Alternative Settings for Ironsworn

WHERE ARE THE BARBARIANS AND VIKINGS? How to convert an Untrodden Ways location into a place in the Ironlands

Our latest adventure The Untrodden Ways: Quick Quests #18 Kari Woodengown would make a great location for a campaign in the Ironlands.

The Untrodden Ways are an alternative Urban Fantasy setting for the Ironsworn game engine. Our adventurers deal both with paying the rent and with capturing rampaging wyverns.

There is the potential for crossover. The Untrodden Ways can transport you to far away lands as easily as walking through an enchanted wardrobe or pushing through a dense grove of magical trees. 

We recently launched Quick Quests #18 Kari Woodengown, and one of the locations in the quest is the Kingdom of Aerondale, a place that could easily be to a town in the Ironlands.

Swords
Aerondale Seal V1

About Aerondale

It is an isolated land in the warm south and requires travel through vast forests to reach Aerondale. Birds of all kinds migrate there each year, and the people have tamed them to assist with everyday life. Clothing styles are loose and minimal. Weapons are thin and strong. Duals wih swords and long knives are common.

Royal Family

The kingdom is guided by an aristocracy who rule with an iron hand using religion and fear as their tools. Their priests have vast political power and influence. Citizens attend mass regularly and their absence is noted and investigated by a local priest or worse a state spy. 

The spy network is present everywhere. You never know if the person next to you is a state informant looking to turn you in for favors or money.

A Kingdom of Birds

Aerondale is a migration destination for many types of birds including giant egrets that have been domesticated and are used as mounts or beasts of burden. The lands are covered in nesting grounds, and the warm climate is a good one for the birds to thrive.

The people are connected to the birds.

  • The most magically gifted humans can speak directly with birds.
  • Trainers use hawks and birds of prey for hunting.
  • The giant egret riders patrol the kingdom.
  • Spies see through the eyes of their bird familiars.
Bird Gate V1
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A Land Constantly at War

Isolated from other lands, the Aerondaleans are xenophobic. Strangers are often imprisoned and questioned about their land of origin before beginning indoctrination into Aerodalean society. Once you visit Aerondale, you never leave.

Daily Distractions

Fearful of the lands outside Aerondale, the kingdom is always in a state of war so much that normal citizens have forgotten life without daily invasion preparation. To keep themselves distracted, the common folk focus on the royal family and gossip of the royal court. Who will the prince wed?  Are the colors on the new high priest’s robes too strong?

Aerondale Bird Rider

Aerondale Story Starters

Use these story starters to adventure into the Kingdom of Aerondale.
While boating on the ocean, a storm blows in unexpectedly. Surviving the night at sea among the huge waves and lightning, your vessel comes to ground in an unknown place, the Kingdom of Aerondale.
While foraging, you see white dragons descending -- not dragons but huge birds with riders. They spot you too and swoop in with nets to capture you. You hear ‘outlander spy’ before they knock you unconscious.
An Aerondalean delegation comes to your town to build trade relationships. While the diplomats talk, their spies are in the community sowing seeds of discontent while looking for religious converts.

For more about Aerondale, buy Quick Quests #18 for $1 from DriveThruRPG. Aerondale isn’t the only kingdom in these territories that would work in the Ironlands.