7-Hex Setting #2: Isle of the Fae

You can assume this is an island with three more hexes of ocean around hex 2, or that it’s a peninsula; it works either way.  Note that the coastline extends very slightly into hexes 3 and 6, which contain seaside villages.

Hex 1- Central, Forrest

Feature 1-  Large town, population 3800

This town is inhabited by a mix of humans and elves.  It is located several miles inland, near the mouth of a river that flows southwest to hex 6.  The river is navigable to large boats, but not full-sized oceangoing ships.  

Control of the town is split between four powerful merchant houses.  While all merchant houses have some interest in multiple industry, each has one area that it focuses on.  An uneasy peace between the four houses currently prevails, but it may not last.

Merchant house #1 is composed of humans.  It runs most of the shipping on the island. It is the biggest employers in the port village in hex 6, but has a tepid relationship with the people there, who feel underpaid.  

Merchant house #2 is composed of a mix of humans and elves.  It controls most of the trade in food and practical crafts.  The people of the port village in hex 6 rely on this house for food and basic supplies, but also resent it for keeping the price of necessities artificially high.  

Merchant house #3 is composed of elves.  It deals mainly in art and magical items, which it buys from the Court of the Faerie Queen in hex #2.

Merchant house #4 is composed of humans.  It owns the gemstone mine in hex 1.

Feature 2- Emerald Mine

Emeralds have a special place in the culture of this island, as they’re viewed as sacred to the faeries.  They’re also a very valuable export commodity.

The managers of this mine want to take over the diving operation in hex 4- peacefully if possible, but ultimately by any means necessary.  

Owned by merchant house #4 from the town in hex 1. 

Hex 2- North, Forrest

Feature 1- The Palace of the Leprechaun King

The leprechaun king’s palace is located in Faerie, and can be reached by walking to the base of a rainbow in this hex after it rains.  He wants two things: treasure and slaves. 

Hated by the boat people in hex 3.

Currently in a state of entente with the faerie queen- cordial but distant.  He envies her power.

The leprechaun king wants to take over or destroy the diving operation in hex 4.  If he can’t have the gold, no one should have it!  Ideally, he’d like to enslave the divers by entrapping them into a magical pact, giving him both treasure and slaves.

Feature 2- The Court of the Faerie Queen

The faerie queen’s realm is located in the plane of faerie.  It can be reached by walking through a hedge in a magical glade at sunrise or sunset.  A few woodsmen in the area know the secret, as do the elves of merchant house #3.  It is located 4d100 miles from the leprechaun king’s palace, should adventurers try to travel between them within faerie.

Currently in a state of entente with the leprechaun king- cordial but distant.  She envies his wealth.  

Friendly relationship with the muse whale in hex 7.  The queen tries to get ships routed through hex 7 so the muse whale can inspire the sailors- then the queen can harvest their dreams and acquire the art they create.  

Sells magical items to the elves of merchant house #3 from the town in hex 1.  In return, they give her artwork and dreams- the dreams are often harvested from unwilling prisoners.  

Hex 3- Northeast, Ocean/Coastline

Feature- Village of the Boat People, pop. 200

The people of this village are refugees from a far-off land, driven here by persecution.  Widely mistrusted by the islanders, they live entirely on boats moored in a small cove in this hex.  They make their living mainly by fishing and creating artwork, and a few of them dive for treasure in hex 4.   

The boat people know about and dislike the leprechaun king in hex 2.  He was partly responsible for the strife in their homeland, which contains another portal to his realm.  They would happily aid any adventurers who seek to kill him. 

The boat people revere the muse whale in hex 7- they make regular pilgrimages and offerings to the whale.  In turn it inspires them to make great art and keep the hope alive that they may someday return to their homeland.  They don’t yet realize that this makes them a target for the faerie queen.  

Hex 4- Southeast, Ocean

Feature- Rocks, Shipwrecks, and Divers

A small area of jagged rocks lying just under the surface of the water.  Ships occasionally wreck here.  A group of boat people divers make a living recovering cargo from the wrecked ships.  

The divers are fending off hostile takeover attempts by the emerald mine in hex 1. 

The divers are being meddled with by the leprechaun king in hex 2, who wants to either control or destroy the diving operation.

Hex 5- South, Ocean

Feature- Female Sea Dragon

Can swim, fly, and breath underwater.  Has several young that she is raising.  Wrongly believed to attack ships- actually, the ships just crash into the rocks in hex 4.  In truth, she’s mostly indifferent towards humanoids, unless they bother her.   

Is revered- from a distance- by the people of the village in hex 6. 

Is a friend and neighbor of the muse whale in hex 7.

Hex 6- Southwest, Ocean/Coastline

Feature- Small village at the mouth of the river, pop. 200

This village in a rocky cover at the mouth of the river exists mainly for the purpose of transferring cargo between river-going boats and larger, ocean-going ships.  

Many are employed by merchant house #1, but they also resent it for under-paying them.

Reliant on merchant house #2 for food and other basic necessities- but resent it for price-fixing. 

The people of this village respect and fear the sea dragon in hex 5.  They occasionally leave offerings to her, which they believe is why she leaves them alone.    

Hex 7- Northwest, Ocean

Feature 1- Muse Whale

This beautiful narwhal looks like a unicorn of the sea.  It feeds on fish and positive emotions, and the sight and sound of it inspires humanoids to dream bigger and create beautiful works of art.

Revered by the boat people in hex 3- they make regular pilgrimages and offerings to the whale. 

Friendly relationship with the faerie queen in hex 2.  The queen tries to get ships routed through this hex so the muse whale can inspire the sailors- then the queen can harvest their dreams and acquire the art they create.  

Is a friend and neighbor of the sea dragon in hex 5.

7-Hex Sandbox #1: The Mountains of Terror

A year or so ago I started drawing up seven-hex sandboxes, inspired by Chicagowiz's three hex adventure post series.  I didn't really have any plans for them, wasn't blogging or running campaigns yet, just thought it was a fun way to pass the time.

Somehow now that I do have a blog, I forgot all about them until last night.  Turns out I have three of them saved on my laptop, so I'll release those over the next couple weeks and if there's interest maybe I'll start writing up some more.

The basic idea here is that every hex has two features, and every feature has connections to other hex features– usually one or two, sometimes three or four.  So these are written to provide not only stuff to explore, but hooks to get parties to explore them and also some dynamism with different things interacting with each other.

7-Hex Sandbox Setting: The Mountains of Terror

Hex 1- Central, Woods

Feature 1- Wood Golem

Can blend into the forrest, and regenerates in direct sunlight.  Under orders to prevent anyone from finding the scrying pool- the golem usually patrols 1-3 miles out from the pool, but once every day or two it stops by the pool to make sure nobody got past it.

Was created by the (deceased) wizard from the tower in hex 2 to guard the pool.  If killed, magical runes on the body can be deciphered- will include the wizard’s name.  

The golem will know if anyone other than the wizard uses the gate in hex 7 to travel to the tower.  When this happens, it will run to the tower to defend its master, arriving in 2d6+6 hours.  

Feature 2- Scrying Pool

A naturally occurring spring on the junction of two ley lines.  Decades ago, the wizard from the tower in hex 2 enchanted the spring into a scrying pool.  

Was created by the (now deceased) wizard from the tower in hex 2.

The golem occasionally passes by here.  It could potentially be found by tracking the golem to it.

Hex 2- North, Mountains

Feature 1- Wizard’s Tower

Formerly inhabited by a level 12 wizard.  The wizard recently died in a lab accident; the tower is now full of traps, treasure, and monsters created by the wizard.  

The wizard created the golem in hex 1.  Drawings of the golem can be found in the tower.

The wizard created the scrying pool in hex 1.  Instructions for using it can be found in the tower’s laboratory.  

Contains a magical gate that leads to the magical gate in hex 7.

Feature 2- Magophobic Human Village, Population 420

The inhabitants of this village hate magic due to bad experiences with the wizard in the nearby tower, and his creations.  They haven’t actively opposed the wizard- just avoid him and anything else magical. 

The people here trade with and are sympathetic towards the inhabitants of the haunted village in hex 3.  They will try to aid the people of the haunted village as much as they can as long as it doesn’t put themselves at risk.  

Hex 3- Northeast, Wooded Hills

Feature 1- Haunted Seaside Fishing Village

Located on the coast bordering hex 4.  Suffers occasional raids from skeleton warriors riding skeleton horses.  

Friendly trading relationship with the magophobic village in hex 2.  Both villages will aid each other against supernatural threats, though not at great cost/risk to themselves.

Main food source is the fish in hex 4.  Famine may ensue if the fish population gets too depleted.  

The skeletal raiders come from the dungeon in hex 5.  A typical raiding party consists of d6+2 skeleton warriors armed with shields and longswords, all riding skeleton horses. 

Feature 2- A Large Nest of Harpies

Located on top of the tallest hill in the hex.  Contains 3d6+3 adult harpies and 2d6+2 young.  The top of the nest is 250 feet above ground level; you can see the far edge of all neighboring hexes from there. 

Have trained the seagulls in hex 4 (who can communicate with them telepathically) to spot targets for them to raid.    

They don’t attack the haunted village due to fear of the monsters there.  They will likely start raiding it once the haunting ends.  

Hex 4- Southeast, Water

Feature 1- Fish

This hex is rich in fish of all kinds.

A staple food source of the haunted village in hex 3.  

Being over-fished by the flock of seagulls.  May become dangerously depleted if the seagull flock keeps growing, potentially causing starvation in the haunted village in hex 3.  

Feature 2- Flock of semi-intelligent seagulls.

These seagulls have an INT of 2 and can communicate telepathically with other flying creatures.  They continually migrate between the coastline of hexes 1, 3, and 5, overflying hex 4 on their travels.  With the aid of the harpies, this flock keeps growing bigger and bigger.      

They are allied with the harpies in hex 3- the seagulls spot targets for the harpies to raid, and the harpies protect the seagulls from predators, hunters, and people who would kill them as pests.  

Main food source is the fish in this hex.  If the flock keeps going, the fish population may plummet.

Hex 5- South, Mountains

Feature 1: Village of 150 people who fear the dark

This village has a strong taboo against darkness.  Nobody goes outside at night, and everybody keeps a fire lit all night, believing this keeps the skeletons from attacking.  In reality, the skeletons are under orders only to attack wanderers in the wilderness and not attack the village directly; the cleric who commands the skeletons actually hopes to someday convert the village to his faith.    

People who leave the village at night are sometimes attacked by skeleton raiders from the nearby dungeon.  

The hunter whose accidental death created the nightmare dungeon in hex 7 was from this village.  He died 14 years ago- most people will still remember him, and will wrongly assume he was killed by the skeletons.  

Feature 2: The Necromancer’s Lair

This is the lair of a level 7 cleric necromancer, a follower of an evil god of death.  He was cast out from the village in hex 5 after trying to proselytize on behalf of his deity, and now seeks revenge.  The lair is located in a pocket dimension tied to the negative energy plane; the entrance is in an ancient graveyard on the side of a mountain.  

Sometimes attacks the villagers from the nearby village if they venture out at night.  

The cleric sends raiding parties of skeleton warriors riding skeleton horses to terrorize the village in hex 3.  He has little desire to destroy the village- he’d rather make the villagers suffer.

The cleric has his minions hunt horses in hex 6 and bring him their corpses, which he raises as skeletons.  He also has them hunt anyone who would hunt the horses, however, to keep the herd large.    

Hex 6- Southwest, Prairie

Feature 1: Corpse with Rod of Darkness

A man, dead of multiple knife, club and arrow wounds.  Carries a rod can extinguish lights in the area.  The man was a traveler who had recently visited the village in hex 5; he died 2 years ago.

The villagers in hex 5, being afraid of the dark, freaked out and attacked this man after he used the rod in their village.  He managed to make it to this hex before dying of his wounds.  The villagers will try to cover up their crime- they know they overreacted, and feel guilty about murdering this man.

The seagulls in hex 4 know about this artifact- they witnessed it all while scouting the village on behalf of the harpies.  

Feature 2: Herd of wild horses 

There are hundreds of wild horses in this herd.  Physically, they’re suitable as riding or warhorses, but psychologically, very difficult to break.  Undead horses, however, are a different matter.  

Protected, hunted, and raised as skeletons by the evil cleric in hex 5, and his minions.  

Hex 7- Northwest, Prairie

Feature 1- Magical Gate 

This portal is built into the side of a small bluff.  It can be activated by tracing the runes on it with your fingers.  

Leads into the wizard’s tower in hex 2.  

The wood golem in hex 1 will know if anyone other than the wizard from the tower in hex 2 passes through the gate, and will respond by going to the tower to defend it.

Feature 2- Portal to the Nightmare Realm

This dungeon was created by the death of a hunter who was terrified of spiders, and died of fright after waking up to a spider crawling on his face.  Most of the monsters in it are spider-like in some way.  

It can be destroyed by removing the man’s longbow from it. If removed, the longbow is magical and can inflict fear on enemies with a critical hit, but also inflicts fear on the user with a critical failure.  Spider-monsters will sometimes roam the area around the dungeon, but won’t leave this hex.

The hunter was from the village in hex 5.  People there will still remember him.