Tuesday 9 May 2023

Hex Crawl 23 #128: Antelopes of the Desert

Six hexes north, one northwest of Alakran.

 

This hex is the center of a population of antelopes. With a range of 2 hexes in the encounter system, this represents a number of herds of 10-20 animals ranging over a 50 mile diameter, or if you will, a near-inexhaustible supply of game animals in a habitat. The antelopes can of course be sought out through hunting if food supplies are needed (but they seldom are in 5th edition D&D if a druid or cleric is around).

In this part of the world, antelopes are more than just wild game. Many and diverse are the breeds of antelopes domesticated over many thousands of years in Urighem and its vassal lands. Horses, though well suited to gloomy northern climes, have a signal disadvantage in the dry lands: they will bolt at the scent of camels. Antelopes have no such fear. As well, their skittishness and penchant for leaping over fences have been bred out. They drink and eat more efficiently than horses, and can run faster in short bursts, with less stamina in the long haul. The disadvantage of slight build in the wild strains has been compensated by breeding for power in the tame.

However, the particular kind of antelope in this encounter region represents the undomesticated species of  addax -- white coated in the summer, brown in the winter, with black backward-spiraling horns.

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More information on the domesticated breeds will be forthcoming in future antelope encounters, or perhaps in the rosters of the chariot armies that use them.

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