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.
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