Dungeons&Dragons

The Peaceful Coup

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A bit of a simple one this week with the peaceful coup of the Silver Sparrows guild. If the guild founder stepping down as guild master and nearly the newest member of the guild stepping into the role sounded suspicious those present in the guild hall didn’t appear to think so. Well, that was after the new guild masters rousing speech that is.

So let’s grab a coffee, make a toast and let’s cheer on tonight’s adventure!

When the change of guild masters happens normally it’s the cause of death, age, illness or recognition of prowess. However, for the Silver Sparrows, a guild of primarily messengers and scouts the guilds master resigned and appointed one of the most unlikely guild members to take over.

The ripples of this decision cast spread wide and rapidly the suspicion that foul play was afoot spread. But the new guild master started to rapidly change how the guild was run. Within days the guild was more profitable and was getting more contracts and jobs than before. However, the young new guild master had shown the biggest change from being incompetent and unreliable not two weeks ago to being in charge of the fastest growing guild in the city.

The Peaceful Coup

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Addressing the guild – created in Nightcafe.

The guild master Bastion had called for all guild members to gather in the courtyard. As he stood in front of them he looked across all the members gathered. “My friends, visitors and clients. I have an announcement that I need to share with you.” he paused to look around. “Effective tonight I am stepping down as guild master. Kilt Retcher will be stepping into the office of guild master after careful consideration from me and he will take over tomorrow morning. It has been a good decade with the Silver Sparrows but I must step aside.”

As he moved away from the balcony the chatter, hushed conversations and loud calls of outrage echoed upwards as Kilt stepped forward in his normal attire, fancy gilded robes. “I wish.” he stopped, his voice commanding attention like it hadn’t before. “My first wish is for the very best for Bastion Sparrow. He has been the guiding light for many of us, myself included. But I can only wish him the best for his future now that he has chosen to step aside.”

“My second wish is that I can serve you like you will serve the guild. The Silver Sparrows is going to be the biggest guild in the city.” he stopped and looked down at everyone. “The next few months will be different times but with us all working together we will succeed. So follow me into the future where the Silver Sparrows truly rule the roost!”

After a moment the others clapped, cheered and toasted, their outrage of Bastion’s resignation lifted in an instant as if forgotten as if water under a bridge. However not everyone was convinced as the taint of magic, that familiar tingle as it touched on those in the room left a sliver of doubt in their minds.

A start to this weeks adventure that I promise wont be all talk and message delivery. I will be expanding this adventure daily as we continue onwards so don’t forget to come back each day and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Lost Vault

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This week I continued with the creating a shortened Zine, something that fits on a single A4 sheet of paper with just enough information to set the scene, plot and hook with some NPCs sprinkled through that it could be used in any system.

I think its still working well so without any further waiting I present The Lost Vault, in the short format, as a fun one-shot to assist GMs when they need a night out of the books whether you run Pathfinder, Open Legends RPG, D&D or any other RPG System.

There is references to the blog nights which are D&D centric (regarding Friday night’s Stat-blocks) but this adventure can be used system agnostic more so than my regular Zines. As always Kobold fight club can be used to quickly balance an encounter for Dungeons and Dragons and Tetra-cube provides the stat-blocks for many of my D&D creatures.

So I hope you enjoy this weeks adventure, The Lost Vault, and that your rolls are made with advantage.

The Lost Vault

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Midfern Keep Ruins – Created in Nightcafe.

Midfern keep was a sight to see as the wagon that the party rode on with the others crossed over the crest of a hill. The keep was surrounded by sundered mountains that rose like jagged teeth from the earth itself. Several rivers ran through the ravine that these pillars of rock created. The keep was bustling as they approached and it looked like one building had been repaired and housed most of the workers currently. 

The keep would have been majestic in its prime and even now they could only wonder why the elves had left it in the first place. Surely the stories of the great evil being locked within its walls were just that, stories.

The wagon stopped in front of the restored hall and a rough looking mercenary strode towards them. “Weclome, you can call me Carben and I work for Marcell and run this operation here.” he spoke with a commanding voice that spoke of years in the military. “For those who are new, if you’re here as a mercenary you work under me. You do what I say and we all walk away richer and with all our limbs intact. For those who are here with no experience with a sword, you also take orders for me but Marcell will direct you where to go. Listen to us, follow the rules and we all walk away richer. Any questions?”

Marcell looked up from her book at the new recruits walking towards her. “Welcome to Midfern Keep. We have one job here, for those who can manage a blade you are in charge of ensuring the safety of every single person here. We have already encountered a few hostiles in the area who want to contest our claim and I have an inkling that there will be defences other than traps that guard the main vault.” She paused looking at the obvious non-warriors.

“Speaking of traps, for those who are proficient in locating and disarming traps you are up now. We have found the entrance to the next room and I suspect that like the last few rooms it is trapped.” she paused. “For everyone else, you move rubble and call out if you find anything. Work in teams with an assigned guard and expert. Work smart not hard ladies and gentlemen as beyond the gate to the final vault are riches that will make kings and queens blush. If you find something, send someone to get me, Marcell, and I will be there to decide the next step forward. Understood?” Carben saluted her which caused a ripple of salutes from several others amongst the party.

PDF adventure – The Lost Vault

The Lost VaultDownload

Thanks for joining me today for another Zine this year. This is a condensed version of the Zine, but I hope the format works and is good to look at! Please feel free to leave comments if this format is appealing – so make sure to grab a copy of the PDF.

Next time you get a party together consider running this adventure and I hope that you enjoy it.
I hope you don’t miss a thing so come back daily in the coming week and year. This is so you can experience the creation of the next adventure as it evolves and shapes out. And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Senkuku

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This week our fast, quadrupeds that have endangered our parties comrades is called the Senkuku. This creature has several features that resemble both a bat and a large cat and it likes to play with its prey. But these creatures are born from curses from jealous gods, those who seek to insight chaos in the domain of their fellow divine peers.

So let’s sit down, grab a coffee as we roll into tonight’s encounter!

The Senkuku

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The body of a large, muscular cat with large ears, pushed in pig-like nose and large fangs the Senkuku isn’t exactly going to win any beauty contests. Its size, about that of a horse, will surprise people with how nimble it is and how quickly it can move to take down its prey. Malicious by nature it aims to curse its prey and over the cause of a few hours those who submit to the curse will transform, painfully, into one of its kind.

But while not a disease like Lycanthrope its believed that a malicious deity created these beings as a way of spreading their influence where it shouldn’t belong. It can’t be removed as a disease but it can however be removed by the remove curse spell as long as its used near a place of divine influence – such as a church or temple.

Senkuku – created in Tetra-cube

The Senkuku while not the most intelligent is wise enough to know when to get out before its too late and it rarely hunts alone. Preferring to use its allies as bait each Senkuku delights in the tourmented looks of its own kind as they realise that they are the ones being used as bait, and in turn knowing that it could just as easily be itself.

A bit of a short one tonight but a new creature with some borrowed inspiration from other stat-blocks was on the menu this week. Don’t forget to come back this weekend for the end of week Zine and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Entrance to the Church

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The entrance to the Church of Kelemvor is where we find this weeks encounter taking place as the same creatures that attacked the party have made their way to the sleepy village they stopped in. However, they are lot alone as the priests of Kelemvor put aside their differences to defend their flock, well what remains of it.

Last week we had an encounter above lava, this week we have it in the rain and darkness of pre-dawn. So let’s sit back, grab a warm coffee and roll through tonight’s map!

Entrance to the Church

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Entrance to Kelemvors Church – Created in Inkarnate

The church to Kelemvor sits a little bit away from the rest of the village. Some houses are near by the Church but for the most part the area around it is urban landscape. A few lanterns struggle in the wind and rain and the braziers near the church steps flicker. But beyond that the light if very poor quality and more difficult for anyone without darkvision to see what is happening in the village.

There is actually about seven layers of texture paints for the ground here. A stone undertone, dark ground, grass, cobblestone, dirt, darker dirt and a lighter shade of the ground (not to mention some shadow). The art assets are pretty standard this week with nothing shocking or new but the aim was to create something that was effective, semi-urban and still gave me room to play with natural settings which is what I enjoy the most.

Thanks for joining me for another map making night. Don’t forget to join me again tomorrow for the last piece of the puzzle and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Cornered

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This week, as we can probably tell by now is about the accidental breaking of vows, unknowingly healing where healing is seen as an affront to their lords wishes. However as something stalks the streets of the village they will need to make a decision. Pursue their witch hunt or protect their flock.

So let’s grab a coffee, grab our torches and rush into tonight’s adventure!

The Cornered

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As the rumours circulated around the high priest being the one who broke the orders rules the gathering crowd of clerics of Kelemvor muttered nervously. The High Priest was still dressed in his evening robes as stood in front of the other clerics and, shakily, addressed them.

The clerics were all in their robes but many were still waking up as it had not been long since the party had discovered the high priest in the hall casting magic. A heartbeat later he had been seen by three other clerics who were on their way to retiring for the night.

“My brothers and sisters. As you may have heard the culprit for healing within our halls, preventing the worthy souls to be judged by our lord Kelemvor has been found. Unwillingly so or not, with knowledge of what I was doing our creed, our doctrine has been broken and there is but one punishment. Excommunication and execution.” he looked them all in the eyes before he turned his eyes to the door of the church.

There was a growing volume of noise coming from the village. As the room looked towards the sound of the noise the large barred door shook as someone pounded on the door. “Help! Monsters!”.

The party raced out of the church in time to see one of the same creatures that attacked them sink its teeth into one of the villagers and drag them between two houses. Except there was more than one and several villagers were twitching and frothing on the ground nearby with the same gruesome bite that their companion had been inflicted with.

The Clerics rushed forth with the party to meet the creatures on the streets. The creatures shied away from the clerics when confronted outright before circling back to attack when their guard was lowered. The fight was gruesome with casualties on both sides however as the silence of the aftermath was replaced by the quiet sobs of the survivors, and the twitching and whining of those afflicted by the bite the full scale of the attack was revealed.

More than half the cities villagers were bitten, a dozen of the clerics joined their number and all of them were fighting back the magical curse that the creatures bites induced.

The decision had to be made, heal them now or wait and see what would happen to these people. Many looked like they would not survive the night from their wounds alone and the clerics looked to the high priest Matihas to make a decision.”

Thanks for joining me for another night where I changed the direction tonight. Deciding that I wanted to explore these creatures some more in this adventure I wanted to change it from being a relatively straight forward “who dunnit” to something where a decision needed to be made, a test of morality. As normal the week is not done quite yet and I will continue to update this adventure over the next few days. So don’t forget to come back each day this week and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Clerics of Kelemvor

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The hunt is on, a dangerous game of hide and seek as the party are roped into the clerics of Kelemvor’s game search for the one that betrayed the orders doctrine. But there is something else at play here, something that is not just black and white.

So let’s sit down, grab a coffee and dive into tonight’s adventure!

The Clerics of Kelemvor

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The Clerics of Kelemvor – Created in Nightcafe.

As the party started their search for the person who healed their companion the clerics were gathering in the main hall. The door had been closed with two of the younger, more pious looking members of the clergy standing watch over the congregation of the clerics of Kelemvor. As they all gave worship to their god, the lord of the dead, they were silent in the room.

The unnerving silence finally ended when a crow cawed form one of the open windows in the wall behind the altar and slowly the head of the progression, the kinder older human, stood up and slowly walked through the others who rose when he passed.

“High priest Matihas has not been sleeping properly again. I do hope that his energy sustains him for the search for the one that broke their vow.” one of the nearby priests muttered as they walked on passed.

“I have seen him in the halls at night, head bent in prayer to Kelemvor as if he is seeking his guidance. I do hope our lord helps him rest soon” the sister with the man replied as they walked past.

Over the course of the day the party looked for clues, overheard many conversations but no one had any solid leads on who was the person that had healed against the wishes of their clergy. A single cleric in the order, a young initiate, had managed to pray for the power to detect lies. But it was only as powerful as the wielder and so far he was not able to pinpoint who among them was the culprit.

As the day passed the party were excused from the rest of the search and were invited to the meagre meals that they had that night. A small portion of bread, some cheese and wine was produced tonight and many ate in silence. High Priest Matihas rose and left earliest, retreating to his room to rest before the others followed suit. Soon it was just the party members who were in the hall and eventually even they needed to return to their rooms for rest.

“Do not worry, tomorrow you will be free to leave. We will find who is responsible tomorrow and all will be well again” one of the older clerics muttered as he passed them heading to his own chamber.

The party had just turned into the hallway towards their room when they saw the High Priest in the hallway in front of their rooms. They knew that he had a room not far from them so it wasn’t unusual to see him. However, when he was addressed he did not respond and he stood there, swaying lightly as if in a trance of prayer. When they got closer they could see that he was in fact asleep and was mid-sleep walk.

The High priest began to walk down the halls, muttering prayers that manifested around them. Cantrips caused the lights to change colour, shadows to swell or lessen and the party even felt bolstered as he moved through the hall back towards his room.

Thanks for joining me tonight to get a glimpse at the next part of this adventure. As you can tell there is likely little to no combat this week so I will have something else on Friday. For the remaining days this week I will be continuing this adventure so don’t forget to come back daily to stay up to date. And, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Sin of the Highest Order

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An accident, a powerful storm and an urgent need for healing finds the party thrust into drama as the sin of the highest order is committed in the church of Kelemvor. Will the party clear their own name and decide to help the fanatic clergy in locating who or what ever healed their injured to be thrown at the mercy of the clerics or will they find another way…

So let’s grab a coffee, maybe pack a few extra-strength healing potions and contemplate tonight’s adventure!

When the party find themselves in urgent need of a healer during the middle of a storm they rush to the nearest church that they can find only to be disappointed. The Church of Kelemvor has its sects where they take the Lord of the dead’s doctrine to the extreme. Denying the party the healing they need the party are forced to wait until dawn, uncertain of what will come to them.

However, the coming of dawn brings a miracle. Someone or something had performed powerful healing magic without the party or any cleric in the church from knowing. But in healing those deemed to meet the judge of the damned the sect locked down the church, only willing to open the great doors once the healer was turned in to meet judgment.

Sin of the Highest Order

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The Church of Bone and Mortar – created in Nightcafe.

The crack of thunder heralded their arrival to the small village as they rushed carrying their companion with them. It had happened so fast, an ambush as they were setting up camp in an abandoned cabin an hours ride from the village that they were now rushing into. A creature leapt upon their companion and in its ferocious strike it dealt a deathly blow to the person on watch.

As no magic of divine, arcane or that born from nature took hold the it was by stroke of luck that a village that they had passed housed a church. Perhaps the healers there would have better luck had been the thought and as they rushed through the door several members of the clergy approached. As they saw the adventurers carrying their precious cargo, water dripping from their soaked clothes the clerics moved to help them with the patient.

Asking for them to be healed a look of compassion crossed the eyes of the oldest member of the clergy. “I am afraid that is not something we can do. We follow The Lord of the Dead, judge of the damned and they have been deemed worthy to meet Kelemvor to be judged. We have sworn to not interfere with his noble plan and so we are unable to heal him. It is our lords doctrine.” he said with kind but fervent eyes. “But we can provide shelter, the storm worsens outside and we can ensure that your companion is safe and comfortable until then.”

The party was shown to separate rooms, their unconscious companion given the warmest room where the clerics cleaned their wounds, dried their clothing with a muttered prayer and warmed the room so they would be comfortable. It was no surprise that the adventurers would get no sleep that night.

But dawn brought something unexpected. The party was woken by the clergy of Kelemvor banging on the doors. “Please get dressed and come quick.” As they left their rooms they were startled to see their companion standing, smiling and looking fine. After a quick reunion the clergy looked them up and down sternly.

“As we suspected. You are not the cause of this healing.” one of the sterner looking women punctuated the sentence with a sigh. “That means we have someone who has broken their oath. The church has been locked down and until we find who did this we are unable to open the doors. If you can assist us in finding who broke the oath you will be free to continue your journey quicker. You’re welcome to stay for the excommunication and execution afterwards if you would like.” she said with a emphasis as she turned and left for the grand hall.

A bit of a harder one to justify the ‘lock down’ for the party this week but hopefully saving someone who healed their companion will help make the process smoother. Don’t forget that each day this week I will continue to expand this adventure. So don’t forget to come back each day and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Chilled Well

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This week I continued with the creating a shortened Zine, something that fits on a single A4 sheet of paper with just enough information to set the scene, plot and hook with some NPCs sprinkled through that it could be used in any system.

I think its still working well so without any further waiting I present The Chilled Well, in the short format, as a fun one-shot to assist GMs when they need a night out of the books whether you run Pathfinder, Open Legends RPG, D&D or any other RPG System.

There is references to the blog nights which are D&D centric (regarding Friday night’s Stat-blocks) but this adventure can be used system agnostic more so than my regular Zines. As always Kobold fight club can be used to quickly balance an encounter for Dungeons and Dragons and Tetra-cube provides the stat-blocks for many of my D&D creatures.

So I hope you enjoy this weeks adventure, The Chilled Well, and that your rolls are made with advantage.

The Chilled Well

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The Chilled Well – Created in Nightcafe.

As the parties look for work in the village of Briss they stare at the nearly empty job board and try to avoid the one request for aid that is left on it. “Adventurers wanted to remove rat infestation in the general store’s basement. Ten gold pieces as payment.- See Abagail Piebald.”

It hadn’t been long since their last job so they could afford to be picky but the caravan out of here would cost them nearly ten gold pieces and there wasn’t much going on in this village. 

As they reached for the job a panting messenger ran to the board, muttering “pardon, ‘scuse me.” before he impaled a small square of paper upon a nail on the board.

“Wanted. Adventurers and warriors to explore a mysterious cave discovered at the Sylphare Quarry. Harry Sylphare, head to the Sylphare masons company, to provide a generous reward if the cave can be made safe enough for the quarry to resume business. Promptness awarded with a portion of payment in advance.- Harry Sylphare.”

The party find themselves standing in a low ceilinged chamber where a constant drip could be heard. It was near freezing within the chamber and every breath they took created a cloud of steam. A faint blue light could be seen in the darkness of the cavern, a large throne glowed as dozens of runes and sigils of binding, warding and protection fizzled and winked as if the magic that sustained them was waning. In the faint blue light, and the light they carried with them, they could make out the scraps of miners’ uniforms on the ground near the throne along with dozens of other bones. 

The light caught on pools of water which flickered and moved as if they themselves were alive. As they waited a skull fell over near the altar-like throne and rolled slowly away from it before sinking beneath the surface of a dark and cold pool of water. However several bones started to shift, vibrate and move as they floated slowly to the air, the lights from the runes and sigils winked out of existence all at once and the bones started to form the rough shape of a creature. Cold mist wrapped around the bones revealing a creature half made of shadow-mist with the bones of its victims giving its form substance. A presence in their mind, beckoning them to join it by the altar touched their mind. A whisper, a promise of power and salvation from the cruelty of the world. 

Blue light from the altar’s carved runes and sigils burst forth and the energy caused the creature’s form to waver, the bone falling to the ground as it sank lower. The presence instantly disappears. But as the bones clattered to the cold stone the creature disappeared, sinking into shadow and only the rippled, rustled and clatter of moving bones and rocks indicated where the creature was as it stalked its new prey.

PDF adventure – The Chilled Well

The Chilled WellDownload

Thanks for joining me today for another Zine this year. This is a condensed version of the Zine, but I hope the format works and is good to look at! Please feel free to leave comments if this format is appealing – so make sure to grab a copy of the PDF.

Next time you get a party together consider running this adventure and I hope that you enjoy it.
I hope you don’t miss a thing so come back daily in the coming week and year. This is so you can experience the creation of the next adventure as it evolves and shapes out. And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Enemies in the Vault

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This week it should come to no surprise that the party will have to face Enemies in the Vault as they are suspected of rigging the games in their favour. But what they may not have thought of is the contestants that came before them may also pose some trouble for them.

So let’s sit down, grab a coffee as we roll into tonight’s encounter!

Enemies in the Vault

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The roar of the crowd died down as the party travelled deeper into the vault and its dark walls they became increasingly aware of how close the other warriors from the house of Voiron were to them. After an hour of travelling through the twisting tunnels the party realised that the others were no longer following them. Their location was quickly revealed as several arrows whistled past them.

Voiron’s Chosen – created in Tetra-cube

The further the party delved deeper the hotter it got and the signs of those warriors and those, the embers anointed that had been lost a long time ago. But as they walked down a hallway the heat started to rise and the remains of these lost warriors and adventurers could be found along the walls. Slowly, the burnt skeletons of the deceased stood and with unnatural energies they shambled towards the party.

Embers Lost Anointed – Created in tetra-cube.

The rough obsidian platforms were nearly as hard to walk on as they were to get onto. At the end of the platforms an obsidian throne stood with a large gem that appeared as if it was made from lava itself. A figure swirled in the depths of the stone as if waiting to be released.

Efreeti – Created in tetra-cube.

A bit of a short one tonight but three ‘standard’ creatures for this kind of adventure. Don’t forget to come back this weekend for the end of week Zine and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Ember Vault

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The Ember Vault was given its name due to the amount of heat that was pulsating through the cavern system and at its core it was found why. Deep underground there is a pit of active lava in an ancient cavern which held the elemental energy of a Efreeti.

So let’s sit back, grab a hot coffee and roll through tonight’s map!

The Ember Vault

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Ember Vault – Created in Inkarnate

The walls and raised pillars in the centre of the walls are smooth and razor sharp chunks of obsidian. To slip would result in being cut to ribbons before you even hit the rocky-crusted lava twenty feet below. But if you can survive the trek at the end a trapped efreeti waits for those who want to make a deal and receive a wish – but the catch is normally that it will do what ever it wants and grant your wish in a way that you really, really don’t want it.

Many, many textured layers this week to get the right blend of stone, lava rocks and shadows. The asset stamps are quite simple really with six or so in total that blend together to highlight the details in of the texture and other assets. A relatively straight forward map this week but something that I hope poses a challenge and has a lot of visual appeal (despite the lava looking nearly like muscles…)

Thanks for joining me tonight while I tinkered with many, many overlapping textures to get something I was happy with this week. Don’t forget to come back the last few days of the week to keep on top of what’s happening here and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe