West Border, around Szombathely

 

This brings us into a new part of 17th century Hungary, the "West Border" or sometimes the "Western Borderland."  This was the best passage through Hungary to Vienna, and was thus a battleground for about two centuries.  Szombathely is a pretty big city of more than 17,000, and is essentially a big overbuilt fortress.  Austria is just across the border on the left; "Styria" and the town of Jennersdorf are in modern Austria.

Something else to think of was that the region, plagued by raids and burned crops, suffered from an endemic famine, though trade, agriculture and artisanship continued to persist as well as it was able.  Disease, too, was a constant threat.  If there's anything that will make players quickly depart a region or go around, it's telling them that disease in the area is rampant.

The reader may notice the area atop the map labeled "Guns."  In German, this is more properly "Güns," the German name for modern Köszeg.  As far as I can determine the name has nothing whatsoever to do with the modern term "guns" ... it seems to be a linguistic coincidence.  I admit, it sounds odd in a D&D context.  I won't be mapping that region until I swing all around my presently made map and pass here again.

This nearly finishes the map sheet; I have to do the next one over to fill the empty white hexes at the top.  When I plug those in, I'll publish the whole map sheet to my Patreon.