After last week’s missive about how
modules B2 The Keep on the Borderlands and X1 The Isle of
Dread served as models for a “sandbox” adventuring
environment, I looked for an old folder with some of the earliest
Dungeons & Dragons material I created way back in my high
school days, during the “Golden Age of Roleplaying Games”
(otherwise known as the early and mid-1980s).
I’d previously mentioned how X1’s
two-page spread map of the Known World (later known as Mystara)
served our gaming group well. Characters hired a ship and crew and
spent after-school hours sailing the Sea of Dread, fighting off
wandering sea creatures and exploring the disparate islands scattered
between the Thanegioth Archipelago and the civilized kingdoms in the
north. To this end I chose several small islands on that map and
“detailed” them with denizens relevant to the players’
interests...at this stage of our gaming development that amounted to
killing things and taking their stuff. Some featured a map – I
loved drawing maps at the time, especially using all the wonderful
symbols included in official TSR maps of the time – and a brief
one- or two-page overview of what heroes might find there.
Goodness, these were terrible. Brief
descriptions with no character elements, plot, motivation, or depth.
Lots of future tense, something I’ve come to avoid in adventure
text as a writer and editor. Many, many spelling errors (I was in
junior high at the time). Slavish reliance on the encounter and
monster styles of the time (percentages that creatures would inhabit
certain locations, numbers of monsters presented as male, female, and
children, notes on valuable loot). And, of course, few encounters
made any sense or contributed to any greater story arc other than the
heroes exploring, killing, and looting.
The islands certainly offered adventure
for those seeking it. One held a coastal pirate stronghold with an
interior inhabited by prehistoric beasts. Two adjacent islands hosted
identical facilities – a port city, castle with village, small
navy, one random monster lair – though one maintained a friendly
disposition toward outsiders (and thus the characters) and the other
remained hostile. Two islands served as sanctuaries for mythical
creatures – one for pegasi and another for unicorns – at least
until the heroes showed up to capture and tame the pegasi or hunt the
unicorns for profit on the mainland. Perhaps the most detailed island
hosted settlements of centaurs and cyclops divided by a high mountain
chain; the centaurs spent their day in their village or playing in
the hills while, ironically enough, the cyclops herded sheep and
cultivated vineyards for wine, with occasional raids against the
terribly unproductive centaurs. Much of this fare – indeed of most
of my D&D creations at the time – was clearly inspiredby Ray Harryhausen films.
These islands, maps, and encounters
served to pass several afternoons after school with the neighborhood
kids with whom we frequently ran D&D adventures. Their
escapades were little more than a continual quest to amass wealth for
some future plans on the Known World: constructing fleets of battle
galleys, conquering some small islands for their own dominion, or
even just building an island fortress where they could gather
retainers to pursue their new, grander goals.
The “Isle of the Centaurs,” as it
was rather inaccurately called, perhaps provides the only interesting
kernel of an adventuring setting worth revising. So, just for fun –
and to try my hand at creating a non-linear “sandbox”
environment, as I discussed last week – I went ahead and quickly
drafted a small setting salvaged from that truly awful material I
created more than 30 years ago....
Isle of Vintares
A System-Neutral Setting for
Medieval Fantasy Roleplaying Games
This remote island hosts a small
settlement of wine-making centaurs, a roving band of herd-keeping
cyclops, and several other solitary denizens who prefer the distant
seclusion from civilization. Seafarers who navigate the treacherous
shoals surrounding the island can land on sandy beaches along the
northern shores; the southern reaches offer daunting cliff faces and
almost-certain doom to ships.
A community of centaurs inhabits the
northern portions of the island, tending the vineyards growing in the
uplands in the central region and fermenting wine to consume during
occasional, frenzied ceremonies honoring their equine god of
prosperity. Five cyclopes range the rugged hills and mountainous
valleys covering the island’s southern portion, collectively
managing unruly herds of sheep and goats. Both factions occasionally
clash, the cyclopes raiding the settlement for sport and wine and the
centaurs guarding against attacks and the incursion of herds which
devastate vineyards in their constant quest for food.
Heroes might arrive on the island from
several routes pursuing a number of motives. They might discover it
during the course of a voyage elsewhere, or could wash up on shore
after a storm or monster destroys their vessel at sea. Rumors could
motivate them to seek out and explore the island, perhaps to
establish export of a rich wine supposedly made there or investigate
rumors of a long-lost temple of chaos hidden somewhere on the island.
The centaurs naturally remain suspicious of any outsiders, but might
befriend them if heroes prove they can benefit the centaurs through
trade or a strategic alliance against the cyclopes.
Chance Encounters
Characters have a 1 in 6 chance of
happening upon a random encounter when traveling overland across the
island.
1D8 Roll Chance Encounter
1–2 An errant herd of sheep and goats wanders aimlessly; a worried
cyclops searching
for them arrives shortly.
3–4 A colony of giant rats brought ashore by a shipwreck
aggressively protects its newly
established warren.
5–6 A skirmish between an intrusive cyclops and a small centaur
patrol.
7 A carnivorous vine bush tempts with blood-red berries but lashes
out to tear at
anyone coming too close.
8 The heroes startle a skinny, wild-bearded man with crazy eyes
gathering food;
upon spotting strangers he cries out and scurries off
into the impenetrable underbrush.
Locations
1. Centaur Village. The
main centaur settlement consists of simple houses built of wood,
stone, and thatch with nearby vegetable gardens. A few artisans
provide basic goods for the village; the potter and woodcarver create
household items, the cooper specializes in barrels and other
wine-making apparatus, and a blacksmith forges simple metal
implements and repairs old and salvaged materials, including weapons.
About 75 adult centaurs live here with about 20 children. All work to
ensure the settlement survives, toiling in the vineyards or the
winery, tending gardens, patrolling against the cyclopes incursions,
and tending to household life. The blacksmith, Kallack, serves as
the unofficial chief, though he shares governing duties with Varta,
who oversees the winery. Kallack keeps an open mind regarding
outsiders who find their way to the island; they can bring new goods
and ideas that can benefit the centaur settlement.
2. Vineyards. The uplands
leading to the island’s mountainous region contain meandering
streams and vineyards of wild grapes. Carefully tended by the
centaurs for generations, they yield fine red grapes they crush and
ferment into a heady wine. During the day small teams of centaurs
roam the vineyards tending vines and, in season, gathering grapes.
3. Winery & Caves.
A cluster of shelters, presses, workshops, and huts stands near
the center of the vineyards, the hub of the centaur wine-making
efforts. Here they gather grapes, crush them, filter the juice, and
ferment them in barrels built in the village stored in a cool, dry
cave covered by the main winery building. A well-used path winds from
here to the village, worn by centaurs hauling carts with empty and
full wine casks. An elder centaur named Varta supervises the workers
in the vineyards and the winery, usually about 20 centaurs, but more
during the harvest time. Varta remains vocal in his suspicion of
outsiders visiting the island; in his eyes they can only bring
misfortune and ruin.
4. Temple Glade. A dell ringed
by tall trees forms a natural amphitheater centered on a small yet
ancient temple. A charred patch of dirt in front of the worn temple
steps shows where the centaurs burn a great bonfire during their
occasional, wine-fueled celebrations to Ekinus, their horse god of
nomadic prosperity. Such ceremonies occur twice a year, once upon
completion of the grape harvest and again in the spring when the new
wine is ready. The centaurs do not permit outsiders on the island to
witness the raucous music, dancing, singing, and drinking central to
these festivities. The temple itself bears no writing or imagery
linking it to the worship or Ekinus or any other deity; no oracle
lives here and no priest presides over ceremonies, yet something from
distant times might still lurk beneath the worn flagstones and old
foundations.
5. Cyclops Pastures. The
southern mountainous region, with many grassy valleys and cool
streams, remains the domain of five cyclopes and their roaming,
ravenous herds of sheep and goats, which provide their primary
sustenance. The cyclopes generally avoid each other given their
contentious nature, but sometimes join forces to raid the centaur
winery or round up errant herds. The area contains many caves the
beasts use for shelter; each contains a pile of old fleeces used for
bedding, a fire pits near the entrance, and secret niche, pit, or
shelf where the creatures stash any treasure (usually a sack or two
of gold pieces, jewelry, and other odd valuables collected from
shipwreck victims and worth from 100-800 gold coins).
6. Castaway Hideout. The lone
survivor of a shipwreck has made his home in a series of cliff-side
caves that offer access to both the churning surf and – through
several secret entrances – the island’s hilly region. The crazy
castaway spends most of his days foraging for food, pilfering grapes,
snatching wayward goats, and babbling quietly to his long-departed
crew members. Though he’s generally harmless, he’s paranoid of
people infiltrating his caves, protected by some elaborate booby
traps. On the rare days when the seas are extremely calm he ventures
out to the remains of his old ship to salvage wood or other items
using a crudely built raft.
7. Eagle Aerie. A giant eagle
keeps an aerie near the top of the highest mountain peak. The
enormous bird takes little interest in the island’s inhabitants –
other than occasionally making off with a large sheep for its dinner
– but aggressively defends the area against any intrusive flying
creatures seeking temporary sanctuary or permanent home. The cyclopes
resent it for hunting their sheep but cannot climb to the aerie or
effectively attack the soaring eagle.
Adventure Hooks
Trade Guild Mission: A
prominent trading guild hires the characters and provides them with a
ship and crew to sail the seas in search of a legendary island with
the most succulent wine-making grapes in the world. Supplied with
trading goods, the heroes must find the island and establish a trade
agreement for vine cuttings, grapes, or wine to satisfy the trading
guild’s growing appetite for new wealth.
Missing Mage:
Following rumors of a crazy castaway on a distant island, the
characters seek to claim a reward posted by a regal family seeking
the return of a long-lost relative, a famous mage who once set sail
across the seas but never returned. Is the madman stranded on the
Isle of Vintares the missing mage or simply an insane common sailor?
Temple of Xillagyges: A
secretive enclave of priests provide the heroes with a map to the
lost island temple to their god and a small fortune to outfit a ship.
They promise greater wealth and a share in a profitable religion if
they find the ruins and retrieve significant relics. The characters
might find a hidden entrance to the underground sanctuary in the
centaur’s temple glade, hidden at the back of a cyclops cave, or
carved from the sheer coastal cliffs. Ravenous undead and mindless
vermin inhabit the abandoned temple to Xillagyges – an ancient god
of slaughter – guarding a treasury of powerful artifacts that could
enable the covert cultists to revive the violent deity’s religion.
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