Let’s Make a Hexcrawl Setting

[Sanglorian]

[...] should the halflings be mentioned? Our halflings are even more Tolkien rip-offs than the D&D versions (especially the newer edition ones that have become kenderized). Personally I'm OK with halflings being hobbits with the serial numbers filed off and more ostriches, not everything needs to be reimagined. As for famous people, the Doge and the Duke are important but they don't even have names, perhaps the Weeper's family (including his mother and daughter)?

I think the Doge, Duke and the Weeper's family are all good candidates for entries—if we're doing rulers than the Bloodied King should probably get a mention.

A long time ago, chutup (I think it was) proposed connecting hexes in the Shrouded Lands to dungeons that have been published elsewhere. With the results of the One Page Dungeon Contest 2012 conveniently under a CC BY-SA licence, I thought that would be a good excuse to tie in a couple of dungeons:

Traitors' Pit of the Last Doge
(Based on Snakes AND Chutes and Ladders, by S Harlan [direct link to PDF])

The last doge of the Shuttered City was mad and vindictive. To punish his enemies—real and imagined—he constructed Traitors' Pit. The five layers of this construction were connected by chutes and ladders, and populated with vicious and hungry snakes. Prisoners thrown into the pit are warned that the chutes are only for sliding down and ladders only for climbing up: Indeed, if anyone attempts to climb down a ladder a handful of its uppermost rungs turn into snakes that lash out at the climber.

Prisoners are left with only a dagger, sturdy boots, baggy trousers and a tunic. Each prisoner is given the antivenom of one snake, chosen at random. If they can make it down to the pit's lowermost level, they will be confronted by a giant pit viper with rubies for eyes. It guards the key to the pit's exit along with treasure amassed over the decades.

Officially, the pit is no longer used. In practice, nobles find it a convenient way to dispose of their enemies without violating the taboo on committing murder within the Doge's palace.

Hooks
What is the provenance of the rubies in the pit viper's eyes? Do they have any effect?
Who else has been thrown into the pit? Are they still alive?

The Cave of Kull Cove (01.10)
(Based on The Cave of Kull Cove, by Ramsey Hong [direct link to PDF])

Along the Bitter Coast is a cliff pocketed with caves. Outside one of the caves sits a blind and one-legged sailor. According to the rumourmongers of the Cross, he once hunted whales across the Ocean of Bitter Regrets. Robbed of his leg by a great white whale, he took to harvesting beached whales. There have been no beached whales of late, and his whalebits have grown rancid.

The cave that the sailor sits outside was the hiding spot for a band of pirates who grew hateful and paranoid from too much time spent on the Ocean of Bitter Regrets. In their madness, they killed one another but so great was their covetousness that they remained as ghosts to watch eternally their gold.

The pet squid that the pirates used as a mascot has grown to tremendous size and now lives in a dank lake in the deepest section of the caves. The pirates stored their treasure on an island in the middle of this lake.

There is a passage leading from this lake into the Sunless Sea. The squid sometimes squeezes through the passage, but is terrified of whales and the stink of whales, and will not remain too long in the Sunless Sea.

Hooks:
Who was this white whale? Was it the beached whale in the Sunless Sea?

Crowfolk of Blind Midshotgatepool
Additional content for Blind Midshotgatepool.

The crowfolk—or kenku—of the Blind City are short, about the size of an adolescent. They stand on two legs, with winged arms that end in two long, clawed hands. They get about in thick, dark robes that obscure most of their features, but unbeknown to the crowfolk their beaks jut out from under the hood to reveal their identity.

Crowfolk invent elaborate schemes which they put into motion with great industry but little success. They are compulsive but unconvincing liars. They share with their aarokocra relatives an obsession with shiny objects, which they will opportunistically steal.

Crowfolk are clever and learn quickly. Some have fallen in with the thieves’ guild in the city, where they have been taught the true value of some shiny objects. Others work as ratters, wolfing down as many vermin as they can before stuffing the remainder in large sacks, or gemcutters. The crowfolk regularly boast that even their employment is part of a grand scheme that will slowly reveal itself to the foolish race of ‘hu-men’, but the humans of Midshotgatepool remain unconvinced.

Hooks:
What plots are the crowfolk brewing now?
Where did the crowfolk come from?

The Old Mill (03.31)
A rundown stone mill lies among the cornfields, rested on the bank of the Greyslough. It was the preferred mill for the people of the corn because its millstones are of a fine rock that leaves no grit in the flour.

After the Nothing was discovered, the cornfolk would throw their toothless victims into it. However, strange invisible assailants began to hunt the people of the corn, and the shamans claimed that these were souls regurgitated by the Nothing.

Though invisible, the stalkers have form and substance. They killed the miller and his three sons, and most of the stalkers are now found in or around the old mill. Sometimes, the millstones can be heard to grind through the night, and white powder wafts out of its windows.

An intruder to the mill would see only six-toed footprints approaching through the powder before being slain.

Hooks:
What are the invisible stalkers grinding?
Why are they drawn to the mill?
Where do they come from?
What are the millstones made from?

 

[chutup]

The Castle of the Collector (02.22)

Among the Lords Sanguine, perhaps the most insane is the Collector. Formerly he was known by his true name, but a few hundred years ago he developed an obsession with collecting knowledge of his name. First he collected every book, tablet and scroll which mentioned him. Then, to make sure his collection would always be supreme, he killed anyone who knew his name (or, more realistically, anyone who publicly admitted such.)

As one might already have surmised, the Collector likes to collect things. His obsession changes each decade or so: past fancies have included masterwork weapons, sand grains from different beaches, halfling slaves and books containing discredited theories of agriculture. All these collections remain in his sprawling keep, though he has turned his attention to other things.

Yet on top of these, there is one constant collection, the first collection, which is the Hall of Skulls. In this hall, thrice expanded by masons since its original construction, there are a total of seventy-nine Tarrasque skulls. Some are small enough to lift in one hand, while others are enormous enough that whole banquets can be held inside them. Many of these have come from Thring, whose knights have several times managed to behead the immortal beast. Those who traffick with the Collector are frowned upon in Thring, and the other Lords Sanguine frown on him for trafficking with Thring; but the Collector's coffers are seemingly bottomless even after all these years, and money always finds a way.

Hooks:
- What other collections are housed in the castle?
- What is the Collector's true name? Does anyone remember it in secret?
- What is the Collector's current obsession?
- Why can't the Collector get his hands on the Tarrasque Skull at 45.24? Not to mention the other nineteen of them...
- Who is it in Thring who sells Tarrasque skulls to the Collector?
- A benefactor is offering a handsome reward to anyone willing to break into the Collector's castle and steal a certain tome from the discredited agricultural theories section. Now, why on earth would such a book be valuable?
- Where does the Collector's wealth come from?

 

[Daztur]

The Rubies of the Traitors' Pit
Addendum to Sanglorian's post above.

Enough have been thrown down the Traitor's Pit that some have been skilled or lucky enough to escape, taking the rubies with them. This means that someone has the unenviable task of replacing the ruby eyes and good eye-grade rubies are hard to come by. The current pair were pried from an idol that sat atop the Black Ziggurat (18.26) soon after its appearance and were sold to Shuttered.

If examined, they will appear to be exact duplicates (right down to several minor flaws) of the rubies that Giles Chosard (09.06) took from the Green Ziggurat (06.10) and gave to Ilace (03.08).

Hooks:
-Who replaces the rubies once a "traitor" succeeds in taking a pair? Why bother?
-Why are the rubies exactly the same? Have the idols reacted in any way to having their ruby eyes pried out? Is there a third pair in/taken from the Temple of Seven Shadows (37.01)?
-Do these pairs of rubies have any special properties?

 

[Sanglorian]

The appendices are updated. I've created a couple of new categories: Vegetation and Organisations. So far, each has one entry (razorgrass and the Company of the Silver Flame), so remind me of vegetation and organisations we've already established!

And now, an entry to resolve another conflict: whether Lady Natala nursed the prince or the duke:

The Lady-in-Waiting of Castle Maratan (expanding 07.17)
A Sanguine Lady would not be worthy of the title if she was not intimately concerned with the workings of blood. It should come as no surprise that Lady Natala keeps a gilded cage of stirges, and has her plump and otherwise content servants press their veins to the bars after dinner each night.

It is these stirges that may explain a curious discrepancy. All agree that after one particularly frustrating hunt for the tarrasque, the Duke fell to beating his princely jester. But the Duke did not escape unharmed—a wound of unknown origin across the back of his hand festered, and he collapsed alongside his jester near Castle Maratan. Some say that it is the prince who Lady Natala nursed to health, for she learned what only he surely knows: a sporting ground of the tarrasque. But others say that it was the Duke, for she claims to have birthed his child.

The sobbed accusations of a former lady-in-waiting, now confined to her quarters for ‘treatment’, may explain the mystery. According to the lady-in-waiting, she was assigned the task of nursing the prince to health, and with him she formed a deep, romantic bond. In thanks for her kindness, he whispered to her a place where the tarrasque sported freely and often, and where she could sit and watch that curious beast.

Word of this passed to Lady Natala, who became obsessed with harvesting the tarrasque’s heartsblood. She demanded that the lady-in-waiting give up the location. Lips sealed by love, the woman kept her confidence.

Natala had a stirge brought to her quarters. It drew blood from the lady-in-waiting and delivered it into the Sanguine Lady’s eager vein. Certainly, knowledge of the sporting ground of the tarrasque passed to the Lady, for a week later she battled that beast.

But when the son that Lady Natala bore grew his first head of copper hair—so unlike the hair of both the Sanguine and the Duke—the lady-in-waiting drew a horrible conclusion. The stirge had drawn not just a memory from her mind, but also a baby from her belly. The son of Natala is not heir of Thring; he is heir of all Gore.

Or so the mad lady-in-waiting believes.

Hooks
What effect has frequent blood-letting and blood-mingling had on the servants?
Is the son really of the jester prince? What would the prince think if he heard of it?
Copper hair again. Is there a connection between all these copperheads?

 

[Electric Wizard]

Sladder, the Isle of Crows (44.17) (Expanding on Crowfolk of Blind Midshotgatepool)

Centuries of violent earthquakes have twisted this island's topography. A rift valley with a bubbling mud lake splits the island in two. The peaks on either side of the valley are broken and rise like claws or fangs tearing at the sky. Sailors use Sladder's foreboding profile as a point of navigation, but only the most desperate attempt landfall. Jagged reefs circle the island, and the ruins along the shore are thick with the caws and cackles of crowfolk.

Long ago, this place was known as Othonoi. Under the rule of its priest-kings, it prospered as the Keening Sea's center of learning and trade. The secret to the isle's success was its position at the intersection of elemental ley lines. The priest-kings exploited the raw elemental power to create favorable winds and currents and fertile soil.

Some apocalypse fell on Othonoi, and its riches were plundered and scattered to the corners of the world. Since the fall, an elemental magic imbalance has caused a plague of earthquakes that has deterred settlement for all races except the crowfolk. The crowfolk believe they are the true descendants of the Othonoi civilization. Until about thirty years ago, they have been content to rest on their dubious laurels. Now they have been trickling into Blind Midshotgatepool and Shuttered, proclaiming their grandiose schemes as they scurry through human society's lowest rungs.

The dispersed crowfolk are secretly followers of Isane and Orsine, conjoined twins who are both powerful sorceresses. The twins fled Shuttered after the Priest-Militants of Alberon attempted to divide them. They are using their crowfolk minions to seek relics of Othonoi in order to rekindle the island's power.

Hooks
-What do Isane and Orsine plan to do when the island is rekindled?
-Although Isane and Orsine have been quiet during their exile, the Priest-Militants' orders to divide the sorceresses still stands. Some may still be actively seeking them. Why the obsession?
-Relics have been vanishing from the manses of urban wizards. Hired goons are conducting massive crackdowns. Cabals shoot accusations at each other. Eccentric trap makers are competing for wizards' patronage. And nobody is taking the crowfolk seriously.
-Crowfolk are banned from the ships of Shuttered and its vassals. So how are more immigrants appearing in the cities bordering the Keening Sea?

 

[Daztur]

The Dryad Grove
Hex 05.14

This forest dell is home to the largest grove of dryads on this side of the Keening Sea. Rather than growing here naturally, all of the trees of the dryads were transplanted here fifteen years ago when Naros fell to the curse of the arch-lich Supendar (see the write-up about the embassy of Naros in the old compilation, it's one of the sub-entries for the City of Shuttered Windows).

What most do not know is that Supendar was not a true lich but a mighty dryad who had been planted before the fall of Bergolast. Such a creature does not give into death easily and when the great tree of the dryad began to die, Supendar worked an ancient magic that stopped time itself within the borders of Naros. Death too was stopped and the full moon hung still in the sky and its moonbeams fell upon the trees of the Drymea, where the dryads frolicked with their lovers.

Elsewhere in Naros all those who had been asleep when Supendar’s magic spread across the land remained so and did not wake. The waking men and women and Naros declared war on Supendar and sought to break the enchantment that the dryad had wrought. Finally a band of adventurers infiltrated deep into the Drymea and fell upon the tree of Supendar with great axes.

Feeling death coming upon it at last, Supendar worked a second great magic. The wall between this world and that of fairy are stronger in some places than others and in few places is the wall weaker than in the depths of the Drymea. Taking advantage of this, Supendar’s magic conveyed all of the dryads of the forest into the land of fairy, along with the men of Naros and the life of the land, so that only undeath and the nightmares of those who had lain dreaming lay behind.

When the men of Naros found themselves in the land of fairy they despaired. The dryads, at first greatly confused by what had happened began to see the purpose of Supendar’s last act. The humans of Naros had hoped to take axes to all the dryads of the forest, so great was their anger at Supendar, but they now found that the only ones that could hope to guide them back to the mortal world were the very dryads that they now hated. Taking advantage of this, the dryads had the Narosi haul their trees across the land of fairy so that they could be transplanted far away from any who had been angered by the magic of Supendar.

Although some of the dryads ended up scattered across the Shrouded Lands, the bulk of them were indeed transplanted here in their new home. One, known as Laughing Sam (01.05) was driven mad by his journey through fairy and refuses to remember what has become of Naros.

As for the men of Naros, they were never heard from again and never got their chance to fell the dryad trees. Some say that on the nights of the full moon their cries can be heard here, but perhaps it is just the wind blowing through the trees of the dryads.

Hooks:
-How did the time stop magic work exactly? The moon stopped, people were unable to wake up, but they were able to walk around and do things and even fight a war. How?
-Where did any of the other dryads who got separated from the main lot during the march through fairy end up?
-What happened during the journey of the men and dryads of Naros across the land of fairy?
-What happened to the people of Naros? Supendar’s magic sent them into the land of fairy and the dryads came out again and were successfully transplanted. In order to do this it seems that the humans must have hauled the trees of the dryads, what became of them?
-So now Naros is full of undeath and nightmares, has any of this corruption leaked through into the land of fairy?
-What sort of metaphysics does the land of fairy have?

 

[chutup]

Daztur, a while back you were asking about public domain images, and the same topic came up on Google+. I'm just going to dump here all the links that were suggested there. I haven't looked into them very much but maybe they can be of some use to you.
Public Domain clip art at WPClipart, top thumbnail browsing page - possibly useful categories: SCENIC, RELIGION MYTHOLOGY, WORLD HISTORY, FICTIONAL CHARACTERS
Public Domain Images - has some Arthurian stuff
Welcome to » Old Book Illustrations: pictures scanned from old books
Old Book Art
SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Annotated Fairy Tales, Fairy Tale Books and Illustrations - looks particularly fitting for Shrouded Lands
Aubrey Beardsley Art Images
MONSTER BRAINS: Sidney Sime
Teleleli: art - this is actually a D&D blog, if you didn't know, but most of his posts are just artwork
The Art of Myth and Fairy Tales : Where to Buy Art Prints

Note that I'm not 100% sure that all these images are public domain, even though they were supposed to be according to the original post. So maybe just check it out to be sure.

 

[Daztur]

Many thanks chutup, I used some of the Breadsley illustrations from Le Mort de Arthur for the Arthurian D&D project I was working on last year but some of the non-Arthur ones are great for the weirder and less-Arthurian vibe of the Shrouded Lands. I haven't made as much progress on the compilation as I want to, I just started up a new game of Diplomacy, been watching Game of Thrones, have report cards to write, stuff about bendable electrodes to edit and I keep on coming up with ideas for Shrouded Land stuff that I want to add in and that just adds to the backlog. Oh well, I've gotten a good chunk of the Kingswood entries re-formatted and edited so a new version of the compilation with those and the new posts SHOULD be up in another few days and then on to putting in art and fleshing out and expanding the appendix work that Sanglorian has been doing excellent work on.

Oh, now that I'm thinking about that for vegetation we've got:
-The berries that grow in the Barrier Range that the gnolls use for their rituals.
-The poisonous plants in the Cloud Forest that the Smiling Men use.
-The enchanting roses from the Gardens of Amelar that the kobolds use.
-The hobgoblin shrooms.

And here's two more hexes...

The Hermit of the Crag
Hex 09.01

At the base of a tall crag is a small hermitage inhabited by an ancient mystic who spends much of his days meditating atop the crag while gazing down from his high perch. He has a reputation for great power and wisdom.

Some time ago the Abbot of the Monastery of the Sainted Foot (20.04) rode in on lionback and paid the hermit a visit while journeying west to Fernsbank (01.09) so that he could see the power and wisdom of the hermit for himself. The hermit asked that the Abbot stable his lion in the hermitage’s cowshed and while he was doing so the Abbot talked of the lion’s glossy coat, its sharp claws and its marvelous obedience. The hermit’s skinny cow looked at the lion quizzically and the Abbot asked the hermit if the cow would be safe alongside the great beast, but the hermit only smiled.

While sharing the hermit’s simple supper of greens and curds the Abbot spoke at length of his great deeds to the silent smiling hermit. At length the Abbot few frustrated for the hermit seemed to be nothing but the sort of simple minded old man that he could have seen by the dozen at home, but then a strange cry rent the night followed by a lion’s roar. The Abbot apologized for his lion, saying that the beasts of such men as himself have a power that is difficult to restrain and offered to pay for the hermit’s cow, but the old man stayed silent.

The next morning, the frustrated Abbot when to the cowshed to get his lion and within the shed was strewn with bloody bones and standing over them was the cow chewing its cud contentedly. The Abbot walked the rest of the way to Fernsbank and learned a valuable lesson in humility.

Hooks:
-Why was the Abbot riding a lion? Just showing off his magical abilities to charm animals or something else?
-Who else has gone to the hermit of the crag?

The Arch of Sod
Hex 06.14

Here, at the edge of the wood where the dryads (05.14) now live is a great arch of sod held up over the ground by poles. Although the poles lean drunkenly and most of the grass has now died the brown stains of dried blood can be found by careful investigation under the arch. Obviously, this is the side where the ritual by which blood brothers are made was performed.

Hooks:
-Who made themselves blood brothers here?
-Why does an arch of sod have to do with being blood brothers?

 

[chutup]

Where the Fire-Line Meets the Sea (44.19)

Some ancient maps still mark the lines of elemental power that crisscross this world and the other; one of those lines is the line of fire that runs from south to north, passing through the Isle of Sladder (44.17) as it goes.

Most of the time, elemental ley lines are not visible to the naked eye and can only be revealed through certain arcane rituals. However, the fire-line rises to the surface of reality here at the point where it descends into the depths of the Keening Sea, as the two antithetical elements erupt in violent conflict. A constant cloud of steam rises from the water's edge here, wearing the cliffs smooth with its passage. Few animals can live in such an environment, but the whirligig crabs thrive and make their nests on the steamy beach every year.

The veil of steam conceals a secret cave entrance in the cliffs. The almost unbearably humid tunnels beyond are home to a tribe of kuo-toa who swim up from their underwater caverns to worship a being they call the God in the Jar. It is their belief that all gods are evil, and that the world outside the tunnels is roamed by various gods devouring souls. Only these tunnels are safe, for their God has been sealed away. In truth, the God in the Jar is an enormous steam elemental, formed from the fire-line and the sea. The kuo-toa shamans inhale small parts of the elemental, burning their lungs to receive strange visions and breath-related powers.

Hooks:
- What exactly do the elemental ley lines do? Is the fire-line channeling fire energy from the Burning Lands? If so, where does it begin and end?
- What other ley lines are there, and where do they pass through?
- How do whirligig crabs survive the intense steam?
- What visions do the kuo-toa receive by huffing the body of their god? (Is it really a god? Has it become a god because it is worshipped, like the crayfish at 48.13?)

 

[chutup]

Oh, and one other piece of vegetation was the 'Mushroom of Inversions'.