The third session of the campaign is where the players experience the medieval landscape I use in this region of the Majestic Wilderlands.

For Doug's Account see this post.

Instead of writing up a blog post, I worked on this map.

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The Map
From my reading and the Harn material I owned, I had a pretty good idea of what a medieval landscape looked like at the local level. But this time I wanted to plot it out for myself. Each small hexes are 1/2 mile and the yellowish-brown blobs are fields under cultivated. The region practices three crop rotation. So only two out of three fields will be planted, the third will have some kind of cover crop suitable for grazing and left fallow for the year.

Manor villages are marketed by diamonds. They consist of a manorhouse and a dozen to two dozen peasant homes. Maybe a craftsman or two and/or two or three yeoman who are freeholders.

Note that woods are scattered throughout the region and are carefully managed by coppice to provide firewood throughout the year. This is a frontier district with the edge of settlement to the map's northeast with Maradan and Highgarden on the border.

The swamp near Elkana is an example of wasteland that not suitable for grazing or planting. The dotted pattern you see near Salan, and other manors are hills. The pattern allows me to overlay terrain with vegetation. The open areas next to Salan and Highgarden are use for grazing mainly sheep.

Journey to Highgarden
The first problem the players run into is that there are no horses to be had. The fact that the manor in Phandalin was abandoned meant there was no knight in residence. Despite Phandalin being the market village for the region, there wasn't the need or demand by anybody in the village to justify keeping a stable of horses. Instead they relied on OXs, mules, and donkeys. The horse collar is a recent innovation in the Majestic Wilderlands (invented a century ago) and hasn't spread everywhere yet. Without horse collars, oxen are way more efficient for the amount of upkeep they need. So they hired the fastest runners.

The path the party chose took them past Tormar. Tormar is the estate of Sir Melius, a Tharian Horse Lord who was granted land near Tain for service to the Overlord. Most of his peasant tenants are Ghinorians, adherent of Mitra. And when he heard news of unrest, the knight started to patrolling his land with some yeoman.  Sir Melius is an average knight. Loyal to the Overlord, but a decent lord to his tenants. He has some quirks mostly due to his military service but he is not evil.

As for the encounter, he was outmatched by the party. He could probably take any one party member on, but even with the yeoman added it wasn't going to enough. So the fight ended quickly with the knight surrendering and offering his ransom. During questioning they learn more about Sir Varius who is not well-regarded by Sir Melius. Sir Melius declined to join Sir Varius "enthusiastic" response to the news of rebellion in favor of waiting for a formal call from the Sheriff of Tain. As a Knight of the March of Dearthwood,. he is a direct vassal of the Overlord. Since Dearthwood is a March, the Overlord appoints a Sheriff to act as his viceroy/governor.

However from the news gathered from Phandalin and Sir Melius is looks like two other local Knights Sir Varius, and Sir Colin are not going to wait and take matters into their own hand. While Sir Varius may be a twit, Sir Colin is widely known for his ruthlessness and brutality.

Highgarden

One cheat I use to east prep are maps from Harn and Lythia.com. Highgarden is from Many Manors a free download on Lythia.

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I gotten pretty good as depicting the life of a medieval village/hamlet. Basically there are several social circles to consider.

The field workers - the peasants working in the field under the supervision of a Reeve. Typically this group is bound to the village in some way. Ghinorian Lords practice Tenant Farming with contracts, the Tharian Horse Lords have thralls which are effectively the same as serfs. Highgarden has thralls.
The local craftsmen - unlike urban craftsmen they are mostly focused on supporting the village. A smith will be making or repairing tools, the woodwright would be doing the same for wooden items, the miller grinding the grain and a lot of the time baking. Only rarely they will get a "customer". Typically they are paid out of the harvest or in kind. What business the manor lord transact will involve at least partial payment in going.
The goodwives - Most of the time the women are back at the village doing weaving, tending vegetable gardens, minding children. Only at harvest when all hands are needed will they be out in the fields as well. Typically they are led by the wife of the Reeve.
The Yeoman - they work their own fields and are careful not to have their land and flocks mixed in with the manor lord's demesne. As this would jeopardize their status as freemen. They owe a small rent with the rest made up by serving as the lord's man at arms. Often one yeoman would be appointed as the Beadle who keeps the peace and collects fines. Yeoman are generally armed as Light Footmen with leather, bows, and spears. Maybe one in five will be a medium footmen with chainmail armor.
The Servants These are peasants and craftsmen who work in the manorhouse as employees of the lord. They are led by the Steward.
The Clergy In these regions there are nearly always two shrines. One for the manor lord who is a Tharian Horse Lords who worship his ancestors in the form of the Lars (a council of the clan's ancestral spirits). Another for the villagers who worship Mitra. Obviously there going to be issues now with the rebellion and all.
The Lord of the Manor This includes their family, their wards, and and their squires (if any). They are on top of the social heap in the manor and will have connections to other lords in the region.

Note: It is quite possible for a PC party to easily take out a manor lord however unless they are willing to engage in genocide word will quickly get around and a mob of local knights and yeoman will start tracking the PCs to bring them to justice. Because I have traveller/wilderlands style lists of how big each manor and settlement are, I can quickly come up with a number.

You take the number of manors in the area, and that how many knights there are.
Add that number again for light horse to represent the squires.
Multiply the number of knight by three to figure out the number of yeoman they bring.
One in five yeoman will be medium foot. The rest are divided evenly between spear as primary weapon and bow as primary weapon.

Another thing I do is whatever number I come up with that what I stick with. More than a few times the PCs caused trouble and were pursued. Through good tactics they were able to beat enough of the locals or defeat them outright and were victorious. This an important technique because there will also as many times when the numbers will overwhelm them. Because they know I do this they may not like they were beaten but they know I am being fair.

So when the PCs encounter or interact with a manor. I keep the above in mind when making up the NPCs they encounter. For example if they walking towards the manor during the day, likely their first encounter will be with those working in the fields. Or if they came to the manor during the day in a direction where the fallow fields are, then they will encounter the goodwives.

The Paladin
As I said earlier Paladins are the mortal divine agents of their deity. The primary method by which the deity lets the paladin know what is going on is through their Detect Evil ability. Now I learned through long practice at doing this that it is not fun to make this come kind of radio from God. Over time I came up with the idea that the Gods will not interfere with free will. The gods will warn the paladin that something is up or give a direction in which the paladin feel he ought to go. But figuring out what is up and how to deal with it for the Paladin to do. It a bit of juggling act between too much and too little information.

For this part of the campaign, was that Veritas let the paladin know that the situation with Sir Varius and Sir Colin was very bad and that much evil will result from their actions.