Let’s Make a Hexcrawl Setting

[Electric Wizard]

Quickhollow (31.09)

A diminutive race of elves known as quicklings live in this grove at a pace that seems blistering to outsiders. Their day-to-day activities are barely perceptable because they often move faster than the human eye. Still, a patient observer can gather that most stand about a foot high, dress in feathers and use special breeds of dragonflies from a nearby bog as mounts or beasts of burden. Their wooden homes are as baroque as royal dollhouse, many with layers of desgin too fine for the naked eye. Large interlopers linger in their town at their own peril, as quicklings enjoy tying them in place with enchanted bonds of spider silk, among other nasty pranks.

Quicklings happily serve as the spies, assassins and unseen sentries of the Kingswood. By ancient law, they are beholden to none, so they work for those who can shower them with the most grotesque luxuries. Their poisons and powders have a sophistication umatched in the Shrouded Lands. Their most notorious poison, the Dynastic Sting, is said to wrack seven generations of the victim's descendants with dire fortune. It is rumored that the Verlimes (17.07) received the Dynastic Sting a generation ago, and that the vestiges of their ancestral power will be swept into history when the old countess passes.

Hooks
-Tell me about these dragonflies.
-In what politics are these vicious little creatures involved?
-Who has fallen victim to their pranks?
-Why are they beholden to no one?
-What grotesque luxuries do they enjoy?
-What other creative poisons have the quicklings concocted and deployed?

 

[Daztur]

Had a nice combination of sick baby (is fine now, thankfully) and job stuff this week so haven't had much time.

Here's an idea that's been worming into my head. I'll be trying to set up a Dwarf Fortress-inspired game set in the Shrouded Lands so I'll be doing some fleshing out of the dwarves.

Drums, Drums in the Deep
Additional information about Hex 33.00

Elven music can twist a man's wits and the vile giggles of gnollish bards can break even an archmage's concentration, but dwarf drummers make music that sinks deeper than either. Men who have slaved in dwarfish mines hear the echoing of drums in the their dreams even decades later and awake to see their raw and bloody hands pounding against the walls to the beat of the drum.

Made of red birch and covered with elfskin (elfskin makes the best drums, see also: 39.14) dwarven drums are not easily carried but their music cannot be forgotten. It sinks deep into the soul and guides the hand, so that a thousand miners may raise and lower their picks to the tune one a single echoing drum. Humans who live in the shadows of the Grey Mountains whisper that dwarven drumming can draw a sleeping child out of their bed and into the black pits of the dwarven mines or even rouse the dreaming dead for one last dance.

The greatest dwarven drum still lies deep beneath Titan's Skull. It is said that that when Hoth Achaar (26.01) fell to the orcs it guided the steps of refugees who marched all the way from there to safety without rest, food or sleep. They all collapsed dead at the end of the march, but no matter, they kept some of the greatest treasures of dwarfkind from falling into orcish hands.

Hooks:
-What can you tell me of elven bards?
-Why does elfskin make the best drums?
-Do dwarven drummers really steal human children?
-Can dwarf drums make the dead dance?
-Any other stories about the great drum? What is it called?
-What treasure was taken out of Hoth Achaar?
-Do the dwarves have any really really stupidly big drums? Why would they need a drum so large and awesome?

Bards tend to get no respect in D&D (see: http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/10/clarification.html). I love what we've done with gnollish bards so that we've gotten to the point that they're not only interesting but also kind of terrifying. I want to do the same with other bards so that players will think "oh , it's a BARD!" when they hear an enemy striking up music. Gnolls can curse you, break your concentration (nasty anti-spell caster ability) and weaken NPC morale (useful against henchmen). For elves I'm thinking standard beguiling fey music but haven't thought out the details (anyone want to dive in), while the dwarves get weaponized earworms. Also, as the Dresden Files tells me, you need drumming to keep zombies moving, especially zombie dinosaurs...

 

[Sanglorian]

Here's an idea that's been worming into my head. I'll be trying to set up a Dwarf Fortress-inspired game set in the Shrouded Lands so I'll be doing some fleshing out of the dwarves.

Good stuff. I drew on Boatmurdered's elephants for one of my hexes.

 

[Daztur]

Good stuff. I drew on Boatmurdered's elephants for one of my hexes.

For the site of the fortress I'm thinking either:
-Mining the Edge of the World (lots of exposed veins!).
-Setting up a logging camp at the edge of the Kingswood.
-Setting up a way station in the Sounding Snows hex which is a pass through the Grey Mountains and dealing with goblin bandits and caravans coming through.

Still trying to think of anything to do with halfings. They don't really have any uniquely Shrouded Lands quirks except for riding ostriches. I don't really want to darken them up since we have so many other races of bastards. Hell, at this rate gnolls (which I imagine as being friendly, open-minded and outgoing despite being bloodthirsty and savage) will be one of the nicest non-human races. Dwarves are becoming nastier every time I post about them...

 

[Sanglorian]

Still trying to think of anything to do with halfings. They don't really have any uniquely Shrouded Lands quirks except for riding ostriches. I don't really want to darken them up since we have so many other races of bastards. Hell, at this rate gnolls (which I imagine as being friendly, open-minded and outgoing despite being bloodthirsty and savage) will be one of the nicest non-human races. Dwarves are becoming nastier every time I post about them...

I'd like to draw on Zak S' 'This is what halfling cities are like' (http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/this-is-what-halfling-cities-are-like.html) but I haven't figured out quite what yet.

 

[Electric Wizard]

The Lonely Crags (19.33)
Connected to Hex 19.31

Jahur's notorious penal colony consists of fingers of stone rising from the Sea of Typhoons, bone white with the guano of sea birds. Many criminals convicted by the courts of Iano or the Viceroys serve long sentences on these bleak, rugged isles regardless of the severity of their crimes. Convicts - pickpockets, murderers, vandals and rapists - hike up and down the slopes in gangs led by Janissary guards, collecting buckets of guano. This harvest is essential for Jahur's alchemists, who need it to produce black powder and fertilizer.

There is little room for human life on the Lonely Crags, so the Janissaries have implemented a grim parole system. Whenever a new convict arrives into a prison block, the block is forced to vote on which of their fellow inmates becomes "paroled" to make space. The convict with the most votes is drowned, cut into pieces and fed to the sea birds to ensure that they continue to roost on the Lonely Crags.

A long-term convict named Iram, a potter sentenced for his years of liaisons with the Viceroys' concubines, has so much influence over the paroling process that he is known as King of the Rocks. Inmates eager to win his favor will do almost anything for him, including smuggling, theft and murder. Those who anger the King of the Rocks live in terror, knowing that their days are numbered.

Connections
-The octoids (23.32) have agents and contacts on the Lonely Crags.
-Some scholars believe these fingers of stone originated in Ninbolm (5.24), and were placed here by the sorcerers of Bergolast (38.28) to mark their maritime borders.

Hooks
-Who has escaped the Lonely Crags? How?
-What black powder technology does Jahur employ?
-What kinds of sea birds fly over the Sea of Typhoons?
-Who are some other inmates?
-How do inmates manage smuggle things to and from their prison?
-What power does the King of the Rocks have outside his little realm?

 

[Daztur]

Hmmm, the black guano of seabirds, will have to think on them... Come on brain...

I'd like to draw on Zak S' 'This is what halfling cities are like' (http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/this-is-what-halfling-cities-are-like.html) but I haven't figured out quite what yet.

I think the largest single halfling holding we have now is the Bolger Freehold: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...tting/page11&p=5866577&viewfull=1#post5866577

The angle I took with them was prosperous English farmers engaged in very parochial political and legal disputes that are incredibly acrimonious but very bloody, more on the lines of "I have no words for you, sir, after what you grandfather said about my family's water rights to this here stream! HOW DARE YOU!" I guess I'm thinking of the halflings as incredibly petty, officious and small-minded (a bit like the more negative sides of Tolkien hobbit) but playing for such small stakes that they're not really dangerous.

Also very verbose hence their major being called the Plenipotentiary for the Maintenance of Comity and the Promotion of Weal.

Also why are they all in the Freeholds, how did they get there?

 

[Electric Wizard]

Not all halflings ended up in the Freeholds.

Hurlstone Hill (8.12)
Connected to 11.08

Before countless petty quarrels drove its residents abroad, Hurlstone Hill was the center of halfling civilization. Although overgrown and crumbling, many of its once-cozy tunnels and chambers may still be explored. This has become dangerous, as the vampire Chyndonax is hiding here. He is attempting to evade the Fearless, a band consisting of a sun-priest, a cleric of Iano, a shield maiden of Alberon and a gnome alchemist, united by their dedication to eradicating vampirism. Chyndonax has turned the bodies of the halflings murdered in ancient feuds into his servants, who stalk the grounds tirelessly, watching for intruders.

The Bolgers are the only surviving halfling clan that could reclaim Hurlstone. The two other great clans, the Grumbers and the Cavengows, faded into obscurity. The Gumbers are said to have gone east, and settled in Jar Town (16.20), where they mingled with low families until their old authority waned. The Cavengows struck out for the Bitter Coast. It is said that Hurlstone was abandoned per terms of a peace treaty between the three clans. They agreed to end, once and for all, the ancient conflicts over property and resource rights, which threatened to drench the hill in blood.

Hooks
-Why is this place called Hurlstone Hill?
-What remains in the little tunnels beneath the hill?
-Where did Chyndonax come from?
-Where are the Fearless now? How did they meet and then agree to dedicate their lives to slaying vampires?
-What happened to the Cavengows?
-Do any Bolgers dream of reclaiming their ancestral rights?

 

[Daztur]

The Stylites of the Keening Sea
Hex 30.16
Inspired by The Blue World by Jack Vance

When sailing out of the City of Shuttered Windows into the Keening Sea not far beyond the outermost of the farms of the sea can be seen a great arc of ancient and half-rotten giant sequoias ( http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...tting/page10&p=5858965&viewfull=1#post5858965 )that were long ago driven deep into the seabed.

A strange band of stylites live out there among the waters, clinging the the great wooden pillars. They feed on algae gruel and fish and eke out a precarious existence caught between the storms and the krakens that constantly harry them. They wear no leather but that of cured human skin, build their tools and huts out of human bone and make a few precious objects out of iron refined from their own blood. Whether this is due to simple poverty or some religious taboo is unclear as the captains who ply the Keening Sea stay well clear of the stylites for fear of contracting Jarmond's flux (for information about Jarmond see: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...tting/page18&p=5885302&viewfull=1#post5885302 http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...tting/page21&p=5896821&viewfull=1#post5896821 ), a terrible disease that is said to be endemic among the stylites.

As to how they came to live among the waves some say that they are the descendants of ancient exiled criminals or the last remnant of one of the many strange cults that flourished in the City during the Time of Schisms. But whatever the reason for their exile, the stylites serve Shuttered still. They light signal fires atop their great wooden pillars that tell of any boat or sea beast that approaches the City of Shuttered Windows so that it may never be taken unawares from the sea.

Hooks:
-What's the history behind the stylites?
-Is there anything similar on the landward side of Shuttered to keep enemies from approaching the City from that side as well?
-Does iron refined from the iron content of human blood have any special properties? Has anyone gotten their hands on any?
-Do the stylites really all have Jarmond's flux? What is Jarmond's flux anyway?

 

[Electric Wizard]

Inspired by my travels in Peru and the Andes.

Cloud Halflings (2.09)
Connected to Hex 8.12

The Cavengows of Hurlstone Hill (8.12) followed the Bitter Coast north until they reached this cloudy stretch of mountains. Unlike humans, halflings are unaffected by the Ocean's melancholy breezes, so the halflings here are as plucky and industrious as halflings anywhere. On the rare clear day, one may see their stone barns and huts dotting the high mountain slopes. They raise mountain goats and grow coca. The latter is a hot commodity at Bertie's Trading Post (3.08) because it prevents altitude sickness, eases pain and hunger, and provides energy to travelers. The cloud halflings stuff huge wads of coca leaves in their cheeks and suck its juices as they work. Humans prefer to brew it in tea. Pirates at the Cross (2.11) can become hopeless addicts because, for some, it is the only thing that soothes a depressing life on the Ocean of Bitter Regrets.

Cloud halflings are taller than their lowland cousins, and mustaches and sideburns are not uncommon among men. Cloud halflings claim that the Cavengows intermarried with a human tribe that once dwelt here. Other halflings scoff at this, saying that their unusual traits are a result of generations of unchecked inbreeding. Indeed, a growing number of cloud halflings have extra toes and fingers, and their wizened oracle, Mama Occla, is harelipped. Mama Occla lives in a cave with a well to the Sunless Sea. From the echoes and utterings beneath the mountains, she draws omens and portents. She suspects impending doom for the Cross at the hands of an invader beneath the waves.

Besides coca and deformities, cloud halflings are infamous among outsiders for hosting Thunder Day, an annual drunken brawl intended to settle disputes between families. Days leading up to the festival include dances with endless music and strong wine. Those who wish to fight wear masks and challenge others in falsetto voices. On Thunder Day, combatants fight it out in a ring with fists and feet. This festival cannot end generations of strife, but it keeps murders in check.

Connections
-According to rumor, Ironsides (2.11) keeps loot buried in an old coca field, beneath a stack of goat skulls.
-Cloud halflings, having no qualms about sacrificing their extra digits, enjoy regular relations with the finger stew shepherds (2.04).

Hooks
-Why are halflings unaffected by the Ocean of Bitter Regrets?
-Do cloud halflings have a monopoly on coca? Or is it grown elsewhere?
-How do more other races prefer to take their coca?
-Why are cloud halflings physically distinct from lowland halflings?
-What invader from under the sea will be the doom of the Cross? Or is Mama Occla just bluffing?
-How do outsiders get entangled in Thunder Day shenanagins?