My response to the Lewis and Clark thread got me thinking about my post Enemy Within adventure.

I think it will be an adaptation of Paizo's "River of Darkness" with the idea the PC are sent to investigate the Southlands Expedition's path/true fate, perhaps with a secret mission to return a sacred plaque (a high elven loremaster knowing it's actually not a good idea to take those away from the lizard folk, they can get quite determined about recovering them and the increasing activity of their strange masters suggests not provoking them).

Canon information on the Southlands is a little sparse (e.g., lexicarnum's entry pretty much sums it up). It's "fantasy Africa", has greenskins and savage humans, had elf outposts at one point, has skaven (Plaguelords) and of course has lizardmen and Slann isolated from their Lustrian kin and not as numerous but more exotic in some ways.

Unlike Lustria it was not warped by the Slann to be "a jungle deathtrap for invaders", it's just the "regularly deadly jungle" (Africa was pretty rough on European explorers).

Where the Paizo adventure has "savage elves" as the "danger that is also potentially sympathetic, can be negotiated with", I think I will use "savage halflings" (the drums say there will be fresh meat in the pies tonight), and where it has a magically powered steam-paddleboat I think I will simply use a dwarf-engineering paddleboat with dwarf-steam tech.

Has anyone got any particular ideas to suggest, sources to use, critters they have homebrewed or adapted to WFRP3 for jungles etc.?

There was a couple of Fan made articles for general Lizard men on the Black industries website for 2nd edition, otherwise your right that south lands info is sparce.

There is a famous lost Dwarf hold there somewhere I know, The High Elves have the Citidel of Dusk (name from memory so could be wrong) but thats not really absorbed by the south lands Jungle and they use it for patrols and trade. The lizard men there are more feral for the most part but there are some very powerful Slann who are cut off from there Lustrian peers. There will be some Arabic ruins buried/lost to the jungle and I would expect the undead to raid for lost magic items.

The Dwarf hold is believed lost to Chaos though as the South Chaos Wastes spill into the south lands, and Zaltan one of the most powerful Lizardmen temples was destroyed whien its high priest got possessed.

Ive actually just found a boat load of files by Mad Alfred and various other 1st&2nd 3ed sources if you want I can email you some. Just drop me a pm (or you might wait a while as I check the forums only once a week or fortnight)

crimsonsun

GW recently put out a campaign in lustria in a thin booklet. I'll look and see if I can find it. I TOO was thinking about doing something like this. In the meantime here's a fan book I found: http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?357714-The-Conquest-of-Lustria-full-pdf-campaign

http://warhammerscenarios.net/tag/lustria/

[EDIT: T HIS IS WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT..THIS LITTLE BOOKLET HERE:

[Edit: Handy Supplemental References for Lustria or Southlands WFRP Campaigns:

Warhammer Fantasy Battles Products/Supplements/Fan-Projects:

• Conquest of the Newo World (Zombie Pirates) - A Warhammer Campaign Supplement PResented by White Dwarf (see picture above)
  
• Lustria - Armybook
  
• Lustria - Cities of Gold
  
• The Conquest of Lustria (fan book): http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?357714-The-Conquest-of-Lustria-full-pdf-campaign
  
• http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?505937-WFRP-Lustria-resources-amp-campaign-ideas
  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sotek

jh

I think we should put together a handy reference summary for this type of thing, so I'll probably keep amending my above post.

Anyone wishing to do a Southlands Expedition campaign, will have some place to look

jh

Thanks for thoughts.

So far the old Children of the Old Ones 1 and 2 has been most useful, with some dabbling in various WFB sources.

Heat and Humidity effects generally (using existing weather ideas for WFRP, e.g., wearing armour brings on heat stroke as higher of its Soak or Def becomes Fatigue on a chaos star).

Need lizardmen - using orcs (saurus) and goblins (skinks) as starting points with some mods and different actions and special qualities added (e.g., cold minds +1 Challenge die to target WP, skinks have poisonous blowgun darts ec.).

Horned Ones in Southlands are modified Cold Ones (not stupid).

Lastly as "something new" and inspired by a macguffin in the River Into Darkness paizo adventure I'm adapting, I'm thinking of an organic waystone substitute that the Southlands Slann propagated.

What do you think of a moss that grows on trees and 'infects them' turning them into weak waystones that preform the "capture loose winds and ground them into geomantic web" function. To stop it being meddled with it's highly poisonous and releases toxic spores if disturbed. Indirectly the wood of the trees absorbs energy and becomes an intense fuel - better than coal. Which leads us to dwarf steam-tech and its needs......

Adding, the "infection" could be a sort of "petrification" (on theory stone is needed) which like coal being organic in origin does create a "super coal" as well.

This reminded me of something I had read in the Beasts of Chaos army book for the last version of WFB (from 2003, I think - not sure which edition of the game it's from). Under the heading "Beastmen outside the Old World" on page 16:

"In the Old World there is little known of the mysterious wilderness beyond Araby, which is known simply as the Southlands. It is known to the most erudite Old World scholars that as well as Humans the Southlands are home to species of large apes, animals which closely resemble primitive humanoids. Some of these are highly organised and intelligent, and use tools, weapons and cunning in attacks on the other inhabitants of the jungles. When the Lizardmen or Goblins pursue them, they vanish into the canopies of tge great rainforests. At what point the ape ends and the Beastman begins is never clear, and the uncertainty of whether a creature is staring back at the traveller with animal curiosity or savage Chaos-bred malice makes the jungles even more treacherous and disconcerting."

That might fuel your imagination.

Hi,

I was putting together a little chapter for a post TEW adventure too, based on hunting down something that agents of the Conspiracy were looking for but failed to find... this time.

Some of the local critters I am considering are:

• A maneating plant that fires tranquilising/paralysing spores before sending semi prehensile roots to tie the incapacitated victim to the jungle floor for slow digestion.
• Noisy monkeys that throw poop at the pcs during the day, then howl all night keeping them awake and disrupting their rest and recovery.
• Some parasitic nasty. Thinkin something like a really big Botfly. Lands, stabs you with its impregnation thingy, flies off and lets a hungry grub start eating you from the inside. If left untreated two months later a six inch flying wasp erupts from the pc's flesh causing critical wounds and a whole load of stress.
• Clouds of mosquitoes that cause various disease tests for infections outside of the old worlders experience.
• Some kind of cute jungle cat that follows them around. Harmless but hopefully they will be too paranoid to trust anything by then!

Thanks to both of you, nice stuff.

I'll have to look into that book, I've got it "on the agenda" to review greenskin, beastman etc. sources for Southlands references.

Intelligent apes, hmmm - now that has a some Lovecraft/lost world potential. In the Old World, intelligent races are either the work of the Old Ones, the odd (and usually deadly) survivor of the "original pre Old One world", or the work of Chaos.

I've been thinking about adapting a couple of D&D plant monsters giving them a Ken Hite/cthulhish/alien tone if I can, Yellow Musk Creepers.

Mosquito Swarm is an interesting idea - an annoyance (stress) in immediate sense, a disease (sleeping sickness) in the long run.

There's only one thing that strikes fear into the hearts of dwarfs: RUST MONSTERS! Ok, so yea, it's D&D..make something like that

Some Old One tech based on this:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/24/tech/touch-display-projected-on-mist/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Would be neat too - in hot climate mist everywhere, the "interactivity" easily tricking someone into thinking this is more than a simple "image" and believing it to be a ghost or spirit etc.

So a voyage to Southlands from Marienburg is the first thing.

Any thoughts on the following -

It looks like the route travels along the coast of Bretonnia, across approx 500 miles of ocean to the northern coast of Araby and then along that coast to the Gulf of Medes. It is a dangerous route, particularly along the Araby coast as pirates and slavers are numerous in these waters (not for nothing is the Bay of Corsairs so named). The overall journey looks to be something like 4000 miles (using Antwerp to Gana as a template) and with layovers and other lost time I am eyeballing that at perhaps 9 old world weeks (a bit over 10 7 day weeks).

For all these reasons, having an elf navigator is indeed a great value (between their knowledge generally and the fact they may have several human lifetimes of experience).

Using adjusted Travel rules from Enemy Within - for those unfamiliar I like giving each player ra check to make on each leg of journey.

The legs of the trip are First Leg, the Brettonia Coast and Tilea (2D check), Second Leg The Great Ocean and Arabyan Cost (the Pirate Coast and Gulf of Corsairs) (3D check), Third Leg The Desert Coast and the Gulf of Medes (2D check).

- It's the middle bit that is the most dangerous.

Reviewing the skill list it seems to me the skills to Skills to Test on Naval Voyage are:

Athletics (climbing rigging, hauling cables, holding the tiller in storm) Str

Coordination (keeping balance on deck in storm, dealing with knots and ropes) Ag

Folklore (sea creatures) Int

Leadership (logistics rationing food, water and rum) [key skill for a Captain] Fel

Observation (navigational hazards, hostile vessels, sea creatures) [key skill for a Navigator] Int

Resilience (to get sea legs and remove Queasy condition) To

Education (speaking Tilean, Bretonnian, Arabyan in dealing with encounters, btw I let each rank of training in Education be one additional language understood and otherwise any training includes some languages knowledge allowing checks with more difficulty the more exotic the language) Int

So I would make each leg have four roles for PC's to fill with checks from among: Observation/Education/Folklore; Athletics; Coordination; Leadership.

Everyone checks Resilience 1D at start of leg of trip to see if they have their sea legs (if having no history of sailing etc.), failure means Queasy . Recheck at start of next leg.

Unlike coach driving (one coachman test is critical) I think I will use the Hero's Call idea for ship test of letting each player's check put dice into the a "ship dice pool". Success put a blue die into ship pool, triple success you can put a stance die of type you rolled into pool, boons let a fortune die be added. The captain and navigator each add starting dice to pool though some encounters etc may threaten those dice (is the captain hitting the bottle today etc.)

By the way, 2nd edition material notes there are no compasses in the Old World. Navigation is by landmark and stars and by "dead reckoning". The Players Guide mentions sextants which are actually an 18th century invention - I would let Ulthuan's elves have such things but they would guard the secrets of their use. Astrolabes would be more commonly used by human sailors.

Has anyone done any more thinking about sea voyages in 3rd edition?

In the GMs guide in the core set, there is a suggestion for environmental hazards rolling a purple..with chart effects. I would add that too.

Our only sea voyages were from Hargendorf in the north until they crashed in the Marienburg wastes and then traveled south.

jh

Good point thanks, re GM guide. I've been making lists of things that can go wrong etc. (though should also have a few things that go right) I have a couple of "fantasy navel supplements" from d20 to check. So far not planning on any significant 'adventure' along the way but might throw in an "Episode".

Gulf of Medes is getting rather equatorial so apart from climate that means weak winds of magic. Don't want to beat up my wizard PC too much. I think spell casting is unchanged, its channelling to get power that suffers. A nice wand or other storage device might offset that a bit. He's a bright wizard and if any wind is thematically appropriate to hot climate it could be Azyr.

In adapting the Paizo adventure, I need to create a merchant consortium that has a trading outpost and is operating a small mine. Any reason an Estalian one wouldn't work, Miragliano Company of Merchant Venturers? My first instinct was an imperial one but really wouldn't Estalia be just as likely to have operations down there?

Make sure you read Fell Cargo. Let me know if you don't have it and I'll get it to you.

Nope I haven't got it, would like to - so many WF books out of print!

check

So, I read it while stuck in Sioux Falls, South Dakota this past summer. You'll come up with PLENTY of ideas post that.

Also, check out A J Bateman's Tilea 2e product. There is a BOAT-load of information in there

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CDQQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.liberfanatica.net%2FTilea_Estalia%2FThe_Thousand_Islas.pdf&ei=Jg-9UtLoGIqA2wX8wYG4AQ&usg=AFQjCNFmgvT5Gg8M-rfaV5DhZfm7Z94Q8A&sig2=_IyQb2fd24rWKDL_tZl5WA&bvm=bv.58187178,d.b2I

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCwQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.liberfanatica.net%2FTilea_Estalia%2FSpears_of_Maiden_Colour.pdf&ei=Jg-9UtLoGIqA2wX8wYG4AQ&usg=AFQjCNHi67ZmN4nfE8JXqtFhTnos4FCUGw&sig2=UY6-jz-5_OGu-XeCZH9Dxg&bvm=bv.58187178,d.b2I

I've continued to putter on this and found some information on Sudenberg or Leopoldheim, the penal colony on Gulf of Medes that makes it make more sense than one at first thinks (combination folly, swindle, sop to Shallyans political manoeuvre etc.)

I will combine it with the "Bloodcove" of Paizo's adventure. It really should be further south and much closer to jungle than the maps that float around show it as (and thus further way from Arabyan territory).

I've also better sourced sailing time (found a table of actual distances sailed in ships of 17th century), it would be more like 28 days.

If anyone wants to review any of my work and give some thoughts back I'm happy to share it though at this point it's very rough. I figure that's more efficient than clogging this thread up with detailed posts unless folks want those here.

I should add, if he survives, there is a good chance that for his shame of having a Black Cowl agent as lieutenant, my Captain Baerfaust will be "rewarded" with a promotion to Governor the Imperial Colony of Sudenberg. Hee hee hee. (Tzeentch is pleased, an able man sidetracked).

So Baerfaust not heading to Sudenland yet (the dice and PC actions) but continued puttering.

http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=14225

Some interesting mind control ideas here that like the "mist holographs" above would be fun as Slann super-science-magic.

'Flash' you all wake up unsure of where you have been the last few hours...

Some of these techniques might have been used to "program" lizard men as they emerge from spawning pools with their requisite knowledge, skills, unquestioning loyalties etc. A human "accidentally exposed" might "know some things but also have an urge to obey, destroy interlopers - and just generally be unbalanced with the alien information etc.", hee hee hee.

More inspiration could come from the sources that inspire all such adventures:

"The Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad

The movie "Apocalypse Now" is loosely based on the book as well.

Moreso than D&D, WFRP could really shine with handling the metaphoric journey into the heart of darkness: Mans own fall into darkness. Corruption awaits!

That is part of what I like doing - not always having it be Ruinous Powers, Vampires/Necromancers, Dark Elves and Greenskins/Beastmen/Skaven. Though still having those bobbing about because they are fun and good adrenaline boosters.

The Paizo adventure is pretty clearly "heart of darkness" inspired in more than just the title (mercantile operation ruthlessly exploiting the natives) though it plays with that lots and doesn't have a "Kurtz" figure. That becomes the mysterious northerner who survived the first Southlands expediction.

Thanks for post, has me thinking "needs me a forest of sticks with heads on 'em"! And it gives me the final words for the NPC..... "the horror...". Now if that's not a final utterance for a WRFP character what is?

This might be too obvious...but I think the Southlands would HAVE to have some dinosaurs!!!

Actually, I don't think the Southlands has dinosaurs. They are strictly Lustria. I could be wrong and stand to be corrected, but the lizard folk of Southlands don't get dino-mounts though a variant of cold one they do have.

if you are looking for inspiration for a Lustria campaign, many many years ago someone called Royston Crow created a WFRP1e campaign. Fairly recently all of the parts were recovered and are now hosted over at...

http://www.grognard.org.uk/Scenario/Royston%20Crows%20Lustria/

hopefully this will help

Cool, thanks for digging that up.

A "de-nogginizer" trap - love WFRP humour.