The City of Holmfirth is a system-neutral location for fantasy campaigns. Need a backdrop for your next grand adventure? How about a cozy stopover point? This article is for you!
Welcome to Holmfirth! This capital city is a calm place with its own cast of interesting characters. Holmfirth is designed to be a nice stopover point on a large adventure, or a base of operations. It is not doomed to be destroyed by a meteor, no complicated political coup plot is about to crescendo, it is just a normal place to explore and enjoy.
This article focuses on the capital, and I have a follow-up in the works talking about some of the other areas of the kingdom. But for now, that’s enough preamble! On to the main body!
Hundreds of years ago, a small group of wizards settled on the coast of a sheltered bay, using their magics and the labor of their acolytes to create the first incarnation of the Kroxnerra University of Magickal Arts. As the years passed, more groups settled in what they called Holmfirth Town: Merchants, supplying food and exotic reagents. Builders, to create what the wizards saw in their dreams. And finally, the agents of the Great Empire, to tax the population and govern the region.
The Great Empire eventually collapsed, as all do. In the chaos that followed, Adar Chokorsk, the governor of Holmfirth, declared himself the King of Holmfirth, and Holmfirth’s modern era began.
Holmfirth’s position makes it a convenient port for trading vessels travelling up and down the coast. Inland, it borders several other kingdoms that once belonged to the Great Empire, and the dwarven mountain fortress of Hig Marshayn. It is fairly prosperous, and as a result, fairly peaceful.
Holmfirth Bay is protected by Stormbreak Island, a rocky island covered in pine trees. A tall tower stands in the center of the island, keeping watch over the sea. Some say that this tower is also the entrance to an elaborate tunnel network running through the island.
The port in Holmfirth Bay is an elaborate spiderweb of berths for ships of various sizes, military and civilian alike. The larger berths have human-powered cranes for unloading cargo.
Holmfirth itself is a town of stone buildings with black shingled roofs. Its citizens are mostly humans, but there are small communities of many other species.
The Chokorsk family has ruled the Holmfirth area for ten generations. They are widely regarded as just rulers, only as indulgent as any royal family. Any of these four royals can serve as a quest-giver, though anything more secretive is likely to come from Black-Haired Michael.
King Josfray the Gray. King Josfray is a large, strong man with graying hair and cold blue eyes. He carries himself with the authority of a true leader, something he gained during the years he spent commanding the Holmfirth border patrols. His hair is gray and short.
Queen Liliales. Queen Liliales is a tall, slender woman with flowing blonde hair. She originally hails from another nearby kingdom, and she has recently convinced King Josfray to found a botanical institute in her name. She speaks Common with an accent you and I would describe as “French.”
Prince Josfray the Fifth. Prince Josfray is the heir to the throne. Like his father before him, he serves as a commander of the kingdom’s military forces. He is an accomplished horseman and a renowned duelist. His hair is chestnut brown.
Prince “Black-Haired” Michael. Black-Haired Michael is the illegitimate son of Josfray the Gray and an unknown commoner. His origins are well known, and these origins disqualify him from taking the throne, despite being older than Josfray the Fifth.
The Church of Lasatheen dates back to the days of the Great Empire, where it was a technically heretical but mostly tolerated sect. The Lasathites believe that cremating a dead body frees its soul, and spreading the resulting ashes allows that person to provide one last service to their community.
The Lasathites have a strong tradition of community service, and many of their lesser clergy were once vagrants or outcasts from other communities.
The primary symbol of the Lasathites is an upside-down T, representing a crematorium. Or an L and a backwards L, spine to spine, depending on who you ask.
Pope Luka III, religious leader. Pope Luka is an old man with brown hair and a prominent lump on the left side of his neck. He is rarely seen in public outside of his yearly addresses in spring, when the first ashes are spread on the fields.
Deacon John Riley, preacher. Deacon Riley is a sharp-jawed man with black hair and a booming voice. He is a dour man, but he practices what he preaches, and is always one of the first to arrive when any emergency happens.
The Sanctuary of Souls is a holy crematorium used as a worship site. The Church of Lasatheen believes that cremation frees the soul and allows the body to return to the earth without the risk of undead taint, feeding the next generation with its nutrients.
The Sanctuary is a tall building with a chimney that can be seen for miles around. Its assembly hall, where the sermons are given, is a wide room with wooden pews. Behind the altar where the priest speaks is the grill of the crematorium, and both funerary services and weekly sermons are given from this hall.
When a body is cremated, the decedent’s loved ones typically carry them into the crematorium, as a final service to a loved one. In cases where a close loved one may be too frail to help in this task, they are given a piece of the decedent’s clothing to throw in instead.
The cremation ashes are used as fertilizer for the local farms every spring. They say that this allows the loved one to contribute to the community even from beyond the grave, as well as allowing their soul to freely ascend to what comes after.
The Order of the Dragon’s Skull is a group of warriors and peacekeepers based in Holmfirth. They patrol the streets, settling disputes and breaking up fights. They also patrol the roads and borders of the kingdom, handling bandit gangs and watching for invading forces.
Their home, Skullkeep, sits at the northern edge of the city. A gigantic skull hangs above the main table of its meal hall.
Roland Mayfield, leader. Roland is a tall man with brown hair and deep-set eyes. He is responsible for the daily operations of the Order, including occasionally deputizing adventurers to take care of strange problems.
Nathan “Nate” Lee, guard. Nate Lee is a short man who was raised on tales of adventure and chivalry. Life since joining the Order has been somewhat duller than he expected, but he does his best to act like the just knight he believes the Order is made of.
Edward “Ed” Barkle, guard. Ed Barkle is a tall, skinny man with high cheekbones and graying hair. He has served all across the kingdom, and is happy that he is now patrolling the peaceful and boring capital city. His comrades call him “old man,” but criminals call him “Butcher Barkle,” due to an alleged incident involving a gang of kidnappers in the eastern mountains.
Kroxnerra University is a castle-like building located on the inland edge of Holmfirth. Kroxnerra predates Holmfirth by at least a century. It is much larger on the inside than the outside, with many passages that branch off in geographically impossible configurations. Exactly how “deep” the passages of Kroxnerra go is unknown.
Kroxnerra is theoretically subordinate to the Crown and the Order of the Dragon’s Skull, but in practice, they’re wizards, who’s going to stop them from doing whatever they want? Luckily, the more powerful mages seem content to delve deep into studying dead languages and occasionally spending an entire village’s worth of money on an obscure relic of dubious provenance.
Bral Withorn, headmaster. Headmaster Withorn is an old man with frizzy gray hair. He is dour, and the bags under his eyes attest to the many sleepless nights he has experienced recently. He knows that his days are numbered, and he knows that dark rituals and pacts with fell powers can buy him more. His moral standards prevent him from taking these actions, but whether his body or his soul will break first remains to be seen.
Talbor Travakay, rune scholar. Professor Travakay is a tall, gray haired man who has written several texts on the runic enchantments of the eastern lands, where he originally hails from. Due to a quirk of his lineage, he has cat-like features.
Marsden Dove, archaeowizard. Professor Dove studies the powerful magic items of ages long past, hoping to unlock the secrets of their power. All of the furniture in his office has been moved up against the walls to make room for his current project, analyzing a 10-foot-long sword-like object found in a northern riverbed during a drought.
Ken Horvan, brewer. Ken is an oddity among the staff of Kroxnerra, as he is not a mage of any sort himself. Instead, he was trained as a brewer, and uses those techniques to refine modern attempts at recreating the miraculous healing potions of old.
Gael Sharptooth’s stall is a wooden wagon that folds out into a shopfront. An awning of traditional orcish fabric shields the goods from any rain.
Gael Sharptooth, orc merchant: Gael is a tall, muscular orc with black hair and sharp features. He regularly travels between the orclands to the south and the kingdom, timing his journeys so he always avoids the south’s harsh winters.
Orcish swords are single-edged, straight blades that end in what you or I would call a tanto point. Gael has only one size for sale, a longsword which measures about three and a half feet in total length, however, there is a six-foot-long weapon of similar design leaning against the back wall of the stall, in its sheath. This is Gael’s personal weapon, and that size is standard for orcs.
Gael also sells travellers’ cloaks, available in green and white. Despite allegedly being sized for humans, they are awkwardly large on humans of average height or smaller. Gael’s longswords sell for 12 GP and the travellers’ cloaks sell for 14 GP.
The Flintmantle Goods Shoppe is a store on the edge of the dwarven district. Two married dwarves, Doargat and Yuusta, work together to make high-grade weapons and clothing. Doargat specializes in metalwork and Yuusta in cloth and leather. It is said that they can repair anything, but it won’t be cheap.
Doargat Flintmantle, metalworker. Doargat is the archetypal dwarf: Steely eyes, a double-braided brown beard, and biceps the size of his head. He wears a torq whose ends are wolves’ heads with sapphires for eyes, though this is mostly hidden under his beard.
Yuusta Flintmantle, tailor. Yuusta is a female dwarf with a red beard kept in a neat, complex braid. She has a husky voice and wears a golden armband.
Below is a selection of the items currently on offer:
| Chain Shirt | 55 GP | This piece of dwarven chainmail uses a 2/6 chainmail pattern, resulting in a pattern of hexagons across the maille. While marginally weaker than the chainmaille patterns commonly used by humans, it is slightly lighter and more flexible. |
| Breastplate with Silver Inlay | 500 GP | A breastplate with an intricate pattern of inlaid silver, contrasting with the dark metal and evoking the look of a vein of ore running through rock. Purchase includes fitting, ensuring the breastplate sits properly when worn. |
| Dwarven Shield | 30 GP | This large shield is slightly curved horizontally, and its top and bottom are flat. Near the bottom of the shield is a spike on a spring, meant to be driven into the ground to hold the shield in place, even without the wielder holding it, creating a sort of portable cover. The model hanging on the wall of the shop is painted white, with two red triangles with their points touching in the center of the shield. |
The Flintmantles are also willing to repair nearly anything for a price, but truly powerful or ancient items may require access to an advanced forge beyond what they have in Holmfirth.
Just inland of the docks, McKinley’s Instruments is a workshop that builds and repairs instruments.
Every surface in the workshop is covered in instruments in various states of repair, from orcish brass horns to dwarven drums and human string instruments and flutes.
Jess and Saroz live above the shop, in a single-room dwelling that could charitably be described as “cozy.”
Jess McKinley, instrument maker. Jess is a short woman with piercing green eyes. She is nearsighted, and squints whenever she looks at someone’s face. She has at least some skill in almost every trade, due to the diversity of techniques required for her work. She adopted Saroz Songbird several years ago, and though she is quite kind to him, she sees him as an apprentice first and foremost.
The Rank Cadaver is a dockside bar, built out of rotting wood and held together by nails and dried grog. Its proprietor, Three-Finger Joe, is a tall human man missing two fingers on his left hand. Some say those fingers rest somewhere under the floorboards, even to this day.
The Rank Cadaver serves low-grade beer that is only drinkable because the salt in the air masks the stench. The regulars say that you stop noticing the taste after the third round or so.
A popular pastime at The Rank Cadaver is a game that involves stabbing between your fingers repeatedly to a rhythm. They call it “Rinat’s Game” or simply “Rinat,” but you and I would recognize it as Five-Finger Fillet. It is usually done while reciting an old orcish galley-rower’s song, “The Tale of the Thunder Rider.” Pronunciation varies substantially among the non-orc participants, often to the chagrin of orcs in the area. The game continues until one participant stabs themselves or stabs the spaces in the wrong order. This game has caused substantial damage and staining to the tables of The Rank Cadaver, but good luck stopping them from playing.
Three-Finger Joe, bartender. Three-Finger Joe is a tall man with blonde hair, a wrinkled face, and only two fingers (and a thumb) on his left hand. He runs the Rank Cadaver, and pretends not to notice any of his clientele from their wanted posters. He accidentally sawed off his fingers while building the Rank Cadaver. Alcohol was a factor.
Yuri, former fighter. Yuri is a large, muscular man with black hair and short stubble. Scars cover his arms and knuckles. In his younger days, he wandered the continent, testing his strength against anyone willing to take him on. Now, the martial arts master spends his days in the Rank Cadaver, drinking away the memories of his violent days.
Sam “Skewer Sam” Marley. Skewer Sam is a human man with black hair and a lazy eye. He sets up his stall wherever he can find space, grilling skewers of meat and vegetables for hungry people.
| Veggie Skewer | 2 CP | Chopped up vegetables on a wooden stick, grilled over a portable barbecue. |
| Skewer with Meat | 5 CP | Chopped up vegetables and unspecified but probably edible meat, grilled over a portable barbecue. |
Miles Mortimer, bard. Miles is a tall, skinny man with long, blond hair. He wanders the docks and streets of Holmfirth, playing his violin for whoever will pay him some coin. He is a cynical man, and though he knows plenty of famous myths and tales, he will not give up this knowledge for free.
| Roll 1d6 to determine what song he’s currently singing. |
|---|
| 1. The Tale of the Thunder Rider, an orcish ballad about the mythical orcish sailor, Cormag Thunderrider, and his journey across storm-wracked seas. |
| 2. The Fallen Crown, a tale of doomed love and sacrifice in the last days of the Great Empire. |
| 3. On to Silverbrook, an elven tune about the paradise that awaits all in the afterlife. |
| 4. The Innkeep’s Wife, a bawdy drinking tune. |
| 5. Souls on the Wind, a somber Lasatheen funeral hymn about cremation rituals. |
| 6. In the Cold Below, a dwarven work-song about the importance of preparation before a delve into the underworld, best known for its refrain of “Every hammer blow buys another chance in the cold below.” |
You can slot basically any dungeon into the mysterious extradimensional passages of Kroxnerra University, but let me know if you’d be interested in a dungeon specifically designed for it!
As ever, thanks for reading!
-Garm
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Garmbreak1
Former esports wannabe, current TTRPG streamer and TTRPG creator interviewer. I like science fiction and I have a soft spot for licensed tabletop RPGs. You can find all the campaigns I’m in and interviews I’ve done over on YouTube.
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I love all the work you folks do! Only feedback is I see a lot of "men as default" here. Would love to see some women and nonbinary people in charge more. I love the nonbinary and androgynous character tokens!!!
Garm has a great many other articles with diverse casts that I highly recommend. 🙂
I noticed the same thing and have mentioned it before.