Dwarven Map of the Grayland Forest

In JADE's Thomas' Time Travel Adventure campaign after abandoning the party in the past, Thomas encountered a Sha'ir named Zefewé ibn Agrabah who claimed to be following this map towards an ancient temple and a hidden treasure.

After looking at the map Thomas was unable to read it due to it's dwarven runes, however he did recognize the area. And also recognized that Zef was holding the map upside down.

After righting the map, Zef explained that he was heading towards the symbol in the circle on the left side of the map. He also told Thomas that if he was interested he could join him.

Thomas agreed and the two set out together along with Zef's assistant snails. Though he agreed to go along, Thomas didn't trust Zef, feeling more that this was something to do for now, and that he would probably ditch him later.

It turned out that Thomas' instincts were right. Zef was a member of the Blackridge Thief's Guild, and he had stolen this map from a Dwarven prospector he had over heard drunkenly telling the story of the temple. This was a man decidedly more evil than Thomas had ever really dealt with and it made him notably uncomfortable.

During their travels Zef kept to himself and spendt much of his time translating the symbols on the map. Using the names of the towns that Thomas recognized in place of the Dwarven  runes gave him a starting point, and, Zef was able to decipher a fair bit off of the few letters. he had.

It was a marvelous player aid and Jeff (Zef's player) had a wonderful time working decoding the map.

Have you ever given your players something like this? this was the first time I have tried this out: a puzzle in the form of a document in game. And I highly recommend it. It was a lot of fun and really made for an interesting if cerebral game.


Written by: Andrew Gregory