power and worship from supplanting The One God was so overpowering that she has little time for her old followers, and they have forgotten her in turn.
• If she's honest, she loves this newfound influx of power, and wouldn't do anything that might jeopardize her standing, even at the expense of her old faith.
• She still turns the ear of certain faithful to shield the Witches from the Church's ire, sending subtle signs to Abbot Hargle that they are allies, not foes, and turning Commanders Ablewright and Harrowmoor towards other ends. She has been unable to reach Bishop Sanguine or Sanctus Primus directly (they draw power from the Wrath of the Sun and care little for anything else), though has nudged Lady Harrowmoor towards keeping the Bishop reigned in.
• Optionally, I like the idea that Winter is not really a thing in Dolmenwood anymore, as a result of her leaving - it still gets cold, the leaves still fall, but snow doesn't fall unless brought on by the Cold Prince. Mortals think it's because he left, but in reality the seasons are out of balance.
• The Forest of Fire was the Divine Realm of the Horned Huntsman. It was once quite pleasant, until all this, a verdant land of eternal summer. The Regent is Divine, not Fae. The Smith is Fae, one of the Cold Prince's greatest assets until promised the greatest work of her lifetime by the Sorceresse. The other Faeries present found their way in while the Forest was undefended (they successfully established the Stairway to the Summer Court). 

Reducing the Impact

If you don't want the impacts of this adventure to be quite as campaign-shifting, you could consider replacing The One God / "The One God" with a Saint of the Pluritine Church. Hexagnome suggested Saint Sedge, which I think would work quite well! This wouldn't change much of what I've written above, and would work well if you like this module but don't want to potentially overturn large parts of the setting. If you do this, I would play up prayers to Saint Sedge and his general importance to the setting, so that it's still a big deal that he has been replaced by either a Faerie or a Gwyrigon depending on which version you use.

Random Details

• King Hadryg was King of Brackenwold when the Cold Prince was defeated. The house would later be subsumed as a Duchy. His son, King Hraldr (Sepulchre), went back on his father's promise to Lady Jayne and her companions after the war. Or you can just say they're the same person and pick whichever name you like best!
• ... I will likely add more stuff here as I go through the other adventures in more depth.

Dates

The Mortal Kingdoms use the calendar of the Church, which started with the (presumed) ascension of the Prophets into heaven just under 1,600 years ago. Current Year: 1576 AP ("After the Prophets," before this is called BP, "Before the Prophets") (we're gonna do the Pathfinder thing and subtract 450 from the current real-world year, more or less). Important Dates:

• 1576 - Present Day
• 1475 - The Ruination of the Abbey (which opened the door for the Rise of Atanuwe)
• 1263 - The Abbey of St Clewyd Founded
• 1217 - Saint Clewyd and the Atacorn
• 1000 - The Kingdom of Brackenwold became a Duchy of the wider Kingdom (this had been in the works for several years but they wanted an auspicious year).
• 776 - Triple Compact Banishes the Cold Prince
• 715 - The Cold Prince Returns
• 500 - The Kingdom of Brackenwold was founded (officially - they'd more or less gained control by 497 and their campaign began in 483, but they wanted an auspicious year).
• 403 - The Arrival of the Brackenwolders

The Witches and other followers of the Old Ways name Centuries, and track years (based on the Solstices) by number. Current Year: 26 (the century will be named later).

Previous Centuries (most to least recent, "The Century of [x]"): Nobility (1450-1550), Hiding (1350-1450), Waning (1250-1350), Corruption (1250-1350), Battle (1150-1250), Persecution (1050-1150),  Betrayal (950-1050), Peace (850-950), War (750-850), Frost (650-750), Demons (550-650), Axes (450-550), Invasion (350-450), Discovery (250-350), Ritual (150-250), Tumult (50-150), Regrowth (50 BP to 50 AP), Drought (150-50 BP), Joy (250-150 BP)

Faeries tend to refer to important events (to them), e.g. "Just before the Frostmelt" (the "defeat" of the Cold Princes forces, led by the "Sorceresse"). Their sense of time is very long, so "around the time of" can be anything from 1 to 500 years unless there's a closer key reference point.

Locations

• Romajh (Moondial) is in 1402 (west of the river - I'm saying that east of the river is where Faerie Shit really gets going). I put together this Hex Map combining the hexes (also Bergummo's Tower).
• The Sepulchre of Lady Jayne is in the Northeast, by the hills (I haven't picked a specific hex yet).
• Larme's Cathedral is in the same hex as Prigwort (1106), just a couple miles north of the city on Victory Hill.

I'm going to leave it there for now - I'll be going into specific adventures in future posts, both fitting them into Dolmenwood's setting and lore and talking about how I converted them to Nimble (since that's the system I'm using, more or less). I'll probably have some other Dolmenwood related posts as well.

See y'all then!