Let’s Make a Hexcrawl Setting

[Electric Wizard]

(Thanks for the random Gothic manor link, Daztur!)

Castle Spiriwin (20.16)
Connected to Hex 16.16

This stone round-house squats at the edge of the swamp that forms Thring's eastern border. The great hall is musty and cold year-round. Mold stains creep across the tapestries and bedsheets. The dungeons are carved from raw earth, and rife with gnarled roots and lolling fungi. Every dark recess is a newt, frog, toad or salamander's nest.

Lord Spiriwin the Cruel presides over this castle and the three dozen peasant families clustered around it. He is an enormous man who gorges himself on meat and brandy. Advisers who disagree with him are silenced by roars and stomps. His judgments and decrees are arbitrary. Administrative duties confuse and irritate him. He has not even been able to produce a child. Many, especially his wife and heir, Agnessa, are waiting for him to eat himself to death. He has survived several poisonings, a feat which he attributes to living among amphibians.

Spiriwin's sole vocation seems to be breeding and raising war boars for Castle Tarangreal (16.16). The castle's talented huntmaster, a half-elf named Soveliss sentenced to serve the disgusting man-child, hunts the forests and swamps of Thring for prime studs and sows. Spiriwin breaks the boars himself with sheer malice. He feeds them human meat whenever possible, often paying peasant families to take bodies of their relatives when he cannot find anyone to execute.

A band of crowfolk outlaws led by Red-Feathers has taken advantage of the land's misrule and operates in the marshes around Castle Spiriwin. The peasants who harbor them are rewarded with loot that disinterests the crowfolk, usually anything insufficiently shiny.

Hooks
-Alchemists and herbalists are interested in what grows in the earthen maze beneath the castle. Oblivion moss, which absorbs and modifies memories, was once collected from the walls of a deep tunnel. What else could be down there?
-How does Lord Spiriwin survive so many poisonings? Who has been behind most of the attempts? His wife, other lords, disgruntled servants?
-What crime did the half-elf huntmaster, Soveliss, commit to justify his sentence of serving Spiriwin?
-What kind of things can get you executed in Spiriwin's demesne?
-Tell me the exploits of the Red-Feathers gang. What kind of things do they give their peasant sympathizers?

 

[Electric Wizard]

Asrigh's Portal (49.11)
Connected to Hex 50.11

A large stone archway rises only paces from the World's Edge. It is attached to a weathered wall with engravings that depict what little is known about the wind deity Asrigh. The most intriguing carving seems to depict birds of paradise (50.1) transforming into harpies after touching the ground. There is evidence that the arch was once part of a larger temple complex. Scholars believe it may be the site of the fabled Terminus Temple referred to in the Codex Othonoi.

It is unsafe to linger here because a large flock of harpies broods on the cliffs below the arch. They are unlike harpies elsewhere. They are as large as common vultures. They do not have women's torsos or arms, but have the heads and voices of beautiful maidens. Despite having women's heads, the harpies cannot speak. They babble, coo and scream inanely. A favorite tactic is swarming their prey and dragging them off the ledge.

Hooks
-What purpose did this archway once serve?
-Are harpies really cursed birds of paradise? Does anything bad happen to people who kill them?
-Why was Asrigh forgotten?
-What is the Codex Othonoi? What does it say about the Terminus Temple?
-How did these abominations come to dwell here? What god or mortal would allow them to live?

 

[Electric Wizard]

Hypno, Lord of Sleep
Additional information about Hex 08.27

A crystal plaza lies in the center of Zaal. Hypno, the Lord of Sleep, slumbers beneath its translucent tiles. He is a shepherd of all mortals' dreams. Though he appears to be sleeping peacefully, Hypno is exerting incredible psychic energy keeping "dangerous" dreams from affecting the lives of mortals. He appears to be an exceptionally tall and hardy elf dressed in royal finery. His crown's silver tendrils trail from behind his head, winding downward out of sight.

Hypno uses his powers to steal dreams that could inflict mental harm or inspire subversive ideas among mortals. Mortals often remember only fragments of dreams thanks to his meddling. The city of Zaal is beautiful because it must counterbalance the chaos or ugliness from the stolen dreams.

The Lord of Sleep is not perfect, however. Many subversive or terrible dreams slip through his mental net. Some of these dreams impact mortals profoundly. Elves often blame mankind's weaknesses, follies and hubris on such renegade dreams.

Hooks
-Is Hypno the only shepherd of dreams?
-What kind of dreams do elves fear mortals will have? Can dreams grant sleepers any powers or earth-shattering ideas?
-Where do dreams come from, anyway? The depths of dreamers' minds? Above? Below?
-Is there any way to dodge Hypno's dream censorship?
-What would happen if Hypno awoke? How could such a thing happen?

 

[Daztur]

Hey EL, I didn't notice you were back. Yay, it's good to have people adding some hexes again. What I'd been working on is making short summaries of each hex which had bored me sick (mostly done now though) so I took a bit of a break. Will get back into the swing of things within the next day or two.

 

[Electric Wizard]

Cool, Daz. I wasn't able to post for awhile because I was moving, so everything I concocted sort of spilled out at once! Are the short summaries like the block format from the published excerpt a few pages back? Let me know if you want me to help you with that. It's going to be a minute before my jobs start up.

Ashberry Mountains (24.18)
Connected to 25.17, 26.20, 29.14

The Ossery clan, who shoot jets of flame from their fingertips at will, dwell in this stretch of the Barrier Peaks. Despite possessing such a terrifying gift, they are perhaps the least xenophobic witch clan. They use their mastery of flame to burn stretches of forest and scrub on their mountain slopes. From the ashes of the burned forests come ashberry bushes. The bushes' orange fruit makes an exquisite, spicy wine that is known as Ossery Fire. The clan has become wealthy trading their wine with Blind Midshotgatepool.

Every other witch clan covets their gold, but the Osserys' bitterest rivals are their neighbors, the Dungers. The two clans have been raiding each other for generations. For a long time, the Dungers had the upper hand thanks to their noxious clouds. But their fortunes are reversing. Ivelyn Ossery, the clan's chief vintner, has managed to employ a half-mad necromancer named Ranmore. Ranmore, when not muttering or weeping quietly to himself, commands a platoon of skeletons that move through the Dungers' stinking clouds unimpeded.

Ranmore was discharged from the Necromantic Office after showing signs of insanity. During his time there, he was contacted by a ghost he calls Jahbulon. Ranmore believes that Jahbulon has chosen him to complete a horrible but necessary task that will usher in a new era for Shuttered. The visions he received involved raising the White Road and marching on Winds and the Freeholds. Despite this, Ranmore was not deemed insane or dangerous enough for Shuttered's asylums, so he was geased away from the city and left to his own devices. He is a modestly capable necromancer - very far from being able to raise the White Road. But Jahbulon, in his still voice, tells him that his exile is the beginning of the trial that will elevate him to greatness and destiny.

Connections
-Jahbulon is an approved Small God (19.14.23) associated with reason and masculinity. He is unpopular and obscure even among scholars, however, and hasn't had a public shrine in Shuttered in nine years. Those who follow him assert that he was a saintly scholar whose extensive works evangelizing the virtues of rationalism and logic have been lost and destroyed.
-Abdul (5.04) owns contraband ashberry bushes, but his attempts at recreating Ossery Fire have resulted in a poisonous wine that causes spontaneous internal combustion. But until drunk, only the keenest wine experts can tell the difference between the imitation and the true vintage.

Hooks
-Have any of the controlled fires gotten out of hand?
-Besides a pleasant spice, does Ossery Fire have any extraordinary qualities?
-What do the Osserys do with all their gold?
-Just how insane does a necromancer have to be to become committed to an asylum? Does Shuttered fear that imprisoned necromancers will seek vengeance, or does exiling them benefit someone?
-Is the voice in Ranmore's head really Jahbulon?

 

[Electric Wizard]

(Inspired by a post on the Amazing Places thread.)

Pilgrim's Spire (25.31)
Connected to Hex 19.31

This mountain rises like a blade from the rocky coastline. It is named in honor of the Pilgrim, the old god of the Undying Cycle (19.31.03). A monastery at the foot of the spire honors the Pilgrim's journey beyond Death's Door by sending worthy brothers and sisters to scale the twenty thousand steps to the mountaintop. A beast known as the Basilisk dwells at the peak of the mountain, anyone it gazes upon turns to stone. It is said that brothers or sisters who can overcome the Basilisk ascend to heaven in a lightning bolt that erupts from the earth. This has not happened in living memory. Statues of brothers and sisters, frozen mid-stride, cover the twenty thousand steps. The steps are considered sacred, and returning any of the statues to flesh would be an abomination.

As they hone their minds and spirits through meditation and fellowship, the brothers and sisters of Pilgrim's Spire also train themselves to move unseen and to anticipate danger. The martial art they developed is called the Pilgrim's Way. It is popular among thieves and assassins. Masters of the form can slip into one shadow and spring from a different shadow far away. Rumors tell of grandmasters who can make themselves invisible at whim, regardless of his or her surroundings. Others are said to be prescient enough to know the exact moment of anyone's death.

Gnoll raiders have attacked the monastery persistently since its founding. Fortunately, the most important relics and texts are hidden deep within the Spire, and are only accessible via shadow leaping. The monastery's outer buildings are built on ruins of ruins. Prospective brothers and sisters are expected to be at least passable bricklayers.

Hooks
-What is the Basilisk? Who has overcome it, and how?
-How can the Pilgrim's Way be popular among thieves and assassins? Do brothers and sisters willingly train such people?
-What happens when a master of the Pilgrim's Way disappears into a shadow and jumps from another? Does it involve planar travel? If so, how does someone with no magical training achieve such a feat?
-Do the grandmasters live up to their reputations?
-How do gnolls manage to repeatedly sack a monastery filled with martial artists?

 

[Daztur]

Hmmm I could've sworn that I posted this last night. I guess the forum ate it.

Actually what I've been doing is just writing short snippets for each hex as part of the region headings, sort of like the sub-hex listings for all of the sub-hexes of 29.14. It's not that many words but there's just so many hexes and it's pretty boring to actually write up all of them.

Will have to think about how to reformat stuff to make the setting more accessible once that's done and the last few pages of hexes are added into the compilation.

Castle Greymere
Hex 20.00

Probably the safest way through to the lands beyond the Grey Mountains is through Castel Greymere which sits, squat and ugly, among towering peaks. Those who approach will find the gates always open and alert stone golems that lead them within the castle’s halls.

Soon after entering, the stone golems will strip their guests of all of their clothes and possessions, which are then folded, stacked and inspected minutely. After some hours the stone golems will choose one interesting item from each guest and return the rest before leading them through narrow and winding halls, past rotten doors and tapestries gone to dust until they emerge on the north side of the mountains.

What few know is that some of these doors lead to Greymere Vale, a beautiful green valley surrounded by impressive lightning-scarred crags. For centuries a small community of humans has lived here and none have ever set foot beyond it. That is, except the most beautiful. For, every so often a gong sounds from deep within Castle Greymere and the most beautiful woman and man of the vale must enter the castle, after which they are never heard from again.

In order to avoid this fate, the people of the vale go to great lengths of cultivate ugliness and wear knit sweaters that should not be, hack their hair into truly hideous forms and spend long hours practicing crossing their eyes. Any travellers who somehow find their way into the vale will be told excitedly about how beautiful they are, for it has been a long time since the gong has rung and many are already smearing grease upon their faces in hopes of raising an impressive bounty of pimples.

However, despite all of their efforts the people of Greymere Vale are a handsome lot. This might be because of a torrent of cure light wounds potion that constantly falls from a certain tower. The people of the vale drink it constantly and grow up uncommonly healthy and well-formed. It might also explain the succulent meat of their cattle and their truly impressive vintages of wine.

Connections:
-Greymere Vale is not quite as isolated as it seems. Every so often the strigoi (09.00) ride their owls in on during moonless nights and make off with a few jugs of wine, which they are able to sell for fantastic prices. However doing so is dangerous as the lightning bolts that strike the crags around the vale seem to be aimed.
-Some years ago Jarn Ossery (24.18) passed through Castle Greymere and had to give up his Rod of Adhesion as his toll to the stone golems. His clan would love to have it returned as being able to stick together any two things comes in handy more often than you’d think, especially for making sure that Dungers don’t run away under the cover of Stinking Clouds.

Hooks:
-Who built Castle Greymere? Are they still doing something with the tolls that the stone golems collect or are the stone golems operating on ancient instructions?
-What treasures and traps lie within Castle Greymere?
-What is the story behind the beauty tithe that is collected from Greymere Vale? How are the most beautiful people of the vale chosen?
-What sort of things do people do to make themselves uglier?
-How has this strange wound-resistant culture developed in its centuries of isolation?

 

[Daztur]

And new compilation it doesn't have many new hexes (I've fallen a good bit behind on that) but it does have hex summaries posted for every region: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aajl1YUhienhxalU/edit

 

[Electric Wizard]

Tower of Weng Xiao
Additional information about Hex 29.14

Weng Lo, a wizened adventurer from the far east, brought the secret of silk making to the Shrouded Lands. His family was granted five floors of a prestigious tower after Lo demonstrated the quality of his silk to the Doge. Despite operating in the city for over a decade, no one in Shuttered outside his family has learned how he produces the wonderful fabric. Weng died in a ballooning accident while dining with his sometime mistress, cattle baroness Cessine the Fair (48.18). His daughter, Xiao, now runs the family business. Her first act was to place her employees, all gnomes, under a geas to die before revealing how the silk is made.

Xiao rents the first floor of her tower to a charnel house. The charnel house is unusual in many ways. Its employees are all blind. The bodies brought to the house are place in coffins for a week. When removed, the bodies are always reduced to clean skeletons. The skeletons are then buried in a customary manner along the White Road. The house's method of disposal is becoming popular because it minimizes stench and the spread of disease. Other customers appreciate it because it effectively erases the corpse's identity. Many suspect the disposal of bodies somehow aids Xiao's silk production.

Hooks
-What is known about the lands far to the east?
-Tell me about Lo's other family members.
-Was Cessine the Fair trying to learn old Lo's secrets? Was the balloon accident more than an accident?
-Why are all of the silk makers gnomes?
-Has the charnel house been used to "disappear" anyone? Someone, maybe, who knew too much about the silk?

 

[Electric Wizard]

Haunt of the Jackalweres (51.17)

Jackalweres, devious creatures with human and jackal features, dwell in necropoli on the Shrouded Lands' eastern border. Their mannerisms, behavior and intelligence depend on their diets. Jackalweres who eat the flesh of dumb beasts behave much like jackals - cowardly, impulsive, shameless. But those who dine on human flesh become more like their prey. They speak eloquently, don clothing and execute plots. Many jackalweres in this hex are fairly intelligent because their diet is a balance of Sosarian livestock and their herders. Those further from the city are more bestial. Regardless of their level of sapience, jackalweres can induce deep slumber in non-jackalweres with mere eye contact. Sosarian herders and a few gnolls wear smoked glass goggles when they fear an ambush.

Little is known about the necropoli the jackalweres inhabit. Those who return from the tunnels survive because they did not spend time analyzing their architecture or hieroglyphics. The few Shrouded Lands texts that reference the necropoli only warn travelers of the creatures within. But jackalweres have been spotted using ancient armor and weapons similar to those used by steppes people who dwell further east.

Tomb robbers have reported being attacked by jackalwere mages armed with engraved bronze disks. The mages can fire an a hex that makes its victims incapable of speaking or writing in anything other than gibberish.

Connections
-Taheesha, a sycophant of Imorcar the Many (48.18), is a highly civilized jackalwere who hides her true form with a hat of disguise. She hopes to glean knowledge from the senile archmage that will make her queen of her race. Her attempt at a Jahuri accent is quite abysmal. Any Jahuri hearing her speak would suspect something is amiss.
-A more bestial line of jackalweres lurks in the ruins beneath Hyfalls (40.20). Their diet of hobgoblin flesh mutates them in unusual ways.
-The Great Mother's third non-human adviser (51.29) is a gormandizing jackalwere named Voon. He keeps her informed of events around Sosaria in exchange for his favorite delicacy, dwarf pie.

Hooks
-Who built the necropoli?
-Where do more feral jackalweres roam?
-Do the ancient armor and weapons they salvaged from the tombs have any special properties?
-Do the mages' bronze disks function as scrolls or implements? Where did they come from?
-Who has been struck by the gibberish curse?