DENAL KUBORA 1

enophobic and mysterious the Denal Kubora occupy the

foetid marshes at the headwaters of the River Denia. Their
unhappy history is bound to that of the mad god of the
Kubora: Crador the Blind, who, like them has fallen outside
the mainstream of Kuboran culture for nearly a millennium.

ORIGINS & HISTORY

When Kemlars son Crador was blinded he was cursed to wander alone
outside human company. However Kemlar granted him the power to come
to the Kubora in their sleep; if they failed to live lives as Kemlar decreed
Crador would make their nightmares real.
So it was that Crador became the shadow lurking on the edge of every
camp fire: thanked for all things good; blamed for the bad; and venerated in
the hope of future favour. Rendered mad by the pain of his torments Crador
became fickle and demanded more and more from the tribes lest he curse
them with their worst nightmares.
One tribe, the Denal, refused to bow to Crador or court his whim. They
determined to find and confine The Trickster once and for all. The hunt
they began lasted generations and their pursuit harried Crador away from
the ranges of the tribes and into lands no Kuboran coveted: the Denia
Marshes. The other tribes, fearing The Dream Maker, left the Denal to their
quest but appreciated the absence of poor luck, illness and disaster during
this time. For generations Crador spared the other tribes and focused all his
attention on those that pursued him: the Denal.
Though the Denal could confine Crador within the Broken Lands to the
east of the Denia Marshes they could not contain the dreams that he sent.
They were tormented into sleeplessness during the night and cursed with
bad luck during the day. Slowly these once valiant people had their spirit
broken until they wished nothing more but to live in their gods forsaken
marsh and serve him. All they wished was that the nightmare should end.
With the Denal cowed Crador returned to tormenting all Kubora until the
sacrifices began again. However, food or animal sacrifices were not always
enough. Kemlar had denied the Kubora the right to take a human life in
worship so they took to choosing a youth or maiden to be sent as a gift to
Crador. To this day, when sorely pressed, the Kubora will send a gift of
sacrifice to the Denal who convey the boy or girl to the Broken Lands
where Crador decides their future. That has become the sad fate of the
Denal: intermediaries between man and god; warped servants of a warped
god. Over the centuries the Denal have changed physically as well as
morally. It is as if the transformation from brave champions to craven
servants has been reflected in their often twisted bodies.
Denal girl children display a panoply of minor birth defects: disfiguring
birth marks or extra digits are common. Other differences, not always so
noticeable at birth become very marked with aging, such as facial hair,
crook backs, and joint defects. A group of middle-aged Denal women can
resemble a frightful coven of witches.
However it is among the boy children that the curse the Denal carry is
most marked. Fully half of all live male births diverge very significantly from
the Kuboran norm. In almost equal numbers these boys are marked out at
birth as either anhengfil or tenau. The former are as low in intelligence as
they are huge in physique; the latter dangerously frail but gifted with
unnatural intellect.

HrnWorld

Crador the Blind

When the Kubora arrived in Peran a man
called Lensha came to them. Described
as swarthy featured and haling from the
south; a young traveller in the company
of 7 companions each a champion of
power and each bearing a sacred stone.
Kemlar had taken a wife, Heneryne. She
was young and beautiful and though she
loved Kemlar she also loved the forest,
He would never let her far from his
hearth without escort and for this he
trusted only Lensha. A friendship, and
more, grew between the vibrant young
woman and her husbands favoured
visitor, and there were whispers of
disloyalty. Kemlar heard none of this and
when Heneryne fell pregnant the old man
celebrated the birth of his only son whom
he called Crador.
Kemlar doted on Henerynes child but
sadly Crador showed no interest in
learning but revelled in practical jokes
and mischief. With age his games
became more malicious and sinister. He
stole and drank and whored his way from
tribe to tribe but still Kemlar did not
discipline him.
Finally young Crador went too far and
ravished a chieftains daughter. A council
of all the tribes demanded Kemlar take
the boy in hand and so their Guide called
Crador before him.
When his accusers voiced their charges
the youth laughed in their faces. Kemlar
tried to keep order but the warriors
would not hear him and seized the youth.
Some, fearing to take the life of their
Guides only son, cried Let him no
longer see temptation. Let his eyes be
taken in recompense for the wrongs he
has done.
So it was that Crador became Crador the
Blind, set free into the forest so it could
finish what the chieftains had lacked the
courage to do themselves.

WRITER
Alun Rees
MAPS
Alun Rees
CONTRIBUTORS
Dan Bell
Neil Thompson
Playtesters at HarnCon 8 &
IviniaCon 2

A. Rees, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games Inc., 2009

DENAL KUBORA 2
The Uniqueness of the Denal

Denal Anghenfil (Marsh Ogre)

Anghenfil are born with a deep torso and long limbs but develop as any
other child through their early years. However their mind stops growing at
the age of 5 or 6. Their bodies in comparison quickly outstrip those of
others, and they are typically 7 or 8 feet tall with an extremely heavy build
conferring enormous strength and stamina by their early teens. They remain
hairless throughout a life that rarely exceeds 30 years.
While they lack the intelligence for sophisticated warfare they have an
instinct for the hunt and stealth. They can sit still for hours in ambush and
then spring to the attack as if they had just arrived at the fray. They swim
like fish; the webs between their fingers and long toes allow them to speed
through water. Their deep chests give them a phenomenal lung capacity
and they can dive for minutes on end or sit in the deep mud of a reed bed
for hours with their eyes and nose barely, and rarely, exposed. Many a
group of unwelcome visitors that have made camp on what they took to be
solid ground have been woken by several anghenfil erupting out of the reeds
among them. Encounters with other Kubora have led to tales of Marsh
Ogres that have reached Rethemi taverns.
STR
STA
DEX
AGL

20
22
10
10
Awareness
Herblore
Stealth
Throwing

EYE
HRG
SML
VOI

15
15
18
02

INT 06
END 12
AUR 05
MOV 11
WIL 15
Ini 70
MOR 10
Dge 50
80
Climbing 35
Foraging 55
15
Jumping 65
Physician 15
75
Survival 75
Swimming 85
75
Tracking 60
Weatherlore 50
Combat
Unarmed 75/3b
Big Knife 75/6p
Thrown Rock 75/5b
Strike Locations: Standard
Armour: Hide: B2 E4 P3 F3

Denal Tenau (Shaman)

The tenau is the polar opposite of the anghenfil. At the time his massive
brother seems to halt his mental development that of the tenau accelerates.
Many have memorised all the tales of the Denal by the time they are 10 and
mastered the more intricate crafts practiced among their people, including
that of the string drum, soon afterwards. Their hair is never thick as a child
and Denal mothers say they can identify how wise their child will be by the
age at which their remaining hair recedes and is lost. It is not surprising that
they are often identified as a potential shaman early in their life. Though
others do not know it almost every tenau has some shaman skills and these
are as important in defence of their villages as the strength of the anghenfil.
Tenau have a perverse relationship with Crador in as much as though he
is thought responsible for their condition, he is also particularly responsive
to their calls for help. Hence tenau casting ritual invocations in Cradors
name treat those invocations as if they were one circle less difficult.
Invocations caste in Kemlars name are one circle more difficult, reflecting
the Denal view that he has abandoned them.
STR 06
EYE 17
INT 16
STA 06
HRG 17
AUR 18
DEX 20
SML 08
WIL 18
AGL 18
VOI 15
MOR 10
All Physical Skills 25
Awareness 70
Folklore (Kubora) 65
Herblore 65
Legerdemain 65
Mental Conflict 65
Oratory 70
Physician 55
Ritual (Crador) 65
Stealth 55
Combat
Unarmed 25/1b
Knife 25/1p/1e
Strike Locations: Standard
Armour: None

END
MOV
Ini
Dge
Folklore (Denal)
Intrigue
Musician
Rhetoric
Weatherlore

A. Rees, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games Inc., 2009

05
18
75
70
95
55
60
60
80

Whether the characteristics the Denal

display are due to the antipathy of
Crador, the environment of the Denia
Marshes, or inbreeding within the small
Denal communities is unknown.
When the Denal defied Crador the other
tribes took less interest in their women,
and married fewer of them into their
clans, for fear of attracting his ire. That
may explain why, today, the Denal
consider it taboo to marry outside the
clan, let alone into another tribe.
The Denal say that if one brother is
tenau and another anghenfil then
between them they have the wit of any
normal man. This is not intended
cruelly. The Denal have long accepted
that each birth brings something
different, but equally essential, to the
tribe. Both the anghenfil and tenau are
prized as special by their parents so
they are rarely allowed to leave the
marshes. They never accompany the
small group of warriors that travel to the
Kuboran Moot each Larane. Nor does
any woman.
Those boy children who are neither
anghenfil nor tenau are, in all superficial
respects, indistinguishable from the
warriors of other tribes, though they tend
to be less generally healthy. They do,
though, almost all have some aspect of
their more extreme brothers
characteristics. Some will have webbing
between some their digits in imitation of
the complete webs that link the fingers of
each anhengfil hand and the long toes of
each foot. Others are prematurely bald or
have thin hair all their lives. Some are
heavily built, such as 67 tall Ustar.
Called the Giant by other Kubora. Ustar
has won the wrestling event at the
Annual Moot for two years and hopes to
win again this year. The jibes of those he
has defeated, that he is kin to a Marsh
Ogre, cause the big man to smile wryly
as he thinks of his brother, Ustad, called
The Giant by other Denal.

HrnWorld

DENAL KUBORA 3
THE DENAL CLANS
The three clan structure of the tribe allots each a specific role in the
divinely inspired work of the Denal. It also leads to political stability: Edak
and Guran have held their positions since the death of their respective
clanheads almost a generation ago.
Though marriage outside the clan is taboo among the Denal there is
some cross-adoption between the clans which provides an opportunity for
some mixing of blood. By tradition Denal males who are entirely hairless by
the time they reach 9 years are seen as having great shamanistic potential.
They are often adopted into clan Garras and taught the way of water and
reed; spirit and soul. Particularly gifted warriors, often anghenfil, are
regularly adopted by clan Guran, the guardians of the Denia Marshes. Clan
Edak, therefore, tends to have slightly fewer of the extreme characteristics
found among the other clans.

Clan Guran
Guran Water Walker is Druhn to the Denal Kubora and his clan
occupies the western end of the marsh. The other clans send him some of
their prime warriors to join the patrols he sends through the forest to the
west of the marsh and along the southern and northern margins of the
tribes range. Clan Guran maintain the Denals isolation and collects any
gifts of sacrifice left by other Kubora at the Place of Farewells.
Members of Clan Guran knows their range intimately and have prepared
all manner of traps in the forest to deter visitors. Neighbouring Kubora
either accept the risk of hunting above the Denia cataract or avoid the
Denal range entirely. Those wishing to trade make camp at the top of the
cataract and wait there for the Deanl to come to them. Only the path
leading to the Place of Farewells is safe, and then only while escorting
gifts clearly identified by the necklace of bones they wear.
Nine households can be found at Gurans village with seven more
divided between the two smaller settlements.

Clan Edak
Edak the Stalker is Hanuhn to the Denal Kubora and his village of eight
households lies at the centre of the marsh, near Henerynes Glade. The
oldest woman among clan Edak becomes the Denal Kubora Crone and she
is responsible for tending the tribal glade. Any gift of sacrifice must be
brought before Edak and the Crone to ensure Heneryne has made it
healthy and that it is worthy of Crador before it is passed on to Clan Garras.
There are four other households at each of the two smaller Edak
settlements.

Clan Garras
The clan of Garras, Reed Weaver serves Crador most directly. It is to
the larger of the clans settlements that any gifts of sacrifice intended for the
god are taken. They feed the gift and care for it to ensure it is perfect for the
god. Then they take it by boat to The Leave Taking. The gift is left food for
3 days but anything else they brought with them, apart from their distinctive
necklace of bones and the clothes they wear, is kept by the Denal. The path
leading into the Broken Lands is pointed out to them, before the boat
leaves, and they are left to the mercy of Crador.
Garras is tenau and was adopted into the clan as a boy because he lost
his birth hair by the age of five years. His intelligence and wisdom are
legendary.
HrnWorld

Clan:
Guran
Edak
Garras
Total

H/h
17
17
16
50

Population
102
102
97
300

Warband
39
29
32
100

The Warband of Clan Guran:

Warriors
Prime
Youths
Anghenfil
9
2
Tenau
3
2
Others
12
4

Old
1
2
4

The Warband of Clan Edak:

Warriors
Prime
Youths
Anghenfil
3
2
Tenau
3
2
Others
8
5

Old
0
2
4

The Warband of Clan Garras:

Warriors
Prime
Youths
Anghenfil
3
3
Tenau
6
2
Others
8
4

Old
0
2
4

The Place of Farewells

At the head of the Denia Cataract a
clearing serves neighbouring tribes as a
safe place for trade with the Denal. The
path running from there, along the rivers
edge, to the Place of Farewells, is clearly
signposted with the skulls of animals and
humans. To stray off the path is to invite
attack.
The Place of Farewells is a slab of limestone projecting out from the edge of the
forest. It offers a view over a lagoon of
open water some 400 paces across. The
lagoon is bounded on all sides by packed
reed beds between which breaks hint at
routes into the marsh.

The Leave Taking

The eastern margin of the marsh is a
jumble of limestone karst clothed in a
thick mat of greenery. This, the rugged
chaos of the Broken Lands, rises sharply
from the marsh waters.
The Leave Taking nestles among the
eroded limestone of the Broken Lands
and shows some sign of human impact.
Gifts, abandoned here over a millennium,
often carve a last testament to their life
into the limestone. Though erosion
endlessly sweeps these records of
sacrifice away more recent messages
survive. They are all pictorial and
typically show hopeful signs of figures
standing under a sun alongside plentiful
game. The limestone here is unusual in
being tarnished with a rusty red deposit
of some kind giving the place a bloody
caste.

A. Rees, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games Inc., 2009

DENAL KUBORA 4
A DENAL SETTLEMENT
The Denal are unique among the Kubora for building out over the water of their marsh. Even the Utcin
Kubora build traditional Kuboran round-houses on the
edge of the bogs of Hohnam Marsh.
Good wood is difficult to find on the marsh and
most is brought from the hills that enclose it. The
roughly worked plank floor of a Denal hut is built on
boughs driven into the mud of the marsh-bed. Those
boughs also serve as corner posts for the rest of the
building, with lighter boughs added as cross-bracing to
give the walls strength. Walls and roof are of reed
thatch, the latter supported by a central pole.
Running around each hut is a walkway and rough
planks connect the huts to one another and to the
communal raft. These can be kicked into the water in
emergency to isolate the huts. Crude ladders run down
into the water and it is here that the households
curuglau (coracles) are tied up.

1. Reed Beds
No Denal village is built far from an extensive bed of
reeds. Further out in the lagoons the water is too deep
to anchor their huts, but the centrality of reeds to their
everyday needs also decrees there must be a ready
supply at hand. Reed is used to build with and when
soaked provides a rough fibre that can be woven into
coarse blankets. The Denal even make their curuglau of
reeds as the traditional Kuboran boat requires more,
and larger, hides than the marsh can provide.

2. Household Hut
A household of between 5 and 7 can occupy one of
these reed insulated huts. Reed mats cover the floor
and walls and are also set across doorways and widows
providing rough but effective insulation. Combined with
the suspended ceramic fire pot, vented through the
reed roof, they make the hut surprisingly cosy against
the cold and damp of the marsh night. Wads of reed
mats also provide bedding.
There is no discrimination among the anghenfil,
teanu or other Denal; they share the household of their
birth or adopted parent. If the hut is too crowded then
the surrounding walkways provides extra room in
warmer months. In the winter the more body heat a hut
can generate, the better.

3. Shuntul Lodge
Shuntul is practised by the Denal even though they
are different in so many other ways from forest Kubora.
It is, though, the preserve of the clanhead rather than
the shaman; there are more shaman than lodges among
the Denal It is here that the clanhead will welcome and
house visitors unless they are particularly honoured and
invited to his family hut.
A. Rees, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games Inc., 2009

4. Clanheads Hut
Usually larger and slightly better appointed the hut
is otherwise like any other. If the clanhead is the Druhn
of the Denal then one or two household huts will be
built for visiting warriors.

5. Central Raft
This serves as the only communal space available to
the clan; huts are private places to which invitations are
rare. It is here that the women prepare communal
meals; work the beaver and otter skins that are valuable
in trade; and dry the fish that are the core of the Denal
diet. It is also where children play together and learn
adult skills and crafts such as pottery and woodcraft.
Larger timbers are brought from the forest around
the marsh and driven into the mud to provide a
framework which is filled in with smaller branches and
brush. Finally the Denal layer the raft with reeds. Mud,
and if they can get it turf, is then added to create an
artificial island. The turf is valued as it allows some
shallow rooted food plants to supplement the otherwise
monotonous fish diet.

6. Henerynes Island
With few trees near their settlements women cannot
worship Heneryne as other Kubora do. Instead the
Denal build a second, smaller, raft. Here a fire pot is
kept alight within a ring of whichever spindly plants will
grow in the hallow soil so that Heneryne knows the
Denal honour her in the hope of a better future.
The Denal believe that Kemlar has forsaken them
for their pursuit of his son, Crador, and that the mad
god toys with them as a cat does a mouse. It is only
Heneryne who has remained constant and she fills most
of their spiritual needs. When they pray for a good haul
of fish or waterfowl it is to the Hearth Mother; when
they go to war they seek the support of the Vengeful
Mother; when a child is born they seek the blessing of
the Bountiful Daughter.
There is, near the centre of the Denia Marsh, close
by the village of the tribal Hanuhn, a naturally occurring
island where there is enough shrub and spindly tree
growth for the Denal to maintain a more typical Glade
in honour of Heneryne. All Denal women travel there
within a season of their first menstruation to pray to the
goddess that their wombs are fruitful and their children
healthy. Healthy for the Denal being a relative term.
Depending on the needs of the clan at any time a
healthy child might be anghenfil or tenau or neither.
Other Kubora have an irrational fear of any birth defect
and expose such children in the forest. If they survive
then they are treated entirely normally. If not they are
never spoken of again. The Denal never expose any
child, valuing each, whatever form it takes.
HrnWorld

LEAGUES

DENIA MARSHES
GM MAP

The Denia Cataract

nia
De
er
Riv

'Place of Farewells'

Clan Guran

Clan Edak

Clan Garras

'The Leave Taking'

THE BROKEN LANDS

The Place of the Hand

VILLAGE of CLAN EDAK

GM MAP

6
4
6 +6

5
3

2
2

SCALE IN FEET
0

10

15

20

THE PLACE of the HAND

COMMON MAP

LOCAL SCALE
FEET
0

50

100

200

VILLAGE of CLAN EDAK

COMMON MAP

4
6 +6

SCALE IN FEET
0

10

15

20

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