the-interior.md

The Interior

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The Interior is the name outsiders give to the trackless blue desert that forms Vaarn's heart. It is a harsh and inhospitable landscape, and has claimed the lives of many travellers over the millennia, but there are peoples and monsters and marvels to be discovered in the vastness. The Interior is traversed by wary trade caravans, terrorised by laughing Cacklemaw warbands, and inhabited by the Faa nomads, to whom this desert is not the Vaarnish Interior but rather the world entire. The deepest deserts also play host to Vaarn’s most spectacular and regal inhabitants: the gigantic sandworms, which strike awe into the hearts of all who are lucky enough to witness them.

The Interior is a land of extremes, where the days are searingly hot, while the desert nights can grow cold enough to induce frostbite. The region receives even less rain than Vaarn’s parched southern badlands, and water is such a precious commodity that to spit upon a Faa nomad is to honor them.

No accurate map has ever been drawn of the Vaarnish Interior: the territory seems to defy rational organisation. This is a place without borders, the horizon between blue sand and blue sky no longer a stark dividing line but rather a molten membrane that swims and drifts woozily in the sun’s wine-red heat, the land making and remaking itself just as a lizard sheds its skin. The blue sands retreat from the wind, revealing structures that have lain dry and deathless and undisturbed for aeons, and then those same restless dunes shroud the ruins once again, before a living soul can name them. This is a country vast and blue, as deep with secrets as the ocean and twice as capricious. No welcome here for adventurers, but rewards might be won amongst the sands that defy human imagination.

Why Would My Players Travel Here?

Simply put, the Interior connects all regions of Vaarn to one another; the quickest route from Gnomon in the south to the Lazul Mountains in the north will always be directly across the sands; likewise a traveller from the Wall who wished to reach Ikor Quag or the Mooncradle Mountains would be obliged to charter a wind-barge and cross the deeps of the desert.

There are also reasons to make the Interior a destination in its own right. Most of Vaarn’s noteworthy ruins and vaults are located in the desert - the vastness and shifting nature of the place allows creative referees to place whatever kind of structure they can imagine in the Interior, without having to further justify its obscurity and isolation. There are also unique cultures that exist predominantly in the desert. Players who wish to locate a certain Faa nomad clan or Lithling scholar will find that they must brave the sandstorms and heatwaves in order to speak with them.

Campaigns that focus on the Interior should revolve around movement, exploration, and discovery. If your players find the trading city Gnomon too claustrophobic, then give them an opportunity to enlist as guards for a merchant’s caravan, or let them come into possession of a small wind-barge and enjoy sailing wherever fate takes them. Other adventure starters in the Interior could include rescuing an important prisoner from a Cacklemaw warband, hunting down a notorious caravan robber in order to collect a bounty, or searching for the ruins of a biotech laboratory in order to discover the cure for a virulent disease.

Desert Cultures

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Faa Nomads

The travelling people of the great blue desolation. The Faa have roamed the desert since the Titans were young (or so their songs say). Generations ago, the ancestors of the Faa bestowed upon their children genetic adaptations to the harsh conditions of the Interior. The most obvious of these changes is their flesh and hair, which have taken on a blue hue that matches the sands of Vaarn. Combined with the blue robes the nomads wear, they can swiftly become almost invisible amongst the azure dunes and rocks. The Faa also boast an impressive modified metabolism that allows them to survive for weeks without taking in fresh water, as their sweat and urine are collected and purified by sub-dermal biomechanisms and recycled into their bodies. Even the eyes of the Faa have been sculpted to survive in the desert: they possess a second set of translucent eyelids, which protect their vision during sandstorms. The nomads are also famously unable to produce tears, another modification that privileges water retention above all.

In truth the Faa are no single culture, but a mosaic of families and clans who share these genetic adaptations and a lingua franca known as the Faatongue. Faa groups are wildly varied in their beliefs and lifestyles. Most are nomadic, but some Faa make permanent homes in the foothills of the mountains or around a valuable water source. Some clans are feared slavers and warriors, but others are sworn to the Pale Faith of Amun-Oh and may harm no living creature. Some Faa are legal citizens of the New Hegemony; other clans are bitter enemies of the true-kin empire. Some Faa ostracise cacogen, synths, and newbeasts, while others welcome them. Faa nomads can be found everywhere in Vaarn, from the shadow of the Great Wall to the markets of Gnomon and the fortress monasteries that speckle the heights of the Lazul Mountains, and in each place there is no concordance on what it means to be Faa.

Perhaps the only true commonality is that all Faa are fiercely independent-minded, and will leave their clan rather than submit to an authority they believe unjust. This may be the reason it is impossible to define what the Faa hold in common - whenever one way of living is pronounced ideal, there will be within that group a minority who instantly declare the opposite, and set out alone to prove it.

The Faa clans of the Interior are known for a deep understanding of sandworm husbandry, and their ability to ride the creatures, as well as methods by which the worms’ growth may be arrested, to prevent them assuming their enormous, aggressive adult shapes. The sandworms have deep religious significance to many Faa, as their secretions are used to brew the valuable psychoactive substance known as Amaranthine Sugar, an enormously potent drug that can awaken extra-sensory perception even in minds that were not born with such gifts.

Cacklemaw

They are newbeasts of a sort, although they disdain masks and seek no approval from humankind. In form the Cacklemaw are hyena-headed women, standing seven feet or more, with three-fingered hands and a terrible strength in their lanky limbs. The oaths that bound them as warriors in service of the Fallen Autarchy are long-since broken and these creatures are a blight upon humanity, killing and abducting at will and mounting daring raids into Hegemony territory. They respect strength alone, and perhaps they would have overrun the Urth by now if it was not for the constant intra-family bloodletting, as younger Cacklemaw challenge their elder sisters for status.

Two things stand out, aside from their love of violence: their mirth and their singular gender. On the first subject, the chronicler Markus of Dulcrest has written that ‘to the Cacklemaw, all waking activity is slaughter that descends into revelry; else it is revelry that descends into slaughter’. The creatures are famed for their screaming laughter, their love of practical jokes, and most of all for the grisly leather puppets they make from the remnants of defeated foes. Their religion is not well-understood, for rites are closed to outsiders, but it is known to revolve around a fool-capped puppet-demoness the Cacklemaw name ‘Grand-Mama Punch’, to whom they devote wild rites of bloodletting and clowning.

On the second subject, much has been written. Some theorise that there is an unseen caste of Cacklemaw males. Others claim the Cacklemaw are surely a clone race, emerging fully-grown from pseudowombs beneath the desert surface. Others still declare the bite of a Cacklemaw to be infectious, and believe human women are bitten by the creatures and painfully transform into new giggling monsters. Vaarnish maidens who laugh too long and too raucously, and are given to drink and loose behaviour, may be accused of having hidden Cacklemaw toothmarks festering on their bodies.

Cacklemaw swear allegiance to War Mamas, but these oaths are not binding and political support is won by the Mama who can best provide her daughters with food, drink, laughter, and violence. At present the dominant War Mamas are Mama Hecklehaw in the trackless Interior, Mama Gloatgrim in the southern badlands, and Mama Yawningfool in the Lazul mountains. Ageing matriarchs Nana Blacklaugh and Nana Rictus command small but devoted cadres of veteran fighters, who respect the older Nanas' tactical nous above the younger Mamas’ savage energy.

Lithling

The Lithling are formed from a mesh of motile crystals, each shard attracted to its neighbours and animated by an energy field far beyond the understanding of Vaarnish scholars. They walk stiffly and ponderously, but have surprisingly dexterous fingers, and are capable of skilful manipulations of brushes, pens, and other delicate objects. They are fed by wavelengths of energy quite invisible to humanity and thus do not breathe, eat, or drink, a quality that makes them masters of the harshest environments imaginable. Lithling scholars have carried out extensive surveys of the toxic landscapes of Ikor Quag, and think nothing of spending years at a time submerged beneath the ocean or the surface of the desert, composing some treatise in their calcified minds.

The lithling life cycle is as alien to humanity as their bloodless bodies. Lithling are grown from a seed, which must crystallise and bloom in a deep bath of alchemical elixirs. After decades of maturation, they are deemed fully-moulded and allowed to awaken, as large and strong as they will ever be. They are inducted into the Lithic Lyceum by their kindred, and instructed in their duties as scholars.

Lithling have a scholarly, enquiring cast of mind, and are endlessly fascinated by the alien world of biological organisms they find themselves marooned on. The Lyceum is devoted to cataloging the minutiae of the natural world, and contains the life’s work of millions of long-dead lithling in its underground archives. Unfortunately, the records of the lithling are often of dubious usefulness to outsiders – their dissertations and essays tend to focus on the minutiae of data and experience while lacking the wider context that a human mind might find meaningful. One celebrated lithling study describes the movements made by generations of land-snails over a hundred year period, with the relative positions of each snail recorded by the second.

Travel Rules

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Travel is an integral element of running game sessions in Vaarn’s Interior. Although many readers will have travel procedures that they are accustomed to using, I felt it might benefit those who feel less confident about running overland travel to learn how I do it in my own Vaarn games.

I don’t make use of detailed breakdowns of every six-mile hex between one destination or another. I use an abstracted system which boils down travel into two resources: travel days and rations. Characters need to spend both in order to make progress.

Travel Days

Vaarn is not well-mapped, and it is not recorded exactly how far one must travel between locations. Distances given by NPCs are approximations, expressed in days: ‘From here it will take five days of travel to reach the circular ruins’, for example. These estimates apply to speed on foot. If players are using a vehicle, divide the number of travel days in half.

Under normal conditions, the PCs can travel a half day’s worth of distance in the morning, and a half day’s worth of distance in the afternoon. At night they must eat a meal and rest.

Rations

Rations are an abstraction of food and water carried. Three days’ worth of rations can be carried in a single inventory slot. Unless their Ancestry exempts them, PCs must consume a ration each day. If they do not, they become Deprived, and cannot recover lost HP. Characters who are Deprived due to hunger and thirst will die after three days.

Rations can be obtained from the bodies of dead opponents or allies, so long as the referee rules that the creature is made from an edible material. Convert the dead creature’s Level into rations at a ratio of 1:1.

If you find numbers on a character sheet a bit abstract, you could use a bowl of poker chips to represent the players’ total rations. Have each player remove a poker chip from the bowl when they camp for the night, and add chips back in when they find fresh sources of nourishment.

Exhaustion

At any point during the travel day, the players may declare that they are exerting themselves in order to walk faster than usual, or are piloting their vehicle at greater speeds than normal. If the party exerts themselves in this manner, they can travel two days’ worth of distance in one day. However, they must fill an inventory slot with Exhaustion.

Exhaustion cannot be removed from a PC’s inventory until they rest in one place for an entire day and night, with no distance being covered. If a PC has no more spare slots to fill with Exhaustion, they must discard an item to make room. A PC who fills ten inventory slots with Exhaustion will die.

Getting Lost

Losing one’s way has never seemed particularly fun to me, and I assume the PCs are competent desert navigators, who will never get lost as long as they can see the sun and stars. However, some circumstances - players attempting to travel during a sandstorm, for example - demand it. In such cases roll a d6, and add the resulting number of days to their travel schedule.

Encounters

The referee should check for an encounter once during the morning of a travel day, once during the afternoon, and once per night. This is done by rolling a d6, and consulting the results below:

1 - Active Encounter. The PCs encounter a creature or situation that definitely notices them, and will actively attempt to involve them in their business.
2 - Passing Encounter. The PCs encounter a creature or situation in passing - it may be happening far away, or be a creature that is not interested in the PCs.
3 - Hint. The PCs find a hint of an encounter. This may be an object or footprint left in the sand, a flying creature glimpsed on the horizon, or similar. The entity the Hint concerned will always appear as the next Active or Passing Encounter.
4-6 - Nothing.
If the PCs are traveling in an extremely slow, noisy, or obvious manner, the referee may choose to roll 2d6 or even 3d6 for encounter checks, and use the lowest result.

Vigilance

At the start of each day, as you roll for encounters, the players may collectively roll a Vigilance Dice. This is a single d6, without modifiers. If the players roll a six, they have a guarantee of spotting their next Active or Passing Encounter before the opposing entity or group spots them. If they roll a one, the next Active or Passing Encounter will spot them before they spot it. This vigilance effect resets at the end of each day, whether the players made use of it or not.

Pursuits

Since the Interior is a large, open desert, there is a good chance that hostile parties will spot one another some time before they are able to engage in combat. In such situations, one party may choose to flee rather than fight. I resolve pursuits as a series of three opposed CON saves. If the pursuers win two of the three saves, they catch up with their quarry and immediately win the initiative in a combat round. If the fleeing party wins two of the three saves, they escape and cannot be caught.

Sometimes CON may not be the appropriate attribute to test; pursuits over particularly unsteady ground might require DEX saves, for example. The pursuit rules should only be used if there is a reasonable doubt as to the result of the chase.

Night Watches

When camping in the desert, the PCs may elect a party member to take watch. Whoever is on watch cannot benefit from a Long Rest; instead they will regain only d8 + CON bonus HP. If the party is approached by a hostile creature at night, the referee should ask the character on watch to make a PSY save opposed to the creature’s DEX. Failure grants the monsters a surprise round in combat; the aggressors strike with advantage, and the players cannot respond. After the surprise round is resolved, roll for initiative as normal.

Desert Encounters

d20	Encounter	Terrain	Behaviour
1	Yurling	Scrubby Bushes	Sleeping
2	Thunderstrike Bird	Salt Pan	Dying
3	Battle Boar	Sand Dunes	Patrolling
4	Blue Baboon	Heavy Scree	Mating
5	Giant Azure Scorpion	Dried Up Stream	Territorial Display
6	Lizard Lion	Dry Watering Hole	Eating
7	Glass Tiger	Large Rock	Relaxing / Nesting
8	Greenguard	Cactus Field	Pursuit / Fleeing
9	Grey Cricket	Grove of Martyr Trees	Scavenging
10	Doppelgeller	Derelict Vehicle	Wounded
11	Leopard Worm	Wrecked Spacecraft	Wounded
12	Indigo Servitor	Abandoned Town	Travelling
13	Bandit	Ruined Bell-tower	Psychedelic State
14	Phthalo-Jackal	Toxin Pools	Sheltering / Hiding
15	Planeyfolk	Caustic Geyser	Combat with another creature (roll again)
16	Regenerator	Crystalline Growths
17	Tiger Fly	Ancient Battlefield
18	Stumbling Drone	Fungus-choked Outpost
19	Alzabo	Silent Machinery
20	Cacogen Pseudo-giant	Abandoned Campsite

Weather

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The climate of Vaarn’s Interior may be simulated using the following method: first, place a marker in the centre of the hex-chart on the opposite page. Then roll a d6 once at the start of each day the party spends in the desert, moving the marker across the hexes in the direction shown and recording the weather indicated by each. If the marker moves off the edge of the chart, it should wrap around onto the opposite side. The exception to this rule is the edges marked with an X; the marker cannot cross these edges and instead it should stay put for that day.

Weather Effects

Still

The desert landscape is still, untroubled by the susurration of the heavens. Visibility is good.

Hazy

The air is still, but mists of a lurid hue hang over the desert. Visibility is impaired and landmarks cannot be seen from a distance. Vigilance checks are made with disadvantage.

Dust Storm

The wind blows sheets of blue dust across the desert. Visibility is badly impaired. Traveling under such conditions is possible, but the pace is slowed to half normal speed. A three day journey will take six days, and so on. Vigilance checks are made with disadvantage.

Sand Storm

A howling wind blows a ferocious cloud of azure sand across the desert. Nobody travels in Vaarn’s sandstorms; the PCs must hunker down and wait out the storm. Tents or other makeshift shelters will provide adequate protection. Any encounters rolled during these days are assumed to be seeking shelter from the storm in the same place as the party.

Heatwave

Urth’s dying sun musters all the warmth it can. PCs must consume twice their normal ration of water per day if they wish to travel during a heatwave.

Worm-pollen

The sandworms of the Interior reproduce through a baroque, decade-long process of parthenogenesis, culminating in the explosive release of thousands of melon-sized spores into the atmosphere. This worm-pollen drifts back to Urth in ponderous sticky deluges that can last for weeks. Progress through shifting mounds of the stuff is slowed to half normal speed; the upside is that worm-pollen is edible, and many a starving man has been saved by the timely arrival of spores from the heavens. Treat worm-pollen days as providing d4 rations per player.

Rain

A rare bounty. The parched blue earth is blessed with water. The party may collect 2d6 days of rations per member. In the aftermath of a rainshower, the desert is conquered by a short-lived imperium of majestic flora.

Prismatic Tempest

The sky bruises with clouds of midnight blue. Howling winds carry scouring sheets of sand across the landscape. Thunder rends the air and polychromatic lightning caresses the desert like the tendrils of a jellyfish deity. No travel of any kind is possible, and the PCs will take 3d6 electrical damage every hour they spend above-ground.

What You Find In The Sand

For use when the party searches a corpse, a wrecked vehicle, a deserted house, etc.

01	Torn Robe	51	Length of Chain
02	Black Candle	52	Long, Thin Bronze Needle
03	Leather Sword Belt	53	Mortar and Pestle
04	Empty Traveller’s Pack	54	Newbeast’s Mask
05	Dried Poisonous Plant	55	Rusting Padlock
06	Bronze Bell	56	Pair of Tweezers
07	Glass Container of Paprika	57	Pair of Spectacles
08	Plastic Container of Cooking Oil	58	Pair of Chrome Earrings
09	Steel Flask of Tea	59	Pair of Grimy Goggles
10	Silk Glove with Seven Fingers	60	Plastic Bottle
11	Rusted Key	61	Plastic Pouch of Psychedelic Drug
12	Cracked Mirror	62	Hard Bread and Cheese, Wrapped in Cloth
13	Jade Statuette of a Sandworm	63	Pouch of Red Wax
14	Jackal’s Tooth	64	Pouch of Exorcist’s Salt
15	Newbeast's Tooth	65	Pouch of Cooking Salt
16	Bag of Dried Flesh	66	Ring with the Seal of an Autarch
17	Plastic Bag That Holds Human Teeth	67	Rusty Set of Manacles
18	Belt Made from the Skin of a Lizard-Lion	68	Set of Dominos
19	Blood-Soaked Linen Bandage	69	Set of Bamboo Eating Utensils
20	Broken Spyglass	70	Set of Gaming Dice
21	Broken Pistol	71	Set of Lock-Picks
22	Broken Arrow	72	Set of Metal Working Tools
23	Broken Memory Crystal	73	Set of Playing Cards
24	Broken Clock	74	Shard of Flint
25	Cast Iron Skillet	75	Shovel
26	Metal Disc, with Rune Scratched into the Surface	76	Single Feather
27	Ceramic Pot Sealed with Wax	77	Single Chess Piece
28	Ceramic Tiles	78	Syntax Engine, Ruined by Sand
29	Can of Pre-Collapse Survival Rations	79	Small Pouch of Bones
30	Coil of Razor-Snare	80	Small Hourglass Filled with Strange White Sand
31	Ancient Coin, Embossed with an Autarch’s Sigil	81	Oxygen Mask
32	Plasteel Hunting Knife	82	Smoking Pipe
33	Crude Map of the Surrounding Area	83	Stick of Chalk
34	Crumpled Paper, Decorated with Lewd Pictures	84	Stick of Charcoal
35	Crystalline Vial of Ink	85	Synthetic Eye
36	Decaying Scroll	86	Synthetic Hand
37	Desecrated Holy Symbol	87	Tangled Bundle of String
38	Watercolour Painting of a Monster	88	Tattered Elastane Cloak
39	Functional Memory Crystal	89	Spent Ammunition Case
40	Glass Bottle	90	Thin Wire with a Hook
41	Glass Vial of Blood	91	Tinderbox
42	Glowstone	92	Dice Engraved with Arcane Symbols
43	Handful of Stone Spheres	93	Vial of Acid
44	Handful of Ceramic Shards	94	Vial of Indigo Dye
45	Golden Container of Ashes	95	Vial of Antitoxin
46	Large Glass Jar	96	Wax Tablet and Stylus
47	Large Shard of Stained Glass	97	Wooden Flute
48	Pouch of Dried Herbs	98	Worn Whetstone
49	Pouch of Caltrops	99	Old, Yellowed, and Illegible Scroll
50	Linen Sandal	00	Human Embryo, Preserved in Cyro-Flask

Exotica

Not-Sword
A blade engraved with paradoxical LogLang glyphs. Synthetic creatures cannot recognise this weapon as a blade, nor can they recognise the bearer of the sword as a living being.
Amaranthine Sugar
Fabulously valuable substance, extracted through patient husbandry from the bodies of adult sandworms. Ingestion greatly boosts the psychic strength of biological creatures. Each dose grants one new randomly rolled Mystic Gift.
Bottled Thicket
Glass vial containing weaponised seeds. When the vial is broken, the seeds germinate and begin an astoundingly rapid life cycle, sprouting into a dense tangle of iridescent vines within seconds.
Gecko Gloves
Finely woven nano-cloth gloves. Allow the wearer’s hands to stick to any surface with a near-unbreakable grip.
Tempest Cannon
Heavy weapon (d12, 3 slots). Creates tiny, incredibly violent thunderstorms wherever its shells explode. Must be refilled with a day’s worth of water after each combat.
The Crimson Cantos
Small, unassuming volume of poetry, bound in crimson leather. The book’s contents are neuroactive, and always guaranteed to fling the reader into a murderous rage. Readers must EGO save or violently attack the nearest living creature.
Bedazzling Blade
Off-handed parrying sword, made in the Fallen Autarchy. Has an inbuilt trick - the blade can briefly glow as brightly as the sun, blinding one’s opponent. Of interest to collectors of rare weapons.
Aegis of the Empty-Minded Sage
Golden amulet, worn in the centre of the forehead. Renders the wearer immune to mind control, telepathy, and all other forms of psychic intrusion. The aegis does this by totally suppressing the wearer’s memory and personality, rendering the bearer near catatonic until the amulet is removed by a companion. Of dubious utility.
Exorcist’s Sidearm
The Bullet-witches of Ka-El believed no spirit was beyond the influence of a properly armed gunwoman. This sorcerous sidearm fires a rotating trepanation round, which can violently evict the demons from a possessed man’s skull at an alarmingly long distance.
Holo-Bow
A novelty crossbow, which ‘fires’ very convincing holograms of arrows.
Bounty Beacon
May be used outdoors to signal an ancient supply satellite, which drops a Support Pod containing a week’s rations for a long-dead reconnaissance unit. Only works once.
Lazarus Cap
Grim necrotech helm. If applied to the head of a fresh corpse, will re-activate the brain. The effect only lasts while the cap is worn, and does nothing to arrest the decay of the flesh.
Hedondroid
Synthetic partycrasher. Crude android that is powered by alcohol, and can unerringly locate parties, orgies, weddings etc. within a five mile radius.
Prison Orb of the Miniature Beast
A hypergeometric orb the size of a grapefruit, with a scarlet upper hemisphere and a pallid lower hemisphere. Used by the citizens of a long-faded civilisation to imprison a collection of tiny fighting-beasts, and compel them to do battle with other beast-masters. 4-in-6 chance the Orb still contains a Citrine-coated Volt Rat (HD 1, Armour 13, d6 electric tail), hungry and trained to kill without hesitation. 2-in-6 chance the Orb holds nothing but the desiccated corpse of a forgotten beast.
Autarch’s Nectar
Honeyed golden tonic containing gene-sculpting nanomachines. When drunk by a biological creature, grants a permanent +1 boost to three Ability scores. Only works once.
Babble Grenade
Neuro-active hand grenade. All living creatures caught within the blast will find themselves unable to understand spoken or written language, and their own speech is likewise gibberish. The effect lasts for a day.
Helm of the Unerring Hound
Hunting apparatus from the Fallen Autarchy. Black, hound-shaped mask that fits over the human head and inserts biotech probes up the nostrils. Boosts the wearer’s sense of smell to superhuman levels.
Mr Skuggly-Wuggly
A pink-furred synthetic bear, roughly the size of a domestic cat. Mr Skuggly-Wuggly was designed to amuse the children of a long-lost era, and speaks in comforting rhymes and calming nonsense. Secretly longs for death, but is unable to request this.
Ditto Gun
Revolver that generates weaponised temporal anomalies when its bullets impact a target. These anomalies inflict a wound identical to the most recent injury suffered by the target, with a matching damage value.
The Book of Sand
Hypergeometric book with an infinite number of pages, each filled with dense paragraphs of minuscule, utterly illegible text. All efforts to decode the book will fail, although it could provide the fuel for an eternally burning fire.

Creating Regions

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The Referee can generate regions of Vaarn using the following method. This technique will not create detailed maps encompassing every feature of the terrain, but rather a simulacra of a landscape that will fuel a few sessions of gaming.

1. Take a sheet of blank paper. A4, or something of equivalent size, will do nicely.
2. Drop a handful of dice onto the paper. I suggest using five or six dice to create a decent sized region, but there is no upper limit. The more dice you drop, the more regional features you will create. You may use any size of dice up to d20, but be aware that using smaller dice sizes will constrain the results.
3. Draw circles around the dice where they fell, and note the number showing on the dice. Consult the Location Type table below to find what kind of location has been created.
4. Draw lines connecting each location to its neighbors. Locations need not connect to every other location on the map; two or three connections per location is quite adequate. These lines represent known travel routes between the locations. If the locations are very close on the page, roll d6. If they are a moderate distance apart, roll 2d6, and if they are very far apart roll 3d6. This dice roll gives you the number of days it will take to travel on foot between the two locations.
5. Travel routes that connect two even-numbered locations, or an odd and an even-numbered location, are (relatively) safe. Travel routes between two odd-numbered locations, however, have a hazard associated with them. Consult the table below for inspiration.
6. Now that the broad shape of the region has been created, return to each location and use the tables provided in this zine to generate more specific details about each one. Write down your ideas for each location inside the circles. You are not obliged to abide by the results of the tables if they don’t fit your concept for the region.
7. If you need more details about the region as a whole, roll on the Landscape Type table below to get an idea of the general terrain. You can also roll to find out the origin of the region’s name.
8. Build a region-specific encounter table using the bestiary. There sample encounter table in VOV #1 if you need inspiration. The character of the region you have generated should inform the encounters you seed it with. A region that contains the ruins of a synth factory will likely have malfunctioning synths lurking around, whereas a region with lots of settlements may have an abundance of trading caravans.
9. Last but by no means least, think of a few NPCs who might be found in the region, and what they might want from the party. Use the Story Seeds table if you are stuck.

d20	Location Type	Travel Hazard	Landscape Type	Region Named For
1	Ruin	Bandits Control the Road	Featureless Sands	Famous Resident
2	Settlement		Salt Pan
3	Oasis	Hunting Ground of Chromavore	Hard Rocky Plain	Local Wildlife
4	Holy Place		Dried-up Lake
5	Wreck	Prowled by Argent Shepherd	Dried-up River	Natural Wonder
6	Vault		Towering Monoliths
7	Landmark	Sandworm Spawning Grounds	Mesas	Natural Hazard
8	Bandit Camp		Low Hills
9	Bounty Hunter's Camp	Very Windy; Guaranteed Sandstorms	Single Mountain	Famous Monster
10	Lair		Toxic Lake
11	Archive	Roving Cult Searching for Converts	Toxic River	Long-Dead Settlement
12	Arcology		Fungal Forest
13	Grave	Malfunctioning Synths Demand a Toll	Crystal Growths	Forgotten Religion
14	Science-Mystic's Abode		Windswept Plateau
15	Trade Post	Road Watched by Cacklemaw Clan	Mountainous	Local Weather
16	Hegemony Camp		Winding Canyons
17	Faa Nomad Camp	Warring Faa Nomads	Abandoned City	Natural Resource
18	Cacklemaw Den		Cactus Fields
19	Anomaly	Unexploded Landmines	Riddled with Caves	Name No Longer Understood
20	(Roll d20 twice and combine results)		Garbage-strewn Wastes

Story Seeds

d20	NPC A	Wants To	NPC B	Added Complication
1	Village Elder	Impress	Village Fool	Sandstorms
2	Faa Warrior		Bandit King	Hungry Alzabo
3	Blind Oracle	Marry	Tomb Prospector	Packbeast Stampede
4	Sly Bandit		Wealthy Merchant	Drunken Bandits
5	Uptight Synth	Betray	Famous Bounty Hunter	Pointless Local War
6	Cacogen Artist		Astronomer	Faa Nomad Wedding
7	Hegemony Tax Collector	Collect Debt From	Relic Thief	Family Curse
8	Water Prospector		Boastful Soldier	An Impostor
9	Titan Cultist	Punish	Camel Jockey	Unrequited Love
10	Spice Merchant		Jealous Widow	A Deadly Duel
11	Pedantic Heretic	Locate	Hedonistic Poet	Psychic Children
12	Escaped Slave		Cruel Inquisitor	Murderious Clone
13	Sin Eater	Abduct	Naive Philosopher	Carnivorous Tree
14	Retired Gladiator		Beautiful Sniper	Malfunctioning AI
15	Tiny Cacogen	Divorce	Enormous Cacogen	Poisoned Harvest
16	Amorous New-Beast		Alchemist	Secret Cult
17	Exorcist	Cure Sickness Of	Synth Surgeon	Rigged Chariot Race
18	Monkey Breeder		Possessed Barber	Mistaken Identity
19	Wandering Musician	Discredit	Card Cheat	Blackmail
20	Clone Catcher		Wealthy Layabout	Psychedelic Visions

Ruin

Vaarn is studded with the fractured remnants of the works of the ancients; the desert a dolorous mosaic of squandered ambitions and forgotten marvels. Broken by time and eroded by the mastication of the azure sands, these hollow vessels are known nonetheless to house both horrors and wonders.

d20	What Was It?	And Then?	And Now?	Appearance	Shape	Other Feature
1	Interrogation Halls	Brewery	Desolate Shell	Opulent	Dome	Inhabited by Planeyfolk
2	Cryogenic Chambers	Criminal's Hideout		Fragmented	Arch	Choked with Synthetic Vines
3	Orbital Defence Turret	Bath House	Intact But Empty	Looming	Tower	Has Hidden Water Source
4	Cyborg Construction	Ossuary		Crumbling	Orb	Has Abundant Food Source
5	Munitions Factory	Monastery	Faa Nomad Campsite	Graffiti-Coated	Shell	Has Abundant Drugs
6	Cloning Facility	Barracks		Gigantic	Knife	Contains Exotica
7	University	Brothel	Hideout for Bandits	Translucent	Bottle	Secret Weapons Cache
8	Nanotech Forge	Inn		Bat-Infested	Flower	Contain Wild Animal Nest
9	Power Generator	Theatre	Cacklemaw Den	Sunbleached	Hand	Used for Sacrifices
10	Noble's Residence	Gladiator Pit		Half-Collapsed	Eye	Ancient Defense Systems Active
11	Autarch's Tomb	Madhouse	Hegemony Outpost	Threatening	Head	Upsetting Decorations
12	Chemical Plant	Observatory		Crooked	Pyramid	Swallowed by the Sands
13	Psychic Training Facility	Mystic's Abode	Monster Lair	Towering	Slab	Fire Damaged
14	Pleasure Garden	Titan Cult Shrine		Monolithic	Prism	Radiation Poisoned
15	Transit Hub	Hydroponic Garden	Science-Mystic's Abode	Dazzling	Cube	Servitor Synths Still Function
16	Farm Array	Battle Site		Decrepit	Wheel	Crashed Vehicle Present
17	Bioengineering Facility	Quantum Daemon Shrine	Grave Site	Sand-scoured	Torus	Encrusted with Crystals
18	Medical Facility	Trading Post		Ill-Omened	Needle	Overgrown with Fungus
19	Communications Array	Slaughterhouse	Holy Place	Beautiful	Bowl	Hypergeometric Portal Inside
20	Space Port	Prison		Molten	Ziggurat	Conceals Long-Burried Threat

Settlement

d20	The Houses	Local Industry	Notable Structure
1	Hide Yurts	Hunting and Scavenging	Ancient Forge
2	Clay Brick Huts	Agriculture (Fungi)	Slave Pit
3	Underground Warren	Agriculture (Cacti)	Deep Well
4	Repurposed Trash	Agriculture (Seven-Fruit Trees)	Slender Silver Tower
5	Neat Plastic Cubes	Agriculture (Water Vines)	Radar Dish
6	Grimy Towers	Metalworking	Abandoned Theatre
7	Vine-covered Villas	Mining (Glowstone)	Holy Catacombs
8	Huge Eggshells	Mining (Plastics)	Birthplace of Famed Musician
9	Chrome Spindles	Mining (Sky-seeking Stone)	Birthplace of Famed Warrior
10	Repurposed Vehicles	Mining (Synth Parts)	Birthplace of Famed Tyrant
11	Repurposed Weapon Arrays	Leatherworking	Glowering Autarch Statue
12	Moulded Glass	Breeding Packbeasts	Memory Crystal Library
13	Hanging from a Cliff	Breeding Fighting Beasts	Forbidden Grave
14	Atop Colossal Stilts	Pottery	Huge Carnivorous Plant
15	Made from Bone	Carpet Weaving	Statue of Void Saint
16	Living Biotech Structures	Herding (Lizards)	Shunned Shrine
17	Inside a Cave	Herding (Zoxen)	Enigmatic Obelisk
18	Inside Vast Corpse	Herding (Land Parrots)	Automated Clock Tower
19	Inside Mutant Tree	Herding (Giant Snails)	Artificial Landmark
20	Huge Communal Tent	Brewing	Central Ruin

d20	Government	Mood of Populace	Community Lacks
1	Secretive Oligarchy	Cowed	Soldiers
2	Idiot King	Rebellious	Food
3	Two Rival Families	Creative	Clean Water
4	Puppet Ruler	Manic	Men
5	Automated Communism	Pious	Women
6	Ruled by Cultists	Warlike	Children
7	Paranoid Theocracy	Destructive	Music
8	Strong-willed Matriarch	Paranoid	Silence
9	Decadent Monarchy	Complacent	Peace
10	Oracular Severed Head	Divided	Books
11	Council of Elders	Suspicious	Memory
12	Synthetic Philosophers	Welcoming	Safety
13	Benevolent Dictator	Decadent	Justice
14	Psychic Hive-Mind	Obsessive	Drugs
15	Neo-Anarchist Commune	Jubilant	Sanity
16	Bandit Chieftain	Hostile	Medicine
17	Ruled by Lottery	Bewildered	Information
18	Gun-worshipping Priests	Fanatical	Hope
19	Ruled by Eccentric AI	Lecherous	Machine Parts
20	Power Struggle (Roll twice and combine)	Contented	Clothing

d20	NPC A	Source of Conflict	NPC B
1	Respected Member of Government	Envy (Property)	Resident, Correctly Regarded as Foolish
2		Envy (Success)
3	Loathed Member of Government	Love (Forbidden)	Resident, Who Pretends to be Foolish
4		Love (Unrequited)
5	Spouse of Governing Figure	Love (Triangle)	Resident With A Hidden Connection To The Notable Structure
6		Unpaid Debts
7	Religious Leader	Boredom	Resident With A Hidden Connection To The Government
8		Taxes
9	Respected Warrior	Robbery	Hermit, Who Lives Outside the Settlement
10		Gossip
11	Violent, Lazy Thug	Adultery	Argumentative, Widely-Disliked Resident
12		Conspiracy
13	Scholarly, Introverted Citizen	Gluttony	Naïve and Trusting Resident
14		Mistaken Identity
15	Respected Artisan	Wild, Baseless Accusations	Conspiratorial, Mistrustful Resident
16		Addiction (Drink)
17	Despised Artisan, Known for Shoddy Work	Addiction (Narcotics)	Community Pariah, Ostracised for Unjust Reasons
18		Wedding Plans
19	Disreputable Mystic	Blackmail	Stranger, Just Passing Through
20		Murder

Oasis

The land parches and withers beneath a wine-red sun, yet even here one may glimpse fragments of paradise.

d20	The Water	What's Here? (x2)	Who's Here? (x2)	Custom Of The Oasis
1	Very Blue	Date Palms	Trading Caravan	Pay Toll
2	Leaks from Machinery	Flamingos		No Bloodshed
3	Incredibly Clear	Towering Rock		Moonlit Sacrifices
4	Umber and Silty	Rusted War Machine		No Bathing
5	Still and Glassy	Autarch Statue	Faa Nomads	Ritual Combat
6	Black and Muddy	Flowering Bushes		Vow of Silence
7	Almost Gone	Ibis		Ruled by Chance
8	Full of Fish	Lurking Crocodiles	Hegemony Scouts	Sacred to Men
9	Tastes Sour	Black Obelisks	Bounty Hunters	Sacred to Women
10	Algae-choked	Decaying Buildings	Titan Cultists	Consult Computer
11	Fetid	Addax Herd	Wandering Mystics	Consult Oracle
12	Full of Plastic	Solar Panels	Travelling Circus	Must be Naked
13	Rusty Red	Arcology Dome	Mendicant Warror	Must be Veiled
14	Warm and Bubbling	Crystalline Growths	Escaped Slaves	An Animal Is Holy
15	Champagne Coloured	Fungal Growths	Sunburnt Exiles	An Animal Is Profane
16	Deep and Silent	Broken Pillar	Pilgrim Monks	Laughter is Prohibited
17	Inside a Cave	Grave	Synths	Sacred to Petty God
18	Healing Properties	Wrecked Synths	Cacklemaw Warband	Drug Ritual
19	Sugary Sweet	Mud Holes	Exultant in Disguise	Water Ritual
20	Mildly Psychedelic	Sacred Caves	Famous Musician	Fasting

Holy Place

None can predict the capricious and bemusing vessels through which the divine will make itself known, but such relics - whenever they manifest themselves - are meticulously preserved, and tended to by venerable orders.

d20	Location	Focus of Worship	Holy To	Tended By
1	Decrepit Keep	Ancient Book	Church of the Promised Sun	Nobody
2	Sand-swallowed	Holy Bee Hive	Pale Faith of Amun-Oh	Family of Tiny Cacogen
3	Petrified Trees	Caged Bird	The Thrice-Born Sage	Sentient Plant
4	Ring of Stones	Enormous Gemstone	Seekers of Eyeless Wisdom	Eunuch Priests
5	Rough Altar	Beautiful Statue	Church of Sevenscore Moons	Chaste Priestesses
6	Underground Church	Ancient Computer	Temple of the Binary Devotion	Automated Priests
7	Glass Pagoda	Broken Statue	The Blue Goddess of Empty Places	Lithling Monk
8	Ziggurat	Crystal Skull	Azathoth, the Daemon Sultan	Blind Old Woman
9	Broken Temple	Wooden Idol	Cult of KRONOS	Masked Mutes
10	Dried-up Oasis	Polychrome Throne	Cult of METIS	Sentient Wasp Hive
11	Looming Statue	Crystal Diadem	Cult of MNEMOSYM	Learned Monks
12	Ruined Village	Ancient Shoe	Cult of HYPERION	Warrior Monks
13	Fungal Church	Urn of Ashes	Cult of GAEA	Guardian Synth
14	Chrome Tower	Mummified Jackal	Cult of COEUS	Pack of New-Jackals
15	Windy Hilltop	Molten Statue	Cult of THEMIS	Paranoid Exiles
16	Hidden Cave	Mummified Child	Faa Nomad Ancestors	Faa Nomads
17	Missile Silo	Ancient Telescope	A Solar Saint	Cacogen Oracle
18	Wreck	Levitating Orb	A Fungal Saint	Mycomorph Oracle
19	Settlement	Synthetic Head	A Void Saint	Beggar Monks
20	Ruin	Human Tooth	Nameless, Forgotten God	Monster Lair

Wreck

All journeys must end - some more dramatically than others.

d20	Vessel	Condition	Original Cargo	Cause of Wreck
1	Wind-barge	Decrepit	Spies	Bandits
2	Auto-chariot	Laser-seared	Masks	Sabotage
3	Dune Skuggy	Burned	Water	Sandstorm
4	Armoured Crawler	Corrupted	Soldiers	Fuel Ran Out
5	Stilt Strutter	Sun Bleached	Memory Crystals	Landmines
6	Kite Wagon	Rusted	Guns	Disease
7	Transport Zeppelin	Shattered	Slaves	Warfare
8	Hegemony Ornithopter	Cloven	Coffee	Faulty Machinery
9	Orbital Satellite	Disintegrating	Prisoners of War	Simply Abandoned
10	Autarchy War Stalker	Graffiti-coated	Heretics	Biotech Infestation
11	Water Prospector's Rig	Riddled with Holes	Wine	Nanomachines
12	Autarch's Pleasure Barge	Skeletal	Refugees	Faa Nomad Ambush
13	Colossal Exosuit	Shredded	Fungus	Cacklemaw Ambush
14	Ancient Submarine	Inside Out	Embryos	Faulty Navigation
15	Ancient Warship	Overgrown	Lithling Seeds	Drunk Driving
16	Ancient Steam Ferry	Looted	Bombs	Incompetent Officers
17	Ancient Train	Halfway Repaired	Cyborg Parts	Crew Mutiny
18	Ancient Fighter Jet	Occupied	Synths	Attacked by Monster
19	Motile Home	Surprisingly Intact	Holy Relics	EMP Blast
20	Pre-Collapse Spacecraft	Some Features Work	Exotica	Orbital Weapon Strike

Vault

The ground beneath the desert is riddled with passageways, tunnels, shafts, and other entrances to the underworld. Who can say what long-buried secrets such locations conceal?

d20	Entrance	Tunnels	Original Function	Other Feature
1	Steel Blast Doors	Half-Flooded	Fallout Shelter	Bandit Hideout
2	Back of Tiny Cave	Filled with Sand	Transport Tunnels	Haunted (Planeyfolk)
3	Enormous Crater	Dusty and Silent	Bioweapon Research	Haunted (Chromavore)
4	Narrow Fissure in Cliff	Crystal-encrusted	Time Paradox Research	Ancient Defence Cannons
5	Through Old Sewer	Blood Red Walls	Language Virus Research	Vending Machines Still Function
6	Atop Mountain	Decorated Tiles	Geothermal Power Station	Strange Lights
7	Opens at Full Moon	Fire-Damaged	Nuclear Power Station	Power Source Active
8	Scrawled With Runes	Winding and Narrow	Hypergeometry Research	Hypergeometric Rift
9	Functioning Lift	Descend into the Urth	Deep Core Mining	Guard Synths
10	Broken Lift	Somehow Absorb Sound	Military Command Post	Cacklemaw Den
11	Functioning Escalator	Lightless and Dank	Titan AI Memory Banks	Science-Mystic's Abode
12	Broken Escalator	Spiralling, Strange	Titan AI Cooling System	Poisonous Gases
13	Ruined Train Tunnel	Lit with Bioluminous Moss	Seed Bank	Carnivorous Fungus
14	Beneath Toxic Water	Surprisingly Clean	Interrogation Chambers	Janitor Synths
15	Air Filtration Vent	Full of Ancient Corpses	Synth Production	Hologram Cinema
16	Infested with Bats	Incredibly Cold	Illicit Cloning Facility	Frozen Embryos
17	Barricaded from Inside	Enormous and Echoing	Spy Network Base	Lost Archive
18	Below Arcology	Battle Damaged	Autarch's Hideout	Monster Lair
19	Below Settlement	White and Sterile	Hidden Resrvior	Holy Place
20	Below Ruin	Filled with Garbage	Recycling Facility	Contains Exotica

Landmark

d20	Natural Landmark	Artificial Landmark
1	Colossal Cactus	Flickering Hologram Billboard, In Language No Longer Spoken
2	Husk of Dead Sandworm	Cairn of Blue Stones
3	Rock Resembling Hand	Tall Intimidating Totem
4	Rock Resembling Face	Enigmatic Stone Circle
5	Toxic Geyser	Banquet Table, Laid For A Hundred Guests. Somehow Never Ages or Changes.
6	Meteor Impact Crater	Glowering Statue of an Autarch
7	Gigantic Petrified Tree	Black Rectangular Monolith
8	Enormous Humanoid Skeleton	Statue of Reclining Woman
9	Huge Empty Snail Shell	Cliff Face, Painted with Fresco Honouring The Titans
10	Tall Rock with Eye-like Hole	Indestructible Chrome Tower, Without Windows or Doors
11	Vast Network of Termite Mounds	Ancient Lighthouse, Empty and Decaying
12	Single Pale Martyr Tree	Vast Hologram Projector Array; Displays Glitchy, Obscene Images
13	Lonely Blue Mesa	Gleaming Sword-like Shard of Orbital Debris
14	Inexplicable Coral Reef, Long Dead	Unbreakable Glass Tesseract; Verdant Jungle Dimly Visible Within
15	Enormous Glowing Crystal Growth	Strobing Lattice of Hard Light; Serves No Clear Purpose
16	Rock, Resembling A Grieving Widow	Field of Broken Solar Panels
17	Iridescent, Unbearably Salty Lake	Vast White Marble Hand
18	Looming Extinct Volcano	Fallen War-Synth, So Old It’s Part of a Hillside
19	Bulbous Fungal Chimney	Ancient Siren Pole, Broadcasting Unintelligible Warning
20	Plain of Uncountable Bleached Skeletons	Bottomless Dark Pit, With Unnaturally Smooth Sides

Bandit Camp

d20	Type	Leader	Weapons	They Want
1	Ex-Gladiators	Injured Gladiator	Martial Arts	Water
2	Sly Mycomorphs	Small but Intense	Bite and Scream	Food
3	Hegemony Deserters	One-Eyed Woman	Crossbows	Gold
4	Escaped Slaves	Rogue Synth	Blowdarts	Weapons
5	Luckless Drifters	Self-styled King	Throwing Axes	Sacrifices
6	Doomsday Cult	Exiled Nobleman	Swords	New Recruits
7	Lepers	Tells Jokes	Slings	Medicine
8	Slavers	Infamous Outlaw	Spears and Nets	Forbidden Books
9	Cruel Synthetic Children	Silent Brute	Flails	Fungus
10	Ghoul Clan	Scrawny Genius	Rocket Launcher	Synths
11	False Monks	Ex-Courtesan	Poison Gas	Children
12	Fungus-riddled Maniacs	Smiling Psychopath	Revolvers	Slaves
13	Businesslike Thugs	Delusional Drunkard	Rifles	Entertainment
14	Gibbering Cacogen	Sadistic Glutton	Crude Jezails	Wine
15	Maskless Newbeasts	Calm and Polite	Ancient Cannon	Beer
16	Gang of Fools	Apologetic but Firm	Combat Lasers	Forgiveness
17	Scantily Clad Women	Lustful and Crude	Sonic Weapons	To Eat You
18	Elderly Thieves	Cartoonishly Evil	Trained Beasts	Single Combat
19	Hegemony Soldiers	Leaves a Calling Card	Plasma Rifles	Your Eyes
20	Gentleman Robbers	Robin Hood-esque	Psychic Powers	Your Teeth

d20	NPC A	Source of Conflict	NPC B
1	Bandit Leader	Envy (Property)	Rival to Leader’s Authority
2		Envy (Success)
3	Leader’s Trusted Underling	Love (Forbidden)	Talkative, Annoying Bandit
4		Love (Unrequited)
5	Leader’s Ambitious Underling	Love (Triangle)	Lazy, Useless Bandit
6		Unpaid Debts
7	Leader’s Despised Underling	Boredom	Scholarly, Educated Bandit
8		Petty Rivalry
9	The Best Cook (of a Bad Bunch)	Cheating at Cards	Religious, Psychotic Bandit
10		Gossip
11	The Best Shot (of a Bad Bunch)	Adultery	Sharp-eyed, Paranoid Bandit
12		Conspiracy
13	Widely Disliked Bandit	Gluttony	Tough-talking Bandit, Secret Coward
14		Mistaken Identity
15	Ferocious, Feared Bandit	Wild, Baseless Accusations	Prisoner, Who Keeps the Camp Tidy
16		Addiction (Drink)
17	Very Young Bandit	Addiction (Narcotics)	Prisoner, Who Aids with Cooking
18		Division of Loot
19	Ancient, Decrepit Bandit	Blackmail	Wealthy Prisoner, Kept for Ransom
20		Murder

Bounty Hunter's Camp

It is commonly known that those seeking to escape the New Hegemony’s justice will flee into the deepest reaches of the Interior, preferring a brief harsh life full of uncertainty to a brief harsh life filled with terrible certainty. It is likewise commonly known that there exists an eccentric and vibrant fraternity of misfits, who attempt - both for profit and for pleasure - to fetch these fugitives back.

d20	Hunter	Hunting	Their Method	They Want
1	Grim and Scarred	Heretic	Patient Stalker	A Lead on their Quarry
2	Avuncular and Evil	Bandit King	Guns Blazing
3	Psychotic Synth	Murderer	Use Poison	Help Killing Dangerous Quarry
4	Three-headed Cacogen	Conman	Use Gas
5	One-Eyed New-Wolf	Water Debtor	Elaborate Disguises	Help Catching Dangerous Quarry Alive
6	Remote-Controlled Armour	Gambling Debtor	Sniper Rifle
7	Young and Beautiful	Livestock Thief	Tranquilliser Crossbow	Help Killing Someone You Know
8	Depressed Drunkard	Adulterer	Shoot First
9	Husband and Wife Team	Rogue Synth	Alluring Honey Trap	Help Bringing Prisoner to Distant Settlement
10	Looks Way Too Young	Cacklemaw Exile	Enlist Big Posse
11	Clean Cut and Heroic	Faa Nomads	Bribes for Information	Help Bringing Prisoner To Distant Arcology
12	Dashing Womaniser	Water Token Forger	Reliable Informants
13	Flamboyant Old Woman	Poisoner	Trained Monster	Help Bringing Prisoner To Faa Nomads
14	Clone Siblings	Child Killer	Quiet Abductions
15	New-Baboon, Riding Human	Oath Breaker	Secret Martial Art	Help Capturing Science-Mystic Alive
16	Veteran Soldier	Runaway Bride	Psychic Gifts
17	Famous Exile	Runaway Groom	Expert Desert Tracker	Help Killing Dangerous Monster
18	Sacred Assassin	Disgraced Cleric	Use Camera Drones
19	Faa Nomad Tracker	Hegemony Deserter	Utterly Incompetent	Help Escorting Prisoner to Gnomon
20	Psychic Mute	Own Family Member	Absurdly Complex Traps

Lair

The wild places of Vaarn are well-stocked with monstrosities of all stripes. The prudent traveller sleeps lightly, keeps a weapon close at hand, learns to sight these miserable pariahs of the Urth well in advance of their sighting him, and will avoid at all costs the places such creatures dwell.

d20	Inhabitant	Appearance	Warning Omen
1	Argent Shepherd	Ruined Chapel	Madmen Affixed With Argent Halos Beg Party To Turn Back
2	Chrome-Feathered Sailback	Flat Basking Plain	Chrome Feathers Float on the Wind
3	d6 Quill-Spiders	Burrows in Earth	An Antelope, Limping, Leg Full of Quills
4	Chromavore	Colourless Cactus Grove	Colourless Husks of Faa Family
5	d6 Hiveymen	Gruesome Black Hive	Single Sable Bee Crawls on Ground
6	d6 Lizard Lions	Sun-kissed Basking Rock	Discover a Shed Skin
7	d6 Battle Boars	Shaded Dustbath	Boulders With Tusk-Marks
8	Alzabo	Deep Cave	Hear A Child’s Voice, Which Echoes Oddly
9	3d6 Pthalo-Jackals	Shallow Dens	Hear Howling on the Wind
10	d4 Pseudo-Giants	Crude Brick Huts	Remains of a Hegemony Skiff, Stomped to Pieces
11	d6 Lambent Lynx	Den High in the Cliffs	Electrical Taste in the Air, As If Before A Storm
12	3d6 Blue Baboons	Rocky Outcrop	Excrement Heaped Everywhere
13	d6 Walking Wombs	Foul-smelling Sinkhole	Wide Dragging Tracks In the Sand
14	3d6 Tiger Flies	Tall Papery Nest	Tell-tale Buzzing
15	d4 Regenerators	Human-skin Tents	Crude Idols Made of Bones
16	Thunderstrike Bird	Roosts on Mesa	Huge Tar-black Feather Caught on Cactus
17	d4 Glass Tigers	Lurk On Salt Flats	Corpse with Tell-tale Bite Marks
18	Amaranthine Death-Worm	Poisoned Tree	Huge Sinuous Tracks in the Dirt
19	Xanthous Mycomorph	Fungal Thicket	Yellow Spores on the Wind
20	d12 Greenguard	Abandoned Fortifications	Enamel Bullets Embedded in Rocks

Archive

To forget is to be human, for the burden of an unceasing memory is too great for the mortal mind to withstand. Some resist the creeping triumph of oblivion, erecting great libraries and charging these structures with the endless remembering their frail minds cannot bear.

d20	Archive Of	Appearance	The Archivists	They Want
1	Books (Holy)	Dusty	Glum Nuns	Rare Object Retrieved From Elsewhere in Vaarn
2	Books (Fiction)	Collapsing	Pedantic and Rude
3	Books (Obscene)	Cluttered	Salacious Bigots	A Stolen Item From the Collection Retrieved
4	Memory Crystals	Labyrinthine	Senile Synths
5	Seeds	Dark	Bored Hedonists	Players to Intervene in Internal Power Struggle
6	Fungal Spores	Dazzling	Lazy Mycomorphs
7	Embryos	Grimy	Tiny Lithling	A Sealed Wing Of the Archive Explored
8	Eggs	Chaotic	Maternal New-Parrots
9	Maps	Malfunctioning	Ascetic Mutes	An Archivist Escorted To Distant Settlement
10	Poems	Elegant	Cultists Who Worship Decay
11	Video Recordings	Serene	Ignorant of What They Collect	A Rival Archive Raided
12	Music	Squalid	Worship Their Collection
13	Play Scripts	Sterile	Chattering Imbeciles	To Send A Message to a Science-Mystic
14	Art (Paintings)	Ordered	Attack Outsiders
15	Art (Statues)	Polluted	Desperately Seeking Recruits	To Locate an Archivist Who Vanished in the Stacks
16	Art (Conceptual)	Occult	Afflicted by Strange Illness
17	Taxidermy	Foreboding	Whispering New-Spiders	Monster Lair Removed From Archive
18	Preserved Brains	Cheerful	Masked Philosophers
19	Titancreed Syntax	Burned	Cruel and Calculating	Vault Beneath Archive Explored
20	Insects	Infested	Paranoid and Isolated

Arcology

Arcologies are self-sufficient, hermetically sealed artificial ecosystems, which protected the true-kin through the fevered centuries of the Great Collapse. They have long since been unsealed and released their inhabitants into the blue lands of Vaarn, but these domes are still a common sight in the wastes and are often occupied, as their subterranean gardens offer a stable source of water and food.

d20	Dome	Inhabitants	Abundance	Lack
1	Broken	Abandoned	Meat	Olives
2	Molten		Fresh Water	Fish
3	Sand-swallowed	Hermit	Salt	Beer
4	Dingy	Mystic	Guzzleline	Men
5	Blackened	Escaped Slaves	Coffee	Women
6	Self-Repairing	Ghouls	Wine	Children
7	Barely Intact	Hegemony Deserters	Bread	Music
8	Booby-trapped	Newbeasts	Jewellery	Silence
9	Reinforced	Semi-Feral Orphans	Books	Livestock
10	Functional	Amnesiac Clones	Fruit	Books
11	Warlike	Elderly Mutes	Information	Coffee
12	Delicate	Conceptual Artists	Bells	Bread
13	Ornate	Orchestra	Drugs	Spices
14	Welcoming	Fungus Cultists	Livestock	Drugs
15	Garden-like	Polygamous Church	Skilled Labour	Sanity
16	Elegant	Lepers	Musical Instruments	Medicine
17	Devotional	Warrior Monks	Slaves	Information
18	Flooded	Psychic Choir	Cheese	New Blood
19	Geodesic	Androids Pretending to be Human	Weapons	Machine Parts
20	Perfect		Exotica	Clothing

Grave

Vaarn is above all else a land heavy with endings, and tombs punctuate the desolation with grim regularity.

d20	Location	Grave For	Burial Method	Grave Quirk
1	Ruined Village	Autarchy Soldiers	Upside Down	Has Been Desecrated
2	Large Cave	Titan-era Programmers	In Salted Earth	Believed Cursed
3	Secret Cave	Autarchy Nobles	In Decorated Urn	Has Been Robbed
4	Below Floating Crystal	Autarch’s Consort	Mummified	Visited by Ghouls
5	Lonely Hilltop	Newbeasts	Laminated	Home to Rare Animal
6	Dry River-bed	Synthetic Warrior	Held in Preservation Tank	Believed Haunted
7	Dry Lake-bed	Synthetic Poet	Held in Anti-Entropy Sphere	Coins Left In Tribute
8	Imposing Crypt	Synthetic Oracle	Cryogenic Pod	Food Left In Tribute
9	Cactus Grove	Notorious Heretic	Surrounded by Grave Goods	Swords Left In Tribute
10	Ring of Standing Stones	Cacogen Mystic	Crystal Coffin	Candles Burning
11	Under Petrified Tree	Faa Nomad Ancestors	Biotech Sarcophagus	Memorial Tree
12	Below Huge Statue	Faa Nomad Prophet	Wearing Lifelike Death Mask	Engraved Mantra
13	Elegant Pagoda	Powerful Psychic	Sky Burial	Memorial Fountain (Dry)
14	Looming Edifice	Famed Swordsman	Consumed by Fungus	Ritual Artwork (Ugly)
15	Plain of Stones	Bandit King	Food for Sacred Flower	Ritual Artwork (Good)
16	Near Wreck	Hegemony Rangers	Below Cairn	Site of Pilgrimage
17	Near Oasis	Massacred Faa Nomads	Inside Stone Cube	Synthetic Grave Keeper
18	Near Ruin	Hegemony Exultant	Inside Hypergeometric Artefact	Hideout for Bandits
19	Near Holy Place	Autarch	Frozen Outside Time-stream	Entrance to Vault
20	Near Settlement	Extra-Solar Explorers	Not Really Dead	Monster Lair

Science Mystic's Abode

Certain avenues of philosophical enquiry are best pursued in the deepest deserts, far away from curious neighbors, the reach of law enforcement, or indeed any conceivable restraint save one’s own threadbare conscience.

d20	Abode	The Science-Mystic	Researching	They Want
1	Secluded	Cloaked, Masked, Decaying	Immortality	‘Volunteers’ for Experimentation
2	Armoured	Booming Voice, Tiny Body	Telepathy
3	Vine-choked	Sallow and Smelly	Mind Control	To Hire A New Assistant; Don’t Ask About the Old One
4	Dark	Dazzlingly Beautiful	Antigravity Field
5	Spiralling	Plastic-fleshed Synth	Time Stasis	To Dispose of a Rogue Creation
6	Sentient	Double-faced Cacogen	Time Travel
7	Wheeled	Ostentatious New-Tiger	Time Paradox	A Fabled Chemical Substance; Found In Nearby Ruin
8	Transparent	Permanently Invisible	Hypergeometry
9	Crystalline	Brain in a Vat	Synthetic Anatomy	A Fabled Artefact; Said to be Held by a Faa Nomad Clan
10	Sword-like	Levitating Idiot	Synthetic Psychology
11	Towering	Terrified of their Reflection	Newbeast Biology	Body Parts of Local Monster
12	Severe	Flesh-eating Mycomorph	Newbeast Psychology
13	Decadent	Extra Arms Grafted On Back	Mycomorph Biology	Revenge on Ex-Assistant; They Stole Research
14	Buried	Neurotic New-Lynx	Mycomorph Psychology
15	Overgrown	Stuttering Synth	Language Virus	An Armed Escort To Explore A Distant Vault
16	Elegant	Bashful Murderer	Teleportation
17	Devotional	Icily Polite	Titancreed Syntax	An Armed Escort to Accompany Them to Gnomon
18	Pyramid	Blood-drinking Cacogen	Ancient Super-weapon
19	Deceptively Normal	Way Too Friendly	Contact Azathoth	Assistance With An Obviously Dangerous Experiment
20	Floating Orb	Glows in the Dark	Space Travel

Trade Post

d20	Location	Who Trades Here? (x2)	What is Traded? (x2)
1	Large Tent	Hegemony Soldiers	Water
2	Crossroads	Faa Nomad Raiders	Information
3	Beneath Great Cactus	Faa Nomad Herdsmen	Memories
4	Echoing Cave	Cacogen Drifters	Music
5	Beneath Glowering Idol	Furtive Monks	Olives
6	Sheltered Valley	Cacklemaw Exiles	Weapons
7	Atop Great Rock	Oracle’s Caretakers	Armour
8	Within Huge Skull	Servants of a Petty God	Pottery
9	Within Huge Empty Shell	Vault Raiders	Jewellery
10	Ancient Tollbooth	A Science-Mystic	Dried Fish
11	Stone Fort	Lithling Scholars	Livestock
12	Grove of Martyr Trees	Gnomonian Merchants	Prisoners
13	Dried Up Oasis	Mercenary Band	Psychedelics
14	Polluted Lakeshore	Roaming Scavengers	Flowers
15	Near Faa Nomad Camp	Secretive Hermit	Synth Parts
16	Near Hegemony Camp	Lowly Goatherds	Camels
17	Near Wreck	Pious Synths	Books
18	Near Holy Place	Deranged Synths	Carpets
19	By Oasis	Pack of Newbeasts	Medicine
20	Inside Ruin	Titan Cultists	Exotica

d20	NPC A	Source of Conflict	NPC B
1	Owner of the Trade Post	Envy (Property)	Successful, Pompous Trader
2		Envy (Success)
3	Owner’s Spouse	Love (Forbidden)	Sly, Scheming Trader
4		Love (Unrequited)
5	Owner’s Sibling	Love (Triangle)	Elderly, Naïve Trader
6		Unpaid Debts
7	Owner’s Heir	Boredom	Young, Cruel Trader
8		Petty Rivalry
9	Peacekeeper at the Trade Post	Robbery	Reckless, Hotheaded Trader
10		Gossip
11	Peacekeeper’s Sinister Deputy	Adultery	Whining, Annoying Trader
12		Conspiracy
13	Studious Clerk	Gluttony	Brawny Youth, who Assists a Trader
14		Mistaken Identity
15	Dishonest Clerk	Wild, Baseless Accusations	Performer, Who Entertains Traders
16		Addiction (Drink)
17	Lowly Servant	Addiction (Narcotics)	Fortune-Teller, Just Passing Through
18		Shoddy Goods
19	Orphan, Found in the Desert	Blackmail	Wandering, Scheming Stranger
20		Murder

Hegemony Camp

Vaarn is considered one of the least desirable postings a Hegemony soldier can receive, and patrolling the Interior is considered the least desirable duty within the Legions assigned to Vaarn. The Hegemony camps found amongst the blue dunes are generally sparse, miserable, and paranoid affairs, garrisoned by the most mutinous and untrustworthy soldiers the New Hegemony has to offer.

d20	Unit Type	Commander	Camp Mood	Activity
1	Deserters (d6)	Dead	Panicked	Treating Wounds
2		Missing	Surly	Preparing for Combat
3	Scouts (d6)	Dying	Mutinous	Cleaning Campsite
4		Wounded	Stressed	Cooking
5		Weirdly Optimistic	Downcast	Weapons Drill
6		Raving Mad	Sleepy	Repairing Gear
7	Rangers (d8)	Incompetent	Lazy	Troop Inspection
8		Stern	Paranoid	Burying Dead
9		Wavering	Stoic	Waiting for Orders
10		Steady	Deranged	Gambling
11	Synth-Hunting Team (d8)	Grim	Furious	Sleeping
12		Bloodthirsty	Hopeful	Feeding Prisoners
13		Measured	Optimistic	Hunting Wildlife
14		Cold	Celebratory	Executing Prisoners
15	Legionaries (d20)	Shrewd	Suspicious	Searching for Water
16		Competent	Bored	Combat With Monster
17		Loathed	Generous
18		Respected	Drunken	Combat With Faa
19	Artillery Unit (d8)	Alert	Overconfident
20		Beloved	Mournful	Combat With Cacklemaw

Faa Nomad Camp

d20	Leader	They Have	They Want	Mood
1	Stern Patriarch	Meat	Meat	Angry
2	Stern Matriarch	Dates	Wine	Scared
3	Council of Elders	Olives	Beer	Mourning
4	Charismatic Visionary	Cheese	Salt	Talkative
5	Wounded Old Warrior	Weapons	Weapons	Sullen
6	Husband and Wife, arguing	Hides	Information	Warlike
7	Husband and Wife, happy	Precious Metal	Shelter	Contemplative
8	Young Hothead	Machine Parts	Slaves	Pious
9	Drug-addled Oracle	Medicine	Escaped Prisoner	Crazed
10	Sinister Slaver	Spices	Captured Bride	Suspicious
11	Lecherous Patriarch	Drugs	Runaway Groom	Cheerful
12	Lecherous Matriarch	Spare Livestock	Revenge: Other Faa	Wary
13	Twin Brothers/Sisters	Fabrics	Revenge: Monster	Overconfident
14	Blind Brothers/Sisters	Fungus	Revenge: Hegemony	Argumentative
15	Skilled Worm-tamer	Sugar	Revenge: Bandits	Proud
16	Frail Grandmother	Cybernetics	Missing Child	Silent
17	Skilled Sharpshooter	Tonics	Medical Help	Praying
18	Cruel Psychic	Books	Humiliate Other Faa	Celebrating
19	Power Struggle	Exotica	To Party	Drunken
20	Anarchy	Water	Water	Boastful

d20	NPC A	Source of Conflict	NPC B
1	Clan Leader	Envy (Property)	Rival to Leader’s Authority
2		Envy (Success)
3	Leader’s Spouse	Love (Forbidden)	Spouse of Rival to Leader
4		Love (Unrequited)
5	Leader’s Sibling	Love (Triangle)	Child of Rival to Leader
6		Unpaid Debts
7	Leader’s Respected Child	Boredom	Clan Member, Considered Foolish
8		Honor
9	Leader’s Contemptible Child	Robbery	Clan Member, Considered Dangerous
10		Gossip
11	Old, Frail Elder	Adultery	Clan Member, Injured in Battle
12		Conspiracy
13	Cunning, Manipulative Elder	Gluttony	Prisoner, Captured in Battle
14		Mistaken Identity
15	Feared Old Warrior	Wild, Baseless Accusations	Cantankerous Storyteller
16		Addiction (Drink)
17	Young Warrior, with Something to Prove	Addiction (Narcotics)	Skilled Tracker
18		Wedding Plans
19	Widow of Previous Leader	Blackmail	Skilled Artisan
20		Murder

Cacklemaw Den

The dens of the Cacklemaw are not difficult to locate - one must simply follow the sound of uproarious merriment, of weapons being discharged wildly, of discordant and rowdy music played fast and poorly, and of vehicles being driven in circles with no apparent destination.

d20	Sworn To	Weapons	Activity	They Want
1	Mama Hecklehaw	Bowcasters	Sleeping	Meat
2		Rusted Blades	Fleeing
3		Ornate Razorwhips	In-Fighting
4		Envenomed Spears	Funeral
5		Impulse Rifles	Singing	Water
6	Mama Gloatgrim	Hellblasters	Drunk
7		Storm Guns	Psychedelic Ritual
8		Throwing Knives	Sacred Puppet Show
9		Blunderbores	Rustling Livestock	Directions
10		Prism Cannons	Extorting a Merchant	Tribute
11	Mama Yawningfool	Nailguns	Transporting Prisoners	Jokes
12		Flesh-rippers	Repairing Tents	Music
13		Nets and Tridents	Gambling	Cruelty
14		Spore Launchers	Marking Territory	Repairs
15		Laser Rifles	Cooking	Weapons
16	Nana Rictus	Exploding Javelins	Fighting (Other Monster)	Drugs
17		Shrieker Bombs		Booze
18		Glue Guns	Fighting (Other Cacklemaw)	Shelter
19	Nana Blacklaugh	Hegemony Autorifles		Reinforcements
20		Teeth and Claws	Fighting (Faa Nomads)	Prisoners

Anomaly

There are more things in the Heavens and Urth than are dreamed of in your philosophies. There are more things. There are always more.

d20	Quality	Form	Primary Effect	Secondary Effect
1	Dazzling	Web	Inverts Local Gravity	Induces Paranoia
2	Nauseating	Mist	Heals Injuries	Total Silence Nearby
3	Floating	Cave	Translates Languages	Absorbs Light
4	Singing	Tower	Reanimates Dead	Extreme Cold Nearby
5	Mist-like	Lotus	Merges Creatures Together	Strange Music Audible
6	Glitching	Tree	Makes Prophecies	Strange Voices Echo
7	Luminous	Pool	Other Universe Visible	Localised Weather System
8	Radioactive	Fountain	Implants Memories	Time Flows Strangely
9	Self-replicating	Stone	Implants Mystic Gifts	Induces Mania
10	Quicksilver	Skull	Induces Amnesia	Always Nighttime Nearby
11	Many-eyed	Prism	Induces Delusions	Induces Mutations
12	Iridescent	Cube	Kills Indiscriminately	Rusts All Metal
13	Toxic	Pyramid	Induces Empathy	Exudes Lightning
14	Crystal	Sphere	Transforms Matter	Exudes Flames
15	Speaking	House	Teleports Matter	Exudes Toxins
16	Mobile	Miasma	Creates Planeyfolk	Creates Solid Light
17	Blossoming	Waterfall	Creates Monsters	Nanomachine Cloud
18	Burning	Infant	Grants Visions of Past	Infection with Virus
19	Mesmerising	Shell	Grants Visions of Future	Infection with Fungus
20	Terrifying	Helix	Makes Thoughts Solid	Infection with Spirit