Thursday, May 21, 2020

The southwest

I've observed that the southern part of The Shadow Elves is amorphous in the text, and I deemed it unfinished. So let's put some finishing-touches to the best-constrained part, the Losetrel / southern-Dragon sector(s).

For constraint, the north is Core so stays where it is. I further see no need to alter Renathys. I maintain Dunedea and its immediate environs, longitude-wise. Given all that, Dragon Lake has no room to expand north or east; and neither do the Warrens. There's more room west, although I don't want to budge the Desrii bypass which is west enough. Same to the rivers it bypasses.

Southwest has more opportunity. That's the Losetrel cavern. This underlies western Darokin - Akorros, specifically. Losetrel connects to the other elves in three places: Lethowan / Atapian, a Sojourner (flowing from 'neath the Desert), and the Warrens in between. (Also the Sylaros road leads off south, for what that's worth.) So I can't go eraser-happy. But:

I expand Dragon Lake by 2-3 hexes / 20 miles southward (I am vague here), and extend Lethowan / Atapian and the Warrens to fit (I am insistent there). To keep up with the Warrens, I've ceded some hexes in Losetrel's north to them. The Sojourner is a bit longer so Losetrel cavern annexes further east. (Opposite to 1945 Poland...) Losetrel city has moved south and southeast. So the main, naval throughfare shouldn't take much longer. The other routes are supposed to be The Long Way.

The old lake had a bottleneck north of Dunedea and south of Qedain; my expansion expands that width to inconsequence. If the DM wants the bottleneck back, assume shallows north of Dunedea for another hex or two. Overall the dragon turtle will appreciate the extra space to swim in, and the skinwings to fly over.

For the southern shore I've maintained the map's insecurity between the Desert and Dunedea's west. This isn't through the river outflow, where the elves will demand a watergate keep, so is through some "tertiary" passage.

The Warrens has gained enough breathing-room that I considered bending the extra lakefront a hex westward at it, although in the end I'm leaving that up to the DM. Instead I took the liberty to colour-up one "central" hex. I'm not particular about where exactly. This can be the old 900s-BC era Felestyr "union hall", back when the clan was learning to mine as Gelbalf clients. It didn't name itself "Old Alfmyr" but some explorers since have tagged that name to it.

As for the mining cavern west of Losetrel: I'm not disputing that here, but it's on the mapedge for a DM to expand as desired. Likewise if the DM feels like expanding the greenery southwest, although Bethadia Tower should move to wherever the river outflow goes.

No comments:

Post a Comment