Dungeons&Dragons

Dice-ember day 15

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Welcome to Dice-ember day 15. Today we are looking at our little friend Sparrow and giving it some stats so we can incorporate it in the game.

Something like a Raptor (the D&D stat block version not the ones from Jurassic park) the Deinonychus is a small feathered dinosaur that was built for life amongst the trees. Preying on smaller animals and insects it was an expert at locating and ambushing prey.

Sparrow

15Sparrow

For our dear Sparrow that means that these traits are represented by the ability to climb and glide and a high perception with having proficiency and advantage on perception checks. Its natural high dexterity also lends itself well to stealth and the ability to sneak up, locate its prey and plan on how to best approach it.

When it comes to Sparrow, being captured in a jungle on a recently found island (perhaps not Chult) and being rescued, looked after and trained by Grant, our guardsmen on the case of the wagon heist, Sparrow has learnt how to put his skills and senses to good use being able to locate what Grant needs and access places that a human may not be able to.

Being a dinosaur, well the equivalent in the forgotten realms, Sparrow feels the cold and would much prefer being curled up in Grants hood, or under something that can provide its small scaled body some form of warmth. However being feathered means that it can survive the cold better than some of its cousins Sparrow is just a little sensitive to the cold in comparison.

That’s all for today, something relatively short but hopefully something that will add a bit more to the month of Dice-ember and what I have prepared for this season of giving.

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for more Dice-ember content and if you end up using this little feathered friend in a campaign of your own please do let me know!

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

Dice-ember day 14

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Welcome to Dice-ember day 14. Today is the continuation of one of the precious days but from a different point of view but before we get into it I want to touch on that subject.

Changing the point of view from a simple idea, hook, twist or encounter can change the direction you were going with it entirely. The goblins who are seeing traps and leading wolves and bears to the parties camp may be trying to stop them from getting to a sacred site where goblin mother’s have their children. So the warriors want to try and dissuade the party from getting too close but dont want a full out battle with them. By asking why something is happening the way it is can change how the players experience to he encounter and can enrich their game.

Cat and Mouse

15GrEs

“I’ve got a flight of green dragons, strength seven, five and three” Kane said smugly as he placed down the last of his his flight causing the other two, Locus & Jason, to sigh and throw down their hands. The scraping of coin across a wooden desk towards Kane.

“One of these days Kane I will beat you at three dragon Ante” Jason muttered as he drew more cards and placed one down to begin his next flight.

Across the warehouse a halfling secured the last of their hall carefully in hidden compartments under a cart topped with hay. As she tightened the last strap to stop anything from jingling as the cart moved she heard a light tapping at large double doors to the warehouse. Letting out a call like a barn own, not uncommon creatures in this part of town, the three other members of her crew scattered dampening laps and hiding any sign that they were there before moving into carefully selected hiding spots in the rafters. The halfling climbed into the top of the cart and buried herself under the coarse strands of hay that covered it. Moments before the door creaked open she wrapped her enchanted cloak around her fully and peered out a small section.

In the dim light by the dwindling moonlight she noticed a small bird like creature scamper in before disappearing into the shadows. Reaching her hand up away from her knife she formed an “o” with her thumb and index finger upon which sat a chunky ring that had cat like eyes carved into it. Immediately anything she viewed through the circle her fingers made was revealed as if she had darkvision.

It took her a moment to spot the creature across the warehouse but the soft tap tap tap of claws on wood revealed bipedal feathered bird like creature climbing up a beam into the rafters. Its head swung this way and that as if looking for something before jumping, and gliding down some distance to land next to the table where Jason, Kane and Locus were sitting. After a moment, and a bit of bread being taken from a plate that was left it scurried left and right as if searching the room for something other than food.

Curious, she thought as she watched the creature moving through the room. As she was about to break cover and go and capture the creature she noticed a pattern in how it was moving, it wasn’t aimlessly searching for food, it was deliberately appearing to move as such whilst honing in on the position of her three crew members. Reaching to her hip she grabbed a small hand crossbow and a bolt from the case. Raising it up and placing the bolt in her teeth she slowly pulled the string back and with a click it snapped into position.

The creature whipped its head towards the hay cart and with surprising speed darted towards the cart, shocked by the burst of speed and apparent aggression of the creature she barely had enough time to put the bolt into the crossbow before it disappeared under the wagon.

“Ahh shit” she heard from Kane as he dropped from the rafter with Jason and Locus, who was in her human form for a change, all of them drew weapons. Locus drew the darts she never parted with whilst Jason and Kane drew short curved sword.

Tap tap tap came from under the cart before she heard the sound of snapping leather. The creature had found the hidden compartments!

Jumping out of the wagon and summoning a orb of light, one of the few spells she had memorised at all times, she landed hard on he side and shot at the creature the moment it came into view. He landing scattered a basket of apples across the floor and helped to break her landing.

Twang! the bolt flew towards the creature who jumped and used its wings to latch onto the bottom of hte cart for a moment before climbing and darting out the open door.

“Well that will teach it. We wont see that little rat again” Kane said wiping his nose on his sleeve.

“I doubt that it will return, we best check the door is locked next time though” Jason said.

“Interesting. The bird like creature also appears to have scales as well” Locus said as she picked up a scale that shimmered with its iridescence in the halflings light.

Sighing she stood up and went over to pick her bolt from a strap of leather, had the creature positioned itself so to use the broken straps as a shield. This thing was smart, cunning and new what it was looking for. “We’ve been made. Time to move with plan B. Locus go to Laura and request the second set of items that we held in reserve. We will need to be gone by dawn.” she mentioned as all three of her crew snapped to attention and scurried around. Locus shifting form into a half elf, he cloak shifting to resemble a different style and colour as she moved out the door. Jason and Kane quickly packed all their belongings into sacks and started to pack up their make shift camp.

Who ever that creature belonged to was good and was on their trail she thought. Grabbing out the plans she had documented she quickly put them into a cauldron and with a snap of her fingers she caused the papers to start burning brightly before moving to the other items she would need to destroy before moving on. Stopping she picked up an apple and bit into it, still sweet and ripe she thought with a smirk.

“Well boys, we couldn’t have it too easy could we now?” she mused and she threw an apple to both of the men who we watching her with curiosity, neither of them would ever be able to work out how her mind worked or keep up with her but that’s what made her the leader of this crew and why they followed her to this city in the first place.

Well that’s all we have for tonight. Not much for a post write-up thought tonight except to thank you all for sticking with it and coming back each night. Don’t forget to come back again tomorrow for another glimpse into this season of Dice-ember. If you like how this is going why don’t you consider letting me know so I can consider doing this for next year (or maybe periodically in the future) creating this style of content.

Don’t forget to keep coming back to the conclusion of Dice-ember and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Dice-ember day 13

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Welcome to Dice-ember day 13. Today we will be looking at yesterday’s post for inspiration for todays content.

Yesterday we were introduced to Locus, the sly and nimble member of the crew we have been learning about these past few weeks. Today we will look at some of her Arsenal of tools, trinkets and the odd weapon or two.

The Infiltrators Toolkit

15ITK

Zorban’s Animal Figurines

Zorban was an eccentric mage of moderate power. Shunned by his fellow wizards and sorcerers for his love of animals above human he found himself surrounded by a variety of mammals whom he shared his life and love of magic with. It was his love of animals, and his longevity being a half-elf, that sparked his fear of losing his companions so he dedicated his life into ensuring that the loss of ones closest companions would not be forgotten.

His creation was a series of Magical sandstone figurines that if you touch upon the form of a small mammal such as a cat, dog, rat, sheep, goat, pig, fox, etc. that figurine will form an exact copy, including memories, of the mammal it touched. When a command word is spoken the figurines will transform into that animal and will act very much so as if alive. This transformation lasts for a week before the animal sadly turns to dust. Several attempts at prolonging the life of these animals was made and the figurines can be found in Sandstone, Clay, Granite, Jet or Marble.

The Three Fangs

The three fangs are darts that are always found in groups of three. Whether on a belt, a pouch or a box the number is never more or less than three. It is rumoured that these darts were formed by a triad who above all else desired the ability to remove their competition without drawing attention to them.

The darts are always drawn to be as a group, a representation of the triad that reportedly created them, and as such if the darts are thrown together at the same target the wielder of these weapons will find that the second and third dart strike more accurately if thrown after the first has struck.

Vial of Smoke

The Vial of smoke contains a magical substance that when exposed to air will emit a plume of smoke that is enough to fill a 30ft cube or a 600ft tall and 10ft wide cylinder plume of smoke if the vial is broken outdoors in an area where there is no wind. The original inventor of such a magical substance was attempting to find a way to signal to people across vast distances of approaching danger however he quickly found that people wanted to buy his invention for novelty reasons instead.

Now the vial can be found in all manner of coloured smoke and any fragrance also. Rarely are two vials of smoke the same.

Whittler

Wood Melter is a dagger which has been enchanted to cut through wood as if it was paper. The original creator of this magical item was a fanatical wood carver and wanted a way to make wood whittling easier and a more approachable hobby. Unfortunately thieves, burglars and worse found that this knife made breaking into unfortified buildings easy as a hit knife through butter.

There we have it 4 items created that are ideal for that city infiltrator. Items used for distraction, items used for breaking and entry and a weapon used for quickly dispatching that target you really didn’t want raising the alarm, if it should come to that.

I hope you liked the items created today. All of these, and the previous ones, have been created on D&D Beyond so if you like them let me know and I will seriously consider making these items public so you can use them in your own games.

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for more Dungeons and Dragons content on the 14th day of Dice-ember and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Dice-ember day 12

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Welcome to the 12th day of Dice-ember.

Yesterday saw a few of the local players farewell a close friend as he leaves for New Zealand in the next chapter of his life with a Warhammer (Age of Sigmar v3)tournament. Taking Skaven, the insanely brilliant rat-people who dwell below most of civilisation, I didn’t expect much let alone 3 close games (out of the 3 games had) where I managed to scrape out a win with two for them and a very close loss. The issue being with a condensed day that each game was limited to around 2.5 hours (and in some cases only 2 hours) so each game finished where there was still a lot more fighting to be had. This resulted in my winning one game and losing one game where if we had played them out to the completion of the game I probably would have lost the game I won and won the game I lost. So going 2/1/0 put me tied for first place, or second depending on how you look at it.

So moving onto Dice-ember content today I have the introduction to one of the silent members of the Halflings Party who serves as the parties eyes, ears and silent scout.

Locus

14Locus

Her breath formed a small puff of mist as she leant against the roofbeams using her climbing claws to hold her in place.

“Here you are, as promised. Twelve of Carters finest” a well built man said as he approached the table that Locus had positioned herself to be able to view straight on.

“What are we talking about exactly here Tyson,” a softer voice came from the matron of the establishment “last thing we had that came from Carter almost had us closed down when word got out about the nightlight that he provided us” the lady spat, the acidity in her voice mimicking the acrid smell coming from the substance she was smoking.

“Ladies, Mary, I had nothing to do with the guard finding out about the last drop. This time we have high quality shade mist, just a drop of this hitting the ground will cause anyone near by to fall unconscious and not remember a thing. Potent stuff, harmless if you take the antidote before hand though” the smug man, Tyson, spoke well and confidently like he was delivering a sales pitch that had been rehearsed many times.

Bingo. Locus needed one of those vials for the plan to work. Moving forward and shifting her form slightly in only the way that a changeling could she moved forward to get a better look at the goods. Twelve crates were laid out next to the man, stacked one by one on top of each other.

“Show us what you’ve got and name your price” The woman named Mary said, movement next to her belonging to one of her two girls that looked over her as bodyguards.

Cracking the top crate open Tyson pulled out several non-descript vials of a lavender coloured liquid, passing one to one of his the people he came with, this one a burly half-orc who handed the vial to the mirrored bodyguard of Mary.

Looking outside through the loosened boards where she got through Locus waited for the telltale call that was to serve has her signal.

“Boss!” a young girl slammed the door open as she ran into the room “The guard are coming, we had a runner come in saying that they are a block away”

Swearing Mary gestured for the door and her girls left. “You three stay here, it won’t do well to have Carters men found here with a crate of that stuff let alone twelve of them” Nodding Carters men moved to take position where they could easily hide.

Knowing that she didn’t have much time he had to move quickly, the fake runner, Kane, wouldn’t be believable for long especially when no guards show up. Shifting into the form of a Tabaxi she met once a long time ago she crawled down the wall and crept towards the desk where a single vial of the shademist lay.

As she reached the desk she heard a gasp of alarm.

“Boss, I saw sumfin over there. By the desk.” the half-orc spoke in a hushed voice.

“Quiet!” Tyson said with perhaps a bit too much enthusiasm “Go check it out but be quite about it, you think Carters bad when you make a mess of thing. They don’t call her bloody Mary for no reason.”

As the heavy footsteps from thick leather came her way Locus panicked and looked around for something could do to use as a diversion. Nothing was in reach behind the desk so she started to pat down the bags, trinkets, holsters and pouches she had on her person.

‘Knife, no. I can’t leave a trace that I was here. Poison, too slow working and there is at least three of them. Ah that may work’ she thought as her fingers touched the various object on her person and settling on a old weathered bag that held a few trinkets of minor power she had collected over some time. Reaching in she grabbed two little clay figurines, one had the appearance of a cat the other a rat. Speaking a command word, quietly, under her breath she placed them on the ground as the clay swelled and formed into to living animals. One cat, one rat. With a terrified squeak the rat ran for the wall and the cat gave chase running from behind the table and towards the wall where a few crates and barrels rested.

“Just a cat and rat..” The half-orc sighed with relief and the sound of his footsteps could be heard as he moved towards the door and a little alcove next to it where Tyson and his companion were hiding.

Locus took this moment to snatch the vial and position herself so she could make a dash for the wall and dislodged planks of wood to make her escape, she just needed to make sure that they wouldn’t look this way.

Then the door opened.

“False alarm, guards didn’t come this way. Where were we. Arrrgh!” Mary shrieked as a large rat and eagre cat ran past her and down the stairs. Multiple voices could be heard shouting in alarm at the sight of the rat and cat running down the stairs and hall. Taking this a as good as time as any Locus dashed to the wall on her soft padded feet and climbed up the wall using her tabaxi claws to dig into the wood. Looking back as she made it into the rafters to make sure she wasn’t seen she quietly lifted the wood planks and slipped outside where she reassumed her normal appearance and lifted her hood more to hide her figures.

Jumping from rooftop to rooftop she didn’t give any thought of the guard partrol that was walking in the direction of the building she just left.

Well that’s all we have for tonight. Thanks for joining me for another Dice-ember day upload and I hope that I will see you all back tomorrow as well.

As I mentioned in yesterdays upload I simply ran out of time (and brain juice) to write to the standard I try to hold myself to, so you can check out yesterdays updated post here (Dice-ember day 11) where I filled in some of the journal entries that were taken from Albazhar’s journal and published as a new book.

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for more content, or to let me know if something you read here inspires you for your own game or story – I would love to hear about how it goes! And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Dice-ember day 11

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Welcome back to dice-ember here at Brazen Wolfe Tabletop and today things day 11 to our doorsteps.

Today, after 9 hours of playing Warhammer my brain is completely shut down. So tonight I dont have a plan but will begin writing and see what comes out of it.

Albazhars Journal

14AlJo

Few mages, wizards, witches, sorcerer’s or warlocks can claim to even hold a candle against what Albazahr can achieve.

Not much is known about the beginnings of the mage but his rise to fame was well documented in “The Albaz Tome” which was written from the only stolen journey of the mad mage.

Albazahr, reportedly, came into his current place of power of Mage Supreme by taking the position from the previous owner of the title in a duel. The nature of these duels are always public and rarely to the death and can create quite the crowd of onlookers, mages and noblemen. The battle became legend as Albazahr started to cast spells that hadn’t been seen before.

Arcs or black lightning, blue flame and summoned blades, creatures and items flashed and filled the makeshift arena until Albazahr used an orb of black magic that consumed his opponent, the the Mage Supreme, wards and all.

The original book, or the journal that it was written from were lost to time.

Journal entries

The fools of the academy think themselves so wise and funny to throw me out and for what?! Studying. Not the forbidden scripts, not necromancy or anything too abhorrent I was simply studying the advanced topics for the associate wizards and tutors study. They fear my potential, not my current ability and I need to make the two states one and the same. 
In this world you do not get respect until you get power and I am not going back to a baker’s life again, not now that I have tasted what the world has to offer.
If they didn’t want people reading those books they shouldn’t have them easily accessible, well easy for someone of my talent that is. Their wards and arcane locks were not even that difficult to get past. While waiting for the decision for the Magus board I had the mage responsible for the wards and locks approach me and ask how I got past them. We were mid discussion when I was escorted off the grounds for a term so I asked the mage to seek me out if she wanted help in designing better wards and locks.
What I failed to mention was that the spell I had created to get past these locks had no equal, not even my own wards and seals. 

20th Kythorn, summer solstice.

The fools have barred me from the library on account of the rate of my progression through the texts made available to mages who attend the great library and school of magic. Surely they fear that I will run out of material while at the academy and as such have implemented this embargo so that I do not outpace even the teachers. Ha! Such presumptuous fools, I already have many of the teachers approaching me and asking for my help in matters of the arcane, and even one such cleric dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. 
No matter, I still have several books here with me which the Library does not know about which should help me continue to study and improve my arcane prowess. The teachers that I have helped also have been providing me with even more advanced tomes, scripts and scrolls so that I can still achieve my goal, to be the most renowned magus that has existed.

11th Eleasis.

It’s funny to see that just a few tendays ago they had barred me from the Library and just today they have formally requested that I take governorship over the great Library and its many tomes, scrolls, tables and scripts. They have granted me with the title “Grand Magus” and “Knowledge keeper” but these are mere trifles when it comes to what I want to achieve, I accepted the titles regardless as I am no recognised an equal with the teachers of this arcane school and with that comes unbridled access to the knowledge stored within these walls. 
I have already read the works from Master Leomund and Master Heward in their ability to create, craft and maintain extradimensional spaces. I must make note to investigate this further. 

28th Marpenoth.

It has been a few years since I came into the title “Knowledge keeper” and today marks the day that I have run out of knowledge. I have read every book, tome, script, scroll and bit of paper that has been stored within these walls. I have mastered extradimensional spaces and have begun constructing a space for my study and production of new knowledge, the invention of magic. 
This is not enough for me however as I know they must have more knowledge and more understanding out there, this surely can not be all that remains. 
They must reserve some knowledge, the most powerful or the most sought after magic for the Supreme High Magus and he alone. This is my new goal, I will defeat the current owner of htat title so that I can access what I truly deserve, all knowledge. 

13th Hammer

After decades of study today I will finally reach the title that I deserve, Supreme High Magus. Tonight as the moon is celebrated my pre-arranged duel with the high magus will commence. I have developed new magic, new spells, wards and rituals that none has seen before and with my knowledge of magic surely I will not be bested. 
I hesitate in documenting my latest discovery, the blending of schools of magic to form a new school of magic, the true school of the Magus. I only hope that I am not resolved to using that spell though as the cost of it is quite high, I was unable to cast any spells for a week at my last attempt of the spell and I would rather not go through that again. 

30th Uktar, The feast of the Moon

Well that is a bit better now, a bit better and more information which is what I was hoping to write yesterday but was unable to. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow with a bit more info into this mysterious wizard and for dice-ember day 12.

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

The Brazen Wolfe

Dice-ember day 10

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Welcome to day 10 of Dice-ember and I hope today I will bring you something a little bit different today, well not so different as the content doesn’t really change too much on this blog, but nevertheless today I am looking a bit deeper at some of the NPCs that we may actually just pass over completely when our players roll into town with gold to spend and shops to plunder.

Enforcers law

14EnLa

Grant stood just outside of the bakers shop leaning against the wall hoping that the roof would shelter him form the worst of rain, sleet and periodic snow that was currently blanketing his city. As he took a large bite into the chunk of bread he had purchased he savoured the lightly roasted seeds that this particular baker mixed through their dough before baking which made it his favourite spot to wait.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed movement leading into the alleyway. Thinking it was the information he was waiting for he picked up the loaves of bread he had purchased and head into the narrow walkway looking for his messenger. Instead of the same familiar face he was accustomed to bringing him information he found himself looking into the terrified faces of three street urchins who were in the middle of raiding the bin the baker throws the loaves that go bad.

Sighing he gestured to the children to come forward, reaching into this bag he produced the extra two loaves of bread and held them out for the children. Tentatively they came towards him before the squeak of a “thank you” could be heard from tilted heads as they gently took the bread and walked to huddle in a door way to share the bread between them.

The creature huddled under the stairs from across the street watching as the man gave up delicious bread to street children. This wasn’t the first time it had noticed this man giving out his food to others and it was sure it would not be the last. The cold, wet, icy ground felt terrible under its paws and as soon as it was sure that no one was coming it darted across the street, extending its claws very slightly in anticipation of diving onto the warm man.

“Scree” a soft chirping was the only sign of the creatures approach as it jumped onto the back of the man, its claws barely piercing the outer later of cloth as it burrowed under Grants hood and nestled against the warmth of its neck. The texture difference between the coarse, infrequent feather scratching against his skin and the cold, smooth scales underneath them still shocked Grant.

“Sparrow, glad to see you made it back. When it started to snow I had my doubts that you would return and I would find you huddled up somewhere warm a few days from now” Grant said, handing a chunk of the remaining seeded bread up to his companion. Sparrow just made hissing squawk noise and burrowed further into the hood to keep warm. Walking back inside the bakery to buy another two loaves of bread to replace the ones he had given the children he did his best to hide the creature in his hood and luckily enough the warm of the fires in the ovens and the warmth of his hood and furs under the cloak were enough to keep Sparrow from leaving his hood.

As he waited for his bread he remarked at the creature that he had encountered on a merchants boat that was deemed to be importing goods and animals illegally, Sparrow being one such animal. Sparrow was some type of bird from a distant continent that was lost for quite some time and seemed to be of remarkable intelligence and upon Grant discovering it locked in a crate and nursing it back to health they had formed a bond. But what surprised Grant the most was the tracking ability of the small bird like creature, being able to understand messages and instructions, with some initial training, and locating things by either smell or visual aides such as drawings of similar items.

“Here you go Grant, stay warm out there apparently there is blizzard on the way” Sue, the bakers wife, said as she exchanged his silver pieces with the loaves of bread.

“Thanks Sue, you too.” Grant said back before leaving the bakery and heading out into the weather and onto the road.

“Ok Sparrow,” admittedly a bad name for the reptilian bird that was the size of a large-ish house cat, Grant thought as he reached into his hood and patted the creature “Show me what you have found.”

As Sparrow warmed up against the neck of the human who had saved its life it looked around and used the claws on its feathered arms to move Grant in a direction down the street, as he had been taught by the human. After several streets, and asking for some more bread now and again, Sparrow led Grant to a large warehouse.

Approaching the warehouse Grant noticed that the large heavy wooden doors were slightly ajar, drawing his dagger and short sword he pressed the door open and walked in alert for any sudden movement or sign of danger.

Empty, the warehouse was silent was empty. Sighing he turned his head to Sparrow “Got lost old friend?” he asked. Sparrow jumped from his shoulders and, much like a predatory creature, moved up and around a corner. “Sparrow!” Grant called in a hushed yet urgent manner. “Damnit” he muttered as he gave pursuit of his comrad.

It didn’t take much more than a few steps around a small hip height wall to find where sparrow was, standing on the edge of a basket and staring at Grant expectedly.

“What. This isn’t a training exercise Sparrow. We need to find where the thieves are who stole form Red.” Grant sighed, rubbing his eyes at the thought of another dead end in the case.

Sparrow chirped annoyedly before leaning forward, allowing the basked to trip revealing dozens of chewed on apple cores.

Looking up at the noise he removed his hands from his eyes and frowned at the mess Sparrow had made “A basket of apples, huh. Maybe Jayk was telling the truth then.” he mused as he walked forward and looked at the basket. “Good work Sparrow. Let’s get the other guard in and search the warehouse for any other clues.

Sparrow chirped happily before diving under the warmth of the hood again.

That’s all for tonight as I am not going to lie, the words had to be forced tonight. I hope to bring you a bit more detail into Sparrow in the coming days as well as some more goodies in the coming days.

Don’t forget to come back over the weekend. Two more days of dice-ember and I hope the results of the 1 day, 3 match tournament I am attending this weekend!

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

Dice-ember day 9

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Welcome to Dice-ember day 9. Today we are looking at one very special individual who likes to think that they are the centre of the stage.

In separate Brazen Wolfe Tabletop news this weekend I have a little one day Age of Sigmar event where I hope to run Skaven and prove that they are the best faction on the day. But more on that come Sunday.

He who looks inward

14JasonMungbin

Jason was no ordinary man when he was very young he fooled a family that he was their long lost son and kept up the charade untill he tired of it three years later. Born with an extraordinary gift to not only fool people through his acting abilities but he was able to convince them completely into believing what ever her said was true.

Being graced with one elven parent but none of the telltale features of his elven mother, who left him and his soon to be alcoholic father soon after birth, he had a natural grace and appearance that made him attractive to many, if not all. This often drew the attention of the wrong kind more often than good.

One such time he was found to be talking sweetly to the Daughter of Mr Carter, the Jackal of the North, which caused several of Carters men to escort him outside. Before any violence could come to land a halfling intervened and soothed Carters lackays down before they made good on their promise to create a new facial feature for Jason. Ever since that day Jason had been ferociously loyal to the one person who saw past house looks and charm to see who he was, some one who wants to be the centre of the stage where ever they go whether it be good or bad reasons.

Since then, under the employ of the halfling and get crew Jason had reportedly been involved in many heists, break-ins, burglaries and supposedly the disappearance of one Haroldson Gray, a merchant who married into the wrong family. Of course there is never a scrap of evidence that links their involvement to these crimes, or mysteries in Haroldson’s case, but the word amongst the streets is that Jason and his crew are a force to look out for, if you can even see them coming that is.

A bit of a shorter writeup tonight to get a glimpse of Jason for this week. Pretty happy how the image came out (the tool of choice being Artbreeder as normal) and considering I made it on my phone im impressed with how easy it was to use, in Desktop mode with the chrome android app that is.

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow, hoping for a bit of a longer write-up tomorrow night so come check in. And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,

The Brazen Wolfe

Dice-ember day 8

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Welcome back everyone to the 8th day of Dice-ember. Going to take a pretty chilled approach to today and will produce a few things today without a large writeup, the reason for that will be revealed later but more on that at a later date.

So let’s kick it off and look at two’things’ for today.

What the wagon holds

14WaCo

Yulegars Mace

Yulegar was a tyrant who’s favourite thing was to instil fear into his subjects with his famed mace. Those struck by the mace would find themselves convulsing on the ground and unable to defend themselves for some time. When he was eventually killed his mace was taken and replicated. Although not as powerful as the original the mace still leaves those affected by it unable to take reactions.

Image created from bits from the following: PNGwing, GuildWars wiki (concept art mace), Battle mace from STL finder (CGTrader). Credit for Original art work goes to creators.

Potion of Limits Transformation

When you drink this potion, you immediately transform into a copy of the last inanimate object you touched for between 5 and 10 minutes (1d6+4 minutes). The object must be no bigger than your original size. The HP and game statistics of the object are up to the DM and if the object you transform into is reduced to 0hp the transformation ends and similar wounds are reflected upon the creature that drank the potion.

Well creating those items images took a bit longer than anticipated.. also.. how hard is it to draw (on a computer mind you) potions. I learnt something with that one and hope that it still looks alright in its pixilated glory!

That’s it for today, so if you end up using the potion (from yesterdays longer writeup) or the mace in one of your games please do let me know how it goes! I have this, nagging itch I guess, when ever I make a magical item for combat. For D&D, 5e in particular, with the exception of some creatures who have a resistance to non-magical items the classes and access to features and spells make the need for combat magical items reduced, not gone (as the rule of cool still rules as leader in my sessions) but they can drastically alter how your adventure pans out, which sometimes is not ideal.

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for more dice-ember content and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Dice-ember day 7

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Welcome to the 7th day of Dice-ember! Today we will venture away from Albazahr and his dungeon of infinite dimensional spaces to something a bit more mundane. Well anything would be more mundane that that crazy place wouldn’t it?

Whilst watching my youngest each his ‘snack platter’, the only thing that he will eat the inspiration came for this item, admittedly a week and a bit ago, and I just had to include it in the Dice-ember series of posts.

Fruits of ones labour

14POLT

Captain Grant Thatcher rubbed his temples as he tried to make sense of the nonsense that the messenger boy was trying to tell him.

“So what your telling me…” Grant paused trying to remember the boys name infront of him.

“Jayk” interjected the boy, looking rather put out.

“Jayk, so you’re telling me that you saw a man spill a crate of apples.” Grant began again

“Basket of apples” Jayk said “Do you just want me to start again captain..?” he asked irritated.

And so Jayk began to describe the situation.

Running, always running. This was the life of a messenger boy and today he had to get some messages out for some very impatient clients. As he ran Jayk didn’t pay attention to the people on the streets buying their rolls of fabric, their crates of fruits, their knives, swords, bows, arrows, bags, spices, animals, vegetables. Well maybe he paid a bit of attention to what was going on around him which paid off as he managed to narrowly avoid a cart being pushed out from an alley just in front of him, much to the disgust of the owner of said cart who didn’t appreciate him leaping over his cart filled with straw.

Seeing the shop that he needed to deliver a message to he darted across the narrow street, weaving through merchants, their customers and mercenaries, much the chagrin of most. Walking through the door he produced a wax sealed envelope from a bag he had slung over his shoulder and waited.

“Can I help you boy?” a grave voice asked from behind the counter, seemingly endless shelves of roots, herbs, fleshy bits and things that couldn’t be described were stacked in jars behind the counter.

“are you Phil the alchemist?” the boy asked.

“Well this is my shop…” the man said as he pointed to a sign that hung from the front door *Phils Alchemical supplies*

“I am Jayk, I have a message from you from Carter.” He said as he produced the letter and held it out, his other hand extended. Phil reached into a pouch and retrieved two copper coins and gave them to Jayk, the standard fair for messenger boys in this town.

As Phil read Jayk stood around patiently, he learnt a long time ago that it always pays off to be still around when the person who receives the message is done reading it.

A intense sour look of worry came across the mans face “I can’t do this. Not since my shop was broken into a week ago. Boy!” he called looking out his window, well hole in the wall, before noticing Jayk standing their sipping from a water skin patiently, “Ah there you are. Are you busy. I have need of a message and a vial to be delivered to Carter.”

“I don’t normally do goods sir, too much risk with the pickpockets out there. Plus I am too small to really defend myself if someone wants to take something” Jayk began, his eyes noticing how full the coin pouch of the alchemist was.

“I’ll give you one whole gold piece to take it to Carter my boy. Just one vial,” Phil produced a vial no bigger than one that you would store ink in. “and one letter.”

“I don’t know sir, he is on the other side of the city and through the market.” Jayk began.

“Ok, 5 gold pieces. But I need it done now. Please.” Phil pleaded as he fished out the coins and put them and the tiny vial on the table. Looking around to make sure no one was looking Jayk stepped forward.

“Ok. Done. I will need to be quick before someone sees what’s going on sir.” Jayk said in a hushed voice, his ploy had paid off exceedingly well this time round. He would be eating well for a week!

After Phil had written the message and sealed it with a green wax Jayk grabbed the gold, the message and the vial. Phil clutched his hand in a firm yet gentle manner. “Under no circumstances are you to drink or have any contents of that vial spill on you Jayk. It will turn you and what ever you are carrying into the last object you touched for 5 minutes. The last person to make that mistake turned into a chunk of cheese and was eaten by a rat… ” Phil warned. “Now go! Make sure to deliver my message. I will have more of the potion end of next week!” he called as Jayk was already running full speed out the door.

Not wanting to risk running into pickpockets in the market place with 5 gold pieces and a potion that would cause problematic for his reputation if he lost it, he decided that going down bridge road. Bridge road would add in several minutes to his travel but it was a lot safer and generally boys his age were always playing on the streets, so pickpockets tended to ignore them. As he turned the corner he skidded to a stop before crashing into a stack of apple crates. Before going to yell at the man, holding a basket of the fruit, for blocking the road with his produce he noticed a shady looking fellow standing next to the well dressed and spoken man. A second later the apple basket tipped over, the man holding them appeared to have tripped or something and the apples started to roll down to under the bridge where a wagon was travelling. Then the yelling began.

“My apples!” shouted the empty basket wielding man, the shady man ducked between the crates and the wall, out of sight for all except Jayk and grabbed an apple and quickly skulled from a vial. Immediately the man shrank to a small round fruit as the vial dropped from his hand and shattered on the stone.

Not wanting to be held up by a clean up of apples he decided to travel above the bridge and avoid going down bridge street. As he got onto the bridge he was almost knocked over by a bunch of stampeding children shouting “Run away before Red gets you!”

Shaking his head he started to run across the bridge, shaking his head trying to make sense of what he had seen when he passed a bunch of people gathered at the edge of the bridge.

“you saw her too right? The little girl fall over the side? Where is she, I only see that wagon and a bunch of apples” he managed to catch as he ran past the crowd, he had a job to do.

Approaching Carters house, well large manor, he knocked on the door before being let in and shown to a room dedicated to waiting. When he was older, and rich, he wanted to have a place like this. Not just a single room above a smithy’s shop he wanted one that had multiple rooms that he could make people wait for him in. Smiling he stood up as he was informed he could see Carter now.

Standing in front of the man was a harrowing ordeal, Carter ran much of the town that the law didn’t and because of that is the reason that Jayk had found himself delivering messages on his behalf.

“And the vial boy?” Carter asked extending a hand.

Reaching into a hidden internal pouch sewn into his jacket he produced the little glass vial before handing it over. As Jayk put it into the hand of Carter he froze, he had seen that exact same vial moments before.

“Will you be available in a few weeks time for another courier job Jayk?” Carter asked as he opened a draw in his desk to bring out a pouch of coins.

“Yes sir, happy to be of service” Jayk replied hungrily.

“Good. ” Carter almost smiled “here, this is for you in advance. You remind me of me when I was younger. I hope that my show of faith is not misspent?” he tested.

Opening the pouch Jayk could count only 20 gold pieces before the first layer obscured the rest. “Yes sir. You can trust me”

Carter just smiled before nodding to the door.

Jayk watched Grant rubbing his temples as he tried to make sense out of the story he was told. Jayk didn’t mention anything to do with Carter and had changed his story a bit to only being told about the break in and stolen potion, he wasn’t stupid and he liked the gold from the street king and he knew Phil wouldn’t want to be known as an affiliate of him either.

“So you think this potion turned the man into an apple.. ” Grant muttered.

“yup.” Jayk answered.

Sighing Grant stood up and opened the door to the room. “You can go now Jayk. I don’t thing magic apples or what ever it is here has anything to do with the Wagon heist.

Ok, that turned into a bit of a bigger writeup than I had intended. But I hope it was worth it! If you liked it, or didn’t, feel free to let me know. I aim to create a magic item block for the potion this week as well so keep and eye out for that.

Don’t forget to come back each day this week for more Dice-ember content. If you have fellow DMs, adventuring guilds or people who may like have a casual read of this type of content please share it around – Shameless plug I know but the more people that read this potentially the more TTRPG games that can be spun up and that can only be a good thing right?

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

Dice-ember day 6

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Welcome to day 6…? yup, that’s right. Day 6 of Dice-ember is here and with it brings a little something that my wife helped inspire me with today (about 20 minutes ago actually) that I hope will fit into Dice-ember nicely.

As with everything I propose it is there to test the party, to get them to think on their feet or to adjust their strategies, not outright slaughter the characters. I firmly believe that, like my real world job, the Dungeon/Game Master is one who works with the party, for the party and who genuinely wants to seem them grow, shift and evolve into new versions of themselves.

Now enough about that, let’s crush some PC bones and burn the character sheets.

Hot headed

14CGolem

Albazahr smiled encouragingly as Itchet, his new unfortunately named apprentice, stepped into one of the conjoined pocket dimension which was dark, cold and devoid of anything living. Or so Albazahr had told his apprentice.

“That’s it Itchet, I need some of the natural forming material from within it looks like a lump of charcoal and should be in the ditch, somewhere over to the right of the dimension.” the wizard said as he brought out his notebook and started to jot down what was occurring.

“Master, sir, it’s so cold in here.” Itchet said as he stumbled forward in the dark looking for the ditch. The dark conditions of the magically created dimension did not hinder the wizards ability to see what was going on, a large permanent spell of seeing had been placed against the wall and he could look through it into the dimension as if it was day time and he was looking through glass. Then the apprentice surprised Ablazahr as he raised his hand and summoned a mote of light.

“Interesting” Albazahr mused, Itchet was the first of his apprentices to actually be able to use magic before any form of tutelage. This impressed the old man, but not enough to ruin his experiment. As Itchet moved deeper into the darkness, his light spell giving off a beacon in the darkness which gave the young boy comfort. Heading into the direction that his master had said Itchet practically stumbled onto what he was looking for.

“Master! I think I found the pit” Itchet called back towards the direction of the old wizard “I’ll fill up the bag and bring it back now master!” he called back, almost jumping with excitement at finishing his task. Itchet sad down on the edge of the ditch, he hadn’t realise how steep the edges were but there was a lot of black rock studded into the ditches bank which would make it easier to climb back out. As she stepped down onto one such chunk of rock it gave way sending him down in a cascade of black rock of all sizes. Coughing under the plume of dust that it created he got up and dusted himself off as he looked around for his bag.

Albazahr looked on with keen interest, the boy was in the creatures lair now and he needed to be ready to take notes where possible.

Itchet, finding his bag under some larger rocks and pebbles pushed the rocks and pebbles off, surprised at how light the materials were he began to grab rocks with both hands and throw them into the bag. The sound of tumbling pebbles made him jump with alarm as he whirled towards the source of the noise, his right hand extended, thumb, index and middle finger extended. A stream of pebbles was rolling down the embankment and forming a pile amongst some of the larger displaced rocks, shrugging his shoulders and writing it off as dislodged earth from when he slid down into the ditch he turned around and continued to fill up his bag. Grabbing for a particularly large chunk he held it in his hands and immediately felt cold as if the heat from his body was being whisked away by a chilled wind. Looking into the chunk of black rock, his mote of light flickering as his concentration on the spell wavered he swore he could see a glow coming from inside the rock. Then it moved. First it shifted so slightly that Itchet swore that he had imagined it. Then it began to rock backwards and forth so violently that it vibrated in his hands. Throwing the rock to the ground he grabbed his bag and turned to run up the ditch.. Two lumps of black rocks had formed legs, a torso, two arms and a blocky head with pebbles forming rough humanoid appearance. Screaming in alarm the boy rushed away from the figures that had formed, Sparing a glance back at the large rock he had dropped that had also started to gather smaller rocks to form a torso, arms and legs.

As he ran along the ditch looking for a way out he felt his limbs getting colder and when he glanced back at the lumbering figures he noticed that where ever he stepped glowing embers of light flared to life within the black rock and even the clouds of dust that were sent airborne by his frantic pace glowed. This seemed to invigorate the creatures that lumbered behind him as they started to run faster, less sluggish as they collected the glowing pebbles into their form and as the glowing dust settled on their forms as they ran.

A shriek of rage and hunger bellowed from behind him sounding both like the rumble of stone on stone and the roar of a fire place. Noticing a lower ledge for the ditch he scrambled towards it, digging into the earth and finding that his body grew colder as more handfuls of dirt he dislodged glowed with an inner light as the warmth from his body was sapped. Just as he managed to grab onto the flatter ground above the ditch something grabbed his foot and began to pull him back into the ditch. Looking down at his feet he saw fingers made from small black pebbles of this light rock was gripping his leg and was trying to pull him back down into the ditch.

“Noo! Albazahr help!” he shrieked kicking with his other foot, connecting with its shoulder the pebbles loosened up enough that he could get both feet dug into the earth. Whipping his hand around he cast the other spell he knew, the one that got him sent here in the first place. Fire Bolt.

As the bolt of fire smashed into the chest of the rocky creature it burst into flames and a sound of either extreme delight or anger exploded from the creatures emotionless face. In the blink of an eye dozens of other such creatures smashed into the creature as flames consumed its body fully. Each new body piled onto the one before it and as it flailed and swung wildly the flames crept slowly up and down the other rocks, each creature as it was consumed by flame bellowed with joyous rage.

Itchet ran, clutching his bag and bolting through the dark, the flickering red light from the creature as it grew to momentous size and the flames crawled up its newly formed arms, legs and body as the many became one.

Dashing through the opening between the pocket dimension and the laboratory that Albazahr had built to hold such dimension he squealed the command word to seal it shut just after he made it through.

Wheezing on the ground he looked up to see Albazahr jotting down notes and looking into the seeing wall that captured images of a giant heaving, squirming mesh of small black rock and tiny black pebbles stomping around the dimension, their body fully aflame.

“What is that master?” he wheezed, coughing up some black phleugm.

“I call it a Coal Golem. They crave heat the most so are tremendous guardians if given the right commands by the right people. I did not, however, know that when it was set aflame that its kin would fling their own bodies onto the burning one to form a larger coal golem that was on fire.” Albazahr mused, jotting down more notes as the creature lumbered around, the fire almost dying out as the glowing forms of several Coal Golems could be seen re-forming into their smaller forms and heading back towards the ditch. Muttering an arcane phrase the bag that Itchet was holding stopped moving, Itchet who was unaware of the bag moving dropped it and crawled away from the bag. “You, Itchet. You didn’t tell me you knew actual magic. You have the mark of a promising sorcerer if you survive your time here.” he mentioned, helping the boy up.

“As for now, Master, I would like to be excused to have a bath to get rid of this stuff, coal? I don’t think I like it that much” he stammered out as he brushed out the last of the dust.

“Off you go then, tomorrow, you and I are going to use the chunks of coal you retrieved to create your own coal golem. Yes. That would be a great thing to record.” Albazahr muttered as he scrawled into his book again.

That’s it for tonight, two! creatures to add into your games, I feel as though this one is probably giving away the hidden agenda to Dice-ember but let’s see if everyone is paying attention.

Don’t forget that surprises don’t always have to increase the challenge for a player, some can be simply put there to delight and amaze them. The use case of these creatures, I feel, is such a time. Have them seek warmth from the party then joyously combust themselves so that they form their giant kin at the amusement of your players.

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