Welcome to the Temple Lands. Decades ago, this small region was run by a corrupt noble family who consorted with dark powers. A brave band of adventurers overthrew this noble family and took over the region. Now, the region’s taxes go to building a giant temple to an obscure god, and worship of all other deities is forbidden. Whether this is better is a matter of debate.

Quiet debate, of course. Wouldn’t want the Fireguard to overhear it.

High Priest Gideon

Gideon is a human male, roughly 40 years in age. Little is known about his life before 25 years ago, when he joined up with a band of adventurers travelling the marchlands in search of fame and glory. During one of these misadventures, he stumbled into a shrine to a long-forgotten god called Tinera. Since then, he has been a changed man, a crusader for truth and against the abyssal powers.

20 years ago, his party stumbled into the region of Winterfort, and found a region ruled by greedy demon-worshippers called the House of Harringaugh. Within a year, the Harringaughs were destroyed or driven from the land, and Gideon sat upon the throne. What happened to the rest of his party is not widely known.

Five years ago, Gideon’s grip began tightening on the region. Most of the area’s resources are now focused on building a gigantic temple in Winterfort, or paying Gideon’s Fireguard to patrol the land and burn anything deemed heretical.

Gideon’s Party

Most of Gideon’s former party members hold an important role in the Temple Lands.

Brar Russk, spymaster. Brar is a short man with long, thin fingers. Brer is an analytical man who enjoys getting one over on other people, whether that be through confidence games, burglary, or his current occupation, running a ring of spies. He works out of a tavern.

Maj Kroff, paladin. Maj is a woman in her late 20s, with black hair and green eyes. She was once a bandit, preying on travelers in the marchlands. After an encounter with Gideon’s party, she joined his cause, and now carries a shield with the symbol of Tinera painted on it. She trains and leads the Winterfort-based Fireguard.

Jeanne Kroff, ranger. Jeanne is a tall, slender woman with black hair and green eyes. Unlike her sister, she has never bought into Gideon’s religious fervor. She commands the wilderness patrols of the Fireguard, using her experience as a bandit to outmaneuver any desperate souls who would pilfer the tithe wagons.

William “Bill” Holt, warlock. Bill Holt is a 30-year-old man with pale skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair. Despite being otherwise human-looking, his eyes reflect light like a cat’s. He currently resides in the basement of the castle at Winterfort, where he is impaled on the wall with a trident. He has been there for twenty years and was impaled by Gideon in a fit of religious fervor.

Winterfort

The capital of the Temple Lands is Winterfort, a city founded hundreds of years ago as an outpost for hunters and fur traders. Now, it has a population of roughly 15,000 split across its districts.

Winterfort’s buildings are primarily wood, with thatched or turf roofs. Every building has at least one fireplace, due to the harsh winters. Similarly, every window has heavy wooden shutters to keep the wind and snow out.

The people of Winterfort are primarily human, though some small amount of elven or dwarvish blood is not uncommon. A few kouneli (see below) visit regularly, but none reside within the walls full-time.

The cuisine of Winterfort relies on two things: Wheat, from Mitterten, and meat from hunting and livestock. Recently, the people of Winterfort have discovered how to reliably bread and fry various kinds of meats, and this is a popular street food. Some stalls will even bread and fry whatever customers bring them, for a fee.

The Castle

Winterfort Castle stands atop a hill at a bend in the river. It is the tallest structure in the area, even without accounting for the hill’s height. All of the symbols of its former owners, the Harringaughs, have been removed and many replaced by symbols of Tinera. In the center of the courtyard, a fire burns constantly, and has for the last 20 years.

This bonfire is used to burn anything determined to be demonic, associated with the Harringaughs, or otherwise offensive to Gideon. However, not every piece of the Harringaugh legacy has been burnt: A longsword with a V-shaped guard lays in the river, in view of the north-south river bridge, if you know where to look.

Gideon often delivers sermons in front of the castle’s gate, with the bonfire prominently behind him.

The Temple

North of the river, across from Winterfort Castle, construction is underway on a temple to Tinera. Workers have just started on the second story of the building, and its footprint is larger than even the castle. Treadwheel cranes stand all around the site, including a pair at the riverside for unloading ships.

At the center of the temple is a large, stone bowl, already stocked with logs and kindling for burning.

The workers sleep in tents on the side of the worksite. All are clearly exhausted and malnourished, but breaks are rare. High Priest Gideon is driving them hard to finish the temple before a celestial event expected in just under a year, due to visions he’s seen in the flames.

Jacob “Scar” Skaarup, foreman. Scar is a burly, wide-shouldered man, with dozens of scars on each arm. He is responsible for wrangling the workers building the temple. This task has been getting harder, lately, as demands on the workers increase.

Tithe Wagons

These distinctive wagons are made of sturdy, black wood, emblazoned with the golden symbol of Tinera on each door. These wagons carry tax money from the various outlying areas to Winterfort, and are usually protected by two members of the Fireguard.

Inside the wagon is a series of drawers, each with a different location’s name written on them. These are all the locations whose taxes the wagon has collected. The locks on the doors of the wagon are reasonably sturdy, but the locks on the drawers are easy to pick.

Fireguard

The Fireguard fulfills the role of town guard in the cities and towns of the region and guards the tithe wagons. Armaments vary by duty, but there are two main types of guardsman: Clerics, and the “layguard.” Layguard is a term only used by clerics and other church officials, used to distinguish the fireguard members without priestly training.

Whether clerics or layguard, the Fireguard are an oppressive force in the Temple Lands. They search travelers and confiscate any books they deem to be demonic, or any holy symbols that aren’t related to Trinera. The Fireguard is also responsible for tax collection. This combination makes them somewhat unpopular.

Beyond Winterfort

The Temple Lands is not an easy place to live. The winters are cold, dropping as low as -40 Celsius in the coldest parts of winter. The summers are warm, topping out around 30 Celsius in most years. Fields of wheat and other grains surround many of the area’s settlements, providing just enough food to feed the populace and pay tithes.

The region is mostly flat grasslands, with occasional patches of forest. High winds are common throughout the year, blowing dust and pollen in the summer and snow in the winter.

Gauth’s River runs from the mountains in the west to the ocean in the far east, bisecting Winterfort and running through many farming communities in the area. It is a glacial-fed river, and is still quite cold when it reaches Winterfort. It meanders across the landscape, feeding lakes and carving drunken paths across the plain.

Most of the communities in Winterfort’s sphere of influence are simple farming towns. Farmers, fields, and a local priest to keep everybody thinking right. These towns are all majority human, and though the occasional elf, dwarf or other sapient humanoid may settle in the towns, there is no concentrated population center of them.

Aside from the Warren, home to the kouneli.

The Warren

Members of a rabbit-like species called the kouneli live to the south of Winterfort in an underground tunnel network called “The Warren.” They are a very social species and tend to live in close-knit groups. They worship the twin gods Solus the Watcher and Lunaris the Dreamer, but they refuse to talk about them to outsiders, due to Gideon’s religious oppression.

The kouneli have long almost cone-like faces, ending with their noses. Their eyes are most commonly yellow, but blue or green is not unheard of. As one would expect, they have long, rounded ears.

Their fur does not change color with the seasons, as a rabbit’s would, but does get thicker and thinner. Young kouneli have completely brown fur, with the pattern changing to its permanent form in adolescence.

The kouneli are digitigrade, walking on the toes of their large, furry feet. Their legs look strange, compared to a human’s. They appear to have an extra section and knee, but this “knee” is actually the ankle, connecting the calf to the very long foot. These facts give the kouneli an odd way of locomotion, hopping or running instead of walking.

The arms and hands of the kouneli are much closer to the humanoid standard, though they have only three fingers and a thumb. They dig with their claws.

The kouneli are herbivores, and cannot process meat. They view the humans’ love of meat as peculiar.

Iganos, kouneli priest. Iganos is an old kouneli, with long front teeth. He keeps the historical faith among the kouneli, teaching the young about the faith they cannot speak of outside The Warren.

Meleis, potter. Meleis is white furred kouneli who takes great pride in the artistic side of her work. Her fur is mostly black, with a large white patch on her left side. She cares deeply for others, whether they’re fellow kouneli, the humans of Winterfort, or even outsiders.

Wilderness Encounter Ideas

1d6 deer are grazing on the grass. Two are fully grown, any others are fawns. They have not noticed the party. The deer meat here is said to be quite tasty, and the buck has some very impressive antlers.

An elk crashes through the forest, clearly wounded. Moments later, a black bear follows it, running full-out. Will they help the elk or let nature take its course?

A tithe wagon trundles past. People dressed like members of the Fireguard sit on the front and back of the wagon, but their uniforms look like they don’t fit properly, and the guards look nervous. A deep scratch from a sword is visible on one side of the wagon. The people guarding the wagon are, of course, not actually Fireguard. They are bandits who have hijacked the wagon and stolen the Fireguards’ uniforms.

As the party walks through a wooded section of road, they see a tithe wagon trundling along. As they come close, a loud birdcall comes from the trees, and (party+2) bandits leap out in front of the wagon, intent on stealing the tax money inside.

A fireguard member rides by on a horse, with a hogtied prisoner on the back. “Help! Please!” calls the prisoner, as they pass the party.

Afterword

Hey folks! As ever, I hope you’ve enjoyed this article! I find domain-level play fascinating, and this article came from thinking about what a domain-play cleric would do in that new role.

I hope your players enjoy Winterfort and its eccentric leader!

-Garm

Map & Asset Downloads

We recommend these maps and assets…