Month: Feb 2023

Free Talk – February

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Hello and welcome back to another night here at Brazen Wolfe Tabletop. Tonight I wanted to have a Free Talk – February edition where I look at something that I think we need to address in the Dungeon Master world. Tonight’s topic is perhaps getting a bit real, a bit idealist if you will but it involves a topic that was brought up by some other excellent DMs I had a discussion with tonight. Setting expectations.

Free Talk – February

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Setting expectations is crucial to a successful TTRPG group. For a new player this could be a simple as introducing yourself as the new DM and asking people to ‘bear with’ or have some patience as you may not know all the rules off by heart. This is pretty much a given one where you give yourself some buffer by providing an expectation to the kind of DM that you are or what you aspire to be.

But this is another expectation to set. What do you expect yourself to be? We all have a journey in the world of TTRPGs and they all start with a fundamental interest in the game system. Whether its, like me, a family spawned hobby or if its someone you idolise we normally have someone we look up to for advice when it comes to RPGs. For some of us we set our sights high and we look to the figureheads of RPGs.

But this is as much of a topic for new System Masters as it is experienced ones. We can’t be Matt Mercer. We cant be Mark Hulmes. If we aspire to be the exact DM/GM as some of these giants then we will always fail. We may be as great, we may be better in some aspects but what they bring to the table is different and uniquely theirs.

The limit

Understand what our limit is. One experienced awesome DM from tonight’s table doesn’t do voicing for NPCs. This is perfectly fine. Other DMs may love dark-grit fantasy and think that perhaps the current edition of D&D is a bit too PG for them. This is also perfectly fine. What I bring to my table is different to the other DMs I spoke to tonight, new and old. This means my style of Dungeon Mastering is different but I am still here to facilitate a great game which is not only entertaining but enriching for both the players and myself.

How we play our game, how we run our table has to have limits. We can’t be everyone and everything and the Dungeon master and players having that discussion around expectations of each other, the campaign and the general flow of things can make it better. However tonight’s Free Talk – February edition does have a message.

Aspire

As I do in my professional career. Find what you enjoy. Find something that you truly thing produces wonderment in yourself and others and aspire to do that. Whether its the phenomenal Narrative and storytelling of Mark, or the voices and energy of Matt. Or the ability to keep your players on track (like a few DMs from tonight) find something you aspire to do and set it as a goal. We can’t establish growth without a benchmark.

Thanks for joining me tonight after I have spoken about D&D for more than a few hours today with other fine DMs. If tonight’s encounter (where I failed my initiative check and rocked up late) has a closing message it would be, quite simply this.

Inspire yourself to be the best you. There is only one Dungeon mater you need to aspire to be like and they greet you in the mirror. There will be new DM’s out there, potentially your current players who admire what you bring to the table. You become their aspiration, what you bring to the table becomes their benchmark. So be proud of what you bring. This isn’t an easy gig, its quite challenging at times even for the most veteran of us. So for being willing to give this a shot, to continue to bring your best to the table I want to say thank you for inspiring others to pick up the mantle.

Tomorrow I hope to bring another Zine, and if time permits two. So don’t forget to come back for that and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Grut’s Warriors

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Friday night is and the bellows of rage and excitement echo through the halls from the Grut’s Warriors as they prepare for battle. Excited for another raid on the avian-folk, the Aarakocra they are not prepared for the ambush that comes their way, or maybe they are. So sit back, grab a coffee and enjoy tonight’s addition to the adventure of this week!

Grut’s Warriors

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Now the backbone of Grut’s Warriors are the bugbear. Hulking medium sized humanoids they are ferocious and don’t underhanded tactics despite their strength. A volley of javelins will whistle through the air before the sickening thud of them plunging into allies marks the charge of the bugbear. Despite being larger cousins of the Goblin and Orc this particular breed of Bugbear share some resemblance of giants.

Created in tetra-cube.
Created in tetra-cube.

Grut – The Giant King

No matter what Grut’s warriors say he is paranoid. Being mislead and tricked by his own kind he has vowed to let no-one trick him again. this has lead his mind to become fractured with an ultra paranoid inner voice driving his decisions and siding against good, solid Giant logic. Perhaps this was the Hags doing, perhaps not.

A big meaty foot and a large club greet any who encounter Grut. Ferocious and fearless in battle he isn’t afraid the lead the charge and his bolstered armour and constitution provided by the mutated hide he carries is a badge of honour more than a curse to him now.

Created in tetra-cube.

Thoughts

The encounter will be tough. 1-2 orcs per player OR 1 bugbear for the initial raiding of the camp. A mix of Orc and bugbear is probably ideal. When there is only one or two remaining they will call for aid from their king who will stomp forward. Balanced at a level 4 party this adventure is increasing the tempo once more – so I am calling some of the bigger shots with ferocious minions wearing the party down, and their resources, and even worse, the leader Grut himself.

Thanks for joining me tonight as we get a glimpse of Grut and Grut’s warriors. As we progress through the year its hard to process we are seven weeks into the year already. Time flies when you’re rolling dice it seems.

Tomorrow I hope to provide something more akin to a discussion topic based on the most common question I encounter in the DMs forum I am attending. So don’t forget to come back for that and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Lands of Taloncrest

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Welcome to another map night where tonight I have the first of two maps for this week, the lands of Taloncrest. First we have a regional map which looks at the hilly and mountainous land around Taloncrest. The second image is of the Giant Kings camp where he resides with his forces, or some of them if the party plan the attack right. So sit back, grab a coffee and let’s roll into tonight’s adventure around Taloncrest!.

The Lands of Taloncrest

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The city to the bottom left of the map is where our adventure begins as we encounter the young prince Aarakocra and continue onwards. To the north of that we have a lake and a mountainous ridge, known as Taloncrest as within the cave systems and a sacred site to the Aarakocra’s lies Taloncrest itself. To the southeast of this, across a lake lies the hills where the king sits. This set of ruins amongst the hills speaks of a ill-fated human settlement that tried to conquer the area. After the land literally ate their settlement alive they headed further south out of the hills and colonised from there. Trading with the Aarakocra’s where it suited the avian folk.

Taloncrest and surrounds – Created in Inkarnate

The Giant Kings Camp

Hills, rocks and ruins await those who live or enter these hills. Fabric tents, not more than a scrap of cloth on posts provide some shade for the giant and his kin. The ruins from a long lost age him that there was once something more here, but that’s lost to time.

The hills provide an interesting challenge of height, being lower provides shadows for blending in and sneaking, but having a height advantage gives those with dark vision, like the giant and his followers, an advantage as well. This wont be easy unless there is a surprise install those investigating the lands of Taloncrest.

The Giant Kings Camp – created in Inkarnate.

Thanks for joining me tonight but don’t forget to come back the last few days. Tonight was another fun map creating night and tomorrow we look at wrapping it up with some creature stat blocks. Don’t forget that these maps can be used with other game systems so use and enjoy them as you will! With the weekend approaching fast I hope you don’t forget to set aside some time for your hobbies and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Giant King

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Welcome to another Wednesday and tonight I am introducing you to The Giant King. Not officially a king but the difference between a rightful ruler and one that is not is those who follow you. Now without giving much more away let’s sit down, grab a coffee and roll on with tonight’s adventure.

The Giant King

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As the Aarakocra prince brought back the heroes that had agreed to come help his people another power as rising. In the rocky hills below Taloncrest there was a tribe of bugbears and goblins. Not unusual for them to flock to suck remote areas but at the base of Taloncrest it was a dangerous place for any who were sensible. The Aarakocra were fierce warriors and magicians and to confront them or invade their lands meant death.

However, there was one amongst their horde, an outcast who feared nothing or no one. This being called himself the King under the crest and with his direction this giant had rallied the bugbears to raid the hatcheries of the Aarakocra. With their young being captured the Aarakocra were powerless to stop the giant and his followers as they ravaged the land, spreading chaos and destruction. Prince Sashik had flown out to remedy this.

The Giant and his followers hadn’t constructed a mighty fort. With the threat of the Aarakocra kept in check none dare to go against the will of the king. Instead they had several large tents, a pit for fighting and cages for prisoners lined with humans and the hatched chicks of the Aarakocra.

Foresight

When we said the King feared nothing we omitted a single detail. The King however did fear the wrath of his own people. Scorned as a young warrior and humiliated in a trial by combat he had been exiled. Alone in the world he had vowed for revenge. Upon uttering his quest for revenge a hag appeared and showed him a glimmer of a vision, his future.
The vision showed the hatching season for Aarakocra, their defences and a way in for the cunning to snatch a crown. All the King needed to do to cement his crown is wait for a golden moon and the hag would reappear, claim her price and he would rule.

The golden moon was close, approaching too fast for the wannabe King. He needed to retrieve the eggs now but the Aarakocra were on high alert now. A final push while their people lay trapped in cages would see the eggs, and his crown become his.

Thoughts

A rescue mission or frontal assault. A variation of the “fetch” quest this adventure will see our party pushed to make the tough decisions of all out combat or cunning to retrieve victory. The Giant King will bellow out demands at points where the party can determine whether the king is bluffing or not. Then using information gathered or gained they can make a plan.

Thanks for coming tonight and spending your evening with me. Tomorrow night we look at the maps, hopefully I can do some justice of Taloncrest and I get to create another camp. Exciting! So don’t forget to come back tomorrow night for more D&D Content. This weekend I will be attending a DM round-table event where I can share my experience with other DMs, new and old. Being able to share this passion of mine with others and to also get insight from other Masters of the craft I think will be extremely rewarding. Who knows, maybe they will become readers like yourself.

So look out for something different this Saturday night and lastly, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Sashik of Taloncrest

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Welcome to NPC Tuesday and tonight we get a glimpse at Sashik of Taloncrest. Try as I may I was unable to blend creatures or pictures together to get an Aarakocra. And since the whole idea of these nights is to produce content that I ‘own’ the creative rites to I didn’t want to grab someone else’s work. So tonight we will have to make do with the model creator from Hero forge!

Sashik of Taloncrest

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Sashik is the first in line for the crown in Taloncrest. More civilised than other Aarakocra in the mountains nearby he has approached the city of Wurbek to look for adventurers and warriors who can assist. Despite his lack of crown he still is entrusted with the wealth of his people and they are excellent craftsmen and a proud people.

With the current turmoil of his people a great time of change is upon them. A once quiet people are now pushed to war as a Giant and his army of goblinkin attack and steal the chicks from his peoples nests. The only answer he has to protect his people is to do something his ancestors forbade, reach out to the humans and grounded folk for help.

Sashik – Conceptualised in Hero-forge

Thanks for joining me tonight as we looked at Sashik. Not quite the same level of detail as I like to create on these nights I still wanted to give a bit of effort into creating something. So Hero forge is a great way to get things almost just right and to a point where the concept of the character is there. But what unfortunately I won’t be able to use that in this weekends Zine so I will endeavour to find something else.

So don’t forget to come back this week as we expand our adventure. This weeks sees our party travel to war, or diplomacy – something we will explore more tomorrow. So don’t forget to visit to find out and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Ostentatious Aarakocra

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Welcome to another night at Brazen Wolfe Tabletop where tonight we being our adventure with the arrival of The Ostentatious Aarakocra. These fine feathered friends have a deal for those willing to put their life on the line and from the looks of it have the money to back it up. But will the prejudice of man allow for open trade and this type of mercenary work for this elusive species? Well we better sit back, grab a coffee and roll on with the adventure of tonight.

The Ostentatious Aarakocra

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As the party look around the lively streets and brightly coloured fabrics of the market stalls they enjoy the first break they have had in a while. Not having to adventure or fight off goblins, ghouls or gnolls is a relief and the food here beats anything they could cook while on the road. But like all good things the moment of peace comes to an end.

A commotion is coming from a few streets down saw townsfolk moving away and guardsmen moving towards it. Mention of “wings” and phrases like “did you see all that gold” could be heard from people passing by. The party moved towards the commotion and came across the central fountain. A large noticeboard stood next to the fountain adorned with adverts for work, rewards for missing people or pets and items and other such trivialities. But today it had something very different being nailed into the wooden board. A tall Aarakocra, an avian humanoid race was putting up a large advert for work next to the others. Carefully and meticulously the figure hammered it in. Ensuring that the advert was placed in a space by itself so that it wouldn’t overlap someone’s else’s request.

The Dignitary

The guardsmen watched in peace from a distance whilst some of the townsfolk nearby yelled offense from the side-lines. However none dared approach as a huge eagle stood next to the Aarakocra and its men. After a moment the humanoid turned around to reveal a series of golden chains and thread was holding up golden plates and jewels. The Townsfolk went silent for a moment as the regal looking birdman looked around the gathering.

‘I am Sashik,’ it said in a males voice with a very chirp heavy tones. ‘I come with a formal offer of work with ample reward. Those who complete this task for me will be made wealthy enough to not need to work for several years.’ he stopped as he looked around the gathering. ‘As a show of good faith, each and everyone who agrees to provide assistance will receive twenty gold pieces after they arrive at our village. A chest of gold will be provide for the ones who can complete the task.’

The request

An uproar of approval and amazement came from the crowd. Even some of the guards started to move forward with the promise of a year worth of their salary on offer. ‘What do we need to do?’ a voice spoke from the crowd, a shred looking man.

‘We need your assistance to kill a giant…’ the Aarakocra dignitary declared. The crowd was plunged into silence. In fact several of them stepped back as if they had been slapped across their face. ‘In fact, we need heroes to fight with us against a giant and its men’ it added.

Thoughts

Fighting a giant and it’s servants is no easy feat but the promise of gold is significant. This week my aim is to find out which party members are lured into quests by gold. However it is not just about the motivation but to also initiate something I am fond of, mission boards.

Many RPGs, anime’s and games have this concept of Mission boards. Going to a board, selecting a mission according to your rank and completing it for a reward. However they can go either way. If used poorly they detract from the main story and we can find our party getting stuck in that “side quest” loop. But if used well we get a happy middle ground were we have just enough little adventures to aid in breaking up downtime. How we use these adventures is up to us and can enrich or upset the adventures we give our Party.

Thanks for joining me tonight. Having come from giant animals to bandits and undead, to a cursed manor and lately a dragon I wanted to kick it up a bit. So don’t forget to come and join me again this week as we continue to expand our adventure. Tomorrow is NPC night and I am going to have a bit of trouble creating or finding Aarakocra portraits but I will try! And as we begin a new week, the second last week of Feb, don’t forget we have more non-D&D content coming soon. And lastly, as always, don’t forget to let me know your thoughts on this weeks adventure and don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Prince of Pine Ridge

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Tonight and I have again decided to create a zine out of this weeks adventure, The Prince of Pine Ridge. This adventure can be used system agnostic as we explore other RPGs out there other than D&D. So please adjust to what ever creatures you are using in your adventure! However as always Kobold fight club can be used to quickly balance an encounter for Dungeons and Dragons and Tetra-cube currently provides the stat-blocks for creatures in this adventure.

So I hope you enjoy this weeks adventure, The Prince of Pine Ridge. If you like this format please let me know and I hope you enjoy.

The Prince of Pine Ridge

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Created in Nightcafe.studio

The growing town of Pine Ridge has finally begun to find its feet. With help from the village Elder, a monster hunter from years ago, and a wealthy landowner they have a plan to attract fresh blood to the village and to see it truly prosper. However, their plan is doomed to fail. A jealous, aggressive young prince has claimed the lands around Pine Ridge as his own. 

He sends his servants and vassals to steal the livestock, burn the farms and drive the villagers out of their own homes. If they won’t be persuaded to move they are to be killed.

To make matters worse there are rumours of a shadow in the peaks, one that has a taste for flesh and a hunger for gold.

PDF adventure – The Prince of Pine Ridge

The-Prince-of-Pine-RidgeDownload

That will be it for tonight but I hope that next weekend you can get a party together, or find a DM/GM, to run this adventure. Don’t forget that next week I will be bringing another adventure to the table so don’t miss a thing and come back daily. And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Prince’s Lair

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Welcome to Saturday night after a long day of teaching Warhammer and some painting this morning, more on that soon, I give to you the Prince’s Lair. What prince, dragon or otherwise, can resist having a nice place to rest, amongst his gold and admire himself. The main antechamber for this cave is fitted with hidden roof access for ease of flight in and out – great for escaping. A raised platform to overlook your minions and worshipers. And, of course, a pile of gold and treasure complete with giant mirror.

But there is also traps, cages for animals (or captives) and a whole room dedicated to the sleeping arrangements of your servants. The prince is as generous as he is ruthless.

The Prince’s Lair

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The entrance to the cave is a squishy 10 feet. This gives enough room for the party to get into the cave and hopefully they have a torch as there is a bear-trap right at the entrance. Also in this entrance room there is a single, polished, clean and fantastic looking balde laying in the ground, tip down. Anyone who picks up this blade or moves to examine it within its space triggers a spikey mallet on a bat. Ouch!

Moving past this room to the right of the cave entrance is a hallway where a lot of noise can be heard, animals and some distant soft, muffled sobbing. But the party best be careful as there is a spike lined pit trap hidden here too, that’s something you don’t want to fall into.

‘The Stables.’

The room is filled with cages filled with starving wolves, giant scorpions, badgers and the like. The cages all are linked to ropes that appear to be tied somewhere in the room. If the party is careful they should be able to get in and get out without alerting the pen watchmen to their presence. However, even if opened up the animals may turn on the kobolds!

There are a few sheep, a singular young cow and with the cow a young female who is the farm assistant who looked after the animals.

The nesting room.

The Prince’s lair wouldn’t be complete without servants quarters, and boy do we have the best here. Another bear trap and pitfall trap greet would-be assailants filled with over a dozen nests. These can be populated with resting kobolds, or, perhaps the kobolds who lived in these nests are no longer here.

There may be some hidden trinkets and weapons amongst the rough straw nests but I’ll leave that up to you.

‘The Throne Room.’

Large, roof access and treasure to gloat over. This room has everything someone could need. There is enough space for the prince to fly around and torment attackers with his frost breath. Or he can hide in the very high ceilings and lunge at the party when they don’t expect it. A set of steps lead up to the where the prince rests, under a pile of snow and bones but don’t let that fool you. At the slightest sound of his treasure being disturbed he will lunge forward and attack any soo foolish.

This is assuming he is encountered in the cave and not in the forest outside.

Traps shown – Kobold Cave- Created in Inkarnate
Trapless Kobold Cave – Created in Inkarnate

Thanks for joining me tonight. I had a lot of fun with creating the caves tonight and joining some existing assets together made it easier that I anticipated. The treasure platform makes for a good target for the party to investigate but I must stress, the prince doesn’t like to share his gold. I hope that you enjoyed the map tonight and I hope you don’t forget to come back tomorrow. I will endeavour to create some Soulbound and one (or two zines) tomorrow but I will have to see how I go.

Don’t forget that next week is a new adventure and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Princes Guard

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Friday night is and the excited yips and calls from the Princes Guard echo through the hills and trees. But there is also another malicious presence, one that makes the kobolds quiver and emit the thick stench of fear. The Prince is amongst the trees, in the caves and he does not take kindly to those who would threaten his throne!

The Princes Guard

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Now, for those who are not complete nerds like myself the kobold is a humble nuisance who plays a very important role for all campaigns. They teach the party to never underestimate the lesser races. While one kobold wont do much, a dozen will, and taking into consideration what the lord of monsters, Volo, has to say about them – they love their traps. You will never stumble into kobolds territories without a snare, a spike trap, a falling log, pit traps, badger in a cage or a bag of scorpions falling on your head. These little scavengers and tinkerers are something that’s great about low level D&D.

The other part about kobolds is their uncanny ability to flock to dragons to serve them – and what better dragon than a young male chromatic one. Dragons even in wyrmling states may try and build up their territory and treasure from a young age. The Prince in this story is no different and he happened to find a pack of kobolds in the hills he wanted to live in. What luck!

Created in tetra-cube

The Prince

Now this is a rather, err, DM sided adventure. What I mean by that is that these creatures are weak. If you don’t put yourself in their shoes, err, claws you wont challenge your party. The Wyrmling isn’t a terrifying entity, the size of a large dog but smaller than a horse the only thing that makes them truly terrifying is their fly speed and breath weapon. So IF we want to play to our strengths these creatures will swoop in low, breath a cone of cold then fly away. If and only if ground combat looks like its extremely favourable in their favour – or they have some minions to distract the interlopers do they go toe-to-toe.

That being said. The white dragon is note an intelligent beast. Wise enough to know to run it probably isn’t smart enough to work out traps, baits or feints and being a young prince it will probably be extremely proud of itself. This means that if the party can think outside of the box, play dead or set up a well planned or hidden trap the wyrmling will become a very easy fight. Abilities or actions to stop it from flying, or, to hinder its ability to move will ensure an easy victory.

Created in Tetra-cube

Thoughts

The Prince and his guard have made an appearance and the numbers will be in the favour of the kobolds and their leige. However with clever planning and tactics this should be an easy enough fight. However, that is if the party doesn’t get cold feet… Yup a bad nerdy joke. In fact it’s so bad its good.

Thanks for joining me tonight for some more changes to our adventure. But nevertheless don’t forget to come back this weekend for more content including a map of the lair. This weekend I will be joining some of my excellent fellow Warhammer players and running a “Introduction to Warhammer” day. So tomorrow you may have a lot of Warhammer content, some Warhammer and some Soulbound content or just a map. The day will tell. As always make sure to nurture that spark of inspiration and creativity and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Pines of Pine ridge

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Welcome to another map night where tonight I have the first of two maps for this week, the Pines of Pine Ridge. The hills surrounding pine ridge are heavily wooded which puts the town itself in an ideal place. Positioned with resources for building houses and structures as well as providing food and shelter for game and stock. But there is a darker side of the hills and that will come this weekend. So sit back, grab a coffee and let’s roll into tonight’s adventure.

The Pines of Pine ridge

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The heavily wooded hills provide ample places for the party to hide and make ambushes for potential enemies. But the other way around is also viable. Hills with trees and bushes of varying sizes and heights provide a uneven and complex environment for the party to move through as well as to perceive threats. However a well worn path can be seen where several deep drag marks indicate the frequent movement of heavier items. Whoever made these tracks either wanted them to be seen or was in too much of a hurry to care.

Pine Ridge Hills – Created in Inkarnate

Thoughts

A great place for an ambush on the party or for the party. A series of skill checks to get here first (rangers provide this benefit for free – a pity point for them) can mean that the party arrive and have time to plan when there is one or two enemies around. But getting there later its a different story.

Tomorrow night we will look at the ins and outs around the encounter but also the creatures we are encountering this week. But On Saturday I will release another map for the final encounter of this weeks adventure – and its going to be chilling.

Thanks for joining me tonight but don’t forget to come back the last few days. I have a bit more planned for this adventure and hopefully finally catch up on a few Zines. So I hope that with this weekend approaching fast you wont forget to set aside some time for your hobby and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe