Weekly J3H Campaign Starts 22: Desert Delirium
I'm making 3 hexes and a town every week of 2024 in the style of Chgowiz's Just 3 Hexes format. Check the J3H tag to see all entries in the series.
(Hex tiles used in the image are from Zeshio's Pixel Hex Tileset, the map was created using Hex Kit)
Campaign: Go to Pyrite Gulch and forget, they said. Get lost in the desert, stare at the sky, get a little inhibited they said. Now you're stuck in a two-horse town at the end of nowhere owing an exhorbitant amount of money to a bandit lord known mainly for his lack of mercy. Great!
Homebase (2518): Pyrite Gulch - A town of charlatans and hucksters, the so-called "birthplace of snake oil." The peace is kept by earth elemental bouncers, they bring down the stony fist of no-nonsense everytime someone gets too big for their britches. The dune lord Starke has a firm grip over the biggest and cleanest well in town, a fact that he most certainly does not abuse at every opportunity, no sirree.
Location 1 (2318): Cardinal Tower - A magical tower housing an order of wizards who study the 4 winds (North, South, East, West). An inverted tower grows out of the tippy top of the tower housing an order of wizards who study the 4 antiwinds (Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Northwest). The two orders gather every solstice to collect the past season's storms and calibrate them for the next season.
Location 2 (2319): Skydrop Caverns - A former gold mine turned dangerous delve spot after the caves filled up with hallucinogenic mist. Adventurers willing to plunge the depths for its riches take great care to keep their gas masks on and sealed, though more than one grief-stricken warrior has ventured in of their own accord, unwilling to face the world anymore without a beloved companion. The ones that come back report strange, big-eyed albino goblin-creatures who screech about The Grand Machine and demand tribute paid in memories.
Location 3 (2519): Primordial Cavern - A humid cave filled with unique flora and fauna orphaned here long ago by the encroaching desert. Lizards of great size live here beneath the scorching heat, cooling themselves in muddy pools that go on forever. The great witch Portolonia notes this cave as the site where she found "the fountain of youth" that granted her infinite youthfulness but robbed her longterm memories.
Bonus! Also pictured:
- (2420) Resource: 100-Year Bloom
- (2418) Lair: Worm Cult