Npc's of Cambridge - May

So I thought it might be a good idea to give you brief write ups of NPCs you meet in the month and others you have heard of and what you may know about them.

NPCs you have met

Raymond Narbonne - an elderly wizened who lives above an old toy shop in town. The shop is shut now, but he still lives there. He seems to have mellowed a little with age but has a reputation for being curmudgeonly to near hostile in attitude depending on how well he likes you. Oddly he professes to have been a spring courtier.
Almost blind.
Next door there used to be a sweet shop

Kimberley - a relative new comer when the fall came. Kimberley runs a retro clothes store on Mill Road and crafts hedgespun raiments for people. She gets in trouble with the "Leather Jackets" a lot due to her hedge activities.
Fairest Muse courtless but suggests a preference for spring.

Frank, Pete and Lisa - Leather Jackets
Members of the King's Motorcycle club all wear the jackets and are patched. They work for Lottie the boss of the club and enforce the laws of the "barony" they seem to want to be given an excuse to let off steam.
Frank and Pete are darklings, Lisa a snakelike beast.
They all have autumn mantle.

NPCs you have heard about

Lottie/Charlotte Withers - Leader of the King's MC, before the fall she was an autumn courtier "postdoc" of Andrew Harris. She is remembered to be a beast hunterheart.

Andrew Harris - once a potential Professor of Autumn for Cambridge, he fell from grace after Otto became Professor, due to some scandal that was mostly kept internal to the autumn court and took to reclusively living in the real world. Known game player, wizened with contracts of the board.

Otto -former autumn court professor of the Cambridge barony. Hated Harris. Interested in the hedge and its denizens particularly hedge beasts and "monsters" renowned for finding good ashen run targets and keeping a managiery as well as expanding the occult library with new additions. Darkling Antiquarian.

Xanthe Chambers - former professor of Spring, renowned botanist and hedge gardener made several crosses new to changeling society, and found new uses for many old hedge fruits and oddments. A scientist and an artist she was as driven by the need for aesthetic purity as she was the desire to understand and make new things and new life.
Fairest flowering.

The Diocese of Ely

Last post I covered NPCs, this post I want to spend time talking about locations you should know about in Ely and other things like local traditions, hobs and wildlife.

As a note when I say locations I pretty much solidly mean in the hedge at least this post.

The Cathedral

The main location in the diocese, its visible from a long way away in the hedge and so to a degree makes navigating the local hedge easier, or at least its hard to not be able to make your way back to it. Some call it the ship of the fens, this has been known to confuse some hobs though - whilst other hobs use it exclusively.

What the Cathedral is however is hard to describe as it is many things.

It is to an extent a hedge manifestation of the real world Cathedral and the faith of man invested in it over centuries.  But a manifestation shaped by changelings to be even more akin to its real world look alike, albeit a pre-dissolution of the monasteries version.
It is thus a sprawling complex of rooms, halls, covered walkways, towers and monuments.

Its a hollow or bits of it are or are warded and connected by doors and established hedge gates to the real world.

It's a meeting place and focal point for the barony, a "market place of ideas" ideologies and faiths. The nave of the cathedral is given over to a kind of "speakers corner" many people can set up their stalls here and talk about whatever they wish. Generally at least one member of the four main courts can be found here talking to whoever will listen, more on market days or Sundays.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays the main cloister is taken up by a hob market, the main produce is simple fair - fruits, oddments, skills, some goblin contracts and some tokens. All hinging around a hob economy focused on fenlands and religion.

Its a refuge for changelings and one hob tribe (the Veneration) - the massive walls of the cathedral and its precinct hold back multiple dangers and make it a safer place to live. That said the living conditions can be somewhat medieval (more so for hobs who will sleep anywhere)

It is a place of knowledge and learning. The cathedral has a small school for instruction of lost in the ways of lost society and has a well stocked library - though this tends to focus on history and the courts.

Hobs and Changelings have equal standing in the cathedral - it might be headed by the bishops as a diocese but the Cathedral is by ancient pact a hollow and a hob village - they work together united by common purpose. But everything has a price, bishops are very clear on the policy of exchange if goods and services. Just because a hob has something useful to the diocese/cathedral does not mean it is taken and used in common.

The look and feel of the cathedral is somewhat different to how some might imagine - the outside is lime washed white with colourful gargoyles, patina roofing and metal leaf here and there.
Inside it is painted in colour and has stained glass in the windows. The decorations show the foundation of the 4 seasonal courts, the freehold the diocese, the hob treaty and other sections of history in pictorial form. Add to this multiple wall hangings, religious icons and the occasional parade of relics and an overpowering smell of incense and you start to get a feel for it all. Then overlay the noise of preachers, market stall holders, the choir and the chimes of bells.

The Graveyard

The graveyard is much as it sounds a place of burial, of monuments to the dead and gone it lies outside the cathedral proper but is very much within its sway. Some hobs and less reputable changelings come here to rob graves and gnaw on the bones of the dead. Of course being the hedge not everyone lies still....

Hobs that have fallen so low as to eat the dead are called Ghul and actively shunned by the Veneration. They are occasionally dangerous.

The Quay.

Hedge Ely is an island in a sea of fens rivers and lakes. It therefore has a quayside a small docking area of boats, and hob navigators willing to take changelings for a ride - one way or another.

There is some light hob industry here mostly hedge spinning of everyday items.

The Fens

Whilst the hedge around Ely itself and the Cathedral match up to what changelings expect of the hedge for arable farmland. Venture much further than a couple of football pitches out and the hedge dramatically changes into a boggy marshland crisscrossed by streams, ditches and branches of several wide rivers in a fashion that ever changes.
Apart from the very centre of wide river channels it is covered in plant life big rushes and reeds that, even if the ground were solid would be head high. Willow like trees in places seek to lure the unwary into their clutches to be digested. Bogs of moss suck you down to drown, and swarms of midges come to suck at your glamour. But its not all doom and gloom, their are numerous animal wonders and lily pads able to act as boats, as well as the occasional island rich in fruits and blossoms.
Travellers should watch out for the Fen hogs (dangerous hippo sized pigs) and the famous tigers, as well as the Gyrwas Hob tribe.

Diocese of Ely - NPCs you should know

Okay so I want to give people an overview of important NPCs that characters should know at the start of play. Obviously as the game premise is one of exploration others will be added and probably quite quickly after we start, but people will likely need to know who is who at the very start.

At the top of the Barony/Diocese we have the rulers:

The Bishops of Ely

Roach - The second eldest of the bishops, Roach is akin to a monk in lifestyle and always has pithy advice, an advisory tale or fable or a pearl of wisdom. He has an intense gaze that can, some say, see into the soul.
When people go to him for counseling he often plays devils advocate and shows people the sequence of consequences that follow from their actions.
Roach is a winter courtier and a beast skitterskulk - looks like a cross between Peter Falk as Columbo and Al from Quantum leap with insectoid qualities.

Zoe Malone - The youngest of the bishops, she is very active socially, is outgoing and takes time to engage and talk to everyone. She listens and understands you, and finds the best approach to talk to you for you.
She especially loves the arts and likes to involve people in things like poetry, music and song, or painting as a way to express their feelings.
She's also a good session facilitator.
Zoe is a Spring courtier and Fairest Muse.

Rutherford - The oldest Bishop and perhaps the most grumpy, things weren't like this in their day and age. Full of fear inducing glares and painful home truths you need to hear, tough love, pull yourself together.
But when you need help they listen, and advice flows often hard to swallow but they will move mountains for you.
Autumn courtier Wizened Chatelaine/Mirrorskin

The Fenland Rangers - aka Les Voltigeurs

A motley group of weathered old hedge survivalists, Barons of the lesser ones, Margraves of the brim etc. And 'The Kid'
They are scouts and hardened warriors able to act on their own or as a unit. Lately they have been involved in training up the recruits for the Cambridge mission

Sweet William - the leader of the group after the former leader drew the lottery for Cambridge duty 5 years back. William has fought hard locally in the deep fens (an area of danger to the barony) and in the war on the Bristol front. The latter cost him an eye and part of his lower jaw.
A nice guy though softly spoken and good to his men.
William is a Summer court Ogre Cyclopean, and Baron of the lesser ones involved in keeping good relationships with the local hob tribes.

The Kid - The newbie of the motley, he has a winning smile boyish good looks and the surest shot you ever did see. He often takes on missions to prove himself and is welcoming of company, he might even ask for it at times.
Spring court fairest who desires adventure.

Their Majesties' Hedge Guard - aka the Old Guard aka the Grumblers

A motley mostly made up of summer courtiers and the most effective military unit in the three barony area (Cambridgeshire) sworn to the Barony. Strung out and peppered with losses and injuries during the war they still are an impressive sight and run like a tight unit of battle hardened veterans. They have a reputation for straight talking and complaining based on an old edict that allowed them to voice opinions direct to the monarchs circumventing the chain of command.
Whilst this is no longer needed they still find things to grumble about, after all its their name.

Evey - an escapee from an arcadian gulag, Evey is a guerrilla style commando with a reputation for criminal violence and active protest (on environmental issues). Uncompromising and hardened beyond what you might expect to look at her, Evey leads the Guard.
Wizened Soldier/stone bones

Witness - Witness saw crimes happen every day in Arcadia, along with innocent bystanders, never allowed to become more, just see murder after murder, assault after assault. Eventually he said enough.
Watching violence so often teaches you things he says, teaches you how to stand against it and how to use it against others who perpetrate it. Witness started as a vigilante but Evey nurtured his rage and skills. Now he's as dedicated and skilled as she is.
Elemental - Manikin

Whilst the above would seem to suggest that Ely is very military and summer court dominated nothing could be further from the truth. The Barony has a very religious outlook and the courts here tend towards evangelism of their beliefs. Preachers and Motleys formed around ideals taken to levels of fervour abound. It's also a sanctuary and refuge for those lost or who have lost their homes in the war or otherwise (hence it is the home for the Cambridge refugees).
For example the winter court in Ely are very much like a religious cult, albeit a very benign one.
NPCs of these will come soon.

Hobs and more about Ely as setting guide to follow in another blog post.