Let’s Make a Hexcrawl Setting

[Daztur]

Got some ideas for ghouls in the southern deserts by the new city down there, but for today I've gotten side tracked adding in art to the file. Too bad this is under copyright

http://thebeautifulnecessity.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/bagshaw-pandora.html

 

[Sanglorian]

Got some ideas for ghouls in the southern deserts by the new city down there, but for today I've gotten side tracked adding in art to the file. Too bad this is under copyright

http://thebeautifulnecessity.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/bagshaw-pandora.html

What about using one of the Pandora paintings that inspired that artwork? http://preraphaelitesisterhood.com/ah-pandora/

 

[Daztur]

What about using one of the Pandora paintings that inspired that artwork? http://preraphaelitesisterhood.com/ah-pandora/

Yup, will try to fit that in somewhere. Mostly I've been going through the archives of this: http://preraphaelitepaintings.blogspot.com blog which are rather insanely massive. Before I was planning to have the interior art all black and while to make it easier to print cheaply, but there's just too many hexes and not enough good black and white images so I'm expanding it to color ones. I'm mostly doing Pre-Raphaelite stuff to give it a consistent look (and I think the dreamy look fits well with the setting) but for the more fantastic bits I've found a few Creative Commons fantasy art sites since there aren't many Pre-Raphaelite pictures of orcs and there's only so many pictures you can put in of dreamy looking women in flowy clothes before things start getting repetitive. I found some good prints of Jesus' parables, some of which fit into hexes that we have so well, for example I have a guy walking along randomly sowing the ground (Matt 13:3-23; Mk 4:2-20; Lk 8:4-15) and that works just perfectly for the Sowing Path hex.

Also some art sites like From Old Books got posted way back when and I'll hit them in a while. Compilation's up to nearly 110K words now. About 13K more of City stuff, 13K more of random stuff.

 

[Sanglorian]

Good to hear! Let me know what Creative Commons art sites you find, and I'll add them to art category on the FOSsil Bank wiki!

 

[Electric Wizard]

Viceroy Orhan's Madness
Additional information about (19.31)

Jahur has been on edge since Viceroy Orhan, the city's treasurer, was attacked in his bedchamber last month. He escaped by throwing himself into the pool beneath his window, but his severe blunt force trauma wounds would have killed him had the city's best clerics not come to his aid. Although they were able to heal his wounds, Orhan suffers from huge gaps in his memory. The gaps not only relate to the attack, but whole sections of his life. He is unable to recognize two of his wives, remember his recent journey to the Shuttered City, and most troubling, understand the nuances of managing the city's wealth. For his own safety, Orhan is confined in a comfortable dungeon usually reserved for captured dignitaries.

Orhan was attacked by a wax golem similar to Lady Naideen's (17.11). This particular construct is designed to drain Orhan's memory and identity and take his place. Had its attack been successful, the golem would have stolen Orhan's memories, mannerisms and identity. The golem is lurking in one of Jahur's abandoned palaces, plotting its next move. Orhan's amnesia will persist until the golem is slain.

Hooks
-Who created the wax golem? Was it a rival Viceroy, or a foreign threat?
-How do you create a wax golem that can steal an identity?
-Are any leaders in the Shrouded Lands actually wax golems?

 

[Daztur]

For wax golems note Hex 17.11 (Castle Dinivar)

This one’s inspired partly by an old blog post from D&D With Porn Stars and partly from a newer one from chutup’s blog:
http://awizardskiss.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/five-ghouls.html
http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.kr/2011/11/one-simple-step-to-weird.html?zx=a745d7e708c11a15

The Ghoul in the Gilded Cage
Hex 13.30 and additional information about Hex 19.31.

In the very heart of Jahur, the City of Jewels, lies of the Sublime Divan where the Viceroys of the City sit in council upon jeweled cushions that float upon a deep pool of amber ichor. Strange astringent mists rise from the pool, which are said to aid the Viceroys in their contemplations (or ensure that annoyingly-emotional Viceroys lose their balance and fall into the poisonous ooze or provide an excuse to keep the too-heavy-to-float Janissaries excluded from government, depending on who you believe).

The domed ceiling of the Sublime Divan are covered with intricate bejeweled bas reliefs and from the ceilings is hung a gilded cage that the people of Jahur believe contains Helin il-Helan, the wayward daughter of Viceroy Rullaj.

They believe wrong. It is not Helin that Rullaj’s hunters caught and dragged back to the cage in Jahur, but actually a ghoul who has taken on Helin’s form after consuming her dead flesh and who greatly desires to return home to its desert tomb (13.30). The ghoul is hardly willing to admit the truth that it ambushed and slew the fleeing woman and her gnollish lover when they were fleeing westwards from her enraged parents. The ghoul now bides its time and hopes that some brave adventurers will “rescue” it, but the amber mists seem to be having an effect on the ghoul and it has been begun to rant in strange tongues and giggle in gnollish.

However, the ghoul has little talent for giggling, certainly not the great talent of the Gnawer of Flame, Helin’s lover. When held a torch aloft and sang the Song of Dust and Flame (32.32) the smoke of the torch would twist and writhe and take on the color and shapes of the Doom of Bergolast, the caves of Nororak, the great pit of Khannah’s Leap, the Graveyard of the Painted Elephants, the Great Skull of the Tarrasque and all of the other sights of the Burning Lands.

When Viceroy Rullaj summoned the Gnawer of Flame to perform for him and his cronies, his young daughter crept behind a keyhole and listened. She fell in love with his voice and not even the length of his claws or his gnollish muzzle could move her heart from its course thereafter. Soon she was stealing away from her manse at midnight to see and hear all of the outside world that had been denied her.

It was not long before Helin and her lover fled into the trackless wastes to the west of the city. But in lands where men do no walk, ghouls are known to dance and howl. The strength of these foul creatures is greatest when their location is isolated. Even a small track will sap their power and being in a human city steals almost all of their strength. But despite this they love the taste of human flesh and are known to use illusions to lure travelers away from roads and into the lands where they dwell. Perhaps this is what happened to Helin for she was not able to flee far from Jahar before ending up in the belly of the ghoul who now mimics her voice and form.

Hooks:
-What is the real reason for the strange site of the Sublime Divan?
-What is the amber ichor and what effects does breathing in its mists (or falling into it) have?
-Do any other gnolls possess the power of singing images into smoke?
-Did the Gnawer of Flame really get killed by the ghoul as well?
-Any other interesting ghouls about? Being able to take on the form of anyone you eat must be a useful power to have…
-Why did Helin and the gnoll flee west? The Burning Lands are east.
-What did the ghoul in the cage leave behind in its tomb? Any interesting treasure?

 

[Electric Wizard]

Abbalah-doon, Village of Outcasts 15.28

Male gnolls who reach a certain age and cannot find favor with a matriarch and those who willingly renounce gnollish culture are forced to spend their remaining years in the remote village of Abbalah-doon. The village is an ancient spiral of bone huts lying on the Tantalus Mountains' western slopes. At any given time maybe a hundred to two hundred gnolls dwell here.

The gnolls of Abbalah-doon are more peaceful than their eastern brethren. Most have resigned themselves to scraping a living from the Southern Desert's meager game. The village's howling traditions are more somber than unnerving. But despite the gnolls' relative docility, adventurers are careful not to visit during unusually dry seasons unless they are ready to contend with a horde of half-starved hyena men. The outcast gnolls, when they are in a trading mood, peddle out artifacts from the desert tombs to those who bring meat, tools, weapons and wine.

Abbalah-doon was the intended destination of Gnawer of Flame and his human lover, Helin (19.31) during their final tryst. Knowing that that bringing Helin to the burning lands would be doom for both of them, Gnawer of Falme chose to renounce his race and live the rest of his days with her in the Southern Desert. He knew little of the new lands, and fell victim to the ghouls' illusions. He was not eaten by the ghoul, but mauled until he was unable to save his love. He staggered into Abbalah-doon days later, more dead than alive. When his strength returned, he swore vengeance against all ghouls. He leads raids deep into the desert whenever possible, hoping to find and destroy his lover's slayer.

Hooks
-Tell me about some other outcast gnolls.
-What kind of artifacts do gnolls dole out?
-What hospitality can a visitor expect?
-What do these gnolls hunt?
-What ruins and tombs lie nearby?

 

[Daztur]

The "Southern Desert" is a placeholder of a name, if you can come up with a more creative one I'll edit it in.

I've been thinking about the land area of the map and it does seem a bit small. With six mile hexes the whole area is the UK minus Scotland. If the hexes were eight miles it get nearly doubled to just short of Italy.

With ten mile hexes it gets nearly tripled to a bit bigger than Sweden.

With twelve mile hexes it gets precisely quadrupled and is bigger than Afghanistan.

With 24 mile hexes we get Argentina.

On the one hand the map does feel bigger than England, Wales and Northern Ireland with a lot of different polities, cultures and climates but on the other hand magic can explain all of that and monsters make it harder to travel (just like mountains) making it easy to stick a lot of climates and peoples in one small area.

Thoughts?

One simple hex for now...

The Forest of Falling Bears
Hex 49.09

The drop bears that can be found throughout the jungles beyond the World's Edge are especially common in this stretch of forest. Although quite small and not especially fearsome looking, they can be a real hazard as they fall on their victims from great heights, which often results in broken backs or crushed limbs.

Pregnant drop bears or those with litters of cubs watch intently for the various great beasts of these steaming jungles. These beasts are too large for the drop bears to kill outright so they instead "ride" them, digging in their long claws and goading them on with injections of pain-inducing poison from the spurs on their hind feet. These pain-maddened beasts can be quite dangerous to travelers as they completely ignore all threats except for the agony of the drop bears on their backs.

Finally, after the passage of days in some cases, the drop bear's ride collapses dead with exhaustion and the mother descends and allows its young to feed. They can do so for quite a long time as drop bear poison preserves meat and greatly delays its corruption. As a result of this, drop bear poison is highly sought after as an ingredient for cure disease potions.

As a result of the drop bears' novel migration behavior they can end up just about anywhere that the beasts they fall upon can carry them.

Hooks:
-Who's in the market for drop bear poison?
-What sort of animals do drop bears most commonly drop on?
-Is there any way to keep a drop bear from attacking? Pickelhauben?

 

[Sanglorian]

The "Southern Desert" is a placeholder of a name, if you can come up with a more creative one I'll edit it in.

I've been thinking about the land area of the map and it does seem a bit small. With six mile hexes the whole area is the UK minus Scotland. If the hexes were eight miles it get nearly doubled to just short of Italy.

With ten mile hexes it gets nearly tripled to a bit bigger than Sweden.

With twelve mile hexes it gets precisely quadrupled and is bigger than Afghanistan.

With 24 mile hexes we get Argentina.

On the one hand the map does feel bigger than England, Wales and Northern Ireland with a lot of different polities, cultures and climates but on the other hand magic can explain all of that and monsters make it harder to travel (just like mountains) making it easy to stick a lot of climates and peoples in one small area.

I'm a big fan of how small it is. These are my reasons why:

• It makes adventuring easier if the land can be crossed faster.
• The land is already sparsely populated—it would be absurdly so if we increased its size (consider: population per hex should be anything from 2000 to 8000, and yet in some hexes our only remarkable feature is a tavern or a pool!)
• The United Kingdom in the Dark Ages had plenty of polities and cultures; I don't think we have an unrealistic number of them. We certainly have too few cities!

The one thing that doesn't quite ring true is the shift in climate from the Grey Mountains and Kingswood in the North to the various deserts in the South. But we explain that with Bergolast's fall, don't we?


Interesting discussion to have!

 

[Electric Wizard]

Hex talk

I agree with Sanglorian's points, especially about the features per hex. But I think expanding each hex to 8 miles would help in making travel a bit more of a challenge without diluting the setting too much. I think travelling, on average, 2 hexes a day opposed to 3 could do a lot to make the world seem more expansive and mysterious.

And for a better name for Southern Desert, I like how you described the land as "trackless wastes". I think it's dramatic and forlorn enough to be a good name. I was also thinking the Plain of Thirst or the Singing Waste (the eerie songs of ghouls and rogue gnolls haunt its travelers).