1650: The Miniseries – Session 02

[Much investigation is done and the enemy located, if not identified.]

Player Characters:
Lasairfhiona [pronounced “Lah-sah-reena”] – human female Medicine Woman (4th-level Shaman)
Ysgwyn [pronounced “ees-win”] – elf female Warrior-Seer (2nd-level Elven Spellsword)
Ignis – human male Commissary (4th-level Venturer)
Vladimir – dwarf male Dwarven Repriser (3rd-level Dwarven Fury)
Vojtěch – human male “Theurgist” (actually a Spiritualist, a 3rd-level Warlock)
Marcus, A.K.A.: Totenschwarz – human male Slayer (4th-level Assassin)

Non-Player Characters:
Gabriel – human female Warrior (2nd-level Fighter)
Wolf-Klaus – human male noble, 5th child and 4th son of the Baron of Gammertingen
Heinrike Dreier - human female, leader of the Gammertingen Scouts


Friday, June 3, 1650 AD
The drinking buddies of Wolf-Klaus, de facto 6th Baron of Gammertingen split up to achieve a variety of goals.  Lasairfhiona and her bodyguard, Gabriel, went to several dressmakers, looking for appropriate dress for the new baron’s coronation on the 9th.  It turned out there were several dresses available, dresses for the Baron’s family that had not been delivered yet.  Or paid for.  The dressmaker, Ebba Schultes, found a dress that fit and agreed to have it altered to appear different by the 8th.  Lasairfhiona also wanted her bodyguard in a dress, to which Gabriel balked at.  Her objections that dresses were impractical to fight in and as Lasairfhiona’s bodyguard, she, Gabriel, must be ready to fight.  Lasairfhiona gradually talked her bodyguard around to getting fitted, mostly trumping Gabriel’s reluctance by pointing out Gabriel could not do her job if she was not allowed into the ceremony or the ball afterward due to her inappropriate manner of dressing.

Marcus, meanwhile, sent a scout, one Heinrike Dreier, to attempt to reach the town of Steinhilber by looping around to the east through Wilsingen and approaching from the southeast.  [Note: the Gammertingen Scouts is a unit of scouts comprised of women.  During the Thirty Years War most of the men of military age were conscripted by various armies and few of those ever returned.  This necessitated the invention of a volunteer unit comprised of the only physically fit people left in the barony.  They are very familiar with the barony lands and excellent shots with their harquebuses, which they also occasionally used for hunting to supplement food stores in the barony.  Often on lands belonging to other, Catholic, principalities.]

Ignis, a skilled scrounger and occasional merchant, was tasked by Wolf-Klaus with going to the Imperial City of Justingen to hire as many mercenaries as he could to help defend the barony.  Ignis consulted with Captain Lang, head of the Baronial Guard, to find out what kind of troops he should get.  Captain Lang recommended defensive troops, mostly infantry with firearms.  He also recommended using part of the monies given to him to purchase several months of food and supplies for the mercenaries to keep them from raiding the barony for victuals.  Ignis agreed and made notes as to what would be needed before starting his trip to Justingen.

Vojtěch sent his vulture familiar, Booesława [approximately pronounced “Baats·lava”], west to investigate the town of Bitz, rumored to be haunted due to something that happened during the war.  Inspired by this, Lasairfhiona sent Wren, her animal totem, to scout Steinhilber.

Lasairfhiona then went to the manor house to see if she could track the assassins who attacked Wolf-Klaus’ family.  She spent a couple hours following the tracks of the assassins through town to the various spots where the guards killed each one.  What she finds seems to match up with the report from the Captain of the Guard.  By the time she finished, Wren returned and reported getting shot at before arriving at Steinhilber.  Crows in that area that Wren talked with reported the local humans were all excited.  Lasairfhiona found Marcus and shared this information with him.

A couple hours later, Booesława returned to Vojtěch and reported on Bitz.  Booesława reported that there was nothing living there, that the familiar sensed some form of power in the area but was not their long enough to identify it, and that the graveyard was fully stocked.  Vojtěch made notes on all of this and went over to the baronial library to research Bitz.

Late in the afternoon, Heinrike Dreier, the scout Marcus sent to approach Steinhilber from the southeast returned and made her report.  She reported that while approaching the barony’s border from the Zweifalten Abbey side, troops had set up an impromptu toll booth just inside the barony’s border.  The troops appeared to be mercenaries and were harassing merchants entering the barony.

Marcus took this report directly to Wolf-Klaus, who was handling matters related to his coronation and defense of the town.  Wolf-Klaus asked Marcus to put together a team and locate and count what hostile troops were in the northern part of the barony.  If Marcus could also find out who was paying them, so much the better.  Wolf-Klaus needed a report on this by Monday the 6th.  Marcus immediately went to work assembling a team.

Saturday, June 4, 1650 AD
Marcus’ scouting team ended up being a bit larger than he planned due to an enthusiastic response.  The team consisted of himself, Ysgwyn, Lasairfhiona and her bodyguard Gabriel, and a small unit of Gammertingen scouts armed with flintlock harquebuses.  Once assembled, the group headed up onto the plateau above the Lauchert River and north, looking for hostile troops.

[Historical Note: In this time period, “harquebus” was the name of the lighter of the two classes of longarm weapon and “musket” the name of the heavy longarm needing a stand to fire.  In about 100 years the usage of the names would reverse, with muskets being the name of the lighter longarm weapon and harquebus the heavier weapon needing the stand to fire.  This was not a case of technology improving but a case of terminology changing over time.]

At roughly the same time but about 10 miles to the east, Ignis was crossing the eastern border of Zweifalten Abbey and into part of Swabian Austria, disguised as a minor merchant.  A border station collecting tariffs on goods crossing the border was there [a common thing in this period across Europe and the reason shipping goods was expensive].  Ignis was concerned that Gammertingen’s unknown enemy might be tracking people leaving Gammertingen with large sums of money for hiring mercenaries, just like he was doing.  When approached by the border guard, Ignis offered to pay more than the required tariff in exchange for no record of his entry.  The guard looked around and say no one was particularly paying attention to him and gracefully accepted the bribe, welcoming “Herr Vogel” [Mr. Bird] to Swabian Austria.

Afternoon
Carefully working their way north to avoid accidentally stumbling upon hostile forces, the scouting party approached a shallow vale between low hills a mile east of Magerkingen, up on the Gammertingen plateau.  Gabriel noticed a small guard picket in a copse of trees on the other end of the vale.  Marcus split his forces, sending the scouts and Gabriel [who had a longbow] to a line of cover on the left while he and Lasairfhiona and Ysgwyn continued to walk north, pretending to be unaware of the picket.  The plan was to get a little closer and attack when the guards noticed them and called for them to halt.  Marcus was hoping he and Ysgwyn could get close enough to charge but wasn’t expecting to get that lucky.

Instead, Marcus got extremely lucky.  The guards were apparently throwing dice rather than paying attention and his group got to within 40 yards before being noticed.  Marcus signaled for the scouts to shoot before he and Ysgwyn charged in.  The picket guards were all dead within seconds with no wounds to the attackers at all.  Marcus and his group immediately started searching the bodies for gear to take back to Gammertingen for the defense and for any evidence as to who was paying the soldiers.  A path north was found, leading back to whatever the guards were a picket for.

Just as the searching was done, a group of soldiers responding to the gunshots marched into view from the north.  This group consisted of 12 musketmen, 7 pikemen, and two officers.  [Actually a lieutenant and a sergeant, but the PCs could not see the rank insignia from this distance, just that they were shouting orders.]  Marcus had the scouting group take up positions behind trees for cover and then wait for his signal.  Just as the opposing force lined up, Marcus ordered everyone with ranged weapons to shoot.  While the scouts reloaded, the enemy fired their muskets, wounding several in the scouting party.  Ysgwyn and Gabriel targeted the leader of the enemy troops with their bows, which provoked the pikemen to advance to attack.

While the pike advanced, the archers killed the other enemy leader.  The pikemen charged in to attack to great effect, dropping several of the scouts and wounding the PCs.  By this point the remaining scouts fired their second volley and then affixed bayonets to their weapons [a new technology at the time and one of the few ways Gammertingen was on the cutting edge technologically].  The scouts counter-charged the pikemen to close the distance and overwhelmed them.  The remaining scouts and Ysgwyn then charged the enemy muskets where Ysgwyn became a whirlwind of death with her sword.

Lasairfhiona cast several healing spells to revive the wounded, including one of the enemy troops [for later questioning].  Knowing more enemy troops were likely to show soon, Marcus sent the wounded scouts and the captive south to return to Gammertingen town.  He, Heinrike, Lasairfhiona and Gabriel, and Ysgwyn headed east and then north, hoping to side-step any further enemy troops.  In this, they were successful.  They also located the main encampment of the enemy force with over 200 troops and another, larger patrol with cavalry forming up.  They made a quick map of the encampment with notes to the troop types and rough numbers.  Marcus noticed that, significantly, the force had no cannons nor other siege equipment.  The scouting party then quickly left the area to return south before being spotted.

Late Afternoon
Ignis arrived at the Imperial City of Justingen.  After securing lodging, he started scouting out the city, locating the mercenary market.  He spent the evening asking after what mercenary companies might be in town and their reputations.

Sunday, June 5, 1650 AD
Despite it being a day of worship, Ignis was busy hustling to hire every available mercenary that met the guidelines provided by Captain Lang.  By the end of the day he was able to hire 12 flintlock musketeers, 14 matchlock musketeers, 25 flintlock harquebusiers, 18 matchlock harquebusiers, 25 pikemen, and 14 armored pikemen, plus an engineer and supplies for all of the mercenaries for two months.

End of Session


[I played a little loosey-goosey with time as I ran this session, basically working my way around the table and asking each player what their character was up to.  I then threaded similar activities together and shone the spotlight on each player in turn.  This ended up with Ignis a day so ahead of the rest of the group in the timeline, but things will re-synch next session.  Probably.]


1650: The Miniseries
Session 1

Session 3, Part 1

1650: The Miniseries – Session 01

[Tales of the Snuggly Duckling.  ...Not really, but that’s where things start.]

Player Characters:
Lasairfhiona [pronounced “Lah-sah-reena”] – human female Medicine Woman [4th-level Shaman]
Ysgwyn [pronounced “ees-win”] – elf female Warrior-Seer [2nd-level Elven Spellsword]
Ignis – human male Commissary [4th-level Venturer]
Vladimir – dwarf male Dwarven Repriser [3rd-level Dwarven Fury]
Vojtěch – human male “Theurgist” [actually a Spiritualist, a 3rd-level Warlock]
Marcus, A.K.A.: Totenschwarz – human male Slayer [4th-level Assassin]

Non-Player Characters:
Gabriel – human female Warrior [2nd-level Fighter]
Wolf-Klaus – human male noble, 5th child and 4th son of the Baron of Gammertingen


Thursday, June 2, 1650 AD
The Barony of Gammertingen is a minor principality in the Swabian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire and barely worth the land it occupied.  Its only claim to significance is the toll the Baron is allowed to charge on the trade road between Sigmaringen and Hechingen and the branch leading to Trochtelfingen.  Two years ago the Peace at Westphalia was signed, ending the Thirty Years War, and Gammertingen is recovering from the effects of decades of war and plague.  The current Baron, Detlev II, 5th Baron of Gammertingen, had five children and one week from now it will be his youngest son’s 18th birthday.  It will be a day of dining with visiting nobles, displaying his son’s fine upbringing, and arranging a politically beneficial marriage.  Everything will be prim and proper.

This night, however, was a night of drunken debauchery with his son’s ne’er-do-well friends and various hangers-on across the border in Neufra, the village where everything “fell off a cart.”  The Baron’s son, Wolf-Klaus, was ensconced at the Snuggly Duckling, the best tavern and brothel in Neufra, where he and his friends had been celebrating for several hours already.

Wolf-Klaus was drinking in the private room with Vojtěch, a “scholar” of his acquaintance and patronage, Lasairfhiona, a Celtic druid, and her self-appointed bodyguard, Gabriel.  The windows and the door to the common room were open to allow an evening breeze through to cool the room and the tavern off.  Remnants of the feast were still on the table in the private room [and in some places, the floor].

In the common room, Vladimir, a dwarf who regularly lost at cards to Wolf-Klaus, was engaged in a series of drinking contests and Ignis, who "knows a guy" when you are looking for something cheap or illegal, was throwing dice with other gamblers in a corner.  Ysgwyn, representative of a nearby elven enclave and a bit of a lush, was upstairs making use of both of the brothel’s two young men, Micha and Sigi [she has a thing for “round-ears”].  Marcus [a "siege engineer" who attached himself to Wolf-Klaus' retinue], having availed himself of much food and drink, was in the privies out back, relieving himself.

A group of eight stevedores entered the mostly full tavern and took seats at a table too small for their group, right next to the entrance to the private room.  Ignis noticed that they had short swords concealed upon their persons and decided to keep an eye on them [but not actually abandoning the dice game he was in].  Despite sitting at a table near the stevedores, Vladimir barely noticed their entrance as he was concentrating on acting befuddled by his drinks.  He felt he could get the money from at least five more humans before they realized his capacity for this weak human beer was much, much greater than theirs and he didn’t want to blow it - he needed a stake for the card game scheduled for later.

The stevedores noisily complained about having such a small table when there was a whole nearly empty room next to them.  Vojtěch noticed this and used a simple prestidigitation to make his whisper of “You don’t want to do that” carry across the private room and to the table of stevedores.

Rather than calm down the stevedores, this display of magic riled them up.  They got up from their table and stood in the door to the private room, shouting accusations of sorcery and claiming Vojtěch cast a spell on them.  Wolf-Klaus told the stevedores that the room was private and they should go back to their table in the common room.  Lasairfhiona nodded at Gabriel who pulled one of her many flintlock pistols out and set it on the table.

Sensing trouble was about to happen, Ignis finally left his dice game and walked over behind the group of stevedores.  He offered to buy them a round of the good stuff if they’d just go back to their table and sit down [this represented a couple weeks of pay for stevedores and he thought it would make a good bribe].  Unfortunately, at the same time in front of the group of stevedores, Gabriel barked at the stevedores to leave and cocked her pistol where they could see.  The loudest of the stevedores replied with, “Girlie, we’ve got weapons too!  At ‘em lads!”  Seven of the eight of the stevedores drew their concealed short swords and rushed into the room to attack.  The eighth drew his short sword and said to Ignis, “Your silver’s nice, friend, but the gold we’ve been paid is nicer.”  Then he attacked Ignis.

Meanwhile, out behind the tavern Marcus had finished his business in the privy and was leaving it when he noticed two groups of four men with swords out clustered around the two back entrances of the tavern.  One of the four men at the door that Marcus wanted to use noticed Marcus and waved his sword threateningly at Marcus.  Marcus pretended to take the hint and instead of approaching the tavern, turned and walked around behind the privies as though to flee.  Once he was out of sight, he drew his dagger and started moving silently with the intent of sneaking up behind the men.

Back inside the private room, violent things were happening.  Gabriel fired her pistol at the noisy stevedore, injuring him, but not killing him.  The stevedores broke up into pairs, with two each attacking Gabriel, Lasairfhiona, and Vojtěch and the seventh stevedore attacking Wolf-Klaus.  Only the two attacking Vojtěch were successful in the initial round of attacks, but this staggered Vojtěch and in the next round they dropped him to the floor.  Lasairfhiona cast Obscuring Mist, which was not as helpful as she hoped, and then switched to Holy Chant, which was.  Gabriel kept firing a pistol at a stevedore, dropping the spent pistol to the floor, drawing a fresh pistol, and then repeating the process.

When Ignis saw Vojtěch fall into the mist from his multiple wounds, Ignis ignored the stevedore he was fighting, drew his Cube of Force, and triggered the Disintegrate power of the cube, turning to dust one of the stevedores.  [The stevedore next to the disintegrated man was heard to say, “I thought we killed the mage!?”]  The man he had been fighting paled a bit and then started calling out loud for back up.  Ignis also noticed at this point that the four bouncers working the Snuggly Duckling were very studiously looking into their drinks, ignoring the fight they would normally be breaking up.  Ignis was starting to seriously suspect that this fight wasn’t a misunderstanding at all.

The sudden hush of the crowd in the room from the initial gunshots finally brought Vladimir’s attention to the fight going on.  He drew his two handaxes and charged into the private room to attack the stevedores attacking his friends.  For the most part, the stevedores ignored him and focused on those they were already fighting.  This mad Vladimir angry and he slipped into his fighting fury, allowing this anger to consume him.

Outside, Marcus and the men with swords heard the calls for back up coming from inside.  The four men at the main back entrance charged into the tavern.  The four men Marcus was sneaking up to were whispering to each other and Marcus picked up that they were expecting Wolf-Klaus to flee the fight through this door and were waiting to kill him when he did.  How rude.  Marcus silently stepped up behind the rear-most man, clamped his hand over the man’s mouth, and cut his throat, turning the body just enough so the blood spray did not spatter and alert the man in front of his victim.  He quietly set the dead man down and prepared to step behind his next target.  [Marcus made a successful Move Silently check and the men were still out of combat, so I ruled he did a coup de grace with his backstab, silently dropping his target.  Further, as long as he kept making his Move Silently roll, he could repeat this each round until they noticed.]

Back inside the common room, Ignis noticed the four men with longswords entering the tavern.  They were mostly in a line, so Ignis decided to take the opportunity to eliminate them.  He stepped over close to the front doors for a better line of fire and released a Lightning Bolt from his Cube of Force, telling the people at the table in front of him to duck.  They did immediately and the bolt went over them, fried three of the four attackers, and then went out the back door where it eventually struck the hillside behind the tavern.  The noise from this finally alerted Ysgwyn to the fight going on downstairs and she quickly donned pants and a tunic [with the help of Micha and Sigi], grabbed her sword and long bow [and a few arrows], and rushed out of the room to the upstairs balcony.  Looking down upon the common area, she noticed the swordsman making his way towards Ignis and shot at the swordsman until he was in melee combat.  She then attempted to get downstairs and into the fight.

The three remaining attackers outside saw the bolt, but the light ruined their night vision for a short bit, allowing Marcus to kill two more of them before the fourth one finally noticed Marcus standing over his now-dead companions.  He died shortly later to Marcus's dagger.  Inside the tavern, Vladimir’s fury allowed him to cut down most of the attacking stevedores in a series of cleave attacks.  Gabriel dropped the last stevedore with another pistol shot.  Ignis disintegrated the last stevedore in the common room [thanks to Lasairfhiona’s Holy Chant causing the stevedore to fail his saving throw]. He attempted to talk the final swordsman into surrendering, but accidentally disarmed himself by sticking his sword into the wall and losing his grip.  Before the swordsman could cut down the unarmed Ignis, Vladimir charged over and cut the man's arms off, killing him.

With the combat over, everyone regrouped in the private room.  Well, everyone but Ysgwyn and Ignis.  Ysgwyn started whipping the bouncers with the flat of her blade for obviously taking bribes to sit out the fight.  She and Ignis interrogated them in front of the tavern crowd to the crowd’s delight – they love street theater and don’t get to see it that often in such a small and out of the way place like Neufra.  Lasairfhiona healed up Vojtěch with her Staff of Healing, but he still lost an eye to the fight [a result on the Mortality Table].  The pockets of the assassins were checked and a small quantity of gold was taken from each, along with a hand-drawn picture of Wolf-Klaus and a single letter to their leader instructing them to kill Wolf-Klaus and then join the rest to assist in the escape from the main attack at the manor house.

Wolf-Klaus asked his friends to assist him in getting back to Gammertingen and possibly rescuing his parents and siblings.  Offended the birthday party was broken up by the assassins and willing to help their meal ticket, er, friend, the group agreed.  Horses were acquired to hasten the mile ride over the hill and back to the town of Gammertingen.

Vojtěch sent his vulture familiar ahead to find out what might be going on at Gammertingen town.  The vulture returned shortly, reporting fires and people running around with torches.  This spurred the group to ride faster [and then slow down as it was night and they did not want to risk alerting anyone by using torches].

As the group crossed the top of the hill, Gammertingen town came into view.  The barracks building was billowing smoke, possibly from the stables that comprised the ground floor of the four story building.  Torch-bearing groups could be seen moving through the streets inside the walled town and the gates of the two gatehouses appeared to be open but with the drawbridges up.  As the group carefully rode the winding road down this side of the hill, Ignis noticed a tree across the road further down and some people around it.  He alerted the rest of the group to the situation.

As the group rode up, five men with bows stood behind the downed tree and challenged them.  Ignis immediately shot one of them with a pistol and Vladimir hopped off his horse and charged the rest, quickly killing them all by himself.  Others figures in the trees to either side of the road could be heard throwing down their swords and fleeing the area.  [There was some consternation amongst the other players that the people Vladimir just killed could have been loyal to the barony, but it was too late by that point to do anything about it.]

Vladimir, Ysgwyn, and Gabriel hefted the downed tree between them and moved it aside, allowing the group to proceed.  As they rode past the south wall of the town they were noticed and the guards on the wall cried out “Riders approaching,” alerting the guards at the east gatehouse to group’s presence.  They were challenged at the gate and Wolf-Klaus answered the challenges, naming the guards as he talked to them.  Eventually the drawbridge was lowered and the group was allowed into the town.

They were greeted by Bernhardt Hoffman, the Steward, who addressed Wolf-Klaus as “My Lord” and not the usual “Herr”.  Several members of the group noticed this, but kept quiet, waiting for Wolf-Klaus to acknowledge it.  They were escorted to the armory as the manor house and barracks were still being searched.  The guards with the Steward tried to subtly peel off Wolf-Klaus’ low-class friends, but the PCs were not having any of that and stood with their friend.  Lasairfhiona volunteered to go heal the injured and Marcus to go see if by chance any of Wolf-Klaus’ family yet lived.  Both were escorted by guards.

In the armory, the Steward briefed Wolf-Klaus on what happened.  There had been a report of some sort of attack on Kettenacker [small village on the barony’s eastern border].  The baron ordered a small contingent of troops be dispatched to investigate.  Shortly after the troops left, a large fire was discovered in the stables and the rest of the soldiers and most of the house staff worked at putting the fire out, led by the Captain of the Guard, Hildebrant Lang.  While the fire was being fought, gunshots were heard inside the manor house.  Captain Lang led a small group of troops into the manor house to investigate.  He appears to have discovered the assassins as they were finishing their work.  A gun battle started as the assassins tried to escape using the walkways on the town walls.  The Captain pursued those who made it out of the building and into the town.

A separate gun battle happened at the north gatehouse when a different group attempted to sabotage the gates and the drawbridge.  The gate hinges were damaged, but the drawbridge was still functional.  The Steward reported it was possible that the assassins were planning to escape through the north gate, but Captain Lang and troops loyal to the baron seemed to have cut them off and members of the guard were currently searching the town for the trapped assassins.

Wolf-Klaus relayed the events of the attack on him to the steward.  As he finished, Marcus returned from the manor house and confirmed that Wolf-Klaus’ parents, his siblings, and their spouses were all dead.  At this point the Steward produced the baron’s signet ring and handed it to Wolf-Klaus.  Wolf-Klaus took it with some hesitation and then put it on.  He then ordered a rider to contact the soldiers heading to Kettenacker and update their orders to check on the villages of Harthausen and Feldhausen on their way back, assuming Kettenacker is safe.  He also ordered a rider head north to inform the leaders of Bronnen, Mariaberg, and Steinhilber there was a new baron and the coronation will be on the 9th of this month.  He then ordered the Steward to adjust the scheduled birthday celebration to be his coronation ceremony instead.

Once the Steward was out of the room, Wolf-Klaus called his friends closer and quietly asked them to investigate who was behind the conspiracy against his family.  Wolf-Klaus needed stay here to keep the barony from collapsing, but there was much that needed looking into.  He suspected further attacks on the barony soon.  After sharing glances at each other, the newly-minted baron’s drinking buddies agreed to be his loyal agents.  Wolf-Klaus, much relieved, assigned a guest house to them and they discussed what steps needed to be taken next…

End of Session

[Despite this wall of text, we wrapped up a bit early for the day.  We’d gotten through all the material I had immediately ready and I needed to know how the players would go about investigating things.  The ambush on the road back to Gammertingen was supposed to take a little longer, but after Vladimir axed 4 out of the 5 bowmen in one round, I decided that the rest of the bandit-types pissed their pants and ran.  Oh, and they were bandit-types, not loyalists, but the tension was spot on.  Their job was to stop any sort of relief force from Neufra, but seeing no one really imagined one would appear, they were the least paid and least stalwart of the bad guys.]

[There was some additional information provided to the characters after this, but I’m going to sum that up at the beginning of the next session post.  I’ll be providing the results of the next couple of days to a week of investigation by the player characters at the beginning of the next session (in November) so we can get to the next bit in the story.  As this is a miniseries and not a full campaign I need to keep things moving along as I’m supposed to finish the arc in 3 more sessions.]

[A note about the place names: This campaign takes place in 1650 in the Holy Roman Empire, which occupied the center of Europe for 800+ years.  I’ve added a fantasy element and chosen to use a map of the HRE at 1400, running with the idea that some of the consolidation in lands that happened in the real world did not happen in my world.  I may do a blog post discussing the differences between my world and the historical world if interest is shown, but for the moment just know that all the places named actually exist and I’m leaning heavily on the German Wikipedia for information and material.  That said, I’ve changed a few things for my game, notably my characterization of Neufra and the existence of the Barony of Gammertingen as a principality.  The town of Gammertingen still exists today and can be looked up in Wikipedia and Google Earth.  Enjoy!]


1650: The Miniseries Session 2

Gazetteer Supplement

This is a supplement to the Gammertingen Gazetteer.  It adds a Market information for towns and a couple nearby cities, a list of the family that rules the barony (slightly outdated after the events in Session 1 of the Miniseries), fiscal details of the barony in the Adventurer, Conqueror, King System (ACKS), and a map of Gammertingen Town.

Ruling Family

Ruler: Detlev II, 5th Baron of Gammertingen (52)

Ruler's Family:

Wife: Roswitha, Baroness of Gammertingen (46)

Children: Detlev III (29) {married}, Konrad (25) {married}, Arnulf (22) {married}, Felicitas (20) {married}, Wulf-Klaus (18)

Relatives:

Siblings: Walther (50), Armin (47), Eckhart (43)

Nieces and Nephews: Regula (29) {married}; Stephan (27) {married}, Widald (24) {married}, Torben (20) {married}; Regina (24) {married}, Friedhelm (21) {married}, Burkhart (19)

Steward: Bernhardt Hoffman

Captain of the Guard: Hildebrant Lang (he is tall, 6’ 4”)

Finances

Barony:

Population: 979

Domain Type: Civilized

Realm Population (families): 196

Ruler’s Stronghold Value (gp): 22,500

Revenue: 2744gp/month Total

Land Revenue (8gp/family): 1568 (due to toll on trade route)

Services (4gp/family): 784

Taxes (2gp/family): 392

Vassals: N/A (generally 20% of the monthly income of the vassal domain)

Urban Income/Month (gp): 0

Expenses: 833.7gp/month, plus 980gp/festival (4/year)

Garrison (2gp/family): 392 – 30 flintlock harquebuses (270g), 20 pikemen (120g), Drummers (2g)

Stronghold Upkeep: 112.5

Taxes (2% of Revenue): 54.9 (1 Reiter, 1 Dragoon, see Roman Month)

Tithes (10% of Revenue): 274.4

Festival Cost (5gp/family)): 980

Net Income: 1910.2gp/month

Note: Taxes in the Holy Roman Empire are significantly less than indicated in the main rules.  This is a side effect of a weak central authority.  See the Wikipedia article on the Roman Month for details.

Population and Markets

Place	Population	Families	Market	Location
Bronnen	49	10	-	Barony of Gammertingen
Feldhausen	48	10	-	Barony of Gammertingen
Gammertingen Town	636	127	VI	Barony of Gammertingen
Gauselfingen	75	15	-	County Zollern
Harthausen	25	5	-	Barony of Gammertingen
Hausen an der Lauchert	47	9	-	Fürstenberg
Hettingen	180	36	-	County Sigmaringen
Hörschwag	142	28	-	Fürstenberg
Ketternacker	45	9	-	Barony of Gammertingen
Neufra	184	37	VI1	County Zollern
Mariaberg	50	10	-	Barony of Gammertingen
Sigmaringen	1276	255	V	County of Sigmaringen
Sigmaringendorf	376	75	V1	County of Sigmaringen
Steinhilber	123	24	-	Barony of Gammertingen
Stetten under Holstein	21	4	-	Fürstenberg
Trochtelfingen	637	127	VI	Württemberg
Tübingen	3534	706	IV	Württemberg
Ulm	12676	2535	III	Free Imperial City
Wilsingen	45	9	-	Zweifalten Abbey

Map of Gammertingen Town

The map will be updated periodically as I name the shops and need to place things in town.  The orange lines are the major trade roads that go through the barony.  The building at their intersection is where the baron's toll collectors collect the toll.  They do not have cookies.