Westmarches

A wild land at the very edge of human civilization, the Westmarches have been a borderland since as long as humans can remember. But other races have longer memories. Once it was home to the vast blood-fed oak forests of the ancient goblin realm and botched attempts at dwarven colonization. But the fires of the Goblin Wars came and now little remains of the older races but ruins and remnants. Now the Westmarches is a land of soaring mountains, remote monasteries, a few scattered outposts of humanity and much that is strange and dangerous.

Hex Summary:

• 01.01 (The Dead Chick): here lies the corpse of a roc that did not learn to fly in time.

• 01.02 (The Scorchia Birches): the wood from these trees can be a source of mystical visions.

• 02.02 (The Vampiric Stratum): vampires never die even if eons turn their bones to chalk.

• 02.03 (Mount Scorshia): the greatest mountain in these lands, it is said that the world was created here.

• 02.04 (Finger Stew): the shepherds in these remote valleys honor people by eating their fingers.

• 02.05 (The Ruins of Hoth Akhbir): the ruins of the westernmost dwarven fortress, it was destroyed by giants in the Goblin Wars.

• 02.08 (The Tashtan Plains): the home of exceptionally large centipedes.

• 03.02 (The Ice Mummies): these ancient corpses have been looted and aren’t pleased about that.

• 03.03 (Rift of the Great Lament): a bottomless pit from which strange voices emerge.

• 03.04 (The Monastery): a dwarven monastery with a strange and lucrative prisoner.

• 03.05 (The Long Stairs): the only path that leads to the monastery high above.

• 03.06 (The Gardens of Lord Deismark): a sheltered valley where it never rains or snows and where the weather is always warm.

• 03.07 (The Shrine of Father Dorek): a small shrine maintained by the ousted leader of the dwarven monastery.

• 03.08 (Uncle Bertie’s Trading Post): one of the few inns in the Westmarches.

• 04.00 (The Nests of the Kagu): an aarakocra tribe noted for its love of “shinies.”

• 04.02 (The Drinker’s Mouth): a dormant volcano holy to the dwarves.

• 04.05 (The Pool of the Firebirds): a mountain pool where the firebirds mate and frolic.

• 04.06 (Cragsend): a remote village founded by refugees of a war long past.

• 04.07 (The Mocking Hills): strange voices and mocking laughter can be heard in these mazy hills.

• 04.08 (The Plains of Dogtur): a strange tribe lives here with their many dogs.

• 05.04 (The Glass River Winery): the food and drink here is almost as strange as the guests.

• 05.05 (The Glass Rapids): water flows through strangely-crystalline rocks before flowing down into the Sunless Sea.

• 05.06 (The Trench and the Battle Hills): the remains of an ancient dwarven community that was destroyed by fratricide.

• 05.07 (The Watering Hole): the wild aurochs of the plains gather here to drink.

• 05.12 (Hound’s Hearth): this village is known for its dog fights in which most anything with fur and four legs can be entered as a “dog.”

• 06.03 (The Long Table): the giants and the priests of the King in Splendor both claim this as a holy site.

• 06.05 (The Badlands Where the Beetles Dwell): the home of giant stag beetles and strange nocturnal rituals.

• 06.06 (The Dwarven Cairn): Dagmar often comes here to get drunk and scream curses at his dead brother.

• 06.10 (The Ziggurat): a strange green structure of snakes and idols that is strangely out of place in these lands.

• 07.01 (The Giant’s Lake): this lake of crystal salt is the home of a riddling giant.

• 07.04 (The Castle of the Poor Brothers): once home to an order of monks the Castle has been taken over by the grasping Delasar clan.

• 07.06 (The Destroying Angel): stalks beneath the earth in the tunnels that lead to the Sunless Sea.

• 07.08 (The Enigma): strange carving of ancient giants can be found under the ground here.

• 08.01: heroes claim to have slain a dragon and left a vast mound of copper behind.

• 08.03 (The Old Delasar Mansion): now that they have moved on to bigger and better things, the decaying mansion of the Delasars is occupied by their in-law and his creations.

• 08.05 (Bell, Book and Candle): this minor village is known for its unique marriage rites.

• 08.06 (The Winnowing): the number of aquatic predators only seems to grow as one descends to the Sunless Sea.

• 09.06 (The Treasure Stash of Giles Chosard): the treasure kept by the son of an exile from the Shuttered City that he hopes will one day buy his way into the city of his ancestors.