H16 Verbobonc Refugee Camp
A Powder Keg Outside the Walls
Just beyond Verbobonc’s walls sprawls a bleak sea of canvas and scrap-wood: the Verbobonc Refugee Camp. What began as a temporary shelter for exiles from the Wild Coast has grown into a churning mass of desperation—50–60 tents and shacks crowded together, choked by mud, smoke, and sickness.
The camp is a humanitarian crisis, a crime-ridden slum, and a political flashpoint all at once. Lord Mayor Marakios Willem Haxx struggles to keep its problems from spilling into the city, even as more refugees arrive and tempers rise on both sides of the walls.
Use this location whenever you need moral dilemmas, factional tensions, or a harsh reminder that Verbobonc’s prosperity casts a long shadow. The camp comprises 50-60 tents and other makeshift structures.
Children dart between guy ropes and cookfires; gaunt men and women huddle in ragged cloaks, hands outstretched or curled tight around their last possessions. Somewhere a baby wails, somewhere else a drunk laughs too loudly. At the far edge, a queue of hollow-eyed folk waits outside a great food tent, while near the road a louder knot of refugees raises their voices toward the city walls, fists and placards lifted in anger and despair.
Who Lives Here
- Population: Exiles and refugees from the Wild Coast, driven north by war, raids, and collapse.
- Scale: Roughly 50–60 tents and rough shelters, growing whenever new arrivals come.
- Conditions:
- Severe overcrowding & poor sanitation; each day, there’s a real chance disease spreads (20% daily risk in game terms if you need it).
- Poverty and desperation: many will do almost anything for food, coin, or protection.
Key Pressures & Threats
Disease & Squalor
- No proper drainage, limited latrines, fouled water. Illness is common and frighteningly quick to spread.
Crime & Drunkenness
- Theft, brawls, and exploitation are rife; cheap drink becomes the only escape for many.
Thieves’ Guild Activity
- The Thieves’ Guild has quietly established a presence, using a “legitimate” tent business as a cover to recruit desperate refugees and rob the rest.
Spies & Cults
- Rumors swirl of spies and dark cults trawling the camp for recruits—folk with nothing to lose are easy to bend.
Growing Unrest
- Voices are getting louder. Organized protests at the walls demand more aid, entry into the city, or resettlement. Some talk now openly of violence.
Power Players & Factions
Lord Mayor Haxx & City Officials
- Haxx’s priority is keeping the camp’s problems out of Verbobonc while avoiding an open crackdown that would look like cruelty. So far, he’s contained the chaos, not solved it.
The Churches & Paladins
- Multiple churches send paladins and clergy to keep order and offer spiritual support.
- The most visible are the Billets of St. Cuthbert, dispatched by Bishop Haufren:
- They patrol with cudgels and sermons, imposing discipline the Cudgel’s way—“tough love” that often feels more like a beating than a blessing.
- Some refugees welcome them as the only thing standing between them and total chaos; others fear and resent them, seeing them as bullies in holy colors.
Political and Social Context
- Viscount and Mayor's Dilemma: The Viscount Wilfrick Verdanhart and Mayor Haxx face mounting pressures due to the refugee crisis and the increasing restlessness in the camp.
- Gnome Troubles in Kron Hills: The friction between the city's populace and the gnomes has escalated, with reports of gnomes attacking merchant caravans and being mistreated by city residents.
- Market Access Issues for Gnomes: The gnomes face difficulties in bringing their merchandise to the Verbobonc market, exacerbated by tensions in the refugee camp.
- Refugee Camp Challenges: The camp outside the city walls has become a hotbed of crime and desperation, with the presence of the thieves' guild and rumors of spies and cults taking advantage of the situation.
- City's Response: Lord Haxx has managed to keep the camp's issues from spilling into the city but struggles to find a long-term solution as the number of refugees continues to grow.
Response Measures
- Church Intervention: Several churches have sent paladins to maintain order and offer religious guidance.
- Local Government's Stance: Efforts focused on keeping the camp's issues isolated from the city.
Bishop Haufren's Response
- Bishop Haufren of St. Cuthbert, recognizing the escalating situation in the camp, has dispatched a contingent of Billets.
- These Billets, known for their strict adherence to St. Cuthbert's doctrine, are tasked with imposing order through firm, albeit sometimes harsh, methods.
Actions of the Billets
- The Billets employ their cudgels, not only as weapons but as tools of 'enlightenment', aiming to impart wisdom through physical correction.
- Their approach is based on the belief that discipline and a strong hand can restore order and guide the lost back to the path of righteousness.
- This method of 'tough love' is characteristic of St. Cuthbert's followers, who value order, discipline, and the upholding of laws.
Impact on the Camp
- The presence of the Billets has had a polarizing effect on the camp.
- Some refugees, desperate for any semblance of order and safety, view the Billets as necessary for maintaining peace.
- Others perceive their methods as overly aggressive and fear their presence, leading to increased tensions and unease within the camp.
Bishop Haufren's Motivation
- Bishop Haufren aims to instill a sense of structure and propriety among the refugees, aligning with his beliefs in the importance of law and order.
- His decision to send the Billets reflects a commitment to proactive measures in preventing the camp's problems from escalating further.
Church's Role in the Larger Political Scene
This intervention by the Church of St. Cuthbert plays into the broader political dynamics of Verbobonc, demonstrating the church's influence and commitment to societal stability.
The actions of the Billets, while controversial, highlight the church's willingness to take tangible steps in addressing the city's challenges.
Wider Political Context
- The crisis plays into existing tensions with the gnomes of the Kron Hills—gnomes face harassment bringing goods to market, while caravans report gnome attacks in turn, further inflaming tempers.
- Both Viscount Wilfrick Verdanhart and Mayor Haxx face mounting pressure: nobles fear unrest, merchants fear lost trade, churches fear moral decay, and commoners fear disease and crime creeping into their streets.
The camp is now a visible test of Verbobonc’s conscience—and of how far its leaders will go to preserve order.
Using H16: Verbobonc Refugee Camp in Your Campaign
This camp is perfect for:
- Moral dilemmas: Who do you help when there isn’t enough to go around?
- Faction play: Church vs. Thieves’ Guild vs. city officials vs. agitators.
- Cult & spy recruitment: PCs can spot (or foil) enemy factions fishing in troubled waters.
Adventure Hooks
- Cudgel or Compassion?
Bishop Haufren wants the PCs to assist his Billets in “restoring order,” while another church quietly asks them to protect refugees from excesses. The party must pick a side—or walk a very thin line. - The Missing Aid
Food and blankets sent from city temples never reach the Chow Tent. Elders beg the PCs to trace stolen supplies, revealing a Thieves’ Guild skimming operation… or a cult hoarding for its own flock. - Gerald’s Next March
Gerald Ryger plans a major protest that could turn into a riot. City officials offer coin and favor if the PCs calm him down; agitators and cults offer different rewards if they help him escalate. - Plague on the Wind
A new sickness sweeps the tents. If nothing is done, it could leap the walls. The party must find the source—tainted well, deliberate poisoning, or something darker—before Haxx orders a brutal quarantine.
Run H16: Verbobonc Refugee Camp whenever you want the players to feel that the stories of Verbobonc are not just about lords and temples—but about the desperate thousands living in their shadow.
H16A Tent of Gerald Ryger
This is the tent of one of the camp’s outspoken rebels. Gerald Ryger (human Ftr2) is a large, outspoken protester who has been rallying and recruiting a large number of refugees. He is a short-tempered man who believes that violence is the only way to get his demands met. Thus far, he has only gathered 35 people to his cause, but it is growing day-by-day as people get more desperate. Gerald usually organizes most of the protests that erupt around the city’s walls.
Gerald Ryger (H16A – Summary)
- A loud, short-tempered ex-soldier (Ftr 2) who has become the camp’s most outspoken agitator.
- Leads protests at the walls; has gathered ~35 supporters so far, and his influence grows as conditions worsen.
H16B Chow Tent
Organized by several of the city’s more charitable churches, this huge tent (temporary structure – 30 feet tall) is used to feed the refugees. Large wooden benches and tables fill the huge tent, as several clerics “Create food and water” to feed the masses that pack this tent daily.
Chow Tent (H16B – Summary)
- Huge tent organized by charitable churches; clerics use create food and water to feed masses daily.
- It’s both a lifeline and a pressure point: food lines are where rumors, anger, and recruitment spread.
H16C Cantina
Some of the more resourceful rogues in the city have set up this tent/wooden structure to relieve the refugees of what little copper they have left. It is usually packed with luck-less refugees who drink the watered down ale to forget their troubles.
Cantina (H16C – Summary)
- A ramshackle tent tavern set up by opportunistic rogues.
- Serves watered ale to the hopeless and skims what little coin they have left; a hotbed of brawls, deals, and guild contact.
Gerald Ryger (read aloud as dialog)
“Look at thee, all of ye—gaunt faces, hollow bellies, babes wailing like lambs in the slaughter-yard—and still ye sit and wait for charity from stone-hearted lords who never tasted hunger in their lives. They feast in Verbobonc this very night, mark me—fat roasts and sweet wine within those high walls—whilst we are tossed crusts and told to be patient. Patient? Hah! Did patience win the Emridy fields? Did patience drive back Iuz and his swine? Nay, steel and will did that—and I bled for this Viscounty whilst those silk-clad cowards now turn their backs on us. Hear me: we go to the gates, all of us, and we roar so loud that even the Viscount’s sleep is broken. We pound upon those doors till Haxx’s Hardheads quake in their boots, and we demand bread, meat, and fair measure for every soul in this camp. No more waiting, no more starving in the mud whilst they grow fat above us. Who among ye hath the spine to stand, to walk with me to those cursed walls, and show them the folk of Verbobonc are not dogs to be kicked, but free men and women who will be heard?”
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