The Great Dolmewood Treasure Hunt, part 2: Hex Descriptions

 This is part of a series of blogposts

• Campaign framing, timeline, and general details
• Minor tweaks to hex descriptions (this post)
• The Lost Wing,
• The Dawnward Path, and coda.

In this post, I'll be noting details of the Dolmenwood hexcrawl that relate directly to the treasure hunt, or that have been altered to provide more clues for, keep consistency with, or enforce the themes of the main treasure hunt. Outside of involved stuff like the dungeon in the next post, this is really where the meat of the adventure lies. It's not too much to look at of course, because it's meant to let the Dolmenwood setting book do all the heavy lifting, running across different threads the book has already set up like the treasure of Dewidort, the legacy of the Aubrathon, and so on. You might not get much out of this if you don't have the book with you.

art by Honor C. Appleton

Hex Descriptions

• (0301) Smerne. In the ruins, Dewidort's safehouse can be found. It contains incomplete ledgers of his many robberies, clothes useful for disguise as olde timey travelers, evidence of embezzling and stealing from the Summer Lodge (including the theft of "a certaine masque engaging in my Passes of Chelle", and research into the meaning of the word Egrydgenn. He theorizes it means "Show me favor," citing a story about the founding of Smerne.
• (0605) Fort Vulgar:
• The dockmaster's cottage was once a meeting place for the lodge, and PCs in the know will spot signs-- the four-pointed snowflake carved over a door, the three nails in an old painting, and so on. Boglemn has no direct knowledge of the order, but does keep some memorabilia found while re-thatching the roof-- A Scholar's Cap (DWC p. 407), a scroll of the Aubrathon's Drune-language philosophizing, and the seal of the lodge member Brother Shankius, which would be taken as a high-ranking seal by a churchman.
• In Keep Vulgular, the weeds in the courtyard break up a faded mosaic of a monk battling a snow elf, wielding the Heavenseeker Key instead of a weapon.
• (0607) Wight Falls. In Smerne's Lost Hoard, in addition to the standard treasure, is a map of the Ring of Chell with most of the Summerstones marked, with a note "No foole in Dolmenwode is so overfoolishe to set those plates to the inscriptione." There's also a vaguely-sketched plan to steal the Heavenseeker Key and sneak into Heaven, as soon as he can find a convincing angel disguise.
• North of (0901), sort of a 0900 if you will, is the Flayed Queen's Lands. In this hilly hex, hundreds of skeletons cavort and gamble by night, resting or drilling by day. The queen's manse, which is carried about the hex on the back of suffering undead fairies, is home to the Flayed Queen herself, an undead enchanter 10. She is the cursed earthly remains of Saint Grace, brought about by the profanation of her body by servants of the Nag-Lord. Hating the living, she has all memories of Saint Grace's life, and would be a useful source of information to those who can somehow extract the information. If targeted with a remove curse spell, she must save or fall apart, destroyed. If captured PCs beg for their lives or offer to do her a good turn, she will lay a geas on them to locate the body of a giant which she has heard tell of, hoping to animate it as a powerful servant.
• (0904) Court of the Nag-Lord. PCs who make it here may fear that they have to enter the Nag-Lord's flesh palace, but if they're observant, they will spot a dump of sorts, a boggy camp in the shadow of the oozing dome where refuse is thrown-- baubles that do not please the cruel inhabitants, chapes and other holy signs too meager to bother profaning, and bits of flesh, hair, and the less appetizing bones. Miserable goblin misers pick through the remains. In the hut of one of these goblins, fate has placed the Heavenseeker Key, an 18"-long gilded device with intricate ward-teeth, a heart-shaped empty setting in the bow, and a sense of indefatigable patience. If brought through the gate of any fairy road, it will transition from its normal course to that of the Dawnward Path. Many, many humans would kill to get this artifact, and the servants of the Cold Prince would do anything to destroy it. The Nag-Lord's cruelty has so blinded it that it cannot easily remember the key's existence at all.
• (1009) The Anti-Prism. Use this hex as the site of the tomb in Winter's Daughter, if you want to use that adventure. It's suitable as a way to introduce more interest in the Cold Prince, but totally optional.
• (1110) Dreg. Tamrin Tweede of the Mermaid's Arms is the daughter of Sweamy Tweede, the lodge's leader before the schism 100 years ago, and will recognize any lodge symbols or bywords. She remembers stories about Sweamy's acquaintance with a living saint, frequent visits to Morrigan's Crag (1408), and a frightening friend of her father's with a dark cloak and an owl necklace (last Hooded Man member of the lodge, Mirador Unlight). Madame Shantywood is clued into the lodge's existence as well. The shadow manse in her magic mirror belongs to the immortal shadow of Dewidort of Smerne, splitting away his gentility and society and trapping it within the glass to become a better thief. The shadow, Trodiwed, remembers the thief's early days— his fascination with the wolf of Smerne (0301), his explorations around Lake Longmere, and a visit to the lost wing of Castle Brackenwold. He can advise on some of the dangers found there- roll 6d20 and check out the rooms whose area number in the Lost Wing correspond to the numbers that come up.
• (1403) Odd: within the church's meager library can be found Sucha Geas notes-- adversarial research on Saint Grace (her affinity with mossling and fungi, her weird devotion to those Pluritine freaks, her study of the Heavenseeker Key and her quest to attain salvation) and Castle Brackenwold's lost wing (connected to witches and the curse on the Brackenwold line, accessible by anomolous architecture like balconies from nowhere, folds and unfolds in space). The Orbstone contains the soul of a Hooded Man from 750 years ago who was part of the Sucha Geas, so if PCs can talk to souls he would be a useful person to talk to.
• (1405) Orbswallow: still has a cultural memory of Saint Grace's visit, considering her the most polite and well-intentioned of missionaries. It is also remembered that some members of the lodge were often hosted moving back and forth between here and Blackeswell in the weeks after her death.
• (1408) Morrigan's Crag, remembered as a Drune lodge, was in fact created as a convenience for the Sucha Geas, and thus holds some Lodge clues-- roll twice on the d12 Clue Table or come up with something more specific.
• (1508) Brackenwold:
• The church's theological library has single copy of a book on Saint Grace, "Saint Grace, Her Life and Its Questions", running through her alleged status as a devout elf, her soteriological research, her ministry to mosslings and the crookhorns, her visit to Brackenwold's cathedral and inspection of its gargoyles, and her destruction, said by superstitious locals to have come at the hands of the Nag-Lord. If PCs make it onto the roof of the cathedral, they can follow the gaze of gargoyle to gargoyle to gargoyle to eventually find an elven inscription hidden in a niche of the roof: "No gate's strong lock can lack its key/ A church cannot thwart the long-devout/ If they bar you, know they barred me/ beseech lord God and find your own way out."
• Duke Brackenwold's armor, which belonged to King Hadryg in the days of the Triple Compact, features a stylized torc with three empty gem fittings, and over the heart the breastplate shows a lodge sign-- a lockhole with five lines coming off of it.
• The Lost wing of the ducal keep is where to find the ancient well and the Derphan Arch which contains the lodge's original headquarters. More on that in its own blogpost.
• (1604) Blackeswell:
• Site of a Summer Lodge base, now abandoned. There can be found a precis on the Heavenseeker Key, an artifact that can "redirect a fairy road to lead unto the very gates of Heaven". The precis mentions that the Heavenseeker Key is to be kept at the main headquarters of the society "by the gate and well." A message left for members of the order by one "Dame Lythe" boasts that "the plates which show the way to the original Lodge headquarters have been moved to the shrine of Saint Grace." The message is dated to about a century ago. 
• If using the module "The Fungus that Came to Blackeswell", I would recommend introducing it after PCs have gotten a chance to poke around the town a couple times and get sad about the townsfolk dying. The module's map has a broken-down abandoned building (area 11) that would be a convenient place for the lodge.
• (1605) Shrine of Saint Grace in the fungal chasm. Inscribed with the divine spell Beseech (2nd level, opens divinely-locked doors and asks for heavenly pardon. Sort of a niche spell, but necessary to pass through the Derphan Gate these days.), as well as a bronze sheet with rectangular, irregularly-placed hioles in it. If you hold up the plate to an inscription in the side of a Summerstone (one of those stones that make up the Ring of Chell), a message appears in the holes: "Stand by the Brackenwold well keep the der phan arch by fire the gate be shut no more"

Bronze Plate

Summerstone inscription

Overlaid

The Great Dolmenwood Treasure Hunt, part 1: Overview

 Jack Edward has pointed out that it would be cool to have more treasure hunt modules for existing hexcrawls, and one would be especially neat for Dolmenwood.

I happen to have recently gotten Dolmenwood, and wanted to take a crack at it. You'll want to reference your own copy of the hexmap to get a full picture, but you can get a good idea of how the piece fit together even without it.

I would like to break this up into a few posts.

• Campaign framing, timeline, and general details (this post)
• Minor tweaks to hex descriptions
• The Lost Wing, a dungeon
• The Dawnward Path, a fairy road. Would also contain a coda on the project

art by Honor C. Appleton

Framing the Hunt

To set things it motion, it would be neat to give the starting PCs a connection to the Summer Lodge. This should be pretty convenient, as its diverse membership might plausibly have drawn characters of any ancestry or class, so the PCs might be descendants or former accomplices of the lodge's latter-day followers, or they might have a fondness for tales of the lodge's exploits and a desire to restore its purpose.

To give the hunt its proper thrill of adventure, it would be a good idea to set up the Cold Prince as the main threat of the campaign, waxing in power as his spies seek tirelessly to aid his return to Dolmenwood. The Heavenseeker Key, which can cut off fairy roads into Dolmenwood, would serve as a potent check on the Prince's ambitions. See p. 91 of the DWC for suggested events to transpire during the Cold Prince's attempted return. The PCs will also have rivals, in the form of the imperial inspectors described later in this post.

Like many treasure hunts, there is a "most efficient" way for the adventure to go, but as the hunt is simply a framing to direct and enrich the enjoyment of the hexcrawl, the DM doesn't need to worry too much about the trail going cold or the party skipping a few steps. That said, the basic route is for PCs to

1. learn of a powerful artifact, the Heavenseeker Key, upon investigating the Summer Lodge in Blackeswell. This will lead them to seek
2. the original lodge headquarters by finding the Shrine of Saint Grace near Orbswallow, and from there
3. consulting a Summer Stone in the Ring of Chell. This will tell them to seek
4. the Derphan Gate in Brackenwold, which will lead them to
5. the original lodge headquarters. The information they find there will take them to
6. the very cusp of the Nag-Lord's Palace, where they will find the Heavenseeker Key.

Timeline

• 850 years ago, the Triple Compact between the king, the church, and the Drune was formed to throw off the Cold Prince's dominion over Dolmenwood. Using an artifact called the Heavenseeker Key to close off fairy roads into Dolmenwood which the Cold Prince would otherwise have used to reinforce his demesne, they eventually triumphed. After this incredible success, everyone wanted to keep the good times rolling, and agreed to form a group to further cooperate and keep a vigil against the Cold Prince. The kings of Brackenwold called this group the Summer Lodge. The church's contribution formed the Triclavian Order (as the compact was "three nails in the coffin of the Cold Prince"), and the Hooded Men who volunteered for this most un-Drunish task called it Sucha Geas (lit. "The Pitying Endeavor").
• 825 years ago, this project was already broadly disdained and irrelevant as members largely withheld aid and lore from each other and the lodge's patrons withheld funds and resources from it. For the rest of its long existence, the lodge would go through long periods of inactivity punctuated by the membership of some of the stranger renegades and wildcards of Dolmenwood's history, including…
• 700 years ago, the Aubrathon began his great project, a renegade Hooded Man who so offended the cabal's leadership that formal endorsement of the lodge was ended.
• 200 years ago, Dewidort of Smerne rose the infamy, a highwayman who so outraged the land that his records of his membership in the lodge were destroyed
• 100 years ago, the elfmaid Grace-Before-The-Unjust-Punishment, whose remarkable life of unheard-of fairy devotion to the One True God and whose many controversies eventually led to a schism that destroyed the lodge for good. After her fall, the Heavenseeker Key was lost for good.

Tweaks

Make sure historians and sages have appropriate knowledge of the Lodge. Anyone who knows the details of politics between 850 and 100 years ago would have heard of it under one name or another, though they may not know its real purpose.

Nobility, audrunes, and high-ranking members of the Pluritine Church have a 1-in-6 chance of knowing about the lodge and putting some stock by it. Their reaction roll with the party might determine whether they respect the lodge's mission or consider them interlopers and trouble-makers.

When humans encountered on the road roll a reaction roll of exactly 5, they are informants for the Imperial Inspectors, and will turn them onto the PCs' track when appropriate. The Imperial Inspectors are essentially a rival adventuring party, agents sent from outside Dolmenwood by the kingdom Brackenwold is only a duchy of, questing for the Heavenseeker Key on behalf of their masters. They are respectable and strong, but bad at actual dungeoneering in a way that will surely make the players feel like genius underdogs.

• Fritz Nemrot, knight 6. (Vert, six pizzles paly argent) Ring of Vanishing (DWC p. 411). Ring of Facility (cursed to be unremovable, -3 Intelligence) Single-minded and dogged, Fritz leads the party and deals with any hirelings they pick up.
• Kezimira Drupaski, hunter 7. Refused by Hell after offending its strictures, if slain Kezimiria has a 3-in-6 chance of coming back from the dead next Colly. Otherwise, she rises as a wraith (as banshee without wail, DWM p. 13) bound to the Ring of Facility. Somber, distant, laughs at small things.
• Greta Kindergraber, magician 5. (Book of Received Insights: Firelight, Vapours of Dream, Invisibility. Rites: Knock, Lightning Bolt) Many blackbird tattoos, and the Internecine Amulet (resembles a bird ouroboros. When you eat a blackbird raw, gain it as a tattoo. Spend the tattoo to turn into a blackbird until you touch the ground.) Most disdainful of Dolmenwood's whimsical character.

Whenever a random adventuring party is encountered on the road, strongly consider having it be the Imperial Inspectors, 1d6-1 hirelings, and any NPC the players know that they might have managed to recruit.

Details

Lodge Signs

These shibboleths and symbols are found in many surprising places where the lodge once had business.

• Three nails in a row, sometimes taken as three T's, or even three signs of Cwrnus
• A snowflake with four major points to form an X
• A three-fingered salute that starts at the middle of the forehead
• A lockhole with five lines coming off of it
• A blue cravat
• A fan in warm colors

d20 members

Use this reference when you need to source old letters, mention historical names in passing, ex chetera. Doubles as a chronological list. Feel free to change names as needed to implicate PCs' ancestors.

1. Euthraid Polyp, Hooded Bride and first lodge grandmistress. Active 850 years ago.
2. Lord Medigord Helmwit. Cousin of the King of Brackenwold and founding member. Active 850 years ago.
3. Father Chade, a friar and friend of the High Abbot of Wellskeep. Founding member active 850 years ago.
4. Saudreth Owlhame. Hooded Man active 800 years ago. Spy for the Cold Prince, eventually found out and executed.
5. Sir Ulva Monocleese. Active 800 years ago, won the rare affection of the witches of Dolmenwood. Remembered fondly by them even now.
6. Ormyr Aumyr, the Aubrathon. Active 750 years ago. Difficult to summarize, but among other things advocated extreme intellectual openness, war against the mosslings' gods, and the punishment of malicious thoughts. His conduct led to the end of the Hooded Men's formal involvement in the lodge.
7. Haldrime Elderscorn. Hooded Man active around 750 years ago. Lover to and supporter of the Aubrathon.
8. Ghrend the Player. Breggle minstrel and recorder of tales active 700 years ago.
9. Margerie the Wanderer. Cleric of Saint Sedge most well-known by church scholars as a recorder of herblore. Active 600 years ago.
10. Brother Shankius. Holy man and sage active 500 years ago who dedicated himself to the study of fairy roads.
11. Just-War-Nourish, an elf engaged with the lodge 450-500 years ago. Agitated for more active measures against the Cold Prince, aggravating the Hooded Men with pointed study of the Summerstones
12. Lord Neville Brackenwold, the third son of Duke Brackenwold. Active 400 years ago, he was a reliable patron to the perenially-uncoffered group.
13. Modesty Coole, a magician active 350 years ago. Interested in the society of snow elves, she compiled many of the scattered accounts of their court and the lands of Frigia.
14. Mother Mere, a former abbess from outside Dolmenwood whose extensive pilgrimage within the confines of the wood made her a remarkable authority on its shrines, byways, and hidden places. Active 250 years ago.
15. Dewidort of Smerne. Highwayman. Joined 210 years ago, but shamed the lodge. 4-in-6 chance his name is crossed out of any record
16. Dame Theatrice Woldeleigh. Active 150 years ago.
17. Grace-Before-The-Unjust-Decree. A pious elf, joined ~150 years ago, became the Flayed Queen 45-50 years ago.
18. Gremlith Speldare. Braithmaid exile, lover of secrets. During the Saint Grace schism, led the members who wanted to bury the legacy of Grace. Active around 100 years ago
19. Dame Lythe Albrime. During the Saint Grace schism, led the faction who wanted to recover Grace's remains and secure her canonization. Active around 100 years ago.
20. Sweamy Tweede. Last lodge grandmaster. Neutral on the point of Saint Grace, but unable to unite the lodge behind their founding mission, and declared the group dissolved. Active around 100 years ago.

12 Clues

Sprinkle these into situations where you think it would make sense for there to be some material clue relating to the mystery. Use your DM's instincts.

1. Dewidort's Paper Accomplices. 2d6 pieces of rough paper in a lacquered box painted with a shushing face and the phrase "Thou Shalt Not Get Found Out," Touching a pen to a page and uttering the phrase makes a map of everything within 100' of the user on the same level of elevation as them, burning ink all the way through to the other side. Treasure appears 4-in-6 and traps 2-in-6 on the map. At the bottom of the pile are two used pages— one shows part of Castle Brackenwold's lost wing, and one shows a trio of buildings in Smerne (0301), including a secret entrance into a safehouse built into one of the buildings.
2. Adventures in Fairyland, a collaborative work detailing information about the various fairy roads found in Dolmenwood, with multiple authors (including Ormyr, Ghrend, Brother Shankius, and Grace-Before-The-Unjust-Decree) denoting, adding to, and contradicting each other. Study reveals information about one door of each road, plus two or three locations to be found within.
3. Dame Theatrice's Journal, describing her attempts to find Dewidort's stolen treasure and turn it over to the authorities. Describes her suspicion of the shifty townsfolk of Smerne, maps of the region west of Lake Longmere, and notes about wolves, since Dewidort seemed to identify with them (with drawings of eyerolls). A couple latter entries describe Grace-Before-The-Unjust-Decree, an elf with surprising devotion to the One True God.
4. Memorandum from Dame Lythe Albrime, curtly reporting that the body of "Saint Grace" was not found, though her skin was recovered from a crookhorn patrol. Mentions rumors that the body has been taken north to the Table Downs for some unknown purpose. Tear-stained.
5. Receipt from Boroth the Smith. Sets out the material and labor cost for gilding decorations for "a statue of an elfin lady", as well as "right-exacte" bronze sheets with "holes which wilt suit the words they are surely set to". Says that it will be available for pick-up and transport from his smithy in Blackeswell in two months, and notes that it should look "passing beauteous in the green glow".
6. Letter from Grace-Before-The-Unjust-Decree. In flowing elfin script (with the occasional abortive attempt at Mulch writing), thanks "Chief Mulcher Bosoltob" for hosting her, memorializes several pastoral memories. Notes that she has always felt at peace among bracken, fungus, lichens, and mushrooms of all kinds, as her friends have often heard her remark. Promises to visit after her ministry to the crookhorns of the Nagwood to help calm tensions between the chief's village and the nutcaps.
7. Memorandum from Gremlith Speldare. Warns against further attempts to recover the remains of Grace, as she has learned of a new power in the Table Downs, a grotesque and powerful undead queen
8. Locket, containing a cameo a severe hooded man with a single eye, as well as a note. "Though to be far from you is arduous, it is a balm to my heart that in protecting the Ring, I am protecting also the message concealing your order and the Key, and thus a part of your Sucha Geas."
9. Account of Key, assistant-scribe. Mentions all he has managed to learn about the construction of Brackenwold Keep, including that it encircles an old well, as well as the Tened, Sko, Alasay, and Derphan gates. Some musings about the correct translation of what these words might mean follows.
10. Lythe's booklet. Stuffed with several paper screens intended to cover different passages of text to reveal humorous messages. All-clear reports regarding the Cold Prince's agents, save for concerning rumors about a Snow Elf embassy near some waterfall.
11. Proposal regarding Fort Vulgar Lodge, suggesting that the order re-establish a base there in light of concerning rumors about a "Nag Lord" operating in the northern woods. "After all, it may transpire that news will be pursued and halted before it gets all the way back to to Derphan and headquarters."
12. Exhortation of Just-War-Nourish. Epistle to all other members of the lodge, pointedly asking why we rest on our laurels. Why does the grandmaster not constantly badger the duke for funding? Why do our magicians not demand the hooded men forget the errors of the Aubrathon and remember their duty? Why does the Heavenseeker Key linger in our headquarters when it could be plugging some byway into Dolmenwood? And so on. 

VtM 5e: Twenty Obtenebration Rituals

 By now you're hopefully used to my eclectic gaming interests. This is hardly one of the OSR topics that serve as my blog's bread and butter, but I'm running a Vampire the Masquerade duet game for my husband and wanted to share some of that prep here, especially given my unaccountable lack of blogposts in the last month or so.

(Finally getting a lot of use out of my VtM PC generator)

Johann Heinrich Fussli

Clan LaSombra and their study of Obtenebration is an interesting part of the World of Darkness. They study shadows, but it's more freaked up than that because these shadows somehow relate to the place that death is. It really seems like LaSombra isn't that interested in the spirits who inhabit this land, or in the state of their own (presumably destroyed?) souls, but in the power that contact with the death-place can afford them. There is some implication that connection to the Abyss drains you of emotion, of connection to life that is already tenuous for the undead Cainites, and so it's something I want to dive into a bit for my duet game, which features a LaSombra protagonist.

The following rituals can be learned by anyone with sufficient dots in Oblivion, just like normal rituals. They take a bit of vitae and a few minutes of work, as well as a Resolve + Oblivion vs difficulty 1 + ritual level. As this is for a duet game, I'm not bending over backwards to balance them against everything else, but hopefully they're close enough to baseline assumptions to be useful or at least interesting to you.

Because I came up in older editions of the game, I'll use "Obtenebration" to refer to Oblivion abilities specific to LaSombra, but Oblivion to refer to the game ability and the more general study shared with other clans like the Hecata.

The Rituals of Shadow

Draining

• Level 1
• The caster performs a simple ritual, filling a jug and emptying it in solitude while reciting an incantation of babel they themselves wrote in a trance of automatic writing. If observed, the ritual has no effect.
• Gives a penalty equal to dots in Oblivion to nonmagical invective, seduction, or other attempts to incite emotion from or about the caster for the rest of the night. 

Spear Against Crocodiles

• Level 1
• The caster recites a spell they have copied out themselves from a scroll, which they must carry with them.
• Places a ward against the abyss on the caster, giving a 2-dice penalty to all attacks against them by ghosts and other creatures of the abyss, as well as attacks using obtenebration. While carrying this scroll, their own obtenebrations are at a 1-die penalty.

Secret Combination

• Level 1
• The caster wets a thread with their own vitae, then wraps it intricately around the left hand of a willing "ordinate"-- from right side of wrist to the left side of the ring finger to right side of wrist to left side of wrist to left side of thumb to right side of ring finger. A promise is made.
• Binds the willing target to a vow of secrecy. The first time they reveal a secret so bound (without having this ritual reversed by the same caster), they take aggravated willpower damage equal to the ritual's margin of success, plus 1. However, they get a bonus to resist supernatural attempts to probe the secret (e.g. telepathy) equal to the margin of success.

Sacrament of Life

• Level 1
• A cup or cauldron is brought to the caster, who stirs it with a metal wand. The liquid bubbles and rises to the lid of the vessel.
• Nourish mortals with blood as though it were a steak dinner, OR multiply volume of blood (though not nourishment) for greater enjoyment, increasing its volume by 2 + margins of success times.

Arthame

• Level 1
• The caster runs their nails along a knife, giving a prayer of encouragement. Soon enough, their shadow hands them a knife, weightless and thin.
• The knife, made of shadows, ignores all armor. Superficial damage it inflicts is not halved. If the blade is discarded or dropped, it disappears. If it disappears before tasting blood, the caster takes 1 aggravated willpower damage.

Lucifuge

• Level 2
• The caster performs a threefold incantation over a metal candle douter, then takes it up and carries it with them. At any point that night, they can set the douter down firmly while staring into a light source to extinguish it for as long as the douter is not lifted or overturned.
• Captures a single source of light for as long as the vessel is undisturbed.

Raiment of the Temenites

• Level 2
• Requires Shadow Cloak power
• The caster undertakes a focused pantomine, taking up an embroidered bag or sack and feigning the creation of it. After several minutes of "work", they then produce a silken, vantablack gown from the sack.
• It exists until the next sunrise, and anyone wearing the gown gets +1 dot and +1 die to all obtenebration powers, but must make an additional rouse check upon every use. If they would suffer a compulsion, the wearer instead dissociates, and is controlled by the DM for the rest of the scene.

Reprieve

• Level 3
• Requires Oblivion's Sight power
• A skull is cleaned and dried, then the caster incants over it while placing a key (any key) in its mouth.
• Interrogate a skull for information it had in life. It is oddly frantic, and only answers 1 + margin of success questions gainfully. Can advise on skills it possessed when alive, giving +1 die to a relevant skill attempt.

Maleficium

• Level 3
• The vitae of a number of kindred equal to double the current blood bond score of the affected thrall is mixed into a chalice, and the thrall then drinks the blood.
• Break a blood bond, replace it with one-point penalty to act against the wishes of any contributing Cainite. This is one of several similar rituals called Vaulderie, and is commonly found among the Sabbat.

Inanis Res

• Level 3
• The caster fills a glove with decaying organic matter and buries it. Rumors call it a spell of clear conscience, but it is closer to a numb delusion.
• The ritual can cut off a willing participant's emotional concern, negate remorse, destroy a touchstone's hold, or give a bonus to resist blood bond equal to margin of success.

Lampad

• Level 3
• The caster writes a question on a piece of paper and burns it with the flame of a single lantern, then studies the movement of the flames
• Though the flame is small, meditating upon it conjures rotshreck-- the caster must save vs terror at difficulty 3. On a success, the DM intimates some cryptic clue about the answer to their question, and if there is some decisive moment later in the night when the clue would aid in a die roll, the caster gets a bonus equal to the ritual's margin of victory.

Heqau

• Level 3
• The caster squeezes some of their own blood into a bowl, whispers into it, then empties the bowl into a body of water. At their discretion, the bowl may be prepared earlier than night and brought to the water, but if a drop is spilled in transit the spell fails.
• Transforms the water feature into an opaque, heavy expanse. The caster can seense any acute resonances through it, and treats the affected water as their shadow for any powers or abilities that depent on what their shadow touches. The maximum size of the water feature can be quite large, but falls short of, say, an entire lake.

Confession

• Level 4
• The caster reads from a spellbook and dons an intricate black shroud.
• While they wear the veil, the caster gets a bonus equal to their Oblivian score to dice rolls made to gain insight into someone's guilts or shames by talking with them, and to persuasion rolls to convince them to speak to those things when the caster has them alone. If the caster directly announces a secret they learned through this ritual, it loses its potency permanently for them.

Lamen

• Level 4
• A character wears a pendant or amulet for at least 24 full hours, keeping it hidden from sight. They bring it to the caster, who works a small amount of vitae into it and returns it to the recipient.
• Imbues the pendant with the power of the caster's blood. Wearing a pendant made for you gifts half the Obtenebration level of the donor, and non-amalgam powers of up to that level, for 1 night.

Apotrope

• Level 4
• Requires Shadow Perspective power
• Using dull inks and needles, the caster makes a crude tattoo of a staring eye somewhere on their person.
• When the caster is targeted by powers of the dominate discipline, their eyes instead shunt the effect into the abyss, effectively protecting them from the attempted hypnotism. There is a chance that this angers the denizens of the abyss (1-in-10 in unremarkable places, 6-in-10 in sites of horrors), and clever zhivagos can intentionally stir the abyss with their commands on a successful manipulation + occult test vs difficulty 4. This tattoo fades the next time the caster rouses the blood to knit their wounds, but its power persists until the next time the ritual is performed or until it resists 1+margin of success dominate attempts.

Fama Fraternitatis

• Level 4
• The caster spins a needle in a glass vial or inkwell, then slowly works it through the subject-- the earlobe or the webbing of the hand are sufficient.
• Carrying the needle like a dowsing rod, the caster can follow an unseen tether between the subject and someone close to them-- a domitor, thrall, ghoul, sire, childe, or touchstone. For each margin of success, an additional tether can be discerned, if any exist. When distinguishing between tethers, the caster cannot easily tell which leads to whom, but auspex powers like Scry the Soul can provide information as though staring at the person themselves.

Kladenets

• Level 4
• The caster recites a passage of gratitude (traditionally facetious), and leaves a shallow wooden dish containing their vitae on the floor of the space they seek to protect.
• The caster's shadow splits off from them and sups from the bowl. It lingers in the area, guarding it against intrusion. The caster can instruct the shadow regarding objects or people it must prioritize in protection, authorized entrants, and other details. Upon the sunrise, or if the bowl is spilled, the shade dissipates. Some might notice that the caster lacks a shadow on a wits + awareness roll vs 3, but they can grow a new one if they possess the Shadow Cast discipline which increases the difficulty to 6 when the caster is not distracted.

A Well

• Level 5
• Requires Stygian Shroud power
• The caster brings on their Stygian Shroud power, then spends the next few minutes pouring void off of themselves into a well or shaft. They must chant and at least two assistants must drum and stamp.
• The very abyss fills this well, and rituals of Oblivion are performed at +2 dice and +1 hunger. Anything entering into the abyss is presumably destroyed, though LaSombra myth is full of tenebral voyagers who have braved its expanse. The well persists until 24 hours have passed since one rouse check's worth of blood has been poured into it.

Viaticum

• Level 5
• Requires Touch of Oblivion power
• The caster places two coins that the subject has touched in a censor of honey, myrrh, rush, an sorrel, then burns the incense until the coins are hot to the touch and lay them on their palms.
• The subject must be someone with the caster's blood in them or whom the caster has fed on within the past month. The ritual claims the mortal's shadow, allowing the caster to use Obtenebration abilities through it was their own. This grave intrusion causes the mortal to sicken and die over the course of 2d10 days.

Prayer of Temens

• Level 5
• The caster anoints sea foam and mixes it into a balm that they spread over their forehead, palm, breast, and where the neck meets the back of the head.
• For the rest of the night, anyone who would only be able to perceive the caster using powers that pierce darkness or supernatural concealment (such as Oblivion's Sight or Sense the Unseen) must make a resolve + occult test vs difficulty 5 to see the caster.

Teeth of Ahriman

• Level 5
• Requires Forgetful Mind power (Dominate discipline)
• The caster meditates on an incantation.
• While in the abyss or other extents, the caster may feed on mortals who their "shadow passes over" in the living world, whatever that means. As they suffer damage, they start to lose memory and connection-- someone drained enough to sate 1 hunger simply forget a few scattered memories and set aside only potential relationships, while someone drained to sate 4 hunger ignores all but their closest friends and forgets much of their past.

Compline

• Level 5
• Requires Tenebrous Avatar power
• The caster empties their mind and stills their heart as they stopper a vessel specially prepared for this ritual.
• When the ritual is performed, succeed or fail, the caster goes into a deep sleep, only awaking at the start of the next night. During this time, if the spell succeeded, they exist only as a pool of shadow, per Tenebrous Avatar, with all the protections that implies. If awakened before dusk this ability immediately ends. All dreams are nightmares.

Rita Eberle-Wessner

Open Call: Cataphracts (Romance of the Hegemons)

 Hi folks. I'm going to be running a game of Cataphracts, set in a region somewhat like the latter Han Dynasty. If you're interesting in being a commander, reach out! Leave a comment or reach me on discord. It will be conducted over a discord server, and employ the trademark semi-real time elements you associate with Cataphracts.

Don't be a stranger, especially if you're out here on the OSR scene. It's a unique sort of game, and a good chance to make friends. Just keep in mind, it's a game with a stark PVP element.

a very very inaccurate map : )

EDIT: We have our starting characters but will always want people for the subcommander waiting list. Please continue to feel free to reach out.

Testudis (Cataphracts Setting, Hexmap, Rules)

 In describing his logistics-based army game Cataphracts, Sam Sorensen had an interesting problem. It's hard to fully describe a game in which some of the rules, the entire map, and details of the characters and factions are supposed to be hidden information from the players. Being on something of a Cataphracts kick recently, I wanted to try out the method for designing a Cataphracts setting Sorensen describes in one of his design diaries and share how it went. Unfortunately, it was so fun to work on that I like to imagine one day I might run it, so I actually fell into the exact same problem as Sorensen did. Therefore, I made a second Cataphracts setting with the precommitment to share it. I made it as ready as possible for actual play, so that you could theoretically run it right away, even though by publishing it I've introduced a major obstacle, that future players in your game may have read this very blogpost.

So, if you're considering running a Cataphracts game, just consider this a very in-depth example : )

Overview

Three hundred years ago, the empire established a colony on the coast of this rocky, wooded, rain-soaked land, naming it Testudis after the locals' term for the greater island. The people here taught the colony the way to cultivate maize, beans, and squash; methods of gentle forestry; and ways to appease and befriend the many spirits of the land. The empire taught them new ways of carpentry and architecture, brought horses, and made literacy wide-spread.

Though it did not resemble the extermination either group feared, contact was seldom all-peaceful or all-happy. After famines, disease, and several wars both in Testudis and broaching the heart of the empire, it was decided to abandon the furthest colonies to reform the empire into a nimble, sustainable whole. But not everyone wants to go.

Quastor Sabellius leads the abandoned colony, the organized and militant Reliquium towards a goal of self-sustainability, aided by the earth spirit Suibhard engineers they brought from across the sea, as well as their local allies. The agile Pine People, who have never accepted the empire's foreign hordes, calls its confederacy around it to push them into the sea, assisted by legendary humanoids and even demanding the assistance of long-time friends of the colony, the  prosperous River People and the forest-dwelling Hound People. 

The people who rise to the top in this struggle, and the confederacies they form, will radically shape the great island of Testudis and, when contact is one day re-established, the rest of the world.

Faction Sheets

Reliquium

• Client Relationships: when other factions forage, torch, recruit, or pillage in your lands, +1-in-6 chance of rebellion against them. Revolts caused by your enemies are more willing to be bought off by you. 
• Lord of Embarkations: as long as the idol remains in the temple at Parentium, your armies get +1 Morale.
• Unique unit: Peltasts. Infantry. Can make battles take 2 extra days, during which the enemy can drive you back 1 hex (excluding assaults).
• Unique Unit: Clibanarii. As heavy cavalry, +2 to compared rolls after winning a battle.

Starting Commander: Quastor Aquina Sabellius (45. Honorable, Stubborn) The daughter of a River man and an equite of the Reliquium, you have risen through careful politics and officious merit. After the governor received orders to abandon the colony, you were the highest-ranking official to choose to remain. Knowing that your lifelong enemy, the Pine People, will use this chance to rile up the other nations of the Testudis, it's that there is no one left but you who can turn the colony into an independent and dominant state, even if it must be cut off from the empire. Your goals are to:

• Capture at least two strongholds and two towns on the Great River.
• Ensure that you and your allies retain control of the four colonial cities: Basti, Falerii Novi, Reimse, and Tir Gael.
• Ensure Mologa is torched to keep the River People more dependent on you than on outsiders.

Pine People

• Inherited Hunting Paths: Pine People forces have +1 detection distance in forests and can move wagons off-road.
• Dispersed Bands: upon losing a battle, Pine People scatter in all directions and reform unpredictably (including in rout), making it difficult for a pursuing army to locate and immediately attack them.
• Unique Unit: Thunders, golden-haired half-bird men. As skirmishers, but count double in an assault and ignore penalties from weather.
• Unique Unit: Stone Giants, the remnants of a great hero's destruction. As heavy cavalry, immune to disease.

Starting Commander: Warleader Gelelemend (58. Logistician, Brutal, Storyteller) The favorite of every lodge of sachems among the Pine People, respected both north and south, you have been selected as warleader to fulfill the hope of the last seven generations, that your land may be free of barbarian invaders. Once an excellent hunter, now an excellent warrior, are tasked with finally driving the invaders' colony into the sea. Your goals are to:

• Torch the cities of Basti and Falerii Novi
• Marry an important commander from the River People or the Hound People into your confederation.
• Reclaim the White Eagle Pipe from Reimse. As an ancestral artifact of your people, it cannot be allowed to remain in their hands.

Your friend, Chepi (35, Beloved) commands the muster of the Southern Pine People. You must decide what instructions to give him as he raises his forces in Khetottug.

Gelelemend raises his forces in Otoquos while Chepi does the same in Khetottug. The DM should graciously give Gelelemend's orders to Chepi at the start of the game rather than wait for the normal duration of a messenger's travel.

Suibhards

• Stone Spirits: Suibhards cannot ford rivers except in ships. They can build fortifications, bridges, roads, and other infrastructure. 
• Morbid Humor: your people have befriended the Puk-Sukok, a clan of magic pranksters and saboteurs with cruel natures, who can make themselves invisible to anyone they point at. At the start of the game, you have the use of ten Puk-Sukok you can assign to serve as spies or send on operations, and they get +1 to related rolls.
• Unique Unit: Fomors. Heavy infantry, counts quadruple in defensive sieges. One unit can build or disassemble a bridge in two weeks, fortify a camp in two (+2 to defenders), lay out a hex of road in three, or thwart a hex of road in five.

Starting Commander: Ri Ansugaizaz (26. Raider, Siege Engineer) You are the undisputed ruler of the Suibhard, spirits of the earth and the deep, those who who sniffed out iron for the empire, dug trenches, prepared walls, and all the time subtly prepared for the inevitable. Your nature is poisonous and cruel; you must seed the land with destruction, so that sorrow will anchor you and make you true spirits of Testudis, supernaturally revitalizing all the Suibhard. Your goals are to:

• Attain a dominant position over the humans of the Reliquium (your nominal allies), either diplomatically or by seizing Basti or Falerii Novi while retaining both of your cities.
• Feed 10,000 bodies to the Fomors.
• Capture two or more waterside strongholds.

Hound People

• Arrow of Peace: While your confederation is unified, -1-in-6 chance of revolt from overforaging or recruiting in regions you control.
• Looking Back the Long Path: Dead Hound People elders and officers can communicate and make reports, when within 1 hex.
• Unique Unit: Other People, as infantry, count double in forests. Can't be seen from more than 1 hex away.

Starting Commander: Sachem Matoaka (35. Guardian, Beloved) For over a century, your people have enjoyed the friendship and confidence of the colony. You have seen firsthand how they can be led from errant ways and towards dignity and respect for all things. Told by the petty sachems of the Hound People that war is inevitable, it is your remit to secure a place for the Hound People by keeping the Reliquium strong and affording your people access to the wider waterways. Your goals are to: 

• Possess, or be granted total right of travel by, the four forts on the road to Tir Gael.
• Prevent the Reliquium from losing any coastal territory and hold on to all of yours.
• Regain the Bow of Hoennag from Khetottug. Stolen long ago by the Southern Pine People, it is one of few of the original possessions of the first Hound Person.

River People

• Trade Privileges: your settlements and strongholds start with caches loot that you can use at will. 500 for strongholds, 1000 for cities, and 1500 for cities.
• Burn and Slash: gain half a hex's forage value when you torch it.
• Unique Unit: Neeshauog. Infantry, count double on coastline or along river.
• Unique Unit: Katawam Archers: cavalry, count quadruple in advantageous position or chosen battlefield.

Starting Commander: Sachem Callidamates Emeritus/Massasoit (44. Duelist, Ironsides) A trader of great renown, you have seen colonial estates and Pine People war camps in equal measure. Expecting a storm of violent confusion, you mean to leave your people in a good place by the time the fighting is done. The other sachems of the River People have elevated you in the hopes that you could best understand the way forward, and expect quick and decisive action. You more than anyone else in the land have the freedom to decide your friends and enemies. Your goals are to:

• Pay your warriors 20,000 loot over the course of the war to set them up to dominate trade when peace comes.
• Seize two Suibhard strongholds
• Regain the Pipe of Nikkohup from Reimse. As a divine item of your people's long history, it belongs with none other than you.

Army Sheets

Army sheets for each faction can be found here.  Each faction is considered to have raised a huge block of troops in one of their cities (Basti, Reimse, Apuwok Wikun, and Mologa), except the Pine People who start with two armies, one in Nisquan and one in Khetottug. In designing factions, I tried to focus on logistics and simple, practical expressions of each side's theme, especially with supernatural units and abilities. One note for when you're designing a faction's unique units: always consider how well their abilities work when they're just one part of a mixed army. If a unit doesn't check morale for running out of supply, for instance, what happens when it's in an army largely composed of infantry? Typically an army has a single morale score and tests it as a whole. One other thing I noticed was a funny thing about unit strength-- doubling a unit's effective strength sounds really strong, but keep in kind that doubling an entire army's strength only gives it a +1 bonus in a battle against an army of the same size.

Rules

Because some aspects of the current Cataphracts ruleset are hidden from players, some of these rules are my invention to give the DM a method of handling things like weather, disease, or death and dismemberment. A couple of these rules clarify ambiguities or add something specific to the milieu.

• Canoes: Canoes, like ships, can carry people upon water. Ten canoes can carry one empty wagon or as much as one ship, but can themselves be portaged overland. If attacked within a day of having been portaging, you are out of formation. Canoes move 18 miles a day upriver, or 24 miles a day downriver or on the coast. A "forced march" of rowing increases this by 6 miles.
• Operations: Each faction has a stable of five spies, relatively irreplaceable agents willing to do the very risky and disdained work of covert operations. Commanders can always send soldiers, noncombatants, or other officers to do this work, but as for professionals they have five.
• An operation costs at least 100 Loot, in which a spy can be sent to a location or attach themselves to a camp, and begin working towards their goal They move at the rate of infantry. An operation is resolved with an opposed 2d6 roll like a battle or assault, but with the following modifiers:
• The spy gets +1 for another spy's aid, or +2 as a cell of four or more spies. They get +1 if their goal is easy, like spreading rumors or keeping an ear out. They get -3 or more for a hard goal like assassination (which they only attempt against a commander if there's a special opening).
• The target gets +1 for each spy dedicated to counter-intelligence at the location. They get the location's fortification bonus, but the spy can spend weeks of preparation to reduce this bonus. If the populace has been mistreated by the occupying force, it's reduced twice as fast
• A location can't be infiltrated from outside while actively preparing against siege.
• Weather: Every two weeks, roll 1d6 to defermine which region (or none) is affected by rain, snow, erc. This lasts for a month, so it's possible that weather will afflict the same place twice, in which case make the weather more severe and dangerous. Improvise based on the season.
• Disease: Wherever there are lots of dead bodies, or people who can't get clean, there's a 50% chance per month of disease spreading. Roll a d6-1 for each force present, and assign penalties as though they've just lost a battle by that much. Extraordinary measures can give an army a morale test to avoid the worst of it.
• Battles of Three or More Sides: Have each side make its opposed roll against every other side, then take the worst result. For each battle lost beyond the first, just add 2 to the severity of the worst battle outcome.
• Death and Dismemberment: When you're deathed and dismembered, roll 1d6:
• 1-2 simply knocked out
• 3 bad scar and a week of recovery
• 4 lose a hand, eye, or etc. and spend three weeks in recovery
• 5 dying, 50% of being revived if tended to
• 6 stone dead

Maps

Main overland map. Dark green is forests, brown steep hills. Dark brown is typically impassible. Rivers can be forded, unless it has been raining.

Settlement score. Deep red 100, red-pink 80, pink 60, purple 40, blue 20. Surpassing the master, the blue is not the same blue as my water features. 

No place names labeled

Diagetic map. The design diary suggests the creation of such a thing above and beyond what you give each faction, but I'm not really sure why.

Region Details

Cataphracts is a game with a simple chassis. All that is needed for endless variation is the introduction of some simple terrain features, roads, strongholds, and towns. However, introducing little details and hidden sites can probably go a long way to keep players on their toes. By creating unique details for most regions, local guides remain useful, and players will learn that they can't take anything for granted. If you have 40 or 45 strongholds and therefore around that many regions, you can quickly detail each region so that you have 5-8 wizards, 5-8 ways for those wizards to learn new spells, 10+ hazards, 5+ hireable neutral groups, 5-10 unique or improved fortresses, quirks for your 5-10 cities, hidden resources, hidden byways, landmarks, religious sites, and so on.

A region's mustered ships are at rest in their port of call, even though units, canoes, and wagons are all getting mustered in each faction's main city.

Reliquium

Basti

• Muster: 1,300 troops. 800 heavy infantry, 500 Peltasts, 325 Clibanarii, 60 wagons, 5 ships. 
• Feature: Overdeveloped. The empire's firstfall and symbol of tenacity, the city of Basti features a sewer system that can fill the surrounding floodplain with sewage (1-in-6 chance per week of disease among besiegers, advantageous position). A hostile Reliquite or Suibhard can lead a force up through the sewer, trading the fortification bonus for rough terrain penalty.
• Feature: Quastor Sabellius has an inheritance of 1,000 loot stored here.

Matrica- Gandava

• Muster: 600 troops. 640 heavy infantry, 200 Peltasts, 150 Clibanarii, 30 wagons, 5 ships (four in Matrica, one in Gandava)
• Feature: Scorpion Nest. Matrica stronghold has four siege engines loaded on to four ships. Operating these ships within two hexes of Matrica is free (covered by the virtuoso genius of the local adjunct).

Noviomagus

• Muster: 1,200 troops. 800 heavy infantry, 400 Peltasts, 300 Clibanarii, 60 wagons, 2 ships.
• Feature: Lair of Anit— a cavern in the mountain descends into the den of an icy cannibal giant, effective strength 400, inflicts 5% greater casualties. Generally wicked but always repays good deeds. If fully redeemed, spits up his icy heart and turns back into a man.
• In the cave are strange etchings, which a wizard can study for three days to learn the spell Cold Snap, which freezes rivers and, from October to February, increases precipitation by one step. Lasts a week. Takes a week of study to recharge

Parentum- Tingi

• Muster: 1,800 troops. 1,200 heavy infantry, 400 Peltasts, 450 Clibanarii, 80 wagons.
• Feature: Idol of Epibaterius. As long as it is still in the stronghold's temple, the Requilium gets +1 morale for all its soldiers. News of its destruction removes the bonus.
• The prophet Numeria Pictor resides here, and can be convinced to join an army (67, wizard) if she thinks it will protect the Idol. She has scrolls of the spell Augury, which lets you know what an army's 2d6 roll will be if they battle tomorrow. Takes three weeks to recharge.

Abula Pass

• Muster: 1,000 troops. 600 heavy infantry, 400 Peltasts, 250 Clibanarii, 1 ship.
• Feature: When it rains and for a week after, battle and passage is effectively impossible along the river. Even without this, the stronghold and town have an advantageous position (+1).

Falerii Novi

• Muster: 1,400 troops. 800 heavy infantry, 400 Peltasts, 200 skirmishers, 340 Clibanarii, 70 wagons, 3 ships.
• Feature: Marshlands. Travel through the woods here has a 1-in-6 chance of causing disease. The city itself has impeccable baths that have a 50% chance of healing someone suffering from illness.

Berytus

• Muster: 800 troops. 400 heavy infantry, 200 Peltasts, 200 skirmishers.
• Feature: Secret tunnel. Garrison can emerge from a secret backway a hex northwest.

Pine People

Ontoquos- Nisquan

• Muster: 3600 troops. 2,500 infantry, 500 heavy infantry, 600 Thunders, 500 Stone Giants, 400 canoes, 180 wagons.
• Feature: Good wood. Forage here can also create canoes.
• Feature: The ancient Nisquan fortress Potowahoset built into the side of a cliff. Difficult terrain (-1 for attackers) and advantageous position (+1 for defenders).

Tannicke

• Muster: 1500 troops. 1,000 infantry, 500 Thunders, 180 canoes, 30 wagons.
• Feature: The Great Wood People. If the river is followed west, you come to a great dam operated by a tribe historically hostile both to the Pine People and the Reliquium. Their chief, Tummockquauog, could be bribed to join in the war. He has 3,500 infantry and 500 skirmishers, all with their own canoes.

Anshap

• Muster: 1,500 troops. 1,000 infantry, 500 Thunders, 300 Stone Giants, 100 canoes, 30 wagons.
• Feature: House of Father Fox, a medicine man of renown. Hater of the Reliquium and the River People, he would assent to battle either. (49, wizard). He has a scroll of the spell Animal Speech, which lets him ask questions of local wildlife as though they were guides. Recharges in two weeks.

Ottucke

• Muster: 1,100 troops. 800 infantry, 300 Thunders, 50 wagons.
• Feature: Hill of Heads. Flint arrowheads harvested here, and the hill provides advantageous terrain against attackers (+1).

Seaseap

• Muster: 3,700 troops. 3,000 infantry, 700 Thunders, 500 Stone Giants, 500 canoes, 185 wagons.
• Feature: Hidden rapids. 3-in-6 chance of sinking non-Pine People canoes and ships, killing 50% of all occupants.

Wboenuncke- Western Waacoh

• Muster: 4,800 troops. 4,000 infantry, 800 Thunders, 480 canoes.
• Feature: The True Men. A tribe due south on a great peninsula. Historical pacifists, their chief Blaknik could be convinced to lend support in supply, canoes, or noncombatants. If battle comes to them, they have an effective fighting force of about 1,000 infantry.

Pooke- Abamocho

• Muster: 2,400 troops. 2,000 infantry, 400 Thunders, 240 canoes.
• Feature: Golden Walls. The ruins of a city built long ago, before any who live here first came. It affords advantageous ground (+1), and contains etchings of an ancient spell a wizard could copy down in a week, Water from Stone. It allows the caster to squeeze and manipulate stone or wood as though it were soft white cheese for a day. Takes a week to recharge.

Khetottug- Eastern Waacoh

• Muster: 2,800 troops. 2,200 infantry, 600 Thunders, 400 Stone Giants, 300 canoes, 140 wagons
• Feature: Good wood. Forage here can also create canoes.
• Feature: Bow of Hoennag— an artifact of a local hero from the golden age, the Bow never fails to find quarry. Great for a hunter, and means a commander with the bow is never surprised by an oncoming army. The Bow is jealously guarded by the southern Pine People, who will not allow a commander from any other group to carry it.

Skesicos

• Muster: 500 troops. 500 infantry, 50 canoes.
• Feature: Waters guarded by a horned serpent. Intelligent, hungry, venal, she is the equivalent of 2,000 infantry or 10 ships for naval battles if recruited.

Suibhard

Reimse

• Muster: 1,200 troops. 700 heavy infantry, 500 Fomors, 60 wagons.
• Feature: Fomor nest— Both stronghold and city get +2 extra fortification bonus.
• Feature: Hidden Ways— road is underground and can only be accessed at a town or city. If an army approaches Reimse by the Hidden Ways, its fortification bonus is halved.

Domhan Orga

• Muster: 1,200 troops. 800 heavy infantry, 400 Fomors, 60 wagons.
• Feature:  Hidden Ways— road is underground and can only be accessed at a town or city.

Fhomhair- Na Ruin

• Muster: 1,300 troops. 800 heavy infantry, 500 Fomors, 65 wagons.
• Feature:  Hidden Ways— road is underground and can only be accessed at a town or city.
• The road intersects with Coboldine Archive, where among records and myths can be found a spell inscribed on a stone globe— Retching Plague. It sends a wave of disease in a straight line for two days, moving at forced march pace. Recharges in four weeks.

Chroabh

• Muster: 1,300 troops. 800 infantry, 500 Fomors, 65 wagons.
• Feature: Bandit nomads. Messages that pass through here only have a 4-in-6 chance of safe delivery. If an army recruits here, they get more skirmishers than normal.

Gan Smal- Meanfach

• Muster: 1,500 troops. 1,000 infantry, 500 Fomors, 75 wagons, 5 ships.
• Feature: Residence of Tuspaquin, an explorer and spirit-friend who has lived long among the Suibhard. For pay, can be hired to join an expedition. (36, wizard, moves as skirmisher). He has a scroll of the spell Change Size, which makes a heavy unit standard or a standard unit heavy for a week. Takes four weeks to recharge.

Maighdean- Tir Geal

• Muster: 1,400 troops. 800 infantry, 200 skirmishers, 400 Fomors, 70 wagons, 8 ships. Military stockpile of 500 loot.
• Feature: Oil of Mór-Ríoghain— stockpiled flammable fluid. Can coat a six-mile stretch of water in it and ignite it. Those slain do not fully die, but become half-dead. What is not known is that this essentially converts them into deadly draugr, witless (-3 tactics) but never routing and never needing food and never losing nerve (+2) and slowly deteriorating (5% casualties per week March-September)

Stoirmeach- Skeud

• Muster: 2,100 troops. 1,400 infantry, 700 Fomors, 100 wagons, 4 ships.
• Feature: The Ready People. Upriver off the map can be found a tribe of hunters and raiders. They traditionally view the Suibhard as evil spirits, but could be convinced to join in the fighting for loot or promises of land. They have 2,000 infantry, 1,000 heavy infantry, and 200 cavalry, as well as enough ships to carry them.

Hound People

Apuwok Wikun

• Muster: 3,300. 1,800 infantry, 1,000 Other People, 500 skirmishers, 800 cavalry, 160 wagons.
• Feature: Holy site. The city starts with +5 siege morale, and the stronghold is on a high hill, giving an advantageous position (+1).

Apukisuq

• Muster: 800 troops. 400 infantry, 200 skirmishers, 200 Other People. 200 cavalry, 40 wagons, 80 canoes.
• Feature: Ancient Totem. A revered landmark, the totem also encodes a spell which a wizard can copy down in a week. Walking Tree: allow a city, town, or stronghold to move up to one hex, as its occupants desire. Takes three weeks to recharge.

Poqah- Tayupahs

• Muster: 2,000 troops. 1,200 infantry, 400 Other People, 400 skirmishers, 500 cavalry, 100 wagons, 200 canoes.
• Feature: River Spirits— 1-in-6 chance of encountering mischievous miniature humanoids that can upset canoes (delay by 1 day) or multiply supply in their magic pot (double, then run off), based on whether the commander is upstanding and/or sporting.

Wuyitupohtam

• Muster: 800 troops. 300 infantry, 400 Other People, 300 skirmishers, 80 canoes.
• Feature: Good wood. Forage here can also create canoes.

Apuskok

• Muster: 600 troops. 400 infantry, 200 skirmishers.
• Feature: Imprisoned in a deep hole is Akkompoin, a surprisingly knowledgable raider from the Ready People of the north. If freed, will offer his services, though he is shifty and untrustworthy. (20, wizard) Knows the spell Cursed Land, which poisons the forage of a particular hex. Recharges in two weeks.

Yahshawok- Quercium

• Muster: 900 troops. 600 infantry, 300 heavy infantry.
• Feature: Cedar Groves. Pleasant and well-cultivated forests, no impediment to travel. Counts as road.

River People

Mologa- Mskikok

• Muster: 5,000 troops. 4,500 Neeshauog, 500 skirmishers, 1,250 Katawam Archers, 250 wagons.
• Feature: The People of Sunken Pools. To the north, scattered bands of people have always had occasional dealings with the River People, trading furs and grain. If appealed to, 800 skirmishers can be roused, with more available in time.

Nawajiwi

• Muster: 1,400 troops. 1,000 Neeshauog, 400 skirmishers, 350 Katawam Archers, 70 wagons, 180 canoes.
• Feature: Wood Slat Bridge— panels can be slid out from under the bridge to cut off travel along the river, requiring a force to take the town or stronghold, or a wide portage, to proceed.

Pakwaaki- Kokskisek

• Muster: 3,100 troops. 2,500 Neeshauog, 600 skirmishers, 700 Katawam Archers, 140 wagons, 310 canoes.
• Feature: At the northern tip of the grove of trees in the south of the region, there is a cave containing a magic scroll of the spell Golden Paddle. A wizard casting the spell sends a fleet of any number of ships or canoes airborn, allowing them to fly over land and sea both for a day. This can be used to leap over walls, but only in disarray. Takes three weeks to recharge.

Adalomamek

• Muster: 2,200 troops. 1,800 Neeshauog, 400 skirmishers, 500 Katawam Archers, 120 wagons, 240 canoes.
• Feature: Bog— spirits in the woods will give off poisonous marsh gas if there is a large number of improperly buried or unburied dead in the region, creating disease.

Nanawoboigamigok

• Muster: 1,700 troops. 1,300 Neeshauog, 400 skirmishers.
• Feature: Lair of Eataubana— the woods by the stronghold are home to a massive insect spirit (effective strength 500, +1 from chosen battlefield) that will attack if not placated. Can potentially be recruited (700 [10 for dueling], wizard) and knows the spell Counterspell, which cancels magic. Recharges in four weeks.

Nbowiponohodit

• Muster: 800 troops. 600 Infantry, 200 skirmishers.
• Feature: Hidden Tunnel— connects the town and stronghold.

Kinibogka

• Muster: 1,300 troops. 900 Infantry, 400 skirmishers.
• Feature: Thief Ghost— the spirit of death hangs out in the woods on the road to Pakwaaki. Plays macabre tricks on people who linger here, like twisting their feet so they are lamed or must walk backwards, or replacing medicine with poison.

The Better Parts of Earth for Hexmaps

For some reason, we all like to see real-life places covered in hexmaps. Because the six-mile hex can contain so much, it can be easy to assume that you can fit something like the USA or the continent of Europe in a large but reasonable-size hexmap. But if you've ever looked into this, you'll find that inclination is wrong. Six-mile hexes contain a lot, but the Earth has a lot a lot a lot of ground to cover, and if, like the dedicated Idraluna Archives you make hexmaps at this scale for much of the Earth, you'll find that a lot of regions are just vast swathes of hundreds of hexes of tundra or desert or something, not very dynamic or interesting.

So I'm taking the liberty of going through all Idraluna Archive's maps and pointing out the ones I think might be best inspiration for a hexmap for a campaign or wargame. The maps Thomas provides are all kind of low-resolution, so I think it's more likely you'd want to use them as direct and detailed inspiration for your own more gameplay-focused take with your own system's needs. Go 75% real-life topography, 25% Outdoor Survival chunkiness and contrived routing challenges.

So, without further ado, the maps I think have a pleasing mixture of terrain, routing choice, and inspiring beauty:

Africa

Nigeria, especially the southern half.

Upper Nile

West Africa

African Great Lakes

African Great Lakes. Look at those swirling biomes and convenient water routes.

Asia

Dzungaria (#1 for mountain pass-centric games)

Fertile Crescent, avoiding the swell of Arabia (which is always done dirty by hexmaps)

Manchura

honorable mention to Borneo for if you need a generic island hexmap.

Dzungaria. Plenty of choke points for a creative DM to put some dragon den or humanoid city in.

Europe

Iberia (#1 for generic European fantasy games)

South Central Europe

Anatolia

Iberia. Some hard barriers, some softer ones. Good mixture of wide homogenous zones with more varied ones.

North America

New England
Central Mexico
Great Plains (more homogenous but still has variety)

New England. Simple but pleasing. Mountains you can try to route around.

Oceania

Tasmania

Tasmania. There weren't a lot of maps for Oceania, but this one is okay.

Oceans

None

South America

South American Pampas

East Brazil

Mato Grosso (#1 for heavily forested games)

East Brazil. Lovely mix in the east there.

There it is, the cream of 118+ maps. If I had to pick one to run a game for, I might pick Iberia, especially if gameplay would only occur in a smaller section; or the African Great Lakes, especially if long-distance travel would come up a lot. Such realistic scales are unfortunately a bit too big for most campaign purposes, but you can always take the juiciest section from the quivering whole, or reproduce the whole map at a different scale. Thanks again to Idraluna Archives for going through the work of making hexmaps for so much of the Earth. Very interesting stuff.