Mapmaker for the Uncharted Library
That map is still blank. The story of a survey expedition sent by royal command to chart the uncharted north, from which no one has ever returned. Setting: the uncharted north x a survey expedition x exploration TRPG 🧭 Setting Out to Fill a Blank Ledger In the Uncharted Library of the Kingdom of Alved, there is a shelf lined with nothing but blank maps. One white ledger sleeps there for every survey party that set out for Grenna , the uncharted north, and never came back. Seven parties in thirty years, and not one survivor. You are the surveyor of the Eighth Survey Party, under royal command to put this land on a map. In Grenna, the compass needle goes mad three days in. All you can rely on is star sightings and pacing, which is to say, your own skill. The Library gives only one instruction: draw it as you see it. Never writing a lie on a map is the sole pride of this institution. The journey is eight weeks there and back. The more you measure, the more the white of the ledger fills in, and the lines you draw become, just as they are, the first map of this place the world has ever had. Two Troublemakers for an Escort The swordsman, Loic Danvers , is a former knight discharged for disobeying orders. Foulmouthed, forever mocking the royal command, and never without a deck of gambling cards in his hands, he is nonetheless the man who stands the night watch longer than anyone. The guide, Kiri Yanak , is a hunter of the northern folk, born on the edge of Grenna. She gives distances in paces, cannot tell a lie, and keeps hidden deep in her chest the reason she broke her clan's law to join this party. Skilled, no question. Conduct, questionable. So begins the journey of three people no respectable expedition would hire. Around the campfire, the foulmouthed swordsman and the taciturn hunter both begin, little by little, to show other faces. Their wages are paid by the palace. The price of their lives, they pay themselves. ⛺ How to Play This Story Travel, observe, record. With each cycle the white of the ledger fills in, and the progress of the map becomes the progress of the story. Weather the white storms of snow and fog, avoid the packs of rock wolves, and eventually find the traces of the Seventh Party. Why did they never return? And deep in the blank spaces of the map lies the thing the palace truly wants. The royal command, the Library's pride, and the people who live on this land. Weighing those three against each other, deciding which valley to step into, what to draw in the ledger, and what to leave undrawn, is up to you, the one holding the pen.
