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The Marsh of Masks…

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Monday has come again and as I hinted in the weekends writeup we are exploring the Marsh of Masks this week. This week I am experimenting slightly with the format this week finding that the variations of colours (tying in with the colours I use for the post-its I have on my board here) were maybe a bit to much. So this week I am looking at toning it down a bit and potentially updaing the previous posts to a more neutral colour format.

Without further waffle let’s have a look at this weeks adventure hooks!

Never trust something that hides behind a mask…

Credit to image goes to original owner – located here under public domain

The town of Newtbranch is situated about a days travel into the largest marshlands on the continent. The path to the city is frequently submerged by a black, brackish water that leaves a stench amongst travelers clothes and the creatures that call the marsh home are even less appealing to the average trader. But the town of Newtbranch is situated next to what used to be the most bountiful gold mine in the known land.

Due to that the marsh is known for three things, it’s mine that still pulls up gold (although not as bountiful as it used to be), the ruins of an ancient civilisation that used to live amongst the bogs and the trees and its cemetery, one of the largest cemeteries due to the number of deaths that happen in the mind, around the marsh and within the town.

Despite the high fatality rate, prospectors, miners, archaeologists and adventurers find themselves drawn to Newtbranch, a city build above the bogs among the branches of the ancient branches that call the marsh home but the wispers amongst the falling leaves and twisted branches speak of a new concern for the town. Masked creatures stalk the bog beneath the suspended tree village, some townsfolk even have whispered of masked figures amongst the houses in the town.

Orcs in the mists

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The strange noises, shadows that pass the windows and amongst the bog are caused by a tribe of orcs that wear masks constructed of the skulls of beasts of the swamps. The reason for them being amongst the city, but not outright ransacking them seem to be unknown and they appear to attempting to be carefully hide their tracks.

The death masks

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A necromancer in the marsh has begun raising the dead from the graves near the town and has ordered them to search the bogs. The zombies and other undead creatures have managed to avoid being outright spotted but the necromancer who controls them grows impatient with their brainless servants lack of results.

Thanks to joining me on your Monday and I hope to see you in the following days. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow where we look at some of the colourful characters that our players may encounter in this weeks adventure, some may help, many may hinder the players in their quest to unravel what stalks the streets and the bogs.

Thanks for joining me for 9 weeks of me writing up these adventures, if you haven’t already consider subscribing so you don’t miss out on anything and if you like what read don’t forget to let us know!

And as always don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

A nest amongst the sands…

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Sunday has come and the adventure has been started. This week we were looking to keep things simple with reduced variations or options in this week’s adventure. So to wrap it all up I will see how in depth I can go.

Hope you liked this adventure and are looking forward to next weeks!

To hunt the cockatrice takes the characters into The Hollow Desert, a place where rain comes but once a year and those who travel, let alone live there, have to be made of stronger stuff. 

The denizens of the desert are hardy, resourceful and cunning, they have to be in order to survive. 

The characters find themselves entering Apituk, part of the Khizdumese Theocracy, after travelling for quite a few weeks to get to the city. Unlike the grasslands around the city the streets are paved with stone and the buildings are crudely made from sandstone and people from all races are flittering around haggling with street vendors trying to get cheaper prices for food, goods and trinkets.

The plot

After an hour the party finds themselves approached by a man dressed in a long black flowing cloak. He Introduces himself just as ‘Y’ greets them praising them for their reputation and singing praises of the party which are almost all true the and requests that they follow him as his patron has a request for them that will pay them handsomely for their involvement in the successful outcome for his patron.

The man ushers the party into a carriage that looks to be extremely well made with plush fabric covered seats and exotic furs to add that little bit more lushness to the experience. The carriage is large enough to seat 8, impeccably clean and feels overall quite expensive. A little basin with little dish of water is placed before the party by the carriage footman. The mysterious man, who calls himself Y, quite confusing really, produces a small palm sized crystal that glows with a purple light and places it in the basin.

A ladies voice, muffled by magic or something mundane, speaks from the crystal and from the tone and language used they party can tell that she owns the carriage and probably much much more.

The owner of the voice offers the party a job, go to a gypsy camp in the Hollow desert and retrieve an artefact called the Shruiabe Coin and bring it back to Y. The party as compensation would receive 1,000 gp each for their discretion and the artefact and a bonus will be provided to them if the artefact is the genuine thing and does what it is rumoured to do so. The party is to wait at the Mulberry and Cake inn within the city for their full compensation upon their return. If the party accept then Y would produce a map that indicates the known reported locations of the gypsy camp and a sum of 350gp to get provisions for the journey as the Hollow desert is not a forgiving place.

Once in The Hollow Desert if the party had hired help (a guide) or purchased/hired camels or other animals/vehicles that could travel across the sands in a desert then that would make the journey easier. For each day that the party travel they would suffer a level of exhaustion unless travelling via animal vehicle, guided by someone knowledgeable or travelling at night (when it’s cold, not hot). 

The people

Kelsei Whisper song

Kelsei Wispersong is a moonelf (tanned now) who travels with the various traders and gypsies in the Hollow Desert. She is just over 5 feet tall, a little chubby but sharp as a tack. Nothing escapes her notice and thats how she has survived so long in the desert with the gypsies that seem to travel with the change in the sands.

Kelsei knows what it takes to survive and if you ask around about her she does just that. Knowing a good thing when she sees it she is quick to make them best of good situations and she always seems to make it out on top. However she has just as quickly to know a bad thing and when to cut her losses (or avoid them altogether) and walk away.

When the party enquire about the Shruiabe Coin Kelsei gets defensive and would enquire as to how they know about the coin, why they want it and who is it for. To prove their worth for the coin Kelsei would request that they retrieve for the gyspie camp 4 cockatrices or the same number of cockatrice eggs as this particular troop of survivors has learnt how to domesticate them and use them for guardians of the camp, as currency and when times get rough, food. She would describe where they are poorly (if they have a guide they should know but wouldn’t be pleased about it) but if she notices the party have a map she would offer to mark it on there – surprised that it’s already marked on the map as the third possible location of the gyspie camp. She would explain that they had to leave when a group of marauders attacked them one night and caused many losses to the people of this camp.

The Encounters

There are three stages to the fights this week. 2 road side encounters,1 at night when they camp and 1 when they go to retrieve the cockactrices or their eggs. Let’s have a look at them

Tricks of the sands.

On the first time of travelling they would see an oasis off in the distance with what looks like a plume of smoke coming from it (if travelling at night time they would see a pinprick of flickering light). If they were to roll investigation (DC14) they would determine it to be an illusion. But not quite a mirage. If they continue on their path towards the one of the three last known encampments of the gypsies they would then be buffeted by sands and would have their wills tested (wisdom saving throw) – if they fail they would find a cave not far off the track which they would try and shelter in from the sand storm. If they pass they realise that there is no sandstorm or no cave and would be confused if anything else were to move to the bottom of a large sand dune and appear to take shelter. 

If the party does try to shelter in the illusionary cave they would suffer a level of exhaustion after an hour as the sun would continue to shine down on them and would dehydrate them. If they pass again they would be ambushed by a Blue dragon wyrmling who would fly over them and throw blasts of lightning at the party trying to scare them off. If they beat the wyrming who would plead for its life, or if it has a chance to escape the party would find out (by the wyrmling informing them, or the party stumbling at the base of cliffs where several adult blue dragons would swoop down to confront them. If the Wyrming lives he would be there and would try and persuade the party to leave (whilst asking the adults to leave them alone) as the party has stumbled upon the nesting grounds of the blue dragons which was the cause of the gypsies abandoning this rather good position to camp long term. 

The party would find shelter not far away (or could ask for shelter from the dragons) and could rest for the night. If they do rest here the dragons would fly and warn them to not go towards the cliffs but to stay in the oasis.

Blue Dragon wyrmling

Stingers come from beneath the sands.

At night if the party eats food or lights a fire they would be attacked by the human sized Sand scorpions of the hollow desert who are either drawn towards their food and the heat from the fire. 2-3 scorpions would attack them and would try and take the party members (furthest from the fire) one by one back into a nearby shallow sand burrow.

In the morning the party head towards the next known campsite and find that it is the correct one and it’s inhabited by the gypsy camp.

Blue Dragon wyrmling

Iron Tooth clan

On the way to the next camp, the following day or that night – depending on players and if they need to recover any exhaustion, the party would be ambushed by a group of these ‘marauders’ which are a mix of Tabaxi and Half-orcs. They declare that they are part of the Iron Tooth clan and that they will let the party go without bloodshed if they can take them to the gypsies of the desert so they can finish the job and kill them and their witch – who slew their last boss when they attacked them last time. 

If the party fights then it would be 1 bandit Captain and 6 bandits.

If the Party lead the bandits to the gypsies then the camp and Kelsei would fight. Kelsie would cast a powerful sleep spell that would put all the bandits to sleep except for the captain who would run away. The camp would be hostile towards the party now, not attack on sight but they would not be welcome back into the camp and Kelsei would be disappointed and request that instead of 4 creatures or 4 eggs she would require both creatures and eggs. If they can retrieve more of either that may sooth things over with the camp.

Bandits

A nest of stone.

After the encounter with the bandits they would make it to the old camp and look for the place Kelsie would have described. Finding it they would find 6 cockatrice in there and 5 eggs. The cockatrice would attack the moment they realise that the party is there. If the fight breaks out amongst the nest roll a d20 for each action taken within the same 5ft area of the nest and on 1-7 the egg is destroyed, once the fight is over if any eggs were trampled then the party is unable to recover them. The party then can bring back any cockatrice that is knocked out and bring them to the Gypsies. If any party member is petrified then they will return to flesh 24 hours after being turned to stone (but the parties may not already know this – only if they have encountered a cockatrice before or recall them with a DC14 nature check will they be aware of the petrification conditions. If the party are petrified they would wake to find the cockatrices have moved their nest and only a successful DC12 survival check would reveal where they are now. Any party member left behind whilst petrified would wake to find they are where they were and would need to decide what to do now.

Cockatrice

Credit to Dan Scott (no active links to his work could be found…)

The outcome

Upon retrieving them for the camp they would have a much more welcome return – even if the bandits were led from the camp – if they bring back the bandit captain (or proof that the captain is deasd) then they would forgive the party as long as they have the required amount of creatures and eggs. 

Kelsei would request the party to be careful with the coin as it has caused bad luck – but isn’t inherently magical – the though that it is is what has given the legend its status and many bad people want to use the coin for their own nefarious purposes.  Kelsei would also explain the history of the coin and her people as an attempt to return without the coin to the city but she offers it over as a way of keeping her end of the deal. 

Upon reaching the city after leaving the desert the party must make a decision on what to do with the coin – If they hand it over then the collector (not a priest) is happy with the coin and will give them their reward. If they do not provide the coin then they miss out on the exchange, are thanked for their efforts and another party would be requested to go go find the coin at a later time.

Thanks for joining this week. I think that’s enough for this adventure so I can say that it’s a wrap.

Don’t forget to come back next week for another round of adventures were we explore the Marsh of masks and what adventures would lie within its murky waters.
Oh, and as always don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Not quite lethal…

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Welcome to the weekend! Traditionally games night take place for me on the weekend but with lockdowns here in Australia lifting decided to get a cheeky Warhammer game in today instead of D&D.

So let’s have a look at something that will be encountered tomorrow with the publication of the adventure for this week.

How and what can we do to deal with not- quite lethal encounters such as the Cockatrice.

Well first of letters look at the little nightmare-chicken.

Cockatrice by Dan Scott

Petrification, turning flesh into stone, is a d&d staple and will invoke fear into the player. But let’s look at why.

Let’s look at petrification first and dnd beyond has a great entry for this status condition.

Now perhaps the fear comes from turning to stone, semi-permanent where they are now a incapacitated, and effectively dead to the world unless restored by powerful magic. Or could it be the loss of control where they can’t do anything to save themselves. This is their character who they have invested dozens or hundreds of hours into is now a glorified garden gnome who is at the mercy of the creature who did this to them who could early break their body apart and the character would just cease.

The Cockatrice is an interesting encounter as everyone would know of it, knows it can petrify but it’s only for 24 hours.

As a DM 24 hours is a long time. As the effect states any non-magical items are also turned to stone. Maybe a party beiny petrified by a nightmare-chicken gives us a chance to add in a twist or additional layer to the plot. Maybe a den of thieves use cockatrice’s as a way to capture and rob adventurers of their more valuable gear and equipment or they move the Steve-come-statue you their lair and wait a day until they revert back to flesh before robbing them.

The time condition on the Cockatrice bite makes it an interesting yet lower risk encounter that could prepare them for harder quests in the future.

Well that’s the ramblings if a ragged DM on a Saturday night. If you comet back tomorrow we will investigate the Cockatrice den and how it ties into the Adventure story.

As always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,

The Brazen Wolfe

In the desert winds…

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Friday night is here and that means fight night! We have a selection of a couple stat blocks, a return of a versatile favourite and one, that the adventure mentions heavily, that I will include in this weekends write-up. Thanks for joining me for the 8th week of writing adventures for Brazen Wolfe Tabletop and without any more dribble from me let’s roll some dice.

Hollow desert scorpion

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Hollow desert scorpion is a smaller variation of the giant scorpion found in other parts of the world. It normally lives in small swarms of 2 to 4 which makes them deadly for a party of unprepared adventures.

The scorpions are drawn to light and heat, finding that most of its prey emit one of both of these qualities and in the dark cold nights in the Hollow Desert easy food is a rare occurrence.

This encounter we are looking at a night time ambush, maybe as the party are cooking their meal or around the campfire for warmth the scorpions would attack. They are not brilliant at tactics and are likely to attack the things closest to them (on the edges of the camp fire light) but they would they and grapple and sting multiple times as they drag their prey into the darkness.

Ambush on the road – Blue Dragon Wyrmling

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Blue dragons are desert manipulators. Able to burrow and hide in sand they will manipulate adventures and make them get lost, fall for mirages or even drink copious amounts of sand.

The blue dragons have a strong hierarchy. In this case the higher up dragons sent out the wyrmling to push the party away from their nest. Using hallucinations to push them away and then attacking if need be. it will flee if hurt.

The last encounter I would want to talk about for the night is bandits. Love me some bandits. Any race, any settings any adventure can have bandits and they flesh out the narrative with a delay tactic. They also may provide some. Loot which for some reasons players can’t get enough of.

That will do it for tonight, over the weekend I will wrap it all up together in one neat adventure and we will see what the final product is. Don’t forget to tune in then and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage.

The Brazen Wolfe

The Hollow Desert

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Thursday is here and with it comes a few maps. Utilising Azgaars Fantasy map generator again with exploring what we can do with adding a few options on the layers and even importing symbols and labels to customise what was generated. You can also alter some of the boundaries that were spawned for lakes, rivers and oceans.

As with the rest of this week I am trying to keep it rather simple. So I have a overworld map for the continent we have available to us to reference for the players that talks about empires in play – the current main focus is for Biome so we can see where the hot desert is (The Hollow Desert) but you can adjust it to suit your needs. Without talking too much about the tool of the week let’s get into it.

Continent Map

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Continent map – The Hollow Desert is positioned to the south of the Continent and touches the coast and the lake within the Khizdumese Theocracy.

The Hollow Desert

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The three marked or last known camps where Kelsei may be at any one point. The idea behind these three camps is that the party needs to visit all three camps before they find the right one. This has an opportunity for a day of travel across the desert and encounters as they are travelling from place to place. I would have One encounter during travel and one at night the day after when the party are getting ready to rest for the night.

Encounter map – dried river bed

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One of the reason that the gypsies would have left this camp would have been that the water had dried up. The other is what attacks them at night. The inspiration for this map (will link credits to artist below as always!) is a bunch of desert dwelling creatures that attack in the middle of the night – drawn to the food and supplies that the party brings.

Credits to image go to g0dxmode which you can find some of their content here on redit

That’s all we have for tonight. If you do like the maps that have been used have a look at Azgaars Fantasy Map Generator. If you like the maps found online have a look at the artists and do support them if you can, a lot of these maps are free use but the artists skills in producing these can not be contested.

Come back tomorrow night to have a look at the creatures that live within the sands. Bonus points to the people who know the movie scene where I get one of the encounters from.

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow to have a look at what we have for the close of the week and as always don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

As volatile as the sands of time…

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Wednesday and we have two official twists fort or adventure. One altering ,(or explaining) the nature of the coin and the other introducing a left hook to mix up the partysb quest where their employer, or one in under her employ, is not who they seem.

Tomorrow night if maps and I hope to explore a tool mentioned in the weekend and maybe a few pre-planned battlefields for the party. So make sure to join me tomorrow for that!

The Shruiabe Coin

The centre of the adventure must hold some mystery so lets look at what lies in wait for those who seek the Shruiabe Coin.

08WeIm

The coin itself is said to grant its owner a measure of immortality. They will not age not will suffer the I’ll affects of old age. Their age will effectively be frozen in time from the point of acquiring the artefact and until it leaves their possession

What isn’t advertised is that in those with a weak will who have tasted the artefacts power are driven to seek the coin as their waking thoughts and motives become consumed neither in the thought of once again holding the coin and feeling it’s cold metal on their skin. They are also driven to feed on the life force of others as a way of sustaining their even more apparent life force.

It is whispered in the occult circles that the use of the Shruiabe Coin is what gave birth to the first vampires but nothing has been proven, yet.

The Whispersong family of elves is said to have been surprisingly resistant to the negative and positive energy of the coin and their ancestors were entrusted to watch over the coin and make sure that no one with ill will would come in contact with it.

If coin does unnaturally extend the life of the owner the party may find themselves unwilling to retrieve the coin from Kelsei or part from it once they have it. Either for their own benefit or to prevent others from using it.

08WePr

Long had the priest waited for their chance at the artefact again. Several bodies he had inhabited using dark rituals but this time he.. she.. it believed that they were in a position to finally retrieve the coin.

Either a servant of or the lady who hired the party to go after the artefact the priest is now closed to obtaining the coin, if the party delivers their end of the deal.

Once/if the priest gets the artefact perhaps they just disappear with it to live in out a solitary life of immortality, or perhaps the dark powers at play that have sponsored the priests powers for so long have tired of his/her schemes and the coin is the price of his/her freedom from the dark.

What ever the reason the presence of the priest should be hidden for as long as possible, even Kelsei shouldn’t reveal the true nature or the parties employer and it can be a puzzle and/or encounter for them to deal with.

Thanks for joining me tonight to look at some of the changes it twists we can make. The alternatives are simple. The coin doesn’t work or work exactly as it was foretold and the lady hiring the party is a collector of oddities and whether using the coin for a longer life, or just to own a priceless artefact, she is innocent. But where is the fun in that?

Not all adventures need twists but having something that changes they players view our understanding can enhance their in experience in the game so it is a valuable ingredient to add to the mix

As always don’t forget to follow or subscribe if you like what you read tonight so you can stay up to date on the content here at Brazen Wolfe Tabletop and definitely don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Witch of the desert…

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Well Tuesday has come around and I plan on keeping to the initial thought of having this week simple, short and sweet I have a single NPC to bring you today.

The image was created in, you guessed it, art breeder but this time through my phone browser. Despite the sliders being hard to manager with a thumb, and scrolling to get to the desired one being nothing short of a headache it worked reasonably well, no issues in quality of limits in what it can or can’t do and I am happy with the results.

Kelsei, witch and survivor

Kelsei Whispersong

08TuKW

Kelsei Whispersong is a moonelf trader who travels with the various traders and gypsies in the Hollow Desert. She is just over 5 feet tall, a little chubby but sharp as a tack. Nothing escapes her notice and thats how she has survived so long in the desert with the gypsies that seem to travel with the change in the sands.

Kelsei knows what it takes to survive and if you ask around about her she does just that. Knowing a good thing when she sees it she is quick to make them best of good situations and she always seems to make it out on top. However she has just as quickly to know a bad thing and when to cut her losses (or avoid them altogether) and walk away.

Kelsei came from a extended family that had become oddly complacent with staying in one place. When the wanderlust overcame Kelsei, youngest daughter of 3 children, her parents and the head of the family thought that something had come over her. Fearful that a curse had overcome her they sent for a priest to purge the evil. Unfortunately they invited into their household the very evil evil they sought to purge.

After several months of living with them the priest had the ear and trust of all the heads of the family except for Kelsei’s parents who felt a darkness in the man’s soul. Giving Kelsei the key to the family’s treasure room they told her to take anything she could carry or wanted to have so that it couldn’t be used as part of the priests plans, which seemed to involve sparking a war with a friendly village of halflings, gnomes and humans. Among other trinkets was an artefact known as the Shruiabe Coin. Having taken the most powerful artefacts get parents bid her farewell and sent her away, casting several spells to assist I’m her escape.

When she returned years later, having hidden the most powerful of artefacts, she found her family home deserted and all history of her people gone.

Having travelled for a few decades she had picked up a thing or two about tacking and locating people or objects so she searched for answers to what happened to get family. After a week she found that the village who the priest was promoting a war with had a tale of an elven war party that had been beaten back by a handful of villagers and their farm tools. Curious she sought more info and was rewarded with a meeting with one of the father’s who fought the elves.

Vlaston was a man, ancient by human standards but his mind was still sharp and he could recall details of the encounters. A stranger disguised as a priest had come to then a few days before the attack and had warned them. He proved magical blessings on the farmers to make them stronger and faster than an elf. His only request was a single golden coin taken from the battlefield, the coin would have runes and etchings around the rim of it. The villagers found no coin and assumed it was on one of the elves that fled.

Kelsei spent the next few years tracking down the elves that fled but had found that all of them had settled in civilised villages and towns but had mysteriously died when their home was broken into, ransacked but with nothing stolen. The only elves, or traces of elves she didn’t manage to find were of her parents.

When she found the last of the elves that escaped she stood before her older sister who looked like a old human woman, her elven youth and long life appearing to have vanished. Talking to her sister she found out that her parent’s had died defending her, and her younger brother (Kelsies older brother) when a man who looked like priest had finally tracked them down and tried to take the Shruiabe Coin from them, when he found out that the coin was not with them he cast a spell that ripped their elven long life away from them and that’s when her parents attacked and mortally wounded the man. The man stumbled out of the house and disappeared into the crowd, a black ichor like blood dotting his path through the street. Her parents and older brother (who dealt the man the wound) died shortly after from the fights but asked her to try and find Kelsei to let her know to hide the coin away until someone worthy asks for it.

Thanks for joining me today and looking through some background for who Kelsei is and some information at what the artefact the party is after this week.

If you like where this is going don’t forget to come back tomorrow for what twists and turns we have in store this week. If you like the format of this week feel free to drop a comment down below and let us know what you like and why you like it and as always don’t forget to roll with Advantage!
The Brazen Wolfe

To Hunt the Cockatrice…

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This week is effectively my week off so I will be posting the bones of an adventure that I hope people will be able to incorporate and in use for an adventure as soon as this weekend.

Monday is here and that brings us a new plot and hook for our players to get excited for the adventure!

Caravan image created and all credit to Irate_Astartes

You’d be surprised what they sell these days…

The merchant caravan, whether travelling from place to place or set up as a semi-permanent shop, is a staple of many adventures. Normally they are things to escort, things to meet at, things to purchase goods from or ab place to come back later when the owner is away and steal that shiny dagger…

What ever you use them for this week we are starting at a caravan.

The gift of immortality

08MoCa

The party, as they enter the town, returning from their latest adventure, are approached by a well dressed man who carries himself as one would with years of experience and training, seeming to blend in with the crowd as water moves amongst rocks.

The man ushers the party into a carriage that looks to be extremely well made with plush fabric covered seats and exotic furs to add that little bit more lushness to the experience. The carriage is large enough to seat 8, impeccably clean and feels overall quite expensive. A little basin with little dish of water is placed before the party by the carriage footman. The mysterious man, who calls himself Y, quite confusing really, produces a small palm sized crystal that glows with a purple light and places it in the basin.

A ladies voice, muffled by magic or something mundane, speaks from the crystal and from the tone and language used they party can tell that she owns the carriage and probably much much more.

The owner of the voice offers the party a job, go to a gypsy camp in the Hollow desert and retrieve an artefact called the Shruiabe Coin and bring it back to Y. The party as compensation would receive 1,000 gp each for their discretion and the artefact and a bonus will be provided to them if the artefact is the genuine thing and does what it is rumoured to do so. The party is to wait at the Mulberry and Cake inn within the city for their full compensation upon their return. If the party accept then Y would produce a map that indicates the known reported locations of the gypsy camp and a sum of 350gp to get provisions for the journey as the Hollow desert is not a forgiving place.

The Gypsy Camp

After a few days, and trying a few previously known locations the party arrives at the gypsy camp. The past few days have been rough as the denizens of the desert are numerous and hostile. Making their n way through the camp they ask about the artefact and are pointed towards a colourful tent with wars and goods for sale. A tanned Moon elf resides as owner of the caravan-come-stall and had the artefact with her, supposedly, but she has a request for the party, an exchange for the artefact. She needs four Cockatrice eggs and knows where to get them, supposedly, but she is curious why the party is after such a cursed artefact…

Thanks for joining me for a new week, I plan on going into a little more detail with this weeks content as there is less variation in the options available.

I hope you like the plot for this week as I and excited to write it out this week.

As always don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Whistling Rocks in the town of Starfall

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Sunday is here and with that comes a bit of a writeup on what we explored this week!

Leaving everything to chance today I rolled my trusty math-rocks and let them decide what plot and NPCs would be here for us this week. I grabbed what twists I think would be releant (spoiler alert – it could be any and all of them) and the relevant map and encounter for this week.

Without further waffling from me let’s get into the main dish of waffle!

The village Starfall

Ren sat down after as long day of tendering to get crops. Taking of her dirty boots she remembered the encounter with the elves that live in the woods nearby with a small snort.

‘not sure what they meant by the Shephard’s of the forest but I see no such thing’ she laughed pouring a mug of hot mulled wine to have with her hunted rabbit and roasted corn.

A week ago the elves had approached her as she tilled the soil of her land next to the trees that formed a living wall between her land and the village of Starfall and the elves home, the Deepwood. Elves had warned her that the village had become to greedy and the latest patch of lands they had claimed as their own had alerted the Shepard’s of the forest and her farm was in danger. They warned her to leave so that no harm would come to her and encouraged her to persuade the other villagers to do the same.

Ren had remembered speaking to the other villagers who laughed at her, claiming she was too close to the elves, and they were right. Over the past few years she had always had a better relationship with the elves than the over villagers – occasionally she would find that her crops would be healthier or yield more than the other villager’s crops which had caused her a few issues when trying to sell – not many people liked the elves due to past tensions.

A creak in the wall drew her attention even through her slightly fuzzy state due to the wine. Unbolting and opening her door she noticed that there was a lot of movement through her crops – a strong wind perhaps. Feeling the aches of the day she went to bed.

In the morning she found that great swaths of her crop had been cut at just above the ground level and large boulders had found their way amongst the destruction. Another farmer had a worse fate – his entire crop had disappeared overnight, also cut at ground level.

This continued for a week before it happened. Waking in the middle of the night to a large creaking her wall exploded inwards sending stone and wood throughout the room, knocking her unconscious and burying her under the rubble. In the morning the villagers found her unconscious amongst the ruins of her home, injured but alive, and a large moss covered boulder sat in where she would normally have her meals.

Using what materials they had the villagers constructed a wall, 6 feet tall and 2 feet deep and decided to take action, confronting the elves as surely they are using druidic magic to turn on the villagers who had so far left them to their own devices. A request for arms had been given to a travelling merchant of some sort who had connections a town over. That was 2 days ago and they were expecting the supplies any day now.

Mid-morning the following day a cart, the same one of the merchant they had requested aid from, came into town with not weapons but adventurers.

The plot

07MoRo

The party sitting down in the tavern, after a long week of adventuring, are approached by a wealthy merchant who has given them work in the past. The merchant has a problem. A farming village a few days travel from here has requested an unusually large order of military supplies. The merchant needs the supplies delivered but also wants to try and prevent any hostile actions that they may be planning as he has invested interest in what he suspects is the target of the farmers’ ire.

Upon reaching the town the Party notice that a hastily built wall has been built midway through a large field, on one side there is crops of corn and wheat and on the other side is what remains of the same crop, except great swaths of the harvest is cut off at the ground and huge boulders that seem to be the cause of the destruction have appeared in the field. Talking to the farmers they suspect a tribe of wood elves is ransacking their farms, destroying their crops by use of large boulders. One of the boulders even crushed one woman’s house who has yet to wake up from the ordeal.

The Farmers want to take up arms and defend their land in the easiest way they know, attacking and killing the elves to prevent future attacks.

The people

Brok Mason

07TuBM

Brok is a rugged, but handsome, half-elven male of around 50. He has a fine layer of stubble, large amounts of muscle and short cut black hair that is yet to see that caress of grey that human males of his age tend to show

Brok is slow trusting of people. Putting his faith in hard work, animals (like his dog and horse) and gold.

Once a well respected silk merchant in Lillydale he suddenly sold his shop and took to a darker business path, the movement and smuggling of people in who need to leave without a trace. This change in business venture caused his human wife and his daughter to leave him.

What his wife and daughter didn’t know is the sale of his shop and pursuit of new employment was a deal made to prevent bankruptcy and his family becoming homeless.

Quick to judge and see the flaws in most people, Brok doesn’t make friends with many people, let alone clients as gold is worth more to him than the bonds formed between people.

Sincerity

07TuSS

Sincerity, or Sin in other circles, is a female Tiefling of around 30 or so. She is just shy of 5’2″ (157cms) with a curvy figure and long raven black hair that is occasionally tired back in a pony tail when’s she starts to conduct serious business.

Sincerity is a merchant by trade and a damn good one at that. Able to source just about anything given enough time, she has quickly given herself a name in the towns and cities she prowls. Not only that but she has an almost supernatural ability to broker trade between people’s and before they knew they even wanted something she had already sourced it and delivered it to them for a ‘competitive fee’.

Not much of her past is known except she was the only adopted (?) Daughter of a sage who taught get linguistics and business very early on in her youth.

Some rumours have said that she is the product of a one night fling between her sage father and something summoned by him to grant him knowledge. Others say that her father was lonely and merely happened to help an old friend when they couldn’t look after Sincerity.

What ever the reason many people who cried metaphorical, or not, swords with Sincerity end up in a worse state than they were in before.

Ren Miller

07SuRM

A woman in her late 20’s Ren is a hard worker. Leaving the village she grew up in Ren has come to Starfall to escape the bad memories of her parents and how their life riddled with bad luck came to a unpleasant end.

Ren is about 5ft 6 tall with hair the colour of fresh wheat. Her skin is tanned and skin is rough – a sign of a life spent working hard and in the sun.

The Road

On the road the Party could be expected to run into a group of 3-5 bandits or just as many wolves.

Encounter with the villagers

Once the party reach the village (without any weapons!) the villagers do not take kindly to them, on the verge of hostility. They are reluctant to provide them aid, a room to stay or any form of assistance. One of the villagers may recognise one of the party and either shout their praise for a deed well done, or shout insults and bring up a past failure (rumoured or otherwise).

Encounter with the Elves

The elves are peace loving folk. If the party are to seek them out they would find them half a day travel into the woods, they reveal themselves to the party and spoke extremely broken common but would explain in elven that they are not responsible for the damage at the farms – that it is the shepherd’s of the forest and that the villagers should just leave until they are stated with what they deem to be tribute to the forest at which point they will leave. The elves don’t seem to understand what the party is asking but insists that they are innocent and to watch out for the hours after dusk which is when the shepherd’s appear.

Encounter at night

07FrRo+07ThMa3

At night, when the party return from the elves OR if they go out at night and investigate the crops they would encounter the boulders.

The boulders would remain hidden until they sense the party next to their shell – at which point they will sneakily attack one of the party trying to eat them. They whistle when they attack as air seems to rush through their bodies and out holes in their rock-like shell. This whistling will alert the other snails which will crawl forward and attack the nearest party member.

Per turn of combat roll a d20 and add the combat round number. If the value is over 10 then a villager will come and look for the source of the commotion.

Map

Shephard’s of the forest (Giant Rock Snail)

Once the snails take 40 damage (or more) they will start to move towards the forest, whistling as they retreat. The other snails will also retreat. If anyone can communicate with beasts they will understand that the snails are fleeing the farms and will not return unless the forest calls for a tribute from those who encroach upon it’s territory.

The snails would also be open to leaving the farmers alone if one was to communicate with them – as long as the farmers felled no more trees they would not likely return.

The outcome

The Party having defended the village from the snails, by their demise, escape or a parley would be branded heroes from the village and Brok would take them back to the town where they originated from to reclaim a reward from Sincerity.

Thanks for joining for this weekend writeup – Having rolled up Brok to join this adventure as well (thanks to the gods of chance and fate!) I decided to make him the messenger and escort for the party. The biggest reason for doing this is to introduce him to the party so that he could ask a favour of them in the future to help him escort his daughter and gain some respect and favour from his estranged kin.

Don’t forget to join again for this coming weeks content and remember that this coming week will be a bit lighter with just a single adventure (not 3 or 4 potential adventures) being created. If you like what you are reading here don’t forget you can subscribe and remain up to date on what I publish here. And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Weekend bonus

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The weekend is here and that should mean lots of free time for all. That being said I have a warhammer game to get onto (and a writeup to try and jot down before I forget the points / key moments in the game) and a few things I want to post on today.

First this I will talk about a bit is a tool I have used on and off over the last few years to generate ideas – not really for its content but for its potential.

The second thing I want to try and get out tonight (shortly) is the promised map from Wednesday (will update Wednesdays post as well) as there was some odd technical issues when uploading that one.. strange..

But without too much chit chat let’s have a look at Azgaar’s map builder!

Azgaars Map builder

Quite a robust, intuitive and smart tool that allows you to create a few views, with different focus points, of a contintal or world map.

The options to generate, manipulate and really make the map generate something that you can call your own is massive. I will cover just the very tip of the iceberg and explain why I use this of ideas rather than as a map generator.

Having an idea of the potential politcal nature of the world around city states can lead to adventures in their own right. Maybe the people of Warland and the Grand Duchy of Sudhurstia have formed an alliance to overthrow their old aggressors the Kingdom of Baringdonia. The king of Baringonia has issues invitations to his daughters ball too all lords, ladies, and royalty to come and celebrate her coming of age – but the two allies have plotted her assassination – just as the party arrive and are confused for royalty due to their unmistakable likeness to the late King and Queen of Dundia.

Or maybe the Grand Dutchy of Sudhurstia have an issue with bandits and have requeted aid from the party to investigate the forest in the north to locate the bandits hideout.

This tool does so much more than just what I have mentioned above but its a great addition to our DMs Toolkit. Find it and have a look here (Azgaar Fantasy Map Generator)

Starfall

The promised map created in Inkarnate for your viewing pleasure. A ruined house with a large ‘boulder’ is seen on the other side of the wall with large areas of grass stripped down just above the ground. On the other side of a wall lies a well worn road with aone of the many houses situated on it with a small side-road going to it. There is not much in this house but a few beds, presumably for a larger family and a table with four chairs.

You can find a copy to clone from Inkarnate here under my week 7 folder.

Well there we have it – I will focus on Azgaar’s map generator in a future post but for me this is where I sign out and go to run a bunch of skaven across the battlefield at my man-thing opponent.

Come back tomorrow for this weeks write up and as always don’t forget to roll with advantage!
The Brazen Wolfe