Tuesday has come and will shortly go, but as the end of the day draws near it gives the opportunity be to look at some NPCs that our party may meet while traveling on the road, round the campfire or in a tavern.
Today let’s look at some versatile NPCs that could become common features in your future sessions.
Traveling Companions
Sister Bella Moonladen
07TuSBM
A young half-elven woman of perhaps 20. She would be considered pretty by most who could see her long brown hair and green-hazel eyes. Most of the time she wears robes that mark her a priestess of Chauntea.
She is quick to offer aid and is free giving of the blessings her deity provides her to heal and bless those in need.
Until recently she was at a temple to Chauntea, but the death of her mother has brought her home and she is currently travelling with her Father, Brok, who she has not spoken to in over a decade.
Despite her fall out with her Father she still looks for the good and light in all creatures, much like her mother did, and as such she is slow to cast judgement and has gotten into trouble before where her trust in good was misplaced.
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 humans 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.
Eloras Nightwalker
07TuEN
Eloras is a drow who spends most of his time traveling the darker paths of the world. He is tall even for an elf with dark purple hued skin and silver hair that is normally tired in a top knot.
Rarely seen, and when he is it’s only when he wants you to, Eloras is an stalker of beasts and people. Rarely hostile but not afraid to apply leverage when requesting a print of one’s meal, supplies or goods.
Eloras like most male drow was born into a family which s brutally ruled by the female family members. After his house feel into poor favour with the high priestess of Lloth how family moved closer to the surface and this led to his family being the target of a red dragons bad mood. He now hunts beasts on the surface to earn favour with his people so he can return to the dark.
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 curvey figure and long raven black hair that is occasionally tired back in a pony tail whens 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.
Thanks for joining me today to look at some NPCs. By not having then tied down, or giving them flexibility to run into players anywhere along their journey, with a valid feeling reason, makes them ideal for oneshots.
Come back again tomorrow for twists where we try to anticipate what our players could throw at us to bring their party onto the journey hook, line and sinker. Don’t forget that if you see a particular NPC you just have to use let us know how it went. NPCs are what we make of them and they all to the world something that our players will remember for as long time.
If you do comment, don’t forget to mention where you are from, what RPG systems you play with and what brought you here.. Oh and don’t forget to roll with Advantage! The Brazen Wolfe
Monday is here and my 7th week of plots and adventure hooks. This week we are looking at three very different plots all of which are Adventures I have run before, 2 in my regular campaign and 1 as a one shot Adventure. So that’s what this week’s theme is about, one shots.
Now a one shot had been described as a few things with a few rules over the years but for me a one shot is a non-linear adventure that is either completely separate from the main campaign or at least parallel to the main story (see side quest). This means that the story of the adventure begins and ends within the bounds of the adventure that should look to be wrapped up in between 3 and 7 hours (1-2 sessions). That’s how I see them and I have run a series of one shots under the format of “adventuring guild offers coins in exchange for your skills ” to some great outcomes.
One shots
The hardest thing about oneshots is how we tie in the players into the adventure – how we hook the individuals – We will explore that on Wednesday night when we have the glorious twists that can help push things over the edge for our players into the realms of “oh, now we have to help.”
What calls from the woods
07MoBW
The party are travelling to their home town along a long stretch of road and managed to broker a ride with a caravan rider and his daughter, a priestess of the Chauntea, the goddess of life and bounty. About four days ride from their goal they started to notice the occasional shriek from a nearby forest. The caravan rider informs the party that the woods are called the Banshee woods due to the sounds that come from them. Many Clerics, sages and wisemen have studied the woods and they have never found a creature or reason for the noises but they believed it to be a phenomenon with the wind and the curled and twisted trunks of the trees.
As the party continued they ended up joining up with another caravan or two who also had heard the shrieks coming from the woods but had thought nothing of it. On the 2nd night of travelling with the now 3 caravans the party ran into a fourth group of wagons that had set up in a defensive position around a large bonfire. Approaching the caravan the uneasy travellers are eventually coerced into revealing that they had been camped here for two nights now with one or two of the members of their caravan disappearing every night, including all their horses found dead on the first night.
The Father and daughter not wanting to leave these people in need decided to stay with the group and, as the sun was setting, they would take any people that wanted to come with them to the city to their destination. The party is pleaded with to help guard the caravan in the unlikely occurrence of the people going missing tonight.
Later that night as the party was on watch the one closest to the forest seems to nod off. Without realising a scream comes from the camp – The preistess of Chauntea has gone missing and drag marks indicate she was taken from her tent and towards the forest. The party member closest to the forest remembers a vague dream-like vision of a woman floating across the grass between him and the forest before seeming to slide past them and into the tent with the priestess.
On eight legs they stride forward
07MoWeb
The Party having reached their destination, the lost town of Mildover, they find the mining town in ruins. Situated between two peaks of the Spike, a series of tall, jagged mountains that rupture from the earth like spears erupting from the earth. Once a prosperous mining town it fell into ruin where it was discovered that the town’s local herbalist was actually a practitioner of dark magic.
As the town burned her the herbalist, Ingrid, cursed the town so that it would never prosper and with her dying breath she uttered a string of dark mutterings that summoned the dark things that scutter on webs of stolen breath.
Laughing at the curse, as the naive often do, the town went back to business. A week after the miners returned to their toil they started to notice more webs than normal were in the mines, along the beams and even some of the walls of older mine passages. When the first miner went missing they thought nothing of it, but when a second and third disappeared whilst in the mines the town became fearful. The skittering of long chitinous legs could be heard at night and the webs became thick like spun fabric. Not long after the fourth townsfolk went missing, the smith that lit the fires under the herbalist-come-witch, the town was deserted and eventually surrendered to webs.
The party is here to recover an artefact that the town left behind in their haste to leave the town.
A seige in the night
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.
Thanks for joining to look at this week’s adventure hooks. I hope you are, like my party were, excited to see what the adventure holds this week.
I will take this time to announe that next week will be a shorter week as I plan on taking some time off from writing (and work) but I will still endeavour to post something daily, but I will likely on post one adventure rather than a potential 2 or 4 options. Don’t forget to come back each day of the week to look at the NPCs, Twists, Maps and Encounters for this weeks adventure. And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Welcome to the end of the weekends writeup. This week we looked at taverns and Inns and how we could spice them up a bit.
With yesterday being a bit of a break from a creative day let’s crack on with the TTRPG content, but with a bit of a twist!
The Goblin and Lute
The Goblin and Lute (06MoGaL) is a drinking hall which seemed to appear from nowhere out of a morning mist. The rustic frame, old paint and dual layered building drew much attention as it was different from the other buildings in Ravenbrooke. Not that they were in any better starter of repair but the first creatures to step out of the tavern were goblins.
The city guard were called immediately, Afterall a band off seven Goblins stepping out of a Tavern is reason enough to work in these parts, but as the guard approached the goblins, one with an hilarious fake moustache announced the Tavern open and began the opening festivities. Several platters of food and ale were offered at the door, legal paperwork was produced to the hostile guards indicating that the goblins had indeed purchased the land from the city recently and had their papers in order. Soon the village were talking of nothing but the little goblin run Tavern and how they couldn’t wait until opening night.
Opening night was in here and as the first, daring I will add, patrons walked through the front door they were greeted by a room that was at least twice as big on the inside as it was in the outside. Large long tables with piping hot meals (mainly potato forward) were set up on the ground floor in a communal drinking be style with a second layer along the walls of the tavern that had smaller tables for more intimate or less communal drinking. The seven Goblins ran you and from startled guests and hurried into seats where they were urged to begin eating.
‘welcome-welcome. The Goblin and Lute Tavern had two rules. One, drink and eat all you want and we expect for you to pay with what you can remember you have. And 2, no harm, threat or malcontent is to come to any host, employee, patron or visitor whilst under this roof.
Those who do not follow the rules be well be dealt with by the tavern owner.’
And with that the air, wine, spirits and videos flowed all night. The level off merriment went from a subdued townsfolk to one of unbridled joy as food and alcohol filled the bellies of the hard working people.
As the patrons stumbled from their seats heading towards the front door they didn’t notice their coin purses were empty and as a Goblin.. err.. Lass offered a paying drink they thought nothing in of it.
‘our home speciality, a morning glory. You will start to feel better and recover from your night of drinking very quickly’
As the farmers, merchants and townsfolk left the front door and downed the shot of blue liquid they felt better instantly. After one step they realised the ground wasn’t spinning, two-steps they were walking straighter and taller and by the seventh step from the door they felt sober, clear-headed and the most content they could ever remember. But, they could bot remember a single thing from the night. Not what they drank, what they ate, what they spent their gold on. Nothing, but for what ever reason, they didn’t care.
The city guard lined up outside the tavern, expecting many ruffians, drunks and no-gooders to step out and they approached the first patron, readying themselves to deal with trouble they found themselves staring at a sober woman, smiling and getting the officers politely as she walked towards her home. The rest of the Patrons were the same with not one disgruntled or hostile person coming from the Tavern.
The following morning the goblins were everywhere in town. Purchasing food, supplies and goods from the townspeople. The money flowed freely and the goblins didn’t protest or argue if prices were too high or if they were barred from certain buildings. They smiled politely and wished the owners, merchants and farmers good day and went on to try and find what they were after.
This continued for many weeks and the village folk, with the exception of the guard Captain, Clarice, and her loyal guard men and women became more welcoming to the Goblins. Soon the entire town could be seen entering the Goblin and Lute atleast once a week, sometimes as frequently as daily, and the people of Ravenbrooke were happy. The townspeople also began to notice their crops were healthier, the fabric they wove seemed to be of higher quality and generally all those who visited the Tavern has some form of Goodluck.
The Guard captain Clarice sent her men in occasionally, sometimes to just report back on what was happening and once she sent in her lieutenant to cause a fight and get a black mark against the taverns name. But those guards who went in came back out happy, broke but without any memories. Her lieutenant though was found a few blocks from the tavern, drunk, disheveled (but not naked atleast) and vandalising property. The guard could only remember his orders and then coming to in a cell with a very stern captain watching over him from the other side of the bars.
This is where our adventure begins, the party members happening to stop by Ravensbrooke on their way through couldn’t help but notice the sunny disposition of the townsfolk, or the way that everything seemed to work out. On their way in a runaway bull carting barrels of ale was spooked by a horse from a traveller and ran down the road at a mad pace. Almost as if clockwork, without being aware of the bull, his owner or the speeding cart people seemed to flow effortlessly out of the way, a child playing with a ball tripped at the last second as the bull stomped where she had been but a moment before and just when the bull was approaching the party a little green goblin appeared infront of the party and the bull skidded to a stop. The goblin greeted the bull, gave its massive jaw a kind scratch before checking on the owner. Taking the lead of the bull, the globin walked upto the party and apologised for any troubled he had caused before walking the bull and ita cart to a tavern just down the road.
As the party decided what they wanted to do a coty guard approached them (06FrMi) and explained they they were expected and that they had come just in time. The guard would then escort them to the guard hall where Clarice was found head in hands and staring at perfectly penned legal documents (and if the party wanted to try and read it they would be referring to ‘The Globin and Lute’).
Clarice would go to explain that they have a problem. Violent and dangerous goblins had infiltrated the town and had somehow bought the goodwill of everyone in it. She would then hand over a bag of coins with 500gp inside it explaining that the 500gp was the agreed amount for them to deal with the problem discretely. She would cut off anyone who wanted or tried to speak as she explains that she needs proof that the goblins are a threat to the town and she needed the group to infiltrate the Tavern known as ‘The Goblin and Lute’ to support her damning evidence of their misconduct and evil intentions. An insight check would reveal she is lying, she has no proof but she is sure that the goblins mean trouble.
(06WeGaL1)
The party would have a small house offered to them by the guards as a form of a bonus. They can keep gear here if they want to or rest before they go to the tavern.
The party make their way into the tavern, a friendly globin face greets them and explains the rules of the inn. The party was only to bring in what they could deal without and on that condition they can eat and drink as much as they want as long as they can pay what they can afford. Also, if you are deemed to be of malcontent, ill will or intending harm to someone in the tavern you will be dealt with by the boss.
~:Ask the players what they want to do or if there is any plans:~
Once in the party can eat and drink what they want. As they leave they find out that 500gp has been taken or that they have only %10 of their original funds left if they left the 500gp from the guard elsewhere. They also forgot everything not written down or inscribed somewhere.
The guard would find the party and take them to Clarice. Clarice would interrogate them for information and get frustrated if nothing is returned. She would then subtly blackmail them suggesting that they would be branded as criminals and arrested for treason to the crown.
Upon leaving the building they would witness a woman begging a merchant to let her get food for her family to which the merchant refuses.
At this point one of the goblins brings a pouch of coins from its clothing and runs to the lady insisting that she dropped her coins on the way to the merchant.T
The goblin notices the party watching it and gestures for them to be silent.
When the party goes in again the goblins will be weary of them. Eventually the boss will appear and will question them.
If the party reveal that they are not working for the guards then it reveals itself as a fey creature who creates an environment for happiness so that it can gain magical power and provide happiness to those who give the Tavern patronage. By taking the money of the town the being can ensure that the money is distributed amongst those who need it and can use the positive energy to shift things subtlety, like moving children out of the oath of a bull.
It’s up to the party then what they do. They know the guards are wrong and the goblins are not what they seem.
This concludes week 6. If it comes to a fight goblins are normal goblins and I’d use a CR1 fey stat block (fairy or pixie perhaps). As for the guard use guard and knight stat blocks.
The idea behind this week was to look at non-combat encounters and explore other ideas on what a tavern or inn could be for us.
Thanks for joining and as always don’t forget to roll with advantage!
For a bit of a shake-up in what I normally post about I have a Age of Sigmar 3.0 battle report to writeup tonight.
Warhammer, particularly fantasy or Age of Sigmar, has always drawn me in and interested me.
I blame my little brother who started this Warhammer journey when he was 13 or so. I remember for his 12 (I think.. it was 17 years ago..) I bought him Warhammer Battle match and we fell in love with the army control, the models and fight scenes and the races depicted. If you read my “what lies beneath sparrows rest keep” post from a few weeks back you can probably guess what my favourite faction is of all time. In 2017 whilst on a training course for work I stumbled across battle reports on YouTube that made it look just so damn fun. When I got home from training I went and bought my first box of crisp grey plastic and I haven’t really looked back.
Leaders Bladebringer, Herald on Exalted Chariot (265)* – General – Command Trait: Delusions of Infallibility – Artefact: Vial of Manticore Venom (Universal Artefact) – Host Option: General – Lore of Slaanesh: Hysterical Frenzy Dexcessa, The Talon of Slaanesh (280) – Host Option: General Sigvald, Prince of Slaanesh (265)* – Host Option: General
Battleline 22 x Blissbarb Archers (360)* – Reinforced x 1 22 x Blissbarb Archers (360)* – Reinforced x 1 5 x Hellstriders with Claw-spears (135)* 5 x Hellstriders with Claw-spears (135)*
Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals – Stormhost: Knights Excelsior – Grand Strategy: Hold the Line – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Lord-Castellant (155)* – General – Command Trait: Envoy of the Heavens – Artefact: Mirrorshield Lord-Relictor (145)* – Prayer: Divine Light Lord-Imperatant (175)* Yndrasta, The Celestial Spear (320)
Battleline 10 x Vindictors (260)* – Reinforced x 1 10 x Vindictors (260)* – Reinforced x 1 5 x Decimators (215)* 3 x Annihilators (200)* 5 x Retributors (235)*
With Stormcast winning the roll-off they decided to be the defender letting my deploy first.
Hedonites deployment
Breaking up my heroes with hellstriders on the left and right flanks, blissbarb archers ready to take the left and middle objective with Dexcessa backing up the left flank, Sigvald holding the middle and the Bladebringer, Herald on Exalted Chariot on the right.
Stormcast deployment
The castle was built with the Lord-Imperatant, Yndrasta and Lord-Castellant behind all the Vindictors (2*10 man units) with the decimators taking up his left flank. The 3 annihilators, 5 retributors and Lord-Relictor ready to drop down.
Round 1. Objective 3 (my left, opponents right) was randomly selected as the prime objective
Hedonites took 1st turn. Choosing Aggressive expansion because I knew that I could run and shoot with my blissbarb archers to generate some depravity and to get both units on the objectives. Getting Mystic shield cast from my bladebringer on itself to get the save to 3+. My heroic action was to get an additiona command point for my Blade bringer. My opponent selected heroic action, however they were unsuccessful. My hellstriders moved up both flanks to secure the objetives while both Blissbarbs claimed the left and middle objectives. Shooting 41 times each unit into the two units of Vindicators. The unit holding the middle objective received all out attack and their target received all out defence to make them a 2+ save… oof. At the end a handful of Vindicators were slain. Sigvald backed up the middle blissbarb unit and Dexcessa charged forward towards the front lines. Failing a charge from all hellstriders, my chariot and only making it in with Dexcessa I tried to take out the vindicators, she also suffered a Unleash hell from Yndrasta as I charged in (was in range by .4″ doh) suffering 5 wounds. Dexcessa managed to take out a few Vindicators but died very quickly to the pointy spears.
At the end of the turn I scored 6 points in total but lost Dexcessa.
Stormcast turn 1.
Selecting Slay the warlord my opponent quickly planned to throw everything at my Bladebringer. Hero phase I selected finest hour on my chariot (3+ save with a +1 to offset rend). At the end of the movement phase several stormcast had droped in to surround my general. Shooting phase saw several Blissbarbs die to Yndrastas spear but the main phase was charge phase. As the decimators charged into my general and the Annihilators charged my remaining Hellstriders. The decimators attacked first, but not before the lawnmower commenced and blended up one of the Decimators bofore they swung. Being the selected children of Sigmar for this turn the decimators used their once per game ability to gain +1 attack. 26 attacks later, and another all out defense saw my general suffer 3 wounds but not die. My hellstriders sadly did not fair as well.
At the end of the round no real casualties had been suffered by the stormcast but my general was looking very beaten. Stormcast has scored 2 points to my 6.
Round 2. Hedonites won priority (yayy)
Healing was the name of the game and I healed my Chariot-general as my heroic action this round. I selected broken ranks and used both sets of Blissbarb archers to move up and shoot at a single unit of 6 Vindicators – I also brought up Sigvald to the fray and he managed a massivd 15 in charge into the side of the vindicators – avoiding the spear shot from Yndrasta. Charging my seeker chariot into the decimators I tried to shake them off with mortal wounds – but they failed the impact damage and the decimators quickly cleaned them up. My left flank Hellstriders tried to take out the back-door Retributors and Relictor but they were unable to punch through their armor and dealt no damage before dying. Sigvald was fine.
At the end of the round I had my generals, two units of blissbarbs and a had managed to complete my tactic.
Stormcast turn 2.
Gaining an additional command point for his general my opponent selected conquer and decided to take my middle objective – which he did easily. Moving up and taking down the middle objective and a few more blissbarb archers (by the handful) this saw him punch through a lot of my battleline and start threatening my heroes more.
At the end my opponent scored their battle tactic.
Turn 3 – Slaanesh still owns priority
Selecting to heal Sigvald and to take back the right objective by selecting conquer (and with the prime objective still remaining in control of 22 blissbarbs).
My goal this round was to shift my forces to the right, I used my depravity points to summon in a keeper of secrets and shoot down the pesky lord-imperitant that was keeping Sigvald from fighting Yndrasta. Making my blissbarb achers charge Yndrasta and soak up her spear shot I also charged back in with my bladebringer to deal impact mortals to the previously impervious decimators and also to turn the lawnmower back on. This left the decimators dead after activating once after Sigvald managed to get into Yndrasta with an 11″ charge (Thanks to +3 charge.) Sigvald only managed to deal 3 wounds and a total of 3 damage to Yndrasta and despite rolling 6 sixes on my Blissbarbs in melee I was unable to damage her further due to her 2+ save and 4+ ward.
At the end of this turn, even managing to kill 2 Vindicators with a hysterical frenzy the hedonites were still dwindling in numbers. Even with the arrival of a Greater demon
Turn 3 of Stormcast selected aggressive expansion and healed Yndrasta for 1 wound. This turn was very quick. Movement and no charges. Yndrasta retreated away from Sigvald (understandably so) and the turn was ended with Stormcast completing their objective and scoring 5 points.
Round 4. Slaanesh was thirsty and got priority again.
A simple round, I Cast acquiescence on his general, selecting savage spearhead as my tactic which was easy considering my placement of Sigvald and my blissbarb archers. Running my Blissbarbs to get into 9″ of his general I then peppered it with arrows until he only had 3 wounds left. Making the charge of my bladebringer into yndrasta and the ann annihilators I did enough impact hits and the lawn mower to make Yndrasta in deep trouble of dying. I left one Paladin left on 1 wound. At the end of the charge Phase my Keeper of secrets decided to just step on his general and send him back to Azyr. Not the best end to a mighty general but was satisfying to see monstrous rampaging making a bigger difference. As part of my movement I summoned in an exalted chariot but it failed its 9″ charge into his back lines. As the blood mist settled my opponent was left with a 5 man unit of Retributors, a relictor and 6 Vindicators.
Scoring my tactic at the end of the round it was calculated that there was no chance for my opponent to come back from this.
Turn 4 for Stormcast he focused down my exalted chariot and selected broken rankes to get rid of my remaining unit of 6 blissbarbs. Moving up and charging the blissbarbs easily died but I was still very ahead on points.
Surrendering at he end of turn 4 and acknowledging that we would both score our grand strategies the final scores were…
Thanks for checking up on what I wrote up today – it ended up being one of my larger writeups and I decided to cut out a lot of it to save one space and time. In the future I want to capture more details, key dice rolls and anything else of note that was game defining.
As always, thanks for reading and keeping up to date on what goes on here at Brazen Wolfe Tabletop. Let me know if you want to see more Warhammer stuff and I can plan to alternate my weekends between DnD/RPG heavy or laces every now and again with warhammer.
Todays battle report was managed on Tabletop Simulator.
Thanks for joining and don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
A bit of a different fight night today as we look at two concepts that, admittedly, I don’t employ enough. Non-combat or social encounters. These don’t only test our players abilities to handle social situations but also our own ability to handle non-stat block driven games and, hopefully, guide our players in refining who their character is outside of armour and away from their +2 sword of smiting.
The assumption
06FrMi
As the party enter the inn, the owner rushes forward.
‘Thanks for coming so quickly. I don’t know what I would so without you.. I.. I.. I didn’t know if anyone would come for that sum of gold but praise be that you came. I need help that only your team can provide’
The party state in disbolief as the inkeep, in some form of shock surely, produces a bag of coins. There has to be atleast 500gp in the bag!
The first of the ‘encounters’ to explore is a simple one. The assumption that the Party are something that they are not. We have two real posibilities here I want to explore (despite it being a rather open situation) and we will focus on two sides of the same coin.
I’m here to help… Well not really
This is where we have an NPC assume that the party are here to progress the antagonists agenda.
Whether they party are treated poorly by the innkeep and/or the staff at the tavern – or contrastingly, treated well by the Rival tavern owner or the city guard (who are trying to get rid of the goblin run tavern for example). For this we have two approaches. The party is approached and confronted outright, or (my favourite approach) the party start to have things go differently for them.
The local Merchant increases their prices,
The town guard approach them at the market and start to offer to show them more favourable treatment
The Bartender serves them the worst quality drinks and food instead of what was paid for.
etc.
The second is more direct.
The party has the town guard/rival invite them to dinner who expresses their gratitude for coming to the town so quickly. They also express their point of view on the party, how the goblins, or magical Tavern is a blight that is corrupting the good townsfolk and that they are glad that the party is here to put a stop to it.
Regarding how the party navigate, with words or dice, they may find themselves in a situation where neither side trusts them. The bartender see’s them having dinner with the rival owner. Or the Goblin sees the guard treating the party more favourably. This small encounter and how the party navigate their way through the complexities in social situations can lead to some interesting moments that force the players to really think about the type of character they are role playing.
Clues…
06FrCl
The party don’t remember much, but the wizard who has a knack for writing things down finds out that the entire sleeve of his robe has his, admittedly very expensive, spellbook ink scrawled in magical runes and text down the inside of it.
‘Not what it seems’ , ‘Potent charm’, ‘Floaty float face’
Unsure of what it means, their memories being what it is it appears as though part of the plan had worked. They knew that the goblins were charming people in their tavern but none of the party could work out what.. Floaty float face could even begin to mean. There was only one thing for it. The party had to go drinking again.
Puzzles
Not all encounters require a sword, in this case the quill was indeed mightier.
For this one we are looking at solving something, a murder mystery where people are mysteriously dying when going to the Deaths Door Inn or where people are losing all memories when going out for a night drinking. Well that one isn’t so uncommon…
Setting up a string of clues and a trigger for people to find, or just giving the players the freedom to creatively work something out may be the key to a successful social encounter. Maybe the occurances at the Goblin and Lute only affect memory and the money that is on the person, not their books, clothes, ink wells etc. Perhaps they could try and write down what they encounter and then role play their sober self trying to understand what the magically drunkened version of them was trying to tell them.
Or perhaps, the party has to work out where the inn they were staying in transported them, a handful of other patrons and the entire staff to a magically unstable location and they have to work out why it happened, where they are and ultimately what or who caused it.
Having creative solutions to magical or difficult situations can, once again, drive the players to consider a different depth of their characters in which they hadn’t explored before.
The two social encounters are challenging. That is to say that as a DM we are easily able to drop in the statblock of an animated scarecrow (see Wandering inn), or town guard and goblins (see goblin and lute) and have the party fight their way out of something – but in this case that is the easy way out. By giving the players something where the sharp end of a pointy stick isn’t the solution they may find character growth and explore a depth of what their character can do and the different ways of solving problems that is still fun and rewarding.
This concept isn’t new. Murder mystery games or problem solving games as just as popular as ever. Cluedo, ultimate werewolf or even Among Us all feature no stat blocks, no real enemy to fight head on – but a series of puzzles or clues in which they have to solve in order to succeed.
Thanks everyone for joining me for a, honestly, odd shift in gears. I tend to default to combat encounters as I find that my party after a long day of work (and dealing with social encounters where it’s.. probably the wrong move to punch your way out of a retail store checkout or meeting with executives) they just want to send their AXE OF WRATH through the face of some ghoul or cultist that was trying to break the seals that keep their deity bound to another plane.
But, we don’t just organise these games for our players do we. As DMs we either love to suffer (haha.. a joke.. right?) or we really love to help tell a story and watch our groups of friends, coworkers and families have a fun time and enjoy each others company. But I find that I have also grown as a person over these last.. carry the 3.. 24 years (almost?) of DMing games and I have the party and what I am willing to try in these adventures to thank for it. Changing my style of DMing, or adopting small changes that aim to incrementally improve the way that I play and that my players experience this game world that I create for them and with them has shown me that I am capable of growth and improvement.
Maybe everyone just needs to push themselves out of their comfort zone to gain meaningful experience so we can level up gaming and ourselves.
On that note, don’t forget that this is just one option for an adventure, you are the puppet master, you create the world and lay out the scene for the players to experience and enjoy. If you and your players don’t like something mix it up! But don’t be afraid to level up your gaming and don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Thursday already, since beginning this blogging journey I can honestly say that the weeks go even quicker – hard to imagine that in a world with COVID and the longest lockdown.. worldwide now I think (as I am in Australia) but there you go.
Today we are looking at a few hand drawn maps that we can send out players to spend a comfortable night in filled with food, beer (or wine), and maybe a bar fight or two. Without too much more chatter let’s roll it up.
Two story Inn
06ThMa1
The concept of rooms for rent upstairs and a bar downstairs is a staple for most inns that are described to our players. This one here proudly sports 7 rooms with a combined total of 15 beds (2 queen sized beds) for any adventuring parties plteasure. Upstairs some rooms are furnished with a table or chairs or both with a centralised stairway going downstaris to the entrance of the inn.
Downstairs, the inn has 2 booths with a table and 4 tables with chairs while at the long bar there is 5 seats available. To the left of the stairs there is a bench where the patrons would checkin to get their room keys, maybe pay any fees or pickup some gear for the followign day. This area has a suitable amount of shelving and tablespace and to the right of this bench space (behind the stairs) there is a storage room where ‘fresh’ cooked food would be kept, perhaps a small hearth under shelving to cook small amounts of food for patrons. Outside there would be a small balcony to support the largest of rooms and to provide some shelter for patrons from the elements.
For a relaxed quite inn this would suit well enough – there is no facilities in here however so that could be a separate room elsewhere for bathing / cleaning purposes. Or perhaps an external room that leads to a cellar where the food is also cooked.
‘Traditional Tavern’
06ThMa2
This Tavern is semi-inspired by some of the artwork found in several D&D publications and has a second layer dedicated to drinking and eating. The ground floor has a lot of communal seating where people could share in platters of food, games of chance or other meriment and along the left wall there are some booths for quiter more private dealings. A large long bar demonstrates that this inn is for drinking and also services a rope basket system for perhaps pulling a smaller bartender (mayhaps a goblin..?) to the second story to service the patrons up there. Behind the bar is a dedicated food and beverage storage room with a double hearth cooks station in the room over.
Upstairs is several smaller tables for more intimate gatherings but the tables could be pushed together at a moments request to get the same vibe as down stairs. A small balcony hovers over the bar underneath so that food and beverages (and perhaps bartenders themselves) could be sent upwards to the second story as to not interupt the flow of drinks and enjoyment on the tavern floor.
There is no place for sleeping here but by increasing the landing along the right hand side of the building and removing the tables and chairs small, perhaps uncomfortably small, lodgings could be provided. Reminds me of times I have stayed in backpackers accomodation actually…
I looked at using some free web based applications to create tonights inns but felt like a personal touch was warranted to get my vision across. Hand drawn on grid paper; which I am almost sorry for – it was a long day at work…, both maps probably took around fifteen minutes to think of, measure and draw (half way through the second map I found my ruler! oops!) but it gave the full flexibility of size and design (and ease of use) that I couldn’t get using software such as inkarnate or one of the several generator applications out there.
Hopefully the maps will give a bit of undersanding into what the layout is for this weeks adventure and I am looking forward to trying to work out the potential encounters tomorrow night that utilise the maps and possible adventures planned.
As always don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Wednesday already? After last night I wasn’t sure how much writing I would be up to doing tonight, but we made it! Looking at the taverns still, I would believe that any of these could be used for a session 0, level 1 or even a level 7 party. Taverns are versatile and everywhere so this weeks adventure, and its twists as we will shortly find out, will be able to be used in any campaign and with some tweaking any setting as well!
Tonight is all original Brazen Wolfe Tabletop content – but no images this time (sorry!). If you want a refresher after the essay from last night I suggest you have check out the ”01-Monday – Plot’ and ’02 – Tuesday – Who/What” category (link in the main landing page) so you can check out the other posts for this week as well as prior weeks. But lets get on with tonight’s content!
One foot at Death’s Door
Contact poison.
A highly effective and rare contact poison has been placed on the red darts in the tavern. Only by extensive searching can the poison be located and it takes a week for the poison to take effect. A rival tavern, run by a previous party meme of Percy before they became famous, had laced the darts as a way to run the tavern’s reputation. The antidote is hard to find and expensive but the rival innkeeper, Toren, has a vial that he keeps.
Toren has many friends, one of them, Hugh, basically resides at the Death’s Door and once the poison has been detected then a ransom note for the antidote will arrive on the bar one morning. The poison makes people appear as if dead within d4+3 days and they stay that way until given the antidote.
06WeDD1
If the party picks up the darts or play them one night then there is a 50% chance they picked up the red darts (>51 on %dice) and they come into the effect of the poison.
If the poison isn’t discovered the party will wake to find their party member cold and stiff to touch.
06WeDD2
The poison is magical in nature and for each person that falls victim to it looks to reopen the Death’s door portal. Toren found a way to dig up the necromancer’s bones and bring him to unlife. They work together to ruin the good name of Percy and finish what the necromancer started
I thought of the contact poison adventure hook last week but didn’t really have a way to use it while sticking with the theme or random and easy. So this week we have two motives for poisoning the patrons at Deaths Door. Both would make for a good adventure and it could be resolved by something we haven’t explored yet. Social skills instead of violence. I know, crazy stuff.
I don’t think we’re in the forgotten realms any more…
The wandering Inn.
The inn has transported itself to a pocket dimension not too unlike the feywilds. Mysterious magical.constructs will approach the inn and scream “closing time!” At the occupant’s. Any one who leaves the inn and gets lost in the magical mists will find themselves stumbling into the vacant lot where the Inn used to be. (Roll a d% every hour exploring. Roll above 10% first roll to stay in the pocket dimension. Then second hour 30% until it hits 70% then the mist becomes aggressive and will hunt them down. The mist doesn’t go anywhere within 40 feet of the Inm and the constructs don’t go inside but will get within 5ft of any door or window and continue to screech.
If a fight occurs and the construct downs a creature is teleported out of the dimension and back into the vacant lot. This continues for 6 nights.
06WeWt1
The original owner of the Inn has found a way to escape the pocket dimension he banished himself to. Now insane he wants his Inn back and managed to corrupt the magic of the Inn to do so. But he can’t cause harm to anything living in this dimension or his control on the Inn will break. On the 6th night he appears before the inn and the remaining patrons and party members and offers a deal. Give him the inn and he will send them back with riches. Merl refuses outright and asks the party for help
06WeWt2
The inn is controlled by a crystal from the feywilds. The inn has slowly become sentient and created this dimension for it to remain in and grow to understand who and what it is. On the 6th night a particularly large construct would appear and parley with the humanoids.
Either the original mad owner or sentient Inn both have social, puzzle and combat elements involved. The idea with these twists is to tell why its happening. To have a “Ahhhhh. Of course” moment that is 1, believeable and 2, rewarding to the players.
Goblins wanted, pay is competitive.
The Goblins Boss
While it’s true that the Gobin and Lute tavern causes people to get exceeding drunk, become coinless and lose their memory of the night, the goblins run a tight shop and no one is ever injured or had anything of real value taken. Unless you are a member of the guard or under their employ.
06WeGaL1
The goblins are employed to a sprite from the feywilds who feeds off happiness, not in a sick way. The happier the patrons the more magical power the fey has and the better the inn becomes. The fey creature, when not feeding, visits the people of the town and heals illness, increases growth in crops and ensures prosperity of the patrons of the tavern (firstly) and those around them.
06WeGaL2
The Goblins are mind slaves to a underdark creature who controls all goblins like puppets. He removes memories of the patrons to create mindless constructs in a cellar under the tavern which it plans to unleash upon the town when the time is right.
I have had a lot of fun roleplaying traditional minion monsters. Kobolds (my favourites), goblins, imps and quasits all can bring something comical and nom threatening to an adventure. Which is why it is even more hilarious when they turn on the party and the noble paladin, pious cleric and angry, angry barbarian all get knocked unconcious by a group of cr 1/8 filler creatures.
The idea here is a comic relief. Serious Adventure/session after serious session can be draining. Having an adventure that is just there for Stein’s and giggles is a great way to give an enjoyable night but takes the pressure of, 1, the party to fight something life threatening and 2, you the DM. Sure the players may want to cut a goblin in half with the serving dish their potato’s came on. But add in a bad guy controlling them, or a do-gooder guard capitan who hates goblins and doesn’t care if they are making the town and it’s people truely happy, and your party has a punching bag to take their d20s out and hit.
I had a bit of fun tonight writing up the twists for these adventures and I hope you had at least as much fun reading it. I started typing (on my mobile as I do every second night – short story for another time) with only the contact poison and old owner wanting it’s Inn back twists in mind. As I started writing it out it just developed and went into what it is and I’m pretty happy with what came out of it
Not all adventures need to be about fighting or combat. Social encounters are likely harder to beat ( I mean.. Charisma is a dump stat.. right…?) And violent may make things worse or not solve it at all.
Don’t forget that if you like what you read feel free to use it. If you do drop us a comment on how the game session/short story/thing.. went!
And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Tuesday brings NPC day.. but today is one with a twist. Since this week is focusing on three taverns we are looking at fleshing them out and treating them like NPCs.
Today I wanted to really push the idea of Inns and Taverns being more than a spot to throw a party together into a quest. So I used The Copper Sanctum’s ‘not another tavern generator‘ to create some menus and look at some other aspects to add into a tavern or inn. I particularly like the names of the beers (being a craft beer drinker myself) and hope my players get a kick out of these later on.
I also experiment with Artbreeders Building maker (yup.. Artbreeder again) to create some images of taverns for this Tuesdays NPC write up.
Inns and Taverns
Deaths Door Inn
06TuDD
The Bartender – Sam Bristlechin
An adult male halfling who is remotely attractive in a friendzone kind of way. Unlike other halflings that frequent the inn, he is brash and humorless but despite that he never gets an order wrong. His skin is warm, and he has messy black hair that he keeps short and neat. Physically, he is average.
The patrons
On a typical night, patrons can be described as calm. Normally there are between around ten and fifteen other people in the tavern. Some of them would be found singing a drinking song at the bar which brings Sam’s disposition to a dark state remarkably fast. Sitting at a secluded booth, there is an imposing looking figure. The figure will silently boast that they know of a griffon who is currently away from its nest, but they don’t know why or for how long it will be gone.
The Accommodations
The rooms for rent are small to the cramped side but notably clean. There are normally three rooms available for rent. The cost for a night’s stay is 7 sp, 5 cp.
Beverages
Wines
Wand and Staff Gewürztraminer A locally produced white wine with flavors that are lean and rough.
Bottle price: 2 gp, 5 sp Glass price: 8 sp, 6 cp
Lawless Eye Riesling A famous vintage of white wine with a bouquet that is sweet and mellow.
Bottle price: 11 gp, 2 sp Glass price: 3 gp, 7 sp
Blushing Bard Chardonnay An imported white wine with a taste that is oaky and lean.
Bottle price: 4 gp, 5 sp Glass price: 1 gp, 5 sp
Unlucky Tooth Merlot A finely made red wine with a bouquet that is full and oaky.
Bottle price: 7 gp, 3 sp Glass price: 2 gp, 4 sp
One bottle of this wine is contaminated with a strong poison that could blind anyone who drinks from it. There was a mix-up during the bottling process.
Lagers & Ales
Jumping Rapier Ale 6.73% ABV An imported golden honey ale. Described as a mild honey ale with a creamy finish.
Gallon price: 5 sp, 3 cp Pint price: 1 sp
Polished Pixie Fruit Ale 6.45% ABV An imported reddish fruit ale. Described as a full-bodied fruit ale with a strong flavor of hops and a pleasant finish.
Gallon price: 5 sp, 8 cp Pint price: 1 sp, 1 cp
Abyssal Elephant Pilsner 6.73% ABV An imported amber pilsner. Described as a refreshing pilsner with an aftertaste of citrus and a pleasant finish.
Gallon price: 6 sp, 3 cp Pint price: 1 sp, 2 cp
Demonic Triangle Fruit Ale 5.45% ABV A microbrewed reddish fruit ale. Described as a spicy fruit ale with a strong flavor of hops and a bitter finish.
Gallon price: 4 sp, 4 cp Pint price: 8 cp
Wolf and Dryad Porter 7.45% ABV An imported dark amber porter. Described as a complex porter with a bitter finish.
Gallon price: 5 sp, 5 cp Pint price: 1 sp, 1 cp
Liquors
House Gin A house-made gin. Bottle price: 1 gp, 8 sp Shot price: 3 sp
House Whiskey A house-made wheat whiskey. Bottle price: 1 gp, 8 sp Shot price: 3 sp
Adventurers Board 2 sp, 3 cp A plate of sharp cheese, a hunk of bread and some boiled meat (likely oxen) with some pickled carrots.
Deep-Fried Potato Wedges 3 sp, 8 cp Potato wedges fried in lard. Served with a spicy red sauce.
Jam-Packed Baby Artichokes 4 sp, 4 cp A platter of baby artichokes jam-packed with a medley of onion and cream cheese.
Entrees
Ham Stew 3 sp, 6 cp A rich stew with cubes of ham, cubed potatoes, and onions.
Romaine Salad 3 sp, 5 cp Leaves of romaine tossed with celery and onions.
Roasted Rabbit and Romaine Salad 3 sp, 5 cp Leaves of romaine tossed with herbs. Topped with roasted rabbit.
Mains
Herb-crusted Rabbit 6 sp, 8 cp Herb-crusted rabbit in white sauce served with noodles with a side of beets.
Braised Fish 6 sp, 9 cp Braised slices of fish with a ginger marinade alongside rice and a helping of mushrooms.
Grilled Lamb 6 sp, 8 cp Grilled lamb in white sauce served over noodles with a side of artichoke.
Blackened Chicken 6 sp, 7 cp Blackened chicken in white sauce on a bed of quinoa with a serving of red beans and green peppers.
Herb-crusted Venison 7 sp, 1 cp Herb-crusted bits of venison in white sauce alongside mashed potatoes with a serving of artichoke and carrots.
The Wandering Inn
06TuWt
The Bartender – Mer Tingleton
The bartender and ‘owner’ at The wandering Inn is a weathered male halfling who is average looking. He is often uncommonly positive in disposition. His skin is lightly freckled, and he has dark hair, kept in a short but untamed style. Physically, he is terribly unfit.
The patrons
On a typical night, the patrons can be described as considerably friendly. On this occasion, there are a few other people currently in the tavern. A couple of them are playing a game of ante. Sitting at a secluded table, there is a nervous looking figure. They are in search of able-bodied adventurers to assist in the recovery of a kidnapped pet.
The Accommodations
The rooms for rent are small and impressively dingy. There is currently four rooms available for rent. The cost for a night’s stay is 5 sp, 1 cp. If the party spends the night in the tavern, shrieks of laughter can be heard over the low hum of magic that permeates the vicinity throughout the night
Beverages
Wines
Tiny Spellbook Pinot Noir A poorly made red wine with a taste that is powerful and dry.
Bottle price: 1 gp, 5 sp Glass price: 5 sp, 2 cp
Goat and Unicorn Riesling A locally produced white wine with a taste that is full and flat.
Bottle price: 4 gp, 1 sp Glass price: 1 gp, 3 sp
Lagers & Ales
Pious Worm Hard Cider 5.73% ABV An imported light amber cider. Described as a fruity cider with a pleasant finish .
Gallon price: 8 sp, 8 cp Pint price: 1 sp, 7 cp
House Ale 4.41% ABV A house-brewed light brown ale. Described as a sweet ale with a pleasant finish.
Stuffy flute Gin A localled produced Gin. Bottle price: 2 gp, 9 sp Shot price: 4 sp, 9cp
Food Menu
Starters
Deep fried onion rings 3 cp Onion rings fried in lard, served with a honey creamy sauce.
Deep-Fried Potato Wedges 4 cp Potato wedges fried in butter. Served with a fruity sauce.
Crammed Red Pepper 5 cp A platter of red peppers crammed with a blend of garlic, cheese and potato.
Entrees
Ham Soup 3 cp A savoury soup with chunks of ham, onions and cubed potatoes.
Lettuce Salad 3 cp Leaves of mixed lettuce tossed with beets and chilli.
Mains
Roasted Frogs 8 cp Roasted frogs served on a bed of mashed potato with a spicy red sauce.
Grilled Frog 9 cp Grilled slices of frog with aside of potatos fried in lard and three large sized mushrooms.
Blackened Frog 6 cp Blackened chicken in white sauce.
It’s not actually frog but the innkeep has a bad sense of humor..
The Goblin and Lute Tavern
06TuGAL
The Bartenders
No less than seven goblins run around the tavern serving drinks and food to the patrons. No one ever seems to remember their names. The bartenders can be seen taking money from the patrons, but no one would remember thats surely.
The patrons
On a typical night, the patrons can be described as almost friendly. On this occasion, there are a few other people currently in the tavern. A couple of them are arguing with the bartenders.
The Accommodations
There are no rooms for rent.
Beverages (no prices)
Wines
Thirsty Cleric Pinot Noir
A poorly made red wine that is described as cloying asnd smokey
House Riesling A house-made white wine with a taste tht is rough and earthy.
Wicket Grape Pinot Noir A finely made red wine that is described as fruity and smooth.
Lagers & Ales
Rose and Manticore Fruit ale 6.36% ABV An imported light brown fruit ale. Described as a sweet fruit ale with a rich finish.
House Stout 8.73% ABV An house-brewed dark brown stout. Described as a meaty with a creamy aftertaste.
House pale Ale 4.41% ABV A house-brewed light golden ale. Described as a a lightly sour ale with a fruity finish.
Dancing Hobgoblin Ale 5.86% ABV A locally brewed reddish red ale. Described as a nutty red ale with a rich finish.
Knotted Fungus Fruit Ale 4.45% ABV A microbrewed light amber fruit ale. Described as a nutty fruit ale with a rich finish.
Liquors
Three Silvers Brandy An imported raspberry brandy.
Strangled Lute Brandy A localled produced brandy.
Spotless Crown Gin A locally produced peach Gin.
House Whiskey A house-made wheat whiskey.
Food Menu (no Prices)
Starters
Deep fried stuff
Onions, potatos, bits of meat and who knows what else is fried and served with house-ale.
Entrees
Potato Soup
A savoury potato based soup onions and cubed bacon.
Mains
Chunk of meat
Blackened meat served with potato and more house-ale.
Thanks for joining me today. I would love to say I had a lot of fun in writing up today’s content but it was a lot of writing today (even with the awesome content produced (randomly) at The Coppers Sanctum (not another tavern generator)) and it say me writing much later than what I would normally be doing so. But, I do sincerly hope that out there, there is a bar/pub that serves (some of) this food and almost all the beers listed!
Don’t forget to come back tomorrow where we look further at the twists and turns we can have with this weeks adventures and dont hesistate to comment and let us know if you would visit one of the inns or taverns above! If you have a If you do comment, dont forget to mention where you are from, what RPG systems you play with and what brought you here.. Oh and don’t forget to roll with Advantage! The Brazen Wolfe
Monday already and that means another selection of adventure plots is here. With this year going stupidly fast I barely noticed we are into our 6th week of writing these out so I am going to mix up a couple days this week (but still keep roughly the same format) so put a bigger twist on the challenge as a whole.
Every DM would know of the session 0 hook “you meet in a tavern”. Players find NPCs to create bonds with, earn (or swindle) money, meet buyers of goods or simply get a good night rest on a bed instead of the forest floor. This week all paths lead to taverns and thats where our plot hooks start.
Deaths Door
06MoDD
Deaths door is a cosy tavern famed for its garden salad, its inclusive policy and its well mannered proprietor Percy the humble.
Deaths door tavern got it’s name from an adventuring party who stopped a necromancer from opening a portal to a layer of hell and summoning forth a dark lord of undeath.
However, lately tavern patrons have been found dead with their limbs twisted in horrific ways. Six dead bodies have been found and the only link between them all is that they all visited Deaths Door at various times over the last week
Percy Merrywinkle has requested that someone step in to find the cause of these deaths as he believes there must be another cause to the patrons deaths.
Mer’s wandering Inn
06MoWt
Mer’s wandering Inn is a thing of magical delight. Every few nights the Inn disappears from where it is and appears in a different city all together leaving the land it was located at empty with a sign displaying the number of days until it will relocate there.
By every second dawn the Inn has magically relocates to a predetermined place and has since it was created by Bryn, a dwarf wizard of some power who lived a mug of ale in a different location every few nights.
However as the party stay over on a non-transportation night the inn shakes, trembles and then on with a loudly sound like ripping paper or parchment all is still and quiet.
The inn has relocated, for the first time in a few hundred years, to a new place. Great discoloured clouds of magic and strange exotic animals and plants surround the Inn, it’s owner, the party and a few other patrons.
The Goblin and Lute
06MoGaL
The Goblin and Lute is a roudy establishment what people go to get utterly blind drunk.
The entire bar staff are all goblins and there is one rule. Drink, Pay and leave. Most of the patrons are regulars and the Inn is relatively famous for it’s business model. You drink what and goes much you want but you leave with only the clothes in your back. The last part is not shared much as the patrons like to see the bewildered looks on newcomers faces as they wake up from a big night of drinking with their purses as empty as their memories front the night before.
The city guard have tried to get their men inside for years but they always end up drunk, almost naked and confused in front of the houses of Lords and ladies.
The strangest thing is that as soon as the paying patrons who Harbour no ill will leave the tavern they are immediately sober and are extremely happy with their experience at the Goblin and Lute.
Thanks for joining me today to look at something that I, to be honest, generally overlook. I have a go to tavern that I use in most dnd sessions where the players find familiar comfort food, a familiar half-orc innkeeper and a relaxed attitude to a dnd session.
For me The Frisky Mare tavern is where most of my adventures start in some shape of form. It’s slightly rough looking Innkeeper, Tess the half-orc, looks after the party and keeps and eye on the ruffians. In the morning flat bread with grilled mushrooms and tomatoes and/or Glory rolls (double egg and double bacon with cheese rolls) is served for the hungry party and Tess offers advice and info into some leads for work or information.
The Frisky Mare is fundamentally my tavern. It’s my comfort zone and I am going to shake it up this week to give me, and you, some new taverns and Inns that could kick off your next adventure.
And thanks to my new followers. Welcome and thanks for clicking that button to read what I put out daily. I enjoy exploring this process I have done subconsciously for over a decade (maybe 2…) and recording it to be viewed and maybe used by many more.
I really look forward to each day I do this. I also look forward to the day that someone reaches out to tell me they used something I created here in their own adventure. I think that would feel like rolling two nat 20s. Don’t forget to have fun, rekindle that spark and as always don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Sunday here at last, this week even the town is randomly generated (with some notable landmarks) and then held together with gum and hope that my challenge to create something from randomly generated something’s works.
There are quite a few randomly generated things and I am not quite sure how big of a post this will be at the end of the writing session – but lets see how we go. The random traps, city ‘map’ etc. were generated in Donjon – go give them a look if you are interested!
The costal town of Sebluff is known for it’s farms and good natured townsfolk. Predominately humans and halflings Sebluff is governed by a council of 4 elders, the 4 oldest members of the town, who call themselves the Golden Few. Each of the councilmen and women dress ornately in purple cloaks that have a golden chain around their necks that holds a quarter of a disk of quarts decorated with wheat stalks made from gold.
The population of around 500 busy themselves with fishing, farming and most importantly trading with any who bring something to trade.
There are a smattering of houses in Sebluff, most of them contain families of a few generations and as the town is a peace loving trading and farming community they have long since torn down their walls as the nearby cities and walled settlements regularly patrol the roads to ensure that their rich trading hub (Sebluff) can continue to operate without a military.
When the day of farming and fishing is over the residence of the city turn to the local entertainment to spend their hard earned silver on. A Large theatre, The Bale and Flail, famous of it’s satire and halfling run acting company is a regular venue for people to relax and enjoy the food and plays that are dished out within its walls.
The Fat Goblin, a humble gnome run tavern is situated not far from the theatre and provides visitors a room to stay and have a quite (as much as gnomely possible) meal away from the bustle of the cities other delights.
The last notable building of some fame is the Temple of Lathander where the head Priest, Phames, runs a morning mass to greet the new day as the light from the morning lord reaches the Shrine of Hily Byne, the founder of the town and first cleric of Lathander (or so the stories go).
The plot
05MoG97 + 05MoG16
Over the past few months the peaceful town has seen an influx of people from the outskirts claiming that their farm has been plagued by flying wyverns that seem to breathe blight in which no matter of crop or animal can flourish. The good people of Sebluff have taken these people into their community and provided work and accommodation for the refugees.
The arrival of those who seek shelter has also seen the rise in power of a mercenary guild who has begun to hunt these beasts and keep them away from the farms of the townsfolk, for a modest fee of course.
Not long after the mercenaries entered the City the head priests sacred amulet, the holy symbol of Lathander gifted down from Hily Byne, is missing and a people in the city are becoming discontent.
05WeCw + 05WePr
The wyvern hunting mercenaries are pretending to be farmers from near by farms and they are extorting the town for protection money for something that isn’t there.. yet.
Brother Phames has a reason for completing his morning ritual using his particular amulet. It’s an ancient ritual said to keep dragons and their kin at bay from the local lands – he has merely hidden the amulet from the public eye whilst he waits for the prophecy to come true and a beast to come forth and test the mettle of the Hunters.
The people of the hills
Sarah Lune
05TuSaLu
Sarah has come forward with a concern – she believes that the wyvern hunters are not who they say they are. She hasn’t said this publically and has talked to the brother Phames about her concerns. She is more than likely to approach the party if she believes that they are able to help as the brotherhood of Lathander seem to have their own problems.
Ned, the son of the gnome Tavern owners Mildred and Golwinkle, talks to much… He has heard rumours that the priest has been lying to the public and is hiding something. He believes that the holy symbol wasn’t taken or stolen but it’s relinquished by brother Phames due to his misconduct.
Ned is quite overt about his dislike about the clergy but is quick to back down and make apologies if questioned.
As the party arrive at the town they can see that there are several well armed mecenaries taking money and goods from a few of the merchants tents. One of them, a farmer selling corn, refuses to pay and a heated argument breaks out. Seeing the party the mercenary threatens with the removal of the wyvern hunters protection if they refuse payment tomorrow and disapears. The farmer, Sarah Lune, explains to the party member what is going on – that the wyvern hunters keep taking more and more money to keep the beasts away but she has doubts if they are even there. She seems worried as her two elderly parents approach and break down in tears, fearful that their farm will fall to the flying monsters that plague the town – reportedly.
Sarah offers the protection money to the Party members if they could stay a few days and nights at her farm to look out for the farm in case of wyvern attack – or worse.
If the party does then see encounter 1, else see encounter 2
Encounter 1
As night falls on the second night the party notice a vision of a flying creature approaching them from a small forest to the north. As it gets closer it breathes out a torrent of fire that sets the corn crops alight – But something seems off in how the fire catches the stalks as small spot fires appear sporadically rather than in a line. When the party investigates (or if they investigate the Wyvern DC12) they recognise it as an illusion and can see several features running alone the ground setting fire to the crops.
4 men and women are running along the ground with a cloaked figure chanting not far behind them away from the crops with its back turned to the party – seemingly convinced that it’s illusion will keep it safe. Once they realise the party are aware of them they will try and silence the party (kill them or knock them out…). If the party members are still alive at the end of round 2 then they will spend round 3 retreating.
If the party member capture or kill any of them before they try and escape then they will recognise one of them from the wyvern hunting mercenaries. if the mercenaries Knock them out then the party wake up in their hideout in the forest. Or if they escape but the party track them then they will find their hideout in the forest to the north under a poorly hidden staircase amongst some carved stones in the trees.
The Ruins (Den of the Cabal)
05ThMa2
Floor 1.
As the party enter the well lit and clean ruins they can tell someone has put a fair bit of work in making this place hospitable. Flags showing a dedication to Talmora line the walls and there is not a spec of dust or dirt on the grounds. As the party walk forward they have no idea that the mercenaries are well versed in laying traps.
1 – Rune of Paralyzation: DC 15 to find, DC 10 to disable; affects all targets within 10 ft., DC 10 Con save or become paralyzed for 1d4 minutes. There is a 10ft circular stone plate in the middle of this room. Anyone who steps on it will feel a jolt of lightning course through their bodies rendering them helpless.
2 – Chain Flail: DC 10 to find, DC 15 to disable; initiative +4, 1 attack per round, +6 to hit against all targets within 5 ft., 2d10 bludgeoning damage. There is a panel just before the trap that can disable the trap. The room that this hallway leads to has several chests lined up and looks to hold the tribute and payment the townsfolk has been giving the mercenaries.
3 – Falling Block (from side of wall): DC 10 to find, DC 10 to disable; affects all targets within a 10 ft long 5 ft wide rectangle, DC 14 Dex save (or strength save to stop the block) or take 2d10 damage. Either side of the walkway before you enter this hallway there are two reinforced banners that have a flat wide top. By using the tops of these the players can jam the block from closing the corridor. A DC15 Athletics check will stop the block from sealing the passage way (until forced back into its position in the wall and the trap reset). There is a pressure plate under the block that is recessed enough that the party can notice it easily enough. This can cause the block to remain hidden in the wall.
Floor 2
As the party descend the stairs they find themselves in a small hallway that has two rooms off it. There are no signs of life within these rooms just a writing desk in the room to the right and a statue to the room straight forward.
1 – The writing desk has a Strange looking glass built into the wood. When sitting in the chair and looking through the glass they can see that the wall opposite them (1) is an illusion and they can see straight through to the hall on the other side. If they do this without setting off any alarms or traps in the floor above they would see a few mercenaries moving to and from the pillar down the hall and an open door half way down the passage.
The statue in the room to the north (with a secret door) is a grotesque fish-person with a clawed three pronged trident. DC12 to notice that one of the tridents claws match an indent in the wall – which will cause the wall to swing inwards and surprise any mecenary on the other side of the wall.
2 – This door is seriously locked. A really heavy locked door if the party members have alerted the mercenaries to their presence. DC20 strength check to break it down. AC20 to damage it with 20 hp. This iron banded door won’t give for many people at all. The Cultist Fanatic would have a key to this door however.
3 – Concealed Pit: DC 10 to find, DC 10 to disable; affects all targets entering a 10 ft. square area, DC 14 save or take 2d10 damage. The whole room is a pit trap. The lever to disable to pit trap is next to the secret door/passage to the south wall in the room and not reachable unless you skirt around a narrow (6inch lip) ledge to activate the lever. On the walls is several books and several small chests on shelves as well as wall mounted weapon and armor racks.
As for creatures. If the mercenaries were followed here (and all of them escaped or the party was captured) there should be 8 bandits, 1 cultist fantatic and 1 bandit leader in here. The bandit leader and half remaining bandits should be in the 1st floor in the large room near the chain trap and the fanatic and half bandits should be down past the locked door in the odd shaped room planning another raid.
Encounter 2
The ‘Wyvern’
On the 4th night the blight drake will appear and will be seen along the coastline near the town. IF they wyvern hunters are still alive they will flee with the loot (extorted tithes) and won’t be seen again. The party members will be requested to defend the city.
When (DM decide where) the party encounter the drake use the stat block below. The drake is likely to fight by flying over the party and breathing out acid before landing and taking to them with tooth and claw. It’s forearms also function as it’s wings.
The priest will reveal that he did not lose the holy symbol but wanted to prove the mercenaries as fake or try and lay the blame on the stolen artefact on the mercenaries. He did not anticipate the beast being as strong as it was or even real.
The outcome
The party can persue the wyvern hunters as they would set up camp in the forest hideout. The priest would offer a reward if they can retrieve the ill-gotten money and goods.
Thanks for joining for another weekend writeup, I hope you enjoyed what was thought up this week. I had a lot of fun taking the random elements and drawing inspiration from them to create an adventure that I don’t think I’ve run in the past.
As always don’t forget to have fun running your games and don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Brazen Wolfe Tabletop 