00-Roll with Advantage

Whilst not centered on creating elements of an adventure these posts are still part of my process.

Challenge one word adventure

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Good evening all and welcome to another long overdue speed adventure challenge. Tonight for my Adventure speed challenge one word adventure I have chosen Claw. Tonight the adventure will follow a few key criteria but by the end of it there should be an adventure that should be useable.

The criteria include:

  • Time limit: 30 minutes
  • Word: Claw
  • Minimum word requirement 1000
  • Must have a initial Plot, Secondary hook and conclusion
  • Must have at least one NPC
  • Must have at least one conflict
  • Must have at least a description of a battlefield if no map is produced
  • Images and statblocks can be added after 30 minutes if required
  • Notes on how to run the adventure or the thought behind it
  • Anything done after 30 minutes clearly called out or identified. (red background)
  • Can clean up after the 30 minutes~

Claw – Challenge on word adventure

Time started: 8:00:32

Plot:

At the edge of the emerald sea there lies a string of villagers, towns and cities that all have been encountering members of the “Worshipers of the clawed god”. These zealots are fanatical in their belief that a great beast, a forgotten deity resides within the large underwater sink hole that lies off the coast. Those who have been captured and questioned claim to have been chosen by this deity to spread their word whilst travelling by ship or boat on the sea.

What has brought this to the attention of the local power and authority is that each report has no ties to the other. However, each one of them make the exact same claim to be chosen. They have reached out to see if they can understand what is going on by seeking assistance from adventurers of some renown.

Clawed God – created in nightcafe.

Causation –

The cult, the Worshippers of the clawed god have all been exposed to a Huge crab. However this crab is far from ordinary as it has ingested flesh of a dying aboleth that had fallen prey to hunting ships. When ingesting the flesh of this sunken aberration the crab obtained some of its psionic powers. As the crab was consuming the flesh the aboleth was using the last of its psionics to corrupt the mind of the crab, in an attempt to enslave it. However the aboleth was just too weak.

The result was a highly intelligent crab with mild psionic powers who had received its hate for humans and ships from the dying creature. In fact the creature now seeks to get its servants, the worshippers of the clawed god, to bring all the ships of the emerald coast to its lair, the Emerald Coast sink hole.

Main NPC:

However, it is not the authorities, the Sea Watch who has reached out to the adventurers. Jess ‘Ironsails’ Smith is the financer of the endeavour to route out the cult and understand what is going on. Jess is the inheritor by mirth of the Ironsun trading company. The Ironsun trading company operation was born out of Wavecrest, the largest city on the Emerald coast, and they started small. A few ships and just as few crew would run trade goods from the Emerald coast down to the Thruul jungles.

However Jess, after protecting the vessels from pirates, took it one step forward and began bringing goods, rare spices, herbs and other trade items from the jungles of Thruul back to Wavecrest. This saw the companies profit increase threefold and through her actions the company expanded. It now has a place in each port along the coat and, in its own right, becoming the largest power in the southern jungles.

Jess is a middle-aged woman who was born on the sea, literally born in a boat. In fact so close is her bond to the sea that she forsake her parents forges to quench her fire for good. However she is a stubborn as raw iron and as honed as steel.

Secondary Hook:

After talking about the job with Jess the party go to leave, a man attempts to push past them, dropping a long blade that thuds into the wood below. The blade is serrated and curved with the cross guard curving towards the blade itself to look like a claw. The man looks nervously between the party, Jess and the blade. However, seeing the party notice the blade the man attacks them, pulling a secondary blade in the process. After the brief but vicious fight the man is identified by Jess as one of the deck hands for her ship, the Wave Blade.

Jess asks the party to investigate the ship first in case there are other members there who have fallen for the uprising cult.

Area for Combat:

The hallway is thin and cluttered with tables, portraits and displays of wealth. The Ironsun trading company came from nearly nothing but apparently now has no qualms with displaying their wealth. However despite the art, fine silver and portraits that line the walls everything displayed has a purpose.

Swords, daggers, spy glasses, everything that is here is a tribute to someone in the portrait. In fact the only thing that is on display that doesn’t have a corresponding portrait is a worn anvil next to Jess’s door.

The floor is well maintained and sturdy. However the creak of wood and smell of salt water underneath the boards gives away the buildings location. Built on stilts on the beach and stretching out across the dock the Ironsun’s office is build into the docks. In fact despite the wood being durable it is also prone to damage. The salt and water has weakened sections that could cause it to fall through.

Creatures for combat:

Giant Psionic Crab

Clawed God Cult members & Enslaved crew members

Sharks

Eels

Created in tetra-cube

Resolution:

The party take a single ship to the Sink hole and fight the crab. The weak psionic powers don’t have much affect on the party who are experienced combatants however some of the ships crew may become enslaved. Once the crab is killed the other sea creatures and enslaved crew and cult members are released from the psionic slavery. However, they will suffer for a few days as they regain their sense of self.

Thoughts and notes:

I think its about time for a maritime adventure. The tricky part with this adventure will be balancing actual combat in the water against what we can do on the ship.

I don’t think having a huge sized crab on the ship will be hard. However exploring its movement as it crawls under the keel of the ship to attack from a different side, attempting to both sink the ship and get the combatants into the water will be tricky.

The investigation may take some time however planting a few cult members on the Wave Blade will give the party a good lead. In fact the creature wants to be found, but it wasn’t planning for strong defenders on the boats.

Time finished: 8:30:52

Words: 1140

Thanks for joining me tonight. Tonight was a bit of a fun one and a long overdue test to shape things up. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow as we wrap up last weeks adventure. And, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Easter eggs in TTRPGs

thebrazenwolfe1 Comment

Welcome to a weekend post where the theme is set and its something a bit more advance than what I normally talk about. Tonight I want to talk about the subtle art of Easter eggs in TTRPGs. Now, I can hear your thoughts, I’m not talking about randomly sprinkled treasure under bushes, near couches or on pillows – or maybe its someone else’s… never mind. So sit back, grab a coffee and me roll this concept over you and further into adventure.

The art of Easter eggs in TTRPGs

313SaPaOYoHa

Little treats

Now I am certain that we have seen many dungeon and game masters do this over campaigns but I need to say it. However, It is very difficult to do. What it is involves the GM/DM adding little bits of lore or a familiar face or symbol throughout the campaign. In fact the very idea behind this is that you set up and build up all these little things for a later big reveal. Whether this reveal is a twist midway through the campaign of the conclusion of the adventure it doesn’t matter. However, I find that the art of getting these just right is very difficult.

Now here lies the difficulty with it. If done correctly, subtle little hints, appearances or non-blatant pieces of information then you give control of the Easter egg to the player, not character. If they are not the type of person to note little things and make connections then this may not have the desired outcome or effect that you were hoping. However if your players that the type that like to play Cluedo and who will recognise the little Easter eggs along the way then this can be an enriching and powerful moment for them.

Laying the eggs

So now that we have explored it a little bit some suggestions and a scenario to try and get it to stick. If the adventure resolves around an order of knights for one of the main deities in the realm. However their new leader is over zealous and has initiated a purge of those who they deem to be going against the natural order. The party may begin to notice little things. Perhaps the bodies of thieves, murderers or monstrous humanoids are all found with wounds from similar weapons. Or, they are laid to rest in a particular way. On their back, arms folded but bound with red cloth and with a copper piece on top of their lips. This may be something that only priests of the religion would know it if they saw it.

If we get to the point where we want to reveal the Easter egg but the party are yet to put it together we can do some little things. Dropping the deities symbol, a book of their prayers or something like that could help hammer it in there. Particularly if the coins have the symbol on them (upon closer inspection) or if the book has a description of the ritual they found the previous victims in.

What ever the option, hint or Easter egg is it requires two things. The GM/DM to know how to implement it and link small things to larger plots. As well as the Players at the table to be able to pick up what we are putting down.

Thoughts

While not something I implement often, most of my players are new, the times I have done this the party have had that Eureka moment that just increases the wow moment. A key takeaway for me is that if they come up with something else, that isn’t farfetched OR is somehow akin to what I wanted them to realise, I normally give it to them anyway. Changing the plot for party enjoyment, changing the flow or even who the bad guy is, as long as it makes sense, can be even more enriching for the players at the table. And heck, I have fun watching them celebrate the their wins even when it wasn’t the one I had planned for them.

Thanks for visiting and having a look at my musings for this Saturday night. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the end of week adventure, our Gibbering heist, and for more tabletop content. And, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

An Adventure in the palm of your hand

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Welcome to a weekend post where I want to explore the art of improve with a simple concept. An adventure in the palm of your hand. This isn’t much different from the normal process I captured in my weekend adventure formula with Plot, NPC, Hook, Map/Extra and combat but it helps drive some of the unravelling for it. So tonight I will put down the formula and add will see how it works out. So sit back, grab a coffee and let’s roll into the adventure.

An Adventure in the palm of your hand

313SaPaOYoHa

The idea behind this is the five things to get the core of your adventure completed in a few moments, something that I pride myself on. The process is quite simple but it does involve some creativity and on the spot thinking so it can take some practice. For this we look at our hand and count down the key components to understand the concept of our adventure. Crossing off fingers as we count down can be a tactile way to keep track and can help cement it in – so I’ll list out them in order of importance.

Thumb – What

Start it off with the most important thing. Think of an item, creature, opponent, location or something that is the core of our adventure. Generally all adventures have a artefact, a wizard, a big baddie or something that drives the party forward to their goal. If we don’t know the what it can be hard but inspiration can come from anywhere.

I use songs, artwork, miniatures or random things my family or friends say. Books, movies and TV shows are also perfect for generating the what of our adventure but I don’t tend to have much time for these so less time exposed to them results in less time to be inspired.

What we have our What we lock that down as our core and use that to drive the other questions.

Index – Why

The Why. This points us (index finger – the pointer) in the direction of the adventure. Taking our what we ask why is it our core. Why would the party want to obtain, learn, prevent or stop or, protect this thing? The why is the second most important item as its driven from what, but it also acts as the catalyst for our adventure.

Why are the party wanting to retrieve the amulet of Frostmoor? Why do they need to stop the wizard Zoltan? and so forth. Why do they want to get involved with the what and why is it a driver for them. This really is driving motivator for the party to get motivated or inspired to get onboard the adventure train.

Middle – Who

Who drives the What and the Why. If the what is a person or creature, who are they. Who is working for or against them and who are they aligned with. A thief lord doesn’t get there over night, who are their backers? Who let them get as powerful as they are now?

Who can be consequential, so its less important. But it can be related to the what and why directly or it could simply be someone who gives you the quest. A farmer could be the who a they give you the quest to investigate the noises from the nearby barn. Or they could be the cause of the noises and not be a simple farmer.

The emphasis isn’t placed on Who, Where or When but they still can add to the story and only require a bit more thought.

Ring – Where

Do you have a map ready? Is there a town the party are in? Do you need a temple, castle, cave, crypt or cemetery that you want this to occur in? The where isn’t important most of the time and it doesn’t drive the adventure but it is fundamental to driving the mood.

The other thing that where can drive is hazards and other map driven obstacles that can help the adventure. Sink holes in a graveyard, boiling magma, spike traps near a goblin encampment, secret doors or passage ways, traps, acid pits and so on. All of these can add another level onto the adventure.

Pinky – When

Now the when isn’t important. It can emphasise a time limit for players or set the mood. The below example can give a limit, a time frame or hint at more to come.

“about three weeks ago, at the full moon I heard a blood curdling howl I did. Right by the city gate. In the morning young Harry was gone but the beast left these claw marks. I tells ya’ that my blood froze when I saw the size of them”.

The when isn’t important – but it can help flesh out the adventure more.

Thanks for visiting and having a look at my musings. I’ll put this to test tomorrow and whip up an adventure using the above and create something that could be used in an impromptu one shot or, to expand upon something monotonous like travel. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the end of week adventure, our Gibbering heist, and for more tabletop content. And, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Golden Hourglass

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Welcome to a surprise night where tonight we are looking at an offer, an exchange of goods, wealth or inspiration for the Golden Hourglass. To make a very exciting week for us D&D, and RPG aficionados I am going to have a shot at making a heist this week. That’s right, its heist week coming up and I wanted to double down on it before the sands of in the hourglass run out! Well in order for us to make it on time, let’s roll into tonight’s adventure!.

The Golden Hourglass

312SaTGoHo

The Setting – City Emago

Westley Parn is the biggest merchant, and black market dealer in the city. What ever you want to have, learn or have done he can sell it to you. So prominent is his influence and growing power that the city guard leave him alone, as they too are one of his customers.

However, sometimes the price he asks for is odd. A secret, a single ring, a name or a trinket. Something that almost no one would miss. But they all are part of his plan and a master of planning he is.

The Target – The Golden Hourglass

Westley Parn has requested that the bring him the Golden Hourglass. IT is a work of art from a dwarven glass blower, an elven carpenter and a gnome enchanter of some renown. Its the size of a tankard and its true purpose is unknown, but it’s said that who ever owns the hourglass fall to madness and paranoia before, eventual and preventable death. As such the hourglass is locked in a padded chest, guarded by several guards and never stays in the same place more than one night if they can help it.

The Path – Unknown…. for now

The Hourglass is on its way out of the city. Taking an unknown path but the people who are hired as guards for the escort of the artefact are the well known Brenthan Brothers. The city has somewhat wide streets and a sewer system that runs under the city itself.

The People – The Brenthan Brothers

The Brenthan Brothers are in fact, brothers. Mrs Brenthan had seven boys and two girls. While the girls followed in their parents footsteps to run a shop the brothers joined the military one after another. Eventually they left the military to start a mercenary group which grew past just the brothers. Their influence spread and soon they had many cities they worked out of.

Bryce, Kryn and their sellswords are the two who were approached to escort the golden hourglass out of the city.

Kryn is extremely professional and thorough and leaps to attention at the slightest sense of danger. Kryn is the second oldest Brenthen boy and as such constantly lives in the shadow of his older brother. Because of this he strives to be seen as better, and he is even if the others don’t see it. Yet.

Bryce on the other hand relaxed and calm to the point of being seen as lazy. He is the youngest and at times prefers to use his fame as a Archer and swordsman to win the hearts and affection of the public.

The Consequences and Twists

Rumour of the priceless artefact leaving the safety of the manor it resided in has spread wide. There are more parties than Westley Parn and the mercenaries with a vested interest in the golden hourglass. But will they be able to beat the parties to the punch line or will the artefact fall through their fingers like grains of sand.

Thoughts

Oh boy. The second surprise for this weekend. A double event! I hope I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew but we will have to see.

The heist format is a bit harder to plan for. Many blogs and other experienced DMs ask for a general “What, where, who, when and why” format which describes the scene and what can happen. But not to the same degree as what we create normally. This Means the success and enjoyment of the adventure is purely in their hands.

So in order for us to facilitate this adventure we need to look at three parts, traditionally two but hear me out.

The Planning and Execution of the plan. But if we want to double down there is two halves to the planning.

Scouting and mapping. Understanding the location, drawing a map, watching movements and the like. To know how to pull off a heist is to know the pattern of what you want to steal.

The preparations. Buying goods and equipment, the bribing of guards, innkeepers, peasants and merchants, infiltration of a party lost. What ever you need to do to pull it off.

The execution. The doing, game time. Following the plan as a team or group of individuals, it happens, to achieve the plan. This can be daunting to a DM as its nearly full improv. But if you can pull it off, its worth it.

Thanks for visiting and taking a sneak peak at the heist adventure. Tomorrow I hope to see you visit again for two adventures being published! Wish me luck! So don’t forge to visit tomorrow and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Pocket of NPCs – Tactile assistance concept

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Welcome to a end of week wrap-up and tonight I drafted something up which is the Pocket of NPCs. This is a tactile DM/GM assistance concept that looks to fix a problem I have and I believe many DMs, new and old, would also have. So as a concept art I will see if I can get kick this off into something more as its just a template for now (its perhaps a bit dark) so we will see how I can refine it.

Pocket of NPCs – What is it?

Simply put its a Large format card (Tarot card for those who want to compare the size – think deck of many things…) that has a image, name, brief background, roleplay advice bond and flaw for any one NPC. The problem we have as DMs face on a session by session basis is that we can not predict or control what the players will do. Nor should we. But this leads to situations where they end up on a street, building or place where we didn’t plan for them to be and what’s worse, talking to someone we haven’t made up yet.

Enter the Pocket of NPCs. Slyly draw one card, rolling for sleight of hand and deception. Describe the face you see in more depth (redraw if you need a different gender or race) and then note down the how to roleplay this NPC part. The background, bond and flaw will come into it more as the conversation continues but a brief few lines of text can save you on the spot.

The party can then choose to invest more energy into this NPC interaction and you can expand from the introductory part in front.

Format of the Pocket of NPC cards

The first thing you will see is a colour image of the person you are describing. Then the name, background and more info is provided. The idea is short, sharp notes a brief history to bring up if the situation warrants and what they would be suited for.

NPC Card – front

The back is just a snappy logo, neat right!?

NPC Card – Back

Where to next?

Pending if this would be seen as useful this can be expanded to have additional information on the card itself. Accents (if people want to have a go at that), nervous ticks, trinkets they have, notable characteristics or mannerisms and so on.

The next step of this is using the random NPCs to help facilitate one-shots. However, they would need to probably have a class, Villain, bystander, antagonist, quest giver or something like this. This may be something that’s identifiable oh the back of the card for quick reference and to save re-draws or hunting through the deck for a specific NPC. (But there is nothing wrong with that!)

This also opens up other tactile assistance concepts like cards for plot hooks, secondary hooks, location, item/macguffins etc. which means we could randomly generate a oneshot from cards alone. This is something I may look into.

Closing thoughts

Now… The ease of repetition for this is simple. Artbreeder and nightcafe.studio produce creator owned images that you can download, in decent resolution. In fact after doing this for years I have a library worth of portraits for. The best thing is that to create a new NPC it doesn’t take much time either, and it can be quite fun. However, it’s is still a lot of work to make sure that there is versatility. And the above mentioned software/UIs don’t handle non-human races that well. I have tried (the aarakocra still haunt me).

A bit of a fun one tonight. If you are looking at some one-shots check out the growing library I have of Zines – or have a look through the archives.

This week we will be looking at another Oneshot adventure so don’t forget to come back each day this approaching week. I hope you enjoy what I have in store for you this week. And finally, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Dawning of a new campaign

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Hello and welcome to some pretty big news if I say so myself, the dawning of a new campaign. That’s right I have a new campaign to write, a new big baddie or event to orchestrate and a world to construct. To be honest it’s happening rather fast and I think it will be one of those campaigns that will teach me a lot more about my own craft.

I have also stumbled into D&D 5th ed wiki which has more of the content for new players. Whilst I have most of the books I need, and access to legitimate copies for the rest of it this will be invaluable for my party, especially the remote ones.

The Dawning of a new campaign

308SaFrTDaOANeCa

In initial discussions with the players it sounds like the campaign will be hybrid traditional narrative and one-shot driven. A series of one shots like The Trouble with Birds and The Prince of Pine Ridge that interconnect with the overall story line. This means that for the players involved in the adventure that they could miss out on one adventure or the next as long as they have a central adventuring hub.

Since the One shots I create are easy enough to balance for a variety in experience as well as number of players this further helps the goal. But, I still need an overarching plot.

This will require more thought and I may potentially have one or more party members coming to read here I will have to keep them brief.

The Paths

The options I have before me are endless but wrapping high fantasy, flexibility and making it enjoyable for a variety of D&D experience is hard. But the below are basics for sparking that creative flame that will fuel my Campaign creating process.

  1. There is dissent in the lands as rumours of the kings knights pillaging and harming the people of the kingdom have reached the king. But there may be more at play here.
  2. Giant swaths of forest, hills, and even mountains have been carved out in perfectly straight, even and flat lines across the land. The direction and origin all differ to the discovery of a new one but one thing is clear. There are many such lines and they all appeared seemingly overnight.
  3. A vision haunts the party, a cloaked lady bathed in light lies behind shadowy chains and is pleading for help. Images flash of landmarks, some known some yet to be discovered. But each party member feels strongly connected to the woman in their vision and the urge to free her is all consuming.
  4. Rumours of strange creatures have been appearing from everywhere. Beings with multiple heads, distorted limbs (or no limbs) and all of them being highly aggressive have started to sprout up. These may have been brushed off as rumours and tales to fearmonger if such a creature wasn’t encountered by the party seemingly by accident.

Thoughts

Each of the above have something hidden, something obvious and something completely foreign to new and experienced players. They also lend themselves well to my style of campaign building, a hook, sub hook and mid-adventure-plot twist that all help in driving the player engagement.

The next step is picking one, or two (as we know by now there are multiple roads and pathways that lead to the end goal) and fleshing it out. I will also weave the overarching plot and story in with the party’s background and their story will help throw them further into the story.

A name, a map, key places and key NPCs will come later but for now the story and plot will get me started and I am looking forward to it. There is also the potential for me to create more unique creatures and cultures. I am a big fan of creating cultures from scratch.

I hope that you will come back tomorrow. If time permits I will create a Soulbound Zine including the first part and second part of the adventure so far. So wish me luck, I will need all re-rolls and advantages I can muster to get that done. 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

The Prince’s Lair

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

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

306SaTPrLa

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

Brazen Adventure Archives

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Tonight I decided that I wanted to look at a way of putting the most useful content in once place. So I created a new page in the blog called The Brazen Adventure Archives.

This will aim to have my Released Zines and, hopefully, all my maps one day where aspiring or experienced game masters can turn to if they are in need of an easy night. Recently I had the pleasure of sitting down with a fellow experienced DM who, like me, has been through a few additions. In the discussion of the hobby, our tactics, our dreams and homes for the TTRPG system we both love it validated what I do here.

It’s a hard job, this adventure business. You lose some good adventurers along the way and gods knows I have lost a few myself. But as the facilitators of the great world of Roleplaying Games we have the biggest job. Sure they may fight dragons, rescue princesses from marriage pacts with demons and face off against the endless hordes of goblins. But we spend ours, countless days over the year massaging their ideas, their actions and the actions of others into a world. This takes time and energy and that’s where I think I can come into it.

I am not the best Dungeon Master, I am not sure if anyone should hold that title either. But what I am is experienced. I can pull a one shot adventure out of my hat in 30 minutes. I can create magical items, creatures or settings with the right prompt be it image, word or song. Why not give what I can back to the hobby that has truly helped to shape my life over the years I have been doing this.

For the Dungeon and Game Master

So that’s what this new page is about – giving fellow game or dungeon masters the night off. If your party steal a ship and sale in the opposite direction, don’t worry. I have something for you – try Ophidian island, or if they find a tranquil pool and have been complaining how easy it is – have them try Kappa’s on for size and tweak Misguided resting place.

This is a place written for the creators of world and facilitators of epic stories. Not just a creative outlet for myself but I hope a tool or quick-win for that new or tired DM.

So while I look forward to populating the Brazen Adventure Archive with more adventures, maps, creatures and content I will also start to get more involved in the local gaming community. Give the local DMs the night off and let them roll some dice and experience something truly new. While I do this I hope you continue to read this here and I hope that if something truly inspires or helps you – you’ll let me know. Feedback is key in all parts of life whether its on the tabletop or off of it. Well what ever you do, I hope you do it with advantage because we can all use a choice to take the higher roll,

The Brazen Wolfe

Ymran Wayfinder

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Tonight I want to look towards the last member of the binding, Ymran Wayfinder the Isharann Soulrender. Joining the binding in a self imposed exile he yearns for the day he can return to his enclave after evoking a toll on the forces of chaos. But there is more than meets the eye to Ymran and our binding members may yet be surprised.

Ymran Wayfinder – the Idoneth Isharann Soulrender

303SuSBYmran

Ymran looked back at the Stormcast eternal and Battlemage, this Dawn Keeper, as they walked away towards the Duardin’s cursed ship. Ymran was no stranger to flying. He and the little Rakerdart fish that hid in his cloak had gone on many soulraids before which involved the need of flight. But, there was something unnatural about the metal vessel the Kharadron Admiral toiled over.

Brung was a clever man and brought a level of intellect to the party which Ymran recognised they sorely needed. He and Gwen, the battlemage, controlled and commanded the battelfield while Kathe and himself held the front lines, sometimes one front each at points when they were surrounded. His warplate was light, due to the magic from the Ethersea cloak that adorned his shoulders and his lurelight shone brightly. The strong soul his peers had let him leave with was a constant reminder of his failures.

But joining the binding allowed him to collect more souls and share his cursed existence with others, extending his pitiful life with others. Ymran looked back towards the Battlemage in the tent. He could sense that there was something being plotted by the amber wizard but he couldn’t be sure which.

Suspicions

Regardless of his suspicions they had their orders and if this dangerous metal ship could fly them there quickly so be it. The presence of Amberbone this close to the Orruks was concerning him. If they managed to get their green hands on the stone before the binding it would spell the doom of the crusade. The Stormcast were holding out on the binding, there was something more they weren’t telling that they knew of.

Ymran pulled Gwen aside, much to her shock. “We need to be prepared for anything. Ensure that we stock up on supplies before we leave” he said. The thick helm making it sound like he was talking under water. “I don’t trust the mage, or the Stormcast but the cause is just and the mission set.”

“I am sure we are just fine.” Gwen said after a moment, trying to understand what Ymran was saying. “I would be more worried about the Griffon, there’s something not right with the lil’ beasty.” she said as she pointed back to the alert two headed beast. Ymran only saw a well trained war creature being on high alert of the skies. But it would be pointless trying to explain that to a human, even if she had managed to intrigue a Guardian soul enough to follow her around.

Kathe landed a few feet away, her golden and resplendent wings folding back into nothingness when she started to stride forward again. “I received more orders from Lord Brighthammer. We are to leave at once. If we do not have a means of transportation there will be two skycutters available to us.” she said definitively.

“Well. We best decide on which will be our Tomb…” Ymran joked with a small chuckle. The other members of the binding just stared at him.

Character Sheet

Ymran-WayfinderDownload

And that brings our week of Soulbound to an end. Tomorrow I hope I will be able to produce a finished product of this last week (and the week before hand) so make sure to come back for that. Don’t forget next week we have another one-shot on the way and this week we are heading coastal! So I will see you real soon and, as always don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Gwen Hart

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Tonight I want to look at another member of the binding, Gwen Hart our battlemage of light. Quick to forgive and think of the best in people her reasons for joining the binding are plain to see. She wants to use her magic to protect and aid the heroes that are guarding the dawn bringer crusade.

Gwen Hart – the Battlemage

303SaSBGwen

Gwen looked back towards Kate and worried. Despite her training preparing her for tough decisions and situations she was unsure how to help the stoic Stormcast. Brung was easy to read, he missed his ship and would rather be amongst the cloud rather than on the ground. But no matter how much she plied he wouldn’t go into his reasons for joining the binding. Ymran was also difficult to read and, if she was honest with herself the presence of the aelf made her uncomfortable. In reading up on the Idoneth deepkin she know that they were ripped from the Chaos god Slaanesh and no amount of purity or redemption would heal that stain.

Perhaps that’s why Ymran was quiet around her, maybe he senses the light she brought and shied from it. She shrugged outwardly and smiled at the dawners as they moved around camp, packing up tents and moving them to the large armoured wagons as they prepared to move tomorrow for the final stretch. As she walked her staff gave a soft glow of dawn that seemed to lift the spirits of the people in the dawn bringer crusade. It pleased her that her presence, like Kates, was was something that brought people hope.

But the talk of the greenskins had her worried. The early reports had indicated that there were pockets where undead mingled and gathered. But the gryph-knights had dealt with them quickly enough. But now the prospect of a warrgh had her anxiety grow. She just wished that her companions would show a similar emotion as they moved towards the command tent. Beyond this path lay the source of her anxiety.

Lord Brodderick Brighthammer, a Lord Castellant from the Stormcast Eternals Hammers of Sigmar and a battlamage lie within the canvas tent. She had no fear in front of these warriors as they all sought the light that she brought and that guided them onwards. But there was something that unnerved her about the griffon that the battlemage rode on. There was something wild and predatorial in the eyes of that beast that she couldn’t even home to tame.

Searching for the spirit guardian that had followed her since she graduated from the towers of eight winds she spotted the Golden eagle perched on a tent nearby. Flying through the material to land on her staff it cooed down at her as she gave it affection.

What ever was wrong with that griffon she would uncover it and look to cure it.

Character Sheet

Gwen-Hart-Battlemage-LightDownload

Well that’s it for tonight and for Gwen, for now. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the end of week writeup (hopefully another Zine). As we are at the end of the week I hope you had time to spend some time on the tabletop. If not I hope you plan for it soon. Don’t forget next week we have more content so come back for that. And, as always don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe