A detour to White Isle (In Pursuit of the Star)

Looks like the party wants to go to White Isle, that throwaway location I added at the last second to round out the map.  Serves me right, I guess.

This is for a randomly-generated campaign that we're playing through over on Reddit.  Come join us, if you like!

Spoilers ahead!

White Isle

So what do we know about White Isle, anyhow?

• It's a fort of the colonials, a trading post.
• Lots of goblins in this country, also a human trading town.
• There's a medicinal plant in this country that's worth trading for, otherwise it's an impoverished land.
• Invasive vines are in the Dry Cape, though probably not as far south as White Isle.

The trading post is run by the same company that once tried trading with the Tiginsi up on the Mosquito Coast, before the Tiginsi burned their post down and took all the guns.

Thankfully I've got some tables ready for this.  Let's start with the company:

• They have ships, but lack offices.  (Let's say they aren't trading out of many locations, they're mostly just a middleman company.  You wouldn't see shops of theirs.)
• Started off selling manufactured goods to locals, branched out into doing the manufacturing themselves.  (They're primarily a cookware company, making copper pots and pans for the wilderness trade.)
• They're struggling with a lack of markets for their product.  (They recently lost one of their main buyers, let's say the Tiginsi.)
• They're soon to raise ire by financing a revolutionary movement.  (I like the idea of keeping this story focused on this region of the world, so let's say they've decided to provoke a change in leadership among the Tiginsi, to put someone in charge who's more cooperative with their aims.)
• They're the Imperial Copper Company of the South Coast or Southern Copper for short.

The trading post itself seems a good fit for the Frontier Outpost adventure premise, so I'll use some of the tables from there, but I'll skip the ones that only apply if the party is actually getting involved there (for now):

• Goblin scroungers are getting involved, against the wishes of Southern Copper.  They've basically set up shop at the fort as trade agents, aggressively pursuing the best deals and shutting out Southern Copper from trading independently with any of the other local people.
• The trading post is low on funds or trade goods.  (Let's say they're waiting for another shipment of goods to sell to the locals.)
• They haven't heard from anyone back in the colonies for a while.
• It's a poorly-built structure with a leaky roof, wind whistling through the planks.
• They've got a good dock or a good harbor here.
• But there's nowhere to stay, no inn or tavern for hospitality.
• Locals come here to collect tribute for the local authorities.  (We've already got goblins here at the fort, so I suppose this would be the humans, expecting gifts for the leaders of their town.)

From the tables for an outlying colonial settlement:

• When the party arrives at White Isle, the people there are washing clothes.
• They do not know what might cure their sickness.
• They do not know if they will be robbed again.

 

Dry Cape

And we'll need to know a bit about the local human authorities.  (I'd roll up the goblins of the area, but my goblin tables are still pretty weak.)

• They're the Kapakaya, the watchers of the water.
• Farmers of beans and pigs.  (Pigs are a New World animal in this setting, partly due to Polynesian influence, and partly because I'm used to seeing wild boars in California.)
• Hillforts with longhouses.  Axes, spears, burning down enemy towns.  Pottery, copper jewelry.
• Dugouts with sails for long ocean voyages.
• Wide-brimmed straw hats (good for the sun) and facial scars.
• Men deal with outsiders, so they're probably the ones we'll see at White Isle.
• A noble-born chief or king rules the tribe, receiving tribute from the various towns.
• They're said to be skilled craftsman with secret ways.  They're always armed and wary, but interested in selling their goods.
• They've been to war with the company before.  (I assume the goblins have negotiated some sort of peace where they get to be the middlemen for goods.)

 

The Journey

It's probably around two weeks' sail to get from the colony to Bitterwood Bay, sailing around 70-120 mi/day.  They'll be sailing on the Half Moon (because it's the first ship name that came to mind) under Captain Ibira.  Some things the party can learn from her:

• White Isle is a little fort run by Southern Copper, a trading company that was driven out of the Mosquito Coast by the locals a year or two ago.
• The Half Moon is carrying a cargo of trade goods, mostly copperware, to drop off at the fort.  They're expecting to carry back a load of some medicinal plant.

 

Questions

The players have some questions that need to be answered:

• What's up with the hat-wearing goblins hanging out at the trading post?

Intervening as trade agents between White Isle and the Kapakaya, as much as they can.

• How hostile/numerous are the local humans?  Should we be worried about them attacking us?  What else can we learn about the local humans?

Several towns.  They're always armed and wary.  They've battled with Southern Copper people before and plundered the trading post, but the goblins talked everyone into peace to reestablish trade.

• Has anyone here heard of the Okamani Kingdom?

I don't know the answer to this one -- the Okamani are around 150 miles to the north (240 km).  That's near enough that they probably know of them, if they've both been in the area a while.  The Okamani are where they were before the Starving Time, but what about the Kapakaya?

Rolling for details, the Kapakaya lost an old crop during the Starving Time (they didn't forget their history).  Their ally is another human tribe that they were forced to band together with.  They practice a secret religion known only to themselves.

I'd say it's pretty likely that they know of the Okamani.  Let's roll a d6.  1: no knowledge, 2-3: know they're up north somewhere, 4-5: also know one fact about them, 6: also know another fact about them.  And it's a 6!  Down in the Dry Cape country, the people know the Okamani live up north beyond the giants of the forest, that they live around a lake, and that they pierce their ears.

• Can our tree-goblin captive help us learn anything from the goblins here?

It turns out your captive (named Cuyurú, by the way) doesn't speak the language of the goblins of this country, so she speaks Imperial to the locals.  She's heard of Dry Cape goblins before, but doesn't know much about them.

• What can we learn about geography?

The Kapakaya mostly live along the western shore of the Cape, along with some other humans.  There's a high mountain range off beyond their land to the north and west, but no one lives up there.  Goblin villages are scattered throughout the Cape.

Next Up

It's time to prepare some encounter tables for the Dry Cape and Bitterwood Bay countries.