Thurstle Island: Introduction

Sketch, my own.

My usual 5e game has been on hiatus during pandemic lock down and so I've been running Mork Borg online (Tuesdays @ 7:30 Eastern, let me know if you'd like to join). It's been a lot of fun, but it started as a one-shot and so follow-up sessions have been a scramble each week to prep a handful of funhouse encounters and puzzle monsters with little over-arching story.

There's a campaign I've had kicking around in my head for six or eight months and I think that after a few more sessions of Mork Borg, my online crew might be ready for a shift to a regular campaign.

The campaign will take place on an island. I'm aiming for a manageable, self-contained area with a few dungeons, two towns and a sinister forest. It will serve as my first Blob Crawl oriented game.

Long ago, when the Giants were as large as mountains. Woden slew the giant Thurstle and threw their corpse into the sea. Thurstle turned to stone and has been an island ever since. 

EDIT: I will link the pieces below as they are completed.
As you can see on the map above there are six blobs for the main island (not pictured: two sea-zones and a lighthouse outcrop).

Kevin Campbell via Dyson

Cove Town: This will be the main base for the campaign. The central theme of this town will be the simmering cultural clash between the servants of the old Northern gods and more recent colonists from the mainland who venerate the Gothic Church. Largely inspired by Daniel's take on religions conflict in Hommlet. I hope to have PCs aligned to both faiths and navigating the mounting strife between the two factions will be important.

Forest pathcrawl early draft

Old Forest: Occupied by a powerful guardian spirit and a tribe of druids. This blob will be a pathcrawl connecting several parts of the island to each other. Traversing the forest will be very dangerous if the druids are not pacified.

The Lighthouse: The powerful lamp has been dormant for decades. The governor would love to see it lit again and there are others who have designs on the little outpost. However, monsters have infested the structure and its foundational crags. A daring crew could make their name clearing the place out.

City of the Ancients: My take on John Ardent's Black City This will feature lots of alien-tech, shoggoths, shifting gravity and friction-less surfaces. More puzzles than fights. Inspiration from At the Mountains of Madness, Deep Carbon Observatory and the Portal games.

Smugglers Caves: The island's taxes and strict regulations make illicit imports a lucrative trade. The smuggler gang, could be an invaluable ally to PCs who fall afoul of the island's authorities. Alternatively, if the PCs want to hunt the outlaws, their hideout is a small, vertically-oriented dungeon.

Kirkstall Abbey

The Abbey: On a cliff overlooking the town, grim warrior-monks are hard at work on a secret project. Their demands on the town will become increasingly unreasonable. Figuring out what they're up to will require infiltration or a daring heist. Inspired by the Chapel of Lights.

Guaita, San Marino

Crusaders' Fort: Before founding the Abbey, the Templar from the mainland established a military outpost on a hill above Cove town. An earthquake destroyed the stairs up to the fortress and it's abandoned ruin is now believed to be haunted. Explorers will face ghosts and golems but if they prevail, powerful weapons can be found.

Cult Hideout: Though they won't easily admit it to outsiders, a faction broke off from the forest's druids and now serves a dark power. If the PCs prove useful to the druids, their assistance in dealing with the problem may be solicited. Cult agents in Cove Town will be eager to recruit adventurers into their plots.

Sacred Stones

The Wyrm Barrow: Long ago, before men resided on Thurstle, Ulric slew the Twisted Wyrm. With his mighty axe, he hewed apart the dragon's coils and scattered the pieces to islands around the sea. One such piece is restlessly imprisoned beneath a barrow on Thurstle western side. The barrow is the boss-dungeon for the island. Defeating the wyrm will require collecting lore and understanding its origin.