Tittlemarsh [sixty-three 12-mile hexes]
4 min readJust now
For a long time, I’ve run hexmaps at quite a zoomed-out strategic scale, where it’s one day, one hex. Some reading and podcasts from this week have put me in the mindset to play a more focused exploration game, and my solo game has just been given a new exploration-based sidequest so…
The MAP
The KEY
Climate throughout is temperate and consistently humid. Daily rainstorms welcome in the sunset. Plain and woodland grasses vibrant in colour, washed out in the swamps. Wide range of deciduous trees in woodlands.
Hexes represent approximately four leagues side to side and take xD6 hours to traverse, where x equals terrain complexity (plains / urban = 1, waterways / forest = 2, swamp / highland = 3). Spend another xD6 hours to search a hex for hidden locations.
Roll encounters once per hex per day, x-in-6 where x is terrain complexity.
Column 1
- A. Unexpected coniferous forest. {Secret fairy grove}
- B. Lair of 5 territorial hippogryphs {hid}
- C. Lair of 15 curious driver ants
- D. Latticework logging canals, flash floods likely
- E. Canals converge heading south
- F. Wide manufactured banks
- G. Recently ruined town lair to 10 expansionist gnolls {hid}
Column 2
- A. Abandoned urban trenchworks. {Secret monastery}
- B. Pleasant bogland
- C. Giant elm, home to inquisitive giant owl sage {landmark}
- D. Canals gone fallow, peat-treated
- E. Great necropolis, lair to 10 wary mummies (they were here before the rains became common and are now functionally trapped)
- F. Manufactured reservoirs, lair to 6 reclusive ogres {hid}
- G. Rolling hills, over-farmed timber plantations
Column 3
- A. Aggressive-looking mountains. Landslides common. Freak lightning strikes common
- B. Semi-permanent bazaar of 11 black-market traders {landmark}
- C. Gentle woodland
- D. Stronghold housing 8 patient veterans {landmark}
- E. Pleasant bogland
- F. Natural brooks connect reservoirs [at 2F] with marshland [at 4E]
- G. Manufactured grottoes of 26 flighty lizardmen (they have seen what the gnolls did to the town westwards)
Column 4
- A. Curséd copses. Quicksand and ensnaring roots
- B. Ossified thickets serve as network for complex mycelial intellect [as m–u lv6]
- C. Pleasant bogland
- D. Pleasant bogland
- E. Peat-mining encampment / outpost for catfishermen
- F. Rolling meadows
- G. Rolling meadows
Column 5
- A. Lair of the paranoid white wyrm, Algranackx {hid}
- B. Village of 12 entrepreneurial traders of local resources (peat, stone, timber, dragonspoor) {landmark}
- C. Muddy wetlands
- D. Lakeland lair of 9 ascetic ogres {landmark}
- E. Colour-drained marsh seeps toxic gases [we fromsoft now bois]
- F. Pleasant bogland
- G. [Here and 6F] roving araback [tusked megacerops] herders
Column 6
- A. Rolling meadows
- B. Actively-subsided village, home to 20 wary gnomes {landmark}
- C. Withen-pon-the-Shore. Innsmouth-style murder town
- D. The Lone Publican PH. Brewer and distillery
- E. Colour-drained marsh seeps toxic gases
- F. [Here and 5G] roving araback [tusked megacerops] herders
- G. Pleasant bogland
Column 7
- A. Placid lake
- B. Haddonfief. Local immortal murder-man
- C. Ruined town, lair to Koyyfuua, curious giant black widow {hid}
- D. Rolling meadows
- E. Lotus vale full of soporific and amnestic spores. Frequent {secret} treasure caches
- F. Rolling meadows
- G. Rolling meadows, lair to 8 aggressive robber flies
Column 8
- A. Placid lake with roving merchant caravel, trades magic items
- B. Lake with spontaneous whirlpools and geysers
- C. Underwater dome dungeon, accessible by spiral staircase from island edifice
- D. Rolling meadows
- E. Ghost town, lair to 7 peculiar zombies
- F. Meadows with lone pub, home to party of expert adventurers
- G. Tower-dungeon of the wizard Jandalk [m–u lv6]
Column 9
- A. Tower manse of the high-dwarfs
- B. Placid lake
- C. Algal blooms used for divinatory purpose. 4-in-6 there’s wise mermen present
- D. Shoals of the sharkmen — dark water hides razorgrown coral
- E. Neolithic earthworks around mesolithic stoneworks
- F. Rolling meadows
- G. Terraducts of 4 hostile driver ants
Bibliography
- map made with HexHive online tool
- stocking inspired by Josie’s blog Occultronics and Old School Essentials
- location design inspired by Anne’s blog DIY & dragons
