Threat Levels In Witchland

3Mb jpg of Witchland

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The map of Witchland is generated with software and this allows me to tinker with the aesthetics of the thing. I wanted a certain density and variation in terrain - aesthetics, but I wanted the land to feel in exploration like a real land with a memorable landscapes harbouring each evil. There have been no sudden drastic changes, the map evolves to the needs of content which in my mind comprises adventure settings and evil beings. It would be naive for me at this point to consider making a hand drawn version because when we get to game there and players declare their interests in the region there will be a further round of accommodation.

The geography of Witchland currently consists of two large mountains, Zorgun & Zumzun, both to the west. Two lakes, Tsulu & Nyangwe, the first to the south-west, the other to the north-east. There are three large forest territories, the Elder Devil Wood & the Forest of the Moon & Kakaktrees. There are three significant hill groups, Kuzu Zarak & the Hill of Human Stew & the Hill of Stone Age Ghosts. there are two large rivers, the Ugan & the Urun, and two very important smaller rivers, the Neme & Popor. Lastly there are numerous noxious wastelands, the Disgusting Ill-land & the Reeking Cracked earth & Broken Ground Putrid Below & Cancrid Vom & Madbite Swamp & the Swallowing.

Now Witchland is a tiny region within Affryqq, and yet in density of intrigue I think of these bad lands as a city. What I mean by this is that exploration on the map is like a move in chess with a sort of electric panic once you 'release your piece' or declare your intention. There is relative safety for adventurers in the west and the extreme south, Threat Level I. I had an abortive attempt online to introduce players to Witchland from the island of Zanzibar which failed for several reasons: poor players bar one; poor DMing to random unknown players; and naivete about online pacing - it would have taken far too long to get to Witchland. Online play has no bearing on gametable play.

Brazztforqnas is the larger part of a moon which fell to Earth, connected to the remaining part through a river which bathes the Plateau of Luxoqq and floods the caverns and dungeons below. The Skywalk is a road in the sky which supported vehicular transport long ago. Several stations along its route in theory provide access to the road, notably near the village of Konkonouwa. Odoconda is the only town for a great distance around. It thrives when interest in Witchland from without waxes and is well supported through river trade and caravan routes from the south. Odoconda is an example of yielding to player interest. originally I wanted nothing but bare villages but I always get an assassin player (and no thieves) and without a city proper within the campaign environment an assassin is a fish out of water.

Odoconda

I think in impressions and the notion of Threat Level is an impression. I conceive for the purpose of measurement of abstract parties varying about an average of two knights and two wizards in a classical sense - the typical English Dungeoneering team, knights of course are amoral and not 'Knights of Romance' and the wizard might just be an assassin-come-MU, an inefficacious priest with a vague moral fortitude or he may be phoney (the player won't know immediately), an unclassed sage with a great library on muleback or a bonafide wizard. Needless to say the straightforward Knights & Wizards have the easiest time of it but players want to deviate.

Apart from the unascendable Zumzun and Zorgun, Cancrid Vom is the greatest danger and holds the greatest promise in the west and south and has a Threat Level of III. In a vague sense from experience as an AD&D DM this means that a 5th level party consisting of two knights and two wizards would have a 50% chance of exploring this broken noxious landscape, finding the benben stones and getting back to Odoconda. A party of adventurers who wished to mount the Hill of Human Stew and dismay the Giants there for one week, on that peak where Giants pound human flesh into liquid and paste for Pazuzu's Ogre-Witches from the forest of Kakaktrees in return for *spells* written in moron Giant script would for a 50% survival rate for a party of two knights and two wizards need to be 9th level each. There are anomalies like (well frankly there are more anomalies than predictables in Witchland) the fact that Monataigne of the Martello Tower has such a library that a scholar there could deduce that there are between several and a fair few kinds of Witches in Witchland of diverse provenance. The witches from the Forest of the Moon are little more than a span high but have chins which touch most nearly their noses of any manner of witch and they ride around their grass-lanes on wooden pedal-vehicles darting curses of extraordinary vehemence.

The most powerful party I have ever handled consisted of an 11th lvl knight and a 10th lvl assassin-10th lvl wizard.

Some Other Kinds Of Witches

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Following is some previous material.

from Oeffe Mund's journal:

In Witchland one can always see a forest. Having hidden our boat within a choke of rushes, our small band struck out from the shore of Lake Nyangwe south towards Brazztforqnas, which at a distance of thirty leagues resembled a temple bell, so round and smooth she sat. We came through a belt of marsh which hugged the shore to a plain of brittle blue grass which filled the land between forest, lesser wood and grove. We crept from wood to wood and rested out of sight among the trees of Witchland. Her tall black trees shine like beetles' backs, her sprawling grey trees are clothed in mould and among thorn thickets that hog the ground are flowers so flaming with orange that they glimmer softly in the night.

It was by a lone grey tree we spied a Witch for the first time. She was plucking from it white berries which were more like eggs. Scarcely had I turned to Joed to whisper when her head cocked in our direction and she leaped, bounded and hopped the gap between us. The men were stunned to stiffness. The Witch was upon us like a leopard who jumps like a flea. A man-and-a-half high she wore a black cape and a queer high hat over lank copper hair but was naked below the waist. Her legs and feet were huge with rope-like muscle writhing beneath translucent skin. Her arms were very long and very thin, with hands as large as her feet.

The Witch grabbed two spearmen by their heads and flung their bodies high above the trees while holding fast to their heads, which she hurled at two more spearmen crushing the skull of one and the ribs of the other. The remaining spearmen blinked, gulped, sweated and defecated. However the Witch had never yet met warriors of the stature of Joed and Jale. Instinctively they made to skewer her under armpit from both right and left with bright halberds. So immensely strong were my old friends in their prime that they lifted the Witch for a moment off her feet. As she snapped the shaft of Jale's halberd with her elbow breaking his arm, I stepped in and aimed my trumpet at her face blasting her head with Involutions of Swift Leprosy. While her eyes, nose and mouth swelled over with ghastly tumours she flailed blindly and began to suffocate so I signalled to the men to stand aside and pressed my hand on the flesh over her heart and uttered Vance's Malproportioned Innards and Limbs and watched as one leg shot out like a python while the other became a stump, her stomach exploded and one giant tooth burst through the vegetable mass of her face.

We returned quietly in the dark to our boat as I reflected on the risk in approaching Brazztforqnas through this land of Witches without exquisite preparations.

How Language is handled in Affryqq

Oeffe Mund's description of his first foray south from Lake Nyangwe