[Thonia] CBI -3: Province of Bleakwood Sourcebook - Free PDF

[Havard]

On Dave Arneson Game Day 2020, the Comeback Inn is proud to announce the third in the series of Thonian Empire Province Sourcebooks. This sourcebook details a Thonian Province located to the south of the Valley of the Ancients. The sourcebook is written by Havard and Friends with additional material by Rizak the Really Horrible.

Here DM's can find material for campaigns where the players can:

• Visit a celtic flavored setting with fair nature, heroic traditions and dark secrets.
  
• Fight the evil that has taken over many of the strongholds and castles of Bleakwood
  
• Uncover the Druidic secrets of the mysterious Acaldi
  
• Meet the Bear-folk known as the Ursai and learn the real reason for their hatred against the humans of the region.
  
• Discover a technological wonder with connections to the City of the Gods

Research into the most obscure writings of Dave Arneson have gone into the writing of this sourcebook, while still making it playable and fun!

Compatible with all editions of D&D.

Go here to get the free download

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Please let us know what you think of this sourcebook here!


-Havard

[Yaztromo]

You have a typo in page 6, left column, high up.

[Yaztromo]

I will have to read more slowly this sourcebook, but I like how you connected this region with the Valemen! 8)

[Havard]

You have a typo in page 6, left column, high up.

Thanks! Let me know if you find more. I plan on releasing a revised edition with any mistakes I find fixed.

I will have to read more slowly this sourcebook, but I like how you connected this region with the Valemen! 8)

Thank you. I try to connect these sourcebooks to events and lore from the Blackmoor region. My idea is that before the arrival of the Thonian Humans, the main human cultures of the North were:

• The Peshwa
  
• The Skandaharians
  
• The Valemen
  
• Brute Men

While the Skandaharians dominated farther north and the Peshwa were masters of the grasslands, the woods, swamps and farmlands were populated by Valemen. Valmen correspond to the label "Picts" in older Dave Arneson maps, even though Dave also may have swapped out the Picts with Orcs when Freddie joined the campaign.

As this book reveals, the Celtic inspired Valemen were spread across a vast area, covering not only the lands shown on most Blackmoor maps, but also the lands to the west (see our Vales Campaign) and to the south. Their culture was one of an ancient form of druidic worship. The Druidic traditions of the western Valemen were reformed by Halgred Forestwalker, a human raised by elves, while the Valemen of the Bleakwood stuck to more traditional forms of worship combined with lore they learned from the mysterious Acaldi.

-Havard

[Yaztromo]

My idea is that before the arrival of the Thonian Humans, the main human cultures of the North were:

• The Peshwa
  
• The Skandaharians
  
• The Valemen
  
• Brute Men

While the Skandaharians dominated farther north and the Peshwa were masters of the grasslands, the woods, swamps and farmlands were populated by Valemen. Valmen correspond to the label "Picts" in older Dave Arneson maps, even though Dave also may have swapped out the Picts with Orcs when Freddie joined the campaign.

Interesting way of re-framing the "Picts", although I can see your point: the Picts seem to be more "barbaric" in their origins than the Valemen as they are presented in the DA series, but maybe that depiction was very archaic, maybe there were many tribes of Valemen (a bit like the Celts...) with very different ways of living and "grades" of civilisation. The Picts may be entirely something else as well and maybe at the time of Uther they already more or less vanished from Blackmoor.
I guess that the more options we present to the GMs, the better, after all. :wink:

[Havard]

Interesting way of re-framing the "Picts", although I can see your point: the Picts seem to be more "barbaric" in their origins than the Valemen as they are presented in the DA series, but maybe that depiction was very archaic, maybe there were many tribes of Valemen (a bit like the Celts...) with very different ways of living and "grades" of civilisation. The Picts may be entirely something else as well and maybe at the time of Uther they already more or less vanished from Blackmoor.
I guess that the more options we present to the GMs, the better, after all. :wink:

There is certainly room to add Picts as a separate culture if a GM wants to

As you say, I use the Valemen to fit the label of "Wild humans" from a Thonian Perspective. While some Valemen are certainly more civilized today, there is room for a more barbaric lifestyle earlier in history, but I think also in more remote areas in modern day Blackmoor and surrounding provinces. Both the Vales themselves and Bleakwood probably mainly represent a more medieval type culture, but people living in the outskirts of the Blackmoor map could be of a more wild variety. The D20 line introduces the idea of humans of the Wokan, Elderkin and Idolator classes which previously were reserved for monstrous humanoids. These would fit right at home with some Valemen groups, even if Druids and Rangers would be more popular choices.

Another reason why I wanted a Valeman culture in Bleakwood was that Dave Arneson based the original Bleakwood adventure on the Battle of Bannockburn, depicted famously in the movie Braveheart and other tales.


If you compare the map of Bannockburn to the maps of Bleakwood you will see some similarities:



Note the shape of the rivers especially.

We don't have any real Scottish equivalent in the world of Blackmoor, but I figured Valemen could work as a replacement here too.

-Havard

[Yaztromo]

I can see how Picts and Scots can be somehow superimposed for this kind of exercise...

[Havard]

I can see how Picts and Scots can be somehow superimposed for this kind of exercise...

It depends on what each DM would want for his or her campaign. I am not really too interested in having too many RW equivalents of cultures surrounding Blackmoor. In the original campaign, Picts were probably introduced because they appeared as villains in the Conan novels that Dave was reading at the time.

Personally I just liked using the Valemen culture to replace all of these groups. It also allowed me to connect this culture more closely with elements from Dave's original campaign, the DA modules and the d20 Blackmoor line's treatment of Druids, Gods of nature etc.

There are plenty of other cultures and races coming in the next 7 installments of this series

-Havard

[Yaztromo]

Another reason why I wanted a Valeman culture in Bleakwood was that Dave Arneson based the original Bleakwood adventure on the Battle of Bannockburn, depicted famously in the movie Braveheart and other tales.


If you compare the map of Bannockburn to the maps of Bleakwood you will see some similarities:



Note the shape of the rivers especially.

If you go to the Wallace monument near Stirling you can re-play that battle with a group of visitors, each of them managing a unit...


Anyway, going back in topic, did you envisage having the Superberries or similar in the Bleakwood or you don't feel to committed to that part of the Blackmoor lore (as I guess...)?

[Havard]

Here's my map of the Bleakwood region.




To the north are the southern plains of Hak and the Valley of the Ancients. To the northeast is the Thonian Rand. To the east are the Eastern Marshes (See Thonian Sourcebook 1). To the Southeast are the cruel horsemen of the Western Plains (more in a future sourcebook).

Anyway, going back in topic, did you envisage having the Superberries or similar in the Bleakwood or you don't feel to committed to that part of the Blackmoor lore (as I guess...)?

I have moved Bleakwood a bit compared to the references to its location in the FFC just to make room for how the setting was modified in the DA modules and later material and also because I wanted Bleakwood to be a proper full scale region of the Empire and not just a tiny speck of land. This means it is farther removed from the Super Berry woods than it probably was first imagined by Dave.

I quite like the idea of magical berries and plants though. I think there could definitely be room for those in the region. I am less keen on the name "super berries". It feels right at home for a 1970s style game where many name and other things are a bit more tongue in cheek, but my books aim more towards the style of a 1980s product like the DA modules, while still allowing for nods to both earlier and later materials. If a DM wants to include Super Berries in Bleakwood, I am all for it though!


-Havard