The Island of Death and Rubies

Today I'm rolling up another random campaign.  I'm choosing two of the three starting adventure opportunities to test out their roll-up tables, then letting the dice decide the rest.

You can follow along with the process below, or you could skip straight to the resulting one-page campaign.

Settlement on the Frontier

The three adventure opportunities: a new Frontier Settlement, some sort of Raiders or Pirates, and a Military Expedition.  We'll start with the frontier settlement, which has plenty of details to roll up:

• The plan is short-term resource extraction: pan for gold, gather jade, etc., then go home.  No one wants to invest in this town, they're all just hoping to strike it rich and leave.
• But that's never going to get them rich.  They'd be better off growing crops for export: tobacco, coffee, tea, etc.
  
• On the way there, the settlers run into dangerous creatures who attack, eat their livestock, pursue them, something like that.
• The authorities from their homeland expect to extend their rule over the new settlement.  This is supposed to be an outpost of the motherland, not an independent settlement.
• The site is near a river, a lake, and a cavern.
• There's a local power here that makes demands of the settlers: taxes, tribute, allegiance, something like that.
• The settlers are well-stocked with food to start their colony, but they have a problem with how others view them: they're not respected by the neighboring people, they follow the wrong religion, the authorities back home find them a nuisance, etc.
• They'll have three projects that ought to be tracked for their completion: making peace or defeating a dangerous enemy, getting a consistent source of clean drinking water, establishing a proper food source.
• The people of this country all died in the apocalypse, leaving ruins that aren't entirely understood.  Everyone here is new to the land.
• There's a seasonal problem that they don't know about: flooding, drought, wildfires, hurricanes.
  

An Island Country

I think we need to see the country where all this is happening.  Let's roll that up now:

• It's somewhere near Alligator Gulf, down in the hot and humid southern part of the continent.
• There's a cliff / mountain range / escarpment that runs east and west with many waterfalls coming down it.  Up in the high country live independent or rebellious folk.
• Waves beat against rocky cliffs, making it hard to find safe landing sites.  This country is an island or a chain of islands.
• The south coast is deeply indented with many bays, inlets, and little coves.
• This is a largely-forgotten country with ruins of a lost civilization or kingdom, a place mostly known by legends elsewhere.
  

That's enough to start sketching up a map.  I'll grab a big messy brush and rough out some islands, then draw the coastline.

Continuing on the random country tables, let's see who lives here:

• Goblins (+1 modifier: +cliffs, +forests, -islands).  Villages of three major clans.  People travel here from far away to study, trade, visit renowned hermits.
  
• Elves (+1 modifier: +warm coast).  Largely controlled by a far-off company: resource settlements, trading posts, old fort.
  
• Giants (-2 modifier: -forests, -far south).  Scattered trappers, fishers, traders.

The frontier settlement we're following sounds like an elven one, so that's an easy choice.  They were sent here by a far-off trade company.

We already know the people are all newcomers to the land, within the last thirty years since the Starving Time.  Let's say the other elven stuff in the isles is all from before, from a colonial attempt that failed and left behind mysterious ruins.

This is a major center of goblin cultural activity.  Let's say their people lived here before the apocalypse, died off, then the region was repopulated by other goblins of those clans.  All their settlements today could be arguing over clan rights to different areas, since the people who knew the exact demarcations are now gone.

Recent elven ruins isn't quite a forgotten kingdom, though.  Let's check the ancient civilization tables to see who used to be here long ago.

• As the story goes, there were once five ancient cities that warred with each other.  The table gives several question prompts: Why was the greatest city overthrown?  How could they move such stones?  Where was the fifth city?  I think it was here in these islands.
  
• The symbol of the city is a mountain with a single eye.
• This city fell a thousand years ago, remembered only by one culture as part of their founding myth.
• Remnants: tunnels for irrigation or transport, hidden knowledge of ancient arts passed down in families, great stone statues of people or animals (marking sacred sites or buried treasure).
  

I think the city might have been the origins of some group of giants, so their ancient arts might still be known by some of the giants who fish and trade in these waters.

Populating the Map

We've got a lot of things to add to the map, so let's add those now:

• The mountains running east-west, cliffs along the north coast.
• A few rivers.
  
• The new elven settlement we're following, near one of the lakes.
  
• Hidden ruins of the ancient city.
• Ancient aqueduct tunnels.
• Ancient statues.
• Goblin villages, including one that's powerful and near the elven settlement.
• Elven ruins from the previous attempt at colonization.
  

Also I'm redrawing the coastline -- I did it with a really thick brush for some reason the first time and it's bugging me.

To figure out the icon to use for goblin settlements, I rolled on the clan tables.  As it turned out, all three clans in this country build different kinds of homes, making it easy for the map.

• The Shining Skull clan lives up in the trees, with hammocks and rope bridges.  They use tobacco smoke in rituals.
  
• The Red Snake clan prefers to live in caves or on cliff ledges.  They use the hunt for wild honey as an important ritual.
  
• The Wounded Hawk clan is originally from wetlands and prefers to build log dwellings in ponds with underwater entrances (like beaver dens).  They eat the flesh of their fallen enemies.
  

Red Snake Raiders

The second adventure premise is where desperate times have led many to a life of banditry.  Let's see what these pirates are up to.

• They are skilled in camoflage, hiding in this land.  (I'm thinking the raiders might be the goblins of the Red Snake clan, living up in the highland interior.)
• They raid settled towns, farmers, local forts and their treasure.
• Their fearsome sign is a circle drawn in blood.
• The die roll said they sell goods at some kind of lawless border town, but I'm not sure how to make that fit here.  Let's say they sell their plunder to someone from the mainland who visits the islands, willing to buy from these fearsome raiders.
• These people turned to raiding to survive after being on the losing side of the recent war.  This is actually a surprise
  

I'm starting to get a picture here: the other goblins here grow crops and gather gold or jade or something, the Red Snake clan raids them and sells their plunder to the mainland.  The first two clans came back shortly after the apocalypse, then there was the war, and then Red Snake came here to raid the others. 

Military Expedition

The third adventure premise is a military expedition to the isles.

• The expedition is sent by the remnant army of the Viceroy.
• They're moving against a trade company that owns vast lands.
  

That puts the frontier settlement in grave danger, though they don't know it yet.  The trade company must have extensive holdings elsewhere, maybe causing some kind of trouble for the Viceroy.  The settlement is going to have to make alliances with the local people to survive.

• The goal of the expedition is to scout out the trade company's strength here and to destroy a fort or ship of theirs.
• The expedition has no knowledge of this country, with bad maps or no maps at all.
• If they attack the goblins, both sides will be willing to massacre each other.
  
• This expedition is likely to spark another war.
  

I think the company settlement is going to be a great source of adventure drama.  They're in a lot of trouble from different sources, but they'll have some chances to play off those problems against each other. 

Some open threads that we'll need more information about before the adventure is ready to go:

• The company that's in charge of the settlement.
• The trade good that people are raiding these islands for.
  
• A few details about the different villages on the map.
• The second half of the random country tables.  (I just realized that this country doesn't have a name, which means I got distracted halfway through rolling up the country and never came back to it.)
• The dangerous creatures here.
• The secret art passed down from the ancient city of the giants.
• Hermits among the goblins here.
  

The Imperial Gem Society

The trade company that's sending the settlers:

• They have remote trading posts in many lands, but the company is short on arms for a conflict.  This means the settlement probably won't have much gunpowder with them.
• Their original purpose was to buy local goods (furs, silver, ivory, etc.) but since the apocalypse they've branched out into shipping as well.
• The company's charter for this region was recently revoked by the Viceroy.
• They're about to make people angry by engaging in trade of some unlawful goods.  (I think their charter to trade in the local products here is what was revoked.)
• They're called the Imperial Gem Society.  Probably just Imperial Gems or IGS for short.
  

As for what they want in this land, I think it's going to be rubies.  The goblins here have been finding them in streams or in certain types of soil, but they're not common.  No one has found a place to mine them from the rock.  It's hard to get rich just searching for rubies.

The giants come and buy the rubies then resell them on the mainland, unless the Red Snake clan intercepts them first.

Details of the Islands

Finishing the random country rolls, an interesting result came up:

• There's a rising warlord or a rogue general here.

Maybe the military expedition is unauthorized, its leader being on a vendetta against the company based on the previous war, and now the expedition might start a new war.  There might be a military group sent to rein in the leader, but if the expedition gets into enough trouble, the new group might just be reinforcements.

• A marsh/swamp in a low region.
• Waterfalls, rapids, sandbar, or hidden reef.
• Colonial goods that are traded here: alchemical products, copper pans/kettles.
• Country goods that are traded here: fish, shell beads, plus the rubies we already know about.
• These islands are named for local wildlife: the Cottonmouth Islands.
  

Settlement Details

The colonial settlement they're trying to establish:

• Smells like tar, from weatherproofing wooden structures.
• Doesn't have a defensive wall yet.
• Fearful of raiders, enemies in the woods.
• They've brought some indentured laborers to do the heavy work.  (Let's go with giants, so we don't have to introduce another species of people to this story.)
• They have many dead bodies to deal with.  (I'm assuming this is from the dangerous creature attack they had on the way here.)
• The settlement is called Crow's Nest.
  

The nearby goblins are of the Shining Skull clan, living up in trees with hammocks and rope bridges.  This settlement:

• Has shaped paths through thick undergrowth to funnel prey and passers-by into ambush points.
• They fear ghosts and avoid abandoned sites from the people who lived here before.
• There's a shipwreck nearby.
• They want to drive away the outsiders who have invaded their territory, also they want to take their metal.
• They make many smoky fires to seem more numerous than they are, and to lure would-be invaders away from their actual village.
  

I'll keep rolling on those tables for the other settlements.

Dangerous Creatures

What are the dangerous creatures here?  We know they attack the settlers early on.  I think I'd like them to be mainly based on crocodiles.  Let's roll for their features.

• Better at swimming.
• Inedible, as their flesh is poisonous.
• They hunt in packs.
• They dig impressive dens where they keep bones of their prey.
  

The Secret Art

The ancient city had some kind of magic art that has been preserved in secret, passed down by some lineage of giants.  Some of the ones who visit the islands know the art.

• Ability to go unseen.
• It only lasts as long as you hold your breath.
• Those who practice it don't make a sound when they walk, even when not using the art.
  

Goblin Hermits

Goblin society has a role for hermits, the hidden ones, recluses who live outside the village.  I'm going to roll up the hidden ones for the three clans in the isles, then only use whichever one sounds most interesting.

• They perform divination to see the future.  They live at an old ruin in the woods, staying hidden.  Anyone who visits them must not look at them or speak directly to them.
• They take you on a journey to the spirit world by way of hallucinogens.  They live in caves in the woods.
• They perform healing rituals.  They live up on hills and high places.  Visitors are to bring a gift of animal teeth.
  

There are other loose ends we could keep rolling for, but I think we've got enough here.  I'll make up an encounter table and write up all the moving parts, and I think the adventure will be done.

In Pursuit of the Star, an informal online campaign

I'm starting up a very informal online campaign of Signs in the Wilderness.  It's not going to use any mechanical rules like hit points or encumbrance, this is really just a test of my worldbuilding tables.

As much as possible, I'm going to roll dice to decide what the campaign is like, while players tell me what the adventuring protagonists are up to.  And who are the players?  Anyone who decides to drop in!

If you'd like to experience the campaign more like a player, follow along at r/SignsInTheWilderness, where I'll be posting as the story moves along.

If you'd like to follow along from the GM's position, read on.  In this post, I'll be rolling up the starting premises of the campaign.

Spoilers ahead!

The Legend of Copper Isle - randomly generating a campaign

Last randomly-generated campaign worked well, so let's do another one.  This post is about the process of generating the campaign, then I'll post the writeup once it's done.

Here's a link to the writeup.  (or where it will be later)

Like last time, I have no idea what this campaign is going to look like.  I'm just rolling the dice, following the procedures, and seeing what happens.  Randomly rolled items are in bold (unless the text is very long, in which case just the first few words are in bold).

First we'd sit down with the players and talk about what kind of adventures sound like fun, but since we don't have any players, I'll just roll up some great opportunities randomly.  (If any of the ones from last time come up, I'll roll for something else because that sounds fun to me.)

• Exploring Expedition
• Legend of the Lost Place
• Wanderer's Tale (a new one I'm still writing up)

Through the Saw-Grass, a randomly-generated campaign (results)

In the last post, I rolled up an entire random campaign premise, starting from scratch and writing it up while going along.  Since then, I've drawn up a map, organized my notes, and cleaned up a few loose ends.

Here's the result:

(download as a pdf)

The first page (shown here) is taken up with the map and local descriptions.  Each one has some kind of trouble, something they need, or something else going on.  The second page has information on each faction, encounter tables, how to start the campaign, etc.

This adventure premise is based on three great opportunities: Lost Treasure, Gold Rush, and Shining City in the Wilderness.

As for the actual ruleset, I suggest choosing something low-magic, with good support for overland travel.  I've been using some homebrew rules myself, which I could post more about if people are interested.

If you could take a look at the pdf and tell me what you think, I'd appreciate it.  Let me know if there are any other big parts that ought to be included in a writeup like this.

Through the Saw-Grass, a randomly-generated campaign

Today I'll be rolling up a random campaign, full of opportunities for adventure, intrigue, and exploration.  That's the plan, anyhow.  We'll see how far my random tables take me.

Here's the final result (pdf).

The rest of this post is about the process of getting there.  Follow along with me as I roll up random adventury stuff and piece it all together.

By the way, I'm going to try using the term cazandi for the imperial elves.  If you're not familiar, they're the city-building people from the empire destroyed in the apocalypse.  Imagine the Spanish and British empires, with influences from India and China.

The Hunger River

For this post, I'm rolling up a completely random region where some kind of trouble is happening.

Alaskan river (NOAA)

 

The Hunger River

(As if that's not an ominous name to roll up.)

Up north, where the nights are long and the days are cold, the Hunger River winds its way through valleys with steep bluffs, carved by glaciers long ago.  Stunted short-needle conifers (fir and larch) reach awkwardly for the sky.  People use their needles as medicine against scurvy, their white wood for carving, and their branches for bedding.

There are many smaller streams in this country, along with slender lakes and cascading waterfalls.  Most flow to the river.

Folks around here live in fear of the fire crow, a clever bird that preys on humans.  By day, it looks like a pale-colored crow.  At night, it can make itself glow like firelight, luring in lost travelers looking for warmth.  Its feathers are poisonous, deadly even to the touch.  The fire crow is clever enough to leave its fallen feathers in places where a human might touch them, then feast on their corpses.

Firebird (Yelena Polenova)

There are wolves and black bears in this land, too, along with huckleberries to gather in the fall and ducks to hunt.

The Gristle Chewers

The local humans are a tribe called the Sagayeka, the "gristle chewers".  They once had a great wild goose hunt each summer, but since the Starving Time the geese have dwindled in number, and none have been seen in these parts for years.

People say the Gristle Chewers are bold and courageous, good to have at your side in a fight.  They live in ten little settlements of lean-tos, painted with signs of owls thought to keep fire crows away.  They are skilled archers and good at sneaking up on enemies.

traditional inland Salish shelter

The Gristle Chewers make little coracles to travel on the river, hides stretched over wooden frames.  They wear warm hats made of squirrel fur.

The men are the woodcarvers, in charge of deciding where to settle, and they handle death rituals.  The women are the hunters and the ones who ultimately settle disputes.

subarctic caribou hunters

Like many people of the north, the Chewers practice antler burial.  Their men carve figurines of prey or enemies out of antlers, then bury them in hidden places in the wilderness to ask the spirits for help and protection in battle.

a shed antler

A few years ago, a larger tribe of humans showed up from the south, fleeing from danger and in need of help.  The Gristle Chewers gave them food and shelter, but now fear their numbers.

The Buffalo People

The Tontaka "buffalo people" are the new arrivals in the Hunger River country.  They once lived somewhere far to the south, where the men hunted wood buffalo and the women grew corn, until they were driven out by a tribe armed with guns.

Buffalo Hunt (George Catlin)

A few years ago, they fled through tree goblin territory not far south of here, where the goblins killed and devoured many of the tribe.  Ragged and bloody, the survivors reached the Hunger River valley and sought shelter with the Gristle Chewers.

One day they will have their vengeance against the tree goblins, who still watch this land from their forests to the south.

At this point, the Buffalo People have the Chewers under their thumb.  They pay tribute in food and labor to the Buffalo People, fearing reprisals if they do otherwise.

Today the Buffalo People live in six large settlements, one for each of the six clans.  A council of high-born elders gathers periodically to make decisions for the tribe.  Their homes are made of hides over a wooden frame, easy to dismantle and move to a new site.  Whenever they settle in a new place, they set up a standing stone.

The tribe is known as trainers and breeders of the best dogs, used for hunting and to pull sledges over grass and snow.  You can recognize Buffalo People by their hair, shaven into a mohawk.

dog pulling travois

The men do all the warfare, hunting, and woodcarving, while the women do weaving and settle disputes.  In the old country the women grew corn and made corn husk dolls, but it's too cold for corn here.

Traditionally, the Buffalo People feared the influence of witchcraft.  They wore copper medallions with embossed designs to ward off evil, kept hidden under their clothing.  At each meal, the head of the family tossed a bit of corn or fruit onto the home fire to keep evil out.  Some of the old men were seen as prophets, speaking of how evil and ignorance must be replaced by wisdom, and then there will be peace among the nations.

In general, the men still follow the old ways, but most of the women have abandoned the old religion, taking up antler burial instead as a way to protect their families.

Crow Meadow

The largest settlement of the Buffalo People is at a place called Crow Meadow.  They've lived here for years, since first arriving in this country.

It's a meadow in a wide valley with an easy trail leading to it.  If you approach the village, they'll send someone out to greet you, and if you're not threatening they'll invite you to come and meet the chief.

Kids are playing in the creek nearby when you arrive.  The settlement itself is surrounded by a ditch filled with wooden spikes.  There are twenty-two hide huts, all facing towards a standing stone in the middle.  There are many dogs here, wiry ones good at pursuing prey.

Recently, the people of Free Camp (belonging to a different clan) made some kind of insult.  In response, young men from Crow Meadow snuck in and painted rude figures all over Free Camp's standing stone.

Now Crow Meadow is expecting some kind of retaliation, about which rumors abound.  But while they're expecting something fairly small, the men of Free Camp have just sworn an oath of vengeance.  They're tired of a long history of slights from Crow Meadow, and they intend to do something about it.

Adventurers

As usual, I rolled up some random great opportunities to get some ideas for entry points into the setting: migrants trying to make a home in a new land, and preaching the word amidst religious strife. These fit quite well with the story so far, and suggested a few ways to stir up more trouble:

• The adventurers are desperate refugees themselves, roaming into the Hunger River region, looking for a new home.
• A survivor of the lost seventh clan of the Buffalo People comes straggling down to Crow Meadow one day.  The rest of the clan is still alive, living just on the other side of the goblin woods.  They're trapped between the fearsome goblins and hostile people to the south, and want to migrate north to join the others.
• All these people abandoning the protections against witchcraft may turn out to be a mistake.  Signs of witches have been seen: strange bloody carvings on trees, unexplained deaths, dogs born with three eyes.
• The geese stopped coming after the Starving Time, but it's not because they died.  It's because the spirits that dwell in this land aren't being treated the way they used to be.  Too many of the elders of the people died out in those days, and the proper way of carving antler amulets died with them.  Someone needs to contact the spirits and teach proper antler burial to the people.

In some ways, this setup looks more like a Dogs in the Vineyard game, where the player characters roam from one village to another, solving problems and instituting justice.

If any characters are from this land, they're going to have a vested interest in the success of one group or another.  War is likely to break out, in several different ways.

If the party has guns or other fancy elven equipment, they're likely to be a formidable fighting force.  They're also likely to completely upset the nature of the Hunger River country by introducing new technology.

If the party has any specialized knowledge, someone's likely to try and kidnap them to make them work for the local authorities.

---

By the way, I just started a subreddit for Signs in the Wilderness content, since that site is where I've had most of the discussions online about this setting.

Behind the scenes: generating a completely random adventure

And by "adventure" I mean "bit of campaign setting" or more realistically, "gibberish you could hammer an adventure out of".

I've written up a lot of random tables.  For this post, I'm going to roll up a brand new Signs in the Wilderness adventure and explain the results as I go.  (Normally I don't recommend choosing everything at random.)  At this moment I haven't picked anything out yet, and I'm not going to backtrack along the way, so this is going to be completely at the mercy of the dice and my horribly incomplete tables.

Great opportunities

Let's start with the table of great opportunities, since those are what drive the story.

The first opportunity is an unexplored wilderness.  According to my notes, this could look like an expedition of discovery, charting the wilderness, cataloguing new species, or establishing a claim.  I haven't written up the subtables for this one yet, but that's four (somewhat overlapping) options right there, so I'll roll a d4 and...charting the wilderness it is.  That means I'll need to figure out who wants this wilderness charted and why.  This opportunity is shown by the existence of the unknown country itself, and by competitors being sent to do the same job.  Plenty of open questions.

In the meantime, the second opportunity is wealth, an opportunity for a salesman.  Some indicators of this opportunity: a new invention, shortages or high prices, eager/hungry newcomers, and isolated communities.  This could dovetail well with charting the wilderness.

Random adventure?

Would anyone be interested in reading about an adventure made entirely at the whim of the dice?

I've been writing up a lot of random tables for Signs in the Wilderness.  My usual rule is that if I can't think of three options for a concept, I probably don't have a good sense of that concept yet.  So every time I'm writing down notes for an adventure, I end up building a new random table or expanding an old one.

At this point, I've got enough tables to start rolling up a completely random bit of setting, enough to cause some conflicts, present some interesting stuff to do, and have a bit of the world to adventure in.  I know the random tables are incomplete, so trying to use them for everything would probably fall flat, but it might be an interesting experience to share.

Kick-Up at the Hazard Table, Thomas Rowlandson

So would you be interested in reading along as I try rolling up a completely random adventure/mini-campaign?

Some newfangled contraptions: the spindly Sun-Walker, Pellet Lanterns, and the Silver Sight

I've been rolling up some strange newfangled contraptions, and I thought you might find some of them interesting.

The Sun-Walker

An enormous mechanical creation up high on spindly legs, the Sun-Walker is made mostly of brass.  Glass lenses concentrate sunlight onto fine metal spindles and vanes, causing them to bend and flex, moving the Walker inexorably forwards.  Its legs are articulated to lift high with each step, allowing the Walker to slowly traverse some of the most rugged terrain.

The inventor has tried to market the device, but it has only been ridiculed in the local press.  It's hard to control, but the inventor is confident that it can be improved.

Kinda like this, but with more sunlight and less smoke.  (ebalint96)

Pellet Lanterns

A safer, longer-lasting lantern has been invented.  A single pellet can keep it glowing for an hour, it doesn't warm up, and it won't ignite explosive gases down in the mines.

The lantern is a small glass globe (inside a protective wire cage) with a geared mechanism attached to one end.  You stick in a pellet and turn the crank; the pellet is crushed to a fine powder that glows with a bright bluish light inside the glass.

The lanterns themselves aren't that expensive, and you can buy a hundred pellets for just a shilling.  Or at least, you could.  Trouble is, there's a legal battle going on over who owns the imperial license to manufacture the pellets.

Imagine a cross between a pepper grinder and one of these old lanterns.  (Garrett Wade)

The Silver Sight

The Sight is a colossal telescopic device, mounted on a track so it can swivel and aim in any direction.  A massive clockwork mechanism causes it to rotate as needed, powered by weights hanging from chains below the main platform.

Inside the Sight are many colored glass lenses, complicated prisms, and silver reflectors.  It collects not light, but some other form of ray that can bend over the horizon.  Looking through the eyepiece, you can see the grey, indistinct forms of people hundreds of miles away.

Not that you'll ever get to look through the Sight yourself.  Its existence is a closely-guarded state secret, an intelligence-gathering device belonging to the Viceroy, who uses it to extend imperial power (or rather, her own power) across the Northern Lands.

A bit like this, but much bigger. (David Wenzel)

The beleaguered city of Longwater

The elven city of Vayapara "Longwater" is in some trouble.  They came through the apocalypse well enough, even growing in the years since.  New buildings have gone up and new ships have been built.  Their motto is Prosperity and Sovereignty, written on their flag and over the gates, but lately they haven't seemed to have much of either.

(unknown artist c.1850)

Longwater is one of the more northerly elven cities that survived, lying on a natural harbor surrounded by densely-forested pine hills.  As you approach the city, the first thing you'll notice are the uniformed military sentries bearing muskets.  If you're a human, they probably won't let you pass.  Humans have been raiding the outlying farms and settlements regularly, and elves aren't always careful to distinguish one tribe of humans from another.

Outside

Closer to the city, you come across great fields of alfalfa and pastures with a few cattle grazing.  There's a long building where a number of giants are gathered, a mission where they come to trade and learn the ways of the elven religion.

The city itself has a wooden palisade on the landward side, with watchtowers flying the white-and-tan, the striped flag of Longwater.  Just outside the palisade are a number of miniature wooden houses, brightly painted, mounted on poles a few feet off the ground.  (You might recognize these as spirit houses, places for lost spirits of the dead to dwell until they can be collected up and returned to the temple.)

(A. M. Vastnetsov)

At dawn, the gate is opened and a trumpet is sounded.  An honor guard of the city watch walks along the perimeter with lanterns to certify that the city is safe.  Each night at dusk, the process is repeated, a trumpet sounds, and the gate is closed.

To enter, you'll need a citizen of the city to escort you in.  It's customary to leave an offering at the gate before the image of the lost child emperor (long may he reign).  Just a penny or so will suffice.

Inside

Longwater smells of coal fires, the acrid stinging smoke of blacksmiths' forges.  People in this city look tired and thin.  Food has gotten scarce with all the human raids lately.  The city is surviving mostly on seaborne trade.

(Kate Baylay)

The most prominent people of the city are two powerful Ministers, who serve for life:

• The Minister of the Sea is in charge of ships, docks, the navy, and all oceangoing trade.  She was appointed a few years ago by the eldest Mother of the city.
• The Minister of the Land is in charge of agriculture, overland trade, the army, and relations with humans.  The previous one just died recently, so the temples are holding an election shortly to choose a new one.
• A few other ministers have lesser portfolios: Rites, Justice, and the Guilds.

Day to day, the Magistrate is more visible, in charge of collecting taxes, diplomatic relations with the viceroy and other cities, and tending to the needs of the household of Mothers and Fathers (who are the heart of the city).  The magistrate is chosen each year by the secret society that bid highest in an auction.

The current magistrate has been chosen before, during more prosperous times a few years ago.  She's a smooth talker, eager to please.  She'll say whatever it takes to make an interaction go more smoothly.  That, combined with the recent successful years of the city, has made her popular among the secret society leaders.  It's no surprise that she's been chosen to be magistrate multiple times.

But this current food crisis has her in a panic.  Bad under pressure, the magistrate is starting to make rash decisions, teetering on the border of fear and despair.

The powerful viceroy has sent word from across the sea that Longwater is to provide aid to one of the other cities, a rival city in the grips of an even worse famine.  The magistrate has received the message, but hasn't spoken to the esteemed ministers about it yet.  She sees a few options ahead:

1. Do nothing, incurring the wrath of the viceroy, but saving as much food as possible for the hungry people of Longwater.
2. Try to convince the ministers to send aid.  This would be the kind of unpopular move that could end the magistrate's political career.
3. Once the new minister of the land is elected, request that they assemble an army for a punitive expedition against the humans.  It could be very dangerous, but ending the raids (and taking some of their food in return) would give the city more options.

What would you do?

The Seven Towns of Blind Lake

There's a place out in the backcountry called Blind Lake.  It's mostly woods and lakes around there, maple and beech trees with broad branches and a canopy of leaves that turn orange and red each fall.  The whole area is full of little ponds and lazy, meandering streams that flow into the lake, with a large, slow-moving river that flows out to the east.  Beavers have dammed up many of the streams, forming even more ponds; good places for fishing.

Forest (d20)		signs
1-5	hawks	circling overhead, screeching call in the distance
6-9	humans	thin columns of smoke, footpaths, distant sounds of talking, barking dogs
10-12	goblins	bones that have been chewed on, a baby's cry in the forest
13-15	beavers	dammed-up creeks, gnawed stumps and trunks, sound of slapping the water
16-17	black bear	wide tracks with claw marks in mud, scraped and clawed trees
18-19	elves	footprints, discarded paper, music/singing, gunfire, trampled ground of campsites
20	(d6) 1-3: skunk, 4-5: crows, 6: turtles

(Diego Delso)

(Ilu Tepui, by Lazsp)

Towering over the landscape are these high, rocky buttes, like islands up in the sky.  They say the tops of them are desolate and rotting, full of mosquitos, so nobody ever climbs up there.  A few thin waterfalls stream down from each butte to the forest below.

Buttes (d20)		signs
1-5	mosquitos	clouds of tiny buzzing insects that bite
6-9	turtles	sunning themselves on rocks, disturbed soil where eggs are buried
10-12	mountain lion	medium-sized tracks with four round toes, carcasses of other animals
13-15	garter snake	black snake with thin yellow stripes
16-17	beavers	dammed-up creeks, gnawed stumps and trunks, sound of slapping the water
18-19	cardinal	repetitive birdsong, bright red bird
20	(d6) 1-3: humans, 4-5: goblins, 6: wild geese

The humans have seven towns in the area, all on or near Blind Lake itself.  Further from the lake, goblins are the most common people.  A single elven lumber camp is on the river just downstream from the lake.  The rest of the area is uninhabited wilderness.

The Humans of the Seven Towns

This is a new tribe of humans, formed by the merger of two closely-related groups of survivors after the apocalypse.  The elders are ashamed of what they did to survive through the starving time.

(Warren Moorehead)

The seven towns are built on earthen mounds, both for defense and to avoid flooding.  A wooden palisade surrounds each town.  People live in wooden longhouses, growing beans and raising turkeys.  Rafts are used to get around the area.

People of the seven towns wear beaver-pelt hats in the winter and long woven grass capes.  They make pottery, hammered copper ornaments, and they do geometric carvings on their houses.

A single chief or king rules the tribe, taking food as tribute and demanding warriors for military expeditions.  In war, they tend to burn down enemy towns and take captives as slaves to do menial work.

Men's work is considered to be raising turkeys, working copper ornaments, and settling disputes.  Women's work: growing beans, deciding when/where towns move, and handling death rituals.

The Elves of the Logging Camp

It's a fairly new place, founded only a few years ago by a partnership of three investors who live in the camp.  Elves from the city come here to make some money cutting down trees, sawing them into boards, and sending the lumber downriver on rafts.

The settlement is called Shanakävthe "Sleeping Bear Camp" in the language of the elves.  (For those of you who prefer IPA: /ʃanakævθe/.)

Flooding is a perennial problem.  The roads through the settlement are often just mud, and every building has a high water stain on it.

(Osmond David Putnam)

Everyone at Shanakävthe sleeps in the dormitory.  The elves keep the place smelling like frankincense.

Last year, something went wrong during a trade deal with the humans, and now both sides refuse to talk to each other.

The three partners are deeply divided about the future of their venture.

• The first is afraid of the humans, but desperately clinging to her vision of the lumber company she founded.
• The second is older and disheartened, wanting to sell off his share in the company and return to his home city.  He used to be a friend of the king of the humans, but they haven't spoken since falling out last year.
• The third is a young protege of the first; she's nervous, worried about the settlement's future.

The King's Town

The king of the local humans lives at the town of Pahakok "Boulder Point" (/pahakok/ in IPA).  If you come near and look like trouble, they'll send a party out to chase you away with a loud and ferocious show of arms before you even see the town.

If you have a reason to be let into the town, you'll see that they have eight longhouses here, with about 140 people living in Pahakok.  Things people are doing when you arrive: cleaning a musket, airing out bedding, cooking fish over a fire.  The dogs of this town look strong enough to tear you limb from limb.

(Carel Fabritius)

The king is a troubled man who's faced a hard road so far and expects more of the same.  He feels guilty over how he mistreated his wife, who has since left him with their young daughter and returned to her home town.  He secretly sends gifts to his daughter.

The king has no close friends or advisors left, only subjects.  He's unsettled, unwilling to commit to any long-term plans.

One of the towns (where his wife and daughter live) has recently resumed trading with the elves, in defiance of the king.  They sent the king a prized necklace as a way of apologizing, but they haven't actually stopped trading.  He's trying to decide what to do next about this.

Religion

A lone elven missionary lives in Pahakok as a guest of the king.  She preaches about elven ideas of propriety and veneration of the ancestors.  People question why the king hasn't kicked her out yet.

The humans of this tribe are mostly following new teachings that guarantee prosperity and the end of hunger.  Practitioners paint little pictures of predators and animals that eat crops, then hang them up in large numbers to keep those animals away.  People sometimes go alone to the lake and toss in a handful of dry beans, believing it will bring them help.

There's an old holy site a few miles from the lake, but very few people still follow the old ways, doing so in secret. The site is a large flat rock with a small wooden building on top.  Inside is a carved wooden statue of an ancient king.  Initiates in the old ways secretly still come here to atone for their sins.

---

The future of the Blind Lake country is unclear.  A few local conflicts are going on, but big news should shake everything up.

What news would throw this region into turmoil?

The Red Mountains

A dry country, the Red Mountains are steep, with deep ravines between ridges.  Tall pine and oak forests cover the region, wind whistling through the upper branches.  Their straight trunks would make decent masts, and you could extract pine tar and turpentine from these woods as well.

In the northeast, the mountains end at the sea, a rugged coast with few safe landings.  Several fast-moving creeks flow through the mountains, cascading their way down towards the sea.  A few of them join together into larger streams.

(Alex Lamoreaux)

In some parts the mountains are steep enough to have cliffs of exposed rock, often with gravel scree beneath.  Some stretches of streams are flat enough to form gravel bars, easy crossing points and good places for catching fish.

Wandering through the Red Mountains, you're likely to encounter some of the wildlife and people who live here:

Encounter (d20)		signs
1-5	crows	cawing in the distance, birds in flight, large black feathers, small carrion
6-9	humans	thin columns of smoke, footpaths, distant sounds of talking, barking dogs
10-12	grouse	disturbed soil, striped black and grey/brown feathers
13-15	bats	flying at dusk, squeaking and chirping, tiny black droppings under roosts
16-17	stinging toads	fallen quills, dead coyotes with foam at the mouth and stuck with quills
18-19	coyotes	howls and yelps at night, dog-like tracks, animal bones
20	(d6) 1-3: trout, 4-5: jackrabbits, 6: marmots

The humans of this area are known as the Coyote People, the Kowotiga in their language.  They live in small villages of conical bark huts, usually along streams.  They grow some potatoes, gather acorns, and do a bit of fishing and hunting.  Villages down by the sea make dugout canoes to go out fishing and to trade with the people of the islands some distance out to sea.

(Jean Pawek)

If you've heard of these people before, it's probably because of their weaving skills, making cloaks with geometric designs out of plant fibers.  They also make very good baskets, but those aren't traded as widely.

The Coyote People can generally be recognized by the geometric tattoos on their hands and arms.  Men among them have shaven heads with only a topknot of hair, though you're more likely to meet women first as they're the ones who go out hunting and fishing while the men weave and tend the potatoes.

There's an elven colony not too far down the coast, but they don't trade with the humans anymore, after an incident a few years ago that left both sides wanting revenge.

On the System or Theory of Pharmacology

An old textbook found in a ruined house, pointing to an old secret that has repercussions today.

ON THE SYSTEM

or Theory of Pharmacology

or, a Treatise

concerning the Principles

of the

New Elements of Medicinal Preparations

The book describes a wide number of medicines for all sorts of ailments.  Some make use of astrological theories, but most have a basis in some kind of medical knowledge.

There are a number of handwritten notes in the margins, but enciphered in some way to protect their secrets.  Dangerous poisons?  Private memoirs?  Secret confessions?

A folded-up page is tucked in the book, an old single broadsheet newspaper that's been folded and unfolded many times.  The main article is about someone famous at the time being poisoned.  It's not clear from the article whether the poison killed them or not.

The book and the newspaper were published within a year of each other in the same city, a decade or so after the apocalypse.  There's a chance the author might still be alive today.

After forty years or so, how could the secret in the margins still matter now?

Trouble at Mudwater

A random scenario I rolled up this morning:

The Hunting Party

Returning from the turkey hunt.

The rain has finally stopped, though it's still cloudy.  A cold wind is blowing.

You're traveling through an oak forest in a valley, a place of large trees with high-up branches.  This forest is an old, quiet place. You hear little but the wind rattling the branches and the creaking of the trees as they sway.  Large boulders are strewn about, deposited here long ago.  A creek flows down the valley to the southeast.

A voice calls out in the trade pidgin language, telling you to stop.  A group of humans emerge from their hiding places, muskets in hand but not pointed at you.  Their leader is a young man, not yet twenty.  He seems jumpy and nervous.

They're a group of nine in total, with a few lanky dogs following along.  Everyone is bundled up against the cold.  Some are carrying dead turkeys.  By their spiky hair, you might recognize them as people from the Snapping Turtle tribe, famous for being tireless runners and eager traders.

They were on their way home from a hunting trip when they spotted something unusual: large footprints and fresh droppings in the woods, like those of a panther, but bigger.  They followed the signs to this valley, but the trail has since gone cold.  Now they're not sure if they're hunting or being hunted.  Anything could be hiding amongst the boulders and fallen logs.

If you'd like to travel with them, they'd appreciate the extra pair of eyes.

(The big cat is very hungry and has been watching them for a while, staying downwind.  It would prefer to just grab the turkeys, but if anyone wanders off from the group, fresh meat would be even better.  If the humans spot the cat and put up any resistance, it'll run off.)

Heading downstream, the valley flattens out.  The oaks gradually give way to aspens with white bark and yellow leaves.  The trees are closer together here with plenty of undergrowth, making it hard to see very far ahead.

The Village

Fog on the marsh.

The weather turns overcast and a fog moves in.  The aspen forest ends at a marshy lakeshore.  Mudwater is the name of this lake, according to the humans.  Their village is on the far shore, a few hours' walk from here.

It turns out to be a well-hidden village, only betrayed by a thin column of smoke rising from the red-leafed maples above the lake.  You can hear the rhythmic sound of someone chopping down a tree somewhere nearby in the fog.

The village consists of four grass huts with a few small dugout canoes outside.  Some old women have a fire going to keep warm as they mash up something in bowls; rice for some kind of drink, apparently.  They're glad to see the group return, but they have some urgent news.

One of the young men translates for you as best he can.  There's another village nearby, at a place called Little Gulch.  The people from Little Gulch keep trying to gather rice from Mudwater Lake even though they're not supposed to, and now it seems they've stolen one of Mudwater's boats.

The hunters discuss matters for a bit and decide it's time to go and steal something from Little Gulch in return, maybe take a few captives while they're at it.  Unbeknownst to the people of Mudwater, Little Gulch had nothing to do with the missing boat.

Things are about to get ugly.