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Sunday 2 June 2024

New Settlers in the Wasteland


























In the course of playing a Chagrinspire campaign new settlements should be discovered in play. Perhaps those idiots you helped met some settlers and united and now it's a new settlement which is great. Perhaps settlers fleeing the coastal kingdoms of civilisation have come here to escape the scrutiny of tyrants. Maybe a foreign exploration has taken an outpost and received convicts to start a settlement. People are moving in and settling even monsters.

Seasons of Chagrinspire wastelands partly explains crop problems

A curse over the waste stopped plants and freshwater being accessible but they have improved in living memory offering some hope.

The d100 table is for local missions.

d4 Seasons of Chagrinspire wastelands
1 Mud season - vermin thrives and air stinks
2 Hot season - dry and hot winds
3 Flood season - everything wet and flooded
4 Ice season - snow and frozen mud

d20 New Settlers in the Wasteland
1 Crusaders form around an outpost of zealous cleric and warrior orders 
2 Cultists here to live openly without shame and consider the wastes of freedom
3 Cultists who remain secretive and pretend to be exiled refugees to entrap victims
4 Camp of scavenger clans gathered to start a village
5 Mutants have scraped together a village in a ruin
6 Barbarian tribe settlers here to stay and keen to destroy evil wizards and priests
7 Free farmers fled the tyranny of a kingdom, poor refugees
8 Knight and vassal thralls settle as an outpost of a kingdom  
9 Alchemist Guild sponsored a research outpost for expeditions and to trade in relics, lots of guns and cannons and was willing to use salvaged relics
10 Merchants guild seek an outpost and settlers to work
11 Murder hobo shantytown of drunken unhygienic adventurers living like a lawless frontier mining town 
12 Bandits with prices on head escaped from law and now here to enjoy lawlessness
13 
Robber knight establishes a camp in a secret cave to operate and support banditry
14 Monks have come to build isolated temple far from civilisation and easy living
15 Child crusaders trying to eke out an existence since they can't fight yet
16 Thieves guild seeks to set up a racket here with legitimate trade and services to bring in cashed-up victims
17 Assasins pretend to be a common village to hide a secret isolated training camp
18 Healer cult here to build a hospital to cure disease and treat mutants
19 University outpost with library and schools for scholar expeditions and research into ancients
20  Wild hairy naked folk and druid leaders here to restore nature and kill enemies of life, grow buildings and chariots and wear leaves

d20 Weird Settlers in the Wasteland
Cave folk from underland com to surface to escape enemies but like hunting here
2 Reptilians here to slay enemies of life with dinosaur farm animals, awoke from ancient hibernation and know strange magic
3 Halflings scavengers build wonderful burrows in trash heaps and decorate and dress in the style of the ancients
4 Elves here to help restore and expand woodlands to engulf the wastes
5 Dwarves here after scrap and magic metal some evil ones want slaves or human meat, also to prevent certain powers from getting into human hands
6 Orcs soldiers d4 1=barbarian raiders 2=Black Sphere outpost 3=mercenaries 4=controlled by wizard
7 Goblinoids have grown a spectacular fungus village 
8 Hyena folk have come to eat corpses and some joined the Black Sphere for the uniforms and canned meat
9 Frog folk have been tactically expanding and trading around waterways dealing drugs and spawning secret stockpiles of tadpoles for a future army 
10 Giant kin colony from mountains d4 1=ogres 2=trolls 3=hill giants 4=cyclops
11 Gnomes from underland here to explore surface world, loot scrap and trade. Have excellent tech skills, guns and automatons
12 Shapeshifters d4 1=spirit animal folk in human form 2=doppelgangers 3=lycanthropes 4=planar beings
13 Mixed bug folk village where they play music and unite against frog raiders
14 Stranded moon goblinoids living near remains of crystal citadel they flew through the stars, poorly adapted to life in wastes but many psionic and have wands
15 Goat folk raiders here to kill and worship demons
16 Formarian chaos mutant giants who erect a pit of filth to wallow in together
17 Amazons of law here to destroy enemies and keep the universe preserved from entropy, parthenogenic warrior women build walled settlements and temple
18 Sorcerer cult pleasure dome where the cult serves masters luxury, they identify magic for money and buy select items as well as deal in vice like drugs, sex and gambling 
19 Rat folk colony here to spread disease and undermine human efforts at civilisation
20 Plague necro mutants with rotting flesh and open weeping wounds, here as refugees to this promised land, worship a plague demon 

d12 Old Settlers
also could be used for older settlements or past inhabitants of a village
1 Mutant gang living as scavengers often killed or driven off
2 Scavenger gang used this as a campsite
3 Inbred mutant clan of hillfolk degenerates, might be devolved into monsters 
4 Human farming settlers hunted by by slavers
5 Druidic project to heal soil and grow some plant matter benefiting future farmers
6 Cultists lived here and most of their cult graffiti has been covered
7 Orcs lived here since the apocalypse, ancestors served the Black Sphere and they use muskets
8 Abhuman beast folk here as ancestors served the Black Sphere now live as barbarians punishing wizards for creating and enslaving monsters
9 Ghoul gang or other undead were here so ruins untouched by scavengers
10 Evil wizard and mercenaries possibly in a tower or dungeon lived here before angry mob killed the wizard and the soldiers fled
11 Outpost of alchemists looking for magic and machines d4 1=want to join the black sphere 2=want secret powers of black sphere 3=salvaging materials for guild 4=guild outpost seeking materials and influence by teaching
12 Outpost of the Black Sphere or their enemy allied forces, often forgotten mission and don't care about the final war

d12 What is so good about this spot?
roll a d4 of these
1 Unpolluted subterranean water well
2 Natural defensive spot, improved with some walls and earth walls
3 Natural caves or ancient tunnels below for shelter and storage
4 Deposits of scrap and junk of the ancients or even a haunted battlefield
5 Defendable ruins with a stockpile of goods were here
6 Traders and scrappers camping at a ruin mostly for shelter at first, on trade routes 
7 Occupied a preexisting already built village just abandoned
8 Friendly local non-human tribe have villager's backs and vice versa
9 Patch of solid where life grows where druids worked the land a generation ago
10 Ruin with a stockpile of guns and ammo 
11 Ruin with working golems performing labour-saving miracles
12 Ruin with a strange artefact locals experiment with as a defence or worth money

d10 Problem Types
1 Enemies
2 Monsters
3 Neighbors
4 Water
5 Pollution
6 Food
7 Remnants
8 Curses
9 Local pest
10 Big troubles

d100 Recent Problems
01 Hostile tribes have been preying upon the village and claiming village land
02 Bandits have been robbing anyone trying to travel in the area
03 A cruel robber knight and his band have been robbing and murdering settlers
04 Unknown humanoids have been spying on the village and leaving trails
05 Unknown humanoids have been leaving traps in the area
06 Mysterious riders have been scouting the area
07 Someone murdered a group of locals and survivors want justice
08 Someone has been shooting at our livestock and animals
09 A campsite nearby is a regular gathering place for mutant supremacist gangs
10 Enemy locals threw the severed heads of missing people into village street and fled
11 A fearsome creature stalks the village at night and nobody has seen it
12 A creature has moved into a local cave and it has taken livestock
13 A fearsome mutant animal has been harassing and wounding our hunters
14 A beast has snatched a child and run into the ruins
15 Burrows have appeared of some creatures and they go into ancient tunnels
16 Local water source has been attracting a creature
17 Seasonal migration of creatures has village barricading houses to prepare
18 Shepherd was attacked by a creature
19 Monsterous faeces found near houses has people alarmed
20 Undead walk the village by night 
21 Mutants living in waste claim this land as theirs first and want to move in 
22 Gang of thugs possibly murder hobo adventurers have been acting like animals and have camped nearby and visited the village
23 Miners nearby are drunks and violent and sometimes come into town and believe they are charming and desirable
24 Clan of mutant inbred hill folk nearby keep offering marriages to us and we are not interested and they are visiting more and bringing us dead possums and other gifts and we don't like it
25 Cultists meet at a ruin and weird lights, howls and screams are often heard from them and it scares the dogs
26 Orc barbarians keep wanting to have a inter-tribal feast and games and eat burned meat with us and their strange olives, beans and melons
27 Barbarian warband has a camp with a wooden wall and they make lots of noises in their berserk rituals. Some people think they might be were beast monsters
28 A small settlement in a secure ruin worship a beast that lives in their basement and people say it causes bad dreams in the region
29 Dark druids have camped and have been chanting and planting strange seeds. Are their fruits fair or foul? They also have animal pets and spies
30 Chaos-worshiping mutants live near and they keep to themselves but their chaos spawn pit attracts or perhaps even creates monsters. Monsters don't bother the cult but cause trouble elsewhere. Their Shaman said as long as we fought the black circle cult they won't bother us
31 A monster from the depths is using water as a lair to snatch creatures from the surface
32 Local water source is guarded by a monster possibly an elemental one
33 A local water source has a water nymph tainted by pollution some say she needs help or is now a monster. Could be dangerous or a chance to have a powerful ally
34 A wizard came and suggested if we joined the elemental water cult we would always have safe water. The wizard came once again and may come again with a final offer 
35 A nearby spring is actually a buried magic urn, if the village could secure it they would control safe water forever. Some spirit protects it they say
36 We need someone to explore upstream in the rough terrain
37 We need to hunt out a dangerous aquatic beast in the area to make waters safe to use (d4 1=giant salamanders 2=hippopotamus 3=giant water lizards 4=giant toads
38 There is an underground cistern we could use but it might be haunted or have a monster in it and people are too scared
39 Recently discovered there is an underground hot spring full of naked degenerate mutants wallowing under the village!
40 Locals have been building a dam wall to keep more water in the area but someone keeps damaging the wall
41 Village upstream has started a tanning industry and poisoning water
42 Water weirds are seasonal problems from alchemical taint in groundwater rising in the mud season
43 Locals have started to become mutants from tainted water and alchemical waste. This helps many chaos and demon cults
44 A toxic mineral spring has a cave and strange miasmas have been coming from it recently making people sick
45 Local pool turns out to be full of dozens of skeletons and to have an evil miasma around it. Local priest wants to remove and bury the remains and clean out the pool with locals, which could purify the water
46 Tainted water from this toxic spring needs to be sealed to stop polluting the good water. Some monster seems to like the bad spring
47 Steel drums of alchemical waste need to be removed from a body of water as it is mutating pond life and causing gigantism 
48 Some of the locals are addicted to licking the weird-coloured crystals that grow from the alchemy-tainted soils. Addicts develop signs like loss of colour, glowing eyes and moaning
49 Farmer has drums of ancient insecticide and druids came and burned him and took over his farm. Everyone is afraid and wonders what other ancient stuff the druids don't like
50 A cave nearby from underland has had clouds of magic spores come from the deep and some grow to titanic size and overgrown the landscape. Attract giant bugs and worm and then goblins and frog folk so we want to seal the cave but now it has dangerous creatures around it
51 Crops are terrible and we have heard old farmers used to grow bog melons, trench beets, giant parsnips, more carrots, stink cabbage and other crops. If only we could get some seeds or learn from those mutant inbred farm clans
52 A creature has burrowed into our storage and we are uncertain of to store it now and there are other holes in the village
53 Villagers antique plough golem requires some parts and knows of a farmer supply centre of the ancients. If only we were brave enough. Any other tractor golem accessories would be good too
54 A cult has been selling human meat products in pies, sausages, jerky and bacon and its pretty creepy so many are peddling it in the area
55 There is a cache of ancient canned food from years in this shelter but an automaton guards it
56 Strange giant vegetables have been growing but some grew faces and limbs and ran away into the waste. Some have got seven feet tall!
57 We grew these strange seeds a tinkerer sold us and now giant plants are walking around and scaring the children. They have grown new features recently
58 A great monster attacked our storehouse and seemed to ignore us
59 Bandits came and took all our food and seed and tools and livestock
60 Some spirit or witch has been tainting our food to drive us mad and give up
61 Strange metallic structure in a crater in crater d4 1=bomb 2=aircraft tail 3=ruined tank 4=psionic antenna array can influence dreams and cause mental mutations
62 Ancient bomb or rocket in a crater some worry might explode
63 Tail of an aircraft mostly buried under mud might have intact ancient treasure inside
64 Ruined hulk of a tank-golem sometimes moves on own leaving tracks
65 A ruined building has a mighty vault locals cant open
66 Found a robot and now it is in a temple where it flashes eyes to say yes or no to questions. The robot oracle seems to be getting weaker
67 Metal frame of a crashed airship locals want to turn into a building but something is living in it
68 Obedient skeleton servants we found in a basement but seem to creep out visitors so building a large undead sweatshop 
69 Village has a war golem mech defending it but recently it has been a bit erratic and we need to find a mechanism wizard to mend the robot
70 Villagers sealed underground tunnels crawling with undead mutants
71 Witches cursed our livestock look at them!
72 Had to to kill some mutants crawling around trying to spread their taint
73 A stone floating head visits demanding grain and crops in return it gives ammunition
74 Evil duplicates of villagers have been seen up to trouble
75 Strange voices from the dark offer people their wildest dreams
76 The village is haunted but not a very big ghost and they manage to live with the invisible pest
77 A mischievous bog sprite has been performing pranks because someone offended it
78 A bridge has a troll hiding under it demanding food to pass
79 A mutant witch has been tainting newborns with mutations, people are pretty sure its true
80 A druid offered to restore the soil but demanded all swear to worship nature for continued aid. They have been repairing the cursed land a few plots a year
81 Local convinced cuts run rampant and want town to act, if they want might hire some strangers or lead an angry mob
82 Village idiot keeps bringing unexploded bombs home
83 Villager dealing drugs with frog folk and supplying to youths
84 Lone cultist among them recently lest some hints a cultist is in town
85 Villager is a spy for a foreign crown and kills rival spies passing through
86 Villager is a ranger reporting to the guild if cultists or supernatural beings is active in the area, strange straw dolls are found in the woods daily
87 Incompetent civic officials have made many mistakes and set back the community
88 Priest seems unusual and out of touch with the values of people
89 Matchmaker will help people get married like it will stop a fire
90 Gossip spreads everyone's secrets and speculates wildly about strangers
91 Haunted house or witch house locals fear
92 Local dungeon complex nearby
93 Shapeshifters secretly among people stir up trouble with other non humans
94 A relic here attracts cults, monsters and factions to claim it
95 Village has multiple competing cults fighting for influence and control
96 A warband leader or bandit chief is uniting misfits to rob and plunder to become a warlord. The villagers see this but the crown won't take it seriously. The village is fortified and does daily combat drills and target practice. Perhaps the leader offers a deal 
97 Dragons fly overhead sometimes and its a bit scary
98 A flying machine has been seen in the area, surely the end times are coming
99 Holy prophet came here and and warned the final act of the Apocalypse war starting. Locals are a bit gloomy but keep the prophet in a shrine as he seems to be dying uttering prophecies and visions and won't stop
100 Local villagers found a portal in a ruin and first it was a good way to throw out nasty stuff like sacks of salt, sewerage, unexploded bombs and drums of alchemical materials polluting the land. This was sweet but now strange intelligent beings have come out of the portal and they seemed angry

2 comments:

  1. Excellent. Only thing I always need extra to this, are defensive capabilities/methods/avaialvle troops. Obviously can do this myself, but I think it would make for an interesting set of sub-tables.

    But yeah, great.

    ReplyDelete

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