The Wilderlands of Absalom

Player Characters

WoA_Qutai, Horse Shaman

• • WoA_Jochi

Xallijk

Sample Character

• Sample Character's Henchmen

Blank Character Sheet

Encumbrance Ape

• Character A:
  • Equipment:
  • Treasure:
  • Total:
  • Movement:

Maps

Player's Map Note that we will create subpages for each hex.

Setting

After a century the forces of Chaos have begun to subside and weaken and the Realm of Man has begun to expand again, to retake territory lost in the past hundred years and even expand past its original borders. The Five Princes of the Inner Kingdoms have called for all able-bodied adventurers to venture into the outlands, to drive the barbarians and humanoids and abominations out and establish new domains for Law and Order. The adventurers have a charter from the Scarlet Prince, granting them ten year monopolies on any trade routes opened with friendly territories and the ability to draw upon the population of the Inner Principalities for labor, for skilled craftfolk, for soldiers and for settlers. Of course, the adventurers could also do it on their own and attempt to establish their own domains without owing fealty to anyone. They also have a map, a century out of date and likely inaccurate; the incursion of Chaos has warped the landscape in strange ways in addition to the more mundane monsters wreaking havoc on the towns and villages beyond the River Sarn.

Junction, Class IV

On border of Scarlet Principality

Rhea's Ford, Class II

Some distance east from Junction

Languages

• Faery (elves, pixies, dryads, etc.)
• Undertongue (dwarves, gnomes, kobolds)
• Bestial (ogre, orc, gnoll)
• Goblin (goblin, hobgoblin, bugbear0
• Grog (common language of most primitive races)
• Swampspeak (frogling, lizardman, troglodyte, etc.)
• Giant
• Draconic
• Law (must be selected through Proficiency)
• Chaos (must be selected through Proficiency)

Houserules

Bonus Proficiencies

PCs (not henchmen) get an additional general proficiency at 3rd and 6th level.

Riding Proficiency

All characters can ride horses, mules, etc. Those without the Ride Proficiency suffer a -2 to to melee attacks and a -4 to missile attacks*. If the horse moves during the round characters without Ride cannot cast spells or make missile attacks. Characters with the Ride proficiency gain the following:

• Judge of horseflesh: On a throw of 14+ they can get a rough idea of how healthy a mount is.
• Mounted combat. Can melee as normal, charge (p. 112), and use missile weapons while stationary without penalty. A -2 penalty is assigned if firing a missile weapon while moving, and spells can be cast while moving with a throw of 7+.
• Control animal. The mount gains +1 to their morale score while being ridden by someone with the Ride skill.

Ride may be chosen again for the same type of animal with the following benefits.

• Judge of horseflesh: On a throw of 7+ they can gain a rough idea of how healthy a mount is.
• Mounted Combat: Can melee as normal, charge, use missile weapons or cast spells without penalty, regardless if they are moving or not.
• Horse as shield: With a saddle, the character can hang over the side of a mount, keeping it between themselves and a foe. This grants them partial cover (+3 to AC) while allowing them to cast spells or use missile weapons with a -2 penalty (cast spells on a throw of 7+).
• Control animal: Mount gains +2 to morale while being controlled.
• Can use Animal Husbandry with -2 penalty to throws, *or* gains +2 bonus to Animal Husbandry throws if she has both Proficiencies.
• Can use Animal Training with the type of mount, at a +1 week penalty *or* if she already has Animal Training as the time reduced by 1 week (minimum of 1 week).

Hexcrawling

I'll be using this post from the Autarch forum to determine how many lairs are within each hex. For a hex to be "cleared" all of the lairs need to be dealt with, either be killing the residents, convincing them to move on or making peace with them. Each hex will also have a number of "features", areas of interest ranging from the dead body of a solitary trapper, an abandoned gold mine, a dungeon, hardwood forest, etc. I'm not saying you have to, but proficiencies such as Naturalism, Knowledge and Craft will be more useful here then in other campaigns, specifically to help recognize features of value.

Hexes can, of course, be traveled through, but they can also be explored. Exploration of a hex isn't based so much on movement rate, since it assumes that such travel is relatively slow and cautious, so as to avoid missing anything. It will take anywhere from four to eight days to fully explore a single 6-mile hex. Unless otherwise stated, I will assume that travel through a hex takes the shortest possible distance.