#zhuttsgraad

[ttrpgtreacle]

This was the final map of the Shattered Archipelago, and it was meant to put the players between a rock and a hard place. Since they arrived in the archipelago, the players have been stalked by the apex predator of the shattered archipelago: The displacer beast. This map is the moment it makes its move against the players. On the other hand, their one path towards land is limited by squabbling itinerant priests of the Mystery Cult of Zhutt, who have accidentally released a view of the esoterica to the pilgrims, requiring their (temporary) blinding.

This version of the map was used as the fog of war overlay. This sort of thing is necessary as you want people to be able to estimate what their path is going to be like if the're racing.

[ttrpgtreacle]

The penultimate map of the Shattered Archipelago arc. This hidden shack is where the Clean knives steer clear of the law. With must of the cabin dug into a large erratic, the Clean Knives were able to easily hide a chemical lab and a dig out hidden tunnels for the purpose of a quick exit. There's also a little outhouse.

After the players stormed the cabin, they found the Mysterious Shell, which later turned out to contain Aramomni.

[ttrpgtreacle]

In the Winding Way, that which has been lost can be recovered. So it goes with Soctsun Scotsdale, father to Calyx who was lost in the tunnels after a desperate escape from the Zhuttskulak. Able to create a rudimentary shack from the industrial scrap that Gorodzuba threw away, Scotsun had been able to eke out a living amongst the echobats, gradually deviating from lucidity until the day the pirates came across his homestead.

This is one of the few maps where I had the correct sounds to utilize Foundry's ambient sound feature, using weird birds as a stand-in for the calls of echobats in the ceiling of the large area.

[ttrpgtreacle]

Ysvestia was a street urchin in Gorodzuba. When the corruption of the city pushed many into the so-called undercity (at that point mostly a series of cisterns recently emptied to feed the growing hunger of its rented industry), she found her place within it as a guard for hire, with an old antique musket.

Eventually she left with the party, as she wanted to see more adventure, and didn't see a future for Gorozuba. Ysvestia actually started out as a random token that I drew for practice (see below) before becoming her own full-fledged character.

[ttrpgtreacle]

The first map representing The Old Winding Way -- a series of connected underground riparian caves. The players used the old winding way to escape from the Venercian onslaught on Gorodzuba. This map also served as a small combat arena to show what Ysvestia was capable of and to introduce the dangers of the WrestleThistle.

[ttrpgtreacle]

After the storm rocked the pirates on their way to Zhuttsgraad, they were forced to land to make repairs. As pirates, they can't go into any towns so they settled for the wilderness: the Shattered Archipelagio. Floating minerals within the earth here ensure that the ground hovers instead of plunging into deep sky. However, erosion eats away at its mass, with only tree roots holding the chunks of earth together.

This was also the first map that deployed with the version of the automatic foundry waller that could also automatically place lights on the map.

[ttrpgtreacle]

In the cave systems below Gorodzuba, the mineralized water which seeps from the mountains flows in underground rivers. Recently, the health properties of that water lead to it being actively exploited by a series of pump facilities deep underground. These facilities were often hot, sweaty, and dangerous. When the party came to the facility, it was... degraded. The workers had been attacked and turned into zombies, an attack caused by Koshchey.

As you can tell from the differently colored pipes, there was a pipe puzzle on this map, which is fun! Definitely the sort of thing I should have planned out on paper, because the actual complexity of the puzzle was a little low.

They met with an investiture of Koshchley, the mysterious puzzle maker behind the world's often elaborate and mysteriously durable puzzles. Within the body of a zombie, he was caught unawares, and offered to fight the players later if they promised to tell anyone they came across that they had fought and it had been, like, super tough. In exchange, he would provide them with a level up.

Unfortunately, his ultimate boss battle got cut. Shame!

[ttrpgtreacle]

A dropped plotline in Zhuttsgraad was the underclass of Ogre that were coaxed from the hills for manual labor. The ogres were banding themselves around a brotherhood based around Everart Claire like ringleader.

The players were originally going to have to deal with them to help get in Gorodzuba. Cut because it wouldn't have been a great use of time.