#Hexplore24 Week 4, Month 1: The Raven

 The Raven - January

The Process...

        Through a full month of this process, I have encountered quite a lot of fun along the way. There have been well over 200 dice rolls, over 20 PCs generated, and quite the large cemetery forming. With 142 total hexes generated and 22 locations, our adventure has taken us quite the distance, with over 1000 miles of land traveled among the parties. I like to think that I have found quite the balance with my time put into this project and the fun I get out of this. I have discovered the beauty of only playing with one party at a time since I can breeze through most days without needing to double up on my exploration and procedural generations. 

The Party...

        The PCs I have made were simply numbers when I began this on New Year's Day, but by this stage, a few character have stood out as heroes in their own right. I will highlight a few now.

Grayfern, level 3 ranger: Grayfern is from the first wave of PCs made, and he has grown to be quite the leader for the orange party. With a 17 Charisma, and a hefty Strength and Constitution, he's survived many a fight with his blade and bow. Oddly, he's never once tracked anything.

Butten, level 4 bard: Butten is a character of my partner's creation, and she's been a great counterpart to Grayfern, having a 17 Charisma as well, she has not managed to do too much during combat, though a few critical shots with her shortbow have turned the tide of combat. Butten has also done much to make an ally of the dwarves of Castle Lightway, the orange party's current homebase. 

Hukdar, level 3 barbarian: Hukdar is not statistically too impressive, and maybe its my soft spot for Conan style heroes, but Hukdar has managed to survive from day 1, having helped turn the first combat from a TPK to a well earned pile of treasure. Though many think of barbarians as rage-melee characters, he instead has earned his spot as a ranged character with some important support survival abilities.

Dender, level 3 knight: Dender has been a real plot driving member of the group, having hit the first character milestone by being knighted and earning the right to claim land in the name of the Empire of Ayiel. Dender has also been around since day 1, and has fought solely as a melee fighter, following the strict code of a knight, on many occasions having to forego fighting blind or disabled enemies.

While there are plenty of other important characters, I think these 4 stick out as my favorites as of right now. It is also funny to note that there is only one cleric I have had capable of casting spells, and I have yet to have a magic user or illusionist with more than 1 spell. I keep trying to get some sort of caster among one of the two parties, but they have a bad habit of getting killed.

The Plot...

        It seems clear that there's no overarching plot to this whole process, and that's okay. That's the whole thing, you know? But, I like thinking that within the lands I have already tread and explored there ought to be some sort of living, moving, conditions. How could I possibly control the movements of these camps, settlements, potential allies and villains without having a bias? I plan to use the Mythic solo-play oracle system to generate some terms/portents to create some small plots within the land. I had some friends roll up the first 4 of them, and I will interpret these as I go, applying them where relevant and sensible. 

1. Usurp Suffering
2. Befriend Hope
3. Truce Good
4. Assist the Intellectual

As you can tell, these can be interpreted a few different ways and I think that events in the world can be described through these.

The Future...

        As for the future, I anticipate much of the same. I haven't got any major plans for the future of this project, though I do hope I can connect my two groups and make one super group soon enough. Delving into more dungeons and recovering more loot would certainly be nice, but laying waste to one of the camps (the orcs, or the 290(!!!) kobolds outside of Odjoust) or one of the castles would be great. Honestly, I am quite surprised I have made it this far and frankly, I am impressed with the world I have made thus far; my only hope is that someday a group of my friends might be able to drop into this world.

Day 22 of The Raven

The weather is cold (26’F) and moderately windy. 

The gray party travel to the reeve Keadon Tristle’s home to meet with the Baron Eldare. Dender had explained her bravery in battle and her heroic actions, as well as her diplomatic moves with the locals. The Baron was impressed with these stories and agreed wholeheartedly to knight Dender, as well as offer her permission to establish her own foothold within the wilderness of this land in the name of the Empire of Ayiel. The Baron requested that Dender seek vengeance against the kobolds who have taken Castle Borthwick from the empire. 

The orange party travel south east, encountering a group of 3 traders. The party purchase some rations, torches, and waterskins (10gp). The party continue traveling through the marshes in the area, getting lost, but eventually discovering the Abbey of Fremarsil. The party are welcomed into the Abbey, but are kept within isolated chambers after being told there is something of a scandal currently happening within the abbey of a member selling information of the newly separated abbey to the Empire of Ayiel.

Day 23 of The Raven

The weather is cold (36’F) and with light wind. 

The gray party begin their return to adventuring by traveling to Castle Borthwick, though traveling around the territory to get a better understanding of the terrain. They discover the hills and mountains north of Hazelhedge with no issue, and finding enough food for the entire party along the way. 

The orange party decided to head out and explore further out east. The group have gotten lost numerous times while navigating the marshes, ending up within the mountains east of the abbey of Fremarsil. The party encounter a pair of sasquatch in the mountains and manage to slay them.

Day 24 of The Raven

The weather is especially cold (15’F) with overcast skies.

The gray party travel north of Hazelhedge and discover a large frozen lake. The party discovered the remnants of a road running from the frozen lake to the mountains.

The orange party meandered to the east of Castle Lightway, traveling through the plains, finding no food along the way.

Day 25 of The Raven

The weather is cold (22’F) and cloudy.

The gray party encounter a roving band of wildmen who attack on sight. The party survive without major harm, recovering thousands of coins. The party end their day within Riverhelm. The party pay to stay within the Orc’s Cavern tavern for the evening, spending 50sp. The party gain 5500 xp.

Klodis reaches level 4, gaining 2 HP, +1 Dex, +1 Int, +1 level 2 spell per day

Betrigorn reaches level 3, gaining 6 HP, +1 Wis, +1 Cha, +1 level 1 spell per day, learned Charm Person

The orange party find no food along their mountainous trek headed west back to Castle Lightway. The party encounter a large mound where a trio of giant scorpions aggressively chased them away on horseback.

 
Day 26 of The Raven

The weather is cold (29’F) and snowy.

The gray party leave Riverhelm and head out to explore the region south east of Riverhelm. The party discover a large ledge where a group of giant crows eagerly wait for victims to attack. Luckily they were not interested in the party. Unfortunately, the party get lost in the snow and wind up in the mountains south of Idarsby.

The orange party continue their trek back to Castle Lightway. They discover a road headed in the direction of Castle Lightway, though they find an orcish encampment at the end of this road. They manage to get away without trouble, but they plan on returning with dwarves.

Day 27 of The Raven

The weather is cold (33’F) with overcast skies.

The gray party go off the beaten path from Idarsby to Bridgeroot, treading slowly among the mountains. The party pay to stay at the Crazy Grape tavern in Bridgeroot and stock up on rations, torches, and water, all for 23gp and 50sp.

The orange party head west to Castle Lightway, running into a pair of giant poisonous toads. The party decide not to engage the unsuspecting toads for fear of their poison and reach Castle Lightway, calling for a meeting with castellan Keensong to explain the orc camp on the border. Castellan Keensong does not wish to send his troops out to kill them. The party then stop at the Twelve Pony Pub for the night, purchasing plenty more rations and arrows (50sp 50gp)

Day 28 of The Raven

The weather is cold (24’F) with overcast skies.

The gray party set out east and run into a duo of ogres, which they disposed of with ease. They then trek north, getting lost among the roving fields, finding nothing of value.

The orange party set out south, discovering a giant oil beetle mound, encountering none along the way. The party continue south, traveling through the fields until they encounter a forest.

Day 29 of The Raven

Notes: The weather is cold (24’F) and snowing.

The gray party run into a pack of jackals led by a pair of jackalwere. They kill a few of them and Offlan entangles the others, and they escape without pursuit. They end up lost along their trek to the west.

The orange party explore around Odjoust, discovering a small lake, and an encampment of Kobolds. The party then stop at the Broken Tower tavern, and restock on rations and arrows (50sp and 25gp).

#Hexplore24 Week 3: A Knight, Some Dwarves, A Thief, and a lot of XP

            The Party on Break...

                    

                After the gray party ride home after delving into the Catacombs of Zax-Tyliuth, making it home to Odjoust safely with thousands of coins and plenty of gems. The gray party then head back to Hazelhedge to meet with the Baron Eldare since Dender had reached level 3 as a Knight and could finally be knighted. The gray party safely returned home a day or so later, and let me tell you it was certainly a nice break for them and myself while they waited a week for the Baron to arrive. Having the freedom to run only the orange party has been a bit of a treat to say the least.

            The Party that Can't Catch a Break...

        

                The orange party by comparison got much less of a break with all of the death they have run into. They continued to explore further to the east, coming across a dwarvish castle, Castle Lightway, which was luckily friendly. Thanks to the charisma of both Grayfern the Ranger and Butten the Bard, the party made good impressions on these dwarves. They found another castle north of here, Castle Albini, run by an evil halfling named Aldrich the Rat and a pair of mages Mastria and Itzam. They had heard of them keeping a few dwarves from Castle Lightway prisoner and ransoming them off to the dwarves. The party sent in a very underprepared and eager Oris the Thief, and even though he succeeded with breaking in and killing one of the mages, though the other made Itzam nearly killed him. The party ended up victorious, though they lost Fezgrim the fighter, Neuvas the magic user, and Terin the cleric. In the end, they gained a lot of money and nearly lost it all to these foes, though they made money as reward for returning the kidnapped dwarves. 

                The orange party explore the western passage from Castle Lightway to Odjoust discovering an abandoned manor (inhabited by a flight of gargoyles) and a mausoleum. The orange party hire on one of the dwarves they'd saved, Cledrik, Cervys the illusionist, and Merand the cleric. The party delved within the Mausoleum of Canera they'd discovered and due to an unforeseen gas trap, they again lost more characters, namely Cledrik and Cervys. They return safely now to Castle Lightway when Butten suggests they deliver Cledrik's portion of the loot to the dwarves of Castle Lightway, and the Castellan Brandor Keensong is moved by her dwarvish speech and her gift. They end the week exploring south of Castle Lightway, discovering an abbey dedicated to the god Fremarsil, though the abbey had its own drama to deal with. 

            Moving Forward...      

        

                I have a few dreams for these parties, and potentially becoming one party to be honest, and I can't wait to finally make my mark on this randomly generated wilderness of mine. Dender being knighted and getting permission to claim her own real estate, the parties having gained a few levels and some modicum of power, and a few magical items, all of this leads me to believe this group will likely end up in their own retirement (or grave) sooner than later thanks to hubris or continued luck. I think that one issue I am having and want to incorporate into future games in this solo experience is the Mythic Game Master Emulator; Specifically, I would love to incorporate the 2d100 oracle for interpreting events within the world. I think that this method for adding larger events in the world will allow me to create larger storylines without adding too much of my own direction and influence into the game. For those unaware, the system calls for 2d100 rolls, each corresponding to an action and a subject. For example, the Baron Eldare had one of these rolls for some sort of job for Dender to do, and I rolled up "Vengeance" and "Investment". It made sense to me to have the brand new castle Borthwick run by kobolds to have been originally built by the Empire as an outpost; sending Dender to make good of an investment for the empire will certainly appease the Baron and the Emperor. I think each month I will begin by rolling up 3 or so of these prophetic pairings and as they begin to make sense, put them together. Perhaps I am silly to crave this sort of structure but so be it. 

              Highlights... 

• Dender finally becoming a knight and earning the right to land
• The unlikely rogue Oris the thief surviving his break in at castle Albini with only 2 HP
• The gray party taking a well earned break was a nice change of pace
• The orange party earning the respect and love of the dwarves of Castle Lightway

Day 15 of The Raven (I)

Notes: The weather is cold (22’F) and there are overcast skies. 
The gray party attempt to head back to Odjoust with their loot, though they reach a frozen lake and run into a gang of barbarians. The barbarians get aggressive and chase them, though the party escape on horseback. The party discover the road from Odjoust to Bridgeroot. The party arrive in Odjoust with their loot and try to stay at the Broken Tower inn and tavern. The owner of the Iron Heads thieves guild greets them within the tavern and after a night of drinking, the leader offers them immunity and hirelings. The party spend 150sp on rooms for the next two nights, as well as food and drinks for the tavern goers. The party spend another 3 gold to replenish their torches, and 15 gold to buy additional rations. The party return with 16578 xp in total

Klodis levels up, gaining 3 HP, 1 more level 1 spell per day, +1 Con
Dender levels up, gaining 1 HP, attains the title of Knight, +1 Str, +1 Dex
Kelha levels up, gaining 8 HP, +1 Dex
Bert levels up, gaining 6 HP, 1 level 1 spell per day (light)
Hukdar levels up, gaining 6 HP
Offlan levels up, gaining 2 HP, and a 2nd level spell (Heat metal)

The orange party explore the east, following the rivers between Bridgeroot and Odjoust, discovering the Dwarven Castle of Lightway. The party stay at the Twelve Pony Pub, spending 50sp to stay in comfortable lodgings and eating good food.

Day 16 of The Raven (I)

Notes: The weather is cold (36’F) and windy.

The orange party travel the forest around Castle Lightway, following the rivers and being stalked by a lynx for a short while. The orange party discover Castle Albini, and decide to raid the place in the night to free the dwarves known to be held captive there by Aldrich the Rat. Oris snuck into the second story doorway and tried to sneak attack the mages within, killing Mastrius and being seen by Itzam. The party then raid the castle keep only to lose Terin, Neuvas and Fezgrim in the melee. The party recover from the fight, retrieving treasure of the castle and freeing the dwarves held captive. The party give the captives spare rations and clothing. 

The gray party follow the old road they’d discovered outside of Odjoust and follow it all the way home to Hazelhedge where Dender hires a courier to speak with the nearby Baron Eldare about being knighted. The party pay to stay within Hazelhedge at the Bronzebell for a few days while they wait for word from the courier (7 days until the courier returns) 35 gp to stay within town, 5 gp for the courier. 

Day 17 of The Raven (I)

Notes: The weather is very cold (25’F) with overcast skies. 

The gray party remain within the Bronzebell tavern in Hazelhedge.

The orange party attempt to travel back to Castle Lightway with the saved dwarves. Grayfern is able to forage for food and water for Oris and Butten and himself. The orange party travel slowly back to the castle with their saved dwarves and treasure, earning 400 gp for saving them by the Castellan Brandor Keensong. The orange party are now regarded as good friends of the dwarves of Castle Lightway. The party celebrate the saving the dwarves at the Twelve Pony Pub. The party return home with 13,892 XP total. Grayfern and Butten agree to donate much of the money they’d retrieved (800pp). The party hire on a pair of new party members, and a dwarf they’d saved: Merand the Cleric, Cledrik the Dwarf, and Cervys the Illusionist

Oris levels up, gaining 1 HP
Butten levels up, gaining 2 HP, +1 CON, +1 1st level spell per day, 
Grayfern levels up, gaining 8 HP, +1 CHA

Day 18 of The Raven (I)

Notes: The weather is especially cold (20’F) with clear skies. 

The gray party remain within the Bronzebell Inn in Hazelhedge, awaiting the arrival of the Baron Eldare.

The orange party arrive in and rest within the village of Odjoust, paying to remain within the Broken Tower Inn (50sp) and running into no issues. The party take a moment to pay for healing services within the church of Pol (3 x 100 gp gems).

Day 19 of The Raven (I)

Notes: The weather is cold (30’F) with overcast skies. 

The gray party remain within the Bronzebell Inn in Hazelhedge, awaiting the arrival of the Baron Eldare.

The orange party prepare to set out, leaving their treasure behind within the Broken Tower Inn. The orange party journey for the Mausoleum of Canera. The party come close to an encounter with a terribly powerful group of chaotic adventurers, but Butten is able to dissuade any conflict by acting inconspicuously. The party gather food along the road, and arrive at the mausoleum without issue. The party enter the mausoleum and battle many wandering skeletons and zombies, Cledrik discovering many hidden messages from goblins. The party are able to survive many fights along the way, even surviving an acid trap that burned Cledrik terribly. The party find plenty of coinage and a handful of valuable gems, as well as a passage to the second level. The party trigger a poisonous gas trap and both Cledrik the dwarf and Cervys the illusionist die of the gas. The party escape and journey back to Odjoust into the cold of the evening without harm. The party return with 3315 XP, 829 each. 

Oris levels up (level 3 Thief), +2 HP, +1 Wis
Butten levels up (level 4 Bard), +2 HP, +1 Str, +1 level 1 spell per day, and Butten learns the dwarvish tongue

Day 20 of The Raven (I)

Notes: The weather is cold (26’F) and snowy. 

The gray party remain within the Bronzebell Inn in Hazelhedge, awaiting the arrival of the Baron Eldare.

The orange party venture out to bring Cledrik’s share of the loot to the dwarves of Castle Lightway. Along the road the party encounter a pack of 4 werewolves, who are in human form and not interested in the party thanks to a solid reaction roll. The party discover a spring of water south west of Castle Lightway. The party meet with Castellan Keensong and Butten impresses him with her dwarvish speech and their gift of a 1000gp gem. The party spend the night within the Twelve Pony Pub for 50sp.

Day 21 of The Raven (I)

Notes: The weather is cold (26’F) and moderately windy. 

The gray party travel to the reeve Keadon Tristle’s home to meet with the Baron Eldare. Dender had explained her bravery in battle and her heroic actions, as well as her diplomatic moves with the locals. The Baron was impressed with these stories and agreed wholeheartedly to knight Dender, as well as offer her permission to establish her own foothold within the wilderness of this land in the name of the Empire of Ayiel. The Baron requested that Dender seek vengeance against the kobolds who have taken Castle Borthwick from the empire. 

The orange party travel south east, encountering a group of 3 traders. The party purchase some rations, torches, and waterskins (10gp). The party continue traveling through the marshes in the area, getting lost, but eventually discovering the Abbey of Fremarsil. The party are welcomed into the Abbey, but are kept within isolated chambers after being told there is something of a scandal currently happening within the abbey of a member selling information of the newly separated abbey to the Empire of Ayiel. 

#Hexplore24 Week 2: A World to Explore

Welcome Back...

            Here we are again, ready to discuss the latest week's worth of hexploration! I did quite a lot this week and its certainly reflected in what I have uncovered and accomplished. I want to dive into all of the neat bits and bobbles but I want to start off real quick with some reflections.

Reflections...

            The first thing I want to say is that I have gotten a bit better about cracking out a days' worth of exploring. This has helped quite a bit with keeping the process relatively manageable with my current schedule. I had fallen asleep on the couch the other day before I could do my day of hexploration, so I needed to do two days' worth of work in one sitting and it was a bit jarring that it took hours to complete. 

            The only other thing to mention is that this was a lot of fun as per before. My partner has joined in on each civilization or tavern generation, with such hits as The Crazy Grape or The Hanging Wineskin, and its been a lot of fun having her involved in the process. Watching the land really fill out has been rewarding, but more than that, watching these little rascal adventurers gather loot and kick butts has been awesome. The parties have done really well with surviving most of these run ins, and on many occasions scooting by on solid reaction rolls. As far as XP and treasure go, both groups have managed more than I would have anticipated, yet seem fair for 2 entire weeks of play. 

    

Hexes...

              The parties have uncovered quite a lot compared to last week thanks to the abundance of wealth and horses, hiring retainers and characters to take along for the high-speed ride. The map so far has 25 Plains (38%), 19 Forests (29%), 12 Marshes (18%), 4 Water (6%), 4 Hills (6%), and 2 Mountains (3%). This overall has been a seemingly even distribution and I can't complain about the current look of the landscape. 

Places of Interest...

               As everyone knows, these little nuggets have been the most exciting part of the generation of this land. Interestingly enough, there haven't been too many new places to check out, but the ones that I have explored have been really intriguing. I ended up landing a dungeon known as The Catacombs of Zax'Tyliuth (7,45), which I tacked onto a couple of Dyson Logos maps, and have been rolling up some encounters and rooms according to the Hexcrawl Generator. Beyond the pretty easy fights within, a few troglodytes, a few thieves, some striges, and cowardly orcs, the party lost their retainers to a trapped treasure chest and some sneaky trog who got a sneak on them. The party were able to scrounge up a great bit of coin and treasure on the first level, return to town and come back for another round. The party came across a wild stroke of luck, uncovering a 'wheel of fortune room' and managing to win a large treasure within.  

               More importantly it would seem, I was able to generate a few truly interesting settlements to hang around. Riverhelm (5,43) is the largest settlement on the map so far, and with it is a temple dedicated to an insane god known as Efu, who is a stone god of wealth who actually resides within the temple in the heart of the town. Oh yeah, who is in attendance of the religious ceremonies? Oh no one, just a few glabrezu. Additionally, the town has an esoteric guild of alchemists within it that I may need to reach out to for identifying magical things in the future. A few smaller settlements of note, Bridgeroot (10,41) is a pleasant village ruled by a bronze dragon in disguise, Idarsby (7,42) is a more reclusive spot with a dwarven tavern and brewer though they openly disapprove of Riverhelm. Lastly, I rolled up a dwarvish castle known as Lightway (14,45) which is chock full of dwarven construction workers and warriors, and luckily a benevolent leader (and an infamously mediocre gardener's guild currently on strike). I placed some rings of influence around these settlements just incase there were any reason for conflict or warfare among them. 

The Parties...

              The orange and gray party needed to hire on new members as they lost some along the way, including the orange party after losing Gord the Dwarf to a 5-headed Hydra they'd encountered just north of Riverhelm on the frozen lake. 

               Not all is bad though, the Gray party just about entirely reached level 3, which means that Dender the knight is now officially to be knighted, no longer a squire. Somehow I will need to manage an encounter with the reeve of Hazelhedge and an official of the Empire of Athiel knighting her, which will allow her the right to claim territory as her own. The party already has so much treasure, I hated having to hire couriers to carry thousands of coins out to Hazelhedge, so I had considered claiming the zombie infested Castle Cloudfall (3,48). If the gray party establish themselves there, they can hire mercenaries to guard it while they quest, as well as potentially grow something of a small settlement out of the place. This right here is what I think the Old School experience is all about in my opinion, so you better believe I will be contemplating this move. 

                The orange party hasn't had as much luck, though they'd been hiring on new members and gathering XP fighting off the hydra and ending up safely in the castle of Lightway (14,45) by the end of the week. 

                I realize how in some sense I am violating the truest version of the West Marches style campaign, since neither party are communicating very regularly, though both stop by the Bronzebell Tavern in Hazelhedge often enough that I will let it slide. 

Highlights...

                Writing some of this with my partner has been a lot of fun, even if sometimes it feels like it breaks the style of the world, I am just happy to have her involved. 

                The gray party finding the wheel of fortune and somehow getting the best possible outcome, rather than spawning a dragon or a demon, and instead raking in somewhere around 10,000gp total is bonkers. 

                The gray party encountering 30 barbarians ice fishing on a frozen lake, enrage them and skitter off on horseback, though for a moment I forgot they were on horseback for a moment and got so worried they'd be served on ice. 

                The dwarvish castle of Lightway is going to be hosting an important wedding on the 17th of The Wolf (October), so let's see if we get that far; it isn't that this is some big exciting event, but rather it means some maybe super important event is now in motion. 

                Dender becoming a knight is certainly exciting as we get some true character and campaign development, and the possibility of making a permanent mark in this setting in only a matter of 2-3 weeks. 

The Future...

                Unfortunately, I may need to start running one group at a time, rather than running two, because the energy and time it takes to do so is a bit much still. I think owning a castle may make that a bit easier. I am truly excited to have some more level ups coming our way, and to see how deep we can dive into some other caves and dungeons. Additionally, I am hoping to see some new factions sprout up and run into a real enemy out there in the wilderness. 

#Hexplore24 Week 1 - A Wild Time

     

    Initial Thoughts...

        To begin, I just wanted to say that this whole experience has been a wild one. One would imagine this whole exercise to be boring or lonely, but in the end this procedural experience has been like an interactive novel where I simply operate as arbiter of rolls and rules. 

        I realized quickly that this whole process can be very time consuming, and that is very unfortunate. Compared to the #dungeon23/#dungeon24, #hexplore24 has been a matter of either a 5 minute exercise or a 2 hour one. I am certainly picking up the pace as I go, slowly but surely getting pretty reflexive with my efforts; roll a d6 here, a d8, got a 1 so I roll a d12 - and presto I've got a castle to get creating. But in the end, I think I have made some choices that have made it a little harder to manage. To put a bookend on this intro, I have seen this little campaign of mine take on a life of its own and it has been rewarding and exciting. 

    Time...

        I can't stress this enough: for this whole project to work out I will need to find a way to strike a healthy balance with this whole exercise. Since some of these days are bound to be simple, traveling only two hexes or so, finding nothing of note, it would seem that some will be quick and easy. Unfortunately, the more efficient I get with traveling (using horses, etc.) the more hexes I will end up in and the more places I will need to generate procedurally. Perhaps in the future when the characters are traveling only throughout previously explored hexes this won't be as much of a chore, but we shall see I suppose. 

    The Lands...

        The lands of this region have slowly but surely taken shape, and compared to my first experimental run on this procedural generation it is more or less of the same sort of variety and design. Interestingly enough, there isn't much for marshes, bodies of water, mountains and hills, but the plains and forests have been plenty. This has been pretty nice when needing to cross vast distances as the plains offer no penalties to movement, whereas marshes and mountains would bring travel speed to a grinding halt. Overall, I love seeing the map come to life, and the locations of note have been really interesting as well. 

    The Locations...

        This really seems like the most exciting element of this whole project. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like I have had the greatest variety with locations. So far, I have gotten 4 castles, 1 temple with a village, 1 ruin site, and 1 lurid lair. Having to make sense of these castles has been a bit tricky, especially considering their ownership being zombies (abandoned), lizardfolk (hostile and numerous), kobolds (hostile and numerous as well), and dwarves (only 4 and the castle is toppled). Creating the castles' territory markers has been interesting, considering the potential for a territory war among villages or castles, but it would seem neither the lizardfolk nor the kobolds are anything but indifferent about their neighbors. 

        The temple I got was randomly one of the most interesting spots I've gotten so far, and it came with a village named Odjoust which was a certainly nice opportunity for rest out in the wilderness. 

        The ruins were not really important in the end, though the hill giant currently residing there certainly was a scary first encounter for the party. 

        The roads and rivers have made a world of difference and will make traveling out into the wild that much easier, plus they lead to other villages on occasion which will be a lot of help to make the wild a little more hospitable with some pitstops and taverns. 

        Lastly, the lair the party encountered was a doozy: a huge limestone cavern inhabited by 2 flame lizards and a heck of a lot of treasure. 

    The Party (Parties, actually)...

        The two groups that ended up heading out into the wilderness were the gray party (a knight, a cleric, a fighter, a barbarian, a magic user, and a druid) and the orange party (a ranger, a fighter, another fighter,  a dwarf, a bard, and a halfling). Both groups have seen battle, seeing mainly victory, but both have encountered death. I brought the orange party into this crawl as a way to keep the game moving while the other party was resting for a few days, and its made uncovering the map a much faster process in some respects. 

        The gray party got jumped by goblins in the zombie castle on their way out, having their magic user jumped and murdered in a surprise round. They returned home with a load of gems they'd gotten from some Thouls they nearly died fighting previously and gained barely any XP in the grand scheme of things. That money however did afford them some horses, which allowed them a great bit of mobility when planning their next ventures out. They arrived in Odjoust and the knight was almost killed by a thief who didn't like the party's frivolous spending in the local tavern, but subdued the thief and had them locked up. They traveled out to the lair of the flame lizards without knowing they were there, and they managed to kill the one inhabiting the lair while it slept, retrieved the treasure, and managed to get out of their even after coming across the other flame lizard (a random encounter with such eerie probability and coincidence) without fighting and instead skirting by the uninterested lizard thanks to a great reaction roll. They ended up getting lost trying to hurry back to Odjoust and instead encountered a ruined castle inhabited by a small group of neutral dwarves. 

        The orange party discovered the kobold castle and wiped a whole group of them without issue. They traveled up into the mountains before deciding to return home, though they ran into a large group of troglodytes with exceptional health. These troglodytes got the jump on the party with a surprise round and with their stench and 3 attacks a round, those level 1's didn't stand a chance. They lost the halfling and one of the fighters nearly immediately, and most of the rest of the party got terribly wounded. After the remaining fighter and the dwarf held their ground and killed a pair of the smelly lizards, the troglodytes rolled for morale and bolted out of there. I rolled for the treasure of these troglodytes and got an incredible amount of wealth, which was what the book said to do, so I wasn't about to turn down the magic sword and mound of coin and gems. The party were in a big hurry to get home with their low health and lack of reinforcements, so they engaged in a forced march to get back home to Hazelhedge. Luckily, having found a road by the lizardfolk castle, the party were able to really hustle and make it home.

        The orange party were able to level up, getting a lot of increased health, hiring some new characters to the group including a magic user and a cleric, as well as horses and some very valuable plate armor. Needless to say, the party were lucky to make it back at all, and they certainly reaped the benefits of their successes. 

    The Highlights...

        1. The gray party tossing some meat behind them to escape the hill giant, which gave me great hope for this being much more than just a slough of parties being destroyed by OP monsters in the wild, over and over. 

        2. The gray party catching the flame lizard by surprise and killing it before it could easily kill the party, scoring hit after hit on an enemy way out of their level of power. Then, slipping by the randomly generated other flame lizard (which was so very eerie to roll the exact combo necessary to get that specifically) on one excellent reaction roll. 

        3. The orange party barely surviving the troglodytes, I was on the edge of my seat waiting for their demise and overjoyed with the morale check, but I was really surprised by just how much wealth they'd had available. 

        4. The funniest was clearly the temple of Odjoust, which was a massive Epcot-style sphere made of tin, buried beneath a huge motte of dirt, dedicated to a goblin god of earthquakes and disasters named Pol, who has a holy relic buried within the sphere. The relic? a massive stone which slings random magic spells at people within the temple. 

    The Next Steps... 

        I am eager to keep moving on with this project and seeing where my characters all end up. It is safe to say that as I keep going things will get more complicated and refined, so I am sure my methods for recording this will follow suit. I will share the current map, and as time goes on I will share my mass cataloguing of every hex and its contents, once I find a good way to do so (50x50 hexes makes for one huge document.) I will do another write up of the party progress likely next week, so stay tuned for more!

The orange star is the current location of the orange party, and the same goes for the gray star. Hazelhedge is 0,49, Odjoust is 7,48. 

#Hexplore24 Day 1

 The party enter the main settlement of the area, Hazelhedge, and I rolled to see if there were any sorts of ongoing situations in town based on the tables within the book Sandbox Generator by Altier Clandestin. I got nothing of note so the party began their quest into the unknown. 

Day 1 of Raven:

Weather: Rainy, cold, high of 34°f.

The party travel southeast to a mound of eerie remains they’d heard about in a nearby forest. The mound was reputed to have ashes and crystallized tools buried below but unfortunately for them they spotted a Hill Giant guarding the mound. The Hill Giant also spotted them, and thus they began to run since the reaction clearly messed up, not wanting to die over some cinders and old junk. Since the giant had greater speed than the party, the evasion became a pursuit as per OSE rules. The party thought quickly about this and Offlan the Druid sacrificed valuable dried meat from his cooking kit to distract the pursuing Hill Giant. The distraction worked and the party escaped, deciding to travel further east. 

The party found themselves among more grasslands, and the storm had still not let up. Before the night had officially fallen and the party could set up their tent, they were ambushed by a pair of roving thouls. The thouls were unnoticed and closed the distance to the party easily. In a particularly mortifying and long combat (10 rounds altogether) the thouls had managed to nearly paralyze the entire party with their cruel claw attacks. As per their monster entry, they would rather paralyze all combatants then kill them rather than focus on killing any particular foe outright. Lucky for the party it would seem. After the first thoul was killed, I rolled for morale and the remaining thoul stuck with it to finish what they’d started. Though outnumbered, the thouls had managed to nearly kill the party off, after paralyzing 4 of the 6 party members, leaving only Hukdar and the mage Topolo standing. From the cold dead hands of the thouls the two found gems worth 710gp in total which is certainly a handsome sum. 

Thoul (pg. 115, Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy Rules Tome)

The party then rest in their tent, consuming the gathered food Offlan had foraged along their way, leaving most of the party terribly wounded. 

Thoughts

Talk about an introduction to the project. I almost lost the party TWICE. Hill giant who pursues the party? Thouls paralyzing these level 1s? I can only imagine what would have happened had I rolled 3-6 thouls instead of the two. I did find it hard to tell when the party might roll for morale considering there’s no party available to make such choices. I do however feel like I ran the encounter properly. The knight and barbarian wouldn’t back down when the rest of the party were paralyzed, which feels proper for the code of conduct, alignment, etc. whereas the evil mage in the party immediately ran about 80’ away after casting his magic missile, ironically being the one to end the brutal combat. 

Overall, I do think that this process will hopefully be quicker in the future, but I figure a 10 round combat is an anomaly. I think combats like this are what make us in the OSR space come to love these relatively simple characters with such limited backgrounds and stories; they fight tooth and nail, and everything hinges on a single die roll at times. So, with that being said, I hope the scrappy gray team can make it home in one piece. 

#hexplore Before We Begin - Introducing the First Party

     Well, the time has finally come along. Let's get crackin' on this hexcrawl.

Some last minute notes before it all begins...

Consulting the Oracle... 

One thing that will certainly come up a lot during all of this crawling, is the need to decide on certain actions. Will they trust the hag? Will the dragon see them in this hex? Will they turn back now that they've run out of water?

As I have done in the podcast, I will be borrowing YUM DM's d6 Oracle, where I will be rolling a d6, and based on what value I get, I will have an answer somewhere between or around yes and no. 

1. Yes BUT

2. Yes

3. Yes AND

4. No BUT

5. No

6. No AND

So, as per the previous examples I might run into a result such as: Will they trust the hag? No but they will follow her cautiously from a distance. Will the dragon seem them in this hex? Yes and it will follow them from afar back to town.

EZPZ.

Building the Parties...

One part of this process that was a bit more fun than initially anticipated was drawing up the parties randomly. Sure, I could have hand picked what groups would do well, but where's the fun in that? So instead I used a random number generator and pulled the characters into groups of 6/7 until I had 8 groups in total. I then rolled another d8 to see which lucky group would be first out there into the big bad wilderness. 

We had some interesting balance issues in some parts with some parties having a much greater chance of survival in a wilderness than a dungeon, and vice versa. Some groups have a few evil characters within them, which I am sure will bring about some tension in the future. But for our purposes here, we only need to focus in on the Gray Party. 

The Gray Party... 

I'll push the character sheets I have in a spreadsheet to the bottom of this post, but this definitely proved to be the most tedious part of the project. Rolling up the coins, using a bunch of different resources for gear, and having to fill in all of those blanks was not exactly the highlight of the journey thus far. 

Those checking the sheets out will see that there are some armor and items not present in the OSE fantasy and advanced fantasy. I always thought it was a shame that the armor and item lists are a little skimpy, so, I started borrowing from AD&D and Labyrinth Lord, and others to add a little additional nuance to this part of character building and growth. Also, I got big lucky with rolling magic missile for my Magic User right off the bat. 

So, without further adieu, I will now begin the crawl. I will likely toss in a post for day 1 just to highlight how the process will go.