Tonight I wanted to dip in to something I tend to do as part of my normal D&D campaign, Monster creation and this weekend it’s the Fellgorger. Creating monsters is not mandatory but it can enrich the tabletop adventure you have planned for the session.
Now onto the Fellgorger!
The fellgorger appears to be feline by nature and about the size of large cat. Despite it being powerfully built the fellgorger constantly seeking food to fill its disended stomach. Powerful muscles enable it to take down most creatures its size or larger. However being cursed to never been sated only a few moments after eating their fill they find themselves hungry again shortly after.
This causes the fellgorger to also commit cannibalism frequently and so as a species they are rare and only a few tales of them are said around the camp fire tales of nightmares.
Thanks for dropping by tonight for a look at the new creature tonight. This creature may not make an appearance in this weeks adventure, as such. However, its something that could be fun regardless. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Tonight’s adventure finds the party in a life or death race to the amulet, a key magical item that defines success in this weeks adventure. Landing at the edge of the largest floating island the party quickly discover some things that don’t seem right. A potential thief and a guardian of the ruins are this weeks opponents. So sit back as tonight we investigate creatures!
Race to the Amulet
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As the party stepped foot on the floating islands the ruins in front of them glittered. Even from the sky as they came in form their ships they could tell that every stone ruin was inlaid with gold. Perhaps that is what drew the attention of the dragon.
‘Where is it!’ the blue dragon roared in frustration as it stood on two of the pillars and balanced between them. ‘I must find the trinket’ it roared in growing frustration. The party from their vantage point outside the range of the ruins could see a small pedestal in the centre of the ruins that almost glowed with arcane power . But as soon as one of the party stepped near the ruins a hum resonated through the air. The statue slowly crawled to life, standing up and glancing around.
The blue dragon snarled and looked around. ‘You idiots! Who woke up the guardian. It will be a month before it rests again!’
Thanks for visiting and looking at this weeks encounter. Two large creatures that are equally as imposing as they can be deadly. The clincher here is that the amulet controls the golem, if the dragon finds it first then the party will have to deal with two threats. However until the party find the amulet the golem will fight the closest creature to the amulet.
So don’t forget to come back this weekend as we finish this adventure. And lastly, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage The Brazen Wolfe
This week sees out party sailing through the open… skies and towards the Rastabar Floating Islands. This encounter should be difficult enough to challenge the experienced players but rewarding for those who think out side of the box. So enough talking lets look at the island map!
Rastabar Floating Island
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The cloud cover is really what sells this encounter map. Partial cover or full when taking the uneven ground it will even cause an element of risk if fighting near the edge of the island as well as the fall could be deadly. However this is depending on how the party plan and deal with what they find in the skies.
Trees give cover and shelter whilst the ruins give something to explore that also hinders movement. There is a bit of everything for any party here and clever use of spells, magic items and abilities will see the day won.
Thanks for joining me tonight. A nice quick map that is relatively simple but despite its lack of complexity it contains many layered images and objects. This can really ad depth to a map which the players and DM can enjoy. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for more content and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Tonight finds the party drifting through the cliffs of Rastabar’s Clouds as the rumours are proven to be true. But what else lurks in the shadows of the cliffs as they make their way through the floating islands of Rastabar. So to find out we best sit back, grab a coffee and let’s roll into tonight’s adventure.
The Cliffs of Rastabar’s Clouds
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The call to brace and to man the sails came too late and suddenly for the party to do anything but stare as a wall of rock and dirt loomed in front of them on the other side of the cloud. Luckily the crew of the ship were well trained and knew just what to do. Springing to action the men and women onboard raced to the ropes and Halyard and with a speed and efficiency that only comes from practice the sails flared and caught the breeze.
The ship bucked suddenly and swerved away from the rocks that jutted through the cloud. As they moved alongside the rock, the edge of one of the boom’s scratched the surface of the rock causing loosened rocks and dirt to shower the deck. As they looked up, a momentary clearing in the clouds revealed the floating island of rock and dirt. Vines and plants grew in the soil and rocks which housed different fruiting and flowering plants.
A flock of birds flew off into the clouds away from the ship as it passed. The passengers on the ship marvelled at the colours and slowly as the crew and captain called the orders they started to drift through a few islands composed of floating stone and earth. However their destination loomed ahead and as they looked upon it the rumours appeared to be true. There was land that was in the clouds near Rastabar.
But looking at this land and the glint of sunlight from polished stone columns and ruins on the large floating island it was clear. They weren’t the first people to discover this marvel and perhaps there was something dangerous in the clouds.
Thanks for joining me tonight. This is just the first part of this weeks adventure and there is more to come. So don’t forget to come back daily as we continue to explore the clouds above Rastabar. If this gives you inspiration for your own adventure please let me know! The whole aim of this endeavour of mine is to provide inspiration to other DMs out there. So don’t forget to look at what you can do to spice up your own adventure and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
As we lift off into another adventure this week we meeting those that dare to fly above the deserts and barren landscape near Rastabar city. These people are a rag-tag bunch who are t here for the sight seeing, there to work the ship or for their own purposes. Regardless of what brings them onboard the party has their work cut out for them this week. So grab a coffee, sit down and let’s meet some NPCs.
An astute student of one of the colleges in Rastabar, Jess is quick to learn and the ships gave her the means to escape her dreary life on solid ground. An cartographer by trade but her true passion lies with the study of the stars, a passion that has saved the ship more than once when it was lost in the wild winds above the desert.
Jess hopes that she can earn enough money from mapping the lands and acting like a navigator on the ship to retire to a life studying the stars and documenting the course they follow on the evening’s backdrop.
The captain of the ship and probably the grumpiest person alive aboard it Alex is not fond of, well, just about everything. He hates being called anything other than captain and if it wasn’t for the amount of gold that the benefactor of this endeavour was paying he would much rather be shipping water or goods from Rastabar city to a port for trade. The few times he has opened up about the ship he captains he mentions that he inherited it from his previous captain who sought to retire.
That was also the day that he gave up on his life in a far away city and followed the wind to trade and the promise of wealth.
James is young and impulsive and flirtatious all of the time. A well paying customer to see the sites of the desert as well as what’s in the clouds his money helped get this investigation on the way and off the ground, so to speak.
When he isn’t drinking, dancing and flirting he fancies himself a swordsman as well as a canny business man. It’s not easy getting as wealthy as he is but he leaves some of the operations and dealings to his little brother.
The younger Rubhek brother, Colin, is cautious and seems to be cleaning up or chasing after his brother a lot of the time. He appears to care more about the appearance and reputation of his brother and their family name than his own enjoyment in life.
But when he isn’t watching over his brother like a hawk he can be found staring over the balcony of the ship and the endless sea of sand dunes with a peaceful look upon his face and a slight smile hidden behind his beard.
Thanks for joining me for another NPC Tuesday. There was a opportunity to really go ham with the NPCs this week and I restrained myself. But this week you can have just about as many NPCs as you want but keep in mind that the expectation is that you would have a backstory for all of them. So more fun means more work for us sadly. Don’t forget to come back daily this week as we expand upon this sky-high adventure. And lastly, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Now that things are settling down, well a little bit, and d&d is coming to front and centre again which a venture through the clouds. This week is back to a mid-level adventure away from my throwback to a low level (first level) adventure that could be created. This week is a bit high-fantasy but the elements of it can be used in any campaign ready for something a bit more. So let’s sit down, grab a coffee and roll into this weeks adventure!
A Venture Through The Clouds
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The sight of the vessel was something to behold. A magic imbued ship that had large billowing sails designed to capture the breezes. But what made the ship out of the ordinary is where it was docked. The Ship Sand-cutter was moored, as it was, on the outer wall of the city Rastabar which was a dry and land-locked place. The endless hard ground gave way into sand dunes about an hour from the city’s walls. The deep wells in the city provided some water for animals and agriculture but otherwise it was a dry place.
This is what the party had been hired for. A large unmoving cloudbank had appeared due east from Rastabar and rumour from people who had ventured close to it was that there was something in the clouds. Something that looked like a tower. The city council organised a group of adventurers to investigate and with a well liked merchant’s flying ship they would soon confirm the rumours.
Thoughts
Now a bit of a tease with this one tonight as we have a long way to go for the rest of the adventure. It’s open ended and can go a few ways but I have something specific planned for this one.
Thanks for joining me for the start of the 32nd week of this years adventures. Don’t forget to come back daily as I work through the components of another adventure. And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Another big day of Age of Sigmar which saw me achieve another win and my second loss for the tournament weekend. Going 2-1-2 with a convincing win in the start, where a misplay caused me to drop in 2 points overall (stupid glossamid Archers). But over all the weekend saw Glutos die once, but more on that in a moment.
Some defining moments for day 1, of which there were a few, that lead to the draw. Deployment was tight and the desire to impress was high. This is the normal, in my experience, for all 1st days for the tournament where depending on how you go it sets the mood for the next four games. Deploying in my castle build with hellstriders taking a far flank I wanted to pin the orruks into a corner and have control over the board. I set up my The Masque within 4 of his Ardboy frontline and got ready to generate some depravity. With the terrain and setup this left very little room for setup which caused my first blunder. The deadly terrain.
Normally not a huge issue but in this case I lost 3 blissbarb archers due to the deadly terrain. No biggy I can bring them back. Now the first casting roll of the game to get mystic shield out. I got a 5, a 4 and a 1. I really wanted to ensure Glutos would remain safe so I was reminded that I had primal dice. Excellent, except the primal miscast, my second momentous blunder. Glutos took 6 damage and ignored none, I killed another 3 blissbarb archers from my already injured list (down 6), 3 from the next and 2 daemonettes. Ouch.
The rest of it was pretty straight forward. Charge in the masque, generate (10) depravity, move the heroes up more, shoot some Gore Grunters and Orruks and castle up on objectives. This led to the next turning point. Focusing of Glutos. Now its not wise to focus Glutos at any time and with his Wurrog prophet he is just such a tempting target to receive the mask to the face. But in this case it killed his character and only did 4 wounds to Glutos. I did leave my back open and I ended up losing my blissbarb archers to an ardboy charge, but the unleash hell generated depravity and reduced their models – but it wasn’t worth it in the end.
Gore grunters tore through hellstrider screens and more ardboys slogged my daemonettes. Glutos killed the megaboss on foot and anything around him maxing out my depravity and with it I manged to summon a keeper of secrets in the last round. Failing a 9″ charge I failed to take back another objective that would see me score more points than my opponent and having difficult battle tactics this season, and scenario, it was a draw.
Game 2: Every Step Forward
Second round I was against The Ossiarch Bonereapers. Now I have played them a few times but a few mistakes cost me the outright hard win instead of a winning by just a point. My deployment in this scenario meant that I spread out too castle-like and didn’t have my archers within range of the targets I wanted to remove. This lead to a poor economics when it came to generating depravity turn 1 and leaving myself open to a Morghast charge. I misplayed the Masque which failed to kill his generate and I generated only half the depravity I wanted to, only generating 6 instead of an average 10. This lead to a late snowball for Slaanesh.
The second mistake was letting the Morghast get into my castle and shutting down commands. They died quickly but I had two units of 3 stalkers mow down my screens and get into my core too easily. But they all under estimated my Lord of Pain and Glutos which helped bring back the goods. The shardspeaker of slaanesh got a few key Twisted mirrors off which saw a spike in depravity as well as her charge into melee that killed a stalker.
With the summoning of a vice Leader I managed to score all but one battle tactic, but failed my grand strategy. Which nearly cost me the game but I won based on number of battle tactics won.
Game 3: Spring the Trap!
Twice in a row I fought OBR and this list was a beefier version of the one I fought in round 2. Now this one saw neither of us remove models from the battle field and, as my opponent said, the game was theirs to win. A few small mistakes and A LOT of offered depravity made this harder than it should have been. Glutos and the lord of pain were the real heroes here while my hellstriders screened, helped achieve battle tactics. A unit of Daemonettes backed up with the shardspeaker and Contorted epitome secured my left flank and secured objectives whilst removing threats to the at side while my core shifted and collapsed around targets to my right. I believe I forgot to add some bonus’s here by my rolls were below average for an army that is hitting at a 2+ average and wounding on a 3+. It came down to Bracing for a 8″ charge from Immortis guard which won my opponent the game by 2 points.
Day 2
Game 4: No Risk without Reward
Against a Sylvaneth and witnessing a unit of 9 spiterider lances. This list also featured Gotrek who I wanted to keep out of my front lines at all cost. This one here was a relatively easy matchup for me as my theme of overwhelming overlapping buffs and debuffs really hurts the woodland beings. Forcing Gotrek to have 1 attack whilst around my Lord of Pain and stacking buffs on my core I was able to out manoeuvre and dominate the battlefield with my fast moving daemonettes and hellstriders. My blissbarb archers picked off a few units which saw his army retreat to a corner. However this meant I had to move my army up and close to Gotrek to score. Not a huge issue as my depravity exceeded 40 in this game but when Gotrek charged Glutos I was prepared for the worst.
But it didn’t come. Gotrek did a total of 4 wounds (after wards) to Glutos who dealt 5 back, then my Contorted Epitome dealt 2 wounds leaving the angry dwarf on 1 left. The Contorted epitome died in return but it ended up being worth it when Glutos only barely managed to deal 1 wound, after wards and saves, into Gotrek the next turn which saw the dwarf fall.
The only reason I didn’t max out my points this turn was the never ending spiterider riders preventing my battle tactic and me forgetting that Glossamid archers can unleash hell then retreat which caused me to fail a battle tactic. Oops!
Game 5: Nexus Collapse.
Now this one is a hard one to talk about. 4 mega gargants. King Brodd, a warstomper, gate breaker and kraken eater. I haven’t had much interaction with Mega-gargants before and my few experiences were that they hurt. But in this case it was like my army wasn’t even there.
Turn 1 I managed to deal 12 damage to the gate breaker and 8 damage to Brodd. Then the gate breaker and war stomper got into my front lines which crumbled instantly. I went from 2000 points to around 1000points in one turn. After that it was more or less game over. Playing for what I could get and overlapping buffs I manged to get the gate breaker down to 10 wounds remaining before I had Brodd, the Warstomper and Gate breaker charge Glutos and the big guy didn’t last long.
Now despite being demolished the last game was incredibly enjoyable. The guy I played against was in it for chill times and to roll dice and he has done an AMAZING job on these mega gargants. Just look at the conversion work on them!
After a big weekend the brain drain and metal fatigue is nuts. So I will have to leave it here and apologise for not having more photos. Just some things are hard to remember to do when you have a complicated technical army to run with.
After a big day, early start and late finish, I managed to start the tournament on a draw. Going into orruk warclans Big waagh was a rough slog feat but no matter what we worked out we couldn’t get the game to tip in either favour.
More updates tomorrow and a list of key moments to be added in coming days when I have more consciousness!
Round 2 was against The Ossiarch Bonereapers against a good friend and club-mate Graham. These guys slap. Big units of stalkers, the morghasts and then Katakros. Soo many wounds and the attrition was insane. However the game came down to the differentials scoring 25 points each but I managed to sneak out a win on battle tactics scored. But super close.
Second game was again The Ossiarch Bonereapers again. This list was fast, impossibility durable and there was just 2 points difference in the end. Giving slaanesh depravity is just a recipe for disaster!
Welcome to another Friday night where tonight we are looking at the Denizens of Trenchold Woods. These are good creatures for level 1 or level 2 parties to encounter and can make for a fun and enriching adventure despite being cliche. But you can scale this to a larger encounter by adding more creatures or looking at higher CR creatures (such as trolls or hobgoblins) to be the aggressor in this weeks adventure. So sit back as tonight we investigate stat-blocks!
Denizens of Trenchold Woods
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‘The wild ones‘
A collection of creatures for random encounters that can be used either on the way to the cave, on the side of the road or even in the cave. Some of these you can set up as the main battle, like the ogre, who is a tough combatant (if you start adventures at level 2 for example).
The Goblins, orcs and such are all easy enough for a level 1 party of 4 to deal with but don’t forget that weight of numbers is also a great way to challenge a party.
Thanks for visiting tonight more low level stat blocks for the adventure. Come back tomorrow to get a look at the tournament progress, day 1 results and hopefully a picture of the army that I mentioned last week. Don’t forget to come back this weekend as we produce the end of the weeks writeup. And lastly, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage The Brazen Wolfe
Like most of my adventures where I have multiple options or plots that are available I try to have a single point where they link up. I call this the “all roads lead to Rome” approach but really “all roads lead to Trenchold caves” is maybe more appropriate. Regardless of what I call it many DMs do this and it makes those early encounters feel less scripted, more free flowing and natural. However it also helps the DM funnel their efforts into a single map or encounter that they have planned. So enough talking lets get to some spelunking! So let’s sit back, grab a coffee and delve in!
Trenchold Caves
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Now Trenchold caves can be the house for bandits, goblins, ogres, orcs or just about anything you want to throw at the level 1 party. A secluded cave means that they have to use some non-combat skills to get there such as survival, nature and investigation. But it also opens us up to some random encounters OR the chance to use spells and abilities that we may not get much use out of (like Speak with Animals).
The cave isn’t that big but it has an area that is only 5ft wide. It could be blocked by a boulder that gives another skill check OR a mechanical barrier that could be a variety of skill checks or problem solving. Simple maps can lead to the most rich encounters.
Thanks for joining me tonight. A short and quick one tonight to show that you don’t need hours if you use the right tools to create a rewarding map. Don’t forget to come back the next few nights to see my tournament results and updates, maybe a cheeky army family photo and more. And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Brazen Wolfe Tabletop 