As we have already uncovered not all is what it seems this week with the crates of medical supplies, a cure, being something completely different. This fuel for the Resistance of Manaeva will surely draw out something more in the combat encounter this week as we explore an added depth into this weeks encounter.
So let’s sit down, grab a coffee and roll into tonight’s encounter!
The resistance fighters are pretty straight forward. Thugs, thieves, urchins and some mercenaries – but they all have something a bit extra up their sleeve – the ‘Cure’!
As always all the images are created, simply and quickly in tetra-cube.
This week the party have to deal with a horde of these fighters with a trick up their sleeve – a magic elixir.
The ‘Cure’ is a potion that grants any who consume it +1d4 on their attack and saving throws as well as 2d4 temporary HP. This is meant to represent a kind of battle focus that overcomes those who ingest the potent concoction. Now while these stat blocks aren’t impressive with many rolls of the dice the law of averages means some will hit. And this volley of attacks should provide a challenge to the party.
That’s all we have for tonight, something a bit fun but not overly lethal this week. Don’t forget to come back this weekend for more tabletop content and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
The Fulgurbeast, a creature seemingly born from lightning and sadism is a relentless hunter. Can the party overcome what stalks them and make it out alive despite it being a creature of the storm itself? Well there is really only one way to find out.
So let’s grab a coffee, sit down and roll into tonight’s encounter!
The Fulgurbeast attacks with more cunning than the average human. Watching and reading its preys weaknesses, motions and attacks it learns how to guarantee the feast to come. As beasts born from chaos some are born with deformities but these never seem to slow down the creature. Extra appendages, mouths or even heads these only aid in the making each beast unique and a frightening foe to face on the battlefield.
Using its ability to create near-perfect images, sounds and even smells it lures prey away from one another and then attempts to execute the weakest, or most dangerous one. Grappling and dragging off using its surprising agility and strength it will attempt to create chaos and confusion amongst the members of the group its hunting in order to make them dysfunctional and easier to hunt down.
That’s all we have for tonight, something a bit fun and more than a bit lethal. Don’t forget to come back this weekend for more tabletop content and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
This week the Giants return and with them they bring their enslaved henchmen to do the hard work. Looking to claim the fort back as theirs and rebuild it to its former glory the stone giants have set foot in the forest. It appears that not everything Jayke and Daruden said was lies, well not all of it any way.
So let’s grab a coffee, sit down and roll into tonight’s encounter!
The stone giant is a interesting one with a decent dexterity, monstrous strength and advantage on stealth checks in rocky terrain – its like they were built to live here in these mountains. However they are not as numerous as they once were and the party will need to think carefully on how to approach even one of these mighty foes.
However the giants aren’t alone in their quest to re-take the mountains, they brought their slaves with them. Now in most polite societies the concept of enforced help is not something that should be look at nightly – however giants would have no such hesitation in this practice. Survival of the strongest in their society and these ogres are not as strong as giants. However, they are strong enough to carry heavy loads and rebuild a fortress – so that’s something that we have to look out for.
Thanks for visiting again tonight. Don’t forget as the weekend rolls on closer we have more content to look out for, so don’t forget to come back for the last few days of this week and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Good evening all and welcome to the Eleventh and Twelfth days of adventuring for my party. While I will endeavour to not give away the campaign, adventure or plot moving forward (in case my party read these updates!) I will attempt to write up each adventure this year continuing with my 2024 Campaign Adventure 11 & 12 – continuing on from the 2023 adventure.
This is a continuation from 2023 Campaign adventure 10 as the party continues on their first mission as members of the investigation of the strange creatures in these lands.
2024 Campaign Adventure 11 & 12
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Plot:
Noon
The party having rested from fighting the Snowcraft Guardians, the creatures with a sturdier and rougher exterior than the creatures seen before. As the party recovered from the encounter they pondered what the cavern below the frozen waterfall held for them. Approaching the edge of the cavern they discovered a work rope ladder that had become rigid with ice. Below a cavern was revealed studded with both Stalagmites and Stalactites – but the party knew something was up. There was a stairway that had been carved into the stone which descended deeper into the quarry cavern. Frozen ice and compacted snow surrounded the path where there were several standing torches that studded the edge of the path for the length of the stairs
Armaeth scouted up ahead and checked for loose, crumbling or rigged stalactites however she was not anticipating creatures to be lurking in the cavern ceiling. A moment later and several stalactites fell towards the party, several missing the mark and crashing into the ground but one connected with Tater, grievously wounding him. The stalactites were revealed to be creatures that took the form of the stone formations on the roof of the ceiling, Piercers, and hunted they prey but impaling them and hoping the drop killed them.
After a brief fight Tater was left to bandage and try and recover from his wound before they carefully headed deeper, but not before searching the stomach of the creatures and finding a mysterious pouch – one that was bigger on the inside than the outside. While not a bag of holding the Pouch of Holding acted in a similar manner but with a greater limit on how much could be kept within.
Now knowing what to look for Armaeth used a flaming torch to prod the rocks and revealed several more creatures that scuttled off without attacking the party. Eventually they found their way to the bottom of the stairs where a giant reptilian fossilised skull marked the end of the stairs and the beginning of the hall and chamber beyond.
The Discovery
Walking down the hall and promising themselves that they would try and take some teeth on the way out afterwards. All light disappeared as they went deeper into the cavern below and beyond, but testing the depth of the room beyond (by launching a crossbow beyond and listening for an impact) they found it was a rather large room.
Throwing torches into the room they created a few pinpoints of light that helped Groku – the only human in the party, and which produced the mediocre amount of light that enabled Tater and Kai to see better in the dark. What was revealed was a smooth icebound room with several pillars of ice that may have been stalagmites and stalactites that met in the middle for their formation. These were somewhat evenly spread across the room with piles of snow under them which would provide welcome grip as opposed to the smooth ice that was everywhere else.
In the centre of the room was an altar, something that was foreboding and dark – and the party had a good idea what it was. As they approached the altar, not being able to find out what was on there from across the room, they were approached by a hulking figure. Smooth slabs of ice had been sculpted or created to form an armour-like-carapace for the core. A large shield made from hard, jagged ice complimented the large sharpened great-club like appendage that was formed onto the man-figures body. The core however drew everyone’s attention.
Mark Kenderson lay definitely dead but woven within the construct made of ice. Grievous old wounds were cased in ice which formed a protective suit to the small amounts of broke, bruised and cut flesh beneath. The construct spoke to them “Leave now so the creator can complete her ritual” before, taking Tater advancing as a sign of aggression, it strode forwards and attacked.
The fight was intense and while Tater and Groku attempted to (and succeeded!) in keeping the construct busy Kai looked for the creator. After a few rounds of combat Tater was at deaths door while Kai had discovered Aster, the young enchantress lay dead, broken and bloodied as if killed by her own creation. Soon the unrelenting construct had beaten Groku unconscious and was about to end both Tater and Kai before one of Kai’s spells took hold and the construct fell silent.
Recovering and stabilising Groku they searched the room for answers and found a box that had a handful of gold and platinum pieces as well as bracers, a ring, a cruddy looking key and a belt. Searching Aster, and finding her journal that confirmed her to be Aster, they rested and experimented with the items they found – revealing them to be magical to some degree. After much experimentation they determined that the Ring that they gifted to Groku was able to push and pull metallic weapons from the user.
After resting they piled snow on top of Aster and Mark before leaving, carefully extracting nine teeth from the ancient reptilian fossilised skull and carefully avoiding the piercers in the cavern – of which they were successful. Carefully moving about the dwindling afternoon they made their way back to the Goliath’s hut and rested for the night.
Departure
Morning came with no additional sign of snowmen and the descent to Snowtown was only broken by the realisation that a large white and grey wolf was following them. When Tater approached the wolf it ran off but followed from a safe distance – even eating some of the rations that Kai left behind for it. The other thing that dawned on them as they walked back to the town was that the snowmen were gone and piles of snow, clothing and sticks remained where the constructs once stood.
Entering the town they were met with the sight of children playing and people celebrating in the afternoon sunlight. Going to the Snowtown Inn to see Daryll he called Penny to come and listen to the adventurers tale. The revelation of Marks death was not unexpected but his parents took it poorly (as can be expected). They were also offered lodging and meals for life in the Inn if they wanted and they ate and rested well that night.
In the morning they were gifted with a large collection of gold from the town, several healing potions and trade material as well as two potions that were sent by mistake – ones that produce a lot of light once exposed to air. Packing the wagon and hitching up the mules, draft horse and riding horse again they left to continue onto Fustmach.
Followers
The road to Fustmatch was relatively easy now that the weather had passed. They had been in Snowtown for around six days and nights and in the time the roads had hardned up and the party was able to make good time. Kai noticed that the wolf was still following them and so decided to embrace his inner wild Goblin. Strapping bits of meat to himself he lay down still in the middle of the road for about and hour before the wolf became curious and came to check on him. It snaffled the bits of meat that he had draped on himself before disappearing up the mountain once more.
As they continued to travel upwards they came across a mid-way point where they decided that staying put over night would be wise. Setting up camp they scouted the area around them and found a cave with fresh water, and fish. Catching a fish, gutting it and then cooking the meat Kai and the party ate well – but Kai decided to try the age old Goblin proverb, “You catch more wolves with a goblin covered in fish guts than you do dried meat and jerky.”
Into the first watch of the night Kai went a bit feral. He removed all his clothing and donned the fish guts and went in search of the large wolf that had been following them. Eventually finding the wolf he was so set on finding the creature that he did not notice the other eight wolves that had been following the smell of mule. When he finally realised the wolves were close by he had to quickly scramble up the hill – but it was steep and had little in the way of hand or foot holds. As he was naked, without weapons (or even the magical bracers that launch veins of metal from his finger tips) he was quickly dragged to the ground and attacked savagely. He beat into the wolves with bare fists but it wasn’t long until he was fighting for his life.
The screams and disturbance alerted the mules which woke Groku and soon Tater and Armaeth joined her in charging to the aid of a non unconscious Kai. After a quick battle, involving the large white wolf attacking one of the other little wolves, they stabilised Kai and defeated the others. Upon gaining consciousness Kai witnessed the following wolf take one of the slain wolves as its prize and Kai attempted to follow – his mind in a feral and manic state.
Giving up after he lost sight of the wolf he returned to sleep in a bed roll made of slit-open wolf by the fire and he lay like that until the morning. In the morning Tater forced Kai to have a bath (by deception) which led to Kai attempting to remove one of Taters fingers and then regaining more of his civilised senses. The half day of travel to Fustmach was an easy one but the party were relieved at the promise of not being on the backs of animals while moving up-hill.
Fustmach
The Town of Fustmach was largely made from stone and had more than the majority of buildings being predominantly dwarven. Most buildings however, had extensions or modifications in wood which was human in architecture. The people of Fustmach (with thick warm German/Bavarian accents) were welcoming and happy to help. They revealed that The Fat Sow was the best place to get food in the city apart from the feasts that the Mayor, an avid collector, hosts once a week at his hall up near the entrance to the mine.
Opposite that was the Fustmach Stables ran by Dinkleburg – a warm man with his wife Greta and son Hans – a towering strong but incredibly friendly man. Leaving the horses and wagon there they went to the Fat Sow following a lead that this may be the missing halfling – Fredrickson. It was not. The Halfling cook and owner, Jonh, was brutal, rough and a ‘Gordon Ramsey’ of the halfling cooking world where his wait staff were simply disenchanted with being there – a stark contrast to the rest of the village that were extremely welcoming and friendly.
After a heated discussion where Jonh was revealed to have been in a war with Goblins in his past and Kai insulting the proud mans food they were advised that the Mayor kept a stranglehold on who stayed in the village – but he would be likely to welcome the party. While Jonh organised a room for them to stay, on the sly, they were advised that his food hall was ‘all you can eat and drink’ for 1gp. Many of the locals seemed to be taking this seriously but they were tipping the establishment and wait-staff handsomely.
While waiting for Jonh they made their way to the Mayors house – a converted dwarven fort next to the mine. Talking to the guards they were revealed to be bored but friendly and not overly cautious of the party. Entering they found a feasting hall, converted from a dwarven barracks/room and the Mayor, a large jolly fellow, sitting down in a parlour room.
Talking to the Mayor he revealed some information about the dragon teeth – being not really his ideal item to collect but he offered 5gp a piece, he also provided some insight into the belt that Tater found revealing it to be made from phase spider silk and crafted by the elves of the Astral plane. He also revealed that they followed the dwarven mining customs and were trying to do it was the dwarves once did. Understanding that they knew best and wanting to honour the missing founders of Fustmach – the dwarves who once lived here.
Question’s about a halfling that visited didn’t reveal much – the Mayor, Tom, remembered him and expressed his disappointment that he left without as much as a goodbye or thank you. Afterwards the party were certain something was wrong with the town and much to Kai’s regret they believe that Jonh was innocent while the Mayor was behind the evil taint. Heading back to The Fat Sow they retired for the night with an invitation to the banquet tomorrow night at the Mayors hall.
The Frostkeeper Construct, Mark Kenderson was able to cause tremors in the cavern which caused the party to slip over many times if they failed a dexterity saving throw. He also was able to shield bash a single target, dealing a small amount of damage but sending them flying and prone when he connected. The theme of this fight was really area control and significant melee overwhelming dominance while he was extremely susceptible to things that affected wisdom saves and fire damage – if the party had realised.
Main NPCs:
Sidekicks
Armaeth
Groku
Thanks for joining me tonight for a hybrid of the continuation of my campaign as well as the seasonal adventure for my group, the final part of last-last years Dice-ember one-shot!. Don’t forget to come back again tomorrow for more content. And, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
The Keeper of the Black Tower is the once angelic figure that has fallen to darkness and corruption from the tower. But before we get too deep into the history of the sad creature let’s look at what pains she can inflict while still meeting out her duty.
So let’s sit down upon a black throne, grab a coffee and watch the beasts mill through tonight’s adventure!
The deva wasn’t always evil just as the tower wasn’t always cursed. There was a time that the Deva maintained the resplendent tower of the North Star and guided the unlucky through to salvation. However darkness crept into the tower and soon the corruption crew and not even the deva was safe. Corrupted but still bound to performing great miracles she began the quest – a moment of great sacrifice, grief and suffering to appease the corrupted tower in order to allow her miracles to pour down upon the chosen.
The hearts of man were always seeking the power and the ability to do right, however the cost was justified in the gain that they would receive as the burden of power was worth the cost. That was until Samaeth who was the first female hero of Verone. She inherited more power than her predecessors and this strength enabled her to be able to fight against the temptation of corruption.
The Fallen deva is less powerful than her celestial form – but still deadly. When backed up by the creatures of the tower she is a powerful foe that meets out death where she goes – and she goes where she pleases.
The Deva is always something that I marvel and this week we get to fight one – sort of. Don’t forget to come back this weekend for more tabletop content and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Last week we had a look at different initiative systems and while I have additional content to add this week I decided to have both which has led to a mixed bag on Saturday. So first lets propose another creature to potentially take to the field this week opposite our ensnared party before we look at some results of mixing up initiative this week.
So sit back and let’s explore how else we can roll initiative.
A Mixed bag on Saturday
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So before we look at some notes on last weeks update – A different Initiative I want to add another contender to the adventure. It’s not a strange occurrence of even for adventurers to have knowledge that black dragons spit acid and have a thick scaly hide. These adversaries are tough, smart and deadly let alone being trapped in an arena with one.
But as they are stronger than the average creature you wouldn’t want to fight these after a long day of fighting other creatures in the arena.
Last weekend I had the opportunity to be able to try out the initiative system of using paying cards. By assigning everyone a playing card and then randomly drawing a card to determine order. For the party members who had a high modifier (feats or high dexterity) I gave an extra card and put it into the deck.
So for the four players I had 5 cards in total, 1 base card each (a suit card) and then an additional card that was for the higher dexterity of the character. For each creature I assigned a different colour suit and for minions I had just numbers (2-10) and for bosses I used a suit card. This meant that generally I had around 7 or 8 cards at play at any one time and every round I had a different initiative order that represented the chaos on the battlefield.
For lair actions or special actions from bosses I used the joker cards which meant something happened but it wasn’t the full suite of attacks that it could used. When a creature died, or when the lair action/special action could not be used any more then I removed the card.
The Pros.
The randomness was enjoyable for myself and the party. The concept was simple and there was no rolling of dice or punishing the strength based martial classes who may have a lower initiative than normal.
This flowed on into the lair actions which felt thematic in a chaotic battlefield and meant that the encounters felt more intense than when the party would just steam roll through the creatures. In this instance where the lair action was tremors in a slippery ice cavern and could (and did) result in half the party falling prone it meant that the party members who went last in the turn order weren’t getting prone-locked and would have chances to break out of being on the ground constantly.
Having a simple visual aid (and I know other initiative trackers like pegs and character portraits / names on the screen work too) helped people realise it was their turn – however not knowing what their turn would look like next round was one of the cons.
The Cons.
The Randomness made it hard to plan for and implement turn-to-turn strategy as the party couldn’t reliably work out if their next turn would appear early or late in the next turns order. This meant de-buffs could have less usefulness when they resulted in something ending on the start of the party members next turn. This could be mitigated by saying “for x number of cards” but this was discussed later.
The lack of guaranteed order also impacted what people decided to do during the round but it did have some great moments where the character got one or two turns off before the boss could retaliate.
The time between rounds shuffling the cards did also loose some of the time efficiencies that was gained by not rolling initiative and recording the order at the start of combat. So this would be seen as a Con in the long term.
Closing notes.
The party enjoyed the change up and spent the next day discussing other ways of tracking or managing initiative. This was overall healthy and led to some great discussions which all led to moving away from Dungeons and Dragons combat AND exploring what other RPGs did. OR, tantalisingly so, exploring the creation of a new RPG system.
Regardless of what system we use the party had fun and enjoyed the change of pace of initiative. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for more tabletop content and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Tonight we have something a bit different when we look at Stone eaters. This week we look at some creature variants where there is additional arcane influence at work. But before we get too excited we need to factor in a few things such as party level variance.
So let’s grab a coffee and let’s monster tonight’s adventure!
The Ankheg, a great little creature to throw at party members with its ability to burrow under the sand at attack from any angle. But these creatures may not be the strongest creatures to fight for a high level party – but several of them could be a challenge.
The Virulent Umberhulk uses acid to burrow through stone quicker but weakening it before attacking with its claws. These heavily armoured creatures strike fear into all that encounter them. These are stronger, deadlier denizens of the stone tunnels and could be used as the finisher of an larger encounter.
This week is about acid – but we have a few other creatures to introduce in the Zine. So make sure to come back this weekend for additional content updates and for more adventure and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Kalen Turt is a master assassin who thrives in hunting his prey in busy city streets. Keen of mind and eye Kalen rarely misses that first strike and those who find Tymora smiling down on upon them may wish the bolt killed them.
So let’s grab a coffee and stalk into tonight’s adventure!
Kalen is a relentless hunter with a large ego and pride in his work. He won’t stop until a job is done and this makes him more lethal the longer the job takes. Preferring mid range combat with surprise hit and run tactics he rarely misses. However… If the target can catch him flat footed or surprise him then he rarely stays for a confrontation and will retreat at first chance.
Smart enough to our fox those hunting him but unwilling to lose finds him a tough opponent who is well renowned for being the best at his grisly task.
As we have a single creature this week we need to spice it up. A bit an encounter where I provide the framework and stage but the script and story belongs elsewhere. But don’t judge just yet.
Don’t forget to come back this weekend for more adventure and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
This week see’s the infamous General Kazak Gorkai enter the battlefield to challenge the party to a fight. However he is never alone as he brings with him his Hobgoblins, Orcs, Goblins and war-beasts to the fray to hound and wear down his foes before coming in for the killing blow. But that is not all who stalk the fields as another waits and watches.
So let’s not delay in grabbing a coffee, sitting down so we can roll into tonight’s adventure!
There are many generals in the hobgoblin race as they are the most tactical and militant of the goblinoids. But General Kazak Gorkai is something special. Turning his martial prowess into a brutal and efficient art form there are few who can match him in the blade. Due to this and his ruthless command of other goblinoids he rules with little competition on the battlefield.
Hobgoblin, Orc, Goblin and Worg – Created in Tetra-cube.
The shock troops, grunts and fodder of the army are the Worgs and hobgoblins, Orcs and Goblins – in that order. Loyal isn’t the right word for them as they are more scared of what Kazak will do to them than they are of what the enemy will.
A bit of fun with the potential to up the ante this week with Kazak joining the fray. This weekend I will continue to bring you more tabletop content so don’t forget to come back. And lastly, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Last week we had things made of wood and who, obviously, were deathly allergic to fire. This week we have cultists and fire, well cultists who use fire more accurately. There is something terrifying about fire, or being engulfed in it. So this week we have cultists who wish for nothing more than to cleanse what they believe to be rotten by fire. Someone obviously didn’t tell them that bronze dragons don’t mind the heat though – odd.
So let’s grab a coffee, sit down and let’s roll into tonight’s adventure!
Now cultists are nothing new and this week we have both varieties. The standard cultist is an easy ‘add on’ approach to the standard stat-block giving the GM one less thing to search for in their books. Each Cultist having three vials of Alchemist fire on them means that they can lob three burning orbs of pain before they need to get a bit stabby and cutty.
Fanatic of the Dragonslayer Cult – Created in Tetra-cube.
Once again adding on the alchemist’s fire item into the stat block is nothing new but its something that makes our life a bit easier. Now the truly devout – the most twisted of these cultists will be trusted with more doses of their burning payload.
A very simple one tonight but there is more than meets the eye with this and we may have a case of quantity over quality this week. So don’t forget to come back this weekend as we explore this tabletop some more. And lastly, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Brazen Wolfe Tabletop 