HYPERBOREA » Ghost Ship of the Desert Dunes

Ghul · 4/18/2014 12:29 pm

With apologies to DMPrata, who will surely cringe at my audacity to post text he hasn't edtied yet, I'd like to share with you fellows a portion of my Ghost Ship adventure. Calencia Village is a major stop on the way to the adventure site, with an important "primer" or warm-up quest directly relating to the main adventure.

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Calencia Village

Calencia Village stands on 40-foot stilts (embedded 10 feet into the mud) on the tidal flats of Lith Fjord. The structures of this curious village are cedar plank affairs with thatched roofs. They are interconnected by boardwalks, resulting in a tightly knit community that literally lives on the water (or mud, as the case may be). Most families possess one or more canoes, these tied to the boardwalk or one of the piers. Rope-ladders are used to access the boardwalks and piers during low tide. Some individuals hoist their boats using a capstan.

Calencia Village consists of 42 families that comprise 476 individuals. Their ancestry can be traced back to two embattled families of racially mashed ancestry, comprising Pictish, Half-Blood Pictish, and Viking derivation. Over two hundred years ago (c. 262 CÆ), these ancestors migrated to the forested Cape Calencia. After enduring several ape-man raids, they ensconced themselves in Lith Fjord and established the stilted village where since they have thriven.

Physically, Calencians most resemble Half-Blood Picts, short and compact. They have bronzed skin, blue or hazel eyes, and sandy-blond or reddish hair. Females trim their hair short and comb it neatly to one side using fish oil, whilst men tend to grow their hair long, knotting and twisting it to braids.

Calencians primarily subsist on fish and shellfish, with shrimp paste a staple of their diet. Grains and vegetables are grown in stream cut gorges on the mainland; seaweed is also cultivated along the beaches just outside the fjord. Many families raise chickens, small coops placed between the houses or on the boardwalks; many chickens roam free, these often corralled by children and a small breed of herding dog raised by the Calencians.

Calencians speak the common tongue, and their names are a strange amalgamation of Pict, Half-Blood Pict, and Viking; this a product of their mixed-blood heritage.

Internally, the village supports barter and trade for the exchange of goods and services, but foreigners typically spend money using the typical exchange rates seen in the City-State of Khromarium and other centres of civilization.

Calencians pay homage to Khalk-Xu (Kraken), “The Dimensional Dweller”, whose octopoid effigies are found all about the village, from stone idols, to drinking mugs, to war canoe prows, to the totem poles that hem in the village. The spiritual elite of Calencia are the shaven-headed monks of the Brotherhood of Khalk-Xu (#C-18) and the witches of Calencia’s Peculiar (see #C-10, #C-14, and #C-17). Some villagers also pay homage to various animistic household gods; examples include aurochs, bat, bear, crab, dogfish, elk, ground sloth, lion, raven, salmon, snake, weasel, whale, and wolf.

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And here is an early draft of my hand-drawn map. I've tinkered with it quite a bit since this scan, but it gives you the idea:

Blackadder23 · 4/18/2014 12:49 pm

Nice! Can't wait for this one.

Handy Haversack · 4/18/2014 1:24 pm

Well, you correctly used "comprise" twice, so DMP can't get too mad!

Looks great, Jeff. Really nice stuff.

joseph · 4/18/2014 4:45 pm

Sounds great Jeff! Nice particulars in your world-building, looking forward to the adventure.

Ghul · 4/18/2014 5:01 pm

Thank you, fellows!

DMPrata · 4/18/2014 7:41 pm

La! La! La! I'm not looking!

Ghul · 4/18/2014 8:06 pm

DMPrata wrote:
La! La! La! I'm not looking!

Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!"

Odysseus · 4/20/2014 12:13 pm

So many adventures to come and so little time to play.
Is this all planned for a release this year ?

Agricola · 4/21/2014 7:49 am

Stoked for this adventure!

Iron Ranger · 5/25/2014 12:01 am

This looks great, Jeff! What's the level range on this one?

Ghul · 5/25/2014 5:58 am

Iron Ranger wrote:
This looks great, Jeff! What's the level range on this one?

It's going to be for 4–6 characters of 2nd through 4th level.

Iron Ranger · 5/27/2014 9:53 am

Ghul wrote:
Iron Ranger wrote:
This looks great, Jeff! What's the level range on this one?
It's going to be for 4–6 characters of 2nd through 4th level.

Fantastic, would love to have more low level adventures like Rats. Can't wait!

Agricola · 9/25/2014 8:49 am

With it getting darker earlier seems like this time of year my gaming picks up some steam and start playing a bit more consistently. With that in mind I may do some DMing this winter and was wondering if this module had a winter time release date. Still stoked for this one and liking the level range!

Ghul · 9/25/2014 3:59 pm

Agricola wrote:
With it getting darker earlier seems like this time of year my gaming picks up some steam and start playing a bit more consistently. With that in mind I may do some DMing this winter and was wondering if this module had a winter time release date. Still stoked for this one and liking the level range!

Waiting on more art before I launch the Kickstarter. I'm hoping to launch the campaign some time in October with delivery after the holidays. That's the plan.

Agricola · 9/25/2014 5:00 pm

Thanks for the response. Totally looking forward to this!

Spider of Leng · 12/16/2018 12:01 pm

We finished this module last night. Quite fun and surprisingly easier for our party than Xambaala, probably because all the PCs were 4th level. A couple highlights:
The party's huntsman, Hawkwind, killed the giant squid with a single mighty blow! We use more lethal critical strikes and exploding dice and he took full advantage.

The pyromancer quickly determined the purpose of the flamethrower, which was handed over to the party's berserker. He used it to devastating effect on all the radioactive zombies. It was like a scene out of a horror movie every time those dudes lumbered into the picture.

After some debate the party decided not to take the skyship and offered it to Vul, reasoning that it would be a hassle to power and might make them targets for other foes. So they flew it back to the coast and they hopped the ship back to Khromarium and left Vul with the skyship. Once back in Khromarium, they also leased fancy lodgings with the payout from Vul since that is their base of operations.

Next up: The Mystery at Port Greely.

Ghul · 12/17/2018 12:38 pm

Spider of Leng wrote:
We finished this module last night. Quite fun and surprisingly easier for our party than Xambaala, probably because all the PCs were 4th level. A couple highlights:
The party's huntsman, Hawkwind, killed the giant squid with a single mighty blow! We use more lethal critical strikes and exploding dice and he took full advantage.

The pyromancer quickly determined the purpose of the flamethrower, which was handed over to the party's berserker. He used it to devastating effect on all the radioactive zombies. It was like a scene out of a horror movie every time those dudes lumbered into the picture.

After some debate the party decided not to take the skyship and offered it to Vul, reasoning that it would be a hassle to power and might make them targets for other foes. So they flew it back to the coast and they hopped the ship back to Khromarium and left Vul with the skyship. Once back in Khromarium, they also leased fancy lodgings with the payout from Vul since that is their base of operations.

Next up: The Mystery at Port Greely.

Very nice! I love the mental image of a berserker using a flamethrower vs. undead. I hope to hear more about how things go in Port Greely.

Cheers,
Jeff T.

Chainsaw · 12/17/2018 6:31 pm

Spider of Leng wrote:
We finished this module last night. Quite fun and surprisingly easier for our party than Xambaala, probably because all the PCs were 4th level.

I tell you what, your players mean mean business and clean house, heh!

Spider of Leng wrote:
A couple highlights:
The party's huntsman, Hawkwind, killed the giant squid with a single mighty blow! We use more lethal critical strikes and exploding dice and he took full advantage.

The pyromancer quickly determined the purpose of the flamethrower, which was handed over to the party's berserker. He used it to devastating effect on all the radioactive zombies. It was like a scene out of a horror movie every time those dudes lumbered into the picture.

Beautiful imagery, heh!

Spider of Leng wrote:
After some debate the party decided not to take the skyship and offered it to Vul, reasoning that it would be a hassle to power and might make them targets for other foes. So they flew it back to the coast and they hopped the ship back to Khromarium and left Vul with the skyship. Once back in Khromarium, they also leased fancy lodgings with the payout from Vul since that is their base of operations.

I think yours might be the first crew I've heard of that did not end up killing Vul.

Spider of Leng wrote:
Next up: The Mystery at Port Greely.

Looking forward to hearing how it goes!