Let’s Make a Hexcrawl Setting
- Thread starter Daztur
- Start date
Daztur
Hero
Here's Nellisir's spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8admFzTWxjRC11RHc/edit?usp=sharing
I couldn't convert it to a google spreadsheet since it's too big.
Progress report: am mostly done getting caught back up entering hexes into the compilation and am doing another sweep entering art in. I should have another 100 or so images in this version compared to the last one. And a short hex:
The Holt of the Bloodied Lords
Hex 03.31
Starting to mine this: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?679500-1001-Landmarks-Places-of-Interest-and-Features thread for ideas. This hex is basically home to an elven cargo cult.
Some centuries ago a renegade seelie elf who left both the Kingswood and Zaal (08.28) found himself in this corner of the world and set himself up as a petty king. He called water from the parched earth and fathered a full score of children before growing bored and setting sail into the west. His half-elven descendants still rule this region from a small and poorly-maintained Holt in a small hill that boasts an astounding number of bas-relief rats carved into the wall.
There they attempt to act out what their ancestor told them of life in the Holt of the Bloodied King (29.07), usually with very little success. As their elven blood has thinned and grown increasingly inbred their magic has faded and they can do little to even ward off the local bandits, so the farmers in the area have taken to throwing away all valuables in hopes of being spared, but they still hold their point-eared betters in awe.
Hooks:
-Who was the elf in question? What happened to him?
-Why the rats?
-What sort of elven traditions do these half-elves ape? How do they get them wrong?
-How would people here react if a real elf showed up?
I couldn't convert it to a google spreadsheet since it's too big.
Progress report: am mostly done getting caught back up entering hexes into the compilation and am doing another sweep entering art in. I should have another 100 or so images in this version compared to the last one. And a short hex:
The Holt of the Bloodied Lords
Hex 03.31
Starting to mine this: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?679500-1001-Landmarks-Places-of-Interest-and-Features thread for ideas. This hex is basically home to an elven cargo cult.
Some centuries ago a renegade seelie elf who left both the Kingswood and Zaal (08.28) found himself in this corner of the world and set himself up as a petty king. He called water from the parched earth and fathered a full score of children before growing bored and setting sail into the west. His half-elven descendants still rule this region from a small and poorly-maintained Holt in a small hill that boasts an astounding number of bas-relief rats carved into the wall.
There they attempt to act out what their ancestor told them of life in the Holt of the Bloodied King (29.07), usually with very little success. As their elven blood has thinned and grown increasingly inbred their magic has faded and they can do little to even ward off the local bandits, so the farmers in the area have taken to throwing away all valuables in hopes of being spared, but they still hold their point-eared betters in awe.
Hooks:
-Who was the elf in question? What happened to him?
-Why the rats?
-What sort of elven traditions do these half-elves ape? How do they get them wrong?
-How would people here react if a real elf showed up?
Daztur
Hero
And now for a new weekly feature: Art That Doesn't Illustrate Any Shrouded Land Hex But Damn Well Should
Any of these give people ideas for a hex?
And just a link for the last one due to being a bit NSFW due to boobs (very cool illustration from Faust, take a look, there are monkeys!) http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/9572/shroudart8.png
Unless I goofed somewhere all are old enough to be public domain.
Any of these give people ideas for a hex?
And just a link for the last one due to being a bit NSFW due to boobs (very cool illustration from Faust, take a look, there are monkeys!) http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/9572/shroudart8.png
Unless I goofed somewhere all are old enough to be public domain.
Daztur
Hero
Nellisir
Hero
Bloody heck, I thought that looked familiar.
Daztur
Hero
And DONE. Every last entry now has an illustration. Some of the ones that were hardest to find an illustration for are either stuff like landscapes (do you know how hard it is to find out of copyright images of vicious meat-eating kangaroos?) or something that's not quite what the description says but is close. Looks like I'll be able to make a Shrouded Lands art book out of all of them.
Electric Wizard
First Post
Spire of Idjit (19.30)
Connected to Hex 19.31
A tempest, a powerful elemental that is essentially a living storm, was bound to the top of this stone spire in hope it would provide more rain to Jahur. The clerics, to their dismay, learned that the elemental was under the Queen Sinister's thumb and refused to release any rain. It does, however, produce constant thunder and lightning. Uncountable lightning strikes have blackened and scarred the spire.
The Viceroys have found use for the chained tempest. They use a teleportation circle to transport the city's worst criminals - the murderers, thieves, heretics and traitors - to the top of the spire to be obliterated by lightning or flung to their doom by gusts of wind.
Surprisingly, some go to the Spire voluntarily. The Idjits, or the Disciples of the Spire, are a group of alchemists and elementalists who take advantage of the lightning to aid in magical and alchemical research. The Idjits have managed to harness the electricity to create hybrid creatures, including cloud mantas, shock lizards and birds of paradise with the ability to steal memories. The Viceroys tolerate these meddling sorcerers because they have managed to weaponize shock lizards, and their navy uses cloud mantas to propel their ships.
In addition to the danger of being beneath a raging, eternal lightning storm, they must contend with "tempest spawn" - chaotic bits of fire, wind, earth or water that combine into bizarre physical forms and attack the Idjits and their creations. Many Idjits believe that the spawn are the work of saboteurs. Suspects include the Holy Fools and a rival wizard guild, the Broken Wands.
Connections
-The thieves of the August City (26.20) uses memory-stealing birds of paradise on guild members who know too much but are too important to be killed.
Hooks
-What's up with the Spire's name?
-How could the tempest be freed?
-Do the Viceroys have teleportation circles leading elsewhere?
-What other elementals owe allegiance to the Queen Sinister?
-Have any condemned escaped the Spire? How?
-Who, or what, is behind the the tempest spawn's appearance?
-Who are the Broken Wands?
Connected to Hex 19.31
A tempest, a powerful elemental that is essentially a living storm, was bound to the top of this stone spire in hope it would provide more rain to Jahur. The clerics, to their dismay, learned that the elemental was under the Queen Sinister's thumb and refused to release any rain. It does, however, produce constant thunder and lightning. Uncountable lightning strikes have blackened and scarred the spire.
The Viceroys have found use for the chained tempest. They use a teleportation circle to transport the city's worst criminals - the murderers, thieves, heretics and traitors - to the top of the spire to be obliterated by lightning or flung to their doom by gusts of wind.
Surprisingly, some go to the Spire voluntarily. The Idjits, or the Disciples of the Spire, are a group of alchemists and elementalists who take advantage of the lightning to aid in magical and alchemical research. The Idjits have managed to harness the electricity to create hybrid creatures, including cloud mantas, shock lizards and birds of paradise with the ability to steal memories. The Viceroys tolerate these meddling sorcerers because they have managed to weaponize shock lizards, and their navy uses cloud mantas to propel their ships.
In addition to the danger of being beneath a raging, eternal lightning storm, they must contend with "tempest spawn" - chaotic bits of fire, wind, earth or water that combine into bizarre physical forms and attack the Idjits and their creations. Many Idjits believe that the spawn are the work of saboteurs. Suspects include the Holy Fools and a rival wizard guild, the Broken Wands.
Connections
-The thieves of the August City (26.20) uses memory-stealing birds of paradise on guild members who know too much but are too important to be killed.
Hooks
-What's up with the Spire's name?
-How could the tempest be freed?
-Do the Viceroys have teleportation circles leading elsewhere?
-What other elementals owe allegiance to the Queen Sinister?
-Have any condemned escaped the Spire? How?
-Who, or what, is behind the the tempest spawn's appearance?
-Who are the Broken Wands?
Last edited:
Sanglorian
Adventurer
The Rhyme of the Sanguine Lords
From the blood of the Tarrasque,
Antic and old,
Sipped twelve humble butchers,
Clever and cold.
These butchers adopted,
Though from afar,
Superstitions of Bergolast,
Rich and bizarre.
“Kiss the feet of beggars,”
The Bergo crones shrieked.
“When you live by the sword,
“You die by the meek.”
If it steals from your treasure,
A magpie is luck;
If a cuckoo crows by you,
Your wife shall not ----.
You must count every penny,
And pebble, and grain;
Cross not running water,
But court in the rain.
Make your home in ruins,
The stone and the clay.
Read the runestones for guidance:
Recast them each day.
The Lords flaunt these rules:
Pennies are missed;
Runestones forgotten;
Beggars unkissed.
They build castles all new;
Or bathe in a flood.
But one law goes unbroken:
Speak nothing of blood.
Hooks
What genius could write a terrific poem like this?
What effect do these superstitutions have on the Lords’ behaviour?
What encourages the Lords to follow these suiperstitutions?
Why would drinking the Tarrasque of Bergolast’s blood transmit Bergo superstitions?
The Doomsday Book
The Doomsday Book, kept under tight guard at Castle Tarangael, is a record of all land and personal property - not as it is held now, but as it will be held at the end of the world.
The book is kept in chains - allegedly the same chains that the Duke used to bludgeon the previous Duke of Thring to death. Each of his knights - the Chain Gang - wears a link of it around his neck, while the Duke himself wears the key.
The Duke discovered the book when he was a squire, and what it taught him about power and longevity has driven his burning ambition.
The Duke has not read the book in years. If he had, we would find that the ledger looks very different to how it once did.
Hooks
Why has the book changed?
What did the Duke read?
If the knights wear links and the Duke a key, what do the rest of his retinue wear?
From the blood of the Tarrasque,
Antic and old,
Sipped twelve humble butchers,
Clever and cold.
These butchers adopted,
Though from afar,
Superstitions of Bergolast,
Rich and bizarre.
“Kiss the feet of beggars,”
The Bergo crones shrieked.
“When you live by the sword,
“You die by the meek.”
If it steals from your treasure,
A magpie is luck;
If a cuckoo crows by you,
Your wife shall not ----.
You must count every penny,
And pebble, and grain;
Cross not running water,
But court in the rain.
Make your home in ruins,
The stone and the clay.
Read the runestones for guidance:
Recast them each day.
The Lords flaunt these rules:
Pennies are missed;
Runestones forgotten;
Beggars unkissed.
They build castles all new;
Or bathe in a flood.
But one law goes unbroken:
Speak nothing of blood.
Hooks
What genius could write a terrific poem like this?
What effect do these superstitutions have on the Lords’ behaviour?
What encourages the Lords to follow these suiperstitutions?
Why would drinking the Tarrasque of Bergolast’s blood transmit Bergo superstitions?
The Doomsday Book
The Doomsday Book, kept under tight guard at Castle Tarangael, is a record of all land and personal property - not as it is held now, but as it will be held at the end of the world.
The book is kept in chains - allegedly the same chains that the Duke used to bludgeon the previous Duke of Thring to death. Each of his knights - the Chain Gang - wears a link of it around his neck, while the Duke himself wears the key.
The Duke discovered the book when he was a squire, and what it taught him about power and longevity has driven his burning ambition.
The Duke has not read the book in years. If he had, we would find that the ledger looks very different to how it once did.
Hooks
Why has the book changed?
What did the Duke read?
If the knights wear links and the Duke a key, what do the rest of his retinue wear?
Last edited:
Similar Threads
