A few more previews of the Virgin Woode

0848. Ancient Idol | Dungeon
An ancient idol of Asur, the sun god of the ancient elves, stands here, half-toppled and overgrown with creepers that bear large, violet blooms. The statue has been damaged and defaced, the gold leaf stripped from it, the small, bench-like altar that stood before it cracked in half.

The blooms that grow around the idol put off a sweet-smelling odor, and in the presence of warm bodies release a pollen that intoxicated (Fortitude save vs. poison or fatigued).

The base of the idol, if one can get to it through the underbrush and creepers, holds a secret compartment accessed by speaking the high holy words (Klaatu Barada Nikto) or with a prying device, holds a large garnet that provides proof against illusions. If a person holds the stone in his or her mouth (don’t swallow it), they are immune to illusions, including invisibility. Fighting or doing other rough work while holding the stone in one’s mouth carries with it a chance of accidentally swallowing it (Reflex save, attempted once per minute). If swallowed, the stone causes nausea for 1d4 hours, and piercing pains in the gut as it is passed over the course of a few days.

Image found HERE

1118. Fort Adventure | Stronghold
A fighting-woman of Salem colony, Hepzibah Stanis, has established a fort in this hex as an early defense of the colony and as a base of operation for pilgrim adventurers. The fort consists of a wooden palisade around several log buildings, barracks for the fort’s 20 pikemen, 16 longbowmen, 10 cuirassiers and 10 rangers, a home for Hepzibah and a small shrine to Diana tended by Elder Druthy Avanulf. A second druid, Elder Wandla Narlis once served here, but he was dishonest and greedy, and now dwells with brigands in the woods, consorting with demons. Hepzibah is gathering soldiers to route the brigands and bring the surrounding skraeling clans to heel.

1142. Skagarak | City-State
Skagarak is a large city of cyclopean architecture nestled in the wooded hills and surrounded by fields plowed by mammoth and mines dug by enslaved kobolds. The city is inhabited by 2,000 stone giants with shocking red hair and prominent jaws. The stone giants of Skagarak are rooted in the paleolithic, and claim to have dwelled in these hills since before the arrival of the ancient elves. Their city consists of great stone lodges inhabited by up to a dozen families bound together as a clan, walls 70 feet in height and buttressed by five great towers, a temple dedicated to mighty Atlas, and a splendid palace inhabited by their king, Tsul’kalu, and his royal clan. The streets are narrow and twisty, and the walls are surrounded by a a dry moat 20 feet deep.

The stone giants claim this hex as well as the hexes around it, using them to grow their crops and quarrying various stones (mostly granite and flint) and precious stones. They are not hostile to the wild elves, but care nor for their company, nor the company of the newly arrives humans.

1204. White Tower | Dungeon
The white tower is an example of an ancient elven ruin that the player’s might discover. It is a tall structure of white marble rising out of the woods. Inside the tower there is a golden stair leading to a chamber at the top of the tower. An antipathy spell has been cast on this chamber. The floor is littered with several uncut green garnets (5 gp each).

Each garnet confers on its possessor a single druid spell of 1st to 3rd level (roll randomly) that can be cast at the cost of 1d4 hit points. A creature must concentrate to cast this spell, and will only notice the hit point loss with a successful Will save.
Creatures killed by casting spells with these garnets will rise one day later as spectres that appear as glowing white skeletons with green garnets for eyes. The newly risen spectre will seek out the tower and reside in its walls.

Each garnet a creature steals from the tower will be pursued by a spectre. The spectres will appear each night in the thief’s dreams, chasing them through the dark woods toward the tower.

The dreamer will always awaken just as they reach the tower door and just as the glowing spectre is about to place its hand on their shoulder. Each night that they have this dream, they must pass a Will saving throw. If ever they fail, the spectre will be waiting for them in the waking world and it will immediately attack them. If killed, the unlucky thief will be found with all the color drained from their bodies and their eyes missing. The unfortunate will rise as a spectre as detailed above.

Today, I thought I’d throw out some of my notions on the colonists who are settling in the Virgin Woode. I like, if possible, to relate things back to classic D&D tropes and concepts – in the vein of “D&D is always right” – and thus pair a bit of historic fact or fancy with the reality suggested by the rules. Recently, I’ve been reading Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America to get some ideas, and it’s certainly been a great help. Currently, the three main groups of colonists are the Pilgrims, Cavaliers and Traders, with a sub-group of Agitators.

The Traders: You’ll recall “trader” as a monster type in Basic D&D (or Expert – one of them). Here, it refers to venturers (a’ la the class I worked up in an early issue of NOD), rangers and their ilk who settled the Dweomer Bay seeking riches in the Virgin Woode. The “traders” are made up of folks from Antigoon (i.e. Holland), Tremayne (i.e. Elizabethan England), Lyonesse (medieval France), Blackpoort (Dickensian London) and, well, just about anywhere there are men and women who want it all and want it now. The patron deity of Dweomer Bay is Atlas, the “god of exploration”, who has a pretty level-headed and casual cult in the city. The other gods and goddesses of the Motherlands pantheon are here as well, of course. I want Dweomer Bay to be a sort of melting pot of alignments, nationalities, classes, races, etc – like a D&D tavern writ large. Ultimately, an easy place to start a band of adventurers out. A peg-legged old fighting-man will probably serve as the city-state’s elected prince.

The Pilgrims: Inspired by the “monster” in the AD&D Monster Manual, the pilgrims in this case refer to religious exiles from Tremayne. Tremayne is ruled by the Faerie Queen, Gloriana, and has as its patron deity Diana. I wanted Tremayne to have a druidic religion that was very formal and, well, “Church of England”, I suppose. The pilgrims are the religious folks who want a return to the more “primitive church”, and they’ve settled to the north of Dweomer Bay in a town called Trinity after the notion of the triple goddess. For all intents and purposes, these folks are pagan puritans, witches who hunt clerics (and demons and such – hey, even if you’re neutral, you know that Chaotic Evil represents more of a threat than Lawful Good). They dress like the puritans in russets, browns and other “sadd” colors, wear steeple hats, venerate their elders – the big change being that these pilgrims are ruled by their women rather than men.

The Cavaliers: Inspired by the name of the class from Unearthed Arcana and by the identity of the Anglican settlers of Virginia and the Chesapeake, the cavaliers are dandies and monarchists loyal to Gloriana that are seeking to recreate Camelot in the Virgin Woode. Their names are based on the knights of Arthurian romance and the Faerie Queen and they adhere pretty closely to the feudal concept so common in fantasy games. Like the real cavalier settlers of North America, they speak with a drawl (which originates in SW England – the Southerners of America didn’t make it up) and are all about gallantry, nobility, power, lust and a love of gambling.

The Agitators: The agitators are the Son of Liberty in Dweomer Bay, determined to found a true republic and cast off the chains of monarchy. They’re devout worshipers of William Blake’s pantheon, especially of the Sons of Los, the gods of revolution. They’ve founded their own version of Penn’s Philadelphia, called Golgonooza. They’re recruiting an army and plan to cause trouble!

Yes, ladies and germs, it’s the first preview of the Virgin Woode hexcrawl. Since we always begin in the west of the map, these next few previews will be set in the hinterlands. Let’s see what I have in store …

0105. Forgotten Urns | Treasure
Several ceramic urns, glazed bright red, have been buried here in a shallow hole; a glint of the sun might reveal them as folk pass by (1 in 6 chance). Most of the urns hold nothing but ashes, likely the remains of living creatures. One contains eleven agates of various hues (worth 1d4 x 10 gp each) wrapped in an ocherous cloak. The cloak is magical and cursed, steeped in the blood of a pyrohydra and spat upon by a woman scorned. When worn too near a large fire (campfire size or larger, and yeah, fireballs count), it bursts into flames, burning for one minute and dealing 1d6 points of damage per round. Only after a person has burned in it can they attempt to remove it, the effort still requiring a Will saving throw.

0223. Dimension X | Monster Lair
A cavern in the mountains here is serving as the temporary base of operations for a band of scouts from the shadowy Dimension X. The scouts are humanoid, but their features are obscured by their protective suits, which are formed of a silvery cloth. These jump-suits are loose fitting, and cover the entire body. Over their heads, they wear globes of silvery metal with dark visors. These helms and suits cannot be removed save by the most dire force. If removed, they reveal the humanoids within look like normal humans, save for their eyes, which are entirely black.

The ten scouts are usually found hovering around a column of black metal decorated with dials, knobs and blinking lights of many colors. This device not only opens a portal into their home dimension, it also collects information about the surrounding lands and can project a wall of force for up to 10 minutes.

The scouts carry ray guns (6 charges each; they can be recharged by placing them on the column for 1 hour) that fire beams of negative energy that deal 1d6+1 points of damage per hit.

The presence of the scouts and their weird device are causing the weather in this hex to behave oddly; each hour, there is a 1 in 6 chance of severe weather (lightning storm, hail, high winds).

0321. Cathron’s Hold | Stronghold
Cathron is an ancient elf, a victim of Asur’s curse who was turned into a drow. She did not leave her stronghold, but rather enmeshed it in demonic energies. The stronghold appears as a 200-ft. tall tower of smooth, scarlet stone that writhes with black, choking smoke and drips with demonic ichor. One only enters the place by teleportation.

Cathron is a lithe, athletic drow with silvery hair and tempting eyes. She is a born deceiver, and is quite incapable of love, though that has not disuaded Finnard [0231] or Lowellon [0246] from attempting it.

Within the tower, Cathron is served by a company of fiendish lizard men with glistening black scales and blazing eyes. Her treasure trove is guarded by a young red dragon, Thartwalla, who also serves as her mount when she leaves her tower.

My original map of the region*

The Virgin Woode is a narrow coastal plain backed by a wide swathe of wooded hills. The woodland is composed of such trees as oak, hawthorn, elm, birch and magnolia. It runs along the eastern coast of Antilia, from the Bloody Mountains in the south to the Trow Hills in the north. To the west it is bordered by the Purple Mountains.

Upon the disappearance of the Emperor of Nomo and the subsequent decline and fall of that empire, the tributary city-states of the Motherlands sought to claim a portion of their old master’s power. This was first attempted in a series of ineffective wars, as no one city-state was powerful enough that it could best its rivals, separated as they were by vast tracts of wilderness.

Begrudgingly, the aristocracy was forced to turn to “vulgar commerce” to rake in the gold, chartering adventurers to delve into the underworld and merchants to ply the seas or take caravans through the wilderness. The city-state of Guelph really got the ball rolling by their establishment of Port Janus at the midway point in Mother Ocean between the eastern landmass and western landmass. From there, they skirted the Blustering Main and founded the colony of Argentum in Hybrasil, discovering rich veins of silver, gold and electrum.

As the Guelphlings moved this metal back home, the filibusters of Tremayne began sallying forth from their normal haunt, the Tepid Sea, and conducting piracy on the high seas. With the galleons of Guelph so harried on Mother Ocean, the merchants of Antigoon were able to move through Mother Ocean and through the stormwracked Blustering Main to found their own trading post in what came to be called Dweomer Bay, after the strange magical radiations of that landscape.

Eventually, Port Janus fell to the pirates of Tremayne, cutting Argentum off from its metropolis (confusing, I know, but I’m actually using the word “metropolis” properly here). Dweomer Bay continued to thrive, though, as the Virgin Woode beyond produced cargo ships more often than treasure ships, and because the Antigooners and their ilk proved a seafaring match for pirates, where the landlubber Guelphings did not. The wars between the colonists and the pirates continue to this day, of course, but Dweomer Bay’s libertine attitudes and focus on commerce has been an attractive lure to adventurers in search of lucre, merchants desperate to escape overbearing nobles and every weirdo in the world yearning to let his or her freak flag fly has kept brave, hearty souls traversing the pirate haunted waters of the Blustering Main to Dweomer Bay or one of the many village and towns that now dot the shore of the Virgin Woode.

These colonists, scalawags, adventurers, roustabouts and ne’er-do-wells have much to fear, though. By land, the fey and the wild elves harry them at every turn; many a trapper has survived a bear attack only to perish under the gnarled foot of a treant, who marks the occasion with no more than a casual shrug of its woody shoulders and a scrape of the foot on a handy boulder. By sea, an ancient empire has arisen “from the silt” – the aquatic elves of Atlantis desire to expand their empire on land, and seek to choke off the commerce that is Dweomer Bay’s lifeblood.

Wild elves, cunning fey, avaricious Atlanteans, dangerous elven ruins … there’s plenty to see and do in the Virgin Woode.

* I just recently resurrected an external hard drive that had a ton of my original work on the Land of Nod! So excited!