Arrival The Pur Valley Road The Medieval Faire

The Chateau Sanglier: Night With the risk of bridges being washed out, the route to
Chateau Contempte must be traversed on foot. The
Despite the rain, the village around the Chateau is busy.
There are vendors, tourists, and multiple groups
The inn is small, with just a few rooms & excellent food road crosses the R. Pur multiple times. Older stone dressed in period garb. There are also signs of
M. Derrise, Innkeeper (Helpful, proud of area history) bridges have held. New ones are unsteady. The walk vandalism: broken windows and pots, an overturned
Alen, Faire attendee, Tourist (Curious, chatty) may take an hour or so. cart, and trampled gardens.
Gleanings Along the road the party may encounter [d8]
Gravestones up the valley were displaced by 1. Remains of a moulin, stones fallen into the turbid On the shadowed north side of the castle is an old pit,
the rain the last two nights, with some ending water. Amidst the debris caught up in the eddies, a 4m across with a curious dolmen set in the middle,
up miles away. rusty shovel is stuck. Graveyard mud clings to its curved, tusklike. Small piles of river stones are set on
The annual Medieval Faire starts tomorrow in haft and handle. the low stone walls. A battered tourist board sign leans
the 16th century Chateau Contempte and is askew nearby.
beset by vandalism. Is it safe to go? 2. Overgrown cemetery, gravestones missing, ripped Gleanings
from the ground; muddy scars pock the tall thistles It is said good luck will come to those who
No one in Gravendon goes out in heavy
and dead flowers. throw a stone at the Sangliere dolmen; this
storms. Too many people have been lost in
mudslides, crushed somehow. tradition started with the Contempte families.
3. A thigh deep pit or trench slashes across the road
A beautiful view down the valley Both
and reaches into nearby fields, freshly dug,
If the party ventures out into the storm, the rain is heavier semi-circular, as if from a giant foot or hoof. Gravendon and Mont Tortuendormie can be
than any they have ever seen, and in the darkness rumbles seen. Oddly, the tourist sign shows the two hill
of stone echo up and down the valley. It is too dark to see 4. A gravestone lies abandoned on the road. 16th towns closer together in medieval times.
anything clearly. century dates, Contempte family names. If you are within earshot of a dove cooing, you
Unsettling Shivers [Glimpse, 1 Stress] are safe from the predations of evil.
5. Hunting dogs, close to their quarry, are heard in Some of the revelers in period costumes are
Gravendon Massif & Ruins: Day the distance. A strange day to hunt, off season? more drunk or loud than others, encouraging
The village is deserted in the steady rain. others to cast more stones and wheedling at
6. Cooing of doves is heard in a particularly dark visitors to help them find the missing
The confluence of the R. Pur and the R. Lot is swollen. stretch of woods. Comforting, given the day.
The massif rises above the few buildings, carrying on gravestones. Some are collecting money to
its heavy back the crumbling stone of the 11th century reset the markers. Some aggressively follow
7. Tracks of a fox, fresh in the mud. chicken feathers the party. (These are ghosts, looking for rest)
castle. Moss shadowed, the R. Pur pools along what and tufts of boar hair sodden in the brambles.
looks like a stone belly spread against the valley floor.
Vendors & Attendees [d6]
8. Children play in a farmyard across the river. They 1. Alen, Faire Attendee, Tourist
A tourist path leads up around the rock, through an run if approached. Listening, you hear them
ancient stone gate. Visitors can clamber up into the 2. Rae, foxborn, local weaver, goose farmer, handmade
rhyme and sing and then scatter and chase each shawls & foie gras (Wants ghosts gone forever)
ruins, using ropes and ladders. other.
Gleanings 3. Michel, local forest guide, farmhand, heavy
equipment operator (Good money in restoring graves)
The tourist board sign states that Gravendon Piggy Piggy 4. Tress, a honey witch, sells honey tinctures, keeps doves
was avoided by early pilgrims, and kings Hear him snore (Knows secrets of the Well in Mont Tortuendormie)
subsequently sent wardens and priests to tax, Turtle Turtle 5. Pascal, melon farmer, collects & sells mushrooms
sanction, then destroy the castle and town. You ignore (Wants more Boar dung in the valley)
From the top, through the rain, you can make Piggy Piggy 6. Ghost revelers in period costumes
out Chateau Contempte to the north, perched Out for blood
over the wooded valley, several miles away. Turtle Turtle If they have a positive feeling towards the Boar, then
You can see Mont Tortuendormie to the west. In the mud
throwing a stone leads to nausea [Glimpse, 1 Stress]
Piggy Piggy
Dangerous Ascent [Precipitous Fall] Roots around Ghosts corner character alone [Exposure, d6 Stress]
Turtle Turtle
Find new ground!
 Bristle, Thistle
Creatures Goals
The early people built their towns, well fortified, on the This pamphlet contains an atmosphere, an interruption
backs of geologic animalia, upthrust conscious karsts, of a journey from one place to another. There is

Tusk & Mud

creatures awakened only by deep internal stirrings or nothing to conquer, little to extinguish, and the forces
the efforts of those who hold ancient secrets. They are involved are old and resilient. Goals could include:
perhaps kaiju adjacent.
Delaying the reinstatement of the headstones,
thereby banishing the ghosts.
The Boar Assisting the town in the awakening and An Ambiance*
Gravendon is stirred by mud, days of soaking rain rouse moving of the Tortoise by Will Purves
the great boar from its slumber. When it arises, its Helping to reinstate the headstones, restoring a
anger wells up, and it wallows out to root the resting semblance of balance to the valley.
places of those who destroyed its people. The medieval
The travelers arrive by car, or maybe a bus tour, from
witch hunts, exorcisms, and inquisitions reduced its
the west & the rain has delayed, derailed, & disrupted
castle to ruins and scattered its supplicants. Revenge on
the bodies and graves propels it through the storms.
Connections their trip, whether it is a vacation or for research. By
As such, threads can be woven into other stories. the time they pass by the medieval town of Mont
Perhaps …
The Turtle The names on the graves are those of
Tortuendormie and approach Gravendon the bridge
over the Pur River is out and phone reception
Wary of the Boar, the great tortoise that is the hill historically autocratic or zealot families in sputters.
carrying Mont Tortuendormie has moved steadily west another scenario or mystery.
over the centuries. During heavy rains, when the Boar
awakens, those who know can awaken the mountain, A vendor at the fair has information or a hook Even in the dark torrent, they can sense the hoary
emptying local herbs and honey into the well behind to another scenario or mystery. mass of the ruined keep atop the granite outcrop,
the church near the plaza. That time may be now. Perhaps the Tortoise or Boar are spotted or keeping a grim watch over the sodden fields and
seen more widely. Does the Bureau or similar cluster of buildings in the village centre. The Chateau
Unsettled Ghosts have an interest in hushing it up?
Have the secrets of awakening the Tortoise
Sangliere has a few rooms left and M. Derrise, the
The ghosts are all a piece, a pack, entitled petty nobles owner, is willing to heat up a dinner and open their
been unearthed by a nefarious cult or similar? cellar of local vintages.
awarded this small corner of land in exchange for their Does the party have an interest in stopping
vigilance in expunging the old ways. They still hold such an enterprise?
tight to their right to rule and despise the Boar. If their As the party looks through the local tourist board
graves are not restored within a fortnight of the end of pamphlets, they consider a poke through the ruins of
the rain, they are doomed to wander restless, forever. the old castle above them, a walk up the Pur River
valley, and an annual medieval fair at a minor castle,
The Doves -
Chateau Contempte, to the north. Perhaps their time
Some friends told me once that if you can hear a dove here will not be wasted. It may be a few days.
cooing you can be sure that those you love are safe.
Doves create islands of calm through their calls. ~Dodocahedron Games 2023~
The thunder growls outside and the earth shakes in
Bristle Thistle Tusk & Mud is an independent
response, slow, regular, heavy rumbles. The lighting
Tourist Board Signs production by Will Purves and is not affiliated with
Goblin Archives LLC. It is published under the Liminal
crashes, flashes, searing images of gargantuan
Ubiquitous, innocuous, in poor repair, but helpfully lurching clouds beyond the emptying of the heavens.
placed throughout the valley, pointing out small details, Horror Third Party License.Liminal Horror is copyright
connections, pathways, ruins, historic sites & so forth. by Goblin Archives LLC. Goblin Archives LLC takes no
responsibility for any legal claims against your product. *Not quite a Mystery, a whisper of a Setting
An rpg amuse-bouche
dodocahedrongames.itch.io