Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Finder’s Archives.
In this column, we take some of the lands from Magic: The Gathering and turn them into something you can use for your fantasy games.
The stats given in each entry assumes that you’re using Pathfinder 2 for your games, but they can easily be converted over into any fantasy system. This trade our wares at the Balduvian Trading Post.
Balduvian Trading Post
Located in the far north, the Balduvian Trading Post is normally the final destination for traders from the south, and as far as they’ll go into the cold north. Here they meet with the northern Balduvian barbarians and trade their silver, silks, wine, and spices for salt, furs, timber, and Balduvian iron. It is a neutral ground, but it is nonetheless well-fortified and easy to defend, in case one of the (frequent) barbarian wars have broken out, or humanoid hordes are on the loose. Everyone who uses the trading post is supposed to chip in, in case of attack, regardless of whether they’re there simply for the night or permanent residents. Shirkers in those times are executed on the spot.
Lay of the Land
The Balduvian trading post is surrounded on three sides by tundra, on one final side by a mountain, making it relatively easy to access, but also ensuring that it can be defended in times of need. Wooden palisades surround the encampment, with the permafrost having turned the timber as hard as stone. Water is supplied by a spring that comes from deep within the mountains.
Inside the palisades are simple wooden buildings, empty for everyone to use, with only a few reserved for permanent residents, such as the innkeeper and her family and the local blacksmith. The other buildings have transient populations. The only other exception to that is the local church, which is run by a deluded southerner who came north, hoping to convert the northerners to another faith. By now, he realizes that he’s failed miserably in converting the northerners from their warlike ways, but he cares deeply for his flock and has chosen to stay with them.
One main import for the Balduvian trading post, and one that rarely sees trade to go elsewhere, is food. The majority of the food that passes through the Balduvian trading post is bought by the innkeeper, and the locals have a secret reservoir of preserved food, one that will last them and up to 100 other people inside the encampment for over a year, should they ever have to endure a siege.
Dangers
The tundra surrounding the Balduvian trading post is the main danger, not from animals or monsters, but from the cold. Most nights the temperature drops well below freezing, and with the wind often turns arctic (with temperatures below -30 degrees Fahrenheit), and the wind making it far worse. There are no windbreaks on the tundra, except for the mountain that the trading post rests against, making it essential that anyone going here bring tents or something similar to get out of the wind and cold. Timber is brought down from the mountainside regularly to warm the huts inside the palisades.
Apart from the cold, there are two main dangers for most to be wary of. The largest danger comes from a band of five frost giants that have taken it upon themselves to clear the north of humans from the south. They somewhat respect the Balduvian barbarians and avoid them when they’re in great numbers but consider other humans to be soft and easy targets. The other danger comes from local goblin tribes. They’ve adapted to the cold to such a degree that they’ve become immune to the effects of the cold, and even their very skin has changed from its normal green hue to blue.
Kim Frandsen
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