Let’s Make a Hexcrawl Setting

[Daztur]

Note: I found a similar communal hexmap making project that got started in 2006 on therpgsite, I'll be mining it for ideas. This post is inspired by post 4 on this thread: http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=3129

The Haunted Statue
Hex 10.09

This is a pleasant hex of low rolling hills dotted with wildflowers and small clumps of trees offering quiet green shade. Or at least it would be quiet green shade if not for the giant bees (10.10) that often fly through this area.

The most notable feature of this hex is a life size alabaster statue of an impossibly beautiful maiden. During one night a year, in the high summer a strange haunting lament in an unknown tongue comes of the statue, as if the statue was singing it. The locals dismiss the statue as "haunted" and steer clear of it, which would be wise to do in any case as the wild growth of wildflowers that can be found around the pedestal draws the giant bees.

However, behind the wildflowers are strange runes written into the pedestal of the statue and is it not strange that the statue has not been worn down in the slightest by wind and rain?

Hook:
-What is the statue singing about? Why does it sing?

 

[SnowleopardVK]

Broderick's Estuary (estuary)
Hex 01.08

Here the miles-long Broderick's River river meets the vast western sea, widening considerably as it rushes to its salty destination. Flanked by the relatively small Saltwood to the north, and the plains of Fernsbank to the south, the estuary is a popular and relatively safe destination for those land-dwellers who fish to feed their communities. It isn't without its dangers of course, as the occasional sea monster will find its way inland through these waters, or a drake will follow the river west to sea, but for the most part this is a peaceful place. It is named for a hero of the past, his deeds long-forgotten, his body long-dead and only his name living on.

Hooks:
- A massive and ancient kraken has found its way into the waters of the estuary, perhaps by mistake, but it now seems to intend to turn these lands into its own personal kingdom! Heroes of the highest calibre will be needed to face this threat.
- These waters are no stranger to the occasional drake passing through, but rumour has it that a full-blown dragon is coming, intending to carve out an underwater lair beneath the river. The nature of this dragon, friend or foe, remains a mystery though.
- Broderick's ghost has been seen haunting the area. Perhaps uncovering the lost history of his exploits and properly honouring him would lay him to rest for good.

Fernsbank (plains)
Hex 01.09

The open plains here form a peninsula with the river to the north and ocean to the west, their leafy grasses giving way to long stretches of beach in many places. This is an idyllic place, with little of note living here and no real history to its name. Monks from monasteries far to the north, south, and even east make long journies to this place to meditate and find inner peace, with the fields being a sort of neutral-ground between even diametrically opposed monastic religions.

Hooks:
- A great master among monks has come for a short time from one of the far monasteries. Now may be the only time to earn some of his wisdom.
- A discredited scholar is looking to reestablish his name by proving that these plains are not just peaceful, but in fact have some innate mystic aura of calm. He is looking to hire adventurers to investigate.
- Something has corrupted the air here lately, and those who go to find peace have instead found violence and bloodlust. What is the cause, and can it be reversed?

 

[Quickleaf]

Hex 04.06 - Cragsend, village

A miserable village which began as a refugee camp during wartime, Cragsend has scant arable land, being surrounded by crags and rocky badlands. Half the population are permanent residents, the other half are shepherds practicing transhumance. Few realize that the village rests on the precipice of a ley line contested by the Seelie & Unseelie fey long ago. The ley line seems to flow between Glass Rapids (05.05) and Cragsend; strange humming blue crystalline deposits mark the path of the ley line traces for the uninitiated eye.

Cragsend's first lord was a refugee mage, but eventually she turned to the dark arts; the people revolted, burned her at the stake, and today the Witch Queen's name has been stricken from all books. They say her ashes were placed in a magically sealed lead urn which was buried in the Mocking Hills (04.07) so that she would not return by any ritual.

The current lord, Jehan Deismirk, struggles to retain control of the village against a rising dragon cult led by the charismatic cleric turned sorcerer Edrin Tain. Once Tain led the local temple, but was constantly stymied by the pagan and savage ways of Cragsend folk. When a fearsome dragon appeared one day, darkening the skies, he took is as a sign of the gods' justice and righteous wrath. Tain's cult of dragon-worshippers sacrifice firebirds captured from the Pool of the Firebirds (04.05), believing these actions will awaken the phoenix so that the dragon may mate with her and bear offspring which will usher in a terrible era of draconic glory. Esoteric books held in the dragon cult's secret library detail an ancient elemental being of fire and smoke which once held the keys to the the phoenix's otherworldly lair. This being may indeed be the very one found at The Shrine of Father Dorek (03.07).

Hooks:
* To reconcile differences between fighting humans and dwarves, the PCs are directed to find evidence that dwarves once smuggled refugees through the Trench and Battle Hills (05.07, 06.07, 07.06) to Cragsend.
* A group of mercenaries led by Rhyond Deismirk, Lord Deismirk's illegitimate son, are preparing an expedition to Mt. Scorshia (02.03) and are hiring able adventurers; Rhyond is an honorable but merciless leader who is bound to come into conflict with the PCs.
* The dragon cult led by Edrin Tain has begun preaching in the day, using uncovered draconic prophecies to captivate and terrify the people of Cragsend. Lord Deismirk seeks to discredit them but to do that he needs to know where these draconic prophecies came from.

 

[Daztur]

I've been wrestling with Java and hexographer for the last hour trying to get it to work to no avail. I have a good bit of content written up, but now I'm out of time to format it and I can update the map until I can get hexographer to work.

What's happening is that I'm using the free version and it's telling me that I need the pro version to run it offline despite me not being offline, I'm not sure what to do...

 

[Daztur]

Still no luck with hexographer (grrrr, but I think it's a problem with Java not the program, the map and compilation will be updated when I can get hexographer to work), but here's the new content:

Edit: bizarrely, hexographer seems to work fine on my work comp but not on my personal laptop, no idea why. I'll try to get a map up later but I've got a lot of work to do now.

Additional information on Hex 01.08 (Broderick's Estuary)

By far the easiest way to reach the coast from the east is to follow the course of the Broderick's River down from the mountains. However, the coming of the kraken has made approaching the sea by this route perilous indeed, cutting the people to the east off from their only ready supply of salt and causing salt prices to spike sharply upwards. This lead Old Willie to risk making the trip to the Giant’s Lake to risk the giant’s wrath and harvest the thick layer of salt that can be found there, but he hasn’t been seen in months…

Additional information on Hex 01.09 (Fernsbank)

A renegade monk named Simar claims that under the soil of Fernsbank lies the very clay that was used to form the first humans. If he is correct, that would explain that strange properties of this place (although not the recent changes in it) and why this clay is the only proper material for making clay golems.
Hooks:
-Is Simar actually right? What/who made the first humans?
-What happens if clay golems are made out of clay from elsewhere?

Two new hexes:

The Market Pits (28.04)

Here, within the Kingswood, rise a small range of chalk hills on which trees grow poorly. This allows humans to cling to a precarious existence in the elven kingdom.

Dug into the hills are a series of pits roofed in leather (venturing outside of which in day is a sure way of getting an elven arrow lodged in your chest) in which the local men of the Lands of the Night Cattle hold monthly markets in which they trade with caravans that come up the Welt Road.

Each market pit is lit by a single large candle made out of human finger bones dipped in the wax of giant bees and by this flickering light the night men sell their famed albino cows, silverware from the Titan’s Skull and elven woodcraft for all of the products of the outside world. Good coin can be made here for those who are willing to risk the journey.

Although these markets are held monthly, the pits truly come alive during the Long Night, a midwinter festival in which the night men emerge from their windowless keeps and gather at the pits for a week-long riot of feasting, revelry and running naked through snowdrifts.

Hooks:
-What is the point of the candles? Why only giant bee wax? Where do the human finger bones come from?

The Hobgoblin Caves
Hex 16.04
Note: this post has been adapted from a post by jrients at therpgsite. It has been rewritten, changed and expanded upon, but Jeff Rients has awesome ideas.

The caves that can be found in these rocky hills are inhabited by hobgoblins. Hobs lack whatever it is that binds goblins to oak trees and their affinity for magic along with it, and tend be to lanky and misshapen when compared to their cousins, but are fearsomely strong.

The hobgoblins mostly keep the peace with the humans that live south of here and even attend an annual market in which they trade their shroomwine and shoes, but during lean times they have been known to sneak down towards the lowland farms to rustle ostriches. They avoid killing humans, but it would only take one bloodthirsty band of adventurers to change that…

Hooks:
-Aside from hobgoblins, what can be found in these caves?
-Who are the humans who trade with the hobgoblins?
-Ostriches? Really?
-Why would humans want to buy shroomwine?

 

[Daztur]

Still no luck with hexographer The dev said there were two bugs that kept it from working and that they were both fixed, but I still have the same problem...
Edit: hexographer works fine on my other computer, that's strange, will try to get a map up later...

The Lands of the Night Cattle
Hexes: 27.04, 29.03, 30.03 and 30.04.
Around the market pits there are no farmhouses or villages, but only a series of dark and ancient keeps. These keeps are boarded up tightly during the day and admit no visitors. At night (and only at night) the night men come out and graze their albino cattle in the surrounding fields. The unblemished white skin of these cows makes them highly prized as sacrificial victims by the priests of several cults.

All of these keeps are well away from the woods, except the one inhabited by Lord Olmsted and his daughters.

Hooks:
-What cults value these albino cows for sacrifices?
-Who are the individual lords who rule the various keeps of the night men?

The Ice Mummies
Hex 03.02

High up in the mountains is an ancient burial ground in which people were buried (often alive) in pits dug in alpine rubble. The cold dry air of the mountains preserves the bodies so that their features can still be made out. Over the centuries the burial grounds were looted by generations of grave robbers, with Maris (the owner of Uncle Bertie’s Trading Post 03.08) cleaning the last few out of the way graves. She found little gold, but many of the grave goods were so ancient and well-preserved that they were valuable anyway, which allowed her to fund her retirement. Some say that she kept one special piece of treasure for herself and refuses to talk of it or show it to anyone.

These days wise travellers hurry past the ice mummies, for the discarded skulls that dot the mountain paths grin evilly and perhaps the ice mummies are not happy at having their rest disturbed and their wealth stolen.

Hooks:
-What ancient culture buried these people? Is there anything else left of them?
-What were the people who were buried alive given as an offering to?
-Is it true that sprinkling beer across the path will keep any vengeful dead away?
-Are there any graves left that haven’t been looted yet?
-Why were woolly rhinoceroses and other strange beasts buried along with the humans?

 

[Quickleaf]

Still no luck with hexographer The dev said there were two bugs that kept it from working and that they were both fixed, but I still have the same problem...
Edit: hexographer works fine on my other computer, that's strange, will try to get a map up later...

Er, my understanding of the free version of Hexographer is that you must be connected to the web to use it. At least that's how I've used it before over here: Hexographer: Free Version Is that not the case?

If it's working on one but not the other, maybe you need to update your Java?

 

[Daztur]

Er, my understanding of the free version of Hexographer is that you must be connected to the web to use it. At least that's how I've used it before over here: Hexographer: Free Version Is that not the case?

If it's working on one but not the other, maybe you need to update your Java?

Yeah I have been connected to the web, but there's some kind of bug in the newer version of the program (according to a dev), however it seems to work on my work comp (which was connected to the same wireless network as my personal laptop). In any case I'll try to do up the map at home on my wife's desktop before I got to bed...

Sorry for the delay

In any case, the problem itself is cool and user friendly enough I'll probably upgrade to the full version eventually...

 

[Daztur]

The map has been updated. The compilation will be updated when it is updated (tomorrow Korean time if I have the time, maybe later, we'll see...). Lots of cool stuff to add, I like the way some bits are coming together like the importance of monks in this setting (will make another monastery later to connect into Fernsbank) and everything about the idea of awakening the phoenix in order to have it mate with a dragon (it's exactly those kinds of nuggets of awesomeness that makes me love this thread).

Looking at the map, I now realize that my attempts to block off the coast from the rest of the territory in order to make salt a rare commodity doesn't really make any sense. One thing I've learned from these exercises is that when something doesn't make sense, don't retcon anything just explain away the inconsistency with something interesting.

So without further ado:

Additional information about the Ocean of Bitter Regrets (the western ocean):

All sailors know that it is foolish to drink sea water. This is nowhere the case as much as with the Sea of Bitter Regrets for even a small sip of the water immediately brings to mind one's most bitter memories. Strong warriors have been known to collapse in tears after drinking from the ocean, an effect that persists even in the evaporated residue of the ocean (i.e. sea salt).

Hooks:
-Why does this effect happen?

And one more hex:

The Broken Spear
Hex 40.06
Note: this post has been adapted from one by “Pillsy” on rpg.net

Near the eastern edge of the Kingswood is a twisted tower of strange metal that no art known to humans can cut or melt. Some legends maintain that it that it is the spear of Alberon, and it fell to earth after he used it to defeat Tiamat. Some of the oldest elves of the Court of the Kingswood claim differently, though, and remember seeing it fall flaming from the sky and shaking the earth when it finally struck the ground. Elves are known to spin tales to make themselves appear older and wiser than they are, and have a longstanding grudge against Alberon and his cult.

The tower itself can be entered through several puckered and scorched holes in its side, and the interior is made of the same strange metal as its outer walls. There are dozens upon dozens of floors, connects by ladders or strange, empty shafts that must be scaled with ropes and grappling hooks. Kobolds have taken up residence in the upper levels, and the bottom is occupied by gnolls who hunt the lands east of the Kingswood, but leave the kobolds be for fear of their traps. The gnolls themselves are (if you can imagine such a thing) unusually hideous; some have strangely colored fur, others are covered in suppurating sores, and it is rumored that their chieftain has two heads, like an ettin. Perhaps they have taken up dark magics and been warped as a result, because adventurers who have been brave enough to go near the tower at night report that the lower levels glow from the inside with an eerie blue light.

Hooks:
-Could dwarves craft the metal the tower is made from?
-Might a thorough exploration of the tower shed light on its origins?
-What dark sorcerers are the gnolls working in there?

 

[Daztur]

The compilation has been brought up to date and two errors on the map have been corrected (added the Castle of the Poor Brothers and moved the ice mummies so they're not at the same hex as the Drinker's Mouth).


The compilation now stands at 29 pages and 11.5K words. We're well on our way to hitting official novella length

Note: the battle hills only covers one hex as the hexes are six miles rather than one, I can expand them to more hexes if Quickleaf wants.

Many many many more hexes to come.