The Lost City of Legend

It could be a lost city of gold, or maybe the silver mine those two men were killed over.  Or maybe it's a whole lost kingdom in the mountains, full of jade and fruits and luxury.

Legends of lost and bountiful places make for great adventure.  They're a great way to combine searching for a lost treasure with exploring the wilderness.

Overgrown Ruins - Nicole Cadet

Lost places come in many kinds.  For this article, I'll be focusing on five:

Lost Place (d10)
1-2	a lost Mine for a valuable mineral
3-4	a lost City of wealth and wisdom
5-6	a lost Tomb that might contain power and truth (along with bones, of course)
7-8	a lost Colony built around a bountiful crop or healing waters
9-10	a lost Country ruled by a good philosopher-king

Legends of lost mines show up all throughout America, and they're easy to drop into a setting just about anywhere.  A ragged mountain man shows up in town one day with some bits of silver they don't want to talk about, and presto: the legend of a mine is born.  (A legend of a lost mine can easily overlap with a gold rush.)

Lost cities are a bit harder to hide, but in a vast enough wilderness full of hostile people and hostile terrain, just about anything could be out there.  In a land that has suffered a great apocalypse, there's always the possiblity that a wealthy city once existed whose inhabitants all died, leaving their treasures behind.

Tombs and burial mounds are left behind by many civilizations, and it's no surprise when their richest people are buried with great wealth.  Most of these get plundered almost immediately, but every now and then the tomb of a powerful ruler is lost to time (like the tomb of Genghis Khan).

Colonies don't usually disappear, but when they do (like Roanoke) speculation runs wild.  Did they leave for greener pastures?  Did they all die?  (A search for a missing colony can fit well with a great migration going on.)

A lost country is much like a lost city: hidden by distance and unknown country more than anything else.  Legends of the great power to the north or the Jade Empire to the west might turn out to be true.  Medieval European legend spoke of a great Christian kingdom somewhere beyond the Arab world, ruled by the wise Prester John.

Let's roll up a lost place as we're going along.  4: A lost city of wealth and wisdom.

St. Brendan the Navigator

What esoteric or secretive group was said to have founded this place?

Supposed Founders (d8)
1	an elven imperial military unit that was supposedly wiped out by a poorly-known enemy
2	a fierce giantish house whose annual monument was made of human skulls
3	an ancient human kingdom said to know secrets of the earth
4	a wise giant poet who led a band of followers into the mountains and was never seen again
5	an elven religious brotherhood that was expelled from the empire
6	a human conspiracy said to practice witchcraft and summon spirits
7	a utopian society of two peoples working as one
8	a company or lone entrepreneur who hired/enslaved workers

A good legend of a lost place starts with its founders: the secret silver mines of the Jesuit order, the lost cities of the ancient ancestors of the west, the tomb of the Crow King.  They supposedly went off to go build this place for their own private reasons.

8: A company or lone entrepreneur who hired/enslaved workers.  I'm imagining one of the powerful elven trade corporations, going off and founding a secret city somewhere in the Northern Lands, as their own private enclave, outside of imperial authority.

But how have they managed to keep it secret all this time?  Why would they want to keep it secret in the first place?

Reason for Secrecy (d12)
1-3	so the authorities couldn't take a share of its wealth
4-6	so their enemies wouldn't destroy it
7-9	so they could prepare for war
10-11	because they all died before it could be discovered
12	to wait until the world was ready for its revelation

9: Secret so they could prepare for war.  A corporation founding a secret city so they could prepare to wage war against...another company?  One of the major colonies?  The empire itself?  Some kind of great intrigue was going on with this place, intrigue that might still matter in politics of today.

The secret city of the Indigo Company, full of guns and ready for war.

(Looks like I need to finish that blog post about random trade companies.)

All they found was "Croatoan" carved on a tree.

Some clue gets the adventure started.  Roll to see how the protagonists become aware of the legend, then roll again for another clue to get the ball rolling.

Clues of Its Existence (d12, twice)
1	an incomplete map with very specific directions
2	a ragged traveler on the brink of death who claims to have found it
3	an old story of an explorer who made several attempts to find it, never returning from their last
4	an old wooden object, carved with a revealing name or sign
5	a small golden item with a face that has a strange feature
6	an earlier site that turned out to be unsuitable for it and was abandoned
7	tales of a treasure hunter who found signs of it a while back
8	a piece of artwork depicting it in its surroundings
9	a widely-believed prophecy
10	records of the disappearance of its creators
11	a song or nursery rhyme that everyone already knows
12	an old book with some pages torn out

10: records of the disappearance of its creators.

Digging around in records of the Indigo Company (trying to find out what happened to a ship, the Saint Tevel) the party notices a curious pattern.  Several major administrators' records all stop in the year 1602 without any note that they died or left the company.  1602 is also the year several of the IC's ships disappeared, along with a sizeable amount of wheat, gunpowder, and gold.

7: tales of a treasure hunter who found signs of it a while back

Everyone who knows about the indigo trade has been telling the party to look for the wreck of the Saint Tevel down in the southern isles, but there's one account of a treasure hunter who claims to have seen the ship's bell in a human town up north.  That treasure hunter might still be alive.

A View of the Monuments of Easter Island - William Hodges

As they investigate the story, the adventurers should learn of some particular landmarks that lead to the lost place.  Whether there's an explicit map or just some bits and pieces of information about a journey, the tale tells of landmarks along the way.  (Three sounds like a good number.)

Landmarks in the Tale (d20, thrice)
1	an out-of-place name or sign carved on a tree
2	a cairn of stones with an unexpected artifact underneath
3	a rock that looks like a face from the right angle
4	an island surrounded by cliffs with only one safe landing place
5	a two-headed mountain whose peaks line up with another feature
6	a tribe of humans with an unusual appearance
7	a stone statue from an ancient civilization
8	a copper medallion, wrapped in cloth and recently buried
9	sunlight on a certain day of the year shines through a gap to show the way
10	a single tree that bears fruit in the wrong season
11	strangely-colored birds who line their nests with something valuable
12	a tree that has grown around bones
13	a shipwreck quite a ways from the shore
14	a mighty waterfall that can be heard for miles around
15	a lone tree in a dry and barren land
16	the place where jade and copper are traded once a year
17	ruins of a settlement that was utterly destroyed
18	a deep shaft into the earth where mining once failed
19	an underground journey beneath the high mountains
20	one of the great natural wonders of the world

18: failed mining shaft, 17: ruins of a settlement, 5: two-headed mountain

The treasure hunter's story eventually led them to the human town up north, where the party met an old human woman who had heard stories of elven castaways from her grandfather when she was a young girl.

She told them that the elves were shipwrecked and built a town to survive the winter, and that they killed many of the humans.  Her grandfather led an army to subjugate the elves, destroying their town and enslaving them to do menial work.  They were taken somewhere off to the west to work in the ancient mine where the two-headed mountain becomes one.

In the Longhouse - Lewis Parker

As the legend spread outwards from its source, it changed, getting less accurate as the miles and years wear on.  From the adventurers' perspective, the legend usually gets more accurate as you get closer.

When entering a new region or country, roll to see how the legend changes.  If you're on the right path, the local version of the story is more accurate than what you heard before.

Development (d6, occasionally)
1	It gets bigger. (The lost city of gold? They say it's the capital of a whole empire.)
2	It gets older. (The colony of Nayan? According to the journal, it was founded on the site of an earlier settlement.)
3	It gets smaller. (Seven cities of jade? There's only one that I know of.)
4	It gets darker. (The old mine of Taratessa? I hear they massacred all the slaves working down there.)
5	It changes into a different type. (The fabled Snake Kingdom? They say its wonders were all buried with its last king.)
6	The legends lead you to something similar, but underwhelming. This is not it, but a lesser place confused with it in the stories. The true place is still out there.

4: It gets darker.

Journeying into the northwest, the adventurers come to the Black River country, where they eventually find the mine once worked by the elven castaways.  There they read the words the elves left behind, scratched onto rock and written with blood.  The castaways were planning to escape and rejoin the other ships at the site of the secret city, and their writings reveal something dark about the purpose of that place.

I have some ideas of what the dark purpose of the city could be, but I'll wait till I've rolled on the last table below.  Something about the nature of the apocalypse?

Seekers of the Seven Cities of Gold - Jim Carson

The lost place will not be easy to find.  Following clues and legends is hard enough, but there are other reasons the journey will be difficult.

Difficulties (d10, twice)
1	It's much farther inland than the legends say.
2	It's in a very rugged/dangerous country.
3	The legends have gotten it mixed up with a different place.
4	It was moved/rebuilt at a new site.
5	It's now underwater, covered by the sea/river/swamps, possibly only visible at low tide.
6	Someone powerful is gaining great wealth/knowledge from it.
7	Its builders (or their descendants) still defend it.
8	Searching for it will draw the attention of a cruel enemy.
9	It's buried under a present-day settlement, reachable only by a deep well or chasm.
10	A strange and fearsome species dwells in the vicinity.

2: rugged/dangerous country
5: now underwater

The secret city of the Indigo Company was built in one of the fjords of the inhospitable northern coast.  Mountains in the interior, rocks and fierce storms on the shore, there's a reason the elves never officially ventured this far north.

When the apocalypse came, a great wave destroyed the city and its ruins are now only explorable at low tide.

Discovering a Lost City - Søren Bak

Discovering this lost place will change things in ways beyond the control of the protagonists.  There could be a powerful artifact here or immense wealth.  This place could contain truths that should have remained hidden, or it could be the sign spoken of in the prophecy.

Effect of Its Discovery (d10)
1-2	It contains something amazing: a lost technological marvel, a magic tool from folklore, or a lost treasure.
3-4	You will learn the secret behind the rise of one of the great powers of the world.
5-6	Immense wealth can be found inside, though it'll take a lot of work to extract/transport it.
7-8	Kings and governors will wage war over this place.
9-10	The prophecy will come to pass and a sign will be seen in the heavens.

1: It contains something amazing.

The secret city of the Indigo Company contains a lost technological marvel of the age before the world ended, a great engine that could detect deposits of gold from hundreds of miles away.  It functioned best in the cold winds of the north, and it consumed great quantities of coal each time it was run.  But it also caused catastrophic side effects that eventually collapsed the land around the secret city, and it was smashed by the great wave.

They knew about the side effects, and they didn't care that it would eventually destroy the city and kill its inhabitants.  As long as the Company gained enough gold to fund its army, they didn't care how many lives would be lost in the process.  But the city failed before the Company could find the gold.

So of course the adventurers discover the logs of the distant gold detected by the engine, along with plans for the engine itself.  The Company survived the apocalypse.  It's not so clear the adventurers will survive the Company.

---

Roll up your own lost place of legend:

random Lost Place
lost place
supposed founders
reason for secrecy
clues of its existence
landmarks in the tale
development as you travel
difficulties
effect of its discovery

The Lost Treasure of...

Going on an expedition for lost treasure is a staple of adventure stories, from Indiana Jones to the Argonauts.  It's an easy formula, which is why it works: a prize to inspire you, a journey to find it, trouble along the way.

Signs in the Wilderness is about the bright future that lies ahead, opportunity for those bold enough to take it.  Treasure is one of the great opportunities that drives an entire campaign.  (Previously we looked at a gold rush and a great migration.)

For a treasure hunt, first you need to know what you're hunting:

Treasure (d8)
1-3	lots of valuables	(d6) 1: gold doubloons, 2: silver dollars, 3: rings, necklaces, and other jewelry, 4: diamonds/rubies/emeralds/sapphires, 5: paper money or certificates, 6: set of identical statuettes/carvings
4-6	single piece of artwork	(d6) 1: statue/figurine/mask of stone, jade, ivory, or gold, 2: painting/tapestry, 3: crown/scepter, 4: large gemstone, 5: intricate necklace, 6: chalice/bowl/cauldron
7-8	miscellaneous	(d6) 1: taxidermied body of an unknown creature, 2: book of secret knowledge, 3: ancient sword, 4: ship, 5: bones of a saint/ancestor, probably wrapped or in a decorated container, 6: great new invention

A good treasure needs a name.  It's going to be talked about a lot, from gossip to newspapers to ancient clues, so be sensational.  Some names to get you started:

The Scepter of Ranava, the Lost Treasure of Bear Canyon, the Chalice of the Flying Serpent, the Beacon of the Dawn, the Tapestry of the Green Temple, the Accursed Emerald, Captain Hill's Treasure, the True Relic, the Silver of the Seven Shrines, the loot from the Ten Century Heist, the Great Wonder of the North, the Ivory Standard, the Empress of the Isles, the Thirty-Seven Certificates...

What you'll have to do to find this treasure depends on how it got lost in the first place.  Roll to see how it was lost, which might suggest the type of clues left behind as to its whereabouts:

Lost (d8)			clues
1	lost by accident	shipwreck, wagon went off a cliff, fell overboard during a storm, left behind when its keepers were driven off	there might have been survivors, someone recorded/remembers them passing by, the owner of the vessel/treasure knows where it should have gone
2	deliberately hidden	buried/hidden/disguised to keep it away from the law, tax collectors, pirates/bandits, enemies in war	they might still be alive, left clues/map for their allies/heirs to recover it
3	keepers are gone	kept in its usual spot, but everyone who knew about it died, could be recently lost or from an ancient civilization	rumors that they had a treasure, historical clues about who they were and where they lived, accounts from those who saw it on display
4	stolen	discovered and taken to a private collection, stolen while in transit	witnesses and survivors, signs of a break-in, someone tried to sell it
5-8	complicated	It was lost one way, then lost even further another way.  Roll (d4) for each.

If this treasure isn't sounding fantastic enough yet, roll up an exciting fact or two about it.  The treasure needs to be so important that adventurers might risk their lives for it.

Significance (d12)
1	many treasure hunters have lost everything seeking it, both fortune and blood
2	many people have died defending it or keeping it hidden
3	reputed to have magical or healing powers
4	religious/ceremonial: from a shrine, long used in political ceremonies, too sacred to gaze upon, etc.
5	from the founding ancestor of a tribe/lineage/city
6	from a major historical event: famous explorer, major battle, day of peacemaking
7	a war or great battle was fought over it
8	many believe that it was not made by people, but instead fell from the sky, grew from a seed, was made by the spirits, etc.
9	said to be cursed, or is part of a widely-believed prophecy
10	very large, or a set of similar objects
11	contains something very valuable within it (possibly another random treasure)
12	a small piece of it is already famous, on display, used in ceremonies, a symbol of an entire tribe or city, etc.

Where do you first learn the information that gets you started on the treasure hunt?

News (d6)
1	article in the newspaper or news from the town crier
2	dying words of a stranger or something they're carrying
3	someone you know asks for help or wants to hire you
4	finding a clue hidden somewhere, maybe in an old book
5	overhearing/reading a private conversation
6	public discussion, everyone is talking about it

Other people will make this treasure hunt more complicated.  Roll twice:

Trouble (d8)
1	A rival treasure hunter/expedition is already on its trail.
2	Whoever's responsible for it being lost wants to keep it that way.
3	The people who live near it will fight to keep outsiders away.
4	The rightful owners want it back, or there's a dispute about ownership.
5	Whoever has it now (or controls the area where it's hidden) will do anything to keep it.
6	Everyone knows you're searching for it and they all want a cut.
7	The authorities demand their share, possibly the whole thing.
8	Someone has information you'll need, but they're in jail, exiled, or in hiding.

How is it situated now? Roll twice, then put the results together in some way: they both apply at once, or one happened first and then the other.

Situated (d12)
1	underwater
2	sunken into mud, possibly in a swamp or marsh
3	in a gully, gorge, or canyon
4	underground
5	in or under vegetation that has grown around it
6	deliberately sealed in a crypt or locked away in a safe or vault
7	on display in public, but disguised in some way
8	in a private collection, maybe in a temple/shrine
9	surrounded with traps and hidden spikes, maybe in a giant's trapped treasure hoard
10	very far away from where the party is or where they might expect it to be
11	in the territory of a very hostile group
12	in difficult terrain: rugged mountains, harsh desert, thick swamp

Roll up your own lost treasure:

random lost treasure
treasure
lost
significance
how you hear the news
trouble
situated

Better living through alchemy

They're in every home and shop in the land: paper packets full of powders and tablets, glass bottles of unguents and solutions, pots of foul-smelling pastes.  Everyone swears by the alchemical products of the elves, many bearing the familiar red sign of the Three Spoons company, makers of those horrid pills your grandmother used to make you take.  They're an old-fashioned product for a scientific age.

They don't always work.  Some of them never work.  In fact, it's unclear if alchemists have had any real success since inventing gunpowder.

Most magic isn't real.  But every once in a while it turns out to be true.  Maybe most alchemical solutions are phony, but there's that one gooey liquid that actually turns iron into gold.  Maybe most monsters are just rumors, but the spiny tree-goat turns out to be real.

Signs in the Wilderness is a setting full of rumors and superstitions.  Most of them are false, but just enough of them are true that you can't afford to dismiss any out of hand.  I like a truth rate around 20%, low enough you can rail against superstitious yokels, but high enough there's always a nagging worry in your mind.

When you find some alchemical product on a shelf, check to see what it is:

Form (d20)
1-4	powder in a paper envelope
5-7	envelope of tablets
8-10	thin liquid in a glass bottle
11-13	thick, goopy liquid in a glass bottle
14-15	pot full of thick paste
16-17	dark glass bottle of pills
18-19	solid block to be crumbled up or dissolved, wrapped in paper
20	something immersed in liquid

Hopefully the label (or some handwritten note) says what this stuff is supposed to do:

Purpose (d10)
1-4	medicine	(d8) 1-2: cure a particular ailment, 3-4: heal a wound, 5-6: avoid a future health problem, 7: give energy / prevent sleep, 8: dangerous longevity treatment
5-7	flammable	(d8) 1-3: works like gunpowder, 4-5: firestarting material for wet wood, 6-7: explosives, 8: stuff ignited by water/air
8-9	miscellaneous	(d8) 1-3: substance that glows for a while, 4-5: help crops grow, 6: caustic acid that eats through just about anything, 7: very strong glue, 8: treatment for a tool/weapon to make it tougher
10	transmutation	turn one substance into another (d8, roll twice) 1: some kind of stone, 2: water, 3: ash/sand, 4: glass, 5: air / flammable gas, 6: iron, 7: mercury, 8: gold

This stuff is difficult to work with.  The reason might be marked on the label, but it might not:

Problem (d6)
1	must be kept away from light/heat/moisture
2	fragile, has a reaction if shaken/broken
3	ridiculously flammable
4	terrible stench, gives off noxious fumes
5	stains anything it touches
6	more poisonous than you'd like

The big question is how useful this stuff actually is:

Effectiveness (d8)
1-3	It doesn't actually do anything.  People say it's working, but in a way you can't see, or that it takes more time, or that you just got a bad batch, or that you need to mix it with something else (that actually works).
4-6	It does just a little of what it's supposed to to, but it causes some harm/damage that's small or temporary enough that you might put up with it.  People say that's how you know it's working.
7	It does what it's supposed to, more or less, but it has an additional Problem.
8	It works as advertised, but it (d6) 1-2: is no longer manufactured, 3-4: is very expensive, 5: is all that's been made so far, 6: will cause an unwanted result days or months after use.

Products like these are common in elven settlements, as well as anywhere among people who trade with the elves.  The further you get from the elven cities, the rarer alchemical products are.

random alchemical product
form
purpose
problem
effectiveness

Great kingdoms long ago

Before the apocalypse, before the elven ships ever came across the sea, there was a human civilization that rose and fell, leaving traces to this very day.

Mississippian mound-builder society

Decide what they say about this society, if anyone still tells stories about it.

What was it like? (d6)
1	A peaceful utopia on a lake that fell to betrayal.
2	A maritime society based on an island that sank beneath the waves.
3	Five cities that warred and traded, with high kings and legendary craftsmen.
4	A mighty empire whose god-king ruled with an iron fist, whose capital was consumed by the forest.
5-6	There was no ancient lost society. The height of human civilization is yet to come. (Stop rolling here.)

Inca procession (Ned Seidler)

How long ago did it fall? The older it is, the less remains of it today.

When did it fall? (d6)
1-2	Over a thousand years ago. Only one culture still remembers it. A few ruins and artifacts survive.
3-5	A few centuries ago. Early elven explorers heard legends about it. Artifacts and stories are handed down in families with a veneer of myth.
6	During the apocalypse. Some elders alive today were part of it. Leaders appeal to the old society as a source of legitimacy. Treaties from those days are still invoked. Sites are still known and many artifacts still in use.

Easter Island statues (Fernando Baptista)

Choose 1-3 remnants of the old civilization.

What signs are left? (d6)
1-2	great stone statues of people or animals
3-4	golden amulets, breastplates, wands, figurines
5-6	earthen mounds as holy places, fortifications, burial sites of ancient kings
7-8	animal figures across the landscape, cut from turf or earth
9-10	hidden knowledge passed down by a few

Scythian golden ornaments (Ariadne Galleries)

---

In my own version of the setting, there are two ancient societies:

• One religion among the humans originated in one of the five cities that fell over a thousand years ago, in the interior of the continent.  Heavily-worn, cryptic stone statues and odd bits of goldwork remain.
• One human tribe is all that remains of a mighty kingdom that fell a hundred years ago, a generation or two before the apocalypse.  The elves have heard legends of it, but don't believe they're true.  The kingdom left earthen holy burial mounds with treasures inside.  Their descendants appeal to the memory of the old kingdom all the time, keeping up the royal lineage, the old religion, and its complex taboos and laws.

Try rolling up your own:

great civilizations of old
What was it like?
When did it fall?
What signs are left?

Tech after the apocalypse

This is a world of inventions and contraptions, a world where technology marches ever onwards. The apocalypse destroyed the old world, but so much of its knowledge survived. Here in the ruins, new things are invented all the time.

There are two (somewhat contradictory) things to know about technology:

• The finest things come from the Old Country before the fall.
• The best things are being invented now.

Old Finery

The old elven empire was a land of millions of people in the early stages of an industrial revolution.  They had the finest silversmiths and gemcutters, the most precise instruments, and wealth—so much wealth, almost beyond imagining.

(astronomical clock of Prague, Jay8085)

When the people of the North first saw elven ships come sailing across the seas, they saw a great opportunity.  Wealth had come to them, in forms they never imagined, and they were determined to get some of it for themselves.

(Spanish galleon)

Today, after the end of the old world, elven finery from the lost homeland is highly treasured.  Old things are repaired and reworked many times over, so the ivory handle of that knife might have been part of a mantlepiece once, and the hands on that clock have been soldered back together a few times.

Elven technology usually seems overcomplicated, with too many moving parts prone to failure.  And with the industrial base of the empire gone, every moving part has to be made by hand.  The toys of the old world will eventually break down for the last time.

Modern Invention

(David Bushnell's submarine Turtle)

But let's forget about the past with its cramped cities and hidebound ways.  This is a new world, vast and full of opportunity.  People today are moving on, taking apart the fancy doodads of the olden days and making them into useful things, profitable inventions to hunt and fish and till the land.

In Finnish mythology, the Sampo is a many-sided mill that makes all the things you need in life, crafted by the gods and fought over on earth.  Wondrous treasures like this are common in fantasy, given by (or stolen from) divine and legendary beings: Excalibur is given by the lady of the lake, Perseus got his winged sandals from Athena, Sigurd stole his ring from Fafnir's hoard.

Taking after American stories, Signs in the Wilderness is a place where powerful things are created by mortals, not taken from the gods.  New contraptions and devices are being invented all the time and will surely change the world.  To put it another way...

(Benjamin Franklin, by Benjamin West)

In America, the Sampo is invented.

Random book

All manner of useful books can be found in the ruins or in private libraries.  Use the tables below to generate a random one:

Topic

Roll to see why this book is useful:

Topic (d4)		usefulness	title structure
1	technical manual	how to build/operate inventions (d8) 1: alchemy (gunpowder, medicines, poisons), 2: gunnery (pistols, muskets, rifles, cannons), 3: steam engines (moving minecarts, paddlewheel boats, pumping air/water), 4: shipbuilding (ships, boats, primitive wooden submarines), 5: mechanical systems (gears, belts, pulleys, pistons), 6: flight (kites, hot air / hydrogen balloons, parachutes), 7: music (melodies, complex instruments), 8: ciphers (encryption, codebreaking)	(d6) 1: The Mechanical Codex, 2: A Dictionary of the Art of Flight, 3: Gunnery: or, a Treatise of the Art of Fire-Arms, 4: The Construction and Principal Uses of Steam Engines, 5: The Alchemical Triumph, 6: A Dissertation on Shipbuilding
2	scientific work	science to help you find/use natural things (d6) 1: geology (valuable minerals, caves), 2: botany (plants, herbs, poisons), 3: zoology (strange and dangerous creatures), 4: astronomy (eclipses, comets), 5: anthropology, in a broad sense (customs of other species), 6: physiology (surgery, first aid, wounds)	(d8) 1: Experiments and Observations on Geology, 2: On the System or Theory of Astronomy, 3: A Universal Dictionary of Zoology, 4: A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Anthropology, 5: The Doctrine of Lunar Eclipses, 6: The New Science of Physiology, 7: Elements of the Theory of Botany, 8: Mysteries of Entomology
3	journal	learn from experience about one or two of these (d6) 1: a difficult river journey, 2: navigating along a coastline / island chain, 3: an overland wilderness route, 4: a human/giantish group, 5: barely surviving a dangerous wilderness, 6: hunting strange creatures	(d8) 1: A Short Narrative of the Voyage of the Dragonfly, 2: An Account of the White River Expedition, 3: A Voyage to the Black Sea, 4: A Tour through the Whole of Seal-Eater Country, 5: Voyages and Travels, 6: Description of the Blue Mountains, 7: Journey from Tara Nun to the High Gate, 8: The Travels of Lt. Shima Avalath in the Eastern Isles
4	miscellaneous	(d6) 1: official history, 2: prophecies and predictions, 3: journal of personal observations and secrets, 4: accounting books showing bribes and money laundering, 5: schedule of shipping/deliveries, 6: information about famous people	History of the Shining Spire, Meditations upon Things to Come, Analects of the City of Copper, The Judgement of the Empire, An Account of the Lives and Works of the Most Eminent Silversmiths, A General History of Notorious Pyrates, The True Speaker's Almanack, The Beginning and Progress of the Western War, The True History of the Conquest of the Summer Isles, (untitled)

Details

Roll up to three times for Details about the state of this book:

Details (d6)
1	many woodcut illustrations
2	condition (d4) 1: surprisingly pristine, with crisp pages, 2: poorly printed from bad type, some letters and whole pages being hard to read, 3: worn, with dog-eared pages, 4: falling apart
3	missing pages/chapters
4	something tucked into the pages (d6) 1: a hand-drawn map, 2: a dry leaf/flower, 3: an important folded-up page from another book (roll for Topic), 4: a letter to the previous owner warning of danger, 5: paper money or a note entitling the bearer to some reward, 6: a sketch of an important person/scene/event
5	unusual size (d8) 1-2: large, about a foot and a half across (46 cm), 3: very large, about two feet across (61 cm), 4: easily a thousand pages thick, 5-6: a thin folio of only a dozen pages or so, 7-8: small, about 4 inches across (10 cm)
6	handwritten notes in the margins (d6) 1: corrections from a later scientist/explorer/etc., 2: secret details not included in the main text, 3: hints of further, hidden information, 4: warnings not to pursue some danger, 5: unhinged philosophical ramblings, 6: roll again, but the notes are encrypted

Let's try rolling up a few:

• A handwritten journal of personal observations and secrets, so worn that it's practically just a sheaf of loose papers in an old leather cover.  Notes are written in the margins (in different handwriting) rebutting and contradicting the main text.
• The Construction and Principal Uses of Balloons, a dry text on small balloons and the sorts of meteorological experminents one can use them for.  Handwritten notes on some of the pages seem to be from the author, talking about their experiments with larger balloons that can carry people, but most of the notes refer to their logbook, elsewhere.  There's a strange note tucked in the pages, recognizing that the bearer has deposited twelve silver dollars with the Temple of the Tasselled Drum.

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Money in the North

If you want to get rich, you're going to have to know about money.  Not that actual money is where all the wealth is at, but it's a convenient way to carry some around in your pocket.

Coins

The standard trade coin of the empire is the silver dollar, a large coin that's hard to come by on the frontier.  (It's the size of the old Spanish dollar, an old US silver dollar, or a British 5 pound coin: 1 1/2" = 38mm across.)

Spanish dollar.  (Mike Peel)

One dollar is a fair amount of money, buying you:

• a pound of tea
• an axe
• a sheep
• enough powder and shot to fire a musket 20 times

The dollar is divided into ten shillings, a tiny silver coin.  (A shilling is a little smaller than a US dime, about the size of a 1 euro cent coin: 5/8" = 16mm across.)

A shilling is worth:

Massachusetts shilling.  (British Museum)

• one person's passage on a ferry across a river
• a supper of bread and cheese at a tavern
• half a day's labor
• about a week's worth of candles

The shilling is divided into ten pennies, a large copper coin that's fairly common.  (Their penny is a little bigger than a US quarter, about the size of a 2 euro coin: 1" = 25mm across.)

A penny isn't worth much:

"Mind your business" penny.

• the toll for crossing a bridge on foot
• a single biscuit
• half a gallon of cider
• three ounces of tobacco

Back before the apocalypse, the empire used to make a few gold coins as well.  The ten dollar gold piece is rare now, but you can still find the twenty dollar gold doubloon.  (A doubloon is about the size of a US half dollar, a bit bigger than a 2 euro coin: 1 1/8" = 30mm across.)

A doubloon is quite a lot of money, so much that you're going to have trouble finding anyone who will accept one as payment:

Spanish doubloon.  (Goldberg Coins)

• a flintlock musket
• an ox for pulling a cart
• a silver pocketwatch
• a fine saber

Paper Money

If you want to make a large purchase, you don't carry a sack of heavy, jangly coins.  You pay with a promissory note.

A note redeemable for two New York shillings, by order of the corporation.

These are basically IOUs, notes promising to pay someone with real coins later on down the road.  An IOU from a well-known bank in a prosperous city might be easily trusted.  A note from a notorious swindler isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

Many of these are like checks, where you write the name of the recipient on the note so the bank knows who to give the coins to when they cash it in.  Paper money could change hands many times before it actually gets turned in for coins at the bank, so a single note might have been signed over to many different parties on the back.  Cashing in one of those will take some time, as the bank needs to verify all the signatures.

Some paper notes are good for whoever holds them, with no signature needed.  Many banks and companies issued these before the fall; only some of them are worth anything today.

So when someone offers to pay you a substantial sum for a job, make sure you know how they're going to pay.  A thousand dollars in silver coins sounds handy, but it weighs over 60 pounds (28 kg) and makes a lot of noise.  A promissory note for a thousand dollars that's been signed over to many different people is going to take some serious effort to cash in.

Trade

Of course, most people don't have much money in coins or in paper notes.  They deal in trade.  Head down to the trading post and they'll have all their prices listed in dollars, shillings, and pennies, but they might not have any actual coins on hand.

At the trading post.  (Angus McBride)

The trading post pays a dollar for a cord of firewood, but only in trade.  You drop off the firewood and pick out something nice that's worth a dollar.  But this is the frontier, not town, so manufactured goods are more expensive and wilderness goods are less.

(You can also run up a tab, if the shopkeeper trusts you.  But that's for settled people, not rough and tumble adventurers always on the move.)