The Great Antarctic Hexcrawl pt. 15: The Ferruginous Forest

01 Nov, 2025

Another region from my Antarctic Adventure Jam entry. This one's inland, between a populous, settled region & a huge desert. It's less cohesive than I'd like, but it's got 69 keyed rooms across four dungeons so I'd say there's a little meat on its bones. Untested, minimally edited, etc.

The Ferruginous Forest

Scrubby trees with waxy leaves & red bark grow in the hilly borderlands between the Tetrapolis & the Lilac Wastes. The land here is infertile, but hunting & foraging can sustain a meager existence.

The folk here are known as "Ferrugenes". An erratic flux links the population of the forest and the Tetrapolis: the Ferrugene communities are bolstered by a steady influx of renegades & fugitives, and depopulated by the demand for mercenary archers.

27-297 Village of Anor-taroth

Village of 123 Ferrugenes ruled by a Minotaur, The Taurine Master of The Raiment. The villagers hunt giant spiders that live along Xarec's Cataract (running through the Knorthern part of the hex). Giant spider venom can be purchased here (50gp per bottle), as well as strong, supple coats woven from spider silk (as +1 leather armor, 1,000gp).

If arriving from the Knorth or Knorthouest, there is a 50% chance of encountering 1d4 aggressive Giant Spiders.

28-296 Ordinary Tree

A perfectly ordinary tree bears a large wooden sign: "This is a perfectly ordinary tree".

29-294 The Warrens of Haz-Lutoth

Haz-Lutoth was once a town of runaway serfs & refugees from the wars of the Tetrapolis, but some decades ago it succumbed to a mysterious corruption. The majority of the populace was driven out, and those that remained smeared their bodies in mud, donned the skulls of the Ferrugene Five-eyed Lagomorph, and began to raid & pillage the surrounding lands.

The Warrens are built into a ridge and are centered on a winding central passage between 1 & 29. The walls are hewn stone, sometimes supported with sturdy wooden beams, and the floors are paved with smooth flagstones.

Sappers are 1 HD humans in leather armor unless otherwise specified.

1. Formerly a guard post, now a nest of 4 Giant Centipedes.
2. Three 3' tall urns painted with scenes of THE INNAMORATI's mystery rituals (Masked orgies). The leftmost contains 317sp & a scroll of Bataille's Peripheral Polymorphy. The other two contain spiders.
3. Side passage opening obscured by a copse of tamaracks.
4. Pile of human skulls repurposed as candle-holders, painted with sigils of Before.
5. A kitchen, with traces of rotting vegetables & dried herbs hanging from the cabinets. A chipped machete rests on a gore-spattered wooden table.
6. A fireplace with a 1' wide chimney. Tiny blue termites diligently turn stacks of firewood into sawdust.
7. A starving Lagomorph is chained to the wall. Three human skeletons have have recently been denuded of flesh. One of these has a shield with the Stegosaur crest of the Flawless Lawgiver -- it can be returned to 35-288 to improve the Flawless Lawgiver's disposition.
8. A small shrine to THE LUMINARY is hidden behind piles of discarded, broken furniture (bed frames, tables, stools, baskets, room dividers, urns, tripods)
9. 5 Sappers guarding the Knorth entrance, tossing scraps of meat to a baby Lagomorph.
10. Hangmoss infests this room. A chest in the knortheest corner contains 103gp & 760sp.
11. A meditating partially-ascended Sapper (HD: 4+1, AC: 9, has a Wand of Metal Detection) is buried up to his knees in this passage. He carries the key to room 17 in a lagomorph-leather belt pouch.
12. The flagstones in this room have been pulled up & placed along the walls, the floor appears to be smooth dirt but is actually a quicksand trap with poisoned shards of glass cleverly hidden in the bottom.
13. Sourceless polyphonic chants permeate this room. A fully-ascended Sapper (HD: 6, AC: 5, Telekinesis at will) writhes on the floor. The music has a cold, distant, geological beauty akin to the light of an alien star dawning on the serrated peaks a lifeless world. The soul of the convulsing Sapper-lord has passed forever into places beyond mortal reach; he will do anything to ensure the music continues. The music will cease if he dies, but all exposed to it will hear it in their dreams the following night. An Obsidian Necropolis Clavis dangles from a lagomorph-leather cord around his neck.
14. 6 Sappers crouching around a small fire, chanting.
15. The door of this room is rigged with a poison-tipped spear trap (save vs. Poison or lose 1d6 CON). Inside, benches, candle stubs, & empty basins. Hanging on the ouestern wall are icons of THE LUMINARY, THE JUDIFEX, & THE WORLD AXIS (175gp each).
16. A Sapper is training two Lagomorphs to attack a training dummy.
17. Locked (key in room 11). Three leather sacks contain 1,350gp, a Potion of Diminution, a scroll with Hold Portal, Levitate, & Invisibility (extended), & an enchanted Lagomorph skull (leap 20', but 1-in-20 chance of becoming feral per day worn & when donned).
18. Sticks tipped with jagged glass shards are rigged over the doorway to swing down when the door is opened. The room contains a bedframe, three stools, some candle stubs, & a dusty wardrobe with seven fine silk shawls (200sp each).
19. A partially ascended Sapper (3+1 HD, has a scroll of Tellurian Transformation) is building traps at a workbench. His satchel contains a map to the buried treasure in 30-292.
20. Four dead Gnolls hang from the walls on rusty chains.
21. The floor is strewn with dung-smeared wooden caltrops -- stepping on one carries a 4-in-6 chance of infection.
22. Racks of crude spears & clubs, partially finished traps, sheaves of poisonous herbs, pots of Lagomorph dung.
23. Human organs float in a mixture of blood & dark wine inside clay pots painted with sigils of Before.
24. Four inhabitants of Weloun's Rest (28-297) are imprisoned in bamboo cages:
    • Ur-neshtal (vintner, fretful & wary)
    • Yadada (elder, sanguine & senile)
    • Nartha (merchant, taciturn & shrewd)
    • Astrobhan (acolyte, irrational & curious)
    • A fifth Welounite, Viserne (farmhand, tenacious & methodical) recently escaped & is wandering the warrens looking for help.
25. The floor is covered with sticky tar.
26. Knee-deep mud covers the floor. A pouch with 117sp is buried in the mud near the psouthouestern corner.
27. Both doors are slightly ajar, 2 urns with 3 poisonous centipedes perched atop.
28. A partially-ascended Sapper (HD: 3+2, AC: 7, scroll of Tellurian Transmutation) & 5 Sappers guard the psouthern entrance. 50% chance each round of the partially-ascended Sapper suddenly lapsing into a musical convulsion akin to that in room 13.
29. Poles topped with painted human & lagomorph skulls.

30-289 Town of Terminal Yothe

536 exiles live in a wooden palisade at the edge of the Lilac Waste. About half are Ferrugenes, mutated by purple dust borne on pitiless winds. The rest are former Martian Nomads, followers of Niobium of Interlocking Wheels, who decades ago challenged Bismuth where The Light Still Flickers for the role of Agonarch.

Merchants in Terminal Yothe sell water (50gp for a guaranteed clean waterskin, each 1gp discount corresponds to a 1% chance of being tainted), pack lizards (40gp, adapted to lilac toxins), gas masks (5gp), and approximate maps of the Lilac Wastes (15gp).

Hidden within the town's aeons-old sewer system is a cache of treasure stowed in a canvas mailbag (map in 32-296):

• 25,114sp
• 8 small blue spinel (100gp each)
• 5 small flawed rubies (100gp each)

30-292 ESCHATON Shrine

A shrine to THE ESCHATON: a statue of a Seraph wreathed in flame & blowing a mighty horn, swords in her third & fourth hands, a banner in her fifth & sixth. The surrounding trees produce abundant, wonderfully sweet lemons.

At the base of a small hillock, treasure is burried (map in 29-294, room 13):

• Potion of Ease Creaky Joints
• Psi Medallion
• Marble urn with gold filigree (2,500gp)
• Ring of Weakness
• 876sp

30-293 Fungal Alien Lair

12 Fungal Aliens inhabit a ruined stone keep. Twenty Years Ago, the Flawless Lawgiver arranged to have his father, The Protector of All Blades, abducted. His preserved brain now resides in the keep. It is capable of communicating via an attached speaker & microphone and will exhort human visitors to exact revenge.

The aliens are uninterested in human power struggles but have realized that keeping the brain on Irð allows them to blackmail The Flawless Lawgiver into sending other test subjects on a regular basis.

The vaults below the keep contain:

• Yuggothite pendant (3,000gp)
• Ring Of Human Control
• Potion Of Delusion
• Sack of biomechanical tools

30-296 Ancient Harvester

An ancient mechanical harvester (Huge Robot) tends to neat rows of valuable ferruginous agarwood trees. Every summer, it cuts down a cohort of mature trees and piles them in neat rows to await a grav-barge that will never arrive. The older piles have long-since decomposed into dark red soil.

The sap of the ferruginous agarwood can be brewed into Potions of Acid Resistance, but the harvester will not hesitate to use its diamond-tipped sawblades on any found tampering with the trees.

31-289 Old Yothe Mine

Once a prosperous mine worked by the people of Terminal Yothe, Old Yothe Mine was abandoned after an earthquake collapsed the lower section. A partially-collapsed windmill contains stairs down to 10 & an overgrown hillside adit leads to 1.

1. Entrance from hillside adit. This is the main entrance used by the White Ape in 2, the Mantichore in 3, the Frogicorn in 5, & the Chimaera in 8. Roll a separate encounter check for each when entering the mine this way.
2. A bloodthirsty Albino (i.e. completely black) White Ape lairs here. 2,761sp & a scroll with Cosmological Query & Animal Hypertrophy are scattered amongst the bones & hides of her refuse pile.
3. Pickaxes, carts, helmets, & barrels. 2 Lanterns hang from wall hooks. A Mantichore sharpens his tail spikes on a whetstone.
4. 3 dead miners impaled by aerodynamic iron spikes.
5. A Frogicorn splashes around in a toxic puddle of mine residue.
6. Empty. A small rivulet of water runs down the Psouthern wall, feeding the toxic puddle in 5.
7. Scattered rubble.
8. A loose pile of silver ore (3,110sp, 9,330coin-weight) rests under a tarp, guarded by a Chimera.
9. Old crates, one of which contains 5 carefully-wrapped sticks of dynamite.
10. Stairs lead up to the interior of a partially-collapsed windmill.

31-298 Lycanthropes

Two old women live in a modest hut in the marshy headwaters of the Green River. They are both Wearbears, but will only harm those who despoil the forest or are particularly disrespectful. They hate the harvester in 30-296 and will be grateful to anyone who can disable or destroy it.

31-291 Crashed Flyer

Crashed flying machine (four-seater, damaged steering, 55 hexes of fuel) guarded by Xiphlos, a surly bailiff working for The Flawless Lawgiver (35-288), and 17 Ferrugene Yeomen (shortbows, axes, padded armor & shield).

In 4d8 days, the Flawless Lawgiver will trade four tenants to the Fungal Aliens in 30-293 for the parts needed to repair it. After that, the flyer will be relocated to his castle & used to launch raids on Bel-Zarath. This will ameliorate his depression for 1d12 months, after which he will resume brooding.

31-293 Cyclops Lair

3 Cyclopes named Ekiim, Ozaaw, & Iskwo vie for sole rulership of the hex. Ekiim resides in a moldy cave where 3 ivory combs worth 3,500sp total are stashed under a pile of elk bones. Ozaaw inhabits an old stone watchtower, his single eye oft seen swiveling to-&-fro at its top. He covets a mahogany chest containing 225gp, a +1 Morningstar, and a Bel-Zarathi crown worth 1,500sp. Iskwo makes his home in a Ferrugene longhouse where 17 captives from Khaland (34-291) are compelled to treat him as a human warlord, "Iskwo the Copious Digester".

32-292 Sadak Ancestral Tomb

A vertical shaft descends 120' behind a broken slab of black stone in a grassy clearing. At the bottom, a circular chamber contains three human skeletons & a stele inscribed with Before Kingdom glyphs.

Three stone doors with equidistant spacing can be forced open with great effort.

1. 12 ellipsoidal urns: 3 contain a total of 289gp, one has a scroll of Protection from Machines, three are empty, and five contain Canopic Spirits that will alert the Death Knight in chamber 3 if disturbed.
2. A chalice of black liquid rests on altar beneath the graven likeness of a Titan. Any who partake of it will gradually lose all hair & skin pigmentation over the next 1d4 days. On the final day, they will be wracked by agonizing convulsions; those who succeed on a save vs. Death may operate the terminals in the Necropolis of Zurth (23-291).
3. A Death Knight, dormant in a cocoon of humming, pulsating conduits, armored hands gripping a +2 Chaotic greatsword (INELUCTIBLE PHOENIX DIADEM: 8 INT, 3 EGO, empathic, Charming).

32-294 Gnoll Lair

65 Gnolls are living in the dodecahedral ruins of manse that once belonged to a Blue Thaumaturge named "The Foundation of Thrice-crowned Cognition". A ghostly imprint of his psyche mounted on a mobile holodisk floats around the manse, howling & generally trying to induce consternation among the mantis-men. To those who help expel the Gnolls, he will share the incantations needed to work the Projected Image spell & the locations of stashed treasures.

The following items can be found in the manse:

• Staff of Healing (in a rusty stock pot)
• Potion of Speed (behind some mouldering almanacs)
• Potion of Polymorph (self) (mislabeled as rice vinegar)
• Scroll with Feeblemind & Teleport (tucked into a box of old bedsheets)
• Scroll of ESP (behind a soot-blackened painting of The Foundation of Thrice-crowned Cognition)

32-295 Ruined Observatory

The remains of a massive hemispherical dome occupy the highest point in the Ferruginous Forest. Searching the ruins will turn up an alien power cell & a scroll of Light from Citrine Star.

32-296 The Maze of The Thunderworm

A flat stretch of the Ferruginous forest is distinguished by three mounds of soil, approximately colinear, roughly 100' apart. The top of each each mound opens into a narrow vertical shaft (to 1, 6, & 21).

The interior of the maze was bored from packed earth & stone, except for rooms 7, 8, 14, 20, & 27. These are built from tight-fitting masonry, with insectoid caryatids placed at 10' intervals along the walls.

1. 50' shaft to surface.
2. Blind white fish dart to & fro in shallow puddles.
3. 17 Knomes have a small storefront. They use teeth as currency.¹ For sale:
   • Bowl of earthworm stew (1/2🦷)
   • Scroll of Brass Barricade (45🦷)
   • Small robot, programmed to take orders from humans (115🦷)
   • Copy of Opus 69, "Fantasia in D Major"² (27🦷)
   • Wand of Fear (21 charges) (352🦷)
   • Ring of Crustacean Control (178🦷)
4. Hole in the floor leading to 9 is obscured by a pile of roots & rubble.
5. Tangled white roots hang from the ceiling.
6. 65' shaft to surface.
7. A flickering hologram repeats garbled exhortations to purchase various mass-produced snack foods (Specifically: Sizzlin' Chum-stix, Sweet-n-spicy Quadnodules, Crowdragon Crisps ("will make you keen with adulation"), Fermented Nutmeg Instanoodle-bowls, & Chewy Zurth Eggs.)
8. Hoses & conduits. 1 Large Robot, set to SENTINEL protocol guards a large tungsten cube (58gp, 150coin-weight).
9. 1 Hangmoss.
10. Blanketed in snow & ice. 3 Giant Ice Beetles attend to the construction of a frosty palisade. Beneath 5' of snow, the corpse of an adventurer has 375sp, 349gp, & a pair of Boots of Traveling & Leaping.
11. Hundreds of roosting bats. Guano smeared all over the floor.
12. An invisibility spell obscures 5 mammoth tusks carved with scenes of Bel-Zarath's early campaigns during the wars of the Dog-headed Maiden (each 110gp, 200coin-weight).
13. Ochre handprints form 13 interlinked circles on the psouth wall.
14. Balanzartho of Dar'yokai, Myrmidon, wears rusty plate armor blazoned with The Flawless Lawgiver's umber stegasaur & carries a spear. His hair & beard are long & his hands & face are caked in dirt. He tripped & fell into the maze 89 days ago while hunting with his liege, The Flawless Lawgiver (35-288). Though he has survived by eating worms, grubs, & blind fish, he is nearly mad & quite paranoid. Returning him to 35-288 will earn the favor of his liege & a boon from Balantharzo.
15. 2 Theurgists, Curio Crepuscule³ & Yarrow Synthome,⁴ comb the maze for fulgurites needed to construct a Wand of Lightning Bolt.
16. A hunk of silver ore worth 809sp juts from the bottom of a pile of rubble. Removing it without reinforcing the pile will the psouthern wall of the chamber to collapse.
17. Empty.
18. 3 Ghouls gnaw on the bones of a baby weasel. A chest with 1,027sp & 435gp is buried in a mound of loose earth.
19. 2 Giant Weasels will ferociously defend their litter of 8 young.
20. 6 metal chairs arranged in a circle, bolted to the concrete floor.
21. 45' shaft to surface.
22. The Lair of The Thunderworm, an Ancient Blue Dragon. He does not speak & has a 60% chance of being asleep when approached. He sleeps atop a hoard containing:
    • 17,000cp.
    • Scroll with Protection from Undead
    • Map to a hidden cache in the Terminal Yothe (30-298) sewers.
    • +1 Neutral Sword (Grizzled Skipper: +3 vs. undead, 7 INT, 5 EGO. Sees invisible objects. Empathic).
    • Potion Of Giant Control
    • Potion of Invulnerability
    • Scroll with Reincarnation, Disintegrate, Move Earth, Projected Image, Anti-magic Shell, Digit of Doom, & Geas
23. Roots hang from the ceiling. Sap drips from deep scratches gouged into a particularly large taproot.
24. 3 Androids will exit standby mode when approached. (If surprised, those who encounter them will see them powering on, otherwise they will be indistinguishable from normal humans). They will ask to be taken to the nearest city, where they will attempt to infiltrate its leadership & re-orient its economy toward the mining of Osmium.
25. Three splendid fulgurites (each 200gp, 400coin-weight) are partially embedded in the wall. Dislodging them without breaking requires 3 Turns of careful digging.
26. Fragments of an obelisk whereon the lost 11th discourse of the Flawless Archon (see 44-287) were engraved.
27. A dead knight clad in +1 Plate holds a mace & +1 Shield (Gyronny carnation and iron, an athaleb yellow-ochre). He leans against a red-&-blue checkered urn containing 1,193sp.

32-298 Village of Smovaq

87 secretive, dark-eyed villagers in thatched cottages tend to reeking pits of giant horned beetles. A family of armorers knows coveted techniques for working beetle carapaces into supple, resilient armor; chitin panoply offers the protection of plate armor at the weight of leather & costs 4,000gp.

Visitors would be wise not to turn down offerings of beetle-grub stew, no matter how unappetizing.

34-288 Golem Lair

A small path branches Knorth off of the trail, leading to a clearing where a Bronze Golem guards a small shrine to THE PSYCHOPOMP. A Wand of Enemy Detection rests in the hands of the shrine's skeletal effigy.

34-289 Village of Xylaal

Village of 35 tenant farmers working land belonging to the Flawless Lawgiver (35-288). To offset harsh land rents, they offer visitors obsequious hospitality and then demand exorbitant payment. If the visitors are weak or few in number, they might threaten violence. Otherwise, they will accuse their guests of a petty crime and threaten to summon the Flawless Lawgiver's enforcers.

34-290 Common Fields

Seasonal common pastureland where the folk of Khaland (34-291) & Xylaal (34-289) graze their nesodon herds.

34-291 Village of Khaland

A tiny village of woodsmen. Only 10 inhabitants are left after the Cyclops Iskwo (31-293) raided them.

34-292 Adhesive Slime

Adhesive slime wells up from tainted earth, precluding traversal by foot.

35-288 The Flawless Lawgiver

Castle ruled by The Flawless Lawgiver, a melancholy Superhero defended by 4 Swashbucklers riding Stegosaurs & 52 Bandits.

Though nominally the ruler of the Ferrugenes, he has taken to brooding in the ouest-facing solar of this tower. A large complement of his retainers have abandoned his service (37-289).

Much of his consternation stems from guilt over usurping his father, The Protector of All Blades (30-293), and from the loss of Shaar-thelath (36-290).

His coat of arms is Copper, two barrulets or, a stegasaur senois crowned.

35-289 Stegosaur Nursery

A stegosaurus breeding ground claimed by The Flawless Lawgiver in 35-288. Runes of prohibition carved into ancient ferrous yews forbid poaching on pain of death. 1-in-6 chance of finding a nest per hour searching, 1d6 eggs (worth 750gp each) per nest.

36-286 Village of Dustweir

Village of 110, subjects of The Flawless Lawgiver (35-288). Home to the legendary tortoise-breeder Zarthuun, whose testudinal pedigrees are highly sought-after by Bel-Zarathi elites.

36-290 Petrified Courtesan

Statue of a slender & alluring young man holding a two-handed sword (Hetaera Esmeralda, Emerald Courtesan: +3 vs. machines, Chaotic. 10 INT, 9 EGO. Detects & identifies metal, locates secret doors, sees invisible objects. Speaks Zurthine, Yptifrage, Gnoll, & Orcish). If de-petrified, he will identify himself as the Courtesan Shaar-thelath, once the beloved companion of the one would would become The Flawless Lawgiver.

37-287 Ruined Fort

Saplings sprout from tumbledown bricks -- a bastion brought low by the bygone legions of Bel-Zarath.

In the floor of the Ouesternmost tower, a perfectly symmetrical fissure opens to a swirling blue void. A shrill voice issues forth, demanding a magic sword in exchange for a warrior's wisdom. If a suitable weapon is cast into the void, the voice will declaim the secret sword techniques of the Fifth Whirling School (on a damage roll of 6 with a slashing weapon, roll damage vs. all adjacent foes).

37-289 Bandit Lair

153 Bandits in an unfinished palisade, former retainers of The Flawless Lawgiver who abandoned him to his depression. Led by Xeethra of Yothe, a Stegosaur-riding Swashbuckler. They have yet to amass any loot.