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 Acknowledgements and credits
The Somber Frontier Adventure Guide is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy.
Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast.
©Wizards of the Coast LLC.”
Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/licensing-
considerations/compatible-licenses
All unattributed images are public domain and/or specifically labeled as “Free For Commercial Use,
Attribution Not Required.”
Many unattributed images courtesy of Pixabay.com: Image License: https://pixabay.com/service/license/
DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT OF 1998 (DMCA)
https://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf
Credits:
This fan content book was written by Kalen McCain.
Published by Gateway Roleplaying Games
Playtesting and consultation for original content provided by:
Evan and Ethan D’Alessandro, Steven Lobser, Andrew Murley, Ashley Hambrick, Noah Bultema, Isabel
Greene, Drew Graves, Justin Kelana, and Katies Gorton, Marcum, and Gardner all helped playtest this
content. Although no players were harmed in the making of this book, all of their characters were.
Without their help, this project would’ve flopped early on, and I’m very grateful to them
Based on the original Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game, property of Wizards of the
Coast.
ON THE COVER
“Wild Wild West” Modified Cover Illustration by Kai
Stachowiak, who released this image under a Public Domain
license. Image courtesy of PublicDomainPictures.net.
A note on historical context:
The famed “Wild West” genre of American literature is rife with
problematic features, including but not limited to racist,
colonial, and/or sexist assumptions, which are often violent.
While this work attempts to capture the “neutral” tropes and
themes of the genre that make the setting appealing, the content on which the setting is based being
rooted in real-world oppression may make it inseparable from that oppression. DMs and players should
always discuss content with one another first to ensure that everyone is comfortable at the table.

This book is dedicated to Evan D’Alessandro.

Thank you for the hours of insight and moments of inspiration.

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 Table of Contents
Part 1: Adventure Background: ...................................................................................................... 5
Complete History of the Somber Frontier: ................................................................................................................6
The Caste System: ...................................................................................................................................................11

Part 2: Player’s Guide ........................................................................................................ 12

Chapter 1: Races .................................................................................................................................................. 13

Races on the Somber Frontier .................................................................................................................................14

Chapter 2: Class Adjustments .............................................................................................................................. 17

Chapter 3: Equipment .......................................................................................................................................... 21

Weapons .................................................................................................................................................................22
Armor and Shields ...................................................................................................................................................25
Currency and Coinage .............................................................................................................................................27
Magic/Wondrous Items ..........................................................................................................................................29

Chapter 4: New Class Options .............................................................................................................................. 31

The Gunfighter: a Martial Archetype for Fighters ...................................................................................................32
Pugilist: a Martial Archetype for Fighters ................................................................................................................35
Preacher: a Divine Domain for Clerics .....................................................................................................................37

Chapter 5: Religion: ............................................................................................................................................. 39

Pantheon of the Nine ..............................................................................................................................................40

Chapter 6: Feats ................................................................................................................................................... 42

Reworded Feats.......................................................................................................................................................43
New Feats ................................................................................................................................................................44

Part 3: DM’s Packet: .......................................................................................................... 45

Chapter 1: The World........................................................................................................................................... 46

Bilgewater Junction .................................................................................................................................................49
Fort Barret ...............................................................................................................................................................52
Drywood ..................................................................................................................................................................55
Other towns ............................................................................................................................................................62

Chapter 2: Variant Options .................................................................................................................................. 72

Variant Combat rules: .............................................................................................................................................73
Harrowing Combats ................................................................................................................................................75
Unknown Adversaries .............................................................................................................................................77

Chapter 3: Running Adventures on the Somber Frontier ..................................................................................... 72

Notes on narrative structure ...................................................................................................................................80
Narrative Themes and how to run them .................................................................................................................81

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 Part 1: Adventure Background:

A single ancient print of the Fāstian Emperor’s first Palace survived the fall of Karthus. It is
now an official symbol featured on all government documents from the Empire, over a
thousand years later.

5
 Complete History of the Somber Frontier:
Twelve-hundred years ago, a hitherto insignificant empire known as the Fāstus stumbled upon
the ruins of a long dead-civilization deep within its heartland, buried by only a few feet of soil.
For five years, Fāstus sages carefully worked to unearth these ruins, ultimately finding fifty
separate scrolls, each written on paper-thin sheets of platinum and gold, and detailing as many
comprehensive concepts that would fundamentally alter the mortal understanding of magic
forever, such that the first such discovery marked the beginning of recorded Fāstian history:
year zero of the Fāstian Era. (0 F.E.)
The so-called Fāstus scrolls contained a wealth of knowledge written in magical text upon their
surfaces of precious metal. The text of these works would change as the reader came to
understand them, and one scroll would typically continue to enlighten a reader for a month as
they scoured it for magical knowledge. The fundamental magical theories yielded by these
ancient works revealed the nature of the Spellweave, the multiplane array of potential energy
that allowed magic to exist and that, if harnessed properly, could control such magic. The
knowledge of these scrolls was quickly recorded into massive tomes, with a massive volume
dedicated to each scroll. While these volumes could not magically imprint the knowledge onto a
reader’s mind like the scrolls could, they contained enough information to master the arcane
with sufficient time, study, and devotion to the craft.
With previously unfathomed control of magic at their disposal, the Fāstus people entered a
golden age of conquest. Access to the secrets of the arcane was restricted to empire natives as
they rapidly expanded their borders, leveling civilizations in a decade-long campaign that saw
their control envelop their entire continent, the land today known as Farstune. Though they met
some meager resistance, the legions of Fāstus were nigh-unstoppable in their advance, and they
controlled the entire landmass by 25 F.E.
With Farstune theirs to rule, the mages of Fāstus set to work engineering a society to their
liking. They implemented a caste system, with true masters of the arcane, known as Archmages,
at the top. Narrowly below the Archmages were the Arcanists: the rest of their own people, at
this point almost universally familiar with arcane magic. Together, they tyrannically ruled over
the other casters, whom they came to know as Inferiors: those whose magic drew from the
natural, supernatural, and divine domains. Even below the Inferiors, were the Nameless: the
great majority of mortals for whom no magical talents had been bestowed or learned.
As the castes greatly limited the intermingling of groups, the very blood of the Fāstus ruling
caste became infused with magic power by their next generation, indefinitely ensuring their
offspring abilities as sorcerers. In order to keep this power from the masses, the emboldened
elites destroyed the original Fāstus scrolls in 127 F.E. to ensure none below their position could
instantly master the arcane as they had.
Despite their efforts, however, the secrets of the arcane trickled to the masses over time in
whispered rumors, stolen pages, and copied notes. The Nameless eventually trafficked the
practice of wizardry –learning the arcane through practice and study rather than innately
bestowed talent—right under the noses of their superiors. Although it spread slowly among
them, as only a few had minds suited to the study-intensive methods, the spread of Wizardry
revealed itself in a sudden and swift civil war in 198 F.E. some five-hundred wizards collected
and assaulted their rulers in the Fāstus capitol of Runearch, killing the city’s Archmage days
after he announced an intention enslave the Nameless.
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Realizing how much power the wizards controlled, the Archmage elites did not level the city of
rebels as one might expect. They instead extended an olive branch and offered practitioners of
“Wizardry” the unconditional elevation to the status of Arcanists. Many accepted this easy
escape, caring not for the friends and family they would leave behind to escape oppression.
Others, of course, resisted the continued oppression of their people, but such ideologues were
swiftly made an example of, killed by the Sorcerer lordship they couldn’t hope to match in
magical prowess without years of further study.
With most wizards and sorcerers now united, the higher-ups of Fāstus enjoyed a renaissance of
magical advancement. Floating cities in the sky, advanced teleportation, magical immortality,
and even limited time travel developed rapidly over the rest of the millennia. The system of caste
separation physically manifested as the arcane casters established floating paradise cities in the
sky while the Inferiors and the Nameless were left to fight off monstrosities and one another on
the hazardous ground below. The Westmost of these cities in the sky, Karthus, was named after
its creator, the youngest Archmage in history. It quickly became the epicenter of magical study
and advancement, a symbol of might to arcane practitioners, and of oppression to the Inferiors
and Nameless. Karthus was named the Capitol in 812 F.E., and it rose to the highest altitude of
the sky cities, cementing its place as the crown jewel of Farstune.
In total, the Empire comprised five such sky cities at the height of its power.
1. Divitornum: the trade center of the world, Divitornum boasted teleportation circles to
each of the other floating cities and such excessive wealth that the streets were
supposedly paved with platinum and gold.
2. Excelsiv: above the mountains, Excelsiv was the only sky city to be founded by a wizard
until Karthus rose to prominence. The city was an educational haven, training a handful
of Archmages before the rise of Karthus attracted its most esteemed professors and
students, leaving Excelsiv an underpopulated and underwhelming reminder of the past.
3. Formidant: perhaps the most feared of the floating cities, Formidant was a massive
floating war machine that moved menacingly over the land. It was instrumental in the
Dragon War and the few attempted extraplanar invasions of the empire.
4. Polis of Ventari: a city of the arts, esteemed as the birthplace of most fine art styles in
the century before its fall. The city boasted a bustling economy fueled by highly-
esteemed visitors and eccentric guests.
5. Karthus: the highest and largest of the cities, Karthus was the capitol of the empire, its
cutting-edge magic techniques and architecture drawing powerful people from across the
empire and largely antiquating the former knowledge center of Excelsiv.
By 971 F.E., war broke out between the empire and the Outer Realms as Aberrations learned of
the extensive power held by the rulers of Farstune. After a decade of fighting off seemingly
endless aberrations with abilities that drained magic from the land and poked holes in the
Spellweave, the five Archmages of Farstune met in Karthus to devise a course of action. Their
solution was a desperate one, as they selected the most capable among them, the now-aged
Karthus, to perform a reality-altering spell that would allow him to wrestle the mantle of divinity
from the goddess of magic and ascend to godhood himself.
The spell worked, but to disastrous effect. The Archmage immediately became omnipotent and
virtually all-powerful but was staggered by what he saw. In his sudden awareness of all things in
all planes at all times, one thing stood out: the Spellweave itself, the moment after his spell was
7
cast, had disappeared, as though he had pulled all of its energy into himself. Within seconds,
every mortal within engagement distance of the aberrations was killed, their protective wards
giving out without warning. A handful of seconds more, and every floating city began to
plummet from the sky.
Divitornum was doomed before it even began to fall, as the teleportation magic fueling everyday
life in the city was lost in the moments before the plummet, the arcane-wielding residents
mostly trapped in doorless studies and chambers. Very few saw the gravity of the situation
before their demise, and those few that lived lost nearly everything and everyone they knew.
Excelsiv was the widest of the five by far, its massive size slowing its fall like a parachute, until it
met with the crashing waves of the Seprent’s Coast below. Though most residents survived the
relatively gentle fall, albeit with broken legs and bruises abound, about half died in the wreckage
as the city partially submerged before meeting the sea floor; lopsided but technically intact. The
crumbling remains are still visible from the shore today, losing more to the sea with each
crashing wave.
Formidant was caught off guard by the fall but was at the moment lowered to a tactile position
in a fight against the outsiders. Their descent abruptly changed the nature of their fight, but the
warrior city used this surprise to its advantage. Despite some of the flying fortress’ legions
passing in the descent, those that remained used their sudden change of position to launch a
hand-to-hand siege on the remaining aberrations, trapped on their plane without escape or
reinforcements. Their unconventional tactics were victorious, but at the cost of many lives.
The Polis of Ventari’s magically bound architecture nearly disintegrated in the fall. The city
scattered over the Forests of Giants, the Thousand Plateaus, and the Garuvian deserts in the
land directly south of the Somber Frontier. Some, though very few, survived this destruction,
either from dumb luck dropping them on a relatively cushioned water landing, or from some
manner of lightweight, wide debris carrying them to safety.
The massive, conical city of Karthus, however, left no survivors. It plummeted in a streamlined
descent for a full mile and a half to the surface below. As the Archmage Karthus realized his
folly, he managed to cast only one spell in his godly form, pulling the magic from his very own
essence, having no spell weave to draw from. He used this energy to replace his divinity with
that of Mystra, a reincarnation of the former goddess of magic. Upon draining himself of all
innate magic, Karthus was petrified seconds before he collided with the Earth, dying with the
rest of his people in an earth-shattering crash.
The reincarnated goddess hastily repaired the Spellweave, restoring magic to the land at the cost
of mortals’ collective magical potential. The ability to cast reality-altering spells, so finely honed
by the Archmages, was destroyed with this new multiverse-encompassing weaving of ley lines. It
is hotly debated among academics today whether Mystra took this course of action out of
necessity, sacrificing magic’s potential for the good of the Spellweave as a whole, or if she simply
wished to take away such powerful magic from the mortals, having just seen its disastrous
potential.
Magic of all types, arcane and otherwise, was unstable for 24 years after Mystra’s creation, to the
day. Some historians refer to this period as the age of repentance, a time when magic users
spells were prone to failure and backfiring for no predictable or identifiable reason. Other sages

8
theorize that the period could’ve just been a residual effect of a reality-warping rapid alteration
to the Spellweave.
While the incident temporarily weakened the material plane’s magical defenses, it also cut off
most portals to the outer realms, trapping the invading aberrations with little hope of return.
Most were killed by vengeful mages in the coming decades, but a few are rumored to still exist,
hiding away deep below the surface world.
The cataclysmic event killed every living Archmage, all of whom had assembled within the city
to plan the universe-altering spell. Their demise left a power vacuum in the Empire, which was
soon filled by the Arcanist class. The new rulership upheld the caste system of old but was less
isolated from the masses than its precursor. The empire shifted from one of totalitarian control
to a bureaucratic maze of more subtle manipulation of the populace. While they were still
oppressed, the lower castes came to enjoy some liberties they previously lacked, though their
hands were kept off the levers of power by bias courts, de facto constraints, and unequal access
to resources as life returned slowly to normalcy across Farstune.
Everywhere, that is, save for the land formerly below Karthus. In Karthus’ plummet, the city had
reached astounding speeds, hitting the earth with such force that no life within roughly 450
miles survived. This area, bordered by a river valley to the East and the mountain coast to the
West, was dubbed the Somber Frontier, an uninhabited expanse created by the folly of the
Archmages.
Surrounding this barren wasteland on all sides was a stretch of the weave left shattered and
broken to this day. Known as “The Tear,” the volatile expanse averaged around 30 miles thick,
but was as thin as five miles its narrowest points near Bilgewater Junction. In these broken
lands, magic was (and still is) broken beyond repair: wild magic zones and magical deadzones
alternate in a churning storm, invisible to the naked eye, but able to kill travelers in an instant
with a sudden fireball, or spontaneous portals opening and disappearing in the same second.
Few enter this land without innate protection, or at least a means of observing the wildly
fluctuating environment.
By the year 1124 F.E, a startling rumor began to spread among the Inferior caste that a
pilgrimage of divine casters had established a habitable settlement on the allegedly barren
frontier. Rumors were confirmed when this so-called “city on a hill” petitioned the Arcanists to
name their wasteland as a county, a request that was eventually granted in a quid-pro-quo
requiring the pilgrims to protect and maintain a railway through the region.
More groups flocked to the region, establishing their own townships and camps under their own
ideals, free of the watchful eyes of the arcane elite. A plethora of outcasts, exiles, adventurers,
and craftsmen sought fortune in the new frontier awaiting them in the Somber Territories. Some
returned home after a while with mixed reports on the quality of living out West, but the more
popular stories are of those folks that met success. Now, in the year 1130 F.E., the Somber
Frontier has developed into a growing collection of communities, though they are hardly unified
in their beliefs. While most people share a distaste for the arcane, the supernatural, natural, and
divine casters co-exist in some places, but fight for control of others, while the Nameless
sporadically form their own factions and guilds.
Meanwhile, those in power within the Empire — now more of a bureaucracy, though it
maintains its traditional name — hold shared discomfort at the independence of this region,
9
rapidly filling with dissenters just beyond their reach. While the Empire officially considers the
Frontier a province under its control, the region seems ever emboldened as crimes against
Arcanists go unpunished and taxes from the mainland go unenforced. A series of border
disputes with the region also seem dangerously close to boiling over, held at bay by the
economic necessity of the Frontier to the Empire, thanks to a narrow stretch of train tracks
through the Southeastern reaches of the map. While this interdependence has held up for a few
years now, there’s no telling how long the unstable peace will last.
The railway through the region has become an economic necessity to the Mage class, and the
Mage folk don’t mind the ideologues and radicals in the territory as long as it runs smoothly.
The Somber folk, as these county residents have taken to being called, still live their lives in the
shadow of the mages they disdain, but they don’t stir up too much trouble about it outside of
their own land.
The Somber Frontier should by no means be taken as a monolith. The folks in these parts are
independent as a dog off a leash, and they’re keen to telling others so. Some are just common
folks living out their lives as best they can, others are ideologues, and others are just plain
strange.
Ruined shards of the City of Karthus still litter the frontier today, their scattered towers and
streets tinged with eerie magic of long-dead casters.

“Ruined castle in Ogrodzieniec.” By Kamil Porembiński via Wikimedia Commons. Modified Image licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License.

10
 The Caste System:
Although the caste system is no longer technically legally enforced in the Empire, it remains a
strong de facto force on social interactions.

Archmages
The most powerful wizards and sorcerers, a now extinct position, as every member of the caste
was gathered in Karthus when it fell, leaving no survivors.

Arcanists
A caste that entails all wizards and sorcerers other than the legendary Archmages.

Inferiors
Wielders of magic that weren’t arcane casters. Categorized into the following three
subcategories, listed in alphabetical order:
o Divine Casters: channel the magic of gods through themselves, with varying
degrees of control over the matter. (Paladins, Clerics, Warlocks)
o Natural Casters: draw on magic instilled in their surroundings, rather than
tapping directly from the weave. (Druids, Rangers)
o Supernatural Casters: those who can perform otherwise mundane skills with such
prowess and uncanny effect that they replicate the effects of true magic. (Bards,
Artificers)

Nameless
The most disenfranchised mortals under the empire—those unequipped with magical abilities of
any sort, many of the Nameless harbor special resentment for the Empire.
o Includes most fighters, barbarians, rogues, monks, and commoners
o There are some Nameless that learn a few arcane tricks, whether by fate or
foolish curiosity. Members of traditionally non-caster classes that gain access to
spells from the wizard or sorcerer spell lists will often find themselves ousted by
both arcane castes and lower castes, too close to the arcane for the comfort of
Inferiors and Nameless, but too scrappy and unpolished for Mages. An arcane
trickster rogue, for example, would meet much more hostility from the natives of
the Somber Frontier than a scout rogue might, but slightly less than a true wizard
would likely face.

11
“Horse Cowboy Sunset Sillhoute”
Modified public domain image by Karen Arnold
Publicdomainpictures.net

12
Chapter 1: Races

13
 Races on the Somber Frontier
The Somber Frontier as a whole is fairly cosmopolitan, being settled by folks from all parts of
the Empire, united only in their opposition to the arcane class. Although each town has its own
racial makeup, most folks see the same level of acceptance in a given community as nearly any
other newcomer. While there are plenty of exceptions to this trend, most biases and
assumptions on the Somber Frontier are dictated by deeds, rather than race.

Dragonborn
Though the dragonborn race exists in all colors in the Empire, they are somewhat rare in the
Somber Frontier for a few reasons.
First and foremost, most dragonborn ancestors were among the elites that first unearthed the
Fāstus scrolls. As a result, many of today’s dragonborn are direct descendants with sorcerer’s
blood of their own. While several other dragonborn bloodlines have cropped up, ecspecially
since the fall of Karthus, there is still a stigma that falsely eqates dragonborn blood with the
magical dragon’s bloodline of sorcerers.
Those dragonborn that do brave the frontier often find themselves explaining their heritage,
often in vain, and only get a chance to truly settle down after proving their anti-arcane
sentiments in one way or another.

Dwarf
Dwarves are relatively common in the more hilly and mountainous areas of the frontier, where
their technical expertise and stocky builds can make money from mining and similar
excavations. While they do exist in cities and grasslands, they’re slightly less of a commons sight
there, but hardly unheard of.

Elf
Elves are reasonably common across the frontier. Many sympathize with natural caster-aligned
factions, owing their opinions to lives that began in woodland realms. This is more of a
demographic trend than a statement of fact, however, with many elves being more or less used
to the lifestyle of cosmopolitan cities since their general assimilation into the empire.
Some Elven elders are even old enough to recall the old days, before the fall of Karthus and even
before the discovery of the Fāstus scrolls, though these elves are quite rare.
Indeed, many elves were once rebels against the arcanist class, exploiting their niche magical
resistances for a slight upper hand against the mages.
The innate magic of the drow and eladrin subraces is typically treated with the same respect as
that of natural casters, with some variation between areas.

Gnome
A race known for its privilege within the Empire, thanks to their seemingly innate arcane
talents, gnomes are often frowned upon in the Somber Frontier.
The sight of a gnome typically invokes one of two assumptions among the devoutly anti-arcane.
Either the gnome must have committed some sort of serious crime giving them good reason to
crawl away from the Empire, or they must be some kind of arcane sympathizer who needs to be
taught a lesson. Neither of these assumptions set gnomes up for success on the frontier.
14
The race’s tendency to tinker, however, has given some a path to respect, at least locally. The
most successful gnomes on the frontier make a name for themselves with eats of alchemy and
engineering, attempting to better their communities with specialized technology and practices
that hopefully earn them a decent living.

Half-elf
As always, half elves tend to find themselves wandering the land or settling down in a postion of
diplomacy. Bilgewater Junction, with its array of shops and businesses, seems the most popular
location for the “race of two worlds,” but they are nearly as common as humans elsewhere on the
frontier as well.

Halfling
Halflings are reasonably common throughout the Somber Frontier. A healthy mix of curious
adventurers and escaped rogues, the small, unnoticed people seldom run into extreme trouble
or legendary fame during their time on the frontier.
There are, of course exceptions to the rule, as expected for any race that populates the frontier so
widely.

Half orc
The towering, muscular figures of half-orcs are a particularly common sight around Fort Barret.
The cultural tendency to hold codes of honor and reward perseverance has led many half orcs to
knighthood over the years. As a result, nearly half of the settlers of Fort Barret were half orcs,
most of them paladins.
As always, the race is not a monolith. It’s not uncommon to see a half-orc loading cargo in
Bilgewater Junction, Hunting game in the wilds, or roughing up some punk in Drywood.

Human
Humans, as usual, seem to have populated even the most unreasonable corners of the region.
From shining cities to roadside tents to fortified caves to thin blankets under the stars, the
tendency of humans to settle down virtually anywhere is often a running joke among other
races.
Otherwise, the race’s status as “everyone’s second best friend” is on display across the Somber
Frontier, with humans being common enough for virtually everyone to know at least a handful,
but unpredictable enough for everyone to recall some bad experience or another.

Tiefling
Tieflings are a race surrounded by an unusual amount of misguided controversy, much to their
disappointment.
Some philosophize that the infernal-resembling races ought to hold the status of divine casters,
given their inherent heritage of the fiendish gods. These folks often argue similar implications of
their innate ability to cast thaumaturgy and hellish rebuke, spells typically associated with
divine casters.
Others, however, point to the magical abilities of the tiefling race, citing their innate ability to
cast the spell Darkness, a magical effect often exploited by arcanists in days past to incite fear
among the masses.

15
Most tieflings prefer to stay away from the fruitless debate of their status, seeking only to live
their lives in peace, as any other humanoid would.

Batfolk
A population of bat-like humanoids are a somewhat common sight on the Somber Frontier. The
bloodlines of the batfolk trace back to tribes in cavernous mountains around the world. While
they are somewhat common, many have trouble fitting in, their combination of small stature
and bestial appearance making them stick out like a sore thumb.
Still, many batfolk have made a name for themselves in both the Empire and the frontier, as
society pivots towards more cosmopolitan trends with the settlement of a new frontier.
Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 2 and your Dexterity score increases
by 1.
Age. Batfolk mature at age 10 and live to be about fifty
Alignment. Batfolk do not tend strongly toward any alignment, though their natural vigilance
sometimes draws them to lifestyles that particularly favor the law such as guards and watchmen,
or starkly oppose it like nimble thieves and assassins.
Size. Batfolk are about the same size as a halfling, thought their wingspan can make them
appear much larger. Your size is small.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet. You also have a climb speed of 5 feet.
Flight. As long as you are unencumbered and not wearing armor with a minimum strength
requirement, you have a fly speed of 40 feet. You cannot use a weapon, cast a spell, or activate a
magic item while flying, and you cannot make attack rolls except to make unarmed attacks,
attempt a grapple, or attempt a shove attack. You can still take any mundane actions you could
perform with your hands, such as holding an item or opening a door, using your claw-like feet
while flying.
Blindsight. In addition to mundane visual senses, a batfolk can perceive its surroundings
without relying on sight within a 30-foot radius.
Echolocation. As long as it can hear, a batfolk has immunity to the Blinded condition.
However, while it is deafened, it loses its blindsight ability and gains disadvantage on all ability
checks and attack rolls.
Light frame. Your carrying capacity is 10 times your strength score instead of the regular 15. If
your campaign setting uses the Encumbrance variant rules, you are encumbered when carrying
weight in excess of 4 times your strength score, and heavily encumbered in excess of 8 times
your strength score, instead of the usual 5 and 10, respectively.
Stealthy. you are automatically proficient in the Stealth skill
Languages. Common and batfolk sign language, a unique way of wordlessly communicating in
common that involves the use of only four fingers. While it can be replicated by races with five
digits, it’s rather difficult for them.

16
 Chapter 2: Class Adjustments
Artificer:
Artificers are supernatural casters.
The Eberron sourcebook version is strongly recommended. UA versions are allowed at the DM’s
discretion, but are not recommended for this setting due to several issues in playtesting.

Barbarian
There are no mechanical changes.
Note that the UA Barbarian Path of the Wild Soul may be mistaken by some for the Wild Magic
sorcerous origin.

Bard:
Bards are Supernatural casters.
Change class proficiencies:
- Replace hand crossbow proficiency with your choice of
Derringer Pistol or Single-shot pistol proficiency. Once chosen,
this choice cannot be changed.

Cleric:
Clerics are divine casters.
Add the following to your class proficiencies:
- Derringer pistol, unless you are a cleric of the Forge or Order Divine Domains, in which
case you instead gain proficiency of one firearm of their choice

Druid:
Druids are natural casters.
Change class proficiencies:
- Lose proficiency with a club (skillet)
- Gain proficiency with hand cudgel
Shillelagh can now be cast using any weapon
that deals bludgeoning damage, as long as the
caster is proficient with that weapon.

17
Fighter
New Martial Archetype options:
- Pugilist
- Gunfighter
The Arcane Archer Martial Archetype is compatible with
firearm attacks, not just attacks with bows.
The Eldritch Knight Martial Archetype is likely
considered an arcane caster by most, given its
reliance on the wizard spell list. Some pass as
unconventional paladins or war clerics, however.

Monk:
Setting weapons are mechanically identical to any monk
weapons from traditional 5e qualify as monk weapons in this
setting.
If using the Gritty Damage variant, monks add their proficiency bonus to
the die roll when attempting to deflect missiles but do not roll an additional
dice for the damage reduction roll.

Paladin:
Paladins are divine casters.

Ranger:
Rangers are natural casters.
The 5th Edition Player’s Handbook version of the Ranger class is recommended for this setting,
but with the following replacement to the Favored Enemy class ability:
Favored Enemy: Experience studying,
tracking, hunting, and even talking to a
certain type of enemy commonly
encountered in the wilds has sharpened your
ability to hunt them. Choose a type of
favored enemy: aberrations, beasts,
celestials, constructs, dragons, elementals,
fey, fiends, giants, monstrosities, oozes,
plants, or undead. Alternatively, you can
select two races of humanoid (such as gnolls
and orcs) as favored enemies.
You gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with
weapon attacks against creatures of the chosen type. This bonus increases to +4 at level
6.
Additionally, you have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track your favored
enemies, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about them.

18
 When you gain this feature, you also learn one language of your choice, typically one
spoken by your favored enemy or creatures associated with it. However, you are free to
pick any language you wish to learn.
You choose one additional favored enemy, as well as an associated language, at 6th level.
You also gain advantage on skill checks opposed by your favored enemies, such as
Dexterity (Stealth) checks against a favored enemy’s passive perception.
You choose one additional favored enemy, as well as an associated language, at 14th level.
You also gain advantage on all saving throws against your favored enemies.

Sorcerer
Sorcerers are Arcane Casters.
Add the following to the class skill proficiency options:
- Sleight of hand
Note that your class will be at a “roleplay disadvantage” in this setting. People in these parts
don’t have many kind things to say about arcane casters, and many if not most are actively
hostile to them.
This setting does not ban sorcerers, though they will likely complicate virtually every social
interaction. Alternatively, arcane casters can turn an otherwise aimless party into a band of
outlaws on the run once they’re found out. Consult with your party and your DM about the type
of campaign they’re okay with before playing a sorcerer.
Due to their innate arcane abilities, sorcerers don’t “learn” their magic in the conventional
sense, it is already within them, and they learn only how to properly use it. Because of this,
sorcerers are typically regarded either as victims of their heritage or irredeemable arcane
sympathizers, depending on who you ask.

Rogue:
The arcane trickster Rogue Archetype is considered an arcane
caster, since it uses the wizard spell list.
Change starting proficiencies:
- Gain proficiency in derringer pistols
- Replace hand crossbow proficiency with your choice of
any single firearm. Once selected, this choice cannot be
changed.
Change Starting Equipment:
- Replace “two daggers” in starting equipment with “your
choice of two daggers or one switchblade.”

19
Warlock:
Warlocks are divine casters
Pact Weapons that can be created with the Pact of the Blade class feature include firearms.
Pact Weapons created with the Pact of the Blade class feature that also function as mundane
tools cannot be used as such unless the Warlock conjuring them has proficiency in the necessary
tools. For example, while a Pact of the Blade Warlock could summon and use the frying pan
setting weapon in combat, their automatic proficiency with summoned weapons does not allow
them to add their proficiency bonus to a skill check using the pan as chef’s utensils.

Wizard
Wizards are arcane casters.
Add the following to the class skill
proficiency options:
- Sleight of hand
Note that you will be at a “roleplay
disadvantage” in this setting. People in
these parts don’t have many kind things
to say about arcane casters like wizards,
and many if not most are actively hostile
to them.
This setting does not ban wizards,
though they will likely complicate
virtually every social interaction.
Alternatively, arcane casters can turn an otherwise aimless party into a band of outlaws on the
run once they’re found out. Consult with your party and your DM about the type of campaign
they’re okay with before playing a Wizard.
Wizards are perhaps the most hated of all arcane casters, as their knowledge of magic comes
from dedicated study and practice, unlike sorcery which some are willing to overlook as an
unchosen flaw, beyond the inheritor’s control.

20
 Chapter 3: Equipment

“Civil War Gear,” modified public domain image by Dawna Kay on Flickr.com

21
 Weapons
New Weapon Properties
The following weapon properties are also added or replace the property of the same name in the
5th Edition Player’s Handbook:
Ammunition: The ammunition of a firearm is destroyed upon use. For variant firearm rules,
see Chapter 9 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide.
Firearms on the Somber Frontier use one of three types of bullets:
- Shotguns use Shells,
- Other two-handed firearms use Cartridges,
- One-handed firearms use Slugs.
These bullets are built for different calibers of weapons and are interoperable only among guns
of the same type. For example, a lever-action and a bolt action rifle could use the same
cartridges, but those cartridges could not be loaded into a revolver, which would require slugs
instead.
1 gp will buy you 20 Shells, Cartridges, or Slugs.
Concealed: sleight of hand rolls made to conceal this weapon are made with advantage, while
sleight of hand rolls to take it from a person are made with disadvantage.
Reload: Reload. The weapon can be fired a number of times equal to its Reload score before
you must spend 1 attack or 1 action to reload. You must have one free hand to reload a firearm.
(Credit to Critical Role’s Gunslinger class for this weapon property.)
Setting Weapons: Weapons that have the “setting” property are very mechanically similar to
at least one other weapon in traditional 5th edition rules, as per the Player Handbook. For these
weapons, they should be counted as the traditional 5th edition weapon that it mechanically
resembles for the purposes of racial abilities, class features, and spell components and effects.
For example, a barbarian would have a scythe in its starting equipment options instead of a
greataxe, or a rogue would replace their traditional rapier proficiency with sabre proficiency, or
a monk could use a walking stick as a monk weapon because it is functionally identical to a
quarterstaff.
The setting property will also be listed at the end of the weapon properties, rather than in
alphabetical order.
- Skillet: club - Dueling sword: rapier
- Icepick: mace - Sabre: longsword
- Shovel: greatclub - Cavalry lance: lance
- Tomahawk: handaxe - Sledgehammer: maul
- Walking stick: quarterstaff - Bowie Knife: shortsword
- Hunting Rifle: light crossbow - Cudgel: Warhammer
- Rifle bayonet: pike (see description) - Single Shot Pistol: hand crossbow
- Scythe: greataxe

22
Special Weapons:
Knuckle Dusters
Any character proficient in unarmed attacks is also proficient with Knuckle Dusters.
A character attacking with knuckle dusters can treat that attack as an unarmed attack.
Boomerang
The boomerang is a ranged weapon, and any creature proficient with the javelin is also
proficient with this weapon.
On a miss, a boomerang returns to the thrower's hand.
Rifle Bayonet:
A bayonet must be affixed to a firearm with the two-handed property to function with the stats
listed on the weapons table. When used in this way, it can be effectively wielded by any character
proficient with a pike.
The process of fitting a bayonet takes 5 minutes of work by any trained blacksmith or gunsmith.
The price of this work is accounted for in the bayonet’s price on the weapons table. Once fitted, a
bayonet can be fixed to the barrel of a firearm as an action.
If a bayonet is not attached to a rifle barrel, it can be wielded as a one-handed martial melee
weapon that deals 1d6 piercing damage.
Cavalry lance:
- You have disadvantage when you use a cavalry lance to attack a target within 5 feet of
you.
- Also, a cavalry lance requires two hands to wield when you aren't mounted.
Air Rifle:
- Attacking with an air rifle does not make sufficient noise to automatically give away your
position when fired. Instead, each time you roll to hit with an air rifle attack, make a
stealth check against the passive perception of all creatures within 30 feet. If any are
within 10 feet, make the check with disadvantage. (Attacking with a firearm normally
entails “making a noise,” which either negates or gives disadvantage to your stealth check
to stay hidden from creatures as described on PHB p. 177.)
Lever Action Rifle:
- Lever action rifles are quicker and easier to reload, but mechanically quite fickle.
Whenever you roll a 1 with an attack roll with this weapon, it jams. Clearing a jammed
weapon requires 1 action, unless you have the Gunslinger Martial Archetype for the
Fighter class, in which case it takes 1 bonus action.
“No. 7 Model Rifle, (fig.
7)” from page 262 of
American small arms; a
veritable encyclopedia of
knowledge for sportsmen
and military men. (1904)
Image courtesy of
flickr.com.

23
 Weapons Table
Name Cost Damage Weight Properties
Simple Melee
Weapons
Skillet 1 sp 1d4 bludgeoning 2 lb. Light, setting
Knuckle Dusters 2 gp 1d4 bludgeoning ½ lb. Light, Special
Hand cudgel 1 sp 1d4 bludgeoning 2 lb. Light
Dagger 2 gp 1d4 piercing 1 lb. Finesse, light, thrown (range 20/60)
Switchblade 5 gp 1d4 piercing 1 lb Concealed, finesse, light
Ice pick 5 gp 1d6 bludgeoning 4 lb. Setting
Shovel 2 sp 1d8 bludgeoning 10 lb. Two-handed, setting
Tomahawk 5 gp 1d6 slashing 2 lb. Light, thrown (range 20/60), setting
Javelin 5 sp 1d6 piercing 2 lb. Thrown (range 30/120)
Light hammer 2 gp 1d4 bludgeoning 2 lb. Light, thrown (range 20/60)
Walking stick 2 sp 1d6 bludgeoning 4 lb. Versatile (1d8), setting
Sickle 1 gp 1d4 slashing 2 lb. Light
Spear 1 gp 1d6 piercing 3 lb. Thrown (range 20/60), versatile (1d8)
Simple Ranged
Weapons
Hunting Rifle 25 gp 1d8 piercing 9 lb. Ammunition, (range 80/320), loading, two-handed, setting
Dart 5 cp 1d4 piercing ¼ lb. Finesse, thrown (range 20/60)
Boomerang 10 gp 1d4 bludgeoning 1 lb. Thrown, (range 60/120) Special
Shortbow 20 gp 1d6 piercing 2 lb. Ammunition (range 80/320), two-handed
Sling 1 sp 1d4 bludgeoning — Ammunition (range 30/120)
Martial Melee
Weapons
Axe 10 gp 1d8 slashing 4 lb. Versatile (1d10)
Rifle bayonet 5 gp 1d10 piercing — Heavy, reach, two-handed, special, setting*
Pike 5 gp 1d10 piercing 18 lbs. Heavy, reach, two handed
Scythe 30 gp 1d12 slashing 7 lb. Heavy, two-handed, setting
Dueling Sword 25 gp 1d8 piercing 2 lb. Finesse, setting
Saber 15 gp 1d8 slashing 3 lb. Versatile (1d10)
Cavalry Lance 10 gp 1d12 piercing 6 lb. Reach, special, setting
Sledgehammer 10 gp 1d12 bludgeoning 10 lb. Heavy, two-handed, setting
Bowie Knife 25 gp 1d6 slashing 3 lb. Finesse, light, setting
Cudgel 15 gp 1d8 bludgeoning 2 lb. Versatile (1d10), setting
Whip 2 gp 1d4 slashing 3 lb. Finesse, reach
Marital Ranged
Weapons
Blowgun 10 gp 1 piercing 1 lb. Ammunition (range 25/100), loading
Longbow 50 gp 1d8 piercing 2 lb. Ammunition (range 150/600), heavy, two-handed
Deringer pistol 40 gp 1d6 piercing 1 lb. Ammunition (range 15/30), concealed, light, loading,
Single-shot pistol 75 gp 1d6 piercing 3 lb. Ammunition (range 30/90), light, loading, setting
Revolver 75 gp 1d10 piercing 3 lb. Ammunition (range 40/120) reload (6 shots)
Shotgun 175 gp 2d10 piercing 7 lb. Ammunition (range 15/40) heavy, reload (2 shots), two-handed
Air rifle 60 gp 1d6 piercing 7 lb. Ammunition (range 80/320), reload (10 shots), two-handed, special
Bolt-action rifle 200 gp 2d8 piercing 8 lb. Ammunition (range 80/240), heavy, reload (5 shots), two-handed
Lever-action rifle 225 gp 2d8 piercing 8 lb. Ammunition (range 60/200), heavy, reload (12 shots), two-handed, special

“Vector illustration of revolver with rubber handle” Public

Domain Image published by OpenClipart on Freesvg.com

24
 Armor and Shields
All characters are proficient with whatever armor listed below shares stats with the armor they are
proficient with.

Light Armor
Fur Coat: a coat of thick fur or a patchwork thereof, made noisy by the protective padding it adds.
Characters may want to pay over 5 gp for higher quality furs—this doesn’t affect the armor class, but finer
furs fit in better with a classier crowd.

Leather: a breastplate and shoulder pads made of tanned hide and padded with thick cloth so as to slow
rather than stop incoming ballistics.

Scaled Leather: tanned from the remarkably tough hide of a scaled creature, such as a crocodile or
some variants of snakeskin. Better at stopping projectiles, but more dangerous to procure, accounting for
the higher price.

Medium Armor
Rodeo Wear: padded chaps, a thick jacket, and a reinforced
leather vest assembled make for decent protection. It’ll keep
your ribs intact when you fall off a bull, and, if you’re quick
enough, skin intact in the event of a near miss.

Wood-woven Vest: a vest made of durable material such

as denim, with thin wooden planks woven into the parts of
the vest that needn’t bend. The working man’s breastplate.

Washboards: a pair of metal washboards strung up around

the chest and back in a surprisingly effective, if undersized means of deflecting small bullets. A bard using
a free hand with thimbles on each digit can use washboard armor as a spellcasting focus if they are
proficient in washboard as an instrument. Typically, a pair of washboards is worn with other forms of
scrap metal haphazardly attached to the body: a busted mining pan might be attached to the shoulder, or
a rusted-up frying pan might be attached to the belt and tied at the knee as a makeshift kneepad.

Fitted Breastplate: highly publicized as a means of faking one’s own death, a fitted breastplate is a
metal vest fitted to the owner by a blacksmith, a process that is included in the cost on the Armor Table.
Breastplates are relatively easily concealed under clothing, and don’t cause too much noise while moving,
making them the best protection a sneak can ask for. While their bulk makes them noticeable under most
clothing, the smaller nature of breastplates draws slightly less attention to their wearers.

Iron Coat: thick layers of leather encase carefully placed and metal plates held in place by studs that
appear across the coat’s surface to create a respectable, if quite heavy, means of protection for the dodge-
happy gunfighter. What it lacks in subtly it makes up for in protection, as an iron coat can catch bullets at
all angles, not just to the chest.

Heavy Armor
Woven Stones: flat stones and dull arrowheads can, with proper skill and equipment, be pierced at all
corners before running a series of thin but durable roping through them. The result is an interwoven
series of stones that can catch a respectable handful of bullets, though it leaves dodging blows out of the
question. This armor is hardly stealthy: the stones clinking against one another has a distinct sound, and
to the well-trained ear, the stones can even be identified by type and thus by region.

Chain Coat: a formerly antiquated technology as armorless and metal-melting arcanists dominated the
world, chainmail has made a comeback in the Somber Frontier, as full coats of it, properly reinforced, can
even stop bullets. Suits are more or less available, but seldom more than one or two per town on account
25
of their sheer antiquity, but a handful of blacksmiths are re-learning the tedious
techniques of constructing these suits to meet demand.

Cavalry Pads: A mix of wood, leather, and metal, these arm, leg and chest guards
are designed for wear by flag holders and other high-value cavalry troops. Inspired
by ancient sword sport armor, Cavalry pads protect by sheer surface area and bulk,
their massive size and weight designed to absorb shock from projectiles and blades
alike.

Welded Steel Suit: Archmages aside, money can’t buy you immortality. This
armor aims to be the next-best thing. Some of the finest blacksmiths around have
found ways to incorporate a protective layer of steel to cover the well-funded fighter,
although the experience is hardly comfortable, described by many as “the hottest
damn thing outside of the sun itself,” or “like wearing a barrel, but only half as
breathable.”
“Killin’” Jim Miller famously survived
a Gunfight in 1894 by toting a metal
plate beneath his coat.

Copyright Image used with

permission from True West Magazine
Archives, 2015

Armor Cost Armor Class (AC) Strength Stealth Weight

Light Armor
Fur Coat 5 gp 11 + Dex modifier — Disadvantage 8 lb.
Leather 10 gp 11 + Dex modifier — — 10 lb.
Scaled leather 45 gp 12 + Dex modifier — — 13 lb.
Medium Armor
Rodeo wear 10 gp 12 + Dex modifier — — 12 lb.
(max 2)
Wood-woven 50 gp 13 + Dex modifier — — 20 lb.
vest (max 2)
Washboards 50 gp 14 + Dex modifier — Disadvantage 45 lb.
(max 2)
Fitted 400 gp 14 + Dex modifier — — 20 lb.
Breastplate (max 2)
Iron Coat 750 gp 15 + Dex modifier — Disadvantage 40 lb.
(max 2)
Heavy Armor
Woven stones 30 gp 14 — Disadvantage 40 lb.
Chain Coat 75 gp 16 Str 13 Disadvantage 55 lb.
Cavalry pads 200 gp 17 Str 15 Disadvantage 60 lb.
Welded steel suit 1500 18 Str 15 Disadvantage 65 lb.
gp
Shields
Shield 10 gp +2 — — 6 lb.

26
 Currency and Coinage
Paper Money:
Nearly all legitimate coins in the Somber Frontier are minted in Bilgewater Junction, at the
Somber Frontier Mint and Coinage facility.

Paper versions of these amounts also circulate, each printed with intricate designs in strictly
controlled amounts. The equipment to print such money is highly secretive in order to prevent
counterfeiting, and only three such printing presses exist across the frontier, with one each at
Fort Barret, Drywood, and Bilgewater Junction.

These three early centers of civilization agreed early on to use a standardized, agreed-upon
currency, fearing financial fallout should the Empire cut off coinage supplies.

These printed “bills” are lighter than coins, though many are concerned about convincing fake
prints. Being exclusive to the region, they are not accepted as legal tender outside of the Somber
Frontier. Most local merchants will gladly accept paper money, provided they have no reason to
suspect counterfeiting and don’t plan to leave the frontier any time soon. In such cases, they
may charge a “loss prevention” fee to offset the risk of counterfeits, or even refuse to accept
anything other than coins.

Each coin has slightly different connotations on the Somber Frontier from the rest of the
Empire.

PP:
Platinum pieces lack an official name and are printed only once per year. Rumors on when and
how they are distributed are abundant, but popular theories say that they’re shipped in the same
baggage and as copper pieces as a disguise, or that a single platinum piece is added to each
coinage shipment to banks and local governments backed by the Archmages. The most popular
theory by far is that the presses no longer even print copper pieces, instead using the undated
coins from the days of the Archmages, untarnished and still shining like new.

GP:
Officially named “Eagles,” and colloquially known as ‘Karthuses’ throughout the empire, golden
coins depict their namesake bird on one side and the head the infamous Archmage, responsible
for the fall of the largest Sky City which made
the Somber Frontier the desolate area it is today,
on the other. His head was left on the gold coins
both as a solemn reminder of past hubris,
alongside a maze of bureaucracy preventing its
change. The coins are locally referred to as
‘Mage Heads,’ or ‘Follies’ within the Somber
Frontier, a name that whimsical nod to a grim
sense of hatred towards wielders of the arcane.

27
EP:
Although electrum coins were initially minted on the same scale as other coinage, they fell out of
production in the first few years of the Somber Frontier’s settlement due to lack of use. The
coins still circulate regularly and are accepted by most businesses but are seldom the preferred
means of payment. Many collect the trinkets, thinking them unlikely to be printed again.

SP:
Officially called “Silver Dollars,” or often shortened to ‘dollars,’ silver pieces are the most
common coinage of the working folk in the Somber Frontier. Many items are rounded up to the
nearest SP to determine their price or are just sold in an amount worth around 1 SP to prevent
any need to carry around more finicky copper pieces.

CP:
Copper pieces, technically called “Dimes” and commonly referred to as ‘Bits,’ are also minted
here. They lack artistic merit, displaying simply the number 1 on one side, and the word
“SOMBER” on the other.

Copper pieces in the

Somber Frontier are
actually less popular than
the equally valued
‘Bitwoods’, a wooden
currency that was initially
made as a scam by
swindlers in Drywood,
but which caught on as
legal tender when the
original marking stamps
were all destroyed in a
fire, preventing any
means of inflating the
formerly unregulated and
unofficial currency.

“Old West Bank – Happy Trails”

Modified Creative Commons image
provided by Ian Burt at flickr.com
28
 Magic/Wondrous Items
Gatling Gun
Wondrous Item, Very Rare
You must be proficient with all firearms to use this item. If the gatling gun is not mounted on a
turret or other suitable carrier, you must also have a strength score of 18 or higher to use it.
The minigun has 3 charges. You can use an action to expend 1 of its charges and activate one of
the following effects:
- Each creature in a 60-foot cone must make a dexterity saving throw. A creature takes
6d8 piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. Creatures with
partial or half cover make this saving throw with advantage.
- Each creature in a 60-foot line must make a dexterity saving throw. A creature takes
12d8 piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. Creatures
with partial or half cover make this saving throw with advantage.
The gatling gun regains 1 charge whenever you spend 2 uninterrupted hours of downtime and
100 gp to clean the gun out and reload its customized ammunition.
If you expend the last charge, roll a d20. On a 2-20, the item is broken and cannot be used again
until repaired, requiring 8 hours of work by a trained gunsmith and 500 gp in parts and
supplies. On a 1, the chamber explodes, and the item destroyed: reduced to a useless scrap of
metal.

Potion Bandolier
Wondrous Item, Uncommon, rare, or very rare
This wide belt drapes over one’s shoulder and wraps around their torso to provide easy access to
small flasks, fastened to the artisan base.
While wearing the belt, you may store a number of potions in the belt’s easy-access pouches,
with the maximum number based on the rarity.
- Uncommon: 1 potion
- Rare: 2 potions
- Very rare: 3 potions
You may use a bonus action to drink any potion stored in an easy-access pouch of a potion
bandolier that you are wearing.
Additionally, any attempt by others to remove potions from their easy-access pouches requires
an action and a successful DC 15 sleight of hand check.

Whip of Wrangling
Weapon (whip), uncommon. (requires attunement)
You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this weapon.
Whenever you attack a creature with this weapon, you can use a bonus action to make a shove or
grapple attempt against the target with a +1 bonus to your strength (athletics) skill check to do
so.

29
Triggerfinger Holster
Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement)
This wide belt boasts a massive belt buckle and a holster that adjusts to the size of the wearer
and a one-handed gun of their choice.
As a reaction, when a source that you can see makes an attack, you can draw the stowed gun
from the holster and make an attack roll against the attacker.
Once the holster is used in this way, it cannot do so again until the gun is holstered again for at
least 1 minute without interruption.
Additionally, while the item is equipped, the belt and gun holstered within cannot be removed
against your will.

Medicinal Elixir
Potion, rarity varies
Medicinal Elixirs are a poorly regulated working man’s equivalent to a potion of healing.
Elixir of… Rarity Effect Typical
Price
First Aid Common Regain 1 HP 20 gp
Field Dressing Common Regain 1d6 HP 50 gp
Health Uncommon Regain 2d6 HP 75 gp
Autoimmunity Uncommon “cure disease” spell 100 gp
Rejuvenation Uncommon Regain 4d6 HP 150 gp
Restoration Uncommon “Lesser Restoration” spell 200 gp
Recovery Rare “Greater Restoration” spell 510 gp
Life Rare Regain 10d6 HP 550 gp

Due to a mix of shortcuts in the production process and questionable substitute materials,
elixirs will have side effects from time to time. Whenever a medicinal elixir is administered or
consumed, roll a d20. On a 1 or a 2, the elixir does not heal the target and instead has one of the
following side effects, determined by rolling 1d8:
D8 Side effect
Roll
1 If the effect would cause the target to regain hp, they regain half as much. Otherwise,
the elixir does nothing
2 The target is poisoned for 1 minute
3 The target regains the hp, but suffers one level of exhaustion
4 The target regains the hp, but is blinded for 1 hour
5 The target falls unconscious until awoken or for 8 hours, whichever comes first. In the
latter case, they gain the benefits of a long rest
6 The target takes poison damage equal to half of the hp they would’ve regained
7 The target takes poison damage equal to the hp they would’ve regained
8 For the next minute, the target makes a DC 13 Constitution Saving Throw at the start of
each of its turns. On a fail, it wastes its action, reaction, and bonus action that turn
retching and vomiting.

30
 Chapter 4: New Class Options

“Pistol Spores Hay Free Photo” modified royalty-free image by annca on

Needpix.com

31
 The Gunfighter: a Martial Archetype for Fighters
(Credit to Critical Role for making this Martial Archetype, which I’ve made only marginal
adjustments to.)
This archetype is an alternative option for the Fighter class.
Most warriors and combat specialists spend their years perfecting the classic arts of swordplay,
archery, or pole arm tactics. Whether duelist or infantry, martial weapons were seemingly
perfected long ago, and the true challenge is to master them.

However, some minds couldn’t stop with the innovation of the crossbow. Experimentation with
alchemical components and rare metals have unlocked the secrets of controlled explosive force.
The few who survive these trials of ingenuity may become the first to create, and deftly wield,
the first firearms.

This archetype focuses on the ability to design, craft, and utilize powerful ranged weapons.
Through creative innovation and immaculate aim, you become a distant force of death on the
battlefield. However, not being a perfect science, firearms carry an inherent instability that can
occasionally leave you without a functional means of attack. This is the danger of new, untested
technologies in a world where the arcane energies that rule the elements are ever present.
Should this path of powder, fire, and metal call to you, keep your wits about you, hold on to your
convictions as a fighter, and let skill meet luck to guide your bullets to strike true.

Gunsmith
Upon choosing this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with Tinker’s Tools. You may use
them to craft firearm ammunition at half the cost, repair damaged firearms, or even draft and
create new ones (DM’s discretion). Some extremely experimental and intricate firearms may
only be available through crafting.

Adept Marksman
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you learn to perform powerful trick shots to disable
or damage opponents using your firearms.
Trick Shots. When you select this archetype at 3rd level, you learn two trick shots of your
choice, which are detailed under “Trick Shots” below. Many Trick Shots enhance an attack in
some way. Each use of a trick shot must be declared before the attack roll is made. You can use
only one trick shot per attack.
You learn one additional trick shot of your choice at 7th, 10th, 15th, and 18th levels. Each time
you learn a new trick shot, you may also replace one trick shot you know with a different one.
Misfire Score. Several trick shots have a so-called “misfire score.” If the number of the dice of
the attack roll is lower than the misfire score for the trick shot, the gun jams and cannot be used
again until an action or bonus action is used to clear it. If the gun being used is a Lever Action
rifle, raise the misfire score by 1. If a trick shot doesn’t state a misfire score, its misfire score is 0.
Grit. You gain a number of grit points equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1). You
regain 1 expended grit point each time you roll a 20 on the d20 roll for an attack with a firearm

32
or deal a killing blow with an attack from a firearm. You regain all expended grit points after a
short or long rest.
Saving Throws. Some of your trick shots require your targets to make a saving throw to resist
the trick shot’s effects. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows:

Trick Shot save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Dexterity modifier

Quick Draw
When you reach 7th level, you add your proficiency bonus to your initiative. You can also stow a
firearm and draw another firearm as a single object interaction on your turn.

Fine Tuning
Beginning at 10th level, your extensive experience with firearms allows you to wield one
flawlessly after limited study. At the end of a long rest, you can select one firearm of your choice
and fine tune it. Until your next long rest or the next time the weapon misfires, you add your
proficiency bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.

Evasive Reload
Starting at 15th level, you can reload any firearm as a bonus action, then as part of the same
bonus action you can move up to one half your movement speed. This movement does not
provoke opportunity attacks.

Vicious Intent
At 18th level, your attacks made with a firearm score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20, and you
regain a grit point on a roll of 19 or 20 on an attack roll with a firearm.
Additionally, whenever you score a critical hit on an attack with a firearm, the target loses hp
equal to half of the damage from the attack at the end of its next turn.

Trick Shots
These trick shots are presented in alphabetical order.
Dazing Shot
When you make a firearm attack against a creature, you can expend one grit point to attempt to
dizzy your opponent. On a hit, the creature suffers normal damage and must make a
Constitution saving throw or suffer disadvantage on attacks until the end of their next turn.
Deadeye Shot
When you make a firearm attack against a creature, you can expend one grit point to gain
advantage on the attack roll.
Disarming Shot
When you make a firearm attack against a creature, you can expend one grit point to attempt to
shoot an object from their hands. On a hit, the creature suffers normal damage and must
succeed on a Strength saving throw or drop 1 held object of your choice and have that object be
pushed 10 feet away from you.
Misfire score: 1
33
Forceful Shot

When you make a firearm attack against a creature, you can expend one grit point to attempt to
trip them up and force them back. On a hit, the creature suffers normal damage and must
succeed on a Strength saving throw or be pushed 15 feet away from you.
Misfire score: 1
Piercing Shot
When you make a firearm attack against a creature, you can expend one grit point to attempt to
fire through multiple opponents. On a hit, the creature suffers normal damage and you make an
attack roll with disadvantage against every creature in a line directly behind the target within
your first range increment.
Misfire Score: 1 (Only the initial attack roll can misfire)
Steady Shot
When you make a firearm attack, you can spend one grit point to gain the following benefits.
- Attacking at long range doesn't impose disadvantage on the attack roll.
- Your attacks ignores half and three-quarters cover
Misfire Score: 1
Violent Shot
When you make a firearm attack against a creature, you can expend one or more grit points to
enhance the volatility of the attack.
If the attack hits, you can roll one additional weapon damage die per grit point spent when
determining the damage.
Misfire Score: 2 per grit point expended
Clipping Shot
When you make a firearm attack against a creature, you can expend one grit point to attempt to
topple a moving target. On a hit, the creature suffers normal damage and must make a Strength
saving throw or be knocked prone.
Misfire Score: 1

34
 Pugilist: a Martial Archetype for Fighters
Rough and Tumble:
Beginning when you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you become proficient in unarmed
attacks. Additionally, your unarmed attacks count as light weapons for the purposes of two
weapon fighting.
When you make an unarmed attack with your strength modifier, you may choose to deal 1d4
bludgeoning damage instead of your normal damage for unarmed attacks.
When you aren’t holding anything other than light weapons and aren’t wearing heavy armor,
this damage increases to 1d6 bludgeoning.

Scrappy fighting
Starting at 7th level, you gain proficiency in improvised weapons, if you don’t already have it.
As long as you aren’t holding anything else in your hands or wearing heavy armor, the damage
you deal with improvised weapons using your strength modifier improves based on the size of
the object as per the following table:
Improvised weapon Damage
1-handed light objects, such as a broken 1d6
bottle or a judge’s gavel
Weighty objects that can still be wielded in 1 1d8
hand, such as a length of lead pipe or cattle
prod
Objects that require two hands to wield such 1d10
as a barstool or a ladder.

As always, the weapon properties and damage type of an improvised weapon is up to your DM.

Adrenaline Rush
Starting at 10th level, your ability in a fight becomes a source of adrenaline. Whenever you use
your Second Wind, Action Surge, or Indomitable class features, you gain the following benefits
until the end of your next turn:
- You gain an amount of temporary hit points equal to your fighter level.
- On your turn, you can make one attack roll with advantage. This must be declared before
you roll the attack.
- You can spend a reaction to give a melee attack against you disadvantage. You must
declare this reaction before the DM announces the result of the attack roll.
- Your attacks with improvised weapons and unarmed strikes count as magical for the
purposes of overcoming resistance and immunity

Haymakers
Starting at 15th level, your vast experience in fist fights increases your damage output
substantially.
When you make an unarmed attack, or a melee attack with an improvised weapon, you can add
your proficiency bonus to the damage roll.

35
 Master of Brawls
Starting at 18th level, the first time you hit with an unarmed strike or improvised melee weapon
attack on a turn, you add your constitution modifier to the damage roll in addition to your
strength modifier.
Whenever you deal damage this way, regain an amount of hit points equal to you Constitution
modifier.

“Brass knuckles of John Constantine, official copy by Dark

Rift Armory” Modified creative commons image by Rama
on Wikimedia commons.

36
 Preacher: a Divine Domain for Clerics
Preacher clerics exhort their ideals of harmony and righteousness to the masses, hoping to pass
on revelations about the goodness they’ve seen in the world and inspiring other to follow their
path.
Preachers tend to search for nonviolent solutions to worldly problems whenever possible but are
not strictly pacifists. If all other options are exhausted, these clerics may use violence, especially
if it protects someone in need.
Nearly all preacher clerics and their gods are good aligned with high ideals, although followers
of The Masked and The Devil have been known to masquerade as preachers from time to time,
exploiting the faith of others for their own dark machinations.

Preacher Domain Spells

Cleric Level Spells
1st Sleep, Sanctuary
3rd Calm Emotions, Suggestion
5th Counterspell, Beacon of Hope
7th Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, Freedom of Movement
9th Wall of Force, Dispel Evil and Good

Envoy of Peace:
When you select this domain at 1st level, you can channel holy power from the divine planes to
censure evil creatures. Your Turn Undead feature also effects fiends, although your Destroy
Undead feature does not.
Additionally, when you select this domain, you gain proficiency in your choice of Persuasion or
Performance, if you did not already have it. If you already had proficiency in the selected skill,
you may gain expertise instead. Once selected, this choice cannot be changed.

Channel Divinity: Peace Bond

Starting at 2nd level, your mere presence can pacify aggravated creatures. You can use an action
to make creatures of your choice within 30 feet make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save,
an effected creature's impulses to attack are overwhelmed with hesitation. During this time, that
creature’s attacks are made with disadvantage, and all creatures they force to make saving
throws do so with advantage.
A creature can attempt another saving throw against this effect at the end of each of its turns,
ending the effect on itself on a success. The effect automatically ends on a creature if they take
damage or if you make an attack roll.

Impede Aggressor
At 6th level, you’ve learned to create a moment of hesitation to soften blows. When a creature
that you can see within 30 feet of you rolls damage against a creature, you can use a reaction to
reduce that damage by an amount equal to half your cleric level plus your wisdom modifier.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your wisdom modifier. You must then finish
a short rest or a long rest before you can use it again.

37
 Divine Strike
At 8th level, you can infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy to deter aggressors. Once on
each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal
an extra 1d8 radiant damage to the target.
When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.

Radiating Pacifism
Beginning at 17th level, as an action you can create an aura of pure pacifism for up to 1 minute.
For the duration, each creature you choose within 15 feet of you must succeed on a Wisdom
saving throw the first time it attempts to attack or force another creature to make a saving throw
in a turn. On a failed save, the creature’s attacks and spells deal half damage, and damage they
deal cannot kill another creature,
although it can knock them out. A
creature remains under this effect
for the duration of the aura, even if
it leaves the aura’s radius.
On your turn, you must spend your
action maintaining this effect,
otherwise it ends. After using this
feature, you must complete a long
rest before using it again.

Illustration from The Circuit Rider: A Tale of the

Heroic Age, by Edward Eggleston, 1906. Public
Domain Image Provided by Wikipedia user SSwonk on
Wikimedia Commons

38
 Chapter 5: Religion:
Tall Tales and Mythic Lore
After the fall of Karthus and subsequent rupture in the laws of the universe, the pantheon was
left in turmoil. Divine casters, unable to draw upon their divine magic in the years after the fall,
desperately tried to reach out to their patrons, but to no avail.
As the most devout mourned the loss of their divine masters, others slowly began to tell new
legends, spinning tales of previously unheard of gods that mixed the qualities of several niche
deities into a so called Pantheon of Nine, a series of gods, each with their own wide array of
domains, with one deity boasting a different moral alignment. This Pantheon of Nine is
described in different ways throughout the Empire, with different cultures emphasizing their
own notions of whatever ideals the gods in question embody.
These gods have taken their place as the new deities of civilization, their dawn marking the
beginning of what is known as “The Third Era,” with the first era being the rise of the Empire,
and the second being the dozen and a half years after the Fall.
Divine casters who call upon these “new gods” wield their divine magic, indisputably proving
their existence as divine beings.

“We could reach for the sun, and feel its heat run.
We reached for the divine, and thus found the Nine.”
- Old proverb on the creation of the Nine, source unknown.

39
 The Pantheon of Nine
Deity Alignment Suggested Domains Symbols
The Taletellers, three divine tale weavers that spin N Any Campfire, harmonica,
the tale of existence. Roughly equal in function to the long smoking pipes,
three fates, known individually as the Good, the Bad, distant rainclouds
and the Ugly. At the end of a mortal’s tale, they all
take a deep breath and draw smoke from their long
pipes before moving to the next story to pass the
time of an endless night.
The Lonely Lady, reincarnation of the goddess of NG Arcana, Knowledge, Circle of 7 stars, a
arcane magic. Not much liked in these parts, on Tempest broken mirror with 7
account of Karthus’ Folly a while back, and her shards, a teardrop.
tendency to favor arcane casters. Outsiders know her
as “Mystra,” but quickly find that goin’ around with
that name on one’s lips gets one you spat on, and
possibly worse on the Somber Frontier.
The Devil, god of pain, tyranny, temptation, and LE Arcana, Death, Red pitchforks, sulfur,
the underworld. Known for deceiving mortals into Forge, Grave, a golden fiddle, a long
sins that confine them eternally to his hellish domain Knowledge, Order, black train.
down below. Fairly taboo to openly worship, the Trickery, War
Devil is considered the inventor of virtually every
sin. The Devil’s followers often prefer subtlety and
discretion in their methods, and generally come off
as entirely normal members of society, their dark
craft buried under a layer of normality.
The Silver Star, god of Justice and Civilization. LN Grave, Order, A silver star, the sun,
Thought to wander these parts as a lawman whose Tempest, War the moon, a
face has never been seen beneath his shadowed hat. weathered hat, a
The Silver Star is supposedly the best gunfighter ever polished revolver.
to walk the land, though he only fires a shot when
every option has been exhausted. It’s said that the
sound of distant thunder when no rainclouds are in
sight is the sound of his silver pistol, firing a
carefully placed bullet with perfect aim.
The Savior, god of goodness and freedom. Depicted LG Life, Light, Order A silver bullet, a pearl
as a faceless man in a gunman’s duster, never rides a heart, a white hat.
horse. Said to come for those who do too much
wrong. Distinct from the Silver Star in that he never
fires a shot himself, though he is rumored to point
do-gooders in the direction to do so themselves. Also
known as “The Good Ghost,” easily the most popular
member of the pantheon.
The Wild Rose, goddess of life, nature, weather, CG Arcana, Knowledge, Flowers, antlers, love
and catch-all for natural phenomenon that living Life, Nature letters, rainclouds.
things experience and need, like weather, emotions,
and growth. Also known as the Queen of the Hills or
Mother Nature.

40
The Mask, god of mystery, deception, trickery, and CE Arcana, Death, Snake oil, gambling
cons. Known to pick favorites on which to bestow Knowledge, paraphernalia, masks.
gifts of godly incite, but better known for telling Trickery
undevoted followers that they’ve been chosen and
watching their false confidence destroy them. It’s
bad luck to refer to the Mask with gendered
pronouns.
Craftsman Jack, god of invention, knowledge, and CN Forge, Knowledge, An axe, a saw, a
inspiration. This is not just limited to intellectual War wagon wheel.
arts like music and abstract study, but also to
craftsmanship and virtually any practiced skill. Held
in high accord by librarians and lumberjacks alike.
The Ferryman, god of Death and transporter to NE Death, Grave, A river, 2 coins of any
the afterlife. Also known as the the Reaper, the Nature, Order value, a scythe, a black
Hangman, or the Midnight Rider. The dead are hat.
typically buried with two coins, and mortal stories
advise that souls journeying from this life pay him 1
coin for passage, and the other for arrival: never all
upfront. Superstitious folks say the Ferryman is best
mentioned last in any list.

The taletellers
are often
represented in
chalk and
charcoal
drawings, their
details
intentionally
smudged and
ambiguous
(“Two men and three
women sitting on front
of campfire” modified
Royalty Free Photo via
Pikrepo.com)

41
 Chapter 6: Feats

“The Frontiersman” by N.C.

Wyeth, 1920. Public Domain
Image via Tom at Flickr.com

42
 Reworded Feats
Underlined content is new wording.

Crossbow expert (Now: Firearm Expert)

- You ignore the loading quality of ranged weapons with which you are proficient.
- Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn’t impose disadvantage on your ranged
attack rolls. (no change)
- When you use the Attack action and attack with a one-handed weapon, you can use a
bonus action to attack with a ranged weapon with the “light” property you are holding.

“1873 Winchester Rifle and Carbine” modified Public Domain Photo courtesy of National Parks and Services Photo, 2015.

43
 New Feats
Quick draw
- At the end of a round in which you could not move or take an action due to surprise, you
can draw and make one attack roll with a ranged weapon you are wearing or carrying
provided it is loaded and you are proficient with it.
- You can use the reload and loading properties of ranged weapons you are proficient with
while holding a light weapon, shield, or small mundane item with which you are
proficient in your off hand.

Gunslinging Adept
- You learn 2 Trick Shots of your choice from among those available in the Gunfighter
Martial Archetype for the Fighter class. If a maneuver you use requires your target to
make a saving throw to resist the maneuver's effects, the saving throw DC equals 8 +
your proficiency bonus + your Dexterity modifier.
- You gain 1 grit point. (This grit point is added to any grit points you have from another
source.) Grit points are expended when you use them. You regain 1 expended grit point
each time you roll a 20 on the d20 roll for an attack with a firearm or deal a killing blow
with an attack from a firearm. You regain all expended grit points after a short or long
rest.

Counterattack
- If a creature makes a melee attack against you and misses by more than 9, you can use
your reaction to make a melee attack against it if it’s in a square that’s within your reach.
- If your attack hits, you roll damage using the next die lower than your regular damage
die (i.e. if you usually use 1d6 you roll with a 1d4. If the attack would normally deal a d4,
it is unchanged)

Flash Recall (credit to Critical Roll for this feat)

- Prerequisite: The ability to prepare spells, and cast at least one spell
- You’ve developed the ability to instantly recall an unprepared spell in moments of
sudden necessity. As an action, you can instantly prepare a spell from your available
class spell list (or spellbook, if you prepare spells from one) that you did not have
prepared. This spell choice must be of a level for which you have spell slots. You then
lose preparation of a different spell of your choice of equal or higher spell level. If you are
multiclassed, you can only Flash Recall spells from a class that prepares spells. Once you
use this ability, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.

44
 Part 3: DM’s Packet:

Untitled Western Themed Silhouette Modified DMCA-Protected Image via pxfuel.com

45
 Chapter 1: The World
Three Centers of Civilization
Only three towns on the Somber Frontier are known by outsiders, and even most insiders.
Locals might know of one or two other small communities but won’t have any more than that to
go off of.
1. Bilgewater Junction, known by outsiders because of its economic importance to the rest
of the Empire. Although the Somber Frontier mostly prefers not to interact with the
bureaucratic arcanists from which they’ve escaped, movements to formally secede from the
Empire have failed largely due to the wealth generated by trade in Bilgewater. While many of
the locals benefit from this trade, they do so begrudgingly, and are barely a step above the
rest of the region when it comes to tolerance of mages.
2. Fort Barret, a compound founded by divine casters in a pilgrimage to the region thought
uninhabitable until a fiery preacher called James Barret, for whom the town is named,
claimed he heard a message from The Silver Star himself in a dream. Barret professed that
the region was capable of supporting life, but in grave danger of becoming a lawless and
godless land if it was not soon tamed by devout followers of the divine. A few hundred
clerics, paladins, and warlocks followed his church in its attempt to build a so-called
“shining city on a hill,” but had to compromise that idealistic aesthetic in favor of the
utilitarian protection offered by walls and compounds. Despite this compromise, the place
still boasts several impressive features, including a college and the only official military
barracks on the Frontier. The encampment is well-known outside of the Somber Frontier
thanks to its historical significance: before Barret, the region was thought incapable of
supporting life, whether due to irreversible damage caused by the fall of Karthus or a
supposed curse left hanging over the land.
3. Drywood, a city well known by outsiders thanks to infamous criminals and outcasts said to
reside there. The town, founded in secret largely by escaped convicts of the Empire, grew
quickly once other disreputable folks caught wind of a place where they could escape
authorities and enjoy some of life’s finer luxuries while they were at it. Surrounded by
mountainous terrain to the South and West and inhospitable canyons and dry land to the
North and East, the so-called “City of Sin and Second Chances” is designed to stand out of
reach from the long arm of the law. The only reason the inhabitants can survive is thanks to
a natural well of spring water from the mountains nearby, which keeps the town from drying
up and falling to dust.
Beyond these three towns, players native to the Somber Frontier will typically only know one or
two other small towns they’ve visited personally. Very few people have moved from town to
town enough to know the true layout of this region save for a few high-level adventurers that
should be few and far between, if indeed any exist at all.
As this adventure is run, it is recommended that the DM generate towns as they need to for the
story. They can place such towns as needed and should provide players with a copy of the map
that they can mark with locations as they happen upon them.
Given the newfound nature of these towns, it is likely that they will develop over the course of
the campaign. Be prepared to take notes and keep a record of each town you introduce the
players to, so you can show it evolving as they return. A scrappy tent city scrounging for food

46
might develop into a productive hamlet when the party returns in a year’s time. In the same
regard, a bustling town at the height of a gold rush may become a ghost town as the vein runs
dry and the populace packs up. In any case, this world is a land being newly explored and
developed, and it should change as such in the process.

“Monument Valley Video Wild Wild West Free Photo” Modified Public Domain Image courtesy
of Clariston at Pixabay.com

47
Map of the Somber Frontier

48
 Bilgewater Junction
A center of commerce
At the meeting of the railway and the river, Bilgewater Junction is the trade hub of the Somber
Frontier. Bilgewater is on the map because anyone in the business of mapmaking, or any
business at all, in fact, must know about it to make their livelihood.

Bilgewater Railway
The primary passage of outside money into the Somber Counties, the Bilgewater railway line
stops at a junction by The Docks, where the wealthiest businesspeople from out East step off,
make a few high-dollar deals, and then hop back on the train the next week. While on the train,
they are functionally invulnerable, protected by arcane wards and highly secure barriers.
Once taking a step off, these merchants enter a world of lucrative fortunes… and incredible
danger. Wealthy merchants passing through Bilgewater Junction are prime assassination
targets, both from greedy rogues eyeing quick, bloodstained cash, and from bitter, mage-hating
locals who see them as encroachments of the arcane casters.
The train depot is on the East side, on a cliff overlooking the river. The cliff is a 70-foot drop to
rocky waters below, the only portion of the riverbank unoccupied by boats, given the obstructing
stones that barely breach the surface, but which could easily shred a boat rocking in the wake of
passersby.

The Docks
Steamboats are a source of power and wealth, and the river docks of Bilgewater Junction are no
exception. The boats bring merchants from across the Somber Frontier, drawn by the allure of
lucrative deals with merchants on the weekly trains.
With a variety of watercraft scattering along miles of deep-water wharfs and quickly built
boardwalks, the two sides of Bilgewater Junction boast radically different cargo. The river flows
from North to South, and shipping lanes tend to direct boats to the right side of the river when
possible. As a result, most cargo coming from downstream ends up on the East side of the river,
while shipments from upstream dock to the West.
The East side houses ships running against the flow to carry luxurious metals, mined spell gems,
and other expensive goods with enough revenue to fuel a ship working against the stream. These
expensive vessels tend to employ steam-powered engines or handsomely paid crews of
spellcasters who can control the wind and even the water to ensure steady travel.
As a result of the opulent wares sold there, the East side contains some of the finest
establishments in the Somber Frontier, designed with expensive tastes in mind. Taverns sell
top-dollar wines and rent out comfortable beds, while plays and theatres often bring in exotic
animals and host ballroom extravaganzas. Nothing in this part of town comes cheap, and
powerful merchant guilds ensure that the wheels of business keep turning.
The West side is a different story. The easy parking for ships coming from upstream allows
timely travel for cheaper, less jaw-dropping goods, including food, lumber, and affordable
furniture. The small crews of these ships must often stay in town until favorable wind offers
them a trip back upstream, or until they can sell their boat with enough markup to afford a trip

49
home by land. Many crews pay for the trip home as helping hands on wagon trains and caravans
heading north.
While East-Siders can sometimes be seen buying groceries here in the early morning, they
disappear by nightfall when the West side truly comes to life. After dusk, taverns advertise
fighting pits with proletarian gladiators, establishments with enough space host high-betting
races for all manner of animals, and card sharks lurk in every tavern, waiting to dupe every
penny from whatever hotshot saunters in.
The opposed sides of the river have but one thing in common: heavy demand for bounty
hunters. Those knowing where to look and who to ask will find a thriving market for killers
happy to cross the town’s natural border. These assassins are very organized, operating from
easy-to-miss offices, behind closed doors, and often with the blessings of what little law
enforcement exists in the Somber Counties.
The best way to stay safe in Bilgewater, so they say, is to buy an assassin a drink. Networks are
everything here and being on good terms with the chief ‘dispute settlers’ offers one arguably
more protection than any other guild and certainly more than any force of law.

Somber Frontier Mint and Coinage

The crown jewel of the Eastern Frontier, Jeremiah Mint and Coinage is the official coin-pressing
facility for the entire Northern half of the Somber Frontier. The maximum-security fortress on
the Eastern outskirts is the source of all official metal coinage in the Somber Frontier. Though
Paper money also changes hands quite often across the Somber Frontier, it is not seen as legal
tender outside of the region, and thus only tradable for 80 cents on the dollar at the most banks
in the city, an objective rip-off given the arguable greater value of the paper bills inside the
Somber Frontier region.

Barron Wharf
The site which formerly served as a deep-water wharf, now turned shallow water wharf thanks
to a large river mill being constructed upstream which kicked up tremendous amounts of
sediment and sand, quick to settle in the wharf downstream.
John Barron, the wharf’s owner, had dabbled in law when he lived in the Empire proper, and
elected to sue the river wheel company owned by one Marshall Baltom-Moore. Marshall
happened to know a decent lawyer just outside of the Somber Frontier and arranged for him to
come into town.
The dispute has become an ongoing legal battle over the last year, with construction halted on
both sides as they hedge their bets on the other being ruled financially responsible for damages.
In doing so, it has created an interesting test case for legal scholars as the only dispute in the
Somber Frontier that seems unable to reach settlement, either by court order or personal use of
force. The Bilgewater Junction Judge reached a ruling in favor of Barron last year, but Baltom-
Moore has found grounds for an appeal. Trouble is, in a region outside of the Empire’s
institutions, it is yet unclear what the case in legal limbo as judges and clerks scramble to come
up with a solution.

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The Burning Hills
The Burning Hills are a stretch of sloping terrain about 20 miles south of Bilgewater Junction.
The rolling expanse of prairieland covers a wealth of massive coal deposits with only 40 feet of
soil at low points, though the hilltops stand as tall as 150 feet above the layer of black diamond.
Jefferson North runs the strip-mining operation in these hills, as well as many other far more
remote mines of all manner of material across the region. John D. Jefferson, better known
outside the frontier as the owner of a mining company called Rockefeller & Jefferson
Corporation, took a big risk, without the support of his business partner Mr. Rockefeller, by
investing most of his own net worth buying mining rights to the Somber Frontier soon after was
found habitable.
To minimize local hostility, Jefferson rebranded the Frontier branch of his business under the
name “Jefferson North,” which would have enough association with Jefferson’s name to secure
investors, but not so much as to draw hostile attention.

The Dashed Line

A stretch of railroad along the Southeastern corner of the Somber Frontier is universally marked
with a dotted line on maps of the region. The land between the tracks and the thin layer of Tear
surrounding the Frontier is something of a No Man’s Land, rich in natural resources but
untouched by greedy prospectors afraid of the consequences should they be the first to cross the
line.
The Empire sees the rich land as a silver lining in its catastrophically mishandled province, and
watch it vigilantly to The locals, meanwhile, see it as yet another treasure the Empire seeks to
rip from them and are eager to fight off the first arcanist to set their foot on the untapped land. A
sub-faction of the frontier folk, most of them natural casters, would prefer the land go unused by
either side of the conflict, holding that it should be maintained as an uncorrupted expanse of
nature.

“Gila Wilderness” Public Domain Image by Bruce Bloy, courtesy of National Parks Service, 2012

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 Fort Barret
The Call of Divine Destiny
Fort Barret was conceived in the dreams of a genius priest or a mad man, depending on who you
ask. The story goes that James Barret saw the Silver Star himself in a dream, and that the god of
order showed the preacher how the Somber Frontier was not devoid of life, but teeming with it.
The revelation came with a warning: if the region was not soon controlled by orderly followers of
the divine, it was doomed to fall to chaos and misery at the hands of the other, less civilized
castes and factions.
The fort was constructed in under a year by the devout following of its founder, but without
leadership when he soon died of tuberculosis. It has since become a tug-of-war between
paladins, clerics, and warlocks: all wrestling for political control of their idealistic fort on the
new frontier. To the distress of many, these squabbles turned the groups’ attention inward,
reducing their ability to impose orderly and righteous conduct on surrounding communities that
popped up after them. As of 1129, 5 years after its creation and 1 year before the campaign
begins, the jockeying divine caster have formed a delicate agreement they call the Council of
Three. Every season, the paladins, clerics, and warlocks all select one of their own class to serve
on the council until the next election, and the leaders determine the town’s direction as
representatives of their kind.

James Barret
The charismatic leader behind the first colony of the Somber Frontier is remembered as a genius
and a leader, when he was in fact a highly controversial figure in life.
James Barret’s childhood was one of relative privilege. He was well-read and inherited a small
fortune from his parents. The man used the resources at his disposal to gain political favors and
powerful friends and invoked strong speaking skills to gain an almost cult-like following.
By his late 30s, Barret was well-known among a section of the Divine Casting population of the
Empire as a political leader of a secessionist movement laced by manifest destiny and the
superiority of divine casters. As pressure mounted for him to talk less and act more, however, he
needed to channel his following into some kind of action in order to maintain control.
That action supposedly came to him in a dream on his 38th birthday. Barret professed that the
Silver Star, god of order and justice, had appeared to him in his sleep and told him of the
habitability of the Somber Frontier. Many folks dispute whether Barret actually believed this
hallucination: skeptics thought he had lost his mind and critics claimed he made up the delusion
to solve his credibility crisis, but the preacher’s devout following was far from able to understand
these concerns. A movement to establish a Shining City on a Hill was born overnight, with
Barret caught up in the middle of it.
By his 39th birthday, Fort Barret was a bustling young town, built from the ground up. Rumors
of the pilgrims’ success spread to the rest of the Empire and more divine casters poured in by
the caravan. By his 40th, the aspiring preacher had passed away from tuberculosis, and the
leadership of Fort Barret was in shambles for a few years before the delicate compromise of a
Council of Three was formed.
Now, the preacher is remembered fondly despite his controversial past, and sympathizers of his
are quick to remind dissenters how rude it is to speak ill of the dead.
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Hallowforge
Operated by small circle of master smiths, the Hallowforge is a smith site of the highest regards
not just in the Frontier, but in the Empire. The legendary forge is operated by 7 craftsmen at one
time, and is perhaps the highest honor a blacksmith can achieve.
It is said that steel and silver flowing through the Hallowforge can shape at the smith’s mere
whim, flowing like water into whatever shape, sharpness, and even material the crafter desires.
Four forgemasters toil day and night at the Hallowforge
- Eldersmith Jason Raants: as the oldest of the forgemasters, Jason Raants has the
least glamorous, if most highly honored job. Tradition dictates that the oldest of the
forgemasters serve as the night worker, the on-call source of late night chainmail repairs
and sword sharpenings. This practice is poetic as well as practical. By working at night
on every manner of repair and modification, the Eldersmith can closely observe the
craftwork of their peers. From a more functionalist rationale, however, the long, low-
demand evenings give the most talented forgemaster time to train apprentices and pupils
in their craft so that they too may one day operate the Hallowforge
- Lightsmiths Renae and Jenae Finklehorn: two red dragonborn identical twins
share the glamorous title of “Lightsmith,” that is, the blacksmiths who work during the
day. The Finklehorns serve as the face of the Hallowforge, being the workers that
outsiders see churning out weapons and armor with astounding speed.
- Forgespeaker Emerson McRalf: a batfolk with a background in alchemy is the
Hallowforge’s current “Forgespeaker.” The unique position is the only member of the
blacksmithing team that requires no expertise in crafting, a skill McRalf is admittedly
“only slightly above average at.” Instead, the Forgespeaker’s job is to manage every
chemical and physical aspect of the forge itself. The Hallowforge is no simple fire pit and
smelter, it’s a complicated array of magical, mundane, and supernatural reactions of
which few understand the intricacies. McRalf does mundane tasks like any forgeworker,
smelting and mixing metals on a daily basis, but the batfolk also handles the delicate
process of controlling the flow and intake of all 7 of the Forge’s separate types of fuel.
This practice demands perfection, as a single mishap could permanently break the forge
said to be blessed by the divines, and the batfolk takes the job of keeping it running like a
well-oiled machine very seriously.

West Point Crossing

A series of bridges over marshy creeks stand around 40 miles West of Fort Barret proper. As the
only road going West, towards the timber needed by Barret’s denizens to expand. The bridges
and walkways are reasonably wide, the only means of transporting a carriage, horse, and any
amount of equipment in a timely manner between the woods and the compound.
However, these bridges and walkways lie in highly disputed territory. A militant conclave of
natural casters claims rights to the woods. The rule of thumb on the Somber Frontier holds that
a town holds economic rights to territory within 1 mile per 10 people, out to a cap of 50 miles for
any single town. If any two towns should overlap, they’re expected to draw a line down the
middle of their reasonable claims. While Fort Barret easily boasts the 500 souls needed to reach
half a day’s travel beyond the crossing, the natural casters of the West Point Conclave claim their
population has grown, but have no documentation to prove it, and never have every member of

53
the community in one place at the same time, with anywhere from a tenth to over half of the
community hunting game at any one time.
The result has been a militarized dispute over the 10-mile stretch of marsh and mud from which
neither side is unwilling to back down or advance. Both sides know the other has an array of
guerilla fighters, artillery, and forces waiting to leap out from nearly any point in the marsh if
the other should take so much as a step too far forward. These soldiers wait in the dark, festering
rot of the marshlands locked in an utter stalemate, waiting for any sign that they could survive
an advance.
The roughly central crossing of this area, a broad but humble bridge called West Point Crossing
is the center of this dispute. Neither side has set foot on the bridge since the conflict began,
deterred by one another, but sooner or later the hunters will have to hunt beyond their depleting
grounds and the holy folks will need more wood to expand the wall. No one knows what to
expect when those days come, except that blood will spill, and lots of it.

Holding the Line

North and East of Fort Barret, the trek back to the Empire proper is a treacherous one. The
rocky terrain is plagued by tremendous foes, with monstrous giants and rocs sometimes
venturing close enough to the fort to warrant mobilized troops, not to mention the unpredictably
fluctuating field of wild magic that stretches over the land. These monsters, however, are but a
tenth as terrifying as what lies on the other side of but a day’s travel through treacherous
wasteland: the Empire, in all its military might.
As a symbolic and strategic target, Fort Barret is well-known as the likely ground zero of any
attempt by the Empire to reclaim the Somber Frontier by force. Despite the militarized zone to
the West which demands their immediate attention, Barret’s homefront is always watchful of
the North and Eastern Horizons, the two obvious approaches available for troops of the Empire.
While tensions with the Empire have simmered lately, few find reason to suspect an outright
attack by the Arcanists. Despite the relative safety, however, rumors run wild of spies, spotted
on the distant horizon and even masked arcanists entering the camp with undetectable magical
disguises. While the bulk of these whispers are untrue, their believability in itself is cause for
concern.

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 Drywood
*TRIGGER WARNING: This section of the book includes several depictions of drugs/dependence,
gambling addictions, and gang violence. Many individuals who experience or have experienced these
things are deeply uncomfortable repeating that experience at the role-playing table. Be sure to talk with
your players and ensure sure that depictions of such content in your game will not harm to anyone’s
wellbeing or general comfort with the game.

A remote location for a bustling city

Miles of this terrain around the City in a grassy, cavernous expanse that goes on for around 120
miles in an expanse known as the Barren Lands. The massive frontier is hardly an easy trek,
marked by canyons, caves, and rocky terrain stained red under the blistering sun. Water is
scarce, and most life out here is remarkably durable and hard to kill, much less eat. Ancient
documents describing the land indicate that it was a hell hole long before Karthus fell, but the
cataclysm certainly didn’t help matters.

The Barren Lands are directly inspired by the above real-world location: Badlands National Park, in North and
South Dakota, U.S.A. Royalty-free image courtesy of https://www.goodfreephotos.com

While most of the hostile terrain is an open frontier, a few sprawling estates on the occasional
flat areas contain massive ranches, surprisingly fortified for the docile animals within. Those
trained in martial combat are sure to recognize military grade fortifications around the
unassuming farmland, and observers with an eye for magic will recognize a variety of wards and
enchantments on the land itself, including silencing effects on the ground and even evocation
spells a few feet below the topsoil, and very high-level spells like Hallow (usually keyed to a fear
effect,) and Forbiddance covering the pastures, while ranchers and even livestock usually have
some kind of small trinket to exempt themselves from the spells’ effects.
At night, however, the purpose of such high security becomes clear. Massive beasts, under the
cool night air, surface from their caves and dwellings out of the baking sun to hunt whatever life
is tempted out of hiding by the refreshing evening breeze. These hulking carnivores have been
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known to regularly devour poorly placed camps and entire caravans in their attempt to keep
moving through the night. If one knows the locals or terrain well enough, they can stay safe by
finding a local ranch or fruitless hunting ground to stay in for the night.
The need for protection on ranches in the area carves out a niche market for very talented
clerics, which are a rarity as is, not to mention in such a a sin-loving place as Drywood. Many of
these ranches pay yearly interest to vaults of Fielding and Co., while others must resort to more
creative measures to protect their stock.

Planted by outcasts, cultivated by outlaws

Drywood itself is a town founded by exiles, runaways, and other such outcasts of the Empire. Its
remoteness is no coincidence: the town is hard to reach by design. As far as they could build
from both the railway and the pestering reach of Fort Barret, a band of fugitives laid the first
foundations of Drywood soon after the region was found habitable in a desperate bid to escape
lives they wished to leave behind. Some were more successful than others, with a handful of
families amassing enough wealth and resources to rise to prominence in this lawless city.
As more outcasts flocked to the village, it quickly grew to a thriving city. Today, it is the largest
population center in Somber Counter, totaling 9,000 people spread out over 12 square miles,
plus a few hundred more souls living on the outskirts, representing a mix of dangerous folks
staying out of sight and good eggs just trying to keep their heads down.

City of sins and second chances

Thanks to its remoteness, Drywood has developed a thriving economy of scoundrels, gangsters,
and outlaws trying to avoid the eyes of the law. Drawing on their areas of expertise, many set up
distilleries, gambling houses, and marketplaces for black market goods. The city quickly
garnered a reputation for crime, and criminals came flocking in turn.
Across the largest settlement in the Somber Frontier, all manner of typically unsavory
businesses see traffic through the night. Gambling houses stand tall and proud on every street,
each boasting bigger payouts than the last. Brothels, professionally run and otherwise, fill their
ranks with lonely folks, down on their luck and desperate for pay. Saloons happily serve cheap
moonshine to down-on-their luck washouts, advertised alongside luxurious wine for fortunate
folks cashing in from a lucky hand.
Either way, the multitude of drunks roaming by nightfall make easy pickings for pickpockets
and amateur rogues, funneling their “fair share” of others’ winnings into mundane and illicit
markets alike. Local thieves’ cant refers to this custom as “paying the night watch’s tab”

A taste for the exotic

Many of the appeals commonly sought out in Drywood are rather extreme, acquired tastes.
Some exotic staples of the community include trophies from dangerous hunting out in the
Barren Lands, with taxidermized heads of owlbears and Quaggoths selling at the lower end of
the spectrum while Roc Heads and even the occasional set of scales, teeth, and talons of young
dragons sell to top-dollar bidders.
Emporiums of rare and exotic goods scatter across the landscape of Drywood. Furs and Trinkets
are among the tamer of these shops, but one needn’t look far to find establishments dealing in
much more troubling markets like exotic animals and counterfeit magic items.

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Throughout Drywood, it’s hard to find an alleyway not infested with drug runners trying to pan
off their wares. Nearly everyone “knows a guy” for most illicit substances, no matter how taboo
or niche. By far the easiest to find is the local specialty, a smokable drug called “Greensleeper,”
made from the dried tissue of Cinari Cactus, which produces a euphoric sense of lethargy in its
users. For a more thrilling trip, consumers will have to seek out patented Cinari flower
concentrate, the pricier psychedelic made from the same plant as Greensleeper.
Another popular drug in Drywood is “Tombstone,” a mix of opium and cactus water that users
inject directly into their veins, creating a euphoric buzz supposedly unlike any other.
Unfortunatley, the drug earns its name, and users run a very high risk of addiction and
dependence to it. Once hooked, withdrawal symptoms are notoriously deadly, with victims
suffering terrible shakes, anxiety, and insomnia. After enough sleepless nights, users are prone
to overdose, dying tragically in an exhausted haze, as an unexpected “tombstone” is suddenly
needed for another soul lost before their time.

Wetwood Tavern
A whimsical name for a site welcoming all manner of unspeakable folk. The supposed saloon
serves as a meeting place for all kinds of criminal activity and is a poorly disguised base of
criminal operations.
In the front room, where a few unclean tables scatter around a room lit to maximize its shadowy
corners, illicit deals are often exchanged under the guise of faked poker games and money
pressed into handshakes.
Behind the counter, in a backroom, several cork boards and larger tables are arranged to create
a planning room from which countless heists have undoubtably been planned.
Upstairs, in poorly kept excuses for bedrooms, a fair share of “freelancers” sign contracts for
discreet killings and disappearances, while in the basement moonshiners and drug runners store
and sell their dangerous products.
The owner of this sketchy establishment is unclear. The bartender behind the counter seems to
swap out once or twice per week regularly, before jetting out of town on some unspoken
business, never to be heard again, possibly some aspiring dreamers looking to buy and fix up a
business without knowing what they’re getting themselves into.

The Horseshoe Hills

Four opulent mansions stand on four hills around the city. Each of these hills is roughly in the
shape of a horseshoe, with the mansions built into the innermost curve of the hill. These massive
estates are the finest abodes money can buy, and each is owned by an individual or small group
wielding massive political and financial power not only in Drywood, but over the entire Somber
Frontier.

Fielding and Sons Counting House

The so-called “Mile of Iron Vaults,” the mansion of the Fielding Family is known more
professionally as the Counting House. Part bank, part luxury mansion, the interior is decorated
with choice art pieces and lavish furniture and is indisputably the most tasteful of the Horseshoe
Hill abodes. Somewhere in the house, however, lies a door to the Vaults, a deep labyrinth in
which most businesses in the city store their wealth. The Fielding Family has arrangements with

57
the local market, an agreement that is maintained by the mysterious disappearance of any
competitor bank’s personnel in town, allowing the Fieldings a monopoly on moneylending.
Always careful to play its cards right, the family vigilantly ensures that nobody skims more off
the top than would go unnoticed. Most of their income comes instead from well-enforced loans
with steep interest payments.
Despite their criminal reputation, the Fielding family is actually very careful about their public
image. Loans always come with clear and precisely worded contracts, measures are in place to
provide options that prevent defaulting, and when members of the mob privately admit to their
use of muggings and intimidation to “enforce” loan agreements, they all seem genuinely
regretful that it must ever come to such ends. Perhaps this is because they simply want to run a
legitimate business in a crime-laden city, or perhaps they realize that those unable to pay seldom
have enough to their names to pay the brutes sent to collect.
contains a series of vaults that bore deep into the Earth, some say as deep as a mile. The
Counting House is the depository of every massive business in Drywood. In order to prevent the
omnipresent thieves and heist masterminds from getting their hands on the untold fortunes
stored within, Fielding and Co. has surrounded itself with an assemblage of security measures
that border on overkill.
Employees may not speak to one another, on or off shift, and must sign contracts allowing their
memory to wiped of all experience inside at semi-regular intervals with powerful mind-bending
magic.
In order to further guarantee their security, Fielding and Co. are not above bribing and paying
off whoever they must to ensure the company’s continued success. Rumors run rampant about
large payments to mob bosses and even hiring thugs to “enforce” loans and interest payments.

Roulette Palace
Owned by a twin brother and sister pair of halflings, the Roulette Palace is a large hybrid of
buildings, the ground level featuring a publicly accessible casino, with crowded card tables,
peppered dart boards, perfectly kept pool tables, hand-spun roulette wheels, and steam powered
“spinning slots,” spread out across the thinly-carpeted floor.
The Halflings, Mervin and Jade Fortuna, began their joint businesses together in the early days
of Drywood, after a series of business misadventures saw them chased out of several towns for
peddling falsely advertised goods, or taking out loans they were later unable to pay back. When
asked about the details, both are happy to recount all manner of their past hijinks, heavily
asserting that everyone involved now looks back on the events and laughs.
The pair honestly expected nothing more from the gambling house and distillery in Drywood,
setting up shop early and selling newcomers on the establishment’s status as a “Must-see
Drywood Destination,” but when folks seemed to like the drinks and kept coming back to cash
their pennies at the card tables and fancy spinning machines, they doubled down on the
investment
The gambling floor isn’t just unique for its sprawling size, however. Interspersed across the
building are several large vats, the other means of revenue for the Fortuna twins. With eight vats

58
in total, Mervin personally keeps track of each with a religious regularity, two vats each of beer,
mead, moonshine, and hard cider all produced en masse under the Fortuna brand.
For higher-end drinks, the basement is a labyrinth of precariously sorted barrels of all shapes
and sizes in which specialty crafts are brewed, bottled, and packaged for top-dollar sales to
casino guests and local saloons.
Every seat in the place is a repurposed barrel, keg, or other implement of fermentation, adding a
rusty atmosphere to an otherwise intimidating assemblage of steam technology.
Despite their names and lucky tendencies, the Fortunas’ success in the gambling industry is no
accident. In order to ensure that the house always wins, they discreetly employ a number of card
sharks to meander from table to table and ensure that no lucky patron walks away with more
money than the business could afford. These so-called sharks make a fair bit of consistent
money, blessed with good hands by tipped-in dealers and a sharp eye for winners relying on luck
over skill.
The sharks have their own customs, of course, and certain practices may give them away. The
easiest to spot is their expectation “not to steal the kill.” When an individual pulls up a seat at a
table, only to exchange a glare with another patron and leave a hand or two later, it’s probably
best to cash out, as the sequence has all but revealed the presence of a shark at a table.
At each corner of the building stand looming towers visible from anywhere on the gaming floor.
Each of these stands no less than 10 stories tall and roughly 30 feet by 30 feet wide. These spires
are wrapped in spiral stairs that meander up their sides, allowing guests access to a room for the
night, though pricing is based on the view. From the tenth floor, one can clearly see the
unobstructed, softly glowing lights of Drywood against a backdrop of towering mountains or
meandering canyons, depending on the direction.
Thanks to its cultivated aesthetic and pricey taste, the Roulette Palace attracts a higher-end
crowd than most other establishments in Drywood. That said, it’s still the city known for its
sinners, so one is by no means safe from outlaws or pickpockets during their time in the
gambling halls.

Sydney Estate
At the left furthest-West of the Horseshoe Hills lies the Sydney estate, owned by the notorious
Magnolia Sydney, a famously beautiful half elf. Most who meet the woman behind the Sydney
Plantation Company hold her in high regards, happy to attest for her charming demeanor and
easygoing nature. She has used her charisma to great effect, building a farming company from
the ground up by buying up land atop aquifers, then using the natural irrigation to grow all
manner of orchards and mass gardens. Sydney Plantations quickly became the leading supplier
of Food in the Somber Frontier within a year of her settling in Drywood.
Whispers linger, however, behind closed doors and always in secret; rumors that Ms. Sydney is
wanted in the Empire under three different alter egos, or that she has killed so many victims
that she herself lost count years ago. These rumors range from almost believable to stiflingly
falsified, and the beloved Ms. Sydney always laughs them off.

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No evidence of these rumors has ever come to light, but some point this out as evidence that
Magnolia must be hiding something. Nobody in the Somber Frontier, much less Drywood, has a
perfect past, and the lack of information may suggest covered tracks rather than innocence.
As for her estate, however, the four-story mansion is known for a beautiful central courtyard,
open to the sky itself. Magical enchantments keep this area constantly bathed in a refreshing,
cool mist, a feature that helps maintain a gorgeous garden visible from each level.
The various aesthetic wards on the house a popular place for parties and evening events,
although the charming Ms. Sydney says she is always most comfortable with a smaller crowd of
friends who she knows well, saying that she gets “exhausted, being the center of attention all of
the time.”

‘Skyhall’
Easily the most oft-scorned estate of the Horseshoe Hills is Skyhall, a mansion that holds more
wear, tear, and disrepair than seems possible for in a city established just over 5 years ago. With
several boarded-up windows, fallen shingles, and hole-punctured walls covered in mismatched
drywall and paint, the manor is the embodiment of careless revelry, a fact that its patrons see as
its greatest draw.
Skyhall is owned by the Whitbeck family, a once-proud bloodline of successful investors who
arranged to have the abode built in the city’s early days, thinking the location would serve as a
highly promising real estate market. Mr. and Mrs. Whitbeck had gorgeous plans for a sprawling
suburb of homes, with the outskirts of the town being occupied by dozens of cottages perfect for
young lovers seeking to raise a family beyond the watchful eyes of the Arcanists.
The couple sent their son Harvey, a promising young businessman like his parents, ahead to the
mansion to ensure their accounts and arrangements were all in order the month before his
parents and little brother were set to arrive with the family’s belongings.
Tragically, two weeks after they were scheduled to meet him at the estate, Harvey received a gut-
wrenching message from a ranch-hand on the outskirts of the Barrens: a pair of wagons with the
family crest had been found utterly destroyed a few days prior at the bottom of a ravine. It was
presumed that wagons fell in a minor rockslide to their demise a few hundred feet below.
Arrangements had already been made to deliver the bodies and what few items remained intact
the next day, including a sturdy chest holding most of the family’s assets, free of charge to the
grieving Whitmer family.
Harvey Whitbeck fell into a deep depression and blew huge sums of the family fortune on booze,
drugs, and pleasures of the flesh. In his downward spiral, the young man filled the empty halls
of what was to be a joyous home with addicts, drinkers, and whores. By the time he drifted from
despair to acceptance a few years later, the Whitbeck home had become a constant hub of so-
called “undesirables,” a trend which he was no longer in a position to reverse.
In an attempt to pull himself back up, Harvey Whitbeck approached the situation as he felt his
parents would have -- as a financial opportunity. He had developed a network, however
unprofessionally, in his quest to numb away his pain, and he drew on those contacts to turn his
grief-ridden house into something that better resembled a business, albeit an exceedingly non-
traditional one. With a few investments and quasi-legal purchases of “patents,” Whitbeck began

60
developing a local product he had become accustomed to in his time spent mourning: the
flowers of the Cinari Cactus.
The fleshy interior of the Cinari had long been known to produce a mellowing effect on users
who consumed or inhaled the burnt fumes of the plant. The flowers, meanwhile, were known to
be the source of the chemicals responsible for the effect, though not in any form that could be
metabolized by humanoids. Whitbeck hired a number of highly paid researchers, and within a
few months had patented a formula to produce a strong liquid concentrate of the flowers. The
concentrate could lace nearly anything that burned, creating fumes that induced intense
psychedelic effects which users almost unanimously describe as “like being in the sky,” thus the
Whitbeck mansion’s new name: Skyhall.
With the success of his exclusive product, Whitbeck expanded his newfound business to other
drugs, reinvesting everything he earned into new products, which in turn offered new markets,
which in turn required more
investment. The end result was a
functional monopoly on the
Drywood drug scene, a status
which turned the Whitbeck name
from that of a business to that of a
de facto gang, given numerous
laws against the drugs in other
regions of the Somber Frontier.
Today, the numerous rooms of
Skyfall are littered with strung out
customers, paying top dollar for
the genuine product and a place
to experience their trip away from
any prying eyes that might ruin
their reputations or worse, their
safety.
In some remote office of the
highest floor, Harvey Whitmer
still toils over nickels and dimes
of the organization he still
considers a “legitimate business
operation,” even if nobody else,
even on his own payroll, agrees.
Mr. Whitmer is seldom seen in
public anymore, typically only
venturing out of Skyhall for a
quiet night out, or a tranquil walk
on the rare occasion that the
streets of Drywood go quiet.

61
 Other towns
An unmapped world
No other towns in the Somber Frontier exist on official maps but are instead discovered by the
players as they’re found/as the DM decides to put them there.
DMs are free to create towns by any method they so choose, but it is recommended that they fill
out features in the following categories in order to flush them out and avoid the classic problem
of generic tavern+blacksmith+farm locations, as well as to give the campaign a more “Western”
feel.

Naming Towns:
Towns don’t necessarily need to follow these naming conventions, for those struggling to
improvise a name, this table should be helpful.

Town Size:
Towns will vary greatly in populace and size. This table contains the official title for each type of
town based on its population, but some have names that suggest larger/smaller sizes than their
populace would entail.

Magical Factions
This table can randomly determine which factions are in control of the town. On a 5 or a 6, roll a
2d4 to determine which 2 castes hold power.

Non-Magic Factions:
Most towns feature 2 or 3 prominent non-magical factions with political power. Those provided
in the table serve as examples and are by no means an exhaustive list.

Law presence
This table tells what the town’s form and degree of order is, based on who and how many people
enforce it.

Quirks/rumors
I highly recommend rolling a combined total of 3 items from this table per town. The selected
talking points will, at the very least, make great fallback discussion items for NPCs and
investigations.

62
D100 Town name 34 Drystone 67 Bernstein Barrow
1 Twin Hill 35 Tumbleweed 68 Klaus Run
2 Union Township Gulch 69 Swiftsong
3 Jessieville 36 No Return 70 Loggerfort
4 Blunt’s Bluff 37 High Hopes 71 Newman
5 Boldmesa 38 Newhaven 72 Harmony Falls
6 Wolf’s Run 39 Copper Gorge 73 Dust
7 Pike’s Ridge 40 Goatrun 74 Violet Meadows
8 Littlebrook 41 Lowbellow 75 Prairie water
9 Pamella’s Point 42 Garthland 76 Wildeflats
10 Wormwood 43 Gracekeep 77 Angelfort
11 Moonsilver 44 Glasswood 78 Muddletown
12 Treehome 45 Fonderdale 79 Cooper Ridge
13 Crowhenge 46 Daleburg 80 Hound Heart
14 Kato Crossing 47 Kelseyton 81 Bear’s Run
15 Willowgate 48 Lobserville 82 Cortez Court
16 Hallowcourt 49 Bultema Bluff 83 Fearson
17 Irongorge 50 Gardnerbrook 84 Steel Gulch
18 Graysnag 51 McClaine 85 Bleak Falls
19 Garth’s Crossing 52 Henry Hill 86 Buscatine
20 Amnesty Falls 53 Murlton 87 Buffalo Breach
21 Hark’s Hill 54 Drew’s Grave 88 Yellowtusk
22 Taylorsville 55 Baileyville 89 Honeysuckle
23 Greenfield 56 Marcum Hallow 90 Darkfort
24 Wolfhenge 57 Hambrick Point 91 Wearbury
25 Timbertuck 58 Kernstead 92 Roserest
26 Gallowson 59 Hintzwood 93 Dawnthorn
27 Bentonburn 60 Fort Ross 94 Evanstad
28 Mawvillle 61 Folkerstone 95 Greenechapel
29 Fort Dodge 62 Highwater 96 Sternstall
30 Elliott Range 63 Ridgegate 97 Hazelridge
31 Scorn city 64 Greystone Range 98 Rainhelm
32 Minersville 65 Idlebank 99 Gideon’s Rest
33 Prayer Pass 66 Red Fern 100 Hell Valley

63
 D8 Town size (# of D20 Non-magic Faction
inhabitants) 1 Somber Frontier Merchant’s
1 Outpost (11 or fewer) guild
2 Homestead (12-19) 2 (random) guild
3 Village (20-49 3 Helton-North Mining Company
4 Hamlet (50-99) 4 Local Business of your choice
5 Settlement (100-249) 5 Workers Unions (pick a random
6 Township (250-499) guild)
7 Town (500-999) 6 Silverton Banking Corporation
8 Borough (1,000-1,999) 7 County Sheriff
9 City (1,200-9,999) 8 Sterling Regulators (mafia-like
10 Territory (10,000+) vigilante justice gang)
(9 and 10 are included for scale, but only a d8 should 9 The Wild Bunch (mischievous
be rolled for randomly generated towns, as such a outlaws)
tremendous size would all but guarantee their 10 Brass Bandits (outlaw gang of
presence on a map.)
robbers, pickpockets, muggers)
11 Smoke Brotherhood (assassin
guild)
D6 Magical Faction in control 12 Moonsisters (smuggling gang)
1 Divine 13 Church of (random deity)
2 Natural 14 Cult of (random deity)
3 Supernatural 15 Apex Press and Telegram Co.
4 Nameless 16 Moonshiners
5 Multiple (coexistent) 17 Arcane sympathizers
6 Multiple (conflicting) 18 A ring of corrupt officials
19 Mundane public officials
20 Cult of personality

64
 D10 LAW PRESENCE
1 Anarchy (no presence nor enforcement of rules whatsoever)
2 Unwritten (the community has expectations and unspoken rules, but they are
ultimately un-enforced)
3 Mob-rule (the townspeople execute their shared agenda by force, often by hanging or
chasing out whoever gets in their way.)
4 Posse-run (“rules” are established and enforced by a well-equipped faction, not public
officials.)
5 Council (a small group of roughly accountable officials governs the town, but lack any
formal means of enforcement, relying instead on civic duties to keep denizens in check.
6 One-ranger (a single lawkeeping resident serves as the go-to dispute settler, detective,
and law enforcer.)
7 Small force (a sergeant and one or two rangers keep what peace they can with minimal
equipment and personnel, often recruiting town help as needed.)
8 Moderate law presence (a deputy and several reasonably equipped lawmen keep the
peace, with help from the community only on rare occasion.)
9 County base (a sheriff, 2 deputies, and a dozen rangers ensure that the area is safe and
as free of crime as reasonably possible for as far as they can reach.)
10 Tug-of-war (roll a d8 to select options 2-9. That level of law enforcement seeks wrestle
power from 1 or more local factions with their own agendas, creating mixed standards
and district-specific expectations in the city.)

D20 ECONOMIC FEATURES

1 Military Fort (money received from taxes)
2 Railway stop
3 Lumber
4 Mines (coal)
5 Mines (copper/silver)
6 Mines (gold)
7 Mines (gemstones and rare metals)
8 Agriculture
9 Crafted goods (furniture, doors, locks, etc.)
10 Skilled Blacksmith (armor, melee weapons)
11 Skilled gunsmith
12 Theatrical attraction
13 A particularly well-known saloon
14 Nearby sight-seeing, tourism
15 Stop or destination of a holy trail or pilgrimage
16 Underground illicit trades and deals
17 Trading post
18 Services from the dominant magical faction
19 Saw or paper mill
20 Subsistence farming: there is very little money to be made here

(credit to reddit user u/sir_schuster1 for many items on the side quest table)

65
D100 Rumor/side quest
1 Several folks in town have caught a black falcon watching them from just out of sight
2 A ghost has been haunting the graveyard outside of town
3 Chickens have been disappearing from a local farm despite the farmer patching up the fence, then
reinforcing it, then keeping watch all night.
4 The creek is running dry, despite recent rains
5 Some traveling merchant has been peddling cursed items
6 An arsonist burned down the sawmill last week, a carriage house this week, and is still at large.
7 A seemingly beloved local is rumored to be an arcane sympathizer behind closed doors.
8 A local hotshot has been challenging people to duels, not with guns, but swords.
9 “I hear the government of this place ain’t the only way that the sheriff gets paid.”
10 A troublemaker on a crime spree has broken into every tavern, eatery, and bed and breakfast only to
shatter every plate and leave, taking nothing
11 A horse with full equipment but no rider was found yesterday afternoon by the sheriff with a note asking
for help in a spot outside of town, but the sheriff doesn’t have enough men to send anyone there
12 Rumor has it that a powerful magic item is arriving at a local estate at midnight tonight.
13 A page torn from a wizard’s spell book blew into town and was picked up by some civilian. He swears he
threw it out later, but everyone suspects he’s been trying to pick up some arcane tricks
14 Nobody in a remote town has heard back from any messages sent by carrier Pidgeon in two weeks, nor has
anyone received messages via animal messenger.
15 A party member has been framed for a crime and is now wanted in court in a small settlement or village
16 A very large sum is offered for “disposing of a house spider.” (The creature is a giant spider the size of a
house.)
17 There was a break-in at a local store
18 A strange, powerful beast is said to live in a nearby body of water. Some townsfolk revere it, others have a
bounty out for whoever can kill it.
19 A Deputy from another town hunter came in asking about an escaped convict who had come by the other
night who locals thought an upstanding fellow. The next day, a bounty hunter comes into town looking for
a man posing as a deputy.
20 A farmer claims to have “trained” some goblins to work for him without incident
21 A local alchemist will pay top dollar for a very specific species of frog, all but extinct in the surrounding
area due to their use in a given recipe
22 A bard who claims to have been raised by wolves has been performing in town. The music is popular, but
every night she sings, a pack of wolves kills more livestock.
23 A local insists he has found the secret of flight and intends to launch himself into the stars.
24 A sword in the stone can be sensed by all creatures in the land with "Detect Magic" but lately it seems that
the presence is becoming overbearing. Magic users are worried that unless the true king draws the sword,
proving his lineage, or the spell "Detect Magic" will become obsolete.
25 Invisible stalkers have been on a killing spree lately in multiple nearby towns
26 A wanted poster details a bandit on a spree of stealing some kind of low value, easily acquired item.
27 Windows have been shattered across town and nobody seems to agree on why
28 Somebody fell down a well while looking for something and is now stuck
29 Locals are abuzz about a brawl last night… in a church.
30 Word on the street holds that some local public figure is a werewolf
31 “Don’t leave your home before dawn, strange things live in them mists.”
32 A gunfighter in town is itching for a duel
33 Some kid recently struck a gold vein, but it’s right under the church, and the preacher won’t permit
anyone to dig underneath the sacred ground
34 Someone’s been summoning imps that are causing all kinds of trouble
35 Sinkholes have been popping up all over town
66
36 A bank robber is on the loose and they think he’s hitting here next
37 A reporter has been running a newspaper from the next town over that speaks poorly of an iron-fisted
official in this town
38 A prospector had been telling everyone he’d found gold and had drawn up plans to claim some land by the
creek, but he and the bureaucrat they sent with him were found dead the morning they left.
39 (local faction) is taxing/forcing businesses to pay “insurance”
40 A local business is thought to be part of a money laundering scheme
41 There’s a carnival coming to town soon to celebrate some obscure holiday!
42 Farmer Davis won’t shut up about his “rat problem.”
43 An optimistic entrepreneur heard eggs are selling for 1 gp apiece just 30 miles North. He has bought every
egg in this town and the next town over and now needs only to transport them north.
44 A horse accident left a girl all but nearly dead today, people don’t think she’ll live another day, but her
lover insists that a priest of (random deity) can save her.
45 A fiery preacher is overheard saying something about “poor man’s gold.”
46 A girl at the hostel has fallen for one of the PCs
47 A local has fallen for a young barkeeper’s apprentice, but the barkeep is so caught up in their work that
they haven’t taken notice
48 A beloved member of the community has died, but the ground is too hard (from weather or material) to
dig a grave
49 A local amateur artificer claims to have discovered the secret to magic-free flight
50 The entire Hinsaw family was found dead in their home, some say without a drop of blood left in their
bodies
51 A pie eating contest is due to draw some local celebrities... and an assassin
52 A nearby abandoned mineshaft is rumored to house a portal to another plane of existence
53 A massive earthquake opened a huge fissure in the earth about a month ago. Three men have gone down
to see what’s inside, none have yet returned
54 A wealthy resident died this morning, and his will curiously insists on a stranger speaking at his funeral
55 Somebody died last night at a high-brow expensive musical venue
56 A local healer’s magic is somehow losing its touch
57 A massive fossil has been uncovered, and any number of rumors run rampant about what it might be.
58 Every night it’s rained for as long as anyone can remember, figures have been seen walking around
outside, just far enough from windows to identify
59 A snake oil salesman has made a fortune on a product he keeps promising will show results by week two.
He’s been in town for 13 days now…
60 A shady figure has been peddling counterfeit spell pages. They work, but require substantially more
components
61 Someone has been stealing all things metal from locals: frying pans, bullets, washboards, canned goods,
you name it.
62 Something in the (nearby terrain) has been killing travelers, but the sheriff couldn’t find anything when he
went out to look
63 Something has been causing mineshafts to collapse, with some workers trapped and killed within
64 A farmer will pay an exorbitant fee for a “critter problem”
65 A gang of sleekly dressed centaurs has been harassing the locals
66 Two identical men claim to be “the real Abraham Keller,” and are locked up by the sheriff for questioning.
They seem to know exactly the same things about everything.
67 Folks have heard a beautiful, haunting singing coming from the wilderness the last few nights, but nobody
is quite sure who the source is or why they’re doing it.
68 A farmer half-a-day’s walk out of town is said to be growing a variety of exotic beasts.
69 A succubus is thought to have infiltrated a brothel
70 Rumors are circulating that a beautiful local girl is secretly a medusa
67
71 A well-loved elder was found dead and mangled the morning after he went out for a late-night walk
72 A shepherd went up to the hills to feed his flock 3 days ago but hasn’t been seen since. His family is getting
worried about him, but nobody knows exactly where he went.
73 Something has been destroying all the equipment of workers around the town, from pickaxes to hoes to
weaving supplies
74 A prizewinning horse jockey is thought to be cheating somehow, but nobody has caught him doing
anything sketchy. Still, his win rate is abnormally high.
75 Plants have started to grow abnormally and even disruptively fast around town
76 The local opera house is supposedly haunted.
77 A volunteer monster hunter who has served the town for as long as it’s stood was found decapitated in his
home
78 A mine owner is looking for someone to summon creatures he can put to work in a mineshaft
79 The children in town have been going missing, more than 5 now, after only 3 days and 2 nights.
80 Townsfolk are convinced a member of the local church is a wizard in disguise
81 Something very big has been heard rummaging through people trash, but nobody has yet caught it in the
act.
82 The abandoned house up the hill is a free place to stay, but it’s said to be haunted. Inns know this and
charge extra for a night’s stay because of it.
83 One particular figure, drinking heavily in a dark corner, hasn’t been heard speaking in over 15 years.
84 Poor Henry Dovelson has gone mad
85 An underground cult is said to be pulling all the strings in this town
86 A falling star crashed to earth nearby, but the crater was empty. No debris, no rubble, just… a hole.
87 A gravedigger is accused of creating work by murdering people.
88 A recently hanged outlaw is somehow back at large, having just robbed a bank.
89 Carriages of highly secure cargo have been robbed on their ways into town. Nobody is quite sure how
90 It’s bad luck to stand in the stone circle in the middle of town. Nobody steps in there, and in fact, nobody
will build within 25 feet of the thing.
91 A gambling house uses sleight of hand, magic, and stacked decks to ensure that the house always wins. Yet
somehow, a card shark that recently rolled in has been cleaning them out.
92 An old, raving townsperson rambles something about “the thing in the night”
93 The number of crows in town has steadily increased over the last several months
94 A schoolteacher is a suspended Sorcerer, and parents are getting concerned
95 A visitor in town seems suspicious, almost like they’re looking for something.
96 Two prominent townspeople are expected to duel on main street at noon, but no two groups of people can
agree on who is dueling, what the spat is about, or what weapons they intend to use.
97 A newcomer in town is a suspected bounty hunter
98 They say this town is built atop some kind of old ruin, wiped out by the fall of Karthus
99 Heard the house ale here never tastes the same twice. Barkeep says if you taste something in it no one’s
tasted before, that drink is half off. Says if you both drink it and taste the same thing, drink's free. (a
rumor absolutely made up by the barkeep to get people buying his ale.)
100 Late at night, when the Sheriff heads home, the night patroller is willing to look the other way for a small
weekly sum so the tavern can host a fight club

Credit to papersandpencils.com http://www.paperspencils.com/1d100-small-

town-quirks/ for the starting point of many of these unique features and quirks

68
D100 Feature
1 Alcohol is outlawed in this “dry country”
2 Bets and gambling are placed not on pool hustlers or card sharks, but games of chess and
checkers in the local tavern.
3 The town harbors a strong distaste for alchemists and alchemy, referring to the craft as
“professional snake oil.”
4 A bartender is a unique race not accessible to the PCs (If all races are allowed, pick a rare
and/or monstrous race)
5 A saloon is called “the confession booth,” and patrons can pay extra for the bartender, an
ordained priest, to grant them a confession of their sins.
6 A high-ranking local official is known to receive dirty money, but is tolerated because they
don’t let it get out of hand.
7 A local shop produces a food or beverage not found anywhere else in the world
8 This town has a florist
9 The town’s elected official lives in a surprisingly high-end estate where they host balls and
parties somewhat regularly
10 A single town official is secretly an arcanist
11 The town has a theatre that’s much nicer than the rest of the town, paid for by an anonymous
donor.
12 The town’s well is close to running dry
13 The town is haunted
14 The town has a teleportation circle
15 A small timber that doesn’t appear on any maps surrounds the town
16 Most structures in the town are built into the terrain, i.e. tree houses and hill huts.
17 The town hosts a small portal to another plane of existence with specific activation criteria
18 The town experiences somewhat regular minor earthquakes
19 The town is prone to flooding
20 A unique sense of fashion originated in this town
21 An obscure mundane item (hats, bandana, walking stick, etc.) is outlawed
22 A local bard has a crew of fixers to ensure their monopoly on the limelight, not to be
outperformed
23 The town is in the midst of a local election
24 The town has no prison and must send all criminals IMMEDIATELY to court, with a justice
always on call.
25 Local agricultural practices rely on magic users to ensure a decent harvest
26 The town houses a sophisticated and complex irrigation system
27 The town uses mostly indoor plumbing
28 Every building in the town is constructed as a log cabin
29 Exceedingly heavy fortifications surround the town
30 Once per week, community members hold a large bonfire in the town square
31 A local resident houses a small menagerie of exotic animals.
32 Petty crime is exceedingly common and even expected
33 Roughly half of the town has been destroyed in a relatively recent fire.
34 Overpopulation has left few if any buildings without makeshift bedrooms in every corner,
closet, and shed.
35 Caves beneath the town serve as a functional undercity
36 A magnificent fountain stands in the town’s center
37 The town is a tent city when the PCs first arrive
38 The town was founded under a year ago, and many buildings are incomplete
39 Denizens have a general distrust for magic, even from the non-arcane
69
40 The population is strongly anti-bard
41 The population is strongly anti-cleric
42 The population is strongly anti-druid
43 The population is strongly anti-paladin
44 The population is strongly anti-ranger
45 The population is strongly anti-warlock
46- The population is strongly anti-Nameless, harboring a distaste for anyone unable to cast
49 spells
50 The population is strongly anti-Arcane, so devoutly opposed to mages that witch-hunts and
death trials for suspected wizards and sorcerers somewhat ordinary, with varying degrees of
evidence
51 The town is in the midst of an election when the PCs arrive
52 The town contains a portal to another plane of existence
53 A summoning circle lies in a dusty closet or backroom
54 The town houses a graveyard larger than the town itself
55 No roads lead to this town, it was built without transport in mind
56 The town has no bank due to frequent robberies
57 The town has a heavily fortified bank due to frequent robberies
58 At least one building in town is a repurposed non-building. (e.g. a boxcar, a broken boat, a
silo, etc.)
59 Illusion spells are outlawed
60 Evocation spells are outlawed
61 Enchantment spells are outlawed
62 Abjuration spells are outlawed
63 Transmutation spells are outlawed
64 Divination spells are outlawed
65 Conjuration spells are outlawed
66 Necromancy spells are outlawed
67 All magical items must be registered at the sheriff’s office before conducting any business in
town. Powerful items are to be kept in the office under lock and key until the owner leaves
town.
68 The town hosts a particularly grand church
69 The town hosts a particularly successful brothel
70 One beloved town member is a kobold
71 Every building in town has a humanoid name. (Sarah, James, Bruce, etc.)
72 Anybody not wearing weapons in public is considered to be insulting the townsfolk’s martial
abilities. The community will attack in force to prove the outsider wrong.
73 Anybody openly carrying weapons in public is seen as a suspicious trouble maker and less
likely to receive help from locals.
74 It is impolite to accept gifts or money on the first offer, but even more rude not to insist that
the other take it when one is offering.
75 The town enforces a strict noise ordinance
76 The town has a petrified forest on the outskirts
77 Haircuts and shaves are frowned upon, with one’s hair considered a sign of wisdom
78 At least one position in local government is decided by annual contests such as a horse race,
poetry reading, fencing tournament, or pie-making contest
79 A housecat is referred to as the mayor in all seriousness by the townspeople. They recognize
that the feline has no political power, but the position was largely ceremonious anyways, and
it’s the cat of the very popular elected mayor, who is recently deceased, but joked in life that
his cat was his second in command.
70
80 Visitors at an inn or tavern are expected to provide entertainment for the evening
81 The town is a commune without an obvious hierarchy. Most goods are available through
trade, rather than monetary payment.
82 The town experiences frequent isolated rain showers that do not extend to the surrounding
terrain
83 The town has unusually low crime rates despite numerous opportunities (unlocked
businesses, valuable display goods, etc.)
84 Business hours are 2 p.m. thru 10 p.m. instead of the regular 9-5
85 The town is far out of the way and knows nothing of current events but are eager to pester
the rare travelers for any info and to carry any mail out of town for them.
86 Sign language is as common as spoken language
87 A small tax is expected every time one enters the town proper, collected by 24/7
“gatekeepers.”
88 Feeding stray animals is encouraged, and the town is full of cats and dogs that happily
approach strangers
89 Every building contains at least one houseplant
90 Town members are strongly devoted to a particular god and scoff at all others
91 The town specialty is a unique flavor of tea
92 It is considered rude to step off the path
93 Tips are seen as insulting
94 The local blacksmith specializes in exotic and exuberant blades, most of them very fancy and
well-decorated knives.
95 Wooden roofs are outlawed as a fire hazard
96 There’s a brothel in the town named “the Bakery.”
97 The town is one of the only sources of a very niche, very specialized commodity, such bat
guano for spells components, sand, or fishing worms.
98 A variety of beekeepers own small colonies surrounding the town
99 Natural rock formations around the town make it a popular destination fo sightseers
100 The town is abandoned entirely, the residents and nearly all of their belongings gone without
a trace other than empty buildings and forgotten trinkets.

71
Chapter 2: Variant Options

72
 Variant Combat rules:
Gritty:
Consider the following variant rule for a grittier campaign setting that shortens combat,
makes the party think carefully before picking fights, and rewards tactical strategies:
Add 1 damage
dice to every damage
roll. Example: rapier
does 2d8 instead of 1d8.
A 5th level character
using the firebolt
cantrip would deal 3d10
fire damage instead of
2d10. The spell
lightning bolt, when
cast with a 3rd level spell
slot, does 9d6 lightning
damage instead of 8d6.
Etc.
This damage is
treated as part of the
base damage roll and is
multiplied by effects like
critical hits.
If an attack’s damage uses more than one type of dice, only roll the highest dice an
additional time. For example, a paladin using a 1st level smite with a handaxe would do 1d6
slashing, and 3d8 radiant. But if a ranger using hunter's mark hit with a light crossbow, it would
do 2d8 piercing and 1d6 magical piercing.
For any spell that would make multiple separate attack rolls from a single casting, that
spell’s damage not affected by this variant rule. Instead, the given spell includes one more
instance of the damaging effect than it normally would. For example, a caster using magic
missile with a 1st level spell slot would produce 4 missiles instead of 3. A 5th level warlock casting
the eldritch blast cantrip would make attacks rolls for 3 separate beams instead of 2. Scorching
ray cast with a 2nd level spell slot would create 4 rays of fire instead of 3. Etc.
The weapons table for this setting was designed with this optional damage variant in
mind. It may take some playtesting to work out a balanced version without the Gritty Variant.

73
Point-blank shooting:
Because pistols are designed for closer engagements than typical fantasy weaponry,
consider the following adjustment to D&D 5th Edition’s ranged attack rules:
One-handed firearm attacks do not have disadvantage
for firing within melee range of an enemy, as long as that
enemy is the target of the attack.
If an enemy other than the target is adjacent when you
make the attack roll, then the attack roll is still made with
disadvantage.

Potion Slots
In order to make potions available without making
them overwhelmingly powerful, consider the following
variant rule regarding potion use in the action economy.
Characters may store up to one potion at a time in an
easily accessed place, such as on their belt, an outer pocket of a
bag, an inner pocket of a vest, or even tucked up a sleeve.
Drinking a potion from an easy-access location costs a bonus
action, instead of an action.
Other than the single easy-access potion, any other
potion use takes an action. This includes not only using potions from one’s own supply on
themselves, but using the potion of an ally, (even if it was on their belt,) or taking and using a
potion from a fallen character.
Worth noting, administering a potion to another character, even if that potion is in an
easy-access location, still requires an action, just as in base rules. (DMG 139)
If using this rule, consider adding bandoleers and items designed specifically to store
multiple quick-access potions as common or uncommon wondrous items.

“Potion Bottles” modified public image by Petr Kratochvil via publicdomainpictures.net

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 Harrowing Combats
Whether or not you choose to use the Gritty damage variant rule (reference) consider making
combats in general more challenging than normal for players. A few notes on ways to do that are
as follows:

Ranged skirmishes:
To give your players a more harrowing combat experience, get into the habbit of starting
combats from further away. Make use of partial cover and half-cover rules as well as hidden
attackers to start fights off with a few shots before the players can mount a defense.
An unseen attacker can make use of the Air Rifle on the weapons table, in chapter 3 of the
player’s packet, which doesn’t compromise the attacker’s stealth like other attacks typically
would. Be careful, however, unseen attackers are more threatening than their stat blocks would
suggest, leaving the players unable to fend them off until they find the attacker, a process which
can take several turns and several enemy shots.
The ranged ambush tactic need not be limited to stealthy enemies, however. A small guerilla
unit could ambush the party even with bright muzzle flashes giving away their position, as they
can attack from cover while the players are caught in an open clearing.

Organized Enemies
Too often, hostile monsters and NPCs attack in a disorganized fashion, run as a ragtag assembly
of enemies rather than a practiced fighting force.
While this makes sense for some monsters such as beasts and mindless undead, anything
remotely intelligent should typically attack the party with a plan of action in mind, although the
quality of that plan varies from monster to monster. Goblins, after all, will seldom match the
tactical training of experienced soldiers or a practiced gang of outlaws.
Consider the following elementary fighting tactics while running the monsters and enemies of
your world.
Wedge formation:
One of the oldest tricks in the history book of military tactics, the
wedge formation is an easily trained and employed technique for
groups of melee characters.
The technique involves gathering into a V-shaped group and
charging toward the enemy with weapons pointed forward. The
presence of shields on the front line of chargers ensures some
survivability to them, and the guarantee of flanking foes on all A 9-man wedge formation, with 5 shield
sides deters any would-be heavy hitters from breaking through the bearers represented by circles and 4
riflemen represented by triangles
ranks into a mess of hostile creatures.
While hardly optimal against foes with firearms, employing the wedge formation with more than
one layer of infantry allows a wall of high AC shield users to grant cover for a second line of
riflemen, who can attack at range and even reload while covered by shield bearers up front. If
enemies do advance to take out the front line, shield bearers can be equipped with melee
weapons to hold their own.

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 The wedge formation has one particularly glaring flaw in a Dungeons and Dragons setting: it
opens the attackers up to all manner of area-of-effect spells, like Fireball or Storm sphere.
Line Formation
For gun-toting enemies seeking to maximize their damage, the most effective method is to stand
in a line perpendicular the enemy. This affords the target
minimal cover and allows the unobstructed attackers a view of a
high number of targets.
Line formation is only advisable in select situations, however.
The tactic is very risky, leaving shooters exposed and unable to
protect one another if melee combatants manage to get close.
The only upside is one that seldom effects D&D combat
A 4-man line formation can inflict mechanics: by spreading out,
massive damage given a nearly there is a lower likelihood of
unobstructed field of fire
attackers targeting two soldiers
in the same swift series of shots.
While the multiattack and extra attack mechanics nullify this,
spreading out at least provides the chance for some shooters to
use trees, brush, and other cover so they’re not all easily
targeted.

Line formation trades off with

defensive posture, as it is vulnerable
to any amount of flanking

Column Formation
For tactically minded groups, column formation is the assumed
method of travel for cavalry and infantry alike. The simple single-file
setup allows strategic organization with minimal training or practice.
The formation’s tight grouping offers an easy counter to melee and
cavalry attackers, as the threat of multiple ranks of soldiers ready to
strike at whoever comes close makes for an effective deterrent.
The Column formation also offers survivability when facing a line
formation of enemies, as the shoulder-to-chest setup means every
member of the unit is one degree safer than whoever stands in front
of them. When attacked from the side, however, this benefit is lost,
as an entire segment of the company may find itself vulnerable to a
flanking line.
A staggered-unit column The ideal setup of a column formation has the most durable units
arrangement offers a middle ground
lining the outside, offering cover to lighter-armored, more heavily
between outer unit tanks and an
armed riflemen clustered in the middle. This protection, however,
optimal field of view for riflemen
trades off with offensive capabilities, as the riflemen in the middle
have limited fields of view with all the heavy armored troops surrounding them.

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 Unknown Adversaries
The following is a list of miscellaneous optional features DMs may want to include in campaigns
for this setting to bring additional layers of challenges to their adventure.

Altering a stat block

Adventures on an unexplored frontier are a great opportunity for creative
DMs. Many seasoned parties of players bring meta-knowledge to the
table, whether they intend to or not. It doesn’t usually matter how
dedicated your players are to roleplay, if you present them with a
vampiric enemy, they’ll usually respond by trying to deal
radiant damage without giving it a second thought.
To avoid this tendency of experienced players, consider
revising monster stat blocks, or even making your own!
There are several seemingly minor features you can easily
alter on any stat block that drastically change how the
creature behaves in a fight.
Altering a monster’s “look”
Seasoned players often hold an intimate understanding
of the Monster Manual, either having paged through it
a few times on their own or having learned about
nearly all monsters through osmosis alone.
For DMs looking to prevent out-of-character
strategizing, a lot of confusion can be introduced by
simply describing the monster as something not featured
in the stat block. A red dragon stat block can just as easily
be “re-skinned” as a giant, fire-blasting ephemeral creature,
which the players might not assume has immunity to fire
damage. A Hydra in the water could be presented as a
particularly fast-healing massive crocodile that makes several
rapid attacks, which would keep the players from assuming they
need to deal equal to a given amount of 25 hp increments.
Re-skinning in this way takes minimal effort on the DM’s part, although when noticed by the
players, the façade falls away quickly. At the very least, it’s easy enough to re-flavor a monster if
you’re short on prep time and can’t take many other preparations.
Swapping one damage vulnerability/resistance/immunity for another
Many monsters are known for more or less unexplained reactions to different types of damage.
All demons in the Monster Manual, for example, have resistance to cold, fire, and lightning
damage.

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To keep players on their toes, consider switchups such as making Barlgura demons resistant to
thunder instead of lightning damage, thanks to their sturdy physical form; or a dretch’s fire
resistance being replaced with slashing resistance thanks to its tough, rubbery skin.
This trick need not be limited to only basic level damage interactions. The classic example of
trolls, which stop regenerating hp for a turn when they take acid for fire damage, can be easily
tinkered with by replacing either of those damage types with any other form of energy damage,
based on the lore surrounding trolls in your world.
Combined with the “altering a monster’s look” trick mentioned above, minor re-works to
damage interactions are a good way to throw your players off the scent.
Changing damage types
Another way to keep players on their toes is to change the type of damage a monster deals. This
is best done in conjunction with re-skinning the monster: you want to sew hesitation, not
mislead the players entirely.
A monster with a bite attack might be reskinned as a massive constrictor snake, which would
deal bludgeoning damage in a squeeze instead of piercing damage through a bite. A ghost
reimagined as an angry flaming poltergeist should do fire damage, not necrotic, etc.
One damage type should be weighed heavily before using or changing from, however: force
damage. Force damage is balanced as a consitant source of magical damage, and very few
features, spells, or abilities grant resistance to it. Swapping a damage type to force damage may
increase the monster’s CR, while swapping from force to say, bludgeoning, will likely decrease it.
Take this into account when balancing re-skinned encounters.

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 Chapter 3: Running Adventures on the
Somber Frontier

“Wild West Show på High Chaparral” modified Creative Commons 3.0 image by High Chaparral
Sweden via Wikimedia Commons June 26, 2014.

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 Notes on narrative structure
The Somber Frontier represents a style of worldbuilding that traditionally goes one of two ways.
The first is a fairly straightforward “epic adventure,” story, in which the adventurers are given a
clear quest early on, and then encounter and experience the world along the way. The quest
must be important enough to draw them consistently.
This format is an easy well to tell an exciting story, although it comes at the cost of small-scale
worldbuilding as the players are likely to become more focused on their main goal than any
potential side quest or storytelling elements.
Examples of this kind of adventure are a dime a dozen in classical Western narratives and in
fact, most movies in general.
For example, in the film The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, all three main characters are
focused on reaching a heavy cache of money buried in a grave, which forces them to cooperate,
at least to some degree, despite their diverging interests. Along the way, they encounter a series
of obstacles, but are not so single-minded that they blow past these points, which would be both
more dangerous and less narratively interesting.
In contrast, in the short story The One Thousand Dozen by Jack London, an ambitious but
single-minded man drops everything in a tempting quest to deliver 12,000 eggs to a town in
Alaska where they would sell for easily five times their purchasing price. Over the course of his
journey, however, he slowly shifts from a focused, practical, and calculating individual to a
single-minded reckless figure rushing down the road.
A running a “main objective” style game must be careful to lean more towards the first example
than the second by making the end goal attainable, but not rushable. This is easiest if side goals
are a mix of narratively interesting, personally attractive to the players/their characters, and
relatively attainable without too much distraction from their main objective.
The other narrative option that lends itself well to a Western setting is an “Open World.” By
establishing consistently interesting details and nuances to the world, you can run a campaign in
which the players choose their own direction. This approach to storytelling is a much more
recent one, popularized by open-world RPG video games, as it doesn’t lend itself well, if at all, to
more passive media like books and films.
Telling a story this way requires much more improvisation. Several plot hooks are provided later
in this chapter. Their purpose is to provide a sense of direction early in the campaign or
whenever momentum runs out, which can put your players on track to a new goal.
Keeping players invested in this type of story requires careful study of their backstories and an
effort to incorporate those backstories into your world. Talk to your players about leaving loose
ends in their origins, which you can later exploit to draw them into the story.
A hybrid model of course, will usually be the best option. The best D&D adventures include a
goal that is set early on, but either unreachable or difficult to understand without exploration of
the world. On the other hand, many DMs prefer to create an open world, see which direction the
players naturally go, and then build a story from there. The Somber Frontier is not an adventure
guide, but a canvas on which to tell your own story, in whatever style you see fit.

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 Narrative Themes and how to run them

Conflict
The Somber Frontier is absolutely rife with conflict. The mass availability of land and personal
freedom comes only with the loss of agreed-upon rules to settle disputes. Many towns have no
more than a single law keeper, while some lack nearly any enforcement for their norms.
Good areas to emphasize a conflict theme in your campaign include the class tension between
arcanists and all other casters; territorial disputes between factions inside and outside of the
frontier such as the dashed line by Bilgewater Junction or West Point Crossing near Fort Barret;
or simply between the haves and the have-nots struggling to get by in strange new land.
Note that conflict is present in any good story, and the presence of it in the abstract is hardly a
thematic element. The best way to tell stories about conflict is to pick specific instances of it, and
make them relevant to the players. “People are fighting,” is too broad of a starting point to tell a
compelling story. “Two factions are at war over land that one of them sees as a religious right
while the other sees it as a necessary food source to keep them alive,” adds more tough choices,
more delicate interactions, and more fun for your adventurers.

(Loose) Morality
The Somber Frontier is an ideal place for well-intentioned ideologues and self-serving
scoundrels alike. More often than not, those two types of people may seem to overlap.
A priest, desperate to feed the needy while running out of supplies may steal from a passing
caravan. A greedy loan shark might find himself turning to compassion without the pressure of
his own collectors to satisfy.
Of course, there will always be those that never change. Paladins that refuse to hear out evil,
assassins that kill for sport, and greedy merchants exploiting gaps in supply are arguably
necessary sources of friction in any role-playing adventure, but they should not be the standard
for this type of setting.
Instead, if you want your story to emphasize a theme of grey morals, make a habit of veiling the
intentions of your NPCs. Allow high rolling insight checks to reveal something impure in a
preacher’s intent, write standard criminals as desperate folks trying to feed their families.
This is most effective when the characters seem cut-and-dry on the surface, only to later be
revealed for their true intentions. A villain to emphasize this theme might seek to punish do-
gooders for upsetting the status quo, while secretly neutralizing over-ambitious evildoers behind
the scenes, knowing that they would upset the status quo as much, if not more.
Allies are not exempt from this theme. Perhaps a close friend of the party’s reluctantly accepts a
high bribe to spill information, or an innocent-looking trail guide backstabs the party upon
hearing about their loot. Your goal should be to always keep the players guessing about who they
do and don’t trust.
Of course, they’ll only stay on their toes if you let them be right every once in a while, so don’t
forget to sprinkle in a handful of sadistic pranksters and white knights, as long as they’re not the
norm.

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Governance
The Somber Frontier is undergoing a massive upheaval unseen by anyone on this continent in
millennia. Since the arcanists declared control of the land under one banner, there has never
been a reason to think about new governance. Some folks are comfortable with autocracy so long
as it’s not from the mages, having never seen another system work firsthand. Others preach of
democracy and elections that demand immense trust between the public and their
representatives. Many are content to leave the Frontier to a confederation of city-state-like
counties, with each town having its own governance and rules without any need to unite barring
a major threat from an outside force, such as the mages.
In any case, a party of high-level adventurers is sure to influence the system in some way or
another, as powerful people siding with any faction tend to do.
Beware, however, for governance is a fickle theme. The technical language that surrounds
stories of governance is not suited for everyone. While some players may enjoy exploring the
creation of a new system of laws and governance, others will be bored out of their minds.
The solution is to “lead the horse to water,” as it were. If you want to explore governance themes
in your world, present developments to players in the form of newspaper headlines that catch
their eye, town talk they can overhear, and occasional large-scale peripheral events that draw
them to the action.
If these leads aren’t enough to draw them in, however, it is likely that your players aren’t
especially interested in playing politics. If that is the case, but you still wish to explore the
political themes, they can be explained in more action-filled stories. Instead of a sabotage
mission to subtly remove a corrupt local politician from office, have an NPC pay them to get the
job done by “any means necessary,” or give the politician an apolitical reason to draw the party’s
ire, perhaps even making them the endgame enemy.

Survival
As a theme, survival takes a story in very much its own direction. While it can work well with
other themes, putting a focus on survival will almost inherently make it your players’ first point
of attention.
Survival can be flushed out in several ways, such as environmental hazards, realistic resting
variants, and any number of threats from the wilderness. These devices are all great mechanical
ways to get your narrative idea across.
Telling a story about survival takes more than mechanics, however. Survival means you need to
drag the players through an unpredictable wilderness. Ration tracking isn’t just a means of
starving the players out, it’s a means of gauging how likely they’ll be to desperately shoot a deer
on the road.
Getting the survival theme across requires a DM to induce desperation in the players first. Do
that, and you’ll be well on your way.

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