Before I begin, I should explain what the Three Hexes are. I got the idea from Chicago Wiz, who makes (usually) weekly Three Hexes posts. Here is his first post for the idea. A Three Hexes map is a small hex map (usually with 24-mile hexes) which has four hexes of note. One of the hexes, “Hex 0,” is the homebase hex, the location of the (probably frontier) town/village where the PCs resupply and use as their place of respite. The mentioned three other hexes are locations for the PCs to travel to and explore. They are sites with adventure possibilities. Sometimes these sites are wildernesses, full of separate lairs of the various monsters that inhabit the hex. Other times the sites are complete, planned dungeons that is either pulled from something else (a module or something from Dungeon Magazine) or is made from scratch. Sometimes all these hexes are related, and usually that’s for the best. In that case the area helps make for itself a campaign and setting built around a unified idea. A great example of this is Chicago Wiz’s “The World Clock.” Other times the three sites aren’t linked at all, and are, in fact, some areas that the party can visit if they so desire, in the style of a very small hex crawl. Examples include the first two that Chicago Wiz provides in that first post (linked above) and “The Haunted Seas of the Greybeard.” One can even make two 3-Hex Maps, as Chicago Wiz did with the very first of his Three Hexes maps that I’d seen: “Negative Mirror.”
Introduction of the concept finished, I’ll move onto introducing what I’ll be doing with the Three Hexes framework. Well… I may make some Three Hexes maps occasionally. I don’t have the same goal of Chicago Wiz right now of reaching 52 campaign starters. That’s too ambitious for me. Rather, I might wind up making a Three Hexes map whenever the inspiration strikes me. It did when I made this map.
I recently got Hex Kit 2.0, which is what I used to make this map. I decided to test the software by making a map a la Chicago Wiz. So I made this map, not really considering what may be in these hexes beforehand beyond “faeries here, town there, hill there, and swamp here.” Afterward, I began considering what might be taking place in this region.
Campaign Long ago there was a terrible conflict between the lords of the forest and a sorcerer-king, Ajamar. The sorcerer-king began cutting away at the forest, attempting to deprive the forest-lords their power and their home. A particularly brutal Fey Lord, Torthwgyn, believed malicious by even the other fey, came forward in leading the resistance against this sorcerer-king. Under Torthwgyn’s leadership, the Fey Lords were able to expand the boundaries of their forest even further than before the conflict had begun. Ajamar was slain, buried in a crypt in a hillside by his devoted servants, and forgotten. Without the enemy to unite them, the Fey Lords broke with Torthwgyn, and Torthwgyn was expelled from the feywood to rule over his own section, which he has corrupted into a malevolent swamp.
Today, the forest is full of fey-touched creatures, monsters and animals, which stalk its grounds. The forest grows, but markedly slower than it had generations before. Elders in the growing village in the wood have noticed that strange events seem to be on the rise. Cold winds blow down from the Bare Hills, and those who venture into them looking for the crypt of Ajamar rarely return. Stranger creatures are found further west, where reign the Terrible Fey Lords.
Hex 0 (3.3) Theorinporth Theorinporth is a pleasant, small community. The village grows crops and trades lumber for what else it needs. Though the village has a small lumbering trade, it is carefully done, for fear of retaliation by the fey. This concern has developed some controversy, however, as younger lumberers buck against tradition and a small group of them are convinced that nothing will happen if the village increases its lumbering. Peric, a prominent young lumberjack, strongly believes this, and has been coordinating with the other villagers to begin logging more actively in the forest.
Hex 1 (1.2) The Woods with Eyes Anyone who passes near the feywood gets the sensation of being watched, of never being alone, of something directly behind them (especially when ‘alone’). The Fey Lords live here and make it their home. They rarely go beyond into the rest of the forest, though they claim it as theirs. Fey’s guardians watch those who enter the feywood and may lead adventuring parties or intruders to their individual masters (incidentally getting the party helplessly lost) to be toyed with, punished, aided, or disposed of. The attitudes of the fey range from beneficial to malevolent to both. Nearly all of the fey will want something from an adventuring party, usually to torment them in some contract. Each fey has their own estate, which bends space (and sometimes time). A fey’s estate may hold many acres, though only be contained by a rabbit’s hole within a tree.
The Fey Lords have become worried by the developments in the Bare Hills. Most of them, having betrayed Torthwgyn, don’t believe another alliance with him would be feasible. The affair had also sown more distrust among the fey, further endangering hopes of an alliance among the fey. The Fey Lords are vulnerable outside of their forest. Sending along a group of adventurers might readily appear as an easy, low-risk solution (if they die, it’s no real loss to any faerie, except one they owe something to).
Hex 2 (1.3) The Sunken Forest This swamp is the domain of Torthwgyn. It is full of monsters, fey-touched mutant abominations and monstrous humanoids (mostly goblins and gremlins) who’ve pledged fealty to Torthwgyn (under threat of extinction), and one or two loyal faeries. He slowly builds his forces in preparation for making war against Theorinporth (regardless of how many or few trees they cut), the Fey Lords who’d betrayed him, and to guard himself against the rising threat in the Bare Hills. He only suspects what’s risen in the Bare Hills; he doesn’t know for sure and can’t scry the area. Torthwgyn cares nothing for the Faeries or their dominion over the forest. He desires to extend his own control over the river, the forest, and beyond. His betrayal has increased his brutality and only strengthened his hunger for power and mischief.
Hex 3 (3.1) The Bare Hills The hills are dead. Nothing grows here, except the cold, except the hunger and the rage. In his crypt Ajamar has risen as a mummy, woken by reckless adventurers who’d disturbed his rest. Here he has begun to continue his work, in the crypt built by the loyal servants and commanders who didn’t perish in the final battle. His loyal commanders who’d died in battle with him attend him as wights. The soldiers and long-forgotten dead rise as skeletons and set about collecting the dead. The last remaining goblin tribe (the rest have been wiped out by the newly risen Ajamar) have sworn obedience to Ajamar, though its leader, the bugbear Zerdok, and many goblins resent Ajamar and the position he has been put in. The couple small orcs tribes in the Bare Hills may also be under Ajamar’s control. Those who defy him in life serve him in death. Ajamar is ambivalent to the fate of Theorinporth, but he expects them to side with him against the Fey Lords, alive and willing or as undead minions.
I participated in the Pamphlet Dungeon Jam and decided to make The Crypt of Ajamar. You can find that listed among the many great Pamphlet Dungeons in the Jam and also here. I also made another version of the map which, instead of 24-mile hexes (which is what I was assuming but you could use whatever you want), I decided measured 8-mile hexes. I made it because I really like the idea of having some wilderness exploration.
If you would like the .map files for any of these, just let me know and I will try and figure out a way of providing them.
Michael Shorten has not endorsed this in any way. I’m just crediting his work, the framework for this content.
