Month: Oct 2021

Blood Gold…

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Well a weekend write up is due and oh boy do I have a big day ahead of me. I enjoyed writing up the encounters and could see the logical flow and, more importantly, the valid reasons for all of them to be around the town of Newtbranch. 

So I have tried to write up this week in the same approach as the week prior – it’s not quite as story driven as the other days buy by using all the days of the week to expand the narrative of the day

Adventure hook

The town of Newtbranch is built amongst the branches of massive marsh trees. The entrance of the cities is an engineering gem, designed by the first caretakers of the Town. The Elves who could sing to the trees to mould them to a shape more fitting or suitable. Many of the oldest buildings in the town are elven in design being built within the living trees to grow and change as nature does. The Gnomes who tinkered and brought artifice to the Town designed the large winch that lifts a platform into the trees as a way of creating a secure method of entering the town. The dwarves built under the roots of the trees and with the help of the elves they reinforced the roots of the trees. Bringing in rock and soil from the mines that litter the marsh they were able to ensure that the roots of the trees could run deem and secure and guarantee the tree town was secure. 

The marsh that the town is located in is riddled with history. A civilisation that disappeared long ago has left its traces. Sunken temples litter the marsh, tempting would-be treasure seekers into their dank, wet walls – many of whom do not return. 

The other thing that the marsh holds is gold and precious materials. Mines have been sunk all through the marsh, the land itself is either owned by families who have been around or the rich who have come to Newtbranch at the promises of riches, or an escape from a complex life in the large cities.

As of late however the quiet town of Newtbranch has been seeing masked figures skittering across the rope-bridges or sneaking under window sills. As soon as the alarm is called, whether silently or loudly no trace of these masked figures can be found. 

The party

The party has received a non-marked call for aid. The letter is as follows. On the back of the scroll is a map and the advice on how to enter the town (where to call out to enter the town)

Image generated in parchment scroll creator

The entrance to the town

As the party approaches the town, known only by the location marked at the end of a road on a map. They call out to the guardsmen hidden in the branches “We seek entrance into the town of Newtbranch”. A few moments later they hear a rustling in the branches above them and a large platform, 20 ft long by 10 feet wide descends slowly from the branches. 

The keen-sensed party members (DC13) would notice rustling in the bushes nearby. If they are successful in noticing the rustling they avoid being surprised as 5 goblins rush forward and try to storm the platform. If the party gets in the way they attack with a savagery that is strange to anyone who knows the nature of goblins. On the second round of combat a Were-bat will leap on the closest party member and will fight to the death. 

After the fight the party are welcomed into the village where they meet ‘Squeak’ a halfling boy of 9 years of age. Squeak offers the party to show them around the town and explain some things that are overlooked by newcomers, but he requests a gold coin. If they do take up his offer then he would take them around the town and would note where the party could stay – mentioning facts or rumours about the townsfolk and showing them where to keep their animals (which they would have passed if they entered the town), showing them Henry’s Emporium – noting that he thinks Henrietta is a witch because he has seen her casting spells and a ghostly hand moving stuff around in the shop. He also mentions that the best miners only buy from Henrietta – she has the best stuff.

He also points out the home tree – a great tree that has a winding staircase that looks like homes that look like they were built in the tree, noting that a few homes are vacant due to people mining late into the afternoon/night. He then finishes up in front of Jolly Fandangles. He mentions that Sal, the owner also owns most if not all of the land below the trees and that they sell miners permits to mine their land, most people can’t afford the permits so Sal takes a share of what they mine from the land.

If the party paid Squeak more than the asked price (1gp) then he would also thank them profusely and offer the advice, don’t get on the wrong side of Sal – rumour has it she is backed by some very powerful people from the outside. Those who go against Sal have bad luck or simply disappear – but she isn’t a bad person – she just owns the town. 

Squeak then turns to run off  as a dirt covered man stumbles in and bumps into the party, mumbling an apology (that doesn’t make it to his eyes) he stumbles into the Jolly Fandangles. ‘That’s Ash,’ Squeak says, ‘looks like he had another bad day in the mine, well, a bad few years. He really needs to give up and go home.’

The Jolly Fandangle

The Jolly fandangle is a largish tavern that has a large tree trunk that the tavern is supported by and built around going through the middle of the tavern. The tavern is warm, despite there being no obvious fire or hearth and there is a band playing a merry jig in the corner. An amazingly beautiful young woman commands the bar, and she gives off a presence of authority but not in a cold way. 

There are a handful of meals available to purchase. A “Rabbit Surprise stew”, Roasted vegetable bowl and “Miners Platter” which is an assortment of cold cured meat, bread, cheese and berries. 

The woman is Sally, the owner of Jolly Fandangles, she has an assistant, Jess, that spends a lot of time in the back of the kitchen but she seems to be an energetic young woman who watches everything Sally does in the way of a student watching a teacher. 

If asked Sally explains that some of the villagers have seen strange figures are night that appear to have white masks, or skulls like the undead, but they have not been seen in the city. 

She also explains that there have been sightings of dark figures in the marsh – but can’t give out a name for who has seen them, only that they have been seen. 

The party find themselves seated at a table next to a man dressed in layers of black cloth, he talkative, asking about the party and their business here, the party is cut off in their answer by Sally who places food in front of them loudly and offers them a round of beers on the house. 

The Marsh

If the party goes exploring the marsh they will find a set of tracks heading towards a worked stone outcrop.
Those who are good with stonework (Dwarves for example) would be able to identify ancient stone carvings, almost like legs of a dying insect jutting from the solid ground (after walking through a bog for the past hour or so), the work is incredible yet aged but the crafters race is unable to be deduced.
Following the footprints they find Esmereld who had fallen into the ruins of a sunken temple through a 3ft hole in the roof where the stone had given way when she walked on top of it. She says she was searching for her friend – Ash, who had left the Tavern late at night but had not been seen since. 

In the temple any movement near the walls will trigger the guardians to attack silently – triggering another surprise encounter. 

The room is 40ft long by 20ft wide, the only light is from the hole in the roof which grants bright light 10ft under the hole, then dim light for a further 5ft, after that it’s darkness. 

The animated armor will not pursue the party out of the temple as they just want to keep invaders out. 

Upon returning, if Esmereld survives, she will offer them to stay at her place free of charge. 

Back the the Treetop Town

By the time they get back it is dark. No goblins attack this time. That night if the party stays with Esmereld they are woken up by Ash knocking on the door – he comes in hurriedly saying that on his way back into the Town he saw masked figures climbing the tree trunks near Henry’s shop.

If the party went to investigate they would notice 7 hulking figures jumping from a tree trunk. Two have long feathered bows (longbows), 5 have wicked looking swords and axes (Long sword or battleaxe). 

If they stay in the Tavern one (Dm Picks) of the party is woken by the sound of a bottle rolling along the walkway outside the room they were staying in. If they investigate they see a brief glimpse of a white mask (looks like a skull of some large animal) and muddied skin. 

If the party went to investigate they would notice 5 hulking figures moving silently along the ramps and rope bridges in the town. Two have long feathered bows (longbows), 3 have wicked looking swords and axes (Long sword or battleaxe). 

After the battle the party finds one of the orks, an archer still alive – as it dies it curses the party for aligning with the dark one that stalks the land and hopes that the party’s dark master will use their corpses in his army of the dead. (if the party can question it further – see Speak with dead)

One of the guardsmen then comes forward to discard the bodies, saying he doesn’t want to leave the bodies around to scare or cause panic in the townsfolk. **A perception check, passive perception 15 or DC13) would note that the guardsman has his uniform over a few layers of dark cloth, and the first foot of cloth, under his guards boots are covered in mud.**

The party returns back to where they were staying and starts drifting off to sleep. An hour into their rest they are woken up to the town’s alarm bell ringing. 

As they rush out to find out what’s going on they are led to a few weight balanced ropes and platforms of wood they were advised that several of the guard were already fighting off a large zombie horde, and rumors’ of a dark wizard hidden in the mists were coming through from the guardsmen that made it back to the town – but they were missing a unit of men and women who went into the strange mists.

As they descend to the base of the tree they find themselves surrounded by the dead, zombies were in states of breaking apart, their magic spent, and several more were walking at the base of the trees – pulling and clawing at the wood, as if trying to bring the town down from the roots. Given enough time and not opposition they would be successful. 

After fighting the 8 zombies at the base of the trees they notice that another 4 number of zombies (the dead orcs that they killed before – all of them are still wearing the white skull-masks) approaching them from behind the wall of mist, which parts momentarily thanks to Henrietta casting a spell (gust) to reveal a figure in the mists.

The party has about a minute to do whatever they want before the zombies are revealed as all the zombies are revealed, Henrietta appears and casts a gust spell – the mists briefly parts revealing the black cloaked stranger raising another zombie from the body of a guarsemen. 

The necromancer keeps the zombie guardsman in front of him at all times, using him as a human shield (reaction to pull the body in the way) the other orc zombies will attack the party. 

After the battle the necromancer will have a letter – saying to attack the town but to leave Sally alive.

Concluding the adventure

If the party confront Sally (by herself) and don’t show the note to anyone else she will reveal that her father runs a cartel and is trying to bring her away from the town so he can have free access to the mine. She is sick of being a part of the family and wants out.

If they do reveal it to others they dismiss it as a blackmail attempt upon Sal – and Sally won’t open up.

Sal will also reveal that she wrote the letter to the party – and that she had written several – they were the only heroes to arrive to save the town that she had come to care about. She will give them a bag of gold that would be worth 2000gp if sold to the right people. She also would provide the party with a map showing the known locations of the sunken temples in the area (plot hook for a future adventure) as a way of saying thanks. 

Thanks for joining me today to look at the conclusion to this weeks adventure. I hope you enjoyed the different formatting this week (I think its a lot cleaner and perhaps a bit easier to follow..) and I also hope you liked the narrative approach I used for some of these writeups. I think I will keep doing this in the future so that these micro stories could inspire you, my awesome readers, to write your own stories or better yet, have a go at dungeon mastering your very own TTRPG session,

Don’t forget to to tune in for next week, where I reveal my method to the madness of writing multiple hooks, NPCS, encounters ETC, and hopefully it works! As I mentioned very early on I am experimenting with writing down and noting down what normally takes me a few hours (to completion, a few minutes to conception) and I hope it pays off.

Oh, and don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

For the love of the game…

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Saturday is here and for me that means going a smidge off script. As some of my posts in the past have indicated D&D, well TTRPGs, isn’t the only gaming system or genre I have in my life. Yes, I am in a relationship with something that isn’t normally thought of when you say that you are a Dungeon or Game master. I adore Warhammer.

Not the sci-fi goodness with the pew-pa-pew lazers and such, but the fantasy heavy version complete with dwarves, elves, orcs, goblins, undead, and of course, humans.

For me though it isn’t just a nail biting 30+ minute game of tactics and strategy involving the movement between 5 and 200 miniatures, but for me it’s the sparks of inspiration that come from them.

Currently I have a sizeable force of Nighthaunt; tormented specters that haunt the mortal realms, a burgeoning force of Slaanesh; the worshipers of chaos and all things in excess, a small swarm of Skaven; my beloved crazy rat-men, and enough Flesh eater courts for a few people to have full armies from just my collection alone.

The reason for the choice in these armies isn’t really tied to their effectiveness on the battlefield, most of them currently are predicted to see a podium spot in tournaments at the moment, but for an aspect of the army that just brought me in.

For Nighthaunt it’s the grim-dark nature of the army. A endless procession of tormented spirits bound to the great necromancer Nagash, cursed for forever do his bidding as a vindictive punishment against those who lived their mortal lives so frivolously. Their ghostly forms ‘floating’ across the battlements of the game table brings back that feeling when (spoiler ale… no if you haven’t seen Lord of the Rings, return of the king by now it’s your own fault) the hundreds of cursed warriors, now horrible specters swept from their pirated ship and lay waste to the armies sieging Minas Tirith. The armies of evil including Orcs, monstrous elephants and other worshipers of Sauron fell to the ghostly men their incorporeal blades cutting through the flesh and armor of their enemies easier than they would have in life. For this one feeling alone I would collect hundreds of miniatures to bring to the table, but the models are not only used for warhammer but used for D&D as well. The battles, such as one last weekend where the swarms of spirits marched to meet an army of mortals and daemons of Khorne, the chaos god of blood, war and murder, met me in the middle of a battlefield where my ghosts swarmed, pined down and dragged the chaos worshipping zealots to their graves. The ghostly form of my army, and luck from the dice gods, saw key bottlenecks holding firmly with my army of specters until only the dead was left on the table.

These battles give me the desire and inspiration for not only writing stories of these wars, battles and characters but also for encounters – such as the banshee in the woods from a few weeks back (what calls from the woods) as well as a few other sessions yet to come, if the party ever escape from the ghoul nest they are currently calling ‘base camp…’

This leads me to ghouls. Now I love flesh eater courts – not for the sheer amount of gore that the army is normally portrayed to be involved in, or the grisly nature of the army but because of the creation story, and the lore behind them.

Let me set a scene.

Sir Reginald Fauxhammer stood with his brothers and the hundreds of men at arms in front of him. Patting his white mare trying to calm its nerves as the barbaric creatures looted a village just ahead he rode in front of his men.

“Today we teach these invaders that this is our land, our people and that we will not take this any longer. For too long have we allowed these creatures to trespass onto our land and slay our people – almost content enough to leave villages and towns filled with the corpses of men, women and children. To this I say today is your last day, we take the battle to you and then you shall have a war! King Krull in his heroic bravery has announced that he will lead the charge, fear not Percy – he is on Snapjaw, his dragon. None shall slay our king. Not if we, the Nights of Hallowmourne have anything to do with that.” He laughed at this, his men laughed to. For many battles their king was never seen without his knights and today would be no different.

A shriek and a blast of fire could be seen in the diming light, the smell of battle on the wind.

“I do believe, the king calls for us! ride forth brothers. To the king!” Sir Reginald kicked his mount into a gallop, so in tuned with his steed he could feel his own legs pumping in time with the beasts.

– Across the field –

Thomas has just put his daughter to bed, his wife, Chrissy was washing up the dishes in the sink. The pale light from the sun setting over the forest to the west made it difficult to see the sprint colours across the meadow – but today the setting sun caused strange shadows to seem to dance across the pastures and flowers. Giving his wife a kiss and closing the door behind him he set off to take first watch at the edge of the town – rumors’ of late had spread of a dark shadow spreading through the land. Probably just a messengers tale, they had not received one for quite a few days and they were now sorely overdue. News from the capital had said that crusades into Shyish were going well, that the cannibals and nightmares that called that unholy place home were meeting blessed steel and that even Sigmars chosen, the Stormcast eternals, had been seen entering cities and towns as of late – brought down from Azyr in blinding bolts of lightning.

A whistling in the wind gave warning to the beast before the smell did. A corpse, a rotting mass of bones and flesh fell from the skies just in front of him. Large nightmarish wings spread out wide and the Zombie dragon belched forth a plume of rot that killed a dozen people instantly in front of him. Throwing himself against the wall of a nearby building the zombie dragon strode forward, barreling down the city streets and into a crowd of people who were too stunned to move. The figure on its back, large pointed ears, fingernails nearly as long as the dragons teeth and the blood, it was covered in blood. Body parts, taken from its victims seemed to adorn the creature like a mantle, a crown of fingers seemed to almost be sewn into the creatures head as its mount bounced, like a massive killer puppy, into the crowd of people. As the Dragon bounced and ate the creature howled and screeched into the setting sun.

That’s when Thomas heard it. The thundering of feet. Turning to look at the now visible tree-line what he thought were shadows were figures, hundreds of figures darting forward naked apart from the gore that covered this pale forms. Larger beasts seem to barrel past then, their large powerful legs seeming to gallop across the ground, at the head of the pack a particularly wicked looking monstrous figure ran, snarling at the others, the sun causing its white skin to glow in the failing light.

Oh Sigmar save us, the flesh eater courts had arrived…

To themselves the Flesh Eater courts are noblemen and women. They fight for their kings and have grand feasts in their lieges honor. To everyone else they are a raving mass of mad cannibals. Driven insane by delusions of grandeur that stem from their ghoul kings (so delusional that their very presence brings insanity to normal man) these ghouls, the small ‘serf’ or larger ‘knights’ of the courts don’t see themselves eating piles of dead corpses – they see magnificent feasts piled high.

For me these armies, inspiration for the ghoul pit my party currently find themselves in, are another source of inspiration, miniatures for the table and fun which gives me the recharge time I need so that I can write more, or come up with newer and more exciting adventures for my party.

Thanks for jumping on today, getting a brief introduction to another source of inspiration for my games and maybe walking away wanting to investigate warhammer yourself.

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the final writeup of this weeks adventure, and as usual don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Masks by moonlight…

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Fight night is here and what a day it has been. We lost power here (most of the city actually) from about 4am until 4:30pm, which means that my work day was really out of whack and the amount of time that I can spend on writing up todays Friday-night writeup is.. limited to say the least. But let’s not let that distract me any more and lets get the dice rolling.

As normal Kobold Plus Fight club and Tetra-cube is my weapon choice – I will eventually get around to looking for stat-block generators (using either home-brew or publicly available content so the Wizards don’t bring down their judgement) but maybe this weekend I will write up a bit about the other products they offer.

Ambush at the platform

As the introduction to the village, in first person version (tangent – let me know how that was!), as the party approach the pulley operated platform they are to be ambushed by a bunch of goblins.

As a cop-out I will say that the writeup from yesterday describes them adequately enough but lets talk about mechanics.

According to kobold fight club we can have 1 CR 2 and 5 CR1/4 creatures before this gets a bit too strong for our party of adventurers. Speaking of which, for this I am assuming our group is level 4. Or we could mix it up and just have a horde (12-13) of goblins (keeping to my hard encounter mantra) or if we want something to just break the narrative of travelling through marshland let’s do 8 Goblins – just on the entry-point side of Medium.

Forgotten Gods, Lost Guardians

09FrLG

“I wish Sid was still with us,” Ray said as he stepped into another hole of muck and filth, “he would’ve had us through this bog in moments, not hours”.

“Yeah, pity about what happened to him in the ghoul nest. Hope that bloody tome was worth it” mused Dusk, holding his beard above his head so it wouldn’t drag in the muck.

Mike and Zander beckoned the other, dare I say heavier, party members over to a set of tracks.

“These aren’t orcs.. I have tracked orcs before – these are human, or were human. It seems to drag its right leg. Maybe undead?” Zander explained to the others, noting a set of tracks in the mud heading towards some stone ruins about 300ft from where they are.

At the mention of Undead, Mike stood straight – gripped his swords hilt and strode off.

“Mike! My lady hasn’t mentioned anything dead this way. It’s not goi..” Dusk began, half hopping to get his enchanted boots out of the mud.

“IF there are dead in this bog they will burn.” Mike squeezed through his teeth. His allies sighed, still not used to his righteous vendetta against the dead.

As the party stepped onto the first solid stone of the day they sighed a breath of relief, Zander taking a moment and a wisp of magic to clean the parties garments from the filth of the bog.

Ray closed his eyes and channeled his divine might outwards – searching for those who would stand against his march. “I sense something old and dark, but not dead. Perhaps fiendish in nature” he began, pointing over the edge of a hole in the stone paving – where the tacky-muck footprints led.

“HELP!” a voice called from down the hole. “I think I broke my ankle when I fell. The statues, they wont stop staring!” A woman’s voice seemed to reverberate from the stone chamber.

Without a moment to waste the party moved to the edge of the hole and jumped, Zander reaching out and touching his allies he shot off a blast of air towards the ground – slowing their fall to something manageable.

Landing with a small impact, less than what it would have been if not for Zander, the party quickly sought the owner of a the voice.

A lantern, low on oil by the looks of it, burned not 10ft from where the hole led and a young woman lay there, part of her dress wrapped around her leg.

“One moment lass,” Dusk said, bringing forward his shield which proudly sported the symbol of the Raven queen, “will have you up in a moment” he said as divine magics washed over her broken limb.

Sighing Mike sheathed his sword and walked around the room. “Interesting, these statues. They look like they could leap right off the wall. Dusk you must see this stone work, its similar to some of the carvings we saw in the temple of Malar” Mike said turning around and looking back to the party, his musing taking him 30 or so feet from his allies.

“Mike!” Ray called, rust covered vines seemingly springing from his wrist to wrap around Mike – biting into his flesh and wrenching him towards his allies. Half the distance he had walk covered in a mere moment. The stone where he was standing seemed to explode as a shield sized hammer head pulverised the stone work where Mike was standing.

“Thanks for the help Ray,” Mike said, his hands glowing causing the multiple lacerations to close on his torso, the magical blade of Vex that Ray wielded still an amazing weapon and tool. “Zander, light them up will you” Mike said as he brought out his great sword, the guard of it magically shifting to represent two outstretched wings as Mike pulsed energy through the hilt as lightning crackled through the room. The harsh blue-white light of the magic revealing several large animated statues with various weapons striding towards the party. Lightning seemingly bouncing off their enchanted stone forms.

“Well they aren’t undead, but they will soon join their creator” Mike stated, cracking his neck to the side as he felt the magic in his three other allies surging.

Animated amour, easy enough to balance out with this party. One suit per party member of 4th level should make it a challenging fight, the darkness of the room, the helpless woman they have encountered as well as the magical resistance (whether imagined by the party or tacked onto the stat-block) will make it a fun fight.

Not all green things in trees are leaves

09FrOr

As the party retire from the tavern for the night, having secured accommodation with one of the villagers after helping them out of one of the forgotten jungle temples and saving them from the guardians of the ruins, Mike, the human paladin, adjusts his armour and great sword strung between his shoulder blades; never quite feeling safe without the enchanted blade and battle tested plate.

“Well, I can safely say that was not rabbit,” barked the Dwarf, Dusk, a Cleric of the raven queen and reliable ally, “but it went well with the ale, pity she didn’t have any of those mushrooms that make your tongue go numb though.” the dwarf mused as he ferreted for his pipe, finding it next to his axe that even now thirsted for battle.

“Sir Dusk, I don’t believe that partaking in those contraband substances is fitting of the noble heroes such as us” said Zandar, a man of powerful magics who could literally summon a storm in a teacup. “Besides that was definitely rabbit”.

“Rabbit or not, we have a busy day ahead of us. If it wasn’t for saving lady Esmereld we would have found the hideout of these green-skins that are causing a ruckus in this town and persuaded them to leave” Said Ray, a paladin who believed that total conquest was the only way to truly find peace.

“I agree,” Mike declared, stifling a yawn, “Let us go rest, I am sure that we are all short on magical reserve after that battle with the animated guardians of that temple. Let us not dishonor Lady Esmereld with our tardiness to take up her kind and generous offer” he stuttered the last part, a blush covering his cheeks.

Dusk, his head tilted to the side slightly, his lips moving and eyes staring at vacant space slowly raised his hand and pointed across the rope bridges that allowed travel from one side of the town to the other.

“My lady says that the search is over, that the quarry we seek stalk us now with death and menace coating their blades. Pity I didn’t get any of that mushroom. It would have made this fight a bit fairer.” Dusk said shrugging his axe from his shoulder, the head seeming to burn with a menace that would fill a lesser being with dread.

“Your patron seems to have taken a stronger interest in our activities since we freed her from her prison, Dusk. Can she give us more advanced warning in the future. I would have insisted we have a more substantial rest before fighting again” Zandar stated stormily, electricity arcing across his outstretched fingers and a sudden breeze ruffled his hair.

As the Orcs slunk from the trunks of the tree, the light from the crescent moon above making their ivory coloured masks seem to glow amongst the gloom.

For a moment the orcs sized up the party, their movement semi-erratic as they seemed to bounce from foot to foot waiting for some arbitrary sign to be given that announced a fight.

“Well, let’s get this sorted so we can get to bed then.” Mike said, gripping the hilt of his sword, Sky Chariot, as Raynor called upon his Patron and his blade – Vines made of rust spreading from his longsword to bridge the gap between the two parties and commence the bloodshed.

I hope my party won’t mind me using their characters as inspiration for the write up (names changed as it didn’t feel right to use their characters names without forewarning). But let’s break it down. Our encounter balance book says that we can have up to 7 Orcs for this size and level party, but feel free to adjust. Given the location any ranged attacker will have an advantage as the bridges are narrow and you could easily block movement of one or another of the forces by just sitting in the middle of a bridge. So if your party has a lot of ranged capability (like mine….) then throwing another 1-3 Orcs wont matter..

The bog drowned dead

09FrBDD

After the last Orc had fallen and the party had finally been able to make it to Esmereld’s house the party had no trouble almost instantly falling asleep.

Through scattered dreams from Zander, fitful nightmares riddled with undead from Mike and the vision ridden thoughts (as if Dusk could sleep with the raven queen invading his thoughts constantly) Ray was the only one to really get any form of sleep. So when the town guard knocked on their door and Esmereld ran around waking the party they had barely managed to get any sleep. But instantly they could all feel the dead were nearby, and en masse.

Led to a few weight balanced ropes and platforms of wood they were advised that several of the guard were already fighting off a large zombie horde, and rumors’ of a dark wizard hidden in the mists were coming through from the guardsmen that made it back to the town – but they were missing a unit of men and women who went into the mists.

The party each went to one of the strange rope contraptions before leaping down – feet on the wooden beams and the rope zipping them all the way down to the ground, all except Zander who had a thing with flare, who jumped through an opening – the guardsmen gasping and rushing to watch him fall only to see a spark of magic cross his body moments before he hit the ground, summoning a gust of wind to gentle place him on the ground. The party, boots on ground found themselves surrounded by the dead, zombies were in states of breaking apart, their magic spent, and several more were walking at the base of the trees – pulling and clawing at the wood, as if trying to bring the town down from the roots. Given enough time and not opposition they would be successful. Drawing weapons and magic the party strode forward, separating heads from the dead as they defended the trees. Mike, stopping for a moment to let his divine senses stretch outwards found a particularly foul energy as the party defeated the last of the zombies assaulting the trees.

“This way, I think I found the dark magics. I think its some form of lesser necromancer. Remember that Ghoul king we fought. Cake walk compared to this thing.” Mike wheezed, swinging his massive enchanted blade around still gave him a workout.

“Aye, my lady also confirms that’s what is waiting for us, and she wants us to kill it. For once I agree with the raven bitch” Dusk muttered darkly, spitting on the last zombie to feel his axe. He did not have a good relationship with his deity.

“Well, lets get to it then” Ray said, lifting his shield higher and flicking some dark ichor of Vexing thorns, ready to send the rusting blade through some more undead.

“Should I just blast them with magic? If we know where they are we don’t even need to get into the mists” Zander said – already charging up a spell.

“No, there may be injured guardsmen in there. Their safety is just as important as the death of the dead and their master.” Ray said. Mike and Dusk nodding their agreements.

“Fine – well let’s see if I can’t shift this mist then” Zander whispered – his breath now directed to muttering the incantation to a spell to blow the mist away.

A shorter one, got to leave some surprises for the weekend now don’t I.

As for stats the below can do – but if you want a more imposing fight I would consider really pumping up the necromancers abilities. Something like the Goblin-Bosses reaction (where a zombie can take the attack for him as a ‘willing’ living shield would make the fight something to remember.

Well that’s all I have for tonight. Thanks for joining me for fight night and if you are enjoying this current style and write-up do let me know. 

Don’t forget to join me for this weekend’s final write-up. Not sure if it will be in the same story format as that may take me a week and turn into a novella but I will make sure to do something to make it a good read.

And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Treetop Town of Newtbranch

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Ahh Thursday is here and as predicted I had little time to fully draw a map. But I had time to sketch what I thought part of the town of Newtbranch would look like. This is enough, in my view, for a DM/GM to orientate themselves and use that to describe what the players see, to give enough detail to temp players to explore and explore and look at the town through their theatre of the mind.

So exploring more on that story telling aspect let’s give that a shot whilst looking through the eyes of a NPC Corben, the merchant that occasions visits the town, and his run in with Alza.

Newtbranch

09WeMa1

Inspiration for todays writeup.. Sometimes a rough sketch is all you need if you are the only one who will see it.

Corben entered the outskirts of Newtbranch just before dusk, the cold autumn light causing the fallen leaves to glow like embers at the base of the ancient swamp trees.

Nodding to the men and women he knew were hidden in the leaf covered branches mid way up one of these massive evergreen trees it took a few tense moments before he heard the telltale crank of a massive dwarven leaver hidden out of sight.
Corben being a regular merchant to Newtbranch tied his single ox light cart to a nearby stump, worn with the use of rope over many years, and unsheathed his scimitar and a small buckler was taken from the tack and harness from his beast of burden.
A few minutes passed and a large platform was lowered to past the treeline. It was large enough for a few carts and the beasts that pulled them but only a fool would assume it safe to bring that much cargo on these roads with that amount of livestock carrying it into this Marsh.
As the platform touched the loamy ground a few fitful shrieks rang forth as mud and leaf covered goblins rushed towards their ticket into the hidden tree town.
Corben, without hesitation, strode forward to meet the handful of goblins and separated one unwary curr from its body as it rushed past the large man. Several other goblins rushed past him but were met by the flashing blades of eleven Guardsman that were defending the platform as Corben’s ox, Rugfurt, was coaxed onto the platform. Corben, noting the dead Goblins and one or two who fled back into the shrub, turned and walked back towards the platform. He was an old hand at this. The Goblins never make it to the platform. As he took a third step towards the hardwood and rope bound lift he noticed a sudden shift in the guards, turning and raising a shield he caught the bite or a large goblinoid creature as the launched itself through the air, gliding on leathery membranes towards him.
Pushed onto his back he felt the mud and ooze instantly penetrate his cloak and fur vest. Pushing back with his strength he realised he was quickly losing the contest of might as a blast of inky smoke struck the beast in the side. A high pitched yelping burst forth from the beast as it whirled towards its attacker, bristly fur located along the.. ridge?.. of its arm standing on end as it launched itself skyward beating small green tinged leathering wings gaining vertical feet with every heartbeat. The sane inky smoke struck it again, this time the tails of smoke wove back to the ground as the magical force wrapped and engulfed the goblinoid-thing and pulled it into the muck. The cracking of bone and wheezing of air could be heard from where Corben lay as the mass seemed to heave and shudder as it shrank. As it shrank the tendrils of dark energy slithered into the mud revealing a goblin with leathery membranes receding into its arms and the remnants of fur and hair falling off over its body revealing green skin.


“A were-bat if I am not misstaken” a voice akin to a snake stated next to him, a hand outstretched belonging to a man in a long dark coat, “Alza, pleased to meet you. Buy me an ale and we will call the bat even” the tall slender man said as he helped Corben up.
“got yerself a deal. Thanks for the assist” Corben replied, checking himself quickly for any bites or scratches that would need investigation.
After giving himself a quick once over himself, his cart and the newcomer, Alza, jumped onto the platform and it was slowly winched through the tree canopy and into Newtbranch.

The platform was gradually winched adjacent to the trunk of the tree where little blue tree newts, the town’s namesake, chased flies and midges across the bark. As the platform came to rest Corben took in the sight of tree trunks cut short to form anchor points for walkways that weaved from tree to tree where buildings were built into the tree or surrounding the living behemoths of the forest.
As his Ox was taken into a hollow in the tree which managed as stables for the very limited amount of large livestock that was allowed in the town Corben led his cart and a few willing townsfolk up a gradual sloping ramp that would take him and his wares to the town hub.
Taking a moment to admire the Autumn colours among the trees he looked across the town in true. To the left against two trees that were wider than he was tall was two houses. People were walking along the rope bridges between the trunk he was standing on and the two houses that were at the end. Across and ahead of him was his destination, Henry’s emporium, where he was to deliver some wares. The building was propped up by several branches that had grown outwards from the wooden beams that formed a platform for the general store. The tree continued up through the natural roof of the building and he could see Henry absent mindedly cleaning dirt and grime from the shop. Opposite it was the Jolly Fandangle. The largest and newest building in the town. This building was a masterwork. Rumour was that Sally had bought wizards and Dwarven and Elven builders in to ensure the Tavern would last for many generations and would be able to support and maintain the towns people within.
At the other end of the rope bridges and walkways was the largest tree in this part of the forest. A large set of stairs wrapped around this tree and houses are built onto the branches all the way up the tree. Some rope lifts were bringing down men and women of the town, most of whom were moving towards the tavern to celebrate, or commiserate a long day in the mines.
Smiling as his cart was taken to Henry’s Emporium he clasped Alza on the shoulder.


“How bout’ that Ale?” Corben asked as he started leading the tall man across a rope bridge
“Yess, what can you tell me about this town..?” Alza said.
“Well.. the people aren’t where the riches are. That lies beneath. The town…” Corben started, opening the door to Jolly Fandangles; he didn’t see the blood chilling grin that the newcomer had on his face as he walked towards a booth, casting glances at Sally from behind the collar of his coat.

Well that’s it for the night. Do come back for some stat blocks for what we know of already and some in others that we should keep in mind just in case the party explore the marshes and get lost.

Thanks for those who have been reading for the past 9 weeks and to those joining recently I have many more adventures to come so keep coming back if you like what I’m putting out there.

If you like anything you see feel free to use it but do let me know how it goes, I’d love to hear stories from my readers!

And as always don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Dark, Magic, and Desire…

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Wednesday is here and with it brings a day of blue skies, crispy sunlight and the promise of change on the breeze. Today we are looking at the twists and turns that could alter or impact the little mining town of Newtbranch and how that can enrich the adventure for our players or completely shake it up. So let’s roll into it.

Trained in the dark arts

Whispers in the dark

09WeDa

Ash on one of the the many long lonely days in his mine shaft was chipping away at a wall, they had all started to look the same to him but he was employing what he had learnt from the dwarven brothers that had sold him the cursed mine. Following a vein of quarts deep through the muddy walls laden with basalt and when mining deeper in the mine, granite, Ash had had very little luck – picking up just enough gold to pay for his supplies and his tab at the tavern. As he struck again with his pickaxe the stone cracked and a section of the wall gave way revealing a small hollow pocket amongst the stone and dirt. The light from his lamp danced through the settling dust and stumbling rocks and in front of him lay a vein of gold set into the wall that would pay for the purchase of the mine, supplies for a year and then hiring help. Blinded by glee he pushed through the muddy wall and didn’t notice as the basalt boulder that was above the hole he made begin to give way.

As he broke through the wall the boulder fell, pushing him forward, his lamp tumbling out of his hands to lay on its side at the base of the wall – the basalt rock pinning his leg to the floor as dirt and smaller rocks assaulted him. As the dust cleared and his leg, although not broken as by some cursed good luck the fall of boulder had pinned his leg next to the rocks he had pushed through, he was left unable to move and his axe, torch and the gold a mere few feet out of reach.

As the lamp flickered and threatened to go out Ash cursed his luck, cursed the world that bore his misery and pleaded with the dark. And the dark answered. A shadow leapt upon the wall from his overturned lamp and whispered in his ear.

“I can free you, for a price. Give you what you so desire but for a favour. Give you power and fame for just the cost of a scribble on a parchment.” The shadow whispered to him.

Sorrow, greed and surprising to even him, Hate, welled inside him. He had suffered and gone without for too long. He nodded his head as the lamp stuttered threatening to go out and a quill was placed in his hand. In the terminal light he could see where he was intended to sign his name and he did with just a moment of hesitation. No one would look upon him now with pity and barely contained contempt any more. He would rule them all.

“good, first things first, let’s free you,” the shadow said as the pressure from the boulder was lifted from his leg, “and second let’s set you right.” and after a moment there was a rumble in the mine. Turning around support beams, light and new safe tunnels had been set up throughout the area he was in. He would be able to mine safely, in peace and in near luxury now.

“And lastly,” the shadow whispered, inhumanly large fingers on unnaturally broad arms gentle clasped his shoulders as the presence whispered in his ear. “I can give you power, but you first must go and help some friends of mine. You can find them in the cemetery. You will know what to do” the shadow said as power and understanding rushed through Ash’s strong and powerful body.

A daughters drive

09WeMa

The act of transmutation was relatively simple. For Henry it was like keeping a balanced ledger – all she had to do was make sure that the matter transforming from the original substance to the new substance would balance out. Turning Rock or mud to gold required a lot of mud. Changing bones to gold, also required a lot of bones as they are nearly worthless so what she could access in the marsh was not going to cut it.

She looked upon the dust covered shelves, despite cleaning them this morning the trudge of miners in and out of her store for pick axes, rope, lantern fuel, rations and the like meant that there was a constant stream of dirt being brought in. But Henry didn’t mind. With a flick of her wrist a incorporeal hand was summoned and the dusting began again. Sighing and looking over her book in front of her she was doing ok, she was making profits daily but she needed something more to really push her to where she wanted to be. It wasn’t that hard to make a profit here as all the older miners knew she was honest and her wares were second to none in this town. But that kind of reputation wasn’t seeing her earn enough to buy back her fathers shop.

Closing the ledger before her and placing it back in the lockbox she opened the door with the same cantrip and a gust of wind took the dust out the door. Being able to handle a few different cantrips at once was Childs-play for Henry but she wanted to make sure that she had the shop ready to go for the next day as tonight she was meeting a merchant at the Tavern.

A giddy energy swelled in Henry as she closed the shop, putting the lockbox away where it wouldn’t be found easily and locking the front door she almost skipped to Jolly Fandangles. Upon entering she saw that the merchant was at the bar eating a plate of what one would hope was rabbit and drinking from what seemed to be a bottomless tankard of ale. Giving a polite smile and greeting to Sally as she walked in she went straight up to the bulky man in a tattered coat.

“Corben, good to see you again. How was the road in?” Henry chirped as she ordered a glass of mulberry wine.

“Good Henry, except for the damn marsh, the flies and the mud. Almost got bogged a few times on the way in.” Corben replied as he chewed on what definitely wasn’t Rabbit.

“Did you bring the book?” Henry asked as she absentmindedly stared at the lustrous red liquid in the glass as she swirled it.

“Yeah, hard to find this one but I take it our ledger is even now?,” Corben said as he reached a bear like paw into his coat and pulled out a paper wrapped book, “the guy I bought it from gave some pretty weird instructions on what I could and couldn’t do with that book. You sure you know what you are getting into Henry?”

“The future Corben, the future.” Henry said as she could practically feel the tendrils of energy resonating within what she knew to be a book bound with the skin of the sacrificed.

It’s just business

09WeDe

It was just another night at the tavern. Ash was neck deep into his third tankard of hard ale, his last based on the amount of gold he had given Sally.

The familiar jingle of the bell strung above the door alerted Sally to a new arrival, turning her head to spot who came in she noticed the tall, broad imposing figures of her fathers men.

“Jess, I’m going to mingle for a bit. Mind the bar” she called out as her assistant Jess came from out back with a platter of rabbit-surprise stew.

“No worries boss” Jess said as she placed one of the two plates of food in front of James and another in front of Ash.

“Ash, that’s your last round until you bring in more gold. Let’s not get too deep into your tab today hey” Sally said more-so to Jess than Ash. Jess had a soft spot for the downtrodden, Sally had a soft spot for gold.

“Matt, Jaeden, what can I do for ye?” Sally said placing a tankard of ale in front of each of the men, one of them definitely had more than a little ogre or something in him.

“Sally, boss says that he has a specialist coming in to help ye. Be ‘ere on dusk tomorrow I reckon’,” said the half-ogre (or something),

“Jae, tell your boss I got it covered. He can shove off with his meddling. Look what happened to those nice dwarf boys. They drank more than the rest of these townsfolk combined and paid fairly for what they got,” Sally half-spat as she swiped a tankard from Jess as she moved on past to serve other patrons, ” I don’t need the help, all is going to be right and set soon, you wait and see.”

“The boss ain’ waiting no more Sal,” Matt spoke this time. Matt was like an uncle to Sally, one of her fathers longest ’employees’ and definitely someone you want to have on side, “Once the hired help comes in, you will know when it’s time to wrap up your affairs and come home.”

As Sally swigged the last of the ale from her tankard a feeling of dread welled up in her gut. She wasn’t done yet, she had more to do, more plans to see through and more gold to get.

“Well lads, Jae, Matt, good to see you both. I guess I better take care of loose ends.” Sally said as she stood up, chewing her bottom hip.

Matts hand shot out like a bolt from a cross bow. “Sal, don’t be thinking what you are. It won’t do you no good. You’ve been down that road before and we both know that its not best for ya’,” Matt said, genuine concern on his face.

“Oh, me. I was thinking of ordering some more Rabbit for the rabbit-surprise stew. You boys should get some before it’s all gone. I promise I won’t do anything I won’t regret”

Sally sauntered off from the table, talking to a few of the patrons as she went back behind the bar. Tapping Ash on the back to let him know his time and gold was up.

She couldn’t go against her father, she couldn’t not go against him. What she needed was a hero, or a few of them, for what ever scheme her father had cooked up this time.

Well that was a bunch of fun to write up. Please do let me know if you prefer the written up story approach to adventure components as I am considering moving more towards them in the future.

With any of the above there could be slight tweaks, or leave them as they are, to have either or both of the plot hooks from Mondays write up (The Marsh of Masks…) come to life. Either turning one, two or all three of the NPCs into key components of the story through the twists we weave can make it feel more alive, give a depth and a greater glimmer of character to the stories we lay before the players to tell.

Well that’s it for this Wednesday, if you like what you have read don’t hesitate and let us know. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for Maps (Not going to lie – this is the day I dread the most as it takes the most time (and I work full time and have two kids..) but there is some special about maps, terrain and the like that I just can’t shy away from.

And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Miners and Merchants…

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Tuesday is here and it has brought with it inspiration for three NPCs that we have to look at this week. Now there will be many more NPCs here in this mining town but the idea behind this series of weekly blogs is to build a portfolio of NPCs in which we can draw down from to fill in the towns, cities, mines or marshes with life and vibrancy, if it warrants it. Without too much more chatter let’s have a look at the NPCs that were created.

Art for the NPCs this week was created in art breeder. I have started to acquire quite an extensive list of character portraits in there so feel free to have a look at my Artbreeder profile which you can find here: artbreeder.com/thebrazenwolfe.

Henrietta Lummet

09TuHL

Henrietta (preferring Henry in most settings) is a tallish, slim woman of around 32 years of age and for the last 7 years she has been the owner of Henry’s emporium – a general store with a strong focus on supplies for mining and exploring the marshes nearby. Henry is a pseudo savvy business woman with more of a mind for business than for the actual sale of things. As such many of the goods she has in store are poorly organised, displayed and most of it appears to be of over priced, despite being high quality and fit for use for their intended applications.

Henry used to be part of a magic guild in Toluka where she was learning the fundamentals of magic where she was thrown from the grounds for trying to turn a guildmates spellbook into gold. Giving up her ongoing study of magic, more or less, she went in search of her fortune elsewhere, eventually stumbling into the mining town of Newtbranch.

Before studying and practicing magic Henry was the only daughter of a driven business man who never quite became successful and eventually died from a disease that was curable, but outside of the families means.

Ash Tressle

09TuAT

Ash is one of the unluckiest men in Newtbranch. He owned the rights to what was the least prosperous mines within a section of the marsh he sold them to a pair of dwarf brothers who, after a week of toiling in the same mine that he has spend 5 years mining, stuck the richest gold deposit in the area. After pleading to work back in the same mine the two brothers made him buy back a third of the mines share after a year of his pleading. After a few more weeks of dwindling returns the dwarf brothers sold their shares in the mine and left Newtbramch. The brothers must have known something because since Ash rebought his mine for double what he sold it for the gold seemed to dry up.

Ash is now in his early 40s but has the appearance of someone well into his 50s if not older. His wild hair is normally a nest for dirt and grime found in the marsh and when he he isn’t in his mine still looking for the gold that he believes is still in there he can be found squandering his meagre coins at the tavern of Newtbranch.

Sally Pondt

09TuSP

Sally is a woman in hear early 40s. She is the proprietor of Jolly Fandangles, Newtbranches Tavern and she happens to own most of the land around the town. Because of this she happens to be one of the wealthiest people in the town as she also sells rights for prospectors to mine on the land she owns, regardless if it has shown any sign of having rich veins of gold.

Sally came into the town 20 years ago with a full purse of gold and purchased most of the towns land from the prospectors before her. She then brought in a team of miners lead by a few dwarves who found where the riches mines were and she began to sell the rights to dig in the mines where gold or other rich deposits of mineral or metal were found. Within a week she owned the town.

Not much is known about her history but she appears to have backing from wealthy individuals external to the town that enabled her to get such a substantive foothold in the town.

Thanks for joining me today to continue the journey into exploring the process of coming up with an adventure a week. As I have said before the NPCs that we have in our sessions are what bring our players really into the adventure.

One such adventure that I ran for my players had Mary-Sue and her Father, Lamberge, who were survivors from a zombie attack on a temple of Torm in a small village called Renhaven. The NPCs were there to provide a story, a journal was left in the temple to explain what happened there. But the character and feelings that was portrayed in the journal entry led the players to follow the tracks the NPCs (who I had no intention of being found alive) away from the mountain peak temple that I had planed for them. They found Mary-Sue, her father (who was dying from an injury) and Smith, the town smith. The conversation then broke out between the three NPCs which, much to my chagrin, my players loved hearing my put on three different voices to talk to myself.

These three NPCs then distracted the Party long enough that the adventure that I had planned for them had shifted slightly (see Dungeon World – Fronts). Rolling several dice to determine the outcome of a massive battle that I had planned the party to be caught in the middle of between the raiding Gnolls (who worshiped the god Malar) and a necromancer searching for power within a temple (to the Gnolls deity). But the party wanted to ensure that the NPCs were safe and sound.

The key message to take away here is to make sure you put effort into NPCs. Give them at minimum 4 thigs.

  1. Who they were
  2. Who they are now
  3. Who they want to be
    and lastly, and most importantly.
  4. A name that doesn’t always start with the letter B.

That’s it for tonight, don’t forget to come back tomorrow to look for the twists and turns we have in stall for this week and as always don’t forget to roll with advantage!
The Brazen Wolfe

The Marsh of Masks…

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Monday has come again and as I hinted in the weekends writeup we are exploring the Marsh of Masks this week. This week I am experimenting slightly with the format this week finding that the variations of colours (tying in with the colours I use for the post-its I have on my board here) were maybe a bit to much. So this week I am looking at toning it down a bit and potentially updaing the previous posts to a more neutral colour format.

Without further waffle let’s have a look at this weeks adventure hooks!

Never trust something that hides behind a mask…

Credit to image goes to original owner – located here under public domain

The town of Newtbranch is situated about a days travel into the largest marshlands on the continent. The path to the city is frequently submerged by a black, brackish water that leaves a stench amongst travelers clothes and the creatures that call the marsh home are even less appealing to the average trader. But the town of Newtbranch is situated next to what used to be the most bountiful gold mine in the known land.

Due to that the marsh is known for three things, it’s mine that still pulls up gold (although not as bountiful as it used to be), the ruins of an ancient civilisation that used to live amongst the bogs and the trees and its cemetery, one of the largest cemeteries due to the number of deaths that happen in the mind, around the marsh and within the town.

Despite the high fatality rate, prospectors, miners, archaeologists and adventurers find themselves drawn to Newtbranch, a city build above the bogs among the branches of the ancient branches that call the marsh home but the wispers amongst the falling leaves and twisted branches speak of a new concern for the town. Masked creatures stalk the bog beneath the suspended tree village, some townsfolk even have whispered of masked figures amongst the houses in the town.

Orcs in the mists

09MoOIM

The strange noises, shadows that pass the windows and amongst the bog are caused by a tribe of orcs that wear masks constructed of the skulls of beasts of the swamps. The reason for them being amongst the city, but not outright ransacking them seem to be unknown and they appear to attempting to be carefully hide their tracks.

The death masks

09MoDM

A necromancer in the marsh has begun raising the dead from the graves near the town and has ordered them to search the bogs. The zombies and other undead creatures have managed to avoid being outright spotted but the necromancer who controls them grows impatient with their brainless servants lack of results.

Thanks to joining me on your Monday and I hope to see you in the following days. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow where we look at some of the colourful characters that our players may encounter in this weeks adventure, some may help, many may hinder the players in their quest to unravel what stalks the streets and the bogs.

Thanks for joining me for 9 weeks of me writing up these adventures, if you haven’t already consider subscribing so you don’t miss out on anything and if you like what read don’t forget to let us know!

And as always don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

A nest amongst the sands…

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Sunday has come and the adventure has been started. This week we were looking to keep things simple with reduced variations or options in this week’s adventure. So to wrap it all up I will see how in depth I can go.

Hope you liked this adventure and are looking forward to next weeks!

To hunt the cockatrice takes the characters into The Hollow Desert, a place where rain comes but once a year and those who travel, let alone live there, have to be made of stronger stuff. 

The denizens of the desert are hardy, resourceful and cunning, they have to be in order to survive. 

The characters find themselves entering Apituk, part of the Khizdumese Theocracy, after travelling for quite a few weeks to get to the city. Unlike the grasslands around the city the streets are paved with stone and the buildings are crudely made from sandstone and people from all races are flittering around haggling with street vendors trying to get cheaper prices for food, goods and trinkets.

The plot

After an hour the party finds themselves approached by a man dressed in a long black flowing cloak. He Introduces himself just as ‘Y’ greets them praising them for their reputation and singing praises of the party which are almost all true the and requests that they follow him as his patron has a request for them that will pay them handsomely for their involvement in the successful outcome for his patron.

The man ushers the party into a carriage that looks to be extremely well made with plush fabric covered seats and exotic furs to add that little bit more lushness to the experience. The carriage is large enough to seat 8, impeccably clean and feels overall quite expensive. A little basin with little dish of water is placed before the party by the carriage footman. The mysterious man, who calls himself Y, quite confusing really, produces a small palm sized crystal that glows with a purple light and places it in the basin.

A ladies voice, muffled by magic or something mundane, speaks from the crystal and from the tone and language used they party can tell that she owns the carriage and probably much much more.

The owner of the voice offers the party a job, go to a gypsy camp in the Hollow desert and retrieve an artefact called the Shruiabe Coin and bring it back to Y. The party as compensation would receive 1,000 gp each for their discretion and the artefact and a bonus will be provided to them if the artefact is the genuine thing and does what it is rumoured to do so. The party is to wait at the Mulberry and Cake inn within the city for their full compensation upon their return. If the party accept then Y would produce a map that indicates the known reported locations of the gypsy camp and a sum of 350gp to get provisions for the journey as the Hollow desert is not a forgiving place.

Once in The Hollow Desert if the party had hired help (a guide) or purchased/hired camels or other animals/vehicles that could travel across the sands in a desert then that would make the journey easier. For each day that the party travel they would suffer a level of exhaustion unless travelling via animal vehicle, guided by someone knowledgeable or travelling at night (when it’s cold, not hot). 

The people

Kelsei Whisper song

Kelsei Wispersong is a moonelf (tanned now) who travels with the various traders and gypsies in the Hollow Desert. She is just over 5 feet tall, a little chubby but sharp as a tack. Nothing escapes her notice and thats how she has survived so long in the desert with the gypsies that seem to travel with the change in the sands.

Kelsei knows what it takes to survive and if you ask around about her she does just that. Knowing a good thing when she sees it she is quick to make them best of good situations and she always seems to make it out on top. However she has just as quickly to know a bad thing and when to cut her losses (or avoid them altogether) and walk away.

When the party enquire about the Shruiabe Coin Kelsei gets defensive and would enquire as to how they know about the coin, why they want it and who is it for. To prove their worth for the coin Kelsei would request that they retrieve for the gyspie camp 4 cockatrices or the same number of cockatrice eggs as this particular troop of survivors has learnt how to domesticate them and use them for guardians of the camp, as currency and when times get rough, food. She would describe where they are poorly (if they have a guide they should know but wouldn’t be pleased about it) but if she notices the party have a map she would offer to mark it on there – surprised that it’s already marked on the map as the third possible location of the gyspie camp. She would explain that they had to leave when a group of marauders attacked them one night and caused many losses to the people of this camp.

The Encounters

There are three stages to the fights this week. 2 road side encounters,1 at night when they camp and 1 when they go to retrieve the cockactrices or their eggs. Let’s have a look at them

Tricks of the sands.

On the first time of travelling they would see an oasis off in the distance with what looks like a plume of smoke coming from it (if travelling at night time they would see a pinprick of flickering light). If they were to roll investigation (DC14) they would determine it to be an illusion. But not quite a mirage. If they continue on their path towards the one of the three last known encampments of the gypsies they would then be buffeted by sands and would have their wills tested (wisdom saving throw) – if they fail they would find a cave not far off the track which they would try and shelter in from the sand storm. If they pass they realise that there is no sandstorm or no cave and would be confused if anything else were to move to the bottom of a large sand dune and appear to take shelter. 

If the party does try to shelter in the illusionary cave they would suffer a level of exhaustion after an hour as the sun would continue to shine down on them and would dehydrate them. If they pass again they would be ambushed by a Blue dragon wyrmling who would fly over them and throw blasts of lightning at the party trying to scare them off. If they beat the wyrming who would plead for its life, or if it has a chance to escape the party would find out (by the wyrmling informing them, or the party stumbling at the base of cliffs where several adult blue dragons would swoop down to confront them. If the Wyrming lives he would be there and would try and persuade the party to leave (whilst asking the adults to leave them alone) as the party has stumbled upon the nesting grounds of the blue dragons which was the cause of the gypsies abandoning this rather good position to camp long term. 

The party would find shelter not far away (or could ask for shelter from the dragons) and could rest for the night. If they do rest here the dragons would fly and warn them to not go towards the cliffs but to stay in the oasis.

Blue Dragon wyrmling

Stingers come from beneath the sands.

At night if the party eats food or lights a fire they would be attacked by the human sized Sand scorpions of the hollow desert who are either drawn towards their food and the heat from the fire. 2-3 scorpions would attack them and would try and take the party members (furthest from the fire) one by one back into a nearby shallow sand burrow.

In the morning the party head towards the next known campsite and find that it is the correct one and it’s inhabited by the gypsy camp.

Blue Dragon wyrmling

Iron Tooth clan

On the way to the next camp, the following day or that night – depending on players and if they need to recover any exhaustion, the party would be ambushed by a group of these ‘marauders’ which are a mix of Tabaxi and Half-orcs. They declare that they are part of the Iron Tooth clan and that they will let the party go without bloodshed if they can take them to the gypsies of the desert so they can finish the job and kill them and their witch – who slew their last boss when they attacked them last time. 

If the party fights then it would be 1 bandit Captain and 6 bandits.

If the Party lead the bandits to the gypsies then the camp and Kelsei would fight. Kelsie would cast a powerful sleep spell that would put all the bandits to sleep except for the captain who would run away. The camp would be hostile towards the party now, not attack on sight but they would not be welcome back into the camp and Kelsei would be disappointed and request that instead of 4 creatures or 4 eggs she would require both creatures and eggs. If they can retrieve more of either that may sooth things over with the camp.

Bandits

A nest of stone.

After the encounter with the bandits they would make it to the old camp and look for the place Kelsie would have described. Finding it they would find 6 cockatrice in there and 5 eggs. The cockatrice would attack the moment they realise that the party is there. If the fight breaks out amongst the nest roll a d20 for each action taken within the same 5ft area of the nest and on 1-7 the egg is destroyed, once the fight is over if any eggs were trampled then the party is unable to recover them. The party then can bring back any cockatrice that is knocked out and bring them to the Gypsies. If any party member is petrified then they will return to flesh 24 hours after being turned to stone (but the parties may not already know this – only if they have encountered a cockatrice before or recall them with a DC14 nature check will they be aware of the petrification conditions. If the party are petrified they would wake to find the cockatrices have moved their nest and only a successful DC12 survival check would reveal where they are now. Any party member left behind whilst petrified would wake to find they are where they were and would need to decide what to do now.

Cockatrice

Credit to Dan Scott (no active links to his work could be found…)

The outcome

Upon retrieving them for the camp they would have a much more welcome return – even if the bandits were led from the camp – if they bring back the bandit captain (or proof that the captain is deasd) then they would forgive the party as long as they have the required amount of creatures and eggs. 

Kelsei would request the party to be careful with the coin as it has caused bad luck – but isn’t inherently magical – the though that it is is what has given the legend its status and many bad people want to use the coin for their own nefarious purposes.  Kelsei would also explain the history of the coin and her people as an attempt to return without the coin to the city but she offers it over as a way of keeping her end of the deal. 

Upon reaching the city after leaving the desert the party must make a decision on what to do with the coin – If they hand it over then the collector (not a priest) is happy with the coin and will give them their reward. If they do not provide the coin then they miss out on the exchange, are thanked for their efforts and another party would be requested to go go find the coin at a later time.

Thanks for joining this week. I think that’s enough for this adventure so I can say that it’s a wrap.

Don’t forget to come back next week for another round of adventures were we explore the Marsh of masks and what adventures would lie within its murky waters.
Oh, and as always don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Not quite lethal…

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Welcome to the weekend! Traditionally games night take place for me on the weekend but with lockdowns here in Australia lifting decided to get a cheeky Warhammer game in today instead of D&D.

So let’s have a look at something that will be encountered tomorrow with the publication of the adventure for this week.

How and what can we do to deal with not- quite lethal encounters such as the Cockatrice.

Well first of letters look at the little nightmare-chicken.

Cockatrice by Dan Scott

Petrification, turning flesh into stone, is a d&d staple and will invoke fear into the player. But let’s look at why.

Let’s look at petrification first and dnd beyond has a great entry for this status condition.

Now perhaps the fear comes from turning to stone, semi-permanent where they are now a incapacitated, and effectively dead to the world unless restored by powerful magic. Or could it be the loss of control where they can’t do anything to save themselves. This is their character who they have invested dozens or hundreds of hours into is now a glorified garden gnome who is at the mercy of the creature who did this to them who could early break their body apart and the character would just cease.

The Cockatrice is an interesting encounter as everyone would know of it, knows it can petrify but it’s only for 24 hours.

As a DM 24 hours is a long time. As the effect states any non-magical items are also turned to stone. Maybe a party beiny petrified by a nightmare-chicken gives us a chance to add in a twist or additional layer to the plot. Maybe a den of thieves use cockatrice’s as a way to capture and rob adventurers of their more valuable gear and equipment or they move the Steve-come-statue you their lair and wait a day until they revert back to flesh before robbing them.

The time condition on the Cockatrice bite makes it an interesting yet lower risk encounter that could prepare them for harder quests in the future.

Well that’s the ramblings if a ragged DM on a Saturday night. If you comet back tomorrow we will investigate the Cockatrice den and how it ties into the Adventure story.

As always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,

The Brazen Wolfe

In the desert winds…

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Friday night is here and that means fight night! We have a selection of a couple stat blocks, a return of a versatile favourite and one, that the adventure mentions heavily, that I will include in this weekends write-up. Thanks for joining me for the 8th week of writing adventures for Brazen Wolfe Tabletop and without any more dribble from me let’s roll some dice.

Hollow desert scorpion

08FrHDS

Hollow desert scorpion is a smaller variation of the giant scorpion found in other parts of the world. It normally lives in small swarms of 2 to 4 which makes them deadly for a party of unprepared adventures.

The scorpions are drawn to light and heat, finding that most of its prey emit one of both of these qualities and in the dark cold nights in the Hollow Desert easy food is a rare occurrence.

This encounter we are looking at a night time ambush, maybe as the party are cooking their meal or around the campfire for warmth the scorpions would attack. They are not brilliant at tactics and are likely to attack the things closest to them (on the edges of the camp fire light) but they would they and grapple and sting multiple times as they drag their prey into the darkness.

Ambush on the road – Blue Dragon Wyrmling

08FrBDW

Blue dragons are desert manipulators. Able to burrow and hide in sand they will manipulate adventures and make them get lost, fall for mirages or even drink copious amounts of sand.

The blue dragons have a strong hierarchy. In this case the higher up dragons sent out the wyrmling to push the party away from their nest. Using hallucinations to push them away and then attacking if need be. it will flee if hurt.

The last encounter I would want to talk about for the night is bandits. Love me some bandits. Any race, any settings any adventure can have bandits and they flesh out the narrative with a delay tactic. They also may provide some. Loot which for some reasons players can’t get enough of.

That will do it for tonight, over the weekend I will wrap it all up together in one neat adventure and we will see what the final product is. Don’t forget to tune in then and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage.

The Brazen Wolfe