Thursday is here and with it comes a few maps. Utilising Azgaars Fantasy map generator again with exploring what we can do with adding a few options on the layers and even importing symbols and labels to customise what was generated. You can also alter some of the boundaries that were spawned for lakes, rivers and oceans.
As with the rest of this week I am trying to keep it rather simple. So I have a overworld map for the continent we have available to us to reference for the players that talks about empires in play – the current main focus is for Biome so we can see where the hot desert is (The Hollow Desert) but you can adjust it to suit your needs. Without talking too much about the tool of the week let’s get into it.
Continent Map
08ThMa1
Continent map – The Hollow Desert is positioned to the south of the Continent and touches the coast and the lake within the Khizdumese Theocracy.
The Hollow Desert
08ThMa2
The three marked or last known camps where Kelsei may be at any one point. The idea behind these three camps is that the party needs to visit all three camps before they find the right one. This has an opportunity for a day of travel across the desert and encounters as they are travelling from place to place. I would have One encounter during travel and one at night the day after when the party are getting ready to rest for the night.
Encounter map – dried river bed
08ThMa3
One of the reason that the gypsies would have left this camp would have been that the water had dried up. The other is what attacks them at night. The inspiration for this map (will link credits to artist below as always!) is a bunch of desert dwelling creatures that attack in the middle of the night – drawn to the food and supplies that the party brings.
Credits to image go to g0dxmode which you can find some of their content here on redit
That’s all we have for tonight. If you do like the maps that have been used have a look at Azgaars Fantasy Map Generator. If you like the maps found online have a look at the artists and do support them if you can, a lot of these maps are free use but the artists skills in producing these can not be contested.
Come back tomorrow night to have a look at the creatures that live within the sands. Bonus points to the people who know the movie scene where I get one of the encounters from.
Don’t forget to come back tomorrow to have a look at what we have for the close of the week and as always don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Wednesday and we have two official twists fort or adventure. One altering ,(or explaining) the nature of the coin and the other introducing a left hook to mix up the partysb quest where their employer, or one in under her employ, is not who they seem.
Tomorrow night if maps and I hope to explore a tool mentioned in the weekend and maybe a few pre-planned battlefields for the party.So make sure to join me tomorrow for that!
The Shruiabe Coin
The centre of the adventure must hold some mystery so lets look at what lies in wait for those who seek the Shruiabe Coin.
08WeIm
The coin itself is said to grant its owner a measure of immortality. They will not age not will suffer the I’ll affects of old age. Their age will effectively be frozen in time from the point of acquiring the artefact and until it leaves their possession
What isn’t advertised is that in those with a weak will who have tasted the artefacts power are driven to seek the coin as their waking thoughts and motives become consumed neither in the thought of once again holding the coin and feeling it’s cold metal on their skin. They are also driven to feed on the life force of others as a way of sustaining their even more apparent life force.
It is whispered in the occult circles that the use of the Shruiabe Coin is what gave birth to the first vampires but nothing has been proven, yet.
The Whispersong family of elves is said to have been surprisingly resistant to the negative and positive energy of the coin and their ancestors were entrusted to watch over the coin and make sure that no one with ill will would come in contact with it.
If coin does unnaturally extend the life of the owner the party may find themselves unwilling to retrieve the coin from Kelsei or part from it once they have it. Either for their own benefit or to prevent others from using it.
08WePr
Long had the priest waited for their chance at the artefact again. Several bodies he had inhabited using dark rituals but this time he.. she.. it believed that they were in a position to finally retrieve the coin.
Either a servant of or the lady who hired the party to go after the artefact the priest is now closed to obtaining the coin, if the party delivers their end of the deal.
Once/if the priest gets the artefact perhaps they just disappear with it to live in out a solitary life of immortality, or perhaps the dark powers at play that have sponsored the priests powers for so long have tired of his/her schemes and the coin is the price of his/her freedom from the dark.
What ever the reason the presence of the priest should be hidden for as long as possible, even Kelsei shouldn’t reveal the true nature or the parties employer and it can be a puzzle and/or encounter for them to deal with.
Thanks for joining me tonight to look at some of the changes it twists we can make. The alternatives are simple. The coin doesn’t work or work exactly as it was foretold and the lady hiring the party is a collector of oddities and whether using the coin for a longer life, or just to own a priceless artefact, she is innocent. But where is the fun in that?
Not all adventures need twists but having something that changes they players view our understanding can enhance their in experience in the game so it is a valuable ingredient to add to the mix
As always don’t forget to follow or subscribe if you like what you read tonight so you can stay up to date on the content here at Brazen Wolfe Tabletop and definitely don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Well Tuesday has come around and I plan on keeping to the initial thought of having this week simple, short and sweet I have a single NPC to bring you today.
The image was created in, you guessed it, art breeder but this time through my phone browser. Despite the sliders being hard to manager with a thumb, and scrolling to get to the desired one being nothing short of a headache it worked reasonably well, no issues in quality of limits in what it can or can’t do and I am happy with the results.
Kelsei, witch and survivor
Kelsei Whispersong
08TuKW
Kelsei Whispersong is a moonelf trader 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.
Kelsei came from a extended family that had become oddly complacent with staying in one place. When the wanderlust overcame Kelsei, youngest daughter of 3 children, her parents and the head of the family thought that something had come over her. Fearful that a curse had overcome her they sent for a priest to purge the evil. Unfortunately they invited into their household the very evil evil they sought to purge.
After several months of living with them the priest had the ear and trust of all the heads of the family except for Kelsei’s parents who felt a darkness in the man’s soul. Giving Kelsei the key to the family’s treasure room they told her to take anything she could carry or wanted to have so that it couldn’t be used as part of the priests plans, which seemed to involve sparking a war with a friendly village of halflings, gnomes and humans. Among other trinkets was an artefact known as the Shruiabe Coin. Having taken the most powerful artefacts get parents bid her farewell and sent her away, casting several spells to assist I’m her escape.
When she returned years later, having hidden the most powerful of artefacts, she found her family home deserted and all history of her people gone.
Having travelled for a few decades she had picked up a thing or two about tacking and locating people or objects so she searched for answers to what happened to get family. After a week she found that the village who the priest was promoting a war with had a tale of an elven war party that had been beaten back by a handful of villagers and their farm tools. Curious she sought more info and was rewarded with a meeting with one of the father’s who fought the elves.
Vlaston was a man, ancient by human standards but his mind was still sharp and he could recall details of the encounters. A stranger disguised as a priest had come to then a few days before the attack and had warned them. He proved magical blessings on the farmers to make them stronger and faster than an elf. His only request was a single golden coin taken from the battlefield, the coin would have runes and etchings around the rim of it. The villagers found no coin and assumed it was on one of the elves that fled.
Kelsei spent the next few years tracking down the elves that fled but had found that all of them had settled in civilised villages and towns but had mysteriously died when their home was broken into, ransacked but with nothing stolen. The only elves, or traces of elves she didn’t manage to find were of her parents.
When she found the last of the elves that escaped she stood before her older sister who looked like a old human woman, her elven youth and long life appearing to have vanished. Talking to her sister she found out that her parent’s had died defending her, and her younger brother (Kelsies older brother) when a man who looked like priest had finally tracked them down and tried to take the Shruiabe Coinfrom them, when he found out that the coin was not with them he cast a spell that ripped their elven long life away from them and that’s when her parents attacked and mortally wounded the man. The man stumbled out of the house and disappeared into the crowd, a black ichor like blood dotting his path through the street. Her parents and older brother (who dealt the man the wound) died shortly after from the fights but asked her to try and find Kelsei to let her know to hide the coin away until someone worthy asks for it.
Thanks for joining me today and looking through some background for who Kelsei is and some information at what the artefact the party is after this week.
If you like where this is going don’t forget to come back tomorrow for what twists and turns we have in store this week. If you like the format of this week feel free to drop a comment down below and let us know what you like and why you like it and as always don’t forget to roll with Advantage! The Brazen Wolfe
This week is effectively my week off so I will be posting the bones of an adventure that I hope people will be able to incorporate and in use for an adventure as soon as this weekend.
Monday is here and that brings us a new plot and hook for our players to get excited for the adventure!
The merchant caravan, whether travelling from place to place or set up as a semi-permanent shop, is a staple of many adventures. Normally they are things to escort, things to meet at, things to purchase goods from or ab place to come back later when the owner is away and steal that shiny dagger…
What ever you use them for this week we are starting at a caravan.
The gift of immortality
08MoCa
The party, as they enter the town, returning from their latest adventure, are approached by a well dressed man who carries himself as one would with years of experience and training, seeming to blend in with the crowd as water moves amongst rocks.
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.
The Gypsy Camp
After a few days, and trying a few previously known locations the party arrives at the gypsy camp. The past few days have been rough as the denizens of the desert are numerous and hostile. Making their n way through the camp they ask about the artefact and are pointed towards a colourful tent with wars and goods for sale. A tanned Moon elf resides as owner of the caravan-come-stall and had the artefact with her, supposedly, but she has a request for the party, an exchange for the artefact. She needs four Cockatrice eggs and knows where to get them, supposedly, but she is curious why the party is after such a cursed artefact…
Thanks for joining me for a new week, I plan on going into a little more detail with this weeks content as there is less variation in the options available.
I hope you like the plot for this week as I and excited to write it out this week.
As always don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Sunday is here and with that comes a bit of a writeup on what we explored this week!
Leaving everything to chance today I rolled my trusty math-rocks and let them decide what plot and NPCs would be here for us this week. I grabbed what twists I think would be releant (spoiler alert – it could be any and all of them) and the relevant map and encounter for this week.
Without further waffling from me let’s get into the main dish of waffle!
The village Starfall
Ren sat down after as long day of tendering to get crops. Taking of her dirty boots she remembered the encounter with the elves that live in the woods nearby with a small snort.
‘not sure what they meant by the Shephard’s of the forest but I see no such thing’ she laughed pouring a mug of hot mulled wine to have with her hunted rabbit and roasted corn.
A week ago the elves had approached her as she tilled the soil of her land next to the trees that formed a living wall between her land and the village of Starfall and the elves home, the Deepwood. Elves had warned her that the village had become to greedy and the latest patch of lands they had claimed as their own had alerted the Shepard’s of the forest and her farm was in danger. They warned her to leave so that no harm would come to her and encouraged her to persuade the other villagers to do the same.
Ren had remembered speaking to the other villagers who laughed at her, claiming she was too close to the elves, and they were right. Over the past few years she had always had a better relationship with the elves than the over villagers – occasionally she would find that her crops would be healthier or yield more than the other villager’s crops which had caused her a few issues when trying to sell – not many people liked the elves due to past tensions.
A creak in the wall drew her attention even through her slightly fuzzy state due to the wine. Unbolting and opening her door she noticed that there was a lot of movement through her crops – a strong wind perhaps. Feeling the aches of the day she went to bed.
In the morning she found that great swaths of her crop had been cut at just above the ground level and large boulders had found their way amongst the destruction. Another farmer had a worse fate – his entire crop had disappeared overnight, also cut at ground level.
This continued for a week before it happened. Waking in the middle of the night to a large creaking her wall exploded inwards sending stone and wood throughout the room, knocking her unconscious and burying her under the rubble. In the morning the villagers found her unconscious amongst the ruins of her home, injured but alive, and a large moss covered boulder sat in where she would normally have her meals.
Using what materials they had the villagers constructed a wall, 6 feet tall and 2 feet deep and decided to take action, confronting the elves as surely they are using druidic magic to turn on the villagers who had so far left them to their own devices. A request for arms had been given to a travelling merchant of some sort who had connections a town over. That was 2 days ago and they were expecting the supplies any day now.
Mid-morning the following day a cart, the same one of the merchant they had requested aid from, came into town with not weapons but adventurers.
The plot
07MoRo
The party sitting down in the tavern, after a long week of adventuring, are approached by a wealthy merchant who has given them work in the past. The merchant has a problem. A farming village a few days travel from here has requested an unusually large order of military supplies. The merchant needs the supplies delivered but also wants to try and prevent any hostile actions that they may be planning as he has invested interest in what he suspects is the target of the farmers’ ire.
Upon reaching the town the Party notice that a hastily built wall has been built midway through a large field, on one side there is crops of corn and wheat and on the other side is what remains of the same crop, except great swaths of the harvest is cut off at the ground and huge boulders that seem to be the cause of the destruction have appeared in the field. Talking to the farmers they suspect a tribe of wood elves is ransacking their farms, destroying their crops by use of large boulders. One of the boulders even crushed one woman’s house who has yet to wake up from the ordeal.
The Farmers want to take up arms and defend their land in the easiest way they know, attacking and killing the elves to prevent future attacks.
The people
Brok Mason
07TuBM
Brok is a rugged, but handsome, half-elven male of around 50. He has a fine layer of stubble, large amounts of muscle and short cut black hair that is yet to see that caress of grey that human males of his age tend to show
Brok is slow trusting of people. Putting his faith in hard work, animals (like his dog and horse) and gold.
Once a well respected silk merchant in Lillydale he suddenly sold his shop and took to a darker business path, the movement and smuggling of people in who need to leave without a trace. This change in business venture caused his human wife and his daughter to leave him.
What his wife and daughter didn’t know is the sale of his shop and pursuit of new employment was a deal made to prevent bankruptcy and his family becoming homeless.
Quick to judge and see the flaws in most people, Brok doesn’t make friends with many people, let alone clients as gold is worth more to him than the bonds formed between people.
Sincerity
07TuSS
Sincerity, or Sin in other circles, is a female Tiefling of around 30 or so. She is just shy of 5’2″ (157cms) with a curvy figure and long raven black hair that is occasionally tired back in a pony tail when’s she starts to conduct serious business.
Sincerity is a merchant by trade and a damn good one at that. Able to source just about anything given enough time, she has quickly given herself a name in the towns and cities she prowls. Not only that but she has an almost supernatural ability to broker trade between people’s and before they knew they even wanted something she had already sourced it and delivered it to them for a ‘competitive fee’.
Not much of her past is known except she was the only adopted (?) Daughter of a sage who taught get linguistics and business very early on in her youth.
Some rumours have said that she is the product of a one night fling between her sage father and something summoned by him to grant him knowledge. Others say that her father was lonely and merely happened to help an old friend when they couldn’t look after Sincerity.
What ever the reason many people who cried metaphorical, or not, swords with Sincerity end up in a worse state than they were in before.
Ren Miller
07SuRM
A woman in her late 20’s Ren is a hard worker. Leaving the village she grew up in Ren has come to Starfall to escape the bad memories of her parents and how their life riddled with bad luck came to a unpleasant end.
Ren is about 5ft 6 tall with hair the colour of fresh wheat. Her skin is tanned and skin is rough – a sign of a life spent working hard and in the sun.
The Road
On the road the Party could be expected to run into a group of 3-5 bandits or just as many wolves.
Encounter with the villagers
Once the party reach the village (without any weapons!) the villagers do not take kindly to them, on the verge of hostility. They are reluctant to provide them aid, a room to stay or any form of assistance. One of the villagers may recognise one of the party and either shout their praise for a deed well done, or shout insults and bring up a past failure (rumoured or otherwise).
Encounter with the Elves
The elves are peace loving folk. If the party are to seek them out they would find them half a day travel into the woods, they reveal themselves to the party and spoke extremely broken common but would explain in elven that they are not responsible for the damage at the farms – that it is the shepherd’s of the forest and that the villagers should just leave until they are stated with what they deem to be tribute to the forest at which point they will leave. The elves don’t seem to understand what the party is asking but insists that they are innocent and to watch out for the hours after dusk which is when the shepherd’s appear.
Encounter at night
07FrRo+07ThMa3
At night, when the party return from the elves OR if they go out at night and investigate the crops they would encounter the boulders.
The boulders would remain hidden until they sense the party next to their shell – at which point they will sneakily attack one of the party trying to eat them. They whistle when they attack as air seems to rush through their bodies and out holes in their rock-like shell. This whistling will alert the other snails which will crawl forward and attack the nearest party member.
Per turn of combat roll a d20 and add the combat round number. If the value is over 10 then a villager will come and look for the source of the commotion.
Map
Shephard’s of the forest (Giant Rock Snail)
Once the snails take 40 damage (or more) they will start to move towards the forest, whistling as they retreat. The other snails will also retreat. If anyone can communicate with beasts they will understand that the snails are fleeing the farms and will not return unless the forest calls for a tribute from those who encroach upon it’s territory.
The snails would also be open to leaving the farmers alone if one was to communicate with them – as long as the farmers felled no more trees they would not likely return.
The outcome
The Party having defended the village from the snails, by their demise, escape or a parley would be branded heroes from the village and Brok would take them back to the town where they originated from to reclaim a reward from Sincerity.
Thanks for joining for this weekend writeup – Having rolled up Brok to join this adventure as well (thanks to the gods of chance and fate!) I decided to make him the messenger and escort for the party. The biggest reason for doing this is to introduce him to the party so that he could ask a favour of them in the future to help him escort his daughter and gain some respect and favour from his estranged kin.
Don’t forget to join again for this coming weeks content and remember that this coming week will be a bit lighter with just a single adventure (not 3 or 4 potential adventures) being created. If you like what you are reading here don’t forget you can subscribe and remain up to date on what I publish here. And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
A quick writeup for a 2000 point game of warhammer age of Sigmar 3.0.
The armies
Skaventide (Moulder) – The Brazen Wolfe
A bit of a long list to get in a single image (on a phone) but there it is. Normally I try and run with a Warlord battalion for an extra artefact/free 1 command point. The idea here was for the board with meaningless (sorry rattos) chaff and play the objective game. I hadn’t used rat ogors before in 3.0 but remember them being mediocre. So I was going to use them with my hellpits as a counter punch once my giant rats failed.
Was also hoping to use unleash more more beasts command trait multiple times per which meant making sure that they would be dying in every phase
Blades of Khorne – Josh
A pretty scary list with a focus on stacking +1 attacks on the bloodthirster and bloodletters to try and dish out scattered mortals. Having dealt with bloodthirsters of Insensate rage a few times and having witnessed them butcher armies before I was a bit worried. I mean the thing is only 280 points!
A big difference in drops here so skaven was my ever going to get the choice. With that in mind lets talk about the battle plan.
Power in numbers
An interesting battle plan. 6 objectives 3 just in each players territory. You score 2 points per tactic you complete but only score VP when you burn and objective (starting at round 2) which is worth more points the longer you have hold it. 2 points if you just nabbed it, 4 points if you held it the turn before the current and 8 points if you held it since turn 1.
Deployment
Deploying a wall of giant rats across the entire front of the battlefield with rat ogors as a second wall followed by heroes, support units and hellpits to ensure that the bubbles from the master moulders, pack masters and bell had good coverage for buffs.
Khorne had heroes up front to lead the charge with the blocks of letters covering the three objectives. Wrathmongers and Bloodsecrator auras overlapping to give the majority of army giving a bonus +2 to attacks. The bloodmaster was positioned within teo blobs of bloodletters to get them to fight straight after him.
After deployment I selected my hellpit on roids to be loved by his daddy master moulder more, adding 1 to his already impressive 14 wounds. Karanak selected my bell as his target of affections.
Josh gave me 1st turn.
Round 1
Skaven turn 2.
Tactic: Ferocious Advance (2 units of giant rats and a 2 man unit of rat ogors)
I tried to generate an additional command point for my master moulder with rabid crown but failed as I rolled 2. My opponent bloodthirster gained an additional unbind with heroic willpower.
The bell tolled and rolled a 2, giving myself 2 mortals and killing 1 rat from my 12 rat shield and dealing 3 wounds to my master moulder near my bell. No shrugs were made. I then tried to cast warpgale but failed with a double 1. Rerolling with the generic command trait master of magic i re-rolled the casting attempt getting double 1s again. Oof. Suffering 2 mortals (non shrugged) this ended my hero phase… The great horned rat was obviously mad at me
Running my up units I made a line to prevent my opponent from getting any where near my objectives whilst I set up for a counter charge if he fid made his way here. I scored 2 vp
Khorne turn 1
Heroic will power went off for his bloodthirster and I healed 1 wound on my screaming bell.
He then ran up most of his army to push into the middle of the field, shooting with his flesh hounds borks at my giant rats on the left flank.
The skull cannon shot at my bell and failed to wound
They fell to the dogs attack (2 models died). The dogs then charged the rats and they died easily to 12 attacks. Spending a cp and rolling a 5 I summoned the 6 man unit of rats into his backline threatening his left and middle objectives.
Round 2
Skaven turn 2
Selecting monstrous takeover i knew id be able to keep one of my hellpits on the objectives away from the bloodthirster. Opting to heal my screaming bell (heroic recovery) I rolled a 6 and healed 1 wound.
Casting spells I managed to get warpgale off dealing 1 mortal to his blood thirster but halving his move,run and charge characteristic. My second spell, mystic shield, was unbound by Karanak dealing 2 mortals to my bell.
Moving my giant rats up to screen my forces and backing them up with rat ogres, moulder support and hellpits I moved a bit too close to his bloodthirster so he redeployed closer to my rats and out of sight from 2 of my rat ogor warp guns.
My screaming bell went down one gnawhole on my right side of the table and to the left to support where the majority of my troops would be.
Shooting, not much. Dealt 1 wound to bloodthirster. No charging was declared as I braced for the khorne charge.I
Scored 2 points this round. And opted to not burn
Khorne turn 2
Ok. Pain town. Battle tactic was broken ranks, picking my 12 man unit of rats near the bloodthirster and 20 bloodletters. On the right of the map. Healing bis bloodthirster to full he moved to get army wide charges on my forces, but. He ignored my 6 man unit of giant rats on his left objective – moving off it so I gained control.
A small misplay on my behalf, I redeployed my rats when the first unit got within 8 meaning his bloodthirster could still move to get to 3″ away. I rolled a 1.
Shooting, a pot shot from his skull canon missed when targeting my screaming bell.
Charge phase. Oof. bloodthrister rolled a 8 (halved to 4) and just made his charge. If he had failed Josh would have struggled to get his battle tactic. Everything else made the charge into my rat walls and engaged all my rat ogors and my suped up hellpit
Well well. The giant rats all died, except my left wall who only suffered 3 casualties from the 6 bloodletters who attacked.
The bloodthrister attacked and killed the giant rats, the master moulder and a rat ogor model. Luckily it was only one proc of outrageous carnage.
My rat ogors (6 man unit) engaged. Killed the bloodmaster and 4 wrath mongers with only 3 models being within range to fight. Wow.
My 6 man giant rats on the left flank, protecting my pack masters and hellpit from being charged, managed to kill 3 blood letters well done rattos! They also shuffled along so that they would block his skullgrinder from getting anywhere near my hellpit. The bloodletters retaliated and killed 3 rats, leaving a gap for my hellpit. The hellpit killed the rest of the bloodletters (oof) and the skullgrinder. He earnt his points in that one combat.
The last 4 rat ogors (2 units of 2) piled into the central blob blood letters and killed them down to 6 models from 20. Considering 1 of them was out of range the rat ogors when supported by pack masters AND a master moulder with rabid crown was brutal.
I tried to bring back my 12 man unit of rats but failed with a roll of a 3.
Battleshock. All his units that suffered casualties fled. All of them. My rat ogors who suffered 1 loss stayed around, phew, but my giant rat pack on my right side fled.
But a cp and they were brought back to capture his other forgotten objectives. I now controlled 5 of 6 objectives. That was until he burnt his middle objective scoring 5 points for the round putting him on 7 to my 4. I then controlled all objectives.
Round 3
The rats did it. Rolled a 6 and kept turn order. No scary double turn.
Skaven turn 3
Start of round I selected aggressive expansion, I already controlled the two objectives in his territory so it was already a thing. I healed my rat ogor packs, rolled a 8 for the bell and splashed mortals across his entire army. That felt good. I also healed my bell, rolling a 4 i tried to heal d3 and got a 1. Sad rat.
Spells. His bloodsecrator was within 16″so I tried cracks call. A 4″ move meant surely he would die. Rerolling the success into another success I was then unbound my the filthy bloodthirster. Dam nit. Then casting warpgale to stop the bloodthirster from getting away i got a 13″. Being within 1″ of gnawhole is Precious. But he rolled a natural 8 and I suffered 4 mortals and failed my cast. Damn it.
He kept the theme of extra unbind for heroic action and spend 8 points for exploding 6s army side. A bit terrifying.
Movement. I ran my rats up using their vanguard once per game 6″ run to get near his altar to prevent future summoning as I planned on leaving him heroless soon. I moved my bell home to be near the thirster and provide battleshock immunity where there would be the most rat casualties.
Shooting I did nothing. Feels bad.
Charging, I got everything in. My suped up hellpit on the left flank got into the wrsthmonger unit and flesh hounds, sending everything. into the wrathmongers. My 6 man rat ogors charged into
My regenerative hellpit got into the bloodthirster and started swinging with Titanic Duel. Sending avalanche of flesh into the remaining bloodletters next to their king(?) I managed to deal 4 mortals out of 5. The hellpit dropped the bloodthirster down to 4 wounds from 14. Close.
Spending a command point he made his thirster fight at full profile. No 6s rolled to explode, and 2 misses. Then only a single 6 on the wound roll into my 6 man (now 5 man as a deadly check on the charge killed one…) feral rat ogors. This left my rat ogors on a single wound on a single model left.
My 2 man rat ogor unit on that side moved up and piled closer to the thirster to wall off my last feral rat ogor model and slew all but 5 bloodletters from that unit. Not bad for 2 models outside of buff range.
He swung with his skullcannon, killing my poor 3 man unit of giant rats (charged in as a unleash hell deterrent)
My hellpit opened up a can of hurt on the wrath mongers leaving none alive.
My feral rat ogor attacked the bloodthirster and after the bloodsettled the leader of the khorne forces was over-killed by 2 damage!
Mop ups continued and at the end only 9 flesh hounds, Karanak, 4 letters and the skullcannon (on 1 wound) was left standing. Burning all objectives and completing my tactic AND killing a monster saw me gain 19 points and leaving no objectives left on the field.
Losing all my giant rat packs, re-summoning 2 of them though, 5 rat ogors from my original 6 man pack, 1 from one of my 2 man pack and 2 from my 4 man pack most of my field was battleline. My screaming bell was feeling the hurt, but he kept my forces from running, both my hellpits had suffered some wounds that they would heal and be fine with in the end and losing 1 master moulder (nearly 2…) It was a close battle until the fighting beasts of moulder got into the fray.
At the end of the battle I have a new respect for rat ogors.
Thanks for listening to my writeup! It was a tense game at points there.
The weekend is here and that should mean lots of free time for all. That being said I have a warhammer game to get onto (and a writeup to try and jot down before I forget the points / key moments in the game) and a few things I want to post on today.
First this I will talk about a bit is a tool I have used on and off over the last few years to generate ideas – not really for its content but for its potential.
The second thing I want to try and get out tonight (shortly) is the promised map from Wednesday (will update Wednesdays post as well) as there was some odd technical issues when uploading that one.. strange..
But without too much chit chat let’s have a look at Azgaar’s map builder!
Azgaars Map builder
Quite a robust, intuitive and smart tool that allows you to create a few views, with different focus points, of a contintal or world map.
The options to generate, manipulate and really make the map generate something that you can call your own is massive. I will cover just the very tip of the iceberg and explain why I use this of ideas rather than as a map generator.
Having an idea of the potential politcal nature of the world around city states can lead to adventures in their own right. Maybe the people of Warland and the Grand Duchy of Sudhurstia have formed an alliance to overthrow their old aggressors the Kingdom of Baringdonia. The king of Baringonia has issues invitations to his daughters ball too all lords, ladies, and royalty to come and celebrate her coming of age – but the two allies have plotted her assassination – just as the party arrive and are confused for royalty due to their unmistakable likeness to the late King and Queen of Dundia.
Or maybe the Grand Dutchy of Sudhurstia have an issue with bandits and have requeted aid from the party to investigate the forest in the north to locate the bandits hideout.
This tool does so much more than just what I have mentioned above but its a great addition to our DMs Toolkit. Find it and have a look here (Azgaar Fantasy Map Generator)
Starfall
The promised map created in Inkarnate for your viewing pleasure. A ruined house with a large ‘boulder’ is seen on the other side of the wall with large areas of grass stripped down just above the ground. On the other side of a wall lies a well worn road with aone of the many houses situated on it with a small side-road going to it. There is not much in this house but a few beds, presumably for a larger family and a table with four chairs.
You can find a copy to clone from Inkarnate here under my week 7 folder.
Well there we have it – I will focus on Azgaar’s map generator in a future post but for me this is where I sign out and go to run a bunch of skaven across the battlefield at my man-thing opponent.
Come back tomorrow for this weeks write up and as always don’t forget to roll with advantage! The Brazen Wolfe
Ok a bit of a spookier series of encounters today for our Fight night!
Friday has come and nearly gone and short of some issues around posting yeterday it seems like everything is back on track! So lets have a look at a couple original statblocks (and some not so original ones) and fill out our adventure to come!
As always Kobold Fight club and Tetra-cube are my tools of choise for these stat blocks and encounter balancing.
Shrine of sorrow
07FrSB
As the party approach the altar in the middle of the stone pillars they know they are being watched – but not just from where yet. The elven maidens sneer at them from the four pillars around them as they approach the dais and without much of a sound spectral forms of maidens drift upwards from the stone pillars, three spectres clad in simple robes and one, opposite them dressed in an ornate, although spectral, dress that would have been ordaned with jewels if a living creature was wearing it. Before the party can react a soul rending shriek bursts forth from the leader sending their senses into shock. Watching helplessly as the ghostly maidens drift down towards them the party try and scream out as each of the ghosts draw a spectral ritual knife that they know will hurt just as much as if it was real.
The shrine banshee and shadows (shrine hand maidens) would come from the statues when the party approach the shrine, where the priestess lays unconcious or paralyzed.
1 shrine banshee and 3 shrine hand maidens would be a deadly encounter for a party of 4 level 4s. To make it challenging but not deadly for 4 level 3s. Reduce the dc to 11 and replace the ‘totally not shadows’ shrine hand maidens with the same number of skeletons.
Mildover, the town of webs
07FrMi
As the party separate the last set of legs from the giant wolf spiders that have seem to overrun the town of Mildover one of the party member hear a distant clicking-vibrating noise which sends a shiver down their spine. Looking for the source of the noise they see a shadow of something on a web, most likely a trick of the light. More clicking continues as the party mend wounds and retrieve arrows and this time the search is not in vain and they notice a monstrously large monstrosity is clinging to the side of the wall just as a arrow made from web pierces their shoulder blade knocking them to the ground taking their breath away.
The webspinner abomination is an ambusher. It will wait until the wolf spiders have fought its prey, and died for it before launching attacks at the party when they are tired and not expecting its bow. In my mind the Webspinner abomination is like a Drider and an ettercaps torso replace it’s drow half. Two additional secondary smaller arms pull web from outs mouth to form arrows and manipulate it to entrap its prey.
For encounter size have a few encounters of 2-3 wolf spiders before immediately chaining a the last encounter in with the webspinner abomination. This should keep it balanced as it does have legendary actions, but should keep it difficult without being over powering (considering I had a paladin almost 1 shot this thing with smite..)
Thats no Rock..
07FrRo
Several large boulders lay within the field, all of them seem to be the cause of the damage to the crops. But there is no evidence to how they came to rest where they are now, or how they ended up in the field in the first place. As the party move about them, the moonlight casting shadows across the ground from the vastness of these boulders a globdule of slime drips down onto one of the party members shoulder – looking up two large bulbous eyes sprout forth on stalks from a large meaty nech that seems to be coming from outside of the shell. The snail looks down upon it’s meal as more slime (drool) drips down on the party.
I would play with the snails always in hiding until they sense something living near by. I would have them be more alert at night time (and villages would report terrifying noises that cause them to lock the doors at night) but that is because i am a fan of night time encounters.
Regardless if our party of 4 is level 3 or level 4 we would look to have no more than 2 of these snails per encounter – but a few of them could be scattered amongst the field or the forest..
Well thats it for today – thanks for joining and I hope you enjoyed the new creatures brought into the light and can find a use for them in your next adventure.
Stay tuned for this weekend where I pick one of the adventures to flesh out and post online!
As always don’t forget to roll with advantage! The Brazen Wolfe
Well it looks like my upload of this failed yesterday. So today you are getting two uploads!
Thursday here and probably something that touches the most time consuming part of the role, map creation. Now if you are like me and can describe a room or setting so that people know exactly what lays before them then maps may not be used all the time. But there is nothing like pulling back a curtain, turning on that second webcam or removing the fog of war from a map with your players tokens or miniatures ready to go. The look of awe and excitement is something I still can’t get enough of and what drives me to draw, create and craft terrain and maps for my adventures. As reusable and modular a possible – I’m not a masochist.
So for this week I will have two maps from online phenomenal artists that are just about right for what I envision for the primary encounter, the rest of the journey is up to you the DM/GM and I will update tomorrow with a third map I will create and upload tomorrow (pc isn’t happy with me today…)
The mining village, Mildover
07ThMa1
Image credit to be Miska from Miakasmaps, Please check them out!
Between to mountains the town of Mildover lies in ruins. Recent rain storms have left the only way into the mountainous town flooded with the bridge collapsing long ago. The town lies quiet in ruins, vacant except for the webs. Spiders of all shapes and sizes can be found crawling throughout this valley and the rains only have seemed to being them out more, their long pale threads of silk blanketing the trees on the approach to the town.
A shrine to the dark
07ThMa2
Credit goes to artist Fantasikdod, can be found at on Tumblr here fantasikdod
Deep in the banshee woods lies an ancient elven shrine and at its centre an altar to the gods. Although not as travelled as it used to be the shrine and the surrounding woods are bursting with life during the day, but at night nothing that breathes dare to prance or prowl amongst the moonlight as a different god is worshipped in the dark.
Between pillars elven maidens can be seen to be carved into the stonework and at day they seem peaceful and even jovial. At night one might swear that the pillars sneer and watch those who cross their gaze, a predatory aura of dread washing those who seek solace from the horrors that stalk the woods
Map3
07ThMa3
So to do this map justice I will need my computer and a few hours. I ran this a hybrid of tabletop and theatre of the mind but the setting is such.
Before the party is a well travelled road through the woods. A sign up at the crest of the slight incline reads “Welcome to Starfall; Population 42”. Greeting the party as they reach the top of the incline is a break from the forest they have travelled through for the past two days and the beginning of open fields. Ahead is a small collection of homes and buildings that give Starfall a rustic homely vibe. The open fields continue as far as the eye can see to the right of the dirt road and past the houses a d straight ahead the tall buildings and smoke of a larger town or city can be seen. To the right of the road lays a hastily constructed barrier, rocks and beams of lumber primarily which seems to separate the fields and houses from what used to be fields and a house. Large patches of corn and wheat crops lay decimated so that no stalk of plant can be visible above the ground. Large stones lay at the end or amongst these barren patches and one even is nestled in what remains of a farmhouse. Past this ruined field (300 feet) a living barricade of ancient trees rise from the ground to stand defiantly against civilisation.
Thats it for today, sadly I seemed to have a fe computer issues and this failed to post yesterday, apologies everyone!
Using and creating maps add a certain element to our adventures and can really add something extra for our players. So don’t forget to have a look out there for maps to use, support the artist’s you use maps from or have a go at making your own maps!
As always don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Wednesday is here and with it brings something that I find hard to boil down into a yes or no response. What motivates characters (and their players) to do the weird things we want them to do. Why would they go into the dank hole filled with spiders, or wolves, or bears oh my! Why do they rescue the person who sold them bad healing potions not a week ago. Motivation and how we can use that to hook characters into sticking to the adventure at hand is something that takes a while to master – and I don’t truly think one can ever master it.
Let’s look at three motivations that we can use to bring our players into the session and keep their mind locked away until the final crossbow bolt pierces the witches heart.
Ask the Player
The title kind of gives it away. For the three options below to actually work we need one thing, communication between the Dungeon/Game Master and their players. The whole game is built around communication so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I bring it up eventually but here we go.
Ask your players at character creation to really think why and how they tie into this world. Ask them to weave a single NPC into their back story (not a novel, we all know how that goes…) and to tell you about themselves and their one NPC. A mother, boyfriend, old boss, someone they owe money or a favour to. Someone who you may want to weave into the game so that they become more connected to it
07WeCo
Connection; This is where the player has a connection that you can use. Whether it’s an old flame or a new flame at that, a debt owed or perhaps the want of a favour from someone there should be something that each player has in mind for what motivates their characters when it comes to the NPCs or potentially other PCs.
Make sure your players are ok with you putting the man who they owe a great debt to at the centre of your plot. Remember this is tying their character into the adventure at a personal level – you want to make sure that they are ok with how it twists and alters their characters’ story.
07WeGr
Greed; Now, I know what you are thinking. ‘BW – my player’s character is not greedy, they are a holy night who wants nothing of the mortal realm – their only motivation is to fulfill their oath and bring virtue to the land’. We have all had that player before, or presently, but what I want to touch on with Greed is looking at what motivates our characters, pure or otherwise, and how that can drive them to something.
Let’s look at the above example, The paladin who only wants vengeance for what happened to their innocent family and swore an oath to have it fulfilled. That desire, that conviction could in fact be an act of greed. I won’t get deep into it as it will take an entire night of writing but lets look at D&Ds alignment system. There is not just Good and Evil but there are degrees of it. A lot of greys between the black and white. Convictions, oaths, greed, desires can all be tilted slightly one way or another and the only thing that makes one good and not evil is the perception of the one wielding the sword.
Ok, best lay off the coffee.. Greed – use something the player wants and put it where they can see it. That artefact that they have been searching for – maybe the merchant has a map to where it is, but she wants a favour for it and she is cashing in now. Maybe the priestess is in good favour with the head of the church and the PC wants a blessing, or curse removed – Saving the girl may be the best outcome for your player.
To quote a dear friend of mine in his first ever DM session where I was his player. Greed is good.
07WeOs
Want; And now the very last one is rather simple. Your Party has agreed to just want to have a D&D session and they will say yes to just about anything. The past.. 20 something months have been rough, lets broach that topic for but a moment. I know that my usual band of 7 players has now become four and that they are almost always excited and ready for a game.
But that doesn’t guarantee that they will be ready to rumble come the urchin running towards them screaming for help as some nightmarish creature skitters up a wall and lunches at the boy. Talk to your party, I have set aside a rule of at least 24 hours before game time I ask the party what they are up for, regardless of planning a one shot or campaign. If it’s been a long week and they want to roll some dice I will tweak what I had planned to have some form of an encounter in, whether it’s a fight, infiltration or escape from certain death, I give them something that they want to do.
To be real – this used to be disheartening. I would spend maybe 4 hours (much like I am now) coming up with a plot, some NPCS, a map (where most of the time was spent – I have a potato for a computer…) and some stat blocks or DCs for the encounters or checks I wanted to give them, and when the group wanted something different I would feel a bit disheartened and disappointed that they didn’t want to explore the lost temple on the mountain – they would rather avoid being eaten by zombie gnolls. But now I honestly don’t mind. I think the turning point was experimenting with my current group, where no map, encounter or planning is wasted as I always find a way to use it for the players enjoyment.
This is it for the week – Not exactly twist heavy where we see the revelation of a hidden agenda, a personality shift, plot migration or something completely different but a twist in the preparationand planning that we put into these adventures.
Many DMs would agree with me, and players on that note (hence why there are always more players than DMs) that being a dungeon master is a lot of hard work and to be truly proficient in it takes dedication to one’s craft. This may be one or two weeks of non-stop Dungeoneering or it may be something that you build up to over the course of, say – I dunno. 24 years
Don’t forget to have fun, don’t forget to experiment and twist up how you navigate the twisted world roots of this game we play and lastly don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Brazen Wolfe Tabletop 