SpiralWorlds Location Guide · Campaign Present 1454 CE
Principality of Zeta
Zeta survives because it is difficult to conquer and dangerous to ignore. Between Lake Skadar and the limestone highlands, Stefan Crnojević is turning family estates, fortified places, village obligations and personal alliances into something that increasingly resembles an independent mountain state.
Adventurers do not arrive in a peaceful principality with settled borders. They enter a country where Venetian officials control important coastal gateways, the Serbian Despotate still possesses strategic claims, neighbouring rulers employ hostages and private bargains as political weapons, and every mountain community measures a lord by what protection he can actually provide.
Beyond the arguments of rulers, the land has powers of its own. Storms can descend without warning, lake channels conceal smugglers and stranger things, and the Vila of the forests and uplands are not stories invented to frighten children. They remember promises, test travellers and punish people who treat wild places as if nobody owns them.
Why adventurers come here: escorting envoys, recovering hostages, carrying sealed letters through disputed territory, hunting raiders, negotiating with local communities, moving goods between Venetian ports and the interior, exploring abandoned strongholds, tracing magical disturbances and surviving political work where solving the problem for one patron may create an enemy in the next valley.
What Is Happening Right Now?
Zeta does not wait for a company of adventurers to arrive before developing problems. Several crises are already moving, and ignoring one gives somebody else time to exploit it.
The Venetian Bargain
Stefan needs Venetian recognition, money, coastal access and military support, but every concession creates people who fear that Zeta is exchanging one overlord for another. Venetian agents want reliable allies; Stefan wants assistance without surrendering control of his interior.
If nobody acts: a local dispute becomes evidence for Venice that Stefan cannot guarantee order, strengthening demands for direct intervention.
The Despot’s Fortress
Medun remains a strategic obstacle. Stefan has already failed to take it, and the fortress preserves an external claim inside the political landscape he is trying to consolidate.
If nobody acts: messengers, scouts and armed parties begin using the fortress as a base for counter-pressure against Crnojević supporters.
The Hostage’s Return
Stefan’s son Ivan has returned after years spent as a political hostage in the orbit of Stjepan Vukčić Kosača. He is an heir, a survivor and a living reminder that Balkan diplomacy often treats family members as guarantees.
If nobody acts: rumours about Ivan’s loyalties are deliberately spread by people who benefit from mistrust inside Stefan’s household.
The Mountain Oath
A group of upland communities has agreed to support Stefan against raiders, but their agreement includes obligations his clerks have either misunderstood or conveniently omitted.
If nobody acts: Stefan’s men attempt to enforce the wrong terms and turn useful allies into armed opponents.
The Lake Route
Boats are disappearing from a normally reliable route through Lake Skadar. Merchants blame thieves. Fishermen blame armed patrols. One survivor insists the reeds themselves moved to close the channel behind him.
If nobody acts: lake traffic diverts, prices rise and smugglers become the only people willing to use the route after dark.
The Vila’s Boundary
Woodcutters have crossed into a grove marked by old stones and returned with contradictory memories of what happened there. A Vila troop has begun appearing on ridges above the road whenever one particular noble caravan passes.
If nobody acts: the fey stop issuing warnings and begin enforcing an oath nobody at Stefan’s court remembers making.
Places Characters Can Visit
Zeta is not a kingdom built around one great capital. Its playable geography is a network of strongholds, settlements, grazing country, river crossings, lake routes and neighbouring towns governed by somebody else.
Soko above Štitari
One of the most useful Crnojević strongholds for the campaign present. Soko commands difficult country west of the main route between the later Cetinje region and the Zeta plain. Its value is military rather than urban: walls, guards, storage, messengers and the ability to watch approaches.
Use it for: Stefan’s retainers, prisoners, military councils, intercepted messages, missing supplies and negotiations that nobody wants conducted in a Venetian town.
Podgorica and the Ribnica Crossing
A developing commercial and strategic settlement where the Ribnica meets the Morača. The surrounding plain connects the lake country with inland routes and makes Podgorica valuable to anyone trying to control movement through central Zeta.
Use it for: markets, caravan intelligence, river crossings, disputed tolls, informants, horse trading and travellers arriving from the interior.
Cetinje Field
Cetinje exists, but not as the later capital. It is an upland grazing and settlement area beneath Lovćen, sparsely built and far more useful as wilderness-edge country than as a city.
Use it for: shepherd camps, hidden meetings, abandoned shelters, lost livestock, strange lights, fey boundaries and routes that bypass more closely watched lowland roads.
The Lovćen Highlands
Limestone slopes, forest, pasture, caves and steep routes dominate this western highland country. Local knowledge is more valuable than a map, and travellers who assume that an empty landscape has no owner quickly learn otherwise.
Use it for: guides, fugitives, hidden caches, Vila encounters, storms, blood feuds, secret passes and journeys where horses become a liability.
Lake Skadar
The lake is road, border, fishery, hiding place and battlefield at once. Reed beds break sight lines, islands conceal ruins and landing places, and a boat can move people far more quietly than a mounted party on the roads.
Use it for: smuggling, pursuit, lake monsters, secret envoys, wrecks, disputed fishing rights, magical weather and night crossings beneath hostile watchfires.
Žabljak
An important fortified place associated with the Crnojević landscape, but it should not be presented as Stefan’s settled capital here. Its political ownership and later rise as a firm Crnojević seat belong to the continuing struggle for control around the lake.
Use it for: competing claims, spies, reconnaissance, stolen keys, secret sympathisers and missions where the party must learn who actually controls each gate before approaching it.
Medun
The old fortress remains beyond Stefan’s effective control after his unsuccessful attempt to take it. It is exactly the kind of place that turns a political map into an adventure: one fortress can preserve an enemy’s authority across an entire corridor.
Use it for: border intelligence, scouts, deserters, siege preparation, prisoner exchanges and missions where open attack would start a larger war.
Kotor and Budva
These are not Zetan towns under Stefan’s direct government. They are Venetian-controlled coastal gateways. Characters go there because coastal commerce, ships, money, specialists and international information are easier to obtain there than in the mountain interior.
Use them for: imported equipment, ship passage, bankers, contracts, Venetian officials, foreign intelligence and the uncomfortable experience of leaving Zeta without travelling very far.
Map of the Principality of Zeta
People and Factions
Power in Zeta belongs to people who can persuade others to follow them, defend a road, guarantee a bargain, produce witnesses or call armed supporters quickly. Titles matter, but only when somebody can enforce them.
| Name | Role | What They Want | How Characters Meet Them |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stefan Crnojević Historical figure |
Lord of Zeta; Duke of Upper Zeta | Consolidate his authority without allowing Venice, the Serbian Despotate or neighbouring lords to turn protection into possession. | As patron, judge, military employer or ruler demanding results without public embarrassment. |
| Mara Kastrioti Historical figure |
Stefan’s wife; dynastic link to the Kastrioti family | Keep the household politically useful, protect family interests and prevent temporary alliances from becoming permanent dependence. | Through diplomatic visitors, family correspondence, hostage negotiations or private requests that bypass Stefan’s military retainers. |
| Ivan Crnojević Historical figure |
Stefan’s son and eventual successor | Re-establish his place after years as a political hostage and determine which older loyalties can still be trusted. | During an escort, reconnaissance mission, political dispute or investigation into claims that he secretly serves another lord. |
| Vukota Radin SpiralWorlds campaign NPC |
Crnojević road captain | Keep the routes between the plain and highlands open with too few dependable men. | Hiring scouts, guides or deniable adventurers when formal troops would create a diplomatic incident. |
| Danica of the Reeds SpiralWorlds campaign NPC |
Lake pilot and smuggling intermediary | Keep every government dependent on people who actually understand the lake channels. | When the party needs a night crossing, missing boat, hidden landing or cargo moved without inspection. |
| Radovan Vrač SpiralWorlds campaign NPC |
Healer, diviner and weather reader | Prevent powerful patrons from treating local magic as something they can simply command. | After a magical illness, unnatural storm, cursed oath, strange animal behaviour or suspected Vila encounter. |
| Lucia da Cattaro SpiralWorlds campaign NPC |
Venetian commercial agent | Know which Zetan lord, road and boat captain can be trusted before Venetian money is committed. | As employer, information broker or smiling interrogator after the party returns from politically sensitive country. |
Factions That Matter
House Crnojević
Stefan’s relatives, household officials, armed retainers and dependants. Their immediate project is turning personal authority into durable rule.
Upper Zeta Communities
Village, kin and upland communities whose support is necessary but never automatic. They defend local rights, pasture, routes and customary obligations.
The Republic of Venice
A powerful maritime neighbour controlling crucial coastal settlements. Venice can be ally, paymaster, market, intelligence service and territorial rival in the same week.
Despotate Interests
Officials, soldiers, clients and landholders who still recognise claims derived from the Serbian Despotate and do not accept Stefan’s consolidation as inevitable.
Kosača Agents
Representatives and clients of Stjepan Vukčić Kosača. His earlier use of Ivan as a hostage ensures that relations with the Crnojević household are personal as well as political.
Vila Troops
Fey powers of forest and mountain whose territories intersect mortal roads and estates. They are not subjects of Stefan and have their own laws of trespass, oath and retaliation.
For the wider organisational framework, use the SpiralWorlds Guilds, Factions & Organisations index. A political state and a faction are not the same thing: Zeta contains competing interests rather than acting as one personality.
Everyday Magic, Healing and Specialist Services
Magic in Zeta is real without being industrialised. There is no universal magic shop and no reason for every settlement to contain the same spellcasters. Supernatural knowledge is attached to particular people, families, travelling specialists and places.
Highland Healing
Herbalists, bone-setters, midwives and magical healers work alongside ordinary treatment. A good practitioner knows which illness is physical, which is poison and which began after somebody violated an oath or crossed a supernatural boundary.
Weather Work
Mountain weather is dangerous enough that weather readers, protective charms and supernatural warnings are treated seriously. Truly powerful weather magic is uncommon and attracts attention immediately.
Divination and Detection
A specialist capable of examining an object, place or person with Detect Magic can be found through the right contacts, especially near trade routes or important households. Identifying an obscure effect may still require travel or negotiation.
Fey Knowledge
Knowing that Vila exist is not the same as knowing how to negotiate with one. Local hunters, singers, shepherds and elders may understand taboos that a formally educated magician does not.
What Adventurers Can Obtain
- ordinary food, livestock, pack animals, ropes, tools, bows, spears, knives and travelling equipment;
- boat passage and experienced lake pilots through local contacts;
- smithing, leatherwork and basic weapon or armour repair;
- herbal remedies, mundane healing and limited magical treatment;
- guides for known roads, passes, grazing country and lake channels;
- letters carried by merchant, household or political networks;
- imported cloth, specialised metalwork, luxury goods and more sophisticated services through Venetian coastal towns;
- common magical consumables occasionally through a practitioner or travelling merchant, but not as guaranteed shelf stock;
- uncommon permanent magic mainly through commission, inheritance, patronage, treasure or private negotiation;
- rare magic as an adventure, obligation or political object rather than an ordinary purchase.
Use the SpiralWorlds Settlements framework for availability. Zeta generally has Local to Regional trade, Limited magical services, strong local knowledge and high danger, but individual sites vary sharply.
Dangers and Encounters
Zeta works best when political and supernatural dangers overlap. A broken bridge can be an accident, sabotage or the consequence of violating a Vila boundary; a patrol can be legitimate in one valley and an armed trespass in the next.
| d8 | Encounter |
|---|---|
| 1 | A Crnojević patrol is questioning travellers about a courier who should have arrived yesterday. The courier’s horse has already been found without him. |
| 2 | A lake boat drifts from the reeds carrying cargo, blood on one gunwale and no crew. Its owner insists the vessel was on a different part of the lake. |
| 3 | Men claiming authority from Medun demand a toll on a road Stefan considers his. Both sides possess convincing written orders. |
| 4 | A shepherd offers the party twice the normal fee to avoid one perfectly usable valley. He refuses to explain until everyone has left the road. |
| 5 | A Venetian merchant’s guards have detained a local boatman. Twenty armed relatives are gathering nearby and neither side is technically inside the other’s jurisdiction. |
| 6 | A storm forms over one ridge while the surrounding sky remains clear. A woman singing from the tree line tells the party to turn back. |
| 7 | A wounded man claims to have escaped bandits. The arrows in his pack are Venetian, his boots are military issue and he knows far too much about Stefan’s messengers. |
| 8 | Two communities have armed themselves over a disputed boundary stone that moved several yards during the night. Tracks around it are all deer tracks. |
Rumours
Give characters rumours before asking for checks. The roll should determine what they can verify, who trusts them with the dangerous part or whether somebody notices their questions.
| d10 | What People Say | Truth |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stefan means to sell the whole country to Venice. | Distorted. He needs Venice but has every reason to preserve his own authority. |
| 2 | Ivan came home from captivity speaking more like Kosača’s man than his father’s son. | Unproven. Somebody is deliberately feeding this story to Stefan’s opponents. |
| 3 | A path through the Lovćen country can put a traveller above Kotor without passing a single official checkpoint. | True. The problem is finding someone willing to guide strangers through it. |
| 4 | The Vila cannot cross running water. | False. Believing this has killed people. |
| 5 | A Venetian clerk keeps a second set of accounts showing payments to Zetan nobles. | True. The names are more politically explosive than the amounts. |
| 6 | Žabljak already belongs completely to Stefan. | False. Its status is precisely why different parties are watching it. |
| 7 | The people at Medun are preparing to surrender the fortress. | Partly true. Someone inside is negotiating, but not necessarily with Stefan. |
| 8 | One island on Lake Skadar disappears whenever soldiers search it. | Possibly true. Ordinary concealment explains some sightings; magic explains the rest. |
| 9 | A Crnojević officer has been selling copies of Stefan’s letters. | True. He believes he is feeding harmless information to Venice. |
| 10 | The old stones above Cetinje mark the grave of a forgotten king. | Mostly false. They mark something older, and disturbing them still has consequences. |
Adventure Hooks
1. The Fifty-First Oath
Trigger: Stefan’s household needs neutral witnesses at a meeting with upland representatives.
A written agreement lists fifty communities. The delegation insists there should be fifty-one. The missing community has not vanished; somebody has deliberately removed its name because its obligations would invalidate a valuable land claim.
2. The Hostage’s Letter
Trigger: Ivan asks the party to retrieve a letter from his years in captivity.
The document proves somebody in Zeta negotiated privately for Ivan to remain a hostage. The difficult part is that the traitor may now be one of Stefan’s most useful supporters.
3. The Gate at Medun
Trigger: a supposed deserter offers Stefan a way inside the fortress.
The route is genuine, but the deserter is not. Another power wants Stefan blamed for breaking a fragile political balance and expects the adventurers to provide the evidence.
4. The Lake Without Stars
Trigger: several boats disappear during clear nights.
A section of lake ceases reflecting the sky after sunset. Beneath it lies a flooded structure whose magical boundary has begun interacting with the reeds, currents and creatures above.
5. Three Feathers at Soko
Trigger: three white feathers appear inside a locked chamber at Soko.
The Vila are demanding fulfilment of an agreement made by an older generation of the Crnojević family. Stefan’s clerks cannot find the promise because it was never written down.
6. The Merchant of Two Flags
Trigger: a Venetian merchant disappears between Budva and the interior.
He is carrying letters proving that he sells military information both to Venetian officials and to Stefan’s rivals. Every faction wants him found, but not necessarily alive.
Travel Through Zeta
Distances on a map are deceptive. Mountain gradients, lake crossings, weather, local permission and the availability of animals matter more than straight-line mileage.
- Lowland routes: faster but easier to observe, tax, block or patrol.
- Mountain paths: slower and physically demanding, but invaluable to guides, smugglers, messengers and fugitives.
- Lake travel: often the fastest way to move quietly, provided the party has a trustworthy pilot and favourable weather.
- After heavy rain: streams, mud, rockfall and washed paths can turn a routine journey into a hazardous one.
- At night: travel becomes politically suspicious as well as physically dangerous.
- Without a guide: a road that is geographically correct can still carry the party into the wrong community’s territory or across a supernatural boundary.
Law, Weapons and Causing Trouble
Zeta does not have one uniform modern legal code administered identically from every settlement. Authority is layered. Stefan’s household issues orders and judges matters within its reach; local communities preserve customary obligations and their own witnesses; powerful families exercise patronage; and Venetian law applies once characters enter Venetian-controlled towns.
- Weapons: armed travellers are normal. Drawing or using a weapon in a market, household, negotiation or guarded stronghold is a different matter.
- Violence: who was attacked, whose land it happened on and whose protection each party claims can matter as much as the immediate facts.
- Magic: visible magic is not automatically illegal. Magical assault, coercion, fraud, theft, spying or interference with a ruler’s household can produce severe consequences.
- Fey bargains: mortal courts may not recognise a Vila’s claim, but that does not make the claim harmless.
- Documents: seals, letters and recognised messengers matter, but a document is only as useful as the authority willing to honour it.
- Hostages and sureties: important bargains may be guaranteed by people rather than parchment.
- Venetian territory: status earned from Stefan does not automatically protect a character in Kotor or Budva.
- Foreign agents: spying is common enough that unexplained maps, coded letters and repeated questions about fortifications attract attention quickly.
Characters who want to understand a legal or political situation can use the SpiralWorlds Diplomacy, Knowledge (Law) and Skills references where those mechanics fit the edition in play.
Running Zeta at the Table
The numbers below are campaign tools, not claims that every road or social problem in Zeta has a fixed universal DC. Give information freely when characters possess the right background, language, local contact or obvious evidence. Roll when failure creates a meaningful consequence.
D&D 5.5e / 2024
| Situation | Suggested Check | DC |
|---|---|---|
| Follow a known mountain path in poor weather | Wisdom (Survival) | 10 |
| Find a concealed local route without a guide | Wisdom (Survival) | 15 |
| Recognise that a storm has supernatural behaviour | Intelligence (Arcana or Nature) | 15 |
| Persuade a wary community to provide a guide | Charisma (Persuasion) | 15 |
| Detect that an apparently ordinary roadblock is political bait | Wisdom (Insight) | 15 |
| Cross dangerous lake water during a sudden storm | Appropriate Water Vehicle proficiency or ability check | 15–20 |
| Recall an obscure dynastic claim or older territorial obligation | Intelligence (History) | 20 |
Advantage is often more appropriate than lowering the DC when characters possess a trustworthy local guide, a letter from Stefan, a recognised Venetian contact or prior knowledge of the route. Disadvantage may apply during severe weather, darkness, active pursuit or deliberate misinformation.
Pathfinder 1e
| Situation | Suggested Check | DC |
|---|---|---|
| Travel a familiar upland route | Survival | 10 |
| Navigate an unfamiliar pass in bad weather | Survival | 15 |
| Identify tracks deliberately confused by a skilled scout | Survival | 15–20 |
| Gain useful information from a guarded local official | Diplomacy | 15+ |
| Recall who has a legitimate historical claim over a disputed place | Knowledge (history) or Knowledge (nobility) | 15–20 |
| Understand whether an action violates local legal custom | Knowledge (local), Knowledge (nobility) or SpiralWorlds Knowledge (law) | 15 |
Do not replace roleplay with Diplomacy. A successful check can improve cooperation or secure a hearing; it does not erase political interests, sworn obligations, hostile orders or the consequences of insulting somebody’s household.
D&D 3.5e
| Situation | Suggested Check | DC |
|---|---|---|
| Keep from becoming lost on a difficult mountain route | Survival | 15 |
| Recognise that the party has become lost | Survival | 20, modified by circumstances |
| Set a new course after becoming lost | Survival | 15+, depending on time spent off course |
| Change the attitude of a suspicious official or community representative | Diplomacy | Use the normal Diplomacy attitude rules |
| Recall a political or dynastic fact | Knowledge (history) or Knowledge (nobility and royalty) | 10–20 |
| Recognise signs of supernatural territorial behaviour | Knowledge appropriate to the creature or local magical tradition | 15+ |
The established 3.5e wilderness rules already provide procedures for becoming lost and regaining direction. Use those mechanics rather than inventing a second navigation subsystem specifically for Zeta.
The Political Situation
Stefan Crnojević has emerged as the strongest local ruler in Upper Zeta. His authority is neither the continuation of a completely intact older state nor a modern centralised monarchy. He rules through family power, military reputation, local agreements and shifting relationships with stronger neighbours.
Venice has recognised Stefan and granted him the title of Duke of Upper Zeta. That relationship is practical rather than sentimental. Venice wants secure approaches to its Adriatic possessions and reliable influence in the interior. Stefan wants recognition, assistance and access to the maritime economy without allowing Venetian protection to become direct government.
The Serbian Despotate remains a political reality and its claims have not disappeared simply because Stefan has become stronger. Medun demonstrates the problem clearly: possession of one fortress preserves military and legal leverage inside territory Stefan regards as part of his natural sphere.
Stjepan Vukčić Kosača remains another important regional power. His long custody of Ivan Crnojević as a hostage means relations between the houses are not abstract diplomacy. They involve personal memory, family honour and knowledge accumulated by Ivan during captivity.
To the south and east, the balance of power is becoming steadily more dangerous. The Ottoman state remains an expanding historical power in the Balkans, while the wider SpiralWorlds region also contains threats and alliances that do not reduce neatly to one invading empire. Zeta’s survival depends on refusing to become an easy road for somebody else’s army.
What Zeta Is Not
Several features associated with later Montenegro should not be projected backward into this page.
- Cetinje is not the capital. It is present as an upland settlement and grazing area. Ivan Crnojević’s court there belongs to 1482.
- The Cetinje Monastery does not yet exist. Its foundation belongs to 1484.
- Žabljak is not presented as Stefan’s settled capital. Its better-established role as a Crnojević political seat lies later.
- Kotor and Budva are not ordinary Zetan settlements under Stefan. They are Venetian possessions and should feel politically foreign when characters cross into them.
- Lovćen is wilderness and inhabited highland country, not a “national park.”
- Marko Miljanov is not a contemporary resident. He belongs to the nineteenth century.
- The Vila are real. SpiralWorlds does not dismiss a genuine supernatural population as a fictional legend.
History Behind the Adventure
Zeta developed from the fragmented political landscape left by the decline of earlier Serbian and Zetan dynasties. The Crnojević family had held estates and influence in Upper Zeta long before Stefan became its dominant ruler, but their rise was neither smooth nor uncontested.
Stefan moved between alliances as circumstances changed. He dealt with Stjepan Vukčić Kosača, the Serbian Despotate and Venice at different stages, demonstrating the political method that now keeps Zeta alive: cooperate with stronger powers when necessary, but never assume that yesterday’s protector will remain tomorrow’s friend.
Venice recognised Stefan as captain and duke of Upper Zeta in 1452. The more formal Vranjina agreement frequently associated with Stefan and Venetian supremacy belongs to 1455 and therefore should not be written as though it has already settled every question on this page.
This distinction matters in play. Characters are operating during consolidation, not after it. The borders are still arguments. Allegiance can be negotiated. A fortress can change the meaning of an entire valley, and a successful diplomatic mission can matter as much as a battle.
Related SpiralWorlds Locations and References
Historical and Rules References
Historical references
- Hrvatska enciklopedija — Crnojevići . Used for Stefan Crnojević’s rise, Venetian relationship and title in Upper Zeta.
- Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts — Leksikon diplomatije Crne Gore: Stefan Crnojević . Used for Stefan’s political career, territorial reach and changing alliances.
- Treccani — Zeta . Used for the wider political development of Zeta and Venetian involvement.
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Cetinje Historic Core . Used to distinguish the 1440 pastoral settlement from Ivan Crnojević’s later court and political centre.
- Museums and Galleries of Budva — Đurđevac Fortress . Used for the Crnojević defensive landscape above Budva.
- Wikimedia Commons — Crnojević dynastic arms based on the Cetinje Octoechos . Used as a heraldic reference rather than as proof of a modern national flag in the campaign present.
Rules references
- System Reference Document 5.2.1 — current 2024/5.5e ability checks, exploration, travel and related open rules.
- Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook — Ranger and associated open Pathfinder skill rules.
- Revised D&D 3.5 SRD — Wilderness — navigation and becoming lost.
- SpiralWorlds Skills Summary .
Artwork
Principality of Zeta — Lake Skadar Fortress. SpiralWorlds, 2026. Original campaign illustration showing the lake, mountain stronghold, armed riders, boats and supernatural highland atmosphere. It is a campaign reconstruction rather than a literal surviving view.
Crnojević Coat of Arms. SpiralWorlds, 2026. Painted rendering informed by the documented Crnojević double-headed-eagle heraldic tradition. The image is used as dynastic heraldry and does not claim that an identical shield survives as the securely documented state arms of Zeta at this exact moment.
Principality of Zeta Map. SpiralWorlds, 2026. Illustrated campaign map showing the approximate political and geographic setting of Stefan Crnojević’s Zeta, including Lake Skadar, principal strongholds, neighbouring powers and Venetian-controlled coastal settlements. Boundaries are intentionally approximate rather than modern surveyed frontiers.
Sources & Licence
SRD 5.2.1 Attribution
This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 (“SRD 5.2.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at D&D Beyond. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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15. COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
System Reference Document Copyright 2000–2003, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Rich Baker, Andy Collins, David Noonan, Rich Redman, Bruce R. Cordell, John D. Rateliff, Thomas Reid, James Wyatt, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook © 2009, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: Jason Bulmahn, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook and Skip Williams.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Reference Document © 2011, Paizo Publishing, LLC.
Original Principality of Zeta setting material, historical framing, adventure material, NPCs, editorial prose, page design and artwork Copyright © 2026 SpiralWorlds. All rights reserved except material separately identified as Open Game Content or licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
END OF LICENSE
