Hex C-1: The ducal hunting grounds. There are many small game trails, and if the party remain here for very long they may find the Duke’s hunting lodge, which is currently locked and unattended. The game in the Duke’s hunting grounds is unnaturally plentiful, plump, and easily killed even by clumsy attacks.
If any of said game is killed by a weapon which does not bear the unique mark of the Duke’s hunting party, then a moment after it falls dead, the animal will rise as an undead creature. With ability it never possessed in life it will begin running with all haste towards the nearest legal official in the Duke’s service, and all the way it will be screaming a physical description of the character who dealt a killing blow to it.
Hunting in the Duke’s forest is a serious crime, punishable by death. Arrest warrants and wanted posters will begin to circulate within a few days, and there will be a significant reward for the perpetrator’s capture. The testimony of undead game is irrefutable under the laws of the duchy, so long as it is able to identify its murderer in court.
Hex C-2: A large Gothic cathedral for which the Duchy was once famous. When the Duke first made contact with Hell, it was offered to the devils as a diabolic embassy, which has been its function for some years now. The Cathedral and its gardens are the sovereign ground of hell, unbound by any of the laws which govern the rest of the duchy. The small village and farmlands surrounding the cathedral have been abandoned. Even the Duke’s most loyal subjects would find it difficult to be within sight of the embassy. To hear the sounds that come from its grounds.
The Cathedral has of course been completely rebranded, with all of its Christian symbols either destroyed or desecrated. Notably in the deepest basements of the building is a massive stone vat—almost a pool. The cathedral’s relics made of precious metals have been embeded into the interior of the vat, and coated in years of diabolic excretions. Papists who fall under the devils powers are often brought here to be drowned. The presence of these precious objects has since been disguised by a foul sludge, but if they were recovered the church would be immensely grateful. (Of course, it would be a great indignity for you to expect payment for returning them. So you may want to find someone else to hand them over to.)
Throughout the interior of the cathedral grows a red, mossy fungus, peppered with black mushrooms. This fungus is alive, and is always listening and watching to everything that goes on within the Cathedral. Intruders are often allowed to think it is merely an inanimate thing, so that a trap can best be set for them wherever they plan to go. The old archbishop’s vestry holds the Fungus’ head, resembling a cow’s skull with crusty yellow eyeballs.
Hex C-3: The party comes upon a large riverboat, about 600 yards from the river. Two weeks ago, during a period of one hour and sixteen minutes when the devils had the legal authority to toll the river, they diverted this ship out of the water, and cursed the crew to experience a shared hallucination that they were all still traveling to their destination. The ship is fully manned by an able crew, and well protected by a number of deck mounted cannons, and a cohort of the Duke’s men. The people on the ship are literally incapable of believing that they are not on the river en route to the port city of Charluir, and they are starting to wonder why it’s taking so long to get there.
What the crew does understand is that for some reason, they are delayed. This is a huge problem, because they’re carrying the pay for the soldiers garrisoning Charluir. In their hold are chests containing 22,530 pieces of silver. The captain will gladly reward anyone who can get them back on course from his own personal funds, as he is worried any delay may cost him his life. However, due to their hallucination, neither he nor his men are willing to leave the ship.
Of course, piracy will be met with all due force.
Hex C-4: The Raison family are small hold subsistence farmers who grow a variety of vegetables on their plot. There are sweet potatoes, green beans, cabbage, carrots, broccoli, and even a pair of peach trees. They usually get on well enough, but the last few harvests have been poor for them. Last season they even needed to beg some alms from the duke’s ministers to make it. This year they were relieved to see their yield coming in strong.
But something isn’t right. Their sweet potatoes have literal eyes, which glare with absolute loathing at the family. The green beans taste like vomit, and if you manage to choke one down, your excretions will become animate and run off in the night. The cabbage leaves are razor sharp, and the carrots are too hot to touch. The peaches are the worst, sprouting toothy, oversiezd mouths. They shout insults and obscenities at anyone near them, and seem to know things that they cannot know.
The Broccoli is unchanged.
If left alone, the green bean poops will come to take the peaches around to all the other vegetables, which they will eat. Once all are eaten, the peach and poop become a monster.
Hex C-5: Goats are the lowest order of Devils. They live among us as informants, subtle temptors, and occasional saboteurs. They chafe under their restrictive existence of living as mere animals among mankind, but laws must be obeyed. At least until you find a loophole. And the rats nest of laws in the duchy has created nothing if not an endlessly exploitable number of loopholes.
So long as they act unanimously in groups of 10 or more, Goats in the duchy are free to speak and act of their own accord. (So, of course, this bunch has elected a leader, and all agree with her without any dissent, lest they lose this opportunity). Votes are frequent, but never is a dissenting voice heard.
Their plan is to win as many souls for the minor devil Xulmaruk as they can. Xulmaruk is among the weakest of the demon lords, but if they can win enough souls for him for him to take notice, then perhaps he will regard them as useful servants and take them into his direct employ, serving in a greater capacity than goats are normally allowed. In this pursuit this herd will do whatever they have to, so long as it does not disrupt the many loopholes they are currently exploiting.
All goats speak with the voice of James Earl Jones.
Hex C-6: A crudely built castle, nestled near the base of a mountain. The residents built this in imitation of the castles they’d seen in the valleys, without any of the expertise that would normally be required. Behind the castle wall is the entrance to a deep cave complex, which served as the original home of the residents. A number of wattle and daub huts have begin to spread outside the castle walls as well, as this population expands.
The residents here are men who wear paint and furs. Their dicks swing down freely between their knees. This might seem unwieldly to some, but it doesn’t bother them any more than a tail bothers a fox. When these men become agitated, they become erect, and their erect phallus is a truly a thing to behold.
It’s an average of six feet long, with the toughness of a sturdy birch shaft. The head of the penis, already unusually angled, becomes dangerously sharp when fully engorged. The speardick men use their tallywhackers as thrusting spears, dealing 1d8 damage on a successful hit. Once battle is ended, they put away their weapons by vigorously fucking the last wound they put into their foe.
The speardick men are disdainful towards sex. They view it as “The joy of battle, without the honor.” But they do recognize it as a necessary evil. Something to be undertaken as a duty, with a proper amount of stoic lamentation before and after. The tribe has a treaty with the Acidtit women which goes back as long as anyone can remember. The speardick men travel to the acidtit women in small groups to mate, and when they leave they take any newborn Speardick boys with them.
The mating of these two groups used to be an annual affair, which frustrated the Acidtit women’s desire to bear ever more children. Through a bit of coordinated bedroom talk they’ve gradually convinced the Speardick men that more frequent meetings will only strengthen both tribes, as their numbers continue to swell.
Hex C-7: The Grove of Anti-Eden. A verdant paradise surrounded by a wrought iron fence that glows red with heat. Only the gate can be touched without harm, and anyone who wishes may pass through the gate freely in either direction.
While within the grove, people lose all concept of good, evil, morality, or good judgement of any kind. It is a den of decadence and sin: indiscriminate orgies, endless feasts, gambling, no work, no worship, no obligations. It is a hedonistic paradise. A devil standing near the gate (in the closet thing to friendly looking human form that a devil can manage) makes sure everyone is fully informed that those who enter will lose their sense of right and wrong in exchange for unfettered access to all the pleasures they can imagine. Most folks don’t care. They convince themselves they’ll leave before they die, but few people can muster the willpower to do so. Think of the grove as a sort of “sell your soul to the devil” area effect.
Players who enter do not control their characters. They must describe their objective, and upon entering they must make a saving throw versus Magic. On failure they will want to spend the rest of their days engaging in the pleasures here and won’t leave of their own volition. If they succeed on their saving throw, then they manage to muster the willpower to leave. However, what they accomplish is determined by rolling a d6.
1. You really just forget about your goal and engage with the sin for awhile. Pick one of the 7 deadly sins that fits, or randomly determine one. You spend 1d8 days doing that before you manage to wander your way back out. Something good comes of it. (You come out with something cool, you’ve got some new friends, etc)
2. You spend 1d4 days wallowing n sin, and you manage to half complete your goal. If you go in again, and manage to escape a second time, you get to roll on this table with a cumulative +1.
3. You spend 1d4 days wallowing in sin, but escape with your goal mostly completed. However, you did forget one little thing. It’s something that’s not really worth going back for, but damn it’s going to be annoying without it.
4. You spend 1d5 days wallowing in sin, but escape with your goal entirely completed. However, something bad happened to you in there. Maybe you lost an item, or took an injury, or just have a really nasty hangover. Determine a 7 deadly sin, and fiat some consequence based on that.
5. You spend 1d12 hours wallowing in sin, but you escape with your goal totally completed.
6. You zip in, zip out, goal complete. No fuss, no muss.
Regardless of the result, the referee is at full liberty to describe the manner in which the PC comported themselves within the grove.