Tonight and I have created a zine for this weeks adventure. The Frozen Shard. 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 in this adventure.
So I hope you enjoy this weeks adventure, The Frozen Shard. If you like this format please let me know and I hope you enjoy.
The Frozen Shard
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Platara Glacier near the Ice Spire- created in nightcafe.
After rescuing the people from the Icewalker tribe, the party looked through the snowstorm that had blanketed the landscape when they entered the Den of the Lost souls. The Ice Spire towered above them, so close that its frozen form called to them.
The Frozen shard of ice, the first in several places that Andrasa called and singled out as important places. Would it hold treasure, wealth or powerful artefacts? Was it a bastion of knowledge or a prison for one of her enemies. Time would tell and the party was within walking distance of it.
Thanks for joining me tonight for another Zine. This one had more content added to the Zine but like a few of my other ones I kept that in the Zine, not the blog. So you will just have to trust me on that and grab a copy of the Zine to check it out.
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. 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
Welcome to another Musings Saturday where tonight I am looking into the future to see what I can do in making magic items magical again. A bit of a weird statement but hear me out. With spells like Identify out there I wanted to try and make magical item identification more meaningful. Yes it’s a niche spell and there are dozens of better spells to pick out there but I still dislike it.
What further reduces the magical-ness of Magic Items is that, it shouldn’t be a surprise by now, has this little rule about “Short or long rests to study and identify the item.” Now in most situations this is… fine. It’s not great but for me its taking away the mystery and majesty of magic items.
For example:
Elenore studied the silver inlay in the blade before her. The smiths had really outdone themselves with this blade this time. Reaching out to he weave she started to fill her sanctum with the sound of her piercing voice. The notes, words and rhythm were critical in creating the magical blades of her elven commune and she was a master at it. Having studied for centuries and practices for as many hours as men can only dream to live through she was peerless in her craft.
As the notes mingled with her harness on the weave she directed the magic into the blade that began to thrum with power. A moon-blue glow began to shine across the polished surface of the blade and as her elven song reaches its crescendo she forced all the captured magic from the weave through her final notes into the blade. Willing the blade to absorb the power she watched as the sword bounced across the altar before clanging loudly on the floor as the last of her power entered it. Breathing heavily she took a few moments to rest before she, weakly, retrieved the blade and studied it.
She had managed to capture one of the few elven songs that had been with her people since the dawn of their race. This blade was a masterwork and there would never be anything like it again, in the history of the world.
Two hundred years later, Tom the Menacing sat by a fire looking at the curved blade before him. As the fire danced across the blade he understood what it was. “Ah, Elenore’s Songsword of the Autumn Twilight. Sweet!”
Now that didn’t feel too meaningful for a bladed with such a history. What I hope to experiment over the next few months is an attempt to make these moments a bit… more.
Making Magic Items Magical again
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The basics.
Each item type, Armour, Weapons, Potions, Rings, Rods, Scrolls, Staffs, Wands and Wondrous Items is classified on how hard it would be to identify such a thing. Potions are easiest (take a sip and find out!) but Rings, by my reasoning, would be hardest to identify due to the nature of them.
The below is a quick justification on this order: Potions – give a sip and you can normally tell. If not some may have labels… Maybe? Scrolls – if you can read or decipher it. More powerful scrolls will be harder to understand but lower level or common spell scroll should be a simple affair as deciphering the inscription. Weapons, generally swinging it around for a few days will tell you what it can do, but normally they have ornamental decorations as people put effort and pride into a fine blade. So they will have an inscription about flame or something to reveal its nature to the owner. Armour – A bit harder than weapons. Perhaps there will be inscriptions on the armour but you may only find out what they do once it happens (like taking less damage, ignoring frost or acid, behing harder to hit and so forth). It’s very circumstantial to find out what they do. Wondrous Items (cloaks, pouches, Trinkets etc.) Some are easy (Driftglobe, bag of holding) but some may be impossible without using the item (Quaal’s Feather Token). But it takes some tinkering to work out what they do and sometimes its a “too late” if you accidently use one once. So time and care goes into working these babies out. Rods, Staffs, Wands – you know its magical but what does it do and how do you access that magic, or what it is? Some could be straight forward but is it verbally summoned, somatic? Right circumstance? What about how do you know what spells it has or charges? Yeah – a bit harder. Rings – So this is hard. How would your character know that a ring with a squiggly line around the centre protects you from poison. It’s very unlikely that someone wrote inscriptions or a manual on the inside of the ring. Trial by error is also fraught with issues. Even if you are bitten by a viper and you are immune to its poison you may just think you lucked out “wow, that was lucky it didn’t inject venom” – Very difficult to work out most rings.
Before I bombard you with tables I will stop us there. Each category has a DC (starts mid-late teens and early 20s for the harder categories) and works its way up above 30 and into the 40s. The reasoning behind this is that the longer you use an item, or experiment or spend time around it and using it then the greater chance of success you will have on identifying that wand of fireballs.
Understanding languages, wearing/wielding/using an item, a thorough investigation using tools and dedicated knowledge, attempting to activate it, watching it being activated before you swiped it from that merchant or street performer or Big Bad guy and even Luck can come into play when trying to identify a magic item.
This isn’t to make it harder or impossible to make identifying magic items – but to make them feel more magic and open up chances for narrative descriptions of that moment that Tom the Menacing realised he was holding the last blade crafted by the master blade-singer Elenore Moonbrow.
Just something to think about…
Thanks for dropping by for a sneak peak into my madness this weekend. If you are interested in what this system looks like I will be posting it later on after I have thrown it at my party to be ‘live tested’ a few times. Don’t forget to come back next week and lastly, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Tonight we get a glimpse at some of the Raiders from Kalehgrul. These are a odd bunch of mercenaries with a twist. Its lead by a mage and a young drow priestess who may be key to the next part of this adventure. So don’t let me keep you here and sit down grab a coffee and roll into tonight’s adventure!
Raiders from Kalehgrul
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The drow mercenaries will act more like skirmishers than real fighters. Darting quickly around the battlefield and launching a volley from their hand crossbows. Very rarely will one engage in melee combat with their short sword when there is an opportunity to stay at a safe distance.
The heavier hitters of the force will be the Duergar. Deep dwarves are resilient, strong and have the nasty habit of increasing their size which makes them a long stronger than they are when shorter! These warriors are not afraid to get into melee but also not dumb enough to realise they aren’t getting paid enough to die.
Lastly the Drow priestess that leads the fight, with a mage close behind her is here to ensure that (her families – spoiler!) orders get executed. However she wasn’t planning on the adventurers being there!
So that’s it for tonight and the week! Don’t forget to come back this weekend for more D&D content and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Now the Melarn cavern is where we find our map today. I couldn’t bring myself to make another map of a building (although the ruins were fun) so I tried to create something that would capture the intent behind this encounter. Two ways in, one way out. Before I get too excited about this weeks adventure let’s stop there, grab a coffee and roll into tonight’s map!
The Melarn homestead, the smaller of their many houses, is further away from the busy cities where the family makes their claim to fame. To the south is the large cavern where the spiders are kept and their silk is harvested.
The road to the north takes them to Kalehgrul and is the direction the attackers have come from. They may be able to sneak around or fight their way through. Or, simply, defeat the attackers then move on from there.
Stalagmites grow in this cavern and they provide places to hide and get cover. But they do this for the attackers as well.
A bit of a shorter one tonight for a map. Don’t forget to come back this weekend for more content and to see where the rest of this adventure takes us. And lastly, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Tonight’s twist finds the party back safe…enough at the Melarn residence but quickly they find themselves at the mercy of raiders in the dark. The decision for the party is, do they sit by and watch the slightly-putout Drow become victims to these raiders or do they help the people that found them in the underdark? To find out let’s sit back, grab a coffee and roll into tonight’s adventure!
Raiders in the Dark
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The Melarn family had, reluctantly from the daughters, agreed to take them back to their house. They waited in the cavern as they watched the Drow wander around the spider’s nest, the youngest daughter, Umnel, moved around the giant arachnids and they moved around her like surface herds.
The father, Izzrysn, moved around and collected the spider webs using a large pole that easily whisked the silken threads from the mushrooms and rocks into bundles. Then he placed them in neat piles on the back of the wagon that was held steady by the calm Rothe which was chewing food from a large sack. After the silken bundles were piled up the eldest daughter, and most unfriendly, Qistra, inspected the silken bundles and took notes in a little book.
Eventually the wagon became full and the party jumped on the back of it as it moved through the passages away from the mushroom forest and the cavern of spiders.
A while later they arrived at a large house that was covered in enchanted torches and braziers that shed light around the cavern. Many Drow and some Duergar worked in the lands around the house. Building, shepherding or moving bundles from a large warehouse near the central house. Izzrysn explained that they were family members, cousins, and it was their duty to the Melarn family to serve his.
Food was served and over an adequate meal of some kind of meat, fungi and something entirely different the party were briefed in where they were. The Melarn family house was near the city of Kalehgrul where they were one of the three largest merchant families. They explained where and how to get the Kalehgrul as well as some warnings of who to watch out for (mainly of the other two major families). The Melarn family, the mother absent from the family house for the time being, was also curious about how the party came to be in the dark and they were interested in the surface world.
A short while after dinner shouting could be heard from outside. Umnel ran to the window before uttering something foul sounding in Drow as she ran out of the room.
“Raiders, I fear that you have come at a bad time. We had heard that one of the other families may be plotting something but to send mercenaries to attack us directly is not something we expected. You four flee and try and make it to Kalehgrul. We can deal with these but they will likely attempt to take you as slaves to be sold in the larger cities such as Duraegis.” Izzrysn said as both Umnel and Qistra came back with large bows, wicked arrows strapped to their thigh and a curved blade on their hip.
“Wait for an opening and run.” Qistra said as she drew an arrow and stepped to the window to let her quarry fly.
So tonight is a bit of a mixed bag of activities. Thanks for joining me tonight but don’t forget to come back for the last few nights of this weeks adventure. And lastly, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
This week we meet the merchants of Kalehgrul, a little settlement village who specialise in spider silk. More merchant than farmer the Melarn family have provided fine spider silk for generations to the point that they have quite the bond with the arachnids. But more on that in a little bit. So let’s sit down, grab a coffee and roll into tonight’s update!
The Merchants of Kalehgrul
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As the party got used to their surroundings they found some materials and soon those that couldn’t see in the dark could view their surroundings. Dozens of giant spiders moved across the cavern they were in and created vast net-like webs that were big enough to catch the giant bats the flew through the skies. Above them mushrooms and long plant-like tendrils shed a soft glow that confirmed they were far from a source of light.
The spiders moved calmly even when the party drew near and merle scurried out of the way instead of viewing the party as a snack. Content to feast upon the bats that they caught in their webs. As they moved around a squeak could be heard in short rhythmic patterns coming from a passage up ahead. As they approached the passage they were greeted by a Rothe, a large bull like creature, that was pulling a wagon with three drow onboard.
After a few moments of speaking quickly in drow and brandishing crossbows the male urged his two female companions to lower and he spoke in common. “Easy, we don’t want no trouble. I am Izzrysn and these are my daughters and we are merchants. I must ask though, what are you doing in this cavern?”
The drow named Izzrysn runs the merchant business for his family. Well versed in many languages he sees business opportunities instead of threats when something changes in his sphere. However despite his obvious business knowledge and intelligence he often finds himself being overruled by the female of his family – like most drow males.
Umnel is the younger sister of Qistra and tends to the spiders of the Melarn family. Whilst not blessed to be chosen by Lloth she is still able to understand and handle these creatures with ease. This helps the family collect their silk for their business but has one a few occasions protected the family when her abilities can come into use.
When business is poor Qistra, the oldest daughter of the head of the Melarn family, gets involved. She is rash and impulsive but will still listen to her mother, sister and father. She oversees production of the spider silk and inspects it for quality. Whilst her father has a business understanding and her sister can tend to the cluster of spiders she has a fine eye for quality when it comes to silk.
Whilst the party try and understand why they are here and what brought them to the underdark having some, somewhat understanding, people to help them make sense of what happened will help make plans to remedy the situation. However despite this they are still an unknown distance from home, without many supplies and in an unfamiliar land. So don’t forget to come back each day this week as we continue to expand upon this adventure and lastly, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
This week kicks off immediately from the outcome of the last adventure in the Carrion Swamp and the party find themselves falling into darkness. I’ll save some of the mystery behind what happens but it makes a few big assumptions that I will cover tonight. It’s best if just we get stuck into it, so sit back grab a coffee and let’s roll into this weeks adventure!
In the final moments of the well of souls collapsing the tides of undead grey in intensity. Urged towards the well the shambling and crawling hordes faulted as an earthquake rumbled through the ground. A sickening cracking sound resonated through the air followed the rumble as the core of power for the well of souls shattered. Almost immediately the undead approaching the party fell to the ground as the necromantic energy that was commanding their broken forms fled their body. A moment of quiet broached the swamp before the tumbling of a piece of rubble hinted at a worse fate than being buried under undead.
Pieces of ruins, undead, water, earth and vegetation started moving across the ground and through the air towards the well of souls. A low howl began to rise in the ruins as a vortex of magical backlash ripped outwards and started to pull at the party. Then the unimaginable happened, one of the party members slipped and stumbled as a piece of ruins slammed into them and they fell backwards and into the shattered well of souls. As the power grew the other party members faced similar fates as the well devoured the bodies of the undead and began to pull down the ruins onto the vortex to seal it from the outside.
Falling was the first feeling for the adventurers before they landed heavily in a strand of sticky substance that immediately slowed and nearly stopped their descent. For those who didn’t pass out they were in near complete darkness except for a few sources of glowing light that moved around high above them. After a few moments they realised that they had crashed through a large spider’s web and landed on hard stone. Their eyes adjusted and a large cavern was revealed before them with spiders spinning webs amongst giant mushrooms and stalagmites that filled the cavern.
Waiting for the rest of their adventuring party to wake up they started to come to grips with what had happened. what had caused the magical vortex and, when was the last time they had seen Vikira. They were sure she had been with them next to the well of souls during the fight with the vampire and undead. As the rest of the party stirred, a single place came to mind that would fit the description of what they were seeing. They had found their way into the Underdark.
Thoughts
Now the assumptions that are made is that the party don’t flee from the fight with the vampire or undead and that they either fail to stop all the undead OR they destroy the Well of Souls themselves. The second is that one or more of the party fail saving throws to avoid falling AND being knocked into the vortex by flying rubble. And the last assumption is. If a party member does fall through that the others will try and save them before the ruins bury the well of souls.
If the party don’t the story takes a different turn. They either attempt to get to the final place, the deep dark, which is really another travel arc across the land to the entrance to the underdark closes to the deep dark. OR they get approached by a messenger of Lucile who is trying to find them with some urgent news. That she was able to decipher more of Andrasa’s notes and she was warning a that these points were dangerous seals that cant be broken…
But more on that a different time.
Thanks for joining me for another week of adventuring and the forty first adventure this year! Don’t forget to come back each day this week for more content and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Tonight and I have created a zine for this weeks adventure. The Hidden Shrine. 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 in this adventure.
So I hope you enjoy this weeks adventure, The Hidden Shrine. If you like this format please let me know and I hope you enjoy.
Rumours have flitted around the city of Hark for many years of magic, sorcery and wealth hoarded by some of the noble families of the city. Some had been investigated but nothing had ever come from such rumours.
Some investigators quickly rose through the ranks and were granted manors and a life of privilege of which they hadn’t been entitled to before as a result of their investigation. This only spurred the rumours on more.
However, the city of Hark is a mercantile city where religion, wealth and politics blend into a miasma of discord and discontent. The Party find themselves in a busy chaotic city where your station seems to be judged by the size of your purse.
Thanks for joining me tonight for another Zine. This one had more content added to the Zine but… not so much that I could reveal in the blog update. So you will just have to trust me on that and grab a copy of the Zine. 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. 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
Now leading into the weekend, in which I have another Age of Sigmar Tournament to go to, I have something that we can raise for this weeks encounter, a guardian of the well as it were. With a vested interest in keeping the well working, well malfunctioning in its current stage this guardian is also keeping the true purpose of the well barely holding on. But the darker forces at play work against the guardian and perhaps, so do the party… But enough on that, let’s sit down grab a coffee and roll into tonight’s adventure!
Guardian of the Well
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The Guardian of the well is a vampire who wishes to have an army to keep the swamps clean from the living, well most of the living. this one will be swampy themed, dressed in sodden mossy clothes, looks as if it drowned once or twice just to come back to life. Using the canopy and dense trees of the swamp the creature flitters between trees and ruins to strike at the party. since the water is stagnant it gets to use its full powers as well and use them it shall.
However, it simply wants to keep the well of souls as it is, churning out undead and malfunctioning. But we will see more of that in the Zine.
In addition to the normal minions of the Dark Prince giant frogs (zombie or otherwise, zombie in this case) would be also a good fit for the vampire to summon. These creatures would listen to the vampire in the same ay as the other minions summoned by children of the knight ability (same number as wolves).
In addition to the above two stat blocks all the other zombies from last weeks encounter (A variety of undead) would also be fitting. Such as, once again, the humble zombie.
As with the last few adventures there is a bit more to add to the final product of this. So you will have to hang out for the final Zines for this adventure. So don’t forget to come back this weekend for more D&D content and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
The time has come to visit the heart of the ruins. How the party interact with the map is up to them but this little map has a bit of everything. Boggy water, plants and vines that could snare your feet as you travel through. Rocky terrain and oh, I don’t know… I giant glowing orb of power? So let’s roll up our pants legs and dive in to tonight’s map!
The areas around the building provide a good vantage point and a good place to hide from the undead that will be swarming around the well of souls (the big glowy thing). However the ground is unstable with rotting vegetation, vines, leaves and debris from the ruins themselves so whoever treads across them best be packing an ankle brace.
The trees are twisted with large thick roots that piece into the soil. small creatures can hide within them (undead or alive) and they are easy enough to climb as well. The bushes along the way are thorny but don’t impede movement as such – but if unlucky they may nick a coin purse or bag.
The area in the centre dips inwards towards the well. The level where the well is is five feet lower than where the edge up the top is. This makes it harder to see down into the pit and the well itself, but that doesn’t seem to stop anything.
The orb, the power source in the well, emits a force field that disintegrates what touches it – however it fails. The more undead (or attacks from magical items, spells or effects) that hit the shield the more the power wanes. But it’s impossible to tell whether the shield was to keep things away from the core OR to keep the magic from the core contained. Regardless it looks like it’s been here for centuries and the magic is both waning and flaring.
I enjoyed this swampy map tonight. I think the multiple layers of dirt, stone, grass and water help give it a swampy feel. The rubble was fun to work with but, not super convincing – I will have to look at how to improve that in the future. But that’s enough out of me on that tonight. So don’t forget to come back this weekend for more content and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Brazen Wolfe Tabletop 