Chardaukan Hexcrawl: Adapting The Evils of Illmire

In this series of articles, I will guide you through the process of designing a sandbox hexcrawl, illustrating each step with Chardauka, one of the continents of my world. Throughout these articles, I will cover both adventure content creation to populate the hexes and the worldbuilding elements that bring the setting to life.

Cover of The Evils of Illmire

The Evils of Illmire is an adventure published by Spellsword Studios for B/X D&D, Old School Essentials, and other OSR systems. Originally conceived in 1998, it was remastered thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign. It is a sandbox hexcrawl with remarkable attention to detail, set, as is customary on this blog, in a swamp (although it also includes forest and mountain biomes). I believe it is one of the best hexcrawls published in recent years and a magnificent example of applying this structure to small-scale settings. 

While reading Challenge of the Frog Idol and Fever Swamp, the idea of creating a hidden cult in the slums of Garampur, the Stilts, dedicated to one of the Lovecraftian deities of the Scaled Ones, solidified in my mind. Perhaps Ul'gorath, the Blind Eel of the End, goddess of devastation and insatiable hunger. The Evils of Illmire presents the emergence of an evil cult worshipping an extradimensional creature that feeds on fear: the Fearmother. This cult, led by Rancidius the Defiler and Virica the Vile, operates secretly in the Illmire region. Disguised as 'Father Rand,' the new local priest, Rancidius: "speaks doom and gloom in the town center, asserting that it is the sinful ways of the villagers themselves that bring Illmire misfortune".

Meanwhile, the cult poisons the town’s well, causes nightmares among the locals, kidnaps victims for sacrifices, mentally manipulates influential figures with their "mindphage worms," and corrupts sacred sites. This strongly reminds me of the modus operandi of Vaermina cultists in The Elder Scrolls, and I may design a new Scaled One deity incorporating these ideas. Alternatively, I might expand Ul'gorath’s lore to include the ancient fear of aquatic civilizations of being devoured by colossal creatures from the depths.

The module is excellent and offers a wealth of content adaptable to the Sulfurous Marsh that is not directly related to this cult. However, in this first article about it, I will focus on this central idea. I want to develop something similar to Against the Cult of the Reptile God but set in a district of a larger city that turns its back on the problem, in the vein of the atmospheric The Styes by Richard Pett (Dungeon Magazine #121, reprinted in The Ghosts of Saltmarsh). In a way, The Evils of Illmire feels like a modern reinterpretation of AtCotRG, but with a sandbox design that explores how the cult’s emergence disrupts the power dynamics of a region.

The module covers 19 hexes surrounding the city that serves as a base of operations, and one of them houses the cult’s lair. I am increasingly inclined to make one of the three vectors leading adventurers to their first mission in the Sulfurous Marsh precisely the lair of this cult to Ul'gorath, preceded, undoubtedly, by a preliminary investigation in the Stilt District using material from The Styes. This module also explores the idea of fear feeding a kraken spawn, which in my adaptation would take the form of something more akin to Illmire’s fearspawn but with an aquatic or amphibious twist. In The Styes, terror spreads through the crimes of a serial killer, "The Lantern Killer." In the slums of Garampur, the tieva children guide people with lanterns, which fits perfectly with this idea.

Investigation in The Styes, artwork by Joachim Barrum

 

But I am digressing. Returning to The Evils of Illmire, the module features a mini-dungeon (sometimes two) per hex, taken from the fantastic Dyson Logos. I find this smaller scale ideal for a hexcrawl, as it preserves the sense that travel is important without forcing players to spend multiple sessions exploring a single large dungeon. In the cult’s lair, one of its leaders and the Fearmother, mother of all the fearspawn scattered across the map, can be found.

Ultimately, The Evils of Illmire is an excellent module, not only because of its rich setting and solid sandbox structure but also for its adaptability to different environments and campaigns. In future articles, I will explore other aspects of the module and how they can be integrated into the Sulfurous Marsh and beyond.