Overview: The Chalice Pass is situated high in the Florentian Alps, with impossibly high, sheer canyon walls on either side. The main area of The Chalice is at the highest, level point in the pass, accessed by a series of steep switchbacks and a well-used road. Drop-offs are sheer and unforgiving…
From early November until mid March, the Pass is blocked by heavy snows (up to 10’ deep at times.) The Winter is a time of bitter temperatures, biting wind, freezing rain and blizzards, frozen lakes and streams, and gray skies with close, heavy clouds. Combat and troop movements are paralyzed during these months, and the front stabilizes into a time of peace, with both sides simply trying to survive the winter.
Spring is a time of thawing and mud, rain, and a resumption of military activity. There is always a major offensive from both sides in late March. Temperatures remain cool. Planting and general buildup occurs during this time.
Summer is pleasant, the temperature hovering around 70, with cool breezes and occasional rain. This is the time of the most battles and offensives.
Fall is the harvest at the Chalice farms, and a time of stockpiling as numerous supply trains arrive from Eldred’s Cross to prepare the defenders for the coming winter. Temperatures cool off, the wind picks up, and both sides launch major offensives right up until the first snows, trying to gain the ground which they will hold throughout the winter. For both the change of season, and the intense fighting, Fall is referred-to as the “Season of Death.”
The walls of the canyon are high and unscaleable. The terrain is mostly rocky turf, with stone outcroppings and a few scattered pines. On the main plain it is generally flat and open, although in the summer months the plains are covered in chest-high wild grasses (perfect ambush terrain for goblins.)
Loch Bannock (also the name of the keep on the causeway) is fed by a high waterfall. Water is ice-cold and crystal clear, and the lake is deep. It runs off in three small rivers, one to the north, two to the south, which each turn into waterfalls as they descend into their respective valleys. The loch is the primary source of drinking water for all living things at The Chalice. At the western end where it nears the castle walls, the water turns marshy and unmoving.
HORSESHOE: This is the first sign of civilization since leaving Nevermore. Positioned on a wide ledge of land, with sheer drop-offs to the south and the main road climbing higher into the pass through switchbacks, Horseshoe is a cluster of stone buildings from 1-3 stories tall. There is a large stables & livery, an inn, a smith and a sizeable pub (“The Horseshoe.”)
This is a place where soldiers can go when on leave, visitors can stay when coming to the pass, a collection point for soldiers who are seriously wounded or at the end of their tours to pick up a southbound caravan, and an organization point where supply trains are separated from troops formations and prepared for the drive into Chalice Keep.
The pub is run by a veteran, retired soldier named “Hobb,” and the food & drink are excellent by soldier’s standards. The rooms are clean, and baths are available (though there are no ‘ladies of leisure’…the Church would not permit it.) Informal gambling is allowed. It is simply a place where soldiers can get away from the war, even if not very far or for very long.
Much of the construction is new, having been repaired since the last time the goblinoids controlled the pass and burned the place to a shell.
THE FARMS & VILLAGE: Here are large fields of potatoes, radishes, beets, onions, gourds and wheat. Carts, oxen-pulled plows and draft horses can be seen mixed with peasant farmers. The farmers live in a small collection of wooden and thatch cottages and barns clustered around a stone mill. There are small pens of goats & cows, chickens and sheep, barking dogs, piles of firewood and dirty, playing children. These peasants are all non-combatents, and survive through the grace of the Host. They keep a small portion of what they grow, but the rest goes to the army. They stay as far from the fighting as possible.
The mill grinds the wheat they grow (and what is brought to the pass) into flour, which is sent to Chalice Keep for the industrial-sized bakery there. Since both sides need mills, this structure is never burned, even when goblinoids hold the pass.
GOBLIN FORT SOUTH: This bizarre structure hangs out over the southern cliffs, overlooking the approaching road & switchbacks. The construction is stone and mortar, with bizarre designs and architecture, symbols and carvings of mysterious creatures. This fort is identical to Goblin Fort North in layout.
Inside is a large plaza with an enormous statue of a seated goblin holding a sword. There is a mossy pool, and numerous strangely-shaped rooms and levels reached by narrow stairs. This fort is abandoned, and is now home to a large herd of pigs kept by the farmers. They also harvest the many varieties of mushrooms which grow in the fort’s moist, gloomy interior.
On occasion, a smitten farm girl has been known to meet a handsome soldier in one of the fort’s many rooms for a tryst. Something that could get the girl beaten and the soldier severely disciplined.
MASS GRAVES: At the north end of this area are the sites for the pyres for the goblinoid dead, which burn almost nightly. Common soldiers are responsible for collecting the dead, transporting them and burning the bodies. Near the canyon wall is a massive mound of charred bones and skulls.
Stretching to the south are the mass graves, long lime-filled trenches where common soldiers are buried. The troops assist Field Group Charity in tending to the fallen. The lime keeps the smell down, but the pyres make up for it. All the farmers are so used to the pyres that they don’t even smell the charred stench anymore.
LOCH BANNOCK: This cold, clear lake feeds the pass and the valleys, and flows into the western part of the lock under causeway bridges. Some fish live in the loch, but it has mostly been fished-out. In the marshy areas to the west, near Chalice Keep, a solitary greenhag (shellycoat) has been slipped into the water by the forces of the Grimme and has taken up deadly residence, snatching careless soldiers at the marsh edge.
Loch Bannock is also the name of the causeway keep, a small castle structure on an island, which opens onto a causeway of earth and bridges to the north. There are three defensive towers spaced along the causeway at even intervals, each stout and three stories tall, completely straddling the causeway, passed through via a gated archway through their centers. All three are scorched and battered by fire and constant battle. This area of the pass is hotly contested, for it is a way for the goblinoids to reach the soft, southern areas without having to circle (and come under fire from) Chalice Keep. Loch Bannock is currently under Host control.
GRAZING LAND: Large herds of cattle wander this grassy area, well back from the fighting. They are the primary supply of beef for the army. Oxen are mixed among them. Monitoring the herd is one of the light duties given to cavalrymen when not engaged in combat.
THE BALCONY & THE GOUGE: This keep structure is larger than Loch Bannock, but nowhere near the size of Chalice Keep. Overlooking a narrow, steep gorge (called “The Gouge”), the Balcony is so named because of its walled, defensive plaza which is set right at the gorge’s edge. This fortification helps defend the main road from incursions from the north, but primarily serves as a defensive point against the gorge (which is a regular route of attack used by the goblinoids.) Archers are the most useful soldier at this post, firing down into masses of climbing goblinoids scaling up from below. When The Balcony is under attack, a ballista will fire a single fiery, smoking spear into the sky as a signal.
Sometimes the archers drive the attackers back into the gorge. Sometimes the goblinoids spill up over the wall and the battle turns into hand-to-hand melee. The goblinoids are constantly testing and pushing up the Gorge, and rarely does a day pass where some kind of attack doesn’t take place. It is currently under control of The Host.
The Gorge itself is steep and narrow, filled with boulders which provide cover, and the fragments of a million arrow shafts and as many goblinoid bones. It climbs steadily towards the defensive wall of The Balcony.
BROKENWALLS: These ruins were once the main castle here at the Chalice, but its original name is forgotten except in rare books deep under the Basilica. It is now a maze of catapult-hammered stone shells, scorched and crumbling walls, rubble, and cratered earth. The ground is so uneven and rocky that bringing cavalry in here is perilous, and so it becomes a place for the infantry.
It is the site of numerous goblinoid catapults and trebuchets, which can reach the nearest walls of Chalice Keep but not quite Loch Bannock. Batteries of Imperial catapults – far better range - can hit Brokenwalls as well, so this place is frequently the scene of flaming artillery duels.
At present, Brokenwalls is under goblinoid control, and serves as a field HQ and encampment. Grimme picket lines stretch out both east towards Loch Bannock, and west along the road which circles Chalice Keep. Essentially, these are “The Lines.”
Y’VES: This small castle is clearly of human design and construction, however the elevated main entrance and stairway drawbridge (which lowers across the slow-moving moat and gives the only access to the castle) are clearly of goblinoid design. The castle is extremely old and well built. It has a central keep with a curtain wall supported by thick, circular towers, and butts back up against the sheer canyon wall.
Y’ves has changed hands many times, and both sides have rebuilt battle damage frequently (mostly wooden interior elements), though the stonework stands strong.
At present it remains in goblinoid control, and the forces of the Grimme have every intention of keeping it until winter forces an end to hostilities.
About ½ of the Grimme’s senior commanders live here, well out of catapult range and behind the lines, and it is the main HQ for goblinoid operations in the Pass.
Massive goblinoid encampments stretch from the edge of the moat nearly out to the connecting roads, a sea of shabby lean-tos, clan banners, fires and hordes of knotty flesh. All manner of species and clan are here; Goblins, Hobgoblins, Orcs, Gnolls, Kobolds, Ogres, Skaven and scatterings of larger types (Ettins, Giants & Trolls.)
War cries from this mass of evil beings rises like a roar and echoes throughout the canyon, chilling the blood…
GOBLIN FORT NORTH: As mentioned, this structure is identical in layout to Goblin Forth South, with a few exceptions. First, it is occupied. The second half of the goblinoid commanders lair here. Next, the fort is active day and night with great forges which melt metal down to slag (metal usually collected from human armor, weapons and barding) and then refashioned into goblinoid weapons, arrow and spear heads, ram heads and armor. The fort belches black smoke continuously. The final difference is that recently, the goblinoid erected a high brass spire which is based in the fort’s courtyard and rises a hundred feet over the topmost tower into the sky. It shimmers and hums with malevolent energy, and creates a feeling of nausea to any non-goblinoid who approaches within fifty feet. This is a smaller Control Spire, used by the goblinoid command to hold control over races & monsters which would normally be wild, hostile and as dangerous to the goblinoids as others. The spire is well defended…
GRIMMEGATE: Considered by humankind to be the official beginning of The Grimme’s territory, this simple structure is merely two towers straddling the road with a portcullis between, and a low wall which extends to the canyon wall and through brush to the east, ending at a sharp drop-off. Below and to the east is the extreme southern tip of the Great Wood.
Grimmegate is defended lightly, and serves best as a choke-point… human cavalry could only pass 1 or 2 abreast if negotiating the gate, allowing larger defensive forces brought in from the north a better chance to repel them. Otherwise the place is singularly unremarkable. |
