#map monday

This was the final map of the Shattered Archipelago, and it was meant to put the players between a rock and a hard place. Since they arrived in the archipelago, the players have been stalked by the apex predator of the shattered archipelago: The displacer beast. This map is the moment it makes its move against the players. On the other hand, their one path towards land is limited by squabbling itinerant priests of the Mystery Cult of Zhutt, who have accidentally released a view of the esoterica to the pilgrims, requiring their (temporary) blinding.

This map shows the area of the world the Traum campaign took place in. The cyan line represents the path the party took. The large dot they began/ended at represents The Crimson Whisper. The grey dot at the top right represents Eekon. The smaller black dot they moved to the south of was Fort Bathica.

In the Winding Way, that which has been lost can be recovered. So it goes with Soctsun Scotsdale, father to Calyx who was lost in the tunnels after a desperate escape from the Zhuttskulak. Able to create a rudimentary shack from the industrial scrap that Gorodzuba threw away, Scotsun had been able to eke out a living amongst the echobats, gradually deviating from lucidity until the day the pirates came across his homestead.

In the cave systems below Gorodzuba, the mineralized water which seeps from the mountains flows in underground rivers. Recently, the health properties of that water lead to it being actively exploited by a series of pump facilities deep underground. These facilities were often hot, sweaty, and dangerous. When the party came to the facility, it was... degraded. The workers had been attacked and turned into zombies, an attack caused by Koshchey.

As you can tell from the differently colored pipes, there was a pipe puzzle on this map, which is fun! Definitely the sort of thing I should have planned out on paper, because the actual complexity of the puzzle was a little low.

They met with an investiture of Koshchley, the mysterious puzzle maker behind the world's often elaborate and mysteriously durable puzzles. Within the body of a zombie, he was caught unawares, and offered to fight the players later if they promised to tell anyone they came across that they had fought and it had been, like, super tough. In exchange, he would provide them with a level up.

The regional world map was made to foreshadow the kinds of incidents that could have occurred in the first arc of the Dream Factory. The mountains are stuffed to the gills with various mini-factions, in tenuous peace with each other. This area of the mountain range is neighbored by The Necrokingdom of Ba'ath and The Rouge Warlord State of Ai.

We never ended up playing Dream Factory. The timing never worked out. It's crazy that I'm looking at this and catching whiffs of excitement I thought was long expired. Here's a GM guide, as well as my recorded notes on each area.

A: The Dream Factory

B: Throg-Jrez-Grabboz (site of the twin mountains) also colloquially just called 'the village' by inhabitants of the dream factory. What was once a sleepy dwarvish hamlet has become a bustling town, warehousing much of the logistics as the Dream Factory's contact with the outside world. There is more than a little tension between them and the factory, since it landed on the mountains the hamlet was ostensibly there to worship, but the two get along fine now.

C: Kramj-Guthar (city of tempo) also called the city of needles is a belligerent city state run by military dictatorship. Built on top of rich sulfur veins, the city is renowned for an ancient dwarvish black powder recipe that has yet to be deciphered or stolen by the outside world.

D: Dras-Goola (Town of Bellows) is built around the caldera of an active volcano. Much of the town is carved into the rock and heavily fortified against eruptions. The dwarves find the danger well worth the risk; the ores here are clean and pure, and require little intermediate processing.

E: Kramj-Gataruuchi (City of magic) A newer dwarvish city made by dwarvish aliyah adherents who found themselves alienated by orthodox dwarvish's repugnant attitude against arcane magic. Although they are on the council of the Neoconclaves, they're certainly not popular. There are rumors that magic used to make the city is beginning to go haywire, with tunnels moving, buildings shifting, and sometimes things appearing and disappearing.

F: Kramj-DGur (Ancient City) is barely the size of a kramj, more like a large dras, but it has retained the title for historical reasons. The dwarvish emperor, when there was one long ago, lived here, and the city is still renowned for its old money aristocrats and its ancient martial prowess (the actual power of the city is still quite small., limited by its size. Kramj-DGur is the head of the restoration bloc of the Neoconclave council. Kramj-DGur is also the best maintained example of Orthuz (mouth) style architecture, where houses are carved into the sides of the mountains in larged massed formations, with large holes permitting ventilation.

G: Dras-Ka-DGak (noxious air Town) A newer dras, which completely ate up and replaced the old dras there when aliyah migrants moved in and started to grow hogweed. This industry, which is now organized into large plantations controlled by a homegrown aristocratic class. Has slowly become a vital strategic position, as it provides much of the hogweed used to power Kramj-Guthar and Kramj-DGur.

H: Giarton. A small mining city which is actually independent of the necrokingdom. An extremely tough nut to crack, the necrokingdom sticks to blockading the city, since the strategic location and finely crafted weapons make it a tough nut to crack. The internal matters of the city are not well understood thanks to the necrokingdom blockade.

I: Throg-Drath-Ga'rath-Gruuth (fort of the wide valley) A large flat break in the mountains which leads to many vital passes. To curb the spread of the necrokingdom, the Neoconclaves quickly set up a fort here, and although active fighting has yet to begin, the two nations keep buffing each side, and it seems conflict is imminent. Another consequence of this build up is that the entire valley and its surrounding area are considered controlled areas, and not having neoconclave authorization while traveling in the area can end with jail time, or worse.

J: Kramj-Gethedga (city of wonders) A post-aliyah, more liberal city ruled by an oligarchy which is (in)famous for its acceptance of new methods and its technological achievements. They've dug farther than any other before them and perfected the art of forging alexite, a type of green (lights up blue) stone which lends itself very well to thaumic channel inscription. Although Gethedgians pride themselves on their forward thinking attitude and their civic freedoms, many other dwarves scorn the city for its silent cruelty and religiosity, especially its negligence of charity ("free to do what? Starve?").

K: Eebie Weebie. An abandoned dwarvish city (Kramj-Guhrach) which has been taken over by goblins. This rather unruly goblin clan used to live in isolation in the forests of the Rampard peninsula, in what is now the Ai kingdom. They were pushed from their land by King Ai, and are now basically squatting in this dwarvish ruin. There is an on-going debate in the neoconclave council as to whether they should be pushed out to somewher else, or if they should be ''dwarvified." Meanwhile, many linguists and archeologists wish to visit the city, as it represents one of the last places where goblin is still spoken, and where indigenous goblin customs are still practiced.

 L: Throg-Zurjj-Zogorajj (Jail where [you] rot) A jail nestled in the middle of a snakepede population. Only the worst offenders are sent to this jail from which you don't return.

The walls of Gorodzuba were created in an early era of elevated magic, by stone-melder Duerrgar, not long after the initial dwarven immigration into Zhuttsgraad. The interior of the wall is its own complex of rooms, ventilation, utility and storage.

After widespread flooding in the area triggered the unveiling of the unreflecting mirror and its resonance with the waking elemental temples, the countryside of Sergach was ravaged, and led to refugees setting up camps within small towns outside the wall. As a result, entrances into the higher part of Gorodzuba were choked with these camps, with a hastily organized lottery system to determine who gets rations.

I was going to have a combat here, but I had a headache day off so I settled for a tense interrogation, and the interior of the wall citadel was left unexplored.

Using Foundry features it's possible to draw roofs on buildings. I had a hard time getting this to work, though.