Let's Build a Hex Crawl

[Lokathor]

Since we've got a cultures thread and a race summary thread, I thought we might do this. Saw it in another forum and it went alright, so I think we can give it a shot. I have with me a hex map that I randomly generated and then filled in some icons on.

You just pick a hex that hasn't been picked (they've all got coordinates) and write a paragraph about what's in the hex. What a party of DnD adventurers would find if they went looking around. We should probably stick to level 10 or less stuff, with lower level stuff closer to settlements (town guards patrol to keep things moderately safe, etc) and higher level stuff farther away in the deep wilderness. For scale, we'll say that each hex is 24 miles across. Most of the terrain and icons are self-explanatory, but there's no rivers drawn on the map, so just write them in where you think they should go and we can make it work.

Ordered listing of posted locations so far:

[*]2,2: Rein's Crossing
[*]3,14: Temple of Joki
[*]5,12: The Empty Gates
[*]6,7: Kazin's Bastion
[*]8,2: Northvale
[*]12,9: Cross Keep
[*]12,12: The Benevolent Abbey of Austeja
[*]13,2: Dortmund Village
[*]18,8: Darkwater Marsh
[*]19,6: Chapel Perilous
[*]20,15: Hexterrior

[Orion]

Writing rivers in on a hex-by-hex crowdsourcing method is madness. You need to add the rivers yourself before this is useful.

[fectin]

Using the right tool makes most tasks easier.
Stick this on a wiki.

[...You Lost Me]

I don't know what a hex crawl is, but I assume we're just filling in a map.

8.2 - Northvale
Northvale is a fairly large town bordering the Clawing Sea. It makes use of the adjacent plains available to grow lots and lots of crops and then trades them with [City 11.3]. Inhabitants of the town are mostly either farmers or sailors.

Adventurer's seeking jobs in the town will likely find work patrolling the farmland (7.1, 7.2, 8.1) to keep it safe from undesirable creatures or people raiding form the forest. They may also be hired to man a ship on the Clawing Sea, or escort a shipment to [City 11.3].

[Leress]

I don't know what a hex crawl is, but I assume we're just filling in a map.

http://runagame.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-hex-crawl.html

http://hexcrawl.net/2013/06/hex-basics-part-i/

[Lokathor]

Writing rivers in on a hex-by-hex crowdsourcing method is madness. You need to add the rivers yourself before this is useful.

Alright, I can do that.

There, how about those rivers? Those are just major rivers mind you, smaller rivers could also exist that aren't map worthy at this scale.

Using the right tool makes most tasks easier.
Stick this on a wiki.

We could if we get most of a map filled out, we could even use an image map and stuff to make each hex clickable and link to an article about it. But for now, a forum thread.

I don't know what a hex crawl is, but I assume we're just filling in a map.

Yeah basically. Good stuff.

[Laertes]

5.12 The Empty Gates

Remnants of vast earthworks stretch across this narrow spit of land, where in ages past a now-vanished empire built defences in a futile attempt to resist being overrun by waves of migrating Human tribes. Valley walls have been shaped into sheer cliffs and canyons have been filled in with rubble, making off-road travel difficult. Most traffic is via the Empty Gates, an open path through the defences overlooked by what were once fortresses and are now little more than interesting-shaped piles of rocks.

A tribe of gnolls has recently settled in one of these ruins and has begun to raid travellers, including pushing out into the surrounding area. Merchant traffic is beginning to drop off as a result.

[TiaC]

18.8 Darkwater Marsh

This Bayou is ancient, the trees reaching hundreds of feet overhead and creating an unbroken canopy. The Sahuagin of the water and the Raptorans of the canopy have chilly relations.

The Sahuagin demand protection money from any ships that ply the few clear channels to the eastern sea. The routes they cannot guard, they encourage the growth of monsters such as hydras and naga in. If they are repelled by a ship they will seek aid from the black dragons of the swamp.

The Raptorans have constructed a wide toll road across the canopy to allow caravans to reach the southern peninsula. They have a number of villages nearby, but they are almost impossible to reach without wings. Many of their villages play host to at least one Coatl who they see as beings of great wisdom.

[name_here]

12,9 Cross Keep

Built by the human city [9,12], this tower is positioned to watch two tributaries of the major rivers nearby, with a cart road to transport goods between them. While sailing a single ship around the lake would be more practical from a pure transportation standpoint, it's until recently proven much easier to guard the rivers against aquatic predators.

At present, an aboleth has taken up residence in the northeastern tributary for its own inscrutable purposes. Attempts by the guard to dislodge it have failed, and they're now struggling with fending off kobold raiders who moved into the area shortly after the aboleth arrived.

[Prak]

12,12- The Benevolent Abbey of Austeja
A humble, yet large, abbey rises from a low mesa of the mountains, stone foundations giving way to sturdy wooden walls, and the air is filled with the sound of buzzing as large honey bees, roughly the size of a gold piece dart through the air from the hive boxes of the abbey out to the fields of flowers that spread from the foot of the mountain and back. The monks go about their tasks--healing injured animals and travelers, cleaning the abbey, holding and attending services, and, most importantly, gathering honey, jarring some, and some into mead.

The honey and mead sold by the monks of the abbey always bares the symbol of Austeja--a large honeybee--and is enchanted to provide the effects of eitherwieldskill or bless to those who consume it for an entire day (skill chosen by character upon consumption in the case of wieldskill, a character may only benefit from one wieldskill effect at once, even if different skills are chosen). To gain the benefit from honey, only a modest amount is needed to gain the effect, about a tablespoon, as on toast with butter, and a jar contains 6 oz (12 tablespoons) and costs 600 gold. The benefit is delivered in a pint (16 oz) of mead, and mead is sold in 16 and 32 oz bottles, which cost 50 and 100 gold, respectively.

The monks are quite cheerful and benevolent, even feeding travelers with only the expectation of help in some of the day's chores in return. They are, however, fierce defenders of the innocent. They attempt to cease any combat they see within a mile of the abbey which they cannot discern the motives behind, but will aid good and innocent combatants against evil and unprovoked ones.

[Lokathor]

6,7: Kazin's Bastion

This great castle and its walls sits at the break between the mountains to the north and southwest, blocking all manner of thing from passing through the western wastes and into the civilized lands. Well, that was the plan at least, back in the day. In modern times the Bastion is extremely understaffed for its size, and serves as little more than a watch-post. The brotherhood lacks the forces to combat raiding parties, so they are forced to stay within the castle walls and simply send messenger hawks when threats appear. They are well equipped however, other than the lack of manpower, and they will usually pay a modest sum to groups that go out into the western wastes looking for any possible threats.

[TheFlatline]

2.2 Rein's Crossing

The ruins of this village are withstanding the encroaching wildlife surprisingly well considering how long it's been abandoned.

Once a prosperous town known for it's brewery situated on a particuarly suited spring, the town was eventually abandoned due to marauding orc bands. The orcs have long since been cleared out but the town never recovered. It was abandoned finally around 50 years ago.

Of note is the ruins of the Barley Mow, the local tavern supplied by the brewery. On the first day of every spring, adventurers can meet a jolly man by the name of Phineas Wilkes, sitting at the bar and happily drinking away at a tall mug of dopplebock.

Phineas is a middle aged man, remarkably unremarkable, and looks like any common farmer. When questioned, he identifies a ruined farmstead nearby as his home, and he believes that the date is the first day of spring, 115 years ago. He's quite a lively and talkative character with a good knowledge of the area (albeit 100 years or so out of date), but stubbornly refuses to believe that the town is abandoned. Or if convinced, doesn't seem particularly bothered by it.

He totters off to the back room when possible to fetch another mug of his favorite beer, the dopplebock that the brewery releases first day of spring every year, but when investigated the back room is empty. If asked, he'll fetch a beer for anyone who wants one. It is quite excellent, if potent beer.

Towards the end of the day he says he has to get back home to the missus, tidies up, and announces to anyone who cares to listen "If there's any justice in this world, I imagine heaven would be the first day of spring, every day, and a tall mug of that beer. I wish it didn't come around only once a year!"

With that, Phineas marches off towards the ruined homestead. People who have followed him have always lost him halfway back as he ducks around a tree or through a bush and is then not seen until next spring.

[PhoneLobster]

20.15

Hexterrior
Hex 20.15 is notable for having 4 out of 6 of it's oddly hexagonal edges facing directly onto the edge of the world. A feature only one other oddly hex shaped region in the world shares. Unlike that other region (which the locals most likely do not know of since it is on the direct opposite corner of the world) Hexterrior's 2 remaining faces include only one actual land face with another Hex-Land. This makes Hexterior the most isolated Hex in the Hex world.

Terrain wise Hexterior is a largely idyllic warmish colored region of low rolling hills, what might be savana trees or giant inverted green cherries, and some form of indeterminate blob. Hexterior is notable for having the largest river in the world not worth marking on the map. Almost an entire hex edge consists of incredible beach front real estate, with one corner notable for it's spectacular views of a hex edge wide waterfall off the edge of the world.

Hexterior is populated by many very smelly but surprisingly peaceful and highly welcoming tribes of nomadic Troglodytes avoiding the sort of persecution they might face in other hexes. The Troglodytes provide a limited trading network between highly isolationist city states of partially reptilian sun bathing nudist elves with hints of tiny shiny hex shaped snake scales on their tanned skins that live in small but extravagant citadels. These Hex Elves insist they are in no way related to Yuanti or indeed anyone's Aunty that they know of, the whole idea is silly how could an entire civilization be related to someone's aunty? The citadels are only ever placed partially over water along the Not So Great River of Hexterrior and along it's spectacular sun bathed beaches that seem to stretch a full hex edge. The Hex elves are ruled by totalitarian oligarchs that have contradictory desires for isolation and large piles of cash money. They rarely war directly with each other largely to avoid troglodyte territory which they find distasteful, but they do employ spies and assassins to meddle in highly parochial conspiracies against each other.

Since the oligarchs are easily bribed, and the lifestyle among the Hex Elves is both isolated and luxurious many adventurers retire to the citadels of Hexterrior, or go into hiding there, or both. Hexterrior has little to no underground caverns or dungeons due to a long standing informal treaty with all things subterranean in fear of the hex suffering significant land subsidance into the void on 4 hex edges. However there are a few abandoned Hex Elf citadels around full of ghosts and monsters and stuff, and for a small fee a heavily washed Troglodyte tour guide will take you there and show you all the attractions.

[Lokathor]

PL, uh, obviously that's a "scrubland hills" hex

13,2: Dortmund Village

This small halfling village sits on the edge of the lake, and the locals conduct quite a bit of trade in potatoes. Naturally, they trade in quite a bit of vodka as well. Also carrots and goats and things, but they're famous for the vodka.

Dortmund is isolated by land, and most enter or exit the the area via the docks. There's usually one barge per day, that sets out each morning for [City 11,3] and returns each evening. Life is generally peaceful, other than the fact that giants come down out of the northern mountains from time to time in an attempt to steal as much vodka as they can. It's rare that the giant raids cause any actual halfling deaths, but they do basically always manage to steal as much vodka as they can carry (which is quite a bit when you're a giant).

[TheFlatline]

19,6 Chapel Perilous

Common name given to the mines that inhabit this region, Chapel Perilous is the most lethal mining complex in the known world. Rich in precious metals and gemstones, and owned by a disgustingly wealthy noble family, the mine complex is always hiring, as cave-ins due to the unstable geology occur sometimes as often as weekly.

A small cabal of wizards have set up shop in the area working for the family, charging usurious rates for their specialty of scrying and teleportation rescues, for which they are known for their extreme precision. Families unable to afford "rescue charges" sell themselves and future generations into servitude to pay off their debt.

[Lokathor]

3,14: Temple of Joki

This ancient marble temple is the source of the Galdaz River. It flows from an elemental portal, out of the temple's great halls, and then proceeds through the forest, gathering other waters, until they reach the sea. The Order of Joki is a group, primarily composed of elves, that maintains the temple structure. They provide blessings to travelers (for a donation) and are regularly visited by pilgrims from all over. Boatmen, sailors, farmers, basically anyone who seeks the blessings of the great water god.