Jalamere: Encounters Within a 10 Mile Radius of the Black Ziggurat

This is a continuation of what we began in the previous Black Ziggurat of Jalamere post. We want to thank Blair of Planet Algol for his feed-back, encouragement and the contribution of a couple of entries to further flesh out the special encounters that might take place in the area surrounding this version of the Black Ziggurat.

[Get the free Swords & Wizardry (White Box) rules: http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/whitebox.htm]


Encounters Within a 10 Mile Radius of the Black Ziggurat

1. Spatter Moths: 3d6 fluttering moths alight upon one randomly selected victim, taking 1d4 rounds to finally settle into place. They emanate a feeling of calm and peace and trust. Then they explode, covering the victim with a viscous, radioactive sludge that will provoke a CON check or Save to avoid incurring some minor, insectile mutation.
2. Cuneiform Tablet: Stained, pitted and chipped, but still legible...if you know this particularly rare, even extinct form of pre-human cuneiform made up of spiral impressions of ammonite shells that were pressed into the raw clay to form cyclic patterns. The Tablet is worth hundreds of gold to a linguist, sage or scholar and it only weighs about 20 pounds, so it could be carried out of here. However, anyone falling asleep near this thing will find themself dreaming of Malevolent Monoliths that will begin to hunt them down in their dreams for 2d4 nights, after which time the Malevolent Monoliths will begin to hunt the dreamer(s) down in the physical realm, taking 1d4 nights to reach them.
3. Transparent Humanoid Corpse: Only their bones are visible and their head is missing.
4. Writhing Mass (Type II): 1d4 bulbous, pulsating pustule-like conglomerations of what appears to be disparate types of acne-pocked flesh that roll and flop along the ground like blind slugs, always seeking any living thing smaller than itself that it can enfold, crush and absorb.
5. Poisonous Purple Radiance: Glimmering purple effulgences corruscate and perambulate across the rocky wasteland, teasing the edges of every surface like some weird sort of foxfire that leaves small droplets of dew condensing behind upon any and everything it touches. The dew is poisonous. Save or go blind.
6. Old Shoggoth: 1 very old, very large Shoggoth is seen slithering along in the far distance. It seems to be ignoring you. For now. Faint cries of Tekeli Li! in the course of the next 2d4 nights make it all but impossible to sleep. But then the thing seems to disappear. Maybe it has gone away for good?
7. Arachnocacti: 2d8 eight-limbed cactus-spider hybrids wait patiently for someone to come within reach of their grasping claws or venomous maws. Each Arachnocacti can spray a mass of prickly webbing equivalent to a Web spell up to 4 times a day, and anyone caught in these webs takes 1d4 points of damage per round that they attempt to move...or are moved about, like say if they were grasped and picked-up by the creature's claws and dragged towards the slavering fly-trap-like central fang-rimmed maw. The only good thing about these creatures is that they tend to be rooted and it takes them 4d6 turns to extricate themselves from the rocky soil before they can follow any prey that manages to get away. Oh, and their flesh is super-saturated with clean, pure water, so if you kill one, you can replenish your canteens and water-skins.
8. Rulak: 1d4 creepy fungal things come slithering through the shimmering air with bad intent. (as detailed for Labyrinth Lord HERE. )
9. Masked Watchers: 2d6 black robed and masked figures appear in the distance; waver like mirages; disappear in seconds although one PC may hear strange whispers on the wind. (From Blair of Planet Algol.)
10. Raging Blob: 3,000 pounds of succulent gristle and sweet-smelling skin rougher than an elephant's rump comes rolling and tumbling down the nearest slope right at the party. If the blob can catch anyone on the roll, it will extrude tentacles and attempt to grapple with them, otherwise it will come to a stop as close to the main cluster of the group and strike out at as many victims as it can reach at once. If a tentacle ensnares a victim (60%) it will attempt to reel them in towards a freshly opened mouth. If the tentacle pierces the victim, it will spew a larval froth into the wound and then rip the harpoon-like member free of their flesh, doing double damage. Anyone 'frothed' by the Blob will need to make a Save or fall into a coma as their body transforms into a micro-blob producing factory...[Raging Blob Labyrinth Lord stats (+Paper Mini)]
11. Spine Thieves: 3d4 eel-faced hominids clad in woven plastic armor and armed with either shock prods or burn-sticks slither quietly out of the shadows and attempt to subdue one or more stragglers or other likely-looking victims. They will render their target insensible, fetter them with quickloops and plastic manacles, then begin to extract the spine. It is very unlikely that a natural vertebrate will survive this process. If the PCs kill all of the Spine Thieves they will discover 2d4 spines preserved in durable sacs of translucent green fluid and 1d4 Cerebracrystals.
12. Glyph Block: Random PC trips over or stubs toe (save or take 1 pt. damage) on corner of corroded basalt tablet/block embedded in sand. Examination reveals glyphs worn away into illegibility but sinister in form. May be worth 1d100 gp to the right buyer but doubles chance of nocturnal random encounters while in possession. (From Blair of Planet Algol.)
13. Hovering Blue Pentazoid: 1d12 fractured poly-planar crystal formations that cut across 1d30 planar layers, creating conditions conducive for a roll or three on the Damned Things Tables every hour spent within ten miles of this spot. The Pentazoids are hyper-intelligent and with a little luck and a good Charisma reaction roll, they might teach a variant form of such spells as Contact Other Plane, Commune with Pentazoid, or Poly-Axial Realignment...but the Pentazoids will demand a grim price for this knowledge...
14. Petrocloptrian: 1d4 hovering telepathic alien beings who wield seven melee weapons at a time using a form of close-quarters telekinesis. They are hunting Bandersnatches and arrogantly disdain having any interactions with humans whom they see as coarse, vulgar and uninteresting. This is probably a good thing though, as the Petrocloptrians tend to hunt anything that they think is interesting in order to mount it upon the walls of their orbital estates. [Petrocloptrian S&W (White Box) stats] [Petrocloptrian Labyrinth Lord stats]
15. Aerial Jellyfish Swarm: 2d100 small but hyper-poisonous gelatinous sacs of living fluid flutter and squirm through the air, each one dangling a multitude of tiny thread-like tendrils that will sting anyone who comes into contact with them for 3d4 damage plus an immediate Save at -2 or suffer terrifying hallucinatory nightmares for 3d6 hours. Lizard-shamen often dance naked in the midst of these things in order to receive visions. Those that don't die are considered profoundly accomplished dreamers.
16. Malevolent Monoliths: 1d4 cyclopean slabs of intricately carved basalt that loom menacingly from their randomly sloping positions within the sand. If the Cuneiform Tablet (2) is present, the Monoliths will awaken and attack everyone in the immediate vicinity, beginning with Rays of Petrification and using Rock to Mud to convert the terrain to a gooey, sticky mess that will hamper their victim's ability to move.
17. Smoldering Lump of Radioactive Glass: Anyone approaching within a mile of this thing begins to make Saves of suffer increasingly negative radiation effects. Eventually a rise in the surrounding landscape will reveal the still-steaming shard of greenish glass sitting prettily at the very center of a crater that could well be over a mile in diameter...
18. Insectoid Cadaver: The scattered and defiled remains of 1d6 dismembered insectoids litter the immediate vicinity. There is a base 50% chance that these are Flytaur Type I Drone-Soldiers. [Flytaur Type I Labyrinth Lord Stats] [Flytaur Type I S&W (White Box) stats]
19. Pernicious Polyp: 1d6 black and tumorous masses of boils, bubbles and larva-like flesh, each one with a different configuration of eyes, mouths, feelers and tentacles circle around the PCs just out of range of any spell or fire-arms they might have. The Polyps will observe the party for 3d4 turns and then either attack in force if the group appears weaker than the Polyps, or else they'll leave. Wait for a day or two. Then circle back and see if luck has changed.
20. See the Writhing Masses & Worse Table.

The Black Ziggurat of Jalamere



One More Sighting of the Infamous Black Ziggurat

Since it was first discovered by players in Blair's Planet Algol campaign early in 2010, the Black Ziggurat has appeared in a number of other games, settings and campaigns across the blog-o-sphere. In his post 'The Blackest Tesserzigguract', the idea of a cross-campaign 'Black Ziggurat' that subtly (and sometimes unsubtly) obtruded into all manner of other settings, planes, dimensions, etc. was further elaborated, to wit: There ought to be dozens of these things out there, all of them highly mysterious, hugely dangerous and potentially interconnected -- that last being subject to GM whim.


So there is a mysterious Black Ziggurat out amid the drifting dunes and harsh wastes of Jalamere. It reeks of preternatural power and pre-dates humanity by millions of years...and it is said by nomads and others who've been unfortunate enough to have encountered the place in their travels that the whole place exudes a miasmic influence that spawns nightmares and worse. Hungry spirits and worse things prowl the broken escarpment that forms a semi-natural wall around the Black Ziggurat.


No one sane goes there. No one sane has ever come back.

There are rumors of terrifying hybridized manticore-medusa creatures nesting in the escarpment near-by the Black Ziggurat, but no survivors have returned with any details as of yet.


No one from the surrounding area will willingly lead anyone to this place, except those of the Wultru and Nirizi tribes, but since those particularly unsavory humanoids are far from trustworthy, it may not be wise to hire their services in this regard...


Black Ziggurat Encounter Tables

• Encounters within a 1 mile radius
• Encounters within a 10 mile radius
• Encounters within a 100 mile radius
• encounters within a 1,000 mile radius
• Encounters at the Black Ziggurat
• Writhing Masses & Worse
• Special Encounters (Black Ziggurat)

20 Major Dungeons/Ruins (Jalamere)

Here's a quick list of 20 sites we want to make sure are included in the final map of Jalamere. So far.

Major Dungeon/Ruin Sites of Jalamere

1. Black Ziggurat (see Black Ziggurat of Jalamere and Black Ziggurat of Jalamere Part Two for more details concerning the immediate area surrounding this strange hyper-dimensional structure)
2. Borderland Keep
3. Brazen Tomb of Gargantua (One of many such entrances)
4. Crash-Site
5. Mysterious Mounds connected by subterranean canals
6. Octagonal Keep
7. Arid plateaus criss-crossed by lines like at Nazca, only for real, sort of...
8. Disangled Ruins
9. Phantasmal City that might not really be there after all
10. Village with strange inter-planar ties to Wermspittle...includes a section of Haunted Hop-Yards
11. Vast labyrinth of catacombs accessed via a dismal sepulchre like the one in The Statement of Randolph Carter by HPL
12. Peak Fortress of the Visitors
13. Crater-Lake within a Black Lagoon
14. Tsan Yian Colony-Dome
15. Escher-site: See Swords & Dorkery's Escher Challenge
16. Cliff-stairs
17. The Dome
18. Gardens of the Resolute Empress
19. Blasted Pyramids of Nitocrimelle
20. Lost City of Jikai

Details to follow...

Jalamere 2: Zones

Okay, so we handled Step One of Mr. Conley's 'How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox' Checklist in the Jalamere 1 post where we briefly introduced  the Worldrim and sketched-in something of the rough features that we had in mind for this Fantasy Sandbox. Now we're moving on to Step Two: Labeling Important Regions.


As you can see from the revised map above, we've color-coded the underlying terrain/pseudo-topography and broken it into Six Zones. The larger, 11x17/300dpi version of the Jalamere Zone Map is at our Free Stuff Folder at BOX, so if you want a copy, you can either click on it via the handy gadget in the right-hand side-bar, or click this link: http://www.box.net/shared/fdv1xfjrb9xzyraueesy .


The Six Zones range from Zone 1 which is the mostly vertical region of Great Cliffs that extend downwards from the very edge of the Worldrim; to Zone 6 which is a bleak, barren and very rugged environment dominated by shifting dust, grit and debris. There is one more zone, the Outer Zone where the atmosphere extends outwards from the Worldrim just enough to establish a semi-viable region dominated by flying beasts, harpies and worse, which would very likely be a Zone unto itself. But we're going to leave the Outer Zone alone for now and come back to it later.


Zone 1 is an extreme environment; Zone 2 is a windy rocky region where life is hanging on desperately and it may well be where the Player Characters are most likely to begin (though that could change...); Zone 3 is a transitional environment that shifts and combines aspects of Zones 2 and 4; Zone 4 is a little less windy, but a whole lot more rocky and goes from increasingly steep hills to mesa, buttes, and bad lands; Zone 5 is another transitional region that blends aspects of Zones 4 and 6 into one another; Zone 6 is the Deep Wastes, a cold, dusty, barren place where things tend to bleed through from other places.


Each Zone has a range of Terrain Types associated with it, and thus will have its own set of Weather, Effects, Events, Typical Encounters and Wandering Monster Tables. That will allow us to make each region more distinct and to build adventure seeds and plot-hooks that take advantage of the special conditions and opportunities to be found in each Zone.


Here are our preliminary notes for the Six Zones, so far. All of this is subject to change as we move ahead with this series, but this is a good beginning from which to start thinking about what sorts of creatures live here, and how people might adapt in order to survive in this place, etc.




Zone One Terrain Types

1. Rim Regions  -  Crumbling, eroded and unstable lands prone to collapse. Harpy Aeries and the Roosts of other kinds of Winged Folk are often encountered in these areas.
2. Edgelands  -  Rocky, lichen-dense regions where sparse grass and twisted trees try desperately to make things just a bit more stable. 
3. Waterfalls  -  Strange, slippery and extremely treacherous regions of mist, fog and mighty cataracts rushing off of the very edge of the Worldrim into whatever lies beyond. Ravenous great gray oozes are known to prowl these areas.
4. Cliffs  -  The craggy, heavily eroded and cracked vertical face of the Worldrim where gargoyles perch and more than just spiders hunt the unwary.
5. Abyssal Peaks  -  Massive half-gnawed remnants of ancient chunks of the Worldrim that have separated or fallen away from the current edge. Many are dotted with strange ruins and winged things will often flutter to and fro on strange errands.
6. Special  -  Chasms that run right to the edge like chutes, strange mounds or heaps of talus and debris raised right on the very edge of the world for unknown purposes, ruins clinging to the cliff-face, and other such places yet to be determined.

Zone Two Terrain Types

1. Rimward Steppes  -  Cold, constantly windy, hardscrabble region that is dominated by clusters of rocky formations that jut upwards into the clouds like the colossal fingers of dead gods.
2. Howling Hills  -  Bare and blasted regions of broken stone and huge boulders that whistle and moan with the passage of the winds and other things drawn to such utter desolation. Carnivorous lichens and outcast spirits congregate in the wind-lashed gaps and pockets formed by haphazard mounds of boulders scattered all over this area.
3. Grasslands  -  From coarse spiky grasses to elegant stands of bamboo, this region is dominated by rolling vistas of grasses, herds of grazing creatures, and the sporadic clumps of thorny brush or densely packed forests that stand out like leafy green islands surrounded by seas of grass waving and swaying in the capricious winds that come in off of the Howling Hills.
4. Woodlands  -  Vast, dark forests of gigantic trees that extend across the horizon like a living wall that obscures and hides what might lie beyond...or beneath their moss-draped and vine-heavy boughs.
5. Special  -  Gravel strewn gullies, brush-bordered gorges, chasms, pits, rock mounds, ruins, and such places.

Zone Three Terrain Types

1. Steep Hills  -  Extremely difficult, exceptionally steep vertical faces that may or may not be entirely overgrown with twisted trees, densely inter-connected brush and some weird form of quasi-terrene coral.
2. Canopy  -  Humid, foggy regions of intensely overgrown pseudo-rainforest and/or jungle.
3. Overgrown Canyons  -  Domed-over natural pockets formed by erosion and other factors that have become thriving and verdant ecologies almost entirely cut-off from the rest of the world.
4. Lesser Bad Lands  -  Harsh, dry, rocky landscapes in-between the smaller rivers and dense woodlands. The Bad Lands start and stop abruptly, with little warning and even less rhyme or reason. They may not be entirely natural.
5. Lost Valleys  -  Isolated, hidden places located along convoluted and treacherous arroyos, smaller rivers, or bad land regions that open up into fertile valleys, lush box canyons and other wide open spaces.
6. Broken Places  -  Weak-spots and vortexes that have a particularly sorcerous influence on the surrounding landscape.
7. Special  -  TBD

Zone Four Terrain Types

1. Bad Lands  -  Harsh, dry, rocky landscapes in-between the smaller rivers and dense woodlands. The Bad Lands start and stop abruptly, with little warning and even less rhyme or reason. They may not be entirely natural.
2. Overgrown Canyons  -  Domed-over natural pockets formed by erosion and other factors that have become thriving and verdant ecologies almost entirely cut-off from the rest of the world.
3. Woodlands  -  Vast, dark forests of gigantic trees that extend across the horizon like a living wall that obscures and hides what might lie beyond...or beneath their moss-draped and vine-heavy boughs.
4. Pit Jungles  -  Massive sink-holes where the vegetation runs rampant and geysers spew super-heated steam upwards into the sky at random intervals.
5. Alkali and Salt Pans  -  Dry, dreary, desolate regions where very little grows and less can survive.
6. Special  -  TBD.

Zone Five Terrain Types

1. Alkali and Salt Pans  -  Dry, dreary, desolate regions where very little grows and less can survive.
2. Rocky Wastes  -  Bare expanses of crumbling and pitted rock with little else to be seen.
3. Collapsed Area  -  The crust has subsided or given way in this area, leaving everything a topsy-turvy mess of jumbled rock and shifting soil that is extremely treacherous to navigate on foot.
4. Thorn Forest  -  Dark, sinister clumps of ancient thorn-bushes the size of ancient trees. Few, if any birds can be spotted here.
5. Fern Niches  -  Eroded-out sections of cliffs, hills or even ancient colossal rockfalls that provide enough of an overhang to create a pleasant environment for all manner of ferns.
6. Special  -  Flat sandy regions, places of congealing shadows, coterminous ruins that lead across a dozen or more regions of time and space, dreaming woods, and more.

Zone Six Terrain Types

1. Barrens  -  Unpleasant stretches of broken hills, blasted buttes and convoluted --even curdled-looking canyons and defiles that extend outwards and onwards into the shimmering haze that marks the distant beginnings of the Deep Wastes.
2. Rocky Wastes  -  Bare expanses of crumbling and pitted rock with little else to be seen.
3. Collapsed Area  -  The crust has subsided or given way in this area, leaving everything a topsy-turvy mess of jumbled rock and shifting soil that is extremely treacherous to navigate on foot.
4. Thorn Forest  -  Dark, sinister clumps of ancient thorn-bushes the size of ancient trees. Few, if any birds can be spotted here.
5. Dust  - Seemingly endless shifting dunes of ultra-fine dust.
6. Gritlands  - Slightly caustic fields of grit that grind away at everything that comes into contact with this region.
7. Deep Wastes  -  Dark, dismal, haunted and accursed regions that extend outwards into whatever lies beyond.
8. Special  -  Vortexes, Weak-spots, Nexii, and all manner of weird and Damned Things.

Jalamere 1

We're going to make use of Rob Conley's excellent How To Make a Fantasy Sandbox checklist and several of Telecanter's equally useful and inspiring posts such as his matching couplet on Simple Sandbox Design (Part I, Part II) and especially his Sandbox Pinch Points article in developing our OD&D/S&W setting of Jalamere. We'll also be referring to Mr. Conley's very handy series of articles on A Fantasy Sandbox in Detail (Starting with Part One) in the course of building our maps and suchlike for Jalamere, at least where his advice and guidance applies.


You see, Jalamere isn't a standard planet. It's intended to be a Fantasy Setting, not a simulation of some world derived from late Seventies science-fiction. We're thinking more along the lines of Tanith Lee's Flat Earth Cycle and Clark Ashton Smith's The Abominations of Yondo. In short, we aim to have a rim or edge that you can fall off of. Literally.


Like so.

It's a beginning. We'll start going down the checklist and making changes and adjustments as we go and then once we have something we're happy with, we'll slap down a better hex-grid with numbering on the thing. Then we begin Keying and Stocking the thing. Should be fun.

"I think like much of old school philosophy the secret to success lies in how we utilize randomness to our advantage but without fetishizing it. So maybe, as long as using some randomness lets me loosen up and actually create a world without needing to know every single detail in advance, that's a good thing. But it also doesn't mean I have to go completely random, with things falling onto the map without rhyme or reason."

Telecanter