Welcome to Saturday night where I bring to you rainy one shot ideas. Now the forecast here in Victoria tomorrow is rain so I thought what else could be better than D&D one shots.
Tonight I will cover a few one shot ideas, the hook, the plot and perhaps some thoughts on the encounter to drive the creation of a one shot. The twist is that, like the title says, they are all having to do with rain.
Rainy one shot ideas – 1
Local farmer has been complaining to the local church about the lack of rain. This farmer has gone as far as to even denounce the church and preach that they are fake worshippers. However the following night the town is struck by a mighty rain storm where the farmers (who complained) property seems to be the worst hit. Crops are flooded, stock is lost and even their house is destroyed.
The farmer starts to preach to the towns folk about the church deliberately destroying his livelihood and there are growing fears that some of them will believe him.
The general idea I had with this one will be a diplomacy mission to prevent a civil uprising between the farming community and the relatively peaceful church. The cause could be a few things but I am fond of “built their farm on cursed land” but that requires a question to be answered. Why is the land cursed? Let’s work with that notion for now. The farmer had this land handed down from his parents and they their parents. At some stage they killed the original owners of the land and stole it from them. They buried the bodies at the bottom of a hill where eventually a watering hole was built.
The resentment to the church and turmoil that the family was creating stirred up the restless spirits of those murdered and as they were buried under water that is the shape of the vengeance they chose.
Rainy one shot ideas – 2
A town sits in a valley along a river that is fed by a high waterfall a few miles north. The area has been experiencing rain for a week straight but the river has run dry and the only water they have is from the rain. The issue is the hydro powered mill that feeds the towns smith (they are famed for their steel) and their bread production. Until recently everything was fine but a new influx of dwarven steel from up north has created some desperate times for the town and with their mills now shutting down townsfolk are worried that this is the end for their town.
The party are asked to investigate what happened to the water.
Another simple one with an easy plot. The dwarves have also made use of the river system further up river with one exception. It’s humans creating fake dwarvern steel and arms. Any dwarf worth their beard would be able to see the inferior craftsmanship. The river was blocked to channel it into a large dam that they use for their industry. However with all this rain the dam is full to bursting and they are quickly trying to find a way to prevent the dam from falling.
The tricky part of this is that there isn’t an easy way up to the village. It requires some mountain climbing along rain drenched stones. I believe that the rain is a perfect addition to increase the difficulty of the adventure, second to snow and thick fog.
Rainy one shot ideas – 3
On the way back from their latest adventure, carrying loot and exhausted the party become aware that they are being hunted. A group of bandits who out number and overpower the party easily have given up chase on the party. They have a few options. Try and outrun them, ambush them or ditch the loot and retreat to the nearest village a days ride away if they are unburdened.
Constant rain makes for difficult travel with a laden cart. Slowing progress down to a crawl, getting bogged nearly impossible to hide your passage rain gives it all. This one shot has some interesting bits in it too where the bandits are lycanthropes. Were rats tend to be the typical bandit and they add a touch of danger to combat which may dissuade them. Also being particularly malicious creatures they may not be put off the hunt from the loot being abandoned.
I would have disadvantage on Dexterity checks, stealth checks and athletic checks due to fatigue and cold rain which will make getting away and fighting difficult. After all it would be too easy if they could just outrun the lycanthropy infected bandits.
That’s it for tonight. Thanks for joining me as I went through three different ideas with the rain theme. Tomorrow we have the end of the week writeup which leads into the last full week of November. I want to thank you for joining me daily and look forward to our journey together in the future. Don’t forget to stay dry and safe and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Welcome to the home stretch. This month are taking the fight to the Shadow while it’s weakened. This week we made the first move in this quest, we are searching for the intel of the Oni and their plans. This week we have a choice that leads the party into the camp of the Oni as the spies or as the saviours – but the initial choice is theirs.
With the retreat of the Oni and the cracking open of the mountains peak the party woke up feeling refreshed. After the defeat of the ice queen and defence of the wall against her magic the wall guard offered them the best room and comforts available to them. Four walls and a bed each.
In the morning the party emerged to find the wall quiet. The land beyond the wall was even more so with only the occasional movement at a forward base camp the shadows minions had on the ridge further towards The Shadows Throne. The oni and their slaves, the Butatล, were the only things that could be seen as left over from the battlefield. The Spirit folk and other creatures that had been fighting the party and the wall guard had disappeared which gave the wall guard a day of repairs to the wall.
โMessage from the General. Lord Toshio was found dead in his tent and his troops had surrendered. Apparently they have all claimed enchantment and enthrallment from the Yuki-onna and the warriors claim that Lord Toshio took his own life when he heard his wife had been killed.โ The messenger from the general recited to wall captain Hou and Kyoko. โThe General has begun to detain and question the Toshio troops but Lord Harimasu has pardoned them on condition that they return to their homelands and begin to broker peace between the two families again. The general is on his way here to make an attack on the mountain. He will be here in two days however he needs what ever intel we can provide him.โ
Kyoko frowned at this and asked for a map of the battlefield from what the scouts had been able to map out. โThis camp of Oni. How defended is it?โ
โWe estimate that it would be a few dozen Oni, their leaders and slaves at a minimum. A frontal attack would go poorly but if there is another way that we can get the intel without risking more lives or leaving the wall undefended then I am all ears.โ Captain Hou replied as he pointed towards the map, indicating where he would suspect the intel to be kept.
โSir, I volunteer to lead the operation to retrieve the intel.โ a voice said from the door. Wall Guardsmen Gin Seng stood there looking determined and fatigued. โIโve grown up training to fight these creatures, to defend this wall. If I can help finish the war then I want to be involvedโฆ Sir.โ he added with a moment hesitation.
โThis mission is too crucial to leave it to one person. But too difficult and risky for a large scale attack.โ Kyoko said as she nodded to Gin Seng.
โPerhaps these heroes from across the sea would be able to be of assistance once again?โ Kit Hou said as she smiled at the group. โThey seemed to have saved half of Ryokughan already from the Oni and the Shadows influence so whatโs one more mission?โ
General Hou frowned at his daughter. โWe put too much pressure on them. They have done enough. We can not rely on them forever and I fear that there may be worse things up in those hills which we just havenโt seen yet.โ
Kyoko smiled to the party. โItโs up to you. But we may need help distracting the main force if we were to send in a smaller group of wall guard to retrieve the intel. If you can help with either endeavour I would feel more confident in our success. The entire Oni force would know of you by now and surely they would want to have a chance at gaining the Shadows favour by attempting to best you in combat.โ
โSir, I volunteer to lead the operation to retrieve the intel.โ His voice echoed in his mind as he looked over the battlefield. In four hours the sun would begin to set and he would begin the mission.
As he looked across the soldiers clearing the battlefield of their dead and piling the enemy corpses onto a pile he called out. โPlace the spiritfolk in a separate pile. They dont burn their dead with the Oni. They think it an offence to the spirits who guide them.โ He said to Kit who, as punishment, was in charge of the bloody duty.
When the party and Kyoko looked his way he smiled sadly. โI spent some time with the spiritfolk when I was youngโฆ Some things you cant forget.โ He began. After a moment he explained further.
Gin was born the son of an alchemist, two infact. His parentโs were non-conventional to say the least. His mother was a human but his father was one of the Spiritfolk who fell in love with the human woman who kept foraging in his forest.
Intially it was professional completion amongst each other. Finding the best reagents or herbs before the other could. But before long it blossomed into more.
Their son looked completely human except for a light covering of fur across his torso. His fathers goat legs, horns and tail were not gifted to his son but his reflexes and inhuman strength was. In the village they lived in the villagers quickly accepted Gin and his parents union. Especially when the quality of potions, charms and lotions were as high as his parents. However, happiness โ like most things canโt remain for long.
Halfway through Ginโs tenth cycle an oni raiding party attacked his village. His parents locked him away and kept him hidden from the oni. But the Oni eventually found his parents. When they worked out that a human and spiritfolk were a could they made a sport out of their torture. It was ok display to the whole village yet Gin couldnโt see his parents in their last moments. But he could hear them.
The following month he pledged himself into the service or the Harimasu military and dedicated his life to hunting Oni.
โand Iโve been here ever since..โ he said with a touch if pride on his face.
โsir! We have movement!โ A guard shouted as they hurried towards the wall.
โHold! Itโs the spirit folk to send off their dead.โ Gin called out to his fellow guardsmen. โSee. Wait and watchโ
A few moments passed and gradually all types of Spiritfolk appeared around the pile of their dead. Then slowly they formed a circle and began to sing and dance around their fallen. โThey are celebrating the reunion of their parents, elders, children and friends and the spirit world. Where they believe they will hunt in the endless plains of their ancestors.โ He explained. โThis will last until sunset at which point they will take the bodies away and burn them amongst the rest of their kin.โ
Sure enough as the sun set the spiritfolk gathered their dead and singing out in joyous tones they carried them away from the battlefield and into the wilds beyond.
Moving forward as the sun set Gin and those who followed behind him looked anxiously at the oni camp. โWe will be there soon. Remember. If we get into trouble or the mission is at risk to fire a drift globe shaft into the air and aid will come.โ Gin said to the people standing nearby.
With agreement from those gathered he began to creep across the battlefield once more, signalling to stop periodically when something moved up ahead. Soon they were in the shadows of the tents. The setting sun and the shadows of the hills, mountain and nearby forest aided in their mission by creating pockets of shadow.
As the sun hit the edge of the mountain it plunged the camp into a mixture of amber glow from the setting sun and dark shadows. A few hundred feet away war horns trumpeted signalling that the second part of the plan had begun and that it was now or never to enter the camp.
The camp
As the oni and butatล left the camp in a hurry to meet the attackers head one. Slowly Gin and his entourage crept forward towards the main tent and waited for the oni captain to leave. As the captain stormed out with its armour buckled in tight a few slave Butatล followed in its wake. Taking this moment as the one to move Gin and his companions skulked forth once again and cut a hole in the canvas tent. Once the coast was deemed clear they entered silently.
None of those present realised the mistake that had been made until it was too late. A deep unholy growl rumbled forth from the shadows of the tent which threatened to bring the entire oni warband to the captains tent. A neat table lay in the centre of the room and contained a map, documents and scrolls. For their brutal use of weapons and mastery of war and savagery the oni were also expert tacticians.
As they stared at the multi limbed creature that confidently strode forth Gin prepared his drift globe shaft in a hand crossbow and prepared to state the words that would activate the arcane device. Looking between his compatriots and the creature he hoped that he didnโt need to call for aid and that they would be able to deal with this threat quickly and quietly.
NPCs –
Wall Guard Gin Seng
Gin heads straight to the Oni camp with the party or with a small group of warriors from the wall. He is determined but nervous at the mission ahead.
Wall Captain Hou
Managing the repairs and defence of the walls Captain Hou makes the necessary plans to ensure that the party and the other warriors joining them near the Oni’s camp are well supplied.
Kyoko Harimasu
Kyoko stays back at camp and works with Takeo to ensure that General Kuang arrives quickly so they can press the advantage.
Miss Hou
Assisting her father, Captain Hou, Kit spends most of her time near the wall coordinating the warriors to provide cover fire, fix walls and prepare if there is a counter attack.
Environment and running the adventure
Gin He has five drift glob shafts which are small drift globes that are crafted into arrow or crossbow arrow/bolt shafts so that when they are shot they activate the moment they start to slow from being launched. This causes the bolt to slowly fall to the ground whilst the drift globe emits a light (of pre-determined colour).
If the party go with Gin they are in the tent when the creature reveals itself. It’s not a hard fight but as it falls it calls out loudly (unless silenced in some manner – Player and DMs decision).
If they don’t the Party are with some other warriors fighting Oni, captains (a larger one in full plate with a large shield and battle axe) when they see several drift globes activate above the Oni Captains tent signalling Gin needs help.
The camp is built on an incline, rather sharply so. The tent are setup in a rather ingenuous way where they form a solid slab-foundation of wood, earth or even snow under the tents to level the tent.. to some degree.
The snowy hills pose an interesting mechanic for us. One way difficult terrain. Moving up the hill through the snow towards the camp is considered difficult terrain where as moving down isnโt. Patches of snow pose a further hindrance as fighting in these areas would impose disadvantage to dexterity checks and strength contests (not checks) due to the slippery mud and shin-to-knee deep snow.
The Bakegamoto is a large dog like creature with a pushed in snout, large bat like ears and at least two large tusks jutting from their bottom jaw. The males are generally endowed with larger tusks and are a mixture of faun with a ruddy brown light mane that sprouts from the neck.
Females are generally lighter in colour without the mane but their tusks are shorter and generally thinner and sharper than the males. Trained bakegamoto are extremely obedient, strong and powerful. Normally kept by Oni captains or chieftains as a sign of power and strength they defend their master completely and obey orders to the best of their ability.
The other creatures that fight the party are Oni, Oni Captain and Butatล.
Thanks once more for reading my end of week writeup. This week see’s the party taking the fight to the Oni, next week being the aftermath of the fight as well as the leadup to the second and last week of the month. This week may be a bit sketchy with the first few days being broken and different schedules my normal ones. I will endeavour to provide a regular flow of content as we make our first steps up into the mountains where the Shadow Calls home. So don’t forge to come back each day this approaching week and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Welcome to a weekend creative special. Tonight I want to have a look at a place we don’t normally spend a lot of time in with D&D, well not me anyway. We are looking at the deep dark tonight. A place where nightmares walk at every corner and where those who survive the experience will have tale to tell that will follow them for years.
Tonight I want to go back to something that I have done before but use not often enough. The Journal system. So sit back and let’s crack on with it.
The idea behind tonight is the never ending feeling of being trapped in a cave and spiralling deeper and deeper. Being stalked by creatures that you don’t recognise and searching with desperation for something precious. That feeling of never ending hopelessness but being driven to continue and, maybe a fear of mine, being deep from the surface world and help.
Whether the writer finds Anna, whether she is below or whether the person finding these letters ever finds more doesn’t matter. What does matter is the feeling that it gives the players and what they hope to find below.
Thanks for joining me tonight. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the end of week write-up and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Tonight as we head further closer towards the conclusion of this yearly adventure with The Defence of the Wall. This month we have a level 9 adventure and by the end of it we will see our party at level 10.
As with last time Pages 1, 2 and 3 are content pages, the description, flow, random tables, etc. and such that you’ve previously seen. Page 4 contains all NPCs and portraits to help the DM describe them and a bit about them to help play them out. Page 5 will be stat blocks and map(s) – all that D&D encounter goodness that you want.
Now I will assume you have read the entire post which has had some bits modified over the months content. Now including the original content, and some bits added this is a smaller than normal length, only just making 5822! words long. I really do appreciate the time you take to read through these end of month adventures.
All Maps were made in Inkarnate using their Pro license, Art was created in Artbreeder and the statblocks were created in Tetra-cube AND the balancing of encounters is a mixture of experience and the guides found at Kobold Fight Club.
Don’t forget to come back next week and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Black feathers caught the wind currents under the dark ominous clouds and caused the large winged creature to soar above the ground far below. Beating its wings it looked down below at the group travelling along the road. Itโs keen eyes picked out everything. From the colours of their clothes to the wear and tear on their cloaks not a detail was missed. That was until the hilt of a blade, the tip of a staff and the glimmer of an amulet glimmered from under cloth.
The resulting burst of radiance in the creatures view caused it to reel with pain. It wasnโt just its pain it was feeling but also its masters and its desires were simple. Donโt let them reach the wall.
Tucking its wings in the creature dove down the wind now aiding in its rapid descent as it plunged. Noticing movement from its left and right two of its brethren also had been urged downwards. However, their descent was halted as a bolt of radiance shot up from the travellers, connecting with the torso of the creature next to it. The tangled mess of skin, flailing limbs and gore tumbled down towards the earth as the creatures dove onwards.
Too late did the creature realise as the blades, limbs and bolts piece and shred their flesh that these motes of radiance were too much for them. Even as they began to flee shredded wings flapping in a panic they were cut down no far from where they made their foolish attack.
As the radiant light burnt through its flesh and it lay in a pool of blood and gore the power the Shadow had leant it all those years ago evaporated with the last beat of its heart.
The Dragons Tears items were phenomenal. With a single command word they shed bright light as if a miniature sun had been captured and forged into a item. The sun is something that the party had not seen in days and the further they travelled in this direction the more certain they were that they wouldnโt see the sun for quite some time.
โIt wasnโt always like thisโ Kyoko said from beside them as she walked, the unseasonal browning leaves crunching underfoot. โThese parts of the Harimasu lands were always green and rich with life. Now with the Shadow spreading its influence further east it looks like the life is being stripped from the earth.โ Kyokoโs voice was melancholy but the bright light from the items the party carries seemed to bring mirth back to her face.
โLegend has it that the weapons were so powerful that the Shadow couldnโt stand to be in their presence. Alone it fled to the mountains to get far enough away from them that it wouldnโt feel their light upon its dark skin.โ
The party looked at the items in thought. Surely they were stories told to make the people of these lands feel brave enough to face the horrors that crept in the dark. As a shower of sparks signalled that Takeo had finished building the fire as what they believed to be night descended upon them. Once he had finished with the fire he produced a pot and some rations and foodstuffs to get a meal going.
Nightfallโฆ
As the fire flickered and licked at the empty pot the shadows cast from the creatures that gathered around it for warmth. The smell of stewed meat and vegetables caused the creatures to salivate but that wasnโt reason that they were here. The driving pressure, the urge and the desire to appease their master had lead them here and here they waited until they were sure. Their master was a strong one, clever, fast and wise. But his master was even more so and it was he who was giving the orders.
โWait until we are sure they carry the light. Then we attack and make sure none find the light ever againโ their master had instructed them. The largest creature crooned as she received scritches under its massive jaw.
A brief flash of light, then a pulse. A bigger burst of light that seared the eyes of the nocturnal creatures gave them all the information they needed. As a group they charged, whooping, cheering and howling with excitement as they closed into their prey. They just hoped that they would last long enough to be fun for the pack.
Areas and places of note
Campsite – Along the road to the wall there isn’t a particularly well defensible spot at any point. But with the Dragons Tear items the party feel confident they can fight off anything that comes their way.
Ambush Site – perhaps one of the reasons for the party being confident with their choice of camp is the encounters that they have had to face along the road.
Environment and running the adventure
The trees provide either half, partial or full cover. Perception checks that rely on sound are done with disadvantage from the sounds of the forest and the muffling of noise from the bushes.
Notable NPC interactions.
Kyoko Harimasu – Kyoko has come with the party to aid them in drawing the Ice queen out and coordinating the troops on the wall as the others head to the south to meet the Toshio-family head on and prevent the wall from being attacked on two fronts.
Takeo – Sticks close to Kyoko to ensure that she is safe but otherwise scouts ahead of the party to try and
Encounter
The creatures during the day attack with reckless abandon. They are spurred onwards by the shadow directly and don’t work together or plan out their attacks. The mastiff’s however and their leader (a oni for the sake of giving it a stat-block) attack in an extremely coordinated manner which speaks of tried and tested routine and planning.
After the encounter:
The party move on for another day of walking before the wall is seen on the horizon. Although they have bested all that has been thrown at them so far they fear the worst still lies ahead of them.
As the party arrived at the wall the first thing that they noticed was the sheer lack of people. For such a crucial point in the defence of Ryokughan it was shockingly unmanned. A head appeared at the edge of the wall twenty feet above the ground before calling out. โPrincess Kyoko is here! Reinforcements have arrived!โ the voice was overcome with emotion before several others echoed with joyous cries of relief.
โKyoko. I donโt think our message hawk arrived here safely. They believe we have more reinforcements for the wallโ Takeo spoke in a hushed whisper to Kyoko and the party. โHow did you want to handle this?โ he added looking from Kyoko to the party who were in fact the reinforcements.
After a few moments a platform was lowered over the side and the party, the princess and the spy were lifted atop the wall. Despite the low numbers of people on the wall they all were veterans. Heavily armed, armoured and trained they carried themselves with a martial poise that was lacking in many. As they rushed towards Kyoko they greeted Takeo and the party, the exhaustion on their faces replaced by joy and relief.
โBefore we continue the pleasantries I believe I need to have a word with you lady Kyokoโ a particularly grizzled and hard man said from a nearby door to a small tower. โThere is something that is of great urgโฆโ he began as he held up a fist and listened to the quiet that his signal instilled. โIt comes!โ the wall captain roared as every single soldier drew their weapons and surrounded the party and princess.
In a moment of chaos clouds of shadow-smoke appeared around the wall in sporadic bursts. Soon the sound of steel clashing, grunts and combat rang out around the party as the unknown adversary launched itself at the walls defenders. After a few moments the creature disappeared and the shadow-smoke dissipated soon after.
โTo your posts. Prepare for combat!โ roared the captain who eyed his men and women closely, inspecting for wounds. Finding one he pulled them aside โto the infirmary,โ he said with a sigh as the realisation set into the face of the woman in front of him. โyouโve been stung. You wonโt be seeing battle again until youโve recoveredโ he added as he clasped the soldiers shoulder.
โyes sir!โ the soldier barked obediently as with a great deal of sadness she handed over her weapons in resignation to the captain before retreating down a nearby set of stairs. As she disappeared into the bowels of carved and fortified stone.
โWe are hounded by a creature that does not kill, it barely wounds but what it touches quickly dies. Normally at the hands of the victims allies.โ the captain said as he grabbed a helmet and moved to the wall. โThose unfortunately enough to get injured by it recover after some time. Normally after heavy sedation. Some donโt and they choose to live on the outside of the wall so that in their condition they can still benefit their brothers and sisters.โ
โWhat do you mean wall captain Hou?โ Kyoko asked as she moved over to the wall before clasping a hand to her mouth.
โThey go mad. Their blood boils and they cant detect friend from foe. They will kill anything in sight. Lethally trained warriors who canโt tell friend from foe and who have a lust for blood that a demon would envy. I havenโt seen it before. Our healers can only sedate and hope that their spirit is strong enough to fight the affliction. If they canโt resist then they spend their final days ripping into our enemies and serving us in their death.โ the captain said with great reverence as he saluted a human who stopped pacing by the base of the wall, bloody froth covering its mouth.
After a moment the human, one a warrior that defended the wall turned and charged away from the wall, picking up a crude looking sword as it charged headlong into a mass of charging Spirit folk. The brutality in which the warrior cleaved into the fey creatures was outstanding and hard to watch. But that wasnโt only sight on the other side of the wall. Dozens of injured and dying lay strewn about the battlefield on both sides. Humans, those afflicted as well as the minions of The Shadow, all of them calling for help or crying out in pain or fear.
โWe have tried to recover our wounded or dead and we started to lose more men than we savedโฆโ a wall guard said from next to the party. Nodding towards the captain who pulled on a helmet and drew a magnificent longbow as he climbed a nearby watch tower. โHe lost his daughter. She was a fine warrior and led the last recovery mission. She was cut down by a Oni.โ The guardsman nodded towards a banner that stood high amongst the bodies, rocks and toppled trees. โShe lies somewhere over there. Some men swear they have seen her moving about the battlefield but I think they are just seeing things.โ he sighed. After a moment he ran off down the wall to continue to guard as creatures started to reach the wall.
As the party stood atop the wall they thought of the day that they had witnessed. Twice more the shadow creature had struck but by luck, skill or divine grace they had not been inflicted with the affliction. The woman in the infirmary howled with rage and even while heavily sedated it only eased the peaks of her fury.
They also had to witness the dead rise from their broken and battered forms and assault the wall, beaten back and slain by either the warriors on the wall or those afflicted driven mad by rage who hunted the no-mans land between the wall and the rocky mountains where the attacks came from. Even while the party watched from the wall and aided in driving back the dead or the twisted spirit-folk there was little joy in the tasks they did.
It was at this point, at the edge of torchlight that the party saw movement. To precise and too careful for undead or afflicted. Too subtle and tactical to be spirit-folk or beast. As the party watched the shadow approached the edge of the light cast by the braziers and torches that lined the wall and it quickly darted forward and grabbed a pack from a fallen oni warrior. The distinct human colour skin flashed from under layers of tattered and ripped cloth as a sudden gust of wind caused the light cast by the fire to flash across the face of the creature and a human Ryokughan female looked up at the party startled.
The figure pressed a finger to her lips before skulking off towards a crest in the battlefield, as the moon strained to peak through the oppressive clouds the flag, the standard of the wall guard flapped calling the mysterious figure to it.
โThatโs her! Thatโs the captains daughter!โ The wall guard from earlier that day announced. Gin Seng pointed at the captains daughter as she hurried across the battlefield towards a rocky outcrop. Moments later several shapes started to move towards her and the rock rise in the battlefield, she appeared unaware.
โwe have to do somethingโ Gin said as he hurried towards the crane. His voice causing a commotion amongst the other guards.
โWhatโs going on here?โ barked Captain Hou.
โKit is out there Sir. We saw herโ Gin said, the party confirming with him.
โItโs probably a trick of the Shadowโฆโ The captain said, his own voice betraying the hope he held deep inside. โKit is goneโฆโ
A scream erupted from the battlefield. The shadowy-Kit had been ambushed and the sound of combat could be heard. โKIT!โ her father screamed as he threw the platform over the side of the wall. โMan the defences. Ballista and arrows trained on the battlefield. Nothing comes up whilst I go down.โ
โCaptain Hou, the plan canโt succeed without you. The adventurers are veterans at combat and have surprised me more than once. Besides it will be a test to see if the simple presence of the Dragons Tears artefacts can draw forth the shadows minionsโฆโ Kyoko said as she stepped out in full armour.
โI hate to ask this of you my friends. But are you willing to rescue the captains daughters and see what happens when the dragons light erupts forth from you?โ she asked with a tinge of guilt and regret.
Areas and places of note
Heavens Reach Wall – The wall is immensely long. Covering the entire northern province of Ryokughan and only stopping at massive towers near great impassable mountain rangers. To the North of the Wall lies the Shadowlands and at their closest peak of the wild plains and forest lies The Shadows Throne – a massive mountain that is thought to be the home of the Shadow.
Notable NPCs
Kyoko Harimasu– Kyoko keeps herself hidden and defended by many guards. Captain Hou and Takeo spend most of their time talking tactics into how to lure the Ice queen towards the wall and a trap.
Takeo – Takeo once again acts as Kyokos body guard and seems unwilling to leave her side.
Wall Captain Hou – Captain Hou is a rugged veteran commander of the wall guard for decades he has led the elite troops in defending the land from the Shadows Influence and was so honoured that his own daughter joined him. This was his biggest regret as his daughter was just as head strong as he was in his youth and led a foolish mission to retrieve the wounded from the battlefield only to be struck down herself.
Wall Guard Gin Seng – Gin Seng is one of the warriors in the Wall Guard. He is well trained and a natural in combat but perhaps a bit too emotional for the captains liking. Leading with emotion rather than discipline Gin Seng is sure that the captains daughter still lives and swears that he has seen her at night.
Kit Hou – Thought to be dead Kit, the captains daughter, is seen out in the battlefield scavenging when the warriors of both side are at their most peaceful.
Environment
Night time shouldnโt be a hassle for the party with their level, abilities and gear by now so itโs another night time encounter.
Encounter:
Any creature from our vaults can be used here. I would suggest some Oni and perhaps an afflicted human warrior (see gladiator stat block with affliction template added). The Wrath Wraith also comes forth and attacks the party as they reach Kit Hou โ she seems to be untargeted by the creature but the party are less fortunate.
Aftermath
As the party defeat the wrath Wraith the all too familiar haunting call of the Onikage echoes through the battlefield and Yukri Toshio โ the Yuki-onna appears on the back of a huge Onikage. She points towards the party as the crest of the hill she is standing on erupts into dozens of shadowy shapes running toward the party. Kit pleads for the party to retreat as the guard on the wall start to call for them to run back as well.
As the Onikage snorted with barely contained violence and hunger, Yukri watched the humans from its back. The yuki-onna knew that the Shadow, the one who had given her powers to rule as the Ice Queen, wanted these humans dead. But killing these humans had proven difficult, even the enlisted help from theย Laelรณngย but the vain beast failed.
โQueen. The humans have escaped back on top of the wall. They have powerful weapons and we have to retreatโฆโ a hesitant voice spoke from her side. The Oni looked down at its feet and braced for the worst but it didnโt come. A second voice spoke, much older, darker and more influential than the lowly Oni.
โYou must stop them. Those weapons are cursed by the dragons and elves of old. Their magic has the power to bring down your kingdom. You must kill the wielders and stop them from taking everything you have fought forโ The Shadow whispered in her ear. The sound of its voice so filled with power and malice that all other noises, thoughts and reason drifted from her mind. Eventually the sounds of screams, pleading and The Shadows intent washed her thoughts away until there was nothing left but overwhelming rage.
All she had worked for. All she had sacrificed and for what? A group of humans and magic swords to take it from her. Not likely. She watched her warriors and the creatures she commanded flee from the wall, all except the mindless undead, and her frustration grew. The frustration and rage boiled up within the Yuki-onna and it overflowed. Screaming her hatred and rage across the battlefield her intensity of her thoughts mixed with her magical abilities and a wall of frost formed over the fleeing warriors.
โCowardsโฆโ she muttered as she looked upon her frozen troops. โTomorrow they will take the wall. I donโt care how many it takes I will not have everything I worked for taken from me.โ
As Kit sat down at the table with her hands crossed in front of her face she met the uneasy stare that her father was giving her. โSo before you begin I want to explain why firstโฆโ she said as she accepted a hot cup of tea. โI had a visionโฆโ
โA vision of your death?โ her father, Captain Hou interrupted bluntly. His displeasure mixed with concern evident on his face and in his voice.
โNo. If youโd let me continue, I had a vision of a golden dragon asking me to find out why there was a demon at the wall. It asked me to have faith and stay on the outside of the wall and watch the enemy as they went by with their attack. And I did.โ she stopped to blow on her tea before sipping it slowly.
โThey were studding the wall with these.โ she aid as she reached into a torn pocket and deposited what appeared to be a shard of obsidian like material that had been carved into a thin stud. โI wasnโt sure at first but I watched them firing arrows towards the wall and us. I almost gave up when suddenly an arrow hit one of the fragments and this cloud of shadow sped across the ground and attacked all who stood above where the arrow hit. The next wave of attackers did the same thing. Ran up, those that got to the wall embedded another shard and then they would launch a few volleys of arrows. Each time the Shadow demon, the Wrath Wraith, would appear.โ
She paused for a moment and let it sink in. โI though that if the creature just did as it was told and attacked where the shard was broken then we may be able to use it as a weapon. So I tried it out and it worked. The wrath wraith appeared and attacked the oni when they appeared over the ridge. They must have worked it out because I was retrieving one of the shards when they attacked. Lucky these adventurers appeared in time and saved me as during the commotion the shard I had scavenged broke in my pocket.โ she paused to sip from her tea.
โI grabbed a few more shards on the way here so we can analyse them but if the wrath wraith is dead then there is no ability to summon it again.โ she added. โBut I think I did what the dragon ancestor had asked as I could see the glow of the ancestors on these adventurers. I decided that my task was complete so I didnโt need to stay out there any more.โ
As if to punctuate the closure of her story the room dropped in temperature suddenly and a horrible scream broke through the night air outside. Racing up the steps the party looked over the edge of the wall to see walls of ice littering the battlefield. As they trace the direction the walls seemed to point in the Yuki-onna, Yukir Toshio and a huge Onikage stalked away from the battlefield.
The first flakes of snow began to drift down from the darkened clouds.
As the snow began to settle on the wall the movement of hundreds of feet broke the eerie silence. The drone of stampeding feet rose to a thunderous roar as spirit folk, oni, demons and undead rushed towards the wall.
As the humans manned the defences and shot arrows into the oncoming horde the oni and spirit folk that fell quickly rose again as undead. The tell-tale signs of the Yuki-onnaโs magic appearing as steam, frostbite and ice clinging to the freshly raised bodies.
As the bodies hit the wall the undead began to pile up the oni and spirit folk used their bodies to climb towards the top of the wall. But, the bodies concealed the real threat. Dark tendrils of Shadow crept along the ground under and around the feet of the humanoids. As they touched the wall they began to feel for cracks, gaps or holes in the wall in which they quickly filled the crack with their shadowy mass.
All across the wall the masses of bodies rose and fell as they were expertly cut down as the shadowy tendrils pierced the walls. The shadows weaved from the wall across the battlefield and back to the Yuki-onna.
With a surge of magic she gathered the shadow energy and merged her own power within it. Forcing the shadowy tendrils to freeze as if dark permafrost the ground erupted and cracked as the shadow expanded. As the ice rushed forward beams of light shot from the sky and the weapons and items of the heroes which banished the shadow, shattering the ice as it formed.
Where the shadow and ice wasnโt banished it cracked the wall and created walls of ice that protected the shadows minions while creating a ladder for them to climb up.
Appearance of a hero near the tendrils sent the ice and shadow into splinters to the ground and the invaders crashing down behind them. But more bodies brought more tendrils of shadow, their bodies leeching it across the ground where they ran, shuffled, fell and died.
The constant flow of shadow magic and the influx of dark ice came from the Yuki-onna who commanded the battlefield from a raised perch surrounded on all sides but one by jagged ice. One clear path to confront the source of dark magic and end the siege before it brought the wall down.
Areas and places of note
Heavens Reach Wall – The giant wall starts to shake as the first of the tendrils and walls of ice erupt against it. As enemies spill over the top the wall becomes a chaotic place where the sounds of battle is constant and overwhelming.
Notable NPC Interactions
None this week.
Environment and running the adventure
The ice is slippery and any attempt to climb across it or move over it results in a DC14 dex check or they fall prone. The Ice spikes however can not be moved over and grant the Yuki-onna half cover from ranged weaponry.
As for the other parts of this encounter treat the shadow as something that can be spotted and targeted as a creature.
This creatures sole purpose is to find holes in the wall and act as a way of channelling ice magic from the Yuki-onna to damage, bring down the wall and act as a bridge and ladder for the warriors on the ground. Or those on the wall to go down to the ground.
Encounter
Our first lot of encounters is the wall โ Oni (hobgoblins), a captain and some lesser creatures (gnats or zombies.. something that is CR1/4) can flesh this part of the encounter out. If we treat them as coming in waves with the waves being 5 rounds apart it can make it feel like the tides are endless โ just need to describe the creatures taking some time making it across the fields.
The second encounter is when the party realise that they are being torn apart by the Yuki-onna and so they leave the wall to take the fight to her. Now if the party has ranged weapons, abilities or spells it makes this part of the fight easier so I would enforce that the spikes summoned (see last nights map Sieged under snow) provide 3/4 cover for the ice queen from range where there is spikes between her and the attacking party.
Apart from fighting through the waves of Oni, the captains and zombies or lesser Gnats once they reach the ice queen she is quite formidable. I would have the waves still come, our party is level 9 after all, but maybe have supportive arrow fire dwindle the horde a bit from the wall.
For the Onikage as this one is meant to be huge, a more impressive specimen, change the size to huge and HP to 60 and that will just about do it for us.
For three hundred nights he returned to the same place, the same four walls started to haunt him. For three hundred nights he questioned the darkening room if the his insanity was imagined. On the three hundredth night the darkness answered back.
It wasn’t that the task was impossible, it was barely difficult most of the time it was just that it was different. Instead of joining the others of his family in their habits and rituals he put pen to paper and wrote. He wrote for the hell of it, he wrote for fun and he wrote to get the voices from his mind into a book. Somewhere they wouldn’t intrude upon his waking moments.
The voices at the beginning were scattered, unbridled and unfocused. Erratic at best but cohesive at the same time. A true complex being like none other he had dared to imagine before. With time they became structured, reigning in that power within the void of his mind he channelled the raw potential towards tasks. And from power, quiet and darkness life was born.
At first it was simple things, little things. People and places, things and occurrences. Good and bad, happy and not so much. Inspiration was taken from day to day life and that spark of creative energy created a torrent of imagined fire that tore across the pages of the paper and etched in an image of a world foreign yet familiar.
The darkness spoke, the pages questioned and the darkness answered in time.
Parents, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands and friends all came forward with questions. Requests were spoken and the solution was murmured to the darkness where the heroes lay in wait to answer their call. They answered the call to write the wrongs, to find the lost and defend the defenceless. The wrong doers, the villains of this sprawling world contained within his mind fought for control and supremacy of thought. Some nights they won and the heroes in the dark corners of the room were forced to seek aid from high powers, from others.
Puppets on strings is all they were, but the puppeteer was not to be seen. The forces of good and evil both waged a war that was predetermined from the initial conception of their weekly fate. A course set in the stars, in the charts of man and the paths of beasts determined where the sword fell and where arrows soared.
For three hundred nights the man returned to the dark room. But, darkness has a strange way of finding the light. As the light grew the temptation to reject the raw power the dark offered. The comfort in silence and in numbness to the outside world. In the dark there was nothing more, no colour, no person, nothing to distract from the task. In the dark the monsters battled the heroes of the nightly test and he witnessed it all and scribed it down.
A chamber of dark is prone to summoning the light.
For in the light there were monsters as well. Oh yes monsters dwelled there too. In fact he learned that for each positive force of creativity there are equal and sometimes more powerful force of deconstruction. Deconstruction as opposed to destruction as these monsters taunted from around the chamber. Across the room hidden behind barely visible forcefields the monsters called out for him. They begged for release, for the attention they craved and they needed. For they could only survive if attention provided them opportunity to take the power that dwelt within the man.
The power waxed and waned as his attention drifted. The more the creatures pulled his pen from paper the harder it became to return to the dark. They moved his mind from transcribing the world that only he saw one that only he could record. These beasts, not always terrifying and horrible sometimes beautiful barred his path. One which would see him return to the power of creativity. The one he wielded with deafened ears and closed eyes.
For three hundred nights he contemplated what the purpose of his scribbles were. The recording of a world that a random few were privy to, one where everything was intangible yet very real to him. The rises and falls of power of those that inhabited the land ceased to exist when pen forgot paper. The creatures milled arounds hills and marshes and looked at the settlements of men. In fact they could only ever just watch. For without the spark of creation, the inspiration of the scriber they were unable to move and to fulfil their purpose.
The time to summon the dark again beckoned but the scriber was adrift.
The heroes grew tired and rusty. Indeed, no longer were they able to perform grand acts of bravery for without him they were nothing but shadows in the corner of a room. Light had worked its way into the life of the scribe and with it brought a sense of peace. The voices were muted behind the lights and the distractions the light brought. Gone was the sharp focus that the darkness had brought to him. Others of his kind had infiltrated the chamber of scripture and pulled him away from his task with promises of merriment and leisure. At times the he forgot the power that the darkness had offered him. With the fall of the darkness the voices that spoke to him of people, creatures and places also fled from the light.
However he did not anticipate the power the darkness held over him and his mind. Soon the voices became disorganised and rose in volume. Creatures began to preach of revolution. Heroes pillaged and burned and the villages that had been built over three hundred nights vanished. He looked upon the world he was a guest to and lamented, what had he done? Nothing was the response from the darkness.
Picking up the pen was the easiest decision he had made in a long time, in fact three hundred nights to be exact. Gazing into the world and extinguishing the light he plunged his mind into darkness again. Blocking out the sound of life throughout the attached chambers and retreating back to those four hallowed walls he put pen to paper. The heroes returned and marched against the forces of evil. Villages rebuilt, creatures scurried and thundered across plains and through forests and the great god-beasts of his mind bellowed out.
Back to the darkness to save a world hidden to all.
The darkness had brought him back, had shown him what the distractions the light had to offer. He realised that there was power in the darkness, in blocking out the noise of the light. In fact the same power that powered the spark of creativity also powered the distractions the light offered. He realised that now and a world with both light and darkness awaited.
Brazenly candid for a moment.
Tonight I wanted to get some thoughts onto page. The effort of writing consistently and consecutively for three hundred nights in a row comes with a price. Even if the writing comes naturally, even with a plan and a framework there is always distractions.
New technology, changes in the family dynamic, changes at work outside the ‘dark‘ of the office and in the light of the outside all influence my ability to write. There have been times that I have wondered if I should stray from the path I have set myself on, that I wonder if I had done enough. But these distractions and the pang of longing to return to my writing tells me I have done the right thing in sticking it out.
So tonight I wanted to reflect on three hundred (and three as of this blog update) nights of consecutive writing with Afflictions True Nature. Seeing my little gathering of readers grow is reward in itself. I hope that this coming year I will be able to push it up to the next level where I promote myself a bit more, clean up my content to a higher standard that I want to set myself too and produce content that people actively seek out.
Tomorrow…
That will be all from me tonight. Don’t forget tomorrow is my end of month big write-up so drop by and and check it out. Next week marks the last leg of the journey for the party. I will ask that if you are continuing to join me for this final leg of the year that you let me know your thoughts on my experiment this year. Should I do another year long campaign or should I try something different? Send me a message or leave a comment below.
And, before I head off for the night, don’t forget to keep focus of what drives you. Find your own power, your own call to the dark where the peace, and lack of distractions from the light of screens, shiny new graphics cards or devices is kept at bay behind closed eyelids and blocked ears… or loud music playing through noise cancelling headphones.
Take care everyone and don’t forget to continue to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Welcome to the last weekly write-up for October where we look at the siege of the Ice queen. This week finds the party at the mercy from the Yuki-onna as she commands a frontal assault on the wall. Perhaps the Ice Queens rage and fear of defeat will make her vulnerable it’s not the same little humans that fought her last time.
As the Onikage snorted with barely contained violence and hunger, Yukri watched the humans from its back. The yuki-onna knew that the Shadow, the one who had given her powers to rule as the Ice Queen, wanted these humans dead. But killing these humans had proven difficult, even the enlisted help from the Laelรณng but the vain beast failed.
โQueen. The humans have escaped back on top of the wall. They have powerful weapons and we have to retreatโฆโ a hesitant voice spoke from her side. The Oni looked down at its feet and braced for the worst but it didnโt come. A second voice spoke, much older, darker and more influential than the lowly Oni.
โYou must stop them. Those weapons are cursed by the dragons and elves of old. Their magic has the power to bring down your kingdom. You must kill the wielders and stop them from taking everything you have fought forโ The Shadow whispered in her ear. The sound of its voice so filled with power and malice that all other noises, thoughts and reason drifted from her mind. Eventually the sounds of screams, pleading and The Shadows intent washed her thoughts away until there was nothing left but overwhelming rage.
All she had worked for. All she had sacrificed and for what? A group of humans and magic swords to take it from her. Not likely. She watched her warriors and the creatures she commanded flee from the wall, all except the mindless undead, and her frustration grew. The frustration and rage boiled up within the Yuki-onna and it overflowed. Screaming her hatred and rage across the battlefield her intensity of her thoughts mixed with her magical abilities and a wall of frost formed over the fleeing warriors.
โCowardsโฆโ she muttered as she looked upon her frozen troops. โTomorrow they will take the wall. I donโt care how many it takes I will not have everything I worked for taken from me.โ
As Kit sat down at the table with her hands crossed in front of her face she met the uneasy stare that her father was giving her. โSo before you begin I want to explain why firstโฆโ she said as she accepted a hot cup of tea. โI had a visionโฆโ
โA vision of your death?โ her father, Captain Hou interrupted bluntly. His displeasure mixed with concern evident on his face and in his voice.
โNo. If youโd let me continue, I had a vision of a golden dragon asking me to find out why there was a demon at the wall. It asked me to have faith and stay on the outside of the wall and watch the enemy as they went by with their attack. And I did.โ she stopped to blow on her tea before sipping it slowly.
โThey were studding the wall with these.โ she aid as she reached into a torn pocket and deposited what appeared to be a shard of obsidian like material that had been carved into a thin stud. โI wasnโt sure at first but I watched them firing arrows towards the wall and us. I almost gave up when suddenly an arrow hit one of the fragments and this cloud of shadow sped across the ground and attacked all who stood above where the arrow hit. The next wave of attackers did the same thing. Ran up, those that got to the wall embedded another shard and then they would launch a few volleys of arrows. Each time the Shadow demon, the Wrath Wraith, would appear.โ
She paused for a moment and let it sink in. โI though that if the creature just did as it was told and attacked where the shard was broken then we may be able to use it as a weapon. So I tried it out and it worked. The wrath wraith appeared and attacked the oni when they appeared over the ridge. They must have worked it out because I was retrieving one of the shards when they attacked. Lucky these adventurers appeared in time and saved me as during the commotion the shard I had scavenged broke in my pocket.โ she paused to sip from her tea.
โI grabbed a few more shards on the way here so we can analyse them but if the wrath wraith is dead then there is no ability to summon it again.โ she added. โBut I think I did what the dragon ancestor had asked as I could see the glow of the ancestors on these adventurers. I decided that my task was complete so I didnโt need to stay out there any more.โ
As if to punctuate the closure of her story the room dropped in temperature suddenly and a horrible scream broke through the night air outside. Racing up the steps the party looked over the edge of the wall to see walls of ice littering the battlefield. As they trace the direction the walls seemed to point in the Yuki-onna, Yukir Toshio and a huge Onikage stalked away from the battlefield.
The first flakes of snow began to drift down from the darkened clouds.
As the snow began to settle on the wall the movement of hundreds of feet broke the eerie silence. The drone of stampeding feet rose to a thunderous roar as spirit folk, oni, demons and undead rushed towards the wall.
As the humans manned the defences and shot arrows into the oncoming horde the oni and spirit folk that fell quickly rose again as undead. The tell-tale signs of the Yuki-onnaโs magic appearing as steam, frostbite and ice clinging to the freshly raised bodies.
As the bodies hit the wall the undead began to pile up the oni and spirit folk used their bodies to climb towards the top of the wall. But, the bodies concealed the real threat. Dark tendrils of Shadow crept along the ground under and around the feet of the humanoids. As they touched the wall they began to feel for cracks, gaps or holes in the wall in which they quickly filled the crack with their shadowy mass.
All across the wall the masses of bodies rose and fell as they were expertly cut down as the shadowy tendrils pierced the walls. The shadows weaved from the wall across the battlefield and back to the Yuki-onna.
With a surge of magic she gathered the shadow energy and merged her own power within it. Forcing the shadowy tendrils to freeze as if dark permafrost the ground erupted and cracked as the shadow expanded. As the ice rushed forward beams of light shot from the sky and the weapons and items of the heroes which banished the shadow, shattering the ice as it formed.
Where the shadow and ice wasnโt banished it cracked the wall and created walls of ice that protected the shadows minions while creating a ladder for them to climb up.
Appearance of a hero near the tendrils sent the ice and shadow into splinters to the ground and the invaders crashing down behind them. But more bodies brought more tendrils of shadow, their bodies leeching it across the ground where they ran, shuffled, fell and died.
The constant flow of shadow magic and the influx of dark ice came from the Yuki-onna who commanded the battlefield from a raised perch surrounded on all sides but one by jagged ice. One clear path to confront the source of dark magic and end the siege before it brought the wall down.
Captain Hou commands the wall troops to push back the attacking creatures but starts to struggle as the Yuki-onna’s attacks begin to bring down the wall.
Kyoko Harimasu
Kyoko fights with Captain Hou as she sends Takeo to the capital to warn them that the wall may fall and to provide the current status to her father.
Miss Hou
Captain Hou’s daughter reveals the reason she was hiding and scavenging amongst the battlefield. She joins Kyoko and her father in defending the wall and the Harimasu princess.
Wall Guard Gin Seng
Gin Seng simply defends the wall.
Environment and running the adventure
Tonight the encounter was balanced assuming that our party would have levelled up after reaching the wall and the fights along the way. This sets us at around 30000 xp for a daily encounter budget and around 6400 for an encounter.
The Shadow Tendrils move as fast as they can towards the wall and then take the dodge action until the Yuki-onnas turn. They always act on initiative 10 and wont attack creatures. They also always stealth up using the creatures above them as cover.
Our first lot of encounters is the wall โ Oni (hobgoblins), a captain and some lesser creatures (gnats or zombies.. something that is CR1/4) can flesh this part of the encounter out. If we treat them as coming in waves with the waves being 5 rounds apart it can make it feel like the tides are endless โ just need to describe the creatures taking some time making it across the fields.
The second encounter is when the party realise that the walls are being torn apart by the Yuki-onna and so they leave the wall to take the fight to her. Now if the party has ranged weapons, abilities or spells it makes this part of the fight easier so I would enforce that the spikes summoned (see last nights map Sieged under snow) provide 3/4 cover for the ice queen from range where there is spikes between her and the attacking party.
Apart from fighting through the waves of Oni, the captains and zombies or lesser Gnats once they reach the ice queen she is quite formidable. I would have the waves still come, our party is level 9 after all, but maybe have supportive arrow fire dwindle the horde a bit from the wall.
For the Onikage as this one is meant to be huge, a more impressive specimen, change the size to huge and HP to 60 and that will just about do it for us.
Thanks again for joining me for another end of week writeup. Next week I will work on some bonus content as we work our way up to the end of the month. Next month is the end of the road for us so don’t forget every day between now December 1st. And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Hi all and welcome to a bit of a random adventure night. Tonight I had fond memories (as I was sitting down watching kids movies) of watching some classics, and some new favourite movies. I wanted to create a sea adventure. So I bring you Maw of the sea god.
Now heavily inspired by Sinbad and a bit by the visuals of the “How to train your dragon” movies I wanted to have it focus around a put in the ocean.
The idea behind this is that the party have been given a quest to go find a missing heir who was sailing before a storm hit. The son’s faithful hawk was returned with a note with the last known heading of the ship attached to its leg in a small bottle.
It’s a sea adventure where coming up towards the hole they can see the plume of mist and sea spray for hundreds of feet, and some drifting barrels of something floating on top of the waves as if they were thrown overboard.
The hole is actually extinct volcano that has gradually been worn down by the sea leaving a gaping maw. However what lies beneath and that lives in the maw is from another age. Winged creatures that swoop and try and take the sailors and passengers of ships as they get close. Large tentacled creatures (not a kraken.. although it could be a kraken) lunge out from the deep water around the maw to attack the boats thinking them whales or some other food.
And there in the mist, a large mast with a tattered flag fluttering in the breeze can be seen through the spray.
The prince and a few of his men (most of the crew in fact) at on their ruined boat. Unable to turn in time to avoid the maw until it had them.
So apart from this idea I also wanted to do a bit more. So I did what any sane, sleep-deprived maniac would do and I created a map to go with the easy adventure.
Thanks for dropping by tonight to look at the Maw of the Sea god map and adventure plot. Don’t forget tomorrow our party face the Ice queen in the end of week write-up so make sure to come back for that. And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Welcome to the 7th last (I believe) end of week writeup!. This week we followed the party along the road to the wall as they were attacked by creatures after the dragons tears items. Despite the ferocity and unrelenting creatures they came out on top and perhaps learned a thing or two about the items they carry.
As the party arrived at the wall the first thing that they noticed was the sheer lack of people. For such a crucial point in the defence of Ryokughan it was shockingly unmanned. A head appeared at the edge of the wall twenty feet above the ground before calling out. โPrincess Kyoko is here! Reinforcements have arrived!โ the voice was overcome with emotion before several others echoed with joyous cries of relief.
โKyoko. I donโt think our message hawk arrived here safely. They believe we have more reinforcements for the wallโ Takeo spoke in a hushed whisper to Kyoko and the party. โHow did you want to handle this?โ he added looking from Kyoko to the party who were in fact the reinforcements.
After a few moments a platform was lowered over the side and the party, the princess and the spy were lifted atop the wall. Despite the low numbers of people on the wall they all were veterans. Heavily armed, armoured and trained they carried themselves with a martial poise that was lacking in many. As they rushed towards Kyoko they greeted Takeo and the party, the exhaustion on their faces replaced by joy and relief.
โBefore we continue the pleasantries I believe I need to have a word with you lady Kyokoโ a particularly grizzled and hard man said from a nearby door to a small tower. โThere is something that is of great urgโฆโ he began as he held up a fist and listened to the quiet that his signal instilled. โIt comes!โ the wall captain roared as every single soldier drew their weapons and surrounded the party and princess.
In a moment of chaos clouds of shadow-smoke appeared around the wall in sporadic bursts. Soon the sound of steel clashing, grunts and combat rang out around the party as the unknown adversary launched itself at the walls defenders. After a few moments the creature disappeared and the shadow-smoke dissipated soon after.
โTo your posts. Prepare for combat!โ roared the captain who eyed his men and women closely, inspecting for wounds. Finding one he pulled them aside โto the infirmary,โ he said with a sigh as the realisation set into the face of the woman in front of him. โyouโve been stung. You wonโt be seeing battle again until youโve recoveredโ he added as he clasped the soldiers shoulder.
โyes sir!โ the soldier barked obediently as with a great deal of sadness she handed over her weapons in resignation to the captain before retreating down a nearby set of stairs. As she disappeared into the bowels of carved and fortified stone.
โWe are hounded by a creature that does not kill, it barely wounds but what it touches quickly dies. Normally at the hands of the victims allies.โ the captain said as he grabbed a helmet and moved to the wall. โThose unfortunately enough to get injured by it recover after some time. Normally after heavy sedation. Some donโt and they choose to live on the outside of the wall so that in their condition they can still benefit their brothers and sisters.โ
โWhat do you mean wall captain Hou?โ Kyoko asked as she moved over to the wall before clasping a hand to her mouth.
โThey go mad. Their blood boils and they cant detect friend from foe. They will kill anything in sight. Lethally trained warriors who canโt tell friend from foe and who have a lust for blood that a demon would envy. I havenโt seen it before. Our healers can only sedate and hope that their spirit is strong enough to fight the affliction. If they canโt resist then they spend their final days ripping into our enemies and serving us in their death.โ the captain said with great reverence as he saluted a human who stopped pacing by the base of the wall, bloody froth covering its mouth.
After a moment the human, one a warrior that defended the wall turned and charged away from the wall, picking up a crude looking sword as it charged headlong into a mass of charging Spirit folk. The brutality in which the warrior cleaved into the fey creatures was outstanding and hard to watch. But that wasnโt only sight on the other side of the wall. Dozens of injured and dying lay strewn about the battlefield on both sides. Humans, those afflicted as well as the minions of The Shadow, all of them calling for help or crying out in pain or fear.
โWe have tried to recover our wounded or dead and we started to lose more men than we savedโฆโ a wall guard said from next to the party. Nodding towards the captain who pulled on a helmet and drew a magnificent longbow as he climbed a nearby watch tower. โHe lost his daughter. She was a fine warrior and led the last recovery mission. She was cut down by a Oni.โ The guardsman nodded towards a banner that stood high amongst the bodies, rocks and toppled trees. โShe lies somewhere over there. Some men swear they have seen her moving about the battlefield but I think they are just seeing things.โ he sighed. After a moment he ran off down the wall to continue to guard as creatures started to reach the wall.
As the party stood atop the wall they thought of the day that they had witnessed. Twice more the shadow creature had struck but by luck, skill or divine grace they had not been inflicted with the affliction. The woman in the infirmary howled with rage and even while heavily sedated it only eased the peaks of her fury.
They also had to witness the dead rise from their broken and battered forms and assault the wall, beaten back and slain by either the warriors on the wall or those afflicted driven mad by rage who hunted the no-mans land between the wall and the rocky mountains where the attacks came from. Even while the party watched from the wall and aided in driving back the dead or the twisted spirit-folk there was little joy in the tasks they did.
It was at this point, at the edge of torchlight that the party saw movement. To precise and too careful for undead or afflicted. Too subtle and tactical to be spirit-folk or beast. As the party watched the shadow approached the edge of the light cast by the braziers and torches that lined the wall and it quickly darted forward and grabbed a pack from a fallen oni warrior. The distinct human colour skin flashed from under layers of tattered and ripped cloth as a sudden gust of wind caused the light cast by the fire to flash across the face of the creature and a human Ryokughan female looked up at the party startled.
The figure pressed a finger to her lips before skulking off towards a crest in the battlefield.
Bonus – Over the wall
“That’s her! That’s the captains daughter!” The wall guard from earlier that day announced. Gin Seng pointed at the captains daughter as she hurried across the battlefield towards a rocky outcrop. Moments later several shapes started to move towards her and the rock rise in the battlefield, she appeared unaware.
“we have to do something” Gin said as he hurried towards the crane. His voice causing a commotion amongst the other guards.
“What’s going on here?” barked Captain Hou.
“Kit is out there Sir. We saw her” Gin said, the party confirming with him.
“It’s probably a trick of the Shadow…” The captain said, his own voice betraying the hope he held deep inside. “Kit is gone…”
A scream erupted from the battlefield. The shadowy-Kit had been ambushed and the sound of combat could be heard. “KIT!” her father screamed as he threw the platform over the side of the wall. “Man the defences. Ballista and arrows trained on the battlefield. Nothing comes up whilst I go down.”
“Captain Hou, the plan can’t succeed without you. The adventurers are veterans at combat and have surprised me more than once. Besides it will be a test to see if the simple presence of the Dragons Tears artefacts can draw forth the shadows minions…” Kyoko said as she stepped out in full armour.
“I hate to ask this of you my friends. But are you willing to rescue the captains daughters and see what happens when the dragons light erupts forth from you?” she asked with a tinge of guilt and regret.
Captain Hou is a rugged veteran commander of the wall guard for decades he has led the elite troops in defending the land from the Shadows Influence and was so honoured that his own daughter joined him. This was his biggest regret as his daughter was just as head strong as he was in his youth and led a foolish mission to retrieve the wounded from the battlefield only to be struck down herself.
Kyoko Harimasu
Kyoko keeps herself hidden and defended by many guards. Captain Hou and Takeo spend most of their time talking tactics into how to lure the Ice queen towards the wall and a trap.
Miss Hou
Captain Hou’s daughter…
Wall Guard Gin Seng
Gin Seng is one of the warriors in the Wall Guard. He is well trained and a natural in combat but perhaps a bit too emotional for the captains liking.
Leading with emotion rather than discipline Gin Seng is sure that the captains daughter still lives and swears that he has seen her at night.
Environment and running the adventure
Night time shouldn’t be a hassle for the party with their level, abilities and gear by now so it’s another night time encounter.
Any creature from our vaults can be used here. I would suggest some Oni and perhaps an afflicted human warrior (see gladiator stat block with affliction template added). The Wrath Wraith also comes forth and attacks the party as they reach Kit Hou – she seems to be untargeted by the creature but the party are less fortunate.
Aftermath…
As the party defeat the wrath Wraith the all too familiar haunting call of the Onikage echoes through the battlefield and Yukri Toshio – the Yuki-onna appears on the back of a huge Onikage. She points towards the party as the crest of the hill she is standing on erupts into dozens of shadowy shapes running toward the party. Kit pleads for the party to retreat as the guard on the wall start to call for them to run back as well.
Thanks for joining me again for another end of week writeup. The second last week and of the second last month see’s us drawing things to a close. Next week we go over the wall and further into enemy territory as we try and draw forth the Yuki-onna and her dreadful mount. Don’t forget to come back each day this coming week and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Good evening and welcome to another Saturday random-topic discussion piece. Tonight I wanted to touch on when you can have too much preparation and some wandering thoughts I had on it.
Now I am probably prone to going too deep into world building from the get go. I normally have a rough plot, some segues (relatable secondary hooks) and a rough idea from how to go from session zero to session 26. But I then tend to go super deep into it establishing the origin story for the homebrew setting, complex political movements, secondary (and even tertiary) powers who oppose the player and main plot and so on.
I then create new races, new religions, new creatures, sometimes new classes and subclasses and before I know it I have a whole book worth of content before I even have my players. This well of ideas, lore and history sometimes doesn’t translate well when my players rock up at the table and begin to discuss their back story.
Sometimes empires shift. Relationships, cities and outcomes of battles may change based on what the party members have achieved or where they have come from. Sometimes I get bogged down in too much preparation that I fail to factor in a fundamental step that I weave in with my games.
The simply fact that, the players and their characters tell the stories.
I recognise that some of the re-work, potential-frustration as well as mental fatigue and exhaustion that I go through with world building and campaign setting could be removed if I was to simply involve my players early on. Maybe having session -1 where I have the players get involved in the world building.
Simply telling them about the world and giving them the opportunity of asking me questions they care about. What races are there? Is there any political drama? Where do elves fit in? Simple things like this could help me, the DM, in build the world for them to explore.
After all there is game without the players so why not involve them earlier in the process of creating it.
This also serves a secondary purpose – to get your players invested in this world. If they asked what gnomes were like in this world and you explained that they happened to be extremely military perhaps they could expand why. Maybe Gnomes are military because dwarves invaded their lands? Perhaps a certain gnome family or village was the reason for the banding together of the gnomish people into this warrior state. Maybe one of the party was a descendant of the king that brought them together and they now are trying to broker peace with the elves.
Getting investment from your players
Little things such as these questions can grow into bigger investment for your players. And this is a great thing because after all, we want them invested in the world. We want them to show up each week to go “I need to make sure that my people continue on the right path.” With a greater level of investment the greater chance that those players will prioritise a slot in their calendar for D&D night.
What a fantastical notion. In fact the breaking down of the DM role’s walls and exposing the inner workings to your players could be the best thing you could do.
The future
I think that my next adventure, which I hope to start in the coming months after a lengthy break, will be a collaboration between player and DM. Getting my players to explain the world, perhaps build parts of it for themselves will help tie their characters involvement in with it.
I believe that with less focus on the world building and more focus on the involvement will help me level up as a DM. Perhaps it will help my players level up as players too. Regardless the new year and next few months should be a learning curve for myself and my players as we build a world together.
I will hope to post a few updates on here when the times comes to get involvement from my readers. So if you have questions for me in the setting I will creature let me know. I will have some more info on this coming December and hopefully the new year brings with it a new adventure for me and my players to begin.
On that note don’t forget to visit me again here tomorrow for the end of week write up. We have a few hidden things to work through and a mammoth week next week to prepare for. So, lastly, don’t forget to roll with advantage and I’ll see you tomorrow, The Brazen Wolfe
Welcome to the 7th last (I believe) end of week writeup!. This week we followed the party along the road to the wall as they were attacked by creatures after the dragons tears items. Despite the ferocity and unrelenting creatures they came out on top and perhaps learned a thing or two about the items they carry.
Black feathers caught the wind currents under the dark ominous clouds and caused the large winged creature to soar above the ground far below. Beating its wings it looked down below at the group travelling along the road. Itโs keen eyes picked out everything. From the colours of their clothes to the wear and tear on their cloaks not a detail was missed. That was until the hilt of a blade, the tip of a staff and the glimmer of an amulet glimmered from under cloth.
The resulting burst of radiance in the creatures view caused it to reel with pain. It wasnโt just its pain it was feeling but also its masters and its desires were simple. Donโt let them reach the wall.
Tucking its wings in the creature dove down the wind now aiding in its rapid descent as it plunged. Noticing movement from its left and right two of its brethren also had been urged downwards. However, their descent was halted as a bolt of radiance shot up from the travellers, connecting with the torso of the creature next to it. The tangled mess of skin, flailing limbs and gore tumbled down towards the earth as the creatures dove onwards.
Too late did the creature realise as the blades, limbs and bolts piece and shred their flesh that these motes of radiance were too much for them. Even as they began to flee shredded wings flapping in a panic they were cut down no far from where they made their foolish attack.
As the radiant light burnt through its flesh and it lay in a pool of blood and gore the power the Shadow had leant it all those years ago evaporated with the last beat of its heart.
The Dragons Tears items were phenomenal. With a single command word they shed bright light as if a miniature sun had been captured and forged into a item. The sun is something that the party had not seen in days and the further they travelled in this direction the more certain they were that they wouldnโt see the sun for quite some time.
โIt wasnโt always like thisโ Kyoko said from beside them as she walked, the unseasonal browning leaves crunching underfoot. โThese parts of the Harimasu lands were always green and rich with life. Now with the Shadow spreading its influence further east it looks like the life is being stripped from the earth.โ Kyokoโs voice was melancholy but the bright light from the items the party carries seemed to bring mirth back to her face.
โLegend has it that the weapons were so powerful that the Shadow couldnโt stand to be in their presence. Alone it fled to the mountains to get far enough away from them that it wouldnโt feel their light upon its dark skin.โ
The party looked at the items in thought. Surely they were stories told to make the people of these lands feel brave enough to face the horrors that crept in the dark. As a shower of sparks signalled that Takeo had finished building the fire as what they believed to be night descended upon them. Once he had finished with the fire he produced a pot and some rations and foodstuffs to get a meal going.
Nightfallโฆ
As the fire flickered and licked at the empty pot the shadows cast from the creatures that gathered around it for warmth. The smell of stewed meat and vegetables caused the creatures to salivate but that wasnโt reason that they were here. The driving pressure, the urge and the desire to appease their master had lead them here and here they waited until they were sure. Their master was a strong one, clever, fast and wise. But his master was even more so and it was he who was giving the orders.
โWait until we are sure they carry the light. Then we attack and make sure none find the light ever againโ their master had instructed them. The largest creature crooned as she received scritches under its massive jaw.
A brief flash of light, then a pulse. A bigger burst of light that seared the eyes of the nocturnal creatures gave them all the information they needed. As a group they charged, whooping, cheering and howling with excitement as they closed into their prey. They just hoped that they would last long enough to be fun for the pack.
Kyoko has come with the party to aid them in drawing the Ice queen out and coordinating the troops on the wall as the others head to the south to meet the Toshio-family head on and prevent the wall from being attacked on two fronts.
Now the giant vulture in this instance of it looks like its not that strong but having a few ambush the party could be an interesting way to start us off. It will hint to the party that they are being watched or at least searched for.
The mastiff is part of the night time encounter, a few of these could be quite the challenge for the party. In fact this is especially so if they attack a party member who is isolated and drag them off into the darkness to beโฆ wellโฆ eaten.
The Quasit is a funny one. I use these critters are comic relief normally but they can be quite dangerous in groups. The shape change will play havoc with the party (especially with the Paladins divine sense only picking up a fiend nearby where there is clearly a toad, centipede or a roosting bat. Could be a way to harass the party without causing them any real danger by having a few of these creatures playing tricks on the party.
Aftermath…
The party move on for another day of walking before the wall is seen on the horizon. Although they have bested all that has been thrown at them so far they fear the worst still lies ahead of them.
Thanks for joining me once again. As we draw closer to the end of our long trek along the Road to the wall we find our parties on the precipice of danger at every turn. Next week we find ourselves at the wall and perhaps its not as dire as it seems, perhaps its worse. Don’t forget to come back each day this coming week and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Brazen Wolfe Tabletop 