Let’s Make a Hexcrawl Setting

[Sanglorian]

HEARTHWRIGHT GREEN (19.01)

If you follow the winding merlinburrows down through the Grey Mountains you might stumble across a vast network of caves, each filled with miniature settlements. These are the remains of the maze of Hearthwright, a woman who thought she could better rule the City than the Lord of Pain.

To prove her wrong, Alberon trapped her for all eternity in a maze of caves populated by jermalaines—finger-tall cave sprites who are almost as uncooperative and lazy as humans. She tried hundreds of times to design the perfect city, populated by jermalaines, always moving on when her projects failed.

Explorers may be tempted to crush the knee-high buildings or try to enslave or communicate with the jermalaine citizens. Every jermalaine mayor will recognise what valuable war machines human-sized intruders make against rival jermalaine cities.

The jermalaines also harvest mushrooms that shrink those who eat them to jermalaine size while the person is within the city where the shrooms were prepared. They also have magnification magic that allows them to enlarge the cave’s fauna to terrific sizes: worms as long as trees, ferrets as big as horses, and all manner of giant bugs.

Hooks:
Is Hearthwright still around?
What’s a merlinburrow?
How does the shrinking and magnification magic work outside of the jermalaine cities?
To what use could an enterprising explorer put the jermalaines?

THE WOOD THAT WON THE WAR (38.06)

Elves hate and fear hawthorn, and they hate and fear the dryads of that shrub even more. Unique among the dryads, hawthorn dryads can chop down their shrub and fashion it into a still-living but functional item.

The woman who ended the Seelie–Unseelie wars turned her tree into a staff and used it to mesmerise and then lead away the Unseelie.

No one knows where she took them, or if they linger under her spell, but the stump of her hawthorn bush lies in the middle of this grove.

Human worshippers of the Green Lady often depict her with a wreath of hawthorn leaves.

Hooks
Who was the dryad?
Where did she take the Unseelie, and why?
Why is the deity of the elves so intimately connected with the one plant that checks them?
What happened to the hawthorn staff?
Is there still magic in the hawthorn stump?

 

[Sanglorian]

THE SKINSCRATCH MURDERS (The Cross)

People walking early in the morning along the decks of the Cross have stumbled across butchered bodies, each one marked with a sign scratched in their foreheads.

Any Scarecrow or homeless person could identify the signs—they are Gabber, the language of circus folk, travellers and sexual ‘deviants’. Perhaps in context they would mean something; each one taken alone is impossible to decipher.

There is also no clear motive, although each corpse has been found missing an item that they held precious: wedding rings, holy books, lucky charms, and so on.

Street preachers have not been shy to accuse the crowfolk of somehow being responsible. One-Eyed Kristof—a known fantasist—claims that the crowfolk have realised that their obsession with shiny things leads them to value worthless trash: so they have devised magic that identifies the most valuable item a person is carrying, without realising that this is almost as arbitrary as their own love of ‘shinies’.

He cannot explain the Gabber marks, however.

The Scarecrows have shown particular interest in the killings, with one saying darkly that they have to be stopped before ‘the forbidden sign’ is used.

Hooks
What is the forbidden sign?
Are the crowfolk involved?
Where does One-Eyed Kristof get his information?
What is the meaning of the Gabber marks?
What’s happened to the valuable items?

THE TIAMATAN REVIVAL (Shuttered City)

There is a reaction against the Cult of Dead Tiamat among the worshippers of Tiamat. These Tiamatan Revivalists reject the desperate and often destructive attempts by the Cult to resurrect Tiamat and hold that—now she is dead—the only way to truly honour Tiamat is to live as she taught her followers to live.

Although Tiamat has always emphasised ruthlessness, ambition and pragmatism, Revivalists usually hold that the stage of violence and repression before her death represented a madness or senility not true to Tiamat’s legacy. They focus instead on personal excellence and esoteric mysticism.

The Revival is still unpopular among Tiamat’s faithful, but it is growing in power and popularity: partly because of its message of self-chosen morality and self-directed living.

At the end of the Street of Small Gods is a brave preacher who talks of Tiamat as the Empty God and spreads word of the revival. Because he has avoided violating Temple doctrine (how can it be sin to say Tiamat is dead and will not return?) the Temple is yet to deal with him.

Hooks
Where are there still faithful of Tiamat?
What does the Temple Indivisible think of the Revival?
Is the Revival as innocent as they appear?

 

[Sanglorian]

THE SUNKEN CATHEDRAL OF MASTER MEMIN (13.20)

When the stone giants razed their monuments and buildings, they left this sunken cathedral untouched. Some say that was because the cathedral was carved into the stone rather than built up from stone blocks. Others claim it was protected by the intercession of Master Memin.

Master Memin still teaches at the monastery, though the years have taken their toll. His brow is craggy, his skin cracked and mossy, and he is stooped almost half-over. He instructs initiates in the theory and meditation of the Stern Way, leaving the martial arts instruction to others. There is one manoeuvre that he has never taught another soul—the Emerald Priest Lunge—and perhaps he never will.

All species are welcome in the monstery, and the focus of the Stern Way on throws and blocks makes it a valuable discipline for non-giants. Stone giants practice their technique on the monsters who come across the basin, showing that there are beasts against which even the brute strength of a giant cannot defeat.

Hooks
What is Master Memin’s manoeuvre?
Why was this monastery spared destruction?
Who recently joined this monastery?


THE CASTLE WITH FIVE GATES AND THE SUNDERING OF TIAMAT (26.16)

When Tiamat was slain and Alberon scattered her heads, her blood dripped across the Lands. Sometimes it fell upon groves and valleys, and the animals and plants in these places grew strange and monstrous. Sometimes it fell upon people. These men and women, basted in the blood of a goddess, grew fangs and scales. Their bellies filled with elemental power.

The essence of a deity is not strictly hereditary, but even today some are born with Tiamat in the blood. When their powers are tightly controlled, they can be channelled to cast spells and create magnificent effects. As their willpower is sapped, however, their control over their forms falter and they grow more beastly and draconic.

In the foothills of the Barrier Peaks is a castle made of a strange white stone. It has five gates, each topped with an improbably large crystal of a different colour.

This is the fortress of Tiamat Reborn, a dragonblooded man who believes himself the heir of the dead goddess of dragons. His followers perform dark rituals and sacrifices in an attempt to achieve his apotheosis; to this end they have gathered a menagerie of creatures twisted and transformed by exposure to Tiamat’s blood.

Hooks
Which families have Tiamat’s blood coursing in their veins?
What toll does this magic have?
What does the Cult of Tiamat make of the dragonblooded?
What is the strange white stone the castle is built of? Is it Tiamat’s bones?
What plans does Tiamat Reborn have?
Where can Tiamat’s blood still be found?

 

[Daztur]

Sorry for the delay in making some contributions, the adventure design got a bit over-ambitious.

The Clockworks of Albus Flidge
Additional information about Shuttered (29.14), connects to Hex 19.01

When Albus Flidge was a young man he ranged the Grey Mountains with the Browncloaks, but retired after raiding Hearthwright Green. Shortly thereafter he set up a small clockworks in Shuttered, despite having no training in such arts. Thanks to the small size and intricate decorations that his pocket watches boast, the Flidge Clockworks soon began selling to the greatest nobles of the City and even to the wives of the Doge himself.

Many rivals have tried to worm their way into Flidge’s confidence and find the secret to his timepieces’ design, but to no avail and the inner chambers of his clockworks are well guarded by certain devices hauled back from his adventuring days. But the secret to his clocks is this: they are made by a village of enslaved jermalaines that Flidge captured many years past. Their tiny hands enable them to create delicate work beyond the dreams of even the most slender-fingered Halfling. He was able to lure them out of their caves by promising them to eat the mushrooms that cause one to shrink but, alas for the jermalaines, they had no effect outside the confines of Hearthwright Green.

Since then the jermalaines have labored in Flidge’s workshop under the baleful eyes of his cats. However, in recent years Flidge’s advancing age has meant that he has not supervised the jermalaines as closely as was once the case and they have taken to making modifications to the designs of their pocket watches and some of Flidge’s customers have had most unpleasant surprises. But, despite this, Flidge’s prestige is such that he continues to command the highest prices in the City.

Hooks:
-What is Flidge’s security system?
-How have the jermalaines modified the pocket watch designs?
-Have any been able to escape into the City of Shuttered Windows?

The Book of Not Being Boiled in Fire

Connects to Hex 26.16

One of the forbidden books kept in the innermost libraries of the Temple Indivisible (29.14.XX) is the Book of Not Being Boiled in Fire. It was written long ago by John Luciferus, a mad lictor of the Tiamat cult, before being burned at the stake by inquisitors of the Temple of the Pure Light (a long-forgotten splinter sect of the Temple Indivisible). The mad lictor laughed and mocked the Pure Ones as the flames licked at him and after the flames died down not a single shark of human bone was found in the ashes.

The book, which was quickly locked away, sets forth methods and rituals to purify the blood that gushed from the red head of Tiamat and that now lies within some men (see 26.16). It speaks of how Tiamat will raise the faithful out of a lake of blazing fire, in which they will not be burned, how they will sit down among the draco-lions and have the great beasts eat from their hands and how Tiamat will burn away all that binds them and holds them back. For “lo do the men of Tiamat laugh at the very fire that burns the world!” The book makes oblique references to the Book of Not Being Roasted by Lightening but not even The Weeper has heard of such a book.

Recently several pages have been discovered to have been torn from The Book of Not Being Boiled in Fire and it is suspected that they are now in possession of the man who claims himself to be Tiamat Reborn (26.16).

Hooks:
-What happened to John Luciferous?
-Who were the Pure Ones? Were they inquisitors of the Temple of Pure Light? What happened to that splinter sect?
-Draco-lions?
-Are there four other such books? Where are they?

Master Var’s Cave
Hex 43.03.
This one includes a lot of the fallout of the first Shrouded Lands adventure that I ran.
Connects to Hex 31.04

Master Var’s cave is the final word in trollish cave design. The rough cave walls are mostly covered in fine (if disturbing) tapestries and much of the rest of the walls have been carved into fanciful designs. Unlike his more brutish relatives, Master Var is polite and well-spoken with such a breadth of knowledge that one could almost believe his claims that he saw the fall of Bergolast (38.28) with his own eyes.

It is here that he fashions the art that has grown popular with the elves of the Kingswood and he is a frequent sight at Olmsted Keep (31.04) where the haggles with the half-elven middlemen who live there. Some of his most recent works include a ship in a bottle fashioned out of human fingernails and a bowl of silver-inlaid puppy skulls. He is also something of an alchemist and has developed a substance from ochre jelly that makes his skin (mostly) fireproof.

However, for all his friendly manner, Master Var is still a troll and has a ferocious temper when roused. Recently he broke the peace of Lord Olmsted’s halls by tearing apart a group of goblins slaves during the lord’s name day feast. It is said that he smelled troll meat on their breaths and it was later found that Deep Dwarf owners of the goblins had captured a troll and had carved off enough of its flesh to fill barrels with salted troll meat.

For the last several years Master Var has employed a young human assistant named Laera. She cheerfully tells gruesome tales about how Master Var ate her parents but seemed to be loyal to her master. However, she has recently be kidnapped (rescued?) by a small band of mercenaries who had come to Olmsted Keep for Lord Olmsted’s nameday. Instead of the girl, Master Var now shares his home with the troll that he rescued from the dwarves and his slowly nursing her back to health after she suffered several serious burns in the chaos of her rescue.

Hooks:
-What other art has Master Var created?
-Is he really old enough to have seen the fall of Bergolast?
-What’s the story with Laera? Note: the “mercenaries” are the PCs.

I had an enormous amount of fun roleplaying Var and Laera. They got in a long conversation with the PC wizard about the best way of gathering human fingernails and were generally delightfully macabre.

 

[Daztur]

I'll eventually turn the dungeon I'm running this weekend into a hex but some highlights of it (many gleaned from various blogs):
-The dwarves are harvesting stalactites which they then feed to an amber jelly that is a dwarven delicacy.
-In the dragon laid there is some treasure that the dwarves haven't hauled away include a stone giant sarcophagus (mummy included), titanic false teeth, and a vast array of the skulls of dead beasts suspended from the ceiling.
-It's a large limestone cave and rather than walking along its (rather wet) bottom the dwarves have a bunch of metal pipes going through it that they walk on. The floor is crawling with naked mole rats that the dwarves enjoy fishing for. They have a generator to zap intruders walking on the metal pipes with electricity.
-There's an abandoned goblin fighting pit complete with spring boards, acid pits, strange carvings and persistent illusions. There's a (also abandoned and rather disturbing) gnomish love nest there. There's a polite talking giant snake left behind who wants to get let out, or at least fed.
-One of the slaves of the dwarves is an old gnollish howler whose lost his voice.
-There's a crazy hermit who herds flying cats for religious reasons and is related to the amnesiac PC (who he hates for reasons that the amnesiac PC doesn't understand).
-In a blocked up tunnel there's a way deeper down but it's crawling with dwarf-eating worms.
-I have a random shroomwine generator table.
-The treasure includes finely illustrated dwarven erotica.

I'm looking forward to the game

 

[Daztur]

Live! Live! I've been distracted recently due to spending too much time reading: Alternate History Discussion Board (needs membership to join) about a world in which Antarctica never freezes over and it is inhabited by a set of civilizations that develop in very disturbing ways (with lots of shout outs of Lovecraft and Bierce). For example, while reading it I ended up thinking, "well this group just has bizarre monasteries with huge amount of hallucinogens, rides giant armored ground sloths mounted with rocket batteries, views other ethnic groups as inferior and barely human and engages in Hannibal Lector-style serial killing for kicks, how surprisingly pleasant, especially compared to the Flayermen *shudders*"

Way to ed up and dark to fit to mine for ideas for the Shrouded Lands whole scale but it's so damn creative that I'll have to use some of its animals, geography and society.

Here's one, I'll need some time to digest the rest:

The Maw
Hex 46.00

The Maw is a great canyon that extends from the World's Edge deep into the Grey Mountains (how deep?). Here the tropical heat of the lands beyond the World's Edge meets the snow capped cold of the Grey Mountains, which results in great and unpredictable winds.

Occasionally unwary travelers are yanked into the Maw by these winds, almost as if it hungered for human flesh. And indeed the Maw's howling winds often sound like the famished moans of a great beast.

The dwarves of these mountains stay well away from the Maw, seldom venturing close enough to peer in, especially since an entire dwarven caravan was frozen solid by a sudden temperature drop after venturing too close to the edge of the Maw.

However, some say that there are strange buildings to be seen at the bottom of the Maw fashioned out of great cyclopean blocks, with a wild river rumbling among them.

Hooks:
-How far NW does the Maw extend from the Edge of the World?
-What's at the bottom of the Maw?
-Is it just a coincidence that the winds that howl through the Maw sound much like hungry moans?

 

[Sanglorian]

I've updated the map and have collated all of the entries together into a complete write-up and have edited them both into the OP.

Reported spam.

These spammers give me such false hope!

 

[Electric Wizard]

I'm back from the dead. Feeling kind of groggy.

Jahur, City of Jewels
Hex 19.31

Every merchant and romantic in the Shrouded Lands longs to set foot in Jahur. Jahur is an ancient, exotic city along the Sea of Typhoons. The Zhuriman Empire established it as an oversees gem mining colony centuries ago. When the empire collapsed, the city became one of the few gateways between the Shrouded Lands and the world at large.

All of the city's bombastic imperial architecture is preserved. Red concrete forums, palaces and basilicas profuse with arches, buttresses domes and spires blot out the sun above neighborhoods. Many are practically abandoned, but they remain well-maintained by mechanical custodians known as the Janissaries. The Janissaries are animated metallic constructs painted in a mockery of humanity. Each Janissary contains the soul of a worthy servant or warrior. Those who bear a warrior's soul serve as zealous guardians of the city. Many citizens hold the warriors in awe and terror, and defer to them despite the constructs' rigid beliefs and allegiance to a dead empire. The ruling class, who call themselves the Viceroys, play up the citizens' fear and reverance for the past and style themselves after decadent Zuhrimani aristocrats. They do not have the level of control over the Janissaries that their ancestors did, but they often manage to woo and coerce them to their wills.

Despite keeping trappings of the old empire, Jahur adopted a strange deity known as Iano. He is depicted as a man with a single head, but two faces. As god who allegedly sees all that was and all that will come, he is popular among merchants. The prophet of Iano is said to have the same deformity of his god, and that he descended from the moon. Some believe he still dwells deep within the Temple of All Time.

Jahur maintains relations with Shuttered and the Burning City. Their jewel-laden caravans are protected by columns of Janissaries as well as more conventional guards.

Hooks:
-What now dwells in the city's immaculate ruins?
-Do any Janissaries live abroad? Why did their leave their posts?
-What famous jewels are in Jahur?
-Tell me about Jahur's thriving thieves' guild. Is it connected to Blind Midshotgatepool's organizations?
-Is Iano for real? Is he part of the moon's scheming, or something else?
-What dives do adventurers haunt?

 

[Sanglorian]

I wanted to bring Minecraft's Endermen to the Shrouded Lands.

I've also updated Those Vexatious Caves and given them a hex.

THE MISPLACED OBELISK (46.01)

In the central park of Jahar is a chain of dark mable obelisks, each indistinguishable from the ones three paces before and after it. Towards the end of the chain is a gap of six paces.

Half an obelisk of identical size and make, though toppled on its side, has been unearthed on a cliff overlooking the Maw by a band of Hoard dwarves who reported the discovery to the Foolish Sages but otherwise refused to explain their business by the Maw.

Simple farmers who live near the obelisk report that by night strange tall figures - half again the size of a man - appear around the obelisk. They shift dirt and stone, reshaping the landscape for their own inscrutable purposes. Whether they are violent is unknwon; recently some members of the town have gone missing.

The children have recently learned or invented a nursery rhyme that warns against making eye contact with the ‘Men of the End’, because when it is broken they swallow you up and carry you in their bellies to their home. The children will not comment on who introduced them to the rhyme.

Hooks
Who are the Men of the End?
What is their home?
How did the children learn the rhyme?
If people have been stolen away, how can they be retrieved?
Why is the one obelisk misplaced?
Have the Men of the End appeared in Jahur too?
What do the Jahuri think of the obelisks?
What were the Hoard doing by the Maw?

BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE (08.05)

The villagers of Greyfaust have an unusual ritual. Those young men and women wishing to marry will choose a ‘girdle’: a person in the village who guarantees that the couple are in love and who advises them on their relationship. Only a girdle can annul an unhappy marriage.

The couple and their girdle each takes a bell, a book or a candle, chosen by the elders for their significance to the three. The village augur cliams that there is tremendous significance to which item each person chooses.

The couple and their girdle must then pass through a valley near the village with nothing but their clothes, the bell, the book and the candle. The three are met with hideous beasts—or perhaps masked elders from the village—that must be warded off by the correct, clever and brave application of these three items.

Hooks
Are there truly beasts in the valley?
What happens to couples that fail?
What is the use of these mundane items?


THOSE VEXATIOUS CAVES (14.02)

In a valley of the Grey Mountains, those cold and forested lands ruled not by Man but by a beast, lies the ruin of one of the great dwarven fastnesses. This nameless fortress was completed and manned, but it did not survive its first siege. The reason for this is not spoken of among the dwarves, but perhaps the answer is somewhere in the ruins.

Into the basements and surviving rooms of the fortress, as well as a few natural cave systems that were nearby, have moved several groups of humanoids. They currently respect an uneasy ceasefire, but there is no guarantee that the situation will remain this way. The ruins of the fastness have the distinct Titan-Grumludish architecture that defined dwarven building in that age, and it should be familiar to anyone who has visited Grumluda, Hoth Achar or Titan's Skull.

A garrison of orcs from Hoth Achar have taken up residence in the ruined fortress. They are under orders to investigate as best as they are able without creating problems with the other humanoids. The female orcs brought their whelps with them or bore them after arriving, as is expected under the Double Duty. The orcs are keen for information about the ruins and the other humanoid groups; their superiors are planning to mobilise Hoth Achar, drive out the other humanoids and rebuild the fastness.

Long-time inhabitants of the valley, the hobgoblins have been steadily forced from each section of the caves as other groups have moved in. They are convinced that their tribe has been cursed with misfortune, and their scheme to leave for another part of the Mountains may amount to something if they ever run out of shroom wine. They seek protection and news of other places to live; one night they may sneak off and settle somewhere else.

A faction of goblins that once lived among the Ten Thousand Stumps now fumes in this valley. They aim to replant their oak groves, but the ground here is stony and hard. It would take blood to sustain their trees. The goblins seek living sacrifices for the oaks, and if they manage to secure them the oaks will grow tall and strong and the goblins will be numerous.

The kobolds of the Broken Speak sent many of their cleverest and strongest to the caves, their leader carrying a strange flashing device that spoke directions to them. The kobolds believed this to be the voice of Alberon—whom they do not worship, but do fear and respect—guiding them to the promised land. The device instructed them to enter the caves occupied by the cultists, but they were repulsed and lost many of their numbers. The kobolds moved into one of the cave systems and are biding their time, while the device still patiently and regularly orders them to travel into the cultist's cave. The kobolds are desperate for an opportunity to enter the cultist's cave; if they managed to enter they would slaughter the cultists, clear the mysterious passageway and follow it into the earth.

The gnolls of the Broken Spear saw the kobolds leaving with the device and the pack split on the question of whether to follow them. The group that supported pursuit followed the kobolds to the caves and then claimed a cave for themselves. The followers of Snaptooth, the leader, are starting to suspect that he enjoys his position of authority and has no plans to attack the kobolds and claim the device. Different factions of the gnolls are interested in allies to defend or defeat Snaptooth. If they are not interferred with, the tribe will tear itself apart.

One of the cave systems is occupied by cultists who believe that necromancy can bring back Dead Tiamat, and so they have experimented with the dark arts. So far, they have only mastered human skeletons and shamblers: they created a stronger undead, the wight, but it was beyond their powers to control and they imprisoned it only with great difficulty. They are interested in protection from other tribes, necromantic lore and dragon parts; if no one stops them, they may eventually create a dracolich.

A minotaur, a former citizen of Lastmaze exiled after he clashed with Ja the Red, has painstakingly carved out a labyrinth. Chimalia displayed her pleasure by enchanting it so that those who enter are dazed and disoriented. The minotaur is keen for news of Lastmaze or an opportunity to slaughter orcs. If he continues to protect and expand the labyrinth, Chimalia may bless him by fusing him with some other beast to create an even more hideous chimera.

One of the caves is occupied by a band of bugbears whose purpose in the north is unknown. Rumours circulate. One such rumour is that they are searching the north for a pole that holds up the sky. Another is that they will pay generously for slaves, particular children. According to the bugbears themselves, they are kindly souls who provide a hot meal and bed to passing travellers and ask nothing in return except to smoke catnip and spin stories. A worried dwarf family that lives nearby claims that their son-daughter was kidnapped by the bugbears and sent south; the family lives in the woods without any iron implements.

Fire beetles live in some of the caves. However, they lack some essential nutrient that their brethren in the Badlands consume; as such, they do not have poison or fire.

There is also an ogre living in one of the caves.

CULTURAL ELEMENTS
The Double Duty (26.01.xx): Among the orcs of the Grey Mountains, women are entitled to fill any male role provided they also fulfill every duty of a woman. Stories are told of legendary orc soldiers fighting with their whelps strapped to their back. Some orc matrons will even marry other women, acting as provider and protector for them.

The Beard-Mask (33.00.xx): The dwarves of Titan’s Skull place a veil beneath their nose to hide their beard and disguise their gender while in public. This is a strict interpretation of the Hoard’s second law on gender, with ‘outsiders’ sometimes interpreted to mean anyone outside one’s immediate family.

The nature of the veil depends on the dwarf’s station and personal preferences. Particularly conservative dwarves may cover their entire face, arguing—probably correctly—that a dwarf’s gender can be surmised from facial structure.

 

[Electric Wizard]

Kraken's Beak Isles (23.32)
Connected to (19.31)

Eccentric tinkers and traders take the occasional detour to these islets to barter with the native octoids. Octoids differ from their common cousins in that they're nearly man-sized, and use a complex language consisting of tentacle motions and color changing. Given enough time, intelligent or insane members of other races can usually interpret them. Octoids dwell in a system of caves beneath the surf, but many venture above the surface to raid fishing boats or map stellar and planetary motions.

It is hard to believe that the octoids ruled Jahur for twelve years. When the Zurhiman Empire collapsed, the Janissaries were released from service. The wealthy city was left without an army. The octoids struck without warning. They sunk the city's navy and stormed the palace. For twelve years, the city suffered under the bizarre edicts of the Cephalopedic Emperor. Some of the most notorious edicts include the production of 10,000 pairs of felt gloves and an annual tax of broken glass from every man, woman and child. An alliance of wizards and priests toiled in secret on a ritual to recall the Janissaries. Their plot finally succeeded, and the reawakened Janissaies drove the octoids from the city. Many of the city's ancient relics, however, remain lost. The most sorely missed relic is the Moon's Daughter, a flawless pearl the size of a grapefruit that can bend the tides to man's will.

In memorium of the strange, dark years, the reinstated Viceroys built a chain of twelve black obelisks, one for each year under the octoids. One was plundered in the War of the Six-Fingered Hand. The remaining eleven stand as a reminder for citizens to remain vigilant, and to never forget the Cephalopedic Empire. They have also inspired generations adventurers to retrieve the Moon's Daughter and other relics from the octoids. Those who returned did so empty-handed. Many of Jahur's citizens are resigned to never seeing the Moon's Daughter again.

Hooks
-Tell me about some of the weirdos who trade with the octoids.
-What can adventurers discover in the octoid caves?
-Do octoids live elsewhere?
-Why were the Janissaries released from service?
-Where is the Moon's Daughter?
-Tell me about the War of the Six-Fingered Hand.
-Why do octoids care about stellar and planetary motions?
-Does any of the Cephalopedic Empire remain?