This week I continued with the creating a shortened Zine, something that fits on a single A4 sheet of paper with just enough information to set the scene, plot and hook with some NPCs sprinkled through that it could be used in any system.
I think its still working well so without any further waiting I present The Chilled Well, in the short format, as a fun one-shot to assist GMs when they need a night out of the books whether you run Pathfinder, Open Legends RPG, D&D or any other RPG System.
There is references to the blog nights which are D&D centric (regarding Friday night’s Stat-blocks) but this adventure can be used system agnostic more so than my regular Zines. As always Kobold fight club can be used to quickly balance an encounter for Dungeons and Dragons and Tetra-cube provides the stat-blocks for many of my D&D creatures.
So I hope you enjoy this weeks adventure, The Chilled Well, and that your rolls are made with advantage.
The Chilled Well
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As the parties look for work in the village of Briss they stare at the nearly empty job board and try to avoid the one request for aid that is left on it. “Adventurers wanted to remove rat infestation in the general store’s basement. Ten gold pieces as payment.- See Abagail Piebald.”
It hadn’t been long since their last job so they could afford to be picky but the caravan out of here would cost them nearly ten gold pieces and there wasn’t much going on in this village.
As they reached for the job a panting messenger ran to the board, muttering “pardon, ‘scuse me.” before he impaled a small square of paper upon a nail on the board.
“Wanted. Adventurers and warriors to explore a mysterious cave discovered at the Sylphare Quarry. Harry Sylphare, head to the Sylphare masons company, to provide a generous reward if the cave can be made safe enough for the quarry to resume business. Promptness awarded with a portion of payment in advance.- Harry Sylphare.”
The party find themselves standing in a low ceilinged chamber where a constant drip could be heard. It was near freezing within the chamber and every breath they took created a cloud of steam. A faint blue light could be seen in the darkness of the cavern, a large throne glowed as dozens of runes and sigils of binding, warding and protection fizzled and winked as if the magic that sustained them was waning. In the faint blue light, and the light they carried with them, they could make out the scraps of miners’ uniforms on the ground near the throne along with dozens of other bones.
The light caught on pools of water which flickered and moved as if they themselves were alive. As they waited a skull fell over near the altar-like throne and rolled slowly away from it before sinking beneath the surface of a dark and cold pool of water. However several bones started to shift, vibrate and move as they floated slowly to the air, the lights from the runes and sigils winked out of existence all at once and the bones started to form the rough shape of a creature. Cold mist wrapped around the bones revealing a creature half made of shadow-mist with the bones of its victims giving its form substance. A presence in their mind, beckoning them to join it by the altar touched their mind. A whisper, a promise of power and salvation from the cruelty of the world.
Blue light from the altar’s carved runes and sigils burst forth and the energy caused the creature’s form to waver, the bone falling to the ground as it sank lower. The presence instantly disappears. But as the bones clattered to the cold stone the creature disappeared, sinking into shadow and only the rippled, rustled and clatter of moving bones and rocks indicated where the creature was as it stalked its new prey.
PDF adventure – The Chilled Well
Thanks for joining me today for another Zine this year. This is a condensed version of the Zine, but I hope the format works and is good to look at! Please feel free to leave comments if this format is appealing – so make sure to grab a copy of the PDF.
Next time you get a party together consider running this adventure and I hope that you enjoy it.
I hope you don’t miss a thing so come back daily in the coming week and year. This is so you can experience the creation of the next adventure as it evolves and shapes out. And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe
Brazen Wolfe Tabletop 