Kol Noth: Mapping Feor LLen

"The Lonesome Cartographer" Actual-Play

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Feor Llen, the far land

Here begins my playthrough of The Lonesome Cartographer. I will play an explorer from Kol Noth, in the Second Era, who has sailed across the western ocean after hearing about the land the Lederans once hailed from, long, long ago.

Let’s play.

Tools: a d6, a Tarot Deck, Somewhere to draw, take notes (roll20)

First, I pick a point at random, then draw a card, consult the charts and draw the landmark. After that, I write a short journal entry before moving on to the next one.

Card: Queen of Swords

This new land is rather amazing. It was a long and arduous trip here, but all the more worth it. I have come to explore and map this land as best I can. And I shall start here. There is an enormous volcano near the eastern coast, rather active and dangerous. I went as close as I dared and found deposits of strange, red crystals of varying size. Some huge, as large as a barn, and others as small as a shrub. I managed to crack off a piece of two and bagged it. Does the volcanic activity produce these? Do they thrive in hot temperatures? So many questions.

Next, I roll 2d6 to determine a couple things about the next landmark.

5: This Landmark is connected to another Landmark

3: It is a slow and relaxing trip

There is an ancient road near the volcano, perhaps built and used when the volcano was dormant. It’s cracked, pitted and doesn’t seem maintained but makes for rather easy travel.

Card: 4 of Rings (Pentacles)

At the end of the road, I come to the ruins of a fishing village next to a lake. Little is left save for stone foundations and rotted scraps of wood. I stand on the coastline looking out at the lake, wondering who once lived here. The ancestors of the Lederans, perhaps? I tried to find why the Lederans fled this land but they only knew myths and legends, some magical catastrophe they claimed. I’d seen no evidence of that so far.

2d6 = 5,3

The road continued to the south, so I decided to keep following it.

Card: The World

Whenever you draw a Major Arcana, it is a society or community of some kind.

I come to the first inhabited settlement I’ve found on the continent so far, a bustling, thriving city, full of Oriri (humans) who look like me and yet are so different. Different customs, different foods, different languages, different clothes. Wonderful colors, bright, neon, and dazzling. Magicians practicing on street corners. Wizardly-looking folk walking side by side with peasants. This is unlike any place in Kol Noth I’ve ever been, and I’ve been to many.

My senses are overwhelmed and overloaded.

As best I can understand, it is called Hodos.

2d6 = 1,4

1: It is far from any Landmarks

4: The trip goes exactly as planned

Card: The Fool

From Hodos, I hear of a wonderful place, a magical commune which sounds impossible, called “The Land of the Ylfen”. It is far across the land, far from anywhere else, but I make my way there without trouble.

I find a deep, tall forest, within which a people I’ve never seen before live, in dwellings high above the ground, grown from the very trees’ trunks and branches themselves. These people are tall and thin, and move with inhumane speed and quickness. They flit among the limbs of the trees as quick as birds fly.

They are welcoming to me and I witness strange, magical rituals they perform. There is no place in Kor Noth that I can even compare it too, a living city of wood high up in the tree tops, a people who cast magic as easily as they breath, it is wondrous.

Again, I wonder, how did the brutal, magic-fearing Lederans come from such a land as this?

2d6 = 4,2

4: The landmark is connected to another

2: It is a slow but relaxing trip to get there

Card: Queen of Wands

I find the course of a river that feeds the lake and decide to follow it up, coming to a towering mountain, upon which lives a species of mountain goats, with long, spiral horns, wild and free. I enjoy watching herds of them travel up and down the steep slopes, munching on grass.

2d6 = 3,3

3: The landmark isn’t close to others

3: Slow but relaxed trip

Card: Temperance

Continuing north east, I come to another community, off the beaten path. I find this one vastly different from the others I’d seen so far. A minimalist, rugged group, living in simple shelters, focused on farming, hunting, and fighting. They did not allow themselves luxuries of any kind and seemed hateful, or at best, distrustful of magic of any kind. They raided other communities for what they needed, and were hostile to most newcomers. They allowed me to stay but one night before forcing me to move on. Despite their hostilities, I could tell they were masterful farmers, hunters and warriors. The community was called ‘Deso’.

I had to wonder, as I left, if these were ancient Lederans, left behind when most took the seas?

2d6: 4,3

Connected, long but relaxing trip

Card: The Hierophant

I followed a road to the south-east, a slow trip but without trouble, coming to a religious commune based around ancient fortifications, and a large temple. Monks lived here, worshipping something called ‘The Ancient Way’. This place, Wega, was connected to Deso. Those from Deso would make pilgrimage here and some became these monks, warriors and knights. These worshipers too despised magic, the monks leading lives devoid of sentiment.

2d6: 3,5

Connected, goes exactly as planned

Card: Page of Cups

Valley or ravine, magical and mysterious

A well-trodden path from Wega led to a holy site not far, a deep ravine cut into the land as if from a giant blade, within which you can see ever-burning fires. They do not die out. Those from Wega worship here, claiming this was where a magical calamity occurred, something that struck the earth so hard, it will never heal, and always bleed, the blood the cause of the fires. Those from Wega and Deso have prophesies that, should magic continue to be used, another blow will come, worse than before, and shatter the earth completely.

I’m certain now, these were the ancient Lederans left behind. A group of them must have fled over the ocean after the cataclysm, while some stayed behind.

2d6: 6,1

6: Adjacent to another landmark

1: It is arduous to get to

Card: 6 of Swords

Natural Phenomena, wetland or lagoon

I go around the ravine, an arduous, strenuous task taking many days, before coming to a wetland nearby the abandoned fishing village and the lake. Within it, I find the most beautiful purple flowers growing and thriving.

2d6: 6,6

Adjacent, found unexpectedly

Card: 3 of Rings

Ruins, Island or peninsula

As I come to the lake once more, I spy an island out in the center, upon which a few ruins stand. After rowing out, I inspect the ruins, finding remnants of ancient buildings of some unknown purpose, stone foundations left behind.

The lagoon and the island

2d6: 6,5

Adjacent, trip goes as planned

Card: The Tower

In my travels, I had heard rumors of a community beneath the northern mountain, where I’d found the goats and so I returned there, discovering an underground city, full of people living, mining and making wonderful crafts. These were hardy folk who dug underground after the magical cataclysm, seeking safety beneath the bedrock. They care little for the politics of the surface but trade with all. They are known as the Buthla and the city is called Barden.

2d6: 4,1

Connected, it is arduous to get to.

Card: 10 of Rings

Forest or jungle, ruins

I follow another river all across Feor Llen. It is a grueling, long trek, following whispers of rumors of some vast, ancient ruins.

I finally come to a deep, dense jungle, into which I find the most breath-taking wonder, an ancient city with huge stone-works, mysterious temples and dangerous dungeons. The jungle fauna has grown over most of it, the stones are dark and the area foreboding. It is known to those of Feor Llen as a haunted place, even by the open-minded magical people of Hodos.

I do not stay long, as I grow sick and weary of the humidity.

I have decided my time at Feor Llen is at an end. I have spent years traveling and mapping as best I could. I will return to Kol Noth with what I’ve found. Perhaps, should travel become more accessible between these continents, we can learn and trade with these civilizations that are so different and yet so alike our own.

Feor Llen

Here we leave Feor Llen, a magical land of contradicting civilizations and people.

I won’t lie, I struggled a bit. The sheer open-endedness was a bit too much for me. The ‘prompts’ are very simple, which is also why I bounced off Alone Among The Stars, a very well known and well regarded solo space exploration game. (It should be noted The Lonesome Cartographer is a hack of Alone on a Map, itself a hack of Alone Among The Stars, so perhaps I should have expected this.) I also realized I’d started making the Landmarks too big after the first couple but I was a bit stuck with what I had. Too quickly, the map was filling up. Also, is shuffling Tarot Cards supposed to be difficult? I had a hard time trying to shuffle it like I would a normal deck of cards. Due to these reasons, I probably cut the game shorter than I would have preferred.

Still, I enjoyed playing and I’m fairly happy with the end result. I wanted Feor Llen to be quite different to Kol Noth, with more magic and whimsy.

I’ve also learned more about what I enjoy playing. I need a bit more to dig my teeth into. What I enjoy about Thousand-Year-Old Vampire, Long Haul 1983 and The Quiet Year/The Deep Forest are their thought-provoking (and setting specific) prompts.

What’s Next? You decide!

From our previous selection, we still have

I Am The Forest: “A solo roleplaying and map­making game about your Forest's advancement.”

The Ground Itself: “The Ground Itself is a one-session storytelling game for 2-5 players, played with household materials (a coin, a six-sided die, and a deck of cards). Focusing on place- one specific place, chosen by the group - The Ground Itself unfolds over radically disparate time periods that may range from 4 days to 18,000 years. By casting wildly into time, it considers how places both change and remember themselves. Fundamentally, The Ground Itself is about the echoes and traces we leave for others after we are gone.”

Ex Novo: “Ex Novo is a playable city-generator that helps you construct, and populate fictional villages, towns, and cities. This physical game can be played solo or with up to 3 friends. Playtime ranges from 1 to 3 hours.”

I’m also going to add two more options.

i’m sorry did you say street magic: iʼm sorry did you say street magic is a game about building a city: filling it with life and vivid detail, exploring its hidden corners, and meeting its strange and wondrous inhabitants.

Anamnesis: Anamnesis is a solo journaling RPG about self-discovery, reflection, and identity. You play as an individual who has woken up with memory loss. You do not remember who you are, where you are, or what you care about. As you draw tarot cards, you fill the blank spaces of your past and learn more about your present.

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Next week will be a break, either no post or maybe something about a video game I’ve recently gotten into replaying (Elden Ring which, talk about fascinating world-building…)

So vote for and/or discuss which game you think should be played next in the comments!