Filling in hexes (and 3 hexes from my key)

When I mentioned to some French friends of mine that I was thinking of relaunching our game into more sandbox play (it had been on hiatus over the summer, and had gone in a very strange direction because of some bad decisions on my behalf), they groaned; previous sandbox style games they'd felt like they'd floundered, with no real direction. And I confess, t'was a lot on how I ran them.

Before I'd not really read or listened to much about hexcrawls and such, instead just having a vague idea in mind and went for it. However a read through the Alexandrian's hexcrawl series, and reading the Hot Springs Isle adventure, gave be a much better idea on what to do to back my game better. Not perfect by any means (we've had two games since the kick off, still getting used to new ways of note taking) but I'm a lot happier with the density of stuff.

Before I'd have vast swathes of land with... nothing. I'd spend a lot of time drawing a large map, but then didn't actually put anything in it. So, taking a leaf from Hot Springs Isle, I hacked down the map to a smaller size, and filled each hex with at least 3 things. Eventually some of the things got merged into one, but there's a point of interest, landmark, or something to mess with in each hex now. Because I didn't want to redraw maps, I used 6 mile hexes.

Using a lot of random elements (the Perilous Wilds has been super useful), I ended up with some places I'm pretty happy with. I also probably would never have imagined this stuff up unprompted, another thing I'm really appreciating this moment with random content generation. So I thought I'd share some here. Feel free to take any bits, or whole hexes even.

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0308 - HUMMING UNDERWATER CRYSTAL: Under the water is a tiny crystalline object, a wand or rod. Half buried and now it has surrounded itself with a glass like rock, it serves as a repository of transmutation magic, so far untapped.

• Transmutation repository: 60 feet down in the water. Wand of a mage, cast into the sea. Formed a sort of glass like rock that stops it moving. Absorbs magical energy, and can be tapped into with the right knowledge. Lawful, transmutation.

This hex is just off the coast, underwater. I decided even if the players never find it, the nearby coastal areas should also have things of interest. A few rumours could set them off on an aquatic adventure.

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0505 - DRAGON’S HILL: Located in the north eastern part of the hex. The village is called such as it is believed that ages past a dragon died and a hill formed over them. The dragon spirit is said to tend to the lands, helping the plants grow.

• Village: Abundant resources (grow a type of hill weed used for textiles). Problem: Recently attacked (less population, good stolen).

• Ghouls cave: 6 ghouls have a lair in a cave. South eastern end, leave at night to eat the dead warriors in 0606.

• Treasure: 2005cp (gnawed up bits of weapons, armour, jewellery), Ring of Love [the ring of love, moderate power. While wearing the ring, can place hands on someone’s head and kiss their forehead. For the next 6 days, whenever I do something to help the other, the receiver gains inspiration. If one of the pair is incapacitated, save vs heartbreak and anguish. If die, save vs death/incapacitation? If they have a disagreement, both gain un-inspiration, basically a disadvantage the DM can apply once, reversed inspiration).

• Gnomish ghost gate: In centre of hex. Concealed by hills and shrubs is a stone gateway. Made of large rocks. The opening is about 2 ½ meters tall and 2 meters wide. The locals claim that the gate was made by gnomes, and believe that passing through the gate causes evil spirits/ghosts who are possessing or afflicting the individual to break their bond and flee. Claim that the dragon under the hill eats them , or scares them away.

The ghouls in this cave were drawn here due to the presence of a nearby battlefield, which is were all the scrap copper and ring comes from. The Ring of Love was randomly generated, and it's in game effects are still WIP. I've been keeping away from just +X swords and gear; we're playing d&d 5e, so bounded accuracy is a thing, plus I just find them rather uninspiring. With this ring, I'm tending towards the idea that when the pair of bounded characters are together, they're amazing ("The power of love!"), but heartbroken apart/if they fall out. Many folds to iron out beforehand mind.

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0910 - PURPLE OYSTER BEACH: A stretch of coast where gatherers claim to find magical oysters.

• Enchantment oysters: The shells of these oysters have swirling colours, and when ground up can be used to produce enchantment based effects.

• Clear marks (halflings): Halfings have beached here on occasion. The tracks are recent.
• Ghost: The ghost of a fisherman wanders the coast, looking for his boat. He can also be seen wandering across the water.

Recently, I wondered that my fantasy games I've ran have been rather grounded; fantasy elements exist, but more on the lower end. Especially concerning flora and fauna.I decided to shake that up a bit, so oysters whose shells can be used in enchantment magics. Maybe the oysters charm you when you eat them too perhaps.

Delves 10 & 11 - Caverns of Thracia

 DELVE 10

In which Nox (fighter), Nieven (warlock), Iados (monk) and Aspa (rogue) drove off some Dark One cultists from investigating a possible door to their god, and met Aatsyh the rebellious gnoll.

• On the 1st level is a stone slab, blocking a corridor that leads into magical darkness. A plaque (now removed) warned people not to enter the place, for it is the domain of Thanatos, and those that enter never return. Cultists of the Dark One (aka Thanatos) had taken an interest to this entry, and had set up guards while they ponder on what to do next.
• The party had set themselves the task of destroying them. It was a pretty easy battle, as a shatter spell killed many of the hoplites and the officers well to the fighters. One tried to escape and was cut down, while a wounded hoplite shoved open the stone door and ran into the corridor. The warlock sent their familiar through the corridor to have a look, getting a glimpse of the other side of the dark corridor; a room covered in black drapery, and several robed kneeling people faced an undead being of sorts. Then the familiar was torn asunder.
• Continuing down to the 2nd level, they met with Aatsyh at the guard post previously cleared of lizardfolk. She gave them some gold as a thanks for killing the cultists, and a gnoll in Iados' service (taken as a prisoner, and who fought for him as a sort of mercenary) was released of his service to now serve as the go-between for the players and the gnolls. Code words were set up, and the delve ended.

DELVE 11

In which Nieven, Athoz (fighter), Iados, Fang (cleric) and Nox took part in the biggest battle I have perhaps run so far.

• Enter the caverns, the party ran across the zombified remains of the Dark One cultists they had previously thought (bodies lying around a door to a god often associated with death, to be expected I'd say). They destroyed them and disposed of the bodies so they would not rise again.
• As they were ensuring the bodies would stay down, a group of gnolls spotted them. A lucky reaction roll meant they turned out to be allied to Aatsyh, and so the party and the gnolls began the wander down to the 2nd level. However progress was halted when the gnolls, who had been leading the way, turned around and fled from a "large undead alligator". The party also ran and set up an ambush.
• The party found themselves almost ambushing the Immortal King. He was in a good mood, and thanked the party for awakening him, as his people had just returned to him, so his ambition to rebuild his empire could continue. He also mentioned he had been talking to Thanatos, and took his leave.
• The party continued to the 2nd level. On their current path, it opened up into a large cavern. They had always crossed the western part, and to the east could see a dim glow. They knew it was guarded by gnolls, and some gnolls had referred to it as the "way down". They hatched a plan to assault the eastern part of the cavern, and convinced the gnolls they were with to join them in the assault. The gnolls would enter the guard post, attack, then the party would join in the melee.
• What ensued was a rather large battle. 5 player characters +1 retainer, 9 gnoll allies, battling against about 18 enemy gnolls who also had 2 brown bears trained for war.
• The allied gnolls began the assault, quickly overrunning the guards and headed east, forming a shieldwall and hurling arrows and javelins at the enemy gnolls. The enemy gnolls hurried to return fire as they waited for reinforcements from below and a nearby barracks. Unfortunately, while Iados and Nox ran very far ahead (even in front of the shieldwall), the rest of the party were being left behind. Iados took a couple of arrows and ended up at 3 hit points, while Nox went down after being mauled by a bear.
  (I've played a lot of Battle Brothers and other tactical war games to know that you stick in the shieldwall!)
• The allied gnolls stood firm, waiting for the party while harassing the enemy with arrows. The enemy gnolls formed a shieldwall themselves. The bears were slain, and the two lines hurled missiles and war cries at each other in preparation for the melee.

Allied gnolls and players are to the left, enemies to the right. The "1" are dead bears. Yellow squares are pitfall traps, and the teleporter can be seen in the top right.

• The allied gnolls surged forward into melee to try and smash through the enemy. They hacked down two foes, making good headway. I made a morale check for the enemies at this point; total rout! The enemy gnolls broke and fled, initially towards the teleporter but alas, the reinforcements were also allies of the party (There was a 2 in 6 chance of them being gnolls under Aatsyh, which they were). The enemy were taken captive and Aatsyh was sent for.
• Dog sister Aatsyh had a mixed reaction; while she was happy they had succeeded, she also knew this event would be practically impossible to cover up. Essentially, they had declared war on the Minotaur King, and only a miracle would ensure that Aatsyh's betray was not discovered (20 odd gnolls don't just disappear).
• Iados tried to convince Aatsyh to allow him to take some captives so that he could "train them", which she strongly refused; the gnolls had been slaves to and revolted against the Thracians in the past, and she didn't like Iados idea of "captive soldiers to reform them". She told them they could take the plunder, and she would take on the prisoners (to give them a chance to join her, or let them leave the dungeon). The party took the 2000 or so gold coins in loot from the gnoll barracks, and the delve ended there.

Recent delves have really shook things up in the Caverns of Thracia; wihle rolling for restocking, I rolled that G'ruk (the leader of the lizardfolk) was in the lizardfolk temple, meaning he's now also discovered that the Immortal King has returned. If the players can capitalise on their most recent victory, they essentially have a straight path from the top all the way down to the 3rd level, where the Minotaur King dwells.

Of course, the Minotaur King might not just sit on his hands, for the teleporter is the only way he knows to the surface (well there is another way but that's perhaps a secret for himself and his closest officers). He also needs a victory, as the other troops under his command might start doubting his ability to actually lead warriors. The Dark One cultists have also abandoned their chapel (for now), though Thanatos hasn't, and his influence slowly grows.

Now I just need to actually prep the lower levels...

Delves 8 & 9 - Caverns of Thracia

DELVE 8 

In which Iados (monk), Aspa (rogue), Athoz (fighter) and Nieven (warlock) awaken the Immortal King.

• The party decided they were going to explore more of the lizardfolk temple, where they had found a golden mask a few sessions ago.
• They ran into some skeletons on the 1st level, perhaps hinting that a rumour they'd heard about the influence of a "warrior of the Dark One" wasn't just a tall tale.
• Reaching the temple, they began exploring it's southern reaches. Some jars were found, undead lizardfolk fought, nothing too out of the ordinary.
• Then they came across the Immortal King's sepulchre. He was dormant, sitting on piles and piles of coins. When the party appeared, there was a blink of arcane light and he disappeared. The party decided to grab what they can and run.
  However the King was waiting for them in the main chamber, and ordered they drop what they had taken. The warlock decided to be cute and tried to teleport and run away, only to be counterspelled and paralyzed by the powerful mage. He let them live, on condition that they bring the lizardfolk to him so that "I may start my empire once more".

He didn't ask for the jars however, which were worth a pretty penny to a collector in town.

DELVE 9

In which three new characters, Nox (fighter), Nax (druid) and Fang (cleric) made some friends.

• On the 1st level, they saw animated skeletons where the previous party had destroyed some. After opening fire, there a panicked cry as a women, introducing herself as Elise, stated her business; she had been studying some oddities on the level, and had animated the skeletons to protect herself. Suspicion slowly melted away as Elise asked if she could accompany them (to keep her safe), and allowed the party to name her three skeletons in a show of good faith.

Elise is the "1" for now, with her animated bodyguards Chrarles, Trout and Carrie.

• Heading down a level, they ran into some gnolls who asked if the party wanted gold. They agreed, and waited for the gnolls to fetch their commanding officer.
  (This was due to a lucky reaction roll; the gnolls were friendly. This wasn't the first time, and I'd determined between sessions that perhaps there is a faction of gnolls unhappy fighting for the Minotaur King down below. The gnolls had suffered most at the hands of adventurers, while the Minotaur King feasted in the palace below.)
• They met Dog Sister Aatsyh, the head of a burgeoning faction of rebellious gnolls. She told the party that, by working together, they could clear the upper level and a way down to the 3rd. Aatysh and her gnolls would hold the passages open and, for a fee, allow adventurers to pass. The party agreed (as having someone to keep the cleared parts of the dungeon enemy free would be handy for faster travel) and agreed to clear out some lizardfolk from a nearby guardpost, so that Aatsyh could garrison it with loyal gnolls.
• A tough and grueling battle ensued in a nearby guardpost; the 7 lizardfolk were stubborn. The fight was in a 10 foot doorway, Elise blinded javelin throwers with a fog cloud, so it was down to a bloody melee. Nox went down, all of the skeletons were destroyed (though their bones were collected for further reanimation), and eventually the cleric was fighting toe to toe with three exhausted lizardfolk. A lizardfolk asked for a parley and, in exchange for a jewelled sword they found, the lizardfolk offered to retreat. The party, also in poor condition, agreed.
• The lizardfolk produced the jewelled two handed sword, a fine piece of gear. It sold for a few hundred, allowing the party to level up.

I decided to try a different way of writing out delves today. The bullet points feel easier to write and feel less rambling than just blocks of text. They're also a bit quicker to write and easier to sum up details, useful when I've forgotten to write delves from some weeks ago! Maybe I'll write up delves a day or so after I've ran then. Maybe. 

Delves 7 & 8 - Caverns of Thracia

DELVE 7

Four of the longer playing players decide that they need to explore more of the hidden away complex, the one painted with scenes of lizardfolk, full of stalagmites and where they found the golden mask in the 2nd session. Progress down into the complex itself went well, as they'd mapped out a path and cleared it out in previous delves.
Once in the complex, they began prodding around. The first thing they notice is that the area around the gate to the ethereal plane is covered with spider webs. The warlock and monk decide to cut through the webs to try and reach the door, however they are jumped by a pair of phase spiders. The warlock is bitten badly and the monk would have been hit, was it not for the fighter managing to redirect the attack to hit the second phase spider, which promptly kills its friend in a single hit. The spider jaunts away, having lost the element of surprise.
They found a secret panel that went into the red statue room (the statue that guards a large room full of gemstone encrusted statues, which punched a character a session or so ago). After messing around seeing if any of the gems or crown come off, they decided to let it be and continue exploring.
The corridors take them to a room full of funeral jars. They take four, and find a hidden door that leads deeper into the complex. They battle a couple of undead lizardfolk before coming across the final area of the complex; a room piled with coins, swords, and gems. However there is also a ogre sized skeleton of a lizardfolk sitting on a stone dais, and it blinks out in a purple flash as they enter. The party scoops up as much money as they can and run.

Unfortunately for them, the lizardfolk is waiting for them by the exit. Summoning an earth elemental to make a point, they demand that they drop all they have taken. The warlock decides to try and make a run for it, but the undead lizardfolk counter spells the misty step. Introducing themselves as the Immortal King, they demand that the party does not return, unless they bring with them the Scaled Ones (ie the lizardfolk). The party leave behind the gold (though not the jars, but the King doesn't really care about them) and are allowed to leave.

As the module starts, G'ruk, a lizardfolk shaman, is searching for or caring for the complex, which they now know to be the resting place of this Immortal King. However when the party first arrived, they spiked shut G'ruk's only entrance to the complex. I've been rolling in between sessions to see if the lizardfolk find an alternative entrance to the complex, and so far they have not. However, with the King now up and awake, that chance will probably go right up.
The fallout could be interesting for this area; G'ruk is strictly speaking a subject of the Minotaur King, however he only agreed to do so to search for the Immortal King's tomb. Once it has been found, will G'ruk and his loyalists break away? From previous games, we've already determined that not all of the gnolls under the Minotaur King are exactly happy with this rule, if G'ruk breaks away it could end very poorly for the Minotaur King. Or alternatively, cause him to strike back.
Either way, lots of interesting ways this could go, and so many ways for the players to get mixed in and change the situation.

DELVE 8

This delve was another smaller one with my French friends. A druid and a bard, though this time accompanied by the Thakian hoplite the druid had spared in their last delve (now converted from the cult of the Dark One). The pair were determined to go down and investigate more of the dark deeds of this cult, to which the hoplite pointed out the alternative entrances into the caverns, one of which dropped them directly into the cultists' hideout. They decided to drop in through the shaft, and thus would have the element of surprise.

Their first order of business was to get rid of a guard. The hoplite pretended to have captured the druid, and once they were close enough jumped him and gagged him. They then burst through the door to a small chapel/purification room, with the druid wildshaping into a tiger and tearing apart a couple of cultist acolytes. One guard is killed, the other surrenders and is gagged and left with the other one.

They push on, but are repelled when four hoplites manage to hold them off from getting into a treasure room. They kill one but are forced to retreat.

It was a short session, but at the end of it more plans on how to delve deeper were had, and a hireling Jerzi taken on to help out. Jerzi was once a herald to a noble, but was exiled for something he'd rather not talk about.

Delves 2 through 6 - Caverns of Thracia

What follows are brief summaries of my previous games of running an expanded Caverns of Thracia. These follow up from my previous post.

DELVE 2

The party entered down the main staircase, weaving through cleared rooms and corridors. The rogue noticed a secret door in a long, gently sloped corridor. The door led into a huge room. The centre of the room had fallen away, and the southern end (across the chasm) was full of lines and lines of corpses laid out. As they stood around, a demon statue rose from an alcove and proceeded to laugh and shoot flames in a pyrotechnics display. As it began to skip back into the floor, the party jammed and broke the sliding door and climbed down the shaft to get below.

From there they uncovered a seemingly abandoned part of the complex. The walls here were bare stone, and stalagmites had formed over the years or even centuries. They found themselves in a sort of hall or temple. The walls here were covered with paintings of reptilian priests, as well as a large winged reptilian person that appeared in many of the wall paintings.

Here they unlocked a door to the ethereal plane (and prompting closed it, not before one of the characters threw and eldritch blast through it), uncovered a concealed room containing a golden mask, and then climbed out to call it a day.

DELVE 3

The party returned to the large room with the lines of bodies, crossing the chasm and looting a chest they could see on the other side (the chest belonged to a priestess of the Dark One cultists). Many of the bodies began to rise and attack the intruders, who retreated as more bodies rose up. A couple of Thakian hoplites appeared to see what all the noise was about, telling the party that they should leave their cemetery alone.

They left the large hall and began descending to the 2nd level, though the path ahead was blocked by a large construction, seemingly a hodge-podge of several statues. They ran back up, but some disagreement over whether they should run or fight led them to stop and enter combat with the statue. The fight turned south very quickly, with the fighter being knocked unconscious, the rogue getting killed in a valiant attempt to rescue them, and a gnoll retainer being knocked unconscious. The rest of the party then fled, returning to drag out their companions and to resurrect the rogue.

DELVE 4

The group for this delve was rather large, with seven players and two retainers (with two of the players being new). They went down another entrance this time, a southern one to speak to the Dark One cultists. After a lot of talking in which the warlock offended the cultists and began generally causing them grief, one of the rogues decided to take the Dark One's blessing. The rest then left, deciding they had outstayed their welcome. They ran into some gnolls on the surface, but there was no more exploring that day.

DELVE 5

The rogue, who had been punched to death by the statue and then resurrected, was now in debt to a local crime lord. The crime lord, Puzur, agreed to foot the bill for the bringing the rogue back, but in exchange they had to perform a task for them; an adventurer had cheated the Puzur, for they had made a deal involving a magic crossbow, but the adventurer had taken the gold and the crossbow and ran away. Spies said they'd seen the adventurer as well as several others enter the caverns.

The party was focused this time, quickly finding the dwarven adventurer and, after a brief scuffle, "convinced" him to give up the crossbow. The adventurer revealed his plan to sell it to the gnolls, thus getting paid twice, and as the conversation finished up a war party of gnolls was heard approaching. The two parties fled the scene.

The party found themselves in a frost covered room they had visited before. While searching the walls for any secrets, the fighter found part of the wall that was in fact a mimic. It had a necrotic vapour that nearly killed them, though the party was able to extract them and kill the mimic. This revealed a passage beyond, with one way leading to a large hall filled with 10 rich statues, all with gemstones set in their eyes.

However as they began to remove the stones, part of the wall opened up and a huge statue made of red stone walled out, pointing to those who carried gemstones. The party gave up the stones, and the moving statue returned them to their places. The party decided not to fight, given their previous experiences with moving statues.

They continued through another door, a room and corridor covered with alcoves containing skeletons. Of course, the skeletons came to life and attacked. While most of the party hung out around the door, one of the rogues (not the statue punched one, the one who has the Dark One's blessing) ran into the midst of the skeletons, which promptly got him stabbed multiple times and killed.

However, it was at this point that one of the players reminded me of the Dark One's mark. This prompted several frantic messages back and forth as the rogue, dying on the stones, saw a tall lithe figure above them, with slender arms and features and either tears running down their face, or several eyes. It was the Dark One, and they offered the rogue life and power in exchange for service. The rogue accepted, the skeletons disintegrated around them, and the fight was over.

So one rogue had their debt erased, and another found themselves in the service of a shadowy god of death and fate!

DELVE 6

A slightly different delve, as instead of the usual suspects, I ran it for a couple of my French friends. They followed pretty closely to the previous delve in terms of where they travelled. They met a band of Thakians heading to the 2nd level to fight gnolls, followed them, then ambushed two survivors when the gnolls shot them down and sent them running. They caught the leader and killed them, and let the last hoplite alive and freed them.

They also found the room with statues with gemstone eyes, also locating the door the large red statue came from. They also found the remains of the skeleton battle, with destroyed skeletons littering the room and splatterings of blood from where the rogue had sort of died.

They managed to enter the room of the red statue, coming face to face with the red statue in a dormant state. While they tried to remove it's jewelled crown, the statue came to life and proceeded to punch one of them, and they decided to escape for the day.

It was also after this session that I decided I needed to be more proactive with my restocking and faction interaction. Until now, I was rolling for each cleared section, with it being repopulated on a 1 out of 6. However, I feel that lower level parties still need something easy to obtain on the first level, without having to go far and wide.

DELVE 7

The latest delve, in which the normal party decided to continue exploring the dusty temple where they had found the golden mask. They fought some undead that were patrolling on the upper level, and while exploring the temple uncovered some well preserved urns. They also found an alternative entrance to the red statue room (finding the remains of the previous delve's brief scrap with the statue).

Going further into the temple, they stumbled into a sepulchre piled with coins and treasure. However, there was also a large reptilian there too, now a skeleton but very much alive. It blinked out as they entered, and the party proceeded to shove as much gold into their bags as possible.

Not that their victory lasted for long, as they met the large winged skeletal lizardfolk in the main hall. It summoned an earth elemental to block their way, and counter spelled the warlocks's attempt of teleporting away. The creature introduced itself as the Immortal King, and ordered them to drop the gold they had taken and bring "my people" (the lizardfolk) to this temple so that he may rule over his empire once again. Agreeing to this task, the party left.

So that is where we are for now. The game is still going on, and I have ideas on ways to expand the dungeon beyond the Caverns of Thracia (both in downward levels, but also different areas full of different foes and rewards).