I recently read William Dampier’s ‘A Voyage to New Holland’. It describes his attempt to visit the east coast of Australia. He fails in the attempt but sees the west coast, explores Papua New Guinea and discovers New Britain. Of course I thought back to The Isle of Dread and realised that they don’t really match. They don’t have to match of course, but if you want a bit more realism in your X1, try these changes below.
P5 – Under ‘Finding the scrolls’, delete the entire first paragraph and just have them find the non-magical scrolls.
P5 – Replace the handout text with
“When the gale finally ended, we had been blown for seven days due south of Specularum as best as we could tell, to a group of islands we had never seen before. We took on some food and water and found that the islands were inhabited by very poor, dark skinned people. We attempted to trade with them with limited success. They have few belongings of value. Some villagers were friendly, but others were hostile, and the natives attacked on sight. I suspect the hostile villages are filled with cannibals.
We skirted the coastlines of several islands, sailing south by west until we reached a large fire island with a vulcano in the centre. On the south it had a small peninsula cut off from the main island by a massive stone wall. We were indifferently received by the natives of Tanaroa, the small village that guards this wall. The villagers call their island Naoero but the sailors have taken to calling it the Isle of Dread, due to the many sailors lives lost here by the natives and also the strange and unsettling noises that originate from beyond the wall.
We saw many smokes from the south of the island, so there must be other villages besides Tanaroa. Only the area south of the wall is settled by the natives, none live beyond. Although while we were sailing around the island we did perceive other smokes from high up on the slopes of the central fire mountain, so there may be another village in the centre of the island.
The natives live in large log cabins. They don’t seem to have the ability to construct stone houses. I believe that the natives once possessed a much more advanced culture and that the descendants of the builders have returned to a more primitive state.
Beyond the wall the island seems to be home to creatures of enormous size that, at times, we could hear beyond the wall. The sound of which terrified the men. The villagers showed us various bones, teeth and claws of such a size as to be beyond belief. The island waters abound with excellent pearl beds and there are various unknown spices as well.
I would have liked to explore the islands further, but too many crewmen died in the storm or by cannibal spears. Only five of us are left. I am the only professional adventurer; the others are only sailors. We can sail the small ship well enough, but on land, in hostile territory, we would be helpless. Once back in Specularum, I should be able to recruit a new crew and a party of professional adventurers. Then I will return to claim the riches of the islands.
One thing I managed to do before leaving: we sailed around the island and made the best map we could. We were not able to land, since the coasts were rocky and without beaches. The sounds of the monsters could be clearly heard across the water at night as well. The map is the best we could do.”
P6 – Replace “Not only does the story …” with “No-one you talk to knows anything about the islands.”
P6 – Replace “The characters must…” with “The characters must acquire one or more ships to reach the Isle of Dread.”
P6 – Replace “Have a merchant…” with “Have a merchant or other benefactor finance the party to investigate the island. The characters will be responsible for the success of the expedition, but must split any treasure 50-50 with their benefactor. You might alter this scenario by allowing the characters to convince a merchant to desire them to investigate the isles for tradeable goods, including pearls, precious metals, spices or rare and exotic animals.”
For the village, consider replacing Elk clan with a more appropriate animal, maybe pig (important food source), dolphin, shark or dinosaur!
P9 – “The pits filled with… and thrown spears.” Delete the references to tar pits in the village. This way there is motivation for the villagers to undertake the dangerous trips to the tar pits north of the wall. The wall does the job of keeping dinosaurs, etc, away. There are no secondary defences.
P9 – Replace “Trading with the villagers:…” with
“Trading with the villagers: The villagers have little to trade and no coinage. All trade is done through barter. They can fill water barrels and provide pigs, fish, coconuts and various fruits. Pigs will be hard to get. They have spears, short bows, clubs and shields for weapons but won’t trade these. They will make new ones to trade. They can get pearls and exotic birds. Consider adding a spice or two to be native to the islands. They have various dinosaur bones but won’t trade them. The villagers value metal goods the most, daggers and axes especially. Other goods like mirrors and glass beads can be traded. The villagers still need to feed themselves and their families and will only collect goods for 2-3 days.
When the ship/s first near a village the male villagers will come out in their boats with their weapons. They won’t approach the ship/s unless properly enticed, and even then warily. The villagers will treat the party as potentially hostile in initially and may try to ambush and take over the ship/s by luring the party near the shore and throwing stones. If they are scared off by a sufficiently powerful show of force, or if the party lands ashore and starts taking belongings, the entire village of people will take their belongings and move to another part of the peninsula.
If any of the party give a villager trade goods with the expectation that the villager will later give something in return, the villager will just go into the jungle, never to be found again. Similarly, if an arrangement is thought to have been made with an entire village, then the entire village’s population may disappear, as above.
If any party from the ship is ashore for any length of time, and are not sufficiently armed, alert and protected, the natives may attempt an ambush. They will kill the entire party, strip them of anything useful and disappear. If this happens north of the wall the parties bodies will not be found, having been devoured by the wildlife.
If the characters are … experience points. (keep as is)
The only equipment available to trade are nets, sacks, poles, waterskins, fishing spears, ropes, spears, clubs, shields, short-bows and arrows. If a party member trades for a pole it will incur a negative penalty to the next reaction check as the villagers lose respect for people who can’t get a pole for themselves in a jungle. No transport animals or related objects are available. The only types of water transport available to the party are canoes of various sizes, small sailing boats, and rafts.”
P9 – Villages won’t work for coins, only the equivalent in trade goods. e.g. “A guide costs the equivalent of 5gp in trade goods per trip to the tar pits.”
P10 – Pirate lair. Replace with “Cannibal lair”. The cannibals are natives and otherwise the same as the natives in the other villages. They are armed the same. i.e. with spears, clubs, rocks, short-bows and shields. They are aggressive and cunning and will attack when it suits them best. They will leave their village and retreat into the jungle quite easily. They are happy raiding camps by stealth and taking small numbers at a time. 1d3 captives will be eaten per week. If they have 20 or more captives they will stop raiding and only take people opportunistically. Once they are down to 6 or fewer captives the cannibals will start raiding aggressively.
Map 2 – Delete the tar pits.
On the players’ map, also mark the volcano and the smoke from the central plateau village.
THE MAINLAND OF NEW GUINEA. ITS INHABITANTS. SLINGERS BAY.
The mainland at this place is high and mountainous, adorned with tall flourishing trees; the sides of the hills had many large plantations and patches of cleared land; which, together with the smokes we saw, were certain signs of its being well inhabited; and I was desirous to have some commerce with the inhabitants. Being nigh the shore we saw first one proa; a little after, 2 or 3 more; and at last a great many boats came from all the adjacent bays. When they were 46 in number they approached so near us that we could see each other’s signs, and hear each other speak; though we could not understand them, nor they us. They made signs for us to go in towards the shore, pointing that way; it was squally weather, which at first made me cautious of going too near; but, the weather beginning to look pretty well, I endeavoured to get into a bay ahead of us, which we could have got into well enough at first; but while we lay by we were driven so far to leeward that now it was more difficult to get in. The natives lay in their proas round us; to whom I showed beads, knives, glasses, to allure them to come nearer; but they would come so nigh as to receive anything from us. Therefore I threw out some things to them, namely a knife fastened to a piece of board, and a glass bottle corked up with some beads in it, which they took up and seemed well pleased. They often struck their left breast with their right hand, and as often held up a black truncheon over their heads, which we thought was a token of friendship; wherefore we did the like. And when we stood in towards their shore they seemed to rejoice; but when we stood off they frowned, yet kept us company in their proas, still pointing to the shore. About 5 o’clock we got within the mouth of the bay and sounded several times, but had no ground though within a mile of the shore. The basin of this bay was above 2 miles within us, into which we might have gone; but, as I was not assured of anchorage there, so I thought it not prudence to run in at this time; it being near night and seeing a black tornado rising in the west, which I most feared: besides we had near 200 men in proas close by us. And the bays on the shore were lined with men from one end to the other, where there could not be less than 3 or 400 more. What weapons they had we know not, nor yet their design. Therefore I had, at their first coming near us, got up all our small arms, and made several put on cartouch boxes to prevent treachery. At last I resolved to go out again: which, when the natives in their proas perceived, they began to fling stones at us as fast as they could, being provided with engines for that purpose (wherefore I named this place Slingers Bay). But at the firing of one gun they were all amazed, drew off and flung no more stones. They got together as if consulting what to do; for they did not make in towards the shore, but lay still, though some of them were killed or wounded; and many of them had paid for their boldness, but that it was unwilling to cut off any of them; which, if I had done, I could not hope afterwards to bring them to treat with me.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Continuation_of_a_Voyage_to_New_Holland/Chapter_4
