The Oracle of Sabre Lake (Patreon)

From 2008 through to 2013, Sabre Lake was the centre of a number of campaigns that I ran – using B/X D&D, Advanced Labyrinth Lord, and D&D3x. Each campaign focused on different elements of the region – although two of them shared the same intro arc starting with Goblin Gully and then dealing with the horrible thing that was inadvertently released while exploring that site.

The one element that recurs in every campaign I’ve run here is the Oracle or Seer of Sabre Lake. I’ve even had two other campaigns come to Sabre Lake over the years to visit the Oracle of Sabre Lake.

To visit the Oracle, one first visits their shrine in the Citadel of Sabre Lake (a city on the opposite shore of the long lake), where (when plied with silver and sob stories) their acolytes will fill you in on what is needed for you to be granted an audience.

Generally, it involves renting a nice boat (often from a friend or family member of one of the acolytes), getting it loaded up with expensive or weird things that are useless to you (a samite sail, really? Let me guess, your sister weaves samite?) (Thirty-four feathers from seventeen different swans?), and sailing across the lake to visit.

Those who do not complete the tasks assigned find only a rocky shore and a shallow stony valley.

Guests who have completed the tasks set out for them will find a stony trail at the shore that leads to a much larger valley surrounded by ancient marble ruins with a great amphitheatre at the bottom. On most visits, there is a test at this point that is typically administered by the Oracle’s massive centaur guardian or sometimes by other supplicants or local wildlife – we’ve had challenges ranging from arm-wrestling a bear, feeding a hungry chickadee, to beating the centaur champion at chess). And then the Seer grants you the assistance of their knowledge and visions.

Or just tells you useless riddles.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 10,200 x 12,600 pixels (34 x 42 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for the 10‘ squares that this map was drawn envisioning – otherwise the oracle’s house is teeeeeny) – so resizing the image to 2,380 x 2,940 pixels or 4,760 x 5,880 pixels, respectively.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2024/03/20/the-oracle-of-sabre-lake/