Regional Map

 Below is a rough map of the area around Perrin. There are mountains and the Dwarven city of Agron to the north, and Wemic country across the river to the west. The road past the Inn of Bonne Jouissane leads to Leene, and eventually to Rion.

Darkshelf

Darkshelf is a large town in the east hills, just west of the Spire Mountains. The city is dominated by the large walls of some forgotten Solarian fortress, sacked during the Second Demon War. It is ruled by a Council of Lords, consisting of one dwarf, one human, and one orc. The townsfolk are roughly 50% orc, 40% human, and 10% dwarf, with a smattering of other races. It is rumored to be a hub for the slave trade. Though slavery is illegal in Darkshelf, it is widely suspected that the Red Hand Slavers operate a base in town to transport slaves from the coast into the Spire Mountains.

The largest temple belongs to the priesthood of Crom, who is widely worshipped by the inhabitants of the town, orc and non-orc alike. His high priest is Xanathon, who came here from Morachi some years ago. Whispers say he is immortal and cannot be killed. On the outskirts of town, near the main gate, is an arena where warriors fight for the glory of Crom and themselves.

The Golden Cockatrice dominates the night life here, with its festhall welcoming party-goers from all parts of the north. It is rumored that an anti-slavery cabal has connections here, and all find the cockatrices in the courtyard to be an amusing, if dangerous, attraction. Other features are the manor house of the noble Arquestan, next to the entrance to the inner city, and the abandoned temple on the outskirts of town.


Map copyright Dyson Logos, https://rpgcharacters.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/javelin-hill-production.jpg

Skanderbeg's Tomb

I wanted to post a sample dungeon. This is one I used pretty recently. The map, like most of my maps, comes from the superior mapper, Dyson Logos. I typically use the standard random dungeon generator of ACKS, where you roll up a serious of rooms and arrange them to make sense within the map. With this map, I tweaked some of the entries. Since it's the tomb of the lieutenant of an undead necromancer, I made sure there were lots of undead. But I want to reward the players for finding an alternate entrance, so I put the most dangerous encounters (the hordes of wights) near the 'main' entrance. Sadly, my players never found the cursed idol in room nine...

Threshold

Threshold is the capital of Brno, relatively large with 104 families. As it is right near the borderlands, it is home to an unusually large number of potential adventurers. (Roll for henchmen and hirelings as if a class IV market.) Just outside of town are the Laternan Caves, recently renamed the Caves of Chaos, as minions of Chaos have been  spotted near there. And, as everyone knows, where there are Chaos creatures, there is often treasure.

Morachi

Morachi is the youngest of the successor kingdoms. It had been populated by settlers from Muldavia, but never formally organized until an adventurer named Mikulas Mathias from Fogelon came in and united the people under his rule. Since then, Morachi has been slowly expanding to the north and east along the Reka river.

Mikulas Mathias founded Morachi about sixty years ago. As noted earlier, the area had been populated somewhat by settlers from Fogelon, but had not been organized. That is, except for large bandit gangs who troubled the king of Fogelon enough that he sent Mikulas and his party to stop the bandits. Mikulas showed remarkable mercy in dealing with the bandits, and so was able to use them to consolidate his control over the area. He was nominally a vassal of Fogelon, but they were in the middle of a succession dispute, and paid him little heed.

Mikulas' successor, Stephen Bocksai, further consolidated the kingdom, expanding north along the Reka river. The main threat during his reign came from raids by the Orcish tribes that live to the north. Not only did they threaten Morachi directly, they threatened to cut off the flow of metals that come from the mines of Norhold. Stephen delved into a dungeons located in the hills near Norhold, and there recovered the Globus Cruciger. With the Globus Cruciger, he was able to control the gold dragon Faranth, and drive the orcs back.

The current king is Matthias Corvinus. When he took the throne, he announced formal independence from Fogelon, conveniently while they were at war with Muldavia. Fogelon has not recognized their independence, but has not had the resources to establish control. Corvinus is growing older, and some worry that Fogelon might take advantage of his age to reclaim the territory for themselves.

The Map of Arden Est

Map created using hexographer

Arden Est was originally named Arden Oest by the elves, referring to the great forest that covered wide swathes of this portion of the continent, and of which there are only scattered remnants. There are six kingdoms now, splintered branches of the Solarian Empire which disintegrated during the Second Demon War. The northernmost kingdom is Morachi, and is also the least connected to the old rites and rituals of Empire.