OSE Thunder Dunder – Points of Interest

Follow up on my starting region map for Murder Blunder potential campaign.

Here are basically all of the points of interest from the Quel Thalas map, mostly adjusted by me. First thing I wanted to say is I caught potential issue – why wouldn’t people travel by these water channels all over the map? Well, maybe because of the tritons – something broke their alliance with humans and people are not sure about their safety on water – which makes bridges also quite unpredictable means of transportation. Just eyeing the map and diagram I am prettey sure now that going from one part of the region to another could take more than one day.

As you can see on the chart above some locations got their names. Like Temple of the Viper – ruined ancient temple of one of five Old Gods, the Crowned Snake. Those old gods are ancient, forgotten and abandoned, alien beings of unknown power and purpose. Only mad, cursed and unlucky still worship them in places long lost to history of humankind. On the other hand Sea Temples might be more like sanctuaries made as a symbol of alliance between human and triton. I think I would include the “Spire” as the third one. I guess they’d be kind of a gateway to appease the triton and maybe get some water-based magic abilities, gear and connections helpful in getting to Sea Viper Isle to perform the ritual? I guess I could also add “Fishing Haven” as part of that whole thing.

But the game is not only about map. It’s about situation. I’m not going to prepare all quests and plots. First I will lay out potential conflicts. Most obvious point is going to be the Countess, heroine of locals, good ruler who protects her people. Another point will be Fortress – maybe Captain of the guard is vey strict and cares for his knights. And wants to secure their well being as they risk their lives in order to defend the region. Last point will be the Tritons. They just wanted calm coexistence but suddenly a lot of undead started appearing underwater, someone from above surface cursed their waters and allied people stopped answering. Non-aggresion treaty is on the verge.

This conflict has to relate somehow to the main quest – getting to isolated Isle and performing ritual in the Temple. Getting there has mostly two visible ways – either via bridge or swimming from land to island. Bridge is heavily guarded, requires getting through two separate gates – basically cannot get there without full scale assault or a document from Countess. And she doesn’t like intruders. If player talk to her she sends them on a mission – give the letter to Captain of the Fortress and bring him before her. It will take time, and letter is likely to anger Captain, who doesn’t want to be just her subject. He wants autonomy and resources. If players somehow appease him he could help them get to the island. I guess it could be another side quest? Maybe a dungeon or deathland exploration this time?

Third vortex of this triangle is whole triton community. I guess in order to somehow suggest players this route I’d need to link a lot of gossip in the region. Probably around everything else too. Circling back – triton community. I think their quest – if players find a way to talk to them – would be the crazy one. In the Forbidden Districs of the City is the mansion of human-triton diplomat. And they had a lot of triton treasures as gifts. And tritons want them back. So PCs will have to engage with high risk high reward Forbidden Districts ruincrawl! I guess I’ll need to make it, but case is – there will be a lot of other cool items to get if they choose this path.

Okay, other paths to get to Goal Isle? I guess I’d seed some. Maybe smugglers want PCs to do some crimes, or guards can be bribed if you escort their family from Abandoned Lands or something. Nothing easy, at least from the get go, but if players can think of shortcuts it’s okay for me. Also timed events. For each region I assume around 7 days or in-game time. It asks for events. I guess one day of a week is a holiday somewhere, and a festival. Also maybe I can set timer for “Triton Army Attack” for day 7. And random monster attacks, like undead werewolf escapes the scar and starts attacking villagers. Or warlock of southern tower finds a spell disintegrating undead – but since then their tower is attacked by hordes of organised undead?

I need to address the “Something” items on the diagram too. I think those will be not really that interesting specific element but more like infrastructural elements. Taverns, inns, maybe some other advantageous bits to interact. I feel like there’s enough temples and stuff, maybe one is a mercenary camp? And those in Abandoned Lands will have to be more… explorative? More “good to find” elements, maybe rich mansions or whatever – tresure giving locations. Okay, enough with this rubber duck article, thanks to this I still actually continue making this campaign and not being focused only on running 2400, which I do recently.