Welcome to another fight-night Friday and tonight we look at the actors who are part of the Carnival of the Damned. There is really only two stat blocks for this weeks encounter which gives us some versatility. But what shines about here is we have an enemy magic user with some pretty nasty tricks behind him. Arbiter Zed is a mean user of the magical arts and as such should be something new for the party. So sit back, grab a coffee and let’s roll into tonight’s adventure.
Carnival of the Damned
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Arbiter Zed
Arbiter Zeds carnival of the damned is just that. The people that have been enslaved to work as part of his travelling nightmare fuel for all eternity. That is until someone can kill Arbiter Zed. While not extremely durable, one good smite away from biting it he will hide behind props, in a wagon and use his performers as potential shields. He isn’t above losing one or two cast members to save himself.
Targeting as many people as possible with sleep those who survive the attack will need to deal with his other spells. Heat metal is brutal for any melee warrior. Command, Dissonant whispers and even phantasmal force are also not to be trifled with. However Minor illusion could be used to make it look like a zombie is him standing still, making a pseudo effective duplicate, if only for a turn.
These performers will run forward, cartwheeling, laughing and juggling clubs (or limbs) in a morbid display of acrobatics. This should give them a creepy vibe when really they are just engaging into melee. Just because the creature is dead doesn’t crush their dreams of performing now does it?
A general meat shield for Arbiter these creatures are there to distract and provide bodies for the mage to use.
Thanks for joining me tonight as we get a advanced screening of the carnivals act. This weekend we will investigate them more and maybe look at something else. But the weekend is still young and there are many possibilities. Don’t forget to let me know how you find running these adventures if you weave them into your tabletop routine and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Welcome to Friday night where tonight we look at some sorcery and scum. Sarline and Seth have been dancing this deadly game of theirs for a while now, and as the party get involved the table will turn for one of them. Tonight we look at what that looks like but flexibility is key for the DM running this adventure. So sit back, grab a coffee and let’s roll into tonight’s adventure.
Sorcery and Scum
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Sarline
First off tonight we are looking at the main spectacle – The identification of the Feline Filcher through either attending a party as guards, if they set a trap for her or something else that we believe will work. The rule here is what ever the party want to do it needs to be within jogging distance of a street, be open (not an obvious trap) and be cool.
Sarline is a low level sorcerer with the ability to cast some minor illusions and a once-off ability to turn into a cat for an hour when things go really pear shaped. She will primarily move as fast as she can to get out of line of sight and then cast minor illusion to make a door way look like a solid wall, block off a narrow alleyway or the like. She doesn’t have offensive magic and at worst can cast Charm person once per day.
With the plan she can either get the item or not, but the moment she detects the party she will run off and attempt to hide. The party is meant to find her though, so it cant be too difficult. When the party find her she reveals the reason of her thievery is Seth and his kidnapping of children.
Now the simple answer here is that the party don’t believe Sarline and take her into the guards. But, we can’t have that. As soon as Sarline is coerced into revealing Seth’s behind it he appears from behind the party (nearby) “Well, well, well. We can’t have these vicious rumours getting our now can we boys? Best ensure that these sticky-beaks are quietened” he says menacingly.
Seth will be joined by a number of thugs to make it a fun and challenging fight. If Seth by himself is enough for the party (level 1 party) then he has one accomplice
(Bandit) and the others engage Sarline.
Sarline attempts to flee and hide from the fight, if she does escape she runs to free the kids before returning.
Seth is a powerful adversary so the party best be prepared.
Thanks for joining me tonight as we get a closer look at Seth and Sarline. Don’t forget to come back this weekend for additional content as I have a few things planned. Don’t forget to let me know how you find running these adventures if you weave them into your tabletop routine and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Tonight we look at how the party become the Vulcha’s prey this week as they assault the artillery-sized crossbows. This one is a tactical encounter with the method to success completely up to Binding and how they want to approach it.
The Vulcha’s Prey
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The idea here is simple. Stalk up to the killbows, or don’t, Kill the warriors manning them and their helpers then battle the shaman as it lands. How the party do this is completely up to them.
Encounter – The Orruks
For this encounter we will have two Beast-Skewer Killbow wielding Boltboys, two each (four total) hobgrot helpers per bow and as a second encounter a few moments after the 1st, one Corpse-rippa Vulcha and one Swampcalla Shaman.
Poison Stinger: Melee (Great), 7d6, 1+S Damage. Piercing. If a creature suffers damage from this attack they must make a DN4:2 Body (fortitude) Test or be poisoned until the ned of their next turn.
Skarefog Horrors: DN5:3; 1 Creature within Long range. The Target becomes Frightened until start of Shamans next turn. Additional Success increase duration by 1 round OR 1 additional Creature.
Summon Boggy Mists: DN 5:3; Choose a Zone within Long range. The Zone becomes difficult terrain and heavily obscured for the Shaman’s Enemies until the start of its next turn. Each additional success +1 round.
Thanks for joining me tonight to look at the Vulcha’s prey. This weekend I will try and produce another Zine of either combine two episodes of Soulbound campaign or the one that I missed a few weeks back. I have some re-work to do on the one I have on the back burner to get it to the quality I want to publish so I may need to put a bit of effort into that one. Make sure you set aside some time for your Tabletop adventures this week and come back soon, The Brazen Wolfe
Friday night is and the bellows of rage and excitement echo through the halls from the Grut’s Warriors as they prepare for battle. Excited for another raid on the avian-folk, the Aarakocra they are not prepared for the ambush that comes their way, or maybe they are. So sit back, grab a coffee and enjoy tonight’s addition to the adventure of this week!
Grut’s Warriors
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Now the backbone of Grut’s Warriors are the bugbear. Hulking medium sized humanoids they are ferocious and don’t underhanded tactics despite their strength. A volley of javelins will whistle through the air before the sickening thud of them plunging into allies marks the charge of the bugbear. Despite being larger cousins of the Goblin and Orc this particular breed of Bugbear share some resemblance of giants.
No matter what Grut’s warriors say he is paranoid. Being mislead and tricked by his own kind he has vowed to let no-one trick him again. this has lead his mind to become fractured with an ultra paranoid inner voice driving his decisions and siding against good, solid Giant logic. Perhaps this was the Hags doing, perhaps not.
A big meaty foot and a large club greet any who encounter Grut. Ferocious and fearless in battle he isn’t afraid the lead the charge and his bolstered armour and constitution provided by the mutated hide he carries is a badge of honour more than a curse to him now.
The encounter will be tough. 1-2 orcs per player OR 1 bugbear for the initial raiding of the camp. A mix of Orc and bugbear is probably ideal. When there is only one or two remaining they will call for aid from their king who will stomp forward. Balanced at a level 4 party this adventure is increasing the tempo once more – so I am calling some of the bigger shots with ferocious minions wearing the party down, and their resources, and even worse, the leader Grut himself.
Thanks for joining me tonight as we get a glimpse of Grut and Grut’s warriors. As we progress through the year its hard to process we are seven weeks into the year already. Time flies when you’re rolling dice it seems.
Tomorrow I hope to provide something more akin to a discussion topic based on the most common question I encounter in the DMs forum I am attending. So don’t forget to come back for that and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
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!
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.
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
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.
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
Tonight we look at the risks with research as the creatures that hunt, and haunt these lands make an appearance in tonight’s encounter. First off we have the Orruk warclans who have made an appearance but we also have something a bit more spooky. So sit back, grab a coffee and let’s roll on with tonight’s encounter.
The Risks with Research
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The encounter this week can be run in two parts. If the party decide to leave during the day they may be shot down (check involved to control the vehicle) or if they wait until the night then they are attacked by the Orruks on dusk. Regardless if they are still in the camp or in the hills at night the nighthaunt will come and attack them..
Encounter – The Orruks
With the content from Monday night and if any of you play Age of Sigmar it may be obvious that we have the Kruleboz in this weeks adventure. With our party being effectively 4 people strong and most able to down a single target, or two, a round let’s look at the below.
Two minions per person, One warrior per person, and an optional one champion or chosen per party.
For this encounter we will have eight Hobgrot Slitta’s, three Gnashtooths and one Man-skewer Boltboy.
Swarm: 3+ Hobgrots in the same zone form a swarm, +1d6 to attacks and +1 Toughness per Hobgrot
Stab ‘Em Good: +2 attacks with their Slitta’s when they charge.
Attack
Slitta: Melee (Poor), 2d6, 1+S Damage, Slashing
Bangstikks: Ranged (Average), Blast (2), Medium Range, Loud. If damaged a creature makes DN6:1 Body (Fortitude) Test or become poisoned until end of next turn. Next blast weapon in same zone deals +2 damage and ignites gas, Zone becomes minor hazard for 1 minute.
Pouncing Predator: On a charge action it adds +1d6 additional (a bonus 2d6 in total) to pool for attack. If deals damage target is knocked prone if Medium or smaller
Attack
Teeth and Claws: Melee (Average), 3d6, 1+S Damage, Slashing and Piercing
At night the Ghostly forms of Nighthaunt rise from the tents in the Research base. Perhaps those who Nagash cursed during death as a way of obtaining the knowledge on the Amberbone, or preventing Sigmar from getting it, or just adding more ghostly forms to the army. Either way we have difficult to wound creatures attacking at night and it comes with the Risks with Research.
As these are all Warriors (no minions for nighthaunt) I will incrsease the warrior allowance to accomodate for this.
For this encounter I have two Myrmourn Basnshees and three Chainrasps and one Dreadwarden
Ethereal: Takes half damage from non-magical and can pass through solid objects.
Lifeless: Immune to being Charmed and Frightened.
Mournful Cry: Action after consuming a spell (Spell-eater) All creatures within medium range that can hear it, DN5:2 Soul (determination) test or become Frightened
Spell-eater: Once per Turn, Unbind a spell as per Unbind Talent
Attack
Chill Dagger: Melee (Average), 3d6, + S Damage, Piercing. Damage from this weapon ignores Armour
Chainrasp (warrior)
Body: 2
Mind: 1
Soul: 1
Melee: Average
Accuracy: Poor
Defence: Poor
Armour: 0
Toughness: 4
Speed: Normal (fly)
Initiative: 1
Natural Awareness: 1
Skills: Weapon Skill (+1d6)
Traits
Ethereal: Takes half damage from non-magical and can pass through solid objects.
Lifeless: Immune to being Charmed and Frightened.
Chill of the Grave: 2+ Chainrasp’s are in same zone, zone gains a minor hazard. Damage from Hazard ignores Armour.
Attack
Malignant Weapon: Melee (Average), 3d6, + S Damage, Slashing
Chainrasp Dreadwarden (warrior)
Body: 3
Mind: 2
Soul: 2
Melee: Good
Accuracy: Poor
Defence: Good
Armour: 0
Toughness: 7
Speed: Normal (fly)
Initiative: 3
Natural Awareness: 2
Skills: Awareness (+1d6), Weapon Skill (+2d6, +1)
Traits
Dreadful Cold: If in same zone as 2+ Chainrasps their Hazard (Chill of the grave) becomes a Major Hazard. Damage from Hazard ignores armour.
Ethereal: Takes half damage from non-magical and can pass through solid objects.
Forlorn Light: Other Chainrasps in same zone have their defence increased by 1 step.
Lifeless: Immune to being Charmed and Frightened.
Attack
Great Malignant Weapon: Melee (Good), 5d6, 2+ S Damage, Slashing, Two-handed
Thanks
Well tonight was filled with some insight into encounter building for Soulbound as well as a few creatures from the core rulebook as well as Era of Beasts. So I would encourage you to check them out as they go into a lot more depth than I have covered here.
Don’t forget to come back this weekend as we explore our last story-line NPC for the adventure and as we continue with this Soulbound adventure. As with all dice rolls if something doesn’t look or feel right when you are generating your encounters I hope you take this advice and re-roll it. Random encounters and random elements of the game can hurt the narrative or enjoyment for your players. It’s important as the custodians of our players enjoyment to safeguard their experience against these resin, or plastic, RNG generators. So take this free re-roll and come back soon, The Brazen Wolfe
Welcome to Friday night, also known as fight night, where we look at the encounters and meet the Denizens of the Crypt. There is a certain nostalgia that comes with fighting zombies and skeletons in a crypt. And what crypt isn’t complete without an unholy artefact that causes anything that dies in the crypt to come back as a zombie. Yep those bandits that died or are dying in those hallowed halls are about to join the fight once more.
Tonight’s stat-blocks were sourced from Tetra-cube and, as a bit of variety for content moving forward I have also include some Soulbound statblocks too as we may be seeing more souldbound content this year than originally planned.
Denizens of the Crypt
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D&D Stat blocks
The humble zombie and skeleton, no more iconic duo in crypts and tombs could there be found. Except for maybe gelatinous cubes and giant rats. The idea is to have between 2 and 3 per encounter block. The zombies will be where ever the bandits would fall in the halls or rooms of the crypt, skeletons behind locked doors or near chests, where they died defending or trying to fight over the cursed gold. For map reference we can look at yesterdays maps Dark Forest & Darker Crypts.
Sourced from tetra-cube.Sourced from tetra-cube
Soulbound
The idea behind soulbound is you have 2-3 minions per player, 1 or 2 warriors per player and a single champion per encounter. If we want to set this up to be a more challenging encounter we may add in a Chosen but that increases the difficulty substantially.
For our Minions we have the Deadwalker Zombie – the fallen bandits. For those cursed souls once trapped here we have the death rattle skeletons and our warriors for this weekend are the Graveguard.
Minions
Warriors
Champions
Chosen
Environment
We have a few thigs here. Unstable walls, treasure chests, a secret door and traps.
Some doorways are blocked, as can be seen by rubble around the bottom of the door, which might need a moderate test of strength and some time to remove. Or another way can be found into the rooms on the other side.
Throughout the halls there may be traps and other hazards with darts being shot from the wall or spikes dropping from the ceiling if a pressure plate is triggered.
There is a little notch on the wall to the right of the secret room, this is a button that looks like a wide mouthed grinning skull. If they reach into its mouth there is a button there that releases the door and it opens – a bit of a test of faith than something terrifying here.
The breakable wall here will have a little crack in the stone that if people deliberately (and successfully) examine the damaged wall they can see through to the other side. This should hint to another room here.
The cursed altar is an easy one. Light the flames and the undead will stop rising in the crypts. If you use holy magic or something creative enough that would look at purifying it (prayers, spells, holy water, incense etc.) then that will keep the fires lit indefinitely rather than just a period of time.
Thoughts
Both the D&D and soulbound adventure for this map will be a lot of fun. You may notice I didn’t include anything for the forest map as I want to keep this more as a random encounter zone or if the party bring the fight out of the crypts and into the forest itself.
The same wild creatures as what would be from last weeks adventure – The trouble with birds can work here but you can also add other larger creatures like bears and such. Goblins (Gitz for soulbound) also can work treat in this zone as its already got a lot of juicy mushrooms.
This week has been a bit of a weird one. With the D&D OGL1.0a changing this week there is a bit of a large departure from the D&D 3rd party content creator community. Personally I will continue with what I am doing, so far its not resulting in any extra paperwork that I have to continue but you may find that I will reduce the D&D specific content (stat blocks) and move to a more system agnostic approach.
And with the closure of the week that see’s tonight’s content finish. I am looking forward to bringing more soulbound into the content here on the blog and into the local community where I live. I think its a great system and if you want to feel like a bad-ass hero then it may be right for you. There is also my old favourite, Openlegends.rpg that is a great system for versatility and customisation where which may sneak its way back into here. We will see.
As always with the weekend here don’t forget to plan some tabletop time and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Tonight is the end of week write up for the first week of 2023! to mark this occasion I decided, admittedly too late, to produce a zine, The Trouble with Birds. This aims to be the first of a few adventures this year that I want to get into this condensed booklet format so I do hope you enjoy!
The Trouble with Birds
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As the party arrived into town the colours of the bunting, poles and decorations spoke of the celebrations that were yet to happen. People were rushing to get their work done quickly as the Cherpa Hen festival was only a day away. Looking at the note clutched in their hands the party was meant to look for Gerald, the halfling.
This was more trouble than it appeared to be originally as the streets were full of halflings.
A large group started to cause a ruckus near a fenced in pen nearby and the party were drawn to the conflict.
“You can’t put that there. That’s for the Hens!” a voice called out.
“Not that we have any bloody hens at the moment. They have all gone up and took off haven’t they?” a second, intoxicated man said from nearby. ‘What are we going to do huh? What is Gerald going to do ‘bout this?’
‘I have sent for aid. The finest adventurers will be arriving any moment now to relieve..’ the short man stopped as he spied the party. ‘Make way! Make way!’ he called as he pushed through the gathering of halflings and a few humans. ‘You got my advert! Here you go, fine people-adventurers in fact!. All is well!’ he called as he shooed the party into a nearby general store.
‘I do hope that you can help…’ he muttered to himself as he sat on a nearby stool. The noise from outside seemed to have quietened down by now. ‘Our hens have gone missing’.
A lot of time goes into making these Zines and I also elected to re-write some content from the week to make it flow a bit better. So if you do like these please give the adventure a go, It’s free and beginner friendly but meant as a guide to the adventure. These aren’t quite there yet as being beginnder DM friendly as many of the rules and interactions are deliberately left out. This is a starting point for the adventure, the rest is up to you!
Next week we move onto another one shot where I am hoping to explore some more and perhaps even fall into a crypt! So don’t forget to come back next week when you set aside some time aside for your own adventures and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Tonight we look at the Hunters in the Mill with out instalment of Friday fightnight! These creatures are generally not used in many adventures but they would make a great addition to any wilderness or rural encounter. Or urban for that matter, where ever you may have a need for someone to buy exotic pets. But enough of this and let’s roll into tonight’s encounter.
Hunters in the Mill
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As the squeaking intensified so did the unease in the cherpa hens. What ever was hunting them was close, somewhere in the gloom of the mill. A flurry of fur and a long bushy tail gave away the creature as it moved, it was big, the size of an average dog perhaps but it was sleep and slender. Across the other side of the room the same rustle, the same glimpse of a tail and brown fur, then another on the rafters above their head. It was either fast, or with a sickening thought, there were many of them.
No sooner than they had started to let the large birds out of the mill the sounds of scratching could be heard. It was at first faint, then it grew in intensity. Slowly the urgency continued until a frantic pace was achieve then the largest weasel that any one had seen in recent memory burst forth. It tackled the last hen that was leaving the mill and brought dagger like fangs into the neck of the foul. The birds were strong though and it managed to thrash the weasel off its back and fly to the rafters. But that’s also when it noticed the party. It’s slain pack laying at their feat and the smell of their musk and blood drenched into their clothes. With a squeal of rage it launched itself at the party, its sharp claws, sharper teeth and thick hide ready for a fight.
Tonight is a nice easy two part encounter. Creatures with keen senses (hearing) would detect the dire weasel pack alpha before it attacks. But if they don’t then it ambushes them as they are weary after fighting its kin.!
This weekend we will expand a bit more on some of the content I want to include in this weeks adventure without going too in depth. This is meant to be a nice intro into the system and new world that we are spinning up this year and its meant to be simple at first. So don’t forget to come back tomorrow and Sunday as we wrap this week up. Don’t forget to keep some time aside for your own adventures in life and don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
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