Dalmatian Coast, from Pola to Zara

 
This shows part of the upper northeast corner of the Adriatic Sea, with the southern point of Istria on the upper left, the Kvarner Gulf (yet to be labelled) and the island of Cres, the big one in the upper centre. I still need to add some labels here, which is the boring part. Heh.

Most of this is under the control of the Republic of Venice, with Zara, Sansego and Pola all market/ports. Zara would be heavily fortified, with walls and bastions, as the heavy line to the east of that city is the extent of Ottoman occupation (Zara being Venetian). All the mountainous hinterland belongs to the Ottoman Empire; for D&D, this is a theatre where military raids, skirmishes, pirates, smuggling and desperate refugees needing player character protection all converge. The Velebit mountains rise along the coast, cutting off the sea from the interior, so that getting in and out is not so easy as one might think.

The area around Senj had a particularly turbulent reputation because of the Uskoks, irregular fighters and pirates who emerged from refugees fleeing Ottoman expansion. They operated from fortified coastal bases and attacked Ottoman shipping, though they often preyed on Venetian commerce as well. Their activities contributed to decades of instability in the Adriatic.

These islands, plus those of the last coast, provides a maze of islets that makes the story of Odysseus getting lost as he tries to find his way home quite believable. This is, incidently, that part of the Adriatic where the end of From Russia with Love was filmed, with the boat chase through the islands.

I've got one more go around with a lot of islands and then I'm into the mainland again. It was the islands that suspended my efforts last August. I just got tired of them.