Hex 16.23 -- The Doom of Cthedrak

I've finally finished up the first seven hexes of my Populated Hexes Patreon, albeit at a much slower pace than I would have liked. The next step is to combine all seven hexes into a single document, polish it up, add some additional stuff, and publish it. My Patreon can be found here. This hex features an orcish outpost, a nest of angry giant hornets, and an oracular spirit naga unearthing a mysterious artifact.

1d8 Weird Environmental Encounters

Can be used in almost any terrain. Roll 1d20 to determine the area affected:

1-8 sphere with radius of 1d10x10 ft).
9-13 1 subhex (assumes 1.2 mile subhexes)
14-17 1d4+1 subhexes
18-19 3d6 subhexes
20 The entire hex (assumes 6 mile hexes)

1. The land within a given area is dead and devoid of life. No plants, no animals, no insects dwell within it. Creatures with animal intelligence or lower will instinctively avoid the area; those with higher intelligence feel no such compulsion, but will lose 1 hp per day they remain within the area. There's a 1-2 in 6 chance the area affected is a perfect geometric shape other than a circle.

2. The land within is filled with crystalline life; plants and native animals are composed entirely of living crystal. There's a 1-4 in 6 chance such creatures are valuable as treasure. If so, they will be more dangerous than normal varieties.

3. The ground itself is composed of an unnusual substance, such as glass, spongy vegetable matter, living tissue, etc. There's a 1-2 in 6 chance that the plant in animal life in this area is normal, but otherwise it has adapted to its environment.

4. The area is phospherescent, glowing with a strange, eerie light at night.

5. The area is sentient, and communicates via strange and potent visions that haunt the dreams of any intelligent creatures that sleep within its borders. Druids may be able to communicate directly with the locus genii.

6. The area is radically different from the surrounding terrain. A clearing filled with small sand dunes in the middle of the forest, hundreds of miles away from the ocean, for instance.

7. The area is in constant shadow (1-4) or darkness (5-6). This is visible from the outside, although there is no apparent means of blocking out the light.

8. A strong wind blows in a consistent direction within the area. Any plant life within is twisted and bent in the direction of the winds. There's a 1-2 in 6 chance the winds are strong enough to actually impede movement, and weak or light characters may be blow over.

1d8 Strage Environmental Magical Effects

There's a 1% chance that each hex the adventurers enter will contain some type of passive magical effect. Roll 1d20 to determine the area of effect:

1-8 sphere with radius of 1d10x10 sq. ft).
9-13 1 subhex (assumes 1.2 mile subhexes)
14-17 1d4+1 subhexes
18-19 3d6 subhexes
20 The entire hex (assumes 6 mile hexes)

Roll 1d8 to determine the effect:

1. Spells cast within the area are doubled in potency (1-3) or halved in potency (4-6).

2. Certain magics cannot be cast within the area (healing spells, fire-based spells, etc.).

3. Beasts that dwell within the area gain the ability of speech. They can speak Common 50% of the time, or whatever the predominate language of the area is the rest of the time. There's a 1 in 6 chance that any beast passing through the area gains the ability of speech; the rest of the time it takes one month of living within the area for the ability to manifest. There's a further 1-4 in 6 chance the ability fades 1d8 days after leaving the area. The ability of speech only comes with an increased intelligence 1-3 in 6 times.

4. Living beings that die a violent death within the area 1 are animated as lesser undead after 3d4 days, 2 gradually turn to stone over a period of 1d4 days, 3 are returned to life with 1 hp 1 round later, dying permantly if slain again within one day, or 4 have a tree sprout from their corpse in 1d4 turns. Corpse wood is especially sought after for use in crafting magical items.

5. Divine (1-3) or arcane (4-6) spells require extraordinary mental effort to cast. The caster must roll their primary Attribute (Wisdom or Intelligence) on 4d6 in order to successfully cast a spell. Failure indicates the spell slot is still used.

6. Undead within the area are resistant to being turned (1-4) or are turned with greater success (5-6). Clerics roll twice to both determine their chance of success and the number of HD turned (if successful), taking the lower of the two rolls in the first case, and the higher of the two in the second. Free-willed undead instinctively avoid the area.

7. The gravity in the area is strange. It is either stronger than normal, reducing movement and missile ranges by half, or less than normal, increased movement and missile ranges by 2.

8. Any spell being cast within the area has a 1-2 in 6 chance of being miscast. Use your preferred wild magic system to determine the result of miscasts.

1d8 Things to Find in Barren Hills

1. The downward slope of a hill is loose. Adventurers traveling down it have a 1-4 in 6 chance of starting a small rockslide. If the ground does shift, each must roll their Dexterity or less on 4d6 to remain standing. Failure indicates they fall and roll to the bottom of the hill, taking 1d6 points of damage.

2. A tribe of aggressive goats grazes on grass. Make a reaction roll with a -2 penalty to determine what they do. There are 3d8 goats.

3. The ruins of an ancient tower sits atop a hill. Nothing remains but a crumbling foundation, made of flat black stones, each inscribed with the same curious rune.

4. A lonely shepherd's hut. There's a 1-4 in 6 chance it is occupied by the aforementioned shepherd and her flock of sheep. Otherwise, it looks as if it hasn't been occupied for 1d6 months.

5. The remains of a great battle can be found, spread out over several hundred square yards. Bones, rusty armor and decaying weapons litter the ground. Searching for one hour will yield Treasure Type VII (using Labyrinth Lord).

6. A ring of standing stones, thirty feet in diameter, with each stone about eight feet in height and three to four feet in diameter. A flat slab of stone sits in the center of the ring, and it was once used as a sacrificial altars to dark gods. Now the ring stands abandoned, but those who enter feel a strong sense of forboding as they do.

7. Three twisted pines grow in a straight line atop a hill, running from east to west and spaced twenty feet apart. If one were to walk thirty paces west, along an imaginary line created by the trees, and dig, one would uncover a hoard of Treasure Type XIX (Labyrinth Lord).

8. A single human skeleton digs relentlessly into the side of a hill. Its shovel long since broken, the undead creature digs with worn fingers at the end of a shaft that runs in and down some fifteen feet. It ignores any attempt at communication, focusing solely on excavation. Otherwise it is a normal skeleton.

1d8 Things to Find in the Mountains

1. Somewhere, off in the distance, the adventurers hear the low rumble of an avalanche. It lasts for 1d6 rounds before subsiding.

2. The party finds a rope bridge spanning a deep gorge. The bridge looks old and in poor condition, but it is actually quite safe. The gargoyle perched on the other side, however, does not let just anyone cross . . .

3. A peaceful alpine meadow, some three hundred yards to a side. There is a 1 in 6 chance the meadow is not what it seems.

4. An abandoned mineshaft, boarded over, with the words "Danger, goblins!" written on it in the Common tongue.

5. Embedded in the rocks on either side of a narrow pass can be seen images, impressions, fossils of animals long extinct. These fossils can be used as potent components in certain spells.

6. A dead grizzly bear, its hide pierced by what numerous small arrows. No sign can be found of the archer or archers that slew it.

7. A spring exits from a steep cliff face, forming a small waterfall that trickles down the rocks. There's a 1 in 6 chance the water is magical.

8. On a mountain peak far off in the distance the adventurers spy a pair of enormous bird-like creatures take off and land, one of them carrying what looks to be an elephant in its talons. But that's ridiculous; no bird could be *that* large.

1d8 things to find in Grasslands

While traveling through the open plains, the adventurers stumble upon . . .

1. An abandoned sod hut, built into a low hill. It contains two rooms, the bones of its former inhabitants, and there's a 1 in 6 chance whatever did them in still lurks within.

2. A large spur of stone, fifteen feet tall and eight in diameter, stabs up through the ground. Tall enough to be visible for miles around, no moss or lichen grows on its surface. Those familiar with geology recognize it is a type of rock foreign to these parts.

3. A wooden wagon wheel, banded in black iron, and apparently completely intact. If the adventurers have a wagon it could be used as a spare.

4. A dry creekbed, running 1-3 in the same direction as the PCs are traveling or 4-6 in a different direction. After heavy rains the creek runs for 1d4 days before drying out again.

5. A small spring, surrounded by verdant grass. It's small, and will run dry after filling 1d6 waterskins.

6. A small grove of box elders can be seen for several miles away, no more than one hundred feet to a side. A lonely dryad dwells within the grove, which is populated during the summer by a flock of colorful songbirds.

7. The bones of a giant can be found, half buried in sod, with grass growing in the eye-sockets of the skull. The bones are old and fractured, having been gnawed on by coyotes and wolves.

8. The adventurers startle a covey of grouse from their nests as they pass by. 3d4+12 birds take to flight as one. Quick thinking adventurers may be able to shoot one or more, food for the evening's meal.

1d8 things to find in the woods

Here's a quick random table:

1. A dead treant, branches brittle and bowed as if in agony. A family of raccoons has made a nest in the treant's mouth, frozen forever in a cry of agony.

2. Buried under a drift of leaves can be found the remains of an adventurer, little more than bones. The only thing of value to be found on the body is a silver ring, non-magical, but engraved with the intials ES on the inside of the band. The ring is worth around 10 gold.

3. A totally intact deer skull. This one has a third eye-socket, in the center of its forehead.

4. A small stream flows through the woods at this point, barely a foot wide and several inches deep. Running swiftly down an incline, the water plays a gentle melody on the grey, egg-shaped rocks that line the stream-bed.

5. The bark of a large oak tree has been scarred, as if by the claws of an enormous predator. The gashes are nearly fifteen feet off the ground.

6. A wooden chest, one side stove in as if by great force. 1d10 gold coins can be found nearby, if the adventurers spend a turn looking. It looks as if the chest has been opened recently, within the past day.

7. An enormous mushroom, three feet tall and a foot in diameter, grows in the shade of old crab-apple tree. Even a single bite is poisonous to eat, causing 3d4 points of damage (half on save v. poison), but those who do taste its flesh are the subject of an enlarge spell, as if cast by a 9th level magic-user.

8. An old, neglected dry laid stone wall, exactly one hundred and one feet long and two feet tall, running as straight as an arrow and covered in moss and lichen.

Compiling Information in a PBP Game

One of the strong points of pbp gaming is the manner in which information is recorded, both in the active play medium (the IC and OOC threads) and in tangential storage centers (other subforums for a multi-thread centered game, or a wiki). The first is easy to archive and access; it happens automatically as posts are made, the second requires engagement from both players and DMs.

Every post made during play is recorded in either the IC or OOC thread. If you're using a forum with search software (highly recommended) it's trivially easy to search through a thread for mention of what you're looking for -- be it a place, an event, or something else. Can't remember how many XP your character got after that last adventure? It should be right there, in the OOC thread. Can't remember how much treasure you got after slaying the dragon, or the name of that NPC you met in the villlage three months ago in game? Going back through the relevant thread is an excellent way to find out.

The more time consuming, but ultimately more rewarding, method of record-keeping involves using a wiki. Ideally the players will be largely responsible for maintaining and adding to the wiki; in reality the minimum I ask for is that each player maintain their own character sheet and a record of the treasure they are currently carrying. At least one player will typically be motivated enough to add other important information to the wiki. Some of what can be added includes:

1. Maps. Both overland and dungeon maps. These can either be loaded directly onto the wiki or, if you're using something like Google Draw to create battlemaps, can be linked to.
2. Rumors. It is helpful having rumors and plot hooks added to the wiki so they can be referenced later. Again, given the slow pace of pbp, when it might take a month or more to play through a week of game time, a rumor may still be active but forgotten by the players. It's nice for all of the rumors and hooks to be in a central place where they can be crossed off as they either "expire" or are completed (by the PCs or rival parties). 
3. Encumbrance and Current movement rates.
4. Mounts.
5. Hirelings, retainers and mercenaries.
6. Inactive or dead PCs.

The key to using a wiki is to keep it updated on a regular basis, as events unfold, otherwise you end up with a month's worth of information to upload and it just becomes daunting (this is, a of course, a key to managing life as well).

If you're using a multi-thread forum without a wiki you can set up separate threads to manage all these things. I'll typically set up one thread for PCs, one thread for hirelings, a thread to track treasure and XP, and so forth. I find it also helpful to have a Calendar thread, maintained by the DM, that can be used to track events. Ideally the PCs would reference this thread as well.

I'm linking to two examples of the different kinds of pbp record-keeping:
1. Here is the wiki for an ambitious, high-level game I ran where the players were getting into establishing their own domains.
2. Here's a game I ran years ago that used multiple threads to track information.

Both wiki and thread based record-keeping offer roughly the same degree of infomation handling. The advantage to using a wiki is that anyone can edited, as opposed to thread-based forums where only the poster can edit a given post. The advantage to running a thread-based game (here I refer to a game with multiple threads beyond the IC and OOC threads) is that everything is in one sub-forum and is easy and quick to reference. Some forums also offer integrated dice rollers and character sheets.

Standards of Posting in a Play by Post Game (The Players)

After having discussed some uesful standards for posting as a DM I'm going to take a look today at standards of posting as a player.

The biggest thing a player can do to meaningfully contribute to a play by post game is to post in a clear, concise manner and make sure that every post you made contributes to moving the game forward. There's a lot of reading that goes into a pbp game, and as a DM my eyes glaze over whenever I'm confronted by an enormous wall of text, or a post populated with grammatical or spelling errors. It's also a huge pain in the ass to try and decipher what a player actually means or is trying to do. I'd much rather have a short post that presents a clear action than a long post filled with interior dialogue, flowery descriptions, and so forth. I always prefer a post to the effect of:

"Ejemplo swings at the goblin nearest to him with his blade." It's short, it's sweet, and it tells me exactly what I need to know.

Hypotheticals or variable actions should go in a spoiler or OOC text at the bottom of a post. I like seeing extended OOC posts in the actual OOC thread, rather than in the IC thread. Questions, too, should go in the OOC thread, if possible.

It is also helpful to designate who is posting, especially at the beginning of a game where I'm trying to learn everyone's name. I ask that my players start each of their posts with their character's name and class in bold at the top, like this:

Glaarg the Glamorous, Fighter

Some people prefer to indicate dialogue through colored text, with each player selecting one color to use for themselves. I find colored text jarring and prefer my players use quotation marks to indicate dialogue. Whichever you chose, make sure that you are consistent and that all players observe the same standards. It can also be useful to bold the names of other PCs in your text, especially if it is a long post.

When I post as a DM I will do so in third person, present tense. I ask my players to do the same, referring to their character by name. If the players are not rolling, actions should be stated as intentions, without assuming success or failure:

"Glaarg backs up and runs at the door, leading with his shoulder, in an attempt to break it down" rather than "Glaarg runs into the door and breaks it down" (since you don't know if you're successful until the DM resolves the action). Along a similar vein, players should never post what other PCs do, feel or experience, or what NPCs are doing, feeling or experiencing. It is up to the other players and the DM to react to the PCs actions. Glaarg's player should not post, therefore:

"Ejemplo is impressed as Glaarg struts, flexing his panther-like muscles." It is up to Ejemplo's player to determine if Ejemplo is impressed by Glaarg's display of masculinity.

Finally, everything a player posts should contribute to moving the game forward. If the players are discussing what their next course of action should be each post should either a) support a course of action or b) suggest an alternate course of action, as opposed to just saying no.

Glaarg the Glamorous: "I propose we venture to the Forgotten Fane of Vidmar and plunder the treasure that surely lies within!"

Ejemplo the Erudite: "I've heard terrible tales of the Fane of Vidmar, of the deadly undead that lurk in its shadowed halls. I say we travel east and attempt to drive out the brigands that lair in the Granite Pass, and claim the reward the Baron is offering for re-opening that road."

Each player that contributes after this point should do so in a manner that supports one or the other proposals, or to put forth a third plan of action. The idea, though, is to resolve decisions as quickly and efficiently as possible so play can continue.

What's he Building in There?

Now for a non-gaming post: I own a small cabinet shop in real life, and this year we will be participating in our local Artisan's Studio Tour. There are about twenty-five or so studios open to the public on a weekend in November, with about forty artists and artisans -- woodworkers, potters, jewelers, etc. -- exhibiting and giving demonstrations. I've got a couple of furniture pieces that will be on display, and am also building a new piece.

Importantly, this year I am giving my four guys that are the cabinetmakers (as opposed to the finishers) the chance to build a furniture piece each to exhibit. I'm giving each of them 16 hours, which they will be paid for, to come up with a design and build their pieces. If they sell during the Tour I'll split the sale price with them, otherwise it is theirs to do with as they want.

Since I'm building a piece I'm sticking to the same 16 hour deadline I've given my guys (16 hours is, btw, plenty of time to build a relatively simple piece such as a coffee or bedside table, a simple credenza or desk, etc.). I've suggested they build something smallish that has a good chance of selling (big pieces don't, since people are less likely to buy big, expensive pieces at shows). Anyway, I will be posting progress pictures here on occasion (both mine and others).

Standards of Posting in a Play By Post (The DM)

All DMs are going to have different standards that they'd like their players to follow while posting, as well as standards that they use. I'm going to go over some basic standards.

Time/location Stamp. Because of the slow pace of pbp games, I find it helpful as a DM to head every post I make with the date, time (or turns elapsed, for dungeon exploration) and location. Additionally, if the post is not for everyone in the party I will indicate in the header *who* the post is directed towards. This lets me make a single post that covers multiple independent actions or actions occuring over multiple days. Because I'm lazy, my months are simply a number one through twelve with the suffix "month", and the days are one through twenty-eight with the suffix "day". Twelfthmonth through Secondmonth is always winter, the 14thday is always the full moon, and the 28th day of each month is always a festival/fair day (I increase item availability on the 28thday, and there's an increased chance of encounters with lycanthropes on the 14thday). A sample timestamp might look like this:

Thirdmonth, Fifthday

Hex 14.23

9:00 am

or

Thirdmonth, Seventhday

The Fane of Vidmar

Twelve Turns Elapsed

The Hall of the Conjoined Serpents

By providing a time stamp it is easy for my players (and me) to see what day it is, where they are, and how much time has elapsed or how much time they've got left.

Because we're playing online it is trivially easy to link to images, videos, music, or files. Since I run a lot of hexcrawl style games, I will often include a map of their surroundings or their current location at the end of a post in a spoiler box. Likewise, if we're using an interactive map I'll try to link to that in each post.

I have found that the easiest way to handle battlemaps is by using Google Drawings; it's easy to use, access, and can be manipulated by everyone. Typically I'll place everyone initially, and then request that players move their characters at the same time they post their actions. Here is an excellent map created by the DM running a game I'm playing in.

Otherwise, my standards are pretty straightforward and applicable to both players and DMs. Some people use colored text to denote dialogue, but I find that jarring, and usually just rely on quotation marks like the gods intended. I always post in third person, present tense, and never refer to the players as "you", instead calling them by name: "Blargo creeps down the hallway and listens to the door at the end. He hears nothing." as opposed to "You creep down the hallway and listen at the door. You don't hear anything." But that is totally a personal preference. 

Tomorrow we'll get into posting standards for players.

Peaking Behind the pbp Curtain

I've had some questions about how I handle dice rolling, so I figure the easiest thing to do would be to post from the game I'm currently running. As I said in an earlier post, when I'm running a game I make all of the rolls. Players state their intentions, and then I resolve the round based on those. I am a believer in transparency. At the end of each post (or round, if I'm posting multiple rounds within a single post) I put all of my rolls, notes, etc. in a spoiler. Some of my players don't look behind the curtain, some do. It doesn't matter to me. We're all experienced gamers, and I trust everyone to separate in game and out of game knowledge. I find that it is helpful when my players *do* look, because they often spot mistakes that I have made. Plus, from a player's perspective, I think it is pretty neat to see how different DMs resolve things differently. So, with no further ado, here's a post from a random combat I ran recently:

Round Two
Cyr fires another arrow, but it clatters off a breastplate harmlessly as Malgrim withdraws and Konrad moves forward to take his place. Konrad and Jack wait for the skeletons to advance. Jack destroys another one, but both he and Konrad suffer minor cuts from the spears. The skeletal knight steps forward, raises its flaming blade, and in a hollow, sepulchral tone intones several words. A wave of green energy emanates from it, and the adventurers are suddenly aware of the almost overwhelming oppresion of the grave. "I can't deal with this," Brugar says, backing up down the hallway, "its my dream, brought to life! We're all going to die here! I'm too young to die!" He doesn't turn and flee, but he's definitely backing the fuck out of there.

The rest of the post is hidden behind a spoiler (note that the forum where I'm running this formats the bbcode automatically):

[url=http://orokos.com/roll/634911]Initiative, PCs first, then skeletal knight:[/url]: [u]3#1d6[/u] [b]4[/b] [b]2[/b] [b]3[/b]
Cyr fires arrow: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/634912][/url]: [u]3#1d20+4[/u] [b]15[/b] [b]15[/b] [b]17[/b] [u]3#1d8+2[/u] [b]6[/b] [b]8[/b] [b]7[/b] That just misses.Malgrim retreats, Konrad advances (I'm assuming you'll want to do this as Konrad has a better AC.Jack: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/634914][/url]: [u]2#1d20+5[/u] [b]17[/b] [b]7[/b] [u]2#1d8+3[/u] [b]6[/b] [b]4[/b] Jack destroys another skeleton!Konrad: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/634915][/url]: [u]3#1d2+4[/u] [b]5[/b] [b]6[/b] [b]6[/b] [u]3#1d8+3[/u] [b]11[/b] [b]8[/b] [b]9[/b]Since Jack and Konrad held their actions, the third skeleton still gets its attack:Three skeletons: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/634917]First attacking Jack, second attacking Konrad, third attacking one or the other:[/url]: [u]3#1d20+1[/u] [b]6[/b] [b]20[/b] [b]17[/b] [u]3#1d6[/u] [b]5[/b] [b]3[/b] [b]5[/b] [u]1d2[/u] [b]1[/b]
[B]Konrad takes 3 hp, Jack takes 5 hp.[/B]
Skeleton knight casts a reversed [I]bless[/I] spell. Interestingly, it doesn't state if those affected have a Save, so I'm going to go ahead and say they don't. The adventurers are at -1 to hit and damage, and Brugar must make a morale check: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/634919][/url]: [u]3d6-1[/u] [b]7[/b]

As you can see, I've linked all of my dice rolls, and explained what's going on with each roll. If the players are curious (or wanting to check my honesty) they can follow the link back to my orokos account and see all of the rolls that I have made. If any PCs are injured I summarize those injuries and then call them out in bold. Typically what I will do is compose the second post first (the mechanical stuff) and then use that information to flesh out a description of what happens during the round. I used to post much more detailed, flowery descriptions of combat, but at this point I've kinda ended up shooting for simplicity rather than a description of each dodge, parry and riposte.

PBP -- Open to the World

Another benefit to play by post gaming is that, in a manner similar to live streaming a gaming session, it is most often open and available to others interested in following along. I got interested in the medium simply by starting to read through some old IC (in character) threads that had been run on a forum I frequent, and was quickly hooked. It helped that at the time I didn't have a face to face group, nor the time to join one, and was looking for some way to game. Play by post gaming was perfect for my needs; I was unable to commit to a four-hour chunk of time on a regular basis, but was able to find thirty minutes a day to participate in a game or two.

Assuming that a game is being played on an open forum it is open to anyone who browses the forum. Because of the archival nature of the internet, you're just as likely to stumble across an old game as one that is currently being run.  And, unlike streaming, pbp offers certain benefits for people like me who are not comfortable being filmed. I also learned years ago that I am not a particulary effective DM in real life: I don't do accents, I'm not very spontaneous, and, because I'm somewhat lazy, I don't do a very good job of prepping for games, which leaves me often unprepared. Play by post allows me to ignore all of those defects; for those playing in my games or following along at home, it's impossible to tell if I've been winging something or have an elaborate plan that I've spent years crafting (hint: it's mostly the former).

Because both current and former games can be found throughout the internet, it's easy to stumble across and become engaged in the medium. I would recommend logging into your forum of choice (most gaming forums are going to have a play by post sub-forum) and taking a gander at the gams currently being run. If you're interested in finding more about it, look for a game that both seems interesting to you (based on system, genre, etc.) and has a high post count (this indicates engagement). If there's a recruitment thread you might want to check that out first, since it will introduce you to the type of game being run, the theme (dungeon crawl? Sandbox?), the players and characters, and the DM. Start at the beginning, at the first post of the IC thread, and start reading.

This, for example, is the first post of a game I am currently running:

Thirdmonth, Firstday, Firstyear of the Fifteenth Cycle*
Junction

The final snows of winter have melted, leaving the ground wet and soft with the approach of spring. The sages all say that the Fourteenth Cycle is officially over, the Fifteenth Cyle has just begun, and with the coming of spring the forces of civilization are once more looking outwards. The world is new and ready for a new generation of adventurers.

The village of Junction -- little more than a hamlet, really, with a population of nearly 400 souls -- is notable chiefly for providing the ferry across the River Sarn from those traveling from the eastern Variegated Kingdoms to the vast and sprawling Basilisk Kingdom to the west. Or, more accurately, the decaying remnants of the Basilisk Kingdom. Ever since the last true king, Zaphisdreal the Magnificent, died at the beginning of the Fourteenth Cycle the Kingdom has crumbled as his many children scrabbled and fought for control, until at last it was no more than a half dozen or so petty Baronies. Up until fifty or sixty years previous Junction had still paid tribute to the nearest Baron, one Naldruth the Mad, but eventually his tax collectors stopped visiting. Junction is now an independent village, subsiding on the little traffic that passed from east to west, a small amount of ore mined to the north, and what the inhabitants can take from the river and surrounding forests.

The River Sarn, shallow and slow, flows to the south and the city of Zizdul, the once great port on the banks of the Silver Sea, but the bulk of the river traffic south goes through Rhea's Ford, a small city at the very western edge of the Scarlet Principality, a day's hard ride to the east of Junction. The adventurers have come to Junction from all over; some were perhaps even born in this small settlement at the edge of the civilized world. 

Now, with the ending of winter, and the beginning of a new Cycle, the adventurers begin plotting their next course of action. The following options have come to their attention as being potentially lucrative:

*The Fane of of Vidmar is rumored to hold the burial treasures of a long-forgotten bandit chieftain, to the north of Junction in hex 43.23.
*The Shrine of Sabeth has been abandoned since the middle of the last Cycle, on the road east to Rhea's Ford, and held several holy relics before all contact with it was lost. It lies in hex 39.25.
*To the south of Junction, on the banks of the River Sarn, a group of fishermen spied a curious round door set into the western bank, exposed from erosion caused by snowmelt. It is found in hex 42.28
*The few travelers who've made their way west from Rhea's Ford have reported attacks by a band of goblins, preying on those foolhardy individuals who make the trip through the thick woods. From the tales, it sounds like most of the attacks have occured in hexes 46.27 and 47.27.
*A small village to the west, Cyndun, is reported to have been taken over by bandits. If true, surely it is but a matter of time before the bandits venture east to raid the larger and wealthier village of Junction. Cyndun is a day's walk west, across the Sarn.