Session 2: Hexcrawling and the Glories of AD&D DMG Appendices

Since our new group is a little wary of the Shrine of Lethria given how badly it went for our previous crew, they decide to explore the wilderness around Valthrun. 

For map scale, I've gone with a 6 mile master (blue outline) subdivided into 1 mile sub hexes. I think this gives me enough to play with for quite some time and it's easy enough to expand if I get bored. 

Since everyone knows where the Shrine is located, I've added it to the map gratis. I roll a d6 and get a 4 so that means the group originally came to Valthrun from the southern road. This is a nice synchronicity since I've already decided the empires of Man are to the south. Some quick rolls on the tables Appendix B tables fill out the road's environs and encounter checks don't reveal any hungry critters. So far so, so good.

Our group decides to explore the immediate area around Valthrun and then begin working their way outwards based on what they find. They start in hex 300.299 and begin exploring clockwise. The terrain is generated as shown and yet again, no encounters. They return to the starting hex and then randomly strike out from each hex. I'm using a d6 to determine direction of travel with 1 indicating north and subsequent numbers continuing clockwise around the hex (e.g. 4 is south and 6 is northwest).

The dice take us in a northeastern direction and end up generating a shrine in hex 299.298, a castle in hex 300.298 and another one in 302.298. Nice! After some rolls on the Appendix C castle and inhabitant tables (with a detour to a random castle name generation site) we get the following:

Hex 299.298: A Ruined Shrine

I roll a 15 and a follow-up 82 which means we have another ruined shrine located between Valthrun and the Croaking Castle of the Miraculous Toad (see below). This is pretty awesome since this means the entire 6 mile hex seems to have been some sort of pilgrimage in the distant past. What caused the collapse of these religions? Why did they spring up around Valthrun and be surrounded by fortresses? This is awesome - I'm getting vibes about hidden cults, buried secrets guarded by some sort of Knights Templar order and the hidden hand of the Chaos Gods or the Great Old Ones. 

Hex 300.298: The Croaking Castle of the Miraculous Toad

This is a large fortress complex (97 on CASTLE TABLE I: SIZE CLASS AND TYPE) inhabited by an NPC and retainers (68 on CASTLE TABLE II: INHABITANTS). We roll on CASTLE SUB-TABLE II.B for the castle master/henchmen (a 50/50 rolls tells us this is a named castle and we use random alignment rolls of d6 for Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic and another d6 for Good/Neutral/Evil) to get the following:

Kophyn Mizzar, human female, Lawful Neutral L11 Fighter with 2 henchmen:

• Chalbale, human male, Neutral Good L6 Illusionist
• Tar Ahlys, human male, Neutral Good L6 Magic-user

The men-at-arms are determined to be:

• Squad 1: 9 Heavy horsemen (Men-at-Arms) (Heavy horse, splint mail & shield, lance, long sword, mace); Squad leader is Kophra Era (human male, Lawful Evil L3 fighter)
• Squad 2: 15 Light horsemen (Men-at-Arms) (Light horse, studded leather, light crossbow, long sword); Squad leader is Thirn Phyn (human male, Lawful Evil L4 fighter)
• Squad 3: 16 Heavy Infantry (Men-at-Arms) (Men-at-arms, scale mail, shield, spear, hand axe); Squad leader is Velgara (human female, Neutral Good L4 fighter)
• Squad 4: 10 Heavy Crossbowmen (Men-at-Arms) (Men-at-arms, scale mail, heavy crossbow, morning star); Squad leader is Alarra Durdana (human female, Lawful Evil L4 fighter)

Lots of interesting dynamics here, based on the alignments. Why is this place named the Croaking Castle of the Miraculous Toad? Why does a fighter have two magic using henchmen? Who knows? We haven't gone there yet! Let's see what the other castle is doing.

Hex 302.298: A Nameless Stronghold

This is a small walled castle with keep also inhabited by an NPC and retainers. Interesting...do we have competing warlords in the area? Let's find out who's running this place:

Belgos Trith, human male, Lawful Neutral L12 Fighter with 5 henchmen:

• Kyonithmyn, mountain dwarf male, Neutral L7 Thief
• Lymma Keldana, human male, Chaotic Good L7 Fighter
• Jael Kyorlicar, human female, Lawful Good L7 Paladin
• Myrra Tazennarin, human male, Chaotic Neutral L7 Illusionist
• Imra, human male, Lawful Neutral L7 Fighter

The men-at-arms are determined to be:

• Squad 1: 9 Heavy horsemen (Men-at-Arms) (Heavy horse, splint mail & shield, lance, long sword, mace); Squad leader is Ildia Houndraern (human male, Neutral L3 fighter)
• Squad 2: 12 Light horsemen (Men-at-Arms) (Light horse, studded leather, light crossbow, long sword); Squad leader is Xundara Kophyn (human male, Chaotic Evil L3 fighter)
• Squad 3: 18 Heavy Infantry (Men-at-Arms) (Men-at-arms, scale mail, shield, spear, hand axe); Squad leader is Lymeoynet (human female, Neutral L4 fighter)
• Squad 4: 7 Heavy Crossbowmen (Men-at-Arms) (Men-at-arms, scale mail, heavy crossbow, morning star); Squad leader is Tazena Urmeoynrae (human male, Chaotic Evil L3 fighter)

What is up with all the evil men-at-arms squad leaders (in both castles, no less)? Are they just waiting to turn rogue and become highwaymen? Do their good-aligned masters not know of their nefarious  natures? Is the paladin Jael Kyorlicar weak in her faith to tolerate this? What is the relation of this stronghold to the Croaking Castle of the Miraculous Toad? Who knows? We'll figure all that stuff out if and when the party explorers the area. What happens if they don't? Who cares? We'll roll up something else equally awesome. If this turns into an ongoing tabletop campaign, we'll give these areas to patron players and let them expand the areas in downtime/Braunstein sessions.

I think that does it for this session. The crew is going to return to town and plan their next moves.