The Boarder Kingdoms

[No it's not a spelling mistake...]

The Boarder Kingdoms dominate the northern, or starboard, areas of the world ship. The name refers to the scattered domains of humans who are in the main descended from the human boarders on the starboard hangers. These domains only rate as baronies or marches at best, and as such are not marked on the map. A following post will detail some basic stats for these micro kingdoms with this post detailing the region.

The key difference between these scattered domains and the United Gaumont and Terran empires to the south is a string of unfortunate events. If anything could go wrong for these people it did, leading to a sparsely populated wilderness inhabited by Bog’ans, scattered human baronies, nomadic barbarian tribes and scavengers of all types. Some even talk of a hidden menace, called the Baku, that walks among the people of this domain sewing disunity and chaos. But this legend it often just used as an excuse or bogeyman to blame for any and all misfortunes.

The Rift

Prior to the crash the world ship suffered severe damage that cleft through a hundred miles of more of the superstructure. Bulkheads, rock and soil now fill this area making it a terrain obstacle that is difficult to pass. This provides some protection to the Visitor Technocracy controlling the northern thruster control generator. On the aft side of the rift several boarder kingdoms have formed to mine the rock and dirt that have filled the rift. In general parties cannot cross from rough hex to rough in this region.

Dead Sea

Unlike its counterpart to the south the starboard water reserve is contaminated and polluted. Few settlements sit on the edge of its waters for fear of toxic vapors. Rumors talk of creatures inhabiting the waters that can spread disease with a touch. 

The Spine

The spine of the ship is reinforced with massive metallic beams that are several miles thick. These beams are made of the same blueish metal used throughout the vessel that is resistant to corrosion and nearly impossible to cut or reforge. These ‘bones’ of the vessel extend throughout the ship but are their most dense though the core. 

Additionally, the spine had significant transport infrastructure heading along the beam of the vessel that, while no longer functioning, allowed many a beast and monster to take residence. Rumors of a race of hostile blue-green skinned space giants forming a kingdom in this region are also common. As such random encounters in this area (between the two seas) are higher than normal and use a 4+ on a d6 for every hex.

Due to this density of structural beams, travel from port to starboard requires travelers to go over or under the spine. As such treat entering spine hexes from outside the spine as taking three hexes of travel and exiting the spine into a non-spine hex as three hexes of travel (roll random encounters for each virtual hex). When traveling on the spine travel is at normal rate.

The Mad Queens Lair

Psychic emanations and nightmares plague those who travel near this spire. A blue metal tower reaches up through an atrium surrounded by horizontal buildings reaching out from the walls but never touching the spires pristine surface. The tower ascends through the cloud mist above, hiding untold secrets in its upper levels.

Many adventurers have braved the tower, some return with metals and technology scavenged from its lower levels, but many don’t. Those who return never venture to far into the tower, they talk of mad Bog’ans and humans alike, but the upper levels are guarded by robots and strange Visitor cultists. A common dream is shared by those who return of a queen tied to her throne with rope, her mind frayed by the passage of time calling them to join her. When the call gets to strong the wise flee. 

Notes: leaving this as a teaser trailer for now. This would be a Kilo/Mega dungeon in size that is known by many but seen as very risky. Need a cooler title for it but this one has stuck for now.