Dungeons&Dragons

The Prince’s Lair

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Welcome to Saturday night after a long day of teaching Warhammer and some painting this morning, more on that soon, I give to you the Prince’s Lair. What prince, dragon or otherwise, can resist having a nice place to rest, amongst his gold and admire himself. The main antechamber for this cave is fitted with hidden roof access for ease of flight in and out – great for escaping. A raised platform to overlook your minions and worshipers. And, of course, a pile of gold and treasure complete with giant mirror.

But there is also traps, cages for animals (or captives) and a whole room dedicated to the sleeping arrangements of your servants. The prince is as generous as he is ruthless.

The Prince’s Lair

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The entrance to the cave is a squishy 10 feet. This gives enough room for the party to get into the cave and hopefully they have a torch as there is a bear-trap right at the entrance. Also in this entrance room there is a single, polished, clean and fantastic looking balde laying in the ground, tip down. Anyone who picks up this blade or moves to examine it within its space triggers a spikey mallet on a bat. Ouch!

Moving past this room to the right of the cave entrance is a hallway where a lot of noise can be heard, animals and some distant soft, muffled sobbing. But the party best be careful as there is a spike lined pit trap hidden here too, that’s something you don’t want to fall into.

‘The Stables.’

The room is filled with cages filled with starving wolves, giant scorpions, badgers and the like. The cages all are linked to ropes that appear to be tied somewhere in the room. If the party is careful they should be able to get in and get out without alerting the pen watchmen to their presence. However, even if opened up the animals may turn on the kobolds!

There are a few sheep, a singular young cow and with the cow a young female who is the farm assistant who looked after the animals.

The nesting room.

The Prince’s lair wouldn’t be complete without servants quarters, and boy do we have the best here. Another bear trap and pitfall trap greet would-be assailants filled with over a dozen nests. These can be populated with resting kobolds, or, perhaps the kobolds who lived in these nests are no longer here.

There may be some hidden trinkets and weapons amongst the rough straw nests but I’ll leave that up to you.

‘The Throne Room.’

Large, roof access and treasure to gloat over. This room has everything someone could need. There is enough space for the prince to fly around and torment attackers with his frost breath. Or he can hide in the very high ceilings and lunge at the party when they don’t expect it. A set of steps lead up to the where the prince rests, under a pile of snow and bones but don’t let that fool you. At the slightest sound of his treasure being disturbed he will lunge forward and attack any soo foolish.

This is assuming he is encountered in the cave and not in the forest outside.

Traps shown – Kobold Cave- Created in Inkarnate
Trapless Kobold Cave – Created in Inkarnate

Thanks for joining me tonight. I had a lot of fun with creating the caves tonight and joining some existing assets together made it easier that I anticipated. The treasure platform makes for a good target for the party to investigate but I must stress, the prince doesn’t like to share his gold. I hope that you enjoyed the map tonight and I hope you don’t forget to come back tomorrow. I will endeavour to create some Soulbound and one (or two zines) tomorrow but I will have to see how I go.

Don’t forget that next week is a new adventure and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Princes Guard

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Friday night is and the excited yips and calls from the Princes Guard echo through the hills and trees. But there is also another malicious presence, one that makes the kobolds quiver and emit the thick stench of fear. The Prince is amongst the trees, in the caves and he does not take kindly to those who would threaten his throne!

The Princes Guard

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Now, for those who are not complete nerds like myself the kobold is a humble nuisance who plays a very important role for all campaigns. They teach the party to never underestimate the lesser races. While one kobold wont do much, a dozen will, and taking into consideration what the lord of monsters, Volo, has to say about them – they love their traps. You will never stumble into kobolds territories without a snare, a spike trap, a falling log, pit traps, badger in a cage or a bag of scorpions falling on your head. These little scavengers and tinkerers are something that’s great about low level D&D.

The other part about kobolds is their uncanny ability to flock to dragons to serve them – and what better dragon than a young male chromatic one. Dragons even in wyrmling states may try and build up their territory and treasure from a young age. The Prince in this story is no different and he happened to find a pack of kobolds in the hills he wanted to live in. What luck!

Created in tetra-cube

The Prince

Now this is a rather, err, DM sided adventure. What I mean by that is that these creatures are weak. If you don’t put yourself in their shoes, err, claws you wont challenge your party. The Wyrmling isn’t a terrifying entity, the size of a large dog but smaller than a horse the only thing that makes them truly terrifying is their fly speed and breath weapon. So IF we want to play to our strengths these creatures will swoop in low, breath a cone of cold then fly away. If and only if ground combat looks like its extremely favourable in their favour – or they have some minions to distract the interlopers do they go toe-to-toe.

That being said. The white dragon is note an intelligent beast. Wise enough to know to run it probably isn’t smart enough to work out traps, baits or feints and being a young prince it will probably be extremely proud of itself. This means that if the party can think outside of the box, play dead or set up a well planned or hidden trap the wyrmling will become a very easy fight. Abilities or actions to stop it from flying, or, to hinder its ability to move will ensure an easy victory.

Created in Tetra-cube

Thoughts

The Prince and his guard have made an appearance and the numbers will be in the favour of the kobolds and their leige. However with clever planning and tactics this should be an easy enough fight. However, that is if the party doesn’t get cold feet… Yup a bad nerdy joke. In fact it’s so bad its good.

Thanks for joining me tonight for some more changes to our adventure. But nevertheless don’t forget to come back this weekend for more content including a map of the lair. This weekend I will be joining some of my excellent fellow Warhammer players and running a “Introduction to Warhammer” day. So tomorrow you may have a lot of Warhammer content, some Warhammer and some Soulbound content or just a map. The day will tell. As always make sure to nurture that spark of inspiration and creativity and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Pines of Pine ridge

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Welcome to another map night where tonight I have the first of two maps for this week, the Pines of Pine Ridge. The hills surrounding pine ridge are heavily wooded which puts the town itself in an ideal place. Positioned with resources for building houses and structures as well as providing food and shelter for game and stock. But there is a darker side of the hills and that will come this weekend. So sit back, grab a coffee and let’s roll into tonight’s adventure.

The Pines of Pine ridge

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The heavily wooded hills provide ample places for the party to hide and make ambushes for potential enemies. But the other way around is also viable. Hills with trees and bushes of varying sizes and heights provide a uneven and complex environment for the party to move through as well as to perceive threats. However a well worn path can be seen where several deep drag marks indicate the frequent movement of heavier items. Whoever made these tracks either wanted them to be seen or was in too much of a hurry to care.

Pine Ridge Hills – Created in Inkarnate

Thoughts

A great place for an ambush on the party or for the party. A series of skill checks to get here first (rangers provide this benefit for free – a pity point for them) can mean that the party arrive and have time to plan when there is one or two enemies around. But getting there later its a different story.

Tomorrow night we will look at the ins and outs around the encounter but also the creatures we are encountering this week. But On Saturday I will release another map for the final encounter of this weeks adventure – and its going to be chilling.

Thanks for joining me tonight but don’t forget to come back the last few days. I have a bit more planned for this adventure and hopefully finally catch up on a few Zines. So I hope that with this weekend approaching fast you wont forget to set aside some time for your hobby and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The White Prince

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Welcome to Wednesday where tonight I want to look at the White Prince. The White Prince is new to these lands but power hungry and despite his young age, ambitious. Using what he has found he begins to be more aggressive and this is what brings the adventurers to Pine Ridge. Curious to meet the Prince? Well let’s sit back, grab a coffee and roll on with tonight’s adventure.

The White Prince

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As the last of the kobolds moved through the cave he looked across his minions with satisfaction. However he knew that it was a matter of time before a larger male moved into this spot. Well that was his fear. He knew that unless he instilled fear into his pathetic minions that they would default to the next big boss that arrives here. As one of the kobolds was carrying what appeared to be a large polished dish of steel he lashed out with a claw and with a sickening thud separated its head from shoulders. The large dish rolled to the ground

The other Kobolds in the cave stared at him opened mouth and wide eyed, the musk of fear was palpable. With a cold, high-yet rumbling voice he spoke to the humanoids. ‘Let that be a reminder to you. This vermin was coveting the riches that are mine. All riches in, above and around these mountains are mine.'”‘ he spoke as he crawled forward to grab the polished dish and jammed it between roof and floor, creating a distorted mirror.

Some of the remaining kobolds skittered forwards and grabbed the twitching body and head, dragging it out whilst they moved around the lair with renewed vigour. Smiling the prince admired himself in the custom mirror and the food and growing treasure from the area near his den. But the pile was small, growing still, and he wanted more. Looking towards the larger, stronger Kobold nearby the Prince barked at him.

Greed

‘Kizzet, where are the other treasures? I thought you said that we had more!’ a mote of white smoke-like drifted from its nostrils ‘Are you keeping some from me?’ he snarled.

The Kobold turned around and dropped to a knee, this one did not smell of fear at all. ‘My Lord. We ran into a issue. a warrior from the village ambushed us and slew a few of our people. As we rallied the female retreated with some of your treasure. We gave chase but she escaped.’ the kobold reported.

‘You will find this warrior and teach this female a lesson. No one steals from me!’ the prince roared as he threw himself onto his treasure and killed animals and started to take his frustration out on the meat.

‘You heard the white prince!’ barked Kizzet, ‘Rally the warriors. We move at dusk!’

Thanks for dropping by tonight. This see’s us with the beginning of a two-stage adventure planned this week where we have Kobolds attacking the village and then the hunt for the white prince. So don’t forget to come back the last few days this week as we explore more. Also don’t forget that with the weekend approaching fast to set aside some time for your own hobby. Whether its painting, building, reading or rolling dice make sure to nurture that creative spark. And lastly, as always, don’t forget to roll it with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The People of Pine Ridge

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Welcome to NPC Tuesday and tonight we are looking at The People of Pine Ridge. Yesterday we were introduced to the young hunter Rashel, the village Elder Penelope and a prestigious farmer Reginald. Tonight we will get a bit more of a glance at our NPCs for the weeks adventure flesh out this adventure a bit more. So sit back, grab a coffee and let’s roll on with the adventure.

The People of Pine Ridge

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Elder Penelope

Created in Artbreeder

Penelope has spent most of her life in the village and has earnt a great deal of respect amongst her people. Her father, and his father before him were local heroes. Slayer of beasts, defenders of the village from bandits and monsters and in her youth she aspired to be the same.

But as she got older she was unable to participate in great hunts, or even mild ones and she became content to lead the village. She cares a great deal for everyone within the oaken gates and will put their safety above anything else.

Reginald

Created in Artbreeder

Coming to Pine Ridge as a young man he quickly spent his timing mining the hills for its wealth. After a few lucky breaks in a row he quickly became the wealthiest man in Pine Ridge. However, instead of taking the wealth elsewhere he bought land, built houses and brought more people to the small village to man his farms.

He is still the wealthiest man in Pine Ridge but he works with the people here, and Elder Penelope, to ensure that Pine Ridge is looked after. He currently has most of his fortune resting on the success of the farms and was planning on funding a mine to bring more people to live in the little Village. If this rumoured dragon continues to eat his animals then he wont be able to put Pine Ridge on the map.

The Hunter Rashel

Created in Artbreeder

Rashel travelled to Pine ridge with her mentor, Lake, who taught her how to track creatures and how to survive in the wilds. A natural with a bow she quickly manged to cement herself in with the people of Pine Ridge.

Not long after her, and her mentors arrival a strange sighting of a beast appeared when she was out on a hunt. Lake, her mentor, decided to investigate alone and he stumbled upon a lair of a ferocious beast. Despite being experienced Lake didn’t survive the encounter and managed to make it back to the village.

Rashel returned home with fresh game for the village half a day later. But instead of being greeted with cheering and happy villagers she was greeted by mourners.

Ever since she has kept a watchful eye over the village in case the beast that killed her mentor returns.

Thoughts

Tonight we have three different people to look at. Reginald is wealthy but supports the town. Supposedly from the goodness of his heart but there may be more than meets the eye. Penelope may be ruthless when it comes to protecting her village but she knows a fight she cant hope to win. Despite the sacrifice of the villages funds her pride as a hunter will likely be the biggest cost when she asks for help from the adventurers.

Thanks for joining me tonight as we looked at the people of Pine Ridge. Tomorrow we get to look at this adventure from a different view point and oh I am excited. So don’t forge to come back tomorrow night for the next part of the adventure. Thanks to everyone who comes back back daily and, as always, don’t forget to roll it with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Pine Ridge

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Tonight heralds one of my favourite early game encounter that can be scaled up to any level. This weeks adventure centred around Pine Ridge; a small farming community, looks to serve as that adventure that ups the ante. So without giving any more away for this week let’s grab a coffee, sit down and roll on with the adventure.

Pine Ridge

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The trip through the hills and mountains upwards towards the large expanse of land at the top of the rise. This land was extremely fertile and it was evident by vast amount of vegetation growing in any suitable soil. The party had however ran into several obstacles on the way up. Hunting snares, pit traps and the like were frequent on the path or just off it. The oddest of them all were traps that released beasts that attacked them on sight. Without a cause or evidence of who caused them they were written off as the pranks of youths the party continued their trek to the town of Pine Ridge who was reportedly in need of heroes.

As they pushed past the last few crests of the mountain range they were ascending they stumbled into the large, oaken gates of Pine Ridge. A few moments of talking to the guards they were let through with nothing less than cheering. In fact the guards proclaimed that they were the adventurers sent to them to aid them. This only increased the volume of noise and frequency of well wishes. However, moving their way through the streets they saw that things were grim. Several wagons had belongings piled up high and several draft horses or mules were attached already or nearby. In fact as they were led towards a large central house the sense of worry increased with each step. Something was not right in Pine Ridge.

The Job

Entering the house they were greeted by a elderly man, woman and a young woman who was dressed like a hunter or scout. They walked through the halls of the house and noticed many of the paintings in the house had images of heroes or hunters who had slain a great beast. There was even one of a dragon hunter mounted at the top of the stairway they ascended. Moving into a small room they were sat down to a small lunch of hot meats and fresh bread.

‘Sadly this is all I can offer you’ the woman said who sat opposite them, the elderly man stood to her left. ‘We have a problem you see. All the game is disappearing and sometimes our livestock goes too.’ she said softly nodding to a servant who closed a door.

‘It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just the animals. It’s not that frequent that I lose my beasts.’ the standing man said. ‘But I lost one of the farms I maintain just last night. Burned to the ground and the people and animals lost or taken.’ he continued. ‘I have had Rashel look into it trying to track what happened. What she found is troubling.’

The young hunter nodded and leaned onto the table. ‘I think we have dragons…’ she breathed out slowly. ‘One or two, young ones at best. But its the only thing that could burn down the houses and that would take and eat that much meat.’ she continued. ‘But I also found something else that confirmed my suspicions.’ she said as she reached into a pouch on her hip. After a moment she produced a long, scaled digit that ended in a sharp claw.

More than just pests

‘A kobold. In fact I believe we have a den of them. My master told me that kobolds gather in great number under the rulership of a Dragon. They worship them like gods. I have no doubt in my mind that there is a dragon somewhere in this mountain.’ she finished as she held out the finger to the party.

‘That’s where you come in. I am the one that placed the request for aid. I hope that you are fit for the task and up to finding out what’s happening in Pine Ridge. For all our sakes I hope its just a few kobolds but we can’t be sure yet.’ the elderly lady said as she sipped on some tea. ‘I hope you will accept our request for aid, we may not have much to offer as a feast but these mountains are full of gold and we have ample to share.’

Tonight I wanted to bring my favourite early encounter to light and bring with it the promise of something more. A dragon is a great encounter to have that really sets the tone for the campaign. We also have the prospect of a kobold nest and I find them one of the most fun low level encounters to be had. However, despite being fun they are quite dangerous and this weeks adventure is going to be a testament to that. So don’t forget to come back daily to keep up with what I am writing here. I hope that you find this encounter as much fun as I believe it will be. Don’t forget to let me know how you go with the adventure and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Brazen Adventure Archives

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Tonight I decided that I wanted to look at a way of putting the most useful content in once place. So I created a new page in the blog called The Brazen Adventure Archives.

This will aim to have my Released Zines and, hopefully, all my maps one day where aspiring or experienced game masters can turn to if they are in need of an easy night. Recently I had the pleasure of sitting down with a fellow experienced DM who, like me, has been through a few additions. In the discussion of the hobby, our tactics, our dreams and homes for the TTRPG system we both love it validated what I do here.

It’s a hard job, this adventure business. You lose some good adventurers along the way and gods knows I have lost a few myself. But as the facilitators of the great world of Roleplaying Games we have the biggest job. Sure they may fight dragons, rescue princesses from marriage pacts with demons and face off against the endless hordes of goblins. But we spend ours, countless days over the year massaging their ideas, their actions and the actions of others into a world. This takes time and energy and that’s where I think I can come into it.

I am not the best Dungeon Master, I am not sure if anyone should hold that title either. But what I am is experienced. I can pull a one shot adventure out of my hat in 30 minutes. I can create magical items, creatures or settings with the right prompt be it image, word or song. Why not give what I can back to the hobby that has truly helped to shape my life over the years I have been doing this.

For the Dungeon and Game Master

So that’s what this new page is about – giving fellow game or dungeon masters the night off. If your party steal a ship and sale in the opposite direction, don’t worry. I have something for you – try Ophidian island, or if they find a tranquil pool and have been complaining how easy it is – have them try Kappa’s on for size and tweak Misguided resting place.

This is a place written for the creators of world and facilitators of epic stories. Not just a creative outlet for myself but I hope a tool or quick-win for that new or tired DM.

So while I look forward to populating the Brazen Adventure Archive with more adventures, maps, creatures and content I will also start to get more involved in the local gaming community. Give the local DMs the night off and let them roll some dice and experience something truly new. While I do this I hope you continue to read this here and I hope that if something truly inspires or helps you – you’ll let me know. Feedback is key in all parts of life whether its on the tabletop or off of it. Well what ever you do, I hope you do it with advantage because we can all use a choice to take the higher roll,

The Brazen Wolfe

The Mystery of Crelion Manor

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Tonight and I have again decided to create a zine out of this weeks adventure, The Mystery of Crelion Manor. This adventure can be used system agnostic as we explore other RPGs out there other than D&D. So please adjust to what ever creatures you are using in your adventure! However as always Kobold fight club can be used to quickly balance an encounter for Dungeons and Dragons and Tetra-cube currently provides the stat-blocks for creatures (but this may change).

So I hope you enjoy this weeks adventure, The Mystery of Crelion Manor. If you like this format please let me know and I hope you enjoy.

The Mystery of Crelion Manor

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Crelion manor was a splendid building overseen by the Crelion family. Lord Crelion however was extremely lonely after the death of his childhood love and wanted someone to share the empty halls with. 

However, as time went on his loneliness disappeared with the arrival of his lady and they were soon wed. But on the night of their wedding a terrifying storm struck the manor. So terrible and ferocious the people that lived there died and the bodies of the Lord and Lady of the Manor were never found. 

Years later and the Manor has new owners who rent out rooms as a half-way inn between two large cities. But those who travel the roads are often preyed upon by terrifying creatures and flash storms that have fuelled the rumours of the manor being under a curse. 

PDF adventure – The Mystery of Crelion Manor

The Mystery of Crelion-ManorDownload

That will be it for tonight but I hope that next weekend you can get a party together, or find a DM/GM, to run this adventure. Don’t forget that next week I will be bringing another adventure to the table so don’t miss a thing and come back daily. And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

A Cursed Crew

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Friday night is here and it brings with it the tidings of battle. Tonight we look at a cursed crew, burdened with the knowledge that they can never leave their vessel and only the instigator of the curse knows the cure. However that’s not quite right as there is another who knows and who is dying to, well, finally die.

A Cursed Crew

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Tonight I want to broach the thought of hybrid monsters. I am not talking about the delightful owlbear or Seawolf or the like but the mix of two archetypes. The cursed crew that we will be encountering this week are a hybrid between a shadow and zombie. more nimble and spectral that a zombie, not as strong as a shadow but somewhere in between. So I will have a go at marrying the parts we need and see where we end up.

Created in Tetra-cube.

Thoughts

The idea behind these creatures is that they are the bound crew to the ship, except the captain of course and one other hidden one. But that’s for later.

They shouldn’t be able to do anything more than they could in life its just that they are affected by less. A normal strike, blow or cut from a normal weapon that would remove an arm connects but the semi-spectral body doesn’t appear to affect them as much. They aren’t meant to be strong as reflected by their actions but they are a pest that is hard to kill and they fight as they would be used to by now. By swarming and hoping their semi-spectral blades connect (reflected by poor to hit and damages).

Due to the increased durability they are more of a threat than a zombie but less than a shadow – but CR1/2 is probably the most suitable that we will come across.

As we wrap up another week here make sure to set aside some time for your hobby this weekend. I have a little goal to try and get a small force of Nighthaunt ready for a “let’s play” event I am assisting with in a few weekends time. For me this motivates me to pain models, something I struggle with, but it also has me excited to paint a few models I have in boxes still. So hopefully I will be able to field something other than Ghouls, Ghosts or Rats in the near future.

Don’t forget to come back to see what else helps to inspire this weeks adventure and, as always, don’t forget to roll it with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

A Port to Call Home

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Welcome to Thursday night where we look at a port to call home for our pirate crew this week. The birthplace of a famous pirate may be romanticised in some instances but this week with Lamberk we aim to look at the darker nature of it. The encounters, to be covered tomorrow will likely involve a mixture of battlemap and theatre of the mind. This is one of my preferred methods as it gives a lot of flexibility for the DM. We don’t need a map every week but it can aid in tracking combat and positioning. So for this week I will scour my older posts and see if I have a ship and a house. For the eventual reveal, well you’ll just have to come back and see.

A Port to Call Home

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The Flying Owlbear is a massive ship that is rumoured to be able to travel across land as well as the seas. As the party look up at its ripped sails, ghostly lights and rotting wood as it rests in the middle of the town of Tarmak the rumours are true.

The Flying Owlbear – Created in Nightcafe.studio

The town of Lamberk has developed around a successful port. The majority of the infrastructure and commerce involve the sea and in the last few years after the installation of a naval guard the seas have become a safer place. Except for the rumours of ghostly sails that stalk the waters.

Due to its proximity of the water and the wealth that travels the sea its also the birthplace of many pirates, thieves and other criminals who prey on those that live or pass through.

Port Town of Lamberk – created in Nightcafe.studio

A rather short one tonight but its just the beginning steps to inspire this weeks adventure. So I do hope you will not forget to visit daily and, as always, don’t forget to roll it with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe