Fabula Ultima Transmission - Plains

May 30, 2026

I still have some Fabula Ultima on the brain, so I'm going to design a plains area Transmission and plotmap starter, and if I get the ambition, I'll do a couple additional rolls to fill it out. I'm going to lay out my thought process for each area below, and then the details will appear after the chart.

Connections means I need to come up with some neutral-to-friendly NPCs, easy enough. A village might work here if I want the community to be considered over the like... physical place of the Village, that would be a Location instead. The Connection is someone who will probably talk to the party before swinging at them, at least.

For a plains area, we have a lot of possibility space, so we can cast a really wide net for Events and Locations, which is nice. Events in Technoir are sort of charged situations that the party finds themselves stumbling into or getting wrapped up into, such as a high speed chase, or a high budget movie shoot where they have to try to find someone through the set, etc.

With Factions, I need to cover the spectrum of helpful to harmful, but I think I should lean Harmful and neutral. Connections are for allies, factions and threats are here to muddy things up.

Objects! The Weird Shit! Well, normally it's for potent stuff, but I think here I can use it to give some gear, meterials, or artifacts.

Threats I want to make a mixture of Villains and maybe groups, and maaaaybe some environmental, magical or natural issues. I think, though, putting the same person in the Threats and Connections area might be fun, as it could paint the circumstances of their introduction to the area. Then if I rolled them on the opposite, there could be either something souring, or a begrudging alliance.

Travel Roll - d6
	1	2	3	4	5	6
1 - Connections	Riva Well	Ven	Tonba Pun	Ever Tripen	Onnida Pine	Scrabbes Scraw
2 - Events	Heavy Rain	Festival of the Forked Bolt	Pirate Raid	Crime Scene	Cave In	Plant Eruption
3 - Factions	The Pestrada Family	Fontaine's Pirates	Townsfolk of Ard	The Arcane Institute	Bray's Band	Royal Guard
4 - Locations	Ard	Manabloom River	Eyorn Mines	Rasp Flats	Secluded Thicket	Encampment
5 - Objects	Glove of Air	Terra Force	Aether-Fused Iron	Pearlite	Pixieweave Robe	Starblood Crocus
6 - Threats	Lennox Fontaine	Flood	Razor Wolves	Winry & Fenx Bray	Carlisle Es	Fire Sprites

I love doing these because I make them row by row, and then when it's done I start looking at everything and laugh at how I can connect different things. I'm keeping these pretty generic so I don't get to link to my own towns or backgrounds, but that could easily be changed. For example, Ven could be someone who moved away from Waystone, forgoing his assigned name for the element he attuned to. Or he could be an extension of Waystone interests, who knows!

Some of the items are obviously synergetic, such as Cave In and the Eyorn Mines, but the Cave In could be a building collapsing, or an unrelated cave that the party is camping in, and the mine could hold something besides the Aether-fused Iron, but could be a hideout for the pirates.

Below I'll have the basic information for all the cells and stat blocks for the Threats and people that need them. Feel free to disregard whatever, or to change any if you want to use this yourself.

Connections

Riva Well - Human Female travelling merchant.
Ven - Mayor of Ard, an older tanned man with silvery blond hair.
Tonba Pun - Retired mercenary on a food journey around the world.
Ever Tripen - Scholar and Mage, Surveyer for the Institute.
Onnida Pine - Otterfolk Explorer, she has a daring personality that can get her into trouble.
Scrabbes Scraw - Ratfolk scoundrel.

Events

Heavy Rain - Simple environmental issue that can complicate an adventure and requires a check to avoid taking the status condition Slow and Vulnerable to Bolt damage. Difficulty 10 to avoid Slow, 13 to avoid both. Travel Roll increases one step.
Festival of the Forked Bolt - A festival held in the plains celebrating the power of nature and a contest of constructing lightningrods. Storm is summoned by local mages so the event can be sure to happen. Travel Roll reduced by one step to a minimum of d6
Pirate Raid - Fontaine's Pirates/a rival group attacks someone or something nearby, maybe the party. Travel Roll increases by one step.
A Crime Scene - The site of some crime. Travel barred until solved.
Cave in - Something has collapsed. Cave, optional. If PCs present, Difficulty 13 to avoid taking Minor Earth Damage.
Plant Eruption - Grasping vines and stinging thorns erupt from the ground. Cause not immediately visible. Travel Roll increases by one step.

Factions

The Pestrada Family - A travelling circus troupe, founded by the Pestrada family, with the patriarch still ringleading after 30 years of new additions.
Fontaine's Pirates - Pirate crew who follows Lennox Fontaine
Townsfolk of Ard - The people who live in the small town of Ard, a tight knit community.
The Arcane Institute - The leading magical institution has surveyors all over the place.
Bray's Band - A grizzled bunch of mercenaries, led by married couple Winry and Fenx.
Royal Guard - A procession of gleaning knights protecting someone important.

Locations

Ard - A small village in the countryside
Manabloom River - A river where some bends have an unusually high level of water/ice elemtnal magic.
Eyorn Mines - A well-worn mine where practical and precious metals are mined.
Rasp Flats - An elevated plateau, home to sharp grasses and thistles.
Secluded Thicket - A dense group of trees and bushes that hides something within.
Encampment - A place where many people have gathered.

Objects

Glove of Air - This was supposed to be globe of air, but I liked the typo I made more. - Artifact - A quasi-transparant silken glove that allows the wearer to feel the air currents around them, no matter how subtle.
Terra Force - 2-Handed Martial Weapon - Axe - Martial - MIG + WLP - HR+15 Earth Damage, Ignores Resistances, Targets M.Def. - 1250z
Aether-Fused Iron - A charged chunk of Iron that can be used as either a material for a Project or a reagent for rituals of the Ritualism, Entropism, or Spiritism domains. Value 750z
Pearlite - A collection of small pearls fused together. Artifact - When placed in a container with another palm sized object, the other object becomes dry within 5 minutes.
Pixieweave Robe - A robe imbued with natural healing magics. - Sage Robe - Dex + 1, Ins + 1, -2 Initiative - Spells you cast that recover HP recover 5 additional HP, 10 at level 40+. 1700z.
Starblood Crocus - A plant that blooms during the new moon. Reagent for rituals of the Chimerism, Arcanism, Elementalism, and Ritualism domains of Rituals. Value: 300z if used in a project.

Threats

Lennox Fontaine - Ratfolk Pirate Captain - Daring, Protective of his men, greedy
Beltran Brand - Former mage of the Magic Institute on the run. Twitchy and paranoid, he is suspicious of anyone who looks like they don't belong, fearing they're members of the Institute coming for him.
Razor Wolves - Wild, wolf-like animals, very territorial with sharp spines adorning their ruff.
Winry & Fenx Bray - Married couple that leads Bray's Band. Winry is very practical while Fenx is good at thinking big picture. Standoffish when on the job.
Carlisle Es - Noble in the area, either in a procession or in disguise. Capable swordsman and thinks himself a ladies and mans man, but has no idea what people outside of romance books nor outside the royal courts, thinks, feels, or wants.
Fire Sprites - Something has agitated the sprites and they are on the verge of starting fires. Whether they're from this plane or not, they're your problem now.

Alright! I like this! I have a lot of possibilities and something I can use in multiple games. I'm going to roll up a starting situation for these plains. Three rolls, and then I can connect them. First one is 2 and 3, Pirate Raid. 6 and 3, Fire Sprites. 5 and 4. Pearlite.

OK! Cool that's not that hard to work with. The Pirates are raiding to steal the Pearlite, which is protected by the Fire Sprites. Getting the pirates allows us a little wiggle room with the Sprite's disposition to the party. They could just be so aggravated that they attack anyone, or they could want to negotiate. The party could get the Pearlite back from the pirates without knowing that it belonged to the Sprites, and walk into their lair with that and get mistaken for the thieves.

That works for me! I now have good ideas for both troubles and discoveries made on the plains. A discovery could be getting the drop on the pirate camp, while an encounter could lead to the party getting jumped.

As the party travels, or as the problems get addressed or encountered, you can roll on the table whenever it feels right to add a complication to the location. This will allow your location to become more and more complex as you go. If you want a more full ecosystem you could roll 5 or 6 times on the table to seed the chaos.

I would say "let me know what you think" but I don't have comments anymore so if you know how to reach me go for it, but otherwise, hope this is at least an interesting read, if not something that inspires you to something cool.