Let’s Make a Hexcrawl Setting

[Daztur]

The Bone Stash
Additional information about Hex 03.13

One of the greatest treasures of the Temple of the Dead God is a pile of ancient but seemingly-normal bone shards. Only close inspection will reveal that they have been cut so cleanly that they only have been chomped on by the jaws of Tiamat herself. Pieces of bone that were crushed in the jaws of the mother of dragons are considered relics by all who revere Tiamat and they are often used as ritual currency.

Among the special properties of these bone shards is that if they are ground to dust and sprinkled just so on adhesive paper they serve as a most excellent alternative to magical inks for the recording of magical formulas. In fact, some spells can only be recorded in this fashion. However, Tiamat cultists put these bone shards to more exalted purposes and necromancers to darker ones.

Hooks:
-Anyone out there selling fake Tiamat-chewed bone shards?
-What is a ritual currency anyway? Can't the tiamat cultists just use gold like everyone else?
-Who uses dust from these bones to write out their spells?
-What sort of things do Tiamat cultists and necromancers use these bone shards for?
-What kind of creatures do these bone shards come from anyway? What do draconic goddesses snack on?

 

[Daztur]

The Glade of Cerelaine
Hex 13.02

Here, in the foothills of the Grey Mountains, is a peaceful glade in which a perfect ring of tall and stately birches grows. It is where the elf Cerelaine retreats to when he tires of the people of the Timberlode (13.03). It is also where he keeps his book of spells and several trinkets under the eyes of watchful water elementals.

It is Cerelaine's curiosity that is responsible for the Timberlode (13.03). For many years he desired to know more about humans. He found the slaves that scamper after their elven masters within in the elven Holt (29.07) unsatisfactory and the thought of travelling through human cities and being gaped at by ugly brutes turned his stomach.

Finally he came upon a solution. He would gather some human specimens and cast spells over them to make them appear to be elves. That way he could study humans without having his stomach turned every time he looked at them. The result is a village of "elves" that are actually human under the web of illusion that Cerelaine has cast over them. These spells are so potent that the men of the Timberlode have actually come to believe themselves to be elves, which has resulted in some strange behavior on their part.

Connections:
-Cerelaine's journal is full of cryptic references to Mirror Lake and vague ramblings about the souls that elves lack (37.01).
-Many of the "elves" of the Timberlode are humans taken by Cerelaine from the area around Newhill (17.07). Some of them are sorely missed...

Hooks:
-What form do Cerelaine's water elementals take?
-What "trinkets" does he have?
-What exactly is Cerelaine trying to learn about humans? Is it something connected to Mirror Lake?
-So the people in the Timberlode are humans who look like elves and believe themselves to be elves. What is their society like?
-Who are some of the people who Cerelaine abducted?

 

[Daztur]

New map: http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/705/jan19map.png

The Roots of Dream
Hex 39.09

In some places the wall between this world and that of dream is thinner than in others and it is rarely thinner than along the edges of the Kingswood. So, in this area on moonless nights, hundreds of what seem to be tentacles reach down out of the hazy sky and grope towards the ground.

Closer inspection reveals that the "tentacles" are not at all squamous but are rather knotted and rugose. They branch ever finer as they descend, much like the roots of a tree. At the tip of each is a strangely human-seeming eye mounted with a glass lens that allows it to see the mundane banality of our world. If these lenses are removed and placed over a human eye they will grant visions into the world of dreams, which will allow the wearer to see strange vistas and the things that lurk in forgotten corners and skitter about with each blink of our eyes.

Claiming these lenses is not, however, easy as the tentacles will grab any sentient creature that approaches, hold them fast and subject them to a constant barrage of questions that are conveyed telepathically with sanity-warping power. These questions have been reported to include:
-"Is food something you do or something you are?"
-"Why does the sun?"
-"Are you a parasite of the trees or their offspring?"
-"Why do the hills die?"
-"Why won't your soul stay?"

Connections:
-Varna Moon (15.13) owns a single of these lenses and does her divining by peering into the land of dreams with her right while while clapping her hand over her left. After she does this the things that she sees between the her left eye and the lid can only be driven out of her memory by copious amounts of Thringish brandy.
-The Nekh that frequent Ogo Tassak (14.27) would pay well for a set of these lenses.

Hooks:
-Where else is the wall between reality and dream thin? What effects does this have?
-What can you tell me of the land of dreams?
-What is this creature? Is it a tree?
-Just what are those creatures?
-Who else has some of these lenses?
-What things does Varna Moon see?
-What do the Nekh want with these lenses?

 

[Daztur]

The Long Dock
Hex 48.14

The People of the Claw (48.13) attempt to catch any travelers who pass through these parts and feed them to their crayfish god. However, some travelers are well enough armed to make the locals resort of trickery instead of force. This is where the Long Dock comes in.

It is a normal-seeming dock except that it extends a full mile into the muddy waters offshore. The locals attempt to convince travelers to dive off of the end of it while they play their pipes and drums to call their blue whale-sized idiot god to feed. Sometimes they offer their most beautiful maidens to travelers but only after they dive off the end of the dock to purity themselves. Sometimes they stage a tournament of arms and if the travelers win they are offered a great prize but only after they jump off the end of the dock to purify themselves. I think you get the picture.

Hooks:
-Who have the People of the Claw tricked in this way?

 

[Daztur]

The Spawning Pool of the Salamanders
Hex 02.06

The source of Broderick's River is the head of a ravine in which a waterfall from the upper peaks meets water bubbling up from the Sunless Sea. This is were the giant blind salamanders that live in darkness crawl up to lay their eggs in relative safety. The eggs are cleverly hidden under the overhanging rocks of the cliffs of this ravine and the poison ooze that they are laid in helps keep all but the most persistent predators away.

Occasionally the eggs are eaten or a young salamander gets washed downstream into the Ocean of Bitter Regrets, but usually they are able to swim down into the Sunless Sea and rejoin the rest of their kind.

Hooks:
-Are these salamanders intelligent or special in any way except for being big and blind?
-Has anyone stolen any of their eggs?
-What would happen to a giant blind subterranean salamander in the Ocean?

 

[Daztur]

The Wild Men of the Wood
Hex 37.06

Deep within the Kingswood there are wild men who touch no metal and make their homes in holes dug into the wood of living trees. They are cunning and elusive, with sharp noses that can sniff out magic so that they can distinguish game trails from those frequented by elves with ease.

They wear little clothing, instead wrapping their own hair around their bodies in elaborate braids. This and their rude tools of bone and stone lead many to at first disbelieve that they are humans, but they are men like any other. In fact, their language is an especially degenerate dialect of the Mud Tongue spoken in the lower levels of the City of Shuttered Windows.

These wild men are shy and avoid elves, kobolds (40.06) and all of the rest of the non-delicious inhabitants of the Kingswood, but can sometimes be lured out by patient and careful travelers. They can serve as excellent guides through this dangerous forest, but it can be hard to strike a bargain with them as they avoid metal of any sort and care nothing for things that are not of immediate use. They will turn down handfuls of diamonds but provide loyal serve in exchange for a well-trained hunting cat.

Connections:
-One of the few wild men to ever leave the woods is employed by Wortimer of the Blind Midshotgatepool thieve’s guild to sniff out magic (26.20).
-Abdul (05.04) somehow manages to have a bottle of a liquor brewed from the nectar of the ribbon lotus within the wood of a great living oak in stock. The wild men seldom share this beverage with outsiders and never sell it.

Hooks:
-Why do the wild men eschew metal and live in holes gouged into living trees? Are the exploiting a loophole in some elf law? Are they under a curse?
-What are the wild men doing in the Kingswood in the first place? Are they the descendants of exiles from the human lands or escaped elf pets or what?
-Why are the wild men able to smell magic?
-What are the most popular breeds of hunting cat?
-Who’s the wild man in Blind Midshotgatepool?
-Does the ribbon lotus brew have any interesting properties?

 

[Daztur]

The Wrath of the Chicken Dragon
Hex 19.15

As everyone knows, the blood of a chromatic dragon is lethal poison to a metallic dragon and vice versa. However, the current lack of metallic dragons in these lands makes this knowledge somewhat academic.

But for Sir Codwise the Old, the current Spellknight of the Knights of the Cudgel (21.14), that was merely a problem to solve and, much to the consternation of the other knights, he has taken to polymorphing chickens into gold dragons. This has not gone well. The polymorphed chickens are certainly very large and look just like true dragons but their minds remain those of chickens, their blood has no potency and their skin does not even make good armor.

Sir Codwise generally kills his creations in frustration but at least one has gotten free and is currently wandering about, knocking over trees and clawing mightily at the dirt. It has been growing hungry and somewhat peevish which might pose some problems to anyone who runs into it.

Hooks:
-What does the chicken dragon taste like?
-Why does dragon blood poison other types of dragons?
-Why are there no metallic dragons about? None have been mentioned so far.
-Is it possible to harvest draconic blood and hide by polymorphing chickens into dragons or are Sir Codwise's experiments doomed?

 

[Daztur]

This one is using this: http://www.random-generator.com/index.php?title=Gothic_Manor for inspiration.

Goss Hall
Hex 28.11

Here, where the writ of the Shuttered City ends at the borders of the Kingswood, lies Goss Hall. Its lord, Alan Goss, is an avid hunter and has filled nearly every room of his hall with hunting trophies brought back from the wild wood. Everywhere you go, the shining eyes of the dead beasts seem to track you and their yellowed teeth form constant leers. Every so often the baying of the long-tongued hounds that Lord Goss keeps well-fed on the blood of his kills can be heard.

Lord Goss himself is tall, handsome and whip-thin and seemingly not the worse of wear from the debauchery that keeps him up each night. He is constantly surrounded by mass of bards, mistresses and sycophants and often says that if a man hunts in the Kingswood it does not do to sleep even a moment when the sun is not in the sky.

As for Lady Goss, she is never seen and rumor states (falsely) that he has won himself an elven bride that he keeps locked in his highest tower. If one is to look for Alan Goss's secrets it would be better to look low than high for beneath Goss Hall is a deep dungeon and worms north into the Kingswood. The dungeon's twisting passageways are dug out of the raw earth and it is only the roots of the trees that lie above it that have kept (most of) it from collapsing.

In this dungeon a sorcerer in Lord Goss's employ draws life from the trees if the Kingswood and crafts new life out of the limbs and organs of the creatures that Lord Goss brings back from his hunts. This is the source of the Hall's servants, a quiet and efficient lot that wear loose robes to cover their "gifts."

So far Alan Goss has been able to keep these experiments safe from even his own heirs, a fractious lot of Lord Goss's adult children who are constantly conspiring against each other, although it might be some time before any of them inherits for their father looks not a day older than his eldest daughter.

Connections:
-One of the reasons for Lord Goss's success is his displacer beast cloak (16.15), which makes it difficult to judge his position.
-Alan Goss is a former King of Hound's Hearth (05.12) and was just barely able to escape his impending execution with several Houndishman heirlooms.

Hooks:
-What beasts has Lord Goss slain?
-Why does Alan feed his dogs blood?
-Why does Lord Goss stay up each night and never sleep unless the sun is in the sky?
-Who's Lady Goss?
-What sort of things are being created in Goss Hall's dungeons?
-Have some rooms collapsed? What was in them?
-Why isn't Alan Goss aging?
-Why were the Houndishmen going to execute their king? What did Alan Goss take with him? What are the houndishmen doing to get it back?

 

[Daztur]

Ledo's Hunt
Additional information about 23.11

Inspired by some chatter on the rpg.net let's read thread for Complete Book of Elves.

Long ago a warrior known as Egil Longspear, known throughout these lands for his bastard sword and his bastard children, committed a vile crime against a certain elf of the Kingswood. After sulking darkly for some decades the elf was disappointed to hear that Egil had died. Not to let vengeance split through his fingers that easily he began plotting the annihilation of all of the Longspear's descendants.

As part of that plan, he trained some of his half-elf children in the art of the hunt. One of these is a slight and quiet man who can pass for a full-blooded human named Ledo who is currently lurking about Winds (23.11) waiting for a to kill Egil's great grand-daughter. He has already killed an aged Brother of the Lion (17.31) (Egil's grandson) and will one day get around to killing Jayla Mullard (25.04) (Egil's great-granddaughter on her mother's side). There's no hurry and the list of victims is ever so long.

If Ledo is ever killed, it will be no great loss. It will only take his father a few decades to sire and train another assassin and then the hunt will continue.

Hooks:
-What did Egil Longspear do to the elf?
-Why was Egil called Longspear when his signature weapon was a bastard sword?
-Who is the avenging elf anyway? Why doesn't he kill people himself?
-What sort of training does Ledo have? Who else has he killed?
-Who is Ledo's current target?

 

[Electric Wizard]

Longspear Bridge (22.11)
Connected to Hex 23.11

Longspear Bridge, a narrow wooden construction, spans a wide ravine just north of Winds. It is a fairly new bridge, but it rests on the location of older bridges. It, like its predecessors, is named in honor of Hardrald Longspear, a barbarian from the Westmarches who earned his surname by holding the bridge against an orc army for two hours. Hardrald slew wave after wave of orc warriors with a longspear named Seven Paces. It did not splinter even as it parried a hundred swords and axes. His deed bought the Winds enough time to evacuate the town's women and children.

The great warrior finally died after a hail of arrows. It is said that so many shafts pierced his armor that he did not fall. The sheer number of arrows he took supported his weight and he died standing over the corpses of his enemies. The orcs retrieved his body and gave him an honorable orcish funeral, but his spear, Seven Paces, went missing. Some believe it ended up being just another trophy in the Collector's Castle. Others say it is lost among the Gray Mountains. The citizens of Winds believe Seven Paces is rightfully theirs'. The Council of the Calm is often petitioned to hire adventurers to follow rumors of its appearances.

Egil Longspear was Hardrald's youngest son. He was too young to remember his father's sacrifice, but this did nothing to deflate his ego and ambition as he became a mercenary. On the behest of Newhill, he led one of the few successful human incursions into the Kingswood. He returned with more than a dozen human children Cerelaine (13.02) had kidnapped. For this act, the elf holds a grudge against his descendants to this day.

Hooks
-What brought the orcs so far south?
-Why would a barbarian from the Westmarches give his life defending a foreign town?
-Is the current Winds militia still dangerously incompetent?
-Did the orcs build any memorials for Hardrald Longspear?
-Where is Seven Paces' true resting place?
-What became of the rescued children?