Safe Harbour Alusia

A couple of maps for the Alusia OpenQuest or Runequest game (rules to be determined).  The players will start on a boat coming to Alusia but the first stop will be at Safe Harbour on North Island. The one pretty safe island in the Alusia island chain. Only the occasional giant lizard to be worried about.  No angry natives or sneaky lizardmen.

North Island, Alusia

I did decide to include a mine.  Which on a small island is a bit of a stretch, but I figure North Island is at 30 miles long and 10 miles wide.  When you think tropical island mines you think phosphate (fertilizer). But I doubt that would be a commodity in the bronze age.  So I will go with an open pit gold mine.  Mining placer deposits of gold in the Pacific is not entirely unlikely. A quick Google search reveals there is an open pit gold mine in the Solomon islands.  The mine is worked by settlers who have become in debt in some way to the Viceroy of the Islands.  The de facto leader of the island appointed by a Sultan in Valarre (one of the seven cities).

The rest of the island is covered in grasslands and coconut trees.  Except for the southern tip of the island where there is a large, rocky area that is home to nesting birds and giant lizards. Blackseal bay provides a calm harbour for ships from the mainland and Safe Harbour itself has sandy beaches where ships can be beached and repaired.  Nearby Hog island is like it sounds. Hogs were let loose on the island by an early shipwreck and now they overrun the island.  It provides a handy place to collect meat but they are quite dangerous.

I tried two different version of the Safe Harbour map one with sepia tones and one using custom shading (thatch for cultivation, waves for the sea and pebbles for the trail).  I think I prefer this version that I have posted.

Safe Harbour Map

The buildings are all single storey huts made from the local palm trees with thatch roofs and woven reed walls. Along the beach are a number of guarded storage sheds that protect goods that are shipping back to Valarre (gold, diamonds, exotic birds, coconuts). Players can purchase use of one of the huts or simply sleep outside on the beach. The weather is generally temperate with occasional overnight rain.