Hi all and welcome to Friday, also known as Fight-night! Tonight I wanted to had a small random encounter for whilst the party is still in the marshlands – aboard the ship or on foot.
So sit back, enjoy, and let’s get into it.
Ethereal malcontents
217FrEtMa
As the mist wafted across the waters surface the the onlookers assumed nothing was different to the previous nights where the same phenomena happened. That is until movement from within the mists foretold the appearance of humanoid faces gliding atop shadow and air which writhed towards sentient life like a leech does blood.
Now, being someone similar to the Shadow we would use them as such except that they are a lot weaker than a shadow. Ambushing, stealth and infiltration before wearing there targets down before draining them of life.
For a party of 4 level 5 characters we would probably look at around 8 of these – enough that one per turn per player will go down but they will still be able to give that sense of dread and danger to the player to let them know that they are in danger.
Well after the last few nights being larger than I had intended tonight is a bit smaller than I had intended but I also didn’t want to overload what we had for this month as its quite busy. Don’t forget to come and see the final product at the end of the week and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Hi all and welcome to Friday (fight night!) where I want to have a bit of a look at the Oni, the warrior race of people who have inhabited the northern mountain ranges and who formed pacts with the Shadow, a dark entity who only wants to see the world turn to darkness and chaos.
Not to be confused with the Oni from the Monster Manual (although its relatively close to the Oni Shadow Blessed) theses creatures resemble and act like a highly disciplined, brutal version of the hobgoblin – driven by the pacts made with the shadow to do unspeakable acts to the other humanoids of the continent.
Face of the Shadow
216FrFotS
A martial race known for otherwise being brutal and calculating warlords and raiders who capture the more civilised races of Ryokughan for their brutal shadow overlord.
Oni – warrior caste
The Oni warriors are brutal warriors that take advantage of the generally weaker humanoid races of the Ryokughan continent and to ensure their success each young Oni undergoes extreme and violent training and battle drills to make sure they work as an effective army when the time comes to raid the weaker races.
Leaders of the warrior race.
Oni warriors that excel at battle drills and display extraordinary leadership qualities are granted the title of captain, if they survive their first dose of power from the Shadow – a process that claims more lives than it blesses.
Those that survive the rituals are driven to do harvest bodies, information, wealth or anything else the shadow desires but they are seen as chosen warriors – creatures which the other Oni follow blindly into battle and follow what ever orders are given to them.
Born blessed
Oni that are born blessed by the shadow grow incredibly fast, strong and large but despite their large size they are smarter than most Oni, sometimes put together, and capable of some magical abilities.
Able to turn invisible and summon unnatural darkness they live to ensure their knowledge continues to aid their kind, and the demands that the Shadow makes of them are completed.
Inherently magical these creatures hunt mages, wizards and young dragons to drain them of their magical essence and knowledge so that the shadow not only loses a potent enemy but that the Oni Shadow Blessed can gain in power and strength. The oldest and most powerful of these Oni tower over all, bigger than even some giants.
Thanks for joining tonight to look at the Oni, ever since seeing both the Oni and the Hobgoblin in the monster manual I always thought that they belonged in an oriental setting and this was a great opportunity to adjust them slightly to fit how I see them in this continent and world.
Don’t forget to come back for the end of week writeup and the hobby update this weekend, or perhaps a writing challenge (I am not quite sure which it will be yet). Don’t forget that next week is the end of the month and so a end of month writeup is on its way so look out for that. As my brief pause of normal work ends and I look to going back to my office job I wanted to thank you all for following me on this journey, exploring this endeavour with me as I really appreciate it and always get a jolt of excitement when I notice people read and like what I put out there. I won’t forget that feeling which my first few posts brought me and I hope that you will continue to join me.
Finally, let’s not forget, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Hi all and welcome to a Fightnight where this week we are finally looking at the creatures for this weeks encounter, and a bonus writeup.
So I’ve got a bit of work to do including borrowing some stat blocks and modifying them to suit as well as making stat blocks from scratch!
Predators and Prey
215FrPrPr
The Longsnout
The Longsnout Sharptooth is a huge six legged reptile that resembled crocodiles and alligators with have two large fleshy appendages that are capped with fleshy flower petal like sensory glands. These creatures lie in wait in the water amongst the reeds and use their antennae like appendages to locate prey and lure them in before lunging at them and dragging them into the murky deep waters of the marsh.
Strategy
These creatures despite not being outright smart have ambushed the unwary in the marshes for as long as they have been around.
While not afraid to fight with large creatures they prefer to fight anything that can fit in their mouth – such as medium and small creatures.
The Mirestrider Kookastem
This curios four legged, mostly flightless bird is beautiful yet stupid and easily spooked. Males have brighter plumage whilst females are adorned with large flowing features that quickly muddy (which causes these creatures to go into cleaning frenzies to keep their feathers immaculate).
Faster than most creatures and hyper aware that its the bottom of the food chain, delicious and weak this creature will run as fast as possible the moment its spooked, normally running directly into the mouth of another creature that’s waiting for it to do just so.
Strategy
Now there isn’t much strategy to these creatures, the moment it detects something (passive perception) it will spook, run and jump (gliding with its stunted wings instead of a traditional jump)
Trapping, ambushing or shooting these creatures from a distance is the best bet to capture a tasty meal with bright plumage.
Giant Marsh Newt
The Giant Marsh newt is slow but opportunistic.
Strategy
It will try and eat anything that is smaller than it by 2 sizes, but can swallow and attempt to eat something that is one size smaller. If the party has a small creature (such as a Toad-kin)
Whilst generally peaceful when driven to hunger it will greedily attack anything it deems an easy meal, trying to swallow it before disappearing into the mud.
A few hours before the party met Varda…
The first hour has been a nightmare, sticky mud that stuck to ankles and boots as they head further into the marsh, their guides, the two toad-kin, jumped and walked nimbly across the mud banks but were obviously slowed down due to the adventures behind them.
Several moments of croaking and crouching over some disturbed mud revealed a set of dragging footprints. The two diminutive humanoids were obviously trying to explain what it meant to the party that followed them when a large lingering shape walked between two bushes. A large slimy lizard appeared, well on closer look it was an amphibian.. the more experienced survivalists would call it a newt yet the size was immense compared to thr tiny creature’s that they may have read about or encountered before.
The two toad-kin looked looked nervous but unafraid as the creature stood still and looked at the party before walking backwards into the grasses.
As the party continued on one of the Toad-kin, the older looking one, went back and picked up a small carved talisman that one of them had dropped. The rustle of grass the only warning before large jaws lined with needle sharp teeth appeared and grabbed him between its jaws. The Newt then backed away as thr party as stood in awe for a moment before it turned and began to lumber away. The party have chase, several large flightless birds spooked and flew over the marsh flats quite some distance from the commotion of the party following a giant newt.
Add the party shot arrows, spells and swing swords at it the creature, covered in a slippery slime, moved ever forward towards the water edge before whirling around to perhaps face its attackers it finally succumbed to its wounds.
Slowly something moved from within the mouth of the newt and a toad-kin slowly pulled itself out. Do entranced by the near escape of one of their guides that they failed to notice several birds flying away with haste from nearby or the large figure splitting the waters surface as it approached the bank where the party were.
In a heart beat a huge shadow appeared from the water, jaws clamping shut down on the newt, breaking bones, splitting flesh and the wheezing of the last air being forced from its body as a 15ft monster crashed onto and around the party, its jaws grabbed the corpse and a massive tail beat down and knocked the party away as the beast dragged the bleeding body into the water. Six massive, powerful scaled legs making short work of dragging the creature into the murky depths.
Bruised, broken and battered the adventurers and two toad-kin edged away from the waters edge, the toad-kin sporting more serious wounds as they lead the party in a different direction, heading away from the creature in the water and towards somewhere a lot safer, they think.
Now with the missing puzzle piece revealed and this weeks story fully revealed I hope that it was worth the wait.
Don’t forget to come back this weekend for hopefully another hobby update as I prepare my Skaven for another skirmish on Monday as well as the end of week write-up on Sunday. And, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Hi all and welcome to fight night! It nay be Friday night for normal people but for us here at Brazen Wolfe Tabletop we know it to promise encounters, puzzles and other goodness.
Now there’s a saying in Ryokughan that the dragon holds a ember of fire in it’s cheek incase the night is long… No, not really, but still the message is always keep something in reserve and today I have just that!
War Chief
214FrWC
While the Toad-kin are a peaceful those particularly blessed by the shadow grow to large intimidating sizes, the smallest at which being the size of the largest of a faerun orc, and with their size comes a hunger for violence and destruction.
Whilst violent and destructive these war chiefs of the toad-kin are cunning, calculating and meticulous in their planning utilising and commanding great throngs of lesser toad-kin usually by bulling and intimidating the clan chiefs and eating the smaller toads who defy them. True servants to the shadow these creatures have forgotten the way of their people, the worship of light, life and nature and seek only the glorification of themselves and the gratification of brutality.
The war chief toad-kin occasionally reaches large size, gaining a thicker hide, mightier constitution and more cunning after surviving so long. These Large ogre sized creatures are rare but extremely powerful and should be feared due to the sheer volume of clans that they bully into service.
In this encounter lets assume that our party of 4 have all reached level 5, I think that would be fitting for being this far in the adventure-year.
That is a lot of critters and yes it does say deadly, but if we break it down into how these creatures fight then it will make more sense.
These creatures will send through the foot soldiers, the humble toad-kin, first before the chiefs will be riled up to fight. If the chiefs begin to falter (and they do easily not being dumb creatures and valuing their life more highly than most things) then the war-chief will wade into the thick of things to dish out discipline and intimidate through violence the lesser toads
Now that we have all the stat-blocks for this weeks encounter and a bit more of an insight into the hierarchy of these normally peaceful creatures we have ourselves a fight on our hands.
So don’t forget to come back for the weekend nights to get more hobby updates, the final writeup and hopefully something extra, if I can find the time to do so!
Don’t forget to let me know if you are playing along or if you have any questions around how to incorporate this setting into your forgotten realms campaign and above all else, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Hi all and welcome to fight night where tonight I am getting ready for a warhammer game against an old friend and rival who has requested that I bring my Skaven once again to the front lines and do battle with his noble Fyreslayers.
But, tonight being fight night and I did say that I would bring some more Soulbound this week I wanted to explore combat and the “Creature Stat Blocks” for Soulbound.
So I will take you through some of my beloved Skaven models and do my best to explain the concept of these stat blocks (as I am still learning how the system works).
So without begging forgiveness for any mistakes I made, let’s roll on!
Skaven in Soulbound
213FrSS
The Clanrat
Second only to labourers and slaves, Clanrats are the most numerous and low ranking of the Skaven. Despite this, like all Skaven, every Clanrat is convinced of its superiority and the inevitability of its ascension to greatness. They clutch rusted arms stolen from dead rivals and seek any opportunity to advance their station. Individually, a Clanrat is no match for a prepared hero, in fact, a lone Clanrat is just as likely to squirt the musk of fear and flee than stand and fight. Yet Clanrats rarely fight alone, instead swarming together in hordes of frenzied fighters that throw themselves at their foes in a smothering wall of stinking flesh and chittering savagery.
So first things first, it looks a bit different to a Dungeons and Dragons stat block but there are a few things to go through so we will go from top to bottom.
The Clanrat is classified as a minion, they are lowest fodder on the battlefield and really only strong in numbers, as true to Skaven on the tabletop as possible.
They have Poor Melee, Accuracy and Defence (but rated as average with a shield). This relates to the ladder I mentioned in my first glance of the system. If you have poor defence then the Clanrat will need to have a Difficulty Number (DN) of 4 Body (Weapon skill) where from the dice pool they create from both their Body attribute (down the bottom of the block) and the levels in training they have in their Weapon Skill skill they need to roll 4 or better to beat your defence of poor. But, if you have Average defence then they will have a DN of 5 which means from your dice pool you need to roll a 5 or better to hit. If the Clanrats target has good or better defence then only a 6 on the dice roll will hit.
Having an armour of – means that any damage that is dealt (the number of successful hits + any damage modifiers from the weapon) isn’t stopped by armour. Armor reduces the damage dealt to the creature by 1 for each point in armour.
Toughness is the stamina before the creature takes damage through to their wound. Having a toughness of 1 means that they can have 1 point of damage allocated to them before they stat suffering wounds. The neat thing about toughness is that it will recover outside of battle if you spend a few minutes (I think 10) having a short break before charging into the next throng of enemies.
A wounds of – means that they are truly weak creatures and that by reducing their toughness to 0 that they will suffer a mortal wound and die.
Mettle is a resource which Characters and strong enemies have that enables them to push past the normal barriers in ones physical or mental training and or one moment gain and advantage. Having no Mettle is common for creatures.
Now Speed. To understand speed we need to understand how the game field is laid out in what we call Zones. A zone is an area of space, generally seen as 15ft but its broken up by natural barriers like a wall, fence, trees, door, a incline or decline (trench or parapet). The area where your Character stands is called “Short Range“, the zone adjacent to your zone is “Medium Range” and the zone adjacent to that (2 zones from you) is called “Long Range”
So if your character is in a room and you hear skittering outside the zone you are in now (the room) is short range, the space outside the door, a small field where a fence divides the wheat field and mill from the yard around the building you are in is Medium range, the field is Long range and the mill within the Field is “Extreme Range“. This helps to imaging distance as something relative rather than having a grid to move your character along 6 squares at at time which represents “30ft”.
Now back to Speed. If you have a Slow speed you can move anywhere in your move action to move within their current zone (short range) and must use the run action to move into the zone adjacent (medium range). A Normal speed, such as our Clanrat, means it can use a free action to move within the current zone “Short range”, use a move action to move to the zone adjacent (Medium range) and the run action to move into the next adjacent zone (Long range). Most creatures have a Normal speed but you can encounter creatures with a Fast speed which can move as a free action within their current zone and use the move action to move up to the two zones adjacent (Long range). See simple right?
Ok maybe not simple, its a big change to D&D but I think it does make sense.
Initiative is your Mind attribute and your the levels in training in the Reflexes and Awareness skills. I love this. No longer is it just who is quickest of body strikes first but those who are aware and keen of mind also can think and react quickly to danger. So our little Clanrat has an initiative of two.
Natural Awareness is really Soulbound’s version of Passive Perception.
Skills are shown here in their training level. Training level is represented by xd6 where x is the level the creature is trained in. This little rat has awareness (+1d6), Stealth (+1d6,+1) and Weapon Skill (+1d6). You may notice that out little Clanrat has a Stealth skill of (1d6, +1) which represents that he is trained in Stealth 1 level and that he has 1 point in Focus. Focus is really a floating 1 value that you can apply to any one dice roll made. An example is needed I feel.
This Clanrat is sneaking up through the wheat field and wants to make sure he is not found, mainly so one of the other Clanrat’s around him takes the first arrows and not him. he rolls DN4:1 Body (Stealth) he has 1 point in Body and 1 level of training in Stealth so he rolls 2 dice. He gets a 5 and a 3 but has 1 point in focus so he turns that 3 into a 4. This grants him 2 successes (nice!).
The next is traits. These are little things that the creature can do that make it.. it really. In this case this poor little Skaven Clanrat feels stronger and braver with friends and begins to fight as one horde of seething, chittering rat-men when he has friends! When he is joined by buddies they become a swarm of Clan rats where you attack as one when they are in the same Zone. This is reflected by gaining +1d6 to their attack pool and having +1 toughness (where each damage dealt kills 1 Clanrat per toughness decreased). However, area of affects (spells, weapons with a spread property, cleaving strikes and the like) deal double damage to a swarm.
Now attacks. This creature has two attacks and can pick one or the other. In this instance the rust blade or the rusty spear *(note it’s not trusty.. its definitely rusty) these attacks are both poor, have 2d6 in their dice pool (1 from body and 1 from weapon skill) and deal x+S damage.
The Rusty blade deals 1+S Damage which is 1 damage base + the number of successes. The Rusty blade is one handed so the Clanrat can wield a shield with the stabby-blade an bring his defence up to average from poor). The Spear deals more damage (2+S) but is just as bad as the rusty blade but is two handed – so no shield (watch out little rat!)
Finally we are down to attributes.
Attributes are simple in Soulbound – Body, Mind and Soul
Body represents your physical strength, your reflexes and coordination, and your overall body awareness. Characters with a high Body tend to be able to hold their own in a fight and rarely balk at manual labour.
Mind represents your intelligence, your awareness and perception, your deductive reasoning, and your ability to think on your feet. Characters with a high Mind are often inquisitive, quick witted, and studious, and are adept at thinking their way around a problem. Mind is also important for wizards and practitioners of the arcane arts.
Soul represents your inner being. It is your sense of self, your spirit and determination, and your ability to resist the influence of Chaos. Characters with high Soul are frequently spiritual leaders or champions, and are absolutely assured in their beliefs.
All attributes feed into Defence, Accuracy and Melee effectiveness as well as toughness, mettle, initiative, natural awareness and skill tests. Each test will be based off one of the three attributes and then a skill. The attribute may change from time to time (so Awareness may sometimes be related to a Soul (awareness) check instead of a Mind (awareness) check if something is trying to overcome your resistance to chaos.
These also form your basic pools in combat. Body for Melee dice pools, Mind for ranged pools and spell checks (Mind (Channelling) test).
Now, I wont go through it all again but lets look at the brutal muscle of the Skaven forces – the Rat Ogor
The Rat Ogor
Stitched, grown, and mutated under the claws of Clan Moulder’s most demented fleshcrafters, then sold to the highest bidder, Rat Ogors are the horrific fusion of Skaven and Ogor. Hulking masses of muscle and claw capable of ripping entire battalions to shreds, the Rat Ogors are singularly violent monsters, who’s only drive is to kill. While effective in the right circumstances, Rat Ogors are brutally stupid beasts, incapable of comprehending even the simplest of orders or using any weapons aside from their own teeth and claws. Yet with the symbiotic grafting of a secondary, and always unwilling, brain into the proceedings, a Rat Ogor is somewhat elevated. While the creature will never gain true intelligence, the parasitic brain can enforce its will upon the Rat Ogor, allowing it to follow commands, and more Importantly, wield weapons.
As you can see the Rat Ogor is a champion with exponentially better in melee a whopping body of 6 with weapons training (+2d6), a bunch more toughness (with Armor!) and a few other traits and attacks that make it a lethal killing machine.
I could go on and on giving more examples but, frankly, I don’t have that much time left in me for tonight and this would turn into a book rather than a blog post.
I am excited to bring some adventures through to you for Soulbound and hope to have a few games to build up interest for my local gaming group (and maybe beyond).
Don’t forget to come back this weekend for more content including the end of March writeup (yes its April already.. but I will wrap up March first!). And, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Hi all and welcome to another night here at Brazen Wolfe Tabletop where we create adventures weekly and we reserve Friday to all things fights (Fightnight!).
So this week we have found ourselves in a slithery situation where the party have come back to where their ship has set down anchor to repair and replenish supplies and the crew and captain Kyoko are missing. After some investigation, and a small wild looking girl pointing them in the right direction, the party came across a temple high in the mountains that appeared to be dedicated to snakes.
So tonight, lets look at some snakes.
Snakes in a Pit
212FrSiaP
So without much waffle tonight lets look at the stat blocks for this weeks content!
Swarm of Poisonous Snakes
A pile of snakes, the idea behind these will be the people that abduct and grab the people from the beach (the crew members and Kyoko) will be a bunch of snakes shifted into a humanoid form and when they are back in their temple, their prey before the deity that they worship (seen below) they return to their serpentine form.
Being a more challenging foe I wouldn’t expect more than one or two of these for the temple.
Giant Poisonous Snake
Not as giant as the giant constrictor snake but still large and dangerous these creatures, like the snake swarm above, will take the form of a humanoid to abduct victims from the beech. I would anticipate these snakes will be the main one that is found in the temple and will support either a swarm of snakes, the giant constrictor snake or even the Naga.
Giant Constrictor Snake
Reserved forms of the larger and stronger (more faithful) serpents that serve the Naga these snakes will be seen to have a place of respect – grappling a creature whilst the swarm of poisonous snakes slither forth and bite the prey that is grappled.
These snakes are large, as and with the 10ft threat range on the bite (same as the poisonous snake) makes these creatures a large threat.
Abyssal Naga
The commander, the boss of the temple and being highly intelligent, immune to conditions and poison and being able to cast spells these creatures are impressive to behold.
This creature wont be alone and should have a few snakes outside its room/alter and should reveal itself from hiding (having a high stealth ability). It should try and convince the party to worship it, as it is arrogant and believes itself above all others but when it fights it will attempt to control the biggest threat (mage) and will then attack the others with spells.
Thanks for joining us tonight, I hope that you enjoyed what you have read and are looking forward to the end of week write-up as much as I am.
Don’t forget to come back this weekend for more work, and if you have a word for my “one word challenge” then feel free to propose one for me to write to this weekend!
Oh, and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Hi all and welcome to fightnight!, well, Friday night which happens to be when I try to produce statistics for meaningful combat.
Tonight we are looking at the vicious pirates who are boarding the Red Fleets Dancing Drake, Kyoko’s ship. To save time and conserve my writing reserves I will kick it off without much pomp or fanfare.
Wave Walkers
211FrWaWa
As the silver dragonborn strode across the gangplank he deflected arrows, bolts, blades and clubs that launched at him with not even the slight shimmer of his curved sword moving to intercept the weapons.
Those who ran around him seemed to dance across the planks, float effortlessly through the air on corded rope and glided around the waves that crashed around them. If they weren’t stabbing, cutting and swiping at the crew and party the way they moved across the ship and between them could almost be considered beautiful.
Milligan Silverborn
Born on the seas and pledged to the lord of the waves Milligan grew up with a connection to the weather and to the pirates he called family. After several years he grew so used to the rough seas to the west of Faerun that his proficiency went from something inherent to something mystical and those who fought with him also became like water and wind across the decks of those they sought to plunder from.
Silverborn’s Crew
The crew that follow Milligan Silverborn are more accustomed to life on the waves and amongst the storms than others and believe that their captain and the sea itself will protect them. As such they rarely wear any armour so their movement can flow across their prey like waves spilling over a deck
For this fight let’s assume that the party is Level 4. For this fight Milligan wont appear on deck unless his crew look to be having trouble, which they will with our party, and when he does fight he will bring 3 to 5 of his crew into the fray with him. He uses them much like a sailor uses knots, to hold things in place while he can make the most out of the situation at hand and control the flow of the battle. For this encounter I would have 2 to 3 pirates attacking every 2 rounds, roll a d6 and add the number of pirates that are left fighting the party on the Dancing Drake if the result is 4 or Less then another 2 or 3 pirates will also join the fray.
Once 10 pirates have been dispatched then Milligan and his crew will join. If Milligan drops below 20 HP he will retreat to his ship and if the party look like they will dispatch the rest of his crew easily he will cut the lines (if not already cut) and will flee with his remaining crew to not return. He will plead a parley if he cant escape and is injured.
Thanks for joining me tonight for a glimpse at the pirate Milligan Silverborn and his crew. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for a special Saturday writeup. Don’t forget if you have a submission for a 30 minute challenge please send it my way in the way of a single word and any restrictions (or mandatory elements) you wish to challenge me with and I will do my best to come up with a one shot adventure within 30 minutes (or a designated time frame..)
Oh, and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Hi all and welcome to Friday night here at Brazen Wolfe Tabletop!
Tonight is fight-night which means that we explore anything and everything to do with encounters, puzzles or settings to test our parties problem solving, dungeoneering and combat capabilities.
Tonight, being the first step onboard the ship to adventure, I wanted to put a few ideas out there for a random encounter that could happen on the waves, either as the party leave the coast or any time after on their journey. So on with the stat-blocks!
Scouting party
210FrScPa
As the party look over the endless waves ahead the wind picks up the huge red sails and pushes the boat along at a surprising speed. Staring at the waves that are made of a medley of blue’s and greens the party notice three large figures swimming under the water a few hundred feet way and parallel to the boat.
After some time the three figures move closer, growing in size as well as the boldness of their approach before large fishlike bodies emerge from the water to next to the ship, the riders of the large coiled creatures each equipped with a spear and a shell crafted into a shield.
The classic Merfolk and Giant sea horse combo. Nothing strong but the conversation, messages, and potential for role play is something that cant be overlooked.
If the party say something that the peaceful sea dwellers don’t like then 3 steeds and 3 riders would be enough for a medium encounter – I would grant the rider advantage on their spear rolls if they attack as the result of the sea horse charging but they wouldn’t engage outside of the water.
The information that can come from the scouting party may be about what lies in the water, dark tiding from the western waters about whole underwater communities vanishing to the murky depths or sudden storms that come from no where. The limit here is really up to the imagination of you and how the party engage in the encounter.
Thanks for joining me tonight, don’t forget to come back on the weekend for more content and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Hi all and welcome to Friday where we look at everything to do with the creatures, environment, obstacles and play through of the encounter for this week.
Tonight we use last nights creature template to create a few different stat blocks that we can use in this weekends adventure as well as the creature that starts it all, The Shadow Mist Creeper.
Mist that creeps through the shadows
209FrSCreeps
First on our list is the originating factor – the shadow Mist Creeper this creature is something that originates across the waves but has found its way over as only the incorporeal can.
The Shadow inside the puppet
The Shadow-mist creeper is a creature born from souls taken too early in life when was to young to make peace with what had happened to them. Commonly these are children who have not lived long enough and who truly believe that they have not had their due just yet. These spirits are generally playful and use their new undead misty form to create mischief and chaos rather than outright malevolence and death. However those who are created as a Shadow-mist creeper but who are old enough to understand the gravity of their situation but held on with their malice and hatred are truly terrifying when it comes to their anger and white hot hatred for life.
Regardless of the original creature that spawned a Shadow-mist creeper all of them share a few common features.
All shadow-mist creepers don’t have physical form or the power to interact with the physical world for long. Those who do so will need a dead body, or one close to death to inhabit until they can find a source of life energy to be able to leave the body they reside in.
Like Ghast’s they have a hierarchy, the most powerful malevolent spirits take take control of the actions of the others in the group and through force of will they can command the other generally mischievous spirits into a terrifying horde of malicious malevolent spiteful creatures.
This creature can inhabit the dead body and the creature functions as a zombie – however creatures killed by a Shadow-mist creeper become a Shadow Stitched skin – a body corrupted by the undead nature of the shadow-mist creeper and more suitable than just any other dead body. These creatures are faster, stronger but share the same aversion to the sun (despite not being as terrifying as they have a fresh new body suit to protect them!)
The Fell
Dead creatures killed then inhabited by a Shadow-mist creeper become known as the fell, but their true names are Shadow Stitched Skins.
These creatures are weak, relatively fast (when compared to a zombie) but highly intelligent as they seek out sources of life to restore their energy so they can continue to exist.
Occasionally many Shadow Stitched creatures act as one living organism to try and overpower any resistances they encounter. This phenomena is almost always as the behest of a particularly strong Shadow stitched and are seldom recorded by those who the heaving, twitching mass of shadow and recently killed flesh have targeted as their prey.
The encounter can take place any where and should be a mixture of Guards, Mastiffs and cats (more animals than not) who rush at the party from random directions, not enough to pose a real threat (1d4+1). Every two rounds (12 seconds) another wave should come and on the fourth wave replace one mastiff or cat with the ogre – the ogre being the particularly strong Shadow-mist creeper. Once the ogre is killed then any remaining creatures will have the mist escape and float into the sky slowly evaporating their energy and focus (being directed by the ogre) gone.
If the creatures are killed and the Ogre remains as the last creature then it will leave its big fleshy body (Roll 1d4 and pick a direction, if there is a character there they need to make a Dex saving throw DC14 or they end up under the ogre) and will try to escape in its Shadow-mist creeper form.
Thanks for joining me tonight to explore and test out the template. I think for me the biggest issue wasn’t using Tetra cube (which made it easy!) it was me remembering to update all the little details (I think I missed out on some of the penalties to damage.. apologies!)
Don’t forget to come back tomorrow and this post is the last one to nominate a word if you want to see a Random word 30 minute challenge this weekend!
Oh, and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Hi all and welcome to Friday or as I like to think of it, FightNight!
As promised I couldn’t stay away from a healthy “ambush on the way back to Daye” and I think the theme and logic behind the ambush is quite fitting so let’s roll into it.
Ambush at the Old Oak
208FrAOO
The party have settled down for the night about twenty miles out of Daye, the woods up ahead being too dangerous to travel at night. Katya has been reading from her book all day and the party cant help but notice the constant energy that is being emitted from her like warmth from a fire, and that’s what it is – its warmth, light and the essence of life. But this constant output of energy has taken a toll and Katya looks weakened, not quite feeble but tired and exhausted.
As the party clean up from their meals and organise watch a eerie rattle comes from the roads and plains around them. Those with darkvision or the ability to summon light would instantly see shambling, incoherent parade of the long dead being risen once more. Steeling themselves for battle they notice the first skeletons walk into the light of the fire where Katya’s passive aura of magic appears to be strongest and the dark magic binding their bones together seems to weaken as fingers, hands and even whole limbs fall off the moment they step upon the flower rich grass around the wagon.
Now the approach for this encounter is different and more to tell a story. Under normal circumstances a party of 4 level 3s (which is what I would assume them all to be after their ordeals in Bracken Hollow) the amount of skeletons in the horde is just immeasurable, I’m thinking between 80 and 100. But as this is explaining or showing off how powerful Katya could be (with training) and that her aura of life energy and magic flowing out of her like a radiant sun has the potential to bring new life and bounty to the land – it also can attract the darkness that walks at the edge of the light.
The mechanics!
A 30ft circle centred on Katya (the centre of the wagon) is treated as hallowed ground, The skeletons will have disadvantage on all attack and saving throws IF they are within the circle. The party, at initiative 20, get 1d4+2 Temporary hitpoints for being within the range of the circle.
The Skeletons are broken up into four ‘distinct’ hordes, the front of the wagon, the left flank of it, the back of the wagon and, you guessed it, the right flank of the wagon. Each horde has 20 skeletons on it (adjust to 25 if you’re party are blasting through them too easily) and consider the below.
Each horde has a total of 100hp, yikes, which is 5hp per skeleton – they are weakened due to the magic after all.
Every 5 points of damage dealt by the players (as Paul, Katya and Carline won’t be fighting in this) will destroy another skeleton. So a dagger that manages to deal 7 points of damage which to a horde that has 67/100 hp remaining would kill two Skeletons – make sure to talk up how the party does it with one dagger.
Each saving throw made by the Skeleton is made at disadvantage and assume that the AOE is all skeletons in a horde (or 50% in two hordes, 25% if it targets three hordes). Success is saving 50% of Skeletons, failure saves 10% of skeletons from the effect.
IF the damage form the attack (burning hands) is enough to kill 1 skeleton assume all that failed die and then calculate damage to the horde as normal (burning hands dealt 6 damage, a big fail on on the dice roll, but it manages to kill 10 skeletons outright and then a further 5 due to the them succeeding but the damage being enough to kill another 5.
When the Horde attacks Assume 2 hits the nearest party member to that horde for every 10 Skeletons. If the character has a particularly high AC then only 1 hits.
Don’t roll attack rolls, just assume averages. It’s meant to feel overwhelming but the encounter is designed for the party to survive it.
If two or more Party members are equally close to a horde who is attacking then roll a dice and randomly allocate where it makes logical sense. The 24 AC paladin with shield of faith and who took the dodge action probably wont get hit by skeletons…
Since the Skeletons have a mixture of ranged weapons and melee weapons make sure to describe both – arrows bouncing off plate, rusty swords bending as they strike a exposed gauntlet, arrows finding the gap between pieces of armour or a rusted long sword (that’s now the size of a short sword due to the level of rust…) landing a grazing blow on an exposed forearm.
When the horde thins enough (20%?) I would roll it into another horde.
Have the horde(s) act on Initiative 13 (for flanks) and 10 for front and back.
If you are awarding experience points for your encounters at the end I would award 10% of the skeletons XP – they are nerfed pretty hard in this fight and are there to have a thematic “save the princess” moment for the party.
Thanks for joining me tonight, fighting with hordes can be quite a fun moment for the party – the never ending waves of goblins pouring through the opened great stone doors in Moria being met by desperate axe, sword, arrow and fists is something that I have always wanted to encounter as a player, or run as a DM. The sheer manic fight for ones life and the frenzy that goes into these massive horde battles is something that people will talk about for years to come.
Don’t forget to come back this weekend for more content, tomorrow nights “Adventure in 30 minute” challenge is on and Sunday we look to post the conclusion to this months writeup.
If you do have another word that you want to suggest for these 1 word adventure challenges feel free to comment on this post and I will add it to the potential words for next week!
Oh, and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Brazen Wolfe Tabletop 