It’s Midgard Monday! Each week, we visit a corner of the wide world of Midgard. Look for standalone content you can drop into your campaign—whether it’s in Midgard or your own homebrew. Find new inspiration each Midgard Monday!

PCs traveling through the Seven Cities may discover all manner of rumors. Are they true or false? Decide for yourself as you plan adventures for your players! You can find the region around the Seven Cities and all of these locations on the big Midgard map!

The Seven Cities

A diverse region populated by different city-states bound together by warfare and trade, the Seven Cities is a hotbed of rumors and innuendo.

RUMOR ONE

The wizards and astronomers in Starlight Keep are part of a special military force placed there by Friula’s Bibliotori to guard a gateway to Evermaw. That’s why they’re so secretive.

TRUE? Starlight Keep holds several permanent portals to locations on Midgard and throughout the planes, including Evermaw. The Bibliotori insisted on placing agents within Starlight Keep to keep an eye on the more dangerous portals, to the chagrin of the keep’s senior members.

One of these members, the noted astronomer, Volusni Norcinis, attempts to embarrass the agents but unleashes several powerful extraplanar undead by accident, just as the PCs accept a rare invitation to the keep.

OR

FALSE? An angry gnome wizard named Flemi Holtzswift began spreading these rumors after being refused entry into the keep. Unfortunately, he has drawn the ire of both the Bibliotori and the scholars of Starlight Keep, who wish to punish him for slander and public endangerment.

The PCs are asked to help track down the gnome so he can be questioned by the authorities, a trip that leads them into the Great Library of Friula, where Flemi has been hiding.

RUMOR TWO

Some horses that survive the black strangles turn into flesh-eating monsters. Herds of these flesh-eating horses roam the wilds, but their existence is being kept hush-hush by the authorities in Trombei for fear of starting a panic.

TRUE? Startlingly, the rumors are true. Roughly one in every ten horses that survives the black strangles transforms into a creature known as a diomedian horse (see Tome of Beasts 3).

Herds of these horses now roam the windswept plains south and west of Ponteretto, attacking anyone who passes through the area. PCs may be asked to capture one of the creatures in the hopes that it provides some knowledge on how to cure the black strangles.

OR

FALSE? The stories of carnivorous horses originate from the appearance of hippogriffs and similar creatures found in Trombei’s wilds. A sizeable herd of hippogriffs has recently been preying on horses in the lands west of the capital, and PCs may be hired to locate the creatures and take care of them.

Unbeknownst to those hiring the PCs, the hippogriffs have been infiltrated by a much more dangerous creature known as a waterkledde (see Tome of Beasts 3).

RUMOR THREE

The infamous privateer Sabeli Scamando is actually the illegitimate son of Duke-Admiral Andreos Galatino. Sabeli admitted as much the last time he was in Triolo.

TRUE?   Admiral Galatino was a severe and disciplined man even in his younger days. However, one of his few dalliances was with a beautiful washerwoman who became Sabeli’s mother. The Admiral is convinced that Sabeli is his son and wants to see the privateer before his death. Unfortunately, Sabeli was captured by a Mharoti war galley over 2 months ago and now languishes as a slave somewhere in Harkesh.

OR

FALSE?  Sabeli is no relation to Galatino and made his fateful revelation during a drunken encounter in one of Triolo’s many taverns. Since then, Sabeli has tried to downplay the rumors, which has only made matters worse. Indeed, several of Sabeli’s old “colleagues” are interested in the privateer’s newfound status and try to capture him for ransom unless someone can intervene to help him.

RUMOR FOUR

They say that sleeping at the foot of the living colossus in Raguza for a whole week will show you the path to a treasure buried beneath the city. Everyone who tried has been locked up by the guards, and the sailor who managed it hasn’t been seen since.

TRUE? If someone evades the city guard and rests beneath the living colossus for a full week, lo, the titan opens a path beneath the ocean revealing an underwater valley which in turn leads to an ancient shrine of Nethus. The shrine contains relics of the sea god but only for those who solve its riddles and defeat its monstrous guardians, including several possessed pillars (see Tome of Beasts 1) and tidehunters (see Tome of Beasts 3).

OR

FALSE? The last person to rest beneath the titan was Pavlo Scaletti, a sailor whose only talent was his ability to remain unnoticed by just about everyone (including the city guard). Pavlo was picked up by the titan and thrown out to sea when he tried to light a fire on the celestial’s foot.

Pavlo has since returned as a restless ghost who haunts the area and attempts to possess anyone spending the night near the titan.

RUMOR FIVE

A local beggar swears blind that he witnessed a meeting between Baron Raúl Cazagoza and a sinister-looking dwarf in the Tumbles in Capleon. The dwarf handed the baron a mysterious black satchel, which caused the baron to almost faint with terror. After telling his tale, the beggar vanished without a trace.

TRUE? Cazagoza has turned to black sorcery to hold onto his position as baron of Capleon. The object in the black satchel is a legendary relic shaped like a shrunken devil’s head that combines the powers of a rod of rulership and a staff of midnight (see Vault of Magic). The beggar did not survive the telling of his tale, and Cazagoza now tries to silence anyone else spreading the rumor—particularly nosy adventuring types.

OR

FALSE? This rumor is just one of many that Cazagoza deals with on a daily basis. The Baron’s closest advisors have suggested that they fight fire with fire and launch a campaign of counter-rumors to paint Cazagoza in a positive light. The PCs may be hired to help spread these rumors; a task that seems simple enough but inevitably brings conflict with the Baron’s many enemies.

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Get into Midgard with the Midgard Worldbook! This acclaimed campaign setting is rich and deep, with a decade of support from Kobold Press.

Want a more focused start? Try the Zobeck Clockwork City Collector’s Edition! This detailed sourcebook
gives players plenty of room to run, and includes adventures within the Clockwork City itself!

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