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N’Sau re-write

by Marc Saindon Too small as a settlement to warrant its own Charter as a Burg (hence it cannot build town walls or field its own army), N’sau nonetheless serves as the commercial hub for a region many call “the Breadbasket of Gulluvia”. The countryside is where most people here live, farming wheat in the homesteads (5 to 50 people each) that dot the landscape, along the many windmills (some designs improved with gnomish engineering). The farmers of N’Sau have a bit of rivalry with the folks from Thorhold, who are mostly ranchers, over the use of land. An elected council provides some governance, meeting sporadically, while a squad of Gulluvian troops (no more than 10) are sometimes stationed in N’Sau’s barracks (they don’t have a keep or stronghold), usually in an official function for various proceedings, rather than engaging the field of battle. Flaemish language is more prominent here.

The village proper serves as a farmers’ market to sell grain and flour, and to purchase goods brought by merchants from the canal (a previously mentioned retcon to explain Gulluvia’s weird river system). The largest building, the Gulluvian Brewery (“the Sign of the Lion” to most peasantry) operated by Gnomes, has a small tavern that doubles as a meeting hall when needed. The Brewery produces high quality (belgian) wheat beer, which it sales throughout the realm, and offers seasonal products as well. The Brewery has a friendly rivalry with Anter’s Distillery in Meer (which produces Anterian Brandy).

Because of the wheat, the milling and the storage of grain, N’Sau has a mice problem and thus cats are greatly appreciated by the population for their services as pest control. Cats are not only more present here, but culturally the locals give them more appreciation, even holding a festival each year in their honor after the harvest (a carnival with cat masks).
(example of a cat festival: Kattenstoet) By the time of B3, the community faces its greatest challenge: a large red dragon. While the original orange module states “This small farming village is still untouched by the cruel hand of D’hmis”, I change this to incorporate the “red dragon appeared in the skies over the princess’ castle and almost overnight the tiny kingdom fell into ruin” on page 1. In this version, the dragon never had a rider, it just made a pact with a group of fellow conspirators, and was given free reign to torch N’Sau as it saw fit as a reward for his help storming the Castle. Rather than engage in the Great Scorching of the Valley, the red dragon toys with the peasants, a cat and mouse game some would say, and randomly attacks various homesteads: his goal is to strike fear, to make a name for himself in infamy – because lady red dragons like bad boys, and he’s looking for a mate (maybe this arsonist romantic red dragon is called “Tinder” if you can stomach dad jokes). The red dragon is particularly fond of burning down silos, both for the immediate pyrotechnic of flaming, popping grain, and the long-term, lastingmisery it gives farmers, as they lose wealth and food. The Brewery, with its wooden planks soaked in decades of spilled alcohol, the dragon intends to burn down last (for poetic reasons?). (Note: Perhaps the red dragon “Tinder” sensed the presence of Synn in nearby Glantri, but is unable to find her, as she is going covert and posing as a human).

The monster is at a challenge rating well above any adventurers’ pay grade in a B module. Rather ,the solution to this problem would be the SilverPrincess: in ages past, the Faerie Lords gifted House Argenta a mighty shield with a silver dragon emblem (in heraldry white dragon on red field). While the sturdy magical shield is a wonder in its own right, its key power is to summon a Greater Heraldic Beast, in this case a mighty Silver Dragon (perhaps call him “Lunargent” or “Silvermoon”). Only the rightful owner of the shield can summon the beast of legend. Lunargent isn’t a dragon proper, but a faerie creature enchanted (magic effects that apply to dragons don’t work, but those with affect fae creatures do). Should the Princess be contacted and she use her shield, the Silver Dragon could quickly oust the red menace (a bit of a reversal of the Welsh tale of Merlin’s two dragons). The caveat is the powerful protector can only be summoned thrice, and it has once before (to push back a Hulean horde), and if the Princess saves N’Sau this way, there will only be one last time to get this help (this is a take on the MacLeod Faerie flag legend), so while it’s a bit of a deus ex machina, it comes at a cost to Gulluvia.

(A version of the tale of the two dragons)
(MacLeod faerie flag)

(art from: https://www.deviantart.com/timur-kvasov/art/Forest-Village-Windmill-715401776)