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Burials of Teganshire is a self-contained, modular adventure that emphasizes localization, so the DM can plug the module into their own environment. It’s also so the players can develop their own story without the plot forcing them to travel hundreds of miles somewhere else. Going back 20 days, we talked about Localized Campaigns:
These posts are a mix of DM Practical and DM Design. Practical is necessary for the DM to save time. The Design is essential for the DM to add bespoke flavor—no commercial product can anticipate all the needs of your game table.
This post gives you some practical options to liven up Burials of Teganshire. Page count, modularity, and such prevented the information from showing up in the module. Perhaps one day, when we complete the adventure path, we can expand the text to include all that flavor that makes a setting come alive.
Of particular note, the next adventure in the series in the Circle of the Blood Moon adventure path (#CBM2) will have more information on Teganshire Village, so the options here are generic.
Before the PCs Head Out
Before the PCs head out to take care of the “bridge problem,” here are some generic flavor additions.
Carols the Halfling Merchant
Carols is a female halfling brewmaster with a wagon of high-quality beer heading up the road to the bridge. However, Carols only has two guards with her, and they are accompanying her mostly to handle the four horses pulling the wagon.
She is now held up and will approach the PCs—she’ll add to their reward. Carols doesn’t have much spare money (only 10 gold pieces), but will pony up a keg of beer if the PCs take care of “whatever killed that poor man!”
Carols and Laura of the Bouncing Mutt don’t get along, as Carols never has any beer to sell her, selling it up the road where she gets a better price.
Randy the Rider
Randy is a message courier with a swift horse, wearing leather armor and a light crossbow, but obviously, he’s not a fighter, but a mailman.
He’s contemplating a bypass, but his horse is a jumper. He’ll ask the PCs if he can follow them, in hopes of saving time crossing the river.
Randy is not allowed to engage in combat, and won’t do so. As soon as the PCs kill the monster, he’ll rush the bridge at full gallop and jump over the damage, continuing on his route.
Randy is a young man and only carries a small amount of coin, as the stops on his route feed both him and his horse. Interfering with Randy has severe consequences, as the local authorities also use his route to deliver military correspondence.
If Randy watches the PCs kill the monster, he’ll inform his employer who will arrange for the PCs:
- Discounts on fast riding horses
- Free mail delivery throughout the region
- Discount at the inns along Randy’s route for a month
No Empty Stomach Left Behind
Before the PCs head out, the matrons of the village pack the PCs lunch, including two freshly baked pies. Farmer Paul, a man of modest means, also gives the PCs two small bundles of high-quality, smoked sausages, one for the PCs, and one for the “nice fellows in the watchtower up yonder.”
While PCs are Traveling
Beyond the random encounters in the module, here are some things to add for additional flavor.
Three Men
Three men were riding war horses along the river coming from the west, hoping to cross the bridge. However, they could see the bridge had significant damage and turned away. They are now riding to Teganshire, to warn the Burgermeister of the issue.
They did not investigate the bridge, but their horses were very nervous, and since they are the ones who trained said horses, they left.
These men are horse trainers. Their mounts are high-quality, and they were set to deliver the horses. They will continue to Teganshire and then leave after a meal, avoiding the road, traveling west.
The Guard Tower
As mentioned in the module, the purpose of this guard tower is less of a way stop and more of a patrol waystation to prevent errant forest critters from molesting the farms and ranches to the west.
As such, they are highly knowledgeable about the region. If helped, the well-paid guards are a treasure trove of information about:
- Local nobility
- Which farmers or ranchers have eligible, marriage-age bachelors and bachelorettes (ranked according to appearance)
- All have respect for Harold and tell the PCs his young wife died long ago before they had children. If the PCs seem like honest, good folk, one of the guards says to the PCs that Harold needs help getting over his grief, and it would be a shame if he continued to be unmarried, as he is a respectable man
- One of the guards was shot down, spectacularly, by the owner of the Bouncing Mutt in the village. If the PCs haven’t heard her story yet, he tells it here. He feels terrible because he didn’t know she was in mourning
If the PCs help the guards, they can also supply the PCs with some fresh goods from the local farms. If given the sausage bundle, the guards share a recipe of fried sausage and eggs.
One of the guards knows how to skin and process animal fur. If the PCs killed the dire wolves, he offers to the skin and process the hides, so the PCs can turn them into clothing sometime later.
Machan’s Tower
This would be a great place to put in a cursed book that ties to the next module in the Circle of the Blood Moon adventure path. Just put it there with Machan’s journal, no need to be fancy about it:
Book of Celestial Whispers
This book does not detect as magical but is a highly magical tome and a dangerous one as that. If read, the book, will without fail, impart the ability to speak celestial to the reader. It will also turn the reader’s alignment permanently lawful, so if the reader was neutral good, they would then be lawful good. If the reader was chaotic evil, then the book would change their alignment to lawful evil.
Book Contents
The book, written in Common, is an engaging and well-written story about a paladin named Sir Hashmon Keirman coming to the aid of a celestial forced into mortal form and now besieged by enemies in the mundane world. The story ends with Keirman finding out his paramour is an angel, and in a bittersweet decision, convinces her to go back to Arcadia, and resume her position.
This story is true and contains a large amount of action, romance, and philosophical questions between the nature of duty and desire. It’s approximately 70,000 words.
Curse
However long it takes for the reader to read the book (some can read it in a week, some in a day), when completed the curse takes hold and is irreversible—the Law, Neutral, Chaos portion of their alignment shifts to Lawful. The reader is made aware of this, but they may not know why.
One of the “benefits” of the curse is the reader understands celestial but has no knowledge of the fact. Celestial spoken to the reader sounds likes the reader’s own native language. When they talk to someone else that understands celestial, that’s the language they unknowingly speak.
If the reader already knows the celestial language, the alignment shift still occurs. If the reader is already also lawful, they feel a supernatural sense of understanding Sir Keirman, and their Wisdom score is increased by 1 (to a maximum of 20).
Recharge
Once the book curses a reader, it takes 4d6 weeks for it to “recharge” before it can curse someone else (reading the book twice has no effect the second or subsequent times). If destroyed, it reforms 4d6 months later in a random location, next to another book on a bookshelf.
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Crossbow Man is now wondering if he shouldn’t have eaten that extra slice of pie from the village.
