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Aster Sepharin

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The twentieth day of Dice-ember finally brings Aster Sepharin to us. So let’s look at our antagonist for this years Dice-ember and the imagery that inspires her. She is a young yet powerful mage who is driven to master her art not just for herself, but for a village that would rather she didn’t. But people do crazy things for the things and people that they believe they love.

Aster Sepharin

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Aster Sepharin: Created in nightcafe.studio

Aster is young by magic user standards but she is dedicated and driven to her craft. Not necessarily evil or bad but her creations or, to be more exact, her inexperience with them leads to disaster. She is after all a passionate yet frustrated young lady that others don’t share her vision or drive. Yet despite her drive, talent and passion she still has room left in her life for generosity and despite the means to getting there her creation of constructs was meant to be the way forward into the new era for the townsfolk of Snowtown.

Aster Sepharin: created in artbreeder

And that’s it for tonight. As we inch closer to the end of the year I wanted to say thanks for those who have joined me for this journey. Don’t forget to keep the spark of creativity alive this festive season and don’t forget to come back for the last few days of Dice-ember as we wrap up this adventure. And, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Quarry’s frozen Caverns

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The nineteenth day of Dice-ember brings us to the heart of the adventure, the Quarry’s frozen caverns which houses the lair of the enchantress. As the party descend the frozen steps deeper into the stone quarry the what will the darkness below reveal.

The Quarry’s frozen Caverns

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As the Guardians finally fell, their coal cores ceasing to burn with unnatural light the quarry fell silent except for the constant flow of frozen water into the lower levels. The path ahead through the quarry under the waterfall curtain appeared to be well worn despite being recently constructed. As they approached the stairs downwards the cacophony of the frigid water was enough to dim the keenest of senses. The sound of water hitting the pool from worn out stone and ice drowned out all other noise and sent sprays of cold water across the visitors.

Frozen blocks of ice led down in a large arcing staircase that doubled back on the cave entrance and lead under the waterfall. Frozen stalactites framed the ceiling like hundreds of razor sharp teeth from some giant beast. The feeling of dread and cold grew with every step down into the darkened depths. However as they stepped officially under the waterfall far below them was a flickering bright light that promised warmth and a reprieve of the darkness.

Somewhere deep below the arcane thrum was felt by those attuned to the mystical arts. A ritual was being undertaken down below. For this level of power to be felt at this distance it would be a strong one and it drew the party deeper into the quarry’s depths.

Watchers in the dark

As the party crossed under the stalactites the occasional drip of water or tap of a pebble or bit of ice falling from above interrupted their thoughts and conversation. But as they descended the wide stairs something watched them from above. Moving on tiny claws to adjust its position it lay in wait above the humans as they walked towards its hiding place.

As the party move towards the final stretch of this adventure its time to throw in the customary ambush encounter. Icicle looking creatures that drop from the roof to impale the party. But that’s not all this week brings as our young antagonist finishes up her ritual and the party are left to deal with the consequences. With a big week ahead you can’t forget to come back each day this week to see whats next instore for our party. Oh and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Preparation for greatness

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Tonight as we continue on this adventure I find myself at a crossroads. Wanting to explore more of the mad-mage Albazhar as well as looking into the enchantress who is in preparation for greatness. What I want to follow up with tonight is the trigger point of what takes the enchantress from helping the village to enslaving it. So sit back, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

Preparation for greatness

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Mark Kenderson had approached me today to apologise for how he had treated me the other week. He was Charming and polite and everything that drew me to him in the first place. After buying me a few pints and a meal he asked if he could come visit me tonight. I am so excited. He is the son of the leader of the town and if I can convince him that my creations are a boon for the village then the village will follow suit.

It’s only a few hours until dark, when he agreed he would come, so I better perfect my snowman and have it ready to be presentable. Today is the turning point, mark my words Snowtown will be on the map and we wont have to worry about unreliable mercenaries or labourers ever again!

Later

I was so foolish… Mark did show up but so did his buddies. They had no interest in my creations but had came with violence in their eyes. Mark tried to stop them from kicking in my door and for the first time in my life I regretted the distance my house was from the rest of the town. As the door crashed down the thugs pushed Mark down and stormed through. He pleaded for them to stop. He said he only wanted the creations smashed but didn’t want any harm to come to me. His companions thought otherwise.

The Snowman was so fast. It must have realised that they had ill content and the orders to protect the village took over. It was horrific. It was terrible. It was a work of perfection. The Snowman rolled over them, impaling them with its hardened wooden talons and ripped them apart. After the violence was over there was only three corpses on the ground. Mark was horrified and went to attack the Snowman. I tried to stop the snowman but it happened so fast and I was so slow.

Mark was killed. But I think I can save him. This book talks of more advanced rituals to bind flesh to constructs. I think I can use what the book teaches on flesh golems to save Mark. But I will need space and time. I think the Snowman and the others of its kind can help. I just hope that I am not too late as I move the rest of my worktable to the quarry where I have some guardians waiting on their cores.

Thanks for joining me tonight as we look at the trigger point for Aster, our young enchantress, moving out of the village in the days leading up to the party’s arrival. This sets the scene for the time to come and gives a bit of an insight into the final encounter with the enchantress and her frosty constructs in Snowtown. Don’t forget to come back next week and, as always don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Sudden Visitor

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Tonight we find ourselves approaching the last week of Dice-ember. Tonight we look towards our young enchantress trying to deal with sudden visitor and what it may mean for her.

Sudden Visitor

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As she walked around her little house in Snowtown the enchantress studied the notebook she had begun to learn advanced enchanting with. There was something she was missing. The constructs she had made were volatile and were prone to falling apart and the magic unravelling as quickly as she had weaved it. The twigs for a skeleton and compressed snow made for strong and durable bodies however the advanced magic she was trying to wield was causing the issue.

A cup on the table wobbled and fell over which caused her to jump. Startled she placed a hand on a small knife she held under her robes, normally used for enchanting, and looked around the small room that was her kitchen and workshop. The front door was slightly ajar which she was sure she had closed before. The cold frigid wind blustered in which threatened to extinguish her candles so, not seeing anything immediately she closed the door, barred it and went to go re-ignite some candles that had spluttered out.

‘Before you freak out can you put down the knife please?’ a small voice asked from near her table. She whirled around and drew her knife looking for the source of the voice. ‘I have a message – I have a message!’ the voice shrieked, a high nasally voice that made her immediately think it was a Goblin.

Looking over the table she spied a goblin that was dressed in a humble blue robe, with no weapons. ‘What do you want Goblin and spit it out’ she hissed at the goblin. She began to mutter a spell under her breath to increase her defences.

‘My master hopes you like his book but wants to ask what you are using as a core?’ the Goblin asked nervously as it moved towards the wall.

‘The core?’ the enchantress asked perplexed. A moment later and it occurred to her. More advanced constructs have a core that stores residual or reserve magical energy. This helps to stabilise the construct and make it more reliable. Ignoring the goblin she rummaged through her workbench before finding a lump of coal. Something that she hadn’t needed that day to start her fire but something that could retain magical energy.

This is the thing. As long as she buried it deep enough in the construct the snow and wood should be able to keep it safe and it should stabilise her creations.

The goblin smiled and quietly slipped out a window before being abruptly summoned back to its masters dimension.

Another night of Dice-ember down and another part of the overall story coming together. Just one more week left and by this time next weekend the adventure will be over!. So don’t forget to come back each day this coming week, and tomorrow, to stay up to date on the adventure. And, as always don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Snowcraft Guardian

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The sixteenth day of dice-ember sees the Snowcraft Guardian come to life and ambush our party in the quarry. This creature, err, construct is something that the young enchantress created as a way of defending her lair from those who would wish her harm. But the are by far not her strongest creation.

Snowcraft Guardian

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The snowcraft guardian is compressed snow that looks vaguely humanoid in shape, if you squint a fair bit. Large biceps and forearms have been formed and shards of ice form claws or club-like slabs where the hands would be. These creatures are an ambush predator and will move only once their pray have passed them. Attacking from behind to knock unconscious or rend in two with their eviscerating claws.

Created in tetra-cube

Encounter

Two or three per member should be more than enough as its meant to be a low level adventure. But balancing them according to party size would be fine. Having these and a few animated snowmen or animated snowballs could lower the overall difficulty but keep the encounter at a multi-combatant encounter.

I’d position these near the cliffs, the cart and where the water falls into the mining pit in the centre of the quarry. Moving swiftly as a group to the nearest party member, noiselessly as possible, then attacking without warning. These are not exactly strong enough to down a party member outright (except for maybe a mage) but they are durable and will put up a fight.

That’s about all for tonight!. These creatures are guardians of the cave and won’t let anyone other than their creator into it. But they aren’t smart or very aware of their own mortality so they wont flee to save themselves or avoid fighting near cliffs and such which could cause perilous to them. But don’t forget to come back this weekend for more content where we explore more journal entries and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Snowtown Quarry

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The fifteenth day of Dice-ember I bring to you the Snowtown Quarry map. This is where we look to encounter some particularly nasty constructs and investigate further into where the constructs may be coming from. This map has a lot of layering work and the river was a bit of a harder one to do so it took quite a bit of time tonight. So I hope you enjoy and can find use of this snowy quarry map in your own games or this adventure!

Snowtown Quarry

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The rocky walls are extremely steep and over twenty feet tall. The ledge above the quarry itself is covered in trees that appear to be trying to take back the scarred land. In the middle of the quarry a large sinkhole or perhaps open mine has been left to be filled with the river that has cut its way through the land and into the quarry itself.

Bits of debris and the remnants of a ruined mine track and cart can be found in the quarry but the dark cave entrance lays next to the waterfall where a constant flow of frigid water flows down. The water itself is covered by a thin layer of ice and is reasonable deep above the quarry but shallow on the open rocky field.

Created in Inkarnate

Tonight I had another play around with Inkarnate. It was good to get back into more focused map making and spending more time and effort in trying to blend the chaotic elements of natural landscape together. Maps like these are quite versatile and this one can be used not only for D&D but also Soulbound, Openlengends RPG as well as other game systems, fantasy or otherwise. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the statblock of the creatures eluded to over the past weekAnd, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Snow covered stones

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The fourteenth day of Dice-ember brings our party to overlook the scene of the snow covered stones of the quarry. The noon sun makes exploring around the stark white snow and the contrasting dark stone to be a dangerous one. The party will have to think quickly if they want to avoid becoming the latest casualties of the large shapes that move around the snow covered stones.

Snow covered stones

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A few hours walk from Snowtown, high in the Gritch mountains the quarry stood nearly motionless and abandoned. Talking to the Goliath chief of the tribe that called Snowtown neighbours some calamity had occurred where miners were lost and unable to be dug out many years ago. Since then the quarry lay destitute, abandoned and quiet as it fell into disrepair.

However, the quarry was a different view now as somewhere higher in the mountains snow had begun to melt and a stream had formed a waterfall into the quarry. The thin frozen surface of the stream concealed the moving water underneath. As the cold water crashed on the rocks below into the quarry small icicle particles rained down on the party. The edges of the quarry seemed to be relatively solid and dry as the water disappeared into a mineshaft that was near the centre of the field. Moving around the quarry the party were blissfully unaware of the sentient structures that watched from under the mounds of snow. Large hulking limbs slowly came to life as the adventures moved close to them.

Slowly hulking masses of stone studded snow lumbered forward towards the party as they noticed a large cavern behind the frigid stream. Only when falling snow thudded on the ground behind them did they realise too late that they were in grave danger and the constructs of the quarry were upon them.

A smaller on tonight as I want to save some reveals for the rest of the week. There is one more week after this one left of Dice-ember content so don’t forget to come back each day this week ad we near the finish line. On another note I will be going back to a more one shot structure next year. Having a year long adventure is fun but I want to get back into smaller bite sized content chunks. So don’t forget to look out for that, and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The view from above Snowtown

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The thirteenth day of Dice-ember brings more images to invoke the wonders of winter in the wilderness. The view from above Snowtown is stunning. Endless fields of white, smoke from chimneys above and the scattering of townsfolk moving about their lives. For the Party however it brings more questions than answers and the day ahead of them is one full of adventure.

The view from above Snowtown

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The view from above Snowtown: Created in nightcafe.studio

The town of Snowtown situated amongst snow covered rocky outcrops gives it the appearance of a much larger village. However there isn’t many dwellings in the town and the blankets of snow flank most of the useable land nearby. The mountains around the town are host to bountiful trees and wildlife if there are people experienced enough to know where to look.

Trek of the goliaths : Created in nightcafe.studio

Through the rocky valleys and trees the Goliath come from a nearby village to Snowtown. Sturdy and tribal these are hardy people of the land who seek balance and peace with their neighbours.

The People

Goliath Elder: created in Artbreeder
Goliath Warrior: Created in Artbreeder

A shorter one this week as images normally take some time to wrok out. A mix of Artbreeder and nightcafe.studio tonight as I try to find the mix between what can be created and used from AI (nightcafe) and what I need to tweak myself to get the things just right (artbreeder). Utilising both to get what I want and how I envision it may be the right way forward as the landscapes from Nightcafe are just great. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow night for more twists as the party look into the Quarry and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Investigating the Avalanche

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The twelfth day of Dice-ember sees the party moving to start investigating the avalanche and running into some unexpected help! We are half way through, yeah I know… It’s going way to fast… the dice-ember season and the end is only thirteen days away! So sit back, sip a hot coffee and let’s roll on with it.

Investigating the Avalanche

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As the party finished dealing with the sentient construct-snowballs they saw more movement up in the hills above them as the snow continued to settle after the avalanche. After some coercion from the townsfolk the party started to trek towards the rocky outcrop where the avalanche began.

As they moved through the snow their new snow-boots enabled them to walk on top of the loose snow rather than through it. However it did make them slower and the trek took quite some time. As they reached the ridge they looked down at the sleepy town below them. Snowtown in the mid-morning light looked quiet and peaceful. Hard to believe that every night it was overrun by constructs made from snow. Sitting down on a relatively dry and stable rocky outcrop they brought out the breakfast that they were given by the villagers and started to eat the somewhat warm sandwiches.

“Hail strangers.” a deep baritone voice came from nearby as several goliaths in red and white coats strode towards them from over the ridge above them. “Strange happenings going on around here. Did you see an Avalanche recently?” one of the goliaths asked as she hefted a great axe above her shoulder.

A Proposition

Not seeming to care about the party’s presence they moved to stand next to them and with a large meaty hand the tallest waved down towards the village a few hundred feet below them. “After what’s been happening with our village we thought we should check in with the people of Snowtown. They don’t have the warriors like we do and we were concerned that the creatures may have taken them.” The oldest of the Goliaths said after a moment of joyful shouts from the villagers below. “We have seen strange shapes moving around the old quarry. Not that there is much more use for it now as the great damn broke but we cant afford to send our warriors that way as the few that have stayed back to defend the village need to stay back with the elderly and young.”

“If you’ve begun helping the people of Snowtown would you be able to help us and look into the old Quarry? It may be the answer to both our questions. We would go if we could spare the warriors and you lot seem more than capable.” The elder asked as he looked towards them with kind eyes.

Looking down towards the town, the dark forest just to the north of it and the knowledge of the shapes milling about the darkened trunks. The party saw no other better offer so decided the quarry could be a good next point of investigation whilst they still had daylight.

A quarry. These types of adventures for a week always excite me. In fact a few of my favourite adventures take place in mines or caves so I have high hopes for this adventure. So don’t forget to come back the rest of this week and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Experiment

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Welcome to the eleventh day of dice-ember where tonight we look at Albazhar’s notes on the experiment. What is the experiment I hear you ask? Well for those with unlimited time, power and wealth like the mad mage Albazhar you can find yourselves in situations where you need help. In this instance Albazhar deems his other work too important to dedicate time to investigate perfecting constructs. So he leaves does what any mage would do. He gets someone else to test it for him.

The Experiment

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“After leaving the notebook I have noticed sudden changes in the constructs that the young enchantress is producing. The initial constructs that were created were rudimentary and very basic. The new ones after she had some help are more advanced, more durable and stronger.” Albazhar looked over at the goblin ‘helper’ who was hastily jotting down his dictation with an orange quill. “The observations on the snowman concluded that there is some work to be done, but, they don’t appear to be as hostile or aggressive as they could be. I assume that the Enchantress has deliberately constructed them this way but for what purpose. Power serves to elevate the craft of one mage above others so that others in turn try to elevate themselves. It is the way of the world to progress in this sway and it betters the craft.” he paused with thought as he looked at the other two specimens in his observation dimension.

“The next constructs that the young enchantress has produced are of different ilk. The small, weak ball like ones seem to weak for combat however they are able to reform their constructed substance to better suit the purpose at hand. Able to turn body mass into limbs for binding and grabbing. These could be good as scouts or as guards due to their inconspicuous nature.”

Nearing perfection

Albazhar then moved onto the next construct. “The one on the other hand is a very different specimen. This is built for combat. It’s large limbs, solid ice natural weapons and aggression are akin to many of my own. It find it fascinating the rate this young enchantress hones her craft and improves as she goes. She has absorbed the knowledge that I have produces in front of her at such a rapid rate that I doubt it will be long until she has produced more advanced constructs.”

With a wave of his hand he closed the viewing portal to the pocket dimension which held the snow constructs. He had more research of his own to do and the experiment with this enchantress was going well He was even considering extending an invitation to her to be an apprentice. Or at least someone he can study to see if she could be of use to him.

Thanks for joining me tonight to look a bit further into the notes and observations of Albazhar. This coming week will be another big one for us so don’t forget to come back each day this week. And, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe