QHW, Day 29: Location

Here are some desert hexes:

Terrain: Sand dunes.
Obvious: Tall, ancient tree. Has roots so deep they reach the underground river hidden beneath the sand. Great for orientation, as there is nothing but it and sand all around.
Hidden: City ruins buried in sand. A sandstorm might uncover them, only for the next one to bury them again.

Terrain: Sand dunes.
Obvious: Tents of d6 bedouin families. They are taking their herd of camels to a town fair. You can come with if you wish to.
Hidden: Several corpses freshly buried in shallow graves.

Terrain: Small town with a fort.
Obvious: An inn, a bazaar, baths, barracks with barely any soldiers.
Hidden: A watchtower with all entrances bricked up.

Terrain: Wadi.
Obvious: One-armed goatherd with a massive herd of goats.
Hidden: Giant sandstone hand sticking out of the ground.

Terrain: Sandstone rocks.
Obvious: Sand people campsite with a wellspring, hidden in a rock crevasse.
Hidden: Sandstone tombs deeper in the rocks.

And here are some undead:

Elkali

• Also known as the Sun vampires, elkali are solitary desert-dwelling undead who prey on caravans and oasis settlements.
• They appear as sun-dried corpses, and thus usually hide their visage behind robes, veils and headdresses.
• They feed by draining a creature of all their moisture, leaving them mummified.
• They are known to possess inhuman strength and speed, plus the ability to transform into a flying cloud of sand.
• They only stay active when the Sun is up. Even being in shadow weakens them.
• At night, they fall into a deathly torpor and cannot be roused. Thus they dig themselves deep into sand to sleep in safety until the Sun rises again.
• Unlike their local counterparts, they cannot stealthily hunt under the cover of the night, so they rely on disguises, ambushes and kidnapping their victims for later meals.
• During the night, hunters will use thin poles to discover dormant elkali. However, they also have to deal with the ghouls that come out at night to devour the corpses left behind by elkali.

QHW, Day 24: Megastructures

The worldtree, Nancy. The Yggdrasil.

I'm looking at it right now.

I remember when we had first heard about it after it was discovered. The largest living thing in the known universe. We've seen the documentaries together. But no cameras can provide the real sense of scale. Every time I look out of the port side window, I just freeze for a moment, again and again, lost in its sheer size.

"That is no moon," we joked when PATRIOT first docked in orbit, I remember. That was before my draft notice, of course. But PATRIOT is just a speck against the Yggdrasil.

Really, I have no words that would do it justice. A dendroid Dyson net - that tells you nothing. It has planets wedged between its branches, Nancy. Literal planets.

You really wished to come here, I know. To do your science thing and understand more about this ridiculous crime against the physics as we know them. I'm really glad you didn't.

Our long-range scanners are already going haywire, so that thing is getting close, and yet I can be as calm as a cat knowing that you are safe and sound literal years away.

I keep coming back to our parting kiss from yesterday. My yesterday. I know that with all the time dilation, you have last seen me some ten years ago, but I hope you remember, because the Yggdrasil will survive and I will see you again and I will kiss your then-wrinkly, old face and you will have all the time in the world to get your ass here and science up whatever you want.

Before the communications go blank, I wanted to send you this. This is not a goodbye, it's a promise.

We are the Last Guard, Nancy, and we will hold fast.

Love,

Piper

QHW, Day 21: Underwater

Give your PCs a shark-skin of deep diving or a bubble breath bauble, then let them explore one of these locations:

d12 Locations under the Waves

1. Shipwreck full of treasures, revealed by an old drunk who claims to have survived the wrecking.
2. Underwater temple as the headquarters of an enemy faction.
3. Sahuagin stronghold in a shallow strait blocks all ships from passing after a diplomatic faux pas.
4. Sunken statues or strange monoliths can be seen beneath the ship.
5. Powerful deep sea current used by rare migratory animals and merfolk merchants.
6. Ruins at the edge of an undersea volcano. Some ancient mechanisms are still active, powered by geothermal energies.
7. A sea giant citadel besieged by several dolphin armies.
8. A dragon turtle lair where young warriors go to prove themselves by stealing one of its eggs. Maybe some warrior needs help, or rescuing?
9. Underwater cave system full of valuable ore. Someone needs to protect the squidfolk miners from local wildlife.
10. Giant bubble-city slowly drifting beneath the waves. Local lords are not amused that it keeps impinging upon their territories.
11. A rich bed of giant oysters has been found just off this island. A pearl fever starts.
12. A series of merfolk castles built along the edge of a foreboding trench, long abandoned. Whatever they were keeping sequestered down below will now face no opposition should it try to surface.

 

QHW, Day 5: Towers

27. 5. 1897
Yesterday late at night, the gate has finally succeeded in connecting to a new world. We ventured through earlier today.

We emerged into a room within a man-made (or mayhap I'd better say entity-made) megastructure. A thin tower that stretches upwards and downwards as far as the eye can see, with a single large room taking up every storey. The walls are built of large blocks of grey stone, with many tall slits that serve both as windows and doors to the outside. The floors are connected by a spiral staircase running on the outside of the tower.

There are more towers clustered everywhere around this one. All constructed in a similar manner, though the architectural features differ from one to another. Some are merely several paces of empty space apart.

There is only darkness both above and below. No sky nor ground. The only light comes from the air itself, the source of which seems to be some form of an airborne plankton-like substance. I brought back samples for Dr. Zimmermann, but it seems harmless to humans, so masks should not be necessary on subsequent visits. Dr. Strauss has also noticed some larger floating organisms, though they fled before we could capture any.

We have explored several floors up and down from the gate room, but so far everything has been empty save for several patches of moss and fungi I also took samples of. Tomorrow, we will return with equipment to traverse the frankly terrifying void between towers and see if we don't have more luck in one of the neighbouring structures.

27. 5. 1897
Yesterday late at night, the gate has finally succeeded in connecting to a new world. We ventured through earlier today.

We emerged into a room within a man-made (or mayhap I'd better say entity-made) megastructure. A thin tower that stretches upwards and downwards as far as the eye can see, with a single large room taking up every storey. The walls are built of large blocks of grey stone, with many tall slits that serve both as windows and doors to the outside. The floors are connected by a spiral staircase running on the outside of the tower.

There are more towers clustered everywhere around this one. All constructed in a similar manner, though the architectural features differ from one to another. Some are merely several paces of empty space apart.

There is only darkness both above and below. No sky nor ground. The only light comes from the air itself, the source of which seems to be some form of an airborne plankton-like substance. I brought back samples for Dr. Zimmermann, but it seems harmless to humans, so masks should not be necessary on subsequent visits. Dr. Strauss has also noticed some larger floating organisms, though they fled before we could capture any.

We have explored several floors up and down from the gate room, but so far everything has been empty save for several patches of moss and fungi I also took samples of. Tomorrow, we will return with equipment to traverse the frankly terrifying void between towers and see if we don't have more luck in one of the neighbouring structures.

29. 5. 1897 (likely)
I have noticed my previous entries only now. We have just returned from our initial exploration of the tower, which was apparently repeated for the third time.

I have send for Dr. Zimmermann. We need to discuss the possible causes and likely ramifications of this post haste.

Dr. Strauss has argued for immediate sealing of the gate, but I don't want to act prematurely. It is unknown whether we could re-establish the connection later.

We will leave that decision for tomorrow and the whole team.

27. 5. 1897
Yesterday late at night, the gate has finally succeeded in connecting to a new world. We ventured through earlier today.

We emerged into a room within a man-made...

...

QHW, Day 4: Weather

In the ruins of Tolti-Aph, there lies a beautiful grove where the royal gardens once used to be. A songwood grove. The trees are slender and silvery, with leaves like green-tinged glass. As they sway in the wind, they all chime in a haunting harmony. When the rain comes drizzling down, it is as if a thousand master musicians played an endless cantata on the world's largest cimbalom.

Any bard or spellsinger would give a fortune for some songwood. It is said that a songwood instrument makes wild animals approach and listen in awe, that it makes statues weep in joy.

Be careful in that songwood grove. When even a single twig is snapped, a dissonant, discordant sound will reverberate throughout the forest. Then you will hear a wail, and another, as the banshees are roused from their slumber among the roots.