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The trouble with taverns…

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Monday already and that means another selection of adventure plots is here. With this year going stupidly fast I barely noticed we are into our 6th week of writing these out so I am going to mix up a couple days this week (but still keep roughly the same format) so put a bigger twist on the challenge as a whole.

Credits and images tool blurb thing

Image from http://www.publicdomainpictures.net which can be found here Lnk to image

Taverns and Inns

Every DM would know of the session 0 hook “you meet in a tavern”. Players find NPCs to create bonds with, earn (or swindle) money, meet buyers of goods or simply get a good night rest on a bed instead of the forest floor. This week all paths lead to taverns and thats where our plot hooks start.

Deaths Door

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Deaths door is a cosy tavern famed for its garden salad, its inclusive policy and its well mannered proprietor Percy the humble.

Deaths door tavern got it’s name from an adventuring party who stopped a necromancer from opening a portal to a layer of hell and summoning forth a dark lord of undeath.

However, lately tavern patrons have been found dead with their limbs twisted in horrific ways. Six dead bodies have been found and the only link between them all is that they all visited Deaths Door at various times over the last week

Percy Merrywinkle has requested that someone step in to find the cause of these deaths as he believes there must be another cause to the patrons deaths.

Mer’s wandering Inn

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Mer’s wandering Inn is a thing of magical delight. Every few nights the Inn disappears from where it is and appears in a different city all together leaving the land it was located at empty with a sign displaying the number of days until it will relocate there.

By every second dawn the Inn has magically relocates to a predetermined place and has since it was created by Bryn, a dwarf wizard of some power who lived a mug of ale in a different location every few nights.

However as the party stay over on a non-transportation night the inn shakes, trembles and then on with a loudly sound like ripping paper or parchment all is still and quiet.

The inn has relocated, for the first time in a few hundred years, to a new place. Great discoloured clouds of magic and strange exotic animals and plants surround the Inn, it’s owner, the party and a few other patrons.

The Goblin and Lute

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The Goblin and Lute is a roudy establishment what people go to get utterly blind drunk.

The entire bar staff are all goblins and there is one rule. Drink, Pay and leave. Most of the patrons are regulars and the Inn is relatively famous for it’s business model. You drink what and goes much you want but you leave with only the clothes in your back. The last part is not shared much as the patrons like to see the bewildered looks on newcomers faces as they wake up from a big night of drinking with their purses as empty as their memories front the night before.

The city guard have tried to get their men inside for years but they always end up drunk, almost naked and confused in front of the houses of Lords and ladies.

The strangest thing is that as soon as the paying patrons who Harbour no ill will leave the tavern they are immediately sober and are extremely happy with their experience at the Goblin and Lute.

Thanks for joining me today to look at something that I, to be honest, generally overlook. I have a go to tavern that I use in most dnd sessions where the players find familiar comfort food, a familiar half-orc innkeeper and a relaxed attitude to a dnd session.

For me The Frisky Mare tavern is where most of my adventures start in some shape of form. It’s slightly rough looking Innkeeper, Tess the half-orc, looks after the party and keeps and eye on the ruffians. In the morning flat bread with grilled mushrooms and tomatoes and/or Glory rolls (double egg and double bacon with cheese rolls) is served for the hungry party and Tess offers advice and info into some leads for work or information.

The Frisky Mare is fundamentally my tavern. It’s my comfort zone and I am going to shake it up this week to give me, and you, some new taverns and Inns that could kick off your next adventure.

And thanks to my new followers. Welcome and thanks for clicking that button to read what I put out daily. I enjoy exploring this process I have done subconsciously for over a decade (maybe 2…) and recording it to be viewed and maybe used by many more.

I really look forward to each day I do this. I also look forward to the day that someone reaches out to tell me they used something I created here in their own adventure. I think that would feel like rolling two nat 20s. Don’t forget to have fun, rekindle that spark and as always don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Town of Sebluff

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Sunday here at last, this week even the town is randomly generated (with some notable landmarks) and then held together with gum and hope that my challenge to create something from randomly generated something’s works.

There are quite a few randomly generated things and I am not quite sure how big of a post this will be at the end of the writing session – but lets see how we go. The random traps, city ‘map’ etc. were generated in Donjon – go give them a look if you are interested!

The sleepy town of Sebluff

Map generated by DonJon Random Town generator. All rights and credit are provided to them.

The costal town of Sebluff is known for it’s farms and good natured townsfolk. Predominately humans and halflings Sebluff is governed by a council of 4 elders, the 4 oldest members of the town, who call themselves the Golden Few. Each of the councilmen and women dress ornately in purple cloaks that have a golden chain around their necks that holds a quarter of a disk of quarts decorated with wheat stalks made from gold.

The population of around 500 busy themselves with fishing, farming and most importantly trading with any who bring something to trade.

There are a smattering of houses in Sebluff, most of them contain families of a few generations and as the town is a peace loving trading and farming community they have long since torn down their walls as the nearby cities and walled settlements regularly patrol the roads to ensure that their rich trading hub (Sebluff) can continue to operate without a military.

When the day of farming and fishing is over the residence of the city turn to the local entertainment to spend their hard earned silver on. A Large theatre, The Bale and Flail, famous of it’s satire and halfling run acting company is a regular venue for people to relax and enjoy the food and plays that are dished out within its walls.

The Fat Goblin, a humble gnome run tavern is situated not far from the theatre and provides visitors a room to stay and have a quite (as much as gnomely possible) meal away from the bustle of the cities other delights.

The last notable building of some fame is the Temple of Lathander where the head Priest, Phames, runs a morning mass to greet the new day as the light from the morning lord reaches the Shrine of Hily Byne, the founder of the town and first cleric of Lathander (or so the stories go).

The plot

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Over the past few months the peaceful town has seen an influx of people from the outskirts claiming that their farm has been plagued by flying wyverns that seem to breathe blight in which no matter of crop or animal can flourish. The good people of Sebluff have taken these people into their community and provided work and accommodation for the refugees.

The arrival of those who seek shelter has also seen the rise in power of a mercenary guild who has begun to hunt these beasts and keep them away from the farms of the townsfolk, for a modest fee of course.

Not long after the mercenaries entered the City the head priests sacred amulet, the holy symbol of Lathander gifted down from Hily Byne, is missing and a people in the city are becoming discontent.

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The wyvern hunting mercenaries are pretending to be farmers from near by farms and they are extorting the town for protection money for something that isn’t there.. yet.

Brother Phames has a reason for completing his morning ritual using his particular amulet. It’s an ancient ritual said to keep dragons and their kin at bay from the local lands – he has merely hidden the amulet from the public eye whilst he waits for the prophecy to come true and a beast to come forth and test the mettle of the Hunters.

The people of the hills

Sarah Lune

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Sarah has come forward with a concern – she believes that the wyvern hunters are not who they say they are. She hasn’t said this publically and has talked to the brother Phames about her concerns. She is more than likely to approach the party if she believes that they are able to help as the brotherhood of Lathander seem to have their own problems.

(see It takes a village to raise a child for background info)

Ned Talksmuch

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Ned, the son of the gnome Tavern owners Mildred and Golwinkle, talks to much… He has heard rumours that the priest has been lying to the public and is hiding something. He believes that the holy symbol wasn’t taken or stolen but it’s relinquished by brother Phames due to his misconduct.

Ned is quite overt about his dislike about the clergy but is quick to back down and make apologies if questioned.

(See It takes a village to raise a child for background info)

The Encounters

As the party arrive at the town they can see that there are several well armed mecenaries taking money and goods from a few of the merchants tents. One of them, a farmer selling corn, refuses to pay and a heated argument breaks out. Seeing the party the mercenary threatens with the removal of the wyvern hunters protection if they refuse payment tomorrow and disapears. The farmer, Sarah Lune, explains to the party member what is going on – that the wyvern hunters keep taking more and more money to keep the beasts away but she has doubts if they are even there. She seems worried as her two elderly parents approach and break down in tears, fearful that their farm will fall to the flying monsters that plague the town – reportedly.

Sarah offers the protection money to the Party members if they could stay a few days and nights at her farm to look out for the farm in case of wyvern attack – or worse.

If the party does then see encounter 1, else see encounter 2

Encounter 1

As night falls on the second night the party notice a vision of a flying creature approaching them from a small forest to the north. As it gets closer it breathes out a torrent of fire that sets the corn crops alight – But something seems off in how the fire catches the stalks as small spot fires appear sporadically rather than in a line. When the party investigates (or if they investigate the Wyvern DC12) they recognise it as an illusion and can see several features running alone the ground setting fire to the crops.

4 men and women are running along the ground with a cloaked figure chanting not far behind them away from the crops with its back turned to the party – seemingly convinced that it’s illusion will keep it safe. Once they realise the party are aware of them they will try and silence the party (kill them or knock them out…). If the party members are still alive at the end of round 2 then they will spend round 3 retreating.

If the party member capture or kill any of them before they try and escape then they will recognise one of them from the wyvern hunting mercenaries. if the mercenaries Knock them out then the party wake up in their hideout in the forest. Or if they escape but the party track them then they will find their hideout in the forest to the north under a poorly hidden staircase amongst some carved stones in the trees.

The Ruins (Den of the Cabal)

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Floor 1.

As the party enter the well lit and clean ruins they can tell someone has put a fair bit of work in making this place hospitable. Flags showing a dedication to Talmora line the walls and there is not a spec of dust or dirt on the grounds. As the party walk forward they have no idea that the mercenaries are well versed in laying traps.

  • 1 – Rune of Paralyzation: DC 15 to find, DC 10 to disable; affects all targets within 10 ft., DC 10 Con save or become paralyzed for 1d4 minutes. There is a 10ft circular stone plate in the middle of this room. Anyone who steps on it will feel a jolt of lightning course through their bodies rendering them helpless.
  • 2 – Chain Flail: DC 10 to find, DC 15 to disable; initiative +4, 1 attack per round, +6 to hit against all targets within 5 ft., 2d10 bludgeoning damage. There is a panel just before the trap that can disable the trap. The room that this hallway leads to has several chests lined up and looks to hold the tribute and payment the townsfolk has been giving the mercenaries.
  • 3 – Falling Block (from side of wall): DC 10 to find, DC 10 to disable; affects all targets within a 10 ft long 5 ft wide rectangle, DC 14 Dex save (or strength save to stop the block) or take 2d10 damage. Either side of the walkway before you enter this hallway there are two reinforced banners that have a flat wide top. By using the tops of these the players can jam the block from closing the corridor. A DC15 Athletics check will stop the block from sealing the passage way (until forced back into its position in the wall and the trap reset). There is a pressure plate under the block that is recessed enough that the party can notice it easily enough. This can cause the block to remain hidden in the wall.

Floor 2

As the party descend the stairs they find themselves in a small hallway that has two rooms off it. There are no signs of life within these rooms just a writing desk in the room to the right and a statue to the room straight forward.

  • 1 – The writing desk has a Strange looking glass built into the wood. When sitting in the chair and looking through the glass they can see that the wall opposite them (1) is an illusion and they can see straight through to the hall on the other side. If they do this without setting off any alarms or traps in the floor above they would see a few mercenaries moving to and from the pillar down the hall and an open door half way down the passage.

    The statue in the room to the north (with a secret door) is a grotesque fish-person with a clawed three pronged trident. DC12 to notice that one of the tridents claws match an indent in the wall – which will cause the wall to swing inwards and surprise any mecenary on the other side of the wall.
  • 2 – This door is seriously locked. A really heavy locked door if the party members have alerted the mercenaries to their presence. DC20 strength check to break it down. AC20 to damage it with 20 hp. This iron banded door won’t give for many people at all. The Cultist Fanatic would have a key to this door however.
  • 3 – Concealed Pit: DC 10 to find, DC 10 to disable; affects all targets entering a 10 ft. square area, DC 14 save or take 2d10 damage. The whole room is a pit trap. The lever to disable to pit trap is next to the secret door/passage to the south wall in the room and not reachable unless you skirt around a narrow (6inch lip) ledge to activate the lever. On the walls is several books and several small chests on shelves as well as wall mounted weapon and armor racks.

As for creatures. If the mercenaries were followed here (and all of them escaped or the party was captured) there should be 8 bandits, 1 cultist fantatic and 1 bandit leader in here. The bandit leader and half remaining bandits should be in the 1st floor in the large room near the chain trap and the fanatic and half bandits should be down past the locked door in the odd shaped room planning another raid.

Encounter 2

The ‘Wyvern’

On the 4th night the blight drake will appear and will be seen along the coastline near the town. IF they wyvern hunters are still alive they will flee with the loot (extorted tithes) and won’t be seen again. The party members will be requested to defend the city.

When (DM decide where) the party encounter the drake use the stat block below. The drake is likely to fight by flying over the party and breathing out acid before landing and taking to them with tooth and claw. It’s forearms also function as it’s wings.

The priest will reveal that he did not lose the holy symbol but wanted to prove the mercenaries as fake or try and lay the blame on the stolen artefact on the mercenaries. He did not anticipate the beast being as strong as it was or even real.

The outcome

The party can persue the wyvern hunters as they would set up camp in the forest hideout. The priest would offer a reward if they can retrieve the ill-gotten money and goods.

Thanks for joining for another weekend writeup, I hope you enjoyed what was thought up this week. I had a lot of fun taking the random elements and drawing inspiration from them to create an adventure that I don’t think I’ve run in the past.

As always don’t forget to have fun running your games and don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Traps…

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Now I tend to not use traps in my dungeons or my adventures and the reason is simple.

They either slow down the game with players checking every room or corridor for one or more traps or, the players start to suspect me of trying to kill them by including traps.

I will explain why I love traps but also why I fail to use them often in a simple write-up of a ‘random’ encounter I had with my current party.

The human Paladin, Tiefling Ranger and ‘Treefolk’ (homebrew race) Blood Hunter were escorting a caravan carrying an unholy relic from Eruva Osto; the great walled city, to Cthlaxiis where an order of knights would destroy the artefact and aid in preventing the second coming of a undead deity.

As the caravan and it’s escort made its way under the shadowed canopy of oak and pine trees they approached a fallen tree about 60 feet away. Next to this tree a familiar form of a mushroom loving Kobold they met the other day could be seen picking up some mushrooms. The Blood Hunter approached the Kobold, narrowing avoiding fine silken thread that had been placed at several places along the road. As the Treefolk questioned the Kobold a caravan guard stepped forward and was shot with poisoned darts, he began to hallucinate as several kobolds let off yipping battle cries and rushed towards the larger humanoids with the element of surprise in their favour. A few rounds of combat saw all the PCs unconcious and robbed, the strings of silk and threat of traps hampering their fighting prowess. As a npc guard ran forward to stabilise the fallen party members he accidentally set off a log trap that turned him to jelly when it pulverised him against a tree laden with hidden spikes.

From that adventure onwards they remembered Barry the guard and have a fear of kobolds. But more importantly it demonstrated how the puny kobold or semi-intelligent monster could work with traps and boost themselves from mere fodder and a way to wet the blades of your party, but to become something which the players remember forever.

I liked this encounter. The traps where very low difficulty and threat level which suited the three level 2 pcs but it challenged them to think out side of the hack and slash box.

What I didn’t like was the snowball affect that lands me with two or three players rolling perception and investigation checks every new room they walk into. Even when it’s very clear that there isn’t anything here they still love to check for traps. This paranoia means that for me utilising traps is a moot point, which I and drive with. But what it does do is slow down the game a bit.

When you have 80% of the party being working parents and your game time limited to Saturday night from 8pm til 11:45pm (we don’t play past 12am due to an effect we call the happening.. stuff gets weird after midnight) any delay in game time can really impact the enjoyment that the party get out of the session.

But with this week’s adventure having a dungeon full of traps I think it’s time to address that tool in the DMs toolbelt and see what this adventure can bring.

Start safe, play hard and don’t forget to roll with advantage,

The Brazen Wolfe

Chaos brings the dark ones forth…

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Fight night is here (Friday) and that means that we will look at a few encounters. Encounters, for me, doesn’t have to be sticking monsters with the sharp end of a sword they can also include puzzles, traps, social situations that require careful navigation or escaping from a mine in a mine cart down the various twists and turns before the roof collapses on you. Any of these situations is what can draw a group of players to the table and what makes them form an adventuring party.

With this week, following the theme of random I will draw to attention the DonJon PDF from yesterday (will linkt it again below to save you going back) as it has **a lot** of content in that PDF.

So there is some monsters to fight I will add in a few DnD 5e statblocks that I believe would be suitable in the maps provided. To compliment the stat block I will include some images of the models I kitbashed from some plastic kits (with wire and sculpting material) to try and represent what I was envisioning for the monster as well as a homebrew monster as part of a pseudo-boss encounter.

For the sake of encounter balancing I assume that we have a party of 4 level 3 characters.

Temple of the forgotten

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Shadows of the forgotten.

When those that worship the dark come back their new forms are as black as the shadows that they served in life.

Got to be careful with shadows. They are generally pretty fail but overlooked creatures but they add a sense of danger to anyone who knows anything about them, or those who don’t on that matter.

To balance out this encounter lets look at the above photo that comes in around 1300 (325 per player) adjusted XP (thanks kobold fightclub) due to the nature of the creatures, their danger this is a hard encounter (where I like to aim). To add in some randomness or some non-undead monsters to fight let’s use a mixture of the below 4 blocks to flesh out the rest of the adventure as any and all of them could fit in the spaces envisioned.

These stat blocks will balance out to having 1 CR2 creature (Cultist Fanatic or Bandit Capitan) and between 2 and 7 of the Cr 1/8 creatures (Cultist or Bandits) to give us a hard rating. I would err on the side of 2~4 of the bandits as these are meant to be backing up the capitan. If you want a boss fight where there is a high chance of PC death (or that high risk) then consider a Cultist Fantatic as well as a Shadow Swarm that they just summoned. Thematically this could be the bodies of his slain allies in the room where he rips out their corrupted souls from their dying bodies if you want the adventure to be dark.

File to download Temple of the forgotten PDF.


temple-of-the-forgotten-pdfDownload

Stat blocks are thanks to Tetra-Cube which has an extensive list of DnD5e statblocks (SRD as well as not..) and Kobold fight club also has provided the balancing tools. Check them out to make your game-night a bit easier.

As with the current theme it’s looking for ideas to make things a bit easier. With the exception of the shadows (and the bigger version of them) all of these creatures can be re-branded and skinned to be wyvern hunters, corrupt priests of traders and city guards.

As always, thanks for joining me to have a read through another fight-night and I don’t forget to make things a bit of fun!

What’s hidden under our feet…

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Thursday already and with it comes maps. Today following the theme of the week we have a look at random generated dungeons, crypts or cellars. Both of these maps were generated using web browser applications and have pros and cons to them.

Without talking too much more let’s have a look at what we are working with today.

The temple of the forgotten

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Perhaps high up in the mountains, or maybe underneath an new building lies a maze of old masonry and mystery. The Temple of the forgotten was generated in donjon and tailored (traps, complexity, etc.) with 4 level 3 party members in mind. However the layout and theme could also be used quite easily as any dungeon or crypt and the ability to download it as a friendly self contained HTML file OR as a PDF is a big win.

Generated in https://donjon.bin.sh/5e/dungeon/

Files for download

temple-of-the-forgotten-PDF fullDownload
temple-of-the-forgotten-player-packDownload

Den of the Cabal

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A hidden trap door, or secret passage way can hide a lot of things. Whether the crafted corridors and rooms are host to dark and vile acts or they are used by the innocent to seek shelter from the dangers above ground, hidden structures like this provide adventure and exploration for a dungeon master and their players.

Created in DunGen this doesn’t come with all the bells and whistles but does produce visually simple yet appealing maps for those wanting to add something a bit more to their game sessions.

Den of the Cabal – Top level. Created in https://dungen.app/dungen/
Den of the Cabal – Lower level. Created in https://dungen.app/dungen/

Files for download

dungen_seed(24953281)_top-level-1Download
dungen_Seed(86896314)_lower-levels-1Download

Both the Dungen app and Donjon are useful tools for those who want a quick nofuss map for their adveture. There are other generators out there and some of which can provide you with encounters as well as a plot hook for the adventure ahead however if I had to pick a favourite used today I can’t look past DonJon. I have used them for reference materials for a number of years and looking at their dungeon creator it’s really a wonderful tool that could save hours of drawing and calculating.

Or use either of these generators and add things in yourself. Treat the as a shell to hold your creative yolk inside until it’s ready to hatch. What ever the tool a map, on the table, or hidden behind the fog of war on the virtual tabletop can really bring a spark of joy and enjoyment to your players.

Don’t forget the weekend is approaching and with it comes, for most of us, the best times to sit down infront of a screen or a table and to play tabletop games. Have fun out there and as always..

Don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Pitchforks, hides, and holy symbols.

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Wednesday is here again and it brings today some plot twists to our quests or NPCs to add a depth to our games.

As with the previous two nights this week is about versatility and improvisation. Generic twists, any of the below have been written and thought up to be used with any NPC or any plot from this week or previous weeks adventures. The challenge is to like the path that a twist takes you back to the main road so that the party can still get closure with the adventure.

Disruption in the marketplace

The party arrives at the marketplace just as a fight breaks out. The city guard move to intervene but as more people’s join into the brawl it quickly gets out of hand.

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The group of traders were approached by a official who demanded gold in exchange for the protection of their stall. The black ail was not taken well by the noble tribe of traders and they challenged the official to a duel. As the official began to lose the ritualistic dual he drew a blade and killed his opponent causing the other traders to demand retribution for this dishonor.

Any marketplace could host this scene. It opens up a few options for subplots or side quests for the party if they choose to intervene.

As the fight breaks down the traders explain their side of the story, perhaps assisted by other traders wronged my the official or perhaps not.

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The words “Stop thief” seem yo reverberate around the stalls as everyone stands still. A darting figure in a tan coloured hood rushes towards the party as a stall owner shouts and points at the humanoid running away from the stall

A thief / chase twist can open up exciting plots or changes in the story. A patron wronged may be incorrectly held accountable as a thief if they take what is rightfully theirs, or people unaccustomed to a culture may not be aware what they are doing is stealing. Or perhaps, they just don’t care if it’s stealing if it furthers their goals or plans.

If the party catch up (see chases in the DM guide for dnd) then maybe a new twist on the quest happens, or a side quest that distracts them from the main issue.

I haven’t had a campaign or adventure on that matter where I mention a marketplace and the party are drawn to it. The proposition of games of chance, information or wealth (magic items, a new sword, reagents for spells) always draws people in and it’s a great way to further the plot or mix it up a bit.

The man who cried wyvern

Sometimes people get it wrong. But what happens if they aren’t wrong that one time and no one believes them..

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The reported sighting of a wyvern flight taking a farmer’s sheep got the village into a flurry of activity. The local stores sold out of weapons very quickly and “wyvern” hunters appeared in quickly and self their services to the village to keep the beasts away. However no further sightings were made and the village quickly found themselves indebted to these hunters who made a home for themselves in the inn.

If the village couldn’t pay for their services they took what they want as payment for keeping the flying monsters away.

These types of village guests can be the hardest to get out. Taking what they want and refusing to leave, or making it feel like what they provide is essential can create the illusion of indenture.

Maybe the wyverns are there. Or maybe they are not. Having someone from the wyvern hunters crew pretend to see a beast then the crew coming to the towns rescue is a tale as old as time. But, maybe the presence of these mercenaries would bring about such a beast and just as they think they are safe they find out they are a beasts next meal.

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When the local priest exclaimed that his connection to Lathander (or any other deity) had failed as his holy symbol had gone missing the town searched high and low, and found the party. The offer of gold and a blessing from the morning lord was enough to entice them to look.. but what if they found more than the missing amulet.

A hook to treat lightly, perhaps a false priest or a corruption in the order is the cause, whatever the case if you have religious players maybe add a disclaimer as corruption of a faith, or falsehoods can be a sensitive subect.

If the party is fine with it then you can have a lot of fun working out if the priest or whole town has turned from the light in favour for the delights of the dark. The pretence of a missing symbol or idol could cause conflict or attract rumours of the foul kind to a village as words and rumours have power.

We investigate the darkness of people in need, or who pretend to be in need in order to progress their own motives with this twist. The lie, white or not can be a turning point in an adventure and when mixed with the right plot or another twist it can make for a complex and deep mystery for the party to solve.

That’s it for tonight, a visit at a marketplace and a lie, white or otherwise. Twists and turns make for an exciting moment mid adventure that can create a deciding movement for the party in which way to go.

Now I’ll get around to explaining it one day but for now… Don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

It takes a village to raise a child

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Tuesday, up let’s look at some versatile NPCs.

Not sure if today will lead to a dark turn but lets see how we can use the NPCs to our deepen our adventure this week. As with yesterday these characters are not tied to a plot, but are meant to be versatile, fluid and ready to be slotted into any adventure that we want someone to fill that void where a player askes “Hi stranger, what’s your name? What brings you to Sleepyhollow this time of the year” having one of two of these guys/gals up your sleve can save you embarrassment when all your NPCs have names starting with the letter B.

Characters of flexibility

Baxter Henderson

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A relatively unremarkable child of 16, Henry has blonde hair and brown eyes that sparkle with mischief. His unkept hair, hodgepodge clothes and scrappy attitude reflect his life between families.

Unlike other children Baxter didn’t have a single family who brought him up as he drifted between families, his own flesh and blood relative’s either passed away or wanted nothing to do with him and so he found a roof where pity or mercy would provide one.

Having grown up between households, Baxter ends up in trouble. Whether it’s the city guard, his family, local gangs or city merchants he had spent time in jail before he reached adulthood.

Sarah Lune

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Sarah was born into the family of farmers. Quick of wit and blunt as a smith’s hammer she was known to get into trouble with the other farming families when she quickly outsmarted and out-paced their sons and daughters on market day. 

Not resigning her fate to be the face of her family’s market stall she has tried to find work in other aspects of her village’s life but nothing has quite stuck.

With her long red hair and hazel eyes she has had many farmers offer their hand in marriage, whether for an increase in their own land or because of genuine interest Sarah doesn’t give them much consideration before turning them down.

Ned Talksmuch

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Ned is a wandering minstrel who seems to have a habit of getting himself into trouble. Attractive and charming to a fault he can frequently be seen climbing out of windows in some state of undress. 

Ned however is fond of animals and the majority of his songs and poems are about them.

Born to adoring gnome parents he has a tendency to talk very quickly, especially while drinking or singing, which is what he does most of the time when he isn’t climbing out a window. Despite being born a gnome Ned displays very little characteristics of a gnome being just shy of the height of a normal human and resembling a young human male how he was born from gnomes remains a mystery to many.

Thanks for joining me today in looking at three very vague NPCs that could help, hinder or directly be a part of our adventure for this week.

As I have mentioned previously the theme of this week is randomness. I had my wonderful wife whip up some character portraits for me (using artbreeder of course) and I had a look at the images and came up with a small blurb about them to get the sparks flying.

This week the NPCs are meant to be generic. Any of them could be involved in any of the plots for this week, any of them could have a twist to throw the partys way and any of them could turn into and advesary at the right moment.

Thanks for joining me today to see where this adventure with full randomness… well as much as can be tollerated when writing an adventure hook.. Don’t forget that if you see a particular NPC you like you can please use them in your games, add a comment to the page and let us know how they turned out.

Oh and don’t forget to roll with Advantage!
The Brazen Wolfe

Variety is the spice of life.

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Hello Monday. This week we mix it up a bit. There is fluidity in open ended adventures and since we have been doing this for five weeks now I think it’s time to have a look at extending the randomness and going through a few thing that cross my mind when looking at adventures

This week we are looking at 4 randomly generated adventures that I don’t quite remember using when I was playing this game system when I was… 22 so a number of years ago now. The real challenge of this week for me will be to implement an approach I ahve been refining for a number of years now looking at how to improve my improvisation skills as a dungeon or game master.

Created in Gimp from a personal photo.

Let’s have a look at the four randonly generated adventure hooks today.

Flying Menace

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A flight of wyverns have been taking a village’s sheep and cattle. The farmers have called for aid in getting rid of the beasts. The village has requested aid but no one has responded to the request of a farming village as the pay does not seem to be worth the risk.

For the love of the gods

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The holy symbol of a high priest has gone missing and without it the prayers to his deity are going unanswered.

Condemned until proven innocent

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An innocent man has been sentenced to death, his public pleas for help (as he is kept in a suspended cage in the village square) are a constant as he pleads innocence.

Practically Barbaric

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A tribe of trading nomads have gone into a frenzy while within the city walls. Their destruction and strength is sufficient enough to overpower the city guard.

A shorter post today as I wanted to keep the theme of the adventure short. This week is really focusing on improvisation and having a lot of prep work done on the adventure or NPCs (to some extent) can be detrimental to having a fluid feeling improvised game night.

The main reason for this week is the game of OpenLegendRPG I had on the weekend. Where I went in wanting to flex my creative prowess with little more than a “wandering Plot” more on that later. Using the description of the level 1 characters, a area (based off a city map from current times) and the driving theme we had a 4.5 hour adventure with ups and downs, discoveries and betrayals that ended with the table enjoying the adventure and wanting to discuss the session for the following 30 minutes.

OpenLegendRPG encourages (needs) strong improvisation skills due to its “your attempt failed however..” approach with action checks, attacks, spells and decisions that require a dice roll. The ideas is to not have a party stuck being a door if the rest of the story is on the other side of the door but they lost the key. I have also applied a similar approach to Dungeons & Dragons multiple times in my current 3 year campaign – each time it only further encourages my players to explore and do what they want to do, rather than what I have planned for.

And thanks to my new subscribers – I hope you are able to make use of what I post here whether it is for TTRPG, writing a series of short stories or spinning a goodnight story for your children instead of reading the same book for the seventh time that week.

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

Weeks wrapup

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This week was a busy one. A final push for work before going on a short break during my daughter’s school holidays and a break from normal work to focus and jumpstart a few projects I’m working on.

This week we used art breeder a lot. From npc images to inspiration for encounters artbreeder was there.

We also used a lot or Kobold fight club, tetra-cube and hero muster to generate the encounters for the party and used the most common form of inspiration for me, sensations, imagery, and emotions felt during my childhood.

This weeks encounter is based on something that both my younger brother and I swear happened.

We both grew up, predominantly on a small farm about 20 minutes from city on about 16 acres (approx 6.5 hectares). The house was at the front/ top of a hill where I remember planting around 3000 trees with my family early when we moved there. As time went on we became more bold to venture amongst the budding forest and especially at night.

Towards the back of the property there was two paddocks of creek flats, where the creek that ran through the farm would overflow and so only tall bushes of grass and trees along the creek bank. One such night when my brother and I were in our teens we were out the back paddock amongst the creek flats. I distinctly remember looking at the tangled maze of branches that framed the waters edge with unease that night, and to be perfectly honest every night since. We were just discussing how to best cross the creek, I believe it was late spring or early autumn as the night was warm but the ground was damp and loamy. As a cloud move across the bright moon a mind shaking sound resonates from our neighbours paddock (who shared the same hauntingly still tree line and creek). A howl. Cliche I know, but hear me out.

As I wondered if I was hearing things my brother asked me ‘Did you bear that howl…?’ a genuine nervousness in his voice. It wasn’t just my hyper active imagination playing tricks on me, like when you see shadows moving through the backyard or a room (more on that another time) but it felt real and I wasn’t alone in hearing it.

Well we didn’t cross the creek at night next to that foreboding treeline and as we jumped three fences to put as much between us and the source of the howl we always worked in pairs to make sure that one person always watched the treeline.

Walking up past the trees, that forest we were so proud of planting, ever few steps felt like s minute had passed, that feeling of dread and unease didn’t leave us until we bad passed through another 5 gates and was in our backyard again.T

The feeling of that night, not the source of the sound, is what I wanted to capture this week. Dread, foreboding, unease to the point of nausea and then most importantly, Relief. Knowing it was over.

Well, this week was really fun. The exploration of old memories and feelings and applying a framework or story around what could happen or be the cause of something is what made this week a bit.. more.

As always, a big thanks to everyone who read the material this week, it gives me no small amount of joy to see people visiting to see what I have written this week. Feel free to comment if like or didn’t like something as that’s the only way to hone a craft, practice and criticism.

As always, don’t forget to roll with advantage

The Brazen Wolfe

Don’t go into the woods tonight

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Sun.. no Saturday today! Shaking things up as I am beginning a first step to another journey tomorrow. Testing out the theme for a OpenLegendRPG campaign sometime this weekend which is paying homage to a setting I started years ago. But I will save that for a writeup of the session tomorrow.. Or Monday – will see which day the session is run.

So today, I decided to focus on the idea of the genius, but mad, wizard archetype and how a creature created by that chaotic mind would function in a game. So without further waffle let’s have a look at this week’s adventure hook!

The Wyrdwood

An announcement goes out to all the cities, keeps and towns within the kingdom. Sir Percival’s yearly tournament is on and this year he has a surprise for all.

Keen to prove themselves; or looking at the reward for winning the competition, warriors, squires and aspiring adventurers come throughout the land to participate. But something has gone wrong and a separate more discrete call has gone out seeking adventurers who can track something deep within the woods. 

This call to aid, however, did not go out to the Party – they are here to watch the festival, or partake in the jollyment or place wagers on their favourite warrior in the tournament. 

The plot

Sir Percival’s house wizard, Winnifred Winterleaf, was charged with creating a beast for the grand finale – a monster forged from the natural power of the Wyrdwood itself and something that would create a spectacular fight for the visitors to watch. However, in her endeavour to fulfill her lords request she dipped into the wrong type of magic and produced something more. 

One night whilst scrying to foresee the outcome of the tournament, a girls gotta make a living, her vision took a darker turn. The beast was amongst the woods, stalking the wannabe knights in their silver glad armour, one by one they were ripped up into the treetops until there were none left. 

Breaking her vision she found her lord draping a cloak around her shoulders – it was only now that she realised that a layer of rime had coated her skin. The beast had escaped and it was not but three days until the tournament was to begin. 

When the party is found they are assumed to be the heroes summoned for. When they accept the quest they are given a pendant and a number of matching rings. They are told to put the pendant on the beast and when doing so they will be able to locate and sense it without falling ill to it’s magic.

One of Sir Percivals vassals discovers that the beast is missing and organises all the warriors to go in hunt for it. At this point the lord sends for the party and requests for them to find the beasts before it takes any more lives. Furthermore Cordelia also went out to try and stop as many of the warriors as possible but she hasn’t returned from the forest.

The people

Sir Percival Winterbourne

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Roguishly handsome, Sir Percival Winterbourne has medium length brown hair that appears to glow with red tints when the Autumn sun hits it. His grey-blue eyes are full of warmth and he carries himself with a welcoming stature.

Percival speaks with a warrior’s intellect, that is to say that everything he says is calculated, weighed and deliberated regardless if he is attending his court or walking amongst the people of his city. Aware of the prying eyes and ears in his vicinity at all times, Percival is a master strategist which is understandable considering his past.

Percival gained his knighthood and Lordship by infiltrating a rival kingdom’s gatehouse and overpowering the guards with a handful of knights. This, however, went against the orders of his commander but spared the lives of hundreds of warriors on both sides of the battle. The king, finding his judgment sound and unquestionable granted him titles and land where his now growing mass of followers now reside as his knights’ bastion.

Cordelia ‘Cordy’ Carpenter

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Cordy is an attractive but boyish young squire who works under one of the knights in Sir Percival’s court. Her long walnut hair reaches past her shoulder blades but she ties it high and close to her scalp as to be judged on her skill with a blade and bow instead of her gender.

Being the squire to Sir Percival Winterbourne was no small deal. Having been born into a family of woodturners Cordelia decided that the life of her wood, sawdust and splinters was not for her. She crafted a strong short spear and trained with it in secret – disguising herself so that no one would recognise her as a woman foremost or as the daughter of a carpenter.

On one such sparring session Sir Percival happened to walk by and stepped in for her opponent. Not holding back Cordy was approached and was offered an apprenticeship under Sir Percival to be his squire. Cordy now wants to prove herself worthy of the trust that Sir Percival put into her and does her best to carry out his wishes.

Winnifred Winterleaf

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Normally seen standing a few feet to the left of Sir Percival at all times Fred appears to be a young lady of fair appearance. Her bright orange hair is rarely seen without an old leather hat that contains the wild nest-like hair underneath. Her eyes and ears give away her elven heritage but she is normally quiet and calculating, a harmonious pairing with the knight she serves.

Prone to talking in riddles Fred is channeled chaos. Unpredictable yet powerful, she acts as Sir Percival’s court wizard.

The Encounters

Two main settings for encounters for this adventure.

Encounter 1 – That aint’ no bunny lad. Thats a worg

A pack of worgs stalk the party as they travel through the woods (D&D5e = 3, open legends = 4) – they would attack whilst the party is setting up camp at dusk if advantageous to do so or would otherwise try and ambush them in the failing light.

Dungeons & Dragons
OpenlegendsRPG

Encounter 2, at night after the worgs have been dealt with the party would wake to hearing a distant, soft call for help. A successful DC15 investigation (perception in OLrpg) check would note odd notes in the voice calling out.

Upon investigating they see the form of a slumped warrior knight leaning against a tree holding a flickering lantern – but as soon as the party approach the figure the party member at the back of the pack will have something attempt to grapple and restrain them (stop from talking) and lift them into the trees. A successful counter grapple (or Might / agility for OLrpg) would see them slip out. As the party reach the suit of armor it crumbles and the lantern goes dark and falls to the ground. The party then find themselves far from their camp (illusion, investigation check dc 15) with another figure not far from them slumped down and not moving, a glowing mote of light coming from a rod like object. This is the Wyrdbeast. 

If it is approached it will attack (surprise) the party (unless they succeed on a perception check) and will attacl until it takes damage. Upon taking damage it summons a Wyrd in its place and disappears 30ft as per the misty step spell. When the Wyrd dies it crumples into a heap of wood and body parts an anguished cry for help (Help me) resounds in the woods from the beast followed by laughter a short distance away – where the Wyrdbeast is hiding. 

This repeats 2 or 3 times until the party discovers their missing companion (or if their counter grapple check passed) a real survivor in the same position of the copies or Wyrdbeast. Upon reaching it the beast and two mirror images would try and attack the most isolated party member using illusion to try and convince them that it is an ally who discovered something near a tree. But the ally is someone not from the party – they are sure (100% sure) that the person who is talking to them has been with the group the entire night.

If the Wyrdbeast can be reduced to 20% health points or the party manages to put the pendant on it would create a series of mirror images and retreat to its mountainous cave – screeching the entire time. The party would find a trail of dead, dying and wounded warriors in the morning leading towards its cave home. In several cases it looks like beasts of the forest (worgs or otherwise) appear to have tried to take the bodies or harm the wounded but they show deep clawed furrows in their bodies (a survival check would reveal) that the Wyrdbeast inflicted the wounds. 

Encounter 2 – Are you afraid of the dark?

Once the Wyrdbeast has fled to its cave then the party can find the final encounter there.

The cave is a 50ft climb up a hill, with one of Sir Percival’s knights hanging from a branch near its entrance. The cave is narrow (5 ft wide) and the first passage is about 50ft before it turns sharply to the south, cutting off any light from the morning sun. The first passage is a tangle of branches, rocks, discarded armor and bodies. 

There are another three passages in here, one of which (dealers choice) has Cordelia alive but unwell (mentally). The Wyrdbeast is dwelling in a suit of armor and if discovered will attack with itself and 2 Wyrds (copies of itself) also clad in rusted and heavily damaged armor. It won’t run any more but will use its legendary action to take up a new suit of armor as its shell if it suffers 20% of its HP in damage. It will have 5 suits around the room, including the 2 that the Wyrds are in.

The outcome

After the hunt is over the party should return with Cordelia and any other contestants they found alive. The lord offers all of them a position as Cordelias Squires, which Cordelia is taken by surprise as only knights have squires (and thus she is knighted). The party should refuse and each receive a token of renoun from Sir Percival which will grant them the status of a lord or lady, without the title.

Thanks for joining today for what I hope will be a memorable encounter. The purpose of this is to add in an element of perceived danger, of horror and something that the party members should feel a sense of real accomplishment from finishing.

For stat blocks have a look below for the files if you want to use them.

worg-1Download
worg OpenLegendsDownload
wyrdbeast-open-legendsDownload
wyrdbeast D&DDownload
wyrd-OpenLegendsDownload
wyrd D&DDownload

If you like what you have read today, or better yet run the adventure feel free to let me know! I would love to see how you found the adventure and what your party thought of it. And as always don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe