X Marks the Spot is a new addition to SHADIS and will become a regular column that provides players and GMs with maps and short stories that coincide with the atlases. Each month, X Marks the Spot will provide, new and interesting settings for GMs to design adventures, use as red herrings, flesh out campaign cartography, or resolve quick and dirty combat situations.

This month "SHADIS Hits the Road" and our X Marks the Spot highlights a shipwrecked crew of seven adventurers that lose their cargo and booty and must travel overland with limited supplies to find help. The journey becomes more than they can handle when natural and unnatural disasters strike them at every turn. Seven becomes six becomes three becomes two becomes one. The map was drawn by the only surviving crew member, who is now too weak and feeble to return to the treasure. Can a young, prepared party of adventurers survive the perils that took the lives of so many stronger, braver heroes?

Shipwrecked

It was dawn of eighth day of the King's year in the Winter of the Dragon's Wake. We had been serving with Captain Gustav for two months. The Waverider was a newly built schooner, but the only crew he was able to muster was the six of us. This made travel difficult. Travel along the coast was the only safe alternative, and anchoring the ship at night provided the seven of us with enough rest to sail the ship during the day. We had been traveling in this fashion for nine weeks and the ship had only sailed for twenty-three Gheran Leagues when the storm hit. As if all of the anger of the Sea God had been foisted upon us and only us, we were crushed beneath the force of a thunderous explosion of tide and wind. The Waverider was trashed about like a small bottle in a violent sink -- we could see the land steadily approaching as the waves kicked us closer and closer to the jagged cliffs of.. of... that will come later.

Where was I?

The storm. tell us about the storm.

Oh yes, the storm. Needless to say with only 7 aboard the deck with only a few hours sleep between us, the Waverider was soon to take on more water than she could bear. We had to abandon ship. Captain Gustav was reluctant, but he was also wise enough to know the peril of our journey. We jumped for the lifeboat and crashed into the misty, frothy blue.

The waves shot the lifeboat away just in time, as the Waverider struck a sandbar and disintegrated before our eyes. Our precious cargo slipped into the sea. We watched as all of out profits and treasure slid beneath the icy sheen of the water. Crech was the first to weep. He had worked the longest on preparing the swords in Alavar's forge. Six weeks he spent learning their ways, learning how to pound out their metal. Those swords would have fetched us one hundred coin each. One hundred coin! And now, they lay rusting at the depths of the bay. And this here map is the only key to where we left it.

We all wept for sometime after that. We wept thinking about how we would never see the Ports of Ithin or the Great Banik Marketplace. We wept knowing that we were still one month from civilization and that the cape route to the Forik Empire was not well traversed. No one would find us out here. We were alone and lost.

But you want to know what happened, don't you? The map says it all. The land here is rugged and unforgiving, but you'll find that out soon enough.

[Cough]

I've been waiting here in this village for four years, living off a handful of gold that these locals treasure more than their children. I can't even pronounce the name of this place. But sixteen gold will last you all year in meals, drinks, and women. Six score and twelve will last you even longer. Leo, Stully, Gustav, Brannon, Crech, Ivok. They were the hardiest men I ever knew. And they died coming through that pass. All except Ivok. Ivok died from scurvy one week after finding this place. And now you want to go back in to find that cursed treasure and the remains of that damned shipped.

We'll take the map!

Remember this though. The Dark Temple is not safe for anything living or otherwise. Those Trollkins will drink your blood before you're even dead. The Erilh Serpents are bigger than a man and their venom travels faster than you. The ground beneath your feet can never be trusted. The tops of the mountains the locals call Mercy Peaks are not aptly named. The cliffs howl your death chorus and it's hymns will make you wish for death. What looks like Salvation may be nature is disguise.

Remember what I have told you. Remember that these two hundred coins you traded me for the map will keep me alive longer than you. Remember that Suar once travelled that route and it took six of the bravest men ever. Remember.