"Jikara" is a campaign world my DM developed as a "sandbox" exploration adventure module for Pathfinder:
Welcome to Jikara, a world of swords and sorcery!
Centuries ago, a river changed course and began flowing through a ridge. Stories say the event was
caused by erosion, creating a water gap in the mountains. The saru civilization on the other side of the
ridge sent explorers down the river’s new path. They found a desert valley now being fed with a mighty
river, and life springing up everywhere. As the water spread, much of it evaporated. The fog settled at
night, keeping the water in the valley. Soon, they sent settlers down into the Valley of Vapors.
The expedition leaders were sarus with mighty white plumes. They brought citizens, workers and slaves
and established a village in a river bend. To make finding it easier, they built a mighty temple. To this
day, the village itself doesn’t have a name; if people live in it, they say they live by the Towering
Temple. The village grew and thrived for many generations, maintaining contact and trade with the saru
empire over the mountains.
That time is long past. The last visitor from over the mountains came and went before you were born.
Some say the Riverside Road has all but washed away.
The river flows on, stronger than ever. The valley is green and lush. Plants and animals are abundant.
The environment is ideal for growing crops and raising animals, so there hasn’t been a need to explore.
Once or twice a year, the Breath of the White Wolf blows down through the valley, clearing the air and
cooling the land.
But the river pours fast and ground water levels have risen over the centuries. Old basements are
flooded. Once prosperous crops are struggling in boggy soil. If the river cuts much more of the bank
away, the Towering Temple’s foundations would be in danger.
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• Jikara [the planet] has extensive rings with many satellites, visible day and night. If you can see the sky, you
can determine the cardinal directions. Inner rings rotate with the planet. Outer rings rotate in a
retrograde motion, though this is only visible with careful study.
• Over 70 visible moons orbit the planet. This is not counting hundreds of “moonlets” within the
rings. Due to the rings and the many moons, Jikaran nights are brighter than Earth’s. There are
astromancers who can name every one of them, but they’re weird people.
• A few other planets are visible, but most people just know them as bright, stable stars. The other
stars change as often as the clouds, and people think nothing of it.
Welcome to Jikara, a world of swords and sorcery!
Centuries ago, a river changed course and began flowing through a ridge. Stories say the event was
caused by erosion, creating a water gap in the mountains. The saru civilization on the other side of the
ridge sent explorers down the river’s new path. They found a desert valley now being fed with a mighty
river, and life springing up everywhere. As the water spread, much of it evaporated. The fog settled at
night, keeping the water in the valley. Soon, they sent settlers down into the Valley of Vapors.
The expedition leaders were sarus with mighty white plumes. They brought citizens, workers and slaves
and established a village in a river bend. To make finding it easier, they built a mighty temple. To this
day, the village itself doesn’t have a name; if people live in it, they say they live by the Towering
Temple. The village grew and thrived for many generations, maintaining contact and trade with the saru
empire over the mountains.
That time is long past. The last visitor from over the mountains came and went before you were born.
Some say the Riverside Road has all but washed away.
The river flows on, stronger than ever. The valley is green and lush. Plants and animals are abundant.
The environment is ideal for growing crops and raising animals, so there hasn’t been a need to explore.
Once or twice a year, the Breath of the White Wolf blows down through the valley, clearing the air and
cooling the land.
But the river pours fast and ground water levels have risen over the centuries. Old basements are
flooded. Once prosperous crops are struggling in boggy soil. If the river cuts much more of the bank
away, the Towering Temple’s foundations would be in danger.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Jikara [the planet] has extensive rings with many satellites, visible day and night. If you can see the sky, you
can determine the cardinal directions. Inner rings rotate with the planet. Outer rings rotate in a
retrograde motion, though this is only visible with careful study.
• Over 70 visible moons orbit the planet. This is not counting hundreds of “moonlets” within the
rings. Due to the rings and the many moons, Jikaran nights are brighter than Earth’s. There are
astromancers who can name every one of them, but they’re weird people.
• A few other planets are visible, but most people just know them as bright, stable stars. The other
stars change as often as the clouds, and people think nothing of it.
My Pathfinder group recently reached a turning point in the campaign. Our party finally reached a landmark that some of the PCs had been searching for since day one. I made this SketchUp model to commemorate the occasion and finished it off in Photoshop:
Here is the DM's description of the site:
The Mouth of the River
The land had been rising nonstop for miles from the Fell Falls. There were occasional smaller falls and rapids, but the river was straight and didn't meander.
Markers of the Carmine Empire sat alongside the road: clean, elegant yet simple stone markers.
They party climbed steep slopes and broken rocks. Then they saw that the Riverside Road crossed the river. A large, sturdy stone bridge allowed travel over the river and into the snow-capped mountains. The low bridge was well-built and was sure to last centuries.
At the bridge, an unmistakable but rough path ran west (on the north side of the river). It wound through high mounds of broken stone. Since it followed the river and the paved road no longer did, they chose the rough path.
Trees were few and short at this altitude.
On the edge of this path they saw obelisks wrapped in rusted iron bands. They looked nothing like the elegant markers of the Carmine Empire. Brutish and cold they were, almost like bludgeons.
Sharp stone icons, blackened and polished, marked the end of the road. Ahead lay the Blood Tarn.
A rocky plateau with a broad lake greeted their eyes, with walls to the north and west. (The land was open and falling south and back east.) Here there were no plants, just moss. A few crows picked at the bones of a small humanoid creature. But iron rust has made the lake red and orange.
The Tall Tiers had been hewn out of the mountainside as if they were going to be something: large steps that even giants couldn't ascend. Vast rubble fields, iron rails, and slag heaps lay before the tiers. The corroding remains of steel structures jutted up from the rubble. Here and there sat incomplete stone towers - just the bases and foundations really.
The windswept peak was not high. It was dwarfed by the snowy, imposing peaks of neighboring mountains behind it.
The first tier was about 100 feet high, partially carved into bricks with stylized knots.
Gushing, foaming orange water shot out hundreds of feet from the giant hole from the main gate itself. A few holes that were once windows or small doors also sprayed water.
This, finally, was the mouth of the river: a mass volume of water constantly gushing and spraying out of holes in the mountain.
The Mouth of the River
The land had been rising nonstop for miles from the Fell Falls. There were occasional smaller falls and rapids, but the river was straight and didn't meander.
Markers of the Carmine Empire sat alongside the road: clean, elegant yet simple stone markers.
They party climbed steep slopes and broken rocks. Then they saw that the Riverside Road crossed the river. A large, sturdy stone bridge allowed travel over the river and into the snow-capped mountains. The low bridge was well-built and was sure to last centuries.
At the bridge, an unmistakable but rough path ran west (on the north side of the river). It wound through high mounds of broken stone. Since it followed the river and the paved road no longer did, they chose the rough path.
Trees were few and short at this altitude.
On the edge of this path they saw obelisks wrapped in rusted iron bands. They looked nothing like the elegant markers of the Carmine Empire. Brutish and cold they were, almost like bludgeons.
Sharp stone icons, blackened and polished, marked the end of the road. Ahead lay the Blood Tarn.
A rocky plateau with a broad lake greeted their eyes, with walls to the north and west. (The land was open and falling south and back east.) Here there were no plants, just moss. A few crows picked at the bones of a small humanoid creature. But iron rust has made the lake red and orange.
The Tall Tiers had been hewn out of the mountainside as if they were going to be something: large steps that even giants couldn't ascend. Vast rubble fields, iron rails, and slag heaps lay before the tiers. The corroding remains of steel structures jutted up from the rubble. Here and there sat incomplete stone towers - just the bases and foundations really.
The windswept peak was not high. It was dwarfed by the snowy, imposing peaks of neighboring mountains behind it.
The first tier was about 100 feet high, partially carved into bricks with stylized knots.
Gushing, foaming orange water shot out hundreds of feet from the giant hole from the main gate itself. A few holes that were once windows or small doors also sprayed water.
This, finally, was the mouth of the river: a mass volume of water constantly gushing and spraying out of holes in the mountain.
The first Pathfinder homebrew campaign I played in was called Shandul’Ki. At our first session, our DM showed us a regional map of Shandul’Ki that he had created with a map generation program of some kind, but without any of the political boundaries clearly delineated. I decided to beautify this map while the group was on a two week hiatus. Our DM also gave us a list of the various regions of his world with extensive descriptions, so I tried to fill in the blanks where some regions of his map were unidentified.
I wanted this map to look like water-color painted on parchment. The roads and towns have been drawn from the perspective of the Balmorian Empire as the center of civilization. The Balmorians know of the Ird Empire and the Ikhtar Caliphate to the far east, but they do not have operable knowledge of their roadways or caravan routes. Our campaign is centered around political upheaval within the Balmorian Empire, so this is the sort of map that the PCs would expect to be familiar with.
This map was created entirely in Photoshop. I used the mountain ink stamp image from Ravenfield’s PS brushes. My “forested” areas were created with a customized PS scatter brush that blends a leaf shape with an abstract blob to create the sponge-like water-color pattern.
I wanted this map to look like water-color painted on parchment. The roads and towns have been drawn from the perspective of the Balmorian Empire as the center of civilization. The Balmorians know of the Ird Empire and the Ikhtar Caliphate to the far east, but they do not have operable knowledge of their roadways or caravan routes. Our campaign is centered around political upheaval within the Balmorian Empire, so this is the sort of map that the PCs would expect to be familiar with.
This map was created entirely in Photoshop. I used the mountain ink stamp image from Ravenfield’s PS brushes. My “forested” areas were created with a customized PS scatter brush that blends a leaf shape with an abstract blob to create the sponge-like water-color pattern.
