The Duchy of the Damned Dancing Duke – Row F

Hex F-1: Ser Chalres, a knight who served in the court of the Duke’s father. He’s only 4 years older than the duke himself. His serious minded devotion to duty endeared him to the old duke, who regarded him as a better son than the one he had been cursed with. For his part, Ser Chalres was devoted to the old duke, and has struggled to remain loyal to his mentor’s son. The current duke resents Ser Charles, and has sent him on endless mundane “Quests,” which has caused the knight to gradually fall into a deep malaise.

After completing his most recent task (to enumerate the ducks on all the ponds in the duchy), he just…didn’t return to the duke’s court. He carries a ledger on which his final count is completed, and he cares for it dutifully, but rides aimlessly. Afraid to return to the Duke, or to return to his home. Occasionally, when the Duke’s men run into him, they bully him with all the class of a guy wearing a letterman jacket in an ‘80s movie. He insists to them that he’s still working on the count.

Ser Charles is contemplating suicide, but does not want to go to hell. Nor does he want to betray his lord by seeking peace with the papacy.

Hex F-2: Some ruins sit between hills, nestled in a little valley and nearly overgrown with grass. Almost nothing here is left but the foundations. The only thing that is intact is a marble tiled floor, patterned with many colors.

Far beneath this floor is a creature. It would appear bestial to us, but it is an older and wiser creature than all of mankind. A creature in whose mind lives entire worlds of lesser consciousness, all serving the greater whole.

This creature does not hate or love us anymore than we love or hate a bumblebee or a parrot. Once, it amused itself by making itself our god, but we bored it.

One thing it does enjoy is a dance it taught us in times too old to be called ancient. A thing of cosmic humor beyond our understanding. To us it’s just an incredibly complex ritual. If performed properly on this dance floor, the creature will grant a wish. If performed improperly, it will brush us aside in annoyance. Those subject to this must make a save versus Magic. On failure, they are sent flying miles into the sky. When they land, half of their body will have been crushed flat. If they succeed, they fly just high enough and are crushed enough to reduce you to 1 hit point.

Hex F-3: On the hill is a fine manse of noble quality. This was the duke’s country home, but is now surrounded by tangled bushes of razorwire. The duke’s men, with spotlights shining from open mouths,m wander the grounds at night.

Here is where the duchess Maria Josehpine—the Duke’s wife—is held. She & Rodrigo were married X years ago, at the insistence of the previous duke. They never got along well, but as a devout catholic, she submitted to her husband…at least until devotion to her husband would have required her to deny her god. She would not, and so she is here. Kept in a gilded cage, away from her priest, her sacraments. Forced to attend a satanic mass each day.

She is never given the opportunity to be a martyr; she is merely forced into a life that makes her wish for death. Fed the poorest food, housed in the poorest accommodations, treated with nothing but cruelty. Yet always beside these tribulations is the offer of an easier, damning path. Sumptuously prepared human meat is offered alongside her barley gruel. The cold stone cell she sleeps in is within sight of the warm feather bed that could be hers if only she fornicate with the men and women who wait for her there. Always a child is present for her beatings, and all she need do is give the order to have her punishment taken out on the child instead.

Maria holds firm her faith, but no human’s strength is infinite.

Hex F-4: The party comes across a group of 23 men equipped with shovels. They’re standing around a hole & one has a map clutched tightly in his hand. In the hole they’ve uncovered an old Roman treasure cache, including:

• A statue of Terminus
• A statue of Antoninus
• A statue of Hadrian
• A chest with 5,000 danerii, worth 3,462 modern silver pieces.
• 10 Gladius
• 10 Sets of legionary armor.
• A crate of bronzeworks. Nice cups, jewelry, etc.

Their eyes got a little bigger than their heads, and now that they’re standing around their treasure haul they realize they really don’t know what to do next. How to move it? How to defend it? How do they turn it into cash they can use? They’ve got no wagon, no weapons, nobody to sell it to. They’re amenable to sharing the loot with someone who can help them defend, transport, and fence their discovery. They’re good folk, and will prefer to split 30/70, but can be negotiated down to a 50/50 split.

However, they’re not going to let anyone cheat them. They’ve got daggers and shovels, and they probably have numbers over the party. They will fight to protect this treasure if any foreign vagabonds try to take their hard won loot. (They don’t want to kill people, though).

Hex F-5: A trading port town, currently under naval blockade by a small fleet of Papist ships. There are four boats on the docks which arrived some time ago to drop off their goods, and pick up new ones. Unfortunately they’re unable to leave due to the blockade, and unable to return to shore because by the laws of the devils their business is done.

The folks on the ships are close to death. They’re clinging to their religion, but angry that the papist fleet would leave them to die like this. Each evening the devils lay out large banquets on the docks to tempt the sailors into defecting. It would take only a nudge to make that happen.

Hex F-6: A young man is struggling in the water, and will clearly drown if he is not helped quickly. This is William the bastard, future duke of another Duchy on the coast. He says he passed out on a couch after a night of drinking with his men, and woke (still on the couch) in the middle of the sea, out of sight of the shore. He was planning to wait until sunrise, then try to spot shore and paddle that way with his arms. But his couch was capsized in the current, and he lost sight of it. He’s been trying to tread water and swim towards shore, but it is far, and he grows tired.

On being rescued, he will swear an oath unto god never to set foot in the water again, and will hold to that oath unless the PCs convince him otherwise. He is susceptible to sleights directed towards his honor.

Hex F-7: A man in a small boat, weighed down with a heavier load than it should be carrying. he’s anchored in a precise spot marked by a buoy. He throws buckets of dirt into the water. When his boat is empty, he will return to the land and load it up with more dirt. Each cartload must come from a different acre of the duchy.

The unfortunate man accepted a contract working a farm from a devil. He’s not as skilled at manipulating contracts as the duke, and now he’s got to make the farmland himself by dumping dirt directly into the water. He’s deeply depressed, but there’s not much he can do. It seems the devils are taking particular pleasure in what horrid contracts they can assert, as a sort of displaced vengeance against the Duke.

Closing Note: Thanks for reading this series of weird hex posts. I’m glad to finally have them out in the wild.

These were the first draft for a project that grew wildly out of control until it was a complete friggin’ book. The writing for the book is done, and we’re just waiting on art, editing, and layout before we figure out how to best get the thing into your hands. Look forward to it!