Welcome to Monday night where we are looking at the plot for the upcoming week and this week I want to introduce the party to someone who is itching to meet them.
A bit thanks and shout-out to those who have been reading along daily, Yep, I see and notice you, I really do appreciate your support and interest in this little adventure I have coming together in my head (I have the what I call wandering plot points – but more on that another time I think) but every week I try and use what we learnt or dealt with in the previous week or month to drive and shape how we get to these points.
So without any more waiting let’s get on with the nights writing.
Searching for Reason
209MoSfR
Before they even reached the gates Priestess Lizbet and her fellow devotees of Chauntea rushed to meet the group – Paul and Carline take up an instant defensive position but the party quickly make introductions.
Katya walks from the wagon and those around her part like reeds in the face of a tornado, her presence and radiance glowing around her causing, as expected by now, flowers to bloom and plants to grow, but that was probably just a trick of the eyes. As Katya and Lizbet meet the aura seems to shrink and in doing so both Katya and Lizbet glow in a way that only the divine could.
As they make their way into the city the village folk, the ‘free’ Red fleet sailors and merchants stop and show respect to the distinguished pair as they strolled through the streets with an retinue of guards, priests, priestesses, Paul and Carline and, just behind them the Party who had saved the city a week back.
Meanwhile on a rooftop not far away Siu lounged lazily in the sun and warmth watching the procession with interest, two priestesses of power – the newcomer gave off more of that divine energy than the priestess he had been gently nudging towards the boats and the promise abroad – maybe he had made the wrong call now that there was a stronger one here.
Sighing and turning his head back to the streets his eyes touched on a wisp of black mist as it crept under a door like a worm taking shelter from the hawk – he thought with a smug grin. He crept forward, his clawed limbs making the careful yet hasted descent easy – he will miss parts of this form when he is stripped from it and healed by the great dragon once he completes his mission he thought.
As he crept towards the door he looked around to make sure that his approach was undetected before climbing through a opened window. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the interior but when they did he was greeted by a creature of dark mist surrounding and lashing out at a house cat causing minor cuts and abrasions as the cat lashed back out in defence, its claws and teeth ineffective against the mist. Then as if sensing Siu the creature hissed, a low reptilian reverberation that chilled his nerves as the mist-creature rushed the cat entering its body through orifices and its cuts and in the blink of an eye the last trails of black mist disappeared and the cat was swinging its tail playfully – its golden eyes staring at Siu as a predator would its prey. In a flash the cat had closed the distance between them and large shadow-mist claws sprung from the creature and cut through the scaled hide under Siu’s mangy fur coat. The pain was exquisite, if pain could be defined as such, and he pulled on one of his limited spells he could cast and he disappeared as if made from mist, landing hidden on a rooftop just out of reach of the cat – he hoped.
As he watched the shadow-creature-mist-cat.. thing it smiled wickedly before jumping through the open window and started to head towards the priestesses. After a moment he noticed several other creatures were doing the same, malicious intelligence lining their eyes as they crept in the shadows closer to the procession and staying clear from the humans as much as possible.
This was not good, Siu needed help, he could feel his life force seeping from the wound in his torso and he had only one option.
He had to talk to those who he had admired and watched from afar, only their magic could save him and he had to warn them of the shadow creatures.
Thanks for joining me for this quick little introduction to this weeks coming adventure, As I began to write tonight I thought about tonight’s post and wondered where I was going to go with it in full. I knew I wanted Siu to reveal himself so I wanted a reason to do it – and to save himself, and the priestesses (maybe) was a good enough reason for me and the rest just flowed.
For the time being I am associating the dark mist as something that is a common theme in this current part of the adventure – it generally means the same thing when you describe it to anyone “Evil Spirit” and that can get the right reaction out of a party that you want to get involved, or take the plot dark-mist-bait, hook, line and sinker.
Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for more Brazen Wolfe Tabletop content and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Hi all and welcome to the last instalment of our February adventure series.
Tonight we will look back at the parties visit to Bracken Hollow, their discovery of Katya and their efforts to free the village from the corruption that spreads from her family home – as well as how it’s not easy dealing with a undisciplined beacon of life magic.
So, first time trying this format (which coupled with the effort from the previous weeks should make it a lot easier – but let’s see about that).
Pages 1, 2 and 3 are content pages, the description, flow, random tables, etc. and such that you’ve previously seen.
Page 4 contains all NPCs and portraits to help the DM describe them and a bit about them to help play them out.
Page 5 will be stat blocks and map(s) – all that D&D encounter goodness that you want.
Now I will jump the gun and say thanks. Thanks for reading this – I have expanded, added and corrected a few things to make sure the adventure flew, well nice enough. If you do like this format do let me know, if you don’t also let me know so I can see what I can tweak for next time. this probably was just about as much effort as writing it all from scratch the first time around but this way I think it makes sense.
Don’t forget to come back next week and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Part 1 – The road Bracken hollow – 205BrHo1
The high priestess of Chauntea in Daye, Sister Lizbet, impressed with the party and what they had accomplished, rumoured to or not, requested that they go to Bracken Hollow, a town a few days travel to the north east of Daye in Amn and to search for another priestess of Chauntea who was rumoured to be more powerful than she and to bring her to Daye. During the travels into Bracken Hollow the party met with a few travellers who warned them of Bracken Hollow and its general dislike to strangers – particularly from the family who lived in an old manor atop a hill towards the north of the village, and warned the party to not outstay their welcome how ever long it is.
Walking upwards into the sleepy village of Daye the party are greeted by farmsteads overlooking paddocks filled with crops or beasts, two the north east as dense forest could be seen in the distance as the road crept steadily upwards.
Entering the town there was very little. A small stable with may hitching posts lay at the centre of the village, a large water trough and nearby well the only visible water source for horses and people alike. To the left (west of the stable) lay a tavern, The Broken Tankard, which in the dwindling light provided by the setting sun looked like the only place of warmth and hospitality. To the north, about mile away on a hill was a pinpoint of light and smoke amongst a sea of tall, slender pines who had shed their needles already – unusual for the season.
Areas and places of note
The Stables – A small set of covered areas in the centre of the town. Big enough to house about eight horses if some are hitched just outside of the small roof that provides cover from the elements. There is no stable boy but there is clean fresh water at least if sans-food for the beasts that would be spending the night there.
The Broken Tavern – A brightly lit two room, double storied building that boasts three rooms for rent, two singles and a double room. The meals are hearty and of the land but cost a bit more than what the party is used to ranging from 1 silver for basics to 10 silver for something that is likely to fill you up for half a day or more. Despite the price the quality cant be doubted and the three dwarven owners, Milly, Billy and Ned are ferociously proud of the food and drink they serve in their tavern.
The Bracken Hollow woods – rumoured to be the gathering place for fey and other creatures from the fey wild the Bracken Hollow woods are relatively small in size but deep with a few cave systems within its twisted roots and sudden drops. Those who adventure within will need to be on their toes as its not just the environment within that could kill a man.
Environment and running the adventure
As the party enter the village an unusual cold change in weather has swept through the village, many blame the fey that reportedly live in the forest to the East but there is growing whispers, hushed or otherwise, that the family who live on top of the hill are responsible.
This cold snap brings about changes in the weather conditions. When the party arrive it is cold, but not extremely so and they are offered a change of clothes (for 5 gold pieces each) if they are wearing clothes not suited to the cold climates. The following morning you should determine the weather affect in place (d6 roll on the below random table) and for each 1d4+3 hours after that roll the dice again. On a 3-6 the weather gets worse and on a 1 or 2 the weather lessens.
The party should attend the Tavern, the only place to stay for the night. Upon entering the tavern they are treated poorly by the villagers within, looked upon as if they were bandits until Milly, the Matron of the tavern comes and pretends to rough them up a bit. Afterwards the villagers get back to their jovial nature. The party find themselves at a large table with Colin and Paul when the doors open again and this time a crazed man walks in. The music from Carline changes from a merry jig to something that is brash, abrasive and seems to openly mock the newcomer who asks Milly for a bottle of wine to go. The man then seems very interested in the party and tries to pry all information from them about their reasons for visiting Bracken Hollow. Paul steps in and fumbles, revealing what the party has told them that they are here for but Colin tries to cover for his brother and the party explaining that they are heading through the town and staying for a night or two. After the man leaves with his wine the party hear about the strange weather patterns that are happening and the two reason that they believe its occurring. The strange man called “Father” and his family or the fey in the woods are upset about something and have turned spiteful.
If the party go into the woods then the weather should be snowing (stage 5). They find a cave after some while which looks like it was lived in recently, there are some dead strange looking deer within that have a fey-like quality. The weather begins to get worse. If the party stay in the cave they find themselves unwelcome visitors to an half-ogre and his pet brown bear (stats below).
On the way out of the woods they are ambushed by giant snow owls (see stat blocks below) as the wind begins to pickup (blizzard begins). After the fight they travel for a few hours – the blizzard making it rough to move through and as the wind dies down (still extremely cold but no snow) they see a half-ogre and brown bear (If they didn’t encounter them in the cave that is) has followed them and then they are in combat.
After getting back to the village they find that Paul has gone missing when going to help “Father” with a problem with his fences.
Random table
Weather table.
Result
Weather affect
1
Cold but not extremely so
1-2
It’s begun to rain hard and its still cold, but nothing an additional coat can’t fix.
3-4
It’s now dropped in temperature dangerously, its extremely cold and still raining.
Hello all, welcome to the ‘Saturday special’ where this week we are looking at another 30 minute adventure challenge with the supplied word (thanks reader!).
Now true to word I haven’t started writing or thinking on what I could do with this adventure, well, thinking about it is hard to reign in but I will do my best to handicap myself by throwing away the instant thoughts I had on this – but more on that in a moment – you will just have to trust that I am telling the truth on this one.
Just like last week I will have the same, mostly, set of restrictions to make it a challenge for me – well attempt to.
Single word randomly provided
Initial first and second thoughts are to be ignored – To make my imagination actually work for it for a change.
30 minute timer, start time recorded.
Must be a playable adventure
Must have at least one driver (antagonist/protagonist)
Must be D&D centric and attempt to be of the fantasy variety.
And that’s the rules, deciding to remove the first two thoughts that came/come into my mind should make it a bit more challenging. So the clocks set, the word Candour (Candor) provided last week – thanks for the suggestion!
Right lets get on with it,.
Time: 8:52:15
A Candid approach
Well the first idea that came into my head was a King who is normally open, honest and truthful with everyone he works with being cursed to only lie, but the enchantment makes other spells and attempts to work out his situation come back with the resounding truth. He believes what he is saying. The story would go on how he knows he is cursed and he is trying to cry for help by wearing a red leather glove and openly declaring that its blue.. But – that may be for another time, who knows.
The second thought was just a stone throw away really – A crime boss has suddenly started telling the truth and he abducts the players. Any spell or affect will determine he is 100% telling the truth on anything he says. He believes that some of his own subordinates has betrayed him (note the words used) and he implores the party to do their best to flush out the culprits so he can revert the enchantment. There are no spells cast upon him but he is candid to a fault including his multiple affairs (if questioned in front of his wife) – Well that ones gone too – this one was different – he is just simply telling the truth to flush out the rot in his crew. Its all a farce but because he speaks the truth and speaks with conviction (and is careful with his words) to all that know him or hear him speak he is 100% truthful – ah goodbye Liar Liar spin off.
Ok the real on, third off the rank is a no-name merchant who starts to advertise his truth potion – any one dose will make the consumer hear only truths for the next day. This obviously goes nuts in the small city that they are in (a fringe city that isn’t really known for much other than its large livestock market and export via its very small dock.
Soon accusations of unfaithful ness, business cheats, charlatans and all manor of wrong doers are being exposed and this small time merchant strikes liquid gold – his her truth potion. (changed to a female antagonist). The party are called upon, to help sort out what’s going on here.
So this leaves me with a question – is the potion real or a trickery and I think the only path I want to go down is its real! (makes it harder for me). Now, sorcery or alchemy – my first instinct was sorcery to be frank but with the late addition (as I was typing) of the large livestock market its feasible that something rare, exotic or unusual may have come through there so I will say that it’s Alchemical.
So, a lady alchemist who uses, err, liquid from a creature that was acquired from the local livestock trade to distil a potion that makes the consumer hear only truths.
So how did she know about it, lets make it easier for me as my mind went with squids. Yup. Tentacles, beaks and odd eyes. So a land squid. Yep. That’s weird. Found in a cave to the north that happens to lead down into the underdark. This gives us a few things.
The merchant to sold the squid would be visiting the underdark or paying someone to to bring back the gross critter.
The alchemist would need to know what it is. Either she is Duegar, Drow or spent time amongst them. I tend to stay away with slavery so lets go with.. half drow? – Mother was particularly thorough in her prayers to Lloth and fell pregnant which created a half-elf – she cant even remember the sire. (no hate here – spent a bit of time reading war of the spider queen and it only seems fair that they would partake in these displays of excess…)
So the half-drow, Amalica, was spared because of her gender (extreme matriarchy down in the dark) and spent some time with a lesser family – a relative (cousins)- before she went in search of what lies above the earth.
Ok – so squid’s tentacles and beak secrete a poison that allows the squid to take control over the bitten and use their body as an all terrain vehicle, nice. Because she is half-drow she knows of the squid from her family and her cousins taught her to complete alchemy and limited sorcery that comes with the elven blood.
The created potion when it’s distilled correctly and mixed with certain mushrooms doesn’t open the mind fully for invasion but gives a strong temporary psionic ability to the consumer which enables them to read minds, well surface thoughts and limited ability to manipulate those thoughts to reveal the truth – all subconsciously.
Since her endeavour has taken off she has been searching for another squid but her supplier has gone quiet. Currently she is just keeping up with demands but has made enough gold that her little cart is now upgraded to a large shop front and her neighbours don’t like it so much.
So the party, where… called upon by the businesses near by, a mercantile body of them in fact who govern the commerce in the city – yeah. They are worried about the legitimacy of the potion as well as, if questioned or poked, worried about their own business secrets, deals, plots and ploys being revealed to their competition. The board has all agreed upon pain of ostracisation from the city and all the benefits of working for, as part of and within the city offer.
Part 1 – Finding out.
The party would need to find out how Amalica does it – they could sample the potion, perform their own alchemical wonders, cast spells or such but they all come back with that its not really a spell or enchantment but a drug.
If they break in and look through the store they find only meagre supplies and too many orders for what is there – they find the underdark mushrooms though and if one of them has knowledge of either the underdark (Ranger, drow, duegar, or svirfneblin) or a high survival check they would be able to determine what it is.
Maybe they would notice the merchant dropping off the mushrooms and tail him?
Part 2 – Confrontation?
The party would confront Amalica, the merchant/s etc. to find more info.
Part 3 – Discovery
Either the merchant body, or better yet people who tracked the merchant selling mushrooms find where she is keeping the Squid and kill it – leaving behind a Drow dagger (a spider motif on the handle) – she talks openly with the party and ask about what’s next – she thinks her merchant had found another two of the squids but she worries he was ambushed at his place.
And time…. well being candid it was over by 1 minute over as I didn’t want to finish mid sentence (must add that to the rules for next time…)
Closing thoughts
Hmm – taking the time to get some notes out this time for part 1,2 and 3 helped this time so I could go into those sections and tidy them up. I probably spent too much time on the setting as opposed to the actual content and flow.
I would change part three to a either or. Kill the squid if the Drow, or, if the merchants she becomes a fugitive as the merchants and their guards go after her – accusing her of dark magic. The Towns guard are on her side but its a bit out numbered – the party has a choice to either help her and/or the guard or the merchants.
Part 2 is also, well, merely a thought here – Talking to her, the merchants or the mushroom man to get more info. If confronted directly and approached with empathy and genuine concern (she would drink her own potion and know if they were lying) she would explain to them her background – the abridged version – and then explain that she is an alchemist and found a non-lethal non-malicious way to distil her potion. This is what the party want to be aware of – the other merchants would merely point at her and say that she is behind it (and may reluctantly tell truths of double dealings, black books, illegal trade and the like)
I think next time if I do this again I wouldn’t write the two stricken out entries until after the time is up – as they were thought up and discarded quickly, could have saved around 5 minutes.
The conclusion would be the the half-Drow alive – sorry for those who didn’t want that! but she would be tried for a witch if captured by the merchants and then found innocent, but the merchants would then ostracise her from the merchants network which would make it nearly impossible to keep running her business here – she would then leave.
If the merchants don’t catch her then she would flee and pass a large sum of gold to the party if they were with her when she left – else the mushroom merchant would find them and bring them gold from her if they held back the merchants and guards but didn’t help her personally escape
Thanks – I hope you enjoyed tonight’s writeup! I, honestly, failed tonight – The clock bet me tonight but I will endeavour to try again if its a format that people like!
So – if you’ve got a word for next week feel free to comment below and I will select one that has been provided, if you have some reasonable restrictions, rules, or “at minimum you must have…” then please put them down – I am doing this to, really, train my brain to be better at planning adhoc one shots and be better and creating short adventures on the fly.
Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for more Brazen Wolfe Tabletop content and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Hi all and welcome to Friday or as I like to think of it, FightNight!
As promised I couldn’t stay away from a healthy “ambush on the way back to Daye” and I think the theme and logic behind the ambush is quite fitting so let’s roll into it.
Ambush at the Old Oak
208FrAOO
The party have settled down for the night about twenty miles out of Daye, the woods up ahead being too dangerous to travel at night. Katya has been reading from her book all day and the party cant help but notice the constant energy that is being emitted from her like warmth from a fire, and that’s what it is – its warmth, light and the essence of life. But this constant output of energy has taken a toll and Katya looks weakened, not quite feeble but tired and exhausted.
As the party clean up from their meals and organise watch a eerie rattle comes from the roads and plains around them. Those with darkvision or the ability to summon light would instantly see shambling, incoherent parade of the long dead being risen once more. Steeling themselves for battle they notice the first skeletons walk into the light of the fire where Katya’s passive aura of magic appears to be strongest and the dark magic binding their bones together seems to weaken as fingers, hands and even whole limbs fall off the moment they step upon the flower rich grass around the wagon.
Now the approach for this encounter is different and more to tell a story. Under normal circumstances a party of 4 level 3s (which is what I would assume them all to be after their ordeals in Bracken Hollow) the amount of skeletons in the horde is just immeasurable, I’m thinking between 80 and 100. But as this is explaining or showing off how powerful Katya could be (with training) and that her aura of life energy and magic flowing out of her like a radiant sun has the potential to bring new life and bounty to the land – it also can attract the darkness that walks at the edge of the light.
The mechanics!
A 30ft circle centred on Katya (the centre of the wagon) is treated as hallowed ground, The skeletons will have disadvantage on all attack and saving throws IF they are within the circle. The party, at initiative 20, get 1d4+2 Temporary hitpoints for being within the range of the circle.
The Skeletons are broken up into four ‘distinct’ hordes, the front of the wagon, the left flank of it, the back of the wagon and, you guessed it, the right flank of the wagon. Each horde has 20 skeletons on it (adjust to 25 if you’re party are blasting through them too easily) and consider the below.
Each horde has a total of 100hp, yikes, which is 5hp per skeleton – they are weakened due to the magic after all.
Every 5 points of damage dealt by the players (as Paul, Katya and Carline won’t be fighting in this) will destroy another skeleton. So a dagger that manages to deal 7 points of damage which to a horde that has 67/100 hp remaining would kill two Skeletons – make sure to talk up how the party does it with one dagger.
Each saving throw made by the Skeleton is made at disadvantage and assume that the AOE is all skeletons in a horde (or 50% in two hordes, 25% if it targets three hordes). Success is saving 50% of Skeletons, failure saves 10% of skeletons from the effect.
IF the damage form the attack (burning hands) is enough to kill 1 skeleton assume all that failed die and then calculate damage to the horde as normal (burning hands dealt 6 damage, a big fail on on the dice roll, but it manages to kill 10 skeletons outright and then a further 5 due to the them succeeding but the damage being enough to kill another 5.
When the Horde attacks Assume 2 hits the nearest party member to that horde for every 10 Skeletons. If the character has a particularly high AC then only 1 hits.
Don’t roll attack rolls, just assume averages. It’s meant to feel overwhelming but the encounter is designed for the party to survive it.
If two or more Party members are equally close to a horde who is attacking then roll a dice and randomly allocate where it makes logical sense. The 24 AC paladin with shield of faith and who took the dodge action probably wont get hit by skeletons…
Since the Skeletons have a mixture of ranged weapons and melee weapons make sure to describe both – arrows bouncing off plate, rusty swords bending as they strike a exposed gauntlet, arrows finding the gap between pieces of armour or a rusted long sword (that’s now the size of a short sword due to the level of rust…) landing a grazing blow on an exposed forearm.
When the horde thins enough (20%?) I would roll it into another horde.
Have the horde(s) act on Initiative 13 (for flanks) and 10 for front and back.
If you are awarding experience points for your encounters at the end I would award 10% of the skeletons XP – they are nerfed pretty hard in this fight and are there to have a thematic “save the princess” moment for the party.
Thanks for joining me tonight, fighting with hordes can be quite a fun moment for the party – the never ending waves of goblins pouring through the opened great stone doors in Moria being met by desperate axe, sword, arrow and fists is something that I have always wanted to encounter as a player, or run as a DM. The sheer manic fight for ones life and the frenzy that goes into these massive horde battles is something that people will talk about for years to come.
Don’t forget to come back this weekend for more content, tomorrow nights “Adventure in 30 minute” challenge is on and Sunday we look to post the conclusion to this months writeup.
If you do have another word that you want to suggest for these 1 word adventure challenges feel free to comment on this post and I will add it to the potential words for next week!
Oh, and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Tonight, being Thursday, is generally reserved to the exciting endeavour of ‘something that adds to the adventure’ whether that is maps, additional content, a new stat-block for a creature, a magical item or some lore or information.
Now tonight I had big plans and as soon as I started to put them in to motion they started to degrade into a pile of dust – but not because of what was mentioned the other night but because of what I found to enact my plan!
So tonight I want to give a bit of a spotlight hour to something I hope to really sink my teeth into, wolf-like or not, over the weekend so that I can have something exciting in the coming weeks to present to you for a future Thursday – hence future proofing.
Now..
Homebrew is both a wondrous and painful thing. You can create the most beautiful creatures, magical items, classes, races, spells, feats, skills.. I think you get the point, the D&D world is yours for the taking and yours to manipulate and adjust how you see fit – but a lot of the time the inexperienced will end up shooting themselves in the foot with something too powerful, or, those who are overly cautious (like myself mind you) will create things that are not powerful enough so that when they are put before the heroic adventurer you get a mild “Meh” from those you hoped to impress.
When it comes to the balance, that’s a tricky story and something for another day but for me sometimes its the format and how you present something that can be the selling point.
The tool practically sells itself in its very own webpage too!
Let me introduce to you The Homebrewery!
(less work for me -albeit the quote feature didn’t like cut and paste so I had to type it all out by hand anyway…)
The Homebrewery makes the creation and sharing of authentic looking Fifth-edition homebrews easy. It uses Markdown with a little CSS magic to make your brews come to life.
Looking at this tool, and having a small amount of experience with markdown from work the concept is simple yet, amazingly beautiful in what it can accomplish.
The format of the tool is simple, you have a text field on the left and a PDF preview on the right which updates as you type.
The markdown and CSS really do take care of the rest. By spending a few minutes you can get something you really want out of this website and really, it was a bit of fun editing it (but I have always loved these things… so maybe it’s just me)
Now The Homebrewery is not a sponsor – it even feels weird having to clarify that, same as the other tools, websites and platforms I use – but I post them up here because I either make good use out of them or intend to and this website has already gone into my BWT bookmarks folder.
I don’t want to spoil too much but this website, this tool that has been created here was just too good to not share and the creator has already decided that it will remain free for ever – but if you, like me, enjoy it and get value from it why not support a fellow content creator out there, just saying.
So hopefully I can sink a few hours into this over the weekend and in the process I hope I can create some truly professional looking homebrew for you all to enjoy.
Don’t forget to come back tomorrow, I can’t say no to a good fight-night post so I anticipate uploading some form of random encounter fun times and on the weekend I hope to, in between helping some people move house, take up the challenge laid before me and write another 30 minute adventure using Candour (as was gloriously nominated last week) for this weeks Challenge – not going to lie its been a struggle to not start mapping out some potential notes for the adventure so I am looking forward to Saturday.
Oh, and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Hi all and welcome to another night at Brazen Wolfe Tabletop. Tonight I don’t have much planned for new content (as this week is really not producing anything new as such) but tonight being about secondary plot hooks, twists, turns or pivots I want to just touch on something that we may all have experienced on or off the table.
That pivot or shift in direction.
Now when it comes to me painting miniatures it happens all the time, I blame myself firstly and all the awesome influencers and other painters out there who produce simply awesome miniatures and pieces of art that I think to myself “Wow, that’s awesome. I am going to incorporate that in my current project”. This isn’t inherently a bad thing but it can be dangerous to your project as with Warhammer in general the idea of painting these many models is, generally, to have them look like a cohesive force across the unit they are in and then across the army as a whole.
For D&D or other TTRPGs its not so bad as the mid-session pivot may be, let’s use a recent example, that the Family are not actually the ones who are evil, that Katya’s grief at losing her parents was soo great that her un disciplined divine power was simply too much to control and she unknowingly created this mass compulsion (see the spell command) across the village. Now that is a very different outcome to the one we ended up going ahead with but its not a bad thing.
Shifts like this can be moments that really define the uniqueness of the adventure and in hindsight I may have even gone with the “Katya’s power was too great” approach instead of the “Keep the magical maiden safe for our dark master by manipulating and lying to her” one we went with. I think the end result for my party would be the same, there would be a search, a learning, a confrontation of sorts but the ending may have resulted in “The Family” being spared as opposed to being put to the pyre.
Sometimes these pivots are not just limited to a painting and army theme or a single adventure twist but can be for an entire TTRPG System. I have used D&D for just about all of my TTRPGs but I have actually ended up shifting from D&D 5e to utilising Open Legend RPG for an adventure campaign I was running because I felt and saw that Open Legend RPG was more versatile, easier to use and fit the setting a bit easier than D&D. To make my life easier was the first deciding point, the second was to discuss it with my players and after realising that they too were excited for the switch of gaming system then the decision was easy. But that was the clincher, making sure the players were involved in that decision – it’s not going to work shifting from one system to another if no one wants to play in that system so that was the deciding factor, as opposed to the first point that made me explore that as an option.
Regardless of the shift it can be a success story like a different TTRPG system or a potential to learn and explore something for next time, like a change in the potential outcome of a adventure plot or it could… sadly… result in the delay of painting your Skaven army for close to two years, yeah, I really should finish them.
Change is a good thing in our hobby space and if you approach it wisely and understand the potential outcome of these changes before jumping both feet first then they can result in some great hobby.
That’s all for tonight, don’t forget to explore your options out there and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Welcome to another night here at Brazen Wolfe Tabletop where tonight is traditionally reserved for NPCs and other story driving characters.
So tonight I hope to expand a bit more of a character that was introduced a few weeks back and hope to tie together then, now and the future.
His claws found it difficult to grip the mudbrick walls of the house as he followed behind his quarry, his thin tail thrashed in anticipation of the moment when his hunt would be over. Moving from one thatched roof to the next with a short burst of speed and a jump – the membranes on between his arms and legs helping him to cross the sometimes fifteen foot gaps with ease – he trailed just behind her with ease.
“Priestess Liz,” a merchant called beckoning her over, “how goes the preparation for the harvest?” he asked his smile and warm eyes showing his earnest and warm nature.
“Well Dale, with any luck the harvest in a few weeks time will be bountiful as Chauntea has blessed these lands to be fertile this season” she replied smiling back.
The chatter went on for a while longer, this bored him to bits but he could hear the ringing in his large ears which heralded a astral projection to his masters. Shaking his head causing his floppy ears to clap lightly he tore off down across the roof tops to a nearby warehouse next to the docks where he could find a high, dark ceiling to receive his orders.
Crawling through the open window at the top of the roof, being sure no one was watching, he wrapped his thin tail partially around the plank and gripped on with the claws on his legs and closed his eyes. After a few minutes of intense concentration, not his strong suit he had to admit, he felt his consciousness float upwards and the pull on his astral forms as the masters channelled their ritual to bring him to their location took hold of his astral form and he flew through the astral plane across the sea back to where he came from.
As he slowed down a large temple sat before him and he gulped, he always hated coming to this place. The large stone pillars had stone statues depicting large beasts carved into them as if to both hold up the roof and also guard the entrance. As he floated in their eyes glowed with golden light, recognising him for what he was and almost testing him to attempt something reckless and foolish whilst in the temple – something he was not planning on doing not in eleven centuries. As he came to a large amphitheatre there was a heated discussion waging on between men and women who sat on marble and jade throne like seats around the room.
“I have told you, I will not let my families fortune fall to waste. We need a plan or this blight will infect not only our eastern province but the rest of our lands as well” one middle ages woman said calmly staring across from a man dressed in traditional military attire.
“Then what would you have our family do? Sit back and let the invasion come from the north? If we don’t act now we will be overrun by these beasts before the blight even spoils a single grain of our crops. A military threat needs a military solution!” the man bellowed causing a chorus of support to erupt forth with just as much noise raised in opposition.
“What do you think feeds the soldiers!” one voice called, “Our men and women grow lazy and weak in disuse – mobilise the troops and have them face the thread in their lairs!” a second called in contest.
A low rumble shook the room, quite a feat the diminutive creature thought considering it was in the astral plane, as silence fell across the room. A large serpentine head snaked forward from the back of the room and looked around the room with its glowing eyes. “Fighting amongst ourselves like this will neither cure the blight or address the beasts. It looks like we have word from across the waves. Come Siu, tell us what you have found” the large dragon spoke.
Now, the creature hated being called Sui but I was the name that was given to him when he was broken into water and then reshaped into this form, but he could not refuse his master. “I have found a girl” he said tentatively and quiet.
“A girl, what will a girl do!” yelled the military dressed man.
“What did you mean by that!” roared the female hosts in the room. Sui continued to speak but was drowned out by the rest of them.
“She has magic, a connection to a deity from across the waves. One that can heal the land and people. She also has found some warriors, heroes from over here who bested a Gaki after only just finding out what it is. They may not be an army, but if they can be convinced to come with the red fleet and return back then it may solve one or both of our problems.” Sui said, his head tilting down as the fighting continued above him. Hot breath, once again strange for here, brushed against the short fur on his neck and he looked up to see his master hovering in front of his face.
“Divine magic, warriors that bested a Gaki without our training or knowledge. Interesting.” his voice rumbled – the room falling into a deafening silence. “Very well. Sui. Do what you can to bring these heroes and this divine witch over. At this stage the family may as well be fighting themselves not the threats external to them. Go and complete this task and you may have found the cause of your freedom.” the dragon spoke as he exhaled a great breath – the wind forcing Sui to fly out of the temple, across the waves and to be forced back into his unconscious body back in Daye in what felt like seconds.
When he awoke he opened his eyes to the curious face of a dock worker staring at his face. He had, at some point, fallen off his perch on a rafter in the warehouse and he was dangling ten feet from the ground. The man blinked once before falling backwards off the crate he was standing on, shrieking like a banshee before running out of the warehouse yelling “demon”. Knowing when it was the time to go he used one of his limited spells per day to turn invisible before scrambling up his tail and out the window. Finding it was morning but unsure if it was the next morning or the morning after he could not tell he ran and jumped back to the temple where he could hopefully continue to subtly influence the mind of the divine witch to also try and convince the heroes to come back to his home land. In the last hundred years he had not come this close to his freedom and the thought of being unbound to the dragon was something he was willing to give everything to attain.
Well that’s it for tonight. Now I don’t know if I quite got the image I had in my mind to come out fluidly onto here (was a long day at work…) but I hope its enough to expand a bit more on what I have planned and so… thanks for joining me tonight!
Don’t forget to come back the next few days this week to explore a bit more of what’s coming up and I hope that what you find and read is tantalising enough to have you hungry for next week, and the weeks after that where we get more into the journey ahead!
Oh, and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Tonight I want to briefly explore what I have planned for next, how Katya interacts with it and also give a glimpse of what waits for the party after their return back to the village of Bracken Hollow and what lies ahead along the path back to Daye.
What’s next
This year I want to further explore what really kick started my imagination when it came to D&D and in particular what really cemented my love for being the dungeon master as opposed to a player. I am not saying that I don’t love having my own Player character and exploring a world already thought of for me, it’s a great experience, a nice break from running the game and you can get some really good tips and hints into what you want to do or include in your next adventure, but for me that sense of wonderment and that want for more after every D&D session is what really drove me down that path more.
So for me I hope to do justice to what I have planned and will have a relatively rapid escalation plan set in motion, each month another milestone for the party and another set of challenges and experiences for them to engage in and at the end of the year I want to have a cohesive multi-staged adventure campaign that you, I and our players can sit down and enjoy.
Bringing the family in
So in January we met the people of Daye, the Red Fleet (a exotic merchant fleet who brought literal boatloads of magical talismans to the town of Daye) and a ancestral spirit that had not been seen before on these lands. We were also introduced to a child protégé, Lizbet, who after being saved by the party and protected by the Red Fleet felt like there could be something.. more to life. So she acted on knowledge that has been passed down to her and requested the party to find one more powerful, more connected to Chauntea than her and bring her back if willing, this girl is our Katya.
Now you can probably see how Katya is involved but the next step is really quite exciting, an adventure that begins with another request from Lizbet. A voyage for Lizbet to explore another culture and follow her deities guiding light into a new land.
Departure
Katya smiled at the villagers around her and prayed with all her being that they would prosper and that their lives would be both richer and easier from here on out now that the shadow from the Manor on the hill, her family home, was no more. A few shed tears, many smiled and waved happily just happy that she could escape and carry on with her life away from her captors.
“Shall we set off then” a cheery voice said from behind her left shoulder, Carline.
“Yes, we best set off before its dark I suppose” Katya said, nodding to the party and Paul who was at the head of the wagon in which she crouched in. Nodding and smiling, a somewhat goofy smile Katya thought, Paul flicked the reigns and the draft horses out front carried on down the road heading towards Daye.
The party had explained that a high priestess there had requested for them to find her and see if she would be interested in joining the priest-hood of Chauntea in Daye where she would be able to learn to talk to the goddess who had apparently chosen her. That was a foreign idea and as she started the ride downhill hill from the village she watched the snow recede as she passed and flowers start to push through the blanket of white at a startling rate.
If what she had been told during the last two days after her family home was mysteriously burnt down it was believed it was due to the strength of her potential connection to Chauntea that had the deities magic slowing out of her soo easily and readily – if she could learn to control it then she would be able to not just melt some ice and grow some flowers but would have the power to help the sick, heal the land and its people as well as a great number of other things.
Leaning back against the travelling pack the Dwarven tavern owners had given her she snuggled in, a touch of sadness washing over her as she look back at the ruins on the hill knowing that it would be a very long time before she saw them again. Not sure whether to be sad or happy about that she began to thumb her way through the book that had been found in what was the library.
Carline started up a happy tune on her lute and the four adventurers travelled close to the wagon and were watching the roads, the woods and the farmland with a dedication that Katya one day hoped she would have.
Thanks for joining me tonight for this little glimpse of what was and will be coming this way in a few days time. As always if you have any comments, questions or ideas about what you have read here don’t put off replying and I am more than happy to have a chat about D&D or table top in general.
Don’t forget to come back again this week to look at more content as I begin the process of wrapping up this Months adventure (although I am one month behind so I may have to update two…) and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Hi all and welcome to the end of week writeup for the final week of Feb (well the third weekend of Feb any way)!
This past week we helped unravel the past for Katya and the townsfolk of the village now called Bracken Hollow. Apologies in advance, with the content from the previous nights it’s a pretty big writeup…
Well without the explaining why I am sticking with the same format lets kick in with the weekend writeup!
Bracken Hollow part 3
207BrHo3
Katya had helped Paul when was passed out in the snow after injuring himself and brought him back to some ruined buildings near her house. On the way however she began to become aware that they were being followed by wolves, making a dash for it she entered the small of the buildings, which turned out to be crypts and she placed Paul upon a slap of stone, much like an altar. Listening to the call, this pull that had helped her locate him she reached out and golden glowing light spread out from her hand and bathed Paul in warm light. His bones snapped into place, his flesh knitted together and his torn skin slowly crept back together leaving only the faintest marks on the skin that told of a lifetime of farm labour.
afraid of what she had just done, being told that magic was against the Blessed ones teaching she fled from the crypt but not before she jammed the door closed so that he would be safe, at least until she came back for answers. As she started to head back towards her home on the hill many glowing eyes came from the flurries of snow and gave chase. Turning she fled up the hill towards the largest building in the cemetary, as she neared the door she swore a faint warm glow could be seen from the building. Opening the door easily she jumped through and slammed the door on the wolves as they neared it.
“Katya! where are you Katya! Open the door and let us in child so we can help you” her aunts voice came from outside the door.
“Quickly before they come, they come to take you away child. Let us help you” called her uncles voice. Fighting back tears she stood up and opened the door a bit to peek out to look for her uncle and aunty, she was greeted by a massive wolfs head as she went to slam the door shut its muzzle got in the way as it tried to pry the door open. Two more smaller heads darted forward and began to pry the door open. The Larger wolfs muzzle began to smoke and sizzle as it pushed through the door and it shrank back with a frustrated growl. The same could not be said for the other wolves and they pushed on forwards with renewed vigour.
as they pushed through the force from the two beasts pushing through the door sent her flying onto her back, reaching out in fear she called out to anyone who would listen and her call was answered. Thick thorny vines erupted from the cracks in the floor and wrapped around the wolves, a third rushed in but the vines attempted to wrap around it, the look of shock and malice, unnatural malice could be seen in the eyes of the third wolf. As the first two wolves shuddered as sickening snapping and gooey fleshy noises could be heard under the vines the third bit through the vine on its let and fled out of the temple Katya was too shocked at what was going on that she didn’t hear the last wolf crying out “Father!” as it left the mausoleum.
After some time the vines retreated and the door to the room closed giving the room a warm and cosy feel. Standing slowly Katya took in her surroundings, her gaze falling on three large caskets, two of which were closed. Behind them and up on the wall Katya looked upon her self, well if it wasn’t her she had a twin and the face of two people who looked very much like her. Their resemblance gave her a warm yet sorrow filled feeling within her and she began to weep.
A few hours later the doors opened, Katya dashed to the corner of the room and shrank down into the corner.
Paul and four other people walked in and gazed upon what she had discovered.
“Oh, that’s Katya” Paul said and like a rock falling from the roof and hitting her head her memories started to flitter back.
Areas and places of note
The Manor on the hill – The final place where Katya and her new champions confront the evil that had enthralled a whole town. The house itself is warping and shifting under the shattering of the spell that was linked to Katya’s grief induced madness. The ‘family’ still inhabit the halls and will do anything they can to get Katya back, even if it means destroying the villagers and starting again from scratch.
The Road – The party have to walk back towards the Manor – but having Katya in tow I would not expect any encounters. IF your party is of level 3 then perhaps roll on the random encounter table from last week (kept below) as the final battle is ‘balanced’ for a level 2 party of 4.
The Graveyard – Where the party meet Katya. The main mausoleum gives a warm safe feeling
People of Bracken Hollow (in this adventure)
Carline Winters (and villagers)
After the spell shattered Carline, Milly and the villagers go to save Katya – They would meet with the party and Katya (see Thursday nights writeup) as they began to see fey creatures dancing at the edge of their torchlight. The fey are here to see the downfall of the family and want nothing more than to just watch. As Katya arrives the villagers offer to take her back to the village and keep her safe while the party deal with the family.
Katya Poleski
Katya is aware of what happened, but not to the full extent. She knows that the people who told her that they were her parents weren’t and that they were her families assistants and servants. She also knows that they kept her from the villagers that her family loved and were loved by in return. She is more than happy to be taken back to the Village and asks the Party to spare the family she had – despite them wronging her she still believes that they can be saved.
Paul Turp
Wanting to repay the kindness that Katya showed him she is devoted to her protection and offers to come fight the family with the party – but Katya persuades him not to. He is still showing fatigue and exhaustion from the previous few hours but his hand isn’t nearly as broken or damaged as it was.
The family – Father, Mother, Aunt and Uncle have forgotten their old names and who they were. Not much more than crazed cannibals they still are blessed by the dark deity they have worshipped for years, the Blessed one – a minor demon who has a particular fetish for devouring the magical prowess and soul of Chauntea priestesses so that the goddess of bounty and the harvest can not give her blessings and people will starve. The family fight as one team, a family if you will, and will do what they can to ensure that they all come out of this alive.
Environment and running the adventure
As the party leave the graveyard they would need to travel along the road which they travelled up on. Katya would give off a warm glow and any religious savvy (DC13 Religion check) would note that Chauntea has blessed Katya quite strongly, that she is radiating the goddesses divine aura soo strongly that the area around them is starting to turn to spring. Flowers would also start to appear as they walk with her and the cold weather starts to dissipate as they move down the road.
As they reach the Manor they find the village is there, lead by an armed and armoured Milly and an angry looking Carline. Carline and Milly rush to Katya and embrace her before calling for the villagers to take her back to the Tavern. As she begins to walk away the house rumbles and a window explodes from the second story – a man is standing there briefly before it vanishes leaving no trace. The party exchange a few words before heading off into the house to either pacify or kill the family.
Once entering roll for random room environmental occurrences (roll on the table below) and decide if the party will find the family together or apart. If they are apart the family will engage briefly before vanishing. The main conflict should be in the library or the master bedroom. Either will be spooky enough.
When its the Families initiative* they work as a team – I would give them all the same initiative but have mother go first followed by Father. If the family members start to go down Father will be visibly enraged and more so if Mother dies first. Same goes for Aunt and Uncle as they work as a pair.
Afterwards the main items of note is the book of Chauntea in the library and a lot of dark lore contained in well kept books in the master bedroom. In the kitchen there is a cupboard that is filled with old belongings – roll on a random loot table (minor magical items are perfectly fine here) but I would have dozens of full sets of travellers clothes, fey sized swords, shields and armour as well as a spell scroll for a 1st level cleric spell (random is my favourite)
Encounter area
1st floor
Entrance hall
As the party enter the entrance a long set of stairs leads up the left hand wall of what appears to be a small hall. As they look around a piece of the stairs railing crumbles and falls to the ground, disappearing into dust before it hits the ground. As the party enter the room they notice to the right through open doors is a large table with serving plates served with steaming hot food. To the left is a hall that looks to have once been used for entertaining guests and visitors. As they look back up the stairs to a small balcony the same piece of railing falls again and once more disintegrates before it touches the floor in a small cloud of dust that disappears as quickly as it formed.
Roll on the below table infrequently (if the party are in the room maybe roll every 2-3 minutes (20-30 rounds).
D6 result
Environmental Outcome
1-2
The room seems to shift, the wooden flooring that was once strong and pristine rots and and of the party standing on the floor must make a [DC12 dexterity saving throw] or fall partially through the floor, becoming prone and suffering 1d6 damage from the jagged shards of rotting wood.
3+
The room remains as it is, the single part of the railing from the stairs leading up will continue its cycle of rotting and falling
Dining
As the party enter the large dining area they are greeted by the smells of great cooked food and a table set for entertaining a great many people. Across from the doorway into the dining room lies a set of double doors and the sounds of sizzling meat, and frantic preparation can be heard within the room.
Roll on the table below each time someone moves to interact with the food.
D6 Result
Environmental Outcome
1-2
The room remains the same, the food smells great.
3+
The food fades out of existence, a think coating of grease and muck cover the table. The party find that the plates and serving platters are instantly gone and replaced with the bones of humanoids scattered across the table in a big heap.
Gathering hall
Opposite the kitchen and just before the stairs leading up the party find themselves in a large festive all. Grand curtains cover the windows and many sets of tables and chairs can be found surrounding a dance floor in the centre of the room. The party swear that they can still even hear the faint strums of a lute or lyre and someone striking a drum to a soft beat.
When the party move more than 10 feet on the dance floor roll on the able.
D6 Result
Environmental Outcome
1-2
The party member keeps walking, amazed at how spotless the floor is and how there seems to be a faint warmth in the room as if it were filled with eager dancers and mirth.
3+
As the party members on the dance floor takes another step they feel a sudden chill and presence as they swear a ghostly shape steps back into them. Looking around they see nothing else and if they had all imagined the same thing. Each person can make a [DC10 Charisma saving throw] or suffer disadvantage on their next ability check.
Kitchen
As the party cross the dining room into the kitchen and open the door the sounds of food preparation are quickly revealed to be an illusion or an echo of a time long since gone. Large cleavers lie embedded in the wooden bench in the centre of the room and a large cold hearth lies opposite them. Large chunks of questionable meat litter the room. [DC12 perception check] As the party get closer to the centre of the room a iridescent pair of wings can e seen discarded on the floor near two doors, one leading to what one would imagine would be the servants quarters and the other to the entrance hall. These wings appear to be from a large insect or perhaps a fey of some kind.
If the party approach the benches where the knives are embedded within the boards roll on the table.
d6 Result
Environmental Outcome
1-2
The room quickly becomes animated. Gone is the filth, grime and gore and a well maintained cooks kitchen is now presented before them. A great bout of flame gushes fourth from the stove flooding the room with warmth and the smell of baking bread. However those to close may get burned [DC 10 dexterity saving throw] or take 2d4 fire damage, half on a successful save to all within 5ft of the centre of the room. The knives also start swinging down and chopping at vegetables and fine cuts of meat – anyone touching the knives or the centre bench need to make the same saving throw or suffer 1d6 slashing damage.
3+
This place sucks.
Servants quarters
Moving onward through the bottom floor they find a small separate dining room and a small hallway that leads to six bedrooms that each look to be rather small, big enough for a bed, a little table and chair as well as a wardrobe for personal affects.
As the party walk down the hall roll on the table below.
D6 result
Environmental Outcome
1-2
Nothing occurs apart from the occasional creak above them and a small shower of dust.
3+
Part of the wall connecting the hallway to the Entrance hall (3-4) or the Gathering hall (5-6) suddenly ruptures outwards showing the party members closest in debris. In the plume of dust that follows they swear they see a figure darting through it at incredible speed moving towards the stairs and the sound of retreating footsteps can be heard.
Stairs way and overlooking balcony
As the party climb up the stairs the wood shifts slightly under their feet, turning solid and polished one moment and then being tired and worn the next. At the top of the stairs a small portion of railing keeps materialising in place before falling over the edge and disintegrating as it falls down towards the floor of the entrance hall.
Opposite them lies many windows overlooking the yards beyond and to their left lies a hall taking then to a bedroom to the left and a library at the end of the hall. To their right another hallway that leads to a larger bedroom at the end of the hall, a smaller room much like a study just before that on the right and what appears to be a bathroom adjoining the study.
As the party approach any windows in the hallway roll on the below table.
D6 Result
Environmental Outcome
1-2
A sudden image of one of the 4 tall, slender and impossibly gaunt residents (and former servants of Katya and her family) appear behind the party members who are looking into the windows. The image is so lifelike that when it suddenly reaches out and lunches at the party that they feel the hands of the person on them. As soon as the physical touch is made the phantom image disappears.
3+
Moving up towards the windows the party members can see that the glass appears to have nail like scratches on the edge of each pane of glass as if someone was desperately trying to claw their way through the glass and outside.
Halls
The halls are 20ft long with doors at 10ft leading back towards the front of the missing boards that form sort holes in the ground. If the party isn’t carefully watching their steps it would be very easy to fall down one of many of the missing planks and to the room below.
Each 5ft step the party make roll on the below table. The every 10 ft the party must make a [DC10 dexterity saving throw or fall in the hole,
D6 Result
Environmental Outcome
1-2
The sudden sound of rushing feet coming towards them from the nearest room can be heard, [DC12 wisdom saving throw] to recognise it as a phantom noise else the party member makes the saving throw to avoid falling down the missing planks at disadvantage.
3+
Nothing spooky, they either roll for falling down a hole or carry on.
Katya’s room
Katya’s room being next to the library and its relatively large, 10ft deep by 20ft wide. This room appears to be untouched by the rapid changes present in the rest of the house and contains of a well maintained room, bed with clean sheet and a wardrobe filled with nice clothes. There appears to have been no expenses spared to keep Katya well maintained and her needs met.
Library
The library is huge, 30ft deep and 20ft wide. There are several ruined tables littering the room with old armchairs which have very little padding left on them. Books, scrolls and pages litter every inch in this room and only the odd one stands out as being somewhat decently kept [DC15 perception check] to notice the only properly maintained and well kept book is a prayer book to Chauntea. On the wall overlooking the front of the house is what used to be a large stained glass window.
When the party examine or look closer at the stained glass window they noticed that the shattered glass across the room is slowly floating through the room toward the window, the grime and dirt from the glass seems to smoke and fade away as the image of a saintly man and large hawk wings stands in the centre of the stained glass window. After a few moments though the wings start to fade in colour and the man becomes gaunt, pale and fangs start to grow from his now sinister smile. As the image now staring back at he party is of a mostly naked, gaunt yet muscular rotting man the window implodes showering the room with its tainted glass, which, slowly, began to reform and re-do the process.
Bathroom
The bathroom contains a tub and a shattered basin the mirror has only a sliver of the actual mirror left and the resto f it can not be found.
If the party look at the mirror a faint waft of steam comes up from the shattered basin, which begins to reform. The shard of the mirror begins to melt and stretch across the rest of the frame before a fully constructed mirror lies in its place. As they look towards the mirror the words appear on it “All praise the blessed one, in his light we find peace and are sated with his love”
Study
The study contains a large desk and a few chairs around it. It appears almost completely untouched. [DC12 arcana or religion check]. The room has been warded against evil, that much is sure. On the wall is another family portrait much like in the crypt where they met Katya but this time the divine energy that can be felt radiating from the painting is formidable. [DC12~14 investigation check] Looking behind the painting they will find a collection of holy relics and a holy symbol of Chauntea that seems to shine faintly.
Master bedroom
The master bedroom is a disaster. The entire room has been smashed to rubble and it appears as though this is where the family members who kept Katya imprisoned here lived and spent most of their time. Four large windows overlook the front yard which are replicated to look out the back yard. clothes seem to be piled in the corner of the room, some of it appears to be salvageable and there is a stench of rot, decay and malice that floats through the air.
Encounter Balancing
Encounter stat-blocks
Random table
Random Encounter table
Result (d20)
Encounter
1-9
Nothing of significance is encountered – to build tension perhaps a deer or the like stumbles onto the track at the same time the party does
10-14
One Giant snowy owl appears just as it swoops down to attack the smallest party member in the group – attempting to fly off with them.
15-17
A giant lynx (Crag Cat) appears, it is currently feasting on a stag but looks up at the party daring them to approach it and its meal.
18-19
Two wolves appear, one is nursing a hurt leg that upon closer inspection has thorny vines wrapped around it, the wound looks recent and painful.
20
Three wolves appear
Well that’s it for the week. If you want to look into the sections in a bit deeper depth then I would suggest looking through the Monday-Friday content for last week, the finale of this months adventure! Next week where I will be looking at the aftermath and the lead up to March’s adventure.
Don’t forget to come back next week for the continuation of the story and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Hi all and welcome to a, albeit late, weekend post after a rather pleasant night spent eating good food (that our children refuse to eat) and watching movies that we hadn’t gotten around to until today.
Tonight I wanted to touch on my thought process on plot, to be specific how I approach plot and why I think that I have been able to maintain years of adventures (campaign, one shot or hypothetical adventures like what I post on Brazen Wolfe Tabletop) with, to be frank, ease.
For me coming up with these things are easy and seem to get easier the more I work with plots, story hooks and the like. I even challenged my daughter to give me a single word and I would make up a bedtime story for her each week using that one word – which she seemed to enjoy and I must say trying to come up with a adventure or story from a single word can be quite the challenge.
But I want to explore that a bit tonight, I will use https://wordcounter.net/random-word-generator to generate a single word and I will endeavour to create a plot from it, no tomfoolery or deception worthy of a worshipper of the mask, just one click and I will see how far I can go with it and write out my thought process below on how I came up with the plot. I will also try and limit myself to 30 minutes of writing to make sure that I don’t stay up too late tonight.
Rules of the challenge for me
Single word randomly generated
30 minute timer
Must be a playable adventure
Must have at least one driver (Antagonist/protagonist)
Must be D&D centric and attempt to be of the fantasy variety.
So let’s crack on with it.
Time started: 11:00pm.
FLING
Fling for me means two things – either a short lived romance or to throw something. Now not being one for going about the easy path let’s go for both.
This gives us a person, probably the person driving the plot for our players – I will say its young man, lets go with a dwarf (bushy eye-brows are a theme for tonight).
Now to make it challenging this young man has flung something related to his short lived romance, so why not make it the same thing so immediately I think of a Ring, a ring can be a symbol of a promise but its too cliché to throw a promise ring or engagement ring so for me this ring is the size of a dinner plate.
Now why would a dinner plate sized ring be the source of a fling and the be flung – well the easiest way is to have it be a “precious” – yes the one and the same as LOTR, but lets make it a portable window that allows the wielder to gaze through a hole in their plane to another place through a matching pair like the magic items “sending stone” allows words to be transmitted these pair of large rings allow the wielders to gaze from one location to another.
So, so far we have a dwarf, a pair of “Sight rings”(name pending) that has created a love interest and the young dwarf flinging the ring away.
We need a cause now – what would a dwarf who has come into the possession of a magical ring that allows the wielders (a pair of rings creating a window – makes sense that either owner of the ring could turn it on – like a video call) drive them to throw it away – perhaps he had cold feet or maybe he saw something he shouldn’t have. Perhaps a bit of both.
So, going down that track – the dwarf’s ring is connected to another – to one belonging to a fey creature who happens to have come across the shiny electrum ring (you know its the real deal when it’s made from electrum) one day when the ring is sitting amongst her hoard of shiny treasures it turns on and a busy eyebrowed young dwarf appears in the middle of it. Startled at first both parties hastily try and sever the connection and in the following days the rings connect again and this time both parties are curious and start to interact with one another.
One thing leads to another and the fey and dwarf exchange names – the dwarf giving his short name “Thani” however the fey, Jessamine Willowhint, gives up her true name and after realising that she had given her true name she began to stress the importance to him. Being a bit bewildered (and not understanding all the communication as there is only so much you can write or communicate through charades) Thanisten Hornbreaker used her true name and formed a magical connection between the two. A few days passed and Jessamine began to become obsessed and possessive of Thani which spooked him.
Not knowing what to do, and not being too long into his beard he flung the ring away, down a well in the city central square, trying to distance himself from the obsessed Fey. However, the rings still remained active and soon dwarves and people in his city began to witness mysterious occurrences that was ruled to be the work of the Fey – and one searching or looking for something around the city’s central square.
Being spooked and not wanting to be found out the young Thani posted a job offering for a body guard to protect him as he had received letters from stalkers, 100% forged by his own hand, who were looking for a family secret that he could not slip into the wrong hands, in this case its a toe-wart cure…
The party would then either work out that the note is a forgery by comparing it to the young dwarves own handwriting, which we would say would be on…. maps – he is a cartographer – or they would run into the Fey who says she is looking for Thani when questioned.
The party have the choice to protect their client and get paid or help the fey find the person she is obsessed with at which point he would have either a vengeful fey creature (I’m picturing winged dryad? Like a tall sprite of pixie?) or one that would express the connection she feels and vows to help him in his endeavours as a cartographer – for me I think the latter is a nicer ending at which point she would grant them one item from her shiny horde each (which she can summon forth through a gem on her bracelet).
Now… that can’t be all – for me there needs to be stages to the adventure, perhaps a escort – he asks the party to escort him to the library to dig up some books on map making – however the only books he is caught (or not) reading are about fey creatures. If probed he lie and say that the books contain maps to the fey wilds and he wanted to doublecheck his own maps, which he would hastily close the book and walk off. The page he was reading would fold and be revealed to be him reading on on breaking a pact with the fey.
And that’s time. 11:30pm
Didn’t quite get through the 30 minutes but from the single random word I think I did ok in 30 minutes.
Let’s reflect on what we have.
A city with a central square containing a well, a house/shop and a library. Probably a tavern or job noticeboard where the party could find work.
A rumour about a fey like creature causing trouble near the central square in the city.
A dwarf name Thanisten ‘Thani’ Hornbreaker, a young cartographer dwarf lad with notable bushy eyebrows
Has posted a job request for bodyguards due to fear of being stalked, potentially his families hidden secret technique is at risk (yet its only toe-wart cure..)
Has a knack for maps, not a knack for lying and is trying to look into how to undo a pact with the fey
A woodland sprite like fey called Jessamine Willowhint who accidently revealed her true name to a dwarf and as he used it on conversation a connection (pact) was drawn between them.
Only wants to be with Thani since he used her true name, she would rather be with him than anywhere else and is prone to bursts of temper – despite not being aggressive or dangerous her magical abilities are used to sleep, trick and confuse people.
She has a magical bracelet that allows her to access her horde of shiny things of interest from any where
A set of enchanted “window rings” that allow people to see what’s on the other side of the ring
What was left to work out
Place where Jessa meets/sees Thani
Place where Party meet Jessa
The situation in which they do so (probably Thani freaking out about a hearing noises outside and asking the party to investigate. Jessa spooks and flies off but the party follow.
A name for the city
General landscape? are there canals, many roads, bridges, tunnels?
What type of city is it? Mercantile, military, one of study and education, religious (what religion)?
General population, mixed, primarily humans with some other races, humans are scarce – its a dwarf town and some outsiders are welcome
what’s the parties welcome like – any racism towards certain races (Dwarves vs elves, dragonborn are hated due to a war many centuries ago – dwarves love grudges)
what other buildings are there? Blacksmiths, tailors, bakeries – useful to jot down a general idea than just saying “what ever you want there is a shop for it” – not having alchemical supplies for example could make it hard for wizards or spell casters to get the required gods they want.
For me, despite stopping for a few minutes to get another coffee, this was a relatively easy process and it seemed to just flow. I tried to stay clear of the typical stereotypes (ring of power, having an affair, forbidden love etc.) and create something that would drive the parties fancy – get them hooked into something new and different.
If you have a word you want to challenge me with leave a comment below – I wouldn’t mind using my “free weekend night” to do this again, feel free to set up reasonable restrictions or conditions (as long as they are achievable of course..) if you do give up a word and I will do my best to complete it in a timeframe. I probably had the framework worked out in my head after about 10 minutes but typing takes its time and the first few paragraphs I tried to type as I thought – or just behind as I thought in this case – so that a glimpse into my thought process could be seen.
Don’t forget to come back tomorrow to see the final conclusion for this weeks adventure and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Brazen Wolfe Tabletop 