Hard Ticket to Lud

SIX DAYS AND SEVEN NIGHTS THROUGH THE MARSH

Lud is a people and a village, sun-baked and reed-clad, nomadic boat-dwellers that drift through the marshes in the manner of their ancestors. They are known for:

1. The Wandering Urth: The urth does not rest easy here; it moves, and shifts, and sometimes bubbles up out from the muck to drift and float into the summer sky. The Satraps of the north call them levistones and use them to power their skyships.
2. The Cyclopean Ruins: In the Long-Ago, this was not a marsh but a rugged mountain, ruled by a fierce people of stone with singular, burning eyes. The remains of their Empire lie scattered about the marsh, in places called taboo by the Luds.
3. The Only Safe Path To Qud: Qud, that carnelian city of gleaming spires and roaring crowds, souqs packed and teeming with lings and treasure from across the Million-Million Spheres, lies across the marsh. It is a place where fortunes can be won and lost - but you have to get there, first…

The Luds (page 8) are a people divided; many are content to live in the nomadic manner of their ancestors, though some long for the trappings and trinkets of the World Outside. This divide has left them easy prey for the Satrap.

The Cyclopeans (page 12) are not dead; merely slumbering deep beneath the urth following the collapse of their galactic civilization. Yoked to the geas that binds them to the Crown of Command, its siren song has roused them from slumber.

Tanith (page 9), a lowly laborer for the Satrap, pulled the Crown of Command from a levistone dig site in northeastern Lud. Since then he has been on the run, pursued by cyclopean terrors by day and a burning, unblinking eye of flame by night…

This is a 40-page introductory hexcrawl adventure for UNCONQUERED (or other old-school role-playing games) and is suitable for 4-8 characters of 1st-level. It can serve as a stand-alone adventure session or as the basis for a larger campaign.