Let’s Make a Hexcrawl Setting

[Sanglorian]

Been a while with no activity—I guess everyone's a bit busy at the moment. I have an entry inspired by Machine with Wicked Gears that expands on the theology of Thring.

THE SORCERER OF TARENGAEL TOWN

When the serfs of Tarengael fear for their lambs or their children, they pray to the Green Lady. But if they wish death or ruin on another, or to forget a great horror, or to revel madly, they approach a man who serves a far darker power.

The Sorcerer of Tarengael Twon lives in the shantytown outside Castle Tarengael. He has a small hut that is lavishly decorated with rugs and silks and always smells gently of varnish. Brightly dyed sheets block off three passages from view, though visitors swear that the hut is so small that there is nowhere for the passages to lead.

The sorcerer himself wears a mask of a grinning figure with pale skin, large black eyes and a smokey moustache. This is a depiction of Baron Autumn, the unspoken second god of Thring. He shepherds the dead to the underworld and rides with his Wild Hunt, made up of the souls of those slain by black magic. The elves, it is said, recognise but do not worship him, for they have nothing to fear from death.

The sorcerers of Thring are a meddlesome and jealous estate, and so each specialises in magic as obscure and esoteric as possible—making theft pointless and sabotage harmless. The Sorcerer of Tarengael Town has specilaised in featherstitch, an embroidery technique. His healing magic involves sewing wounds closed; his abjurations require the user to make embroidery motions in the air. He recently drove out a rival, making him the only sorcerer in Tarengael.

Hooks
Who is the sorcerer's rival?
What great spells can be done by featherstitch?
Is Baron Autumn truly the Green Lady's equal?
What's the relationship between Baron Autumn and the elves?

 

[Sanglorian]

THE KING WITHOUT A THRONE (Hex 26.20)

Henry Yaboon is a priest without a god. After the sinking of the temple of the Pacharia, he convinced the rulers of Blind Midshotgatepool to cede the lands and treasures of the Pacharia's clergy to him, and he has since wielded this wealth and influence to persecute their remaining worshippers and to advance his own cause.

Yaboon's heraldric symbol is a waker worm with human legs on a green background. It has replaced the seven eyes of the Pacharia on dozens of lesser temples and hundreds of altars. There are mutterings that Henry Yaboon has created a cult around himself, but he insists he is simply enforcing a secular order.

Though the elite of Midshotgatepool are frightened of Yaboon's power, they are more frightened of a resurgent cult of the Pacharia. Since the sinking of the temple, the cult has taken an aquatic and apocalyptic turn.

Hooks
We still know almost nothing about the Pacharia or their worshippers. What are they?
How are Henry's relations with the rest of his family?
Is Henry trying to create a personality cult or does he have another motive?

 

[Sanglorian]

THE FROZEN JARL (14.01)
The current Winterjarl seized control of the Marche during trying times for the nordenbjorn. He is still a young bear, and until the night of his coronation had not drunk of the Still Pool or consulted the nightingale. Few had expected him to win the votes of the Council, though he was helped by the sudden deaths of several aged bears.

The election was necessary because of the year-long absence of the previous jarl. A few months ago, her icy body was finally found at the bottom of a gorge. She is perfectly preserved, a frozen roar about to issue from her mouth.

Her body has become a place of pilgrimage for conservative bears unhappy with the current jarl. Some have even talked of thawing her body in the hopes that she is still alive—some stare into her glassy eyes hoping to see movement.

Hooks
Who are the Council and do they still wield some power?
How did some members of the Council die?
Why do some bears consult the nightingale? Is there a compact between talking beasts?
What happens when one drinks from the Still Pool?
How did the old jarl freeze? Can she be thawed?

 

[Sanglorian]

Phew, I hadn't updated the appendix for almost two months! I've done that now. I have to say, I'm starting to be overwhelmed with the amount of content that we have, and the way it is scattered among hexes. Do you folks have any ideas about how we could reorganise things to make it easier to keep track of?

I've been reading my old Dragon Magazines recently as part of (un)reason's project. Here are a couple of hexes inspired by that stuff:

I drew inspiration from the chicken shield in 'Age of Wonders' (Dragon 287).

THE TOWERS OF THE HALLOVERS (26.16)

Before Clan Dunger conquered the Halloevers and forced them to live in the Dunger village, the Hallovers lived in a village that scraped the sky. They built houses from rope, canvas and wood, some of which still stand atop one of the highest mountains of the Barrier Range. Travellers use the strange, stretched towers to orient themselves.

According to the Hallovers, on the dark night when they were conquered, the greatest treasure of their clan was spirited way. This artifact, the Halloverian Shield, depicted a squawking chicken in full flight (the Hallovers claim that it is a cockatrice) and apparently grants great but unspecified power to any full-blooded Hallover who bears it. Some Hallovers have run away from the Dungers and hope to find the shield and liberate their people.

Hooks:
What inhabits the Hallover eerie now?
What are the powers of the shield? Where was it taken, and by whom?
Do the Dungers know about the shield's existence? How have they reacted to the escapees?

---

I drew inspiration from the pits described in 'Janda's Valley, Part III' (Dragon 287).

THE PITS OF THE CROSS (02.11.XX)

A crevasse on the outskirts of the Cross serves as a jail for the city. Those who anger a local warlord are either locked in one of the cave-vaults in the sides of the crevasse or simply lowered into the crevasse itself via a crude elevator. No one guards the prisoners, but citizens of the Cross amuse themselves by throwing thngs at anyone who attempts the steep climb out of the Pits.

An informal community has arisen in the Pits. They barter and feud among themselves and will transport food or even tools for escape to those in the cave-vaults. Most warlords come around to the Pits once a week or month and free those who have stayed for a sufficient amount of time, allies who were imprisoned by other warlords and those prepared to strike a deal with the warlord.

There are a few people who have sneaked into the Pits to escape scrutiny, including a Smiling Man biding his time until a particular target is thrown into the pits.

Hooks
Who is the Smiling Man's target? How can he be sure that the target will be thrown in the Pits?
Who else is lying low here?
What beast is trapped in one of the cave-vaults?
Who are the warlords of the Cross?

 

[Sanglorian]

I used the article '7 Steps to Creating Cunning Foes' (Dragon 287) for the Princess of Seers:

• Goal: Correct an ancient wrong, regardless of the cost
• Source of Power: Favours owed, information
• Ways to defend a power source: Create a decoy
• Ways to expand a power source: Hire foolhardy adventurers to go on quests

THE PRINCESS OF SEERS (23.11.XX)

Famed adventurers are regularly approached by a woman who styles herself the Princess of Seers. Though the current windseer Alceron believes that she uses black magic and was not properly trained as a windseer, she learned from a man who claimed to have been a windseer when that position carried great respect. According to the Princess, it is Alceron whose magic deviates from the true practices of the windseers.

The Princess of Seers, Anastasia, demands that all adventurers who work with her keep her involvement in their delving secret. In return, she directs them to hidden treasure caches and ancient burial grounds and allows them to keep a generous share of the returns.

The Princess gains this information from the ghosts of the White Road, many of whom she can summon by name. The drow-ghosts have told her that Winds was built directly over the White Road, and that if the road awakes it would tear through the chamber where the Council of the Calm meet. The Princess plans to secretly awaken the road, crush the Council and have the ghosts seize control of Winds. She will then pretend to exorcise the ghosts and save the town, using her 'heroic' defence of the town to justify instating herself as supreme ruler of the town. In this way, she intends to return the profession of windseer to its traditional position of respect and influence.

As for the adventuring parties she has sent delving, she will blame the undead attack on their intrusions onto sacred burial grounds and ban them all from the city along with Alceron the 'imposter' windseer.

Hooks:
Who are the drow-ghosts that serve the Princess?
Is her art deviant or is it the true practice of the windseers?
Why did the windseers lose their position of influence in the first place?
What is in the treasure troves and burial grounds?

---

Our dwarves already draw heavily on the Discworld dwarfs—here's more inspiration (or outright theft), this time from Thud!

THE QUIETENED MINE (16.01)

The Hoardmasters are not happy. It has been a month since the last news from Station Seven. Yesterday, a wild eyed dwarf was found on Titan's Rest. She—for in her state, her sex was shamefully obvious—talked of a sinister presence hunting the miners through the station: the Haunting Dark.

The dwarves know that there are many darknesses. There is the Clinging Dark, the muffling and oppressive darkness that closes in on the lonely and the lost. There is the Dreaming Dark, that turns up strange flashes and patterns that quicken the imagination. There is the Gigantic Dark, which echoes and expands, leaving the mind reeling from the vastness of creation.

But it is the Haunting Dark that was summoned to these tunnels by the curse of a dying dwarf. And it cannot be satiated.

Hooks
What is the Haunting Dark?
What do the nearby orcs think of the mine?
Does the Hoard have a procedure for dealing with a loosed darkness?
Can't someone just light a few torches?

 

[Sanglorian]

THE SKINSACK SHED (16.18)

There is a shed around a mile from the road. Bags made of skin hang from iron hooks set into the roof of the shed.

It is not only horses that can be brought back from the dead by the secretive priests of Baron Autumn. If the stripped bones of a man or woman killed by black magic are placed in a bag of human skin, a child crawls from the bag.

These sack children are, like the cauldronborn, vague and distracted. They often accompany the sorcerers who created them, protecting them and assisting them with their sorcery, as well as performing menial tasks on their behalf.

While black magic is required to slay the subject of the ritual, the actual creation of a zombie is not considered black magic. Some white wizards take great pleasure in animating the victims of sorcerers and assisting the victim in slaying their murderer.

Hooks
Who owns and uses the shed?
Who in the Shrouded Lands is a zombie?
Does the process work on non-humans?
What does Baron Autumn ask in return?
How aware and intelligent are the zombies?
Are the zombies truly undead? If so, are the horses?
What is the connection between this process and that of the cauldronborn?
What happens to most people after death?

---

Inspired by 'All I Needed to Know, I Learned from D&D' in Dragon 288.

THE ENIGMA (07.08)
One of the witchways or merlinburrows that leads from the Sunless Sea forks about a mile below the surface. The lefthand path leads to an open cavern, the centre of which is occupied by a basalt slab at least fifty yards high. Strange words are carved around the base of the slab, and people who consider what the stone would look like from a distance realise that it would resemble an enormous bald head.

The head is a site of pilgrimage for adherents of the Stern Way, but they claim that the head is absent from their myths and histories.

Hooks
What is a witchway? What are the merlinburrows?
Who is depicted?
How was the head created and by whom?
What is the meaning of the words?
Is the head really absent from the lore of the Stern Way?

 

[Sanglorian]

Jogging Tour of the Shrouded Lands

While jogging this morning I was thinking about how far I'd run in terms of how much of a Shrouded Lands hex I'd covered. That made me think that a fun way to pass the time as I run would be to imagine I was travelling through the Shrouded Lands.

So next time I'm at the gym, that's what I'll do—and I'll let you know if I think up anything interesting. Where would you suggest I start ... and which direction should I travel in?

 

[Sanglorian]

Day 1 (5.75km; Hex 00.02)

I awoke on the beaches of a strange land, with no memory of my life before this moment, a white feather clutched in my hand and a name on my lips: 'Lisbet'.

My clothes were sodden, but I couldn't tell if they were wet from the sea or the rain. A storm raged over my head, so I got to my feet and walked inland.

A crude path was cut through the wiry grass. I traveled upon it for some time: it was cut into the mountains. I head voices ahead, but had nowhere to hide: the side of the mountain was to one side and a sheer drop on the other.

Around the corner came two giants, easily four or five times my height. Their hair crackled like a summer storm, but they passed by without seeming to notice me. They were not so much larger than me that I should have been impossible to see—but maybe they have big minds that cannot even process the existence of one as insignificant as me.

I had gained some ground by this time and when the path looped back along the mountain I ignored the turn and scrambled along the rocks. Sure enough, I came to a point where I could see the see.

I simultaneously noticed two strangenesses. The mountain was just half a mountain and the sea lapped at its base along a straight line. It was almost as if the gods had cut away half the mountain to make room for the sea.

In addition, atop the storm clouds that had plagued me upon the beach was a huge castle in basalt.

The cutting away of the mountain had left a network of caves exposed to the elements. I crawled into one of them, and found a nest with large white eggs in it. I was about to fall upon them and suck them out when a small figure struck me in the knee and I fell.

She looked like a woman, though she was a child's size. She called in a strange, squawking tongue and a flock of birds of many kinds appeared at the cave face. They swooped and pecked me and I ran from the cave.

Tomorrow I shall try to reach the summit of the mountain.

---

I hope you like it! If you have any suggestions, do let me know.

One thing I realised is that one 6 mile hex is not enough room for five 'staggeringly tall' mountains. They're probably in two or three adjacent hexes too, if anyone wanted to fill in nearby hexes.

 

[Daztur]

Sanglorian: thanks so much for keeping the fire burning while I've been away (mom visiting her grandkids for a month = me having no time).

I'm back in the Shrouded Lands saddle now, I'll be having the second session of my Shrouded Lands game this month and I'm running an online game in which the party is setting off for the Garden of Amelar and almost lost a member to flying cats.

The basic idea is that the party is in the pay of the Order of the Broken Chain to raid a dwarven stalactite-harvesting camp to free slaves. The raiding party will be made of a the party plus a few NPCs.

Complications:
-The stalactite harvesting is just cover. The dwarves are looting the hoard of a petrified dragon. The curse that petrified that dragon says that the dragon will remain stone until all of its hoard is robbed. The dwarves have taken most of it but there's still a big mound of copper, if the PCs take the copper the dragon will awake. Most of the good loot isn't in the caves any more except for one big gem.
-Among the NPCs that the PCs are heading off with some know about the dragon loot and will attempt to ditch the PCs once they've attracted dwarven attention and try to grab the gem. One of them is an ogress that (very annoyingly for her) turns into a weak but pretty human every night. Consider this a Shadowrun-style Mr. Johnson twist but not quite so mean.
-Ogwyn Egglurs (08.03) has also gotten wind of the gem (somehow) and has sent in a homonculi to scout out the caves. Soon he'll send massive swarms of bugs to kill everything between the entrance and the gem and then go in later and loot stuff.
-There are a few hobgoblins lurking in the depths of the caves.
-There's a crazed monk meditating somewhere.
-Some of the slaves are interesting people.

I hope it'll turn into a glorious cluster with three-way battles galore.

After I finish writing up notes for the adventure I'll (finally!) return to working on the compilation.

 

[Sanglorian]

Two more locations in the City of Shuttered.

THE STREET OF SMALL GODS
The City of Shuttered Windows has no truck with divinities that rival or oppose Alberon. However, there is room in the faith for a celebration of the god’s helpers, lovers, progeny and saints. The Temple Indivisible calls this mile-long road the Avenue of Preternatural Agents, but to most it is the Street of Small Gods.

These small gods are of varied origin and mood. Some are local deities co-opted as saints or children of Alberon. Others are foreign imports, made tolerable to the Temple by a thin veneer of orthodoxy. Many, however, are legitimate historical figures or at least inventions of the faithful.

Preachers and altars line the street. Priests offer benedictions and heretics preach under the auspices of particular preternatural agents—with the futile hope that this will shield them from the wrath of the Temple. Mystics initiate visitors into their mystery cults and soothsayers read fortunes in the entrails of night cattle.

There is also food and entertainment to be had here: plays and musical performances, roasted nuts and baked goods, and the so-called handmaidens and princes of Alberon who offer services that cleverly avoid violating the Heresies.

Hooks:

Which small gods are prominent here?
What services do the handmaidens and princes offer?
What mystery cults operate in the City?
What radical messages are preached here?

THE GIANT AND THE GNOME

The improbable coupling vividly depicted on the sign hanging outside this tavern is a reference to a bawdy folk song about a Pirate King and his alleged dalliance with a flirtatious gnome pirate whose ship he captured. How the gnome turned to piracy is unknown—according to some stories she was the last to leave the ruins of the stone giants after that devout race demolished their castles and took to living under the open sky.

The tavern is a popular landmark in the City because it is taller than—and casts a shadow upon—the Temple’s Central Cathedral.

The Giant and the Gnome is inaccessible from the street. Long-term lodgers lower rope ladders from their windows to fetch friends and lovers. A few aristocrats own adjoining buildings and charge for entry to the tavern. The truly enterprising can climb the cathedral’s spire and leap from there onto the tavern’s pitted walls.

Inside, the tavern is a den of strictly regulated vices. Only drinks bought at the bar can be consumed, and no money is allowed to change hands between patrons. Even idly challenging another drinker to a friendly wager will see one expelled; selling sexual services without a licence from the bartender is punished by defenestration. Crowfolk, chattering to one another, walk along the rafters watching for thieves and brawlers.

The tavern is considered the finest place to celebrate, seal a business deal, meet a lover or arrange an adventure. The bartenders look almost identical, with dark blue skin and white hair: they claim to be the sons of the fertile and adulterous founder of the tavern, though none can find a record of any time before there was The Giant and the Gnome.

Hooks
What is the story behind the bartenders?
How do they manage to employ crowfolk?
Did the gnome and the giant ever exist?
Why did the stone giants demolish their buildings?
How does the Temple feel about the tavern’s stature?
What will happen to you if you’re caught on the Cathedral’s roof?
What sort of trouble could you get into in The Giant and the Gnome?

Sanglorian: thanks so much for keeping the fire burning while I've been away (mom visiting her grandkids for a month = me having no time).

No worries, Daztur—I knew you'd get back to it eventually (after all, you've committed to filling every hex! )

The adventure sounds like rollicking great fun!