LMFC 04: Hex 011 - The first Hex description
The following paragraphs provide the first example of a completed LMFC hex (see LMFC 03). The description focuses on the drowned settlement of Knocka.
011 Knocka
A small port at the estuary of the river Ems. A few simple dwellings, including a tavern on a small warft. A handful of fishermen and seal hunters operate from here. Ferry boats cross the river from Knocka to Oterdum on the western river banks once or twice a day, often carrying lifestock which is to be sold on the market of the city of Cruoninga to the West (outside of the map).
Locales
011-1: De Speckaal, an unwelcoming and dreary tavern run by a woman named Teda (strong, bad-tempered, against better judgement full of affection for Eberold) with the help of her lover Eberold (originally from Coellen, a former highwayman who evaded the law and made off to the north, charming and selfish).
011-2: Bettewehr, a nearby hamlet. They have a priest (Father Benno).
Who is in Charge?
Eventually Teda. Everyone listens to her.
Secrets
It should have been you!
Habbo and Tjark were brothers who had despised each other for as long as anyone could remember. Their bitter rivalry reached its peak when Tjark married Ebba, the woman Habbo had secretly loved. The brothers lived on opposite sides of the warft, rarely exchanging more than a glare or a muttered word. Two weeks ago, Tjark broke his right leg, leaving him unable to work. Desperate, Ebba begged Habbo to help her uncle sail out to hunt seals on the sandbanks of the island Bant. Begrudgingly, Habbo agreed.
But fate had other plans. A sudden storm caught them off guard, and Habbo was swept overboard, vanishing into the churning waters. For two weeks, he was thought lost to the sea. Now, Habbo has returned as an undead Wiedergänger. Bloated and pale, his corpse crawling with crabs. Somehow what is left of Habbo made its way back home through the mudflats and tidal creeks.
From this night forward, there is a 3-in-6 chance that Habbo will enter Tjark’s house. His bloated form will lurch toward his brother, dragging him toward the Wadden Sea, hissing: “It should have been you!” Once Tjark is taken, Habbo will come for Ebba, rasping: “You should be mine!”. Habbo’s vengeance will not cease until he has claimed both Tjark and Ebba, or until he is destroyed.
A jar full of silver and a love about to be betrayed
While toiling in the fields behind the tavern, Eberold unearthed an old jar buried deep in the soil of the warft. Inside, he found 800 small silver coins, unlike any he had ever seen. One side bore the image of a stylized face; the other, an animal biting its own tail. These are Sceattas, early medieval silver coins, but to Eberold’s mind, the face resembled none other than the devil himself. He took it as a dark offering from Lucifer – a temptation which he gladly accepted. Eberold hid the jar beneath the hull of an old, rotting boat down by the mooring. Sometime, at night, he slips away to the boat, running the coins through his fingers. He has decided to stay the winter, feigning affection for Teda, who remains oblivious to his newfound wealth. Come spring, he will leave her behind, heading of for Bremen to start anew. This will break Teda’s heart.
Something happens
The man from the mudflats
Five evenings ago, as twilight descended over the village, children playing near the tidal flats spotted a mud-smeared man trudging through the muck. He seemed to be moving toward the village. When their parents went to investigate, the man had vanished. Since that night, the figure has been seen again and again, always near nightfall. Each time, he appears a little closer. Meanwhile, strange occurrences have unsettled the village. Animals refuse to be loaded onto the ferry. A herd of cows broke free, stampeding wildly through the fields. Two pigs, panicked, threw themselves into the river and drowned. Fear has taken root in the hearts of Knocka’s residents. Whispers spread through the community that the man is a Wiedergänger, a restless revenant. The villagers believe it is Habbo, a local seal hunter who drowned at sea two weeks ago (see Secrets). Desperate, the villagers called for Father Benno, a priest from the nearby hamlet of Bettewehr. However, the priest, after glimpsing the Wiedergänger from a distance, has proven utterly useless. Terrified beyond reason, he has barricaded himself in the tavern, alternating between sobbing, drinking, and praying.
We found something!
Two children, Eltje and Ada, no older than five or six, come racing toward a group of adults, their faces alight with excitement. Ada clutches a small silver coin, holding it aloft as though it were a royal treasure. “We found something. A treasure! Down by the boats! Gold!”