The Astrodia Campaign

Freedale

5 min read

Freedale is an old town on the western edge of Artmegía’s settled lands, sitting on the road between Quandrix College and the Nephthys temple at the edge of the White Forest. Founded roughly two centuries ago, it briefly flourished before being struck by the White Forest curse — and it has never fully recovered. Today only about 20% of its former population has returned; roofs sag with holes, windows are boarded, and the streets are quiet.

The Curse’s Toll

Freedale was one of the hardest-hit towns on the continent. Being on the western frontier, closest to the forest, it was overtaken by the curse’s vines and thorns and had to be abandoned. According to a townswoman (a former worshipper at Drolta’s temple), the disaster came in stages:

  • Before the vines: children disappeared for periods of time and then returned unharmed, and the trees around town began turning white — the first signs the curse was in the air.
  • The vines arrived within eyeline of the town; nearly everyone fled. The few who stayed to wait it out or fight it mostly died.
  • The vines eventually receded on their own, for reasons no one understands.
  • Returnees spent years cutting back the decayed ivy and thorns that had swallowed the buildings. The town is still struggling back, with no support from the Academy — a bitter point among locals, who feel the Academy “has its own agenda” and never explains anything.

(See White Forest for the broader curse mystery — Freedale is the party’s clearest firsthand source on how the curse began.)

An Accidental Fishing Town

Freedale sits on a river with unusually good fishing, including a prized freshwater mackerel. This has drawn orcs up from the Expanse (who normally fish saltwater), and the town has quietly reinvented itself as a fishing hub — orcs lodge at the inn during good seasons, and the local trade now largely caters to them. Fishing gear can be bought at the General Goose Store.

Notable Places

  • The Wizard’s Tower — home of the late witch Morgana; long rumored haunted. Cleared by The Fallen in Session 9 — the haunting was ghouls in the basement, feeding on Morgana’s twenty-year-old body. The tower now holds a teleportation circle, a scrying pool, and a shield guardian the party can command.
  • The Temple of Saturn — dedicated to Saturn, the Agent of Judgment, whose winged, crowned statue stands in the courtyard.
  • The Stable — six horses (75 gp to buy, 25 gp/week to rent); secured at night by a single simple padlock.
  • A chicken-and-beer tavern/inn — the town’s social hub, usually full of orc fishers.
  • The Smithy — basic wares; a place to sell salvaged weapons.
  • The General Goose Store — general goods and fishing supplies.
  • A private residence — noticeably nicer than the rest of town, with a sunroom.
  • A library — spotted next to the stables on the party’s way out in Session 9. Never entered.

Session 8 — The Fallen Arrive (July 22, 2026)

The Fallen reached Freedale about 2.5 days into their journey north. They scoped the town, weighed (and ultimately rejected) Úlfr’s repeated plan to steal the stable’s horses — the town was too battered to rob — and learned the curse’s history from the tavern-keeper. Drawn by talk of the “haunted” wizard’s tower, they detected the undead presence beneath it and broke in via a third-floor balcony, ending the session inside.

Session 9 — The Tower Cleared (July 29, 2026)

The Fallen spent the rest of the day and that night inside Morgana’s Tower, and slept there rather than pay for lodging. What they took out of Freedale reframes the town as more than a waypoint:

  • Morgana’s body, her journal, her letter to Verelda, and Verelda’s unread reply — the fullest account yet of how the White Forest curse began and what happened to someone who went to face it.
  • A permanent teleportation circle on the tower roof, runes copied. Freedale is now a place the party can return to instantly.
  • A scrying pool, usable once a day by anyone proficient in Arcana — which is how Asha discovered her missing mother is alive and held captive in the White Forest.
  • The Guardian Command Amulet, and with it a working war construct still standing in the tower’s entry hall.

In the morning the party abandoned the horse plan entirely — 300 gp was their whole purse — and used the Sending Stones to have Myrna send Archibald through the tower’s circle instead. He teleported them the last leg to the Nephthys temple, turning a two-day walk into a morning.

(The stable’s horses survived Úlfr’s ambitions a second time, though only because everyone forgot about them.)

Where Its Refugees Went (Session 10)

In Pentamarone — an Endymion Empire border city hundreds of miles north — The Fallen met a glassblower who fled Freedale as a child during the curse and settled there with her family.

Her family knew where to go because Morgana told them. The witch kept a list of safe havens among the covens and guilds she was connected to, and Pentamarone was on it. So a portion of Freedale’s scattered population — the ones who never came back to the 20% living in the sagging houses today — ended up in the one city inside Empire borders that the Empire doesn’t rule.

She remembered the tower as haunted, remembered Morgana by name, and learned from the party that Morgana was dead. “A great witch.”

First Appeared

Session 8 (July 22, 2026) — the party’s midway stop on the road north to the Nephthys temple.

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