Dungeons&Dragons

Across the Marsh, through the Jungle.

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Hi all and welcome to a new week and a new weekly session where we just saw our party seek the aid of an ancient Toad-kin shaman who calls the marsh home, and during the endeavour they had to go and complete the Shaman, Varda’s, shopping list.

This week we will be looking towards the journey to the Docks and what lies past the Marsh. Now this month as come and gone very quickly and next week is the last week of the month which means I have to accelerate my plans for this months adventure – which means more content for you all!

Port Side

216MoPS

True to her word Varda’s two charms, the Longsnout talisman that enabled the Toad-kin know as Kiri to speak not just understand Common as well as the Kookastem fetish that allowed the party to scout the dangers of the marsh from a birds eye view and through navigating the marsh, the mud banks and deep patches of water (and avoiding the dangers they now knew lurked in the murky water) it saw them standing on solid ground soon at the base of tangled grove of trees.

The Jungle, which is the only thing that could describe the hot, dense mass of trees and plants was hard to traverse and the fetish as of little use due to the heavy canopy above them. The creatures in the jungle were smaller than the marsh, skittish even and there was always a noise, a growl, a call or a shadow near by watching the party as they moved through the dense vegetation. As night fell and the party set up camp Kiri warned them of the many dangers, a list that went on for quite some time, and as the noises increased the party began to believe some of the stories the toad-kin told over the flickering embers of the fire.

After a day walking after one of the worst nights sleep that anyone could remember for some time they stumbled through the edge of the forest and looked down upon the port town which sat at a large cove in the river about a mile away. Thick black smoke billowed forth from buildings on the outskirts of the town and evidence of battle could be seen from this distance, fallen bodies and a small camp settled in from the North West, to the north of where the party had come from the jungle, could be seen cloaked by an cloud that defied the wind and cast a massive shadow over the ram shackle camp.
The Toad-kin seemed spooked, jittery even, and when the party finally spoke they jumped in fear.

“That’s no brigand or ramshackle force there, that’s an Oni camp – blessed by the shadow. It seems they, the shadow, had a backup plan in case my people could not stop you in the marsh.” he began, fear causing his voice to tremble. “I will go and warn my people, and the ship, there must be another way to where you need to go. To face the Oni is death.”

Looking forward at the town and the ramparts the party discussed on their course of action, tired and low on reserves after the marsh and the jungle they were unsure of what their next move was but knew that they could not stay at the edge of a jungle and that the port was their next stop and best hope at returning back to the ship to re-unit with Kyoko, Siu and Lizbet to complete their quest.

This month has gone very fast and after a day hobby-ing (painting a doom wheel and taking to the field with my Skaven against Orruk warclans) I am very quickly running out of time to paint as much of my Skaven army as possible and line up this weeks adventure.

So don’t forget to come back each day this coming week so that we can continue on this adventure and see where it takes us. Don’t forget to ask about my hobby table too – without being reminded I may be prone to forgetting about the challenge I set myself and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Varda’s Request

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Welcome to another writeup that looks at the past week where this time our party found their ship, the Dancing Drake, in need for repairs after being attacked by toad-kin at the control of their Chieftains and war chief. They set off across the marsh to find help but run into some problem’s.

So instead of re-writing the past week let’s jump into the end of week write-up and the adventure..  

Shaman’s request

The Dancing Drake having suffered a wound to its hull and becoming stuck between marsh banks looked to be in some difficulties. While wondering how to fix it  two unarmed and unarmoured toad-kin approached the crew and were eventually lead to Lizbet and the party. Whilst able to understand common communication seemed hard, body language and communication with hand gestures revealed that these two toad-kin (Kiri and Trip) wished to help those who walked amongst the walking star and could show them the way through the marsh, they think.

The crew and Kyoko both agreed that travelling the marsh would cut days off their travel, considering their ship was grounded until repairs could be made, and it would take a savvy survivalist to lead them through unscathed, particularly the darker deeper parts of the marsh and jungle that lay between them and the port they were travelling to.

The issue is that the Toad-kin could not communicate traditionally but they wanted to take them to someone who commanded the spirits and magic of the swamp to create a charm that would lead them through the worst of the marsh and perhaps find a way to enable the two Toad-kin to communicate with those they wished to serve and assist.

Reluctant to agree they considered their other options, sure that they could find a spell or charm to speak and communicate with the diminutive humanoids they set off on their own, heading in the direction with a compass borrowed from Choi to seek help at the port to retrieve supplies and a crew to repair the dancing drake and get it sailing again.

Kiri and Trip not wanting them to fail followed them but not being able to communicate effectively started to wear down the party and their guides nerves as the marsh got thicker and the sun got lower as the day went on..

Area of note

The boat – The Red Fleets Dancing Drake is where the party find themselves calling the ship home, for the time being at least. But having suffered damage to the hull they are need of repair and its currently stuck between two mud banks and taken on water.

The Marsh – The marsh is small islands of mud and root systems of the bushes and reeds that grow in this otherwise deep waterway. Those who fall overboard are treated with deep water, slippery mud banks and thick four feet tall reeds that make traversing these waterways dangerous during the day and lethal at night.

The Marsh hut – A small hut in the marsh which is home to Varda, the toad-kin who needs some reagents for a charm to assist the party.

NPCs

Kiri – a small toad-kin of young years who believes in the old ways. Spirited and savvy he volunteered to help guide the adventures through the swamp despite thinking their plan foolish.

Trip – a larger toad-kin of more advanced years. He is good with his spear and quite experienced at moving about the marsh safely. It’s a rare occurrence that he is taken by surprise.

Varda – a old one footed toad-kin shaman who is fond of cooking and who is rumoured to be so old that she walked amongst the fallen stars. Her name is also rumoured to be a gift from those people who taught her how to speak (elves and draconic).

Environment and running the adventure

The Marsh banks – If someone was to fall overboard a DC10 Dexterity check would be required to stand up safely on the river bank (or they fall prone), made with disadvantage if the person on the bank is wearing heavy armour. The islands are 5ft by 10ft on average with some longer but skinnier, and some 10ft by 10ft banks of mid and reeds sporadically spread out either side of the deep river.                                       

The marsh – See Map

Made with Inkarnate.com

Encounter

In this encounters let’s assume that our party of 4 have all reached level 5, I think that would be fitting for being this far in the adventure-year. (disclaimer – forgotten from Fridays writeup – the Goblin and whale are placeholders for the CR..)

The first encounter is more to shock the party into action and drive them to seek aid in crossing the marsh. One, or two (dealers choice) giant marsh newts ambush the toad-kin once they have revealed that they are mostly harmless to anything they they cant fit in their mouth. The newts should swallow one toad-kin and lumber off with the aim being the party to fight it and kill it near the waters edge.

Once it’s (they) are dead a Longsnout Sharptooth will lunge out of the water, not revealing its fleshy flower looking appendages at all, and attack the corpse. Anyone who fails a perception check (vs its stealth) will get hit by the creatures tail as it dives up onto the bank with a successful str saving throw preventing them from being knocked down as it then drags the newt into the water, only once the toad-kin escapes.

Second half.

The walk to Varda’s hut is easy, the toads know the way. She then requests the petals of the Longsnout Sharptooth and feathers of a Mirestrider Kookastem (a four legged fast bird).

The encounter for this can be straight forward where the party hunt the birds and the Longsnout sharptooth or have the Longsnout attack the party during fighting/hunting the Mirestrider as an ambush for the party.

I would picture it as the mire strider fleeing from the party, they almost going to capture it and the Longsnout lunging at the party, first one to come into Range. Jaws closing on both Mirestrider, killing it in a plume of feathers.

The alternative is spotting two bright flowers unlike the others in the marsh growing from a log thats floating in the marsh near the shore. This of course isn’t a log but the Longsnout. There are a lot of ways to run the encounter and the most thematic and challenging for the party would be my preference.

Aftermath

Once the ingredients are given to Varda she produces a talisman for the Toad-kin Kiri which gifts him the ability to speak common and the party a fetish which is a stuffed bird that enables them to see through its eyes gor a hour as it flies above the party at around 100ft off the ground. After its done so it falls to the ground and lays inert until the following dawn.

Well that’s it for tonight, thanks for joining me as we wrapped up this weeks adventure.

Don’t forget to come back next week as we look to continue with this months adventure and don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Easter eggs

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Hi all and welcome to a Saturday write-up where tonight I wanted to explore the concept of easter eggs. What I mean by this isnt the delectables that are left around the house, found, gorged upon then forgotten on a top shelf for 11 months I am referring to the little bits of something that pop up in an adventure only for the party to realise later their significance.

Now, the term easter egg may not be quite correct for this but tis the season so I had to give it a shot…

Now the trouble with these is they need to be significant enough that they are recognisable but not so much that they are at the forefront of the players minds.

I have historically bad attempts at trying to bring this into play and normaly the attempts that come close are where the party uncover a book, a scroll or an item with a symbol that is super relevant to the story line but ambiguous enough that when describing it to the party they dont instantly pick up on it.

For me they need a few common traits (and this is just my personal opinion and not something quoted from the internet so let’s have an open discussion in the comments if you have a different view)

I’ll use a symbol in a book that belongs to a cult that worships undead dragons as an example. Perhaps the book is explaining the finer points of gem cutting, written by a pseudo famous dwarven gem cutter to make sure that they are finely crafted and pure, even the slightest imperfection or blemish may cause them to lose value. Next to the lengthy paragraph about this gem cutting is a shorter paragraph scrawled out with a specific symbol sketched, perhaps doodled, next to it explaining the vital importance of making sure there is no flaw in the crystal lest it too frail and weak for their biggest customers.

1. Relevant. As I mentioned before it the symbol, words, phrase or what ever Macguffin is used needs to be relevant to some point of the story.

2. Vague. The above appears to be vague, the book itself may be the work of any dwarven Gem cutter but the scrawl could be a note from the previous owner to clarify the importance of the passage regarding gem cutting for larger clients.

3. Detailed. Now not to confuse with vague but it needs to be specifically worded and detailed enough that its memorable, this part is both the hardest and easiest part. Easy in the way that if you describe something detailed enough with specific components and it should be memorable. For most of us being able to write something down that flows in with the rest of the plot is easy but it gets difficult in creating the right time difference between the easter egg and the discovery of importance.

This is what I find to be the hardest in the way that you need to write something that is detailed enough, specific enough (yet vague) that it enables that Eureka moment at a point of choosing. Let’s be honest it’s unlikely that we will have the luxury of dictating the exact real world time difference between that initial discovery and when we put though the next trigger point.

In our example above the trigger point could be at the middle crest of the adventure, I believe I’ve mentioned it before that having a specific spike (twist or secondary hook) about mid way through the adventure is key to renewing vigor and hooking players further into the campaign by reserving, in this case, a journal which has engraved/embossed the symbol that accompanied the hand written paragraph explains the details around creating a lich using a focus point, the more pure the foci the stronger the connection to the body.

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the end of week write-up where we check how our party is braving the marsh in search for reagents. Also I hope to put out some more hobby progress something tomorrow so whilst enjoying easter sunday feel free to check in on my amateur painting skill!

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

Ambush!

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Hi all and welcome to a Fightnight where this week we are finally looking at the creatures for this weeks encounter, and a bonus writeup.

So I’ve got a bit of work to do including borrowing some stat blocks and modifying them to suit as well as making stat blocks from scratch!

Predators and Prey

215FrPrPr

The Longsnout

The Longsnout Sharptooth is a huge six legged reptile that resembled crocodiles and alligators with have two large fleshy appendages that are capped with fleshy flower petal like sensory glands. These creatures lie in wait in the water amongst the reeds and use their antennae like appendages to locate prey and lure them in before lunging at them and dragging them into the murky deep waters of the marsh.

Strategy

These creatures despite not being outright smart have ambushed the unwary in the marshes for as long as they have been around.

While not afraid to fight with large creatures they prefer to fight anything that can fit in their mouth – such as medium and small creatures.

The Mirestrider Kookastem

This curios four legged, mostly flightless bird is beautiful yet stupid and easily spooked. Males have brighter plumage whilst females are adorned with large flowing features that quickly muddy (which causes these creatures to go into cleaning frenzies to keep their feathers immaculate).

Faster than most creatures and hyper aware that its the bottom of the food chain, delicious and weak this creature will run as fast as possible the moment its spooked, normally running directly into the mouth of another creature that’s waiting for it to do just so.

Strategy

Now there isn’t much strategy to these creatures, the moment it detects something (passive perception) it will spook, run and jump (gliding with its stunted wings instead of a traditional jump)

Trapping, ambushing or shooting these creatures from a distance is the best bet to capture a tasty meal with bright plumage.

Giant Marsh Newt

The Giant Marsh newt is slow but opportunistic.

Strategy

It will try and eat anything that is smaller than it by 2 sizes, but can swallow and attempt to eat something that is one size smaller. If the party has a small creature (such as a Toad-kin)

Whilst generally peaceful when driven to hunger it will greedily attack anything it deems an easy meal, trying to swallow it before disappearing into the mud.

A few hours before the party met Varda…

The first hour has been a nightmare, sticky mud that stuck to ankles and boots as they head further into the marsh, their guides, the two toad-kin, jumped and walked nimbly across the mud banks but were obviously slowed down due to the adventures behind them.

Several moments of croaking and crouching over some disturbed mud revealed a set of dragging footprints. The two diminutive humanoids were obviously trying to explain what it meant to the party that followed them when a large lingering shape walked between two bushes. A large slimy lizard appeared, well on closer look it was an amphibian.. the more experienced survivalists would call it a newt yet the size was immense compared to thr tiny creature’s that they may have read about or encountered before.

The two toad-kin looked looked nervous but unafraid as the creature stood still and looked at the party before walking backwards into the grasses.

As the party continued on one of the Toad-kin, the older looking one, went back and picked up a small carved talisman that one of them had dropped. The rustle of grass the only warning before large jaws lined with needle sharp teeth appeared and grabbed him between its jaws. The Newt then backed away as thr party as stood in awe for a moment before it turned and began to lumber away. The party have chase, several large flightless birds spooked and flew over the marsh flats quite some distance from the commotion of the party following a giant newt.

Add the party shot arrows, spells and swing swords at it the creature, covered in a slippery slime, moved ever forward towards the water edge before whirling around to perhaps face its attackers it finally succumbed to its wounds.

Slowly something moved from within the mouth of the newt and a toad-kin slowly pulled itself out. Do entranced by the near escape of one of their guides that they failed to notice several birds flying away with haste from nearby or the large figure splitting the waters surface as it approached the bank where the party were.

In a heart beat a huge shadow appeared from the water, jaws clamping shut down on the newt, breaking bones, splitting flesh and the wheezing of the last air being forced from its body as a 15ft monster crashed onto and around the party, its jaws grabbed the corpse and a massive tail beat down and knocked the party away as the beast dragged the bleeding body into the water. Six massive, powerful scaled legs making short work of dragging the creature into the murky depths.

Bruised, broken and battered the adventurers and two toad-kin edged away from the waters edge, the toad-kin sporting more serious wounds as they lead the party in a different direction, heading away from the creature in the water and towards somewhere a lot safer, they think.

Now with the missing puzzle piece revealed and this weeks story fully revealed I hope that it was worth the wait.

Don’t forget to come back this weekend for hopefully another hobby update as I prepare my Skaven for another skirmish on Monday as well as the end of week write-up on Sunday. And, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Lair of the beast

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Hi all and welcome to a Thought Thursday. Yeah I am still trying to work out a catchy name for Thursdays, but today I have produced a battle map for the party to experience during this weeks encounter situated in the near inhabitable marshlands.

This can be used as a way to find Varda’s hut, or, perhaps hunt some wild critters to try and find where they are to return ingredients back to the toad-kin shaman so that she can produce the required charm/talisman/fetish/thing to help the party through the marshlands. 

Hunting Grounds

215ThuHuGr

The thick slimy muck that coated nearly every square foot of this marsh made walking a horrid endeavour, let alone hunting a four legged bird and the creature that ambushed them the day before. The large coarse bushes of reeds formed chest height walls that muffled noise, blocked sight and made it extremely difficult to track game. The water between the mud banks were was deeper than most men were talk but you only realised this once stepping into it.

The near endless bank and cluster of reeds was occasionally broken up by trees fighting to survive, dying or dead. The schlop of boots through mud joined the cacophony of creature sounds until a boot stepped on thr skeleton of something not fortunate enough to be lead by two experienced toad-kin.

Kiri and Trip led the party through the mudbank and be showed them where to cross and where to avoid as the searched for clawed footprints amongst the endless bog. The day drew long and everyone agreed that staying out in the flats overnight was a bad idea.

Made with Inkarnate.com – find here https://inkarnate.com/m/W2AMdr–toad-kin-swamp/

Now tomorrow, no doubt you may have guessed we will look at the Longsnout Sharptooth and the Mirestrider Kookastem as our creature stat-blocks for fight night.

Created in Inkarnate I wanted the soil to look wet, damp and gross so the dark soil with bushes to highlight I think brought a bit of vibrancy.

Thanks for dropping in and continuing on on the adventure across the sea in Ryokughan. Don’t forget to come back over the Easter weekend for more days in the swamp; sadly no Easter one shot planned this time around, but if more random one shots is something you’d like to see let me know! Before I take this time to sign off I’d like to wish everyone a safe break and that you can get a game or two in. And, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Hunted turned hunters

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Hi all and welcome to a whacky Wednesday where we welcome wonderful whimsical wrenches which wreak wonderment within written words.

Ok maybe a bit too much alliteration.. but tonight we will look at twists and turns and throw wrenches at the current plan to expand and enrich it for our players.

Now the war-chief and chiefs of the toad-kin are gone the peaceful tribes are celebrating hard and long, well most of them. Varda, the outcast shaman has other plans and unexpected visitors that have arrived on her porch asking for aid and she, like all toad-kin who aren’t corrupted by the shadow, can see that they have been blessed by the stars. So let’s not keep an old toad waiting.

Shamans Request

215WeShRe

Varda, the name given to her by the last of the elves, looked upon the four adventures in front of them, each of them showing some form of distress and injury. “Well don’t just stand there, come in” she said in near perfect Elven. She then croaked a few deep and rising notes to the toad-kin boys near the humans. “Where did you find them? They have the look of the star-blessed” she nodded and ushered the party, who bad to crawl inside the hut under the roots, barely big enough for them all to sit together side by side.

After shuffling around; an amazing feat considering there was barely any room to stand let alone walk around with one foot, Varda handed a small bowl of the goop she was cooking from her pot.

“So you are looking for a way for you to travel through the marsh safely? Hmm.” She pondered as she sat down and stared at the party as they moved the slop around the tiny bowl. “I can produce a charm that will assist but I will need some components” she began glancing around the party.

“I need the petals of a Longsnout Sharptooth, the feathers of a Mirestrider Kookastem and a drop of star light. The two toads with you, Kiri and Trip” she gestured to the two toad-kin who croaked in response to indicate who was who, “can show you to the two creatures but the drop of starlight I believe you already have the answer to that.” When the party looked confused she nodded and spoke to Kiri and Trip.

“I believe you already met the longsnout and the Mirestrider is easy enough to find if you know the marsh” she said “as for the drop, if you don’t know I may have a solution.”

As she moved around the small hut she eventually found two small vials before giving them the the most trust worthy looking of the party. “Use these for the drops after you have the petal and the feathers, but before you leave I have a question.” She paused as she blinked and gazed upon the humans before her. “Where is the fallen star and can you take me to them?”

Thanks, as with every night, for dropping by and following along with the current updates we have with this adventure, and year long campaign. Don’t forget that we have a few more days of this week in which I will produce more content so do come back daily to stay up to date. And, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Bog light

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Hi all and welcome to an unconventional Tuesday as this week the heroes at trekking across the marshlands to reach the port town where they hope to muster aid to return to the Dancing Drake and conduct emergency repairs. Now that doesn’t sound unconventional by any stretch on ones imagination but what if I told you that I was going to throw the story line in the dice bag, scramble it and then take it out in a different order.

So sit back and see if you can work out the missing piece.

Shamans Harvest

215TuShHa

The old toad-kin hobbled around the little mudbank hut using a large cane to support her missing foot as she walked from shelf to shelf.

As she grabbed the last flappy appendage from the dried bundle she frowned, the ingredient was a hard one to locate and harder to retrieve. Shrugging and tossing it into boiling pot she began to stir the green-brown slime until it bubbled with a earthy meaty smell.

A large frog appeared in her windowsill between her and the mossy natural curtain that hid her windows and hut from the outside world. The frog looked at her and began to croak loudly and rhythmically.

“two toads approach you say, its about time they come to see me I am almost out of the good stuff.” She croaked back at it. The frog croaked in return conveying its message more urgently. “What do you mean humans approach as well. Do not think that although I may not move around as I once did that I can’t catch you and cook you up too” she replied as she walked to the window and peered through the curtain of moss. “Oh, you’re right. There is humans there…”

The party having limped, injured, through the swamp through most of the day and into the night looked around the large heavily vegetated marsh flat where a chest height hill had formed to support the only tree for miles around. The two toad-kin pointed and croaked deeply, a reverberation that seemed to dance across the grass and moss and then towards the mound. Slowly the clack of wood came forward from the mound and a one footed ancient, short female toad-kin hobbled out.

The toad-kin looked from one party member to the next she spoke in elven. “These Toads tell me you seek passage through the marshlands, I believe I have a solution”..

Well that’s the end of tonight’s writeup, the hardest one I had planned for this week. Thanks for joining me tonight and don’t forget to join me here for the next few nights this week.

With the Easter period approaching I’ll find myself with more time to go back and refresh some previous posts that I feel may need a bit more. So don’t forget to come back to check what we post here and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Across the Marsh

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Hi all and welcome to a new week where the heroes would be continuing on their journey across Ryokughan – well they would be if not for the battle that took place in the marshlands.

So this week we will be looking at the next stage in the adventure, being the fifteenth week we have been writing for this year (and the 4th month!) we have a lot of ground to cover if we want to reach our end of year goal – So I better roll on with it.

Marsh Caller

215MoMaCa

As the war-chief fell back and slid into the murky depths of the river the boat rocked and ceased to move along the river current. It appears whilst the main fight was going on above deck something more sinister was happening below deck, below the waters surface to be more precise. A series of large holes had been ripped open in the hull just below the waterline while the ship took on water it had drifted between two marsh islands and as it sank it had become lodged between the muddy banks.

The Toad-kin left the ship and celebrated on the marshy outcroppings below whilst tending to the wounded who had survived the attack, and their chiefs and a chorus of grunts, hoots and croaks filled the sound in a rhythmic tribal beat. Thankfully a large portion of the toad-kin had survived and the crew had come away with some wounds, but nothing life threatening whilst Lizbet was around.

After some time two unarmoured toad-kin approached the crew and were eventually lead to Lizbet and the party. Whilst able to understand common communication seemed hard, body language and communication with hand gestures revealed that these two toad-kin (Kiri and Trip) wished to help those who walked amongst the walking star and could show them the way through the marsh, they think.

The crew and Kyoko both agreed that travelling the marsh would cut days off their travel, considering their ship was grounded until repairs could be made, and it would take a savvy survivalist to lead them through unscathed, particularly the darker deeper parts of the marsh and jungle that lay between them and the port they were travelling to.

The issue is that the Toad-kin could not communicate traditionally but they wanted to take them to someone who commanded the spirits and magic of the swamp to create a charm that would lead them through the worst of the marsh and perhaps find a way to enable the two Toad-kin to communicate with those they wished to serve and assist.

Reluctant to agree they considered their other options, sure that they could find a spell or charm to speak and communicate with the diminutive humanoids they set off on their own, heading in the direction with a compass borrowed from Choi to seek help at the port to retrieve supplies and a crew to repair the dancing drake and get it sailing again.

Kiri and Trip not wanting them to fail followed them but not being able to communicate effectively started to wear down the party and their guides nerves as the marsh got thicker and the sun got lower as the day went on.

I can not begin to express how excited I am for this weeks adventure. What I don’t reveal that often is that most of the time the process I have with my adventures is very adhoc, natural and spontaneous which means that the story grows, shifts and evolves as I wear it – however this week I reached that point of clarity much earlier in my mapping and I am excited to see what I can reveal to you this week as the party continue through the marshlands and beyond.

As I say every night don’t forget to keep an eye on the blog for my daily updates, I have a bout of leave approaching and I plan to make a mad sprint to have a lot of my Skaven army painted by the end of the two weeks of leave. I also have a few exciting days ahead for this weeks adventure as we meet colourful critters and lumbering lurkers that wait amongst the reeds and rotting wood.

So don’t forget to come back each day this week and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Marsh-dweller

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Welcome to another writeup that looks at the past week where this time our party have ventured across the sea to Ryokughan and were on the last leg of the journey where normally peace loving toad-kin have been rallied into a heaving mass of amphibious aggressors who have been told by their dark patron to stop the Dancing Drake for their debt to be paid.

So instead of re-writing the past week let’s jump into the end of week write-up and the adventure..

Peaceful Marauders

Sailing towards the continent of Ryokughan the party start to relax with the setting of the sun as the ship sail are pulled in and several great oars are produced from portholes on the side of the ship.

As the ship moves through the marsh and the lanterns are lit across the deck of the ship one of the crew, Choi, mentioned to them.

“Don’t follow lights in this jungle. Not during the night and definitely not during the day” Choi fang mentioned as he wound up a length of rope as he finished tying up one of the sails. “There are witches and fell spirits in these marshes that would love for nothing more than the easy meal of someone who doesn’t know the rule of these lands. ”

When the question is asked, “What’s that?” Choi replies with a grin, “Don’t follow the lights.. All light casts a shadow and the smaller the light the bigger the shadow” before he walked off below deck to get a meal in before a long night of navigating through the marsh.

Meanwhile deeper in the marsh Kiri and Trip, two toad-kin who had been summoned by their large and more violent chiefs met and shared a meal. The war chief; a large, violent and terribly powerful member of their kind had received orders from The Shadow to ensure none of the crew upon the Dancing Drake survived their trip through the Marsh.

Area of note

The boat – The Red Fleets Dancing Drake is where the party find themselves calling the ship home, for the time being at least.

The Marsh – The marsh is small islands of mud and root systems of the bushes and reeds that grow in this otherwise deep waterway. Those who fall overboard are treated with deep water, slippery mud banks and thick 4feet tall reeds that make traversing these waterways dangerous during the day and lethal at night.

NPCs

Koyko Harimasu

Kyoko spends her time fighting off toad-kin as they swarm the helm – attempting to keep the little humanoids(ish) from running the ship aground.

Elizabeth “Lizbet” Scaulder

When Lizbet appears on deck, her divine magic appears as if she was a fallen star. The Toad-kin cease fighting and drop to their knees in worship as the vision that walks before them is like a tale sung from campfires from their elders.

Siu

Siu is in a good mood, nervous and anxiety being this close to his home land in a very long time when he senses danger and Lizbet moves to go up on deck he races forward to protect her. To the Toad-kin he appears as an emissary of the ancient ones – dragons. His fangs, claws and shimmering gold scales cause lesser toads to jump overboard and those brave enough to hold fast dare not strike him

As well as random NPCs. The Dancing Drakes Crewmates Choi Fang takes a more active role this adventure.

Choi Fang – Crew member of the Dancing Drake

Environment and running the adventure

The Marsh banks – If someone was to fall overboard a DC10 Dexterity check would be required to stand up safely on the river bank (or they fall prone), made with disadvantage if the person on the bank is wearing heavy armour. The islands are 5ft by 10ft on average with some longer but skinnier, and some 10ft by 10ft banks of mid and reeds sporadically spread out either side of the deep river.

The Boat – See Map

Encounter

In this encounter lets assume that our party of 4 have all reached level 5, I think that would be fitting for being this far in the adventure-year. (disclaimer – forgotten from Fridays writeup – the Goblin and whale are placeholders for the CR..)

That is a lot of critters and yes it does say deadly, but if we break it down into how these creatures fight then it will make more sense.

These creatures will send through the foot soldiers, the humble toad-kin, first before the chiefs will be riled up to fight. If the chiefs begin to falter (and they do easily not being dumb creatures and valuing their life more highly than most things) then the war-chief will wade into the thick of things to dish out discipline and intimidate through violence the lesser toads.

Once Lizbet arrives the toad-kin will stop fighting and three chiefs will arrive the War chief falls and they will use their bully ability to get toad-kin’s to fight the party (despite them not wanting to and it being very obvious that they don’t want to. The Toad-kin (not chief) will had disadvantage on attack rolls when they are fighting in this part of the fight.

Once the Chiefs die then the War-chief will appear, with a second larger chief and they will then attempt to kill the party – using their size and weight to bully the toad-kin who are reluctant into fighting.

Toad-kin War – Chief

While the Toad-kin are a peaceful those particularly blessed by the shadow grow to large intimidating sizes, the smallest at which being the size of the largest of a faerun orc, and with their size comes a hunger for violence and destruction.

Whilst violent and destructive these war chiefs of the toad-kin are cunning, calculating and meticulous in their planning utilising and commanding great throngs of lesser toad-kin usually by bulling and intimidating the clan chiefs and eating the smaller toads who defy them. True servants to the shadow these creatures have forgotten the way of their people, the worship of light, life and nature and seek only the glorification of themselves and the gratification of brutality.

The war chief toad-kin occasionally reaches large size, gaining a thicker hide, mightier constitution and more cunning after surviving so long. These Large ogre sized creatures are rare but extremely powerful and should be feared due to the sheer volume of clans that they bully into service.

Toad-kin Chief

The chief of a clan of toad-kin is larger than most, broad chested, heavy and brutal. Blessed by the taint they received by the shadow they bully lesser toad-kin into doing what they want using their size and powerful bodies to get their way and keep control over their people.

Still somewhat superstitious they look for signs that align to their plans and are quick to point out bad omens that would put their plan or right to rule in favour.

These toad-kin are only second to the largest of their kind and take orders from only them. These large toad-kin chiefs emerge from the dank, dark, murky waters of the marsh and jungles to launch raids and attacks on other races for the betterment of themselves.


The Toad-kin

The toad-kin by itself is unimpressive. Small (about 3ft tall) but fast and nimble it uses its large powerful legs to hop around the marsh to catch food and forage. Servants and cowards they serve their chief with total loyalty and only their superstitious nature will overrule the orders and commands that is barked at them.

Aftermath

Once the war chief dies a dark mist will escape from its lungs as it exhales the last time and will fly away to the north. The Toad-kin will throw down their weapons and appear joyous at the death of the chiefs, maybe not all of them but a majority will and they will attempt to communicate with the party if they can; led by Kiri and Trip.

Well that’s it for tonight, thanks for joining me as we wrapped up this weeks adventure and I am looking forward to party members falling overboard.. I mean learning the true nature of the toad-kin – who I am sure we will explore more of in the near future!

Don’t forget to come back next week as we look to continue with this months adventure oh, and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Marshland Marauders

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Hi all and welcome to fight night! It nay be Friday night for normal people but for us here at Brazen Wolfe Tabletop we know it to promise encounters, puzzles and other goodness.

Now there’s a saying in Ryokughan that the dragon holds a ember of fire in it’s cheek incase the night is long… No, not really, but still the message is always keep something in reserve and today I have just that!

War Chief

214FrWC

While the Toad-kin are a peaceful those particularly blessed by the shadow grow to large intimidating sizes, the smallest at which being the size of the largest of a faerun orc, and with their size comes a hunger for violence and destruction.

Whilst violent and destructive these war chiefs of the toad-kin are cunning, calculating and meticulous in their planning utilising and commanding great throngs of lesser toad-kin usually by bulling and intimidating the clan chiefs and eating the smaller toads who defy them. True servants to the shadow these creatures have forgotten the way of their people, the worship of light, life and nature and seek only the glorification of themselves and the gratification of brutality.

The war chief toad-kin occasionally reaches large size, gaining a thicker hide, mightier constitution and more cunning after surviving so long. These Large ogre sized creatures are rare but extremely powerful and should be feared due to the sheer volume of clans that they bully into service.

In this encounter lets assume that our party of 4 have all reached level 5, I think that would be fitting for being this far in the adventure-year.

That is a lot of critters and yes it does say deadly, but if we break it down into how these creatures fight then it will make more sense.

These creatures will send through the foot soldiers, the humble toad-kin, first before the chiefs will be riled up to fight. If the chiefs begin to falter (and they do easily not being dumb creatures and valuing their life more highly than most things) then the war-chief will wade into the thick of things to dish out discipline and intimidate through violence the lesser toads

Now that we have all the stat-blocks for this weeks encounter and a bit more of an insight into the hierarchy of these normally peaceful creatures we have ourselves a fight on our hands.

So don’t forget to come back for the weekend nights to get more hobby updates, the final writeup and hopefully something extra, if I can find the time to do so!

Don’t forget to let me know if you are playing along or if you have any questions around how to incorporate this setting into your forgotten realms campaign and above all else, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe