Hex Crawl 23 #94: Dread Gheenatru

 Three hexes north, three northeast of Alakran.

 

The town of Gheenatru had always had a quietly sinister reputation even as it buzzed with life as a commercial hub for the plentiful fruit and nut orchards around it. A valley to the east had been filled with the tombs of high and low alike for an epoch of Urig rule, and the custom continued after that death-revering empire withdrew.

This made Gheenatru the ideal place for clandestine cults of necromancy in the last few hundred years, aided by the kindred interests of the lords of Nathrak over the plain.  When the kingdom of Dulsharna collapsed, the death cults took over, six years ago. Now Gheenatru is the main power center of this group, with a secondary group following the necromancer known as the Embalmer, to the north, in the House of Carnelian Walls.

Today, the custom of the necromancers forbids their corporeal undead from entering the town of Gheenatru proper. It is a human enclave, ruled over by the haunted and increasingly out-of-touch governor Baru-Atam, who made a pact with the necromancers to revive his wife as a specter. The ten or so surviving landowning families form an aristocracy obsessed with fashions and trappings of the grave. Their ballgowns are billowing cerements and their everyday wear is linen wrappings and funerary masks, as they glide about in slave-borne palanquins reeking of attar and myrrh. The common people are mostly grateful to survive and keep their head down. The population of the town is about 1000; there are 50 heavy foot guarding it and 10 armored chariots with 3 men each. 

In the valley of tombs is where the true power lies, the dark academies and experiments led by the arch-necromancer Dandanku. Each of the 13 or so necromancers of level 5 or higher has claimed a spacious tomb, although most of the treasures have been cleared out long ago by robbers, and only the rumored magically concealed tomb sites of the wizard-king Hadash and his descendants are intact. Each necromancer has a retinue of lower-level acolytes, undead slaves and allies, and the occasional demonic creature on loan from the patrons of the cult, the demon-gods Ereshkigal and Nergal. Least in power among these potentates is the dissident necromancer Shargata. She schemes with fellow discontents outside the Valley, and memorably made the acquaintance and uneasy alliance of the Band of Bronze in her cunning quest to revive the dracolich Dragotha.

Hex Crawl 23 #93: Temple and Citadel of Death

 Four hexes north, two northeast of Alakran.

 

More area controlled by the necromantic town-state of Gheenatru.

Here, the farm, orchard, and fortress features are populated semi-randomly as they were in hex #64. The fortress is an old frontier castle built on the highest point of a short ridge that parallels the Shi-Ar river. 

The novel feature is the Akkanti death temple, a cluster of dome-shaped buildings surrounding a large central dome. Fully 50% of encounters based on this 5 mile hex will use the following table of temple denizens rather than the table from hex #64. To determine who is in Akkanti at any given time, roll d4 twice and a d6.

1. Supillabra, level 9 wizard (necromancer), old, shaven and dessicated man, ox skull headdress

2. Vishala, level 5 cleric, plump and dark-eyed woman, bleeding facial sores as a mark of favor, hair done up in a crown

3. Kala, level 3 cleric with 4 level 1 acolytes, all women or male eunuchs and hard to tell who is who, faces painted as skulls, hooded robes

4. Mardum, level 4 fighter (eldritch knight with necromancy spells) and 4 level 1 guards, all in heavy armor with skull masks, battle cart drawn by 4 undead donkeys

5. Runaway sacrificial victim who knows they are to be taken to Nathrak and turned into a super-durable zombie.

6. 2d10 lay cultists of the temple, ordinarily dwelling in another hex of the Gheenatru realm on their way to or from there, with 20 gp of offerings per cultist if going to. Hooded cult robes give an opportunity for victorious enemis to try the ol' disguiseroo trick.

 

Hex Crawl 23 #92: Vultures of Doom

Five hexes north, one northeast of Alakran.

 

This stretch of desert is the home of the judicious and ominous Vultures of Doom. These birds circle lazily in the air, in groups of 2d12, only descending to attack if their group can outclass the foe by 2:1. When they spot two forces about to fight, they gather around, making a wide and curious ring of spectators and hopeful feasters.

Chariot tracks cross this hex from southeast to northwest - from Gheenatru, that is, to the necromantic outpost in Nathrak, where a ritual conducted at the new moon at the altar under the shaft (Caverns of Thracia, area 23) enables longer-lasting zombies, skeletons, and mummies. The newly animated undead are taken back by the same route. So any encounter in a new moon's night in this hex, originating in Nathrak or a Gheenatru settlement, will be with the death wizard Supillabra, three wights, and six heavily armored human guards, all mounted up on two oryx-driven chariots and an ox cart. 12 zombies, 2 more wights, or a mummy (equal chances) will be found in the cart if they are coming back from Nathrak.